← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
NBA Trade Market Check-In With Bobby Marks, Plus NFL Divisional Round Preview and Picks With Ted Nguyen
02:02:05
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- [00:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Foreign Today's podcast is loaded. We've got NBA, we've got NFL. We start with Bobby Marks taking a look at the NBA names that are part of the NBA trade market. Can I interest you in some deal? Perhaps some Butler, maybe a little Zion, even a little Levine? And then we're going to talk with Ted Wynn from the Athletic who is just great on the film breakdown stuff. Enjoyed reading his stuff all long. So he's going to help us look for some things in the divisional round for this weekend that he's going to pick all the games. We got life advice. This episode of the Ryan Rosilla podcast is presented by State Farm. Bring home a win with an affordable price when you bundle home and auto with the personal price plan. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by Pepcid Complete. All right, let's talk game day essentials. How do I spend game day? Well, we already know that. Get out of the house, get the blood flowing, try to get some activities going. But man, I had some wings the other night. My brother ordered them table wings. It was awesome. And it was also a little reminder you're getting a little bit older. But there's one guest that isn't welcome on game day and that's heartburn. Because I remember thinking it was made up. I was like, who gets it? What is it? Do you get dumped and you get it? Nope, you just start to get it. Man, I don't know what to tell you. And if you can't fix it, you're in for a tough time, tough afternoon, maybe even into the night. Thankfully, Pepcid Complete starts to work instantly and lasts all day. Just one great tasting chewable tablet provides dual action heartburn relief with an antacid that starts working instantly and an acid reducer that lasts all day. So I can stay focused on the game. Visit pepcid.com to shop now all day based on 8 hour symptom relief studies during the day, use product only as directed. Joining us to talk about the NBA as we're about the halfway mark almost game 40 for a lot of teams, it's Bobby Marks, former front office executive and one of my favorite NBA guests. Okay, let's, let's look at it this way. Let's look at all these Headline things. Let's talk it out. All the different stuff. I have talked about Jimmy Butler. Not a ton on the pod, but like, I felt like it was. It's exciting. It's the big name. It's the next domino to fall with the, with the drama. I mean, we're used to having these things happen. So this is exciting. So he gets suspended. He's eligible to come back tomorrow. We know that there's a massive player option north of 50 million this summer. We could talk about the egos involved in that. Jimmy's a stubborn guy and that Pat is somebody who's a pretty accomplished dude who's not going to be pushed around a little bit. I guess I've just never quite wondered why the Heat would still want to be in the Jimmy Butler business. You don't want to sign him to a long term deal. He's 35. He was always a pain in the ass there, but he was your pain in the ass. And when you were winning, it was worth it. Now it's not worth it. I don't really think the market for him would be all that great in looking at previous deals, because I think sometimes you'd be like, well, how many picks? Or whatever. It's like, I don't know, it might be like one okay pick and one other pick that doesn't really mean anything. And then I wonder, as I promise I'll get to you here.
- [03:26]
Bobby Marks
Yeah.
- [03:27]
Ryan Rosillo
But then I wonder, like, will we have a James Harden thing where Jimmy doesn't get traded before the deadline rides it out? And then it's like, actually the best way for me to sort of protect my money is to opt in for the $52 million player option this summer. And then they're stuck with me all over again. Because James did that strategically, not because he wanted freedom, because he knew he'd be able to kind of control where he could go and then what his next contract would be? So I just don't. I think this is an asset that's a far more diminished asset than the actual attention it's getting. But it's getting the attention because it's the Heat, because it's Butler. And we don't really have anything else other than Beal, which we'll get to.
- [04:03]
Bobby Marks
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think there's a lot of different ways to go at this. I think. I think you could. I could. I think you could say, listen, Miami missed the, the window to trade them. They knew there was going to be smoke. Right. As soon as they didn't Sign him to this extension that he was, that he's still eligible to for 113. You knew eventually during the season here there was going to be some type of blow up, right? You just didn't know when it was going to be. And then it happens, you know, sometime in, in late, late December. So you could say like, well, they should have just traded him this summer, right? Like that would have probably been made the most sense from, from a, from a clean standpoint. And you're not dealing with this. They elected not to do it from, from a common sense perspective. And I know there's probably, we're probably throwing common sense out the window a little bit here. The best thing for him to do is when the extension is lifted for him to report and play Friday night against Denver and Saturday, Sunday against San Antonio and play like a, an all NBA type level player. Like that's the best approach for Jimmy Butler and that's the best approach for Miami and then continually see if there's a deal by February 6 and if not opt into your contract and let's see if we can. Well, let's find you a home during the summer. Right? Like that is like the logical thing that to happen here. And I've been told multiple times certainly by people close to his camp like that was going to happen and then the wheels fell off the track. You know, the train went off the track a couple of weeks ago when with those two games and everything and he gets suspended here. And I think that's going to be the unknown. What happens with that Denver game. He's going to be standing in a corner again. He's going to be passive aggressive. Like there's a lot to go into that. Um, I, I think at the end of the day for Miami, they're not, you know, you know this. They're not trading them for Bradley Beal, right? They're not like that's, they're not going to go out there and appease Jimmy Butler because Phoenix is the number one choice for Jimmy Butler, but they're not taking back Bradley Beal and $110 million and you know, what other deals are out there to, you know, to, to, to make and I think, I know, you know, things were being floating around that Jimmy Butler wouldn't want to play in Milwaukee or Memphis and you know, teams like that, if I'm a team like Memphis and I'm trading some expirings and maybe you know, Marcus Smart or even Brandon Clark and I get to give a first round pick just hypothetical I might take a swing for that for. For the next four months with Jimmy Butler on my team, because here's the reality. Who's going to sign him in free agency? That's. That's the hundred million dollar question. I don't see anyone lined up to sign in with cap space. I. I don't see Brooklyn going out there and signing him, although Brooklyn will have $60 million in cap space and pay him $40 million. The hard part comes with, though. Ryan is, okay, let's say this plays out and he opts in. Like, we're in a different. This is a different CBA than it was back in 2019 when Jimmy was signed and traded from Philly to Miami. And that comp. That was a complicated trade, and that was under the prior CBA here. So there's a. There's a lot of different layers, but at the end of the day, what happens is what eventually happens is controlled by Jimmy Butler. Because the reality is Miami, and I'm just talking for myself, if I was in their front office, he acts out again, I'm suspending him again. Right. Like, I'm just going to continue the cycle here, and that's not good for anybody at all.
- [07:29]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, look, when I've watched Jimmy this year, the advanced stuff is off the charts for him. I think that's really misleading. I. I see a guy that is disinterested. A lot of nights. I've seen entire stretches of a quarter where he doesn't even want to get involved in the action. And it's funny because, like, you could have the advanced stats thrown in your face. It's like, look at his p. Look at the windshield. Look at the efficiency. Look at all this stuff. The guy takes a million free throws because people go for the up fake and he gets the call. I. I think the free throw stuff for him is saving his statistical profile in a way that you don't really pick up unless you watch them enough. And it's not to say, like, he's washed. I'm not. I'm not saying that. I think the Memphis thing is probably the only one that I've heard that actually makes basketball sense because it raises your ceiling. Like, this is another really interesting thing. Like, when you look at the west this summer and you're like, look at all of that depth. And it was. The depth was kind of based on, like, fear of, like, imagine having to go up against them in the Western Conference finals and everything. Other than okc, I don't really think there's anyone to Be afraid of. Like, it's not that there's not depth, but the rating. Like, if there were tier one depth. Yeah, it's like a bunch of tier two to tier three depth and maybe Dallas. Cause, man, when they have those guys, we know what they did last year, and they know kind of exactly who they are. And I like their. I like their rotation options even better than last year's finals team. I don't know if Denver's going to be good enough to, like, be at that OKC level. Certainly not Minnesota. I really love watching Houston, but there's certain nights with them that I don't always love. So, like, the Memphis part, the Memphis part from a basketball, like, hey, let's just. Let's just get this guy in here as a motherfucker and see what happens. That one kind of makes a lot of sense if. If he's. But I don't. Like, is this one of those deals where he's more motivated, if he's hearing the right things financially ahead of time about what his options are this summer.
- [09:19]
Bobby Marks
That'S the biggest thing, right? Like, because all this is financially driven. I know Jimmy Butler can come out and say, well, they're not using me, right? And I'm not part of the offense. Well, I watched the game a month ago in Detroit where he won. He put up 31, and he was part of the offense. So I think that's a little bit of a cop out here. And I do think it's. I think this is primarily financially driven here, but this has been sitting here since July when Pat Riley came out and basically said we were not. We were not extending Jimmy Butler. So, as you said, I think the Memphis thing makes the most sense. I. Who knows if that ever, you know, if there was ever any life to that. Listen, when the list of. The list of teams that had come out back in. Back in December, you know, whether it be Houston and Golden State and Dallas and Phoenix, the only clean team out of that was Houston. Right. I mean, you know, like, from a financial standpoint, draft picks, young players, and Houston's probably saying, wait a minute, let's. We're. We're the number two seed in the West. Let's go. Let's go to the playoffs and see what we got. Let's get Jalen Green in a playoff series and Sanguine and Thompson and Easton and that crew, and then we'll figure out what, you know, what's going to happen in the off season here. Similar. I know OKC went out and got Hayward Last year and he was a non factor in the playoffs. But Oklahoma City was like a science experiment, right? All right, what works against Dallas, what didn't work against Dallas? What do we need to address? We got to get rebound in Hartenstein, we got to get another defender in Caruso. Like that's the approach for, for, for me, for, for Houston as far as how I see that.
- [10:57]
Ryan Rosillo
I, I also think OKC didn't like the mechage fit and went, hey, let's get off of this money too on the Gordon deal on top of everything else. So I think there was like another layer of that was like, oh, look, they're doing something that may not work out, but there's also potentially another smart reason why they're doing it because they probably expected a little bit more out of him when they finally brought him over and given him an extent. Well, not an extension, but like a multi year deal. All right, maybe I, maybe we make this the Golden State part and then we'll get the Beal after this because I totally get it. Like you need to figure out with Steph at this age and still playing this well and you know, I think this becomes kind of the noise on, on social media of like they weren't a 12 and 3 team. They're not a very good basketball team right now. And there's some shooting numbers where you're like, everybody was making shots, they were playing absurd level defense. But now to watch Steph out there with a massive drop off to who the number two scoring option is. And you know, some nights Wiggins has it, Kaminga's had a couple moments, but we, you watch them in all their clutch games, I think they played 24, they lost to Toronto the other night. And you watch what Steph is dealing with. Like, Steph is not the problem with this basketball team right now. I can't believe anybody could ever come to that conclusion. But you're like, okay, well how do we, how do we help him when the options are the, the Beals of the world. Not to say that they have a match for Beal or the Butlers of the world. That's even though, like you would hate being in the front office and telling Lake up in ownership that hey, we're going to wait for the thing that I can't tell you is going to present itself, but I'm promising you waiting for the unknown is still better than trading for the known. And that's where the Butler stuff doesn't. Because I still don't really think it changes who they are. And if you're waiting for this magical trade to change who the warriors are and become a title contender, like, you're probably waiting forever. But some of these quick fix, like because somebody's a name a Levine or these types of like acquisitions where you're like, well, you made the team better and now there's a better number two scoring option. Those are the things I would have a hard time saying yes to if you're in the position of running a front office.
- [13:00]
Bobby Marks
Well, even like Nicole Vucevic, right? Like, you know, do you want to.
- [13:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Give up nice stats?
- [13:04]
Bobby Marks
Yeah. You want to give up first. And then instead of having five first this summer, you've got, you know, three or four, you know, like it diminishes. I thought what Steph Curry said after that Toronto game was one of the most fascinating things I have heard an NBA player say. And if I was Mike Dunleavy Jr. I would be thinking, thank God he said it, right? Like as far as, hey, like we're not going to do a quick fix. We're going to. We're. You know, sometimes you got to be smart about these things and knee jerk reaction and stuff like that. I think the reality, Ryan, with, with Golden State, it's a guy, it's like a guy playing cards, right? You know, you got a stack of chips at the table and eventually you just see the chips go down and down and then you just figure out, you know what I'm, I just need to walk away, right? I need to pick up my chips and walk away. And I don't see there a big swing out there. And I think it might disappoint the fan base in Golden State. And I'm just looking at their numbers where they are. They're $6 million over to luxury tax. It's going to disappoint the fan base where maybe their only move might be to get under luxury tax like that. That might be a realistic, you know, situation here where you're looking at, you know, moving Gary Payton or, or Looney or something like that. Guys are making 8, $9 million attach a second pay the rest of their salary. Do something like that, the more common sense thing to do then basically say, hey, Wiggins, Kaminga expirings, let's go get Zach Levine and a fir, you know, and like in it, you know, because eventually, and I don't know when it will be, there'll be something better come July. Usually it happens that way. Somebody gets multiple teams get knocked out, guys get mad, players want to be traded Somebody knocked out of the first round or doesn't make the plan will become available. I don't know. Maybe Zion becomes available. I know we wanted to talk about that. Like, I. I said it on NBA today, Like, that's a guy like, listen, low risk, right? Like, as far as if you don't have to give up as much because you can kind of see where his upside here is. But I do think, I think from the, from the Golden State perspective, I think the reality is set in, right, like, this is kind of who they are. When Buddy Healed is your X factor and you need Buddy Heal to be like, you know, top five three point shooter in the NBA. That's. That's a lot, right? That's a lot to ask for.
- [15:24]
Ryan Rosillo
I just don't know how the warriors got this lucky to have somebody be this smart as the face of the franchise. I mean, he's the greatest teammate of his generation and that he would do the opposite of what so many other stars would be doing, Especially as their window closes, where it's like, hey, just do something because I'm a star and you owe this to me. Even though it doesn't make basketball sense. I just want to be super impatient. I want to put public pressure on you. I want to do all this stuff. It's passive aggressive because I. I deserve to and I get to. And in Steph instead, Steph just goes the other way. Like the logical basketball way of like, sure, yeah, we could do like something stupid. Which is not what he's saying, but he's essentially saying that. All right, so do you think Giannis was saying something when he was talking about the records against the top team?
- [16:17]
Bobby Marks
You know, it's funny, I had a.
- [16:19]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know the answer, by the way.
- [16:20]
Ted Wynn
I don't know either.
- [16:21]
Bobby Marks
I mean, a lot of this stuff is pretty cryptic. I had an art. I wrote an article. And you'll appreciate this. I had a Milwaukee article written, like, on the doom and gloom of Milwaukee and how they were, you know, like, this is back in, I don't know, November, maybe late November. And this is when things were bad. I think 2 and 8 bad somewhere around there. And they went on this winning streak. They won like six in a row. And then it got, you know, it got scrapped, right? It just got cut. And like, we're not gonna. But listen, what Milwaukee is, is that John Horst has made 28 trades since he took over as GM. He is one of the most creative GMs out there. Eventually, like the ATM. The ATM machine is dry, man. Like, it ain't spending that money anymore here. And you've, you know, you got a 2031 first that you. You got one second. And you can't aggregate contracts. You got Portis Middleton and, you know, Portis Middleton, Conant and Lopez. Those are your kind of your trade pieces here. And it's like, you know, you're, you know, relying on Damon Giannis, and I know some of the younger players have played well for you, but they have not been good against, you know, they beat OKC in the NBA cup game, but they have not been good against, you know, the top of the Eastern Conference. And that's who you're going to have to get through here.
- [17:36]
Ryan Rosillo
Because I think people feel like the Dame acquisition was. Was based on Giannis. Like, the Giannis smoke stuff has been really weird for, like, a long time. And then Bucks fans are just sense. And I don't really blame them. I mean, like, how come you guys always keep, like, hinting at all these different things and then it doesn't really happen? Then he signs the extension.
- [17:56]
Bobby Marks
It's crazy. It's funny. Like, you'll appreciate this. Like, I had to go on NBA Today. This was a couple weeks go and show, like, creative trades and basically how, like, Milwaukee could aggregate contracts with. Without, you know, like, without. With getting under the second apron. And we. We threw up like, a fictitious Jimmy Butler trade, right? Like, Middleton and Portis were going to Miami and Conanton was going to Detroit, this convoluted thing. And Bucks fans were like, oh, my God, this is happening. And I was like, wait a minute. Like, fictional, right? Like, it's not real and stuff like that. And even, like, if it was real, I don't think Milwaukee would do something like that. I just don't. Like, that's like. That's basically having like, one swing left, and you're basically going to use it on Jimmy Butler.
- [18:40]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it's a scary proposition. All right, so how much? There's still more to do. Don't worry, folks, because we haven't really done the Beal Levine thing, and maybe Milwaukee works and all of that, too. But whether it's a Butler deal, I mean, Beal has the no trade, so that's. That's more like outright public control, right? Like, hey, this is what I want to do. This is what I don't want to do. But with somebody like Butler, where you're on the front office side and you're trying to figure out, like, you're talking to his reps going how, like, how's this going to go if we trade for your guy? And then they say, well, you know, how invested are you, perhaps long term in our guy? How do those conversations work that we know aren't necessarily supposed to happen, but it's the way business is done. So they have to happen for everybody to feel like they know what they're walking into.
- [19:33]
Bobby Marks
I think, I think the smart thing, and I don't. I believe this has not happened just because I dealt with this with Carmelo back in, way back in 2010, Denver allowed permission for teams to talk to Butler and his reps. I mean, Anthony. Yeah, Anthony and his reps. So I think if I was Miami and we. You get to a point and there are teams that are, you know, that they're interested and you. There's could be a framework of something. I think that's something that the Heat should do. They probably won't as far as say, like, hey, Memphis, we're going to give you 24 hours. You can meet with Jimmy Butler and his agent Bernie Lee and figure out, like, if this makes sense and go from there. But I think if I'm in, if I'm in a front office, I think my big question is, what's the number next year? Like, what do you. What are we looking for? You've got a $52 million player option. We're not going up from that number, right? Like, you wanna, you wanna start at 40 and go from there. Or maybe we decline and we get creative and we do Chris Paul type contract, Remember Chris signed that four for 120 and the first two years were guaranteed and there was a partial there. And you want to do something like that, give you some light length, we'd be interested in that. But the idea that. And, and maybe, you know, certainly if he was traded to Phoenix, maybe that's a, you know, you know, that's. They're going to basically reward him with whatever they want. The idea of giving Jimmy Butler a two year because he, if he's traded, they can extend. You can extend him for 2, 4, 1, 11. That number at 36, 37. Like the reality. Probably the. Ryan, it won't end bad because, like that will be the last contract. So, like, it's not like he's waiting for another one. It's not like this is Miami or Minnesota or Philly or Chicago or the other places here. But I think that's the, the conversation with me is kind of, what's the number? Right? Like, what's the number? Are you willing to. And are and is he going to be happy with that number? Like, that's the MO that's the most.
- [21:33]
Ryan Rosillo
Important thing right now outside of that official current team allowing that, say 24 or 48 hour window. I mean, imagine like the tires are kicked though, in hypotheticals.
- [21:48]
Bobby Marks
Oh, sure. They're.
- [21:49]
Ryan Rosillo
You're. So the agent knows. The agent knows. Before that granted access of where your head is at financially.
- [21:57]
Bobby Marks
The pigeon. The pigeons are flying above with the notes right there. They're kind of dropping the notes. As far as. With that. Yeah, you have a, you have a sense. But I think it would be what I would want. I would want to talk to the player that, you know, it's one thing, you know, kind of back channel with the agent. I would want to talk with the player. Yeah, that, that would be important to me. I would want my coach and I would want my, my general manager to talk to the player.
- [22:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Do you have moments where you hear everything you want to hear, but you know, it's all, oh, you can read through guys.
- [22:26]
Bobby Marks
Come on, man. You could read through guy. I think the other thing too is like it always says, like, what are we giving up? Right? Like, what are we giving up? Like, as far as. Are these core guys, are these expirings, these guys that are hurt, not part of the rotation, Is it worth it? I think that goes into it too. But yeah, that's why, as I said, I would want, you know, I'd want my coach, I would want to. I would want to meet with the player. You know, even if it's over Zoom.
- [22:52]
Ryan Rosillo
I still think the Memphis one makes basketball sense. I don't know what pieces would be going out.
- [22:57]
Bobby Marks
Yeah, well, listen, it's easy. It's basically, you would have to trade Marcus Smart, Brandon Clark.
- [23:04]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm not talking about the money. I'm Talking about the 1. Give me the one thing that, you know, everybody can look at Houston and say, well, yeah, but you're not getting Tar east and you're not getting any of those guys. Like, is there a player? Wells has been so good for them as a rookie. By the way, Memphis is front office. The stuff that they do, finding these guys like they are, they are in the conversation with just doing like, if you want to go, like, who do you trust? Like late in the first in the, in the draft where you're like, they have just a nice track record. I, first of all, I just wanted to mention.
- [23:37]
Bobby Marks
As bad as it was last year in Memphis, they basically use this as an audition in a developmental year for all These guys. And this is kind of what you're getting right now. I mean, that's, that's what happened.
- [23:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, it's kind of like how I feel about Orlando a little bit. Like, it sucks that Paolo and Franz went out, but I think there's going to be a reward for those minutes for a lot of the guys in the Magic that were pushed into a spot to keep it going, keep the seat warm, and then they're going to get their dudes back. But I guess there's just a moment of me with Memphis where some of these draft picks are a little bit more off the radar, and then you're like, hey, that guy can play like Sante Aldaman. That guy can play like, check it out. But what I'm, what I'm saying, not on the money matching part of it is that if you're Miami, there has to be some, there has to be some kind of asset. Like, that's a weird. It's always a weird player. Like, hey, we kind of like that guy.
- [24:22]
Bobby Marks
Like, like, if you're trading, if we're talking like baseball, right? Like, who's that AAA guy, that third baseman in the system that we can, like, we could trade for and then we can, you know, he's going to be our guy moving forward. Listen, I love Jake Laravi. I know that's not the household name and everything like that. And I like Sante Aldama, what he's been able to do. Laravia's problem is that Memphis declined his fourth year option. So whoever trades for him is limited as far as what they can pay him in free agency. It's like, in that four to five million dollars range. So that would be a guy that I would really want, but I don't know. I think you're going to probably get outbid in, in free agency worth. I think it would be Aldama just based on as far as what he's been able to do this year in, in Memphis, as far as kind of who that blue chip guy is.
- [25:10]
Ryan Rosillo
See, that's exactly what I was talking about is that, you know, unless it's, unless it's the second first, right? There would probably have to be some pick. And because it's Memphis, you know, whatever, it's not like Miami's clearly one of the smarter organizations, so they're not going to be like, oh, cool, we get this first in 31. This is, this is, this is awesome. Like, well, what does it turn into? If you're in need of a Midweek Boost, FanDuel America's number one sportsbook as you covered with the NBA Hump day parlay profit boost. Now every Wednesday you can get a parlay profit boost on everything from spreads to over unders and even player props. Okay, three games that I'm looking at here that I will share with you right now. Looking at fandom sportsbook. Okay, a couple different theories behind these things as well. There's a bit of a Celtics what's going on with you guys? Malaise and the Raptors coming off a nice win against Golden State. So it's a bit of a zag on the Celtics not playing as well. Raptors being excited. I just think when you actually look at some of these teams that are about to go full, we don't give a bleep anymore. The number really can't be big enough. So there's two teams with that, Brooklyn and Toronto. So I would. I don't like giving out this many points, but it is Boston minus 15. Try to get right in Toronto, Brooklyn in LA. I would say Clippers minus 14 on that one. And then if you want something with some points, Charlotte is actually favored. So the guys paying attention to this, as you'd imagine the people that do this professionally, Utah's actually been a tick more competitive since they're probably season low. Moment of 4 and I don't know, 5 and 20. Charlotte, you probably forgot this, but they started 6 and 9. They are 2 and 18 since that's not very good. But they've actually been kind of competitive whether it's the Phoenix win, the Phoenix rematch, the Cleveland game, they were in that one. They were in the Detroit game. Chicago's lost to overtime there. So I actually think Charlotte's been playing a little bit better basketball here lately. So why don't we just go. Didn't want to do this, but it's three favorites. So the Hornets minus five in Salt Lake against a resurgent Jazz squad, if that makes any sense. Because it probably doesn't because they're both not very good teams. But you get the point. So don't let the weekend have all the fun. Take advantage of the hump day parlays reward stack. Who knows, it might just become your favorite day. Look for the hump day parlay in the FanDuel app to find your profit boost or visit FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N that's FanDuel.com Ryan R y E N Make every moment more with FanDuel. An official sportsbook partner of the NBA must be 21 on older and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C. opted required bonus issued is non withdrawable Profit boost tokens Restrictions apply including any token expiration. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem call 1-800-gambler visit rg-help.com all right, let's, let's bring it back around to Beal. He is an interesting player. I think it's just always disappointing is probably the nicest way I could put it. I don't even have to use the playoff game last year where he was terrible. But for whatever his skill set is in his athleticism and the numbers in Washington, I just think it's a, it's a guy that it's always going, the experience is always going to leave you with how come this isn't better. And that's basically been his career and his availability has, has been a question for years and years here. So the fact you've got the no trade part of this. What is the market for him?
- [29:08]
Bobby Marks
Well, listen, I talked to a couple teams about it and the biggest hindrance is not a five and a seven in the last year is that that no trade comes with it. And, and listen Mark Bartlestein is his agent went on the record with, with Wendy and said like we're not, we're not removing that from the contract you trade for him. It's coming with them. Right. Like that's, that's, that, that's a hindrance that teams mentioned to me. Like that's that for some teams that's like a non starter as far as. Because what happens, you know, a year from now and we want to maybe flip them again. We're basically going through this same process here, man. He's owed $110 million after this year. 53 and 57. I wish the game and when they play when he came off the bench in Philly that I wish that was more that we saw that we've seen. I mean you watched the during they were in Atlanta the other last night, I think not good.
- [30:07]
Ryan Rosillo
No, the Atlanta game last night. I mean look collectively those guys look bad. When the Charlotte loss. I know they split with them in that stretch over a week, but when they lost to them, the weirdest part, it was like Charlotte actually looked like the better basketball team.
- [30:21]
Bobby Marks
4. Yeah, even, even the game they won in Phoenix. I mean Charlotte had them on the ropes going into the fourth. You know, like that wasn't a layup there the market for him. Listen, there's, I always say like every Player is tradable, right? But man, he is as close. Pretty close to, you know, basically just because of how high that number in this. In the. In the. The where we are with all these rules, the inability for Phoenix to trade multiple draft picks to attach with them. They only have a 20, 31. They've got a couple seconds here. You know, people say, well, Detroit would take them. Like, I don't think so, man. Charlotte would take them. Like, you're not taking 57 million or 53 million unless you're getting a lot back. Like, you know, that. That just doesn't. That just doesn't make sense here. So it's. It's a fascinating situation because it's not going to get much better in Phoenix next year. Like, we might be doing this podcast a year from now, and you'd be like, what's going on with Suns? I'd be like, groundhog Day, right? Their guys are going to be older. They're still going to have one first round pick to trade. They're still going to be in the second apron. They're still going to pay a record high, maybe $500 million in luxury tax and penalty, and they're going to have hard decisions to make as far as if they have to pivot off this. And if you pivot off it, whether it be Durant, let's say, the likelihood is that Beal is still going to be on your roster, right? Like, that's just the reality of it here. And that's something they needed to accept when they traded from him for him in Washington here. So the market for him is not great. You may, you know, listen, would. Would Milwaukee trade for him? And if you. Basically, the package I just mentioned and stuff, man, that's a big number. It's like you'd almost rather just have some flexibility this offseason and try to, you know, add through free agency.
- [32:18]
Ryan Rosillo
You know, going back to when it happened. You know, the argument for it is you just got Bradley Beal for free, right? You got Bradley Beal for free. And considering what your financial restrictions are going to be, especially as we moved into a new economic landscape, which is changing a lot of what's even possible. Because, like, I even think about the Butler stuff, where you go, well, normally the guy's just going to get his way, right? He's going to get his way. He's going to find a way to get out. There'll be some team that does like a two plus one for, like, he'll probably figure it out and get paid because Even at that age, it's kind of what the history has told us. And now I think that we're going to start realizing, I mean, the players are going to start realizing, like, there's just not enough places to even compete for your services. Like, sometimes I even look at the Harden deal with the Clippers and it's worked for him. They needed him, they needed his usage. They, you know, he's going to put up numbers. We were like, man, that's a big number for somebody that I wonder, like how much competition there was for. So maybe that's a sign of history not shifting the way maybe I'm expecting it to, maybe it happens with Butler, whatever. But when I think about the Beal part of it, because it's super easy to be like, what is wrong with you guys? You should have never, ever done it. But like, the asset math is, is hard for a team to ignore. I mean, like, we're literally getting Bradley Beal for free except for what you have to pay him. The problem is, is it. It needed to work out in a basketball sense. You needed him to be excited about it and he's just not that guy. He just, he just. I don't even know who would debate the other side of this. And I think the scary thing for Phoenix is, all right, you want to, you want to bring him off the bench. Like, you want to maybe make it a little uncomfortable for him to become a little bit more open to waiving the no trade clause to a couple different teams. This is a dude that sat around on the Wizards bench that was more than happy getting his 30 points, losing every night. And then he had nights where he would like be just sitting by himself, kind of shaking his head, kind of feeling like he was the entire experience and yet waiting to get his five year extension. So, like, I don't think that Beal can be shamed. Would be like, he's already shown us when he was with the Wizards, like, hey, you think me coming off the bench in Phoenix is bad? Like, I'll do this. Like, don't, don't worry about me. Like, I'm not, I'm not going to do anything that you guys. The basketball part of it needed to be what we think the best version of him can be and it just isn't.
- [34:36]
Bobby Marks
Well, yeah, I mean, listen, you think he really wants to pick up in the middle of February and move somewhere else with his wife and kids? Come on, man. Like, that ain't easy either. I mean, he made. Listen, he. I give Mark Bartlestein his agent, a ton of credit because he put that no trade clause in there when nobody else had it. And he had the right to. You should have heard the phone calls, Ryan, when that happened, because we had put it out. And I remember being in summer league that year and I had teams coming up to me, like, angry, like, angry with me. I'm like, I. Like I didn't do any. Like, I didn't negotiate, like, their anger with me because I put it out. Like, you're killing me. Like, now I gotta deal with like this, you know, with this agent and that guy. And I'm like, so what do you want me to do about it? And stuff. And listen, it's, you know, the eight years in the NBA, four with the team. It's open, it's available to everyone. Right? You can go out there and negotiate it. And listen, there's. I was talking with Jeff Passon about this because about MLB guys, and there's 44 MLB guys that have it. Like, you know, there's. There's two in the NBA, LeBron and Bradley Beal. And we're probably not going to see another one unless it's Victor down the road or something like that here. And you can't. The reason why they're, they're. They're so rare, Ryan, is that you can't. You can't include them in extensions. They basically have to be a free agent type contract. And how many guys actually hit free agency now?
- [35:57]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I wonder if we'll see a shift to that, though. Where it started, it started going from, I mean, however far back in the timeline you want to go. You wait until you're a free agent. Everybody's stockpiling all of their cap space. This is going to be really exciting. And then the players are just like, what's the point? Just take the extension and ask for the trade later. And then it was like, I'll ask for the trade for a year out. No, I'll ask for a trade like halfway with a year and a half out. And then we had guys going, I don't give a. That the extension hasn't even kicked in yet. I want out. Which I think is part of the restrictive language for the trades in the cba. It's not just the penalties. It's not just trying to find a way of curbing spending at the very top. You now get to go to your star player and say, I know you're mad and I know you want to go there, and I can't legally do it, so I think all that stuff is. And I know you already understand all this. I'm explaining it to the CBA guy. Like, you don't let's. I still think we didn't. We didn't do enough on Zion. What do you do if you're David Griffin?
- [36:50]
Bobby Marks
Oh, man. Well, we met Tim. Tim McMahon and I wrote this article back in end of December. And really the, the theme was trying to figure out, like, kind of what his value is. He's like the mystery man, the hardest guy to figure out right, in the NBA as far as what his value is. I was shockingly surprised that his value was higher than it was when we just talked. We both of us talked to a ton of teams that it was. There was value there, right? Like, but, man, is he an enigma. And it ain't even on the court. It's like you're out rehabbing. You come back and now like.
- [37:25]
Ryan Rosillo
And I know two months. And I know by the way, he looked good. He looked good physically, like the first game. He came back because I was so.
- [37:31]
Bobby Marks
Excited we wrote about it because, you know, he's got these weight clauses in there in this contract, right? Like, he's gonna hit the weight clauses. Like, like, that's. He looks great. He looks physical, man. He's doing windmill 360s. And, you know, he looked great against. Who'd they play last night? Chicago. And you know, like, listen, he looked great, but damn it, can you just get to the plane on time, right? Can you get the practice on time? Can you do all these, these things that they're asking you to be? You know, you're. You're the face of the franchise and you've played, I don't know, 30% of regular season games. And we're paying $38 million here. So if you're, if you are, if you're, if you're Griff in New Orleans, you're. You're trying to maximize as much value on him on the court. But then there's still the risk of him, man, a hamstring a calf or something like that. But as I said, like, you know, you know, teams, teams have called this contract one of the great ones in the NBA because it's like an NFL type contract, right? It's kind of got like rolling protections, right? Like if you play a certain amount of games or you hit the weight clauses, certain parts get. Guarantee in the next three years aren't guaranteed. So I would probably wait, wait it out this year. Hopefully he stays healthy for the last, whatever, 40 games and then Kind of reevaluate kind of where, where you are and maybe look for trade shooters. I think it'll be interesting. What, how you know Ingram, right? Like, we haven't heard about him at all, man. He's been hurt with the ankle and stuff like that. What happens? What's the market for, for Brandon Ingram? What's the value for Brandon Ingram right now? Is it expirings and, you know, a future first down the road? I, I, I don't know. And I think that's going to be another one to kind of watch in the next few weeks.
- [39:17]
Ryan Rosillo
I was praising Zach Kleiman in Memphis without saying his name, was just talking about the group in Memphis. But he deserves a shout out. I feel bad for the Pelicans front office because I think they have done one of the best jobs of, like, roster creation. I don't love the Dejante trade as much, but I understood them feeling like they had to be different. And, you know, it's real easy to be like, oh, you should have traded Zion. But he finally, you finally got the season from him prior to him getting hurt in the playoff. The playing game which, you know, derails everything finally kind of working out and coming together because of his help. I am not surprised, though, when you and Tim did the piece that there's more value for a Zion market, because that, that, that actually doesn't surprise me. Like, his one stop, hey, get him.
- [40:05]
Ted Wynn
Out of New Orleans.
- [40:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, we'll bring him in with our guys. Like, we're going to do this thing. Like, was it, I don't know if it was shams or somebody had reported, like, it wasn't that it was going to happen, but you could just wave Zion. And I was like, actually, still, that's, that was, that to me was ridiculous because you're like, that's not the way it works. Yeah.
- [40:22]
Bobby Marks
The only time I would see a team waving Zion would be like, the fifth.
- [40:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [40:26]
Bobby Marks
If they get him or, you know, you get to the fifth year and like, this thing has not worked at all. This is like, but that's fine.
- [40:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [40:32]
Bobby Marks
Then we're just going to release it. They, they ain't waving a man like, that ain't that, that, that ain't happen at all. Like, I, we. I talked to one team and I said, like, give me a number one to ten. What do you think is values? I was waiting for like a three or four. They said, it's seven, five. I was like, holy God. And then when we did more research.
- [40:47]
Ryan Rosillo
On this, that seems A little high.
- [40:49]
Bobby Marks
Yeah, I was like, oh goodness. I was like a six. And then when you.
- [40:54]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I just think like the idea that it was a zero or something, it's just like this is not the way this league works because the new team, like, imagine if the Knicks weren't the Knicks again, another incredible roster turnover in a very short amount of time. But if the Knicks had been the stale Knicks, you don't think that there's. And maybe this is. Is not a great point because it's like, well, the Knicks are good now, so when they were bad, they would have gone designed. The point that I'm making is that for any stale franchise to be able to introduce this dude to come and run around in your uniform for a little bit. Like, I always think there's value for the next stop for the disastrous start. And it's starting to feel though, like the page needs to be turned on it, but you'd be turning the page on leading up to the trade deadline in a few weeks at his lowest possible value. And we also realize that like market value is a real, like things can change in a very quick amount of time. But it, it just, it seems like an anchor to this franchise. And look, Ingram hasn't been healthy. They've had all sorts of health issues while meanwhile, while they keep Dr. Like pretty good players and Eve me's like a real dude, man, they nailed it again.
- [42:06]
Bobby Marks
You know, Jordan Hawkins, you know, when he plays can. Can really fill it up.
- [42:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Trey Murphy like his game against Boston and get putting the ball on the floor. And I'm like, man, I almost wish they would just like tank, get rid of all the old guys, try to add picks, see if they get one of the two or three guys in the and just do it all over again. Because this Zion thing, you can't ask everyone, everyone involved with the franchise to rely on him and wait for it to work. But then at the same time I'd have a hard time being like I'm trading him at his absolute worst because if he puts together a good month, then people are going to start falling for it again. But it's. It's really frustrating. Okay, who would you rather. Who would you rather trade for then if you were Milwaukee, if you're horse and you're running the Bucks and everything's equal. Right? So it's not about matching all the money here. Would you rather like put them in order? Butler, Beal, Levine, Zion? I mean, Zion doesn't really make a ton of sense basketball wise. So I'm Just.
- [43:04]
Bobby Marks
I don't know, man. I've. I've kind of like grew more on Zach Levine lately. I really have. I don't know why. It's funny, like, you know, the power of social media, right? Like I had said, I put out the game, the San Antonio game. It was like his fifth 30 point game, and I put out his last five. And like some lady who must be collecting all my tweets says, well, you're the guy who said you should just trade him the last summer for and include all the draft picks for. I was like, well, I didn't listen. The guy hasn't played, you know, like, he's been hurt. Like he wasn't very good defensively. He's not very good. I would be. Man, I would be more inclined with Levine. I would like, like Butler. That teases me a little bit here, but here's the thing. I'm going to. Here's the thing. And I was talking to a team about it. They said to me, everybody says, like, playoff Jimmy. When, when, when, when have we gotten playoff Jimmy? Think about it.
- [44:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, no, I do think about it.
- [44:03]
Bobby Marks
When was the last time we got playoff Jimmy? 2000, first round, 20, 23 playoffs, when they beat Milwaukee.
- [44:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, we got it. We got it in the first couple games against Boston. Yes. But you can see that there is a steep decline and he was really bad against Denver. So I know exactly what you're talking about here. But we can't just. Those first couple games against Boston, he was. I mean, it's off the charts what he did against Milwaukee, but he was. There was a toughness thing there too, where Boston was really unsure of themselves and Jimmy was kind of almost like laughing at the dudes being like, you're just not wired the way I am. But to your front office guy's point, like, there's, there's no lie in there. It. It wasn't in the finals.
- [44:49]
Bobby Marks
So I would probably go. I would go Levine, Butler, Beal. I'm still scared of that Beal contract, man. I would like for 70 was in there. I would take him one. Like, I would. I would take a flyer. Like, listen, if I were the Nets, like, I would say, and I don't think New Orleans would do this. I would say, like, here, here's Simmons, and I'll give you a first and a least favorable first in another year. And. And I'm going to take a flyer on Zion Williamson because at the reality, like, we can keep on talking about Brooklyn having 60 million in cap space and who they're going to like, who are you going to? Who's out there this summer? Not much unless it comes in a. In a trade. And I would rather take a, you know. You know, throw up a, you know, a three, a three pointer from deep and see if it works. And it goes in on. On Zion. But I don't. Listen, I don't think. I don't think the Pelicans would probably do that.
- [45:41]
Ryan Rosillo
All right. Would you do Austin Reeves in a pick for Zion? Oh, I mean, Grant, Are you going to figure out the money?
- [45:50]
Bobby Marks
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reeves, you know, whatever. You know, you make. Figured out the money afterwards. I would. I don't know who's playing point. I don't know who's going to be my shooters.
- [46:04]
Ryan Rosillo
See, the thing is, is I actually think LeBron. Like, one of the good things about getting D'Angelo Russell out of there is it, like, you can't have LeBron play point guard all night. But, like, when I watch the Lakers, I think of the playoff version of him because I know this is going to sound crazy. I like this Lakers roster a little bit, you know, not. I. I think there's a lot of different options, and Reeves being on the ball more makes him better. D'Angelo not being there in those slow possessions where everybody's just waiting to see whatever it is that he wants to do. Because, like, with D'Angelo, it's. Don't. Don't hit me over the head with his shooting numbers. Like, look at these possessions. Like, oh, cool. High pick and roll. You're gonna stall with the basketball. You're gonna lean down. It's like you're doing the limbo, and everybody's sort of, like, waiting, and you're just waiting for, like, the one cut that's an assist. And, you know, having Finney Smith. I know the spurs, like Chris Paul put on just a masterclass of surgery matchups against them, which was nice to see from. From my guy. But when I look at the Lakers, I'm like, all right. I actually like a lot of the pieces here. AD has been terrific. Finney Smith's a good pickup because they needed to change their perimeter defense. It's like, I think I like the possessions with LeBron playing point more than the other ones, but we're not going to see it in. In January and February. Like, is there a version of this that's. That's kind of sneaky, where LeBron paces himself and he. He has something in him to be able to do this for multiple weeks? And then I'LL watch his rotations on defense and I'll go, man, like, are you going to do that in the playoffs too? Because I don't know that they can survive. This sounds crazy, but as great as he is offensively, he. The numbers are still great. In his passing and all those different things, there's he. For the Lakers to be at least taken seriously as maybe an upset alert team in the playoffs in the west, my guess would be he's not going to have the same approach defensively and maybe he plays more point guard and there, maybe there's something like. I'm not talking myself in the Lakers winning the west here. I'm just trying to figure out how viable they are to be like, matched up with some of these other teams.
- [48:11]
Bobby Marks
Yeah, I mean, listen, as you said, like, after okc, it's like, right. I mean, Houston, Memphis, Denver, take your pick. Yeah, it's like you're. They're all.
- [48:21]
Ryan Rosillo
It's not the three teams like last year or four teams, you know, Dallas.
- [48:26]
Bobby Marks
They got to get healthy. Minis kind of. I mean, trying to get out of their own way. Right.
- [48:31]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, I'm really worried about them.
- [48:33]
Bobby Marks
Yeah, it's like, you know, sack Phoenix, like San Antone, you know, like clips. Like clips are a good story, you know, based on everything. Right. Like, defend like crazy.
- [48:46]
Ryan Rosillo
They'll.
- [48:47]
Bobby Marks
They'll be there. Right. They'll probably, maybe crack top six. But after okc, it's kind of. It isn't really a mixed bag.
- [48:54]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, that's what it feels like the first half of this. So I don't know if I just did a good Lakers. Was that a positive segment or a negative one? I think it was. Yes, was positive. Like, here's, I think the other part of the story of just where we're at roster wise and how much talent there is in this league. Like, I was doing the top 100 for the Ringer last night and like, I was looking at different rotations. Portland stinks. And yet you're like, look at all this depth.
- [49:20]
Bobby Marks
How can I get. How can I get Robert Williams, right?
- [49:23]
Ryan Rosillo
Hey, no, but there's just teams where I'm, I'm writing down, going like, this is their fifth or sixth guy and they're not even good. Like, this team isn't. Isn't any good. And there's like, I don't know, three or four guys that I kind of like on this team. It just feels very different from 20 years ago where you were like, that's their third option. Like, this is an NBA team's. Third option. Like this team's doomed and yeah, I just think there's way more talent. But we'll see what happens before the deadline. Anything else? I kept you here quite a bit so I could let you go.
- [49:55]
Bobby Marks
Now listen, we could probably talk the next two hours and stuff, but I listen, I think we all get caught up with the trade deadline. I always keep on reminding people there's only 440 guys in the NBA. All right. And there's, I know 96% of the NBA players can be traded, but the, the landscape of doing deals is, is going to be quite amazing here. I think, I think Oklahoma City is going to be an interesting team to watch. And I, not really from a, not from a player standpoint. I don't, I don't think Sam's in the business of keep on adding. I mean like they've already spent like 300 million this summer. They're going to spend like 800 million. I think Oklahoma City is an interesting team to watch. And I, I, I, I tease this a little bit when I say I call it the bank of Presti. And what the bank of Presti is, is when you're sitting on all these draft picks, Ryan, you can start leveraging the heck out of these teams. So what you saw last year, right, Remember Dallas and like hey, how'd they get a third first round pick? And they're like, well, they just traded a swap rights in 28 to get the, to get their, the Wizards pick and whatever and then they trade and it was a 26 pick in a draft. I think, I think teams like Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, teams that we've talked, we talked a little bit about the draft teams that control the draft. There's, there's like four teams that have like 65 first in the next seven years, which is ridiculous.
- [51:15]
Ryan Rosillo
What's the number for 25? Because I know you just tweeted out.
- [51:18]
Bobby Marks
There'S six teams that have 16 out of 30 first round picks in this year and that includes Atlanta too because they've got a Kings first that's protected. They got a, they got a Lakers first unprotected. Houston's got Phoenix's pick. And I think when you're sitting in a position like Brooklyn and you're in a position like Oklahoma City and you see teams like Milwaukee, Phoenix and Denver and all these teams that have basically have one tradable draft asset out there, how can you leverage it to get more, more picks and everything like that? So I don't like Oklahoma City. Is I don't see them as a team, like a Cam Johnson team. Right. Like, I don't see them going out like, hey, we're going to give you two ones and going to give you Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggin. Like, I don't see that. But I do think there is a way out there where Oklahoma City can kind of start. Even Brooklyn can, can start consolidating some of their picks. Like Brooklyn's got, you know, 7, 18, 20, like a bingo board, 26, 27, right in the draft order and stuff like that. Now how do you take those and try to make it a little bit neater for you?
- [52:30]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I still wonder like if it ends up becoming this moment where you can dictate all these things or if the actual value of the picks is diminished. You know where the first thought when you tweeted that out was like, look at all these teams that are going to be controlling the first round. It's 14 picks for the other 24 teams. But there could be another side of it where the team that wants a picks like, well, I don't have to, to. I don't have to pay your price. I'll just call the other team because you can't. Like Oklahoma City can't keep drafting this many guys, especially as they start making more and more commitments financially here. Unless they were going to get really aggressive and go like the Oakland A's path of this and resign their guy, trade him and then draft a replacement and try to. But you know, when you're flirting with titles, you're flirting from the NBA championships. Nobody wants to be that cute. And I would have a hard time believing that that's what they would actually do. You're the best. Where can we see all your stuff on YouTube and make sure that everybody's caught up?
- [53:27]
Bobby Marks
Yeah. ESPN.com YouTube be putting out videos if you've a little bit of another twist. You know, we have. I put it out on Wednesday, I think sportsbusinessclassroom.com we put out a CBA 101. It's an addition to where basically we took the CBA and we kind of dumbed it down for me and for everyone else out there, where it basically kind of gives you the easy version and how to read. It's a Cliff Notes version. And we've kind of taken all the different terminology and applied it to like real life transactions. And you can kind of go through and figure out how the apron work and extensions work and exceptions and all that. And it's free. Right. You know, all I have to do is just Download it from sportsbusinessclassroom.com and you can find that there too.
- [54:09]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm going to do that tonight. Easy reading my Wednesday. I'm excited. You're the best. Thanks for the time, man. We'll talk soon.
- [54:17]
Bobby Marks
You got buddy. I appreciate it.
- [54:23]
Ryan Rosillo
Let's get ready for some NFL football. Somebody who I've enjoyed having on in the past. I love reading his stuff on the athletic. A real film breakdown of what's going on in some of these NFL matchups. It's Ted win. All right, man, let's. Let's get into this Baltimore Buffalo deal. All right. So I mean some of these cases, we have previous games to look at Week four here, Baltimore just gashes Buffalo. They run it all over them. This is also the seventh time in NFL history we've had a matchup of two teams who've averaged over 30 plus points a game during the regular season. So I know that some of the questions will be similar and like what do you see from the film there that you think is repeatable, some of the adjustments where the teams are right now? So wherever you want to go on that first one that we're all looking forward to.
- [55:05]
Kyle
Yeah, I think, you know, in the wild card round we saw a bunch of rematches that, you know, you couldn't really take a lot from because the teams are so different. And I think that there are some things you could take from the first game with the Bills and the Ravens. Like for example, the Bills run defense hasn't improved much. They're still a bad run defense. They're very light. So I could see the Ravens gashing them on the ground the first play of the game. And that that game was like a 98 yard touchdown from Derrick Henry. So I don't know how they're going to prove in that front or how they're going to try to stop Derrick Henry. Last week against the Steelers, the Ravens kind of went back to this like option Lamar Jackson offense where Derrick Henry was in a shotgun. They usually like to run him from the pistol under center. I think they're going to go back to just being a heavy offense where they're just going to run Derrick Henry and then they're going to play action off of it. You're not going to see as much option football from Mark Jackson just because the Bills front is so light. On the offensive side, the ball, the Bills are much different. I mean, in the early parts of the season they were really struggling because they didn't Have a separator. They were throwing a bunch of targets to Mac Hollins, who is like a special teams guy. Keon Coleman wasn't quite the receiver he is now. Not that he's like an all star ball winner right now, but he's much more effective than he was early in the season. So this is a game where Amari Cooper has to show up and he hasn't. He's been pretty inconsistent, and they haven't really targeted him much. But the Ravens are going to challenge these. These receivers, and somebody's going to have to win on the outside for. For Josh Allen.
- [56:48]
Ryan Rosillo
You know, the Pittsburgh Baltimore game, you know, going into it, I've already covered this on Monday, where I just, you know, I'd watch the two teams play and I'd be like, how does Pittsburgh keep beating this team? You know, and some of the history was Lamar's availability, and then they get him towards the end of the regular season. But then it was so dominant during wild card weekend, and you did a breakdown of kind of the different attacks that Pittsburgh thought they could go into this with. It did. Did Baltimore just solve Pittsburgh without any adjustments, or is it just the way Baltimore is rolling right now? Because I thought the breakdown was just really good and, like, the responsibilities of the linebackers. Yet it seemed like Baltimore was just so comfortable with everything Pittsburgh tried to do or the lack of adjustments from Pittsburgh.
- [57:32]
Kyle
Yeah, I mean, they're comfortable because Pittsburgh only had one answer against Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry and the option game. And usually when you're going against the option game, you have to have multiple answers and you have multiple ways to play that option. And one of the ways you play it is called scrape exchange, where you have the defensive end crash into the running back, forcing Lamar Jackson to keep the ball. And then you have a linebacker loop around and take Lamar Jackson. And you could do that sporadically, you could do it once or twice to kind of surprise them. But for some reason, Pittsburgh just decided that's the only answer we're going with, and we're sticking with it the entire game. And the Ravens just kept on having different answers for it, and they just gashed him for big plays. I mean, they just, you know, put a tie down on the backside and block the end, and then that way there's nobody crashing on a running back. Opened up the A gap, and that's how you get that big Derrick Henry run. So, I mean, if you're the Bills watching that tape, you know, you could have a scrape exchange and you could have that strategy in your game plan, but you also need to know that you have to have three or four other strategies to try to stop the option so that they don't. Just at least make them think. At least make Lamar Jackson think a little bit and make him a little indecisive about the option. But again, I don't think the option is going to be a huge part of this game because I, I just think the Bills are very light up front and they don't have to do that. They could just line up Derrick Henry behind Lamar Jackson and hand the ball off.
- [59:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I'm, I'm with you on the Pittsburgh thing. Just watching that game where I was like, okay, they're going to attack the running back. They're going to. They're not going to wait. They're going to attack. And then it's like, okay, but now Lamar just kind of knows every single time. So, like, I've wondered at times with Lamar over the course of the season if they've paced him to just unleash this version of him and maybe I'll just pivot this into a question of, like, maybe it was Pittsburgh specific, maybe it was about getting him ready for like, the full arsenal of it, but also to like, what other people who've come on and talked to us, like, whether it was Fitzpatrick or Foxworth have been like. Look, this is just a very different approach because they need, they. They knew they needed to be something post Greg Roman for Lamar to have a better chance in the playoffs. So take that wherever you want to go and kind of your expectations for Lamar in this version because obviously it hasn't worked out for him.
- [59:53]
Kyle
Yeah, I think this is the first time where they don't have to be an option team because they have the option to. Or they, they have the ability to just line up behind center and just hand the ball off to Derrick Henry. And, you know, part of the option football is it. It, you know, you're putting more on the shoulders of the quarterback. So now that you could just hand the ball off to. To Derrick Henry, the quarterback could take a break. Like, you don't have to have the quarterback be part of the play every single time. And that's part of the appeal of having a run game is, you know, you're. It's not always on the shoulder of the quarterback. And when you have run game that involves a quarterback, he's part of it every play. And that's part of who the Ravens have been. And now that doesn't have to be all on Lamar's shoulders. So I think especially against this Bills front where they are lighter, I just think the Ravens just have so many things they could do offensively where it doesn't all has to be a Lamar every time. And I think Lamar has talked about it where he has been jittery in playoff games. And you can see in that Pittsburgh game too, they, you know, they didn't want to pass ball a ton and they were having a lot of success on the, in the run game. But I think part of that was just to calm Lamar down and just, you know, give him a little bit of a mental break and let him get into the flow of the game.
- [61:14]
Ryan Rosillo
On the Buffalo side of this, I'd agree. Like I don't know that there's anything we can really point to in the Rams game wasn't that long ago where, you know, it, it feels like at least if you're picking the game like the Baltimore rushing attack against this Bill's front. But if we look at Buffalo's offensive line and I don't know how much you put into the pass block win rate and rush win rate stuff, but if you go by individual players, like Buffalo has like three guys that are just off the charts on these grades. And there was something else I was looking at this morning that I thought was really interesting and how often they line up with a sixth offensive lineman. It's number one in the league, 148 plays this year. It's like 60 more than the number two team. And they did it a bunch against Denver. Is that something, I mean, certainly you have to be prepared for if you're Baltimore, but is that something against Baltimore's front where you feel like Buffalo is going to want to go to that as they have during the regular season?
- [62:05]
Kyle
Yeah, it's a big part of their offense now where they are moving under center more and just taking Josh Allen out the equation and just being able to hand the ball off to James Cook. I think part of that is just the league is moving towards very light fronts, more too high boxes. So a lot of the really good teams are ahead of that and they've built this really strong run game where they could attack those fronts just by running the running back instead of having the option and that sort of deal too. And the Bills have a very strong offensive line. Dion Dawkins, I think is having a career year at left tackle. Spencer Brown is playing really well at right tackle. But the Ravens also have the number one run defense in the league. So I don't know if they can just go to their six offensive lineman sets and run the ball like they did against the Broncos. They just straight up bullied the Broncos like they, they got under center and they just bullied them up front. You're not going to be able to do that against this Ravens front. I think this is a game where you're going to have to spread them out and you're going to have to run Josh Allen a ton. He's going to have to be a huge part of the running game against this. This Ravens front.
- [63:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, let's take a look at Philadelphia and the Rams. The Rams, we all know, started one and four. I think there's some stuff that you could talk about, like looking back schedule wise. But, you know, getting blasted By Arizona Week two by 30 points was like, okay, what's going to happen here? The offensive line was a massive problem. The injuries of receiver and they come out and they dominate Minnesota real quick. Do you think there was anything from the Minnesota Detroit game that impacted Shula a D coordinator's approach to what they wanted to do against Arnold?
- [63:48]
Kyle
Yeah, I think the Rams are typically a zone team. They like to play back a little bit and just kind of keep everything in front of them. But they were much more aggressive against the Vikings. They were pressing them, doubling Justin Jefferson, just not giving those receiver free releases. And then that allowed the pass rush to really work against a Minnesota offensive line that's pretty weak. Their best tackle, Brian O'Neill, he struggled in that game. Cab Robinson has struggled all season. And the interior line is really bad. So once you force Sam Darnold to hold the ball a little bit and let that pass rush get to work, they have a lot of problems. So, you know, I don't know if they're going to do that against the Eagles. I, I think the number one thing is they're going to have to try to stop Saquon Barkley. But this is going to be a much different game for, for the Rams. I, I think against Minnesota, there's some. Is this just a good matchup? Some of the strengths versus their weaknesses kind of matched up very well. This is going to be a much, much different game for the Rams.
- [64:55]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, you could hear like why I really like Aikman on a broadcast is when he's. He's kind of over something, he lets you know without being nasty about it. But watching Darnold drop back and hold on to the football and just the tone of Aikman's voice as it kept happening and at like one point where you could just tell he was over it. Then it happened, I think like the next play and he's just, you know, he's telling the audience in a way without necessarily using his words, which I thought was just really like high level stuff because you're just watching Darnold have this awful game. All right, so we go back and look at the what mid season matchup with the Rams here. The Eagles and Barkley just absolutely gashed him. They got all over Stafford, five, six sacks in that one. But yeah, it's. The Rams feel like that. Not a great record. I kind of hate that nobody wants to play this team because I mean, we've got eight teams left. Like most of them are going to be really good. There's not really anybody going to be sneaking into this unless you already get some sort of upset, whatever. But just kind of looking at that matchup to where the Rams are now might be the. Because I don't really know what to make of the Green Bay game because of Hertz essentially being out of action for almost a month. It wasn't great on offense. It's not what you would want. But I think to be fair, you have to look at it being a pretty abnormal situation for Hertz going into his first playoff game this year.
- [66:11]
Kyle
Yeah, for sure. It just felt like they didn't want to take a lot of risk with Jalen Hurts. A lot of the passing game was very simple, you know, and they've been better throughout the season and you know, maybe they just felt like their defense was going to win the game for them and they didn't have to take too many chances. And against the Rams they could fall into a similar script. But the obviously the Rams offense is playing much better now. They have a healthy offensive line and healthy receiving group. And during the season it was like either the receivers were healthy and the offensive line couldn't get healthy, but now that they're both healthy, the offense should be much better than they were against the Eagles when they played in a regular season. But also there have been stretches where Matthew Stafford just has struggled against some of the better defenses. I mean they had like a three game stretch in the season where they, they really were inconsistent. And part of the reason why they're so good against the Vikings is because the Vikings blitz a lot. They try to do a bunch of like coverage disguises and all that. But Matthew Stafford is a veteran quarterback. He's one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league and he could figure that stuff out. But against the Eagles they do a lot of disguising, but they don't rely on the blitz to get home. They don't rely on trickery. They could just play you straight up because they have very good players on all across the board. So this could be a matchup where Stafford does struggle. I don't think it's going to be just, oh, the Rams are healthy, they're explosive on offense. Again, I could. I could see them struggling against this Eagles defense.
- [67:53]
Ryan Rosillo
And the Eagles not going to have my guy, Nicobi Dean. Yeah. At middle linebacker, which is super frustrating because I've just so had, like, he's one of my favorite college players. And I'll just have these moments where I'm like, well, he has to be good in the pros. Even though I realized he was undersized, he gets off to kind of the slow start and like, how many snaps is this guy even getting? And then once he figures it all out and with Bond like this group, I think the personnel turnover, I mean, you could even speak to what the Rams have been doing here in the draft now. It's nice they have some picks, like all the young guys on that defense for the Rams, like overhauling that roster in a really, really short amount of time. But then when you think about the Eagles just kind of reloading from being in the super bowl two years ago to the guys that they have and Nolan Smith starting to make plays and obviously Carter's always fun to watch there. So you feel like there's enough depth, even though the Dean loss is a significant loss, there should be enough depth, skill, enough playmakers around that defense that it's not going to derail who they are on defense.
- [68:48]
Kyle
Yeah, for sure.
- [68:50]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, let's. Let's take a look at Houston and Kansas City now. I love some of your notes on Houston for this one because, you know, we've had Sando on for years and the Cook index, we all love it. Like your tendencies, how aggressive you are in the passing game when the score is not dictating, play calling and, you know, all that kind of good stuff. Houston does not cook traditionally. I think you had the note. I think I read it from you where if you look at third and 10 or more yards. Right. So just absolutely brutal third down situations. Houston had the second most third and 10 plus downs. Third and third down, third and 10 plus. Again, I screwed that up. But the second most in the NFL behind only Cleveland, which is not where you want to be as you're going into the playoffs. And it looked like that was going to be the approach against the Chargers. What happened in that game? I mean there's a lot of stuff, the Herbert stuff as well. But what happened specifically? Maybe the play calling and the aggressiveness that we saw from Houston that we're not used to seeing with their oc.
- [69:51]
Kyle
Yeah. So cook rate basically measures how aggressive you are as far as passing the ball on early downs before you know the, the score could really, you know, like if you're up by a lot of points then obviously you're going to run the ball a little bit more or in a two minute drill you're, you're not going to run the ball. So cook rate takes account of all that. And the against the Chargers, the Texans had the highest cook rate they had the entire season by far. So Bobby Slowik, who is typically a run run pass guy, which puts them is one of the reasons why they get in so many third and longs is because they can't run the ball. They are the least efficient run game in the entire league. They have the lowest success rate as far as run the entire league lower than the Raiders. And the Raiders were God awful this season. But he keeps going to this run run pass and then you know, they get 0 yards, 0 yards and then all of a sudden you're in third and 10 and you expect CJ Stroud to kind of save you. And for, for a part of the season he was doing that pretty well. But then that kind of just catches up to you after a while. And that's one of the reasons why the, the Houston offense has been so disappointing. But against the, against the Chargers they passed a little bit more on early downs. They spread out, they got into empty sets, they went, got into four by one sets and got Nico Collins isoed up. So they found ways to just quickly get rid of the ball and create some positive yards on first down. And after the Chargers defense got worn down, that's when the run game kind of took over. And you saw Joe Mixon take over in that game. And we gotta give a lot of credit to Joe Mixon because in that game there are so many times where they had penetration and he was able to just find a way to wiggle his way out and, and get some yards. I mean this Texans offensive line is just not very good at run blocking or, or pass blocking.
- [71:52]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, that's what's weird is because I was looking at some of the win rate stuff again and I was surprised to see Houston on the better side of some of the pass block win rate stuff, but the run stuff is just abysmal across the board. And, you know, I think this is important stuff, though, because there's so much of it is just focused on. We'll look at Stroud and, you know, there's a slight decline. And he was so clean in the interception part of it. Like, like, unless you're peak, Aaron Rodgers or Brady, you're probably not staying down at that low of a number with the interceptions. So then it's, it's kind of labeled as like, well, Stroud's taking a step back and, you know, look, again, there's statistical stuff to tell you that that's exactly what's going to happen. But if it's long developing routes for a team where you don't like the line that is sort of run predictable at all those times, you know, maybe, maybe there's more baked into it. You know what I mean? More that there's. There's another level of understanding what's quarterbacks, because I think most of us are huge fans of Stroud, like Fitzpatrick coming on last week saying like, he wants his sons to watch how he throws a football. And I know that it's more than arm talent and all that kind of stuff, but I just, I feel like over the, the long haul of like the Stroud experience even going back to the Georgia game, there's just a lot with him that, that you would like. And the way he just plays the position beyond just some of the talent stuff. Now we pivot that into Kansas City because we know that they're going to dial up pressure. And I feel like Kansas City dials up pressure when you most expect it. It's actually very predictable that this is what we've been saving, and we're not going to save it for a time to trick you. We're going to throw it at you when we need to throw it at you. How do you like that matchup for Houston's front? Essentially, it's.
- [73:32]
Kyle
It's going to be tough. I mean, this is as healthy as the Texans have been up front. And in the secondary, they might get Watson back. And if you look at the splits and their defense when Watson was healthy and when he left, I mean, they're pretty dramatic. I mean, if you're a man coverage team, you need corners to play man coverage. And now they have potentially two cornerbacks that could kind of lock up the outside and buy some more time for this for them up front. And this is a very talented front. With Charles and Minahue back in the lineup, you Know, obviously Chris Jones and we talk about, we talked about how the Texans were able to get those quick passes on early downs. It's going to be much tougher against Kansas City because they, they're going to press you, they're going to press those receivers and they did that in the Week 16 matchup and for some reason, you know, slow kept on trying to throw these bubble screens and they would get stopped for like negative yardage every single time. So I think, you know, if he's smart, he's not going to do that anymore, especially against these press corners that are very good at tackling. And the thing that they had some success with is just throwing it deep to tank Dell in that game where you know, they, they're seeing these heavy blitzes and Shroud was just backing up and trying to get some time and just chucking it deep to tank Dell. And you know, they got that touchdown where Dell was unfortunately hurt on off of it. But the question is who's going to be that deep ball winner for, for the Texans now? They're going to double Nico Collins. Steve Spagnolo is one of the best defense coordinators as far as taking away your number one weapon. So who's going to be that secondary guy that's going to be able to beat these Chiefs defenders? I don't know who that's going to be. Whether they're going to turn to Mechi or they're going to, you know, Robert woods is not a deep ball winner at his age. So that's the big question for the Texans is who's going to be that guy that could take the top off the defense when they're doubling Collins and when they're bringing pressure.
- [75:31]
Ryan Rosillo
We're a huge Robert woods podcast. But I, I understand what you're saying. Kansas City red zone touchdown percentage. I looked it up again this morning. 22nd in the NFL. Not good. That's really bad. Usually means like you're just leaving points out there all the time. Usually means it's a quarterback maybe you don't trust, maybe it's a play calling thing, all these different things. Except it is maybe the guy we trust more that's ever played the position. Still some work to do on the Brady resume. But then I looked it up last year and they were 19th in red zone touchdown percentage. So actually across Mahomes career it's a little bit lower than you would think. There was a great year two years ago where there was second touchdown percentage. I think the Chiefs are one of the weirdest teams I can ever remember going into the playoffs because the record is insane. We know all the close calls with them. We know that the offensive approach has changed. I don't know if that's a personnel thing. I don't know if, if it's a maturity thing with Holmes, but it's a depth of target thing. Kelsey's had three touchdowns this year, although I think he's been a bigger part of the offense second half of the season. I don't really think that's debatable with any of this stuff. I think I'll ask it this way. Where do you rank Kansas City? Like if you could, if you could make money on, and I'm not even talking about a spread, but you get Baltimore because I don't think anybody's picking Houston out of the equation here. If you get Baltimore, Buffalo or Kansas City right now, who do you think is the best chance? Well, see, that's, that question doesn't work either because Buffalo and Baltimore are playing each other. I guess I'll just ask it this way, like, who do you think is the best team in the AFC today?
- [76:56]
Kyle
To me is the Chiefs. I mean, they, they haven't been healthy all season. Now they're as healthy as they've ever been at any point this season. We know Patrick Mahomes kind of flips the switch in the playoffs. They have the playoff experience. It's just a hard, it's hard to pick anybody but Kansas City, in my opinion. And obviously the Ravens have an amazing roster. They're playing very well right now. But you know, I just want to see Lamar Jackson be able to do it in the postseason, especially when he's going to be in a game where a lot, there's going to be a lot more on his shoulders. I thought, you know, Pittsburgh was just kind of gave the game away with what they, what they were doing and really there was just not a ton of pressure on Lamar Jackson. But when he's faced off against a Josh Allen or a Mahomes where he's in a bit of a shootout situation, how he's going to handle it. I mean, I, I love Lamar as much as anyone, but I, I just want to see him do it in this setting.
- [78:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I mean, look, it's the home field, it's the, hey, they get to play Houston, so there's an easier path conversation. But it sounds like we're just talking straight team. You're going cheap. Sorry. Before we get your rapid fire picks, let's just finish with Washington and Detroit here. We know Detroit Blitz is, I think, the second highest rate in the NFL. And yet Jaden Daniels is a young quarterback that seems to be comfortable against it. There's all sorts of numbers that tell you he's, you know, I'd say at worst, top 10 quarterback. Against some of the pressure stuff. Going through the grade of the game against Tampa, there's probably some stuff you could pick apart from Jaden, except when you need him the most, he's doing the unthinkable and he's. And he's saving a team and then doing it in a playoff level too, on top of everything else. So how do you see the Jaden attack against what Detroit is going to do? Where I imagine it's probably a carryover from what we saw at the end of the regular season with Aaron Glenn. It's like, all right, if we don't have these guys healthy, we are just going to be as aggressive. We're not going to be passive and lose. We're going to be aggressive if we lose that way they'll just feel better about it because that seems to be the entire team's culture.
- [79:02]
Kyle
Yeah, they're going to blitz Jaden like crazy. I mean, part of the reason why you want to blitz a mobile quarterback is because you surround them with more bodies so there's less of a chance that they could scramble. And you get into some of those Cover 0 blitzes, so they just throw the ball and get rid of it so they're not trying to scramble around and create plays. But like you mentioned, Jaden Daniels has been phenomenal against the blitz all season. He's third in EPA against the blitz and you usually don't see that with rookie quarterbacks. But, you know, he's just so calm and he's able to get throw the ball deep against a blitz, too. He's not just throwing hot routes. Terry McLaurin is one of his favorite targets against the blitz. And you remember that cover zero blitz he beat at the end of the Cincinnati game that really kind of, you know, wowed everyone.
- [79:49]
Ryan Rosillo
That was the first. That was the first throw this year with him where I'm like, that throw is like all time stuff. So. Yeah, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I just wanted to back up. Like that was a moment on the couch where you go, yeah, it's pretty special, but go ahead.
- [80:01]
Kyle
So, I mean, we're going to have to see him try to beat this blitz deep because they play blitz and they're going to play a lot of man coverage and they're probably going to do what they did against Sam Darnold and the Vikings where they're going to double Justin Jefferson and try to dare somebody else to beat you. So Dynamy Brown, who's kind of come on as late, I think he's going to be a huge part of this game. But yeah, I mean, I think Detroit is going to do a good job of limiting what Jaden can do on the ground because they're just going to bring bodies at him. It's going to be tough for him to find running lanes, but if he does, I mean, it's probably going to be a big play because everybody's playing man coverage. But I think it's going to be up to guys like Zach Ertz and Dynamic Brown to to win against one on one coverage. And the lines have been a little bit weaker against tight ends, especially after all the injuries. So we'll see if Ertz can do it. But also the lines are very good against a run too. So that's another problem for this Washington offense and they're likely going to. The lines are likely going to score a lot, which is going to change the game script and force them into a passing game script, which is another difficult thing that the commanders are going to have to deal with.
- [81:20]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, rapid fire picks. Let's start in the AFC with the headliner, Buffalo. Baltimore.
- [81:28]
Kyle
I think the, I think the Ravens are going to win.
- [81:30]
Ryan Rosillo
All right. Sounds like Kansas City over Houston. No surprise there.
- [81:33]
Ted Wynn
Yeah.
- [81:34]
Ryan Rosillo
And Detroit, Washington.
- [81:37]
Kyle
Detroit.
- [81:38]
Ryan Rosillo
Rams. Eagles.
- [81:41]
Kyle
Eagles. I hate to be boring and pick all the favorites, but I have a tough time seeing, seeing upset this week.
- [81:48]
Ryan Rosillo
Look, I, you know, I wish I had done it more during the College Football Playoff, but sometimes I try to get cute myself and you know, maybe you'll feel better Monday if it goes all chalk. If you want to read more of Ted's stuff, check it out on the Athletic. I promise you will enjoy it and it helps you get ready for some big playoff games. Thanks, man.
- [82:05]
Kyle
No problem. Thanks for having me on.
- [82:10]
Ryan Rosillo
You want details?
- [82:11]
Ted Wynn
Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [82:16]
Ryan Rosillo
What's up?
- [82:18]
Sruti
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
- [82:20]
Ryan Rosillo
I have every toy you can possibly imagine.
- [82:23]
Ted Wynn
And best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [82:26]
Ryan Rosillo
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Normally we start with life advice. Email address life advice rrmail.com Kyle and Sruti are here and Worgon is back from Disney. He turned off his microphone. Kyle astutely said, do not turn off anything because we're going to start with you, fresh from Orlando with a what looks like a. A thick cotton Taylor Swift shirt on top of everything else. Surprises never end. How are you?
- [82:57]
Worgon
Is that surprising, me liking Taylor Swift?
- [83:00]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know what is or isn't anymore, to be honest with you. Is that fair?
- [83:04]
Worgon
Yeah, I guess that's fair.
- [83:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I think it's all positive. Yeah. Yeah. So you're back. Talk to us, guy.
- [83:11]
Worgon
Yeah. So I told Saruti knows this, but Thursday I just got a really bad stomach bug and was just vomiting all day. Couldn't eat anything. Didn't eat anything Friday either. Saturday morning, woke up, felt pretty rough. Was like, teetering between whether or not I was gonna do it. Ended up doing it, but, like, the time was just not. Not what I wanted. It was like 30 minutes longer than my training runs, so it was a bit of a slog.
- [83:34]
Ted Wynn
Flu game.
- [83:35]
Worgon
Flu game. It poured, too, as we were getting ready to run. We were just standing there, just getting poured on.
- [83:41]
Ted Wynn
Dude, that's two more excuses than I would need to bail on this and just go to Disney World instead. I'm just telling you, if I was sick two days before, I probably wouldn't even be like, let's see how I feel on Saturday. On Friday, be like, I'm calling it. Everyone would understand.
- [83:54]
Worgon
I just put so much time into training for this thing that I had to at least finish.
- [83:58]
Ted Wynn
Hey, feel different, dude. Good for you.
- [84:00]
Worgon
But now I got to do another one just to get a taste that I'm out.
- [84:03]
Ryan Rosillo
So we're looking at, like, the vomit.
- [84:05]
Worgon
Cape Cod, I think, in October marathon.
- [84:09]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [84:09]
Worgon
Come do it. Serity October.
- [84:11]
Sruti
Yeah. Kyle's convinced that I'm gonna, like, get into running now, which is definitely not true.
- [84:16]
Ted Wynn
He told me he had a dream about running. He's got an app.
- [84:18]
Ryan Rosillo
I did.
- [84:18]
Ted Wynn
Right. So I. I don't know. It's all.
- [84:20]
Sruti
I don't have an app. I've kicked around the app.
- [84:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [84:22]
Sruti
The couch to 5k dealers. I don't know. I should just get more cardio in, but. No, I mean, the question has been asked. Like, is we're gonna have the best athlete on the podcast. I, I, you know, I don't know.
- [84:33]
Worgon
I do know.
- [84:37]
Ryan Rosillo
Were you already in Orlando? Sick?
- [84:40]
Worgon
Yeah, I got sick Thursday. Flew it out on Friday.
- [84:42]
Ryan Rosillo
So wait, you got sick at home? At home in New York. And then we're like. I'm like, I'm still getting on the plane.
- [84:50]
Worgon
Trip was already booked. Yeah.
- [84:52]
Sruti
Didn't have trips.
- [84:53]
Worgon
Too cheap to not go.
- [84:54]
Sruti
Yeah.
- [84:54]
Ted Wynn
Epcot Waits for no man.
- [84:55]
Worgon
Yeah, exactly.
- [84:57]
Ryan Rosillo
Booking? Nah. Yeah. So it was already booked. How is. How was your significant other, as far as.
- [85:07]
Worgon
I think her time was, like, 2. 21. Yeah, she did great. She, like, zoomed past me as soon as we started.
- [85:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Waits for no, she's not in it. Right. She was like, what was she. Was she, like. I don't know, was she, like, in a caring mode or was she like.
- [85:27]
Worgon
She was like, if you don't want to do it, I'll still be proud of you. All that. I was like, no, I'm doing it. Like, I won't be proud of you if I don't do it.
- [85:40]
Sruti
So she. She's a better runner than you, though. Typically, like, both at your best sounds, I think.
- [85:45]
Worgon
I think I would have beaten her.
- [85:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh.
- [85:47]
Worgon
If I was healthy.
- [85:47]
Ryan Rosillo
All right.
- [85:48]
Sruti
She's all right.
- [85:49]
Bobby Marks
All right.
- [85:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh.
- [85:49]
Ted Wynn
So Cape Cod has to happen. Cape Cod has to happen.
- [85:52]
Worgon
The reduction tour. Yeah.
- [85:54]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. It's a real rival dude.
- [85:55]
Ted Wynn
We got going on crosstown shootout over here.
- [85:57]
Worgon
Right.
- [85:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Anything else? Any. Any snacks? Did you. Did your stomach turn around that you could start eating Disney food or.
- [86:05]
Worgon
Not really.
- [86:06]
Kyle
Really.
- [86:06]
Worgon
The last day, I was sort of feeling back to myself, but the whole time, it was like, I would order a meal and, like, sort of pick at it, you know?
- [86:12]
Sruti
No, man.
- [86:13]
Worgon
Yeah.
- [86:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Butter noodles.
- [86:15]
Worgon
Inopportune time.
- [86:16]
Sruti
Disney, help our guy out, you know, let's get him. Let's get him a long weekend back.
- [86:20]
Worgon
There, if you're listening.
- [86:24]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I remember when, you know, one of those. Ceruti understands this, but, like, when you're at espn, one of the weirdest things is just the Disney stuff that you get.
- [86:34]
Sruti
Yeah.
- [86:35]
Ryan Rosillo
And you get this card that seemed like really impressive of some platinum Disney card. And then I used. I never used any of it.
- [86:42]
Sruti
Same.
- [86:42]
Ryan Rosillo
And then once. Right. Then people would always be asking, like, hey, do you have your passes that you can give to other people? And that was always a pain in the ass because you had to, like, transfer over.
- [86:52]
Ted Wynn
I was the recipient of one of those once.
- [86:56]
Sruti
It was always kind of awkward because one, I think we'd get maybe like, four passes a year or something like that. And you get them digitally and, you know, you could either use them. Well, I guess you wouldn't need to use them yourself because you have the past. Because the past would get you in, I think, unlimited times. But you could give somebody into free, right?
- [87:12]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, yeah.
- [87:13]
Sruti
And you had dudes that were just not afraid to ask multiple times. Like, no shame. Like, hey, didn't you ask Me? Last month, you just. I thought you just went to Disney. Like, it would. This can't be for you. They're asking for, like, buddies. Buddies. Like, it's just. Come on, man. Like, so I always kind of kept it with, like, a tight circle of people. Like, I need to know this person pretty well. Was giving out passes.
- [87:34]
Ted Wynn
Hey, ser. Anyone else on the Mike and Mike team. Not big Disney guys.
- [87:37]
Sruti
People. People seriously would do that. They'd be like, you know anybody with passes? I'm like, I'm not asking around, man. I don't. Like, yeah, gonna work again.
- [87:45]
Ted Wynn
What the.
- [87:45]
Sruti
Again? That's just a. That's just a characteristic that you either have or you don't have.
- [87:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, but there would be people that you worked with that would be like, I already gave my four passes. But, like, I'm trying to get 16 people down there.
- [87:55]
Sruti
Correct.
- [87:55]
Ryan Rosillo
So, like, we're solo, doesn't have any kids. And then I remember the first time I opened it up because I don't even think I knew. And then it was just all of these expired passes, and I did it in front of the person that was asking me, and they just looked at all that. They're like, oh, my God. Look at all those expired passes. Like, just this log. And granted, whenever you had to get on, like, the internal corporate hub, that, to me was like, you might as well just. You might as well just drop me in a maze that has no opening, because I. I don't know what the hell's going on here. They're like, you need to figure out that you have to update this or whatever. And I just remember, like, getting this. This package of all of these things. And I. I just remember, like, in the moment, looking at him going, I'm never going to use any of this stuff, but it's too bad, Worgon, you don't have anybody from your days at ESPN that you could reach out to.
- [88:43]
Worgon
Exactly. Yeah.
- [88:44]
Ryan Rosillo
So that's. That's unfortunate. So there's nothing else? I mean, I feel like there's always something else. Another morsel with you that I don't want to leave untouched.
- [88:53]
Ted Wynn
Do you touch that airport lounge on the way home, or are you still.
- [88:56]
Worgon
Just piercing our terminal? Didn't have one. Oh, real shame.
- [88:59]
Ted Wynn
It's a risky run. Yeah.
- [89:01]
Worgon
Yeah.
- [89:02]
Ryan Rosillo
It doesn't sound like an F, but I don't. This is that D trip for you.
- [89:06]
Worgon
It could have been a lot better. Could have been a lot better.
- [89:08]
Ryan Rosillo
Sure. Okay. All right. Well, thanks, man. Glad to see you're feeling better. And look Out. I mean, the next time. This is like a movie, right? The first five minutes would be you throwing up in Orlando, and then the movie starts kind of, and you're getting ready for something in chatum. All right, let's see here. We have a lot of people following up on the bat story with Suti.
- [89:33]
Sruti
Yeah.
- [89:34]
Ryan Rosillo
Honestly, Ceruti, I would like to hear less exasperation out of you because people are on your side. Kind of just pumped about the way you handle this. So. Yeah, I don't know.
- [89:50]
Sruti
Yeah, well, the issue now is, it's funny. I actually called a doctor today. I'm like, do I need to do anything? Because, like, the thing, you know, didn't. Didn't bite me or anything, but I don't know. I didn't touch it. But there's obviously, you know, there's.
- [90:05]
Ted Wynn
And I think it's okay.
- [90:07]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [90:07]
Sruti
But I don't know. Now I'm like, in my own head being like, what the heck? So that's. I think I handled it extremely well.
- [90:12]
Ryan Rosillo
You're right.
- [90:12]
Sruti
But again, the guy telling me I needed to kill it, like, he's acting like I screwed up, but I'm like, I'm not going to do that. So I appreciate the support from everybody, but according to animal control, I did not handle it well.
- [90:24]
Ted Wynn
Those guys are a little desensitized, I think. I don't know if they're regular animal people anymore. The. The animal control.
- [90:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, maybe. I, you know, I. Obviously, we have to defer to them. There was somebody who emailed in and said, I heard somebody talking about the bath that was in his house. And the standard procedure in my area is that anyone who's slept in the same building as a bat gets a rabies shot unless they catch the bat and have it tested. So there you go. My wife is a teacher, and it's happened to a couple of her students in the last couple years. Unvaccinated rabies is 100% fatal in humans. Literally. There's never been anyone to survive it. Plead, read, please read this or someone else's email on the subject. People need to know to not mess around. So, yeah, there's an article there that we're not going to read on the podcast, but, yeah, Michael Scott tried to solve rabies and his co workers laughed at him. Race for the cure. Maybe you guys could do a rabies fun run for real.
- [91:22]
Ted Wynn
There's your run right there.
- [91:24]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [91:24]
Ted Wynn
There's your run.
- [91:25]
Sruti
The 5K. Yeah, there you go. I don't know.
- [91:31]
Ryan Rosillo
Then there was another one. That said, Steve's not getting enough credit. All the alpha in the room. And then there was some other follow ups onto how the rest of us would handle it. I. Whenever it comes to this stuff, I get way too much credit. There's a time where maybe I'd be your guy, but I'm not sure that I am anymore. Somebody wrote in and said, should I read the Crow email? Not based on the movie or Russell. All right, let's read the Crow email because I thought it was pretty good. All right. The setting is a bachelor party at the Oregon coast. Four dudes in their mid-20s in the house. A two story deal where the entire upstairs is a single bedroom. We're all hanging downstairs. We start hearing noises from the bedroom as if some thing or someone is now in the house. We look around to make sure nobody has gone up there. Sure enough, everyone is accounted for. That would be easy though, right? All right, roll call 1, 4. All right, we're all here. Myself and the other guy decide to slowly walk up the stairs to see what's going on, with literally no clue what we might find. Turns out it wasn't on my bingo card. It's a two foot jet black crow that had flown through a window, was now flying from ceiling fan to ceiling fan of the bedroom. Panicked. The thing was massive, all caps. And if you haven't seen a crow up close, it's a terrifying looking thing. Now what? None of us are all that interested in finding out how in real life crows respond to humans trying to help them out of a bedroom. So we call animal control. Closed on weekends. The machine though, says to call the non emergency line, which we do. Sure enough, 30 minutes later, a cop arrives, probably disgusted by the lack of masculinity in the house. Probably grabs a broom, walks up the stairs, smacks the crow out of the air, bare hands. It tosses it out the window onto the deck and it cries as if nothing happened. So here's the question. How would you guys have handled the situation? Again, this is another one. My guest, Serdy, at best doing what he did. Wargon is doing the cop's job. Kyle's leaving the house and hoping the crow is gone by the time it gets back. See, I think Kyle would. Well, if his wife is there, that's a big thing.
- [93:28]
Ted Wynn
First, if my, if my wife's there. You know, with the Ceruti situation, I think I'm looking for a tennis racket. But with my wife there, I think she might be like, you know, maybe like get a blanket or A trash like it might. I think she would complicate it a little more.
- [93:42]
Ryan Rosillo
It's a massive swing. It's like Andy Dalton in primetime game, dude.
- [93:45]
Ted Wynn
I mean, I was telling her there. I was telling to Rudy before we started, we had to. With the Hollywood fire on Wednesday, we evacuated because they basically. They put an evacuation notice right up to Hollywood Boulevard. I'm on Sunset, so I'm like. I'm like the next big street there. And we just saw everything that happened on Tuesday. So we're like, all right, let's just get out of here. We went down two miles south to my grandmother's house. But I'm like, pulling. I'm like pulling up shit just in case, you know, the house is gone. So I'm just like, all right, passports, laptop for work, you know, some clothes. I grabbed my Drake Made jersey. That was probably a little silly, but I was just like, it's brand new. I don't want to lose. It's brand new, dude. He's only had one season one and.
- [94:22]
Sruti
The Mac Jones T shirt Jersey did not get grabbed.
- [94:24]
Ted Wynn
Didn't make it, actually. That would. It have been when I donated a bunch of clothes after, because I knew people needed clothes. Like, that's going in the bin, in the closet. But she spent the whole time getting these five rabbits. Hurt my back, by the way, because it went in this huge fucking, like, massive dog cage. And I'm trying to keep it level, but she spent the whole time just wrangling rabbits, and I spent the whole time, like, getting stuff. And we get to my grandmother's house that's two miles south. She doesn't have a toothbrush, she doesn't have clothes, she doesn't have anything. She doesn't have a phone charger. But she's got five rabbits. So that's the difference in. It really opened my eyes that we view emergencies a little differently. And so if there's a bat in the house, I think we'd have different views on that too.
- [95:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I mean, if it's a crow, she'd probably adopt it. It's like, hey, this is Cameron.
- [95:12]
Ted Wynn
Like, I think we have the pieces to build an aviary in here.
- [95:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I. I think a cop is always. If it's four guys, they're gonna. They're gonna be disappointed in you just because it's like, there's other stuff going on other than a crow. It's four guys. So, like, I'm sure. I'm sure you feel enough shame already that we don't need to add to it. I remember I had this one stretch where I felt like I was getting messed with quite a bit a few years ago, and somebody showed up to my. I think I've already talked about this. Like, somebody showed up to my door, and I couldn't. The. The camera wouldn't turn on right as it was happening, so I had no idea what was going on. And then. So I just called the cops. And then when they apprehended a dude who was just totally confused and pretty banged up, they kind of just looked at me like, you had to call us. And I was, like, trying to explain it a little bit, and I went, you know what? Like, this is just take the L. There's nothing else.
- [96:10]
Sruti
Well, that's kind of what sucked about, like, my situation is like, I. I'm talking to the guy, and I was like, I thought I killed it. And he was just like, killed it? As in, like, did a good job, not killed. Yeah. And he was like. And he just immediately was like, basically, like, no, dumb. And I was like, all right, well, I guess I. I guess I did not get the W there, but you guys wouldn't have been super proud of me if you. If there was like, a. Some footage. Some in bedroom footage of me for, like, 10 minutes, just, like, literally under the blankets, like, with my. With my phone flashlight.
- [96:38]
Ted Wynn
Like, that was the funny part to me.
- [96:40]
Sruti
Look at.
- [96:40]
Ted Wynn
That was the funny part. We were like, listen, let's get under the covers while we figure this out. But honestly, you know, if it's flying around dark in there, I actually don't know how much. How. How many better options there are, so. But I just. It was funny the way you said, like, all right, let's get. Let's hunker down. Let's get into the covers. Let's talk about.
- [96:55]
Kyle
Yeah, I really like it.
- [96:57]
Sruti
It probably didn't look super masculine, but it worked out all right.
- [97:00]
Ted Wynn
Hey, you got a family to protect, dude.
- [97:01]
Ryan Rosillo
I thought you did great and, you know, put yourself in the situation. Middle of the night, bat flying around, wife. You get a kid, you know, and I think just some people are used to bats. You know, there's people listening right now. That's not the way you do it. Right. I think most of us aren't. But again, rabies awareness. Thank you for the email. All right, let's get to a couple emails here. Hanging out with rich friends. I've listened since the beginning and finally thought of a good question. 5, 10. On a good day. 180. I've been practicing basketball while my 8 year old has his select practice. If you leave me open, I'm dangerous. Let's go. J.J. redick. My question stems from hanging out with my core friend group where one of us is a business owner and does very well from well for himself in life. The rest of us do just fine. Mid hundred thousand dollars salary in the Midwest with a low cost of living, but it's not close to what this guy pulls down. I thought this might be relatable to Ryan, but what I'm trying to figure out is the level of guilt we should feel if we were doing experience that he offers to pay for that we otherwise otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Recently we were all going to go tickets to a sought after college football game, take all of our kids. Well, that's a lot of tickets and we were looking for normal bowl seats and then he just buys all of them right down by the field and tells us to send him whatever we would have paid anyway. Do you do that? He tries to do the same thing on vacation. We were picking somewhere to stay and he just books the best place and send what we want. I'm an adult with a wife and three kids, so how do I handle it? Do I struggle and pay my full share on pride? Do I swallow it and trust that he really means it and doesn't care? To be clear, the amounts are definitely not affecting his personal situation whatsoever. All right, good stuff.
- [98:39]
Ted Wynn
I like mow in my yard. So that's. Is that what we're talking about here? Little Woody Harrelson?
- [98:45]
Ryan Rosillo
No, I don't think. I think you have to look at it from the standpoint. Like if he's just stepped up and now he's done this a couple times, right? So he just said, screw it, I'm buying all these tickets. And then the vague like do whatever you think is right thing, or he didn't even say that, which would have been a way worse way to phrase it. Like he gave you a really specific thing like, hey, whatever you're going to spend before, just spend a moment. And then I've covered the rest of it, you know, look, all of us are different, right? And in this case, I think you have to understand that part of his joy of, of being able to do this stuff is that he can share it with somebody else. Right? I think this guy's coming from a pretty good place based on the description and the fact that he's booking a vacation and being like, look, I can afford this. This is the standard that I want to Be at. But I also don't want you to feel bad. Now, granted, there's plenty of people listening right now and let's just say pride wise, like, I can't have you do that. I have friends. There's one situation where a friend needs some help and he was like, turning it down, turning it down. And finally like a bunch of it just get together and we're like, we're not going to listen to him. Like, let's just help our friend. He needs the help. And of course it was a great thing and it didn't really impact us all that much. And it, and it changed something for him at the time. He needed it. And it was something we felt good about. Like, you know, we, we felt great that we were able to help our friend. And there wasn't a moment where any of us felt like we were being asked to do something that we weren't comfortable doing. So that's different because it was something that was far more serious. But in this case, I think we have to understand is that he wants to be able to do these things that he can afford, but he wants to share them with somebody else. And part of the reward of, of having access to these different things and just being able to have the financial freedom where he doesn't worry about it, like so many of us would, that you being a part of the activity with him is what he really wants. Because like, dudes that are loaded, like, cool, you can, you can take a jet here or you can stay in Aspen or, you know, you can do all these different things. Like, other than me, very few people actually want to do this stuff by themselves. And I prefer the record. I've never ever taken a jet by myself where I've been like, whatever, this is a massive waste of money. Let me just go to Maui. Because I can. And I wouldn't, I don't think I would ever do that just by myself maybe, who knows? Never ruling out anything, think, but just, just keep telling yourself that. And as far as like, you and what you're supposed to do, follow his instructions. You know, don't feel like you have to be taxed for his aggressiveness because then you end up resenting it. And that leads to all sorts of other stuff. Like I think we've even had emails on that where like the one person decides like, this is where they want to stay, and then everybody else feels like they're totally strapped or put out and then the vacation ends up being something they're kind of digging out of financially for a little while and they kind of get resentful about the whole thing. So I remember when I was, you know, back in the day and the hockey guys would come back to Burlington and they were young and they immediately were making money and it was just kind of understood like they were going to pay for the guys that couldn't pay. And you hope it works out down the line where you can repay them. Sometimes you can't. But most of the people being generous about this aren't doing it because they feel like they're, I'm taking too long with this whole thing. They're not being taken advantage of. They actually really want to do this. So don't feel like you have to get like dollar for dollar back to him and if it ends up being a pride thing, then, then stop going with them if it's going to bother you that much. But again, I don't. Clearly the emailer is not saying that it's bothering him so much. So I think this is just a win for everybody. Like life's rare. Like, hey, I think everybody's kind of right here, so don't worry about it.
- [102:25]
Ted Wynn
Yeah, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone here, but, you know, a favor is not going to throw me off my game. I appreciate a favor quite a bit for me in my life. So, you know, never, never really did anything wrong by accepting a favor. I think as long as this guy isn't like, you know, controlling the itinerary to a point where you're like, right. I don't think Steve would like it if we went, you know, did this at 2:00 or, or booked this dad's golf trip. Like as long as it's not that. And he hasn't mentioned anything. I didn't catch a whiff of that. I think it sounds like everything's good intentioned here. He's not like, you know, if the only thing is like he booked this hotel, it's like, great. This is a way better hotel than I would have booked.
- [103:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Cool.
- [103:04]
Ted Wynn
And it sounds like that's where he's stopping the control of it all. So that's. I think, I think you're right. This is all, this is all good and you know, I'm a favorite guy. So maybe learn to learn to accept favors and learn to give favors when it, when it actually works out. Maybe maybe get him a really thoughtful Christmas gift that isn't so much money but more, more thoughts. Like the Jim's teapot for Pam. Like something that you really put some thought into show your appreciation in another way.
- [103:27]
Sruti
Yeah, like. Yeah, exactly. Be, just be a good friend. Just keep being a good friend of this guy. You know there's more money is, is.
- [103:33]
Ted Wynn
Like clearly that's the party value. It's not, not the money that you can put up for trips. It's you know.
- [103:38]
Sruti
Yeah.
- [103:38]
Ted Wynn
The memories you guys make and you.
- [103:40]
Sruti
Know, you got a rich friend. Like congrats. There is some weird stuff I will say. I don't really have much to add but I do think like just a quick like little anecdote. It is kind of funny when you get older like with your friends and like group trips or vacations and things. See how people handle like the different levels of what the vacation trip is. You know, like my buddy got married in Mexico last year and you know, there's different tiers of rooms and we're on the group chat talking about which one are you going to get. And like it's almost like a domino effect or like a snowball effect. Like once one guy says he's going to get like the upgrade room, like everyone no matter what their financial status going president, can I figure out the upgrade room? Like wait, I get casabigos. Like whatever.
- [104:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [104:16]
Sruti
Anyway, so that it. Those, those scenarios are just kind of funny. Like I remember we took a group trip to see my buddy who same buddy in Chicago. And it was like a domino effect of like one guy was going, another guy was like, all right, yeah, I'll go, I'm free that weekend, I'll go. And then nobody like wanted to like not be the guy that didn't go. So they all like last minute we all just went to Chicago. So it's kind of funny how like you know, I think this is a, maybe it's a girls thing too, but it's really a guy's thing where it's like the, oh wait, somebody throwing their money around. Like I can't be the guy that just throw my money around too. So I totally understand. Like I guess just going back to the email, like I get why it's like ah man. Like I can't, I don't feel like I can contribute in the same way. But to your guys point, I don't think this guy really cares. I think it's just about camaraderie and I don't know, paying back in other ways as Kyle said.
- [104:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I mean if he has enough money that none of this is ever going to like bother him. I don't think he wants to be sitting 40 rows lower, turning around Waving to his friends. Right. Like, you know, I mean, plenty of rich guys are, like, totally fine with it. And I think there's always something to the rich guy in the group that pays for stuff because he wants to dictate every piece of the itinerary. So it's essentially his trip. And there's a power player.
- [105:27]
Ted Wynn
Like, there's no gray area there. You're like, I see what's happening.
- [105:29]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I mean, I've had a couple friends where it is like that. Like, you're making it look like you're doing all of these things because you're such a gracious person. And ultimately what you're doing is controlling all of it. And that's when your boy checks out. Out. That's when your boy's like, all right, I'm totally out of here, or I'll upgrade in a different area. And then it's like, cool. We all went on this trip together, and now we're not going to see each other. Dudes are just. Dudes are just whipping it out left and right. All right. Can't play on basketball court. Office. Oh, excuse me. Can't play on office. Basketball court. All right. Long time fan. Thanks for the content. 6 foot 1, 180. Haven't lifted in a while, but my last bench was a 240Max, which I'm still pretty proud of. Proud of. You should be. It's good. Player comp is maybe late career Rasheed Wallace or maybe liangelo ball or Aaron holiday, because I went to UCLA and have a much more talented brother.
- [106:26]
Sruti
Okay.
- [106:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, yeah.
- [106:27]
Sruti
Good rap career.
- [106:29]
Ryan Rosillo
You see that little jello? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was psyched. I went on hoops hype, and the first seven stories were about his record deal. I work at a marketing office which is located in a huge converted warehouse. At the center of it is a beautiful basketball court with wooden floors and glass backboards. Damn. Sounds like heaven. Now, I don't Warehouse. Yeah. I don't know what the logic was of putting a basketball court in a business office, but I always enjoyed getting some free throws in before or after meetings. I would sometimes hear grumblings about people being annoyed by the sound of balls bouncing, but I always thought that people should just wear headphones or get used to what was essentially white noise. Yeah, I don't know about that, dude. I mean, I couldn't be more on your side of wanting to get some shots up here, but. All right. So a few months ago, I saw a sign put up that said the basketball court could only be used after 3pm or between 12 and 1pm I found this a bit disheartening, but didn't have a real issue. I came into work really early the other day to beat traffic and had a bit of an inner conflict whether it'd be appropriate to get some shots up. It was around 7:20am and the office was 95% empty, though it wasn't after 3pm or the 12 to 1 window. I thought it was fine since it was well before the workday. The sign also did not specify when restrictions on the basketball court started. I think it kind of does though, buddy. Yeah, I think it does. Yeah. If it was say 3am Would that be allowed? 5am in my head I thought 8am Made sense again. Our guy showed up at 7:20. I began shooting free throws when one of the few people comes at me hot, asking me to quote, calm down with the basketball. I sheepishly say that I didn't know what the hour, what hour the restriction started and he angrily said I obviously couldn't play now. To which I meekly asked him to calm down as I put the ball away and walk back towards my desk, not wanting to escalate the situation both because I'm non confrontational but also because I thought I was kind of in the wrong. He yelled thank you as I walked away, which I ignored. Now, sitting at my desk and stewing for a few hours, I'm wondering, did he send this email? Day of I love those. I'm wondering if I should ask the building's management to make a sign that more accurately describes and shooting free throws is permitted. I'm also tempted to play during the allotted lunch hours today, but as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. Yelling and one and whatnot Just out of Spike yo.
- [109:01]
Sruti
Next.
- [109:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, what if you basketball is life. The rest is just details, just screaming and one T shirt slogans. Now, I understand the need for a calm workplace, but I feel wrong letting a beautiful basketball court go unused. And I don't want the hellishly monotonous corporate conformity culture to win. Do my complaints have any validity? What should I do? I can't believe. I can't believe I'm about to say this as someone that. I mean, every time you see a hoop and a ball, it's just like, you know, it's my happy place. It's. It's just, it's. I think you're wrong and I think it's. I think it's pretty understood like we don't need more signs in life, man. And Every time I see a sign for something that's, like, painfully obvious, I just go, you know, will we just be better off if we were? Like, hey, if you needed that sign to not do the thing the sign is telling you to not do, can we just split up? Like, can we just draw a lot? Like, you get these six states, and the rest of us will take the other 44.
- [110:18]
Sruti
It's like leprosy island. Like, we're just gonna be over there, Right?
- [110:21]
Ryan Rosillo
Like, if you were on the fence about what you could or couldn't do, but this sign, like, helped you understand if that's the kind of direction you need in your life, like, maybe the rest of us would all be better off if we didn't have to put up those signs for you. So now, look, this is basketball to serious point. Or I forget who said it. Why? You know, Butler's gym is just this gorgeous facility right in the middle of your. Your warehouse. But I think it's 7:20. It. It's probably kind of understood that you shouldn't be getting. Unless you were. You knew you were the only person there, which you know that you weren't because you said it was 5%. So then to say, well, the sign says 12 to 1. You know what the sign saying 12 to 1 and after 3 means? I don't think that's like a running clock. After three, the 12 to 1 is your indicator that seven 20s out, man. And as much as I love this and it would be, I think I'd have to quit. I couldn't work here just having that there staring at me, tempting me the entire time. And I don't actually have a problem with you playing from 12 to 1 and being super obnoxious about it because that guy lets you have it a little bit, and you're kind of pissed about it.
- [111:29]
Ted Wynn
Let's be honest. That guy's like, one of the three reasons for the sign. There was probably a couple people that rose up, and he's one. He was proud of that sign.
- [111:35]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, but remember, our. Our emailer is asking for, like, a more accurate sign. And what I'd say is, I think the 12 to 1 tells you that 7:20 is wrong.
- [111:43]
Ted Wynn
Yeah.
- [111:44]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [111:44]
Sruti
Isn't that how parking signs work too? Like, they don't say, you know, to be like, no parking.
- [111:48]
Ted Wynn
Parking signs are a little more.
- [111:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Whatever.
- [111:49]
Ted Wynn
Specific.
- [111:50]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Are they, though? Because I. I'll tell you, there's a few times I've stared at them for 10 minutes going, what the fuck does that mean, though?
- [111:57]
Ted Wynn
And, yeah, You've seen some polls where it's like, why are there four signs?
- [112:01]
Ryan Rosillo
And it's always weird, too, because then when you come back and you get a ticket, the sign is so much clearer. After the ticket, you're like, every other Wednesday, it's like it's in a foreign language while you're wondering if you're good. And then once you get the ticket, it's like somebody translated it for you. And you're like, okay, yep, this makes.
- [112:18]
Sruti
Sense now because I think you read things optimistically like, you're fine. And then when the consequences come down, you're like, oh, that's right. That's what it meant. Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [112:28]
Ted Wynn
I don't think I'm going to contest this one. Yeah, I think you're spot on with, like, you have to know there's no one in there. You know, Frolic Room has two bathrooms, right? One of them is a general neutral bathroom. The other one's a women's bathroom. They're both one person bathrooms.
- [112:43]
Ryan Rosillo
Sounds like you got two women's bathrooms.
- [112:46]
Ted Wynn
I tell you what, it does bother me a little bit when they're. I'm waiting for a gender neutral bathroom and I see a woman walk out, and there's actually no women in the women's bathroom.
- [112:55]
Sruti
What's the ratio like at Frog Room, though?
- [112:56]
Ted Wynn
I mean, well, on theater days, it's connected to the Pantages theater. So on theater days, you know, it's a. It's a madhouse. Especially that intermission. And, you know, that hour before the show, excited women and dejected men paired up. That's usually how it goes. But basically, if there's somebody in the gender neutral bathroom and it's. It's kind of time for me to go, right? And maybe I've been there an hour and I'm going to go, and there's somebody in that bathroom. If there's no women in the bathroom, I'll look at the bartender and be like, yeah, what do you think? We good? I'll be. I'll be 30 seconds. Like, go ahead. But if there's one woman in that thing, even if she just got there and it's probably not. I'm not. I'm not even taking the chance. So you have to know, like you said, there is no. There has to be no one else. There has to be no one else. And then it's fine because no one's hurt. But if there's one person, that could just be the time when you're walking out and she's Walking in. It's a big, it's a big problem. Even if you don't agree with the rule. I don't. I think maybe there should be a men's bathroom in that bar. But whatever the rules, the rule, the sign is the sign. I hope I landed that plane.
- [113:56]
Sruti
I think I agree. Yeah, I, I, I don't know that I would play loudly though either. I don't know that. Just, that's kind of like a dick move.
- [114:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [114:02]
Ted Wynn
How old is he? Can we read the top of that email and just figure out like, is he a late 20s guy or 30s?
- [114:08]
Ryan Rosillo
I think this guy has to be pretty young.
- [114:10]
Sruti
Young, yeah. Yeah.
- [114:11]
Ted Wynn
That's my guess.
- [114:12]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Which is which? Look, I've been this guy. Yeah. You know, I mean, I've. The number of times I've been yelled at for getting a shot up.
- [114:19]
Ted Wynn
Oh, I can't imagine. I can't imagine.
- [114:24]
Ryan Rosillo
And I, you know, I don't know how many times I ever thought I was actually right. You know, it's like. But when somebody yells at you, when somebody gives you the business. And by the way, that wasn't about your free throw attempts. That's about all the free throw attempts before you. Correct. That's about guys just working on non cone dribble drills. Because no one, I don't care if you've never played. People love to touch a basketball and bounce it and then throw it at the rim. Like you can be. I remember one time, I think I was in junior high and my father was holding a ball, I think after one of our practices or something, and another kid's dad came up and slapped the ball out of his hands and the guy was not an athlete. Slapped the ball out of my dad's hands and then like did a layup and then kind of like laughed and he threw the ball back to my dad. And my dad kind of just, I knew, even at like 13, I was like, this might not be a great idea.
- [115:25]
Sruti
And then he died on dad crime.
- [115:27]
Ryan Rosillo
Right. Then he did it to him again. And I think there was a. Hey, listen. And then I, because I, I never forget this because my father was like, he was upset about it in the car ride home when the tr. We were in the truck getting truck wisdom and he's like, there's a little guy like, like tell you look, I didn't. And I was like, all right, dad, I'm the 13 year old telling him to like, all right, chill out. Like he's, he's an annoying dad. We all know he's an annoying dad. You know, it's not the end of the world. He didn't actually steal the ball from you. It's not a real turnover. It's not on the box score. You have two turnovers. Now.
- [116:08]
Sruti
That's a perfect situation. That'd be like, all right, check ball. Let's go. You know?
- [116:13]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, that. That wasn't gonna. That wasn't gonna happen. All right. I think that's a. I think we got it all. Anything else? I feel like. I feel like there's still meat on that Wargon bone.
- [116:23]
Kyle
There is.
- [116:24]
Sruti
He had mentioned that the Taylor Swift was his first concert as well, so.
- [116:29]
Ryan Rosillo
He'S here right now.
- [116:31]
Worgon
I was gonna say we did come home last night. Accidentally left the gas on apartment.
- [116:35]
Ted Wynn
Whoa.
- [116:36]
Worgon
Gas had to leave. Yeah.
- [116:40]
Ryan Rosillo
Wow.
- [116:40]
Sruti
Not great.
- [116:42]
Ted Wynn
So you're. Wait, so you're a gas stove guy? Really, Mike?
- [116:44]
Worgon
Gas stove?
- [116:44]
Ted Wynn
I'm just kidding. I'm a gas stove guy, too.
- [116:47]
Ryan Rosillo
That's dangerous stuff, man. Yeah, it happened to me once.
- [116:49]
Ted Wynn
Four days ago.
- [116:50]
Bobby Marks
We're talking four days.
- [116:52]
Worgon
That's correct.
- [116:53]
Ted Wynn
God damn.
- [116:54]
Ryan Rosillo
A lot of gas.
- [116:55]
Sruti
Not good.
- [116:56]
Ted Wynn
Did you just go back to Disney? What'd you do?
- [116:59]
Ryan Rosillo
That's a lot of gas.
- [117:00]
Sruti
I mean, it's a good. It's a good. You know, that's scary.
- [117:03]
Kyle
Maybe.
- [117:04]
Sruti
Maybe invest in some carbon monoxide alarms, you know, sensors.
- [117:08]
Worgon
Yeah, I mean, we went sushi. Light a match, get rid of the smell, you know?
- [117:11]
Sruti
No, you're a funny guy. Stinks in here.
- [117:20]
Ryan Rosillo
All right, then, man. I'm glad you're better. Yeah. Yeah. Glad you feel better and you didn't blow up your building.
- [117:25]
Worgon
Yeah.
- [117:26]
Ted Wynn
Damn. So you just opened all the windows for like.
- [117:28]
Worgon
Open the windows Open the windows. Went out for dinner, guys.
- [117:32]
Ted Wynn
It must have been freezing.
- [117:34]
Ryan Rosillo
Wow.
- [117:34]
Ted Wynn
Well, glad you're okay, man.
- [117:35]
Worgon
Yeah.
- [117:36]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [117:37]
Sruti
Welcome back.
- [117:37]
Ryan Rosillo
All right. Yeah. Good to see you. Thanks to Oregon. Thanks to security. Thanks to Kyle. That is it for today's podcast. We'll be back on Friday. We'll talk some NBA. I'll probably do some kind of open on the NBA that's lingering and left over because we had double guests today. And then liner getting ready for the national championship game. And then next week will be Monday, Tuesday, Friday. So look out midweek gap. Who knows what's possible. Please check out the show on YouTube and of course, always subscribe Ryan Rosilla podcast on your Spotify foreign must be 21 and older president. Select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. gambling problem. Call 1-800- GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincenectic@it or visit MDGamblingHelp. Org In Maryland, Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 Support Massachusetts or call 1-87-7-8, Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.