Heat Even Up NBA Finals (Hour 1)

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Additional terms apply. Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of good ol' 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a joyous Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app.

855-212-4CBS, number to jump on in, 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Brevin Knight gonna join us coming up, the former NBA player, 20 minutes from now. We will recap game number two dose of the NBA Finals, and Brevin is the current color analyst for Memphis Grizzlies basketball on their television network, so we'll talk to him about all the latest with Ja Morant. But we got a whole lot to get into today.

The DeAndre Hopkins market isn't that hot, and I'm okay with that. Kyrie Irving is a massive hypocrite, and the Indianapolis Colts, well, they have many players that are despicable, but one player we really want to know who that player was that was allegedly gambling, and I'm sure Hate Kiki will find a way to defend that player. By the way, producing this extravaganza for the next four hours in a very nice salmon-looking shirt, I think that's a Lake George mini-haha shirt, that of course is no other than Hate Kiki.

I don't know about that Hate Kiki. But first, we gotta start today's extravaganza with the NBA Finals from last night. So you're telling me we got a series. That's the way that I look at last night's NBA Finals after game number one. You had some people going into a shower and posting videos saying, Oh, the series is over! Oh, we have nothing here in the NBA Finals!

And I sat here and said, don't listen to that person. Game number two will really tell you if this series is in fact over. And I've always said this from the start, and I'm sticking by this, I do believe that the Denver Nuggets are going to win the NBA Finals, but last night, I liked Miami, plus the 8.5 points that was the gambling play that I made last night. I was intrigued to see if they could win the game, but last night was going to tell you if this series was going to be over very quickly, or if we would get a little bit longer of a series. Because if Denver did go up 2-0, and Miami was down 0-2, there's not a chance that Miami was coming on back, even though they did not drop a game yet on their home court. You just look at the rosters, Denver is a better team on paper, but I feel like each and every series outside of the Knicks series, when we looked at Miami, we said the other team is a better team on paper, the Bucks did go down, the Celtics did go down as well. But the way that I would describe last night's game, it was just very bizarre. And I know you always get the cliché, basketball is a game of runs, but early on it looked like the Miami Heat were in control, then it felt like it was a missed opportunity because it felt as if they should have been up by a wider margin, and then for a while, especially when you're at early stages of the fourth quarter, entering the fourth quarter, it looked like Denver was going to run Miami out of the gym, but then Miami did what Miami does, and it wasn't even, this was the impressive thing, Jimmy Butler was not great last night. It was Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson getting hot and making sure that this series was all tied up at one apiece. So I'm happy this series is at one apiece, this series has been entertaining, I know game number one was a blowout, but game number two really shuts up all the morons that are just screaming, oh this NBA Finals is boring, oh there's no reason to watch the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets, and now we have a series.

Once again, I don't think Miami is winning this series, but now there is intrigue in this series, and I look at it from two ways. Number one, it's kind of impressive that this series is at 1-1 without Jimmy Butler playing a great game. So that's a positive for Miami because you've got to think eventually he's going to give you a great Jimmy Butler game. But then on the flip side, with Denver, we have not seen a great Jamal Murray game yet either. He was good in game number one, he was not great. In game number two, early on was solid, made a late push at the end of the game, missed that three-pointer, that would have tied it up and sent the game to overtime, but we have not seen Jamal Murray nor Michael Porter Jr. pop off from three yet in this series. And I know Eric Spulcher could chastise the media last night.

I talked about this with Mike Breen when I was filling in for Maggie and Perloff on Friday when he joined me. I said the way, not that it's an easy task for Miami to defend Nikola Jokic in Denver, but I brought it up and I guess now I have an untrained eye, according to Eric Spulcher, and also Ramona Shelburne as well, who Eric Spulcher said that to. I know there's no ideal circumstance to try to slow down this Denver team, but if I was the coach, I would kind of let Nikola Jokic get his as a scorer and deflect all my attention and direct all my other attention to everybody else. Because there's really no way to stop Nikola Jokic.

But when he's dominating, scoring the basketball, and also dishing out assists, turn out the lights, the party's over, and I was surprised last night that he only had three or four assists in the game. And even look at that, with Miami doing a heck of a job on everybody else last night for Denver and letting Nikola Jokic get his, it shows you how tough of a task it is to go up against Denver because Denver still had a shot to go tie that game and eventually go on to win that game. And there was ebbs and flows throughout that game where you thought Denver was maybe going to run away with it.

So last night, it just, when you look at the series, it now gives you a little intrigue. It now says, okay, we have a series, but let's see how far Miami can take this. I don't think Miami is winning both games on their home court. You got to anticipate that Denver is at least going to get one. But if Denver gets both games three and four, then you could wrap this baby up and this series is over. But I would sign right now for this to be a 2-2 series going back to Denver. Because if that's a 2-2 series going back to Denver, this series has already delivered with how many people thought that this was going to be, some Denver in four, some Denver in five.

Like I was in between Denver in five, Denver in six. After last night, and especially with how gritty Miami is, I got to think Miami is going to get one more game in this series. And I said it from the start, the only reason I was contemplating Denver in six and ended up going with Denver in six is because I have too much respect for how tough of an out this Miami team is and how improbable it is that this Miami team is even in the NBA Finals. So who wins the NBA Finals?

That's the poll question today. Denver in five or six, Miami in five or six, Denver in seven, Miami in seven are the options that you could vote at Zach Gil at CBS Sports Radio. And the super-duper early returns right now, 8.5% say Miami in five or six, 12.7% says Denver in seven, 18.3% Miami in seven, and an overwhelming 60.6% say Denver in five or six. So folks still expect Denver to win this series, just like myself, but thankfully this is not 2-0, nothing against Denver.

But as a sports fan, I want to see this actually be a series, because Miami showed you last night that there is a way for this to be a series. Now, let me bring this up to hot take Hickey, because forget that, I also have been advocating something very similarly to what Hickey's been advocating for, but it seemed like Mike Malone last night, Hickey, was taking a shot at you, because you've been from the start talking about how you would like to see the Miami Heat defend Nicole Jokic, and I just so happen to agree with you, and that's let Nicole Jokic be a scorer, and last night Eric Spulcher was like, no, no, no, no, no, anyone saying that has an untrained eye. So what did you make of the game last night, and then also the comments after the game by the Miami Heat head coach, the very well respected Eric Spulcher? If we start with comments from Michael Malone, I think he was 100% spot on with that was just an effort game. Inexcusable, pathetic, I'm not defending whatsoever, but that was a game that the Nuggets, especially as they're going on their 40-14 run in the second quarter, should have blown the game open up by 15. They went on a 40-14 run, and they didn't win the game. That shows you, that encapsulates everything about that game, how drunk that game was last night, because how many times early on did it look like Miami was the better team, and then, oh, Miami's not up by enough, then Denver looked like they were going to run out of the building, then Miami's going to win the game, up, now Miami's going to blow the game, and then Miami wins the basketball game. And they went from the Nuggets down 11 to up 15.

I swear, in like five possessions. You blink, and it was like, boom, boom, all of a sudden now, next thing you know, the building's going crazy. They can't miss a shot. I thought right there, the series is over, and I was saying Nuggets at five.

At that point, I'm like, it's a sweep. They had their chance. They came out in the first quarter, really the first ten minutes, looked good, and then now all of a sudden Denver overwhelmed them, and that was their one chance to give them credit, come back, but also to the fourth quarter. What a disaster by Denver. Just a poor effort on defense, discombobulated the first half of the, right, really the first half of the fourth quarter, really just couldn't get even a shot at the basket, turnovers, bad screens. I thought Malone was right on, spot on in terms of effort really hurt them there.

Well, let me just ask you this. Doesn't Malone have to take that as well? Because now I know earlier up against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, I forget which game it was, but the cameras picked it up. He blasted his team. He's like, guys, I think it was game two. He's like, this is game two of the Western Conference Finals.

If you can't get up for this game, like, what are you doing? He was going after his team for the effort and the lack of it, and they responded and ended up coming back and winning that game. Now, I'm sure he did something similar last night, but after the game, you rarely see a coach this early in a series tear into his team.

I had no problem with what he said, but if the team is showing a lack of effort, and I like Malone, doesn't that also say you didn't have your, your message wasn't resonating with the guys because Malone is as fiery as fiery could be, and that team to start the game was extremely flat, and in the fourth quarter until the final, what, two or three minutes, they were flat as well. At this point as a professional in the NBA Finals, I don't think you need a pep talk from your coach to get fired up. Like, I don't think at this point you need your coach yelling in your face to have you all of a sudden realize, oh, wow, I got to play, you know.

But he's never ready to go. It's that, that to me is more on the players than the coach. I get it, you can yell at him and you can say, oh, he's got to have him ready to play and send a message early on. To Michael Malone's credit, even after game one, he was saying that he was kind of disgusted with the fourth quarter, and he was frustrated and then come out and kind of lay an egg in the first quarter.

To me, that was more on the players than the coach. All right, now how about the rest of the game when we were going back and talking about earlier with Spulcher afterwards on guarding Jokic? I mean, look, obviously, Nicole Jokic, he's the best player in the world, so no one's saying it's easy to shut him down. And I don't think Eric Spulcher is sitting there as Nicole Jokic is getting bucket after bucket after bucket, kind of pumping his fist saying, boom, like, we got him, I keep on scoring, Nicole. But the numbers show when he scores a ton and the rest of the team is not getting involved, the Nuggets are beatable. And it makes sense because you're never going to slow down Nicole Jokic no matter what you do.

But the best way to beat them, it's so tough to, like, it's tough for me to say that this team is beatable in any way. Right. But if you want to give your best effort, it's like Jokic is going to fill up the stat sheet regardless. Right.

So it's about limiting everybody else. And so far, outside of Gordon's game one early, you know, Murray has not popped off in this series. Michael Porter Jr. had five points last night. They've done a solid job, the Miami Heat, in keeping everybody else in check. And that's how you can win the series. Like, if Nicole Jokic is scoring 41 points a game and no one else is really doing much, you can survive that.

And we just saw yesterday. So, like, sure, Eric Spulcher can, I don't know if he's even, like, honestly, that to me might just be Eric Spulcher even trying to, like, not tip off a game plan of, yeah, we're going to let him beat him and beat us. But I think Eric Spulcher, obviously, he loves the game. But I think he respects Nicole Jokic so much that when it's phrased that way, you're just giving a suggestion. I understand what you're doing. I understand what I'm doing.

I understood what Ramona Shelburne was doing. I think he took it as, oh, it's like, as you said, it's not that easy as you make it look. And it's kind of insulting to the rest, you know, to that team in Denver and just what they do offensively in the game of basketball.

That, when I heard him say that, that's how I took it. And I don't think anyone, when they asked that, meant it to be disrespectful. But that's not the first time that this has been talked about.

And what are they? When he scores 40-plus points in the postseason, I think it is this year? Or is it the season? They're 0-3? This year in the postseason. 0-3. He lost both games at the Suns when he had, like, 53 and 40-something.

And then, obviously, last night. There's, in the small sample size of the playoffs, there is a track record of, he scores a lot, not passing a ton, not dishing out a ton of assists. The Nuggets struggle to win. Now, it is funny when you look at this series so far.

And I know we got to take a break to get to Brevin Knight. But we talked about why Denver had a major advantage was because, when you look at a league of dynamic duos, Nicole Jokic and Jamal Murray are going to be better than Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. So far through the first two games, Nicole Jokic's played really well the first two games. Bam Adebayo's played really well the first two games. And then it's like, Jimmy Butler and Jamal Murray, they've had flashes of doing what they can, but we've not seen the consistency, and we haven't seen either of them win a game in this series. And you probably think Jimmy Butler will win one game in this series, and you probably think that Jamal Murray is going to win one game in this series as well. It's going to be fascinating in games three and four, what happens with Murray and what happens with Jimmy Butler. But also, I want to see what Bam Adebayo could do moving forward, because Bam has done really well this postseason.

And you know Nicole Jokic is going to show up night in and night out. When does Bam have a stinker? Because we did see in the last series where he's really great early, and then towards the end of that series up against Boston, he did fade. And if Jimmy doesn't get going soon, and Bam has a crap performance in either games three or four, that could be a major advantage for Denver. So I'm taking Denver in six.

Where are you at after last night? I will go from five to six. I still think the Nuggets win the series. I said in five, I really thought they're going to win the first two. So I'll say, I'll give them one extra game, the Heat, Nuggets in six. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. Brevin Knight will join us next.

So we got a series, Miami takes game two of the NBA Finals last night to send this baby back to Miami, all tied at one game apiece. And now joining us is a man that played in the NBA from 1997 to 2009. Now does a great job, a part of the Memphis Grizzlies broadcast team, and that's our pal in Brevin Knight. Brevin, I know it's been a while, but how you been? It has been too long, but I'm doing great. How about yourself?

Well, I'm doing fantastic and appreciate you jumping on board with us today. What was your biggest takeaway from the Miami side of things last night where they were able to tie up this series? The word resilient just continues to come up for this basketball team.

Whenever you think that the chips are down or they're over-matched or this magical run has to come to an end, they continue to find ways to win games. And I thought the adjustments to, number one, be a little bit more physical on the defensive side, but on the offensive end, I thought Bam Adebayo has been fantastic. And he is a bad matchup for Jokic because he is so active off the dribble, but also just putting Jokic in numerous pick and rolls. I thought that was also a big thing to make him be a defender, not just be a guy that can slough off, play into the painted area when pick and rolls happen.

So I thought that was big. And then just the ability to even when they're down. I had my brothers saying that when they got down, there it is, they're down. I was like, you just can't count them out if for whatever reason right now there is a winning spirit that is going through their basketball team. That was the crazy part for me from the game. Like, Denver goes on a 40 to 14 run at one point. Like you were saying, I thought the game was going to be a blowout. Then in the fourth quarter, Miami plays a great fourth quarter into the final two minutes. It almost just kind of shows you that even when Miami wins, it's still so tough to beat this Denver team.

Because Murray had a great look at the end to tie that sucker up. Well, I don't think there has been a press conference or interview done by Eric Stolster throughout this playoffs when he said they're going to have to do it the hard way. I think he means that in every aspect, they're going to have to do it the hard way in terms of executing on the offensive end, continuing to have multiple people step up. They're going to have to do it the hard way on the defensive side, being undersized, playing small lineups, mixing in the zone. I thought the zone was great in the fourth quarter. It slowed down Denver and it made them be a lot more of a standstill offense instead of a motion offense in that fourth quarter. And then, like you said, even winning the game with having control of the double-digit lead late into that fourth quarter, it still was a good-look contested three by Murray where they won it. So I think he truly believes, and his team truly believes that no matter what, they're going to have to do it the hard way.

And they're fine with that. Brevin Knight here with us. How much of a shot do you give Miami to go on to win three more games in this series? As much of a shot as I give Denver.

I mean, at this point, how can you deny what they've done? I think if this was the second round, and you're like, OK, well, they did good in the first round. Well, if it's not the third round, well, they did good in the second round. We're on to the NBA Finals at this point, and they've continued to be able to win at home, win on the road. They won Game 7.

They won in sweet fashion. So I think that I give them as much of a chance to win, especially now with them taking back home court advantage. And so we can say it's a second series where you would think that the talent of the opponent of the Miami Heat is greater. But it doesn't matter in terms of the team side of it, because their culture and their team basketball has continued to win out in these series.

Brevin Knight here with us on the Zach Gelb show. After the game, Eric Spulcher said it's an untrained eye to kind of suggest this, but you see that Nikola Jokic goes off in terms of scoring the basketball, but they were able to limit his assists to only four. Do you think that's the best way to play Nikola Jokic, just let him go off offensively and then try to limit everybody else on the Denver Nuggets? Well, I just got to what I say for these special talent players.

And I said it in the Lakers, when the Grizzlies played the Lakers in the first round, which is you can't allow three level dominant players to dominate all three areas in the game. And you got to at least limit them. If you can limit them to one, you'll probably win the game. If you can limit them to one and not so much as two, then you have a great chance to win.

If they're able to have dominant two and a maybe third category, you'll never win. And I thought that was the mentality that Miami took, was that we're going to continue to play you. We're going to play you hard.

We're going to respect your game. But we also understand that you can't stop everything with Jokic, that he'll hurt you in so many ways. And so I think they just negated his ability to find people as easily and forced him to have to continue to score.

But it's just a matter of trying to take away at least one and a half of the three areas that they do well. And I thought that was a difference in that game. When you were watching the game last night, Mike Malone shredded his team's effort after the game. And he's done this before in the postseason, didn't even like the way that his team played in a win in game number one. Was effort a problem last night when you look at the Denver Nuggets?

I don't think it was effort. I just think that the physicality surprised them. They didn't see the Miami Heat physicality in the first game, the activity that they were able to play. And then you combine the fact that Miami made shots in this game. And in game one, they didn't make shots to keep enough pressure on Denver, to keep them worrying about what was happening next. It was sort of, well, they're going to miss, we rebound, we run. That was the pattern that they got into. They couldn't get into that pattern. And because of that, Miami was able to get back into their zone.

They were able to, we like to say, junk up the game some way to not allow an easy rhythm. So I think that it is incumbent upon them to, again, be able to just play their style of basketball. And if they do that, I think Miami will be just fine. Reverend Knight, you mentioned it earlier, Bam Adebayo has been phenomenal through the first two games here for the Miami Heat. In the last series up against Boston, he was really good early.

And then later on in that series, you didn't see that high-level play. I actually think Bam's going to be the biggest key here for Miami to go win three more games. Can you expect what we've seen through the first two games of this series from Bam to continue as this series gets deeper and deeper?

I think this series allows Bam even more for us to see who he is in terms of how well he plays off the dribble, his playmaking ability, but also the ability to make mid-range shots. So the thing with Jokic is he is forcing him to have lateral movement. And I think the one thing where Jokic, on the defensive side, where he can get away with things is if you don't press him with somebody that has good foot quickness.

And the thing that Bam has is he has that. He has moves off the dribble to go along with it. And so I think we can expect if he is able to continue to push the ball. The other thing he's doing a good job is in transition, taking the ball from end to end, which makes it a lot harder for you to defend as you're backing up with Jokic's. And so I think that he can continue to play the way that he has because he's just staying within himself and doing all of the things that he's capable of just with a better opportunity because of who the defender is. It's also kind of crazy Brevin Knight that this series has won one without Jimmy Butler playing a great game yet.

Yeah, so there's been times where we've been on our thread. I'm like, I'm tired of watching Jimmy Butler jump in the air at the basket and then passes to somebody for a late shot clock shot. And then somebody mentioned to me that well maybe just trying to get their confidence on the fourth quarter, they could also be ready to take those same shots. But listen, I am not one to question a man that has gotten his team to this point playing the way that they have played. Would you like for them to be aggressive throughout the game? It's just because you know what he's capable of doing.

But that's not the way that he operates. So by his mode of operation, it has been successful for Miami, but they always know in the fourth quarter as it was in game two when they needed big baskets or they needed big plays. Jimmy Butler was there to make it. And so I know that in fourth quarters as frustrated people may get with the jumping the air passes early in the game should take more shots when they need them in winning time.

He has shown up. Who do you think goes on to win this series? You've got to make a prediction with the now being one one. I'm not exactly I'm a bad predictor, so I'm almost like Charles Barkley.

Whoever I pick to win, I think everybody else should go the opposite way. But but I am I am going to this is this is hard because I have my personal feelings. Mike Malone, we went to the same high school and I've known him for so long and his family. And so I have a personal side pull for him. And there's this I continue to say there's something magical going on down in South Beach.

And I don't know if anyone has enough to overcome what they have. So I think Miami may just eat this one out. Well, my producer, hot take Kiki is a mush like he's awful at predictions as well. And I think he's realized his power, that he could be an intentional mush. So when I hear you say that you have a personal connection with Mike Malone, but then pick the Miami Heat, I think that's you trying to put a little bit of a hex and a jinx on the Miami Heat. So Malone gets the championship. It could be that the little reverse psychology I use on myself and didn't even realize.

That would be something new there. Brevin Knight here with us. Let me get your thoughts on Kyrie Irving. A week ago, it was, hey, don't talk about my future.

Don't speculate about my future. And then today we find out from Shams Sharani, probably Kyrie or someone in his camp leaked this news to Shams, that Kyrie has reached out to LeBron James who still has a year left on his contract in an attempt to see if LeBron would go to Dallas. What did you make of that one when you saw it today? Very eye opening, but understanding because if you say it, I think the last time for Kyrie Irving's success was when he was alongside LeBron James. And now at a point in LeBron James' career where we all understand that he needs the other star to be able to carry their load. He can't just do it himself the way that we've become accustomed to doing it. So it becomes an even better and opportune time for him to have his friend next to him on the floor.

And so if you want to have a level of comfort, then you go back to what worked for so many years. And what worked for him was playing alongside LeBron James. I know you do the Memphis Grizzlies games for a while now. There's been a lot out there about Ja Morant.

Everyone's seen the other video. We've had Adam Silver make comments about it. A lot of people believe it's going to be a significant suspension. Just how do you kind of react to all the latest with Ja Morant?

Well, for us in Memphis, we're not as concerned with the timing, the suspension, all of those things. We're more concerned with how Ja Morant is doing. And at the end of the day, the decision will be made by the commissioner. There's nothing that we can do about it.

But the only thing we can do is continue to pray that he finds the inner peace that he has so that he can go and be the best human being that he can be. And every day, whenever we talk about it, whenever I talk about it, that's all it's about. Because this has gotten to be a little bit bigger than basketball. So when it became bigger than basketball, then it became about the person. And we care about the person Ja Morant because we've come to love him as one of our own.

I say it's ours because I've been living in the city of Memphis for now 18 years. And so the care for all of us is just that his welfare is at its best. The basketball side will take care of itself. The suspension will be what it is. But I just want him to be able to come back and play the game that he loves at a high level. But just have fun with life also.

I know you're around the team a lot doing the games. When this stuff initially came out, was this surprising to you? The thing about this is it's not surprising because they're young. We've all made mistakes when we've been young.

We've all done. The problem with this is that in this society today, a lot is on the phone. The phone is such a big thing.

Social media is such a big part of these young kids' lives today. And I just think that it got the best of them. But I don't think that it is anything that says of who he is as a person. Did he make a mistake? He made a mistake. And he will come back from it. He'll be a better person at the end of the day for it.

But I don't think that it has to in any way be his characterization for the rest of his life. It's just stupid though when he's twirling a gun around on video or not. It's like nothing good is going to come out of that.

We can all sit here and say, nothing good can come out of it. I ride around with a gun in my car in a case all the time. I carry mine.

I am a registered gun owner. Now, should he have been a lot more responsible with it? Yes. Is that what we can all come to a conclusion? Had to be more responsible for just the gun itself, but also for what you represent in this NBA game. Yes, we can all agree. But outside of that, the mistake was made. And I don't take it any further than that. Last thing I'll ask you about this Brevin Knight, just what advice would you give him?

If Joc called you up right now, you guys were having a conversation, what would you say to him? First of all, I'll say that we all make mistakes. I've made mistakes. We all come back from it.

The biggest thing is understanding what the mistake was. And if you understand what that mistake was, then you can go out and still enjoy life. And I always say, enjoy yourself. You still go out. You're still 23.

You can still go to the club. You still do what you do. But you've got to do it better. At this point in time, you're not doing it in the right.

Just do it better. Don't stop living your life at all. Don't become a hermit. Don't become a, I've got to say, sorry to everybody.

You don't. You just have to live better and you're understanding the role that you're in as you move forward in life. Brevin Knight, always appreciate the time you jump on board with us. Thanks so much.

Good talking to you. You got it. There he is. Brevin Knight joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a time out when we come on back.

I feel pretty good about where DeAndre Hopkins is going to land. We'll get into that on the other side. But first up, what are you laughing about, Hickey?

I see you laughing right there. Are you going to ruin the tease here? I just like the giddiness in your voice, that's all.

I didn't say where he's going to land. I just feel pretty good about it. I am not blowing the tease, I'm just saying. I like, I would just say maybe that might have been the most excited you were for a tease in a long time. Oh, trust me. Waiting for the tease at the top of the hour when we talk about your despicable football team.

With maybe a player betting on his, on his team, against his team. We don't know. But don't you worry, if you thought that was a good tease, wait till the tease coming up in 15 minutes. Because I can't wait to talk about Hickey's team today.

Because nothing more that I enjoy than walking into the studio after a great weekend. And there's some news that could go against Hot Take Hickey. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. So, I'm actually feeling quite optimistic for the first time in a long time when it comes to something regarding my football team. Now let me be clear.

When I say for the first time in a long time, I'm talking about in the last two years. Because if you listen to this show, you know that I'm a big New England Patriot fan. But I'm realistic. You know, for 20 years, my team was in the penthouse. Brady leaves. Obviously, there was going to be major, major, major, major regression. And I've sat here and I didn't think they were going to the playoffs a year ago. I thought Mac Jones is going to regress quite a bit.

Not only, not because Mac Jones isn't good enough, because you look at last year's situation, Hickey. They were trusting two bozos in that, Patricia and Joe Judge, to run the offense. So heading into this offseason, I asked for two things.

And I tweeted this out directly. I want a legit offensive coordinator. Check, they've done that in Bill O'Brien. And then I tweeted out, this was right after they got JuJu Smith Schuster, that that isn't enough. I still need either Jaxson Smith and Jigba or DeAndre Hopkins.

Now the draft did come and go. We know that Jaxson Smith and Jigba ended up going to Seattle, which what a wide receiving room that's going to be, with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxson Smith and Jigba. And now it's, can you go get DeAndre Hopkins who, oh yeah, by the way, was released by the Arizona Cardinals. And I said this to you last week, Hickey, that if Bill Belichick still has it in him, and if Bill Belichick is going to still show you that he's still Bill Belichick, he needs to go out there and get DeAndre Hopkins, because that would be so Bill Belichick to not give up anything and to still get a pretty damn good player in DeAndre Hopkins, who missed games at the end of last year, was out for the first six, still average 11 yards a catch. I still think he is a top 10 wide receiver.

I would even say a top five wide receiver in the sport. Like I still think he is a phenomenal football player. And that would be Bill Belichick showing he's the old Bill Belichick, where someone else is, I don't want to say garbage, but what someone else didn't want, you still get him to go to New England and say, wow, I still want New England to be a destination. And also it would show me, Hickey, for the first time since Tom Brady left, that Belichick realizes you have to alter the approach and you can't just keep on getting like the cheapest players in the league and the system's going to find a way to win out because you had Tom Brady there.

Tom Brady was the system. And since Brady is no longer there, you now need to do what other teams have done, like with the Eagles, the Dolphins, and the Bills have done with their young quarterbacks, where they didn't take off until you got a legit number one wide receiver. So the reason why I'm saying all this is I was reading the athletic today, and this is music to my ears, that DeAndre Hopkins wants a deal similar to what the Ravens gave Odell Beckham Jr., which was a one-year deal worth up to $15 million guaranteed, and there is about two or three more million dollars in incentives for Odell Beckham Jr. to reach. And if that's the case, Hickey, I know we talk about salary cap kind of being made up because now how teams could just move around contracts so easily and they always find a way to find a way, but you look at Kansas City right now having less than a million dollars in cap space, Buffalo having just above $1 million in cap space, and you look at some of the other potential teams. Sure, the Jets have about $24 million in cap space. The Patriots have about $14.5 million in cap space. The Chargers have 12, but there's not really a spot for the Chargers. The Eagles, 13, but is Philadelphia really going to add him in? The Eagles and Chargers already have crowded wide receiving rooms. Baltimore, is that 11 and a half? So the more and more I look at this, Hickey, the market for DHOP isn't all that hot because of how late in the process this is, and if he's content on getting a contract close to what Odell Beckham Jr. did receive, there's only a few teams that could give that to him that will also be potential destinations, and if this is just a matter of money, Bill, get on the phone now and get this baby done with, and I said it last week, I'll say it again, I thought originally he was going to go to Kansas City.

That's what I thought. Buffalo probably made the most sense, but I thought he would go to Kansas City because the rich always gets richer in the NFL when you are that team, but now as the days go on, I feel more and more confident that when you look at the priorities, some players say their priority is to win a Super Bowl, and they talk themselves into that. Others say, oh, they want to get paid the most amount of money, or they want to be the number one wide receiver. Those are the three things that DeAndre Hopkins could prioritize, and it looks like money is one, number one wide receiver two, and then winning is three, and you know this and I know this, Hickey. Even though if the Patriots get DeAndre Hopkins, they would not, would not be a Super Bowl contender. They could even make the playoffs, but when you have Bill Belichick and what the Patriots have done for 20 years, a player could talk himself into saying that's still a team that he could go win with. You know what's frustrating about this whole, I guess, DeAndre Hopkins, like, situation?

Yes, thank you. This last basically month is he has talked one game and talked, talked, talked, then he gets cut, and now every report is basically indicating the opposite of what he initially talked about a month ago. When he was under contract with the Cardinals, he was talking about the quarterbacks he wants to play with, all the best in the league, he was talking about how he wants stable leadership, playing with a great quarterback who loves the game, playing with a good defense, trying to go to a team that wins, and all of a sudden now he's cut, and it's, well now he's looking for big money. Now all of a sudden the Bills can't afford him, and the Chiefs can't afford him. You say one thing, you do another, and it's frustrating, and frankly it's frustrating.

You believe in people, you believe in what people say. Did anyone, when he was actually saying that, I remember even saying it on the radio, let's see how serious he is about winning money when those teams he wants to go to, like Buffalo and Kansas City, aren't going to give him a big payday. And then you talk, like Kaleis Campbell this offseason is talking himself into the Atlanta Falcons being a winning destination now, and a team that could surprise some people this year.

This happens all the time in this sport. I get it, but to go out of your way to basically indicate, oh winning's my priority, and then all of a sudden now? What do you want to say, I want to go to a loser? No, go, today's going to say I want to go to a place where I could be a number one wide receiver. Fine, then that's going to indicate Chiefs are probably out, Bills are probably out, you're going to look for more of a payday. But he could be number one in Kansas City. He would, but when you kind of say that, Kelcey, I get it.

It's kind of indicating I want to be more selfish, be more self-centered, which again, fine, I'm not saying you're wrong for being selfish, but to say, oh, to find any microphone that's in your face, love to go to this team, love to play this quarterback, I want to go to a stable organization, and then as soon as you're cut, it's when I want the money, it drives you crazy. It does. It shouldn't surprise you whatsoever.

Congrats to you, maybe, sometimes, I don't know. When we come on back. Don't even Bill Belser hate each other? When did that all? You mean Bill O'Brien? Bill O'Brien, when did that all of a sudden get patched up? Maybe the media was lying. Maybe there were some false stories out there.

Maybe $60 million changes his mind. Yeah, when we come on back, Hickey's team is in some hot order. Oh, baby, this is awesome. Ha, ha, ha, ha.