Justin Termine, SiriusXM NBA Radio

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Visit max.com. Man, Hickey's trying to put me to sleep with this ReJoy music, so let's bring some energy into the building with Justin Termini from Sirius XM MBA Radio. JT, what's happening? Max just trying to get through the day. How about you?

Well, I'm doing well. I gotta start you off with Harden, then we'll get to the craziness of this Durant-Kirey-Irving relationship still. What was your reaction today when we finally got the answer that Harden is opted in and now looks like Philadelphia is gonna look to get rid of him and trade him? Well, I mean, it's the same thing after he has a bad game of the postseason.

It's more of the same, right? So I was unsurprised because it seems like this guy just keeps racking up the trade demands. And I know this one's a little bit different because, you know, he could have just left by the free agency of the team option. But it is like semi another trade request for James Harden. He's just hopping around the country from one stop to a next. It'd be nice if he settled down in his roots and didn't blame other people and tried to make the best of the situation.

So that's like one takeaway from it. But then I think the serious one is it's not even about James Harden. It's about how this impacts Joel Embiid. And if this makes Philadelphia worse and Embiid sees Jokic win the championship, he keeps getting impaired to him. He can't get out of the second round again as a result of maybe Philadelphia taking a little bit of a step back and not being able to replace a guy who say what you want about him is a 20 and 10 guy. What does this do to Embiid? And does he eventually in the next year or so request a trade? So I think that's the biggest outcome of this and impact is what does this mean for Joel Embiid?

Yeah, I 100% agree. And it wouldn't surprise me in a year or two from now if Embiid just says, OK, I'm done with the Sixers. Let me go somewhere else to try to go win a championship. The thing that I struggle here when you when you look at what what Harden is going to do now, it's like I look at it and I go, OK, there's no way that Darryl Morris should have given him a four year deal. But if you get rid of him, what are you going to get back into return? And I just don't see outside of finding a way to go get Damian Lowe at another deal, how the Sixers actually get better for this upcoming season.

Exactly. With, you know, the pressure of having to impress Embiid or also eventually maybe he asked out, as we talked about. And I really like Tyrese Maxey and I think Maxey get better once Harden leaves and he's got the ball in his hands over the car. But Tyrese Maxey is not good enough to be the second best player on a championship team, even if he is playing with the MVP. I mean, historically, look at who's been the number two on championship games. I think we saw Andrew Wiggins maybe a couple of years ago, might have been the worst number two on a championship team.

I can remember in a while. And, you know, and I'm not even sure that Tyrese Maxey is that because he can't defend at the level of Andrew Wiggins. And, you know, Embiid certainly isn't as good as Stepp. So that's going to be a tough year, I would think, depending on what they do with Harden. But I can't envision it being somebody they get in return for Harden that's better than Maxey. Out of 100 percent, where's your percentage at, Justin Termini, that somehow, some way the Sixers wind up with Damian Lillard?

Geez. Yeah, I would say I still don't feel confident in that because, you know, and even if they do, Maxey is going to have to be a part of that deal. I'm not doing the deal for James Harden. And if you're dealing Tyrese Maxey to get loaded and you're also losing Harden, I'm not sure if that, you know, makes you better than Milwaukee or Boston or certainly not Denver coming out of the West. Do you think Damian Lillard would actually get traded? Because when I look at this stuff with Dame, we keep on hearing about it and he keeps on giving the benefit of the doubt to the Portland Trailblazers, even though he should want out, Justin Termini, I still think Damian Lillard's going to be there come the first game of the season.

Yeah, I mean, I think it comes down to Portland might even want to deal them. They just don't want to be the bad guy. They want him to say it.

And it doesn't seem like he wants to say it. But again, I'm not going to rip Damian Lillard. I'll rip like the coverage of this and I'm getting sick of talking about it every day. But I'm not going to rip Damian Lillard for like being loyal.

And I tweeted this a couple of minutes ago. I'm going to rip the guys that keep bouncing around the country from team to team signing contracts going on to the damn things are bouncing around from super team to super team. And as of this point, Lillard hasn't done that. He's actually been the one guy that stays put, which is we as fans should want. And even if he does ask out, I mean, it'll be after 11 years in an organization that really hasn't been run great.

So I won't even blame him. It's not like he's, you know, Kawhi Leonard asking to leave a good organization in San Antonio. Then he's asking to leave a good situation in Toronto or James Harden like, you know, I want out from Philadelphia where I'm playing with the MVP.

So I'd still give him the benefit of the doubt. If you do see James Harden going and landed with the Clippers. I know we don't know how long Kawhi Leonard's going to be out and you got Paul George there as well.

Is that even a fit? I mean, it's three guys that want the ball and it's certainly, you know, a situation where, you know, Russell Westbrook's not going to come back. And, you know, the one thing I'll say about James Harden, because I am very critical of him, is at least like he loves to play.

Typically the guys out there on the floor a lot. And that's not something you could say to the other clipper guys. But like, for example, I could see him fitting in there better than like with the Knicks. Cause I saw that report originally from Adrian Wojnarowski where he's like, Oh, two teams that are expected to be interested are the Clippers and the Knicks.

Okay. I could see it from the Clippers perspective. If the Knicks make that move, that's in competency on their front office because one, you got Jalen Brunson.

I think Brunson's a better culture guy. And I think Brunson's a better player than James Harden right now. And he's got to run your offense, not James Harden. And two, if you're the Knicks, you shouldn't be using your assets on James Harden. You should be using it on a younger star that might become available more specifically Joel Embiid if he gets upset at the end of this year. And also the man that used to represent Joel Embiid was Leon Rose.

So he's got the relationship there. So let me get to this Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving stuff. I saw earlier today, Chris Haynes reported that Kyrie Irving will meet with the Phoenix Suns. Kevin Durant's got to be the biggest idiot on the planet if he now doubles down on Kyrie Irving and make sure that he joins them out in the desert in Phoenix.

No, that was my initial response to it. Like of all the responses, my initial response was why the hell would Kevin Durant want this? If Kevin Durant does do this, he deserves to lose.

He deserves everything he gets. And I feel that way about the organizations as well. Now, I guess the organization can say, well, well, we can change them, right? Like, you know, those other teams didn't know how to handle them.

We can do it. That's what Dallas did a little bit because they got the relationship between their GM, Nico Harrison and Kyrie from their days with Nike. But even them deserve to be criticized when things ultimately go south.

And they will. I said the same thing about Brooklyn, Sean Marks. They knew what they were getting when they signed him because the guy was a loose cannon in Boston.

I had heard stuff even before he was dealt to the Celtics that told me that they shouldn't want him. Danny Ainge did it anyway, so he should be criticized. But if Kevin Durant goes back to the well twice, then ultimately like you, like you said, an idiot because like Danny Ainge did it once. I don't think Danny Ainge would sign up for it again.

Sean Marks did it once. Don't think he'd sign up for it again. So like him signing up for it twice, a joke. How would this even work financially? Yeah, I don't think that it can unless Kyrie is going to take a significant pay cut or there's other, you know, weird ways to do it under the CBA. But, you know, and Chris Haynes laid it out in the article.

I don't think this is something that that's really happening. I can't see Phoenix even wanting it, even if they got the guy for free, because they don't need like a guy who doesn't play any defense, needs the basketball, is a scorer. You know, it doesn't do the small things that lead to winning. They need depth, they need size, they need length, they need defense, they need somebody to do like the dirty work. So I don't even think that Phoenix wants it. If Phoenix is meeting with him, I think two things. One, maybe it's Durant doing something for his buddy, throwing him a bone, help his value. And then two, maybe it's Phoenix trying to run up the price on Dallas so they have to overpay him and it kind of hurts Dallas in the long term when they've got a guy that's pretty scary in the Western Conference of Muka Doncic. And even though I don't trust Kyrie Irving, it's almost like the Mavericks, since they already made the investment, now they have to find a way to keep Kyrie Irving there, because if you don't have someone else that comes in and who's really available, you run that risk of Luka Doncic maybe wanting out. Well, I think they're, I think them signing Kyrie to like a long-term deal is them signing, you know, basically Luka to, it's them signing off on Luka asking for a new team.

It goes both ways, right? Exactly. Like they're in a lose-lose situation. They're an absolute disaster right now. And the funny part about it is you got Kristaps Porzingis, who if Jason Tatum like is able to utilize him and find a way to make him good and contribute to winning, what does that make Luka? I mean, Luka couldn't get that much out of him and Porzingis was great at the age of 27 in Washington.

You got Jalen Brunson who leaves there as the best player in the team that gets to the second round and looks like he's a brilliant playoff performer. So just a complete disaster in Dallas and signing up for more Kyrie. Again, like I know multiple people wouldn't take the guy for free, including people that have coached and run front offices in the NBA, would not take the guy for free. How about that? Last thing for Justin Termini from Sirius XM MBA Radio, is Middleton going to be back with the Bucks in your opinion?

Yeah, because they have no choice. Even if they don't want to throw that money at him, same thing with Brook Lopez. Giannis is up for an extension in September, I believe. And if they don't give Middleton the money and keep them on the team, same thing for Brook Lopez. Giannis is going to start going, how do I win here?

So ultimately, yes, he will be there and so will Brook Lopez, in my opinion. There he is, Justin Termini from Sirius XM MBA Radio. Appreciate the time as always, my friend. All right, Zach, appreciate you having me on, buddy. There you go, Justin Termini.