Chris Mannix: This Is The First Time Stephen Curry Has To Deal With A Muscular Injury

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes, and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. You save. Ballad through 5-7.

Selection varies by location. While supplies last. Discount taken at time of purchase. This is The Rich Eisen Show. This is outrageous. Cross over dribble, chest pass to heel.

He's open for three. Bang! Bully love!

Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. No! God! Please no! Four seconds to go. Halliburton for three. No!

No! Earlier on the show, actors Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer. Coming up, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix. Vikings head coach, Kevin O'Connell. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Oh my god, my sides are hurting from what just happened in the last half hour on this show with Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson together, breaking down not just the photographs of the NFL players from the Met Gala, but giving their two cents on the Tyrese Halliburton moment that will cost Tyrese apparently some money because that church bells motion is apparently banned in the NBA.

No way, really? Apparently not allowed to make that motion and that might result in, if it's the same thing as the NFL, a FedEx letter from Tyrese Halliburton. I think he'll be all right.

I think he will be. And also, in terms of the Met Gala, you know, showing the Met Gala looks of the NFL players to Cedric the Entertainer and Anthony Anderson, we saw the DeAndre Hopkins look and they both said it would be great if they put D-Hop's hair on me and that's what it looks like. And it's not great. It's not great. And again, we're now using AI for this sort of thing and that's not even my nose. I don't even know what that is. I don't like AI. I don't know.

AI is fun. Not even my nose. Just see what it looks like to have DeAndre Hopkins hair for even two seconds. Now I just need his hands and feet. That's all I need. Good luck with that.

Good luck with that. Once you wear like a 2XL glove, Brockman, they said he literally has like the biggest hands. Cheyenne hand. Well, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated is about to come on out here and talk about what's going on in the NBA playoffs. We started this program by reviewing our overreaction Monday work in which Chris Brockman put up for bids for a conversation at overreaction Monday. That the Jerry Jones teasing of a trade prior to the draft or right after the draft was all fugazi. You really had nothing.

It was just all a big charade. Delicious. Seriously. Yada, yada, yada.

Today he acquired George Pickens from the Steelers. So strike one there. We were off on that one. But wait, but wait, but wait, but wait. There's more.

There's more. We're super psyched for Warriors, Timberwolves. And I think it's going to be the best playoff series the rest of the playoffs.

Legacy Warriors now with Jimmy Butler. Sure. There's an Ant-Man who's coming for everyone. He wants to take victory laps around everyone's arena.

Yes. And I think he got the Rudy Gobert situation with Draymond Green. Spoiler alert, they do not like each other. And I think you got the you know, the recipe for a very combustible seven game series. Well, they tipped off game one of that series last night and survey says. Oh, I mean, did the Wolves end up making a three?

Because they were without one forever. The first three. Interesting you say that I have it written down in my in my in my University of Michigan in my notebook.

Apparently, there's only one of these left and I'm using it because I'm a lead pipe wielding professional. Nas Reed made the first three pointer of the night for the Minnesota Timberwolves with eight thirty two left in the third quarter. Wow. Breaking an 0 for 16 mark to start the game. And it came with the Timberwolves down 20.

So there's that Anthony Edwards started his night 0 for his first 10. And brutal performance by the Minnesota Timberwolves. I mean, absolutely coming off of a wipeout of the Los Angeles Lakers to suddenly have home court advantage dropped in their laps for them to squander the home court advantage in just one game. Thirty one points at halftime is just a stunner. And the Warriors win this game going away, even with Steph Curry leaving midway through with a hamstring injury that just moments ago was announced. Will be significant enough to keep him out of game two tomorrow night. So it's a good thing the Warriors have one in hand now because it's if we assume again, there's a lot of assumption. They go back home.

It's a best of five series with three games in San Francisco. And we'll see these hamstrings, as you know, it's not just, you know, thoroughgun that out in your back. So there he's going to be doing tons of rehab, lots of PT, lots of whatever needs to be done. And who knows, maybe he doesn't return even the rest of the series. As you know, hamstrings usually take at least a week or two to get over.

So that's a crushing blow there. But, but what the Warriors have or who they have is Buddy Heald, who is now 14 of his last 19 from three in the game seven win in Houston and the opener victory in Minnesota. And Jimmy Butler, man, 2011 and eight, Draymond made four first half threes and is showing the exact reason why he's defensive player of the year.

I mean, Julius Randle was a non factor. Everything that you saw that they were able to do the Timberwolves against the Lakers, they couldn't do a darn thing against these Warriors. And this was before Steph went out and the Jimmy Butler, Buddy Heald, Buddy Buddy movie that's unfolding in the postgame press conferences. Have you been witness to this stuff?

Here's a little taste. This was the two of them last night commenting about Steve Kerr mentioning Buddy Heald being a terrific two way player having a large role in disrupting Anthony Edwards game one night. Jimmy Steve said Buddy is a two way player now. Like how tough was it for you to mold him into that? Me mold him? And you know what?

I do be frying him one on one. Don't I? Perhaps. Yeah. He had his moments.

I ain't gonna lie. Buttered has been stepping up big time on the defensive side of the ball for sure to start out the games. And it's crazy because I think he what you had two points to have two points, but his defense was off the charts. And you got the toughest matchup in garden, Anthony Edwards. And then he came back still guarding at a high level and creating making shots to a player's a stretch. But buttered is he's been key.

He's been key. I'm nice. See, I mean, it's like a two way comedy actor just saw Anthony Anderson and said the entertainer here, right? Buttered. Is that his nickname? Buttered? Like as in. Buttered he's on a roll? Exactly. I'm trying to think of a Stuart Scott.

Right. But he's butter. He must be butter. He's buttered. He's on a roll.

He's smooth. Right. Mm hmm.

So I got there. Pat Spencer, who I think looks just like Will Forte, is the one who got ejected for headbutting Shen goon, which, by the way, great movie. It's like Kurt Russell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kurt Russell was in it.

Headbutting Shen goon. Yeah. Follow up to Mel Gibson. Yeah. In the 80s, Mel Gibson.

80s. Hey, listen, he's going to step up, you know, GP to. Yeah. Speaking of Stuart Scott, GP, are you with me? Son of GP, are you with me?

What are the mitten? He's going to be out there a lot. Maybe, maybe, just maybe. We're seeing we are seeing Jonathan Kaminga get off of the NBA rotational milk carton. Taste? I don't know.

Whole lot of Moses Moody. Listen, they they got to show their depth and they got playoff Jimmy and they're going to have to get through things without Steph. Right. But they are now playing with house money and you know who's playing with house money? The Indiana Pacers playing with house money. My goodness. Knicks are playing with house money tonight. Looks like Porzingis will be active this evening. Yeah. Still dealing with that illness. But I mean, the Pacers have just wrecked.

Unbelievable. The Cavalier buffet in eight quarters of basketball. And listen, Cavs fans, I know there's no Garland, there's no Mobley, there's no DeAndre Hunter. They haven't been without, they've been without Garland last four playoff games now. And still with all that, almost got a Fittie Burger from Spider Mitchell last night.

Man, he is unreal. And they were up 20, 81-61. And as we saw in Boston the other night, 20 point home, 20 point home leads are are worth the paper that they're written on.

And they're not written on any paper at all. In the third quarter. The third quarter 20 point leads. 81-61.

81-61. In both games. And then Halliburton doing his thing. Again. Listen, I know they, were they chanting overrated at him while he was at the line? You know, he had an and one opportunity to try and take the lead. Instead, he's got to go to the line for two and purposefully missed the second.

Right. He purposely misses the second free throw because they need three to take the lead. And or now at that point, just two and gets his own rebound, steps back and and shoots the game winning three. Well, all I needed was two and it's as cold as it comes.

As cold as it comes. And now the Pacers are up 2-0 going home. And the road teams have won the first five games of this second round. And Halliburton is I mean, he's anything but overrated. How how can we look at him and call him overrated?

Because of his regular season, the team was only a five seed. It's not it's not pretty. It's not the the sweetest looking jump shot. It's not Ray Allen or Steph Curry.

And, you know, people judge that and to their own peril. He is a killer. This was an athletic players. Yes. So it's every year, the athletic near the end of the regular season.

They do an anonymous player poll where they ask about all kinds of stuff. Coach of the year, MVP. And one of the one of the categories is most overrated player in the league. Right. And this year it was Tyrese Halliburton. Whatever.

Over 100 players participate. Halliburton was asked about the overrated chance afterwards. Yeah, I mean, sure. Yeah. That one was unexpected. I didn't know we had beef, but yeah, I guess that I mean, good for them.

And that came out of nowhere. But it's just I think now that that labels there, they're all going to be every time we play somebody. Every time on the road, he'll probably follow me until the next poll comes out.

And then we'll see if I'm number one again. But, you know, for me, I just control what I can, man. And yeah, I mean, overrate that. I have a feeling. Overrate that. You know, I have a feeling that Halliburton could potentially erase the overrated chance well before the next poll comes out.

Yeah. Halfway home to knocking out the 64 win one seeded. And I know Cavs fans must be sitting there going, really? They're just like you, Clipper fans. Seriously, except that they did get a LeBron championship with Kyrie in the mix here.

We did not. And but they're going to be like, OK, 64 regular season wins. We were destroying everybody. And now it's time to actually win playoff series games. We have everybody in the Eastern Conference has got to come visit us. The only team that we have to go visit more than hosting is Oklahoma City. And here we are.

Playoffs have finally hit and we're not healthy. Shame. I know you got it. It doesn't matter.

Those little small violins or whatever. No. Yeah, of course. Like you could say this is the unhealthiest they've been all year.

Yeah, without question. And last night, the Halliburton shot. Today is the 36th anniversary of Jordan's shot on Elo. Back to back days.

No good. Well, today's also the 30th anniversary of Reggie Miller. Reggie Miller against the Knicks.

So using a Pacers analogy here. Dude. By the way, another guy who didn't have the most aesthetically pleasing jumper. Yeah, Reggie. Absolutely.

You know, didn't many shoot it better than him? Yeah. The Pacers are halfway to the Eastern Conference Finals. They're a scary, dangerous team. Which is why I said anybody can win. Have the odds now finally moved? Because I said yesterday anybody could win the NBA Finals now. That's what the first game of the second round is proving.

And I know that there's a lot more pudding to go before we see any proof of it. And you're like, well, the odds haven't moved in Vegas. Yeah, so the favorites are still the favorites. Including the Cavs. So the Cavs were 5-1 yesterday, they're 10-1 now to win the title. The Pacers 30-1 yesterday, cut in half.

16-1 today. Warriors now have the longest odds at 28-1. Speaking as a Knicks fan playing with house money tonight, if the Knicks wind up playing the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Pacers can absolutely make the NBA Finals. They can absolutely bounce the Knicks. They damn near did it last year. If they're making shots like that, Neesmith is hitting shots, Nemhard's doing what he's doing, Indiana can definitely go on a run.

Or they did do it last year. I'm trying to remember who did eliminate the Knicks last year. I mean, geez, they're a terrific team. So, in the West, we'll see what the Warriors look like without Steph for the time being, if not the foreseeable future. The Pacers be the Knicks.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The Pacers can win this whole thing. They can win it all. Anybody can do it.

Win it all. Chris Maddox is going to come on out here. Is there anything we can ask him about boxing that will piss him off? We'll find out.

Well, there's no hokey-dokey fight coming out. Oh, is there a Paul? Maybe you should have the first question.

Are you watching the Paul family reality show? Right? Okay. We got a real fight coming up, though, so.

Which is what? Oh, Canelo against Bud Crawford. That's going to be a real deal fight.

Like a real deal. You're talking Leonard Holmes, like Duran Leonard. No, I thought you meant the fight for the Sixers to try and get the first overall pick. That also. The fight for keeping them beat healthy.

Oh, come on. And trading them. You don't think that's what the Sixers want to do? There's a team here in town that would like a center.

Chris Maddox from Sports Illustrated. Bring him on out. Okay, this is not a drill. Get ready, because Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning hits theaters May 23rd.

And I'm counting down the days. This is it. The biggest practical action movie ever made. Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie are back, pushing the limits of what action cinema can do. We're talking real stunts, real danger, and real edge-of-your-seat intensity, all shot in jaw-dropping locations around the world. Did you see that trailer? Tom Cruise free-fallen through fire, Hailey Atwell back in action, and the whole crew reunited.

Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales. It's like the ultimate global team-up. This franchise started almost 30 years ago, and it just keeps getting better. Mission is more than a movie. It's a high-stakes ride built on loyalty, friendship, sacrifice, and seriously gutsy stunts. So, yeah, I'm beyond excited to see Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning on the biggest screen possible in a theater May 23rd. This summer, the mission is clear.

Don't miss it. Even the safest drivers still encounter unsafe conditions, so it's important they do it in a safe vehicle. And Hyundai's offer available class executive advanced safety features to help keep you protected against the many challenges the road throws your way. Basically, in a Hyundai, you can drive as safely as possible and enjoy your journey in confidence and style. When you change lanes, signal, check for traffic, and enjoy the added safety of Hyundai's available blind spot view monitor. Constantly scan for dangers, and take advantage of Hyundai's standard forward collision avoidance assist to help prevent accidents by alerting you of imminent collisions and automatically applying the brakes. Stay alert at all times, and be thankful that Hyundai's standard driver attention warning system monitors your attention levels and can bring your focus back on the road. Safety is all about making the right decisions on the road and when selecting a vehicle. Learn more at HyundaiUSA.com.

Call 562-314-4603 for details. In the NFL, there is no margin for error. As you know, one mistake can change the outcome of an entire game. That's the same thing about your life and making sure you get the proper sleep so you get done in your day exactly what you want because you're focused and you have everything in order. And the people who can help you do that are our friends at Sleep Number. Their mission is to provide the players of the NFL and you with data and insights to optimize your sleep for the ultimate competitive edge.

Don't just take my word for it. How about 95% of the Los Angeles Rams? They've got a Sleep Number bed. 80% of the Kansas City Chiefs, they have a Sleep Number bed. 90% of the Vikings have a Sleep Number bed. You should have a Sleep Number bed. My sleep number setting is 60. My wife's is 70. Just 10 numbers apart, but it means the world of difference because we can adjust our side of the bed to the exact firmness that we want.

It allows for working out or recovery. It's game changing. So, if you're in the market for a new bed, you should stop at a Sleep Number store right now.

See your store or SleepNumber.com for details. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Listen, when you talk about Family Feud, sometimes it's not just one family against another family.

It's somebody who's dragged into both families because they have a foot in each other's camp. So, we're about to put Chris Maddox on the spot here from Sports Illustrated. Chris Maddox here on the program. I don't know if you're aware, but this show versus the Dan Patrick show.

I read something about that. It's Family Feud. You've been around us enough now. I am, yeah.

And you've been around the Dan Patrick show since jump, pretty much, I'd imagine. Yeah. Do you have a handicap on who do you think would be better equipped to win Family Feud?

A channel with a tape to use maybe your zone boxing? That's a good one. I think there's a lot of matchups that I would consider a wash. I think the one outlier might be Fritzie who has an absurd amount of institutional stupid knowledge. There's a lot of things that could be asked on Family Feud. Plus, he tends to take things, which could be good or bad, a little bit sexual at times. Oh, so that might fit some of the... It might fit some of the criteria for the questions. Okay, interesting. All right, so you're saying his creepiness might come in handy is what you're saying. It might come in handy in a situation like this.

All right. Okay, so Fritz is the one we need to look out for. If the Dan Patrick show comes out on top, my guess is that's because Fritzie has an absurd amount of knowledge of one particular subject. Where we would look at him like, what's your malfunction? But in the world of Family Feud, it's a top answer on the board.

You'd be struggling with the bottom, you'd nail the bottom answers. Then Fritzie would roll in brimming with confidence that his top three would work, and they will. But this is a man who once upon a time brimmed with confidence that his standup routine would crush, and we all saw what happened there. Brimming with confidence about a lot of things in his professional career that may not have... That's what I'm saying. It can backfire when you're saying his strength. That's why he's the outlier. He's the wild card.

It could go all the way in the positive direction and all the way in the negative direction. Would you say Dan and I are awash? I think you're close to awash. You both have been in the game for a long time. Okay. I'm not as familiar with your guys and their knowledge. If you ask if one of the categories is best use of maple syrup, Polly's probably going to be pretty good at that.

All right. You know, absurd things to do with soccer. Seton would be... Well, Seton is already... By the way, our radio audience just returned. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated is here, breaking down us versus the Dan Patrick Show and Family Feud. Seton is already verbally mentioned on the Dan Patrick Show, on Peacock, which you can see here on Roku, that he's nervous. He's scared.

He's nervous. Yes. Which we can use to our advantage. Yeah.

Certainly if we send Del Tufo out there with him. Yeah. Del Tufo versus Seton. Yeah.

I mean, I think Seton's wheelhouse is a very narrow lane. Right? Sure. It's got to be top five answers on the board. Here's your question. What's great about soccer? He's good at music.

Music. That's true, too. But that's why we send you out there, too. Although, I think TJ versus Seton, I think that might be the way to go. Yeah.

If one of those categories, though, is like, you know, best things to do in Vermont. TJ. Oh, we'd have to lean on your New England. I've been gone a long time, too. But it's okay. Okay.

You don't shine shoes no more. No. By the way, can I tell you about just the most obscene, absurd scene coming in here was, like, you just had Seto the Entertainer, Anthony Anderson, big fan of both those guys. Cool. They're pulling out in their black Lincoln SUVs.

They've got a whole bunch of staff around them. Yeah. At the same time, I'm pulling in in my mother-in-law's borrowed hatchback. While your producer Liz is, like, waving me off, like, wait for these guys to go, and then you can putter on in there in the super hatchback. Hey, man, you be you, man.

You be you, man. You can take some Arby's to go with you if you want. Take some Arby's.

Yeah, please. They just left some food. Appreciate it. I'm glad that you got it. You crossed paths.

That's funny. All right, so let's just jump into that curries out for Game 2. Any sense already what the Warriors' expectation of his absence might be?

Not the Warriors' expectation yet. I was talking to a few team trainers over the last couple of days about, you know, degrees of strain, trying to get a bit of an education on what hamstring strains mean. And the Grade 1 strain, it generally means at least a week.

It probably means closer to 10 to 14 days. This is the first time that Steph Curry has had to deal with a muscular type of injury. He's had kind of hand injuries and different knee injuries in the past, but he's never had an injury like this, so we don't know how his body is going to respond, that I'm sure he's going to do everything humanly possible to shorten that up. But this is one of those injuries, Rich, where if you don't get it right the first time, it's going to come back. You know, ask anybody that's ever had a hamstring injury if you're not ready to run at full speed, and Steph Curry moves as much as any player in NBA history. Like, he is constantly... Without the ball. That's what I'm saying.

Without the ball, he is constantly in motion. It's going to be tricky. It's going to be real tricky to see him coming back before the tail end of the series at the earliest. Or if they're fortunate enough to advance, you know, the Western Conference Finals, right? Because, I mean, hamstrings, if you come back too soon, then suddenly you're out for more than just the foreseeable future. What do you think is the plan to make up for it?

Who's going to be playing? Does Kuminga now get actually more minutes? I mean, Kuminga is such a wild card in all this, right? Like, when everybody's healthy, he's not in the rotation.

Correct. When somebody goes out, whether it's Jimmy Butler or now Steph Curry, he often finds himself back in the rotation, back playing heavy minutes. Kuminga is a huge talent. Like, we've seen him over the last couple of years be this versatile scorer, multi-levels, can defend a little bit, block shots at the rim.

He's going to have to be huge. I love Jimmy Butler. I think he's a great player, but I don't think he can strap this team on his back and carry them the way that he did the Miami Heat during their final runs. Draymond Green, we know what his limitations are.

This is going to have to be a series, I think, where Jonathan Kuminga, and maybe to a lesser extent Brandon Przybylski, steps up and plays a huge role and puts up numbers that are outsized what they usually do. And Buddy Heald's just got to keep making threes. Keep making threes.

Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. Right. But look, if you're the Timberwolves, all of a sudden your defense can get that much better because you spent most of it keying on Steph Curry. Right.

So if you can kind of spread the defensive wealth, so to speak, you're going to have a better chance of defending. But that's a weird, like Anthony Edwards, you hear what Chris Finch said after the game last night. Basically, Anthony Edwards is going to bring some energy.

Like, got to bring some effort. For two straight games, Anthony Edwards is stunk, right? You know, they advanced against the Lakers, not because of Anthony Edwards. He was, I think the last two games, he's 12 of 41, one of 16 from three-point range. Like he was dreadful against the Lakers. He was dreadful last night in game one.

This guy's got to step up and play a bigger role. He is being branded, rightfully so, as one of the next faces of the NBA. He has not been good the last couple of games for the Timberwolves.

So there's so many different ways to go. So I'll just go, since you just opened up the Lakers door here, I'm going to walk through it. We know why the Lakers lost to the Timberwolves.

And you just pointed out that Anthony Edwards wasn't the main reason why the final game as to why they lost. The reason why the Lakers lost in that final game is Rudy Gobert looked like what Wilt Gobert is how they were referring to him on inside the NBA with tongue firmly planted in cheek to light the fire underneath Shaq. No rim protector, which was the, and three-point defense, or good shooting, consistent shooting, which was the question when they had the no-brainer trade for Luca. When all the pieces settled, it's like, okay, which is why they reached out for Mark Williams didn't get it. What do the Lakers do from here? What happens now?

You know, I wouldn't, I don't think they'll reconstitute the Mark Williams deal, but they will use the assets that they were going to put in that deal, specifically Dalton Connect and the first round pick that they have to trace. Dalton Connect fall out of the rotation. Well, he also, what, fell down by sliding down stairs or something like that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's out two to four or whatever. Which is, by the way, if you're trying to trade him around the draft, he better fog up a mirror, right? I mean- There's still, there's value in Dalton Connect. I mean- I'm not saying there's no value, but if the guy might be an injured asset, it's going to be tough to trade him. Yeah.

I mean, I think long term, though, you can, you'll be okay with that. I think they'll try to put those pieces back together and acquire somebody. The question is, like, who better than Mark Williams is going to be available?

And you survey the landscape. It's not a great trade landscape for players. I mean, you're not going to go get Derek Lively out of Dallas or Gafford out of Dallas.

They're still trying to win something in the Western Conference. But there's no question that priority number one for Rob Palenka has to be finding that kind of pogo stick of a center that has been proven to thrive opposite Luka Doncic. They need more than that. To your point about the three point defense, like, they've got to get another playable three and D wing. Dorian Finney-Smith is one of those guys. He proved playable for them. I don't know that Jared Vanderbilt is playable in the playoffs because of his offensive limitations.

Connect, I don't think, is ever going to be an elite or at least an average defensive player or at least above average defensive player. So they've got to find one of those guys quickly. Those are the two pieces they've got to find if they're going to have any chance of competing in the next couple of years. What do the Clippers do from here, man?

I don't know, man. Like, that's a team that's landlocked. Like they... What do you mean? I mean, with terms of their roster, right? There's not a lot they can do. They don't have the draft capital to make a substantial deal. They're kind of against a rock and a hard place with James Harden, who can opt out of his contract and he will probably be looking for a bigger deal.

What do you do if you're the Clippers? Like, James Harden, the book has kind of been written on James Harden. I mean, he is a guy that has proven to be a great regular season player who in the postseason has been dreadful. Look at the last two game sevens that he played in with Philadelphia against Boston two years ago and this year against Denver. Awful performances, no-show performances. His numbers in the playoffs across the board are bad.

Like, I don't know what you do there. Like, you don't really have much of a choice but to bring him back because you can't replace him with somebody else. So short of a full reboot that includes trading Kawhi Leonard, who still has value even at, 33 years old, you're talking about bringing Kawhi back, bringing Harden back for what is age 36 season.

Zubac made huge strides this year. He'll be back. Norm Powell, he'll be back, maybe looking for another contract. Look, this was the year that, like this year hurts probably more than most for the Clippers. Previous years you can be like, oh man, Kawhi was out. Paul George was out. Somebody was out.

Somebody was injured. And that's why we lost. You can't say that.

You can't say it. Like everybody was basically there for this Clippers team and they still lost in the first round. They're, they're in a tough spot right now in the conference for what they can do. So trading Kawhi is really on the table?

I don't know if it's on the table. I don't think Steve Ballmer wants to do that. I mean, Steve Ballmer's invested 2 billion in that arena, which is the best arena in the NBA, I think unquestionably. Well, and the playoff version of it was a lot louder than the regular season version of it. It was significant.

It was significant. But the wall is a great idea. Like, I mean, it's a great arena top to bottom.

It's a great arena. Steve Ballmer wants to go through a rebuild, not with Kawhi still playing at a high level, but you can't expect Kawhi, like with Kawhi, they were on like a 58 win pace last year. So like you can spin the scenario where it's like, Kawhi comes back, he's fully healthy.

This off season he's training. He gives you 70 games next year and you go into the Western, you want to playoffs next year as a top two seed, as opposed to the five seed in the matchup, like you got with Denver. So if you're expecting Kawhi to do that, I don't know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. That's to me is when look at the Clippers, like, are you really expecting something different from Kawhi in terms of his health and James Harden in terms of post-season performance?

If you are, I think you're wrong. What do the Bucks do now? Just check in with Giannis every day? Heat check, hopefully not Miami heat check, but you know, like, what do we do here? I tell you, this is interesting because to my knowledge, there have been no substantive conversations between the Bucks and Giannis about the future.

The dust is still settling on all this. And they want to rightfully they want to give time for temperatures to cool. But it just seems like we're heading towards an obvious parting of the ways for a couple of reasons. Giannis is never going to be more valuable to all the other twenty-nine teams because he's got two guaranteed years left in his contract. So it opens it up to everybody, not just a team like, you know, if you're a small market team, you're not acquiring this guy afraid that he might say, you know, I'm not signing an extension. I'm going to go play for the Knicks or the Lakers.

So you've got a window here. And if you're the Bucks, you've got teams out there potentially that could make you these massive offers. This is where the Bucks and John Horst, I think, need to be aware. You've got to be able to smell desperation, right? Like in the last ten years, there have been a couple of scenarios where teams have smelled desperation and hit home runs. The Boston Celtics, when they smelled desperation on the Brooklyn Nets and traded away Paul Pearson, KG, and got all that package back in return. And the Oklahoma City Thunder, when they smelled desperation on the Clippers and got Shea Gilders Alexander and 407 first round draft picks. I think there could be the same whiff of desperation off a couple of teams this year. I think Houston, number one, is a team that, you know, saw what they were without with this group. That's what they wanted to do.

They'll collect data, figure out what they look like. I think they realize Jalen Green, probably not the guy that can lead them to a championship. They've got Jalen Green and they've got all of Phoenix's draft capital for the next couple of years, which is going to be really valuable. That's one team.

Oklahoma City, right now down 0-1, long way to go in that series. But if they bow out in the second round for the second year in a row, they may start to get a little bit desperate because Shea Gilders Alexander is young, but he's not that young. Lew Dort is young, but he's not that young. They're not a whole bunch of 21 year olds that have a long, long, long runway. They're a team with its star in his prime coming off a probable MVP season. They're a team that could make a huge offer. And if I'm Milwaukee and I can choose between offers of Jalen Green and a bunch of good draft picks and maybe all the draft picks that Oklahoma City has to offer and Jalen Williams, who I think could be James Harden 2.0. I think if you give Jalen Williams room to blossom, he could be a superstar in this league. I think he has that much talent. If you have an opportunity to pit two teams against each other in a bidding war for your star to get the rebuilding package of those other teams I mentioned got, I think it's malpractice not to not to aggressively go out there and do it. So when you say Giannis has never been more attractive to all 29 teams, you're saying the Bucks won't just call one team and say we're thinking of trading him and just to you?

I feel confident, Rich, saying that John Horst and that front office will not have a secret dialogue with Sam Presti in Oklahoma City to get a deal done. So you can do it. I do. I think it's done. Got it.

All right. Well, we're going to be demonstrated here on The Rich Eisen Show. So you know the Celtics inside and out as well. What do you think Joe Mazzola was thinking? Fewer threes or just keep hoisting them?

We're not going to miss forty five of them again. I promise you, knowing Joe Mazzola, at no point in time did he think that team should stop shooting threes ever. Like ever since the Emea Doka year and I've been in Boston doing TV, everything for that team for a long time. Ever since the Emea Doka year, they've had this philosophy that there just aren't enough threes you could possibly take. Now, Joe has taken that philosophy, injected it with steroids and turn it into a whole different thing. Like Joe's the guy that remember the preseason opener when they were overseas, they shot sixty threes against Denver.

Like this has been his mindset the entirety of his his coaching career. And to be fair to Joe, it wasn't like they were missing a ton of contested threes. They missed a lot of open threes. Now you can nitpick here and I think he said that in the postgame press conference where you know, five or ten of them, you could say, all right, maybe go to the basket here.

Maybe don't pass up on a layup and kick it out for an open three there. But they're not watching the tape back of that game thinking like we took some bad shots. They're walking the tape, one tape back of that game saying we missed some open shots. So I would not expect the Celtics to come out in game two and become like a mid-thirties three-point shooting team that's posting up Al Horford, you know, for multiple possessions.

They're going to be gunning away because they can go back to the season opener, Rich. And all those shots that they missed against the Knicks in game one, they made them all in the season opener. They ran the Knicks off the floor in that game. So their mindset is threes.

Their philosophy is threes. They're going to come out and they're going to jack up a lot of threes. And they're defending champs. So going into Madison Square Garden is not going to have them knocking their knees. No, they're 4-0 against the Knicks in the regular season.

Two of those wins have come by twenty plus points. Three of them have come by double threes. I tell you, there is like there is some room for concern with Boston. Like this Porzingis illness, I don't know what it is, right? He cost him eight games in March. It was connected, as according to the Celtics, to his latest absence from the second half of game one.

I don't know what to expect from him on a nightly basis. And last year against the Eastern Conference, Porzingis was kind of a luxury. They didn't need him to go whatever they did, 12-2 against the Eastern Conference. This year they need him because you don't want to play Luke Cornette extended minutes. Sam Houser, before he got hurt, was not really helping them all that much.

You need him there. And Jalen Brown, his numbers are still pretty good, but you watch Jalen Brown and the explosiveness that you're used to seeing isn't there. He's got a real knee injury, an obvious knee injury.

Whether it's pain tolerance or if there's something that could get worse, I don't know. But he's got a problem that is making him a little bit of a lesser player than what he was last year. So there's definitely, you can't just say how the Celtics can brush this one off. They're going to win four straight. I would still favor them to win this series, but there is legitimate roster concern, I think, with Boston. And then lastly, let's talk about the Nuggets before I let you go on with your Wednesday here, Chris Mannix, because Michael Malone, in part, let go, shockingly, towards the end of the regular season at the very last minute, pretty much, because apparently he was playing Russell Westbrook too much. And look who's bawling out, right? And being played appropriate minutes and given all this time now in Russell Westbrook, and look where they are.

I'm just wondering also, if you wouldn't mind interpreting for me, just how emotive Jokic has been in huddles in ways that I really haven't seen. And I'm wondering where this is coming from and what the undercurrent may be. Does it have to do with the interim coach?

Does it have to do with everything I've just set up? What do you got for me there? I don't think it had, I mean, I think it's a little bit of everything, right? Like you do have a coach in David Adelman who is young, new to all this, but at the same time, David Adelman has been there every step of the way. He was there as part of the coaching staff for the championship season. But I think having a young coach there, I think probably brings a little bit more out of Jokic. I think the fact that the margin for error for Denver this year is much slimmer than it was in its championship year. They were a deeper team when they won a title a few years ago. So I think Jokic has perhaps a greater sense of urgency when he's looking at this team that every game matters.

Every game counts. So they almost lost that series against the Clippers. I remember I was at game three when the Clippers basically ran them off the floor and I'm watching Aaron Gordon, who's all banged up, you know, Michael Porter Jr. was dealing some stuff. The margin for error for this team is really slim. And I think that plays into Jokic being more demonstrative in those huddles. But the Westbrook thing is, it's funny, man, I was kind of rooting for Houston to win their series just because we maybe could have completed the Russell Westbrook revenge tour, like for the number of teams that he's played on, Clippers, Thunder, perhaps the Rockets.

I know somebody was saying that the other day, like, I mean, he's played on so many teams, like you could you could fill an entire playoff bracket with the teams that he's played for or against or with or all of that stuff. But it's just, you know, be careful what you wish for when you think the Nuggets are less than. Right. Like you got a you got a champion here having now home court advantage in that series. You've got the Knicks with home court advantage against the Celtics right now. You have major home court advantage for Indianapolis. You've got the Warriors banged up as they are having home court advantage in that series now. Fascinating way that the second round has started before I let you go.

You know, the usual drill here where I'll ask you something. And if you're right, you're a genius and we'll bring it back. If you're wrong. This never happened. Tape's gone. OK. Yeah.

Sort of mission impossible. It will self-destruct. The NBA finals are going to be who against whom?

I'm still going to go chalk. I'm going to go Boston, Oklahoma City. I think the Celtics recover in this round and as impressive as Indiana has been.

And these Tyrese Halliburton games are awesome. I would favor the Celtics over the Pacers as well. I still like Oklahoma City's chances, maybe more so now with the Steph Curry injury at the Golden State would be a tougher out for them in a conference finals than Minnesota would be. But what I flipped on would be my championship pick because what I was saying about Boston that doesn't if they get these guys back, it doesn't worry me in the conference playoffs. It does worry me against a team like Oklahoma City. I think Oklahoma City, I know Oklahoma City built their team in the Celtics image. You know, Chet Holmgren is Kristaps Porzingis, Jay Gilders Alexander is Jason Tatum, like these bunch of long, versatile, defensive minded guys. I think Oklahoma City's length and depth and defensive acumen, I would favor them now over Boston, which I wouldn't have said at the start of the playoffs.

Right. And then just full circle, who do you favor in the family feud? Who do you favor?

I know you were talking about, it's all about the matchups. I know that that's something that's passable when you're talking about the NBA or boxing, but for this, you got to make it, you got to come up. Don't worry if you're going to insult us.

No, I'm not concerned because Rich, as you know, I'm a West Coast guy now, so I'm a Rich Eisen guy now. So I am a great answer. Take that for data right there.

You went fist. Take that for data. And we have that actually. Who knew that we actually had that?

Chris, just quick. One minute on Canelo, Bud Crawford coming up in the fall. I was in Saudi Arabia for that debacle last week where Canelo became undisputed again. And a lot of people looked at that fight saying that is an example of why Terrence Crawford will now beat Canelo Alvarez.

I'm still not sure I buy that. I always believe a great big man will beat a great little man. And Terrence Crawford is effectively going up three-way classes to fight Canelo Alvarez.

That very rarely works out. I think for a Crawford fight, it should be back in Vegas, which won't be at six o'clock in the morning local time. That's when the fight happened in Riyadh, 6 a.m. local time, which was wild, a wild experience to say the least. I think they'll be ready to go. I think Canelo is too big, too strong. Even at 34 years old at this stage, I still think he's got an edge over Bud, so I would take Canelo. Okay. And the winner takes on Jake Paul or Tyson?

Canelo Alvarez will fight Jake Paul before his career is over. Ladies and gentlemen, that was called it. And again, if you're right, you're a genius.

If not, it's never existed. Never saw this. It's a race for YouTube.

Everybody check out everything that Chris Maddox does, Dizzone for Boxing, Sports Illustrated and everything else. I'll go back to the hatchback. There we go, it's going to go back in his mother-in-law's hatchback.

And that's not a metaphor for anything. Annie's first oil change wasn't as hard as she thought, because she went to AutoZone where a friendly AutoZoner helped her find the right oil and save on an oil filter. He explained the job and showed her free how-tos on AutoZone.com. When she was done, AutoZone recycled her old oil for free. No hassles, just help. Nothing you need, nothing you don't.

Get in the zone, AutoZone, restrictions apply. This message is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union. May is Military Appreciation Month, and we're celebrating the military community that goes above and beyond every day with Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal was created for the military community and is dedicated to ensuring that its members feel celebrated and honored every single day. For over 90 years, Navy Federal's mission has been to support and uplift the military community, and this May is no different.

It's not just a credit union, it's also a partner dedicated to helping its members achieve their financial goals. All active duty, veterans, and members of military families are eligible to join. Navy Federal is excited to celebrate Military Appreciation Month as a special time to recognize our troops and the profound contributions they make. Learn more at navyfederal.org slash celebrate. Navy Federal Credit Union, our members are the mission.

Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. One thing I love about you, Steve, is when you host Family Feud, you realize that there's a moment that is happening and you make a meal out of it. Like you as a host, no, we got to stop here and we have to acknowledge just how insane this moment just is right now. And one of my favorite ones, just like that, involves Deafon Diggs of the Minnesota Vikings when he was playing for the Fast Money and it was Leave It Blank. And he said, in. And the whole place went absolutely nuts.

And you just stepped away and just made an absolute five-course meal out of that thing. Because we have to drink this moment. See, sir, I don't, see, Steffon Diggs, look, man, if you got your helmet on and your number, we all know who you are. Once he takes the helmet off, we got to kind of figure who that is.

So he didn't have his helmet on. I wanted him to be YouTube famous for the rest of his life. Because what's great, man, is, you know, we do a lot of NFL, NBA shows on Family Feud for celebrities. It's great, man, when regular people discover that celebrities don't know nothing. They don't. You think because a person is famous, they know more. They actually know less. They know less than anybody else because they're exposed to less. Rich people don't know how much milk costs. You get out of touch, man. And when they come on Celebrity Family Feud, you find out how out of touch they are.

They don't know anything, man. Like one of the questions for the NFL team was, and we were asking a guy running back for the Packers. Can't think of his name, but the question was, complete the sentence, strip, and you know, like strip mall, strip poker, strip sack, I said, name, complete the word strip. He said, per, strip per, I went, hold up, man, I quit breathing. How is that your point of reference to complete the word strip per, P-E-R. That was it. I was done. That was one of my great moments.

And again, you just walk away and you just, you realize that in the moment, like, okay, this is it, and I'm going to let this thing go. After the show, he asked me, he said, Steve, is there any way we could edit that out? I said, sir, we're not editing that out. Matter of fact, we're going to embellish it.

You're going to say per so loud. So again, we, we know the feud. We've had Steve Harvey on the program. We understand the way it works. I understand the way he works. I know the way his mind works.

It really is just getting the right question and having the right focus. You know, we're traveling a longer distance. I'm not setting up anything for, we're traveling a longer distance. We're both, I imagine Dan will do his show and then fly down from Connecticut. You know, the, the Hartford to Hartsdale direct, you know, and we're, and we're, and then we're kind of, I mean, and then, you know, and it's time to play the feud. Now I got, I have lots of questions.

Like do we just give our order and they give their order and then we like pair up and that's it. You can't switch. You can't switch. It is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Tell them. And then they order it.

Right. Lots of questions back on the rich eyes and show radio network, sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry Grainger has the right product for you. All click ranger.com or just stop by fresh reminder to everybody that our friends at Hyundai, not just a car company, it's a brand driven by a bold mission and a trunk full of positive energy. Their mission goes beyond the road itself. Hyundai's committed to improving the journey of life for everyone in every way they can. And with that in mind, please know about Hyundai's hope on wheels campaign. It focuses on raising awareness and funding for pediatric cancer as one of the leading nonprofit pediatric cancer charities in America, Hyundai hope on wheels funds, a niche, innovative research in children's oncology and partners with doctors, researchers, and medical institutions nationwide. Everybody knows about my work and personal passion with St. Jude with my run, I'm proud to share that Hyundai's consistently been donating and providing grants to the St. Jude children's research hospital for 13 years, over $3.1 million in the life of those years.

This is just one of the 175 prominent medical institutions across the nation receiving funding from Hyundai hope on wheels, Hyundai doing what's right for people through actions, not just words. Giannis just, he could change the entire NBA with just one, one word out, right? Yeah. Two words. It's time.

Yep. Three words. I want out. Bye. How many words are, I don't like it here. That's five anymore, six, right?

Trade me too. That's another one. Will he do it?

See ya. And all this business about talking about Oklahoma City, they've got the capital, right? Houston's got the players in the capital.

Guess what? Giannis may not care about who's got the capital. Right. He may just want to play in Los Angeles or Miami or New York.

It may just be a preference as simple as that. Thing is it's different than other guys who have kind of demanded trades in this situation. He has a ring.

He has MVP already. He can kind of do whatever he wants. His legacy is, is pretty much set. It's does he want to finish his career with one team and be the rare athlete in any sport to do that?

Or does he want to go to a big city and ring chase more? No one knows what his preference is. He hasn't really spoken on it. For good reason. Because anything he says upsets many apple carts, man.

There's a lot of people that are waiting to hear the one, two, three, four, five, or six words out of his mouth. And if I'm the box, you're like, do you heat check every day? Right? Just how you been? What's going on? You're good. Check it in. You're good. What's on, uh, what's on Netflix?

You're watching anything good. Yeah. You know, I mean, you never know Kevin O'Connell coming up, you know? What up?

Little text. You want to go to Philly? I mean, we know that's not going to happen, but I guess the number one pick TJ, right? Do you ship Yanis and a bunch of pieces and picks, and now you have, or Embiid, excuse me. And now you have Maxie Embiid and Cooper flag as your big three. If they get the first pick. Yeah.

Yeah. Then you just, you draft Cooper flag and deal with the rest later on with the rest later on, but chip Embiid and all the little pieces, I don't think, yeah. I mean, I said earlier, why wouldn't you rather have Yanis and Embiid? I think you get Cooper flag, see how Embiid does, and then Tyrese, Maxie, and yeah.

And don't forget playoff PG. Who? Okay.

No, he, he gone. Jerry McLean, you know, nice little squad. But like I said, we all know that the Spurs are winning this line at 0.7%. It's already been written.

I think we were just waiting to get to the chapter 6.7. They have two. They have two honorees. That's right.

The 6% in sync. They got two picks. They have two picks, right?

14% is not that high. So I mean, literally with the exception of maybe the Bulls, the Mavs and the Kings and anyone could 76ers pick. If it's not the top six goes to the thunder. Yeah.

Great job. Thunder. Okay.

Is that the Al Horford trade? No. That one. Oh, good one. It's tough to figure out. No idea.

I read the other day and no idea. The Thunder have been collecting draft picks for so long. You can't even tell who is with them, right?

I mean, you can tell. I had this up the other day of like where they are coming from. And they should do it like the NHL just did it, which is just pick ping pong balls with, and don't, don't say like we did it behind the scenes and there's observers and all that stuff. And it came up with, and it came up with a four digit code that corresponds to this team.

You know, figure out the percentage, put the number of ping pong balls in there. Just make sure there's no refrigerator or freezer around, you know what I mean? Cause that's why, that's why they don't do it that way anymore. There's no Patrick Ewing in this draft. Well, I mean, there's Cooper flag, pal, excuse me, sir. This was the Danny green train from way back in the day. Oh my God. Jay, Bill is Cooper flag, the greatest freshmen in the history of Duke basketball.

That's fine. And Patrick Ewing was, was just, you know, he was obviously all world incredible. This that the other thing, but Cooper flag is undoubtedly comparing, I'm not comparing their talents.

I'm comparing the way everyone's looking at him. Clear a number one, overall pick and franchise fortune changer, Kevin O'Connell coming up . Former MLB all-star Sean Casey, AKA the mayor keeps hitting it out of the park. Take my 30 years of experience. Take the wisdom and knowledge I've learned from the failures when I got sent down my rookie year, all the injuries I had to overcome your mind is the most important tool you have in life. Be relentless. Keep charging. It matters how you talk to yourself, how you look at the world that matters. We talk about that.

I don't know. I'm fired up. Baseball's back and it's going to be incredible. I love it. Join us next time with Sean Casey from believe follow and listen on your favorite platform.