The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Jokic’s Historic Game 3 and Chris Paul’s Future, Plus a Wembanyama Rant and More NBA Draft Talk With Kevin O’Connor

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Russillo shares his Tales From the Couch after Game 3 of the NBA Finals (0:35), then he breaks down the news of Chris Paul potentially being waived by the Suns and what this does for the team's future (19:07). Then, Ryen is joined The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor to discuss Victor Wembanyama’s playoff run and the best choice at no. 2, and then they debate the late first-rounders (24:30). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (67:40). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Kevin O’Connor Producers: Steve Ceruti and Stefan Anderson The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout ringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's episode we'll deep dive into game three denver up 2-1 in the series also this chris paul news is being waved maybe but not today and we're going to talk draft with Kevin O'Connor. We're going to do some either ors and talk about second tier after that first tier. So a lot of fun draft stuff. I could do it all day long. Life advice and a bike guy update. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats.

What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region see app for details okay let's talk zion no let's talk nba finals and we start obviously with denver taking the 2-1 lead in miami now up in the series a bunch of different things that i want to run through and i'm also going to talk some chris paul at the end of this as well with the news sort of news or not yet news who knows anyway so uh denver wins handily in this

one uh although in the first quarter there was a lot going on. I think Miami got out there going quicker, almost trying to keep pace with Denver offensively. I thought there were some nice drives by Jimmy Butler, more aggressive. Also felt like Miami was putting Jokic and Pick and Rolls more. And then off of the help to try to figure out what they were doing on the roll, it was leaving Miami with some open looks in the corner. And that's just something Miami is really good at now,

four series into this playoff run for a team that couldn't shoot threes in the regular season. They do a really good job of getting the defense to scramble. There's just open looks. You watch it and you're like, where's the closeout? Where was this? And some of it's just bad rotation stuff. We'll get to Michael Porter Jr. a little bit later here as well.

But I think if there's one lesson to be learned throughout all of this, because I think a lot of you would have to admit it, media members have had to admit it, that they're paying way more attention to Jokic now in the last week than they ever have before in their lives. And the idea that he was this Ennis Kanter type on defense who was just a mess, it's just, it's not true. Like there's effort there.

Of course, he's not the same imposing force as some of the other great bigs in the league, but it was always something that I felt like Jokic in the past got exposed in a little bit more. So I think his effort alone was just better, but it was something I was looking at Miami going, all right, maybe they're going to try to do this more tonight. Murray got it going offensively.

Low free throws again, at least in that first quarter. And this game, by the way, really up until it was kind of pointless in the fourth quarter, even though there was a really weird stretch where Miami were like, wait, are they going to get this to single digits? It still would have been almost an impossible comeback. But this was such an aggressive, physical, intense game. You want to talk minutes for some of these guys at 40 minutes in this one. This must have felt like 60 minutes at certain stretches.

This was an incredibly impressive, like the intensity of it, which you'd expect in the NBA Finals, but you don't always get that. I thought from start to finish that made it just as entertaining as a lot of the other stuff that we've seen. Gabe Martin, who's turned, excuse me, Gabe Vincent. I could call him Gabe Martin because Gabe Vincent's turned into Eastern Conference Finals. Caleb Martin, his numbers through games one and two, 19 and 23 points, nine and 16 on threes. Aaron Gordon, despite only having two points and one rebound through most of the first quarter, I loved his

energy, him looking to push it off of a rebound, you know, not only not just going, all right, you know, let me make sure I get to somebody else. I love that when you have guys that can handle enough to kind of push the ball up before people are getting ready. Speaking of things you don't always see, Reggie Jackson, 17 minutes total in five playoff games. I was surprised it was that high. He checked in here. And then as you're watching this game kind of play out in the first quarter and just just, you know, how do you feel, right? When I'm at home, I'm watching, I'm sure like most of you, okay, how do you feel about the way the game is going?

Butler's starting to feel it, 10 points on four or seven shooting in the first quarter. Denver, though, dominant in the paint, 10 to 20 points in the paint through the first quarter, and Miami zero turnovers. So it's 24-24, but this is important, something to kind of conclude the entire thing that I'm doing here. If Jokic go for 10, Murray go for eight, Butler go for 10, all in the first. Denver though, hadn't hit a three. They were 0 for five from three and they had four turnovers and Miami had none. So Miami zero turnovers plus six points on threes made

plus four points on free throws made and zero free throw attempts for Denver so you're like man I think Denver's playing better but it's tied again like boy doesn't this feel familiar right with all of the stuff that Miami finds a way to do and all the absurd numbers that they put up in the fourth quarter comebacks and all the stuff you're just watching it going because Miami's just not going to turn the ball over a lot but even that and Denver not hitting any threes because Miami's just not going to turn the ball over a lot. But even that, and Denver not hitting any threes, I'm like, is this going to be another,

like, is Miami actually going to win this game? That was not the case. I want to focus in on the zone again. I know I spend a lot of time on it, but I think there's some lessons in this one. We saw less zone because we saw less Duncan Robinson, but I always like it as something that can just kind of change the feel or change the pace of the game. Now, the final numbers will tell you in the 12 zone possessions, and there could be some arbitrary like, hey, is it 12? Is it 14? Does this one count actually as an extra possession of zone? Did they try to get into their zone and didn't really?

Whenever you track this stuff, I track it at home. I looked at Synergy this morning. They have it at 12. I think for the most part, we're all on the same page there. So the second quarter, Jokic is out. And there looked like there was something that Denver was trying to do where they were trying to attack the zone from this left break in the three-point line and get into the paint there. They even set a screen because I was looking for some kind of adjustment. What were we going to see here? There was a missed

Aaron Gordon layup. Second one, Bruce Brown missed an open five-foot runner. And then the third zone possession by Miami, Murray missed a wide open three. So zero points, three really good looks. What you'd want. You'd think, hey, good look, we'll take it if you're Denver. Jokic comes in, and they ran something where Jokic now is set up on the low right. And this is important because Christian Brown, who had this incredible game off the bench last night, his responsibility on this with Jokic, instead of catching at the free throw line, which is normally what you would do with the

zone but Miami extends it out so far and they're so good with it and they kind of invert it too by having Lowry play low and there's a bunch of different stuff that they do inside of it but it takes on all these different shapes and if

Jokic is catching it from a pass from the middle or the three-point line left or right side to the middle, Miami probably feels like they still have whatever Denver's trying to do somewhat contained, even though throughout the zone numbers in this series, I've still felt good about Denver's looks if it hasn't always played out statistically that way.

So they set up Jokic on the low right side, and Brown cuts from the opposite corner. He ends up getting a bucket. There's your first score in those first four possessions. We don't see the zone again until 139 left in the third quarter. The fifth possession zone defense here by Miami. Jokic gets a seal on Lowry, who's fronting him, and it's a perfect entry pass.

It's a great look, and Jokic actually just missed the layup. And then this one counts as an extra zone possession where it was an offensive rebound, where then it went off Jokic's leg. So that's six possessions that Miami's been in zone defensively, and it's only one made basket. Every look through these five slash six, because the offensive rebound's a little, you know, whatever. The next zone possession, Jokic, again, remember

the Brown thing we just talked about in the first half? They ran the same thing where Jokic is low on the right. He's actually asking Murray to throw it to Bruce Brown for a better angle at the entry pass, but in the movement of Miami's defenders, they left Jokic wide open. Brown sees it. It's the same concept. He cuts from the opposite side in another layup. They run the same thing now on the other side. Jokic is on the low left. Jokic points again to Murray to pass to Brown on the other side, or excuse me, Christian Brown, because he's now on that side with Jokic. He's not opposite. So they try to change up the look a little. And I almost felt like Jokic was pointing to the entry pass here as some kind of decoy, because then what they wanted to do was have it look the same, but change the personnel positionally. And now Jeff Green cut backside.

He actually made a nice catch. It wasn't the greatest pass. And he probably could have gone up for something contested at the rim on a back cut on the baseline. But instead, he then kicks it to Christian Brown, who misses an open three. But they get an offensive rebound, again, because of the zone. Next possession, Denver took a little too long. Looked like they were confused with their spacing a little. Jokic and Green were next to each other, but Jokic got a nice catch, curl, open floater,

misses, offensive rebound. Lowry fouls him, and then you have Jamal Murray with the make. Couple more here. Murray just beats Caleb Martin off the dribble bucket. Brown attacked the middle off the dribble, which Christian Brown's dribbling was a whole other part of this game that I think Miami wasn't necessarily prepared for. Jokic curled behind him, hits a runner, and then the final one, Jokic went to the free throw line to try to get the catch, but it was a pass to Brown. He drives right past Jimmy, who was defending kind of two different people, and then Jokic crashes behind Brown. He drives right past Jimmy, who was defending kind of two different people. And then Jokic crashes behind Brown. So like you have all of these guys that kind of go, wait, if he's over here, then I'll do this. I mean, I know this stuff sounds simple, but watching it play out and watching it again this morning, you're like, okay, they knew that they wanted to set up differently. They ran some of the same principles, but as long as the third person after Murray and Jokic knew kind of opposite

everything that I have to make sure I'm cutting because there's more space back here. So here's the point. That's 10 total points on 12 possessions against the zone. So that's like 0.83 points per possession. If you were to look at Denver in the playoffs with the pick and roll man offense, were to look at Denver in the playoffs with the pick and roll man offense, right, where it ends up being the roller, they're at like 1.19. So that all feels like a win. That all feels like a win. So it's 12, maybe 11 possessions. I'd argue every one of them, other than the offensive rebound after the open layup miss by Jokic, where it went off of his knee, I'd say every one of those possessions were all wins for Denver. But the numbers tell you today that it was actually successful.

And you're like, wow, how come Miami didn't do more of it? Well, they didn't do more of it because Duncan Robinson only played 14 minutes. But they also didn't want to do more of it because it wasn't working. And it hasn't worked nearly as much as I think you would think because of, hey, Miami does this. And I've fallen for it because I just watched Boston fall apart with it. But I was like, I just can't wait to see what happens with this. Okay, so Miami then also did something else defensively where they were trapping Jamal Murray, blitzing him, keeping the big up,

which really should be easy to counter after the first couple of times you screwed it up. And if you show it too many times in a row, it's pretty simple to throw it to Joker. They did have a turnover when they tried to do it, but they threw him to him on the sideline and Murray was a really tough pass to even make. You need to just bring up another outlet off of that. But it also leaves Jokic in a spot where if he does get it, it's four on three with Joker, which isn't necessarily something you want to do. Another thing I thought I saw more from Miami was Butler attacking Murray more, kind of getting back to some of that stuff we saw with him against Derek White early in the Celtics series. But Butler overall, even though he had what, 28 in this game, he and Bam in the paint were just really bad. And we'll get to the final

paint numbers here. Butler, by the way, going through his series game logs here against Miami, 38 points per game. New York, 25 points per game. Boston, 25 points per game. Miami, he's at 21 points per game, but he's only averaging 3.7 free throw attempts per game. So he still got points last night. He wasn't good in the paint we already mentioned, but he's not getting to the free throw line. And non-free throw attempt Jimmy Butler is a completely different tier of player. The Denver role players that we've been praising throughout this playoff run, and this is what makes what

Jokic and Murray did so special last night, these guys have pretty much been a letdown. KCP was 42 and 44 percent from three against Phoenix and LA. Right now, against Miami, he's averaging six a game on 31 and 22 shooting splits. Bruce Brown, 12 points per game in the first three rounds, nine points per game against Miami, not necessarily a big drop-off because you still trust him, I think, to be tough, make the right

catch. He's still capable of doing some things. Michael Porter Jr., though, has really been the story here. Looking at his rounds against Minnesota, 16 points per game on 42 from three. Against Phoenix, 13 points per game, but 38% from three. Against LA, 15 points per game, 42% from three. Against Miami, he's at seven points a game, 26% from the floor, 16% from three. He has been terrible. He was awful last night. His defensive rotations, some of the times where he doesn't know where he's supposed to be on offense,

where Aaron Gordon's like, dude, get away from me. Go to the other side. He had a play where he was on the weak side and he decided to leave Struess and another corner shooter wide open to double team Bam from the back where like Bam wasn't even a threat because there was already kind of a front on him anyway. Struess hit a wide open three and then he had another play in transition where it was kind of like off a turnover where he went to save the basketball and he threw it around his back. So he actually got benched in this one because Christian Brown's been so good. Eight minutes in game one, he basically looked like he was out of the rotation against LA after game one. And he goes from 15.78 from the floor,

the ball handling option for him, especially on those cuts where he can give you a couple dribbles more than just a guy who's attacking with his athleticism has been incredible. And he went right at Jimmy Butler on that fast break, which is pretty impressive. The role players from Miami, I think Spolster's in kind of search mode again here now. Love, who felt like the right adjustment

to give them more size to start the game, to prevent the Aaron Gordon deep seals against smaller players. He had only 16 minutes last night, and Duncan Robinson, 14 minutes, which we mentioned is maybe why they had less zone possessions. Or Spoh and his staff are going, I don't care what the numbers are.

We're not, they're getting good looks literally every single time. Going into the fourth quarter, I was curious how Malone was going to play it. I love this from their head coach. He went right with Jokic and Murray. Felt like he was going to go with them the whole way if it got close. It even looked like at one point there, Jokic was so tired. He'd given up an offensive rebound to Bam. Very short after that, the next possession, maybe one after that one. Back-to-back offensive rebounds, so three possessions in the same possession for Miami. And then Malone called a timeout. And I just thought at that point, Jokic was kind of spent, but not spent so much offensively. The final numbers for Murray, 34-10-10, triple-double for him. He hit a huge three on an 8-0 Miami run where it felt like, wait, is Miami going to find their way back into this thing?

That three was monumental for him. And then Jokic, all-time numbers here, 32-21-10. There are five total 30-20-10 playoff games. Jokic has three of them. He's the first ever player with a 30- 20, and 10 in the NBA finals. The first player ever. If you look at NBA history, there's been, I was looking this up this morning, so don't hold me to the exact number, essentially over 100,000 NBA games in the history of the sport, regular season and playoffs. 46 times has somebody gone for 30, 20, and 10,

46 times has somebody gone for 30, 20, and 10. And Jokic just had one in the NBA Finals. I'm so happy for this dude. Because now going into next season, well, who knows? You know, if they blow it, then everybody can say it sucks again. But you get the point. I've already covered it. You know, the Heat won Game 2.

This is from John Schumann from NBA.com. I always share some great numbers. He had 36 points on 19 possessions for Miami in the fourth quarter of game two. And we know the Miami numbers for them. Nobody wins games down eight or more in the fourth quarter of playoff games. And Miami has like four of the wins. Everybody else has one. Miami, he had them for 36 points on 19 possessions in the fourth quarter of game two. That's a per 100 offensive rating of 189.5.

That's such an absurd number because he said it's the best fourth quarter in any game by any team this season. That's what had to happen. That's what had to happen for Miami to get Game 2. The point, it's in the paint, 60-34 for Denver. Miami was plus 18 from three and had 10 less turnovers and still lost the basketball game. And that's because the point's in the paint, more so Miami not being able to finish.

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that way. You're getting 10% back on something that's a certainty to happen. Again, loose use of certainty. What I like in game four, Bam and Jokic to combine for 24 or more rebounds. That's minus one 25. And because I always think teams let up no matter what now give me this game goes six. So I'd have Denver losing at home in an elimination game in game five, which I know it doesn't make a ton of sense, but I'm going with it. So give me total games, six games plus 210.

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Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com forward slash sportsbook. I appreciate all the well wishes and checking in on me yesterday about the Chris Paul news that Chris Haynes had. Hold your condolences. So here's the tweet from Chris Haynes yesterday. Breaking Phoenix Suns have notified star Chris Paul news that Chris Haynes had. Hold your condolences. So here's the tweet from Chris Haynes yesterday. Breaking Phoenix Suns have notified star Chris Paul that he will be waived,

making the future Hall of Famer one of the top free agents this offseason. League sources tell NBA on TNT and Bleacher Report. That has 34 million views. I think the views thing on Twitter can be a little stupid at times. That's a big number. So here's the deal.

That could happen. I don't know how anyone would know that it was happening yesterday. Let's take a quick look at Chris Paul's contract. He's partially guaranteed for $30 million this upcoming season. So he's guaranteed $15.8 million if he was waived today or waived by the decision date, which is actually the decision that the Phoenix Suns have to make on Chris Paul's future on June 28th, right? So, a bunch of different options here. They could just keep him for $30 million next year, okay? They could waive him and then just have to pay him the $15.8 million, keep it on the books for this year. That would also eliminate the $30 million option on the table for $24 million and $25 million. If they waived him and kept the $15 million,

that would really open up very little flexibility for them financially and not knowing the rest of the moves and all the other stuff they're going to try to do. They could waive and stretch him over five years. That would cost $3.16 million each year over the five. So that's not much of a tax hit at all. And I shouldn't say taxes. I mean more like what it means for the cap. It would allow them some more flexibility. The team desperately needs it. So that would make sense, the stretch provision, if they were going to go ahead and decide to wave him. So they met on Wednesday and I'm sure all these things were covered. What I can't understand

is why it then became certain that Paul would be waived based on that meeting, because it doesn't make any sense. I don't know how any team would know that that was the decision they were going to make 20 plus days or what, three weeks is what it would have been with the report coming out on June 7th. The decision, again, to decide to waive him or keep him June 28th. So if you look at Phoenix and all the to-do stuff they have on their worksheet for this offseason, potentially an Aiton trade. I know Vogel said all the right things. That's what you do. You get hired.

You're like, hey, I'm going to work it out. The Monty Aiton thing was so bad. And maybe there's a way to figure that out. Although I feel like this is the season where I watched Aiton and just went, you know what? I don't think he's ever going to be as good as we want him to be. That's okay. Still a nice player, but for the money that he makes at that position

and being, what, a third option at best, maybe you could put those resources somewhere else. So I think an Aiton trade is definitely in play. It doesn't mean they're going to like what they get offered back. That's why as much as we love trading all these players in these imaginary scenarios, when you really find out what your guys are worth on the open market, more often than not, the teams are like, eh, that's stupid. I'm not going to go ahead and do that.

Eight and actually breaks one of my rules on like the one player for three player thing, where if you do that, you're probably going to look back and regret making that trade. Usually always lose that trade. But Phoenix may with Booker and Durant be in a position where it's like, what if we got where if you do that, you're probably going to look back and regret making that trade. Usually you always lose that trade. But Phoenix may, with Booker and Durant, be in a position where it's like, what if we got three really good players and yet a center that maybe isn't the best version of Aiton, although the best version doesn't show up enough? So there's still a big Aiton part of this puzzle that we don't know the answer to because the offseason hasn't even started yet.

Every team right now is mapping out their plans. Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, all the way down. So if there were an Aiton trade that they liked, would that impact a Chris Paul decision? Maybe. Maybe not. What if they don't like anything for Aiton? They go, okay, now we've got to figure out a Chris Paul move. Sure, we could waive him, but is there value for him? Now, I get it. He wasn't very good this year, and he gets hurt in the playoffs every single year. I got it.

I hate saying it, but it's the truth, and I'm not going to lie to you about any players just because I like them, but I don't think he's a zero-value player. So if there's a move to be made, while you're putting together your plan and all these other teams are putting together their plans and by the way most of these plans will not work out most of them mapping it all out going okay we've got this option we get this option this option as soon as some other thing happens around the league it can eliminate some of your potential

options and until we get closer to a deadline most of these teams might think they have an idea of what's possibly out there for them, but they don't know because the guys are like, maybe I do that. I'm not sure. This guy's asking for too much. This one's out of their minds. This is ridiculous. That's why these deadlines exist to actually get anybody to do anything because without them, I don't know that anyone would do anything. So when I look at Paul, there's no way if you're the sons, you would want to make it this definitive this early in the month before you have to do it, knowing that your plans are not going to work out to perfection and every other team isn't exactly going to execute everything they hope to do. So it doesn't make any sense.

to do. So it doesn't make any sense. It definitely could happen. Okay? But there's no way a team would know that with the certainty of the report that we got yesterday. KOC

in the house. Kevin O'Connor to talk some draft. We are two weeks away from it all going down in New York. And, of course, you can check out Kevin's work on TheRinger.com, the big board, draft guide, mock drafts, updated regularly. What's up, man? Two weeks to go. It's the best time of year, right?

Draft coming up, free agency around the corner, finals happening. This is a time I love basketball the most. There's not really much else to say about when Minyama at this point, but I'd like to just add this and take it wherever you want to go. He's still playing. He's still playing. And his team is now in the finals. They're going to play again on Saturday.

And the fact that this dude is still playing in these really competitive games and we have American kids who can't even get fucking measured at the combine that are borderline first round picks. There's a rant here somewhere. And I don't want to sound like an old guy but you know post lebron kd steph i don't know if the zion's the best bet is the next american player to take the mantle at least not today doesn't feel like it's a it's a big Zion future options trade. Um, who knows?

Whatever dudes hook up. But when I look at the future of the league, like who that first tier is and it's, it's Jokic, it's Giannis, it's, it's Luca, it's Embiid. And you know,

there's still some American guys in there and there's a chance maybe it's SGA is actually Canadian. So, you know, is it ant whatever I mean we can start going down that list I don't know if that means anything it may mean nothing it may only be about one menyama but it it stuck out to me when I watch him still playing these playoff games and I'm like this guy is still playing and we have dudes that are rumored to go

in the 20s telling teams picking in the teens that they can't show up for a workout. Yeah, Gigi Jackson. I don't want to show up. I don't want to pull up my stock anymore. You're right there, Ryan. I think with Wemby, the fact he's still playing, like you said, that first finals game is on Saturday. This dude's special. But the one thing I will say is this, though.

You say there's nothing more to add. Yes, there's nothing more to add. We, yes, there's nothing more to add. We know this guy's an all-time prospect. But you're right. There is more to add. When you watch him, go ahead. Go. Well, I mean, he is facing Monaco.

Earlier this year with Jay Kyle Mann on the Ringers NBA Draft Show, one of the podcast conversations we had, it was after the game. Remember when he had that step back three pointer that he missed, but then he followed it up with his own putback dunk. That play went crazy. Everybody was talking about it, but that game was against Monaco and it was his worst game of the entire season. He had eight points, 14 rebounds, three assists. It was his first and only game this entire season for mets 92 the entire playoff run that he had under 10 points and kyle man and i talked about that game because monaco we're gonna see this this weekend in the finals monaco defended him the way nba teams are

gonna defend him they were scram switching like they were switching this on ball screen putting a smaller guy on him. And then as Wemby was going into the paint, they would switch that smaller guy, Eliacobo, usually with a bigger guy. They were blitzing him in pick and rolls, trying to make him operate out of the short roll. They threw some zone at him, some pressure. They were constantly mixing up their defense, and it held him to under 10 points. So he's going to go number one. The Spurs are gonna take

him he's an all-time prospect but the last thing for him to prove is how does he get better from that second game he played this season against monaco when they forced him into his worst game of the year has he grown from then i just look forward to seeing that i'm very excited to watch these finals um because yeah he was not good that game. He really struggled offensively. Behind him, are you a Scoot guy or a Brandon Miller guy? I'm a Brandon Miller guy. I've been there since late November, early December, something like that.

I mean, look, I don't want to sound like a Scoot hater. I'm not. I have Scoot 3, and I really like scoot. But you're comparing a 6'9 wing who can splash threes. Back in high school, he was a mid-range guy. Alabama did not emphasize mid-range at all. He showed the growth getting to the basket at 6'9. He can create shots for others.

He's a good playmaker. You're comparing that 6-9 player versus 6-2 shot creator downhill guy who's doesn't get to the free throw line very much has yet to prove he can shoot from outside and we know watching the playoffs 6-2 guys get targeted even if they're competitive so i mean like i just think you're comparing a small guard against a big wing. I'm going to favor the big wing in this situation, and I have for some amount of months now. Are you with me on that? I feel like the Scoot stuff is kind of growing.

People are kind of pushing back against Brandon Miller, and there's more Scoot support lately that I've seen, at least on draft Twitter and even with some of my conversations with people around the league. I like Scoot a little bit more, and it has more to do with the juice that I see from him and some of the stuff. He's a year younger where I know this season wasn't as good as the flashes

maybe of last year when the team was more talented with, what, three other first-round picks playing around him. And then this year it's going to be Leonard Miller. first round picks playing around him and then this year it's going to be leonard miller uh i i there's just something there's just something about him that i i think he sees some stuff i'm always big on young guys it's kind of like the scotty barnes thing where i was a freshman i was like holy shit i can't believe like some of the stuff that he's pointing out like some of those things that he sees the reads he'd be telling another teammate hey you know you should be doing this and that was something as a freshman i'm like man you just don't see that very often and those things that he sees, the reads, he'd be telling another teammate, hey, you know, you should be doing this.

And that was something as a freshman, I'm like, man, you just don't see that very often. And with Scoot, as much as he can get downhill, and there is some real Chris Paul stuff to him where he beats a blitz, he'll see the blitz coming and he's already anticipating it because he's like, oh, you think you're going to blitz me? Or you're going to do this?

You're going to trap me? Like he's already kind of, like if you do it to him once, he's ready for the next part of it. And then once he gets into that paint and keeps the defender on his back and then he pulls up, it already looks like NBA ready. And that's it. I agree with everything you said about Brandon Miller. I did notice your note there though, because I don't really care about the tournament stuff. It's great if the person has these big moments and hits these big shots and it helps their stock and all that kind of stuff.

Clearly, there's some players where you watch the tournament where it's like, man, that guy looked terrible and Miller did not have a great tournament. But you're saying he had a groin injury? Is that true? I'm not that I'm disputing the report, but do you have that in one of your guides? I believe, yeah, that's in the draft guide.

I know it was reported at the draft guide i know it was reported at the time i think it was like late late february or maybe uh during the conference tournament that he suffered that groin injury um i know their head coach nate oats has talked about that saying that he had a groin injury i mean that's no excuse for you know the dud performances that he had you'd like to see a guy continue to excel through pain um so you could use that as a negative against him but i do think like groin injuries are something that we've seen you know players sidelined by and and perhaps if it were you know not the tournament he would have been resting in those games um i just think like it did it did sap him of of some of the quickness

um on defense it's like on drives to the rim he wasn't turning the corner as quickly as he did over the course of the season because i i don't know i i i think you can look at those tournament games and really feel disappointed by his performance and use that as a negative against him but i still think i'm still focused more on like the south carolina game when he had 41 points and he's finishes regulation tying it with a lefty drive to the basket and then in overtime he's using pump fakes to create space to get into a righty layup and then he wins the game at the end of overtime with a lefty layup after going left to right crossover to get into the paint like that's the growth that he

that he really experienced over the course of the season was getting better at finishing at the basket by using his offhand, using little shoulder and shimmies and pump fakes to create space. I interviewed him back in December and he said to me, he's like, I know I got to get better

at finishing at the basket. I know I have to incorporate more stuff into my game and I know I have to get stronger. And that's exactly what he did. So, I mean, the groin injury, I do think that did affect him. But I understand if someone says he still should have been better than he was in the tournament because it wasn't very good. Yeah. I'm not worried about the tournament thing because the shot making is absurd. I watched the Arkansas game this week and he has a three at the top. And it's a big shot in the moment too, where you're like, I can't, I don't know how long the list is of

college players that could have even made that, or they would have been benched had they attempted it. But, uh, yeah, I don't really have anything negative to say about the basketball player, other than I I've just been Scoot a little bit more. Maybe it's everybody getting caught up on it again. Here's the other thing. If it's not for Wimbanyama and a lot of other drafts, Scoot or Brandon Miller would go number one.

That's how nice it is at the top. The drop-off, though, after those three, I'll say this, too. Every year, when we're about a year or two out from the next draft right or the draft two years from now because like right now next year's draft is already being talked about as like one of the worst ever

but a year ago this year's draft wasn't going to be very good and then we get closer and closer to it and it's like you know some interesting guys there's a lot of talent there's some sneaky guys I'm not there no I've watched basically the top 40 guys. And I think there's a huge group from the late teens where I'm like,

these guys are going in the late teens and some of the guys in the 20s. If I had a pick in the 20s, I'd be like, let me just get out of this thing. Unless you're so certain that you're getting it right on somebody that everybody else has missed on. But the other part of this draft is the uncertainty for the second tier. And I think we should just start with the Thompson twins. I'll let you go first here on this one. And I think you have it reversed based on what a lot of mocks have. But give me your breakdown of two kids that we've been hearing about for a long time and physically and athletically are exactly what you would want in the NBA. 20 years old, 6'6", shot creators. What you know they're going to do is be really tough,

active defenders. And like any team drafting them, you're drafting them knowing that they're going to compete on defense and they're going to rebound for their position. And they're going to try to make the best decision on the floor as playmakers in their own right. Ahman Thompson the kind of the 100th percentile athlete um and then osar thompson being like slightly worse as an athlete but looking better as a shooter throughout you know the last two years playing an overtime elite um but also this really since the season ended his shot just looks like it's improved quite a bit more whereas amen thompson has a very bad hitch and a low release so like the people that have worked out with both asar and amen really like the progress asar has made so like you know just to interrupt most people have have had

amen ahead of asar here for years right yes amen has been the guy most people have ahead because of that like 99th percentile 100th percentile athleticism he's been the guy who has been the guy most people have ahead because of that like 99th percentile 100th percentile athleticism he's been the guy who's been the primary playmaker and ball handler asar being the guy who's been playing more off ball but i mean asar has outperformed him both seasons in the ot he looks better pre-draft um i think it's time you know at least on my personal board to move asar ahead but the main question with both of these guys especially with amen is what level are they going to be as jump shooters like are these guys going to ever be threats from outside they've been sub 30 they've had long streaks where they shoot sub 20 from three where they've been ineffective pulling up from mid range, um, pulling up like even from close and the OTE, like,

I mean, Ryan, I have a hard time watching some of these games, like scouting them. There's not a lot of talent. Um, it's like glorified pickup in a lot of ways. And granted it's a young basketball league. It's not like they were dropping, you know, 35 points per game. They averaged 16 and like a crappy level of competition in comparison to Scoot with the G League or in comparison to college basketball, never mind overseas competition. It's hard to get a feel for these guys. You're gambling. You're gambling if you do end up taking them in the mid-lotto. These games are tough, man. I'm not dumping on the

product. That's not what i'm saying like it's it's not for everybody whether it's the light show that happens in possessions the n1 that's my godson pa announcer going throughout the entire thing like it's just different that's not you know what i'm saying is that doesn't bother me like i don't even notice it after a little while although i'll tell you the light show where the entire arena went dark while a team had the ball was trying to run through a set i don't see that a lot um but that's that's not why i have a hard time with it it's just i well i've watched both of them now quite a bit and i'm convinced i'm gonna get it wrong

like i'm convinced i'm gonna get it wrong because the athleticism and their size and the handle, I mean, God, when these guys get in transition, it's incredible. Some of the passing in transition is incredible. Osaru on the shots, sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's terrible. I think for a lot of young players, the shooting percentage is just going to increase because they're not going to be allowed to take

some of the ridiculous shots that they take. There'll be a catch turnaround from asara where i'm like oh my god like that's already that's already an nba guy at six six six seven which is another weird thing that i hate that they've gone away from the height in shoes because now everybody feels like they're shorter but we're comparison the guys now with the standard of the height without shoes which is our own little thing that nobody else would really care about. But the games, when I watch them, I'm like, you're so much more physically gifted and you're bigger than a lot of the dudes you're going up against and they're older than a lot of the guys you're going up against.

I'd like to see them be more consistently dominant physically and on drives. And it's there, but then they'll also kind of get caught in sort of the high school thing of like, I've been so good my whole career that I can, I hate when guys in the NBA do this. Happens more in the regular season, but it's like, okay, I got the ball, I brought it up, now everybody get ready.

You know, everybody take a deep breath. I'm going to attack here shortly. And there's way too much of that, which I'm sure both these kids have had so much success because it's never mattered because they are so gifted. But they settle for so many bad shots. They force a ton of bad passes. So the good to great is always balanced by a run of possessions where you're like, what the F is going on out there? balanced by a run of possessions where you're like, what the F is going on out there? And that it's not an OTE thing as much as like, you know, you're on your seven city Reapers game and you're like, I can't watch any more of this right now, man. It's tough. So it reminds me a bit of the Jalen Brown conversation coming out of Cal when the Celtics took him third behind Simmons and Ingram, where when I'd asked years later, I was like, boy, he wasn't very good at Cal. What did you see? And the answer I got was, it just felt like physically he hit this

profile of exactly what you wanted. And that Cal season was a mess collectively for a bunch of different reasons. And I'm wondering if that's the decision with either one of these dudes where you go, hey, there's some more guys that are more polished. There's more guys that maybe we have a better feel for. But the ceiling for them and that physically you're never going to worry about them, athletically you're never going to worry about them, if that's the decision that a team would default to knowing they're taking the lesser player right now.

And that's why they can't. In another draft, I was thinking back to like the jonathan isaac draft i was like i can't you know granted whatever has happened to him doesn't matter but you know when he was healthy i'm like man this guy's going fifth like i think in a stacked top draft there's no way we're thinking either one of these guys would go for yeah i mean you're right a hundred percent i mean i think with amen and osar the fact we're talking about them as the fourth pick um it it shows that you're you might just be willing to gamble there over over some of the guys that in the middle of the lottery that you feel like okay yeah yeah they they have a shot of being a really good role player maybe a one-time all-star.

Whereas with Ahmed and Asar, I mean, that's why it comes back to their defense. I mean, I'm 100% with you on their offense. Some of the weaknesses there, the sloppy decision-making, even the at-rim finishing. You look at their numbers in the half court against teams that aren't playing seven-foot behemoths protecting the basket. They still shoot under 50% on layups finishing at the rim, the both of them, in the half court. So I think that's the tough part about gauging them offensively. They just feel like just a dramatic gamble.

you're betting on their shot creation and that at some point they figure out how to score with efficiency which neither of them have done at any level just for short spurts especially all has but neither of them have been effective shooters mid-range guys or even at rim other than in transition defense though is you do i do feel like you can rely on their defense i think the both of them they have length they have toughness they have the mindset both of them could be locked down guys on defense with versatility they can offer you know help side room protection um since they're so vertical like they can provide that um so you're so you're you get that at the least and you get someone who can handle the ball and and and pass but how are they going to end up as scorers that that's where like i i just don't know and i have no idea and if i had

the fourth or the fifth pick this year like part of me would want to lean towards you know the quote-unquote safer player like a you know a jarris walker taylor hendricks maybe gamble on a cam whitmore i'd want to trade down i i don't know if I'd want to be the guy that drafts Osar or Ahmed Thompson unless I'm a team that can miss. If you can miss and take this big swing, then they're worth it. You're betting on their character and their athleticism. But if you can't miss, boy, I'd be frightened to take them. How would you compare them to Kaminga?

I like them better than Kaminga because of the shot creation aspects. With Kaminga, he was more just about the athleticism. But his decision-making, his creation was terrible in the G League. It's still not that good for Golden State. Asar and Amen, I mean, you mentioned some of their shots that they took, terrible decisions, but they can pass. They can pass. They can create for others.

They can run, pick, and roll. They make, you know, Ahman especially has so seasoned over the years by getting so many reps. He is good at reading the floor as a playmaker, kicking out, you know, those NBA-style point guard passes, finding corner three-point shooters either in the left or right corner, finding guy for lobs. He's good at drawing defenders. So I think that's what gives them the edge for me is that playmaking ability, that creation and the certainty you have with them

on defense compared to Kaminga. The passing isn't even close. You're absolutely right. Yeah. And that I think is the thing about these two dudes is that normally this profile player you're like oh so you're all about yourself cominga was all about himself when i go back and watch some of the early things um and then he was kind of lost in the g league thing but i had to go back and watch the the ravens au thing just to try to get a better feel of where he was at offensively because the g league stuff he looks so lost. And even the best version of Kaminga, it's still pretty single-mindedness when he's out there offensively. And with the Thompson twins, both of them, man. I mean, Ahmed, it probably tips the scales for him

because it felt like when they were growing up, Asar's playing off of them a lot, but their lobs, I don't know if that's just them. They are so good on the lobs at times even to each other, but the passing element of their game, and they're really competitive too. It changes like, okay, yeah, if this isn't some peak 20 points per game, like wing score, which the profile of that's not an absurd thing to happen. And the decision-making, you know, there's just no way an NBA coach is going to be okay with some of the stuff that they do, which, you know, there's just no way an NBA coach is going to be okay with

some of the stuff that they do, which, you know, who knows how soon they'd even have to worry about that. But the playmaking separates them from some of these other guys are like, oh my God, sick athlete and put it on the floor, dribble through guys, you know, physically gifted and all these great things. But yeah, the passing part of it, like Kaminga wasn't even on his radar. All right. So speaking of single-mindedness, I think this is kind of good to stay in this next group. I want to talk Cam Whitmore, Villanova, and then Taylor Hendricks out of Florida. Whitmore, I brought this up to you this week.

He gets by everybody every single time. This cannot be overstated. You know how when you're at home and you're mad that your guy isn't getting to the rim enough, you're like, why don't they just drive to the hoop? Why don't they just drive to the hoop? Well, sometimes because of the defense and sometimes they're tired and just fans want everybody to just dribble through everybody the whole time. You will never have to worry about that with Cam Whitmore because he's going to drive to the hoop every single time. And the success that he had at Villanova this one season with his body type too, a bigger, thicker guy

and finding a way to just get past the defender as consistently as he did it's really special and it's why he's even in this group because I don't think he's a shooter. I think he makes shots at times I don't love his handle

and I worry about where's his body going to end up because he's pretty thick already right now as a young kid. But he gets by defenders the entire game. One of the best in all of college basketball attack and closeouts. I think at times he would record scratch when he would catch the ball and he would kind of go into a three-point you know the stance and try to try to you know and be in a position triple threat where he would you know kind of handle and play around a little bit but when he would grab and go

and just attack the basket i mean that's what you want to see him doing in the nba where he's being decisive with his movements but even when he did triple threat um it didn't matter and he still was getting by guys with ease especially when he went to his left um he loves to go left uh more so than going right finishing left at the rim or on the left side using his right hand um i think with him like you mentioned his his handle ryan i i think with him like he he like kyle man and i have talked about this a bunch this year it feels it feels like he has a lot of these moves where he's worked on them in the gym, these crossovers. He just doesn't create a ton of space with them.

Part of that is because of his shaky jumper. But do you think it's at least encouraging when we're talking about him in those straight line drives, getting to the basket at will being a guy who's at least a competent shooter is at least encouraging that he's got these moves developing in his bag like is is there is there the jalen brown path where like you mentioned his year at cal when he's driving into the lane and there's two bigs clogging the paint but you saw somebody's kind of clunky robotic moves, that's got to be at least a positive indicator for Whitmore, right?

That he has him. His crossover, when he knows what he wants to do with it, it's special. It's actually really locked in. But the difference for ball handlers with me is like I'll have my, are you a zero dribble guy? Are you a two dribble guy? Or are you somebody who can actually dribble? And I felt like at times when he had to freelance with the handle, he wasn't as sure of himself.

Yeah. Where there's other times when he knew he was setting the defender up with a crossover. It's Iverson shit. I mean, I'm serious. He had a couple of crossovers this season. Again, I shouldn't even say that because it's blasphemy, but there's a few crossovers for a guy his size. Like, I can't even say that because it's blasphemy, but there's a few crossovers for a guy his size. You're like, I can't believe it. I would add this.

Look, 34% from three tells you he'd probably get better at it. And his shot is almost weird. It's almost like he's a puncher where once he got the distance down, it looks great. But if he didn't have it like sized up, and I don't know that you wanted him kind of ISO dribbling and taking some of the threes he did, but honestly so many kids now like they just see it so much that they just think they're supposed to if they're perimeter players. The assist ratio is absurdly low. He had an assist on 6% of his possessions. He averaged 0.7. And that's for somebody that had the ball a decent amount once he got out there. I know there was a slower start with him getting minutes. He didn't start every game. But towards the end, there's a game against Providence where he's so hyped so early that the Providence,

he almost kills the Providence defender in the post because he turns at him with such ferocity where the Providence guy's like, dude, I'm not even sweating yet. Like, I'm not ready for this. And Whitmore's already at this insane level. And I'm not comparing it to Lou Dort because they're different players, but I think the part of the miss on dort going as late as he did is like do you are you equating for the energy and aggression that he is going to play with every time he is out there and hell for dort

it doesn't even have to have a ball to play with aggression that's how awesome he is and all the other facets of his game whitmore it's with the ball but is he just going to keep getting by guys because like part of it when i watch kevin i go is he just going to keep getting by guys because like part of it when I watch Kevin I go is he really going to get by NBA guys this consistently like aren't they going to try to close off his left aren't they not going to be as upright aren't they not going to like close out as hard you know there's just times with him where I'll go he keeps getting to the rim it's incredible how often he keeps getting to the rim like is he going to be able to do this in the league and even though I don't hear many teams agreeing with me on,

I'm not even saying it's a conclusion. It's just a question I ask when I watch. But maybe it's that it's not about defenders preparing for it. It's that his level of drive, his aggressiveness, man, is so peak all the time that he's still going to find a way. He's going to have to evolve. That's for sure. I mean, I think you nailed it when you said teams stopping short on closeouts, preventing him from attacking those closeouts going to his left. He's going to have to change his shot by it his decision making um i mean like

he on synergy pulled up his numbers just now he shot 40 on catch and shoot threes 29 on dribble jumper threes but he took 20 more 20 more dribble jumper threes though like he because because a lot of times he would stop the ball go into into an ISO and take sidesteps or step backs rather than just catch and shoot. And an NBA team is going to have to make him decide more decisively. And is he going to do that considering his poor feel with double the turnovers and he had assists? It's a lot that he's going to have to improve on, but it's, it's kind of, it's easy to see the path to success with his athleticism and his defense, but that's going to come down to his own decisions and the type of player that he wants to allow himself to be.

And also the, the situation that he falls into. I mean, like if he goes to a Houston team with the fourth pick, um, and they're as messy as they were last season, you know a big factor for him i think more than a lot of prospects in the lottery this year in determining who they become as nba players do you like him or taylor hendricks from ucf on my board i give hendricks the nod i have hendricks at six and I have Whitmore at eight. And with Hendricks, I just think the defensive ability, he checks everything that you want that we're seeing in the postseason. As a rim protector at 6'8", as a help guy, switchable on defense.

Offensively, he's a 40% guy. He can attack closeouts. He makes smart decisions. he's a willing screener he played center a lot in high school he shows some flashes of upside off the dribble but like i think overall there's like a very high floor with him with sprinkles of a of a playoff ceiling like he's the type of important playoff player with his qualities that I give him the edge over Camo and more. The thing I like about Hendricks, and you touched on it too, watching, I felt like in UCS regular season games,

he would set up almost as a center sometimes, right? And some of the catch and shoot stuff, like no dribble at 6'9", with a seven wingspan, just over seven feet wingspan. Catch and shoot shit real like dude how old is this guy he's 20 November you know it's maybe not the same motor as some of the other

dudes that you'd want to see but his defensive versatility and the fact that he competes defensively and I also thought too you know he could get stuck in the corner a lot with what they wanted to do because of his shooting and the spacing but he was also smart enough at a young age to see like if somebody on the opposite side was into trouble or he was being ignored the defender had its back to him like he was already kind of feeling or finding that weak spot in the zone like a receiver would against a football team

where he'd be like you know what i'm gonna kind of drift over here and freelance a bit. But the freelances were like the right freelances, the right cuts. He comes back to the ball. So there's some good off ball stuff from him for six, nine. And if you can shoot like this and can defend four positions, maybe even five, uh, if you're going small, I'd give him the nod, even though from an aggression, pure effort standpoint, like fewer fewer even in Whitmore's class all right let's go fast here uh with the rest of this Anthony Black or Keontae George right now I currently give the slight edge to Anthony Black 10th on my board 11th with Keontae George I started the year having Keontae George higher, and he's kind of growing back with me again.

There's a lot of positive pre-draft stuff with him. But Black, I'll give him the slight edge because he's 6'6", playmaker, versatile defender. You know he has those qualities in him, whereas George, you're betting on the scoring translating at 6'4", a bit smaller. You want to see him continue to improve as a playmaker like he did for Baylor this past season. But I'll give like the very, a very tiny edge to Anthony Black right now. And I very, I could change that before draft night too. Yeah, I probably lean to Black only because I think there can be more to his game.

You know, he can fit in in more scenarios because of the different roles that he was asked to take on with Arkansas, which had a bunch of different really talented guys that kind of gave you different looks depending on who was available the whole time. If you watch Keontae against Kansas, you're like, how come this guy's not going forth? There's a lot of scoring instinctive

stuff from him that's pretty cool. I know he had a bad tournament, but he had a play against UCSB where he you know, he forced a turnover by then kind of like dove to the floor to get the ball and then was already up and out of the break. And you had to watch it again to realize that it was the same guy. You're like, wait, that guy that just did that then was on the ground. He's already up as the ball was rolling out to become an outlet in transition. And despite having a tough game, to see him still kind of locked in like that was impressive. All right, next one here.

All right, Lively or Koulibaly? I'll go with Lively here. I mean, he started off the year struggling for Duke. But, I mean, so like Lively, we know what he is. He's rim running, rim protecting big man. Like that's what he was at Duke, finishing at the rim, blocking shots, a bit of versatility at Duke as well. But I give him the edge over Kulabali, who's a wing. So we're comparing different positions here because with Kulabali, he doesn't run many pick and rolls from Mets 92. He doesn't show off much playmaking skill, even though he has feel he's a good cutter. He can move without the ball. I think that's valuable in its own way. But with lively as a big man, he shows some flashes, Ryan, like the playmaking from out of the short roll, finding corner shooters out of post-ups with, with lively's where i'm i'm very intrigued

with him being more than just like a screen and roll guy i think he's somebody who could if he if he develops more into the top ranked high school player that we saw when he's shooting corner threes and whatnot the playmaking feel with him is that skill that separates him from a lot of guys. Defensively with Lively, I get it. I'd say offensively, if it's not a lob and he has the ball, he's not comfortable. He's just not comfortable at all. I've seen the workout clips.

I get it. Apparently you can shoot threes. That's cool, man. But I felt whenever it was a time where he had to think about something, like I'll never forget, like when I watched James Wiseman, I was like, okay, the floor for him would be a rotational big, comes off the bench, runs like crazy for 15 minutes or whatever. But offensively, there's a high end to him where his touch,

that's incredible. But what always scared me was that when he had to think instead of play, you could see him processing it, and it just doesn't work. You have to break that habit somehow, and it's bad when you even see it. I could see a few times at Lively where it was a weird Duke team with a lot of different options, but the lobs and the rolls are great. But in today's NBA,

he's going to have to do everything else defensively, which maybe he's capable of doing, for his offense to even, you know, his offense, I think at this point, for his offense to even, you know, his offense, I think at this point, it'd be tough to even get him on the floor unless he's allowed or turns into somebody completely different. Kulibaly's interesting because the wingspan's 7'3 at 6'7. He's 19 in July. He's playing against, or he's playing next to Wimbanyama, so we've all seen him a lot. There's some weird three-point numbers on him that are floating out there where I think the best one is like in the mid-30s.

I don't know if you agree or disagree. Because the league stuff can be kind of weird when you look at the international stuff because then you'll see a season and you're like, oh my God, this guy's like 40% from three, which is like one stretch of one season that he had. But then you've got to look at everything else and go, okay, I don't think – he's not a 45% three-point shooter is my point. I think he's kind of a mid-30s guy.

And on top of that, all of those shots are wide open in that offense because nobody gives a shit. They just let him do it the entire time. I wouldn't call him soft. I don't know that I would even call him hesitant, even at times if I was wondering it. He's just so incredibly raw that the more you watch him, the more comfortable you might get with him having the ball in his hands.

But then there are some times you're like, dude, you drive to the rim without any plan whatsoever. You just think you're allowed to because you have the ball and your foot is in the paint. You can just throw it at the backboard. It's a little Ryan Rupert-ish where there's just these young wings with all this athleticism that they're like, I think I'm allowed to just kind of hope it goes in. And there's no plan whatsoever. So I'll go with Lively here only because I feel like Koulibaly benefits from so much just being ignored so often on offense that I think that kind of, I actually think it would get tougher for him if he was actually in an NBA rotation because I'm really surprised how often I would see at least this season where the other team did not care about him at all. It's going to depend on the development of that jumper

for sure with Koulibaly. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, next one. Bryce Sensabaugh or Nick Smith? I have those guys right back to back on my board sense about 17 nick smith at 18 um both of them 19 years old both of them project as scorers sense of bond more of kind of the you know go-to score isolation mid-range guy and nick smith more of the you know he can move without the ball um but also can project as a guy doing a bit off the dribble. I just Nick Smith. He's just a pure projection. I think like he even in high school, I went back. People, you know, say go back to his high school stuff. He was never a super efficient shooter in high school either.

He's like he's just a purely theoretical guy. And with Sensabaugh, I give him the slight edge here because at least we saw it in college. Yes, there is a reluctance from him to pass the ball. He has an injury history back in high school. He doesn't play much defense at all. So there's some concerns with Sensabaugh. But at least we saw him score with great efficiency at the college level. He can hit catch-and-shoot threes. He can pull up from mid-range. And when he wants to, he had a seven-assist game earlier this year for Ohio State as well.

So he could have that in his game. One. There's one. There's one, Ryan. One game where he passed the ball at least. He has that on his resume. Nick Smith, he barely played, and he also, like, it was purely theoretical in high school as well.

Nick Smith, Alabama game, you're like, oh, that's why this guy was number one on one of the recruiting boards coming out, why he was this big get. I don't know what would happen with a knee injury, you know, whether he was shut down. But at least he came back and played. But he gets benched in the tournament. They were better without him towards the end.

There's a lot working against him. Although the Alabama, some of the buckets that he got, you're like, oh, okay, this is why you were considered who you were. He freezes, I think, Clowney maybe in the paint on just a hesitation inside out dribble, and it's like nasty. Sensabaugh, I would say the top 20 guy is probably my least favorite player. I think he's at best an off-the-bench scorer. in the paint on just a hesitation inside out dribble and it's like nasty uh since the boss i would say the top 20 guys probably my least favorite player i think he's at best and off the bench score i don't like his body i can't believe he gets a shot off as much as he does ohio state

felt like half the team was the intramural football team playing basketball this year he had 24 minutes took 12 and a half 12 and a half shots a game in 24 minutes the team wasn't very good i think it got to a point where it's like, okay. He makes enough shots to justify him taking them, so it actually, I think, works out. I probably liked watching it less than the actual production, but I'll give Nick Smith the default. Okay, last one really quickly here.

We'll change it up here. We'll stay in the ACC, though. Tariq Whitehead, another number one recruit. The three number ones here were lively nick smith and whitehead depending on the recruiting service you are looking at or bobby clintman who gives us late career channing fry vibes late career channing fry what an insult i thought channing i thought channing was okay there at the end i mean i yeah sure he was fine he was fine but i was fine, but I think in terms of.

He found a way to fit in. Yeah, yeah. Sure, but also, I mean, he's playing like 10 minutes per game late career. The Bobby Klittman, if you're drafting him. Maybe Phoenix Channing Frye. Okay, all right. Fine. Phoenix Channing Frye.

Fair, fair. Bobby Klittman, I like him, man. I mean, I went back after the college season and really, I mean, I'm not watching much Wake Forest during the year when we're covering the NBA full-time and covering a lot of the top prospects. But going back to watch those Wake Forest games and some of the stuff he was doing for the Swedish national team, the under-20 team, this dude's got some versatility, man.

Like the defense, he can playmake a little bit within the flow of the offense. He's not a shot creator at 6'10", but defensive versatility, the shooting ability off the catch, he just feels like a guy that has, you know, he's like the, if you can't get Taylor Hendricks in the middle of the lottery, maybe you draft Bobby Clintman in the late teens or the 20s or even the early 30s

depending on what his range will be on draft night if he stays declared. So it'd be interesting with Klintman to see what he does and where he falls, but I like him a lot as kind of a gamble in the 20s. Yeah, he was born in Sweden, was in high school in Kansas.

He's big, but I wouldn't call him a stiff by any stretch. No. He's a little bit older, I think, for his class. But you know exactly what he's going to be. He's going to be a big dude at 6'9 who can shoot three. He's going to make threes. So he actually is a much safer bet than Whitehead,

who had the higher profile coming in. The second foot surgery for Whitehead that we just learned about recently, that probably changes everything for him. But Whitehead, when you want to talk about like catch and shoot guys, and watch the Syracuse game where he found the seams and he knocked them down. But it was a weird year for Duke because then there's nights where he's barely taken any shots with what that team was. And, you know, if you just watch like his body, his size, the shot making, you're going like, wait a minute, how come this guy isn't going higher?

I don't know if there's some Cam Reddish vibes being given off there as well. I would have definitely said Whitehead ahead of this, but the second foot surgery now, I think there's going to be teams that are really scared off of it because his ceiling is still much higher than Bobby's is. The strangest thing about Smith and Lively and Whitehead is, again, to repeat it, that's three number one guys in the different recruiting services.

If you go back the last 11 years, the player that was number one in a high school ranking, the latest pick, I believe, is Emmanuel Moutier at seven. And we're going to have three different ones that all likely are not coming close to the lottery. Wow. Even if you want to factor in Gigi Jackson, who was originally the number one in next year's class before reclassifying,

he might not go until the twenties. Like he's, he is plummeted from a number one high school guy as well. Weird. That's it's, it's pretty unheard of. If you think about it, I believe five since Anthony Davis,

including him have gone number one overall and i was going through it again this morning i know the recruiting stuff like hey wait a minute this guy was actually number one at this point then he didn't go or whatever so maybe there's a line of delineation that i needed to specify there a little bit more but anyway you can check out all the koc stuff on ringer.com all the draft stuff two weeks away. Can't wait to do the show with you, man. Thanks, Ryan. They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby.

You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life advice. Life advice email is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Hit us up. And, by the way, big congrats to Kyle. He is off today. Getting married this weekend. Cerny, did Bill say whether or not he's going? to Kyle. He is off today. Get married this weekend. Certainly did Bill say whether or not he's going? He is.

He's fine today. He recorded his pod last night. I think if the Celtics were in the finals, this might be a different story. But luckily for content purposes, the Heat won the Easter conference. So yeah, he's going. He was like, yeah, I'll watch it on my phone. I'll watch game four on my phone at the wedding. It'll be fun.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's doable. It's, he was getting, we had people chiming in on life advice. They were sort of upset about it. I was kind of skating because they were more mad at Bill. So, like it was Bill's salation

for me. Were you just out because of the timing? Were you just like, finals, I can't do it, can't handle it? I was telling somebody

this story about how I invited you to my wedding and I just never, I didn't think you were going to come at all. So it wasn't really like a bummer to me that you didn't,

but some people were bummed out about it. But did you, was there ever a time where you entertained going to yours? No, no, no. To Kyle's during the finals a time you entertained going to yours no no no to kyle's during the finals i definitely entertained going to yours the problem is i think i just done a connecticut east coast boston swing and you and i talked about it and as long as

i knew you and i were cool i didn't really care what anybody else had to say about it and yet there were some people that were really like disappointed that i didn't go they're like i can't believe you didn't fucking go it's like i can't i can't believe you think it's this big of a deal gave you a pretty nice wedding gift so i think everybody was cool with it um and i've told kyle the same but just for the record kyle never i kept waiting to be invited and i was never invited oh you didn't get the invite but i no i never got an invite oh i, I thought. OK, OK. Well, I guess that clears it up. All right. Maybe he just knew. I'm sure Kyle, once he realized because it came up, I think the first time it ever came up was on the pot. And I was like, when are you getting married in? Because I kind of like was waiting to go. How am I going to figure this out? Right. You know, is it going to be during an East coast swing? Well, it makes sense for me. And then he was like, yeah,

I'm getting married game for the NBA finals. And I went, Oh, okay. And he's like, yeah, he's like, I didn't even bother.

So, um, would I have been invited if it weren't in the NBA? Yeah. Right. Like the NBA playoffs. Yes. I imagine I,

I would have been invited despite the content. Uh, we've all gotten out of this relationship. Um, why some of the audience can't understand why I wouldn't want to get hammered at four o'clock in the afternoon at a dive bar in L.A. Just take me forever to get to. And then I'm drunk at like, what, eight? Then what? Like, go home.

You know, I just i don't know it's it's not anything i'm it's just not it's just not a good fit for my schedule right now yeah not in the cards right now it's fine yeah yeah right um even if i had a few days off would i want to do that my day off i don't know um at this point obviously i have to at some point because kyle but specific to the wedding to make sure we're all on the same page it was not a a, well, I was never invited. He just knew he wasn't going to invite me because it was game four, but we had never talked about it. He read the room.

Yeah, he knew. He knew. Yeah, I mean, he couldn't do that with Bill. Bill was getting the invite no matter if he was coming or not. Because I think they have some, like they were talking about, they have some family thing too, like over the weekend. They they have some family thing, too, like, over the weekend. They got a big thing planned, so. Yeah, so, I mean,

love his work here, haven't known him his entire life. Bill did make a great joke last night, though. So I was supposed to go to our concert last night. I was going to go see Young the Giant in Bridgeport, but I don't know if you've seen, but there's, like, this massive smoke thing that's just engulfed the east coast and it was like kyle goes east and all of a

sudden the entire like you know northeast is covered in smoke is it a coincidence i don't know maybe maybe not we'll see how it goes but yeah no kyle brought the smoke which is i guess very very apropos yeah i saw a media member be like oh global warming is not a thing huh and i was like wait what i'm gonna pass on that debate yeah um i love it like listen i'm not a denier like it is what it is i don't know what the answers are but i love that like everything now that happens yeah as far as like any weather event it could even be a fringe weather event is like, ah,

global in both ways though. It's like, ah, like, you know, it could be like, you know, freezing cold or something like what global warming,

what a loser, what a sheep, don't be a sheep. It's freezing outside. It's like, man, it could be cold and global warming can still be a thing. It's okay.

Dude, that's how weather works, man. It's so ridiculous. Like somebody sends me a picture of the Brooklyn bridge, you know, just covered in smoke. It's like weather works, man. It's so ridiculous. Somebody sends me a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge just covered in smoke. It's like, oh, still think taxes are a big deal, Russillo? And you're like, what? Like, what?

What happened? What just happened there? Oh, that's just what happens. Like, if you're in New York City and you've never experienced that before, not that I'm a fire expert, but you know, having a couple of big ones out here and then seeing what it does, the air quality and you're like, Whoa, but if you're in New York city,

you've never had it happen before. I mean, it's weird. The pictures are weird. Yeah. They said that it was the equivalent of smoke. If you were outside yesterday for an hour, it was the equivalent of smoking six cigarettes.

So Kyle's going to be fine. Kyle's fine. Some could argue he's conditioned himself for it. He's built different. He literally is built different. Do you think we'll get some follow-ups saying, wait, do you guys not understand the correlation between global warming? I'm like, nope.

Definitely. We're not going to. We don't need follow-ups on that. To Cerruti's point, anything that happens now, there'll be a segment of... I don't know if you call it the audience or the content creators.

The population, the masses. You just go like, what? Still don't think this is an issue? Still don't think our export system is flawed? Like, what? I want to do this. I had this like segment idea uh called layup tweets because you and i've talked about this all the time whenever like

something happens you can just instantly tweet one thing and then you're going to get a bunch of likes and it can be true or false or have nothing to do with the situation whatsoever but it's a layup tweet so like yeah but like for example like yesterday when new york city looks like you know and you know the movie dune during the entire day people could be like man global warming and i don't get a ton of content whatever that's a layup tweet even though we don't even know if that's true or not like you're just doing this for the content for the likes and it's lame i don't like doing that so i want to do and this extends to almost every walk of life it happens in sports all the time people love to jump on the

things like hey look at this i'm gonna get some content likes out of this even though i have no idea what i'm talking about so layup tweets might be a summer thing that we that we like you know soft test i know i still never really wanted to bail on worst take but when we lost you we lost our momentum we kind of lost our compass for worst take and we should have not done it every week but you know it's part of part of the game uh with that hey can we actually throw in the going abroad sounder here and give you the floor here for a soccer minute? What's the Messi thing mean? Well, I kind of don't love it as much as everybody else does in the States.

I still think, so basically, Messi, he, two years ago, Barcelona is so financially fucked because they're stupid. And some of that was from COVID, but they just did dumb things and they're a terribly run club, really. They basically couldn't afford to pay Messi and they had to let him leave on a free transfer. So he went to PSG for two years. It was kind of a weird two years. When people go to PSG, especially when they're older, It's, you know, it's owned by the Qataris. It's kind of just like a money grab.

They've never really won the Champions League. They win the French League a lot because they just have more money than everybody else. It just wasn't awesome. But then Messi wins the World Cup this year. And it kind of feels like his entire career has been not validated, but in some ways, yes, because that was the one thing he hadn't won was the World Cup. And you could argue that the second half of the season at PSG, his club team hasn't been awesome. Like, does he give maximum effort anymore? Maybe not.

But the guy's played a ton of soccer over the last couple years. But I think his preference all along was to go back to Barcelona this summer. Because I think he still has, I think he's still, you know, he's not, it's kind of like LeBron now, right? He's still, he can still give you like games and moments where it's like, wow, this is still like a top five player in the world. He just can't give you a full season. He's not going to give you even a full 90 all the time. So I kind of still feel like he has that in him. So for me, I'm a little bit disappointed. He's going to MLS. Now, listen, he had offers from Saudi Arabia that I think were worth reportedly

up to one and a half billion dollars just to go there and play for a couple of years, which is insane. Um, they're just throwing money at and play for a couple years, which is insane. They're just throwing money at everybody left and right because they have the money and they're trying to build a league up. Does he get that money if the MLS joins Saudi Arabia? Great question. Yes, he probably would. And I'm sure some of the other players who turned it down would also be pissed off.

Notably, one Royal McIlroy. But I just feel like he still has stuff left in the tank this is no disrespect to MLS and I'll do more on this we're going to do a ringer gambling soccer pod later today that'll be up tomorrow so if you want more on this check it out we're going to do a Champions League preview as well but I just think when you go to when you go to enter Miami it is a little bit like a retirement thing and I you know this isn't disparaging the league I like watching MLS it's fun it's different than the European League it, there's a lot more mistakes. There's a lot more wild goals. Um, but the talent level just really isn't there. And he's going to Miami to

get, he gets a cut from the Apple TV rights, which is insane. He gets part ownership. His salary is going to be huge. Uh, he, he gets all these things and it's not the equivalent of what the Saudi offer would have been, but it's, it's a lot of money. So he had one quote that was kind of like, you know, I'm ready to settle down a little bit. And that, to me, is a huge red flag. It's just a huge red flag because a lot of guys have come over here and just completely mailed it in. I'm not saying he's going to, but a lot of guys have done that. And Miami is one of the worst teams in the league right now. So he's joining one of the worst teams in the entire league.

Yeah, I'm not going to pretend that I understand it. joining one of the worst teams in the entire league. Yeah. I'm not going to pretend that I understand it. I remember I was very beginning to my ESPN run where when Beckham came over and the ads and like the ad campaign for it was terrific. And whatever you think that value is for awareness and notoriety, you know, I think at the time it was like, Oh, well, let's put the MLS stuff on the map more. Will it be in the daily consciousness more? And it's just tough when you have so many American soccer fans that don't really like the league or care about it. So it always felt like for Beckham, it was about his brand.

I'm sure there's the same similarities here with Messi. And all, you know, look, it's, it's a big, it's a big attention grab and certainly any team that can get him should be doing it.

Uh, but definitely I'm not, I'm not saying that they shouldn't. Yeah, of course, of course. But you, you're right though.

Like, all right, you get the guy at the end of his career. Does it, does it mean more growth for him or, or growth for the league? And chances are it's, it's probably more personally,

um, there's more personal benefit to it than uh than the entire league okay all right it'll be fun let's uh let's get to a couple things here we're gonna follow up from our bike guy remember the bike guy in chicago oh yeah they got yep all right this is great so he goes i listened to everybody's email ended up our everybody's advice and i ended up emailing the HOA to clarify the bike rules and also scope the guy out. Dude was around my size, questionable goatee, nothing to be afraid of. All right.

Pound for pound. The HOA was 1000% on my side and emailed me back saying, quote, if residents take the bike off the rack, they lose the spot and anyone can put their bike there while they were away. while they were away. To remind everybody that maybe is new to the show, there was a guy, he just moved into this apartment in Chicago, was super fired up, went to go lock his bike up, leaving it in the bike rack area, and a dude was leaving a lock on the spot that he used and argued that since he was a daily commuter,

that he had rights to keep his bike space because there were too many bikes for the amount of bike rack areas. And if you couldn't put it on the rack, you had to put it in storage, bring it up to your apartment, all right, which nobody would want to do. So this guy just moves in, he sees an open space, but there was a lock on the empty space. So he locked his bike up to that space. And then he came back and got this nasty note from this dude. And we were like, fuck this guy collectively. All all right so armed with the hoa email i decided to use my meticulously curated rebuttal note that i perfected while my

wife was away to call this guy out on his shit while also offering to work with him to find a better bike parking solution my wife isn't the biggest fan of confrontation and wasn't thrilled the whole idea of potentially starting a beef with our new neighbors but once my story hit the number three sports podcast in the world, number one in our hearts, I got the green light. Just as I was about to place the note on his bike, I noticed a new, quote, bike etiquette sign next to the rack. See attached.

We'll read it for the audience. So right as this guy is about to go, armed with his HOA email, and just common sense, by the way, there's a new laminated full sheet bicycle parking etiquette standards. Six parts here. One, please lock your bicycle to the rack. Two, please do not lock your bicycle to the outside of the racks. Three, people who use the bicycles on a daily basis may leave a lock on their regular spot if they will be returning please do not park in a spot with a light with a lock on it i love

that one and two he was like how do i do this where i three is the only point i want to make but i'll saw i'll side my way into it four please do not place your bicycle so that it hinders other people from removing theirs that's's fair. Five, regular bicycle users are currently in need of spots. If you do not want your bike or you don't use it, consider donating it. Six, please be mindful of vehicles. And then put like the

full-blown like contact of the HOA. The guy he's arguing with made the note. That's what I was going to say because the listener email it goes against everything that he

was told that he wants. So that doesn't make any sense. Wow, that's a hard one. I kind of respect it. Right. So our emailer continues, says, I can't make this shit up. This guy literally made laminated signs for his make-believe bullshit rule. That's the best part is that he was like the only thing i care about is rule three but i'm gonna fucking sprinkle some greg sprinkles here of just nonsensical straightforward shit and oh if you're not using your bike here's a place you can reach out to to donate it but really this

is only about this one other guy who just moved in. Please read three again. And they got him laminated. The goatee started to seem a little more dangerous than I originally thought after I read this, but was already in too deep and invested way too much time and energy into this whole ordeal. So I placed my note anyway. So he places the note. Turns out spending three plus hours fine tuning my rebuttal was worth every minute. Our guy actually all caps apologized and said that he clearly has anger issues and that he quote needs to work on them.

We're now one team against our shitty HOA bike rack setup. He gave us the rebuttal thing. I'm not going to read the whole thing because I think, look, a confrontation. Is it like pretty, pretty? No, this guy's a good writer. Okay. good writer. Okay. Good writer.

Oh, no, this is the original email. So we didn't even have the note to read. That's good. He was efficient, too. He didn't send it to us. I was going to read all that, too. I just love that this other dude decided. And then once this dude left the note from the HOA evidence, a guy, a random guy just started making up rules that benefited him

and then posting them. The laminated part of it definitely would fool me at the time. I'd be like, shit. These are laminated. They must be real. And here's the thing. The HOA people, they don't give a shit about any of this. They don't care at all. I'm just being honest.

For the guy that emailed in, it's cool if they're on your side. Man, they don't care. I mean, the easy solution here, we talked about it the first time, is just to add another bike rack. Well, there might not be space, though, Chicago. Well, there's got to be some sort of solution here.

And I just don't think they care. So they're probably happy to let you two figure it out on your own. But yeah, the Lambade thing is such a hard move. I actually respect the hell out of that. I think that's so good. I would definitely not fight him though. You know,

in case it seems like you guys are all aligned. So that's good. But I, I gotta ask, like if the guy did this, laminated them, put them up and then told you, Hey,

I have anger issues. Just, just put your bike further away from his would be our last he's like a taking time bomb like this is yeah yeah yeah you know what you don't know what this guy's capable of he's capable of making fake laminated posters so yeah who knows you don't mess with that guy this is gonna be like enemy of the state stuff you know like you're gonna have no idea what's going on you're gonna come home you know he's gonna to be serving you an eviction notice with an official font in the top corner,

and he's going to be messing with you. I don't mess with this guy. Let's get to a couple of emails. This is insane. Okay. Hi, 24-year-old male visiting a childhood friend in his new city. This is my third visit to the city, as I've had a couple of work trips there.

On one of my work trips, I stayed Friday night at his place and flew home the next day. We had a somewhat odd sleeping arrangement. His roommate in their second bed, two bath was out of town and yet he still made me sleep on an air mattress in his bedroom right next to his bed

rather than in the living room. This is not New York City. There was plenty of room for me to sleep outside of his room and with the roommate gone, the second bathroom was available. I like what this guy did here because at 24, you're probably still in that age where you think you're allowed to sleep in

the spare bed and then it's different for all of us that age you're like i don't want you sleeping in my bed like i was even offering there was a girl that was going to house sit for me for a while just friendship tip but i was like you know is she gonna bring a dude over here I was like and then what happens so I was like look you can stay here and I was like but if you want to stay in the the guest room if you're you know somebody, even though I don't really want a dude over here to begin with, uh, you know, I'm, I'm not going to say like, you can't have a guy over to a nice house and you know, whatever. I was like, wait, can you not sleep in my room? And, uh, yeah, she was like, I would never bring a dude over your house in the first place. I don't worry about it.

So I was like, okay, cool. That is avoided. But I remember in college, like you just sleep in another dude's bed. I know some of you are like, that's fucking gross, but I don't do that. That'd be fine. Like I was never, yeah,

I know I had a roommate that was like beside himself because a dude like laid down on his bedspread and he like freaked out and had it sent out to the dry cleaners. And then my kid was soft, but, uh, I mean, he like lost his and had it sent out to the dry cleaners again my kid was soft but uh i mean he like lost his shit about it lost his shit and the guy didn't even like sleep over into the room or anything all right so this i just wanted to put that one out there because i think there's probably some of you that are listening that there's still a certain age it probably kicks in and for some people it kicks in a lot later yes you could clean the sheets and sleep and then throw them in the wash the next day. But are you really going to wait

around for everything dry at 24 years old? Of course not. You're going to make your flight, and then somebody's going to have to put sheets back on and whatever, the whole deal. And no one's ever been able to figure out the duvet cover, but you probably were going to do that part of it anyway. So anyway, the second bedroom is off limits. So that's really good. So the thing that's weird is the air mattress in the other dude's bedroom. That makes zero sense. None. Even at 24, I'd be like, can I not sleep next to you? What are we, 12?

I'm going again next week and I know this will be a setup again. But this time for three nights. I always wake up before him, especially in the case when I'm not in my bed, right? Because that's how it works. I want to know, is this weird or a common setup in your experience? Air mattress is nice, but I'd rather be on the floor in the living room or couch than have to tiptoe around his room, especially when I wake up before him thoughts. You can't just put the air mattress in the living room. Does he not want the air mattress like in the living room while you're there for the weekend, people coming over, it is weird to have an air mattress out there. Can you not slide the air mattress fully inflated, keep it in his bedroom because it's already going to be

there anyway under the previous conditions, and then just walk it out and set it up at night and then just put it back in there? If he says no to these things, I'd start looking into a hotel. If he says no to these things, I'd start looking into a hotel. I know the hotel thing, especially the pricey side of it, is one factor. But there was also this transition period where you could maybe be able to afford a hotel, but you didn't want to miss out on some of the late night stuff or the early morning recaps if a couple guys were were in town and they were all there and then hotel kind of takes you out of the mix and then you're hitting dudes up landline back in the day for me we're like what are you guys doing or dudes awake or you guys get lunch oh you already ate lunch well that's bullshit should have called me well we

couldn't get in touch with you again this is pre-cell phones so hotel at this age can take you out of the mix of some of these things but eventually i I think everybody's going to want a hotel unless you're like the bank guy from earlier this week, who'd be like fucking air mattress. That guy would Airbnb out your air mattress and then sleep outside. Like I just wanted to get ahead of the game. I was going to go into my budget. So I wanted,

I needed a surplus. So I, I Airbnb your second bedroom. We'll do the sheets though. Uh, I, I don't know why this would be difficult and if he has a hard like time with this that's that's even weirder yeah i'm trying to think about it

now i mean i just went to a bachelor party where i slept in one of the beds and then a buddy slept on the air mattress on the floor next to me and it was terrible sleeping because one you know you're getting up go to pee in the sleeping because one, you know, we were getting up, go to pee in the middle of the night, you know, we're snoring. Like, it's just not, you're never going to get a good night's sleep. And I'm 34. So, you know, we're definitely way too old for that. I mean, I remember back in the younger days, we always used to go to visit my buddy at the University of Delaware. And he had like this really small room, but we didn't really like any, not that we didn't like any of his other roommates, but all the other roommates were kind

of weird. So we didn't want to stay in the common room. So we were, really like any, not that we didn't like any of his other roommates, but all the other roommates were kind of weird. So we didn't want to stay in the common room. So we were, there would be like four dudes staying in my buddy's bedroom. And of course, no sheets, no anything. I think I slept once like on an Xbox and my towel and my blanket was a wet towel. Cause that's just what you do when you're in college and you don't really figure out your sleeping situations. But you do sort of graduate and grow out of that phase.

Like at some point, like you just sleep on the couch for your back, for your health, for everyone's just like peace of mind and space. So I think you're totally in the right. Did he say that he floated to the guy, though, or is he just afraid to ask him? Because I think you just have to be like, hey, man, I just want to sleep. I just want to have my space. It's fine because I think you just have to at least have to ask the guy at first. Yeah. Tell him you have IBS or something

yeah tell him like hey I ate some really spicy Mexican food I'm just like not really feeling I mean you're just not going to want me to be around right now yeah we're going to need more square footage yeah make it be like this is this is me trying to help you dude I'm not like you know I'm trying you're doing him a favor but I mean did you ask him right did you ask him like

have you just done this and gone this is weird I don't know like I can't fat like granted there's always some lane of like no no i think this is just way better because he doesn't want like the layout of the living room to be disrupted be like i don't want like a bed in there with like blankets and pillows and all this kind of stuff it's like i don't want to sleep at the foot of your bed, dude. I'm not a dog. All right. Just, yeah. It's like, look, I will move the mattress. Fine.

Okay, this one is rare. This one's very rare. Don't get these a lot. This one is titled, Should I Buy a Lighthouse? Hey, fellas, 511-175. Built like the Grinch pickup style like a white steve blake okay so yeah uh there's some red flags being fucked with on this one we're gonna read it anyways it's too uh it's too rare i've been dreaming of living in a lighthouse for years

i mentioned it to my friends family co-workers because we were constantly being monitored by phones i got an ad on Facebook the other day about some government program where they deem lighthouses to be excess and they give them away. Did I just win the lottery? Seems like there's something going on where they don't just let you live on the beach.

I'm not from the New England area. It sounds like the thing we talked about with Italy, like the one-year-old houses, because they're just trash. They want you to fix them up. You're solving their problem by taking over this property. Yeah, I was reading about Lobo, Texas. Is that the name of the town where you can buy the town, but you have to have a plan for it?

You just become mayor. You're the king of the town. That's actually kind of awesome. Yeah, I do think that that's what the future of... We could be centuries away from it, but you're just going to vote not on people. You're going to vote to live in different zones. Going to go, okay, I want to, I'm down with that program. And then you're going to move to that zone and then you're all going to disagree with each other.

Yeah, I'm going to live in a solo land. People, you know, just live by your values, you know? Right. Leave me alone. I'll leave you alone. And nobody talks to each other. They got three TV setups in everyone's basement. It's like a development and they all build the same

house built for watching NBA games. People just go to coffee shops and they go, what's the deal with that guy to everybody else? They only talk to each other about their boats. That's it. They don't actually go on anyone's boat. They just talk to each other about it. So anyway, each other about their boats that's it they don't actually go on anyone's boat they just talk to each other about it so anyway uh i'm not from the new england area in fact i've never been can i get some expert advice on what life would entail owning a lighthouse in rhode island or

maine all right because i'm from martha's vineyard i'm gonna be able to tell you what it would be granted all my loved ones don't support my passion, so let's try to win them over. Here's the link. I did click on it. He wants to let us know. It's actually, I'd have to do more research on this, but there's all these,

there's one here in Old Saybrook. Oh, that's in Connecticut. Yeah. It is. It is, Steve. There's one in Cumberland, Plymouth, Mass. Here's one near me, Barnstable, Falmouth. We got one in yeah cumberland plymouth mass here's one near me barnstable falmouth uh we got one in warwick rhode island the the warwick neck lighthouse well this guy might get

pissed and given away all his leads i for the first question i have to ask you how old are you what are you trying to old man thing yeah this is like yeah go ahead it's not a young man's game that's what i'm saying it just feels like yeah like you know some guy in his 50s like i could see you buying a lighthouse just for shits and giggles why not you know yeah i mean i knew that joke was coming at some point um i i think 50s too young to move to a lighthouse like i don't think people visit anybody maybe the movies have clouded my mind but like you've ever watched

any lighthouse movies nobody seems to be happy yeah the lighthouse was one hell of a movie so if it's anything like that you're gonna go insane right there's also that one with Gerard

Butler where it's actually a decent watch I think it's still on Netflix or maybe they already pulled it I don't know they kill a kid that wasn't that wasn't fun but decent watch good movie bit of a bummer and they were on an

island too man they were like way out they weren't even connected anything the boat part would be cool so i mean i'd ask you like what are your interests are you really into nautical stuff nautical history do you have master commander on Blu-ray and digital? What are you escaping? I think that's really what we need to be asking. Because look, I'm looking at these pictures. I'm interested. I'm more interested looking at the listings than I was when I first read the email.

I'd have to understand the government program here a little bit more. I don't think they just give you a sick waterfront property where there's some of the lighthouse seem like you live in the lighthouse. Other ones look like there's a pretty nice little salt box set up here. Yeah. And imagine like you have to maintain the lighthouse. That's the point. They're passing off the responsibility onto you. Like read the fine print.

There's no way that you just get to live there and then the government still continues to maintain this lighthouse. It's your problem now. And I imagine those things are impossible like all the old parts in there like the light obviously is gears a bajillion dollars i'd imagine to replace like what's the what's the landscaping usually usually they're just surrounded by rocks so what's the what's your landscaping situation like there uh you know not to bring it back to goals i'm gonna back to global warming but like listen the rising tides like are you you're the first one to go so i don't know like i think i so i've always looked at now there's usually a decent elevation if you know your lighthouse topography but i'm not saying it's

it's never happened i just you know a lot of lighthouses. I've lost some, certainly. It must be that the upkeep alone is like, now it's your hassle, right? Yes, that's the point. Right. Yeah. I'd say it's like an old boat, but even the boat would have, like, you didn't have to live there. It just, it feels like a bit like,

you know when you watch those movies and some guy's in some South American or Central American country, and then there's like that really throwaway line where it's like, nobody comes here. They only come here to escape something else. This feels a bit like that without the passport part of it. I'd have to know more about you. Why do you actually want to do this? Is it a passion?

Is it something historical? Do you actually want to work in a lighthouse? Are you handy? Do you have reserves of cash somewhere else? Or are you just bringing it up after five or six beers for your lighthouse guy? And everybody's like, oh, cool, the lighthouse ran again.

And it just gets a little old. It feels like a no. It feels like you haven't given me enough in your email to let me think that you are actually ready for what this is. And Saruti's right. There's got to be...

If it was such a sick deal, they'd all be gone. There wouldn't be a listing of five amazing properties sitting in front of me right now if it were a sweet deal. Last thing, too. I've looked at some houses, my wife and I. They were built in 17... Not lighthouses, but built in 1780. If it were a sweet deal. Last thing too. I've, so I've looked at some houses, my wife and I, uh, like, you know, like they were built in like 17, not lighthouses,

but like built in like 1780, like original colonial houses. Cause we live in Connecticut. It's obviously an old state. And there's this like town called old Weathersfield. That's really cool. And you like, you drive by and the houses are all cool.

And they have like the built in 1776 sign and they look nice from the outside. You go inside them and they're a nightmare. Like floors are on 45 degree angles. Like they're all cool. And they have like the built in 1776 sign and they look nice from the outside. You go inside them and they're a nightmare. Like floors are on 45 degree angles. Like their original floors. There's like nails sticking out of them. Like none of the layout makes any sense whatsoever. Yeah. Maybe it's on the water or it's in a nice part of town.

But the upkeep on those alone, like the idea of them is cool. But then actually practically living there seems like an absolute like an absolute nightmare. So like I I don't know what Again, I hope you get a house and it's not just a lighthouse. But if you're living in a lighthouse alone, are you bringing girls back there? Probably. Maybe it works the first time.

But at the end of the day, I don't think she's going to want to live there long term. There's too many questions for me. Too many question marks. I like it in a way. Lighthouse guy. That's something unique to bring to the table. But you got to sell me on you more.

So I actually would encourage a follow-up on this. All right. That's life advice. Again, congrats to Kyle. He'll be a married man next time you hear him on the pod. Thanks to Stefan and Steve for this episode. Bill and I on Sunday after we'll have game 4

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