Mully & Haugh Show
Full Show — September 25, 2024
(phone ringing) - Wake up, wake up. Mike Mulligan, David Ha. (upbeat music) - This is the D-Shill. This is gonna be the one they remember. - We will have special basketball guests. - Tune in to room 530 to 10. That's when we're on. And the Blue Cross Blue Shield performance stage will be our home. We'll be joined by Billy Donovan. - Can we have hard conversations? - And our tourists, Carna Shovis. - Good morning, Mike and Dave. How's everything? - Day of the Bulls will be joining us during the eight o'clock hour. And it's all brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois through it all. And by Schmaltz Dally, spreading Dally goodness everywhere. So we'll be talking to Billy and A.K. - I'm very excited. Can't you tell? I'm very happy. - And I mean, think about Billy, was a great player back in the day. - A.K. played in Lithuania. He's a guy that played good college ball. You're from Indiana. We got a lot of basketball stuff. (laughing) - I'm from Indiana. - He's an Indiana boy. - That's my best throw you, Mitchell. - I threw you in with him. - Thank you. - I appreciate that. - That was hilarious. - Start your mornings with Mully and Haw, 530 till 10 a.m. On 6.70, the score. - This group is really good. - Let's go. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Mully and Haw Chicago Sports Radio 6.70, the score, hiccup there. (laughing) First hiccup in the morning. - Mully, yeah. That's all right. Here we go. - How 'bout them white socks? - How 'bout them white socks. - Break up the white socks. - Yes. We're here to talk Bulls. We're gonna welcome in Billy Donovan in our tourist, Karna Shovis and a studio audience, but we gotta start with the white socks. - Well. - That was one amusing night. - Yeah, guaranteed right field. - It was great. I had a buddy who called me up and he had an extra ticket and he was prodding me to go. And I'm like, why would I lose a night's sleep going there? Watching that. Oh, history, you gotta go for the history. And then I sat at home and I watched the rain delay. And I thought of this clown. - You watched the rain delay. - I did. - You sat for the hour of a rain delay. - And I was just chuckling to myself so that he was getting rained upon. And then sure enough, they come back and they rally and they win. - And people who stayed did see history. - Denied. - Well, in a way, no, it was realized. That was the first time in 94 games. - They've come back. - That the white socks came back and won a game after trailing, after the seventh inning. So they were rewarded not for why they maybe went to the ballpark, but they waited it out and they were rewarded with, dare I say, the best night of the white sock season? - That was the best night of the season. - No, it was. - It was the wettest night of the season. - It was the wettest. - It was not the best night of the season. They haven't had any best nights of the season. It was good that they just, it was very white socks that they ruined the party, right? I mean, that's all it was. It was just a bunch of guys that somehow spoiled the party. The angels, white socks, the white socks. - The angels are pretty bad. - They are very bad. And dropping a fly ball is the perfect way that the white socks take advantage of the opportunity to win a game after trailing again in the late innings. - I don't even remember the guy's name. I didn't write it down, but that guy hit his first career home run and then he costs them the game by dropping a pop-up. - Lopez, beautiful, Lopez. - Yeah, the second baseman, he drops the fly ball. He hit a homer earlier and it almost was the perfect white socks ending though. You knew that there was that one play that was a microcosm of the entire season and it was the infield pop-up that fell between four white socks fielders. The pitcher of the catcher, the third baseman, the first baseman, nobody called it, nobody caught it. It falls, it's a single. And you know that, and I was watching that and you're thinking like, that's how you lose. That's going to be, it didn't lead to a run, but that would be the play that all the highlight shows show, you know, focused on and said, the white socks lost their 121st victory, much the way they lost the first 120 and they see the ball fall between four white socks fielders. But it's a moot point. They won. - Yeah. - They rallied. - Yeah. - Grady size more. - Yeah, five more. - All you need. - All you need. - That's right. - You can really spoil the party. - They're going to sweep the angels now. That's it, as he said. - I mean, even if you sweep the angels, you're still going to lose out. I mean, the socks are so bad. And this record was lost months ago. So this idea that now we're waiting for history, and you know, again, I got another buddy who's kind of like, hey, do you know anyone going to the game? I want to get a ticket just to have the ticket 'cause it's a moment. And I'm like, do they even use tickets anymore? Like, the last few times I've gone to a baseball game, I've had something on my device. I have not had like, I can't-- - I don't know that I've seen a hard ticket in a long time. - Yeah. - Yeah, I don't think that they maybe use them. Does anybody here have-- - Anybody have seen some-- - Experience with a hard ticket. I don't think so. - I don't send you the block to take this anymore. - Yeah, but you don't go, you get something when you go. You bring something home from the experience. You buy one of your $1.21 campfire milkshakes. - Yeah, you bring back six pounds for that. - Did they try that? Did they do, did they go with our promotion idea? - I don't know. - $1.21 gets a campfire milkshake and a hot dog. - Yeah, I don't think so. - I don't think they-- - 121 cents. - I think they're trying to get themselves some money. - So what happens tonight then? - The dogs were there. - They go to the whole thing all over it. - It was a dog day. - They were eating the dogs. - No, they didn't happen. That would have been perfect though. - Well, I wondered if they would have canceled dog night because of the history that was, you know, there to be made. They had to, because of the rain, the dogs couldn't run the track, right? The dogs couldn't go out on the field. - And-- - There were a lot of disappointed canards. - A lot of disappointed dogs. Plus, imagine the smell at the ballpark. Anyone has a dog, wet dog smell? Oh, that'll ruin, that'll ruin a lot of nights. So it was just a bad night, but a great night for the white socks. I do maintain it was the highlight of the season. - That's a great night for the white socks. - Yes, it was. - I can't get on board with that. - They came back. They did something last night. They had not done all season long. - More of an indictment than a celebration in one reporter's opinion, if I may. - Well, they go back at it tonight. - Hell. - So we'll see if they can make history tonight. - I kind of hope they wait for the afternoon game. Is that weird? - I hope they wait until next, I hope they don't break it. I hope now they go on a winning streak to end the season. I know that's unlikely, I know it's improbable, but tonight they have Davis Martin's thrown tonight against the Angels again. And tomorrow, if they do it tomorrow, it's Gary Crochette. - Isn't it? - Yeah, Gary Crochette's a day game. I don't want Gary Crochette to go home and go into the off-season on a downer. You want him to go on a good note, so he says goodbye and like, you know, he remembers the last night. - Just another former white socks pitcher who's going to be vying for a sigh of young somewhere. Like Chris Sale, Rodon, Dylan Sees. And now the Lopez. My goodness, that's a rotation. Michael Copac can get the save. Yikes. Lot of good X-white socks pitchers all around. - It's been a year. - Hey, speaking of X-white socks, before we get off of this. - Please. - Did you see where Aloy Jimenez got options? - Yeah, I think bummed me out a little bit. 'Cause didn't he say that it was going to be great to play post-season baseball? - I don't think he's going to be playing post-season baseball. - No, no, I think he's in AAA. I don't think he's going to make the playoffs roster. - Yeah, that's what it sounds like. - That's not exactly going out in the lab. - At least he didn't get Kimbreld. - How did that, well, he said-- - They got rid of Kimbreld. They caught him. - They kind of get, they did Kimbreld him. I think they put him-- - They sent him down. - He accepted the assignment apparently because he wants to stay in the organization, but that is a rapid fall from Grace. I know that he is, was a, you know, a walking injury here and a guy that was just always hurt. - Hi, Mom. - He's always happy. - He had to like the guy, right? Even if he couldn't play. - He's got to like, hard guy to figure out because he just, injuries kept getting in the way. - Hi, Mom. - But look how quickly, look how quickly some of these, I don't mean to torch you this one. This is like the-- - I have added. - It's the aftermath of the greatest night in the White Sox season. - I opened hopes and dreams. - Alloy falls off the map. Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, what happens to these guys? - Yeah. - There's two go, these are some of the, that core was something that made you smile. Now it's like, hmm. - Well, I mean, in fairness, Abreu is probably like in his early 50s. I mean, God knows how old he really is. Tim is just, that's, you gotta be befuddled by that. - That's a mystery. That's a big mystery. - So a mystery wrapped in an enigma sitting in a box. - That's a big mystery. Last night, they could've gone to Yo and Mancata. He's another guy. - Yeah. Why didn't they go to Yo and Mancata? - They didn't need him. They came back anyway. - They're afraid he might actually return. Don't they have an option on his services for like 23 million. - They can buy him out for $5 million, I believe. - Right. - Yeah, that's the most likely. - So you'd rather do that than pick up another year or-- - Yeah, that's not gonna happen. So they're gonna move on and they're gonna go into the off season with the winning streak. - I think Aussie offered him a gig on his Venezuela team. Didn't he? Didn't he suggest? - They did. Aussie would like Yo and Mancata to play for him in the Winter League. There's been no, there's nothing about that as reciprocal yet. - No. - We'll find out. - No. No interest. He doesn't have any interest. - Aussie was happy last night though. That's good. - Well, they won. I mean, it's fun to see them win once every what? Was that 36 or 37? How many games did they win? 36? - They're 37 now and, yeah, and 120. I believe they're sitting on 120 losses. - Yeah, you go. That's pretty good. - So there's five games left. Is that, is it six? - How many games are left? - Five games left. - There are five games left. - Yeah. Man, they're just, they're holding on, man. Come on, you can do this. What if they didn't break the record? Would anyone care? - Well, no, that's what I've been saying. They're gonna go in, they could go on a winning streak now. They're hot. They're coming in hot. - They're the longest winning streak of the year's three games, right? - Yeah. I think three in a row. - So they have to do that a couple times? No. I don't think so. 'Cause I've already won one. So that'd be six game winning streak. - No. - The White Sox are now 37 and 120. Yeah, so five games left. And, yeah, I think tonight, they go at it again. We usually do talk to Aussie on a Wednesday. We're gonna miss that today because we have bigger plans. No offense, Aussie. But we are, we have people coming in the studio. - We moved on from the White Sox anyway. - We didn't expect to be coming in here celebrating or-- - A victory? - Talking about a White Sox victory. - No, you guys were, Dustin had the knife sharp and he was ready to have his fun. The perfidious one was excited at the idea of-- - It's more fun to talk about this than it is to talk about the history that they almost made. Nobody, we would not still be talking about-- - This is only interesting because they haven't, they just postponed it. - That's all. - Yeah, they've just ruined the party and that's the White Sox 2024 season. So I'm very pleased and I'm really happy that my friend got caught in the rain and am I embittered? Yes, definitely. And I feel like if someone's calling me to go to a Sox game, they're doing so-- - Should we go tonight? - No, I'm never-- - Should we go tonight? - Not a chance. When are you getting on board? - I just feel like it's somebody shooting peanut shells at you while they're asking you a question. Like, I don't know that you're having at me. This is funny to you. Why don't you go out there? - I don't find it funny. It's historic. That's all. - It's great. - It's historic. - It's slightly easy. - It's futility. There's nothing historic about it. - I don't know. - I don't even notice, there's a lot of futility around Chicago sports these days. - Yeah, okay. - Yeah. - So they get back to work today. - A.K. and Billy Donovan will be here today to clack. - But don't let me interrupt. - I didn't make that connection. Although, it will be fun to hear from the brain trust of the Bulls. - I agree. - About what they expect this year. That's a fair question. And I think still something that is yet to be defined, or at least from their perspective, because it's been a very different summer. You have the moves that were made. De Marte Rosen is gone. You trade Alex Caruso. You bring in Josh Giddy. You draft Mathis Bizellis. And you look at what they have now. And Zach Levine's coming back. - Yeah. - And he's healthy. - I think that's very interesting. - And so how do you fit all that into the equation? And what is the, what does that solve for? You know, if you're doing basketball algebra, solving for X, what's X? - Well, here's the problem. And I think we'll get into this in the pick six, 'cause we're gonna try to predict their season record. But I believe the problem is that there are, they are kind of operating at dual purpose. So it's about player development, and it's about restarting, and it's about, you know, building up a team. It's also, you got a couple of players that may not be here for the entirety of the season. Now, I don't know how we're gonna talk about that idea with Billy and AK, but are you, are you, have your mind, is your mind wrapped around the idea that the Bulls may come out with a different team than they'll have after the trade deadline? - That's a fair topic of conversation. - Oh, I know. I'm just saying, I don't know how we're gonna get a go by. Hey, did you enjoy your off season? What the hell are you guys gonna do? You're trying to protect the top 10 pick? I just think that it's a little awkward because they've got guys in Zach Levine, rumored to be traded, right? Nikolai Vukovic, does he have a future with this organization? He's kind of an expiring contractor with this organization. So I would imagine guys like that, do you need to build up their value in order to trade them? Are you going to trade them? Will your team, you know, do you start the season with the young guys you're talking about and try to work player development and think about how you're gonna integrate the veterans, or do you try to win as many games as you can with your veteran players and try to build up their value and then work on player development? - It's the most entertaining basketball theater there is in town, like it's dinner theater, isn't it? So I think that they're probably going to, at least say publicly, that and maybe even internally, that they're going to try to put an entertaining product on the court that's competitive, that can win games. Nobody in their right mind in today's, even as obvious as it is, is gonna say, well, this is going to be a developmental season and if we end up in the bottom 10 like we should and protect that draft pick, that will be okay with us. We would kill them for that. - Yeah, no, I know what they can and can't say. I'm just saying, when I sit back and think the fine folks in Las Vegas, Nevada, I believe have put their over under at 27.5 games. Am I to feel like they're gonna try to win 25 and then they're gonna rebuild or are they gonna be incorporating all these bodies out onto the court? - It seems low. That seems low to me. - Well, I think it seems low because I think the Eastern Conference is a lot to factor in that. I mean, I think Brooklyn is picked to win 19.5 games. I mean, that's really bad. That team's gonna be really bad. It looks like Toronto doesn't look very good. You know, Detroit is still pretty bad. - I think there's a lot of mediocrity in the Eastern Conference in particular. - That's why you have an opportunity to win more than you may want to if you were really honest about it and they want to protect that pick. They may be better than that. So they may be in a situation where they end up unloading a guy like Zach, but they need to prove that he can play before they can unload him. So it is a videlicate balance to strike and certainly maybe ground they don't wanna cover publicly, but they have to be having these conversations. It's a reality of the NBA. It's reality of pro sports, really. - Well, and I mean, you know, there's ways of losing and being bad without being the worst team ever, right? I think we've learned that. - I don't think the Wall Street Journal is gonna be coming here in April to document the Bull's record futility. No, but they will be probably out on the outside looking in from the playoff picture. I would be surprised if they're in the play-in. - Yes, I agree with that. Yeah, I don't think that's the goal this time out. But I think they could win 30 certain games. I mean, I think they could be in the early 30s. - I think they could be better than we think or some people are expecting. Patrick Williams comes in. The thing that is interesting too, with a basketball perspective, Kobe White's gonna take another step. - Another step, yeah. - You take Demarti Rosen out of the equation and out of the mix. Though it may empower a guy like Patrick Williams, you may allow a guy like Zach Levine to take over more naturally than he did when Demart was here. There are a lot of things that could happen. Optimistically, you don't know what Josh Giddy is gonna do. Is he gonna continue the momentum that was obvious during the Olympics? He's a pretty good all-around player who just was on the... He was a numbers game in Oklahoma City and he wasn't part of the rotation any longer. So he was expendable, but he's a talented player, talented young player. So is this season about development or trying to flirt with a playoff spot? Be interested to hear the way they're gonna approach this starting today. - Yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be a good fun conversation and we'll get into a lot of different topics with them. You threatened to bring up the bears and I quickly shifted gears. - Yeah, notice that. - But we still have a game coming up on Sunday that is a really interesting game because you've got a damaged opponent coming in. And if the bears are getting better, if the bears are worth anything, this is a game they almost need to win just to turn their season around a little bit. As we well know, lose one, everyone does it, lose two. Getting dangerous, lose three. You gotta react. You gotta react. You can't lose three in a row. - If they lose in an NFL season. - Sunday at Soldier Field, then we are back to where we started before the off-season momentum began, which goes back to last year coming out of that season, even seven and 10, you're like, what are they doing? Where are they headed? - It would be the equivalent of an 0-4 start. Even if they've already won a game. It would be much like a year ago when they came out and weren't prepared for the season. If they were to lose this. - If they lose three in a row after the buildup and the hype, and obviously we were a big part of that, and they started out one in three, yeah, it would be the pin to the balloon. The hype train would stop. All of the things that you could say would apply because you'd be disappointed. And you'd be disappointed in the readiness. You'd be disappointed in the coaching staff. You might be even disappointed in the quarterback. I don't know. But if you lose three in a row, you have reason to be disappointed in everything. - Yeah, and it's a big game for the Rams as well. Even though they are beaten up, they're without three starting offensive linemen. They're missing two both. They're wide receivers, great players. Neither available in this game. And you would think with the coach, with the quarterback, they could find a way. So you gotta be careful. But the Bears should play much better defense at home. - If Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford are on the team flight, then the Rams are gonna have a chance. And they're gonna be a challenge for that Bears defense. Now the Bears defense should be able to... - It'd be nice to see him playing from the lead. - They should be able to do the things to the Rams offense that they did to the Titans. The Bears defense has not given it more than 21 points in the last nine games, the longest streak in the league. But against the Colts, they could have been better. They obviously could have been better, but it wasn't the reason they lost, but they're gonna have to go out and win this game. That's the way they have to approach it. They might even have to score because the offense is so... - They lost that game by five points. - They passed, they attempted a 50, six yard field goal, which would have been a career high for the kicker. They could have run a play, and now what they can't run, what am I saying? But they could have attempted a play to gain a couple yards at a makeable field goal. They also got a 12 yard loss on fourth and one. If you kick a field goal, I'm just saying. When asked about it, the coach said, we're hunting touchdowns. We're not interested in field goals. Let me tell you something. You get an extra couple field goals, you're the one in that game, and maybe you'd be more interested in field goals. - Yeah, but if you could have a field goal on fourth and goal in the one, we've been saying why in the world don't you trust anything about your offense to get you three feet when you need it? - And then he should have said, well, then they would have run this stretch play. - If you met my offensive coordinator, I know we would have said that, but you know, we would have killed them first. - I'm just saying-- - The metrics. - I wouldn't have killed them if they won. I'm just saying, I think that they are in a position where they ought to start desperately getting points and not hunting touchdowns. - I don't disagree with that, typically. I think if everything is situational and with the Bears in that situation, when you had first and goal at the four, you got a mentality, you got a score of touchdown. The 56 yarder from Santos, I didn't have a problem with that decision to kick a field goal at that point because-- - It was a play before, if they picked up three yards there, that's a makeable field goal. - Yeah, that's fair because that was the scramble. - Yeah, and he threw a 40, I don't know, way he threw the ball into the end zone. - But with the roof close indoors, ideal conditions, Cairo Santos, given the way that the trends are going in the NFL too, I did not have a problem with them trying to 56 yard field goal. - But I mean, you know, it was a career high and he did come up short with it. I mean, there is a reason that you have like an idea. Normally, the kicker will tell the special teams coordinator, "Yeah, I'm good from here." And it's probably, and I doubt it was even 55. I mean, they went a couple yards more than he's ever kicked. That's all. - But then he hit from 53, right? - Yeah, like I said, gain three yards on, you know, third down and then you kick a field goal. - Easy to say now, yeah, but I think that everything went wrong, everything that could've gone wrong went wrong. - But they had a narrow loss, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And they passed on points at different points because they're on touchdowns, which when you end up with 15 points, you gotta ask yourself, are we hunting the right animal, right? I mean, don't we need to just score whenever we can? - Well, when you score 15 points against that team, you ask yourself a lot of questions. - Well, that's right, that's it. All right, we got the pick six. We're gonna get into all this stuff. There's a lot to talk about with all of our wonderful teams in town and some that aren't that good. But we'll break it down for you next. We'll pick fire all the stories of the day, the pick six is next, it's Molly at Honda Score. - It's pick six with Molly at home, where we debate the top six sports stories of the day and then open it up to you, the Chicago sports fan. Call us at 312-644-6767, or you can tweet your thoughts at Mully Hall. - Pick six with Mully at Haw starts now. - Pick six sponsored by Affinity Whole Health is at feelgreatillinois.com, like I did, to learn more about their testosterone therapy or their weight loss options. Kayla Williams said in the post-game Sunday that he and Roan Medunze have been staying after practice for about 10 extra throws to work on their timing together. Did the extra work contribute to the breakout game this past Sunday? The two connected six times, 110 yards, and a fourth quarter score. Are they just getting started? - Boy, you sure hope so. I mean, I like the idea that they're staying after practice and working on stuff and I like the idea that Williams talked about finding a rhythm in the passing game and being able to time up how, you know, think about it, Roan Medunze is a big guy, he's a fast guy, you can run down the field, you can catch contested passes, you need to get that timing worked out. It's a pity that couldn't happen during the off season, but there you have it. So the fact that the two of them have this time together after practice and they're just doing it as a couple of rookies drafted in the top 10 together. Yeah, I hope they're just getting started. I also wonder if DJ Moore is, he said after the game that he felt like he was something of a distraction. In other words, they were using him as a way of getting the ball more to Roan and I think it worked. It definitely 110 yards, six catches in the touchdown in the fourth quarter. They had a 47 yard connection, so they're working well together, but it's got to be more consistent. You got to have that kind of production with less attempts, right? Isn't it as simple as that? Well, if you're looking for something positive to take out of Sunday, that was it. The two guys drafted in the top 10 connected as many times as they did, and it can only go up from here hopefully. I guess, I think that doesn't really... If you're DJ Moore and you see that, I do wonder about what you think every time you read and see and hear about how great the chemistry is between the two rookies. And I do wonder if over time that takes a toll mentally, because he isn't a diva, he's not diva Moore, but he is becoming more and more decoy more. Wow. He's a guy that, he acknowledged it, so he's not the focal point of this passing game. And you can see it easily evolving into Roma Dunes being the guy who is the number one wide receiver just because of the chemistry that continues to build and grow with Caleb Williams. And that is a great thing, and there's no downside to it. I do think that it's interesting that the focus, and I guess this is just our first question, and it won't be the focus of the week, but the focus of the quarterback and the wide receiver spending more time after practice to get better on the chemistry after they did connect for six catches and six receptions for 110 yards, I think that it also, that leans into this whole identity issue that we're gonna talk about later. The identity of the Bears is that they are a team that wants to spend extra time throwing it around because they're gonna be a team that throws it around. I would rather hear anecdotal evidence of Nate Davis staying with Karen Amagagi afterward on a blocking sled. That would give the Bears some sort of identity that, you know what, that's the chemistry you want to develop. That's what's missing from this offense. Roman Dunes, I absolutely had a fabulous day. Would I like to see him come down with maybe one more catch? That maybe that interception? - Yeah. - If that's Devonta Adams, is he come down with that catch? Those are the standards you want to hold him to. That's the kind of thing you want to see from him. So this is really good stuff. The chemistry they're developing. I do wonder how long that goes before Keenan Allen and DJ Moore say, hey, we're ready to run too. - I think Keenan Allen is a different situation 'cause his contract is up at the end of the year. DJ just got $110 million on a four-year extension. So that should buy you a little leeway, right? We're gonna be a decoy for a few games. I don't think you can complain, but I understand. - He's not gonna complain. - No. And he's gonna complain, he's gonna do it on Monday at eight o'clock. - Well, that he will come on and complain to us. - Yes, yes. - Leah, it's a good question. - What do you want to hear from Caleb Williams later today when he meets the media in light of Jaden Daniels' breakout game on Monday night football, Justin Fields, 3-0 start as a stealer. And his own, Caleb's turnovers in the past two games. Would you rather see or hear Williams acknowledge the noise or do you want him to tune it out? - What a tough week for Bears fans. You've got Justin Fields, 3-0. You've got the reality that Jaden Daniels is the hottest quarterback in the NFL right now. And oh, by the way, the Seattle Seahawks don't miss Shane Waldron. They're 3-0 without him. And maybe draw your own conclusions, but there is a lot of noise. There's a lot of stuff that could come up today when Caleb Williams gets behind the microphone, but I do want to hear him acknowledge none of it. I do think that he should probably just say he can only worry about things that he can control. And he's going to control those controllables. And that is what you want to hear from your quarterback anytime. I'd like to hear him explain what's on the wristband, now that he's wearing the wristband, and everybody's making such a big deal about the wristband, is there more than just help on the wristband? Because-- - 9-1-1. - Exactly, because every past play is an emergency. So I think he's going to happen to handle himself as composed as we're used to seeing him, handle himself, hearing him handle himself, but control the controllables. I don't want to hear him like, you know, we all have the examples and we get triggered by, you know, Mitch saying turn the TVs off and however Justin Fields dealt with it, this is a new quarterback. It is a new era, as we keep saying. And he'll handle things in his own way, but I hope he doesn't get drawn in or sucked into the noise and have to address it, because that's our job, to create it, to acknowledge it, and to talk about it. But I don't think that Caleb Williams needs any part of it. - Will he even be asked about, Grammy, will a reporter use those names specifically to him? - I think that's an interesting, will it even get brought up? I mean, somebody like Mark Potash maybe, but otherwise I don't see anybody up there bringing those guys up by name. Hey, did you watch Monday Night Football? - Let's ask Weter at 7.25, I think they should, that's a fair question. - Yeah, I think it's fair, I think it's fair, I think you should, I just think it's different, to me it's even more different now than when you guys were there on a daily basis. And I could be wrong and won't be the first time, not the last time. Here's what I want to hear him say. - I call them soft, is that what you're saying? - No, I just, - Or are you insulting us? - No, I just can't follow. - Well, I'm usually always insulting you, right? But I just think it's different when you work with these people as much as they're together, you have to maintain a professional relationship. And I think sometimes you're worried, especially with Caleb Williams, they're just starting to build a relationship with him. - But there's nothing to handle that. - Yeah, I don't think he can't, I'm just curious. - There's nothing not professional about asking him about the number two overall pick in the draft, playing better than he is right now. - I agree, here, I'll bet. I would wager, since we like to talk wagering a little bit, that only one of the two names will be mentioned. I will be shocked if both Jaden Daniels and Justin Fields names are specifically brought up to him. But that's just part of the question. I want to hear him say, I've got to protect the ball. I cannot turn the ball, I have to cherish this ball. I have to love this ball. I cannot get rid of the ball. Also, I want him to admit, you and I talked about this and to me, it was the biggest play of the game. He had an opening, he could have ran at 25 yards instead he sailed it through the end zone. Santos had a lineup for that 56 yard field goal. He runs 10 yards and does the water slide. Santos nails that field goal. The game is just different. Why is he afraid to run the ball? - I've got to hurt himself on the slide. - Why is he afraid to run the ball? - I think he wants to, he's hunting touchdowns to answer the question, you know, what do I want him to say? I want him to say that Jaden Daniels is running a college offense and everyone knows it. I mean, I'd love to hear him just kind of go off on it. I don't think I'm gonna. And I, but I mean, just for a story, wouldn't that be something special? By all accounts, the Redskins, at least, excuse me, the Washington football team or the commanders, I guess they're called, they are claiming that they would have taken Jaden Daniels had they had the number one overall pitch. - It's easy to claim now. - That's the easiest thing to say now. And I would love to get his reaction to that. - Yeah, you want to know what I want to hear? - That would be awesome. Sorry, but that, I mean, you would gobble that up. You would gobble that up. - There's no way they would have passed on Caleb Brimes. - They claim that in your garbage. - They're claiming it now, but there have been insults to Jaden Daniels that he is running a college offense. And hey, Justin, would you like to run a college offense? I'd be very curious to know what he thinks of Cliff Kingsbury doing what he's doing with that kid. And how would that have worked if he were here? That kind of thing. I don't think we'll get any of that. I think if you watched him in the post game, he is a very composed individual. He is saying the right thing. He's going out of his way to say the right thing, even when he's complimenting things. And he's careful not to inadvertently kind of compliment one guy at the risk of another. So he's very careful in what he's saying. He's had a lot of good media training. And I expect to hear that today. - Oh boy, that's a tough question. - That's the voice of Brad Biggs big time, not today, but tomorrow, have you spent much time considering what Brad Biggs told us yesterday, namely that NFL teams are 23, 144, since 2015, when attempting 50 or more passes in a game. Do you think the Bears knew that statistic? - It didn't appear so, right? I mean, the Bears abandoned the run pretty quickly in that game. They had some success with Roshan Johnson and they abandoned him pretty quickly. I think a lot of the things that I heard yesterday stayed with me, that statistic was like a rock in my shoe. I kept, I couldn't get away from it. But something that Dave Wants that said also really triggered me. And he said that Khalil Herbert, they hadn't used him in the game and then they brought him in for short yardage. They brought him in and ran him three times, once on a direct snap at the goal line. And he talked about how running backs need to get lathered up and need to have some carries. And you had just gotten a first down with Roshan Johnson. Why wasn't he, he seems more inside the tackles runner than does Khalil Herbert and certainly then DeAndre Swift. Why wasn't he the guy that was running in short yardage situation? That bothered the heck out of me and that stayed with me yesterday. But yeah, I just, I need to know more about that statistic. When you get to 50, is that the drop dead point? Is everybody winning until you throw the 50th pass? Could you stop? Hey, we're at 49, no more passes. Could you conceivably with that work? - I think even 40 sounds like a lot. - 40 sounds like a lot, I agree. You should be throwing no more than 30 something attempts. Run the damn ball. - I think it's a great stat, it's a great tidbit and that's one of the things that Brad brings to us each week, a great number. But here, did they know with that? No, they didn't know to go for two when down five. So they didn't, they definitely didn't know that. I mean, if you would get to that, - Can we? - Yeah. - Okay. - I mean, when you're, I mean, that should have been, I mean, they got caught up like a high school team that because Roma Dunes A and Kayla Williams connected for a first touchdown pass. - That's on them. - Kayla, that's on those two. Kayla Williams should have been going like this. - He should have been going through the sideline. - Exactly, they were arguing about who gets to keep the ball. - I was joking, it was a big deal, it was a big deal. - But you know what? Flus deserves blame for that and he's gotten a lot of it. So does Kayla Williams, he's the quarterback. - He's the leader. - Patrick Mahomes would have done that. You think Josh Allen would have done that? How about Joe Burrow? No. Sorry, go ahead. - Oh, I just, I love you still love Joe Burrow. - I still love Joe Burrow. He's the last man. - No, I still love Joe Burrow. All right, Bigsy, Bigsy doubled down on that. After the show, he texted me this. 23 and 141 in regulation game. This 23 and 141 since 2015, that teams that have, that's the record for teams that have thrown 50 more passes. 41 of those 141 losses have been by two touchdowns or more. 14 or more points. So not only do you get beat that often, but you get blown out often. Don't throw 50 passes. If the Bears throw 50 passes again this year, something has gone terribly wrong. I can't imagine sitting here on a Monday morning talking about, oh boy, the Bears threw 54 passes and won the game 27 to 25 or whatever. - Well, the very fact that you're throwing, you know, you're throwing the score, right? So that indicates, that doesn't surprise me. The 41 teams losing by double D. Why else would you keep throwing? - Well, I think that, I think the Bears have to be more aware of it than they appeared to be against the Colts. And they have to be more aware of what they're doing in the midst of doing it. And I think that, you know, we kid about the two point conversion issue, but I think it speaks to this whole idea. The Bears lack such awareness on game day. And this is not the team that has represented itself through three games as, you know, nobody's gonna accuse the Bears of being the smartest team in the league. Not when they're looking at 52 pass attempts. Not when they're looking at going for, needed to burn a timeout instead of going for two because they were busy celebrating or the coach was thinking about what he's gonna call in the next defensive series 'cause he's doing too much on the sideline. This is something that they have to have ingrained in their psyche, their football psyche, and be smarter, be better, and you can avoid these kinds of situations. - So what will it be next week? You know, last week it was the Blue Two challenges. This week it's the dumb arse, you know, timeout for no reason. What will it be next? - You know how many different answers there could be to that question? (laughs) Something new and exciting. Two different questions there between the next six weeks and then in the season. - That's the voice of Dan Wieder. He's here at 725, which non-Bears QB. Do you think the Bears fans will pay close their attention to this year? Number two overall selection, Jade and Daniels of the commanders or the Bears cast off. Justin Fields with the Steelers, he's three and oh, do you think either quarterback's success will make you feel differently about Caleb Williams season? - I really think that I'll answer this different than probably most Bears fans will answer this. I think that if Justin Fields leads the Steelers to a playoff berth and Caleb Williams is the quarterback of a seven and 10 Bears team, there will be a season long conversation about if the Bears did the right thing. And I think that's probably gonna be more valid and sustainable or lasting whether you like it or not. And I don't like that. But I think that's probably the quarterback that most people will fixate on or focus on because let's face it, the last time we saw Justin Fields in Chicago, people were chanting his name. And so he was a hard guy for a lot of people to let go of even now, especially now. I think that Jade and Daniels comparison is one of the things that's just gonna follow him throughout the course of their careers respectively. The Justin Fields stuff will wear off eventually, but not yet, not this soon. Right now, I think Justin Fields is the forefront of most Bears fans minds. Jade and Daniels scares the heck out of Bears fans because he's maybe running a high school or college offense, but he's running it well and he's running it expertly. So I think that will be something that always gonna be a point of comparison. But Justin Fields is a guy. I think that could make everything that Caleb Williams does kind of with an asterisk and put into that kind of context. - Well, Molly, as you reminded us all yesterday, the Bears never even talked to Jade and Daniels. He wasn't really even on their radar. So I get a Bears fan thinking about it, but you shouldn't think of something that was never going to be. Justin Fields was here. So I think in a landslide, it's Justin Fields. Now, of course, you're gonna pay attention, especially when these two teams play each other at the end of October, I think the 27th of October, the Bears are at the commanders. It's gonna stick out like a sore thumb if Jade and Daniels wins that game and looks better, doesn't turn the ball over as a higher completion percentage, all those types of things. But Justin Fields is potentially the one that got away. - Well, that's the answer. - I mean, he was here, right? And he wasn't the one who got away. He was the one who was given away. They didn't get anything for him. I mean, maybe they'll end up with a fourth round pick rather than a sixth round pick. And even Mike Tomlin didn't seem to commit to that yesterday. Did you hear Tomlin? He's still talking about Russell Wilson. He had the most bizarre answer when asked if he was ready to name Fields the starting quarterback permanently, he was like, oh, there's married decisions and you can't. - Perfect. I mean-- - He handled it perfectly. - I thought he's like, I don't make a decision till I have to. It made it sound, I understand. He wants to keep both guys engaged, but it made it sound like it's all tentative. And the minute this guy turns the ball over, he had a pick last week. - It is. - One more and you're done, son. - It's tentative. - I know he's treating him with, he's not trying to coddle Justin Fields in any way. He is definitely making the kid earn it week in, week out. Maybe that's why they're winning. They got the Colts next. I got a feeling they're gonna run the ball against the Colts. I think maybe the quarterback will run the ball. They'll be the old Wilson enemy given to the Colts this week. - Now they can run an option against the Colts to get away with it. - Oh, they can win with that play. Yeah, I mean, look, it's going to be fascinating to follow what happens with Justin Fields and his career period and the story. I've said this before. You know, I get it. If you want somebody that can throw the football and you want somebody that is gonna win a super ball, you're probably looking for an upgrade, but I have never seen anybody make those kinds of runs in an NFL game. You are not supposed to be able to run 80 yards down the field through people, around people, all the rest of it. It was amazing to behold when he was here. - I'm not gonna take any questions. - Well, we know whose voice that was. How bemused were you to hear white Sox GM Chris Getts say on Tuesday before the game that interim manager, Grady Sizemore, will now be considered for the job on a permanent basis. Why do you believe there's been a reversal from comments made back in August? What about our guy, Bruce Levine, mentioning Dodger's first-page coach, Clayton McCullough, which of the two do you prefer and why? - I gotta tell you, I mean, this Sox season has been just the most horrible, brutal thing to watch and to witness the idea that they even came into the year with Pedro Grafault, how that guy got hired to begin with, how he took a team that was like a 500 team and turned him into 100 losses and then whatever the heck happened this year and how he lasted as long as he did, Grady Sizemore has been kind of fine. I don't have a real problem with him. When they promoted him, they made a point to say and that this isn't interim job only. He's not gonna be up for the managerial job. I thought there were waiting on Skip Schumacher. What happened? Did he suddenly realize-- - He's gonna take a better job. - Yeah, did he realize that there's only eight first-class seats on the plane, did he not know that and he spit out his coffee? - He's not sitting in coach. - Decide he's not going to Chicago, that's fine. Yeah, I mean, now you're talking about a guy, like McCullough, I don't know enough about him. I like the fact that I don't know anything about him. Believe it or not, just as long as I don't know anything, I'm happy. I worry that this is a guy that doesn't have a lot of experience in the job, similar to Grady Sizemore. I mean, whatever they do, it's gonna end up being the wrong move. I've got very little faith in Sherry Wine's door, Chris Gatz, anybody connected to the South Side team right now? - At least you're open-minded. - I mean, I'm just being honest. - Well, I think the biggest issue with all of this is the reversal of comments made in August. If Chris Gatz is going to be out in front and a guy in charge, he didn't need to say that Grady Sizemore wasn't a candidate when he went ahead and made those comments. He didn't need to do that. There was no reason, and we think we talked about it. - My time wouldn't have done it. - My time wouldn't have done it, right? - Exactly, right. My time wouldn't have done it. Grady, as I would love to know who are the pool of candidates. Since anybody in the major leagues that's in a uniform is a candidate. Okay, great. I mean, that's this many people, right? Mully just made the Manziel Money Money Money sign, right? - Whoever comes to you. - But Clayton McCulloch, okay, could we try to make a comparison so the Cubs had Brandon Hyde. He was the first base coach when they were doing well, then he takes the Orioles' job, and how long does it take in Brandon Hyde to get the Orioles to the first season? - Do you need the Cubs' comp? - No, no, I'm just saying, I'm just using it as an example, like a first, I mean, I don't, how many first base coaches end up being managers, I guess? - Yes, my point. - You don't know. - You don't know. - I mean, and honestly, I thought from a PR standpoint, like Willie Harris, former SOC, third base coach in Chicago, would that make any kind of sense? I just don't understand why they were first. They should hire somebody who's done the job before. Clayton McCulloch is not a terrible choice, comes from winning organization, he does have minor league managing experience, so that would be a positive. I don't know that you're gonna get anybody that is going to relish the job, necessarily 'cause you're looking at a hundred loss season next year. Who knows what you're looking at the year after that? So if you signed a three or four year contract, you have some maybe security, but who's gonna give a new manager who's unproven a four or five year contract? Probably not Jerry Reinsdorf, probably not him. So, good name, Clayton McCulloch, Bruce mentioned it, John Greenberg had mentioned it back when they fired Pedro Grafoe. I really don't care what Grady Sizemore was told then and what he's being told now. I don't think he wants, I don't think he's a serious candidate for the role. If he comes back, you know what's going on here, they want to pay him, he doesn't need the money. Heck, he was working for 15 bucks an hour. He may be working for 25 now. Who knows? He may get a raise up to $30 an hour. - If he offers to pay them, he definitely gets the job. - I think that what you want is, somebody who has done it before, ideally. I would bring in an executive who has done something before, even to be Chris gets his boss. That's not a slight to Chris gets, but he's doing this for the first time. What the White Sox lack as much as anything is executive infrastructure. They need to build up their baseball front office and give some credibility back. You do that by hiring somebody like Kim Aang, like somebody who's won at another organization to bring those ideas, to bring that structure to Chicago. Then you hire a manager with experience. Somebody likes Schumacher if he wants to job. David Bell is on the street after being the manager of the Reds, who did a pretty good job there. David Ross is still without a job. I would call all three of those guys, gauge their interests, be willing to pay them what they're worth and move on. - No, I want to finish the question. The question is this. - That is Casey Johnson. He will be here in studio with Mullion Hall and you at 740. What is Zach Levine's role on the Bulls this season? Levine told the athletic. He would not stand in the way of development of a young player. So how differently will Billy Donovan handle Levine? This year, is he still the first option on offense? - Well, I think he's got to be the first, because that's the way that he plays naturally. Zach Levine is a guy that, if he is here, I know that people will cringe at his presence, but this is like his 10th year, isn't it? He's been in the NBA for a decade. He started when he was 19 years old. He may be the most overlooked, underappreciated, disrespected, really good player that we have seen come through Chicago. Name another guy that has done as well, as Zach Levine has done, not only on the court, but with his, he's had some pretty good contracts. He's making some pretty good money. And he's constantly questioned, constantly doubted, and I get it, but he was branded not a winning player. I get it, now he's healthy, now he's back. You think he's going to give up shots, because so Kobe White can develop? Maybe, but if you're down one, you got one possession with 5.4 seconds left, and they're not a bounce play. Who do you want to take in this shot if you're Billy Donovan? Probably Zach Levine, probably Zach, right? So, I think, yeah, good gesture. He's going to stay the right things. He's been a guy who typically does stay the right things. I know we got a little bit of the Stanford with the agent forcing trade and wanting to deal. We get that. But he's a pro, and I think he's going to represent himself like a professional. With all due respect, though, when you say branded, he earned that. He is a loser based on his record. The teams he has played on are losing teams. That branded-- He just called Zach Levine a loser. No, no, no, no. I mean, earn what you're saying is that at one point in his career, he was the losing his player in the league. That's a fact. Yes, because he had been with Minnesota and then came to Chicago before there were any-- That doesn't sound as bad as calling him a loser. But he wasn't branded that. But, yeah, I mean, he was not branded that. All star Olympian, pretty good player. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, and he's made a ton of money, so he gets criticized because his teams aren't winning. That's the problem. But he should be the number one option. The bull should want him to be the number one option because you want to trade this guy and you want to be able to get as much as you can for him. So he needs to be scoring 25 plus points a game, hitting big shots when that moment is there for him to make the shot. He's the guy you want to have the ball in his hand in all big moments so that you can trade and get the most back for him. You know, I understand de Mar de Rosen was considered a guy that was more of a one-dimensional player, that he didn't play great defense, and that he spent too much time on the floor, whatever it might be. But the fact of the matter is he was always in the top five if not higher as clutch player in the NBA. That was the guy that made shots to win games at the end. I'll be very curious to see if that role now is Zach's. And I've said this before. They've talked about trading him. They've talked about having a rough relationship with him. He opted for surgery last year. He didn't have to have it. He opted out and we thought he was going to be traded in the off season. I don't know what his trade value is. I don't know if he needs to rehab his reputation. I'm with you, David. I think he's a really good player. And I think he's been a good player. But I'm going to be very curious to see how they use him. And I think they're going to have to start him in order to build up and rehab him in order to then trade him because he does make a lot of money and because they are in a rebuild. But I also think that if you brought him off the bench, you might be able to do that. I just don't know that he'd go with it. I don't know if he'd go with that. I just don't think he'd go with that. I don't think he'd be able to go with that. If he and Vouch were team two coming into the game, I don't know if he'd increase the trade value by making him a sub. Yeah, I don't think he'd do it. It's an interesting idea. It would be curious to see how they choose to use him and what they have to say about that. Would you bristle? I'd bristle. I bristle about everything. I know. So why would that be different? We're going to get to the extra point next. We got a good one. We're going to make our predictions. And I believe I see some movement on the breakfast front. So everybody here is going to be very happy. You listening at home and probably very angry with us that we're having such a good time. But that's life. That's it. Just get on board. We'll be right back with the extra point, Molly and Han the score. Set up this extra point. It's time for the extra point with Molly and Han on 6/70 the score. All right, guys, here we go with the extra point in honor of our 8 AM guests, Billy Donovan and AK here in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Performance stage. Can you please predict how many wins the Bulls will have this season? Vegas has it around 27 and 1/2. Are you going over or under 27 and 1/2 wins for the Bulls? Boy, that strikes me as pretty low. I don't think that the Bulls are going to be that bad unless they are intentionally that bad. And I don't think they want to do that. That's not the Bulls' way of-- I don't think they're going to look at this roster and say, oh, OK, they're going to be a 25 win team. There's a lot of talent on this roster. I look at the roster, though, and I don't know how they're going to guard anybody, especially Biggs. They got rid of Andre Drummond. Who's going to defend the rim? Who is the rim protector here? I don't know. It's not Vouch. It's not Vouch. He's the guy that is who he is at this stage of his career. And offensively, he gives you a lot. Defensively, he gives you nothing. So he's a 33-year-old big guy that I don't know who else you're going to look at for inside help defensively. And he's going to get worn out because of the just reality. So the Bulls are going to have problems defensively. Who scores and takes big shots? They'll have to work itself out. I think offensively they'll be fine. Billy Donovan teams, I think, will find a way to get the most out of this roster. Patrick Williams will take a step forward. Demar DeRoz and not being here will hurt. But it will allow other people to maybe progress. Guys like Kobe White have another-- he'll take another step. Zach Levine, what is his role moving forward? Will he be here at the end of the year? I think the Bulls are probably going to win 34 games. If I'm going to predict right now, I take the over. And I think they win 34. Wow. Well, we hear from guys like Joe Fortenbaugh, who will be here on Friday at 7.40 about shopping around for the numbers, right? So this number is 27 and 1/2. So I happen to go to my circus sports Illinois app. They've got it at 28 and 1/2. One game, but that's how tight this stuff is, right? I agree with you, David. I think it's over that number. I got the Bulls winning 30 games this year, 30. Yeah, I would be-- I think 34 is a lot, honestly. I just think if they're saying 27, 28 to 29, that might be a little bit higher. Now, in fairness, there are some awful teams in the Eastern Conference, and they're going to play them. They're going to be playing Toronto and Washington and Charlotte. And the Nets are going to be terrible, the Brooklyn Nets. So I think there are some-- Detroit should be bad, right? I mean, there could be six or seven teams, one of which is the Bulls, that will be the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. I think it's much more difficult if you're in the Western Conference. But in the Eastern Conference, I will give them 32 wins. 32? OK, that's fine. You got 34. I think neither one of us are over our skis. Last year, this time, I was a little over my skis about the Bulls, because you go into the season. There was a little more optimism. There's a little more realism right now. I think when it comes to the Bulls and what to expect, because of the moves they made in the off season. And trading Alex Caruso is going to compromise them defensively. Getting rid of Demar DeRozan is going to make the last possession type of events more suspenseful than maybe you'd like them to. You don't have anybody-- I think Zach Levine steps into that void. I think Kobe White continues to emerge. I'm very, very curious about what the Bulls have in Matas Bazelis, the first round draft pick, and Josh Giddy. Because those two guys, they're going to be up. They're going to be down. They're going to be consistently inconsistent. Because that's what young players are. But I want to know how much-- we figure Giddy is going to be the point guard, and everything's going to run through him. How much time will Bazelis get, and how early will he get it? Is there any chance that he starts in the G league? I hope not. That's a great question for the guys that we have coming in at 8 o'clock. But I hope not. Even though he is so young, he's a teenager. He's a guy, though, has loads of confidence. Yes. He's versatile, and he's got a little nasty in him. He's got a little edge. He's got a little edge. You like to see he's got a little edge. I don't know how well he'll be able to shoot it. He'll probably be athletic, more athletic than people realize. But I just don't know if he starts at the G league. If you're the Bulls, and you put him at the G league, doesn't it say a lot about your intentions this year? You are picking a lane if you're starting your first round draft pick at the G league. You're saying that you're serious about being more competitive than a lot of people expect you to be. Jalen Smith is going to be interesting to see. Just what is his role? How are they going to use it? They do not have a rim protector. And even though he's a 5, he's like 6'9, right? He's a point center. If you had such a thing, in today's NBA, they got to stretch forward. They got the point center. It's positionless basketball. Pooch is not going to be rim protected. I'm just wondering how that will work. And you're right. I mean, their defense is a mystery. You wonder if it's going to resemble a lot of the old ABA games, because it's going to be up and down the floor. People shooting threes. And just really a free front. You don't want that to devolve into that. But really, who is going to be the interior defender that any team playing the Bulls fears when they play teams with strong inside games? The Bulls are going to be no match for that. How are they going to rebound? Who's going to rebound? Yeah, these are good questions. And I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that. All right, we've got-- we've got to get to your phone calls. 3, 1, 2, 6, 44, 67, 67. We got a lot planned for today. Going to have a lot of fun. We'll be talking to Dan Wederer next hour. We'll be talking to Casey Johnson. And then, of course, we'll have our Bulls brass joint-- Brain trust. The brass. We'll run our predictions by them, maybe. Billie and the boss in breakfast. I think that will be-- Breakfast with Billie and the boss. Is that a hashtag? It's a good plan. Let's try that one. Breakfast smells good. See if that one plays. All right. I wish there wasn't such a long line. I know. But I call it Fin, that's all it matters. Where did everybody go? They're eating? Yeah. We lost our audience to demon food, as opposed to demon booze. They're all a problem. It's Mully and Hot Chicago Sports Radio 6.7, the score. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. This could do it. Anderson will walk it over to first, and history will have to wait. Because the Sox will come back in the eighth inning. They get the 3-2 win and win the opener of this three-game series. That felt good, I mean. Yeah, obviously, it's-- I don't think everybody knows that. But first come back win, just being this late in the season. It's hard to believe. But I'm glad we got it done tonight. Mully and Hot Chicago Sports Radio 6.7, the score. You hear the crowd booing in the background. Because they didn't get to see history. The only reason you turned up, and you got rained on, and then your ticket's worth for. You waited an hour rain delay, at least. You sit there till the ninth inning, and then you see the White Sox do something they hadn't done in 94 previous situations similar to that. They came back after trailing. After trailing later than the seventh inning, and they got some help from Jack Lopez who dropped a fly ball, they were out White Sox last night. And all you got was the flu. You got a little bit of touching the mood, yeah. So it happens tonight, maybe. Maybe it happens tomorrow. Oh, OK. So it happens tonight or tomorrow. So what I correct ourselves, correct myself. I said, because I think we were led to believe, initially, that Garrett Crochet was pitching tomorrow. But apparently, Chris Flexin has been moved up. Definitely lose that. That's Garrett King a loss, right? He hasn't either got lost like 21 in a row or something. But Garrett Crochet will not pitch the final home game of the season. Why not? Oh. Why not? Why not give the fans something? Throw him a cookie. I mean, if he pitched, he'd only go like four innings. I know, but you're going to see him-- It could be the last time you see him. Ever? In a White Sox uniform. That's fair. The next time you see him, he'll be contending for a Cy Young award somewhere else, like Chris Sale. All of the best White Sox pitchers come back in different uniforms. Dylan Cease is going to make the playoffs, right? Dylan Cease is in the playoffs at Padres. Did you see they clinched, I think, with a triple play walk off? Who does that? And that's crazy. They are one of the hottest teams in the second half. Dylan Cease is going to be in the playoffs, along with you, Darvish. What a rotation that will be. Carlos Rodin, he's in the playoffs. Yeah. Yank, he's Chris Sale. Is he OK? Is he healthy? I think he's had a pretty good year. OK. Michael Copac, he's going to be the guy that saves Game 7. Or at least he gets the hold before Otani comes in and saves Game 7. They're meeting with Otani today to make a decision on the next move with him in terms of the pitching element of it. Yeah, what do you think is going to happen? I think he's going to be the guy that comes in after Copac walks the bases and then he strikes out like Soto and Judge to win a World Series. Great baseball symmetry. That would be poetic. Would that be beautiful? Awesome. And next year, Otani is going to be a 50/50/20 guy. Oh, wow. 20 saves with-- No, 20 victories. No, I'm just giving you a hard time. 50 stolen bases, 50 home runs. Quick baseball note, before we get-- we're going to switch to Pride of Bears and Bulls. We've got everybody coming in. David Ross is a name that you're going to start to hear more of now. Because I think there's going to be managerial openings. He got one in Chicago. I wonder if the Sox will even talk to David Ross. They wouldn't pay David. OK. Well, I think that you're going to hear his name. No other reason I'm going to bring it up. David Ross should be a manager next year if he wants to manage his end major league team. I think he'll wind up in Cincinnati. Well, that's the way I was going. The Cubs should maybe not fear, but David Ross, as a manager of the Reds, makes so much sense. Former Red, a guy who knows the division, can you imagine the division rivalry between David Ross and the Reds and the Cubs and the guy that replaced David Ross? That would be fantastic. Dustin would have to change colors. Fantastic. It would be awesome theater. Yes, it would. And you know what? What would be better? Ross with the Reds or Ross with the White Sox? Well, I don't think-- I don't think-- unfortunately, Dustin, oh, I don't think even Ross, he could win with the White Sox. I don't think so either. He could win with the Reds. See, he's a good manager. He knows what it's like to manage young-- You could win with the Reds. He could win with the Reds. I just think that when the White Sox say that they're not going to be investing in frontier free agents, probably wise. Because you know what? None of those guys will still be under contract by the time they end up getting to a victory. Well, that's why Chris gets saying that made little sense if he wanted to attract the top tier manager. What manager is going to come to a place where they're not going to spend money and understand what they're getting into? So they're more likely to go for the guy that Bruce mentioned. Clayton McCallar, somebody like that of that ilk, then David Ross is going to demand top dollar and be a guy that could be a difference maker in Cincinnati. We are broadcasting live from the Blue Cross Blue Shield's performance stage, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois through it all. And a special thanks to the fine folks at Schmaltz-Delly for providing breakfast for us and our listeners this morning. Check out Schmaltz-Delly and Lyle spreading deli goodness everywhere. And we will be back. And we will be talking a little football maybe. Yeah, we'll talk there. Yeah. OK, we also may talk some bulls. We're going to be talking bulls all day. Maybe we'll talk some bears. I don't know what we're going to talk about. It's going to be so much fun. What a surprise. It's Mully and Haw. It's Chicago Sports Radio 6/7 this course. Bears fans, week 4 features return home to Soldier Field after back-to-back losses as the bears take on the Rams. Can the offense finally come alive? Can the defense hold off Matt Stafford in company? Stay tuned to the score as we continue to get you ready for Bears Rams right up to kickoff. And don't forget to listen Monday for a full day of Bears reaction on Chicago Sports Radio 6/7 this course. And always live on the free Odyssey app. Hey, it's David Haw for Fandall Sportsbook, the official partner of 6/7 the score. Yeah, well, not Bot Week 3 already. NFL Week 4, it's here. And you can start with a chance for a big win on Fandall. America's number one sportsbook. If you're new to Fandall, you can get started with a $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. It's a great deal. Build a quick same game parlay for Thursday night football right around the corner. It's already Tuesday. This is in two days, Cowboys Giants. So the positives was, I thought, Rome and Caleb looked like the future of the Chicago Bears. They were celebrating. They got the passing touchdown out of the way you should say, right? They're celebrating, they're feeling good. You just want to see more of it. I would like to not see the timeout be used there, but... Okay, okay, I thought we were staying positive. Yeah, I am. But hey, I am happy to get the point. They got their first touchdowns. It was really unique to see them. Mulligan Hall, Chicago Sports Radio 6/7 of the score. That is the voice of Robbie Gold. Yeah, former Bears kicker who's doing some work with Markey Sports Network. Post Game Show. Post Game Show. No, he does the show during the week. I'm sorry, he does. Yeah, Dave does the post game show. I told you I went back and watched it. You watched it? I went back and watched post game. Dave always provides a good analysis. Robbie Gold has his own show, and I think he does the fifth inning, doesn't he? Okay. Or is that Zach? Yeah, I think that's Zach. That's pretty funny. Yeah. No, but Robbie, it's him saying that about Rome and Caleb Williams, we're going to hear a lot about those guys this week about this chemistry and the post game stuff, the post practice stuff. I appreciate what he's saying because they're 22-year-old guys. One guy drafted first overall, the other guy ninth big in the draft. Great. Get that. I know. DJ Moore is 27 years old. I know. And he's the guy that has the four-year extension. They just paid him. For 110 million after this season. So he's going to be here for five more years. So I just think let's not forget about him. I don't think that we should. I don't think that they are because I just, I know, well, we can't forget him. But I do wonder what effect some of this has on a guy in DJ Moore. Number one, the noise is the noise. They can block that out. You know, Robbie Gold, now that he's a member of the media, he's easy to ignore if you're a player in the locker room. Guys like us saying what we're going to say about the chemistry developing between Roma Dunes A and Caleb Williams because of rookies and boy, they're going to grow together, that can be easy to ignore if you're DJ Moore. But I do wonder what effect it has maybe as you see them staying after practice, as you kind of find him targeting or going, throwing more to Roma Dunes A in key situations. You wonder what effect that has, and you start to wonder what about me? What about me? And it's human nature, right? Especially for wide receivers, as well balanced as DJ Moore is, you do wonder as this begins to evolve this relationship between a Dunes A and Caleb Williams, how he's going to process all of it. Even though he'll say the right things, what's he really thinking? What effect it has on the Bears offense? DJ Moore's got to be your number one option. And I think that the targets have to reflect that. And I think he's got to be more as we sort of facetiously referred to in the first segment. He's got to be more than decoy more. He's got to be the guy that is the focal point of your passing game and the best player in your offense. And that's what he was last year, that's why they paid him. And that's what he has yet to be this year really in three games. He's been dependable, but I do think that they could lean on him a little bit more. And I think they're going to get better if they do. Listen, I think that you need a lot of players to contribute to what you're doing if you are Caleb Williams. I think it's great that he feels a kinship and a friendship with a guy who's kind of his own age and they came in together. You know who's one of his best friends that we haven't seen is Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen is an artist as a route runner. He is a third down waiting to happen. You get to third down. Can you say so? He's going to be open and you've got to find him. Now, if you say so. Well, I mean the problem is he's got this heel, he's got this plantar fasciitis. And he has missed two games, two games. If it turns out that he can't play this week and God forbid he's out for another week, then they blow it by not by trading for him. I mean, I'm not going to sit here. We should talk about that. Well, I want to address that part because the second part of it, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say they could have put him on IR and they could have freed him up for four weeks. I just don't know what they're doing with him. They could have been four weeks. But again, when you do that, who's replacing him, it doesn't matter who replaces him. You don't replace a guy like that. So the bigger, broader question is what your first question was. Just expect this from a 32-year-old guy. Well, because I mean, I think I could be part of it. Let's talk about what they did. They had a chance to take the guy that right now is the best interior pass rusher in the NFL. He had an impact on 18 of the 51 plays that the Philadelphia Eagles, Jalen Carter had an impact on 18 of 51 plays when they beat New Orleans. And what they did is they traded. They traded down to take Darnell Wright and get a fourth round pick. And they used the fourth round pick to bring them Keenan Allen. Right now, both Keenan Allen not being able to play and Darnell Wright being able to play not necessarily well looks like they made a terrible decision on that trade. OK, one guy at a time though, I think with Keenan Allen. That's where you were going. No, with Keenan Allen, I want to focus on what you have from a 32-year-old who is a third down machine and the rot runner that we have seen him. He has a Hall of Fame caliber career right now, numbers. Make him guy who's worthy of being a semi-finalist. And you're going to see him as a nominated for the Hall of All those things that make his career special and elite. But if he's 32, you have to expect these kinds of things to pop up. You gave up a fourth round draft pick. So it was a modest price. Looked like a great deal. But now that he has never been part of your offense, are you trying to replace him? What are you replacing? You don't know. And he's got to come back. And I don't know how much you're going to be able to count on him when he comes back. And when he comes back, what role does he play? I think that Keenan Allen, this is sort of a mystery. Number one, I wonder about his health. Number two, I wonder about he had personal reasons that he did not attend the game on Sunday. It's a little unusual for a guy that professional, the consummate pro, whose contributions were documented on the sideline on Sunday night football. And oh, look at the way he's coaching on the sideline. Him missing is not a small thing. And then where does this go from here? Because if he comes back and he's the guy who's the third or fourth option in this offense, how does he handle that in a contract here? Yeah, I mean, listen, I would be willing to deal with how he handles it if he could just play. I think it would help them immensely if he could play. And I think that what we've seen is they're relying on a guy in Carter that they didn't really, there was a question of whether or not he was going to make the team. There was a question of whether or not he would be on the roster on game day because they still thought Phyllis Jones was going to be one of their big return guys. And so now by virtue of need, he is lining up, he's getting the ball thrown to him quite a bit. It seems like Caleb Williams is interested in using the slot receiver. I just don't know why we can't see the team we thought they were going to field and why they made all this noise about the group they were going to put together if they're not on the field. I'm worried. I'm frankly worried that Keenan Allen, this heel thing, interrupted his season at the end of last year, he had this heel problem. And now it's back and it turns out it's plantar fasciitis. That's scary stuff. Yeah, that's not good development for a guy his age. Your plantar fascia is it is basically your entire the bottom of your foot. Thank you doctor. And it presents itself. Mulligan diatrist. Often I just know a little bit about it. I know. I was covering the polls when Michael Jordan had a plantar fasciaitis injury and it was unbelievable because Bob Coosie, it ended his career. Bob Rehien wrote a story. Jordan had to come out and say yeah, I understand that Bob Coosie had a really bad one. I got a little straight. It's not a big deal. And he had it criticized Bob Rehien for writing this thing. But it's like that serious an injury that it did stop a guy's professional career. If indeed Keenan Allen, as you say, Hall of Fame credentials, which by the way, you need to look at what it takes for a wide receiver to get into the Hall of Fame because he would almost have to double his statistics. I'm aware, but you look at that. I mean, he's got a good of a case. He's had it. Some of the guys who are waiting in line now, six time pro baller, great player. Okay. And you clearly would be better with him than without him. But I just think that at some point in time too, you got to look at he's making $23 million this year and you gave up a fourth round pick. Yeah, I'm more concerned about the $23 million. He's making this year and you're getting nothing out of him. So I wonder how long the injury will linger. I wonder how quickly when he returns, he'll be incorporated into the offense because does he have to get in line behind? Well, Roma Dunes A and DJ Moore, all of a sudden, if Keenan Allen comes back, is he your third option in this offense? He likely is because if we think that this is just a media making something out of Roma Dunes A's chemistry with Caleb Williams, as Robbie Gold alluded to, as we're talking about, and you hear them talk about the extra time at practice and all that thing, this is a real thing developing. And that's why we're talking about it. And that's why it's relevant. It's great because I think that a Dunes A has those capabilities. He is Jamar Chase in waiting, I think. He can be, he can be to Caleb Williams, what Jamar Chase is to Joe Burrow. I know there's another Burrow reference. Yeah, but by the way, Cincinnati 0 and 3, not to get in the way. But the point is that I just you can see that capability. He's a top 10 pick Malik neighbors had a great game for the Giants. Yeah, you look at Marvin Harrison Jr., what he's doing in Arizona. Roma Dunes A is still on that path. His third game in, he had 112 yards. But here's the truth of the matter is that whether we talk about DJ Moore or whether we're talking about Keenan Allen or Roma Dunes A, if you win, all ills are healed. What we're talking about is the fact that they have lost two straight games. And the first game they won, they couldn't score an offensive touchdown. So what we're talking about is a non-functioning offense that finally put up some numbers, but not really good function. And we know what those numbers mean. It means that you threw the ball too many times and you can't do that and win. Well, that's, so that's why I'm waiting for somebody to either call in text and in textures of being a little angry today. Are they really? To tell us to stop talking about the passing game because that's the problem with the Bears. Maybe they're too worried about the chemistry between the wide receiver and the quarterback. And they're too concerned about where DJ Moore fits in all of this. And if Keenan Allen will come back, run the football, block the run. I mean, listen, give it to, listen, figure out what running back you want to use on fourth and one. Well, we know who they should use, but we know who they are using. And we also know that they cannot run the football because they are QT cute. And that is too smash mouth for them. That is the, that is the sad reality of where you are three games into the football. Is it a sadder reality that maybe they know they can't run the football because they can't block anybody? Is this all? I don't want to say a ruse, but could this be somehow the coaching staff who's never going to acknowledge this publicly realizes that when you have a center that is not strong at the point of attack, when you have a guard that you're looking at as a solution, Matt Pryor, it's just part of the problem. When you have Darnell Wright, who's underachieving in his second year and you have Kevin Jenkins, who can't stay on the field and Braxton Jones, who's overmatched, do you just have an offensive line that can't play smash mouth football? That's what the Bears may have. We're actually, yesterday, we had a serious conversation about whether or not Matt Pryor should remain as a starter and how good he could be and how much he could help you. Matt Pryor is a guy who is, what, maybe their fifth, sixth lineman? I'm sorry, more like their seventh offensive lineman. You know, they went out and they traded for a guy that they brought in and apparently he's pre-injured as well as Keenan Allen. And so you're looking at Ryan Bates coming in here with a shoulder injury, now he's on injured reserve. So you wanted to try to replace your highest paid offensive lineman because Nate Davis can't seem to practice let alone play, right? You can't make the club from the top. This is a guy that seems more interested in rehab being than in playing. But you're stuck. But you are totally stuck. But it sunk money at this point. You can't make a statement by doing anything with Nate Davis because your biggest statement so far is that we are a finesse team that needs him. That's it. That's it. That's the problem. And you don't have an identity as an offense because you've not been able to force any kind of running game or you haven't been able to commit to anything because you can't block it. But I mean, I gotta go back to this. You know, the roster is flawed. They had three players that didn't play on Sunday. One of them was the backup quarterback. That happens. That guy hopefully doesn't play in a game. But you need him and he's the backup quarterback. They had two offensive lineman active that stood on the side of my hand. They had another lineman get hurt in the game. I know, but I don't remember any of this coming up during hard knocks. No, this is definitely edited out. Why didn't they get into the football stuff? I don't understand. This is such a surprise to so many people that the Bears don't know. They don't have a running game. They can't block it. And oh, by the way, the receivers are injured or the big, no, the Keenan Allen is injured. Yeah. But back to what you said about the Andre Carter. It's very interesting because when you mentioned his name, my first reaction was, like, oh, at least good thing, he's here. Good thing he's there. But they're in a position where they have relied on him way too much. Number one in the return game because Vailas Jones, number one choice, failed them. Number two, he's too present in the passing game because Keenan Allen, who they relied on isn't around. And oh, by the way, what happened to Tyler Scott? Who hit him? I know he's small, but if somebody put him in a broom closet somewhere, because where is he? I have no idea. I thought when he replaced Vailas Jones, we would actually see him. I also thought, you know, again, this is the delirium of watching preseason football, that he and the quarterback were developing some kind of chemistry together, seemed like a guy that could run at top speed down the field. I know he was challenged to catch the ball a year ago, but I thought maybe Caleb threw a better ball. Maybe he'd catch it. Maybe. I don't know. We haven't seen that at all. That was one of those preseason storylines that we overstated and maybe romanticized. But Tyler Scott has been nowhere to be found. I've been surprised that they haven't used him more. I agree. And DeAndre Carter has been a guy that I think Caleb Williams trusts in the passing game. Pretty good in the return game. Just don't ask him to block anymore. That's the thing. Look at Tyler. Look at DeAndre Carter. Remember that play? And then the goal line. Wasn't it one of those? You know, I didn't bring this up. I didn't go from the four plays. Yeah, I didn't want to say this, but there was also a bad play that Roma Dunes say missed a block. I mean, if we're talking about the wide receivers aren't blocking well enough, then you got no hope at all. Because the offensive line can't block. If you have to rely on your wide receivers block well enough together, running game says everything about your run. And if you're if you're on the goal line and your and your slot receiver isn't picking up the right block, guess what? You got the wrong play being run. Yes. That's it. I think it's good. Why not take some of these guys that are just standing around the sideline and put them in his extra alignment? Why not? In our situation. Makes sense. Yeah. All right. We've got Dan Wiederer. Yes. He's going to join us next. We'll ask him some of these questions. What? What is the mystery of Keenan Allen? Does he have any insight into it? And really, why are they overloaded with offensive linemen that they don't seem to use or can't play? Good questions. We'll talk to Dan next. It's Molly and Hawke Chicago Sports Radio 6-7 to score. Dan Wiederer. You've got a guy with credentials. You've got a guy with some qualifications. And now there's just when done at its best provides a level of steadiness and stability that helps create and stimulate success. On air contributor for 6-7 to score. Listen, we're not going to accept the status quo. We are going to push for more. We are going to strive for more. Co-host of the Take the North podcast with our own David Hawke. We're going to take the North and never give it back. Dan Wiederer with Molly and Hawke on 6-7 to score. Bear down. Let's go. Molly and Hawke Chicago Sports Radio 6-7 to score. Always fun to talk to our buddy Dan Wiederer. And he joins us now on the Aeturo Tire Hotline. Aeturo, your hometown tire. Check him out at Aeturo.com. Dan, good morning. How are you, bud? I'm doing good. How are you guys doing? Doing well. Yeah, we're kind of debating what has gone wrong thus far. And I mean, listen, I don't -- I'm not going to sit here and ask you about Justin Fields. I'm not going to ask you about Jaden Daniels. I'm only concerned with the bears, but why did they throw the ball so much? What the hell was that? I was bothered by it in the first half, Molly, just knowing what we knew going into that game and the need to not only try to establish the run, but stick to it if it wasn't working. And I think it was late in the first half. They were up at like 24 pass attempts and 18 runs. And it's just not what you wanted going into that game. And obviously in the second half, when you're chasing and you're in a lot of those two-minute operation situations, your passing numbers are going to go way up and the numbers are going to look a little bit inflated. But even early in the game, there just wasn't the success with it. There wasn't the dedication to it that haven't been able to get it unlocked. And it better comes soon because it's putting a little bit too much pressure on your rookie quarterback too soon in his career to try to carry this load. So Dan, you know that I agree with that and I think everybody understands the need to run the football. My question would be as you think about this more is why anybody, why everybody, is so surprised. The Bears talk all off season about when they talk about their offense, all the weapons that they have and it's the wide receiving trio when they bring in Caleb Williams with his arm talent and his generational ability, all those things. And then we're surprised and I'm counting myself into this too. They need to run the ball. Why aren't they running the ball better? Well, they never really gave us the idea that they would. Did they? Shane Waldron came from Seattle because why did he leave there? Because he didn't run the ball enough. I wonder if we're all victims of being duped in the off season and thinking that the Bears are going to be something they're not. Well, I don't think anyone was expecting them to be a team that was going to run at 50 times a game and have like some 1980 style offense here. But you have to have balance. You have to have an ability to unlock some things in your play action game and ability to get that run going in a way that makes everyone feel the rhythm early in a game. And they haven't got that done yet. I think one of the answers that struck me from Caleb Williams at the end of his postgame press conference on Sunday afternoon was him just talking about the need to adapt. And then along with that, I think he used the phrase the need for constant communication. And I hope he's at the forefront of that of encouraging his coaches, encouraging his teammates to be very vocal about what they want in this troubleshooting effort. Because we all can acknowledge troubleshooting if necessary. And hopefully they are on that same page as they progress into this week. Because guys, this Rams defense is about the face, not that good either. They can be exploited pretty easily as well. And so you better just be on top of it so that you put yourself in position to succeed on Sunday afternoon. Well, I mean, they ran for 63 yards. They played a team that was given up 234 yards a game on average. And they ran for 63 yards. And I guess it wasn't just that they ran for 63 yards. When I lost my book I was keeping when I threw it in the air and tossed my pen across the room was when they lined up at the line of scrimmage. And they handed off to DJ more on an end around and lost four yards or something. I couldn't believe it. You know, run the ball down their throat. How hard is that? They've been, that is what they can't defend. By the way, DeForest Buckner is out of the game. It just made zero sense. And that's why Sunday's lost stung the way that it did because you were staring at a game that was right there in front of you. You know, you're playing an opponent that was probably inferior talent-wise. They were missing one of the best defensive players. They had a young quarterback, you know, who's got about six or seven starts of experience who gave you two gifts. And you somehow walked out of there with a loss. And you walked into halftime and David talked about this extensively since Sunday afternoon. Zero points at halftime despite the way you moved the football unforgivable. And that stuff comes back to bite you and it comes back to haunt you. And you're just hopeful that a loss like that can be made up somewhere along the line with a win that, you know, you play above your head and you beat a superior opponent because if not for a team that's going to be kind of on that fence of being in the wild car chase all year, if things go well, you're going to be really, really regretful of some of the opportunities you let slip away. All right, Dan, you're good at putting things into perspective and providing some context here. So obviously we're in the midst of Justin Fields and the Steelers starting 3-0. Jaden Daniels realistically has outplayed the quarterback chosen before him in the draft. And those comparisons to Caleb Williams can get loud in a football city like Chicago and certainly at a place like Howles Hall. What effect, if any, will that have on Caleb Williams? What do you expect to hear from the quarterback when he talks today? And will you ask him about this effect on his rookie season? About Jaden Daniels and Justin Fields? Yes. No, there's no chance I'll ask you about that. It is irrelevant to Caleb Williams in his growth process. It's a great thing for national pundits to get on TV every morning while you're eating breakfast and shouting at each other about the regret the bear should have. Caleb Williams's flight for takeoff is right on schedule. He's playing well for a guy who just played his first regular season game 17 days ago. You're seeing progress in the way he processes the way he's acclimated to the speed of what he's seeing from a closing defensive. I have very few worries that he is going to be the major problem of the Chicago Bears football team this season or beyond. It's September. Let's revisit some of these Jaden Daniels, Justin Fields conversations in mid-November and see where everybody's at when the sample size is larger and we're not all sort of playing the prisoner of the moment game of reacting to grand levels on what just happened this past Sunday. Accumulate a whole bunch of games and sample size and then evaluate it side by side and take it from there but I don't know some of that conversation David to me is just silly. We had a long conversation yesterday with Dave Wants that and he made a point that I thought was an excellent one. He talked about some of the running backs that he's been around and how you loved it get those guys lathered up and the more lathered up they get the better they are and it made me wonder why Khalil Herbert was their short yardage guy. Is that because of some package of plays they planned on running. You Roshan Johnson had come into the game and he got them a first down to get to that point. Why not let him run at the goal light? He's already been in the game. He's already bruised up a little bet. He's already going downhill. What was the point of switching out running backs and we won't even get to the fourth down play because that was horrible but I'm just curious why not line up and try to beat them the old Wilson animal right down their throats with a guy that's in the game that just got a first down. Right and to your point Molly Roshan was the guy that had had run with the sort of play style that you're seeking. It's just that that tenacious physical running style that you feel and then when you get a four yard run or a six yard run and you see the way he's running the football it gives your lineman a little energy. It gives your offense a little juice and all of a sudden you're able to go there. I think they got trapped down there in the low red zone of trying to find looks right you know something that they could do to exploit the cold defense where I'm a big advocate of just have something that you do really well no matter what defense they play against you you know that you're going to do it better than them particularly when you're at the one yard line. You're talking about getting one yard you better have something in your playbook that isn't dependent on what the opposing defense plays you know like just do something really well. I mean run play action there boot Caleb out to the right and give him a read where he's either throwing to a wide open tight end in the flat or he's running in for a touchdown but just do something other than a pistol formation where the ball is going to your tail back you know 10-11 yards behind the line of scrimmage and he's trying to catch it when four-year linemen are already on the ground and there's a you know five defenders corralling around him I mean it's just it's not going to work and so like find that playstyle I'd be surprised that they didn't get Roshan a little more run this week because I think he was encouraging what the extended action he did have but to your point about what Dave said about getting the latter these backs have to feel a rhythm in the game they have to feel involved and so you have to figure that out that's Shane Waldron and it's by extension Matt Eberfloos allowing that message to get through. Dan it gets a Texans there were two really questionable challenges by Matt Eberfloos against the Colts he burned the timeout because he wasn't ready to go for two or call for the two-point conversion because of those two things back-to-back happening in losses what has it done to maybe your view of how well Matt Eberfloos can multitask and manage a game on Sundays? No I mean it's it's heightened the scrutiny on whether your head coach has the ability to handle the game operation in a successful manner I mean we talked about this division and you talk about the coaches that are in this division and what each one of those guys brings from Kevin O'Connell to Dan Campbell to Matt LaFluor and so you want Matt to be more than a guy that can call a good defense for you you want him to be a guy that can position his offensive coordinator together a successful game plan that can handle some of the twists and turns within a game and that error on Sunday after the touchdown is I mean that's inexcusable that's just something that that can't happen they didn't score a 58 yard touchdown there it was from the one yard wide you know those conversations should have been happening for three four five plays in advance about okay not only we're going for two here but here's the play we're gonna have dialed up once we score and so those type of operational errors particularly for a team that doesn't have a real wide margin for error but does have playoff aspirations inexcusable and they have to be put under the the microscope and they have to be talked about that way great stuff Dan thank you buddy we'll be listening to the take the north podcast thanks Dan talk to you later looking for a cheerful week next week all right yeah we'll be much happier that's guaranteed hey it's molly and ha we're live from the blue cross blue shield performance stage blue cross blue shield of Illinois through it all and we want to thank the five folks at schmaltz deli for providing our breakfast us and the listeners and check out schmaltz deli in Lyle you can you can get out there it's off Ogden Avenue in Lyle and its family owned and operated with roots in authentic traditional style Jewish delis make sure you check out that they're spreading deli goodness everywhere it's molly and ha we got our buddy K.C. Johnson next getting ready for the bull season with K.C. next molly and han score now K.C. Johnson we'll be waiting to pull up three over carries the bird and nails it Chicago Bulls insider from Chicago Sports Network I've covered the NBA for a long time K.C. Johnson with mulling ha balls on six seventy the score mulling ha Chicago sports radio six seventy the score always a delight to talk to our friend K.C. Johnson and K.C. we are on the cusp of it another season this will be an interesting one could be a little bit different everybody kind of figuring it's going to be about rebuilding it's going to be about player development but there's also some veteran status involved in this thing there's a tenth overall pick what is it top 10 protected I think there's a lot of interest something you don't want to bring up in your preseason expectations but it is a reality this season yeah especially with Zach Levine coming back and how he fits everybody wonders that yeah you mentioned some veteran talent on this team I think you have a two-time all-star in this roster in Zach Levine and by the way whoever did the open nice work getting the Chicago Sports Network in there because I have a new employer nice job and it's great to be here I did not know I was going to be in a live performance studio so very cool to see a live audience and I also think you guys are ready for that I also think it's fitting that we're in a performance studio because I'm the opening act for the Bulls Brad you know that's right I should be like boot off this day there's a guitar hanging on the ball I mean yeah I put that to use if you want but Zach to me is the obviously the focal point going into training camp there's plenty of storylines but to me there is none bigger than Zach Levine I put out on Twitter because right now I don't really have a an outlet to write um that uh that um we'll be launching October 1st but I don't have an outlet yet uh that he was one of the first back for these optional workouts post-labor day with the team which is obviously a good sign I've always said you're not you don't have to worry about Zach Levine's professionalism he's going to be professional he certainly cares for people like Kobe White he wants to see them succeed I think where it could get messy in fact I think it where it will get messy is on the court I'm less worried about Zach Levine off the court really how so because look the Martin Rosen isn't here as you know there's still shots that he would take that now have to be taken it's just to me it's this it's and you're right because first of all Zach fits the way Billy wants to play which is more uptempo Josh Giddy with the ball in his hands Zach fits that I just don't see the to me it's conflicting goals all these young players he needed to develop with Zach Levine sitting there a two-time all-star trying to restore his standing in the game to me those are just two conflicting goals I could be wrong I've been wrong many times before that's where my focal point is going to be going into this season is it possible we're talking about like two different seasons like a season where you begin and you're trying to rehab the reputation of a player who is on the trading block where maybe which is another guy you could trade where you've got them kind of leading the team until you get to the trade deadline and then you have a different team playing is it is that too simplified no it's not it certainly could be a way that the story the season unfolds is that could be the storyline because look make no mistake about it you're going to hear Billy and aka talk nice about Zach and and there's no ill will I mean they like Zach personally but I'm just saying thanks for the preview no just say like if you think they're not still trying to trade him at some point oh no I'm sure they are yeah and I'm sure that contract is a problem and I'm sure he needs to prove a little something in order for someone to want to take all that on right and I mean coming back from an injury he's got a very rich contract and you know you want value for him I just I guess David is there any chance that he doesn't start is there any chance they could bring him off the bench I don't think that's the way they'll do it I don't think it's a good idea but I'm just wondering what their priority is so two things to that number one I'd be stunned yeah number two Billy Donner will be in the seat of a ten minute no but to your point like Billy's Billy's a players coach yeah he always seeds to veterans he loves veterans okay so I just don't see that I mean this is a two-time all-star I know until last season was one of the most efficient offensive players in the NBA over a three-season run he was on the ace cent winning that gold medal with a team USA taking a defensive-minded role for Greg Popovich drawing praise from Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich for his role in that Olympic team he was on the ace and he was on the Jamal Murray track I will always be last season it just went all off the run yeah because doesn't it surprise you I know you've said this before how people talk about Zach Levine in this town yes given what he has accomplished in the type of player he is all right let's go to how the Bulls are going to stop anybody or if they can Alex Caruso gone Andre Drummond gone who's going to protect the rim and how do the Bulls how do the Bulls survive defensively yeah I mean it's crazy because for two seasons of the road they've largely focused on defending the paint and seeding the three-point line they've ranked 29th and 30th and three-point shots allowed the last two seasons and two seasons go even with the 29th ranked defense allowing the three-point shot they were fifth overall in defense so it can be done obviously Caruso being gone is a big part of it I think you're going to see a focal point where you're going to be more trying to guard the line so you're going to be more perimeter-based Patrick Williams obviously is going to be a big part of that and needs to be healthy and show he can you know step up defensively but certainly they're going to be defensively challenged in a lot of games especially if you're starting that lineup that we all think they're going to start of Giddy White, Levine, Williams, and Vujevic how does Pazella does he start in the G league see now you can man I don't think he starts in the G league I also don't I'm not 100% sure he's going to be in the rotation start I could be how many I think that's going to be a storyline what how many well I think this season because you have so many young players you need to develop Billy usually likes to go nine I'm excited to hear what Billy is going to say to you guys yeah he usually likes to go nine I think with all the young players you have to develop with winning maybe not as much of a priority as last few seasons with that draft pick protection I think he goes 10 for sure I mean you got you you got a lot of people you need to develop Julian Phillips, Dale and Terry, Madison Miss Ellis who Patrick Williams still needs to develop so you got a lot of people that are on the development stage how does Jalen Smith fit into the fit oh he's yeah he's he's offensively what do you think he's a rotation lock to me to me the rotation locks beyond the presumed starting lineup right throughout throughout our iota sumu Jalen Smith and uh one other one um Tori Craig Bousallis it's one of those powerful is Craig Bousallis or um yeah so they're they're not a lot of locks you mean Phillips I think yes that's what I'm talking about you got a lot of young guys you got to develop so when camp starts what's Lonzo ball's role on this team and what will he be how active will he oh that's another lock if he's healthy I think is Lonzo ball in the rotation is he in the rotation I'm not talking about starting yeah no but is he in a minute limit I mean can he absolutely he's gonna be out of it like how how strict I think it's gonna be very strict I think you're gonna see him taking days off in training camp I mean look he's trying to do something almost unprecedented he hasn't played an NBA game in over two and a half years he's gone through three knee surgeries including a cartilage transplant I mean the fact that we're even at this point talking about him being a participant in training camp it's an upset surprise it's a testament to him his love for the game everybody's rooting for this guy and everyone saw at his best what he can do for this bull's team and it's just a shame that it's gone the other way but for him to even salvage another part of his career would be a would be a great storyline all right we'll let you go kc we're gonna bring in AK and Billy I'm just curious if if I asked you who's gonna be the the guy that steps up the surprise player the guy that we don't see coming is there such a person I would probably focus on either Kobe or Giddy and Giddy wouldn't really be a surprise in the sense that he started 80 games for the number one seed in the west last year but I think bull's fans are gonna be surprised at how talented this guy is and then I still think Kobe has another level to get really that's good I everything about this guy is about looking inward taking ownership wanting to improve you keep doubting that guy he keeps going to another level I think Kobe's gonna take a jump this year I think he can be an all-star player in this way what would be the expression on your face if somebody said the Bulls would win 34 games this year uh is AK here yet or no that's doubt that that's that's doubt and skepticism I think he has too many uh I've got him around 30 and I'm probably on the high end what's the over under you guys put it 28.5 according 27 and a half was the over under it's gone up a game I'm terrible at predictions but I'm going 30 and 52 yeah so I'm taking the over I went 32 I went 34 way to shut out of a candy 34 is insane all right 32 genius all right all right all right we've got uh we got the Bulls brass on the way thank you k.c molly and hoss chicago sports radio six seven at the store good morning all good here I always think about basketball you know I'm thinking about winning and that's why I'm here I'm I'm not here to stay in the middle you know it's a result driven business I mean you spend three times a day with Billy I was like great leader great coach and I got to do a better job to help him well yeah there's definitely going to be conversations you know we'll sit down to talk and they'll put my brain and I'll talk to them about stuff that always happens you know and they've been really really good and I appreciate them want to be clear on this like when the season starts right I I am totally try to invest everything I have into the team and into the group you know as best I can. Mully and hoss chicago sports radio six 70 the score we are broadcasting live from the performance studio we're delighted to welcome in our tourist kind of show this and Billy Donovan the the the boss and the we kept teasing it is breakfast with Billy we've got breakfast over there and it's it's really Billy the boss in breakfast what do you think that's that's what we're selling it's what I heard that and I knew he was from Jersey I thought proof of brinstein was going to be sitting next to him well a.k. you're wearing your colors man that is that is kind of the national goal explain the search of the of the Lithuanian national team right yeah so basically yeah Nike came out a couple years ago with this short that kind of reflected you know 1992 and 1996 and all the years that the Lithuanian Olympic team was wearing so I decided to put it on it's a t-shirt that any deadhead could appreciate that right yeah actually you know the summer when dead was at the sphere I've never seen Billy happier in my life when he went to see them live this summer yes and he he he came next day I mean he was absolutely shining you know you know the way he was describing how great was the concert and I've never seen him have you what was it like Billy yeah oh it was a great experience I had a chance to see them in Madison Square Garden in like 1988 1999 8889 and then they were in the sphere when we were there for summer league and someone had called me had tickets and went to the show it was great so I really enjoyed it he was just disappointed that he couldn't come we got in the day later very much well you were busy once you get in Italy did you have a some adventures abroad this summer I've had I've done things that I've never done before so you know experiences that what prompted that yeah I don't know I think you know I getting to that point where like you know you live once you try to experience certain things and you know certain you know experiences you didn't I didn't plan but they haven't and I'm glad one example what was one example the side yeah so when I went to Italy you know we we were planning to go on a hike and the translation English translation hiking and extreme rock climbing and mountain climbing kind of got lost there so when we show show it up with my wife you know to to do hiking at the mountain tubolata two guys showed up with you know harnesses and carabiners and belays I you know I didn't have these words in my vocabulary before but like you know I'm like what is going on right now and what are we going to about to do and four hours and five hours of that experience was like I've never obviously done that before I'm not trained you know so it was interesting experience and Billy don't you always do some international travel just to keep up with some of your players right everybody's living all over the world yeah this this summer didn't work out that way a couple years ago I went over to Montenegro to see vouch but he was playing with the olympic team there so there was a lot of training going on there so didn't make a trip overseas to see any players I saw Gar and Dragach you know that year as well which was a great trip but nothing overseas this season but you did you get together with um I don't know maybe uh Zach Levine was that one of your trips yeah so like what ends up happening for me at least you know we had uh probably about five days or some league practice and then we end up going to Vegas and then after Vegas I made a trip to to LA uh spent some time with Zach spent some time with I/O Kobe, Daelin spent some time with Lonzo they kind of all you know relatively close to each other so you know we go out there and do that and then you know a bunch of guys came down to Miami to work out went down to Miami and visited with them there so you know even though the trip wasn't necessarily overseas this summer you're certainly going out at periods of time this summer to to visit with players and spend time with them and just that you were visiting with Zach I think is something that worth addressing now because the pretty open dialogue last season about whether he would be coming back what he decided to do with the surgery all of the things and now here we are on the brink of training camp and Zach Levine is coming back to Chicago member of the Bulls could you just address how how those conversations went in the off season and the fact that he is back here now how he fits into your plans this year well I mean I've always enjoyed talking to Zach and we've always had you know a relationship that we've been able to communicate and you know like I said anytime that you know we've needed to sit down and talk he's always been very open-minded about that I think you know when you're a player and you're going through an injury like he went through and he's really disconnected so to speak from the organization from the team because he's doing his rehab it was right after the all-star break that he had surgery you know naturally you're going to want to know okay like what direction are we going how do I fit into this all those kind of things so it was really once the summer once July started it was more like he was you know back playing he looks in really really good shape I think it's the first time to be honest with you in the last year or so that he's actually come back to training camp remember he came up knee surgery so he looks a lot better and then it's you know more about how we're trying to play how he fits in you know those kind of things and you know I can think the the big thing is hey we've got a lot of younger players are we going to go younger we're going to go you know older how how's all is going to work and we have open honest conversations about it we talk about it our church there was an expectation or maybe that maybe he would be moved there was a perception that maybe he wasn't able to be moved or traded because there wasn't a market for Zach Levine how would you address that well I think last season was very difficult for him before organization for for everyone and but like Billy said you know to the last two years has been you know injured it's very frustrating for a player and now he's finally fully healthy he looks great and you know looking forward to see him in a training camp is he still open to be traded are you open to trading him and does he need to sort of rehab his reputation around the league because of the reason you spoke up because of injury coupled with his contract etc well you know people forget that two years ago he was an all-star so and and he's an ultimate pro he's a great guy a great person he likes his teammates so again I'm looking forward to see him in a training camp and you know we have a vision how we want to play you know we've obviously spent the summer talking about it with Billy and you know that we we want to play more up tempo and he fits into that and we'll see how that works so much curiosity about what style of play you will be with the new players there's a lot of changes going on now you got bazellas coming in as a draft pick and you're bringing Josh Giddy who had a terrific Olympics and you saw some of his capability and you bring Zach and you got Kobe White ready to take another step how fun is it for you this is almost like a lot of the same guys but there's feels like a reset to some degree because they're in different roles or because Demar DeRozan isn't here Alex Caruso isn't here guys who maybe had played into those roles so well for so long now if you're kind of it feels new yeah you know our turf and I you know speak all the time but even you know coming at the last season and and having to overcome you know the loss of players so to speak with Patrick Limb situation Zach situation Tory Craig there was just a lot of things that ended up happening I think everybody knows the way Alex Caruso plays he's so reckless a lot of times his availability you know was up in the air so you know I think last year I was pretty honest from the standpoint that you know we were not a team that was built to play really fast we just weren't built that way and I think you know as a coach you always want to try to play to your player strengths and obviously the job that Demar did for the time that he was here was remarkable and he was great closing out games in a total pro when he was great with the younger players I think as some of the roster has changed there is a mix of younger players and there's a mix of some older players and how well we can gel and mesh together I think the other part is going through the experience in Oklahoma City when we had Chris Paul, Shay Gilles Alexander and Dennis Shooter we played all those three guards together you know and I think when you look at our back court situation we have some talented back court players but they're only affected with the balls in their hands right so what kind of sacrifices can we make individually you know where we're not going to have one guy with the ball in his hands all the time we're going to have to be able to sacrifice and try to play to each other strengths I think the other part of that now is I think the way the team is constructed with the the mix of some older guys and some younger guys we have to play faster I think one of the things we've battled the last couple years is in some ways in our tours and I have talked about this we've lost the analytical battle you know we just were not a high volume three point shooting team and there was games we walked into where you've got teams that are taking an enormous amount of three-point shots and we're not able to even keep up with that rate and it's not so much about necessarily just bombing up three point shots but you don't want to be up against it on a continual basis because you're just not generating and not enough of them because listen everybody when you say DeMarr DeRoz and they always say this mid-range killer and he's unbelievable it's a reason why he's going to be a Hall of Fame players because that's what he does do and you don't want to sit there and try to make a player be somebody he's not so I do think that the tempo that our tours and I've talked about you know over the summer we've got to play that way and we have you know you go back and hopefully he'll be able to get on the court Lonzo he's moving in that direction but he was really a guy that enabled us to play faster you know moving the ball up the floor I think the same thing can be said for Josh Giddy you know he's a guy that can really really push the tempo and he does it a lot with the advanced pass and I think for those two guys players love playing with them because they know if they run he's they're going to find him and and it's difficult obviously to play offense constantly against the set set defense you know and when you pushing the ball that's when you generate rim shots and open threes and that's what we could try to get as many of those as possible after misses or after make Lonzo hasn't played in so long so I mean I just don't even know what that would look like I'm sure you've got a good plan in place that would seemingly have to be some kind of minutes limit or some sort of you know maybe natural days off within a comeback like that's been two and a half years basically he's been you know we've been talking to you know obviously just always excited about the training camp but again during the training camp we're going to try to find out you know you know that the loads that he's going to have to take in training camp and the grind on a daily basis will depend is you know rotational minutes you know his role and and you know how much he's going to play but he's been playing five and five since since august and he's been doing more he had recently set back just because he got sick and he missed like a week and a half but by training camp he you know he should be ramping up you envision him as a bench player you've mentioned him as a starter and controlled minutes because he's a guy who obviously went healthy and that's it's always dangerous to say when healthy because it has been so long but do you think or is this to be determined well I think the the thing that our tourist mentioned which is critical we don't know how he's going to respond after games after practice because we haven't seen it right so that's where we first got to start off with is where you know is it something where he plays 15 to 20 minutes and now he's got to take the next day off can he play 25 or 30 minutes you know how does he respond you know the back-to-back you know we don't know we don't know any of those things so we're going to wait to find out now I do think the one thing I look at it from this lens is it lonzo loves to play he loves to play and at his age you know as much as he loves to play he wants to play beyond this year so we have to think house have a responsibility to make sure that he's in a position you know where he can play after the season where it's not one of these things where you know it's not managed correctly or we're not putting him in a situation to be effective could that be 15 to 18 minutes a game maybe could it be 20 to 25 maybe there's just a lot of things if you look at him as a basketball player he's an elite point guard that certainly you know warrants being out on the court a lot but is he capable of doing that physically and and those are things we just don't know right now and until we get to training camp and he's out there we'll have a better feel of how we can maybe manage him and allow him to be a productive player you know it feels maybe it's not true that you're working at cross-purpose that you're trying to do player development you're trying to get young guys incorporated and you have a lot of players that are back does does that I mean does that signify that that you are going to be starting certain guys and then extending minutes through more guys than usual usually you like to go about nine deep you don't go much more than that but does this mean you have to go tending well I you know I I think one of the things that when people look at the development piece of a player they only look at it through the lens of playing time and they think okay the only way to develop a player is just throw them on the court playing 35 minutes let them make mistakes and and figure it out from there you've got to be able to I think help a young player in particular understand the things that really go into winning and the things that go into being a successful player is playing time part of that sure adversity is also a huge part of that how they're going to respond to tough games you know being exposed not having the experience I think for a young player developing a routine you know what do they do how do they recover you know and this idea of hey listen we're just going to take a bunch of young players throw them out there and then you know what just give them playing time I think there's also things that development you got to earn things too you know and I think our mentality and focus is we're going into every game trying to win so when you look at a guy like Mathis yes part of his development is being on the court no question but he also needs to develop a routine he also needs to understand the league he just needs to understand who he's playing against there may be a situation that our tourist and I sit down and maybe with the amount of minutes he's getting is hey listen he needs to go down the G League and get more minutes like the development part is so it's such a bigger process than just hey go on the court work on a shooting and ball handling because the biggest thing that a young player has to deal with that's coming from where he's coming from or any young player coming from you know is the fact that there's a level of inexperience there's a strength issue there's a lot of things guys have to develop so the development piece is critical but also what are the things that really go into winning because at the end of the day you're trying to compete and win and you want to help a player develop winning habits and as you're saying that people are nodding their heads and agreeing with you because it all makes a lot of sense and then the Bulls fans are thinking about okay where is Patrick Williams in that development because Patrick Williams went through a lot of the things that you just described and he had to learn how to be a professional he's 23 years old this is his fifth season but people look talk about him like he's been in the league for 10 years and yet his development I think he seems like from the outside looking in ready to take a step also needs to take a step to justify his draft status and what he means to this team well also you know let's not forget that he almost missed two seasons out of four right you know so he missed you know his second and he had injury last year so you know he he obviously worked extremely hard you know the summer to get back and you know we ramping him up right now you know for training cap so it's going to be a important season for him but you know when we are talking about us being younger you know he also look at you know covid this is his sixth year you know Patrick is fifth IO is fourth Josh Giddy's fourth you know so we young but at the same time you know there's a lot of experience there so again how far as Patrick come since you have big coaching him yeah I mean it's interesting what Artur said because I really felt when I first got here I thought one of the most difficult things for three players in particular they were not equipped and ready to handle was when Wendell Carter you know was maybe in his second year Kobe was going into his second year it was coming off of covid and then Lori marketed and it was like okay these guys are going to be the leaders in the future they didn't have enough experience for that but I think like Artur said with IO with Kobe with Patrick these guys now have got legitimate years of NBA experience under their belt and I do think from what Artur said some of the injuries has probably stunted that a little bit but I do think Kobe's a way different leader than he was when I first got here just through the experience same thing with IO I think the same thing could be said for Patrick you know I think he's starting to understand a little bit more but when you talk about a player come in and is maybe the youngest player in the NBA just to throw a guy out there now some of it worked out roster wise that he was given the opportunity to play quite a bit right but I do think he mentally has taken some growth and some development there in his part that he's in a much much better place in terms of understanding who he is as a player. All right it's Molly and Haw we are broadcasting live from the Blue Cross Blue Shield performance stage Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois through it all and special thanks to the fine folks at Schmaltz Deli located on Ognet Avenue and Lyle they are spreading some deli goodness well they're spreading it everywhere but today they're spreading it in here and we appreciate it and we're going to be right back want to talk about uh about Kobe and about the step that he took and maybe the step in front of him we'll do that when we return Molly and Haw in the score. I feel like I'm just part of my growth overall just getting better as the season went on I think one thing I need to work on probably this all season focus on is probably just my conditioning I don't think anything I could have done in this past all season would have prepared me for the amount of minutes and and load that I had this year so for me now moving forward I just need to work on my conditioning to make sure I'm prepared for anything coming into the team. Molly and Haw Chicago sports radio 670 the score that's the voice of Kobe White and there was a little bed of dead music underneath that just to make everyone comfortable. So let's talk about Kobe because that was that was really one of the big stories you you you know you decide to sign him um minutes open up for him things happen in his favor uh and he answers the bell and the question would just be is there another level there because we've seen him I mean the guy was like a he was like a childhood superstar in North Carolina I think he was like the school boy still holds a record yeah I mean so I mean he you know he can score you know we can do different things but he just seems to be continually getting better as a player. Yes I mean you know Kobe is obviously first of all is a great teammate and every summer he's getting better all right so we he committed the last two summers you know to to his development but not only that like this summer he he goes and invites teammates to work out with him so he grew as a leader he found his voice um you know last year and you know and hopefully this year is going to take another step. Yeah I mean he's um it's been really we talked earlier about development right like there's things that he had to go through to put himself in his position you know there was a time there where remember we had some injuries and he was at the point court position then he was off the ball then he was coming off the bench then he was starting it was a difficult year but he always did whatever needed to be done for the team and I think maybe you heard him before we started speaking about what he learned this year right and I think the one thing he learned was the endurance of a guy like Steph Curry who can run around and move like that for the amount of minutes that he endures and I think he talked about I got to get into much better shape I've got to be able to have much better stamina like that's a development piece that when you look at it he's not going to really know that unless he went through it and I think he even mentioned beforehand there's nothing I could have done to prepare for this you know but now he knows going into the summer and I think as our tourist mentioned him trying to step up and lead and have a voice um all those things he he's a guy that has taken complete ownership of his career his development and what he's needed to do and you know he's not a finger pointer at anybody always looks internally first and you know he's grown into an incredible player and now the next thing is you know when you look at our team he's going to be probably in some of these situations at the end of games and right and you know what that hasn't been something he's done but that's like another opportunity for development for him and and I do think that Kobe can get to another level just because of his drive and his will to want to be the very very best he can be and he likes to have the ball in his hands so now the adjustment comes Josh Giddy likes to have the ball in his hands the offense goes through him or maybe Lonza Ball likes to have the ball in his hands how do you think he will adapt to maybe being an off the ball kind of guy and still being the effective scorer that he was last year yeah I think for us it's it's it's not so much of you know one guy having the ball the whole entire time we we've gonna have to play in a way where we play a lot faster and and decisions are made quickly you know and that doesn't necessarily mean that Kobe needs to change who he is you know a guy like Josh Giddy has always been a pretty good advanced passer up the floor it may open up opportunities for Kobe to run and catch it and transition and be able to make plays and do what he does you know but for Josh Giddy for Lonzo for for Kobe for I/O for Zach you know you got guys that are you know I don't want to say they're ball dominant players but they're most effective when the ball's in their hands so every guy out there's not gonna have the ball in their hands so they're all gonna have to play off each other and this is going to be a learning and growing process for this group playing together you know for the first time but the mentality of a guy like Kobe is he wants to win and he's competitive so he'll kind of figure out you know how he can still stay true to who he is so how hard is it for you at this stage of your career you've been done it doing it forever but to get the guys that you just described to now bring their egos into the equation because what you just talked about requires you know being team first not you first and I think sometimes that can be a challenge depending on the player yeah I mean what you do is it starts in the summer you know you're sitting down you have meetings with three or four guys at a time you talk about hey how do you guys see this list is what I think and then you kind of work together I think they're all smart enough and bright enough to understand as they look at each other like you know someone's just not going to have the ball the problem is is when you get into a situation where one guy has the ball at a time and now all of a sudden everybody's being utilized so you could have a situation just you know a positive situation where a guy like Jack's kid he gets the ball and throws it up to Kobe Kobe drives down the lane and all of a sudden he throws it to Zach Zach shoots a three you know like right that's how we're going to have to try to do things and they're all going to have to be able to understand that they all can generate offense but they got to generate offense inside of what we're doing and then try to utilize that to make each other better tell us a little bit about Jalen Smith and how you envision using him there's a guy you picked up and free agency and he's got a role on this team especially with with vouch and the way he plays this is a different style of player so we envision obviously he's so versatile just to watch him play pickup pickup games you know he can he can block the shot then at the other end he comes and he makes a three then the next possession he gets our offensive rebound put back like he's very efficient very gifted player and that's you know we'll see how we can you know incorporate his skill set into you know our team but you know I'm very excited about him as a player because he can do so many things defensively how will you stop people because I think that's a big concern when you lose Alex Caruso you lose Andre Drummond you lose guys who traditionally are known for their defense they're not here any longer you have some nice pieces then they fit together offensively you worry about who's going to get the shots and who's going to take that but defensively I think if you're going to the offseason from our perspective from my perspective that might be your number one concern yeah it's going to be a challenge for us you know and I think that you know it for us mentioning you know losing a guy like Alex and even you know Lonzo has always been a very very elite defender hopefully you know him coming back we'll help with that but we're going to have to do it by committee in terms of you know whether it's we're in mismatch situations you know trap in the post we're going to probably try to be a little bit creative to try to cover for each other in certain situations I think Vuch has done a good job you know being able to with his IQ mix up coverages that he's in and he's pretty smart doing that you know I think for us we're going to have to protect the paint you know and provide support behind him as much as we can and then I think the big factor and probably the number one thing defensively that you always try to look at is how well you can contest and challenge shots you know so you know certainly for us we're going to have to put a huge emphasis on that you know as a group and it can't just be hey Alex is here let's throw him on this right he can shut him down we're going to have to do it by committee I'm very curious about what the changes in the college game mean to AK to your drafting to your you see this NIL stuff and you see the amount of money that some players are getting well they stay in college longer is there still the rush to get to the NBA and I mean it's really kind of amazing that Miss Ellis didn't go for the money went to the G League I mean you would expect that the amount of money available to players my god Billy you would have made a fortune back in the day well we we still learning you know how NIL is going to impact you know basketball you know community you know our market it also impacts you know international talent you know you know a lot of young guys from Europe come to play here in college and so we still learning how that's going to impact in terms of college high sleep you logically think that they're going to stay longer just because you know you know the NIL money is there you know and and when you don't have anything guaranteed when you commit to getting drafted and coming to a league then you're just going to take a short thing so I think that's going to impact us so you know it's still waiting to see but you know today's you know talented players they have options Billy my perception would be as a college coach you would use the outside noise maybe more to your advantage to motivate players they're younger maybe more prone to react to those kinds of things I don't know how it is with professionals but there's not a lot of expectations around this Bulls team this season you look at the over-under with in Vegas and 28 victories or whatever the case may be coming off last season do you use that as fuel do you refer to that at all as you guys get ready together for another training camp go off to a season into full of unknowns do you use the fact that people are doubting whether or not you're going to be any good well I think everybody has pride you know in terms of wanting to go out there our team is you know going to be different this year you know the one thing I really appreciate and respect about our tours from from the get go has been you know building you know a winning culture and this is kind of almost in a certain way a reset I don't want to say a total start over because we have certainly players back from the past couple years but you know it's a situation where can we establish in an environment a culture you know a foundation of how we need to play and also you know try to do the things and set into motion the things that we have to do that impacts winning on a daily basis you know you mentioned the defensive part you're not going to be good by just going down and trying to outscore people you know what I mean you have you've got to be good on both ends of the floor that's part of the development one of the things that go into winning so I think all these guys are incredibly prideful and you know we all want to be competitive and you know this is not a situation where it's like hey we're just going to play all these young guys and just see what happens and this is how like we're talking about really trying to develop everything develop the young players you know can the older guys like Vouch and Zack and Tori Craig and Javon Carter helping the leadership in the growth and development and investing some of our young guys you know well our young guys understand that hey listen the importance of being professionals being ready you know you're coming out of a situation where you've been the most talented the most gifted player now you're not now there's a learning curve how much humility do you have to want to learn like all these things I think are going to be on the table for us but I do feel like going you know to start this season we've got to be all in in terms of how we need to play in terms of doing the things that really go into winning and you know also we're going to put emphasis on obviously bringing the home court advantage back because even last year we had you know losing record at home and that shouldn't happen especially we have to make this place a hard place to play and yeah and that's why we try to stick to our principles and the players that you know have good work ethic you know physical you know culture you know movers and we just recruit certain players that you know fit what we're trying to build here all right we're going to be right back with 8k and Billy you're listening to mullion on the score and we're going to listen to dead music now for the rest of our lives it's mullion ha we are broadcasting live from the bluegrass blue shield performance stage so we Donovan is here our tourist car to show us this here schmaltz is deli is here serving food and uh and guys a lot of a lot of fun to just have the start of a season i mean there's so much going on i'm just curious did you spend any time watching the olympics do you like olympic basketball did you like seeing the uh the us team did you like having some guys that were involved in the olympics do you think that's a good experience for players i mean i i'm always nostalgic about olympics i love olympics that's my you know favorite event and um obviously you know go back to 92-96 i had an opportunity to play for Lithuanian national team but i mean this you know olympics i i watched every sport um it was available it was great you know televised streamed uh h sport and it was just uh love the opening you know the ceremony obviously again going back to you know when they used to just walk around the stadium and um opening ceremonies it's just a special event um that unites uh all all world you know just to uh for sports event one point did you scout for team usa from my seshevski um i did for the world cup uh 2014 not olympics um but yeah for a couple of years i worked with the usa basketball kind of while i was in denver uh to help him out a little bit with scouting yep yes i did um that was kind of fun to see the us win that thing i it was worrisome though because it was closer than i thought it would be and especially france could be a dangerous team moving for what the heck was that well the evolution you know as the basketball and however you know the world caught up to us and you know seeing 37 i think NBA players um play in olympics it was really good competition and closed games and it was great to watch it let's talk about the eastern conference parody is everywhere in the eastern conference and as much as we can talk about what you guys do well and what you need to work on how much of that parody gives you hope this season because you can be a team that you know you stick around depending on what your goals are but there's a lot more parody it seems like they're never that gives you a chance right but for us it's like you know you got to start you know from training camp trying to figure it out you know with this uh new group um guys coming back from injuries new faces um and how that all is going to work because a lot of players that you know going to have certain responsibilities and roles they've never had them before so it's going to be good to see in training camp and we're going to have to take uh you know one game at a time in terms of expectations and see where we at. Billy you like the eastern conference do you worry that um that this particular group of teams you know I mean Boston seems to sit alone at top those standings and obviously win the title but um it's a the the conference itself the division doesn't look overwhelming. Yeah I mean the way I always look at right the schedule comes out you're playing 82 games right and the schedule is what it is and to me you know the one thing you know is that like every night is a challenge doesn't make a difference who you're playing against if you don't come ready these guys are professional athletes as well so I think our focus is our tourist mentions got to be on ourselves what are the things that we have to do and certainly you know you know Philadelphia getting Paul George and you know about Milwaukee you know with another year that group under their belt you know you talked about Boston um and then I think there's probably a lot of teams trying to find you know like we are an identity and how they're going to play and how guys are going to gel and mesh together and you know for us I think we just need to worry about us and what we've got to do and and how we need to play and the things we've got to commit to on a daily basis. Organizationally how will you handle the rhetoric surrounding the team because if you are as good as you want to be then maybe you jeopardize that protected top 10 or that pick with that you have and there's you know how pro sports works you know how it works in a in a sports city like Chicago so what is the approach and how will you answer those questions well the approach again going into into training camp and then depends how the things work out in training camp now we're going to approach every game you know and we're going to try to win to win every game and because you know going back to you know development is like what goes into winning and that's the only way you can teach those guys you know how to win games as you know going through that and with a lot of things to be determined I think training camp will show a lot of things. All right we got a special guest believe it or not now joining us on the Aturo Tire Hotline Aturo your hometown tire Aturo.com is none other than Jo Kim Noah famous Bulls player near MVP with the Bulls but certainly a championship winner with Billy and Florida Jo Kim welcome to the show. What's going on guys what's going on wow thanks for joining us wow what are you up to these days? Well I just wanted to give some love to my old ball coach and I had a few questions for him I'm calling from the deep jungles of Africa you know hunting lions out here and just taking the time to call into the radio show and see if coach was going to have the five men at the top of a press and just play some real winning gun Billy the kid fouled back. Well unfortunately we don't have someone with his athleticism used to put him on the ball at Florida in front of the press and he was a nightmare but he is one of my favorite guys I've ever coached just an incredible teammate a great great human being and you know it's been great to be in Chicago where he certainly did so much and then he comes back through with his foundation and stuff so you never know where he's at it could be Hawaii it could be Africa you never know you never know where he could be at it. Where are you Jo Kim? I have a quick question so when you get a defense to when the big man gets a defensive rebound are you going to bring him are you going to let him bring the ball up the corner yeah tell me a little bit. Yeah well you know it's interesting with him and Horford when I had both those two guys it was a little bit unique I let those guys rebound and bring it on the break which is always a little bit different because you know in college they would always send the guards back for floor balance so these guys were always coming down the floor racing it but Jo Kim I don't know if we've got anybody like that on our team we'll probably be out letting to the point guards this year. Okay okay that's a good thing just wanted to let you know I was just hanging out with your boy numbness aka Torian Green and keeping him in the line I hope. He was still really he was still really mad about that the fact that you didn't let him come back to the ball at the point guard. Listen with the with you and Al the way you guys handled the ball we needed to get him up the floor he failed to realize that on that floor team no one knows this he took more shots than you Brewer and Al can you believe that he took more shots in all three you guys roll lottery picks and we got this guy's taking all the shots. I hope he hears this I hope he hears this. Yes. So what coach what are you most excited about with this year? You know just the start of the season for one I think too how we can try to play you know with with our current personnel I think we've got some back court players that you know can really help us force tempo and force pace I think we can play a lot faster I'm looking forward to that. I think we got a really good group of guys that will work. We had most of our guys Joe Kim in Miami because during the Democratic Convention our place was shut down mostly all the guys were in we're in Miami for a week and then we've had a lot of guys come back right after Labor Day to work out. So I think it's a good working group I think that they know there's going to be some challenges and some sacrifices that we've got to make but as a whole in terms of the people that we have a feel really good about them. Any more questions Joe Kim? No I'm just really looking forward to coming and see you guys during the year. You know I always cherish the time spending some time with Coach Donovan and talking after the games and talking basketball and talking strategy. You know that's always one of my favorite things to do in the year. So I know the expectations are not high but I know that you're going to come in right now and just make us proud coach. I appreciate you know I love you. I love you too man. Great stuff Joe Kim. Thank you buddy. Thank you for a great career with the Bulls too man. I'll never forget that year. Oh yeah. Great well team ambassador Billy though when you look back to that Florida team which would have been higher if that NAL existed which would have been higher the payroll for that team or the first NBA team you coach. Well people don't realize this so when those guys won the national championship they were all lottery picks and Joe Kim after his sophomore year was projected as the first player taken in the draft and everybody says to me like what did you do from a sales standpoint to get all these guys to come back like how did you get him to come back and the reality was the only guy in that class that could not go pro and was not going to get drafted was Tory and Green and Joe Kim and Corey Brewer and Al Horford they all made a pact that they were not going to leave him out to dry in his career. So when people ask me what did those teams win that's what goes into winning that like you talk about sacrificing and I'm not saying that everybody needs to do that in order to win but it speaks to their character in terms of if we leave this guy is going to be left with a team that's not going to be very good and what's going to happen to his career you know they used to get him a hard time all the time when he wasn't working hard like you got one more year and that's it we're out of here you know but then they came back and did it again but that was the reason that why they came back and you think about and Joe Kim the character of bypassing being the number one pick and going back for your teammate worked out well in the draft for him and the Bulls no it was a perfect situation for him here and and he was great and I knew he'd be great wherever he went but just his the integrity and the character of competition and winning and being a teammate is is is incredible did you help him pick up that suit he wore on draft night I couldn't even tell you half the I couldn't even tell you half the outfits he had while he was on campus you know hey gentlemen thank you so much really appreciate really okay really appreciate your time thanks everybody we appreciate our chance to get down here into the blue cross blue shield performance stage blue cross blue shield of Illinois through it all and of course special thanks to the fine folks at Schmaltz deli for providing breakfast for us and our listeners this morning check out Schmaltz deli and Lyle spreading deli goodness everywhere Mully and Haw on Chicago sports radio 6/7 of the score good morning Mike and Dave how's everything Mully and Haw Chicago sports radio 6/7 of the score so that was fun that was fun yeah it was a good time i love that we're now playing Grateful Dead music on the bed that was a big thing with the Lithuanian nationals without about it and to this day a lot of those guys still wear the the t-shirts that you saw as a k hat on this morning proudly Billy talked about seeing them at the sphere in Vegas my buddy saw him at the sphere and said it was an unbelievable thing and he actually sent me some tape of it it was pretty cool to say that that's fair thing to the event yeah it was fun to hear a.k. talk about being in Italy doing all the adventure stuff it was a lot of fun to get them in an environment that isn't as stiff or controlled and all the things and you know it's good for them to do that to talk informally about certain things and then get on the record about certain things that will matter this season which brings us to a couple of things they said i thought i thought there were a couple of really interesting things that were said maybe maybe the most important one was hearing them say they're going to try to win every game big picture i think you're right when i addressed a.k. about you know how it works we talk about all the time the protected top ten pick yes do you are you going to be too good what if you're what if you are on the flirting with a play in spot and get it and you don't make it and then you squandered that draft pick a lot of a lot of executives a lot of teams in this position would be tanking so lack of a better term the bulls still owe a first round draft pick to Orlando to finish the the Nikola vuchovitch trade so they've got their first round pick is protected if they finish in the top ten in other words the bottom yeah the bottom yeah about 30 teams in the league they would have to be like the 21st team in order to hold on to their pick and that's it in the lottery and then who knows where they wind up with that but that is the backdrop for this season that's the backdrop for this season and i think then when you talk about zaklavin coming back lambda ball contributing you talk about a team that has designs and being more competitive then maybe you would think for a team that would be angling to be one of the worst ten teams in in the NBA so hearing aka say on the record in this environment we want to win is not insignificant no it's probably the biggest takeaway yes anything news wise today that we heard lambda ball coming back that's interesting we can talk about that yes but the fact that the bulls are entering this season on the brink of training camp wanting to win more games than they lose and wanting to win to compete for a playoff spot is interesting i i think it's also interesting um we had talked about matas buzellis and should he start the year at the g league would he start the year at the g league we mentioned that and and we kind of discussed that a little bit we didn't ask them that question but that was brought up that maybe he needs to be in the g league i haven't heard them talk about i think we all know it i think with not that we all know he belongs there but we all know that one of the options they would have is to make sure that he's getting enough playing time and if he's not going to get playing time with this group you would want him to get playing time at the g league level and Billy flat out talked about development and what that meant and how it meant what it meant for different players and he mentioned that fact well i think one question is related to the other yes one answer is related to the other if the bulls as we said and we heard a k reiterate want to win then you're more willing and likely to have your first round draft pick who's still a teenager develop at the g league if you are not concerned about wins and losses and you're strictly a developmental season you've defined it as that then you're going to play him against NBA competition to maybe throw him in the deep end some teams do it that way i don't think the bulls are going to do that with bazellis based only on what we heard today yeah before we heard that i don't think we knew because and that's why it was somewhat like well he's already been in the g league is he going to be it what are they going to oh oh they want to win all right well you're not going to see much of the rookie well no no i don't think he fits into that plant i do think that they could operate in two different ways in other words i think they could come out and they could play their veteran players and you know we all envision a lineup that would would have josh giddy and uh kobe white and um patrick williams and vouch and zach laveen as they're starting five and then we'll see what happens with that group see how that develops into perhaps a trade bid for zach laveen for vouch who's running out of contract see if that ends up happening and then go young then go with kind of the younger players so they may try to win until they no longer are trying to win in other words they may try to win until they trade some people and then that may change and i'm not curious to get curious about how good they're going to be as well i think they don't know how much lonzo ball is going to resemble the player that he wants before the injury and all the surgeries they don't know what kind of guy zach laveen will be on the court functioning with kobe white who is who is not the same player as he was the better player the last zach played with him so there's got to be that kind of ascension to take into consideration also patrick williams remember a couple years ago when the bulls were playing out the string they had nothing to play for it i don't think that the wire played a game and i think they were in minnesota and zach was out patrick williams had about a 30 point game because he was aggressive because he hunted his shots because he was taking the ball to the basket because he wanted to be the guy and if he's more of the guy what do you have in him he was the fourth overall pick for a reason now i know we're all tired of waiting for patrick williams billy donham's answer though was very telling to me it's like you know now he's been there five years this is gonna be his fifth season yeah he's not a teenager any longer yeah maybe he's ready based on the adversity he's overcome to be the guy he finally was you know projected to be in your five i feel more excited about the season we came in this morning talking about the white socks losing and and then you know that put me in a foul mood thinking about our sports day one last night i and you're still in a foul mood about the white side well we talk about the highlight of the season that you want to deny we we only talk about their losing because they're about to be the losing his team and major league baseball history so we talk about that and we talk about it in that sense and whether they won last night we know what we're talking about and we know dust and celebrating it so it's difficult and i kept thinking that boy no the bulls are coming i feel more hopeful for the bull season than i did before we had this accuracy that means this is well worth the effort they just for me to get you in a frame of mind that you're positive now let's do hockey yeah okay because you know what the black hawks are going to be pretty good too and we can sit here and talk black hawks we won't don't worry you're here for a basketball but you look at the hawks off season and they can be just as optimistic because they are done with the losing by design portion of the program so now everything's happy is that which is no no no i'm saying that you have to find encouragement where you can find it turning it around no no no guys don't get me going on that i mean you just cheered me up don't bring me down no i i really enjoyed getting a vision from these guys and you know listen like we talked about the eastern conference there are some bad teams in the eastern conference there is a nets team that's projected to win 19 games not even win 20 games by the fine folks in Las Vegas so i think that's significant i think there are worse teams in the bowl well i think that's good and and you look at the talent on the roster and there should be teams worse in the bowls we haven't really talked about i/o much because he's ready to you know i think he he took a step last year that was somewhat overlooked by the fact that kobe white was as good as he was right now i still have major questions about their ability to defend even though it in in today's positionless NBA protecting the rim is less important than maybe protecting the three-point line but i still think that there's a void there that they did not fill adequately in the off-season there are lots of reasons that you could be optimistic if you believe in dayland tarry if you believe in julian phillips if you believe in these guys taking that next step well i can see the optimism but that's a pretty quantum leap of faith i think right now yeah we mentioned the five guys right the five starters i also believe in i/o i also believe in um in the fact that jaylin smith will get a good run i think he's going to be part of the rotation i i don't know i don't know if dayland tarry is i don't know if uh julian phillips is i think maybe tory craig is although he's got to stay healthy he's got to stay healthy but he can hit a three yeah but if he's if he's healthy he's done things in the mba before yeah so i'll take that um i you know i don't know i just i don't think that we can sit here and rattle off um more than than nine guys that would be a part of the rotation but apparently there will be more because there are slons of balls going to be part of it and there's some definite maybe's yeah definite maybe i'll tell you the name on the roster that you will probably bring up in a few months and laugh because it won't be consequential but the name on the roster that i find somewhat intriguing i don't want to say most intriguing because i don't want to come back but adama sanogo is a guy that we talk about gee league success you talked about the cup of coffee he had at the end of last season talk about you can't wait in a time you can't yeah he's obviously a guy who did a lot there and i think when he played there you saw some glimpses of the potential that he has i don't know if he is an mba tweener i don't know if he's an mba player but i do like the potential there when we're talking about all things are possible at the beginning of a season adama sanogo is a player that i think has some ability and the bulls might give him some opportunity and if he can take advantage of that i wonder i wonder about the where he fits in this rotation and how will help well he fits on the roster yeah um i don't i i don't think he fits on the roster i may be a great story if he did but i think he's kind of one of those gee league guys that you know may he may just be kind of the for a player right i'm at and that's not taking a shot bring up the socks again oh boy because they were for a team you have a lot of they're more triple a than four a let's get that straight um double a no uh yeah i i mean one guy they didn't mention that and i wondered too we didn't we could go every player and get the take on him but christ chris de warte the player who came from sacramento in the sign and trade you should know you should know your hands up there somebody's got to take shots yeah he's a he's a floor spacer he might not be on the roster david honestly i i not saying where's kc still here he's going to be on the roster made christa warte you don't think he's going to be on the roster i don't know i don't know it seems like that's a repetitive player seems like they got a lot of guys kind of ahead of him when you start thinking about six hundred wing and can shoot the three okay i think you got to find a spot for coby io is dayland terry on the team i just don't know that he fits on the team and it's a dayland terry i i don't know how much is trust dayland terry we'll be interviewing everyone before the olympics are over wait a minute no kris the trip to parris christuarte can do one thing that dayland terry has struggled at and that is shoot from the perimeter can he yeah he can all right i think i'm not going to be like waving the flag for christuarte but just remember this moment when he is goes for 17 you're like where did he come from oh i remember you telling me back in september okay all my positivity after talking to these guys has now gone right down the turtlet thanks to sonogo and marty i hope you're happy because i want to listen you're mr bottom of the roster if you want to tell you how would you why i bought up with the roster look at the the last couple guys to make the team sonogo and de warte could be the last couple guys maybe they're out of the rotation i'm bottom of the roster with an NFL team especially when i'm told that it's going to be hard to make the team and then you you keep a guy that didn't go back to the bears i'm not going back to the bears don't bring me down i just think you're confusing me with someone else don't kill my boss don't kill my boss i'm not bottom of the bulls roster all right so christuarte is a he's a thirty five percent three-point shooter over the course of his career okay six five i don't know i just think he might have a great is what is his three-point shooting i think you you know you might prefer him that's all i'm very curious about josh giddy i like what they had to say about him coming from oklahoma city he did play a lot of basketball there just didn't fit in the rotation during the playoffs but that was a very good team the number one seed so josh giddy's also a guy that um you wonder how he's going to realize his potential here in chicago you hope he you hope he can all right i tell you what we're going to do is we're going to get a microphone out seriously and then anybody who has a question of any kind about any of our teams can ask a question we're going to go to our uh audience here and let you ask a question or make a comment about the chicago sports scene we're going to do that next it's molly and hosh chicago sports radio six seven to score molly and hosh chicago sports radio six seven to score we got a live audience this morning all right thank you everyone for coming down great time yeah and thanks to everybody that came down but has to leave because they got work that happens but it was great to see everybody here five in the morning yeah that was insane man congratulations i think i remember you for beating us in that was today right i don't know that might have been yesterday so we've got a microphone here right shot has the mic let's uh let's get any questions you might have about boy shot has the mic yeah boy that's your in charge buddy all right shot thank you i appreciate welcome got your coverage um i know you didn't want to be upset this morning dave i know you don't want to talk about the bears but i have to okay your boy dan redo was on the radio yep last week afternoon with speaks uh they were asking questions what are we asking worldering about you know what is the emphasis you know and when we looked at the approach of the game and what it turned out to be let me ask you this dave i know in molly's i think he shared his comment towards the development of what he wanted to see out of calip's expectation for the season would you sacrifice a little development on calip if it meant ten wins in a playoff opportunity for this team this year if you pivot based on complementary football which is what eberfus wants to do so maybe having more of a game manager take fewer chances than sort of like and when seattle and peterro did dear bevel did with russell wilson i think it's a good question and appropriate one after his first three games when he's had five turnovers so i might have answered it differently before the season when you have when when i didn't expect him to be as erratic or maybe inaccurate as he has been at times so i'll i'll take i will definitely look at that differently now so that's a good point yes i think i would i would think because if you're asking him to do less i don't think you want to coach the special out of him you're still gonna see those things i think surface naturally but what we have seen in the losses the last two games specifically is that when he's under pressure and you come after him he'll throw you the football you don't want that to be the case you don't want to be a reputation that spreads and sticks so i would think that maybe this is the week that maybe you don't necessarily or you want to have a point of emphasis try to do less and try to take fewer chances and then you get back to the point where maybe you're ready to you know be risky again right right now yeah i would take i would take ten wins to for a developmental season or quarterback that learns how to take care of the football yeah i mean listen we got we talked about the ultra conservative idea of kicking field goals as opposed to chasing touchdowns as we're told let me tell you something kick a couple field goals win the game then you can go chase touchdowns there'll be time to chase touchdowns i just feel like they need to win right now not just for the kid but for the team and for the fan base for everybody just win win games i think there's got to be a sense of urgency for the football team that can't equal a desperate approach by the quarterback yeah you have to find a balance there because the Bears as a football team do need a sense of urgency because they can't lose three in a row but if you're Caleb Williams you can't approach that and interpret that is this is desperate times call for desperate measures i'm just going to throw the ball up for grabs you've got to be even smarter and safer with the football under those circumstances don't throw it 50 times yeah that too all right who's next anybody else got a question where we at in the back okay good morning gentlemen good morning George hi George our first time here it's a privilege i want to thank Justin for taking my calls the sixth caller i got a silver hey i got a simple question who are we going with sunday the bears are the round spot would you does wow come the bears no doubt bears doesn't pick the bears it doesn't even have to do that till Friday morning it's Wednesday morning molly does not like to be rushed with his predictions molly needs more time molly needs two injury reports i need two injury reports i need to listen to what these people say at the podium and then a stiff drink i need a shot of courage yeah and then maybe he'll change it twice more before kickoff i would like to point out that molly is unbeaten thus far this year if we're going to keep that alone don't don't applaud because i picked against him within yeah you did he picked the colds i'm not i will buy you some time i don't really like the bears chances this week i don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to run the football i know they're at home i love the defense i'd like the way they're playing um they're creating takeaways but if you're asking me on Wednesday morning before we see the injury reports but how much worse can the injury report get for the Rams really can't get much worse unless Matthew Stafford doesn't make the trip i'd like to tell you differently appreciate your common but right now it's hard for me to see the bears beating the Rams do not like the coaching matchup at all that's it for me it's it don't like it they just beat the 49ers without everybody Sean McVay invented football i don't know if anyone's aware if he sneezes in your presence you are hired as an offensive coordinator that is the reality he's a stud he's a stud go ahead sir uh Patrick from gauge park hi mom always wanted to do that um i got two questions what do you guys think of the 90 million dollars offered to our gave in given to Patrick Williams and i know what Dustin thinks about this but what do you guys think about so a fan who root for both the Chicago baseball teams at the same time well Patrick Williams that's just the going rate for a player uh of his stature what they're asking of him it seems like an exorbitant amount of money for somebody who has not reached his potential and now heading into his fifth year but i also think it's better than the alternative i don't think that we're gonna move on from Patrick Williams they've invested too much time money and resources into waiting for him to arrive ask for really for both teams i don't think you can tell people how to fan yeah i mean i i i don't disagree with that but you're fanning wrong if you're really for both guys i won't tell you how to do it that's fine well i could say is you're wrong yeah okay i that's not me by the way who are you talking about Patrick who is the person that you're referring to that roots for both teams do you know you do oh okay all right not that baby yeah nice to see you Gary Gary from Arlington Heights uh Dave Mike do you think uh letting uh David Montgomery goal who's a touch scoring touchdown machine was a big mistake by the bears great question one of many i mean it wouldn't be the particular singular mistake i i think i think they could have handled that better and i think when he had the opportunity to leave he took it see and that's and he probably did the right thing well the question assumes that the bears could have done something to prevent him from leaving and he was a free agent he chose the lions over the bears and at the time it stung but it was the right choice because of number one what he thought that they were you know on the verge of and number two the way they're using him behind that offensive line that would be more appealing to me as a running back but you go back to the bears and i i don't i know it's an easy thing to point out and i probably have criticized it in the past but then you start to think about what would have been the alternative extending him i don't think you want to extend a running back because the money would have been a lot more than you're willing to pay a running back in today's going right you probably could have maybe split the difference or made him a better offer than you did that's that's debatable it's kind of arrogant to say we'll match the offer and then you can stay with us and and they made some assumptions about him that weren't true exactly they thought that he would love being a bear as much as they loved having him be a bear and he wasn't interested in staying because the culture wasn't as great as they thought it was yeah so in that situation you cost more money hi my name's edger i just first things first i want to thank everybody in the bears organization who gave my team a great quarterback to stealers appreciate it i'll be at the game today for the white Sox do you really think you're gonna win today or will will i be at a historic game if you're going to the Sox game i think you're going to be you're seeing history i wouldn't get engaged at that game the guy did yesterday yeah yeah i think that the Sox tonight tonight tonight tonight if not tonight then then flexing on thursday sounds good a two-game winning streak sounds a bit too ambitious for a team that kind of backed into that one last that team twice not very long ago yeah but i don't know it just seemed like a tall order i think you're gonna see history tonight they're never losing again true go ahead all right yeah Alex from decal switch them back to the Bulls not to throw water on the optimism bubble that you felt there but to me when i when i heard it seemed very much like a team that is going to do the absolute worst combination of not making a playoffs and not getting their pick and i hope that's not the case but that is the overwhelming thought that i had that's what's the over under that that doesn't happen i guess well i mean that would that is the worst case scenario i love that so you imagine they will win just enough to lose the draft pick but they won't make the playoffs they won't make the play in all that that that's well that is definitely being stuck in a spot where you don't want to be as an NBA team and it does sound like the murphy's law for for this year's bull season if it can't go wrong it will come and that would be it trying to convince yourself or falling for the into the trap early on that you're going to be good enough to compete for a play in spot and fall just short of that and be maybe 11th or 12th i thought what about getting cooper flag i thought we had flag day scheduled for later of the year every how many teams are scheduling flag days for next june how many teams are convincing themselves that they have that little bit of a chance i know he might be that good but if your chances are that slim do you really want to focus your season on something i know within the age of Derek rose 2008 1.8 percent chance all those things did happen in chicago but i don't know that they're going to happen again that would be just so bulls if that would happen that would be awful that's that's why by the way do you see Derek rose yeah he's available yeah he was waived he's a free agent yeah should ask them that they needed to clean out some money next question would you ask him that hey what's up guys how you doing guys pat from cedar lake uh thank you for giving me the chance to be here this morning it's been a really cool start to the day so um i called in to speak on home yesterday and asked him about this i want to get your guys let's take what is your level of disappointment with the bears not pivoting with the head coach i mean and there's the two most glaring examples are in their own division you look at minnesota you look at green bay you look at what kevin o'connell's down with sam darnell you look at what the floor's done not just with love but more specifically in league willess over the last couple weeks you got a chance to start fresh with calib and you bring ebert who is back what is your level of disappointment that they didn't go a different direction and the second part is what is your level of concern on a scale of one to ten say if this coaching staff doesn't make it which i personally don't think it will and then they got a scratch head coach offensive coordinator give him a new system what is your level of concern that calib that that will kind of derail his development as a franchise quarterback those are natural questions after the two game losing streak especially the way that they lost the bad challenges against the texans and the burnt time out against the colts with the two point conversion confusion it's fair to wonder about matt eber flust the head coach today as a one and two bears team gets ready to play the rams and staring at the third straight loss can he be the defensive play caller and still manage the game at the same time legitimate questions i want to jim harbaugh um i was all in jim harbaugh that's not going to happen in chicago long as a mccask he's for there so i think that's something else so when they brought him back i was optimistic i like matt eber flusta person he had a good off season he had a good second half of last season but he's got to do better and i think that if they head down this road then it's going to be difficult to justify keeping him if they have another losing season as for its affected calib Williams some players can transcend coaching changes regime changes and i think he's one of those players i honestly think that when they did what they did bring him back eber flusts i understood that it was about the general manager solidifying his power he wasn't bringing in somebody else to take over his job to lessen his impact on the team he had a guy that he felt he could work with and he wanted to work with and i think they did blow through some red lights right they they definitely had to they had to get rid of or they they had to force the uh the defensive coordinator into early retirement so he had to resign and they had to get rid of the the running backs coach and it was amazing to me to hear them spin that as a sign of their great culture see we're holding people accountable and the people have to go i don't know that i agree with that i was kind of like well no your culture is not that great because you got guys that that you have to fire and and the coach picked them and so i i think that this all remains to be seen to me i think that i want to believe that polls knows what he's doing and that this is going to work out and this is all going to be fun and games but i do i don't i don't worry necessarily about Caleb Williams i just think the idea of getting out of sync with higher with drafting the guy and then changing the system that's so bears that would be so bears if it were to happen that that would really disappoint me so it's early and you hope that flus can overcome it and you hope that they can figure out a way to get the offensive coordinator to run the football and you hope that the quarterback can overcome it i don't know if that's the case you say and i understand why you would be disappointed but the question presumes that the bears would not have a winning season this year so the second part of that question i think is easier to answer because if they don't and they do move on from that he would flus hypothetically then they're likely to go with an offensive-minded head coach and if he does come in to chicago you would feel optimistic about caleb williams more than pessimistic yes even if he's changing schemes and regimes and coaching staffs you would feel like okay now he's going to get it he's got the experience now he can take advantage of that but how many hires do you get as a general manager i think he gets he gets definitely another higher i don't know how many more and i don't know what it means if they're not successful with the next group i i just i just think it opens up a whole kind of can of worms and i hope this works out i hope it works out too because if the bears win sunday against the rams and all of a sudden you reset it two and two and you think okay you look at the schedule a little bit differently look every week i say it all the time in the nfl season is a season unto itself so next season which means next monday we might feel very differently about this equation and then answer the question a little bit differently but i do think that either flus has got to feel some of the pressure because he was given a reprieve and now he's got to take advantage of it when flucy stuffs shawn mcvee see think about that though just think about how to roll off that is to kind of but we will have two coaches who will be going head-to-head schematically shawn mcvee yeah involved with the play calling heavily with the rams and obviously madie but flus calling the defensive signals for the bears so it will be mono imano do you want to read that yes i do because you can be the sixth caller not anybody here unless you want to pull out your cell phone you can come yes you can be the sixth caller to the score's contest line three one two five four zero zero six seventy when a pair of tickets to see thomas rhett with special guests tucker wetmore and dasha better the in-boots tour saturday august nine twenty twenty five alpine valley music theater in east troy wisconsin three one two five four zero zero six seventy hey we've got grody time next mark grody in with day at bern state always enjoy to talk to mark and we'll do that next molly and hosh kago sports radio six seven score