Eric Pincus: (CBA) Teams are being creative, I don’t think that’s a negative it’s just a different way of operating.

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That's dell.com slash deals. I'm living my best life yeah yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host Brian Weber.

Yeah big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television.

I have my own show. And now sitting in for Rich here's Brian Weber. Rolling into the final hour of the program we're live on the 4th of July. We appreciate you taking time to hang out with us. Part of a long lazy week. I hope if you had to work Monday Tuesday or yesterday you paced yourself.

The man's gonna get his pound of flesh either way. Make sure that you have time for you and the people you care about in your lives as we get philosophical to start the final hour of a scintillating July 4th edition of The Rich Eisen Show. I'm Brian Weber. If I can be more of the mindset of patting myself on the back. Let's see if I can do that.

I don't want to knock the microphone over or forget to turn on the mic because if I'm involved operator error is always a possibility. Good show today. A lot of insights offered hopefully by yours truly.

Probably more specifically by our guests. First out we talk NFL with Trevor Sikkema a pro football focus. Gabe Lux just had outstanding baseball analysis.

Check out his work at USA Today. Now I know people would say hey radio man. Hey fill in guy. As you over enunciate why are you telling me what I miss because thanks to technology you don't have to miss anything. Our terrific podcast team will push out the podcast at the conclusion of today's show. So most importantly when Rich and the fellows are back on Monday if you miss any portion of any portion of any program listen anytime on demand by downloading The Rich Eisen Show podcast. Coming up in 40 minutes in addition to my basketball soliloquy. I got one more strong NBA monologue in me after having the ups and downs of this free agency cycle on the air. We were able to pass along in real time Clay Thompson taking his talents to Dallas wrapping up Monday's program. 40 minutes from now we will sum things up. We will offer context.

We will not hand out report cards. We're not doing winners or losers but we're going to look at teams like the Lakers and the Warriors who've done virtually nothing of substance and for the Lakers they've done nothing literally. The only changes on the roster so far are the two draft picks.

You might have heard of Bronny James and Dalton Connect who's a volume shooter SEC player of the year out of Tennessee who went number 17. We'll cover it all with Eric Pinkus of Bleach Report coming up in 20 minutes because tomorrow and I'm getting a jump on tomorrow's program because I have to fight through fireworks in my neighborhood. I live adjacent to a golf course not in a gated community not on the golf course in the neighborhood. The one good thing that came from the pandemic was they shut down the fireworks at the golf course. It's back this year. I saw the memo so I got to hit the sleeping pill by 7 30 because it is going to be like I'm in New York City on the Hudson River. That's how loud it gets in my neighborhood and I gotta be rested for my final three hour push tomorrow. So mapping out thoughts in advance we're talking a lot more football tomorrow and we're also going to pivot to some college football. Now you might be thinking that's way early bro.

I'm doing this based on the calendar. We're now down to four power conferences. I will have my eulogy for my beloved Pac-12 conference tomorrow. The Big 12 which is hanging out for dear life and they'll get cannibalized soon just a matter of time before the SEC and the Big 10 take the best teams remaining for the Big 12 and the ACC. The Big 12 to try to enhance its relevance they're kicking off their media days next Wednesday in Las Vegas. Second week of July so they can get ahead of the SEC because each year college football becomes more and more of a carbon copy of the NFL. So in advance of my college football conversation tomorrow I started thinking about where things stand in big time college sports in general. For years people were shouting death to the NCAA understandably so given their dysfunction and corruption.

If you're part of that crowd I got good news for you and we'll get there coming up in 20 minutes. Circling back to the NBA and it's frustrating from a standpoint of being a talk show host. Now it is my job I am paid to be creative but when we went through the typical news cycle during this time of the year as recently as last year or we could talk about the tentpole years Durant going to Golden State every summer of Lebron. Once we got past those bright shiny objects there were a lot of very meaningful moves on the next tier the second apron if you will and I'm going to describe what that means and how it's killed what used to be a dominant week for the NBA.

Now some of what's happened to slow things down this year came down to the people involved and Paul George has had a very nice career at the age of 34 multiple all-star but if we sum up the player he's been and the impact he's made since 2019 and remember I keep using the word context it matters you have to go through the chronology and the backstory to have reasonable analysis the Clippers went all in to get Paul George a bunch of number one picks and they said Jay Gilgus-Alexander at Oklahoma City now in 2019 they didn't know he'd become an all-MBA talent but if you follow the league you knew he was a dynamic young player now he's part of a club that was the top seed in the West and just got better because we don't pay attention to the secondary moves because we get intoxicated with LeBron getting his kid a job LeBron getting his podcast co-host a job and LeBron taking every single dollar he could and doing it in the fashion with a one-year guarantee plus a one-year player option to do it all over again next summer but if we're thinking about moves of significance OKC had two outstanding additions picking up Alex Caruso who I'm not saying he's a Hall of Famer but he defends he's a two-way player and the Lakers desperately could use him but they bungled that and Nick fans while they are feeling good justifiably so with the trade for Mikael Bridges and making sure that OG Ananobi didn't hit the free agent market with his mega deal missing Hartenstein is going to exact a toll the Knicks are a better team based on picking up bridges but Hartenstein as you know gave him quality minutes and that's another perfect complementary talent for the young thunder who are going to be good for the next half decade given how that roster is constructed well what did Paul George do since making the move from OKC to LA one conference finals 2021 remember Kawhi got hurt that year unfortunately I could say that about every year he got hurt again this season as the clips were the five-seed knocked out first round by the Mavs if you add it all up some total George on the Clippers three playoff series victories in five years with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard allowing even a little bit more of a swing even free spending and obscenely rich Steve Ballmer I always if I say Steve Ballmer I'm either gonna say toilets and mimic him screaming Microsoft software convention in the early 1990s or I'm gonna remind you that he has more money than anybody in sports his net worth is more than 29 owners in the NBA combined but given this new collective bargaining agreement Steve Ballmer had the cover to say even I who have more money in my change compartment and whatever of his nine cars that he's driving around and probably having a driver transport him in then you and I will accumulate in several lifetimes even free spending Steve Ballmer drew the line at three years wouldn't go to a fourth year because well the CBA won't let me because we have this second apron now remember who are the authors of the collective bargaining agreement it is as the word collective would suggest hammered out between labor and management let's focus on the management side I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen 8 4 4 2 0 4 7 4 2 4 the number to call and the conversation getting hot on the X platform BW Weber Weber with two B's in 30 minutes we'll say hello to Eric Pincus he covers the NBA for Bleacher Report ownership got tired of being embarrassed especially with their own fan base but also from a national point of view of not spending more to benefit their teams quite simply that's all the motivation of this second apron was what is the second apron without getting too far in the weeds once you move past luxury tax you got in a very unique distinction by spending more that virtually paralyzed your franchise making it so much more difficult to do sign and trades which are a major component to the NBA offseason cycle you couldn't buy draft picks the whole point was to make it as difficult to do business as possible but using that as a ruse it allowed owners like Steve Ballmer and I can't crush him for all the money he spent I can go after Stan Kroenke because the Nuggets have done nothing since winning that championship last season and I keep going back to Bruce Brown again I'm not saying that he deserves a spot in Springfield Mass but you realize that you have to have role players on a championship team and you think about the body of work of say Kentavious Caldwell Pope winning a title with the Lakers and winning a title with Denver last season the fact that they did not want to pay him and he wound up in Orlando and that's a very nice pickup for a good Orlando team ahead of schedule I know nobody watched that first round series against the Cavs that was the NBA TV spectacular but Paulo Bencaro is the face of the franchise good role players like Jalen Suggs like the addition of KCP but from the Denver point of view he never should have left but Stan Kroenke doesn't want to spend the money because he doesn't have to and he can use the cover of the second apron hey I'd like to pay an important piece like KCP but I can't my hands are tied by this CBA I wonder who wrote that the owners did to give them public cover and in the process they have taken away what used to be a dominant and exciting week for the NBA now the coverage continues because the talking head shows need something to talk about but if you have Bronnie James fatigue and you notice I'm doing my best not to spend much time talking about it because it's irrelevant I can't blame you every time you turn on your TV I make sure to set the DVR for sports center and whatever the Mike Greenberg experience is afterwards just to make sure I'm not missing anything I thought it was deja vu all over again it was the same show understanding as a holiday as it was yesterday when we found out that LeBron as we knew wasn't going anywhere because he's never going to leave Los Angeles because he has the lifestyle that he wants and he's content on no longer competing for championships whatever the public spin might be but as we think about why the league arrived at the decision that has bogged down this free agency cycle it was all about billionaires not wanting to be embarrassed anymore so if you're Steve Ballmer you can have your PR minions put out the statement saying we appreciate Paul George he was a wonderful asset but we are not willing to go to a fourth year and if Paul George has a problem with that he should take it up with his union who agreed to the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement they should take it up with Kawhi Leonard who agreed to a three-year deal in December that came out of nowhere because if Kawhi had a four-year contract he can't tell me Paul George would not have been in line to duplicate his running mate also because I'm here in Southern California I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen enjoying another outstanding experience with you throughout the entire holiday week and we'll wrap it up with style points tomorrow you can justify Paul George moving on from the Clippers and being pushed out the door from a basketball perspective because what did they accomplish with him as I mentioned one trip to the conference finals it's a team filled with duplication Harden Leonard George and you got poor old Russell Westbrook although he's fitting in because he's got no other options took four million bucks this year just to continue to play in the league they're all virtually the same player aging ball dominance and if you watch the clips even with their depth they just lacked cohesion as opposed to say the Knicks that play like a team and that's only to get better with the Nova Nick concept being amplified with the pickup of bridges and the Boston Celtics who I did not talk about much this week beyond the fact that now the team is for sale probably second apron related although that's just pure economics this is the top of the market cash out get every dollar you can I would not be surprised if they sell to someone with a gaming interest because sports wagering is legal in Massachusetts they're gonna need a newer arena soon you want a venture a bet look what I did there that the new version of the garden will also have a sports book on the premises so whoever writes the five or six billion dollar check is getting the keys to the kingdom to print even more money but they're going to be on the hook for Tatum getting 314 million bucks after Brown got 285 last year you throw in a key contributor like Derek White four years 125 million and the Celtics have ensured that their starting five is under contract and coming back next year so after all of these moves which I've done my best to analyze and come up with unique hopefully analysis I'm not just reading the transaction wire I'm trying to let you know what it means where do we stand now league wide what's changed well I told you I think OKC won free agency in the west so the top seed just solidified their standing with the pickups of Caruso and Hartenstein Dallas made it to the finals I think they have gotten better with the addition of Clay Thompson who realized that the Lakers are in virtually the same situation as the team that he left even though he helped build a dynasty at Golden State remember the Warriors couldn't even make it out of the play in losing to the Kings Lakers won that single game beating the Pelicans and got swept by the Nuggets and even though according to reports Lakers were willing to go to a fourth year and LeBron would have taken less in that case and Clay could reunite with his father who helped the who helped the Lakers win titles part of the Showtime era and he's still part of the broadcast team on the radio network for the Lakers come back home to Southern California he said pass hard pass get me to Dallas better situation I'll leave a year on the table and I'll have a chance to compete for another championship to stick it to the Warriors and play with no pressure as the third option alongside Kyrie and Luca probably should reverse the orders Luca's team and Kyrie disappeared for long stretches in the NBA Finals especially on the road at the Garden as that Boston crowd undeniably got inside his head along with Boston suffocating defense and the deals that they made prior to the deadline picking up Gafford and Washington and a very solid young post player looking to build on his strong rookie year and Derek Lively so the top seed OKC got better the team that made it out of the west the Mavs got better the Nuggets are doing anything beyond their complete inertia they keep slowly losing key contributors and then think about say Memphis that's going to be better after they won 50 games a couple years ago and John Moran hopefully can keep his life in order and stay on the court it is interesting as we go through all of these different scenarios not much change at all in the west Lakers going to be lucky to get back to the playing and then you got the middle of the pack what about Phoenix with all the speculation that Kevin Durant might be on the block they're going to run it back with a big three that did nothing a large measure because they could never stay healthy enough to play together in Durant Beal and Booker and what did all of that money spent by Matt Ishbia the new owner get him getting swept in the first round by Minnesota and Minnesota of course is going to be better next year because they had the learning curve as a young team relatively young team but the face of the franchise Anthony Edwards very young you have to learn how to win in the postseason and they're going to have very strong takeaways even though they fell short of making it to the NBA finals by getting to the conference finals in the east Sixers got the man they wanted biggest splash in free agency I'll slot them second behind Boston I'll put the Knicks right behind them we can go 2A to B Giannis and Dame are still going to be a force if they can stay healthy but after all of these transactions and all of the analysis and all of my ham ringing about this lousy CBA sucking the life out of free agency nothing has changed Boston still clearly the team to beat and remember this is a team that made the finals a couple years ago and their two best players in Tatum and Brown are still only in their mid-20s I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen 40 minutes left in this program although in fairness at 20 minutes we'll bring in Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report so if you want to throw an opinion my way do it immediately on the x platform BW Weber Weber with two B's I talk baseball it is not career suicide especially when I got help from Gabe Lux of USA Today in the previous hour and we know especially on the 4th of July if you're a traditionalist you're thinking about MLB a reminder game time is an authorized ticket marketplace which makes getting baseball tickets even faster and 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Last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm Bryan Weber and I'm proudly sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger. Supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickrainger.com or just stop by. We are winding down with 30 minutes left together and in 15 minutes we wrap it up with gusto talking more NBA with Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report back with you tomorrow and as I start working on that format much more football conversation and we will check in with pfutechofcollegefootballnews.com because whether you're ready or not the big 12 is coming your way. Now how many teams are in the big 12 pop quiz? Well why don't we start with how many teams are in the big 10? Does 18 make sense?

None of this makes sense to me but I will be completely upfront with you. I am still going through the stages of grief after the death of the Pac-12 Conference so tomorrow when we check in with Pete we'll get into the big brand names and the expansion of the college football playoff but here's a brief preview even with a bigger field we're talking about the same teams because that's how it works in college football. Years ago and again I don't want to say everything was better in 1987 although in many ways it was I think I probably peaked circa 87 88 but we used to have BYU with a shot national championship in fact winning a national title. Do I have to get you back to Bobby Dowd at Georgia Tech, Bobby Ross at Bobby Dowd Field in Atlanta? We had more variety now because of the financial arms race and the disparity between the haves and have-nots the blue bloods have never been bluers so I'll give you a sense of who Vegas thinks is in line to win it all we'll do that coming up tomorrow. Want to get into how things have changed so dramatically for an institution I've never had anything but contempt for and that's a strong word never like to use the word hate although I know hata has changed in our collective vocabulary but to me the NCAA has always been a fraud and if you just want to talk about the abject greed look at the salaries the folks connected to the NCAA made for decades off the backs of unpaid labor while coming up with ridiculous penalties never catching the most overt cheaters going after Jerry Tarkanian for years before finally losing to him in federal court and I'm not justifying everything Tark did although now everything that you NOV and UCLA back in the day how do you think John Wooden beyond all of his brilliance got all of those players to come to Westwood. Google a fellow named Sam Gilbert all of that now would be above board as it should be because players should always have had a chance to share in the revenue they create. I understand the value of a college education probably no other fill-in host in the nation is more pro-education than yours truly I have squandered a lot of expensive degrees to be shouting into this microphone on July 4th but we're not talking about the academic athletic environment of 1923 college sports has always been a huge business never more so than now so even if you find a lot of this stuff to be a bit boring I want to bring it up because of the implications it's going to have in terms of the programs you may care about now as I mentioned as we move to the college football playoff era the consolidation of power amongst the biggest most notable brands in college football has never been more obvious and that's going to continue with a settlement the NCAA had to reach if not if they lost in court they would have been bankrupted so they came to their senses and said let us cut the financial bleeding as much we can but revenue sharing is coming to college sports beyond the revenue opportunities that have been created in recent years by name image and likeness so within the next 18 months you pick your school and your favorite sport now this is where it gets murky are people on the wrestling team going to be eligible for revenue sharing my gut would say no because they don't create any revenue now you could say they come up with some ticket sales but you get my point and there is an expense with the scholarship and everything it costs to run a program so we're talking about football men's basketball and women's basketball at some universities those players are going to get checks from the schools as part of this settlement of a long ongoing court battle well the ncaa has got more trouble because we're not just talking about the current student athlete as much of a contradiction that is let's just say the current players in college and the next few classes that will be the first to get a chunk of dough directly from the schools in revenue sharing now the past generations won in and i don't blame them because the ncaa and big time college sports and i'm talking about football and men's basketball have been ripping off these kids for decades so for example remember back in the day mario chalmers winning an ncaa title for kansas against memphis 2008 well chalmers is now suing the ncaa because he wants to get compensated because they've been running the highlight of his shot that helped kansas win the national title on their website with ads next to it for years and chalmers is saying that's my name image and likeness cut me a check and he's not wrong so the ncaa just when they thought they had found a path to survival with the revenue sharing agreement that still has to be signed off upon by a judge just when they thought they had found a way to remain a functioning organization i think this is going to be the dagger because depending on how things play out in the court the door was opened for everybody in the past to say where's my cut you've been making money off my activities my highlights my nil for decades and we just saw with the settlement that the ncaa is trying desperately to find any avenue they can to remain viable i think they're going to settle this as well and this could be even more staggering in terms of the total because we're talking about decades of athletes in a class action suit and we're back to billions and billions and what does the ncaa actually do the only reason exists is the conference don't want to police themselves that's it well we know where it's going it's going to be the scc and the big 12 that's it everybody else will be a step down like the english premiere league and the other soccer clubs in the uk so if you've been wanting and cheering for the death of the ncaa for decades it looks like you're probably going to get your wish sooner rather than later i'm brian weber in for rich ozzin we'll talk college football in terms of matters on the field tomorrow with p few tech of college football news dot com straight ahead we wrap it up with more nba discussion after all the free agent moves did anything really shift in terms of the balance of power atop the nba looking forward to saying hello to eric pinkus a bleacher report i'm brian weber always having a great time whenever i'm in for rich and the guys this is a july 4th installment of the rich eisen show shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business shopify is there to help you grow shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person pos system shopify's got you covered shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout 36 percent better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort thanks to shopify magic your ai-powered all-star what i love about shopify is how no matter how big you want to grow shopify gives you everything you need to take control and 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podcast wherever you listen you i'm brian weber in for rich it is a independence day edition of the rich eisen show always a pleasure to talk nba with an old friend eric pinkus of bleach report eric thanks so much for taking the time on this holiday how are you uh doing great thanks for having me it is an absolute delight and i know you're waiting patiently so you might not have been able to see on the x platform within the last couple minutes another whoa bomb from adrian wargenerowski of espn buddy healed has found a home he's joining the warriors on a sign and trade guarantee two years 21 million bucks your reaction to that and what else do you think the warriors could have in store as they try to move on in the post clay thompson era well i don't know how much more they have in store uh because of of the rules um in terms of um the way they're acquiring players they're acquiring kyle anderson via sign and trade they're acquiring buddy healed and that's going to lock in what we call the first apron it's a it's a hard spending limit of 178 million dollars for the warriors so it looks like that's where they're probably going to have to stop uh now they have a you know little flexibility they could always trade gary payton or kavon looney uh but i i don't know if there's much more they've been aggressive they've been very active to sort of uh offset what they're losing and i think it's uh emotionally or you know just like sentimentally disappointing that the splash brothers are no more uh but you know you have to adapt to the game in clay and you he'll be fine in dallas and warriors will be a fun product and it'll be fun to see what they become eric you're the perfect person to have this conversation with because you really are a capologist i've seen you on mba tv and you do a great job of putting things that seem complicated into more straightforward terms for casual fans i've been talking a lot about these aprons and i am not as well versed in mba economics but as someone who loves free agency was this week less than scintillating primarily because of the names we're talking paul george and clay tops and or did this new cba in the second apron have a real impact you know it's there's a lot of things going on and i get that it feels like july 1st was like okay you know july 2nd was kind of okay july 3rd was real quiet so it hasn't been quite as spectacular of a free agent frenzy but they did change the rules and so one of the rules they changed was that teams can start to negotiate with their own free agents after the mba finals so we got like pascal seachem back to indiana uh a couple weeks ago we got like og and anobi back to the nix you go down the list of names that we got that might have made july 1st or you know june 30th uh in in the evening is when nick actually starts a little bit less scintillating so i don't know that there were fewer names we had actually more excitement over a like a longer period of time we had i think that's probably good for the mba right like in terms of exposure and interest if you're part of the news cycle day after day after day even after your finals are over that's better than just having one or two giant days where there's so much going on that a lot of it gets lost so i you know there's it wasn't a great free agent market to begin with that's just situational uh we also have like a little dip in our the mba's income is is growing from last year to this year but it's the smallest growth in the last two years instead of 10 it's about three something and then next year it's supposed to go back to 10 and stay at 10 for like the next five years so like we have this little dip that just happened to be this year uh it it made it seem less exciting but i don't think it's because of these restrictive rules if anything it's it's causing teams to be more creative you see what the nicks are doing what the warriors doing teams are being creative i don't think that's a a negative it's just a different way of operating thank you for that explanation and i think we're all adjusting as members of the sports media i'm brian webber aim for rich eyes and talking hoops with my pal eric pink is a bleacher report eric you've covered the lakers for many years as of today the only new additions on the roster are the draft picks belton connect and brawny james and i'll skip the brawny james conversation today what do you think the lakers can do in the short term are we looking at the more to rose and what other names come to mind or are they content just to run it back i don't know if content is the right answer but um that their biggest acquisition is um a rookie and his name is jj reddick and he's not going to be coming out and hitting threes um but he is their first time head coach he's never coached before and this is either a brilliant move or a complete disaster i don't think there's going to be a middle ground i don't think he'll be average i think he'll either be really really really good or really really bad he's very smart knows how to communicate well so i think that's part of it that they're saying hey two years ago we got to the commons finals last year i don't you know they obviously fired darvin ham they didn't believe that he was doing the right job and i think there's an expectation that the team itself will be better that said they gave a bunch of guys player options like christian wood cam reddish jackson hayes and they all opted in lakers are at 15 players now and uh you there are two-way contracts which are hybrid contracts we won't get into that but they basically have a full roster and they also are right at that we talked about the warriors having a spending limit the lakers spending limit internally is about 190 it's the second apron that so we have two aprons now and once you're over that 190 the league starts to put in some penalties including frozen draft picks it's just an area the lakers and most teams will avoid the celtics sure where championship team will go above that line but the lakers who are not that i think they're setting a hard line there so if they're right at that line and at 15 players how do they add a demar de rosen they don't have any money to spend they have the minimum but that would push them over their budget which they could do but there's not even a roster space for them so now they'd have to cut a guaranteed player so you start to run into some issues they don't have enough money to offer demar de rosen to get an improvement requires a trade at this point they don't have any other choice because they don't have space they don't have a budget so they have to get out of players now teams are well aware of their situation the pressure they have with lebron james and their media market to be successful and so if if the lakers call up and say hey we'd like to do this trade teams are going to be like okay well we want austin reeves we want rui hachimura we want your future draft picks we want everything you got and that's the problem for the lakers is yeah they need a trade but they don't have an obvious uh pathway to something great now i think they could probably find someone to take christian wood probably take uh you know cam letter shop their books trade them to any almost any team could take them on maybe the lakers send some cash then a second round pick and that would enable them to sign another minimum player but that doesn't get them to a demar de rosen it doesn't get them to a massive upgrade that suddenly catapults them into this upper stratosphere in the western conference sounds like more of the same here in southern california we are spotlighting the nba with eric pinkus a bleacher board eric got a couple minutes left as you think about the impact of paul george going to philadelphia how much have the sixers narrowed the gap between themselves and the celtics so i'm skeptical a little bit and my my issue is like i like they needed the best big wing that they could get and they got the best available big wing so they mission accomplished their their flexibility was used they'll keep maxie who's one of the better young guards in the league they've got joel indeed who's one of the arguably the best center in the league you know we could say jokic uh but you know in that conversation and george i watched him i cover out of la some play a lot of games and about a third of the games when you watch them you see the best player in the league and about a third of the games you're like dang his legs are dead you know i mean so um what paul george are we going to get um is he going to be fully healthy in the playoffs he's been healthier than kawaii but he has had some injuries in the playoffs the last few years so that's been the main issue with joel and bead so i just you know if we say if you tell me today that you know that joel and bead and paul george will be healthy and fresh in the playoffs then i love it absolutely unfortunately you can't promise me that no one can and so i do worry about that but that said they made the best move that they had to make it's an all-in win now move because paul george is well over 30 and beads about 30 or so uh i know that max is young but the idea is they don't have that much time so they went for it and i always respect when a team goes for it eric outstanding analysis is always a greatly appreciate you taking the time on the holiday hope you and your family enjoy the fourth yes sir thanks for having me i will talk to you soon eric pink is a bleacher report my man knows his stuff that was a doctoral thesis on the inner workings of the mba and i give eric credit he said it in plain english so i know there was a lot of nitty-gritty capology but i think you could follow what eric was saying and the whole point my biggest takeaway of this new cba is to give owners cover not to do anything and to give them an incentive to retain their own stars because remember the teams that were missing out on the super teams were saying it just can't be five or six teams in this league although unless you love basketball as much as i do most of you only care about a half dozen teams i get it but there is an 82 game regular season which is too long but it's never going anywhere because that's where the revenue is generated from so get used to the world of the second apron eric was smart he is a shrewd marketing man he would push out some merch speaking of name image and likeness i would buy an apron with the lovely picture of eric pinkus on it as i got ready to stand over my weber grill how many more plugs can i get in our remaining moments i appreciate you spending part of the fourth of july with us we're back with you tomorrow and looking ahead i mentioned we're going to talk some college football with my good friend p few tech of college football news.com he is highly entertaining be sure to follow him on the x platform as well in fact or no mba guest book for tomorrow and just a couple on the docket we'll also talk some baseball with keith law and the rest of the program so long as i remember the turn on the microphone is going to be football heavy so i realize for many of you it was a lot of mba this week i did my best to mix it up i did my best to be comprehensive but after while even i tap out something that joey chestnut never would have done of course politics kept him away from coney island and yes i'm appeasing all you hot dog lovers out there with a chestnut name drop on my way out the door want to thank eric from bleacher report want to thank gabe lux of usa today trevor sicama pro football focus joined us in the first hour thanks to rich isin bruce gilbert all the great people at westwood one my good friend and our outstanding technical producer art martinez i'm brian weber have a happy and safe fourth of july and we'll do it again tomorrow here on the rich isin show welcome to talkville the ultimate smallville rewatch podcast season four i'm glad that it's over i'm glad that it's over as as we know now that season five is supposed to be one of our better seasons obviously the tattoo storyline you know how i feel about that you hating that storyline brought me a lot of joy because i kept waiting to see how it was going to keep going and then how they would somehow settle it binge seasons one through four of talkville before season five begins wherever you listen