THE HERD - Hour 2 - Top 10 QBs in the NFL right now, Lakers have been disappointing, Jason Timpf

Summary

The Herd with Colin Cowherd — May 13, 2026, Hour 2

Main Theme:
Colin ranks the Top 10 NFL quarterbacks in the league right now, analyzes the Lakers' disappointing era with LeBron, and discusses NBA future stars and team-building strategy with guest Jason Timpf.

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Top 10 NFL Quarterbacks Right Now

(03:16–15:19)

Colin’s QB Ranking Criteria

• Production: Touchdowns, yards, ability to elevate others, getting the ball to stars
• Durability: Consistent availability, not just one season
• Current Momentum: Are you an ascending, respected locker room leader?
• Age: Contextual, but focus is on right now, not five years out

Colin:
“There’s three things to me that matter for a quarterback...production, durability and what is your current momentum?” (04:10)

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Notable QBs Who Miss the Top 10

• Dak Prescott: "Very good...no career momentum...never been a great playoff quarterback." (05:05)
• Jaden Daniels: "Got hurt last year...missed 10 games...not going to make my top ten." (05:24)
• Jalen Hurts: "No career momentum. Cannot get the ball to AJ Brown...momentum is not good." (05:36)
• Jordan Love: “He is all over the map...too inconsistent.” (05:59)
• Trevor Lawrence: “Turns the ball over too much and he’s very streaky.” (06:18)
• Baker Mayfield: “Way too many turnovers...very good quarterbacks but they miss the cut.” (06:39)

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Colin's 2026 Top 10 Quarterbacks

1. Josh Allen: “He’s been better than Mahomes two straight years.” (07:05)
2. Patrick Mahomes: “Each of his first seven years led the Chiefs to a division title and the AFC Championship, that’s very LeBron in the East.” (07:36)
3. Caleb Williams: “Forty-seven touchdowns, thirteen picks, never hurt...makes throws that only Josh Allen can make.” (07:57)
4. Justin Herbert: “Beloved in the locker room...has never had a good O-line.” (08:19)
5. Matt Stafford: “Just won the MVP...taking mid-round guys and making them stars.” (08:45)
6. Joe Burrow: “Not sure on a 4th and 7 trailing by four in the Super Bowl if there’s a guy I want at quarterback more.” (09:06)
7. Lamar Jackson: “Highest win percentage by any quarterback in league history not to make a Super Bowl.” (10:11)
8. Drake May: “Led league in completion percentage, YPA, and passer rating at 23...with a bad O-line.” (10:35)
9. Jared Goff: “All he does is win...never misses a start.” (11:13)
10. Sam Darnold: “Thirty-five and ten in his last forty-five starts...big athletic, risk-taking, no turnovers when it mattered.” (11:46)

• Special Mention:
  "I think there’s five or six other guys — Dak Prescott, Baker Mayfield, Jordan Love — who are very good players..." (12:23)

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Notable Exchange: Sam Darnold & Criteria

Jason McIntyre: “Really nice job getting your boy Sam Darnold in there at ten as the tenth best quarterback based on these metrics...Does that mean wins or stats?” (13:13)

Colin: “I want touchdowns, I want yards, playmaking, ability to get the ball to your number one guy. Darnold...first practice gets it to [Justin] Jefferson. Jalen Hurts struggles to get the ball to AJ Brown—like, that does matter.” (13:29)

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The Caleb Williams Debate

Jason: “Caleb Williams at three...he might be there in a few years but he’s off one good season — that may be your hottest take so far of twenty twenty-six!” (14:34)

Colin: “Forty-seven touchdowns, thirteen picks, doesn’t miss a snap!” (14:38)

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Victor Wembanyama & The NBA Playoffs

Spurs vs. Wolves; Wemby’s Dominance
(20:33–22:27; 44:50–47:51)

• Wembanyama transforms the floor on both ends, making Minnesota’s rim offense and perimeter shots difficult.
• Analyst: "When Wemby's out there they're just flat-out better...they are plus 44 with Wemby on the floor, minus 15 with him off." (21:49)
• Colin: “I do not remember a team this young, this good, this soon.” (46:34)
• Wemby had 27 and 17 on Rudy Gobert; Gobert was benched.
  “They couldn’t play him in the second half, Wemby had sixteen in the first quarter.” (44:50, Jason)

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Lakers: LeBron Era — Success or Failure?

(22:27–28:01, revisit at 38:26–39:54)

• Main Take: Lakers failed LeBron despite a 2020 title; didn’t build championship-level rosters after two windows (2020 and 2021).
  “I think they’ve absolutely failed LeBron...he won them a title in 2020...They’ve had LeBron for eight seasons. Only two of those seasons—2020 and 2021—were they a true championship-level team.” (22:37, Analyst)
• Russell Westbrook trade marked the start of major mismanagement.
  Quote: "Rob Pelinka is the general manager. It's his job not just to come to the table with ideas but to filter ideas...your job is to explain to them why it was a bad idea." (23:39, Analyst)
• Stat: Lakers are +1,225 points with LeBron on the floor since joining the team, -664 with him off.
• Colin: “That to me, that’s the difference in a winning and an average organization.” (38:58)

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NBA Team Building & GM Moves

(28:01–33:03, 38:26–39:54)

• Daryl Morey Firing (Sixers):
  “If you extend a player with injuries ...the Embiid signing is the reason he got fired. Is that too simple?” (28:01, Colin) “Even with the Paul George piece...I think Darrell’s situation was doomed from the start.” (29:01, Analyst)
• Best Fit for Giannis:
  Analyst makes the case for Boston Celtics, trading Jaylen Brown for Giannis.
  “Boston’s two weaknesses: inability to pressure the rim and center rotation...This is a gettable conference over the next couple of years; this strikes me as the all-in move.” (31:34, Analyst)

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NBA Combine, Draft, and Player Development

(33:03–39:54, 49:38–51:28)

• Debate: Cam Boozer vs. Caleb Wilson

  • Cam Boozer: “He’s by far the safest player...but ceiling is more limited.” (33:38, Analyst)
  • Caleb Wilson: “Could be a ten-time All-Star, huge ceiling, maybe lower floor…” (33:03)

• Concerns: AJ Debonsa in Washington

  • “Trey Young is too heliocentric; he strangles the offense...that will hamper the development of a guy like AJ Debonsa.” (35:57, Analyst)
  • “You need to develop AJ with a run-the-offense, pass-first guard.” (37:18, Analyst)
  • “When Trey Young left Atlanta, Jalen Johnson exploded — didn’t get more talented, just got opportunities.” (37:37, Colin)

• Lakers’ New Management:
  “You gotta have guys that are digging around on the margins...that’s how Boston survived the Tatum injury...Tatuma, Kata, Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Shireman—all pulled together in two summers.” (38:26, Analyst)

  • “Rob Pelinka should be the filter, have a vision, and then get good ideas from super smart ‘grinders’ in scouting and analytics.” (39:54)

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Other Notables and Memorable Quotes

• Jason McIntyre on Sam Darnold: "Really nice job getting your boy Sam Darnold in there at ten..." (13:13)
• On LeBron’s Lakers Career: "In terms of LeBron and his accomplishments...he’s accomplished the same as all of his peers...how you could blame that guy?" (25:56, Analyst)
• On the Importance of Good Scouting & Margins: "Nobody lives on an island...OKC and Boston with these big staffs, they just do it draft after draft after trade after trade." (38:58, Colin)

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Key Timestamps Breakdown

• 03:16: Start of QB Top 10 discussion
• 05:05–06:40: Colin explains notable QBs who didn’t make the top 10
• 07:05–11:46: Colin’s 1–10 QB rankings, with reasoning and debate
• 13:13–14:38: Debate between Colin and Jason on criteria, Darnold, Caleb Williams
• 20:33: Spurs/Wemby segment starts
• 22:27: Lakers/LeBron era analysis
• 28:01: Daryl Morey, Embiid, Paul George, GM talk
• 31:34: Giannis, Boston trade fit
• 33:03: NBA Draft, Boozer/Wilson debate
• 37:18–39:54: Player development, Lakers management and scouting

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Summary

This episode offers a robust and sometimes provocative ranking of current NFL quarterbacks, sharp insights into the failures and missteps of the Lakers during LeBron’s tenure, and an informed, forward-looking discussion of NBA draft prospects, team-building philosophies, and future league stars. Engaging banter and sharp commentary from Colin and Jason offer fans both strong opinions and data-driven reasoning throughout the hour.

Transcript

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[Colin Cowherd]

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[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

public holdings brokerage services by public investing member finra sipc advisory services by public advisors sec registered advisor crypto services by zerohash all investing involves risk of loss see complete disclosures at public dot com

[Colin Cowherd]

disclosures imagine never buying gas again ev's are as easy to charge as your phone and perfect for everyday life drive daily with confidence everywhere you go most americans drive forty miles a day most ev's are equipped with two hundred to four hundred miles of range they've got fewer parts fewer repairs and fewer headaches with hundreds of new and used ev models available today there's an ev to fit every lifestyle and every budget i love my electric vehicle it's easy no more gas stations the way forward is electric learn more at electric for all dot org thanks for listening to the herd podcast be sure to catch us live every weekday on fox sports radio and noon to three eastern nine am to noon pacific 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

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

party started you're listening to fox sports

[Colin Cowherd]

radio here we go hour two jason temp hoops tonight in studio in about fifteen minutes so jmac and i got into this discussion yesterday about sam darnold and i said you know it it's it is hard to unsee stuff right it's why in movies you need momentum you need a good first eight to ten minutes there are no great movies ever that were plotting and couldn't get going until like you know minute twenty four you got to start hot and end well maybe your story arcs don't connect in the middle a little but if you start well you end well usual suspects probably going to be end up being a really good movie and i said with sam darnold it is hard to unsee the jets but there's three things to me that matter for a quarterback because the because the year the league changes year to year i'm not going to punish it too much if you've struggled in the playoffs it's hard to win playoff games go look at bill parcell's playoff record it's hard to win in the playoffs first thing i look at is production i need touchdowns i need yards i need i need mobility i need you to be at least at some level elevate others can you get the ball to your stars at minimum production second thing durability you got to be available to play the third thing and this is really a key to me what is your current momentum are you an ascending player cj stroud is not are you a leader you are loved in the locker room you are respected you are ascending you are a winning player you are going in a direction so production durability and what is your current momentum age matters but matt stafford just won the mvp at thirty seven i'm not saying who i'm going to build around for five years i am saying right now production durability and where is your momentum that is your top ten quarterbacks so i'm going to give you a few quickly who did not make the cut but i think are very very good but we got thirty two teams and we've never had more talented quarterbacks okay this is a this is the golden age of quarterbacks so here's a couple that won't make it dak prescott's very good he falls just outside of the top ten he doesn't have a lot of career momentum he's had now two major injuries lower body injuries seven nine and one last season never been a great playoff quarterback not the end of the world he's close but he won't make it jaden daniels oh what a great rookie year well he got hurt last year and that's always been his reputation he got banged up his first year he missed ten games last year and he wasn't good before the injury his passer rating was in the eighties so i think he's super talented but he's not going to make my top ten this one's going to hurt jalen hurts no career momentum cannot get the ball to aj brown cannot see over the middle of the field they scored fewer points than the new york giants last year that a worse total offense than the saints he had fewer passing yards than jacoby brissette and he had four more starts with a stacked roster i'm sorry folks the momentum is not good another jordan love i like jordan love a lot he is all over the map he gets hot but he's been injured in back to back years not for a long time but banged up and i got like eight games over one hundred passer rating and six games you know under ninety he's too inconsistent i also am not going to have trevor lawrence on the list for the same reason trevor just turns the ball over too much and he's very streaky he wasn't very good to start last year he was red hot to end it then he goes home playoff game against buffalo and there's nothing i don't know what i get week to week liam cohen essentially saved his career and i was the world's biggest trevor lawrence fan and another guy that's close but won't make it is baker mayfield again very good three and eight his last eleven games last year way too many turnovers leads the nfl and picks since twenty eighteen so again jordan these are these are good quarterbacks but they miss the cut there's either injuries there's inconsistencies there's turnovers again my standard is production durability and current momentum so here's how i would rate currently the top ten quarterbacks in the nfl number one is josh allen and you can say what you want about the gm you can say what you want they don't have a super bowl i'm not going to punish him he's been very good in the playoffs he's won seventy percent of his games with a defensive head coach that most of you didn't like seven straight years with ten plus wins i'm sorry folks he's been better than mahomes two straight years patrick mahomes would be number two despite his injury it's the first injury of note in his career and reportedly he's going to be back in september each of his first seven years led the chiefs to a division title and the afc championship that's very lebron in the east sorry don't get recency bias he's amazing number three caleb williams do you know what his numbers are the first two years forty seven touchdowns thirteen picks never hurt never hurt in high school never hurt in college never hurt in the pros got hit more than any quarterback in the league rookie year not missing a snap unbelievably durable makes throws that only josh allen can make he's number three number four again not great in the playoffs justin herbert worst offensive line in the nfl made the playoffs that is insane he is beloved in the locker room he is the most he could you could argue he and lamar jackson are the most loved players in the nfl in their respective locker rooms missed only six starts in his career which is confounding because he's never had a good old line justin herbert number five matt stafford i mean listen i know he's old i know he's not mobile he just won the mvp what do you want me to say they're favored doing the super bowl i mean he's taking a bunch of mid round guys puka nakua fifth round made him a star so i'm not building this for five years he is a top five quarterback in the nfl today number six and i think he's honestly on any given sunday the best player in the league joe burrow burrows durability is a big problem and you want him to win more but i will say it again i'm not sure on a fourth and seven trailing by four in a super bowl if there's a guy i want at quarterback more than joe burrow i think he is one of the great all time talents he got saddled with a cheap owner and a minimalist front office highest completion percentage and third highest passer rating all time with terrible o lines he's an insane all time talent you have to contextualize his career so i'll put him at six if he had the right if he had stan kroenke and andy reid he'd be number one number seven lamar jackson first time he really got hurt i love him he doesn't play like anybody he doesn't move like anybody second he has the highest passer rating two mvp's highest passer rating in nfl history and everybody's like i don't know if he's a great pocket passer i don't know the analytics guys like him highest win percentage by any quarterback in league history not to make a super bowl again i'm not going to crush guys they don't win enough playoff games i'll elevate you if you do i'm not going to crush you if you don't number eight drake may battle line hit and miss run game got to a super bowl finally going to get aj brown a number one wide receiver that's what's being reported i think that i i think you'll see how special he is led the nfl in completion percentage yards per attempt and passer rating at twenty three in in with a bad old line in front of it number nine the most disrespected player in the league jared goff all he does is win he's the only quarterback in the league the only one four straight seasons with four thousand plus passing yards and strangely never misses a start he and caleb williams they don't get hurt ever high school college pros they don't get hurt i've seen him get rag dolled in college in the pros he doesn't miss starts dad was a pro baseball player got some good genetics dude just takes shots and has never hurt and number ten thirty five and ten in his last forty five starts sam darnold highest win percentage by any quarterback last two years in the league big athletic risk taking no turnovers when it mattered in the playoffs still twenty eight five different teams won a disaster but if you go remember he was benched in carolina came back went four and two if you take his career starting then winning his quarterback in the nfl with the second highest passer rating so again i think there's five or six other guys dak prescott's one of them baker mayfield another one jordan love who are very good players but if you're talking about production durability and current momentum and i know a lot of you were saying well burrows not durable burrows absolutely the prettiest best clutch quarterback i mean i feel like it's like mj before pippen and phil jackson you're like watching history and he just can't get the right components around him so people will say i have burrow rated too high i think i have him too low j mack any

[Jason McIntyre]

thoughts i have many thoughts i'm concerned to give them i do enjoy being employed here i like working with you i consider you a friend i have many thoughts but yeah hey really nice job getting your boy sam darnold in there at ten as the tenth best quarterback based on these metrics in the nfl i don't see stats there when you say production does that mean wins or stats you know like epa success

[Colin Cowherd]

rates i want touchdowns i want yards i want playmaking i want the ability to get the ball to your number one guy you know it's a prime example darnold literally justin jefferson first practice gets it to him jsn is he a number one receiver makes him the best receiver in the league no doubt jalen hurts struggles to get the ball to aj brown like that is a i mean that's a red flag that would be like you being the point guard on an nba team and you've got the league's best shooter and you can't get him the ball like that knock i mean that like that does matter as a quarterback i'm not saying you have to take the number three tight end and make him a pro bowler you have got to get the ball to your stars i'm i would

[Jason McIntyre]

be more impressed with a super bowl champion super bowl title and a super bowl mvp than getting the ball to a pouty wide receiver but that's just me caleb williams at three do you think your phone when you look at your phone on their commercial break over under like seven and a half texts about this caleb williams as the third best quarterback again he might be there

[Colin Cowherd]

in a few years oh i think

[Jason McIntyre]

he's off one good season that may be your hottest take so far of

[Colin Cowherd]

twenty twenty forty seven touchdowns thirteen picks doesn't miss a snap he was really

[Jason McIntyre]

good last year really best in the league by the way i checked trevor lawrence just humor me he was he finished fourth in nfl mvp voting last year i think that's moment that qualifies his momentum right i mean well the fact he's not on this list is

[Colin Cowherd]

very good he had a very good last like eight nine starts in his career he's had like eight great starts you got to give me more than that yeah and we're fans we like him we do we're pro i mean i'm a huge trevor lawrence fan liam cohen arguably like saved not just resurrected kind of saved the career yeah one

[Jason McIntyre]

more herd the herd streams twenty four

[Colin Cowherd]

hours a day seven days a week within the iheartradio app search her to

[Jason McIntyre]

listen live or on demand whenever you'd like hey this is jason mcintyre join me every every weekday morning on my podcast straight fire with jason mcintyre this isn't your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day straight fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines accurate stats to help you win big at the sportsbook and all the best guests do yourself a favor and listen to straight fire with jason mcintyre on the iheartradio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

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[Colin Cowherd]

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 discipline yeah let's see

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[Colin Cowherd]

at public dot com disclosures imagine never buying gas again ev's are as easy to charge as your phone and perfect for everyday life drive daily with confidence everywhere you go most americans drive forty miles a day most ev's are equipped with two hundred to four hundred miles of range they've got fewer parts fewer repairs and fewer headaches with hundreds of new and used ev models available today there's an ev to fit every lifestyle and every budget i love my electric vehicle it's easy no more gas stations the way forward is electric learn more at electric for all dot org innovation is what gets your business to the big leagues and wasabi is designed to give every business a shot at competition break free from skyrocketing storage costs unpredictable egress fees from old and top heavy legacy providers you know the big guys wasabi is the world's hottest cloud storage company and the go to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams and leagues around the world and here's why 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 wasabi hot cloud storage proud partner of the volume podcast network he's the host of hoops tonight jason timp at the volume of course the combine for the nba is here in chicago he's covered the nba for years and years and we love him at the volume he's our go to guy all right before i get to the lakers which you were a laker blogger to start you watch every game you report on every game you know that team back and forth as well as anybody i want to start spurs and wolves i said earlier thanos and the avengers was i'm inevitable i watched that game last night he played basically rudy gobert off the floor this is a franchise minnesota built to face wemby and jokic and they gave jokic who i thought as the year started was the best player in the world and rudy gobert is almost useless size length built face wemby i watched last night and i went this is not supposed to happen twenty twenty one and twenty two people think okay he's young sga was in his year seven hartenstein year seven last year alex crusoe is an old guy in his thirties like i last night i watched and i thought this is the inevitable thing what did you see

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

yeah there's a problem a wemby problem that minnesota just can't solve and anthony edwards said as much after the game i'm not sure if you saw his presser he's like yeah he's doing some things last night that we just frankly don't have an answer for and you take we've seen thankfully because of the the or the ejection we've seen two very different versions of the series what it looks like when wemby's out there when he's not out there and when he's not out there minnesota looks bigger they look like they have the best perimeter player in anthony anthony edwards they look like they can get better shots by attacking the basket and getting good kick out threes and then on the other end of the floor they look like they have control over san antonio's guards but then as soon as you put wemby out there it fundamentally alters the entire physically profile of the physical profile of the floor for for the the spurs on defense and on offense like everything gets so much easier for the spurs guards because they're having to account for wemby on those roles like you saw steph castle and dylan harper basically get whatever they wanted in the second half last night and then when he's at the rim they haven't been able to figure that out it's allowing a lot of these traps because they're double teaming ant out on the perimeter but the reason why it works is because wemby if you were to take like a fifteen foot radius all the way from the basket around in a circle wendy's just got that entire space under control when they're double teaming ants so they're not even getting good shots out of the double teams and so they can't get good shots when wemby's on the on the floor for their offense and then on the other end as long as wemby's setting a screen and rolling they're getting a great shot every single time i thought the spurs missed a lot of really good looks last night like devin vassell and julianne champeni wide open threes that that that easily could have been a twenty five thirty point game long before it got turned into a blowout late like the spurs when wemby's out there they're just flat out better if you remove the blowout the game to blowout games by one possession yeah they are plus forty four with wemby on the floor minus fifteen with him off if you if you remove that blowout in game two like that has been a problem minnesota

[Colin Cowherd]

cannot solve all right lakers we've been through eight years of lebron in la have the lakers failed lebron i think

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

they've absolutely failed lebron i you know lebron held up his end of the bargain he won them a title in twenty twenty i know a lot of people like to undercut that title but i don't really see the reasoning for that they started the year twenty four and three when the season got shut down with COVID they were at a sixty four win pace that's literally the same record the thunder had this year their last two wins were against the clippers and bucks the two get the two teams that were the other best teams in the league the lakers clearly looked better lebron clearly looked better than kawhi and looked better than giannis and then in the postseason they went up three one in all four series like they weren't even remotely threatened it was as straightforward this is obviously the best team in the league type of championship that we've had in the last ten years and for all the people who think that's a failure you're now saying that jason tatum's time in the celtics jersey was a failure that giannis with the bucks was a failure that jokic with the nuggets was a failure you're saying that dirk with the mavs was a failure so i'm just going to disagree with that the real question is should they have won more than one and i think absolutely they've had lebron for eight seasons now and i'd argue there's been two seasons where they clearly came into the season with like this is a championship level roster twenty twenty and twenty twenty one six out of eight years you go in and they're like they don't they're they have a puncher's chance maybe but they don't really look like a championship level team and it all started with the russell westbrook trade i know people like to blame lebron for that but the reality is is rob pelinka is the general manager of the team it's his job not just to come to the table with ideas but to filter ideas gm's all the time have owners in their ears and players in their ears saying hey i want this guy i want this guy i want that guy your job is to explain to them why they're wrong i sold real estate before i did this for a living and i had clients come to me with bad ideas all the time and it was my job to explain to them make sure they understood why it was a bad idea the difference is i had no authority if they said no i want to do this anyway i had no choice but to go forward and represent their interests rob could have stopped this from happening and he didn't and to make matters worse they've had nine cycles since then nine trade deadlines in summers that's a long time to rectify your mistake to accumulate talent and to make up for that error and they haven't come close the truth of the matter is is when lebron has been in a lakers jersey he has covered for and carried that team through management errors this is a crazy stat since lebron joined the lakers when he's been on the floor they're outscoring teams by one thousand two hundred twenty five points and when he's off they're getting outscored by six hundred sixty four points wow like do you know how hard it is to have a player that good mind you and they had anthony davis or luca the entire time and you have those two as your foundational players and you really had a shot to win twice like i mean colin they were coming into this season year two of luca going like it's a gap year a gap year again like what are we doing here like i don't know how you could possibly feel like this is anything other than a failure that they only got one but in terms of lebron and his accomplishments and what this era like he's accomplished the same as all of his peers so i don't know how you could blame that guy like to me it is

[Colin Cowherd]

absolutely a fit j mac thinks the lakers are going to austin's going to take a team friendly deal so you can't let him walk you did that with caruso you got him undrafted you can't let him walk sign him do a semi team friendly deal so eventually i mean you do this with star quarterbacks in the nfl you constantly restructure mahomes deal to get you know pay him more money so you got to get a semi team friendly deal because then like i've said this before he'd be great in chicago but with luca and lebron like he's a third play initiator you need a team friendly deal what do you do with him now

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

i think again kind of like we talked about a little bit on monday i think there's a certain amount of this that is just the reality of their predicament in the sense that like they need a secondary ball handler next to luca that's always been the build it was luca and kyrie irving it was luca and jalen brunson and they've used austin is that guy and lebron unfortunately with his age can't be that guy for the for the future you can like maybe he could fill that role for one additional year but you better have a plan for who that other guy is and you know the truth is let's let's pretend it's not austin let's pretend it's donovan mitchell pretend donovan mitchell's a laker and you're like do we re up with donovan mitchell this summer you still have the same problem which is like okay we got luka we got donovan as our secondary guy but we don't have any guys who can play these other three starting forward positions and so that really is where the errors of those nine cycles that i talked about have been a problem because it really doesn't matter what you're doing with that secondary star if you don't have additional good players who can fill those roles like for instance luka and kyrie derrick jones junior was on a vet minimum derrick lively was a rookie on a rookie deal they went and traded for pj washington right so like this is where that talent acquisition has been a problem and i'm hoping that through mark walter taking over the lakers that they're able to at least start getting some of these hits on the margins to justify that deal now if they can get him at like forty that's really fair market value for a secondary guard in this league a good secondary guard i just think it's unfair to blame austin i think the issues are elsewhere on the roster

[Colin Cowherd]

i like daryl morey he'll dm he'll text he'll talk he'll call he'll lunch i think in the end when he gave that extension embiid and five six months earlier embiid had meniscus removed from his knee as a three hundred pound athlete with injuries that was a max extension that was around league circles thought of as a huge risk and eventually i think you can say he drafted well there's a lot of things i like about him and i also think this josh harris isn't the easiest owner to deal with so it's not all daryl but i will say to me the embiid never been a fan of missed the first two years with injuries like to me you got to get your stars right in this league you're not going to lose your job if you miss on a second round pick if you extend a player with injuries and it's i mean i look at it the embiid signing is the reason he got fired is that too simple

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

it's not that i don't think it's too simple it's just it's more just i don't see the alternative for daryl even with the paul george piece of this because like so first of all it's like embiid wins mvp in twenty twenty three like like he had games where he outplayed nikola jokic head to head multiple times like there's no doubt that when embiid is healthy he's one of the very best players in the world and so there's a simple like value proposition where if you remove him from the equation if you allow him to walk now what do you have and i think that that is a lot easier said than done when it comes to letting a guy like that walk it just i feel like darrell's situation was doomed from the start because not only did he have this perennial mvp candidate when he's healthy that had health issues but then you had to do something to show him that you're contributing to the to the building of a championship roster so who's the best free agent available that year paul george and it's like paul george was just going to cost that much money and you know paul had a lot of health issues that were a little bit unforeseen like he had his issues he had flaws in a clippers jersey but he was there he was able to play for the most part and he just unfortunately went to philly and completely broke down and i remember in that off season thinking like well if they don't sign paul george they're just they're just not going to have any shot to win so it's a it's an all in type of move that was just the most obvious thing to do and it really all came back to the fact that that embiid can't stay healthy and so i as much as daryl more made mistakes the jared mccain thing huge mistake shouldn't have let that guy go i'm watching quentin grimes and i'm like that should just be jared mccain what are we doing here but the embiid piece the paul george piece it was kind of just the hand of cards that darryl was dealt i don't really see what the alternative was let those guys go and then you're just in the bottom of the east

[Colin Cowherd]

for all these years okay best spot for giannis i mean we we i think we both agree about three years ago as the bucks were getting really old then they had to make a desperate move with dame let drew holiday go which we knew you're like okay it'll solve the three point shot but he's a tiny non defender he's getting old he's got injuries that's not going to work he wants to play in portland so what happens is if you don't move a star early and they won a title kareem won lu alcinder won one there at the time they won one my take was sometimes in this era of the nba you win a title you see some injuries roster's old it may be time giannis privately had grumbled where does he fit what works jalen brown houston shen goon jabari smith where do you see it working

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

i think the obvious place is the boston celtics and i am nervous as to whether or not they'd even consider going this route but if you look at the celtics team what were the two biggest weaknesses that stood out in this playoff run one their inability to pressure the rim and two their center rotation was not even close to being good enough yeah they weren't athletic enough but they do have a lot of really good shooters a lot of really good playmakers a lot of really good like read and react talent that can play off of advantage and a lot of really good perimeter athletes that can guard a little bit like they're jordan walsh and hugo gonzalez like they have a lot of guys who can guard so i think if you look at jaylen brown who clearly really likes to be the number one guy with the basketball he becomes a foundational player for milwaukee to move forward with and for the celtics you have this opportunity to partner this rim pressuring defensive monster at center with jayson tatum who's a great shooter and a great playmaker with all of their jump shooting talent around kind of rectifies two of the celtics biggest biggest weaknesses and i would also argue there's a window of opportunity in the east right now none of these teams are truly great they don't have an okc or a san antonio where you're like man we got to play those guys every year this is a gettable conference over the next couple of years and it strikes me as the type of all in move that makes some sense for both sides but gives the celtics like a two to three year window where you would view them as like the perennial favorite far and away favorite to win the conference which anything can happen when you get to the

[Colin Cowherd]

final okay so the combine is in chicago i love like cam boozer i talked to a scout two scouts actually one eastern conference one western conference two weeks ago and they said cam boozer is fascinating he's got a ceiling but you know he's going to play twelve years in the nba give you eighteen to twenty points a game great in the room great leader like he's going to be a really nice nba player but is he going to be a one or a two time all star caleb wilson could be a ten time all star huge ceiling maybe lower floor but wow when you watch him well at the combine what's happened between those

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

two so this stuff that is going around with cam boozer speed and his athleticism has been a little bit misleading because he's been literally the fastest out of aj debonsa and out of the caleb wilson group so like it's kind of unfair to just like target that specifically and then not also bring it up with some of these other players to me where where i go in a different direction with cam is like the idea with cam is that he's this like jokic at the power forward position this guy that is this a brilliant passer who can like run inverted ball screens and a guy who can like take the ball down to the block and redouble teams and make the kick out passes and he's just this savant on the floor he had ten assists and seventeen turnovers in the tournament this year he shot fifty two percent on layups in the tournament this year so like i have a really hard time seeing some of the upside that a lot of the draft guys talk about with cam and so i agree with you he's by far the safest player if you start going down the list with aj debonsa and darren peterson and caleb wilson all three of them have like pretty substantial weaknesses that could be fail points in their career so

[Colin Cowherd]

i want to talk i said this about aj debonso so if he goes to the wizards well trey young averages nineteen shots a game not the most popular guy to play with can get you the ball late in the shot clock well debonsa is one thing there's that he's not he's catch and shoot guy like that's what he's not he's a shot creator he's a creative hard to be that with trey young and when trey young left atlanta who became an all star the young guard by the way we've seen this before when james harden left philly maxi exploded yes like so ball dominant guys can stunt the growth of a young player do you worry about aj debona jalen johnson's the kid in atlanta do you worry about devonta going to washington and sitting there for two years behind trey young and watching and getting the ball late in the shot clock because the one knock on aj and i think it's fair i watched enough byu stuff you're not you can't give him the ball latent shot clock it'd be like having westbrook stare if you're going to get something out of westbrook he needs the ball in his hands the hops you know so my take is i worry a little bit that washington utah's a much better fit at two than one is for washington you know you just

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

gave me an idea colin why don't why doesn't washington call up the clippers and offer them anthony davis anthony davis in a deal that involves darius garland because here's the thing trey young to your point it's not trey young is too heliocentric he strangles the offense and that will i think hamper the development of a guy like aj debonsa darius garland is much more of a just gets the ball at the floor quickly penetrates the defense makes that quick pass gets out of the way plays off the ball quite a bit anthony davis makes no sense alongside a alex sar aj debonts a front court the clippers need a center they just traded away if it's a zubots i think that they all of a sudden make a lot of sense like to your point about the trey young piece both trey young and anthony davis don't make sense in the long term version of this team like they should be looking to move trey to move anthony davis to continue to build around this young core i think getting a guard aj does need a guard he needs the ball but he needs a guard so it's got to be the right guard it's got to be a guard who's going to take the responsibility of helping him develop as a basketball player and helping him succeed and that's why i think like getting like a pass first like run the offense type of guard rather than like trey young i'm going to run forty pick and rolls again defensive

[Colin Cowherd]

guard like chris dunn that would be

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

a great example as well like i like kind of more in the mold of like what drew holiday was in his prime like a guard who his primary responsibility is to guard the opposing best guard and to be like like yeah exactly so like i like the idea of partnering him with a guard who's going to help accentuate his gifts rather than take away yeah because when

[Colin Cowherd]

i mean when trey young left atlanta jalen johnson who's a ford not a guard but he exploded yeah it was like an all star well he was didn't get more talented he just got opportunities there are certain guys in this league they need the ball in their hands and you know they always say you know it's like they say in the nfl you're not going to get better watching and you need snaps and you need live bullets as a quarterback you need to get hit well in the nba you can't give guy a lot of guys in this league need the ball they need to screen like we've talked about this there's not that many guys in the nba that are always going to get a great shot they need a screen they need a pick you know so i think trey young to me worries me with the bonsa oh by the way have you seen the new laker owners do you see yesterday pelinka announced they're hiring two assistant gm's this is what i like to hear call the friends and family plan is over you got to have

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

guys that are digging around on the margins you have to with with how expensive these stars are these days and with how punitive the second apron is you have to have a front office that is actively hunting for two three rotation players every cycle on the margins that is where boston survived the entire everyone wants to know how boston survived tatum going down they got kata they got walsh they got hugo gonzalez they got baylor shireman in two summers they pulled all of that together and were able to sustain a top two seed without jason tatum you have to win

[Colin Cowherd]

on the market and it always i always tell people this david letterman didn't write the jokes in his monologue writers did he performed them brad stevens isn't pulling all the levers like if you look at the philadelphia eagles and howie roseman they have a huge scouting staff the bengals have a small one les snead has a huge scouting staff arizona has a small one like you know that when you when you watch jay leno in his prime he wasn't writing all the jokes like the truth is nobody lives on an island and rob polink is an agent not a scout by trade rambus was a player so i mean you could make an argument the lakers scouting department got alex caruso and austin reeves undrafted so i mean they they but the reality is the okc in boston with these big staffs they just do it draft after draft after trade after trade i mean i saw that news yesterday with polinka i'm like if i'm a laker fan forget austin reed that's the difference i mean that to me that's the difference in a winning and an average organization that's

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

what we've been calling for for years and like it's it would be to take it back to the concept from earlier like rod pelinka should be the filter he's the filter that all the ideas come through he should have a vision for what he should imagine the team should look like a vision for the culture in terms of like this is my kind of guy in terms of personality to bring in the roof and yeah and then as all the ideas from all of your super smart grinders like this is a dude who's only watching everything in europe this is a dude who's watching the g league this is a dude who's watching this division that division this division like you have five teams i want you to watch every single dude who plays minutes for them if you find a guy that's outside of their rotation that you think could play for us you come to me with a case you come to me with clips you come to me with a case i think this dude can play for us here's why you sit there you filter the ideas and you function is essentially that final that final decision maker that should be the role and way too often that that whole process has been convoluted for the lakers and there just haven't been enough smart grinding people involved hoops tonight

[Colin Cowherd]

jason timp good stuff back in a second to the herd in chicago 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 you

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the show comes from public huh i

[Colin Cowherd]

wonder 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 discipline yeah let's see what that looks like with generated

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[Colin Cowherd]

disclosures imagine never buying gas again ev's are as easy to charge as your phone and perfect for everyday life drive daily with confidence everywhere you go most americans drive forty miles a day most ev's are equipped with two hundred to four hundred miles of range they've got fewer parts fewer repairs and fewer headaches with hundreds of new and used ev models available today there's an ev to fit every lifestyle and every budget i love my electric vehicle it's easy no more gas stations the way forward is electric learn more at electric for all dot org innovation is what gets your business to the big leagues and wasabi is designed to give every business a shot at competition break free from skyrocketing storage costs unpredictable egress fees from old and top heavy legacy providers you know the big guys wasabi is the world's hottest cloud storage company and the go to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams and leagues are around the world and here's why 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 alice then the

[Jason McIntyre]

action continues sunday at one with columbus and birmingham all part of a huge weekend of football on fox without further

[Colin Cowherd]

ado j mac with the news no

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no no turn on the news this

[Jason McIntyre]

is the herdline news so last night the best player in the nba yeah i said it victor wembanyama returned from that elbow suspension dropped twenty seven seventeen on rudy gobert actually you had a good open where you mentioned that wemby was so good gobert just got benched they couldn't play him in the second half wemby had sixteen in the first quarter and afterward he talked about minnesota trying to rage bait him during the game

[Colin's Analyst/Co-host]

yeah i feel like the rage baiting would have would have been maybe one of the strategies so i feel like need to stay composed as a team i'm not gonna leak anything he said obviously but he maybe wanted to you know make a statement or make his talking even more impactful by being there but he gives feedback and talks to us regularly you know throughout series throughout games so as always when he

[Jason McIntyre]

speaks everybody listens that that last part colin he was talking about greg popovich coming to talk to him after he returned from minnesota yeah the rage baiting is interesting because you had io dasumu who's a really nice player by the

[Colin Cowherd]

way bulls gave him away bulls gave

[Jason McIntyre]

him away just like they did caruso and io desumu joked around we're coming after him oh i'm just kidding and then during the game gave a little chicken wing and then was saying something to wemby and wemby's like just get out of here bro what are you even doing i i think they got the best they could out of wembanyama with getting them to elbow it's not going to work anymore that was your best shot you shot it i think the series is over did you see the spurs are favored by five on the road in game six you and

[Colin Cowherd]

i said it yesterday this felt like i mean of all the bettable games i mean they outscored the t wolves in every quarter this felt like it was going to be a spurs route you knew they were going to come in totally focused man i'm i'm telling you i don't remember a team this young this good this fast i do not and i've been watching since nineteen seventy two seventy three on my bunk bed watching old wilt with a headband you know with the lakers it was like seventy two i don't remember a team this young this good this soon

[Jason McIntyre]

yeah so the timberwolves came back and tied it at sixty one and basically steph castle took over he had six points out of like eleven and they ran away and hid this team's awesome they're easy to root for colin i'm rooting for them i mean the problem is if next year if they face like the lakers in the playoffs or something but i don't know what i'll do if it spurs knicks in the finals that's a tough one you know i'm a knicks guy but i love

[Colin Cowherd]

wemby listen this is not the duncan spurs no this is this is going to get a tv rating this is going to be real i mean i watched them and the duncan spurs were almost formulaic yeah i mean it was kind of predictable you don't know what you're getting from wemby and dylan harper oh he's good i mean he i mean can you give a guy most improved player from the first month to the last i mean honestly i know he i know he's a rookie but it's like that kid is just explosive

[Jason McIntyre]

remember all the hype about con canipple who you taking to con canipple or or harper i mean like come on

[Colin Cowherd]

why don't we take dylan harper of

[Jason McIntyre]

course in a heartbeat all right let's move on to malik willis he is the dolphins quarterback he's got no support system there they have the weakest skill position players around but his new oc bobby slowik is saying amazing stuff about willis after practice oh my gosh take

[Colin Cowherd]

a listen can spin the ball all over the field can throw the ball everywhere can run obviously can use his legs he's tough but honestly what i've enjoyed the most so far is like getting to know him the person is really fun to be around he's really energetic you know he he infuses everybody with a lot of energy i i know everybody keeps saying the dolphins you watch they're going to knock somebody off this year please malik willis can really

[Jason McIntyre]

play he can spin it he throws a great deep ball colin listen seriously i'm a dolphins fan because i do not want them to be worse than the jets i do not want arch manning on the dolphins for the next

[Colin Cowherd]

fifteen years beat the jets basically due to malik willis i mean jets are

[Jason McIntyre]

starting to smith in both those games although cade klubnick i mean he looks like a hair model out there i don't know what it is with these clemson quarterbacks club nick versus malik willis that's appointment television hopefully fox will will have that one let's go to the final story column that's aj debonsa he's out there by you in chicago doing all the drills at the nba combine and talk to me about why the wizard should take him number one he said i'm super versatile i play the game the right way i will fill the seats you know aj debonsa was on here last week i'll let you talk about your thoughts on on debonza

[Colin Cowherd]

well i think he's i think he's high floor high ceiling yeah i do worry that playing with trey young is tough peterson listen i the peterson stuff he's a really good player his agent now is saying you know he's kind of a point he can play point i think these guys are all good cam boozer's not as athletic i didn't think cam boozer blew me away in the tournament he was a little disappointing i think all these guys are good i the combine you know andrew wiggins blew everybody away at the combine with this forty five inch vertical but he wasn't a terribly tough player or dependable

[Jason McIntyre]

player minnesota he had no chance there

[Colin Cowherd]

come on i i my take is the top nine players are all very

[Jason McIntyre]

good yeah i'll say this if you watch castle on the spurs i didn't think he was a pure point guard coming out of of uconn and now he's like basically running point fox is not even their point guard really yeah so so peterson as a point makes sense i'm starting to think debonsa ends up with utah at two cullen i

[Colin Cowherd]

think oh no they're not gonna you you think they're gonna i now danny ainge is a deal maker but i i mean what if what if you're washington and danny ainge calls and says okay we'll give you our number two pick and walker kessler i think that's

[Jason McIntyre]

that's really you can't turn down a center who's walker kessler is going to make a lot of money laker fans walker kessler's not coming okay that's not

[Colin Cowherd]

happening all right j macleanoose well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd lie news yeah a lot of people think that trade's gonna happen i don't i think people are gonna stand pat i think everybody thinks they're gonna get a good player and they are one through nine

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[Colin Cowherd]

never buying gas again ev's are as easy to charge as your phone and perfect for everyday life drive daily with confidence everywhere you go most americans drive forty miles a day most ev's are equipped with two hundred to four hundred miles of range they've got fewer parts fewer repairs and fewer headaches with hundreds of new and used ev models available today there's an ev to fit every lifestyle and every budget i love my electric vehicle it's easy no more gas stations the way forward is electric learn more at lectric for all dot org wasabi is purpose built to free your business from skyrocketing storage costs and fees from the big guys wasabi is the go to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams around the world check out wasabi's ai enabled intelligent media storage wasabi air to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cybercriminals wasabi driving innovation in data storage for up to eighty percent less than the other guys try for free at wasabi dot com wasabi hot cloud storage proud partner of the volume podcast network want to

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[Colin Cowherd]

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