Michael Lombardi: Which WEEK 1 UNDERDOG Will Win the Job This Offseason? The Lombardi Line – 6/23/24

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between Gardner muu and Aiden oconnell and what to expect from this Raiders offense if you heard us in the last segment we think the Raiders are a candidate to score the fewest points in the NFL this upcoming season then 30 minutes from now Jonathan Von toel AR Vis senior NBA analyst will join us as it’s a big week in the association the NBA draft and also we continue to look towards free agency what are Michael Sixers going to do in free agency we’ll ask jbt that there I know hey it pains you but they’re going to be a story they’re going to be a storyline this free agency period so we got to ask our guy jvt about it but Michael let’s start with the poll that you put up on Twitter M Lombardi NFL we encourage everyone to go ahead and vote in it you still have 12 hours left but it’s pretty simple question which Underdog to start week one at DraftKings Sportsbook will win the job this offseason which quarterback and right now the the favorite is none of them uh we have three quarterbacks Aiden oconnell JJ McCarthy Drake may but right now none of them leads the poll with 30% McCarthy 25% Drake may just behind him at 24% then Aiden no conell is at 19% right now once again the Voting is still open at M Lombardi NFL but I I kind of agree with this Michael that none of them is where I would go and that’s where I voted yeah I would say I agree with that too because let’s just break it down right Drake May’s not ready to play they drafted Drake May with a eye on 25 not 24 and they signed jacobe brette to a $8 million a year contract in New England to give Drake May a breather now does that mean he’s not going to play no but it’s not not September it’s way too early for him to play in September uh you know so I think that that situation same thing with JJ McCarthy they kind of mirror itself Minnesota New England mirror itself in how they’ve approached the off season sign Donald to get them through a year and then JJ McCarthy’s going to be involved in the 25 season and the only one really can Aiden oconnell beat out Gardner muu and if you just watch Aiden oconnell last year I know that we’ll talk to Vinnie in the next block I know that Antonio Pierce said he deserves right to be the starter to have a chance to become the starter but that I didn’t see that last year I mean they couldn’t move the ball against Minnesota they beat Minnesota it’s a three to nothing game right they couldn’t even they didn’t complete a pass in the win on Christmas Day after the first quarter so like this is not something that’s just going to happen he’s been good in the preseason but how many times have we been pulled by guys in the pre season Sam Ellinger I mean you know the Colts actually thought they had somebody as a starting quarterback remember they went into New England with Ellinger as the starter and they got shut out because they actually thought he was good in the preseason it’s the same thing that the Raiders did with okon he was great in the preseason they put him in a game against the Chargers and they couldn’t even complete a pass so I think this is a long road I think it’s gter minshu’s job easily so I think none of the above’s the right answer so you think it’s M’s job easily because I would say that like I think that there’s at least a legit competition and mchu will probably win it but maybe oconnell has a chance if it’s neck and neck no I think look you know the Raiders are about we got to get the ball to Devonte Adams they just redid Devonte Adams’s contract this off season and make him happy they got to get the ball to him and mchu can get the ball to him I that’s their best chance now muu has a hard time if he gets pressure inside but muu can play well enough in four or five games in a row to make him look like the Raiders are going to be a good offensive team but then he hits the wall and he makes some bad throws and the more he gets hit the less effective he becomes because he’s not a big man and wears his body down so I I I think mshu it’s easily muu can come in and execute look Aid no Connell I mean it was preseason it’s cover one it’s cover three when it starts moving fast like we saw look you don’t complet you you can’t move the ball against Minnesota Brian Flor is moving people around right Steve spagnola’s defense in Kansas City moving people around that’s a Telltale side so how about one that’s it’s not on the poll but I do want to throw this before we get to what’s on Michael’s mind the New York Giants quarterback competition at least on the outside they’re saying it’s not a competition it’s Daniel Jones’s job minus 425 to take the first snap week one Drew lock plus 275 anything there or is this think you think it’s Jones they did not give they did not give Daniel Jones all this money I mean you got people on Twitter defending Daniel Jones as if he was Trevor Lawrence have you seen that people will put Daniel Jones stats up the Trevor Lawrence has to justify the horrendous contract two wrong you know my mother used to tell me this all the time two wrongs don’t make a right you know just because the the Giants paid Jones doesn’t mean that Lawrence is better off look Lawrence has better potential but they both have issues they both can’t throw the ball down the field so I I think to me you know there’s under penalty of death there there’s no way it’s just an open competition there’s no way that Brian deals walking into John maro’s office and saying hey I’m going to start Drew lock in this game over over Dan a Heth Daniel Jones there’s just no way that’s Happ no way no way all right well because I I felt that there was maybe an Avenue for Drew lock to potentially get on the field but maybe it’s later on down maybe maybe Jones would have to play poorly and then it’s a desperation move at some point Fe they’ve been covering up for Daniel Jones for for four years they have they they make up they every time I mean they’re like the Warren Commission when it comes to Daniel Jones they have a reason for something even though it makes no sense at all they’ll have a reason for it you know well you know done get protected you know he got better when he runs I mean it’s a complete it’s all it’s not hard to see that Daniel Jones isn’t a starting caliber quarterback at a high level can he go in and start no question could he have an effective game at times can he throw the ball down the field and hold it no never averaged over seven yards per attempt in his career how many more games do you need from Daniel Jones to not know who he is and they still paid him they won nine games two years ago and they thought it was him that won the games and it wasn’t they managed the games correctly they had a really good schedule and they they kind of sputtered out at the end they got fortunate to win they beat Houston a bad team fortunately because Davis Mills turned him over in the second half Davis they Houston didn’t punt in the second half of that year of that game and they still lost because they turned it over so look they have every excuse known to man they’re not going to let Daniel Jones not s succeed in that at all yeah well I guess they also did work on a lot of these quarterbacks though like they they brought Russell Wilson in they didn’t work on some of those guys I mean maybe they were looking at at least replace him but I guess yeah I mean you know all of this is going to come down to uh you know you know look at we we’ll see when they put out the I mean I’m sure the cover up like is going to be in place well we never wanted a quarterback like my point is when you say you never wanted a quarterback what evidence do you have that you have a quarterback like people take this as a knock well we don’t have a quarter you know we we can’t admit we don’t have a quarterback you should admit it you don’t have one yeah like you don’t have one set realistic expectations but the Giants I guess they’re going to continue to go down this path and to that I say good luck uh let’s get to what’s on Michael’s mind what do you think about this morning what’s top of brain uh well I had a laugh when I read that Kelly Stafford you know dated the backup quarterback at Georgia just to make matad knew Stafford mad and she did and and he got mad and they got married but I think to me this is Stafford Inc there’s no question Kelly’s tremendously involved in his career and I’m sure she’s probably not happy that all these other quarterbacks are getting paid and I think to me what’s on my mind is what do the Rams do with Matthew Stafford’s contract because I don’t think I think Kelly shows you how determined she is to go after her man right I mean I think this whole story is like I’m going to protect my I’m going I know what I want and I’m going to get it right and so good for her God bless her right I’m not sure the backup quarterback was worth dating however that’s who am I to judge F me right who am I to go down that Avenue right but but I will say I will say that Stafford in is very determined and Kelly is intimately involved if you talk to anybody Matthew Stafford Kelly’s name comes into the conversation and I’m sure the Rams are going to have to deal with this and In fairness to the rams look they they were worried about his elbow last year and they did try to trade him Matthew knows it Kelly knows it everybody knows it right the Rams could deny it but they were worried about committing $90 million to a guy who might have a bad elbow and can’t throw the football that’s fair like that’s a fair thing they couldn’t get any traction because the National Football League was worried about his elbow understandable right like the Raiders could have traded for Matthew Stafford for a sixth round pick but they were worried about his elbow so they didn’t do it as everybody was worried about it you know the if if the Raiders would have traded for Matthew Stafford last year put him on their team with with jacobe Meyers and Devonte Adams and Josh Jacobs they might that staff might still be there they didn’t all right so now it’s time that these contracts are coming up and all these backs want a little bit more and I think Kelly being as determined as she is to get what she wants I think there’s going to be some pressure here so everybody was interested in the gossip about what Kelly did in college I’m more interested in the cause and effect of how it’s going to affect the contract negotiations I mean the gossip is Juicy stuff though isn’t it like I dated the I think you tip your cat to Kelly because she knew what she wanted and she went for it and she’s a determined girl and and you got to love that she you got to love that and I think that she’s determined to protect her man and you know when he goes home I think what we as fans don’t realize when players go home you know that they have somebody somebody’s talking to them too not just their agent you know you just don’t have the business and the the home life those two things kind of come together and I think ultimately this will the Rams are going to have to do something we put that poll out last week and we asked the question and somebody wrote in that the Rams could easily you know that they were the team that were going to have to Matthew Stafford was going to get done first now what I think will happen is a slight modification I don’t think it’ll be over the top but I do think they’re going to try to make Kelly Happy yeah I mean Kelly Kelly Stafford learning from Wolf of Wall Street you know the the the scene of say he says sell me this pen he’s like who how about you write your name down well I don’t have a pen boom supply and demand you got to create that urgency create Ury if you want stuff to get done uh we could all learn a thing or two from that so we’ll see if Matthew Stafford can get a contract done at some point all right on the other side Vinnie bonsor joins us from the Las Vegas Review Journal to break down the Raiders here on the Lombardi [Music] Line This is the Lombardi line with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi now here is your host feia B on VN the sports betting Network all right we know the NBA is in the rearview mirror the NHL will be done after tomorrow night so what time is it it’s time to get ready for the NFL season our NFL betting guide is dropping this Thursday and you have to become a V and pro subscriber to get your hands on it you’re going to get just in-depth profiles of every team Advanced stats proven betting systems and betting Trends you’ll have all the tools you need to bet this season smarter plus our experts share their top bets on season win totals Futures and props giving you the insights you need to get ahead of the action you got to go to von.com /s subscribe to become a vent Pro subscriber but here’s the catch you must use promo code Lombardi it’s usually $24 for a year now it’s $199 for 13 months how about that deal that they’re hooking you up with you get all the insights and everything that you can to become a better better help us help you and go ahead and take advantage of it von.com subscribe promo code Lombardi this is the Lombardi line here on the DraftKings Network Michael Lombardi out on the road here hanging out with us on the west coast feia be holding things down here in Las Vegas and joining us now on the Progressive guest line he covers the Las Vegas Raiders for the Las Vegas Review Journal it’s the one and only Vinnie bonor who’s waking up with us here on the Lombardi line Vinnie thank you for hanging out with us and we’ll start off with this quarterback competition we were discussing this a little bit earlier in the show Michael seems to think that it’s Gardner M’s job to lose he should be able to get the starting job by week one is that how you see it or can Aiden o Connell make a realistic run at this thing and potentially upset the apple C I do actually see it the other way um I think it’s it’s Gardner MCH who’s job to lose I think the Raiders would prefer uh that that he’s the starting quarterback he still has some ceiling left they want I I think they want to see what that ceiling is I think Gardener menu is more of a um you know emergency situation just in case Aiden doesn’t take that step forward and then you do have um you know a starting caliber quarterback you quote unquote in Gardener menu to kind of save the day or if if um if if a no conell goes down at any point in the season you have somebody that’s proven that he could step in and play at a uh at a at a reasonable level in Garder mchu so I think this is I think this is Aiden’s job to lose but the performance that we saw in in mini camp uh if if anything could be really read in that neither showed uh that they’re that they’re that they’re ready yet if if the Raiders were coming into the off season hoping that one or the other quarterback was going to take a step forward uh and kind of declare themselves as a starter going into uh the season or or or that certainly didn’t happen well I mean it’s surprising you give a quarterback $15 million to be the backup that’s a little bit overprice though that’s what led me to believe this but I I think your critique of the quarterback position is going to continue I think ultimately when you have two quarterbacks as the great John Madden said you have none and I just wonder where the Aiden no Connell love comes from Vinnie when you watch him last year he didn’t complete a pass after the first quarter in the Kansas City game he couldn’t complete passes in any game really uh you know they couldn’t score a point against the Minnesota Vikings when he played against defenses that moved around and created some different looks at the line of scrimmage it was very difficult so where is this positivity about Aiden okano coming from because it wasn’t on the tape last year yeah I think that they’re going to give him some allowances for it was his rookie year he was thrown into um you know a rather difficult set of circumstances given what happened Midway through the season uh for every bad game that he had against the Minnesota Vikings and the Kansas City Chiefs he also had pretty decent games uh you know the the Chargers game he bounced back after that Vikings game to have a have a pretty good game in that game there were there were games where he did well as well and if you really look at the statistics between he and Gardner muu they’re almost line by line exactly the same that doesn’t say that you know that’s not to say that either um is a championship caliber quarterback but the fact is they’re both relatively the same in terms of the St statistics now they’re they do it a little bit differently and that could give one the edge of the other over the other you know when it’s all said and done but they’re basically the same level of quarterback in terms of production and I’m with you I think this is a uh this is a situation that’s going to carry over into the regular season because as opposed to your normal circumstance where you have a decided starter and somebody that’s you know decidedly better uh than than the than the second option where that makes it difficult to make the decision okay well our starters not playing well let’s go to the let’s go to to the backup knowing that like a like a Derek car to a Nathan Peterman you’re probably not going to make that move because Peterman is that further down compared to a Derek Carr in this case you have two quarterbacks that are relatively St the same uh from a statistic standpoint so if either doesn’t take this job and run with it at the beginning of the Season you could probably see them making a change uh at some point maybe four weeks into the season so to me this is a job that yeah they’ll they’ll declare a starter coming out of training camp but really it’s about who performs during the season and if the starter coming out of training camp isn’t capable of doing that I don’t think they’ll waste one second moving to the second option this is the Lombardi line Michael Lombardi Fe at beay we’re hanging out with Vinnie bonsor here on the Progressive guest line Vinnie covers the Las Vegas Raiders for the Las Vegas Review Journal uh Vinnie is this offensive line good enough to give either of these guys a chance once we get to the fall it’s a unknown at this point I mean you can only tell so much from mini camp they’re not wearing pads it’s kind of unfair actually for the offensive line against uh you know the defensive line that that’s just kind of running past him sometimes and you don’t get a real feel for that one the pads come on uh that’s when you’ll get a real feel I do think that on paper it has a chance to be better than last year’s uh group I think they are mford uh could be an upgrade over Jermaine alumor and certainly Jackson pow Johnson who they drafted out of Oregon they’re moving him to left guard I think that he taking over that left guard Dylan par moving over to Right Guard I think that that has a chance to make this offensive line better so uh right now it’s an unknown but I would not be surprised if this offensive line settles down and turns out to be a pretty pretty good unit not a great unit but a good unit and and so talk to me about the defensive back field uh the corner situation which has always been a little bit of a concern for the Raiders Jack Jones comes over and you know Pierce had him at Arizona State kind of played well but there’s always off the field issues with Jack Jones so how does that secondary look and shape up after mini camp yeah if if I think it’s a little bit better than than what you know first of all you’ve got Nate Hobs you got Jack Jones if as you say uh Jack Jones toes the line uh in in terms of the off field stuff and the maturity stuff that’s a big if no question about it but if he does I think they’ve got um a really good perimeter cornerback I think Nate Hobs when he’s healthy is one of the better slot quarterbacks in the in the NFL and somebody that they can strategically use uh as a as a chess piece defensively can line up you know wherever you need him uh in terms of that the big question is does Jor and Bennett rewin the starting job um opposite Jack Jones or is it uh going to be Brandon faon or Camry and Richardson or do they go out and get somebody in the in the free agent Market I think preferably uh jakorian Bennett takes that job you got Brandon face on then in the rotation and you you you start you know uh melding in the young kid uh damri and Richardson but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a position that they ultimately uh invest in again in in the in that free agent market right now whether it’s as a starter or somebody that can provide some depth or uh some rotational minutes but with that defensive line and this is the Raiders hope with the defensive line as good as it is uh they feel like they can bring along a jakarn Bennett or or put a Brandon fa on in there and they would equit themselves well enough uh with in in conjunction with everything else that they have on this on this defensive line but if Jack Jones is good uh I think he’s going to be one of the better not not one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL but somebody that I think is going to open up a lot of eyes this guy has all the tools it’s just as you said Mike is he going to be able to to to remain in Total Line uh in terms of the off field stuff yeah certainly like the defensive line you mentioned there Max Crosby of course an all pro Christian Wilkins awesome in the free agency pickup Malcolm CS came on at the end of last season here but the win total Vinnie is set at six and a half if you were a betting man would you go over under that number based on all the things that you’ve said about the Raiders this upcoming season ah man uh probably over I think this has a chance to be a nine- win team but it’s a nine to 10- win team uh I I I really like the roster the the you know when you look look back at the Josh McDaniels era and the Dave zegler era they actually did a pretty good job getting this thing back on track and in terms of uh you know the drafting uh some of the some of the young kids or some of the free agent signings that they made so this roster is in really good shape it’s all predicated on what level of quarterback play uh that they get and to me even if they do get quarterback play that that that helps them win nine or 10 games I still think that this time next year we’re going to be talking about probably a different quarterback you know uh for for the Raiders I don’t really see a scenario where somebody just plays so well among Gardener muu or or Aiden oconnell where at the end of the season even if they do make the playoffs where the Raiders aren’t looking to improve at quarterback so uh it really is predicated on what happens that quarterback and can you get uh a fairly high level from from either of them um and and if so I think they’ll be in pretty good position to win nine or 10 games if not then that 6.5 wins looks pretty uh accurate as well yeah it’s always hard it’s hard Vinnie to get 10 wins if the quarterback doesn’t play at an elite level especially in the fourth quarter when it has to happen but we shall see thank you for for visiting us today Vinnie great stuff here all right guys thank you very much and thank you for having me that’s awesome though that’s Vinnie bonor covers the Raiders for the Las Vegas Review Journal he joined us on the Progressive guest line uh based on what he said I mean if this quarterback thing sounds like the disaster that he made it out to be I’d be looking to maybe bet the Raiders finish last place there’s no chance I mean he laid it out you know you’re counting which he didn’t see in the mini Camp so by not being in the mini camp it’s going to be hard to see in the regular season all right jvt joins us next to break down the NBA here on the Lombardi [Music] Line This is the Lombardi line with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi now here is your host feab on VN the sports betting Network if you haven’t already make sure you check out our vent senior NBA analyst Jonathan vontobel’s Mock Draft betting picks it’s on the website it’s right on the cover.com it is 1.0 of the mock draft maybe we’ll get a 2.0 by this time Wednesday night for the first round of the NBA draft check it out today and all the other stuff that we have at von.com welcome back this is the Lombardi line Fe be Michael Lombardi here on the DraftKings Network thank you to Vinnie bonsor who joined us in the last segment covers the Raiders for the Las Vegas Review Journal we mentioned him Jonathan Von to he joins us now here on the Progressive guest line waking up with us to talk a little NBA draft and maybe we’ll sprinkle in some NBA free agency stuff as well jvt good morning uh I want to ask you this question because as it stands right now the draft a few days away is now still the time to be going big game hunting for some big prices to potentially go number one overall or is the picture starting to get at least a little bit more clear yeah I mean the picture starting to get a little bit clearer especially near the top FEI right so if you’re going to use your term Big Fish hunting near the top you’re going to have a little bit of a difficult difficult time right for so for example you know the sexy name that has been tied to Atlanta and a lot of reports have been Donovan kingan he’s gone from his high as 15 to1 to the second option now plus 170 in the last few weeks so you know you’re kind of out out there it does seem that all Intel is saying it is either recche or Clingan they’re in the number one spot the odds I think now currently reflect that if you wanted to go out of left field and go I don’t believe anything I don’t believe that SAR is tanking a stock on purpose he still has not worked out by all accounts for the Atlanta Hawks yet but I still believe that he’s going to go number one overall that would be your only option there plus 450 but nothing has really connected him to the Atlanta Hawks at least the outward information that we have consumed number two right we got a report on Friday that saw was going to be a lock is the term that Jonathan gavone used for Washington at number two well he went from min-40 on Friday over the course of our show in Bon prime time to – 550 by the time we got off of the air to go with the second overall pick so again there if you wanted to go take a shot at Zachary ret who’s cons widely considered to be the second overall Prospect or best Prospect by some measure maybe that’s going to be the case but again all the Intel’s gone and we can even go to the third overall pick which Reed Shepard seems to be a very good fit for the Houston Rockets if the Rockets Make That pick there then of course it would be it seems Reed Shepard problem is we’re down to even money now for Reed Shepard to go there he was two to one just two days ago and in that one I would argue if you wanted to go again with a plus price the Memphis Grizzlies by all accounts freaking love Donovan kingan and three would be the spot to potentially move up to go and get him if he’s still available you could take the shot at plus 275 so I think at the top it’s a little bit hard and then the problem with that is once you get past like five then all of a sudden becomes all hell breaks loose and who knows what the hell is going to happen because all these teams draft on not on need but on how they view a prospect and it becomes a little wonky there forward yeah I mean I’ve asked all my friends in the league who the first pick is and I’ve gotten three different answers I’ve gotten SAR I’ve gotten klingman I I I’ve gotten uh the the the uh the uh re right exactly I’ve gotten all three of those different answers but the guy I want to focus on the other guy that’s all over the board is Reed sheeper some love him and some don’t think he’s going to be very good some think he’ll make it to San Antonio what’s your read on that one so I think it sounds like Michael from everything I’ve taken in it’s really dependent on what the Houston Rockets do at number three in that do they trade out of that spot or do they stay there because the rockets by all account want to move that pick again this is all information that’s out there that we’ve been consuming and so if that is true then any one of those teams could come up take whoever they want could be Shepard but it could be somebody else IE kinging if he slips down to number three and then Shephard’s ground starts to slip a little bit but I would think that he doesn’t get much farther past four because the Spurs do need a guard they were looking for a guard Shepard could be that guy he was just 50% three-point shooter at Kentucky he’s a good defensive piece I think his range is probably at the most at five and I think it’s in there but from everything that I’ve consumed it sounds like 3 to five is probably the path where you’re going to get shephered I don’t think he falls much past it cuz there’s a lot of people that have him as high as the second overall Prospect and the fifth as overall Prospect but he’s definitely in that range on a lot of big boards and I would not expect him to fall out of the top five by any measure we’re hanging out with Jonathan Von too vent senior NBA analyst also check him out on vent Prime Time Monday through Friday 69 eastern time as well as von.com jbt so then why do you think rear is the favorite of the stands right now because it sounds like SAR is beloved by the Washington Wizards he wants to go there at two sounds like you mentioned every indication gives you the Hawks like Donovan kingan and he’s right now his pric has moved all the way down to plus 190 why is reer still the favorite is there a chance that something weird happens at top maybe there’s a trade or anything like that that we have to kind of factor in here like why is he the favorite at odds on price well I I think first off F it’s because like you notable draft Knicks like Jonathan gavone still have him mocked to go at number one right so that’s always going to influence the market of where we’re at but in the other part is when you read all of this about Atlanta every connection being made to kingan it’s twofold right it’s hey they love Donovan kingan but they’re not sure if they want to take him number one overall and so that’s where you get into the prospect okay like well is he not worth the first overall pick and instead should we take the best player available which would be Zachary ret by default because again they’ve not worked out Alexander SAR it seems to be a case of positional value and where you’re picking in the draft is why that we have kind of this stuck on reesea sh at number one but I would argue we talked to Bobby marks on Friday from ESPN former net general manager you he brought up a great point to an extent which was look you’re you’re not drafting for fit because in two years the guys on your roster aren’t going to be there I think for most teams that make sense but most teams aren’t picking number one overall with playoff aspirations and that’s Atlanta right they have Trey young they have dejonte Murray they have a team that they think can make it inside of the very least the top 10 and into a playoff scenario and who knows what happens from there kingan’s the guy with the highest floor that can hit the ground running and fits the archetype of a player like Rudy goar who Quin Snyder played with of course or had on his roster when he was in Utah so I think the fits are all there it just seems that maybe there’s some resistance to using the first overall pick on a rim protector like clinging but I’ll say this really quickly there was a report the other day kellyo covers the Houston Rockets reported that the Rockets have clinging at the top of their board you can’t if your Atlanta get cute it would seem and trade past four because if that’s going to be the case it seems that there’s Intel out there that kingan will be gone by the time he gets to the rockets and that’s always going to be a pretty fascinating Dynamic but it does seem to be a case of positional value in picking in number which is why we still have Reet there at number one let’s talk Lakers right we we discussed and open the show about JJ rck and and frankly I think way too much is being made about his inexperience we’ve seen this happen in the NBA before where former players have gone on to have good coaching careers but I think what we’re missing here and I love your commentary on this is are we sure the Lakers are a good team and if LeBron takes 50 million like what does that lead for them to improve their team no I I completely agree with you Michael it this is not a team that I think is currently constructed to win an NBA championship and not even not even championship in the Western Conference I mean look at the way the rosters stack up in the West in comparison with what we’re looking at for the Los Angeles Lakers when you have the Thunder the Timberwolves the nuggets the Mavericks like we can go down the list of teams and that doesn’t even include Michael the teams that are on the rise Houston is very close to being extremely competitive the San Antonio Spurs are very close to being extremely competitive you can find yourself in a West with 10 11 12 legitimate play play off teams and you’re looking around and going all right where do we stack up in all of this and the problem is that you also have those Championship aspirations the delusions if you will of no we should be amongst the best when they made it to the Western Conference Finals two years ago it was the benefit of a very good run the Memphis Grizzlies were beat to hell they had no injuries they got a really small Golden State team we saw the difference between them and Denver then we saw the difference between them and Denver this last year so I’m with you like to me it doesn’t make that big of a difference I think reic could be very good I think re could probably add wins of the margins with the way that he can draw up out of timeout plays and all these sort of things the blobs and the slobs and all those sort of stuff right but at the end of the day where’s your roster going to be when you start the season and if you go down the path of going topheavy we have a very good example in Phoenix of a team that went topheavy this last year had no depth and got their butts kicked in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves I agree with you doesn’t matter like in terms of head coach you got to improve the roster first the NBA free agency officially begins on June 30th for some of these unrestricted guys to sign where do you think Paul George is going to be playing once we get to the official uh tampering period I’m I’m in line with the market Fe Market still got the Clippers as like a minus 250 favor to to retain him I think that just makes the most sense he wants to live in LA they have the ability to give him the contract that he wants you probably play a little bit of Hard Ball but the second he gets a legitimate offer offer from somewhere else then you’re probably going to match it and you’re going to of course accept him back on the Los Angeles Clippers you’re opening a new Arena next year you don’t want to risk alienating him or or kawh Leonard or any of that when you have such a big thing going going for you in the next season and by the way we got a report the other day I don’t know how the true of this is M Michael might be be able to speak on this that Philly’s waning in terms of their interest in Paul George so maybe that’s on the Philly side or maybe they understand that ah look he probably is going to go back to Los Angeles Clippers and we’re better off pursuing o and noie as oppos as opposed to Paul George so I think at the end of the day the big Domino is Paul George and I think he just remains with the Los Angeles Clippers yeah it’s kind of hard for me look we know the 76ers are star hunting but Paul George and you know you’re basically going all in now and if Shams reports it one thing about Daryl M the information does get out real quickly before we let you go I know you still you’re so good at basketball but football we just had Vinnie on from the review journal talking about the Raiders over six and a half win total or under for you jbt I would lean under I just might I don’t know if you can go into a season with your quarterback room looking like that like your defense is going to be good your skill positions are very solid your offensive line has depth but the tricker man’s got to have some of skill and Gardner MCH was fine but he wasn’t great for Indianapolis and adid no Connell seems to be just Aid no Connell i’ lead under especially with the depth of that conference and of course their division itself yeah yeah I think that’s where we both land for the silver and black he is Jonathan vona make sure you check out all of his work v.com Von Prime Time Monday through Friday 6 night eastern time at the network as well as all the NBA coverage jbt it’s a big week man good luck with all the NBA draft bets thanks J appreciate it guys thank you good stuff there from Jonathan Von toel who joined us on the Progressive guest line we’ll wrap up the show on the other side of the Lombardi line here on a Sunday on VN the sports betting [Music] Network this is the Lombardi line with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi now here is your host feia Bea on VN the sports betting Network welcome back this is the final segment of the Lombardi line here on the DraftKings Network family beay alongside Michael Lombardi out here on the west coast thank you to Jonathan Von toel joined us in the last segment our Von senior NBA analyst check out all of jv’s work on Von Prime Time Monday through Friday 69 eastern time as well as vent.com we mentioned that jbt wrote up a mock draft for his Best Bets for this upcoming NBA draft I can’t wait for it like we were talking about this earlier during one of the breaks like you there’s so many differing opinions on who might go number overall and then the trickle down effect from that afterwards I think it’s going to be a fun night of the NBA draft I love when there’s the uncertainty I think that’s when it’s the most entertaining Well I this is really going to be a hard draft for them to cover ESPN and whomever NB NBA draft and all that because the you know guys get picked by teams that are going to be traded and because of the collect the B agreement they can’t technically announce the trade but they end up doing it and so we’re going to get a situation where a team takes a player that doesn’t fit for the team and we’re going to realize that he’s going to get traded and maybe it’ll be at the pick but I I think this is the kind of draft where anything goes but just doesn’t necessarily line up in a linear fashion where okay this team picks this this team picks that we’re seeing already with the Caruso trade with giddy to go to Chicago and Caruso going to Oklahoma City we’re starting to see a lot of action already and I think the trades are going to heat up when Shams came out and said that the the Sixers have moved off of of Paul George and then you go to Twitter today and it’s all about Paul George and the Sixers so there’s a lot of difference opinions going on here I just read one on Twitter where it’s going to be Paul George and a signning trade with bringing Tobias Harris back I mean who knows I think this is one of those where we’re GNA have to react to what we know not what we think you know as a front office executive I’m curious to get your thoughts on this you’ve been in the chair other front office Executives obviously have said stuff about this as well like when mock drafts come out and it say say the mocks are either wrong or there’s a little bit of a pressure do you like when there’s this kind of uncertainty cuz like do you think it’s easier to then have like a more clear mind or is it more difficult given the fact that the the valuations are all over the place on all these prospects that are coming out yeah well I think what happens is we have a lot of unprofessional evaluations and then there’s the professional right so let’s just take for example Brady went on Colin coward last week and I don’t know when he was doing it was on Twitter and people were just amazed at Brady’s talking about the quarterback position the disconnect between how to play quarterback and how it’s reported to the actual what is a quarterback supposed to do and how it is played is so different you know it’s so different and so uh I think to me that void and understanding of it applies to all sports and especially in the NBA one of the things you know when you read about what Brad Stevens has done with the Boston Celtics is he basically went back to scouting inside out he has a specific criteria for what he wants at point guard what he wants at two three four five and then he made it all work I mean look the guy did Red arack like things in being able to get Drew holl and porzingis in there for basically nothing and he got two first round picks back think about that and so this is so predicated on star power that people lose sight of the NBA is about what is what can work as a collective team and we we don’t talk enough about that we just talk on draft day about this guy’s a great player but how does he fit you know where does he fit what does he do and how will his play Help the other people become better players that’s always the question you have to answer when you’re involved in team building we talk about on the GM shle all the time B 100% And I think that the Boston Celtics winning the title right now I think it’s a really good indicator of what might become the NBA the new NBA what they wanted to accomplish with this collective bargaining agreement cuz this second apron tax is very punitive like you have to pay a lot of money if you go beyond that second apron tax to where building through the draft is more important than it ever has been in the NBA like you can’t just say you know what yeah we can just screw it and let’s trade five first round picks to get this player let’s trade this to get this player and build ourselves the super team as jbt mentioned in the last segment it’s the teams that have the depth the Minnesota the OKC’s the Boston the Dallas like those are the teams that ended up having success this playoffs the teams that were the super teams like the Lakers and the Suns and those older teams they kind of crashed out early on so like this is kind of the new NBA and maybe it’s going to be more parody driven maybe it’s going to be more on team building and building the n NBA draft throughout of just doing the whole uh let’s get this free agency Summit going and let’s sign two stars in the offseason call it a day yeah I I agree and I think you have to really be care and the other thing I want to alert people to is there is all these fake Twitter accounts out there like I just I just got an alert from a fake Twitter account that the Dallas Mavericks have traded Tim Hardway Jr to the Sixers for Tobias Cyrus in a second round pick like I mean like you know and it’s came from and and it’s all these fake accounts so let’s not react to the fake accounts too I think that’s another important message that that should be the betting tip right now is don’t react to fake accounts You Gotta Be matmo You got to block them all you gotta you got to block them BL you got to block them all that’s what I do like if I don’t get the notification from W Shams or Chris Haynes or one of these other people I’m not buying it I’m not buying it until I get that notification so yeah you got to block those guys because they’re going to be out and about the fake accounts this week the fake accounts next week when free agency really kicks off uh it’s all over the place and it’s unfortunate but people I guess want to do it for engagement and I guess they get a a kick out of it and a laugh out of it who knows uh I’ve never been one of those people so I guess I can’t get inside of their minds but that is definitely a reality but I’m I’m very excited for this NBA draft very excited to see what happens in free agency what your Sixers do would you want someone like an OG anobi on the Philadelphia 76ers like a terrific Defender but he has so much trouble staying on the court I mean why wouldn’t we take a guy that can’t play Healthy that’s never healthy It just fits who we are right I mean it just fits I mean you got cure you know can you imagine can you imagine going to this driving to the stadium driving up the Atlantic City Expressway I’m G to go to a game oh embiid’s not playing tonight neither is Oobi I mean oh great I mean I don’t think Oobi is a great player I love him but but you can’t durability is part of ability too and that’s a big issue with him uh look the Knicks I think you’re you made a great point the Celtics tax is going to be really prohibitive you know they’re going to go over there especially as they got other guys to get their contracts so this second threshold tax Tatum with a max deal so it’s going to be interesting to see how teams approach that and what is truly going to be the new Collective bar agreement in terms of when this TV money starts to come in do you think that’s good for the league to like because clearly the NBA wants more parody they don’t want super teams anymore they don’t want that kind of style they want kind of more balanced teams but even if you draft really well you sort of have to pick and choose which guy you extend because you don’t want to go beyond that second apron tax there like do you think that this is going to be good for the association that teams will have at least a better chance to ultimately win the title yeah I I think so I mean look I think one thing we’ve been proven is when of these super teams work I mean just ask the Phoenix Suns when is it worked how many coaches are they going to go through right yeah they just hired buen holer good luck to him you know it’s like all these coaches that they’ve ran through uh Frank vogle was oneand done even though Frank vog was a pretty good coach but uh un unfortunately they just I guess someone had to pay the price for them not reaching their expectations this upcoming season here um we got a couple minutes left uh any thoughts for you on what’s going to happen I know you’re going you’re going to take a little bit of time off but we got Giants Hard Knocks that’s coming up July 2nd we’re excited for Giants Hard Knocks how do you see this thing playing out here HBO I’m sure we’ll talk before then before it actually officially airs but this HBO offseason addition to the Hard Knocks is something that they’ve never done before yeah I’m excited to see it I think we’re going to get the cover up that they never were interested in a quarterback that they run it all all along even though they didn’t try to trade with the the fourth team overall once May went off the board look I think one of the things about Hard Knocks that’s you have to be very careful about from a team standpoint is to show that you know what you’re doing that you come across with a plan with conviction with leadership right Joe Shane’s got to show that in the videos he’s got to show that he’s in command that he knows his team that he has an idea what he wants to do and he educates the fans fans want to know that their general manager and their head coach are smart and they really know what to do when when Herm Edwards was sitting there pondering whether he was going to start Damon Hillard uh Damon H or or bro Brody cyle at starting quarterback for the Chiefs it’s you know the fans were like we don’t have a starting quarterback what are you contemplating it’s the same thing at the Raiders they don’t have a starting quarterback I know Vinnie said that they could get to 10 wins but he also said they don’t have a starting quarterback those two things don’t go hand in hand you don’t want that and I think to me that’s going to be the interesting thing when we get into Hard Knox is how that all plays out what it looks like and how it moves forward yeah I think you reminded the Kansas City Chiefs fans of some dark times there when it was Damon H and Brody C but now it’s momes and they’re and they’re in the glor years as they nothing to worry about just won another Super Bowl and they’re the favorites to go ahead and do so again in 2024 before we head out of here once again make sure to participate on the poll at M Lombardi NFL which Underdog to start week one at quarterback will win the job this off season uh none of the none of them where’s Aiden oconnell JJ McCarthy and Drake May none of them is the leading option right now at 30% there but McCarthy and may tied at 25% and then Aiden oconnell is at 19% the poll’s up there for 11 more hours particip at at it once again M Lombardi NFL and uh we’ll see what the results end up coming out to be I I think it’s I think it’s none of them I agree with the the leading I think it’s none of the above I think it’s none of the above the above for sure and then we’ll see what happens in training camp as the Raiders try to talk themselves into one of these guys starting week one that does it for us here on the show Michael enjoyed the rest of your Sunday for our producer Elliot Bowman Michael EMB the entire crew behind the glass we wish you all the best of luck with all the bets the handle with Matt Brandon storming B Tony’s coming up next [Music] want to see who at vison is on a hot streak go to von.com slpi to see all the selections and