Antonio Daniels, New Orleans Pelicans Analyst

Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-TRAC all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai. There's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser Show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know. Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world.

And we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game with the latest failed entry and my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please.

Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Tony, how are you, man? I am truly, truly blessed, JR. How you doing, brother? I'm amazing.

Thank you for taking the time to hop on. So I didn't expect, I think a lot of us didn't expect to see a massive move made today, but we did see some death pieces move around. What was the largest, I guess most impactful move that took place today? Um, God, I guess for me, the most impactful move was the Knicks acquired Alex Burks and Boyan Bogdanovich because they feel needs.

They feel needs. So when you look at the Eastern Conference and you look at Philadelphia and you look at the question marks around the Philadelphia and a question mark surrounding Milwaukee. Whether or not Cleveland can take the way they're playing into the playoffs.

You actually take a look at all of this. The one team that's been head and shoulders better than everybody else in the Eastern Conference has been the Boston Celtics, right? And I feel like what the Knicks did today is they brought themselves up another tier because they added a need. They added the need of one ball handling and two scooting, but also better experience to go alongside Jalen Brunson, Julius Rando and this Knicks team that's playing really, really good basketball right now. Well, Antonio, when you take a look at these New York Knicks, you mentioned the Celtics.

We know about the Sixers adding Heald, the Cavs aren't gaining a lot of attention. Who is, I guess, the Celtics biggest challenge in the East? I don't know.

I don't know. That's a tough question because there's so many teams in the East that have question marks. And I won't even say the East.

I'll say teams in this league right now that are surrounded by question marks. Again, Milwaukee, do they have enough defense, right? When you add a new coach mid-season, is that long enough to develop the synergy needed to push a team to the NBA championship? Is Joe Allen B going to be healthy for the Philadelphia 76ers? So you can go down the list of different teams. Does Denver have enough depth come playoff time with no Bruce Brown and no Jeff Green? You can go down the list of different teams. The Clippers, right?

We know what James Harden and Paul George have done in the postseason. Can they exercise those demons, so to speak? You know, so it's a lot of questions. I don't know. That is a tough question.

I'm not sure right now. I would say either the Milwaukee Bucks simply because of their star power, simply because you have Giannis and you have Damian Lillard and they have time. And also, you got it, man. I have a difficult time having these conversations without including the New York Knicks in them. What Jaylen Brunson is doing right now, he's changing the narrative in New York, completely changing the narrative. Now, the question mark centers around, can Julius Randle bring it come the second week of April moving on to the tune that he did throughout the course of the regular season? If he does and he's that Robin that he is during the regular season, the New York Knicks have a great opportunity to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, in my opinion. Antonio Daniels, former NBA champion, is here with us.

The J.R. sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. Well, Antonio, man, the last time the New York Knicks had this much success, your team was beating them in the garden, man. Can you imagine it was this was twenty five years ago. Time flies, doesn't it?

Yes, it does. And even at that time, they weren't healthy. They weren't healthy. And I think, you know, right now, what you're saying, I think the most important thing in this league is health.

There's nothing more important. You know, I'm sitting here right now in my hotel room and Dallas is playing New York and they're beating the Knicks without their top two players. They're beating the Knicks right now without back down a bitch, without Alex Burt. You know, Mitchell Robinson's not healthy. Oh, this is a team.

Yeah. Oh, you know, I just saw he'll be reevaluated in three weeks. This is a team that isn't healthy. But I tell you what, when they are holding healthy and they have firepower, they have versatility. And what I like about the Knicks more than anything else, they got dogs.

You know, I've covered Josh Hart here in in New Orleans. When you have guys like him, when you have guys like DeVincenzo, when you have guys like Ojian Anobi, guys that are willing to do the dirty work, precious to chew it. They got dogs, too.

So they check a lot of boxes. And that is a dangerous basketball team come playoff time. Well, and Tony, I want to you had mentioned the Western Conference and health. And we know when you take a look at the teams out west, whether it is especially the Suns or you take a look at the Clippers, a lot of that boils down to health.

And do you think that's going to be the deciding factor? It seems like the Nuggets are a little younger than they were last year. We know about the Lakers and their age and they don't even look like they're going to be in it. What do you think about the Western Conference? See, for me, I'm not I'm my thought on the West is different than a lot of other people, because a lot of people feel like it's it's basically Denver and everybody else.

And I don't feel that way. I haven't felt that way all year because I Denver has a sensational starting five. They have chemistry, they have camaraderie, they have synergy. I get that. But when you start talking about the postseason, depth is important.

Right. And they don't have Bruce Brown. They don't have Jeff Green, which were big parts of their success last year on their championship run. And now with the Western Conference, you can have the same conversation in the West that you have in the East about teams that have. Question marks, you know, you look at a team like Denver, you look at a team like the Clippers, you look at a team like Phoenix, you know, with those three guys, do they have enough around those guys? You look at a team like New Orleans and the health of. Of Zion, the health of Brandon Ingram and these guys coming into the playoffs. So it's a I love it because I honestly feel like this is the deepest that the West has been in quite some time.

But I don't think anybody in the West fears anyone else. You know, right now I'm here in L.A. and. The New Orleans Pelicans last night. Beat a team that had just went six and one on the East Coast road trip. Right. And a team that's twenty five and five out of the last 30 in the L.A. Clippers. Right. So it's I don't think there's any team in the Western Conference that fears another team or that that's just completely set themselves apart.

Well, Antonia, I wanted to ask you about this. The Pelicans have been rather quiet. If I have to look in the east and the west, I go, OK, things have been quiet with the Pelicans. They've they've been picking things up. Zion hasn't been in the news, which I guess is a good thing.

And then the Cavaliers are on a winning streak. They don't get a lot of attention. You see the Pelicans all the time calling their games on television. What's the deal with them lately? They're figuring some things out. And you can say this about a lot of teams in the Western Conference.

They're figuring some things out. If you go back to last year, Zion played twenty nine games total. I played 44 games total at the start of this season. Game one of this season. It would have been the sixth time, the seventh time that C.J., Zion and B.I. had started together. In Willie Green's tenure.

So, again, you know, I know fans hate to hear it, but this kind of chemistry, it takes time. And now they're at a league best for them, a team best plus nine. And the win column. That says a lot for this team.

That says a lot. And they have some huge wins for the team. They have to just learn how to do it on a consistent basis. And the Achilles heel for this team this year has been the ability to win close games. If you go back and you look at at their wins, a lot of your wins are double trigger wins. I believe they're second in the league in 20 point wins. You know. But when you start to play good teams down the stretch, you're going to have to learn how to execute in the last three or four minutes of a game. And that has been a struggle for the pelicans throughout the course of the season. Yeah, a lot of a lot of continuity.

Continuity certainly helps. We're being joined by Antonio Daniels to throw it back just a little bit. Tonight, out in Los Angeles, outside of Crypto.com Arena, Kobe Bryant's statue wasn't nailed. We learned that there will now be two statues outside of the arena. In addition to the statue unveiled tonight, the number eight, after he scored 81 points, there'll be a statue of him and his daughter, another statue wearing number 24. When you played in a lot of cases, it was your job to go out there and try to stop and slow that man down.

Good luck. I know from a first person perspective, Antonio, what made him so difficult to guard? You know, you always hear the toughest guys to guard are guys with freedom, guys with a skill set. And what made Kobe so tough to guard is honestly, it really didn't matter what you did. And I mean that wholeheartedly.

It really didn't matter what you did. I have a picture at home where I'm directly in front of him. But he's elevated so high and my hand is completely outstretched and he's over my hand. So it's almost like he's shooting in the gym by himself. You know, when you think of guys that have the ability to get to their spot and simply elevate, I think of him and MJ.

That's it. Get to that spot and fade away so they can just basically outjump your presence. So you're not doing anything to really impact whether or not he makes or misses shots.

You know how hard that is to guard where it's almost like you're out there and you're working and you're working. And he gets to his spot and he raises up and there's nothing whatsoever you can do about it. I think the thing about Kobe that you hear all the stories, right? And I never played with him. I've always played against him. But his work ethic, his work ethic to me is unmatched.

It's unparalleled. You know, you don't you don't become great by accident. You become great with intention. And he was intentional in being great.

He wanted to be one of the greatest players to ever touch a basketball. You know, a lot of guys in this league become complacent. They do.

They're OK averaging 15 points a game or they're OK averaging 20 points a game. And they never really get an opportunity to to explore their great. And Kobe Bryant, that's not the way he was wired. You know, you can you can love it or leave it. But that's who he was.

And you have to respect that work ethic. Antonio Daniels here with us, the J.R. sport we show on CBS Sports Radio as we we start to wind down this conversation. You know, based on what you just said, you just named legends. You just named some of the greatest of all time. We have so much talent currently in the NBA. We know the talent that is aging up and aging out. And there is, I want to say, an open ground on, you know, who can be great. I don't think there's one singular player that you can look at and say, this is the torchbearer.

There are multiple that you can potentially identify. But is there anyone out of all the basketball that you see on a nightly basis? Is there one player that just just makes you go, damn, every time you see it?

No, you know, I'm gonna be honest with you. To me, it's a lot of those players. And because today's NBA is more skilled than it's ever been.

That's why. But if you just watch an NBA game, the shot making ability. It's incredible. It is incredible to watch what guys are doing now.

You know, shooting from from distance with accuracy like it's nothing. And right when I say that, I see DiVincenzo just pull up from the logo and knock down the three shot making ability is at an all time high. But when you look at greatness, it's not one particular player that really stands out to me. You look at the the elder statesmen, you look at guys like LeBron James doing what he's doing at his age. You look at Steph Curry continuing to do what he's doing. Kevin Durant, those kind of guys. But then there's a there's a younger there's a younger batch of guys that are just incredible. The Devin Booker's, you know, the Jason Tatum, the Lucas, you know, these kind of guys that have the potential to do some some amazing things moving forward. And I hear it all the time.

And I agree. You know, the NBA is going to be different. It's going to look different. It's going to feel different when there's no LeBron, when there's no Kevin Durant, when there's no Steph Curry. But the one thing that you can guarantee, you know, you have guys like Victor women, Yama coming up, guys like Zion coming up. The NBA moving forward is in great hands and most certainly is.

Well, Antonio, thank you so much for for taking the time to look through the trade deadline with us to talk about Kobe Bryant as his statue was unveiled and also to look forward in the league. Where can people follow you and keep up with you and all your analysis? I'm just I just I'm a Twitter dude. That's it. I don't know if it's called Twitter, if it's called XA Daniels 33.

That's it. You know, when I have a daily radio show on Sirius XM that with Rick Kamala that I love doing every day, one to four Eastern Standard Time on Sirius XM, NBA radio. Well, Antonio, thank you so much. I look forward to chatting it up with you again in the future. All right, my man.

For sure. God bless you, brother. OK, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available H-Track all wheel drive and three row seating. My whole family can head deep into the wild, conquer the weekend in the all new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know. Right now, we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world. And we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game and the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream.

No schmutz, please. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You hit improv comedy, the Chris Chapman do over an Odyssey and paper kite production. Listen on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.