Lamar Trade Possibilities (Hour 4)

It is Zach Yelp's show right here on CBS Sports Radio.

We'll get to some trade destinations and quarterbacks that the Ravens could get in return for Lamar Jackson if they do elect to move him. Coming up in a few moments. But let me take a few phone calls first.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. And our next stop is in Cincinnati and Lee joins us. Lee in Cincinnati. Lee, go ahead. Hey, thanks for taking my call, Zach. And I gotta start off by saying, anybody who didn't hear the first part of your show, the segment where you're talking about Aaron Rodgers, they missed out on something great. Because you and Ryan Hickey are the only two guys, I think, that could take the darkest retreat and turn it into a full contact sport. You know, it's like, yeah, I'm gonna be in it to win it. You know, that was so awesome. Well, I appreciate the kind words, Lee. The bottom line is, we get very competitive around here at CBS Sports Radio and we all talk about this darkness retreat and I all think that everyone here at CBS Sports Radio should experience it. And I think we should all lock ourselves in a cave and see who's gonna survive and who taps out the quickest. See, that's what's so awesome because you were like, yeah, no, I'll be there by golly, I'll be.

You know, it's about serenity, it's about calmness and finding yourself. But no, y'all turned it into something completely different. You know, you turned into the total carnage.

That's so awesome. I really do believe myself, Perloff and Shep would be the three people here at CBS Sports Radio that would last the longest in that cave or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, but would you be doing it to try to find enlightenment? Or would you be doing it to try to show, hey, I'm better than you are by golly?

I don't know. Maybe I would go into that cave like Rogers and I would have a lot of things that I would be processing. And maybe one would be if I want to continue doing the Zach Gelb show or not on CBS Sports Radio. Maybe I'll start to demand a trade just like Rogers if I came out of that cave and I wasn't happy. But I think I'd be pretty happy. If I'm doing this objectively, I think I would last until the top three.

And then I do ultimately think as much as I love Perloff and Shep, it would be a Perloff-Shep showdown at the end to see who would be able to last in that cave in Oregon or wherever they went. Yeah, I know. But that's what's so awesome because it's not supposed to be a competition. But by golly, I'm going to tell you right now, the way that you are and the way that you run, I'm old enough to be your father and Ryan's father. And I'd be so proud of the two of you right now for making that into, like I said, into a top competition, man.

But that's not what I called about, though, at all. I want to ask you about Aaron Rogers. I've heard some stuff about him possibly going to the Miami Dolphins.

What do you think the possibilities are of that? Do you think it would be a good thing? I think it would be a good thing for the Dolphins and appreciate the kind words, Lee. Maybe we'll start calling you Father Lee on this show since you're basically the father to Hickey and yours truly in the radio world, as you just claimed. But what I would say about this is I think it would be good for the Dolphins because I don't know what the long-term status of Tua is going to be because it's really going to be game to game with how many concussions he just suffered this past season.

He's taking Judo now to learn how to fall and everything that I was reading along those lines. But I don't think the Dolphins are going to be in the mindset this offseason of getting rid of Tua Tunga by Loa, so therefore I don't think they would pounce on Aaron Rogers. I totally hear what you're saying. It's a good suggestion, like I've discussed this before with Hickey, and this is where we disagreed. I understand why people are suggesting it, and it would make a lot of sense. I just don't think the Dolphins are going to move off of Tua with Mike McDaniel and also their general manager as well, Chris Greer, and I think they're going to give Tua another opportunity.

And then if Tua unfortunately suffers another concussion this year, then next offseason, it's a different story. Look who's on the line right now. I've received a lot of gifts doing this show. I got cookies, which are just delicious, from our friend Jameson in Milwaukee. I got a very question, I don't think it was a gift last week, but I got fan mail from a prisoner who wrote the letter and then ripped up the entire letter, and Hickey and I are working to glue it back together to try to see what the letter says is like ripped up into a hundred pieces. But I don't think I've gotten a nicer gift than from our next caller, and that is Jim Salania, Jim and Charlotte, who made a Zach Gelb show paver, and it's still in our studio to this date, and Jim is on the line right now.

Jim, what's happened? It's been a while. Hey, I figured once you get that paver, it would stay wherever you put it because there's no bargain carrying around, is it? Yeah, that is true. It is sitting in the studio and it is propped up on the floor, and eventually if they ever kick me out of this place, I'll have to take it, and I may have to make them pay to get it out of this building if it ever comes to that point.

You're going to be there a long time. Did you ever put back the corner? Did you ever glue the corner back on it? Ryan, did you ever glue back the corner? That was one of his responsibilities, and Ryan's shaking his head no, so I've got to go get some glue eventually and put it back together.

So right now, since I haven't picked it up, I've just kind of put it in place, so in my mind mentally as I'm looking at it right now, I just imagine that there's no crack in it. Anyway, I called because you guys were talking about Coach K. You know, when I first took the job here doing TV, I had to send back his name to Kyron all the time, and I said, God, I've got to look it up every time, and finally I realized it's simple. K-R-Z-Y Zuski. K-R-Z-Y Zuski.

You know what? I've never heard someone say it that way, but when you go K-R-Z-Y and then Zuski, you're 100% right. Jim, not only are you a great paver, we know you were a great talent on radio and television, you're just a great thinker period after giving that suggestion. Well, I had to come up with it because he was on my show so many times, and he and Dean and all that. I mean, I had to come up with a way to remember it, and K-R-Z-Y Zuski, there's no way you can fail. Zuski's just like it sounds.

K-R-Z-Y is all you've got to remember, you know? So Coach K, Mike Cieszewski, also known as K-R-Z-Y Zuski, did you have a good relationship with them? Did you like interacting with them throughout all those years? Yeah, I did a couple live shots with him, and you get to know him a lot more because they stand with you longer, you know, when you're off the air. And he really studies people when he's with them.

He's guarded, but he's a very smart guy, obviously. But yeah, I had a fine relationship with him, and I did with Dean too. But anyway, I wanted to help you out. You're probably not going to need his name very much more. He doesn't make the news very often.

You know, so no one else has sent you a paper. Damn, that's hard to believe. Yep. I love it, Jim.

Thanks so much. Jim and Charlotte. Hickey, I always thought that name was impossible, and we were both talking about it. When you hear Jim Solania say K-R-Z-Y Zuski, that actually helps a lot. It does make it very simple.

It does make it very easy. Let's see if I can do this. K-R-Z-Y Zuski. So that would be Z-E-W-S-K-I. There you go. That's it.

Alrighty. So Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. A lot of this just kind of reinforced what we already knew in this report by ESPN today.

But it just further details all the problems that are going on with that organization. And really what is people in the organization, for whatever the reasons are, questioning and not trusting Lamar. And Lamar, since he doesn't have an agent, and it's basically his mom, he is in the nitty-gritty of all of these negotiations.

And I've said this before, and I'll say it again. When I've had to negotiate my contract in the past, when I didn't have an agent, you know everything that's said about you in the negotiations. Because no one's just willing to hand you the years and the money that you want. You've got to fight for it a little bit. But then when I hired an agent, I basically sat back, let the program director, my agent, battle it out. And then they come to me when they agree on what they think is fair, and they go, do you think this is fair?

I don't get to hear, oh Zach does this well, Zach doesn't do this well, this is why we want to do this, this is why we want to do that. Lamar is directly negotiating his contract, Hickey. And I think he hears all that, and Lamar wants a fully guaranteed deal, the Ravens don't want to give him a fully guaranteed deal, and now we're at a point where I think we're at a dead end, because the Ravens aren't willing to budge, Lamar's only countering back with a fully guaranteed deal. There was an offer in September that was $250 million for five years that included $133 million guaranteed.

I didn't think it was possible to get further away from where they already were, but they're nowhere near getting closer. And then you get in this article that some feel like, hey, if you had the contract, would you have played in the playoff game? And then one source said a couple months ago to ESPN, I would have said no way that a trade will happen, and then the days after the playoff loss, now I feel like anything is possible. So I think it's at the point where I would give Lamar Jackson the fully guaranteed contract. But with that being said, when you were at a point where now there's a trust issue, where the Ravens don't believe in him enough to give him the fully guaranteed deal or if it's just principle, and then Lamar is clearly feeling that doubt and that skepticism from the Ravens, I think we're almost at a point where both sides have trust issues. Even if you give a big contract, you wonder how much aftermath and damage control you have to go through in order to get that relationship back in a good spot. Even if they give him the contract that he wants, I don't think that this just ends the conversation.

Everyone's back in the happy place. Lamar should have nothing to be upset about, but he still knows in the back of his mind the fight that he had to go through to get that deal. And then there's some of the Ravens organization that are questioning his desire to get on the field because they don't think he was actually hurt, and they thought if he had the deal, he would have been on the field. So we're almost at the point where I do think they should give him the money, but since both sides have a trust problem, is it like the Kyler Murray thing where we give him the money, but then we put a clause in his contract, he has to watch this film, and it's like, why did you give him the money if you don't even believe him to study the film? And that's the road that I think we could be going down, not the work ethic point, but that these two sides don't trust each other, and that's why I believe that the Ravens should trade Lamar Jackson this offseason. And Lamar has all the leverage.

He does. Someone else will give him that contract. Someone else will make in the face of their organization because we know what he could do on the football field. So this relationship to me, Hickey, is really fractured beyond repair. I think there's no going back from here.

I totally agree. It's why I thought I was going to get traded this offseason kind of almost without a doubt why the contract was never really going to happen because both sides have kind of burned the bridge. We've seen it play out kind of in front of us really since he ever got, you know, since he got hurt. Was it back in week 13, I believe is exactly. Week 12, whatever it was, when, yeah, it just gets hurt, and now the entire time after that, it was a timeline for Lamar's injury in return, not lining up. And like I said, then the Ravens are playing coy, not being, not saying anything, which then insinuates is Lamar Jackson actually hurt, or is he milking it?

And then he announces. Right, no one's defending each other. That's why Lamar came out and said, well, actually, here's what's going on because the Ravens are not going to defend myself.

I'm going to defend myself. It's, there's, after all of that, with the deal not getting done the past two years, there's no way it's getting done this year. And also Roquan Smith getting traded there, who does not have an agent, and look how quickly that deal got done. That dude wasn't even on the team before the year started. He gets traded there, and then boom, here you go.

Here's an extension. We'll give you what you want, and he doesn't have an agent either. So, if you're the Ravens, here's what you fear. You trade Lamar, you never find that next quarterback. And I think it's going to be a while until you could find that next quarterback if you're just relying on the draft.

So, I put together a few trade scenarios of just quarterbacks that they could get back in return, and I just wonder what the conversations would be like. Obviously, for some of these guys, you would need more picks coming your way as well. Like, you would need two a Tonga Vailoa if you wanted to make a trade with the Dolphins and some picks, but Hickey, I don't know if you could trade Lamar right now and you would really want Tua back, even though there's a lot of upside with Tua, but the Lamar injuries are different than what Tua's going through. Tua's one more hit away from maybe having to be forced to retire because of how many hits he's taken to the head. If you want to say Tua is your 2023 plan and is almost like a bridge, maybe it'd be okay, fine. How many more draft picks are you getting back, though, with that? Like, Lamar's the better player than Tua.

I would still feel a good amount. Like, I don't think they would take Tua instead of, like I say, an extra first-round pick. So, you say Tua and a one? Oh, at least.

Two and two-one. Something like that, you know? Gotcha. Lamar for Dak. I kind of think that works for both parties. Straight up?

Ah. Dak's under contract for two more years. You have to give Lamar a big deal. If you're the Cowboys, I would almost think that, I think Lamar's a better quarterback. Maybe there would be some outside of first-round picks.

That's probably why I don't think it gets done. But if you're like the, if you're the Ravens and you're looking to salvage this thing, the only concern from the Ravens then is you don't have a lot of talent on that offensive side of the ball. And there's questions about Dak Prescott on how great he could be. If Dak Prescott's throwing to, like, just Mark Andrews next year and whoever they have at wide receiver, and let's hope JK Dobbins get their entire season healthy, I don't know if that's enough for the Baltimore Ravens. Yeah, I think you definitely need one first-round pick, at least with Dak. Lamar, Justin Fields. Is that a straight up deal?

No. I would think you'd probably get more in return, but Justin Fields has a bright future, but then there's some people that question if the Bears are going to trade Justin Fields this offseason too. Yeah, I think you get Fields and, and what? Like a first-round pick and then some other picks in return? Yeah, you're not going to probably, you're not going to get the number one overall pick. Because Fields is the value of a first-round pick. But you definitely need a 2024 first-round pick, I would say bare minimum. Now you would get picks back with this one if you're the Ravens or you take on Kirk Cousins. Kirk and picks, like two first-round picks and then some. I think the Ravens would do that. But then once again, it's kind of similar to Dak in terms of you got a quarterback that's good in the regular season, bad in the postseason, and there's no Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook when you look at the Baltimore Ravens.

What about this one? I would love to see Lamar in Detroit. Golf and like, you still get three first-round picks back or two first-round picks back and then like a second or something like that. I don't think golf moves the needle for me if I'm, even though golf had a good job, I don't think golf moves the needle for me if I'm the Ravens. But I would say again, for a year or two, until you kind of figure out what you want to do at quarterback, I think like that's the thing, like you trade Lamar Jackson, you're probably sitting there saying, what are we going to do? And if you get a guy like Jared Goff back, it's almost kind of like, kind of like two or it's like a bridge for a year or two. Plus you have two other first-round picks, you can figure out, okay, can we trade up in the draft this year? Can we trade up in the draft next year? Can we use these picks to get another, you know, there's always going to be a disgruntled quarterback somewhere.

Is it going to happen next offseason, two offseasons from now? I think it's for at least in the short term, you could still be competitive with a guy like Jared Goff while also having an eye on the actual future answer. You know what I would do? If I'm the Ravens, I make two phone calls tomorrow. I make a phone call to the Bears, see if I get Justin Fields and see if you get the number one overall pick. I would also call the Texans and see if you get the number two overall pick for Lamar and then obviously other first-round picks as well. Because you reset the market if it's the Texans pick on whoever quarterback you get and you get that rookie contract for Fields. He's still on a rookie contract, but he's already two years in going into your number three. But you still get some time there because he was a first-round pick, so you could get up to five years total on that first deal. I think those are the first two phone calls I'm making, but also whenever you get in these scenarios, it's so tough when you're trading another quarterback in there. It feels like if a player of the caliber Lamar Jackson is going to get traded, it's going to be like two or three first-round picks, bare minimum. And I do think it's going to be tough to incorporate a quarterback, but maybe the Niners come calling. And you say, okay, we'll give you Lance.

Well, that's kind of a throw in, I guess. And we'll give you like two other first-round picks. And maybe the Ravens end up doing that if they do believe in Trey Lance. But I do think a trade is going to happen.

I've been saying this so far all throughout the last few weeks. I don't think Lamar is ever going to sign a long-term deal with the Ravens. But I was on the fence of does he get traded this year or next year. I was leaning more next year. Now I'm at the point where we're at a dead end in this conversation. It's either you get the deal done this offseason or you trade in this offseason.

That's the way that I operate. And right now I would say that he does get traded this offseason. Alright, we'll talk to some Saints next at the Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio.

I'm going to give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The New Orleans Saints. Alright, it's time to talk some Saints. We'll do so with Luke Johnson who covers the Saints for the New Orleans Advocate. He joins us right now. Luke, must be crazy this time of year in New Orleans.

I love going to Mardi Gras. Yeah, I'm just barely recovered right now. So it's a good thing you asked me today and not yesterday. I don't think I would have been able to form words, but we're good to go now.

I like it. Maybe we should have asked you yesterday. When you look at the Saints this past year, there's a lot of questions about Dennis Allen and what he could be in this second opportunity as a head football coach. How do you kind of look back at your number one and why do you think the organization said, okay, we're going to keep him around as the head football coach? Well, it was it was rough.

There's no getting around that. They regressed in a lot of areas specifically on offense and honestly, the worst one was I mean, they were careless with the football. It wasn't just the quarterbacks. It was Alvin Kamara losing really bad key fumbles. It was Mark Ingram losing fumbles.

It was, I mean, it was ugly football the entire year. So I think a lot of us in the media, a lot of people on the fan base expected maybe a change at offensive coordinator going into this year. Maybe a little kind of a fresh start moving on from the Sean Payton era. They've had Pete Carmichael.

He's been with the staff since Sean Payton first arrived in 2006. They were kind of hoping to keep that continuity there offensively and, you know, they decided to stick with them. And, you know, I can get it from a standpoint of, well, they they had kind of average to below average quarterback play all year. They had a ton of injuries in the offensive side of the ball.

It didn't look like they were expecting it to look, but, you know, they're kind of doubling down on that. So, you know, that's, that's a, it's a big question mark going into the seasons, whether that can actually be a good offense under Pete Carmichael's direction. It has been in the past when they had Drew Brees, but they don't have a Hall of Fame quarterback right now. So, yeah, I would say there's a fair bit of apprehension around here with the Saints fan base and the Saints team right now. They got to have a big offseason.

Luke Johnson here with us. There's so many rumors about Sean Payton. We know he wound it up, wound up with the Denver Broncos, but there was a rumor at one point that maybe he could go back to Rollins because he's still under contract and bring Tom Brady with him. We know Brady retired. We know Sean's now out in the mountains in Denver. Did you think there was ever an actual shot that Sean was going to consider coming back and coaching with the Saints this year?

Yeah, I think it was definitely something that was, that was at least thought about. I mean, Sean is going to be a Hall of Fame coach. Obviously, his bonafides out here are well known. He knows the roster.

He knows the organization. And I think if there would have been legitimate interest from the Saints side of things, I think there's a possibility that could have happened. But I also just don't think that they are the type of organization with the people who are making decisions here, have been making decisions here for a long time. I mean, Mickey Blumus preceded Sean Payton here. And I don't think they're the type of people who want to make quick, rash decisions. Yeah, they committed Dennis Allen and they're going to see that through.

But yeah, I don't think it was just completely smoke. You know, I think if the Saints would have reached out, I think Sean would have considered it. Absolutely. Because he knows what he's dealing with here. You know, I know they have an aging roster and they're probably on the downslope right now.

But Sean knows what he's capable of and he knows what he's dealing with here. And I think he would have been interested if they would have come calling. Talking right now to Luke Johnson, each and every year, I think we have this conversation. How did the Saints find a way to get under the salary cap? I know I've seen some conversation about maybe a potential Cam Jordan trade. Do you think he'll be on the roster next year?

As of right now, I think yes. But I think it's definitely something that's a realistic possibility. I don't know what they'd be able to get back for him. With his contract being what he is, he's well into his 30s now.

He was still a really productive player last year for him. But the reality they're faced with right now is that these cap problems they're navigating each year becomes a much more difficult problem to solve with each successive season. Because they can't really undo their problems by just cutting a bunch of guys. They can't really do this by tanking and just getting rid of everybody because those people are going to cost them money in 2024, 2025, and 2026. They keep pushing everything into future years.

So it becomes a little bit more difficult. Cam is one option, but at this point I think I'd be surprised if they move on from him in that way. Just because his contract makes it a little bit difficult. Does anything happen with Michael Thomas this offseason? I just have, unfortunately because of the injuries, no expectations for him.

We haven't seen him be that great wide receiver since 2019. I think something's got to happen. The numbers for next year are just, if they keep him on the roster, are really astronomical. They'd have to rework that deal in a major way to get him to stick around. I think that's still on the table.

I think they're trying to figure out a way to make it work. Because look, when Mike was back during training camp and the first two games of the season, he looked like his old self. I think he caught three touchdowns in the first two games of the year and they were just sorely missing just that contested catch guy that he's so good at.

He hauls in everything that's thrown his way. As soon as that was out of the picture, they were missing it all year. It would really be a bummer for them if they signed into this huge contract. He has one amazing season right after signing it. Then he gets hurt and they give up on him and he's the same guy next year. I think that would hurt. They'd have to do something with that contract. I think as it stands right now, if he played next year, he'd have something like a 40 or 45. He'd have a quarterback cap hit. You can't have that.

Especially not in the situation they're in right now. Luke Johnson here with us. When we get to the quarterback situation on the QB Carousel as we're talking some Saints football right now with Luke Johnson's great job covering the team. What's your prediction right now on this quarterback situation? Seems like last week there was a lot of buzz for Derek Carr. I don't know exactly where that has gone in the last week. There's always been talks about Jimmy G. What do you think this team does this offseason with the QB?

This is a really, really hard question to answer. I think they want a veteran quarterback. They want somebody like Derek Carr.

This is second straight offseason. They've been in the mix on an established veteran. If they don't get Derek Carr, I don't know.

It's hard. They were in the mix on him when the Raiders still held his rights. Once Derek Carr exercised his no trade clause and said he was going to be a free agent, that opened the door for competition.

Maybe there's somebody out there who can either offer him more money or a better situation. I think there are better situations out there for quarterbacks right now. If they miss out on him, I don't know. They're picking number 29 that's way too low to get one of the top four guys in this class. They can't move up to get one of those guys. I could see a situation where they really like Hennen Hooker.

I know they've been doing the research on him. Maybe they pull the trigger on him in the second or third round and pair him with somebody like Andy Dalton and let him develop for a year and let him be the guy. We're talking about this roster that they've built. I think it's still a pretty good roster, but this is not something where you can just plug a developmental guy in there and deal with that for two seasons. They went all in and now it's going to start to all crumble when you've got a guy who's learning on the job.

It's a tough proposition. They're in a really tough spot at quarterback I think. We all remember what happened last year at the Pro Bowl with Alvin Kamara. Not that it went away, but we knew that something was going to happen after the season in terms of potential punishment. Then we find out last week that he was indicted on two criminal charges.

We've seen the video as well. You being in New Orleans, what can you tell us about the latest with Alvin Kamara? It doesn't look good. A lot of us were watching this and thinking maybe there would have been some resolution during last season.

As it drew on and on and on, that wasn't the case. I think the whole thing that we were anticipating last year still applies. I think you're probably looking at somewhere in the realm of a minimum of six games.

Who knows how this court case is going to turn out? It could be more than that. That's a guy they're paying a lot of money. That's a guy who's a huge part of their offense, even though he hasn't turned in the kind of seasons you'd expect out of Alvin Kamara the last couple of years. I think if you have a quarterback and your offensive line isn't playing 12 guys in a given season as starters, maybe something different happens there. I think he's still one of the most dynamic playmakers in the NFL. You are going into this year pretty much guaranteed that you're going to be without him for a while.

They don't really have anything behind them. It's something when you're thinking about Derek Carr and him choosing his options. If the Saints are competing against other teams for him now, or for other veteran quarterbacks, and they're looking at the Saints' situation, they're like, Chris Alabi, that's a good start.

They've got some other nice weapons. Rashid Shaheed was really nice in a seven or eight game stretch last year. And Juwan Johnson's an up and coming tight end. I think their offensive line is still pretty solid, but you take a player of Alvin Kamara's caliber out of there and I think that makes that look a lot less appealing.

So they've got to really fortify that this offseason because they're going to have to know they're going to be without him for a significant stretch of this year. He's Luke Johnson. He covers the Saints and the New Orleans Advocate. Luke, appreciate the time. Thank you.

My pleasure. There you go. Luke Johnson joining us at the Zach Gelb show for a little QB carousel. We'll take a break.

We'll come on back with the closing bell. Also, we'll take a look at some pressure with some NBA players the rest of the way for the second half of the NBA season. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show.

Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Before we get to the closing bell, I just want to discuss some pressure in terms of NBA players for the rest of the way. Hickey, obviously Kevin Durant, there's a ton of pressure on him.

Now you're in Phoenix. Everyone's looking to see if you could win a championship away from Golden State where he not only won two, he had two finals MVPs. It was an absolute disaster in Brooklyn because he trusted Kyrie Irving. And now in Phoenix, you have a team that is loaded with talent, a team that was in the finals two years ago.

And let's just call it for what it is. It's not like there's that many teams that we fall in love with in the NBA this season. So I think there is an enormous amount of pressure on Kevin Durant to not only get to the finals, but to win a ring this year. And on the Suns overall as a team, but you're right, he is now kind of getting that trade. It's him kind of stepping up for the first time since he left Golden State in the playoffs. And then another play I want to talk about is CP3.

I know we could say it's now or never, but two years ago and then also last year, I think even though he wasn't their best player, it was Devin Booker, but some people argue that he was the most valuable player on that team. All the attention went to the narrative in the postseason of can CP3 get the job done. Now getting Durant, I can see you could argue there's even more pressure, but I think individually on CP3, now everyone turns their attention to if they win, all the glory will go to Kevin Durant, and if they lose, all the negativity and blame will go to KD. So I actually think in a weird way, even though there's a heightened intensity and pressure around the Suns, the individual spotlight does get taken off a little bit to CP3.

I would disagree. I think he has more pressure even than KD, to be honest. But if they lose, let me ask you this. Well, this is Durant's team now. This is not CP3's team anymore. I would say it's still CP3's team and Devin Booker's team.

Yeah, Kevin Durant's going over there joining them. It's like Kevin Durant's team. I don't think, even though Devin Booker and CP3 have, CP3 is one of the greatest point guards of all time, when you bring in one of the greatest players in the NBA, I think it's much different than when Durant joined Golden State, when they've already won and they were already established as champions. CP3's never won a ring.

Booker's never won a ring. Durant's being brought in as the missing piece and he's instantly their best player. I think this is his team now.

Well, he's the best player, 100%. But I also think when it comes to a leadership perspective, that's what I would at least consider. When it's your team, it's more the leadership perspective.

It's still CP3, Devin Booker's team. Kevin Durant's not a leader. He's not going to go in there and say, guys, this is how we're going to do it.

He follows. He's going to fit into what the offense wants him to do. Going to the next one on the list, Kyrie Irving. Enormous amount of pressure on Kyrie. I don't think this is going to have a successful ending, but I just want to see how he's going to handle this and how he eventually blows things up with the Dallas Mavericks. Especially, look, he wants that big contract at the end of the year. It ain't coming if this does not go well, that's for sure.

It shouldn't happen either way. Multiple years to Kyrie. The most they'd be willing to go is like two years for Kyrie.

I can't do anything more than that. Next one, I will go Luka Doncic. I actually don't think there's a lot of pressure on Luka the rest of the way for the postseason. I know there's always intrigue on how Luka and Kyrie are going to gel and if they'll be able to create synergy on the basketball court, but he just got to the Western Conference Finals a year ago.

They lose Jalen Brunson. I don't think there's a lot of positivity with this move of bringing Kyrie in, so I don't think there's a lot of pressure on Luka the rest of the way. Especially since if it doesn't work out, you can always just blame Kyrie, which is going to happen in next year or two years.

Then it's going to be retroactively if that doesn't work out. Maybe it's Luka, but you're right. This year, no pressure. I do think there will be more pressure added to Nikola Jokic as the season does progress. We've seen him win now two MVPs. He could be well on his way to winning a third MVP. Assuming everyone stays healthy with the Nuggets and they have a five-game lead right now in the Western Conference, it is getting to the NBA Finals, or bust I would say, for Nikola Jokic.

Oh yeah. And bead, obviously a lot of pressure. I will say though, in a weird way, and I know there's many different ways to define pressure, I don't put that much pressure on James Harden. Even though I understand, he was brought in to be that finisher and to be that guy that makes the clutch shot late, especially with how we've seen Joel Embiid in these playoff series. Not that the body wears down, but you get tired a little bit, and even though he's been great, I know he had that big shot in that one game up against the, I think it was the Raptors.

But when you look at Embiid, for the most part, we've seen times where the game align, he missed the shot late because Ben Simmons wouldn't take the shot. Now Harden is there, you'll know he'll take the shot, you would think. But just after seeing James Harden for the last decade just come up small in the postseason, it's tough for me to say there's a lot of pressure because I just don't expect the answer to be any different here, Ryan. For me personally, it's tough to put a lot of pressure on someone, you don't have high expectations of really that team and probably him coming up short once again in the postseason.

This is the toughest one because I agree with everything you're saying. I've given up on James Harden. I have no reason to believe that he's going to play well in the playoffs, I have no reason to believe the Sixers team is going to be actually a real threat in the East. So it's like, by definition, yes, there should be no pressure because the expectations are zero.

I hear the other side of it. It's still like he's going to have to play well in order for them to win, it's just you don't expect it to happen. I don't think there's a tremendous amount of pressure on Tatum, but I do think there's a medium-sized amount of pressure. He did get to the Finals last year, they didn't get the job done in the NBA Finals. It's right up there for the taking, you have a new head coach, clearly that has not mattered. So I'll say there's some pressure on Tatum, but after getting to the Finals, if you lose in the Easter Conference Finals, are we really killing Tatum?

Probably not. It's like maybe pressure gets to the Easter Conference Finals, like I said, if you lose in the second round, it's, again, pressure in terms of nothing's going to happen, but it's disappointing. You lose to the Bucks in the East Conference Finals, okay, what are you going to do? LeBron James, there's pressure that you've got to make the postseason. Now, nothing happens, the legacy doesn't change, but that'd be a bad look if two years in a row you missed the playoffs.

Social Union call this 23-game stretch the biggest 23-game stretch of your career. What about Kawhi? Yes, I think there's pressure on him. Even with him winning the two championships already, and the two Finals MVPs, you think there's still pressure on him? This was, when they go to LA, it was supposed to be like kind of a continuation, they were supposed to be the team in the West, and they haven't done anything but live up to that.

You know what it's kind of been, though? It's kind of similar to how I view Harden, even though Kawhi has had all that success, it's like we've seen the Clippers the last few years just not be the team that we thought they could be. Like, until I see this team all healthy at the right time, and then everyone firing on all cylinders, it's kind of tough for me to believe that it's going to happen.

And it's fair, it's fair, but they still, they paid a lot of money, a lot of expectations, got to come through. Giannis on to the Kumpa. Already has his championship, has the two MVPs. I don't think there's a lot of pressure on Giannis, but if he does win, it's kind of like the Mahomes start to a career that we're seeing in the NFL for Giannis with how young he is in the NBA. Yeah, I'm with you, no pressure. Look, you win here, great.

You lose. People are not saying much. And then the last player, Anthony Davis. I don't think there's a lot of pressure. It all gets pointed back to LeBron if they win or they lose, but for Anthony Davis, I just always expect him to be injured. So it's kind of like when you've seen something over and over and you read the same book, it's tough for me to get all worked up and say, oh, there's a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Assuming LeBron's on Lakers next year, it kind of does feel like we're inching towards an Anthony Davis divorce with the Lakers. That's where the pressure comes in for me.

If he doesn't play well, he's injured again, and just kind of continues what basically the season has been, he's on the trading block, he's gone, and we're going to see, I think, a big shift with the Lakers next year. Alrighty, let's get to the Closing Bell. Another day is in the books, and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the Closing Bell.

Only on the Zach Gelb Show. Alright, I got to start giving a stock up to a team that I gave a stock down to, because when we were talking about them last night, they lost four out of five games, and they were down at the end of the first half to Notre Dame. They ended up having a much better second half, and that is the UNC Tar Heels, who defeat the Fighting Irish 63-59, and that makes them 17-11 on the season.

So I guess now they are still alive, and it looked like it was trending to a different direction, but a big game coming up in two days up against Virginia, and we'll see how they fare there with three games left in the regular season. So give a stock up to the Tar Heels. Deion Sanders. According to Front Office Sports, 30,000 tickets have been sold to Colorado's spring game for $10 a ticket.

They only had 30,000 tickets claimed in total in the last seven years for the spring game, and all those tickets were free. Look at the Deion Sanders effect. Give him a stock up. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. This relationship is fractured beyond repair, and it's just sad that that's the spot that we're in, because Lamar probably should have played his entire career with the Ravens, so a stock down to the Ravens and Lamar Jackson for it getting this way. Should the Ravens give Lamar Jackson a fully guaranteed deal that exceeds five years, $230 million fully guaranteed, that the Deshaun Watson contract was given out. Yes, get it done is only at 36%.

No, it's at 64%. Trade Lamar for our poll question. Derrick Henry. You're still on the Tennessee Titans.

That's a problem. You should have requested a trade last year. You got one year left in your contract.

I would request a trade. We'll see if you do so, but I don't think Tennessee is in any spot for a bounce back next year, and it's a shame because Derrick Henry is an unbelievable player, so give Derrick Henry a stock down. And finally, the Rams and Bobby Wagner are parting ways, and Bobby Wagner wants to go to a team that's going to be in contention and that's going to win. So that means he doesn't think that about the Rams in that Adam Schefter report. A lot of players in the Rams, one foot in, one foot out.

If they don't get off to a hot start this year in the first four games of the season, I think this thing could be ugly once again. Give a stock down to the LA Rams. And that's the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Great participation on the phones today.

You can always hit me up on social media, Twitter, Instagram, at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Big thanks to Luke Johnson for joining us, the little QB Carousel with the Saints and also the audio that we had for you in the Trevor Lawrence portion of the QB Carousel with the Jaguars. We'll be back tomorrow on a Friday to wrap up the week. We out. Bye-bye. Peace!