The Ringer NBA Show - The Draft Mailbag, Vol. 1 | Draft Class (Ep. 221)

Episode Date: March 2, 2018

The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor and Jonathan Tjarks answer listener-submitted questions about the 2018 NBA draft. Topics include: Michael Porter Jr.’s return to action, NBA prospects who could play football, Kawhi Leonard vs Luka Doncic, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's draft class is brought to you by Yahoo Fantasy Baseball. Spring training is in full swing, so it's time to start thinking about Yahoo Fantasy Baseball drafts. You can flex her skills as a real GM with a new weekly scoring format that makes it even easier to dominate your fantasy baseball league. Use the set active players feature to set your lineup for the week in one tap. The Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is the official fantasy game of Major League Baseball. Sign up now at yahoo.com slash fantasy baseball. That's Yahoo.com slash fantasy baseball. We're also brought to you by the ringer.com.

We have tons and tons and tons of Ringer NBA coverage going on the site, including a brand new piece from the big boss, Bill Simmons, regarding the rise of Anthony Davis, who is just ridiculously dominant these past couple weeks. We're also trying to get you prepared for March Madness. So go check out the One Chating podcast with Mark Titus and Tate Frazier. Titus is here in L.A. until April. So the OSP crew will be talking college hoops all through tournament season.

And we've also asked Titus and Tytis and Tytus and to be on the show very soon, possibly next Friday. So looking forward to that. Now, it's draft class. Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. I'm Kevin O'Connor. This is Draft Class, our weekly Friday show, breaking down the NBA drafts, calling in from the other line.

For this week's special mailbag episode is fellow Ringer staff writer, Jonathan Charks. Hey, man, how you doing? I'm doing pretty good today. I had a good night last night. Now I'm just ready to talk draft with you and Isaac. I got a confession to make before we start. Okay. So everyone's talking about this soup thing with J.R. Smith.

I've probably had soup like five times in my life. Five? Never got into it. I don't know. I had like ramen noodle a few times. Now's about it. How is, okay, so that's, I think, the issue here is you started out with ramen noodles and you've never had. I never went from there.

Wait, hold on. Raman noodles and soup are not in the same family. Let us get that very clear. I believe it's called ramen noodle soup, right? Isn't it called ramen noodle soup? No? Listen, I, this is. I don't know if we can do the pod.

What a. Take. I said to tell you, it's just a fact. I don't know, maybe I'm missing out. I'm not even sure. Yes, you are 100% missing out. Soup is amazing, dude. Get something like good chicken soup.

It just never seems that intriguing to me. It's like I'll just drink something, then I'll eat something later. I don't know I have to mix the two. Oh, my God. Good vegetable and beef soup. Oh, man. French onion soup. Clam chowder.

Wantan soup. Buda chigie. Mmm. So much good soup. Now you're just making up words over there. All right. So you guys, you asked us draft questions on Twitter using hashtag Ringer NBA, and we always want to hear from you. So always use hashtag Ringer NBA on Twitter or Instagram.

And that way we can stay connected. But we're going to start off today with a question from Maddie Butcher from Twitter because it's related to some news. Michael Porter Jr., top Missouri prospect could play on Saturday if he's feeling okay after having back surgery at the beginning of the season. So Maddie asked, would Michael Porter Jr. benefit more from playing or would he just be fine? staying out. I think he would be fine staying out. I feel like he'll still be a top five or six pick regardless. But I do wonder if he has like a dominant couple weeks. Maybe he could be into the top one, two, three discussion. I don't think he has much to lose by playing. I'll say that much. I think where you said he could be a top five or six pick, I think it's possible, of course,

all right? But I don't know if that's for sure. I think a handful of people I talked to at Sloan, they viewed Porter before the season and now it's kind of a six or seven guy. Really? So if you're Michael Porter and you're seeing yourself on rankings at 6, 7, 8, and you think you're the number one guy, I absolutely think there's a lot to gain.

And yes, you also said there's not a lot to lose. The only thing that he could lose is getting hurt again. But I think that's a fear for any player. But if he plays and does well entering the tournament, I absolutely think that he could have a lot to gain here. I mean, for one thing, he's playing with his little brother. Like, how many more chances does he get in life? Like, he's going to make a lot of money next year regardless.

So why pass up the chance to play with your brother fight the last time? Do you like Porter? Are you a fan of his game? I need to see more of them. I haven't gotten to watch a ton of them. I have some questions. I see where the concerns are. But on paper, like, he seems like he has a high floor at least, just with his size, skill, and shooting ability.

I think with him, I mean, he's 6'10, potentially versatile player. I like him. I don't love him. He reminds me a little bit of a Galanari type of player, one of those guys who good, you know, he's versatile, but you always kind of are left asking for a little bit more. With Galanari, it was partially due to injuries and availability, but also just with his play.

I think Porter could be a really good guy, but his ball handling needs to come a long way. If I'm a team, I want to see him play, because I want to see him create in tough playoff, March Madness-level situations, because he could become a great-co-2 score, and that's what you want him to be, but the level he's actually at,

I think that's the big question, and he could answer a lot of those if he's able to play this month. Yeah, what I want to see is, like, facilitating. Because I feel like, from what I watched him, like in the international game, he just jacked a lot of shots. And he's not like a high,

Uber lead athletes. So you want to see, like, his feel for the game. Can he get like three, four assists, read the floor, kind of lead a team? So in that sense, I think it could be very valuable

for him playing in next few weeks. I don't know if it feels that great. I think that's another kind of concern I have with him. That's why I want to say, see these games. From Andrew Carrier, we have Who is one current top 10 prospect that is a chance to fall to the 20s?

Who is it, Charks? To me, it's Wendell Carter at Duke. Who I like as a player. And I saw your thing in our mock draft today where you said, you could see him being a better player than Bagley. And I can see where you're coming from on that, but I also wonder a lot of centers,

a slower center, plays out of the post a lot. I could see him falling us because of positional need. I don't see how it's, possible at all that he could fall. To be honest, I think Wendell Carter is a guy who just flat out knows how to ball. I think, yes, he's a little bit slower, but his positioning and understanding of the game, his three-point shot, his rebounding, he's just so damn good all around. I'd be stunned if he fell into the 20s.

I'd be just stunned. The guy that I think could fall is Colin Sexton. He's six foot two long. He had his amazing moment earlier in the season when he was just dominating five on three. for Alabama. Oh, three on five. Three on five. Unbelievable. But he hasn't over the course of the season proven that he can be either a competent playmaker

or an efficient score. I don't know about Sexton. I like his game, but with the depth of point guards in the league, I don't know if there's a lot of teams they're going to be thinking, Colin Sexton's going to be our guy for the next decade. See, I think at the very least he'd go top 20s because

his floor as a really athletic kind of shot creator will have some value. And that's why I think with like Carter, how many teams need a slow center? How many teams need a center at all out of the top five? I feel like some of these centers are going to fall. He's more than a slow center, though. He's an effective spot of sure. He's a really good passer for his size. He's good positionally on defense. I think Carter's really frigging good. What I said yesterday, or rather on today's mock draft, which you can check out on the ringer.com. I'm not saying he's better than Marvin Bagley or that

he will be better than Marvin Bagley. I'm just saying it's something that's worth thinking about. I've actually heard that. An NBA executive ran that'd buy me the other day. I could see it, but I think this comes down to more of positioning or anything. I just think Cardin knows how to ball. How about you, Isaac? Do you have a guy that you think could go from the top 10 into the 20s? Yeah, for me, it's Mikhail Bridges out of Villanova.

Just because he's a junior, he's like three years older than all the other kids coming in. I know that the teams that are tanking right now or are looking to draft in the lottery aren't looking to get just like a nice role player. They want to build for the future. They want to get a project. And, you know, we know who Mikhail Bridges is. He's been in college for three years already. So he might slide down.

He might fall out of the top 10, but by the time you get to 15, you want a surefire player. There's no way he falls below 15, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I just think he's going to slide. Maybe not to the 20s, but definitely going to slide. Third question from Chris Larson, where would the top three from last year's class go this year? And the top three, of course, just to go through it again. Number one, Markell Fultz, number two, Lonzo Ball, number three, Jason Tatum.

How do those guys compare to this year? Where do you think they would fall, John? I would say in terms of point guards, Markell still be the top point guard in this year's draft. Taylor would be right there with the wings with Porter and Donchich and all those guys. Lonzo, I think they'd probably still be the top five, six range. I mean, it'd be a very stacked draft, obviously, how many good players in it. But I think they wouldn't fall that far. I don't think so either.

I think going into the drafts, right, not factoring in the information we have now. I think Fultz would be right up there with the Bamba Jackson Bagley type of group. I don't think he'd be on the Donchich 8 level. I think the same would also be true for Lanzibol and Tatum. I'm curious, Charks, with the new information we have one year later, how would you compare Tatum to Donchurch? Oh, that's interesting. I would still go with Donchich just because of the passing.

I feel like that really kind of separates him from Tatum right now. But I could see the argument. I could see the argument. What about you? I know you're a Tatum guy. I still think Donchurch is on his own tier for me. He's still just the number one guy. And as much as I love Tatum, granted, we have a lot of new information.

We've seen him in the NBA. If you're only going through with the pre-draft stuff, it's Donchurch. Well, for sure, from pre-draft, yeah. I think the good thing about this question, charts, is that it's important in some ways to compare one class to the other in terms of your evaluation. Sometimes when you're only looking at one class within a vacuum, the guy that you have ranked fourth or fifth might seem greater in importance based on a certain class. When in actuality, every draft class is ranked differently.

That's why sometimes I think I have an issue when people say historically, the number five pick spits out this type of player. Historically, the number three pick does this. When in actuality, every draft class is different in strength. And the NBA people I've talked to, I know in our own evaluations, this year's top eight is really, really strong. Just like last year's top 10 was really strong. Next year might not be like that. Each class independently, I think, needs to be graded differently instead of looking kind of at the entire school. of the draft over history.

So we always talk about how LeBron James could be a dominant NFL receiver or a tight end. And so we have kind of a question related to that from Matt at Matterdude on Twitter. Which prospect in this year's draft class would be the best NFL player? I think you got to go with Miles Bridges from Michigan State, Isaac's boy. I mean, he's what, what, 6-6-2-30? Big guy. Super athletic. He'd be incredible tight-end.

He's definitely got some gronk in his game. You know, he's want a big athletic guy in the NFL. NFL. That's kind of your prototype. To me, most of these guys are like very tall string beanie. You want a big solid dude like Miles Bridges in the NFL. How about Colin Sexton, put him at corner or safety? Interesting. I could see that. He's very much got the NFL mentality of one-on-one. He'd be really cornerback. I could see that. A lot of energy from Sexton. I could see him, you know, maybe one of those guys that alternates between safety and corner six-foot two with long arms, built.

See, I kind of think press cornerback for Sexton. Like get up on someone's face, Shanline at Scrimmage. The question with Sexton really would be kind of the same question with the NBA. How's his discipline? Can you rely on him to not jump passes to not get himself out of position to play within the system? That's good. That's a nice cross-sport reference there. I like that.

That's good. That's also the truth in the NBA, though, with him, isn't it? With his on-court decision-making. Yeah, I don't know if playing for Avery Johnson was the best coach for him. But that's for another day. So they had an interesting follow-up question, Kevin. Which NFL player would be the best NBA prospect of the NFL stars? currently. Do you have one that comes to mind for you?

I mean, it's a cop-out to say one of the guys that actually played basketball. Like Antonio Gates. It is a little bit. That's a cop-out answer, but it's kind of a truth, isn't it? I was thinking maybe like Cam Newton. But he's a pretty good shooter. I'm sure most quarterbacks are. He could be like a small ball four-ish kind of guy.

Do we know he's a good shooter? Well, we're guessing. I mean, I feel like most quarterbacks, the hand-eye coordination. I don't know. I'm thinking a receiver. I'm thinking an Antonio Brown type. But they're also short, though for the NBA, most those guys. They're like 6-1-6-2-ish, a lot of them.

So they got to be point guards. I mean, that's kind of the issue. Some of the big guys in the NFL, you look at someone like Deshaun Watson at quarterback. Six-foot-3. He's a big quarterback. Cam Newton is a big quarterback, but he's only a two-guard in the NBA. No, I feel like the way the league is now. Cam's probably Draymond Green's height, like 6-6-2-40.

Like the way the league is going, I think that can be a small ball for now. You got DeAndre Hopkins, one of the best receivers in football, six-foot-one. not the best career playing college basketball at Clemson, but he's a two-sport athlete. You have to go in credit for that. Well, I mean, for sure, it feels like it's always the other way.

It's always like smaller players in college basketball go to the NFL more than the other way around. I mean, just hide alone makes a big difference. In reality, the best NFL player in the NBA, probably some random ass dude, probably a bench guy who maybe at some point in his life had a choice to play football or basketball, and he might have just made the wrong selection.

Maybe I'm going to stroke three is we'd never know about it. some linebacker who can just stroke. So who knows. Question from two people, pretty similar, from Seth Mason and Mike Offner. Should the Celtics be rooting to get the pick from the Lakers this year or root for the Sixers to get that pick

because it's protected, picks two to five, and instead they would get the Kings pick next year, which is only top one protected. What should the Celtics fans be rooting for, Charks? Well, I'm not a Celtics fan like some other ringer employees might be.

But in my opinion, I think you want the pick this year because A, it's kind of looking like the 2019 draft is not quite as strong. And B, it seems like the player Boston needs long term, is there like long term big man to replace Al Horford? Because you've already got Kyrie. You've already got Jalen Brown. You've already got Tatum. You kind of want like a stretch fiveish big man to round out your core of the future. So you get a top five pick in this draft.

Maybe you get that player. So to me, you want the draft pick this year. What do you think, Kevin? I think you just want that pick as soon as possible. I think that's really what it comes. down to. A, this draft is stronger, at least on paper, and B, you just want to get that pick, so you have that asset, especially in the two to five range in this year's stack draft. Next year, there's some good prospects. I think next year's draft could be really good with

RJ Barrett up top, Cameron Reddish. There's some good talent, but it's certainly not as deep, and there's not the wealth of options that there will be available in the two to five range of this year. So you don't think the King's pick, which is the only picked at the top, one, wouldn't be really valuable still. I feel like people always talk themselves into the draft, And so a pick would still be very enticing for anybody. Oh, it would certainly be valuable. No doubt about it. All draft picks are incredibly valuable at this year's deadline.

Only the Cavs dealt a first-round draft pick. Nobody was willing to deal a first-rounder for Tyreek Evans, a guy scoring 19, 20 points per game this season. There's just not a lot of players that you would deal picks for, especially in today's climate. So it's going to add value. But just the sooner you get that pick, the better. I think that's really just what it comes down to for me.

The sooner the better, if you're a Celtics fan, you'd be rooting for this year, for sure. We had a question from Chris Vernon from Memphis. I know a guy by that name. The question is, what are the chances that Jaron Jackson goes number one? He says, I think there's a team that would at least take him at that choice. Which team do you think it might be? What does Jaron Jackson need to do to actually make himself an option to be the number one pick?

Oh, I love me some Jaron Jackson, but that's even strong for me, number one. I thought you said he might have been the top big in the draft. I love me, Jared Jackson, but I feel like when you're talking number one, you know, there's all kinds of, like, publicity and hype that go into that. So I'm not sure you would go number one no matter what. I guess if Michigan State wins a national title, probably be the best thing you could do. Why should teams worry about that? Who cares what anybody else thinks? I mean, we're projecting what could happen, not what we think should happen. I feel like people do care about that. Like, why should a team care, though? I mean, they shouldn't, but people shouldn't do all kinds of things. People are very insecure, you know?

Publicity matters. The ownership at number one comes in the play, too, because the owner gets involved at that level. Like, ooh, number one pick, I should get a star. I think it's a shame. You're right, it is a factor, but I really do think it's a shame for some teams that it is a factor with the decisions that they make. Hey, but we still, like, talk about David Kahn taking those two point guards ahead of Steph Curry today. And that happened, what, 10 years ago?

So, I mean, this stuff is legacy. And nobody wants to get dunked on, man. Think about it too, like Chris Grant. He was wrong by Anthony Bennett, and now he doesn't have a job. Because, like, he can't hire Chris Grant now because, you know, he picked Anthony Ben, number one. Like, that sticks with you. In the 2010 draft, I've heard this story multiple times.

The Timberwolves with a number four pick, some guys high up in the Wolf's front office wanted to take Paul George. But because of, you know, kind of the kind of the consensus out there because of the perception that Wesley Johnson was the guy, they ultimately didn't go with their gut, with their feeling that he was actually the right choice and they ended up taking Wesley Johnson. Betting and people always say that. Like everyone always was about to draft Draymond Green, you know.

People are always like, oh, I was this close to taking this good player. Yeah, there's a difference, though, with certain stories that you hear. I think anybody can say that, but there were legitimately teams thinking about taking Donovan Mitchell last year. I know the Knicks were thinking about it. I know the Hornets were thinking about it. I know the Pistons were thinking about it. And that's from information prior to the draft that they were thinking about.

They just didn't. I don't know. For them, it was because of their own dependent evaluations or because of anything factoring in. But yeah, see, at that range, I don't think it's like the pre-draft hype comes into it. It's more like your top one, two, three picks. Ready for the lightning round, Isaac? Yeah. You ready, Charks?

Let's do it. Let's do it. You guys asked us a lot of questions, and we're trying to burn through something before we run out of time. So let's do it. Let's start off with. a guy by the name of like really smart Van Dam Charles Van Dam

are there any teams that will be scared off by players involved in the FBI NCAA investigation? No, next question. Nope, everybody knows players get paid. Next. From Caleb Davidson, assuming LeBron stays with the cavaliers

which rookie would fit best with him. Oh man, that's a pretty big assumption. What do you think, Kevin? Who do you got there? I think it's Bridges from Villanova. Michael. Yeah, I mean fit for sure. Yeah, you stick him in the 3-&D role on that team.

He can help now and later. From Scott Gower, which guy should Suns fans want the team to draft if they have a top three pick? Who's going to complete them, charts? I'm going to say Jaron Jackson. They need defense. They need three-point shooting all in one. Come on, man. Get him another star.

Give me DeAndre Aiton for that team. If you put Aiton on top of Devin Booker and Josh Jackson and all the free cap space they have coming up, gave me Aiton. I want the upside guy. From Nigel Roxbury, what should the Clippers do with these two borderline lottery picks they have? Is this your burner account, Isaac? No, it's not, but apparently there are more Clippers fans out there than myself. Okay, good, good. What do you think, Charks? What do the Clippers do? Well, let's see our producers call first. He's a Clippers man.

Yeah, sure. I mean, I'm a Michigan State fan and I'm a Clippers fan, so I would really like Miles Bridges on the Clippers. And not just because I'm a Michigan State fan And that would be a confluence of my two teams But also because he's a wing You know, he's actually more of a combo forward, right? And, you know, he takes a lot of threes. He's built.

He's a sophomore right now. If he comes in next year, he'll just contribute right away. The clippers need wings And I would really like Miles Bridges Or someone like Lonnie Walker. Just any wing, really, that's not Austin Rivers. You're thinking like draft two wings? You think they should do that?

Yeah. Just go wing wing. Anything that could bury Austin Rivers on the bench. That is my hope. That's a fair take. Hopefully we're not asking, man, if only Milesbridge has played for the L.A. Rams, maybe he should change sports. Then we get a problem.

Oh, nice callback. Call back. Good one. From a guy on Instagram who DM me, his name is, don't be petty. Nice. Which big man prospect is the best fit next to Lowry Markanin? Let's say Bomba, because like with Larry's already too good shooter, a dynamic role man, great shot blocker.

I'm with you on that. Bomba next to Markinen, I love that fit. Aiton would be interesting too, but I don't know if there's enough guaranteed defense. Yeah, very Yen and Yang, bomb-bun marketing. Your guy, Jaron Jackson would also be an interesting fit. Yeah, well, he'd be fit pretty much anywhere. From Butch Romero, if Luca Donchitz played in college basketball, what team would he play for, and would they be the favorite to win at all?

I think he'd play for UNC. They don't have a lot of top-line talent. It's kind of a down year for them. He's fitted right perfectly in with the Roy Williams system. And I think whatever team he was on in college should be the favorite. this guy's killing the Euro League, which is way above college basketball. Four years of Duke. Wait, what?

He played four years of Duke. He'd be in the next great dude player. No one plays four years of a four years apart. He would go to Duke. 100% Duke. They'd probably pay more in Real Madrid. Last question. From Chino, it's a big one, Charks.

Are you ready for it? Yes, I'm ready. Should the San Antonio Spurs trade Kauai Leonard for Luca Donchich, whoever has the number one pick, he said, I feel like Luca's the perfect spur. Kauai's the perfect spur. I know he's an AILA free agency, but that would be crazy to me.

Okay, let me revise his question. If Kauai pushes his way out, for whatever reason he's like, I want out, I don't want to be here, would that make it okay? Would it make it okay if you're getting the number one pick back and whatever else on top of that? Does that make it okay to trade Kauai,

or are you fighting back like they did with Aldridge? I'm fighting back, like, you saw happen with Kairi, like when a guy that good trip to push his way out, you gotta at least fight for him. I mean, the odds of this guy being there's Kauai are pretty small. Kauai's amazing. You gotta go for it.

What would it take on top of the number one pick for you to make it okay? God. I mean, it's worth thinking. I mean, look, front offices juggle all these scenarios. Like, they think of, you know, everything's going to happen ahead of time. Like, you're in the Spurs' front office

and R.C. Buford says to you, John, what would make it okay for us to trade Kauai? I think two guys like that. So, like, if the Lakers were at two and he fell the two, and I could get like Ingram and, Donchich. I want something stupid like that for out. Lakers don't have their pick.

Oh, you're saying in a hypothetical situation. Yeah. How about the Suns then? How about Phoenix? If they had the number one pick. I want like an All-Star and Donchish or a Sky I think could be that good. Like, give me Booker and Donchich. Booker?

Yeah. For Kawhi Leonard? Yeah. Feels like a lot, dude. Well, then don't trade for Kauai Leonard then. Come on. I mean, he's only at one year left on his contract. There's no guarantees he'd be willing to resign there.

If Kauai wants out, I'm pretty sure it might be. be because maybe he wants a big market. I don't see any other reason why. Well, I think he'd want to go somewhere with another star. That's probably why he'd want to go somewhere else. Chalks, that was fun. Yeah, I think we'll do it a few more time before the draft. Yeah, we're going to do a mailbag the first week of every month.

So always be submitting hashtag ringer NBA questions on Twitter, slide into my DMs, email charts, hit up Isaac on Twitter. Just attack us with questions. Just text Isaac. We'll give you his number. Please don't. Well, thank you for listening to this show. Thank you, Charks, for joining me today.

Thank you, Isaac. Anytime. Yeah, Isaac's just slimming with us between Bingement episodes. So we appreciate your time. Thanks again for all the questions. We really enjoyed it. Looking forward doing this again. Please give us a five-star rating on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcast.

You can follow Charks on Twitter at Jonathan Charks. You can follow Isaac on Twitter at Isaac Klee. And you can follow me at Kevin O'Connor, NBA. We'll see you next Friday. Peace out.