Pucks and Tweets with Sara Civian

Welcome in to a Monday Drive! Hope you had a great weekend.

We've got so much to do today, but here's where I want to start. Because I don't have a thick country accent, nobody seems to think I grew up in the sticks. But I did. Robert, I don't know if you've been to my parents' house, Youngsville, North Carolina. It's adjacent to the city of Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, and we grew up in the woods, man. Near Hennison, right?

Near Hennison, that's exactly right. And in the South, we have an expression. And I'm sure you've been told this.

This is something that I thought about, especially when I moved out to Colorado for a few years. You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. And I think the same is true in coaching. Aside from a brief stint with the Giants, Matt Ruhl, he's been a college coach. Leading a team, he's had success doing it one way. And in the last two days, it's become evident that's not going to change just because he's in the NFL now. In other words, you can take the coach out of college football, but you can't take the college football out of the coach. Matt Ruhl, he's coaching the Panthers like he would a college team.

I saw the video earlier today. Coach Ruhl was going through drills with the defensive lineman, and he's hitting the tackling dummies. I don't think you're ever going to see Bill Belichick doing that, or Andy Reid, or any of these NFL coaching lifers. Even Ron Rivera, I don't think you'd ever see that from him. Apparently, according to Trey Boston today, Coach Ruhl and coaches would participate in the pushups They would have players doing pushups, which seems a lot more like high school and college practice than what you would see at the NFL. This isn't a knock in any way.

It's just different. He's a rah-rah coach. I think we knew that the moment he had his press conference. He won the press conference with his personality, the way that he motivates. He is a culture builder. Usually culture builders are rah-rah guys. You don't really see culture builders who don't have that contagious personality.

Coach Ruhl, he has that. But here are the buzzwords I've heard the last few days, talking to the players on Zoom, talking to some reporters, been texting back and forth with people who are inside the practice. Quickness, uptempo, fast, chaotic.

That's how the practice is, the practices have been described. There's music blaring throughout. It's all like modern day hip hop.

I think the oldest song that was played was a Linkin Park song. So that's what's blaring all throughout. Coach Ruhl said it was because he wants it to simulate games. He wants things to be chaotic.

I don't know if you need a lot of noise when you see the reports about how many fans are going to be allowed, if any, at a lot of these NFL games. But that's the thinking. Sprinting to every single drill. You go from one drill to the next one. You're not walking, you're jogging. You're sprinting to get to every single drill. Constant movement. Again, this is stuff that I've watched a lot of college practices you generally see a lot of.

You don't see a lot of it for professionals. And let me be perfectly clear here. This is how Matt Ruhl should coach. If you grew up in the sticks in the country, you should be genuine to yourself. You shouldn't try to hide that in any way.

You shouldn't. Coach Ruhl, this is what's worked with him. This is why he got hired. He got hired for what he did at Temple and Baylor, not for being an assistant coach on the offensive line with Tom Coughlin and the Giants. So why would he change? There's evidence it can work. Pete Carroll, perfect example.

You can find the columns. Oh, rah rah guy going to the NFL. That's stuff that he did at USC.

It's not going to work at the NFL. Back-to-back Super Bowl trips. One Super Bowl win. Probably should have won both of them.

Who's laughing now? And the Seahawks are every bit as relevant as they were about 10 years ago today. Pete Carroll's one of the best coaches in the league. Seemed to be air quote rah rah guy. But I had a chance to talk to Teddy Bridgewater earlier today about Coach Ruhl and the energy and the tempo. And here's how that exchange sounded. Just being able to practice the past couple weeks.

It's been great. The tempo, the energy, everything. You watch tape. See guys flying around. You stand on the sideline.

You see guys communicating. And those are some of the steps that they take to be a successful football team. You know, you have coaches flying around. I'm watching practice like, man, who is this guy? And it's a coach. You're thinking it's a player.

So you feel the energy from top to the bottom. And it's great. Teddy, mentioning the coaches flying around and the energy and up tempo, given with three other teams, how much different is this? The beautiful part about this league is nothing stays the same.

No team is the same. You know, you watch us and we're doing some things that, you know, we didn't do when I was in my previous places. But the one thing I can say is we're bringing that energy. We're filling coaches energy every day.

He talks about the brand, you know, guys having that process. And, you know, from the time we finish stretch, you know, you have to turn that switch on and be ready to compete. That's Teddy Bridgewater. Considering how thin the Panthers are on the D line, do you think Matt Ruhle could rotate in today after you get past the non-president Woodrow Hamilton, who's going to spell Derek Brown and KK Short in the middle of that D line?

Yeah, they're going to be bad. Why not just be worse? Throw Matt Ruhle out there, coaches out, tours ACL for a couple of weeks.

All right. I like playing this game. Player coach. What coach do you think could immediately step in? NFL head coaches.

What NFL head coaches can immediately step in and play? Who's the guy? Is it Le Fleur?

Le Fleur in Green Bay? Is he the one? I would love to see Bill O'Brien on the ISO just get lit up trying to run up the middle. That would that would make me so happy.

I'd love to see Sean Payton get blindsided. But the answer is Mike Vrabel. Oh, that's pretty good. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one six hundred. What coach would you like to see playing right now who could have success? And you've got to tell us the position, too.

Seven, seven, seven, one six hundred on Twitter at Sports Up Giant. What if I came back at you, Frank Wright playing quarterback? Oof. I mean, maybe. You can't count out Frank Wright. I can, but I mean, the Houston Oilers made that mistake.

This is like a 30 year old joke. Yeah, the Houston Oilers made that mistake. I forget who Maryland football was playing. But Frank Wright had the biggest comebacks in college and in the NFL. Why not coming back onto the football field as a quarterback? So I don't think Matt Ruhle should change up what he's doing at all.

I am interested. Genuinely, if you injected the veterans with true serum, how do they feel about this? It's a tough time for everybody, man. It's 2020. The Panthers aren't supposed to be good. Training camp's rough. Guys are opting out, right? And you want, as a professional, imagine being a five or ten year vet and you've got Matt Ruhle telling you you need to sprint to every single drill and do pushups.

That's too damn bad! Yeah. How do you think that goes over? To Matt's defense, Teddy, he says he loves it. Trey Boston was all about it today, talking about accountability. Good to have coaches who are keeping you accountable. Also on Matt Ruhle's defense, there's not a lot of 15 year veterans on this Panthers team. That's right. Is this the reason why Russell Okun's thinking about retiring?

He's like, man, I'm not doing these sprints, dude. I mean, am I going to have to block coach rule? This is about to happen here. All right.

I want to transition things. We'll get to the Windham Championship in just a few minutes. The Carolina Hurricanes. Game four is later on tonight against the Boston Bruins. I'm a Canes fan. I make that gnome because I show bias when it comes to them and the Baltimore Orioles.

And that's pretty much it. But even as a Canes fan who likes putting on the red and black tinted shades, I don't see the Hurricanes winning this series against Boston. I said that last week and they had a golden opportunity Saturday.

We were talking about how the fatigue of Took a Rask might be a difference maker, which speaks to how stupid preview radio could be at times because Took a Rask hours later opted out of the bubble and it didn't matter. Even as Yara Halak gave Carolina a goal, like it was the hockey equivalent of a pick six, throwing one from behind the net, gloved down by Nino Nederreiter, sticks it through and you're given a goal, you still can't win the damn game. The Canes, they needed to win that game. The Bruins, they were more vulnerable than they've ever been. No Rask. Pastornaut didn't play.

By the way, Pastornaut not gonna play tonight either according to Coach Cassidy. If the Canes jumped on Boston, they could have broken their spirit the way that they broke New York spirit. The bubble, it's tough. You're isolated there. It's probably not great for mental health being away from your family. Boston's probably thinking about it as one of their teammates, one of their best players left the bubble to be around his family.

He just had a newborn, Took a Rask. If Carolina wins that game, there's probably other Boston Bruins second guessing being in the bubble. Pastornaut being out. Oh goodness, Carolina, if they're up two to one right now, I think it's a serious consideration Carolina could win this series going away since they lost even after being gifted a goal.

I think it goes completely the other direction. Boston's been better in every single game, outshooting Carolina in every game. I think that's now four straight games Carolina's been out shot.

That's only happened once during the entire regular season, a stretch in February. And now they're missing Andrei Svechnikov. It's a bummer Carolina's not going to have their guy. We're not going to be doing a lot of that anymore because he's going to be out at least this series, probably the next series. You'd be lucky to get him back for the conference finals.

That's tough. I think it hurts more than Took a Rask. Yaro Halak, he's proven that he could step in with little drop-off from Rask's play. But who on the canes can replicate the body that Svechnikov has? The play that he and very few others are capable of putting forth. I don't know. I don't see it.

So I think it really hurts Carolina not having him. Robert, why are you laughing? What did you say? It hurts more than Took a Rask? It just sounded like you were having some procedure done and you were comparing it. Took a Rask does sound like a medical procedure. And then afterwards you were like, and Jarl Hjingenergen.

I was like, well now we're in Sweden radio. I don't know what's going on. Took a Rask. Robert has no clue.

Who any of these guys are. It would be terrible. You know it's bad if the doctor walks in and says, I hate to break the news to you, but you've got Took a Rask. No. The final round of the Wyndham, man. It was terrific theater. Big time win for Jim Herman.

But coming up, it's never too early to start thinking about 2021. Keep it here on the drive. Let's go. And QID. You're on the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad.

It's not Third Eye Blind, but that's okay. Game four. Canes Bruins tonight. Sarah Sivian now with us. It's going to be pucks and tweets with Sarah. We had a chance to hang out in Winston-Salem a few weeks ago. Perhaps we can, we can touch on that. I'm interested in your observations on Winston-Salem at large, but this is the Sarah Sivian series, isn't it?

Bruins Canes. I guess so. I mean, it's been kind of weird, obviously, right?

With not being able to not being able to physically be there. It's like I'm trying to just and then the times are like 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. It's kind of weird.

But I mean, it's still my series, right? It is pucks and tweets with Sarah at Sarah Sivian. I'm always the fifth wheel, even when I'm in a relationship. It's like you want to know him. He goes to a different school. Yeah, I don't know. This entire weekend I was just the fifth wheel, like the 17th wheel was pretty dramatic. I probably could have kept that tweet to myself, but I was, I don't know.

I always, I'm a free spirit and I like to float around by myself. All right. What's more valuable to their team or who's more valuable? Andrei Svechnikov, who's not going to play this for the rest of the series for the Canes or Tuka Rask, who's not going to be here the rest of the playoffs, we learned, him opting out of the bubble. I thought you were going to say David Pasternak and that's like, that's two things for the Bruins right now that aren't going their way. So the Canes don't really have much of an excuse, not that they're not making one. But I'd say, relatively, I think Halak is just, not just as good as Tuka, but he's better than most NHL backups. So there's no replacement for Svechnikov. So I feel like Svechnikov is more important to the Canes. Good point. No Pasternak tonight for Boston.

Again, game four is going to start at eight o'clock tonight. At Sarah Sivian on Twitter, everybody is getting pregnant and having a baby and posting a photo shoot about it. And I'm like, don't you even care about your brand? Every time I was thinking about it, like every time in past relationships or whatever, that I'd post a picture with a boyfriend or whatever, I'd lose like a hundred Instagram followers. So I'm like, wow, people don't even care about their brands these days, huh?

It is a good point, Robert. It is something that I think women have to think about a lot more than guys do, that there's just these guys who are following people because of how they look. I mean, if I post a picture of me and my girlfriend, I'm not losing any followers, am I, Robert? No, you're probably going to get the same 15 likes you always get. Floating at around 15 likes. But you know what, it's their loss, right? As long as it's over 11.

As long as it's over 11, that's exactly right. All right, Sarah, who do you think should get the nod and goal tonight? I think Robert's been great, but I really just think you go with Mrazek. For me, I don't know, are you confident in having a starter or are you not? I don't really think it's made that much of a difference to go with, to be honest with you.

I feel like it's been more of an issue of being able to finish on offense, but I would say Mrazek, but I'm not really married to that opinion. On Twitter, at Sarah Sivian, doesn't the Taylor Swift Red album make you want to die? Wow, you're just coming at my throat today. Yeah, it kind of makes me want to die, just really sad. I don't know why I listened to her.

I'm happy, but I've been listening to all her music lately just because she released something new and it's making me sad for no reason, which doesn't seem healthy, but here we are. I'm interested in your thought on this, because I feel like the Bruins have been better than Carolina in the last three games. I really feel like, I mean you look at the Bruins, they're out shooting the canes, it's an obvious area you can look at, but as somebody who covers the sport a lot more closely, what area do you think has been the biggest mismatch here between Boston and Carolina? Well, I mean there's the power play, which the Bruins famously have one of the best power plays in the league and the Hurricanes famously do not, but you got to kind of pick your poison, like you want to win at 5-1-5 or on special teams, but I think shot suppression, like that's why when I was still in the series, it was a good call by Brenda Moore in game two to switch it up and make him on the second line, so it's like it has to be a matchup game with the Bruins and they have one of the best first lines for a reason, especially with Bergeron being such a good two-way player that he can score and they can produce while also shutting down whatever line they're playing against, and the Bruins also have one of the best fourth lines and that's also great for shot suppression as well, so it's like it's kind of you can't win with one line.

That's been Pucks and Tweets with Sarah Sivian. Before I let you go, what did you think of Winston-Salem? I tried to bring it to my favorite spot, but you've had a chance to explore the city a little bit. Yeah, it's lovely. I mean, I haven't explored it that much, but I do think it's pretty charming. I like the kind of like gothic hippie vibes, I guess. I wasn't really expecting that out of it, but I'm here for it. It's a really good description.

Gothic hippie vibe. Sarah Sivian nailing it despite not spending as much time in Winston as she does in Raleigh covering the Carolina Hurricane. Shoot her a follow at Sarah Sivian.

Follow her coverage tonight as the Canes face Boston in game four. It's good to hear from you, Sarah. Hope to see you sometime soon. Yeah, you too. Thanks so much for having me.

There you go. From The Athletic, it's Sarah Sivian. Do you agree with her general assessment of Winston-Salem? See, you're from the Triad, you were born here.

I'm from North Carolina, I grew up outside of Raleigh. Gothic hippie vibe Winston-Salem. If she's going strictly off downtown Winston, which is, that's where she's going, then yes, I could see how she could see that perception.

But yeah, she's not far off from the downtown scene. Maybe Gothic is a little off, maybe it's like dreary, old architecture. You're going to have to look some synonyms up. I'm not a thesaurus, but something like that.

I don't think it's Gothic, but she's on the right track. I've got my full NBA playoff predictions that I'm going to do in a little over five minutes. Pretty excited for that.

But before we do that, is Mike Tyson going to make his way to the bubble? I really do wonder what Iron Mike thinks about CJ McCollum's impression over the weekend. He's playing with a broken back, and that was made known in a pretty hilarious way after the game on Saturday. I broke my back spinal.

Which, of course, I watched it live and I knew exactly what that was from. If you don't, this is where it comes from. I broke my back.

What do you mean by that? Your back is broken. What, a vertebrae or a horseshoe? Spinal. Come on, Jim Gray.

Jim Gray. He said he broke his back. And then he followed, Tic. I broke my back. Don't kick a man while he's down.

That's right. What do you mean you broke your back? I broke my back. What do you want Mike to say? Like a vertebrae?

It's C7 and C8 in my back. What do you want him to say? Well, this is exactly what I expected Mike Tyson to say.

This right here? I broke my back. Spinal. Spinal. It is a really good impression by CJ McCollum.

I broke my back spinal. That's like if Steve Urkel. That's like Steve Urkel, Mike Tyson. I mean, the game just ended and he's got that prepared.

He's ready to go. How many times do you think they've been doing that off the court? Oh my gosh.

I broke my back spinal. Probably a lot. A lot. It has to be. CJ McCollum, honorary Tar Heel in Greensboro, beating Duke with Lehigh in that 15-2 game. Gosh, I'm a big fan of CJ McCollum.

I think he actually came down here for one of the NSMA weekends because of everything he does with the Players Tribune and how much interest he has in journalism, like grassroots newspaper journalism. He has a lot of interest in that stuff. But you probably don't care much about that because Robert just wants to hit the clip again.

I broke my back spinal. Is Mike Tyson gonna have issue with this? Probably not. He's a smart man. He knows. He knows it's a funny thing that he said. And the guy has broken his back. Yeah, like it's not like he really did. He's just saying it to say it. No, no. If you're clowning Mike Tyson, you better have a broken back already or else Mike Tyson will make sure your back is broken in a very specific way.

Yeah, that way. All right, I got my full NBA predictions. The NBA playoffs, they're already underway. Robert has his Toronto Raptors t-shirt on. So I'm gonna go series after series, give you my full playoff predictions next on The Drive. Sports.

This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. The NBA playoffs are already underway. Are we counting that Portland Memphis game on Saturday as a playoff game?

Sure. It was a lot of fun. Well, I mean, it was fun, but like if you're trying to find a place to put those stats, it's not a regular season game. It doesn't technically count as a postseason game. It was the first ever non-regular season, non-playoff game in NBA history.

Purgatory. That's exactly what it was. Short of Leonardo DiCaprio with Marion Cotillard and a train just never stopping running through the shot.

Very deep cut inception reference there. Okay, I got my NBA playoff picks. Every single series all the way through. Some of this has changed over the last month based on things I've seen in the bubble.

There's a lot of interesting elements here. There are a lot of interesting elements to get to, but let's start with the Eastern Conference, the 1-8 matchup. It's the Milwaukee Bucks facing the Orlando Magic and I think this is going to be a sweep.

This is the easiest one. I don't see how the Magic can steal a game from Giannis and the Bucks short of Giannis sitting a game. This Milwaukee team kind of was built for this format.

If things are going to be compact, you want to have younger guys and Giannis, he just seems to be an indestructible force. He's going to win the MVP for the second consecutive year. Fun fact about the NBA MVP award, Robert. Never, actually I take up that, one time in NBA history have we seen a back-to-back MVP not make it to the NBA Finals. Any of the two years.

That's incredible. That one example, Steve Nash. So Giannis, it seems pretty iron-clad that he's going to win the MVP for the second consecutive year.

He could make a not so great type of history if he doesn't get to the Finals. So the Bucks, they're going to get through Orlando in the 1-8 and it's going to be a sweep. Pacer's Heat 4-5 matchup. The Heat weren't playing anybody at the end of the bubble when the Pacers took it to them a bit. I think the Heat are going to win this series in six. I know TJ Warham was hot at points, but I don't know how real that is. I don't know how real Nate McMillan's team really is, but Miami, I kind of know what I'm getting with Coach Spoelstra and Jimmy Butler who's trying to sell coffee for 20 bucks a clip to anybody who will have it in the bubble.

More on that in a bit. But I just like the way this Miami team's been put together. Really good first round draft pick of Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and North Carolina guy Goran Dragich.

It all just fits very well. So Miami, they're not going to sweep Indiana. I have them in six, advancing. Celtic 6ers. Stop trying to sell me a false bill of goods on Ben Simmons playing the four. Stop trying to tell me how great Shaq Milton is because he hit a buzzer beater at some point during this bubble restart.

Now the games are going to get real and you're going up against a great coach. Al Horford is playing his former team. You don't think Boston knows how to figure out Al Horford who's been a real disappointment with Philadelphia?

I think this is the end of Brent Brown. I think Boston wins this series and they also win it in six games. Toronto and Brooklyn. This Nets team, feisty. Even though Coach Atkinson's not there. Or Kyrie.

Or Kevin Durant, of course. We saw how tough they can be. Portland trying to win and Brooklyn took them tooth and nail to the finish last Thursday night. I think Toronto will win the series. I think Brooklyn will steal a game though.

Five games. Toronto over Brooklyn. Milwaukee-Miami second round.

This is a six game series. Miami might be the biggest sleeper in the entire NBA because if they get past Milwaukee, I don't think Toronto or Boston presents such an insurmountable matchup that they can't get through. I actually probably like Miami shooting a little bit more than Milwaukee's, but I just don't know how they're going to stop, be honest.

For as much as I like Bam, I don't think you could do that on a consistent basis. So with no home court, very small amount of momentum swings, that's in a genuine way. I think Milwaukee's going to win this at six. Toronto-Boston. My mind is telling me to pick Toronto. My gut's telling me to pick Boston. I think I'm going to go Toronto. Just because something isn't right with Kimba.

Something with his knees. I'm reading the reports. I know Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown's good, but something just isn't right and everybody in the basketball community is high on the Raptors. Great coach, Nick Nurse, championship pedigree.

They found a way to get it done a year ago and they haven't dropped off without having Kawhi Leonard. All right, Robert, hand it to me there. I deserve that one. It's a Monday for everybody. Can you pull that and just see exactly what I said there?

Because I want to hear that. That's about as bad as it gets. Toronto, I think they win this series. I think it's a seven-game series. Milwaukee-Toronto. I don't think this is going to be a long series. I think this is just a bad matchup for the Raptors.

I don't care how good of a coach you are, Nick Nurse, you don't have a star, I think, that could go toe-to-toe with Giannis. Siakam has shown a lot of great signs and it would be something if they went tooth and nail tooth and nail with the Milwaukee Bucks, but I don't think they will. I think it's going to be Milwaukee in five games going to the finals. Do you have this clip or do we have to wait on it?

Okay, we'll just wait on that. Lakers, Blazers in the west and the 1-8. It's going to be the Lakers in five. Okay, I keep hearing about Portland. It's going to give LA trouble.

LA, you look at all the statistics, their last place in a lot of scoring categories. LeBron, he's going to have to be the leading assist man like he was throughout the regular season. Avery Bradley's not there, who's going to guard Dame Lillard, CJ McCollum, Gary Trent Jr.? Portland can't defend anybody. LeBron's going to look like a bleeping superhero throughout this entire series.

I like Nurkic, but I like Anthony Davis a lot more. This is not going to be a long series. I have this prediction though. First two games, maybe first three. Portland's going to win with Dame scoring 45 to 50 points and the entire media is going to say, oh, this is a series now. Oh, this is going to be a long series. The Lakers are going to be in trouble.

They're not. Don't be fooled by the one game. Don't overreact.

I'm predicting the overreaction now. Lakers in five. Houston OKC. This is the toughest one of the first round for me. Houston will be without Russell Westbrook for the first two, maybe three games.

On paper, that's not good. But when you look at the analytics, Houston's actually a better basketball team without Russell Westbrook on the floor, which is kind of an amazing thing. OKC, they're banged up too. I don't know if Schroeder is going to be able to go from the jump. I like the youth of this team.

Chris Paul's not young, but he kind of is the glue that puts Shay Gilges, Alexander and others together. I'm going to go with Houston here, but I think it's a long series. Houston wins in seven. Denver, Utah.

Already underway. Denver wins this series in five games. Bogdanovich. Without him, Utah just has a lot of issues scoring. Conley not in the lineup.

That hurts as well. He was starting to see an uptick in his play. So I like Denver in five. Clippers, Dallas. Luka Doncic.

You got to love him, right? Conley, not in this matchup. Who's the next best scorer after Luka? I'd assume it's Chris Stomps, but I think the Clippers just have so much they can throw at Doncic. His first playoff game, they're going to be physical with him, make him uncomfortable. The Clippers, I'm a little concerned by the fact you got some guys banged up.

You know, they can't seem to be 100% healthy. They played a lot together, but I still like the Clippers to win in five games. Lakers, Houston. Second round series.

This is going to be a long series. Lebron, the stats are there. He plays tremendously well against Houston. Houston's had problems in the playoffs, but the defense, I mainly, after I'll go the offense for the Lakers, they have to keep up with the math of Houston. The math of Houston, they're going to win some games. I think it's going to go to seven, but I'm going to lean with Lebron and what I trust in the playoffs. I think they're going to advance. It's going to be a really good series. Clippers, Denver, no contest. I think this is a sweep. Denver's next best shooter is Jamal Murray, or he is their best shooter, Jamal Murray.

After that, I don't know who you're relying on, Gary Harris. Clippers have so much length, so much defense on the perimeter. I don't think there's going to be much contest here. So the Clippers, nice short series versus the Lakers of the long series. As things are compressed, I'm going to value playing less games for older teams. Clippers, Lakers. I've always been on the Clippers, it being a bad matchup for the Lakers.

I'm thinking it could be five games, but I'll respect Lebron a little bit more than that. I'm going to go Clippers in six. So your NBA finals matchup, it's the Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks. I've been on the Clippers train all season long. Pre-season, I said it was going to be the Clippers.

I'm going to stick with that. They had an easier path to the finals, beating Dallas. Then you got Denver or Utah in the second round. A likely to be worn out Lakers team. It's kind of like their matchup with Portland. The Lakers, you know, they're playing a Portland team that's been playing playoff games for the last week and a half.

The Lakers, they've clinched for the last two weeks. So the Lakers, they're going to take advantage of Portland in the same way I think the Clippers are going to take advantage of the Lakers. And then in the finals, I just think the Lakers or the Clippers, excuse me, are more put together than the Milwaukee Bucks are.

But there are two interesting storylines. So the Clippers, their path, I think that's something that needs to be talked about more. And there's a lot of pressure on Milwaukee. Milwaukee, I think they're facing the most pressure in the bubble. It's them, it's Houston, maybe the Philadelphia 76ers. You'd think the Lakers, but they weren't in the playoffs. They weren't in the playoffs.

They haven't been next to relevant for the last decade or so. So I'm not going to say they're facing the most pressure, even though how many more great years are you going to get out of LeBron? Yeah, I would agree with you, but I think the most pressure has to be on the Nets because they're going to do it without this guy. And they haven't dropped off without having Kawhi. Oh, that was me trying to say Kawhi.

That's amazing. That's me trying to say Kawhi and they haven't dropped off without having Kawhi. That was me thinking about how it was spelled in my brain for some reason. And if you look at it, it's like Kawhi. See, don't try to rationalize me.

No, I'm telling you exactly what happened there. This is the truth. And they haven't dropped off without having Kawhi. I'm just going to say it's... History will know that as you trying to say Kawhi and you saying Kawhi.

What's worse, this and they haven't dropped off without having Kawhi or me accidentally saying KFC instead of KC for the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl run. This is much, much better. Much better.

And that it's worse? Absolutely. Gotcha. 3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. The SEC putting out a football schedule. I love it's the most SEC thing ever that the thing that coaches were upset about were the teams that they had to play.

The extra teams they had to play. Let's go to Mark in Greensboro, who wants in on a mishap. Real quickly, Mark, what do you got? You sounded like the priest from Princess Bride saying, Man Witch. That just cracked me up, man. My son even started laughing. Out having Kawhi. Yeah, that's exactly what I sounded like.

Kawhi. Thanks for the call, Mark. That's great. You brought them on, brother. God, there you go. One, two, three. You're on the air.

This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. A lot of news on this Monday afternoon. School starting back for many.

Hope parents are adapting OK when it comes to virtual learning versus in-person learning. Then you had the column that the Daily Tar Heel put out today talking about the clusters that North Carolina, the university, was describing at a number of different locations on campus. Breaking news to bring to you from the Daily Tar Heel, one week into the semester, UNC Chapel Hill is announcing it's transitioning all undergrad classes to fully online instruction.

This will be effective on Wednesday. So a number of things are happening around the state of North Carolina. The Panthers, meanwhile, had their first fully padded practice today. And to talk about it, Josh Klein from the Riot Report is with us as he's been lucky enough the last couple days to be out there at practice. But before we get to some of the serious football stuff, Matt Ruhl partook in some of the D-line drills I saw today. Could he make the rotation right now in this defensive line group?

I don't think on the defensive line he could make it. Maybe in the secondary, but the defensive line, you know, they've got some big boys up there. They've got Derek Brown, who continually gets described by the other players as big. And when other football players are describing you as big, that's when you're real big. And I think that the defensive line is kind of the strength of this defense right now. But yeah, I mean, fun to see a coach get out there and do some hitting, especially the day after we asked him if he was going to go do some drills.

And he was like, nah, I'm too old for that. And then, you know, he gets out there and he can't help himself. So it's that kind of energy that you've been seeing for the past couple days at Panthers training camp. I want to follow up on this idea of coaches potentially stepping on a field right now. NFL coaches, what position could they step on the field and play? Robert nominated Mike Rabel as being the best coach right now to step on a field, if they had to, across the NFL, but we'll continue to take those submissions on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad. What's the biggest difference, as far as you can tell, between a Ron Rivera run practice and what you've seen with Matt Ruhl the last couple of days? Wait, I don't get to weigh in on how coaches would... All right, so let's do this. Let's do this first. I can't throw out a topic like that and not ask my stupid opinion.

I didn't want to put you on the spot at all. Frank Wright, I thought, was somebody. You can't ever count out Frank Wright.

Just ask the Houston Oilers. That's something I think about. Maybe you could put him at quarterback.

What are you thinking? Yeah, I think, well, I think you got to look at Ron Rivera. I mean, you mentioned him already. That guy is going to be prowling in that linebacker core. It feels like Cliff Kingsbury would be like a good specialist. I'm not sure whether it's Kicker, Hunter, maybe like a long... Maybe not probably big enough to be a long snapper, but he seems like he's dropping those coffin corners inside the five. I got Sean. I got Sean McVay what? Yeah, Sean McVay is probably, you know, he's got that quarterback mindset.

So it does feel like you put him back there behind under center. If you can give him any sort of time, he's going to pick apart the defense. That was what jumped out for me for Sean McVay is a quarterback. What's great is McVay is 34, Cliff Kingsbury is 41.

Neither of those two quarterbacks would be the oldest quarterback in the NFL if they were to play right now, because, of course, Tom turned 42 this summer. All right, let's get to the practice stuff now. Ron Rivera, who I just mentioned, you watched a number of his practices.

Now you've seen a couple of Matt rules. What's the biggest difference you can tell? Well, I think the first thing that you notice is that they really, they jump into it and they get there, they get, get going quickly. Ron Rivera's practices had a bit of a cadence to them where they would, they all seem to be building up towards that last team session or whether it was a red zone drill or goal line drill or, or they would, you know, do a game situation. Seems like Matt rule wants to put his guys into game situations all throughout practice.

And he wants a lot of energy. These guys don't just, they don't walk from drill to drill. They sprint from drill to drill. They're the biggest kind of, uh, forgive me if it's a little bit like poetic, but it used to be an air horn at Ron Rivera's practice to signal that they were going to another drill at Matt rules. It's an alarm. It's it sounds like a car alarm in between drills. As if that urgency has got to be there on every single moment that you're out on that field. And Taylor Milton said a couple of days ago, they try to pack in two and a half hours worth of practice into an hour and a half.

And you do feel that way. They are constantly moving, constantly doing things. And you know, the, you see, they're just very involved. There's music going, they'll cut the music off. Matt rule will have something to say to the team and then they'll jump right back into it. The defense jumps off side.

They're doing five pushups. And that doesn't just mean the 11 guys that are on the field. It means all the defenders that are watching and all the defensive coaches are dropping down and doing pushups because Matt rule does not want this team to beat themselves. And penalties, mistakes, issues like that are going to beat themselves. And that I don't think is going to be something that he's going to tolerate. It's one thing to not be as talented as your opponent.

It's another thing to beat yourself. That seems like something that Matt rule is trying to instill immediately into his new team. Josh Klein's on Twitter at Josh Klein rules, read his stuff, riot report.com, the riot report.com. I hear the stuff of Russell Okun last week, or it might've been two weeks ago. It's the report that drops that he was mulling retirement after the deadline had already passed for opting out on the season. He said that he has concerns with COVID, or at least he told reporters that he had concerns with COVID, the ones that broke the news. He hasn't spoken with us yet. Then after that reporting came down, Russell, he posts the Wolf of Wall Street video where you got Leo DiCaprio saying he's not going anywhere, which led Panther fans to deduct, Hey, he's probably locked in.

He's ready to go. Maybe it's not as serious as we thought him mulling retirement. But then again, we haven't spoken to him yet.

And I thought we would have by now. What do you believe is going on in regards to Russell Okun? I think that Russell Okun is a complicated man who is a football player to whom football is not the number one thing in their life. And Russell Okun has had a lot of success in the NFL and outside the NFL.

Big Bitcoin guy has a lot of other interests, outside interests. And I think that he wants to play football. But the reality is, is when you look at his history, look at all how he's done over the past over the past decade of his career, he's made almost one hundred million dollars. You look at his health issues that he's had in the past couple of years. It's not like he had a torn ACL and he's trying to recover from that. The guy had a pulmonary embolism due to blood clots.

And that is a that is a will make you immunosuppressed and will should have anybody scared of covid 19. And so if he feels like he is not completely safe one hundred percent of the time, I think that retirement is a very plausible outcome for him, even still. Yes, he is dedicated right now. And I think that he's out there. And when we see him at practice, he is working hard. He is still nimble, still has that kind of Russell Okun pass set that you've seen in the past. But the reality is, is that if this covid situation takes a takes a turn at some point, it would not absolutely shock me to see Russell Okun say, you know what, guys, I got to think about myself and I got to look out for my health and I don't feel safe coming into work anymore.

So I have to bow out. Now, that being said, I can tell you that I feel safe. I personally feel safe at Bank of America Stadium right now. And the way that you talk to players and coaches, they say that when you get in the building, when you get in the facility, you do feel very safe.

There's daily testing, there's contact tracers. Everybody's wearing masks. They're they're wiping everything down. They're extremely hygienic. The the work that they have put in to make Bank of America Stadium the safest place possible to keep covid 19 out is commendable. And they're one of only five teams in the NFL that have not had a positive covid test, which, again, is incredible and commendable. And they deserve every single accolade that they're going to get for that. But if there is an outbreak down the road, that is going to make everybody scared that they're going to get covid 19.

And if you are already suffering from health issues or have health issues in your past, it's going to be worrisome. So that is my worry with Russell Okun is that there is a breakout. Does he make that decision later on in the season or pull the trigger on something like that? On Twitter at Josh Klein rules. Read his stuff.

The riot report. We forgot about Mike Tomlin, Robert. Mike Tomlin. Maybe he could step out there and have some success. I got a poll out there that you can vote on at Josh Graham Radio at Sports. I'm trying what NFL head coach most likely to step on a field and play in a game. Sean McVeigh, Mike Rabel, Ron Rivera are the options.

And then there's an other category. Very early on, McVeigh has 43 percent of the vote. So we'll see what happens out of that. Josh, it's good to hear your voice.

Stay safe training camp and we'll catch up sometime soon. Absolutely. It feels like Bruce Arians would be a good run stopper. Bruce Arians on the way out. Josh Klein getting the most out of our conversation.

Josh Klein rules on social media. Wow. Bruce Arians is a run stopper. You put him and Matt Patricia up front.

Whoa. That front looks better than the panthers. How about thick Fangio fangs? Where are you putting? Where are you putting him at? Linebacker maybe?

He's getting broken like a toothpick. I don't know anything about Joe Judge. Don't know anything. He'd probably be a gunner on special teams with John Harbaugh. So who do you like now that you've got Cliff Kingsbury, Sean McVeigh?

I don't want to hear any of that other stuff. That dude probably still prepares the exact same way he did when he was a player. He's probably, he's the least removed of all the other player coaches. It's him and Ron, right?

Yeah. And I feel like he played a position that can be a position of need. And he could come in there, have 15 to 20 pass rush and snaps a game.

Just try to hit somebody. He would be the most successful. Sean McVeigh, I've never seen that dude throw a football. He can know everything about the football, what happened in 1975 on a game between the Redskins and the Chargers. It doesn't matter.

None of that matters. He would get hit one time and take a little nap. The champion of the Wyndham championship, Jim Herman's going to join us at five o'clock in a little over five minutes. So we're going to do the five things at five a little bit earlier than usual. In addition to that, if Pete Carroll can do it, why not Matt Ruhl? That's next on the drive.