Sage Steele is the best of the group IMO Bill Simmons isn't suited for a show like this and Doug Collins is dumb
I said Bill Simmons sucked before the show aired and got pummeled. He is tolerable in small doses but as a whole he sucks.
I think Doug Collins is getting annoyed with Bill Siimons. Two personalities/styles that don't really mix. Bill and Jalen have ok chemistry, but Collins seems like the odd man out. Like the only adult in the room. Ernie Johnson on TNT can pull that off, but it works because he has good timing and a good sense of humor. Collins may be a bit too much of a serious analyst for this setting.
Funny thing is when Bill and Jalen do their Grantland videos, it works great. But the ESPN show is awkward and everything feels rushed, like they are just trying to plow through talking points.
They're trying to make it casual like an open discussion with the whole round table and Bill Simmons type personality. Unfortunately, you need group with chemistry to do that and right now, the whole thing just doesn't seem to flow.
I haven't actually watched the ESPN show yet, but Sage Steele is pretty cute and Magic Johnson was possibly the worst commentator of all time, so I'm going to assume it's better.
I like the team they have, although I love hearing Doug Collins call games as well. Simmons and Jalen work well together, and Steele is a solid host. It's not TNT good, but it's solid and way better than past lineups
Yeah me and my dad said the espn show is trash I really don't like jalen rose and IMO nobody is better than TNT
If they're trying to bring Grantland to ESPN then they should go all the damn way. This half-assed way they're going about it is resulting in a mediocre and disjointed show. If they replaced Sage and Doug with House and Jacoby I'd be all over it. They'd all be in danger of getting fired every five minutes though. lol
yeah collins either can't or won't go along with any funny conversations that get going. it kills any funny momentum bill or jalen might get going. and that of course is the other problem, which simmons mentioned as a huge problem from last year. they just barely have any time. they get a couple of short segments and that's it. you might as well just do highlights because you're not going to get a studio show out of that. tnt gives these guys an hour at the end of the game. espn goes right to sportscenter. understandable because that's espn's bread and butter, but tnt dedicates programming time to an nba studio show and they get something great out of it. espn doesn't and they get a rushed halftime show. the tnt crew could do the espn show and it still wouldn't be good. granted, the espn crew just doesn't have chemistry outside of bill and jalen so they couldn't be inside the nba even with an hour. sage isn't bad but it always feels like she's searching for ways to be funny without it being natural. but then she hasn't been around forever like ernie so that's probably understandable.
exactly. if you want it to be bill simmons' world, make it his world. making it half bill and jalen and half "typical espn playing it safe personalities" doesn't work. but i'm not sure espn has a "not playing it safe" bone in their body so i don't see it happening. tnt and nbatv pretty much just let things fly and it works. but then espn rules the sports world so i guess they know what they are doing as well.
^This. So much. Inside the NBA is a shell of what it used to be. Last night, after the Rockets/Blazers game during the entire highlight reel for the game, they kept sliding in stupid inside jokes and innuendo for their "Chariots of Backfire" race. As a matter of fact, the entire night, that's all they talked about. It seems as if they forget the reason they are there is to talk about the NBA rather than themselves or whatever the new inside joke is.
Bill seemed like he didn't want to be there. "..I drank a lot of coffee" "We've been here for 8 hours!"
