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What is crack a lackin hardwood knocks
listeners. I am the highly if superfluously

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caffeinated Dampa Valley coming at you with
good friend and spectacular basketball writer and coach

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and draft nick and just brilliant mind
all around Adam Spinella. Follow him on

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Twitter at the box End One underscore
spelled exactly as it sounds and looks.

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If you're watching this on YouTube,
you can't see the underscore, realizing in

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the way his Twitter handle is,
but it's the box end One underscore.

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He is awesome. Subscribe to his
substack, the box End One. Check

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out his YouTube channel, The box
End One as well publishes great draft and

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NBA content. Frequent guest, long
time guest. Now of the podcast,

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I don't have to apologize when he
comes on anymore because he's been on enough

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that he knows what he's getting into. Spins, How the heck are you

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Dan, my old friend, You
a little bastard. It's great to see

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you. Thank you for that.
Way, way too long of an introduction

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there, but now I'm thrilled to
be here talking about all things Summer League,

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NBA, NBA Draft. I mean, look, basketball never stops anymore.

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Right, there's there's always news breaking, there's always rumors going on their

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games that are meaningful being played,
And I, for one, find it

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really fun because, like you,
I'm an overcaffe neated workaholic, but like

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it's this is year round now and
we always have something to talk about,

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and I'm glad we're gonna be able
to do it right here with you in

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the Hardwood Knock studio. Wait,
are you copying to using caffeine? All

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of a sudden, word on the
street was you do not? Yeah?

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So you know, getting through June
was kind of a tough month on our

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end wedding, a move and the
end be a draft. While coaching games

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and work in the normal full time
job, I needed to start caffeine a

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little bit. I was at probably
like one point two grams a day,

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and I have successfully cut myself down
to about four to like four hundred to

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six hundred milligrams, which I realize
there's still a lot. I will say,

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there's a lot of caffeine and pre
workouts, even if you're taking pre

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workouts that have stuff like and so
that's where a lot of it came from.

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But it was it got to the
point I was like, right,

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this needs to this needs to stop. And you know what the wake up

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call was. I was talking to
Jake Fisher and I know that guy worked

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a lot too, and he's just
like, no, I don't use caffeine.

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I'm like, wtff, I need
to cut this down. I avoided

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it as a college coach. I
avoided it mostly through my first year here

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as a high school head coach,
and now the last month, I've just

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had to start doing it just to
get through the day. And like,

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it's terrible for me. It makes
me sweat, like dom Deloise, like

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I'm just dripping from Probably not gonna
last very long, but at least for

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the last month, I've needed it
to get through. Yeah. I don't.

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I don't know how you handled everything
that you did or why you even

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scheduled your wedding around the NBA Draft. That was That was a that was

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a choice capslock choice on your part. What a moron? Yeah uh,

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But congratulations you are the first time
you're on the podcast since you have been

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wedded, So congratulations to you and
the missus. And on the new new

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house. You look fly in this
podcasting studio that you are building. I

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see the basketball and you know there's
gonna be photos and jerseys eventually. I'm

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excited to see it unfold. I
wish I would, oh, go ahead,

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now we're getting there. I mean, this is the Larry Bird signed

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your basketball back there. So I
got to find a spot for that and

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got a litany of Michael Jordan posters. So if anybody ever tries to ask

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me on a podcast if I'm a
Lebron or an MGA guy, they'll they'll

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know the answer right away is Frank
niel A China correct, good morning.

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I wish I could say I'm as
excited to talk about summer League. I

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do very much enjoy Summer League.
I have been asked many times by my

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employer to go, and I always
tell them no, I just can't get

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into it as much as others do
for some reason. I don't know.

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Maybe I just have like fatigue from
the draft going into free agency. But

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I do enjoy being able to go
and look at some of these players.

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And so I figured if we could
start with the top guys or the guys

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that people are most interested in,
and so we begin in just summer league

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impressions. I want to hear from
you and we'll start with I guess what

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became the surprise number one pick,
even though he was number one on your

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big board, Palo ban Caro,
what have you made of the time that

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he played for the Orlando Magic before
getting shut down. Yeah, anytime you're

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a rookie and you get shut down
after two games, that says a lot

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about how much they value you and
what you can bring to the table.

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I was incredibly impressed by Paalo.
I think that there are still areas for

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every single one of these guys to
continue to tighten up, Particularly for a

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guy like Palo who's going to have
a large role in the NBA level,

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his flaws become a little bit more
apparent. You know, there were a

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lot of concerns pre draft about his
defense and about his three point shooting range.

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I think hopefully the two games of
Summer League action showed that those were

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a little bit overblown. The concern
with Paolo, it's not necessarily decision making,

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but it's the speed at which he
makes decisions. He's a very good

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passer, but a couple of the
flaws that he had he had an eight

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turnover game in Las Vegas, was
that sometimes it can be a little harder

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for him to pick up his dribble
and make that read he wants to dribble

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it one more time before he ends
up making a pass to somebody else.

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And you got to be more of
a proactive than a reactive passer if you're

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going to be a top one or
two option on an MBA team. Because

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defenses clogged the floor, they want
to jump w all these different things.

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So in order for him to get
a little bit better at that, he's

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just got to be faster with his
recognition and making the proactive pass. But

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everything scoring wise that you could want
to see from him, he showed mismatch

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posts, strength on the interior,
good three point shooting, isolation moves that

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are Carmelo Anthony esque, really good
passing, petitive defense, great in transition

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and in the open floor. He's
the real deal, folks, and we

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saw that on full display just in
two games. I was impressed by his

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defensive stamina where I was prepared for
me to just be awful based on what

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some people were saying. That was
pleasantly surprising. And there is some anarchy

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to like, I guess his processing
speed, but like when the spin moves

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come together and it's not like discombobulated. Oh my god, it's like explosive

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ballet is what. It's just like
he's been a joy to watch. And

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I think, like, I'm just
he was. You probably convinced me that

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he should have been the number one
playing in the draft, but I'm like

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just convinced now that like, this
dude is going to be incredible and let

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the Magic now have their directional poll. Star also took was two games and

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I didn't even watched the full two
games. I watched his possession breakdowns for

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one of the games, not the
one against Houston, the other one.

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So I'm sold. Pala bank Caro
was good. That's my hot take.

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Yeah, And I think if you're
Orlando, it gives you the faith and

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the clarity of how to build the
rest of the roster for the summer.

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I think that Summer League is positioned
in the NBA calendar and the way it

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is so that the big name free
agents can go first and the guys that

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are priority and need to chase the
back. Then you have Summer League,

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and from there you try to figure
out how you're going to reshape the margins

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of the roster. Aka, do
we go after that veteran for maybe a

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little bit more than he's worth just
so that we get him, or can

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we trust a rookie to potentially slide
into that role? Did that second year

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guy take the next step in order
to become a dependable rotation guy at the

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NBA level? So, you know, Summer League is great for getting more

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of a glimpse into that. I
think for Orlando, they always knew Palo

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was going to be the guy,
but what role is best for him?

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How does his playmaking, you know, translate to the NBA level. And

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I think what you see from this
is they now have an abundance of riches

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when it comes to playmakers with the
ball in their hands. Where and RJ

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Hampton a mark health fault, somebody
can become a little bit more dispensable and

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be more of a trade asset as
opposed to, Hey, we just need

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as many good young players who you
can't like. No, now the identity

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is starting to take shape of what
you need around your best guys, which

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to me are Paolo Sugs and Franz
Wagner. And having the one player that

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you can cite like, that's who
we need to tailor the talent around him

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is huge, and that's what they
still lacked. I think even coming out

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of this season, Franz Wagner was
really good. I stort made incredibly high

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on Jail and Suggs, but his
rookie year was topsy turvy enough. I

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think in part because of the role
he did have to shoulder on on offense

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to where it's still to be determined
whether he would be that guy. Pollo

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just looks like, Okay, now
we have someone who we start to flesh

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out the decisions for the rest of
the roster around That's just that's a big

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times. It's like, you know, I always say, you draft for

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your star player, you draft for
the guy that's going to be the number

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one option in the outphae because even
if you miss, that's still the hardest

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guy to get for your roster.
It's worth taking that swing on. That's

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why Paolo was number one in this
class. For me, it was less

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about the skill game between him and
chet Homegren. It was more about the

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role that he fills being harder to
find and more impactful. And that's why,

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you know, I think Orlando made
the right decision and hopefully and we

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are not seeing just two games of
absurd playing that he fades into the back,

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like this is not an Anthony Randolph
situation where he's going to be different

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like he was. He was fantastic
And I'm telling you all it translates on

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an NBA floor speaking of chet Holmegren, I, my fellow cathless and quadless

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buddy, chet Holmegrin. I was
just worried sort of looking at his physical

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makeup and I still was like,
how are are his screens going to mean

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anything during regular season NBA games?
But like, I'm kind of just sold

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on everything else where. His like
spatial awareness away from the ball on offense

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is fantastic. He's like a shot
blocking presence and he can get up the

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floor and get those types of contests. I was really impressed with sort of

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the hints of okay, we know
that if there's enough space that he could

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have dribbled into threes like there was. I can't remember which game it was

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hit like a side step three going
to his left, and it just looked

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so fluid. I am all in
on chet home grew and I do question

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though whether just his frame we saw
Jannis fill out. Jannis looked like a

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you know, when he came into
the league looked like a spaghetti noodle as

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well. But like that would be
my only question, But what have you

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thought about what he has shown in
summer League? I mean, so I

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try to air on the side of
his mental makeup as opposed to the physical

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makeup. Guys takes some time to
turn into what they turn into physically at

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the NBA level, he's still a
teenager. The big thing with Chet is

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that he's unique and he's competitive.
So the uniqueness matters because what type of

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player guards him? Right, Like, that's the one thing for me.

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If you put a really small guy
on him and try to undercut his dribble,

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he's skilled enough to hit those right
hooks in the post and be able

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to shoot over the top of guys. If you put a bigger guy on

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him, he's long and quick enough
to be able to go past him and

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separate with the dribble. So I
think that I worry less about Chet physically,

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especially in the offensive end, because
I know the skill level and the

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size is really there. But it's
his mental makeup and the competitiveness that has

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me really dialed in that he knows
he's a smaller guy. He doesn't shy

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away from contact, not one bit, and I love that about him.

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The NBA game fits him so much
better than the college game just because there

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are less I should say, they're
more fluid roles when you get to the

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NBA, right, Like you're not
just saying, hey, you're a four

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or you're a five, and you
run up this lane. And this is

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exactly College coaches love having those strict
roles because it's the easiest way for them

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to be able to teach the game
effectively in the time constraints that they have,

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particularly with guys who have skill gaps
in their games. The leash is

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off for Chet Holmgren here, Like
he is rebounding run, he's playing point

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guard, Guys are inbounding to him. He's going behind the back and doing

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combo moves, step back threes,
he's pulling in transition whenever he wants,

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Like this is the idealized version of
Chet, where if you have this much

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offensive potency to go with how skilled
of a rim protector and unique of a

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defender he is, Like the body
stuff can't scare you away because he's so

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dam productive in the minutes that he's
on the floor, Like if he only

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plays seventy two games a season and
he has to be out a couple for

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a bang up injury, here this
or that, I'd take him every day

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because he's just he's that damn good. I think you mentioned he's so young,

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like his body can still develop,
and it's just different when you're going

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to have all the personnel that's associated
with an NBA team around you and you

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have more time to focus on your
diet and your body development. And even

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in my notes, I did wrote
doesn't look like he has deltoids, but

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his shoulder strength around the basket was
surprising at times. I don't again,

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I didn't see it translates so much
to screen setting, but in the current

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NBA, they're like teams feel like
they just react to the idea of screens

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rather than like the type of screen
themselves screens themselves. So I'm all in

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on him and he's been super fun
to watch. For Jabari Smith Junior,

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I came into this thinking that he
I would hire on his shot creation and

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this defensive versatility that everyone had touted
that has officially flip flopped. I think

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it turned for me probably before the
Spurs game. But like his defense in

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that Spurs game, Like, holy
hell, he's like disruptive, he can

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be intuitive, and he's like at
the point of attack. I almost feel

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like for the Rockets, he might
not have been the player they thought they

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were gonna get, but he feels
like the better fit for the current roster.

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If you wanted someone to play with
Shane Goun, potentially Homegren could have

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been that. With all of that
said, his offense has made me not

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worried, but it feels like,
oh, perhaps this is going to be

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more of a play finisher type guy
than I initially thought it was. It's

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summer League, I want to make
that clear, but some of the shot

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selection and then just I was convinced, and when people ask me on radio

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shows about him, I'm like,
yeah, the shot creation is gonna be

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fine. And I've just completely flip
flopped on my impressions of Jabari Smith Junior.

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I was on the play finisher side
of things, definitely thought that he's

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going to be reliant on a guard
to night a ball, and like,

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look, Jalen Green's the perfect guard
for him to pair with because he puts

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so much pressure on the rim just
as an athlete that it's going to create

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more catch and shoot looks for Jabari. That's what he needs. And even

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at Summer League he's I don't want
to say played out of position, but

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he's going to be asked to be
more of us, Like that's just not

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who his ideal role is going to
be. He can hit some mid range

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pull ups when he's chased off the
line. He does have the ability to

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shoot over the top of guys,
but you don't want to rely on that

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for offense. So I think that
Houston did a great job with his draft.

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They added three really good, high
caliber players. But if the expectation

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is the Jabari Smith is going to
be as good of an offensive piece as

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Jalen Green, I think that that's
just unrealistic expectations. He showed that when

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he's knocking down shots and they are
going in, like he struggled the first

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two games and then his shot ended
up falling. He played well, but

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the defensive stuff doesn't go away.
And that's why he's still, you know,

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a top two or three pick by
almost every measure in this year's draft

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class because he is a very very
good defender. And that's something that I

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agree with your take, Like Holy
crap. He was good against the Spurs,

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Like, holy crap, he was
really really good in that game.

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And if you're Houston, you've got
to be as excited about that as you

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are anything else because of the fit
of the roster, and because if you're

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going to be a shooter, you've
got to find ways to impact the game

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when the shots not falling. He
clearly does that. I would love to

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see a lineup in Houston of Jabari
Smith Junior and Usmon Gruba as your front

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court. Maybe even let's sprinkle in
Kenyan Martin Junior and Jay Shawn take go

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super big and have Jalen Green run
point guard. I don't think that that

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lineup would be particularly good offensively,
but I would love to see it.

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And I just I want to see
Gruba so bad this year. I know

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that he wasn't like part of their
immediate bisure last season, but I would

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love the idea of the defense.
And just because Jabar Smith Jr. In

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theory should be he's a lot more
polished on offense than Gruba is, Like,

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maybe there's more of a balance there
to be struck if you try out

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that front court. Perry I've long
said that should be their end game lineup

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right there when they when Shangoon gets
played off the floor a little bit,

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go with Garuba and Jabari and just
surround Jalen Green with shooters. I favor

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it. I enjoy that Keegan Murray. So I came on this podcast immediately

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after the draft and I was less
critical. I made jokes at the King's

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expense because it's it's the King's like
I had to, but I did say

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that I don't even necessarily think that
they were wrong. That I could see

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and now I see it even more
before we get into this, like this

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isn't gonna be Oh, they drafted
Marvin Bagley instead of Luka Doncic if anything,

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And I'm we're talking about different caliber
of players here, but sort of

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how the Trey Young Luka Donts conversation. Yeah, Donte is a lot better,

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but the the either oar has become
almost a footnote, like having that

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discussion. I don't think they missed
the boat there because Kegan Murray is so

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good. But I do think the
Kings do not deserve the benefit of the

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doubt. They have not earned it. So if people want to doubt them,

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I do think they would have criticized
any pick the Kings made, though,

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so I'm going to be fair and
say they've been WHOA, You've Jay

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and Ivy and Deharon Fox and davy
On Mitchell on the same team. That's

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fucking stupid. Hashtag kangs. Oh
you passed on Jay and Ivy? Hashtag

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kangs. Anyway, So I've been
very impressed with what I've seen from Keegan

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Murray. I again, this is
coming from someone who was not gott knee

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deep into draft coverage at some point. Maybe it was never waist deep.

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That's for sure. He knows how
to move off the ball, and I

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think he's probably been a little bit
better defensively than I was expecting. And

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the one question I have, and
I didn't see it written anywhere, is

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he's like his jumper sometimes like too
far out in front of him where it

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feels like it could potentially be blocked
at some that was the only qualm I

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had. But watching him move off
the ball and sort of relocate or just

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know where to be when he doesn't
have it, or how to get to

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a spot where someone's gonna of it
to him, He's been so so good,

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if not revelatory, incredibly smart player, really really well rounded on the

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offensive end of the floor that allows
his game. I think his game just

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pops really well in the Summer League
because he is more mature and polished and

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smart than a lot of the guys
that are on the floor. You know,

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Summer League defensive rotations are how do
they say it, not good,

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So, you know, like guys
who have slower shots tend to find areas

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to get them off. I think
that there's something to the fact that he

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needs to be a little bit more
square. Even though he's hitting some movement

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threes, like, there's still a
little bit more like chest and shoulders to

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the rim. He's just very good. You're right, this is very different

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than passing on one guy for a
generational star. I think it's unfair to

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say what happens with Ivy is going
to determine the success of the King's pick

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here at four, like Keegan Murray's
going to be a really solid player.

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But I also think that of all
of the four guys we've talked about,

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most his performance in Summer League might
be attributed to the caliber of play around

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him, as opposed to the direct
translation of his game to the NBA level,

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because again, a little less space
to operate, a few smarter guys

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00:19:14,039 --> 00:19:17,119
that are on the floor, a
little bit more size and athleticism, like

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some of his first step stuff may
not work as much, some of his

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00:19:19,279 --> 00:19:25,000
shooting avenues may not be there as
well. Really good role player, really

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00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,440
really good role player. Understand him
going forth over all of the Kings,

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both in terms of roster fit,
and I think it's defensible that he'd be

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the best player available. I love
Jade and Ivy. I've been very clear

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on that for the last few months, Like I had him above Jabari Smith

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on my final big board. So
absolutely love Jade and Ivy, but I

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don't think that Keegan is going to
be He's a guy that can't be a

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00:19:47,519 --> 00:19:52,079
strikeout. You can't with with Keegan
Murray and at some point for Sacarantha,

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with what they're building, with what
the franchise is, and I think the

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value that he brings just as a
floor spacer, it's gonna work out well

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for everybody involved. I think what
kind of impressed me, and I know

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you mentioned like some of the first
step stuff I had seen. The best

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way that I saw a phrase I
think was Jason Maples on Twitter said that

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Summer League is for shot creators,
and a lot of what has impressed me

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the most about Keegan Murray has literally
nothing to do with that, and the

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fact that he stood out to me
while doing those things. Also, while

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you just mentioned surrounded by what relative
will be the NBA inferior teammates is almost

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even more encouraging. And so there's
a chance that the Kings, even if

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they weren't one hundred percent right,
there's just a chance, a very strong

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00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:37,359
chance, if not overwhelming likelihood,
that they weren't wrong. And I'm excited

316
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:41,440
to see what he looks like in
an offense that's going to have Barnes Sabonis

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00:20:41,519 --> 00:20:47,599
and Dearn Fox. As Matt Moore
of The Action Network phrase this, I

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00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:48,960
don't know what this defense. This
is me saying this, I don't know

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00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,720
what the defense is gonna look like. But as Matt Moore said, there

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00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:56,400
are worse avenues to explore than Darren
Fox. A bonus and a fuck ton

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00:20:56,599 --> 00:21:02,079
of shooting was the word of the
US. So I'm I'm like fascinated to

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00:21:02,079 --> 00:21:04,440
see the Kings this season. I've
just been really impressed with how rock solid

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00:21:04,559 --> 00:21:07,799
Keagan Murray has been Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. So I'm

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00:21:07,839 --> 00:21:15,559
all in for watching the fuck Ton
shooting Kings. Speaking of Keagan, speed

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00:21:15,599 --> 00:21:18,440
of Jay and I've excuse me,
how we've got these natural transitions coming.

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00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:25,039
I started to see before his injury
what people were talking about in the comparisons

327
00:21:25,039 --> 00:21:27,359
to John Morant. Not as a
score, it still feels like there's a

328
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,799
jaggedness to his offense. Although he
hit he hit like this, step back

329
00:21:30,839 --> 00:21:33,359
three going left, I count what
was it like a Was it a Wizards

330
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,920
game? I don't even everything is
all blending together for me. It was,

331
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,680
yeah, it was a Wizards game. But the passing, like the

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00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:44,160
field there, I totally get that. What have you thought of him?

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00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,400
And how maybe, like you know, we saw basically the regular season Pistons

334
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:51,400
for at least a game in summer
League, But what have you thought about

335
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:53,519
him? And maybe even just some
larger thoughts on the Pistons in general here.

336
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,160
I love what the Pistons are doing, really really doing, and part

337
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,960
of that is because I think Kaid
Cunningham's the best prospect to come out in

338
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,599
the last three drafts. So you
know that that helps when you have him

339
00:22:04,599 --> 00:22:10,039
on your team. I think what
I saw from Ivy first and foremost was

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00:22:10,559 --> 00:22:15,039
a confidence with the ball in his
hands that wasn't unable to it was unable

341
00:22:15,079 --> 00:22:18,079
to be unleashed at Perdue because of
the way that they ran offense, Like

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00:22:18,599 --> 00:22:22,759
you know, he was more of
an off ball guard. They played through

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00:22:22,759 --> 00:22:26,000
post ups a ton, didn't get
consistent pick and roll reps, and you

344
00:22:26,039 --> 00:22:29,880
could see in the summer league gear. The idea was to play through him

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00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,000
a little bit more, and he
looked really good in that regard. I

346
00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:37,160
agree, there's still a little bit
of clunk that goes into how he changes

347
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:41,480
gears in the mid range, the
pull up areas, like just some of

348
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:47,279
the scoring cleanliness into his game,
but he's a good enough shooter. He

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00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:51,359
puts tremendous pressure on the rim and
look out in transition. I think the

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00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:56,359
unsung hero for a guy like Jade
and Ivy is having Jalen Duran as a

351
00:22:56,440 --> 00:23:00,720
lob threat partner and as a rim
protect at the other end who can alter

352
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,319
shots, rebound in the outlet plays
so that he can play and transition a

353
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:07,799
little bit more. It's a great
partnership and I think it's only going to

354
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:12,559
be strengthened when they add Kate Cunningham
to that as really your primary option when

355
00:23:12,599 --> 00:23:15,480
the game slows down in the half
court, and then you can see the

356
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,880
rest of the roster is going to
be about shooting. More Sadiq Bays more

357
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,839
Isaiah Livers, like guys that can
just come in here and knock down and

358
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,400
give spacing. I think that Detroit
has a really good blueprint in place.

359
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,000
Isaiah Livers is going to get his
shot off, and he had a post

360
00:23:30,079 --> 00:23:34,799
up against Washington that made me actually
drop my jaw, So they're going to

361
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:41,720
be super fun. Do you trust
Jade and Ivy's like perimeter touch? Yeah,

362
00:23:41,039 --> 00:23:45,799
when he's set. I don't really
trust it that much in the mid

363
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,759
range area, but you know,
if teams go under screens and he gets

364
00:23:48,839 --> 00:23:52,039
himself square, I think he's pretty
good in that area. He loves the

365
00:23:52,079 --> 00:23:56,279
step back with the ball in his
hands, and I think that he's got

366
00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,559
pretty easy mechanics to the point where
he'll be, okay, a spot up

367
00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:04,440
guy too, Jayden sharp, so
he gets or excuse me, I skipped

368
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:10,519
over one. Bennetick mathern apologies.
I had no idea that there was like

369
00:24:10,559 --> 00:24:14,839
this much off the dribble juice to
him, what is he like gonna do

370
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:18,319
for the pacers here? And it
feels like even if they get eighten and

371
00:24:18,319 --> 00:24:22,680
that's something we could talk about later, there's like room to explore what Bennetick

372
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,240
Matherin can do on the ball there. And I'm hoping they give him It's

373
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,359
always iffy to me with Ricarlo,
I'm hoping they give him that agency from

374
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,920
day one. Yeah, there was
there was a point when I went back

375
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:37,559
and watched Arizona film in like March
or April this year, watching Mathron,

376
00:24:37,599 --> 00:24:40,400
I was like, this guy's a
lot better off the bounce than he gets

377
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,640
credit for. He's still developing as
a pass or his handle, like he's

378
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,680
somewhat comfortable with it, but he's
got to tighten up a lot of different

379
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:49,920
things to be able to get through
tight spaces. So he's going to be

380
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:52,759
a work in progress. But yes, long term, I think that he

381
00:24:52,799 --> 00:24:56,720
can turn into a guy like that
because he's athletic enough to put pressure on

382
00:24:56,759 --> 00:25:00,119
the rim and he shoots it really
well from three. So he's going to

383
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,559
collapse defenses. He's going to get
chased off the line, like he doesn't

384
00:25:03,599 --> 00:25:07,359
have to be somebody that you run
pick and roll after a pick and roll

385
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:11,279
for Tyrese Haliburton can come off of
a high ball screen kick to math and

386
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:12,559
if he gets run off the line, you know a good decision is going

387
00:25:12,599 --> 00:25:15,480
to be made or he's going to
score it more frequently than he doesn't.

388
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:21,599
Huge fan of Math and like this
dude's got like cohnez man like. He

389
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:26,359
is super super confident in his game
and his offensive arsenal. I love seeing

390
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,720
that from a guy like him.
I heard a lot of feedback from people

391
00:25:29,759 --> 00:25:33,599
around the league that the final month
of the pre draft process he ended up

392
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,200
being somebody that opened a lot of
eyes to what he can do more with

393
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:41,680
the ball in his hands than he
got to play with it Arizona and I

394
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,640
think Summer League thus far has been
a pretty good glimpse into what he can

395
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,519
be. But more than that,
we talked about, you know, the

396
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,319
kangs surrounding just a really good point
guard and a big man with shooting.

397
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,359
I think that's what Indiana ends up
doing, whether it's DeAndre Eton or not.

398
00:25:57,319 --> 00:26:00,759
Haliburton and a big man pick and
roll with all of the shooters that

399
00:26:00,799 --> 00:26:07,160
they have. Duarte Matherin Jalen Smith, Buddy, healed like its a it's

400
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:11,920
a recipe to a shortcut on offense. And you mentioned Rick Carlisle. That's

401
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,839
the X factor here. Can he
buy into that? Can he sit on

402
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,519
his hands and not dial up Spider
to why Banana for the fifth time coming

403
00:26:18,519 --> 00:26:22,480
out of like the third quarter,
Like, no, just let your good

404
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:26,240
player have the ball in his hands
and go. That's why I'm almost rooting

405
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:30,240
for them not to get Eton,
because I don't want them to like have

406
00:26:30,279 --> 00:26:32,759
someone else in the pecking wonder where
I think they would look to slow things

407
00:26:32,759 --> 00:26:36,599
down, run stuff through eight and
I think that's what Aiten wants, and

408
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:41,039
so having Turner, who probably wants
to do that too, keeping him he's

409
00:26:41,039 --> 00:26:45,640
still more of a kniche offensive player. And after seeing Matherin in the Summer

410
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,920
League, like whoever the Pacers think
is better, I hope that they get

411
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,759
I want DeAndre and to get paid, he's young, whatever, But I

412
00:26:51,759 --> 00:26:55,799
also just want to see benthic mathin
get reps on reps on reps on reps

413
00:26:55,839 --> 00:26:57,519
on the ball in addition everything else
he does. After watching him in Summer

414
00:26:57,559 --> 00:27:02,279
League, and I think it's more
likely that happens if you have Miles Turner

415
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:03,799
or maybe you still trade him.
But there's a different center, Like if

416
00:27:03,839 --> 00:27:07,319
it's if it's Isaiah Jackson or Jalen
Smith, is your five go go Patase.

417
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:10,799
It feels like it's more likely to
happen if it's one of them,

418
00:27:10,839 --> 00:27:14,160
as opposed to you spending a lion
share of your minutes next to Ayton and

419
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,720
Halibert. Yeah. I mean,
look, we're talking about the top six

420
00:27:17,839 --> 00:27:21,160
right here. I'm encouraged by every
guy that we saw. Obviously you've already

421
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,920
didn't shoot the ball well, but
the way he defended consistently was really important.

422
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:26,720
I think every one of these top
six is going to be a solid

423
00:27:26,759 --> 00:27:30,759
player. Like, I don't foresee
a lot of busts within this group,

424
00:27:30,519 --> 00:27:34,039
Shaden Sharp. I think it's fitting
the one shot he hit was like basically

425
00:27:34,039 --> 00:27:37,559
like a circus fade away on the
baseline or the one shot that I saw

426
00:27:37,559 --> 00:27:41,920
you hit before he gets injured.
What is the it's basically what is the

427
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,559
impact of his injury on the regular
season Blazers. But I really want to

428
00:27:44,799 --> 00:27:48,720
ask you what can he bring to
a team that is very clearly like trying

429
00:27:48,759 --> 00:27:52,799
to win now? Still, Like, how do you go about developing the

430
00:27:52,799 --> 00:27:56,720
type of player that he is within
the makeup that the Blazers have laid.

431
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:02,359
Yeah, it's I think the most
similar way to put it is watch what

432
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,559
Golden State did with Cominga this year. Give him a super defined role,

433
00:28:07,319 --> 00:28:11,559
make sure he does those things well
first before you add anything else to his

434
00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:15,079
plate, and make sure that you
limit his minutes and have the understanding that

435
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,240
he's not going to get a ton
of reps. Like this is where you

436
00:28:18,279 --> 00:28:21,720
know, if the Blazers had a
G League team, Sorry did I say

437
00:28:21,759 --> 00:28:26,640
that out loud, Like you'd be
able to go through a different means of

438
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,279
development with a guy like him.
But I don't think that there ever really

439
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:34,200
was an expectation that he would be
a rotation caliber player this year, and

440
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:37,640
I don't think that that would make
this a bad pick. I think that

441
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:41,720
it's just you take the best player
available and you know what he can turn

442
00:28:41,799 --> 00:28:44,440
into. Eventually. He's going to
need some time in seasoning, and that's

443
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:48,599
not a bad thing. Summer League
is the area when you find out how

444
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,440
much and unfortunately we didn't get to
see how much season in Shaden needs before

445
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:56,119
you can contribute anything. So my
best guest here is that they stick him

446
00:28:56,119 --> 00:29:00,440
into more of like a secondary tertiary
play maker, off the bench for eight

447
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,359
to twelve minutes a night. See
what he gives you there, make sure

448
00:29:03,359 --> 00:29:08,359
he defends on a reliable level,
and then maybe give him a little bit

449
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,720
more to bite off if he if
he succeeds in it. I would love

450
00:29:11,759 --> 00:29:15,079
to talk about Dyson Daniels and Jeremy's
someone, but we can't. Daniels barely

451
00:29:15,079 --> 00:29:18,759
played. At least his ankle injury
seems to be a non issue. That's

452
00:29:18,759 --> 00:29:22,279
fine. Sowen was in health and
safety protocols we did have I asked you

453
00:29:22,319 --> 00:29:25,359
this question. We also had a
question from a listener other than the top

454
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:27,759
five picks, who has been the
most impressive to you so far? And

455
00:29:27,799 --> 00:29:32,160
I'll even scale that to outside the
lottery, outside the top ten, since

456
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:34,519
we basically just rolled through most of
those. Yeah, I mean, if

457
00:29:34,559 --> 00:29:37,440
we're going outside the latter, ll
leave off the guy that, outside of

458
00:29:37,519 --> 00:29:41,000
Paolo and Chet, was the most
impressive for me. Jalen Williams for Oklahoma

459
00:29:41,039 --> 00:29:45,720
City. I was blown away by
how well he played. But outside the

460
00:29:45,759 --> 00:29:48,599
lattery here, I liked both Houston
guys, Tarry Easton and thy Thy Washington,

461
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:53,599
and not just how they played,
but they're fit together, really really

462
00:29:53,599 --> 00:29:56,759
good. Tari does a lot of
little things. His energy never stops,

463
00:29:56,759 --> 00:30:02,559
He's always moving. His hands are
strongest things I've ever seen. And thy

464
00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:07,240
Ty Washington just incredibly smart and cerebral
player. I was also impressed by Josh

465
00:30:07,279 --> 00:30:11,400
Maynot for Minnesota. He showed a
lot more offensive polish on the perimeter than

466
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:15,640
I was expecting, incredibly raw this
last season at Memphis. The growth that

467
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,880
he's undergone in the last few months, or at least the comfort level that

468
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:22,279
he showed playing on a pro floor
was important. And then don't sleep on

469
00:30:22,359 --> 00:30:29,359
Jabbari Walker for Portland either. He's
had some really good games. I thy

470
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:33,160
Ty Washington specifically plays. I know
people worry about his size. He plays

471
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:34,799
so much bigger than he actually is, Like you don't feel like he's that

472
00:30:34,839 --> 00:30:38,880
tiny. I actually have three names
of my own, so that might shock

473
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,599
you. One of them we already
discussed. I'm just Isaiah Livers. He's

474
00:30:42,599 --> 00:30:45,039
gonna get that three ball off.
And I think the Pistons as long as

475
00:30:45,039 --> 00:30:48,279
he stays healthy and you just play
him right away and cut him Lewis I

476
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:52,839
still believe, and I promise I
had this pencil did in before we're recording

477
00:30:52,839 --> 00:30:56,640
this after he went off for Charlotte. I don't think the Hornets are going

478
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,960
to be the team that maximize him. But I'm in love with Bryce McGowan.

479
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,440
That's someone who I just feel like
is he had some really interesting three

480
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:07,319
point shot making versus the cap,
So it's not even the game that he's

481
00:31:07,359 --> 00:31:11,279
just coming off of. And then
he I'm not sure that like some of

482
00:31:11,279 --> 00:31:14,680
the flash year passes he tries will
ever actually mean anything. They sort of

483
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:18,440
feel empty. But he was,
you know, in the game spytically against

484
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,400
the Lakers. He was finding guys
like while they were in space and know

485
00:31:21,519 --> 00:31:23,920
I want to get the ball to
them. I'm very if the three point

486
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,319
accuracy is real, and I'm not
saying it's to this high end because i

487
00:31:27,319 --> 00:31:30,720
know we shot sub twenty eight percent. I believe in school. I think

488
00:31:30,759 --> 00:31:36,759
that's like a real rotation NBA player
who have gotten there. I'll push you

489
00:31:36,799 --> 00:31:40,279
back a little bit on that because
you brought up the quote earlier about you

490
00:31:40,319 --> 00:31:42,960
know, Summer League is for guys
who can create their own shot and our

491
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,079
buckets in that regard, like the
consistency of he of like Blake Wesley for

492
00:31:48,079 --> 00:31:49,839
San Antonio, who's had some really
good flashes and then he goes through for

493
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:53,119
twenty in the next game. You
know, McGowan's two really good games won.

494
00:31:53,119 --> 00:31:57,839
That's pretty damn Jayden Hardy for Dallas, really good aggressive scoring effort.

495
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,640
Still a lot to be desired in
terms of the playmaking, polish and the

496
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:06,799
decision making. Like all of these
guys that can get buckets have proven at

497
00:32:06,799 --> 00:32:09,240
the very least that they can still
get buckets on an NBA court surrounded by

498
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:15,519
NBA type of athleticism. The question
is can they refine their game to become

499
00:32:15,559 --> 00:32:20,440
consistent and that really it's going to
depend on the aspirations of the team that

500
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,720
you play for for how long your
leash is to be able to play through

501
00:32:22,759 --> 00:32:25,279
some of those minutes. You know, if Charlotte is pushing for the seven

502
00:32:25,359 --> 00:32:29,480
or eight seed in the Eastern Conference
and that's their goal for next year,

503
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,400
I would imagine McGowan's leash is a
little bit shorter, even with the flashes

504
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,920
that he's able to show. That's
why book Knight didn't play much for them

505
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:38,960
last year. Similar type of player. Even I love his game, but

506
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,720
just not as reliable as a rookie
because he's gonna have some great Knights and

507
00:32:43,799 --> 00:32:46,960
he's gonna have some donuts. Blake
Wesley for San Antonio probably gonna have the

508
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,039
longest leash out of any of those
guys to play through it because of the

509
00:32:51,079 --> 00:32:53,680
team's aspirations right now. So when
we're looking at all these guys, it's

510
00:32:53,759 --> 00:32:58,400
awesome that McGowan's is playing well.
I really really liked him as a first

511
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,079
round talent, a guy that can
definitely score. There's just a long way

512
00:33:01,119 --> 00:33:06,920
between where he is now in the
consistency for a nightly basis to be relied

513
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,240
upon in that role. The only
you say that I disagree with is that

514
00:33:09,279 --> 00:33:12,720
the Hornets are going for the nine
or ten seed at seven or eight is

515
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,839
a little bit too aspirational for them. And I'm also worried that Blake Wesley

516
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,480
slash Balchi Brandam aren't going to give
coach Pop heart attack next season. My

517
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:23,079
last player is more plug and play, though key On Ellis just had some

518
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:28,319
very nice off ball relocation moment moments, and even just as someone who kept

519
00:33:28,319 --> 00:33:30,480
the ball moving and was making quicker
decisions, like just had some nice swing

520
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:36,000
passes and kickouts. Just someone I'm
sort of monitoring fits the motif of the

521
00:33:36,079 --> 00:33:37,799
Kings is fuck ton of shooting though, that's for sure. Dan. Can

522
00:33:37,839 --> 00:33:40,960
we record this part and show it
to the players on my team that are

523
00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:45,200
coming in next year? As long
as you can shoot the ball and defend,

524
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:51,039
you can play right away? Thank
you. Maybe name drops someone who's

525
00:33:51,039 --> 00:33:52,920
a little bit more well known than
key on Ellis, because that might imagine

526
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:55,640
giving the motivational speech like you want
to be the next key on Ellis?

527
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:59,640
Like that's you. What I'm monitoring
that might not resonate is I'll draw that

528
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:04,680
one up in a huddle, right, Yeah? Which second or third year

529
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:08,159
players have stood out the most to
you? And why is Quentin Grimes the

530
00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:14,000
most impressive of that bunch? You
Knicks fan? I love you Quentin Grimes.

531
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:15,199
He's probably the best player in Summer
League, to be honest with you,

532
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:20,280
this year, Like incredibly impressive,
polished, efficient, knows exactly when

533
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:24,519
to pick his spots. Physical,
great watching the Knicks. Their defense was

534
00:34:24,639 --> 00:34:29,280
great so far this Summer League.
From what I like, everybody's applying pressure

535
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:32,400
on the basketball. Their rim protectors
are sound like I love Jericho Simms.

536
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:37,360
Love love, love Jericho Simms.
But Grimes is incredibly impressive and I think

537
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:42,480
is primed for a rotation role with
the Knicks this year. Like Josh Giddy.

538
00:34:42,559 --> 00:34:45,840
Obviously we know he's an incredibly talented
player. He hasn't shot the ball

539
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:50,599
well in Summer League. That was
an area of improvement that everybody was looking

540
00:34:50,599 --> 00:34:52,960
to see. But I'm convinced he's
grown by the way. I'm just convinced

541
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:57,960
he's clearly too good to be on
the floor in a lot of these games.

542
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,760
Just his playmaking, his feel is
a surd and then Moses Moody or

543
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:07,280
Moody Moses, depending on who he
asks, he is. He is the

544
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,639
real deal. He's primed to move
into a rotation role for the Warriors,

545
00:35:10,679 --> 00:35:13,440
which is a little bit of a
cheek coade. I know you and I

546
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,800
were texting back and forth on Golden
State, like that's absurd how many good

547
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:21,199
young players and role players they have
on their roster. And then Trey Murphy

548
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:23,360
for New Orleans. I also liked
the growth that he's shown off the Bouts

549
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:27,119
a little bit. You did steal
two of mine, and we'll get into

550
00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:29,920
Trey Murphy. The third is the
impetus for one of the many. But

551
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,599
it's the first question that's coming up. I'm in love with Quentin Grimes,

552
00:35:32,599 --> 00:35:37,599
and I think that you could argue
there's a chance that he's like the fourth

553
00:35:37,599 --> 00:35:40,599
most important nick next season because you
need another perimeter defender other than RJ.

554
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:45,599
Barrett right now. And I'm in
love with Quentin Grimes. We'll see if

555
00:35:45,599 --> 00:35:49,679
he gets moved for Donovan Mitchell or
someone else. At this point, I

556
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:54,159
have my own players here too.
How's that for actually doing prep? No?

557
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,119
Wait, I don't have my own
players here. I already gave them

558
00:35:57,159 --> 00:35:59,079
to you. That was my I'm
sorry, that was my Those were my

559
00:35:59,159 --> 00:36:02,320
rookies that I popped out there.
So the next thing I want. The

560
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:06,679
next thing I want to get through
the Baby Warriors since you, since you

561
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:10,159
brought them up, like you,
what were your impressions of seeing like what

562
00:36:10,199 --> 00:36:15,199
we saw from Comingo, so not
just Komingo but Wiseman so far him coming

563
00:36:15,199 --> 00:36:17,280
back Comingo. You already mentioned Moody, and it doesn't really look like the

564
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:23,880
Warriors are now going to successfully straddle
these two separate timelines. Yeah, So,

565
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:28,280
like I was impressed by Wiseman just
in terms of his comfort level and

566
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,280
his confidence. He moved really well. There's still a lot of instinct stuff

567
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:37,000
to clean up that we always say
it takes a big man about two years

568
00:36:37,039 --> 00:36:39,679
to learn to adjust to the NBA
level. We've seen that from time to

569
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:44,679
time for young teenagers when they come
in their first two years are really learning

570
00:36:44,679 --> 00:36:45,920
how to do the job. Years
three and four, they can do it

571
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:52,239
successfully. Wiseman lost his first two
years in the league, so it's it's

572
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:54,280
a crapshoot to know how long it's
going to take, how much he's already

573
00:36:54,639 --> 00:37:00,280
caught on just by going through practices
and film sessions and workouts. But the

574
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:05,639
raw flashes that he's shown are it's
unfair that the Warriors can have one of

575
00:37:05,639 --> 00:37:07,119
these guys that could just come off
the bench and play a couple of minutes

576
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:12,840
only if they want to have him
do that like it's it's insane. I

577
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:17,480
still believe in Wiseman. I just
think there's no way to appropriately predict what

578
00:37:17,559 --> 00:37:22,559
his role can or should be Cominga's
definitely force him right. A lot of

579
00:37:22,599 --> 00:37:28,119
these guys that come out here.
Summer League is a great experimental time to

580
00:37:28,199 --> 00:37:30,719
put the ball in the hands of
a non traditional playmaker and see if they

581
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:35,840
can ever turn into a traditional playmaker
or somebody that becomes more of a focal

582
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,559
point of your offense. And like, uh, forget which other team I

583
00:37:38,599 --> 00:37:40,840
was I was going to reference.
There was another one that ended up just

584
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:44,199
saying, hey, we're going to
give the ball to this guy. Oh

585
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:49,079
it was Memphis with Zia Williams in
the summer league out there in Utahly he

586
00:37:49,199 --> 00:37:52,719
basically ran point and that's not his
role next to John Morant, that's not

587
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:54,119
his role on the team, but
they want to see if he can evolve

588
00:37:54,159 --> 00:37:57,960
into that eventually. I think Golden
State went out there and said, hey,

589
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,239
Comiga, like, why don't you
go out there and score or as

590
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,239
much as you can? And he
took that to heart. Let me tell

591
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:06,320
you, he got a lot of
shots up. Wasn't great with him,

592
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,000
but he got a lot of shots
up. And look, we've seen what

593
00:38:08,039 --> 00:38:12,400
he can do within the role that
he's scalable too. I think the efficiency

594
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,559
will come along. He's getting better. But when I look at a team

595
00:38:15,559 --> 00:38:20,800
that just is coming off of a
championship and has three guys in the first

596
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,360
two years of the league that are
Wiseman cominga and Moses Moody Moody, Moses

597
00:38:27,119 --> 00:38:30,119
Man. That's a lot of riches
to be able to play with, either

598
00:38:30,159 --> 00:38:36,000
to round out your rotation or that
are attractive trade pieces to somebody else if

599
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,920
you feel like you need more of
a veteran eventually. I just they've navigated

600
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:44,920
this so well. It didn't look
that way for like a three month period,

601
00:38:45,599 --> 00:38:49,679
maybe a year ago. They've navigated
all of this really well. You

602
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:53,360
know, Joey Lightyears was touching himself
to the Comingo Wiseman pick and roll that

603
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:59,079
worked out. I think it was
Wiseman's debut game. Who among those three

604
00:38:59,519 --> 00:39:01,159
who do by the way, this
he's not doesn't belong in here, but

605
00:39:01,199 --> 00:39:05,159
like Jordan Pools only entering year four
two, it's like that's how there's like,

606
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,079
so they're just covered from so many
different ends of the spectrum. You

607
00:39:07,119 --> 00:39:09,679
still need, I would argue at
least one of them to turn into a

608
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:14,000
megastar, And I think Comingga is
still your best shot there. But looking

609
00:39:14,039 --> 00:39:16,000
at next season, what the Warriors
have done this year, who among those

610
00:39:16,039 --> 00:39:20,719
three do you think is most important
or do you expect to play the biggest

611
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:29,119
role. I think probably probably Moody
because you know again, kids, Remember

612
00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:31,360
if you can knock down threes and
defend at a high level, you can

613
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:36,519
play early in your career too.
I just that's the pathway for me.

614
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:39,320
I think that he finds a way
to be both filling a need for the

615
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:43,440
Warriors, which is another wing on
their roster that can come in and play

616
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:45,400
a little bit. And I think
with cominga, we're just not going to

617
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:50,119
see that giant of a step forward
from year one and year two, like

618
00:39:50,159 --> 00:39:55,199
we have seen a little bit more
with Moody's confidence, even even post e

619
00:39:55,320 --> 00:40:01,800
j Ldell's ACL injury, I'm getting
pretty close to saying some dangerously, recklessly,

620
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:07,199
drunkenly optimistic things about next year's Pelicans
and Trey Murphy the third is a

621
00:40:07,199 --> 00:40:10,199
big part of that. Do you
need to talk me off this, Ledger

622
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:15,840
or have you already joined me out
on it? Dan, I have harnessed

623
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:19,719
up and I am ready to untie
the ropes from the carabineer and just jump

624
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,320
off the gorge like this is.
This is a really good team in the

625
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:28,800
Western Conference. And like Zion Ingram
and McCollum, I always talk about your

626
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,559
big three, your three pillars for
a team that's a really good offensive trio

627
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:37,079
to have. They've got a ton
of really good role players, you know,

628
00:40:37,119 --> 00:40:39,320
whether it's the big guys that they
can plug and play based on different

629
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:45,679
lineups and opponents, Herb Jones,
Jose Alvarado, Trey Murphy, like,

630
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:50,679
the list goes on and on about
guys that just fit in around the core.

631
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,480
I do have two concerns. One
is the health of Zion and his

632
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:59,760
integration process back in the lineup.
The second is what do they do with

633
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:04,079
the five? I still don't see
the clear answer for New Orleans in late

634
00:41:04,119 --> 00:41:08,599
game situations or in a playoff series. Do they go with valanciunis there and

635
00:41:08,679 --> 00:41:15,559
now like he and Zion's kind of
a funky spacing duo. Do you go

636
00:41:15,639 --> 00:41:19,239
with Jackson Hayes and have more of
that you know, rim rolling guy,

637
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:22,519
Like, I don't know if I
see that either. Is Zion going to

638
00:41:22,599 --> 00:41:24,880
be somebody that plays the five?
Do you trust Herb Jones in that role?

639
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:29,119
Is Larry Nance? Like, if
he's playing the five? Is I

640
00:41:29,119 --> 00:41:32,360
think that is Zion Nance? To
close games? It's probably my pick two

641
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:37,639
in terms of fit, But it's
like, are you really gonna play Larry

642
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:42,840
Nance? And then leave Herb Jones
and Jonas Valanciunas on the bench like talent

643
00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:45,559
wise, like I don't. I
don't think that there's a very clear cut

644
00:41:45,599 --> 00:41:50,039
answer for what they should do.
And that's the one area for me if

645
00:41:50,119 --> 00:41:52,800
I'm looking forward, Like obviously I
want to see if Zion's healthy and it's

646
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:57,119
the same old Zion. Everybody's always
wondering the same thing there. But I

647
00:41:57,159 --> 00:42:00,039
think that they need a little bit
more definable over presence up front, just

648
00:42:00,159 --> 00:42:04,679
in terms of the hierarchy, not
in terms of like I don't think Jonas

649
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:07,000
is good. I do think he's
good. I just struggle to see the

650
00:42:07,039 --> 00:42:09,639
fit with him and Zion based on
the space and the Zion needs. Yeah,

651
00:42:09,679 --> 00:42:13,480
Pelicans fans who listened to this podcasts
have been adamant that he's a better

652
00:42:13,519 --> 00:42:19,320
fit Joan's valent Tunis next to Zion
than Miles Turner would be. That's something

653
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,519
I still disagree with, But Valentunis
was really good last year, and I

654
00:42:22,519 --> 00:42:27,599
think for the time being there it's
more workable. I feel like where if

655
00:42:27,639 --> 00:42:30,239
you went like why can't Herb Jones
play with Zion and Larry Nance Jr.

656
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:34,480
And then you go point guardless with
CJ and Brandon Ingram because you have so

657
00:42:34,519 --> 00:42:37,159
many creators there. I think long
term, like depending on how you feel

658
00:42:37,159 --> 00:42:40,760
about Jose Alvarado, Trey Murphy the
third, and then yes you are I

659
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:45,239
mean valent Tunis is making He's not
even making Mitchell Robinson money right now actually,

660
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:50,239
so like you can justify not playing
him because those decisions probably get tough,

661
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:52,280
and I'm sure they're matchup dependent,
but I want to see Trey Murphy

662
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,320
the Third on the floor all the
time, and it's hard to do that

663
00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:00,559
right now, like in a closing
unit. And I'm just the way he

664
00:43:00,599 --> 00:43:04,079
closed the season and knowing that Zion
was going to be healthy, how CJ.

665
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:07,920
McCollum and brand Ingram were eventually integrated, just knowing what Herb Jones did,

666
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:12,920
Having Jose Alvarado, DeVante Graham can
probably only get better this team.

667
00:43:13,039 --> 00:43:16,199
I am not like. I think
one of my preseason predictions is that if

668
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:20,559
Zion plays in sixty plus games,
the Pelicans are going to be a four

669
00:43:20,599 --> 00:43:22,400
seed. And that's gonna sound outlandish
to people knowing that the Clippers, the

670
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:27,000
Nuggets, the Warriors, the Suns
all exist. I don't know, man,

671
00:43:27,119 --> 00:43:30,599
this team. They really put it
together after their terrible start. Kudos

672
00:43:30,599 --> 00:43:34,800
to Willie Green for the way he
was able to coach them up on defense,

673
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,880
especially in transition. I'm I'm all
in on the Pelicans, and that's

674
00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:43,559
like, not really spicy because Zion
Williamson is transcendent when he's healthy. But

675
00:43:43,639 --> 00:43:45,800
given where they were at the start
of last season, to make that progression

676
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:51,239
where I think that they're closer to
contention than the eight seed, let's say

677
00:43:51,599 --> 00:43:53,760
that's a hell of a jump,
even if it's just like conceptual at this

678
00:43:53,800 --> 00:44:00,079
point to make do you smell that? Damn it smells like a solidation trade

679
00:44:00,079 --> 00:44:04,960
with some of their younger role players
eventually, I don't I don't know.

680
00:44:05,559 --> 00:44:08,519
I want Kevin Durant in New Orleans. I would love it even more if

681
00:44:08,519 --> 00:44:12,039
you could do it, if if
the Nets just wanted picks and you could

682
00:44:12,079 --> 00:44:14,800
keep rand in Ingram since you have
the salary matching tools to do it.

683
00:44:15,159 --> 00:44:19,239
I just don't know what is the
type Let's throw Kevin Durant out the window

684
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,119
here, what is the archer type
of player you'd be looking for in a

685
00:44:22,119 --> 00:44:25,800
consolidation trade? Though, That's what's
interesting about this team is because they're almost

686
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:30,119
at the and I'm higher on their
outlook than I was the Hawks. But

687
00:44:30,119 --> 00:44:32,400
it's a little hawksy in where it's
like, well, they kind of have

688
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:36,519
all these guys like at all these
different positions. It's like, what are

689
00:44:36,519 --> 00:44:40,159
you consolidating into? Yeah, and
I don't have the direct answer for that,

690
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:45,280
like there's only one of them in
the world, but like an elite

691
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:49,199
stretch five like Karl Anthony Towns,
Minnesota's not going to do that deal.

692
00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:54,079
But yeah, maybe that's just what
upgrades this roster a little bit more.

693
00:44:54,079 --> 00:44:58,039
I don't know, but I just
I look at all those pieces and I

694
00:44:58,079 --> 00:45:01,880
say, it's that's a sneaky team
that could get involved with another star if

695
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:07,239
if something happened, like if I
don't know, I haven't name. I

696
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,199
just don't want to say it because
I love the fan base and how passionate

697
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:13,519
they are. And if any of
them are listening, they're gonna tell me

698
00:45:13,559 --> 00:45:20,280
to fuck off. But Pascal siakam
On that's exactly what I was gonna say

699
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,920
too. Yeah, so they're gonna
say, stop voyering, this is voyeurism.

700
00:45:24,039 --> 00:45:30,519
Let us keep past. I love
siakam you damn Americans, So getting

701
00:45:30,559 --> 00:45:36,199
into this which team's young core of
And this isn't These aren't the only young

702
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:40,360
cores out there. But looking at
Detroit, Orlando, Okay, see Houston

703
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:45,159
and even san Antonio. Now because
I'm a sucker for Josh Primo, Who's

704
00:45:45,159 --> 00:45:47,519
another player. I think you mentioned
him in your second year. Guys,

705
00:45:47,519 --> 00:45:51,039
maybe I meant to mention him too, but I love Josh Primo. Which

706
00:45:51,039 --> 00:45:53,320
of those young cores sort of excite
you the most? Leading into leading into

707
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:55,559
just next season, not even if
you want to take a big picture,

708
00:45:55,639 --> 00:46:00,320
sure, but leading into next season. Yeah. So Detroit, Oklahoma City,

709
00:46:00,519 --> 00:46:05,400
Orlando, and Houston are a year
farther along in their rebuild than san

710
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:08,480
Antonio. So I think we got
to push them aside a little bit because

711
00:46:08,519 --> 00:46:13,559
they haven't assembled enough of the talent. They've got more future I mean,

712
00:46:13,639 --> 00:46:16,360
Oklahoma City's more future picks than I
have follicles of hair on my head.

713
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:22,559
But like san Antonio is just not
quite ready to be in this discussion,

714
00:46:22,599 --> 00:46:24,599
I don't think I like a lot
of their young guys. They still don't

715
00:46:24,639 --> 00:46:30,880
have the guy offensively. Of the
other four, I really like all of

716
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,280
them. I said it earlier.
I think Kid Cunningham's the best player of

717
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:36,639
the last couple of drafts. So
for me, like I have to go

718
00:46:36,679 --> 00:46:40,079
with Detroit because they have the tent
pole star out of this group, and

719
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:45,639
I love Ivy and Duran both next
to them as a pick and roll partner,

720
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:49,880
and it's easy to fill the rest
of your roster around guys like that,

721
00:46:50,039 --> 00:46:52,239
with shooters and veterans that can help
you win games. I like what

722
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:54,760
all four have done. I want
to be very very clear on that,

723
00:46:55,079 --> 00:47:00,320
but I think Detroit is the best
player and a young core that will age

724
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:04,239
and grow together to the point where
this is the timeline is always going to

725
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:07,000
sync up, and it's easy to
know what you need around these three guys

726
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:10,599
in order to win games. Detroit
would be my pick two in large part

727
00:47:10,639 --> 00:47:16,039
because of Kay Cunningham. If you
told me that Okayse was open to you

728
00:47:16,159 --> 00:47:21,480
both shake Gil, just Alexander and
Chet homegrin to the floor, and then

729
00:47:21,519 --> 00:47:25,519
you're looking at consolidation trades and I'm
still I'm getting killed on TikTok, Instagram

730
00:47:25,559 --> 00:47:30,320
and the podcast I publish where I
said they should join the Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes.

731
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:32,360
A lot of Thunder fans have insisted
that Josh Giddy is too high a

732
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:35,559
price to pay, so you need
to do the deal without him in it.

733
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,079
And my response was, I know
you have the Jelly williams Is.

734
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:40,800
I know you have Usman Jang,
I know you have all these picks.

735
00:47:42,119 --> 00:47:45,320
That's not a deal that I anticipate
getting done unless Josh Giddy's included. I'm

736
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,440
not saying Donovan Mitchell has to be
the guy. It's very close to being

737
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:51,679
okay See for me, because I
think shake Gil just Alexander is an all

738
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:54,280
not an All Star caliber, an
All MBA caliber player already. It's just

739
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:59,119
he plays a loaded position. And
now you have Chet Homegren there, and

740
00:47:59,159 --> 00:48:01,719
there are other interesting blue Dort like
that's fantastic, And then you're not gonna

741
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:07,039
give up your entire young asset base. You're still gonna have Darius Baisley,

742
00:48:07,079 --> 00:48:09,840
You're still gonna have You're still gonna
have trade there. You're still gonna have

743
00:48:10,679 --> 00:48:14,360
one of the williams Is after that
trade or if not, both of them

744
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:17,400
still. So I'm close to wanting
to choose them. But I think because

745
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:22,960
of Kate Cunningham Detroit, I think
long term, I'm the highest on okay

746
00:48:23,119 --> 00:48:28,440
See or Orlando might be the core
that fascinates me more because it's less clear

747
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:36,679
what they turn into and sort of
the most polarizing, fascinating, pleasantly fascinating

748
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:40,079
way. Yeah yeah, I think
that Oklahoma City has the most unique roster

749
00:48:40,159 --> 00:48:44,480
build because of the future picks,
because of the types of players that they've

750
00:48:44,519 --> 00:48:49,320
gotten, Like Chet is a quote
unquote position less player uniform. Everyone's positionless

751
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:52,840
and let's screw off. But I
think with Detroit, like I always go

752
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,800
by the three pillars approach for me, you want to fill your number one

753
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,559
option, your number two option,
your number three option on your roster,

754
00:49:00,039 --> 00:49:01,679
and then you can start to figure
out what you need around the margins to

755
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:05,960
build a championship corps. Of all
the teams that we've talked about, I

756
00:49:06,039 --> 00:49:08,840
feel the most certain that Detroit has
those three options. I think Kate is

757
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:14,800
one, Ivy is two, and
I would put Sadiq Bay at three,

758
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,920
knowing that Jalen Durham might eventually supplant
him and turn into that. So like,

759
00:49:19,199 --> 00:49:22,440
I feel really comfortable knowing the hierarchy
there. So now the direction moves

760
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:25,760
forward of Okay, we've got those
three, what do we build around them?

761
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:30,679
Like Orlando has their one in Polo, I think Sugs eventually turns into

762
00:49:30,679 --> 00:49:34,320
a two. Yeah, a guy
like Franz can end up being the three

763
00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:37,159
there. Maybe maybe it's cool Anthony, maybe it's you know, I don't

764
00:49:37,159 --> 00:49:42,079
know. Oklahoma City. They've got
Chet and n Sga. I'm not quite

765
00:49:42,119 --> 00:49:45,119
sold on Giddy yet being good enough
to deserve that just because of the scoring.

766
00:49:45,519 --> 00:49:49,880
Phenomenal playmaker, really good size,
fits who they are and what they

767
00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:52,400
do. Think that he can figure
it out. But it's just a little

768
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:55,039
early for me to jump in on
saying, yeah, Giddy's not going to

769
00:49:55,119 --> 00:50:00,320
get played off the floor in an
important playoff series. Fun fact about Josh

770
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:05,199
Giddy. If you look, he
looks like zach Ephron took off his bronzer

771
00:50:05,559 --> 00:50:08,719
in that movie I don't even the
name of it with Matthew Perry, whereas

772
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:14,760
like seven seventeen again, is that
at the name of a movie might be.

773
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:16,840
But if you look at Josh Giddy
and um is like a pale version

774
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:20,480
of that. That's way before he
gets a haircut. That's what I thought

775
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,880
of. Anyway, I'm gonna follow
the question from longtime lister Miroslav Shook into

776
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:28,519
this. He asked, who has
the lowest BPM in summer league and how

777
00:50:28,599 --> 00:50:31,840
much weight you ascribe to that.
I don't publicly available BPM is not out

778
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:37,639
for summer League, and I'm not
going to calculate it if you care.

779
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:40,000
Malachi Brandam is the like one of
the most noteworthy picks with the worst plus

780
00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:44,119
minus. I would argue you throw
all of this out the window advanced metrics

781
00:50:44,119 --> 00:50:46,480
in summer league. Are there any
players though to you that you were a

782
00:50:46,519 --> 00:50:52,320
little bit disappointed or we're hoping to
see more of in summer league that kind

783
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:55,360
of missed your own expectations. Yeah, I'm try not to set too high

784
00:50:55,360 --> 00:51:00,320
of expectations for first year guys,
just because I think that we're still trying

785
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,440
to figure out how much of the
expectation was, you know, to hive

786
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:08,119
an expectation on my part versus what
they can actually do on an NBA floor.

787
00:51:08,519 --> 00:51:13,239
So I look more at the second
year guys, people that I either

788
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,960
was really high on pre draft or
just had higher expectations for them to come

789
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:20,159
in and thrive in the role they
were given. So RJ. Hampton for

790
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:22,880
one, Sharif Cooper for another,
like two guys that played more at the

791
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:27,000
ball in their hands, and were
a little erratic, didn't score the ball

792
00:51:27,039 --> 00:51:30,599
efficiently. Like was really hoping that
those second Hampton's going into his third year

793
00:51:30,639 --> 00:51:35,719
now, that those guys would be
able to take another step forward and just

794
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:39,840
show that they're ready to be dependent
upon more in a rotation. I'll also

795
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:45,679
throw Santi Aldama out there for Memphis, like he just he looks like he

796
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:49,239
doesn't have the ability to separate from
guys. And if you can't do that

797
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:52,000
in summer League, I struggle seeing
that at the you know, the real

798
00:51:52,079 --> 00:51:57,480
eighty two game season that's upcoming,
minutes are going to be available in Memphis

799
00:51:57,519 --> 00:52:01,119
with Jaren Jackson Junior injured for the
big part of the season, I don't

800
00:52:01,119 --> 00:52:07,440
feel comfortable if I'm Memphis plugging Aldama
into that role. And that's you know,

801
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,039
with as many young guys as they've
hit on recently, that makes him

802
00:52:10,039 --> 00:52:14,639
a little bit expendable in ways that
Like I just I wasn't incredibly high on

803
00:52:14,679 --> 00:52:19,480
what we saw from him. Let's
get to some other My biggest disappointment,

804
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:22,000
and it's his playmaker's been fantastic.
I was just hoping, Jared Butler,

805
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:24,639
would you better than twelve percent from
three in the action that you played.

806
00:52:25,159 --> 00:52:28,719
Let's get to some other listening to
questions here, some of which will step

807
00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:31,599
on the toes of what we just
talked about that guy. Tie from Discord

808
00:52:31,719 --> 00:52:36,599
asked twofold question, what are your
thoughts on Ray John Tucker's chances of finding

809
00:52:36,599 --> 00:52:38,880
a roster spot this season? Sadly
it doesn't seem like it will be Milwaukee.

810
00:52:39,159 --> 00:52:45,119
Do you have any thoughts on Marjehan
Bochamp Okay Bucks. Yeah, Marjehan,

811
00:52:45,159 --> 00:52:49,719
I think fits really well culturally in
Milwaukee. They needed a wing.

812
00:52:49,760 --> 00:52:52,559
They needed somebody that can come in
and space the floor without sacrificing size,

813
00:52:52,639 --> 00:52:57,719
length, physicality, and defensive readiness. He checks those boxes for a team

814
00:52:57,719 --> 00:53:00,599
that's trying to compete for a title. This was a why use of a

815
00:53:00,599 --> 00:53:02,840
first round pick. If he shoots
thirty five percent from three or above,

816
00:53:04,159 --> 00:53:07,679
he's going to be able to find
a way to fit into that rotation early

817
00:53:07,719 --> 00:53:10,960
in his career, and I think
he's capable of doing so. Again,

818
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:15,000
I love that he embraces the defensive
side. Compared himself pre draft to a

819
00:53:15,039 --> 00:53:19,440
guy like Herb Jones, and I
think we see flashes of how he can

820
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:27,000
turn into that Rajon Tucker. He
is like, there are like fifty guys

821
00:53:27,079 --> 00:53:30,960
to me who are caught in that
nebulous of they're way too good for the

822
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:34,760
G League, but they're not good
enough to get minutes on an NBA team,

823
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:39,599
So they get kind of pushed out
every year by the younger draft picks

824
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,360
a team has already invested in.
Like, there's an old saying that I

825
00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:46,719
knew from when I coached college that
even if a walk on out plays a

826
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:52,400
scholarship level player, the coach can't
play the walk on over the scholarship level

827
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:58,880
player because it makes him look bad. You you whiffed on that scholarship that

828
00:53:58,920 --> 00:54:01,760
you handed out, because now walk
on is better than that kid. It's

829
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:05,719
kind of the same thing in the
NBA, right, Like you don't want

830
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:08,280
to admit that your second round pick, your first round pick that you took

831
00:54:09,039 --> 00:54:13,159
just isn't getting the job done,
and somebody that you can poach off of

832
00:54:13,199 --> 00:54:16,320
any roster in the G league is
going to do a better job. So

833
00:54:16,519 --> 00:54:22,039
what happens The draft picks stay on
the roster and the G league guys just

834
00:54:22,079 --> 00:54:27,800
bounce around until they might find the
absolute perfect situation. Jon can find it,

835
00:54:28,039 --> 00:54:31,039
but I just I don't have a
lot of hope in those guys turning

836
00:54:31,119 --> 00:54:35,400
into career guys. It's not a
bet that I would be willing to make.

837
00:54:36,559 --> 00:54:38,000
The only thing I'll add is on
Marshawn bow Champ. The question was

838
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:42,239
about a shooting. He looked very
comfortable dotting up from the corners in summer

839
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:45,480
League, and I'm wondering if maybe
there's a chance for him to get some

840
00:54:45,639 --> 00:54:49,280
run early on when Chris Milton might
miss part of the regular season. Teams

841
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:52,960
in the Buck situation still probably normally
wouldn't do that, including coach Buddenholzer of

842
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:57,559
all, but I love bow Champ. T bloom one one seven asked who

843
00:54:57,559 --> 00:55:00,519
looks worse after that Cam Thomas interview
him or Steve Nash? And why is

844
00:55:00,599 --> 00:55:06,320
he Cam? I'm actually I'm really
glad that questions asked, because I want

845
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:07,960
to give the coaching perspective to things
here, like for what it's worth.

846
00:55:08,079 --> 00:55:13,800
I don't think that Cam Thomas was
actually talking directly about the Steve Nash comment

847
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:17,960
there. I think he just gets
sick of hearing the same criticism or improvement

848
00:55:19,079 --> 00:55:21,639
point that he's probably heard for much
of the last three, four or five

849
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:25,519
years, which is about his passing, Like nobody looks bad in this circumstance

850
00:55:25,599 --> 00:55:30,320
between Nash and him. But like, I think both criticisms are fair.

851
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:34,239
Like Cam needs to not be a
black hole, and part of the summer

852
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:37,239
League is working on parts of your
game against competition that you haven't necessarily worked

853
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:42,320
on. That should be part of
his agenda. Nash needs to be a

854
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:47,880
better coach. Yeah, he struggles
to kind of communicate and demand expectations clearly

855
00:55:49,119 --> 00:55:52,480
from the non star players. I
think that part of the reason he was

856
00:55:52,559 --> 00:55:55,800
brought in was to relate to guys
like Kyrie and KD and not make the

857
00:55:55,880 --> 00:56:00,679
same mistake that Kenny Atkinson did,
which was playing better younger eyes over shitty

858
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:05,840
veterans. So like, if that's
what Steve Nash is there for, of

859
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:08,440
course he's not gonna have the best
command of the relationship with some of those

860
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:12,239
younger guys. It's an area he
needs to get better at too. But

861
00:56:12,679 --> 00:56:15,440
if that's what we're talking about,
think both criticism points would be fair.

862
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:17,679
But I think this is much ado
about nothing. In terms of the clip

863
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:23,199
that's circulating about Cam Thomas, I'm
kind of with you and I did watching

864
00:56:23,239 --> 00:56:27,760
that clip though, Like Cam Thomas's
reaction is hysterical because it's so it's not

865
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:30,760
even subtle. That's what was though. That was what was so great about

866
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:35,840
it for me. Keegan's Oh,
let me say, who asked this question?

867
00:56:35,920 --> 00:56:38,239
So I'm just not spending it.
Strops asked, I know he's at

868
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:45,239
twenty five, but is Caleb Holmesley
the next Donovan Mitchell? No, we're

869
00:56:45,239 --> 00:56:47,360
gonna move on. You can't relabrun
that well. Is he? Are you

870
00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:52,039
saying that he's going to be better
than Donovan Mitchell? I guess I did

871
00:56:52,159 --> 00:56:57,159
leave the door open for that one, didn't I No. I mean Holmesley's

872
00:56:57,159 --> 00:57:00,639
fine. I think that he's more
in the Raygion Hucker bounce around camp than

873
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:06,760
he is a dependable rotation guy in
the NBA. Next question, Next question,

874
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:09,480
that was quick, Sweet Lou said. Asked more impressive Keagan's three to

875
00:57:09,519 --> 00:57:14,800
tie it or Paulo's assist to win
it? Oh? Yeah, that King's

876
00:57:14,840 --> 00:57:16,360
Magic game was super fun in the
final few minutes there. I mean,

877
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:22,039
like, the Keagan play is impressive
because it's hard to hit a shot like

878
00:57:22,119 --> 00:57:25,920
that with the game on the line. But I want long term to be

879
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:31,360
able to remember Paulo's assist to win
it in the playmaking because look like we're

880
00:57:31,599 --> 00:57:35,440
this is gonna happen inevitably five months
from now. We're gonna have a few

881
00:57:35,480 --> 00:57:39,360
games where he has like six turnovers
and goes six of eighteen from the field,

882
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:43,159
and there's gonna be so many people
that are allowed to being like,

883
00:57:43,559 --> 00:57:45,400
I don't know, man, he's
too selfish. He just wants to score

884
00:57:45,519 --> 00:57:49,360
first, Like yeah, he's an
okay pass or early in the game,

885
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:51,960
but when the game's on't he just
wants to score. Like, no,

886
00:57:52,360 --> 00:57:54,719
cut that shit out. We just
saw him make a game winning assist.

887
00:57:55,119 --> 00:58:00,800
Don't forget this play. So in
terms of the actual impressive, like,

888
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:05,800
I hope that that play impressed upon
all of you that Pallo is a willing

889
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:13,880
and unselfish passor Next question, JT
Alexander asked, should I bet all of

890
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:16,880
my money on Keagan Murray winning Rookie
of the Year. Oh, I'm not

891
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:21,960
a betting guy. I've actually never
put money down on and athletic events in

892
00:58:22,039 --> 00:58:25,039
my life, So I don't like
understand odds very well and the numbers and

893
00:58:25,159 --> 00:58:29,119
the two to one, six to
one on twenty to one. I don't

894
00:58:29,159 --> 00:58:31,519
I don't get it, but I
think Keagan's actually a fairly safe bet.

895
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:37,639
I'd say Pallo is the clubhouse leader
because I know opportunity, offensive reps and

896
00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:42,079
volume stats, which I mean it
still matters a lot in this award,

897
00:58:42,119 --> 00:58:45,880
and how it's decided is really important. Side side note here, can we

898
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:49,960
just talk about how the Rookie of
the Year is really decided? Like why

899
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:52,920
does the success of the team really
matter for an award like this anymore?

900
00:58:53,679 --> 00:58:58,760
I get that we want to reward
winning an impact on winning that these young

901
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:04,639
guys have, but we consistently value
team performance for guys who were drafted into

902
00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:07,960
crappy situations to begin with. Like
at the end of the day, Scotty

903
00:59:08,039 --> 00:59:13,360
Barnes wins Rookie of the Year because
guess what, Toronto's the best team of

904
00:59:13,480 --> 00:59:17,880
any of these candidates that were available. I just I hope we can take

905
00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:22,000
that out of it a little bit
more. I'd agree with you, as

906
00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:23,880
Scotty Barnes was my Rookie of the
Year pick still and it didn't really have

907
00:59:24,719 --> 00:59:31,280
fun. Maybe people just have Michael
Carter Williams, PTSD. Maybe, I

908
00:59:31,400 --> 00:59:35,000
mean, there's certainly a chance of
that, but at the end of the

909
00:59:35,119 --> 00:59:37,159
day, like, give the award
to the guy who's earned it, not

910
00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:39,199
to the guy who you're worried is
going to be a bust if he plays

911
00:59:39,199 --> 00:59:42,599
on a better team in a couple
of years. I do think, though,

912
00:59:42,719 --> 00:59:44,440
and this is always going to be
the case, and I kind of

913
00:59:44,519 --> 00:59:47,320
understand it. The Rookie of the
Year awards traditionally are going to skew towards

914
00:59:47,400 --> 00:59:51,639
guys who just unless the class is
super thin, who have the ball in

915
00:59:51,679 --> 00:59:53,400
their hands a lot more than I
think Keenan Murray's gonna end up having the

916
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:55,840
ball in his hands with Sacramento,
Yeah, no doubt. And look,

917
00:59:55,840 --> 01:00:00,239
if he shoots, you know,
thirty eight percent, thirty nine percent from

918
01:00:00,239 --> 01:00:02,440
three like he did at Iowa this
year and averages twelve a game and the

919
01:00:02,519 --> 01:00:06,280
Kings win thirty nine games, he's
gonna have a good a shot as anybody.

920
01:00:06,559 --> 01:00:09,519
But again, my money's on Palalo
just because I think that he's gonna

921
01:00:09,559 --> 01:00:15,159
have a lot of volume. How
does this comes from? Ian Fowler?

922
01:00:15,159 --> 01:00:19,639
How does Jabbari Walker stack up past
second round picks who to get regular season

923
01:00:19,679 --> 01:00:22,079
minutes? I guess do you expect
him? He did get a guaranteed contract

924
01:00:22,159 --> 01:00:25,199
with the Blazers. Good for him. Yeah, I always I liked Jabari.

925
01:00:25,320 --> 01:00:30,559
I had him in like the early
to mid thirties on my board,

926
01:00:30,599 --> 01:00:32,800
just outside of first round grade.
Really like his game, what he brings

927
01:00:32,840 --> 01:00:37,719
to the table, huge jujuje fan
of his defense, and he understands and

928
01:00:37,800 --> 01:00:40,559
knows his role for younger guys.
I'm gonna sound like a broken record here.

929
01:00:40,719 --> 01:00:44,639
If you come in and defend and
you can knock down shots right away,

930
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:49,199
you can play too. That's what
Jabari does. So I liked Jabari

931
01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:52,519
Walker quite a bit. This is, you know, creamacure question from the

932
01:00:52,639 --> 01:00:55,599
moost qual but I like it.
I dig it. Who some of your

933
01:00:55,639 --> 01:00:59,639
biggest draft steals? His is?
We already talked a little bit about Terry

934
01:00:59,639 --> 01:01:01,920
Easton. Do you have anyone that
stands out either after Summer League that we

935
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:06,880
even talked about or just heading into
Summer League, Like even throw it out

936
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:07,880
the window that you saw on draft
and you're like, oh, that that's

937
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:14,760
gonna end up being a steal.
I love Jayden Hardy. I think Dallas

938
01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:17,199
got a steal with him just in
terms of the value of where he was

939
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:23,719
drafted. I think that we're going
to eventually look back at Jaalen Williams as

940
01:01:23,760 --> 01:01:29,280
one of the six or seven best
players in this draft class. The Jaalen

941
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:35,360
Williams from Santa Clara, not from
Arkansas, so again, still a lottery

942
01:01:35,440 --> 01:01:37,440
pick. But I don't know if
you'd consider that a steal if you end

943
01:01:37,559 --> 01:01:44,719
up getting one of the foundational pieces
of the team in the teams you know

944
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:46,960
beyond that, I just think it's
really early to be able to give a

945
01:01:47,039 --> 01:01:51,519
lot of those answers there. Like
you see flashes from up Bryce mcgawans,

946
01:01:51,639 --> 01:01:54,239
you see really solid play from Jabari
Walker who goes in the fifties, and

947
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:58,719
guys that you think can be part
of a rotation. Time will tell.

948
01:01:59,199 --> 01:02:01,440
I think that I think that Jaden
Harvey has got to be my pick here.

949
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:05,679
I mean, I have no idea
how we felled a thirty six in

950
01:02:05,800 --> 01:02:09,400
Dallas. Our last question, this
is a question that was designed specifically for

951
01:02:09,559 --> 01:02:15,079
you, comes from Haitian Mamba.
Do you think that the new rule change

952
01:02:15,119 --> 01:02:17,719
with regard to the take foul will
help teams who are mediocre to average at

953
01:02:17,760 --> 01:02:22,480
half court offense, particularly in the
playoffs where the game does slow down,

954
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:25,840
especially as the postseason progresses into deeper
rounds, And I'm just gonna ask,

955
01:02:25,880 --> 01:02:30,400
are you an overall fan of banning
the take foul? Oh? Dan,

956
01:02:30,559 --> 01:02:34,360
you must have listened to or been
on my podcast where we say hashtag banned

957
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:38,960
the take foul to close every single
episode. I cannot stand the take foul.

958
01:02:39,039 --> 01:02:43,719
And I have been championing for this
for long over a year, and

959
01:02:43,800 --> 01:02:47,639
it is finally here that we have
one free throw in possession. Look the

960
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:52,199
instinct anytime you have dead balls that
it's going to reward teams who were better

961
01:02:52,639 --> 01:02:55,199
in the half court setting. I
think that there's still going to be it's

962
01:02:55,239 --> 01:02:59,519
not gonna be eradicated from the game
because there's going to be that risk reward

963
01:02:59,719 --> 01:03:01,519
of I give up two points versus
one and the chance to set up my

964
01:03:01,599 --> 01:03:08,599
defense. And what I think not
necessarily needs to happen, but what we

965
01:03:08,719 --> 01:03:15,440
need to see from this is a
little bit more of a differentiation between Like,

966
01:03:15,920 --> 01:03:20,840
what's the difference between this and a
clear path foul? I don't know

967
01:03:22,119 --> 01:03:24,639
that seems PROBLEMACA. I was going
to ask too, if you thought the

968
01:03:25,679 --> 01:03:31,079
rules were comprehensive enough and that I
when looking at the language that they released,

969
01:03:31,159 --> 01:03:35,000
it still feels like you can disguise
this as a play on the ball.

970
01:03:35,719 --> 01:03:38,039
Even a lazy ass play on the
ball like that's stopping a fast break

971
01:03:38,079 --> 01:03:42,960
could still techinitely be a take foul. Yeah, I mean, like Dan,

972
01:03:43,039 --> 01:03:45,920
I yell at referees for a living, so like I don't pretend to

973
01:03:46,079 --> 01:03:52,079
understand what exactly. Oh No,
I'm definitely not Jeff van Gundy, but

974
01:03:52,519 --> 01:03:55,719
I am shocked that I didn't get
a T this year. I said some

975
01:03:55,840 --> 01:04:00,719
things I definitely should not have said
on the sideline. But no, I

976
01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:03,840
think it's a fair point. I
think there's a lot to continue to work

977
01:04:03,880 --> 01:04:06,719
out and iron out the kinks with
this rule. But at the very least,

978
01:04:06,760 --> 01:04:11,360
I'm glair, I'm glad they addressed
it, because doing nothing is a

979
01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:15,119
lot worse than doing something and having
to figure out over the next couple of

980
01:04:15,199 --> 01:04:18,079
years how to best implement it.
And so do you see it helping sort

981
01:04:18,119 --> 01:04:24,039
of below average offenses in the half
court, like not actually helping them in

982
01:04:24,079 --> 01:04:27,960
the half court, but helping the
offense overall, because you should, in

983
01:04:28,079 --> 01:04:33,119
theory, be able to get more
genuine transition frequency on your alleger. You

984
01:04:33,440 --> 01:04:38,320
should, And I think it's a
fair point. I think the other part

985
01:04:38,400 --> 01:04:44,760
of this too, is like could
do you think there's going to be more

986
01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:47,719
transition or do you think there's going
to be less transition? Because what if

987
01:04:48,039 --> 01:04:51,920
this is always the law of unintended
consequences, right, what if players look

988
01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:57,360
at this consequence and say, like, maybe it eliminates some, but not

989
01:04:57,639 --> 01:05:01,039
all, of my uses of the
take voul and hey, like I said,

990
01:05:01,119 --> 01:05:04,400
I'll give up that one point,
that one free throw that that you

991
01:05:04,519 --> 01:05:10,639
might take here, and now I
get to set up my defense. Yeah,

992
01:05:10,639 --> 01:05:14,239
I mean, I'm I'm with you
in the sense though, that attempting

993
01:05:14,320 --> 01:05:17,239
to do something, even if it's
imperfect, is better than doing absolutely nothing.

994
01:05:18,199 --> 01:05:21,559
It's just it was borderline unwatchable at
times, like transition is the most

995
01:05:21,679 --> 01:05:25,159
enjoyable part of the game. I'm
still a fan at heart. I just

996
01:05:25,239 --> 01:05:29,559
like watching good basketball. And the
NBA was really trying to pump up top

997
01:05:29,599 --> 01:05:32,840
shot like they're ruining potential NFT mode
moments or whatever those things are called,

998
01:05:33,880 --> 01:05:40,119
the ritzy JPEGs that's like or MP
four's like the But yeah, I'm totally

999
01:05:40,159 --> 01:05:42,320
with you. I'm happy that leaders
are trying to address it. We'll see

1000
01:05:42,360 --> 01:05:45,320
how it works this season. I'm
all for it already. Kept you five

1001
01:05:45,320 --> 01:05:47,800
minutes longer than I wanted to.
We were over an hour. Did you

1002
01:05:47,840 --> 01:05:50,000
have anything else about summer League you
wanted to talk about? Did you have

1003
01:05:50,039 --> 01:05:53,800
any I know it initially asked you
about if you had any thoughts about Donovan

1004
01:05:53,840 --> 01:05:57,159
Mitchell or DeAndre Ayton rumors. Did
you want to get anything like that off

1005
01:05:57,199 --> 01:06:00,519
your chest? Now is the time, Well, Dan, I'd like to

1006
01:06:00,599 --> 01:06:04,679
take this moment to address the loyal, faithful listeners of the Hardwood Knox podcast

1007
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:12,239
with a general PSA and reminder about
summer league. If a guy plays really

1008
01:06:12,320 --> 01:06:15,960
well at summer League, it is
generally a good sign that you have somebody

1009
01:06:16,039 --> 01:06:21,360
worth developing that can turn into a
rotation caliber player when there are real minutes

1010
01:06:21,400 --> 01:06:27,480
that come. But these are still
really young players and guys that you have

1011
01:06:27,639 --> 01:06:30,039
to be patient with. So just
because you see star making performances in the

1012
01:06:30,079 --> 01:06:34,199
summer league doesn't mean they're going to
turn into that same type of player a

1013
01:06:34,320 --> 01:06:39,280
few months from now on. Because
I brought up Bryce McGowan's before, no,

1014
01:06:39,519 --> 01:06:43,320
this is this is a general PSA
that goes out there to all listeners

1015
01:06:43,519 --> 01:06:46,599
of the Hardwood Knox podcast. But
I will say this, if a player

1016
01:06:46,800 --> 01:06:51,400
doesn't do well in summer league.
Don't panic, it's just summer league.

1017
01:06:51,400 --> 01:06:57,039
It doesn't really matter anyway. On
that note, are you able to tell

1018
01:06:57,239 --> 01:07:00,400
our listeners where they can find you
on social media and all just a great

1019
01:07:00,440 --> 01:07:03,440
work that you put out. Yeah, well, thank you again for having

1020
01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:06,599
me. Dan always a blast sitting
down and you know, chopping it up

1021
01:07:06,639 --> 01:07:11,719
here with you. Find me at
the box End one Underscore on Twitter,

1022
01:07:12,199 --> 01:07:15,559
the box end one dot substack dot
coms where you can find all of our

1023
01:07:15,599 --> 01:07:18,880
written form pieces, scattering reports.
We're doing some previews ahead of the twenty

1024
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:24,400
twenty three NBA Draft as well as
a summer league review once everything wraps up

1025
01:07:24,400 --> 01:07:27,719
in Vegas. And then the the
YouTube channel is where you can find a

1026
01:07:27,760 --> 01:07:29,960
lot of our work too, So
if you find a YouTube, Twitter,

1027
01:07:30,239 --> 01:07:33,199
substack, you're hitting all of our
points there. And it's summer, so

1028
01:07:34,159 --> 01:07:41,119
not posting or doing stuff as regularly
as throughout the basketball season, but should

1029
01:07:41,159 --> 01:07:45,039
have some fun previews ahead to some
incoming freshmen for the twenty twenty three NBA

1030
01:07:45,159 --> 01:07:48,400
Draft. For if there are any
complete psycho nerds like me out there,

1031
01:07:48,679 --> 01:07:53,239
you can get ahead start right now. I just need to reiterate everything he

1032
01:07:53,320 --> 01:07:57,760
just said. The content the box
end one does and Spin specifically absolutely fantastic,

1033
01:07:57,920 --> 01:08:00,039
invaluable. You should be charging twice
to three times as much for your

1034
01:08:00,039 --> 01:08:04,039
sub stack, so go subscribe to
that if you have not already. Thank

1035
01:08:04,079 --> 01:08:06,840
you so much for coming on.
As always, you know I'll be pesturing

1036
01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:11,519
you again at this point in the
future, and as you know, we

1037
01:08:11,599 --> 01:08:15,279
have to leave everybody with a shout
out of the One, the Only Frank Nila Keena