REShow: David Aldridge - Hour 1

Welcome back!

We're kicking off The Rich Eisen Show. Now! Now! Now!

They are back. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I have to be the first on a plane. I've got to be first.

I've got to be the first on a plane. Because you know, the overhead bin, that is, that's a premium real estate. That is exactly right. Today's guests, Senior Columnist for the Athletic, David Aldridge. Panthers wide receiver, Adam Thielen.

Plus, your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Yes, indeed. Can confirm I am back here in this chair.

Thank you so very much. What a welcome. What a hero's welcome here on The Rich Eisen Show, here on the Roku channel. Thrilled to be here sitting here in Los Angeles studios of The Rich Eisen Show. You can watch us every day on the Roku channel. We say hello to our terrestrial radio audience who we adore.

Our Sirius XM Odyssey audience as well. Our podcast listeners back here in the chair. Greatly appreciative of Kirk Morrison, Tom Pelissero, and Steve Weissman sitting in this chair while I was on walkabout in the great country of Israel with my family visiting.

Nothing but parenting. Oh my God. So glad to be back here in the chair. Tanned and somewhat rested, but beautiful to see you guys. Chris Brockman, thank you to you.

DJ Mikey D is in Deez Nuts. Also to you, TJ Jefferson, for expertly holding down the fort while I was able to do my thing in a way. So thank you. Greatly appreciate it.

And thank you to the audience for being with us here on the Roku channel and everything else. How are you guys doing? Good to see you. Good to see you.

I'm great. Yeah? Yeah.

Did you miss me? No. Okay. Thank you. That'll wrap it up. That'll wrap it up.

Two hours and 57 minutes shot. I felt like I was with you on your trip from your 20 posts to see. You're such a hater. I'm not a hater. Why are you welcoming me back with hate?

What do you mean? I'm not. Who's hating?

Who's hating? Less is more, Rich. You know this. Well, okay. Let's get into, let's put a pin in that, but I do want to have that conversation later on. Let's, let's just jump in with both feet.

It's NBA draft week here in the United States. And a word is that Victor Wembanyama arrived in the United States yesterday. And he arrived from France in Newark International Airport, which means he turned right around and said, I want no part of the United States of America. I got to say, have you been in Newark recently? I have.

They redid it. It looks really nice. York Airport's beautiful. Exactly. But you know what, it's, I'm just thrilled that apparently he's through and everything. Cause when I heard that he was, he landed at Newark International Airport, I thought he's going to get drafted by the Spurs on Thursday night.

And they're going to, where's Victor? He's still on the tarmac because there's a plane in his gate. By the way, that does happen all the time. Oh, you think? Every time.

All right. Coming to America. He's here.

He's in the United States and he will soon be a San Antonio Spurs, we all know. But the big news hit over the weekend. And I'm sure you guys talked about it at length with Kirk Morrison yesterday in this chair, but Bradley Beal is now going from the Washington Wizards to the Phoenix Suns. And the word started sparking last week that Beal was on the street. He was in the marketplace.

He was out there to go get. And you know, the Suns didn't have to break up their team to go get him because his contract was so expensive with a no trade clause that allowed him to choose where he wanted to go. And the Wizards got back, one would say, less than market value for somebody as good and as terrific as the man who led the league in scoring as recently as 2020 and Bradley Beal. And David Aldridge of The Athletic is going to be first up to explain to us why the Suns were able to add Bradley Beal to a team with Kevin Durant, to a team with Devin Booker, to a team still with DeAndre Ayton, for Chris Paul, Landry Shammet, a bunch of second round choices. Because they don't have any first rounders because they used him to get Kevin Durant. And a pick swap.

A little pick swap. And that's it. Honestly, when I saw this on the beaches of Tel Aviv, words I've never said before in my life, but now as I'm reading this, I literally thought to myself, maybe there's more. I need to refresh. Maybe there is a player to be named later. Maybe it's the reception out here. I don't know.

I did hit refresh a couple times. I'm like, there's got to be another paragraph to this Woge story. And there wasn't.

And there wasn't. And here I was leaving this studio a week and a half ago wondering if the Nuggets success would lead to a copycat in the NBA to let's just build a team. Let's not go the super team route. Is this the end of the super team era? And you've got a Suns team that looks right at the Nuggets, right at Jokic, putting down his Serbian, I don't know what the currency is, on, you know, win, place or show.

And he's there and we saw what Murray was able to build himself into and this team with Aaron Gordon and everyone else. I think it's a Serbian dinar. There you go. A dinar. Putting his hard earned dinars on off track betting in Serbia.

They do accept US dollars and euros. Here I thought, maybe this is the end of the super team era. And the Suns are like, nope.

That's a pretty good super team. Not at all. And to me, this is a huge stone thrown into the association pond of NBA draft week because it's not just what are the Suns looking like next year. It's like, what about Chris Paul?

Because he's not staying in Washington and he wants to come to this here town. Does he want to get on the banana boat with LeBron and what everyone believes is his last year as a Laker? Does he want to maybe TJ Jefferson, look you in the eye and says, you want to be a Spurs fan, do you? You want to give up on the Clippers, do you?

I mean, come on, TJ. And just when he is sent packing so the Suns can create a triumvirate in the so-called post Super Bowl, super team era, how does Kawhi, Paul George and Chris Paul sound to you? Injured. That's how it sounds.

Very good. What about Chris Paul to Boston? What about Chris Paul to, fill in the blank? What about Chris Paul to Miami?

Oh, I think they want Dame Time. That's the other ripple effect because Miami, not landing Beale, would that have taken them out of the mix for Lillard? Is Lillard in play? Does it matter who the Hornets with their first selection post Michael Jordan, owning the team as the majority owner?

Does it matter who the Hornets are taken second overall on Thursday night? If they leave Scoot Henderson for the Blazers, does that mean they trade Lillard and start with Scoot Henderson? Because what is Scoot going to do with Lillard? Maybe nice backcourt, I guess. Brandon Miller comes, does that change the dynamic for the Blazers? Does neither choice for the Blazers matter? Lillard wants out or he's going to stay because he likes one of these kids.

I don't know. Is Zion in play? David Aldridge is going to break this all down for for us, but I just find it funny that I'm sitting here wondering, does this mean the end of super teams in the NBA? Because we've seen what the Nuggets can do with a terrific two-man game and a supporting cast with young players. And then what about Draymond Green? Yeah, he's out there right now. Does he stay with the Warriors to keep that triumvirate together?

You got to figure the Warriors are going to go all in to do that because the Suns have three now and the Clippers might wind up with three now or the Lakers might wind up with LeBron, AD, and CP3. What a week. Next 48 hours are going to be, as the kids say, lit. Let's go. David Aldridge on that. While I was gone, Tom Pelissero had Dalvin Cook on this program. That was a great conversation.

That was one of those, I'm strolling around the old city of Jerusalem. I'm like, hey, Tom landed Dalvin Cook, no way. We got a call 10 minutes before and Dalvin's ready and Tom's like, uh, we're talking a letter to Fournette. Can you wait 10 minutes? There you go.

And I'm trying to find reception at the the Wailing Wall, which is words I never thought I would say either. It's also disrespectful, but I can say that. And so Dalvin Cook comes on this show and says that he's ready to roll in this league. He's going to have a, he's going to have a, he's going to have that he's ready to roll in this league. He's going to have it. He, all I took from that conversation is this guy's got a chip on his shoulder and I just do not understand the devaluation of the running back position in the NFL.

I do not get it. It's at some point, somebody like Saquon is going to have to strike a blow. I guess McCaffrey did that a couple years ago and all it keeps doing is just going backwards and backwards and backwards. I guess Derrick Henry's going to have to run the ball down people's throats as a 30 year old to prove that it can be done.

I don't know. Dalvin's out there. Zeke is out there. Leonard Fournette was on this program as well. He's out there. Now, one way that Dalvin Cook could somehow improve his standing is if he, like the association, forms a tandem with another free agent and becomes a package deal. Is that what Dalvin Cook is cooking up with DeAndre Hopkins as Dalvin said this on my buddy Adam Schefter's podcast. Dynamic player, like everybody knows who D hop is. You know what you're getting out of D hop and you know what he going to bring to your roster.

It's the same for me. Like, you know what the film speaks for itself. Like I don't really got to do too much. Like, you know, talking about who Dalvin Cook and DeAndre Hopkins is, but we haven't talked and he was one of those guys that I was going to reach out to because like, I know he got the same mindset as me. Like we trying to go win. We trying to get on the roster and trying to go contend. So if we can't get up on the same roster and be on the same team, you know, that'd be the beauty of the situation. You know, we know what we're trying to come do and what we bring into the team.

So if we end up on the same roster, man, that'd be something like, that'd be some epic for, for, for NFL. Two things. First of all, Dalvin Cook, I hope he signed somewhere because nine volt batteries are very expensive. Except fire alarm, bro.

How many times is that going to happen to people? And if Dalvin Cook's house is anything like mine, it is something that requires a 20 foot ladder to reach. It's always the least geographically sound fire alarm that's requiring the nine volt battery.

And it always, by the way, would happen at 2 30 in the morning. So at least Dalvin's ahead of the game, unless he and Shefty are zooming at 2 30 in the morning, which I doubt. That's number one. Number two. I don't know who, who in the, who, who in the hell is going to be able to afford both Dalvin Cook and DeAndre Hopkins at this stage of the game?

I guess you can do whatever you want to do. You know, I, I guess you do the cat magic to make it happen, but the one team I could think of that would be able to just jump in and make that move, that would be your team. TJ Jefferson. Don't try to get my hopes up. What if the Dallas Cowboys wake up, let's just play this game.

Let's play this game. What if the Dallas Cowboys wake up and say, all right, Dalvin and DeAndre, you can take a little bit of a haircut because we got Tony Pollard here, but how does Dalvin and Tony Pollard with DeAndre Hopkins added to the mix of CD Lamb and Michael Gallup and the rest of that team sound to you? How does that narrow what we all in the NFL world believe is a gap between the defending NFC champion Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys?

How would that close that gap in a heartbeat? Who else could go ahead and make this package deal for the two of them? I'm not, I'm, and again, I am not looking at salary caps at all. Well, you got to. I know you do, but in this day, in this game, why not? Oh, if we're just going to play games. Who cares?

Why not? Denver Broncos. How does that get things working for Sean Payton if they sign Dalvin Cook and DeAndre Hopkins on the spot? How does Russ cooking with DeAndre sound to you? How does that work in the AFC West?

Sounds like a Michelin restaurant. By the way, I'm going down the list of the teams that I had for the top five landing spot for Dalvin Cook. I don't know how that one would work, but this is just a fascinating idea for a running back in this league where everybody's like, great job running for 1,000 yards, four straight years. Great job being a perennial Pro Bowler.

I understand, you know, you had some issues with your shoulder and I know that you got that surgically repaired and you're fixed and you're as healthy as ever in your 27. Good luck doing that somewhere else. Because you're getting paid $11 million and that's too much for a running back when $11 million is going everywhere for tackles, corners, and a couple of teams safeties. But no, no, no running backs. We can go get some kid in the fifth, sixth, seventh round to do what you can do for pennies on the dollar.

It's economics, Rich. But that's the running back position where everyone's like, screw it. We can find those.

You're a dime a dozen. Even though not everybody can run for a thousand yards for four straight years and do what Dalvin Cook has done. Good luck with that. And I guess we can find out if Alexander Madison, the Vikings are 1,000% in 2023, the laboratory of what's going on at the running back position. 1,000%. Can Alexander of Madison do what Dalvin Cook has done?

Can he do it? Because the answer to that question will have a lot to do with what the Vikings can do to repeat as NFC North champions. Can't wait to see that one play out. And if Dalvin Cook can improve his standing and get somewhat in the neighborhood of $11 million because DeAndre Hopkins is coming in too. But DHOP wants to get paid like Odell and Dalvin wants to get paid like McCaffrey. So I don't know how they're going to package it up unless they both split the fair.

Go Dutch. I like your game. Hopefully they listen to that.

Dallas would be spectacular for both. Just throwing it out there. Oh, wait a minute.

What's going on? By the way, do you know for people who are watching on the Roku channel at home, they're probably like, well, I'm going to probably like, wait a minute, get the ladder. Don't do that. That's like when you, if you play, if you play a police siren on a radio show, you know, people are driving along all of a sudden, don't do that.

My God, that's the worst drop we've ever had. That was great. It drives my dogs nuts, by the way. Dogs hate that noise.

They're like, hate it. All right. Let's take a break. By the way, James Cook is on tomorrow's program, I believe.

We hope. What does that mean? Well, last time we was 10 minutes before, he was like meeting with the GM. Uh-oh. No, that was Gabe Davis. Oh yeah. Same team. Okay.

At any rate, good stuff. Back here in the chair, David Aldridge is going to join us to make heads or tails of what happened with Bradley Beal. He wrote a great piece in the athletic explaining all that. So we're going to have him explain that as well as preview a wild NBA draft week, Albert Breer on what we just discussed and so much more in the NFL and Adam Phelan, now of the Carolina Panthers, formerly of the Vikings and your calls at 844-204-RICH. So much coming out of that is the senior NBA columnist for the athletic and a long-time compadre of mine from back in the day on SportsCenter.

David Aldridge back here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, DA? I am good, Rich. How are you?

I am doing well. Your material on the Bradley Beal trade and why it went down the way it did and the potential after effects is the best I read anywhere. So I appreciate you joining here to explain to everyone why the trade went down the way it did and looked to be such a steal for the Suns.

David. Well, look, I think the Wizards painted themselves in a corner by giving Bradley the no trade clause last summer on top of the max contract. Why they did it, they thought it was a sign of their loyalty to him.

I think the 259 is a pretty good sign of their loyalty to him, but they decided to put that cherry on top and it really kind of cost them, came back to bite them because it really gave Brad, as it's supposed to do, final say on where he wanted to go. So it just kind of limited the available trades that the Wizards would be able to make for him because he could say, well, I'm not going to agree to that trade. It's the same in baseball when you give no trade clauses to players. In the NBA, I think it is, I believe it's eight years service and four years with the same team makes you eligible for it.

But nobody else in the league had it because it gives the player a huge hammer. And so they could not really generate a whole lot of trade offers in part because of that, but also in part because the contract's just pretty big and onerous and makes it very difficult to absorb. And there's just not many teams, especially with the new capitals coming online, Rich, with the new collective bargaining agreement, there's very few teams that are going to be willing to hit that second tax line and undergo the really kind of massive financial penalties that are going to be assessed to teams that do that in terms of not being able to use exceptions to sign players, not being able to trade draft picks to acquire players.

I mean, the league really is going to make it hard for teams to kind of blow through the luxury tax thresholds. But the Suns, you know, with their new ownership are willing to at least get close to it or do it for a year or skirt it or not skirt it, but go through it. And they found a partner, but the Suns obviously didn't offer them very much because they don't have any draft inventory and they didn't, you know, they're not going to give you Durant or Booker obviously. So the Wizards were just kind of desperate to get Beal's contract off their books and they did. And so who else was in on this to the point where this trade that is from just again reading it and who went back to the Wizards and how good Beal is on the court is viewed as such a steal. This deal that the Wizards accepted was the best one.

Who else was in on this? Well, I mean, Miami was the other team and, you know, I'm not sure if what I don't know this. I don't know if Beal said I don't want to go to Miami, which I think I would be surprised if he said that or if Miami just said we're going to move on because I think they certainly want to try and make a play for Damian Lillard, you know, and that may be their priority now. But I'll put it this way, Bradley made it clear that he wanted to go to Phoenix, right? So the Heat trade would have been Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson and some first round picks. And I think the Wizards, if you gave them true serum, would tell you that they wanted to take that deal because of the draft, the first round picks that were attached to it. But at the end of the day, if Brad wants to go to Phoenix, they had to make that deal because he would not have approved the deal to Miami as long as the Phoenix deal was still valuable. And I guess it still was as Matt Ishbia was determined to kind of make another splash and improve his team.

Senior NBA columnist from the Athletic, David Aldridge here on the Rich Eisen Show. And let's talk about the effect on the Suns. So does this mean DeAndre Ayton might be on the move because the amount of money for four players is so insane or is Matt Ishbia just going to say, screw it. I hired Frank Vogel and we're going to go with Ayton and Booker and Durant and Beal and try and knock off a Nuggets team that looked to be quite invincible in the playoffs. I mean, I think that my guess is that they will explore moving Ayton simply because they need more bodies, right? I mean, they just need more players on their roster. So if you can turn DeAndre Ayton's $30 million into three $10 million players or two $15 million players, you probably would do that just so that you have more depth on your roster.

So I'm guessing that's what they will probably explore. They certainly are going to have to convince more than one veteran free agent to kind of take less money to play for the veteran minimum to have a chance to win a championship. Now that could happen. They could do that. And they've got some guys currently on their roster that they can resign, like TJ Warren. There's a few veteran guys on that team that they would like to bring back. So it's not like they won't be able to field a team, but yeah, I certainly think that Ayton, I would be surprised if Ayton was still on the roster just because he's the last piece they have in terms of talent and contract that they can maybe turn into two or three players.

Yeah. And as I mentioned at the top of my show, David, this trade is fascinating, not only because it involves an All-Star and Bradley Beal, it's just the ripple in the pond of the NBA on draft week has so many, it's a huge splash to say the least. And that's where I want to land with Chris Paul here, because now Paul is on the Wizards and part of your coverage was talking about Washington wanting to hold on to Paul just to trade him.

They're not going to cut him. Is that still your belief 48 hours later right now, David? Yeah, I mean, I think so.

I mean, I think that's their intent. Now, certainly, I mean, obviously Chris Paul wants to play for the Lakers or the Clippers. I don't know which one is more important to him.

I think they both are viable for different reasons for him. He's got a lot of he certainly doesn't want to play for the Wizards. I mean, I think that's obvious that at 38, he wants to be on a contender for the last couple of years of his career and the Wizards are not going to be a contender for a while. But it's just a question of are the Wizards obligated to release him so he can just go sign with the Lakers or the Clippers on a minimum deal? Certainly, they want to sign him to a minimum deal and don't want to spend, you know, bring his 30 million or 28 million guaranteed for next year onto their books. But the Wizards are under no obligation to do that for him. I mean, you know, everybody respects Chris Paul and knows what he's done for the game, but the Wizards business they have to prevent, you know, they have to protect their interests. And the best thing for them to do is to trade him and get, you know, either a young player or players or more realistically get some draft picks out of the deal because all they got from Denver was a bunch of second round picks.

You know, they didn't get it. They didn't get any first round picks. There's some pick swaps, but they're so far down the road. It's not going to matter, right?

It's not going to matter at least in the short term. So, I think that they will hold out for a while at least to see if they can generate a trade with either the Lakers or the Clippers. And I think there's a chance they could try to get a third team involved that maybe has some draft capital that they wouldn't mind putting into the deal for a young veteran and expanding the deal. The Wizards do have a couple of young players that maybe teams would be interested in like Corey Kispert and Denny Avdia. So, I could see a third team maybe being interested in one of those teams or maybe even the Lakers or Clippers being interested in one of those players. But at the end of the day, the Wizards, I think, goal is to try to get some draft capital out of trading Chris Paul, you know, back out west.

Well, I mean, and that's down the road or potentially maybe even later this week, who knows or when the new league year begins, David Aldridge of the Athletic here and the Rich Eisen Show. But the most immediate, newsiest, juiciest item that Chris Paul threw out there in an interview with the New York Times on Monday, David, outside of the fact that he found out from his 14-year-old in a text that he'd been traded Happy Father's Day to him. But him saying how how the Suns wanted to go in a different direction and he said Matt, meaning Ishby of the owner, and Isaiah, meaning Thomas. Is Isaiah Thomas in the ear of the owner of the Suns and giving him ideas or influencing him in a way that Chris Paul doesn't mention James Jones, the general manager of the Suns, when he says about going in a different direction?

David? Well, it certainly was, you know, it was certainly rumored during the playoffs because Isaiah was at, you know, several Suns games, I think, in Phoenix. And someone, I can't, I'm trying to remember and I don't want to put anybody's name out there if I don't know exactly, but I know someone wrote that he was going to have some sort of official role with the team and the team denied it and said that wasn't true. But it's, I mean, it certainly appears that Isaiah Thomas has some sort of, you know, kitchen cabinet type of role with Matt Ishbia in terms of advising him on potential trades and things.

So that does not surprise me. But I think at the end of the day, you know, this is Matt Ishbia really trying to drive this train. He's been very upfront about his intent and his aggressiveness, you know, moved quickly to fire Monty Williams and hire Frank Vogel to be the coach. And the first thing out of the, the first move he made seconds after acquiring the team was to trade half the team and all of their draft picks for Kevin Durant. So he's been intentional about his, what he wants to do with that team.

And this certainly falls in line with that. Getting Bradley Beal, you know, for not very much, you know, Frank in all honesty, and that's not a criticism of Chris Paul or Landry Shammet, but, you know, for a three-time All-Star, I think most people thought you would get something more in terms of draft picks and draft capital. So he, yeah, I mean, Matt Ishbia has been incredibly aggressive about it and has that team poised to challenge the Nuggets, I think, and the Lakers and Clippers and Warriors at the top of the Western Conference next year.

The athletic senior NBA columnist David Aldridge, couple more minutes left with him right here on the Rich Eisen Show. The Tuesday before the NBA draft, is Damian Lillard in play over the next 48 hours, sir? You know, I don't, I think, I think it's possible.

I'll say that. I think it's possible. I know Miami is trying very hard to make that happen. At the end of the day, I think Dame's got to give the go-no-go, you know, like it's going to be up to him to decide how, how much, how hard he wants to push this. And it depends, I think, if the, if the Blazers can turn that third pick into the type of All-Star level player that Dame would want to play with in Portland.

I think it's a, I think it's a tall order. I don't, you know, I don't see Jalen Brown on the horizon, you know, for, for the Blazers or someone of that caliber. Now you should get closer to the draft. People get, make their best offers, right? So it's not, I'm not saying it's not possible, but right now I don't see a scenario where the Blazers are going to get the type of player that I think Willard wants to play with for that third pick. And then the Blazers also have to, Rich, they also have to consider that the chances of them being, having a pick this high and being able to take someone as good as either Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson in the future is not very high. This is probably the best chance they're going to have in a very long time to take a real potential difference making talent at the top of a draft. And, you know, you do have to think about your future if you're the Blazers. So, you know, it's a, it's a tough call for, for them.

I mean, you know, they, it's a tough call. I'm not sure which direction I would go in, but I think that they have to come out of this draft knowing that either Lillard's going to be there the rest of his career, or they're going to move on from him. I don't think they want to go into another off season with this kind of uncertainty. And what about Zion Williamson? Is he, is he in play over the next 48 hours?

Do you think? I'm less, I'm, I'm less certain that that's going to happen. I know that that was, you know, written about or rumored a few days ago, but I don't, I don't get the sense that that's something that the Pelicans are, you know, just dead set on doing. Certainly, there's concern about Zion going forward, and there's certainly concern about his ability to stay healthy and to, to play games. But that particular trade that was rumored about the third pick, I don't think has legs at all. You know, does that mean they wouldn't, they wouldn't be pushing for a deal, you know, maybe after July 1st? I can't say that that's not possible, but I don't think that particular deal is in play right now.

And just, you know, last one for you, David. This NBA draft week, it just seems it's so full of intrigue, even though we know who's number one overall, but the way that Victor Wembanyama has captured, you know, the YouTube audience and the Twitterverse and what have you just makes him fascinating. And then, you know, Greg Popovich's future and that conversation along with who goes to, who goes three, what does that mean for Lillard? Is he in play? Is Zion in play? The Ja Morant 25 game suspension, all of this news, is this the, I guess, juiciest draft week you can recall, David, in recent memory here?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's certainly up there because of the, you know, you start with the intrigue about Wembanyama, right? I mean, even though we know he's going to San Antonio, you just, everybody's kind of a buzz as to what is that, what does that mean to the Spurs? How are they going to handle it?

What are they going to do? It creates this kind of own energy. And then you just have so many teams, I think it's six or seven that have more than one first round pick, right? So just knowing that teams are not normally interested in signing, you know, two or three players to guaranteed money and with the first round pick. So you know that a lot of those picks are going to be in play. There's going to be a lot of people moving up and down.

There's teams that don't have first round picks that won't get into the first round. So there's going to be a lot of movement. You got the Lillard factor, certainly. I think that was another part of why the Wizards moved quickly is that they just didn't want to be the person holding the bag with no dance partner, right?

At the end of the day. So, you know, these trades go fast and then all of a sudden people are very different 48 hours later in terms of players, picks, whatever they traded for and whoever they traded. So, yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of activity between now and Thursday. It's certainly on Thursday there's going to be a lot of activity.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't even mention the Warriors, the Knicks trying to improve what's going on with the Celtics. There's just a heck of a lot going on while we watch Jokic at the racetrack, you know, in Serbia. It's pretty amazing. David, thanks for the time. As always, greatly appreciate you making me smarter. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Rich. At David Aldridge DC on Twitter. I follow him. You should as well. The athletic senior NBA columnist David Aldridge here on the Rich Eisen Show. I have a question for you gents and it's coming.

All right. And I want to hear from you. 844-204-rich. Number to dial. Just during that conversation with David Aldridge, I'm like, I want to ask my guys a question on the NBA.

It's a who would you rather have? That's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. I've got a question for you guys and I need an answer. This is sports talk radio. Rich, I have answers.

Talk to me. Here we go. React. This is sports talk radio, even though it's on television on the Roku channel. One of the hottest streaming services, streaming platforms out there. Oh yes. Just check out the Hollywood Reporter today. At any rate, done talking industry. Let's talk sports talk.

Ready? Because we just had David Aldridge on the show. I said, is Damian Lillard in play this week? And he's kind of like, maybe. Is Zion Williamson in play this week? He's like, it's rumored, but I doubt it, but maybe. You can only have one.

What do you take? Now, you might sit here. Oh, it's Lillard. It's Lillard. But Zion, Zion's got more runway. He's got more runway.

He's going to play longer in this league, if he can stay up. Wait, we think maybe. Right? Okay. Okay.

Now Rich. Now you can only have one. Now, obviously, I know what you're going to say, TJ. I know exactly what you're going to say. Because one can instantly put the Larry OB in your case right now. It's true.

The other one can put potential multiple ones. One would think if he stays healthy and he, or he could just be in a new environment and Zion and one could put multiple kids in your case. Look at this guy over there. Well, Rich, have you been, I've been up to speed. It made it all the way to Israel. Okay, good.

I mean, Zion might be Oliver Miller. I mean, for all we know. Nah, come on, bro. That's really, that's a lot.

That's a, that's, that's quite a, a hefty take. You don't even believe that. All right. Who wants to, okay.

CJ Jefferson, you can only have what you can't, you don't have enough prospects. You never pick swaps on planet earth to get both. Okay. This is a great question, Rich.

I think it all boils down to like, what your team construct looks like. It's like, you know, do you have a bunch of vets and this is the missing piece? Do you have a runway? Like you said, do you have a runway? Do you have a runway? Do you have a runway? Do you have a runway? Like you said, but if I'm talking right now today and I want to win now, by the way, by the way, I appreciate your nuanced setup.

Forget the nuance. What do you got? I think I'm going to have to send a flight up to Pacific Northwest and put Dame Dalla on it and fly him to wherever I'm at and win now, this year, right now, today, because Dame, you know what you're getting. Oh yeah.

You know what you're getting. You're getting somebody who is as rock solid as they, there is off the court and there is somebody as rock solid as you can get on the court who is ready to put a ring on his finger and will do everything and wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night and in between do nothing but try and get that ring. Yeah. Now Zion could be that guy.

Zion's been a beast when he's out there. It just appears that he's up to some other, you know, endeavors. Yeah.

I mean, he's rock solid too, but apparently. All right, so stop it. So you choose Damian Lillard. I'm taking Dame. You're taking the known commodity.

The known commodity. 32 year old. Who are you taking? Who are you taking? Who are you taking?

Chris Brockman. I'm going to roll the dice with Zion. I'm going to roll the dice that my culture will reel him in a little bit. You're going to do it. You're going to do it. I'm the guy that can do it. We're going to get him. The guy can do it. We're going to get him down to 65. We're going to put out, put away the soda bottles. Maybe turn off.

Born hub and just kind of like, which hub focus? And he's, he's not watching. He's a 28 and 10 guy when he's healthy. I'm rolling the dice. 114 games.

That's by the way, this is always going to be the opinion of somebody who acquires Zion Williamson. We, we can do it. We can, we've got the program here. We've got the culture. We've got, you don't think heat culture could whip Zion into shape? Oh, I think so. Have you been to Miami?

Yes. Pat Riley has like, you got to have a certain body fat percentage to play for that. I've been to Miami. If you're the road team, it's tough to win there. Yeah. You've been to Miami.

Zion's a home team. Yeah. So you know what that means? What?

He lives there. Well, that means all. Let's not get too loose here, guys. You've made your points.

You've already pushed the envelope enough. Dame's going to be 33. He's going to be, you know, 45, $50 million a year. That's a lot. I know Zion just signed his max, but he's 23. He's 10 years younger.

The upside is tremendous. I'm rolling the dice with Zion. Breaking the tie. I am breaking the tie.

There's a tie. Okay. I'm about to break it. Break it.

Number zero in your program, number one in your heart, man. That guy. You love Dame like a son. You know that. He's an honorary Aizen. Damian Aizen? Yeah. He's an honorary Aizen.

What time is it? Was he on the trip with you? If he was on the trip with me, I would have Instagrammed him out. As I did the minute you showed up on the Super Bowl set on NFL Network when Nate Burleson turned around and goes waves to Damian Lillard. Come on up here. And Damian got up there and I'm like, oh, yes. My favorite.

Dame Aizen. End of story. You know what you're getting.

You know what you're getting. Last couple of years, injury. I mean, that is true.

I am taking the last couple of years and I'm throwing that out the door. Yeah. He's still deep down. That guy who's going to launch from the logo and then stare right in the camera that's coming right on him in the middle of the big ass celebration scrum that he sparked with his forty five footer with no time left point at his wrist. That's the guy that's with all time.

Great. Which is exactly why Blazers fans out there watching us on the Roku channel are listening to us wherever they're listening to us is saying, shut up, shut your mouth, shut your mouth, shut your dirty mouth. They want the Blazers to go out and break the friggin bank and get everybody else and bring him to Portland and win with that guy in that town that he has given every ounce to. Maybe they want Zion to come up to them.

Well, maybe that's what they're probably thinking. Bring him here. And everybody else in the league is saying, get him out of there and bring him here.

And I'm that guy, too. But I totally get what you're saying, Chris. It makes sense. I totally get what you're saying, because again, how old is Zion? Twenty three, right? Clearly too young to know. Oh, rich.

I'm just saying. Twenty two. That's twenty two. So let's go. So many teams will be like, let's go.

Twenty two years old. New Orleans didn't work out for him. We'll bring him in the heat. Pat Riley will whip him into shape.

Spoe, whip him into shape. No matter what, trappings, oh, thirst or otherwise might be off that court in Miami. I'm just saying, you know, that kind of trappings are in Miami. I'm I mean, OK, I don't know what you're talking about. Actually, I don't know what you're talking about. All of you, New Orleans, Adam, are confusing me. They got it like I'm like unfrozen caveman husband. I know none of these trappings.

Your your your terms confuse me. But I'm taking Damien Lord. If he's if he's out there right now, I am going there and I'm getting him. It's out there. Rich Eisen show vote.

Who'd your team rather trade for? Only you can only get one. Yeah.

I mean, look, I love Zion went to Duke, but the one hundred fourteen games in four seasons. That's it. Top five wildest stories that occurred while I was out of the chair over the last 10 days. That's coming up next.

Oh, I can't wait. Albert Breer in hour number two with what happened in Buffalo over the last week and so much more in the NFL.