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EPISODE 21 - Featuring Cerrone Battle! Patriots free agency/Tee Higgins/state of the NBA
115 Plays2 months ago
Begins with Patriots free agency
ends with the NBA. Enjoy!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Special Guest: Saron Battle
00:00:01
Savage Boston
Alright, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Savage Boston Podcast. We are here today with a very special guest, Mr. Saron Battle from your 98.5 The Sports Hub, here to bless us with his fantastic sports takes.
00:00:14
Cerrone Battle
Thank you.
00:00:17
Savage Boston
um Before I turn it over to him to just like introduce himself and and and give a little you know give a little chat, I just want to say, first and foremost, we appreciate Sarone coming on, and we appreciate his sports takes, because kind of in, um I don't know, in the swamp of some real bad takes and some real...
00:00:39
Savage Boston
shock shock jock stuff that can that can get on the radio now whether it's 98.5 or other places uh we appreciate kind of some really um great um underappreciated sports takes from Sharon so thank you for joining Sharon how you doing
00:00:53
Cerrone Battle
I'm doing pretty good. How about yourself?
00:00:55
Savage Boston
We're pretty good, pretty good.
Timestamp and Contextual Setup
00:00:57
Savage Boston
We are here, today is February 18th, 2025, 8 p.m. Just want timestamp it so in case all any of our takes sound like shit, um we can kind of look back on and say, hey, it wasn't our fault. it was you know It was
Discussion on Tee Higgins' Franchise Tag
00:01:11
Savage Boston
in the past. So I just want to kick it off because today, you know I think the news that came out last night that I was kind of online the most ah fired up about a little bit was the T. Higgins franchise tag.
00:01:22
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:01:23
Savage Boston
Now, You know, and everyone was like, oh, dude, you're an idiot. You should have seen this coming. i really didn't for some reason.
00:01:31
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. yeah
00:01:33
Savage Boston
um What was your initial reaction, Sarone, to the Tee Higgins franchise?
00:01:37
Cerrone Battle
Well, the first thing I thought was he's got to be pissed. I mean, back-to-back years, you know, he's trying to get himself, establish himself as, you know, the ah Jamar Chase somewhere else.
00:01:40
Savage Boston
ah yeah. Yeah.
00:01:47
Cerrone Battle
I can go be a number one and kind of take over, fra not take over, but be the man somewhere else and take care of my family and myself along the way. And for them holding kind of holding them hostage there, not letting them get out, I understand they want to protect Burrow and Chase too. I mean, having another guy over it makes it easy for him.
00:02:07
Cerrone Battle
And I understand it trying to work something out for him, but I'd be pretty upset if they if they franchise me a a second year
Patriots' Talent Development Issues
00:02:13
Cerrone Battle
like this. And, you know, I feel bad for him. But first thing I thought of with the Patriots, and I i think you're kind of an agreement here was, I think you had put up something like developed develop, to develop, develop.
00:02:23
Savage Boston
Yeah, yeah.
00:02:24
Cerrone Battle
And I'm, I'm, it's like, well, you know what?
00:02:24
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:02:26
Cerrone Battle
Now it's time to earn your money. You go find yourself a T Higgins. You go, you draft you a T Higgins.
00:02:30
Savage Boston
yes
00:02:32
Cerrone Battle
You build you up a T Higgins. You coach up a T Higgins. You have to, you can't let anybody else do the work for you. You have to now go out and find your guy, your, your in-house guy and build them up. I mean,
00:02:44
Cerrone Battle
The Higgins options might still be there, but if I'm Elliott Wolfe and Vrabel and everybody else in there, I'm like, all right, what's the next what's the next move and how do we find another find our version of not only T. Higgins, let's go find Jamar Chase. let's get our Let's go find us a number one and coach him up the way we want him. I wouldn't say move on, but you have to really do the work now and not rely on someone else to do it for you.
00:03:08
Savage Boston
Yeah. No, what I was thinking was that, you know, it just reminded me again, cause I thought we kind of had this scenario where we could really blow them away with dollar signs, you know, and, uh, and it And it kind of brought me up to like, we're still chasing ghosts.
00:03:20
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:03:20
Savage Boston
You know what mean? Like we're literally, and I know I'm not the first person with this take, but like we're literally chasing the ghosts of Nikhil Harry and Taequann Thornton and Jalen Polk now, where they've tried three times in in five years and we can't draft a wide receiver.
00:03:35
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:03:36
Savage Boston
and And it's unbelievable. And it's really like sets back the franchise at this point.
00:03:40
Cerrone Battle
It does.
Coaching and Player Development Concerns
00:03:41
Cerrone Battle
And it what's wild is there, say there's like five good guys in that draft. They always pick the worst of the five.
00:03:47
Savage Boston
I know. I'm talking.
00:03:48
Cerrone Battle
It's like you can't yeah get the second best guys. You got to get the the worst guy every time. But I mean, it's... Look, I mean, you... You have to find a better way to develop these players, or you just have to have a better scouting department.
00:04:01
Cerrone Battle
I think for so long, for so many years, you got you got away with having the Tom Brady. We've talked about this thousand times. When you have a Tom Brady, you can pick a lesser receiver because he's going to elevate them to another ah another level.
00:04:08
Snooty
have a take.
00:04:12
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:04:13
Cerrone Battle
But you don't have that that option anymore. You have to go out and find guys with talent. I mean, even the good teams. Kansas City struggled with their receivers the last few years. They've doubled back with – spun the block with Juju and and and bringing in older guys to put around Mahomes because it's it's not that easy to get a guy, but you eventually going to have to do the homework, get the right guy, the right guy that fits your system and the guy with the right temperament.
00:04:27
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:04:38
Cerrone Battle
And the reason I say that is I think Jalen Polk has the skills and talent, but it seems to me like mentally he kind of got lost early in the season and never recovered from it.
00:04:50
Cerrone Battle
And you have to find a guy that can handle playing in Boston, playing under the pressure, playing in the elements. You know, a guy that, okay, i dropped the pass. I'll be fine the next. Give it to me again.
00:05:01
Cerrone Battle
You have to do more than clock 40 times, Tyquan Thornton. You know what i'm saying? You got to do more than a guy that runs a good cone drill.
00:05:06
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:05:08
Cerrone Battle
You got to find a guy that's mentally ready to play and in Boston. And it's not that easy, but they they have to this year, next year, whenever you're going to have to find the right guy.
00:05:20
Cerrone Battle
If you can't get a ah Metcalf in the trade or T Higgins or one of these other guys. So you're going to have to do the homework and find the right guy to your system.
00:05:28
Snooty
And I wonder how much of that is being honest with where you are, right?
00:05:32
Cerrone Battle
That's true.
00:05:32
Snooty
Like, because that's a horrible situation Polk got dropped into.
00:05:33
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:05:35
Snooty
And look, he, you know, he earned everything that happened to him as much as anything else. But like, you have to be honest that like, that's not a very nurturing system for most young players, but especially receiver.
00:05:47
Snooty
So I think that's one of the things that the, you know, the, when Brady was here and Belichick here, they, they found receivers in free agency that were kind of a little bit undervalued. because they knew they could fit them into their system, because they were honest about where they were and what they needed.
00:06:02
Snooty
And I think part of a big part of the success for this offseason is going to hinge on having an honest assessment of where they are and what exactly can work here.
00:06:13
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. And to to jump on that, what you said about the situation, man, he was dropped in. We all talked about should Drake may start week one, Jacoby Brissett. And we all looked at it through the lens of we don't want to ruin Drake May. We don't want him to get hurt. We don't want to.
00:06:30
Cerrone Battle
get him caught up in bad habits. But nobody stopped and thought about the receivers and said, what if we put the wrong quarterback out there in the wrong situation and they lose their confidence?
00:06:35
Savage Boston
And
00:06:41
Cerrone Battle
They they they develop bad habits. Because most of training camp, if you go back and look at all the the posts that the Patriots are putting up and everybody that was at camp, it was highlight reels of Polk and Baker and throughout the summer. And we were all excited about them.
00:06:55
Cerrone Battle
But when you start the season off with a Bursette, you get behind. yeah know You're playing catch up in a lot of these games. He's inaccurate. You lose confidence. You've seen him early slumping his shoulders, stomping their feet because the ball was low, was high.
00:07:07
Cerrone Battle
And I think they kind of lost confidence. And I'm wondering how that would have looked if Drake May would have started week one, not just for him, but would it what would the confidence have been with ba with Baker and Polk if they had been playing with Drake May from the beginning?
00:07:22
Savage Boston
well Let me just to chime in off that, you know, today it was really interesting. I saw someone posting, I think Steve Smith, um you know, was with somebody else, Palmer from, I think like yeah ESPN or something. And they were looking at like Jalen Polk footage from the season and Smith is going over a couple of games, like Seattle, 49ers.
00:07:40
Savage Boston
He's like, Oh, look at this route. He's open. Look at this route. And you just touched on it preseason. We're like, aw man, Drake to Polk. Wow, he looks so good. And then you think about it like every single highlight. And when we talk about when Polk was looking good was within the first four weeks of the season, the preseason.
00:07:55
Savage Boston
It was when he had the least amount of coaching from from our staff.
00:07:58
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm.
00:07:58
Savage Boston
which tells you what happened to his development and what was going on in that room as the year went on. And i think I think the coaching was was was poor. and And the players, just like Elliott Wolfe touched on himself, he said that we expected more internal development for the players.
00:08:08
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm.
00:08:14
Savage Boston
And I agree. I think somehow he got lost in the shuffle and I'm not taking like the, the onus off of Polk, but like he obviously was not coached up well, cause you're going to get better as the year goes. You're not going to fall off and start falling down during two point conversions and like, you know, coming on after games and you got the best hands in the league and you can't even get, get, you know, get targets.
00:08:36
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm.
00:08:36
Savage Boston
So I don't know. I felt like the coaching really let Polk down the season as, as well as, you know, other problems. So.
00:08:43
Cerrone Battle
yeah I mean, I think it it it swung more to once the Drake May situation kicked in, once he started playing and they they got him up to speed to play. It seemed like the development phase went out the window and it turned into scheme play calling and what fits what we're trying to do.
00:08:59
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:09:00
Cerrone Battle
And they just got the development part got lost with with all all the young players, really. And that was kind of unfortunate. And I hope he bounces back from it because, mean, we we saw what the kid did on the college level. He was in a national championship game.
00:09:13
Cerrone Battle
He he he was. We saw him in an early, like you said, a training camp and things like that. He showed flashes. Just have to find a way to get his confidence up and get Baker on the field and see what he can do before we give up on him as well.
00:09:18
Snooty
can help myself.
00:09:25
Savage Boston
and
00:09:25
Cerrone Battle
And but they have to get this position right or this thing isn't going anywhere for a couple of years.
00:09:31
Savage Boston
Yeah, that's true, man. I think Javon Baker, a lot of people
Patriots' Draft Strategy
00:09:35
Savage Boston
you know obviously hyped him up for having a lot of talent, and and and I'm sure he does. But again, like if if we're not putting these guys in the right positions and they can't line up correctly, you know let alone get open and separate, you know like I believe Javon Baker has the ability to play and separate, but somehow he can't get in the right position to play.
00:09:52
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:09:55
Savage Boston
and And, you know, if he was with Tom Brady, mind you, he wouldn't even see the field at all.
00:09:59
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:10:00
Savage Boston
Brady wouldn't tolerate Javon Baker for a second.
00:10:02
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:10:03
Savage Boston
Can you imagine? Same thing Paul.
00:10:04
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. Same thing with Polk. With Polk, you know, falling and stuff like that.
00:10:06
Savage Boston
He'd like, what the fuck are you doing on my field?
00:10:07
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, that's true.
00:10:09
Savage Boston
You know, like, Brady was unforgiving with rookies. Unless he, like, he had to really craft you because he was such a psychopath in a good way. But he was unforggiving unforgiving with rookies.
00:10:20
Savage Boston
um Now I want to touch on, just to migrate a little bit, with the draft. So, you know Obviously, you know come March 12th, when free agency really really opens, officially opens, we're going to have a lot more information about what the Patriots really need or not, you know depending if they sign someone like you know Milton Williams or if they Josh Sweat or you know if they, I don't know, pick up, trade for wide or see whatever.
00:10:44
Savage Boston
whatever right We're going to have more information.
00:10:45
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:10:46
Savage Boston
But at this moment in time, what where do you think, Saron, they go you know with their with the draft at at the moment? Where do you see them going?
00:10:55
Cerrone Battle
Well, I think if they had a chance, if if he's still available, I got a feeling it'd be Abdu Carter. and more so because of Vrabel's background.
00:11:01
Savage Boston
yeah Yeah. Hmm.
00:11:03
Cerrone Battle
It's similar. I would say similar player, but position. He understands more than anybody in that building. What, what a game wrecking, you know, edge Russia can mean for your defense.
00:11:14
Savage Boston
yeah
00:11:14
Cerrone Battle
I think he understands that. I think he understands he'll be a disruptor and he'll free up the Christian Baltimore and Keon White and allow those guys more one-on-one opportunities will make you, and that can potentially be a dominant defensive line because they have to get better in the trenches. I mean, as much as you want to get on the offense, what they didn't do last year, they lost a lot of games in the middle of the season because they just couldn't stop the run.
00:11:36
Cerrone Battle
They couldn't get to the quarterback. They couldn't make plays. They couldn't force bad throws to to force bad timing from quarterbacks. So I think with his knowledge of defense and the guys, the veteran guys they have when they're coaching their defensive staff,
00:11:44
Snooty
Thank you.
00:11:50
Cerrone Battle
I think they're going to go defense, and I think Abdukada would be number one on their draft board. And if if he's gone, I think they'll keep stay on the same position. And if Mason Graham is there, going to go after Graham.
00:12:00
Cerrone Battle
I mean, he's just again, he's just going to be an interior disruptor.
00:12:01
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:12:04
Cerrone Battle
But you now you're looking at it differently. Okay, we pair him up with Barmore. Now we go from being weak in the middle for most of the season to being a strength of our defense. And it's we've all we've seen the playoffs. We saw the Super Bowl.
00:12:16
Cerrone Battle
If you're dominant in the trenches, you have a chance to win games. And I think they understand that more than anybody else.
00:12:22
Savage Boston
yeah
00:12:22
Snooty
You think going to – you think outside of and interior you know D-line and things like that, is there a position you think they could potentially move down to try to target someone a little bit later in the draft?
Safety and Running Back Needs
00:12:33
Cerrone Battle
I mean, I don't think it's something that they would do, but I think they need a playmaking safety, man. I think they need somebody in the back end.
00:12:37
Savage Boston
Yeah. Got Trey Duggar, though.
00:12:40
Snooty
Yep.
00:12:40
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:12:40
Snooty
No, they need a center fielder is what they need.
00:12:42
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, it's ah so ah an athlete, a guy that ah offensive coordinators have to worry about. If we throw that deep ball down the sideline, if it's slightly on the inside, this guy's coming up with it or he's going to make a play.
00:12:55
Cerrone Battle
You just need not not not a run stopper, but a guy that you fear on the back end behind Gonzalez. You know, somebody, you you have a strong interior, you get Bentley back at your linebacker position. He hopefully helps that out. You got Gonzalez on one side.
00:13:09
Cerrone Battle
But I think having a center fielder back there that is just, ah just again, disruptor. just But ah a true athlete that can cover a ton of ground. And I think being able to force turnovers is something that this team has really lacked last year too.
00:13:23
Cerrone Battle
and But I think having a guy like that back there, young a young burner, would really help that defense out a lot. I know that's not in everybody's ball, but it's just something that I kind of wanted. And and later in the draft, I think you got to come up with running back too.
00:13:35
Cerrone Battle
I think running, trying to win today with these older running backs is not it. You need some guys, some playmakers back there. Not 30 carry guys. don't think those guys exist anymore. But you need somebody who could, I always say, that could jump over somebody backwards too. You need a playmaker that you can fear. You know, if you throw a screen to this guy, he's got a chance to take it 60 yards. And I think they haven't had that in a long time.
00:13:57
Cerrone Battle
So just, I want a running back and I want a good free safety.
00:14:01
Savage Boston
Yeah, like um i know I think like you know Malachi Starks or Xavier Watts are both two safeties that are that are out there. I don't know. Maybe.
00:14:08
Snooty
Makuba from Texas.
00:14:10
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:14:10
Savage Boston
Yeah, is he good, too? have my fourth on this list.
00:14:12
Snooty
Yeah.
00:14:12
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:14:13
Savage Boston
um Yeah, i know that the kid from Notre Dame, they've hyped up for a while, Watts.
00:14:17
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:14:17
Savage Boston
But, again, he might be a thumper. I don't know I don't love – I mean, this is a total tangent, but I don't i don't love the Duggar contract now. And i don't I know he was injured this year, but I'm kind of like – I don't know, man. Was was Belichick really you know elevating Duggar that much?
00:14:33
Savage Boston
um And I really don't like the Ramondar-Stevenson contract.
00:14:36
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. It's not looking too good right now.
00:14:37
Savage Boston
I really don't like that. That really looks poor. And I can't believe they kind of – I get where they were going when that happened, but i just don't enjoy that contract at the moment.
Draft Strategy and Prospects Evaluation
00:14:48
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:14:48
Savage Boston
I think you could try to – I don't know if anyone's going to – probably not.
00:14:48
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:14:51
Savage Boston
No one's going to pick up that contract for Ramondre. don't know if you could deal Duggar and get out from under that.
00:14:55
Bret
Thank you.
00:14:58
Savage Boston
Not like you have to, but but that's something you you could.
00:14:59
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:15:01
Savage Boston
um I don't know. everyone you know Obviously, well we all want playmakers in some way, and like you need to get playmakers. But a lot of people today keep mocking, which is like what Daniel Jeremiah today had a mock where he had the pass taking Will Campbell again at four.
00:15:15
Savage Boston
And, like, I just don't think he's going that high. i don't I don't.
00:15:19
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:15:19
Savage Boston
I mean, from people we've talked you know, through the grapevine, that, you know, people are just questioning whether he really does translate into a tackle.
00:15:29
Cerrone Battle
is this
00:15:29
Savage Boston
He might be an excellent guard at the next level, but he might not be a tackle and you can't afford to take a guard at four overall.
00:15:37
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. And um I'm wondering what happened to ah the kid from Texas banks. I mean, you go back three months ago, it was like, Oh, he's top five.
00:15:42
Savage Boston
Yeah. Yeah. He's athletic. he's this I don't think he's just like – to me, what's the difference between – and this is hypothetical for just draftees, and I snooty and knows a lot about the draft.
00:15:52
Savage Boston
But like what's the difference between Kelvin Banks and Erce from Minnesota?
00:15:54
Snooty
you
00:15:57
Savage Boston
You know why is Kelvin Banks getting mocked at 15 and Erce from Minnesota who's a monster? He's like 6'6", 340.
00:16:03
Cerrone Battle
you know
00:16:03
Savage Boston
Like he's getting mocked at 35. That's
00:16:05
Cerrone Battle
You know what it is, man. It's SEC.
00:16:08
Savage Boston
it's his hype.
00:16:08
Cerrone Battle
One guy's at Texas and SEC, and the other guy is at Minnesota.
00:16:08
Savage Boston
Or men who are hype?
00:16:12
Cerrone Battle
I mean, that's it's unfortunate. It comes down to that a lot, but those guys get a lot more attention, a lot more eyeballs, and they get more credit. Just while he was more – he was dominant in the SEC. Not like the you know the big Big Ten isn't – I mean, excuse me, Big 12 isn't – excuse me, Big Ten isn't good football, but people view SEC players –
00:16:27
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:16:29
Cerrone Battle
Totally different. And sometimes they're not as good as we hype them up to be. And other times they do live up to the hype, but it's, if Banks wasn't at Texas, I wonder, would you have more of an even comparison? But that Texas, Minnesota thing is real.
00:16:41
Savage Boston
Yeah, no, absolutely. I just, I don't, yeah, it's, I'm just looking at all the, all these tackles in the mid rounds from after Campbell, because Campbell is like the, the highest ranked, you know, off offensive line prospect, but after Campbell, it's kind of just like a hodgepodge of players from like 15 to 40, 15 to 50.
00:16:53
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm.
00:16:58
Savage Boston
Like I even love that interior kid Zabel from ah what North Dakota, wherever he's from, like he had a great senior bowl. Like there's a few guys that played really, really well.
Free Agency Approaches
00:17:07
Savage Boston
So I can't guarantee you, this is why I get, I'm skeptical on taking,
00:17:11
Savage Boston
a tackle place. Like Josh Connerly was really good at the senior bowl other than one rep where he got smashed by Mike green. Like he played really well at the senior bowl and he's going to go in the mid twenties. You could trade back up into that territory and get Josh Connerly.
00:17:23
Savage Boston
But again, like, I don't know, this is like deep dive in draft. I know that we're going be doing this for the next two months. I'm sure I will on Twitter. I'll be all over the draft for like the next two months.
00:17:31
Cerrone Battle
Nah, this is what happens when you're a team and you have a four-win team.
00:17:33
Bret
you
00:17:36
Cerrone Battle
This is what you have to really deal with.
00:17:37
Savage Boston
Oh,
00:17:38
Cerrone Battle
And we have to really deep dive into the draft. But this is what they should be doing. They should be the same thing you're doing saying, you know what? We can get a tackle later. We can get this.
00:17:48
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:17:48
Cerrone Battle
there's There's not as the gap is not that wide between this tackle and that tackle. over We can get this guy. He's going to be available. This guy, they're going to say in his measurables, aren't right, but we watched enough film.
00:17:59
Cerrone Battle
We've done enough homework on his technique, his footwork. and all these things that we know he, we can steal him in the second round or whatever. I know the fans might be like, oh, why don't you get this guy here or here?
00:18:09
Cerrone Battle
As long as you're happy with the player you're selected and you think he can be a starter and a good player for you, be you gotta live with the decision. But they have to, same with the receivers, like we said with Tee Higgins, you have to go out and find you these guys.
00:18:16
Savage Boston
and
00:18:21
Cerrone Battle
They're out there. Somebody's going to find a left tackle that's going to be in the Pro Bowl. You just hope it's you. You have to do the homework and be better than everybody else.
00:18:28
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:18:31
Bret
Well, I'll tell you, I've been dealing with these guys with the draft for years. And, yeah, Snooty's, like, all in on draft film and goes through it. For me, though, like, I've been really interested in what they do on free agency.
00:18:43
Bret
You know, going in there, obviously the most cap space in the league right now. What's your thoughts? if you If you were them, like, how would you approach this? Would you go get a couple of big hitters or would you really kind of get a bunch of average guys and just get some plug-and-play guys that would help ah add some depth?
00:19:01
Cerrone Battle
I think I would go for the big hitter early. i'd I'd go to, I'd make a splash to let everybody else know that we mean business. I want to be the the sexy team during a free agency.
00:19:13
Cerrone Battle
You know what I'm saying? If i go get this guy, this guy's agency, he's friends with this guy or that guy, whatever, they start talking. Hey man, they're spending money up there. They're trying to build something. And if you start off getting mid-level guys or lower level guys,
00:19:27
Cerrone Battle
not saying everybody's going to take you as as serious as if you went out and you made the big, I mean, Tiggins probably going off the market, but making big splashes, it doesn't really matter where it is on the field because you need help everywhere really at this point.
00:19:39
Cerrone Battle
But you, you make a splash early, get all over a sports center, get, get all the hype day one stuff.
00:19:39
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:19:46
Cerrone Battle
And everybody sees you as a team that means business. They pay attention. And now the agents are saying, Hey, they got a lot of money over there. They got Drake made. They got a new coach. You know, all these coordinators, these guys can make you look good, get you in the pro bowl, get your bonuses, whatever. And now you're looking in the AFC East. Only team you got to worry about is Buffalo.
00:20:05
Cerrone Battle
There may be some opportunity and the team is not that good. So you're going to have an opportunity to shine no matter who they get. And these, that would be my selling point, but I'm going after a big name first. And, and,
00:20:16
Cerrone Battle
Throwing a ton of money at him and letting everybody know that we're open for business. You can't be your your first big move. Can't be Jacoby Brissett and you can expect everybody to come running. in ah You got to do something big to get people to come in.
00:20:28
Bret
Yeah, no.
00:20:28
Savage Boston
Yeah, i think or yeah you but brett you go for it.
00:20:29
Bret
i Go ahead. I was just going to I agree. I think you've got to try and lure him in. I know one of the things we've been talking about is really just the perception of the Pats outside in the rest of the NFL by the players.
00:20:43
Cerrone Battle
hmm.
00:20:43
Bret
And last year, I mean, i look at a case like what happened with Calvin Ridley. I think we got hurt from the standpoint that Brissette was our going-in quarterback.
00:20:50
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:51
Bret
We had a rookie unknown what it was going to be, ah rookie a coach going in with Mayo.
00:20:52
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:20:56
Bret
And he just kind of looked at the landscape and said, no I'm not going there. Whereas this year, I think – with the rise of may and the perception that he has bringing on the caliber of a guy like vrabel as your head coach uh we're not championship pedigree at this point but we're definitely a more opportunistic area for landing spot for some guys
00:21:16
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, I mean, and you got to throw in a rookie offensive coordinator too. He's not going to make me look good. I'm not going to, you know, can I really shine? I don't know enough about what that what they got over there.
00:21:27
Cerrone Battle
And like you said, at the time, they had Brissette.
00:21:28
Snooty
Thank you.
00:21:31
Cerrone Battle
But remember the conversation up to the day of the draft, even here was – Is it going to be Marvin Harrison Jr.? Are they going to go tackle? We weren't sure if they was even going to take Drake May up until a couple days before whatever.
00:21:39
Bret
Thank you.
00:21:44
Cerrone Battle
So if you're a free agent, you're like, look, man, I don't know what you guys are doing over there. I know you're offering me the ton of money. And then you hear Kraft talk about the stuff with the wife wanting to stay in the South, which yeah I understand, but...
00:21:55
Savage Boston
Excuse
00:21:56
Cerrone Battle
I think if he would have known that Drake May was going to be the quarterback, if they would have had a coordinator that he knew and trusted, I think he would have came and the wife would have found a way to adjust to what a $35 million dollars deal.
00:21:59
Savage Boston
me.
00:22:05
Savage Boston
Yeah. Well, I got two points.
Impact of Tee Higgins' Franchise Tag
00:22:09
Savage Boston
First point on that is I think, um you know, T Higgins obviously being will be off the market. Right. And that doesn't mean he's going to sign long term with the Bengals.
00:22:17
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:22:18
Savage Boston
I mean, first first, first things first, he's obviously pissed. You know, trying to do some loose math in my head. you know, let's say like the tag this year is $26 million. dollars Okay.
00:22:27
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:22:28
Savage Boston
He's probably, if he stays with Cincy, he'll restructure that. Maybe agrees something like 28 million a year under the market to stay there for four years. Let's say, all right, that's, you know, over a hundred million dollars. Okay. um You know, a hundred, hundred and whatever. So all sudden he gets, let's say he gets 60, 65 million guaranteed.
00:22:46
Savage Boston
Okay. You know, if he was signing with the Patriots on the total free market this year, In my opinion, he was going to hang upwards around $34-35 million a year.
00:22:55
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:22:56
Savage Boston
You know, which means over four years, that's $140 million. dollars
00:22:59
Cerrone Battle
is it
00:22:59
Savage Boston
Which about $100 million of that is guaranteed. So he potentially, in my estimation, probably lost about $30-35 million dollars in guaranteed money by them franchising him.
00:23:10
Savage Boston
And I just don't know how he could get over that in some respect.
00:23:14
Cerrone Battle
No, he he's got to be throwing stuff right now. I mean, it's just, it's natural reaction would be, he did the math.
00:23:17
Savage Boston
Yeah, like, come on.
00:23:21
Cerrone Battle
His agent did the math. If they tag you, this is what you're going miss out on. This is what the Patriots are willing to pay.
00:23:24
Savage Boston
His agent knows.
00:23:26
Cerrone Battle
Say again, I'm sorry.
00:23:27
Savage Boston
You know, his agent knows.
00:23:28
Cerrone Battle
Well, absolutely.
00:23:28
Savage Boston
that you know Someone's got to tell him.
00:23:31
Cerrone Battle
That's his first phone call, his text message. Once he found out he was tagged, it was like, wait minute, much did that just cost me? And then he's got to go walking in the office.
00:23:37
Savage Boston
Oh, man.
00:23:38
Cerrone Battle
Like, man, what are you guys doing? And then you get the report. So we're trying to we're trying to work on something. it like It's like, you're trying to buy yourself some time, but I mean... but the kid but If you had just re-up and paid them, I know they're trying to pay everybody.
00:23:51
Cerrone Battle
And Cincinnati has to realize, like a lot of teams, like you can't. that's the The system is set up so you can't keep everybody.
00:23:57
Savage Boston
Dude.
00:23:58
Cerrone Battle
You have to win during your window. You got to the Super Bowl. This year was supposed to be your year, and it it didn't happen. Your window is closing, and you're trying to extend it by just keeping guys around. I'm a franchise, my guy, over and over again.
00:24:11
Cerrone Battle
And you're going end up making a locker room a mess because now you gotta to he's going to watch Jamar Chase get paid. He's going to watch other guys on the team get paid. I think they just paid the pun in this morning or something like that.
00:24:22
Cerrone Battle
Everybody's getting paid this except for T Higgins, and he can't be happy with that.
00:24:23
Savage Boston
du It's a mess. That that organization is just a not a well-run organization. And they already had a horrible defense.
00:24:29
Cerrone Battle
No.
00:24:31
Savage Boston
And they're going to let Trey Hendrickson demand a trade. They had their linebacker demand a trade. They let, what, Jesse Bates walk. Like, du just you can't just pay the offense.
00:24:40
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm.
00:24:40
Savage Boston
And you can't have, you know, $70 million dollars a year of just two wide receivers. Like they just, I don't know, like they're not, but that's not a well-run organization. So I don't know. i don't know what they're going to do with T Higgins salary wise.
00:24:53
Savage Boston
I just think T Higgins might still be available for trade. And I think if that comes down to it, the Patriots, I think will be aggressive on the trade market.
00:24:56
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:01
Savage Boston
I think they're, they're going to go through any lengths, like just that they showed with, you know, with Ayik, especially they really wanted Ayik.
00:25:04
Snooty
Thank
00:25:08
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:25:08
Savage Boston
They paid him the most, they guaranteed him the most money and he still wouldn't come here. And that's true, those are factual reports, you know what
00:25:14
Cerrone Battle
and Yeah.
Bengals' Management Issues
00:25:17
Cerrone Battle
And he goes out there and and understand I understand, think he's from Northern California, but then he goes out there and the Niners are a five win team, you know, five or six win team.
00:25:23
Savage Boston
mean?
00:25:24
Cerrone Battle
It just is like, dag, I guess I could I could have got the money and been the man in New England right now.
00:25:29
Savage Boston
He would have been so much better off here, I'm telling you.
00:25:29
Cerrone Battle
And yeah, he would, he would have been. And playing with Drake may. and now the quarterback situation is San Fran is not guaranteed. You don't know what's going to happen with Purdy. Are they going to bring Aaron Rogers in there? You don't know what's going on with this situation.
00:25:43
Cerrone Battle
Whereas here, he could have been paired up with Drake may for years. He would have got his money. He would ah he'd probably be healthy right now. They've used them differently. You just never know. But I mean, it's just it ended up being a bad situation for him.
00:25:52
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:25:55
Cerrone Battle
But but Cincinnati, they they're going to be the situation like Miami. You got to and you got two great receivers and no money for nobody else. You know what I'm saying? You lost um Joe Mixon.
00:26:06
Cerrone Battle
Imagine that team if they had Mixon with how good they would have been last year.
00:26:07
Savage Boston
Pretty flatter.
00:26:08
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:26:09
Cerrone Battle
Look at the impact he had on Houston in the season he had.
00:26:10
Savage Boston
It's great map.
00:26:12
Cerrone Battle
So, I mean, you you you lost him.
00:26:13
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:26:14
Cerrone Battle
He lost a couple of the guys last year and you're going lose more pieces this year. And, The thing about your window closing is not that you you're getting your bad team now. It's that now all these younger guys that are getting drafted, those teams are going to come up.
00:26:28
Cerrone Battle
The Patriots, I hope, are one of them. They're going to come up. the The Steelers are going to find a quarterback one day, and they're going to be right back there better than you again. And you have to you have to do something before the next crop of talent comes.
00:26:42
Cerrone Battle
rises up and it pushes you back down and now your whole team is
Patriots' Season Reflection and Coaching Struggles
00:26:45
Cerrone Battle
dismantled. Coach is fired and everything else. So yeah, their their window's closing and right now you're messing up your locker room with what they're doing with T. Higgins.
00:26:53
Savage Boston
Yeah, and I think you had a good take on – you had a really good take. I think was Twitter. So you you were were you defending Mayo pretty hard after this season, basically saying that it was really an unwinnable situation?
00:27:04
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, it was the talent. We all knew it was they had bad talent.
00:27:06
Savage Boston
Yeah. No, I like your take.
00:27:07
Cerrone Battle
I say he was the greatest coach at all.
00:27:09
Savage Boston
thought it was good, especially how – I loved how fired up everybody got about it.
00:27:13
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:27:13
Savage Boston
as People are fired up.
00:27:14
Cerrone Battle
It's like that you, I mean, before, but think all I said was basically going to go back in time, you know, getting the DeLorean, go back to to August. People pick that team to win one game.
00:27:25
Cerrone Battle
I mean, because not because of the coaching. Well, the coaching, you got a rookie coach, rookie head coach, rookie defensive coordinator, rookie offensive coordinator with a rookie quarterback who didn't play until October.
00:27:37
Cerrone Battle
You were there was what in banking on rookie receivers to help two guys who were second year guys at receiver with no offensive line.
00:27:37
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:27:44
Cerrone Battle
And that's before you lost Andrews, Bentley, Barmore, Peppers. You lost all your captains and then say, okay, Mayo, go out there and beat the best crop of quarterbacks in the NFL.
00:27:55
Cerrone Battle
Looking at that, you played everybody except for Lamar and Mahomes. You played all the good quarterbacks and go win win with that with that roster. And look, I mean, somebody has to be a had to be a fall guy, but the team had no talent and the coaching staff around them wasn't the greatest.
00:28:13
Cerrone Battle
And i I think what they did this year with Mayo, I mean, excuse me, Vrabel, it might've been more his doing. he surrounded himself with veteran coaches. I'm like, yes, that's what should have happened last year.
00:28:24
Cerrone Battle
You surround the rookie coach with a bunch of veterans so he doesn't have to, you know, they're all not looking at him for everything.
00:28:27
Savage Boston
All right.
00:28:30
Cerrone Battle
And, but I mean, then look, somebody has to be a fall guy. You can't lose some of those games the way you did, especially that Chargers game and expect to really hold onto a job. But the team, they didn't have any talent and it was set up to fit.
00:28:42
Cerrone Battle
I'm surprised they got the four wins to be honest with you. But yeah this year, You have to get talent in If not, you're going to be battling again. Your only hope and saving grace is you might have an easier schedule, but you have to find a way to get talent, but none of this game planning and play calling is going to work.
00:28:59
Savage Boston
Totally agree. Yeah, I think you know i think mayo Mayo got obviously a raw deal. And you know i think I think he was told specifically he was going to have many years to develop this team and develop the roster.
00:29:09
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:29:11
Savage Boston
And then obviously that didn't happen.
00:29:13
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, i mean...
00:29:13
Savage Boston
and And I've never, and we've touched on this, but I've never seen an owner, at least our owner, right fire fire someone an hour after the last game. I mean, that to me shows how fucking pissed Kraft was at Mayo for winning the last game.
00:29:21
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, that's...
00:29:26
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, I mean, that's that's pretty bad. I mean, and look, I mean, just but again, go back. You told the guy not to play Drake May for beginning the season.
00:29:35
Snooty
me
00:29:38
Cerrone Battle
Like, no, no, we're going to go with Brissette. Well, you're telling him you're cool with losing. You know, we did the whole back and forth of playing.
00:29:43
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:29:44
Cerrone Battle
We're going play the best quarterback. He didn't for the first month and a half. whose decision that was. and but Maybe it was Kraft. I don't know. But if he's being told, don't play this kid until October, well, you're telling everybody in the room you're not planning on winning games.
00:29:57
Cerrone Battle
And then at the end of the year, like, we're firing because you only won four games. Like, well, I might have won seven if I would have played this this kid early on. And who knows how good he would have been by the time we got to October. But, I mean, he could have been – Jaden Daniels is good. I mean, even Kayla Williams came around halfway through the season.
00:30:13
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:30:13
Cerrone Battle
But I think when you tell a guy we're not going to play the third pick in the draft,
00:30:13
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:30:19
Cerrone Battle
until almost Halloween, you're telling everybody in the room that winning is not the the priority. And I think it just kind of, it guys kind of got their head down, and that was that was basically all she wrote. They played hard.
00:30:32
Cerrone Battle
They were in some games, a lot of games they were in, a matter of a couple of overtime games, games they should have won. But they they just, the talent wasn't good enough, and I think their confidence was shot by the time you got to November, December.
00:30:42
Snooty
No, I mean, he was definitely raw, to say the least, as a head coach. um I still think he could be a good head coach in the league. um It's just the position he was in really exacerbated the any like shortcomings he currently has.
00:30:58
Snooty
right And like the there was absolutely no talent to fall back on.
00:31:01
Cerrone Battle
No, no.
00:31:01
Snooty
None. Absolutely not at all.
00:31:03
Cerrone Battle
I mean, I don't know what his next move is. i don't know if he wants to be a coordinator somewhere or, yeah, yeah, linebacker coach or go coach you some power five team or something like that.
00:31:07
Savage Boston
linebacker coach somewhere.
00:31:13
Cerrone Battle
And and some team, will you get if you'd be a master recruiter, if you can go get guys to come in, You could turn any program around in a year and be right back in the NFL coaching again.
00:31:22
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:31:22
Cerrone Battle
So, I mean, it's just, I don't know what his past, he might just relax and chill. You know what they're paying me. I'm just going to go on vacation for a few years. Who knows? But I hope he does get back in the game somehow, some way and work his way back up again.
00:31:30
Savage Boston
yeah
00:31:35
Cerrone Battle
But yeah, he was in a tough spot, but I, I understood the firing at the end, but I mean, he just, he was set up to fail from the beginning. That team had really no shot.
NBA Regular Season Critique
00:31:45
Savage Boston
Yeah, it was tough. Well, I'm going to pivot it now. We haven't spoken about NBA in a while and we know that Saron's big NBA guy. I guess my first question is, I want to touch on maybe the All-Star Game stuff, but that's less important.
00:31:59
Savage Boston
um I think just the general state of basketball is kind of where my head's at.
00:32:04
Cerrone Battle
Yeah. Yep. No.
00:32:05
Savage Boston
like To me, the regular season has become just not a really watchable product. and Unless you're in a really competitive matchup, like let's say the Celtics play the Knicks,
00:32:15
Cerrone Battle
ye
00:32:16
Savage Boston
Or you know they play ah the Cavaliers and it's hyped up or on Sunday or something. like Then it's like, all right, cool. This is watchable. like This feels important. But dude, you can't have half of the shots in every game just be three-pointers.
00:32:29
Savage Boston
It wasn't designed this way.
00:32:31
Cerrone Battle
No, it's not. I'm glad you said that. that's That's been my take on that for years. that This is not the design of the sport.
00:32:37
Savage Boston
It's crazy. It's
00:32:38
Cerrone Battle
It's not meant to be played this way. And it's just, I mean, you didn't even have a three-point line for, you know, half the years that the league has been around. So, I mean, it's just, it's not meant to be played that way. It was a bonus shot ah kind of way to spread the floor.
00:32:53
Cerrone Battle
And now it's become the shot. And I think the analytics is just running the sport into the ground. i think I think fans of every of every major sport feels the analytics is taking place.
00:33:04
Cerrone Battle
the purity away from the sport and somehow, you know, how many times we see Josh Allen trying QB sneak going left and it not work. And then the reason they kept running it because there's some dude over there with a a tablet calculating numbers like, dude, just go right.
00:33:14
Savage Boston
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:33:18
Cerrone Battle
I would have slapped a tablet out of somebody's hand.
00:33:19
Savage Boston
Straight, bro.
00:33:20
Cerrone Battle
Like,
00:33:20
Savage Boston
Just jump in the air and put the ball over the fucking line.
00:33:22
Cerrone Battle
Go Ray, flip it right. If I'm playing Madden, I'm going to go right at least. I mean, come on, dude. But I mean, the analytics guy is over there just telling people, do this, do that. And it's kind of taking away from the instinct, the natural instinct of the game.
00:33:36
Cerrone Battle
And it's it's kind of ruining it, ruining the whole the the experience. And I grew up watching basketball when... There were teams. There were systems. There were coaching styles. where Every team was different.
00:33:50
Cerrone Battle
You had point guard dominant teams. You had teams that were dominant on the wings. You had dominant power forwards, dominant centers. And nobody played the same. Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Lyub Bird did nothing alike. Not a single thing.
00:34:03
Savage Boston
very different.
00:34:04
Cerrone Battle
But they dominated in their own different ways. Shaquille O'Neal didn't play like Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan didn't play like KG. You know, Kobe didn't play like Tracer McGrady. They were all different. Today, I say this jokingly all the time, you have 400 Jeff Greens and 10 superstars.
00:34:21
Savage Boston
No, you're dead right, dude.
00:34:23
Cerrone Battle
It's a bunch of six, seven athletes that stand in the corner and shoot threes and can dunk on the break.
00:34:24
Snooty
Thank you.
00:34:27
Cerrone Battle
And they can go one-on-one off a high pick and roll. And that's that's not the NBA's fault. That's coaching at the high school level because they're all being taught by one-on-one. with trainers and they all run high pick and roll.
00:34:40
Cerrone Battle
You beat the center on the switch and go get a layup or you step back and shoot a fade. So they get to college. And in college, if you notice, you really can't do that in college. So what do they do? They skip college and go to League Ignite.
00:34:52
Cerrone Battle
They go overseas where they can still play that way and then get drafted. Because the last thing they want to do is go to college and get lost in the shuffle because they can't do anything else. But do you see a guy like Cooper Flagg stand out?
00:35:04
Cerrone Battle
And it's like, man, why is this? Because he's not a high pick and roll ISO guy. He plays basketball. He's the first true basketball, American basketball player we have seen in a long time.
00:35:10
Savage Boston
great there.
00:35:16
Cerrone Battle
And he's going hopefully change the game back to the right way because he plays the game the right way. But it's just. The analytics of the shoot to three, let's all switch on defense, high pick and roll.
00:35:27
Cerrone Battle
Let's run the LeBron James, James Harden, Westbrook, Luka offense and hope for the best. And it's just, you're not going to win that way. It's boring. One guy gets off, he gets his numbers and everybody else is just kind of standing around watching, standing in the corner, waiting to shoot threes.
00:35:43
Savage Boston
Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:43
Cerrone Battle
And it after a while it gets repetitive and gets boring. There's no... You don't see, like we saw in the Super Bowl, for example, wondering the NFL's got the highest ratings. You saw a dominant defense against Pat Mahomes.
00:35:55
Cerrone Battle
So it became must-see TV. Let's see the the contrasting styles. In the NBA, it's like you're watching the Celtics versus Celtics. It's just the same thing over and over again.
00:36:02
Savage Boston
yeah
00:36:04
Cerrone Battle
And I think that's what's killing the sport.
00:36:05
Savage Boston
yeah No, ah totally right. I mean, you've seen like a shot chart, right? Even just a simple shot chart.
00:36:10
Cerrone Battle
It's bad.
00:36:10
Savage Boston
I mean, just like a diverse, you know, inside the, you know, inside the paint and then like a 20 foot jumper or whatever. And now it's just like literally at the basket and three point line. And it's, it's shocking.
00:36:19
Cerrone Battle
Yep.
00:36:21
Savage Boston
I mean, we grew up, I don't know how old how old are you, Saron? 45.
00:36:24
Cerrone Battle
Shame to say it, but I'm 45.
00:36:26
Savage Boston
All right. So we're all about, you know, 37, 38 or like 39, like we're late thirties. Right.
00:36:31
Cerrone Battle
Yep.
00:36:31
Savage Boston
So like we grew up, right. You watching Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker.
00:36:36
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:36:36
Savage Boston
Right. And like, and and I love Pierce's game. I feel like Pierce could do anything. Like he was my favorite player growing up.
00:36:41
Cerrone Battle
Yeah, yeah.
00:36:41
Savage Boston
Like any kid who grew up in this region. Right. i love how, you he could, he could go ISO. He could shoot threes. He shot a ton of threes, but he could, He could dunk. He could get to the rim. Like, there was so much that Pierce could do.
00:36:52
Savage Boston
Then, obviously, when Ray Allen was, like, your specialist, like, three-pointer, and then Kevin Garnett with the defense and interior, and they had such an awesome team.
00:36:56
Cerrone Battle
Yep.
00:37:01
Savage Boston
And then now, totally agree with everything you just said. I mean, it's like we got a guy who's, like, seven foot nine standing 40 feet from the hoop.
00:37:10
Cerrone Battle
And they and but here's the thing, they glorify it. Oh, his average three is 28 feet.
00:37:13
Savage Boston
I know. They're all like, oh, I'll present this three, you know.
00:37:17
Cerrone Battle
It's like, yo, he's he can dunk without jumping. His average shot should be one foot. He should be under, you should be running action, running plays, baseline screening.
00:37:28
Cerrone Battle
That way he catches the ball with somebody on his back and he's a foot under the basket.
00:37:33
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:37:33
Cerrone Battle
That's old school basketball. Just look at the all-time scoring list. I think Jordan and Colbert are the only guards that are anywhere near it. It's guys that played in the paint.
00:37:42
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:37:44
Cerrone Battle
Carl Malone, 36,000 points. He didn't didn't take a three. LeBron James didn't shoot a lot of threes until now.
00:37:49
Savage Boston
Kareem.
00:37:50
Cerrone Battle
Kareem, Shaquille O'Neal. ah no All these guys got 25,000, 30,000 points. And all they did was get three feet in front of the room and turn around and drop it in. And they did it shooting 55, 60%. That's all I think today. It said, Wilt Chamberlain went four games without missing a shot.
00:38:05
Cerrone Battle
I'm like, yeah, that's... I want to see that from his – don't tell me the athletes today are bigger, better, stronger if they can't do that. You should at least – Wimby – I can't stand Wimby's game.
00:38:16
Savage Boston
I can't either. He's 7th century.
00:38:17
Cerrone Battle
You can't be that tall and show how you can grab the rim without jumping.
00:38:19
Savage Boston
7th century.
00:38:21
Cerrone Battle
And you shoot 10 threes a game. That's, you might as well, yeah he's Kevin Martin. That's all he is right now. But he's just tall and everybody likes him. But dude, get in the paint, get easy layups. You score 35 a night, shooting 60%.
00:38:34
Cerrone Battle
It's an easy game. Put the other team in foul trouble. But I think what's going to happen, the team, somebody's going to emerge that's going to be dominant in the paint.
00:38:45
Cerrone Battle
And the copycat league is going to kick in. And in order to stop that guy or team in the paint, teams are going to have to start drafting guys to stop those teams.
00:38:55
Cerrone Battle
And next thing you know, you're going to see a huge influx in bigs down low, guys in the paint that can play. You're kind of seeing it a little bit now, but you still got Towns wants to shoot threes. You still got a lot of guys want to shoot threes.
00:39:08
Cerrone Battle
But it kind of, if Embiid would have stayed healthy and reached his full potential, he could have been that guy. If Zion would have stayed healthy, reached his full potential, he's another one. Giannis, if he stays healthy, you have a lot of guys that play around the rim, but you need one that's going to dominate. Like Shaquille O'Neal came in, I'm winning championships, not going to stop me.
00:39:28
Cerrone Battle
Then the Alonzo Mourning show up, the Mutombos, and there's a ton of Theo Ratliff's, all those type guys start showing up because you have to stop that guy. Tim Duncan and Dave Robinson together.
00:39:39
Cerrone Battle
You know, yeah it's going to take a team to do the opposite of what everybody's doing and when doing it to get the league to switch back the way was it was.
00:39:41
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:39:46
Cerrone Battle
If not, these analytic cats are going to ruin the game even more than what it is now.
LeBron James' Influence on NBA Mentality
00:39:52
Bret
Yeah, I totally agree. And that's why I was, I was okay with Draymond Green's comments about being very boring. Uh, it's just kind of funny coming from a guy that, you know, essentially the Warriors dynasty and the Warriors team was what kind of started this whole process of shooting threes.
00:40:05
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:40:07
Bret
Right.
00:40:07
Cerrone Battle
Yep, that was the copycat.
00:40:08
Bret
Uh, Yeah, exactly. So they kind of went through and obviously now the Celtics are taking it to Missoula ball extreme and and we're shooting an insane amount of threes there. So ah it's it's gotten way out of hand, but did want to, i did want to circle on the all-star break.
00:40:23
Bret
I loved your take that you had over the weekend and you kind of touched on LeBron basically bowing out within like an hour before the all-star break and
00:40:31
Cerrone Battle
You need to load manage an all-star game. Come on.
00:40:36
Bret
And and this is this got us going, and we were talking about really just the approach of the league and and like the difference in the sports and stuff. And I got on a big LeBron hate train about how I really think he's been one of the catalysts.
00:40:49
Bret
And and like yeah ESPN obviously helped to kind of drive it too. But just his approach to the game and thinking about the greats, and and I looked at it, and i'm like, all the greats did the dunk contest.
00:41:01
Bret
And LeBron never did it. Right. And LeBron was the guy that had the decision to then go to Miami South Beach, really kind of empowered players. But like he changed the dynamic and the approach.
00:41:09
Cerrone Battle
Yep.
00:41:11
Bret
And I think what happened was, was all the players started to follow his lead.
00:41:16
Cerrone Battle
Mm-hmm.
00:41:16
Bret
And that changed the whole mentality in the league. And at this point, it's created this, you know, player centric mentality that's, I think, also hurting the game.
00:41:26
Cerrone Battle
You're spot on in every one of those takes, man. You're spot on. He... be Prior to him, and then a lot of players today, they like to make the argument, well, these owners don't care about you.
00:41:37
Cerrone Battle
these These teams don't care. See, they traded Luka away. Look at winning 310 pounds. He'd still be in Dallas. It's this is the same organization that kept Dirt Witski for 20 years.
00:41:43
Bret
I'm
00:41:46
Cerrone Battle
You know what i'm saying? Like, it's a lot of players say they don't care about you. They don't do this. They don't do that. That's, that's all the result of LeBron speeches over the last 20 years, because prior to LeBron James, anybody who was top 75 caliber They stayed in one franchise. They stayed at one organization.
00:42:08
Cerrone Battle
Reggie Miller didn't win. He stayed in indian and Indianapolis, Indiana, excuse me, Indiana the whole time. Patrick Ewing late, late in his career left. But if he wanted to be a k Nick for the rest of his life, he would have been. And these guys didn't win.
00:42:19
Cerrone Battle
You know, the but the Michael Jordans and the Magic Johnsons, the Larry Birds, those guys on the bronze level, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, so they stayed at one franchise.
00:42:30
Cerrone Battle
This dude literally made being a mercenary cool.
00:42:33
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:42:34
Cerrone Battle
He I'm going to get the most money. I'm going to keep moving. And he used the excuse. Well, I don't I don't I don't like the owners. Owners don't like me. So why'd you go back to Dan Gilbert? then Why'd you go right back to the same guy you dog a couple years earlier?
00:42:47
Cerrone Battle
You know, you're a mercenary looking for the easiest path to a championship and the most money. And like you said, they follow the lead of the greatest players in the game. They always do. And when Jordan was around, if he played hard, everybody played hard.
00:43:00
Cerrone Battle
If he showed up, they had to match that in intensity and they showed up because they knew he was going to bring it. Kobe Bryant kind of took that mantle into the two thousand
00:43:08
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:43:09
Cerrone Battle
Not just Kobe. Kevin Garnett, I'm going to play hard. Tracy McGrady, okay, I'm going to prove that I'm just as good as Vince Carter. Vince Carter, okay, I'm going to take it to Carmelo Anthony.
00:43:20
Cerrone Battle
These guys was – Allen Iverson, I'm the smallest, but I'm going to be better than Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis and Kobe. I'm going to show you. I'm a win all-star MVP over all these guys. I don't care if it was Ben Wallace with no skills.
00:43:33
Cerrone Battle
I'm going to get 30 rebounds on Shaquille O'Neal to show you that I belong on the court. And they used that as an opportunity, as a proving ground. And once that group went out, it was LeBron's group, and it was you know the Banana Boat crew.
00:43:47
Cerrone Battle
Chris Paul, how many different teams to play on? A guy that good should be on 10 teams.
00:43:50
Savage Boston
hungry
00:43:52
Cerrone Battle
You know, do D.
00:43:52
Bret
Well, was just going to say, look at Durant, right?
00:43:53
Cerrone Battle
Wade. I'm sorry, go ahead, I'm sorry.
00:43:56
Bret
I mean, he's in OKC. He loses the Western Conference Finals.
00:43:58
Cerrone Battle
Yep.
00:43:59
Bret
Next year, you know, he's going to Golden State to go win a championship.
00:44:02
Savage Boston
That's my, that's the most egregious example of me, by the way, just the Durant thing. I couldn't get over it at the time. And now looking back, I mean, he joined, I think there were a 73 win team the year but before he joined them.
00:44:13
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:44:16
Cerrone Battle
Yep. Beat him.
00:44:16
Savage Boston
And then he won back to back and he's like, ah, fuck it.
00:44:17
Cerrone Battle
They put him out.
00:44:18
Savage Boston
I guess I'm done winning championship.
00:44:21
Cerrone Battle
I'm going to go
00:44:21
Savage Boston
was like, he could stayed too. He's like, nah. Like, Durant is the ultimate mercenary. I mean, that's what he's done for his whole career now.
00:44:26
Cerrone Battle
Oh, yeah. he he took He took what LeBron did it and magnified it. Well, if I'm to it, I'm to big. You know, LeBron...
00:44:32
Savage Boston
I hated that one, man. i had That one killed me. It hurt the game.
00:44:36
Cerrone Battle
it I was just about to say that. that Most importantly, it hurt the game because instead of watching this man try and take out that Warriors team, it ruined it. Because one of the great series, James Harden was in Houston, and they went seven games against Kevin Durant that Warriors team, and they lost, they missed 25 threes a row or something like that, and they ended losing game seven.
00:44:54
Savage Boston
yeah
00:44:55
Cerrone Battle
Ridiculous. is Typical dead Tony. ah Chris Paul got hurt, he hurt his hand or something like that. But watching James Harden try and beat that trio by himself was must-see TV. kevin If kevin garnet excuse Kevin Durant stayed in OKC and said, this is my franchise forever, we'd look at him totally different right now. we'd we win This guy got 30,000 points, and we're like, yeah, he's he's he's good, but there's really nothing to it, no juice to it.
00:45:22
Cerrone Battle
If he stays in OKC, challenges Golden State Warriors. They don't win as much as they probably won with him without him being there. He probably wins because somebody goes and joins him.
00:45:32
Cerrone Battle
You know what saying? LeBron stays in Cleveland his whole career, we look at him differently. We don't look at him like the clown show we do now, you know, and his championships would have been, if he won three championships in Cleveland instead of four overall, it'd have more value than the four that he has because he stayed there.
00:45:48
Savage Boston
yeah
00:45:49
Cerrone Battle
They built the team around him. team Guys came and joined him. it would be a totally different situation. D Wade stays in Miami his whole career. People forget he went to Chicago, didn't work out. They tried to build a super team.
00:46:01
Cerrone Battle
Jimmy Butler, Rondo, and a couple other guys. That didn't work out.
Positionless Basketball and Modern Playstyles
00:46:04
Cerrone Battle
He went to Cleveland with LeBron. That didn't work out. He got up out of there quick. You know, that whole player movement thing, he just killed the sport.
00:46:11
Cerrone Battle
And now you got guys who, you got Jimmy Butler's situation where he's just, yeah, I'm getting 100 million over two years, but I want an extension at 35 years old.
00:46:21
Savage Boston
That's ridiculous, too.
00:46:21
Cerrone Battle
Like, come on, dawg.
00:46:22
Savage Boston
I think i think honestly one of the most um striking things, I think why the ratings are down so aggressively, because they're down like 50% in regular season stuff.
00:46:30
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:46:32
Savage Boston
like They're down aggressively and from 10 years ago. and Part of the reason is when you aesthetically watch the game, you know positionless basketball is killing me.
00:46:42
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:46:43
Savage Boston
And I get I'm like the old dude or whatever, but like that's – and that's what the numbers say you're supposed to do. Like we said, everybody's a wing. You know, like you got five wings. Everyone's 6'7 and just stands there and shoots threes. And like – but it's visually unappealing.
00:46:57
Savage Boston
You should have – you got a guy inside. You got the three-point guy in the corner. You got your point guard. You know i mean You're supposed to have people playing different positions.
00:47:04
Cerrone Battle
Yep. Yep.
00:47:04
Savage Boston
There were five positions for a reason.
00:47:06
Cerrone Battle
yep
00:47:07
Savage Boston
Do know what mean? Like we had positions. I grew up. It's like, awesome ah Scott, you're going to be power forward now. got to go down on the block. Like that's what we had growing up.
00:47:16
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:47:16
Savage Boston
And now it's like I'd just be standing outside at half court. You know? So i i despise positionless basketball, just how it looks.
00:47:23
Cerrone Battle
You know what it is? It's similar to jumping to football for a second. It's kind of like when you get franchise tagged as a receiver, you get more money than if you're a tight end.
00:47:34
Cerrone Battle
So now all the tight ends want to be receivers. You know what Like it's, you get more money that way.
00:47:36
Snooty
Thank you.
00:47:37
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:47:39
Cerrone Battle
So these players now, They saw all the glory all the wings were getting. They grew up when it was Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant. They all want to be Kobe. It's like, yeah, dude, but you're 7'1".
00:47:50
Cerrone Battle
i'm still I still want to be Kobe. So now you got a bunch of guys who all practice and train to be a guard, no matter what their size or height was. And most importantly, you had coaches let them do it. You didn't have you don't have coaches to say,
00:48:05
Cerrone Battle
No, you're not Kobe Bryant. Get down on the block.
00:48:08
Savage Boston
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:48:08
Cerrone Battle
You're going to be a power forward. You're going to get me rebounds, block shots. You're going to get me double doubles. You know, you're going to, I'd rather you be more prime Kevin Love than out there. Just old Kevin Love. We just stand on the three point line and yeah everybody just became, like you said, positionless.
00:48:24
Cerrone Battle
It's like, dude, Jason Tatum, for example, he's like six 10 or whatever it is. He has unbelievable agility and size footwork. He's very quick for a guy his size. Even with that, if he played, let's say in the 90s, they would have put him on a weight program and made him gain 20 pounds and put him on the low block and say, you know what? You're going have the smoothest jump.
00:48:46
Cerrone Battle
He'd have been more Bernard King. You're going to have a smooth jumper from 10 feet down. You're going to go to the basket. You're going to bang and get rebounds. And he would have said, yeah, coach, but I can dribble. and they would said, I don't care. You're going to go on the block.
00:48:57
Cerrone Battle
and you're going to play basketball the way we're telling you to play. LeBron James would have been much closer to Carl Malone.
00:49:00
Savage Boston
so
00:49:03
Cerrone Battle
They're literally the same exact size. Young Carl Malone, talking about the slick-haired Carl Malone, not the bald Carl Malone, when he was running the break, just beating everybody down court, that was LeBron James.
00:49:14
Cerrone Battle
And they said, no, you I know you can dribble, Carl. I know you can pass, but pass out of the low post. Pass out of the pick and roll with John Stockton. You're going to win 50 games a year for 20 years and play 82 games a year.
00:49:26
Cerrone Battle
No problem. That's what LeBron James would have looked like with the right if he'd have played under Jerry Sloan or something like that. But now you have a bunch of coaches that, and I mean, these guys got 20 assistant coaches on the sideline, and they all just sit there and let these dudes do whatever they want. There's no so consequences for it, and that's how you end up with positionless basketball.
00:49:44
Cerrone Battle
That's how you end up with Jordan pool. Basketball is ugly. Uh, LaMelo ball out there under the leg and behind the back passing in overtime, like ugly basketball.
00:49:51
Bret
Thank
00:49:53
Cerrone Battle
Cause nobody's willing to tell these guys to stop and play the game the right way. And that's, it's, it's killing the sport.
00:50:00
Bret
So speaking ah like playing the game the right way, another big thing, and this is kind of going back to last year's playoff run, but I know a lot of people get on Tatum and how he played in the playoffs. And you know Brown obviously shined come finals, but like I think what was widely overlooked, and I'm curious to see if you agree with this, is ah Tatum did a lot of the little things that other guys at his level don't do.
00:50:25
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:50:26
Bret
playing defense on a big, going in getting rebounds, getting a double team and then making the kickout pass. And I think a lot of those kind of moves, they don't fill the stat sheet the way you'd want to see with the points, but he did play winning basketball.
00:50:42
Bret
And I'm just curious because I feel like it's part of why he gets a knock or a bad rep on a national level and guys tend to hype up like an Anthony Edwards. Meanwhile, Tatum's out there winning games, winning championships. What's your thoughts on that?
00:50:56
Cerrone Battle
Jason Tatum is complete. He's a complete basketball player now. And it's, it's, I mean, you've seen the last month or so he's been playing.
00:51:02
Snooty
Thank you.
00:51:03
Cerrone Battle
It's, it's, he's on MVP level. And, but last year to your point in the playoffs,
Jason Tatum's Impact on Basketball
00:51:08
Cerrone Battle
there was a moment it was in the Pacers series. I'm not sure which game it think it was one of the comeback game in Indiana where he makes the behind the back pass out of a triple team to Al Holford in the corner for three.
00:51:19
Savage Boston
great pass.
00:51:20
Cerrone Battle
amazing pass. And I'd never seen him make a play like that in his career. He knew where he was going with it. It was on time. He knew what did an Al Horford's outcome in and made it and knocked it down. That moment was, it was almost like in matrix when he was like, Oh, he's the one i remember sitting on the couch. Like, that's it.
00:51:36
Cerrone Battle
That's the kind of play where you win championships. And it got overlooked a lot. Not a lot of people, a lot of people shared that and, and love the play.
00:51:44
Savage Boston
Bye.
00:51:44
Cerrone Battle
But the little things he did, Jalen Brown hits the three to send in overtime against Indiana game one. Everybody remembers that, but no one remembers Tatum scored 10 points in the overtime.
00:51:56
Cerrone Battle
You know, it's the rebounding. He was the best. Excuse me. i think he was the best rebounder in the playoffs. Sorry, excuse me. And his ball movement, his rebounding, everybody says, oh, this guy can guard all five positions.
00:52:07
Cerrone Battle
I think Jason Tatum is one of the few guys that actually can.
00:52:07
Snooty
Thank you.
00:52:10
Cerrone Battle
He can guard guards on the outside. He can get under the paint. He'll bang. He'll rebound. He's an amazing rebounder, defensive rebounder. He's becoming a sensational passer out of the dropugh double teams and traps. he he He baits teams now into trapping him because he can make the pass.
00:52:28
Cerrone Battle
Whereas three years ago, that was a weakness of his. He would turn his back when the double team would come their pickers pocket and go the other way. That's how Miami beat them. But now he waits for you to come in and set you up and the players around him see that. And that's why they hit the shots in the corners and Cornette and these other guys are shooting such a high percentage when he's on the court, but he is a compet complete player.
00:52:51
Cerrone Battle
Excuse me. I have him over Ant Edwards because of that. I agree with you on that. It's better than Jalen Brunson. You can people make the Luka comparisons all you want. Luka's the worst defender in the league.
00:53:03
Cerrone Battle
Jason Taylor's probably in the top 10.
00:53:04
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:53:05
Cerrone Battle
That should be worth something. um he's he's he's He gets to the line now. He's rebounding. He's got the size, the athleticism, and... contrary to popular belief that guy's closing games he's closing people out in the fourth quarter and look that's that's all you want from a guy and Jalen Brown shines in the finals in my opinion because Tatum sees so much attention it allows other guys to eat and Jalen Brown took a clear advantage of that good for him for winning MVP but Jason Tatum in my eyes is I think he is ah easily a top five player in this league it should be an MVP conversation
00:53:39
Bret
Agreed.
00:53:40
Snooty
But but isn't that isn't that what we were just talking about? that like So he makes a lot of the like the winning basketball plays, right?
00:53:45
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:53:46
Snooty
like But he doesn't get the credit for that. isn't that That's why guys like don't want to do that. Because they're out to make you know to you know build their own brand and make their own money.
00:53:53
Cerrone Battle
know
00:53:57
Snooty
And like that's all well and good. But like like to your point, like that's not winning basketball. like That's not good basketball.
00:54:02
Cerrone Battle
yeah
00:54:04
Snooty
But like Tatum does it, but he doesn't get the credit that he rightfully deserves. Right. So it's just like a perfect example of kind of ah why like people don't do it that way.
00:54:14
Cerrone Battle
yeah and And one thing about him, too, and he doesn't get enough credit for this. Everyone talks about all the players in the league being lazy and not wanting to play every game and not going hard all the time.
00:54:27
Cerrone Battle
Jason Tatum is a hooper. He's an old school hooper. He likes to play basketball.
00:54:30
Snooty
Mm hmm.
00:54:31
Cerrone Battle
When everybody was resting, going to the all-star break, going to play. I'm going to go out there and play. i'm play as much as I can. The last two All-Star games. Didn't have 50 in an All-Star game like a year ago or two years ago, whatever it was?
00:54:42
Cerrone Battle
Because he was the only one playing hard.
00:54:42
Bret
Yeah, 55.
00:54:44
Cerrone Battle
He likes to play basketball. Tape tape up my wrist. I'm good. Let's go. Let's go play. He doesn't sit out games. And I think that should count for something. When you have everybody else complaining that they put a 65-game threshold on awards,
00:54:59
Cerrone Battle
This dude is like, oh, I'll beat that with no problem. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to play my share of games unless I'm really hurt, banged up, tired, whatever. But I'm going to play. I'm going to try and win. And he always says, I'm going to do it for the fans. They pay their money to see me.
00:55:12
Cerrone Battle
I'm going to be out here. That is worth so much to the Celtics organization, to the NBA. And the fans appreciate it. i put ah i put ah Somebody put a thing up today about him, the NBA they' not having a ah future face. think it was ESPN.
00:55:26
Cerrone Battle
And I commented, well, this dude, he's third in jersey sales in the league behind the old guys. The Steph LeBron, Jason Tatum. The Celtics number one in merchandise sales because of Jason Tatum. He's in all the Gatorade commercials.
00:55:38
Cerrone Battle
He's got the hottest Jordan shoes that are out there right now. He's everywhere. It's like you don't want to give him the face of the league, but the kid then came out there and took it because he plays hard. He's on a championship team. He's been to several conference finals.
00:55:52
Cerrone Battle
He's in one of the hottest sports markets in the world. And the dude, he's a hooper. He is, he might not want it. He might not want to give it to him. Jason Tatum is becoming the face of the and NBA.
00:56:03
Cerrone Battle
And
Conclusion and Appreciation for Saron Battle
00:56:04
Cerrone Battle
if he wins another championship, he's going to be the one all the kids want to be and all the kids are going to talk about.
00:56:10
Snooty
particularly if it's back-to-back.
00:56:11
Cerrone Battle
Yeah.
00:56:12
Savage Boston
yeah Good stuff. Well, we're coming up on 56 minutes. ah So appreciate anybody who's tuned in for this for this long. i Appreciate your time. I'm going wrap it up now. Again, Saron, don't go anywhere. Don't leave because we need the audio to ah to upload.
00:56:28
Savage Boston
And appreciate you coming on with us.
00:56:30
Cerrone Battle
Thanks for having me, man.
00:56:30
Savage Boston
All right.
00:56:31
Cerrone Battle
I really appreciate it.
00:56:31
Savage Boston
well we'll We'll be with you guys next time. Peace.