The Ringer NBA Show - NBA Draft Emergency Micropod | The Ringer NBA Show (Ep. 269)

Episode Date: May 16, 2018

The Ringer's Chris Ryan, Jonathan Tjarks, and Kevin O'Connor give their rapid reactions to the NBA draft lottery, including the biggest winners and losers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBA draft lottery, winners and losers and sleepers. I'm Chris Ryan, and I'm joined tonight by Jonathan Charks and Kevin O'Connor, and we're going to get right into the winners and losers. You guys got to go to NBAdraft.thringer.com to see the glorious work our staff has done and check out our draft guide. We're going to do winners and losers in Kev. I want to start with you, and I want to do the Phoenix Suns, because I know that you were talking about them as a winner, right?

Big winners, of course. They have the number one pick, but now they're in a position with cap space moving forward, They have two more first-round draft picks from the Bucks and the heat coming in the future with a young team with a superstar and Devin Booker. Suddenly, Phoenix looks like maybe an attractive destination with an opportunity to draft Luca Donchich or DeAndre Ait and or trade that pick if an opportunity were to pop up. I'm sorry. No, you go ahead.

You would think about trading the pick? What offer would you want? I mean, I'm not talking this year necessarily, but maybe it's that player in the future. But you're in a position for when that next star player becomes available, whether it's in the future that you're saying. in the future that you have another high-value asset. Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns, has been looking for a star player for a while now.

He's tried to get into the mix for Lamarcus that year when he was a free agent. He's been looking for. Blake Griffin as well. Clay Griffin, Kyrie. They were in the... That was almost the Kyrie trade before he went to Boston. John, who's a winner for you of the draft lottery?

Well, I mean, Sacramento for sure. Because they have... I mean, I guess it's obvious one and two, but like Sacramento is no pick next year. They get... This is the first time moving up in like a decade, 15 years. So that's a huge winner. If they are at seven, like, there's hard to be too much excited about the franchise.

This gives them some hope. Yeah, who's a loser that you're seeing from the NBA draft lottery night? I think, you know, it's very clearly the Chicago Bulls. I think for them, they had an opportunity to get a choice of their big man that they wanted a fit next to Lari Market or Luca Dantritch. And now it's like you're getting the one who's left. And maybe that's the guy you wanted the most, but the odds are it won't be. Maybe they end up with Baba Bagley and that can be good for them. but it would be nice to have their pick

when the fit around Lari will be questionable. The more I talk to you guys tonight, the more I feel like this is a two-guy draft and then you're hoping for a role player after that. Like, what do you see the star potential of the picks below two here? I'm a Jaron Jackson guy. I have him above D'Andreier, and I don't even care.

Jaron Jackson, to me, has star potential. At least for the role he has on a team, it's very Horford-esque where if he has a five who can shoot threes, switch screens, and protect the rim, That's a star player even if he's not a 20-point-name guy. And who do you see is like a guy who in this group here,

in this group below two, who you think could like elevate and become a star? Well, I think with like really the top seven or eight guys for that matter, Chris, all of them, there's a big question mark, right? From Aiton with defense to with Miles Bridges, with length on the defensive end of the floor with Bagley on defensive awareness. Every guy is a question mark.

McKell Bridges is just old? Yeah, he's 22. And Bagley's really the guy that's, just so appealing and so enticing with his two-way potential, but there's still, he probably has more question marks than any of them. I would say he's the boom-buss guy. Bagley is the one, like, either you look like a genius in five years or you're out of a job. Well, that was what I was going to ask, is I was curious about whether or not you put Orlando

as a loser. Obviously, they need a transformational player not to steal from Pat Riley. But John Hammond's good at getting value elsewhere in the draft, right? And he's making the pick there? I could, that could be a Tray Young spot. That would not surprise if they pull a sugar at Tray Young at 6. What do you think is a team that could make a trade here, Kevin? What's a team that's probably not happy?

How about up top? Again, like last year, Phoenix or Sacramento, if you're, let's say you're Phoenix and your number one guy is Bamba. Let's just say that's what their number one guy is. Why not trade down to three or four where you can still get that guy and pick up additional assets maybe that you use in this year's draft or you have stocked up for the future? I just think that's the model. We worked last year we saw it, and it can work again this year. I mean, Harrison Barnes was out there, guys.

So that actually leads me to my next question. Which of these teams is the thirstiest to get up into that one or two spot? Which is the team that would make a trade, whether it's a Hornets, whether it's Bulls, a Magic, a Mavs, maybe package something together and trying to get up into that Luca D'Andre zone. It's one thing if you're thirsty, but you need to have the assets as well. You're a question. John's thirsty. I think Dallas is probably thirsty. Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I don't think they had moved Dennis, but they said nothing to move. Like, Dallas will give you the rest of Ross, but who cares? Not dirt, though. We got to sell tickets, man. All right. Any other winners and losers you want to shout out? I think Trey Young could end up a loser. How so?

I mean, we don't know. It's only the draft lottery night, but with some of these teams, you know, if, let's say Chicago, they already have Chris Dunn. Cleveland, maybe they prefer a wing rather than a part. point guard. The New York makes there already have Frank Nillikina there, even though they kind of consider him a two. Philadelphia clearly already has Ben Simmons. So it's like suddenly maybe a guy like Trey Young drops. That's why I'm saying Orlando. Who do you want Young to go to? Who do you think Young is the best spot for him? If you were his agent, what would you want to play? Cleveland.

Cleveland? LeBron. Whether without LeBron? Yeah, with or without. So here's the thing. For a guy like Porter, who was thought to be maybe the best player in this draft before he got injured last season. Is it better for him to go to some place like Dallas or Orlando that's had a couple of problems, like a lot of problems over the last few years, getting their train going? Or does he

want to fall, does he hope that there's question marks and he falls to a sixers or a clippers? The good thing for Porter, like Porter controls his fate with those medicals, because no one's drafting about the medicals, he could say, I'm not going to give them to you. Like that is an interesting thing he has at his back pocket. Every player controls their fate with the medicals, though.

I mean, you need to see a guy's medical. Without medicals, like, I'll take Luca, but Portsmouth back, you have to have the medicals. Sure, yeah. With him, I mean, I think we've seen the model. Like, if a young player goes under a good situation where they can be eased in, that's good for them. I think oftentimes, instead of being thrown out into the fire. Who's the guy who's most ready to contribute right away? Luca. He's already played at a professional level since he was like 14, 15 years old. You guys love the Euro League. Really good league. Is the Euroleague better than playing for, like, Villanova?

I've got takes for you, Chris Ryan. Okay. So Lucas team, Luca plays with Rudy Fernandez, Jeffrey Taylor, Anthony Randolph. Oh, you're blowing my minds. All kinds of old school names. They're better than some of these bottom NBA teams. It's too bad we can't form a country and just have those guys be the Olympic team. But they're probably better than like three or four NBA teams right now.

Jeffrey Taylor? Rudy Fernandez. Than an NBA team? I don't think that's true. Okay, last winners of losers. Kevin, anybody here you want a shout out? The New York Knicks, I mean, it would have been really nice for them to move up into that top three to pair a guy with Chris Staps for Zingis.

Again, like we said earlier with Chicago, now they don't necessarily have a shot at one of those bigs. Unless it's Wendell Carter. I love Wendell Carter. I don't know how they feel about them, but I would have loved to seeing them really pair a great big man with Chris Staps,

and they'd probably not going to get a chance to do it. Charx, what about the clippers picking back to back there? I mean, that's a team. I guess it's too far. Could they trade up? I don't know. I think they have so many questions about their team. Who's going to stay?

Who's going to go? Yeah, that's what I was kind of wondering, is the value at 12 and 13 attractive enough to get up to 1 to 2? I don't think so. No. All right, Kevin, is there any fast riser in this draft board that we see here? The first 14 picks, you guys have your mock draft on NBA draft. Theringer.com.

Anybody here you can see jumping up a couple of spots. One of the point cards, Colin Sexton or Shegilded Alexander, maybe they leap over Trey Young, who everybody typically has is the top point card right now. Maybe they rise into that 6-7 range where Trey Young is currently slaughtered. Alternatively, Trey Young is currently slaughtered. had some bad press just because people doubting his game about the way the Oklahoma season ended. Could he be

up for a narrative revival and maybe put himself in the top three? Top three seems, maybe he goes to a workout and doesn't miss for like two hours and like wow somebody. Something may be like that. I think an NBA team needs to be looking at these playoffs. I'm thinking a point guard needs to be

able to stay on the floor defender. They're going to get attacked. And Colin Sexton and Sheigildas Alexander are really good defensive players. Tray Young is not. Okay, it's really interesting. You got to play both both ways. All right. So for Kevin O'Connor and Jonathan Charks, I'm Chris Ryan. Catch up with all of our coverage of the NBA draft and the NBA draft lottery on MBAdraft.theringer.com. You can listen to these guys on various NBA show podcasts throughout the week, draft class, Verno and Kev, group chat, heat check, and keep coming back early and often to The Ringer for

all your NBA draft coverage.