Justin Termine | Sirius XM NBA Host

Instacart knows nothing gets between you and the game. That's why they make ordering from your couch easy. Stock up today and get all your groceries for the week delivered in as fast as 30 minutes, without missing a minute of the game. Download the app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last.

Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. You are a fighter. Ladella is your reward. Ladella, the mark of a fighter. Trick responsibly.

Beer imported by Crownland Port, Chicago, Illinois. The wait is over. That's right. Season five of The Kardashians is here. Just when you thought life couldn't get any faster, they're punching it into overdrive. Chris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall, and Kylie are back and continue to defy expectations in all their endeavors. So get ready to go behind the glitz and glamour of the most iconic family on television.

The all-new season of The Kardashians premieres May 23rd, streaming on Hulu. Crazy Night of Hoops last night. Knicks blow out the Pacers by 30 points. And then the Nuggets have won three straight games to take a 3-2 series lead up against the Minnesota Timberwolves. We saw 40 points from the Koliokics.

We saw 44 points from Jalen Brunson. And now joining us from Sirius XM NBA radio. You can catch him Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Eastern time. He is Justin Termini.

Justin, appreciate the time as always. How you been, my man? Not doing well. I mean, it's an easy day to do a show. You can't talk about last night with your eyes closed basically for three hours, which I'm about to do. Then you can't do the job because last night was something else in both games. So we led the show today with the excellence of Jalen Brunson. But then we really did hammer home the point that people need to start giving Tom Thibodeau more credit. I know you were talking about that throughout the game and how a lot of people after game four were getting on his demanding coaching style. And now today, it's all praise for Tom Thibodeau. Yeah, well, it hasn't just been like after game four. Thibodeau plays his guys too much. I mean, it's been for years and you can't please anybody because everybody's ripping people for like load managing. Then you're ripping Tom Thibodeau for actually making guys go out there and work.

So like, where's the happy medium? And guess what? This is a guy that's doing all of this with the roster that he's been given. So how about turning it around a little bit and saying, hey, he's missing his starting power forward, a guy that's made an All-NBA team the last couple of years.

He's missing Ojianni Nomi. Now, he's missing the starting center from the beginning of the year. He's missing his leading scorer off the bench in the postseason in Bogdanovic.

And he's got him on the precipice of going to the Eastern Conference Finals. I mean, what do we hear in Philadelphia, Zach, every single year? Oh, well, we haven't reached the Conference Finals because like this guy's banged up and envied. We hear it with Giannis the last couple of years, like he hurts the knee in the first round. They lose to Miami. This year, they lose again.

Like, it's always an excuse for these different teams. Yeah, Thibodeau's losing guys left and right, and they're about to go to the Eastern Conference Finals. How far are you willing to go on your praise, just wondering, of Jalen Brunson when you look at the entirety of the league? I mean, I think he's been the second best player in the postseason. It's been Jokic and him also. I mean, I think that's pretty high praise.

You know, is that a fair assessment? Because I think there's a gap between Jokic and him right now in the postseason, but there's a gap between Jokic and everybody in the sport right now. He's one of the 15, maybe 20 best players in the history of the sport in climbing. And then you've got Brunson, and nobody thought this was possible. Regular season, I voted him fourth for MVP behind only Jokic, Luka, and Shay Gildas-Alexander, and he's been even better in the postseason. When he enters next season, Jalen Brunson, from a national perspective, do you think people will refer to him as a top 10 player in the league? I mean, you have to based off this year, and I guess we'll see what he does like the rest of this series, what he does in the Conference Finals. Jason Tatum's viewed as a top 10 player in the league. He's probably viewed as like a top 7 player in the league. First team All-NBA last year should make it again here this year, I would assume, and if he outplays him against Boston, then I think that'll help out his case as well.

But he already outplayed an MVP and envied in the first round, and right now he's been the best player on this series as well. Talking to Justin Termini from Sirius XM NBA Radio. Okay, let's get to the other game last night.

What has happened? We know how great Jokic is, and we know that Denver is the champions, and they weren't going to go out easy. But this was 2-0 going back to Minnesota, now it's 3-2 going back to Minnesota in favor of Denver. What have you really seen, and what's been your big takeaways from the last three games? I mean, do we really know how good Nicole Jokic is?

I'm not talking about you, but people in our industry. I mean, while he's down 0-2, and maybe he didn't deserve even one MVP, never mind three, then you'll look at what this guy's done right now. Last night was his master. Last night was the best game that he's ever played. I think, Zach, he's arguably the greatest offensive player I've ever seen, and I don't say that lightly. And it's not just because of last night.

I've been saying it for a while. You can throw him up there with Michael and Bird and Magic and Curry. I'm not saying all-around player, because clearly he's not the defender that Michael was. But when you just look at the offensive side, he is as good as there has ever been. And I think last night was the best game that he ever played, especially when you consider what was at stake in regards to maybe falling behind 3-2. And then you take into consideration that he's doing it against whether you think he's the defensive player of the year or not. He's done it four times, and Rudy Gobert did it against him, did it against the best defense in the NBA.

So you roll all that into one. I think it was the best performance of his career. And even before last night, I felt that he was one of the best offensive players in the history of the sport. Yeah, and to people that are still skeptical, and they're like, oh, I don't want to eventually say he'll be a top-10 player of all time, the way that I'll just say it is, and there's been a big debate on Kevin Durant recently, where we know he's in the top 20, probably in the top 15, but to me, he's not in the top 10. When it's all said and done, we will talk more glowingly about Nikola Jokic than Kevin Durant. I think that's how you get some people to understand it right now in the moment.

Yeah, you should be doing that already. I mean, I was on with Simmons last night on his podcast, and he said he's a top-15 guy, and I brought up the name Kevin Durant. I said he's got to be ahead of Durant. Now we're talking Shaq, Hakeem, guys like that. We're not talking about Durant anymore. This guy's got three MVPs. Durant has won. Durant needed Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to win a championship.

I think Jamal Murray's awesome. He's not Steph Curry. He's maybe Klay Thompson, and he's not the all-around guy that Klay Thompson is, because Klay was a better defender. He's never made an all-star game. He hasn't been fantastic in this postseason, so he's a better player already than Kevin Durant. He's only 28 years of age, and he's got several years to add to the legacy.

And here's the crazy part to me. I don't get why some people hate on Nikola Jokic. They're like, oh, he's boring. I watch him play the passing the way he hits some of these shots. I've never seen anything like him at his size and how just well diverse his game is. It's amazing to me how people watch him, and they go, oh, he's boring.

Well, those are the people I would never want to play pickup basketball with if they think that Nikola Jokic is boring, because that might be my first pick in regards to the guy that I want to play with, right? And to me, I'll give you the list right now, and I don't mean to bring up Mount Rushmore because I don't like that, but he's on the level of the three other guys that I've enjoyed watching the most throughout my years living, and that's Magic, Bird, Steph Curry, and him. Now, there's been better players, Michael, LeBron, but I didn't get as much joy out of watching those guys as I got out of watching those four guys, meaning Curry, Bird, Magic, and Jokic, and at least with Jokic, Magic, and Bird, they had something very similar. All four of them. All four of them are just very unselfish, and three of them are three of the five best passers of all time. Curry's not in that mix for the best passer of all time, but he is unselfish as all could be.

Wrap it up with Justin Termini. Okay, let me get to the other two series, Celtics and Cavs. You have no Donovan Mitchell tonight. It feels like he's probably played his final game with the Cavs.

Would you agree with that? Yeah, which is unfortunate because Cleveland's an awesome sports town, and all you've heard with Donovan Mitchell for years and years is, oh, I want Miami. Oh, I want New York. Oh, I want Los Angeles, and clearly the Knicks have been taken out of the mix because he is not as good as good as Donovan Mitchell is. He is not Jalen Brunson to my estimation. Brunson has kicked his butt two consecutive years in the postseason. He did it last year with New York.

He did it the year before when he was in Dallas and Donovan Mitchell was in Utah, and he's not getting the spotlight away from Jalen Brunson, so I guess it's Miami, it's L.A., or it's Brooklyn, but it seems like the guy is desperate to get there, which again, I feel bad for the Cavs fans. So where's your confidence with your Celtics? Like, hey, they're going to win this series. I think they'll beat either New York or Indiana. I think they have a pretty good road to get to the finals.

You've been saying that all throughout the year. The question is, do you believe that they'll finally get the job done now in the NBA Finals with this group? Well, I mean, they better get there because if they don't, that's one of the more, you know, regardless of who it comes against. You know, and the Knicks just scare me because they don't have nearly the talent, but I mean, they play hard, and they've been playing at a high level for months now. It seems like the Celtics have been sleepwalking, and I guess rightfully so. They haven't really had to wake up, and I think that could be a punch to the jaw next round when they're facing, like, Josh Hart running around at a million miles per hour, but they get to the finals, and it's against Minnesota. If it's against OKC or Dallas, who I don't see getting there because they're too banged up, I think they can beat those teams.

I just don't see any way that they're going to beat Denver if they get there. Now, let me get to the Mavericks and the Thunder. You know, it looks like Dallas is going to take a 3-1 series lead.

Then SGA happened down the stretch. Now it feels like the Thunder are going to win this series. Is the Thunder your pick, or are you going with the Mavericks? Nah, I've got to go with Oklahoma City right now just because of the health of Luca Doncic. If Luca is healthy, I think it's pretty clear Dallas would have won the series because even last game, what, it was a four-point game?

It came down really to free throw shooting. They were 12 to 23, which is absolutely unacceptable, but Luca has played, I think, so far in the eight postseason games. It's four of his eight worst postseason games of his career, so he's just with a knee. I'm not going to crush the guy, but, you know, in some cases you can crush a guy. James Harden doesn't perform well in the postseason.

He seems like he's perfectly healthy. Crush him, Luca's hurt, and they're not going to be able to win if Luca's hurt, so I got OKC. So we all know the Joker is the best player in the league. When you wrap out Justin Termini's top five players in the league right now, who are your top five players? Oh, God, so that's difficult putting me on the spot like that, but Jokic is clearly number one. I would still go with Giannis at number two. Luca's, you know, maybe I would put Luca at number two. Shay Gillis Alexander has now done it, I think, two years in a row, so put him in the top four, and then maybe there's a little bit of a gap after that, like from four to five.

But really, there's also a massive gap between one and two. Maybe Embiid, just because Embiid won the MVP last year, but are we getting sick of watching Joel Embiid? Not like Jason Katems outperformed him in the postseason on several different occasions. There's other better players in the postseason come, you know, than Embiid, but, you know, Embiid's in the mix, I guess, for the fifth spot along with a couple of other guys. The only reason I ask this is because when you go through this conversation, you just kind of realize how good of a spot the NBA is moving forward, because we don't have Durant, we don't have LeBron, Steph Curry anymore in the playoffs. You look at these teams, you know, we know what Tatum's done with the Celtics. You look at the Knicks and their great story with the Jalen Brunson. We talked about the Mazz with Luca, SGA with the Thunder, Joker and Murray with the Nuggets, and then obviously Anthony Edwards with the Timberwolves. You know, this is a fun time to be an NBA fan, and that's kind of been my takeaway this postseason is that the younger guard, the new guard is here, and it's been spectacular.

A hundred percent, like LeBron went there and sat, and I guess I'm bringing up his name now, but he sat out at that Cavs game. I refuse to talk about it. That was an attention-seeking moment. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, it's not your turn, buddy. It's Anthony Edwards' turn. It's Lucas' turn. It's Shay Gildas Alexander's turn. It's Tatum's turn. It's Jokic's turn.

And I'm completely fine with that because I'm loving these guys, and I'm also loving the attitude from these guys as well with Anthony Edwards going, you know what? It's on me. I'm the reason that we lost Game 3. I thought that was refreshing. Tom Thibodeau going like, hey, listen, I'm not using injury as an excuse. That's refreshing, and that's something I don't think we saw with that older guard where it's, oh, it's Frank Vogel's fault. Oh, it's Darvin' Ham's fault. I love the fact that these guys kind of have a little bit of a different attitude, and it's refreshing that we're upon a new era here, Zach.

You could listen to Justin Termini on Sirius XM MBA radio Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Eastern. JT, appreciate it as always. All right, buddy.

Appreciate it. Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect, impress-them-on-the-third-date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives.

They bag eggs like the 12 precious pieces of cargo they are. So let Instacart shoppers overthink your groceries so that you can overthink what you'll wear on that third date. Download the Instacart app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last.

Minimum $10 per order, additional term supply. The wait is over. That's right. Season five of The Kardashians is here. Just when you thought life couldn't get any faster, they're punching it into overdrive. Kris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall and Kylie are back and continue to defy expectations in all their endeavors. So get ready to go behind the glitz and glamour of the most iconic family on television.

The all-new season of The Kardashians premieres May 23rd streaming on Hulu. Dive into the start of summer at Whole Foods Market. Check out their summer splash event with sales on fresh organic produce, organic strawberries and a fan favorite sale on Ben & Jerry's and Tolenti. Explore deals on grill-friendly meats like organic air-chilled chicken breast, beef and chicken kebabs, all with no antibiotics ever from our meat department. Plus, grab easy sides from prepared foods and cool off with refreshing drinks. Kick off your summer and shop in store or online at Whole Foods Market today.

You got it. There he is, Justin Termini, always full of energy joining us. The Mark of the Fighter, trick responsibly, beer imported by Crown & Port Chicago, Illinois. Dive into the start of summer at Whole Foods Market. Check out their summer splash event with sales on fresh organic produce, organic strawberries and a fan favorite sale on Ben & Jerry's and Tolenti. Explore deals on grill-friendly meats like organic air-chilled chicken breast, beef and chicken kebabs, all with no antibiotics ever from our meat department. Plus, grab easy sides from prepared foods and cool off with refreshing drinks.

Kick off your summer and shop in store or online at Whole Foods Market today. You could spend the weekend doing the same old whatever, or you could conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.