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00:00So, Termini, you've been spared.
00:01Justin Termini appearing on the Weissart Wright.
00:03We make it right.
00:04Call Cal Wright, hotline host of the NBA today on SiriusXM.
00:08Justin, I hate having you under these circumstances.
00:11The Cavaliers look absolutely dead.
00:14James Harden looks 75 years old, and Donovan Mitchell looks injured.
00:17Other than that...
00:19I mean, exactly, with James Harden.
00:21I mean, James Harden just looks like James Harden.
00:24It doesn't look like he's 75 years old.
00:24No, no, no, no.
00:25Hold on, Termini, don't.
00:27Termini, come on.
00:28He's the last year in Game 6 against the Nuggets.
00:33He dropped 28.
00:33He looked fine.
00:34He looked fine in the Toronto Series.
00:36What did he do the next game?
00:36You can't...
00:37What did he do the next game in Game 7?
00:38He didn't show up, and that's the thing with James Harden.
00:41I'm not saying James Harden never shows up.
00:43We've held this discussion before, but he also then has games where he completely disappears
00:47for an all-time grade.
00:49Nobody's got more of those on the resume, so you can't be surprised what you've seen
00:52from James Harden.
00:53It's been the past with James Harden is what you're getting in the future.
00:57All right, Justin.
00:57Anthony has just been Debbie Downer all day.
01:00Give me some hope.
01:01I know there's only a 7% chance that a team will come back from down 0-2 in a
01:06series.
01:06Tell me some reason that I can believe the Cavaliers can at least make this a series.
01:11Well, I mean, one, you're going back...
01:13And I picked Detroit at the beginning of the series, so I really don't think that they're
01:17going to come back.
01:17But I guess it's Donovan Mitchell does what he's capable of doing, which we really haven't
01:23seen since the second game of the Raptors series.
01:26And I was thinking about it like last year.
01:27Last year, you guys lost, but it wasn't because of Donovan Mitchell.
01:31And you go back and it's like, Mitchell had a 48-point game last year.
01:35He had a 43-point game.
01:36I think he had played nine postseason games.
01:39He gave you two 40-point games.
01:40He gave you six 30-point games.
01:42He hasn't given even one of those this postseason.
01:45So he's capable of doing that.
01:47You'll win a couple of games.
01:48But this version of Donovan Mitchell, whether it's a health issue or a lack of focus, he
01:53just doesn't look like the same player that he did last year at the postseason.
01:57It's what it looks like to me.
01:59And so because of that, I think he's trying to conserve energy defensively.
02:03And when James Harden, I think he gave up the stats were seven baskets and seven attempts
02:09from Cade Cunningham in the fourth quarter.
02:11So they were matchup hunting and whether they matchup hunted on Donovan or James, it's
02:16a huge problem if, you know, you have two of your guys making that much money that can't
02:20play defense right now.
02:22Yeah.
02:23I mean, you look at everybody else that, you know, that's alive, they could defend.
02:27I mean, Detroit is the best defensive team in the Eastern Conference.
02:31You just got through Toronto.
02:33Toronto's probably the second best defensive team in the Eastern Conference.
02:36And we knew that the weakness with, that's the issue is you knew the weakness with
02:40Cleveland, was going to be the defense.
02:42And then on top of that, the offense is stunk, right?
02:44So they were going to need to win with offense.
02:47They turned the ball over way too much.
02:49Mitchell isn't what Mitchell's supposed to be.
02:51And James Harden is pulling the same old crap that he's done in the past.
02:54And then either get Evan Mobley or Jared Allen doesn't show up in one game.
02:58So last game, it wasn't Jared Allen.
03:00This game, it wasn't Evan Mobley.
03:02So there's shit, like, has one of the four stars, like, has anybody in Cleveland been
03:06happy with any of the core four?
03:08Like, one guy.
03:09No.
03:09I don't think that you can say that they've been.
03:11Like, there hasn't been one of the four that has played well.
03:14I'll give you Allen last night.
03:15That's it.
03:15I mean, and because he got in fall trouble in game one, he was eliminated there.
03:19I just...
03:20Yeah.
03:20I mean, I'm talking from the start of the postseason.
03:22Oh, yeah.
03:23No, and I'm...
03:24There's not one guy that I would say, all right, well, this guy's at least playing well out
03:27of the four, usually you get, like, the reason that you have multiple stars is, all right,
03:31one's off, the other one steps up.
03:33I think all four guys have been bad.
03:35How much trouble is Kenny Atkinson in if they can't turn this thing around?
03:39I mean, I don't blame him, but it's, you know, it's only been two seasons.
03:43You know, they couldn't win with J.B. Bickerstaff.
03:45J.B. Bickerstaff's clearly a really good head coach.
03:48Look what he's doing in Detroit.
03:49And I think Kenny Atkinson is a really good head coach.
03:51And he, you know, so neither one of these coaches can get him to win.
03:54That's on the coach, or is that on the core?
03:57Hmm, good question.
03:58Well, we might be talking about, you know, bigger issues than just the head coach
04:02if this thing goes down.
04:03I mean, can you imagine if they get swept?
04:05Dan Gilbert is courtside at all these games.
04:07He still lives in Detroit, you know, for part of the year.
04:10And he's got to watch the coach that he fired, he dismissed because he couldn't get them
04:15over the hump and watch his team get brutally beat down in these games,
04:20even though the game's probably closer in score than they've actually looked to the eye test.
04:24I think everybody is in jeopardy if this thing goes south.
04:28Yeah, I mean, plus he's paying the most money.
04:30It's like you're in a smaller market and he's paying the most money.
04:34I mean, fans should love Dan Gilbert.
04:36That's the last guy that they should have an issue with.
04:37It should be with the rest of the roster.
04:39And, like I said, heading into the postseason, there were only really two teams
04:43that had to blow things up if they failed to have success.
04:46They were both in the Eastern Conference because at the very – like, look,
04:49Boston even won a championship, and that's where I am.
04:52And they're talking about maybe blowing things up.
04:54But at least Boston, end of the day, can say, well, with this core,
04:57we won a championship, right?
04:59The Pistons can say, eh, you know what, we're still young.
05:02We can win in the future.
05:04Then you go to the Western Conference.
05:05It's like the Thunder, they lose, ah, well, we won last year.
05:08Detroit, San Antonio, ah, we're still really young.
05:11It's like almost all the – you know, Denver, hey, at least we won one
05:14with this core, right?
05:15Cleveland can't say that.
05:17New York can't say that.
05:18So either one of these teams flames out.
05:20There's going to be massive changes.
05:22New York doesn't look like they're going to flame out,
05:24but the Cavs certainly do.
05:26I'm just trying to figure out what the Cavs could do moving forward here.
05:29And Evan Mobley's stock is not rising during the playoffs right now.
05:32Now, tell me your thoughts on Mobley and what his future might be.
05:36I mean, they might not have a choice because a guy like Donovan Mitchell
05:39might, even though he's partly to blame, he might ask out.
05:41So then you don't even have a choice, right?
05:44And with Evan Mobley, yeah, I mean, he hasn't –
05:46and that's the one thing maybe you could put on these coaches is,
05:48has there been any development for Evan Mobley?
05:51Like any from day one until where he is now?
05:54It certainly hasn't been the jump that we thought it was going to be.
05:57Like he got compared with Scottie Barnes for years.
06:00How good was Scottie Barnes in that first-round series?
06:02Like you could see the improvement with him.
06:04I thought even though Toronto lost,
06:06I thought he was clearly the best player in that series.
06:08So the development just hasn't been there.
06:10And, you know, I don't know what his value around the league is.
06:13Clearly it wasn't good enough to get Giannis straight up
06:15because you saw that report yesterday where not only did they want Evan Mobley,
06:18he wanted all these draft picks.
06:20You know, maybe Milwaukee's in a spot where now they're forced to trade Giannis
06:26and he demands it and then they'll accept, you know, a little bit less
06:29and Evan Mobley is the centerpiece without all the draft picks.
06:32But does Giannis even want to go there, right?
06:34He's already in a small market, cold weather market.
06:38Does he want to go and play in Cleveland?
06:40He might not want to.
06:41Justin Termini joining us right now.
06:43So obviously the way the NBA works and the people who cover the league
06:47and I think the fans kind of fall in line,
06:49it's a league that when you don't have playoff success,
06:53you get crushed no matter how talented you are.
06:56And we see that with Joel Embiid.
06:58Certainly we've seen it with James Harden over the years.
07:01Donovan Mitchell, I've often wondered how he's been able to stay away
07:06from a lot of that conversation.
07:08I know from time to time people bring up,
07:09well, he's never gotten out of the second round.
07:11But they don't crush him the way they do, guys, like Joel Embiid.
07:15Is this the start of this?
07:17If he loses and it looks like he just flat out can't be the best player
07:21on a contending team, is this going to be the turn of the narrative
07:26when it comes to Donovan?
07:28Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
07:30And it's a weird thing how you pick on different guys,
07:33just like Baseball Hall of Fame.
07:34Well, some people aren't allowed to use steroids like Barry Bonds
07:38and they keep him out because he was mean to the media.
07:40And then you got David Ortiz.
07:42Oh, David Ortiz is nice to the media.
07:43He can use him if he wants.
07:44He gets into the Hall of Fame.
07:46It's like the same thing with athletes, right?
07:48It's like, well, you know, we're not necessarily crazy about this guy.
07:50So we're going to crush him.
07:51The other guy gets off the hook.
07:53I can't answer it.
07:54I do know that, like, in dealing with Donovan Mitchell,
07:56that he's like the nicest superstar, you know, personally from a national level.
08:00I don't know how he treats the local media.
08:02He's crazy.
08:03The guy is just awesome.
08:05So, you know, maybe that plays a role in it.
08:07But then there's other guys that are decent with the media that get crushed.
08:10So I don't know how they pick on their guy.
08:12But I would say he probably gets off the hook a little bit
08:14because people are going to go to James Harden.
08:17Like, James Harden's the easy guy to blame,
08:19even though Donovan Mitchell should be the face of this team.
08:22Like, Harden's just the bigger historical name, I guess.
08:25And when he has duds like he did last night, like my show today,
08:29we're going to mention, like, hey,
08:30Donovan Mitchell doesn't look like he did in the postseason last year,
08:33looks maybe a little bit banged up, isn't moving well.
08:36But the guy we're going to go all in on is probably James Harden
08:39because that performance last night was grotesque,
08:41and he's just the easy target.
08:43So he probably gets protected by the president.
08:45And as weird as it sounds, it's almost like if you were going to lose anyway,
08:48it's better that you lost with James Harden
08:50because people are going to blame him instead of you.
08:52That's a good point.
08:52Can you talk about the Cavs' bad starts in both these games too?
08:55Like, they're ill-prepared, didn't seem ready to go.
08:58I think they had four turnovers in the first three minutes yesterday.
09:02That matches, you know, how ugly things were at the first quarter in game one.
09:06I just find it hard to believe a team that's in the playoffs,
09:10especially when you've already won a series, can look this bad to start a game.
09:14They look ill-prepared.
09:17Yeah, I mean, with Detroit, like Detroit had a couple of those in the first round,
09:20and I think it helped wake them up.
09:22Clearly, Cleveland wasn't woken up by the fact that Toronto pushed them.
09:26I thought the Toronto series would – I don't know what you guys think.
09:29I thought the Toronto series this year would be good for them,
09:32that they went seven games because last year they played Miami.
09:35They cruised through them.
09:36Then they got to the second round,
09:38but it was almost like they weren't ready for playoff basketball
09:40because the first round was so easy, and I felt like that hurt them.
09:44I thought this year, hey, we went seven games with Toronto.
09:47They put a scare on us, so now we're going to go into the second round
09:50and we're woken up and we've got to understand that we can't play with our food.
09:53Clearly, that didn't happen.
09:54In regards to the slow starts, like, you want me to answer that question?
09:58It doesn't even sound like Kenny Atkinson can answer it
10:00because they asked him what last night, and he goes like,
10:02we're still trying to figure it out even though we're about 90 games into the season.
10:06So if he doesn't have an answer, how the heck am I supposed to have one?
10:09It is weird because that group with Harden only had like six games
10:13and 92 minutes coming into the playoffs, and maybe that's part of the problem too
10:16is that when you watch this team and they have no chemistry,
10:20I mean, that may just be, I don't know, like aftershocks from the trade
10:24because they did – I don't know, it's not like I'm making excuses, but I am –
10:27that they didn't have enough time to play together during the regular season,
10:30and even when they had time to play, even at the end they were arresting guys.
10:34I just – I think they had a bad formula going into the playoffs.
10:38Yeah, I mean, that's what happens when you make a major trade at the deadline.
10:41You've got to work out the kinks, and, you know, I've seen this in past years,
10:44like with Brooklyn when they had James Harden.
10:47Tyree, Harden, and Durant never played together, right?
10:50I think it was 2022 they went into the postseason one year, 2021,
10:55and it's like, all right, well, they have all this talent,
10:58but they don't know how to play together, and you have to have reps
11:00because, you know, you have to be able to say this is where this guy likes the ball
11:05or this is the play we're going to run in this spot
11:07or this is who gets the ball in this situation, this is where you're supposed to be on the floor.
11:10If you don't play together, like it's just as good as pick-up basketball
11:14with, you know, with five guys going down to the YMCA.
11:17Like Detroit's played mostly last season together with this court.
11:21They played all of this season together.
11:23They approached the regular season seriously.
11:26They didn't miss games, so that stuff is important.
11:30Justin, looking at Oklahoma City and the Lakers,
11:32I marvel at what LeBron is able to do.
11:34He goes another 38 minutes last night, more than Donovan Mitchell played yesterday,
11:39and he scored 23 points, but in the end, the focus is going to be on the officiating,
11:43and it looks like Oklahoma City is going to waltz to a back-to-back title,
11:47and it feels like nobody likes them.
11:50How do you feel about their tactics and them as a dynasty in the making?
11:55Well, I mean, listen, I get more heat than anybody else in the media,
11:59because I'm not sure if you heard the saying when somebody called them the black eye of the NBA,
12:03and that was me, and I actually got called out by Aaron Wiggins at the parade last year.
12:07Did you just quote yourself, Termini?
12:10That's impressive.
12:11Termini did.
12:12He quoted himself.
12:13I'm a third person, nonetheless.
12:15But, you know, so I tagged them as the black eye of the NBA.
12:18So with me, it goes back even further than their style of play.
12:22It goes with the way that the team was constructed when they lost on purpose for multiple seasons,
12:26and then they want the ladder pulled up behind them now, along with Sam and Tony.
12:31It's like, we tanked.
12:31We got all our good players.
12:33Now the ladder comes up, and nobody can build their team the same way.
12:36So I don't like that aspect about them.
12:38I think it's bad for the NBA that they win that way.
12:40When, say, Indiana last year and Kevin Pritchard, they didn't tank in order to get to where they were, right?
12:45They did it in a small market by just making shrewd moves in trades and not losing on purpose.
12:50So I thought it would have been better for the NBA if Indiana won the finals last year.
12:53But then on top of that, you throw the way that they foul bait in.
12:57And it's not about, like, the free throws and getting to the line.
12:59It's the way that they do it.
13:01It's frustrating.
13:01You call out SGA.
13:03People say you hate SGA.
13:04It's not that you dislike SGA.
13:06It's just that he doesn't need it.
13:07He is so good, he would still be the best guard in the NBA if he wasn't flopping around like
13:11a fish and foul baiting on stop and snapping back his head.
13:14But he does it.
13:15You saw Chet Holmgren does it last night.
13:17And then it's also the juxtaposition as to how their guards, like Lou Dorton and Alex Caruso, basically murder you
13:23on the perimeter.
13:24So it's impossible.
13:25And, like, listen, it's not just fans or media complaining about it.
13:28People will call up and say, why are you constantly complaining about OKC?
13:31Well, because the players are.
13:33Because the opposing coaches are.
13:35If they're talking about it nonstop, what do you want the media to do to ignore it?
13:38So, yeah, I do think that it is an unpleasant way to watch a basketball game.
13:42It's disgusting, Termini.
13:43Every other dynasty.
13:44Like, think of Chicago.
13:45Chicago's having their dynasty.
13:46You're going, oh, my God, is Michael Jordan great?
13:49You know, the Celtics have a mere dynasty.
13:52It's like, oh, well, the passing of that team is amazing.
13:55Showtime Lakers.
13:56They're so fun to watch.
13:57Golden State.
13:58Steph Curry.
13:59All the great shooting.
14:00Like, you always pointed to the positives with them.
14:02Even if you didn't like them, you couldn't deny that the main topic was always a positive.
14:06Oh, Steph's shooting.
14:07Well, guess what?
14:08With Oklahoma City, the main topic, whenever they win a game or play a game, is just the
14:13officiating or the flopping.
14:14So, yeah, I don't think it's necessarily great for the league.
14:17All right, final question, Termini.
14:18We'll get you out on this.
14:21Where's LeBron James playing next year?
14:24I think it's going to be the Lakers.
14:25I wouldn't have said that maybe a couple of months ago, but with the way that he's been
14:29rejuvenated with the Luka injury, I almost think that that has helped him keep him in
14:34L.A.
14:35And listen, he doesn't like Cleveland.
14:36He doesn't want to live in LA.
14:37Oh, what are you talking about?
14:39Because if he did, he wouldn't have left.
14:40Where the hell is that coming from?
14:42He wanted to be born.
14:43He wanted to be born.
14:43He wanted to be a big market.
14:44He only used you guys the second time around to fix his reputation.
14:48And a marketing ploy, and plus, you had the good core there with Kyrie Irving to go
14:53back to.
14:54It was the best option for winning in the Eastern Conference.
14:56Wait, Kyrie wanted out?
14:57What are you talking about?
14:58Kyrie wanted out of here.
15:00No, I'm saying Kyrie was there when he went back the first time.
15:04Oh, I see he was there.
15:05But Kyrie was like, get me on the first train out of here.
15:07I'm not the superstar.
15:08Termini, we're done.
15:08Yeah, and he should, because now what does he get cheered in Cleveland?
15:11So why not treat Cleveland and the fans horribly?
15:14Because you guys are just going to give him a pass anyway.
15:16Oh, we're going to retire his number.
15:17We'll give him a standing over.
15:19Sorry, you know what?
15:20I tend to like guys.
15:22And you forgive him?
15:23And then on his way out, he goes, it's nice to be in a real sports town like Boston.
15:27I know.
15:28I know, Termini.
15:30You know what?
15:31I want to take my talent.
15:32Let him go for too long.
15:33I'm taking my talents at SiriusXM.
15:35I'm going.
15:35I want to be just like Justin.
15:36Did I throw one too many questions in there?
15:38Was that the problem?
15:40All right, that's Justin Termini.
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