Steve Fifer | 1250 AM Milwaukee; Podcast Host

From Milwaukee and our affiliate 1250 AM, our friend Steve Pfeiffer joins us now and Steve, maybe this wasn't expected to be quite the toe-to-toe knockdown drag out that we got with the Celtics missing so many people, but what did you see from the Bucks that allowed them to pull it out in OT? Drew Holiday played out of his mind.

It's a half court shot or whatever at one point in a quarter and then just comes up huge in big moments at the end of regulation. And then in overtime as well, you know, Giannis, he was horrible at the free throw line. It really wasn't that good overall for a majority of that game, but down the stretch, you know, he finally hit some free throws. I hit, I think he hit like five of his last six or six of his last seven, something like that down the stretch. When they needed me to hit those free throws, he finally started hitting free throws.

That obviously helped. Chris Middleton was playing pretty good, but then he reaches minutes limit, you know, he's coming off of an injury. So they pulled them and didn't play at all in the overtime. So they had to play without Middleton in the overtime.

That hurt him as well. And that game was a relatively big game. If you care about home court advantage in the playoffs and Stan Van Gundy on the broadcast, him and Brian Anderson on TNT were talking about, you know, this being a big game for a home court advantage, I guess as a, as a Bucks fan, I don't view it as much. So I look at that series last year in the playoffs and you know, you can look at, Oh, Lawson had, you know, the last game at home and that's why they won. But in reality of the Bucks have Chris Middleton, I still think the Bucks probably win that series regardless of who has home court advantage, but now the series is tied at one and you get one more game in March to decide who gets home court advantage for that one season. We're nearly three-fourths of the way through the NBA season. Now the Bucks have won 11 in a row.

What characteristics have you seen with them over the course of this streak? Chris Milton came back and he's playing really well since he came back. You know, he came back earlier in the season from the injury last season and really struggled really what did look like Chris at all. And then they took him out again cause he got hurt again. And then he'd been out for some time and now since he's returned and he really took his time. If he wanted to be right this time when he came back and he looks right now he's doing stuff that Chris Milton does, you know, turn around jumper hitting him. The mid-range jumper is money again.

Billy to kind of get inside whenever he wants to is there as well. And as his minutes build up and he gets into form even more than he is already, that's what's going to really make this team, you know, that title contending team, that championship caliber team is with Chris Middleton. Without Chris Middleton, it just wasn't the same basketball team. They were missing everything that he brings to really take somebody off the dribble, the ability to hit that open shot. This, this team has been hot and cold from three for stretches of time.

That's been a real problem at this point. And hopefully they get a little bit more consistent with that. You know, they had Jay Crowder at the trade deadline. I think they'll probably had a player or two here on the buyout market, which will obviously help Joe Ingalls, which was their big and only real free agent signing of the off season was hurt all the way until the opportunity for him to play in about mid January. So he's been working, coming off of an injury from last year as well when he was playing. So as this team gets healthy, they're going to get better. They're going to get stronger. And I think they're going to be the team to beat.

Remember, there's been nobody who poured us either for the box. He's been out now, you know, Milton comes back to the body force, get certain he's been out for the last several weeks. So once they get him going back again, Jay Crowder gets healthy and he starts playing because Crowder hasn't played all year. He's just been working out because of the funds dispute.

I really think this bus has every opportunity to win another championship. Steve Pfeiffer is with us from Milwaukee where the Bucks yes, extend their win streak to 11 games in a row, though it goes into overtime against the top team in the East, the Boston Celtics. And Steve is with our Milwaukee affiliate 1250 AM, but also talks Bucks on green and growing the podcast. I just want to talk about Drew a little bit more because he set a career high in three pointers in this game. He now has the longest gap between All-Star appearances.

So he last played for the Sixers in 2013 and now he's going back. That's really incredible for him. The crazy thing about Drew Holliday is, you know, the Bucks traded for him. And you hear from guys around the league and talking about guys that are underrated and guys that don't get enough credit, you know, in the media or whatever the case may be.

And almost everybody was saying Drew Holliday was that guy. He deserves more praise than he gets. He's one of the best at his position and people just don't talk about him enough because of the teams he's been on previously. And now being on this team, you know, that's won a championship and, you know, he's got a long-term deal here with Milwaukee and playing with an MVP, playing with a team that's near the top of the Easter conference, going into the All-Star break every year or at the top of the Easter conference.

I think now finally starting to shine some light on getting him the publicity that he probably should have had this entire time. He's a hell of a defender. He's a great distributor.

He can get hot from outside like you saw and he's a great leader on and off the floor. He does a ton of stuff in the community, him and his wife. They did it in New Orleans and they're doing a ton of stuff locally in Milwaukee as well.

Just a great dude. We're spending a few minutes with Steve Pfeiffer who joins us from Milwaukee. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

You know I love doing this to you. What is the bigger story right now? The 11-game win streak, the Bucs being very close to the Celtics atop the Eastern conference or the future of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers? The Bucs get very little play in Milwaukee on sports talk regularly.

Very, very little play. It is all Packers all the time and it is definitely all about Aaron Rodgers and his darkness retreat that apparently he starts at the end of the week. He's on Pat McAfee's show talking about that again today.

So that's what it's all about. Everybody's sitting here waiting to see if he's going to ask for a trade. Is he going to retire? Is he going to play for the Packers one more year in?

It is very much like by far. It might be worse because we're going through the exact same thing again and it's funny that when he was here and going through all this with Brett that was one dude that he pretty much said I'll never be like him. Like I'm never going to cost my team a game with a ton of interceptions. I'm never going to do what he did at the end. Like it's just never going to happen and he's kind of doing the exact same thing to Jordan Love that Brett did to him.

It's almost identical right now. And if he ends up with the Jets which is one of the teams that's really interested it would almost be from the category of you can't make this stuff up. If it's true the reports of the Packers not wanting to trade within the NFC I think that's beyond idiotic at this point. Rogers has a year or two left so what if Aaron Rodgers goes in place for the Washington commanders or the Saints or whoever he goes to play for and maybe he beats Jordan Love and the Packers once or twice fine. Jordan Love if he's good is going to be a Packer for the next decade. Who cares?

Move on. Get as big of a haul as you can get to say that you're not going to trade them within the conference. You're possibly giving up the biggest haul you could possibly get by narrowing it down just to AFC teams. From what we've seen of Jordan Love from what we've heard about Jordan Love is he ready? He looks a hell of a lot better now than he did prior to the year starting and I think a lot of credit has to go to Tom Clements who the quarterbacks coach that they brought out of retirement. The guy that Aaron Rodgers loved to death under Mike McCarthy and praised non-stop about his development and how good he became and then remember when that whole thing fell apart where he was going to call plays McCarthy gave it up and then after about three four games whatever McCarthy changed his mind and pulled it back away from him and then after that Clements was out of there after that year he went and coached Kyler Murray, Rookie of the Year Kyler Murray that year and then he retired and walked away and Kyler Murray probably hasn't been the same since. So then they convinced him to come out of retirement to help Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love is the benefactor and improved dramatically from last year to this year and now I think a lot of people in that organization think he's ready and just look at some of the interviews on Radio Road in the Super Bowl. Aaron Jones I think talked to almost everybody in the country the Packers running back and pretty much told everybody that he thinks he's ready to go at this point so we'll see. Can this Packers team as it's currently constituted regardless of quarterbacks can the rest of the team or the team that's put together now with Brian Gutenkunst can they compete for a title because this year was not what you expect from the Packers. I mean there was so Rodgers didn't play at an MVP level fine I think we all understand that but they also were beset by injuries the offensive line uh was a mess David Bakhtiari was in and out of the lineup they're all pro left tackle uh they had injuries along the front uh left and right where they had to keep playing this rookie Zach Tom who played really well and he was playing guard tackle all over the place uh then the rookie wide receivers Christian Watson was third where I mean Dobbs was third once Watson came back Dobbs got hurt and he was out Robert Tuttian coming off the ACL injury took him almost to the end of the year before he started looking like who he was prior to the injury there's a lot of stuff going wrong offensively defensively they were a train wreck all year until the last few weeks when the Mates and Adjustments uh Packer fans wanted Joe Berry the defensive coordinator fired he was capped Packer fans still complaining about that as they're seeing all these other defensive coordinators who in their minds is far better than Joe Berry yet Joe Berry has a job and they didn't get one of these guys to upgrade the position I think if Aaron Rodgers comes back looking at the NFC I think the Packers would have every opportunity to compete for an NFC title as much as anybody else because because the NFC really doesn't have a lot the Niners don't have a quarterback the whole NFC South doesn't have a quarterback uh if you look at Philadelphia uh they're gonna be the team still probably but they've got free agents uh so what are they gonna do in the free agency market does anybody trust Dak Prescott and Mike McCarthy Packer fans don't so well that's not fair well it's Mike McCarthy I'm just telling you being honest they don't trust Mike McCarthy so they're not worried about the Cowboys I just think you look at it and the Vikings they're gonna probably lose half of their defense to free agency so I think if Rogers comes back I think they have every opportunity to compete for an NFC title it's gonna be a heck of a lot easier in the NFC for Aaron Rodgers than it would be going to any team in the AFC at this point including the Raiders where obviously Devante Adams is now and they just cut Derek Carr all right Steve so let me ask you this question certainly an opinion question but I know you have them do fans want him back no absolutely not wow no and I you know it's funny I was on uh six having to score in Chicago earlier today in their afternoon show uh with uh Dan Bernstein and Lawrence Holmes and they pretty much were we were talking about that same thing and I was just saying you know on Twitter yes the majority of fans do not want him back and you can say okay well that's a vocal minority okay fine maybe it is but in my day-to-day life whether it's people coming up to me when I'm at the grocery store whatever family friends of mine it's a struggle to find anybody that wants that that guy back right now it is a true struggle okay why anybody that wants why what happened I think they're just sick of all the BS every off season of show me how much you love me tell me how much you love me and not letting it go and the whole Pat McAfee thing I think has once been on a lot of Packer fans and having to deal with that drama every single week all season long of what is he going to say now to create drama I think people are just sick of it and just want to move on like if Jordan Love is great fine if Jordan was not then I guess they're going to rebuild and figure it out but they just are pretty much done with 12 at this point uh me personally um I want them back one more year to see what they can do um with Aaron Rodgers in a second year with this wide receiving core because I think this wide receiving core can be pretty good I think Watson has a chance to be pretty special Romeo Dobbs in pre-season and training camp to begin the season look like he was going to be really good give him a second year see what happens then the issue becomes Jordan Love right so what do you do he has a fifth year option and my suggestion has been the whole time of just give him a three-year extension pay him for the fifth year sixth year seventh year at middle of the middle starting quarterback money so 15 million a year whatever it is assure him yours five six and seven tell him you're my guy after Aaron Rodgers we're going to do this one more time with Aaron Rodgers and then it's going to be your show and make sure Aaron understands the same thing that this is it one more run at this and then if you want to be traded then we'll move on from here I was wrong about Tom Brady most of the NFL community was wrong about him retiring a lot of people in fact I heard from so many people inside the NFL who said 100 he is going to play again any chance he retires in your opinion no and he you know he called BS on the whole he doesn't you know he doesn't he wouldn't care if he was sharing a stage with Tom Brady um but it's not only Tom Brady it's also Wisconsin's very own JJ Watt who at this point is far more beloved than Aaron Rodgers probably is in the state of Wisconsin it would be those two and Rodgers all in Canton together I just think he plays again whether it's with Devante Adams and he forces his way to the Raiders um I the Jets thing I just don't see it I I can't imagine he wants to deal with New York media I mean that's just not who that dude is he he don't want to deal with all that and I think that's the one thing he liked about Green Bay you know it's not the same thing paparazzi and all that other stuff that goes along with all that stuff if you're playing on either coast or whatever and I just don't think that's that's his jam necessarily that's not something that he really wants to deal with because if he goes to the Jets and they go eight and eight they're gonna absolutely kill that dude in the media so there will be far more pressure if he goes to New York and if including Las Vegas if he goes to the Raiders there's gonna be a ton more pressure on him he comes back to Green Bay there's not nearly as much pressure on him and whatever happens happens and you ride it out and it's over and he says his piece every week on what has become his personal platform with Pat McAfee he made that dude a lot of money all right so you can find Steve on Twitter at Sparky Radio and he's with our Milwaukee affiliate 12 50 a.m but also he's got the curd and long podcast which is devoted to packers it's brilliant and then green and growing which is devoted to bucks and we always enjoy having him here on the show so thank you for a couple of minutes Steve absolutely always fun thanks for having me