Justin Termine, SiriusXM NBA Radio

Did you know Instacart delivers more than groceries? You can get tech, beauty, office supplies, sporting goods, and more, all delivered right to your door in as fast as an hour. So whether you're cooking dinner or your phone charger is cooked, you can save yourself multiple trips by shopping over 1000 stores in the Instacart app. Visit Instacart.com or download the app to get free delivery on your first order. Offer valid for a limited time, minimum order $10, additional terms apply.

If you want to learn more, visit Instacart.com or download the app to get free delivery. But I never feel like he's happy. Like he always seems like miserable when he's on TV.

in his 38% two handed chest shot. Well, like even in saying you're not disrespecting anybody, you're disrespecting somebody in Dolph Shays and his generation with your apology or your explanation. So I just don't understand it. But again, let him keep doing it. I'm not the one that's upset with him.

It's it's past generations. So you're not upset with him at all? Because like I know I said that in Jess when the conversation started that like you're his dear close personal friend, but just following it on Twitter, I feel like you don't like him. Well, I mean, I think the stuff that he says is stupid. And I think when somebody that's got a platform like that uses it to spread misinformation about the laughable idea that the you know, the 80s were less physical than the game is today. I mean, I think it does a disservice to the younger generation who then are miseducated about it and call up people like you and I and don't know the history of the sport, because they're saying well, JJ Redick told me this. So I, you know, I think it's not good.

I don't like it. I don't think he's like, for example, I think he's good on the games. I think he's good in the studio. I think he does an excellent job of his podcast. I don't think that he should be on first take arguing about stuff that he knows nothing about.

Don't talk about past generations, break down the pick and roll interview your current your current players and leave it at that and stepping into waters he has no clue about. And that's essentially the same thing Kevin McHale said to me yesterday, he was listening to the show, heard the comments from Dominique heard him for Redick and called in and said that Redick's talking about a lot of stuff and subject matter that he has no clue about. Have you ever interviewed JJ Redick just wonder? We're trying to get him on right now. So the producer is reaching out to him. See, and if he it will come on and I'll pass along that information once I once I know. Yeah, that would be a good interview because yeah, I don't know JJ personally, but I feel like he doesn't back down from anything.

I think the two of you would have just a good time on the air and it would create some compelling radio. Yeah, so I'm hoping that he says yes, we'll see and he should Justin Termini here with us. So Giannis is back for the Bucks in their game right now up against the Heat, you know, if Giannis wins and I know sometimes we don't like when we compare athletes to athletes and other sports, but it would be very Mahomes like if Giannis finds a way to get another championship this year with the start that he's been off to in his career. Yeah, I mean, you know, and it's too bad that he's got heard here a little bit with the rest and it's banged up because I think he's reached in that point where maybe he's missed a too many a couple too many games to win the MVP and you know, Jokic and Tatum are guys that really haven't even missed 10 games yet. Luca and Embiid and Giannis are treading to that dangerous territory. But if you align everybody up, you say who's the best player in the NBA? I'm still going with Giannis at this point. Like my MVP vote would go to Jokic, but who's the best player in the game? That's Giannis still to me. Why would the MVP vote go to Nicole Jokic right now? I mean, I think he's got the best numbers.

He's got the best team in the Western Conference. He's remained relatively healthy, whereas a lot of these other guys have missed double digit games. The only guys to miss double digit games and win the MVP in the history of the award are Allen Iverson in 2021 who missed just 10 games and then Bill Walton who missed, I believe, 24 back in 1978. So I factor that into the MVP as well as not missing a lot of games. Jokic hasn't done that.

And again, the numbers just from day to day are absurd. And I also just think that he makes his teammates better more than anybody in the sport. You know, I love watching him play. How much pressure is on Denver? Because we know that now like you get Jamal Murray back and another still been injury issues for that team, but they're the best team in the West right now by six games have a six game lead over the Grizzlies. Do you sense a lot of conversation about pressure being on the Nuggets?

Well, there's a lot of people that are saying this pressure on your kitchen. Here's where I stopped doing the whole like pressure on an individual player is when LeBron made his decision in 2010 to go to the Miami Heat and now all of a sudden it's become a thing where I'll put pressure on you in have expectations for you in grill your feet. If one, you pick your own team, right? Because then it's like, are you pick this situation?

You thought you could win in it. And if you can't, that's got to be a checkmark against you. Like with Durant going to go on to Brooklyn. I think that counts against them like Jokic hasn't picked his teammates.

So I it's like, all right. Well, Jokic is great, but he could easily go to Miami and play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and win with that get the pressure off with Nicola Jokic or if he went to Golden State played with Stephen Clay and Draymond. Are you kidding me? They would win just like they did with Durant and I'm supposed to go. There's no more pressure on Jokic. So I'm not going to put pressure on Jokic until he builds like some type of super team and loses under those circumstances. And also even with how great that they've been this year in the regular season and we're going to see if they'll have that postseason success with Durant going to the Suns. We now know that that's the team that's under the most pressure is the Suns. Oh, of course.

Yes. Durant's under pressure because of the failure there in Brooklyn. You can't have two super teams fail like that. And then Chris Paul's running out of time. Like Jokic still 26, 27 years of age. He's got time to like, all right, you know, I'm going to team up with Luca and I'll win titles with him. Chris Paul's 37, 38.

I'll be 38 in May. And if he doesn't win, all right, when's he going to win? And the other thing that's funny, like I know I made some news there with the Dominique comments on Reddit earlier this week, but Dominique's the guy that can say, you know what? I just didn't play with teammates, right? It's not my fault that he won a championship, not my fault that he didn't get out of the second round. I just didn't play with teammates and I'm playing in the era of Bird in the Eastern Conference and, you know, the Pistons in the Eastern Conference and the Knicks and eventually the Bulls like great teams. Chris Paul can't say that. He played with James Harden. He's an MVP. He played with the Clippers teams that were favored to get out of the Western Conference back when they had Blake and DeAndre Jordan who made an all NBA first team. And Jamal Crawford is the sixth man of the year. And J.J. Redick, who was his, you know, his other guard there, like that was a good team. And now he's playing with another great team with Devin Booker and Kevin Duran.

So he can at the end of the day say, you know what? I didn't win a championship, but I didn't have good teammates. No, he had good teammates up to this point.

He's just failed to capitalize on that. Justin Termini here with us. If I tell you that the Nuggets and Suns don't get to the NBA Finals, who would you then pick coming out of the West? I guess it would be the Clippers, but I really, and that's why I picked at the beginning of the year, but I have real hesitancy there just because they don't play enough games together. I think continuity is something that's important when you get into a close game. They're also nine and 19 against teams with winning records this year above 500. And that's the worst team, worst record of any team that's qualified right now for the postseason. So they've got to learn to win away on the road. And I just don't also understand the addition of Russell Westbrook, who doesn't do anything they need and gets in the way and takes the ball out of the hands of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. They're 10 and four of the last 14 games. They have the best offense during that timeframe.

Okay. Why would you then insert a ball dominant guard into that situation where it can mess up the offense? And also, like lack of continuity, you've got to get some reps under your belt. And here's the guy that, you know, here's a team that, you know, never plays in Kawhi and Paul George and a teammate that's very difficult to learn to play within Russell Westbrook. It's not like Clay Thompson or Kevin Durant who could fit into any offense. Like he's a difficult guy to get used to playing with. So, you know, they got to they got to worry about that over the last 20 games is getting some continuity.

Justin Termini here with us. I want to just get expectations that you have for two teams the rest of the way. I'll start you off with the Golden State Warriors.

Yeah, I mean to me it looks like it's done, unfortunately. And their starting lineup is good. I still think it's near the top in regards to like plus minus when they're out there as a five-man unit. The problem is Wiggins hasn't been the same as he was in past years. You know, Clay's starting to play a little bit better right now, but their bench is just atrocious.

And they failed to capitalize on Wiseman last year when they could have dealt them for something good and then essentially admitted that it was a busted draft pick here just a couple of weeks ago. Gary Payton doesn't even look like he's going to be fully healthy after that trade. So I don't see, you know, I see them probably getting into the top 10 as long as Steph comes back relatively soon.

I know he's going to be out at least the next three games. But as far as doing any damage in the postseason, I don't see it happening. Do the Lakers even make the plan?

I think they do and they've got no excuse not to now. They're three and one since the deadline. They won last night despite LeBron going 5-20, scored just 13 points. Him and Davis combining for just 25 points. In the past, they've never won a game like that.

The good thing about it though is now Rob Palenka has done his job. They're just a game and a half out of the 10 spot. If they don't make it, you can't really point to Palenka right now. You can point to LeBron, you can point to Davis, you can point to the coaching staff. They've got more than enough to make it. And on top of that, if they do qualify for the postseason part of it, not just the play, I think they give a team at the top a scare.

Especially a team like Memphis who right now just looks absolutely horrible. When you look at the future of Anthony Davis, is this his final few months with the Lakers in your opinion? I don't think so. I think if he was unhappy and maybe he is, it'd be his final few months at another location. But I think maybe he might be more concerned with living in Los Angeles than, alright I can go back and live in Chicago or I'm freezing my butt off. I don't have that fame maybe that comes along with being a Laker. I think it's very difficult to judge guys who go to the Lakers because outside of Dwight Howard, who really gets there and then leaves? So if it is, I don't think it's of his own choice. I think it would be on the organization that maybe made that decision.

Wrap it up with Justin Turman, he does a great job. Sirius XM, NBA, radio. The Sixers, tremendous effort last night in the final eight minutes of play. Is there any reason though to believe in Philly this year? Because we've seen this the last few years, whoever they bring in to compliment him. Maybe we know forever it was Simmons. Now it's James Harden. But James Harden doesn't really make a big shot.

I know Maxie is a good player. Are you believing in Philly? Do you think it's going to be another one of those years where they don't get out of the second round or at best just get to the third round? I think it's going to be tough for them. I think they're really good. Would I be shocked to see them in the NBA Finals? Can they win a title?

I wouldn't be shocked. But I think they're slightly worse than Boston or Milwaukee. And I think the most interesting storyline the rest of the way. A lot of people might say Jokic chasing the MVP. How do Kyrie and Luka fit in next to each other? Can the Lakers make the postseason? Can Golden State? I think it's who's the number one seed in the Eastern Conference because the team that gets the number one slot only has to face one of the other two teams once. So Philadelphia, Boston, and Milwaukee. If you get the one seed, you only face one of those teams.

If you're the two or the three, you have to face both of them. Philadelphia right now would be the third seed. That means you're asking them to win a series without home court advantage against the Bucks, then do the same thing against the Celtics. That might be too far to overcome if they end up in the three spot where they are right now. What has impressed you the most this year about Joe Mazzullo with the Celtics? Just that he was able to transition without any distractions. At the outset, I thought they'd be the third seed.

My co-host, Eddie Johnson, thought they'd be the fifth seed just because no Robert Williams. Then you're bringing in a new head coach right prior to the start of the season. So I think just coming in and gaining the respect of all these guys, especially as a guy that never played at the NBA level.

That's the thing that sticks out the most. We know what Quinn Snyder is thought out to be as a coach. We know he's on the sidelines this year after the split with Utah. Now it looks like he's getting back into the game with the Hawks. Do you think that's the right job or did he make a move too quickly?

I just don't understand. First of all, I think he'd have other jobs open up for him in the offseason. He's probably the most respected guy right now without one. Secondly, I thought he left Utah. I said this yesterday because he didn't want to rebuild.

Then he goes down to Atlanta. Honestly, if you line these two teams up, I would say Utah is the better situation. I like Lowry Markin and maybe as a centerpiece more than I like Trae Young, who is inefficient and is ball dominant.

Markin is not that. He works within the system and they're about the same age. So I like the centerpiece more in Utah. I like all the draft picks that we have in the future there with the Jazz, unlike Atlanta who got rid of a bunch of draft picks to build around Dejounte Murray and Trae in the backcourt. And then I also have more faith in Danny Ainge built to the team than who I think is one of the two or three best GMs in the sport versus Landry Fields who's doing this for the first time.

So it's weird to me that Quinn Snyder leaves Utah, which is a better situation because reportedly he doesn't want to rebuild, goes to Atlanta where I think it's going to be a little tougher there than it was with the Jazz. Two more for Justin Termini. The All-Star game. Everyone tries to give a take this week. How do you fix the All-Star game?

What is there to do? What do you say to that? I think that one, it's the best player in the sport, busts his butt, everybody else will follow. And I think that LeBron is the best player in the sport. He's set the tone. Just like when he left for Miami, OK, LeBron, the best player is team jumping. Now we're going to follow suit. So you see that with Anthony Davis, you see it with Kevin Durant, you see it with Jimmy Butler.

So on and so forth. And if the best player plays hard and says it's important to do so in the All-Star game, everybody else will follow. To me, that's the only way that you do it. I don't want to hear about incentivizing with two million dollars.

Have some pride. And I think that starts with the best players. They set the tone. Everybody else will follow.

That's the easiest way to fix it. But again, I don't know if that's something that these guys have in their DNA like they did maybe 20, 30 years ago, including, by the way, let me just say this. Kobe Bryant, who did bust his butt in All-Star games, did not load manage.

Yet you get everybody in the league today. I mean, you hear mumble mentality or like I grew up idolizing this guy. Then they don't follow in his footsteps.

Like, don't say that you follow in his footsteps and you idolize the guy and then you don't do the same stuff he was doing. I find that to be hysterical. You need more Anthony Edwards.

That's what you need. Oh, I love Anthony Edwards. And we sat down with him out in Minnesota, out at the All-Star game in Salt Lake City as well.

That kid is so refreshing. I'd love to see him be the face of the league. Like, it's funny because when he came into the league a couple of years ago, I'm sure you remember.

People say, well, the knock against Anthony Edwards. If he doesn't love the game, this guy loves the game and he's the perfect representative for the league. I wish we would get more quotes from guys like him instead of quotes from Kyrie Irving. Last thing I'll ask you, just because you bring up Kyrie, how does that end in Dallas? Like, two, three years from now, how do you think we talk about Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving? Well, maybe no Luka Doncic in Dallas anymore as a result of making this decision. And that's why you don't feel bad for, like, Nico Harris and Mark Cuban if it blows up in their face because, you know, what is it? You fool me once, shame on you.

You fool me twice, like, shame on me. Well, now we're getting to the point where it's, like, fool me, like, four times because I had an issue with Boston going out and getting him because I had heard such bad things in Cleveland. Then he goes to Boston. It's why I don't feel bad for Kevin Durant. Is Kevin Durant going to hitch his wagon to Kyrie Irving? And now Mark Cuban is going to do it out there, so they're taking a big gamble. My guess, I mean, I'll go with, you know, you judge the future based off what we've seen in the past.

So, my prediction is that it's going to be an absolute train wreck. Good stuff, Justin Termini. We appreciate the time. Thank you. All right, Zach. Appreciate it.