Hour 1: NBA’s Convoluted Anti-Tanking Proposal, plus Rams GM Les Snead Talks Ty Simpson

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1:34Now, on with the show. Hey, you know what show I love? The Rich Eisen Show. I had some secret meetings with Coach McVeigh. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

1:47Rich Eisen:Why all the secrets? It's messy so you keep it quiet to the point where one coach plays Mr. Grumpy. Today's guests, Rams general manager, Les Snead, Saints head coach, Kellen Moore, actor Chase Crawford, and now it's Rich Eisen. Oh, yes. I can confirm that by my presence. Good to see you, everybody. Welcome. This is the Rich Eisen Show, everyone on Disney +, the ESPN app, ESPN Radio, Sirius XM, Channel 80. Yesterday, we had two NFL head coaches on. And today we've got one NFL head coach in Kellen Moore, the Saints, and one general manager. Les Snead will be joining us. I don't know what we're going to talk to Les about.

2:32Rich Eisen:I have notes, though. He's joining us in less than 20 minutes time here in Los Angeles, California, a part of our ESPN radio world. His ESPN 710 here in L.A. We say hello to everybody out there coast to coast, however you're listening, and, of course, watching. NBA playoffs going down. TJ's got a lot to chirp about today. Thanks to that big fourth quarter and Joel Embiid showing up like the Joel Embiid that you always hope would show up every single day. Shocking the Celtics to force a game six in Philadelphia. The Knicks blowing the doors off of the Hawks to take a three games to two lead there, sending everything back to Atlanta for a game six.

3:09Rich Eisen:And the Spurs wrapping things up in their series as well. They've moved on along with the Oklahoma City Thunder. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial here on the program. Good to see you over there, Christopher Brockman. what's going on uh nothing don't like sports today understood all good dj mikey d is in these nuts good to see you good to see you tj jefferson that candles as lit as the fourth quarter for you last yeah surprisingly i love basketball and baseball not right you know what i'm saying a whole new world stop the count yeah let's just move on to the post let's start this uh broadcast with the nba's approach to stop tanking sure in their sport let's do it um they came up with a new system that shams got a hold of and reported it's not official yet these are sources saying this is the plan that they're working on but it he got every last detail down to the last percentile okay if he's got it um and um i i i consider myself a a smart guy you know i have not one but I have two degrees.

4:15Rich Eisen:How many? Two. I said two degrees. Two degrees. Two. All I got to do is take a class on television, a PhD in television. I'm Dr. TV. Wow. One more. You'd be like Penta. I've got a Bachelor of Arts. I think you should do it, Rich. Masters of Science and Journalism. I guess that's my resume. Along with 30 plus years of doing this for a living. I read these details from shams and a bunch of other places i read a whole bunch of articles and my opinion after reading all of that is what yeah uh-huh what as a matter of fact dave chapelle meme it's so convoluted and so you know deep in detail uh we have on earth the rich and show exclusive of the room in which everybody from the NBA got together to come up with this new anti-tanking plan for the photograph.

5:17Rich Eisen:There it is. Oh, gosh. There it is. Looks an awful lot like Charlie Day. Show that. But there it is. Lots of red string. Yep. A lot of coffee. Trying to figure it all out. As always, we try to figure it all out for you here on the program. So here it is. It's called the new 3-2-1 structure. Contact. The reason why it's called 3-2-1 is some teams get three ping pong balls in the lottery. Some get two ping pong balls in the lottery. Some just get one. And you're like, that should be simple. It's no longer, you know, all these ping pong balls. And now you get five different numbers. And that equates to a certain.

6:06Rich Eisen:Right. combination that's attached to a certain team and it's like powerball and i it's difficult to understand it sounds like it's just that simple really well it's now a 16 team lottery not 14 team lottery you've now expanded it to 16 teams this just didn't that's more than half the association there's 30 teams okay and um it sounds simple but we'll do our best to explain it because it's not simple at all. Put the graphic on the screen that I believe, was this a Smich title? Or Rich Isaac Show? Thanks for nothing. That's amazing. Which is a Caddyshack reference. Thanks for nothing. Thanks for nothing, Danny.

6:51Rich Eisen:Noonan. So the teams with the three worst records three teams, you get two ping pong balls each. Two. I said two ping pong balls each. Utah, give me two. Utah. Which is a 5.4 % chance of winning the number one overall pick. The rest of the non-play-in teams, because you know there's now the play-in tournament. So anybody who doesn't make the play-in tournament, 11 down to 15, you get three ping-pong balls. Three. That's the magic number. You now have a chance of 8.1 % chance of getting the top pick. All right? This is like Steiner, man. Now, if you make the play-in as the ninth or the tenth seeds, which this year were Miami and Charlotte, okay, if you were that, oh, pardon me, Golden State, Miami, Charlotte, Golden State, and the Clippers, okay, you make the nine and ten in both conferences.

8:01Rich Eisen:You get two ping-pong balls each, 5.4%, which is, wait a minute, the same as the three worst records in the league. Put a pin in that. And if you lose the 7-8 game, you make the 7-8 game and you lose. Okay? Sons and Magic this year were those who did that, which means you're the 8th seed at some point. They were. you get one ping pong ball which is a 2.7 % chance of getting the number one overall pick meaning you could make the playoffs and have a shot at being the eighth seed and having a shot at getting the first overall pick now then

8:54this

8:55Rich Eisen:This means that the NBA has become the first of the four major North American sports leagues to officially penalize its worst teams in the standings from getting the best draft choice. First one ever. Because the NBA's governors and executives and maybe coaches and maybe front office staff and maybe doctors and physicians and analytics can't be trusted to not tank. Can't be trusted. So now the teams with the three worst records don't have the best chance to get the first overall pick in the NBA anymore. And to essentially communicate what they're intending to do with this to the fans who are kind of confused by that.

9:55Rich Eisen:They are calling the teams with the three worst records, that portion of the lottery, the relegation zone. They are relegating you. They're relegating. You are now relegated to a worse status, just like if you don't win in the Premier League, you're relegated to a different league. They're not going to relegate you to the G League. They're just relegating you to worse odds than teams that don't make the playoffs, playing or otherwise. and the eighth seed.

10:29Rich Eisen:Or the teams that make the play-in game is 9-10. You have the same odds as those teams that made the play-in tournament. You are relegated. And the Rich Eisen show, we have an actual photograph of what it looks like in the relegation zone. Put it up. There it is. That's the relegation zone. Might look like General Zod and his comrades from Superman 2, but really it's just imagine three NBA teams trapped hurtled into the nba universe and deep space that's what it is that's the relegation zone you're trapped and also just in case just in case you don't understand that they mean business because you can't be trusted to not tank they also have now instituted a rule no team can get the first overall pick in consecutive years and no team can choose in the top five three straight years so you're messing around just because you can be that i kind of do one year to be trusted in this system they won't trust you for the next two i kind of like that no i mean it's tough like you take a look at how the spurs have been built and you take a look at how the rockets have been built and the pistons have been built where they got some top picks together in the top five and they're now in the playoffs.

11:53Rich Eisen:One of them is a one seed, might be out soon, to an eight seed Magic team. Who could get the number one pick? Who could get the number one pick now. And just in case you're wondering, what's the difference between the way it's done now, percentage-wise, and the way it's going to be done? Right now, the Wizards, Nets, and Pacers would be your relegation zone. That would be your General Zod and the rest of them, okay? kneel before the wizards if i'm not mistaken general zod once told the president to kneel in washington dc after he got out of the relegation zone all right yes yes trying to make it somewhat understandable okay you don't want to be hurtled into deep nba space no right now the wizards nets and pacers have a chance of winning the topic 14 that would go down by 8.6 percent down to 5.4 oh right wow right now the jazz and the kings have an 11.5 percent chance being the 4-5 team that would go down to 8.1 percent which is what the rest of the non-playing teams are in right now that would go down 3.4 percent memphis has the an 8 percent chance as team number six that would go down by 0.1 so there's your sweet spot if you finish sixth you're no worse in the new system than you are currently so they want you to not be relegated try for six if you stink which is better than trying for one through three in their estimation we can go down the list here uh but you know seventh is the spot where your chances are now improved in the new system right atlanta currently sits seventh because they have the pelicans pick their chances go from 6.8 currently up to 8.1 the mavs at 6.7 go up to 1.4 the bulls currently at 4.5 go up to 8.1 that's 3.6 chance the best improvement right now would be the 10th seeded bucks at 10 at the very bottom of the rest of the non-playing teams as far from the relegation zone as you can get with an 8.1 % chance of getting the first overall pick.

14:18Rich Eisen:That's currently 5.1 % better than they have in the current system.

14:25So you're not incentivized to tank to be the worst team in the league. You're now incentivized to tank to be just bad enough to not make the playoffs.

14:39Rich Eisen:Well, it's no difference between finishing right now 6th and 10th in the new system. Or pardon me, 4th and 10th. There's no difference between finishing 4th and 10th. But if you finish top, bottom three, that's a massive difference. So now there will be like, you've got to win to get out of that relegation zone. No one's going to be tanking in January anymore. Well, you're going to be tanking in more creative ways, I feel. You talk about unintended consequences for new NFL rules all the time. The unintended consequences here, let's game it out this year. So Golden State would have been incentivized to not bring Steph back to make the playoffs, to not make any moves, to not acquire Porzingis or whatever, to be just good enough to make the play-in, to get blasted in the play-in.

15:28Or maybe if they got out, they would have probably got struck by him. Yes, that's what people are trying to figure this out. They're incentivized to be just bad enough, but good enough to be in that 7 to 10 range.

15:39Rich Eisen:Well, right now, the Suns and the Magic have no odds in getting the first overall pick. None. Because on a new system, they would have a 2.7 % chance of getting it. Right. Which is currently better than 11th. It's between 10th and 11th. So a team that could conceivably win a playoff series, maybe go to their conference finals, is now eligible to get the number one overall pick? I get we're doing something to try to fix this, but that doesn't seem really fair either. Well, there will be loopholes that the smart people that are currently figuring out how to tank, there will be loopholes on figuring out how to not tank, but not completely tank.

16:24Rich Eisen:Like, you don't want to be completely down at the bottom of the ocean. Right. And the unfortunate thing is. You're not going to Wizards or Jazz. The unfortunate thing is, is that it has gotten to the point where the NBA needed to get in a room and look like this right there. okay, like Charlie Day. Can we put Adam Silver's face up? We could potentially do that. I don't know if we, you know. But at least he's doing something. Yeah, they're trying something. And the teams are just so untrustworthy. You've got to look like this to make sure that teams don't want to wind up like that. Yeah. In the relegation zone.

17:02I don't understand. It's whack, man.

17:04Rich Eisen:You don't want to be in the relegation zone, banging against the mirror, hurtled into NBA deep space. Three teams. Three villains. You don't want to be that. Does it make a little bit more sense now? Did we map it out? I gotta be honest. I like to consider myself of at least let's just say I'm of at least average intelligence. Right? No, you're a tremendous slouch. I don't get this. I would imagine at least 65-70 % of people watching and listening to this definitely don't get this. It's not fun. it's not fun, it's not easy to follow but the NBA is out of options they're out of options try and win, it's not a difficult concept if you're Adam Silver and you've got fans who know tanking when they see it, wouldn't it be better to have fans confused over why teams are not tanking as bad anymore like that's a better option to leave fans completely confused on how it works or why, all they want to know is if I'm bringing my kids to the game, are there five guys fresh from the G League out there or not?

18:13Rich, right there's the problem. Tanking might not be the problem. This load management that you've been on for years now, that's the bigger problem, especially with what you just said. Well, they're intertwined. Load management is a fig leaf for tanking. Yeah, but if they just control that, maybe the rest of this wouldn't be such an issue.

18:33Rich Eisen:I think Adam Silver's just getting started, man. Well, they want to add two more teams. Yeah. Well, listen, I think we're the only show anywhere that will explain the new 3-2-1 anti-tanking business from the NBA by roping in Caddyshack, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Superman 1 and 2. I think that's obvious. You're welcome. It's basically all I'm saying. It goes without saying. All right, let's take a break. Let's need everybody. The general manager of your Los Angeles Rams. is next. This is The Rich Eisen Show.

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21:37Rich Eisen:On ESPN Radio, certainly also here in Los Angeles on ESPN 710, and I've got the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams on the Rich Eisen Show simulcast. Les Snead here on the program. All right, Les, let's just jump into this thing right here. Why did you draft C.J. Daniels in the sixth round? I'm just kidding. Great question. Let me tell you what. Hey, C.J., he's someone that can run a route. He knows how to run a route. He can find a hole in the zone. He's tall. He goes up and he makes contested catches. If you remember, he might have had the best catch in football. that if you go back all the way to that opening weekend of college football monday night hurricanes versus notre dame and it was right there before half carson beck lays one up and he goes and objs that thing for a tug right before half now in all seriousness though do you watching that uh because the whole country was watching it too do you make a note as the general manager of los angeles rams and go okay that's one piece of tape i don't need to watch again i just saw that I don't know if you make a note you definitely make a mental note and then when all of a sudden it becomes your time to put CJ under the microscope and then you go oh CJ's this is his jersey number oh this is the young man who made that great because sometimes you might not remember the name but you definitely remember the play and then when you start doing your reverse engineering and putting that player under the microscope I'll go oh yeah I remember where I was at when I saw that play.

23:06Rich Eisen:Les Snead here on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, I'm going to throw the sports conventional wisdom in your direction about your first round draft choice that you made, Ty Simpson, and you answer the questions. The question of drafting Ty Simpson at all, why would you do it with the 13th overall pick, Les? Let's go there. I can't just answer it in one line. Let's break it down in systems. probably started the year before when we got a bonus first round pick, and that pick ended up being the 13th overall. When we sat down in the offseason and at the end of the day, Matthew Stafford saying, you know what?

23:48I want to continue chasing special with you guys. That's that. Hey, that's let's call it. That's that's checkbox. That's task number one. And then at that point, we said, OK, we need to recharge that defensive backfield room, in particular, the corners. But as we were going through free agency and looking at Jalen Watson, there's wait a minute, his teammate over there, Trent McDuffie's pretty good as well. So you start figuring out how do you do you sign Jalen? OK, we'll check that off the you know, as a task. And then you start. Can we reinforce from the draft? Well, maybe some of the better corners go before us at 13.

24:23Maybe. Oh, Trent McDuffie. There's a possibility he could be. So we we end up using our original pick. 29 for Trent McDuffie really solidified, right? Our, our, let's go our top needs, our top wants. So now that gets to pick 13, a little bit of a bonus. There's this element now we let's, let's call it like it is Matthew's on his way to a hall of fame career. Uh, we want him to play in Los Angeles, right? As, as long as possible. We all know that's, that's coming to an end at some point. Do we prepare for the future? Uh, do we not, do we pick a player? All of those things are in play oh by the way we do need a backup qb as well so when we did make that move for tie what that did allow us to do is also think about the future because if you if you have a qb that's you know toward the end you're always going to want to save future picks for the possibility having to use that on a quarterback what that can allow us to do if opportunities arise is use those picks for either hey players we can draft uh or maybe veteran players like trent mcduffie so So that's the algorithm.

25:28That's the formula. That's how we got to that pick. It wasn't, you can't just look at pick 13 in a silo.

25:35Rich Eisen:Well, exactly. Certainly when there's others on the board that one would think could help you win right now with Matthew Stafford, Makai Lemon, Ruben Bain being another. Why stick and pick? Couldn't you have traded down, do you think? It's interesting. I know going in, we were definitely thinking about trading down. I do think what happened right around pick 11 or 12, I know some players got picked, and then let's call it the interest in trading back dissipated a bit. But we did have a plan in place that there was possibly we would trade back and still be able to get tied. But once some of the better tradeback scenarios dissipated, we decided to stay pat, stick with the plan, and move forward.

26:24Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, let me pay you a compliment in bringing up the criticism of you is that you're you're so good at drafting guys that can help you right now. And it doesn't matter the round. I mean, Jared Verse being the only other first round pick other than Goff and Ty Simpson that you've made other other picks, third rounders, fifth rounders, significant players for you that you could have done that with the 13th overall pick right now for Matthew Stafford. And that's one of the things that's being asked about you. You know, we were asking ourselves that just as everyone's, let's call it, discussing it post-draft.

27:00And that, I mean, I think I've mentioned a few times that beginning, probably starting late February, myself and Sean, and then along the way, you know, people on the staff, coaches, things like that. We've probably all spent it at least on work days, right? Two to three hours every morning. Heck, sitting on the couch where I'm sitting right now in my office. And it began with our team, right, the direction we'd like to go. Then it went into the free agency preparations and plan and then draft preparations and plan. So that spectrum of picking for the immediate versus the future is always going to be a variable that's to be discussed.

27:43Rich Eisen:Well, in terms of the kid, what do you like about him so much? Because you're savvy, man. And you know the way this works in the conversation in the world and that you would know that this would be a post-draft conversation, one that you can obviously, you know, survive and bear. Certainly with a team as good as the one that you currently have. But you obviously had to like him for a lot. If we're picking him at 13, I think, hey, there was a lot. Not just myself. There's a lot of people in our building that appreciated what Ty brought to the table as a quarterback. At the micro level, you know, he's someone that is a quarterback.