Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - NBA Draft Round 1 Reaction

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to Round 1 of the NBA Draft including an interesting move by Utah with Ace Bailey, some surprising moves from the Pelicans & Blazers, the Nets’ record pick total, what to make of the strangest decisions of the night and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello and welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we are doing just after midnight on Thursday morning, just after the conclusion of the NBA draft, at least the first round,

joining us from the Barclays Center, where all the action went down is Timbontems. It's too bad. It wasn't the end of the draft. Yeah, tomorrow will be great. Second round, I'll be there. You can watch it on ESPN. Joining us from the Dallas Mavericks Practice Facility. I don't know if they have a name for that facility, if that's just what it's called, where Cooper Flag was drafted tonight is Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners? I do believe there's a title sponsor, but I can't think of it off top of my head. All right. I am in Bristol, my annual one night only visit to Bristol for the draft. And lovely, I'm in one of the Jackson studios. He just goes from studio to studio, and this is one of his spots.

So I don't know, Bon Temps, what I'll remember about this draft, If you want my honest assessment was Danny Wolf's brother, ugly crying at the end of the night. It's a tough one. It's one of my favorite moments. Oh, my God. I loved it. And also Walter Clayton Jr.'s daughter who stole the show. I just love the family shots.

I honestly, I can't get enough. I wish there was a feed that we had of just the family. We could just watch the families. But this draft was defined by just a couple of picks in my view. Obviously, there'll be guys who over the next couple of years will evaluate. We're not going to know tonight. But Bontams, the moment of this draft for me, and correct me if you think I'm wrong, was when the Jazz decided to draft Ace Bailey.

That was the key moment in the draft and the swing moment in the draft. And, you know, we'll see what happens with VJ Edgecom. And we can talk about that. And we'll see with some of the trades that were made in the draft. But to me, I thought the jazz sort of really, nobody during the day, as I was talking to executives, there wasn't a good feel for what the Jazz were going to do. They take Ace Bailey.

Yeah, I mean, look, the first four picks of the draft were pretty set in stone without trades. Cooper Flagg was obviously going first to Dallas, a pick that was faded, apparently, including the lottery. We get to that quote later from Nico Harrison. Then Dylan Harper was going to go second to the San Antonio Spurs.

VG Edgecombe, I think really ever since the Sixers got the third pick, I always sort of expected he would be the selection there. Jonathan Kovoni, our guy had him mocked there. Then Khan Kineppel, the Duke Guard, was always, John Southing's had him mocked to Charlotte for a while. And the real intrigue around the league was what would Austin Ains do with the fifth pick in the draft, his first draft coming over from the Celtics.

You talked to people around the league the past few days, at least for me, I don't know what about you guys. Nobody knew what Utah was going to do with that pick. And obviously, there was a lot of intrigue around Ace Bailey, who the general consensus around the league was, after not having any workouts with any teams, he's the only American prospect who didn't work out with anybody. The widespread expectation was that he was hoping to get to the Washington Wizards at six. And the jazz, never getting him in the building, never getting a chance to look at him. Obviously, he played all these

games last year for Rutgers, decided to take him with the fifth pick. That was a big swing by Austin Aange in his first draft. Obviously, Ace Bailey is a pretty polarizing prospect. He's got a ton of upside. He's also raw. It's got a lot of work to do with Will Hardy, friend of the pod. But I think it's a really good situation for him to land in. It's a place where there's not going to be a lot of pressure on him. They're obviously going to have a lot of room for him to develop and grow. He's got a great coach, great setup there. But that certainly was a curveball at the top of the draft. And it set off a chain reaction over the next 10 or 12 picks where there was a lot of picks that went away from the consensus and made for the fairly interesting middle of the draft,

even if there wasn't any of the kind of veteran salary moves across the board that we really expected going into it. Yeah, and I get it from Utah's perspective, like, okay, you didn't want to work out here. It was pretty clear that he didn't want to land in Utah. But guess what? You're going to be with the Utah Jazz. What are you going to do? You're not going to collect a check like you're going to get there.

They're going to put a lot of effort into his development. There is going to be, I mean, if the guy wants the ball in his hands a lot right away, I think there's certainly going to be that opportunity there. And look, man, the jazz are, you know, depending on how you want to find it, a few years into a rebuild, and they have not hit on a single high ceiling draft pick. They've been in the lottery. What is this? Is this their third straight year, maybe four, whatever, how many straight years?

They've been in. Twice at nine, right? And then this is per nine and ten. They got Taylor Hendricks, they got Cody Williams, Jaylon Williams' brother. Right. And now this pick, right? And there's not a guy who's screaming, like, high upside of their lottery pick so far. So this is the guy that I think had the highest upside of that pick.

And it's a boom-abust. I mean, he did not have a very impressive view of Rutgers. But that size, that athleticism, you know, the shot-making ability, like, He does have big time, big time scoring potential. And outside of Larry Marketing, that's just not something that they have on the jazz roster right now. So I get swinging big when you're drafting fifth overall in Utah. Especially when they were the team with the worst record in the league and had very bad

lottery luck and ended up with the fifth pick. And they got a guy who all season long was projected to be in the top three. Like, you know, that if you would have said in January that the jazz. are going to end up with Ace Bailey, they probably would have thought they were going to get the third pick in the draft. So to get him at five, if you're Utah, you got to feel good about the swing. Plus, they got Walter Clayton Jr. later in the draft who had a really nice season at Florida, and I'm a big fan of, and I think he's got a chance to potentially be a Jalen Brunson type guy, maybe not as good as Jalen Brunson, but a guy who won an NCAA title in college and, you know,

came on and got drafted, and he's got a chance. so I think immediately emerges a guy with a big voice in Utah's locker room. Well, that's interesting. I'm sorry, it's interesting also because they've drafted Keante George and then Isaiah Collier in back-to-back first rounds. But, you know, those guys are not Austin A's draft picks. Exactly right. They drafted, they really liked Walter Clayton because they drafted up three spots to get him,

paid three second round picks to swap 21 for 18. There was some chatter as I talked to some teams today about Washington, and Charlotte potentially swapping picks four and six. But the thing was, is for Charlotte to do that, they had to make sure Khan Kinnipal would be there at six. That was their guy all along. And nobody knew what Utah was doing. During the day, people were like, what's Utah doing?

What's people were asking me? I'm like, I don't know. I wish I could tell you. I don't know. So the Jazz did a nice job of holding their cards close to the vest. If, you know, Washington had known that their guy was Bailey, maybe they would have been aggressive to try to trap in front of them. I'm not sure.

You know, Washington, I haven't seen their quotes from anything yet, but I'm sure they'll say very nice things about Trey Johnson. And, you know, he's an excellent shooter and everybody can use shooting. So he was a guy that went right after. But, yeah, so we'll see with Ace Bailey. He said all the right things. You know, he said he didn't know that Utah wanted him. I mean, it was a surprise to him.

Well, when they asked you to work out, that was showing interest, Ace. But whatever, dude. Hey, he got drafted by him. If he goes there and he's a pro, then nobody's going to end up caring about the kind of weird pre-draft process with him. Also, after the draft, just a few minutes ago, our time here. Austin Aange was getting his press conference, and he denied that the Jazz had had any discussions with the Celtics about Jalen Brown. That was one of the... By the way, that just didn't make any sense from the beginning.

me. Well, Jalen Brown going to San Antonio for the rights to Dylan Harper and some San Antonio stuff, I would not have done it, but at least that, like, you could see why that would maybe have been a conversation, depending on how much you like Dylan Harper. You know, I think the thing about Jalen Brown, and, you know, I am very skeptical that they would trade him, but if you're coming up with a reason why they would break them up, it's the question about whether you can feel the competitive roster in 2025 or in the case of not getting Taden back in 26 with two guys that make combined over 110 million? Look, if the Celtics are going to trade Jalen Brown or Derek White, they were going to have

to get a ton back in a trade. If they had gotten a ton back in a trade for either of them, I think they'd have thought hard about it and potentially done it. But it was going to have to be a really high bar. And I just didn't, here's two things I would say. One, there was a lot of chatter as you mentioned about Utah. That trade never made sense on either side. Two, if you look at Brad Stevens' history with the Celtics, pretty much every trade he's made,

let's come out of left field, and people haven't seen it coming. So with as much chatter as there was, there was chatter too about San Antonio. Also, I didn't really think a lot of that either for the same reason, that the Celtics have typically under him operated pretty quietly and gotten stuff done. and with that much noise out there, it felt like sort of typical pre-draft chatter and turned out that's what it was. So let's discuss the Pelicans draft.

So the Pelicans came into the night with the picks number 723, and yesterday, what we talked about in the pod, traded for Jordan Poole, traded C.J. McCollum for Jordan Poole. There's some other guys in the draft, Kelly Olenick, etc.

But basically that was the trade. So they have the seventh pick. There was some belief that they wanted to draft a big. But. Well, the talk was they wanted to draft Derrick Queen. It was known around the league that Troy Weaver, who is from the DMV, was a big fan of Derrick Queen. Troy Weaver is their number two to Joe Dumars, just to be correct.

Used to be the Pistons GM, has been with the Thunder. I don't think he's their senior vice president of basketball operation, something like that. So that was that was what, yes, as Jackson chimes in, he recruited Carmelo and Anthony to Syracuse. He was, that was the belief was that they liked him. And there was some thought, even as the seventh pick was on the board tonight, that they would draft Derrick Queen's seventh overall. Yeah. And instead, they gave up potentially an even higher pick in next year's draft to do it. Well, I thought Brian was going to talk about the seventh pick.

I was sitting there. I thought you were. The thing just stared at me. No, so the seventh pick, they draft Jeremiah Fears, who. There's a very explosive guard out of Oklahoma, got pretty high upside. It's a big time upside swing. Extremely young. One of these kids reclassified.

He's a one and done. You know, you're not going to look at his numbers from OU and be real impressed. Just honestly, like he was an inefficient shoot first guard. but there's some talent there. Again, it's an upside swing. Honestly, kind of profiles pretty similarly, I think, to Jordan Poole, who they just traded for. And then, I mean, honestly, man, they better be right on Derek Queen because they gave up the 23rd pick. And then to move up 10 spots, they gave up unprotected the best of their pick or Milwaukee's

next year. And like, fellas, I don't know how you can look at New Orleans right now and look around the Western Conference right now, Dejante Murray's, at least most of next season, and sit there and assess that and think that it's going to be anything but likely a single-digit lottery pick. I mean, look, it's a hell of a, it's a hell of a first day running a draft for Ansi-Sala and the Hawks. I mean, they get earlier this week, they make the Porzingis deal, which we talked about a pretty good value play for them. They use a 22nd pick to get off Terrence Mann and get Christass Porzingis. Tonight they draft Ais and Newell at 23. He was a pretty interesting young player.

He was projected to potentially go a good amount higher than that with the pick they got in that trade. And they get an extremely high value pick next year. Obviously, we'll see what happens with Milwaukee, but there's certainly some downside potential. with that bucks pick, an upside potential in terms of it being in the lottery. And yeah, there was a lot of comments flooding into my phone about that trade and about the upside Atlanta got in it. Like, look, people thought that nobody really thought the Detroit Pistons pick was going to convey this year and that the Pistons pick was going to be 17th.

Who knows? Maybe the Pelicans will have a great year. Maybe the Bucs will have a great year and it would be worse. But it's a pretty good chance that the Hawks are getting a better pick than 13 next year in the draft while keeping a pick in this year's draft to move back. I mean, it's pretty awesome work all around. And like you said, Dara Queen, it better be good because that's a hell of a price to pay to get them.

Yeah. So the Celtics, sorry, the Hawks had two pretty good days in terms of value, you know, what they gave up to get Porzingis. It was pretty good. I also want to talk about what happened with the 11th pick. But by the way, I think the suns probably felt pretty good, depending on what you felt about Common Malewatch. It was a weird night for the sons.

Okay, so. I get it. They felt like, hey, we've stunk at center for, you know, honestly, since they gave up eight and who they didn't want to go forward with. and now they've got a, you know, they've got at least centered depth and with really high upside with Mauiwak. And honestly, there's still some upside there with Mark Williams. Okay.

So, yes. I don't know. So let me just, okay. So the 10th pick, the Suns drafted Kamai, Malewatch, who I'm not sure. I wasn't obsessively reading mock drafts. I don't know how many. I think a lot of mock drafts had him going before 10. Yeah.

Yeah, that was probably the bottom end of his range, for sure. Before the draft, Gavoni, I saw an interview with Gavoni, and Gavoni said if the Sons could get Maliawach at 10, it would be a great night for them. But, and I, you guys know, I am not going to sit here and pretend that I can evaluate players. However. He is a Brian discovery, though.

He is a Brian discovery. You know, whatever. I hope for the best of the time. I hope for the best for him. I'm not convinced he's going to Hall of Fame. But he's very much still a developmental player. Sure. He's a big, he's a big seventh footer, like long and big shoulder, like a big, big frame, some athleticism, hands.

But he's a project. Yeah, I mean, he's not going to come in and be your starting center from day one. No, Mark Williams will be. Right. So I saw people were like acting like this. was, well, just hold on before you say anything, but I think people were acting like this was the the wolves drafting Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn and back-to-back picks. Like, they were like, wait a minute, why would you draft a center?

He just traded for one. They made the, you know, Shams broke the news within minutes of them drafting it. I don't have a problem with them going out and acquiring a center. I have a, well, I have a, Bontims doesn't like Mark Williams. Okay, we got it. Let me finish. Let me finish. Well, that's not really it either.

We can debate about whether or not Mark Williams was worth two first-round picks because that's what they paid for him. Now, granted, one of the picks was a 29th pick in this draft. And they anticipate the other one would be late too, but who knows is 2020. They also have barely any assets. Like, that's the thing. It's like you trade, like, Miloac's a good swing at 10. Like, he's a high upside swing.

That's fine. Like that's a good look at the future to do that. To then turn around and trade for Mark Williams on top of it for all the other problems they have with their roster. I don't know. It just for all the things the sons need to do. Now look, maybe this is some recognition that the suns just aren't. Maybe they've realized they are what they are. But for as limited a resource as they have, I thought it was curious that they used all of them on.

two centers. And now they're more or less out picks. And I don't know. They have a weird team. And they made a trade for a center with Charlotte, actually, last year in Nick Richards. So they've got great. Right. They traded a bunch of picks. They traded a bunch of picks on that trade, too. Yeah, they've got great depth at center and great depth at shooting guard. Their centers and their shooting guards can play three on three. I mean, that's the thing. They could have just had Nick to your point, Brian. If you don't feel like, Molo, I can start right away, you could have just started Nick Richards, like, and not invested these other assets in another center. It's not that Mark Williams stinks.

I just, the price is just, it's an odd move to make at the same time both of those trades for everything else they've got going on. They still don't have a point guard. They still have hardly any front court depth. To Tim's point, they have a ton of shooting guards. They have to try to move some of them. I don't know. It was weird.

Brian Gregory, he's not allowed to talk about the KD trade. yet, I guess. Well, I was laughing because our guy, Joe Borgesh, hey, tweeted. We should be hearing for Brian Gregory here shortly. Not sure how much you'll be able to talk about the Katie trade, Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, Kalamalawak, or Mark Williams, though, since none of those deals are official yet. I was like, well, what is he going to talk about? The sun coming up?

I noticed, I'm not sure if the league is not out of here. That's all the stuff they have going on. I'm not sure if the league gave him a break because I did notice that in the photos, after the initial photos, the Maliwatch was wearing a son's hat. Well, they changed the rules this year, I think. And so they just started basically the second the pick was made. The next time he'd come back up, he'd say, this trade happened. And they would immediately switch it to the new team instead of in the past,

where you would like pretend the whole day that it was the old team. So I do think that the whole circuit they did, he did it with some stuff. Well, they let, well, Brian Gregory talked about Malewatch, even though that Durant trade isn't done. So I don't know if he was given permission to do it or whatever. Well, the league, that's what I mean. The league announced all those traded picks, so you could talk about him. Okay. Okay.

So we'll see about that. But, you know, we'll see if Mark Williams passes as physical. I guess that should be some drama. But he didn't talk about that. Okay. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. All right. The 11th pick, there was some interesting things that happened there.

That pick was originally belonged by the Trailblazers. Now, we talked about yesterday. we were a little surprised that the Trailblazers traded in their situation that they traded for Drew Holiday. So when I heard that the Blazers made a deal with Memphis, I was like, I wonder what's in this draft and this trade because Memphis has, you know, the Desmond Bain trade was, you know, going backwards a little bit, whatever, you know, the pick-based trade. And, you know, we talked about Portland. And maybe they're like, you know, trying to level up and, you know, trying to make it a little bit more attractive for Drew Holiday to be there.

And I was like, did they, did they acquire a, did the Trebleyzes acquire like some veteran players or player for this pick? I was certainly, I was on the edge of my seat to see that. And then I, and then it became clear that it was just a pick trade. And they were, they were swapping picks with the Grizzlies who were at 16. And then I, you know, was interested because the Grizzlies, their front office, Zach Lyman and his staff have a history of doing very well on

draft night. They don't bet a thousand. They've had guys that haven't worked out, but they've had some really good guys who worked out, especially guys they've traded up for. They also have history being very aggressive about players they like. Zaire Williams being a notable exception when Trey Murphy was that pick,

but yes. When they traded up on draft night to get them, too. Did they trade up for Jake LaRavia? I can't. I don't remember that. Well, anyway, they had some hits. So they've traded up to Tric Cetric Coward, who was a trendy pick. He played, I think, at three different colleges. He started off at a D3, went to Eastern Washington, was really good there,

transferred to Washington State, the Eastern Washington coach, who was kind enough to send me a free shirt when I was in my gear collecting phase, went to Washington State, Coward went with him, had a shoulder injury, only played six games, got in the transfer portal, signed with Duke but stayed in the draft and now he's with the Memphis Grizzlies. But

6-5 and change 7 like 2-wing span long athletic 3-and-D type this is the guy who you know kind of profiles is the kind of guy they want to put around Jha

and Jaron Jackson Jr. And you know they really had similar you know kind of profiles a little bit similarly to, why am I blanking on my guy's name who's going to be their starter, took Marcus Smart's job, was Washington. Jay the Wells. Thank you.

Also from Washington State. Also from Washington State after starting off at a D2. So, you know, kind of similar stories there. And, you know, they want these long, athletic, really good defensive wings around these guys and clearly targeted Cedric Coward and moved up to get him and gave up one. of the 2008 first, one of the 2008 first, they got in that package for Desmond Bain from Orlando. I know that Memphis, I mean, obviously they traded up for him, but Memphis was excited about that. I mean, they thought they needed another big wing after that trade, and, I mean, they're certainly hopeful that he can be that kind of player for them.

We'll see what happens with him. I wish him a great career. Okay. The 16th pick that they got that was switched, the Grizzlies had the 16th. pick traded up for 11. So that meant the Blazers drafted at 6 at 16. And then we had truly one of the moments of the draft because the Grizzlies drafted. Is it not Hanson Yang? Why does I say Yang Hanson all these places? Yeah. There's some confusion on which is the first name, which is the last name. I've seen it. I've seen it both ways. So. All right. I think it's Hansen Yang and if I'm wrong, feel free to chastise me.

Our system has it as Yang hands. Okay. So it's one or the other. Anyway, he's a seven foot one. Let's just go one name. We're going to call him Yang. Okay. He's a seven foot one prospect from China.

Now, I have to say, there was probably quite a few people in the NBA. This is, it's been, has there been a first round? I haven't looked at our notes. Has there been a first round Chinese pick since, you know, Yis Yang Leon? I don't, I don't know. It's been a long time since there's been a first round Chinese pick, okay? Do you want me to just read Jeremy Wu's analysis of it? Yeah, go ahead.

It's hard to imagine a more surprising pick coming in the first round. The Trailblazers moved back from 11 and took a huge swing on Hansen. He's arguably the most gifted Chinese prospect to come along in some time, but also a player nobody around the NBA was readily expecting to go this high in the draft. Yang is a gifted offensive player plus passer for his position, who was one of the standouts at the NBA Combine, playing his way into the early second round of our projections. But for him to hear his name called this early

by a team that already has a young center in Donovan and Klingen is a fascinating decision by Portland. The fit question doesn't make a ton of sense at face value, pointed to the fact that the players must be major believers in Yang's ability and their ability to develop him, how this move plays out would be one of the draft's most fascinating long-term subplots. My favorite moment of the draft was I was standing with Kirkberger, one of the lawyers from the union watching the draft.

And Bowen, one of our great producers, who runs our international group, hustled over to the cameras and had them point up into the stands because he was sitting halfway up the stands because he was not supposed to, he was not in the green room, he was not expected to be drafted.

He just happened to be there. And everybody was like, where's the camera going? And it was pointing up to the scene. seven-footer in the crowd and completely out of left field pick. And I was dumbfounded by the Blazers doing this. I mean, to go from trading for Drew Holiday on Monday to drafting a project center when they drafted a center with the seventh overall pick in last year's draft. And by the way, they still have DeAndreighton on the team. And Robert Williams. I give up

on what Portland is doing. Well, that's not going to matter. I don't think this guy's going to play that much this year. But I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, so they made a real aggressive, expensive win-now move with Drew Holiday. And then they drafted a project in the first round. I mean, I guess. I don't know. Let's find a draft a project. But it was just a real surprise that he was drafted this high.

So. This high. He's a, he's a center on team that's already got a long term, you would think, long term. term answer at center. I mean, Don McLean had a, when he was not able to get on the court, especially the second half of the year, like, I think he's going to be a good player. Yeah, I mean, that's a, that was a wild boof.

Completely interesting. Certainly was. Yeah. More hoop collective podcast after this. Okay, was there any other, you know, I think there is, I think there's, again, I'm not, you guys know that I don't analyze these, I don't have the bandwidth to analyze these guys. The people that I was with tonight, the numbers on the board guys here in Bristol,

they were very excited about the spurs getting Carter Bryant, the defensive three and, well, I guess he's three and D wing out of Arizona and felt that was really quality for them. That pick that they got it with was a Hawks pick that they got for DeJante Murray. But they thought that Carter Bryant was good value alongside Dylan Harper. I don't know. I haven't asked enough of people yet, but... I like that pick for them. I mean, Carter Bryant should be a nice fit long term with Victor Wemianma and Deer & Fox and the other pieces of Spurs have. He fits pretty well as another

three-and-d wing. Kyle Murray Boyles going to Toronto was interesting. He was a super highly rated analytics guy big time, you know, some comparisons to Draymond Green, some questions about his shooting, but, and obviously it's ironic he's going to Toronto because they have a lot of questions about shooting across the board. But it's got a chance be an impact defensive player. He's an interesting fit. We talked about the Clayton pick earlier. I mean, mentioned the Aes and Newell pick that I liked for Atlanta, getting him at 23. Kasparis Chaconius, who played at Illinois, was supposed to be a lottery pick. He ends up falling to 20. Not sure. Bontim just wanted to show off that he could pronounce that name.

I asked several people to figure out how to say it today because I didn't know. But he was projected to go as high as maybe 10 or 11 or so. He'd end up getting him at 20. Okay, let's talk about the Nets. I was just going to say, the other super interesting thing in the draft was the Nets came into the day with five first round picks. And the big question was,

what are the Nets going to do? Like the two questions this morning were, what is Utah doing at five, and what are the Nets doing? Because the Nets had these five picks, eight and then 19 and four, three picks into 20. and was, were they going to take five picks?

They were indicating in the morning they might take all five players. People thought they'd probably try to move up in some form. And they end up taking five guys and they record sort of all over the place with the picks that they made. I have to say, it's such an outlandish thing to do to draft five first round picks and keep all of them. I don't even know how to react. I just tell you this.

You're not going to want to see the Long Island Nets in the G League next year. I mean, I think all those guys are playing for the new for the Brooklyn Nets because they are just about. I mean, Ben Serif, I mean, I guess maybe he might stay over. But they had a roster that was pretty devoid of long-term pieces anyway. And I suspect they're all going to be playing for Jordie Fernandez and the Nets next season. Well, and maybe two of them will turn it to be all-stars. I don't know. This strategy is so unusual.

I don't even know. Maybe it's mad genius. Maybe it's insane. Like, I don't know. Historically, picks in the mid to late 20s are not that desirable because you have to guarantee them two years and almost everybody you're going to take for at least three. And if you draft a guy in the high 30s, you don't have to, pay them as much. You don't have to guarantee them as long.

Picks in the late 20s are usually not that valuable, but they were very happy to have all these picks in the 20s. So I'm you know, and there was, the Kings traded in, not surprisingly, the Thunder

had two picks tonight and they traded one of them. They traded one of them to the Kings because they can't take you know, all these players on. They have a full 15-man roster. So they drafted John Sorber from Georgetown, who I think he's also represented by Bill Duffy's agency, the same group that represents Jamie Williams and Chet Holmgren.

They were pretty excited tonight. They had four picks in the top 15, with Sorber being the 15th one. He could be an interesting long-term fit next to Chet to potentially replace as A Hartnstein. Well, that's the thing. The Thunder aren't sure they're going to be able to keep their role players in another two years.

And one of the first guys up that they're going to have to worry about is Hartenstein. but that's a discussion for a different day. Well, but I just mean, like, he'll probably spend the year with the blue and he could maybe be in their rotation the year after that. But they had this second pick in the second, in the first round at 24. There was a lot of chatter that maybe Oklahoma City would move up in the draft to go get somebody. They wound up staying at 15.

And then they do this trade with Sacramento where Sacramento gives up a top 16 protected pick in 2027 that becomes seconds if it doesn't convey. Forget about Oklahoma City for a second. My point is that there were teams trying to move in to the 20s. Yeah. And the Nets still held all of them. That's my point. Well, they had a pretty empty roster.

So now they have a roster full of first round picks. Okay. And I would have done it this way, but that, you know, if there was a team that could roster five first round picks, it's this Nets team. Yeah. Well, I mean, listen, they're cheap labor for a few years. Maybe they'll pile them all together and trade them for a star in 18 months. What do I know?

Also, perhaps they will help them be in position to draft a star next season. That's also my point. I think they're going to be, I think they'll be very helpful on that front. When I'm talking about the Nets, can I ask, what do you think they're doing with Cam Thomas? I would assume Cam Thomas winds up being re-signed. He's a restricted-for-age at this summer. I would not be very excited about paying Cam Thomas. He's a pretty divisive player.

He obviously can really score it. I'm sure he wants a good amount of money. He's rep by Alexeratis from Octagon now. He's changed agents a couple times. I'll be curious to see what they do. I would not be rushing to give him a huge contract. And it wouldn't stun me if he stays on the qualifying offer or if he takes his qualifier.

Yeah, that's what I, well, maybe not even the qualifying offer, maybe like a short deal, very short deal. That could be something, I wouldn't expect it to be the same amount of money, but if it's something along the lines of what happened with Jalen Green, a couple-year deal to give them a money. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, right now the Nets only have a couple guys on the books for next summer. They have a ton of cap space in the summer of 26,

and that's while they still have Nick Clax and and Cam Johnson on the team, two guys that wouldn't stun me if they ended up elsewhere at some point in the next 12 months. Well, and they have a ton of cap space right now, and it's not like there's a whole lot of else out there in terms of cap space. And certainly seems likely that they will rent some that cap space out and try to collect some more assets. So McMahon, I have two things for you before we wrap up. Great. One, well, first off, I appreciated ESPN every time the Nets made a pick. We showed the draft room at the Nets facility, and they were all clapping every single time.

Happy with everyone. Every pick they were clapping. Maybe it was on a loop. I wasn't watching close enough. Imagine if they went to them and they looked mad. Imagine if they went to them and like the tables were turned over and there were papers on the floor and they were two guys fighting. Okay. First off, I have a question.

McMahon, when they showed the Mavericks draft room tonight, they had name tags, they had placards for all their people there. That's normal. Very helpful. That's a normal thing. It is? Okay. The second thing is, I heard that there was a lot of booing of NIC. They drafted Cooper Fleck.

Well, no. So here's the deal. They had, and I wasn't there. The MAZ draft rooms at the practice facility, the little post-draft press conferences here, but they had a deal at the arena. And people went over there. So there's like 5,000 fans. And some folks from the broadcast team were kind of in seeing the thing.

And Mark Aguier, the only previous number one overall pick and franchise history, actually teared up. kind of a reconciliation type of moment. But they showed, I think they showed, like they flashed to our broadcast and that showed Nico and a fire Nico chant broke out. Well, they didn't know it was Nico, but there was a placard right in front of him. Oh, yeah, and that reminded him.

But listen, and it's interesting. And Nico was asked about the angst that's been, I would say he's going to read your tweet first this because we need to talk about this hold on well let's talk about the fire Nico thing I was curious if the Cooper Flag era beginning would kind of ease the public angst directed at Nico the public venom um this is an indication that probably will not but I'm just telling you like during Cooper Flagg like NBA debut,

or they're going to be fire Nico chance? Like, I don't know, man. I really don't know. Nico was asked about that, and he basically says something along the lines of, he hopes so, and just mentioned something about how, you know,

people seem to be really excited about this number one overall pick. But again, there's not a whole lot of folks that I can win popularity contest with in the city of Dallas. But Nico's one I like my odds again still. We need to read this tweet. Oh, please.

Nico Harrison on the maps winning the lottery and the right to draft Cooper flag, despite 1.8% odds, quote, fortune favors the bold. So exciting things fell our way. Are we seriously trying to say that by trading Anthony Davis a, quote, bold move? It was a bold move for Anthony Davis for Lucidotaj. I'll give you that, that because of that, you were handed, Cooper flag, is this really what we're trying to?

That sounds like exactly what he's saying. I mean, it makes perfect sense to me. This is ridiculous. The amount of people I've had to say to over the past couple of months that the NBA draft lottery is not rigged, which by the way, it's not rigged. This guy getting up here and going, oh, yeah, well, this is exactly how it was meant to be. We did trade. Our stark guard blew his knee out. We end up with the number one pick.

It's all exactly how it's supposed to be. I mean, yeah, the Kyrieving knee injury undercuts their fortune favors the bowl. And AD got literally two and a quarter's into his debut. It was like the half season from hell. But the half season from hell did result in them falling backwards into a generational talent. Now,

that part is true. Okay, but what do you want? I was asking. It was a cringy comment. It was, but what do you want to go to say like, holy crap, I got bailed out? Not say that I made this trade and so therefore we were gifted Cooper flagged. That's not what you say. So here's the, a couple of things.

Here's the stuff about the fan venom. Let me ask, with everything the organization has been through. over the last few months and the frustration from the fans, how much do you see the addition to Cooper Flagg to the organization helping try to get that goodwill back with the Dallas Mavericks fans? He said, yeah, I think it's been great. I mean, I've seen the fans react to that

since the number one pick, and it feels like they're feeling really good and optimistic about the future. And someone said piggybacking off that, are you hopeful, optimistic that by drafting Cooper, some of the anger that had been directed at you personally will subside now? he said, I'm hoping so.

No, I'm assuming so a little bit, maybe. So listen. Like, I, I, listen, I don't know that Nico's going to be sitting in his seat again. I think he'll probably be in the tunnel. He's not going to be popular. But at a certain point, do you kind of kind of flip the page? And they're going to sell a lot of those number 32 jerseys. Yeah, that was good.

I like that. They like that. They announced, they put out the press release five seconds. after he got drafted announcing he had was picking number 32 or wearing number 32 and they unveiled the jersey at the draft which I liked and they unveiled the jersey at the arena and had him for sale I mean a whole bunch of people walked out with those things I like and again like hey man the lucre trade we've gone over the thousand times I think it was flawed decision I think it was an insane decision but he ain't coming back to Dallas it's done

You're getting Cooper flag in here. It's a team that's going to have a chance to be competitive next year. And it really bails them out long term. If this kid is what everybody thinks he is, it really bales them out of what would have been a dark, dark time after this little mini window closes. All right. Well, there's more draft coming tomorrow. There also should be, there's definitely some active trade talks that weren't involving picks. and we'll see, you know,

we was chasing a few today. I think we're going to see some more player movement before the end of the week, especially once it clears that there's not going to be picks involved in some of these trades. I don't think there's any like, you know, megastars being traded, but I don't know.

But there's definitely some more action coming. So we'll keep an eye on it and we'll talk about it. All right. Thank you to Jackson, our producer, who also helped produce tonight's show here in Bristol. Thank you, McMahon. Thank you to Bont. Oh,

oh, one more thing. Oh. I don't know if it'll be in time for people who are listening to this pod. But tomorrow, okay. Tomorrow,

we've a very special edition of first take with McMahon and Bontems. Yeah, the TWT edition. This is going to be spectacular. Well, they said, Wendy's bold and it. There's going to be all sorts of things

to discuss on the show. Yeah, this is like a two-for-one train. It's like Luca is leaving and I'm Anthony Davis and Bon Timps is Max Christie coming in to replace them. Listen. Listen, this is awesome. I love it. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Make us at the Hoop Collective who know about your ridiculous nature, the two of you, make us proud. I don't think it's Bon Tim's D butt. It's mine. I know, but it's not so much. I know Bon Temps has been on. It's more about you guys doing it together. Yeah, that's the downs. It's going to be great.

I'm very much looking forward to it. It's a great time in the schedule. Add that for the draft before free agency. You guys are going to have topics. You know, don't do anything to embarrass us, but definitely make us proud. Have I ever embarrassed you? You embarrassed yourself a few times. Don't be afraid to show them who you are.

I say that with all the right meaning. Thanks, coach. I'm your cheerleader. I'm not your coach. Every cheerleader I had was a lot better looking. All right. Thank you to Bontems. Thank you, McMahon.

Thank you for listening and watching the HOOC collective. We'll talk to you next week. Adios amigos.