Evaluating off-season ACC Basketball with Luke DeCock

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. Don't play video games on your phone on the drive. I'll try. You go up 29?

Yeah, I actually usually do. That's a pleasant road. Yeah.

Pleasant road. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm going to end up watching kind of a rerun of the US Open tonight. All right. Because, you know, coverage is on all day and Golf Channel will have coverage tonight, so I will probably be watching that around 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock after I'm done with all of my chores up at the farm. All right. We always allow you to decide what we talk about at 1 o'clock.

919-860-5326, if you want to chime in. The choices were, first, Warriors dynasty. Second, is Steph a top 10 all-time player? Third, Stanley Cup Finals game two.

Is it a must-win? And the US Open round two. And right now I can tell you that in the clubhouse, Scottie Scheffler and Nick Hardy are both at three under par. I don't know who Nick Hardy is.

Scheffler, I do know. He won the Masters this year. Brooks Koepka had a good round. There's a bunch of players at three, a bunch of players at two, and Rory McIlroy, who was one of those players at three under par, tees off in about 20 minutes. The number one choice is Steph Curry as a top 10 player.

So, to me, this is not controversial. And it is competitive when you are talking about the absolute upper crust of the greatest players that ever lived. Now, we just celebrated the NBA's 75th season this year. So, they did an all-time NBA team.

Steph Curry is obviously on it. Top 75 players, basically, right? Yeah.

Actually, I think they went to 76. I'm not sure. Because why not? Yeah. ESPN ranked those players and they ranked Steph's 16th. And I'm not even going to argue, even though I have him much higher than that, but because there are so many ridiculously great players. And it's not just basketball. I mean, you could do that for any sport. I mean, try to put together an all-time starting nine for baseball. Go ahead.

Knock yourself out. Is Ruth on it? Is Aaron on it? Is Mays on it? Is Clemente on it? It's just, it's nuts.

Like, how you narrow it down. Mickey Mantle. I mean, there's so many amazing players that it's really hard.

How did we forget Barry Bonds? Yeah. You can't even, you can't even narrow it down. So, in the NBA, it's the same way. But I think Steph Curry is inside the top 10, and it would probably annoy people if I told you that your favorite player, who might not be LeBron or Michael or Magic, if your favorite player wasn't in the top 10.

But it's mine. My list may not be your list. But Steph Curry, I have seventh all-time. I think there are certain things. First, did he change the game?

Yes. Steph Curry, in the middle of last decade, changed NBA basketball forever. We have players today, we've always had three-point shooters.

We've always had that. You know, you go back to the 80s, and we had three-point shooters there. And then we, you know, Reggie Miller and Ray Allen, and we've always had three-point shooters. But what we have now are three-point shooters that don't need to be anywhere near the line. And Curry was the pioneer of that. And now we've got Damian Lillard or Trey Young. You know, these guys who do not need to be close to the three-point line to be in range. Lillard shoots from the bench.

Yeah, he does. And Curry, I mean, we saw it in this series. Curry pulled up, and I mentioned this the other day in game four, rather in game five, in which Boston really defended him well. Curry was frustrated and was so looking to shoot before the defense got there that he actually, not in transition, but just coming up the court.

It wasn't a transition opportunity. He decided to shoot before the defense would pick him up. He was essentially on the logo, and it's in San Francisco at the Chase Center, the Warriors' new home. The logo is not big, but he was shooting from the logo. It was like a 40-footer.

It's crazy. And, I mean, did that a couple of times, and then your shot went. But he's got that kind of range, and he changed the game, but it's not just that. Curry is an elite finisher around the basket. Is he a dunker?

No. But did you watch? If you watched the series, you saw Steph knows and understands the angles and how to get shots off around bigger players. Just an incredible player. And while he's not an elite defender, he's an elite leader and an incredibly clutch player and great teammate and all of that. Simply one of the best handful of players we've ever seen in the league. So I've got him ahead of Kobe. I have him ahead of Durant. And that was the conversation this year. We're not talking about just individual skills.

That has to translate to something. And I think Curry's individual skills have translated to winning as well as anybody's really ever. Does he have as many titles as Russell or Michael or Kobe?

No. But Curry's been just absolutely amazing, and we've been talking about this for a couple of weeks. I think his where we think back on those two Warriors teams that won the title with Kevin Durant as the finals MVP.

And I mean, that's just numbers. Durant was a big, you know, their big score and a great player, not knocking Durant and not saying he's a one trick pony. But those were those were still Steph Curry's teams. They just weren't. They were they were Curry's teams. To me, he is the reason that the Warriors have four titles.

Other other things to get to. Let's let's leave the the Warriors talk out for a second. Let's talk very quickly and we're going to get into this with Luke to talk in a few minutes. Stanley Cup finals game two tomorrow. The the lightning fell in overtime in Colorado.

And it was a joke, really. But is it a must win? Dennis, do you think it's a must win for somebody for Colorado and all honesty for Colorado? Because the last thing you want to do is go even into Tampa Bay because, you know, quote unquote, Tampa would have home ice advantage over the next five games. Tampa is a different team on their ice.

Absolutely. I think if if Tampa wins tonight, don't be shocked if they take a three one series lead. I won't be shocked. And I think they would take a three one series.

It'll be interesting what what happens when we get to place your bets at 145. Oh, if if we support the Colorado Avalanche in this game to me, Colorado, in terms of skaters, they have the better team. We'll see if Tampa plays a little bit better. Braden Point plays a little bit better in game two point seemed a little anxious, a little antsy to me in game one.

But I just at some point, Andrei Vasilevsky imposes his will in the series. And that's what I think will likely happen when they get back to Tampa. So this would be a big deal for the Colorado Avalanche to get this to get this win. Adam Gold in studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuder with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement. Coach, let's say I have more than a million dollar balance in my 401k. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. How can that actually come back and bite me? Well, because and this is the thing that we it's a mirage. We see mirages.

I've written in the desert before. You see what's water ahead, but it's not there. Well, your financial mirage is thinking that that total balance in your 401k or your IRA is yours. We have two people that want to get a hold of it. Two uncles.

Uncle North Carolina and Uncle Sam. Both of them are going to do some damage to that balance. Depending on what kind of other income you have, you could lose 40% of your value. So if you're looking at a million dollar IRA, maybe it's only worth $600,000 to you. So how do we get around this? Well, you don't get around it because you end up in jail if you try to do that. But you can do tax planning to minimize the effect of taxation into the future. The tax train is coming, Adam. We need to make sure to minimize the effect of the derailment of our financial accounts. And for the next 10 people, we'll do it at no cost or obligation.

Put together your very own tax and retirement plan. 800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for coach Pete DeRuta. Alright, I have one item before we place our bets. You know who announced their retirement yesterday? Sue Bird.

Really? At the end of this WNBA season, she is done. I'm not sure there is anybody with a better resume than Sue Bird. Four-time WNBA champion, 12-time All-Star, first-time All-First team, five-time Russian league champion, five-time Euro league champion, two-time NCAA champion, five-time Olympic gold medalist, four-time world champ. Yeah, but is she top 10?

Yes. Actually, in retrospect, I'm putting her on and kicking Wilt off. Oh, okay. Take that, Wilt.

And Sue Bird is number 10 all-time. Alright. Alright, let's place bets. How'd you do yesterday? I won one of my two bets.

Or three bets. So you only lost... I lost 80. You lost 80. That's not bad.

I lost 80. Now, I was very disappointed because I had Steph Curry hitting at least three three-pointers in the first half. Did he hit two? He hit two. He went two of three. And that hit still had like six minutes left in the second quarter. I'm like, oh, we're getting a third one.

Of course, they're going to go on this run. Never got it. And then of course in the final minute 15, they took him out because he kind of got clipped up around his eye or something, I think.

So he came out for a little bit and never went back in. Harsh. I picked up one win, the Al Horford, 15 or more points.

And, because I had the Warriors at plus money. Yes! Oh, that's right. That's right.

It's a kid on you, sir. Alright, you go. You go first. Alright, I'm going to take Colorado this weekend. The Colorado Mammoth National Lacrosse League Championship Game. Colorado Mammoth versus the Buffalo Bandits. Give me the Mammoth at plus 140. I have no idea who that is, but the Mammoth, that's a very underused animal nickname. The Mammoth. Yeah.

It's extinct. Exactly. Alright, I'm going to do a prop on tonight's hockey game. Oh, very nice. I love a good prop.

Alright, I love props. Darcy Kemper and Andrei Vasilevski each to allow at least two and a half goals. Okay. At plus 230. So a high scoring game. So yeah, maybe similar to what we saw in game one.

So at plus 230 each to allow at least two and a half goals. Okay. I'll go with it. Alright, let's go to UFC Fight Night this weekend. Of course you do. You always do a fight. I still don't know if you won any of these because I'm not paying attention. I actually have won them. I actually have won several of them previously.

I'm sure you have. Alright, UFC Fight Night. Donald Cerrone, it's a lightweight matchup. Donald Cerrone versus Joe Luzon. Joe Luzon has actually been out of the UFC since I think, actually I don't think it's his, I think it's his first fight since late 2019.

Right. So he's been out of action for a while. Though Cerrone's on a little bit of a losing streak himself. I like Cerrone. He's the favorite but I have him winning by KO TKO or disqualification at plus 165. Give me Cowboy Cerrone.

Love all of that. You know, I think it was earlier this week. I got the the lightning at plus money at plus 160. Yeah, now it's a plus 210. Give it to me again. Oh, I was thinking I was thinking about taking that but I might I might jump on it if they lose game two. After game two, I'll jump on it again. There you go.

Just continue to ride that. All right, I have PLL action going on this weekend. All right. Okay, of course you do.

Yeah, absolutely I do. So I have two games are going to take on the money line. I'm going to parlay them together. All right, Atlas play the whip snakes tomorrow at 845. Atlas looks like the best team in the league and the archers play the cannons on Sunday at 1 o'clock.

Cannon still might be without the best player in the league and Lyle Thompson. So give me the archers winning on the money line and also the Atlas over the whip snakes on the money line. Those two wins parlayed together plus 144 Atlas whip snakes going to be a great match. That honestly will be a great game.

No question about it. All right, I'm going to take the Chicago Wolves tonight. I think it's tonight.

I don't know. See whenever the you're going minor league. Hey HL, that's the Calder Cup. I know you're going minor league hockey. I pick lacrosse.

You're going to go minor league hockey. Give me the Chicago Wolves. That's the Carolina Hurricanes top minor league affiliate minus a goal and a half against the Springfield whatever the Springfield's are. So the wolves minus.

Yeah, maybe the wolves minus a goal and a half tonight at plus 120. There you go. Luke to cock is going to join us when we come back from the news and observer next June 19, 2006, but it all started May 6, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition of heartbreak of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner. Look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina. Listen. Now find James 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast.

We're we're into the second wave. The afternoon wave of players is out on the course. Rory McIlroy saved par. Well, you can save par. I mean, he made par on one. He drove it into the left rough. Still gave himself a pretty good look at birdie didn't make it but ultimately made par and he is at three under par. He is two shots behind somebody named Taron is an Englishman playing on the corn fairy tour who is at five under par today. Not for the day, but he's five under he was 300 yesterday. So he is two under today. Rory McIlroy is he just hit the second green a long par three hit the green in regulation. So we'll see if Rory can roll in about a 25 footer for birdie or if he makes par and whatnot scoring looks like it's pretty similar to yesterday. Luke to cock up the news and Observer joins us on the Adam Gold Show as he does every Friday. Do you think that you and I can talk about the US Open without mentioning that other thing? The the the Gulf Emirates thing. Yes, I've tried to make it especially last couple of days a blank free zone because I like I needed a break forget about whether the listeners needed a break.

I needed a break from having it just consume my every thought. So what are your thoughts so far on the US Open through around and a half? I'm thrilled for MJ the few I'm sure I'm pronouncing his name wrong. I was joking with another writer that it's actually Duffy. Is it Duffy? Yeah, I don't know how they get Duffy out of that. But yeah, it's South African.

You got different names for the wine and everything. Yeah, no, I you know, it's just I love seeing these guys who have have grinded and work their way up have pushed. I had the same sort of conversation with with Ryan Blom who lives in Raleigh now played at Duke at the at the Rex, you know, a guy who worked his way up on the mini tours got his tour card got hurt lost it and is now trying to play his way back onto the onto the tour. I love those stories. I love seeing those guys succeed and was talking with another writer about it. You know, I if you could get if you could get Duffy across the cut line, that would be great for my DraftKings team this week.

And okay, and he replied like oh my god, I wrote this big story about him two years ago and it's just it's just a it's just a great story and he's had a terrific year on the corn fairy tour love seeing him play this well. And you know, my brother's in a big cut Survivor pool. We need Shane Lowry to pick it up driving on his behalf. Okay, we'll be rooting for Shane Lowry who wore a white shirt with the Celtics logo on the back yesterday, which didn't help him or the Celtics by the way. I think it was I think it was just a shamrock the man's Irish.

Well, yes. No, it was a Celtics logo. I think I think really I thought it said Celtics in the back. They could he I think he just maybe it did.

I don't know. Maybe you thought it meant like, you know, the Scottish soccer team. Celtic Celtic gets right the Duffy by the way finished one under par. So he is going to make the cut. My guess is that the cuts can end up being for might even be five over depending on what the weather does and the wind does in the F in the afternoon. Harold Harold Varner the third has some work to do.

He does have some work to do. Who was your pick going into the week? Don't be afraid to tell me that your pick was this guy dead tar and or whatever his name is. No, I was on the record Wednesday with Sam Burns and a good round 300 par 67 today. Scotty Scheffler with the 300 par 67 today. Yeah burns is he's been in, you know, I got to see one a couple times this year, but he he feels like the kind of guy who's ready to win his first major. He's put himself in a good position the first two days.

Yeah, no, I was I was I was on the record on this one. I feel pretty good about it. I don't know if he's going to win or not, but I feel like it was kind of just sort of felt like Sam Burns time to me. All right, so I've talked a lot about the Warriors and Steph Curry today.

Just your thoughts on let's stay in the present before we kind of expand it. What are your thoughts on this series and what Golden State was able to do to Boston? It's funny, you know, I was I was in your in your building on Monday co-hosting with yes, you were with with Joe and we talked about this because at that point it was very much anyone series, you know very much up in the air and I said look, I think I think the Warriors are going to win and you know why because to me they're the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NBA. They just they know how to win. I think the Celtics are probably more talented. I think they've played better at times.

I think they're probably other thing than Steph and maybe clay more explosive. But once that series got to where it was then I just felt like the Warriors know how to get two more wins from here and they're going to do it and they and they did so so to me that there's a straight line from from Tampa to Oakland. I guess San Francisco now with teams that have championship pedigree that have been through the wars that have star talent that knows how to rise to the occasion whether it's Steph Curry or Andre Vasilevski or Nikita Kucharov or clay Thompson or whoever maybe maybe not dream into this postseason and and know how to win in the toughest moment. They know how to win clinching game.

They know how to win potential elimination game. I just feel like there's a through line between those two teams that that is it's hard to replicate unless you unless you've done it unless you've won it and when you've done it a couple times. I don't know that it becomes any easier, but there are situations that probably become easier and I think the Celtics sort of found themselves in one of those and didn't quite know how to handle it the way the Warriors did. To me the Celtics were mean it's funny that you draw the comparison because in now that I think about it.

I think Colorado has the better team than Tampa. And I think that Boston had the better team than Golden State, but there was an intangible about the Warriors and there's no goalie in basketball and they don't really have shop locking but matter of fact Boston has better shop locking than then then Golden State did but there's an intangible about basketball and knowing how to do it that it is similar between Golden State and Tampa and we'll get to the lightning in a second. But the interesting thing to me was that Klay Thompson wasn't really all that good last night Draymond Green saved his best for last he was outstanding, you know after Wiggins. He was probably Golden State's third best player, you know, yeah, I did even mention Wiggins who's you know, finally the player that everyone thought he was going to be coming out of out of high school. But you know, the funny thing about Wiggins is he's not even that player because I look at Andrew Wiggins like he was by default Golden State second best player. He was simply consistently good because Kurt not not correct Klay Thompson at this point is all over the place. We just don't you just don't know because he's not fully back, you know, you have the Achilles you have the ACL he missed two years of basketball two and a half years of basketball.

So he's not fully back yet. I'm hoping that we'll see something closer to the Klay Thompson of old next year because he's still he's not an old guy. So maybe we'll get that but Klay is it like a you know, a stock market you just up down up down up down Draymond's game is definitely on the back nine and everything else is a bunch of up and coming kids except for curry and Wiggins has just become like if this was if we thought this that Andrew Wiggins was going to be this he wouldn't have been the first pick he would have been like the eighth pick because he's just a solid player.

There's something about that. I think the the common line there to to quote a famous triangle basketball player and coach is both the lightning and the Warriors when that when it comes time to when it comes time to got to make shots. And both makes, you know, they make shots whether it's it's scoring and really stopping them in hockey or making shots and basketball. I just feel like, you know, we can talk about ball movement and defense and all those things with the Warriors. They make shots and you know, they do it when it matters and they do it as much as anybody ever has really obviously step is a big part of that but it's just sort of part of the culture and they have the experience and know how to handle those situations and and you know, so did the lightning. I thought you were going to say they run their own race like Andrew Riggs. No different different triangle different triangle coach, but got to make shots and no, absolutely. Absolutely.

So very good. So real quick and I know you and I didn't mention to you that I wanted to hit this but just kind of a from a 30,000 foot view North Carolina really only had to replace one guy Brady Manick looks like they went into the portal and did that. Duke has a completely retooled roster NC State has also as a completely retooled roster. They delved heavily into the transfer portal and got maybe the biggest returnee with all the guys that returned for Carolina. Maybe the biggest returning in the triangle was the impact of turquavian Smith coming back to Kevin Keats and NC State. How do you look at these three schools here in the triangle and what they are?

Well, I you know, it's interesting. They're each dealing with different challenges that are sort of self-imposed in a way like North Carolina. Everyone is did not deal with expectations. Well at the beginning of last season because people expected that to be a good team. Now, they're going to deal with even more expectations and they have the experience of obviously playing for a national title, but that's always it's always different to be the guy. They went to the NCAA tournament is not the guy and they're going to be the guy to start the season.

So I'm curious how North Carolina handles that and what Hubert Davis maybe does differently. I think you know when you look at their season over 40 games, you know, he did a really good job of making sure that they peaked at the right time. And honestly, again, I say this every time and nothing against Dawson Garcia, but his departure was was sort of what made all the pieces click together, you know, and that was, you know, not that it was addition by subtraction, but it just allowed everyone else to slot into their proper goals, especially Brady Manning. So now how do you deal with those expectations again, even even higher? Do you have the experience of going to the Final Four and beating to twice at the end of the year and then playing Kansas with everything on the line, but it's still going to be new.

It's still is a new expectation. So that's my fascination with UNC in terms of talent. They have everything and honestly Hubert Davis should be a better coach.

The second time for it doesn't mean he did a bad job in year one, but that experience is going to be invaluable. And you know Duke is obviously been through this before in terms of turning the entire roster over and starting over with a bunch of freshmen and obviously a few more transfers this time. I actually have a ton of confidence in John Shire to navigate that and I think what the X Factor for Duke is going to be is, you know, John Shire is an unbelievably his basketball IQ is unbelievably high.

He's also the kind of guy who's not going to contradict Mike Krzyzewski. He may voice opposition and he may, you know, raise a devil's advocate position, but I don't you know, he was he understood his role on that staff. I think there's no doubt in my mind that over the last 10 years John Shire has seen things that if he were head coach, he would do differently and that now he gets his chance and maybe that's something that helps Duke.

I think losing K will hurt them. And just in a sense that he understood all of this so intrinsically. It was also second nature to him and John Shire like Hubert Davis is going to have to learn to be in charge and make those decisions. But I do think he's going to have some different tactics and I think you've seen some of it with the transfers that he's brought in to sort of add more experience to the scene. They still going to have to gel and come together and all that and then, you know, NC State.

I know they have the same issues in terms of sort of gelling on the roster getting turquavian Smith is back it back is great, but that also wasn't a great team with him last year. So, you know, I mean, everyone knows what the scenario is here. I mean, Kevin Keats is fighting for his job. Essentially, there's no mystery about that.

No one's going to have any illusion. So they've got to get off to a good start and build some momentum and go from there. But I do think they have some players with some talent who maybe, you know, weren't on the best teams weren't the greatest at other places.

So those guys should have something to prove that they weren't the problem. And if you get enough of those guys together all pulling on the same rope, you got a chance to do something and Lord knows that that Kevin. Kevin Keats needs some good news out of that program this year. This is the Adam Gold show. On June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition of heartbreak of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now. Find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.