Luka’s Defense Is Changing The Conversation | The Story with Rachel Nichols

The Jets need answers, and Lukaic is playing defense.

We've got a lot to talk about.

Hello, I'm Rachel Nichols, and welcome to the story.

We're starting today with, yeah, hold on to your hats, the Jets.

Yesterday, Jets coach Aaron Glenn, despite the team being 2 and 6, he's not in fear of losing his job.

This is also despite that New York has lost its last 3 games, and overall, Glenn is now 5-20 since he took the gig.

And a lot of teams that would get Glenn fired, but he's right that with this franchise, probably not.

Owner Woody Johnson has Only once ever fired a coach midseason.

And also this team finishing off the season with a stinker of a losing record.

It's not exactly the worst thing in the world.

In fact, the question all over New York this week is whether the Jets should just outright tank.

And I get the instinct because 15 straight seasons without a playoff game, that'll do it to a fan base.

But to me, the tank question is the wrong question.

The Jets don't need to lose to get a high pick because they already have 31.

Rounders in next April's draft.

If the season ended today, their own pick would sit at 6th.

They also own Dallas's pick, which projects around 10th, and they own the Colts' pick, which projects 4th, and possibly climbing.

The Colts have fired their general manager, traded away two Pro Bowlers, and are now shopping Jonathan Taylor.

So yeah.

And then there's the question of who they'd even be tanking for.

ESPN puts out a pretty extensive pre-draft quarterback rankings, and the latest update have both.

Arch Manning and Dante Moore, both previously super highly hyped guys, now graded as 2nd round prospects.

Now the top guy on that list is Oklahoma State's Drew Messmaker, a former high school punter and safety who walked on at North Texas.

So here's what I do instead, and it's not losing on purpose.

It's admitting this season is over and starting next season now.

Trade Will McDonald, who has 2 sacks and nearly 14 million.

In guaranteed dollars coming next year and anyone else on an expiring deal.

Get the rookie Cade Klubnick some real snaps because Geno Smith is 36 and his contract is up after this year.

And Geno's actually been sort of fine this season.

He has 12 touchdowns against 3 interceptions.

So he's not the reason that they're 2 and 6, but he also is not the future, and the next 9 games should belong to the guys who are.

As for Glenn, it's actually smart for Johnson to wait until January to make a coaching.

Decision.

Either Glenn rallies with a group of younger, more hungry players, or he doesn't.

And if not , you're firing him right when the crop of strong coaching candidates is renewing.

Regardless, the Jets will have many bites at the apple in the first round, and they also sure don't need to specifically tank to keep losing.

What they do need is better decision making through the entire draft process, and that can only be helped with starting to figure out next season now as opposed to waiting until April.

All right, let's get to the NBA where Luka Dancic is showing us something we don't always see from him at this time of year.

Now, if you've watched me on TV for a while, you know, I have praised Luca's playoff defense for years, because when the games get big, he largely works with very strong intention on both sides of the floor.

But what I've wanted all this time is for that guy to show up in November too.

And so far this season, he is, man.

Yeah, the Lakers played the Heat last night, but I also want to talk about.

Game they played a few days ago against Toronto.

Lucas scored 45 points, his 3rd 40 point game in his previous 4.

But the numbers that mattered the most to me were on the other end, 15 rebounds, every one of them on the defensive glass, 5 steals, 3 charges.

No one's had 5 steals and 3 charges in a game since the league started tracking those plays over a decade ago.

Or to put it more succinctly, that's 8 Toronto turnovers forced by 1 man.

And Luca himself said that's due to an actual change in his approach this year.

Here's his quote.

Obviously I'm not the best defender in the NBA, but I think this year I really took a step forward.

I know and my team knows that I'm better this year.

That matters for not just the Lakers season, but the MVP conversation, because last spring that one end of the floor was a major factor in keeping him off the top of ballots, my ballot included.

I weirdly got singled out with a ton of pushback from Lakers fans on that, despite that every other MVP voter felt exactly the same way.

Out of the 100 ballots cast, Luca got 0 1st place votes.

In fact, 91 of the 100 voters ranked him 4th place or lower.

And it's funny, a lot of Lakers fans have also pointed to James Harden's MVP is that there's a media bias against their guy.

But the irony in that comparison actually makes the opposite point.

Yeah, Harden has taken what I call a relaxed approach to defense throughout his career, except for the year he won his MVP when game film had him noticeably putting in a lot more effort on that side of the ball, whether the stats sometimes showed it or not.

So what does all that tell us about?

Luca's chances this season.

Start with the stuff you can count.

Going into the Heat game, Luca was leading the league in points per game, averaging around 2 steals and blocking shots at a higher rate than at any point in his career.

Plus he'd been taking charges at a rate that trailed only Draymond Green.

All of that, including Luca's own feelings on the subject that his defense needed work last season, and he is now putting in that work.

It makes him the early season leader in the clubhouse for the MVP.

Hm.

Personally, I'm just excited to see the player I've.

so admired in May, now showing up in the fall.

If that's what we get for the rest of the season, then not only does he have a very good chance to finally win the NBA's highest individual honor, but the Lakers have a good chance to win some hardware of their own.

I do want to talk a little college football today because yesterday, Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham finally said out loud what most everyone in Ann Arbor have been quietly hoping for that freshman Tommy Carr will be the team's starting quarterback for the foreseeable future.

And to me, that's the best thing that's happened to this program all season, because before that clarity, it's frankly been a bit sticky.

Bryce.

Wood, the number one recruit in the country two years ago with an NIL deal reported at more than $10 million got pinched a couple of weeks ago in the second half against Penn State.

Carr came in and Michigan won.

Then Carr lost his official first start to Indiana, 13 to 6 in overtime, need an interception and a loss fumble.

But then came last Saturday at Rutgers, 266 yard pass.

54 more on the ground, 3 total touchdowns, no turnovers, and the go-ahead score came on his own legs with about 4 minutes left.

And even beyond the numbers, there's this, the offense Whittingham brought from Utah, it's built around a quarterback who runs, and Carr already has 3 rushing touchdowns in 4 games.

There's also the larger message it sends to the rest of the team, that it doesn't matter how Money the school is depositing in your bank account.

The depth chart gets decided on Saturdays, not by the size of the check.

For a first-year coach who was hired to clean up the program, that's exactly the message that you want sent.

Of course, Carr hasn't fixed everything for this offense.

Those 28 points at Rutgers, those were Michigan's most in a Big 10 game all year, which tells you where the bar has been.

And the schedule from here on out is Michigan State, then Oregon, UCLA, and Ohio State.

We'll find out fast if they can keep up.

But I'll say this, Tommy Carr's grandfather, Lloyd Carr was a legend who coached Michigan to the 1997 national title.

His other grandfather on the other side, Tom Curtis, played defensive back at Michigan and is also in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Plus Tommy's dad, Jason was a quarterback at Michigan as well.

Looking back, the Wolverines went searching for their next great quarterback at the top of the recruiting rankings, but it turns out they should have checked the family tree first.

Let's get to hockey, where Connor McDavid is doing something I'm not sure we've seen in 40 years.

The Oilers are 11-2-2.

They've scored more goals than anyone in the league, and McDavid has a point in every single game, 39 of them in 15 nights.

Or here's another way of looking at it.

On 28 of the other 31 teams, McDavid alone has more points than if you combined their top 2.

Scores together.

He's got 30 assists, 12 more than anyone else in the league, and he's gotten one in every game, which has never been done this deep into the season.

And while he's not even shooting that much, his 9 goals are still more than the leading goalscorer on 20 other teams.

Stretch that out over a full season, and he's on pace for 218 points.

He's also had a hand in 61% of Edmonton's goals this year.

The only Player, by the way, who ever finished the season over 200 points was Wayne Gretzky 40 years ago.

McDavid can thank new coach Mike Babcock for some of his success.

Babcock's big idea has been to keep McDavid and Leon Dratel together, and the result is that the top 3 scorers in the NHL are all Oilers.

It's a sprint strategy, and now the question is whether two forwards can carry that much.

Wait all the way to May.

After all, McDavid has famously never won a cup.

But honestly, a lot of that is not of his own making.

2024, he set the record for assists in one playoff run and one playoff MVP despite losing in the finals, something only one other skater has ever done.

In 2025, he put up 33 points in 22 games, and he got back to the finals again.

And yeah, last spring was a different story, a first round exit.

But he was playing on a broken foot.

So if you've been half watching hockey, stop half watching.

What McDavid is doing right now took 40 years to come back around.

And there's no guarantee any of us are here for the next 10, and here's the fun part.

A regular season like this is exactly the kind of running start a team needs in April.

He's already got the record books' attention.

This spring, he really might finally get the cups.

We'll be watching because here at Sports Illustrated, the games may end, but the stories don't.

I'm Rachel Nichols.

Thanks for watching.

See you tomorrow.