00:00Always good to hook up with my friend, Ken Sterling, who covers everything Indiana for us.
00:05The Hoosiers, the Colts, the Pacers, you name it.
00:09He does it.
00:09He does mornings in Bloomington on GCL 98.7.
00:13He's got a YouTube TV show that's very popular.
00:16And he's the man when it comes to my beloved Hoosier State and my beloved Hoosiers.
00:23But I don't want to really talk about them at this point other than maybe briefly.
00:27I know that we'll get to that.
00:29Let's start with Danny Dimes and Richardson and what they're going to be doing, the Colts here.
00:36What's their plan?
00:38Because, you know, I got to tell you, Jones, to me, I saw him win that playoff game in Minnesota.
00:45I think he had terrible help around him in New York.
00:49But he can play football.
00:50And what I've seen of Richardson is that he can't.
00:53Now, I'm not being mean.
00:54I just think he's been awful for the Colts.
00:57You know, Richardson's got such a high ceiling.
01:00He is such a great athlete that if he can just get the stuff between his ears working right, you've really got something.
01:07And so I think with Daniel Jones, they're really looking at a guy, not to motivate him, but they're looking at a guy who can be consistent.
01:15They want consistency out of that position.
01:17Richardson has not been consistent.
01:20He is able to do everything, but he doesn't do it all the time.
01:24And Shane Steichen today said they'll be graded upon consistency.
01:28And I think that that's bad news for Anthony Richardson in any hopes that he has of being the starter in 25.
01:35Are you surprised that Ballard is still there?
01:38Well, yes, they've gone to the playoffs twice in his eight seasons.
01:45The drafts, other than 2018, haven't been great.
01:49And he just keeps, you know, he stays close enough to make hope real for fans and, more importantly, to make hope real for Jim Irsay.
01:58But, wow, really mediocre and mediocre and mediocre again the last four years.
02:04And it is, it's really hard to fathom that he's back to take another swing at this, but here he is.
02:11So what are they planning to do that you know of this weekend?
02:17I think that the Colts are going to take a tight end, either at 14, if they can get Warren, or they're going to trade back and get somebody like Loveland, get somebody like Taylor, because they're going to take a tight end with the first pick that they have.
02:33That's going to be a must-do thing.
02:35And then they're going to take two defensive tackles.
02:37I think they're going to take a running back.
02:39They're going to take a quarterback.
02:40And then they've got to find somewhere in that mix to kind of hook up with a linebacker, because EJ Speed is gone via free agency.
02:50And they've only got Zaire Franklin and then Jalen Carlisle, who had surgery in the offseason.
02:55So they're very thin at linebacker.
02:58I think they're going to wind up taking one of those.
03:00But job one on Thursday night is to take a tight end.
03:04Do you think, yes or no, and then we'll move on to the Pacers, yes or no,
03:08will Warren be available to them at that point?
03:12I don't think that he will.
03:14I think somebody's going to take him, whether it's the Cowboys, the Saints, the Jets.
03:18I have no idea.
03:19But he's the most pro-ready guy in the draft, maybe regardless of position.
03:24So that's a guy, that's a plug-and-play rookie who can go out and play really, really well,
03:28kind of be this dressed version of Brock Bowers.
03:31So let's talk about the Pacers tonight at the Fieldhouse.
03:34A big game, and they look fantastic overall.
03:38I thought in game one, winning, pulling away, getting it done, handling their business.
03:44Do they do the same thing tonight now that they're getting game time back?
03:49But he's not a guy that I freak out about.
03:52I think he can score.
03:53I don't think he plays defense.
03:55I think he talks a lot with his no rings.
03:58What do you think happens tonight with the Pacers?
03:59Do they go up two or do they have a problem?
04:01Because that number is so short at four.
04:03I think they win tonight, and I think they cover tonight.
04:08I'm not too worried about this game.
04:10I'm not too worried about the Bucs.
04:11They've got Giannis, and they've really got virtually nothing else.
04:14Lillard can shoot, but he's not a great defender.
04:17You look at the other four guys that started on Saturday afternoon, and between the other
04:22four, other than Giannis, they scored a total of 14 points.
04:26That is, and Kyle Kuzma was utterly inert.
04:30They didn't defend.
04:32They didn't do anything offensively that really bothered me.
04:35I think if Halliburton and Matherin had played worth a damn for the Pacers, that the Pacers
04:40would have won that game by 40.
04:42I just don't think that this Bucs team is very good other than Giannis and Lillard shooting
04:47the basketball, and so I think the Pacers rolled tonight.
04:50Last year, they took out the Knicks, and they went on a deep run.
04:54And I think some people thought that they were lucky.
04:58I actually think they're good, and I think they're relatively deep.
05:02I think they're kind of two at every position.
05:05I think they have a bench.
05:06I think they have a coach.
05:07I think they're capable of going on another run in these Eastern playoffs where everyone
05:13else has already handed it to the Celtics, and obviously they got their ass beat by them,
05:19but I think they're capable of going on another run.
05:21Do you?
05:22I do, and that's what makes you the smartest guy in this business, because you understand
05:27that it's not about stars, and the Pacers don't have stars, but what they do have, they
05:32got about nine or ten guys who are really competent NBA playoff-level basketball players, and they
05:38can go out on any given night and beat any of these teams.
05:41And really, if you look at what happened last year in the playoffs, I think the Pacers played
05:45despite the fact that they got run out of the playoffs by the Celtics, but they played
05:51the Celtics as tough as anybody else did in the playoffs.
05:54I think they can go on a run, and while they did get kissed, they played against a couple
06:00of teams with some injury issues.
06:02Giannis couldn't play, and then you had some injuries for the Knicks.
06:06But this is a really good, functional basketball team that doesn't rely on one guy to get it
06:12done.
06:12It relies on five, and that's the way basketball is meant to be played.
06:16I got about a minute, respectfully.
06:19Tell me what you think of he's getting a bunch of shooters in Bloomington, all guys that can
06:25shoot the rock, players that can fill it up from outside, that can shoot mid-range.
06:31He got another one today, and this Drake kid, every kid that he's gotten to go to IU to
06:36play basketball is a pure shooter.
06:39That's a good sign, because I thought they've had trash there the last few years.
06:43They have.
06:44The last eight years, they've been able to hit the rim.
06:46You know, this has not been a good shooting team.
06:48They haven't utilized the three-point shot a lot.
06:51I think that had to do with their ability to shoot the three.
06:54They just built it differently and thought by building it differently, they were going to
06:58be more competitive in the Big Ten.
06:59And that didn't happen.
07:01DeVries is doing it in a completely different way, actually going out and getting guys who
07:05can shoot the basketball.
07:07Who would have thought that that could possibly be a successful strategy?
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