Justin, how are you, man? I just talked about all this stuff for three hours, but I didn't get my fill, so thanks for having me on. Oh, all the time, Justin.
Always a pleasure. Now, we've recently learned the Dallas Mavericks not only traded away Luca, they're now charging their fans a little bit more to attend games next year. What the hell is going on in Dallas?
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense, and I was thinking about this earlier today. It's not just the Luca trade that's making them look ridiculous. I mean, you look at what Quinton Grimes did for Philadelphia the other day, where he had like 40-plus points. So, he's doing a really good job in that trade for Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin hasn't even played a game yet for Dallas, and then you've got Anthony Davis just played three quarters.
So, it's looking horrific on the Luca trade, but you've also got this Quinton Grimes-Caleb Martin trade that's not looking any good. And while that's taking place, of course, the Lakers now look like a title contender. So, it's been an absolute disaster for Dallas, both financially and obviously in the standings. Well, Justin, you talk about how the Lakers have been on a run here.
Despite not having that prototypical big that everybody talked about them adding when they made the Luca trade, what are your thoughts on what they've been able to do and how realistically they'll be able to compete for a title as they go through each round? Yeah, to me, they're the fourth best team. I think there's a little bit of a gap between Cleveland, Boston, Oklahoma City and the Lakers, but the Lakers are that next team on the list. A lot of people are putting Denver in there, but the criticism with the Lakers is, well, the Lakers can't defend well enough, but then people aren't saying that about Denver. Denver to me is a far worse defensive team than the Lakers. Listen, it's been a long sample size of L.A. being the best defense in the NBA. They've been that way over the last 22 games, so they've gone to 18 and 4, and they don't need to be the best defense like they've been over that 20 game stretch. They just need to be a top 13 or 14 defense in the postseason, I think, in order to compete because their offense is going to be arguably the best in the NBA once Luca gets rolling, which he hasn't even done yet.
Well, Justin, before we go over to towards the East, let's stick to the West. We know that Shay Gilgus Alexander is most likely going to be the MVP for the league this year. We see the young Thunder team. They got smacked around last year.
Do you see them taking that next step this season to be competitors? Well, first of all, I have a vote for the MVP, and you're right, it looks like Shay Gilgus Alexander is going to run away with it, which I think is ridiculous because I think that Jokic clearly should be it. He's a top 12 player in my estimation of all time. He's having the best season of his career and doesn't have nearly the assistance that Shay Gilgus Alexander has. But in regards to the Thunder, I mean, listen, everybody can defend on that team.
They do have a guy in Shay Gilgus Alexander who's having an awesome season. And I think that there is a clear gap between them and everybody else in the Western Conference. But they're also a team that I don't think anybody should be afraid of because they lack the experience and they haven't done it in big postseason spots. I mean, this is going to be the second postseason for Jalen Williams. It will be the second postseason for Chet Holmgren. So, you know, are you going to trust that in the series going up against the combination of Luca and LeBron?
Tough to see. You're going to see that going up against the Celtics team that's done it before in an NBA finals on that stage, usually have to go through the growing pain. So while I think talent wise, OKC is clearly the best in the Western Conference, maybe the NBA, I could still see them being had because they don't have that experience.
Justin Termini is joining us here from Sirius XM, NBA radio, NBA Today. When you look at a team that is not doing good, the Phoenix Suns are just I guess they're waiting on Cabo. And I know you got to sit there with Eddie Johnson every day.
I know how much you love that. What are your thoughts on what the Suns are doing and what they have to do in offseason? I mean, they've been so bad that even Eddie is forced, as their color analyst, to admit that they got major issues.
And the problem is, I mean, one of the problems here that's popping up as of late is the effort. And listen, Durant's going to be out. The only question is now what happens with Devin Booker. And really, that Durant trade is going to tell you if they get enough back in the trade for Durant, that'll maybe keep Booker around for a couple of more years. But if they don't get a lot back for Kevin Durant, then they're going to be in a situation where they're not going to be good enough to win during Booker's twenty nine, thirty, thirty one year age seasons. And I don't know of any star that wants to put up with that in today's day and age where these stars have so much power. So if they don't nail this Durant trade, they could be looking at the situation with Devin Booker eventually ass out.
Well, Justin, is this and maybe not. Is this a lesson learned? We see what happens with the Ishbiers when they decided to swing for the fences and bringing in Durant and Bill with his no trade clause. We see what's currently going on in Dallas. And I don't know how to hell that's going to end up looking any type of good. Is this not like a note to future ownership? I mean, maybe, I don't know, Alex Rodriguez.
Hey, just take it easy next time. Yeah, I mean, I respect Matt Ishbier spending the money like you can't fault them that way. Because, you know, it drives you nuts when organizations don't spend the money. So I'd rather have an owner like want to win and be passionate and spend money the long way than them to be cheap.
But I think like the lesson you got to take from this is you can't just act rashly. And as soon as he moved in, like on day one, he makes the trade for Durant. Then it's Bradley Beal in today's day and age. It's more about the depth than it is, you know, that high end, maybe one or two guys on the roster, you got to be able to make smart decisions about the fifth guy in the roster, the sixth guy, the seventh guy, the eighth guy. And if you're just going to be top heavy, you're not going to win. So I'm split there on Ishbier and the new ownership group type of thing because you want owners to spend money, but you got to be a little bit smarter, obviously, than he was.
Justin Termini here with us on the JR Sport Reshow Coast to Coast. If we go over to the east and you talk about depth, Nick fans just kind of beat up on Tom Thibodeau quite frequently because of his lack of depth and going to the bench. The Knicks are currently third in the east right now. What are your thoughts on how equipped or non-equipped they are to compete with the Cavs and the Celtics, which is what they tried to do?
Yeah, they're not equipped. I don't see what that has to do with Tom Thibodeau. He just doesn't have the benches that Boston and Cleveland has. I mean, he doesn't have the ability to go to a Ty Jerome or a Andre Hunter off the bench. He doesn't have a Peyton Pritchard and an Al Horford and Sam Houser coming off the bench like Boston does. Now, again, I don't even fault the front office because that's what you have to do is get rid of depth if you're going to add Mikael Bridges and Karl Lantz and towns. But it's not Tom Thibodeau's fault that he's not utilizing a bench that doesn't exist. So I don't think they have enough depth to compete with those two teams.
And that's not their only problem. I mean, they have, as good as they are offensively, their defensive holes with Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns. You could attack those two guys. A team like Boston doesn't have anybody that you can attack. A team like Oklahoma City doesn't have anybody as part of their rotation that you could attack. Meanwhile, the two best players on New York, you can go at them defensively. So that's an issue that I don't think they can overcome.
But I also don't think that's a Tom Thibodeau issue. Justin Cernanese here with us from NBA radio and Sirius XM. When you think about the Cleveland Cavaliers, they've been sitting at the top of the East basically all year long. They're on a 10 game winning streak. They already have 50 wins.
March just kind of rolled over. And you don't hear a lot about the Cavaliers. Do you think they have a legitimate shot of moving the Celtics on out the way and winning a championship?
Yeah. I mean, if you're not hearing a lot about the Cavaliers, then you're not listening or reading the right stuff because people should be talking about the Cavaliers. I mean, they're 50 and 10. I think that's the 11th team in NBA history to ever do that. And they certainly can beat Boston. You look at the fact they have four guys that could have made the All-Star game.
Three of them made it. So their starting lineup is really good. They fixed their one weakness, which was length at the wing by getting DeAndre Hunter. They've got a fantastic bench with both Hunter and Ty Jerome, who has been brilliant and probably should be the sixth man of the year, even over Peyton Pritchard. They're well coached with Kenny Atkinson. They move the ball. And Donovan Mitchell just has the Celtics number.
I was talking about this earlier today on our show. He's averaged more points against the Celtics than anybody in NBA history surpassing Michael Jordan, who was the previous owner of that. So he just kills Boston year in and year out, game in and game out.
They haven't figured out a way to stop them. So they've got the recipe to beat the Celtics. They got the recipe to beat anybody in the NBA.
They're legitimate. Who do you have here in the finals? Are we looking at a Cavs? Are we looking at OKC?
Do we get a little bit of something different than what we've got the past few seasons? I mean, there's four teams to me that are capable of doing it. It's Boston and it's Cleveland in the Eastern Conference. It's the Lakers and Oklahoma City in the Western Conference. I'll go with the chalk and what Vegas is saying right now with Boston and Oklahoma City, but would not be shocked to see Cleveland go to the NBA finals. I think they're that good.
Justin Termini here with us on the J.R. Sport re-show. When you think about some of the teams that we will not be seeing, the 76ers trying to figure out their future or the future of Joel and B, any hope for them or are they just not screwed? I mean, there is hope.
I guess. And B gets back to 100 percent. They get a top six pick that they hold on to in a really deep draft and everybody comes back healthy next year. But I won't count on that. It looks awfully bleak. I would say they probably have two of the at least five worst contracts in the sport, if not the two worst contracts in the sport in the NBA and in Paul George. So it's it's a likely long road if they can't even get get out of it. And, you know, especially when you've got other young teams in the Eastern Conference that are just set to dominate for the next long stretch here, including, you know, the Cavaliers, as we're talking about a team like the Pistons or Lambda, if they can add some offense. So, you know, it doesn't look very good for Philadelphia.
Last question for you. This is a team that kind of got slapped together following all of that Jimmy Butler nonsense. Do you have any hope in the Golden State Warriors that they could could go on a little bit of a run and compete in the West now that they've added Butler? I mean, with the way that they've looked since the trade, plus the way that Steph has looked and stuff looks like a completely different player. We talk about Luca energizing LeBron. I think we could say the same thing about Jimmy Butler energizing, energizing Steph Curry. So, again, like they won a championship a couple of years ago with Andrew Wiggins is the number two. Jimmy Butler is a lot better than Andrew Wiggins.
Now, I also think the league's a lot better. And that was one of the worst teams to ever win a title that 2022 Golden State team. But again, when you're talking about one of the 12 best players of all time and Steph Curry in a Western conference where there's not really a runaway dominant team, the one team that's really good, has some questions about their youth, won't put anything past them. I wouldn't give them as good of a shot as Oklahoma City to the Lakers. But I also wouldn't completely count them out.
Things have gotten certainly interesting with a lot of these young teams rising up, veteran teams, veteran teams and vets as well and all stars. Hey, Justin, thank you for the time and catch you on down the line. Where can people follow and listen to you, my man? All right. I appreciate it, buddy. You've got me on Twitter at Germany Radio, T E R M I N E Radio, then on Sirius XM MBA Radio, 4 to 7 Eastern Time with Eddie Johnson, as you were saying. Appreciate you having me on.
Of course, I lied. This is the most important question. When are you and Eddie? When are you all going to have like a steel cage fight or match or we got to wait till the off season? When is that happening? No, I mean, like Sirius won't even let us in the same. He does the show from Phoenix. I'm doing the show from Boston.
They don't want us anywhere next to each other because they're afraid that I'll beat up on the 65 year old senior citizen. Reasonable, Justin. Reasonable. Well, we appreciate the time. We'll catch you on down the line. OK. All right. I appreciate it, buddy. Thanks for traveling.
