The Cough Button Is Broken

So glad to have you on this Monday Drive. WSJS, new Stonk Sports for the Triad, where 10 days from tonight, the Carolina Panthers will finally make the pick at number one. And over the last 24 hours, we have more breadcrumbs that suggest that their guy is going to be Bryce Young. Now, this is an excerpt from Peter King's weekly column, one of the more reputed reporters on the NFL.

He said, quote, over the weekend, made a lot of phone calls and I didn't hear anyone in calls Friday through Sunday. Who thinks the first pick won't be Bryce Young? He may not be.

I'm just telling you what's out there. Tom Pelissero just reported from NFL Network that Bryce has canceled his remaining pre-draft interviews and called it another sign across the league. The belief is Bryce is going to be the number one pick. I'll admit, in the week or two after the trade first happened, Bryce Young's size concerned me. So much so, my preference was for Carolina to take CJ Stroud. I probably read too much into the frames of quarterbacks Frank Reich's coached in the past.

I'll admit that. And now I'm willing to admit with an open mind and more information, access to more information, I've changed my position from wanting Carolina to take Stroud to hopping on the Bryce Young train. Here are the three reasons why Bryce Young is the right choice for the Carolina Panthers.

Number one, there's almost no chance that he's average. It seems that there are two options for Bryce Young's career. Either he's good, possibly great, or he's hurt.

One or the other. I can't imagine we're talking about Bryce Young's career two, three years from now and we're like, yeah, he's like Kirk Cousins. He's okay. I'm ambivalent. I don't know if he's bad. I don't know if he's good. I don't know what he is. It's a lot like him or Baker Mayfield. I don't really know. Either he's good or he's injured.

Those are the two options. I've seen enough of Bryce Young being the guy in Southern California, a football hotbed, the number one player in the country for multiple years, the number one player in college football as well, winning the Heisman Trophy and then following that up with another great year to think he's not going to have an issue with the level of competition. He's not going to struggle with the jump from college to the NFL. CJ, meanwhile, could be an average player. It seems there are three options with him. He could be good, possibly great. Maybe a coaching staff does maximize his talent level and the physical tools that are available to you.

Maybe that does happen. Maybe he turns into Justin Herbert or he gets hurt. That's also an option for him. People are acting like Bryce Young is the only guy that can get hurt. That is an option for CJ too.

But there's also a third door that I don't think exists with Bryce and that's the ability for him to just be perfectly average. I could see CJ Stroud being Sam Darnold. I could see CJ Stroud being Jared Goff.

I think that is possible. Oh, he has all the traits. You can't miss on this guy. But then when you watch them in college, even though they played top programs or at least Darnold did, there were games that didn't really impress you that much. Not with Bryce Young. Find the game last year where Bryce Young made you think anything other than this is the best player on the field.

This is the best quarterback playing in this game. Value the larger sample sizes. It's something I talk about more than anything on this show. Value the larger sample sizes in life. And the larger sample size tells us that Bryce is great. That's the second reason here. There's a much larger sample of Bryce being great than there is of CJ Stroud being great.

The reality is this. If USC doesn't get upset by Utah in the Pac-12 Championship game, this is not even a conversation about the number one pick. That's how fringe, that's how small the margin was between Stroud being in the conversation to not being in the conversation at all.

And the reason I pinpoint that game, if USC won that game, they are the fourth playoff team, not Ohio State. And CJ Stroud probably ops out. And the last time we see him is a loss at home to Michigan. That's the last time we see CJ Stroud. He doesn't get the Georgia game.

Not only did he need the Georgia game, he needed to be awesome in the Georgia game to leave that impression he can be that guy. But his mobile ability, it's a small sample size. Him playing against that level of competition is a smaller sample size than Bryce.

Value the larger sample sizes. It tells you Bryce Young is the better player and the last thing is this. Bryce Young is more prepared to be the number one pick than CJ Stroud is. This sounds strange to say because Ohio State is one of those top programs, but Bryce Young has been under a tighter microscope than CJ Stroud has. Alabama presents different expectations and a different gauntlet that you have to run through than the Big Ten does at Ohio State.

It just does. And this is a trait I worry about with quarterbacks that I don't really worry about with other positions. I don't really care about how well you're able to handle the weight of being a first round draft pick if you're a wide receiver or if you're a corner or if you're an offensive lineman. We're not talking about you being the face of the franchise.

It's not usually a connotation. We're attaching to those players. The quarterback we are. And Bryce Young, the marketability piece, it's there. We know that. He does TV commercials. Handsome guy. We know what he looks like. You could pick out Bryce Young in a lineup. I don't know if a few months ago I would have been able to do that with CJ Stroud.

But this isn't about marketing. This is about how you handle yourself. And the draft process presents a tight microscope. Being in Alabama does that. Being the top player out of high school football, the number one player in the country does that. And Bryce Young has aced every test along the way to get to this point.

I have no doubt that he's going to be able to handle the weight of being the franchise quarterback. And I still have some concern about that with CJ Stroud. Here's more of the drip of Bryce Young continuing to be the favorite to be the Carolina Panthers pick because Steve Smith is on it.

This was Steve Smith on his podcast. Let's get into it, Bryce. I love Bryce has a strong arm, pure placement, right? Accuracy. His processing is head above CJ.

I'm telling you right now. Teams have told me CJ Stroud is a fantastic football player and he's an okay process. When you compare him to Bryce Young, it ain't even in the same ballpark, doggy.

It's not. Add that to a fourth reason why I've changed my mind now. Bryce Young should be the guy over CJ Stroud. If Steve Smith wants him to be a Carolina Panther, then I want him to be a Carolina Panther. Well, you remember how he was gushing over him after the pro day right there. Talking about wanting to get a signed jersey and all that. Will Dalton, producer of this show, is also the proud owner of a Teddy Bridgewater jersey. Sure. But yeah, shirt jersey, a jersey.

Yep. How quickly are you going to be the owner of a Bryce Young jersey jersey after? Would you invest in a jersey rather than a jersey? First off, I'll definitely get a jersey. I might get a jersey first.

I don't know. I will have a jersey or jersey within process blue. The new Carolina Panthers blue shade easily for the guy who's the top processor. I'd give it a week or two.

I'll have something process blue. Love it. Yes, the Carolina Hurricanes open up Stanley Cup playoff action at seven o'clock tonight. That'll be on ESPN2 in addition to Bally Sports. But that's not the only NHL game that we will be keeping an eye on. The Florida Panthers play at the Boston Bruins. 730, that'll be on ESPN.

Looking at the rest of tonight's slate. Minnesota at Dallas, 930. Puck drop 10 o'clock. It is the LA Kings at the Edmonton Oilers.

So we get some Connor McDavid action out west. Not to be topped, but Golden State Sacramento game two is tonight as well. That's a 10 o'clock tip off time on TNT. Sacramento winning game one against Golden State. We'll talk more about the NBA playoff shortly.

Brooklyn is at the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA too. We know who all the siren sounders are for tonight. Andrei Svechnikov. Wow, that should be quite the roar when he sounds the siren for game one tonight. In addition to that, NC State big DJ Burns and Duke head football coach Mike Elko will be the three siren sounders tonight. Luke Tkach, Raleigh News and Observer will be in the building for that.

The award winning columnist from the Raleigh News and Observer joins us now. Okay, Luke, if you look at it from a record standpoint, Carolina, second most points in the National Hockey League, second most wins. That looks like a contender on paper. But then when you look at Vegas, which knows a thing or two, tied for the sixth best odds going into the playoffs. Where should the expectations you think be for this Canes team as we start playoff action tonight? Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt that, especially after what happened last year with the second round loss, that the ceiling, the floor for this team is the conference finals and beyond. There's just no excuse at this point, even with the tough month they've had leading into this playoff series. Now, this is a team that was the best team in the best division in hockey. It was the second best team in the league, obviously a wide margin behind the Bruins, but still better than everybody else. The conference finals is the expectation.

And whether it's Boston or someone else, you know, you let the dice fall where they may let the chips fall where they may. But yeah, no, I mean, I think they this is a group that the Islanders, it's a great matchup for them. It's not a team that's going to play to the hurricane's weaknesses that much. They don't have a great power play. Hurricanes played well against Ilya Sorokin. There's no sort of mental block there the way there was with Igor Shostakin last year. And then you hope that the Devils beat the Rangers because the Devils match up better with the hurricanes too.

But that's the expectation. That's where this team should be headed. And I think like last year, anything less than that would be considered a disappointment. You hope that those two teams beat each other up in an emotional series as well. And you hope it's a shorter series against the Islanders. I'll also add that out of the 16 playoff teams that we're looking at this year, the Islanders have the worst road record. And aside from what Boston's done at home, nobody better at home than Carolina on paper. Luke, it's a cliche, but most cliches are rooted in some truth that injuries are just part of the game.

And we understand that. But do you think now that we know there's no return for Svetsch and what's happened since the trade deadline that the Canes have regrets about not being as active then? Yeah, I mean, I think there were quite a few of us who said that even healthy or without max patch already, they needed to add a score. And there were some people who said, well, if they add a wing, where are they going to put him?

It's going to screw up the chemistry. And the reality is you need bodies. And then the special golf injury showed that what they really needed was a center. It just wasn't out there the prices and where players wanted to go. It just didn't work.

And that's fine. You know, yes, you pull the RV, maybe scratch tonight, which is not great. That's your trade deadline edition. But in a lot of ways, I do think that that could come back to haunt them that that said, the issue for this team is not going to be who they don't have. It's can Martin natures can Sebastian Aho can those guys produce in the playoffs, which Aho has in the past?

And can they do it on the power play? You know, the thing people forget when they're looking at this team and comparing it to last year and no special cough and that's already started is look, this team went into playoffs last year with Tony DeAngelo and the first defensive parent. Now they've got a Norris Trophy candidate in Brent burns out there instead.

That's up. I mean, you can't met we don't have the tools as humans to measure that kind of distance. And that kind of gets washed over in the regular season because you know, the third pair is going to play more minutes and matchups don't matter as much the hurricanes with their top two defensive parents have no matchup issues. And they're really not that concerned about Jalen Sheffield and Shane Gustis bear either. But when you've got those four guys you can put out against anyone, you can win the matchup game and look, in the regular season, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't.

It may matter here and there. But over the course of 82 games, it comes out in the wash. It's like weather it rains on everybody in a seven game series. That kind of thing can swing a series, the little things are magnified in the playoffs. And if you have an advantage, where you've got a fourth line that you can put out against anyone or a third pairing or a first pairing that can shut someone down or Jordan stall line, those matchups can change the course of a series. We've seen it when the hurricanes have played Boston, that the team that's won the matchup battle has won the series. So I you know, I think I think there's a lot more going on here than what they didn't do with the deadline. This was a better team coming into the season.

It didn't necessarily put up the same number of points, but it didn't necessarily get the same goal tending either. So as unfortunate as it is that they weren't able to make a move at the deadline, especially once Svechnikov gets hurt, I don't know that that's the end all be all for this group. Luke DeCock with us from the Raleigh News and Observer.

Read his stuff, newsobserver.com on Twitter at Luke DeCock. In the spirit of talking about growth now versus the past, let's big picture this for a second. The Canes making the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year, winning the division for three straight years now. Five years ago, we were talking about a team snapping a nine year playoff drought.

And this year they break franchise records for attendance, I believe second in the league in attendance as well. Did you know even then that if the if Rod Rendamore and Tom Dundon put a good product out on the ice, that it would result in this, what we're seeing now in terms of the way people have now come behind this team and follow behind this team? I mean, I told Tom Dundon when he bought the team in 2018, this market is not dead.

It's dormant. If you give these people something to watch, and they've been told for five years by Ron Francis and Bill Peters that this team was, if we can win the 27 games we lost by one goal or an overtime, we can get the eighth seed. They got sold a bill of goods that entire time. And people tuned out. I mean, this entire there's an entire generation of Hurricanes fans that still has Stockholm syndrome from being told they had playoff teams all the years that clearly weren't. They were getting sold, you know, stew meat and being told it was filet mignon. So they have a hard time believing people. I mean, Lindholm syndrome.

We can call that Lindholm syndrome, perhaps. I don't know about all that. But, you know, there was there were they were told a lack was the number one goalie. Scott Darling was the number one goalie. They persisted in supporting Alexander seven after he made it perfectly clear he was here for the money and nothing else. You know that that generation, they've been burned. And it's it was it was hard for them to buy into anything at that point. But it wasn't dead.

It was dormant. And you give these people something to watch something worth coming out for guess what? They came back out. And they love it. Because the market that that grew around this team in 2002, and grew more around this team in 2006, and came back in 2009, and was there for the All Star Game in 2011.

Never left. But you have to give people something to cheer for. And that's like, man, that ain't a rally thing. That's not a North Carolina thing.

That's a south thing. People stopped going in Chicago, people stopped going in Buffalo, people stopped going in Ottawa, people are stopping going in Vancouver. In every hockey market, nobody shows up to watch a terrible team. And the hurricanes put a terrible team on the ice for about six of those 10 years. So now that you've got a good team and one that cares that has an identity that has accountability, that has a coach who knows what he's doing, that has a general manager and an owner who know what they're doing. People have come back and it's worth investing your money in as a fan in the tickets and the merchandise in going to road games.

You know, you would be crazy to buy a Scott darling jersey. That's just faith. That's blind faith with no evidence. And I feel bad for the people who did because they got suckered and they know it. But they're not going to get burned again.

And now they have something that's worth worth supporting. I'm laughing because W.D. totally would have bought a Scott Darling jersey because he owns a Teddy Bridgewater panther. I do and I'm proud of it. Yeah, he does.

He'll buy the Bryce Young jersey, too. And you should know the Lindholm joke. It was between that or making a Jeff Jeff Bizdelic reference about all the one goal games. Yeah, if you take out all the one goal games, we were almost a playoff.

It's just it. People forget now because things have been so good since the fall of twenty eighteen, really, since Justin Williams was given the captaincy and Rod Burnham Moore was was made coach. People forget how bad it was and not just bad because there were times where the team was fun to watch. But but but the difference between the rhetoric that was coming from the front office and the coaching staff and what was actually on the ice.

And you had to have a level of cognitive disbelief, of cognitive dissonance to be able to go and pay your money to watch that because you knew deep down you were going to be disappointed. And now, you know, deep down that even if they don't play well or, you know, even if the power play goes over 18, that you're going to get at least an honest effort and they're going to win more often than not. And, you know, I think that's one of the reasons why everyone seems so panicked going into these playoffs. So, you know, you're all these, you know, canes fans talking about, no, we're never going to beat the Islanders and our goaltending is terrible and our power play can't score.

You know, I think people are just have a hard time embracing prosperity at this point because those ghosts are never too far away. Nobody out there has covered the canes as well or as long as Luke DeCock's doing so right now. And you should follow and support that work. Raleigh News at Observer, newsobserver.com and on Twitter at Luke DeCock. Luke, thank you so much for spending the time on what sure is a busy day for you. You got it, Josh.

Graham's grades in just a few minutes. W.D., why are you laughing? You totally just burped into the bike. I had the cough button down, too. I don't know why. The cough button didn't work.

Let me test this thing out real quick. I think you just released it early. Now that's going to become a drop even better than a high in perpetuity because I did the right thing.

I pressed the cough button down and still bad things happen. So by the end of this segment, we will be rewarded with that and you will be rewarded for staying till the end of this segment, too. Not just to hear that, but a chance to win Wake baseball tickets for Wednesday night against Liberty, too. I get paid to do this.

It's amazing. Now let's get to Graham's grades. Every week is a test for your favorite sports teams. Who passed the test? If one of y'all says some silly ass name, who dropped the ball? I don't know. Josh Graham has the answers. I think you're very condescending and I know it all.

Time for Graham's grades. When I asked you, why were you laughing? It was genuine in that I had the cough button down and I didn't know if you could hear me. So that's in.

It was a genuine mortified reaction I had when I saw you laughing. And I am not looking forward to listening back to that in just a bit. Graham's grades, the opportunity to tell you what was really good, what wasn't and what was math from the NBA playoff weekend. This weekend being the first weekend of the NBA playoffs, starting with a Sacramento Kings. That was the best game of the weekend. Oh, blow for blow.

Steph Curry had a look at the end to tie it up and it was a pretty good one that he missed. And the Kings win their first playoff game since April of 2006. W.D., the number one songs in April of 2006 on the Billboard charts. Temperature by Sean Paul and Bad Day by Daniel Powder. Oh, wow.

Those were the number one songs then 17 years ago. Then you got D'Aaron Fox going off 17 years later and he looked like 2012 Derrick Rose out there. It's the best comparison I've got. A player that's a little undersized, hard to stop, can run the offense better than anybody when he's on and had a couple of crazy passes in this game in addition to all the points that he scored. I can't wait to watch tonight. Game two in SAC Town between the Warriors and the Kings. It's a 10 o'clock tip.

B. Also out west, the L.A. Clippers. Kawhi took over this game close to 40 points in it, but it was Russell Westbrook who made the plays late. It might be the greatest three for 19 shooting game that you will ever see.

Just like we talked about in the Duke Carolina game, the first one in Cameron. It might be the greatest performance by a player who scored four points that we've ever seen by Derek Lively. Russell Westbrook, his game has never changed. You knew Russell was unafraid and was going to take those shots at the end, despite the fact he hadn't made anything the entire game. And he hits a big shot. He hits the two biggest free throws.

He has the block on Devin Booker late too. The clips win at Phoenix in what should be a long 4-5 series out west. The Boston Celtics, they rocked the Atlanta Hawks in game one. They were up 30 points at halftime.

Josh, how's that a C performance? It's what you're supposed to do against Atlanta that I thought was ready to golf at this time a week ago before they won their play in game to give them the seven seed. This is what an NBA Finals contender should do. And that's what I believe the Boston Celtics are waxing Atlanta in game one. The Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs rallied all the way back to take the lead in the final couple of minutes against the Knicks. Spike Lee sitting there courtside in Cleveland and then they allow the Knicks to get two offensive rebounds that help put this game away.

And there really wasn't a great excuse for it. Cleveland getting bodied inside when they have Mobley and Jared Allen. That's a tough one to swallow getting dominated in the interior the way that they did. That's not a good sign for Cleveland. You lose at home. So the Knicks steal back home court advantage and you don't really get quality games from Mobley or Allen.

You need those guys to help you. Aside from Donovan Mitchell who brought it and to a degree Darius Garland, Cleveland had a bunch of dudes that looked like they didn't know how to operate when playoff basketball arrived. It's a totally different season and Cleveland needs to adjust to that. F, the Milwaukee Bucks.

They lost at home to an eight seed and they lost Giannis Antetokounmpo in the game too. The dumbest internet take I see today by the way that's become popular is the abolish the charge crowd. Stop it. The charge has been there forever it feels like now. And they're like well look at the plays that Giannis and Ja Morant got hurt on. If the block didn't exist and you reward people for just standing there you don't reward people for just standing there maybe those guys don't get hurt. Injuries happen. Injuries happen in sports. You can't make rules to try and prevent injuries from happening in basketball.

At least getting rid of the charge being one of the arguments you're making. I think it sounds ludicrous but losing at home to an eight seed. Losing your star player and we don't quite know if he's going to play in game two.

They're monitoring it. That's the latest that we have out of Milwaukee. That's a double whammy and worthy of an F. Not looking forward to that. Okay W.D. how did it sound at the start of the segment? Boston. Not that. I don't have a longer context than that.

I can see if I can get you one. I just need I need to know how the start of that segment like music starting to hit and then that's the first sound. I get on you for clearing your throat and sounding terrible when you first approached the microphone and I was guilty of that at the start of this segment even though I tried to prevent it by pressing down the cough button here. The cough button was defective. I'm blaming the cough button. It's better. It's better with the longer cut. Oh scared to go back and look at the video. The video is probably better because you see me laughing or you just see me wait. Did that just go out over the air.

Okay. Baseball check in real quick. First one to call in right now gets to go see the number two team in the country fresh off their series win against Louisville another top 10 team from over the weekend. The Deeks facing Liberty Wednesday at the couch 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600 this giveaway brought to you by East Coast wings and grill hot and ready tickets from a place that has hot and ready wings. Looking at the rankings that came out today for North Carolina teams are ranked in the top 25 and three are in the top 11 and none of them are from the triangle. I don't remember the last time I've been able to say that but the three best teams in the state of North Carolina are top 15 in the country and also you know not from the triangle Wake Forest number two my East Carolina Pirates are number seven and the 11th ranked team in the country is Campbell Campbell camels which has us imagining WD the top 16 seats in the NCAA tournament host regionals the top eight have the potential to host super regionals which has us imagining a world where with trips to Omaha hanging in the balance the path goes through Greenville America the path goes through Winston Salem the path goes through Buies Creek that's awesome and North Carolina is ranked 18th in that poll too I should also point out while we're talking baseball the Orioles won another series took two out of three probably should have swept Chicago the Yankees Garrett Cole another shutout yesterday it is a reality that once again the AL East is the best division in baseball I think every team there isn't a team with a losing record right now in the AL East and they're the only division that I can say that so here we go again the radio voice of the Charlotte Hornets is Sam Farber and he joins us right now we'll break down the NBA playoffs in just a bit but since the Charlotte Hornets season is still fresh on our minds it just ended about a week ago or so let's start there and push things ahead Sam what makes you most optimistic about where the Hornets are headed given the way Steve Clifford had him caring about what others would describe to be meaningless basketball games and winning some of those and first time I've been able to say this about a Hornets team in the last few years playing some defense what they definitely played a lot of defense it's good to talk to you again and good to be talking Hornets I think that the team's fight through the finish line is really admirable you know you want to assume that that's going to happen everywhere in every case sometimes it's difficult for teams to maintain that level of focus we've seen the NBA kind of crack down on one party for what they felt was a less than acceptable level of hustle through the finish line to steal a line from my intro music here it's only human to think that you know when a game doesn't have as much on the line maybe you let your foot off the gas but that certainly did not happen with the Charlotte Hornets so I think that's one thing you know the spirit and the personality of this team withstood that test but also you know so many injuries for this team start to finish you know I just finished exit interviews and every time you'd ask the guys about a highlight from the season you know they go to a game and say we pulled that one out even though we were down a couple of guys but there wasn't a game where they weren't down a couple of guys so you hope that with better injury luck in the future that the talent of this roster shines through plus the talent they're gonna get with a really good draft deck what's the most difficult decision that's cup checks gonna have to make this offseason oh there's a lot of them I think you know one of the challenges when you have as many injuries as the Hornets did is a lot of younger players got opportunities to play in more pronounced roles and individually put up really good numbers now clearly it didn't equate to winning but you have to make some judgment calls can those players post even better numbers with the full complement around them and who does that leave out of the equation I think one guy in particular who had a really strong season career high in scoring is PJ Washington and so you know that's going to be a real inflection point not to say that there is a bad scenario where PJ Washington is here but it does have a ricochet effect where maybe that triggers some other decisions one way or the other so I think that that really is one of the more significant pieces and depending on how that is you know decided in terms of you know what they offer is how much it how much it goes for that could have a lot of domino effects one more thing on the Hornets before we get to the NBA action we saw all over the weekend and some of the games we have tonight Sam Farber joining us radio voice of the Hornets outlined it for me what this summer is about contractually for LaMelo Ball this is the summer that he could sign the get an extension this summer is my understanding and I can't remember a player on their rookie deal ever turning down that type of money with the risk attached to it right you're absolutely right there and it's never happened I would be very surprised if it did happen quite frankly because there's just no financial incentive to do something like that and LaMelo has said you know verbally as often been asked you know he likes it here he's happy here he wants to win here and so you know obviously there you know until Penn gets the paper I guess you know anything is possible but you know there's no sign in recent history in the NBA to think anything otherwise would happen in terms of the timing though there are some significant you know possible you know things to take into consideration first and foremost you get paid more if you're all NBA and LaMelo's injury-plagued season deprived him of the chance to do that so the reason Luca Doncic got the biggest rookie extension that we'd ever seen was because he had posted some all NBA seasons so perhaps LaMelo and his team decide to try and do something like that and take advantage of another year of health so I think there are other factors in there but in terms of the rookie deal I don't see any signs that anyone in the NBA if offered that max extension would do anything other than sign it the two games that we have tonight Brooklyn Philadelphia game to the Sixers winning game one over the weekend and boy that was a lot of fun in Sacramento Golden State Sacramento game to both of those games on Turner tonight how many playoff teams do you think Sam are capable of winning 16 games are there five more than five I think capable there are more than five there are certainly some favorites I think Milwaukee is playing right can be one of those but clearly they've already lost a game Boston's up there Philadelphia is up there in the West Denver is most definitely up there but I think you know you looked at even the play in tournament you look at these rosters like outside of Oklahoma City there was at least two former all-stars on just about every team you look at the brackets now I mean you know the eighth seed out west is Minnesota they've got two guys that have been number one overall picks in Carl Anthony towns and Anthony Edwards both have been all-stars plus Rudy go back that that's a super team in other generations of the NBA now it's the eighth seed so you really got to be good to make the NBA playoffs right now all of these teams are I think it's much deeper than five I think we're in a season where it's a lot closer to this year's NCAA tournament in terms of what is possible but the probability still remains that an elite team one of the top two or three seeds will end up crossing the finish line let's see if we can try and establish where the line is are the Lakers one of those teams oh they're all about health so can they with that kind of experience having won one in the last four years yes it is possible but they are on a razor-thin margin because they have to be healthy if anything happens to LeBron or AD even for a game or two I think that would make it really really difficult getting the football you might be wondering in the audience why are we asking Sam Farber radio voice the Charlotte Hornets about football he does have some expertise in a way that nobody else we've had on talking about the NFL draft might have and that's he broadcasted high school football in Southern California prior to arriving to our state and within a 30-40 mile radius Bryce Young was playing high school football with CJ Stroud in the same general area they were playing in the same spot essentially in Southern California and you called their games what do you remember most about Bryce Young and CJ Stroud stories before they ever stepped foot on college campuses well first for those two and I'll throw DJ we uncle Lele in there as well because even though he did not make it to the championship level in Clemson a great player and he'll hopefully have a great year next year at Oregon State and get back on track but all of them tremendous kids great interviews great people they're really good families and you just never heard any crossword about any of them so you know I think that is a true testament to them their character their families terms of talent it's no accident that that high school section churned out quarterbacks for all the major teams across college football over the last handful of years and I was just delighted to get to cover him I think when you're looking at Stroud he is a physical really talented kid who's very very accurate including from long distance and he was able to orchestrate a very talented offense for a long time and put up by popping numbers so that's that's huge a lot of similar things about Bryce Young he also has this it factor about his playmaking ability that is really special and most importantly the kids a winner and it's not just that he was on the best teams it's that the best teams wanted him he won before he went to a powerhouse program in Southern California in modern day Alabama could have had any quarterback in the country they wanted him he continued to win there and I think you know for whatever people want to you know say about his physical limitations let's call it based off his life he's been that height his whole life it's never stopped him I don't anticipate it slowing him down much but it is a factor I would say in the decision making process but they're all wonderful kids and I'm rooting for them all to have great success I hear things about Young that I don't hear about Stroud and it's not really a knock on Stroud as much as it is a compliment for Bryce that even back when he was in high school he carried himself like he was an NFL player the way that he worked out the way that he did interviews and things of that nature what do you remember about talking to Bryce when he was in high school if you've had conversations then just really engaging and personable and and it's something that's important and sometimes is lost on not just I don't want to say this generation so my generation all generations we're all like addicted to phones and technology and we don't look people in the eye as much and we're you know kind of angling our bodies to gather room that's not Bryce Bryce is always engaged and focused and makes you feel like you're the most important person he could possibly be talking to at that moment in time and so I think it's a very special thing about him as a person I do think that DJ and DJ both had that as well but it is something that stands out in my memories about Bryce and just the kids a winner and and I think that's something that is underappreciated at times I think when you lead up to the draft oftentimes people will try and nitpick things based off of the body of work that's put out there and the person that hasn't disappointed you yet is the one that starts to rise up draft boards based off what's possible Bryce Young has been on the biggest stage his entire athletic life and has always risen to the competition and so I think that's one you know big exclamation point on his resume here heading into this draft it's the radio voice of the Charlotte Hornets and Hall of Fame t-ball coach Sam Farber joining us on WSJS hey let's get you back on a breakdown hoop during the playoffs it'd be good just to regularly chat and break down what's happening at the playoffs but appreciate the time for now it would be more than happy to and yes would be excited to also excited to talk high school football because I think I'm at the very end of my days where that's relevant and who knows hopefully we're we're talking about a number one pick a second number one pick here in North Carolina in less than a month's time yeah twelve is it twelve and a half percent or twelve percent where are we at twelve percent it's twelve and a half percent which you know look the top three teams the worst three teams they have a sixteen percent chance so the way of thinking about it take a standard die from the craps table roll it if you pick the number right that's a one in six chance if you want to talk about twelve and a half percent flip a coin if it lands on the same thing three times in a row that's the twelve and a half percent chance so that's the way to think about it I love it I love it all right Sam thanks for the time man appreciate you.