Hour 2: Lakers vs Rockets game 2, NFL Draft breakdown, Timberwolves tie series with Denver

0:00For some of us, personal finances aren't just personal. They include a lot more people than ourselves. Loved ones, neighbours, the communities we call home, and the causes we hold in our hearts. At Thrivent, we help plan your financial picture with the bigger picture in mind. Because even though our business is helping guide your finances, our ambition is to make it mean so much more. Thrivent, where money means more. Connect with us at Thrivent.com. Chronic migraine is 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more. Botox, onabotulinum toxin A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start.

0:40It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It prevents on average 8 to 9 headache days a month versus 6 to 7 for placebo. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness.

1:11Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Why wait? Ask your doctor, visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com, or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. 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.

1:47But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. Oh, my God, you guys are my favorite. 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. It is another hour of the program, and it's great to have you with us coast to coast.

2:32Travel day for Rich and the fellas. Back with you tomorrow, live from Pittsburgh. Getting you set for the NFL Draft. And then, Rich, as the tradition continues, will take you through all the picks on NFL Network Thursday. He'll do the show. Then he'll take a quick nap, I presume. Then he'll come back and handle all the action in primetime. NFL Draft 8 Eastern. Of course you can catch it on ESPN, ABC. Rich with his team on NFL Network and here on ESPN Radio, Chris Carlin, Max Starks, Mike Tannenbaum, Ian Fitzpatrick, Jordan Reed, and the gang. In 20 minutes, we will tackle more NFL draft conversation when we check in with Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic.

3:18If you want to be a part of the show, you have a phone. It does work for phone calls. I know this makes me sound like Andy Rooney. I still call people. And yes, let's just talk about things you should not do in 2026. Apparently leaving a voicemail is now a crime against humanity. We'll pick up the phone. No need to leave a message. 844-204-RICH. That is 844-204-7424. Or I appreciate the feedback. That is positive. I am deleting the negative thoughts on the X platform. Nothing toxic ever on social media. We know that to be true. My handle is B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. We're going to jump right in, talking Lakers, getting you set for a much more interesting game two tonight between L.A.

4:07and Houston, and I thought it would be heading into the weekend. If you're in Minnesota saying, hey, loud radio guy, whoever you are, why aren't you talking more about the Timberwolves? we will address that we're going to do it coming up just over 45 minutes the reason i am not leading the hour i'm taking you inside my own production meeting the cast of thousands helping me in but just a lonely man in a one-bedroom apartment here in southern california the reason i'm not starting the second hour talking about the latest epic comeback the t wolves have put together on the road in Denver after we saw a magnificent comeback last night by the Hawks down 14 at MSG to stun the Knicks and that was a huge focal point of the first hour with a reminder if you miss any portion of any program you can catch it anytime on demand the podcast drops just after the conclusion of the show the reason I'm hitting the pause button on the Ant-Man and company evening things up and stealing home court advantage from the Nuggets last night is I think that series is going seven games like it did a few years ago so there's going to be plenty of time to dissect the nuances of what makes Minnesota such a tough matchup and once more I know this is boring we never talk about defense just because it ain't sexy but if you stayed up late and saw how Minnesota took Joker and Jamal Murray out of that game of the fourth quarter.

5:45It's the latest reminder that they can lock you up defensively as Rudy Gobert is not going to win another defensive player of the year award so long as Wemby stays healthy, but still a premier one-on-one defender. Lakers and Rockets, I don't think is going seven either way, but everything's contingent on the availability of Kevin Durant. Before we tackle what KD is up to, it is worthy because there are a lot of rumblings here in SoCal about the possibility that this could be LeBron's last postseason. I don't see it at all, but there was a long article, and I have a lot of respect for Dan Wojcicki and Sam Amick of The Athletic that dropped on Friday with their well-placed sources saying that LeBron still has yet to make up his mind.

6:37Does he want to play another year and does not necessarily need a farewell tour? But if you caught any of the game on Saturday and you knew once Durant was the late scratch after suffering the knee contusion in practice prior to game one, this was must win for the Lakers. And they pounced on the opportunity. and LeBron once more fully embraced his role as a facilitator, nearly had the triple-double, 13 assists, because that's what he's been doing when the Lakers were clicking as one of the hottest teams in all of basketball behind Donjic and Reeves. They both go out and you figure, okay, maybe this team wins a game, but it's going to be a quick and ugly first-round exit, and then everything changed because Houston looked lost without Durant.

7:32Durant and load management are never in the same sentence. However you view him and his quirky habits on social media, the dude shows up. He played 78 games this year. You saw how much Houston missed him on the floor because they just looked like they were sleepwalking. They looked a lot like the team that we saw last year. Remember, they were the two seed against Golden State. and just did not show up at all in the postseason because that was their first venture as a young team. But if you're banging on the Rockets for making that Durant trade, how did they look without him? I think that validates everything Houston was looking for in getting the veteran who's still bowling out at a high level, especially in the outside.

8:19But Game 1, setting the stage for tonight's Game 2, all about LeBron. And after the contest wrapped up, his head coach, J.J. Redick, shared what he saw from the Kings' versatile game. Yeah, I mean, he displayed great leadership throughout. And I think, you know, we talked all week, you know, about being connected offensively and trusting the pass. And, you know, he led us there in the first half, getting 10 assists, and then was able to make some scoring plays down the stretch. Just a fantastic overall game from him. and he gave us all he had on the defensive end. I mean, he really exerted himself on both ends, and that's what the playoffs are.

9:02So what happens tonight? Well, first, do we know if Kevin Durant is playing? And keep it here on ESPN Radio, ESPN Family of Networks. They will, because I'm just the fill-in host, keeping the chair warm. Brian Weber, AIM for Rich. Always appreciate the opportunity to interact with you, especially on the X platform. That is B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. in less than 15 minutes. NFL draft analysis from Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic. We don't know if Durant's going to go. I would be stunned if he's not out there. Then the question turns into this. We're talking 75%, 80%. How effective can he be?

9:41The other issue I saw from Houston, I didn't pick it up in real time, but social media means everyone now is a citizen journalist. Did you see the pregame video of Shangoon looking starstruck trying to interact with LeBron? Again, the NBA has proven over the decades, a couple things. If you're not a top three seed, you're not winning the championship. I rattled off the four teams and the four teams only, I think, can win it all this year. And what's more, we're not talking much about OKC because we just don't. And there's nothing to talk about now because they're going to continue to hammer the Suns.

10:22You got them. You got the Spurs. So you'll recall, if you care at all about the regular season, took four or five matchups head to head against the Thunder because they match up so well against them. And even though Chet Holmgren is an outstanding defender, he can't slow down the unicorn that is Wemby. I'll still ride with Denver because even though they got the 13-game winning streak snapped last night with a collapse for the ages again at home against Minnesota, this time kicking away a 19-point lead. Remember, this is a team that got destroyed by injuries. David Adelman had to use better than 30 different starting lineups this year, and they still won more than 50 games for the fourth straight year.

11:07And then in the East, this opinion becomes all the more strongly delivered. I think it's Boston and Boston only. And if we're just looking at how the brackets with the two seed, hello, friends, align in the history of the NBA. I used to be pretty good at being a human Google. We'll see if we could do that again here in 2026 in the final hour of the program. It's appointment audio coming up to wrap up the show. We're playing the hits. We're going to log on to the World Wide Webber. I'll bring in our producer extraordinaire, James Steele, to go back and forth with topics I might have missed. In the history of the NBA, I looked it up this morning just to make sure I didn't need any prevagen as an old guy.

11:53Only two teams lower than the three seed have won it all, the improbable 95 Rockets. And Don Nelson, the late great Don Nelson, dined out on making that shot in Game 7 against the Lakers in 1969, as I continue to bury you with useless minutia. What's going to happen tonight? Well, can you have any degree of conviction as a Laker fan that this team's going to shoot 60 % again from the floor? And they shot 50 % from three-point range. If you're a Laker fan, are you telling me that Luke Kennard is going to be Magic Johnson again? And wonderful story. I love dudes who show up out of nowhere. It reminded me of, because I do a lot of film work during the NBA playoffs, for whatever reason, 2023.

12:43Remember the Lonnie Walker IV, not one, not two, not three, Lonnie Walker IV game against the Warriors. I don't blame you if you don't. It was a complete meteor out of nowhere. Same thing with Kennard, who couldn't miss on Saturday night. An absolutely insane performance. Do you believe any of those things are going to happen again? How about the fact that there was an actual DeAndre Ayton sighting on Saturday night? You get the general vibe that I'm laying down here? The Lakers did what they had to do. They seized the opportunity, but I think they're just postponing the inevitable. Now they win tonight, and we still don't know the availability of Kevin Durant.

13:30Then we're having a different conversation. Then we're talking about, okay, let's assume Houston plays up to what we saw them do in the regular season. They won the same amount of games as last year, but the West certainly better with the emergence of the Spurs. Let's say Houston then wakes up, and we're talking about a six or seven-game series. Now are we brushing up against the possibility of a Luka return? Then things get spicy. But in terms of tonight, it's two prongs. You got to tell me if Durant is playing, which I assume he will, and how much of KD are we getting? Even if it's 75%, it's a calming influence for a young team with Shangoon, Ahmed Thompson, that just look overwhelmed.

14:17And I would be shocked if the Lakers can do anything similar to the magic they put together on Saturday night, other than LeBron has dispelled the crowd that keeps chasing him. I'm not LeBron positive nor basher. I appreciate the excellence. He does some things that mystify me. But for all the people trying to run him out of the NBA, did you watch him on Saturday night? There's a tea in there. The guy's 41 years old. He's played 23 seasons. Yeah, he missed a bunch of games this year because he was finally mortal, but in a role as a setup guy who can still get his own buckets, absolutely transcendent.

15:02Put it this way, if you're looking for the hook for tonight's game, will Bronny James get on the floor? Now, hopefully if he gets back out there, because he did play four minutes, He does more than the less than impactful showing we saw on Saturday night. But if we get to a situation where it's brawny time, Laker fans, you'll be riding the crest of momentum. I don't see it. And as someone looking for things to talk about, a series locked at one win apiece, much more interesting talking about how things could evolve moving forward, going back to Houston. I'm Brian Weber in for rich. You want to talk hoops?

15:39a 4-4-2-0-4-7-4-2-4 or you can tweet at me. I don't work for Elon. I still tweet. You can post things on the X platform. B.W. Weber, Weber with two Bs. Back to the NBA in just over a half hour. The fallout from what happened last night in Denver. Another storied comeback by the T-Wolves on the road in the Mile High City straight ahead. NFL Draft Talk. What exactly are the Raiders going to get when And they select Fernando Mendoza with the number one overall pick. Looking forward to checking in with Nick Baumgardner, NFL draft analyst for The Athletic. I'm Brian Weber. Always having a good time with you when I'm in for Rich.

16:19This is The Rich Eisen Show.

17:01O 'Reilly Auto Parts

17:12Rich Eisen here. Every time I travel for a major sports moment, whether it's a playoff run or a huge primetime matchup, I see firsthand what happens to a city. Hotels fill up fast. Energy builds. Everyone wants to be part of it. Now imagine that on a global scale. The FIFA World Cup is coming this summer, people, and with it, thousands of fans traveling to host cities across the country. If you happen to live in one of those cities, and you're planning to be away, maybe you've got your own summer trip lined up, this could be a practical opportunity. While you're gone, you could list your space on Airbnb and welcome traveling fans who want to experience the FIFA World Cup in person.

17:51You're not changing your routine. You're not committing to anything year-round. You're simply making the most of a moment when your city is in the global spotlight. I know when I'm on the road for a huge event, having a comfortable home base makes all the difference. And that's what fans will be searching for. If you've ever thought about listing your space, this summer is a great time as we welcome FIFA World Cup fans. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. For some of us, personal finances aren't just personal. They include a lot more people than ourselves.

18:27Loved ones, neighbors, the communities we call home, and the causes we hold in our hearts. at Thrivent we help plan your financial picture with the bigger picture in mind because even though our business is helping guide your finances our ambition is to make it mean so much more Thrivent where money means more

19:11the rich is a show podcast continue on this tuesday edition of the rich is a show here on esbm radio brian weber back with you rich and the fellas return tomorrow live from pittsburgh getting you set for round one of the nfl draft on thursday rich will hold it down as always on NFL Network. Of course, you can see it with the coverage starting at 8 Eastern on ESPN ABC, here on ESPN Radio with our talented crew, Chris Carlin, Max Starks, Mike Tenenbaum, Jordan Reed, and Ian Fitzsimmons, no relation to Kevin Fitzpatrick, my best friend from high school. Let Us Talk NFL, pleased to be joined by Nick Baumgardner, draft analyst for The Athletic.

19:55I am a subscriber. you should consider that as well for outstanding content and they did not require me to say that to have this conversation with nick nick i appreciate you taking the time how are you very good how are you i am doing well let's start at the top of the draft so with the range of assessments of fernando mendoza in terms of pro potential do you see him as a superstar or franchise quarterback, reliable starter, where would you slot him? Yeah, I think he's like somewhere in the middle of a franchise guy and a reliable starter. I think he's like, you know, I've compared him a lot to Kirk Cousins, you know, a younger obviously version of Kirk Cousins or Jared Goff is another good one too.

20:38You know, I don't want to call him like a mid-level guy, but not an elite tier starter, but a guy that I think is going to be able to play over multiple contracts and a guy that I think you can win with. You know, I think that a guy that you can trust and a guy that if he's on a good roster with, you know, good people around him, I'm not sure that he's going to be able to, like, carry a team on his back alone or anything like this. He's not Patrick Mahomes or one of these type of guys. But I think he's a solid quarterback who's going to be a solid starter for a long time in the NFL. Like I said, over multiple contracts into his 30s, that type of guy.

21:08And, you know, also, most importantly, a guy who I think mentally is tough enough to handle the ups and downs of a rebuild, which is he's going to have plenty of those. Nick I've also heard the comp of Matt Ryan do you buy that in terms of linkage to Mendoza 100 % you know that's I love that one because Matt Ryan got to a Super Bowl same with golf right so I think that you know the idea there is like yeah right and it's like the idea there is can you get to a Super Bowl can you win a Super Bowl with a guy like this and yes I think that that's you know I think you can with a guy like Mendoza and you know that's the most important thing and I think that that's why I think obviously for other reasons but that's the number one reason why he's been pretty easily QB1 in this draft.

21:48Talking draft with Nick Baumgardner, NFL draft analyst. Check out his great work for The Athletic. Of course, you also have to be mindful of The Beast. His colleague, Dave Brugler, puts together the epic volume. Nick, how big is The Beast this year? I got a fiscal copy right here. It's like several pounds, like when they dropped it on my birthday. Can we have a little audio experience here, like an old school yellow bear? Hang on. If I drop it, here we go. Did you guys hear that one? I will play theater of the mind. It went thump, like Junkyard Dog back in the day. This thing is exhaustive. So I want your analysis.

22:28You can borrow from, thank you, old school wrestling references always get a pop. Ordain's assessment. What's the general view within the athletic of how long Alabama's Ty Simpson is going to have to wait to hear his name called? Did you give him a first round evaluation? I did not, and neither did Dane. I think that the common thought is, you know, if he gets into the first round, it's at the end of the first round. Maybe somebody trades up, right, or Houston maybe trades out or somebody else wants to go up and get him. I've kind of targeted him as a top-of-the-second-round guy. I think there's a lot of teams at the top of the second round.

23:03Maybe somebody, again, might jump ahead or what have you, but I think a team like maybe Arizona could snag him there. In the second round, somebody else would have you. But he's just, we don't know what we don't know. I think he's a talented player. I think it's very possible that he could be a starting quarterback about the same type of ceiling as what we just talked about with Mendoza. But he's only started the one season, and three quarters of it was good, one quarter of it was bad, and we really can't unsee that. So for me, he's a second-round quarterback, as with Garrett Nussmeyer as well.

23:34I'm Brian Weber, and for Rich here on the Rich Eisen Show, we are getting you prepped for the NFL Draft with Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic. So if conventional wisdom says Mendoza followed by Simpson, wherever he goes, who do you see as the third quarterback coming off the board in Pittsburgh? Yeah, so for me, I think it's Garrett Nussmeier from LSU who had a bit of a weird year. He was hurt. I don't think he talked much about it during the season, how bad he was hurt. I think it obviously affected his year, obviously did not have a good year at LSU. But if you really look at Nussmeier, I think he's a smart quarterback with a really live arm.

24:08He's small. I don't know if he'll ever be a full-time starter in the NFL, but I do think he's a guy that can be a really good long-term backup who can come in and, you know, hold the fork down for a few weeks if a starter, you know, is out for a few weeks in the middle of the season or something like that. So I think he's a guy that, you know, teams should probably start valuing as time goes on because the more NIL ways into these decisions, the thinner these quarterback classes I think are going to be. Another guy to look for though, I think would be maybe a dark horse. there would be Penn State's Drew Aller, who I think a lot of people have forgotten about.

24:39He got hurt. But if you rewind the clock to last year, the year before this past season, at the end of that year, I think there were people talking about him as a first-round quarterback. Before he got hurt, the talent and the physical tools are all there. He was very inconsistent in college, and it would be a developmental prospect, but also a guy that maybe, maybe, if everything clicks right, could be a guy that outperforms his draft stock. So, Nick, what are you doing with Carson Beck? and if you don't have him in that third or fourth quarterback positioning, why not? I have him lower. I think for me, I've seen a lot of Carson Beck, and I think that that's kind of the thing that you hear from a lot of people when you talk about him.

25:18He was basically a three-year starter. If you take it out from two years at Georgia, the time he had at Miami, I know what he can do, I know what he can't do. So every time his answers against pressure really never got better throughout his career, his accuracy was still hit or miss when it was downfield and against, you know, targeted receivers that couldn't get open to make him look good. So to me, Carson Beck's a nice player. I think he's a guy that's, again, a solid backup, but I don't think he's ever going to be a starter. I think he's a better version of what Stetson Bennett ended up being coming out of Georgia, which is, I think Stetson Bennett might still be in the league hanging around, smart player who can be on a team, but I just don't see a future starter there.

26:00Not to me. Nick Baumgarten, our NFL draft analyst for The Athletic, is our guest here on the Rich Eisen Show. So, Nick, if you enjoyed the junkyard dog reference, how about I dust off Eddie LeBaron? Four people will get that illusion. We're talking diminutive quarterbacks. Can you refresh the memory of the audience if they weren't tracking the combine? How tall is Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, actually? And do you think he can play in the NFL? So Diego Pavia is legitimately, I believe, 5 '10 and 1⁄8 inch. So he is over 5 '9". Do I believe he can play in the NFL? No, probably not as a starter.

26:41No, I do not. I think that he, again, is another one of these guys who, if things break right, can be a guy who maybe helps back up, is in the backup mix or what have you. But he's too small. I don't think the arm talent is quite there. I think the offense was very college-y. a lot of point guard short stuff, right? When anytime it needed to go downfield and everything else, it was going to be a problem. Plus he's small and he likes to run, which is also scary in the NFL. And the other thing too, that is a concern, I think a little bit, I don't know because he's a backup quarterback and I don't know how many NFL teams want their backup quarterback to be a guy who maybe is, you know, having a budding media career or all these other things.

27:21I think that might work against him to a degree. I think it worked against Shador Sanders last year to a degree. That was part of it that nobody really talked about. I think that might be part of it with Diego here, too. But we'll see. We'll see. Well, we know Diego's had a bet on himself and have all of that self-confidence to overcome the measurables. But that's an excellent point about being the QB, too. OK, so let's go from a flyer in Pavia to more of the known knowns. Jets sit in the number two, expected to go defense. Which edge rusher do you like amongst the top three out there? If you think of that, that's the direction they're going to go.