REShow: Kurt Helin - Hour 2

I just learned Discover credit cards do something pretty awesome. At the end of your first year, they automatically double all the cash back you've earned. That's right, everything you've earned doubled all the cash back from eating at your favorite soup dumpling restaurant. Doubled all the cash back from that trip where you sort of learned to snowboard.

Also doubled. And the best part, you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it. Nope, Discover does it automatically.

Seriously though, see terms and check it out for yourself at discover.com slash match. Taste some of this. This OMG is the Rich Eisen Show. No other way to put it. With guest host Brian Weber.

Oh my gosh. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. I'm not talking to you. I talk to anybody out there. Haters. Rich Eisen.

I talk to the haters right now. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Our number two of the program. Great to have you with us coast to coast. Phone number, you should know it by now.

844-204-7424. If you are interested in chatting with me, Twitter is the best direction to go. B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. And I try my best to be up front. I'm not trying to be a heel character. I don't need your phone calls.

I'm not going Bobby the Brain Heenan. But as a veteran fill in host for a few high profile programs, I know how it works. For lack of a better term, I am your substitute teacher. Now, I don't come in like that goof in Illinois elementary school that I attended in the suburbs of New York City. Mr. Gainey was my fill in substitute teacher guy. You should have said hi. I'm your fill in host. I would have had more respect.

Mr. Gainey would only come in and turn on the projector so we could all take a nap. Hopefully, you enjoyed the first hour of the program. We talked a lot of MBA, primarily on an absolutely atrocious showing. In fact, they didn't show up.

Let's just call it as it is. A no-show job by the Celtics last night. They got annihilated in Miami, down 30 after three quarters, lost by 26. Heat, not your typical 3-0 advantage because if you just go through their arc, right, they were massive underdogs every step of the way.

They were an eight seed on paper. I realize that that's where they wound up because of the play in, but they had more of a six, seven seed vibe in the regular season. Still, somehow, some way, here's a team that has a 3-0 series lead in astonishing fashion after they go to Boston, rip away a couple games at the Garden. You think the Celtics might actually do something last night. You can't control the outcome, but you could certainly control your level of effort and desire to compete.

We saw none of it. So, with the Celtics now on the verge of what would be a humiliating sweep, but it doesn't matter if they get it back to Boston because we've never seen a single team in the history of the NBA come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit. Yes, Red Sox fan, I am aware of what you did against the Yankees 20 years ago, different sports. So, where does Boston go from here? We can start thinking about a finals matchup featuring Miami and Denver.

First, we have to make it official. Half of that finals matchup could be solidified tonight with Denver trying to close out LA. We're going to ease into this hour, giving your thoughts on that game coming up in 40 minutes.

We'll circle back to the NBA, more of the fallout from a humiliating performance by the Celtics last night. When we say hello to Curt Heelan, lead NBA writer for nbcsports.com. Pierre Maguire worked for NBC for a long time when they had the rights to hockey before it gravitated over to TNT and back to ESPN. I always enjoy catching up with Pierre because I'm embracing the spirit of the program. Rich talks hockey, so we're going to do it as well in a concise fashion coming up to wrap up the program roughly 2.40 Eastern Time. Pierre, you should be checking him out throughout what has been another glorious run in the chase for the cup.

He's part of a show called Stanley Cup Central produced by NHL Network on YouTube. A second screen experience and Pierre not only has the insight, the expertise, my man is verbose. He's a good talker. That's why I'm looking forward to hooking up with him later in the show. Rich and the crew in New York and we are wishing them all of the luck that they might need.

They shouldn't need any luck because not only am I sucking up to the man who's kind enough to allow me to fill in for him. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen but I also consume a lot of sports media and not only is this a compelling radio audio experience on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, it's terrific when you watch it. In fact, so good for the second consecutive year programs gotten recognized and Emmy nominated. Looking to win tonight in New York City in the category of best studios show and if you don't check out the show when Rich is in the chair just flip over to the Roku channel. It is streaming. It is free and it is well done. I am an Emmy Award winner.

Let me read you my entire resume although small asterisk yada yada yada. It was a regional Emmy but I still tell people I'm an Emmy Award winner. It was 1999. I got a lot of mileage out of it. For Rich and his team to get this nomination is a monumental accomplishment.

Job well done. Let's hope they bring home the hardware. Rich also has a chance to pick up an individual honor.

He's been nominated as the best studio host. So that's coming up tonight. I'll give you the details tomorrow and unfortunately yes I'm foreshadowing. You have to deal with me for one more day. Then the team is back together.

They'll have their adventures from their road trip when they return to Southern California on Wednesday. Southern California the site of tonight's NBA game which interestingly beyond all of the implications for Denver not only the Nuggets franchise but that sports city of moving on to the NBA Finals for the first time since they made the move from the ABA but a nice little wrinkle added a couple hours ago. Did you know Carmelo Anthony was still quote unquote an active player? I was not aware of that. He had not done the and they don't really fully do this anymore but the old adage we use in sports he hadn't turned in his papers.

He had not made it the official declaration that he was done. He hadn't played in a while but Melo announcing after 19 seasons he is calling it a career and you have you have the nice little synergy between the Nuggets and the Lakers where Melo made that cameo at the end of his career hooking up with LeBron after all the success they had representing Team USA at the Olympics. Hall of Fame conversation gets tedious especially in the ranks of hoops remember and here is Manusha you probably didn't need to know but that's presumably why I got the gig. It is the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Mass not the NBA Hall of Fame so it's all-encompassing that's why we have representatives of the women's game a lot of international contributors as well. Melo based on winning that low national championship for Jimmy Boeheim who dined out on that for years 2003 in New Orleans that's how long ago it was before Jimmy finally went away at the end of this season. Melo captivating our attention when he was the MOP most outstanding player had a long and productive career in the NBA 19 seasons and it is a nice little confluence to have one of the greatest Denver Nuggets of all time as Denver is on the cusp of making franchise history say goodbye and the hookup with LeBron as well so perhaps this was orchestrated but there's no question Melo was a Hall of Famer about three quarters of the way through his career walks away number nine on the all-time scoring list now the pushback would be he never got to the NBA Finals at all forget about winning a title in fact he only got to the conference finals once when he was with the Nuggets forced his way back home to New York in many ways the most quintessential Nick move of all time getting somebody who has all the hype somebody who is a one-dimensional player now Melo seems like a good dude he's been universally respected but safe to say he was me first right he was looking to he was looking to take his own shot you don't get top 10 all-time recognition as a score unless you put up a lot of shots but if we're just going through where do you slot him all time since I spent some time talking about Jim Brown's passing in the first hour of the program we're going to revisit that coming up in less than 15 minutes you can be a part of this program I'm Brian Weber Infra Rich Eyes and the phone number is 844-204-7424 my twitter handles B.W. Weber Weber with two B's and I'm looking for your input because remember not only do I have to measure up to the incredible level of expectation created by the headliner on the Rich Eyes and show Rich rolls deep he's got a crew Brockman T.J. Jefferson my guy Del Tufo I worked with an NFL network so it takes a village I could use all the help I could get that should be clear by now you can be a participant in a variety of ways if you're so inclined mellow if I was doing the hall of great versus the hall of very good very good now he was a dynamic scorer didn't play any defense played a long time props to longevity was always available to play for his country that's a wonderful wonderful statement to make but never took the next step never really could carry a team although in fairness as we shift our attention to the Nuggets and the Lakers as we're finding out repeatedly and the latest evidence of this what I think is an established observation can't say fact because everything is subjective to a degree you need two and a half stars to win an NBA title in fact you could say two and a half hall of famers the half is not so important that's more of a complementary role player who can at least create his own shot but if you go over the last 40 years of NBA champions the lone team that doesn't fit that profile would be the Pistons team that stunned the Lakers quote-unquote super team of Kobe Shaq Gary Payton and Karl Malone led by Rip Hamilton and a very good supporting cast Ben Wallace and guys who bought into what that team was doing as a collective if you're a mellow fan you tell me well he didn't have enough help some of that probably was by design because if you played with mellow you weren't seeing the ball so I don't think a lot of players wanted to sign up to be the running mate to a volume shooter if you're a Laker fan you're going to tell me Lebron needs more help and we've seen some of that throughout what is a far more competitive series than the overall 3-0 tally would reflect and certainly a vastly different outlook than Miami against Boston Miami against Boston has been a reflection of heat culture it's not only a hashtag on social media it is the foundation for everything they do beyond the heroics of Jimmy Butler but in my view as much of a full embrace that we have to put our arms around Miami and say kudos for a team that was the top seed in the east a year ago dropped down to having to be the eighth seed in that play-in gimmick this year made it to the finals losing to the Lakers and the bubble in Orlando in 2020 this series in the east says as much about Boston's failures as it does about Miami's accomplishments because Boston did not show up last night Joe Mazula can take the metaphoric bullet as he did post game saying they weren't ready to play okay there's a coaching piece there what about the professional pride of Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown two players who not only just terms of fantasy hoops and I realize the all NBA teams are a bit stilted because they're going still positioned by position in a positionless league but Tatum's the top five player not only based on that selection just conventional wisdom Jalen Brown is just a step behind he was second team all NBA Boston is a far better team than Miami just look at the rosters adding Malcolm Brogdon and having the defensive prowess of smart Horford a veteran leader and a good defensive player Robert Williams when he's able to match up effectively a difference maker defensively and none of it has mattered because something is fundamentally wrong with this team the obvious point of distinction would be the coaching change but a lot of this has to come down to the players it's going to be fascinating to see what Boston does to address it in the postseason do they re-evaluate the basic fit of their big one-two punch between Tatum and Brown we'll get there coming up in a half hour when we chat with Curt Heedlin lead NBA writer for nbcsports.com it is a Monday edition of hopefully the soon-to-be Emmy award-winning Rich Eisen show I'm Brian Weber in for Rich the phone number is 844-204-7424 you can contact me on twitter at BW Weber Weber with two B's as for Denver and LA Denver's a better team sometimes the standings are meaningful I realize the regular season has proven to be largely irrelevant this year when we got to the playoffs especially when Miami quote-unquote stunned Milwaukee in the opening round Milwaukee with the best record in all of basketball but gotta remember that Giannis was gimpy with a back injury and Miami is not your typical seven eight bottom of the standing seed because they were the number one seed last year and if seed ever was completely meaningless it's attached to Miami this is a aberration anomaly team that rides Jimmy Butler who comes alive when they get to the postseason Denver is a good deep balanced team and I know we didn't want to talk about him a lot during the regular season especially when Durant came to Phoenix and I'm guilty of this as well thankfully I don't think there's any podcast evidence maybe on twitter BW Weber Weber with two B's but I might have stumbled into a summary judgment that had Phoenix the title to rant to the Valley of the Sun equals championship that didn't work out now that didn't work out because Chris Paul got hurt again because he's 117 years old and unfortunately he's breaking down that also did not work because Phoenix had no depth in part because of what they gave up to get Durant in part because and it might have been a reason he got fired although I think it was the ownership change primarily and his frosty relationship with DeAndre Ayton but early in the series Monty Williams refused to go to his bench Denver has in addition to the one of one skill set that is Nikola Jokic give me the comp he is doing things as a center we have not seen statistically since Wilt Chamberlain if you're in the same sentence as Wilt you are on a plane that is incredibly unique but we knew that I went back-to-back MVPs and had a better field goal percentage this year than he did the two prior years when he failed to win the award and and B broke through and took home the hardware we knew if you were paying attention and I know we have an east coast bias that's not just a cliche it is a reflection of demographics 65 percent of you listening live east of the Mississippi that's where I grew up and I didn't pay any attention to Denver now I grew up in a pre-cable TV saturation universe I could do the nuggets from back in the day since we did the homage to Carmelo Dan Issel talking Doug Moe patrolling the sidelines Lafayette fat-lever Alex English was so smooth and Kiki Mandaway but if we're just looking at this team I don't know why I felt the need to take you back to 1988 Jamal Murray has been terrific not only donating the last couple games at 37 and 37 back-to-back outings games 2 and Saturday night he's come all the way back from that lingering knee issue that had made him a shadow of himself since he was a terrific player in the bubble so you have a top three player however you want to slot Jokic you could say he's the best player in the league he's gonna go to the league he's gonna go to the NBA Finals for the first time and lead the team there for the first time in franchise history with a tremendous second option in Murray and then KCP right there in that two and a half star model I was talking about to win a championship or if you get more consistency out of Michael Porter Jr. who's finally healthy after all the injuries dating back to his college career in Missouri they got a big game from Bruce Brown when they matched up with the Suns what happened to the Suns head-to-head against Denver was Durant and Booker just could not sustain having to carry that team and for the Lakers look you get to game one and you get a performance that Anthony Davis should be able to do every night but doesn't because of his lack of consistency unfortunately his inability to stay healthy but if you get 40 out of game 1 ad you have LeBron with the ball in his hands with 45 seconds to go with a good look at a three to tie the game and he misses you come away with some positives you go to game two remember LeBron also missed some free throws in game one go to game two LeBron simply cannot make a three it's like he's allergic to it Lakers still lead most of the way they get phenomenal output offensively from Hashimura and they still lose because Murray's got 37 and joker had the triple double and then you go to Saturday it was the Murray carryover from how we closed the game in the previous game two explosion unstoppable in the first half ad looks gassed at the end of the game D'Angelo Russell absolutely should be on the side of a milk carton how was he even allowed to play those 20 minutes on Saturday I don't know what a word is more extreme than liability he does not belong on the floor and we'll see what Darwin Ham does tonight you got to play a lot more Schroeder I think you put Schroeder clearly in the starting lineup but if you're a Laker fan and you're getting the kind of productivity I mentioned from Hashimura 21 points in game two Austin Reeves showed up again as he did against Memphis and you're still losing these games it comes down to the summary judgment Denver's just a better team not a hot take the record has meaning remember also Denver was the second best home team in all of basketball this year and the Lakers had a very positive draw took on a dysfunctional Memphis team beyond all of the off the court issues that Ja Morant continues to create Dylan Brooks stepped on a mind that he set up and then wouldn't be held accountable post game so Memphis was the right opponent for LA also it bears repeating LA after the moves that Rob Palenka made just prior to the trade deadline addition by subtraction parting ways with Russell Westbrook coming in with complementary players nobody played better defense than the Lakers down the stretch they should have beaten Memphis and then the draw was positive again they took on a limping aging warrior team that was atrocious on the road all season long and that continued to be the case in that series against the Lakers and Jordan Poole was as unimpactful as DeAngelo Russell has been for the Lakers so no moral victories I'm not handing out participation trophies Lakers should feel good about making it this far but that's not good enough when you have Lebron the expectations are one thing and one thing only and coming up when we get back to the NBA in 20 minutes we'll try to look forward when we chat with Kurt Halen lead NBA writer for nbcsports.com is there a real possibility considering his age this is the last time we're going to see Lebron in the conference finals and where do the Lakers go from here because based on this roster and unfortunately Anthony Davis's inability to play consistently this Laker roster I think maximized their possibilities this is as far as they're going to go and we just have seen repeatedly in a critical handful of moments the last couple games in the fourth quarter Denver is flat out a better team and certainly a better coach team Michael don't call him Mike Michael Malone has been masterful in his decision making I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen you want to talk NBA pick up the phone 844-204-7424 I'll check your tweets coming up that's BW Weber Weber with two B's in addition to returning to the NBA in just over 20 minutes want to spend a few more moments on the passing of Jim Brown we talked about his legacy on and off the field in the first hour of the show I think it's not even a stretch to say in addition to being the most impactful running back of them all I think he is the greatest of all time in football if that's the case whether you agree or not why did the man who used to sign Peyton Manning's checks leave him out of his top five entirely yes Jimerusse continues to be the content gift that keeps on giving a lot more to get to as we continue on an active Monday I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen it's the Rich Eisen Show I just learned discover credit cards do something pretty awesome at the end of your first year they automatically double all the cash back you've earned that's right everything you've earned doubled all the cash back from eating at your favorite soup dumpling restaurant doubled all the cash back from that trip where you sort of learned to snowboard also doubled and the best part you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it nope discover does it automatically seriously though see terms and check it out for yourself at discover.com match men do you get distracted during the day thinking about your underarms sweating itching or emitting an odor do those thoughts keep you from showing care when it counts new and improved dove men plus care antiperspirant with 72 hours sweat and odor protection and one quarter moisturizing cream helps you forget about your underarms so you can be present for the moments that matter don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arm's distance from the ones you care about buy new and improved dove men plus care antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold welcome back to the rich eisen show radio network i'm brian weber delighted to be in for rich sitting at the rich eisen show desk furnished by granger with supplies and solutions for every industry ranger has the right product for you call crick ranger.com or just stop by 844-204-7424 twitter is active today with a lot of ai chatter you can head over there to see what i'm talking about i am a human being how can i demonstrate this to you if we're on the roku channel i could go old school and hold up a newspaper with the date how about this if you tweet at me bw weber weber to bees i will either like it or reply a computer couldn't do that right now we're all doomed but i have the great opportunity to reach out to an old friend coming up in less than 15 minutes we'll get back to the mba boston getting demolished last night miami on the brink of moving on to the mba finals same outlook for denver if they can close out the lakers tonight we'll cover it all when we check in with kurt helen lead mba rider for nbc sports and the first out of the program because i want to live up to the normal body of work that rich and the gang put together every day and i was an amateur historian before getting into broadcasting i would not sit and try to do my own research i'm just trying to justify i watched a lot of tv as a kid and before the internet folks we had a admiration i'm told it helped me get a job when i was young er i'm youngish right when i was 22 somebody put me on television i looked like i was 14 i sounded like i was nine but if you could get past the delivery i knew a lot about a lot i knew a lot about sports history reading books like greatest athletes of all time and among the chapters was jim brown who was a living legend we lost the greatest running back of them all and in my view the greatest football player we've ever seen the announcement made on friday brown passing away at the age of 87 i ran through all of the accolades the achievements his unique unique standing as one of the first crossover stars moving from sports in entertainment starting with the dirty dozen and a variety of other films he was impactful in pop culture he was meaningful in truly important developments like the civil rights movement he was also somebody who had issues with women and legal trouble connected to a variety of accusations for abusing women and domestic violence and i gave you the details of that because that's part of the obituary i am not trying to dwell on the negative but you can't tell the jim brown story without being fully inclusive still when brown passed away we had so much of an outpouring of emotion and reflection from every corner of the sports world lebron james had a lot of great things to say obviously with the cleveland connection but because i am in the content industry i immediately gravitated towards jim ursay this courtesy of mike florio's empire pro football talk want to give them attribution because there's too much stealing in our business jim ursay is a unique cat not only is he one of the more outgoing personable nfl owners at the nfl owner meetings when they get together he's one of the few that will stop for people holding microphones he shares opinions you got to give him credit for this he was the first one to publicly suggest it might be time for the league to part ways with daniel snyder foreshadowing the pending sale and the long overdue we're talking 20 years overdue of the nfl finally getting snyder out of the mix and i'll skip that rant for today or say certainly does some weird things who else would have hired jeff saturday seems like a nice man i liked him on the talking head shows on espn but he had no head coaching experience then goes on to have that game with that phenomenal performance against vegas ursay is taking a victory lap feels like cult fans are buying super bowl tickets and then they have the greatest collapse we've ever seen on the road in minnesota ursay also likes to sing did you know that he's got a cover band and he's out there belting out pink florid hits i feel comfortably numb right now going through all these details so ursay of course had a way in and it was respectful and beyond paying his homage to jim brown he came up he came up with this tweet on my list of the top five greatest NFL players of all time i have top five as one jim brown two tom brady three john elway four deacon jones five reggie white interesting list i'm not going to spend 20 minutes going name by name i do give ursay credit for being expansive including deacon jones remember deacon jones would have been the all-time sac leader but sacks weren't officially a stat when he played back in the day of the fearsome foursome and the and the head slap reggie white belongs in the conversation we never talk about defensive players lawrence taylor should be there alan page joining lt is the only defensive players ever to win the nfl mvp award but the fascinating development comes down to this including john elway now again i don't want to be captain history here but for the folks who don't remember elway and i i remember vividly as a football fan plus we share the same alma mater so i know people who know john and i've heard these stories off the record as well john was so resentful of having to play for the cult when they drafted him because he had options he said he was going to go play baseball because he shined at sunken diamond as a baseball player for stanford and the football team that's how little he wanted to play for the cults you know who owned the cults at the time ursa's father robert so the fact that ursa would have the ability to step back remove a motion and come up with an objective view of elway in the top five is fascinating but it's also really interesting that he did not include payton manning all payton did was win four mvp awards and take the cults to the only super bowl they've won i don't know what's going on there now ursa did get the reaction on social media followed up with this thought no doubt payton barry sanders jerry rice in the top 10 it's just that elway didn't have great offensive players around him till the end when he went two in a row and his feats were remarkable from baseball talents so putting in mobility as the tie break okay i'm good good for ursa but it just feels odd given his relationship with his fan base wouldn't you take the time to think about before you thumb out that tweet and that's the beauty of ursa how that's going to be perceived but for those of us who bark into a microphone there is nobody better than ursa and it's going to be very interesting to see how long it takes anthie richardson to get on the field the most polarizing take will levis out of the equation i never thought he belonged in the top 10 conversation but richardson small sample size had a lousy completion percentage of florida on a losing team only started roughly 13 games but he dominated the combine he's a unicorn and i'm just looking forward to richardson when he gets on the field having ursa tweet outlandish things about him to hand us even more content brian weber in for rich isin if you want to give me a call we got room in the final hour of the program 844-204-7424 tweets at bw weber weber with two b's coming up the fallout from a miserable night for the celtics last night in miami will the lakers show up with a degree of pride to extend the series against the nuggets tonight plus which of the high profile coaching openings is the best gig looking forward to chatting with kurt helen lead mba writer for nbc sports all part of of he said smoothly a monday edition of the rich isin show i'm brian weber in for rich here on the rich isin show the boys of summer are playing on the believe podcast the product of baseball is much more watchable get your baseball fix from podcasts like wake and rake break farm to show and ring the bell he's not really hitting balls through the screws plus local podcasts like believe in astros and believe in the broncs you're gonna have to get some more innings out of the rotation just search b-l-e-a-v podcast wherever you listen so brian weber back with you always an honor to be in for rich it's the rich isin show eight four four two oh four seven four two four you can tweet at me bw weber weber with two b's whenever i have the distinct pleasure of guest hosting look forward to reaching out to old friends among them kurt helen lead mba writer for nbc sports kurt how are you i'm doing good you know nice quiet time of year in the nba not much going on it's it's you know it's easy yeah nothing going on i would imagine sports talk radio in boston is very low-key very happy today so before i wonder if joe mazula is going to get fired in the future of the organization let's just get back to the details of last night and obviously it was grisly but here's the issue i've seen from boston throughout the playoffs in a huge contrast from last year's run to the nba finals kurt what has happened to their defense yeah thank you at the end of the day last year their identity was defense the they had a structure on that end that really was the core of the team and this year they finished with the third best defense in the nba over the regular season but it felt i don't know like an echo residual like it was not the identity of the team anymore and their wins and losses were more easily tied to their three-point shooting they they that became more of an identity for this team and i think that as what whatever moves they make going forward i think that you're kind of getting at it and broads and hinted at this last night but it's just time to get back to that it is time for them this should be a lockdown defensive team that by the way can score like they they've just gotten away from that this year glad we addressed the actual basketball being played now let's get people fired let's get the team broken up let's reconstruct the roster is joe missoula dead man walking or if that happens is that brad stevens making it a mission he hired the wrong guy i don't think he's a dead man walking only because they just gave him an extension probably too quickly yeah but they great point him an extension they gave him my guess and it's also just not how the celtics have done things they have tended to be patient they have tended to see things through they have not tend to make rash moves um but i think you'll see what you i think we'll see is missoula back in the big chair but he's going to have a completely new staff led by somebody with head coach experience sitting next to him i you know whoever that ends up being um somebody or some buddies to be you know the kenny atkinson next to him on on the bench right or or you know mike brown for years and still like steve curstaff has had a bunch of these guys they're going to put somebody not just an experienced head assistant coach i think you're going to get experience on the bench but it's going to start with somebody who is a borderline threat to take his job frankly but also can can guide him a little more because he has seemed overwhelmed at points makes complete sense i use the text winner analogy earlier but sounds like and i agree with your frame of mind they'll go with somebody who's a more viable candidate and we're not being ageist here but somebody in a different demo i'm brian webber aim for rich isom we're focusing on the cusp now of the mba finals both miami and denver a game away with kurt helen lead mba writer for mbc sports kurt you do a great job of offering context i'm pretty good with the framework of sports history and we can expand it beyond hoops if you want to can you give me a comp for jimmy butler somebody who is good respectable in the regular season but superhuman come playoff time yeah it's really hard i it's funny we've been i've talked about this with a few people and it's hard to come up with somebody in basketball or even like you said it doesn't i i'm struggling to do it there there were some mr october's but like reggie jackson was great in the regular you know during the major league baseball regular season too um i'm struggling in baseball the basketball comp i come closest to and it's more injury related is kawhi leonard but when kwai leonard even this season um when he plays he's still almost he's still in all well jimmy butler made all nba um so it's not like he's been terrible in the regular season but i think that's the one where you're like there's just another year he can turn into um he's just been able to stay healthy and it's unbelievable yeah it's really hard for me to find i wish i had a better answer for you this is bad talk radio but i just i i struggled to find that comp we like candid it also is a testament to just how unique jimmy is and should put him in position to get even more recognition our let's shift to denver and la watching these games they've all come down to the fourth quarter if you're a laker honk i don't want michael malone coming after me you could argue the lakers should have a 2-1 series lead kurt as you look back on the last two fourth quarters have they been a reflection of the limitations of the lakers lakers really maxing out this roster or telling you more about the resolve of denver first off the resolve of denver is real and that's i think what this was the question i think we all had coming into the playoffs it wasn't denver was the one seed they certainly had the talent they've got the two-time mvp and then people remember back to before jamal murray blew out his acl in 2021 going into those playoffs they were kind of a trendy hipster pick to win it all right like they were the team on the rise after they got aaron gordon you're like this is a really good team they've kept that roster together they've been patient they've had continuity but the question was great right like what happened we just never you know we do this in every sport the quarterback brian no quarterback can win the super bowl until they've won the super bowl right like we do this with everybody i think there was a yeah but can they do it under pressure what happens when they get on the biggest stage and it's been impressive um but i also think you have hit the nail on the head there are limits to this laker roster even as much better as it is when you get to this point in the nba season it's some and on some level it becomes less about your stars and less about just how great yokich is or lebron or anthony davis and more about where are the holes in the lineup that we can attack and denver has less of those d'angelo wrestle you can't play vando at sometimes like there's just there's spots in the laker roster that are holes when you get down to the final four teams that denver isn't showing it final thought taking you away from the postseason so we have a variety of high-profile coaching vacancies bucks sons and sixers how do you slot those openings we go milwaukee one right because you get yonis and they're just a couple years removed from winning a championship how do you factor in the variables connected with philly and phoenix phoenix has got some roster work to do obviously chris paul has has reached the downside of his career and they've just they've got to round that out they have as good a top duo as anybody but there's a lot of roster work to do and a lot of you need some that i think you're ultimately going to get a veteran but that's just the most unpredictable one because nobody knows matt ishby is running the show the new owner and nobody's quite sure where that's going to go you know report came out from woj today it looks like maybe if nick nurse gets the philadelphia job which makes some sense because especially if james harden leaves they're going to need real creativity they're going to need uh spark of genius so to speak and there's not a more aggressive coach and creative coach than nurse if he does that um if he goes there then monty williams to milwaukee that's my guess i think those kind of jobs you just hey man as much as adrian griffin deserves a shot as much as there's guys out there who are lead assistants who absolutely deserve the chance charles lee i don't know if you can give milwaukee or philadelphia to a guy who hasn't been in the chair before um it just it's it seems like too big a risk for a team that close to a title kurt always a pleasure enjoy the insights and the information if i'm filling in for rich now although it's a good circumstance because rich and the guys are in new york for the sports emmy awards hoping to capture a trophy tonight take home the statue with them it also means vacation season is coming up so hopefully your phone will be charged because looking forward to july i have a feeling i might be chatting or at least reaching out to you again talking mba free agency it is i'll just tell you now i look forward to it brian it is going to be a trade heavy wild off season teams are going to make big moves this year i need it otherwise i gotta talk baseball in july kurt enjoy game four tonight we'll chat with you soon look forward to it man kurt aylans terrific lead mba writer mbc sports.com now i do talk baseball in fact i should look ahead to tomorrow's program as i said i reach out to people that i have relationships with professionally i know i can count on them because they're going to give you strong opinions that are based in facts kurt knows what he's talking about great reminder missoula just got the contract extension in the midst of what was a magnificent first year now given the financial resources of these teams they can eat the money but i agree and i laid it out in the opening monologue i don't see boston whacking missoula just yet they blow up the coaching staff they surround him with people who actually know how to call a timeout but if you're looking ahead i know you are tomorrow gonna spend some time talking baseball we're at the quarter poll 25 of the never-ending regular seasons done we'll check in with joe sheehan used to write for sports illustrated new york times now has his own shingle betting on himself the joe sheehan baseball newsletter final final hour coming up a lot more to get to hockey fans turn on the red light all the conversation you're looking forward to coming up at 2 40 eastern time we'll check in with pierre mcguire longtime hockey analyst the games in the conference finals have been sensational and historic all four going overtime straight ahead back to the mba more of the key thoughts heading into the lakers and the nuggets tonight plus what changes are coming up in boston once miami takes care of them hang with us appreciate you spending time with us on a monday webber in for eisen it's the rich eisen show you love lala kent on vanderpump rules now get to know her on give them lala with her assistant jess what you did not see is when racquel arrives and she wants to talk to me i made her sit in a corner explain sat in a corner booth all by herself in the dark waiting for to talk to you waiting for me to finish dancing to 50 cent it's my birthday sit in the corner give them lala wherever you listen