The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Draftapalooza Part 3: Winners and Losers From Draft Night With Kevin O’Connor and Tate Frazier

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Kevin O'Connor and Tate Frazier to react to the first round of the NBA draft, including the Hornets' choice to take Brandon Miller second overall over Scoot Henderson, Cam Whitmore's slide to the Rockets at 20, ESPN's draft coverage, another savvy Thunder draft, the Mavericks' trade up, the surprisingly competent Wizards, and much more! Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Kevin O'Connor and Tate Frazier Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, NBA draft. Kim Whitmore, what happened? That's next. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste.

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Opening an ice cold Miller Lite can signal the beginning of Miller time. Miller Lite is the light beer with all the great beer tastes we like. 90 calories per 355 mil can. So why not grab some Miller Lights today? Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey. That's right. There's a new exclusive home for streaming Monday

night NHL hockey, and it's on prime all season long. Watch prime Monday night hockey deliver unreal plays. The biggest goals can't miss moments. Matthews, McDavid, Crosby, the NHL's best. They're all on prime prime Monday night hockey. It's on Monday. It's on prime. Also brought to you by the ringer podcast network. You can find the first two parts of NBA draft, the Palooza on this feed. This is part three. We were taping. It's about seven 30.

We're going to wait until the Celtics picked at 25, but the draft became so slow. They're interviewing college coach for like 10 minutes. And we were like, screw it. We're starting. Here we go. Bring a pro gym. college coach for like 10 minutes and we were like screw it we're starting here we go bring in pearl jane all right i'm here with with Kevin O'Connor,

the Shakespeare of NBA Draft Twitter, and Tay Frazier. We just watched the first 21 picks of the NBA Draft. It was the Wendigama Draft. It was Miller versus Scoot. It was the Cam Whitmore free fall. It was Orlando causing Steve Cerruti to text us it feels like we drafted Alfred

Payton again, so we have that. Orlando is back. A bizarre ESPN telecast. There's just a lot to cover here. Remember that it says the Wemby draft. We don't have to talk about Wemby, right? I mean, he got interviewed. How many interviews has he done tonight? Yeah, we're good. Wemby, amazing.

20 years from now, Remember that you got drafted. All right. Scoot versus Miller. Just a fan duel roller coaster ride on the odds. And then Brandon Miller goes second. KOC has now moved into a corner here with Brandon Miller. Now you have to be right. You're all in.

You're like, this was the pick. This is the right thing. He's like patting me on the back. I'm like Hugo the Hornet. I'm like peeled over. I'm like, I don't know what to do with myself. And KFC's like, it's the right pick. Congrats.

Don't worry about it. Tate Charlotte fan devastated that they didn't take Scoot. Why was this the right pick, KFC? Brandon Miller is 6'9". He provides playmaking. Scoot Henderson is 6'2". He's a target on defense. He's an iffy shooter.

Brandon Miller is a knockdown shooter. So I think for Charlotte, we talked about this in your part two, there was reason to take Scoot. Leadership, intangibles, it factor. He was described as ultra competitive. Yes, but Brennan Miller, like now they have two big primary playmakers. They have versatility. Miller can still push ball off the ball

and kind of like unleash his ability off screens and spot-offs and relocating and cutting. Tate's still not excited. No, no. I'm turning around. I'm trying to turn around. KFC was working on you for three hours. I mean, for you, Tate, with Miller

and now Ball together, and now you've got Mark Williams, room protector, you hope you bring back P.J. Washington in this situation. You've got to bring him back. Yeah, you've got to. They can play these jumbo lineups. They can be massive. I like being big.

You know what I mean? I like the backcourt, and I like the idea of a 6'7 point guard, a 6'9 shooting guard. That's enticing. There's reasons to be excited about Brandon Miller. And honestly, I want to be excited about Brandon Miller. I just had fallen in love with Scoot. Like you talked about that competitiveness.

I like the birth certificate idea. You know what I mean? There was a lot going on for Scoot Henderson, but Brandon Miller, Muggsy Bogue said he was the pick. I'm going to ride with Muggsy. I think it was the right pick. Tate,

I don't believe any of this. Where's the lie detector test? My heart is pounding. I've never seen. First of all, Tate I don't believe any of this where's the lie detector test I don't believe my heart is pounding I've never seen first of all you were disconsolate for 10 minutes

after the pick I don't think I talked I didn't say a word he was just slumped in his seat then I started cracking jokes you slowly came back

at one point they showed the it was Charlotte's fourth number two pick they showed the graphic oh no and it was Alonzo Mourning good one

after LJ too Emeka Okafor he wasn't bad better than you think yeah It's fourth number two pick. They showed the graphic. Oh, no. And it was Alonzo Mourning. Good one. After LJ, too. Emeka Okafor. He wasn't bad. Better than you think. Michael Kidd, Gil Crest. Didn't work out that well. And then Brandon Miller. And I think I could see the fear in Tate's eyes.

And I had to make the one for four joke. But I guess we'll find out. I would have taken Scoot. I just feel like he's got the if factor. What's fun about as an NBA fan, this is a much more fun scenario, right? Because Portland has to take him at three. But he makes no sense on the roster they have.

Literally the last thing they needed was a six foot two. I need the ball guards. They have Dame. They have Simons. Got Shane Sharp there. He can't legally guards. They have Dame. They have Simons. Got Shaden Sharp there. He's, you know, he can't legally drink. Scoot can't legally drink.

Dame's going to be 33. And I think the feeling around the league, I'm sure you've heard this, is if this is the direction this goes, watch out for Dame. Windhorse said that

on my podcast on Tuesday. So now that Dame watches on, KOC. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like I'm a little surprised nothing happened big tonight out of nowhere as soon as Scoot was to pick. Um, but, uh, I think we're at a point now where you have all those guys, not just the youth, but the lack of size in the backcourt. I mean, you can't win many games with Damian Lord and Scoot Henderson and Anthony Simons and, and DeSharp has some length and athleticism,

but it's not like he's 6'8", 6'9". Don't forget about Nurkic's complete lack of rim protection and any sort of defensive ability at all. I mean, he's a dead weight right now at the center position for Portland. If they're going to keep Dame, they need to improve the center spot, but they're still small on the backcourt. So I just think for Damian Lillard at this point and for the Blazers, it's best to split up.

And whether it's Miami or Brooklyn or if Portland says, screw your list, we're trading them for the best player, best offer we get, I just think those guys are better off splitting up. It's going to be sad when – so Miami takes that kid today and everybody's like, oh, my God, what an unbelievable pick. Heat culture. You get Latin American and... Nope. He's going to get traded to Portland in like a week. And he plays just like

Jimmy Butler. You know what I mean? If you watch Hame Hakez in college, at times you're like, wow. To use KOC's term, shades of Jimmy Butler. So him playing behind Jimmy makes a lot of sense. He can endear himself to the community of Miami. He's a winning player. He checks all those boxes and he's gone for Dame Lillard.

And he's going to play in about a week. So this worked out great for Scoot. It does, yeah. Because now he goes to Portland. They're, I would guess, probably going to trade Dame for either to Brooklyn or Miami or some mystery team and be like, all right, here we go. We got all the young guns now.

We're going to keep Simons. We're going to keep Sharp. We got Scoot. They also got Chris Murray. That's their pick at 23. That just came in as we record. Interesting. Who was the 22nd pick, just out of curiosity? Dariq Whitehead to the Nets. So my guy Omax is still available.

On real time on this podcast, you're going to hear me have a little Omax chasm. So for Scoot, though, Portland was i couldn't help but think about uh once upon a time guy by the name michael jordan filled a three team come on picking two is this sam buoy redemption here like well they had a team picking uh number two portland trailblazers they were like we're good at all these. We really need some big guy. Yeah, we got Clyde Drexler.

What do we need? We don't need another shooting guard. It took Sam Bowie. Now, all these years later, maybe it flips. It's too much for Scoot. Scoot is going to be a good player. Listen, it sounded great. I didn't say it was true.

I just fell over again. Scoot's not Michael Jordan. I mean, Scoot was true. I just fell over again. Scoot's not Michael Jordan. Scoot's going to be a good point guard. He has that it factor. He's got that dog in him, right? All these intangible qualities. He can pass. He can get to the basket. He's a fearless player. He's had clutch moments for the Ignite this past season.

He's going to be good. I just want you to be protected. Just leave an open mind for the Scoot ceiling. I mean, there's a chance. I don't want you to just say this is a three-floor house. There's a chance. There's a chance. Okay.

There's a chance. So you're saying there's a chance. He's saying there's a three-person draft. You know what I mean? And Scoot just was third for him. There is a chance, but there's also a chance like Ahmed and Osar Thompson are both better. Oh, a five-person draft. Never mind. He's six foot two. There is a chance, but there's also a chance like Amena and Osara Thompson are both better. Like with Scoot, he's 6'2".

He still needs to improve as a shooter. He still needs to improve at actually getting the basket and finishing at a high level, drawing fouls. And defensively, he's 6'2". You get targeted. So I just think the expectations for Scoot. He's ultra competitive, though. But that's why expectations have just gone through the roof for him because he's so lovable so i i hope he reaches those expectations but like temper them a little did you like the grill that's a good question when i saw the grill and i and i saw the flash i was

saying to myself i i feel like i like his moxie i like the confidence i like he thinks he's the number one pick you know a lot of times you want a guy that thinks he's supposed to be the number one pick those are the things i like about scoop I like the grill the first four times he showed off the grill. But around number 13, I started to get a little worried. I think this works out great for him. Now it's like this was a three-player draft, then it dropped. I always pick third. Well, I'm as good as now.

He'll have the little thing. That chip's even bigger for him. And he's also, if they trade Dame, it'll be a bad team next year, which is great for him. Good conference. He'll have the ball more. I just don't know what that Dame trade is. Like Brooklyn.

So Brooklyn, who were their two picks at 21 and 22? They had Noah Clowney at 21 out of Alabama center. Then Dariq Whitehead at 22. Duke guard slash wing, head injuries, two foot surgeries. Both of those guys could be headed to player in Brooklyn yeah Brooklyn trades for uh for Dame which I don't I don't think can be ruled out and then other than that for Dame teams the only other one I could think of is Atlanta if Trey was on the table which there's been no rumors about that at all I mean what about Boston is there any world in which Boston tries to get involved he He basically already said he didn't want to go there.

Chris Haynes, who's... A lot of people have said they don't want to go places. I know. He's incredibly tight with Dean. Obviously, he said it's not going to happen. Like, just flat out said it's not going to happen. Well, the Celtics aren't trading Jalen Brown. I mean, at least for the next year, he's on the team. So they don't have enough to get him anyway. And Portland wouldn't

want Jalen Brown unless they were keeping Damian Lillard. Right. Right. And even then, I'm not sure they would have wanted to give up number three considering they don't know if Jalen would resign. The one that could have made sense is Philly, but they just don't have the picks because it's like Maxie Harris plus

and then there's no plus. It really might just be the heat in the nets and that's about it. Other than that, I mean, who has either the assets or the need and that and that's about it other than that i mean who has either the assets or the need for another point guard just not many teams well i would have said maybe orlando but they absolutely uh in my opinion whiffed on the draft they put six and 11 i don't really understand what happened they take uh anthony black at six they take jed howard at 11 which drew gasps in our little draft viewing room.

What did you have, Jed Howard, 20th? 20th on my board, yeah. There's just other guys we liked more than that. Meanwhile, in the middle of those, Cason Wallace went 10, and my guy French Pippen went seven. But I don't know. Cousin Sal was all over Koulibaly for you, by the way.

Oh, yeah. He bet that. He took that. He won that. So congratulations. All you had to see was two videos of him just blocking stuff off the shot clock. I feel like Orlando missed an opportunity in that KOC. I like the Anthony Black pick at six.

Me too. I mean, he's a good connect. Talk me into it because he feels a little Alfred Payton-y to me. So let's play to the Alfred Payton part first. Lack of jumper. He's needed to prove himself, especially sharing the floor with Franz Wagner, who's a solid shooter but not a knockdown shooter. Wendell Carter, same thing.

So for Orlando, that's where you have concern there. However, the connective playmaking ability, that guy just makes rapid decisions. He's a high IQ guy, a tough, big 6'7 defender at the guard spot. So we're talking size in the NBA. That's going to be a trend with some of these young teams. You have Charlotte, the now this big Oklahoma City across the board, big, long teams. And then Orlando, they're going to be putting out lineups where anthony black is the smallest guy and yet all five players on the floor still have skill and handling ability

the question is the jumper and that's where jet howard i think drafting him is a bet on he's six eight he's not a defender yet he's not a passer yet but he's a scorer he can shoot so the things that he doesn't do well they would hope are covered up by the things that he does well, which is scoring. You guys both hated this pick. However, with Jed Howard at 11, I agree. I would have went with Grady Dick instead. I would have went a different direction.

Why would you take Jed Howard over Grady Dick? You watch more college basketball than anyone I know. Well, I think they saw the suit, and they said we cannot take this guy. They were wondering why he was dressed like a magician? Honestly, not a bad reason. They had him until they saw the suit and they said, we cannot take this guy. They were wondering why he was dressed like a magician. Honestly, not a bad reason. They had him until they saw the suit. It's kind of like last year at the draft. I feel like they saw Paolo Bancaro

and they saw him standing next to Jabari Smith and they said, okay, well, that guy's the number one pick. He was literally a walking red flag wearing that suit. I was trying to come up with a nickname. The best I could do was Siegfried and Brandon Roy, but he just looked like he was a vegas entertainer who was he had shoulder pads yeah heading out for a cigarette between breaks of like his maybe he didn't want to go to orlando but he's going to toronto now but like

you said koz they needed a shooter so i understand you're trying to talk yourself into jed howard he has the wingspan john hammond loves the wingspan so that makes sense it's nice for anthony black he doesn't have to be the primary ball handler for this team. You got Franz Wagner. You got Cole Anthony. You got Suggs. And durability is the big thing with Anthony Black. He plays.

He played the most minutes on Arkansas. He shows up. He's going to make mistakes. He's going to have turnovers, but he's also not going to be a problem for you. And he can guard one, two, and three. That's another nice piece to have a guard who can slide down at 6' seven well i'll look for him during magic games and i'll be able to find him because nobody will be within four feet of him in their half court offense he'll just be standing by himself as they double team palo as this guy to defend saruti though i think the hair

was hurting him i think saruti saw the hair saw the number next to the pick and was like oh my god is this alfred payton great? Anthony Black is not Alfred Payton. Okay, good. I think he's better. They do need shooting, though, still. I mean, like, Jed Howard helps, but, I mean, like, with Black, Bancaro, Wagner, Carter, that would be the concern with that team. Like, how much better are those guys going to get?

Bancaro was one of the least efficient jump shooters from both mid-range and three this past season. Off the catch, off the dribble, it didn't matter. So, like, they need, like need internal improvement for it all to work. So Toronto ends up with Grady Dick at 13, which is another red flag if you're Orlando because Toronto usually drafts really well. I just would have taken Grady Dick.

I did ask during his interview whether he was foreign. I know he's from Kansas, but it became unclear after a while. I was like, is he from here? We're going gonna take a quick break and then we'll hit uh some of the other big storylines omax went to the mavs at 24 and the celtics are trading the 25th pick to 31 and and they took marcus sasser at 25 and they're trading it to the pistons so now the c Celtics have number 31 instead of number 25. I bet you they wanted O-Max.

We're going to take a break so I can stick my head in the oven. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember.

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or set your own goal and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. All right, we're coming back. Not only did the Celtics not get OMAX, but what happened? How did Dallas get him from Sacramento? So Dallas absorbed Rashawn Holmes from the Kings into their traded player exception they got for trading, Davies Bertans. And with the 24th Holmes from the Kings into their traded player exception they got for trading Davis Bertans. And with the 24th pick from the Kings, they drafted Omax Prosper out of Marquette. So now they've got Derek Lively with the 12th pick and then Omax Prosper with the 24th pick and added Rashawn Holmes. So pretty good haul, I'd say.

So we're looking at Rashawn Holmes was 12 million because they gave him a dumb contract two years ago. I like when teams have to make trades for mistakes that they made. It's like, whoops. So we got Fox at 32.6 and Sabonis at 19.4. That's 53. Herter at almost 16.

That's almost 70. Monk at 80. So they have free agent money now. As you know, I like to do math as I do the podcast, but for them to trade 24 and homes tells me they're targeting somebody or something. Could it be Grant Williams?

Could it be who else, who else makes sense for them? I'm just trying to figure out their exact financial situation well they're they're gonna have enough for somebody for like 20 25 million so who else makes sense for them or could that be like uh they try to trade for somebody all right we're gonna watch them dallas they go back from 10 to 12 and take Derek Lively. We'll talk about OKC in a second. The ESPN announcers made it seem like Lively came on like a freight train as the year went along.

Fortunately, we have Tate here who watches college basketball. Tate, what was the exact story with Derek Lively here? Well, Lively was when he first started at Duke, right? He was the number one player in the country. There was a lot of conversation about, you know, he was a stretch five, right? That was the big narrative, country. There was a lot of conversation about he was a stretch five. That was the big narrative. He was going to come in. He was going to block shots.

He was going to hit threes. He was the prototypical ideal center in the NBA moving forward. He did not make a shot outside of the paint until February. That's bad. Don't fact check that, but I'm pretty sure that is the truth. It was all dunks. This guy could not do anything except for dunk the basketball. then all of a sudden you know carolina blue comes to town and a flip was switched he had a great game a lot of scouts watched that game talked about his

elite rim protecting switch flipped or a flip was switched yeah well both my brain was broken so uh that's what happened uh and at that time you know what i mean it felt like lively just shot up the boards and then the mavericks talked themselves into it because they needed rim protection lively's probably the best on the board he also was the number one player but we have to remember it was a covet class right so it was not scouted as it usually is not to say that the scouts are always correct but he was the number one player in the last covet class so whitehead smith i mean the other guys up top have all fallen. Yeah, we looked at that list, and what was George from Baylor

was number six in that class. Yeah, George. Brandon Miller was ninth. Yeah. And then Grady Dick was like 14th. And Howard was like 45, something like that. Yeah, it was weird. I mean, I think for the Mavs, I mean, the player type makes sense.

I mean, it's just a matter of how good is he actually going to be and how soon when the pressure is on to start winning with Luka when he was struggling for the far majority of the season as a freshman. But I think the player type, just to give love to the upside of him, he is a lob guy, and he is versatile on defense. He's not just a rim protector. He can at least switch a little bit comfortably. So I think for Dallas...

Christian Wood 2.0? More like JaVale, right? More like JaVale, yeah. They've had both of them. A younger JaVale with less of the headache. Yeah, you would hope better than JaVale, obviously, but something like that. And then Omax Prosper. You love him, Bill. His versatility,

his size. I think adding him as a wing defender for them... They're trying to bolster their defense clearly with what they've done tonight. Well, so going backwards, they throw away the last week of the season so they can get the number 10 pick. They take that number 10 pick.

They go back two spots and dump Bertans' salary. In that salary spot, they trade with the Kings, put Rashawn Holmes, who's like $5 million cheaper than Bertans, get 24 and do OMAX. So they wouldn't have been able to do any of that if they didn't tank the last week of the season. Flip side, Miami's a playing team that made the finals and came within three wins of winning the title, and they had Luka Doncic.

I still don't know what the right answer is. I don't like throwing away seasons when I have one of the best five players in the league but then you read um or hear during the summer that luke has lost at least 15 pounds i mean he looks good in the video so maybe it was just a throwaway year for him and they realized like i don't trust summer workout videos you know i don't know if it's a ben simmons thing but any of these guys you know what i mean and in in college, the same thing happens. Every time a guy comes from freshman to sophomore year, he added 15

pounds of weight, but he also lost 30 pounds of fat, and he also grew six inches, and he also learned how to shoot 35% or better from beyond the point. You know, a lot of that stuff, I feel like. Should we have done summer workout videos for Kyle before the wedding? He's looking good over there.

Kyle looks great. Look how serene he is. Married Kyle. Constantly smiling. looking good over there. Kyle looks great. Look how serene he is. Married Kyle. Constantly smiling. So happy over there. And he's got no concerns for the ABA draft. This isn't like the NFL draft, you know what I mean, where he's talking himself into Patriots picks. Oh, yeah, I love it.

Well, with Dallas, we were wondering, could dumping Bertans lead to my Draymond theory that Draymond was potentially going there? And the research was Kyrie's cap hold was so big that they would have had to renounce Kyrie to then have the cap space. I still feel like they have cap space. They would have had to resign Kyrie to a smaller number. Like let's just say 20 million annually.

That's what it would have to have been. Or just renounce them and get rid of them. Sure. Which they're not going to do. Yeah. Which they're not going to do. But like, I think,

you know, that brings it back to the Kings point you talked about. They do have cap space, $35 million projected in cap space if they renounce all their cap-pulled free agents, which would include Harris and Barnes. So suddenly they're a team where I wonder, could they be a Draymond team? Like, hey, come to Sacramento from Golden State,

or who else could they be pursuing? That's a weird fit for him because Sabonis is also a stand on the key guy. But it works with Looney. It's just that when you have Looney and Draymond, you have Steph and Klay and all those guys. But I wonder who it could be. I have a name for you.

Didn't they try to sign Zach Levine once? Zach Levine would be interesting. Yeah, they did try for him. But I don't love that backcourt necessarily. It's smaller. Yeah. I'm going to think who else. I'm going to think Jeremy Grant.

Somebody like that. Chris Middleton? Just opted out. What if you really overpay for Brooke Lopez? With Sabonis? Big overpay. Yeah, like if he's getting offers. Shores up the rim protection.

He's in the 2008 draft. I get a little nervous with Brooke. I know, he's older. He's not a young kid. How about Kuzma? Could they be a Kuzma team? Oh, that feels. Yeah, Kuzma feels like he would take Sacramento

just to get back to California. They could also be a just trade for somebody else's asset team. For sure. Like a DeAndre Hunter. Wasn't there rumors about him? I don't know about Sacramento. I thought that was Hunter rumors with somebody. Well, I mean, they have Griffin behind him too, right? So they feel good about A.J. Griffin. Austin Reeves. Maybe that's an Austin Reeves team. i don't know i thought that was hunter rumors with somebody well i mean they have griffin behind him too right so they feel good about aj griffin awesome reeves maybe that's an

awesome team i don't know my guy but the point is like for a king's team that just had their best season in two decades that now they have an option to even get get better i think with harrison barnes he's solid but you can find upgrades from him in this free agent class. I agree. It seemed like Barnes was a little bit of a leader on that team and just a good locker room guy and all that stuff. He was just the adult in the room. Yeah, but at the same time, you can find other Harrison Barnes guys. Or you could re-sign him to 10-ish, 12-ish million, depending on what his market is, and still have cap space for a 20-plus million dollar guy. I think he'd be a really appealing mid-level guy for somebody yeah like 12 million if he's a 12 million

veteran been in some big games um on the flip side okc trades up to 10 man love okc and weird i think this was my single favorite move i just continue to be so impressed by the zombie sonics how over and over again and it feels like they have a type they're like your buddy that you see certain people that they're with you're like oh that makes sense that's this type okay see likes these these guys who they they know how to they're super competitive and they know how to handle the basketball, and that's their type. And now they're going to have SGA, and they're going to have Wallace, and they're going to have Josh Giddey,

who's not even 21 yet. I mean. Their backcourt, like, that's it. You don't even, you know, you barely need anything else. Holmgren, my guy Jalen Williams, my favorite. They make it look simple, too, right? Just over and over again. Yeah, that's the most annoying part about OKC. You're like, of course, right? When they take Case and Wallace, I mean, I even said They make it look simple, too, right? Just over and over again. That's the most annoying part about OKC.

You're like, of course, right? When they take Case and Wallace, I mean, I even said to you, KFC, he'd be great in Dallas, right? For sure. He's such a good player. I feel like he's a top seven, top five type talent in this draft, and now he's going to end up in OKC with a lot of talent, young talent around him and a lot of opportunity behind SGA,

which is going to be great for that second unit. They're going to have a good playmaker on the floor 48 minutes right every single every single minute and they have cap space yeah i mean that's a team that could also just say fuck it i we talked about this on one of the pods a couple weeks ago like if i'm okay seeing like why not yeah like to after denver like whatever spot in the pecking order is sitting there and they were a 500 team last year. Everywhere. Anyway,

get easy. You're older. Williams, you're older. Now you're adding Chet back. They probably need some sort of big guy to put with Chet. It's a little, again,

he's the guy I'm obsessed with. Like who's going to, who's going to pay Brooke offer. Brooke Lopez, a significant contract offer to try to pull them away from Milwaukee. I don't know who it's going to be. I don't know know if it will be anybody but i just think he's the guy you talk about chet you don't want him to get you know defend yokich and defend steven adams and all these tough interior centers well put him off paul you know have him in the time time lord rob

williams role where he's kind of roaming and defending and blocking shots and then have brooke lopez i i just i i'm with you bill OKC, they have all this good young talent. They were in the play-in conversation there last season. And they have a top-ten guy. Yes, they do with SGA who could propel himself into actual MVP conversation, not just all NBA. And if you really go pedal to the metal with free agency here, you still have your young core.

The guys you add in free agency, it's not like they affect you long-term or if they're short one-, three year contracts i think okc should go for it and and be aggressive because they get a lot of talent that's ready to to blossom and we can't also forget team for you tate yeah i mean i like okc okay now that you're breaking up with charlotte because no i'm not i'm not breaking up i'm hurt i'm hurt but we're gonna be all right but yeah i like okc i like to fit um and i like that uh case and wallace is going I'm hurt. But we're going to be all right. But yeah, I like OKC. I like the fit. And I like that Kaysen Wallace is going to go to a team that's going to lean into who he is and let him be who he is. And I think Shea will be a great mentor for him.

You know what I mean? That's the craziest part about OKC is like Shea's at the point where he's a first team all NBA guy. It feels like he just got in the league. Right. And that's how quickly, like you said, it's time to actually formulate and make a team that can actually contend. Stop stashing all the picks. Stop waiting. Let let's go so why wasn't Kentucky better last year well like what's the 22nd answer to that well Oscar Sheboy um could not handle a double team

and that's you know why he's you know we'll see if he gets drafted but he was the reigning you know national player of the year um coming into the year a lot of hype around this team but he also had a weird knee injury that they were covering up at the start of the year um but yeah not being able to pass out of double teams we could talk to kyle man about that he was very frustrated but yeah all year long kyle so for sure yeah that's the short answer blame oscar i uh i don't like taking a big guy in the top 15 unless it's either a bad draft or I think he has a chance to be like a really, really above average starter. Where Dallas took Derek Lively, which is like, oh, he makes sense. We need size.

I just think it's so easy to find centers. They're all over the place. Like Detroit has seven of them, you know? And you look at the next couple guys, like Grady Dick, Hawkins, who I think Tate and I like more than KSC, Kobe, Keontae George, then Jalen Hood, Shefino.

All of those guys, I think, are guys who have a chance to be... A lot of great picks in that range. Really, really good perimeter guys, which is way harder to find than a big guy. The way the league is now, you can't play two big guys together really ever.

You know, you have 48 minutes, and I just feel like there's a glut. I just, I didn't like what they did. If I'm them, I think I would have stayed at 10 and taken Wallace. It's a risk. I mean, like, if Lively's not good early on, I mean,

it's going to look very bad. I just think it's an upside play for them at 12. Would you rather stay at 10 and just take them Wallace if you're them? Wallace is less of a project. I mean, if let's say they stay at 10 and take Wallace, then they don't have the ability to go get 24, and they

don't have the ability to go get Omax Prosper. All right, so let's say they go backwards and just take Grady Dick. I don't like the Grady Dick fit for them. Hawkins? No. Kobe? I mean, they needed a big. They needed a big.

I don't like drafting for need in the lottery. But it's not just need, it is. Because I feel like Orlando did that too where they're like, ah, let's take one more crack at a point guard here. But need factors into the equation of best player available. Like Lively was a top high school recruit. And him being number one in his class. I feel like at some level they go back to like Neanderthal brain and they're like, he's number one in his class.

Yeah, throw out a bad year. And he's 12th on the board. Maybe he had a bad relationship. Maybe something weird happened. And all the things that he doesn't do well, it matters less with Luka. As long as he can set good screens, roll hard to the rim, catch lobs. Those are the things we know Lively can do. It's just a matter of how ready is he going to be to defend

at a quality level in the NBA. Can he help that Mavs defense? So you had him 15th. Yeah. Probably not as a rookie, but maybe year two, year three, you hope you get better out of them. I don't know. If I'm Dallas and I have Luka

and I'm going to bring back Kyrie, I don't need a project as my big man. No, it's risky. I better make sure that that dude can play. I just don't have a lot of faith in Dallas' decision-making. I thought the Kyrie trade was just reckless. They've made mistakes every single year.

Other than the Luka trade, which was incredible. I just don't agree with stuff they do. And I don't think this was a great thing for them either. And the flip side, OKC. I mean, if you just told me in a vacuum, OKC and Dallas is going to make a trade, who do you think will win the trade? I'd be like, gee, I wonder.

Is it the most competent franchise we have in the draft or the other team? Some other fun stuff from the draft tonight. The twins went back to back. When I was growing up, we had the Thompson twins who sang Hold Me Now. I played you Hold Me Now and Dr. Doctor. I can't say they were smash hits back in the 80s. Hold Me Now you hear and you're like, okay, I've heard this.

Yeah, and it was in one of the 80s movies uh ahman went four to houston asar helped me with my speech dyslexia that's good asar that's good i got it i nailed it he went fifth to detroit twin brothers back to back so asar was the better shooter better defender and was the was the MVP in the bogus league they were in. Finals MVP. Ahmed was the better athlete, more explosive, upside guy. And you guys were split on who you liked more. So Tate, what was your case? I just liked that Ahmed had more of a branding potential.

I think you're kind of either one. You know what I mean? I like the name better. I think you can do more with that. So if I'm a Nike, Adidas, whoever he signs with, probably Nike, but you can roll with that.

And I also like that he averaged 9.2 assists. So I like that he's a playmaker and the shot that his brother hit to win finals MVP and to win the championship was a pass from Amin. So I like that he's

a little selfless, you know, in this world that we like to give credit to the playmakers, right? We like talking about Jokic, LeBron. I like that Amin is okay to, you know, defer to that we like to give credit to the playmakers right we like talking about yokage lebron i like that i'm i'm in is okay to you know defer to his brother it's close i mean i had them four or five back to back osar slight edge um you know i had osar you know on my board one head um but like block draft was right but i think with osar he just has

the better shooting ability his shot mechanics through the pre-draft process and last year with ote came along much more than our men's did and i think maybe this is like a little bit of like nature nurture in the sense that now they're falling in different situations that work for them though like with amen he's in a situation where they need that primary ball handler so those are the things that he's done his whole life that's what he's done the best i can't wait to finish with this because i have a lot of thoughts keep going but then in detroit you got kate cunningham jayden ivy and now you plug in asar who's been playing off of his brother for a long time now i think it makes sense where they ended up going i just think asar it's a slight

edge overall just because he does he's better at defense better at shooting and i still think he has some untapped potential as an on-ball guy as well that he's only flashed because he does he's better at defense better at shooting and i still think he has some untapped potential as an on-ball guy as well that he's only flashed because he's been the second one behind his brother this reminds me of when they did those experiments in the 50s with twins when they would just put them in two different situations and one was a great situation and the other one was a bad situation what you laid laid out for us are, like, if Cade's back, which I assume he's back and they just tanked the season and he'll be 100% healthy, and he's got Jaden Ivey.

I like that backcourt. And they have a bunch of big guys, right? It's an easy fit for him. Yeah. He can just kind of slide in and do the things. He can float a little bit. Do blue guy stuff and kind of pick his spots. His brother goes to Houston,

which is a whole team of like these offense first, whoever gets the ball over half court gets to run the rest of the play and take a shot. I think that's, you know, Udoka is there and maybe he'll, he'll hit people at the ruler and the newspaper every once in a while. But,

um, I just don't like the team. Who's going to make him better. Like if they don't sign James Harden and there's a lot of buzz now that Harden's going to go back to Philly. So unless they get Fred VanVleet or some other free agent point guard or they trade for somebody, this is going to be whoever gets the ball over half court gets the shoot team. Ahman's going to have to be the guy to change things there.

He's going to have to be the culture changer. He's 19 now. I know, I know. Jalen Green thinks he's the guy who's going to be the guy who, you know, I know. Well, I mean... And Jalen Green thinks he's the guy who's going to be the guy who... You know, I just... I don't like the situation for him. I think with our men,

situation-wise for basketball, like, they need... This is what they need. So that part makes sense. But situation-wise, in terms of culture, it's a lot on his shoulders. And he's going to have to be the guy to settle this offense down,

get them into sets, you know, have Jalen Green be in his place is more of the off ball guy the secondary creator and then you draft cam whitmore on top of this with the 20th pick it could be a major steal but he at villanova last year i mean he was ball stopper yeah and so i think with houston this i'd be shocked at this point if they acquired james harden this Both of these picks are two raw players. They're not ready to win yet. This team is going to probably struggle again unless they do something unexpected in a free agency.

I also like the rivalry between Cade and Jalen Green have that rivalry going, but now you have the twins on different teams and you got Detroit versus Houston. Maybe the twins turn on each other. We're used to the Morris twins where they're in line. It's crazy that they were drafted 12 Maybe the twins turn on each other, right? We're used to like the Morris twins where they're like kind of, you know, they're in line, right?

And it's crazy that they were drafted 12 years ago in 2011. It doesn't feel that long ago. But to maybe have a rivalry between the twins, even though they're so connected, I think that would be a fun storyline. I think Houston's fun. And I think Cam Whitmore, I thought that they liked him at four. So to get him and Amin Thompson, I mean. Right, yeah.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm criticizing Houston because these are two great picks. And they're the youngest team. I just think you almost have to start over with what you conceive of this team. Kyle, turn the TikTok camera on. What's my camera? This one? James Harden. If you go sign with Houston, if you go sign and play

with this team of young guys who are years away from doing anything um i think we should revoke your hall of fame membership because don't you want to try to make a run at trying to win the finals or win the title this is it you go there you're just like the old guy and you're just kind of fading into the rest of your career like he doesn't want to try to get back to the finals being a good team maybe he's willing to be a local hero instead of a national hero. You know what I mean? He's willing to be a hero forever,

right? That's a, maybe that's his play. I don't know. I don't know what James Harden has in his heart. It's like Kobe doing that last Lakers contract, but Kobe won five titles. He could do the last Lakers contract for 80,

for 80 million for two years. Cause he'd already won. Well, it was kind of like a tank contract at some level, right? It was like, Kobe deserves all this money, and then we'll go get the young players. Yeah, go do retirement tour and the whole thing. Exactly.

James Harden hasn't done anything. So there's no way he can go to Houston now. You seem like you're more skeptical than me. No, I think I would be shocked if he went back at this point. After this draft, they draft Ahman Thompson. And if I'm Houston, what do I want James Harden for? Now I have all these young guys. Yeah, you have all these volumeers.

We stumbled into this Cam Whitmore miracle, assuming he doesn't have some issue that we're not finding out about. But they get a guy who is being bet pretty heavily to be a top 10 pick, who is being rumored as high as four. He goes to 20. It's an absolute bizarre event.

Miami passes on him. They've taken every chip on the shoulder, a guy who's fallen in the draft last 30 years. It's overall a good night for the Rockets. Totally. You get a high upside guy with Ahmed who could end up being behind Victor, the best player in the class.

He has that upside. He could be your number one option in the future, like an actual franchise cornerstone. So you have him and you have Jalen Green. And Whitmore, a finisher. Right. Him, Jalen Green. And Whitmore, a finisher. Right. Him, Jalen Green, and Whitmore, hopefully. Our guys, Shingun.

Jabari Smith. Jabari Smith. Tari Eason. They have a ton of talent. Yeah, I kind of like that. And they're young. They're young, and guess what? Imei's going to do.

Imei's going to come in and say, we play defense. We're going to work on the defensive end, and if you don't, I bench you. I don't care about what you expect to do here. I think that's going to work on the defensive end. And if you don't, I bench you. I don't care about, you know, what you expect to do here. I think that's going to be fascinating too. And the FGAs on this team is going to be fascinating. Who's taking the most shots? I think that is what I'm looking at at the start of the season. I'm looking straight at FGAs.

Who expects to be the number one guy? Because I think Jalen Green, the best version of himself, is being the number two guy on a winning team, not the number one guy. And I'm not sure he's willing to accept that because he obviously had a problem going number two when K was number one. All right. So what's like the crunch time five of the Rockets? Jabari.

Shangoon. Shangoon, Jabari, Jalen Green. Whitmore. And then Thompson. And Thompson is basically your point guard, your initiator. So he can be like the point forward, basically. I think what's interesting about them is they also have the ability to play smaller. You could go with a Smith, East, and front court.

You have Garuba, underrated center, that they have as well coming off their bench. So I think they have so much flexibility with lineups that for— Kyle, turn the TikTok camera on again. James Harden. I think this might be a good move this team has a lot of talent you might have a lot of fun on this team I'm back in on the Rockets this sounds great they just need a distributor who can take everyone in the club after show them around town um the Thompson twins looked like they were came out of central casting

like they were like all-american season four that they're just like two handsome guys. I'm with Tate. I hope they feud. I hope there's some sort of, some sort of clothesline. And I hope, uh,

us are is, is just pissed off. I mean, Robin and Brooke kind of pick on each other, but it's always good fun, you know, but I feel like a real rivalry where Jalen green, like tries to get,

I'm in to talk bad about the Pistons and brother like that's that's what we want or maybe we'll end up with the trade where they the trade trades the other twin back to houston for jaylen green something like that we can get the twins wow kate and jaylen together yeah a couple years from now that'd be something let's take one more break. When you ride transit, please be safe. Yeah, be safe. Because what you do, others will do too. Others will do it too.

So don't take shortcuts across tracks. Don't do that. In fact, just don't walk on tracks at all. Not at all. Trains move quietly, so you won't hear them coming. You won't hear them coming. See, safe riding sets an example. Yeah, an example for me.

Because safety is learned. It's learned. Okay, give it up. Give what up? Really? Really, really. Ugh. This message is brought to you by Metrolinks.

So, one of the things that's been really hard to adjust to in the summer of 2023 is Washington might be competent and intelligent. Something that certainly hasn't been the case since I was a young child living in Brooklyn, Massachusetts. They flip spots with Indiana and they get Colabali, my French hero, who grew a foot when he was 19. I'm always in just blind. He was five 11. Yeah. Grew to six, eight.

That's like, if, if you like, Hey, I'm thinking about getting a spicy margarita with jalapeno. I'm like in just blind. I need no more information. The guy,

the defensive long armed guy who grew a foot when he was 19, I'm always in like, prove to me that guy's not going to make it. Washington says, fuck it. This is perfect. We're tanking anyway. We just got Jordan pool today. He's going to take 30 shots a game. We're going to do, um, Ty's Jones. We're going to audition him for three months and then hopefully try to trade him for two picks. And then we take this French guy who have no impact on us whatsoever this year, other defensive intangible stuff but long term really might be something and I can't tell if this is a Ewing theory right away team or not we don't I asked you this question last night are we sure the

Wizards aren't going to be good right away you're kind of on that like you think the Wizards could be better than expected when they're backcourt I really like the backc. Tyus Jones and Monte Morris are two legit point guards that can, you know, the first and second unit are going to be organized. They're going to play good, solid basketball. They're going to make the right decisions. They're going to be in the right spots.

I think Tyus Jones could be like a most improved type candidate, right? Just the opportunity. Jordan pool as well. Both of them could be, I mean, Tyus Jones has wanted to be a starter for a long time and he's flourished whenever he got the opportunities,

and Jordan Poole's going to get 25 shots per game. He's going to put up big numbers on offense. It's just a matter of everything else. But I like what they've done. I mean, they get eight second-round picks, four first-round swaps, one protected first, Jordan Poole, Tyus Jones, Landry Kramit for Beal and Porzingis. That's not a bad haul.

And 100 pick swaps. Yeah, that's not bad considering the circumstances with Beal having Porzingis. That's not a bad haul. And 100 pick swaps. Yeah, that's not bad considering the circumstances with Beal having the no trade. And you could replace Beal's offense with Poole. Beal was 23 a game last year. It wasn't like he was lighting it up. He wasn't the 30-point-per-game guy we saw back that year. And he hasn't been a guy for two years.

And now they got Koulibaly who, I mean, for him with the Mets 92 this past season, he starts the year on their junior team, and he's doing a ton on ball. He's scoring, he's running pick and roll, isolating, and he looks smooth doing it. And then he's playing a 3 and D roll next to Wemby and doing that at a high level as a defensive stopper.

And Wemby came over for a freaky handshake with him where he took his giant, massive hands and just tried. Everybody who tried to shake hands or do a high five with Wemby, it actually seemed terrifying. Right. It was like he took over his arm. Yeah. He had his arm halfway up Adam Silver's forearm on a handshake.

I've never seen anything like this. And I've never seen Adam Silver that happy. He's like, finally. He's like, this is what I've been looking for. This is my LeBron. It was like Rosillo when he saw Chris Paul. He pulls him closer. They move up a spot, give up a couple second-rounders. Indiana moves back a spot and takes Walker from Houston.

Getting a whiff of smells a little busty, this pick. I hope he makes it. I hope all these guys make it. But this is the one that's like, what's his position? It's like, well, he averaged 11 and 7 in college. Oh, cool. 11 and 7. Can't believe he was able to pull that off. He's 6'7".

Feels like he's in that kind of Brandon Clark, Grant Williams, PJ Tucker. Not really sure what his position is. A gamer. Everybody talks about, oh yeah, gamer, competitive. I just don't know if I want to spend the 8th pick on that, KOC. I think it's fair to question the eighth pick. I would have taken

Taylor Hendricks instead. I think Hendricks is the better prospect than Walker. So you went nine to Utah. Yes, and Utah, one of the big winners of the draft, but I think for Indiana with what they did there, you're betting on what, you're betting that he can do more of what he did in high school, which was more on ball

with his size at 6'7", 250 pounds. He was a pull-up guy from mid-range. He's shown the ability to be a catch-and-shoot guy from three. So for Indiana, I would imagine they're thinking we have Miles Turner at the five, Jairus Walker at the four, two guys who can be good defenders and can space the floor on offense

so they can play five out. How about trading back and getting them? I don't know if they could have. Move back four spots. I don't know if they could have. He was the 10th guy in 2022, and he has been top 100, Tate. Yeah, and I felt like Houston, they were so good, and everyone wanted to find the reason why,

and Sasser ends up going in the first round, so that makes a lot of sense, Marcus Sasser. To the Pistons. Right, but Walker was the fourth option on this team, but granted, in some of their best games for for Houston he stepped up and was important for them and was able to you know show some of that scoring punch and that you know creator ability but in general I just felt like everyone wanted Houston to have a one and done guy Jairus Walker checked a lot of boxes and then you know you start putting these mock drafts together he's 250 he's got a lot of

girth to him right I mean i could see him sliding down to the five and guarding a center if he had to just because of his size but it might be a bit of a reach and then they added ben shepherd with the 26th pick and julian julian strother with the 29th pick so they added two shooters in the late first round it's pretty clear what they're trying to do is that's surround alaburton with these versatile pieces and targets for him to find and i think what they're doing makes some sense even though with walker i do wonder about like the upside compared to some of the guys taken behind him but i think he's going to be solid at the least oh i hope so he's the eighth very very pacers to take like these college

players you know what i mean that's kind of like a traditional thing that they would do anyway so it makes sense with those i I like Strother a lot. I mean, he had a big shot there for Gonzaga in the tournament too against UCLA. And Shepard was a riser through the draft combine process out of Belmont. Yep. I mean, he's like an Alec Burks type, Quentin Grimes, solid player. We have Toronto with Grady Dick at 13 where he,

there was a TikTok video of him of his freshman year he had this suit it's almost like he was so weird I'm kind of into it yeah it was like one weird thing with him there's like seven and uh it seemed like his family dynamic was pretty normal so it's like maybe he's trying to get some attention I like American guys that have confidence you know what I mean because I feel like like Tyler Hero, for example, even if it's weird and he's kind of an alien, I like that he has the confidence. And I think Grady Dick kind of falls in line there

where you don't quite understand it. It's a little bit, you know, you're like, what's happening here? But he believes it. He leans into it. He went to Kansas with a lot of talent around him. Jalen Wilson, for example, and he got shots. I mean, he got opportunities. He wasn't afraid of the moment. He stepped up immediately.

Smart enough to grow the little chin thing. Right. He needs to be a little bit bigger. Got to do that right away so you don't look like Opie and Happy Diz. Can't be too clean cut. Yeah. One of the things that bothered me about Grady Dick at Kansas was that offense. I forget the game, who the opponent was, but he's just stationary in the corner.

There's no movement. And I think with Toronto, it's going to be the opposite. You have a new coach who really likes these modernized motion concepts. And you have Scottie Barnes. Maybe you keep Pascal Siakam. They're going to be running so much movement for Grady Dick in Toronto that he wasn't able to do in Kansas. Especially the Barnes-Dick, that two-man game between them. I think it's a great pick for them at 13. And I'm excited to see what their new coach does. And they need shooting, right? I mean, that's really the main thing. So they got,

I consider the best shooter in the draft in Grady Dick. Two of my favorite guys. Well, I love Jordan Hawkins. We talked about him before. I just love that guy. Goes to the worst possible team for him. He goes to New Orleans. They're just loaded with perimeter guys. He's got CJ McCollum right in front of him. He was going to play 30 plus minutes a game. Trey Murphy, who I think everybody really likes, even he didn't get enough shots. You also have Ingram and Zion. It's a team that seems like they, it seems like Zion's staying. It's a team that seems to have some urgency toward proving something, and I just

don't feel like he's going to play. I hope Willie Green adapts because with Trey Murphy, Pelicans fans all season long were frustrated with his usage. He took like six threes per game, even though he's a 40 plus percent guide, nasty off screens and everything like movement shots. He was unbelievable. The last month of the season that pretty much doubled he was like 10 11 three point shots per game so if that's an indicator of willie green you know saying hey we're gonna start taking more threes with our amazing three-point shooters then maybe jordan hawkins becomes a weapon but they were 29th in attempts it took a long time for them to get going with trey murphy i would hope that that's a lesson for how they need to use hawkins to get the most out of them and he he is a specialist, right? I mean, he can come in and kind of fit a

role immediately where they're like, you are a three-point specialist. We're going to throw you into games like Duncan Robinson to be this threat. We're going to chase you around screens. We're going to let you have a green light when you're out there, but you're going to have limited minutes. And based on if you're hot or not, that's how much of a leash we give you. So I can see the fit a little bit there. But like you said, there's a backlog in the backcourt and i mean even like alvarado i mean some of these guys that you're just like they have to be out there at some level i just think that takes minutes away from him are you in the hawkins club with me i'm in the hawkins club i mean i like winners i felt bad for him i don't want to be in the club yeah you're not invited they compared him to ray

allen and they showed the Ray Allen shot in the finals and like I said, they were setting him up. I didn't like that. That got me a little scared. The ESPN draft, I just don't know. They barely talk basketball. They had these crazy comparisons. They don't talk Chris Paltrade, right? Poor Pod. Yeah, they had

Hawkins. They're comparing to Rip Hamilton and Ray Allen. Rip Hamilton's a little fair. Rip Hamilton's good. But I'm saying it started with Rip Hamilton. It's like, alright, Yukon guy moves cuts and then it's like, and then Ray Allen is the other guy. It's like, what? Settle down, Ray Allen. It wasn't even shades of.

It was like, this is who we expect him to be and it was literally the shot he hit with the Miami Heat. Oh my god. Ray Allen was awesome his whole career. Ray Allen was a 25 point per game guy with the Supersonics. Ray Allen was always good whole career Ray Allen was a 25 point per game guy with the Supersonics Ray Allen was always good and he got game

the ESPN whatever they did this year with the tables with the family so each guy got picked and we had to watch them hug 12 people and then walk up to the stage hug Adam Silver then we would have the how does it feel interview and I was just like can we just talk basketball? Like what did Indiana

just do? Why is Cam Whitmore falling? Please explain this Dallas thing to me. Didn't even ask Cam Whitmore about how he felt about falling, right? I mean they just said how does it feel to get drafted? It's like well you expected to get drafted in the top 5 top 10. Yeah, Cam are you fucking did you think about leaving? You must have a

major chip on your shoulders tonight, Cam. Of course. Like are you going to do the Draymond thing where you remember every pick in front of you? The Cam Whitmore, once he fell past 10, it became the biggest story in the draft. Like, what's going on with this guy? And we've heard, like, does he have a medical issue? I heard his coach didn't really stick up for him. Yeah, did his coach badmouth him? What is it?

But to go from, I'm going to go between 4 and 10 to, I am now available in this lakers miami golden state are you fucking kidding me they're gonna get kim whitmore and none of them take them and in the draft it was like barely a conversation i don't blame the people on the draft that's the producers and i've worked some of these shows the producers they just want to steer toward the human elements right and all that they like to ask why you're crying instead of being like you know what do you like about your fit i your family at least they asked pajimski about you know playing with steph curry that was one good example after they ignored that he played at santa claire he said he wanted to go against them and now now i'll get to play with him right that was good yeah so um so the lakers get jay hood safino out of indiana yep and this is a classic,

just knows how to play, fun to play with guy. The kind of guy that LeBron usually succeeds with. Now, we don't know how long LeBron's going to be with the Lakers. Could be just this year and who knows after that. But this is the type of guy,

the high hoops IQ guy that would fit. I really like that pick. I was bummed out because he was, him and Hawkins, I think were the two I was kind of hoping would drop to the Celtics.

You like that pick too, right? I like it a lot for them. It feels like a good pick for with LeBron and then potentially post LeBron. It might take a year. The 20 year old point guards, not really a huge success rate for them playing on good teams. You liked them too,

Tate. I love his pull up game. I love his mid range game. I love that he played with Woody and within the context of that Indiana team. Trace Jackson Davis was the primary guy. He was able to slot in and fit in. And there was a point in the season where Indiana fans were saying, is he our best player on the team?

You know, I mean, that's how good he was. Happened fast. Right, and I think it's a great opportunity for him. And even if he goes to South Bay and is like the primary scorer and gets his sea legs in the league, I think that'd be great for him too. He just needs to improve as a shooter to play with LeBron because he was 30% on catch-and-shoot threes last year. So I think you're betting

on him. He's better off the dribble than he is catch-and-shoot. Mid-range, free-throw line. And LeBron's more I need catch-and-shoot guys. That's the only right play. And so I think there's at least a positive indicator. He's got good touch. He's good for mid-range, good from the free-throw line. Maybe for the Lakers, they feel good about what they saw in workouts for him to be an off-ball guy with lebron james well he's also a trade asset if they decide to do anything right because that's somebody you

could move and then golden state they get the santa clara kid who rossillo loved i i just shout out to rossillo because um he gets chris Paul, his favorite guy to the Warriors. That was awesome. His second favorite guy is Steph Curry. And then the Santa Clara guy was his favorite guy in the draft out of the lottery. And that guy's going there too. So he might move.

He might be on his way. He's going to the Bay. He might be living in Berkeley. My next chapter. Moving with Logan Murdoch. Yeah, he could maybe move in with Logan. But this was in your draft guide comp you compared him to ddv which is funny because they're gonna lose ddv because he's gonna sign somewhere and i don't know can this kid play right away for them i think so

i mean he deserves the opportunity to play right away and like maybe you have too many ball handlers you know chris paul now stephen curry where you're just not gonna have the minutes and the opportunity for him but i think he's gonna get an opportunity because he's not just i mean the difficult part for steve kerr with these other young guys wiseman kaminga pool was the lack of feel he couldn't trust them on defense couldn't trust them to make the right decisions you're gonna have pajimski come in right away with a high iq he knows how to play shooter yes scrappy So he's a hoops IQ shooter. Yes.

Scrappy guy. Shoots. Can move without the ball. So why did he go 19? I mean, he's 6'4". He played at Santa Clara, I think, with other teams. I think the reason why he maybe fell a little bit was because he was at Illinois and he was playing behind guys like TJ Shannon, who goes back to Illinois,

and then he goes to a mid-major in the WCC. Granted, he was the WCC player of the year, so it's not like he was great in the WCC. But maybe that's a knock. We're at a high major level. He had some trouble with the competition. He goes to low major. He's great.

But, I mean, Santa Clara, back-to-back years where they have first-round guys. Unbelievable. I mean, that's pretty big. Well, last year's guy was the steal of the draft. Exactly. So that's encouraging. And Pajinsky could be, too.

I mean, he has the qualities to be a steal. My favorite stat about him is even though there's questions about his defense, like 6'4", that is why teams might bet against him, 8.8 rebounds per game at 6'4". This guy is – And averages two steals a game. He's very active. What did his dad say?

He said, oh, what are you going to get from your son? Oh, he's got a dog in him. He went to military school. We had two great dad interviews. He doesn't say how high, he just does it. That was the dad interview of the night. The Scoot's dad was great. We had some good dad interviews, but that one,

that guy got me fired up. I was like, this guy's going to make it. Look at his dad. He's a badass. He was like, give me that microphone. Shut up, son. So then, yeah, then the draft pretty much dropped off a cliff after Cam Whitmore. Then we started it started to feel like a normal NBA draft

where people take the flyers and all that. But Cam Whitmore at Houston. I gotta say Houston, you gotta be feeling great. You get basically two top ten talents at number four number 20 you're up to trade you don't do anything i like it if you looked at those two guys you would think it was the magic that got a guy at 6 and 11 right with that talent right and to get

them at 4 and 20 is pretty insane we didn't talk about utah just let's do them just quickly and then we'll start wrapping up they get Hendricks at uh at nine and they get George at 16 and they struck oil with Walker Kessler

last year they struck oil with Markkinen I like uh Ogbaji am I screwing that up Ochai Ogbaji yeah Ogbaji

most outstanding player I'm saying the names right and I have so little faith in myself I feel like I'm screwing the name up. I feel like the NBA just keeps bringing in players for you, too. They're like, here's this guy, Majemski. Utah's the big winner.

They're the big winner. The big winner. That's your number one? Yeah, I think so, because you've got Taylor Hendricks at nine, number six player on my board. He's going to like 40% shooter from three, versatile defender. Now you pair him with Walker Kessler, who's already an awesome rim protector and Larry marketing. You get size in that front court. You have shooting, you have versatility.

And then you add Keontae George, who we watched him this past year at Baylor. He's a score first guy, but he has some good moments as a playmaker, good moments on defense. I just think this jazz team, what they're building moving forward, George is going to have the opportunity to be the engine of a really versatile team with a bunch of different weapons and different lineups they can put together. And that's what you want in the NBA is versatility, not just from a positional standpoint, but for a coach, versatility with the lineups that you can put on the floor. And Utah has that with the guys that they drafted

and are adding to the roster that they had already. And Keontae George is a lottery guy. So to get him at 16, I mean, that's a win. They have Jordan Clarkson we didn't mention. They have Olenek, who we didn't mention, and Colin Sexton. Just a lot of guys who can handle the ball and put the ball in the basket. Big guys, interchangeable dudes. And last year they started out so hot, they almost got ahead of schedule, right?

They got people on the scent, and then they had to chill out a little bit i mean and like we talked about oklahoma city being a team to try to take a leap what about utah they have 40 plus million dollars in cap space could they be a team that tries to go you know improve quickly and try to be a top four top five seed in the west is that then i still wonder what's gonna happen with chris middleton not that they'd need him but he's but the fact that he opted out. And I was talking to somebody about this today. Like, if you're Milwaukee, like, Chris Middleton, are we sure he's ever going to be a healthy again guy for me?

Like, has he looked the same since the finals? No. This is now two straight years of, what am I getting? He's a little older. Like, they put a lot of miles on him in that final season. I was surprised he opted out, which makes me wonder if he has somewhere he thinks he can go. Maybe he won't. If he stays in Milwaukee, it's probably about getting the long-term security. But for another team, if you're Utah, San Antonio, Houston, OKC, Detroit,

teams with cap space, I wouldn't really want to pay Chris Middleton personally. So I think I'd expect him to go back to Milwaukee on a longer-term deal. The most recent pick that just came in, just have to point it out, Leonard Miller going to the Spurs with the 33rd pick. What? Miller's a guy that I had in my top 20, a ton of draft analysts had in their top 20, played this past season for the G League, like it was up and down for him but the last month plus he was absolutely unbelievable versatile on defense pulling up for mid-range scoring around the rim making you know slick passes i like that pick with

what they already have with wimby in the front court you can put miller at the four the cell kelden johnson jeremy sohan like they have so much versatility around wimby like we talk like this is With Wemby in the front court, you can put Miller at the four, Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sohan. They have so much versatility around Wemby. This is a theme, so much size. They are one of those teams that I think can play with five guys where your smallest guy is 6'7", 6'8". And that's what it seems like the Spurs are kind of angling towards right now. You know, when Wemby started crying when he got interviewed after the draft,

I didn't want to blow it for Tate, but when he got interviewed after the draft i didn't i didn't want to blow it for tape but tate also started sobbing right it felt like you were so emotional it was like anthony davis again you know what i mean like i not to say brandon miller is michael k gilchrist i hope he's not but it felt the same where you just see this you see this guy you know you're going to be watching in the finals at some point and then you look at your guy and you're saying he just said it's about to be a movie in charlotte so i uh i hope it's a good movie so there's three teams left portland goes third and your team is still on the board you have a 50 chance oh yeah at a at a life-altering guy and you're thinking about this jordan is huge in

paris right i, he literally, the PSG team is Jordan Brand. He goes over to Paris all the time. North Carolina, historically, colonial times, we were cool with the French, right? Lafayette, shout out to him. We've tried to build this.

We had, I mean, we gave Nick Batum half the money in the city of Charlotte. We had Tony Parker. We had Boris Diaw with the Bobcats. We've done all of our French. You put in your time with the French. We put in our network and we put our chips on the table. We had Boris Diaw with the Bobcats. Right. We've done all of our French. You put in your time with the French. We put in our network.

And we put our chips on the table. We're trying to sell. This is the time. New ownership gets the number one pick, and it's gone. Give them to Greg Popovich. I don't think he sells. If he gets Wemby, he keeps the team. I hope so.

That's like an extra billion dollars. I know. If you wait another five years, ten years, you can sell it for significantly more if you have Wemby. I will say, everyone keeps saying the only thing that can stop Wimby is an injury. I think Michael Jordan could have stopped him. I think Michael Jordan could have broken his confidence and kept him from being the greatest of all time. That's how you cope.

Yeah, that's probably good for Wimby. He was the big winner this week. He did all these different interviews. He somehow managed to be likable the whole time. And he's just completely gigantic in a breathtaking way. I can't wait to watch him in person. You're going to Vegas. I'll be in Vegas. Yeah. Maybe Sacramento too.

If the fifth Webby's playing. Yeah. It seems like he's just one of those dudes who's like, get me out there. Let me play. So we'll see how it goes. I can't wait to find out what happened to Kim Whitmore. Producing this podcast was the serene married guy himself. Just to have peace with life just thinking about having a backyard and a dog oh yeah grilling and a beer and a cigarette yeah

grilling grilling some dogs and burgers kyle creighton our producer uh thank you for uh thank you for sticking around tonight we'll be back on this feed on Sunday night. KOC, Kyle. KOC, Tate. That's a lot of podcasts today. KOC, Tate. Thank you. Thank you. I don't have feelings within. On the wayside, I'm a person never lost. I don't have feelings within.