[MUSIC] Fan, morning shows, 4759 of the fan, man, and it's Frank Gunning. I love that Conor McDavid's just like me. Like we're the same, okay? Cuz elaborate, please. All right, so it's playing off yesterday. It's like I made a nice 30 footer for par. >> Good job. >> And then the next one, I missed. >> That was, what was that? What's the point? >> Cuz I know where he plays, I'm trying to. >> That was on three. >> Okay, an old dog leg left, underwater. >> Anyways, and then the next hole, I missed like a three and a half footer for par. Now it's like golf gods. It's all even, it all, yeah, it all evens out in the wash, it's fine. Because I made that long putt, that's an outlier situation. Maybe the missing the short putts, not as outliers. I'd like it to be, but all things are kind of equal in the sports universe. I like the Conor McDavid thought the same thing. Now it's a little different because, you know, you can choose to build your team around a $10 million goalie, and the Panthers have done that. They've looked stupid for doing it up until last post season. >> Up until the two cut finalists, other than that, what idiots. >> But yeah, how do you not feel that way? If you're an Oilers fan after game one, everybody's saying the same thing, right? Like keep that effort up. You do that for the rest of the series, you're going to be in good shape. Now what is funny is if you do that again today and you get the same result, that's it. That works for one game, it's like one game. We got goalie, what are you going to do? And boy, there's the Leafs getting goalie, which I'm telling you, does not look like game one look. Like the Oilers had two breakaways, what, in the first period alone, like they had three power plays and don't break, and we're creating chances all over the place. >> It's just like a good NFL defense, let you get all the way down to one yard line and slam that door. >> Good move by the Panthers. The Panthers locked it down a little bit better late in the game, but yeah, that could have easily been multiple goals early in the going. But I was kind of on board with Connor McDavid's comments. First thing, I don't disagree, I think he is well within his rights to feel that way. What it illuminated for me is, oh, so that's what we've had a lot of conversations, not to make everything about the Leafs, but you know, this is going to raise the subject of the Toronto Maple Leafs. We have had a lot of conversations of what does it feel like when the Leafs are, how will we know when the Leafs are a regular hockey team? And then we remember they won around and we said, now, wrong, they're definitely still not a regular hockey team. I guess that's what it must look like for a player who's supposed to score points and be a dynamic offensive player, getting shut out in game one of the cup final and saying we deserve better. And everyone going, I agree with you, you did deserve better because if that comment would have come out of the mouths of a single and make your own luck, we would, there'd be a lot of people yelling that at them and saying, oh, you know what, you deserve, you deserve what you got. Yeah, so I think that that was very illuminating to me that that's what a regular hockey team must look like. And I'm not blind to the reality of a team in the cup final that has had the leg to stand on, not one, not two, but three playoff wins in one, or playoff series wins in the single playoff that, yeah, you do get to talk differently and you get to say we deserve this, we deserve that. But that was the biggest thing that jumped out to me is if, again, just like pick the postseason loss, again, does it look different? Sure. But where a leaf says, oh, we deserve better and we're not all immediately jumping down their throat. So quit worrying about what you deserve and go out there and make your own luck. Yeah. What's the definitive? Like, oh, Leafs got goal in series because I think it would be Kerry Price, right? People are like, Oh, they got beat by Kerry Price in his final great moment as an NHL player. I go back to that series though, like show me the save that was commensurate to eat any of the save. So you gave him Roski made in, in Saturday's game, I just think the general nature of I don't have the shot total in front of me, but not and I don't think you can do this for one particular overtime because I think you're right, like shot chance or did not all shots are created equal, not all chances are created equal. But when you add up the shots in the over times in that series, I forget what it was, but I don't know that the Canadians got to double digits and I don't know that the Leafs were held under double digits in a single. So with that one, I think you just in the single elimination, not game, but moment of it all and you have three cracks to do it and that sleeper agent on the other side that one I do hold a little. No, that doesn't mean I, I say, Oh, the Leafs got goalie. There's nothing they could have done. No, there were a myriad of things they could have done. Like, for example, not having Travis Dermot throw a pizza or not have a Galchenia could do what he did with the spinning back and pass. And you could create better chances. You can. You can. But I think that to sit there and say again, whatever the shots were, it was probably something to the equivalent of 30 to six or something and three different over times, then I think you can sit there and say, yeah, you did. But that wasn't the story of the series, those story of those over times. Yeah. And to my earlier point, that's good for one game and I don't think anybody has some dissent. Well, like we're not in the land of like you mentioned what it would sound like if the Leafs were making utterances to the similar nature of Conor McDavid, I didn't see one descending opinions like, you know, what are you talking about, play to win the game? It's like, that's that's good for one game. You don't get to play that card again. And in fact, if it looks similar to game one tonight, you're in freak out, Bill, if you're an Oilers fan, because it feels like the possibility of one guy getting into your head, and especially, you know, a team that's been pretty good on the penalty kill, neutralizing your best weapon, yeah, that would be, I mean, the road to success for the Panthers is Sergei Babrowski going absolutely nuclear like he did in game one for the rest of the series and winning it on Smith. Yeah, that's the road to success for them. But I don't, I don't think it's the only one. I think the Panthers are the better hockey team between the two as well. They also have the best goalie. So that's the dangerous thing, if you're an Oilers fan, you're like, Oh, well, they did that thing where like the goalie stole them a game yet the rest of the team played not to their potential in game one. No, that's the thing about it is that it's not just the goalie that the goalie won them the first game, but they can easily win games where the goalie is so ho hum and you have to remember who the goalie is on the other side of this as well. They put three pass Skinner and I don't know that it's going to stay or maybe it's two of them. Sorry, but I don't know that they're going to stick to two in these other games. This is a Panthers team that's very capable of scoring as well. And then the physical nature of it all. I'm curious to see how that kind of affects the Oilers as you go on. If you throw in a team that is frustrated by not getting the goals or even getting the looks that they're used to and then you combine that with a team that is getting beat up in a way that they're not used to, it could have a you can easily see a world where this Oilers team is incredibly frustrated after just a couple of games here. That being said, I saw enough offensive creation from the Oilers and I saw the whistle loose enough. And yeah, not only does the whistle tighten up as the series go on, whistle tightens up as the series goes on. So we'll see how that continues, especially when we get into elimination zone land. But I saw enough to be encouraged if I was an Oilers fan for game one, a different deal at the conclusion of tonight, tonight's game two, if we see more of the same from the Panthers. To the Sir Gabe Abrofs, give it all again. I just kind of like mentioned it in the asking that this is a guy that was on like if I talked to you three years ago and said like, give me a rundown of the top 10 worst contracts currently active in the National Hockey League, he's there and I have cap friendly open right now and we'll get to that in just a second. That $10 million contract, $7 million, $70 million continues for one more year and you're ecstatic about that. If you're a Panthers fan, it's hilarious how quickly the narrative changed on that thing. And I tend to think like with two vesnas already in the Cup final appearance a season ago and then this Cup final that he's already a Hall of Famer. I mean, a cons might than a cup win cements at home. But where are you on the legacy stuff at play for what might actually be the best player in the series? We thought it was Conor McDavid might be Sir Gabe Abrovsky. How dare you? No, I actually want you to take that back before we continue. I can't. Let's see it play out. Okay. So far, he's up one nothing. He was better. How many? I mean, all I see next to Conor McDavid in the box score is dash two. Well, then be more mad at him when he talks about what he deserves and don't let him off the hook so much. I, with goalies, I mean, the hall is so tough in general because with hockey, the counting stats, like, yes, there are a couple numbers we look to, but it's not the same way some of these others work. For me, it is really a, you need to use all your senses. You need to look. You need to touch. You need to smell. You need to feel like you really need to just remember how it was. And, but with goalies, it's the easiest position to, or it should say goalies in defenceman. If you have a couple of those things and there was team success around it, and in vesnas or norisas I'm talking about, it's pretty hard for me to keep you out of the hall of fame. Because the thing I always go to is, was this player one of the best players in the league for a period of time and it can be fleeting if it was incredibly dominant, or I'd like it to be longer if it was slightly less dominant. And how can you sit here and say, who wasn't the best player, or the best player at his position in the league if he literally won the trophy two times, and then he goes and follows it up with, forget if, even if he doesn't win a concept, which I think he would if the Panthers win this series, but a cup win as well. I think that's enough. I think you're in. It's kind of that simple for me, especially with that position. Defencement, I guess a little more wishy-washy because the noris, but I think if you win a couple of norisas, you're saying, yeah, that guy's a hall of fame, or it's the best player it is, the position for a couple of years. So yeah, I think the more I talk about this, easy, easy, yes. I don't like it. But easy, yes. Yep. Last one for me on game one is I went into this thing kind of as a neutral observer. I really didn't, I didn't have a hard take one way or the other. This is good. Yes. So I want you to bring this up. Where I was like, I'm not rooting against the Oilers going into it, but I didn't think I'd be rooting for the Oilers. And then the game started and I did find myself rooting for the Oilers. That's interesting. I found myself, well, I mean, part of it might be the institutional memory of that Panthers team, right? Part of it is just like, yeah, the greatness of that Oilers team. And also like I do, one of the things that hurts me the most about this sport is when like the one thing that is the most important, but it's so hard to quantify and make sure that you have goal tending, can just upset the apple cart to such an insane degree as like, I want this to make moral logical sense that the better team in game one. And we'll see if it looks that way into the, they win the series. I'm not saying it's like an overwhelming rooting interest, but I will say that my allegiance, I didn't know where it would lie necessarily. And it's with the Oilers after the puck drops. So my power rankings heading into the series of teams I was rooting for. First things first, just a comment to hit the building. Go asteroid. That was the first thing because I just cannot stand seeing either of these teams win. And as to you, I was very curious because I can't, I've been around these people sometimes like a watch a sporting event, agnostically, I'm like, you have to bet on it or something. Like you can't, you're just watching for the joy of like, anyway, I did that quite often, especially when it comes to the NFL, but like, you don't find yourself pulling for a team one way or another by the end. It's like, usually the underdog or yeah, there's always something that may, but you don't just watch going, whom? Gee, I hope the next team scores too, like you want, yes, you want a compelling game, but I don't know, like I always find myself getting sucked to a side. I would have expected myself to get pulled slowly over to the Oilers side of it. I felt the exact opposite. I was rooting for that Panthers team. And again, again, rooting for them to just say, eh, no cup. We'll do it again next year, but I was, and I think it's nothing other than just pure jealousy. I want Conor McDavid on the Leafs and I want the Leafs to be in a cup final in their Canadian team. I am shocked by this. I would have thought all everything on my bones would say, no, you should want the other stuff. It's the greatness, all the cases we made when we were talking about this last week, but then I'm sitting there and I'm watching the game and I want the Panthers to win. And I feel dirty about it. I wish I didn't, but you are who you are. You love who you love. And I was loving the Florida Panthers. That is really weird. Yeah, strange. It's not like overwhelming, but I know I went into it with an open heart and it was pulled towards the Edmonton Oilers. I mean, I'm open to that even changing as the series goes along. But maybe I'll find it hard to believe. Maybe I'll be changing hearts and minds with text tonight. I'll be like, doesn't Maurice look cool back there? And you'll say, no, I don't see myself really rooting for a Panthers team. Anyways, anything else on this game headed towards game two tonight? Again, eight o'clock on Sportsnet. I'm, we told the story of Conor McDavid and Sam Bennett. Next, move on. Something else. Okay, good. Shocker. Guys, guys played hockey with Conor McDavid before. All right, next move on. Yes, I'm ready. All right, let's move on to, you know what? Let's do cap friendly first because it's the thing I think applies to most people that are interested in things outside of just watching the game. Like if we, if at all you, and listen, you're listening to Sports Talk radio. So I'm probably talking to people that feel this way that like they're interested in like, not just watching how the games play out, but like how they might play out next time how the off seasons might play out, how the roster manipulations might play out. Who's going to be added? Who's going to be subtracted? How do you add? How do you subtract? The transaction is the action. Maybe you saw the salary cap going up to $88 million. You're like, what does that mean? Well, then if you're like me, you, you might go to capfriendly.com and you might pull up the Toronto Maple Leafs page and the way it's categorized, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful looking website where you see, you know, the years of control. Wonderful. How heavy the cap hit is. You can sort it by actual salary as well. You can send it to the cap. You can even, I think you might have to pay a little extra for this, but you can use the tool where you can manipulate players. You can plug and play. Hey, what is this person making this? I don't create your own rhymes like that. And there's free agent. It's a beautiful website. It's no more. Like you better get your cap friendly dalliances in because it's over in July because the Washington capitals have bought the proprietary information that's used to run that website. They bought the website. Yeah. And they're keeping it for themselves. Hey boys, what are you doing? You want to come over and like have some beers in the backyard. Can't cap friendly is going down in a month. Have to stare at it as long as humanly possible. It's beautiful. And I know there's other sites that I also do, and we're going to have to get more well-versed in these other sites, I suppose. And listen, I referenced natural static all the time. Natural static could use like a real makeover. It's not an easy to use website. And it doesn't look as beautiful as cap friendly looks. It's very bare bones. Yeah, I mean, I forgot that it's got the draft picks that you have for the next three years and all the rounds. And like who's draft picks keep falling more in love every time. It's an amazing website. You're not wrong. And anybody who's any level of like base level hockey band, it's something you use every day. Like I literally use it every single day. And it's gone because and I we should have maybe had somebody on to explain this. And I don't even know if it's Elliot Friedman that could explain it. He broke the story on SportsNet.ca. The Washington Capitals buying the website and the information used to create the website. And we don't get to see it. But like, what is it about this website that other teams don't have? Because from my eyes, look at the website. It's like, oh, okay, they have all the salaries, all the capids, and all the players. Certainly, if you're an NHL team, you have like the numbers that cap friendly used uses, I think are just from reports, right? There's no, they don't get it directly from the source. It's not like the NHL gives them all the direct information that they have. Central registry site. Yeah, I think the NHL teams themselves though have that information at their disposal. What is it about cap friendly that you need to keep from other teams that you think is so important for you to have as an NHL franchise? Because to me, this seems like if you've got the many millions of dollars that the Toronto Maple Leafs have, that they spend on a myriad of off-ice people, they have all the assistant coaches, they have all the video coaches, they have all the mental performance coaches. Can you just hire like the biggest nerd to put together your own internal cap friendly? Really, we need the capitals to go out and build this for you? Lord knows, the nerds of plenty raising their hand. I can do it, I'm sure. So just to give the report again, this is from Friedman, so you can read on sportsnet.ca. And HL teams that had agreements to use there, they're being cap-friendly, tools/applications, program interface, receive notification that the contracts will be terminated. So to me, that almost seems like it's not so much the information. It is the actual like software being able to use it. But like, what is that? It's like, oh, so they can build, they can do what so many people do in the off-season, like build their own team by plugging in plenty of differences. Like how really like, that's okay. I mean, that's worth taking this public website off-line and keeping it for yourself. Apparently it is. I mean, I don't think the, I don't think any team, but I certainly don't think a team, not that the capitals are like some poor franchise, but I don't think of them as like the Rangers or the Leafs. It's like, obviously it has some value to them. The thing I keep coming back to you to this is if it has some value to them, how much greater is the value to the capitals than it is to the sport fan at large? Because I wish it wasn't the case. I wish the thing that mattered most was just talking about the games and who's going to play on the power play. And I guess that shouldn't be the thing that matters the most because we wouldn't have anything to talk about with the Leafs for months at a time. But if you are a person who consumes the sport, this is the info you need to have. If you don't know what a player makes, you don't get to have an opinion, a conversation on trades, on re-signings. If you don't know what a team's cap sheet looks like, hey buddy, if you want to go live in your world, apply in the sky, I know there's a trade for everybody. I love that world. I invite me over and we'll have those talks. But that's not reality. You need to have something like this and is something else going to pop up and take its place? Almost certainly, but it won't be overnight. It won't be immediate. And at least in the immediate term, probably won't be as good. This is a thing that is actually detrimental. I'm kind of tongue-in-cheeking it, but mostly not. You want to grow the game, you need stuff like this not to be sucked up by the capitals. Oh yeah, if you're the NHL, you should have a site, like an official site. If you're honestly the people who work in this building, there's sports net. There is a vacuum about to occur within the hockey information consuming masses. They need the next cap friendly. And there are other websites and whoever we deem to be the most user friendly, the best looking, the easiest to use. That one gets the top billing treatment. If you just come up with one and you're running out of time here, because this thing is shutting down in July. Kind of an important time to be using something like cap friendly. People in this building should be grinding whatever it takes for however much money it takes to be like ESPN has the trade machine. I'm sure there's other sites that you can plug and play like different salaries in the NBA. And you can ask the machine if that trade works, but ESPN is the go-to because they're the first and they're the easiest to use. Other companies make Kleenex as well, Ben. When you become the brand name of something, it is tough. And we've gone through this before, right? Like there was before cap friendly, there was cap geek, right? So this has happened. We've been through this. The Phoenix will rise from the ashes and there will be some site here. I know a lot of people roll their eyes at me with this stuff, but just stay up. Just play ball with me for two seconds here. How would the league have reacted if the Leafs bought this site? Like if it was just the Leafs buying it. The Capitals is like, this is a league that got upset at the Leafs for opening the building and having refs, refs, scrimmages, because that's unfair to other teams. I would love to have seen the public kissy fit if this was the Leafs doing it. And guess what? They don't need to, because guess what? They don't need the infrastructure that the site has, because they got a whole team. They probably already have their own site. Yeah, exactly. That's way better. It's like if you could see what the Leafs have. Oh my god. Oh, you'd be blown away. Actually, it'd just make me more mad at the front off. You guys have all this info and this is still what we get. But yeah, that's the... I'm kind of surprised that the Capitals need to do it. I'm surprised that the league is so okay with it. And I'm very curious to see what will happen next. And I would love to have lived in a world to witness the public freak out about the Leafs doing this. Yeah. You know what, before we take a break, let's talk about Scottish effort quickly. This is probably the last time we got to talk about his fifth victory before we talk U.S. Open, which is this week, at nine. He won the memorial by one stroke over Colin Moricow, which is a elevated event. So it's a shortened field. First player since Tom Watts in a 1980 duo of won five times on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open. It's his 11th consecutive tournament with a top 10. It's ridiculous. Only Scotty Scheffler and Tiger Woods have won the memorial, the players, and the Masters in the same year. Seems good. It's like every time he wins, which is now five times, there's like a new record being broken, which is amazing. And he's amazing. And he won a Masters where there was all the live guys, okay? Yeah. And he's, you know, it was winning last year when all the more live guys, at least John Rom was on the PGA Tour. So like, there's no illegitimacy to the victory, but I will say the more he wins. And the more of those other guys, like, yeah, Moricow was in the mix, right? Like, nobody's going nuts around him. No, I mean, and what was he, 74 yesterday? Yeah, I know. Hadwin had multiple chances to go and take that thing and he just couldn't. I got to say, like, it's becoming less and less impressive and more like Mickey Mouse, almost the more he wins. And I'm like, oh, wait, what would this look like if John, John Rom and Dustin Johnson and Brooks Keptka were playing alongside Scottish have it makes the majors even more intriguing, like to see if this guy can translate it yet again to the full good player field events. But yeah, the PGA Tour staff, especially now, like, we're comparing eras where it's like, Oh, shortened field. Yep. Elevated event. No live guys as well. It's like, okay, no, that's the same as some of these other records that are being broken. No, it's not remotely similar. I think the thing you have to ask yourself, and we were doing this, I, you know, I feel like I was tutting a lot of it. But of how close is he to peak tiger? This is the closest guy we've seen. And if you feel that way, then this isn't that strange that he's doing this to lesser fields and no cut events. But I think the problem is is that even the people who are the biggest believers in Scotty Sheffler and I don't know who's not in the world of golf anymore, he doesn't have the feel of undeniable Tiger Woods. Tiger had this feel of this force and nature that was truly unstoppable and big lashes at the ball. And I don't know, maybe we should feel a similar way about Scotty Sheffler. And I mean, he had the shot yesterday where he where he almost threw it his back. He like had to swing his back foot into the fall through just to try to get him going. But it doesn't feel as impressive. It is just his dominant. It's borderline the more dominant, but I don't know how you can look at it and not wonder without the live guys. I'm not somebody like golf tournaments are hard to win. Guess what? There's still a lot of good players there. If Brooks Capcom, John Rahm aren't there, but it matters. The Brooks Capcom, John Rahm are in Cameron Smith and Phil Mickle, you know, go down the list. It does matter. So I think with Sheffler, he is a victim of these circumstances. I don't think there's anything he could do outside of winning all the majors. And guess what? Tiger never did that. So the idea to expect something of him that we never saw from Tiger when, and let's be honest, it's like a less there were not, there are more great players now than there were in kind of Tiger's prime. Now a lot of that is because he snuffed them out. Well, he can get to snuffing if Sheffler truly is that dude. And I just, I don't think he is. I think part of that is how good the field is around him. But I think a big part of that is that we got to get off this idea that there's ever going to be a second coming of Tiger. We're kind of seeing it results wise, but you need to follow it with the majors and he's got one. Yeah. And he was in the mix early on at the PGA and it's like, this is tough week for me. It was tough. You win this week at Pinehurst, second major of the year. Okay. Yeah. We can start having that conversation. Totally. And he has a Masters. Yeah. Masters are kind of different, though, too. Like that's also short and field. But yeah, all the live guys are there. Yeah, anyways, Rogers has an announced an exciting new national contest, brings Stanley home to send Rogers customers in hockey fans from across Canada to the Stanley Cup final in Edmonton. Rogers customers have the chance to win 10 VIP trips for two to attend game four in Edmonton on Saturday, June 15th. The prize also including travel and accommodation, plus premium viewing at a game day concert outside Rogers place. Visit rogers.com/stanleycup to enter for your chance to win and for more details. When we come back, Dr. Michael Grange about what could be a very short NBA finals. So got to talk to him quickly. That next as the fan morning show continues, Ben and his friend, Gunning Sportsnet 590, the fan. Unrivaled insight, analysis, and opinions on all things Blue Jays. Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning show Sportsnet 590, the fan band. It's Brian Gunning. It's not quite the dog days of summer in sports world. Yeah, like in fact, there's almost too much. Like we haven't touched on Canada, France, scoreless draw yesterday after Canada was blown up by the Netherlands and a friendly headed towards the Copa America. Today's that Dan Hurley decision day. What a time to be alive that Dan Hurley is telling the Lakers like, Hey, sit tight. I'll get to you. Okay. I got a nice weekend plan. I got a barbecue. Don't rush me. Yeah. Talk to me on Monday. I love that. Yeah, enjoyable. I mean, there's just a lot going on. We have a golf major this week. I mean, there will be fast forward a month from now, not a ton. Although, you know, we got the Olympics is Copa America, the zero happening this month. It is an interesting summer when it comes to like, yeah, lots of sports filling parts of the calendar that aren't necessarily usually full. It's true. All right. Let's talk to Michael Grange. There's no segue to him, but he have sports net fame joins us online right now. How's it going? I go well, guys. How are you? I'm doing very well. Let's start with the NBA final, shall we? Because I think it's the first couple of games are kind of playing out the way you might have expected that just feels like the Celtics are the better team, but the Mavericks have the best player. It's just that like nobody's showing up outside of Luca so far through two games. Yeah, I mean, that kind of sums it up. I really expected and maybe still expect that Kyrie Irving is going to make his presence felt. You know, that was where I thought that Dallas, you know, at least had a pretty good chance to make this a very interesting series just because a level that Kyrie had played at throughout the playoffs, especially against Minnesota was so high. You know, it just reminded me a little bit of the Cleveland team that won where Kyrie was kind of Robin to LeBron's Batman. And now you have Luca playing that role as Batman, but but yeah, the Boston's credit, you know, it's hard to say you underrated a 64 win team that was 12 on two in the playoffs. But, you know, the East was pretty uninspiring this year and it wasn't like Boston won 70 games or something. And certainly we all know about their run through the East, which was not really much to a run. It was more of just kind of a casual stroll. So you kind of thought, okay, well, maybe there's an opportunity for Dallas to make it interesting, like I said, but you're just watching them these two games and I thought especially last night, you know, the first game, you know, Dallas just didn't play very well. Whereas last night, I think they did play well. You know, they certainly left some money on the table in terms of missed threes and missed free throws and things like that. But, you know, I thought they were much more competitive, tougher, better defensive team. And you just felt like Dallas or sorry, you just felt like Boston was going to win that game, you know, when they were down early. So unless something really changes, it looks like it's going to be a relatively short series. And you know, Boston's gonna win a title. Yeah, I think that's that's very much where this thing is tracking. If this series continues the way it's looked through the first two games, what will we be saying about the guy who's been the Celtics best player despite what Jason Kid said in Jason Tatum when this is all said and done? I mean, he has been a guy who has had big nights throughout the playoffs, not so far in these finals. What do you think we'll be saying about Tatum when it's all said and done if this series continues to trend this way? I think what I'm going to be saying is is it's really impressive to see two guys and Tatum and Jalen Brown. But I think especially in this case, Tatum and absolutely the prime of his athletic physical basketball career be willing to play a team orientated style for the benefit of the team. And you know, it's interesting, you know, Tatum's kind of basketball mentor, so to speak, and Nigel is Kobe Bryant. And you know, for all of Kobe's incredible accomplishments and skills, like at this stage's career, he was still struggling to, you know, find a way to be integrated with four other players. Like, you know, he was just such a forceful personality and presence. And for the most part, it worked for him. But there was times in his career, it didn't. And you know, I think you look at Tatum, he had the 12 assists last night, he had six in game, one, you know, he did have the turnover problem. But he's not offensively clicking the way he's certainly capable of. And yet, I thought he was super effective last night. He was really, really good. He demanded a lot of attention, was aggressive when he needed to be. But most importantly, got off the ball really fast. And Jalen Brown, same thing. And that's a really hard thing for guys as talented as those two are, to accept and master at this level, is just the simple act of getting the ball in and out of their hands quickly, so that the other excellent players on their team can take advantage of whatever gravity they're creating. So, you know, the storybook would be Jason Tatum wins Boston's record title and, you know, puts up 30 night and goes off into sunset as a legend. I mean, you know, things can change the next year for games, but you know, that's what I'm going to take away. This guy is an evolved and mature basketball player. And I've always been a huge believer in his and, you know, we'll see better basketball, better offensive basketball for him, I'm sure, in the next few days, because he's that good. But, you know, I think what he's willing to accept and not force is a big, big reason why Boston's so good. What should the Milwaukee Bucks take away from watching Drew Holliday win perhaps another title? They made a bad trade. You know, I just think that, you know, the whole circumstances that led to Drew Holliday ending up in Boston are, you know, going to go down in history is sort of, did you really think all this through? You know, because, you know, the way that all happened where you traded for Dame Willard and traded, you know, ended up with Holliday in Portland and then Portland traded for Bob Brogdon and Williams and the two picks to Boston. You know, I think you can make a real argument that I'm not sure you'd do that trade straight up even right now. I mean, I think Dame Willard gave Milwaukee something they needed or believed they needed sort of a little more grease offensively. It certainly didn't deliver in any significant way this season. And Drew Holliday is showing that he is, you know, he's just an incredible basketball player and we kind of measure these things so often in, you know, can they be like Dame Willard, like these primary offensive options that just tear apart your defense and, you know, and they put up these incredible games. And that's the guy to get the max contract or whatever, not that you always underpaid right now. But, you know, when it comes to winning time, it is guys like Drew Holliday that actually impact the game in ways you can measure, but also you can measure. And you look at, you know, some of the plays he made last night on behalf of Tatum, you know, where Tatum was struggling. I don't know how many of Tatum's assists, 12 assists ended up going to Drew Holliday, but a good chunk and a lot of it was just so active. He's so smart with his cuts. He's so strong when he finished. And then defensively, he's incredible. Like he is, you know, there's a reason he's viewed, I think internally within the league is, you know, he's probably one of three, four, five best defensive players in the league, whether he's all NBA or not. And, you know, to have him added to your team, you know, to what was already a very good team. I mean, you know, as much as Chris does for Zengas was a huge pick up in the off season. Drew Holliday was maybe even bigger. And then, you know, he's played through two games. You know, he's probably played as close to perfect basketball as you can play. And, you know, what else can you want from a guy who pick up in a trade? Yeah, honestly, a couple of things just to pick up on there for me. I've been positing that this is now the curse of Drew Holliday, although I've been workshopping it. I think Holliday's hex sounds a little better. The box will never win a title again until they rectify things. And I didn't even know what that means. Maybe they're just cursed forever. And we'll be talking about this 30 years from now. So I'd like to be on board with starting that here today, although maybe people in Milwaukee have already been thinking it. But you mentioned the stuff about the player he is now. He wasn't going to be this guy at 25. And it's because he was still in more of that headspace of, can I be a lead guard? Can I do it? You know, the theory I kind of posed to Ben earlier in the show is that if you were simply, if you were told, hey, you can pick any player in the league to start your franchise around. Of course, there's, you know, a couple dozen superstar players you would take, I think, ahead Drew Holliday. But in terms of a culture setter who is not just a mascot, he's a true impact player on the court as well. I feel like Holliday is kind of the perfect guy of building up a culture and not that he had to build it up in Boston. Obviously, they had clearly built things there. But it seems to me like that is maybe his best kind of ability that he's brought to the Celtics team, not the on court stuff, but just the kind of understanding and the ability to fall within a role. What do you make of kind of that part of the evolution of Holliday that we've seen? I agree with you. You know, I can't really speak to the evolution part of it. I mean, he wasn't off to our awareness career and, you know, I kind of fell off the map a little bit in New Orleans because it was, you know, they were never that impactful franchise for most of his time there. But I mean, yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that stands out. I mean, he's well known. I'm not saying I know the guy at all, but he is well known within league circles as just being one of the great citizens in the league. And it does, it's, you know, you're right. It's a tricky thing to be a guy who gets dropped into a well-established team, well-established culture, a very successful team. You know, it wasn't like two Holliday was traded for Market Smart, but that was sort of the exchange. And, you know, Malcolm Williams is a very, I think, you know, Time Lord was a very well-loved member of the Celtics locker room as well. So, it's not easy to walk into and sit in instantly, but I think he just, he's the adult in the room. And he's selfless when the way he plays. And I think a lot of times you can learn a lot about, you just watch a guy play and you have a pretty good idea what kind of guy he is. And, you know, Drew Holliday, like I was saying before, is just, you know, everything he does on a basketball court is directly within the context of how does this help our chances to win a game? And possession by possession, quarter by quarter. And, you know, I think that makes you, people really come to really like playing with people like that. And then when you're at end that Holliday's, you know, I think he's a really good citizen off the court. I think he's a good person. I think he's, you know, very kind of confident, but kind of modest presence. Those are all great. Things that make life easier when you're part of the team. So, yeah, I mean, he's, he's, you know, there's a handful of guys in the league where, you know, they would start on every single team in the league because they're the best in the league at that job. And Holliday, I think, is one, you know, Jan and Obie is another, you know, like they, they're not similar people maybe, but they're very similar players in the sense that, you know, they're so good at things that winning teams absolutely have to be good at that you could just pick them up and place them on the 10 best teams in the league. And yeah, they'd start, you know, because they're better than, you know, they're the best archetypes of what they do. So, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, the fact that Boston has been so good for so long and then had to Holliday and Chris Paps present us in one off season is kind of staggering when you look back at it. I think JJ Redick's the best analyst we got going right now. He may be an analyst next year. It felt like just a couple of weeks ago that he wouldn't, or maybe it was a week ago, the champs had the first report that it felt like the Lakers were zoning in on him. And then the wojj bomb that Dan Hurley has been presented a multi-year, very lucrative contract to leave UConn. I mean, no one, what you know, what decision would you make? If I was Dan Hurley? No, if you were the Lakers, who would you choose? I wouldn't choose JJ Redick. I have all the respect and world for JJ Redick. I just think that's it. That job is a lot to, you know, I respect coaching. I, you know, and as smart as these guys are, and as effective as guys like Jason Kidd have been, you go back to Doc Rivers and others who've kind of stepped right out of either playing or broadcasting and right into coaching and have shown that they can do it. I really think that, you know, if you're really committed to that job, you should probably spend a year or two as an assistant and make sure that, you know, you kind of, what you think you know, you actually know. So then I think that they take the ISI profile to JJ Redick and, you know, hand-in-the-high profile job in basketball and almost in all sports in terms of coaching. I just don't think that's great business. I think, so yeah, so, but I mean, I am a little curious about this whole Dan Hurley thing. It's extraordinarily public to me. I know that, I mean, part of that is, is, Aidan Rochinowski wrote a book. You know, he's from Jersey. He wrote a book about the Hurley family, basically, and their dad in particular, and I think it's called Miracle of St. Anthony's about the sort of Newark-based Catholic prep school that, you know, Danny Hurley's father coached at and then kind of they turned out players and they, you know, there was just an exceptional program for a long time. So there's a very personal connection there between Danny Hurley and Wochinowski, but it just is a little bit odd that we're getting a blow-by-blow reporting on this whole thing. And part of me is still kind of, it's just not this massive, you know, ploy to get a bigger, more lucrative contract ever, you can't, I don't know. But, you know, the real question mark, I don't think any questions that Danny Hurley is a great coach, the record speaks at. He's certainly, you know, learned his craft, fly to his trade, all that kind of stuff. But, you know, the history of these kind of fire-breathing college coaches, which Danny Hurley kind of concedes he is, and certainly it does demonstrate it, being successful in the NBA is not great. And, you know, that's what I would have real questions about is, you know, what makes him a great college coach is just his intensity, and tenacity, and discipline, and, you know, kind of control-free gas back. Does anyone really think that's going to fly in the NBA? There's zero evidence it does, and is he going to be able to change and adapt? And, you know, you only know if you're giving the job and neither succeeds or fails. But, yeah, so it's, I guess, of the two I would pick Danny Hurley, but, I mean, it's, you know, I wouldn't be 100% convinced it's going to work. And what does LeBron want? That's another question. Probably not practicing his dribbling with batting gloves on. Probably not that. No, but, I mean, I think he would pretty happy to see Bronnie James, right, getting coached up by that's insane. Can, can that actually be part of the calculus here? Well, I think what they have the 55th pick in the second round, right? In saying, yeah, okay. You know, you know, the Lakers are kind of an insane organization overall, right? Like, kind of. Like, there's just, there's just so many, like, before there's a salary cap being the Lakers was one thing, but I think in the way of the league is structured now, they're just a weird place to, they just exist in a very strange universe. But whatever, you know, it's going to be entertaining one way or the other. I can't wait. That much is true. Yeah. You know, I feel bad words. James Barrego, who may end up getting the job, who's like the opposite of both theoretic and Danny Hurley in terms of profile and temperament, but, you know, great coach. And people who are going to get the job and people are like, what, who, what, what? And everybody will be disappointed. Yeah, there we go. Sounds about right. Hang on. Can't wait to bring you on to discuss that. Very strange. Anyways, uh, Grange, always a pleasure. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. Uh, Michael Grange supports that. It's good to know it is his pleasure. All right. Time now for the wake and rake presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. Blue Jays in the bustling metropolis of Milwaukee tonight to start a series against a very good Brewers team. And the Brewers are ever so slightly favored against Jose burrios calling Ray getting the start for the Brewers. Uh, Brewers minus one 15 blue Jays minus one oh five, the total eight and a half in this game. I'm going to just take the Brewers on the money line there. I was looking at the total. I'm not so sure about that one. So I'm just going to take the better baseball team to win the baseball game despite the Blue Jays having burrios on the bump. So give me the Brewers at minus one 15. Yeah. Blue Jays do have what has been their best starter all season long. Jose burrios on the bump. So I like under eight and a half despite a little more juice you have to pay on the under at minus one 15 Stanley can final game to from sunrise Florida eight o'clock sports net and CBC Oilers trying to even up the series against the Panthers. They're the underdogs plus one 20 of the Oilers Panthers minus one 41 to go up two games and on the total five and a half after a three nothing victory for the Panthers in game one. I'm going to take the over not quite sure how this one plays out. But I think we see a little bit more offense. I think Stuart Skinner will have a say in that. And I think Conor McDavid probably will as well. So yeah, give me the over at five and a half there. I think the odds for McDavid to win the cons might have gone up significantly too. I think he was plus 200. Yeah. He's plus 300 now. That's it. Wow. That's if you like the Oilers at all, you got to take Conor McDavid to win the cons might. I got to get the snap stat in that as I'll put in here though, but the teams that have gone up won nothing in the Stanley Cup final. I figured they'd win more times than not 76% of times they have won. So I don't know that doesn't bode well for McDavid cons might unless you think he's doing it in the loss. But if you want value Bob at 220, you can get him there now. I guess. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, how many of those teams that won at 76% of a clip were outshot by almost a two to one margin in game one? Yeah, I don't think I even play Conor McDavid. So that's true. All right, time now that was the Waken rake presented by sports interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. All right, when we come back, Blue Jays with yet another series victory against a not so great American League team. We'll talk to Ben Shulman, radio voice of the Blue Jays next of the fan morning show continues. Ben Dennis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan.
