The Ringer NBA Show - Sixteen(-ish) NBA Prospects in the Sweet 16 | The Corner 3

Episode Date: March 29, 2019

Halfway through the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, we examine the notable players with draft potential (1:12). Plus: parity between the Eastern and Western conferences (39:05). Hosts: Danny Chau, Jonathan Tjarks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, welcome to The Ringer Podcast Network. This week on The Ringer.com, it's 1999 Movies Week. Already up on the site, we've released parts one and two of the top 50 movies of 1999. And later this week, Shea Serrano is writing about The Matrix, Andrew Goudadarro is writing about cruel intentions, and Rob Parvilla argues why Being John Malkovich is the best movie of that year. You can also check out the Big Picture podcast to hear Sean Fennacy, Amanda Dobbins, and Chris Ryan share their top five favorite movies from 1999.

Check out those articles on the ringer.com and listen to the big picture wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Isaac Glee, producer of the Ringer MBA show. Before we get into today's episode of The Corner 3, I just want to give you a quick heads up. We had a few technical difficulties with Charks' audio, so the first six minutes or so of the podcast, you'll be hearing our phone tape instead of his microphone, but then you will hear his crystal clear audio after that for the rest of the show. And without further ado, enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to the Ringer NBA show. This is another long two edition of the Corner 3.

I'm Danny Chow filling in for Kevin O'Connor because the show must go on. He's out in Boston. And joining me on the line from Dallas is Ringer staff writer Jonathan Charks. How's it going, man? We've got a coach GM Isaac Lee over here on producing, just mixing up lineups, seeing what works. Sometimes when you get the call, you got to step up for the good of the franchise. So we are recording this at 908 a.m. on a.m. on a. So one half of the Sweet 16 is already in the books.

But because the draft is such a big part of this podcast DNA, we wanted to run through around 16-ish or so prospects from the Sweet 16 that should be on your scouting radar. I think it makes sense to start off with the big-name prospects that played last night. Gonzaga pulled off an impressive 72-58 win over Florida State. In a game that felt a lot closer than the score indicated, Brandon Clark was the game's biggest revelation. After dropping 36 points on Baylor in the round of 32,

Clark put together an all-around performance, 15 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks. But it didn't come easy, and it rarely does against FSU. What were your biggest impressions, sharks? Yeah, FSU, they're like an NBA team. They're like the perfect test case scenario. Like, I'm not sure how many NBA guys they have, but they replicate the NBA environment at the college level.

probably better than any team in the country. Right. Because you're going to see so much size, so much athletic ability in every position. Every position, you're at least getting a guy who is 6-4, 200 pounds, athletic, long arms.

Yeah, it's basically like one of those, like, battle simulation tests in the X-Men, where, you know, Professor X puts them all into, like, the lab, and you just kind of have to, like, crawl your way out

from all the robots or whatever. But, like, in terms of what you saw from Clark, what did the game highlight both in terms of his strengths and weaknesses? Well, I mean, first, I got to say, I got to give you credits. The start of the season, you were talking about Brandon Clark. And I'm like, okay, this guy's 6-8, he doesn't shoot threes, like, whatever, right? That was my first thought.

Right. And he's not long enough for you. He's not long enough for you. Yeah. But the more I've watched this guy play, man, he is incredible. I think what's fun to me the most, just his timing on his blocks and as like a pick-and-roll defender, Like that guy just, he's got like the Roy Hibbert verticality and like a 45 inch vertical. Like he just never really gets himself out of position.

He's always in the right spot. He blocks everything. Guys are much bigger than him, guys are much smaller than him. His defensive versatility is really insane. Right. Like I did a story on him, I think it was Thursday before this game. And I was kind of like trying to come up with comparisons. I've been thinking some kind of like Andre Roberson, Sean Marion, like hybrid kind of guy.

Yeah. And we brought up Zaire Smith too. in terms of how they use their athleticism to their advantage. The guy's, like, he's flying in the air, but it never looks like he's out of control. It always looked like he's just kind of gliding towards the ball. It's really breathtaking to watch sometimes. But yesterday, the funny thing is,

one of his biggest strengths is the fact that he just doesn't miss shots. There's a great fact about him throughout the regular season. He actually had more blocks than missed shots. And yesterday, he missed nine shots. It was a season high. he'd only missed more than five shots once previous to that. And I was wondering if this is something that teams should be concerned about at the next level. Yeah, I think in this game, you saw a little bit of the problems in roster construction at Gonzaga.

So they start Clark next to Rui Hachamura, and neither one of them are a really stretchy big men. I think Rui takes like one three a game. Clark doesn't really shoot threes. And normally it's not a problem because there's so much bigger and athletic than the team they face. But against Florida State, there just was not a lot of space in the lane because they're even bigger and more than the Gonzaga guys. They really packed the pain. And it felt like a lot of times Clark would drive to the basket and Hacham Road would be in his way. And his mail would be in his way. And instead of get a shot blocked or impacted.

And I think that is really the question with Clark going forward is A, do you trust his jumper? How much better can that get? And B, if it doesn't, does he have to play with somebody who can shoot threes? And does that kind of affect how you build a right? him. Right. And just to put things in context, Brandon Clark,

he redshirted, right? He redshirted to Gonzaga, rebuilt his shot in that time span where he transferred from San Jose State. But his shot at San Jose State was one of the worst-looking shots I've ever seen in my life. I mean, rebuilt is like the least of it.

That's an understatement. It was basically like he was holding a bazooka on his right side and just kind of forcing it through sheer force of will. It was just like not a beautiful shot. I mean, not a beautiful shot, Danny. It brought me like pain physically to watch him shoot at Santa's. I was watching this morning his clips. It is really, and the jumpies made sense that is incredible. Yeah. Like right now he has a very, you know, straightforward form. It's a compact release. But you just wonder, you know, in high pressure

situations, whether or not he can maintain the consistency. But when you're looking at Clark, you're looking at a guy who is basically built the size of a typical FSU wing, except he's projected to be playing center. So when you're looking at him in terms of the fit at the next level with an NBA team, what exactly you're looking for to maximize his potential? I mean, what jumps out to me is if you can play Clark with a stretch big man, I'm looking at two teams in the lottery. If you can play him with Carly Anthony Towns or Jaron Jackson,

I think those front courts would be insane. Just like if you could open up the four for Clark, because I think people think, oh, Clark's not a great shooter. He's not much not very good on offense. He's actually very skilled. He can get to the rim. He has incredible touch around the basket. That's why it kind of reminded me of the Marion Comp in terms of this is a guy.

You don't run place for him. He's going to cut the right spot and make the right moves on the court. Get open. I could see him scoring like 12, 15 points a game while playing elite defense, like three or four positions. And especially when you're looking at Carl Anthony Towns, who has had to shoulder so much of the offensive load, becoming more of a playmaker,

becoming almost a point center for the team, shooting more threes. It kind of gives Clark a bit more of an alleyway to being the kind of positionless player he is. He's the closest thing that I can think of to being like a tweener in the modern NBA. I was just thinking about it, my Mavs with Chris Taps Porzingis,

If you put Clark with K.P. and Luca, who, yeah. That would excite me. I mean, we were talking about this earlier when we were discussing your piece. Like, are there 10 players in the NBA who are more functionally athletic than Brandon Clark is right now?

It's hard to come up with a list. I thought you were going to ask me, are there 10 players in this draft? And Brandon Clark, the answer is no. Yeah. At this point, I'm just wondering, like, how high I'm going to put this man. I think last week, I was like,

I would have him in my top seven, definitely probably move them up into my top five, where are you at right now? You're selling me on him, because here's the other thing too. Like we're talking about how much his jumper has improved. To me, like, that's almost encouraging. Like, the improvement he's made over the last two years is a jump shooter. I'm not sure you can necessarily project it forward,

but can you not project? I mean, at the same time, like, it seems plausible to me if he already, like, totally changed his shot. He has great, incredible touch around the rim. And his free throw shooting has been going up all season. it wouldn't stun me if he became actually a decent shooter. And if he becomes a decent three-point shooter, this guy could be an incredible basketball player.

Absolutely. And of course, Clark isn't the only high-level prospect on the team, Ruri Hachamora, the West Coast Conference player of the year, actually, over Clark, led Gonzaga, all Gonzaga scores with 17 points last night. But I think we might be in agreement here. He might not be the NBA prospect that the early hype made him out to be. Yeah, I'm just not sure what his really is NBA skill is. is. Like, as broad as that is to say, he doesn't really shoot threes that well. He doesn't pass that

well. He's the okay defensive, not a stand-on defensive player. I think, like, his skill is creating shots against less athletic players. That's, like, his biggest skill. But in the NBA, they'll all be as athletic as he is. Right. So he's 6-8, around 2.30, 2.35, really just strong athlete. He's a really strong athlete. I think certainly you can kind of project him as a guy, who has the potential to be a multi-positional defender. He's such a strong athlete that you can imagine him switching on guys. But I feel like with his defense, it's more a matter of just recognizing what to be doing on the floor.

He's so raw still, and he's not exactly the youngest guy in the draft. Yeah, his B-ball IQ isn't terribly high. To me, he's a guy. I think his three-point shot has to translate. Like, if Rui's not going to become a three-point shooter, I'm not really sure how much value he's going to have on an NBA team. To me, like Gonzaga, I think they're having trouble

fitting the, and you saw that FSU game, they had to like go supersized because they had to play their stretched big man Killy and Tilly on the floor with Clark and Hachamara to get any space at all. To me, Mark Fue might got to bite the boat at some point in this tournament

and just bench Hachamara for Tilly. That's my take right there. Don't be a coward, Mark Few. Play your best players. Man, I honestly cannot see that. I think they'll probably try the three big lines. up again. I feel like when you get up to the highest levels of competition, you might need to

just have all your best players on the floor. But that kind of begs an interesting question. Is Killian Tilley actually Gonzaga's second best prospect? That's what I was wondering. Well, he gets hurt all the time, so it's hard to say. But he can really shoot it. And he shows something defensively in that game against Florida State. He made a lot of nice plays. Yeah. I just think that Tilly, him being a 610, 235, 240, big man who can kind of do everything. I think he fits the new mold of what an NBA big man should be, even more than Hachimura does. Because he's a guy who doesn't really have any weaknesses at the college level. You said, you know, he's a great shooter. He's a great passer for his size. He's a good,

like, vertical defender. I don't really see any flaws in his game. It's just nothing really, you know, stands out at like an A, B plus level. But, I mean, unless you're getting a star, the big man position is so fungible that, like, you can kind of see. him in the NBA much easier than you can with Hachamora if Hachamora doesn't develop that three. Do you think he'll come out? Because he was supposed to be their big star this year. Then he got hurt. He's been hurt like two or three times already in the last year. So it's hard to say with him. And this was, what, his sophomore season? I think he's a junior now. Okay. Yeah, because he played with Zach Collins back in the day.

Right. Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, what, he only played like 13 games in the regular season, right? And he got hurt end of the last season, too. He didn't play in the tournament. Yeah, that's rough. I don't know. I feel like a team might take a flyer on him in the second round, but is there an upside to him? I don't know, actually. I would want to see him be the featured guy on offense because he's been hurt so much. I wonder if he comes back of school to do that, but maybe he decides, I've been injured so much already. I better go pro. Right. And plus there's Zach Norvell who we are kind of just glazing over as an NBA prospect, but he's, you know, 6'5, a sharpshooting wing who...

A fearless shooter. Sometimes too fearless. But yeah, like, this Gonzaga team has so much... many NBA prospects, more than they've probably ever had in their school history. It'll be interesting to see where they move forward with that. But another do-it-all player who has kind of helped himself very much in this tournament is Jared Culver out of Texas Tech. As he's done all season, he's really just carried the load offensively for them. And he really showed up in the second half of the Michigan game where they just kind of

blew Michigan out of the water. He had 22 points, four rebounds and four assists. Did anything stand out to you in that game? Well, I mean, the first thing is we had a ringer staff for Roger Sherman on the scene for the great height, truth through debate. So, like, the big question about Culverall season, is he really 6-5? Is he more like he's 6-7? Because everyone was kind of wondering that. And Roger pretty firmly said, no, he was shorter than Charles Matthews.

It was very disappointing. Yeah, okay, so Charles Matthews was guarding him for a lot of the first half. Charles Matthews is listed at 6-6. I've been a truther. I've been subscribing to all of the takes. I want him to be 6-8 so bad, but it seems like he's a legit 6-5. I think it's an optical illusion.

I think that's what's going on. Because his shoulders are so broad, and they slope downward. He's got those long arms, too. Yeah, the long arms, his just, the portions kind of remind me of, like, Jeremy Lamb,

who similarly is 6-5, but I always thought he was taller in college. You know, that's not a bad physical comparison, actually. Yeah. And it's just, I don't know. Kulfer looked bigger than Matthews to me, but I'm going to trust Roger. He was there.

maybe my eyes just want to see what they want to see. I mean, I want to be 6-8-2, Danny. It'd be great. I'd have been playing in the Ivy League basketball or something. It'd be awesome. But, you know, you got to live with what God gave you. So I got a question for you on Culver. I know you're a big Culver guy.

Yeah. I've got some concerns about him. So you said, like, Jeremy Lamb physically, and he's, to me, like, by worries me about Jared Culver, I don't really trust his three-point shot. Like, it looks a little wonky. He doesn't shoot free throws that well.

And to me, if he's not going to be a great three-point shooter and he has to play on the ball, but he's not like very big. Like he's not super thick or Charles and Matthews are stronger than him. Right. I really thought he showed to create space against Matthews. And I wonder if he's like a skinny, non-shooting point forward kind of guy. Which would definitely help if he was taller because we have precedence for tall point forward-esque guys who can't shoot. But yeah, no, you're right.

If he is 6'5 and look, he is. You're looking at a guy who is basically going through what every wing prospect has to prove to make it in the NBA. He has to have a reliable shot. I personally think if you put him in a role in which maybe he doesn't have to do so much for the team, there really isn't much offensive help for the Raiders. I think he can shore up his spot-up shooting, and I think it's not that big of a deal, which is easy for me to say right now. But what separates him, in my mind,

from all of the other wings in the draft is just how easily he can get by his man, despite not really having super athleticism or super, you know, quick twitch kind of movements. He just really knows how to get low and maneuver around guys. It really reminds you of Gordon Hayward. And if he can be like a smaller Gordon Hayward,

I think that's a really good player in the NBA. You see, what I was wondering, You were talking about moving him to a smaller role. I kind of wonder if you draft him to be a point guard. Because I think his best skills are his defense on smaller players, his ability to score over smaller players, his feel for the game, and his passing for a wing. To me, maybe if you're going to make him a top three or five pick,

I might want to put him on the ball all the time and see what he could do in a more traditional offense. So I was chatting with a son's friend of mine, and we were thinking, would Culver and Booker be an interesting duo for you? I wonder because of the shot. Like, if he's not shooting it and Booker has the ball, what's he doing? Right. It's one of those things where I'm like, well, it would free up Booker to, you know, play off the ball.

But I'm also like, well, this dude just dropped like 109 points in two games. Like, why would you want him off the ball? Yeah, I feel like he wanted him dominating the ball at this point. Yeah. It's weird because Culver kind of like would be a bridge between Booker and McAil bridges. Yeah, and I'm looking at it like, I think for all these teams in the top five it might come down to, would you rather have J. Rone your offense or Culver run your off?

Like Chicago, I could see Chicago picking between Culver and Jha. I mean, if you're really thirsting for a point guard, I doubt the team would kind of take a gamble on Culver who maybe doesn't fit all of the stereotypical, prototypical tools of an NBA point guard. I would probably want to have a bit more secondary playmaking if I was going to put R.J. or sorry, not RJ, if I was going to put Jared Culver in that role.

But I don't know what team that would be. It's funny you say RJ because they kind of, I feel like they're like mirror inverse prospects. Right. Like they're both like point 40 guys kind of wings, questionable jumpers. And I feel like Culver's got a much higher basketball IQ, but RJ is much bigger. So I really think that's interesting debate between those two guys going into this draft also. That's something that I've always wondered about throughout this entire season is just that RJ should be able to do the things that Culver does.

Like, he should be able to blow by his man and get right to the rim, but he really can't. Like, his kind of navigation in traffic is really bad, and he doesn't really have that great touch. Whereas Culver finishes everything around the rim, and he can get by his man without really using any of his athletic explosiveness. You know, RJ's like a volume of three-foot shooter. Like, I'm going to take enough three-foot shots to bench they're going to go in. Yeah. And so we're talking about these guys, and we're talking about Culver being this. He's a long-armed wing who can kind of create for others in comparison to R.J. Baird,

who's kind of like this physical marvel. Another guy who's been seeing his stock rise over the past week is Virginia's DeAndre Hunter, who is really a physical marvel. Does he look bigger to you this year? He's enormous on the floor. The thing is, he was playing Oregon, and they start three, six, nine guys in their starting-wide. But they're all skinny dudes.

Right. And so, like, I'm looking at Hunter, and I'm like, man, this guy's like Adonis. I mean, he's, it's like 30 pounds in those guys, probably. He's listed at, what, 6, 7, 225? He looks bigger than that. Yeah. But then again, I'm the least reliable narrator here. Like, I obviously do not know my height from anyone.

Well, you can see his width, though. Like, the man's width is for a guy that big to move as well as he does, and the perimeter on defense is pretty encouraging, I think. To me, with Hunter, you saw in that game, Oregon, they couldn't really guard him one-on-one, so they double-teamed him. And the concern with Hunter is he doesn't really read those double-teams very well or see the floor.

It seems like he's very much like one-dimensional. Like, I'm going to shoot now, I'm going to pass now, very predetermined. I wanted about Azalea to make decisions on the fly. And the thing about that is, when you ask him to kind of create off the dribble, I mean, as we've seen from that ridiculous Zion block and from other situations in which he's just kind of

of like clanking threes left and right. His shot form, even though he's been shooting very well throughout the season, it's a little slow, it's a little methodical. You wonder if that shot creation can actually translate to the next level. But at the same time, the guys, you know, he's been hovering around the top 10 for most of the season and now ESPN has him in the top five. Why do you think that is? I just think you can put him into a roll.

Like, if that three-point shot is there, I think it's like you can trust him. Like if he's going to be a spot-up shooter, even compared to like a Barrett or a Culver, like, okay, I'm going to plug him in as a small ball four. He can switch screens. He can probably guard bigger fives now. Biggie is. Multi-positional defender. And he's got some offensive moves.

If the shot is there. Like Virginia now with Hunter and D. Akite, like, their defense, you can't score on them because they can't attack them in ball screens anymore. Hunter can just switch the screen like it's nothing. The one concern about him is he doesn't get a lot of blocks and steals. But I believe the way their defense is set up, it's very consistent. conservative defense. They don't really ask them to do that.

He's kind of played in a role. And I think, too, with Virginia, all their guys seem to outperform in the NBA. Tony Bennett, he really seems to coach his guys up. You look at like Brogden, Joe Harris, Mike Scott. Right. And it feels like Hunter has more physical tools than those guys. And, like, if he can be a bigger version of them, that's a pretty interesting player. Right.

Yeah, it really does feel like a don't overthink it type of situation. When you're looking at a draft that is top heavy in the same. that there might only be two potential true stars. You want to find a guy who can absolutely fit on most teams. And you look at Hunter's physical makeup and you're like, there aren't that many guys in the NBA who even have that. You know, 6-8, 235, long arms, just a true knack for the defensive side of the ball and can switch.

It seems like a no-brainer. And that's going to be put to the test next round. All of the Virginia guys have been talking about, oh, he can switch from, you know, one through five. He can play all those different positions defensively. Well, he's going to have to go against six-foot Carson Edwards, who's been the hottest score in the entire tournament. And he's probably going to have to switch onto seven-foot-three Matt Harms.

So it'll really show the full range of his versatility and whether or not he can handle it. Yeah, we haven't talked about Edwards much, but he's been like Kembo Walker as so far. He's been dropping like 35 points in his first three games. And like he's kind of like a classic Patty Mills, scoring guard. like a waterbug six-foot off dribble three-point shooter. It's a perfect guy at test hunter's ability to guard at 25 feet, 28 feet, 30 feet from the basket.

Right. I think he's kind of gone under the radar most of the season just because he's a known commodity. Obviously, he's been in Player of the Year talks for, it feels like five years now. But yeah, this tournament run has been super, super beneficial to his draft stock. Of course, Purdue played spoiler to one of the most interesting teams in the tournament draft-wise. We bid farewell to Tennessee and specifically Grant Williams who charts you're pretty high on. I was, but I'm starting to worry a little bit.

He kind of got exposed in that game. So we talked about Matt Harms, seven foot three center, and Williams really struggled to get around him. All of a sudden, all his little bully ball moves couldn't work. And I think we saw in that game, like he's got to become a great three-point shooter.

Like Harms played like a foot off him and Darren to shoot threes. And he can make that like one dribble, 18-foot pull-up, but he has had a three-point shot in his game to really be the NBA player. I want him to be, at least. I mean, how many guys like Matt Harms

is he going to have to defend in the NBA, though? I mean, I don't know about Matt Harmers, but he'll be going up against, like, a Pascal Seaccombe at the four. Right. Like, he better be able to shoot if Pascal Seaccom's guarding him. I think ultimately it meant nothing

in the final outcome, but he had a really, really impressive block on Carson Edwards, with about 2.5 seconds left in the game. I mean, if you wanted to get some sort of positive, out of him from that game, it was that. It was basically, he has a really high understanding of timing and of angles and getting himself

into position where he needs to be to make the play. But look, he's 6'7, doesn't really have a lot of confidence in his outside shot, doesn't really attempt a lot of them. And so you're asking yourself, can this guy play the 4? Do you have to play him at the 5? Does he have to play like a sort of PJ Tucker role on a Rockets team? How many teams really use a type of guy like that? Well, I mean, too, Peter Tucker, I was looking at the numbers.

He shoots 75% of his shots from three. Right. So that's going to be his role. Because Williams, he can't put the ball on the floor. He's a really good passer. He's a good pull-up shooter. There's a lot of things you like about him, but the three-point shot has just got to be there.

If it's not there, he's just not that exciting a prospect. This is the change in Charks's philosophy. It used to be just you needed a long, wingspan and you needed to be, you know, really athletic. But now it's all about threes. Everything's about threes. The league is changing, Danny. I got to change with the times.

There's no other way around it. Another intriguing prospect, Iggy Bresedakis. We can briefly cover him. A freshman out of Michigan, who has been putting up huge numbers all season for a veteran team. Do you think he should declare? Well, he's not really a freshman. He's like 20 years old.

He's a grown man, you know, playing high school basketball last year. I don't know. I mean, I'd like to see him pass the ball more. I'd like to see him in more of a playmaking role before he got to the league. Because to me, I don't see him really much of a defensive player. He's a really good shooter.

And he's trying to this Texas Tech game. He can struggle to create against, like, great athletes. So to me, he's got to have the passing in his game. I'd like to see him be more of a passer, more of an all-around player for even pro, I think. I just don't know if it's going to get any better than this.

Like, he's shooting 39% from three on nearly four attempts for game. That automatically, you know, will probably perk up some ears in the NBA front offices. You know, he's 77% free throw shooter, so it tracks that he's a good shooter. He can attack closeouts. He's pretty smart offensively. I just don't know if you put him in a bigger role that it's going to look any better for his draft stock. Yeah, but I don't see him in the NBA being given that playmaking role.

Like, he ever going to develop that? I think it'd have to be in college. I don't know. I think he's okay, but I'm like super excited about him or anything. Right. All right, so we just got through a lot of players that we saw on Thursday, but there's a lot of Sweet 16 actions still to come on Friday. But before that, a quick break for a word from our sponsors.

Alarm. The willies. The hebie-jeebys. Panic. There are dozens of words for fear, but just one for exceptional home security. Simply safe. This is home security that knows it feels good to fear less. Award-winning 24-7 protection that protects your home through it all. Blizzards, blackouts, and burglars. SimplySafe has won awards from all the tech experts that count. The Verge says it's the best home security. It's won Reader's choice from PC Magazine. It's the two-time winner of CNET's editor's choice. And it's a wirecutter top

pick. Better yet, SimpliSafe has no contract, no hidden fees, and no gotchas. They keep prices always fair and honest. Fear has no place in a place like home. Try SimplySafe today with free shipping and free returns. You'll get a 60-day risk-free trial too. Order now and have your home protected within a week at simplysafe.com slash NBA. That's simplysafe.com slash NBA. Be sure to go there so they know that we sent you. Okay, so the Tar Heels, three huge prospects.

Are you excited for any of them? Kobe White, Cam Johnson, Nas Little. Yeah, we haven't talked about them much this year, I feel like, but that's probably the most intriguing team really on the board coming into the Friday-Sunday games. They got a lot of prospects. I mean, Nas Little is the guy that he was being talked about as a top five pick at the start of the season. So what happened to him? He's really kind of falling off this year.

I mean, part of it is just like he kind of bulked up a little. And I guess it was in preparation to be playing a lot more forward, but it kind of like lessened his explosiveness. He was like a super explosive guy in high school. It just never really clicked. He never really got into a rhythm. He had one great game against Virginia Tech, but he was never really able to put together a bunch of performances. These past two games in the NCAA tournament

are probably his two best games. But the thing with him is that he might not be playing tonight because he's questionable with the flu. Oh, I didn't even see that. Yeah, so he might not even be playing. I think with him part of the issue, so UNC, he's backing up Luke May, like Tar Heel Legend, National Champion.

He's not going to take his spot as it. senior. And then Cam Johnson, who really has kind of come on this year as an NBA prospect. So those are the two forward spots. And I think part of the reason he's played better than the tournament is Roy Williams is actually playing smaller. So he's benched his big men and gone Johnson, May, Little. I think that's gotten Little on the floor. My thing with Little, it's hard to project him right now because he has a very small role in the offense. He's not shooting that well. He's not showing much as a playmaker. It's like he's just not really doing that much. Yeah, and the biggest thing that a lot of teams were hoping out of him was, oh, well, his offense can kind of come along.

His defense will be what is his bread and butter. His defense hasn't been great. So there really isn't anything other than, oh, he has an NBA ready body and he has the explosiveness to possibly be a guy. But we've seen so many of those types of guys kind of flame out in the NBA. So it's really all about a leap of faith. Yeah, I remember you saying, oh, it could be like Stanley Johnson, like I better. Stanley Johnson. And now it's like, oh, that's a lot of very good comparison, is it? That's not kind of unencouraging if you put it that way.

Right. And another recruiting powerhouse, Kentucky, also dealing with injuries, also dealing with guys who are not really sure if they're going to be playing much. PJ Washington is going to be on a minute's restriction, 15 to 18 minutes. They also have Kelden Johnson, Tyler Hero, among their freshman lot. I don't really know what to make of this team anymore because PJ Washington was such a big hub for what they were doing on their offense. Yeah, without him out there, they just don't seem that interesting or impressive. It's just like, wow, this team doesn't seem super athletic anymore, very talented. Like, they'd barely beat Wofford. It wasn't like that was like a blowout or anything. Like, Wofford was playing with

them the whole game. Keldon Johnson's the other guy I had not really seen that much from. Like, he was kind of hyped up a lot coming into the season. And I don't know, like, he just seems kind of guyish to me. I think he's shown a little bit more of a shot than most people were expecting, but he's such a zero in terms of actual ball handling and any kind of creation ability. So, like, when they can't play off of PJ Washington, him and Hero, like, they're not all that impressive as prospects yet. Hero could be like a Knard guy eventually, but Conard, you see, has not been like great in the NBA either.

I wonder if Hero, if he's not going to be a defensive guy, is not a primary guy, how much value can he bring to the NBA team is what I wonder. Right. You want to talk about your boy, is he your boy? Is he your boy? Do you want to talk about Cassius Winston for a little bit? You're talking about Isaac or me? I mean, either of you guys.

I mean, I could chime in real quick. Like Cassius Winston, I mean, we've seen him for a few years now. And I don't know what he has to contribute on the next level. He's so small. That's the biggest thing, right? Sometimes it comes down to your 6-1, unless you're phenomenal basketball brain like Chris Paul or somebody who has an exceptional scoring ability,

like I say, Thomas, it's really tough for a very, very undersized guard to do very well in the pros. And,

like, I don't know where he's going to go in the draft probably late first. Isn't he a junior? He might just come to say back to school.

He might just go back to school. If he does declare, like, I don't know, even in this week draft, I don't even know where he would go.

So I'm pretty down on Cassius Winston is all I'm saying. I don't, look, he's averaging close to 19 points a game and eight assists per game. Like, how do you go back to school

from that? He's big, player of the year. He's shown like he's been a great three-point shooter his entire career. Part of me is like, I guess you kind of have to test the waters after making such a leap, right? You would think so, and this was obviously his best year, and you expect that as you get older. But dude, like we've seen players kill it in college that don't pan out in the NBA and are not prospects that are widely scouted, if only because they don't see any pro potential. I think he might be one of those guys. I hate to say it.

Right. I hate to say it, man. I just wonder if he's one of those guys who you can kind of slot in as a Jalen Brunson as a Fred Van Vleet, guys who you can rely on for dependable production towards the end of the bench on the second unit. I don't know. He kind of reminds me of like a Jared Jack who can shoot threes. Wow. Jared Jack was pretty big, though.

Yeah. That's a pretty big compliment. It would be nice, right? It would be nice. You would expect the Big Ten player of the year to be someone that we'd all be happy and optimistic about his pro chances. But that's the state of the Big Ten. Yeah. We should probably circle back to a lot of these tar heels.

They're really interesting. Yeah, to me, the guy I've been really impressed this year is Cam Johnson. So I didn't like, he wasn't really being talked about much to start this season. But this guy is 6'8, legit 6.9. And he's shooting 47% from 3. Is that right? Yeah, I think it's like 46. He's a very, very good shooter.

Yeah, not only that, I was looking it up on Synergy, he's at the 96th percentile of shooting off screens. So, like, they're really using him like a Reddick, and he's just killing it. Like, a guy that tall who can shoot that well off movement who's pretty decent defensively, I could see him being a really good NBA player. And it wouldn't stun me if he becomes one of the better players in this draft,

even though he's not been talked about too much. Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I like Cam Johnson as well. He does a little bit of everything. He's averaging, like, 2.5 assists on, like, one point-something turnover. So, like, he has a positive assistive turnover ratio. He makes good decisions.

He's like a no-nonsense player who just happens to have an elite NBA skill. And those types of players are rare. Yeah, those players are really rare. Yeah, he reminds me of Justin Jackson, the UNC guy who was, like, the final four player a few years ago. But Justin Jackson hasn't been shooting threes in the NBA. Like, if you give Justin Jackson a 40% three-point shot, that's a really, really good player.

Yeah, Justin Jackson shot 37% in his final year with the tar heels. But it was kind of a fluke. And we were all kind of expecting it. He hadn't shot nearly that well in his previous seasons. But when you combine Justin Jackson's physique with that type of shooting ability, that's a high-level role player, if not more. Yeah, and I'm looking at his numbers. So for his career, like 41% from three on five, 4.7 attempts per game.

That is an incredible portfolio of shooting. Usually with these guys, like, oh, he had one good years of shooter, two good years as a shooter. Cam Johnson's been shooting threes his entire career at a really, really high rate. And a guy that big can move that well

who's shooting threes like that. To me, I remember, like we did a thing, like a big board at right before, maybe a month ago. Yeah.

And I had the guy from V Tech Alexander Walker. I think I'd probably put Cam Johnson ahead of him right now. Ooh. Actually, so the biggest prospect in terms of actual production

for the team might actually be Kobe White, the freshman point guard for the Tariels. He's really come on this year. He was, I think, a four-star prospect, and he wasn't really being talked about as a one-and-done guy, but now he's pushed himself into that lottery range.

He's a really big point guard. He's very aggressive, good shooter. I don't know, like, I could see him really making himself a lot of money over the next two weeks if they make a run. Yeah, there's a kind of Shea Gilgist-Alexor-esque rise I see happening with him in terms of how he's performed over the past three or four weeks. He's kind of taken control.

of the team, and he's done it in a way that we've talked about all season across levels of the sport. He's done it by taking a lot of threes and by showing these kind of evasive maneuvers like the stepback and really incorporating it into his game at a very effective level at the college level. He's really impressive, and I think once you get past John Morant, I could see him probably skating up. I mean, he's certainly bigger than Darius Garland. So, I mean, yeah, huge difference. You can probably make a case that he might be the second best point card in this draft. And I mean, really, I really like Jha, but I wonder, it's possible why it becomes a better player, right?

He's bigger than Jha. He's a better shooter than Jha. I don't know if he's quick twitch. They're probably about the same, but he's bigger. He's kind of a raw player, not a great passer, but there are some real tools there. I like to see him to stay in school and really work on his passing, but the way he's playing now, it might not happen. He might just be going pro. Right.

Speaking of Shea Gilgius Alexander, he has a cousin who is still in tournament. Nikiel Alexander Walker is going to be playing against Duke tonight. What are you looking forward to you here? This should be a really fun game. Duke is playing so kind of all over the place these days that anyone can beat them. I think NAW, which I'll call him that, it's a long name to say all the time. I like him as a player, but I do wonder if he has a ceiling in terms of his athletic ability and being a creator. he's probably a secondary guy.

Right. It'd be not great defensively. He might just seem more of like a role player guy in the NBA. Yeah, there are definitely concerns about his overall level of athleticism. He has long arms, but he doesn't really have a really strong body. Like you look at the measurables. So he's 6.5, 205 with a long wingspan. And you're like, oh, that kind of sounds like a thick guard.

He's kind of actually built a little bit narrow. So it's kind of hard to envision him being a plus defender. but the way that he's developed this year, taking on a much bigger role in the offense, creating for others, and improving his efficiency despite his usage spiking, is a really good sign, in my opinion.

Yeah, so their point guard, Justin Robinson, got hurt for a big chunk of the season, and they kind of moved him into a point guard role for a while, which is pretty impressive for like a 6-5 shooter to run point, and they really have one of the better backwards in the country with him and Robinson. And Robinson is another guy like Cassius Winston, who could fit into that senior point guard,

backup point guard in the NBA role, really well-rounded player, not a lot of holes in his game, really smart player. And those are two guys who can make a lot of money and not against Duke if they have a good game. All right, I think that's enough draft class for this week.

So one thing we've actually been thinking about lately is in the NBA, how the talent disparity between the conferences, you know, it was such a big conversation during the preseason and over the summer. LeBron went to, you know, the West,

and suddenly the East is, shambles. It hasn't actually played out that way. Yeah, it is kind of funny how that works, right? Like, all of a sudden, it's like the LeBron curse. LeBron was like choking up all the auction in the room in the east. And then he goes west and it's like, oh, man, this is really going to be bad. And now all these flowers have bloomed. I mean, there are also so many guys who emerged in ways that we could have never expected. Like Pascal Seyakum, who is the odds-on favorite for most improved, went from the... being a dude who got smoked by LeBron in the playoffs,

to being what the Raptor's second best player, and a guy who can really be a part of their future, whether Kauai stays or not. Yeah, I mean, really, if you look at it, like Kauai going east probably is more relevant than LeBron going west in terms of the conferences. Right. And then you have Yonnas, too, right?

He's like the new LeBron in the east anyways. It's the new LeBron. He is probably the first player who, seriously has a shot at MVP and defensive player of the year since Dwight Howard in 2009, 2010, Dwight Howard obviously did not win it then. So you would have to go back 25 years to Hakeem Ilajuwon, who did it in 94. I mean, MJ did it right? Is anyone else done it? Yeah, no, that's the list. That's it. MJ and Hakeem. Hakeem did it in 93, 94. MJ did it in 87, 88. and that's it. That's the entire list.

Yeah, you had a whole piece with that earlier this week. Yeah, it's, it's interesting to see Janus kind of bloom after years of being held back by Jason Kidd. It's really, that's, that is kind of a big storyline in the Easton itself, you know? They built this team perfectly to suit Janus's emerging strengths and, you know, already developing levels of dominance. I just love the fact that he has developed into this kind of, of unorthodox defensive stopper.

It's basically the way that Spurs typically play their guys. Like, if there's a dude who you can just kind of ignore in the corner, ignore him in the corner and help with everyone else. And it just so happens that Janus is the most freakish physical anomaly in the game. And you unleash him as like this freelancing defender. It's amazing. Yeah. I mean, it's perfect him and Brooke Lopez together.

Because you have like Brooke taking up space in the middle lane, that Janus and kind of soup over from the side. and protect him. Right. And then offense, you know, Brooks, a three-point line,

Janis near the rim. They've really got this great yin-yang thing working. It kind of reminds me of when Dirk and Tyson-Tch and Taylor got put together in Dallas. We had these two seven-footers and just like the combination of them together,

like this Voltron-like effect. Yeah, an underrated fact is that Brooke Lopez has better rim protection numbers than either Janus or Gobert. And Gobert and Janus... That's insane. Yeah, he's allowing 51% around the rim,

whereas Goberer and Janus are at 53. So yeah, just dropping Brooke back and just kind of having Janus serve as a secondary line of coverage is working so well for them. We'll see what happens in the playoffs. Obviously, Janus will probably have to take on

more of a center role, but it's definitely been working in the regular season. Well, you know what's crazy, though. So the Lakers sent Brooke Lopez to Milwaukee and of like unlocked Janus. And now the Bucks might send Jason Kidd to L.A. and like totally locked down LeBron. Incredible.

Incredible. And I feel like we should thank the Lakers for this Eastern Conference revival. They also brought the Nets Gianjula Russell. That's true, yeah. The Lakers have really been like spreading their, you know, just spreading blessings everywhere.

That's really funny. And it's kind of interesting because Atlanta has been nearly a 500 team since the All-Star Break. They've been torching teams with their five-out lineups, Trey Young's been incredible. They've been averaging like 160 billion points

over the past like four games. It's remarkable. The fact that they are able to like stay in it with any team in the league right now, like they have wins against the Sixers. They were very close against the Rockets. I mean, the East is not really a joke anymore. I mean, if you look at it,

I think the Hawks won the Mavs, they could have the ones with the Mazz Band of the season. Even like the lower part of the, conference, right? Like, it feels like the West, a lot of teams kind of like, they kind of cannibalize themselves, right? Minnesota moved Jimmy Butler. The Pelicans are blowing themselves up.

The Grizzlies traded Marcus Saul. So you have all these middle, like, the strength of the West is supposed to be their depth. But a lot of those like below average Western teams, they took a step back this season. They said, we're not good enough. The Mavericks blew themselves up. The Lakers blew themselves up too, kind of unintentionally.

And so you're talking about like five of the bottom teams in the West. It's crazy. So for so many years, it was, oh, well, if you recede the conferences, you'll have like 12 Western Conference teams in the playoffs and like four Eastern Conference teams. If you received them right now, it would be the same 16 teams. Isn't that wild? You really believe that. I'm looking at the records. Oh, yeah, in terms of the records. Yeah. But I'm saying before that, the records were always like that. It was always others like, the team in the West has like 43 wins missing the playoffs. Team of these making the playoffs like 38 wins. But now it's almost evenly matched up. It's kind of crazy. One of the interesting. One of the

interesting things was you wrote a piece early in the season where, or not even in the season, it was a preview where you had mentioned that none of these teams are really trying to tank. They all had a reason to play at the very beginning of the season. And yet, I feel like in this season, the tank started really early for a lot of teams. Well, I mean, I think like we saw the separation happen in the West and it was like, well, we're all in. Well, now we've busted out, basically. Yeah. Like Minnesota, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas. LA, they all busted out. Really, the only team in the out-of-the-western playoff pictures

making a run kind of is Sacramento. Everybody else is taking a step back this season. Right. All right. Before we go, let's quickly hit on our NBA watch of the night. It is the Pacers versus the Celtics in Boston at 7 o'clock Eastern Time on NBA TV. Barring slippage from Philly, I think this might be our four-five matchup

in the playoffs for the first round. What are you looking at, Jarks? Not quite as exciting as Philly, Boston. for sure. Yeah, unfortunately. When they cracked me up, like, if Wesley Matthews is leading the team in minutes, like, that was only going to fly for so long before. Like, he did the best he could replace him in Old Depot, but that was too big of an ask, and he's fallen back to Earth a lot over the last few weeks.

I think in that series, the massive to me is Miles Turner versus Alhorford, those two kind of like versatile modern big men, how that kind of plays out. I want to believe that Turner can swing the series, and I want to believe that, he will be on the floor for long enough to actually do that. But I've been burned too many times, man. When is he ever going to get into that like 30-minute threshold? It's tough with Sabonis there, right? Yeah.

They've got a tough situation. And to me, like Al Horford is why I can't give up on Boston. For as bad as they've been, for as crazy as Kyrie's been this season. Al-horfer is just playoff magic, man. That guy always steps it up. And he's such a match-up problem for most teams. Yeah. And I mean, just the Celtics will be a match-up problem.

Right now, they are living and dying off Boyan Bogdanovich's threes and his ability to create and his ability to generate space for everyone. But, man, the Celtics have so many defenders that can kind of bottle them up. What happens when Boyan can't score 25 a night? And it's probably not going to happen in the playoffs. Yeah, it's going to have to be production by committee. They have to get Sabonis going, Bad Young, Darren Collison, Corey Joseph. you're seeing it, I think, now without Ola Deepa really. Like, that's not terribly exciting

those names are just throughout there. Yeah. They've lost seven of their past 10, and yet I still think our boss man, Bill Simmons, is a little scared. He's a little scared. Is he doing that whole thing where he, like, reverse jinxes them or something?

That's probably it. I think that's what it is. So, anyways, if you want to watch every NBA game, subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com or your local cable or satellite provider. All right, that's all we have for today's episode of the Corner 3 or the long two. Shout out KOC. Shout out Elon Musk and KOC can't do it. Thanks listen to the podcast. It was fun. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think he's been shouting out Elon anymore. Oh, well, we'll stick it back in for this one for all time to say.

Thanks, Elon.