Hour 2: Eric Pincus

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0:41Then, every morning it combines these factors into an easy-to-understand score from 1 to 100. So you'll know how to take the quality of your sleep from okay to very high. Know your Sleep Score with Apple Watch. iPhone 11 or later required. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash richeisenshow and you'll never miss a moment.

1:24Now, on with the show. Oh, my God, you guys are my favorites. This is The Rich Eisen Show. The one and only. Rich Eisen. I know what I'm talking about. That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Brian Weber. I mean, honestly, he's brilliant. Brian Weber. I've got a long resume. Google me, it saves time. From The Rich Eisen Show's studio in Los Angeles. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Brian Weber.

2:01This is another hour of the program presented by Progressive Insurance. And it's great to have you with us on December 26th. Coming up in 20 minutes after I cruise through the NBA takeaways wrapping up the last hour of the show. We're going to stretch out, go in-depth with an old friend that someone who's been covering the league for decades. Eric Pincus, national NBA writer for Bleacher Report, will join us in 40 minutes. Not only because I am sitting in for a proud Michigan man, Mr. Eisen. Very honored to be here. And Rich is very proud of Ann Arbor, according to ESPN's College Football Insiders.

2:50Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel could be imminent. Let's just parse it correctly. As they both wrote, they had the co-byline. Former Utah coach, he's not done yet, but that's precise verbiage. Kyle Whittingham is now the focus of the Wolverines coaching search. I'll tell you why coming up in just over 40 minutes. That's a better hire than a lot of Michigan fans will think if, in fact, it comes into focus. If you want to pick up the phone, 888-SAY-ESPN. If you want to pass along thoughts on social media, B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs with a reminder, bowl season continues across the ESPN family of networks.

3:36Three games on ESPN TV today here on ESPN Radio. The Rate Bowl, New Mexico and Minnesota, both happy to be playing at Chase Field in Phoenix. Our coverage begins at 7 Eastern. Row the boat with PJ Flex team on ESPN Radio. Spent the majority of the first hour passing along what stood out to me from yesterday's NFL slate. we knew coming into the holiday there was a potential for the games to be a rough watch and it happened to a degree for some very unexpected reasons namely detroit just could not do anything right when it came down to ball security six turnovers jared goff responsible for five of them as they faced speaking of minnesota an alum although he also went to new hampshire i I have New England bias as an East coaster always in the back of my mind.

4:35Future Hall of Famer, get him the gold jacket, Max Brosmer, who finished the game with 51 yards in the air officially. But when you factor in yardage loss to Saks, net passing yards, he was three. The number between two and four. and somehow Minnesota won the game because Detroit just could not hang on to the football. They are not going to the playoffs. So the NFC field is just about set. Good news for the Packers as we make the move to the games coming up tomorrow. Green Bay punched their ticket, as we say in the NCAA tournament. But I do love when football coaches in the NFL, the National Football League.

5:23I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. It is a Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show, 888-SAY-SPM, or you can post on the X platform. I still say tweet because I don't work for Elon. B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs and 15 minutes. We talk hoops with Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. NFL coaches say the tournament. Just get into the tournament. Packers got their berth for the postseason because Detroit played one of the worst games I've seen. and I am older than my enthusiastic delivery would suggest. So we know the pack are in, and it really comes down to now just the arrangement of the teams with the top seed still available for the clubs from the NFC West, Chicago still with a chance to stake their claim to being the number one overall seed.

6:17And with that, as you know, home field advantage throughout the postseason. I'm going to talk about the Bears and the 49ers to start the final hour of the program. Is Brock Purdy built to replicate the form that we saw on Monday night? And I am not a huge backer of Brock Purdy. I still, and I am in a very small minority here, but this also could be my former connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. And if any jobs are open, folks, I'll quote Jim Ward Jr., who's back in coaching and left the folks at UConn stranded to go get a better deal at Colorado State. Should a media job be available in the San Francisco Bay Area?

6:59I will walk from Los Angeles in the rain to come back to where I started and where I went to college. Now I'm just shamelessly self-promoting. I still contend Jeff Garcia is a better quarterback than Brock Purdy. I know it sounds like I am just drinking something beyond the gallons of diet soda in front of me. I'll explain my continued doubts surrounding Purdy coming up in an hour, final hour of the program. And again, it's going to sound like I have no idea what I'm talking about because I do recall how brilliant he was on Monday night. Five touchdown passes, but you should also be aware that Sauce Gardner did not play in that game.

7:40I mean, Indy's got a lot of problems with their defense. Number one in the league gets to run, not so much as we saw against the pass as Purdy looked like Joe Montana and Steve Young combined. The Green Bay Packers have been one of the most enigmatic teams in the league. Perhaps it's fitting they're going to face the Ravens, who also have had a lot of question marks attached to that team this year. trending towards no Lamar Jackson. Tough to watch him go down with that back injury in the Sunday night game. And you do have to credit, since it seems like I'm bashing everybody, the gumption. How about the toughness, the moxie of what we saw from Drake May coming back in the fourth quarter.

8:27Now, he didn't have to go head-to-head against Lamar. It was Tyler Huntley. And Baltimore's defense has been just so up and down. It felt like they had figured things out and how they were using Kyle Hamilton in so many unique ways. And then we saw, to make it a holiday linkage, what Joe Burrow did to them, carved them up on Thanksgiving night. Baltimore still mathematically alive, so they have something to play for. But undeniably, the health of Lamar Jackson, much more important to the future of this organization than sneaking back into the playoffs if they could run down Pittsburgh somehow.

9:06But step one would be beat the Packers in Green Bay. We'll find out more about the status of Jordan Love trying to clear a concussion protocol. Malik Willis played very well in defeat. It was not his fault that Green Bay still cannot field an onside kick cleanly, even with the new rules that make it almost, what, 8 % chance? Almost a mathematical lock. You're not going to recover it. But everything has gone right for Chicago. Feels a lot like for the Bears, although I think they're going to have a different outcome, the Vikings season a few years ago, remember, all those one-score victories, and then they lost to Daniel Jones and the Giants in the first round of the playoffs.

9:50I don't think that's the case for the Bears, but sometimes things just align your way. For Green Bay, it's been the flip side. Just unable to stay healthy, make the big swing to get Micah Parsons. He goes down. Still, with a backup quarterback coming in cold and frigid conditions, they should have won that game in Chicago. And I will continue to defend Matt LaFleur as much as I know people in Wisconsin want to kick him to the curb. Why do you think Willis looks so good? Fit and situation. Came into the right system and he was coached up. But at some point, the wave of injuries catches up to you.

10:34And we know, I'm not going to go through the whole injury report. I'm not doing satellite radio at 2 o 'clock in the morning. We know the Packers have just been bludgeoned by injuries. Still, with Baltimore's playoff hopes on life support, right there for Green Bay, whoever the quarterback is, And I think it's a team, matchup driven, that can win a playoff game because they have that much talent on both sides of the ball, understanding the key pieces they are missing. Finally, we have a quarterbacking matchup that is attractive, unless you don't think C.J. Stroud has anything to do with Houston's surge.

11:12They've won seven straight. And remember, they won games with Davis Mills, the Stanford grad, filling in for C.J. We know they're winning primarily because of the defense, and that's what makes their game against the Chargers here in Southern California tomorrow all the more fascinating. You have what's going on positively for the Chargers, getting healthier, got rookie running back from North Carolina, Maureen Hampton back, and Justin Herbert, while he still has something to prove in the postseason, and I think it is appropriate that he's playing Houston as he imploded last year. Justin Herbert, small sample size, has yet to win a playoff game early in his outstanding NFL career.

11:57But LA's won four straight and they've been getting it done with their franchise quarterback out there with a broken bone in his hand. Not throwing hand, but still pretty important to have a pair of functioning hands if you want to excel under center. So that's the matchup to watch. What can Greg Roman, the veteran play caller for the Chargers, do against D 'Amico Ryan's defense? Not only leading the league numerically, they are lighting suckers up. if you watch the Texans, even if you're on the red zone, every time they get there, I watch too much of the Texans and the Raiders on Sunday and credit the silver and black.

12:40I know they're terrible and, and thoughts and prayers. If you get the giants and the Raiders as your only broadcast on Sunday, the race to the bottom losing could be winning and it would be winning for whoever's on the wrong side of that outcome. Cause then they virtually lock up the number one overall pick. But even though the Texans got everything they could handle from the Raiders on their way to winning that game, they were just laying the wood. This is a team that feels old school with their defensive intensity. But if you're asking me who's going to emerge, I'm going with the Chargers. I am not the biggest fan.

13:17If you care about my personal agendas of Jim Harbaugh, I've mentioned Stanford a few times. My deceased parents told me before they went to the big skybox in the sky. I have to mention my alma mater at least wants to show to feel good about the squandered education. Harbaugh was an interesting cat to deal with as a Stanford alumnus, but he's an incredible coach. He wins wherever he goes. And the Chargers are clearly ahead of schedule, making the playoffs last year. This is a team contingent on Herbert having pain tolerance. and you can't question him at all because he's had so many injuries that I think can go to Denver and beat them.

13:57That's not a hot take. They had that win over the Broncos. I'm aware it came down to Dicker the kicker, but he's a weapon. He's the most accurate kicker in NFL history. The real question about the Chargers is all of their injuries on the offensive line and can Denver exploit that? But first, let's see how Houston strategically tries to use their defensive edge to make it a long afternoon for Justin Herbert with L.A. needing a win to make it winner take all next Sunday in Denver for the AFC West Division Crab. I'm Brian Weber in for rich. 888-SAY-ESPN is the phone number. My ex-handle is B.W. Weber.

14:41Weber with two B's. We'll talk college football in just over a half hour. The latest on the Michigan coaching search. Is it a done deal that Kyle Whittingham will be moving on from Utah to Rich Eisen's alma mater? Up next, let's go back to the NBA. After their comeback win over the Cavs yesterday, was that another indication? This will be the year the Knicks go back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. We'll cover it all with my pal, Eric Pincus, national NBA writer for Bleacher Report. I'm Brian Weber. It's always a blast to keep a chair warm and fill in for Rich and the Guys. A Friday installment of the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio.

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18:17So let's expand the conversation, bring in an old friend and a veteran basketball journalist, Eric Pincus, National NBA writer for Bleacher Report. Eric, happy holidays. How are you? Great. Enjoying a day off. And, yeah, that was some nice basketball on Christmas. Always happy to chop it up. And I appreciate your willingness, as we say in broadcasting and in basketball, especially with the wave of injuries from time to time, your best ability is availability. Before we get into the games, and I want to hit on the key takeaways from what I thought was another outstanding Christmas for the NBA. I completely agree with what Charles Barkley said yesterday on ESPN ABC, on the side of the NBA, that the NFL has just gotten greedy by adding Christmas Day.

19:10But, Eric, we know that the NFL can do effectively whatever they want, and nothing is going to change. So, as somebody who's spent decades covering this league, do you take umbrage with the NFL taking over Christmas? It's all relative. You know, I don't watch a ton of NFL. That's never been like my sport. I've always been hoops with maybe a minor in baseball, MLB. So like I played football. I love playing it with my friends, but it's just never grabbed me. And there's enough basketball fans that, you know, what is it, Amazon and all the new broadcast partners have invested heavily in the NBA. So I don't think it's an issue in that, you know, NBA is doing just fine.

19:55Pick your choice. If you want to watch football, go watch football. You're missing some great hoops, and that's where I'm going to be. I'm going to be watching the hoops. And that is a rational assessment. I thought I would trigger you more, Eric. Come on, Sports Talk Radio. I want you pounding the console. You know, it is what it is. I can't believe you were into an opinion. I'm just going to watch hoops, and I just – you can't – I'll watch the Super Bowl, and every so often I'll have some friends who will watch a game. But it's not like I just can't get into NFL as much as I try. So whatever their demographic is, it's just not me, and I appreciate them.

20:27So that's a little bit hotter, but that's a warmer take. Okay, and the demographic is every man, woman, and child in the United States. We know this, but how about this? Two things can coexist. So you can watch the NFL, as rough as those games were, and appreciate basketball the way we do. Let's start with the Knicks, that marvelous comeback from 17 down yesterday. Did the win over Cleveland tell you more about the Knickerbockers or the Cavaliers? I mean, the Knicks just came off of winning the NBA Cup. So, like, you know, I know who they are. They are arguably the best in the East. And we could, you know, Detroit fans will say, no, we're the best.

21:05We have a better record, et cetera. But the Knicks were the class of the East outside of Indiana. Indiana is off the radar this year. So I'm looking at the Knicks as the best team. So I didn't, I mean, yeah, they come back. They're tough. They play hard. I think Mike Brown's picked up really well from Tom Thibodeau. There's no fall off. Team's great. But the Cavs are just disappointing me left and right all year. They're supposed to be. They're paying money. They have the highest payroll in the league. They're the only team above the second apron, which is that highest spending limit. They have the least flexibility.

21:36They're going to have a draft pick frozen. and they'll get it unfrozen, I expect, by dropping some salary after this year. But you can't be paying more money than anyone else and be just above 500. And I wanted them to come out. Look, I don't root for anybody. I just want to see that this Cleveland Cavaliers team is clicking. And they are, but they're not. And that game was like everything that they are. They're just – they can put up numbers. They can take a lead, but they're just not holding them. They're just not as good as they're supposed to be, and it's pretty disappointing. and even more challenging for Cleveland fans to process because they got Evan Mobley back, understanding he'll have some rust after he was sidelined a couple weeks with the calf injury.

22:17I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. It is the Rich Eisen Show on the day after Christmas here on ESPN Radio. Talking hoops with Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. Eric, we know that sports are better with rivalries, and now I think it's official we have one between the Spurs and the Thunder. They're saying Antonio taking care of the reigning champs for the third time in 12 days. What makes the Spurs such a tough matchup for OKC? Well, I'll even question that because in a rivalry, both sides have to win. Oh, there's the thermonuclear take. There's the bulletin board material. Seriously, though, the Spurs are a problem.

22:55Let's not pretend they're not. It's healthy. They're going to run the NBA the next handful of years, however many years. As long as Womenyama stays healthy, they have these incredible young guards. I don't like the idea. People are like, oh, they could offer the best package for Giannis Antetokounmpo. I'm like, no, they don't need to go get Giannis. They don't need Giannis. And I know that's crazy because he's still incredible. He's like 31. This is a young team. They just need to season. But, like, they got to the NBA Cup. They didn't win the game because they're not seasoned. They had a lead.

23:27They lost it to the Knicks because they're not seasoned. They have to grow up, and that's just normal. Like the Thunder a couple of years ago had tied for most wins in the league and then didn't do as much in the playoffs as they had hoped because they weren't seasoned. You have to lose to get that seasoning. And I think that's where we are right now. But the Spurs are a bad matchup for almost anybody, but especially with all their attacking guards. And then Wemenyama, there is no one in the league like him. And he seems to have a particular hate. And I don't think it's like an evil or a spiteful hate, an appreciable hate.

24:03I don't know if that's a thing, but for Chet Holmgren, that is part of that rivalry. So, and yeah, they're coming after the champs, and the champs are still 26-5. They've dominated the league. I know they've lost a couple in a row, and they've been faltering a little bit, but you're going to have that during a season. But I'm excited to see it. I would love to see these two match up in the playoffs. Eric Pink is our guest on ESPN Radio, national NBA writer for Bleacher Report. You said something thought-provoking that San Antonio, should Wemby stay healthy, could run the league for the next five years.

24:33Are you suggesting they're built to win it all as soon as this year? I just don't think they have the seasoning. I just think that it's as much as anyone or a San Antonio fan wants to jump a step or two. It's just really rare when a team comes from out of nowhere and just wins the title. because in those close games where one possession, one thought, one tiny little hair is the difference, the younger teams that don't have as much experience don't tend to make those decisions. They tend to just because they don't know. It has to be instinct. It's not brain. It's not your mind thinking. Right now they're still learning.

25:18And the Thunder, they were in that boat. And then last year we saw that youngest team to win a title, I think, they had learned that from their seasonings. Spurs are close. I wouldn't want to meet them in a playoff series, but yeah, I don't have them winning the title this year, but I do have them being a problem basically for the next, however long this thing can go. The future could be now for the Spurs. We're both based here in Southern California. You have covered the Lakers closely for many years. What did you make of the continued lousy defense that we saw last night as they got hammered by Houston and JJ Redick is being exceptionally candid, calling out his team's lack of effort post-game.

26:02And Eric, your reaction to him saying last night after they lost to Houston, quote, we don't care enough right now. Well, you know, I've said this before, and I'm convinced that at some point JJ Redick will murder a human being at a basketball game. I don't know if it's going to be a ref or an opponent or one of his players, but he is filled with an entertaining amount of rage. And he certainly let it out after the game. And like some of it as a coach, your job is to make what you have, which is imperfect, better because there's no perfect team or, you know, very rarely there is no perfection.

26:37So your job is to somehow push the buttons, but he's pushing buttons on a combination of players that look, when the Lakers made the trade last year, I said, you know, this is great for the Lakers. They're getting Luca. It's, you know, they're getting a franchise piece, but they're not built to win that year because the chasm defensively of the three players, LeBron, Austin, and Luca, and all incredible players, but their strengths aren't on the defensive side. And there are some things that LeBron can do defensively. You see, he can still get those chase down blocks, but he's like an old diesel.

27:09I remember a German one where you got to like slam the gas to just get it up to speed. But once it's up to speed, That thing could go from like 50 to 90 in just a tiny bit of pressure. But getting up to 30, excuse me. You're getting emotional here. A little too much eggnog. Yeah. On the holiday. But getting up to speed, LeBron doesn't move around in a half court set covering rotations. And Luka is in shape, right? Like that was the big deal that Luka got in shape. But that doesn't necessarily matter over the course of the season because you have to be in shape because you're going to get hurt throughout the season.