The Ryen Russillo Podcast - What Were the Pelicans Thinking? Plus, Full NBA Draft Breakdown With Jay Bilas.

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Russillo starts the show by trying to make sense of the Pelicans trading up for Derik Queen (1:56). Then, Jay Bilas comes on to share his favorite picks, what to make of the Nets' five selections, and who tops his big board heading into Round 2 (14:53). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (47:59)! I’m a sexual athlete but I’m not satisfied with my partner. Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jay Bilas Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Marcelino Ortiz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Dazon. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best players, Messi, Holland, Kane and more are all taking part. And you can watch every match for free on Dazon, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at dazone.com slash FIFA. That's D-A-Z-N.com slash FIFA. We're talking NBA draft. We're talking the entire podcast except for Life and Pice which gets a little risqué for us so that's a warning for you guys with

kids. All right so here's what we're gonna do. We're talking the stuff I can't believe that happened like the Pelicans trade. Maybe I should believe it. Phoenix. What's going on there? The N of volume night, just like camp Tom's, uh, my favorite pick that made me like it even better. And then my guy Yang also known as young going to Portland. Number 16 overall. We mentioned him at the combine. Did I think this would happen?

No, I didn't, but it did. We're going to talk with Jay Billis. We're going to go through his favorite picks, the reasoning behind some, being on the desk, and his best available for the start of round two tonight. And of course, life advice. Enjoy. You're listening to the Ryan Rosso podcast presented by FanDuel. The NBA Finals might be over, but you can still get in on the action with America's

number one sportsbook. It's never too early to look ahead to next season with tons of futures and player specials all off-season long. And if you want to keep betting on all the other excitement this summer, FanDuel has it all from the MLB to soccer, golf, and the WNBA. Download the FanDuel app today to make every moment more. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. And listen to the end of the episode for additional details.

Must be 21 and older, present in select states, or 18 plus, and present in DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg.shelp.com. The NBA's first round was last night. Let's talk a little NBA draft. The Pelicans. What the fuck? They traded the number 23 pick this year to move up 13 spots for the Hawks pick.

Right? So they had 23. They wanted Derek Queen. There was rumors that they could maybe even land a scenario where they're gonna take Queen number seven, although teams usually when they have two first round draft picks they'll like to tell you, if they're close enough to each other you go, you know, we were thinking about

taking this guy with the other pick. Maybe that would have happened, maybe not, it was a rumor that was going around, not sure. If you like Derek Queen, I totally get it. I'll admit I had a very hard time trying to figure out what I thought he was actually going to be. I think the highs are really high. He's a big guy.

He can do a lot of stuff other big guys can't do. He's really creative. He's good on the ball. He's got these drives. He can't really shoot. The lows are really low. I don't know if it's a conditioning thing. I don't think it's an understanding basketball thing at all

because I think there's some instinctive stuff with him that's really good. You could also talk about basketball fit and saying, yeah, but don't they have somebody like Zion, who if you take him off the ball, what are you doing? So now Queen's off the ball or Queen, he wasn't gonna play a ton this year, so who cares, don't worry about it.

All right, fine, all those things, fine, I'm open-minded to it. But what you cannot do when you're running a franchise is move up 10 spots from 23 to 13. Now you want to talk about moving up from 12 to two? Yeah, but that doesn't really even happen in the NBA. So let's rule that out. Let's deal with what we know.

The Pelicans moved up from 23 to 13 and in the process gave the Hawks an unprotected pick in 2026. It's either the Milwaukee or the New Orleans pick because of the swaps. So this is, I think, insane. They got warm. They warmed up with the new crew down there where it was like, all right, you know what? CJ McCollum's at expiring. Maybe they're over CJ. Let's bring in Jordan Poole who isn't expiring because we're going to pay him

$34 million two years from now. You want to tell me you're going to get Warriors Jordan Poole back? Fine. I'll allow it. I can understand the internal discussions, but that now looks scary or thinking that the Pelicans new management group has decided that like we're just, we're going for this now new sheriff in town type of approach. And I think it's horrifying. You cannot, and I'll look the reality is like, what if Queens really good? What if the Pelicans are in the playing and the pick ends up not being that big of a deal? Okay, fine. There's a likely scenario where those things could happen. But what you've asked yourself, if you're sitting there going, hey, should we, what if things don't work out for us next year? What if Zion,

or when Zion gets hurt again next year? What if we're in the stacked West? What if we're like one of the six or seven worst records in the NBA? What if there's a chance that our pick has like a decent odds to be the number one pick unprotected in 2026? Is there a chance we're moving the number one pick to move up from 23 to 13? Is there a scenario where that could happen? If the answer is yes, then you don't execute that scenario. I can't believe it.

I know at times I'll talk about, and I would think people would just want like further depth on this just because there's a lot of teams that I talk to. And I'll say like, hey, you know, I talked to this and whatever. I think it adds a little, again, depth, some flavoring to an observation.

I didn't need to ask any other teams about this. Text all night and continue this morning. This is one of those things where you wonder, is there something I don't understand about this? When I first heard it was announced, I had to keep, I was like, wait, the 20 there, unprotected? Like what? And here we are.

All right, let's keep it moving. The Nets, they had five picks in the first round and they took all five, number eight, number 19, number 22, number 26 and number 27. First time a team has ever made five selections in the first round of the NBA draft. So when they took Yegor Demin from BYU eighth, which was on the higher end for him. And I'll admit when I first watched them and I loved him, and then I kept watching him, San Vincenzo who he had on when I brought up that point to him, he was like, dude, at one point I had him number two in the draft. All right.

So there's some early stuff with him. We're like, man, he is so big, the vision that he has. And it's not just the pick and roll the two options. It's he actually can see other stuff. Other guys don't see, but it wasn't just the bad shooting numbers. It was how he would get into a shot. Now, apparently I've been told during workouts that

Demons shot it much better. Uh, granted, he doesn't have the option to switch into a contested shot. Like I saw so many times from this past year. So they go with Demen. Now the problem is, is Yacushonis was still on the board at 19 and because they were so good, they contested shot, like I saw so many times for this past year. So they go with Demin. Now the problem is, is Yakisones was still on the board at 19 and because they took Demin, they probably can't take Yakisones who goes 20th to the

heat, who that was really on the low end of things for him. I love the pick for Yakisones. I think he's just a really smart basketball player. If it doesn't work out, it's going to be because he's not athletic enough and he never develops more of a shot. But I think what he's done is he's already adapted his game, at least on the drives't work out, it's going to be because he's not athletic enough and he never develops more of a shot. But I think what he's done is he's already adapted his game, at least on the drives, to figure out a way to finish.

I'm not calling him Steve Nash, but there's things that Nash developed because he just knew I have to come up with different angles and different steps and just an entirely different approach if I ever want to finish in the restricted area. And some small guys figured out other guys don't. There's some stuff from Yakis Shonis that I've noticed with him. I was like, oh, that kind of looks a little bit like that kind of stuff.

So maybe he doesn't need that premier elite athleticism at the point guard position to make sure that he gets open. Cause he did it in a really, there was, there's plays I had to keep going back and be like, how did he get that? Oh, he got his space because he set this up this way. Impressive stuff, like it. But because I guess Demin goes

to the nets, they take Traore, who has three or four different pronunciations of his last name, who looks a bit like a cult being born, where you're like, wow, is that majestic? Oh no, it just ran into a tree. I don't have any issue with the pick there. We could talk about Fitt and then Serov going later on, the guard from Israel. I don't know if we're going to sit here and be like, no, they were supposed to get a center, a power forward, a small forward, a shooting guard, and a point guard. That was not going to be the case with the Nets when they drafted all five guys. I think there's an argument to be made about the Nets where why would you take all five picks? Um, my guess would be they were getting low balled on all sorts of offers because other teams are like, there's no way they want to take all five of these guys in the same draft class.

And so we've had this happen a bit before where there were like three or four teams that felt like they controlled half the first round picks. And it's like, yeah, but if you have, there's a point where you get to such a surplus of picks and people will think that you're just going to pick them off at some discounted rate. Maybe they didn't like the rates that were being offered. Likely they weren't going to get a first rounder for those late first rounders anyway, but they did something that doesn't make a ton of sense.

And granted, you could look at the roster and say, well, they don't really have anybody they're invested in other than Claxton. Obviously Camp Johnson, whatever they decided to do with Camp Thomas. They do have cap holds still on Lamarcus Aldridge and Wilson Chandler. They're small, but they still have the cap holds. They need guys on the roster. I don't know that this is the way to do it. One argument is no one's this lucky that all five rookies are all just going to kind of

fit together. The counter to that would be because no one's this lucky, why not just use all the picks, hoping you hit on two or three of these guys at the very least are rotation players in the NBA. Phoenix, back in the lottery by getting their pick back from Houston. So they take Malawatch out of Duke at number 10.

A lot of people thought he could go to Toronto, who took Colin Murray Boyles, by the way, Boyles when he was drafted, there's a video of him saying, fuck, I think people are taking that to be anti-Raptors. I would be the first to want to jump in on that. I actually don't think I could be totally wrong about this. I think it was just his emotions of like, man, I just got drafted.

That's how I saw it live. Maybe I'm wrong, but that video is making the rounds. So yes, me defending Toronto. Um, Phoenix, I like to pick for Malawatch just because I think despite him being a project, how fast he's come along, how you could see how, how excited he was that kind of identify different things defensively. Like I really liked talking to Shire about that when we had them on. So I like to pick, it did make me question why they do the Mark Williams deal later on,

but they did it. They traded number 29 to Charlotte and a 29 first, which is top five protected and the least favorable of the Cleveland, Utah, Minnesota selections four years from now. So I could be talked into it a little bit where it's like, well, Mark Williams, you already need insurance. It's like, okay, but then why are you giving up the picks for them? And maybe if you're Phoenix, you're like, dude, it's 29, who cares? But there's probably a bigger thing at play here with Phoenix

where it feels like the minute they have access to something else they can trade, they're just going to try to trade it to try to fix the present. It would probably be smart at some point if they got together and said, okay, past a certain date, we have to stop doing this. I just don't know if they're going to stop. And we could use the analogy of throwing more bad money at bad money or good money

at bad money is really the way I should say it. That's what it's felt like now for a couple of years. So I don't know if this is still going to be the plan, but eventually they're going to have to figure out a way to be long-term unstuck. I like the Sorber pick. I love it when Oklahoma City does it. The center from Georgetown.

By the way, Georgetown's first first round picks since 2013, a single tier I could see on David Wingate's face. So Sorber had the injury. I don't know if that factored into any of this. When Presti takes somebody, I just assume if I like them, then I'm right. And if I don't like them, then I'm wrong. I did wonder if Carter Bryant, who went 14th to the Spurs,

the Arizona freshman, big kid, 3 and D, and he absolutely can shoot it. But when I talked about Bryant, I was like, man, once he has to make a decision that's a non-shot, it's really kind of tough. I don't know if he grows out of that or not, but it wasn't very good. I wondered if OKC would have taken him

because it felt like on the lower end of things for Bryant and because he can shoot and because he can defend, but I was like, he's kind of the anti-OKC model of trusting a guy with the ball in his hands when he has to make some kind of decision. So he doesn't fit the model. Wonder if he had been available if they would have done that. Obviously they didn't have the option two, they take Sorber 15. Utah, Ace Bailey. The first, I don't want to call it a shock. I had mapped out why I thought it was a real possibility because of age, his background, how he approaches a draft, what Utah desperately needs,

how teams will go. We know this is a massive risk for this player, but if it hits right. And we might have ourselves a star where the rest of these guys were projecting is, you know, good starters, but never star level. Uh, and so they took him, even though he didn't want to go there. So I guess it didn't work out for Ace Bailey. And finally, Yang Gang. That's right. Yang Hansen, the biggest leaper in the entire draft. Now, those of you that follow me on threads

know that when I was at the combine and I was sitting baseline and I saw him with a catch on the right baseline extended past the block and just spun, dunked it and won, then was just feeling it, was yelling at other guys to pass them the ball back, but he doesn't speak English. So he was just making noises. Um, I guess he crushed it in interviews. No, I'm serious. Like people were like, really liked his personality despite the language barrier.

And then if you see the highlights that are making the rounds, uh, he loves that baseline spin move. I mean, some of these double spin pivot things that he's doing. So I remember just at least, I didn't know anything about him. And I saw that move and I was like, oh, that he'll get drafted. He will get drafted. He's this big and can move this way.

He will get drafted. Did I think he go 16th? No. Did anyone else? No. But I am all in on Kling Yang. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. If there's one thing I love about my Apple Card right now,

it's how good it is for my wallet. No joke, I can earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase in any category when I use my Apple Card with Apple Peck. Food, sports, travel, the list goes on. And this card is designed to help you pay off your balance faster with smart payment suggestions. When's the last time your credit card did that for you? Take control of your finances. Apply for the Apple Card and the Wallet app on your iPhone. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch terms and more at

applecard.com. Excited to get them. Busy guy. We got Jay Billis at ESPN the morning after the draft. So thanks for coming back for another quick visit, man. Good to see you. Good to see you too. Glad to be with you always. Okay.

Let's get into some of the other stuff. I mean, we've already talked Hooper. We've already talked to Knipple. Maybe the story starts with Ace Bailey at five. The good is impressive. I know that they weren't a good team. I almost feel like, and maybe I'm just guilty of, of it felt like everybody was dumping on him so much.

The more I watched him, I was like, you know, this guy's a good player. I don't know if it works or not, but there's stuff here that's pretty special at his size. So what did you think about that pick in Ace? I thought it was great. You know, I figured somebody might take him before it got down to the six, seven, eight thing, but I wasn't sure. And, uh, uh, but you know, you know,

Ryan, he's like, he's Uber talented. He just makes shots that other guys don't make. And I think even NBA players were watching him through the course of the season going, man, like that's NBA stuff. And you know, look, with every tough shot he hit, he had a lot of them. There were some head scratchers in there, you know, it wasn't like he was hitting the shot clock or anything, but, but took some that you're going, well, that was a little ambitious and he's just Uber confident. But for Utah to, to take him at five, you know, that's the best available player theory. It doesn't mean you have to keep them, but you know, why not take a swing and, and go

for the super talented player? So I think Utah at five with Ace Bailey, and I think it was 18, they got Walter Clayton jr. They have to feel pretty good that they got two quality shop makers and gave their offense a legitimate shot in the arm. Because you've seen this from so many different angles throughout your career, you watch Clayton Jr. and if you're late to it, you're a bit like, well, why wouldn't this guy be an NBA player?

And we know that there's an age thing that historically proves out, you don't want to be making a habit of drafting the older players, so I don't know that there's any dispute on that. But your opinion of Clayton as an NBA player and why this is not somebody who jumps ahead of the young guys despite the production and the winning. Yeah, I mean, the only question mark I have

about Walter Clayton Jr. is he's small. He's not a big guard. And, you know, he's not as small as Jason Richardson of Michigan State, who went went in the first round. But but he's not a big guard. And even though I think he got significantly better this last year defensively, he's not a great defender and not an impact for what I would call an impactful defender, but it's undeniable that dude can make shots and he's competitive and

he's unafraid. You know this. I mean, he was a football player in high school and more coveted as a, as a free safety than he was as a basketball player. And so he wasn't being recruited from Lake Wales, Florida. He wasn't being recruited in basketball the same way as in football. He wanted to play basketball. So he went to Iona and played for Patino, Rick Patino, and was Mac player of the year. And he's one of the stories I love in the transfer portal. Everybody complains about the transfer portal and I get why they do. But for a player like Walter Clayton Jr., who was under recruited out of high school for whatever reason, maybe we

missed on him, maybe he just didn't develop, but whatever. He got a chance to go prove himself and then became coveted and got to get to the level he really wanted to. And I always, you know, I always hark back to this, like, why should a guy be pegged out of high school? And that's the end of it. He's got to stay and play there or give up a year of his life if he wants to, to move on and transfer somewhere else. But I get your point about the older player thing. I'm still like, I'm older than you, but you know, when I was coming out of college, you know, it was all seniors back then and they were considered 22 year old rookies that had a lot to learn and a long way to go.

And now, you know, now we know what their ceiling is. I'm not sure that's always true, but your point about the overall numbers, you know, you know, you'd rather take a swing with the younger guy and they seem to have more runway to get better in the minds of most of the numbers seemed to prove it out. One of the NBA arguments that I'd always hear about, well, I guess over the years,

it felt like there was this groundswell when they changed it from the high school to the one and done, where a lot of teams were like, we'd rather just take them out of high school. And I think probably for every person you could get to say that, you'd hear from somebody else being like, one year, I don't wanna be in high school gyms,

I don't wanna have to have our staff be involved this much in the high school part of it, even though they're still watching them with the one and done, but at least the one year can filter out some of this stuff. So really what I'm setting up here is a bigger question about development. There were NBA teams for years that argued if your job is to be an NBA player, then we're better at developing you than anybody else would be. And it makes sense, but you could also argue opportunity practice reps. They don't practice a ton. Like, what are you really doing? Shooting drills and facility stuff. Where are you along the lines of like, what makes better sense for a guy developmentally between college and the NBA?

You know, it used to be like a few years ago, the overtime elite thing or going the G League route seemed to be a really good way to go about it because you got to, especially with the G League, you got to work in an NBA system and NBA people were looking at you all the time. But now that you can make money in college, the college route, like there were a lot more

college players drafted. You know, we were back to taking the college freshmen. I was at the first eight picks for college freshmen. I don't, I don't know Ryan, that I think there's a right answer here. It's a lot of it depends on the player, but we're seeing more international players, not everyone, but you're seeing more international players decide they want to go to college for a period of time. You know, Yegor Demin was one of them. You've got a bunch of these guys.

Come on, Malawatch. You know, you could, you could tick off several of them. So I happen to think that benefits college. I do think it benefits the NBA too. Maybe I'm a dinosaur in this, but I think it's good for a young person to be in a college environment, even if it's only for a year. And I think that one year is helpful. And then I think the other part of it that appeals to me is that young person establishes

a relationship with an institution of higher learning and they're more likely to go back. I just don't see the downside of college. I get it that you're going to have to go to class. You have to do these things. They're going to take your attention away from basketball a little bit. And it's not going to be 24 seven basketball like it would be in the G league. But, or if, if, you know, we went back to the old days and you kind of go directly to the NBA out of high school, I still like it. And I can't imagine that the NBA doesn't think it's a good thing.

I know the players association, many of the players push back on it. This is America. They should be able to go when they want type of deal. But everybody would agree there's a certain point where it's too soon. Like nobody's clamoring for players to be able to go after their junior year of high school. So, to me, what difference would make whether cutoff is one year out of high school and all that stuff.

I'm not saying it's the same as getting your driver's license, but I think the NBA at least having a year to get a look at them in a different environment other than high school is positive. Like there's nothing, there's nothing any of these leagues can do, whether it's NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, you're going to make mistakes in the draft. There's just no way to make this a science. You can make it more scientific, but there's no way to peg this. There's never going to be a draft in my view that we're going to look back on in five years and say, yep, nailed that one.

We're always going to look back and say, how did this guy go number 12 or how did she get Gilder's Alexander get drafted 11 and he's MVP, you know, stuff like that. We're always going to have those things. Because like, if I look at Malawatch, if we talk about some of the players, as much as I understand the NBA's motivation of getting the guys in and like, Hey, we're going to do a better job than they're going to, this is going to be his life. And it's hard to tell the NBA guy, hey, you're wrong about that. The players association,

whether it's the spirit of America, which okay, fine, or let's get the contract clock started a year earlier, which I think has been a lot of the motivation in the past pre-NIL, but it's hard to argue what was better for Malawatch's development, 39 high level games at Duke or watching 82 games. I don't know how anybody could, whatever your practice and your system and the nutrition and all that kind of stuff, it's hard to replicate the on-court experience in high pressure situations that a guy like Malawatch and so many of these other players had to fight through this year.

Yeah, I do think it's beneficial. There are a couple things on that. So once you go into the process and you go to an NBA team, they're not gonna just let you sit there. You know that, they're gonna be working with you, even if you're not playing, or you're going to be playing G League games and with the NBA team. They're going to get you reps and all that stuff.

But one thing I think is important, and I don't know that others would agree with this, but when you go into the NBA early, and you're young and not developed in really in any way as you would be later on. You're going in, you can have kind of a role player mentality. I like the idea of being at a college, on a college team where you can develop the ego of a great player because you're expected to do more and you'll be able to do more in college. And, uh, and I think it really helped Malawatch. I think it helped Derek Lively the second, you know, people kind of forget this, but when, when Derek Lively the second came to Duke,

he was the number one player in the country and he'd had an injury. I can't remember the injury was late in his senior year of high school or in between his senior year, his freshman year, but whatever it was, it kind of set him back. And he didn't perform really well to start the year. And I was fielding a couple of phone calls from colleagues of mine going, now explain this to me. This guy was the number one player in the country. And I was like, hang back, man. He's really good.

He just, you know, he's been hurt. And then he picked it up midway through his freshman year. And then by the end of the year, he was been hurt. And then he picked it up midway through his freshman year. And then by the end of the year, he was a difference maker for them. And it wound up get, I think he was taken 10th overall by Dallas. So, but I think, I think having that experience of, of doing it at a high level and being at a relied upon player rather than a bit player in the NBA was really helpful to them. But reasonable minds can differ on that. I don't know that there's a right or wrong answer

in the way this thing should be. But if I had my druthers, I would like it more like the NFL where they stay, the players association and the league agreed, let's keep them in school for a certain amount of time. Like if you're the players, this is one thing I've never understood. If you're the players association, you're an NBA player and the players association, I'd want college players in college for as long

as I can keep them there. Cause that means my job is preserved longer as a veteran. Like why would I want a young player coming in that's still in the developmental stage taking my job? I wouldn't want that. But that's somehow that's not the way the association thinks. And I don't know whether that's an influence of agents or they thought they will never just automatically to agree to what the league wants. They're going to use it as a bargaining chip. I'm not privy to all those things. But to me, the fundamental point is like, hey, man, you can keep them in. If

you're if you're a player in the league me, the fundamental point is like, Hey, man, you can keep them in. If you're, if you're a player in the league now, the longer they stay in college, the longer I have a job. That's the way I'd look at it. Let's run through the guys outside of Cooper and Dylan, because we've talked about them. Do you have any kind of ranking? Like, as I know, you weren't doing it this year, but I imagine, you know know you're doing it in a sense of like your preference between VJ, Kniepel, Johnson, Fears, Ace if we kept it in that group before the Demmon pick. Yeah I ranked him I had a best available list and I had you know obviously I think everybody that watched any amount of basketball this year had Cooper Flagg

and Dylan Harper one of two had ace bailey number three Uh based on his talent Um, it wasn't a question of risk. It was just a talent assessment and I had edge come Uh fourth And then I had trey johnson next um Konkanipples a better standstill shooter like he's the best he's the best catch and shoot guy in this draft. And honestly, I don't think it's close call.

If they had a horse game, a standstill horse game, he'd win by far. But Trey Johnson, I believe, is the best overall shooter because he can shoot it off the dribble and create his own. Canipple doesn't create his own as much. It's off a catch. And then he's gonna shot, he either takes a shot or he shot fakes and drives, and it's a straight line drive and he plays off two feet and does really well.

The ones I struggled with a little bit, I had Malawatch next and then I had Colin Murray Boyles of South Carolina. And that was a tough call for me because I really like Murray Boyles. He's a lefty. He's one of the most versatile defenders in the draft. He doesn't look like he's a really good athlete, but he is. And he gets a lot done on the floor. He's an excellent rebounder.

He just doesn't have a jump shot yet, but he scores in the paint and he, you know, like people, people criticize me when I say this, but I mean, it's a reflexive thing. Like he just knows how to play. There's some guys just know how to play. And it's not based on coaching. He's got just a feel for the game. And I like him a lot. But I could, he's one of those guys that you go, OK, I ranked him eighth. But I could see, I could see somebody else having him 28th.

That's those are kind of fair things. And then I had a hard time with Jeremiah Fears of Oklahoma, because offensively and athletically, he's the real deal. Like with the ball and getting in the lane, I don't know that he's going to get fouled as much in the NBA as he gets fouled in college. And he needs to work on his shot because he's not a great perimeter shooter just yet. But I think he's got the makings of one. Not a great but I think he's got the makings of one. Not a great shooter, but he's got the makings of a more consistent shooter.

But you don't find offensive talent like that very often. He's really gifted. I like what you said about Murray Boyles, just because I always felt like watching him, I was like, I'm not a hundred percent sure what it is other than just his impact, that he's just impacting the game in a bunch of different ways. I hope, I mean, it's not like I'm sitting here going like, I hope he grows a couple more inches because that's not likely going to

happen, but it is a weird fit. Or maybe he's just somebody that you're bringing in going, we already know like his floor is so much higher that he's this role guy that's really tough that plays defense. I mean, every one of these kids just tells us that they can shoot from three now, even if there's no evidence that they can. You know, which is fine. Like, what are you supposed to do?

Be like, well, I'm not really, I just don't feel comfortable out there. Like nobody's gonna do that in the interview, but he's more of an impact guy than I would say like the unique skills. Again, this is a different tier between he and Trey Johnson. But when you watch Trey Johnson, you go like, I cannot believe some of these shots that this kid is making. So I would, that's why Trey Johnson goes higher than, than a guy like Murray Boyles.

But there's just different tastes depending on where you are at Toronto. And I can't figure out Toronto's roster for life me anyway. So I guess they just said, let's, let's just bring in another guy that at least we know he's going to play really hard and probably doesn't need to be on the ball like every other guy that they have signed long term. Yeah. And he is going to play really like the one thing that impressed me above all else with Colin Murray Boyles was he played for a team last year that was expected to be pretty good. And I think they were pretty good. They just played for a team last year that was expected to be pretty good. And I think they were pretty good. They just played in a league that was ridiculous. You

know, they beat Clemson early on in the year and I think they got off to an eight and no or nine and no star, whatever it was. And then they hit sec play and they started losing these one possession games and all that. They wound up two and 16 in the league. And late in the season, I had, I had a couple of their games in the SEC tournament. I was like, this is the best last place team in college basketball I've ever seen. But the thing that impressed me is Colin Murray Boyles played his butt off. And you know how it is. You get to that point in the season, you're two and 16, you know you're not going anywhere. And they probably knew that they weren't going to have some crazy run to win the SEC tournament with the

amount of great teams that were in the league last year. But, um, he had a chance, like he was kind of injured and had a chance to tap out and he didn't like he didn't tap out on his team, didn't tap out on his teammates. He played his butt off. And I, I mean, I, I, I really respected that sitting there court side watching that. I was really impressed with that. What did you think of the next night? I didn't understand it.

I guess I was like most people that thought with five first round picks, there would probably be really active trading. And then you start hearing like our guys, Jonathan Gavone and Bobby Mark saying, no, they want to keep this pick. They want to keep this pick. They want to start hearing like our guys, Jonathan Gavone and Bobby Mark saying, no, they want to keep this pick. They want to keep this pick. They want to keep the, you know, all of a sudden they want to keep all their picks. And, you know, I think their first pick was Yegor Demin of BYU, who's uber talented. I mean, he's tall and, you know and really good with the ball and got just a magnificent passer. But, you know, and when you see highlights of him making shots, and then, you know,

you watched him at BYU and all that with the way they played, you're thinking, okay, well, you know, maybe he can develop a shot. But I mean, he shot under 30% from three. You know, at some point you got to go, okay, well that's not a good shooter yet, but, but he's got talent. And then I thought Drake Powell might sneak into the first round. I didn't think anybody take him at 22. That, that didn't occur to me. You know, he only played a year at North Carolina. He was kind of brought in to be a point guard, but with the team they had last year, he played kind of a wing position and he got parked in the corner a lot. He made his open threes,

but he really wasn't guarded on a lot of those. They were worried about, you know, RJ Davis and trying to keep guys out of the lane and all that stuff. But athletically, he tested off the charts at the combine. So he's got a lot of ability, just hasn't realized on it yet. And then the other guys are good talents. They got Seraph, the Israeli, they got Traore from France, and then got even, he was really moving watching Danny Wolf sit there for that long.

His mother actually rode back with us from the draft. She wound up in our car and we had no idea how that happened. But what a sweet lady. And, you know, kind of talking about how difficult the night was for her two boys, you know, kind of what she said, it's a lot more stressful. Um, you know, you're thinking, uh,

according to her, he was told he might go number nine. And then you go from nine to 27, had to sit there all that time. And, you know, that had to be the longest first round I've ever sat through. It took a long time. We weren't off the set until close to midnight. And so, you know, I don't think I've ever seen that much cry. And I don't want to make fun of it, but I've never seen that much crying at a draft. There was a lot of crying. And close to midnight, I was one of them. I was starting to cry. Yeah, man. I mean, that's tough because you get that invite and there's some people that don't get invited to the green room where I'm like, you know, okay, that's interesting. That's that's something if this guy's invited to the green room, like, what does that mean? I've been in the building for it. I think I did a bunch of years. I don't know how many I did. And then there would be dudes that just show up, have their own ticket. They have no invite from anybody. Back when we had the first two rounds in the same night and they would just come out of the stands in a suit.

That I like better than having 24 guys in there. I'm uncomfortable with the lack because last year, two guys didn't get, they got invited to the green room, didn't get drafted. It was Filipowski and I think Furphy were still sitting there. And this year it looked like, you know, Danny Wolf was a focus a little bit. And then, and then Liam McNeely, I think was the last guy. So all of them got drafted, all the 24 wound up getting drafted. You know, the only picks that kind of fooled me

a little bit, most of them were with it, at least within the range of where you rank the players, not that that matters, but Portland at number 16, taking Hanson Yang from China. That one surprised me. Like I had him ranked like 41st. And then the big guy from Penn State, Yanni Conan Niederhäuser. I had him in the late 30s. So that was a little bit of a, maybe not a crazy, I mean, went number 30. So that's not a crazy swing, but I didn't see either one of those guys go to the first round. Yeah, it was. When it got done, I was like, you know what, like credit to the mocks on this one, not so much for the accuracy, but like sometimes you're looking for, do we have 10 guys that we thought weren't going in the first round that went in the first round? And other than

Yang and I think the very end of the first round, as you point out with the Penn State kit, there was, it was basically like the same collection of this rotating, you know, Fleming, maybe St. Joe's not going was a bit surprising, but there was probably only like three or four names that were swapped out for each other. The DeraQueen pick, it's not just the pick. So if I ask you, hey, what do you think? It's hard to do it on just a player, but let's just talk about the player first because there's not a sane basketball person that thinks that this was a smart basketball decision to give

up the unprotected pick in 26. Yeah, that's the kicker and sort of the hard one to wrap your head around. Like, I heard one of my colleagues today say that that if if you had told someone, okay, the Pelicans were going to get Jeremiah Fears from Oklahoma and then Derek Queen with seven and 13, you go, hey, that's pretty good. That's good draft. They did a good job. But then you go, but they moved up 10 spots to get their queen and they had to give up a first round pick next year that could turn it,

who knows, maybe it's a top five pick. You go, I don't know about that. But same thing with the kid from China, Hanson Yang, going to Portland. If you really like the guy, then you do what it takes to take him. The fact that I may not agree with what New Orleans did, we're not gonna know for a while whether they're right or wrong.

But if you find out next year that pick turns into something really good in a draft that's in all likelihood gonna be better next year than that pick turns into something really good in a draft that's in all likelihood going to be better next year than this one was. That's when you start getting into the... I don't like the idea of messing with your draft picks. That's the way, in my view anyway, that's the way you build teams is you do it through the draft. And, and I don't think you give those away for, for 10 spots to get Derek Queen, but you know, reasonable minds can differ, I guess. What'd you think about Yakuchonas falling to Miami at number 20?

I wasn't shocked at that. I had Yakuchonas ranked 15th, so that sort of drop is not crazy. He's really talented and he's really good with the ball. He struggled, like I think he's a pretty good shooter, but he really struggled to shoot it late in the season. Like I think the last 10, 12 games, whatever it is, he shot like 25% from three. I don't know whether he got worn down or anything, because Will Riley wound up going late in the first round,

or later in the first round, a teammate of his, he had his best games in the last 10 games. And that was kind of a separator for him. He got off to a great start, kind of tapered off in the middle, then really finished strong. And Yakuchon was kind of the opposite. He had some injury issues and illness and all that, but he's talented.

I didn't think Miami would be the team to take him. That surprised me a little bit. But with his talent, a lot of these guys can pay off. But there are a number of players, you know, you're kind of thinking, okay, here are the positives, but there are some negatives too. And which one's going to win out at the NBA level? I don't think, I don't think, I don't think I know that right now. So you don't have your five future all-stars list for me, your guaranteed lock, come on sports center, Jay Billis and give us your five future all-stars list for me? You're guaranteed lock. Come on SportsCenter, Jay Billis,

and give us your five future all-stars. You know, well, yeah, but if you think they're all-stars, you rank them in the top five. You know, like that's kind of the thing is, like every once in a while, like you know how this stuff goes. So draft's coming up and SportsCenter wants, give us a name that's gonna be Donovan Mitchell.

Because I guess when Donovan Mitchell came out, I had him as a sleeper. But I wasn't saying, when I said sleeper, I was talking about value. I wasn't saying, okay, here's an all NBA player. Like, you're not kind of saying that. But then you start going, all right, are we making this up to try to,

yeah, it's a weird position to be in. Yes, are we making, because no one actually cares. In my experience with it, nobody was like, hey, that might be a little outrageous. Yeah, oh, nobody's gonna say that. But when, it's funny, like when I've done the, I try to look back on prior drafts to see, you know, mistakes I've made, to see like,

was there a reason I made that mistake other than just being dumb? Or is that, is this something I can avoid making in the future if I'm more cognizant of this, that, the other, and that, you can't really find a pattern to it. But you know how this stuff goes. Like, you know, you're, nobody ever remembers the

right calls you had, they only remember the wrong ones. And that which is fine. You know, the Hyman Roth said, this is the business we've chosen. I mean, I don't have any problem with that. We're going to be wrong. But I always want to try to be careful. Like, I don't want to just make stuff up for this segment just because somebody wants it. And even last night, to be quite frank with you, like I totally blew off the idea of, all right, who lost tonight? Who was the big loser? Like, no, no, ask somebody else that, I'm not doing that.

I mean, if you want to say who did well, fine. I'm not gonna go, all right, this team really screwed up. Like you can point out that that was a lot to give up for Derek Queen. So they must really believe in him. That's fair. I'm not gonna go bagging on some team because I don't like their draft pick.

That guy maybe later gone, the guy turns out to be an all star, like who cares? Yeah, but that's what I did over this pod today and the Derek Queen thing. So just a forewarn. Cause you know, the Queen thing, it's not the same thing, but I remember like the Ravens after they got Lamar and it was like, we knew it was gonna be a big deal. and the Tara Queen thing. So just a forewarning. Because the Queen thing, it's not the same thing, but I remember the Ravens after they got Lamar and it was like, we knew it, we knew it. It was like,

you actually had three chances to pick him before you picked him. So just calm down on that you were smarter than everybody about this, other than you ended up getting him. So no one's ever going to remember how that draft worked out because I remember they kept kind of like, all right, so they're out of that pickck they're out of that peck if the bellicans have a press conference to justify this and start going like we had queen like what it's like well why don't you just take them seventh but then they're going to say well we had fears like three outside of all these guys and you know look i could sit here and say we had heard they liked fears well clearly they did they did. They took them seven. And that's a justification for all this stuff. But I'm with you on it,

because it's kind of what the game is with the open mind of like how many times you'd go back to winners and losers on draft night without ever seeing a kid play. I think it's a flawed thing that we've all kind of accepted that, yeah, that's also gonna be a talking point on everything that you're doing the next day.

The Pelicans won though, just the risk of having that pick be unprotected, knowing what is a more likely scenario for the Pelican season next year. That one I would be okay with saying like, hey, not great tonight. Couple other things before I let you go, Cedric Cowart, the first time I watched him, I just couldn't believe, I'm like, why is it?

And then boom, here we go, he goes 11. And some teams actually, with my excitement, were like, you need to chill out a little bit on him. He played six games, watched the Iowa game. The Iowa game was the only game against real competition. He wasn't great necessarily in that game. But yet that was still enough for Memphis. What did you see when you prepped for him this year?

Well, I don't care about the six games thing. He got hurt. Like he had a laborman injury. Kyrie Irving played 11 games. So what? That's meaningless. It was an injury. And in those six games, three of them were 20 point games,

including he hung 30 on Northern Colorado. It's what he's capable of doing. So he's one of these long-armed, super athletic 3 and D guys that can really knock down shots. Like, you know, I'm not suggesting he's, you know, he's going to win the NBA three-point contest, but with that athletic profile, for him to be able to make perimeter shots and then he can guard anybody, transition ability, you know, rebound, you name it. And, and he's, he's hungry. Like he's a division three player started out in division three and then transferred Eastern Washington did really well there. And then, and then went

to Washington state where he got hurt out, you know, around the sixth game. You know, I had him, I think I had him like at 18 and he wound up going, going number 11, I believe. But he's talented. Like there were three guys that, that I was really interested in seeing what would happen. It was Carter Bryant of Arizona, uh, Rashir Fleming of St. Joe's and Coward. And I thought all three of them were going in the first round because of, you know, they're the prototypical 3ND guys that are crazy long and athletic and they can make an open three.

And, you know, Coward went higher than I thought. Bryant went a couple slots lower than I thought. I thought Bryant would be the first one off the board. And I thought Fleming would go in the top 25 and he wound up slipping into the second round. Is Fleming your best available then to start the second round tonight? Yeah, he's number one on the remaining list.

And then Maxime Renaud of Stanford, who averaged over 20, averaged over 10. He's kind of a pick and pop big guy and can make threes. He's not like this super athlete and he's not a big time shot blocker, but his offensive rebounding is overall rebounding, which as you know, translates pretty well to the NBA. I think he'll be off the board pretty quick. I'll be interested to see what happens with Ryan Kalkrenner from Creighton. There's four time defensive player of the year in the Big East. And I happen to really like him.

But it'll be interesting to see. I kind of play straight up and down. I don't know whether that's bothersome to some people in the NBA. But I think he's going to have value at the top of the second round. Maybe a question for tonight to prep you up. How many Hall of Famers do you think we have in the second round? Well, you have to go right to Chas Lenier. I have no idea. Two and a half is the over under on Hall of Famer tonight in the second round.

We're gonna start with Jay Villas. Maybe work that into the rundown. Coverage tonight on ESPN, the ESPN app. That's five West Coast time, eight Eastern time for Jay and the crew for part two. A two parter now with the NBA the last couple of years. So hopefully you're getting compensated, Jay. I hope so.

Thanks, man. All right, brother. Thank you. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fares, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday, anywhere along the Go network. And the Weekday Group Passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online Go Pass ahead of the show at Gotransit.com slash tickets. No frills, delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express.

Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFriills.ca. You want details? Buy. 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 the email address life advice rr at gmail.com Orgon Kyle, what's good Kyle Harley Kyle on the show today? Yeah, took a break from the polo, just, I don't know,

feel different when I put one of these bad boys on. Same works with a G-Unit shirt. Just felt like that kinda day. G-Unit. What's going on with the TV's? First question, has Ryan emailed the guy yet? Emailed him an hour ago. Whoa!

It feels like a Friday. That's awesome. Doesn't it? Okay. Well, thanks. Sorry. Yeah. No, that was a flat response. We've been giving you shit. I guess I have. That was flat.

I'm sorry. You want to take it from the top? No, no, I don't. Okay. I was not reading. I was reading it because someone asked and then I was like, you know what? I'll be honest with you. Someone asked, then I emailed them.

So credit to that guy. So I wanted to acknowledge him. I was not doing this for praise. I was not. When I wanna be praised, you'll know. We have one about this guy's sex life. I don't know. It is the first day.

It's the first day. No. For some it isn't. For kids, I always wanna give, I wanna always give the parents like a little bit of a heads up, but. Like 30 seconds? Yeah, is that what I'm doing right now?

Yeah, I think, yeah. Head on a swivel, everybody. Okay. The title is Generous Lover with a Pillow Princess. Oh no. Jesus. I know it's intense. I need to say, we've even thought about this one.

Okay. It's a little racy for us. Okay. Okay, let's give it a shot. I might have to edit on the fly here. Five, seven, one, 65. I'm an arborist. I work outdoors, climbing trees, fit, but not athletic. Great bench guy, hype man, assistant coach, like Charlie from the Mighty Ducks,

the heart of the team. It's like Kyle. Mid thirties, spent a few years having fun. I spent years, not a few, spent years having fun as a bachelor. I was once told you are not a great guy, but you are hot and good in bed. I spent years having fun as a bachelor. I was once told, you are not a great guy, but you are hot and good in bed. I think a lot of people would be like, I'm okay with that.

There's a certain age range and you're like, yeah, maybe I should run for office. Sounds like I got everything. I, you could say certain age range and then it could come back. Like, Hey, I'm back to my, it's the old me. Uh, womanizing days are behind me. I've been in a wonderful relationship for two and a half years. The big brain, big heart PhD.

We've been living together for six months to spend the normal bumpiness transition of two long time bachelors living together. I do my best to be a good roommate. Great boyfriend carrying my own emotional luggage. We have a solid relationship, mix the serious with the fun, a real future together." Well-constructed sentence. The issue.

Oh, there was like headlines of that. The first one was the situation, and now the issue, bold underline. I like his organizational skills too as well. I am a sexual athlete. It's what I do best. I'm physically gifted and have the talent to match. I take my craft seriously. I put in hours of practice, reading, researching, always finding ways to improve.

I'm just going to be like the first one in the gym, last one to leave. Right. So we heard that a lot from, wouldn't it be great if they were interviewing the draft picks to be like, you know, what is Utah Jazz when they're getting, like a sexual appetite that's just beyond. Yeah, I'm different. What the hell are we doing?

Let's go. Yeah, so this guy's putting in the work. I focus on her asking about her needs, what she wants, maintaining an emotionally safe environment with enthusiastic consent. I am a generous and enthusiastic lover keeping that ratio of hers to mine high, typically two, five, one.

We have an active sex life and she's deeply satisfied. However, I am not. My needs do not seem to matter to her. Recently, there was a week where the ratio was 16 to one. I've had a few conversations about how I feel like I'm the only one. I'm only there to please her. Then I do all the work and she just lays there. She's baffled convinced that women can only do things in a different position. Even when I do, even then I do most of the work. She's implied that if I want to, yeah, this is, this is getting a little deep for us. That it's ultimately his responsibility. I don't want to break up. We have a solid relationship. As a sexual

athlete, I feel stifled. I'm an all-star player with some nice accolades and I'm floundering on a mid-level team while I'm still in my prime. I know this all sounds egotistical. This one's titled Side Note. And I'm God's gift to women. I know that I'm not.

There are many cases where I'm full of self-loathing and insecurity. There's an area where I, this is an area I felt insecure about until women convinced me my insecurity was inaccurate. Italics, I don't ever want her to do something she does not want to do. I'm hands off, strong, independent. You sound awesome. I'm hands off, strong, independent women, do whatever you want, sort of dude. There's no negativity to her desire to make her friends. I'm hands off strong independent women do

whatever you want sort of dude there's no negativity to desire to make her feel bad all emotional safety and enthusiastic consent is there any way to communicate that my needs are not getting met that I want her to want me or is this just something I must accept she simply does not find my sexual gratification important and will only ever play a minor role in satisfying them. Thanks for everything, I love all of you. Wargon, you wanna go first?

Ooh. Yes. Did he give us a comp, by the way? Is there a player comp in there? He was the Mighty Ducks guy, right? That's- That Garnett on the Charlewool's. I don't know what to tell this,

I mean, he's grinding tape, he's putting in the hours, Jim Ratt. You've already told her this, right? That's what to tell him. He's grinding tape. He's putting in the hours, Jim Rat. You've already told her this, right? That's what the email said. They've already had this discussion. Yeah. Yeah, she says it's up to him. Yep.

I don't know what else to tell you, Guy. It's not gonna be, the conversation's not gonna get easier to have the second time around. It'll probably be dismissive more now. Like, what do you want from me? This is this is kind of it's a trade-off situation. You said everything else is great. You know, it's a long life. Things could change. Don't you taste buds change every 10 years? I don't know. Do they? I don't know. It's one of those myths, right?

Desensitized. I don't know. Yeah, look that up. Good idea. You know, but I don't think bel Yeah, look that up, good idea. But I don't think belaboring this point with her is gonna, like there's certain things in relationships, you know, certain conversations aren't gonna go well and you think in an ideal relationship, we should be able to talk about this. I'm having an issue, there's plenty of times

that I wanted to say something and didn't and now it's, now my cup is full of annoyance and I'm gonna try to say this in a responsible way and we should be able to talk about it if I just share my feelings because that's what everyone wants right share your feelings in there in a relationship so we don't have any miscommunications and then the moment comes you spring it on her you try to do it in the right way and it's she's not receptive and you're like everything I thought is wrong and that's true she doesn't care enough about this right now.

I don't know, unless you're doing a couples therapy when you've got like a mediator and you're like, this is really important to our sexual athlete here. There's no way that she's gonna see it this way. So I don't think this is gonna get better in your eyes unless you change your perspective on it. I don't know. Well put, thanks. We get a well put from Oregon on that one.

I guess, peacocking around the bedroom with your shirt off like Mick Jagger just saying, do you know how good you have it? It's like what it sounds like. Sounds like the guy I want. He's already talked to her. She said, hey, that's more up to you, which is a horrible answer.

Yeah, it's just, so. And you know, before he brought it up, he was like, I waited as long as I could on this. He was really expecting some sort of empathy or something and to get the opposite of that is like, that's tough, man. I don't really have anything else to add. I think you're, you're to make some sort of compromise. Does this person check every other box? And I think, much like the Pelicans giving up that unprotected pick, my concern would be if you're signing up for this deal long-term and you're going to be married,

is there going to be a breaking point for you where you, much like the pelicans, putting yourself at risk of betraying something? Right, where you're just gonna start to rationalize it like, well, it's been two and a half years, sounds like things are really good. I don't know that this gets better. I don't know.

I mean, unless you're just like so old, you know, like whatever, just glad I'm, you know, I don't have a walker. Maybe you throw yourself into it more. You know, like with Scientologists, like you get your Thetans up enough, you might like switch, flip a switch in her. And she's like, I care about this now.

Maybe you can lie to yourself and just practice hard enough in whatever your routine is, go to three a days. I don't know. Maybe you do something so crazy that she's like, we got to figure out how to make that happen again. I don't know. I'll leave you with that. You sound like somebody who may have read a pamphlet walking

around the frolic room. They are there. They are there. I just watched it. I watched it going clear on HBO. That thing had me shook. You just watched it? No, no, a while ago,

and it's just been one of those things I'm like fascinated with. Cause they're just there walking around with their tucked in shirts, like, come on in. Oh man, I don't think so. Yeah, I'm just worried that, I mean, a guy called himself a sexual athlete twice so it's really important how important and

Are you? You know gonna get to a point a couple years get married you just go Start going to Hooters. You know like say it's because of the specials Like you went to Hooters again on Tuesday by yourself. You got four different card girls number. You just want to know when they're working. You're golf course. All right. Good luck.

All right. There's a couple other here. There's a long pause. Sorry for anybody that thought the guy wanted to talk about his day off. All right. Let's read this one about Guam. You all just threw Guam out the window. I waited a couple of shows.

We send this. I actually played varsity basketball in high school, but that's it. No other stats. I really didn't want to put that in there, but I have to now Guam is by far the best that guy could go to. I'm a white guy who's is by far the best that guy could go to. I'm a white guy who's been adopted into the Chamorro culture. Hope I got that right.

I don't know. I don't know a lot about Guam. That's why I didn't, I didn't put it. I didn't know what to do with it. Um, that's the local people there. I was born and raised in Colorado, right between Denver and Boulder. Went to CU work golf course maintenance for a long time. Then went to law school in Oklahoma after school, got a job in Guam,

did public defender work there. How about this guy? Then I moved to Colorado to do public defender work there for a year, then moved back to Guam for five years. This guy loves Guam. Then during the pandemic, me and my wife moved to Maine. Also, that's when the Nuggets won and I had to celebrate alone with my dog. That sucks.

Yeah, but they won in 23. I guess he was still in Maine. Yeah, I guess he's still in Maine and hadn't made any friends despite how much Guam accepted him, which maybe is its own topic. Is Guam friendlier than Maine? But now I'm back in Guam because it's amazing with the beaches and the pictures. Does surprise me Mike wouldn't come. Damn. Yeah. How do you feel about that Mike?

Get a little bit of sorority treatment. Yeah. God damn. Yeah. It's a little stray. But Kyle, that was disappointing. Ryan, I think is more interested. Just know it's four hours of Tokyo and Japan

is the best ever. Also, if you ever get the chance, Palaua? Palaua? I don't know. One of those has to is the best ever. Also, if you ever get the chance, Palau, Palau. I don't know. One of those has to be right. Yeah. Google jellyfish lake. All right. Yeah. Look, we didn't spend a lot of time on Guam because we didn't have much reference. So, you know, every now and then I like to, I don't know if I don't know a ton about something. But again, sometimes we're talking about stuff where I'm like, I don't know what to do with this.

So, Guam was one I was very uncomfortable pretending I knew anything about. Yeah, you gotta think of the context of the question. He was like, where would you go if you were me? And, you know, I didn't know anything about it. So it couldn't be my top three for sure. Yeah, I can't put something in my top three if I don't.

I'm imagining plugs I've never heard of before. You know, I'm not, that's coming from a place of ignorance, but I'm just saying if I had to push my chips towards something, it probably wouldn't be the place I don't know, sorry. I'm sure it's beautiful, but you gotta factor in the travel. You know, being so far away from family, right. Yeah, there's that. Wargon's right. Yeah. Right. There's that.

Wargon's just being sensible about it. He's not anti-guam, he's pro-convenience. Amazon, you imagine how long it takes to get ginger ale? Right. But they got three day shipping there, you think? Yeah, doubt it's free. Send in one box to, we're sending this, send it this next month.

Okay, this is urgent. How do I waste time in between jobs? Hey guys, 24 year old male, five, eight, 165, player comp, Tar Heel, JJ Reddick, short and can shoot the three but went to Carolina, so F Duke, I get it now, rivalry, never does. No gym stats, I'm currently in between jobs and live in an apartment in the

south end of Charlotte. Some pronounce it Charlotte. It's further north on the pronunciations today. My roommate and all of my buddies have normal nine to five, so I usually have the day to myself. However, I think of myself as a people person, so this tends to get boring. Also, I'm single, sitting by the apartment pool, writing this email right now as I'm the only person here. What other activities could I get into? I run a 5k every morning and have broken 24 minutes a few times. Orga? It's good.

Was that eight minutes, eight minute mile? Well under that. No, that would be yeah, I mean, was it 3.1? 3.1. Yeah, it's a little under. But get bored in the afternoons, love the pod, as much as lamello ball. PS, this is my current view. So this guy sent us a full hairy leg close-up pic.

A great camera. Hot dogger legs. All toes. This pic sucks, man. Luckily he left out. It's below his shorts enough that we're not right on top of him. His pick sucks, man. Luckily he left out, it's below his shorts enough that we're not right on top of him.

But this is how bored this guy is. He's emailing us and then sending us pictures of his legs and his toes. He's got a massive second digit. Kyle, you're our guy on this one. What do you do in between jobs? I thought Kyle was the're our guy on this one. What do you do in between jobs? Kyle was the second digit guy. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, an athlete guy.

He cares about this. So I would say you're not going to go sit in bars, you know, don't do that. The answer for me is clearly golf. You can spend as much or as little time you can play as fast, as slow as you want. If you're going to be a solo and you're a people person, there's somebody going to be there.

I don't know what, you know, what time of day, probably the earlier, the older your companions would get. So if you do your 5k in the morning, shower up, and you stroll in around one or two o'clock, you might get some people a little closer to your age. I don't know. But that's the easy answer for me. Especially if you never play, you could go out there as much as you want so I would I would say golf or something akin to that words you can do it alone, but you do it with people and There's a lot of times in that part of the day. Like you said, most people have jobs So you'll probably be able to get out there. I Was gonna say fishing Find like a nice lake whatever you got down there stream, whatever throw a line out. Just hang out there

That's a little bit expensive. Yeah, certainly less expensive. That's like a great day to me. Certainly less expensive, yeah. Certainly less expensive. You might catch a fish, bring it home. Who knows? Show no one. Possibilities are endless. Because you're alone. Turn into a fish Instagram page, that'd be great. Yeah, maybe that's it, getting the content. Like this is what I did on my day off.

This is what you do in between jobs and all of your roommates and friends of work. Build a trench. Yeah. Just see what happens. He's in an apartment. That HOA freak out. You're out there with a hoe and a wheelbarrow.

Like who is this guy? Thanks for shoehorning that in. We had, we had a false start on the podcast a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to shout out this group of kids in the UK called Trenching Boys. They're just teamed up this summer, probably on somebody else's land, and they're digging a trench. They've built a fire into it. They're dealing with heavy rains, so some flooding, but they're not stopping.

It's just a great time. Shout out Trenching Boys on Instagram. They're taking off, and I wanted to get the credit before they got this many followers, but you know, that's just, sometimes production doesn't work that way. So I just want to give them a shout out. Thanks for mentioning them, Trenching Boys.

So what happened? We cut it because you kept messing up the beginning and then that never made it on. I had no idea that that's- Yeah, it was like, I think something wasn't recording first. I was recording on my end, obviously. I'm a pro, but there was something going on. I think with the overall recording,

there was like the internet stopped and I just didn't have the same enthusiasm and you know. That was it. I think we tried twice and you're like, I don't even want to do it again. Nah, don't feel it. So just so the world knows you were on the trenching boys early. Early.

All right. Last one. This is one of my favorite ones ever. And I even called my father about it. Okay. So DIY framing gone wrong. Greetings. Ryan, Kyle, Mike, maybe Steve, six, six to 20.

Wow. 30 years old completed half marathon, but I won't get to my mile splits. Why not? We don't have them though. Player comp, Josh Smith, left-handed can dunk, can't shoot. My wife and I bought a house about one and a half years ago. Has an unfinished basement. I wanted something to put some sweat equity into, and she wanted something

that was closer to finished products. So rather than getting a full on fixer upper, this is what we settled on. I started, I like that compromise. Our first season. Just close the door on it if it gets a little too crazy. It's like just down there. I don't know. Just put our paper towels down there right now.

Yeah, it's next to the Capri Suns. I started the process maybe six months ago, but it is slow going when you are DIYing since the weekends make the most sense to pick up the next project. I have an office job full time, so having a project to figure out and working with my hands sounded appealing for DIY. This guy's killing me because I'm going to mess up this read. Our basement, I wanted to learn some new skills along the way. As I'm trying to figure out what I will do versus contracting out, I landed on doing

the framing. Two bed, one bath since nothing was structural and my brother convinced me that I could do the HVAC myself. To save some money, I found someone to moonlight the plumbing and for the electrical, I found a small contractor who was just starting on his own. Fast forward a bit. I passed rough in inspection for framing, plumbing, electrical and HVAC. So the next step in the process is drywalling. I hired a drywalling company that was suggested by my brother as I had heard people doing drywall themselves, but it also sounded overwhelming to tackle an entire basement by myself.

I was eager to see what everything looked like after they hung the drywall, so I checked it out, and on one of the walls they wrote in pencil, "'Beautiful frame.' I consider it one of the best compliments I've ever received since this is my first framing project and even told my family members and friends about it. I consider it one of the best compliments I've ever received since this was my first framing project and even told my family members and friends about it.

Now for the surprise, the business owner doubles as the texture guys. So he's the last one in the job before it's complete. I told him about the message on the wall and he said he was not happy when he saw it. Apparently the team who wrote it told the business owner, there were things wrong with the framing. They had to fix or adjust. The business owner told them it was the homeowner who framed it to explain why there were errors. What I took as a compliment now seemed to be sarcasm.

I never found out what the issues were, but they didn't seem to be delayed in getting the job done. When I read this the first time, I knew immediately he was being fucked with, because sheet rockers would not ever be like, Hey, beautiful frame. When I read this email to my father, he was like, I was surprised. They even got to the level of sarcasm. Um, like, it should just say, fuck you.

Like, what do you think of what's a normal thing? But I just knew, I knew immediately. I'm like, they're not complimenting this guy. I don't take it personally, I'll probably frame something again since I learned so much along the way and enjoyed the process. But what I want to clarify,

or what I want clarity from is from a guy with a construction background. Hey, I don't know, I don't know if I'm your guy anymore on that. Should I have just hired the same company to do the framing of the drywall so there's no room for complaints about my work? Or does this happen all the time in the construction

industry and I'm overthinking it? Also, is it bad enough to update my friends and family on what the message really meant since now they see me as being handy? Yeah, I think you just leave them out of it. You know the truth. That's all that really matters. You weren't doing it to be deceitful. You weren't doing it for some, maybe a little ego boost, but it wasn't like you want to be introduced as the guy who just figured out framing immediately. The chances are it's the first time you're doing it. So there's just gonna be stuff you're not thinking about. Like you may be thinking about level, or you're thinking about plumb.

Are you looking at how the two by four sit? Are you just tacking them in there being like, this is good? Sometimes the quality of wood on one side of the two by four is far superior to the other side. And so you also have to think about like, all right, I've got to keep them on a certain distance to centers. But are you thinking about how the seams are going to line up when they're putting in the sheet rock?

So I imagine there's just shit that you thought you nailed because that you probably were not thinking about the next step enough. And the second those guys see anything that gets in their way, and even if you said like, it didn't seem like it was going to take them any longer. They probably had to rip out a couple of two by fours or turn them around, or they had to move a couple over to make sure that it lined up with what

they were doing in the next step. It's just a lot for you to just know the first time you're ever going to do it. I'm sure the second time you do it, you'll probably figure it out. But you know, tacking some two by fours in together and then seeing what is in theory a wall is slightly more complicated when you have to think about all the things that are going to happen next.

So I wouldn't really worry about it all that much. I wouldn't tell your family. And yes, it's also like the second something is not to their liking and delays them by five minutes, whatever that group is just sits there and mother fucks the previous group. Even if it's totally like an overreaction, it's just what dudes do. All right, that'll do it for the pod today. That's it for me. That's all we got.

That's nice up. That's it for me. Yeah, I'm sorry. I was like. Clear out. Yeah, I was Alex Saar with a minute left. Sorry, this is what I do. I was a little surprised. The one thing I'll say is he left the drywalling

for someone else. I always thought framing was one of those scary things, precision, sort of like you mentioned. If it was a first time for each one of those, I might've been like, I'll take a little extra time on the drywall, I think. The frame seems like, I don't know. To me, the framing's more important,

but all I could think of is having to do a drywall, like a full drywall finish basement. All I could think of is after you did it the first time, you'd be like, okay, I'm gonna be so much better the second time as you looked at a really nice, which is gonna be a lot of stuff that you weren't gonna do right the first time around. But again, I didn't have a lot of expertise in that.

And look, Sheetrock guys, were always kind of their own thing. Did the Framers look down on them? Yes. Okay. All right. That'll do it for the pod today. Thanks to Oregon, thanks to Kyle,

thanks to Marcelino in today as well. Ryan Russo podcast, you can watch us on the Spotify app. Please subscribe to our YouTube page. We're gonna do a Friday Feedback next week. Friday Feedback, rrgmail.com, I promise, sort of. And thanks for listening. Bring your Spotify. They were gonna name me Michael Jordan.

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