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Nick Coffee. That is me, hopefully you know that. If not,
now you do the company. Man. John Alden riding shotgun this afternoon,
and let's just get right into it. I mean the first hour we didn't
talk much about the NBA Draft because we heard from a former Louisville coach,
which man, it is crazy to think he's been gone for seven going on
eight years now. I guess this will be the eighth season with post Patino,
and we didn't hear from him like on the show. He didn't call
in, but he was on KSR this morning, and ninety five percent of
the interview really had nothing to do with with with Louisville or even during even
really his time at Kentucky. He did talk about Mark Pope a little bit
as a coach because of their connection, but he admitted and really they didn't
have to pry it out of him. I mean, I was just talking
to Terry Miners in the hall there during the break he popped his head and
to talk about Patino's comments. And Terry knows Rick literally, like on a
personal level more than probably most people around here. I mean, they were
legitimately friends during his time here. And you know, I won't say exactly
what Terry said because that wouldn't be fair for me to do that, but
you know, like he Terry's comments made me realize Rick intentionally brought that up
like that. That wasn't like a it just slipped in conversation. Because here's
the thing, I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that PFT and
Big Kat don't know who Eddie Grant is. But anyways, Rick Minchin and
I'll just let you guys hear it for yourself because this comment, of course,
you know, it was Rick going out of his way to one I
guess let people know he's supportive of Kentucky, not just basketball because of Mark
Pope, but football too, and he's donating money to the Kentucky Football and
iiole collective. Well, I actually cut a checked to the football program because
I'm a casual friend of Mark and Eddie Grin and cut a check to the
football program. But I would definitely cut a check if Mark needs me for
anything, no matter what. Except for my firstborn Michael, he could have
it. So that's just not something you would have expected to hear Rick say.
But it's just a sign that he still is upset and he probably always
will be. He doesn't love us, and that may hurt for some fans
to hear, but it was always the case. Look, it's transactional for
most of these coaches, in fact, probably all of them. But you
know that that took a big chunk out of our first hour. And then
we played some Pat Kelsey sound as well, because he had a press conference
today and I think it's the first time we really heard him in that type
of setting talk talk ball and personnel and whatnot. So we'll get back into
that a little later on. There's a couple more clips I want to share
with you guys from Pat Kelsey's press conference. But last night's NBA draft,
I'll say this, watching it live made me feel like it actually wasn't as
weak as it's believed to be. You know, seeing some of these guys
walk across the stage that you watched in college and realize, you know,
hey, that guy could turn out to be a solid pro, Like he's
a good player. Ceiling is probably not high, but that's a good player.
So I'd say, more than anything, this may not be like I
mean, again, I'm not gonna say it's a strong draft, and you
really don't know how good of at a draft is until years down the line.
But I think it's a draft that doesn't appear to have a really high
ceiling because the guys drafted with the top two picks, they may have that
high ceiling, but it's it's an unknown and it I guess every player is
an unknown, but it's more of an unknown to fans like myself because I
haven't watched these guys play. I mean, at least not consistently. I've
seen highlights, but you know, you could find highlights of anybody that'll make
them look pretty good. And five of the top ten picks are guys that
most of us haven't seen play very much or maybe even at all, And
I think that's just that doesn't mean it's a weak draft, but it's just
hard to be like, oh, wow, with the number two pick,
Man Washington got Alex Saar. I mean, in fact, I learned last
night that he is Olivier Sar's brother. Had no clue, makes total sense.
I knew he was from France as well, but yeah, I mean,
Zachary Risichet and Alex Sar are two guys that went one and two.
You'd think that those guys are believed to be the dudes with the highest ceiling.
There's belief that no matter who had the top two picks, those were
the first two guys they were going to come off the board. And they
may be great, but we're all just guessing and we have nothing to base
it off of unless you've watched them play a lot. And again, I'd
be a liar if I said, I mean, I didn't know how to
say that guy's name till yesterday. Zachary risus Chet, which by the way,
there it might have been Frank Mason, former Kansas guard who didn't shy
away from saying like this is going to be an all time bust with the
number one pick, because I guess he played against this kid last year in
France. And you know, Frank Mason played in the NBA and had success
and I actually learned last night seeing this that he's no longer in the NBA.
But you know, he says that guy's like not good and it's it
ain't gonna work out. But you know, there's plenty of examples of guys
that you thought would be terrible and they were great and vice versa. But
yeah, risus Chet saw Ron Holland. I mean, yeah, we know
of him because if he him being a recruit. But Ron Holland played in
the G League. You didn't watch the G League. And then to Jane
Saloon, he's from France as well, he went number six. And then
Cody Williams of Colorado freshman. I don't think a lot of people watched Colorado
basketball last year. So again that's half of the top ten, you know,
and you would think guys drafted earlier are the ones that have the highest
ceiling. That's why they're being drafted where they are are guys that i'd say,
the majority of people that watched the draft last night and care about the
draft don't know a whole lot about I think that's led to kind of it
just feeling like such a ho hum draft. But I'll start with Reed Shepard.
I mean, him going number three, it still seems kind of crazy
to me. I mean, in fact, there were some people saying he
might go number one yesterday, and I think it's a good pick, but
it's just you know, I this is a true Kentucky kid. I mean,
and he's the number three pick in the draft. And I will say
I thought that there may have been like maybe one player from the state of
Kentucky that has been drafted that high. And I was way wrong. I
mean, you got to go way way back, but he been. Griff
was drafted with the second overall pick. In fact, and some of these
are ABA not NBA, but at the time and the ABA draft was going
on, it's still a big deal. But like Wes Unsell was the number
two pick in nineteen sixty eight. In fact, I think Vince Tyree's father,
Yeah, he was the number two pick by the Detroit Pistons in nineteen
fifty seven. Charlie Tyree. So he joins a small group of guys born
and raised in Kentucky, the state that have gone on to you know,
hear their name called that early in the NBA draft. And I need to
give credit because this is a really really funny, funny tweet. Let me.
Yeah, so I liked it. I call it favorite, but it's
called like on X. You know when I say like something on Twitter X,
people know what I'm talking about, right, John, Yeah, Favorite
was back whenever the icon to hit, it was still a star. Yeah.
Why'd they do the heart? I just feel like that's unnecessary. I
guess I guess it's because every other social network uses the heart as a like
now, and so they didn't want to be different. So I used to
DM tweets to myself to like, you know, to you know, kind
of have him in order to where like, I know, like, hey,
I saw this on Twitter. I'm gonna direct message myself so I know
where it is if I want to reference a stat or something or some kind
of story that I want to read that came across the timeline for the show.
But now I just hit like, and you go to your likes on
your own thing and it's just a feed of things that are you know,
topical for me or that I want to, you know, check out.
But yeah, it was Jack's teller underscore k wise the Twitter handle, and
this was so true. I thought the same thing, but you know,
you know, I realized this but never and I wasn't as funny as Jack's
teller on Twitter. He said the first two picks in the draft were from
France and somehow Stacy Reid Shepard was the hardest person to understand during the first
fifteen minutes of the draft, and I would have guessed that she was from
Kentucky, but once she started talking quite clear, that's a Kentucky accident.
So she's from London, where Red grew up. Obviously, Jeff is from
Georgia, and you know they've lived there for twenty years and that's where Reid
and his family grew up. And yeah, I mean sure her accident was
coming through strong. And also I guess yesterday was her birthday too, so
she kind of I mean, that's a special birthday if you're a mama and
your son is the number three pick in the NBA Draft. And this was
I wanted to play this as well, so the The Undisputed Show. That's
that's Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharp left, So I don't know. I guess
it's Keishan Johnson that's there full time. But they had Paul Pierson Studio today,
and this is I mean, this is just a reminder that like the
guys who are on ESPN that are NBA guys and the guys that are on
FS one that are NBA guys, they don't watch college basketball. And I
guess technically, if they're in the NBA, like they're not, if they're
in NBA coverage, they probably don't have time to watch college basketball. But
if you're gonna be covering the draft, shouldn't you freshen up on some knowledge
Like Paul Pierce did not know that Jeff Shepherd, who he played against in
college, did not know Jeff Shepherd was Ree's father. Read Shepherd's father.
Okay, so reed Shepherd's daddy was the most outstanding player of a Final four
that Kentucky won with Tubby. Okay, so his bloodlines are pre shot,
like his mom and dad are there. Jeff Shepard is that Yeah, yeah,
exactly was a really good player. Shed, So I mean that's Paul
Pierce had a good gig at ESPN, did something really stupid on social media,
lost the job, and I guess now, I don't know if he
works for him full time on that show, if he's just a roaming guest.
But that wasn't like clever. I know, like, that's just you
being a real dumbass in admitting with nobody asking you that you don't know anything
about the number three pick. That's like, that's the most It's one thing
for people to remember Jeff Shepherd playing for Kentucky in nineteen ninety eight. That
was a long time ago, long time ago, but for you to go
the day after and hear that and be so stunned, like, wait,
is that that Jeff? That's his dad? I mean that just it's it's
actually hilarious. But you know, maybe people, maybe other people don't think
that's funny. All right, So outside of that, I would say,
again, Sheppard going three was not I mean, that's just the local,
local thing. It's not. I mean, it wasn't a big surprise.
But as far as surprises, I I would say, act, I mean,
like, let me ask you this, John, and I'll tell you
my thoughts. What was a bigger What do you think came off as a
bigger surprise to everybody? And I guess a bigger surprise to you eighty going
at number nine or Dalton connect falling out of the lottery. Oh, those
are both, because those are the two big things. Yeah, those are
the biggest fact. Being in the top ten is more surprising because more people
had him potentially going in the second round instead of the first round at any
point. Yeah, he was growing to be a first round pick as the
draft approach, but I did not see a single person have him in the
lottery. And he went number nine and Connect, I mean, I kind
of feel like it's even it's I mean, he goes seventeen to the Lakers,
and I mean, I think it's a pretty good landing spot. Absolutely
it is. I think I won't claim to know why he slipped and why
everybody who did mock drafts and projections had it so wrong. But I think
Goodman threw out a good a good theory, and that is that his agent
might have really and I don't know much about his agent, but apparently his
agent is not. So. There was four agencies that represented I think like
ninety five percent of the first round last night. The power agencies right,
and I don't think his agent is one of those. I could be wrong,
but his agent may have overplayed his hand with certain things and the stock
put it this way, the stock really wasn't what people thought it was.
The agent did a good job of really gassing him up, which I guess
is what your client's supposed to do. But you know, it also made
it look as if the backfire because the cameras on Dalton connect all throughout,
and maybe people should have expected him to be closer between like fourteen and seventeen
rather than you know, some people thought he could go top five, top
six. So also his age, he's older, he's twenty three. And
I think basketball IQ was something that that Goodman mentioned, is that that was
a potential concern for for NBA teams. But I'll start with like his talent,
I'm not sure I realized how insane this guy was at Tennessee last year.
I knew he was good, and I knew he was a very deserving
first team All American type of player, but I did not. I mean
the highlights they were showing when he was getting drafted. I mean, this
guy was a walking highlight reel, and he's got the weirdest body I've ever
seen, and and you know, in a good way. I think I
think he's like his his way starts at his nipples, like his legs look
so like it's like his body was finished and then somebody went in and you
know, maybe his surgery they added six to eight inches to his legs or
something. I mean, he's really tall and long, but he's smooth.
He can shoot the ball small. I mean, you know, I think
he's a savvy player. I don't know about basketball, IQ can hit tough
shots and I mean he he had some big time posters last year at Tennessee.
So you know, highlights can be a little misleading. But I think
that guy's got all the tools. And I think he's really gonna fit well
with with the Lakers. So I think both were big surprises. But yeah,
I mean Zach Edie. I mean, I won't claim to be like
a fan of his. I just respect his game and I think that he
plays really hard. I think he works on his craft clearly, which again
that's the bare minimum, playing hard and working on your game, like that's
what everybody should be doing. But he just he to me, people just
throw him to the side as if like, well that a guy that big
with that frame, you know, could could never, you know, could
never play in the NBA this day and age. And I'm willing to acknowledge
the game has changed. But that's also I'm not saying he'll be a Achema
Lajawan or Shack or you know, Patrick Ewing. But do people think that
if those guys in their prime enter the league today, spite that the style
being different, do people think those guys would be bums and be sitting on
the bench. They wouldn't. They're legendary players with phenomenal talent. That's not
what Edie is. Maybe he gets there, but he is. He is
a massive man that is very skilled at basketball. Like this notion that because
the game is played with more spacing and more of a hybrid big that he
just can't be in the league as nonsense. I mean, he is a
physically dominant player that will dominate in the NBA. I don't and I don't
mean like he's gonna take over the league, But who's gonna go Who's gonna
guard him? In the NBA? I mean, he'll have much better defenders
on him than he did in college. Trust me, I'm well aware of
that. But you can't. There aren't guys in the NBA on the bench
you can throw at Zach Edy that are in any way similar to him as
far as stature, length and motor like. He can't run the floor like
your typical big but you mean meaning big in the NBA. But he can
run. He's got stamina for a dude that's built like that. Like I
just I don't know him going number nine, it still is a surprise,
but I think the Grizzlies, no, that's a weapon. That that's something
that like we need. We could use that. And let's be real,
if the draft wasn't what it is as far as believed to be weaked as
he go number nine, probably not. But you know what, if I'm
the Grizzlies, and I know I really liked what I saw. He was
great in workouts. We need some real interior presence. And I'm looking around
like thinking, I don't love all these other guys I'm gonna get I'm gonna
take this guy, so you know, I And another thing that just I
know he's not a shooter, but hes he a decent free throw shooter John,
you'd know he's a decent free throw shoot. After end, he hit
I believe two three pointers last year, So I mean he's not gonna be
shooting threes. But I mean if he needs to, he can't. I
mean when people talk about style and athleticism being able, like, have people
seen the guy who's won the MVP what two out of three years now,
Nikola Jokic. I mean, clearly he's not Zach Edy. But shouldn't that
be like the ultimate, Like we should not just look at a dude based
off stature and assume he can't play in the league. If you showed me
Nikola Jokic before he ever played in the NBA, and you told me he
was a basketball player, I would have said, there's no scenario. I
mean, look at his body, like he's he's a huge man. But
I mean, like, I don't know, I just feel like at Tom
zach Edy kind of gets picked on. But here's what Matt Norlander had to
say about zach Edy's workouts that kind of made a little more sense as to
why he went with the ninth pick last night in the draft. He winning
the two time National Player of the Year as this huge, huge force in
college basketball and still going top ten in the modern NBA. I actually think
is a very refreshing storyline for college basketball for the league. And all I
can tell you is in checking in with sources over the past week, Edy
and his workouts was absolutely emphatically dominant. I had two sources tell me it
got to a point with two separate workouts that they almost had to stuff them
midway through because he was so ridiculously impressive physically on the floor. You can't
teach the size. And what happened here was there was a lot of smoke
with the Grizzlies trying to move up to maybe get Clinging. Ultimately they held
firm and they draft the big that outplayed Clinging had to head obviously in the
National Championship game, even if Clingon's team got the W, but also the
stats across the board, the stats at the combine. Zach Eedy has a
tremendous reputation. Not so sure how hard he plays, how well he's developed,
how much of a teammate he is, and we have to reinforce this.
He is the combination of a proven, legitimately dominant once in a generation
college player and he is also very much on the rise. He has not
played high level competitive ball for more than six years. At this point,
he has an incredible chance at continuing to move up and get to be better
and better and better. So with eighty, the reputation as a dominant college
player ultimately won out over the stigma of So that's the That's probably all we
needed to hear. But yeah, he is an unknown. I'm not here
to tell you he's going to be a perennial All Star, but I think
he'll play in the league a long time. And again, I think it
is good for college basketball. I mean, it's good for bigs in the
future. Yeh. Draft if he works out, and if Donovan Klingon works
out too, you're likely to see more teams take risks, and not that
it should be a risk necessarily take risks on guys who are of that stature
in the future. Yeah, and the NBA, do you know doesn't need
us, right and they don't. I mean, they're two different worlds.
But I feel like it'd be best for everybody if college basketball's stars end up
becoming stars also in the NBA, because it could get people to want to
tune into the NBA to see how this guy's doing at the next level.
Right, it could get you know, and if that becomes a trend,
then maybe you get more, maybe you get more guys that are NBA guys,
but they find themselves wanting to watch more college basketball because hey, these
guys are going to be in the league soon. Now, what we got
to worry about is in ten fifteen years, how many of these lot are
going to be from other countries. I mean, I totally agree the fact
with this. I'm not blaming anybody specifically, but the current culture of basketball
in America within the youth is not It's just a lot of skill is not
being developed and it is elsewhere, right. I mean, a lot of
the guys who you see that are superstars, you know, in the prep
world, right, like high school kids that are phenoms to be five stars.
Right, Surely you'll find guys that have a good skill set that you
know, it's not just based off athleticism and size, but a lot of
that. A lot of those guys are like that. I mean not all
of them, but most of them. I feel like, So, you
know, I don't want to act as if we're in trouble and we're going
to start losing in the Olympics in basketball. But I mean other countries have
clearly over the years, really really made basketball a bigger deal for young kids
who really want to get into it, and they've given us really, really
good players. I mean, the NBA is now not full, but it's
uncommon almost for a really good team in the NBA not to have a very
very high level player. Maybe it's not your star player, but a very
important player that is you know, not from here, didn't grow up in
America, which you know, it's not a bad thing. All right,
quick break, we'll come back on the other side, keep this thing rolling
along when it comes to the NBA draft. Tim Legler said something last night
on ESPN that surely he was joking, but god, I hope somebody does
it, and I'll tell you what it is on the other side. Right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety, we're about halfway through here on a Thursday
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I try, I try. You know, I'm over it. I
don't think about it much, but every now and then it does. It
does reappear in my my head that when John started the show he was not
a member to go. Yeah, it's in the past, it's in the
rear, it's in the rear view. You know, I'm over it.
Just crazy to think about. But you know, as long ago you're you're
a new man now and uh you're a you're a very blessed member of the
program, like like everybody else. All right, So I'm I've just saw
something during the break, I've listened to a clip about about Kyle Philipowski still
being available, because I would say he's probably the most talked about guy that
didn't get drafted outside of Brownie James, which we're gonna talk about him in
just a second, but not for reasons that you may be expecting. Not
because you know, we're just gonna do what ESPN's done, which, by
the way, when he does in the the NBA summer leagues going to be
the Bronnie James Summer League. That's all ESPN's going to talk about. But
anyways, Kyle Pilapowski, I mean, as far as best players available,
still, he's got to be up there, right, I mean, and
I'm not saying he's great, because actually thought he was pretty underwhelming. I
mean, no joke. In two games, was one game did they go
to do can play this year? I don't remember that. Yeah they did.
Yeah, in two games, brand Hilly Hatfield outplayed Kyle Filapowski. Not
to say that he's a better NBA prospect than him, but like, I
never really understood Kyle Filapowski as a guy that, like, you know,
I'm surely he can play in the NBA, and he's a fine player,
but you know, he's seven foot and he's skilled, but like, I
don't think he's ever been like great, and you don't have to be great
to be, you know, drafted early, but I just never never thought
he was that good. So Jonathan Giovanni, who is a NBA draft analyst
for ESPN, now he started draft Express parlayed that into a gig with ESPN.
He was on Zachlow's podcast, who does an NBA podcast for ESPN,
and they were talking about Kyle fi Lapowski and he was kind of mentioning something
as to why, I mean, let me let me just let me check
this because I think it's worth playing, because I guess I'll let you guys
here for yourself and then I'll share what else has been because this is the
story is kind of taken off, you know, on the internet, whatever
that's worth. But if this was, if all this is true and it's
the reason why teams are passing on him, I'm curious if if you guys
feel like it's legit and you would do the same thing if you were an
NBA GM in that situation. But let me see if I can find it
here here it is. This is This is from the Zachlow podcast on ESPN,
when Jonathan Givanni's joining him to talk about Kyle Filipowski. He's competitive,
Uh, you know, the workouts weren't great. If people tell me there
were question marks about the interviews. They said he was nervous, he didn't
make shots at the Pro day, you know, what's going on with his
girlfriend? This is all nonsense. It's hard to find a seven footer like
Kyli Philippowski. Who is this ski? You know, somebody needs to drop
him way early in the second round. Wait a second, Wait a second,
wait a second. I'm obviously out of a loop on what the what
the young kids are talking about? What's going on with his girlfriend? You
need to over a girlfriend. She's like twenty five or twenty six, and
people are like, oh, this is weird, and it's like, give
me a freaking weak guys, that's what doesn't talk to his parents, you
know, like it's, oh my god, I gotta get this guy in
the podcast I got so I don't know if Giovanni's, you know, in
somehow, if he's trying to help Filipowski out, but he apparently didn't really
tell the whole truth there. So apparently Kyle Filipowski's girlfriend is not like an
old lady cougar, but she's nine years older than him, and the belief
is that she's kind of become like, I mean, he doesn't talk to
his parents anymore because of her, Like she's kind of like running the show
for him. She's an older woman again, it's not like, you know,
we're not talking Bill Belichick in the twenty four year old, which she
was younger than that, wasn't she It was no, that was right on
the money. Yeah, So it's not like that. But apparently, like
if they're gonna when the NBA drafts you a franchise in the NBA, they're
making an investment. So before you make an investment, you're gonna do all
your homework. And there are now people that believe that one of the reasons
why he's been passed on is because they they don't you know, they don't
think that maybe he's head's in the right place and maybe he's got somebody in
his ear that's gonna keep him from developing or something like that. I mean,
I I have no clue if that's why. Nobody knows if that's why
he wasn't drafted. But you know, the Internet is a great resource for
a lot of unpaid amateur investigators to do some some pretty good work at times.
And it looks as if this girl was not really in his life.
And then I think last summer and he didn't look he didn't have a great
year at Duke. I mean, as far as what expectations were. I
think he was preseason ACC Player of the Year, and you know, he
didn't have an awful year, but I don't feel like he you know,
he came back as a preseason first team All America and he certainly wasn't that
in his in his second season at Duke. But man, I don't know,
Like if I was an NBA GM and I kind of felt like this
guy didn't didn't necessarily like that. I already feel like he's aligned with somebody
who may be a distraction. That would be a red flag for me.
Imagine if he went undrafted, that'd be crazy, that would and it would
become a story then like he'd be a national people would would would absolutely be
fair in assuming that that had a factor in it, because there's really no
especially in a weak draft, right Like you're missing out on a golden opportunity
if you're letting And I know he's a young kid and we were all that
young at some point, but you know, it sucks if you're letting some
something like that ruin your opportunity. And this isn't fair to say because there's
always context that we don't have access to and awareness of But when I hear
people don't talk to their parents, I just can't imagine. I can't relate.
And I just assumed that they must have done something really horrific for that
to happen, and they must be awful people, because I can't imagine not
talking to my parents and like, you know, excluding them from my life.
But I don't get the sense that Kyle Philipowski had a hard upbringing to
where he's you know, his parents weren't involved in his life. Maybe I'm
stereos Maybe I'm doing the stereotypical thing. I just assume he's a rich white
dude who ended up at Duke. Maybe I'm way off. He also has
the Duke name Kyle Philipowski, so this is about Duke. We don't need
to do the Dukies. I mean, he's a duchie. I mean I
hate that there's a there's a true trail of players who fit the duke stereotype.
Well, and let's be honest, like this has nothing to this talent.
He showed his ass during the season when he was flopping like Grayson Allen,
and it wasn't just that he kept doing it. He acted to be
fair. He acted like a little bit about it and went on social media
and was childish about it. So you know, those things may sound petty,
but if you're not a level like no brainer, this guy has tools
that you'll never never see again in talent that's just unbelievable. If you're one
of maybe six to seven guys like you in the draft, at your position,
at your you know, projected ceiling, little things will knock you down
to where you're in the You're on the back end of those six or seven
guys. So we'll see all right real quick before we get to our next
break. So last night, uh, on the ESPN coverage after the draft,
it was uh, Tim Legler Kendrick Perkins discussing, you know, the
first round and then of course talking about the second round. And I'm curious,
are they told they have to be told by producers to talk about Bronnie
James because it's one thing if it's just you know, the you know,
the the the hosts that are that are driving the show, right like Legler,
I guess if anything, they're just asked the question because these guys have
to know the Bronnie James thing is just you know, it's it's nonsense,
like he's gonna get drafted, but like everybody knows, it's not because he's
supposed to be some great player, it's because of his dad. So I
guess the fact that everybody knows he's gonna get drafted, I guess it's not
a crazy question to ask who's gonna do it. And now, of course
today I think it might have been WOJ who was on one of the shows
earlier today that the Lakers are growing very interested in Brownie James, as if
like there's not some obvious connection, you know, But Tim Legler said this,
and I gotta tell you this, This won't happen, but it should.
Boston. So like movies, I like true crime stuff like that's I'm
just saying. Fifty fourth pick. We renewed the Cold War between the Celtics
and the Lakers. The Boston Celtics take Brownie James, and he sent a
ransom note to the Lakers. We have your son. We have your son.
If you want him back, if you want him back, it's gonna
takes. It's gonna take whatever you will. What do you think, What
do you think? That's a Netflix doc, That's a Netflix doctor that works.
We have your son I love that nobody would ever do that. But
if you are somebody in the I don't know, you got the thirty sixth
pick or whatever it is, and you want somebody on the Lakers roster,
if you drafted Bronnie James, I mean, I don't think the Lakers would
ever actually go through with doing the obvious, which would be giving up a
really good player to get Lebron's son, Like they wouldn't. They wouldn't do
it, but you know, Lebron would would try to get them to do
it right like he would, or he would find a way to get to
where his son was, you know what I'm saying, Like, that's what
he would do. Like people, I don't. I wouldn't call it petty,
but I think a lot of people underestimate Lebron running everything like he just
does. They ended up hiring the coach who he created a podcast with during
the NBA season so people could hear JJ Reddick's basketball acumen. And some people
believe and this didn't I mean, I don't believe it necessarily, but the
whole Dan Hurley to the Lakers, they didn't offer him a crazy deal they
made. You know, it would have been a good deal in the NBA.
But it wasn't as if the Lakers were I mean, and the Lakers
can afford anything like It's almost as if they could say they tried to hire
somebody that Lebron didn't endorse, and how good of a ride would was it
for Dan Hurley? Like you know, this whole thing could have been a
smoke screen. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, and I can't say
that I deep down truly believe that. But I mean, Lebron would do
anything to get his son on the Lakers, and if somebody drafts him instead
of the Lakers, I mean, I wouldn't put anything past Lebron. Just
put it that way. All right, quick break, we'll come back on
the other side. Let you hear a little more of Pat Kelsey's comments from
his press conference earlier today. Good to hear coach Kelse talking some ball.
But I really liked what he had to say about the leadership from this team,
and he didn't single anybody out, but as you know, but that
didn't mean that they're not going to have good leadership. So there's a couple
more clips we'll play from Coach Kelsey before we get out of here, so
stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Even if I wanted to
lie to you guys, I told myself yesterday at the start of the show
whenever I did not realize that yesterday was the first day of the NBA Draft
because I assumed it was still a one day thing that always, you know,
always takes place on a Thursday. Well, yesterday, on a Wednesday,
they did just one round, and for reasons I don't know, they're
doing the second round live. Now. I would have never known that.
I mean I did see some people on Twitter, like you know, the
national accounts I follow, and I thought they were doing mock draft stuff,
but no, they were revealing live NBA draft picks that are going on as
we speak, which I mean, why would it be on a Thursday afternoon
at four o'clock, especially when you only have thirty what thirty more picks left
to do? I don't understand this at all, no me, and you
know what sucks is that they're kind of doing a disservice to these guys that
are getting drafted to where they're not getting the same level of spotlight and attention.
I mean, the moment's still there. They're hearing their name called,
and if they're in attendance, they're walking up to go across the stage and
whatnot. But that's shit. I mean, you know, Kendrick Haskins and
Buddy Kendrick at way three, he made a really good point that this feels
like a COVID thing, like you know, right now the live coverage on
ESPN is Stephen A. Smith, Malik Andrews, Bob Ryan and WOJ and
they're not I mean, I don't think they're at the draft. This is
like an afterthought type of broadcast. How does this happen? Like somebody helped
me here? And there may be like a really logical answer, but I
don't know what it is. Like what else? What else is ESPN going
to be broadcasting tonight? I don't know. I mean, baseball, let
me see. I mean, I don't get it. I thought we were
going to get basically the same thing tonight that we got last night. And
I'm thinking, hell yeah, like just two days, I mean, and
I thought it'd be great, but you know, the hell do I know?
And for what it's worth, there have been picks made in the last
twenty minutes or so, and one of those picks was a guy we were
just talking about, Kyle Flapaski, who went with the thirty second picks,
which is the second pick in the second round, to the Utah Jazz.
So the other picks are Jonathan Magbo who was the first pick of the second
round from San Francisco, Tyler Smith from the G League Knight went to the
Bucks at thirty three, Tyler Kollock of marquev Point Guard went to the Blazers.
Johnny Furfey of Kansas that was probably the other name that was a surprise
outside of Philipowski that was still available as we started the second round today.
And then one Nuniez from Spain international player is with my Pacers. And then
Bobby Kleintman from Sweden was just taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves. So there you
go, all right, not a lot of time left here in the four
o'clock hours, so let's let you guys here once again. Pat Kelsey,
I think I'm trying to I think I may have mislabeled some of my clips
here, which you know is my fault, but I think this is him
either getting ready to be asked about the Bahamas trip or might be the beginning
of him discussing the trip. But here we go this thing, come about.
What do you hope to get out of it? Yeah, first of
all, tip of the cap to our administration for making this happen in a
very very short turnaround, because it's not something that was planned on. Again,
that's commitment of basketball being good around here and the things that it takes
for basketball to be good, the win to be at our back and with
a completely new roster, signing thirteen players in two and a half months coming
from parts all over. You're limited in a lot of ways in terms of
the NCAA rules. In the amount of time you can be on the floor
with your players per week. I'm sure all you guys are aware of this,
maybe not the specifics, but four hours is the time that you're allowed
to spend on basketball that includes film, that includes anything on the floor.
Obviously, you have additional time for other things like strength and conditioning. And
conditioning the total number of hours is eight. When you go on a foreign
trip, the NCAA allows you, on top of those four hours that you
have throughout the week, to have ten full practice days. The time of
type of practice days that you would have throughout the course of the season where
there aren't those type of limitations. So it's great. It really allows us
to speed up kind of the growth curve of this team, both implementing what
we do, how we do it, our system, our terminology, teaching
guys, how we practice the philosophy being that, you know, when we
get to the end of those ten practices, we get a great head start,
you know, so when we get back together when it really really starts
ramping up and it counts for real, when practice starts at the end of
September and the being of October, we could look back to these ten practices
and go, man, you know, we're way farther ahead than we should
have been. So that was the main point of it. Obviously, these
foreign tours there's a cultural aspect to it as well, where you get to
leave the country go somewhere else that's going to be cool. The other part
of it is just the team building, the team chemistry, the camaraderie,
the rapport through getting to spend more time together on the floor, and then
you know, obviously going on a trip together, being a pretty darn cool
hotel and resort for a while getting to know each other, putting some suntan
lotion on swimming during a little wave surfing or whatever the crap you call it,
potty surfing. So we're gonna have a good time as well. So
I think we'll be further along in terms of our basketball system, and we'll
be further along in terms of you know, what we call the power of
the unit. So again, those are things that I'd mentioned that we're so
beneficial outside of just the basketball side of it is the time together to gel
the camaraderie. And again ten days, I mean, that's that's just you
know, you by taking this trip, you get those days if you don't
take a trip, you know, so it's almost silly not to do it,
to take advantage of it. And Louisville has not been able to take
one for a variety of reasons. You know, their last one was nine
years ago, and my goodness, a lot has changed in the last nine
years. All Right, we'll have a couple more clips actually from Pat Kelsey
to play for you guys. In the five o'clock hours we get things reset.
One more hour to go. We'll finish stronger. At least we're gonna
try to do that right here. It's coffee and company feel by Thornton's on
Sports Talk seven ninety