OverDrive - Marks on the NBA Cup matchup, Gilgeous-Alexander's impressive season and the Raptors playing through injuries

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

ESPN NBA Front Office Insider Bobby Marks joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NBA, the NBA Cup matchup between the Bucks and Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP season, the Thunder's draft outlook, the Raptors playing through big injuries and the team's roster views and more.

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or visit askkelvin.ca here's bobby marks how you doing bobby i'm good guys how we doing we're doing well do you think you know in terms of what the nba would be hoping for how does this matchup fit in terms of what they were looking for in the NBA Cup? Yeah, I mean, certainly, and it's two teams that we won't see on Christmas Day here, so that won't be highlighted in a couple weeks here. I think certainly, listen, at the end of the day, the passing of the torch, whether it be when LeBron or Steph Curry exits, whenever that's going to be, guys like Shea Gildress Alexander will be one of the faces of the NBA, and I think to kind of be on a stage tonight,

the only game on the calendar here against a Milwaukee team that's been really good, I think 12-3 in their last 15 here. Giannis is certainly an MVP candidate here. I do think this is probably, certainly you've got York, some of the bigger markets, I guess, but certainly from a basketball standpoint,

I think this should be a really good game. Yeah, I think it's important if this event is going to mean something in the future, the best teams have to play themselves into it, right? And that's what you've got here. Exactly. That's what you've got. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think, listen, we can pick apart the cup. Should it be more games than four?

You know, should you have eight games and should we do it in January when football is winding down? I mean, we can pick apart it. And I think they'll probably look at how to evaluate it, but it does feel like the teams do mean more when you see that, you know, like the different color quarter. You know, it's like it's, and the guy, the beauty of it is that the players have treated this pretty, this is not the all-star game, right?

Like this is not like an up and down, you know, we saw some pretty high level defense in both games on Saturday. So the discussion of who will take over as the face of the league, obviously LeBron's on that for a long time. Like you said, Steph, I'd say Kevin Durant would be in that conversation. They're all into their mid to late 30s. The time will come, and it's probably going to come pretty soon when the three of them are going to transition out of the league.

Music to the ears of Canadians, the idea that Shea Gilchrist-Alexander would be in contention for that. But again, he's in Oklahoma City. He's not in the biggest market, arguably the smallest market in the NBA. He's a Canadian guy. He's stylish, but he's soft-spoken. Shea's not a big personality with the media. But he's playing himself into

that conversation. He's a legit MVP candidate the last couple of years. He's got a real shot at winning it this year. I know you just mentioned that, but make us believe up here that that could actually happen. Do you really believe that Shea could be a guy that could hold the torch for the NBA?

I do, and I just think a couple things. And certainly, I guess when you look at MVP, you take into account the team's success too, I guess, right? I mean, I think Westbrook was the the only guy in the last, you know, what, 10 years to win it when they weren't a 50-win team here. I just think the Oklahoma City team is built for sustainable success. There is no team better positioned to have a, and I know windows close awfully quick to ask Denver,

but I do believe this window for them is going to be open for a long time, just based on how they're built. And with that comes with, you know, him being on center stage a lot more. Similar to, you know, listen, when, you know, when Jordan went through that period of, you know, the late eighties and they're trying to get through Detroit and they finally do. And then, you know, you get to, you know, six, six NBA finals. I'm not saying that could happen in Oklahoma City.

But that's where you become the face is that your team is really good. You're on a lot of national TV games. You're on Christmas Day. You get an MVP here and there. And I think it has the setup to potentially happen. Well, Bobby, you mentioned how well-positioned OKC is. I'm looking at all their picks, and it's just like, how do they have so many good picks?

Do you actually think there's going to be a time where Sam Presti just goes, you know what, we're really good now, but we could use this? Or do you just think they just keep sitting on these picks and just kind of go with it? Yeah, I think, you know, I wrote an article, I think, back in September. There's five teams that have 65 first-round picks over the next seven years. And certainly them and San Antonio and Brooklyn are probably the main, the big three there.

I just think how this system is set up with this new collective bargaining agreement where you value more the draft, you value more as far as keeping your players in-house, eventually you're going to have to pay Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, and Shea is Supermax eligible this summer. So it gets prohibitive as far as what you can do it, but you can keep those rosters together when you've got three first-round picks this upcoming June, including a potential Sixers pick

that could be the seventh pick in the draft. And what happens is that eventually these guys become, when Isaiah Hartenstein becomes a free agent in a couple years, the seventh pick in the draft replaces him. And you can basically keep on spinning the wheel. Look what they did with Cason Wallace. I mean, Cason Wallace, to be able to pick him at, I think, 10, 10 or 11, somewhere around there, and now he's part of the core here.

And eventually, Cason Wallace will become expensive, and it will be the 2029 Denver pick that becomes part of the rotation. So I do think there's a value. I teased Sam about this last year at the deadline. I called it the Bank of Sam Presti. Because what happens is that when teams are looking for draft picks, they can say, hey, it's basically taking that alone. And he can say, I'll give you this pick, but you give me two of yours in the future. And it's that.

So they've got the flexibility to do that, and then they have the flexibility, as I said, when things do get expensive, they can replace guys. With Bobby Marks. So in terms of where the Raptors are at, I think they'd love to be in the position that Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder are in, clearly. I think a lot of teams in the league would, based on what you just described. But Masai Ujiri, he set the table for a difficult year.

He called it a rebuild. You don't hear executives admit to that publicly very often, but he was willing to go there. And that's exactly how it's played out. Yet injuries have been a big part of this, where Scotty Barnes and Manuel Quickly, I believe they played one full game together this year. So how difficult will this be for Masai

if the injuries continue to pop up? And sure, it might lead to them being in the position they're in right now, where they're in the lottery, they get a real shot at maybe that top pick. But if you don't get to see scotty and quickly and rj barrett play together how do you evaluate this season uh yeah i mean i think quickly is probably the most important i think i think you already have certainly a body work of rj this year and i think the last four years of scotty i I think certainly when you've traded for him, he's coming in as a sixth man.

You get him. He starts. I think you gave him a five-year, $135 million, $40 million contract, big contract, and he hasn't played. And so that would be the biggest concern for me is how do I evaluate the guy I locked up to be my starting point guard in the future. The good thing is, and I've said this about Brooklyn before, the Schroeder trade is that with a new coach, and I know Darko's in the second year, at least there's a foundation where you kind of have a little bit of an identity of how this roster wants to play.

And if you go out and create and see, or if you go out and trade, you can kind of plug and play guys. And if you make a trade, what you're kind of looking for. And I do think that's there. I mean, they compete like heck. I know they lost last night to Chicago. I think the biggest concern for me, and I saw it last night in Brooklyn when they lost by like 40, is when you start to lose a little bit of your competitive desire and you basically let go of the rope.

And that's probably the biggest thing they've got to guard. But, yeah, I think they need to get quickly out. You know, he's got to get back. He's got to get healthy because that at least gives you, you know, listen, if he gets, I don't know when he'll be back, but it gives you 40 games of you could see him and Barrett and him and Barnes and him and, you know, Purtle went out last night with an injury. But, yeah, that's the challenging part where it's more of the injuries

and it's not guys in and out of the lineup as far as from a trade standpoint and their signing players. Well, Bobby, what do you think their young core would look like if they won the lottery and got Cooper flagged? Because I was watching them last night and I was looking at all their young pieces. You had flagged that and suddenly you kind of got something interesting. Yeah. I mean, Cooper, I think Dylan Harper, who's at Rutgers,

who's going to probably contend for it, and Ace Bailey, who's at Rutgers too. I mean, this is setting itself up to be a really strong draft from top to bottom here. And when you add a player like that, I saw it was a year ago today, I drove up to Fort Myers down here in Florida and saw Cooper play in the City of Palms. And this was when he was a senior out in Mount Vernon. I think he was 16 at the time too. And I said this to a scout sitting next to me.

I was like, this guy could play in the league right now. And I know there's been some up and downs at Duke, and people say, hey, he scored like eight points against Incarnate, Word, or something. But, man, I liked what I saw last year. I've liked what I've seen certainly in big games this year. I know there's some turnovers down the stretch here. But I just think he's got a chance to be a franchise player. And when you get a franchise-type player on a rookie contract and you have them for at least probably the next

eight years it just opens up the world of different opportunities that you have yeah that's what we're hoping for at this point like 7 and 20 bobby it's you know like again like i said and like you know and everyone knows messiah was expressing this idea that it would be a difficult year yet when they were healthy like when Scottie first returned and Perto was healthy like they ran off a few wins and it felt as if maybe the the door or maybe the door would be open for them to possibly chase that 10th seed in the east I think that door is probably closed now how would you suggest the Raptors handle things the rest of the way in terms of player personnel because as you know the end of the year in terms of player personnel because as you know

the end of the year teams that are tanking they really show that they're tanking like if you have a hangnail you're not playing right I said this I texted Tim Bontemps last night who I work with at ESPN and I said Brooklyn has proven the theory that hey if you really want to go in the tank just trade your point guard right kind of a that's kind of the way to do it here. And I totally get it where Brooklyn is, right? They're like, shoot, we can't keep on winning more games. We basically traded for our picks back in that Houston deal here. I always say it usually takes care of itself, whether it be injuries or whether it be a trade. I think you're not touching your core guys as far as in a deal here. So it's probably some of the guys that are injured,

whether it be Bruce Brown or Linick, who Bruce hasn't played at all here. I just say, I always say, don't screw around with the lottery gods. I lived through it. I lived through 12 and 70. And listen, we were 12 and 70 in new jersey and 4 and 30 in january and all these different crazy stories that happened we'll end up getting the third pick in the draft yeah so i get it like you do want to bottom out but i think we're how the odds are this year or how they've been you could be in that as long as you're in like that one to seven spot

you've got a you know you've got a good as good of a chance as any of those teams. That's what we're aiming for up here. I mean, unfortunately, that's where we're at. NBA Cup tonight. It should be a fun one. Enjoy that, Bobby. We appreciate you doing this. We'll do it again soon.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Bobby Marks of ESPN.