What is krack lacking? Fellow third on Nuclear a Effort, I am Dan Felly coming at you with yet another podcast for this week. We have a trade reaction. We'll kick off with, kick off with, and then we'll get into our listener Driven twenty twenty three MBA mock draft. First and foremost, though, please remember, if we subscribe to us wherever you're consuming us, hit that sub button on YouTube. Like our videos, comment even if I'm not responding to all your comments, help the algorithm on us back. If you've not subscribed on Apple Spotify, if you're checking us out for the first time, please hit that permanent sub button. Leave ratings and reviews on iTunes or Apple excuse me those help us out a crapload. Join our discord to link to that is in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Check out our merch currently rocking a thermonucle or a sweatshirt that's purple blue and lime green? How do you? How do you not love that stuff? 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And so before we get to our listener driven mock draft, I did participate in as an emergency selector for certain teams, but it was you know, the heavy lifting was done by our fantastic listeners in the discord. So again, go in the discord and to our discord members. I see your mailbad questions coming in. It's a time year where I'm gonna have to wait for things to settle down before we get back in the mail bag groove. We're trying to pump out offseason pre primers for every team. I have this going on, so be patient and you can feel free to answer each other's questions in there until I announce another mailbag episode. With that, Let's get to this trade. Though it felt like a longer intro and it was only two minutes long. I'm proud of myself. Let all, let's all give Dan around of o'clock. So the trade between the I guess we should talk about the Scuttle trade very quickly. It was initially involved the Clippers, the Wizards, and the Celtics with the machinations were similar. But the original Scuttle trade had Christoperzingkis going to the Celtics, Gallinarium, Malcolm Gallinari going to the Wizards, Malcolm Brogden going to the Clippers, Marcus Morris number thirty, and I'm your Coffee going to the Wizards. Just a whole bunch of you know, three team not nonsense, but those were the machinations. The Clippers pulled out because they were worried about Brogden's medicals within a few hours, don't even know the timeline, but after that comes out that the trade is dead. The Celtics, Grizzlies, and Wizards structor trade. The Celtics are getting Cristops Porzingis the number twenty five pick, and the Warriors twenty twenty four first rounder that comes via Memphis. It's top four protected next year, then top one protected in twenty twenty five, and then unprotected in twenty and twenty six. Porzingis is opting in picking up that thirty six million dollars player option as part of this deal. The Celtics can, of course extend him, I think under the old extension rules, which they're still gonna be held too, he's at one hundred and five percent put under the new like. Once the CBA kicks in, they can actually sign him to a deal that's less than that. I guess he could have declined his option on its work, but regardless, they can extend him. This is a deal I think you make with the I guess I don't know looking at the return. Well, we'll get into it. So Celtics get Chris Stops number twenty five and the Warriors twenty twenty four. First, the Grizzlies are getting Marcus Smart. The Wizards are getting Taias Jones, Danilo Gallinari, Mike Muscala the number thirty five pick, and I think they're they'll generate about a twelve and a half million dollars traded player exception. John Hollinger did point this out on Twitter. It'd be interesting to see whether they can fold this into like some sort of Phoenix Suns and Mega deal with Bradley Beal and try to generate an even larger traded player exception, because those large exceptions will be super valuable if you're far enough beneath the tax and teams are looking to dump salary in advance of the new CBA penalties that are that are kicking in. So we'll start with I want to go all over the place here. That's why I was stammering at the beginning. I think this was placed to start. Believe it or not, is the Wizards, which just to sort of I don't want to blow through them, but I think that they're important here. This just proves we knew it already, but like they are in full on rebuilding mode. I saw some people trolling that they didn't even get a first round pick when moving KP. You're ty looking at it. One, you were getting number thirty and you got number thirty five. That's not this huge difference. Yes, you're overloaded with these guards. One and two is right now, Chris Paul, Tayas Jones, Monty Morris, Damn right, it's not gonna stay that Johnny Gavis, you want to throw him in there, it's not gonna stay that way. They're gonna move these guys. Maybe Chris Paul gets waved or brought out, It's not like this is not the roster. And even if you go into the season with Thias Jones, Delon Wright, and Monte Moore's like you can flip those all those guys for value. I would think Monte Morrison Lawn Right are worth some pretty good seconds. And I bet you could probably get a protected first round pick from Tias Jones. I've actually wonder where, if you're willing to eat the medicals at this point, is they're rogged in Thias Jones frameworks. Because I still think the Boston needs more of a game manager. We will get to Boston in Memphis, though Washington doesn't take on any long term salary as part of this deal. Shout out to Mike Muscalo, who got his team option picked up, which he probably wouldn't have if not for this trade. I'm assuming Gallinari will either be used as ballast in a different deal, or maybe he'll get bought out at some point just because he's come back from the DCL injury doesn't fit the Wizard's timeline. Maybe they try and hold on to him anyway because of the salary floor rules, or if they want to move him at the trade deadline, they could also just play him if they need bodies, and that could help him reboot his stock. I still think he could be pretty effective as sort of a pure scoring for we have to see how much juice he has left after the latest knee injury, though, I think what the Wizards are doing is okay. And I was talking. I went on Brian to Porrex the NBA podcast, and I also went into New York City on Wednesday to go on more Jurgenson show. Who's his co host, So be on the lookout for that. They have a TV show. It's back in Denmark, but they released it on the internet in English, and he was credential points to the NBA graph and everything. So I went met him. We had a fantastic chat forty five plus minutes. I digress, but I was talking to Brian to Porrek about this, he took exception to people calling the Wizards trade of Bradley Beal good. They didn't get a first round pick. All as they did was essentially dump him into salary and it cost him all these other or dump him for salary cap relief over the long term, and they just essentially ate it and they got out of a deal that they authored themselves. And he's right because ted Leonsis is still a part of this. We know pur the reporting from Candice Buckner of the Washington Post that he ted Leonses was bragging about the no trade clause as evidence of good relationships between star and franchise. Yeah, they gave him a Supermax. I think that's Bradley Beale. Good for Bradley Beale, ecstatic that he was able to negotiate that. Shout out to his agent, Mark Bartlestein too. But like, you didn't need to give him the no trade clause. You were giving him a Supermax, So there's no reason to brag about that. You were bragging how bet of a negotiator you are. And so I do understand that and that you missed so many times. Leonsis included in this because he is still there on trading bradleybal for peak value, and so you kind of watched his trade value deteriorate over the next three or four years because there's either less time on his contract or now his contract became so large and included a no trade clause that you were boxed into this corner. However, we can't penalize Michael Winger, the new president of Monumental Basketball, for the sins of the past regime. I wouldn't call that a good trade. I would call it a necessary trade because you got out of the you know, the Bradley Beal business. Long term, you freed up so much money on your books that you can use to build out the roster, either through free agency or trades, to kind of stack upon your assets. And that's the Christaps Porzingia moves as an extension of that. Michael Winger wasn't the one who decided not to move Porzingis at the deadline, and so when you get to the off season, options are available, but you're like signing trades aren't necessarily easy to negotiate. There wasn't a clear team out there that would have wanted Christops Porzingis at a longer term number and would have given you money to do assets to do so. In the process, a lot of those teams, or some of the teams that were most interested in him might have had cap space, Like if the Rockets wanted to take a look at him. I don't think the Jazz would have been interested. The Pacers would have been interested. And that's also part of the problem is you go through these teams, it's so where was Porzingis is leverage to force a sign and trade? Do you run at the bird rights trap? Of well, could he have just gone somewhere else anyway? And we were compelled to match that contract to just get out of this without taking on any long term money. And you get a second round pick, and then you get someone entirest Jones who would argue that you could move for I would think the equivalent of the number thirty five pick just because he plays. Porzingis is the better player, but he is just so low turnover. By the way, there's the stat tweeted out I didn't I can't remember who it was on Twitter that the Wizards now have the three best assistant turnover ratio guards in the league. On their roster in Tayas Jones, Monte Morris, and Chris Paul's that's hysterical. We'll see how long that last. I like the idea of just you ripped off the band aid. We'll see what happens with Kyle kuz Met, will see what happens with Denny Abdia's extension and his future in Washington. You are starting from this blank slate to where the number eight pick on Thursday when this is getting released, and you know you'll go from there. But I like the mindset here, and you cleared a ton of runway for yourself long term. And so while you might look at these as not you don't have to call them good trades or great trades. They were necessary trades. If you want to hit the reset button, they didn't do anything to damage your future or present, and if anything they did, they elevated your future assets desk just a little bit. Maybe the pick swaps in the seconds for Phoenix come come in handy, who knows. So I think that this one is easier to like than the Bradley one because Porzingis was headed to free agency. If again, if not this like, maybe he was always going to opt in But would you have felt the pressure to extend him. What would the value have been for him at the deadline when he had half a season left and you just had to worry about paying him. You didn't get a first round pick here, but I would argue got the equivalent between number thirty five and thaias Jones. And if I think we can still see the move you combine those two, I think you get in the first round this year if you want to pretty pretty easily, so good good piece of business, as the dunked on kids or guys would say, and I just agree. I like that the Wizards are finally even if they're not in the greatest situation right now. I like that they're sort of just pulling off the band aid here. I think we can just loop Boston and Memphis together on this one. Although I'm i gotta tackle this from the Memphis Grizzlies perspective. I saw a lot of twitter on Marcus Smart immediately replaces Dylan Brooks's defense, and then some gives them a better passer and then a better shooter at the position. Dylan Brooks over the last three years actually shot better on catch and shoot threes than Marcus Smart. Marcus Art has been over forty percent from mid range the past three seasons, while Dylan Brooks is comfortably below. They're both some of the most damaging pull up shooters statistically in the MBA. The main difference there is it does feel like Smart goes on these heaters more frequently, but he takes pull up jumpers, including like you know, from mid rangers. In factoring all off the dribble jumpers Dylan Brooks attempts over the past three seasons basically twice as many, more than twice as many as Marcus Smart, and so you are limiting the damage that will be inflicted because he's not taking as many of those kinds of shots. And so then you factor in the passing he is a better pass or he can still be turnover prone. I don't trust him, excuse me, to always make the right decision out of like the pick and roll. He's just he's never been that type of a point guard. And I think the issue here is you gave up two first round picks, and you could just argue that you've now used so many of your own first round picks, how far were those going to go for you? Anyway? Which it's number twenty five, and the Warriors should still be good next season. Marcus Smart's gonna be good for you for a while. I think he is the better defender. It's just he's gonna give you like he can defend capably one through four, where I don't think Dylan Brooks could really hold up against a lot of the bigger fours, maybe on the block as well. So I like Marcus Smart better there. But part of this opportunity cost is you didn't trade Dylan Brooks. You're letting him walk for nothing presumably, And look, Smarts money, by the way, is fine if anyone cares about that. He's three guaranteed years left on his deal valued it about. He's only he's at eighteen point six next year, which is fine with the cat going up and then he'll it's on an escalating scale. But you know, three years and sixty million dollars basically for Marcus Smart, I think that's pair of value when you look at his age and what he does, and to have the supplemental playmaking. I don't know how often he and Jock and play together. What will the Grizzly spacing look like. I think that do you think that you can trust Marcus smart Off to catch more or to take the right time kinds of shots more, as I mentioned previously. Perhaps so I don't hate this for Memphis, but part of the course was giving up Tias Jones, who is a better game manager than Marcus smart He's not going to throw as complicated of passes, He's not going to take as many chances. That's also part of his charm. I think I don't think you can trust him more as a pull up jumper from in between. We really saw him work in some off the dribble threes this past season, so I do think you are losing something there, and it's probably not as noticeable when John Morant's in the lineup, but John Rant is basically I mean, you just pencil him in for whatever reason is now, including injuries like missed twenty games or whatever every season, So that's not nothing. And to give up Tias Jones, who has value on his own. I know he's going in the final year of his deal at fourteen million, and then two first round picks, it's I don't think it's a bad trade for the Grizzlies. If I had to pick, I don't even want to say if I had to pick a loser, because I don't think anyone lost this trade. I kind of understand it and like it for all three teams. I have the most questions about Memphis. I do have some questions with Boston to Washington's Milian one where I'm like, you're leading into this tear down, good, great, grand wonderful, just keep going. I'm so curious as to see what the offense is going to look like both without Jaw and then when Jaw comes back. And this is all to say if there are going to be people in the YouTube comments, which is where I feel like we get the most anger, that are saying I'm being too hard on the Grizzlies here. We have an entire offseason still to go through, so let's see how they flesh out the rest of the roster. And people are looking at Marcus Smart as a wing and defensively, sure if you want to call him the wing. Offensively, no, that is not what he is. And you still need that three in D guy who can also put the ball on the floor, because Marcus Smart just not skew three in D like it's it sometimes feels like he can be like this big time shotmaker, and he had that year as a two years ago or something. He shot an astronomical percentage that was off the dribble three pointers. That was very much the anomaly. It's not again, he's taking them. This isn't circle. Draymond Green has the one good shooting season and then doesn't even take them or shooting you know, like just ghastly percentages. But he can be erratic from beyond the arc. He's not again, he's the better offensive player than Dylan Brooks when you're factoring in the loss of Dylan Brooks's defense, getting rid of Tyas Jones on offense, and then giving up these picks. Like again, part of the value for the Grizzlies might have been Dylon Brooks is able to walk and we're not going to feel his loss. I think there could be a real drop off offensively, is what I'm getting at, and especially the first quarter of the season without John Moran into the fold. And so I'll be very interesting to see how they flesh out the rest of this, the rest of this roster, and if they have I do think this proves they're not going to be a verse to taking some swings even though John Morand's gonna miss more than twenty five percent of the season. But was this their big move? It might not be. They still have all their own picks, and I just Jaren Jackson Junior and Marcus Smart as part of your defense, and even having Desmond Baine there and Steven Adams on the court at the same time, Like, that's not going to always be the prettiest offensive lineup, but they're gonna do some real damage defensively. And I think if you can get Smart have one of those seasons where he shoots like thirty six percent or something on catch and shoot threes and can hit them at relatively high volume, and John Moran's consistently in the lineup, you can play him in Baine together without John Moran. I think that would go a long way towards the little cementing sort of the offensive orchestration. But I do think that there's more risk kicked in here. And the bigger one would be, yeah, you can look at it right now, and I mean, let me bring up their salary cap sheet with the number of players they have for guaranteed salaries next year. You add so Marcus Smart into the fold, You're at like basically the roster limit already before factoring in the number twenty five pick, if you're going to pick up Tillman's team option or the climate and resignment restricted free agency. We know Brandon Clark's probably not gonna play next year, but still the only player leaving from last year guaranteed to leave is Dylan Brooks at this point, so it's not like you have all this roster room and so you could you punch it on the number twenty five pick. I don't care, That's fine. The Warriors first round is interesting because I think you can look at it and say, Okay, they weren't great this year, but if they're going to run it back, they should still be pretty good. So what are they giving up the nineteen pick again? Is it even like do you think you're giving up a lottery pick? And if not, maybe you don't care. And so the opportunity cost year is reasonable because of the salary of Marcus smart arm for the next three years. But you know, are we getting to a point where I don't want to say, is Marcus smart on the decline? But he wasn't even Boston's best guard last year. That was very clearly Derek White, and so he turns. He turns twenty nine this past March, sold bes Age twenty nine campaign next year. It's like he's getting to that point where could you start to see just a little bit of a drop off. I think there's just more concern here overall for the Grilies. I don't hate the trade, and overall I like the Marcus Smart mentality coming to Memphis. I don't from a spacing perspective, with or without John Moran, I don't love it, and I do question his ability to manage the offense. In John Moran's absence, I think you very much need to go out and find another floor that can you get trade johns get Tis his brother who was in you see from San Antonio Will he signed for the for the mid level exception the spursal match that I'm kidding if anyone didn't catch that, or are you just banking on okay, Desmond Baine is just gonna make take another leap and we have Luconard and Bain for the spacing. Jaron Jason Junior is still going to stretch the floor for his position. If we roll with a bunch of Jarret Jackson junior at the four Again, I mean, so we're just gonna play with three guaranteed shooters. We could throw Santia Obama in there if we want to, so you can get to some four out combinations. You're never gonna play four out though, with John Morant and Marcus Smart, And the goal would have been, hey, can we like get someone who's doesn't have to be Marcus Smart level with defensively, but doesn't potentially shrink the floor on certain nights or make as many mistakes as a ball handler. Again, better player than Dylan Brooks, better overall player than Tyas Jones. I question just his offensive value to this team. And again doesn't mean they lost the trade, just means that I have questions, which I think, look, it's fair enough questions. We gotta let these things play out. Though I am excited. I didn't have to do grades at Bleacher Report for this, by the way, because the trade got just fucking blown to Smith of Reens, so that would have been live and having to fix it and redo it would have just been annoying. So r ip to anyone's trade grades that actually were published as a result. The third and final aspect of this deal is the Celtics, which when you look at when you looked at the reaction, everyone I think pretty much just agreed that the Celtics won this trade. They gave up Marcus Smart and in a second round pick and just in salary, Drek or flotsam, and got Christops working is coming off an amazing season. He was yeah, okay, the rim protection, the three point shooting, but he was hitting like ridiculous fall aways off the dribble jumpers. He was your and he was healthy. He was spectacular. Best season by far and away the best season of his career. Really his mobility on defense specifically too, like he's always kind of had that even with the ball, like there's a fluidity, there's like a slashing fluidity to what he can do both on him off the ball, but on defense, like that was there and it felt like you hadn't seen that since maybe his like an early onset days, not rookie maybe a little bit after his rookie season in New York. You have him on an expiring contracts, so yes, you could extend him, and if you do, it's probably at a palatable number, I would guess at this point, but you there's no risk involved here because he's coming off the books. And so yes, now you have Al Horford and you have Robert Williams the thirty, you have Christops Porzingis. It's really not as a and we'll get into the Grant Williams element of all this. It's really not as egregious as it sounds like. When you're looking at financially, Al Horford and Robert Williams the third next season are going to combine to make under twenty five million dollars. You have Al Horford just at a flat ten his salary one from twenty six five to the extension was ten million, and then Robert Williams the third is at eleven five. So they're under twenty two million. So you throw Christops porzingis Is thirty six into the fold and let's just stay on top of twenty two fifty eight million dollars for your three primary bigs. It's not like it's not agregious. It's a lot of money, but it's not like out of this world egregious. And I think you do this. The two reasons that you make this trade is one, you do believe that RW three can play with either one of these guys and we at least know that they're willing to try playing him with Horford, even though Joe Missoula wasn't as much about that as his predessor Emayudoka. You could still try and get away with Porzingis Rabblingiams the third against Sir. I don't know that I would love it. Al Horford is definitely a better defender in space than Porzingis, But maybe at that point you trust r W three to kind of go out and switch a little bit more and have Porzingis playing his role and help around the basket. You can do stuff like that. Porzingis is going to space the floor and so now you just have open ended access to four outline ups. You could try playing Horford and Porzingis at the same time. Not something I mentioned. I do believe that this is sort of a Okay, we're going to play two bigs at some point, or we're confident they're gonna play together, or we're not confident that all these guys are gonna play in a ton of games at the same time. So RW three always has health issues. Al Horford is getting up there in age. Porzingis, he's had a great a year and a half or whatever of good health. Historically, he's just had a ton of lower body injuries and so he's going to miss time, which does make extension talks an interesting calculus. I do you know, when you look at what certain front courts could become, you might leave a lot of heavy lifting on your guards and wings here to say, hey, you you really need to crash the glass, because if you're gonna go with at all, with Porzingis as your five or Porzingis as you're like I guess Porzingis and Horford yet in theory, like those are not the greatest rebounders for their positions and if you play them together, like I don't know if that helps or if that makes it worse if you play one of them with RW three even though he's the I think he's the shortest of these three, right because al Horford is taller than six nine, But so that is there is some concern there, but it's just like you can totally get by with it. And so I at least like the gamble in theory, I think it does depend on Chris Stops streamlining his role a little bit more. He had a lot of freedoms in Memphis this year. I do think he will get that in Boston, because in theory they did need another creator and that's a concern the wealth to get to they could have used another one, and he looked like that dude not much of a facilitator, Like in terms of getting his own shots. That gives you another baillout weapon and someone who was more efficient creating his own shots last year, and a Marcus Smart and someone who's gonna be more comfortable doing it because he can shoot over the top of so many people. Then that at Derek White and so like where you get that downhill element from Malcolm Brogden, like you can get the perimeter fall away element from Porzingis that's ways that even Horford isn't going to help you, and just the pick and pop game should be divine here for Boston. Is he gonna be willing to go back into a role where he's gonna have to like could eighty percent of his baskets go back to coming off of sists, which I probably should have looked at that before we before I jumped on here. I don't know if like that's I would think like that that's substantially a higher amount than he was at while he was in Washington last year, seventy one percent of his baskets came off as sist. So that's not you know, there doesn't have to be much streamlining here. There's just he might not have as much freedom in the post or to go to those falloways, those Mike could cut down a little bit, because do his minutes tip from the thirty two and a half that he was at last year, And is he just gonna be playing in line up say Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown like Bradley Beale a bunch of time last year and there just wasn't a whole lot of talent Washington overall. Though he did play with Kuzma, the spacing in Boston should be better, even if you are trying to get away with him playing RW three. So I like the gamble, I still have questions about it. I do think Boston really did diminish its table setting depth at this point, and Grant and I have talked a lot about how we really believe they need even if it's just a situational offensive organizer Katias Jones, I'mante Morris, or if you can get Chris Paul if he's waved and like he's willing to sign for the minimum, someone who can give you some balance and structure and crunch time when you're getting nudged out of your process and you're prone to you know, if it's Jalen Brown's handles or Jason Tatum, Marcus Smart bad passes or just settling early in the shock hawk or never getting below the three point line before you're inside five seconds of the shock hawk, just someone to direct in those situations in the half court overall, so that you're not as reliant on either tough three pointers or just almost being perfect in your process. And now you got rid of Marcus Smart, who was probably your best passer, second best passer, like at worst, if didn't very much feel like this was a team that didn't have an alpha playmaker. And so you can look at it and say, okay, like Marcus Smart was never that floor general anyway. But now you've cut down your secondary options and it's you know, you have Jason Tatum, you have Derek White. You can still run some stuff through Al Horford, and like there's value there. We know that RW three can make those quick decisions with the ball off the catch, but like you're not going to run stuff through him. It feels like they're gonna be either you know, this could be a vote of confidence and Peyton Pritchard, who either wanted a trade or a bigger role. You still have like Guards and White, Broggden, and then of course like Brown Tatum if they log any time technically to two forget about the positions, can get a little crowd of him. But is this a vote of confidence in him? Do you trust him to do that now? And if it's, if he's not going to play a bigger role, you're either you're really just relying on the Malcolm Brogden, who's more of just like Downhill and let's create stuff that way. Derek White more of a connective guy. Jason Tatum just sort of like he's not he's not a reactive pastor anymore. He's better than that. But he's not on the level of Devin Booker. He's not on the left. He's probably like more mckin. I feel like, no, I don't want to say he's more. He's probably more Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard. It feels maybe a notch of below those guys at their peak of passers, which is just fine. So that is a question. We still have an off season to go through, though, and now they have these other first round picks, number twenty five, which it's nice to get cost control guys, when you were By the way, they're adding seven million dollars in payroll. So if they keep Grant, just by keeping Grant Williams's caphold, they're gonna blow pass. What's the number I had them at here, one hundred and eighty five million in salary next year, so that is above the second apron. They won't have their mid level, but that's just that's a lot of money for this roster. You can still under these You're still gonna be like, there are some new trade rules that are kicking in, so you'll be hard pressed to make other deals. But you pick up these two first round picks, that, okay, do we hope that we get value at a number twenty five or we keep in the Warriors pick. But you have all your own picks after this draft. There's a swaputsand Antonio on twenty eight, but you still have a pick. You can trade a bunch of picks if you want to. Now, and do you bring back a player I'm not saying that they're going to go and enter the Damian Lillard sweepstakes, which have apparently closed. They didn't even know they're open. Whatever, They're not going to go out and try and get trade young. They're not going to be a team because they do with Brogden still who was traded and wasn't anymore. So you can get some pretty aggressive salary matching, but they have other moves left in them depending on what they deem is necessary. So maybe I think I think at this point they might wait and try like angle for like a bigger splash to see if they need it around the trade deadline and see where the like they where their talent lies right now. And it's not just a matter of Okay, Porzingi's coming in healthy, can go through training camp with them. It's now Joe Missoula can go through the entire offseason process, the preseason process, knowing that he's the head coach and that they're staff is adequately fleshed out now. And I think that can make a big deal for their offense as well. And so I wouldn't be shocked if they turned around and said, hey, we've brogged in salary. That's just still floating around here, and that's going to give us. Like even if you have to do that, I think it's one hundred and ten percent, the matching is gonna go. The CBA's all over the place. I apologize, But once it's released and it's a process for me to study it, like we'll get it put like one hundred and ten percent of his twenty two and a half million, that's fine. Like you can get a really good player if you're going to attach a first round pick to that. I would assume teams could be concerned with his medicals. But he only has one year at twenty two point five million in addition on this one, so it's a it's a short term risk. I don't know who the player is, but there might just be opportunities that arrive of teams that aren't willing to spend. And we've now seen that, Like if you're Boston, if you're Phoenix, regardless of whether you maybe don't like how much Phoenix gave up or that trade or YadA, YadA, YadA, you can get real talent if they're expensive, without giving up backbreaking returns. Because there are teams that are probably so concerned about these new uh you know, financial penalties or limitations that are going to kick in over the next you know, year plus, So you don't know what opportunities could drive it. Could it could have aris this offseason, it could arrive at the trade deadline, and so now you have these extra picks to fool around with the Warriors. One is like the clear mystery box, because you could see real regression from the Warriors just because everyone's getting older, and like, are they gonna be able to can they make any meaningful changes when they're going to be so cash strapped? Cash strapped? It's not some sort of I don't know if it's like a diamond. It's like there are teams that might want it. They probably if you had to pick between Boston's four picker Golden States, yeah you're gonna pick Golden States. But in terms of like anchoring a blockbuster, it's just it would have to be one of many, and but you can still do something pretty big here, and so I like it. I like it for the Wizards the most because it just shows they have a concrete direction. I like it for Boston the second most, and then Memphis would clearly be third. For me, I don't hate it for any team. I just think that Memphis took the biggest gamble. Here is where I end up with that. That's it for the trade analysis. We'll talk more about what Denver's doing and moving their picks around. But I think it's important that we get to this mock draft. And so the way that the way that I ran this, it was more of a last minute, So it wasn't we didn't have time to like try and run through the whole transaction process. But we had everyone people in Discord sign up for teams. A lot of people were handful of people had two teams, and they drafted. We just went through it. They did it by a doct There was one trade that went through. I hopefully I won't forget about it because I didn't mark it down anywhere. And they each everyone provided a line or two of adjustable Actually I don't know how much they provided because I haven't. Like I clicked on it and tried to make sure that as many people as possible submitted them. But I decided to just react to it in real time. I've done enough draft prep work to where I probably know something of like I have general impressions and most of these guys and if I don't, you know what, like, I'm just gonna say it. I will apologize for anny pronunciation issues, but I'm very interested to see how this turns out. I've definitely I've seen it like this is not I know who was drafted. I know that we I don't want to spoil like I know there was a surprise that Okay, so and so wasn't drafted, but it wasn't egregious when you look at where he's sort of mocked around the NBA. But so let's get to it, and I'll shout out everybody who did this, and again I will. I'll open and go through the explanations as we go along. I will try and read as many as possible, and I'll just provide my reactions. And so we begin with the San Antonio Spurs at number one. Glad was the GM Spurs fan and look, this was a tough decision, but they ultimately went with Victor Ombanyama. Glad says pretty self explanatory. On an actual note, Wenby gives what, essay, what they need most a player with superstar potential you could build around. Wemby also allows the rest of the san Antonio's young core to play more in their proper roles, moving Kelton Johnson and Devin Missell to secondary and tertiary scoring options. Defensively, Wemby becomes the rim protector that Essay lacks after trading away Yacca Peartle, also giving flexibility to switch and guard two through five. There's a lot of defensive potential between wemb Sowen, and Vassell. This is the reason why the Spurs tanked this season to have the opportunity to draft a franchise cornerstone. Somehow they looked into the best generational talent with us since Lebron. Yeah, no reaction there other than I am wondering if having wemb and Sowin and Misses somehow makes Keldon Johnson expendable down the line or immediately, or if they just move them into a six man role. That'll be interesting to see. Number two, Charlotte, we have Mike Harrenshin. I apologize if I butchered that he selected Brandon Miller, and a lot of people think this is what Charlott will ultimately do. The Hornets could use Kelly Roobridge junior in free agency, could lose Kelly Robridge junior free agency. Mike writes, and have to wait thirty games before Miles Bridge is allowed on an NBA floor. They actually do have to wait ten. They're counting twenty of the games that he missed last season towards it, but still the same point. They also, you don't totally know if he's gonna be back, he's a free agent, Mike continues their forwards or Cody Martin and the client Gordon Hayward. This seems like a no brainer. Getting a six foot nine is comboguard to pair with Lamello. I don't disagree about the fit, but just because of Scoot Henderson's IT factor when you watch him on the ball, I don't know if Brandon Miller has that same if factor. If you think he gets there, you just trust his size where he doesn't need to put the same amount of pressure on the basket or get the same amount of separation, I think you can justify it. I've been way higher on Scoot personally, but I do know that there are people that I respect and read way smarter than I who just really believe that there isn't this huge gap between them. I do think this seems like it'll be more reflective of what the Hornets do. Though Henry had the Portland Trailblazers at number three, they took Scoot Henderson. The trail Plazers will be licking their chops if Scoot was available at three. Henry wrote, no matter which way they want to go on the Damian Lord situations, Scoop gives them either a great trade ship or a foundational a foundation action AI piece to start over with. Yeah, and I think that he and Damian lilleron could play together for the same reason. I think Will Mellow and Scoot could play together like those are Damian little Meloball can both shoot off the catch and just I think that we're under selling scoots skills to think that he can't work without the ball in his hands, especially as a rookie, if anything, having that other alpha ball handler because Tree mind his development. Now, do I want to see Damian Lillard play on a team that's gonna foe compete for forty seven games and then tank the other thirty five? Not necessarily, but I would like to see Damian Lillard play with Scoot Henderson. I'm not gonna lie that wouldn't That wouldn't be something that doesn't intrigue me. Next up the Houston Rockets at number four, Anthony was the GM. He took Amen Thompson wrote with the fourth pick, the Rockets select Amen Thompson is and it's an easy one. I'm in flash his high playmaking chops along with insane athleticism. He's a point guard in a small forwards body and is an instant paint touch on his drives. He gets to the rim at will, and with his athleticism, it's hard to see that not translating the playmaking would be a god sent for the Rockets, who lack a troupe table setter. As long as they can refuse to give Shank Who the ball that is strong co sign there, Ahmed would slide in perfectly and set up the talented roster with easy shots. His shooting is atrocious, but if it, even if it never improves, you're looking at a possibly taller Russell Westbrook ceiling. No, yeah, I don't disagree with this. My question would be what does his jumper develop and does his paint pressure is impacted by a lack of shooting on Houston's roster, which they have the cap space and assets to theoretically address. I think it becomes ultra important to address them though immediately, if you want to come in and make him your primary ball handler. It also makes life easier on Jael and Green, and even nudging Kevin Porter Junior off the ballmore makes his life a lot easier. I don't know that I love the idea of Am and Thompson on a team with James Harden, though, something to consider. At number five. Rhett Bower had the Pistons, he selected Ahmed's brother, a Sire Thompson. The Pistons take a Sire Thompson. Fivel overall is strongly considered Kem Whitmore to fill a massive vacancy for the Pistons. Is a freak athlete that can who can shoot and defend. I think our sire has a comparable ceiling with improvement areas that can more realistically be worked on. Kade and Ivy can create advantages and pass or shoot out of them, so maybe Whitmore's lack of feel or passing vision wouldn't be a problem, but I don't believe you can really teach that as much as shooting, so adding a player that can create advantages and pass in Thompson will make their offense incredible. His lack of a shot is a concern, especially next to a core of not only shooters and Kade, Ivy and Durham, but the town is too much for me to pass on. This is interesting here when you're looking at the fit. I don't think he's the best. He wouldn't be on the top of my big board here either. But I when I went back and like watched these two between Ahmen and Assier, and I change the pronunciation of user or saur. I apologize for that everything I listened to it back to when Adam Spanella has been saying it, apologize for messing it up. But I look at his jump shot and it feels like it's better and that there's a more fluid process process to it than amends, where if you're talking about someone needs to gather off the dribble and fire up, I might almost bet on him having a much better, more efficient jumper long term. And so I don't hate it. And look, I'll say this, I love Kay Cunningham. I think Jay and Ivy had a very strong close to his rookie campaign. This team is not yet good enough, doesn't have the high end talent enough to be even drafting for fit. So you go with the talent play, and so I would support this pick as well. I'm just gonna support this pick because it's it's one of my favorite prospects in the draft. Jake, with the Magic at number six, took Anthony Black. Jake wrote best Available Option for Orlando, perfect fit to build alongside Bancaro, Wagner and Suggs. Black wo improved Orlando's point of attack, defense and bring everyone together on offense. The thing I worry about here and I love Anti Black's passing, and we Grant and I have said a lot that the Magic's need an offensive organizer. Despite how Magic fans feel about Mark l Falls, I don't love the fit when you still have shooting concerns with Bancro even with Sugs a little bit. He got a lot better off the catch last year, though, But Bancro and faults, and so how do you move those guys around? You get enough stretch, probably from friends Wendell Carter Junior, but are you gonna really have And I trust that Bank Carroll will improve, which is why I'd be all for this. You need to hope that Anthony Black is going to improve his jumper, but to have that big point guard I'm let out of top ten defense for like more than half the year this season, they would be absolute monsters, and so I'd be fine with the with the upside play. Here we go to number seven from Nicola. Cha had the Indiana Pacers at number seven, and I guess I wasn't surprised by this one. I'm just not high on him. But the Pacers took Jarress Walker the Pacers of Glareny at the four, and Jarress Walker is the best fit on the board. He's going to be a plus defender on day one, able to switch up and down due to his length, strength and jilly agility. Offensively, his three point percentage is probably overselling his shooting, but he won't be asked to do too much early on. I also think it very much helps by the way that the Pacers can just create all sorts of space, the way when you have Miles Turner and Tyrese Halibert and sort of your bookends on offense, They're gonna make things very easy for anyone who comes in. I just worry that Rris Walker is going to be one of those pure fours, and I'm probably a little bit lower on what he's going to do as a switch defender at the NBA level. Defensively, Yeah, what would he do as a switch defender defensively? My god, I can't even talk right now. I'm tired. The Washington Wizards at number eight, and I'm actually surprised he fell this far. But Cam Whitmore at number eight selected by I apologize. We had Darkwing Duck managing the Wizards with an off season of Uncertaintly, the best player available, who has the highest ceiling with no regards to fit is the choice that has to be made here. Thus the choice is Cam Whitmore. Other players in this range could be elite, complimentary players. Whitmore could be solid to be a solid to great primary player. They Darkwing Duck didn't know what this pick was made before the bradleybal trade. I think you make this trip. If anything, you make this Excuse me, you make this pick more so now that Bradleybeal is gone, because my biggest concern for Cam Whitmore b is he a good enough passer when he's trying to score off the bounds? Will he'll be efficient enough? And now it probably nice to have better talent around him depending on who's coming back, so that it's not all on him. But you really have the freedom to explore with what he's gonna do. And so I like this pick. I love this next pick from Karagan on the Utah Jazz went with Taylor Hendrix at number nine. This podcast always talks about how they are like three players in the league who bring floor spacing and shot blocking, and that's what Hendrix brings, two blocks per game and forty percent from three. Imagine the rim protection with Kessler and Hendrix. I consider taking someone who could run the point guard, but they are going to be a plethora of those guys available at sixteen eleven of ten. No noes here, I just I want to emphasize again the rim protection with Hendrix and Kessler, especially when Hendrix is like can be like more of the roving guy and like kind of just that stands to wall. That is a perfect compliment. And so if his three point shooting translates, the key here would be, can you get someone who's going to create enough separation and havoc off the dribble to get him those those open shots, because I don't know I don't trust him as a passer, and he'd be and if he's self creator, love this love this pick. Though, we have a trade here, so the Dallas Mavericks at number ten, and well, I'm sorry to get to the GM of the Dallas Mavericks. First, the GM of the Mavericks was killed a Dennis and they struck a trade with the Rockets. So the GM was Anthony and the trade is as follows. The Mavericks get Jayshawn Tate, the number twenty pick and a twenty twenty five first round pick top five protected from Houston, and the Rockets get JaVale McGee and number ten. So the Rockets have number ten here. The Mavericks made it on their behalf, but the Rockets are getting Derek Lively. I understand. I've seen a lot of comparisons to Tyson Chandler with him, and look, if you can get a Tyson Chandler type on your team, I do think the Rockets in need. You know, you have Jabari Smith, you have alper Room, Shaneguon, but you need people in the building who care about defense. Jay Shawn take cares about defense. But there's kind of a it feels like they have a glut on the perimeter. Maybe they really don't. They could have a glut up front. If you still believe in Usman Gruba and the of course Shanguon and Jabari Smith Junior. I'd be very intrigued to see Lively and bars mit Ju and your play together though, And so that I I gotta say, we gotta see who Dallas with Jayshawn Tate. That makes a lot of sense. He's gonna give them some perimeter defense, not maybe not too much at the point of attack necessarily right now, but they just need perimeter bot they need interior defensive bodies as well. And he can play alongside Irving and Don Chitch shooting is still concerned, but he can attack in open space. I don't. And and look, you got an extra first round pick here. I'm like, whose pick is that? By the way, I don't know what this is that's not coming up on there. I have to look at Houston's pick commitments, but it looks like it's the Rockets his own in twenty twenty five. I thought that they would have owed picks by then, so I'm gonna double check that. But I'm sure they put it through the the trade dot MBA, so they have oh they're getting it's a swap so oklahma, so that he can swap with Houston's and then that's gonna be top five, it's top ten protected for that, they're gonna have a first round pick. It's I mean, will they be good enough by then? It's I don't know, it's a little it's a little weird, but you might have a second you know, you might have excuse me, you might have a second first round pick that you're getting from this. So to get two first plus Jay Shawan Tait for number ten, I think that's reasonable value if in real life, I do think the MAVs probably hold out for more would be my guess. But I thought this was a very creative trade, and they did put in the discord that I'd never heard of the reporter before. I don't think that reported it, but that this was apparently like a rumored structure the teams have been talking about. So so kudos kudos to YouTube. But the Lively pick totally If Houston ends up with him, it does create some weirdness with Jabari Smith, Shangun and him, but again, that's that's totally fine. That you need someone who's gonna rim run like more efficiently than a Jabari Smith or Gruba for that matter. If he can't even do that or Shangoon, that's not his style. And then of course, just like the defensive capabilities the Orlando Magic. So we're at Jake, I like this pick too. He went with Grady Dick, and I think, like people are Orlando, I think, so I didn't want Crazy Dick, which actually kind of surprised me. He's a good movement shooter, he can get really tough shots off, and I think that he's I don't think he's underrated defensively, so to speak, and also especially laughing. So Jake said, I hate myself for not picking Leonard Miller here. So we'll get to the lettherd Miller and I think a few picks, but he's not as exploitable defensively. I think when I was watching him in advance of the prep I did for the podcast with Coach Spins, there's like he can recover more like but behind the scenes, I'll call it get to the bucket. And so if you can count on him in more of a team scheme, like yeah, maybe he gets cooked in certain one on one situations, but I don't think he's going to be someone that's eminently targetable, and that might just have to do with his size. So yeah, I like this pick for Orlando, and they need shooting, especially if they're gonna have Anthony Black in there running some point guard. I actually had the number twelve pick with Oklahoma City and I went with Balah Kolabali because I just want I'm going to start the recruitment of Victor wemban Yama to Oklahoma City, you know, seven to nine years from now, by having his former teammate. But I also really like the defensive tools here, and I've seen him skyrocket up draft boards. I think san Fantine's latest mocket him going to get ten to the Mavericks. He wasn't sure if the Mavericks would actually be making that pick. He's a workhorse defensively, and I think you're probably gonna have to limit what he's doing for you offensively, and that could be a concern with Oklahoma City, who doesn't have like the most pristine spacing. But you have Chet Homegren coming in. We see Giddy improve Jill and Williams wing. Jill Williams had enough of his threes. Chaklosoxanders should probably take more of them, like you can get to line ups, especially with chet homere coming back, and maybe they sign a front court player who who stretches the floors as well, like next to chet Home Grenn that would make it easier. They're just they're good at like letting guys marinate, like not stretching them too much in their first year if they can't handle it. Kind of like comparison to Ushman Jang this year though he did deal with the risk. And so I want to see them take a swing. But you are betting on again and the thunder have made this bet that like his jumper needs to come along, and like that's why you have for Evince in there. So I like taking the upside play here. Mike is back on the board with the Toronto Raptors and he took Jordan Hawkins, who's a process, who's a like a a prospect. I know very little about Mike Rights. The Raptors would love to add Black Coolabalis. He's the exact player Bobby Webster and massiw Jerry woul Draft regardless of needed need, is a wing who's somewhere around six eight and is not the best shooter. They have a type. However, Sam Presty robbed him of that opportunity. In such massiam, he starts planning and revenge shake just Alexander Trade. As for Jordan Harkins Hawkins, he can shoot. The Raptors have almost negative shooting, so they should be a seamless fit. I would agree. I am like, when you look at what Jordan Hawkins is going to do as a movement shooter, will be fine. I'm just gonna is he gonna hold up on defense? Do the Raptors have the infrastructure to cover up for him if he doesn't? Number fourteen In New Orleans Pelicans, we had Herb Jones Enjoyer drafted. I thought this was a great pick. Cason Wallace, they said, desiring to make him the next true Holiday and have a future point guard with off ball catch and shoot ability, Which is that expectation is perfect because my biggest question is can he create like scoring off the bounce? But I think that he's just a ferocious defender and it's going to score enough without having the ball in his hands, and maybe even get you some like off ball pressure on the basket and just if you're gonna play him next to Zion Williamson, that really is divine there. And so I think that's a really good pick at number fourteen, especially when you don't have like a floor general prospect floating around. Kyle Lewis juniors entering the final year of his deal, doesn't seem to have this big time role with the Pelicans, and we know that CJ. Mccollumin brandon Ingram are kind of he's like Branding was like a two level scores. I get they're both like two levels scores from the perimeter. Cason Wallace, My give you one doesn't need to have the ball as much as a brandon Ingram Zian Williamson, and then he just might give you some additional pressure on the basket. Long term, then you get from an Ingram or a CJ. McCollum. I liked that pick. I made a reach. I was in charge of the Hawks. Adam backed out at the last minute. He had stuff that was going on. Went with Bryce sense about number fifteen for the Hawks. It's probably a little bit of a reach, but holy scoring. I like that he can get to the rim. More is he gonna hold up on defense and pass better are my biggest questions with him. But I think you make the bet where if you bring him into a Hawks team that has Trey Young, Jean Day Murray, even a boat Dan Mogdanovich, you can play get to a lot of reasonably like three like shooters like on the court with him. Depending on where you're gonna play, you know you have you'll have a not let's say you've a non shooting big on the court. You have to trust that the Jant Murray will knock down threes again this year. That gives him a lot of space to operate and get to the basket and just pump in points. And so I like having that element of upside for Atlanta. And I think he has this sip like he is going to be big enough to guard some wing spots on defense, and that's one of the prospects that I've fallen in love with. I did think about this next pick, which I think that Karagan hit a home run with. Looking at the fit and potential number sixteen to Jazz went with Kobe Buffkin. Karagan wrote, I was considering Kobe and Cason Wallace at nine. Som a static that Kobe fell to sixteen. I believe he can be the point guard the future after his monster six weeks stretch at Michigan coupably be an awesome edition round and got a potential future five of Kobe, Baji, Marketing, Hendrix, and Kessler. Yeah, that's an intriguing five. Kobe shot like sixty five percent of the rim in a half court this year, Buffkin, that's huge. I think he's going to give you enough pressure defensively, and I think he's going to be someone who can work away from Maybe not as well as Kase and Wallace, but like, if you need to develop more of to excuse me to develop more of marketing on ball, I want to give him more reps or if you just bring in someone else eventually it needs to be more of an alpha type creator. I think he works, and that's Christopher had the Lakers at number seventeen and took Jet Howard rights scoring and three point ability off the bench. If he can improve his defensive weaknesses, he should be a solid rotation player, and in that he's the kid of an NBA player, so that should make his transitional league easier. Look, it's not it's actually fair to point out like he's not. He's gonna come in eyes wide open, presumably. I think a lot of people assume that he'll eventually fall to the heat just because of Juwan Howard's relationship with Miami. I like that Jet Howard is sort of a multi level score, which you don't have a lot of, like the complimentary guys from Los Angeles who are doing that. There is even Ruey kind of just feels like very and I'm talking about with the ball in their hands or even if like off movement like Rudy's gonna be like very much try to get to my spot in the mid range. I think Austin Reeves gives you that multi level capability. DeAngelo Russell I guess mid range and threes technically, but will he be back like in terms of pure like accessory devices, Jet Howard being that multi level score would be absolutely huge. Do you wonder if he would be targeted defense? I think the Lakers can play so big sometimes perhaps it just doesn't matter when you're looking at you know, if you have Ruey and Lebron and Anthony Davis and Jared Vanderbilt, there's a lot of things they could do. Leonard Miller finally, goes off the board to Carter, who's in charge of the Miami Heat at number eighteen, writes two of the Heat's biggest needs going into next season or length and rebounding. Miller stands at six ten, making him the tallest player on the Heat right now, and he averaged ten point one rebounds per game. Fees along with his year of familiarity from the NBA three point line give him high upside. Is the coveted three and D power forward. The Heat have been in search of anyone that can spend some time next to Bam that gives you some higher upside. I do think also when you look back and his assist to turnover ratio won't show this, I think he could be, like, you know, as someone who's huge and can like actually dribble on as a floor game, I think he's gonna be a pretty good passer. He's already an incredible finisher. Can the Heat generate enough spacing to capitalize on that? The jumper, I don't really like it's gonna go down. I'm just curious, like, is he gonna need is he gonna like how much space does he need to get that? The size of help and how much time and spaces you need to get that off. He did shoot almost eighty percent of the foul line, though is last year. That's something looked through. Look through. I like that pick there. I had Golden State at number nineteen and I went with Olivier Maxon's prosper just give me long disruptive defender who I like offensively. I don't think he's ever going to self create, or at least it won't be like you know, maybe in the open floor or something can get end to end. I think you're very much gonna, like just have to rely on him developing a set jumper, which is fine because the Warriors don't need their non stars to do anything other than learn to play off the ball. I want someone on this team who's a wing size, who can actually defend like wings and maybe through the point of attack. And that's just like you're not getting out from Jordan Pool Clay Thompson's aging out of that. You have Andrew Wiggins and then maybe is Moses Moody there. So I like this play. I would Golden State use him right away, though that's I don't know. I mean, like we've seen the development of Moses Moody kind of stunt as well, though he got some run towards the end of the postseason Cominga's growth stunt. They I mean, Weisman was dealing with injuries, so would they play him? I want to see them take like the just the defensive tools here. I would be in love with the Rockets at number twenty. So this is going to the Mavericks as part of that trade. Remember they go with Chris Murray, brother of Keegan Murray. So the Rockets select Chris Murray at pick twenty. They didn't flip him for Derek Lively. Lively gives the Rockets scheme diversity and a true paint protectory is very limited skills on offense blah blah blah blah. So barring a trade, Chris Murray feels a perfect role to Rockets as well. Six foot eight shooting, So for the Mavericks there's a team that, Yeah, if you're gonna surround Luke Dauchis and kyr Riving was shooting. My question with him would be can he defend threes? Like he's very much billed as a three four, can he defend NBA wings or is he going to just you more towards like the bigger or slower forwards, and if he can give you real time on the wings, I don't think he's ever gonna be your top wing defender that goes a long way towards the rotation. And I don't think you can go wrong just surrounding Dallas's primaries with shooting. I'm just gonna I wonder if he's like projects to be good enough defensively to where if you were going to end up keeping him and not rerouting him somewhere else, it's worth making it now number twenty the value, I think that's fine, and you already picked up Jason Tait if you're Dallas. But I think he's gonna be a good pro player. And a lot of people have him be mocked to Sacramento at what are they twenty four? So I guess to get him at twenty Yes, and look, he's just gonna be if he's playing with Kyrie and Luca, like he's gonna be feasting all day. Rhett is up with back to back picks for the Brooklyn Nets, So at number twenty one, Rhett takes Jalen Hood Schafino. The Nets take Jalnhodafino at twenty one. JHS is a player that does not jump off the sports reference page, but absolutely jumps off the TV screen. He plays his own pace on offense and can often dictate the pace of his defensive assignment with his physicality and six foot five inch frame and six foot ten inch wingspan. He used to play, He's used to playing with a high uses offensive hub in trace Jackson Davis, but has the ability to effectively run pick and roll. JHS may not have a superstar upside, but he has a kind of versatility in size that usually leads to long NBA careers. At number twenty two, the Nets take greg Gg Jackson. No player left on the board has as much upside as Jackson, a six ft nine eighth shock creating wing who could have been playing high school basketball last year. Instead, he reclassified at the twenty twenty three draft and went to South Carolina, where his up and down year has led to him being one of the most divisive prospects in the draft. Jackson will take patience, and there's plenty of ways he can end up not pinning out, but a team in Brooklyn with a lot of veterans might be exactly what he needs to grow on and off the court. Very interesting if you think the nets are gonna skew towards having those like keeping the vet, like having high character guys like a roy O'Neil, Dorian, Finny Smith, Michael Bridges and not go the rebuilding route. Ever, with Jackson, I'd probably have stronger thoughts on him, which I guess would make sense than jal Andh Hood Shaffino. I just there. He doesn't remind me of Camms, but the settling, it's just just gonna be someone who settles too much. I like that he can generate his own shop, but he's going to be too reliant on that. But that comes into can you fit into the larger ecosystem. Jalen Hood Shaffino kind of another guy where it's like, okay, is he too mid range dependent? And if he's going to play a lot off the ball, I do think he's probably gonna have to increase like the acceleration on his you know, like the catch and shoot speed. Really but I think that that's these two, like the value wise here, like the swings at twenty one and twenty two. I like this and Jalen Hood Shafino doesn't really feel like a swing is rhet sort of mentioned. I had the Portland Trailblazers at number twenty three. I went with Noah Clowney. I want to see more of a modern big in Portland, and he projects as someone who's already going to be a pretty good rim protector, not necessarily too disciplined on defense, but can also give you some stretch on the offensive end. And so I think he took He was at like over four three point attempts per game or last year. So like having that volume, it just gives you they've tried to stretch use if americatch out to the three point with some success. But I like the idea of having that player also be someone who's going to anchor your defense effectively. The Sacramento Kings were they were also mine. I went with right and Rupert and I just went with hyperactive like defense guy. They need wing defense. I do wonder, though, is he someone who comes in to where as an example of like, is there anyone who's taken after that? I'd like, Oh, he would come in and maybe they would play more right off the bat, maybe not, so like that makes me feel even better about this. Would you trust like, I don't know, like, would would they get Olivia Maxon's prosper Would they give him more minutes right away? But Chris Murray might be a good example. Would they trust him to play more minutes as a rookie? With Harrison Barnes outgoing, Just give me the guy with a seven foot two inch wingspan so active defensively and on offense. You have enough like creators and you can get him going in transition off the ball shooting will be a concern. Does he have to live in the corners? Can he get wide open enough looks to where they're going in? I have higher hopes for his jumper, I think then Davey and Mitchell's jumper at this point that's like faint with damning praise. Who knows. So the Grizzlies at number twenty five, which is now the Celtics at number twenty five, by the way, but the Grizzlies at number twenty five or the Celtics nugs did the draft went with Trace Jackson and so this is in the vein of the Grizzlies. So this is tough. But with the blah blah blah, Trace Jackson Davis at twenty five. Memphis needs a big because they were thin in the front court, especially with the recent injuries to Brandon Clark and Stephen Adams. They could I've also used help at point guard with John suspension and Tyas Jones becoming UF twenty twenty four. Lastly, replacement for Dylan Brooks was also a priority. Decided on tjd because of toughness and all around game. He's also a four year college guy who's NBA ready for winn Now grizz something that applies to the Celtics, Like looking at winn Now, they don't need a big anymore though, and I mean Memphis, Like, I guess what the Clark injury, we have Adams coming back, and you have Xavier Tilman and Jaren Jackson Jr. On here, I'd be interested to see. I like that he's a frenetic rebounder, Like that's just someone's gonna work on the glass and if you give him enough space, which the Celtics could, he's gonna throw some dimes out of the short role. But like, would Memphis have been the best fit for him? There? Would the Celtics take him at twenty five? Let's say they use this pick, like, what did they skew towards? Do they take a I mean you're looking at like the guards that are left on the board. I don't know if they go that route. Do they just take a high end swing on a wing. I have no idea. I don't think he would be the pick for Boston. No, that's not on nuggs. Boston did not have this pick when when he made it the Indiana Pacers. Speaking of taking swings here, Nicoloch took Derek Whitehead at number twenty six, and I was wondering when he was going to go. The Pacers can afford to take a swing at someone as talented his white Head. The injuries are concerning, but he's a big guard who can shoot it really well, and he could probably stay with one to three, which is a premium playing next to Haliburton. If he can recover and start driving to the room again, he could be a really good sixth man. Yeah, I mean, that's the big thing. I do wonder. And if he's you know, is he too much in the vein of sometimes he might be a better shooter over while he's still hit. He's at thirty six percent on off the dribble threes last year, I believe, and was over forty percent from three even with the injuries. Do you trust him as more of a shooter than Bennedic Mathren And the fact that you have Bennick Mathern and Tyris Halliburton doesn't matter if he can't necessarily get to the rim as often. Mathern was pretty good at drawing fouls, were really good at drawing fouls as a rookie. I just I like the swing here, and if you believe that his explosion both on defense and offense was stapped because of the foot injury, then yeah, go and make the upside bet here. I has zero cons at number twenty six, like, just freaking do it. Nathan had the Charlotte Hornets at twenty seven, went with Maxwell Lewis. Why not double down on offensive minded wing shooters to surround LaMelo and run the floor. Lewis is likely not NBA ready defensively and would benefit from some time with the swarm with upside about his variables. His downside, I would love to see the Hornets swing on this efficient and athletic floor spacing wing who can attack off the dribbleer on catch and shoot. Love the logic there. Everything about him to me physically though, sort of feels like a work in progress from what I've seen of him, and I've not seen a lot of Maxwell Lewis at all or even read a lot about him, And I do wonder like, are you skewing too offense now when you're looking at the personnel? But you could have Brandon Miller there already. It's like that's someone who comes in and I think with his size and I could already make an impact defensively and you already have if you know Cody Martin is healthy, if PJ. Washington, Miles Bridges is back, and Mark Well the last like not negative defenders, I would frame it as like you're not looking at defensive liabilities galore. What I really like about this pick though, that I have, I would say, is being able to come in under Steve Clifford, where if you want to learn the defensive fundamentals, that's the coach that I think will do a good job of teaching it to you. We're back to Carrigan Holt with the Jazz, and at number twenty eight he takes Keyante George. The Jazz are reported to like George, and I'm very, very very surprised he and Nick Smith Junior felt as far. I'm more than happy to add his shot making to the squad and hopefully he outplays his draft position. The Jazz now have two shots at finding a guard of the future with Buffkin and George. I told you there would be a ton of guards of Eloid or in the draft. You weren't wrong, apparently. I wonder if so what I like about has been on the Jazz because they create so much space where a lot of what he's doing before now is subsisting on tough jumpers that he seems to fall in love with. That's concerned if the Jazz can give you more space with a lot of four out stuff, or I guess you know, including him four out with Kessler on the floor, or if a link is still there, you can run five out and so you know he's gonna be surrounded by four shooters. Will that help is finishing because he's a very if he finisher, but shot makings at a premium, and he's very comfortable knocking down tough jumpers. So I like this pick. I maybe wouldn't have doubled up on guards, but at the same time, I just I can't bring myself. I'm a big fan of shot creation and from scratch shot making and Keyante George is definitely someone that can do that. This is so you guys want to talk about a prospect that I know very little about. James Naji is going to the Pacers at number twenty nine to Nicoloche who I think, Nicole j I really hope that I'm not col lev I don'pe I'm not really fucking up your name too much. I think I think you made the most picks in this draft. No, you and Rhet each had at least three, so kudos. Don't Carr again had three, So thank you to all who took teams that had multiple multiple picks. I know that can be a bear, but anyway, so we go with James James Naji. The Pacers making upside pick here by selecting James Naji. They do not have a lot of size and given how poor the Primiter defense is, Naji is the type of prospect to just clean up some of those mistakes. If that's what he profiles as, go for it. Anyone who's going to be able to play the the forward spot and a lot of people have him build when from what I've read in mocks, this is something I've purely like, all here say for me, that's going to be someone who can help you even protect the rim. And so the Pacers already they were the team that got talent Hendry or jars Walker in this draft, so you added like two good, like quality defenders on the front line. I don't hate it. I do not hate it. I would be would be like, I want to know what does he do on offense aside from catching finish because now you've kind of got like I guess because you're Miles Turner, it doesn't really matter. But is he too limited offensively for this team? When you have jar Jaris Walker already, where some of the questions are going to be does he get pigeonhold to the floor? Is his shooting going to be like as good as everyone thinks it is or can become? But you took two bites at the apple. Then and then finally another player who I know very little about from retro Braden made the pick at number thirty for the Clippers, who were still making that pick as of right now. Brandon pods Amenski and we'll see, well, let's see if his pick stays of the Coppers. But Braden Rice, one of those guys where he played incredibly in college is shooting, rebounding a field for the game or strength, he seems he finds ways to be effective with on the bond off. His pick and roll navigation is light years ahead of most in the draft Class two, with his playmakings looking smooth but effortless. The only real downside that I could point out is his point of attack defense and his wingspan is and his wingspan in comparison to other guys in this range, I think he easily fits what the Clippers are trying to do. You had me at the pick and roll navigation if you can find someone aside from like the Kawai and Paul George and the very under used Terrence Man and just sort of the I was in love with him leading into last season, a little bit more down to him now, but just the very erratic Bones Highland and then whatever are you bringing back Russ? I like I don't. There's like an abruptness, and there's an abruptness to an abruptness to the way that Russ navigates picking rolls and there's gonna be more of like a twitchiness the way that Bones Highland does. So to have that smoothless and fluidity in the half court, I think that goes a really long way. And if he's gonna be able to play and knock down shots off the ball, like, that's huge because you are going to spend some time with maybe Russ but also definitely Kawai MPG. I do know that he stands at six four, and where does he fit in defensively with this team? If you're gonna play him at point, I guess that's fine or as an off guard, but if you want to get to lineups where if he's are you going to play him with? It feels like playing him with another guard could get dicey where it's like an Eric Gordon type. And as Brain said, he's not very long, and so I'm looking at uh, I'm looking at like, I know he's six four. You're saying he's not long? What does that? What does that lead to defensively? But this was fun. I hope everybody enjoyed this. It's an amateur mock draft and I'm including myself in that. So don't be don't take a dozen insults, Well, maybe do this a more extensive process. It was again, although they was set up the dock, but it is extra work on my end. My time is you know, you don't have a lot of free time. But this was fun. I'm glad we get to evolve listeners anyway we can like kind of a nice change of pace from mailbags. Please discord members, can you count? This is maybe the the mailbag for a little bit, but until next time, and as always, the shout out to the one, the only, the indelible Frank Nila, Tina