Looks Good On Paper

A lot of things can look good on paper. This week, we found out what actually holds up when the pressure hits.

On Episode 57, I open with the World Baseball Classic and why Team USA’s run felt like the perfect example of this week’s theme: proof over potential. Venezuela brought the energy, Team USA brought the names, and only one side got to celebrate. I get into the Harper homer and bat flip, the Judge reaction, the weird Rob Manfred medal moment, and what the whole tournament said about baseball when the stakes feel real.

From there, we get into the Knicks, who somehow feel both dangerous and frustrating at the same time. Half the fan base thinks they can win it all, half the fan base thinks it’s still messy, and the truth might be both. I talk Brunson, Hart, Mitch, the schedule ahead, the East playoff picture, and why I still believe this team has a real shot.

Then it’s on to the Jets and Giants. The Jets are trying to build belief, but fans are still skeptical. The Giants are adding pieces, but the offensive line is still the giant question hanging over everything. I also get into the Jaylen Waddle trade, what Denver is building, and why Miami’s direction still feels confusing.

I wrap with a quick March Madness check-in as the tournament gets rolling, including Duke getting scared early, Wisconsin getting clipped, and what I’ll be watching with St. John’s.

A loaded episode this week with one theme running through all of it: a lot can sound good in theory, but eventually the game asks you to prove it.

Transcript

Proof Over Potential Sets The Tone

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Do you know what the most dangerous phrase in sports might be? Yeah, but on paper. Because on paper, a lot of things sound amazing. On paper, the roster makes sense. On paper, the vision is there. On paper, the team should be dangerous. On paper, the star players are supposed to show up. Things should all work out beautifully. And then the games happen. And now all of a sudden, that pretty little idea you had starts looking a lot different when there's pressure on it. When there's stakes on it. When there's an actual moment where somebody has to go prove the thing instead of just talking about it like it should already be true. And that's pretty much where my head's at this week. The Knicks are living in that world right now. There's enough there to make you believe this team can make a real run. And I'm talking like a real run. And there's also enough there to make you sit back and go, yeah, but can they stop making it so much harder than it has to be? So that's a real conversation now. Not whether they're good, we know they're good. The question is whether they're good enough, tough enough, and locked in enough to cash this whole thing in when it matters the most. And then you get to football, and it's the same kind of feeling, but in a different outfit. The Jets want you to believe that there's a real foundation being built. The Giants are adding pieces and trying to move this thing forward. But fans at this point are down tired. They don't want another brochure. They don't want another sales pitch. They want to see the work. They want to see something solid, something that holds up. March Madness is here too, which is always great because college basketball gives you the same lesson every year in the most aggressive way possible. Nobody cares what was supposed to happen. Nobody cares who looked good in February and what seed you are. Now it's time to go win the game, or your season is done. So that's where we're at this week. Proof over potential. That's the theme of the episode. A lot of things can look good on paper, doesn't mean they're real. And nowhere was that more obvious this week than the world baseball classic. So let's start right there. Roger Zero K and I feel fine. Lift off and the clock has started. And what got me with this whole run was Team USA kept looking like a team you were supposed to believe in more than a team that actually made you feel it. That's kind of the best way I can say it. And what I mean by that is, you know, the names were there. The star power was ridiculous. The lineups looked like they were put together in a video game. The jerseys had USA across the chest. The crowd was hot when they were there. The whole thing had real stakes, some real juice, some real, you know, pride attached to it. Then the game start, and you're sitting there waiting for that, oh yeah, this is the best team in the world moment to really hit you in the chest. And it never fully did. I mean, take the Dominican Republic game. That should have been the heavyweight fight of heavyweight fights. Twenty of the 30 best players in the MLB were in that game. You got all the talent on one field, all the noise, and the final score is two to one. Team USA wins, it gets to the final, and in the moment you're pumped up because it was a huge game and a huge win. We were screaming at the bar at the bar. That score, though, I mean, should have also told you something. This wasn't some offensive machine kicking the door down. This was a team scraping, surviving, finding just enough to win. And then they get Venezuela. And that's where the whole thing really kind of crystallized for me, you know? Venezuela didn't walk into that game looking bigger than Team USA on paper. They didn't have the same level of household star power. They had a couple guys. They didn't have the same, you know, dream team presentation. What they had was urgency. They had life, they had energy, they had an edge to them. And Team USA had the names, but Venezuela had the moment. That game told the whole story. I mean, USA gets down to nothing. The bats are cold all night, and the crowd is basically a road crowd in Miami. But Harper comes up in the eighth, absolutely nukes one, monster swing, tie game. The USA fans in the building finally erupt, give them something to cheer for. Harper flips the bat, salutes the flag, coming around third, and for a second, it feels like the whole place just tilted. One swing and team USA had the building back. And then Venezuela took it right back. That's the part that stayed with me. No panic, no hanging their heads, no damn Harper just stole this from us. They walked, they stole the bag, doubled in the gap, grabbed the whole game right back. Team USA finally throws a punch and Venezuela basically says, Yeah, nice moment, our turn. Watch this. That's what championship level poise looks like. That's why I can respect the Venezuelan side of this so much, to be honest with you. Their celebration didn't feel fake. It didn't feel staged, it didn't feel like some brand campaign. Those dudes were losing their minds. And rightfully so. First WBC title, the dog pile, the tears on the mound, draped in their country's flags, disbelief, all of it. It was awesome to watch. I mean, you could feel what it meant to them. That's the beauty of this event when it's working. It feels bigger than just, yeah, nice win, see you tomorrow, best two out of three. I mean, honestly, could you say if Team USA wins it that they're celebrating the same way? But that's the part that stings if you're Team USA. I mean, it really did feel like they underachieved. Not a little, but enough, you know? The mic check poll that I ran this week, which if you're new to the podcast, every Wednesday on Instagram I put out a mic check concerning a whole bunch of different topics. And the mic check poll this week backed that up. More people lean towards USA underachieving than Venezuela having grit. And the disappointment slider came back heavy towards yes. It tracks with the game. Team USA had all the talent, all those names, all those bats. And honestly, outside of Harper's swing, there just wasn't enough life there. It wasn't bad luck. It wasn't one weird inning. That's the lineup going cold when the stage got the hottest. Now, I I do want to be fair here. This isn't me saying Team USA didn't care enough to really give it their all. I'm not doing that. They clearly did. They clearly cared. You could see it afterwards. They looked stunned standing there watching Venezuela celebrate, and that's real. I mean, you could see it in their face. The disappointment was obvious. That part I buy that Team USA did care. What I'm also saying is Team USA got a little taste of that Canadian medicine from the winner games. You know, we love to walk into these world tournaments acting like, oh, this is our game. We created it. These are our players. This is our stage. No problem. And then you lose. And now you got to stand there and wear silver while another country treats the moment like the greatest baseball night they've ever lived through. Because to them it is. And that humbles you a bit. At least it should humble you. And you know what? Maybe that's a good thing too going forward. Maybe, maybe they needed to sit in that feeling a little bit. That way, when baseball gets back into the Olympics, this team has a little more spice to them, you know, a little more grit. And the middle thing was a little weird too. Not so much the idea of players getting something to take home. I mean, I get that part. It isn't the Olympics, but it's kind of, I guess, prepping them for Olympics. I definitely expected a trophy there, not individual medals, but I get having each player take something home. That's fine. It was the visuals. The visuals were weird. I mean, Rob Manford standing there at home plate, handing out medals one by one like it's a layup line, trying to make sure he's right in the center of the frame. That that got an eye roll for me. I don't know if it felt strange. It felt very yeah, don't forget who's running this thing. I mean, this is the same guy that once called the trophy a piece of metal. Now suddenly baseball pageantry is his lane. It just looked a little too self-important for me. The one thing I will say for the WBC itself, the event absolutely crushed. It won, no question. This thing is real now. It's taken a little while, but it's real now. It's not a fun little spring event. It's not cute baseball side project and semi-spring training a Jace. I mean, it's real baseball. Baseball felt alive for two weeks here. We're still waiting on opening day. The crowd cared, the players cared, the countries cared. The whole sport had a pull suit that felt impossible to ignore. Harper was a giant part of that. I gotta give him credit. I mean, the bat flip was sick hitting that home run. I'm not doing fake outraging, bro. I really did. I loved it. I was yelling about it. Tie game, biggest moment, crowds exploding. He knows it's gone, flips it, stares for a good five seconds, points to the flag, all of it. More of that. I want more of that. Sports needs moments that breathe a little bit. Sports need a little more ego to it. Not that the players don't have enough ego, but sports itself need a little more ego. Baseball specifically. Sports need some theater. I mean, a guy hits the biggest home run of the night, you let him wear it for a few seconds. One thing though, I will say, just make sure you keep that same energy when it comes back at you. You know, that's all. Don't don't be the guy who loves the bat flip when you're the one doing it and suddenly gets all old testament, old school baseball traditionalists when somebody else stares one down against your team in a big spot. You can't live in both worlds, brother. You can't cash the celebration check and then complain when somebody else deposits one on your head later. Harper's whole arc in this tournament was kind of fascinating because he's actually one of the guys saying the quiet part out loud about this style of baseball. He was uh he was quoted about Latin American teams bring flair, they bring energy, personality, emotion, and team USA was very steady, very business-like, very heartbeat until the pop. Very uh, I don't know, I hate to say it, Yankee-like. Look, maybe that's to be expected when Judge is the captain, right? I mean, one group looked like they were carrying a little more visible fire from pitch to pitch, and one group looked like they were waiting for the right moment to let it loose. One of them won the tournament, the other one was wearing silver. Judge is the other interesting conversation here, too. I and I almost I almost feel bad for the guy in a weird way, and Yankee fans are gonna hear that and think I'm losing my mind a little bit, but I'm not. Look, Judge Judge is a victim of his own greatness, right? That's the truth. I mean, he's so good, and the bar for him is so absurd now that every miss turns into a referendum on who he actually is. He goes quiet in the final, and the internet immediately turns into see, there it is, can't do it in the big spot, same old story. This guy stinks, he's overrated. He's gonna go down as the greatest right hitter, right-handed hitter, probably in the game if he continues on his pace. But the opposite's true too. If he homered there, half the same people would have gone, oh, cool, do it in October, do it for the Yankees, you can do it for another team, but you can't do it for me. That's that's the prison of being that great. He was bad in the final. There's no way around it. The stars went quiet when the stage got the hottest. Still, sometimes, sometimes the conversation around him jumps right past baseball and goes straight into character assassination. That's the part that I'm out on. Does he have a big hill to climb to prove that he can do it? Yes. But to immediately jump on the guy in a team sport that's also the loneliest sport, tough to do. And the Harper Judge Buddy Buddy thing fall tournament was uh kind of funny to watch. I mean, Yankee fans had to be sick watching that, to be fair. You know, there's a there's a bunch of people staring at the screen thinking that guy wanted to be a Yankee. He wanted the pinstripes, and they never even made him an offer. They never made a real push because they had already locked themselves into former MVP Giancarlos Stan. Seeing those two smiling and chopping it up all tournament in team USA gear had to it had to feel like baseball fan fiction written by a Philly fan. A little bit of uh, here, look what I got that you can't have. Maybe it'll happen down the line, but I don't know. They'll probably be bolt past their prime at that point. Uh local note that I really liked at all this was Nolan McLean getting the ball for Team USA on the big stage. Big stage reps for a young Mets arm. That's the kind of thing he file away, man. That's that was good. The Mets rotation keeps getting more interesting the more you look at it. I mean, Sangha's kind of looking healthy again. His velocity is back. He's smiling again. That's nice. Mendoza sounds like a guy who kind of fully expects him to be part of that opening day picture, not fighting for uh a rotation spot. And if that's the case, that changes the Met ceiling in a real way if it holds true. You also got Lindor being back on track, taking live BP and getting in a grapefruit game league. Grapefruit game league. Great grapefruit grape, wow, grapefruit league game. There we go. I got there. Anyway, getting a hit, you know. It looks like he's on track for opening day, which is great. Can't wait to go to the game and yell for him, sing my girl. And then there's the whole Luis Robert. It's it's one of the most, if healthy, this changes things, players in New York baseball right now. I mean, you got Soto. Soto's has people talking about 50 home runs, which sounds crazy until you remember who we're actually talking about. And I got Soto for MVP this year, by the way, just throwing that out there. But then you also got Vientos. Vientos has the ugly spring line. He was terrible in the world baseball classic. Comes home, he still looks bad. But Mendoza, I don't know, Mendoza keeps pointing to the quality of the at-bats, which is usually what you kind of want to hear around this time of year. Looking for the right things, working on the right things. And then last but not least for the Mets, we got a little bit of emotional roller coaster here. We got a little emotional baseball note. Howie Rose saying this is it after the season. That voice has been part of people's summers for a long time. And winters, even the Ranger games, the Islander games that he did. Howie Rose has talked a lot of fans through a lot of ups and a lot of downs with this team. So when a voice like that tells you the clock is winding down, it it lands a little bit different for Mets fans. And you know, we want to salute you. We're lucky as New York sports fans to have the caliber of announcers that we do, and Howie Rose is definitely one of those goaded announcers. Uh as for the Yankees, well, Garrett Cole getting back out there and throwing a scoreless inning was probably the cleanest possible checkpoint he could have hit. But uh it's not time to go overboard with it either. You know, it's not time to start doing the parade routes, but you want to see the thing moving in the right direction, and it is. That's enough for now when it comes to Cole. That's good. But yeah, so that's kind of where I land on all of baseball right now. The whole WBC deal, Team USA had the names, not enough spark, whereas Venezuela had the energy, the urgency, hit the big moments, and the right to go absolutely insane when it ended, how it did. Harper did give us one of the best visuals of the tournament, and when you dive into it, you kind of learn how hard it is for Aaron Judge to live up to being Aaron Judge every single night. But most importantly, baseball. Baseball reminded everybody that when this sport gets out of its own way and lets the world in, it's awesome. I mean, I I don't know about you, but the WBC didn't feel like some exhibition to me. It felt like pride. It felt like ownership, it felt like something people actually cared about. And Venezuela proved it. Hell, Dominican Republic proved it, Puerto Rico proved it, Italy proved it. And Team USA looked good on paper. That's not the same thing, though. And speaking of that exact feeling, nobody has been living in that looks great on paper, now go prove it neighborhood, more than the Knicks. So let's go there next. Knicks talk hardcore talk up next. Keep it right. Because it really depends on what kind of a person you are when you sit down and actually watch them. And I mean that. I mean, you can be the kind of Knicks fan that walks into every game looking for the leak in the roof, and trust me, you'll find it. You know, the slow starts, the weird stretches, a quarter where the offense looks stuck in the mud, a rotation decision you don't love, Mikhail missing shots, not getting to the free throw line, somebody turning the ball over, just trying to force something that isn't there. You can find the bad. There is plenty there. Nobody's pretending that this team is perfect. Then, though, there is the other side of it. You can also watch this team and go, wait a second here, man. These dudes might actually have enough here. And not enough to be cute, not enough to just win around and get a nice little pat on the ass. No, I mean enough to make this a real thing. Enough to make people nervous. Enough to walk into a playoff series and actually believe that they can be the team still standing when it's all said and done. That is why the mic check poll this week was perfect. Fifty percent said the Knicks can win it all, and 50% said it's still messy. Dead even. That is the Knicks experience in one screenshot, folks. Half the fan base is looking at the ceiling, while half the fan base is looking at the potholes on the road. And the truth is, both sides have a case. Me personally, well, I'm in the camp that says, why not the Knicks? And I mean it really, why not? This is not me doing the blind Homer thing where every year you talk yourself into some nonsense, and you know, by round two, you're sitting there trying to explain why, oh, uh, you know, a gentleman's sweep was was encouraging for next year. No, I'm not doing that. I'm looking at the bones of this team, and I I see something real, man. I really do. I see a team that can defend when it locks in. I see a team that has enough shot creators, I see a team that has enough grit, and I see a team that's uh that's battle tested. This team has taken its hits from the local media, the national media, the injury noise, the trade noise, expectations going into the season, all of it. And they've stayed together through all of it. The staying together part means a lot to me. Every year there are teams that are talented enough. That's not a rare thing. The league is filled with talented enough guys. The difference is, usually, who still trusts each other when the games get ugly? You know, who still believes in the the next pass, the next rotation? The guy's gonna have your back on the descent defensive shift the next the next night, even. Hey, it was a bad game, let's get after it tomorrow night. This Knicks team, for all the mess, does feel tight. You know, it does feel connected. It does feel like they they actually like each other and still believe in what they can be. And that goes a long way this time of the year. Whether it be the Villanova connection or, you know, more with time with Kat, a new coach, whatever it is. They they genuinely kind of have a like a little bond together, which is great. Now, I also I also get the people saying slow down, man. They still make life way too hard for themselves. Yeah, that's fair. That's completely fair. I get it, honestly. They do. They go out of their way to get their ass kicked just to come back and fight harder. Now Warriors game is a perfect example. I mean you fell behind the Warriors by 21 points. Golden State isn't just beat up. They literally rolled out a G-League team. And then you spend the whole second half doing the dramatic comeback thing. Look at us, whatever. You guys were 14 point favorites going into the game. I think you won by two. Look, it's a great win. It's a cool moment, nice resilience, all that, you know, brings the team together. But at the same time, you're watching this and you're thinking, why are we doing this? Why are we spotting these teams, these insane starts and then asking ourselves to be heroes later, making our job harder. That's been part of the whole season. I mean there's too many games where the first half feels like they're waiting to get punched before they even wake up. And Mike Brown basically has been saying it out loud too. His postgame pressers have not been team friendly. He's not hiding from it. He's gone on them about the starts, the defense, the lack of edge early in games. I mean Brunson called the season a roller coaster, which might be the cleanest possible word for this team right now. You know, roller coaster. The highs feel high enough to talk yourself into a June run, but the lows the lows don't always kill you, but they definitely make you grab the side of your seat a little bit tighter. They make you feel a little sick to your stomach. But again, still it's it's the upside. The upside is not fake. And that's where I keep coming back to I mean you look at some of these performances lately and it's not hard to see the vision that I'm talking about. Brunson gives you 29 and 9. OG goes out gives you 25. Mitch goes out there pulls down 22 rebounds like a grown man playing against kids. I mean that that's the uncle that's the drunk uncle at Thanksgiving playing against his nephews. Then Hart drops 33 on 12 of 13 in the shooting in a game that Brunson didn't even play in and you're reminded all over again that this team has so many layers to it. You know they don't have only one answer. And playoff teams need more than one answer. Sometimes sometimes your star has an off night sometimes the defense just takes something away I mean your first thing is not always going to be there. Sometimes the game turns ugly and now it's about who can win ugly the best, you know those games where it's just a mess. And Josh Hart is that kind of player that winning teams always seem to have somewhere in the mix. He's annoying to play against he keeps possessions alive. He rebounds like he's six inches taller than he actually is he fills in the gaps. He doesn't question what he needs to do and then every now and then he'll give you that game where the stat line looks fake because he was just everywhere. He drops a triple double out of nowhere those dudes matter in June. You know nobody throws a parade for the glue guy in October but then by spring everybody realizes that the glue guy was half of the structure entirely. That's also why fans fell in love with the pest guys. You know Jose Alvarado kind of lives in that same neighborhood he's scrappy he's annoying he's always you know buzzing around like he drank four Red Bulls before tip off. And there there's something about that style that Knicks fans will always love. They love the nitty gritty. They love the lunch pail guy. And you know that's not saying he's fixing the whole operation but the point is that those irritant you know pain in the ass type players end up mattering a lot more than people think once the games get tighter. Same lane with Deuce too you know he's been out but you notice a guy like that more when he's not there. You can just from like the defensive pressure and then on the other side he can just irritate a backward for a few couple possessions and drop a three right in your face and then the game shifts on you once again once Mitches are always right. I mean that's the other part of this roster. He changes the physical feel of the game entirely he's got real rim protection real rebounding real second chance creation points and he's intimidating around the basket. You could feel that in the Indiana game 22 boards that's not a cute number man that's not a double double that's a double double in rebounds alone that's a you're you're not taking this game for me kind of number it's one of those stat lines that just changes the emotional temperature of the team. Man this guy's willing to go up and get these boards nonstop I got to be better and I got to make these shots that's where OG fits right into that bigger picture too. And I still I really still don't think people appreciate fully how important he is when this team starts dreaming big I mean he gives them size he gives them the defensive range from guarding the two all the way up to the five he gives them a guy that can just make big shots without needing the whole offense bent around him you need those guys man. You know everybody wants to talk about stars this stars that the playoffs the playoffs are always a star conversation until that star gets taken away then suddenly it becomes a who guarded the tough assignment who who made the corner three you know who didn't lose his mind when the pace slowed down who gave you 17 and 7 without even needing a parade and just being the quiet guy OG OG lives in that zone. And this is where the Mikael Bridges conversation gets a little weird you know I mean look people people have decided that they need a villain every single time the Knicks don't look clean. And for a while it was Kat and he still gets a little bit of it but lately a lot of the nights it's been Bridges because he's been he's become the easiest target and I get it he doesn't really help himself I mean he was brought here with a certain expectation a certain price tag a certain image in mind right but when the jumper isn't falling and he kind of disappears for stretches yeah he's gonna hear it New York is not a New York is not exactly a subtle city. Still though I I think some of the bridges panic gets a little bit lazy you know like not every uneven stretch means a guy just forgot how to play or he's not fitting in. I mean some of it actually is the rhythm some of it is the role some of it's just the reality of trying to fit a whole lot of good players into one offense. I mean there's only one basketball right the better question for me isn't uh is this a problem right the better question we should be asking is can he get back to being that stabilizing middle piece when we need him the most you know people are quick to forget the Celtic series last year when literally game six game seven game five game six whatever it was he had back to back two the most important defensive plays and everybody was screaming and clamoring yep that's what I traded those five first pick first round picks for now it's God this guy's been to the free throw line in seven games so you know uh can he get back to the stabilizing middle piece the answer is still on the table for now but I got faith in him and you know the thing that makes me believe the most though more than any one player or one box score is that this team has a real path in front of it right now to clean some things up and build momentum there's like 12 games left in the season the next three games are Brooklyn Washington and New Orleans you should be able to roll through those no problem not maybe not oh we'll see no that should be a 3-0 should be able to handle that business to be fair it does get a little dice yeah you still got one more with Oklahoma City you got Boston you got two with Charlotte who are not some free square anymore on the bingo card they've been feeling themselves lately but those are the games where this whole debate starts getting more real not the games where you survive on talent those the games where the details have to actually show up that's really where I'm at with them. I mean I don't need the Knicks to be perfect. I'm not asking for some polished machine like 2014 Spurs flow like state where you know every possession looks like a looks like poetry or they just pass, pass, pass extra shot, bang in that's not who they are. This team is a little grimier than that honestly they're more New York they're a little more rugged a little more chaotic sure but championship roads are not always smooth. You know every everybody acts like title teams just glide through it. No, they don't there are bad quarters there are ugly nights there are playoff games where your offense disappears and all you have is your defense and your guts there are weird bounces there are missed calls somebody catching fire at the wrong time I mean your season hanging in the bounce because a ball hit the back of the rim and kissed the sky before dropping in you know Knicks fans know that all too well I'm still haunted by that Halliburton shot last year. That thing God that thing felt like it touched the ceiling of the garden but again why not the Knicks though that's where I keep landing why not them why can't this be the team that defends just enough rebounds like crazy gets the big Brunson moments gets a couple swing games from Hart or OG or Mitch and survives the ugly parts why does every future conversation have to immediately turn into well if they don't do it you got to go get Gianni's you got to go get him I hate that impulse I really do. There's always this rush to blow something up good in hopes of finding something perfect. When a lot of the times you don't get closer that way. A lot of the times you get further honestly you know you trade chemistry for star power you trade depth for headlines and then six months later everybody's acting confused why the new shiny toy didn't solve the human side of basketball. That's the part that worries me if the season ends short of a title and not like a game seven finals loss on some miracle shot thing. I mean if they lose earlier than people want which is the NBA finals I I can already hear the noise break it up shake it up go star hunting get aggressive package this guy move that guy call Milwaukee every week all that garbage like maybe one day that's the move right maybe but still I I think people really underestimate what can get lost when you start uh you start treating a really good team like it's just disposable like it's just a bunch of pieces just because it hasn't reached the absolute mountaintop yet I mean this team this team has a real chance man the East is not some impenetrable wall look Boston deserves a ton of respect everybody thought it was a packadain year for them and Jalen Brown took the reins and put them in the two seed and I'm also not going to sit here and act like that Tatum doesn't deserve any love to I mean this man tore his Achilles and is back playing super high level basketball after ten months which is insane. I mean either either he has different DNA than the rest of us or he's got Mr. Miyagi on the medical staff. One or the other that's that's where my playoff question comes from with Boston not so much is Tatum great we know he is I'm just curious if asking that much that soon coming off that kind of injury stays at that same level all the way through a deep run into the playoffs. That's part of what makes the East so interesting now I mean Boston still deserves the respect but the whole conference is shifting around them too. Detroit won seed the whole year one of those teams where even if you liked your matchup with the which the Knicks don't you didn't love the idea of seeing them healthy and confident after getting bounced in the first round last year. And then the Cade Cunningham news comes across the wire bright and early 9 a.m in the morning the whole picture gets weird now because Cade Cunningham is the guy. They don't really have another scorer over there. If you missed it Cade Cunningham out for a little bit here collapsed lung okay a collapsed lung that's no joke and I can speak to it more than anybody other anybody else can really I've had two collapsed lungs believe it or not so when they send out some memo that says to be reevaluated in two weeks yeah my brain doesn't exactly go oh cool he'll be back in two weeks you know bodies are different cases are different recoveries are different sure but when your lung collapses basically what happens is you sustain some sort of trauma to either your back or your side and it pokes a tiny tiny little pinhole in your lung you know it feels a little weird but nothing that you can't really continue your day on with and then you keep breathing and breathing and breathing. And little by little more and more air escapes that pinhole and since it's inside your body with nowhere to go well it starts to accumulate on top of your lung and since your lung is a soft tissue organ it gives into that pressure and slowly but surely starts getting pressed down. That's why they call it a collapsed lung I mean it it feels like you're having a heart attack honestly you you can't breathe right you can't catch your breath at all and you get this immense pressure in your chest it feels like an elephant sitting on your chest it's not fun. And the only way to fix it is either a tube that they push past your ribs and let it out into that air pocket and let all the air out of your body and then your body either repairs itself little by little under management so that's where that two weeks reevaluation comes in or they have to go in and seal the hole on the lung itself like recovery can be smooth or it can be tedious and once it happens once it is likely to happen again if you're not smart about how they m how you move in strenuous activity that injury is not just about pain right I'm telling you from personal experience you can handle pain going forward it's about trusting your breathing trusting your body trusting the contact you absorb trusting taking it while you're extended that's not small stuff that's stuff that you gotta try and figure out and that's just me playing in a beer league softball slow pitch softball league not professional level NBA six foot nine six foot ten guys slamming into you so you know the whole conference feels like it's shifting into that part of the year where health and timing and nerves start mattering more than the old narratives you know that usually helps the teams that can stay connected through the messy nights and again that's why I keep circling back to the Knicks as a real threat you don't have to tell me they're flawless. They're not you don't have to tell me there are nights where they drive you nuts. I've watched them too trust me they drive me nuts you don't have to tell me the road gets harder from here good it should none of this is supposed to be easy no championship is won on a paved road there are bumps potholes weird turns nights you want to slam on the brakes nights you wonder if the whole thing is going to hold together the point is getting to the end of the road anyway that's why I'm not out here doing the just be happy to be here thing with them. I think they can win the whole thing I really do not guaranteed not penciled in not some cartoon fantasy where the bracket opens the angels sing and the confetti is already pre-ordered I think they have enough to be the team at the end of the night when things break right if they stay healthy enough if the trust stays strong between the five six seven eight nine of them if they stop playing with their food for 20 minutes at a time and if the stars actually show up when the stars are supposed to yeah 50% of you can think they can win it all and 50% of you can think it's still messy. My answer is yes to both but that's the beauty of this team and the torture of this team the mess is real but the chance is real too one thing I know for sure if the Knicks ever do pull this off they might have to shut the city down for a day maybe even a week hell maybe honestly the whole tri-state area if I'm being honest between Jersey and Connecticut and even the Villanova fans in Pennsy the the Knicks if the Knicks win a title the first in New York in a long while there is going to be some chaos in this city so yeah that's the Knicks in a nutshell and from one sport built on pressure to another the football teams in this town are living in kind of that exact same world right now too there's plenty of good ideas there's plenty of questions too there's also plenty of people not buying the sales pitch just yet so let's cover some football let's get into the Jets and Giants gridiron next the uh the football part of this week had me looking looking at both local teams and thinking the same thing from two different angles they're both active for sure they're both making moves they're both trying to sell you progress the feeling around them though is not even close to the same I mean one feels like it's trying to convince you that there is a real plan coming together we promise and the other feels like it's adding pieces while everybody in the room keeps pointing back to the same unfinished problem. That's where the Jets and Giants live right now. The Jets are Jets are a little more fascinating to me just from the reaction around them. The mic check poll this week made that pretty clear 63% of you said no it's all a mess while 37% said ride or die with my team so the room for the most part is not exactly buying the Aaron Glenn vision just yet and I get that I really do still I'm gonna be honest with you I'm a little bit on delusional island with this one. Not fully you know I'm not out here telling you they're they're about to win 11 games and shock the world I'm not doing that but I I can see the groundwork I can see what Aaron Glenn wants the thing to feel like I can see what Darren Muji is trying to lay down I can see a team that's trying to stop being unserious before it be tries to become good and that's a very different job. You know people skip that step all the time they just want to go from clown show to contender right away and that's not usually how it works if ever this version of the Jets to me feels like it's actually trying to become something competent first and that might not sound sexy. You know fans don't want to hear competent fans want playoffs fans want fireworks fans want the big free agent they want the thing that looks like it's going to get fixed right now. I understand that the Jets have also earned every ounce of cynicism that people throw at them there is no benefit of the doubt left in this building anymore. No one is walking in there going you know what let's let's just trust them until proven otherwise those days are over okay the Jets are no longer innocent until proven guilty. They are now guilty until proven innocent but still I don't think it's crazy to look at Glenn and say there's at least a football identity trying to form here. I mean you hear a guy like Demario Davis on his third stint with the Jets talking about Glenn and how it sounds like real belief in the building not PR fluff You know, he's seen the good and the bad with this team, with this franchise. So you look at some of the other defensive-minded pieces and the tone of the moves, and it it feels like they're trying to make the team harder. A little more accountable, more adult, you know. That part I buy. That part I actually like too. Now, the reason people aren't buying it is also obvious. There's still noise. There's always noise. There's always something. I mean, you got Francesa out there talking about Glenn and Muji not being perfectly aligned. One guy maybe wanting to take a quarterback here, one guy maybe wants to prefer another quarterback or another something. There's disagreement on the staff, disagreement on who really has the juice in the building. You know, there's always something. And that's the part where Jets fans just roll their eyes and go, here we go again. And it's fair. If this thing is already turning into a power struggle before the real work is even done or starts, that's a big problem. But my thing is this even in some of that noise is true, the actual football plan still doesn't have to be dead on arrival. I mean, Gino Gino coming in does not need to be some Disney movie. He does not need to be the long-term answer, and he isn't either. He knows that, and the Jets know that. We're not looking for him to turn into prime Drew Brees or something crazy like that. The job is way smaller. It's run the offense like a grown-up, get them in and out of the huddle, stop the weekly self-destruct destruction. You know, let Frank Reich make this thing look like an actual NFL operation. And hell, win six games instead of three. Show enough life on offense that people can say, okay, yeah, there might be something there. And then you still might be sitting in that top five to top eight pick range next year anyway, with enough capital to move if you really love a quarterback next year. So that's why I'm not burying him just yet. I don't think this season has to be some giant redemption tour. It can just be a small step forward towards legitimacy. You know, one thing they still need though is a little more juice at receiver that still hangs over this whole thing a little bit. I mean, you know, you can talk culture all you want, you can talk toughness, accountability, yada yada yada. But at some point, somebody still has to get open besides Garrett Wilson. You know, if they don't take a quarterback with their first, with their second first round pick, I kind of do expect them to grab a receiver and start developing him for whoever is going to be quarterbacking this team next year. I I expect a lot of quick slants to Garrett and a lot of whole lot of dump offs to Brees Hall this year. As for the Giants side, well, uh the Giants side of this feels a little bit easier to read. The uh the Giants poll that I put out this week was 64% said the bigger issue is the O-line depth, while 36% of you said they wanted receiver depth. You know, that's basically the fan base saying, sell me the receiver fix later. Okay, let's get the actual problem done first. Kind of where I'm at too with them. I mean, Darnell Mooney is a good ad for them. Calvin Austin is a nice little speed piece, Malik Neighbors coming back, those are fine football moves. Those are useful football moves. Look, I'm not gonna sit here and act like they did nothing. I mean, Mooney if healthy, gives you a real pro style. He's had real production in this league. I mean, and Austin has some twitch, a little uh motion, change of pace kind of flavor. I like it. The problem is fans are looking at it like somebody just bought a whole new set of throw pillows and there's still warps in the floor. You know the line question has not gone away. It's not gonna go away just because you added a little more speed outside. It's not gonna go away just because people start posting highlight clips from camp in July. The line is still the line. That's why the reaction to Shane is what it is. Some of it is unfair, sure, and you know, some of it's gonna fall on hardball because in hardball we trust. But you know, when people look at the Azudu thing and the Evan Neal thing, the misses on the other pivot options, the feeling that they keep getting halfway to the answer and then just turning around. I understand why Giant fans are tired right now. You know, the Linderbaum part of it for the center, you know, once the number got crazy, they they clearly had to pivot. That's fine. I mean, every team has a line in the sand that they're not gonna cross. And honestly, the Raiders probably overpaid. He's a hell of a center. He's not eighty million dollars hell of a center. But the issue for the Giants is it feels like they missed out on some of their pivot lanes, too. You know, Elijah Vera Tucker, Jet, was a name that people were watching and got floated around a bunch. A few of those veteran interior options felt gettable at one point. Now suddenly the Giants are back in the same place where the idea of an offense sounds better than the protection in front of it. And the question that I keep coming back to with them is are they helping the quarterback enough? You know, are they still doing the thing where they're halfway building the offense and asking people to pretend that it's got full structure? And it's kind of where the draft gets weird for them, too. You know, from everything you hear, there's plenty of good O-line talent in this class, but the issue is that there may not be a guy at five where they're picking where you pound the table and go, yeah, that's the one. Get him, no doubt. Write it down. And the defense is messy too, which also opens up the Caleb Downs conversation. Great player, could help the could help them right away, probably the second best player in this draft. You know, it's easy to imagine him making the whole back end feel smarter and faster. But then you hit the same wall you did with the O lineman. Can you take a safety at five? Can you look your fan base in the face with the line still being what it is and say that a safety was the priority? And then, on top of it, even more, you get to the other type of trauma response, which is the best offensive weapon in the draft conversation. That's where Giant fans start having flashbacks. You start hearing the luxury pick language and people immediately get Saquon PTSD. Jeremiah Love is a great player. He's going to be an unbelievable running back for whatever team lands in, probably Tennessee, to be honest with you. But it's the wrong stage of the team for that kind of swing. That's why this Giants conversation is hard. It's not there are no good players to add. There are. There's plenty. It's not that they haven't made any helpful moves either. They have. It's that fans don't want another offseason where the brochure looks a little cleaner, and then by October, everybody's back to talking about free rushers and third and eights that feel impossible. That said though, I do think the Giants have a little more shade to them than people want to admit. If the idea is to build a support system around a young quarterback, okay. I can at least see the outline that they're going for. A little more speed outside, some more options, more ways to make that offense feel less one note, I'm not laughing at it. I'm just not pretending it solves the deeper thing either. That's kind of where the local football split is for me right now. The Jets, weirdly, I can see the culture groundwork being laid, even if most of the fans base fan base wants to laugh it out of the room. And the Giants, you know, I see some of the offensive support pieces that they're adding, but I also totally understand why the room keeps shouting trenches, hogbollies over the top of everything else. You know? Uh zooming out league-wide, there's a couple moves that were standout-ish. The one move that really got to me was the Jalen Waddell to Denver conversation. Put out the poll for that. 55% said Broncos got way better. 45% said Miami's just stacking picks. Feels right. Not a landslide, not a landslide, but a lean, you know? And my instincts is that the audience probably got this one right. Look, Denver feels like a team acting with purpose. They were close. Besides a Bo Nick's broken ankle, they probably would have advanced to the Super Bowl. But now, what actually helps this guy? Well, speed is gonna help him. Easy separation is gonna help him. Yak is gonna help him, yards after the catch. Somebody who can turn a five-yard throw into a 30-yard gain helps Bo Nicks. And Waddle gives them all that. So it's a real answer, not just a cosmetic one. Denver was one of those teams that could bog down and just start living in three and out neighborhood way too often. So a player like that changes the math of the offense. You match that with a second year of RJ Harvey and Cortland Sutton finally having a real wide receiver across from him. This Denver offense could maybe take the next step next year. But the Miami side of it is it leaves me scratching my head. You just cut a quarterback you thought was your franchise guy and swallowed a massive cap hit. You move on from Tyreek Hill and eat that cap hit too. Then you turn around and give Malik Willis, who's played a total of 12 games, real money with a$45 million guarantee, and the first thing you do after that is trade away a yak receiver who's been in the building for a while now. What exactly is the plan here? I mean, are you trying to reset? Are you trying to tank? Are you trying to stay competitive? Are you trying to bridge to something else? The whole thing feels like it's arguing with itself. That's what's weird to me. Look, if you were clearly bottoming it out for a top pick, okay. I at least understand the direction. If you're paying another quarterback, then what are we really doing? I mean, you're probably not taking a quarterback at the top of the draft if you stumble your way into that range. So now you're in this weird middle lane where you've stripped away a bunch of proven stuff, but also haven't really committed to one clear future path either. Feels just muddy. Couple other leagues around the move. Uh Justin Fields landing in Kansas City. Quiet move kind of makes sense. It's a great place for a player like that to just breathe a little bit. Not a lot of pressure, learn from Andy Reid. No one's asking him to be the savior. No one's handing him the whole franchise and saying, don't blink. Just sit there, learn, clean some things up, and watch. He'll end up being a Super Bowl winning quarterback or something. The Rashad White in Washington is sneaky. Feels like another move built around not just making life harder than it has to be for Jaden Daniels. Get him another useful piece, keep the offense flexible. Guy runs hard. You know, maybe get the ball out of the young quarterback's hands a little bit. And the AJ Brown stuff is still hanging out there, too, which is just one of those stories that won't die until somebody finally slams the door on it. Part of me wants him nowhere near the NFC East anymore, just so everybody can stop doing the math. Part of me also enjoys the chaos of people talking themselves into the insane offseason possibilities they know probably aren't happening. But yeah, that's sort of where free agency sits for me right now. Week one is always fireworks, week two is like the dust settling. This is the point where you start seeing which teams just were chasing names and which teams actually had a plan. That's what I'm looking for now. So locally, the Jets are still asking you for patience, whereas the Giants are still asking you for trust. Uh, fans understandably either way are not rushing to hand either one out for free. But yeah, that's that's where we are. Now, speaking of prove it time and no room for fake confidence, March Madness is here. And that tournament will humble your bracket and your opinions faster than anything in sports. So let's get into that next for a little bit. Keep it right here for some college hoops. Ah, yes. March madness. The time of the year where it always feels like the whole sports world suddenly decides to gather in the same room. You know, you got the diehards who know every mid-major guard in America, and then you got the rest of the world pretending that they've been locked in on college hoops since Thanksgiving. That's the beauty of the tournament, though. It doesn't really care how much you've watched in January. Once this thing gets going, everybody jumps in at once, and the whole sport gets to shine for the whole month. So the tournament just got going. Uh, we're still a little early here, and to be honest, we don't really cover too much college basketball on this program, but how could you not talk about college hoops during college hoops time? There's only a handful of games have been played, which means nobody fully knows anything just yet, but we do already have the first little reminder of what this event does every single year. It takes teams that looked comfortable on paper and makes them sweat in public. And Duke got that treatment right away. The score might say survive in advance, but if you watched it, it was uncomfortable as hell. Sienna had Duke down 11 at halftime. A 16 seed had a blue blood one seed looking around the room like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are we really doing this right now? But Duke ended up settling in, boozer did what stars do, and the better team got out of there. But that kind of scare sticks with you. You don't just shrug that one off like it didn't happen. It's one thing to win ugly in March. It's another thing when everybody in the country just watched you look very, very mortal against a team that you were supposed to completely bulldoze. That's what I love about this tournament, man. There's nowhere to hide. You don't get to say, yeah, we'll clean it up next week, or, you know, best of seven, best of five, we'll figure them out. Nah, man, you get 40 minutes, and whatever version of yourself shows up in those 40 minutes gets exposed. Wisconsin, well, got the they got the other side of that. They didn't just get scared, they got clipped. High point takes them out by a point, no pun intended. And that's your first real bracket buster right there. That's the game that wrecks a bunch of people's little office pool confidence before the first weekend even really gets going. I mean, Wisconsin was supposed to be the bigger name team, the safer pick, the one people trust because, you know, the logo, the badger. We, you know, oh, Wisconsin's good. None of that matters once the game gets weird late. High point state's in it, makes the winning play, and now everybody who picked Wisco is already staring at their bracket like it betrayed them personally. Like, God damn it, how could I do this to myself again? That's March. That's why this thing works, honestly. That's why this whole tournament works. People love this tournament for the Cinderella stuff, and I get it, but it's really more it's really more than that. It's the speed of the truth. That's what makes it different. You know, in other sports, it takes a while for the truth to show up. In this tournament, it takes about 12 minutes for you to start going, oh God, what did I do? The local one that people are around here are going to care about is obviously St. John's. Uh and this is where the temperature starts rising a little bit, you know? Because now it's not just a random bracket talk. Now it's now it's a team people actually have some emotional investment in. St. John's against Northern Iowa is one of those games where the pressure is not really about the opponent as much as it's about the expectation. You know, you're supposed to handle business. You're supposed to look like the stronger program. You're supposed to act like you belong in the second round before the game even tips. That's when the tournament gets tricky, though. Sometimes the games you're supposed to win are the ones that get in your head the fastest. So that's what I'll be watching with St. John's. Not just whether they win, but how do they look doing it? Do they look settled? Do they look like a team that understands the moment? Do they play loose or do they just play like a team hearing all the outside noise? Those are the little things this tournament exposes immediately. I think Patina will be able to handle it for now, but there's a lot of weight on that St. John's program. But yeah, that's uh that's kind of all I really got right now. That's the early feel for March Madness. I mean, we just got started. There's a few games already in the books, Duke already got a scare, Wisco already got bounced. So the whole bracket has that annual feeling where everybody starts realizing that anything could happen at any time. That's why you people get addicted to it. Nothing is promised, nothing is safe. And reputation lasts right up until the ball goes up. Alright, that's just about it. Let's land this plane, huh? Yes, sir. That's the thread right there. This whole episode really came back to the same idea over and over again. A lot of things can look good on paper. A lot of teams can sound convincing. A lot of plans can make sense when you explain them slow, put some graphics up on the screen, throw from throw a few stats around, sell the upside, sell the dream, all of that. Then the game starts. Then the pressure hits. Then the moment asks you a very simple question. Okay, now show me. That's why this theme worked for me this week. Team USA had all the names in the world and still had to watch Venezuela celebrate on their field. The Knicks are talented enough to make you dream and messy enough to make you nervous. The Jets, the Jets want you to buy the vision. And the Giants want you to trust the build. And both fan bases are sitting there with their arms crossed, going, Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it, man. And March Madness does the same thing that March Madness does every single year. You can show up with a better seed, a bigger name, a cleaner resume, and none of that means a damn thing once the ball gets tipped up. That's sports, man. Potential is fun, but proof is what lasts. And that's life too, if we're being real about it. You know, a lot of people fall in love with the idea of what they could be. A lot of people get addicted to the version of themselves that exists in theory. The dream version, the future version, the once I get this right, once I have more time, once once the conditions are better, once everything lines up version. That version sounds great and all, and it looks good on paper, but the real work starts when it's time to show up as a person before everything is perfect. Before the nerves go away, before the road smooths out, before the timing feels ideal. That's where the truth usually is. Not in what you say you're building, in what you keep building when it gets hard. Not in what you say you want, in what you're willing to prove when nobody's clapping for you. Not in the clean little vision board version of life, in the ugly, imperfect, frustrating real version where you have to still keep moving anyway. You know, the road is almost never smooth. It's usually messy, it's usually inconvenient, and it's usually later than you want it, to be honest. Harder than you expected. A lot less glamorous than it looked in your head or what you thought it could be. You gotta keep going anyway. You gotta trust what you're building. Tighten up what needs to be tightened up, and be honest about where you're falling short, and then get back to work. That's where real confidence comes from. Not from talking yourself into something, from showing yourself that you can actually handle it. So that's where I'll leave it this week. Thank you, as always, for hanging out with me, for tapping in, for voting on the mic checks, for keeping this thing moving every single week. I appreciate it more than you know. So keep following, keep sharing, keep telling your people about the show. You already know where to find me. It's at Rice on the Radio across all the socials. And one more thing before I get out of here, I am gonna do a little standalone fantasy baseball and rolling the dice with rice mini episode over the weekend. So just be on the lookout for that. If you're drafting or betting season-long stuff or just trying to get your brain right before opening day for baseball. But until then, keep your head up, keep your energy right, keep showing love to the people around you. You know, this world needs more good energy, not less. Tell somebody you love them. Tell somebody you appreciate them. Reach out first. Don't always wait for the perfect moment. I am Ian Rice. This has been episode 57 of Rice on the Mics. And I'll catch you guys same time, same place.

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Next week.