The Ringer NBA Show - Next Piece for the Process Sixers, Final Four Prospects, and (Don’t) Stay in School, Kids | Draft Class (Ep. 239)

Episode Date: March 30, 2018

The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor and Jonathan Tjarks debate who the Philadelphia 76ers should take with their lottery pick (3:01), examine whether any players in the Final Four could be taken in the draft (14:59), discuss which college coaches could leap to the NBA this summer (21:48), and evaluate the risks for prospects who return to college (28:23). For more draft coverage, check out The Ringer’s 2018 NBA Draft Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is an emergency episode of draft class because Leangelo Ball has officially declared for the 2018 drafts. I'm kidding. We're actually going to be talking about Final Four prospects. We're going to be talking about Mikhail Bridges. We're going to talk about Joelle and Beade's injury. But first, we're going to tell you about some sponsors. Today's ringer NBA show, Draft Class. It's brought to you by Coca-Cola and Powerade.

If you're under sports, then it's your favorite time of the year. It's March Madness. With so many games, you never know what's going to happen. That's why you need to be ready for whatever the next round brings. And make sure your fridge is an empty by the half. Swing by Walmart before every round and stock up on Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar, and Powerade before the next one tips off. NCAA March Madness isn't just one game, it's a whole tournament. Make sure you're ready.

Refresh every round by heading to Walmart to pick up Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar, and Powerade. Today's draft class is also brought to you by The Ringer.com. On the site today, you can find a piece by the Ringer NBA staff on the biggest surprises and disappointments of the NBA season. I also wrote about Kembo Walker and some potential debunker. destinations for him if the Charlotte Hornets decide to shop him again this offseason. Also on the Ringer Podcast Network, you can find a new episode of the JJ Redick Podcast, in which JJ sits down with two-time NBA champion, one of the greatest shooters in league history, Ray Allen.

It's a fun interview. They talk about a bunch of different things, so please go check that out. And of course, it's Friday, which means there's a new episode of NBA Desktop with Jason Concepcion. You can find that on the Ringer's YouTube channel and all of our social media pages. please go check that. NBA desktop is my favorite TV show. And it's not even on TV. It's on the internet. It's the best thing I watch.

And now it's time for Draft Class. Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. I'm Kevin O'Connor and this is Draft Class, calling in from Dallas, Texas, as he does every single Friday, it's Ringer staff writer. Jonathan Charks! What's up, guys? I got a little crowing. So on the Ringer NCAA tournament bracket, they have a Yahoo.com for just our Ringer staffers.

number one and number two in the pool is your own Jonathan Charks and Kevin O'Connor. Draft class is doing work, man. Jonas, there's no way I'm going to stay there, though. Look, all I did was just pick the teams with the best draft prospects. That's it. That's the secret.

There you go. And it didn't work, though. I'm doing horrible. No, so right now, the way the bracket works out is if Loyola and Kansas both win, KOC will be the number two person because nobody has those teams winning anyways. And you're going to win.

How about you, Isaac? How are you doing? Oh, you know what? I actually didn't fill out a bracket this year, but even if I did, I would have taken Taiton Titus's advice and I would have taken Virginia to go all the way. So probably I wouldn't be doing so well. See, I think the lesson learned is the more you watch, the worship bracket does. That's true. Just listen to our podcast and fill it out. All right, let's do this. We're an NBA draft podcast, but there's one super massive piece of NBA news that we need to react to. And that's Joel M. Bede, Sixers Center is going to be out two to four weeks with an orbital fracture on his left eye that's going to require surgery. Markell Fultz on Wednesday night, they were going for a loose ball, and Fultz's right shoulder that kept them out the entire season just happened to go into Embed's head.

And Embed's out, this obviously has a significant negative impact on the Sixers. Jonathan, how do you think their team evolves these next two weeks or possibly four weeks into the playoffs without Joelle Embedde heading into the playoffs? I mean, I think it could be okay for the rest of the season not having Embed and letting other guys stretch their roles. But, I mean, if M.B. is not there in the playoffs, it's just a real bummer for everybody. That guy is amazing. Yeah, I think with Joel Embed,

the last maybe six weeks or so, since they were 25 and 25, the Sixers have been unbelievable with Embedde and Simmons on the floor at the same time. They have like a plus 24 net rating. When you take Embed off and it's just Simmons, it's like plus four. And they've barely played at all

without either of those guys on the floor. So the issue is going to be how that team performs without either Simmons or Embed. I don't think it's a problem in the regular season. Some rest isn't the worst thing in the world for Embed's legs. The problem would be in the playoffs. You know what it's going to be? We're going to have to actually see Markell Fultz play basketball now. Yes.

Like he's going to actually do something and not just be like a mascot for next few weeks. He's been fine. He's been okay in the first two games. I think his passing is translated immediately, really. His feel is showing. Obviously, the scoring is still. major question mark with the lack of a jumper, but it's going to be interesting to see the way they perform with on a beat.

It could be a good thing for Brett Brown to experiment a little bit here, perhaps a good thing to see how these guys fit together without Joel on the floor. It's a good thing to see how you can build around a guy like Ben Simmons. So I think the Sixers have kind of shown an interesting way to build teams in today's league. So like relating to this to the draft, their team is just filled with size. length, versatility.

It's so big, man. That's incredible. Yeah, they're big and long. I think that's really one of probably the key things we're looking for

in the draft this year, right, Charks? Yeah, I think you're seeing it, like the starting lineup are now for Philly. They go Embed, Simmons,

Sarich, Covington, and then Redick. And like, Reddick's the smallest player at 6'4. Everyone else is like 6 foot 9. It's so big and long.

It's kind of what, like, I think we were all hoping Milwaukee would be, but hasn't really worked out for them yet. But you have this, like super-sized point-forwardish guy, and it lets you kind of play with the other positions and put a lot more size out there. And that's kind of the funny thing about this year's drafts, right?

Look at the top. You get Biggs, Aiton, Jackson, Bagley, Bomba, Porter, a big 6'10 forward. Donchrich, a big 6-foot-8 point guard, muscular as well. McHale Bridges, who we've talked about, Miles Bridges, 6'8, 6'5, 7, versatile guys that can defend multiple positions. Kevin Knox, up and down the lottery, it's just filled, filled with guys who are versatile and big. It's like these guys are coming in at the perfect time for what the league needs today. And I think you'll see that too with the point guard position. You know, this fascinating contrast of styles. So you've got Trey Young, super small, elite offense, Colin Sexton, a little bigger,

a little more athletic, penetrator. Then you've got Shea Gilgis Alexander, who's probably like the least. skilled of those three, but he's also the biggest. And maybe he kind of fits with the way we're kind of talking of building teams with a 6-6-6-point guy with a 7-foot wingspan. If the season ended today, the Sixers would have the 10th best lottery odds. So the odds are that they would have the 10th pick. What would you like to see them do with that pick based on the prospects in that range, John?

See, to me, you double down and you take Michael Bridges. Like, imagine this lineup with Bridges, Covington, Sarich, Simmons, and Bede. Everyone's at least 6-7. They're all of 7-foot wingspans. like let's get even more length, even more athletic ability. I think like long term, you put bridges in the JD Redick spot. I think that's probably the way to go. I don't think you can go wrong with adding more length.

Whether it's McHale Bridges from Villanova, who we'll talk about a little bit more later, or Miles Bridges from Michigan State, these versatile guys can plug into any type of lineup, regardless of what the rest of the players are. I think that's one of the difficulties building around Ben Simmons. With Ben Simmons, here's a guy who needs to improve his jump, shot, whether it's with his left hand or switching hands, something needs to be done to improve the jumper.

Kevin's going to die in that hill. Kevin's going to keep that to the rest of his Ben Simmons career. Or I will thrive on that hill. That's always possible as well. I may be the hill at some point and others will come to join me. Well, Charx, I do think that there's also some logic to choosing a point guard, maybe a more traditional point guard because here's the thing. You can never also have enough ball handlers on your team. If you're the Sixers, you ideally hope Ben Simmons can improve his So I think you need to build with that in mind. I think Markell Fultz, assuming he also improves his jump shot, he's somebody who can play on and off the ball.

So I don't think there's much harm in taking maybe even a Tray Young type of guy either. Because you look at Tray Young as a player, his weaknesses are defense. His weaknesses are athleticism. But if you put him on the court surrounded by length and athleticism, it could be an environment for him to flourish on offense and also allow him to be hidden on defense. So I think Fultz can play on and off if his jumper gets better, and Simmons may be in the future he can as well. Either way, I think Trey Young would, to me,

if he would have slipped to 10 or the pick ends up 9 or whatever, Young is just really, really tempting because he's just that spark that I think could really help elevate them. It would definitely be an interesting decision. I think, like, Philly's pick will be one of the most closely scrutinized because they're so close to where they need to be. And this could be like the final piece. And yeah, do you go all in length

or do you leverage that length to play a non-lengthy guy? I think if you're in Philly's position and you look at like the way the playoffs you're going to go and at a certain point like all five guys, I'm not sure you can hide guys anymore. There was a good Steve Clifford about that a few weeks ago talking about Malik Monk. And like if the floor is spread wide enough

and you have one bad defender, guess what? That defender is going in the pick and roll. For sure. And he has to do something. So I'm not sure you can hide a guy like that at the highest levels. And if you're Philly right now it's all about

we're going to get to the conference finals, who's going to be our five guys. I think that's kind of the frame you have to have in that position. Yeah, I think we saw that last week, I believe it was, with Houston versus Portland. Every single Houston pick and roll, they really just tried to target Damien Lillard, no matter who he was on.

They tried to get hardened on a switch against Lillard, and we saw that last year in the playoffs. The Celtics had to go to this weird little zone type of thing where they just kind of hit Isaiah Thomas in a corner. Yeah, that was bizarre. Teams are going to try to find guys. So I think the flip side of that, which gets lost sometimes is like, yeah, for the higher level teams who are going to be in the

conference finals, it's all about finding these guys who can't be mismatched either way. But I think sometimes for these lower level teams, they get too caught up in that and they ignore like guys who can help them right now. And that's kind of like, I'm writing an article for next week about Jalen Brunson and these kind of smaller NCAA point guards you slip in the draft. Guys like Brunson, Van Vleet, T.J. McConnell, Yogi Farrell. And a guy like Farrell or McConnell, I'm not sure how much value he has

in a late round playoff series, but if you're a bad team, getting a player who can help you right now is valuable. Forget the playoffs, then least to your concerns. That's another interesting piece the Sixers have on their roster. T.J. McConnell has really helped

keep that team afloat. I mean, he's kind of been an energizer. He just does things that help your team. Like you said, he's not going to be a guy who plays in the playoffs, but those guys are kind of important over the course of a full regular season. They're important when injuries happen. Right now, the Celtics, they have Shane Larkin filling in with Kyrie Hurt.

We're seeing that across the league. Whenever guys go down, it's nice to have a reliable point card coming off your bench. And you mentioned Jalen Brunson with your piece next week on the ringer.com. He's probably going to be the national player of the year. He's not Villanova's best player, that's McKill Bridges, but he's their second best prospect on that team. And I think he's a type of guy who's probably going to be better than a T.J. McConnell type. I think Jailen Brunson could become a guy who plays in the playoffs. I think he's a really, really good player.

Yeah, I would say he's more on the Van Vleet-ish side of that spectrum. Okay, Van Vleet-type. Yeah, I would say it's more on that. Like, Brunson, I saw a quote from Mike Nardi, who's former villain of a point guard, one of their coaches, and I played with Kyle Lowry. And he was basically like, Brunson's the best of all our point guards in college.

I don't know how good he's going to be in the NBA, but he watched that guy play for like five minutes, and he fall in love with his game. That guy just knows how to play basketball. He never makes mistakes, great shooter, great decision maker, just smart and tough. I mean, you just kind of love watching that guy play. Brunson, okay, for anybody who hasn't watched college basketball at all this season or all the last three years,

but you're going to watch this weekend, Brunson is a junior point guard who has gotten progressively better each year at Villanova. I guess we should also say to this is our Rick Brunson's son, so former NBA point card, been around the game of his whole life. And it shows that he had an NBA father. I think he is so intelligent on the floor. He's so versatile with the way he can score, can shoot off the bounce, can shoot off the catch. he's a smart high IQ player he plays hard he's a little bit undersized at six foot two with only a six foot three wingspan but there's some creativity in his game that allows him to finish amongst the trees inside look the concern with him is going to be the athleticism aspect it's going to be his

ability to defend at the highest level so that's why he's not a lottery pick but i do think he could be a late first round draft pick i certainly think he's definitely going to be a early second rounder at the worst. Brunson to me is one of those guys who, like a Malcolm Brogden, if he's in the right situation, he comes right in and you're like, how'd this guy fall as far as another one of those type of guys because he just knows how to play the damn game. And it'll be a fun matchup this weekend. So you'll have Brunson on one side versus Devante Graham on the other at Kansas. And they're both kind of in that senior point guardy mold. And that should be a really fun matchup between two guys looking to make some money for the NBA. Do you have any NBA calls for him?

Brunson? Yeah. The obvious one is Van Vleet. I mean, I'll probably have to go. go back and look at some more. In The Ringer's 2018 NBA draft guide, we have three comps for him. Mark Jackson, Derek Fisher, Luke Ridenauer. Oh. I think those are all fair. Mark Jackson is a good one. He's got some like slow down big butt Mark Jackson's fair. For sure.

Before we move on, we're going to take a quick break and hear from our sponsors. Today's draft class is brought to you by the Google Assistant. With the Google Assistant, you can complete over a million actions on your phone, in your car, and around the house. For example, hey Google, will I need an umbrella tomorrow? Yes. It

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These might be guys who are currently projected as late second rounders or maybe not even going to be in the draft. But with big weekends, we think could enter the discussion as guys who, could potentially test the waters if they have big weekends. Obviously, we have Michigan and Loyah, Chicago playing, and then Kansas and Villanova. Charks, is there a prospect on any of these four teams that stands out to you as a guy who could play himself into the NBA draft conversation?

Well, the guy I'm really wondering about, as a guy I think I should say next year, that's Malik Newman. He's been incredible in the draft in this tournament so far. Like, this is a guy who can dribble into threes, and that's really, really valuable. And as you all saw last weekend, he destroyed Duke's zone.

But I think Newman is a guy who would make sense to stay one more year just so he could become a full-time point guard and kind of take Devante Graham's role. Because right now he does take shots. And you want to see if this guy can create offense for others if he's going to play at the next level. Yeah, Malik Newman's in an interesting spot. He highly recruited out of high school. I loved his game heading into his one year at Mississippi State. But he really struggled there and then transferred to Kansas. And he's been awesome, as you said.

Yeah, like he was pretty much seen the same guy as Jamal Murray coming out of high school. They were like the same kind of players. basically. And it's also possible that he could just be a late bloomer. I mean, there's no denying his scoring ability. I think for people who are seeing him for the first time this weekend, sometimes the importance of having these spark plugs coming off your bench, guys who can just get you buckets, just get buckets against anybody against set defenses. Malik Newman could potentially be that type of guy. He's 21 years old. He's probably a little bit further along. I think there's a chance of the NBA player. I don't know where I'd feel comfortable drafting him because of his other

weaknesses, like you said, sharks, lack of playmaking, defense is just okay. I'd like to see him come back as well, but I do think with a big weekend, he's somebody that people are going to be saying, how is this guy not a late first round pick? I mean, he gets buckets for sure, and there's definitely value in that. Malik Newman's teammate Svi-McKiluk, six-foot-eight forward, really, really strokes threes, only 20 years old, and he's played four years at Kansas, which is kind of hard to believe it's possible. Yeah, isn't that hilarious? He's younger than Newman, but he's two years older than him. Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense, but here we are. It shoots 45% from three this year. That dude can just throw daggers from three point land. It doesn't do a whole lot

else, charks, but I do think there's value in just having a guy who can just stroke threes from anywhere off the court, off screens, off the move. It has a flamethrower from downtown, and I think there's always value in having a guy like that on your team. Yeah, it's different between like, there's guys who like knock down threes and there's guys who when they get open shots, like, that's going to go in. And that's where I feel like Sveed is in that category of super elite shooters. The play that impressing most of in that Duke game, at one point he missed a three, he goes in and grabs the offensive rebounder of like three guys.

He got like two and a half, three feet in the air. I was like, dang, I don't know Svee could get up like that. Like, he might have a little more extra to his game. We don't see it because he is so young for a college player, despite being a senior. Yeah, I think the athleticism is a question. So I'm not sure if there would be a lot of opportunity for him to show that in the NBA. but at the least, you know, to your point, there's skill there. And the shooting is something that can heap him on a roster,

or at least keep him within the sights of the NBA because of a shooting prowess. Well, I think rocking the t-shirt really hurts his stock. Like, maybe with that t-shirt comes off and he has to wear just the jersey, it might unleash some potential in him. Like, you just can't take a guy seriously wearing a long-sleevely under's jersey.

Who's the best player of all time to wear a t-shirt? That's a good question. I'd have to do some research on that. Mightn't throw it off to our Twitter followers to break that down for us, because I really don't know. Yeah, please use hashtag Ringer NBA and send us photos of the greatest players in NBA history or college basketball history

to wear T-shirts. Legitimately curious. Okay, and then we've got to talk about Ringer super fan, Mo Wagner, and Kevin O'Connor enthusiast. Mo, if you're listening, we've got to talk about you for a second. Let's fast forward like three minutes because we might have to...

Just fast forward this next segment. Oh, boy. Yeah, Mo Wagner is certainly going to be a guy to watch this weekend. We've talked about him a little bit episodes, Wagner can stroke threes. He plays hard. He talks trash. I love his energy. Certainly to me, a guy that I

would target in this early second round, mid-second round, if he were to declare for the draft, the question is going to be the defensive end of the floor. How much can he contribute on that end, despite his energy, despite the fact that he communicates well on that end. That's what needs to come a long way. But he's certainly, to me, similar to Svi,

where the shooting ability is appealing from an NBA perspective combined with the energy aspect. The tough thing for me, I always go back to that game against Oregon last year, which is unfair when Jordan Bell just completely undressed him. Because Jordan Bell is great, obviously. And then Wagner was coming in so hot. Then I was like, oh, here's an actual NBA big man who's about to do to you. And he just totally took him out of the game. This will be a fun weekend for Wagner. So Loyola likes to go small. At some point, they'll probably play five guards out there together with like a six-six wing on him. And can he punish a small guy who's like a six-six wing? Can he punish him on offense? and stand in front of him on defense. And that'll be important for them in the next level. And if they get past that,

either have to play a massive 7-foot center and Azabuki for Kansas or play a guy like Ophmari Smelman, another big man who can go off to dribble and attack him a three-point line. So Mo Wagner's defense will be challenged a lot this weekend. For sure, it'll be interesting. Against Sister Jean this weekend,

the only real NBA prospect on that team is Dante Ingram, 6'6 guard, versatile, does a lot of things out there on the floor. I hope there's situations where we see Wagner on switches against these guys. I was disappointed that in the game against Texas A&M, we didn't see him much against Robert Williams. I was hoping that would be the dematchup of the game,

but it wasn't even a game. Michigan just stomped on Texas A&M from the start. Okay, Kevin, I got to ask where he finished this segment. Sister Gene, where's she going in the draft? How much money should she make next year in the NBA? Well, my top three prospects this year, John. Number one, we have Mo Wagner. Number two, just declared for the draft this week, actually,

is Leangelo Ball. Oh, nice. Leangelo Ball certainly has a chance to be better than his brother. I think Leangelo could change the face of the NBA. But then the person who can change the face of the planet drops to number three, and that's Sister Gene. I certainly think she has high upside to change the NBA, as she said today, that college basketball is pure. The NBA is not because money's in there. So I think she can do some good in the NBA world.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if she got like a million dollar contract at like 98? It was like, all right, I was wrong the whole time. Let me get paid. honestly, dude, after this tournament, if La Loyola Chicago goes all the way and wins this whole damn thing, someone's going to drop the bags for Sister Gene, that's for sure. We need her in the NBA, the Mavs need her. Sister Gene come pray for Dallas. We get two games this Saturday, then the championship came on Monday.

As I said earlier, Michigan takes on La Loloia, Chicago, then Villanova versus Kansas. Charks, what are your predictions for this weekend? So I'm going to go Michigan wins, Villanova wins, and then Nova wins on Monday. Ditto to that. Ditto to that. I think Nova wins the whole thing. And I think here's the interesting part, charts. I think there's going to be a lot of NBA coaching openings this summer.

I think there could be potentially up to 10, 8, 9, 10 openings. And I think a coach people are going to chase is the guy at Villanova, Jay Wright. I think a team will go hard after him. If there's a guy who can make the transition, it's Jay Wright. The system he utilizes at Villanova, I think, can perfectly be replicated in the NBA. I think he's proven that he can move with different type of personnel. He's a great coach. I think the big thing if you're Jay Wright is you want to find a good job.

Be like Brad Stevens. Be very, very picky about the kind of job you get. Because if you go on the wrong team, but doesn't mind what you can do in the NBA, you're going to be fired really fast. So what is an appealing job? Because if you go up and down the teams that have openings, you have a team like the Bucks,

you have teams like the Sons, I think there's a chance the Orlando, Atlanta jobs potentially open up. Okay, see, Orlando is not an appealing job. Exactly. Orlando is not. So in 2016, before the Sons hired Earl Watson, their favorite at the time was Jay Wright. And just this week, Sun's general manager Ryan McDonough said on a radio program in Arizona that they're willing to pay big bucks to get a high quality, top quality head coach.

And if you put one and two together, in 2016 they wanted Jay Wright, now they're willing to pay big to get a guy. doesn't it make conceivable sense that they might target a guy like Jay Wright or should at least try to. If I was Jay Wright, I wait for the lottery. If they can get Don Chich and Booker together, that would be an interesting coaching job. But obviously the buck's the job you want.

Oh, for sure. You need to close Janus. That's the job you want. I think you wait until after the lottery as well. I think when the Celtics hired Brad Stevens, it wasn't until July 3rd, 2013. That was when it was officially announced that he was going there. So I think Jay Wright is somebody who can take his time

and see what jobs open up. And that assumes that he would even leave Villanova. We're just speculating here. But he is somebody in the past that has said he'd entertain it, at least. If he wins two and three years, he's pretty much left college at the top of his game. For sure. I think, though, at the end, like, you remember like Steve Kerr a few years ago? He's picking between the Knicks and the Warriors.

The most important coaching job you can do is pick the right team in. Yes. There's going to be some openings of sure with appealing players on it. I think if the Bucks look elsewhere, who wouldn't want to coach Giannis? You're looking at Phoenix. If you're a coach, you're looking at Phoenix. looking at that team, you're seeing Devin Booker as a superstar. You're seeing tons of assets and flexibility and upside with their cap space and their ability to make other types of moves.

There are appealing gigs that are going to open up. I would say, too, it's important you want to look at who your GM is, like Vogel and Orlando. If you get hired by a lame duck GM and that GM gets fired, then your job is super hot. Sometimes you don't know he's a lame duck GM until he's actually a lame duck GM though. You know what I mean? Well, Orlando, though, you knew. Do you in Orlando? They just replaced the entire front office. And they have a lot of really, really smart people in that front office. I mean, like, two years ago when he was big-hangered, he was like playoff or bust. Vogel knew. He just got impatient and wanted the job.

But even then, like Rob Henigan made some picks that, look, I really liked the time. Some guys just don't work out. It's not that Rob Henigan's at lame duck GM or a decision-maker or talent evaluator. Yeah, I'm not even saying he's a bad GM. I'm saying it's like, you've got to look to see what his job status is. Because like, the GM gets fired, the coach is going to get fired right after that just about. Totally understand what you mean then. Okay. Because like, I think Rob Hanigan just happened to miss.

I don't think he's a poor talent evaluator because he missed. I think some guys just unfortunately didn't pan out for that organization. But yes. I mean, look at Oladipa, right? Well, it's a good pick now. For sure. Sometimes it's not even the picks. It's when decisions are made.

But I do think Jay Wright is a guy. You'll see him this weekend and is perfectly fitted suit. Coaching Villanova probably to a national title. I mean, he'll be the best dress coach in the NBA probably. I think... I'm a man can dress. So top dressed NBA coaches, Eric Spolster's up there. I think Jay Wright would probably take the cake immediately from day one, I want to say.

Yeah. That's a good reason to hire him. We're going to take another quick break and talk to you about Coca-Cola and Powerade plus Sonos. Today's draft class is brought to you by Coca-Cola and Powerade. If you're into sports and it's your favorite time of the year, it's NCAA March Madness. With so many games, you never know what's going to happen. That's why you need to be ready for whatever the next. round brings, and you got to make sure your fridge isn't empty by the half.

Swing by Walmart before every round and stock up on Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar, and Powerade before the next one tips off. Coca-Cola is the official fan refreshment of the NCAA. Be ready to watch all the games by picking up Coca-Cola and Powerade all tourney long. Since moving to LA, I've been watching the tournament every single weekend with my coworkers at the Ringer's offices in Hollywood. It's been great. Been watching with Titus and Tate with Zach Schwartz, Pat Maldani, been watching with a whole bunch of different people. It's been amazing watching with other people, but what we're going to do this week

is we're going to stock up. We're going to get ready. We're going to have some drinks ready to go. So we're going to get some Coca-Cola, some Coke Zero Sugar, and we're going to get some Powerade as well. So what happens when your team's out early? You're still going to watch. NCAA March Madd isn't just one game.

It's a whole tournament. Make sure you're ready. Refresh every round by heading to Walmart to pick up Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar, and Powerade. Today's draft class is also brought to you by Sonos. Sonos, Playbase, the Sonos won speakers. They have changed my life, to be honest. I've never felt better watching TV in my own apartment.

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This offer is available for a limited time only and cannot be combined with other discounts or promotions. And now, back to the show. And we're back. We're going to talk about some quick news bits. Some guys declared for the draft this week. Some guys decided to go back. One of the guys who decided to declare after his sophomore season that you really loved last year was Maryland forward slash center Justin Jackson. Yeah, so Jackson is your classic combo for 3-4 forward, but he's big-bodied, 6-9, 220, 2-30, really long. He might be able to play some small ball five in the NBA, and that's kind of like your athletic playmaking combo guy. Unfortunately for him, he hurt his shoulder for the season started, played like 10 games

and was terrible, and they had to give season-ending surgery. And so he pretty much lost millions of dollars to probably go back to school. It really was unfortunate. And that's kind of the risk. I mean, I like Jackson, too. I didn't love him quite like you did last year, but I certainly think he's still maybe somebody, if you're in the second round, you'd want to pluck him and see what you can turn him into.

And that's the fear with a guy like Daniel Gafford. really, really athletic center who decided to go back to school for his sophomore season. He was projected perhaps as a mid-first rounder this year. He might have dipped into the lottery. I think there's certainly a chance he could have if a team wanted to build around a rim-running center. But Gafford decided to go back. I think it's kind of a curious decision. I think he should have declared. I think it could end up being a mistake in the same way it may have been for Jackson. Charks, are you with me? Or like, what are your thoughts on Gafford? Well, see, I think it makes sense to go for him. I think if you're going to go back to school,

it should be because, like, you could get a bigger role in the offense and develop your game more in college. But, like, Gafford's a rim-running center. He is who he is. And, like, there's a chance he gets hurt, but he'll have the same role he had this year, probably. So, like, what's he getting if he's going to? It's like with Robert Williams' The A&M last year. It's the same thing. So to me, like, if you're a big man who needs a good point guard around him, you might also go to the NBA,

where there's good point cards everywhere, where it's going back to school and depending on your teammates. So, like, the one guy who would make sense to come back to school is someone like Lonnie Walker because he could have a bigger role in the offense if he comes back. as a sophomore year. But the risk even then is getting injured like his teammate Bruce Brown at Miami. You get hurt and your stock is done, basically. Yeah, if I were an agent and pursuing one of these guys,

I would be real with them and I would be like, look, anytime you're already probably going to be a mid-first round draft pick or even a mid-to-late first-round draft pick, now's the time to go. Because I think there's a higher percent chance that these guys, when they're freshmen and sophomore, there's a higher percent chance that their value just kind of sowers. and they end up in the early second round or the mid-second round

or maybe even undrafted in some cases more so than there is that they've rise up into the lottery. I can't really recall many guys at all that have done that. So I always think of a guy like Grayson Allen after his terrific sophomore season at Duke scored 21 points per game. He was really awesome that year. I had him ranked as like I think 16th or 17th,

mid-first round draft pick, and he hasn't been quite the same guy, at least from a statistical production standpoint the past two seasons. I still like him as a prospect a lot more than other people do, but he's not going to be a first round pick this year when he probably would have been two years ago had he done it. I just think there's so much risk in going back, never mind with injury, but just the fact the bias against age, not many seniors go high in the draft. It's a significant risk. And too with Grayson Allen, like as a sophomore, he was like the guy at Duke.

Like he wasn't going to a bigger role going back to school, so he kind of showed what he could do with the big role. Like I think like the guy who makes sense to go back as a guy like Michael Bridges because he got a bigger role every year in the offense that kind of grew out. But once you have that big role, like all you can do Billy in college is get worse at that point. Because you've already been the guy, you've already gotten all your shots, teams built around you. You're just going to get kind of stagnant going back to school at that point. Yeah, I think when you see guys declare when they're young and you're like, how the hell is this guy declaring for the draft? Probably because they might have other outlets other than in the NBA, because when you declare, it could mean that you're going to play

professionally overseas. But to your point, Sharks, another guy like Katie Bates Diop, it would have been foolish for him to declare after his freshman season. Guys should go back to school when they're not even on the radar. That's when you've got to go back. But when you're a projected mid-first-on draft pick, like Cata Bates-Diop is after his junior season, it's time to go, man. Go to the NBA. Strike while the iron's hot, just like you said earlier, charts.

Well, the thing in two, it's like with going to clearing for the draft, a lot of it is like your college team. So a tough decision, it'll be like Gary Trenton-Douval at Duke. They're probably not going to be first-round picks. But if they go back to school, they're going to be barrier on the bench behind Barrett and Reddish and Trey Jones. That is a tough spot to be in. It's extremely difficult. Well, that's all we have time for today.

It's time for our producer, Isaac Lee, to give us grades. Okay, I'm going to start with you, Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Coocut. Oh, we got a haircut? Yes, he did. You came in with a fresh new haircut. It is much shorter than it was before. I think it looks great. Obviously, this is an audio-only medium, so all you listeners out there and Charks, who's in Dallas right now,

You're just going to have to take my word for it, but I think it looks great. I say great on looks only, Isaac. Just great on our looks. That's all really matters. I am indeed that superficial of a person. Also, your ironic top three draft where you took Mo Wagner number one, the angel ball number two, ancestor gene number three, was very funny. It was very tough for me to be quiet as to not bleed into your mic audio.

So you get an A for today. Thank you. On the other hand, Jonathan Charks, you said Michael Bridges again. It's McHale Bridges. I knew I forgot something. You said Mo Wagner again. It's Mo Wagner. Charks, it's like if I called you

Joan Athane Jarks. You know what I mean? People do it all the time, Isaac. I let it roll out of me. Jarks would be pretty good. That's pretty close. Jarks. I mean, there's a T

before the J. And to my knowledge, you didn't get a haircut this week. Therefore, you get an F. Wow. See, that's the problem, man. Like, if you got no hair, you can't do much to your look.

It just is what it is. So Kevin, enjoy your hair while you have it. Yeah, I will, man. That was fun, Jonathan. As always, it was a pleasure chatting. Yeah, that was a good one. Have a good one, guys. Draft class is produced by Isaac Lee,

and our intro and outro music is provided by the band Oso. Thank you both for the sounds. Special thanks to Elon Musk for hopefully listening to The Ringer NBA show. I believe he's our biggest fan, and I want to thank him for bringing the internet to space as well. For extra credit, please check out the Ringer's 2018 NBA draft guide at NBA draft. Dot the ringer.com.

And next week, next Friday, it's mailbag week. So please, please, please submit questions on Twitter using hashtag ringer NBA. We need questions. We need to talk about some more stuff. So we'll talk to you next Friday. Peace out.