Antonio Daniels | Sirius XM NBA Radio Host

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The all-new season of the Kardashians premieres May 23rd streaming on Hulu. And away we go. Our number three of our radio program.

That's right. It is the Zach Gelb show on the infinity sports network. Antonio Daniels. And I'm not just saying this because he's joining us. He's one of the best basketball analysts in the country. Quite frankly, he should be in the booth with Mike Breen doing these games on ESPN. And he's kind enough to join us right now on the show as a recap, the Celtics and the Pacers game, one of the Eastern conference finals from last night and get you set for the Western conference final that does commence this evening with the Dallas Mavericks, obviously with Kyrie Irving and Luca Doncic going up against the Minnesota Timberwolves. So the sensation that is Anthony Edwards. Antonio Daniels, my friend, how you been? I'm blessed Zach. How you doing brother?

I appreciate your kind words, man. Well, it's just true. Like, I don't know how much you want to talk about this. And I love Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. They were together. Nothing against, well, I have a little bit against JJ Reddick, but I can't say nothing against JJ Reddick. And then you have Doris Burke. Breen's great. It just doesn't feel like a crew that should be calling the Easter conference final.

It just didn't have a big time feel last night is what I thought. Oh, well, well, for me, I mean, I think Doris Burke's great. I think JJ Reddick is great. And I have all the love in the world for Mike Breen.

I don't have an issue with it. I know when you have, when you're accustomed to a booth with Mark Jackson and Van Gundy and Mike Breen, and that's no longer there. It's hard to replace. You know, we keep hearing on TNT, this is the last year for inside the NBA, you know, and if that's the case, can anything replace that?

You know, it's very, very tough to replace something that you're accustomed to. And we were accustomed to hearing the booth with Breen and Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. But I mean, you know, Doris Burke and JJ Reddick and Mike Breen, you know, I think it just, especially for Doris Burke and JJ Reddick, Mike Breen's a fixture.

It just takes time to develop that symmetry that those guys took time to develop that we got accustomed to. Do you think, by the way, because we already saw Doc leave that booth, it kind of feels like JJ Reddick's going to be the next coach of the Lakers. Like, that's just how I feel. What's going to play on out? Who do you think will be coaching the Lakers next year? I don't, I don't know. I mean, for me, it's, it comes down to what are the Lakers looking for? For me? What are they looking for? I honestly, I don't think anyone has a damn clue. But for me, Zach, I, and we've discussed this on, on our Sirius XM show, is it a good idea to hire a rookie head coach into a championship or bus scenario?

Is that a good idea? Bringing Adrian Griffin into Milwaukee was unfair to Adrian Griffin, right? Bringing Darvin Ham into the Lakers was unfair to Darvin Ham because no matter what the expectation is, they can't meet it. Because there is an amount of grace that's given to coaches with the championship resume. Example, Adrian Griffin won 70% of his games and got fired. But Doc Rivers comes in with the championship pedigree because he won a championship with the Celtics. Now it's viewed different, even though he did not have the same success that Adrian Griffin experience.

It's just seen as different for whatever reason. I don't know what the Lakers are looking for. So the question I would ask you Zach is what is their identity? Offensive or defensive?

It's a great question. I think their identity is outside of the coaching search, whatever LeBron wants this off season. Cause I think LeBron's coming back. Davis is going to be there. They'll try to go get Donovan Mitchell. I don't think the Cavs are going to trade him to, to the Lakers, but I think that they're tied to LeBron still as long as he still wants to be there. So whatever LeBron wants to do, but then it doesn't make sense why LeBron's not picking the coach supposedly. Okay. So if that's the case, right? If their identity is what LeBron wants their identity to be, then how can they make the correct hire?

Right? James Borrego, who was in new Orleans this past year is a great offensive mind, a great offensive mind, very knowledge. You saw what he did in Charlotte with this time in Charlotte, improving that team every year that he was there coming to new Orleans this year, being the associate head coach behind Willie green, you see what he did with the offense this year. If you're not looking for an offensive coach and you're not looking for a defensive coach and you don't have an identity, what exactly are you looking for?

Or who should I say? Are you looking for to become the next leader of the Los Angeles Lakers? And the other thing that I'll say, and I know it can't with the CBA, and I'll get a bunch of people that will always tweet me this. It's almost like LeBron should just be the player coach and coach the team. I know it can't happen, but that's just the way that I kind of feel this should all play out.

Yeah. I mean, but that's the, you could say that for a lot of teams, you can say that for a lot of teams, sons, you know, like this is a star driven league. And I, and I don't mean this in disrespect to coaches. Cause I feel like a lot of coaches, regardless of the situation, they're swimming upstream, right? When Adrian Griffin got fired for me, that's on Damian Lillard and that's on Jonathan, the Kupo.

Agreed. You know, when those guys get fired, when Darvin ham gets fired, that's on the bronze James. And that's on Anthony Davis. This is a player power league does bring Vogel get fired.

If Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and Bradley bill really want him there. Does that happen? Absolutely.

I'm not right. So they co players have to have some accountability in this whole thing, but on the other side, how much do players actually want to be held accountable? They don't.

And that's the biggest problem. It's like Kevin Durant. We know him and Booker are the reason why Vogel's no longer the coach, you know, even Darvin ham with the Lakers it's it's LeBron didn't want him anymore. Anthony Davis didn't want him anymore.

And you never hear that side. It's like, I don't make the decision when we know down deep, LeBron pretty much runs the Lakers and Kevin Durant runs the sons. Right. So, so for me, if I'm, if I'm interviewing to be a coach, I'm interviewing to be a head coach, I need to know that I have the backing of the front office, right? Organizational chemistry is so incredibly important. Well, that's why you take a five-year contract, Antonio. I also need to know that if my star player wants to challenge a call, and I don't agree with him that I'm not going to get fired because I chose not to challenge. I need to know that the front office has my back, right? As a coach, I'm gonna have the back of my players, but that doesn't mean I'm going to acquiesce to everything that the players want. Cause then I can't do my job to the best of my ability. My job is to coach.

My job is to put you in a position to be successful. That doesn't mean that Frank Vogel, that doesn't mean that Darwin ham. That doesn't mean that Adrian Griffin is going to do everything that appeases star player.

So, and let's not confuse this here at that. Cause this is the star player conversation role players need not apply, right? We're not talking like if, if Malik Beasley goes to the front office and says, look, I don't want Adrian Griffin here. Like, yeah, that's not how it works. That's not how this whole thing works. Jared Vanderbilt, if he goes and says, I don't want Darwin ham.

That's not how this whole thing works. These are star player conversations were happening. Well, I'll tell you who the perfect coach would have been.

And it was funny cause this was the one pushback they kind of gave a LeBron guy. It would have been Ty Lue cause, and it all goes back to that contract a few years ago. I think they only wanted to give him a three-year deal and he wanted a four-year deal. He would still be the coach there. If that was the case, no question. And for me, that's a different, that's a different case because there's a difference between organizational chemistry and organizational arrogance.

Right. And I think what the Lakers practice there was organizational arrogant, almost saying like, you know, you're better. We don't need you if we don't need you like, no, yes you do because Ty Lue is that good of a coach.

And what you chose to do was not give him what he deserved. It's almost like reagent situations with players, you know, with, with Dallas, what they did with, with Jalen Brunson right now, he leaves, he goes somewhere else and he blows up knowing that he was the perfect fit right in there with Luca in the first place. So now you spent the last two years trying to replace Jalen Brunson with Kyrie Irving.

There's a difference to me between organizational arrogance and, and organizational chemistry. And I felt that the Lakers have an organizational arrogance. That's tough for any coach to come in and meet or exceed the expectation that is there. Talking Antonio Daniels, let's get to the game last night. I was disappointed in the fourth quarter because I thought Indiana just gagged away that game. And I know Tatum had a great over time and they'll get to the finals, the Celtics. They will definitely be in the finals. He's going to have to play a lot better than what he did. I know he redeemed himself in overtime, but he's got to play a lot better in the fourth quarter. If that's a team that wants to beat whoever comes out of the Western conference in a few weeks. Yeah.

It's tough, man. It's watching that game yesterday. It felt like Boston was going to pull away and then Indiana does what Indiana does. They show grit, they show fight and they work themselves back in the game. And they did everything they possibly could to get that game away. Zach, every thing that they possibly could to get that game away. They gave Jason Tatum an opportunity to receive himself because like you said, in the fourth quarter, he wasn't there without that overtime period.

We are having a completely different conversation today about the boss itself, but there are a couple of things that continue to happen. My thought first thought was Rick Carlisle has been put in this position a couple of times in the post season, right up three with you. You can do the clock, 15 seconds left, 18 seconds left, 20 seconds left. And certain coaches stand by this. Certain coaches will say, look, we're going to go ahead and play this out. We're going to play it out. Other cultures today, we are going to foul and it's come back to bite the Indiana Pacers a couple of times this post season already and choosing not to foul as opposed to allowing it to play itself out. And again, last night, obviously, along with some, a couple of inexperienced toner turnovers, that proved to be the difference in game one. And I tell you what, Zach, it is so hard. Like it's amazing to me how much one game can make, how much of a difference one game can make, because I feel like this is going to be very, very difficult for Indiana to recover from.

Imagine the conversation we're having today. If Indiana leads that series 1 0 as opposed to being down 1 0 the way they are. So when Carlisle talks to the media last night, cause I think he said he instructed Siakam to foul or the team to foul, but then because of the positioning Siakam, he thought then elected not to do so. Do you believe with what you were just saying, Carlisle actually saying he told these guys to foul? Yes, because Carlisle is not the type to throw his guys under the bus.

That's not, that's not his nature. That's not what Rick Carlisle does. If he comes on a post game presser and says, you know what? I told guys to foul, but because of the positioning, when Jalen Brown caught that ball, Pascal Siakam didn't think that he could actually foul. Then Rick Carlisle told his guys to foul. He did.

I don't have a problem with that. We we've seen Rick Carlisle, not throw his guys under the bus, but publicly challenges guys, challenges guys. And there's a difference between challenging guys and calling out guys public. Rick Carlisle does a fantastic job at challenging these guys. When you looked at game five against the game six, excuse me, against the New York Knicks. When he was asked what they needed to do to win, he said, you know what? We have to play harder like the Knicks are doing. And we have to rebound the basketball. That's a way of not calling your team out, but publicly challenging your guys to play harder and be better. And they responded in game six and also in game seven. So if Rick Carlisle told his guys to foul, I, I believe that he told his guys to foul because that's not in his nature. What do you think happens in game two?

Cause you were kind of alluding to it. I kind of think in the Celtics have struggled in the postseason in game twos there. Oh, and two so far, I think since they got away with one last night, you're going to see a different Celtics team in game two and they'll go back to Indiana up to, Oh, I agree. But I tell you what, man, I, there is something that's not there with Boston right now. And it's not, it has, I've been saying this all playoffs. You can look at the fact that they, they ran through the Miami Heat first round, right? They ran through the Cleveland Cavaliers second round and yesterday they had a rough game one and still found a way to win. There is something to be said about this team.

Execution wise that's missing. There's a lot of individual. There's a lot of one-on-one, you know, let's go one-on-one.

It's a, your turn, my turn scenario between Jason Tatum and Jaylin Brown. And that gets them into trouble. Their offense looks so difficult. Sometimes I do agree with you though. I think when it, when you look at the way that game one went down, I have a hard time seeing Indiana respond and think that they can play any better than what they did last night in Boston and then win game two.

I'm with you. I think it's two, two are going back to Indiana. Antonio Daniels is a great job, serious XM MBA radio. So take the teammates out of this, just dynamic duos. You have Tatum and Brown, you have Halliburton and Siakam. You have Luca and Kyrie and you have Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony towns. Who's the best remaining dynamic duo in the NBA playoffs. I know what's between for me is between the two out of the Western conference for me, I felt like Luca and Kyrie were the most dangerous coming in.

Like I felt like Dallas was the most dangerous team coming into the playoffs, especially in the West. Anthony Edwards has obviously taken another step and Carl, you know, for me, okay. I will say this. I'll say this out of all of them. I'm going with Kyrie. I'm going with Kyrie and Luca. I agree with Kyrie and Luca because here's the thing. Luca, I think is the best player pound for pound remaining in the post season.

So when you do it with the ones, that's how I go there. And then for the twos, Kyrie, the problem is, will he just be locked in and he's locked in now? So he's a top 10 player when he's locked in. Yeah, I just it's man.

That's a toughie because I remain locked in for three, four minutes. It's not generally about Kyrie because I agree with you to a certain. Here's the question I would ask you that you said Luca's the best player. Has Luca been the best player that's posted? No, it's been Anthony Edwards. Right. And that's it. Now, we're not talking about going all the way back to the first week of October, second week of October and trying to get, because all that really matters is from the second week of the playoffs.

So it's the second week of, of the season, the post season off, you know, that that's really all their max, you know, it's, ooh, that is a great question. Cause here's why, like no offense to Halliburton and Siacom their fourth, you could tell me out of the other three, you could order them any way you want one, two, and three. And I'm not going to argue it. I put yesterday when we did this question, Luca and Kyrie won. And then I went cat and Edwards too. And brown three. Agreed. Agreed. Because for me, it's the, the, the second week, man, we stopped you.

It seems like you want to say Minnesota. No, no, but, but for me, it's the second week of April on when you start looking at it, because in, in realistically speaking, Luca has not been that great in the post season. He hasn't been that great in the post season. He's had some good games here and there. He's been kind of up and down when he leaves the officials alone, completely different basketball player. But in the post-season that starts the second week of April up to now, the best player has been at the Edwards.

It has been at the Edwards. I know for me, I have a different love for Kyrie Irving's game. He's one of the only guys in this league that if I wasn't blessed to do what I do now that I would actually pay my hard earned money to watch play and him and Luca, figure some things out, you know, last year when Kyrie got traded there in February, it was a struggle to the point where people were questioning, Oh, you know what?

This can't work and all these other kinds of things. Then they signed him, resigned him in the summer contracts, bring confidence. Now you have Kyrie Irving coming back into a situation with Luca.

They don't figure some things out, you know, whether they're on the floor together or staggered, they figured something out. I'm still going to go with those two. I think that's the most skilled backward history.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm comfortable saying that if I can say on one hand, that's the most skilled backward history. I can definitely say their first on that list once and for Antonio Daniels, last thing I'll ask you, you know, obviously you're, you're very optimistic about the Mavs. I can't crush you for that whatsoever. But when you look at this series, Mavs and Timberwolves and the way that you've been hyping it up, who you going? I'm going Minnesota. So I'm not as optimistic as you think I'm optimistic on those two that on that back court. But when I look at the way that the Minnesota Timberwolves are built, not just the size across the front line, the thing I feel like is so underrated about the Minnesota Timberwolves. I don't, a lot of credit goes to Rudy Gobert for being defensive player of the year and being the anchor or the number one defensive rated team. But the fact of the matter is, and we saw this when Rudy Gobert was absent from the birth of his child, they have excellent point of attack perimeter defenders.

Nas Reed's great. Well, Anthony Edwards, it's a great defense, right? And to kill Alexander Walker is a great defender.

Jada McDaniel is a great defender. When you have excellent point of attack perimeter defenders. And again, I don't mean to discredit Rudy Gobert.

It makes his job a little bit easier. If you have guys that are quote unquote traffic homes on the perimeter and makes your job a lot tough, because now you constantly have to rim protect. Rudy Gobert doesn't have to rim protect like that, like he has in years past because of the guys that he has on the perimeter.

That was the difference. Jamal Murray struggled, right? Jamal Murray struggled against his Minnesota Timberwolves team.

Why? Because they have excellent point of attack defenders. They're long, there's lengthy, they're athletic, and they have excellent defensive IQ. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, they struggled against his Minnesota Timberwolves team. It wasn't because of Rudy Gobert, it's because they have excellent point of attack perimeter defenders. And now we're going on to Kyrie Irving and Luca. I'm interested to see the way this game is. This series is officiated.

But I am going with the Minnesota Timberwolves for that reason. We can look at their 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 ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy. Meet green light the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn save spend wisely and invest with your guard rails in place. Parents can send instant money transfers automate allowance and more. Plus keep an eye on spending with real time notifications. Join more than 6 million families building healthy financial habits together on green light.

Get your first month free at greenlight.com slash Odyssey. That's greenlight.com slash Odyssey Rudy Gobert defensive player of the year. But for me, it's about the point of attack perimeter defense that sets him apart along with Rudy Gobert anchoring. He is the sensational Antonio Daniels. Make sure you listen to him weekdays on Sirius XM NBA radio. Thanks so much my friend.

Always great to talk to you for sure. Zach appreciates brother. You got it. There he is. Antonio Daniels.

I can listen to him talk basketball all day. But if we kept on going, I think my bosses would have said, wow, you're way, way, way, way, way late for a break. So we don't need to upset the bosses will come on back. 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, Courtney, Kim, Chloe, 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.

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