Speaker 1: The time for the in the Zone, Jim Colbert shows
Speaker 1: simocats the way to make it look right with this
Speaker 1: stupid camera. So I know it's kind of crazy. It
Speaker 1: looks like a yeah, it's a it's the look it's
Speaker 1: like it's gonna fall like a funhouse world.
Speaker 2: Look at that thing that not only does it look
Speaker 2: like it's gonna fall, it's shocking that it's not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's dead square on the shot though you will
Speaker 1: get it from the here. It's like dead square. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Nice for lack of you cold O
Speaker 1: bring your studio. You're wearing a hoodie? Are you trying to?
Speaker 2: I just, I just I just got pretty cold over there.
Speaker 2: And then and then I thought, okay, I'm gonna throw
Speaker 2: this on. Sometimes it's a sauna over here. Sometimes it
Speaker 2: feels like Antarctica. I never know what to expect in
Speaker 2: your studio's either, So I threw this on because it's
Speaker 2: nice and nice and cozy here in the studio. Obviously,
Speaker 2: this time of year in Florida, you look ridiculous whenever
Speaker 2: you put a sweater on. But that the studio does
Speaker 2: get cold.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't stop anybody from twenty four and under
Speaker 1: because that seems to be exactly what everybody does under
Speaker 1: the age of twenty four does. Yep, dead of summer.
Speaker 1: They wear hoodies, full sleeve hood up everywhere they go.
Speaker 1: It's the craziest. I've never seen anything like it. My
Speaker 1: son will he walks around in a hoodie. It's ninety
Speaker 1: eight degrees outside, walking around in a hoodie. Don't get
Speaker 1: it in shorts. Dumb, so dumb. But either way, that's fine.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I turned forty in August. I have
Speaker 2: a hard time, hard time explaining the the youth out there.
Speaker 2: I am not with it. August one, August sixth, are
Speaker 2: you serious? Yeah? Interesting, same birthday as Lucille Ball.
Speaker 1: I'll be damn really yeah, my wife's birthdays on the fourth.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and then my daughter is July and six.
Speaker 2: We should do at dinner? We shouldn't.
Speaker 1: We should just keep our distance right here in the studio,
Speaker 1: is what we should do.
Speaker 2: Was that a store over the weekend that had social
Speaker 2: distancing stigns?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 2: Oh? My got them? I thought that's we could probably
Speaker 2: feel those off. Yeah, yeah, this solid. So what do
Speaker 2: you got first today? Buddy? Well, let's talk. Let's talk
Speaker 2: with Orlando City. We haven't done that in a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks. They're still sitting at fifth in the East.
Speaker 2: They dropped a golden opportunity at home against a good
Speaker 2: Cincinnati team leading right, that's our divisions. They're towards the top.
Speaker 2: They picked up a four to two win earlier in
Speaker 2: the week against Saint Louis. City had its second match
Speaker 2: this week, so did Cincinnati. So not necessarily an excuse,
Speaker 2: but it is a reason for why the game was sluggish.
Speaker 2: It took both teams a while to get going. Oh see,
Speaker 2: first shot on goal was fifteen minutes in. First shot,
Speaker 2: not first goal for a shot on goal fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: in for Cincinnati, it took twenty five minutes for them
Speaker 2: to even take a shot.
Speaker 1: I was there, you were there for that. It was
Speaker 1: you know, here's the thing. And I love going to
Speaker 1: the games, you know, and we have to drive like
Speaker 1: forty minutes to get to the games. Love it. Excited
Speaker 1: to go. Took a nap to get their own time
Speaker 1: and have a good time. Hold on yards. It was
Speaker 1: so bad. The game was not only sluggish, but man,
Speaker 1: these guys are so chippy. The play was being stopped
Speaker 1: like it seemed like every thirty seconds, the play was
Speaker 1: getting stopped yet again, more stoppages, and it was just
Speaker 1: like almost fighting. It was just a weird, really weird
Speaker 1: vibe for the game. And by the way, that first
Speaker 1: goal from Cincinnati, that shot was Banana's good.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was crazy. So that team is that
Speaker 2: team is really good. And that's why I say it's
Speaker 2: a golden opportunity for Orlando City right now. They are
Speaker 2: climbing their way up the ranks. To beat teams like
Speaker 2: this when you get them at home is going to
Speaker 2: be really important for OC. You know, waiting until the
Speaker 2: eighty seventh minute in order to punch one in probably
Speaker 2: isn't going to get it done. But the summer months
Speaker 2: have usually not been kind to Orlando City. We'll see
Speaker 2: if they're able to dig themselves out of this one.
Speaker 2: They did have a two game winning street coming into
Speaker 2: that game Saturday.
Speaker 1: They looked a little gassed, But if I'm being honest
Speaker 1: with it, just they didn't play a real pressing defense
Speaker 1: and it seemed like Cincinnati really pressed the ball all
Speaker 1: the way, all the way up and down the pitch
Speaker 1: every single play, and Orlando just didn't seem like they
Speaker 1: had that extra edge kind of overcome that what it
Speaker 1: looked like to me.
Speaker 2: Can I pitch something your way to both of you,
Speaker 2: because you guys are pretty plugged in on the soccer world,
Speaker 2: especially Jack. Have you heard any feedback for the FIFA
Speaker 2: Club World Cup matches that we've had at Camping World Stadium,
Speaker 2: because I've seen attendance numbers have been all over the place. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: very dependent on who it is that's playing. We have
Speaker 2: some of the bigger brands that places Camping World Stadium
Speaker 2: is filling up, and then you have other games that
Speaker 2: look like they forgot to let people in. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was just curious, if you've.
Speaker 3: Heard me, early on in the earlier rounds, they had
Speaker 3: a trouble. They had trouble drawing crowds. I know it
Speaker 3: was like five, six, seven thousand, but I think as
Speaker 3: you this tournament kind of dwindles down, you're getting to
Speaker 3: see the more popular teams and you are seeing larger draws.
Speaker 2: Okay, good.
Speaker 1: People were sitting next to our our season ticket holders,
Speaker 1: and they're big fans, they go to all this stuff.
Speaker 1: They actually asked a asked us if we went to
Speaker 1: any of those games, and we told them no, they
Speaker 1: said they've been good games, but I didn't ask them
Speaker 1: about the crowd.
Speaker 2: So, okay, onto basketball my world. Okay, let's talk about
Speaker 2: the Orlando Magic first and then we can kind of
Speaker 2: spray out from there.
Speaker 1: Okay, but can you answer something real quick before we
Speaker 1: even get into that. Regarding the Magic. The headlines that
Speaker 1: they regarding Moe Wagner and the other player, Caleb Caleb Houston,
Speaker 1: they were kind of weird. It was kind of odd
Speaker 1: because if you don't understand how contracts work and how,
Speaker 1: you know, how all of that verbiage of how they
Speaker 1: maintain players, it would lead you to believe that we're
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of those two players by not
Speaker 1: picking up their option or something, which is a possibility.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So they both had what are called team there
Speaker 2: in the NBA, contracts are very complicated. You have team
Speaker 2: options for some players, you have player options for others.
Speaker 2: Some contracts have no options, you just play out your contract.
Speaker 2: For these two guys, they had team options. That means
Speaker 2: that the option is on the team as to whether
Speaker 2: or not they are extended for the final year of
Speaker 2: their deal. For Wagner, he had if the Magic said
Speaker 2: we don't want you to enter free agency at all.
Speaker 2: We don't want to negotiate with you. You pick up
Speaker 2: the option and you pay Mo Wagner eleven million dollars
Speaker 2: for next season. That's the end. That's just and then
Speaker 2: at the end of next year he would become a
Speaker 2: free agent. For Caleb Houston, it was two million dollars,
Speaker 2: and that those were options that they declined. They might
Speaker 2: move off of them, they might not. I think what
Speaker 2: happened is they declined those options so that they could
Speaker 2: get into negotiations with other players and see if they
Speaker 2: want to upgrade their roster. It gives them flexibility, and
Speaker 2: it also I think it does do right by Mo
Speaker 2: Wagner specifically because he's the better player of the two
Speaker 2: to go out and test the market. Hey, if you
Speaker 2: can go make fifteen million dollars a year somewhere else,
Speaker 2: we're not going to stand in your way. It also,
Speaker 2: we'll use that money on someone else on our side,
Speaker 2: and so I think it's it's kind of best for
Speaker 2: both worlds. The Magic can then engage in conversations because
Speaker 2: they're cash strapped up and in the NBA world, thirteen
Speaker 2: million dollars is not a lot. You can sign a
Speaker 2: pretty significant player at thirteen million dollars a year, somebody
Speaker 2: a role player that can help you off the bench.
Speaker 2: And so that's something that they can now engage in
Speaker 2: those conversations. And if they don't end up finding anybody
Speaker 2: that they're in love with, then they'll settle back on
Speaker 2: the guys that they declined options for. I would put
Speaker 2: it at a seventy percent chance that Mo Wagner's on
Speaker 2: the team again. His little brother is one of the
Speaker 2: starts of the show. That's kind of why I don't
Speaker 2: think he's going anywhere. He loves it here. The team
Speaker 2: loves him. He's an energy guy. He brings so much
Speaker 2: intangibly to this basketball team. Caleb Houston more likely that
Speaker 2: they actually moved off of him, but we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: Free agency does open up tonight, so you're gonna get
Speaker 2: an idea pretty quickly as to who the Magic could
Speaker 2: be going after. And who do you think or if anyone. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they've been relatively stingy in these times over the last
Speaker 2: few years, though, have they not well? Last year? I
Speaker 2: usually yes, because they had been pinching pennies to get
Speaker 2: ready for this big push that they're making right Now,
Speaker 2: last year they doled out one of the bigger contracts
Speaker 2: in free agency to Contavious Caldwell Pope. They brought him
Speaker 2: in veteran from Denver, helped them win a championship, helped
Speaker 2: the LA Lakers win a championship a couple of years prior,
Speaker 2: just didn't really work out. He was still really good defensively.
Speaker 2: The three point shot just evaporated in Orlando. So that
Speaker 2: was part of the reason why they gave up as
Speaker 2: much as they did to bring in Desmond Bayin. They
Speaker 2: had to offload that really bad deal that they signed
Speaker 2: last year in free agency. They move off of that,
Speaker 2: and now we are going to get back to pinching
Speaker 2: pennies mode because the team has a lot of money
Speaker 2: invested in the players that are on the court. Jalen
Speaker 2: Suggs already signed a massive extension, Franz Wagner already signed
Speaker 2: a massive extension, and Palo Banco is about to sign
Speaker 2: one probably within the next forty eight hours. Those guys,
Speaker 2: and Desmond Bayne's contract is not light either. So you've
Speaker 2: got four of your starting five that get paid handsomely
Speaker 2: relative to NBA players. They are spending money. Let anybody
Speaker 2: in any conversation that you have about the Magic, say
Speaker 2: that team is cheap. They are spending through the nose
Speaker 2: for the young, talented group that they have right now.
Speaker 2: The problem is is the way that the NBA contracts
Speaker 2: and salary caps are aligned, it does make it very
Speaker 2: difficult to then add money on top of that, even
Speaker 2: if you've decided to push all of your chips in right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so they are up against it. You're not going to
Speaker 2: see the magic through free agency make some big earth
Speaker 2: shattering move. Those players also aren't out there. There's like
Speaker 2: one big name, Miles Turner, the center for the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 2: He's available, He'll be way too expensive for the Magic.
Speaker 2: You're looking at names that are not going to get
Speaker 2: you excited. Duncan Robinson, Luke Cannard, Gary Trent Junior, Tias Jones.
Speaker 1: Every one of those sounds like a NASCAR driver, every
Speaker 1: one of them, especially Tias Jones. Yeah, definitely, I would
Speaker 1: just say, don't worry about the name. Just go to
Speaker 1: the stats page on ESPN and if the guy is
Speaker 1: a career thirty eight percent three point shooter or better,
Speaker 1: so somewhere in between the range realistically of thirty eight
Speaker 1: to forty two percent.
Speaker 2: You have just smile ear to year.
Speaker 1: We're about the moneyball. That's bitch, We're about to moneyball
Speaker 1: this guy. Give him the bag.
Speaker 2: Give you know.
Speaker 1: It's so funny because Orlando when they first came to
Speaker 1: be a kind of part of our reputation was the
Speaker 1: three ball. But Dennis Scott, like, nobody shot more threes
Speaker 1: than the town. And now we can't get anybody can
Speaker 1: make shoot twenty five percent.
Speaker 2: So I'll take that to the next level because that
Speaker 2: was during the Shack years. Yeah, you had Dennis Scott
Speaker 2: that was one of the best three point shooters in
Speaker 2: a league that didn't shoot a lot of threes. He
Speaker 2: was special in that regard. Then you go to the
Speaker 2: Dwight years and stan Van Gundy started to change the
Speaker 2: way that basketball was played in the NBA. They went
Speaker 2: one in, four out, so it was Dwight Howard in
Speaker 2: the middle, and then he would spray out to four
Speaker 2: other guys that can knock down threes. That's what made them,
Speaker 2: that's what made them dangerous offensively. Was that stop When
Speaker 2: you think about the Heido Turculeuse and JJ Reddix, Ryan Anderson,
Speaker 2: Richard Lewis, all these guys could knock down threes Jamiir
Speaker 2: Nelson and they're so far away from that right now.
Speaker 2: They have to find somebody else. Desmond Bain is gonna
Speaker 2: help a lot. He's one of the best three point
Speaker 2: shooters in the league. There was a great pickup via
Speaker 2: trade that they got, but they have to add someone
Speaker 2: else because one player cannot buoy your entire team three
Speaker 2: point shooting wise.
Speaker 1: You have to at least somebody, have somebody that can
Speaker 1: at least scare them a little bit, because again, if
Speaker 1: you could double up one dude and basically shut down
Speaker 1: the three ball and then contain everybody else, which I
Speaker 1: don't think is going to be very easy this year
Speaker 1: because I mean we do have some good players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know everybody's gonna be pretty healthy next year.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it just comes down to strategically. You
Speaker 2: have Palo and Frands that want to score by attacking
Speaker 2: the basket. They want to get into the paint and
Speaker 2: they want to cook. That's what they want to do. Well,
Speaker 2: if the opposing defense doesn't respect your three point shooting,
Speaker 2: they're just gonna pack the paint and they're gonna go, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're gonna put a wall in front of your two
Speaker 2: best players, and now they can't score efficiently because we
Speaker 2: don't care about everybody else. If the Magic start to
Speaker 2: stretch the defense out, and all of a sudden, Palo
Speaker 2: gets to go one on one with a defender, he's
Speaker 2: gonna win that battle more times than not. And so
Speaker 2: that's what you're looking for. You're trying to stretch the defense.
Speaker 2: The only way to do that is for them to
Speaker 2: respect your three point shooting, and right now the league
Speaker 2: does not.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and they shouldn't.
Speaker 2: We've given them a rhythm to absolutely not even scary
Speaker 2: a little. So when they get to the playoffs, teams
Speaker 2: go okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, right. That's when you know it's bad. When
Speaker 1: nobody's being guarded out there, you're give them and the.
Speaker 2: Magic fans they're wide open. Yeah, they let it. When
Speaker 2: you're wide open. Sometimes in the NBA, it's because they
Speaker 2: let you be wide open.
Speaker 1: We were at the basketball version of when you came
Speaker 1: up to play a little league baseball and everybody started shouting
Speaker 1: easy out that's exactly. Or bring the field and bring
Speaker 1: the bring the players in, you know, bring the outfield in.
Speaker 1: That's that's the most disrespectable day. That's how we got
Speaker 1: treated by Yeah, I remember that, remember those days.
Speaker 2: Not me. I was a pretty good baseball player, but sure,
Speaker 2: that's what I say too. That was my sport. Okay,
Speaker 2: So staying on the NBA, this is on the seatier
Speaker 2: side of things. But I'm curious to get your take
Speaker 2: on this since you and I have talked a lot
Speaker 2: of gambling over the last couple of weeks on this show.
Speaker 2: Malik Beasley, who is one of those. He's one of
Speaker 2: the guys that I would have brought up moments ago
Speaker 2: in talking about adding three point shooting for the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 2: But is he was incredible last year for the Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2: But right now he is under an investigation through the
Speaker 2: US District Attorney's office for betting on player props. This
Speaker 2: would have taken place during the twenty three twenty four season.
Speaker 2: This guy is about to sign He's an unrestricted free agent.
Speaker 2: He the deal he would sign is going to be
Speaker 2: north of forty million dollars and right now nobody's going
Speaker 2: to touch him because he's under federal investigation for betting
Speaker 2: on him for what. So this is what the story is.
Speaker 2: At least one prominent US sportsbook detected unusual heavy betting
Speaker 2: interest on Malik Beasley statistic. So I'll pause right there
Speaker 2: and explain what happens. These sportsbooks monitor all the action
Speaker 2: that they get. This is a specific prop on a
Speaker 2: somewhat random player for rebounds, and all the sudden bets
Speaker 2: start pouring in at large numbers, large amounts of total
Speaker 2: bets and the amount of dollars that are being bet
Speaker 2: on for everyone that's placed, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you go, okay, why, all of a sudden, when this
Speaker 2: guy gets let's just call it, five thousand dollars a
Speaker 2: game over the the the United States, we have five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars being placed on this guy every single game. Now,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, in this game, it's twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars that raises red flags. They end up talking to,
Speaker 2: you know, the people that police this stuff, and that's
Speaker 2: how these investigations happen. A gambling industry source point into
Speaker 2: a game between the Bucks and the Trailblazers. On January
Speaker 2: thirty first, twenty twenty four, the odds on Beasley recording
Speaker 2: fewer than two and a half rebounds moved significantly because
Speaker 2: there was so much action on his under at two
Speaker 2: and a half rebounds, which is a really random prop
Speaker 2: to be betting on, and Beasley wound up finishing with
Speaker 2: six rebounds, so the over actually hit. But what the
Speaker 2: if you're reading the tea leaves here, is that Malik
Speaker 2: Beasley is talking to other people saying, Hey, at the
Speaker 2: under tonight, I'm not gonna get rebounds.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And that's the way that this stuff goes.
Speaker 1: I saw a little video today about a player. I
Speaker 1: didn't even look at it. I just saw the video
Speaker 1: thats it rolled through and it's like it was this
Speaker 1: guy playing defense and it wasn't even kind of funny.
Speaker 1: A guy had him out on the three point line,
Speaker 1: made one quick little move and the dude just stood
Speaker 1: there by the guy bounce, you know, just basically dribbled
Speaker 1: around him.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, no effort at all to defend the guy
Speaker 1: at all. And I guess this is the guy in
Speaker 1: play because obviously, if there's one thing he's doing this with,
Speaker 1: it's probably not stopping.
Speaker 2: There right exactly. And that's why I mean this, This
Speaker 2: one instance that ESPN points out to me is not
Speaker 2: enough to warrant an entire investigation, especially when the people
Speaker 2: who bet on the side that took the most money
Speaker 2: lost the wager. So there has to be something else
Speaker 2: out there, some other evidence for them to launch a
Speaker 2: fully fledged investigation against this guy. What I find fascinating
Speaker 2: about this and where there is a little bit of
Speaker 2: egg on my face as somebody who has spoken out
Speaker 2: at quite a loud volume of this will never become
Speaker 2: an issue for prominent NBA players. You mean the sports gambling, Yeah,
Speaker 2: where you have guys that are shaving points, that are
Speaker 2: throwing games for the sake of winning bets, either for
Speaker 2: themselves or acting as a tipster, because nobody has more
Speaker 2: inside information about how game's gonna go than the one
Speaker 2: that's playing it. Whatever side of the equation it is,
Speaker 2: we've seen players in basketball. Johntay Porter is a name.
Speaker 2: Jhontay Porter is an end of the bench guy that
Speaker 2: spent five minutes in the NBA. For someone like that
Speaker 2: to be part of a federal vent investigation shaving some
Speaker 2: points because he knows, hey, I'm only going to play
Speaker 2: for two minutes. Take my under. He bets it. He
Speaker 2: tells his friends to bett, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: there's unusual action on the fifteenth guy on the roster. Right,
Speaker 2: that's the kind of thing that, unfortunately that is going
Speaker 2: to happen with the legalization of sports betting. What I
Speaker 2: did not think we would see is for prominent NBA
Speaker 2: players that are making a significant paycheck that are somewhat
Speaker 2: household names to be part of something like this. I
Speaker 2: didn't think we'd see it. And Malik Beasley is I mean,
Speaker 2: the guy isn't Lebron James. But this is as close
Speaker 2: as we've gotten to a legitimate NBA starter being part
Speaker 2: of a federal investigation that involves betting. Isn't this kind
Speaker 2: of one?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't this be a way that somebody could pay their
Speaker 1: their crew back without giving them their money. Like if
Speaker 1: you had a crew that kind of took care of you,
Speaker 1: coming up right protected, you made sure everything was good,
Speaker 1: a couple uncles, maybe a brother in law, something like that,
Speaker 1: but you couldn't get You don't want to give them
Speaker 1: your money because you're still just earning your money. But
Speaker 1: wouldn't that be a way to pay them back? Could
Speaker 1: and say, you guys want to bet this touch but
Speaker 1: he tells him to bet the under and then he
Speaker 1: gets the over.
Speaker 2: That's the that's the weird That's the weird part about
Speaker 2: this particular instance that ESPN brings up is because I
Speaker 2: mean that obviously would be more of a red flag
Speaker 2: if he finished the game with one rebound and he went, okay, well,
Speaker 2: a bunch of people that bet that cash the ticket.
Speaker 2: But if there are other examples that are out there,
Speaker 2: then absolutely, that's exactly what these sportsbooks don't want that.
Speaker 2: That's why they don't Now that there's legalization. The good
Speaker 2: thing about legalization is that this stuff gets uncovered because
Speaker 2: the draft Kings and the Fanduels and the hard rocks
Speaker 2: that are out there are quick to pick up the
Speaker 2: phone to go you need to investigate, right because they're
Speaker 2: taking our money. Yeah, they don't like that.
Speaker 1: Well, also to erect the reputation of the platform. You know,
Speaker 1: people won't even think they have a chance if they
Speaker 1: think it's rigged. Somebody asked about thirty seconds of Dolphins news.
Speaker 2: The Miami Dolphins traded Jalen Ramsey, the star defensive back.
Speaker 2: He's been on the block for the last couple of months.
Speaker 2: He kind of knew he was going to get traded.
Speaker 2: They wound up dealing him to the Pittsburgh Steelers. They
Speaker 2: get back Minka Fitzpatrick, who's a guy that they drafted
Speaker 2: back in twenty eighteen star safety in the NFL. He's
Speaker 2: getting a little long in the tooth. So is Jalen Ramsey.
Speaker 2: So it's a little bit of a swap of two
Speaker 2: guys that at their best in their NFL careers have
Speaker 2: been two of the best defenders in the league that
Speaker 2: are both starting to age out a little bit, and
Speaker 2: I think it's just kind of a pick your preference thing.
Speaker 2: The Dolphins also sent their tight end John news Smith,
Speaker 2: so there's a little bit of a hole at that position.
Speaker 2: But Jalen Ramsey's a loud mouth that is overpaid, perfectly
Speaker 2: fine with them moving off of them.
Speaker 1: Preseason starts in what three about eight weeks it'll be.
Speaker 2: I think it's the last day of July. Is the
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame game. I cannot wait. Good toe any buddy,
Speaker 2: Yes he has a good lab for Rando Gravitz.
Speaker 1: Single from threnal six at ninety six to nine. The
Speaker 1: game all right, four our seven nine sur