THE HERD - Hour 1 - Thunder take game 1 over the Lakers, NBA has a flopping problem

Summary

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Podcast Summary: THE HERD - Hour 1

Podcast: The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Date: May 6, 2026
Episode Theme: NBA Playoff Analysis - Thunder vs. Lakers Game 1, Flopping Controversy, Player Valuation in the Modern NBA, and Broader Sports Insights

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Episode Overview

Colin Cowherd dives into a packed NBA Playoff week, focusing on the Oklahoma City Thunder's Game 1 win over the Los Angeles Lakers and the league’s ongoing flopping issue. The conversation centers around the rising value of role players like Austin Reaves, the physical demands (and financial realities) of building a championship contender, and larger questions around sportsmanship and rule tweaks in pro sports. Additional segments pivot to Detroit Pistons' resurgence, the Knicks’ playoff expectations, and NIL's impact on college sports.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lakers Game 1 Breakdown: Austin Reaves, Injuries, and Player Limitations

[02:28–13:00]

• "Nobody cares" about injuries in the playoffs. Colin sets the tone by stressing that the postseason is about results – not excuses.

  "Nobody cares in the NBA if you injured your oblique over a month ago ... Ant was great coming off an extended knee hyperextended knee ... Embiid, his appendix burst. He's been great. Cade Cunningham had a collapsed lung... Nobody cares. He's great." (Colin Cowherd, 02:40)

• Austin Reaves’ struggles and ceiling: Went 3 for 16, 0-10 on uncontested shots. Teams scout and target his weaknesses, most notably on defense.

  "When a team picks on you, they're not doing it in the abstract—they've watched film on you... they attack him, put ball pressure, multiple turnovers." (Colin, 03:30)

• Player archetypes and value:

  • Reaves is a "number four on a championship team, number three on a decent playoff team, but he gets hunted defensively."

  "Are you a championship team if he is a three? I don't think you are." (Colin, 07:05)

  • Comparing to stars, Colin underlines that elite athletic traits and durability separate stars from quality role players.

  "He has an undrafted athlete’s body ... Part of being a first-round pick is the body, the traits, the size, the durability." (Colin, 09:40)

• Upcoming contract dilemma:

  • Raises the question: Should the Lakers be more concerned about paying Austin Reaves $38-48 million/year than with LeBron James taking a pay cut?

  “We’re all saying LeBron’s got to take a pink, I mean this is outrageous…What I’m more scared about is Austin Reaves tripling, three and a half times his cap hit.” (Colin, 11:57)

  • “Are you a regular season guy, are you gonna be healthy at the end? I gotta think about everything.” (Colin, 12:44)

2. The NBA's Flopping Problem

[13:00–16:25]

• Skepticism of flopping as "bad sports":

  • Focused criticism on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) and other stars making flopping central to their game.

  “If you do it once a game, I’m okay with it—it’s become the central point of his game. ... Watching him flop ... it tears at the fabric of the creativity of the NBA.” (Colin, 14:02)

  • Stats: SGA has 425 more free throws than the next-highest player over two years.

    “That’s just become too much of a central part of his game.” (Colin, 15:27)

• Historical context and need for rule changes:

  • Cites how the NFL and MLB have tweaked rules to improve fairness and entertainment.

  “The NBA ... they’ve done this before—hack-a-Shaq, hand-check—they’ve done this multiple times to elevate the quality of the overall product.” (Colin, 16:01)

• Player feedback:

  • Donovan Mitchell on his own lack of calls:

    "I don't know why. I don't flop, maybe that's why. This isn't just a tonight thing." (Donovan Mitchell, quoted at 15:40)

3. The Value of Non-Superstars in a Cap Era

[16:25–19:25]

• Is Austin Reaves worth a star's contract?

  • Guest analyst and J Mac debate how the Lakers (and others) must think about salary vs. playoff impact.
  • J Mac: “Historically, we’re not going to view Austin Reaves as 85% of Kyrie Irving. ...Lakers win titles, they don’t care about going to the finals.” (17:00–17:10)
  • Colin: “Outside of baseball salaries matter a lot ... Are you a regular season guy, are you going to be healthy at the end?” (16:44–17:00)

• Role elevation under injury/roster stress:

  • Reference to Derrick White’s situation with the Celtics, forced to play a higher role due to injuries.

4. Sports Trading Philosophy: Stars vs. Depth

[21:55–28:20]

• NFL trade insights:

  • Colin extends NBA cap lessons to NFL roster construction. Echoes the lesson: depth and flexibility trump single-star gambles, referencing trades of Micah Parsons, Matthew Stafford, Tyreek Hill, and Russell Wilson.

    “One player is not worth four or five good ones ... most of these, the team that loses the star frees up capital and draft picks ... and that’s the beginning of something special.” (Colin, 22:55–24:09)

• "Not being terrible anywhere":

  • “It’s not about being great everywhere, it’s about not being terrible anywhere.” (Colin, 25:29)

5. NBA Playoff Tidbits and Analysis

[28:20–33:45]

• Detroit Pistons' resilience:

  • Praise for Cade Cunningham, team toughness, and Detroit’s identity as a gritty, defense-oriented franchise.

    “Every good Pistons team has been tough—this team is built like they should be. ... I really respect Detroit.” (Colin, 29:10)

• Knicks playoff perspective & Mike Brown’s mentality:

  • Emphasis on the team’s desire to reach the finals as the only real measure of success for the Knicks.

    “I’m disappointed if we’re not in the finals and having a chance to win it, that’s all I looked at it as. ... That’s what I expect.” (Mike Brown, quoted by J Mac, 31:31)

6. NIL, College Sports, and Academic Prestige

[34:31–41:55]

• The new NIL landscape:

  • Cowherd argues NIL is leading to more top athletes at elite academic institutions, and that’s good for sport and society.

    “Athletes in America are choosing better academic institutions and they're staying at them longer. ... That’s bad?” (Colin, 37:32)

• The need for reasonable guardrails:

  • Proposed rules: Only pay athletes after they’ve played a quarter/semester in college, limit number of transfers.
  • Debate about the transfer culture, with J Mac acknowledging players should maximize their market value, even if it means bouncing between programs.

7. Mind Games & Officiating in the Playoffs

[46:50–51:01]

• Timberwolves-Spurs physicality and coaching mind games:
  • Discussion of Chris Finch’s remarks about missed goaltending calls on Wemby as an example of coaches "planting seeds" with officials to influence future calls.

    “This is what Phil Jackson the great Laker coach used to call gardening, planting seeds in the officials’ minds in between games...it’s brilliant.” (Colin, 49:45)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Player Value:

  “When you ask the number three starter in baseball to be your ace and go toe to toe with Garret Cole, he’s not. ... That's my take on Austin Reaves in his playoff career.” (Colin, 04:30)

• On Flopping:

  “Watching him [SGA] flop during an NBA game is like...inserting one of those Life Alert commercials, ‘I’ve fallen and I can’t get up’ into Cirque du Soleil. It kind of tears at the fabric of the NBA’s creativity.” (Colin, 14:34)

• On Stars vs. Depth:

  "One player is not worth four or five good ones." (Stephen Jones via Colin, 22:55) "Most of these, the team that loses the star frees up capital and draft picks ... and that's the beginning of something special." (Colin, 24:09)

• On NIL and Academics:

  “You’re not going to convince me the NIL, that gets kids going to better academic institutions and staying longer, is bad.” (Colin, 39:30)

• On Trades and Superteams:

  "It’s not about being great everywhere, it’s about not being terrible anywhere." (Colin, 25:29)

• On Coaching Mind Games:

  “That’s all Phil Jackson wanted, all Chris Finch wants—it’s forcing now when you watch the next game and you’re officiating, that’s top of mind.” (Colin, 49:49)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Lakers, Austin Reaves, and Playoff Analysis – 02:28–13:00
• NBA Flopping Issue & Statistical Evidence – 13:00–16:25
• Is Reaves Worth Star Money? – 16:25–19:25
• NFL/Star-for-Depth Trade Philosophy – 21:55–28:20
• Detroit Pistons & Knicks Playoff Takeaways – 28:20–33:45
• NIL, College Sports, & Academic Impact – 34:31–41:55
• Spurs-Timberwolves, Officiating, & Mind Games – 46:50–51:01

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Podcast Tone and Style

• Colin’s delivery is sharp, analytical, and conversational—mixing blunt truths ("nobody cares if you're hurt") with layered sports history context. There’s a mix of humor (notably when discussing flopping and NIL), and his takes are underpinned by a persistent focus on roster construction, financial prudence, and the pursuit of excellence over sentimentality or nostalgia.

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Conclusion

For listeners who missed this episode, Colin Cowherd's first hour offers a dense, thoughtful, and opinionated journey through NBA playoff narratives, player contracts, rule controversies, and broader sports trends. His clear-eyed approach to playoff success, roster management, and what actually matters to winning franchises sets the episode apart—and his blend of stats, historical context, and contemporary controversy creates a compelling, highly relevant sports radio hour.

Transcript

[Colin Cowherd]

this is an iheart podcast guaranteed human brought to you by apple card hey you could be earning two percent daily cash back on that purchase and that one and even that one that's because apple card users earn two percent daily cash back on every purchase including everyday items they buy online or in store when using their apple card with apple pay not an apple card customer you can apply in the wallet app on iphone subject to credit approval apple card issued by goldman sachs bank usa salt lake city branch terms and more at apple co benefits support for the show

[J Mac]

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[Guest Analyst]

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[J Mac]

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[Guest Analyst]

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[J Mac]

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[Guest Analyst]

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[Colin Cowherd]

cleaning hacks will make your chores feel

[J Mac]

like a breeze download tiktok and check it out thanks for listening to the herd podcast be sure to catch us live every weekday on fox sports radio at noon to three eastern nine am to noon pac find your local station for the herd at foxsportsradio dot com or stream us live every day on the iheartradio app by searching fox sports radio or fsr now let's get this party started you're listening to fox sports radio here we go it is a wednesday we are live it is the herd nba playoff week good games wherever you may be however you may be listening or watching thanks for making us part of your day you know how sometimes people will come up to you and they'll ask hey how you doing how are things they're hoping you say good they don't want to hear about your problems and nobody cares in the nba if you injured your oblique over a month ago austin reaves was three for sixteen and awful last night nobody cares about the injury ant was great coming off an extended knee hyperextended knee game one embiid his appendix burst he's been great cade cunningham had a collapsed lung missed eleven games kate cunningham nobody cares he's great austin reeves last night was dreadful over ten on uncontested shots nobody's done that in this league since draymond green three years ago i understand his popularity he's undrafted the headband he's scrappy he gets a little bit better every year seems like a great kid he was awful and here's what happens you see his limitations so when a team picks on you they're not doing it in the abstract they have watched film on you last year the t wolves chris finch and a great staff watched film on austin reeves and attacked him he was bad okc watched film on austin reaves saw him as a weakness and attacked him put ball pressure multiple multiple turnovers and you saw this with derrick white of the celtics everybody's like derrick white had a down year knowing derrick white was a five or a four the celtics were a championship team this year because the tatum injury and they moved off porzingis and other players there were nights he was a two he was often the third and then you see the ceiling with derrick white who's a good player austin reaves a good player but when you ask the number three starter in baseball to be your ace and go toe to toe with you know garrett cole he's not and that's my take on austin reaves in his playoff career that's the best coaches best teams he gives you sixteen four and four shoots about forty two forty three percent that's fine but it's not special he is a number four on a championship team a number three on a decent playoff team but he gets hunted defensively and both minnesota last year and oklahoma city last night they look at film they scout and they attack him and they put ball pressure on him and they're making sure switches you're they want austin reaves guarding one of their guys and that's the reality of it ant embiid cade cunningham austin's oblique injury nobody cares so far in the playoffs the lakers are better with austin reaves not on the floor i know the oblique injury and also here's something else to think about in back to back seasons he's been injured right in the playoffs he he he's in the playoffs he's not one hundred percent why because he has an undrafted athlete's body he doesn't have big dominant physical traits caleb williams goes number one to the bears he's never hurt lebron's a number one pick he's never hurt part of being a first round picker a number one pick is the body the traits the size the durability i mean big ben didn't get hurt until the end eli manning you know john elway's dan marino's bigger stronger athletes so he's banged up i've said this about brock purdy he's a smaller guy gets hurt more caleb williams gets hammered he's never hurt that's part of being like a number one pick so you know the big issue we're all talking about with the lakers next year is hey lebron's got to take a pay cut and here's my question is the bigger issue is austin reeves worth thirty eight million dollars a cap hit because his cap hit now is going to triple and he's not a one and he's not a two the question is are you a championship team if he is a three and i don't think you are i think you could win a playoff series or two but but it's i'm not picking on austin reeves i get his popularity i like him as a player but folks regular season basketball is not playoff basketball are you noticing what's happening in the playoffs embiid ant wimby chet holmgren's great why your best players rise above schemes your more fraudulent players get picked on so for all the criticism cat gets in the playoffs cat now is a pretty good player well cat has always been a really good player flaky silly fouls can drive you nuts he's a big time talent so austin reeves is eligible to sign a five year two hundred forty one million dollars deal cat pitt would go from fourteen million to forty eight million you think he's a forty eight million dollars player i know the headband undrafted scrappy gets better every year let me ask you is that a forty eight million dollars player go look at the celtics and derrick white i'm i'm not i'm not being mean here austin reeves he took the hit he said nobody cares about the injury because i thought the lakers that they got in just a decent game from him he had a real basketball game i mean the lakers i don't think they're a very good defensive team but they're playing their butts off i mean they are playing their butts off lebron's playing real defense here's jj redick after you can make mistakes there's a basketball is a game full of mistakes there's just too many tonight we got to clean that up but you know there were some some good things we won expected score you know held shea under twenty he ended up with seven turnovers the guys played hard we just got to do a better job with execution it comes down to just the attention to detail on that and i know we'll we'll cle things up and austin reeves is twenty eight next month five year deal he'd be thirty three be an old thirty three and you're paying him forty eight large just things to think about we're all we're all saying lebron's got to take a pink i mean this is outrageous i don't know lebron's really healthy lebron's got that number one pick body i mean he's he's playing his butt off i mean think about this lebron james is forty one years old he outscored sga the reigning mvp had fewer turnovers than the reigning mvp sga at better shooting percentage lebron james than the reigning mvp and all of us myself included are like he needs to take a pay cut i think what i'm more scared about is austin reaves tripling three and a half times his cap hit that's what worries me those are tough decisions lakers deserve credit for getting him and austin deserves credit for being a very very good pro he's a good pro he should be proud parents have raised a great kid he he gets better every year he has maximized his talent there's nothing wrong with him but you know we talk about this now can't make trades in the nba it's brutal aprons caps like cap hit matters you start constant thirty eight forty three forty eight i gotta think about everything are you are you a regular season guy are you gonna be healthy at the end i gotta think about everything okay so i want to talk about the flopping first of all sga is a really good player he's a fluid athlete one of the best mid range jumpers of all time he's got tight handles a great player he's an all star player but because the flopping is allowed and it's really bad sports we all know that right and what bothers me is it's become a central point of the playoffs and a central part of his game if you do it once a game i'm i'm okay with it it it's become like the central point of his game and the nba is the sport with the most creative artistic athletes right and this is like acting versus ai acting it's just not as authentic watching him flop during an nba game is like to some degree it's like inserting one of those life alert commercials i've fallen and i can't get up into cirque du soleil it's like kind of tears at the fabric of the creativity of the nba and the nba has always been the sport since i was a kid in the seventies doctor j like magic david thompson michael jordan it's our most athletic sport it's our most creative sport one of the reasons i don't like all the three point shots it reduces athleticism i don't want ant shooting fifteen threes i want him dunking in people's face and i like sg i think he's a i think he's a great player fluid good handles moves well he athletic although not terribly vertical but it's just bad sports and i do think the nba if they win back to back titles will step in and change it nfl changed the catch rule changed the pat major league baseball took away the defensive shift i don't think it's good television i don't think it's good sports and again just to give you some sense of how outrageous it's become sga has shot four hundred and twenty five more free throws over the last two years the number two like it's just become too much of a central part of his game and donovan mitchell in another series is not getting the calls and everybody's talking about it listen to what donovan mitchell says about flopping the free throw disparity is not why we lost tonight i want to make sure i say that but i'm trying to get downhill and a friend of mine got fined for talking about flop so i'm not gonna try to double down but i mean like i feel like that's what i got to do at this point i'm just not getting the calls i don't know why i don't flop maybe that's why this isn't just a tonight thing so the nba used to have a slogan where amazing happens nothing amazing happens at the free throw line so when it become again if if sga had thirteen free throws more than the next guy maybe even twenty three but if you got four hundred twenty five more i mean look at this one right there that that's an absolutely awful call against the lakers and it's just bad sports it's like when we used to watch the nfl and the guy make a great catch and they're like well it kind of wiggled by his elbow no catch nfl's like it's bad tv it's bad sports defensive shift bryce harper hits a bolt and the second baseman standing in right field catches it that's bad sports i want to see bryce harper when he rips a ball i want to see it drop unless he it's it you know i don't want to see clean hits off a ninety six mile an hour slitty get caught by a second baseman standing in right so i think the nba and they've done they've done this before hack a shack hand check i mean they've done this multiple times to elevate the quality of the overall product and the television product they've tweaked it i think we're getting to that point so j mac listen i know you love austin reaves i know you do and i'm not trying to pick on him because he had a bad night but it does you know here's the reality outside of baseball salaries matter a lot i mean in baseball you can defer him if you want which is crazy but you can and that's the thing with austin reaves three and a half times the cap hit so again he's going to be paid like a two and he's closer to a three or a four and this is boston felt this with derrick white this year because the tatum injury there were nights he had to be a two well jalen brown's like a great two or a good one jalen brown would be the best three in the league by a mile derrick white's a four on a great team that one great celtics team he was almost a five but now you you elevate him you know to the number two starter in the rotation and you're like well derek white wasn't as good this year he's being guarded by better players he has to guard better players you're elevating to a spot he's not really as suited for so i mean a forty eight million dollars cap hit would be bigger right now than kate cunningham and ant okay

[Guest Analyst]

all right i'm just let's settle down bashing austin reeves off one game when he is barely removed from an oblique injury that kept him out for a month ago we got three years of data bro on austin reeves that he's a really good player and honestly the blueprint is there for luka he took the maps to the finals with kyrie irving as his wingman if you can get eighty five percent of kyrie irving from austin reeves i think you're going to be just fine now the question is can reeves stay healthy remember kyrie irving also had many issues with injuries

[J Mac]

little frail i don't believe historically we're going to view austin reeves as eighty five percent of kyrie irving kyrie irving

[Guest Analyst]

kyrie irving but dallas kyrie irving well

[J Mac]

yeah but prime kyrie irving won a

[Guest Analyst]

title he was spectacular i'm just talking about the dallas one who was a wingman to luca i need you to

[J Mac]

create a little bit yeah but they that that wasn't prime kyrie and he was multiple injured kyrie and they didn't win a title the lakers win titles they don't care about going to the finals you got to get there to

[Guest Analyst]

win it though i mean lakers are barely getting out of the first round

[J Mac]

now you got to put the other pieces around is not sixty percent really prime kyrie kyrie irving in his prime is the greatest small ambidextrous finisher in the history of the league go back to the celtics teams definitely there's never been a finisher both hands that size in the history of the sport of

[Guest Analyst]

kyrie irving but that's the thing he wasn't prime in dallas when they went to the finals he was just good

[J Mac]

okay you're really into this went to the finals but well you got to catch the finals win one team win why is michael jordan considered the greatest player six for six in the finals magic went to thirty percent more but he lost a third of them going to the finals didn't the pacers just get to the finals what does it mean does it mean anything we're finishing a trip to the finals rick smith's got to a finals nobody cares they don't care about your oblique injury they don't care that you got to the finals los angeles when it comes to baseball and it comes to the lakers there are certain things like ohio state football we played in a natty who cares you didn't win ohio state is one of the duke doesn't brag about you know we got to the final four duke brags if they win i mean that's what the lakers are their standard is i mean austin reeves is a top ten jersey seller what team's third best player is a top ten jersey seller yeah and for the record kyrie kyrie was a number one overall pick yes so let's not get our there's about a seven to eight year period that kyrie was i mean honestly after stefan lebron was as good a player and watch as the league had the whole sport had yeah and he

[Guest Analyst]

needed lebron to to get to the playoffs and when he could do nothing by himself austin reeves is a one no shot as a two i'm buying i remember fifteen and two in march colin with austin reeves as the two lebron ceding to the three yeah again

[J Mac]

march be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon eastern nine am pacific on fox sports radio fs one and the iheartradio app hey is cavino and rich from fox sports radio now in addition to hearing us live weekdays from five to seven pm eastern two to four pacific on fox sports radio we're excited to announce a brand new youtube channel for the show yup that's right you can now watch covino enrich live on youtube every day all you got to do search covino and rich fsr on youtube again go to youtube search covinoenrich fsr check us out on youtube subscribe hit that thumbs up icon and comment away brought to

[Colin Cowherd]

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[J Mac]

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innovation from wasabi's ai enabled intelligent media storage wasabi air to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cybercriminals data deletion and ransomware wasabi has taken the lead in big league data storage remember wasabi is up to eighty percent less than the other guys and doesn't charge a cent for businesses to access their own data wasabi is another championship story check them out free at wasabi dot com comma wasabi hot cloud storage proud partner of the voluum podcast network so a lot of times in the media people don't want to be in an island because if they're wrong they'll get crushed and i noticed this last year with the micah parsons trade and i'm saying he's not good against the run he hasn't been great in the playoffs and the cowboys defense with micah parsons in twenty twenty four was thirty first in the league now i'll admit when he left it was worse it was thirty seconds but i said it's banned with him he can't defend the run and jerry jones an oil man doesn't want all his oil in one or two wells he wants to have seven or eight wells they want to diversify their portfolio so stephen jones is now admitting one year later with kenny clark and rashawn gary and their draft picks where they went caleb downs and another edge rusher and quinn and williams stephen jones is like yeah it worked out just the way we told you it would we feel really good about it obviously much respect for micah and what he stands for and what how he plays and the caliber of player he is but you know at the same time we feel good about what we've added you know via that trade you know the decision we made was you know that multiple player one player is not worth you know four or five good ones and we feel like that's where we're going to end up here and in a good spot and you know we had that opportunity there and didn't feel like we were one player away last year but i certainly feel like we're putting the pieces together when you make a big trade nobody's denying that the star that comes to town it can be matt stafford it can be micah parsons they add value to the team they land no question but if you really go and look at a lot of the big trades the team that loses the star frees up capital and draft picks stafford leaves the lions that was actually the beginning a year later and about a year and a half later it was the beginning of something special all those draft picks and a free jared goff that's how brad holmes built what he has right now if you go look at tyreek hill all those draft picks kansas city got they used them to shore up their defense that dynasty started as an offensive dynasty the last several super bowls have been a defensive dynasty mahomes and defense they all came from the tyreek hill now tyreek hill added some value to the dolphins nobody's saying he didn't i mean if you go look at russell wilson when he got moved off seattle two of the draft picks they got from russell wilson charles cross excellent left tackle witherspoon vaughn witherspoon from illinois unbelievable second or third maybe first best corner in the league so two of the foundational pieces for the seahawks super bowl or the or the rebuild of the lions or super bowls twice with the chiefs come off the value from moving a start nobody is denying that a micah or a stafford or a tyree kill or a dk metcalf whatever whatever the trade is it adds value or smart gm's wouldn't do it but i think sometimes simultaneously you just forget most of these most of these i mean the jimmie johnson trade of herschel walker is a great example herschel was a great player and a great back it started the last cowboy dynasty so you want to have we say this all the time in the nfl it's not about being great everywhere it's about not being terrible anywhere the coaching's too good a lot of times in college football you know you got grad assistants on the staff you know i mean you can have holes and teams either don't have the talent or don't have the foresight to attack it in the nfl if you're bad at safety you will be burnt at safety i mean last year as good as the rams were mcveigh stafford puka great defense they were weak at corner and that's why they don't win a super bowl because the seahawks were really good at corner i mean just the rams inefficiencies on special teams was enough of a hole that seattle had better special teams so you don't have to be great everywhere dallas is lousier in fewer places going into next year i still don't know if i love the coach but the o line receivers quarterback tight end edge rushers defensive line depth safety they're good may not be great at corner don't think they're a super bowl team but last year they were bad in several areas outside a corner and pretty good looks like a pretty good defense j mac with the news no no no turn on the news this is the herd

[Guest Analyst]

line news all right let's start with the detroit pistons they got a nice win last night against the cavs cleveland did not play great detroit down the stretch took over cade cunningham twenty three seven yeah coach jb bickerstaff talked about the team's tenacity sixteen offensive rebounds here

[J Mac]

we go understanding what the moment needs and what's called for and then having the poise and confidence to go unexecuted and you know playing in three basically elimination games you understand that you understand you know how important starts are the urgency you understand you know how to close and how to finish and how to get to your spots and then you grow belief that you can and i think that series did a lot of that for us i really i really respect detroit and i like detroit now people forget this in the seventies the warriors were a great team they had rick barry when i was a kid growing up the first great team i ever watched was the rick was the rick barry warriors he was in the aba went to the warriors al adults was a coach and then for a long time before stephen the warriors were kind of irrelevant but they always had a great fan base i grew up with bob lanier and dave bing and really good pistons teams and then you had the bad boys and then the rip hamilton championship teams detroit's a great basketball city they're starving for good basketball and every good pistons team i always say this every good laker team has been flashy it's just the city every good pistons team has been tough this team is built like they should be they play real defense they're still a player away but i think kate cunningham's unbelievable and i like watching them play not every team has to be aesthetically beautiful i i kind of i like watching detroit i think they know exactly what they are they need one more nineteen to twenty three point a game guy but i like watching them play i liked him in this series and i'll tell you this they met they gave the knicks trouble they were because they'll they go they are what gives the knicks trouble they are all about toughness and physicality there's no pretty to detroit but i i kind of like this team i really do i like what the pistons are about yeah

[Guest Analyst]

i mean cade you know he this the final stat line says he was good i think he was like six of nineteen he wasn't great and then listen cleveland played terribly okay james harden had a bad game donovan mitchell's not flopping as you heard earlier and as a result not getting any free throws donovan mitchell great driver he shot eighteen free throws in the last eight games like what's going on such a weird whistle but colin this game was tied at ninety three with five minutes left and the cavs played very mediocre jared allen their starter he had two points in the game there's a guy who was dominant in game seven against toronto so this series definitely not over i thought they benched the thompson twin there late for dennis jenkins the g league hero some interesting buttons were pushed dude

[J Mac]

he's athletic you guys say that about jenkins bouncy he is bouncy yeah yeah

[Guest Analyst]

so nice win for detroit they're up one zero in the series let's move on to the knicks huge game tonight against the sixers knicks big seven and a half point favorites and mike brown the coach of the knicks was asked about owner james dolan's comments about the knicks needing to reach the nba finals mike brown finally addressed it yesterday people

[J Mac]

have talked about a mandate like i'm coaching where so i doesn't matter what others say i'm disappointed if we're not in the finals and having a chance to win it that's all i looked at it as but the mandate and all that other stuff like that's that's what i expect that's what i want to do and hopefully it can happen but who knows yeah getting in the

[Guest Analyst]

finals with a chance to win it that's all you can ask for if you're a knicks fan right get to the finals you got to get by

[J Mac]

don't you think i mean it's the line is telling you to bet the knicks it's seven and a half seven

[Guest Analyst]

and a half yeah yeah that's an

[J Mac]

insane line well this is this is

[Guest Analyst]

the hottest team in the league with respect to the thunder this team's won their last four games by what like two million points i mean they're blasting everyone of late i know it's the

[J Mac]

hawks but i know but i mean usually there's a zigzag theory you you feel anytime a professional athlete is humiliated they play really well the line i would have thought the lines like two and a half to three seven and

[Guest Analyst]

a half i would think philadelphia comes out with their hair on fire motivated first quarter i don't know but i'm just telling you i think this knicks team mike brown is really doing some smart chess moves especially with karl anthony

[J Mac]

mike brown deserves a ton of credit they went to that cat you know in the middle of the season if you remember you do remember there were talk that knicks didn't like each other there were like locker room rumors it's like they're playing such complimentary basketball and

[Guest Analyst]

it's just fun to watch my guess is they move joel embiid onto josh hart to get him on like a non shooter so he can roam the lane more they had no rim protection knicks felt like they had like ten dunks in game one really impressive stuff all right final story colin let's go to the nfl so we have a nice guest here on the show later and that is nfl coach michael lafleur we talked to rogers cardinals yesterday i don't know if you saw this cardinals wide receiver kendrick bourne went on social media and is now recruiting aaron rodgers yeah come on we waiting on you i mean listen this is well i'll let you take this one i mean kendrick bourne barely unpacked his boxes excuse

[J Mac]

me in arizona did kendrick bourne go to the harvard of the palouse he went to eastern washington university an esteemed academic institution i didn't know we were

[Guest Analyst]

treating kendrick bourne like jason bourne but i don't know i i don't know that this is gonna work i mean does aaron rodgers get cell service in the darkness retreat i don't know if he's even aware come on the cardinals

[J Mac]

are coming after him everybody is saying now this is a non story no

[Guest Analyst]

no no no this is a story

[J Mac]

i'm fascinated by it i think we

[Guest Analyst]

got the coach coming on later i i know you don't know no punches are being pulled here okay you're coming after him for first time head coach make sure to ask about how it was running the jets offensive as a jets oc back in the day i was doing some homework on that it

[J Mac]

was not pretty yeah well it's the jets it was the jets j mac with the news well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd line news so we're words matter and one of my favorite sports is called i'll speak slowly college football it's played on a college campus where you have to go to school i saw a story this morning where mark cuban came out and said indiana called they said we really like this quarterback he fits kurt signetti's system we need a little more money in indiana where mark cuban went to school a top eight business school in america he wrote a check and the rest is history let me be clear i enjoy better academic schools now mattering it's more balanced now you don't win just because of your proximity to more great high school football programs vanderbilt academic power is now much better in hoops and football michigan elite academic university just won a natty in basketball indiana top eight business school just won sixteen zero a natty in college football i didn't like where we were with college football where if you were a second or a third tier academic university but we just care more well that should matter some but i like now that it just costs more and the big ten has more money that should matter too college football alumni of a college and the better the college the richer the alumni vanderbilt got walked over for years because you know they had academic standards and so what i like about college sports now is it's not all academics the ivy league is not going to become lsu football but academics kind of matter academic standing matters and i want you to just think about the nil the next time you criticize it young athletes are now going to better academic institutions and they're now staying longer in school at better academic institutions let that bake for a second say that out loud athletes in america are choosing better academic institutions and they're staying at them longer that's bad for all the hostility and angst that's bad that a kid from east texas ends up at michigan and stays for four years not three yaxel lana board could have gone pro i want to go to i'm going to go to michigan great academic institution hang out with the student body meet new people stay another year in college that's bad duke won the acc basketball and football title this year you're not going to convince me that's bad you're not going to convince me michigan vanderbilt duke miami really good academic institutions winning indiana you're not going to convince me it's bad mark cuban talked about it they gave him a call and he he obliged here's cuban and then we started talking and he's like we've got this quarterback that we really really like that we think would be great just need a little bit more i'm like how much is a little bit and so he told me and i'm like okay you know we're on a roll and so i'm like okay i'll put up the money and we can go get fernando and the rest is history how much did they need they needed enough that's what i always say to fox i just need a little more j mac says that all the time too to him i just need a little more and you know we we just we just you know we did it we took care of

[Guest Analyst]

business we won a national championship but

[J Mac]

i duke won in football and basketball indiana here are the teams winning now vanderbilt duke indiana michigan there's still plenty of room for football powers georgia's still winning ohio state still winning but you're not going to convince me that the nil that get kids going to better academic institutions and staying longer you're not going to convince me that's bad now do we need more guardrails is it perfect no like the transfer portal i think everybody should be able to transfer once and then transfer a second time if the coach leaves or you know something like that but i i don't think six transfers four transfers is the way to go and i also think you should have to be on a call i i've always said with nil you shouldn't pay high school players you should have to have at least a quarter in college somewhere to be paid you have to play at least a quarter you have to go one academic semester or quarter on a college campus before you get the first check i don't like buying high school players that feels sketchy to me but colin some

[Guest Analyst]

of these guys who are transferring because they're going to get two million dollars those guys are not going to sniff the nba and some of those guys probably won't even play in europe maybe they'll maybe they'll show up in you know south africa hold on and play for you know eighty five thousand dollars so if you can chase two million dollars for three years transferring around i think you've got to do that as a twenty twenty one year old you're not going to get an accounting job out of college that pays that so that's the reason i'm okay with the guys transferring to chase some money yeah

[J Mac]

and most players don't transfer four times it should be noted you know maybe you get two transfers and a third you have to sit out or something i i i i don't like the constant and and but i also believe it's the free market if a guy's transferring for a fourth time and somebody's interested well do your homework i mean if if if let's be honest if you went to buy a home and somebody said you say who was the last two owners yeah they owned it each for one year you'd be like what's wrong with the neighborhood is the neighbor crazy i've done that before where i like the house and you ask somebody and they're like well you'd be the third owner in four years my first take is something it's either haunted or i got you know sketchy guy next door like something's wrong with the neighborhood so my take is if a guy's transferring over and over and people keep paying him there's got to be some value well did you early in

[Guest Analyst]

your sports media career bounce around to

[J Mac]

vegas in tampa yeah bounce around bounce

[Guest Analyst]

around right so what's the difference here

[J Mac]

it's not it's a good argument it's i don't like all the movement but your argument's a very valid one which

[Guest Analyst]

is yeah the longtime college sports fans are like i can't root for my team when i got twenty new transfers every year in football and college basketball duke gets like seven new guys every year and it's like you don't have that bobby hurley for three years christian laitner you know there's something to that but again i got to side with the players here man no i don't

[J Mac]

i don't i think it's a legitimate argument i just think there needs to be a few more guardrails i mean we got college football programs now at forty five million dollars and it's i think we're getting to a point where it's like it doesn't bother me i'm not it's not that i'm missing sleep at night but my take is like you start getting into that figure and my take is boy you're eliminating a lot of people from the party this

[Guest Analyst]

is major league baseball right the dodgers and the marlins that's what we're headed

[J Mac]

toward again i had more fun watching the college football playoff and march madness this year than i have in a decade and a lot of it was the quality was better let's let's be honest we only watch the top teams if you watch march madness look at the ratings we watch the big boys like that that's what we're doing we watch the big boys and the truth is the big boys now are stacked the top fifteen to eighteen football and basketball programs they are they got four nba dudes it's like the eighties they got four you got like twenty three year old dudes the quality of the product is way better in chicago it's the herd be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon eastern nine am pacific brought to you

[Colin Cowherd]

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[J Mac]

if this can beat the market everyone's talking about the nasdaq one hundred but let's get more specific software actually too broad how about software that's already profitable companies that beat the last five quarters oh and i want founders who are marathon runners that's that's discipline yeah let's

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[J Mac]

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[Guest Analyst]

football league action coming up this weekend fox ufl friday features the columbus aviators against the saint louis battle hawks at eight eastern then on saturday the louisville kings and dc defenders at one hundred

[J Mac]

thirty all on five so three of the four times the spurs and the t wolves have met this year it's been decided by one basket game one decided by two points so every call matters and when wemby goes out and has a dozen block shots chris finch says that's great but you do get that several of these were actually goaltending here's chris to me it's a little alarming that none of them were called who's seven foot six who goes after everything and there's like no heightened awareness that these blocks could be you know goaltends i mean the third possession of the game was a goaltending that's also you know thirty three percent of his blocks were goaltending uncalled and you know if i were to give you a thirty three percent raise you'd you'd like that right i thought two were absolutely goaltending the first one's obvious there was a one later nine minute like this is the early one that was off the backboard yeah that's a goaltending so they missed it and again this is what phil jackson the great laker coach used to call gardening planting seeds in the officials minds in between games planting seeds i covered philippines on that blazer series and he and he would get fined for it but it's brilliant it's it's forcing now when you watch the next game and you're officiating it that's top of mind and that's all phil jackson wanted that's all chris finch wants is like hey guys we we all of our games are decided it's a fascinating series i mean they're very similar they're two well coached teams two deep teams the two best shot blockers in the sport minnesota's stronger and older i would say san antonio feels a little quicker and younger minnesota's roster tim connolly has built a he did it in denver and he did it in minnesota it is a that roster is really good i mean i i know j mac loves austin reeves and i don't want to pick on him but you start adding up the gobert and the ant and the jaden mcdaniels and the nas reed and now they got the shannon kid you start looking at this roster julius randle dude they go like seven eight deep with dudes like seven eight deep and all of them are willing defenders all of them i mean and he'll play real defense mike conley's older now but he knows the angles he's a smart player so yeah i just think so in a series like this it's mind games you know it's a little trash talking by a player and i and i think it's i think it's valid so i i the game two tonight i mean really it's the series it's it's the series if remember ant will play only play what eighteen minutes or something in game one and it's probably going to play twenty five minutes twenty eight minutes you're going to get more of ant so i mean if minnesota comes in tonight and secures it and it was interesting if you watch game one now wemby's going to play better than he did in game one he was over eight on threes but what's interesting is san antonio kept trying to like having a three point lead and a four point lead and you kept thinking and they couldn't make stops because minnesota went right at them so san antonio has been the aggressor defensively against everybody they play they force you to change your offense and minnesota's like we're not doing that we're going to go right at you and it's the first team all year that's like we're not shannon's like i don't care you block three of my shots you've got block seven i'm going to go right at you and it's like it's almost like you know you're that big heavyweight champ and somebody says holyfield says to tyson no we're going to go blow for blow i'm going to hit you too and tyson was shook on the spurs shook

[Colin Cowherd]

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[J Mac]

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[Colin Cowherd]

an iheart podcast guaranteed human