The Ringer NBA Show - 2023 Draft Reactions and WTF Is Up With This Warriors–Chris Paul Trade? | Off Guard

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

Austin and Pausha dive into the 2023 NBA draft and the trades made around the league. They break down the Bradley Beal trade and weigh the remaining pieces necessary for the Phoenix Suns (3:20), discuss the huge Porzingis trade to Boston (18:03), then contemplate what could have happened behind the scenes in Golden State to cause the Poole-CP3 switch-up (29:36). Then, they talk through the top picks from the 2023 draft and the impact these young players could have on their respective new teams (41:53). Hosts: Austin Rivers and Pausha Haghighi Producers: Erika Cervantes and Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Issa Kwanga and I'm Ryan Hunt and we co-host Stadio, a football podcast on the Ring of Podcast Network. If you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Off Guard. I'm your host Pasha and joining me. As always, my guy, Austin Rivers, fresh off a plane from L.A. Yes. Back in the... Oh, you're pretty bicultural these days. I am. I'm back and forth between Florida and California. not the easiest travel.

Yeah. It's been exhausting. Are you a little jet lag? I am a little bit. I'm a little bit out of it today. It just feels weird to be here. People don't understand that flying actually does. They're like, you're in a plane sitting down.

You're just relaxing, especially in first class. Like, why would you be exhausted? It does wear, it wears you out. In the time change, like it's 7 a.m. in Los Angeles, you know what I mean? So the time change is kind of, I was there for five days, four days, this whole week pretty much. As soon as you get used to something, you know, you got to come back here. Florida's just like on a whole different time, not even time.

Just like in terms of just the overall vibe of Florida, it's just different than California. You want to get more specific? I feel like L.A. is more like, well, first off, L.A. weather right now is just prime time. This is like what people go to California for, you know, as we're here. We just experienced a monsoon. Yeah, it's been raining for hours and hours here. Like crazy rain. It's insane, bro.

I mean, it's June, late June in Florida. Sun will be out an hour and then it'll rain again and the sun will come out. It's exhausting. It's an emotionally draining weather. But, you know, it is. I mean, hashtag El Nino, like, that's it. It's crazy what's going on outside right now, actually. Right before we started recording, though, you were telling me how you lost 10,000 followers on Instagram this year?

Are you keeping track of that? Is someone tell you? No, I just noticed. I remember at one point, I was like a four something, 20 something. And you will lose or gain a thousand every other day. A lot of it's spam. A lot of it's like whatever. You don't even know.

But some weeks you'll lose a couple thousand, gain a couple thousand. So I do not keep track. I honestly don't. But then I'm like, you'll go down to like a certain number. And you'll be like, whoa, what happened? And then you'll go up. I've had like, after a big game, it'd go up like 15,000. and then two weeks later it's it's bad because it's it's if the people follow me like oh okay we're out of here

I don't know how that works but you don't you even said it yourself you don't post enough on Instagram I don't I post like once a month yeah so it's just like it's not like I have to do better and I know I need to I'm not I'm not a social media guy but just for the future and where this is headed I think for branding and business deals and anything you know I think it's important to be uh involved in social media I think people who are the opposite, like, man, I'm too, you know, that, that, the too cool for school type shit is just going to, like, land you less money and, like, less opportunity. Before we get to the draft, a couple things have happened since we last spoke. A lot of things have happened. It sucks that the Bradley Bill trade went down right after our last pod because now about the time we get to talk about it. You've already talked about it on ESPN. Everyone's already talked about it, dissected it. Do you want to maybe touch up on it a little bit?

Yeah, I mean, I think, uh, Matt Espia is going for it, clearly. I think if you're a Phoenix fan right now, there's a little bit of uncertainty of how this is going to work or who else they're going to add. But I'll say the same thing I even, like you just said, I'll say the same thing I said the other day on ESPN. They have the hard part down.

They have talent. They have four really good players, one of which I don't see being there long term. DeAndre Aten hasn't really been a fit for them, but if he can figure out a way, to fit in better this year because I think that was an issue last year. I mean, he's still a really good center.

The only reason I think people think he might be off the book soon is just because his contract frees up a lot of room for Phoenix to add. Yeah, I think they need to train him for two or three guys. They have like a plate with ribs, fried chicken, and a really like seared blackened fish and zero sides. I was going to tell you, it's like you're building a car and we have three steering wheels. It just doesn't. We don't have, we don't have collard greens, we don't have mashed potatoes, we don't have, you know, a little cream corn.

We don't have nothing right now. Right now, the sides that we have are like, you know, I don't even know. They got like tortilla chips, a little beginning appetizers. You know what I mean? We need, we need like, you get the mess. We need balance. And it's a copycat league. You just saw the Denver Nuggets with Bruce Brown and KCP.

You need those guys. I did hear someone compare Bradley Bue to potentially being like the 08 Celtics Ray Allen, where you take a role that's kind of off the ball, catch and shoot, no more ISO. They are in a situation where,

like the 08 Celtics, these guys are further along in their career. So a title is all they care about. They've made money, a lot of money. And all they care about is winning. So the sacrifices could be made. So I do like that aspect of it.

We'll see how it works. I mean, yeah, at this point, what three are they playing for other than to win? All three of them have made, an obscene amount of money. They're going to continue to make an obscene amount of money, especially Devin and Brad who are younger,

especially Devin who's younger than all of them. He's probably got two maxes left after already making two. So we're talking about $8, $900, $900 million in earnings at his end of his career. Brad will be around the same way and Kevin's already there. So, you know, at this point, the only thing left on the table has to be winning. The hard part is done, man. It's one thing to try to get complimentary players.

It's another to try to get a star. and go talk to any small market Orlando, Portland Yeah, everyone, are you kidding me Orlando? We get Shaq, he leaves for L.A. We get Dwight Howard, he leads for L.A. Yeah. Would you take a team back a little bit? Absolutely, man. Right now they have Gary Hare.

Could you imagine having Durant, Booker and Brad? Like, as a magic fan, I'd be like, this is, I wouldn't know how to act. Like, I'm hyped right now with Palo and France. That's what I'm saying. The Suns did do the hard. The Sun's got the hard part down. But they're locked in.

That's the issue. They are locked in, but they're three, like, players that aren't going to be bad anytime soon. Right. Well, the last time Bradley Bill played an important game was second round of 2017 playoffs six years ago. And he was really good. Right. Six years ago was the last time I saw him play a game that mattered. Yeah, I know, but it's correct.

But that only makes it more exciting for him to be on this team. I mean, I'm sure he's got like a whole rejuvenation of like energy going through his body right now. I mean, he's been. He's one of those guys that other players, though, really respect and think he's good too. So there's something there. Like everyone knows he has games. It reminds me Drew Holiday. Everyone's like, Drew Halliday could hoop.

People think he's really underrated. Every player I talk to says Drew Holiday's underrated. Players love Bradley Beals game too. I think people are infatuated with Brad's skill. Yeah. I think he's a highly skilled basketball player. And he has a pretty offensive set. You know, people knew he was pro.

I knew he was pro even when I used to go against him in high school. Just because his game would translate. He could shoot. He has the body for it. And then he's been able to add the dribbling aspect since he's been in the league. So, you know, they got three prime times. scores. And then now you have DeAndre Aten, who's actually a really good big, despite all the negatives that are around him. And like people say, what type of guy is? A lot of that stuff you can't

confirm or not. Regardless, he's a good defensive big, and he actually has skill in the offensive bend as well. I mean, you talk about centers. You take Joel out. You take Yolkage out, take Carl out, take, um, take Bam. Take Bam. Sabonis. Aiton's probably next. He's probably the second half of a top 10. That's what I'm saying. So that's pretty damn good. So you got him and then you don't have much room for anything else. With that being said, this is the NBA man?

There are always players out there. You know what I mean? The Miami heat just proved it. I mean, as long as you have the ability to find these guys. No, that's exactly the point. You plug guys in and they hook up. Especially guys that can play. And that's the hard part.

That's why everyone has a concern, but it's not easy to do. But there are really good players out. there. There are that aren't because the NBA is so top heavy right now. It's either guys are making max money or they're making three, four million. That's just the way it's set up. So with that, you know, kind of being out there, you can get players, man. They can get players. Phoenix can do this. They can get pieces. You can add three or four solid players around that damn core and be a pretty damn good team. They're already just with those. You put those four players on the court without a fifth guy. They're already better than a team they had last year with

five guys on the court. Okay, so I have a question. you, if you add Bradley Beal to that second round series for the Sons against the Nuggets, do they beat the nuggets? I don't think so. There's no way they lost to the nuggets. You see, and then you thought, I want to add an ISO score. But I think this is where Frank Vogel's gonna have to come in. If you can figure out a way to get these guys to play together,

and you get stagnant them too. They don't have to, they could start together. You're always gonna have two of the three on the court. Yeah, that's a good thing, man. So like you take Brad out early or you take Devin out early, you know, probably let Brad run with the kids. second unit. Start Brad, let him play the first five, six minutes, take him out. The other two play most of the first. Brad comes in with the second unit. He's aggressive. You got this guy

coming in off the, essentially not off the bench because he's starting, but still, he's playing with the bench unit. You put a couple pieces around him. You got a good bench unit, man. I don't like to talk about people's health, but this hasn't been the healthiest trio the last few years. So there's going to be games where Brad might be the best player on the team. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Games where he's the second best. Yeah, yeah. So they're going to get their time. Yeah, you just all three of them are going to have their moments. All three of them are going to be around 20, 20 points per game. You know, they're all going to be 20, 25 in that range,

depending, you know, I think Devin will lead him in scoring. Who's running point? I think the best playmaker of the three is Devin. Yeah. He's had a season where he averaged seven assists in the game. He's the best playmaker of the three. He's the one guy that has shown consistently that he could pass. So I think the onus will be on him to, to, I'm not saying not shoot the ball as much,

but just he's going to have more of a responsibility to make sure the guys are involved. Huckies might be the best offensive player on the team, too. score like in the playoffs he was he was in the playoffs yeah and it wasn't even close now you having the ball up initiating the offense yeah but yeah but the other two guys could score well enough to where like you're good yeah also it's like there's a thing where you just like you put the three best players in the floor you put the best team put the five best players before you figured out right they put some pieces around them yeah do i think they had brad last you know last year versus denver do they win no they're not going to be Denver Denver was a better team but you add

Brad, you had a couple good veteran players. They need veteran players. This team's already gone that way. Matt's already put that flag down. They're far from rebuilt. Yeah. Right? They have no young talent they're holding around.

They don't have any fucking picks. They didn't have a draft pick last night. They don't have, that direction's gone. So they're all in trying to win right now. They brought in Frank Vogel who did the same thing with the bubble, Lakers. You brought in Brad. You traded every young piece that you had for Kevin. So at this point, you need veterans.

players that know how to play to game and complement players as well. That's what they need. And you need to be able to get them at a cost-efficient price. Really good teams usually get it done. Every, like those heat teams with LeBron, they throw out there. The reason they get it done is because players, like myself,

look at that team and be like, do I want to play on a team that's going to be playing in big, meaningful games? Do I want to be in the playoffs? Do I want to have a possibility of being Bruce Brown? Yeah. Bruce Brown's a good player, guys. No disrespect to Bruce Brown.

Nobody talked about him on the fucking pistons. Yeah. On the nets, he got a little of the shot, but that's the same thing, though. They were a really good team. They had James, they had Kyrie. They're getting all these players. Bruce Brown goes there, plays his role.

People are like, oh, Bruce Brown's serviceable, he could play a little bit. Goes to Denver, perfect fit. Now people are like, Bruce Brown's getting a bag. Because he did his job on a championship team. He should. That's why it attracts every other player

who's like, Jeff Green. That's why he's chased teams. He's trying to get into a good team, good fit. The better the team, the better the situation, especially if you're in the rotation. And there's guys I want to win a title. They see this team's opportunity. Well, that's what I'm saying.

That's how you get the bag. You get paid if you win. And I think that's the way it should be. I don't like guys that get these contracts because they put numbers on teams. They don't make the playoffs. There's like a couple free agents right now that people are talking about giving bags to.

And these guys just put numbers up on terrible teams year after year after year after year. And it's like, bro, that is garbage basketball. I can't, and I've been around the NBA for a long time. I've never liked it. It is not hard to put up numbers on a meaningless team. Yeah. Well, I think people are, the NBA is getting better now at realizing who's adding to winning.

I feel, I feel what you're saying. And there is, there's something about a purity to the game of basketball that, as a, like, a real hooper, when you see guys put up numbers on really bad teams knowing that if they're on a good team, they would know how to play a lick of basketball, it's like bro it just I don't even know what it means it just doesn't even count it doesn't even count it's like the rocket situation right now

where these guys are all they're not playing winning basketball no no every single guy out there's playing for a contract but that's why they need culture change we've talked about it too young guys are going for that second deal and that's what it's all about they're competing with each other almost

for that second deal if you have a poor culture yeah the okay see guys they play to win a game absolutely and then they're all going to somehow get a bag somewhere all get a bag in the problem when you lose yourself into winning when you lose your, it's the hardest thing to get an NBA player to do.

Yeah. Is to block every outside noise. These guys go home every single day and they're getting bombarded by their friends. They have bills. They're paying for their house. People always wonder how NBA players go broke. It's very, very easy.

These guys signed $3 million. Oh my God, this guy has three bill. No, they don't. Uncle Sam, 1.5. It's half. Cut that in half. So now you got 1.5. This is also parceled out

for a whole year you're getting 1.5. You got bills. rent, mortgage, whatever you got. You got paying for your mom, paying for your dad, your brother, your sister, the lifestyle. Or you want a new watch, or you want a nice car, or you want a new, but it's gone, bro. You know what I'm saying?

So like, to get a player to not think about that and buy in to playing meaningful basketball, meaning don't worry about scoring. Don't worry about stats. When his agent, his friends, like, bro, you got to do this. You got to put up numbers. We were in the lab all summer working on this.

You got to use it in the game. You got to go out there and get your, bro, and you have that mismatch. That's what it's really hard. The worst thing of that, too, is when you're thinking constant about the next deal or your, it's a contract year, for example, every game you're riding the wave of, did I just make money, that I lose money? You have a bad game. You're like, man, I'm probably going to get like this, like this low number now on my next deal.

Then you have a good game and you're like, oh, you just can't do that. It's like looking at your stock market, your portfolio every day. You can't ride the wave every day. It would be like emotionally depending your days on what people are saying to you on Twitter. Yeah. It'd be like going to your Twitter and seeing good things and being happy and actually letting that stuff make you happy. And then you see a negative comment actually going in your room and sulking. Right.

Like you just can't live so up and down. Besides the fact that when you start thinking about like your money and your stats, you play worse. Yeah. When you lose yourself into just like the team, like man, I'm just going to go have fun with this and win and like whatever, whatever. You end up usually getting paid. Like every player for that heat team just went in there and played hard and like just try. to win a game. You had guys that would play 30 minutes one game, the next game, sit on the bench, the entire game. And instead of sitting there at the end of the bench soaking, they were up cheering

their ass off for the guy whose name was called. Every single one of those guys will get paid this summer. Every single one of them. That's the way you do it. The way Bruce Brown did it. The way Christian Braun did it. The way Jeff Green did it. These guys have gone from team to team to team and just did everything the right way. By the way, shout out to Reggie Jackson, who didn't have any controversial things happen in Denver. He was a starting point guard for the Clippers that passed like four or five years really in the NBA. Average in like 20 in the playoffs.

You didn't hear anything about it. This guy couldn't smell the floor. No problem. Sat at the whole time, cheered on his teammates. And again, we all know as a hooper, man. Was that enjoyable for Reggie,

like to see that team win without him being a part of it? No. Right. But I don't think anybody's doubting Reggie Jackson's, you know, playing abilities. And, you know, for him to sit there and, like, be a man and, like, just kind of take that one in the chin

and act the right way. It's not easy to do, man. It's like you said, you have friends around you, too, your circle that's like you should be playing. You should be playing. You're way better than that guy. You're way better than him.

How is that guy playing ahead of you? I've been that guy. All my friends do this. Are you kidding me, bro? So, like, you have to, like, tune that shit out, bro, even though, because they know they mean well. Right, of course. You know what?

Though a lot of times they're right. That's the worst part about it. Yeah. A lot of times a guy that... Well, they know you best. They know what you're capable of. Yeah. So sometimes I get the guy playing in front of you, you are better than.

Yeah. But what are you going to do? You have to sit there. You have to be professional. It's not about you. And when you're young, like you just said, like the point you just said, Pasha, it's really hard to get young players to understand that. It's not about you. Because at that point in time, when these guys haven't made millions yet, it is about them.

They're like, bro, I hear you, but I'm trying to take care of my family first. Yeah, you're the best player in your high school team. You get to the NBA. You're a high pick. It's all about you. It's all about you, bro. And then you go to a team. And you're like, hey, cut, cut, and play defense and hustle.

And eventually, yeah, we've always talked about that, the opportunity. This podcast might as well be named. Opportunity is everything in basketball, fit, everything. We talk about all the time. All right. So let's move on to the Prisinger's trade. A lot of trades happen. We haven't even touched the draft yet.

Prozingis trade. The first one fell through. They tried to trade Malcolm Brognan, didn't go through. Something about his medical. They ended up going through, right? No, not to Malcolm Brogden one now. Man, what's going on in L.A. over there? What were you doing after?

You missed out on that. No, I remember the trade was going to go through. Melton Bryant didn't go through. And then Perzigas still went there, though, to Boston. How do you feel about that fit? I love Prozingis for Boston. He had a great year, underrated year for the Wizards. He had underrated year.

He shot almost 40% from 3, 50 from the field. The Wizards were terrible last year, and anybody could have played well. I was like, every time you played that, ironically enough, they beat us by 31 game. Isn't that insane? We had one game where we started Carl on Priseng. And it was in the beginning of the year where he was still like wrapping his head around being the four Mind you he's been a five his whole his whole career so we have Rudy there and we're putting Carl on the on proscenus so in transition it's just like trained thought to run back to the paint as a

center. Yeah. So they both are running back to the paint because they both are historically centers. Prozegas just keeps walking up to the three point line. We start out the game 18 to 2. Yeah. This guy had like six threes in a row. I'm excited to see Porzinga

play meaningful basketball He's going to be open It was disappointing in Dallas Yeah the fit with It was supposed to be gloving Bro, that fit's supposed to be like We're talking about two foreign players They have a history of that in Dallas

Like Nash and Dirk Everyone saw it there They both can shoot Luca can pass Play off each other pick and pop And it just didn't work And a lot of that I don't know who to put the blame on

But that didn't That situation did not work and it would be nice to see him in this situation. It'll be a much different. It's not going to be a two-man game. He's like the fourth option, third option on this team, right? Third option. Sure.

I mean, so their big man rotation right now is Al Horford, Robert Williams, and Prisengis. I like that. They're really good. They're all different. They're all, I think. One's a shot, two of them are shot blockers, and two of the three can shoot. Yeah. And they have, what, one of the best wing duos in the NBA,

outside of, you know, Durant and Booker, I would say. I wanted to say that point real quick about that. I don't want to get off the line about that. I'm so thankful so far that Boston has just been like, yo, we're keeping Jaylon Brown. We're going to pay both of them. Well, in the past, they've talked about trading. That's all you've heard.

That's all you've heard is who are they going to trade, Jaylon Brown, this whole season, Jailin Brown. When they lost in the playoffs this year, everyone's like, man, they got to trade Jailin Brown. I want you to think about this. Their back court that they have, the past two years they've done to finals

conference finals well they've been a bunch of conference finals recently so so if that is what you're getting each year in a situation where you're one who went away if they're game seven and they win that game they go the finals that means you got a pretty damn good

back pretty damn good situation going for you yeah if you're two best players that lead you to the finals or the conference finals at worst and people are mad then wake the fuck up I heard like boss people we got to get rid of brown are you out of your fucking mind? Yeah, for who? For who? What other wings are going to come in there and do a better job

to him? He plays hard on both ends at a floor. Yeah, he turned the ball over. Yeah, he had a weird series versus the heat. Bro, yeah, not everyone's going to play great all the fucking time, bro. They ran into a weird heat team that was on a great run, and Jimmy, like, guarded, you know, some of those guys well, and they had a weird series, whatever, whatever. The past two years, Celtics have won a shit ton of games. They got a really good team. They got a young coach who hasn't really proven. Back-to-back years with first-year head coaches. First year head coaches, bro. And they're still going to the conference finals and finals. And it was a whole situation. this year, man.

Like, people don't understand, like, him coming in, like, the whole email, like, that, that, like, really took a lot of the air out of the team. Yeah. And they had to find themselves, which they really, I don't really think they ever did. Well, they started off, huh? They did. They did. But, like, that was, like, fools goal.

And then, like, settled in a little bit. And, you know, Joe Mazzula is a guy that, you know, is still young and, like, learning and they're building around. So, like, they have a lot of positive things going on there. And they have two of their best players who are leading them to a finals or at conference finals every year. That means every fucking year you are in the race to win a championship.

My God, how spoiled can you be? For people to even mention trading Jalen Brown, it just shows what our media status is these days. As soon as something goes wrong, something's got to change. Bro, any team would beg to be in the conference finals. What are we talking about? So Porzing is adding depth to their front court,

shooting to their front court. I think he's going to be open a lot. He is going to be open. Do you know the shots that Blake Griffin was getting last year where nobody's guard in his ass? that's going to be Prozingis this year except Prisings is a knockdown and it's going to make them.

Yeah. That's like the difference. Do you know what I mean? I think it's going to be a good fit. Unlike the Sun's fit or the big three where I don't know how those pieces fit, Prazingis does provide something that those other two don't. No, any, any, any hill,

there's something about playing for a team like Boston and the lights that that's going to be on. I would imagine Prisingas defensively will even play harder. Whether it's wrong or right, playing on a Wizards game on a Thursday night versus playing in a T&T Boston game on Thursday night there might be a little bit more

of a little energy in there for him. Do you know what I'm saying? I also think he has guys... You're going to a season where the goal is the title and it wasn't in Dallas. And the team just went to the conference finals and the year before went to the finals. So if you come in there bullshit around,

it's like, brother, this is how we do it here. Was he the problem in Dallas? We don't know. And so now... In Washington, weird organization. Now it's like, all right, you're the problem with this. If this doesn't work, you're the problem.

You have to play well. Not even play well, you have to play hard. And if you play as hard as talent will show, Prisangis is such a talented player. It's a contract year. Yeah, if it's a contract year, go play hard, bro. Fuck the stats.

Go block shots. But this guy's fucking out there sliding his feet. Just trying. Michael Porter Jr. got an A just for trying in the finals. And Michael Porter Jr. is not the greatest defender by any means. But this guy was trying his ass off. And he was missing shots in the finals.

Every game, if he was open, he let it fly, still kept shooting, still kept playing the right way. He was making extra passes and shit. That's what Prisengis needs to do. I don't need you averaging 22 points a game for Boston. They don't need it. If you can average 14, 15, 13, that'd be great.

A block shot a game, two shots, you know, block shots of the game, be able to switch like Grant Williams was able to do. That'd be great. You hustling hard, not complaining about your minutes, you're not missing 40 games a year due to injury, then he gets another 100-something million-dollar contract. That's what Prisangis needs to do. They go to conference finals, finals.

He's playing well, playing his role. people are going to look at Prisengis in a whole new life. If they win the title, it's going to be Prisengis, the guy that got him over the hump. This guy got him over the hump, man. This guy, Annie, accepted a role

on a really good team. You know, this guy went in there, didn't think about himself. I wasn't trying to average 20. One, trying to make an all-star game. He went in there just like, we're going to win this year.

His value goes even higher. That's what older players understand. We're like, a young guy's going in there, like, I want to, I want to do. But that shit is, when you think about yourself, back to the point, when you think about that stuff,

from my personal experience, every time I start thinking about my numbers or me like improving my minutes and this, this and that, bro, my time gets more and more miserable, bro. Things don't even go your way. When you just, like, lose yourself and doing all the right things and habits,

things usually come back your way. And Porzingus, who's so talented, it's a great trade for him. Mind you, Memphis, by the way, I love that trade. They got a guy who Dylan Brooks, like the person that Dylan Brooks wants to be and thinks he is, is what they just got.

I don't like the trade for Memphis. You don't like it. You're getting a guy that's best basketball is behind him. I know, I understand. the logic behind bringing in Marcus Smart. They have some things going on. Make a mentor job. I'm sure they're thinking something like that.

Culture setter, you know, things like that. But you're getting a guy that's, I just, I'm a big Tyos Jones fan. Led the NBA and a sister turnover ratio, four or five of, you know, straight seasons. This guy plays steady basketball. Everyone always talks about why are the Grizzlies so good without John Moran? Because Tyos Jones, that was a big loss for them. Tyos Jones is really, really good. Big loss.

He wanted a bigger role, it sounds like. So losing, I'm not trying to diminish what Marcus Smart brings. I think the Celtics are going to feel Marcus Smart leaving. Like that's going to be a big impact. It is. Right. But for the Grizzlies, I just think Ty's Jones is so good. Here's the only thing I'll say about the, the,

because I heard Kendrick Park is just talking about like the heart and soul and the team. Because he is. You know, he has a big role in the team. Derek White can do a lot of the things that Marcus Smart can do. And Malcolm Brogdon, they have too much. There was too much going on. Or he's going to be gone. You think they're going to trade him?

He wants to be a starting point guard. He might be, though, now. I think Derek White gets that starting spot. As a point guard? Not over Malcolm Brogden. No way. Malcolm Brong is more set up as a point guard. Derek White's a catch-and-shoot,

straight-line drive player. He is not coming off picking rolls, making pocket passes, or skipping it. That is not Derek White's game. So you think Malcolm Brogden starts next? Derek White is 3-N-D. Hit a 3, play defense if you don't,

straight-line attack to the basket. That's his game. He is not coming down making reads his pick and rolls. Malcolm Brown has been doing that for years. Malcolm Brown starts a point guard next year. And the reason they couldn't last year is because they had Marcus Smart starting. Because you start Jaylon and Jason. So the third guard, it wouldn't even a traditional point guard.

The traditional point guards never worked there. They tried to bring in Kemba and that shit didn't even work. Kai was there. They've gotten every point guard they've ever had out of there. So like Malcolm Brown is like the perfect fit, man. He's not going to be. But he knows that they just tried to trade him and it didn't go through. Well, that's a business basketball.

Jalen Brown's name was in the fucking. thing all year. You know, I mean, like, that's just, the new NBA, that's what it is. And a lot of it has to do with a lot of people you see in the NBA aren't basketball players. These aren't former,

it's not NBA. So, like, they don't even view players. They don't understand. It's like a number. So guys are moving around. Coaches are getting fired left and right. It's like,

Wow, Wow, West out here. I don't think any player can even take it personal at this point. I like, I think less is more. I think they had too many guards. They were very guard heavy. And that's what all they kept hearing about during this whole trade process was that Boston had too many

guards and you couldn't play them all. And I think they wanted to simplify their team bringing a little bit of depth on the front court, have a versatile big who could shoot, play some defense, have some length. Just had maybe his best season. Best season. Looks like he's healthy again. Now he's mentally and energy wise.

In a contract year, that's just the biggest thing. And a contract year he's rejuvenated on a team where now he's like, yo, I can win again, which he's never been in. He's never been on a team where he can win. Even the Dallas team was just him and Luca. they were going to win. This team is like, oh, this team's a finals team, and you're adding prosingus.

He's got to be excited. But you really like the trade for the Grizzlies too? I like, I like the aspect. They're so great and grindy. Like, are we, when are they going to stop enough? Like, you're bringing every guy that hustles and plays defense, and it's tough. Here's my thing.

I view it at, with the exception of Tyos Jones is a big loss. Because he was like the one solid when like the jaw, jaw would get a little wild in there at times. Yeah, and you had this steady point card. then you bring this guy and they'd go in like a 10-0 run because he's just as about as solid as a point guard comes. And we said this earlier. We said this in the summer.

Tyos Jones is the starting point guard. Yeah. I think in one of our episodes, we did like a 10-minute segment on why Tyos Jones is a starting point guard in the NBA already. So this just backs up everything we've said and anything everyone has really been saying about him. And he wanted to go start somewhere.

He's going to get to do that. You know, he's going to be in D.C. Best of luck to you. But I like with the exception of that, I do like Marcus Smart over Dylan Brooks. Let's talk about, since we're on the subject of the Wizards, let's talk about the Jordan Poole, Chris Paul Trid. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Were you shocked as hell? That's crazy. You know what it is? It's actually underrated. People aren't really like that. Because it was the day of the draft. That's the only reason, man.

We have so much going on right now with Victor and Scoot and these names and all these drafts and Brandon Miller, you know, said Paul George is the greatest of all time and this comment. Women, like we got the Wemby stuff. All this stuff is all over. There's so much news right. There was a lot going on yesterday.

It was you couldn't take it all in. It's a chaos. You know, this trade fell through. He's going here. They said they're going to draft this. The team's going to look in the world. Yeah,

exactly. I couldn't even keep up. Yeah. So that trade right now is like really just like, it's like when you tweet something bad and you're getting killed on Twitter. So then you do a Q&A? And then you do a Q&A to push it down the timeline. So then you start doing like Q&A's with,

Fans hope people think like they drown it out or like you try to like fool fans and not remembering what you just said. And you hope to God something somebody else out there in the league fucks up that way. Something in the news is out there drowning out what happened to you. That's what happened yesterday in the sense that this trade happened and everybody like reacted but then all this other stuff happens. Like people just moved on. You didn't have time.

You didn't have enough time to process. Chris Paul for Jordan Poole is fucking insane. It's insane. And no one's talking about it. I can't believe my initial reaction was if the warriors are giving up on a young player that helped them win a title. And he hasn't even started his contract, right? Like his big deal.

No, he starts it this year. Yeah. If they're giving up on him that early, what's that say about him? Like, because the Warriors are one of those teams, the spurs are one of those teams, the thunder. If someone gives up on you, it's kind of... Questions need to be asked at this point. You're right. This guy, I have to say it, he got punched in the face.

And they took the side of the guy that threw the punch. Essentially. So what does that say about the guy? We're going with the sucker punch. This is the same guy that Steph got thrown out of a game for throwing his mouthpiece when Jordan shot a bad shot. In the playoffs against the Lakers, shot that three that obviously people were, you know, the two best shooters of all time on your team. He shot that, you know, it was a deep three.

There's something there. There's something. There's a flying away, man. I don't want to like, and I don't know what it is. I don't, I want to be careful here because I don't want to put words in people's mouth and I don't want to paint a picture that's that's that's not true we don't know what's going on in the wariness locker room I don't know Jordan pull personally I have not talked to draymond green or anybody in the warrior's organization about Jordan pool but for them

to trade a young talented score regardless of whether he's shot appropriate shot inappropriate at times. Whatever the case may be, those are usually the bumps. I never heard of shot inappropriate, but I'm going to start using them. But those are usually the bumps and bruises of a young,

talented player anyway, right? For them to trade Jordan Poole for a 38-year-old Chris Paul. Yeah. There's something there. Yeah. It just doesn't, it didn't make sense.

Immediately their team gets smarter. They do get smarter, but... But it's crazy. Chris and Steph playing together, like, you wonder how that's going to work. Yeah. We'll still figure out. Chris is a high-a-kewed basketball player

and step doesn't necessarily need the ball. But it just, you know, it's not a trade that you saw happening or you thought they would want. So there's a couple questions that has to be asked here. These are the questions. One, was this a move that was made to get Dremont Greenback? Of course.

Right. So you ask yourself then next, after you say, of course, why? What do you mean? Is it Draymore Green like? Well, they couldn't just, I'm not coming up. You paid Wiggins. You paid all these guys.

You're kidding. No, no, no. I know financially you can't keep them all. I get that. But is, is, I just think there's more there. They had all, obviously the punch happened. They had all season to just make up or act like they're, and they never. And they never really did.

Jordan Poole would say, you know, you know, press conferences, you know, this is a business. I'm doing my job. job, we're fine, like, you know, stuff like that. They could, it was all years, obviously. Well, it set the tone for the whole season for them. And Draymond already alluded to that on his pod. When he was like, do I think that fucked our season? He goes, yeah, I do.

I think we weren't the same after that. Would you forgive a friend that? If you decked me, if it was behind closed doors and no one ever knew about it, yeah, I could forgive you. I could forgive you. Listen, and I talked about this with my dad plenty of times. You don't ever push a man and not put your hands up. Yeah.

You just don't do it. By the way, the stuff that they were saying to each other, I'm not going to say it on here. I do know what was said between the two. Like, when you're talking like that, you're talking spicy like that back and forth. You're already got to be worried. If someone's approaching you and you're, fuck you,

your hands should be getting ready to, and I'm not saying throw punches, but you need to be, you need to be ready to move. If they fought, even if he was ready or not, if they fought, it's just hard to make up. It is hard to make up, but like people make up after fights. Let's talk about this, though. we're saying and people always say

well if your friend punched you would you be able to forgive them maybe like a friend they've had for years these are teammates they're not like high school friends they can bury it they've had this long history of friendship no no no but usually a sit down

conversation and understanding between the two like yeah man you know you were talking to me and you pushed me so I reacted I just do a punch the whole world saw it that's the problem if that video never came out you can just get over it no one talks about it they would have just said Draymond and Jordan had a little scuffle

and, you know, they're all cool. Both parties are fine. No one would have known anything. But that thing going viral and every person... When there's a viral video of you getting knocked out... Getting knocked out? Yeah. You're going to look at that guy and be like, fuck you.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, like, that was... That was not going to happen. And ultimately, the Warriors had to make a decision. Can we win a championship without Draymond Green? Or can we win a championship without Jordan Pool? And they chose their answer.

Right. Essentially. And I'm not even trying to, like, paint a... like a vivid picture, but that's, listen, if they wanted to build and go to the future, like, they would have win Jordan Poole. And Jordan Poole is that guy we brought into the conversation. Like, would you rather have Tyrese or Anthony Simons or Jordan Peeler?

Yeah, yeah, no, we're talking about young talented guards. We brought all those guys up, and he was in that conversation. And they let him go. And again, I'm a huge Chris Paul fan. You know that. He's one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. For sure. But Chris is 38.

And Chris has had a history with finishing seasons, especially of lately. I mean, listen, he's 38 years old, man. The fact that he's still a dominant point guard at this point is incredible enough. But to trade... Does he come off the bend? To trade him for... How old is Jordan?

24? He's young. To trade him for a 24-year-old, bro? It tells you like the warriors were not either... They weren't keen on Jordan or they were just like, yeah. Something's up. It's a perfect situation for them. They get to pay Draymond.

Draymond comes back. They had their nucleus that was there before Jordan Pool was well. was ever there. Wiggins is still there. They got all their pieces there. Chris is a high-a-kewed basketball player. He's not going to hurt them. I can't tell you that much.

I don't know if you bring them, start them. I don't know. You can't start. You can't start. Defensively, you can't do it. You can't start both of them. You can't start both of them. You can't finish a game like that.

Do you ever you want? Maybe. But yeah. Do you remember in 2003? This is what reminded me of. In 2013, Jared Jack was on the Warriors. And a lot of the times at the end of the game, they had to step off the ball.

And Jared Jack would play. Dude, Jared Jack had a great season with them. He did, he was a huge, huge, huge year. Was he like six men a year? He was, he was played 30 minutes a game. Yeah, he came off the bench, 30 minutes a game. And he played really well for them. And Steph was off the ball.

That was Mark Jackson era, though. Yeah, but they might be able to tap into that, though. I've seen it, we've seen it done. That's a good point. Yeah, that's what it might. That's the first thing I thought about when I thought of Chris Paul. Chris has played with and against everything under the sun from, from USA basketball to like, whatever.

He could play with Steph, no problem. And he doesn't have to run the team where it could be, some type of a load management situation where he's fresh for the playoffs. This is perfect. This is what I talked about on ESPN the other day. I said, Chris does not need to go to a team where he's playing 30 minutes a game or 25 minutes game. If you want Chris to be your star point guard, you have failed him.

You failed him. He's 38 years old. The best thing you want from Chris is for him to be healthy during the playoffs and be in shape. How do you do that? You give him a role during the regular season. I'm not saying it's a small role because he's Chris Paul. But like this team, he doesn't have to run the team. Kyle Lowry.

Exactly, bro. Yeah. Play 10, 15 minutes a game, bro. Like, you're not trying to make an All-Star game this year. Let's go 15-20. Whatever it is. 15-20, you play 50 games of the season. Rest your body here and there.

Hey, we don't need you tonight, Chris. You know, get your rest. He gets to rest, get acclimated with this team. He gets to take a back seat. He don't have to be the fucking guy. And in the playoffs, when this is like meaningful basketball, now you play 30 minutes a game. Now, Chris, now we're finishing games with you.

Now we're going to go win a championship. And now it's validated. because he's a big part of it and he wins a ring. And there it is, boom, boom, boom, if they do win, whatever, whatever. But, like, that's perfect case. I like Chris there. I wanted Chris there. I liked Chris with the clippers.

If they brought back Russ, I want to both of them there. Again, for the same reason. You can start Russ, start Chris, whatever it war, but it's load management for Chris. A lot of guys are saying, let's get Chris in the Lakers. You're setting them up again. Now he has to be a starting point guard. The whole season, played 25 minutes a game, pick and roll. Every game.

It's too much, bro. It's too much for him. He's 38. You know what I'm saying? And he's not gifted like LeBron James as. No one else is. By the way, I don't know. Look around the NBA,

he's how many 38-year-olds in the league. Not a lot of them. And if they are, they got roles like PJ Tucker. They showed the 2013 heat final championship team the other day, and LeBron was the only one left in the NBA. It's 10 years ago. Yeah, so that's exactly, man.

So it's like that, that, you know, for Chris right now, I think it's a solid situation. I think the trade itself is just surprising. But I want to get to the Wizards part of it The back corner Ty's Jones and Jordan Pool Jordan Pool's got to be happy So you got literally ying and yang of this

Tyos Jones like we said Really steady point guard Assis turn over ratio I like I like Tyos You have that with the shooting guard of An A1 mixtape type of game It's gonna be great Yeah no

They might be good for each other I like I like I like Tyos for Jordan They're gonna lose a lot of games They are going to lose a lot of games But I do like that though And Jordan's gonna put up some numbers Jordan's going to put up some numbers. He's going to average 23.

22 points in game. If you're a wizard's fan, they should have been done a long time ago. No, you've got to be happy if you're a wizard fan. We got a little bit of life. We got New Year look, you know, point guard. He's nice. You should have done this a while ago,

but you did it. New York's shooting guard. Let's move on. You know, and now you just hope you play decent enough. And the problem with them is, bro, they keep getting in this situation where they suck to not be in the playoffs, but they don't suck to be one of the worst teams

in the lead to get top picks. Well, Bradley Bill was the problem with that because he was just good enough to be. Well, Tyos Jones is going to win them games sometimes. I don't think they're going to be... But they're better the team now than they are last year. I mean, if you run through the East, though, are they going to be better than the Hornets next year?

They're going to sign Kuzma back. You think so? Well, why wouldn't they? They signed Kuzma, then you got... Okay, now we're working with something. But if Bradley Beal, Prisengis and Kuzma couldn't make the play in, you think Tice Jones, Jordan Poole, than Kuzma could?

They could make a playing game, maybe, yeah. I do think Ty's... There's not enough spots. I think Tyos Jones changes that team. I really do. I just don't see it. There's not enough spots. I mean, the Raptors didn't make the playoffs last year.

The Magic are going to be in the play. The Raptors are not going to make it this year. Raptors are going to be awful. We've got to see what they do. They have a lot of decisions. What are you going to? Who's their best playing in Raptors right now? Pascal Seac.

And then who else? O.G. Fred Van Vleet, if he resigns. Well, that guy's not going to be that one time. Ricky the year a year ago? Ferrin' Lee is not resigning in Toronto, brother. Well, they have a lot of good players. And they just drafted a Grady Day.

We got to get into the draft. Let's take a break. all right we're about an hour in we haven't even talked about last night's draft it's my favorite night of the year every year i told you that you think i'm a nerd it's uh i mean growing up all the memories and everything come on the draft is the best all the optimism every team's adding new players the player comparisons are my favorite because they'll be like the 20th pick and they'll compare them to a hall of famer i'm like that just i don't are we just going to add a 20 hall of famers to that it's it's best case scenario

every time that's why i like you when they do a floor ceiling situation but the the the floor is usually disrespectful. Yeah. Like his floor. Well, it's always just vulnerable to the person that they're naming as the floor. Yeah, they're like, this guy's, this floor is so-and-so. And it's always the guy. It's always like Tony Rowan.

I'm like, damn, that's fucked. That's messed up, man. It's also like the floor and ceiling's also being named by a guy can't play a lick of basketball. Yeah. That's also the funniest thing. Worst case scenario, he's this millionaire guy that time, the eighth man on an NBA team. Yeah, it's like, bro, relax. Let's start at the top.

Obviously, there are no surprises with Wenbanyama. Did you like his reaction? Did you see that with his siblings that had that moment? I did. I thought it was really cool for Vic that like that, considering he was obviously a unanimous number one pick. He knew he was going to be that months ago. He has been probably the most pressed and most hyped up prospect that we've had since LeBron. The guys on dominating social media every day for the past two years, pretty much, right?

And for him to not let that desensitize like this moment and still sit there like at one point he was crying, just to understand like it to come full circle like bro, it's here now. Like your name just got called in like three, four days, bro, you're in San Antonio. Yeah. And then in like a week and a half from now,

you're in Vegas. You know what I mean? Like it's here. And I think that's everyone else that's, for me the best part of the draft is just the guys walking on stage and the parents and family's reactions. You're seeing a life change.

Not just his, the family's life changes. It does. And that's, it was really cool to see him still kind of taking the moment. You know, you talked about Yokage and not doing it in the finals. Right.

Here you got a guy, Victor, who like, you know, everybody knew he's going number one, and he still was emotionally crying just because he's like, man, it's a big deal. But people don't understand. There's only ever been 3,000,

was it, 400-something players to ever play in the NBA in the history. So it gets desensitized every day on, on Instagram, and this guy plays and two-way and this way, man, listen, all those contracts. A real NBA contract There's only so many guys that get that

And you know It's an honor to be that Even though Vic's gonna be a superstar Etcetera, et cetera It's cool to have See him's emotions I enjoyed it The drafts pretty much started

With the next pick Were you surprised that Charlotte went Brandon Miller? I'm not only due to fit I know a lot of people have It all depends on like your drafts You don't think Scoot and Lamello Could have played together

Scoot can't He's not a shooter Yeah And either's Lamello Quite frankly And Lamello wants his assist He wants the ball in his hands. Scoot's better off in Portland, man.

He's going to get the ball in his hands. He can do his thing because I... You're assuming Dame's gone. Now, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy that, you know, Charlotte had Lamello, so they're like, we're not going to take Scoop,

but Portland has Dame and they're like, well, okay, we'll just bring them in. Obviously, the trade's going to happen. Well, one's 31, the other one's 23. And Lamello's a guy that they're going to have to max out soon. Right. So it just wouldn't even make sense. So you draft Brandon Miller.

They're going young. They're totally in rebuild, anyway. What do you think Brandon Miller's game is like? Can you give me the comparison? I like his game. Listen, he got a lot of hate because he said the Paul George comment. I don't think he thinks Paul George is better than Michael Jordan or LeBron James. He's not on drugs or delusional. I think his game, he looks at himself and sees, I think I could do some of the things that Paul does and maybe I can get to that point. And I think he's been a fan of his game. That's why he said he's my greatest player of all time. I see that though. He has that. He's long. He's lanky. He's athletic.

He could shoot. He's explosive. I would imagine of these next couple of years he's going to improve his ball handling. He's going to be featured, which is a great thing. That's all you want as a rookie, man. Forget the pick and where you're at. It's all about situation. We know this. It's all about opportunity.

As a rookie, if you were a lottery pick, the best thing you can hope for is to get drafted to a team that's going to grab the ball and roll it out for you and say, go play. Go be bad. go make mistakes, go be up and down. That's what you want. You don't want to be drafted to a situation where they're up and down and they don't let you do this or they see you as this because they want you to do this right away.

Unless it's like a winning team. Right. But like you don't want to be like a mediocre team and like you've got to, they're like over-analys it. Like that's why I was. I got draft to the worst situation you could have possibly got draft to. I got drafted to a situation where coach wouldn't let me play. Couldn't really do anything our well you wanted to.

They started me like half the season, but like I was like playing this role. You weren't even the most important rookie in the team. Bro, not only was I not the most important rookie in the team. I wouldn't even allow to do a step back three. Otherwise, I was taken out of the game. Like, it was, my whole game wasn't allowed there. They wanted me to be like a defender and like something else, which I eventually had to morph into to be able to play in the NBA.

Right. Because I wasn't able to do what I wanted to do. That's what, that's what you want, man. You want, Damiena little Brad Beal, Beyond Waiters, who had a shot? Roll the ball out. Go who. That would have been great for me. But not everybody gets that.

And you're saying Scoot's going to get that. And so is Brandon. So this is what I was talking about with you last night. Scoot, right now the Blazers have, Scoot, Anthony Simon, Shaden Sharp, we finished year really well, another high on him. You have those three. And imagine if you trade Dame, the haul you can get back for that. Add it to those three.

That's a crazy young core. I mean, you're talking like the Magic's Young Corps, OKC's Young Corps. They're going to be right there with all these good young players. It takes years for teams to trade a dame and start right all the way over and do all that. Most teams don't have a dame. Yeah, well, whenever they do start rebuilding, it takes years to accumulate all these lottery picks, right? The magic had to build it through years of drafting high. They already have the Simons, the Sharp, the Scoot now, whatever you get for Dane, which is going to be a lot.

It's going to be an awesome rebuild if they do it. And obviously, when they do it. If you are a Portland fan, there's definitely some optimism in the air. Yeah. You never had to have that weird year. You have, you have, you have Scoot Henderson coming, who's a freak athlete, very exciting point guard. It seems like he's just a dog, yeah. And he looks like a dog.

He plays like a dog. He feels like a dog. You know what I mean? Like his whole ambiance about himself and how he's, you know, he carries himself his dog like, right? You got this guy coming. You got a very talented young shooting guard.

Anthony Simons. You just paid him. He's under contract. You have Jeremy Grant, who's still fairly youngs in his mid-20s. They don't re-sign Jeremy Grant, though, if they have a trade game. You don't think so?

No. How old is Jeremy? He's definitely up there. I mean, if you're doing the rebuild, it just doesn't add up. Okay. Regardless. Shaden Sharp, very talented young prospect as well.

And then you have Damien who could probably trade for a hall of picks or some other talented young assets, whatever the case may be. Brooklyn has a lot of young, they're all older players too. But regardless, like you said, you're going to get picks. You're going to get a lot of stuff for Damien. They have a lot of optimism to understand that they're not going to be bad for long. And they have like these next two or three years, you're going to see a window where like poor. Portland, OKC, Orlando. Some of these teams are going to start to be like,

just start winning some games here and like I start competing. OKC already started. Yeah, they already started. And Orlando's like a year away. So like you could see it coming with some of these teams. Detroit and Houston, I think, a little bit behind those teams. Detroit is behind. And so is Houston.

But still, with Moni there and some of the stuff that, listen, Moni is perfect for that. Moni's perfect for a young team. He's going to be perfect for these young guys. Because they need culture. They need to be professional. You know, I mean, like, they need that there. That's why they brought them there and they paid him that money.

Moni will be perfect for Detroit to help turn that around. He really will. And then you have Houston, who has Eme, who they also brought in to turn it around. So you got these young teams. And they both just out of the Thompson twin. Yeah, they both are, exactly. Yeah, these both are turning the wheels now. The wheels are turning and these, you know, these poor organizations who have been bad for a long time are,

are headed on the come up, which is nice to see. I definitely wanted to bring this up. Every team, every player that got drafted last night, you know, I'll talk to you, I'll talk to whoever we were with, and they would say, man, but this team already has so-and-so and so-and-so.

Every player that got drafted, like, yeah, but they already have, no matter what team you went to, yeah, they already have this guy and this guy. Is the NBA just that deep right now, or is this maybe a weaker draft where, it was just, like, I want to know because,

most of those guys you saw last night grabbing a hat you won't see play a lot next year. Like what I'm hearing from a lot of NBA guys I'm here from a lot of NBA guys is a lot of these guys with the exception of Wemby aren't going to in scoot maybe Brandon Miller aren't going to be able to really

impact winning next season. I don't see it. They're going to help a team win games. There always is a surprise. There's a guy right now in this draft that we're not talking about that next year is going to have a fantastic year and surprise everyone.

Walker Kessler. Who didn't? Yeah. Who didn't see it? Donovan Mitchell. No one's new and, well, you know, and some GM is going to be hailed as he's a genius. You know what I mean?

When there's so much luck involved in having this shit. But still, yeah, for the most part, you're right. Most of these guys, this wasn't the strongest draft. It is very top-heavy. And in fact, most of those guys in terms of having an impact, especially on any winning teams, no. I don't see it. Most of the winning teams don't even have a good pick.

And I just didn't even see it. Yeah, I didn't see it last night. I do like Jalen Hutchifino. You know that. Yeah, so you like his fits of the Lakers? It's just he's Taylor Horton Tucker reincarnated on the Lakers uniform. Taylor Horton Tucker? Taylor Horton Tucker?

So what do you think he's bringing to the team? I think he's better than every guard they had there, other than Reeves and Shruder. Yeah, well, they're definitely not bringing D.Lo back then. I didn't put Dilo in there. Yeah, they're not bringing him. And he's not better than D'Angelo Russell. That's not even up for this conversation. I don't care if people say about Dilo.

He's 19, 20 years old. Yeah, he's 19, 20 years old. No, I think Dilo's just a better talent in general. Even Dilo at 27 years old. Delo is a really good player, in my opinion. I think he just has to be in the right situation. Yeah. Maybe I'm biased.

He's a homie. But I think Jailen Hood is better than every guard they have. So he's like your favorite value pick? I like Jailen Hood for them. They didn't have guard death and they got it now. They don't know if they're getting Fred. They don't know what they're getting this guy. They don't know what they got coming.

You go get like a talented young point guard. It's an exciting thing. I've watched plenty of his games this year. He could play. And again, with the exception of Dennis and Reeves, who's talented, man. But like whatever. I like this Jay LaHood-Shavino guy.

I really do. Yeah. What do you think about the Thompson twins? I haven't seen enough of them play. They're freak athletes, which is always a plus. But everybody in the NBA is a freak athlete. Yeah.

People have no idea. They don't understand. Every person in an NBA uniform, with exception of like Ricky Rubio, can do like a win-meet. Are you, Ricky Rubio? Well, it's not a slight at Ricky Rubio. It's not a slight at Ricky Rubio. No, of course. I don't think his games totally.

I don't think he wants to do one-win-moo. Not only does he not want to, I don't think he ever has. I don't think anybody has ever wanted him to do it. That's not what he's in the NBA. This guy has court division and other things that he's in the NBA to do. I'm just saying from an athletic standpoint, the guys that you even think aren't athletic would go to park and just punch on you. Do you know what I mean?

For sure. Everyone's a freak athlete in the NBA. So freakish in fact that the ones that stand out are so freakish. Right. You know what I mean? So it's like, but they do have that type of athletic ability. They have standout athletic ability.

And they have good form, good shooting mechanics. I think they're both just going to have to learn the game a little bit. I'm not really sure what's going on with overtime elite and how, you know, how organized that basketball was. Well, it's not. Right.

All the highlights are them just kind of attacking the rim and playing really good defense. You know, hopefully they get to learn how to, you know, play the game, play the right way. Well, again, one's going to Detroit, where he's going to be in a culture of them building. They're going to work. And Moni's going to have his hand involved in everything. And, you know, it'll be a good reset, I think, for them to really work. And the other one is drafted in, where are the other one? The other one I went to Houston.

Houston. With E-May. So they got a lot. They got two new coaches, very, very, very. well-respected coaches. So they got drafts a good situations, man. And the one in Houston's going to love living there. I'll tell you that much.

Houston's an amazing place to live, as you know. Yeah. So, yeah, man, I don't really want to get too deep into the draft, man. It just wasn't that interesting to me. The most exciting thing of the draft, shout out to Grady. Grady Dix. I mean, I thought the magic we were going to get him at 11. That was the most surprising thing for me.

I mean, I'm biased. I'm a magic fan. They got Anthony Black with the six-pick, who people are comparing him to Josh Giddy. defensive playmaking, playing guards, six, seven. How many point guards

are the Orlando going to draft? It's a logger What are they have going on? Well, they're not going to get front court players. They have Franz,

Palo and Wendell Carter three, four, five. So what do you do? They have, let's just run off the guards here. Jalen sucks. Foltz.

Cole Anthony. Someone's out. Someone's out. Someone, one of those, you can't bring all three of them back. Right. Or unless you're just not going to play one of them.

No, yeah. There's some moves to be made. It's a good problem to have. We're also missing guards. We're missing, we're not even talking about, like, the Gary Harris's. They have, like, Mike Carter Williams still in contract. They have, like, a lot of just guards that, like, I don't understand what they're really doing. I know Mike Carl Williams probably isn't going to, you know, he doesn't play.

He's more there for, like, vet leaders. You know, I don't really know what he's there for, but he doesn't, he doesn't play a lot. Well, no, I don't mean, no, I don't mean, no. You laugh and you make it seem like I'm being disrespectful. I don't know what he's there for. No, because he's not, he's not there to play. Right. So, he didn't play.

But so with the 11th pick, they got Jet Howard, here's my biggest issue as a magic fan. Jet Howard by all, I mean, listen, I don't know how much value you put into mock drafts. He was projected in the 20s. I have no problem with the magic targeting Jet Howard. If you like him, you like him, that's cool. If you know that he's going to be, you could get him in the 20s, why not trade back and get something and look really smart and get him in the 20s? You could have had him in the 20s. Why waste the 11th pick on him?

It was shocking. You went shooting. Grady Dick. there. Jordan Hawkins is there. These are the guys you hear. Jordan Hawkins is Yukon? Yeah. Which great catching shoe player. Like what the magic need. Grady Dick. Obviously everyone knows. I mean, I hated his outfit last night. I didn't look ridiculous.

It was. It was ridiculous. And any act of ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous. This is what I'll say. Okay. I have no problem of being different. Or like, you know, it also, it looked like a poorly made suit.

If you look at the pictures, like the real pictures of it, the way it fit his shoulders and like the way the suit was made it shoulder pads on right it just it just wasn't a good look like even the bright red it's nutty like whatever whatever but if it was fit and tailored right

and like done right I don't know who did his suit it was god awful and the red turtle neck going up here it just like it was it was an awful looking suit man yeah it's really bad what made it funny is the way he acted

with it I like it. I personally like... Well, he's going to be in the history now. They're going to show like Jill and Rose's old suit and all these other people's student. Yeah, yeah. They're going to show this one for years and years to come. He also looks like a, he looks like a good time to like go out and have some beers with.

Does he not look funny as hell? That's why I wanted him in Orlando. I thought he'd be a great edition. He's a dude. He's got to wear the jersey. Right now that's my priority. And he was laughing about it. He's being silly.

But, uh, yeah, he looks like a cool dude, man. He looks like a kid got game. I like his personality. Again, I don't know him, but from the far, he looks like he has good energy, he looks funny, able to laugh at himself. I think even he knew he was dressed crazy because when he asked about it, he'd start laughing. So the suit, in my opinion, was got awful, but he pulled it off, and he made it fun. He made it funny.

So I am excited to see his game. I liked a lot of his, I'll watch some games of him this year at Kansas. He could shoot the ball really well. Actually, show they could put on the floor a little bit off the catch, not like more of a clean handle, but you know what I'm saying? one, two, dribble, get to where your spot is. It's a good pick for them. Yeah, man.

Drap overall, though, was... Ken Whitmore was a big story, obviously. Two weeks ago... Cameras zooming in on him every 10 minutes. That's what people do, though. Just get the camera off of the kid. It happened to the NFL draft this year, too. Just get it off of him, bro.

He said, and he handled it well. He really did. He sat there like a man and took it, you know, wasn't sweating, wasn't like... Sometimes you'll see guys, like, you know, start getting an attitude with it. Like, I don't know why. He goes, you know, he just sat there.

whole time. Eventually, his name got cold. Yeah. You know what I mean? And he's off to the races. Here's the thing. They're all going to Summer League.

Who gives a shit about your first contract? No one cares. It's the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth. Those are the ones you go chase, especially the second one, obviously. No one cares about where you start, man. You guys are all going to end up in the Summer League together. Cam, you're going to start on your Summer League team. Go outplay every single player that was ahead of you.

Go show. why you were supposed to be. Didn't have a chip on a shoulder before he has. If you didn't have a chip. He's a freak athlete. If you didn't have a chip on your shoulder, Ken went more before, you should have one now.

You were the guy in the draft that sat there, and the camera's on, and name after name after name, went ahead of you. Apparently he had some rough workouts during the draft. What we heard. And his workouts didn't go well, which was a cause of a concern.

And it's a copycat league. But what happens for people who don't really know, is one team passes on them, then two teams passes on them, then five team passes on them. And then it becomes a thing like, fuck, I'm not taking them.

Because that's literally what goes on in our league. It's like once you win a championship at the center, now everybody wants a big-ass center now. Warriors only shoot threes. Now everyone only shoots threes. Now everyone wants to, you know, now three and D guys are like a premium in the NBA. Oh, now teams are now hiring Vets.

because like good vets, Denver had good vets. Now teams want good vets on their team now. Yeah. It's a copycat league. And when you see a guy getting passed up and passed up in the draft, you start seeing teams like, well, wait, you know, I don't, we're not going to be the team. Right.

Well, Houston already had it, you know, the fourth pick. So they were like, you know, we're playing with house money. We could bring this guy in who a couple weeks ago, he was slotted at going forward to Houston. Houston ended up getting him and the Thompson twins. So Houston had a good draft. Houston definitely. I thought Houston did a great job last night.

Yeah. They ended up with Cam and a Thompson to win. They got EMA as a coach like we've already alluded to. First of all, Jalen Green's a very talented player. You know, he's a very, this talent's still there. It's hard to judge, and we've said this before, it's very hard to judge some of these guys who have been playing in, like, really bad basketball teams.

Like, bro, what's Jalen Green supposed to do with Houston last year? They're bad, bro. Like, he's going to go out there and score and lose. Like, it's not easy. Everybody's like, oh, Jordan, Jailon's not a winner. Who the fuck's going to be a winner on that team? You know what I mean? last year at least.

At least now they got some young pieces. You like Jabari Smith. You like Shabar Smith. His second half of the season, Jabari Smith was a much better player. He started to get comfortable, getting his own skin. I would imagine he,

I can't stand this new NBA that doesn't put guys back out there in the summer league their second year. If you're not rookie of the fucking year or runner up, you should be in the summer league. You play in the summer league your second year? Absolutely.

Like one game, though. No, no, I play three games. I'm not saying play the whole summer league is exhausted first off. After the first weekend and Vegas, what the hell are you doing there? It's insane, bro. But the first like seven, eight days, first week,

the first week of Summer League, those guys should be back out there. I would like to see Jabari Smith play two games. Go dominate. Go show us why you don't belong out there. No cool shit. Go in the summer league. We're only going to play you one to two games, bro.

And then the rest of Vegas, you can have a good time. Go out, go network, go have fun, leave. if you do not what the fuck you want to do, but we want you to come. You don't have to do the whole training camp thing to go to Summer League. Maybe pop in a couple practices. We need you to work out.

We're going to throw you out there. You're going to play a couple games. One to two max. Maybe even one if you dominate. If you go out there and score like 35 your first game, we'll probably just cancel you right after that. I want you to go dominate and show everybody why we're excited for you this year,

why you've gotten better, why you don't belong out here, why you're so much better now for your first summer league game. I love when they do that Now if you're Apollo something like that You don't touch the summer league I get that But Kessler doesn't need to be in the summer league

Those you know he already He already has a in his playing type He don't need to be out there But like okay see last year bro They threw everybody out there Giddy was out there Josh Kitty had a great rookie year They threw his ass right back out there

He only played two three games But they threw him out there They're like well you're gonna go play We're developing you guys You guys haven't done anything You had a decent, you had a good rookie year, man, congrats. Now you go to the Summer League, we'll play you two games, you show why you're fucking better than everybody. And then you can sit down and sit on the bench and be cool and wear your outfits and like fucking hang around Vegas.

But like this whole, like all the former rookies come and they like dripped out on the sideline. They're like not playing. Like, brother, that's supposed to be me. That's us. We've earned that. We've been the league for years. We're supposed to come to the Summer League and watch you guys play. We all had to go back.

Yeah. Damien Liller didn't. Do you know what I mean? He didn't have to. Anthony Davis didn't. He was playing USA basketball. These guys didn't. Maybe two of them.

Everybody else came back. Everyone was in there. They played a game or two. You dominate, you get out. I hope they do that with Jabari Smith and a couple other guys. But Houston's on their way, too. I like your draft.

Give me your way too early Rookie of the Year prediction. Rookie of the Year will be Victor. What are we talking about, man? This is a joke. He's going to average like two blocks of game. He's going to get the ball all the time. He's on a team that has nobody else

other than Kelvin, it's the only other player on the team that's like, you know, he's going to be rookie of the year, bro. And I hate saying it because it's just not even a, it doesn't do anything with his pod, me saying that Victor's going to be rookie to year. He's not,

I don't think he's going to be rookie to year. Okay. Are you ready for mine? Who's going to be rookie the year? Chet Hongren. No. Yeah. But it's going to be cool seeing these two giant,

skinny, like seven footers going at it for rookie of the year, I think. I think that would be the race. I think Chet Homer. and Victor women, y'am are going to be the race for rookie of the year next year, and they're both going to be these giant seven-footers on the perimeter doing crazy shit. So that's my pick. That's a good little sneaky call there.

Yeah, why not? He had a great, he played, by the way, when he did play Summer League, he was hooping. He was hooping. Yeah. Chad's a good basketball player. So we have free agency coming up. That's another favorite time of the year. It's always pretty crazy.

Lots of moves to be made, so. And next week will be fun, man. Next week's going to, you know, that's a good thing about the NBA. As soon as the finals ends, you really only have, like, a week or two that's dead. And then you go right into the draft, right in the summer league, you know, free agency. You got that whole. And then it's a little quiet.

I think later in the summer, just so our audience knows, later in the summer, we're going to have a lot more guests when it quietes down a little bit. But right now there's just so much going on. It wouldn't be fair for us to bring a guest on because we wouldn't be able to cover everything that's going on and also realistically, like, really get into like a guest and like dive into his life. It'd be weird for us to have whoever on right now and really

dive into his life and we're also trying to cover who who went drafted and picked 10 last night. Another thing I'm excited about now is I think we're on the clock now for a dame trade to happen. So I think that's going to, hopefully that starts now. Don't cross your fingers. Don't cross your fingers.

Yeah, every summer we talk about him potentially leaving and then. If he won't, if he, enough, if they start the season next year with Dame, Simons, and scoot together, I don't know, that just can't happen. Yeah. So, but anyways, great talking.

again next week. Appreciate y'all, man. To tune in. Tell your friends. I'm trying to continue to blow this up and look forward to talking to you guys next week. Be easy. Stay safe.