Play By Play Daht

Buckle in because we got a lot to do on a Wednesday Drive.

West Durham of the ACC Network will be here in 15 minutes and VDOT right after that. But we have to start with the Denver Nuggets. Yes, believe it or not we do because the media, and we're guilty of this too, has not given them their due. When they rallied against Utah down 3-0, or make it 3-1, we shrugged our shoulders collectively. When they come back against the Clippers, we do the same exact thing, but spend the entire show on LA's collapse rather than what Denver did, which no other team in NBA history has done in a singular playoff. Now, they're a missed Anthony Davis 3-point shot away from leading the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals 2 games to 1. They win last night, and it's about time we give them credit by stating what is pretty obvious now. The Nuggets can win this series.

The longer this goes on, the more it favors Denver. Look at the oldest teams in the NBA. There are a lot of older teams that made it into the bubble and played in the postseason.

Most of the older teams did not last long. Portland, one of the older teams. Milwaukee, one of the top five oldest teams. The Rockets, one of the top three. The Clippers are up there. Dallas, Utah.

They are all gone. The Lakers are the third oldest team in the NBA. And when you think about it, it's simple. You think about the physical strain of having to play all of these games and to do so without having two nights off or three nights off at times. These guys, they have families, they have older legs, they're accustomed to having more time in between these big time pressure games. Meanwhile, you look at the younger teams, they performed a lot better. Denver and Boston, they are among the four youngest teams to play in the bubble. They're three to four years younger than the Lakers. To them, it's like an AAU tournament.

Just a few years ago, yeah, we were, there weren't many fans and we were just watching, we were just playing three or four games a day and the bubbles had this AAU vibe. Younger teams have done a lot better than the older teams. The longer the series goes, I would be more and more concerned about the Lakers. Secondly, we always hear about how Steph Curry and the Rockets have changed the three-point shot, how more and more teams are taking threes. And that's true, but we've seen less bad three-point shooting teams have success the later they go in the playoffs. Usually if you're a great three-point shooting team, you're going to find yourself advancing further and further in the playoffs. The Lakers are an exception to that. They're not a good three-point shooting team. In the regular season, they were bottom third in the NBA from three-point range, around 35% from three. They're 12th in the bubble, 12th out of the 16 teams in the playoffs, I should say, from three. They're shooting less than 30% the last two games.

LeBron, I said this last night on Twitter and some of you jumped on me. His jumper looks flatter than I've seen it the last few months. It hasn't looked this flat probably since he was a teenager, close to it. Early time he's in the playoffs, he hasn't developed the jump shot yet.

He's in his 17th year. He's four of 14 from three in this series. Meanwhile, Denver, they're shooting close to 40% in the playoffs, second in the bubble. There's a reason why Denver was able to rally against the Clippers and the Utah Jazz, because as the series went on, the longer it went, the older team withered and the younger team began to thrive. Then there's Nikola Jokic, who I wrongfully said had met his match in Anthony Davis.

I should say met their equal. These two guys, they go head to head and I think whoever gets the better of the other is likely going to be playing on the winning team. Nikola Jokic, he's a tremendous, unique player. I say unique knowing the definition of the word.

I think we use that too loosely. Unique means one, rare means a few. He is a unique basketball player. And the way that he's played in this series, he might be the best passing big man we've ever seen. Bill Walton was talking about him in GQ magazine earlier today.

And I just love this excerpt. Robert Walsh is the producer of this show, by the way. I don't have a good Bill Walton, but you could just picture Bill Walton saying this as they have the Q&A they were doing. Hi Bill, how you doing today? Bill Walton, I'm alive. I thought you said you didn't have a Bill Walton. No, I said I didn't have a good Bill Walton. Well, let's just let it be in their imagination. I think you spoiled everybody with your Grooden impersonation yesterday. I'll tell you what, man.

Nah, I think we're good. This is the question he was asked. What was your reaction to Nikola Jokic in these playoffs? And he said, quote, he's just an interesting player and super fun to watch. He looks like he'd be really fun to play with. He looks like a great player.

He looks like a great teammate and spectacularly skilled player who plays the win. And he could do so many different things. He's strong. He's big. He's powerful. He's mobile, skilled, intelligent, creative, collaborative. I mean, this really does sound like it's straight out of the Bill Walton handbook.

Empty the the doors. Not as good. He's got a lot of things going for him. He comes with a great basketball culture. He's got a tremendous coach right now in Mike Malone. He's got some nice teammates. I'm very aware of the Nuggets and the dizzying possibilities of a wonderful tomorrow. That's Bill Walton talking about Nikola Jokic.

He's a unique player and he's only 25 years old. So after watching last night, I've arrived at the conclusion this is going to be a long series. I think this is going to be a seven game series. And if it goes to a seventh game, who knows what's going to happen? The Nuggets, they're already 2-0. In game sevens, the Lakers, they're an older team.

I have no clue it'll happen if these two are playing in a seventh game. All right, I want to transition thanks to the NFL because Pro Football Focus has not been kind to the Carolina Panthers defense so far this season. There's a pretty staggering, staggering, there are some staggering takeaways from their rankings that they put out for each and every position. Namely, the more experienced players on this defense. Like if you were to tell me, hey, the Carolina Panthers are going to be bad on defense, I'd say, wow, breaking news, shocking stuff, right? But what's staggering to me is the guys who are being singled out by Pro Football Focus, really struggling right now for Carolina, they're the veterans, not the younger players. Carolina, they drafted seven defensive players, the only team in NFL history to spend their entire draft and have more than five picks, picking just defensive players.

It's the vets who are sticking out and really struggling. Look at this, Justin Burris, he graded out dead last at his position group at safety by Pro Football Focus. 76 out of 76 safeties. Trey Boston at the other safety spot, 75th out of 76 safeties. And then you look at Tahir Whitehead, he graded out dead last at his position group earlier today. And again, this is according to Pro Football Focus.

Pretty amazing stuff there. And when you look at those players, they make up three of the four players on this entire starting offensive and defensive groups on the team, older than 26 years old. So the Panthers, offensive defense, have four guys who are 27 and older, three of the four I just named there, and the other was injured last week in KK Short. Matt Rule just told me in the short a while ago that he hopes KK could be available for the Chargers game, but he did miss practice again today, just like Dennis Daley did.

Coach Rule is less optimistic that Daley's going to be able to go. KK Short, he's invaluable in my mind. He puts, I mean, he put Derrick Brown in an impossible position when he's injured and he's a Pro Bowl caliber player. All right, so you got a top 10 pick play in his second NFL game with no preseason games, an inverted offseason, and he's being paired with a guy I thought was a president instead of a reserve defensive tackle in Woodrow Hamilton?

That's a bad spot to be in. Zach Kerr, I didn't hear his name called a lot on Sunday. Brabion Roy played for Matt Rule last year at Baylor.

He was a six-round draft pick. So when I see Derrick Brown not grading well in Pro Football Focus, I'm just thinking, man, that's an impossible spot to be in. But I don't really have any excuses for Boston to hear Whitehead and Justin Burress.

Those are older guys who should know better, guys who are stepping in and are expected to show some leadership, show some experience, and teach some of these younger guys the right way to do it. If it makes you feel any better, Pro Football Focus also weighs penalties and stuff very heavily in those scoring. Sure, that's why Derrick goes down. And to hear Whiteside gave up three pass interferences in three games, or three of those in two games. I am a big fan of Concord's own Hassan Whiteside. A lot of people were saying the Hornets saw him Whiteside.

Picked him up for next year. But yeah, they do weigh penalties heavily, and you make the point that Whitehead had that pass interference. And the Raider game and KK had the unnecessary roughness that really was unnecessary early on.

And he had the legal hands to the face that prolonged the drive against Tom Brady and company. I got nothing for Justin Burress. He just sucks. Look at you taking shots at a former Wolf Packer. Brian Burns and Jeremy Chin, they've been bright spots though.

Burns, constant pressure. Looked really good rewatching the Tampa game. He just hasn't gotten home yet. Jeremy Chin, he leads Carolina in tackles with 15, and nine of them are solo tackles. It's one of the best stories in the league. A guy who comes from FCS Southern Illinois and is immediately starting in the NFL. And not only that, compiling eight tackles in game one, and he's leading the team in tackles after two weeks.

Those two players, by the way, Burns and Chin, the two youngest players on the entire roster altogether. As I said, this is going to be a jam-packed hour. As B-Dot's gonna take me to grammar school at the bottom of the hour. And we got West Durham lined up. The Panthers, they're 0-2. Wake Forest, eh, they're not playing this weekend due to COVID. But I'll tell you why when West joins us.

In either of those scenarios, it's a little too early to press the panic button. This is a Wednesday Drive. So yesterday we learned that Wake Forest Notre Dame would be postponed. Today we learned it's been rescheduled for December the 12th, a week before the ACC Championship game in Charlotte. And the Deacs will next be in action next Friday night against Mike Minter's Camel Camels coming to town.

West Durham's now with us. And West, this strikes me as a blessing in disguise for Dave Claussen and Wake, which I think needed a breather after facing Clemson and State and Raleigh. They get this week off. They don't have to face one of the top 10 teams in the country, arguably in Notre Dame, until later in the year. And they can zero in on a team that they'll be favored against next weekend. And I'll add a bonus to that.

7% capacity will be allowed at Truist Field next weekend. Yeah, yeah. Governor Cooper opening the gates a touch, right? Just a little bit.

I think we're going to have a lot of games on December the 12th. Josh, look, we're getting this done. It's not easy. It's not conventional. You got to stay flexible and nimble. I mean, but the reality of it is we're finding a way, right?

And that's kind of what you expect. And I think a lot of credit goes to these kids in all sports in the fall at the collegiate level. I'm in a state where they're trying to play high school football as well. How's that going? OK. I mean, I think it's going better in the smaller communities and the bigger ones, as you would expect. But yeah, I mean, look, we're going to have, and I'm still not convinced Virginia Tech and NC State are playing.

Neither is Justin Fuente. Right. Yeah.

Monday, clearly he wasn't. I think we'll know maybe tomorrow, maybe not till Friday, but I think the I think this is kind of what 2020 is going to be. And as I think I told you a month or so back, we're going to we're probably going to end up where the ACC champion may have a, you know, let's say you're supposed to have 10 conference games, may only play nine or who knows eight. But here's what I don't know. So I don't know if seven will cut it, but we'll see. Here's what I'm confident in, though.

We're going to get through this fall. I'm feeling confident in that because absolutely Major League Baseball and the PGA Tour, they set the template. When things were going poorly in the PGA Tour, they went to the travelers in Connecticut.

We were fearing, myself and Robert, a press conference at two o'clock in the afternoon and that the PGA Tour was just going to pull the plug. They didn't. They said, you know what?

We're going to find a way to survive with the virus, to coexist with it. And Major League Baseball, after their first week and a half, everyone said, oh, well, this is going to get finished. They didn't stop.

They just kept moving forward. They found a way to coexist. And the ACC, to their credit, they found a way to make this schedule incredibly flexible. They understand it's not going to be perfect.

And I've even talked to John Curry about this and he said, you know what? Right now, the protocols, we feel good about them, but there are still other cards you can play in the deck if it's not working, a la what the Big Ten is doing and what Duke decided to do a few weeks ago and going daily with testing. Yeah, look, I think all of that's in play. I mean, to be honest with you, Pac and I were talking during a commercial this morning about the two moves the Southeastern Conference made to, you know, use the tracking device that the NFL is using to contract the same testing company across the board for their league. PAE, I guess, is the company.

I'm not familiar with it, but I know they're all, you know, highly recommended whoever you hire. But I think that that's going to be part of the issue, too, that helps the SEC get through this. I'm incredibly fascinated how the Big Ten thinks they're going to play eight and eight. Yeah, I don't know how you do it with no flexibility at all. Well, then you got to be prepared for some to play six and some to play five. And I saw just a moment ago the MAAC is going to try and play six. Wow, it's a high wire act.

That's what it looks like to me. I mean, 21 days that you're going to be quarantined. Why didn't you stay on track? Why just didn't you stay on track to do this?

See, because, you know, you cashed out early. You all, all of them, and I'm looking, I'm not saying the ACC, the SEC and the Big 12 were perfect. We're showing that they're not perfect, right? But you're having postponements and flipping the schedule and all these type things. But let's be honest, wouldn't that be a better plan than just to say, no, no, no, we're not going to do this and take this, you know, greater than stance that now you're begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission?

It reminds, it reminds me of journalism a little bit where it's at right now, where people rather be first than right. And the Big 10, they wanted to be the leaders, the one to jump out and say, we did this. And they expected that everybody else would join them. The Pac-12 did, but the SEC and the ACC did. Well, the tagalongs went with the Big 10 and everybody knew the tagalongs would go with the Big 10 when they announced.

Here's what I'm interested in though. The Pac-12's tagalong. So I see a lot of these analytics sites and such projecting that Ohio State, if they run the table, they're going to get into the college football playoff.

Well, two things come to mind. One, are you going to play the full eight? Two, if you do run the table and there's a one loss SEC team that played more games or the ACC and the Big 12 are both there in the mix with their champions as well, trying to get two teams in possibly, does pulling the plug early hurt your chances further? I mean, it's not a computer Wes, it's people in this committee who have opinions and everything. Will it hurt the Big 10 if they're trying to get a college football playoff team in? Will this be something that's held against a team trying to make the playoffs? Wow. That's a good question.

Because I feel like it will, man. I mean, we hate to say they're, I mean, there's inner politics. Yeah, look, look, and we all heard the rumors that Barry Alvarez ran the room, right? I mean, we've all heard all those rumors about the committee at times.

I don't know. And again, they've done, and I say they being the CFP, they've done what they need to do right now. And that is make their statement about when they're going to play. I asked Adam Rittenberg this morning, any reason to believe that anybody's going to give an extension to the season after December the 19th? I asked him that this morning on our show.

He said no, but then again, he didn't think anything was in play more than the two semi-final games on January 1 and the title game, which was two weeks after that, I guess on the 16th or something. I look at it like this. I think you're talking about having a scenario play out where we're talking about the SEC champion, the ACC champion, and then potentially seeing what the landscape is behind that. Because let's be honest, right now, we're looking at Clemson, a potential challenger to Clemson in this league. And depending on what their record looks like and who they've beaten, correct?

Yep. You're looking at the SEC, same format, and then the Big 12 champ. Oklahoma and Texas. They look very strong, those two.

Sure. I mean, we've seen, Oklahoma kind of Oklahoma State waffle around against Tulsa. Oklahoma looked good against the fighting Bobby Petrinos. And that's about all we know though, Josh. Let's not crown Spencer Rattler, the Heisman trophy winner just yet. I mean, I didn't drop 50 bucks for pay-per-view to watch him play Missouri State.

Well, and aren't you smarter, the smarter buyer and consumer for it. The idea to me is this, we're a long way from the playoff. Let me see if we can get to November. Let me see if we can get to November, OK? Let me see if we can get to November playing everything on schedule. Then let me see if we can get to December. Because I'm still not convinced.

Then again, I'm not killing anything that is happening, process and protocol here. I just don't know if we're going to get 11 games. I just don't know if we're going to get the eight out of the Big 10 and the 10 from the SEC. I mean, there are a lot of people concerned in the Southeastern Conference over what they've seen the last three weeks.

And that's OK, by the way, too. Like, I see a lot of people concerned about what happened with Notre Dame and Wake Forest yesterday, what happened with Charlotte in North Carolina. I didn't because it seemed like these are things that those schools expected could happen. And these are guys acting or schools acting responsibly the way they should. Yeah, they are.

And here's the thing. They're doing the right thing. They're being forthright in the way they talk about it. They're telling everybody what the scenarios are. They're keeping the other school, if you will, in the case of Notre Dame. John Curry is going to be with us tomorrow morning at 730 on the show.

And we're going to talk to him about the communication line between he and Jack Swarbrick, because that's just as important for somebody like John Curry as it is for Jack Swarbrick. Can you make sure to ask how long the mayo that Duke sends in can hold potentially? Because I know they sent a lot of those in for this week. Does it hold till December 12th?

I mean, just a practical question there. Are you one of these guys checking the goodbye date? Is that it? Yeah, yeah. Got to make sure you do that. There's stores available up there in Kernersville, aren't there for you, Josh?

I can't tell you how many times I've had milk go bad. Well, I understand that. But yeah, I think that your communication process that you went through in the spring and summer to get all this put together is just as valuable right now. And I mean, having talked to a couple different coaches and a couple different ADs in the last couple weeks, I think that's going to be really well served as we move into October and November too. How frustrating was Sunday watching you guys were calling the game?

Sunday? Yeah, that game on Sunday. Oh, the Falcons-Cowboys! Yeah, yeah, that Falcons-Cowboys game that you were on the call for.

Wes Durham with us here from the ACC Network also calls the Falcons as well. You were doing it remotely. Did that make it any less frustrating to call? No, games like that always bother you.

You know, because you see them, you see the ills of the front end paid at the back end, and that's the real problem. Because, and Dave Archer, a wonderful guy to work with, great friend, and he said in the first half, I wish we weren't kicking field goals here. You know, wanted to be scoring touchdowns. Because in the NFL, that's why the league is the league. Stuff like that happens. Has Dan Quinn given an explanation for what exactly happened on the onside kick?

Why no one jumped on it? Oh, they're clearly, I don't know that he said anything specifically other than, you know, we talked about what it was and how we needed to play it. But as he said, you know, we didn't, obviously the world famous, we didn't execute it very well. You know, but then again, I don't know that I have ever seen somebody do what Greg Zuerlein did to the football in the onside kick process. And that's saying something because you might have, Atlanta might have the best onside kicker I've ever seen.

Yeah, Young Waku is very good, yes. But I've never seen anybody put the ball on its side and essentially kick one end of it and have it start spinning. And when you think about it, it then becomes a game of like the old high school rebound drill, a box out, you know, check out.

You got to be able to find your guy and check him out. Well, Atlanta lost the leverage on that about seven yards into the kick. Yeah, I was watching the U.S. Open as that was happening. And, you know, you'll appreciate this with the Masters coming up in about a month in Augusta. I mean, he kind of kicked it the way that you would reading the green on the 18th green.

And Greg Zuerlein, Greg the leg, figured out a way to get it to spin just the right way. My message to Atlanta fans, just like Carolina Panther fans at 0-2 would just be, eh, take a breath. It's only two weeks. And no preseason games. And let's not forget, the Ravens were 2-2 to start last year and the Patriots, their last four Super Bowl teams, they were either under 500 or at 500 through four games.

Well, here's the other thing. Everybody else, you're only a game back because New Orleans lost the other night. So everybody's a game back. I mean, it's not like after two weeks, they're three 2-0s and a 1 and an 0-2. And look at all these injuries, man. I mean, we'll see who holds up week four, week eight. I mean, we could see the injuries now and you could try and plug a hole for a week, but two or three weeks down the line, how are these lines are going to look?

I don't know. I mean, shoot, it's just way too early. And I see a lot of sweeping judgments being made. Well, that's because that's what we're good at these days.

As if Kyle Allen didn't come in with the Panthers 0-2 and win four in a row. Just saying. Weird things can happen, my friend. It can't. Well, it's the NFL.

I mean, that's why it is the NFL in many respects, man. That's right. So we'll see how it goes. So, hey, I hope you're doing well. I am going to Pittsburgh for Top 25 on Saturday at noon. Very excited. Noon on the network. The big show as well.

You got the Packer and Durham show. Listen to it tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Appreciate you spending the time, Wes. Anytime, man. Take care.

Be well. There you go. On Twitter, shoot him a follow at West Durham. B. Dot is here. And he'll take me to grammar school a little bit early. Next on the drive.

B. Dot is hanging out with us in studio. Usually we wait to the last segment together and the hour we spend each week to do grammar school.

But we need to bless the folks earlier by doing grammar school. I don't know. Right about now. How are you feeling about that? I'm with it.

Let's do it. Say less. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking in high school.

He didn't play sports, but he did wear a helmet. And just when you think it can't get any worse. My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high. Thanks a lot. Next semester I'll be 35. Josh is going to attempt to learn B. Dot's vernacular. I'm from the old school.

I got street knowledge. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? It's time for B. Dot's grammar school. I know what say less means now.

Because of last week, don't you? That's right. And what does say less mean? To do less. That is what it means.

Facts. That's not what it means. What's it mean? Say less means you don't have to say anything else. Like don't say nothing else. It's over. We're good. We're going out to eat later. Say less. What time?

Meet me there at seven. Say less. Conversation over.

It's done. Say less. I don't even need to explain what this segment is. It's essentially that where I butcher hip-hop terminology or urban vernacular. He's horrible. I mess it all up.

That's the reality of the situation and the reality of this bit. He's horrible with urban vernacular, although he still tries to use it and we laugh at him. So in attempts to make Josh cooler in these locker rooms where urban vernacular is spoken at an all-time high, we have grammar school on Wednesdays. Five words or phrases here, Josh.

You have to get three of them correct in order to get a satisfactory grade today. Are you ready? I'm ready. Three letters for you, Josh. This is Robbie's favorite when I just hit you with the letters. I hate acronyms.

Starting it out with one right here. O-M-M. Oh man, I thought it was going to be O-M-G. You ain't getting off that easy. Exactly. O-M-M. O-M-M. So two M's as in Mary's. I was thinking it would be O-M-W too.

I know what that is. O-M-M. What's going through your head right now? I'm thinking like it's on my something.

So instead of on my way, it's probably on my... Can't help you out. I know you don't like to burn on this. All right. Let's burn one early, Robert. On my mama. On my mama?

So it's like, I want to do that on my mama or I swear to God on my mama. There you go. I got you. That sounds right. I'll go with it.

That is correct. O-M-M is on my mama. Okay. Now you're all out of lifelines. Well, actually you have one more if someone would like to call up and help, but they never do. It's at the point where no one calls in because they don't want to help.

In fact, they call in and they try to mess me up. 3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600. If you'd like to change that trend, it would be appreciated. If someone says period poo, what does that mean, Josh? What? Yeah.

Period poo. I mean... I mean what? Does it mean that's it? Like kind of like an exclamation point? Like you know how people say, the Lakers are going to win the series, period. It's like an exclamation point.

How about the Lakers are going to win the series, period poo? That's what I'm going to go with. Like kind of like an exclamation. That's it.

That's the bottom line. Period poo. 100% correct, Josh. Yeah!

Yeah, you're 100% correct. And actually, females actually added this one. You know, just period. Everybody say period, just like you used in your demonstration. And then the females say, and that's on period, poo.

Men really don't say period, poo. Just to let you know, Josh, okay? Thank you. So please don't go out there and jump out there and say that. Josh, you just need one more.

I'm going to win this game, period, poo. Yeah, like that. Like that.

Hell no. These four letters are a word. It's not an acronym, but T-U-N-K. Why don't you just say the word? What is tonk? I know what a trunk is.

Oh, great. Tonk. What is tonk?

336-777-1600 is the phone number, just in case you'd like to help. It's ridiculous. Even though I know it's more entertaining when you don't. When you're struggling. Tunk. T-U-N-K. Tunk. Yes, what's tonk?

Can I ask you a question to help him out? Because I'm not sure I even know what it is. Really? That's important. Is it something that you can do as in an action or... I don't want to give too much because if it is... Is it a verb or is it a noun? I don't know. Do you tonk or can something be tonk?

You can tonk out, but it's tonk. How do you not know if it's a noun or a verb? It's a noun, but you can do verb-like things within the noun.

That doesn't help me at all. I hate when he breaks it down into English words. Yeah, it's just the subject or the predicate of the sentence. Yeah, I don't know. English, mother bleepers, do you speak it?

Yes, I do, but I didn't learn it well. But I ain't great in English papers over here. Exactly. Okay, I'm gonna say this is like some variation of getting turnt or getting crunk. That's what it is. Getting tonk.

Like getting turnt up. I don't know. Is it a game? Like spades? Yeah, tonk is a car game.

That's what I thought. Tonk is a car game where you have five cars in your hand, and you have to put them together by their books. They have to be in order. Like two, three, four of clubs, two, three, four of diamonds. That's a car game. You using it in a sentence was you tonk out. Yeah, because at the end you can tonk out.

Yeah, at the end you can tonk out. That's the verb part of it. The name of the game is the action. I hate this damn game. So it's a game, so it's a noun, right? I'd probably like that one better. I'd rather probably play tonk than this game.

Not with us. If you're playing spades and somebody says they're going wheels, what does that mean? I don't play spades. Going wheels?

Going wheels. Is this, Robert, is this a spades? You use your lifeline. Is this a spades expression just exclusive to the game spades?

Yes. I don't play spades. I don't imagine. That doesn't help me at all.

Look, look, I'll give you another hint just because I'm feeling nice today. They ain't gonna help me. I don't play spades. But it ain't gonna help me either because I'm not completely sure what this is, Josh, but I'm gonna help you out.

Okay. I think going wheels is the opposite of going nil. So if you went nil, it would be zero books. But if you went wheels, you're gonna say we're gonna get all the books. That could be wrong. I've never heard somebody say wheels before. That's my best shot. I'm going with it.

For the first time, Robbie is incorrect. What is wheels? Very close. Wheels is when you go 10 in spades.

A Boston is when you get all 13 books. How am I supposed to use that in a tease? This isn't our problem. Yeah, what is it for you to figure out? Facts. All right, last one right here, Josh. And this is a review word.

That means you got a 50-50 chance of getting this correct because did you retain the information? Brent tweets in lifeline, win 10 books. Just a little bit too late, Brent. Little too late. He tried. Thanks, Brent.

Thank you, Brent. What does it mean to catch a fade? What does it mean to catch a fade? This is a review word we used on August 26th.

Yeah, pretty recently. I know what I said to this. What does it mean to catch a haircut? And it wasn't right. That's why you're asking me again.

I know it's not a haircut. Brent, get off of there. No lifelines from you.

I should be able to use a lifeline, right? He tried to shoot one. It's too late now. 777-1600, I didn't try to shoot one. I already got it wrong. Brent tried to shoot one. Oh, right.

Yeah. If you would like to help Josh win today's episode. Catch a fade. Of grammar school, call up right now and tell him what catch a fade means. 336. It's not like AJ. Oh yeah, give the phone.

336-777-1600. It's not like AJ Green in the corner of the end zone throwing a fade. Nope.

When AJ was younger. It's not a haircut. That's what I normally get. I get a fade. You can do this.

I know. It's not like fading your pick either because that's what I said last time and I was wronged. Think about this. Like if you were to catch an actual fade, what action in your body do you think that would replicate? Action in my body. Um, catch a fade. You know what? I think it means like to, to catch these hands.

Like in a fight, catch these hands. What did you just read? I didn't read anything. You just looked down at your screen. What did you just read? I swear to God, I didn't read anything. That didn't look sketchy. That didn't look sketchy.

I did not read a thing. Is it right? Not all the way.

Is it not close? Where? I swear I don't have anything in front of me other than Twitter. And you see my mentions. He gets so hot, man. To catch a fade means to get beat up. So I will give you credit with throwing the hand.

When he acts like that, it makes me want to not help him. See? And you helped him twice today, Rodney. I know. Congratulations, Josh Graham.

You got three out of five, correct? Catch a fade! And you won't have to catch a fade from Sarah Bradford. Yeah! Man, I'll tell you what, man.

The Charlotte Hornets have been catching a fade for years. Is that right? Did I use that correctly? OK.

Yes, that sounds good. I mean, they're not really good at basketball, but I bet they're good playing spades, going wheels. You used it right, but why would you guess that?

I mean, I'd like to picture him on a plane. I don't know. Like, playing spades, playing tongue. There we go. There we go. There we go.

Something like that. But I think they're still looking for a new play-by-play, man. And I'm going to tell you what.

There's somebody in this studio I think would be qualified for that job, period, poo. Yeah. I mean this honestly. On my mama. And I'll tell you. I'll explain next on The Drive. That was all great.

One, two, three. You're on the air. This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. The Charlotte Hornets are still without a radio play-by-play announcer after letting go of John Fokie last month. You know, he had that unfortunate Twitter typo. Yeah.

And I think the perfect replacement for John is sitting right here in our studio. Yes, our guy B. Dot. Ah, yes.

I don't have the faintest clue B. Dot if you have any play-by-play experience, but before you say anything, let me make the case really quickly. Okay, I'll listen. Radio broadcasts have to present a different experience than the TV product. I mean, I think so many of the TV broadcasts are good enough. Now you see teams wanting to do away with the radio position altogether just to simulcast the television broadcast on the radio. Take the Carolina Hurricanes, for example. They have one of the best radio announcers in all of hockey history and Chuck Caton, but they also had John Forslund on TV and they figured so many people were just watching John on TV and not listening to Chuck on the radio.

Why pay both? We could just simulcast John and that's kind of what they did to get by and to cut corners and to save some money. Conventional NBA, Major League Baseball, and NHL radio is dying. Teams, like I said, they have those TV guys and that's where most of the fans watch. Radio play-by-play guys, they're doing a lot of the same stuff, so there really is no reason other than you can't be next to a television for you to consume that product. I think if there's a personality-driven radio broadcast that might have people listening to that while they watch the game, it's just something different and I think there's a lot more room for creativity. Take the New Orleans Saints, for example. The Saints, they once upon a time had a great play-by-play man who was awesome technically with all the play-by-play, but then once he got finished, they hired someone who was a year removed from being on the Saints and taught him the X's and O's. It was a different experience than what you would see from a normal play-by-play broadcaster, but those who were listening knew, hey, that's a saint.

That's a guy who played for the team. I can get behind that. The modern-day announcer needs to be multi-platform.

YouTube, you think about hosting events, podcasts. BDOT does more of that than anybody else I know. Big facts. And lastly, the most obvious, we need more diversity among play-by-play announcers. There are no black play-by-play guys among the 130 FBS schools in college sports.

That's crazy to me. In the NBA, when I think of black play-by-play guys, of course, Eric Collins is of color on television. I think of Mark Jones in the national sense for ESPN. But play-by-play positions, there are not many black voices that just aren't people of color. Adam Amin, who we had earlier this month.

Last week, he was calling the Panthers game. There aren't many people who look different. There aren't a lot of women. There are no women, actually. And there aren't a lot of people of color. And I think this is something that matters to Michael Jordan, considering the Bubba Wallace news from earlier this week, where he gets involved with it in NASCAR only with having Bubba be his driver.

That's what was attractive to him. So the Hornets, they should look to do something different. Think outside the box with this radio position. How about B-dot becoming the voice of the Hornets? The play-by-play dot.

The radio voice of the Hornets. Hashtag play-by-play dot. Yeah, play-by-play dot.

Hashtag play-by-play dot. Let's get this started. Robert, is this a good idea? Yeah, I'm all about it.

I'm all for it, dude. B-dot, is this something that you've even thought about? Did you even know? I mean, you knew that there was a radio opening with the Hornets. I'm sure this is going to get back to them some way, somehow.

Would this be something you're interested in? Hell yeah. I mean, I got 16 years radio experience.

So being on the radio, that's easy. I'm passionate about sports. I love the Hornets.

I love basketball. Heck yeah, I could do that. I would love to do that. Yo, hashtag play-by-play dot. Have you ever done play-by-play before?

No. But I have done PA announcing for Winston-Salem State University for 10 years. I bet that was a lot of fun. That was amazing. That was amazing. I'm a legend as far as that's concerned.

You ask anybody that's been to a WSSU football or basketball game where I'm at PA, you never forget that experience. I would kill Hornets play-by-play radio. I would kill it. Who's behind this? Hashtag play-by-play dot 336-777-1600 is the number. Let's speak this into existence. Started right here on Josh Graham's show, baby, The Drive.

Play-by-play dot is the hashtag. I'm with it. Josh, that would be amazing. We'd both be doing sports radio in some sense. That'd be great. I'd own like my next kid.

Aren't we both doing sports radio right now? Well, yeah, but it'd be different because I'd have my platform, you'd have your platform, we'd see each other, you'd be like, yo, remember when I gave you a star on my spot? And I'd be like, I appreciate that, Josh.

And then I was like, look, this is my newest addition to the family. His name is Josh Jr. We need to hear how this might sound. We hear what might sound. All right. I'm going to pull up a game real quick. Just get the last minute of the game. What are you doing?

Wait, what are you doing? I'm going to pull up a game and you're just going to give us the play-by-play. Who are some teams that you might know pretty well? Like, I know you know the Lakers really well because... Yes, I know the Lakers, of course, LeBron and them.

Who else might it be? I know the Clippers, maybe the Rockets. All right. I'm going to pull up a Rockets, Clippers, not Clippers, Lakers game real quick.

A Rockets, Lakers. All right. I'm going to pull this up. Got it on YouTube and my iPad. You had this already queued up, Josh. You knew you were about to throw me to the wolves.

I just took a quick YouTube search. You are S-O-V. This is game two? Game two. Is this my audition?

West semi-finals. Yeah, this is your audition. The Lakers are up six.

It's 113-107. I'm supposed to do all that. I know, I'm doing the play-by-play already.

I used to do play-by-play. I'm going to sit my iPad screen right in front of you. All right. And rather than seeing what you're looking at, you've got to tell me what's happening.

All right. This is play-by-play announcer B-Dot. 122 and counting left in the fourth. Lakers are 113-107. Bron at the corner right here, just over half court dribbling. Looks like he's trying to dribble the clock out.

Looking for somebody to pass it to. Passes it to Anthony Davis. He resets. Passes it back to Bron. Bron back to Anthony Davis.

To the corner here, a jumper by I forget Buddy's name. Oh, Rajon Rondo. From the free throw line, Rajon Rondo for two.

Lakers at 115-107. And now James Harden. He's dribbling. Dribble, dribble, dribble. Top of the key to the lane and a lay.

And it's good. Rockets 109. Lakers 115. 56 seconds remaining. Kyle Kuzma trapped in the corner. He gets it to Rajon Rondo. Rajon Rondo pushing the tempo a little bit now.

Now we're less than 50 seconds. Bounce pass to LeBron James to the wing. He's in the lane.

Bishes it out to Kuzma. He's inside the lane. Bounce pass to Danny Green to the corner.

He sets it up. Reset outside to Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis at the top of the key. He's got P. Oh, inside pass to LeBron. LeBron reversed off one foot.

It's good, baby. Basket good. LeBron James 117 to 109. Lakers are up.

We've got 32 seconds remaining in the contest. Wow. I had to warm up a little bit. I apologize.

I had to warm up a little bit. Well, I just literally pulled the clip off YouTube. You did.

You did. The only thing I would nitpick. Yeah, nitpick. The only thing I would nitpick. Never give the lesser score first.

This ain't tennis. What did I say? You said 109, 115.

That's the only pet peeve I have. Okay. Good point.

115, 109. Good point. I guess my bigger point would be if somebody who was playing for the New Orleans Saints can in less than a year be the voice of the New Orleans Saints with no radio experience whatsoever, B.Dot can do this.

No, I could definitely do that. Hashtag play by play dot. I'm about to tweet at my damn self. Play by play dot. I would love for the drive audience to jump on that wagon and hashtag play by play dot.

I think the listening artists would enjoy me in there screaming to the top of my lungs on made baskets and crawling to my car after losses. Yeah. Our friend Doug Beamer, he's invited us to get involved in this bowling league next week. I don't know if Doug's listening right now. He told me you were going to do it. Are you going to do it? He told you I was going to do it?

Yeah. He told me that you were going to be in the bowling league. I didn't give him a definitive answer or not.

I didn't either. I would talk to you about it. I told him if you were bowling, I was going to come out of retirement. I don't know about committing to an actual league. Again, I'm not a fantasy football guy because I don't really like the commitment of it.

And there are weeks I'm just not going to be able to do it. So, you know, I'll just bowl off and on. I'm down to bowl every now and then.

I don't know if I want to compete in the league. One, because I'm not any good at bowling. Even though I took a course in college, I took bowling. I don't know if it was Bowling 101, but it probably was. You took a bowling course? Yeah, my senior year in college. I think everybody had that college course that they took their senior year.

You know, just hanging out. That wasn't bowling. I wish I would have had a bowling course.

I could have. Bowling was only for the women at Winston-Salem State. Like there was a female.

No, seriously. Like the bowling team was women. Like there were like there weren't many male options for bowling at Winston-Salem State.

I mean, Robert, you went to East Carolina too. Didn't you take bowling? Yeah, I took bowling twice. Yeah.

The same class twice? I took Bowling 1001 my junior year, and then I took Bowling 2000, or 4001, which is like the advanced level of bowling. What did they teach you in there? Like the spins, what the arrows on the alley mean.

Yeah. What grade did you get? 100, but you have to go to class. There's not like a test. Like accurately spin this ball and get a 10-1 split. If you're not able to spin the ball by the end of the class, you don't get judged for it?

No, no. Did they teach y'all how to spin the ball with your thumb in the ball or out? In the ball. Wow. It was, I mean, in and out. I can only do in though. I can't spin the ball.

Really? You might not have been using the right ball. You do know there are different types of bowling balls. And the weight you should use. And different balls.

Like what is the weight you generally go for? I use a 12. Really? Yeah. You should use a much heavier ball, Robert. You think so?

Absolutely. I feel like I have way more control over a smaller ball. Yeah, I usually use smaller ones as well. 10 or 11. But you don't get a lot of pin action because it's a lighter ball.

So you probably need to use a 14 or 15. You think so? Absolutely. I'll give it a shot. Absolutely.

I think B. Dot would smoke me. Oh, I think he would smoke both of us in a handicap game where we're both facing him. I used to be so much better, man. We used to hustle kids, man. Because we were, like, me and my homies, we were black, but we love bowling. What was your go-to move to hustle people in bowling?

Just suck and just see people bowling and be like, oh, we could do that. And they'd be like, yeah, OK, whatever. Put your money where your mouth is. That's all they got to say. And as soon as they say that, I'm out there averaging a 120.

As soon as they put their money where your mouth is, I didn't hit a 232 on them. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's that? Why did you break up your skin color? Is there, like, a perception that black people can't bowl? Have you ever seen the PBA bowling joint with Parker Bond and all those guys? How many black people have you seen bowling? I don't watch the PBA.

I do. And when I look, there are no black people. See, that's funny to me because I've always felt the stereotype was the other way that black people were all really good at bowling.

Really? I had so many friends growing up who were just insane bowlers at 12, 15 years old. And their whole families would go out and bowl. And I just always thought black people would smoke me at bowling. We felt like we were going to be the first black bowlers to get Jordan endorsements. You are listening to the WSTS with Denzel and WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, WMFR High Point. Those signals make up Sports Hub Triad.

You wanted to hear some great sports talk? Well, here it is. Oh, what an appallingly ironic outcome. The Drive with Josh Graham. It's not ironic.

It's just coincidental. On Sports Hub Triad. Ever since the Panthers lost Sunday to Tampa Bay, the most common question I've gotten from Panther fans, do you think you're going to be bad enough for the Panthers are going to be bad enough to draft Trevor Lawrence, which has led to us coming up with the best Trevor tank slogans, despair for the hair, pull the lever for Trevor, never for Trevor, Owen 16 for number 16. There are a lot of them that I find to be very good, but not to make things worse for the Panthers as they're Owen 2 and facing the Chargers on the road this week. I never viewed them as being bad enough to potentially draft Lawrence. And my opinion really hasn't changed considering Teddy Bridgewater is a functionable enough quarterback to throw for 370 yards and complete 79% of his throws. They're certainly more functionable than the Jets or the Giants, the Jaguars, when they face more difficult competition. And I'm interested in what Jonathan Jones thought on that is as he joins us now.

CBS Sports senior NFL writer. Just how close to the bottom do you believe the Panthers to be, JJ? Well, I mean, no one right now is worse than the Jets. So the Jets are really bad.

They're bad at just about everywhere except the left tackle with Ricky Maka'i back then. Listen, the Panthers are maybe not equally, they're also bad. I'm not sure that the Panthers are going to be favored in any games this season, but we saw with the Raiders game, right? In a game that we changed what, six, seven, eight times that they could get, fortunately, could get fortunate enough to win a game or two or three, I think that they have an opportunity even this week against the Chargers. Now, let's be clear, I'm picking the Chargers, but you still are playing a rookie quarterback who now has a game of film out there, five quarters of film out there.

And so maybe they can pull it off. But if, you know, the Jets and the Panthers play tomorrow, I think the Panthers would be favored in that game. That's the thing that I think separates the Panthers from some of the others at the bottom. And of course, the Jets being the worst. They've been competitive the first two weeks within a touchdown to the Bucks at the end before Fournette blew up the line and had that long touchdown run. And they lost 34-30, but had the ball at the end against the Raiders who are now 2-0. Not a lot of those teams we're mentioning at the bottom were even competitive for the first two, but we'll see what happens Sunday with the Chargers.

Looking at the top of the league now, it's better to talk about who's good rather than who's bad. If I remove the Chiefs and Ravens off the board in terms of those you're most impressed by, who's the next team that you're very impressed by watching the first two weeks of? Yeah, no doubt it's the Packers. So you're right, the Chiefs and the Ravens are on a tier by themselves and occupying that next tier. It's the Green Bay Packers with Seattle Seahawks very close behind, but Aaron Rodgers is very clearly playing out of his mind this past week. You know, he had 18 completions, 240 yards, two touchdowns, a passer rating of over 100 and frankly didn't have to pass for 300-350 yards because it was the Detroit Lions and they had doubled them up in this team.

And so that's... So yeah, it's the Packers and again, I very much like the Seahawks and what Russell Wilson is doing, he's absolutely my front runner for MVP right now, but the Packers are number three in the NFL for me. Follow him on Twitter at jjones9, read his stuff, watch his stuff, CBS Sports, he's a CBS Sports senior NFL porter with this hero on Sports Hub Triad. Do you buy the theory, I think Trent Dilfer threw it out there last week, that a reason why we're seeing Aaron play out of his mind right now is because Jordan Love was drafted in the first round? Is that plausible to you? I think it's a fun thing to say that it lit a fire under Aaron Rodgers and whatnot, but you know Aaron Rodgers was the leader of a 13-3 team last season. I think that if not for the San Francisco 49ers absolutely having the Green Bay Packers defensive number and if not for Aaron Rodgers not having at least another weapon outside of Devante Adams to go over against the 49ers would have been talking about Super Bowl participant Green Bay Packers. So it is a fun theory to throw out there, but Rodgers has been playing at an elite level for some time and I know that some people might have looked at 2018 into 2019 and said oh you know maybe he's lost it a little bit I never agreed with that you know the past two seasons going back to 2018 and 2019 he has over 50 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

I mean the guy just doesn't make very many mistakes at all he keeps you in games again 13 and 3 last year so it's a fun thing to say but Aaron Rodgers has been playing at an elite level for some time and I'm not surprised that he has continued that this season. Let's talk about Cam Newton a bit because you covered Cam's entire career pretty much in Charlotte there are a few people in the media I think that knew Cam as well as you did covering the Panthers with the Observer before Sports Illustrated and now where you're at with CBS Sports is it fair to play the results like I'm seeing a lot of Panther fans are doing after the 0-2 start and seeing Cam play well with the Patriots to play the results this early on in terms of Carolina deciding to move off of Cam in March judging that decision? Well no I mean you know they they had Cam and they had the Panthers had a decision to make in terms of do they want to do the rehab thing again and they had done it for several off seasons they were concerned about his shoulder and there was a new training staff coming in but more than anything they were concerned about the shoulder and as I've reported for months now pre and and during the pandemic it's gonna be all about how Cam's shoulder holds up as the season goes along I'm not at all surprised that he's playing well right now maybe he's playing a little bit better than I thought that he would he's playing extremely well right now and I'm not saying that the shoulder is absolutely going to go out but that's the thing that everyone should be waiting for is that the shoulder may go out that's the reason that he was out there as a free agent for so long that's the reason that even when someone like the new Patriots picked him up they they didn't have to pay him really anything even though they had plenty of money to the salary cap and have gotten even more money toward the salary cap with all the opt-outs over there so yeah listen Cam and the Panthers and the Panthers and Matt Ruhle and David Tepper just wasn't going to happen in 2020 and the writing has been on the wall it continued to be on the wall at the combine sometimes you need a fresh start and a lot of times the quarterback position doesn't make too much sense in the NFL if you look at you know for example the Jack holding on to Blake Bortles for too long if you look at Chicago not wanting to bring in Cam if you look at Cam being out there for so long if you look at Jamis Winston one of less than 10 players in NFL history to have 5,000 passing yards and then he couldn't find a home for a little bit and now he's the third string quarterback for the Saints sometimes the position doesn't make sense and in this case I think Cam and and the Panthers didn't really make sense but to me it makes sense it's just it's about a clean slate. A few more things with Jonathan Jones with us here from CBS Sports there are five 2-0 teams that didn't make the playoffs last year and three 0-2 teams that did make the playoffs starting with the 2-0 teams you got the Cards, the Rams, the Bears, the Steelers, the Raiders out of those five teams who were you most convinced probably isn't still going to make the playoffs? Oh the Bears are not going to make the playoffs.

They've gotten very fortunate with Mitch Stravisky the defense has played okay. DeAndre Swift catches that ball in the end zone in week one for the Lions we're talking about the one-and-one Bears. If Golden Tate doesn't have an OPI in the end zone with zero seconds on the clock and just gets a little bit more open we could be talking about the 0-2 Bears and so you know they're barely holding on. I like what Mitch Stravisky did in the fourth quarter against the Lions and I don't want to take that away from them but among the teams that are 2-0 right now they are by far the weakest. The 0-2 teams that made the playoffs a year ago, the Houston Texans being one, the Philadelphia Eagles won the division last year and the Minnesota Vikings even won a playoff game a year ago. Out of those three I mean we see the stat every year teams that start 0-2 it's really difficult to get back into the playoffs.

You're talking about one more playoff team in each conference this year so maybe those numbers favor these teams more than they would normally. Who do you like the most out of the 0-2 teams that made the playoffs last year to bounce back? Who I like the most would probably be the Falcons. I know that they're coming off a very embarrassing length to lose to the Dallas Cowboys but they have just so much talent.

I still believe a solid head coach in Dan Quinn even though his seat is flaming hot right now. Carson Wentz for the Eagles is playing really really poorly, has regressed here in year five, was surprised by their week one loss. You know I'm not surprised by the Falcons losing at home to Seattle and ultimately losing to the Cowboys. The Vikings do look pretty bad I have to say.

Not even close they're not even close in these games. No they do look they do look pretty bad but you know they still have a Super Bowl winning head coach in Gary Kubiak who is the offensive coordinator there. Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook maybe they can figure out how to get back the play action magic that they rode so much last season with Kevin Stefanski as the offensive coordinator. So I'm just I'm very discouraged by how Carson Wentz is playing right now.

I think maybe they can rebound but if they lose this week to the Cincinnati Bengals boy it's gonna be a rough week for Philadelphia Sports Radio. Yeah follow JJ on Twitter at jjones9 CBS Sports NFL Senior Writer. I said tonight there's NBA Easter Conference Finals game four there's the Stanley Cup Finals tonight but I'm wanting to watch this social dilemma on Netflix and I saw on social media that you had watched it which I guess is fitting I saw you on social media and plugged your Twitter account. Should I watch this?

Should I be afraid to watch this? No you absolutely should I mean it's I think it's an important I don't know if I'd call it a documentary movie you know whatever it is interesting I think that you know everyone should not have the Facebook app on their phone they shouldn't have Facebook Messenger app on their phone that should have been off your phone years ago but beyond that you should also you know disable push notifications it's gonna it really goes into the algorithms that these social media companies use and how they use our human psychology against us and to you know wring more money out of us and so I think it's important for everyone to watch both as adults I think it's important for those with children to watch especially you know it touches on this next generation how they interact with social media so I would encourage a lot of people to tune in and check that out. It is a pet peeve of mine when I think I read a little bit more than 20% of the adult population is on social media I think that's a correct stat yet so many writers like yourself television hosts sports radio hosts they program their shows they decide what they're going to talk about based on the reaction and based on what's trending on social media and also people are attaching value to writers or people who do what we do based on how many followers they have which is kind of an interesting phenomenon. It is and I would encourage folks to certainly understand that social media is not real life and that it is a a tool for us and I enjoy sharing information I enjoy curating those that that share information and whatnot but I I gave up long ago fighting and interacting with with with trolls on the internet you just you know at some point you got to protect your energy it's something the movie the documentary sort of dives into this that you know we we as humans are not built for society to consistently tell us how much of an idiot we are for and that's what you get when you go into your Twitter mentions if you get a hot butt button topic in sports for example and so you know maybe we should re-evaluate how we how we use social as a means of interaction. Well thanks for giving some of your thought and energy to this show rather than the trolls on Twitter I hope you're safe hope you're well and it's good to hear your voice JJ thanks for doing this. Hey man I appreciate it. You got it that's Jay Jones on Twitter at Jay Jones 9 Jonathan Jones spending time with us here on Sports Hub Tryin.