Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Re-Drafting The 2022 NBA Draft

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to re-draft the 2022 NBA Draft including what teams swung & missed, what players should have gone way higher in hindsight, some surprising risers and much 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. Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing in August, which means we've pre-recorded this. So I hope you enjoy it. Joining us from Northern California, not disclosing where exactly is in Northern California for reasons that only he knows is Tim Bontems.

Hello, everybody. Joining us from somewhere in Northern Texas. You okay with that? Van McMean. All right. I'm joining you from Eastern Nebraska. All right. Last year, can I get a howdy partners in? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, howdy partners. By the way, I know exactly where Bon Temps is. I had a few dozen beers that exact location last August. A few dozen, Bon Temps?

Oh, is there multiple nights. He knows how to drink. Bon Temps, hey, have you broken out the fireball? Pontemps doesn't break out the fireball when he's out of the lake. Is that right? I've seen Bon Tem's throwback beer. I'd never seen him get to hard liquor. Oh, I've seen it.

It's quite a spectable. When we had your book party last spring, I saw you were, you were breaking into your beer that night, McMahon. I've still got some beers left over from that. That's a stunning development. I've been out of town a lot. Okay.

Yeah, all right. Well, get right on that. Okay, last summer, we did an interesting thing when we took a look back at the 2021 NBA draft, the players who were getting their contracts extended. Basically, you're, you know, three years in, you're determining whether these draft picks were successes or not. And that turned out to be pretty interesting.

And so we thought now that we're in 25, we would take a look back at the guys who are getting their contracts extended this summer from the 2022 draft. And was this your idea to bring this back, McMahon? Whose idea was this? I believe Jackson actually had an idea. on his own Jackson credit for it.

So, all right, so Jackson's idea and I thought, okay, that sounds good. I do remember doing that podcast

and it was fun. And then we got into how we're going to do it. And I was told that we were redrafting in a snake draft format. And I was like, I do not need to be made a fool of

yet again on this. I did graduate from college, but I do not do fantasy drafts. You graduate from Kent State. I don't know if that, you're at North Texas. What are they in the Ivy League? of the South?

The best institution in Denton County. I got there from the best institution in Portage County. We rely on Jackson and Syracuse roots here is what we should do. Anyway, I screw up the snake draft all the time. Okay, I just do. You think it's a bit, it's actually not, and it's happened repeatedly. So I'm going to go second so that I'm always going every third pick, that I don't have to do this back-to-back stuff because I'm always messing up and making you full of myself.

So I'm going second. That means that one of you two has got to determine who goes first. So we decided how about how my seven-year-old would handle this. And he would handle this with rock paper scissors. He's advantage. I did that. I would have just let him go first. This is more fun.

All right. He's ready? It's a one, two, three throw down. Ready? Okay. One, two, three. What do you got? Ah, Shish, Shaniakis.

I win. Let the record. show that McMahon went with Rock. I'm sorry. Bontems went to Rock. Bon Temps went, yeah. Rock beats Sidgett. All right, Bon Temps, in the 2002 draft, the Magic picked Palo Bancair with the number one overall pick. In our 2025 redraft, you have the first selection. And this is interesting. I'm actually glad he's going first, McMahon, for various reasons, but go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about, as we were sitting here, I was thinking about which way I was going to go with this. I am ultimately going to go off the board a little bit, and I'm going to take Jaylin Williams

with the first pick. That's what I would have done. Guy just scored 40 in an NBA finals game with a wrist. He got an injection in about 9,000 times, according to his Instagram, to his video. How many times do you say? I remember, I wrote that. I don't know. Yeah, I wrote that.

Hold on. I'm going to look at up. I wrote the new story. Look, he had a, he had a tremendous playoffs. We spent all year talking about whether he could be. good enough as the second perimeter score behind Shea to get them over the line. He's a tremendous two-way player, made it off the A team this year. I can certainly understand why someone would pick Palo as a 6-10 guy with the package he's got offensively.

But when you look at the modern NBA, the thing you need more than anything else is two-way wing play. And Jaylon Williams is a guy who could be considered an all-defense candidate on the wing, who put up huge scoring games in the finals, did it on the biggest stage. So I'm going to take him first overall. Well, it's not just that he can be considered an all-defensive candidate. He is an all-defense of selection.

He's also an all-MBA player, the only player in his draft who already has an all-MBA honor on his resume. And he's proven that he can be the number two guy on a championship team. He is getting better. like he's gone from probably a second round pick pretty late in the draft process. So whoosh right on up to the lottery to rookie year runner up, took a leap, took another leap.

And I don't think he's done getting drastically better. So I was kind of hoping he'd be there for me at number three. So I could feel like I'm smarter than you guys. But I would have taken him number one overall as well. Well, that is interesting because on actual the draft night in 22, The thought was that he might actually go number three. There was a belief that was existing that the magic who had the number one pick were going to go with Jabari Smith Jr. there.

The Thunder long had been telegraphed. They were going to take Chet Holmgren number two. And Palo Ban Carroll, you know, I know it's somewhat common to whenever you think a player or a coach is going somewhere, you hear stories of them looking for houses or whatever. But I think it was true. I think, you know, knowing Paolo's agent Mike Miller, former NBA. champion three-point specialist. I think they were like, you know, maybe not actually looking at real estate, but like planning on him going to be in Houston. And then I did a story about this

where I talked to people inside the rockets, inside the magic, inside the thunder about how this went down. And I, you know, maybe the magic were selling me a bill of goods, but talking to multiple people in the organization, they said that Jeff Weltman really truly didn't know until 24 hours before the draft and then they kind of had leaned towards Vancaro and didn't actually make up their mind until draft days. So they say. I have a hard time believing it at the time. I thought that it was just a smokescreen to try to elicit trade offers or whatever because I think the Rockets really were interested in Palo and then when it was when all of a sudden they were like, oh, we're going to take Palo. They were trying to draw out maybe a rocket's offer. But long story short,

Palo's selection wasn't known and he wasn't known as the number one pick and it was sort of a risk. So let me just say that with the number two pick, we move on to that or do you have something else

you want to say, McMahon? No, go for it number two pick. I would take Palo Bancaro and I'm going to tell you the reason that I, in talking to the magic, the reason that when they made the draft that they took, I think,

Palo, one of the big reasons was between the two players they were deciding on, Jabari or Palo. They thought that Palo had the better chance to be a number one cornerstone franchise player. They felt that Jabari Smith, especially defensively, could be a very good player, potentially multi-time All-Star for a long time. But they felt Palo's ceiling was high.

And the points that you made, Bontemps, like, there's no question Jalen Williams is more decorated. But I still think Palo Bancaro is. an absolute guy who can be a franchise player on a real contender. I mean, he is the, he's definitely the best offensive player, the highest upside offensive player in his draft without question. I mean, he hadn't had, you know, his efficiency has been relatively middling. Part of that's just being the number one option on a young team as a young player. Part of that's, you know, they've had obviously spacing and shooting issues.

but he's, you know, he's going to, he's the leading score in this class by over 500 points, despite missing a fair amount of games, especially last year. Last year with the oblique. And, you know, he's the guy who has, like, scoring leader potential. Look, this is a huge year for Paolo and the magic. They obviously make the Desmond Bain trade. Paulo's three years of the NBA. He shot 29.8%, 33.9% and 32% and 32%.

flat from three. While taking more each year. I'll take it more each year. He shot decently from three in the playoffs the last couple of years. He's obviously a tremendous offensive player. But by going in and getting this Desmond Bain deal done, like the magic clearly believe they've got a window now with the way the East has fallen to potentially be a conference finals team, to be an NBA finals team as soon as this year.

Desmond Bain with his three-point shooting will help a ton. but Franz Wagner and Palo Bancaro, they're two cornerstone guys, just have to take steps forward, particularly like McMahon said from an efficiency standpoint. Like if those guys start shooting the ball well from three, Orlando could come out of the east, but that's a big if based off the way

the last couple years have gone and the track record those guys have put together. Okay, McMahon, you got the number three pick. This is interesting one. I don't think it's hard. I think four is interesting. but three, to me, is clearly Chet Holmgren. Unfortunately, he has missed over half of the available regular season games.

Obviously, he had a red shirt his rookie year. And then last year, had the fractured hip where he missed over half the season. But he has been exactly what the Thunder thought he would be when he's been on the floor. And that is a dominant defensive presence, one of the best rim protectors in a league, who has defensive versatility. and an offensive player who isn't a go-to guy necessarily, but can space the floor, you know,

has proven that, you know, despite his slim frame can be an effective finisher. You know, he was the number three option on a championship team. And, you know, while Paulo is clearly the highest ceiling offensive player in this draft, Chet's clearly the highest ceiling defense player. I mean, he's got defense player the year potential. I mean, it was very early before he went down last year,

but it was arguably the frontrunner when he fractured his hip last year with the start that he got off to and just played a huge part on a championship team. So to me, Chet's the easy call for number three. All right, you've got the number four pick two, I think. Yeah, any debates there on Chet? All right, well, hold on. Oh, no, I don't have it. I mean, he is the clear third pick.

I mean, from a... Those first three guys, by the way, all have gotten max contracts this summer. Yeah. And from an advanced that standpoint, like, Chet's got more winshares already than Paolo. Like, I know he's obviously playing on the Thunder, but that, all of his advanced numbers have been off the charts.

And when he's been on the court, the Thunder have been great. McMahon repeatedly brought up last year the numbers when the Thunder had either he or Isaiah Hardenstock on the floor. They were an insane team, even more than they were normally. And yeah, like the only question is, can he avoid some of these, you know, freak injuries he's had and stay on the court? Because if he can, he's, you know, we spent a lot of time this summer talking about Miles Turner.

Chad Holmgren is another one of these guys that's a seven-footer who could score, particularly can hit threes, and then is a tremendous defensive player. Those players are extraordinarily valuable for obvious reasons that if you have one of them, it can build around them, it makes a massive. massive difference in terms of putting together the kind of team the Thunder are likely to have for a while. Yeah, the floor spacing rim protector, which Brooke Lopez kind of began that trend, is tremendously valuable. And Chet is a floor spacing rim protector. I would say Chris Bosch might have been. Okay. You played a bigger. Sure. But my point. And so Bosch is a great example because Bosch was a floor space rim protector who could put it on the floor, who was good pastor, could do a lot of different

things, I would argue so is Chet. Chet has that, you know, he has, like you don't want him to be your primary creator, but he can attack closeouts. He's a good passer. He can do a lot of different things offensively other than just knock down threes and catch the occasional lob. With the number four pick in 2022, a lot of, just to go back to that night, quite a few mock drafts predicted J. Nivey out of Purdue would go number four. and the King's surprise going with Keegan Murray out of Iowa. He was the number four pick that night. Now that's your chance to redraft.

Yeah, and those two guys are definitely in consideration here, as is Jabari Smith, who was third overall. I think my decision is going to come down, though, to two guys who weren't lottery picks. And I'm going to take Christian Brown, who just got done with his first season as a star, And you know, you talk about the value of two-way wing players. Christian Brown is without question a two-way wing player.

First season as a full-time starter this year, just to read his numbers, average 15.4 points per game, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists over a steel and half a block. Shooting 58% from the floor and low volume here, but 39.7 from three-point range is one of the most dynamic athletes. in this draft at six foot. He's bigger than you think at 6'6. You can say his athleticism is deceptive, but he is a high-level athlete and is a huge part of a Nuggets team last year that pushed the Thunder to seven games and is going to be a huge part of the Nuggets going

forward. So I'm going to take Christian Brown, who went 21st overall here at number four. That is a big jump. Obviously, he plays a desirable position, has proven to be able to deliver on the big stage. Hasn't signed a contract extension yet. It's going to be an interesting negotiation this summer with Denver. For sure. There's a number of guys we're going to talk about in this short term here who are going to have,

we're going to see if or how much they get extended for. Go ahead. Any beat for that pick? It's a little farther up than, I mean, he obviously was going to rise in our rankings. There's a number of guys in this who, some guys who, some guys who, not even in the NBA anymore. And there's certainly guys who, you know,

there's guys who didn't get their fourth year option picked up who've already changed teams in free agency who were taken in this first round. So obviously he was going to, a number of guys who's already been traded. So obviously I think he was going to rise from 21st where he was taken.

But to number three, or number four was a little higher than I would have put him. All right. So who did you have a score that you now get at five? Yeah, I think there was. was a, I think there was a pretty clear consensus on the top three. And then I think there's a group of guys in a tier here that you could choose from. I would probably have also gone with Christian fourth though. Look at you. All right. Well, in a two-way wing player who's in, who's

had the impact he's had on high level play in the playoffs. That is the most viable thing you can do. And he has shown he can do it. All right. Well, I'm going to draft a two-way player at five. I'll take Jabari Smith, Jr. since he's, you know, still there. Just signed a hundred and thirty million dollar extension with the rockets. He You gave him a few extra million, but that's 120? 125. What was it, 122, I believe?

But something in that range. Sorry. So he plays both ends of the court. One of the things I like about him is that he's not afraid to play center. Sometimes you see, you know, guys who, you know, he's certainly 6-11, so he's not undersized, but he's not bulky.

And you see guys like this. sort of not wanting to play center. And I'm not saying he's signing up for 38 minutes a night there. But from the moment he got there, he said, I'm willing to play center. And while the Rockets have a number of bigs, and he doesn't have to play that much, I just liked his mentality. And early in his career, he was asked to play more. He doesn't get that many shots.

In fact, he shot more in his rookie year than he shot in his third year. He's taken fewer shots each season. So the fact that he hasn't become a big score, he only averaged 12 points a game last year, and he doesn't get to the free throw line. But if you need him to score, he can. And he's a proficient three-point shooter. He can stretch the floor. And I don't think we're looking at a guy here who's headed for all-NBA status maybe. But this is a guy who's going to be really good on a really good team for a long time.

and there's a reason the Rockets gave him that money because they believe in him. And so I would believe in him. In terms of some of these guys that are coming after this, you're still betting on them getting more improvement. I think with Jabari, even if he is this exact player going forward, it'll be a very big asset to the Rockets.

Yeah, you pick a guy third overall. You know, your thinking star potential there. I agree with you. I don't think he's a guy. guy is going to be a multi-time all-star or anything like that, but he's going to be a high-quality role player, a guy who I think can make a good team better. And I also think that the KD trade, while it brings in another forward, I think it benefits Jabari Smith Jr. He is going to be a starter. You know, KD, while he, you know, whatever, he probably defends three, he's four. He

He's going to take the easiest defensive assignment. Jabari Smith Jr., Katie is really a two still offensively, and Jabari Smith Jr. is a guy who's very versatile defensively. As you said, he can play big. He can go around the perimeter, very switchable. And, you know, he wasn't starting for a while last year. He got hurt. And Thompson took the starting job and is not giving that up anytime soon.

now there is a starting role for Jabari Smith Jr. again with Houston. So I would anticipate that he's probably going to, his numbers have probably taken a nice little bump up this year. By the way, because I forgot to mention it, the Pistons took Jaden Ivy at number five on draft night. Sorry, go ahead, Bontums. No, I was just going to say he might not be a star, but he's going to be a star role player. I love that extension. I think he's a terrific player, like you guys both said.

He does a ton of things that impact winning, and he's on a deal that will allow him be there as part of that core going forward. I thought that was a really smart business to get that done. If he had been there, I would have taken him probably one of these next two picks. But since he is not, I'm going to take... The sixth pick, I'm sorry, on draft night was what the Pacers, their highest draft picks since the, I think the 80s at the time they took Benedict Matherin that night out of Arizona. Sorry, go ahead. I'm not taking Benedict Matherin out of Arizona. I'm taking Keegan Murray, who went forth. Keegan Murray, plug and play, three-and-d-d-wing, 37 percent three-point shooter. Maybe do more offensively if he's on a different team than he's been with the Kings,

where they've had a bunch of high usage guys around him early in his career. But guy, his size, true wing-sized player who can guard and hit threes, do a little bit of everything. That's obviously, again, there's a trend in what we're looking at, basically all these guys outside of Paolo are guys who make some level of impact at both ends. Kiga-Murie is that, and I will take him sixth overall. Also durable, dependable. Yeah, he's only missed like 12 games this whole career. Yeah, he's played 233 games out of, I'm not good at 246, and he leads this class in minutes

played by a lot. He's played almost 7,600 minutes. Nobody else has played 7,000. I will say rookie year, and, you know, I'd have to, there's been some coaching changes, and so I'd have to, I would need to study this and talk to people who know I don't, I can't offer more than just the raw data. He shot 41% on threes as a rookie on six a game, which is tremendous. And one of the reasons why he, you know, the draft pick was seen as a moderate,

man, mild risk. And the kings were praised heavily for it. I believe that was the year, Monti McNair won executive of the year, at least in part because of that draft pick. This last year, he also shot six a game and it was down to 34%. And a 3.4 percentage has gone down each year, which is not what you're looking for. Again, I'd have to know more about the type of threes he's getting. Maybe there's a reason for that.

But, you know, you don't want your guy getting worse on threes over on the same volume. So I just will point that out. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. Is it my turn again? Content. Oh. I am going to. Yeah.

I told you I would screw this up. My God. seventh overall, which was Shaden Sharp, the Blazers in the original draft. Yeah, and I'm going to take a guy who has been off the radar a little bit the past couple years because his team has not been very good to be charitable. I believe it's the other player. McMahon was debating with his earlier pick, though I could be wrong. I'm going to take Walker Kessler with the seventh pick, guy who has shown in his brief time in the league,

he can be a really impactful defensive player. center. And I think that if he was in a different situation where there was more of an aggressive effort to be winning in the immediate, he'd be seen in a little bit different light. I shouldn't say in a different light. I think he'd be more recognized for what he's able to do because in the brief time, he's been on the court the last couple of years. He's been impactful. There's just not been a lot of emphasis in Utah on racking up Ws. Yeah, and he had a great rookie year. I'm not correct about him being the other guy you were thinking about the other pick,

or were you thinking about another guy? You're incorrect, as usual. But, you know, he's definitely a guy who would, you know, I think he belongs in this conversation. The number three guy in the rookie year voting, he didn't have nearly as good a year, his sophomore year. I think playing for Team USA in the World Cup wasn't good for him for a variety of of reasons, one of which he wasn't able to do the work on his body that summer that he needed to do, did that work the next summer. And then last year, look, the Jazz tanked. That's why he only

played 58 games, but he averaged 11 points, 12 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. I had the league in offensive rebounding, too, 4.6 offensive rebounds per game. While I said, Chet is the highest ceiling defensive player in this draft, I do think Walker Kessler is probably second there. And honestly, the big question with Kessler is like, what can he be offensively? What he really needs to be is an awesome screener, an awesome finisher, and he already is an awesome offensive rebounder. And honestly, it's hard to evaluate the guy as that type of pick and roll big when you

don't have anything close to decent guard play. All right. So I think I've got the eighth pick here. Yes, right? Pelicans that night drafted Dyson Daniels. I think I'm going to take Dyson Daniels. Okay. You could go a different couple of spots.

Don't trade them. Don't trade them. You'll look bad if you do. Yeah, he did not have an impact for rookie year. If we had done the redraft after his rookie year, it would not have looked the same. This last year, given a big role in Atlanta, one most improved player was first team all defense and second team defensive player of the year. also in the midst of contract negotiation, extension negotiations. Just an absolute elite perimeter defender put up insane deflection numbers this year.

Like the highest deflection numbers basically on record, led the league with three steals a game. And, you know, just really long guy. And while he is not a good shooter, which ultimately is going to be the big asterisk on, especially I think when they try to fear what to pay him, the fact that that skill is, not there. He has improved mildly. He did shoot 34% this year. He doesn't shoot many of them because he's not that good at him. His overall efficiency has improved. And he, you know, he got more playing time this year and he averaged 14 a game. But you're drafting this guy because he's the type of guy that if you ever got into a playoff run, you could put him on the elite wings.

You could put him on Jason Tatum. You could put him on Jaylon. You could put him on Jay Brown. You could put them on Tyrese Halliburton. You could put him on Donovan Mitchell, you know, just in the east and know that you were going to be deploying a stud at that position. And so we are getting into this spot where you could, in the draft where you could go a lot of different directions. But I'm going to stick with Dyson Daniels right there. I thought about him with the last pick two. The shooting, the shooting component is what helped me back on it. Like, obviously he's a very good defensive player. He showed he could make an impact there this year. But it is what's going to make his extension negotiations really interesting because

he can do a little bit with the ball, but he's kind of an offball player. And he's not a great shooter. And, you know, that that kind of player, while valuable, has never really gotten a huge number. I mean, the guy sort of have thought about him in comparison to is Marcus Smart, who is another guy who could make a three, but oftentimes didn't and was a versatile, impactful defender, but wasn't really an on-ball player as more of a two-guard who could do some ball handling. And Marcus, you know, he never got, he got solid contracts, but he never got like 30, you know, up anywhere near a max. So it will be interesting to see what the negotiations, where the negotiations with ice and land with the Hawks and if they get a deal done, what it looks like.

The Hawks last year went all the way down to the buzzer with Jalen Johnson, who was a high upside player. And I think on the day that they did the deal, I think the Jalen was pretty happy. I think they got them to move right at the end. I think Trey Murphy had gotten a pretty good number early on that deadline day. And he ended up getting five years and 150. But it's a flat contract, I believe 30 straight across the board. And I think the Hawks felt really good about where they got him at. He obviously was having a pretty big breakout season last year before an injury.

But I think it's instructive of how the Hawks might handle this one, which is they're going to have a number and they may be willing to move, but they're not going to go over a certain number. And they may come all the way down to the deadline day in October. You know, Marcus Smart is an interesting comp here. Dyson Daniels is 6'8. Yeah. He is a long, long version.

of a Marcus Smart type of player. He's also, I don't believe he's turned 20 years old now. The shooting got it up to 34% last year after being 31. His two years in New Orleans, only three attempts per game. And it's not just, the issue there is teams don't guard him as a spot-up shooter. Teams, they're inviting him. But I think that we've seen plenty of proof. that the one skill that is developed the most often at the NBA level is that spot-up three-point

shooting. So if he develops that, then look out. All right. We ready for me at number nine here? Is it your turn? So number nine was the Spurs in 2022. They took Jeremy Sohan out of Baylor. Yeah. And actually the guy I was thinking about earlier, a non-lottery pick, not even a first-round pick. but a guy that we saw a whole lot of last spring into the early summer, a guy who's proven that he can take the toughest back court assignment, a guy who's proven that he can hit big-time shots, talking about Andrew Nimard in Indiana. I think about him in Sabbath, too.

That's a good one. Yeah, and he's going to have a chance to prove that he can be a primary facilitator this year through unfortunate circumstances. Obviously, the Pacers would much prefer to have Tyreys Halliburton in the back court with Nimard, but he's going to be running the show for him this year. And look, his regular season numbers aren't going to blow your socks off. But, man, I love a 6-foot-5 guy who's as competitive as he is and who is a better playoff performer than he is a regular season performer.

Yeah, this is a classic case of an 82 game, evaluating a player as an 82 game player and evaluating him as a 16, you know, you need 16 wins to win the championship. This is a guy like, you know, that Draymond Green, you know, considers him, you know, they play very different positions, obviously. But Draymond, I think, has said that he like sees himself as the 16 game player more than the 82 game player, although he's been great in the 82 games. I've had the opportunity to cover a number of Pacer's series over the last couple of years and was there the night two years ago where he hit the big shot against the Knicks in the playoffs, which essentially was a defining moment in that series. There were injuries obviously as well in the seven games, but Nemhart got the Pacers sort of leverage in that series.

And yeah, you know, interesting thing is they've extended him and they haven't extended Matherin, Bontemps. I mean, their time frames were different. Nemhart was eligible because he was a second round pick. He was eligible last year and they extended him. And, you know, they got him both on the same night. They're both important players for their two playoff runs. But it's just, it's possible they have to pick between the two of them just because of their financial realities. And like I said, they've already extended Nemhart. Nemhart's been more important in the two runs. And I think that's reflective in his role with the team and the fact that he had been extended already. and we'll see what happens with Matherin.

Rick Carlisle has said the past couple of weeks that he will be a starter this year. We'll see what happens for him this year. You mean Matherin? Matherin, yes. But I think the actions over words have been pretty clear that it's much more likely that of the two of them, Andrew Nammardt, is a part of the Pacers for the long term. Yeah, and I think we'll touch on Matherin here in a little bit, but not right now. More Hoop Collective podcast after this.

With the 10th overall pick, I will not be taking Johnny Davis like the Wizards did. We're going through the lottery, and I think that'll be the last time that you hear his name mentioned on this particular podcast. Maybe ever. I am going to take a piston, but not Jaden Ivy, who they took fifth overall. I'm going to take the big man that they traded. back up to get Jalen Duren, who was a double-double guy last year for a playoff team. You know, it doesn't turn 22 until early next season. 610, 250, absolutely chiseled, dynamic athlete, has some, you know, big-time toughness about him,

has more skill than I, you know, than I think maybe his reputation is like he's a much better passer than people would think he's not just your pick and roll lob threat like you can give it to him in the short role he can be a good decision maker out of that and you know I think this guy's already proven that he can you know be an impact player on a on a winning team and I think there's just a ton of potential uh left for him. Dalyne is very indicative of what happened uh with their queen that's exactly right now I was going to say that go ahead Pro Weaver was running the Pistons at the time.

They drafted Jaden Ivy with the fifth overall pick. And there was debate whether they would take Jalen Dern with that pick. They took Jaden Ivy, I think, in part because he surprisingly fell to five instead of going four. And the Pistons, Troy Weaver then feverishly tried to trade back into the draft to get Jalen Duren ultimately did so. You're with the Knicks, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, with the Knicks at 13. And that is what happened this year with the difference being, At the time, the Pistons made sure their pick was somewhat protected going forward.

It eventually conveyed this year. But if it had been the same scenario that the Pelicans were in this year, it would have been the number one pick the next year, it would have been Kate Cunningham. So that is just a potential foreshadowing for what could happen this coming year for the Atlanta Hawks who made a swap with the Pelicans, obviously, on draft night, to allow them to move back up to 13, same pick, to get Derrick Queen.

And Jalen Dern is a great interesting. Just a slight difference in the potential for the pick there. Well, yes. There's the fact that it's unprotected. It could end up being an extremely lucrative one for Atlanta. And Dern is a really interesting player. He is a crazy athlete, like you said. You know, I am a little curious to see long term what his ceiling winds up being.

But, you know, certainly if it all clicks together, and it's got a chance to be a pretty much. impactful player. And I do think J.B. Bickerstaff landing in Detroit was a great thing for Jalen Duren in particular. When you look at the track record he had, you know, going back to what he did with Cleveland, with Evan Mowgli and Jared Allen and the defensive pedigree that J.B. has working with Jalen Duren, I think, has a chance to be a very good long-term thing for him. And he's another guy that this summer as an extension eligible guy, it'll be interesting to see if they get a deal done in what it looks like.

Well, he's the only player in this class who's averaging a double-double for his career. Just a giant man. Now, do you get to pick again, Bontemps? Your turn. No, this is your turn, buddy. You always think I'm joking. All right. 11th overall.

It's 11th overall. A sad commentary on a long-running bit. Neither way. It's not a bit. That's why it's why I do. All right. I need, what I need is I need, when we do this going forward, Jackson, I need you in the chat, just managing this for me.

It really shouldn't be that. Wow. It's a very important job, Jackson. you've been on the on draft night this was an interesting spot it was taken the Oklahoma City Thunder traded up with this pick um and took Osman jang out of uh he was with the New Zealand breakers at the time he's French um the reason this was interesting is the thunder had the 12th pick this story's been told before I'll just run through it real quick the thunder had the 12th pick in the draft they knew the nicks were auctioning off the 11th pick in front of

them and they really, really wanted Jalen Williams. And so not that they didn't want Osmond Zhang, but the guy they wanted was Jalen Williams and they were afraid with the Knicks pick being very available that somebody was going to trade into that spot and take J. Dub in front of them. So they sent three first round picks. Now they were protected. It wasn't three unprotected picks and, you know, whatever, but they sent three first round picks to the Knicks to take, to get number 11 pick and took Jang. And you might say, well, why didn't they take Williams instead? of Jang if they were so worried about that because they were worried that something might happen in the trade or somebody might back out or whatever. They knew that they had the 12th pick,

which was the Clippers pick. They knew for sure that they had it. And I wrote a story about it a few months later and I said they had two goals that night. Chad Holmgren, Jalen Williams. Osmond Jang was a bonus. But they had to get Jailen Williams. So they got the number 11 pick. Yeah. And Osmond Jing was a bonus and was Jalen Williams insurance. Was an insurance. that they were getting Jay and Williams. Right. Okay. Anyway, with the 11th pick,

I'm going to take Jaden Ivy, who I was, you know, I am not, as you guys know, a college evaluator, but I do watch international basketball. And I had seen Jaden Ivy play some before his senior year in the U-19 World Cup.

I was basically watching it to watch Victor Wimbunyan and Chad Holmgren. And Jade Nivey, even though Chet Holmgren won the MVP. Jade and I, the I felt was Team USA's best player.

But anyway, he had a great last year at Purdue. And he's turned out to be a solid player, but I feel like he was taking a really big step forward this last season

when he had the injury that wiped him out and held him to 30 games. And Bernie Bickerstaff was sort of unlocking him. So Bernie's son? Bernie. I say Bernie?

J.B. that's an old man mistake God, I'm feeling it every day For some reason, Monty Williams just didn't have faith in Jaden Ivy And, you know, over the course of Monty's coaching career, there were individual players that he lost faith in

And they manifested itself And sometimes it was hard to identify why And Jaden fell into that category. I mean, he was trying to play Killian Hayes over him at the start of that scene. Oh, Bond Tim's bringing up Killian Hayes. Look out. a USWB favorite.

It just didn't make sense. It never made sense at the time, and it still doesn't. Well, that's why Monty Williams is getting checks sent to his house now. Big fat checks. Jay and I have you had two really rough years to start his career. And to your point, Brian, he had a really good first 30 games last year before he got hurt. He took some meaningful strides forward. He shot the ball way better.

The question going forward is going to be, assuming he comes back in full health, which you certainly hope he does, is, you know, which is the more real thing. The first couple of years when the numbers are pretty rough and he's outside the top 30 in this draft and winchairs or the improvements that look like he was making last year in his third year because he's a big time athlete. And if he does look more like the player from last year,

then he's going to be a very nice piece for Detroit going forward. Yeah, shot 34% for his first two years from 3, 41% last year on the highest volume. but it is a 30-game sample size. Certainly can't draw any conclusions from that. But if he's going to shoot it high 30s, low 40s, then there's the concerns about the fit next decade go away. No question. All right.

Number 12, I have no idea who's picking. Really easy choice here. Tar Yessen thought about him at 7. Happy he's here at 12. Really interesting live wire wing player. You know, it was obviously coming off the bench in Houston, but is a guy they really like. And mentioned Dylan Brooks.

I don't know if you mentioned it as part of the Jabari Smith thing earlier. But with Dylan Brooks leaving, I think it's going to be just fine for Houston having Jabari Smith, Tar Easton, and I'm in Thompson soaking up those extra minutes on the wing this year with Kevin Durant sliding into the Jalen Green minutes. And another guy who this summer, you know, I think we talked about it after the Jabari extension, it would be very interesting to see what number if there is. one that Houston comes to with Tarisen moving forward. If they could get him in a similar rate to Jabari Smith and get the two of those guys locked in for somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of the cap going forward, you know,

those are two guys that can have a real impact off the bench for them or, you know, and swing starter spots with their ability to defend and make plays offensively. Yeah, the only thing that I would say, but I don't know that Tar Heason's minutes are going to go up because they've already been very carefully managing his minutes. You know, he sits back to backs. You know, he's had the issues with his leg that cost him most of the 23, 24 season. You know, he only played 57 games last year, average about, what was it, 24, 25 minutes per game. I'm not sure they're trying to increase his workload, but he's awfully productive in that workload.

and, you know, but I mean, he is a big time athlete at 6 foot 8 and a defensive playmaker. Like, he's one of the most impactful defensive playmakers on like a per minute basis or per possession basis in the entire league. In addition to being, you know, a great rebounder for a wing. And, you know, he's a guy who scores without, like they don't run plays for him. He's kind of a garbage man offensively, you know, a guy can get buckets in transition. off the glass, off cutting, that kind of thing. But now he's a big part of, was a big part of the rocket success last season, and is a big part of their plans moving forward. And we'll see what that looks like in a contract extension. So Raffel Stone, our general manager is very,

very proud of the Tar He'season draft pick, which was 17th in that draft in 2022. He had some... The first pick from the Hardin deal, by the way. Oh, is that right? Okay. So he was red flagged by some teams for various reasons. He went to Cincinnati and sort of washed out there, then ended up at LSU. Was he even a starter at LSU? I don't know. Anyway, but there was some red flags on him, and some teams had sort of, you know, he slid on some draft boards because of it.

And Raffel Stone is from Seattle, as Tari Yason is. And Raffel dug into his contacts in their shared hometown and really went into the nitty-gritty finding out about him a lot. And their evaluation was that he was miscast, that that wasn't accurate. And so some people felt taking him was a bit of a risk. And at the time, now Raffel is like a candidate to win executive at a year. At the time, he was just trying to establish himself

and the rockets were on a downward trend. And so he represents sort of a pivotal moment. So there's a lot of organizational equity in TARP. Eason. But either way, you're taking him at this spot. You know, you need wing players and taking him in the late lottery makes sense. Okay, number 13 pick, which on draft night was the Jalen Durenk that was traded to Pistons. I think it's your pick, McMahon. No, it's not. I'm going back and fourth. I think there's a real drop off after 12, and I'm going back and forth on a couple of guys. I think I'm ultimately going to take Shaden Sharp. I was going back and forth on him and

Benedict Mathrin. They're two very similar players. I'm going to take a swing on Sharp at 13 because of the potential upside. He just turned 22, 40. 18 points a game last year. It's been a weird situation, I think, overall in Portland since he got there. He's never really had, you know, he's played a lot of minutes, but the whole, the fit there has been kind of odd. There's had a lot of different miles to feed offensively. You know, I think there's some chance still. I mean, he's an incredible athlete. Anybody who's ever seeing high, I would say him, Duncan, like he can, he can do some wild stuff from an athletic standpoint. And he's still so young that there's I think some potential untapped upside there.

So at this point, I don't feel super strongly either way about those guys. I'm guessing Brian will take Mathuron at 14, but I'll take sharp there and take a swing on the ceiling. Yeah. And how he fits going forward after they traded for Drew Holliday, I'm not sure. Like, is he coming off the bench? Is they going to play kind of a smaller lineup and play him at the 3rd? Three, I don't. Is Holly going to play the one and scoot come off the bench?

I don't know what that looks like. I do know this guy, as you said, is, I mean, an elite athlete who can put the ball in the hold despite not being a great shooter. Yeah, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with it. And I will, with the 14th pick, the last pick in the lottery in this, I will take Benedict Matherin. As a starter last year, he did start 49 years. games because of they, you know, they had a bunch of injuries to their wing players, including Nemhart early in the season. So this was more earlier in the season than later when they got

healthier. But as a starter last season, then he averaged 32 minutes a game. Matherin average 17.6 rebounds, shot 35% on three. And, you know, Matherin is a guy who, he needs to control his emotions. He has hockeyness, if you're being polite about it. for sure. Some Lance Stevenson in him to use another. He ain't scared, that's for sure. Yeah. You know, he's got one of the most complex backgrounds in the league.

You know, he's of Haitian descent, speaks Creole, grew up in Montreal, played in the NBA Academy in Mexico City before then going to Arizona. I think he speaks four or five languages. You know, French, obviously French from Montreal. Creole, learned some Spanish when he was in Mexico City and then English. Plays both ends of the court, guys. This is what you're talking about when you're talking about players you want, good size. I mean, 6-6-2-10, like exactly what you want a wing to look like.

Yeah. Extremely athletic, tough. And look, when I say he's scared, the guy had 27 points in 22 minutes in a finals win. And in game seven, he had 24 points in 30. 13 rebounds, but has not earned Rick Carlisle's trust. Right. Right after he had 27 points, 23 minutes, he played 14 minutes in next game. That's right.

He had some single-digit minutes in games. He was all over the place in their playoff run, all over the place. You know, as Bond Tim's mentioned earlier, Rick Carlisle recently went on Caitlin Cooper's podcast and declared, hey, Benedict Mathron will be starting this year. And by the way, earning Rick Carlos trust as a young player ain't easy. That's one thing that's another thing that's awfully impressive about Andrew Nimard. But, you know, Matherin's going to be starting, and I would assume he's going to be their number two offense of option behind Pascal Siacom. We'll see if there's an extension done before the season.

But man, if you're Matthew, maybe it makes sense just to bet on yourself this season and bet that with that role, you're going to put up big time numbers and put yourself in a better situation next summer in terms of contract. contract negotiations. Well, that's true. That could be one thing you could think about. All right. So of the guys that were taken sort of high that didn't, you know, you had, yeah, we had O'Chaya Abaji, who's been traded twice, the calves took him, and he's not with the

Raptors. So Han, slept out. I still, I don't know exactly what to make of him. Like the pie in the sky comp, you'd hear from the Spurs has been Draymond Green. Well, they can't shoot. No. So it's, you know, in the modern era, you've got to be really special with some other areas.

Well, then they had that Sohan's point guard slash, where tanking still experiment. That was a total disaster. It was a desired goal, which was to help them tank. It definitely helped them do that. Well, I don't think it helps So on's development, which is... The lottery picks that we didn't redraft in the lottery were So Han, Uzman Jang, Johnny Davis,

and Abaji, I think. Everybody else. Those are the ones. Mark Williams, who went 15th in that draft, who didn't name, I think he would have been probably right in that similar type of range. I'm just looking like productive players. The other guy I thought of at 12,

or at 13, that I ultimately didn't take, who I may think long term could have a chance to be better than both of the guys we talked about is Max Christie, who is now in Dallas, who I thought about picking. I mean, obviously, the MAVs have a lot of wings,

so I'm not sure where the minutes are going to come from there. But you saw last year with the Lakers before the trade and then with Dallas in the minutes he got after that. Like he is a legit 3-and-D guy. He's still super young. I think he's a guy. He's only 22. I think he's a guy that long-term is going to be a quality 3-D wing. And certainly a guy who's going to have a long career.

One guy that I would have loved to have picked, but I just can't do it, is Nikoliovich. from the Heat who was taken late in the first round. I have seen him play for Serbia and just have some huge moments. And again, this is a 6'10 guy. He's kind of been all over the place. Talk about not earning trust. He has not earned Eric Spolstra's trust. There have been times where they put him in the starting lineup

and times when he's been totally out of the rotation in various trade discussions. He only played 107 games in three. And he's had injuries. He's had injuries, absolutely. He's a 6-10, but he's a 22-year-old guy. guy who is 610 who has shot a career 37% from three. Like that's a very interesting player. And, you know, they still are pretty high on them, I think, long term. And, you know, it's easy to see why.

Like you said, you watch him play at times for Serbia. Watch him in times for the heat. And he has moments. They're like, man, this guy's got a chance to be really impactful player. Well, and he'll be playing for Serbia in Eurobasket that starts later this month. I assume playing a major role. And we've seen examples of guys who. play major roles for their national team over the summer, and that kind of serves as a springboard

for them. Other guys who I think are worth at least honorable mentions here, Peyton Watson, who has proven himself to be a quality rotation player for the Nuggets. He's on the list of guys who, hey, if he develops a consistent three-point shot, man, he's going to be really good. Big if, if, but a heck of a defender at six foot eight. And then I'm surprised by Vontim's didn't mention this, as big a Lakers fan as he is, old Jake Laravia. Well, the fact that Jake LaRavia was a free agent as a first-round pick. Well, that's a tricky thing, though, because Memphis did not pick up his option, right? They made the decision not to.

And then that put him in a, I'd have to tap Bobby Mark's brain to give you the exact specifics. But that put him in a position where they're going to be very limited on what they could offer him, forward to the point where they knew, like, well, we made that decision. Honestly, I think Zach Klinman probably would take a mulligan on that decision at this point after the Ravia made a big leap last year. But that factored in their decision to trade him last year. And then we'll see. Like, he's going to have an opportunity to prove in L.A. that he can be a significant piece on a winning team. But again, I think he's at least worth mentioning as others who earned some consideration, as is the other Jalen Williams.

who, hey, every time the Thunder decide to sit everybody, man has a triple double. I know that. You cannot argue this. When the Thunder had to do business this summer with their contract extension players, J. Will Jalen Williams got the first contract.

It was a priority. Excuse me, SGA, Chad Holmgren, and J.W. You'll wait. We must deal with the Arkansas, Jalen Williams first. He got the first contract. You know, he's a fringe rotation player. He doesn't play every night.

but he had, there were some critical minutes for him during the playoffs, you know, especially during that second round series against Nuggets. All right, this was fun. I'm glad it's over because I have no idea who had the next pick. Thank you to Jackson for managing this. Thank you to Bontem's and McMahon. Thank you for sticking with us through NBA August. We'll talk to you soon.

Adios amigos.