Frank Isola, SiriusXM NBA Radio Host

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Offer valid for a limited time, $10 minimum per order. Additional terms apply. Frank, how you been? Jack, what's going on?

I'm doing fantastic. So you've obviously been around the block for a long time. I'll just ask you, since 2000, we know the two most hyped prospects getting ready for the draft were LeBron James and Zion Williamson. The Victor Wambunyama hype is at like a different level, but does it exceed where the hype was for LeBron and Zion in your opinion?

No, I don't think so. You know, LeBron, even though he didn't play college basketball, everyone knew about LeBron. The idea was that he was going to be a transformative player. And then Zion, you know, really the freshman year that Zion had at Duke, even though they didn't win the national championship, didn't even go to the final four, all their games were on TV. And that like three or four month period there, Zion was as big as any athlete in the country. It didn't matter if they were in the NHL or the NBA, I'm sorry, the NFL or the NBA. He was, you know, I mean, he had Barack Obama was showing at Cameron. He was like, I felt like that was something from like years earlier when it was Patrick Ewing coming out of the draft for Shaquille O'Neal and everyone knew they would be the number one pick and they were going to be a big deal. So I don't think Victor Wambunyama, I still think with international players, I still don't think it resonates as much, but he's accomplished a lot. I mean, he's already played professional basketball and he's going to be the number one pick on Thursday.

Well, that's what I was just going to say. Like this time of the year, everyone pretends to be an expert. We've seen most of a sign Williamson play LeBron James. He was on a ton of TVs, even when he was in high school and we know where the hype was for that. Everyone knew he was going to be the next great thing for him. But Yama, everyone tells you, he's going to be great. I think to watch YouTube pilots and things like that, but most of us haven't seen him play. Yeah. But he also is a guy from everything that you hear very much committed to being a great player.

Like this is something that he really wants. And you know, the one thing about, if you look at basketball in France, they have had a lot of success. You know, obviously Tony Parker being a big name and Boris Diaz, you know, their national team is very good.

Rico bear obviously as well, Evan 28. So he's got, you know, he is around, he understands the NBA culture and the environment. I think when you look at him, clearly the issue is going to be, he's never going to put on a ton of weight, but he's going to have to get strong. I saw one of the last games he played against Monaco and he's not afraid of contact by any stretch of the imagination. You just wonder if guys like that could stay durable. But I'll say this, you know, when Palkesol first came into the league, now Palkesol isn't as big or as tall as when Benyama, but he was awfully thin as well. And you know, after, you know, it took him some time, but he bulked up a lot and you know, Palkesol, obviously he's going to go down as one of the better big men over the last 50 years in the league. So I think when Benyama has a chance to be obviously a superstar, but again, to me, the big question is going to be health because guys that size, we've seen it too many times where they seem to be somewhat injury prone.

And we've seen the comments from Steph Lebron and Giannis about Victor Wen-Benyama that even puts more hype onto the situation. Year one with San Antonio, what can you kind of expect out of him in the league? Well, you know, he is going to a perfect team because A, they've gone through it before with guys like David Robinson and Tim Duncan in the case of Tim Duncan, you know, from the US Virgin Islands, who are getting a foreign born player, even though he did play American cause basketball at Wake Forest.

So I think he's going to the right place. Plus Tony Parker have, you know, having had success there. So Wen-Benyama is very familiar with San Antonio and Greg Popovich. And you know, the one thing about the Spurs, they're actually, they have so much cap space. And the word, the early word is that they're not looking to be in the lottery next season. They're looking to really make some moves. I think for them, a successful year would be at the very least getting into the playing tournament. So I think they're going to add some veteran players and try to be a team that could potentially be a playoff team in year one with Victor Wen-Benyama. But I would think if he plays 60 games, because now we set the bar so low for some of the players now, I think 60 games would be successful. How much longer do you think Greg Popovich will end up coaching for Frank Isola?

Yeah. Well, remember Zach, when, you know, for the longest time ever, he said, oh, he'll probably retire when Tim Duncan plays his following game. Well, it's been a while since Tim Duncan has played his final game and Greg Popovich is, you know, he enjoys it. So the one thing about Greg Popovich, unlike most of the coaches in the NBA, for example, now, maybe it'll change this year, but I know like with the Vegas summer league, Greg Popovich was never there.

He's at his, I think he has a summer home in Maine or something like that. So I think if he has the job down to a science, he knows all the restaurants on the road where they serve the best wine. And I think he still loves the teaching aspect of it. And I would think a guy like Wen-Benyama is going to make him feel young again.

I think for a lot of these guys, you get to a certain age, you don't want to, if you, I think some of them feel like, well, if I walk away, what am I going to do next? And I think that that probably has something to do with it as well. Frank Isola here with us. What did you make of the Bradley Beal deal that's going to go down with him going to Phoenix? Yeah, I mean the Phoenix Suns, you know, they already had Kevin Durant and Devin Booker clearly here going for it.

I thought it was very interesting. There were comments made by Chris Paul in the New York times where he said, you know, he was surprised by the trade cause he didn't really get a big time heads up on it. And he said, I get, I guess Matt Ishbia and Isaiah Thomas, our old friend from the New York Knicks, he said, I guess Isaiah Thomas just wanted to go in a different direction.

So there's Chris Paul basically telling you that Isaiah Thomas has got something to do with the Phoenix Suns. For Bradley Beal, he fits in perfectly there as the third guy. He's not a number one guy.

I don't even think he's a number two guy. Look at the Wizards record over the last, you know, five, six years. And he's only played a hundred and I believe it's 150 games the last three years.

And he's only played an 11 playoff game since 2017. But I think for Bradley Beal, it's a great way for him to rejuvenate his career. His contract is terrible. His agent did a good job and he's got a great contract, but in terms of the team contract, it's not good. I think he's one of the top 10 highest paid athletes in the world. And that includes, you know, the NFL and formula one racing golfers and you know, the top soccer players like Lionel Messi and Ronaldo. So he makes crazy money for a guy that really hasn't been in a lot of games in the last six years. Yeah.

Earlier I was saying, I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I just don't view them as a super team, but I see a lot of people now saying, okay, this is the super team in the NBA. Do you think they're a super team right now?

Nah, I'm not buying that. I mean, first of all, Kevin Durant, anything that has him, the expectations are going to be championship or bust. And when Kevin Durant joined Phoenix last year, I think it was the eight or nine regular season games that he played and they didn't lose.

Then, you know, then they got to the plus, got knocked out in the second round. And the biggest issue with Kevin Durant is he has a hard time staying healthy and he's had a lot of leg injuries the last four or five years, really going back to the Achilles injury that he suffered in the NBA finals in 2019. I don't necessarily think it's a super team, but they're going to be formidable.

There's no question about it. You know, Devin Booker's yet to win a championship. You know, Bradley Beal has never been to a conference finals. Obviously, Kevin Durant is the one with the playoff resume. They're going to be tough. You know, they'll go in along with Denver as of right now before we know whatever else is going to happen in the Western Conference.

They'll go in as one of the favorites, but that doesn't guarantee anything. I just wonder they're going to fill out the rest of that roster because it seems like DeAndre Ayton's going to be on his way out. And we know last year, right, KD and Booker showed up in most of those postseason games and they didn't really have much else around them.

No, I think that's fair, but now they're going to have Bradley Beal. And there's a lot of teams that have a lot of OK players on their team that don't have stars. So, you know, Frank Vogel and the front office there in Phoenix and the owner, Matt Ishpia, they're in a good position where they have three stars and now they're just trying to fill out the rest of the roster.

It's easy. It's much easier to do it that way than to just have a team that doesn't have stars and try to find them because that's what the NBA is all about. At least having one star, which is why what Jokic did was so impressive because even though Jamal Murray is a terrific player, Jamal Murray's never been an All-Star. When they call Jokic won a championship without a teammate who had been an All-Star before. Frank Isola here with us.

Great job, Sirius. XM, NBA, Randy. You, of course, see him all the time as well on PTI with ESPN. By the end of the week, will Zion Williamson still be a member of the New Orleans Pelicans?

I think that's the $64,000 question. I know the story from Bill Simmons where he says he's got a good authority that he's going to be traded. You know, I would think if the Pelicans are ready to move on from Zion Williamson, it must be because they don't feel like he puts in enough work to keep himself in shape because we all know that he's injury-prone, but maybe they look at it as he's not doing enough to work on his body and to, you know, be in a position where he's fit, he's ready to play. You know, they did get rid of Teresa Weatherspoon who was kind of his workout coach with the team.

So maybe that's somewhat telling as well. I would think for them, let's say, for example, they trade him to the Charlotte Hornets who have the number two pick and you can get another player. Maybe that's something that'll be a positive for the Hornets because the guy is great. I mean, you know, when he played with the last time he played, was it 29 points? He was averaging, he shoots 60% from the field, but he's played 29 games the last two years. He's played 114 games, his four years in the NBA. He just doesn't play enough. Frank, I used to always admire the loyalty that Damian Lillard's had for Portland.

Now I just think it's insanity. You got a few prime years left. I would try to force my way to Miami. When it's all said and done and the season rolls around, do you think Dame will still be in Portland or will he be elsewhere? I think he'll be on the move. I think there's a chance he'll be in Miami, maybe Brooklyn, or, you know, maybe there's another team out there that will try to get him. You know, the one thing with Damian Lillard, he doesn't have a no trade clause, but he has such a good relationship. Not only with the organization, the city of Portland, I think they would try to do right by him to, you know, to a certain degree. They're not just going to give him away to a team that he wants to go to.

They're going to want to get back something of value. And I think you're right about the loyalty. It does say a lot about Damian Lillard, but I always say, you know, Kevin Garnett was in a similar situation. He was incredibly loyal. The Minnesota Timberwolves gave everything that he had, even when they weren't putting a good team around him. He needed to be convinced that going to Boston was the best thing for him. He kind of went kicking and screaming, but he absolutely loved his time in Boston. The fans there, you know, they still revere Kevin Garnett, who ended up going to Boston and really changed his career.

He had been an MVP before and was obviously recognized as a great player, but he won a championship in Boston and that was viewed a lot differently. If you were running Golden State, I know Draymond Wright has opted out of the contract, the $27.5 million player option. Would you give him a contract extension if you were running the Warriors? You know, I think when you get to these situations, you know, business is still part of it, but maybe they feel an obligation with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson on the team to try to run it back. You know, Draymond Green fits in perfectly with that team and even though Klay Thompson, you know, seemed to slow down a little bit and Draymond Green, I didn't think was great in the playoffs. You know, really what's hurt the Warriors is when they had a couple of those lean years and they got the number two overall pick on the draft and they got James Wiseman and it didn't work out. It's very similar to when Detroit many years ago had the number two pick on the draft and they could have drafted Dwayne Wade, they could have drafted Carmelo Anthony, they drafted Darko. They won the championship that year, Darko didn't contribute, but that thing could have extended a lot longer if they had drafted Dwayne Wade or Carmelo Anthony. When you're drafting high and you miss, it is a major, major setback for you and I think that's a major setback for the Golden State Warriors. By the way, before we let you run, we know that you cover the Knicks for a long time. When you saw Carmelo Anthony be referred to as an all-time great Nick and that elicited a lot of response from the Nick fan.

I personally like Carmelo Anthony a lot. I think he'll get his number retired. I don't have a big problem with that. You do? You got a problem with that?

Easy with that. Well, first of all, I hate the whole idea of retiring. I think it's a silliest tradition. It's an American sports tradition.

I think it's absolutely absurd. You want to put like a ring of honor, put the guy's name up there, I got no problem. But you're going to open up a Pandora's box if you retire Carmelo. And Carmelo was a brilliant player in terms of covering him. He was incredibly professional, a great guy.

I loved covering Carmelo Anthony. He's cool. He's a sweet guy. He's a nice guy.

He's also really cool the way that he carried himself. But come on now. I mean, he won one playoff series with the next.

I mean, we're lowering the bar a little bit here. You know, Charles Oakley went to a finals. John Starks went to a finals. I would think if Carmelo got in, I think you're talking Starks, Oakley, and probably you might, I mean, Bernard King would be a definite. And then you might, you know, Alan Houston might be up for debate as well.

I'm just not big on it. I hate these kinds of discussions because I'm not trying to say the guy wasn't a great, great player, but I think a, I think it's a silly tradition and I just don't think he did enough in terms of team success to justify something like that. Well, you know, and I know it, my friend Charles Oakley could go find a cure for cancer. The Knicks will never honor him again. As long as the real Nick fans know what Charles meant to the organization, the guy that gave go ask his teammates what he meant. I think ultimately that's all he cares about. A hundred percent Sirius XM NBA radio's very own Frank Isola. Frank always appreciate the time.

All right, Zach, take care. Do you hear that? That is the sound of BMW performance without a single piston or cylinder, a generation of all electric vehicles designed and built like no other. The BMW iX, i7 and i4 revolutionize every drive into a thrilling opportunity to feel the pure rush of BMW, 100% electric. But isn't that what you'd expect from the ultimate electric driving machine? Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today.