The Deep 3 Podcast - We Graded The Best & Worst Year 2 NBA Players | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

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We've been talking a lot about the newest NBA star to emerge this season. One of the most promising up-and-coming players that we have the fortune to root for from one of us on this couch. We're going to talk about Zachary Reese and Shea and the rest of the 2024 NBA draft class. We are going to grade year-two NBA players based on how they've been this season. Okay. Yes. So how satisfied have you been with the leap they made this season? Okay.

First up, Zachary Reese-Shae. I'm not satisfied at all. We talk about a leaf. He did the complete opposite of elite, brad. Leaped into the fucking sewers. F, bro. Like, he recently got benched, you know that? For who?

C.J. McCollum. Tough. C.J. We got smaller, bro, as a team. He went from getting 22, 23 minutes night to 19. Is there anything we can look to as a silver line to give him like an F plus at least? No. Oh, he has a little attitude now these days.

He'd be like kind of going back and forward. It's a little attitude. It's a little feisty. Yeah, a little feisty. You're arguing with the refs. Yeah, exactly. Do you all remember his draft call? was Harrison Barnes.

You haven't lived up to Harrison Barnes draft comparisons. This is an F. You haven't even lived to 35 girls Harrison Barnes. Fact,

you're getting lapped. By Harrison Barnes. I'm going to it. It couldn't be worse. Obvious F. Next up, we have

Alex R. Shout out to Sarr, could be in a considering like how big of a leap he was last year. He was taking like five threes

a game, something asinine. He's most inefficient score in the NBA last year. Yeah. Yeah. Is he Hoopin? He's picking his spots a lot better.

Are we giving him, what, B plus? I think a B plus is good. B plus. Defensively, he's way better than I really thought. I knew he had an upside, but defensively, he's amazing. Yeah, I think he's made, like, what you want to see from a year or two big like this, that's still with a bad team without, like, playmakers. He's showing all the right steps.

He hasn't. To get an A, I think you had to, like, make a real, real leap or we're like, oh, this is a guy, but he's well on his way. Yeah, it has to be like transformational and he's not just that yet because he has no players on this. He'll transform his offensive game, but he's doing like 39% from the field last year. I know. It's a pressed to seven footers. Outrage to no longer be doing that, you're going to be plus.

Tray Young, 80, can't change his life. I can't wait, honestly. For 30 games. For 30 games. It's a bit rich from my blood, probably 15. Do you think Tray Young and Anthony Davis are going to play more than 40, more than 43 games together? Yeah, together. No, not, no, no.

43, you jumped that up way too much. You were 30 hours with you, you know, I thought it was funny, but jumping up more than half the season is crazy. You're ridiculous. Calm down. Next up. Stefan Castle. A plus, right?

Yeah. I think he probably deserved to be an A. He's going to be like, he's like an all defensive level defender this year being a vital part of a team that ended up being the two seed right now. That's got to be an A plus. Yeah, I have to. If they go into a playoff series right now, You feel comfortable about closing games with Stefan Castle.

Yeah. Lo, is Stefan Castle going to be an all-star? I don't know about an all-star, but definitely like all-defensive team type of caliber player early on in his career. Yeah, I had to say it to A, especially looking at like the rest of the draft. He gets me going to get really shaky right quick. He's probably the only A, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I'll definitely give Stefan A.

Damn. Being surrounded by a bunch of mid-helps. Yeah, he's certified will be good. And a lot of these players, I don't know. He has taken the biggest leap. Man, that draft class was bad. It's terrible. Rishishishish, my heart.

Everything they said about y'all was true. Is Rishish a better draft pick than this female high, Luke? No. Yes. Why would he be? Starting today, would you rather have Rishersh or Luke and R next year? Dude, Luke and R be pissing me off. I'm sorry.

I keep me away from him. If you could salary him up Rishishish, would you do it? No. Nah. Let's forget. No. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Next one. Got like me would. I'm not kidding. How about that? Reed Shepard. Up and down season, where does it net out? Honestly, this is his real rookie year. So damn, never would give this.

The red shirt. C plus C? I think you can give him like flassy. Yeah. There's some ups. He's shown he can do some things offensively. The defense has kept him off the court at times. It's a mixed bag.

C feels extremely appropriate. I got, I got him at a C as well. I wasn't the biggest fan of them getting read at that pick. But also kind of now just looking at that draft. It's kind of nasty. Yeah. He's had moments where he's like really, really great.

And for a rocket scene that needs three points shooting, he gives that to them. He does. But he also gives the other team three-pointer and he does not guard anybody. So, yeah, he'd be on the bench sometimes. I'm going to see. Free twos all day. It's so tough, though, because he's not, like, he's such a weird defender where you can blow by him every time, but he also gets hella steals me with hello plays.

Like, he's going to be so controversial because of that. Because, like, they advanced out to say he has defensive impact because he makes plays and ends possessions, which is important. But if I watch that game, I see people. will post them up, but it doesn't look good. Yeah, yeah. Zach Eadie. The injuries.

He played about 11 games. In that 11 games, I saw the best player on the Grizzlies. I saw a guy who I'm pretty confident is going to be like a high, high, high, close to also a little player, but it's all over 11 games. Damn. You seen that? I ain't seen no All-Star. No, not All-Star.

The kids that he loves, bro. Not All-Star. No, like, sub All-Star. You know those guys are like some of the best role players in the league? No, stand on it. So I said the word all-star, but I didn't say All-Star. He's going to be one of the 24 best players in the world. I saw the Ogen and Obia Centers.

No, you did. He said. No, you did. High. High. All-star. I was always said high, like, four times. I don't know.

I said, high level, a rule of there close to all-star level. Oh, okay, okay. So what you're giving? What's the grade you've given us then? What I was going to say before I got to jump to? I was going to say. He also has been in place, so I can't give him a good grade

because you got hurt right away. Incomplete, man. It's unfair to give him a grade right now. Now, I'll go, I go D plus because we did see. Okay, D is always if he's been bad. I'm only saying because with guys who are like 7, 7, 3, 7, 4, you always have questions about them with injuries. And then this year is kind of proven that a little bit more of like,

dang, he might have those injury concerns moving forward. So, like, you're proving something, but just in the worst way. I think he could be as good as you much. who did make an all-star team, but it was close to that production level in any given year. I think he can be Zubuch. Okay.

I guess. I'm going to go with Donovan as well. I'm not high on Zach E. I'm going to give it like a D. I give him a C. There we go. They'll all see. Donovan Klingin.

Ooh, I'm going like. He extended his three point range, right? He is. He's taking him now. Legit option from there now. It's not great, no. But shoot it to him. I won't feel too bad.

He's trying. He's trying to develop it. He's shooting him. Yeah. You know what? That's a big part of development. Some guys don't take them. It is a start.

It is a start. Dreadful hands. Awesome drop defender. Solid B-plus rookie season, I think. I think he's going well to what you want. Yeah. I think it's a C-plus. Is he living up to the Rudy Goldberg comps?

Well, that's pretty hard to live up to. Yeah. I wouldn't say so, no. On pace at least? No. Yeah, he's going to win for DP OI and have a three-point shot. Yeah. If you thought he could be that as a rookie guy.

I guess you could still think that, but I've never thought that, so I'm not going to go there. Taking into consideration who was available at that time, I'm going to go probably like a C plus, but yeah, he's like a lot of like negative attributes to him. But he's a really good rebounder showing some promise. So C plus with some upside. Yeah, C plus is adequate. I'm going B minus four. Fair. Next one.

Disrost track class is terrible, man. Ron Holland. Well, I think he's proven to be a very impactful like spark plug energy defensive role player this year. He has and he fits right into everything that Detroit wants to do, which is fight. He does. He's ready to go. He's ready. So for that, for the culture fit alone, I'm going A.

No. No, no. A plus even. This is another like C. Maybe a C minus for him, bro. He's shooting like 42% from the field, which is worse than last year. 22% three-point shooter. Damn.

Yeah. That's what I said for the culture alone. And J.B. Bickers staff loves him. And he's going to. play him. When you're a prospect whose whole thing is, if the three-point shot develops will be a problem. The three-point shot got worse. I can't really give you a good grade.

Yeah. The only saving grace for this draft class is if, like, in 20 years, we hear like a Rashad McCann's workout story. Ron Han gets to see. Rashad McCant's conversation. Are you all tapped into the beef? Yo, no. Oh, the video's coming out in an hour, man. I'm tapped into that, man.

That beef is hilarious. It is hilarious. All right, next up. Rob Dillingham, the newest Chicago Bull. Oh, it's an easy F. And I'm taxing him because of what the Minnesota Timberwols traded in order to get him. They traded a future pick for you. You know what that means?

That means that they're going to give him a lot of rope. That means they want him and need him to be good. And they still give up after a year. That means you had to have been dreadful in the locker room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's an F all the way, especially because they needed a point guard.

Like, they literally wanted to get somebody that can help in the back court. He just hasn't translated at all. Like, that's just, like, F all the way through to the point where I don't even know. If it doesn't work next to a bunch of other guards in Chicago, we're going to have real conversations on where he's going to be. And didn't they trade up or didn't they trade up? Yeah. Yeah. They traded a 2031 first-on pick to get him.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's bad. Yeah. When you end the season in a different jersey than the one you started out with, that's an F. That's a second year player, too. That's crazy. That's crazy.

And when you are the first person. to prove that the Kentucky Guard factory does not produce all hits, that is a problem. Unfollow us on Instagram. That's tough. Fire edits, though. Let's the edits. Next up.

Trying to save us. No, whatever. Modus. Who's Ellis? Made you come back on the way. B for Modis. I wanted it to be an egg. He hasn't been given enough opportunity, I think.

But also you earn an opportunity. So, yeah. He's on I still believe in him still hold stock But hasn't been a second year leap that I was hoping for Yeah He's gonna plant some evidence in Billy Donovan's car This off season I don't know for what crime

But he's gonna get him out of there Alright what's the funnest crime We can get him out of ear for Funnest Like tax evasion That'd be pretty funny Tax evasion I think that's the most real

Putting evidence A tax evasion in someone's car It's great I'm actually much higher Like he was a a non top 10 pick. He's actually exactly what Chicago needs. They needed to move away from that Pat Williams dreaded nonsense.

Like, I actually, I actually think this is like a B plus and a eight minus. Like, of course, he's not like as great as a lot of other players. But for what Chicago needed, the energy, the athleticism, I really, I really like Buzellas. I agree. But context. Remember when we pulled up your tweets about Franz Wagner and it was like, grilly glaze? You pull up my tweets on modest Buzellis. it's probably equally as glazed.

So my hopes are very high. I'm with you. I've just been preaching that he's going to be the best player in this class. I think he has that type of ceiling. So waiting to see that level of glaze paid off. But I agree.

He's going to be really good still. And he still could be like the best player out of this draft class. It's going to take some time, though. Yeah. Clearly. Didn't happen right away, which is fine. It might not take that much time

with this draft class. But yeah. Exactly. He makes all in the way. You all pay. Yeah. Also, dual thief.

If he framed, if he framed Billy Dollar as a dupeer. Still the Mona Lisa. Billy Dolovins been going all around Chicago. Stealing diamonds. Stealing diamonds. There's Picasso's in the museum here. He's stolen.

You think of Billy Diamond and Rico. Jerry McCain. Now you said in year two, if he ends your season on a different jersey, that's a bad thing. I think he came up in the world going to OKC. Different circumstance completely. I don't know.

Darren Morris said. I sold high. Maybe it's the same circumstance. He's been playing better. He fucking tours what meniscus in his rookie or something like that? Yeah. And then he heard his,

was it his thumb in the offseason? Yeah. So hampered by injuries. I still think he's going to be very good. Yeah. I don't know how high the ceiling is. Time will tell we need some more games played before we can have a true definitive idea.

But I still have stalking him. He hasn't disappointed me because I have context of why he's injured and why he isn't playing so well. But he also didn't get to do anything because of that. So see? Are we just grading the sophomore year or just like our outlook on them? How the sophomore year affects your outlook, I guess? Because he has had a bad sophomore year.

Yeah. Yeah. But it's because of injuries. So I don't know how to how to. We hope we ding Zach Eady for it. So I guess I got to ding Jeremy Kane. Yeah, let's give him a C. Yeah, I go I go C plus.

I like the song he made during also weekend. I go C plus. I go C plus too. Yeah. Lo, do you like the song he made him also? I don't remember the song, but I just, I'll give it a C plus. I think, oh, he said if he run up. on people in Philly is going to get sticky or something like instead of a bar like that.

He's the next time we play Philly. He's going to get sticky or something like that. C plus. C plus. Yeah. He's on the way back up. He's been playing well. Calil where?

F. Sorry, bro. I don't know about F. He's an F. According to Eric Spulcher, he's an F. Fair. Beefing with your coach.

Experture would give him a grade below F. I think when he gets his chances and he earns Eric Spolser's trust, he puts up motherfucking numbers. But there's that constant. When you're battling with your coach, year two trying to prove that you work hard enough to deserve minutes that is a problem I think he's good though so I'll go C minus yeah that's fair and you get dunk down by damn tough it's a draft class full of C's I know I know I'm gonna go B plus on on

Khalil where but we're being honest what I says he looks that good on the team that doesn't really have that much like passing and playmaking and he clearly needs that to maximize him on the offensive side of the floor clear upside defensively like there's just not that many players who are seven feet tall that can run junk and dunk the way that Khalil can. I want to see him in Indiana. And shoot. Yeah, I just want to see him next to somebody else.

Like, Norman Powell's been doing great, but I want to see him next to like a real passer and playmaker. Yeah. And I want to see him with the coach that gives him leeway to make mistakes and develop. But I also trust Eric Spolstra, so I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I said, fuck him. Open beef in the media is hard to get over.

Yeah, like, I feel like it's not nothing. Like, Eric's Bolshelcher would like to have a good player, too. So I think, like, I don't think it's nothing. thing, I guess. Plus, he's also, like, it's not like supposed to have a history of this. He's literally only done it to where. We'll see, though. I still have faith.

Dalton Connect. F. What? F. He gets traded and they had to take you back. I've seen every game he's played of his career. Yes. I cannot remember last time he made a play where I said, good job, Dalton.

I was there for the Utah game last season, where he dropped like 37. I think that was his last good game. I literally cannot remember a single moment this season where I said, I'm glad Dalton Connect is on the court. F. F. F. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's the F. All the talk last year about like, this is why you draft older prospects because they can step in and play well. That's all gone now. Now you point to connect and it's like, this is why you don't draft older prospects. He's sickly for that sense of it.

Keep these geriatric prospects away from me. 24 year old college basketball players around the country hate Dalton Connect. They just ruin the money for him. He's like, well, Campbell ruining it for little armed guys. Dalton Connect is ruining it for old people. Exactly. He's like R.H. Second year player.

That's great. That's so tough, man. That's tough. Kishon George. A. Honestly. Still the draft. Yeah, right.

He's a top three player in a draft class right now, right? I'd say so. I think he's probably... Might be second after Castle. I think I probably would say he's number two. I might say he might be the second best so far. Yeah. As soon as next year, like, he could be the best player out of this draft class.

That would not surprise anyone at all. Okay. Yeah. That would not surprise anyone. I got it's an A plus as well. Yeah. He was like a 20 second or something like that. Yeah.

He was like a late first rounder. He looks really, really good when he, when he's like having other pieces around him, AD and Trey next year really get him back on the defensive side of the floor impacting. Like, yeah, this is like a clear A plus. Yep. Next one. A.J. Mitchell, second round gem.

A plus plus. A plus. Yeah, AJ Mitchell, amazing. I think he's actually the steel of the draft. second round and he's had moments this year where he looks like a legitimate starting caliber player

like he can actually contribute in a starting five of a team. Is he a third best player in this job class? This year has been impressive I can't lie. He's always hurt.

He's always hurt which sucks. But if they get to a playoff setting and they have some games to get their rhythm going and they can play him, Shea and J-Dubb altogether, I think it's going to fix

so many of their offensive issues if they can get the best version of all them together. Third best? It's going to be tough because modest is there. He's better than modest right now. Right now. How does he?

I assume he played multiple years of college, right? AJ, he's 23. He's 24, though, going. Yeah, so he should be better than modest right now. Okay. I like AJ Mitchell. You know what I? AJ, you get the stamp.

Third best player in the job class. For now. For now. For now. You know, he's older. So it makes sense. For the next 10 years. No, Ronnie?

he's still lighting up the Gilely though he's still lighting up that Julie yeah y'all don't want the clips man y'all don't want the clips man