04-22-25 KOA Sports Hour 1 with Orlando Franklin

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Orlando, Franklin and Studio Dave's off today.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
What's a big o'.

Speaker 3 (00:03):
Man, I'm chilling Ryan. A little salty today, but a
little salty, Yeah, a little salty, little salty.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
We explained.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
I mean, you watched both games last night. I'm a
little upset. I mean, you know, I told you I'm
everything Toronto first. That's where I grew up, Toronto, Canada.
But I'm definitely all in on all sports Colorado. This
is where I decided to raise my kids and live permanently. So,
you know, a little salty because it's it's so close, right,
I mean it's yeah, you know, I so rather get

(00:32):
blown out in games rather than lose the way both
of our teams lost last night, But great effort by
both teams, and it was a fun watching both of
them compete their butts off last night. So just a
little bit salty because we weren't able to get to
win or split. You know, I thought, worst case scenario
last night, we split and you know, one in one
and I would have been happy with that. But to

(00:53):
go oh for two, A little salty.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, it was one of those deals where I don't know, man,
I I said it yesterday when we were on the
show and and Ryan Harrison, and you just knew that
you're gonna get their best shot, especially Dallas, right, I
mean especially Dallas, that that their entire series was on
the line. If they lose that game, they might be
looking at a sweep coming back here to Colorado, especially
when Landy plays tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
We'll get into that in a seconds, going than I would.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
It looks that way. The roof's going to blow the
top of you that Tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
That's gonna be so electric. Yeah, after three years, incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
I think that's why you kind of hold them back
when you start the series.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Off and out.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Bringing them out in Dallas doesn't help you, you know,
all that much?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
But bringing him out here, think we're gonna lose their much.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
The Clippers Nuggets thing is is fascinating, right, And on
one hand, it's frustrating to lose in the manner in
which they lost because we don't see the Nuggets make
a lot of mental errors, especially took down the stretch.
I gotta be honest, I just think the guy is
tired and is a tough time to be tired because

(02:04):
it's only the second game of your postseason run, but
he looked tired, maybe mentally, maybe physically. This is something
we warned about coming into the season. As the season
wore on, he was playing more minutes than he had
at any point in his career. He was putting up
better numbers than any point in his career. And it's
one of those deals. Man, there's a toll. There's an

(02:25):
absolute toll it takes on you as an athlete, even
if you were the best to ever play your position,
or you're the best in the league currently, it does
not matter if you're playing north of thirty six minutes
per game, and last night he played forty three minutes.
On two nights ago he played forty six minutes. That's
the problem is it eventually takes this toll. It looked

(02:47):
like it took his toll last night on him. He
had seven turnovers. The team had twenty turnovers. They missed,
oh what was it, eight free throws in a game
that you lost by three points in the end. It's
a lot of self inflict With the addition that Kawhi
Leonard decided to turn back time and become the dominant
player that we know he's capable of.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, I mean there's does Kawhi had it in his
eyes last night? There was no stop in him. I
saw his direct benefit because I said everything Toronto, right,
I saw when he brought that championship and one that
one that uh titled with the Raptors a couple of
years back. But I'm picking up what you're putting out
Ryan when you talk about Nicola, because when you have

(03:26):
a guy that's so dominant with the ball and how
he gets his teammates involved and counted for a third
of the turnovers last night, yeah, you think about you know,
is he tired? And I kind of blame coaching on
this because there are games where you look at the

(03:46):
regular season and it's a long regular season, eighty two
games where the Nuggets will match up with the lesser opponent,
and you know that this is a lesser opponent, and
the expectations in a game like that is that, hey,
you know what, same as the Broncos back in twenty
thirteen when we led the league in scoring. Let's see
how fast we could get to this number and then
we're going to rest our starters and we're going to

(04:08):
you know, take our foot kind of off the gas
pedal and allow the younger guys to develop, But in
the regular season, it's not happening like that, like clockwork,
like you would expect a team that has championship aspirations,
and by all means, the Nuggets have had this championship
window for the last half a decade, So you would
expect year after year that a guy like Nicola Jokish,

(04:28):
when you go play a lesser opponent, that hey, maybe
you know he's only going to get twenty five minutes,
but all of a sudden, he ends up with thirty
four and you're like, man, this could come back to
bite us, and we have no choice last exactly because
you still got to go win those years.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
To win those games. He gives you the best chance
to win.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
We know what the splits look like, we know what
the numbers look like when he's on the court, when
he's off the court. And if you're a coach and
you're trying to decide, hey, do we continue to play
Nikola Jokic and get good seating, get these wins that
we absolutely have, or do we rest him understanding that
we're probably to lose those games and when he's not playing,
they tend to lose those games. Now again, it's not everything,

(05:06):
but it's something and it's part of the equation. And
it did seem towards the end there when he had
that rushed shots that he didn't really need to the turnover,
the one that he threw to Kawhi that he was
trying to find Christian Brown or Russell Westbrook.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Who happen to be standing in the same spot.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
I don't know if I actually put that on him
so much is I think that Christian Brown just ran
into the window where he was trying to get it
to Russell and Boyd. Russell, by the way, hit a
couple of Morse threes in this game. Honestly, he's doing
everything you could possibly ask him to do in the
twenty three minutes. But anyways, I didn't want to interrupt you.
I just wanted to say that it is a tough
decision to make. Let me ask you something, though, and

(05:43):
it's fascinating how twenty four hours can shift things. Right
yesterday we're talking about, you know, one to zero in
both those series. Feeling really good about the Spot, I
felt even better about the ASS. I still feel good
about the ASS. The Nuggets are feel great about that
a little bit lesser if the Nuggets lose in the
first round, like they get bounced in the first round
by the Clippers. The Clippers are good teams, not to

(06:04):
say that it couldn't happen or shouldn't happen to.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Those kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Are we going to look back on the decision to
fire Michael Malone right before the postseason and say that
they had an impact a negative impact?

Speaker 3 (06:16):
No, I don't think that. I think it is what
it is. Once you decide to move on for your coach.
As a locker room, it's hey, next man up. In
all of sports, right, Ryan, it's help. But when you
have those coaches that are underneath that coach, you tend
to do the same things that your coach, the head

(06:38):
coach was doing anyways, Right, there might be a tweak
or two, but for the most part, it's it's same script.
When John Fox had the heart issue and then Jack
Delrio stepped in, you think Jack touched the offense. Jack
just said, hey, Goose, Adam Gase, you got the keys
to the offense. I'm gonna go run this defense. The
only thing different is that I got to sit in

(06:59):
these meetings now on Friday, when the TV cruise and
all that comes in. That was it. You know, you
don't really change a lot of things, so do I
think you know, for the players that you know, it's
in the back of their mind, absolutely, because I believe
that everybody on that roster loves a coach like Michael Malone. Right.
I was with DeAndre Jordan a couple of days before
the fire and playing a little poker game, you know,

(07:21):
with some buddies.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
You know, having poker player.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean poker is all about bluffing,
all right, So as long as you got that down,
you're good to go.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Itterally answer the question.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
I think that DeAndre is he's conservative. He's a very
not a lot of bluffing going on. He's going to
stay in the hand if it has it right. Yeah,
when he's in, he's in. And and then depending on
how aggressive you got versus you know, what's going on
with the with the different cards that are turned over,
you might get out right market player. I am a
very aggressive poking brother, and okay, sometimes that has worked

(07:55):
out really well, and that sometimes that has me buying
back in and thirty minutes into this thing, right, So
it all depends on the night, so he beats you.
I ended up leaving and I ended up okay, I
bought back in, but I ended up losing. I think
when it was all said and done, I ended up
down about sixty bucks in the whole entire same way.
You know, we're playing. There's about ten guys in the basement,

(08:16):
about eight guys are playing, the other two a guy
to put some ping pong going on, and we're kind
of rotating in and having a blast, right, And this
was when we were watching the National Championship, but a
couple of weeks ago, literally like a couple of days
before the fire, right, So but you know, you hear
how these guys talk about Mike Malone and they believe
in that coach so is in the back of their

(08:37):
mind absolutely, But at the same time, in the game
of just professional sports, and even when once you get
I think passed like the college, once you get into
the college level, it always becomes this next man up attitude,
like that's the foundation, that's what you got to have,
that's the mindset. And yeah, our guys hurting, our guys
wondering what for coach Malone is doing or what would

(08:59):
you coach Malone? Have done in this situation, maybe he
calls a quick timeout to make a substitution change at
that when the minutes are dwindling down. But at the
same time as well, you know, you look at some
of these younger guys and he assistant head coach. Yeah,
you're not really going to change up a lot of
things because you've already had a good product and product
is in the postseason. Now, if you had a really

(09:20):
really crappy product and the product was not good, yeah,
you blow things up and you kind of go in
a completely different direction. But you look at Nicola jo
Kitchen and kind of the format and how he plays
his minutes, it's still pretty much the same.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well, you know that part is the same.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
One thing I could point to from last night, and
it's been a subject of discussion and debate, is the
final time, the opportunity to call a final timeout. Before
Christian Brown had a look at a three pointer and
then Nicolai Yoka should have a lesser look at a
three pointer.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
It was more of just a desperation heave.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
But that was a moment where you have one side
of people arguing you're in transition, there's no reason to
call time out there, because then you allow the Clippers
to set up their defense and maybe they follow you
before you get a chance to take that shot. On
the other side of things, they didn't look all that prepared,
and a time out would have allowed you to put

(10:11):
Michael Porter Junior back in, which would have been a
better three point look possibly, and he'd been out of
ether good game, so that it maybe a better three
point look than Christian Brown.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Which is not to say Christian Brown can't hit those things.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
It's just not really part of his game that we
we lean on him very.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Much for, if that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, and it's your damned if you do, damned if
you don't type of situation, right.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
And Michael Malone, Michael Malone have called that time out.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
But behind closed doors, how do we know that Michael
Porter Junior was ready to go in that moment? It
was Winston. I get that it hit the ground pretty
hard and he made it, you know, like, hey, I'm
hurting right now. That's that's something that we don't know
because you got to be behind closed doors to understand that.
Maybe Michael alone already kind of toll coach, like, hey,
I don't know, I don't know if I could get

(10:56):
that left arm up, and I know that it's not
as shooting hand. You know, it happened kind of on
the left side of the body. But at the same time,
when you look at shoot at a basketball, especially as
a seven foot guy, you're always taught it releasing that
at the highest point right to not get that thing blocked.
And maybe in a moment like that, you don't trust
yourself because you haven't done it and you know that
you're getting a little bit banged up.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
It just feels like again and we get a chance
to react to this after the fact. It's always after
the fact, because if Christian Mowin makes that three, you're
probably headed to overtime, and then who knows what's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
The Nugget's one overtime.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
A couple of nights before last night, it didn't work,
and sometimes you hey, you take the shot and it
doesn't work, that it doesn't work out. I just thought
that was one of my first immediate thoughts after the game,
was like, Okay, Michael Malone might have called the time
out there, maybe just to get the right personnel on
the floor because you had Christian Brown largely in there.
For his defense. I mean, he certainly wasn't in there
for his offense last night. He was in there for

(11:50):
his defense, which is great. Fine, It's a good role
for him to not expect a lot of him offensively
because you have Jamal, you have MPG, you have Yokich,
you have AG, have Westy coming off the bench, you
have all those those firepower on the.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Offensive side of the ball.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Which you really need is Christian Brown just to be
hustle points and blake defense. Well, if he's the guy
taking the three, and if I'd have told you that, hey,
you're down by three, who.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Do you want taking the shot?

Speaker 1 (12:13):
You probably would have gotten five or six names down
the list before you said, hey, you know Christian Brown.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, nobody can see that coming. Yeah, that's what I said.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Before I'm saying Ag before Christian Brow is the position.
Absolutely all of them.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
I would have literally picked almost anybody else, maybe even Westy,
who's been pretty hot, especially from the quarter. That's kind
of where I'm coming from. Is not to say I
get a chance to react to this in hindsight, but
to say that maybe Michael Malone already knows that and
wants to put his team in a position to have
the best look they can.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Maybe you miss it. Maybe it's Jamal and you miss it.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
You know what, that's gonna happen, But at least it
was Jamal taking that shot.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
And it also allows you to run a set play right, Yes,
you know, like even if it's you know, we always
talk we're always going to look at personnel first. But
you know what, have the nuggets been really good that
for time and time again we don't see it as
often as we've seen it in the past. Is that
you know that two man game with Nikola Yokich and
Jamal Murray right and being able to create the matchup
and then how many times have we seen now the

(13:11):
penetration in the middle of that's in the middle of
the defense, and now it forces the defense that condense
where you get a little bit more of an open
look shot where you're you're taking some contested look shots
or if you don't, you know, set it up in
a situation like that. So yes, absolutely right there with you.
But until I know what was said with Michael Porter

(13:33):
Junior in that moment, you know, because I am looking
at him, you know, this is the old football meathead, right,
I was a offensive lineman. Right, so they're expected to go, right,
are you injured? Are you hurt? Basketball players are completely
different human beings. I know that, But at the same time,
to me, it looked like Michael Porter Junior, there was

(13:53):
no way in hell he could have took in another shot.
So I gotta trust that in that moment, and that
was not communicated and there was hey I coach, Yeah,
I'll be good, or you know, a little bit of
role playing and trying to sell it for the referees. Yes,
that's a learning moment now for that coaching staff, right,
whatever happens moving forward, it's a very much a learning

(14:16):
moment where you should have probably called the time out.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Well, there's a possibility there.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
To your point, there might have been a possibility there
that at least you're you're putting him back out there,
and the Clippers have to respect the fact.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
That he can make shots from range.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
But again, we've seen it back with the Super Bowl, right,
TD right, tack in the Migraine, Right, you just we
doesn't need you out there.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
The fact he's out there makes you as a defense
play a certain way. That's really what it is. And
so we'll see if he's available for Thursday. I'm a
little less worried about the avalanche. Honestly, where the abs
come in. First of all, the Stars were in absolute desperation.
Credit to them for even battling back in this game.
There are multiple times where not only Mackenzie Blackwood, who's

(14:56):
been sensational to the first two games, absolute put the
team on his back. They should have won this one.
By the way, that LLC backhand shot for the third
goal was so unbelievably sick.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, I still.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
I mean, you think about how good these guys are
and how they can contort their bodies, and I mean
Nathan McKinnon continues to defy every possible expectation. But LC
logo'connor with a guy draped over him to backhand that
shot in coming down right there in front of the
crease was just silly.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah. You know what I said in that moment last night, Ryan,
I said, oh man, I can't wait till the offseason,
when you know you see these top one hundred plays
from the NHL this past year.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
That's gotta be one of all that's going to be
in the top five.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Right.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
The shots were seeing, I.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Mean the arterary liking, and if he was a got
that one to go later on in that game, that
would have been sick too, as he kind of fell
down and was able to regain his balance. I don't
think people respect how hard it is to get up
off your knees on ice and lose virtually no speed
in a situation like that, Dallast was desperate, and that's
what what what I wrote down with watching this game.

(16:03):
You know, I like to watch games with the TV
mute it to for my own opinion. Dallas looked desperate
and they were digged in and credit to them yesterday.
You know, I look at you know, Miko's Miko's penalty
laid in that one against Manson, and I kind of
get it in that situation, and I thought Miko played
a heck of a game. He was trying to get

(16:23):
back and you know, you could tell it means a
lot to him. And then you also look at he
struggled not to Shane, you know, and for another former
av and and how he played yesterday, and the Jamie
benn and guys, they you grown to love their style
of hockey and the physicality they played. I looked at
two teams that were physical two teams that they kind

(16:43):
of put it all out there, uh and and gave
it everything that they got. And when I look at Dallas,
you look at overtime, and the Avs had it on
Dallas's end for so long underneath that blue line that
is the game, and the clock kept on taking. I
just said, the Dads are going to lose this one.
This team is a little bit more desperate, and.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
They played that w in the third period and over time.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, but I'm okay with it. I feel very confident
in the Abs and their ability to bounce back and
just the storyline. If Gabe's able to go tomorrow, the
roof will be blown off a ball wall arena. And
I just don't see them losing this series. You know,
when you erace the four games, I don't see Dallas

(17:23):
happen enough to compete with the Abs.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
They really don't. They're banged up.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
The Ads are deeper too, Like that's something we have
been able to say in the last couple of years.
The Aves are a deeper team. I'm not worried really
at all about them. I'm worried about the Nuggets. And
it's like nothing new. Dave if he was sitting here,
and he'll be put back with us tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
He would be. Of course you're worried about him. I'm
always worried about the Nuggets.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
But I think that's a worry really stems from the
fact that Nikole Yokish is the best player in franchise history,
and you're in the window right now with him, and
it doesn't feel like And that's why I asked you
the question about Michael alone, because it doesn't feel like
they are best positioned to win right now. So you
think you had the best player on the planet, arguably,

(18:04):
and you're not in a great position to win another championship,
and you may never get back into that window. I
don't know what they're going to do in the offseason,
but they're gonna have to make some changes.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
If you get bounced in the first round. They made
some changes with the coaching staff. Okay, fine, all right,
we'll see how it plays out.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
But if you get bounced in the first round, my
first question will be like, Okay, could you have made
this work with Michael Malone till the end of the season.
And if you get bounce in the first round either way,
well then that's what it is. And you're going to
move on from him anyways. But now the message you
tend to send when you fire a coach is we
are not happy with the direction that things are going.

(18:38):
And that could be just more of a front office
coaching direction, that could be a player personnel direction.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
And you, as a former player, I imagine you guys
would feel that in the locker room.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Hey, the coaches got fired.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah. When I look at the Nuggets, it's identity. It's
all about their identity. Who are you as a basketball team?
And if you're constantly searching and like, oh the Nuggets
are this or or they're that, they don't have that
staple way of winning. Right Like me, I know my identity, right,
I Ryan. I like to go to the bathroom. I

(19:11):
like to stand up when I go to the bathroom.
But guess what when I go to sleep at night,
I'm gonna sit down when I go to the bathroom
because it's nighttime.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
A lot of information.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Hey, man, you know this is a trust circle. Man.
You know, nobody's it's not like we're on live radio
or anything else, right, but you know, in the middle
of the night, and I'm not turning on the light.
I'm not trying to like aim in the middle of
the toilet. I'm not trying to get my wife to
yell at me either. So I like to pop a
squad and take a seat in the middle of the night.
I know my identity when I look at the Nuggets,
I'm constantly questioning the identity.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, that's a good way to look at like who
are you? And especially who are you without Nikoliokic? Yeah,
because it's just not a very good team. Once again,
you look at it sort of bride if they blow
out the Clippers. It's a funny thing with the playoffs, right,
you blow out the Clippers on Thursday night, and all
of a sudden we swing back the other way and say,
not worried at all. This team is gonna be just fine.

(20:01):
But I don't think that's gonna happen if you were
gonna If I'm gonna tell you what I think is
gonna happen, I think I've said I think it's gonna
go seven the whole whole way through, and I think
they're all gonna be like this, like final minute, final
two minutes of the game are gonna really dictate almost
everything that happens now, it's gonna be within one or
two baskets one way or the other. And I mean
you saw I think it was like almost fifteen lead

(20:22):
changes last night. Wouldn't be shocked if the rest of
the series is exactly like that.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
It was almost better like one Saturday when they were down, right,
I mean there were about down fifteen points at one point.
Looked like it was gonna be a blowout. Just look
at that basketball team and a lot of it. I'm
not a Micaeh Porter junior hater. I'm not because I
think the young man has a lot of skill, a
lot of talent, and he can dominate. I love the
fact of him giving us fifteen rebounds last night. I

(20:47):
believe it was six offensive class, right. I mean, and
what you're supposed to do right night in night out.
You're seven feet tall, Let's go get it. Let's go
dunk that ball when we're in the middle of the key, right,
let's go when you can do some things. I love
when he went up and got the put back, right.
I mean, you see certain things that I'm saying that

(21:08):
that's the Michael Porter junior that I want to see
night in night out and then I see Saturday and
I'm like, what the heck is Michael Porter Junior? Right,
So it's so the ups and downs, ebbs and flows
is so big, and when you have a guy where
he's a part of your big three, he's a part
of the franchise. He's one of those guys that you say,
hey when you think about Nuggets basketball. He's one of

(21:29):
those staple names as well. And it's so far it's
such a problem for the organization. So you know, I
think it's consistency. You got to find a way to
be more consistent and whatever what was said the Michael
Porter Junior before yesterday's basketball game, Can you find a
way to lock in for the rest of this series
and give the same amount of output because we're gonna

(21:50):
the Nuggets need Michael Porter Junior to be double digits
at rebounding. If you could get that every game moving
forward for this series, the Nuggets come out top and
get past the first round. Even though I know they
lost last night.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
I'm a little worried if he's gonna be playing even Thursday,
because you said he was wincing there on the sideline.
So things to be watching, all right, we're often only here.
On Tuesday, we got the NFL Draft coming up right
around the corner, and get into that coming up on
the other side, Orlando Franklin, Ryan Edwards, as Is Kaway,
extremely aggressive poker play.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
I don't know if you can a chance to play
a big Al ever.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
I Betty, I have never played cards a big ol,
but no, Big Al's personality. Been around Big Al for
a long time.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Not surprised, right, but it does not surprise.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Me one bit.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
And I am much more in the vein of the
patient DeAndre Jordan, like if I'm in the hand, to
probably have something. If I'm not in the hand, bluff
every so often, you sort of have to pick your
position on the table, that type of thing.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
Again.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
I know people are tuning in for our poker tips.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
I'm just saying, like a lot of this table positioning
about when you're gonna be aggressive, when you're not. It's
fascinating to watch if you just sit there sort of
just watch people's mannerisms. That's my favorite part, just to
see the guys that just want to bully stack you
the entire time, or the ones that are sort of
sitting back and reserved and just kind of enjoying the process.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Well, when you find a guy that just sits there
and is constantly trying to build you and constantly trying
to bluff, I think that makes the game so much
more interesting because you have to be so strategic on
what am I going to stay in and what am
I going to get out, and just makes you think
a little bit, I'm not going to sit here and
act like I'm a poker grew. I just started playing
the game about three years ago, right, some little private
games here, a little fun game here. This person's having

(23:34):
a game, having some friends over. And I was the
guy up until a year ago, Ryan that I would
google you know, hands, good starting hands for poker, and
I'll come in and have that on my phone to
screenshot it. Make it my background saver just in case,
you know, make it sure I have easier access to it.
But yeah, poker is a fun game, and it's a
nice pastime if you're not aggressive. If you're aggressive, he'd

(23:57):
be out of there really quick.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Out there really quick, or you double triple up and
then you can sort of, you know, enjoy that.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
For a little while.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, house money at that point, Well, bet.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
We got the NFL Draft coming up on Thursday. I'm
obviously very excited about it. I can't wait. We're gonna
be broadcasting once again at the Broncos facility. We have
all sorts of really cool exclusive contentest checking with the
coach at the GM, We'll have interviews with the prospects
as they're drafted by the Broncos. We have some really
cool interviews as Susie Wargin did with people like Peyton
Manning and Von Miller that we're gonna be sort of

(24:26):
sprinkling in throughout. So again, our cover starts at six
o'clock on Thursday. We're gonna go wire to wire the
whole way through, not only on Kawa, but also on
our sister station, kay How when the Rockies are on.
So I can't wait for all of that. And this
is the time of year. Orlando and I were talking
about it off air, the Smoke Screen season, the lying season,
talking out of both sides of your mouth. Yesterday we

(24:48):
had Ian Rappaport on again, just a reporter.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
He's just telling us what he's hearing.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
He told us that he heard the Broncos might be
trading up in the draft for a wide receiver. You
had Adam Schefter earlier in the day saying, here, the
might be train.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Enough for running back. There's a reason those other things
get out.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Today you had Peter Schreger on ESPN saying that he's
hearing teams are calling the Browns and the Giants about
moving into the top three.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
There have been phone calls made to both the Browns
at two and the Giants add three with the intention
to move up from several different sources telling me there
are teams who are looking to get up in this
draft to either the two or the three spot, the
assumption being to move up to the two or the
three spot, it would be four Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter,

(25:32):
or the running back Ashton Genty, who everyone expects to
go somewhere in that five to seven to eight range.
There have been teams making calls, and those teams are
not immediately.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Slamming down the phone.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
The Browns at two, the Giants add three. Everyone assumes
it's gonna be chalk, that this is gonna go cam Ward,
it's gonna go Travis Hunter, it's gonna go Abdul Carter.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Not so fast.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
I think the two spot gets very interesting if the
Browns are listening to a god father deal for them
to trade back and someone to trade up into the
top three.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
I mean, I just think it's fun. I don't really
think anything's really gonna come of that. But I think
that you're not doing your job as a GM if
you're not making those calls, if you're not doing the
due diligence. George Payton famously finds out the price on everything,
and oftentimes he gets linked to players when they don't
really have that legitimate of interest. The Cup was an
example of that. They were going they were hey, what's

(26:24):
the price? Hey t Higgins, what's the price? You're finding out?
As as we heard from multiple reports yesterday, the Broncos
might be moving up in the drift. I honestly continue
to say, I think that's just George reaching out to
these teams saying, Hey, so if we wanted to move
up to say Picked twelve with the Dallas Cowboys or
say picked him with the Chicago Bears, what would it
cost us to do that? And what are you guys

(26:48):
going to be and what are you looking for? Those
kinds of things, And all of a sudden that gets
to the insiders and they go Oh, the Broncos are
moving up. I don't know if that's the case, Orlando.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
I think you would be a fool and you would
be not doing your job if you're GM and you
did it inquire about moving up or moving back every
single year. So I like how George Peyton operates. But
if I'm a NFL GM, right and I have I

(27:21):
have a PICKX one through five, I'm not even waiting
for other teams to call. I'm calling other teams to saying, hey,
is there any interest of you moving up? Do you
have any interest? I would have figured this out like
the Super Bowls done, you know, right after get the
Super Bowls done, it's kind of locked in as far
as draft order at that point. That's when I'm started

(27:41):
to make phone calls if I was a football team,
a lousy football team, right, because typically you got to
be very lousy defended to have those top five picks.
It takes a lot to overhaul a roster. It takes
a lot to get a roster that truly has the talent.
And you know, I'm a big believer that every single
year there's only about eight or ten teams that truly

(28:04):
have a roster that is going to win a Super Bowl. Sorry, fans,
I know that every single year you think that your
team's gonna win it, but that's just how the NFL is.
And yet still you have to get lucky in those situations.
You have to get lucky with injuries, you got to
get lucky with the bulls, bounce in this way with
a call, whatever the case may be. But if you're
a GM, that's a part of the job is to

(28:25):
inquire about moving up or moving back. And I would
be doing it whether I was, you know, the first
roll pick or even if I was the thirty first, right,
I mean, because at thirty second you just won. You
just won the whole thing at that point. And I
still think that you got to inquire because what happens

(28:46):
after you win a Super Bowl. You see a lot
of guys peace out, see you later because they're getting
ready to go get paid with another team. Right, So
I think that that should be a requirement. And a
part of the job is a GM where you're making
those phone calls and us just havenen like conversation. Maybe
nothing comes from it, but you definitely should know what

(29:07):
it's going to take going into this week. You don't
wait to do your degensions when a team's on the
clock or right before a team gets on the clock. No,
you should know exactly where the possibilities are.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Well, and that will lead to either trades before the draft,
which we haven't seen any This is by far the
latest we've ever gotten in the draft era, where teams
all own their individual their original picks. Like this has
never happened in the history of the NFL draft, and
I think it's late letting people feel a little uncomfortable
with how quite it's been. And so we get moments

(29:39):
like this where Peter Schreger saying, hey, there's teams actively
trying to move up. If they're actively trying to move up,
they're just seeing, Hey, we're two days away from the draft.
How good are you feeling about your spot now. The Titans,
they came out today and said we're staying to one.
They didn't say who they're picking, but we all at
this point assumes can became ward. But two and three,
according to Peter Schreger, are still fielding calls. They're not

(30:01):
hanging up on people, which I find sort of interesting
at least because the belief in this draft is that
the top three maybe even four players, but especially the
top three players are all kind of in that one
tier of like these could be franchise altering players. Abbill, Carter,
Travis Hunter, and cam Ward of this draft, those are

(30:22):
the top three guys.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
So it's natural to say why teams want to be
in that range.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
But I don't know if I'd want to come off
of one of those picks if I'm these other teams, unless,
of course, you're bringing up the point of you need
more draft capital, you need more you need better players.
You're the Browns, you're the Giants, you need more talents
on your roster, and the only way to do that
is really to come off of those top picks. But
the fact is, you come off those top picks, you
do lose out on what is perceived as franchise altering players.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
No, and guess what sometimes so be it. You know,
you look at some teams that Philadelphia got there this year,
but look at the roller coaster ride that they just
incurred before that, right and last year you know, ten
and one football team, and look how many games they lost,
and it's like it just hit the wall and the

(31:09):
wheels fell off. So anything could happen in the game
of football. But that's why you owe it to yourself
to make those phone calls a guy that always I
have in the back of my mind when you start
talking about draft order and what you should do, and
especially because this player is absolutely balling right now, and
I think CJ. Stroud has a lot of success and
should point at him because of it. Larmie Tunsel and

(31:30):
where he was supposed to go on draft and that
video coming out with him with the I believe it
was a mask and there was some kind of he
was smoking something that's very legal here in Colorado, but.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
It was rough time his stock drastically right.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
And if you're a team.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
And you could go move up, that's right.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
I'm not on the show often enough to do what
that means. Whoa, oh, I.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Know what that sound is now?

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sound that sound.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
And by the way, you know, any of the top
draft picks, if they end up wanting to put those
videos out to help the Broncos get them, no problem
with that. If you just want to literally cut it
off right there, that's part of GM's job is to lie.
It's actually I mean yes to a certain extent, right,
and you poker Face as the point of the song

(32:21):
you end up playing there. Ryan Polls, the GM of
the Bears. He was quoted today saying, I think this
is draft. He thinks this draft is going to be
a little wild. We're going to be prepared for all
different scenarios that could pop up. There's going to be
a lot more movement than there has been in the past.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
You just said it in the last segment, right talking
about you know, this is the first time in a
long time in the NFL where everybody's kind of going
into this thing with the same draft order as they
were as they.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Had so everybody owns their original picks.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
So yeah, you phrase it so much better than me.
Oh that's all I had to do right there.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Everybody has their I was just adding, you know, color
commentary to what you said that.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, no, thank you. I mean I appreciate it. You know,
sometimes you know, a lot goes on in the brain,
you know, too many hits, too many concussions. But I
think that when it is quiet, that a storm could
be coming in a situation, in a scenario like that
where we can see a lot of movement because everything
has been Hey, we're just going to kind of wake

(33:21):
this thing out, We're going to weigh it down, and
then it just takes one domino to fall and then
you see a chain reaction, right because it changes up
as soon as one team moves up and now, oh,
this team needed that person, that team need GM's. It's
going to become a frenzy where now you got to
get on the phone and that's where you could potentially
see a lot of people moved and a lot of

(33:41):
you know, hey, we've been trying to move this guy
behind closed doors, haven't been able to But now it's
draft night and teams know that we were trying to
do this, so can we get a deal done?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
And to that point, oftentimes it seems prohibitive to trade
up because of the cost, but maybe just ends up
being one of those drafts as we've been kind of
laying out, because there's so many teams that are actually
kind of trying to move back, maybe the market sets
up nicely for a team that.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Wants to be aggressive for a player.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Again, it's not to say that the reports and the
rumors of the Broncos being aggressive to move up are
actually true. Sometimes those are put out there again to
be a bit of a smoke screen, so other teams
will take the players that you don't want, maybe a
wide receiver that you don't want, because then the running
backs that you do want or the defensive lineman that
you do want are going to fall to you a
pick twenty. There's a multiple reasons why these things get

(34:32):
out there, but the point of it is is if
the Broncos decided ultimately that they want to be aggressive,
they want to move up and target a player, maybe
the cost won't be as significant as it was in
years past when there are so many teams that are
being aggressive for quarterbacks. Because this is the draft where
if you're going to be aggressive, as you heard from
Peter Schrager going up for two to three, you're not doing.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
That for a quarterback. This isn't that season.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
This isn't the year where you're being aggressive because you
got to go find your guy at quarterback. You're being
aggressive because you're trying to find a blue chip player.
In this case, that the Broncos wanted to be aggressive
for a specific player, say O mari and Hampton for example,
maybe Ashton Jenny somehow gets to pick ten or beyond, Well,
then what you can do is you leverage the market inefficiency,
if you will, of teams that aren't really prepared to

(35:15):
move up for quarterbacks. Nobody's making trades because there's just
not a market to do it. And now you get
to set the market on Hey, we'll give you this
because you want to move back, and you don't have
to fleece us because you're not getting other calls. Nobody
else is calling you. We're the only ones calling you.
And if you want to move back or not, do
you want to add draft capital or not, We're not
going to get fleece in the situation because there's really

(35:37):
not a market for it.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, and I think that when
you look at Philadelphia. I've always said this, right, the
NFL copycat league, right, And we're going to constantly see
teams try to implement now what we saw at Vic
Fangio and that Philadelphia defense, and how do you beat
Patrick Mahomes And I know the short note of Buffalo's
buying in, right, We're going to get Joey Bosa and

(35:59):
free agency and beefing up that defensive line to try
to figure out a way how do we rush four?
And our four is going to be batter than the
five offensive linemen, and now we're going to be able
to drop seven versus the five options that Patrick Mahomes has, right, So,
you know, you look at that, but you also look
at the fact of Philadelphia the last couple of years,

(36:19):
generational talent on that defensive line right now might have
not been necessarily the big pick that the city wanted,
or maybe people were like, man, really, but it was
a heck of a job and going against going to
get some guys where they stood up in that Super
Bowl and they were guys that you could count on
and they were going to do their job, and they

(36:39):
just whoop the person's butt that was in front of
them for the whole entire game, from the first whistle
to the last whistle. So you look at that as
a GM and you say, man, you know what, can
we find a way to do this? And if you
could move up to get a generational player, I don't
care what you got to give up, you got to
go do it. If you think that that player is
that guy, go and get that guy.