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Hour 1 - One move the Lakers need to make

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Thu Jul 10 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Herd with Colin Cowherd – Hour 1: One Move the Lakers Need to Make

Release Date: July 10, 2025

In the latest episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, hosts Jason McIntyre and Alex Curry delve deep into the Los Angeles Lakers' strategic moves to bolster their championship aspirations. The primary focus revolves around the acquisition of Bradley Beal and its potential impact on the team's dynamics and performance.

1. DeAndre Ayton’s Transition to the Lakers

The episode kicks off with a comprehensive analysis of the Lakers' recent acquisition of DeAndre Ayton from the Portland Trail Blazers. Alex Curry highlights Ayton's tumultuous stint in Portland, citing his "efforts to leave a bad team" and his decision to forfeit $10 million to exit the franchise.

Alex Curry [04:00]: "DeAndre Ayton’s making $8 million with the Lakers. Comparing him to Rudy Gobert at $36 million, it's clear Ayton offers more offensive prowess at a fraction of the cost."

Jason McIntyre emphasizes Ayton's statistical consistency over seven seasons, positioning him among the league's top centers.

Jason McIntyre [05:30]: "Through his first seven seasons, Ayton is a top eight center in the league with averages of 15 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 50% from the field."

2. LeBron James’ Role and Potential Friction

A significant portion of the discussion centers on LeBron James' evolving role within the Lakers. With Luka Dončić emerging as the primary playmaker, questions arise about LeBron's influence and satisfaction.

Alex Curry [07:45]: "LeBron was the alpha on every team he joined, but now with Luka at the forefront, it seems LeBron's role is being marginalized."

Colin Cowherd adds insight into the potential emotional dynamics at play.

Colin Cowherd [08:30]: "LeBron’s feelings might be hurt, as he’s accustomed to leading the team. Transitioning to a supportive role could impact team chemistry."

3. The Bradley Beal Acquisition: A Strategic Imperative

The crux of the episode revolves around Bradley Beal's potential move to the Lakers. With the Phoenix Suns unable to retain him due to his hefty $50 million contract, McIntyre and Curry discuss the feasibility and benefits of acquiring Beal at a reduced cost.

Jason McIntyre [12:15]: "If Bradley Beal hits the market and the Lakers can secure him for $4-5 million, it would be a monumental value add."

Alex Curry [13:50]: "Beal's efficiency—averaging 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists last season—makes him a formidable asset if acquired cheaply."

The hosts argue that Beal's presence alongside LeBron, Luka, and Ayton could transform the Lakers into one of the Western Conference's favorites, enhancing their offensive firepower significantly.

Colin Cowherd [15:20]: "With Ayton, LeBron, Luka, and potentially Beal, the Lakers' offense would be nearly unstoppable. The key is securing Beal without jeopardizing their financial flexibility."

4. Broader Sports Insights: College Football and WNBA

Beyond the Lakers' analysis, the episode touches upon other sports topics. Deion Sanders' remarks on the evolving landscape of college football, particularly the impact of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) regulations, are examined.

Alex Curry [18:00]: "College football is rapidly turning into a pay-to-play system. Deion Sanders' advocacy for a salary cap highlights the growing disparities between programs."

Additionally, the hosts discuss recent developments in the WNBA, including the introduction of Angel Reese into the NBA 2K video game and the ensuing fan reactions.

Alex Curry [21:26]: "The WNBA's decision to feature Angel Reese over Caitlin Clark in NBA 2K sparked significant debate. It's a calculated move to stir engagement in an attention-driven economy."

5. Forward-Looking Statements and Predictions

As the episode wraps up, McIntyre and Curry offer predictions and future outlooks. McIntyre remains optimistic about Ayton's fit with the Lakers and the potential acquisition of Beal.

Jason McIntyre [25:00]: "With Ayton's offensive skills and Beal's scoring ability, the Lakers are positioning themselves to make a deep playoff run."

Curry echoes this optimism while cautioning about the Lakers' defensive capabilities, noting the team's recent struggles when defenses falter.

Conclusion

This episode of The Herd provides an in-depth examination of the Lakers' recent moves, emphasizing the strategic importance of acquiring Bradley Beal to complement their star-studded roster. With insightful analysis and forward-thinking predictions, McIntyre and Curry offer listeners a clear roadmap of what could propel the Lakers back into championship contention.

Notable Quotes:

Jason McIntyre [05:30]: "Ayton is a top eight center in the league with averages of 15 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 50% from the field."
Alex Curry [12:15]: "If Bradley Beal hits the market and the Lakers can secure him for $4-5 million, it would be a monumental value add."
Colin Cowherd [15:20]: "With Ayton, LeBron, Luka, and potentially Beal, the Lakers' offense would be nearly unstoppable."

Tune in next week as The Herd with Colin Cowherd continues to unpack the latest in sports, offering expertise and passionate debate on the hottest topics in the athletic world.

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Transcript

Colin Cowherd (0:00)

This is an iHeart podcast.

Jason McIntyre (0:04)

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Katie Couric (2:03)

The latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Jasmine Crockett, Democratic representative of Texas. She's holding down the fort for her party in one of the most conservative states in the union.

Colin Cowherd (2:16)

I think that ultimately, who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be someone that has been out there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to be punch and just say thank you like they will punch back.

Katie Couric (2:29)

Listen to next question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Alex Curry (3:37)

Fantastic show. Listen, when you take a when you're off for a few days, you got a lot of news. We got Albert Breer coming up next hour. Jovan Buha with our big Lakers update here in about 20 minutes. Eric Mangini, final hour. Boy, shout out to my guy, Eric Mangini. He's sick of Aaron Rodgers. Yes, I knew I could get other people to the place where I've been for a while. Anyways, I want to start the show with text messaging. Well, not totally, but kind of sort of. The Lakers made a big splash here in the last week, picking up deandre Ayton, the disgruntled center who was cut loose by the Portland Trailblazers. And I know a lot of people instantly poo pooed this deal as this is no big deal. Ayton's a malcontent. Jay, did you see the story in the Athletic about deandre Ayton? A guy was a jerk last year. He would come out of games and slam chairs down. He'd be late to rehab. He would be late for team flights. I said, guys, guys, guys. This is how much Deandre Ayton hated it in Portland. He forfeited $10 million to get out of town on a bad team. He saw that they drafted his replacement. He wasn't feeling it. And deandre Ayton leaves Portland for the Lakers. Now, I know you guys, even if you want to say Ayton's not that good of a player, I. You know, we have a great staff who comes up with some amazing stats. And let's just say deandre Ayton, through his first seven seasons is kind of sort of a top eight center in the league. I mean, listen, look at these stats right here. 15 and 10 and 50 shooting in the last seven seasons. Jokic is a MVP. Giannis is an MVP. AD's all NBA. Joel Embiid has an MVP. Kat and Sabonis, these are all great players. Deandre Ayton's in that class with them. He just obviously was in Portland, so nobody paid attention. I wanted to start with Ayton because it gets me into where I'm about to go, folks. So it's understandable that Ayton hated life in Portland. And at 32 million, Portland probably hated him, too. However, Deandre Ayton's making $8 million with the Lakers. I looked this up. Rudy Gobert's at like 36 million on any planet in the solar system. Is Rudy Gobert four times the player deandre Ayton is? Hell, no. He's not even two times the player. Eightness. A great defender, obviously, but Ayton's a better offensive player. But it was telling this week when Ayton had a interview about arriving to the Lakers, and they asked if he's heard from LeBron, and he said, no, not really. You either hear from someone or you don't. He probably realized he stepped in it by saying no. And then he quickly followed up with, but I heard from Luca. Luca texted me, and that kind of put the antenna up. Okay, okay, okay. When we last left this show, LeBron was sending cryptic messages to the Lakers. Remember the welcome home hat in Cleveland? Alex and I got a good chuckle out of that playing golf in Ohio as free agency started. He's kind of gone radio silent otherwise on social media. And it's like, well, what's going on with LeBron? Does he want to be traded? Does he want out? Nothing's making sense. I was able to put it all together last night. He's waiting for one piece, guys. There is one missing piece on the Lakers. Before LeBron is fully bought in, is he probably a little perturbed that the Lakers are catering to Luca and not him? Well, yeah, that's natural, right? LeBron's been the alpha on every team he's been in since he joined the league. He goes to Miami, even though Wade was a legend. That was LeBron's Heatles. He goes back to Cleveland. I know Kyrie was the number one pick there. It's about LeBron. He goes to the Lakers. Even when they brought on ad it was still LeBron's show. It's pretty clearly going to be Luca's show going forward. And LeBron's feelings are probably hurt. He's in his feelings a little. That happens. But I have the answer, and it came to me last night. Now, I will warn you, when I presented this missing piece to the Lakers in the morning meeting, I got a couple groans and a side eye. And let's just say not everybody was feeling it. But if you've been following what's going on in Phoenix right now, the Suns cannot find a taker for Bradley Beal. And by all accounts, they're going to have to wave and stretch him the same way Milwaukee dumped Damian Lillard. Well, listen, Bradley Beal making $50 million a year is not a great part of your team. He's overpaid at 50 mil. Now Bradley Beal gets bought out and waved and stretched and suddenly he looks like Russell Wilson. You guys remember Russell Wilson, right? He signs this lucrative deal in Denver. Sean Payton quickly realizes this ain't going to work, not at 37 mil. Ask him to take a pay cut. Russ says, not happening and they dump him. Russell Wilson, 37 million? No. Russell Wilson had 1 million a year with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Signed me up. And the Steelers got to the playoffs. They lost to the Ravens, but they still made the playoffs. And you had a quarterback at $1 million. Which brings me to Bradley Beal, folks. I get it. You think Beals washed. I Disagree. He's only 32. His numbers last year, 38% on threes, 49% from the field. Those are good numbers. On a bad team at 50 million, they're not great numbers. Now, if Bradley Beal hits the market and the Lakers can grab him at four or five million dollars a year, well, who's better than the Lakers? And don't say okc. You give me closing games. I don't starting Whatever. Closing games. Ayton, LeBron, Luka, Beal and Reeves. Who? Who's stopping that offense? The Lakers need catch and shoot, guys. Hey, Austin Reed, go spot up. Hey, Bradley Beal, go spot up. Catch and shoot. Threes. Bang, bang. Now, the defense is obviously going to be a question, but you look at that Minnesota series, they could not hang offensively. Couldn't get to 100 in three of the games. Now LeBron was banged up. He's old. I think Bradley Beal is the missing piece for the Lakers to win the West. Obviously Houston is elite, we know that. Obviously Denver very, very good, much improved. And OKC should be very good again. Although you know the history of teams trying to get back to the finals the year after winning. It hasn't happened and I believe since the 2019 Warriors. So the Lakers are missing one piece and I think at that point LeBron will buy in. That piece is Bradley Beal. Now the Celtics kind of want him. The Clippers are going to make a hard push and they've got a starting spot to offer him and the Milwaukee Bucks. Hey, Beal, come and take all the shots you want with Giannis. We have no backcourt, but do you have a better chance to get out of the East? Sure, but it's the Lakers. Beal, do you know what you can make off the court? Do you know what LeBron and Luka are going to do to your numbers? I think it's a no brainer. The Lakers get Beal to me, they become right there one of the favorites in the Western Conference. I want to shift to college football because the Big 12 media days are happening this week. And something interesting was said by Deion Sanders about the state of college football. Now let me give you a quick little backstory. Obviously we know Deion hits Colorado and oh my gosh, what an impact on college football. Obviously having Shadour Sanders and Travis Hunter, two elite players that helped Dion was getting everybody he wanted. Colorado was on the rise, the program was back. How about them Buffaloes? And then NIL has really changed the equation and I mean at a pace that nobody foresaw. And some of these numbers that we're seeing now are becoming astronomical. And it's becoming pretty clear. College football is, if you didn't believe it before, it's now pay to play. If you spend the money, your chances of getting to the playoff and winning a natty in in increase greatly. Oregon last year. Look how much money they spent. Look at the result. Ohio State, Texas. I mean Texas is budget for this year. I mean it's crazy. They're looking to spend in excess of 35 million. So Deion Sanders was asked about it at media days and here's what he had to say.

Alex Curry (12:29)

Yeah. I'm sure a lot of baseball owners and general managers seeing this right now are like, hey, we could use a salary cap. Not going to happen. But I, I mean, what's next? Are we going to get a union for college football players? Is that on the horizon? Listen, I'm not going to lie. I saw this idea from Dion. I was like, that's not terrible. I don't hate it. However, I think the real reason Deon is going off like this is because of something small that happened on the 4th of July. You guys probably missed this celebrating with hot dogs and fireworks, but there's a young man named Felix Ojo who is one of the best offensive tackles in the country. And he was ticketed to go to the Texas Longhorns. Everybody thought, oh, that's a lock for Texas. And then out of nowhere comes big spending Texas Tech, the Red Raiders. And all of a sudden they steal this elite offensive lineman. Now Texas fans, I wasn't on the message board, but we got a staffer who's a diehard Orange Bloods guy and Texas fans are melting down. Hey man, our offensive line is a huge reason we got to the playoff in back to back years. Obviously we need skill, position guys and a quarterback and defense. But offensive line sets the tone. You win in the trenches and Texas Tech stealing this offensive tackle is a huge sign to college football. Wait, how did Texas Tech do that? Well, there was a great story written back in December. Now December is a tough time, guys. I'm not gonna lie. When the transfer portal opens up, it's like, oh, who's in the portal? Who's leaving? It's all like rumors. And you know, buy the rumors, sell the news. So you may have missed this article. December also, NFL starting to heat up. You got the NBA starting to get to Christmas games, which matters A lot. You got the holidays, life, a lot of stuff. So you may have missed this article, but the Texas Tech Red Raiders have a billionaire donor who seems to not care about how much he's spending on players. And they have an infrastructure at Texas Tech right now where they've been doing incredible research. And wouldn't you know it, but of the top eight teams in the transfer portal, the rankings that came out for getting the best players in the portal, guess who was the only non SEC team in there? The Texas Tech Red Raiders. Take a guess who's going to lap Dion in Colorado in the Big 12 this year. The Texas Tech Red Raiders. Dion can see the writing on the wall. Damn Texas, where are they getting this money from? They got a billionaire, they're getting all the players. They've got an amazing general manager who's crushing it to the point that Notre Dame made a run at him because he absolutely destroyed the transfer portal. Texas Tech, ladies and gentlemen. When was the last time you heard them relevant? Mike? You got to go back 15 years to those Mike Leach teams. Texas Tech has not finished in the top 25 in 15 years. But now because there's no salary cap, they are spending and spending wisely. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State Cowboys. He has now chimed in, here he is on Dion salary cap idea. College needs to instigate and to build that type of system so we don't.

Alex Curry (21:26)

You are now entering the no Bull zone sponsored by credible Great rates with none of the bull. You know, there was a WNBA game yesterday. I'm not even kidding. At like one in the afternoon. I didn't know that was a thing, but Caitlin Clark was playing in it. So I got all these alerts from people who follow the league. Caitlin Clark returned from injury, they got smoked. No big deal. There was a bigger story in the WNBA yesterday that had to do with a video game. Now listen, I gotta be honest with you guys. WNBA has been around 20 some odd years. I had never voted for a WNBA all star game before Caitlin Clark joined the league. I did that last year. I did that this year. Okay, Paying closer attention. Obviously I did not know WNBA players were on the COVID of the 2K video game. You know, I don't play as much video games as I used to. Side story, once we became owners of this soccer team in Mexico, I started to play a lot of FIFA. And then the wife got on my case. Why are you playing so much video games? Had to shut it down. I'm just keeping it real with you guys. So I don't really play a lot of video games anymore. Trust me, in college I would destroy anyone who wanted to smoke in whatever basketball game you wanted to play. Soccer, basketball, college football. I'm doing it all. I did not know WNBA players graced the COVID of NBA 2K. So now yesterday, that is 2K announces the COVID girl of their new video game. And it is Angel Reese. And of course, instantly there was faux outrage online. How could they pick Angel Reese over Caitlin Clark? I mean, what. Just take a deep breath, guys, okay? Let's just everybody calm down. The league is trying to make this rivalry happen. Everybody sees right now that we are in an attention economy, okay? How do you get people's attention? You polarize things. You make it one side versus the other. That's what all of the social media apps are doing. Go to Instagram, you're just doom scrolling. Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, all of them want your attention all the time. How do you get that attention? Polarizing stuff. So if you have a video game and you put Caitlin Clark on the COVID okay, she runs the league. Yay, Caitlin Clark. Makes sense. You really want to get people stirred up. You want to stir up a hornet's nest. Like they say, put Angel Reese on the COVID Then you've got half of, you know, the Caitlin Clark fans out there are. How could she not be on. That's wrong. At worst, you put both of them on the COVID There's really no outrage if you put Clark on the COVID I mean, the Angel Reese fans don't have a leg to stand on. Well, Angel Reese is better. No, she's not. Although she's playing great right now. I saw seven straight double doubles. She's really, you know, putting her imprint on the sky. Although they. They stink terribly. But this idea that Angel Reese doesn't deserve the COVID is nonsense. She is a. She's a bankable star when it comes to Instagram followers. 5 million people like Angel Reese a lot. And I think it was a pretty savvy move by the video game to put Reese on the COVID and get people talking about it. I'll be honest. Are we doing this segment if it's anyone other than Angel Reese on the COVID Probably not. Hey, Caitlin Clark's on the COVID of a video game. Where do you go with that? But with Angel Reese, it becomes a wait a minute, does she deserve it? Answer. Who cares? It's not really. That's not what it's about. And by the way, do you know who was. Which WNBA player was featured on the COVID last year or the year before? That's what I thought. Let's go to Alex Curry with the news.