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Colin Cowherd
dot org thanks for listening to the herd podcast be sure to catch us live every weekday on fox sports radio
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Colin Cowherd
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The Herd News Anchor
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Colin Cowherd
here we go it's hour two i don't sleep very much this time of the year because of the nba playoffs but they're a lot of fun to watch the lakers are two things that are really not good at all in the nba in twenty twenty six really expensive no value on the roster and unreliable austin not one hundred percent luke is hurt again you know it you know we do call and write colin wrong when the lakers got luca i said it's kind of a gift i mean i mean when they got shaq from orlando that was kind of a gift you know when they got anthony davis rich paul client it felt like a gift but remember it's there are certain stars like tim duncan great defender great rebounder great team guy twenty five a game a lot of great all time stars in the nba roster construction is not that important around them like when lebron was in his prime for fifteen years you know jr cookie junior smith was alongside matthew della vadova kevin love you know he was he took a basically he was a dominating stat guy went to cleveland to play a role chris bosh played a role changed his game it didn't matter luke is not that because luke is a bad defender and increasingly he's not physically reliable so the question is you're in a bit of a quandary what do i do with lebron who at least in spurts is still great but i need him to take a massive pay cut to make this thing work because austin can't defend and he's not physically reliable so usually when you have a superstar you know it's like certain stars are like what i would call championship stars and that that like giannis in his prime obviously lebron michael jordan magic kareem they're championship stars and then there are stars who are just otherworldly talented carmelo anthony james harden robert russell westbrook like just crazy i'm not sure they're winning players the feelings always been that luca is in that championship rung and i'm like he may just be the other wrong because the rung with michael and lebron and magic they didn't get just to a finals didn't lebron get into nine straight magic got to nine bill russell wins eleven rings there's a big difference between like russell duncan kobe lebron those kind of stars because the hall of fame basically has championship level stars and then just crazy talented guys who don't necessarily make teammates better but they're amazing which one's luca in well well he got to a final we're talking about lebron made eight nine straight finals which one's luka doesn't defend not reliable great offensive player is he more mellow which has always been my contention than a lebron people tend to think all great players are championship players no they're not steph curry is steph curry was willing to bring on kevin durant think about steph curry steph curry was willing to bring kevin durant on that would clearly take away shots and prestige from curry's game i mean carmelo anthony got insecure when jeremy lynn got hot for three weeks so you tend to think oh luka he's in that championship group ah no lebron's in that group and now you're asking lebron hey lebron back seat we need you to be the third wheel yeah but he was easily the best laker in the series like not even close right here was lebron after the loss we fell a
LeBron James
little short obviously but i mean i don't i'm not looking at you know my year as a disappointment that's for damn sure especially i mean under i mean i was put into some positions that i never played in my career before actually in my life i've never been a third option in my life
Colin Cowherd
boy he was a great third option i mean he really he he put his arms around it he was amazing so let's bring on nick wright first things first all right so let's get right to the point you today hypothetically you own the lakers now we know luke is coming back we know austin reeves you're going to sign him you'd like a team friendly deal so if you had to move him eventually you could those are kind of easy ones you're going to you're not going to let him go for nothing you're going to sign austin try to try to move him luke is coming back you own the lakers what do you do
Nick Wright
with lebron well i desperately hope he comes back i don't know if he'll want to i don't know if he will and i don't know that austin's going to sign a team friendly deal brooklyn is sitting there with a ton of cap space chicago sitting there with a ton of cap space they both love to have him so i think the lakers are going to have to give austin close to the max i don't know if that's a good idea but but that's what it's going to take to keep him but i just i am i am offended on lebron's behalf that he's the only guy that we asked to take these pay cuts did you see steph curry in the playoffs cuz i didn't anybody think his sixty three million dollars contract's a problem no it's steph are you kidding me anthony davis makes fifty eight million i've got him ready because i knew this was coming devin booker amazing scorer prime of his career guess what colin he made fifty seven million next year is that a problem for phoenix should they try to rework that deal i mean kawhi leonard best season of his clippers tenure got him absolutely nothing out of the playoffs fifty million oh lebron come play for twenty million durant's going to make forty four we saw them play in a playoff series who's more valuable like if lebron takes anything under the one year max it's charity and he can give charity if he'd like but he is still one of the dozen most impactful players in a series he just up against the best defensive team in the league put up damn near identical stats as the soon to be two time league mvp as and we're like you know should they give him the mid level exception now again he's within his rights to say i'll play for the minimum i don't care about the money but he also is within his rights to say you know what call me crazy but i think i bring as much value to a team as bam adebayo who's going to make fifty million next year and no one's going to blink an eye at it
Colin Cowherd
okay do you feel better or worse about the lakers after this series
Nick Wright
that's such an interesting question i feel better about lebron's ability to in the playoffs still be a difference maker okay i feel like you've got that the lakers have to feel like they are worlds away and not a luca return away from beating oklahoma city and i think that they have hopefully the new management and the new ownership will do a better job as far as filling out the roster i and i also think that even and this is the part that people i just don't think have put pen to paper on with what austin's going to make with luca's salary with the contracts that we believe are coming back even if lebron walks they're not going to have this massive cap space and by the way cap space is not all that valuable these days because nobody hits free agency guys just re up and then ask for trades so i i think pardon me lucas best opportunity to win in los angeles might have been his first two years there last year they sat out the trade deadline and this year he got
Colin Cowherd
hurt okay so it's interesting so the austin reeves thing i never root against anybody i can be critical of people but i think it's bad karma to root against people austin reaves if brooklyn came up and said we'll give you the max if i was the lakers i would let him walk because my takeaway is what you can't do if you're the lakers you can re sign lebron to a little bit of a team friendly deal the one thing you can't do is pay austin two hundred forty million dollars because then you won't be able to move him so my take is i can like him but he's a b plus guy that gets hunted in the playoffs especially against ascending young athletic players in the west what would you do okay i don't think
Nick Wright
you can i don't i don't think you can let austin reeves walk and get nothing in return all right i just don't think you can now huge
Colin Cowherd
deal
Nick Wright
if if the alternative is he walks for nothing now once upon a time not that long ago our mutual friend rich paul on a podcast said if i were running the lakers i'd use austin and his great contract as a trade chip to try to add someone like jaren jackson junior young athletic to put alongside luke and lebron everybody got so mad at rich like that's outrageous austin's better than lebron at this point he might have been right that that was even when you're thinking about post lebron lakers the luka austin fit is going to you are going to have to build the perfect supporting cast now dallas kyrie is similar to austin defensive liability excellent scorer they built a great roster around it in short term they made a finals i also want to say this about austin an undrafted player who has gotten better every single year i don't want to act like it's an impossibility that he comes back next year a little stronger a little better with his lateral movement and has improved some of those defensive weaknesses that really show up against oklahoma city but i don't think the lakers for four years seemingly have pardon me have been dying to get out of the lebron business have lebron fall off the cliff and be able to move on and what the lakers might see over the next four years is the best teammate they were ever able to put around luca was forty plus year old lebron james and i don't know if they're going to be able to replace that if he were to leave so not
Colin Cowherd
to dwell on this series but it was a game of note last night can i make an argument in the nfl the nfl has grown despite the fact both new york teams have been awful for a decade chicago until last year was bad dc is dysfunctional atlanta is irrelevant dallas is underwhelmed market size matters less in the nfl but it still matters if both new york teams were playing great the numbers go up bears playing great absolutely helps fox niners playing great helps dallas playing great helps fox okc it's not that they're a small market is that their style of play aesthetically is irritating and annoying and can i make the argument that if they win another championship adam silver needs to step in and make and say guys we gotta change stylistically what they're allowed to do defensively and what they're allowed to do flopping it's not hey the nfl changed the catch rule mostly because it was bad television i mean it's bad tv is it not so
Nick Wright
listen i want to first let me say this i thought shea yesterday was exceptional i thought he had the best game anyone had in the series he had yesterday thought he was great down the stretch he and he's obviously a great player i said all year long i thought he was the mvp let me say that on front end secondarily i have no problem with how okc defends i've used this analogy before i'll use it again it reminds me of the legion of boom seahawks where they're like we're going to foul on play one and basically tell the refs you're going to call a foul every play if not we are setting the level of physicality and we are so so that part i think dort can be a dirty player at times that's in a separate bucket but the physical defense that dort plays or caruso plays or any of those guys i have no problem with it the flopping stuff that i don't care how many times okc fans want to send me shay's free throws per game or where he ranks historically they the problem with arguing shay is not public enemy number one on the flopping and histrionics epidemic is that the games are televised and we all watch it and we know there is and there is a visceral negative reaction between the difference between here's what i'll say colin i think fans are less bothered by a guy going up for a shot and getting fouled and exaggerating the contact i think that's in one bucket a different bucket entirely and this is where people get upset with shay is where they feel like very often he had no goal of actually making the shot or even the goal was to trick the refs or draw the foul so i don't think adam silver needs to actually change any rules i think he needs to enforce the anti flopping rules that are on the books and i also think that there should be that should be ramped up and it should be done consistently because i think guys will be embarrassed if they are getting technicals or called out for flopping and i think that would fix
Colin Cowherd
itself so i want to talk i mean the knicks are obviously a great story they're playing well jason temp was on the show yesterday and it's like mike brown it worked we can bang on james dolan but it worked a lot of people didn't like it but it worked offensively they're like averaging it's a different basketball team yes but boston's a fascinating team because i really thought after they won when they when they broke through they gave one away to the warriors they break through and they were great analytically both sides but i've always said the gap between tatum and jaylen brown is much closer and brown's a more aggressive athlete tatum's just more beautiful and fluid as an athlete and now with all the cap stuff you watch them and you're like man the knicks matched up with them well last year i think the knicks are much better than them this year were we all fooled by the brilliance of brad stevens that if you look right now at the knicks and you look at the celtics there's no question who has
Nick Wright
more good players well and listen boston's not the team that won the championship in boston had jrue holiday had a healthy kristaps porzingis had al horford to go along with tatum brown derrick white and peyton pritchard now you just have tatum brown derrick white peyton pritchard you don't have the rest of those pieces and so they clearly need to retool in that regard i disagree with you that tatum and brown are super close i think i think jalen brown is a top twenty player who had a top fifteen season i think jayson tatum is a top ten player who has you know will consistently be like sixth or seventh in the league that's where i see him but regardless of that if i'm brad stevens i look at him like okay last year we lost to the knicks who then lost to the pacers who then lost to the thunder so how close were we last year we lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team fair this year we lost to the sixers who just got clocked by the knicks who vegas thinks the knicks are going to get beat soundly in the finals now they would be getting to the finals so how close are we really so in a weird way colin the knicks annihilation of philly to me makes it more likely that giannis is a celtic because i think when you see the team that beat you get swept in round two you are more likely to say we have to make a major move and you know what could maybe fix our addiction to the three point shot bringing in giannis anokounmpo and whether that is jaylen brown for giannis straight up or whether that is jaylen brown to atlanta where he can have his own team atlanta sends picks including milwaukee's own back to milwaukee and milwaukee sends giannis to the celtics i think that's where this is headed i would bet right now that giannis's next team is the celtics and that jaylen brown is the centerpiece of that trade either back to milwaukee down
Colin Cowherd
to atlanta that's exciting okay i want to end with a football question you know this happens all the time where sacramento kings had a great team for years and years but they couldn't get past a great laker team phil mickelson was if tiger woods doesn't exist phil mickelson's a top three golfer of all time like you have these things kansas city and new england have kept out a lot of good teams and one of them is buffalo and for years it's been easy to pick on them the buffalo bill brandon beans kind of defensive and has taken shots and it's come and i'm looking at the athletic the other day because i thought they had a really good draft buffalo again and i looked at their offensive roster and i'm like it's kind of great and the athletic had him as the third best overall roster even above philadelphia now some of that is because part of the roster is quarterback and quarterback is a bigger part of a roster than any other position but now i look at buffalo and i think they're actually undervalued we've picked on them for so long the most undervalued team in the league is the buffalo bills am
Nick Wright
i nuts no i don't think you're nuts i also think you know this is what is it middle of may pretty annual tradition the bills are the team to beat america look at how much talent and then when they end up falling short it's well i mean how's josh allen supposed to win with that type of talent i mean we can set our clock to it right it's in the off season the bills and ravens they're juggernauts they have all of this unbelievable skill everywhere and then come january it's like you know what turns out i didn't love that roster as much as i once did now with that said i'm on the record that i think josh allen eventually is going to break through i think he is going to deliver buffalo their only you know their first championship as a franchise i don't know if this year with rookie head coach is the year i would pick them to break through and i also don't know how much the loss of brandon bean is going to hurt them defensively but i you know we found out yesterday the first thursday night football amazon game is bill's lyons and i do think this is a critical moment for like those two teams it's very interesting neither franchise won a championship both teams feel like the window's been open for this half decade in the bills case longer and they haven't even made the super bowl yet so i think buffalo wins the division again this year bounces back in that after not winning it last year i think josh you know will be a perennial mvp favorite each and every year and i think they'll be really good i don't know if i think they have you know a top three roster and i don't know that they would be my pick to win the afc you know i got to survey the landscape colin i'm leaning one way with an afc team but i've got to survey the full landscape before i see exactly where i want to go nick
Colin Cowherd
wright good seeing you buddy you too
Nick Wright
as well talk to you soon had
Colin Cowherd
to get him one buffalo bills question in there yeah the lakers situation is really really interesting so you know i it in his point is everybody's nobody's taking pay cuts why does lebron have to take a pay cut well could i say this when lebron chose the lakers remember a lot of teams wanted him we thought he was going to go to philadelphia a lot of people thought houston there was like seven teams eight teams that were in the lebron sweepstakes he chose an organization that had one of the poorest owners he chose an organization that was bad in kobe's last several years was atrocious he did not choose ace a well capitalized brilliantly run organization that's not what he chose he chose the market i mean they had a bunch of young guys he didn't want to play with he didn't want to play with lonzo ball and kyle kuzman brandon ingram he didn't want to play with those guys so lebron made a choice to not go to the best gm not go to the best owner not go to the best roster but go to the coolest city and for years it benefited him they got ad there they got luca there and now it doesn't because there's bills to pay and their roster's a mile away so you could say well i mean lebron lebron i mean come on he he got him a covid championship but lebron made a decision to go to an organization that was a mess the lakers were a mess and a lot of it paid off his family loves la but eventually now with a new cba bills are due and they don't have any young ascending players i mean let me ask you who's their player of value next year on the roster oh they don't have one no no i mean no no it's grown up time who is their player of value because they're like seven on okc go look at what dylan harper wemby stefan castle go look name one laker it's grown up time pom poms down jersey down one player of value on the roster they don't have one and they have one twenty fifth pick not only does okc have all that stuff they have two excellent first round picks again so we all make choices okay if you're going to live in california and you're a dodger that's a great choice freddie freeman's like i love atlanta i'm going to the dodgers that's different than lebron choosing a franchise that was a mess lakers were a mess when he got there so you it it la is great for weather it's great for tech it's great if you're a baseball player when lebron chose it's no longer great for movies more are getting made in canada louisiana and georgia right if you're a movie star you don't need to live in la you used to have to live in la and the lakers used to be owned by jerry buss and had jerry west as a gm there was a time as a basketball player la is where you wanted to be now there's a time in la where if you're a baseball player or in tech louisiana is where you want to be or in health care la is where you want to be so everybody makes choices but when you make a choice that's not really the best choice but it's one that makes you comfortable you like the weather you like the branding bills will be due so there's a duality to all choices right but this idea lakers the brand's big the roster's not any good i mean your best defender is marcus smart what would he be the seventh best defender on okc oh you got
The Herd News Anchor
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Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
podcast network you know baseball still doesn't have a salary cap and everybody thinks that equals impending doom but i you know i was looking at the baseball standings this morning yes it's great that the dodgers cubs braves and yankees are very good it is remarkable even without a salary cap pirates reds guardians a's tampa it's amazing i mean you don't get that almost in any other sport there's this fear like oh oh my lord it's just going to topple the sport mets are terrible phillies underachieving i mean it is i'm looking at the baseball standings this morning i'm like yeah the yankees and the dodgers are good that's okay too it's okay if some markets are bigger and have better resources but it's remarkable in baseball how many low payroll teams are crushing and i think a lot of it is the same in the nba because whether you have a salary cap or not it still comes down to smart asset accumulation you know it's getting value those small market teams they can't pay for a freddie freeman if they already have a mookie bets but they gotta draft a little better they gotta develop better they gotta be more patient but baseball right now it is unbelievable the reporting is it's the end of the world it's amazing how many big market teams are struggling and how many small market teams are have put together really competitive lineups j mac with the news no no
The Herd News Anchor
no heard on the news this is the herd line news whew i needed
J Mac
some ice cubes to cool down after all those hot takes you and nick rolled out so this is a little lukewarm we will go with the seventy six ers colin and joel embiid not thrilled that his franchise literally handed jared mccain the sniper for for for almost nothing for peanuts yeah okay to the okc thunder so embiid was not thrilled about it according to reports mccain of course has just been lighting the world on fire if he's open the three is going in yeah and all these sixers fans like well wait a minute we can't play him because of defense he's on the floor in the fourth quarter of a pivotal game last night yeah banging threes like just let's just stop it's okay to say daryl morey screwed up i know he's your guy he texts you after watching this segment he messed up they didn't want to go into the luxury tax allegedly and they decided to move off mccain and now he is lighting it up for okc the guy is a bucket is
Colin Cowherd
he not no you know i mean he is he was i mean that's always been his thing he's a shooter yeah i mean that that was his you know collegiate go to so yeah i mean listen it's i don't think it is a bad break i think the best gm's in basket i told you this for years football is a very difficult sport even though you get four years of college film a lot of it is physicality some players fall apart right some players get they don't love football football is the sport that you practice all week for one game right like if you don't love football you can just on athletic ability high school and college fool a lot of people you get to pro football like practice is hard there are fights at practice and so i think football's really hard i mean even in the first round man you guys just evaporate from college to pro in basketball you can see talent i mean yesterday we had we had somebody on the show brian scalabrini he saw cooper flag at fourteen and he knew he was going to he was like oh that's that that guy could he said he cooper flag could play in the nba at fourteen that's what they say about lebron so if you let a really good young player go i am more prone to be harsh on an nba executive than a football executive because football is also about physical domination and some kids they just grow later some guys get i mean you know boys can grow later yeah i mean i drew six inches sophomore to junior year over a summer like boys grow differently so i if you're giving away talent in the nba i don't want to hear that well he developed into how come oklahoma city finds all these guys yeah by the
J Mac
way mccain i think averaged fourteen minutes a game and was averaging eleven points in that time shooting like sixty three percent from deep like ridiculous and i got to give him props he is the one guy on the thunder who's not a flopping annoying dude he's huge on tiktok one of the biggest tiktokers in the nba like my wife's like do you know this guy jared mccain he's funny like oh gosh not another thunder player anyways all right let's move on to the big series tonight colin and you'll get some sleep because it tips off at five o' clock that's
Colin Cowherd
timberwolves spurs i like the spurs tonight
J Mac
well i hope so they're ten point favorites anthony edwards was asked look at that elbow from wemby justified anthony edwards was asked colin about playing against the spurs without wemby and how san antonio dominated the third quarter he had an interesting response here we go honestly man
Anthony Edwards
i think it was kind of harder just because i mean of course they're a really great team with him on the floor but they play a lot slower when he's on the floor because you know everything is evolved around him when he's not on the floor everybody is played it's just like you know when every team is missing their best player everybody plays free they get more shots more confident
J Mac
yeah interesting take i mean they did roll in the third quarter they went up tempo small ball and man i'm still ticked off they lost that because you know anything can happen tonight some guy turns an ankle anthony edwards hits eight threes like and then the then the spurs are cooked the real reason i'm rooting spurs heavily besides that i want them to beat the thunder i don't think minnesota has a chance against okc colin do you
Colin Cowherd
no they don't match up well i thought you okc san antonio would be one for the ages it would be we need that well i think i think the knicks explosion's been good for
J Mac
the league yeah no no knicks will have a chance for sure in the finals no doubt but just in the western conference minnesota's good anthony edwards could give them fits mcdaniels you could put them on sga here's too many weapons
Colin Cowherd
when i watch the spurs t wolves i think to myself is minnesota going to be one of these franchises that does virtually everything right and they just happen to be phil mickelson during tiger's reign where you look up and you're like what are you going to do like it's because minnesota's smartly constructed got a star they play defense they're smart they're tough they're physical they they draft well they develop they acquire smartly good ownership like minnesota does everything well but you know this to be true during the yankee heyday or the dodger heyday now like sometimes you can do everything right and you just run into a headwind called a dynasty a buzzsaw which
J Mac
is what that is all right final story colin and let's go to an interesting moment in the lakers game so everybody was excited that leo dicaprio was there courtside your favorite guy sean penn also trolling on the baseline was dylan the villain brooks i saw that iced up and i don't i don't know what what's the agenda here it looks like he's drinking a ginger ale maybe
Colin Cowherd
a good time why can't dylan brooks
J Mac
go to a game he could do whatever he wants but it just feels a little i can't say that word on air but you know what i'm
Colin Cowherd
thinking like i think it's i think it's gamesmanship i kind of think it's
J Mac
funny he's kind it is all right fine i'll give you that okay you
Colin Cowherd
can say what you want about him did he not have an un believable
J Mac
year he had a really good year for dylan brooks standards kevin durant famously told him my worst year is better than your best year when dylan brooks was talking trash to kd and late in the regular season and that's a
Colin Cowherd
pretty good comeback you can say is he the most improved player year to year in the nba dylan brooks no
J Mac
i think i mean when he went
Colin Cowherd
to phoenix everybody was like meh he
J Mac
was good good somebody had to be good they didn't have any dudes i
Colin Cowherd
think green he's like people put him in the draymond green category kind of annoying defender dude average twenty a game he had a great year he had
J Mac
a he had a really good he
Colin Cowherd
had a year that a lot of people didn't think he was capable of nobody thought he was a twenty point a game guy you got to give him a lot of credit and he's
J Mac
on the olympic team in canada with sga so maybe he was there supporting
Colin Cowherd
his country that's exactly right he was being a good countrymen yeah but by
J Mac
the way i'm gonna i don't want to take any shots you know what
Colin Cowherd
he averaged against okc in the playoffs staff just told me this twenty six
J Mac
a game oh how many they win how many did they how many camp times did they come within single digits in the fourth quarter like let's just let's settle that he had a good season i'm not taking anything away
Colin Cowherd
go
J Mac
ahead go ahead come on i know you got more on your chest fire
Colin Cowherd
away i don't have anything on my chest okay other than massive pecs oh my gosh he averaged six more points a game in the playoffs than austin reeves did against the ok here we
J Mac
go all right well i mean i'm just coming off a four week injury no big deal by the way why you brought up austin reese oblique injury who on earth thinks that he's going to get a max deal or anything close to it austin reeves has never been an all star never been an
Colin Cowherd
all nba player timeout time out folk it's not about resume the bottom line is market wants him he's due lakers
J Mac
are trapped you think he wants to
Colin Cowherd
go to brooklyn no if somebody gave me two hundred forty and lakers offered one hundred sixty i'm off to brooklyn they have nice giving him two hundred
J Mac
forty no way and i love austin reaves i dressed up as austin reaves on the show for halloween nobody's giving him two hundred forty anything near it he's an awesome player but come on are your bulls giving him that kind of money that kind of cheddar i
Colin Cowherd
think for the record if the bulls got honestly vogler from illinois a dai mara the big and spent money on austin reaves i would i would go to the bulls i'm already a season ticket holder i'd give him an extension austin reaves in chicago where they got two top draft picks are not paying anything to austin reaves in chicago would be great austin reeves i'll come to a game with with lebron and luca and no defensive wings on the roster of note that i don't think that's worth the big money they'll find the
J Mac
defensive wings coming they're they're out there i'll help them scout if they need
Colin Cowherd
it all right j mac with the
The Herd News Anchor
news well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd lie news 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 brought to
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Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
of the voluum podcast network the greatest
J Mac
spectacle in racing is coming we're less than two weeks away from the one hundred tenth running of the indianapolis five hundred don't miss the pageantry and tradition of the biggest race in motorsports the indy five hundred sunday may twenty fourth
Colin Cowherd
on fox so if there's five athletes if you polled my audience for years and years and said who are the five athletes colin was too hard on it would be baker mayfield tim tebow cam newton russell westbrook and carmelo anthony
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Colin Cowherd
right on all of them carmelo and westbrook are hall of famers not necessarily winning players cam newton never had back to back winning seasons ridiculous considering his talent he was a distracted player baker mayfield needed to grow up i think he mostly has and tim tebow's not an nfl starting quarterback stop i was five for five people now think if you asked him in the last six months who is calling unfair with it would be austin reeves if you give them him the deal which people are now speculating he would make forty eight million next year sga next year would make forty million they're not close to is it hate or is it the new cba punishes you if you overpay good players with great money rob polinka just spoke about austin and his future
Rob Polinka
he started his journey here as a laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a laker and we feel the same way we want his odyssey to continue to unfold in the purple and gold as you know dave there's rules and timing to all of that but i think both sides have made it abundantly clear that we want to work something out where he continues his prolific career here next year wemby
Colin Cowherd
stefan castle dylan harper will make a combined forty one million and you're going to pay austin reaves forty eight and by the way they're younger and ascending players austin's going to be what twenty eight next year turning twenty nine at the end of the year okay all i said about cam was he's unbelievable he's distracted carmelo anthony got worked up when jeremy lynn went on a three week heater baker mayfield needs to grow up tim tebow neat story not an nfl starting quarterback in each one of these i mean you were outright mean to me and it was hurtful but i came to work every day willing to deal with the slings and arrows
J Mac
wait a minute wait a minute wait are we putting austin reeves and tim tebow in the same bucket no nor
Colin Cowherd
am i putting him in westbrook's bucket he's not that talented i'm putting austin reeves in the austin reeves bucket forty eight million he ain't making forty eight
J Mac
million no shot you want to do a double or nothing steak dinner i mean i think i'm already down one
Colin Cowherd
to you i might as well own ruth chris after all the steaks i've won i mean i you pick the
J Mac
chicago restaurant and we'll do it we'll do it up big what would you
Colin Cowherd
pay him forty one million i'm running
J Mac
the numbers right now on who's making over forty million next year do you want to hear some of the players some of the low end guys making for scotty barnes austin reeves is not as good as him darius garland john moran zion williamson i mean austin reaves is not as good as those guys he's not going to make forty one million dollars a year next year he's just not not with the lakers at least you can you can clip this off and put online i don't care the lakers are not paying him that
Colin Cowherd
next year all right i'm not rooting against him
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Colin Cowherd
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Colin Cowherd
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Hour 2 (May 12, 2026): What's Next for LeBron & the Lakers, with Nick Wright
This episode of The Herd centers on the state of the Los Angeles Lakers after another playoff exit, debating LeBron James’ future with the franchise, the value and fate of supporting players like Austin Reaves, and broader NBA playoff trends, including discussions on the Celtics, Knicks, roster construction, and the Buffalo Bills’ place in the NFL landscape. Colin Cowherd is joined by Nick Wright for in-depth NBA insights, with additional commentary from J Mac.
Lakers' Issues: High payroll, little roster value, unreliability due to injuries (Luke Doncic, Austin Reaves) [03:22].
LeBron’s Pay Cut Expectation: Colin posits that for the Lakers to be competitive, LeBron would need to take a significant pay cut, but questions if that's fair or reasonable given his impact [05:00].
LeBron’s Role: Despite being asked to take a back seat, LeBron was "easily the best Laker in the series" [07:46].
Superstar Tiers: Colin compares Luka Doncic to other “championship stars” (LeBron, MJ, Magic, etc.), questioning if Luka fits that championship mold or is more like Carmelo Anthony—amazingly talented, but not necessarily a winner [04:00].
“People tend to think all great players are championship players. No, they’re not.” – Colin Cowherd [06:45]
LeBron's Post-Series Remarks:
“I was put into some positions that I never played in my career before...I’ve never been a third option in my life.” – LeBron James [07:25]
"I am offended on LeBron's behalf that he's the only guy we ask to take these pay cuts. Did you see Steph Curry in the playoffs? Did anybody think his $63 million contract's a problem? No." – Nick Wright [08:18]
"What you can't do if you're the Lakers, you can re-sign LeBron to a little bit of a team-friendly deal, the one thing you can't do is pay Austin $240 million because then you won't be able to move him." – Colin Cowherd [11:48]
“I don’t think you can let Austin Reaves walk and get nothing in return.” – Nick Wright [12:29]
"I think Adam Silver needs to enforce the anti-flopping rules that are on the books...guys will be embarrassed if they are getting technicals or called out for flopping." – Nick Wright [16:59]
“I would bet right now that Giannis’s next team is the Celtics and that Jaylen Brown is the centerpiece of that trade…” – Nick Wright [20:46]
"I think Buffalo wins the division again this year...they'll be really good. I don't know if I think they have a top-three roster." – Nick Wright [22:55]
"I've never been a third option in my life." [07:25]
"If LeBron takes anything under the one-year max, it's charity…he can give charity if he'd like." [09:14]
“The feelings always been that Luka is in that championship rung...he may just be the other rung…like Carmelo or Harden.” – Colin Cowherd [06:00]
“I don’t think Adam Silver needs to actually change any rules…I think he needs to enforce the anti-flopping rules that are on the books…” [16:59]
“I would bet right now that Giannis’s next team is the Celtics and that Jaylen Brown is the centerpiece of that trade…” [20:46]
Overall, the episode is candid, sometimes blunt, and driven by a blend of hard analysis and entertaining debate, staying true to Colin Cowherd’s direct and opinionated tone.