The Kevin Sheehan Show - Arm Strength

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Kevin opened with thoughts on the Kristaps Porzingis trade before getting to a common response from coaches/players when asked about Sam Howell...."arm strength". Mike Vorkunov/The Athletic jumped on to talk NBA trades and NBA Draft.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show is Kevin. The show today presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., for a chance to secure a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000. You have to use my promo code, Kevin, DC, to claim that bonus. Now, with MyBooky, I've been mentioning a lot of the, NFL 2023 prop bets. I haven't mentioned the one I'm going to mention today, and that is the NFL Coach of the Year odds for 2023. Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions, is the favorite at plus 940, followed by Sean Payton at plus 1,100. There are increased expectations in Denver with Sean Payton there. Hopefully he can turn around Russell Wilson. But the Dan Campbell favorite to be the coach of the year is going hand in hand with just some of the highest expectations for the Detroit

Lions that we've ever seen. I mean, Detroit is favored to win the NFC North. I would bet you that that is the first time in a long, long time that Detroit's been favored to win the NFC North. I doubt they were favored to win the division during the Matt Stafford years. And let's face it, you know, the Brett Favre Aaron Rogers run in that division, you know, even before it became the NFC North when it was the NFC Central, the Packers have been the favorite most of these years, if not all of them, but certainly the significant majority of them. I bet you that Detroit hasn't been a division favorite in decades.

Now, they've been favored to be decent and good in decent years, including being picked to make the playoffs in some of those Matt Stafford years. I don't know, by the way, in thinking about Detroit, I think they actually deserve to be the favorite, I guess. But I don't think that they're a lot to win that division. Minnesota won 13 games last year. They're going to be very good offensively again. Their defense was the problem last year,

and maybe they don't win 13 games again this year. because they won a lot of close games. I like Chicago, too. I'm a Justin Fields guy. I liked him coming out in the draft, and I think Chicago's improved themselves. They added DJ more. They improved maybe through the draft.

It wouldn't surprise me if Chicago is a lot better than people are expecting. But I was thinking just about the Lions and Dan Campbell, and man, if you're a Lions fan, this is the year to actually legitimately be excited about what may be in the offing. They nearly made the postseason. You know, at the end of last year, they knocked Green Bay out of the postseason. By the way, if you're wondering where Ron Rivera is, Ron Rivera's 30 to 1 plus 3,000 to win NFL coach of the year. Ron Rivera's odds, and my bookie does not have odds on the first coach to be fired, but some of the places that do have those odds, have Ron Rivera up pretty high, not necessarily the favorite.

But Rivera's down near the bottom, and he's down near the bottom with the coaches of projected, you know, sub-500 teams. Like Andy Reid's odds of winning the NFL coach of the year are plus 4,000, 40 to 1. That's because, like, Kansas City would have to go undefeated in the regular season with an all-time regular season for Andy Reed to be considered as an NFL coach of the year. Same with guys like Sean McDermott and Mike McCarthy and Kyle Shanahan and Nick Siriani. They have long shot odds. Of the coaches for teams that don't have high expectations in terms of win totals, Ron Rivera is near the bottom. Not the bottom.

Todd Bowles is the 44 to 1 plus 4,400 long shot in the NFL. And guys like Jonathan Gannon and even Sean McGrathes, they have long-shot odds as well, but Rivera's down there. But Detroit's, Dan Campbell, and the Lions, a lot expected of the Lions this year. One guest on the show today, Mike Vorkinoff, who covers the NBA and the NBA draft for the Athletic is going to jump on with us in the final segment of the show, but I'm going to give you a heads up. We recorded that interview earlier, and that was before the Breaking Wizards news this afternoon. And it has nothing to do with the final of the Bradley Beal trade, or, you know, what's left of that trade, which would involve Chris Paul and where Chris Paul goes to.

This trade involves Christop's Porzingis. It's a three-team trade, according to Shams Charania, of the Athletic. He reported it first, I'm pretty sure. Wizards Clippers Celtics, all right? The Wizards send Christops Porzingis to Boston. Boston sends Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers. and the Clippers send Marcus Morris and their first round pick tomorrow night, which is the last pick in the first round, number 30 overall, back to Washington. Marcus Morris is not Marquif Morris. It's his twin brother. Marquith played here. Marcus has never played here.

He's got one year left on his current contract at $17 million. The Wizards are getting a first round pick, even though it's a first round pick. It's the last pick in the first round of tomorrow night's draft back from the clippers. So they now have two firsts and two seconds as it stands right now, but we really don't know what second round picks are coming back from Phoenix in the deal for Beal. Until that gets finalized, we don't know exactly, you know, what those picks are. We know they're second rounders. We know there are a slew of second rounders up to maybe as many as six.

second rounders. But we do know now the terms of the trade today, the three-team trade, Celtics, Wizards, Clippers. Porzingis, who, for me, anyway, of the players that were their best players, Kuzma, Beal, and Porzingas, and Kyle Kuzma opted out of his 13-year, one-year player option yesterday. I don't know if there's any chance to pull off what they pulled off with Porzingis, which is an opt- in and trade. You know, he opted into a $36 million one-year player option deal. Different, Kuzma's was for $13 million. So Porzingis wanting to opt in for that $36 million

meant that the Wizards had a little bit more leverage with Porzengis than they did with Kuzma. But at the same time, I mean, Porzengis could have opted out, or could have opted in, or he could have opted out and become an unrestricted free agent and tried to get more than $36 million or tried to sign a longer-term extension where maybe the guaranteed money was greater than the guaranteed money in one year, even if the average annual was less than $36 million. But Porzingis netting Marcus Morris, who's not a big part of this deal,

because they're looking at one year of Marcus Morris. And look, they have to have some players with salary on the team because there is a minimum salary cap number. And you'll hear me ask Mike Vorkinoff about that in the interview. It's 90% of the actual salary cap number. It's roughly about $123 million you have to spend on players. So it's not like they can just burn it down to the ground and roll out five dudes, you know, that are undrafted. So I don't know. My reaction is they got a first rounder back for Porzingis,

even though it's the last pick in the first round. And maybe we should count our blessings that they were able to get anything back for Porzengis. Maybe there were other teams that were interested in Porzingis and would have given up more. I don't know. Right now, the net of Bradley Beale and Christop's Porzingis, not being on the team next year, is a bunch of second round picks, Chris Paul, who will never play here, Landry Shamet, Marcus Morris, and the last pick in the first round.

It doesn't seem like enough for players of that caliber, but they didn't have any leverage with Beal, and Porzingis was, you know, in a player option situation. So we'll see. They are, look, they're in full rebuild mode. There is no doubt about it. I mean, you're going to be watching an expansion team for the next few years. It's going to be a bad basketball team next year, the year after.

And the goal here is to acquire as much draft compensation as possible. You know, that's a big part of it. And start taking swings in the draft. You know, hopefully be able to combine some of these picks to move up in the draft. It might not happen tomorrow night, but maybe it can happen. next year. And maybe next year, if they only win 15 games, they end up with a top three pick. And then maybe they can package a lot of the second rounders for another first round pick. Who knows? But that's the plan now. I mean, this is pain for hopeful pleasure, but not guaranteed

pleasure down the road. It's the right thing. I've talked about this this week. This is the right thing to do. I hope that they are getting as much back as they can possibly get. The Beale thing was not optimal clearly. They just didn't have enough

leverage to get a lot back. But, man, I'm trying to think of, okay, what's the starting lineup for this team next year? Well, you're going to see some of the young players they drafted. You're going to see Cory Kisper. You're going to see, you're going to see,

Johnny Davis. You're going to see a lot of Denny Avdia. You're going to see Daniel Gaffert, who's still on the team. You're going to see Landry Shamet, who we know will be here. Delon Wright, although DeLon Wright, I actually loved the way he played last year. I wonder if he's got any value. If he does, they'll probably move him before tomorrow night, too. But the Wizards are going to be busy tomorrow night. Again, we don't really know the Phoenix second rounders. I should probably look to see how many second round picks they have. We probably should have done this already. In the second round, Phoenix has, in tomorrow night's draft,

they don't appear to have any second round picks in this year's draft. So all of those second rounders are future second rounders. The Wizards already have number 42 overall. they'll have number 30 now. They'll have number eight. They also have number 57, which is the next to last pick in the second round. That came from Boston via Charlotte.

I forget what those deals were for, to be honest with you. Charlotte may have been Harold. I don't know. But it'll be a busy night for the Wizards tomorrow night. Two first, two seconds, and those Phoenix picks come somewhere down the first. road. And maybe they'll move Chris Paul for something and get something back before tomorrow night as well. Oh, wait a minute here. Hold on for one second. There's more to this deal.

Wojnerowski Woj reporting that the Wizards will also get Golanari from Boston and a mere coffee from the Clippers. Coffee, I liked coffee at Minnesota. I don't think he's done much in the NBA. Galanari could always score, but he, I got to look this up. He was out this year, right? Didn't he tear his Achilles or something like that? Was it a knee injury after he signed with the Celtics? He's also, he's got to be 32 at least. Gallinari, yeah.

Suffered a torn ACL in September after he signed. to two-year $13.3 million deal with Boston last year. Okay, so not a lot of money. He's 34 years old, all right? But he's had some good years. Let me look up his numbers here. 2018, 2019, the average 19.19. 19.8 points per game with the Clippers. I don't even know why I'm doing this. He's not a part of their future, clearly. They're just taking on some players and some contracts here. And again, they've got, you know, they're going to have to meet. the minimum requirement from a salary cap standpoint as well. They are, you know, they're flushing everything.

They are starting all over, and anybody that's complaining about that hasn't watched this team the last, you know, four out of the last five, the last five years. They haven't watched this team since the 2017, seventh and deciding game at Boston. So I wanted to get to something early in the podcast, and it's about Sam Howell. was sparked by a column I read on the team's website, written by Zach Selby, a story titled Jacobi Berset providing Sam Howl with guidance amid QB competition. And there's a quote in there, and I'm going to read it to you. It's from Jacobi Brissette about Sam Howl. Quote, it's been a lot of fun. He's smart can make all the throws. And then he goes on to say,

you know, been a joy to be around. I know that makes me sound old, but he's been good to be around. competing against each other, learning from each other, yada, yada, yada. But the football piece of that quote is, he's smart. He can make all the throws. Can make all the throws. Can make all the throws in arm strength is the most consistent theme to talking about Sam Howell since the season ended last year. This was Ron Rivera a few weeks ago.

He's still learning, but he's also got the. armed talent, and that's the thing that excites us. Remember I read from Albert Breers column earlier this week, the Monday morning quarterback column, when he wasn't even at OTAs or minicamp. So he got this from people associated with the team when he wrote, how consistently put a plus arm on display in OTAs and minicamp, making throws some quarterbacks won't, and generating plenty of velocity. on the ball. There was a quote from Taylor Heineke at the end of last year. He can sling it.

This was Jahan Dotson after the Dallas game. The armed talent, we all knew he had it. It was just a matter of getting into those situations. There were the comments from the defensive players that Ron Rivera alluded to turned around, the ball was already there. I mean, the ball was thrown on time, velocity. It was there. I mean, already in the receiver's hands.

The receiver is saying, ball was there right when I came out of my break. That has been a common sentiment in discussing Sam Howell and his offseason going back to the Dallas game as well. By the way, I'm not disputing that it's true. It is true. He has big time arm strength. That was one of the real pluses on him coming out into the draft in 2022. I mean, nobody questioned his arm strength. Look, I've had so many people on the show.

I've had, you know, Phil Longo is offensive coordinator at Carolina. I had the guy that's coaching him from that quarterback academy, Boone on the show. I had Brian Simmons on the show, the analyst for UNC football. they've all talked about his arm strength. I'm not disputing that at all. There's no debate that this guy can make all the throws. He's got the big time arm strength. Interestingly, one person who hasn't obsessed about it at all is Eric B. Enemy. The most positive thing Eric B. Enemy has said about Sam Howe is, you know, essentially implying how coachable he is. He auto-corrects himself. Remember that quote from a couple of weeks ago. I love what Eric B. Enemy is doing, by the way. I like

Eric B. Enemy underselling in hopes of overperforming. Look, it doesn't make any sense for Eric B. Enemy to oversell in the offseason Sam Howl because then if the expectations are super high from Eric B. Enemy and he doesn't reach those expectations, it'll make B. Enemy look bad. But I like that anyway. Most of you know that. To me, the most, you know, one of the most disgusting things about this franchise over the last 24 years is the constant overselling and underperforming. You know, Doc Walker's famous line, this team is excellent Monday through Saturday. Sundays are the problem. But, you know, off-season-wise, it's always, you know, been about the off-season with this franchise, and they fail to deliver when it matters most.

That's the opposite of what Joe Gibbs was during his glory years. He undersold, everything. And then it's, you got to game day, and it's like, oh, my God, I was expecting a total shit show. It's 42 to 10. It's only the third quarter. Or what we got, you know, with RG3 in his first game against the Saints. Nobody saw that coming. So I kind of like that from Eric B. Enemy. But I bring it up because, again, I'm not disputing it. He's got great arm strength. And by the way, it's not the only compliment paid. It's the one that has been most pronounced. is arm strength can make all the throws. I'm bringing it up because it's true,

but it's also so noticeable because of what they've had. So I hope that, you know, I hope two things. I hope that that's not the only attribute he has because that's not the only thing that makes a great quarterback. You know, we need to see anticipation, we need to see the ability to read defenses, We need the leadership, all the things that come with being a great quarterback. But look, you can't be a great quarterback if you can't make all the throws if you don't have plus arm strength.

But there's no doubt that after watching Taylor Heineke start the majority of games the last two years, a guy Taylor's size that's got the arm strength, it's going to pop. It's going to be impressive. It's going to be like, whoa, we haven't seen that in a few years. years. Now, Carson Wentz had the arm strength, but he's a big dude. Sam is built, you know, kind of like Taylor Heineke, and yet he could sling it. And they're excited about that. And they should be excited about that. You know, they have been poor offensively for a long, long time. But there's a lot more to playing the position. And that leads me to this. There was this back

and forth with Ben Standing and some guy on Twitter. And basically the guy, Ben wrote a really good column. And he put it out maybe yesterday or this morning. And it was basically something similar to something I did like a couple of months back where, you know, and a lot of you came after me for being so obsessed with his draft status. And my only point was fifth rounders, you know, they don't end up becoming legitimate. big time starting quarterbacks. You've got one legitimate example of greatness, and that's Tom Brady this century. And then you've got guys like cousins and Prescott, but they're few and far between.

And Ben wrote a column, and he broke down the numbers from the last 11 years or the last 10 or 11 years, whatever it was. Here it is. He wrote from 2010 to 2021, team select. Teams select. 74 quarterbacks in rounds 4 through 7, so that's day 3. Only six of those 74 have started more than 11 games at quarterback, and only three have started more than 30 games at quarterback. Those three are Tyrod Taylor, Kirk Cousins, and Dak Prescott. And Prescott, by the way, was the lone quarterback from that group to become a full-time starter before his fourth season. And that's remember because Tony Romo got hurt.

Others were given chances earlier. Sam Ealinger last year, Nathan Peterman, were given chances to start early in their careers for reasons other than injury, but they flopped. I mean, Peterman did. Ailinger is still super young. In terms of the day three quarterbacks. So then Ben mentioned one last nugget in his piece that I wanted to point out, that Sam Hal will be the first quarterback during this span of time, 2010 through 2021 that he measured, you know, heading into now 2023. So the last 13 years of quarterbacks that were drafted on day three, rounds four through seven.

He'll become the first one to start in week one, in his second season after starting just one game the year before. He's the list. It's very unusual people, very unusual for a day three quarterback to become a bona fide NFL starter. And it's very, very, very rare, like it's not happened in the last 13 years that a guy starts in his second year as a day three quarterback with only one start the year before. And so that led to Ben getting into this back and forth on Twitter.

And somehow I got roped into it. The guy that was tweeting Ben and was upset about Ben spitting out facts, Comfort is the enemy of progress. That was the Eric B. Enemy line. That's the Twitter handle. He said, you and Kevin Sheehan's vibe on this, meaning Sam Hal, has been absolutely cringe. And then he writes towards the end,

I'll give you, as in Ben, the benefit of the doubt. I know your job isn't to be a homer, but you do like triggering buzzwords in your headlines. Ben doesn't write his headlines. Tom Leverro gets a pass because he likes playing the villain, but I'm more so upset with my guy, Kevin Sheehan. And I appreciate that you refer to me as your guy. But I'm going to just take exception to this kind of thinking.

It's the same frustration that I had last summer. And it's the people last summer who said, if you're not in on Carson Wentz, you're out. You know, hey, Sheehan, moved to Minnesota if you didn't like this trade. If you don't think Carson Wentz is the quarterback of the future and they made a great trade, go cover Kirk Cousins. Move to the Twin Cities. You know, we had the whole get on board or get out with Carson Wentz last summer. And those people just looked silly.

And a lot of that's going on this summer, this off season. get on board or get out with Sam Howell. I mean, it was so obvious with Carson Wentz, the red flags of Philadelphia and the Colts moving on from him at great expense. Like, I mean, you had to be an idiot not to realize that, you know, these were, you know, one really good organization was saying, no, we'll just take the biggest dead cap hit in the history of mankind at the most important position on the field.

and then the Colts having, you know, a year later after trading a first rounder, no, we don't want him either. And somehow this organization got it right? I mean, come on. The people that felt that way last summer, sorry, you were gullible. Now, there was a chance he was going to be better than what they had. There was that chance because he was certainly more talented than what they had had in recent years. But he wasn't going to be the long-term answer.

And the trade was horrible. And here we are, again, you know, with Sam Hal. And all of the, you know, the red flags are, and they're not the same kind of red flags, but it's what Ben wrote and what I've talked about before. It just doesn't happen. Day three quarterbacks just don't develop into bona fide NFL upper echelon franchise quarterbacks.

It's just very, very rare. And it's even more. you know, of a rare, when you know the backdrop of this, which is they've talked a big game after the fact. But while there was a chance to play them when it mattered, they didn't. And then when there was an opportunity to play them with no risk, they didn't want to.

They got talked into it by Taylor Heineke. He may turn out to be great. He does have talent. There are things about his game that make a lot of sense in the league today. The contract is great. And what the hell? They couldn't do anything else in the offseason anyway. They were hamstrung because of the ownership situation.

So we're all going to watch. We're all going to see how it plays out. And it would be the greatest thing ever if Sam Hal turned out to be, excuse me, you know, a true franchise quarterback for the next 10 plus years, and they got him with a fifth rounder, and they were able to pay him on a rookie deal for the first, you know, three years of his career. That would be incredible for the organization.

It would also be, statistically speaking, a stroke of great fortune if it happens. All right. Let's get to my guest next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, jumping on with us right now is Mike Borkenoff. Mike is a national NBA reporter for The Athletic, as I've told you many times. I am a subscriber to the athletic, and it is totally worth it. You get all the great national guys, but locally, Ben Standing, David Aldridge, Josh Robbins, Tark El Bashir. It's totally worth it, and it's really very inexpensive.

Mike writes for The Athletic. He joins us right now. draft is tomorrow night, but we're still, you know, here in D.C., Mike, we're still talking about what happened over the weekend and what hasn't been finalized as of yet, which is the Bradley Beale trade to Phoenix. So let's start there. What did you make of the trade? It felt like a move that was much needed and should have happened a lot earlier. I understand maybe some consternation from Wizards fans who feel like they didn't get enough, but it might be a reflection almost as much of the new CBA environment as it is anything else.

And Bradley Biel, Odyssey has a huge contract, and that became really hard to trade when he has a no-trade clause as well. We haven't spent a lot of time talking about this over the last two days, but I'll ask you, from Phoenix's standpoint, did they get the player that will put them in, you know, kind of over the hump as a championship contender next year? Obviously, Beal is really good, but I feel like there's a point of diminishing returns when you already have Kevin Durant and when you have Devin Booker, right? He's the third best on-ball score and playmaker that they have.

And this is what you're not necessarily giving up a lot for. It's the lack of versatility, depth, and maneuverability in your roster building going forward. That's your opportunity cost. And I think it's fair to say they could have been in a better place, you know, trying to create depth around Booker and Durant and DeAndre Aiton, potentially. And not to mention that Chris Paul is still pretty good.

I don't think he's as good as Bradley Beale if Bradley Beale is healthy and invested. But he's still a really good player. And so there are definitely a few other ways they could have gone in terms of using, you know, both the salary slots and just in terms of using the few assets, the few draft assets that they still had left. What do you think the Wizards can get from anybody for Chris Paul? I think it'll be some of the way. where they try to get him to a place that he wants.

Again, he's, you know, set to make $30 million next year, and it'll be, I think he's 38 going to the next season, if I remember correctly off the top of my head. And, you know, Chris Paul is at that point in his career. We saw his trade to the sons, actually, two years ago, where he's going to have some say in where he goes, and I think the Wizards will work with him on that. And I don't think they're retired to be substantial,

but you can probably get, you know, either a nice, use a young player with some potential. All right, let's talk about tomorrow night's NBA draft. What do you think the Wizards will have available to them at 8 and what would be the best fit for them if, you know, out of the players that could be available to them at 8? Well, it seems like it's being looked at as kind of a nine-player draft on the top end, and obviously the Wizards are in a good spot for that at number 8.

So far, you know, all the mock draft and the draft prognosticators have tied them to Anthony Black, the point card from Arkansas. And if that's who they like, that's probably, you know, who should take. But I'm always a big believer that when it comes to the draft, you just take the best player available. And you make it work from there. There's too much uncertainty to try to do fit or try to make a pick on narrower terms. So the Wizards especially are now in a place in their roster where they just need talent. and they need young talent to move forward with. So it's whoever is there on the board that looks like the best player.

That's who they should go with. It's kind of simple at this point. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I mean, given that they're clearly committing to, you know, this period of a rebuild, they've got to be swinging for the best chance at somebody becoming a true star. So at eight, who might that player be? You know, it could be, you know, Anthony Black, the point guard from Arkansas, who seems to have a good feel for the game.

It's a really good size for the point card position, you know, and he's interesting. I think he's only 19 still, so he has that potential to tap into. It wouldn't be surprising maybe if a Taylor Hendricks is there, who's kind of a sweet shooting four who can give them size and has, you know, a shooting potential and can be perimeter-oriented. and I know the Wizards have already put in a lot of draft stock into that four spot over the last few years with Denia Adia and Rui Hachamora, but this would be, you know, another opportunity to take a potential long-term starting front court player for them.

I think that either of those guys would be good to say, I don't know if Jaris Walker, the forward from Houston Falls that far. It doesn't seem like one of the Thompson twins will be there for them at eight. but there should be some good options for the maybe Cam Whitmore falls to nine depending on what you've seen reported lately about him and how his pre-draft process have gone but they really, after the last few years of taking players who weren't viewed to have very high feelings as much as that stuff can be projected, they really are an opportunity now, I think, to kind of shoot for the moon. and as Pistons GM, Troy Weaver said the other day about what he wants to do in Detroit,

you know, try to hit for the long ball. Right. On Anthony Black, for those of you who don't know, played at Arkansas, played for Eric Musselman, and, you know, if you watch them, they played several tournament games. If you were just watching in March, give me the guy that you think is his NBA comp. I would say kind of a lot, a bigger point guard with a good, feel for the game, not necessarily a great shooter coming out of college. So I think someone in that

regard would probably be a good, you know, a good comp for Anthony. Are you a believer in Wembegiana as a star, you know, five years from now on a contending team? I feel like I'd be going completely against the grain by saying no, but I kind of am, you know, having watched him in the games against the Ignite, being some stuff from him playing over in France, just that combination of size and skill. It's out of this world to some degree. He's 7.3 and the stuff that he can do, he looks like a more fluid athlete than Christop's Porzengis, who's about the same size.

I think he'll be an all-star five years from now. I think the thing that's kind of impressive about him is that he seems like he has the mental side of the sport, right, even at such an early age. that should suit them well because it's not just about skill. It's not just about being in the right place. You have to have the foundation intrinsically to make it happen. And it seems like he's been prepared for this moment for such a long time, which makes me bullish on him. Tell me about a guy or two, you know, outside of, say, the top three, which seemed to be consensus-wise, one bignon, number one, and then Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller, you know,

in there at two and three. Give me a guy that you really like, and you've been telling people this is a guy that's going to end up being a star in the league kind of after those top three. Well, I do like Amman Thompson. I think he's very interesting. With his athleticism, he's got good size.

I think he's about 666, 67. He seems like he's a prototype potential wing in the NBA with some card skills as well. And, you know, Arthur Thompson, his twin brother, also it seems to be a pretty good projection. So those two guys come to mind. I like Jaris Walker.

I don't know if he'll be a great player offensively, but I think his body size, the type of defensive player that he is or he projects to be is pretty interesting. Taylor Hendrix is pretty interesting as well. And I like Jordan Hawkins, who's later in the draft, it's just kind of a movement shooter

that you can plug into most lineups and probably fit really well, but that's a guy who seems to be having, you know, his stocks to land somewhere in the late lottery to, you know, middle of the first round. So that might be a bit too early for the Wizards, but those guys all seem pretty interesting to me. All right. A few more things that are more league related with Mike Borkenoff right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This final segment of the show brought you by Window Nation. Windonation wants you to beat the heat this summer with Windonation's summer sale. You can save thousands today with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two years. Plus, Window Nation will give you two free windows with every two you buy.

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You'll save thousands on your new windows and your energy bills all the while upgrading the look and feel of your home. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windownation.com. Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify, following us on those two podcast platforms. is a big help as well. Continuing with Michael Vorkenoff from the Athletics. So a couple of league outstandings, if you will. Where does Damien Lillard end up? I think he'll be in Portland. And who will join him? I think if it's Brandon Miller at number two to Charlotte, I think Scoot Henderson joins him. And I, you know, I think, he's the second best player in this draft class.

So if he can fall to three for Portland, that would be a coup for them. And that would be a great building block for the franchise. And, you know, not to say that Scoot and Damien Lillard have a great relationship or something, but I know they do know each other a little bit. Damien Lillard has reached out to him in the past. I talked to Scoot Henderson about it a few months ago when I saw him in Vegas. And I think that kind of building block would be palatable to Dame. And I think that he would understand why the Blazers passed up a trade at number three to take Good Henderson.

And the other thing is, I don't know who would be available in a trade for number three pick. That would be worthwhile to trade away, you know, the right to draft a guy who, you know, and the execs have compared to John Wall or, you know, potentially Russell Westbrook. Like, that's a pretty good prospect to take if you can. Will Draymond Green end up back at Golden State? Well, it'll be expensive for Golden State if he does, but I do think it's notable that the new CBA, when it goes into effect, July 1, does now allow teams to sign a player if he declines to exercise his player option for a year at a lower salary than he would have made on that player option. It comes just in time as Jiamon Green just declined this $27.5 million player option where the Warriors could potentially give more money, guarantees, long term, even if his average annual value or starting salaries below that $27.5 million number.

What do you think of Draymond Green? Like, how much value would he have on another team away from Steph and Clay? I mean, I think he's an amazing defender. I think that translates everywhere, no matter the team that he's on. Offensibly, obviously, it's a harder fit, right? He's a bad shooter, but he's a great passer, and so he'd have to play on a team, I think, with one or two other kind of league ball handlers who can make it work and let him fit in around there. And so I have to be the right team. I don't think he would sign presumably with a bad team

and want to be through a rebuild or a build-up at this point in his life. And so if he's going to another good team that has some good offensive players already, I think it wouldn't be as hard as people think. Last question. I don't know if you know the answer to this. So I saw that you tweeted out, you know, the update on the current salary cap, numbers, $136 million salary cap, which was $2 million more than the prior projection. $165 million is the luxury tax level. What is the minimum amount or percent minimum amount that a team has to have on their payroll? They've got to be at 90 percent of the salary cap number.

So off the top of my head, whatever 90 percent of 136 is, I'm not going to try to do math on air. That's good to me, just embarrassing for me. Okay. But, you know, in the new CBA, there's a lot of incentive to get to that 90% number to that salary cap floor. And so I would expect that, you know, every team does that. We're in past years. You've seen a few kind of stragglers not reach that level. But that's where, you know, hypothetically, the Wizards or anyone else would have to get to with their salary next year.

Be somewhere less than $123 million. There you go. Right around there. All right. Thank you for doing that. And I appreciate it. Good to catch up. No, yeah. Anytime. I'm happy to do it. Thanks for having me on. All right. That's it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.