The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joseph Duarte Breaks Down Houston Cougars NBA Draft Prospects Live from New York

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Joseph Duarte Breaks Down Houston Cougars' NBA Draft Prospects Live from New York

boys with me say what up the tautop still sitting my tides sitting caught side nix and nets give me high five i be spiked out i can trip a referee tell by my attitude that i'm most definite leave from you know what thank god we've only got one houston reporter in this market that's cougars besides me i'm a talk show spent i'm out of reporter we got our buddy joseph d'orte with the houston chronicle the only person that actually cares about the Houston Cougars, and for that we love him. Joseph, you've been in New York for how many days? I've been here since Friday, and I'll tell you what, that's a good intro, man.

I appreciate that. A wise man told me to play that. I don't know if you know who that person is. Well, you could, you know, we could have gone Sinatra, but, you know, one day I'll have to tell you about all those World Series I covered at Yankee Stadium where they played that song like 30 times on a loop after a win. So I've kind of probably Sinatra played out. Yeah, you know, it depends on the mood you're in,

but we're glad to have you with us for a few minutes. Are you enjoying the experience? I'm going to presume this is your first NBA draft coverage, correct? It is. My first one. And you've been chasing around a snack, and you've been also chasing around Fleming's. Now, obviously, they're going to be drafted at different ends of the first round.

Are they being treated differently? I'm curious about that. No, I mean, 24 players got it. invited to sit in the green room for the first round and both over there. So, I mean, once you're in the club, you're in the club. And, you know, there is going to be a little bit of a gap, I believe, between, you know, Fleming's we're hearing is in that seven, eight, nine range, probably seven, eight. And then Senac, he's a little harder to figure out right now. I've seen him anywhere from 17 to 25-ish spurs have been talked about.

The Lakers have been talked about. But for Fleming, right now, if I had to guess, Matt, it looks like Kings at seven, Hawks at eight, and I don't think he gets beyond that. I'm curious, and you have other media reporters with you, how the vibe of the draft has changed. I've been to one draft myself. It was in 2005 when Andrew Boggart,

what number one from Utah was covering him for the state. station in Salt Lake City. But I'm curious how the NIL movement has changed the overall tenor of guys trying to stay in for a year out, stick around college, or, you know, as great as NIL is, Joseph, and you've been covering that a lot. The NBA just put a lot of these first-round kids in some serious, serious cash that even colleges can't pay for. Yeah, I mean, there's two sides of it. You got the guys that maybe are on the older end where NIL came midway through their careers, so they're seniors, and maybe they needed the development time,

and you get the four-year guys and seniors, that's a real rare. So you look at it, I'll tell you one thing that's different. These guys look like they already have money, and they do before they even signed that big first NBA paycheck. But, you know, the first 10 picks tonight could be all freshmen. That should kind of tell you everything, you know, from a quality talent standpoint. Plus, you know, they're going, you know, players are going in and most of them are getting out fairly quick nowadays, even with the money.

But, you know, I can think of a couple of guys that, you know, if you don't think you're going to have a pro career, at least in the NBA, you can make just as good of money staying in longer versus going and playing overseas and stuff. This has got to be a bittersweet time for Calvin Sampson. And we had him on the show yesterday, Joseph. You know, there was a reputation that Kelvin had prior to the University of Houston that if you wanted to get coached hard, Kelvin Samson was your guy. If you wanted to win at the collegiate level, he was your guy. But if you wanted to get into the NBA, you may want to go with someone else. Well, he has had a run for about seven or eight years now. The NBA, as you know now, Joseph, is littered with NBA players.

How good of a moment is this that even though one and done is not sexy, but it does. mean the University of Houston gets on a little bit of a stage with these guys being selected in the first round. Yeah, I mean, when you think a one and done, do you think of Kentucky and Duke and North Carolina and places like that? So yeah, it's got its bad part because you'd like to keep some of these guys around for a little longer, run it back and see what happens. But, you know, Kelvin talked about the time away from the college game. And he was deeply involved in the NBA with Popovich with the Spurs and Milwaukee and, you know, the Rockets. And he picked up some things.

And, you know, it was all college basketball for that. But he saw the different sides of it. He saw the development part in the NBA, the scouting part, sort of what teams look for, what they need. And he's incorporated that since he got to Houston. Now, obviously, the first few years in Houston were lean and you had to build that up. but now that he's able to sell, you know, they mentioned Damien Dotson. He was the one that showed that they could bring a guy in

and get him to the NBA. And since then, you've had Jarrett Walker and Jamal Shedd and Quentin Grimes and Marcus Sasser, all those guys. So that basically it's a billboard for what you have accomplished, and that's part of their recruiting pitch. We can get you in here. You're talented already, but we can get you across the finish line. And that's what they've done really since 21 with all the first round picks.

And they get two tonight and then you get possibly two more in the second round. Four guys, that's never happened for this program. And it says a lot about where the Houston basketball program used to be and where it is now. Our friend Joseph Torto, Houston Chronicle on the beat from New York covering the NBA draft. You mentioned Sharp and Uzanne. What's your gut to you about where those guys could be selected tonight or tomorrow, I should say? Well, Emmanuel, I think he gets off the board, you know, in the first 10 picks or so of the second round. I think for Milos, it won't be that much longer.

I do believe both taken and they both go, you know, Emmanuel could go in that late 30s, early 40 range. I think Milos has been projected in the 50s and low ends of that. But, you know, both of them, well deserving. Both of them have different paths that they took to get here. especially Emmanuel, just an incredible story of overcoming a horrific leg injury. But yeah, the last time, well, it's never happened for four, but it's kind of weird. The last time Houston even had three, it was Aloz Juan and Michael Young in 84. And then a guy named Carl Lewis who got a ceremonial pick by the Bulls when it was 10 rounds.

So never really happened to even have three, but it's going to happen this year. That's great. and it's going to be fun to get the University of Houston on that map even more than they are. You have been trailing these guys going to various events. Anything observational from going to getting Texas and fitted to shooting to doing these video shoots? What are you noticing about how the two first rounders are kind of handling themselves right now? Fleming's has some weird food taste. He doesn't really like sauces, but pizza, he was okay to do it.

Pizza is bacon and cheese. so it's kind of a little odd. I like a little bit more toppings on my pizza. And, you know, they invited me to a private workout in the NBA offices, the Players Association. So I thought that was kind of interesting to have a really nice court set up there in Manhattan. So that was one thing, just to see them interact. You know, it's been a, the whole family is here for the Fleming's. Same thing with Senac.

And, you know, they haven't spent a lot of time together. I mean, yesterday was Media Day. They crossed past real briefly. But really, it's just been a matter of both of them doing their own thing. Fleming's went to watch the premiere of a Supergirl with his girlfriend last night. They had a nice family dinner. So, you know, they're taking in the New York experience and, you know, trying to decompress a little bit before things get really wild here. But it should be fun.

Kelvin Samson will be in the green room tonight as Chrisanax guest. Kellan will be in the building as well. So a lot of things coming up. I'll be interested in what they're wearing. Both of them wouldn't give much of a preview, but they said they got something special in store. So those are always fun to see them walk the red carpet and kind of let the glam out for the evening.

For a let you run, Joseph, AJ DeBanza from BYU, Darren Peterson from Kansas. Our two guys expected to go in the top five. You have seen them firsthand with the kuzzi. Pugers playing them. What are your thoughts on both of those guys? And to Peterson's point, there is some question about his love for the sport. He's missed a lot of time when he plays not a heavy minutes guy. When you look at him now, and again, it's hard because his workouts and whatnot, as compared to when you saw him in game action, what do you think, getting your

crystal ball out, what do you think about Darren Peterson as an NBA player? Well, you know, the time that he played Houston, he was actually on the floor. You know, he missed 11 games and then had some other ones shortened by first with the cramping issues and then some other illness and injuries. But, you know, that's the deal. If you get a Darren Peterson on the floor for 30 plus minutes, he's probably the best player in the draft. He's the guy you take number one, but they're just, he said it yesterday in the media

scrum that, hey, there's no issues. Every team I'd talk. Well, I take that. He didn't talk to very many teams. He only reportedly talked to a, uh, uh, talk to, uh, think it was the the wizards but uh you you look at the uh the situation he doesn't think there's any concern uh everybody has his medicals he's on the court and it's the full the full game he's your guy but i think those question marks came up including like you said the you know what is the

the desire uh and i think if in that case a j debanta is a guy houston also played him this year saw him a couple of times great prospect i don't think you go wrong with either one uh you You got Carlos Boozer at three who could easily have been a number one. So the top half of this draft is crazy good. And then below it, that's where you're going to get the run of point guards. But, you know, Washington looks like they're going to go with DeBanza. He's going to be their guy. And then after that, we'll have to see things up.

You know, Peterson goes two if DeBanza goes one. Real quick, Mike, because I forgot to ask you, did the Rockets work out Uzan or, oh, who am I forgetting? Sharp? Yeah, Manuel Sharp. Did they work on either one of those guys? You know what, Matt, I don't know that for sure. I did not find out their complete list of guys. I can tell you, like Senac, in the last week, he worked out with the Lakers and he worked

out with the Warriors, said he had a conversation with the Knicks on. They also talked to Nets. And Fleming's, Fleming's had an individual workout with the Kings, among others. I think he had three visits, three workouts and two visits, or it might be flip, But, yeah, there weren't, you know, you're only allowed so many. And with the second round, guys, I'm just not quite sure where they, who they talked to. Looking forward to seeing your tweets all day long and your story in The Chronicle tomorrow. And most importantly, safe travels back to our city.

Thank you for the time, friend, as always. Thanks, buddy. Talk to there.