- 12 minutes ago
WEEI Celtics Insider Justin Turpin joins the show to discuss the endless Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors and what he thinks the Celtics roster should look like come next season.
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00:00I am Rich Sturton Lee, Ken Laird, three-time Super Bowl champion Ted Johnson,
00:05and we are live in the Ford Clubhouse Fenway Studio,
00:08brought to you by your New England Ford dealers and employee pricing for all.
00:12You pay what we pay.
00:13Ford, the official vehicle of Major League Baseball and that dirty water.
00:17And that voice you heard right there, of course, was Bill Simmons
00:20and a very raspy Doc Rivers.
00:21Has he gotten, like, a lot more large marge over the years ago?
00:25He's got, his voice has gotten very low.
00:28You know, you put on some weight, the voice goes, it's a little lower.
00:31He's putting on some counters.
00:32You know, living hard, trying to keep up with Giannis, partying ways up there
00:35and showing up late for the plane.
00:37But in studio with us right now, down all the way at Fenway,
00:40is our own guy, top-tier Terp and Justin Terp,
00:43and he writes for WEI.com and oh, so much more.
00:47Terp, thank you for joining us, sir.
00:48My pleasure.
00:49Let me just start by saying this.
00:50I cannot wait for this thing to be over.
00:52What, really?
00:52I cannot wait for this just to be resolved.
00:54When we're getting reports of Miami or rival executives think Miami thinks this.
00:59We've lost the plot here.
01:01I'm ready for this thing to be resolved.
01:02But it's been a fun story to cover, right?
01:05I mean, just all the, I mean, a lot of speculation,
01:07but it's been kind of carried us through the summer, man.
01:09I mean, especially, like, right now when, like, other than the World Cup,
01:12like, what's the bigger talking point in sports right now?
01:14Oh, sure.
01:15To be honest.
01:15This is the biggest story in sports besides the World Cup right now.
01:18All right, I'm going to ask you,
01:19I'm going to start off with a two-part question.
01:21So I'm going to ask you one, and then I'm going to follow up with something.
01:23All right, first of all, Gary Washburn mentioned something the other day
01:26when he was talking about this story, and there was, I don't want to misquote him,
01:31but there was something in what he was saying that speculated that Brad Stevens
01:36could be trying to find a way to get Giannis to come to the Boston Celtics
01:40while at the same time keeping both Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.
01:45Do you see that being doable, feasible in any kind of way, and if so, how?
01:51I don't, and I don't think it's feasible financially and also just from the team makeup-wise.
01:56So we have been talking about for years, like, oh, how do Tatum and Brown coexist
02:00and whether or not that's a fair conversation.
02:01I know people love to have it.
02:03I don't think that's a fair conversation.
02:04I think they've proven that they can coexist.
02:06But now you add Giannis in there?
02:08Okay, so now Jalen has to go from being a second-team All-NBA guy,
02:11finishing top six in MVP voting.
02:13Now you're the third option, and he's just going to be okay with that?
02:16Like, if there isn't a package out there that you do hold on to Jalen Brown,
02:20the Celtics would then have to go and flip him.
02:22So you think Jalen would be pissed if they brought in, if they tried to do that?
02:26Like, if Brad somehow pulled off the impossible and got Giannis in here,
02:29you honestly think that Jalen would be like, get me the F off this team?
02:33I think it would be pretty unfair to him to make him the third option.
02:35But that's like a big three.
02:37That's like a real big three, and that's a better chance for you to win a championship.
02:40You think that Jalen's that type of personality?
02:42I mean, if he's consistent with what he's been his entire career
02:45and talking about the sacrifice and being willing to do what's needed for the team,
02:49then it wouldn't be an issue.
02:50But if people are worried about his fit this year after the season that he had last year
02:54and kind of playing second fiddle per se,
02:57I'd imagine asking him to be the third guy.
02:59I just don't see that.
03:00You know what's crazy, though, is that he's not sacrificing
03:03and salary?
03:04That's right.
03:05Exactly.
03:06That's where I just get stuck with him is he's complaining that he doesn't get the love.
03:12But it's not reflected in what they pay him.
03:15He gets paid.
03:16He's getting paid when the highest paid players in the league.
03:18Right.
03:18He's on a supermax deal.
03:19Now, I just don't think it's feasible from a contract standpoint anyway.
03:23Well, then let me ask my follow-up question.
03:24Let me ask my follow-up question then.
03:26Yes.
03:26Because we are now all of a sudden, I said this on the air of the day,
03:29and then all of a sudden Jay Williams comes out with a report that seems to echo exactly what I
03:34was saying.
03:35One of the biggest stories of this New York Knicks team and their amazing run and just fairytale ending
03:41was that Jalen Brunson, the guy who saved the season for them, their MVP, took less money in order for
03:49them to put a good team around them
03:51for them to win a championship.
03:52And I said this on the air.
03:54I'm like, I guarantee you that might start something.
03:57Now, whether that is management saying, hey, you saw what Brunson did.
04:03If you take a little bit of a pay cut here, we can put these guys around you.
04:07We can put X, Y, and Z player, and maybe you can win a championship and put together a big
04:11three.
04:12Whether or not players are going to agree to that, I don't know.
04:15But do you see there being any kind of situation where maybe management can go to somebody like Jalen Brown
04:22or Jason Tatum
04:23and say, hey, if we kind of redo your contract, we can bring in Giannis and have ourselves a big
04:30three.
04:30Do you see that happening in any kind of way?
04:32I don't.
04:33But to that point, Carl Anthony Towns is the one player on the Knicks roster that is making max money.
04:38So that's why Jalen Brunson taking that $100 million pay cut allows them to pay OG Adinobi,
04:43allows them to pay Mikael Bridges.
04:44That's what allowed for this to happen.
04:46When you're looking at the Celtics, it's like three players with Tatum, White, and Brown
04:49are all command like 70% of the salary.
04:52It's really tough to build around a team like that.
04:55So that's kind of a newer thing now with the second apron restrictions and all the new CBA.
04:59That's where this has become a real thing.
05:01Yeah.
05:02But you're looking at it like teams might have to do that to extend your window because
05:05right now you can really only dip into it for like two years and then you're going to dip
05:08back out.
05:09That's just the prohibitive nature of the second apron.
05:12Wow.
05:12Do you think guys will start being judged on how much they want to win a championship
05:16based on how much they're willing to sacrifice in salary?
05:19Let me ask you this.
05:20Did you judge any of those quarterbacks when Tom Brady was taking a salary cut?
05:24Hell yeah, I did.
05:24Yep.
05:25Peyton Manning, selfish.
05:26Yep.
05:27I mean, I was brainwashed, but that's how I felt.
05:29I felt like, well, the Colts can't put, I mean, I, you know, I literally thought that
05:32the salary cap meant something back then.
05:34Okay.
05:34Let's just go back 20 years.
05:36Yeah.
05:36I thought we had the better player because he sacrificed for the team because he took
05:41less money from the market standpoint.
05:43So, yeah, I think to me that would add to your, your, your, your reputation.
05:48Yep.
05:49You know?
05:49And, and your, I just think your legacy would be just highlighted.
05:54If you were to me, Brunson, I love him because that's how he thought and he wouldn't
05:59want it.
06:00God, he, he deserves all the praise, right?
06:02That might be an extreme example, but like just the thought of building around two max
06:06money guys makes it really, really difficult to put a good surrounding cast around them.
06:10Now the Celtics are in a good position to do it because of the young players that they
06:13have right now.
06:14Like assuming all of them that we saw last year are as good as they were last year and
06:18they continue to take leaps because really none of them are making a ton of money.
06:21Like Cata really cheap money.
06:23Shireman Walsh, all the wings, Ugo, all of them are very cheap money.
06:27But when those guys do get expensive, you now have to hit on the draft again and you have
06:31to hit on these like low money, free agents.
06:33It doesn't seem sustainable.
06:35No, that's, it's just so very hard to build around teams when you have two super max guys.
06:40Now, let alone three, then it's impossible.
06:42Yeah.
06:42Like those two, three, we heard from Paul Pierce earlier in the show.
06:45Great clip where he's on your side.
06:46He doesn't want to trade Jalen, right?
06:47He wants to run it back.
06:48Keep it going.
06:49Is that your side by the way?
06:51You're, you're, you're, it depends on the package.
06:53Like obviously if you have the chance to get Giannis out to Takumbo and he is healthy and he wants
06:57to be here and he will be motivated, that's tough to turn down.
07:00Like the guy before this year was a top seven or finished first team, all NBA seven consecutive
07:06years and was MVP, MVP top four, all seven of those years.
07:09Like he is when healthy, one of the best players.
07:12I like hearing this is a different turf.
07:13I've heard you hear how the beat is shifting in a couple of weeks.
07:16All of a sudden they're making a case.
07:18How about that?
07:19Owners are speaking to him off the record.
07:21Scal last week when he came on with us, he was like, well, I do like him, you know,
07:24but I mean, this is a, like a generational player and that's not to take away from Jalen
07:28Brown, but one for one, like Giannis Antetokounmpo is a better player.
07:31And I mean, this is when healthy, sure.
07:34This is unbelievable.
07:35But the whole weeks ago we had you on, it was, it was a no brainer.
07:38You run it back.
07:39You, you slingshot it for two years down the road.
07:41I don't know how like realistic it was like, oh, no, no, no, no, it was only Ken Laird
07:46speculating.
07:47Nobody, nobody took that seriously.
07:49So just to be clear.
07:50So Terp, do you think if, if they, JB gets moved, Giannis comes in, they're a much better
07:56team with Giannis as it, uh, in JT, as opposed to JT and JB?
08:00I wouldn't say much better because the supporting cast still needs help.
08:03Like you still need to address things.
08:04And if you bring in Giannis, your center becomes a big problem because you really can't have
08:09Giannis and Kate on the floor together.
08:10It's just too compact in the paint.
08:12Their spacing's way off.
08:13Like if you get Giannis, you are then going to have to go and get a stretch, a stretch
08:17big, somebody that can space the floor as your center.
08:19You just can't run it with Keita with Giannis.
08:22You just, it's just the spacing's way off.
08:24So there are moves to come and maybe that's why the Celtics are looking at this is like,
08:29okay, if we can get Giannis in a package that doesn't involve Jalen, then you flip Jalen
08:33and go get your stretch big, which again, that feels like a lot, right?
08:37Cause you have to land Giannis.
08:38Then you have to find a team that's willing to take on Jalen, which I think obviously teams
08:41are going to like his trade value has never been higher, but I don't know.
08:44Like I, I see it both ways.
08:46It's like Giannis is that good where of course you have to look into this and the Celtics
08:50for years have been against trading the Jays and breaking that duo up.
08:53But when you have a player of Giannis's caliber out there, you got to consider it.
08:57This is mind blowing.
08:58I know.
08:59I like it.
09:00Now that he feels that this could be real.
09:01Now that Bill Simmons went out there and said, you know, set the Giannis alarm off.
09:04That's you're totally right.
09:05That's what it was.
09:06When Bill Simmons talks, the beat just starts to, oh, what did Bill Simmons say?
09:11I like it.
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