REShow: Hour 3

What's Right with Nick Wright is a rapidly growing podcast from the Fox Sports Podcast Network. You may know Nick Wright from co-hosting FS1's First Things First. This podcast gives Nick a chance to develop, deep dive, and defend his sharpest opinions. During the show, Nick faces off against a ticking clock, a team of producers, and even his own family to try and get his points across. New episodes drop Monday, Thursday, and Friday wherever you get your podcasts. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

Goats have home lives too. Live from The Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. Rich Eisen. Hello Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen. Oh that's Susie Eisen's husband. The Rich Eisen Show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Final hour of the program.

We have a lot to get to, but I'll always carve out time for your thoughts. 1-8-4-4-2-0-4 Rich. 1-8-4-4-2-0-4. 7-4-2-4.

Hit me up on Twitter. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's. But you only have 40 minutes to chime in because coming up in the final block in this final hour of the program, we won't get back to the NBA. I spent five meaty minutes, five whole minutes talking about five games and the big takeaways from across the association on the hardwood yesterday. Christmas used to be thoroughly controlled by the NBA, but the NFL devours everything in its path. Still, I love hoops as much as I love football and we're now getting set to make the transition. I think when the NFL playoffs roll around, a lot of you start thinking about, well, I got nothing invested in my local team.

Let's say I'm in Cleveland, and if you are, I'm sorry, based on the weather. Great town. Love Cleveland. Love the passion of the sports fans, but you know that franchise isn't going anywhere again on the field.

A lot to like about, say, what Spider Mitchell and the Cavs are doing. So we'll talk NBA in 40 minutes with Curt Heelan, lead NBA writer for nbcsports.com. Hopefully by now, because I'm very fortunate to get the call when Rich needs a day off, especially on a holiday or holiday observed, I do my best to come with about four, four and a half hours of content that I try to, in a rapid and coherent fashion, get on the air in three hours. But when breaking news pops up, as was the case an hour ago with the predictable development that Nathaniel Hackett is out in Denver, four and 11, the final push coming with that embarrassing, absolutely abysmal loss to the Rams, 51-14 yesterday. With the Hackett news breaking just before we started the last hour of the program, I had to call an audible. We went Denver heavy for the previous 60 minutes. I know the audience is always shifting, so I'll give you more thoughts on the future for the Broncos and Russell Wilson, but I do want to make sure I'm comprehensive. So hour number one, before we had the breaking news, I went in depth on the AFC.

I will shift now to the NFC here, and then we'll get you set for Monday Night Football coming up in 20 minutes as we start thinking more and more about the opportunity for the Chargers. And despite my bias when it comes to the Spanos family, nothing personal. I've never met anybody connected to Team Spanos.

I love San Diego. That's probably my biggest issue because I feel a lot of empathy for the good people in America's finest city that had that team ripped away for no reason. There could have been a solution when it came to the stadium. I will give you a out of the box idea. Why didn't the Spanos family partner with lenders?

Here's a wild idea. It's called a mortgage and build their own stadium. The answer is nobody does that outside of the San Francisco Giants and that glittering ballpark when they blew up candlestick because they couldn't get public money there.

But corporate welfare abounds and the Spanos has found a nice deal which stands crocky on the hook for all the billions for that Taj Mahal of football here in Southern California. But I do have great respect for Justin Herbert. My issue is, and I'll borrow from the thoughts of Jason Cole who joined us to wrap up the last hour of the program, I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. Rich Eisen Show.

Twitter is always an opportunity for you to have your voice heard. B. W. Weber. Weber with two B's. Herbert is a generational talent. It is a disservice to have not only a defensive minded head coach and Brandon Staley. I realize he played quarterback at Dayton so he's got the background years ago but he earned his reputation coaching on the defensive side of the football. I just think Staley is reckless with his decision making and I like smart people. I used to have a relatively high IQ before I got into broadcasting. Not that it matters but I don't want you to think that I'm bashing the nerds. Nerds! Using their computers and their Pythagorean theorems to make decisions.

I believe in analytics to a degree. Staley's just out of his mind. He blindly goes for it. Cost the Chargers last year in the game that it was just in front of him. A tie with the Raiders. Both teams go to the postseason.

Staley just making bizarre reckless decisions and I don't know that Herbert's going to take the next step with that coaching staff. That said, they're looking good right now. Obviously they're not going to touch Kansas City within the division. Kansas City winning the AFC West for a seventh consecutive year but if the Chargers get in as a wild card, if they beat the Colts as they should tonight and we'll talk about all of the issues in Indy coming up in 15 minutes.

LA's in great shape to have a higher seed and I think when we see Herbert on that stage he's going to thrive. They're finally healthy. Another issue I have with the Chargers. Name a team that routinely deals with more injuries. It's not just the nature of football, a collision sport.

Chargers, and I'm doing this anecdotally, but I go through transactions. They have more dudes on the IR seemingly every year than anybody else. Now they have the ability finally to get healthy at this stage of the season but just go week by week. Especially at the skill positions with what's been going on with Mike Williams and Keenan Allen. However, with that backdrop finally LA has basically most of the key components and let's see what they do with this opportunity. They play in the same division as the once proud Denver Broncos and remember when Denver had competent quarterbacks?

Well, you have to think about the tent poles. You go back to John Elway, then they were lost for years. Although Jake Plummer, better than you remember. They go out and they rent Peyton Manning at the end of his career. They win the Super Bowl and then they meander through Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch, a first round pick mind you. Trevor Simeon, Case Keenum, a bunch of dudes and then they think they have the answer with Russell Wilson. Now Russell's struggles this year may or may not be independent of how overmatched Nathaniel Hackett has proven to be and Jason Cole was kinder than I was when I asked him a bit facetiously what took the Broncos so long to finally take Hackett off the sideline and put him out of his misery. Fired today at 4 and 11. No interim name. Press conference tomorrow in Denver, noon eastern.

My friend Dan Schwartzman who's in the next two days will be all over it. There are a few layers to what's going on in Denver. You start by fixing a problem that should have been addressed in my estimation a long time ago. I know what Jason was saying. There was no rush quote unquote because even if you had your own first round pick, well the losing would have been something that was a positive. It would have enhanced your draft possibilities but they'll have that pick. They sent it to Seattle to get Russell Wilson. This is a proud franchise with incredibly passionate fans. Broncos run that region. I'm saying if you're a Bronco fan, how miserable did every Thursday and Sunday and Monday night become when your team was out there and flat out were embarrassing themselves. Yesterday I rarely used the word quit because I think it's the worst indictment you can throw at a professional in any occupation.

So I'll be nicer. Looked like the Broncos did not want to be there. Once that game got out of hand and it was in a hurry and Russ is complicit with the back-to-back picks to open things up on the first couple possessions and the defense looked like they had no interest in tackling anybody. Here's Baker Mayfield who's gonna get a shot somewhere and I've been very critical of Baker and I think I was accurate with that assessment.

Again nothing personal but undersized. A risk taker with too much belief in his arm in tight windows. Now he never should have been the number one overall pick but he didn't draft himself. That's the incompetence of Cleveland. But here's Baker with an opportunity to do what he does best.

Go out and freestyle. And we saw it in that remarkable Thursday night performance signed two days earlier. Sean McVay said he didn't know any of our plays. Yeah he looked at the playbook on the plane and he was on his laptop trying to get all the information with the downloads but he was out there ad-libbing and that was an amazing win albeit against the Raiders who find a way to lose just about every week. Saw it again emotional night on Saturday and Christmas Eve in Pittsburgh with that tribute to Franco Harris that was just so well done and we lost a giant of our sport. I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people that I grew up admiring and my grandfather ended his career in Pittsburgh. I was a Steeler fan by extension in their glory years and was very lucky to have chatted with Franco Harris and you walked away from that conversation feeling better about your day. He was that gracious. He was that generous with his time.

Everything you've heard about Franco was true. Still just to put the Raiders into context here think about the Raiders last few weeks. They watch Baker Mayfield rip their hearts out metaphorically then they're handed the most miraculous and we're talking about the Raiders here right? Immaculate reception, sea of hands, holy roller, tuck rule. They're handed the gift when the Patriots lose their mind and I feel bad for Jacoby Myers he's a good player made a terrible decision.

Chandler Jones just plowing over Mac Jones and Mac Jones incidentally is doing more to earn the reputation for being quote unquote a dirty player. That was a decision that he made in real time to go low on Eli Apple and what should have been a touchdown for Cincinnati that was a terrible call in that game. It was a fumble don't tell me that was a pass with the shovel that led to intentional grounding but the Raiders every time they take the field this year it feels like it's going to be one of the more bizarre games you've ever seen. Here's Baker doing that against Las Vegas played decently in the loss of Green Bay he looked like Joe Namath YA Tittle and Tom Brady I went old school for our more antiquated fans all rolled up in the one because the Broncos did not want to be on the field. So the Walton family who spent four and a half bill on the team had no choice after yesterday. When you are embarrassed 51 to 14 with the whole nation watching only game on on CBS hello friends and it happens that the owner of the team that applied that beat down to you is family I can do Brian Kelly family Kroenke married into Walmart money those are his in-laws you can't tell me that wasn't one more thing that said it's time to put Hackett on the unemployment line. So now what does Denver do next it's all about Sean Payton and I think he can name his own price he'll look around the league indeed although Jim Ursay will talk about the year of Jim Ursay in 10 minutes as we get you set for Monday Night Football I'm Brian Weber aim for Rich Eisen one eight four four two oh four rich twitter is B.W. Weber Weber with two b's Ursay does whatever he wants to how's that Saturday hiring look remember as Ursay told us the culture in what that top quartile of the upper quartile didn't seem like they were in the top one percent when they gagged away a 33-0 lead at halftime against Minnesota so Saturday's got to be one and done that means the Colts open up I think the Chargers if they have any idea of what they're doing have to upgrade things and bring in an offensive-minded head coach to nurture Justin Herbert well Sean Payton already spends all the time here in southern California I'm not saying the geography game always is the right way to go but do you want to be the head coach of the Denver Broncos and maybe you get 12 15 million bucks of that Walmart money but you also now have the tall order of trying to fix Russell Wilson now the cop is Drew Brees and I think Payton has enough gravitas and the credentials as a Super Bowl champion one of the most respected offensive minds in football he could go in at least with a blank slate with Russell Wilson said here's what we got to do we gotta get you more on design roles it can't be just straight drop back like Drew Brees and if you want to jump start your career not for reasons to make any more money because Russ got all this dough coming to him with the contract extension he signed in the offseason but just to be in the conversation as to one of the top 10 quarterbacks in football again trust me let's go through this together I don't know that Payton wants to do that because the two are intertwined yeah you're gonna get a massive payday but you also have the monumental challenge of trying to fix a broken Russell Wilson and this is not just this year if you were paying attention we saw the decline towards the end of his run in Seattle more Hackett-esque clock management from yours truly I promise some thoughts on the NFC let's do it rapidly and then we'll get Monday Night Football lined up for you coming up I don't want to bury Philadelphia just yet I'm aware Jalen Hurts could not play and Gardner Minshew while he is a high-end backup is still a backup four turnovers Minshew had a couple picks although the receivers could have done better on that but just put it down in the stat line two picks so four turnovers for Philadelphia I thought of more importance not only was that defense exposed to a degree after Dak had that ridiculous play bad in the air taking back for the pick six he settled down but if you think about the game flow just watching that game between Philadelphia and Dallas didn't Dallas look like the better team and I know Hurts matters I'm not minimizing that just as Philadelphia's victory over Dallas with Cooper Rush has a different dynamic to it but for all of the sensibility that Philadelphia has a roster as complete as Buffalo I think they have the two best collections of personnel across the NFL how does that Philadelphia defense rebound from Dallas scoring 40 on them that's a real question moving into the postseason now in the NFC I don't know how many teams can erupt for 40 we're not talking about Buffalo class along with Kansas City of the AFC or Cincinnati or even Miami and I'm not giving to a pass yes I spent a lot of time in the first hour talking about just how miserable he was with the three consecutive picks in the second half but as you go through the elite teams in the NFC other than that match up with say Minnesota and Justin Jefferson belongs in the MVP conversation he's approaching 2,000 receiving yards but we saw Minnesota lose on the road at Philadelphia earlier this year so I'm not abandoning Philadelphia I am pointing out that the separation between Philadelphia and everybody else in the NFC has been diminished in fact I put San Francisco right there with Philadelphia I know that sounds absurd but I believe in the Niners defense more now than the Eagles give me Christian McCaffrey with all his versatility no contest hurts who's either going to win the MVP or be the runner-up versus Brock Purdy but Kyle Shanahan is protecting the week this is a party and this guy is bowling I'm not crowning anybody but in terms of what he's being asked to do and remember he had that abdominal strain took the shot in Seattle and looked very good again Seattle's been exposed but that's a hostile environment to play if you're asking me to slot the teams in the NFC I'm still going Philadelphia one I got San Francisco too and I do not believe in Minnesota at all but again given our holiday mindset I'll be generous and leave poor Kirk Cousins alone I'm Brian Weber Infra Rich Eisen time is running out if you want to be a part of the program hit me up on Twitter BW Weber Weber with two B's in 20 minutes we wrap it up talking NBA with the five games played yesterday as a foundation for our conversation with Kurt Heelan lead basketball writer for nbcsports.com up next we continue to put the playoff picture into focus and we'll get you set for Monday Night Football if the Chargers hang on to the wild card how dangerous could they be in the postseason that's on the way I'm Brian Weber Infra Rich find the latest and greatest audio entertainment on audible it's got everything you want to hear including the Rich Eisen show along with podcasts you'll also find audiobooks and exclusive originals we're talking comedy sports stories deep dives with athletes entertainers business anything else you're into with audible you'll get access to thousands of included titles with more added each week so you can listen on the road at the gym anywhere you want to fuel up your imagination join now and get 30 days free at the home of storytelling audible.com What's Right with Nick Wright is a rapidly growing podcast from the Fox Sports Podcast Network you may know Nick Wright from co-hosting FS1's First Things First this podcast gives Nick a chance to develop deep dive and defend his sharpest opinions during the show Nick faces off against a ticking clock team of producers and even his own family to try and get his points across new episodes drop Monday Thursday and Friday wherever you get your podcasts did you know that driving high is considered driving under the influence that's right driving under the influence of marijuana is against the law in every state even in states where marijuana is legal that means driving high could get you a DUI and if you think law enforcement officers can't tell when you're driving high you're wrong your friends can tell your co-workers can tell even your parents can tell everyone can tell so what makes you think that law enforcement officers don't know when you're driving high driving under the influence of marijuana can slow your response time and change how you perceive time and speed so even if you think you're fine to drive when you're high you're not because the bottom line is if you feel different you drive different and driving high is driving under the influence so remember drive high get a DUI paid for by NHTSA crime weber back with you always a delight to be in for rich and the fellas remember i have a lot of pressure not only as a fill-in guy that tells you how the industry views my stature and standing in the business but a lot of the enjoyment as a daily listener and that watcher on the roku channel of the rich eisen show is the fellowship with the guys brockman and tj and i love saying del tufo because i work with mike and nfl network so i have to do my best to be as compelling as this band of brothers and i know i'm going to fall short but control the controllables and that means i got to maximize every minute we have together plus i'm going to bring in kurt helen coming up in 15 minutes to talk nba using what happened yesterday with the five games not going to get into the minutia of the matchups on a big war monday but use that as a foundation for overall analysis when we say hello to kurt helen from nbcsports.com i gotta make sure hopefully because i want to come back later in the week that what i'm saying resonates with you so if you have feedback hit me up on twitter bw weber weber with two b's last hour and a half we've had to make the adjustment to the breaking news no surprise but the timing came down roughly around 1 pm eastern time thano hackett out in denver 4 and 11 the final thing that pushed him off the professional cliff was that hideous loss to the rams 51 14. i mentioned i thought the optics were terrible beyond the final score looked like the defense didn't want to be there you had the sideline altercation verbally but it was bad optics it was a tough look on national tv remember that's the a team not only for nance hello friends and tony romo but the best production team that cbs has to offer a couple more cameras more tape machines there was nowhere to hide for the broncos and they were not even trying to be subtle there was a lot of joy going on showing the broken nature of that team it looks bad when you're back up quarterback i know bret ripman played last week when russ was hurt but he's john with the offensive line and i forgot and i want to give credit because there's too much stealing going on in our business attribution matters plus i respect him i worked with him and he's a colleague and friend of rich and a frequent contributor to this program in rapidport lead insider for nfl network reminding me there was a confrontation between the broncos and the rams after the game well you had thousands of citizen journalists still at sofi smartly if you hung around for the conclusion of that beat down well at that point wait until the other people leave the parking lot so you have the teams pushing and shoving that all was documented it went viral on twitter yesterday you put it all together and it just had the overall connotation that hackett had lost the team and we knew that to be true but it was the final coalescing of all these things hack it out press conference tomorrow no interim named as of yet doesn't matter what denver does down the stretch now it's all about what's going to take how much dough is going to take for the walton family to get sean paton to put his name on the dotted line monday night football is relevant tonight not always been the case but it matters primarily indies just playing for draft order and i guess to show they have a bit of professional pride going to be fascinating to see how the cults look remember they've had a little bit more time just to process what in the world happened against minnesota latest remarkable game involving the vikings the game between the vikings and the bills in western in western new york ranks among the most incredible games i've ever seen and i'm older than my energetic sound would suggest i'm 53 i've watched football for a long time that was the wildest finish i can recall going back to the miracle at the middlelands herm edwards joe pisargic you have that as one component of this insane viking year then a 33 nothing implosion by the cold so i'll be watching it's my job after all just want to see if indy shows up i'm not saying the team has given up but that still has to be unbelievably demoralizing taking on the chargers who have it all right in front of them knowing they can't win the division and they were never going to win that division because kansas city has a stranglehold on it seven consecutive division titles unbelievable consistency and think about that quarterback transition from alex smith to patrick mahomes but as the chargers have demonstrated they have a penchant for closing games out that's unusual given their organizational history phenomenal conclusion to the game against the titans and oh my goodness tennessee has just disappeared before our eyes i spent time in the first hour of the show before the nathaniel hackett news trying to forecast the future of aaron rogers if he wants out of green bay tennessee makes the most sense to me it's going to be malik willis now just trying to hold that team together here come your jacksonville jaguars don't worry about what happens this week jacksonville versus tennessee winner take all in a couple weeks with the division title on the line undeniably that'll be flexed out for the final sunday night game to wrap up the regular season but tennessee had a wonderful opportunity to defeat the chargers even ryan tanno was carted off the field came back and now we know looks very very small opportunity sm all that even if the titans win the division he could come back from that ankle injury in the postseason but credit the tenacity of justin herbert i do my best to be transparent i'm brian weber in for rich eisen you want to hit me up during our last 30 minutes together or after the program i am on twitter twitter still functioning bw weber weber with two b's i did not think and i am the biggest pac-12 hunk you will find i have been preparing for a pac-12 men's volleyball game i'm calling in a month because i want to get ahead that's how much i love the conference of champions a graduate of two schools one is destroying the conference and going to the big ten i'll leave that alone i saw a ton of herbert at oregon thought he was high-end good did not think he was a generational talent now that's on me now maybe some of that was a reflection of the coaching staff and the play calling or his need to have more time to mature and develop and i'm not saying he's immature if you ever hear justin herbert speak he is incredibly polished guy had something close to a 4.0 gpa at the university of oregon in a real major like microbiology he is a smart guy but i just did not see watching a lot of ducks football anything that would foreshadow herbert emerging as one of the most promising young quarterbacks we've seen since andrew luck remember andrew luck was amazingly efficient and dominant at stanford herbert played very well don't get me wrong but i saw too many erin throws i saw some decision making that was questionable i got it totally wrong herbert is a generational talent at the same time he's on his rookie deal this is the window for the chargers to maximize what they can get out of him because he's so cost effective they have to in my opinion find him a more offensive-minded coaching staff now it's going to be hard to make that transition should the chargers get into the playoffs and i think they will because i think they beat indy tonight everybody's been beating indy and that just exposes the lunacy of what jim mercy tried to do jeff saturday seems like a wonderful man highly respected had a phenomenal offensive line career in the nfl i liked him on tv but you can't just drag somebody out of a studio spewing hot takes like i'm doing nobody's gonna tap me on the shoulder and say would you like to coach an nfl team with no nfl or college experience although i don't know jim ursay maybe if i had access to her say i could be the next head coach a blue horseshoe ursay has been so entertaining this year i could do 20 minutes on the greatest hits not only of her say singing because you know he's a huge rock and roll fan right spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on rock memorabilia and is out on the road singing pink floyd covers i'll let you find that on your old time but this was the worst hire other than the thaniel hackett my goodness we're having some ridiculous hours in the nfl worst hire imaginable and remember because i'm beating up on the raiders for some reason when they beat the raiders how many people who were friends obviously wanted to be supportive of jeff saturday saying aha you guys are wrong you naysayers i told you saturday would walk in and be vince lombardi remember when jimmy ursay said don shula didn't have a lot of coaching experience had that workout first in baltimore and then with the dolphins so if ursay hadn't said so many insane things about the top quartile of the upper quartile maybe saturday would have been hammered as much hammered as much but i don't think it was just the verbiage when your team blows a 33 to nothing lead worse than the bills and the houston oilers with frank reich you talk about coincidence and serendipity as the quarterback after we get fired in indy saturday takes over now you know the rest of the story i'm amazed saturday still has that job other than ursay clearly doesn't want to admit the mistakes he has made so a charger victory gets them to nine and six miami's in freefall tua gave that game away yesterday with the three picks miami's lost four in a row chargers enhanced their playoff seating as a very dangerous wild card question is do you trust brandon staley to make the right decisions not only just going for it recklessly i'm talking game management or will we see the exact same thing we saw from mike mccarthy butchering the cowboys decision making and game management at the business end of that playoff loss to the niners last year i just don't have any confidence in staley and he seems like a decent nice man i've heard him on this show with rich he's affable he's outgoing but this is not a popularity contest this is a results oriented industry and the chargers finally have a young quarterback now they didn't have to wait that long if you think about all of the great productive years that philip rivers gave them but as they reinvent themselves here in los angeles as i come to you from our regal studios in southern california to have herbert now with the ability to get to the postseason if they don't make an impact i think that's enough for even the spanos family to say okay we finally have to spend some money maybe they make a run at sean paton although if you're patin the question is do you want more money from the broncos because the walton family can spend whatever they want to but you also want the responsibility then of trying to fix a broken russell wilson i'm brian weber in for rich we're we're getting set for the final block of content coming up and we're going to wrap it up with gusto as we talk nba on a normal day after christmas it would have been probably 60 40 nfl nba but the league took over santa's day as well so i'm presuming you probably didn't watch a lot of the games tomorrow uh yesterday and tomorrow and you got a lot going on during this holiday week so i watched a good chunk of the interesting games yesterday boston milwaukee golden state memphis important when it felt like for the warriors just to regain some continuity but would report steff curry is going to be out at least another two weeks could the warriors be dealing with real issues in the context of the regular season we'll cover it all when we say hello to kurt helen the lead nba writer for nbcsports.com i'm brian weber in for rich on the rich eisen show so brian weber back with you we are winding down that means dan schwartzman is warming up my good friend danny with you the next two days i'm back with you on thursday and friday as promised we're gonna wrap up the program talking some nba normally the day after christmas that would have been one of our focal points but like everything the nfl now dominates that holiday at least for this year always a pleasure dog hoops with an old friend kurt helen lead nba writer for nbcsports.com kurt it's been a while happy holidays how are you i'm doing good i'm doing good i was about to make a joke about their was their nfl games on that i remembered that i remembered nbc had one so yes i absolutely watched every second of the bucks versus cardinals always good to have the corporate synergy in mind well since you mentioned it from a standpoint of casual fans because i love basketball as much as you do i went back and forth but thankfully the broncos and rams were unwatchable i watched the majority of milwaukee and boston but let's say a casual fan who typically is flipping around on christmas day and stumbles across the nba and watches because in the old days it was the only thing on other than the blue gray game in college football how much you think the nba might have lost that element yesterday having to compete with the nfl i don't think it helped i think it'd be interesting when the numbers come out because i can i can picture a lot of households where there were there was some hype around bucks and celtics right like that i mean that will these been the two best teams in the league this far this year but i'm curious like how many households dad and the uncles were watching the nfl on and you know on on on the big tv and a bunch of kids were in the corner streaming like the end of the nba games like it's it's a little bit of a different market but it certainly isn't gonna you know when the numbers come out it's certainly not going to help the overall numbers just that like you said the nfl is still the 800 pound gorilla of sports in america and and if you're going head to head i mean look at the nba has gone away from thursday nights the first part of the season because the nfl is doing thursday night games streaming like they they they just don't win that head to head well it tells you how much i care about hoops and always value your insights they made sure we got to it at this stage of the program so since we both agreed that milwaukee boston was the marquee matchup can you make the argument i know this sounds a little bit odd considering how well boston played in the second half of last year on the way to the nba finals but given the chaos that could have come with the coaching transition that's not been an issue you throw in malcolm brogdon do you think boston is better now than they were a year ago yes because i think they're just more comfortable in who they are and and despite the the coaching shakeup and like you said the drama that could have joe mazzola has done a fantastic job of just not letting that be an issue just not playing into it at all and not letting the players play into it um but they just know who they are adding malcolm brogdon helps but this is a team that for the first i mean they were 18 and 21 last year they were struggling to kind of find themselves and get brown and tatum on the same page at the same time and once that all clicked and there are you know a few things came together at once they have been the best i mean they obviously didn't win the finals but they have been as good or better than everybody and that confidence is carried over into this season and also brian you've watched them don't they have they're not as good as this team i think yet but aren't they carrying a little bit of that 2014 spurs chip on the shoulder where the spurs lost the spurs lost on the finals to the you know the ray allen shot and that heat team and they came back the next year won 60 plus games and just destroyed everybody they were so good um there's a little bit of that with boston talking hoops with kurt helen check out his great work nbcsports.com kurt should we have concerns about chris middleton and this lingering knee issue clearly milwaukee's still playing at a very high level without him but we know how pivotal he is when this team is at their best a little bit yeah i mean it's just that he came back and then had to go back out is is always concerning um and you're right look when you have the honest incentive when you have the best player walk in the face of the earth like you can and they've got a good again they've got consistency they've got good core around him they know who they are they're going to win a lot of games they're going to be a high seed but these are the moments the top you know when it gets to the postseason they need 100 percent chris middleton and you know they missed him in the playoffs last year they've got to get him back so it's it's a little bit of a concern i'm not sure if i don't know is the flag red or is it just kind of yellow orange like it i'm not sure how i'm not sure it's a full red flag yet but it's it's something to watch because if he's not back and not a hundred percent there you saw it yesterday you can load up on yanis you can throw a bunch of defenders at him and they they missed that secondary shot creation i mean middleton middleton's an olympian like the middleton's really good and they miss it lakers are getting closer and closer to irrelevant we're always going to talk about them because of lebron and because of the marketplace but with anthie davis hurt again how do the lakers justify keeping russell westbrook on that roster other than lebron wants him there well the the justification is they can't trade him yeah couldn't you give him away at this point not even the 47 million dollar contract going out creates so many problems coming back in there are teams that would do deals that would send the lakers longer term bad contracts but the lakers don't know for all of the problems you might have with west work's contract and by the way he's played decently yes i have to give him credit but he couldn't be worse than he was last year no but exactly but he's a 47 million dollar expiring contract and what the lakers don't want to do is take back a bad or even mediocre contract beyond that they want to i'm going to give you a big surprise here brian they're not really happy with the roster they think they may need to retool this in the off season well hey rob polink is a smart man we know that that's how we got that job or perhaps j moor now has input right who doesn't have input this is really that that like remember people they just extended rob polinka this office yes they were happy with the job he did and gave him more years so you know the the the top of the laker power structure is happy with how the power structure is set up so i until that changes yeah i think because linda rambis said so let's wrap it up with the warriors and i i'm not trying to be hot take guy but i've had the mindset i don't think their seating matters especially with the depth of all the talent in the west this is just a phenomenal collection in the western conference but the way they had been losing priority yesterday and obviously everything changes when they get back to san francisco but when they allowed the nets to score what 91 on them in the first half last week was it important that they won that game yesterday did they make a mini regular season statement i think they did i think they needed it like you said as much for their own ego as much for the as confident as they are as much as they genuinely believes that they they can sort of flip the switch and get back to being the warriors and by the way brian don't we kind of all give them that benefit of the doubt like we're all kind of like yeah yeah they'll be there at the end but i think you hit the other nail on the head which is yeah it's a it is a very deep conference and it is there's a lot of good teams the more you've got to play on the road especially the way they play on the road but the more you've got to go from the middle of the pack out just the harder it gets and they are not they are just making their path through to the finals that much harder in a conference where i do think memphis i think memphis is close and on the edge denver is playing obviously really well and had the most that was the most entertaining game of the game the night of the day yet last night for anybody who was up late um there's a lot of tea the clippers are a sleeping giant if you want to bet on kawhi wondered and paul george being healthy at the same time like there's just a lot of potential there and you just don't want to make your road any harder than it is i feel like the warriors they're warriors lackadaisical i've been looking for the right word uh treatment of the regular season could come back to buy them kurt 30 seconds on why the hardened story potentially going back to houston leaked yesterday i think it's negotiation leverage i think it's somebody in hardened we'll see what contract the stickers offer him at the end of the year he does have ties to houston he liked being there but i still think this was a this was a message being sent hey you are not getting a discount this year we gave you one last year not this time around and perfectly time because the internet blew up kurt great information as always i appreciate your availability whenever i'm lucky enough to be in the chair happy holidays and look forward to our next conversation i look forward to it too brian take care kurt helen terrific information log on to nbcsports.com right now because while football is king if i'm breaking down this show i think i went 97 percent nfl too much hack it but i had to follow the breaking news moving forward though as the nfl postseason will dominate our attention when your local team is knocked out of contention i think a lot of you segue to the nba and i don't want to belabor the point but i love hoops as much as i love the nfl and i love the opportunity to sit in for rich means a lot to me that he would think of me and hopefully you folks appreciate rich's decision to bring somebody in the whole reason i was here breaking news my man so that was fun glad we had the chance to react nimbly and adroitly my good friend dan schwartzman will do the same the next two days and i'm back with you on thursday talking as you might imagine much more nfl we got a thursday night game cowboys can i really talk myself into believing in dallas once more cowboys against the imploding titans there are teas in there before that enjoy monday night football big opportunity for the chargers will the cults even show up after blowing a 33-0 lead against the vikings a lot of people to thank starting with rich all the great folks at westwood one led by bruce gilbert outstanding work as always by our production team and technical producer art martinez i'm brian weber enjoy dan schwartzman the next couple days i'll talk to you on thursday here on the rich eisen show so how wrestling really works and how you get the ratings eric bischoff and conrad thompson explain on 83 weeks you're either growing or you're dying i think it'd be hard to recreate the kind of growth at wcw experience between 95 and 98 this audience should be growing the characters should be coming working they're not everybody's gradually losing audience people will say well but aew is 15 ahead of where they were last year but there's variables there let's see where we're at year from now 83 weeks on youtube or wherever you listen