After Hours with Amy Lawrence Hour:1

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Get started on the Angie app or visit angie.com today. You can do this when you Angie that. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look that way? Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects.

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Download Thumbtack and start a project today. Listen as Delenia tells us why she chose to vaccinate her daughter. I definitely felt like the pros far outweighed the cons. The diseases that I am protecting my child against.

They're still here. And at the end of the day, it's my job as a mother to keep my child safe. Talk to your child's doctor and learn more at WhyVaccines.com. Brought to you by Merck. Jim was at the laundromat when he heard, his ear said, Miraca, Senor, but his nose said, Hey, freshest scent ever. Following his nose, Jim found a man pulling gain scent beads into the washer. The scent, the freshness. Jim blurted, Sir, your scent Miraca smell amazing. You could call them some maracas, but most noses call them gain cent beads.

Try gain cent beads. Way fresher than detergent alone. Amy Lawrence. Well, I was prepared to be all excited about how it's almost Friday. Happy almost Friday. That's how I was going to start. And then we had a computer crash and we've got the dreaded blue screen on the majority of the computers in the newsroom and in the studios. In fact, on my left right now, we've got a dreaded blue screen. And so a bunch of our computers and various software have completely shut down. Thankfully, the computers and the Intel, no, it's not AI. If it was AI, it would be a lot smarter and more reliable. The technology that keeps us on the air, well, that's working, we think. So if you can hear the sound of my voice, I might need to hear from you. We've got a couple of laptops that are still working.

They're still connected to the Wi-Fi, but apparently there is a system wide issue, which to my knowledge, to my understanding, our crack engineering department is in fact attempting to repair. But right now we are limited in what we can do. So yeah, that's fun. Happy almost Friday to us. Who needs computers anyway? Back in the olden days, just kidding. I don't know what it was like before the olden days because I've always had computers in my career.

Now they weren't laptops and we certainly didn't have social media when I started, but yeah, this is different. I say that, but at least once a week, there's some type of a technical issue. So hoping that the blue screens go away. I love blue. I don't need to see this much blue and believing that at some point over the course of the next four hours, order will be restored. You know, hope springs eternal. Sometimes though, it can be blind hope and I should know better than trust and equipment that comes from 1972. Okay. Not that old. It's from the, from the nineties, but still it's after hours with Amy Lawrence.

Nineties is great in terms of music, in terms of movies, in terms of entertainment, not so much in terms of the software and the hardware. It is the final show of the week though, regardless, no matter what happens, it's still the final show of the week. I'm going to take this picture so you guys can see what's happening here in the computers all across our newsroom and Colton who's working with me. He can attest to this recovery. That's the big word in bright white sparkling white letters. I'm waiting for everything in here just to crash and burn.

I'm just waiting for it. Well, if I can no longer hear the sound of your voice, we'll know something happened. It looks like windows didn't load correctly. If you'd like to restart and try again, choose restart my PC below. Otherwise choose see advanced repair options for troubleshooting tools and advanced options.

If you don't know which option is right for you, contact someone you trust to help you with this. Here's the thing though. There isn't anyone in the building. There isn't really anyone that we can contact at this hour because you know, if it's dark and you want to go to bed, well, computer issues, equipment issues, they never happen overnight. What?

You'll be fine. In other words, we don't want to pay engineers to work overnight. So we tried before to get the engineers to help us overnight.

And even if we do get someone to answer the phones, the on-call number, they are half asleep as you can imagine. Alright, so here are my options. Continue exit and continue to Windows 10. Use a device, a USB drive, network connection or Windows recovery DVD.

Oh my gosh, it offers me the option of using a Windows recovery DVD. Troubleshoot. Reset your PC or see advanced options. So you go to the option that's advanced options and then you click on another option for advanced options. Or you could just turn it off altogether. What do you think, Colton? Should we try just turning it off altogether?

Go for it. Why not? What else do we have to close? Turning off the PC. Not the police chief, but the personal computer. Yeah, it's off. That's the one in here. The problem is I don't know how to turn it back on so that thing might not ever come back on.

I have no idea. The hard drives and the towers are actually behind closed doors so we can't really turn them back on. So I did it in here. I don't think I'll do it in the side studio where I kind of need access to it to do any editing and audio. Alright then. I suppose we'll just wing it.

Colton's waiting for everything to crash behind the double pane glass. That's a bummer. I hate to tell you, but we're not going to have a whole lot of bells and whistles on this show. But still, I'm sure it'll be quality radio and you will be riveted and won't want to turn away at any point.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. And yes, I was being snarky. On Twix, A-Law Radio. I managed to stay off Twix for the entire evening. Actually, most of the week I've done that just because social media bothers me when it goes all political. So I stayed off Twix most of the night, which is good. And now I'm back on it and hoping that I can see posts from you all and that we can talk about sports instead.

You can also find us on Facebook After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We've got football. I daresay we could, if we wanted to, label it a soft football Friday that we're heading into. But I don't know that we need to do that yet, right?

It's late July. Hall of Fame game is on August 1st, so we're getting closer. But probably we can save our football Friday, even if it is a soft football Friday, for another couple weeks.

We can do that. I won't blast you with Fridays that are all about football just yet. But football's still king. Don't ever forget that. You know who used to be the king? That was Tiger Woods. I don't know that anyone still harbors this idea that he'll return to the form or be able to compete at the highest level any longer. And I know he still has great confidence in himself.

Of course he does. The issue with him is not that he's forgotten how to play or doesn't have the same mental toughness and focus that he used to make mincemeat of the rest of the PGA fields. No, the issue with him is he just doesn't play enough golf. I heard a semi-pro tell me one time the difference between professional golfers and the rest of us, now there is some athleticism involved, but the difference between the best of the best and just your normal everyday American who gets out and golfs on the weekends or once a couple of times a month maybe, is that these guys practice a lot.

It's not just getting out and playing golf, it's actually practicing and working on their craft. And the issue with Tiger Woods now, he's said this before, he's trying to balance his physical limitations and his physical abilities with the need to practice. Meaning his body limits him. He just can't go out there and play and work out as much as he used to. He can't go out there and practice as much as he wants to because his body will revolt essentially. Now he's going to balance, taking care of his body, taking time off, not pushing his feet, his legs, his back too much, but he can't ever get back to the level of consistency that he wants to, if he can't get out there and play more golf than he is right now. And I understand we all want to see him in the majors, maybe there's still hope that in 2024, although his opportunities are dwindling now, but in 2025 we might recapture, he might recapture, we might be dazzled again by the Tiger Woods that won the Masters in 2019.

Maybe, it's still possible, but I don't think it is. Mostly because of his physical limitations. He just can't play and prepare the way that he used to. And when it comes to older athletes, yes, your mind, your wisdom, your experience, all that gives you an edge. But he's just not consistent because that muscle memory is not constantly being used. That touch, that feel, that rhythm, the skill is still there, the ability to hit the golf ball is still there, but just like the rest of the populace, if you don't do it over and over and over and over again, if you don't practice it, if you don't play constantly, well, you're not going to have that same margin for error. You're not going to have that same rhythm that allows you to play four consecutive days of brilliant golf and beat really competitive fields. And Tiger makes no bones about the fact that he really didn't do a whole lot right in the opening round of the Open Championship.

Took place on Thursday. It's a deeper field than it's ever been. More golfers than have ever competed in an Open Championship. And he's at plus eight. After the first round, sitting at plus eight, he's tied for 138th, a full 14 strokes behind the leader. Now he's got company. Roy McElroy is right there with him. So we had talked about this because, in fact, they've already teed off in the second round, because the conditions were so windy and so rainy, just the mess at Royal Troon in Scotland, the way that they had to deal with the conditions.

Well, yeah, we knew it was going to be tough. But in this particular case, there are some pretty big names that are not going to play through the weekend. For Tiger and for Rory, who always get the most attention and who really do move the needle, so to speak, it would take a Herculean effort or maybe a miracle of some sort for them to get through to the weekend. Rory is sitting plus seven. Tiger is sitting plus eight. Actually, surprisingly, Phil Mickelson, right now anyway, is not even in danger of missing the cut. He's sitting at plus two and he actually tees off next hour. So we might be able to see him because the coverage begins midway point of our show on USA. Let's see what time Tiger tees off.

Plus eight, plus eight. Scroll down. Yeah, Tiger tees off at 1.25 Pacific Time, 4.25 Eastern Time. So he will be out there on the course during our window. But yeah, for Tiger, this was a frustrating day. Colton, a frustrating day really from start to finish.

I think he's right today. Can you start it over please? I didn't do a whole lot of things right today. I made that putt on the third hole and then I think I had three putts today. I didn't hit my irons very close. I didn't give myself a whole lot of looks today.

I need to shoot something in the mid-60s tomorrow to get something going on the weekend. Hmm, well that's a tall order. Not that he isn't still capable of one brilliant round. Two birdies, six bogeys, one double bogey. And you can hear it in his voice.

He's not alone though, as I say. Rory McIlroy with a lot of hope. Some familiarity with Lynx golf. Actually performed really well in the Scottish Open a week ago. He admits it was rough out there.

Difficult day. Yeah, I felt like I did okay for the first part of the round and then missed the green at the postage dump there and left it in and made a double. But still felt like I was in reasonable enough shape being a couple over through nine. And through nine actually he had a birdie, a bogey, and then the double bogey, but on the back not able to pick up any momentum. Actually started 10-11 with bogey, double bogey again and a couple more bogeys before he was done.

Plus seven for Rory, plus eight for Tiger, and yet he says this isn't about his physical condition or how he's feeling physically. Yeah, I'm physically feeling a lot better than I did at the beginning of the year. I feel at the end of last year it was tough and then I haven't played a whole lot. And I think that as the year has gone on I have gotten better. I just wish I could have played a little bit more. But I've been saving it for the majors just in case I do something pre-major and then take myself out of it.

So hopefully next year I'll be a little bit better than this year. And see that's the crux, that's the issue, is that he doesn't even want to play in tournaments leading up to majors when guys are tuning up. I mean that's the whole point of the Scottish Open.

So you get used to the link style again, have a chance to practice and go through a link style tournament before you get to the Open Championship. But he doesn't even want to get out there and play any tune-ups because there's fear of an injury. Or that he might tax his physical body too much and be unable then to continue with the majors. I mean that's a tough way to try to win big time golf tournaments and even compete or make cuts in majors. You're fearful of playing the week before because you think it actually might take you out of contention or force you to withdraw. Again because you're worried about the physical pain.

That kind of stinks. Of course we want to see him in majors but I think I would rather see him play through the weekend. I'd rather see him make cuts even if it's lesser tournaments and not majors. And we know golf isn't a tough spot, it really is. It's not just about Tiger Woods not being a fixture anymore. It's about the fact that world number one, Scottie Scheffler, now this is pre-arrest in Louisville. But we know that he isn't recognizable as much by face, doesn't have a ton of charisma, much more laid back and calm.

You don't see the fire as much though I'm sure it's in there somewhere. So he's your number one player in the world and if he walked by you on the street you might not even know it. Not his fault, great golfer, that's his job. Well and now he's husband and dad as well. The only other guy right now that seemingly brings people to their TVs to watch golf or gets people excited about golf is Rory McIlroy.

And so that's a problem. I was really hoping for him too that after the collapse at the U.S. Open that this would be his redemption story. I really was hoping that. At the very least that he would be in contention. But yeah it'll take quite a brilliant round from both he and Tiger for them to be on the course and staying at Royal Troon through the weekend. And you can blame the conditions of course, well not blame them, you can point to the conditions of course but certainly that's what every golfer is dealing with. I was actually surprised how difficult I felt like the back nine played.

I thought we were going to get it a little bit easier than we did. But yeah the course was playing tough, the conditions are very difficult in a win that we haven't seen so far this week. You play your practice rounds, you have a strategy that you think is going to help you get around the golf course. But then when you get a win that you haven't played in it starts to present different options and you start to think about maybe hitting a few clubs that you haven't hit in practice.

Yeah just one of those days where I just didn't adapt well enough to the conditions. Well again everybody playing in those same conditions, names that you may know at the top of the leaderboard, Justin Thomas, he's sitting at minus three, three strokes back of Daniel Brown and Shane Lowry who's at minus six and minus five respectively. Xander Schauffele, he's at minus two so he's in red numbers. Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler are both minus one. I mean currently they are five strokes back but as soon as we get the coverage, so about 90 minutes away from getting the coverage on TV.

Right now it's actually on Peacock but when we get the coverage on TV I'll be able to see the conditions and see if they resemble what we saw on Thursday. Jordan Spieth is sitting at even. Tony Finau is at even.

There's already guys out there golfing now. Jon Rahm, he's at plus two and doesn't golf until much later in the day and that's Phil Mickelson as well. Phil Mickelson, Colin Morikawa who's part of the US Olympic team, he's also at plus two. Keegan Bradley, he's at plus three. Right now the projected cut is plus three. I'll say this, it could make for a really exciting Sunday, Saturday and Sunday if this many golfers are grouped together all in a big old glut.

Not a gut, that's something different. A big glut of golfers. Okay, well we turned off one computer. No idea if the others are going to be able to recycle through, fix themselves, troubleshoot themselves. But if not, well, we'll forage our way through.

A few technical difficulties can't stop us. Right, Colton? Right?

And they could. No, no, right? Right! Woo! Go team! It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well.

Hire high quality certified pros at angie.com. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half painted living room is supposed to look that way?

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Download Thumbtack and start a project today. The Meat Eater Outdoor Cookbook is the ultimate guide to open air cooking. Whether you've hunted the ingredients yourself or foraged them from the supermarket. Because food just tastes better when it's caught, cooked, and eaten outside.

The Meat Eater Outdoor Cookbook by Steven Rinella is available now. Good thing I can talk. We're kind of stripped down bare a little bit just because we don't have access to a lot of what we typically use here on the show. It's a system called Burley. If you've never heard of it, it's okay. None of us ever had either.

By the time we got here, when the network started in 2013, we all had to learn it from scratch. And I've never seen it in any other radio station outside of our own company, any other radio network that I've worked at. So we don't have access to our audio files. The type of audio that we would play on the air for you.

In some cases, the type of production. So in some of the other studios and out in our newsroom, we don't have any access to that audio program. So unfortunately, I'm kind of limited in what I can do in preparing for the show.

I can't listen to a whole lot. In fact, the computer won't even boot up again. It's still just cycling through. Dreaded blue screen cycles back to the screen that you see when it restarts, and then it goes right back to a blue screen. And so I've seen it do this now about 15, 16 times.

Just keeps going through that cycle. Blue screen, your computer needs to restart. It does it. It boots up to where you see the Dell logo. And then you see, initially, whatever the screensaver is, where you can log in. But before it can actually finish loading that login page, which is where we would access our files. Gosh, I opened up my social media. I opened up my email.

And now I have no idea whether or not I'm going to be able to close those out before I leave the building. But yeah, it just keeps going through that same cycle. Blue screen tries to load after restarting and then back to a blue screen. So thankfully, Colton was able to get some audio and some editing done before all of this happened. But yeah, we're seeing the same blue screen on a bunch of computers in the newsroom and even here in studio.

We have a couple of big desktops and they're both sporting the blue screen. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We can still talk about football. We can still talk about, ooh, the second, well, it's kind of the second half of the baseball season. But what might happen come trade deadline, which is just a couple of weeks away.

Actually, not even. It's about a week and a half. Well, a week and a half, a week and a half. Let's see. I know I told you August 1st was two weeks from Friday, right?

No, I'm sorry. Two weeks from Thursday. August 1st was two weeks from Thursday, from today. So yeah, we are about a week and a half away from baseball's trade deadline, which is pretty incredible. So we should, could see a flurry of activity as teams try to position themselves. Also, we hear that the U.S. men's soccer team, the U.S. Soccer Federation, is negotiating with a potential new head coach.

We've also got the Open Championship, the golf, underway in round two at Royal Troon in Scotland. And did you hear the breaking news from the NBA? Just when you thought the NBA was quiet and we wouldn't have a whole lot taking place over the next few weeks, maybe a couple months, the dog days of summer.

Oh, think again. We've got breaking news out of the NBA where the Clippers are trading Russell Westbrook, a second round pick swap, and cash to the Utah Jazz. That has been confirmed by our Bill Rider. In return, L.A. rules Steve Chris Dunn as part of a sign and trade. ESPN reports that Utah is expected to buy out Westbrook, paving the way for the future Hall of Famer to sign with the Denver Nuggets. Westbrook, a former MVP and member of the league's 75th anniversary team, will be joining his fourth team in the past five seasons. Last year, he averaged just over 11 points, five rebounds, and four and a half assists attempts per game with the Clippers. That's from CBS Sports HQ. I don't know who she was, so I apologize, but whoever the anchor was with the breaking news from CBS Sports HQ. All right, so Russell Westbrook used to be an MVP.

Russell Westbrook, one season, his MVP season averaged a triple-double. Remember that? Gosh, that feels like forever ago. And yes, he is on the move again. He's been a bit of a nomad, a player without a team, a man without a country.

There's no way to rewrite history. It's not possible, obviously, but I wonder if he could have a do-over, would he just stay in Oklahoma City? I don't know if that would change anything about the trajectory of his career in terms of competing for a championship, but he last played for the Thunder in 18-19, so pre-COVID. Then he ends up with Houston. Remember that whole trade that sent Chris Paul to OKC, right, and sent him to Houston. From there, he goes to the Wizards, then two seasons with the Lakers. Oh gosh, I should say a season and a half with the Lakers. Flips over to the Clippers midway through last season. Does start and play in 21 games, but then this past year with the Clippers, while he was a participant in nearly every game, he only started 11, and his minutes were down to just over 22 per game. We talk about a journey, and now here he is headed to likely the Denver Nuggets.

And did you hear who was stumping for him? Nikola Jokic wanted Russell Westbrook on his team. We'll hear from the Nuggets GM, maybe knew this was in the works going back to the beginning of the week, because he was on Altitude TV talking about what the Nuggets need moving forward. I mean Westbrook started last year as point guard one, if you will, QB one for the Clippers. But once they traded for James Harden, oh there's that guy again.

Then he was moved into a sixth man role. And it worked for the Clippers, right? They went on this crazy stretch.

Best of the entire season. They surged to the top of the Western Conference. But his personal numbers suffered. His personal playing time suffered. Chris Paul was just talking about how he opted to go to San Antonio so he could play. Not that he's given up necessarily on pursuing a championship, but when he had to weigh championship versus playing time. Ride the bench for a championship team, maybe come off the bench for a championship team. Like the Warriors wanted him to do versus going to a place like San Antonio where he'd be playing all the time. I'm not sure Westbrook has that option where he can pick and choose yet. But he can still get up and down the court. He can still play great defense.

In case you hadn't noticed, in a league where defense is not always at a premium, or is often at a premium, not always has a premium placed on it. Maybe this is a fresh start for Westbrook and maybe he gives the Nuggets some of the tenacity that they need. I had a fun opportunity to do a podcast on Thursday called Lockdown Warriors with my friend Charlie Walter. I'll have to tell you about it. Some of what we got to talk about. I actually dropped a new nickname for Draymond Green on him and he loved it. I wish I could say that I'd been thinking about it for months.

It just kind of came to me in the podcast, but I'm pretty impressed with myself. On Twix, A-Law Radio, for now that's working. Colton's freaking out a little bit that he did not sign up for this. Computers are down.

Software's not working. We have no idea what's happening with the technology. We don't even know if we're on the air. How about you do me a favor? As we head through this edition of the show, find me on social media. Where are you and how are you listening? That's all, just to know that we're on the air. To recognize if we are or are not actually broadcasting around North America, or if you're listening on a computer, or you're listening on a phone, or another device.

Maybe it's satellite. Yeah, yeah. Need to hear from you. So where are you and how are you listening? Easy question for this edition of After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I don't know about that. He's called engineering again.

I'm telling you, I'm losing my mom. Colton is a little stressed, and also he doesn't sleep, which kind of exacerbates the anxiety because Colton has another job where he's painting, right? Painting things, painting houses, painting porches, painting something. What do you paint in your spare time? I paint anything. I paint houses. I paint interiors of houses. I paint everything. So Colton is busy painting when he's not here, which means that he's not sleeping. I asked him on Thursday morning if he was going to get some sleep, and he said, I'm going to take a two hour nap and then go paint again.

So I daresay painting pays more money than radio though, so there's that. So I appreciate Colton, but yeah, it's frustrating back there because he's got black computer screens and can't tell whether or not the commercial breaks are firing. Did you wait the 30 seconds to see if they were? And they were not, is what you tell me. It was dead air. So that's when I punched your thing up, and that's where we're at. That is the dreaded blue screen of radio. Dead air, he says. Now I have no idea whether or not we've got our affiliates and they're, well, a lot of our affiliates are automated, which means that now they're all messed up because they're supposed to be playing breaks right now, but I'm talking. So you may end up hearing some weird stuff. Maybe you're hearing me talking and a commercial at the same time. Maybe you're hearing nothing but dead air and that would mean that we haven't actually gotten the green light from the computer automation system to do programming again. It's all very convoluted and it's probably a variety of ways and mechanisms around the country that may be screwing up with, screwing your radio show up or screwing up what you're listening to. So we are having all kinds of technical issues with the computers. We need to know if we're even on the air, where are you and how are you listening? I just put that up on Twix, A-Law Radio.

Josh says he's listening in the car. It seems like a doomsday thing. Oh, it might be. It might be Y2K finally coming back to roost. Let's see.

A few other tweets though. I'm hearing you on my phone. WNKT FM 107, Aiken, South Carolina. I like it. Jonathan, I'm listening to your show in Vancouver on Sportsnet 650. Another one, Robert, Kayla McBride's home, Erie, Pennsylvania.

Listening on the free Odyssey app. Oh, that's what I like to hear. That's what our bosses like to hear.

Let's see, another one from Bebop. I bet that's not his given name. You're on the air in Birmingham, Alabama. Milton says in Atlanta, yes, we hear you. Mark, also listening in Birmingham on 94.5.

I think it's the jock or jocks. And then Jay says Miami, Florida, WQAM 560 Sports Radio HD FM. We hear you loud and clear. Gustavo listening from San Francisco, KNBR. Love our blowtorch in the Bay Area. But then Josh says I had to turn off Cleveland radio because it went to static.

All right. And also, Colton, you told me we got a call from Pittsburgh. Yeah, I had one of the guys running, I guess, the overnight there in Pittsburgh having to melt down just like I am. So I don't know if it's a Steeler fan thing of, you know, Pittsburgh people, but we're both having meltdowns tonight.

It's an AFC North deal. Oh, that's right. You mean you don't know how to handle pressure and anxiety? I mean, when you're on this low sleep and everything, you know, it just comes crashing down. I'm not really quite sure what to do with it.

All right. Breathing. Breathing would be the first step.

Breathing. And don't just start pressing a bunch of buttons because that won't help. Why?

It'd be fun. You turn off the computer, might as well see what happens here. Did you turn it off and turn it back on? I've exited this thing multiple times. I called the engineer and he told me, just in case you're wondering, everything's out.

I'm like, OK, no kidding. I know everything's out. I don't think I'm going to tell you. Is he on his way into the building? Yeah, I believe he is. The way he talked, it sounded like he was here.

He goes, I'm going to stop by. But I'm like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, I don't know what's going on here.

Great. So we've got black screens. We've got blue screens. We've got all manner of crazy. Maybe it's the gremlins.

It might be the gremlins that are into our computer system. It might be something along those lines. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Yes, please find us on Twix, ALaw Radio. You can also use our show account at Amy After Hours.

And then on our Facebook page, too, I'll put up a post there in a minute. But I did promise you, even as we're talking about Russell Westbrook, landing in Denver after a series of moves, and whether or not you kept up with all the dominoes that have to drop, Westbrook, Russ, as we call him affectionately, is expected to join the Nuggets once Utah waves him and buys out the remainder of his contract. Alright, so there's a bunch of moving pieces. But I think it's pretty impressive that Nikola Jokic was stumping for Russell Westbrook and believes in him. Now Calvin Booth, he's the general manager of the Nuggets.

He did a hit on Altitude TV on Tuesday. Maybe already knew this deal for a guard was in the works. Yeah, I think we need some help on the backboard.

We want to try to continue to identify that and survey the market. So we have a roster spot luck, and I think if we could add a high-level guard, we'll be happy with that. Adding a high-level guard and we'll be happy with that. Well, he was a starter for the Clippers as recently as the beginning of last season. He had a great year defensively.

The stats, the metrics actually bear that out. He's still intense. He's still got a tip on his shoulder. He's obviously in great shape. You may not believe in his offensive abilities.

Maybe you never did, even the year that he averaged a triple-double and was an MVP. But you know what? The Nuggets don't need him to score. That's not their primary issue. They definitely need a driver. They definitely need another viable option in the backcourt. And I like the aggressiveness of Russell Westbrook. So that is likely to happen.

It's a little odd. Feels a little bit like Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks. But there's still many months to go. Many moons until we get to the NBA season again. Thank goodness, because I feel like the postseason lasted for two years.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I was invited by a colleague in the business to be a guest on his Daily Warriors podcast. Now you all know how much I really have enjoyed the Warriors run.

I've said this multiple times on the show before. They reminded me why I fell in love with basketball in the first place. Their style of play. Spread it out. Go all gas, no brakes. And that's been an issue for them, right? Because they're supposed to go all gas, no brakes, but under control. But you know turnovers is their achilles heel for sure. But playing the small ball, spreading guys out, firing the passes around, in some cases having all five players touch the ball before they find the open man. But really their style of play, pushing the tempo, fast breaking, keeping the defense off balance. But their success, even as you could point to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, well Kevin Durant. Their success is largely predicated on the ability to pass the ball, to swing it around quickly. And so for those Warriors to go to five straight NBA Finals to win four rings in six years, four rings, wait four rings in eight years, four rings in eight years.

Yeah. It was because of the system that Steve Kerr instituted and the personnel that he had who not only bought in but could execute it. It was fun. It was entertaining. Yes, Steph dazzled.

Yes, Klay could shoot the lights out. But honestly, the run and gun, the chuck and duck, under control enough so that they didn't cough up the basketball. That's what I loved. That's what was fun. And so when Charlie Walter asked me to be a guest on his Lockdown Warriors podcast daily, I can't imagine doing a daily podcast about the same team, same team every day, even in the offseason.

I can imagine you got to dig down deep and get creative. So when he let me know some of the topics ahead of time, I was a little bit nervous because I heard he was, I saw that he was going to ask me, who can be the next cornerstone of the franchise? Who's the guy they're going to bring in or they should pursue to take the mantle from Steph? Because Steph is 38 years old. 38? Is he 38? No, not 38 yet. He will be 38 by the time this contract is done. Let me look real quick. Steph is 36.

Yes. Busy with Team USA right now. Will be 38 when his current contract is done. Draymond Green is in his mid thirties. They've got a few other guys that are young in their early twenties, early in their careers that I think they need to wait and see how they develop. Maybe another year, two more years just to see if they fit the system and if they're worth the free agent contracts and the paydays. Now the Warriors have gotten underneath that luxury tax threshold.

They're in a great place financially, but a lot of the pieces around them have changed. Can they be competitive the way they are? Well, it still revolves around Steph and Dray and Steve Kerr. But the younger guys, can they pick up the ball, so to speak?

Can they carry the torch? So I got to answer, who could be the next cornerstone? Who might the Warriors pursue next year, the year after, the year after that? So that they can have a cornerstone in place once Steph rides off into the sunset.

So that was one fun question I had to answer and I got pretty creative. Hint hint, he's already a budding star guard in the league. So no guarantees that they could pry him away from his current team, but at some point he'll be a free agent. So I'm not going to tell you how I answered that question. But we were also talking about Klay Thompson's departure to Dallas, Draymond Green and his role in the team and whether or not I could ever see him in another uniform.

I'll just give you a hint. When I was talking about Dray, not only did I say that he is the athlete that I would most like to host a radio show with. Oh, look, there's music. Well, that's good news. That means something's working, right, Colton? But I also explained to Charlie on his Locked on Warriors podcast, which you'll need to get, why I view Draymond Green as a godfather of sorts. Oh, see, he'd never heard that before. He was impressed. I mean, sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Well, we got a minute. I'm going to buy that truck I've been wanting. Wait, don't you need, like, weeks to shop for a car? I don't. Carvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want.

Hold up. You're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? You can shop wherever you want. I like to do my research. Read reviews, compare models. Plus, Carvana has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? Because I like it. Oh, that is a great reason.

Visit Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. Here's why April chose to vaccinate her child. I think actually meeting someone who was not vaccinated and now has a lifelong struggle with a childhood disease really cemented for me that it's super important that we as parents continue to vaccinate our children. Talk to your pediatrician or visit WhyVaccines.com.

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