What is krak Alakin fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Dan Favalley coming at
you without my fantabulous co host, Grant Hughes, because I am joined by
the equally fantabulous Adam Spinella, who just runs the Box End, one,
the substack, the YouTube channel. Follow him and them. It's on Twitter
at the box End, one that's at thh E b O x A N
d O n E underscore at the Box and one underscore on Twitter. So
much draft content he puts out, one of the best of the business,
longtime friend and guest of this podcast, and it is that time of year
again where we pump him for information here and I am so excited in honor
of Spins, I'm wearing the hard would Knox fuel, black caffeine and protected
draft picks shut so top fifty five projected draft picks hit tight, semi topical.
So I put that on. It's wrinkled. It was just for you.
I was literally meeting a deadline. I threw this on just for you.
I am excited, But first and foremost, the most important question,
I will ask you, how the heck are you? Dan? I'm tired.
I don't know about you, man, but like this draft cycle in
June, and how all of the film that goes into get into the finish
line here, like it tires you out. You got on top of that.
I'm just at the end of, you know, the school year for
my day job. There's apparently like a thick left layer of haze in the
air. And my eyes can't open today. Like the world might be ending,
it might not be either way. Like I'm better than I'm saying,
but I'm damn tired. Man. I just want to watch a couple more
weeks of good basketball and go to sleep. I feel for you this time
of year. I hope you're able to rest soon. I'm sure the air
quality out my window it's like yellow now. It's like, yeah, if
anyone's never seen Harry Potter, it's like a basilisk eyes outside. That's the
level of air quality at the moment. So I hope you're staying safe as
well. But I would love for you to get some sleep soon. I
know this is a busy time of year for you, which is why I
mega appreciate you hopping on the test for the annual Mega Primer. However,
before we jumped on, and the reason we didn't jump on sooner. I
wanted to ask you about this, Chris Haynes, my colleague. A Bleacher
Report reported that the Suns are waving Chris Paul. He had a fifteen point
eight million dollars guarantee on his thirty point eight million dollars salary, so they're
saving immediately fifteen million dollars off the top. The nuances of this, I
still have not seen. From what I've heard, he's not going back to
the Suns. That is like loosely sourced that he's not going back to the
Suns. However, we've yet to. Brian Wynnhorse of The Hoop Collective noted
that before this happened, by the way, it's like a couple of days
ago, that the Suns could wave Chris Paul then bring him back at a
smaller number to give themselves more flexibility under the second luxury tax apron, which
if you've listened to this podcast, you did this CBA FAQ like, go
back and listen to that. It's a disaster. I can't believe the players
agree to that. Neither you're nor there that they cannot do that, though
if they stretch him, which you would stretch him and wave wave that fifteen
million dollars over three years, that'd be five million dollars a season. You
don't You could technically get to cap space if you dumped DeAndre in somewhere,
But you do that if you have something bigger up your sleeve. And the
fact that it seems like CP three isn't going back to Phoenix. If all
as they do is just eat his fifteen like point eight million dollars thing,
I don't know. Yeah, you have some extra wiggle room to access the
mid level exception, but it doesn't really portend this massive move. It gives
you some more trade flexibility with money that you can take back. What are
just your were you won surprised by this? And two do you think It's
like I can't even ask you if you think it's the right move. It's
just you only make this decision if you have something much bigger in mind.
Correct, you would think Dan. And again I'm not so sure exactly like
what is going on with this entire Chris Paul thing. But the way that
I view this is from Phoenix is you either think that you have to make
some sort of a move or a change now to a piece of guys in
the locker room, or that it just was come to the best decision here
was for both sides to part. And to me, that's where this comes
from. It's less about I shouldn't say it's less about. It is important
the on court stuff, but a lot of times these decisions are made just
because of maybe some of the off court things. Both sides agree that it's
just time to kind of move on. That this may not just be driven
by the Phoenix suns here, that there may be an element of Chris Paul
wanting to find a new location as well. And you pointed me to this
in the chat. Thank you that Scham tweeted the Sons and Chris Paul exploring
multiple options which include a trade, stretching his contract, or waving and resigning
him in free agency. So don't ever trust me with my source information and
saying that Chris Paul's gone, I will say, it's weird that that's coming
out now. And Haynes did have in his follow up tweet that Chris Paul
wants to play several more years and looks forward to playing for a contender.
I guess that infers Phoenix is part of the equation. But wild stuff,
I'm with you on everything you said. If he's going back, it still
probably means the Sons have some other things up their sleeves. It's just not
as big. And I actually think I would have bet before, like the
follow up tweet and before I heard what I had heard, that he would
go back, and that's what they were doing, because it just doesn't I
don't know what else they could actually do, but I would say very quickly
if he had to go somewhere. I think the teams that are probably gonna
be mentioned most, and I think I'd support all of them. The Clippers,
who can only give him the minimum, though he's getting he would technically
be getting paid fifteen point eight million dollars already. The Lakers, who could
give him part of the mid level exception or all of it if they wanted.
To the Celtics, I think he makes some sense for like they need
a primary offensive organizer, and I think he would help with a lot of
their like when things slow down and they get too easily nudged out of their
process and they commit all these turnovers and they they're not taking the right shots.
He would help with that I think he would help. And my favorite
destination, which I don't I don't think would be feasible, but it makes
so much sense Milwaukee. They would only be able to off from the minimum
of both Chris Middleton and brooklovers were coming back. I would love to see
it. Imagine a closing lineup of Drew CP three, Rolo Middleton and Janis.
Yikes. That's that's where I'm at. So we'll have I'll have more
on this, maybe when something actually happens. But yeah, CP three was
waived, but he might still be a member of the Phoenix Suns. It's
all very awkward and weird. At the moment. We have no idea what
to make of any of that. Damn. We do know though, that
the NBA Draft is coming up on June twenty second, which again wild time
of year for coach Spins. Over here, I will be working in Thank
you everyone in our discord for questions. I'll be doing something different and working
them in as we go for the most part, just to try and avoid
like repetition later on, and just for a nice change of pace. So
our first question comes from unbiased Pistons fan. Is also a question that I
ask you every single year, what is your draft philosophy on drafting for fit
versus drafting for best player available? Yeah, I think it's an important question
for all scouts to be able to nail down their philosophy on this. I
kind of think it depends on two things. The first is where you're drafting,
and the second is what your team situation is. So the higher in
the draft you are, the more you have that's take best player available.
As you get down towards the end of the lottery in the middle part of
the first round, fit factors in a little more, and then end of
the first round, second round, like it's just guys who you think fit
your organization and or it's the right time to take an upside swing. And
that goes a little bit more to the second point. If you got to
know where you're at with your team, if you have the foundational pieces to
your team already in place, you probably need to start thinking about fit a
little bit more in that conversation instead of just adding more hooks into the kitchen.
So it's a fancy way of saying it depends, but I think those
are the things that it most clearly depends on. There are some teams that
you might have a higher stomach for taking that upside pick and not going with
best player available just because they have such a good roster right now, we've
seen that with Golden State the last couple of years in their draft philosophy,
they have taken best player available overfit. Is that wrong? I don't necessarily
know, but I do think it depends on both your team situation and where
you're drafting. Is there like a ballpark number in the draft where it's okay,
now you kind of can deviate from best player available and prioritizeas like number
eight and beyond after the lottery whatever. Yeah, I think it's gonna change
slightly based on each draft, depends on how many really high upside guys there
are in each class. Like I think as you get to the end part
of the lottery, you're starting to think more about fit and about like the
highest available role players, and then you know there's a common theory out there.
John hollings or over the Athletics started this about twenty to twenty three guys
in each draft class end up making it so when you get to the later
part of the first round, like it's an either or it's you can really
make the highest upside swing and just go for that type of guy, or
you can see if you hit on a role player that might have a higher
propensity to help you right away. I prefer always going I would I When
I'm looking at contenders and they're drafting, I'm always saying they should go for
fit. But if I was running a front office, I would always go
best player available. And if I was drafting past a certain range or tier
in that draft class, I would just be taking the most mind melting swings
that you could imagine. Is I think it's how which probably why I don't
run in front office, but that would be how I would personally look at
it. Yeah, there are some teams who you know, when they draft
is, particularly in the early part of the second round, like they just
go after those high volume swings guys, like if one of the ten hits,
it ends up being a huge star turn and a great return for they've
put in equity wise, So there are teams that do that. It's not
wild. What is one thing either about covering the draft or about this specific
draft class that you wish dipshit podcast hosts like myself would ask you about but
never do, though you are not a dipshit Daniel. I don't know if
there is one question that I wish I got a little bit more, Like,
I think the draft audience in general is a pretty well educated one.
They think philosophically. They have conversations about things like best player available or fit
for teams. Those are really good starting points. Maybe if there was one
thing that I wish got asked more was trying to normalize including high school context
in the conversation, particularly with a lot of these one and done players that
people just look at their last stop, that one year when they're in college
or wherever they were before the draft and say, well, this is the
player that he is neatly in a box. If he can't do things that
we've seen during this year, than he never did them before, and it's
very much not the case. So I just wish there was probably a little
bit more acknowledgement that there's stuff beyond college that needs to be analyzed. I
don't know that I could ever evaluate high school prospects because I feel like when
you see people talking about like freshman or so, it just feels a little
cringey at that point where it's like, Oh, that person's fourteen or fifteen
years old, And I don't know how to how you criticize from afar like
a thirty's like a fourteen or fifteen year old. But that's a great point,
especially because and as you mentioned, and we're firmly into this, it's
not like this is new, but the college sample is just so small now
because of the one and done era, and so you're not having two three
four year college sample size for most of these guys. Why wouldn't you harken
back to, you know, where they actually spent more of their time to
this point, right right, no doubt about it. The other thing I
wanted to ask you about it and include this on the outline, but I
had heard you say it in well written and say it a few times.
Questions about how to evaluate the spects that are coming out of Overtime Elite,
What has made that so challenging, or just what are your biggest concerns about
how that's being run or even just your unknowns there. Yeah, I don't
think it's being run in an irresponsible way in any regard. I just think
that it's really tough to create a program that splits two different pathways. One
is preparing players for professional basketball and the other is providing them a training development
ground that prepares them for college. Those are two drastically different processes that players
have to go through about recruitment, about getting ready for the draft, things
like that, And it's hard to square the talent level in some regard.
You know that these are really highly talented young kids. In almost every game
is like an all star game, so you're not going to necessarily see the
type of dominance that you would. But if you know anything about high school
basketball, it's a shooting is at a premium, even more than it is
in college, even more than it is in the NBA. So these games
are not very well spaced on the offensive or defensive ends the floor. There's
just aren't enough shooters that are out there, particularly when OT is going out
and getting a lot of just good athletes that they can work with. So
I just don't know what to trust in the product. And what we're seeing
is it just these Thompson twins and the guys at the top of this draft
class are so dominant next to their competition, and they're all talented high school
kids that are going to be pros someday anyway, like we should really value
that or are they playing down to the level a little bit? That is,
it is not even something I gave consideration to until I saw that you
or heard you say that, and I think it's it's fair to actually look
at it that way. I am going to I feel stupid asking you about
Victor webban Yama, just because I feel like he's been talked about to death
and we know where he's going. But it's also like we can't marginalize Spurs
fans. And he's also he's really fun. He's probably not that I've He's
probably the prospect that I've watched the least over the past, you know,
like few weeks I've tried to draft prep because I'm just I've seen the highlights,
I've seen what people and written about him. Just resign this guy is
going to be incredible. But what are you do you have any just general
thoughts or impressions about this this level of transcendence that he's going to bring to
the game. He's a fucking freak, Dan, Like, this guy is
insane as a basketball player, seven foot four within nearly eight foot wingspan.
He changes the geometry of the court when he's on it on both ends.
You know, he's such a massive lob threat that anytime he rolls near the
basket without the basketball, you have to collapse on him even before he catches
it, and it just changes the type of plays that are available for his
team. On offense, he's unguardable in turnaround jump shots or pull up jumpers
because how can you contest a shot that's released as high as his Defensively,
with his rim protection skills, how he guards on the perimeter and can move
his hips, he prevents people from wanting to take layups or even pull up
jumpers anywhere near him. I've never seen anything like it before. He's a
freak. The best comparison point, and I hope that they show this on
ESPN on Draft Day when they have those god awful player comparisons. They should
put like the mon Stars from Space Jam up there, because that's the closest
thing I've ever seen on film to what Victor wemen Yama is on a basketball
court. Is there, let's start. Here's what's the thing he does now
that you think is going to translate the most as a rookie for him?
Rim protection, his ground coverage and just ability to block and altar shots near
the basket. He's not a guy that's going to be in trouble because of
the defensive three seconds calls, Like he can cover ground and stay outside the
lane and then get to the basket the other side of the room wherever he
needs really quickly. And what is the what thing do you think he's gonna
need to work on the most or that he'll struggle with the most moving to
the next level. So for me, there's just something that comes with being
his size that you have to kind of compensate for. Right there's no way
to avoid the weaknesses. Are the challenges that come with Pink seven foot four.
One of them is that he has a really high dribble. He just
can't get lower to the ground. It's not physically possible for him. He
hurt his back if he tried to. Probably, yeah, he would just
collapse like a house of cards, Like he's not built to be able to
do something like that. So they're going to be challenges with how early he
needs to make passing reads. As a result of that, he's not going
to be a much quicker twitch ball handler like he can tighten something, But
that's not what the recipe is for him. It's making faster decisions because there's
so much time that goes between one dribble and the next, Like there are
smaller things that he needs to clean up in that regard. But don't buy
into the hole just throw a bunch of weight on his frame argument And he's
too skinny, Like his body has been carefully crafted and developed to avoid injury.
Just throwing a bunch of weight on his frame could throw that out of
balance. I feel that was covered in at least one of those ESPN profiles
that they did on him, and it seems really smart, like they're making
sure he gets like I don't know, twenty five hours to sleep a day
or whatever it is, and to frame it as it's not about having him
put on this on all this weight, which is going to put more strain
on him and then change the dynamics of how he plays. But it's just
about making sure that he properly grows in to his body and is healthy and
you can get stronger without having to get like absolutely massive. And do you
buy into any of the concerns though people have about his frame or am I
just I can't do it, and I don't know if I'm just hardened to,
Like, all right, Kevin Durant exists, and he's been pretty good
for a long time. Why do we need to do this. Yeah,
I'm not too concerned about it at all. I don't lend much credence to
it. And I think it's also unfair. And that's not to call out
some casual fans or necessarily individuals who are out there. This is more of
a blanket statement. Like it feels like a lot of the conversation around this
is almost rooting for him to get injured to play the I Told you So
game, and I can't stand that. Like, I don't think you root
for anybody to get injured. It's not something you can always predict la.
There's a higher predictability with guys who are closer to his frame, but it's
not something you really can rely predicts. So I'm just not there on that
conversation. We have a question from Muckle in the discord that I actually thought
was fascinating and I paraphrased it because it was like two hundred words long and
it was very thorough. I appreciate it, but Muckle says the KASR and
into problems building around Lebron the first time around when he was so good,
so fast. The MAVs are running into the same issue with Luca and have
run into before now with the same issue with Luca. Is there a chance
women Yama is so good it accelerates the Spurs' timeline and potentially complicates their future.
Or do we just trust them to take the longer view relative to those
other high profile situations. And a brief shout out to Glad in our discord,
I'm not reading your response because that was, like I read it,
I'm not going to read it that loud. It was like five hundred and
seven hundred fifty words, very well thought out. But I'm just curious where
you land on the thoughts from muckle spins. Yeah, it's an interesting question.
I don't know if I necessarily agree. Like I think that there were
individual missteps at both situations for Cleveland and for Dallas. In those Alice hasn't
handled it well. That's right, Yeah, exact exactly. So, Like
it's hard for me to say that it's a philosophical issue more than it is
just an execution one. I think the only difference philosophically that I would find
that actually gives me a lot of hope for the Spurs is that they already
seem to have the young blueprints of the roster in place and already on it
with guys like Kelvin Johnson and Devin Vassell and uh, you know, I
like Jeremy Soahan quite a bit as a fit next to Victor Women and Devin
Vassell are like two of my favorite young players in the league. So good.
Yeah. So I think because San Antonio already has those pieces on the
table, that's different than what you know, Luca was walking into in Dallas
or what Lebron was getting drafted into in Cleveland. Slight differences, I don't
I don't really know how much to say other than that I where I land
on this For anyone who cares, I would trust the Spurs more than those
other organizations, just given specifically relative to Dallas, which has always sort of
tried to find those insta fixes or remain elevant and free agent, the Spurs
have very much with you know, the quiet trade stuff aside that was very
weird, like they've always tried to build gradually, at least over the past
three decades or whatever, And so I would trust that they're more equipped,
especially with the asset base and youth base they already have in place, to
navigate this gradually and effectively. But what I will say, which just is
a big question mark. Forget about how flexible their cap situation is, forget
about their assets, forget about all the promising young players. I just wonder
if, similar to how Lebron brought a pressure to Cleveland unlike anything they've ever
seen before, and how Luca did the same to Dallas, will Wemby do
the same to San Antonio where it's not something because he's so good so quickly
that they don't necessarily like it was different when Tim Duncan had his assent,
like it was just it was a different time. And so I'm just wondering
if there could be a curveball thrown in there. I default to know because
I trust the Spurs, and I do think teams in general lose sight of
the fact. Because of how restricted free agency works, you have at minimum,
at minimum a seven year timeline. With these guys, it's normally seven
to nine. But unless you're going to acquiesce to a trade demand, you
have seven to nine years to figure this out, and so they should be
fine. But I'm just I'm so excited to see him play next season.
And the NBA did a good job at like making sure the fans were exposed
to him this year, like I still didn't see a ton of him.
I just can't wait to see him next season. I'm hoping I want them
to take care of his body. I want them to bring them along as
effectively as possible. But I am hoping that they just let her rip with
him where it's like he's just given like agency over the offense and we get
the full like Victor Wembanyama experience, we very very well might Dan because he's
pretty damn good at basketball and what he's been able to do just as a
number one option for that Metropolitans team, It's been amazing to watch this year.
His growth, he says, a number one option on offense is really
really rapid. I do know where you land on this, but for our
listeners that may not. Where do you land on the Scoot Henderson versus Brandon
Miller debate? And there is there a determining factor that swings it for you?
Or are they just not even in the same necessarily tier for you.
I think they are in a little bit separate of a tier, but it
is something identifiable that separates them from me. I am a Scoot Henderson guy.
I've had him number two this entire draft cycle, and a lot of
it comes down to the context. What he's been able to do as a
two year teenager playing against professionals in the G League. Ignite that level of
volume, production and efficiency from a teenager in a professional league. It's only
been done by guys who translate into being the best of the best at the
NBA. That's the Luca Dontages of the world. So I am all in
on Scoot Henderson. I think he's going to be an absolute star. But
beyond the on court stuff, he has the intangibles. He has those It
factors the ability to take over a game and make the right decisions, competitive
spirit, a desire to lead a locker room. He's just the guy that
I would want to end the Keys to the franchise too, more so than
Brandon Miller. It's not disrespect to Miller's game necessarily. I think there are
a couple more questions about his game that I have than Scoots in terms of
translatability and success. But it's all the off court stuff that just leads me
to believe Scoot his head and shoulders above anybody else is there? Would you
have any concern We already said that if you're running these teams this high,
you go best player available. But are there any concerns about how Scoot might
Let's use the Charlotte Hornets as an example, like, is there any concern
about how he might fit with LaMelo Ball? Because he is such that it
guy and lamel Ball is probably a bad example because knowing what I know about
Scoot and then knowing extensively about LaMelo Ball, I have zero concerns about it.
I'm just like, do it. If I'm Charlotte, It's probably what
I think is what I would maybe do. But do you have, like,
any concerns about how he might fit alongside let's say a co alpha or
however you want to frame it. I think Scoot has these the unselfishness to
be able to make that work, and he showed it a year ago playing
for the G League Night his first season down there, sharing reps with Dyson
Daniels and Jaden Hardy and trying to put everybody in a position to succeed where
he was playing, not to his optimal usage. He showed that optimal usage
this year, and I still think that's the best way to utilize Scoot.
But to me, this is more about LaMelo Ball's ability to accept Scoot Henderson
into the fold than it is Scoots to be able to play with LaMelo.
Scoot is going to come in and demand that number one kind of spot,
just in terms of a personality type of thing. And if LaMelo still wants
the ball and shots and the role where he's got the ball in his hands
every single time, I think there could be some challenges. So once we
move the draft technically, I guess the draft it starts at too because who
are you going to take? But there's a consensus top three pretty firmly.
Who is who is your fourth guy? I like a Men Thompson a lot.
From the Overtime League program. We've talked about best player available quite a
few times here on the podcast, and I think what you draft for is
not just the guy who is currently the best player available, but who has
the highest ceiling to turn into one. And I think undoubtedly Amen Thompson has
the highest ceiling to turn into a guy in this league, transcendent athlete,
unbelievable first step from a standstill, great finisher above the rim. He combines
that burst with the ability to make the right and perfect decision when he gets
to the basket. He's an automatic paint touch who exploits defenses that collapse on
him. If they don't collapse too much, he scores and finishes if they
do too much. He's an unbelievable passer with a six nine six ten wingspan
to throw darts above the level of the defense. The concern with him,
men is his jump shot. He is a jump shot away and a consistent
jump shot away from being just such an impactful, unbelievable force on offense,
not to mention the athletic defensive tools that he has, like he's far and
away my number four right now. We did have a question from Kazak Raccoon,
which I weaved in here because I knew that you were going to have
me and Thompson number four. Cosmocraccoon says, my question is why is i'm
in considered such a consensus top four pick when he's a twenty year old guy
with massive holes in his game who's coming out of league with extremely bad competition.
I get he's super athletic, but you put him in with more Black's,
tough situations and the more half court oriented college game on a team without
spacing would have absolutely exposed him and he would have tumbled down draft boards all
year. Would you what is what is the rebuke to that? And when
you say a jump shot away? Are we talking like Ben Simmons is a
jump shot away or is he He's much closer to that. Yeah, he's
a little closer than Ben, not by too much. It's it's still a
pretty broken jump shot. But here's the thing I'd say to that question,
the difference. And I think this is where the draft community that has a
men Thompson listed so high is kind of in agreement here. The difference is
in that high end outcome that these guys can continue to get to, like
the ceiling, so to speak. For a Men Thompson is so much higher
than some of the other guys that are mentioned, it's a questionable route.
And I think that there are a lot of teams general manager's decision makers who
at the end of the day might be too hesitant to pull the trigger but
based on kind of the clips and the upside and what you're just watching on
film, that upside is so enormous with the men in ways that it just
isn't with other guys. This is one of my favorite as every year I
picked my favorite draft prospects. I most achieved intrigued by Anthony Black has caught
my attention in large part because of you. By the way, do you
see his offensive utility translating immediately or will he struggle if he's not a better
shooter or just in general a better creator for himself. Yeah, I love
Anthony Black, another intangible's hero to me and a guy I've fallen in love.
I think he's borderline basketball genius, one of the smartest passers that I've
seen, and he's a physical athlete, can get downhill and live at the
lane. So when you combine paint touches with great passing and IQ, the
results tend to be pretty good. So I know the jumpshot is a worry.
I don't think it's going to be what determines whether he's impactful in the
NBA. I think it does determine what role he's in because his mechanics are
so set and stiff that it's a basically a catch and shoot jump shot where
he's very set, and that doesn't translate well to dribble pull ups a lot
of the time, So it may push him to fewer pick and roll reps,
which I think is the optimal way for him to use his passing ability.
But he's going to be impactful regardless, and that's part of the reason
why I'm so high on him. Like every other box is checked and checks
so thoroughly, it's just hard to not see him being an impactful NBA player.
You what something that like set me and I go to you called him
the best perimeter defender in this draft. What makes him? What makes him?
That? He's six seven and really long. He loves to get up
into guys. He's super super smart and loves to pressure, quick hands and
does all those things above the three point line. But he's a pristine help
defenders actually where to be and when to gamble. I think a lot of
times guys who have these natural athletic tools develop some poor habits at times by
just trying to gamble for steals too much and they get caught out of position.
Black does not gamble very frequently. He wins when he does, and
he knows. He's just got an unbelievable feel to know when he's going to
try to be exploited for something, and he locks those down really quickly.
And you mentioned the passing, and I know he's builled. Is this six
foot seven point guard. But given the shooting limitations or even you know,
self creation limitations, is see somebody who is can be used as more of
a screener and then you can utilize his playmaking in that regard off you know,
can he do something anything off off the short roll or no? It
very much has to be that playmaking is going to manifest best with the ball
in his hands. Are exclusively with the ball in his hands? Even Yeah,
I think there is some short roll upside, But like I think of
him more like you think of a Josh Giddy, right, Like it's it's
a lot of face up creation. I think that's I'm not a big comparison
guy. I think it's the devil's work. But if I had to compare,
Yeah, what's the best pro comp for Victor wembi Yama? Yeah,
right, it's all it's all setting guys up for failure. But I think
a Josh Giddy type of role is probably the right one for Anthony Black,
where you hope the shooting continues to come along, but you just find ways
to space the floor, put the ball in his hands and he's gonna make
good decisions. We just need to get him with Fred Vinson or Chip England
and maybe everything will be solved. It would be great. I'm wondering if
we can go through a couple of prospects and you can give me your what
you think are the most underdiscussed talking points for each and I'm gonna I'm gonna
apologize. I've tried. I practiced the pronunciation today. I tried it with
you beforehand. Asare Thompson, is that even close after I've heard I've heard
too many variations. But what's the most underdiscussed talking point with him? At
your opinion? So I have a large gap between the men and Asaur Thompson
on my overall board, and I think that it might continue to grow between
now and Draft night. Most underdiscussed thing about us are He shot thirty six
point seven percent overall in the half court this year. That's a really low
rate when you're talking about a guy who is supposed to be a dominating athlete
at that level. I think that his just overall ability to put the ball
in the basket needs to be examined a lot more than it is right now.
Same question for you about JAREDS Walker, Oh, Jarss, I love
jareds He's another guy who's actually growing on me in this draft class. Rim
deterrence as a help defender. We don't talk about rim deterrence a lot for
guys that aren't like seven eight and Rudy Gobert, but it's really important to
be positionally sound on time and early to take away field goal attempts near the
basket. That's an underrated part of what Jariss Walker brings to the table.
Yes, he blocks a lot of shots. He's a pretty good help defender
with all of the highlights that you see, but he prevents other field goal
attempts from even going up by rotating and knowing where to be on time.
Huge crush on him from a coaching standpoint. I really like his healthy what
about and he seems like he might be one of the more or if not
the most controversial lottery prospect. Grady Dick, Yeah, Grady's a tough one
for a lot of people. For me, it's it's that he's known as
a shooter. That's going to be his role. But for such a good
shooter, he can't really create his own when he's run off the line,
particularly if he's going left, like he's got a wonderable pull up to his
right. But the misses and the results that he gets when trying to come
off of screens and he can't get a shot right away, they're not fantastic.
I him. I watched a lot of him because we had a question
on him in one of our mail bags the other day and there were a
lot of defensive concerns and you had called him. I think it was a
solid defender within a team construct, and I'm watching more closely. I definitely
see how he can be exploited on the ball, But I feel like some
people might be devaluing just how easy it could be to fit him within a
larger team dynamic. When you're kind of looking at his rotations, or if
he's helping when he's two passes away, or like knowing how to make some
off ball place, it feels like this is someone who might not be as
limited on that end of the floors. I feel like he's being painted across
a wide variety of you know, mocks or draft analysis. A very good
call. I keep calling him a heavily targeted defender, not a poor defender.
Heavily targeted because a lot of teams are going to try to go at
him on ball. But he's fine rotationally, Like there are times when he
misses the rim, but he also blocks a decent amount of shots for a
guy who's a six eight skinny shooter. He tries to rotate on time and
take charges. He doesn't execute it very well, but like he tries,
there's some instinct in there. I think that the defensive stuff gets picked apart
a lot. That's a pretty good call on your part to just kind of
bring that up here. Case in protein Wallace case, and so the context
around the season at Kentucky is really important. He heard his back midway through
the year and the shooting kind of fell off of a cliff as a result.
He was over forty percent from three before that injury occurred, with a
two to one assist to turnover ratio. I love the toughness of how he
decided to play through the season with that back injury, and it clearly hampered
him in a lot of different ways. But I don't think we're talking about
when healthy. What you get offensively with Cason Wallace. He's he's begged as
a defense first guy, but forty percent from three with a two to one
assist to turnover ratio, it's pretty special in the guard. He is like
a capslock defender too. And I know you've you've really trumpeted that in your
analysis. Is that like he's gonna come up and that's just someone who's going
to be a defensive force for you know, a wealth or the lion chair
of his career. I think so I keep calling Kayson Wallace He's Pat Beverly
on defense, and who Pat Beverly thinks he is on offense? That's fantastic.
And the final one here, who I know, was shocking me a
little about that. I'm basically a blank canvas on this player, full disclosure,
Cam Whitmore. I know he's in a lot of like top fives or
top top six, top sevens, but I'm like a blank canvas with him.
So what's the most underdiscussed talking point for him? That he dunked on
my team three times last year? Because I coached against him when he was
in high school. But the real, it's true story. Unfortunately, he's
look if he can. So you're saying that he was able to get to
the rim against the Spins coach team, which I would automatically vault him up
my draft board for that. No, that was it was a pretty easy
thing on his part. If I had to find one area for Cam Whitmore,
that's just underdiscussed. It's like he's so young in his basketball journey.
He's still eighteen years old. But the context around injuries he's dealt with with,
you know, broken thumb this year, missed sometime with a sprained ankle
that he suffered seven feet away from me his senior year in high school,
and then COVID shortened seasons other injuries earlier in Hesley. He just hasn't gotten
a ton of playing reps yet. He's eighteen, with the basketball experience of
a sixteen year old, and he's about to head into the NBA and probably
going to be able to produce something from day one. So the upside is
really through the roof. With Ken Whitmore, you could probably have guests since
he didn't fall under this umbrella and I have a specific question about him,
or questions that Taylor Hendrix is another one of my draft obsessions. That obsession
intensified after the podcast you did with basketball, She wrote Kaitlyn Cooper on Jaris
Walker and Taylor Hendrix. So, Taylor Hendrix, I love him. I
really want him to go to the Jazz for some reason. But does he
have any rise potential? I see him consistently mocked between seven and ten or
eight and ten or whatever, and a lot of people have talked about kind
of the lack of upside because of the ball handling, playmaking concerns. Does
that actually like prohibit him from being in higher end discussions or does he have
some not even draft board rise potential, but maybe even to frame it a
shock and awe potential once he gets to the NBA with that stuff. I
think there's a little bit of draft night rise potential for him, just because
I look at Orlando at six in Indiana at seven as teams that he would
fit with so well philosophically for what they either typically draft for or what they
need right now. So it's more so a fit conversation. I know we
hate talking about fit. A little bit earlier on the boards, but he's
a high enough upside type of guy that it's more about, Okay, which
high end prospect is going to be a better fit for what we're trying to
build on our organization. That's kind of what I mean with fit. Not
necessarily he doesn't have the same high ceiling. I think hendrick ceiling is super
super high. And that goes to the second part of your question, Dan,
like there is some room for him to continue to pop. He did
more with the ball in his hands at Central Florida that he gets credit for.
It didn't look very pretty, But with these college freshmen, in these
late bloomers through that process, it's really hard to know. Are they doing
it because they're really comfortable with it and they're just going to be able to
show more and more as they get better at it, or are they just
doing it because somebody's trying to allow them to show off all of the skills
that they can and that's not going to be his NBA role. Like,
we still don't know the answer to that question. I would love or if
I was an opposing team, I wouldn't love this. But the idea of
him playing with Miles Turner is kind of terrifying. How do you do you
ever score on the rim against that team or like, what do you just
punted on rim pressure altogether at that point? Yeah, And that's a lot
of length. It's a lot of length, and I did so. I
just brought up too. I guess Sam Vassini and his latest monk had him
go six, which I think is the highest I've seen him. Has he
gone higher in any other spots that you've seen, not that I've seen.
I think six with Orlando has been about the highest that I seen. And
he and I did a mock draft a couple of weeks ago where that's exactly
where he took him in our kind of back and forth mock draft version.
It's totally off topic, but I feel like there's a chance he could be
wasted there. They just have like so many big bodied forwards and I guess
they could all play together, but at that point it's I would really especially
you're adding another limited ball handler creator to the fold. It's like, right,
you guys really need to get like in a guard who is more elite
than Mark Elphaalts and who can space the floor better than Mark Elphalts in there
it's an interesting fit, but again it seems to be the type of player
the organization has been drawn to in the best. Yah. Yeah, that's
that's for damn sure. And I still I have faith that. I still
don't think he can be the Alpha creator, but I have not sold any
of my jail and suck stock. It is still right there. Thought he
had a strong second half of the year. We have this question from Peto,
which I thought was a really good one. Every year we see the
draft being influenced by how the playoffs developed, at least when you're looking at
the conversations, how is this year's draft affected by the current playoffs? I
think you look at the two teams consider in the NBA Finals right now,
the Denver Nuggets in Miami Heat, and you have different roster construction lessons that
you can take away from them. One of them for Denver is that you
can still lean all the way into building the perfect roster construction around your one
or two star players and make it far in the NBA if it's the right
version of that. The second lesson that comes from Miami is essentially that shooting
is king. The draft doesn't matter. All these guys are shooting is king
here, Dan, like, you need to find guys that space the floor
and provide the ability for your best players to get in the lane, who
can knock down shots when they're created for them by kickouts from the lane,
or make the right decision on the catch to know whether to shoot it,
pass it, repenetrate and then make the next play. And Miami has just
a ton of dudes who know how to make that right decision every single time.
To me, that's something I've gained a lot is you look for players
who are always smart. Playing off ball. The thing I always come back
to, and it has nothing to well as it always has something to do.
It's always pertonant is I think was Bob Myers made the comment that the
same type of player who's valuable in the regular season it always isn't always valuable
in the playoffs. And so when you're approaching the draft or free agency or
team building, it's how can I most effectively acquire as many players who hold
up over the course of those sixteen wins that we need when it matters most.
And that's something that always comes back to me. Ever since he said
that Bingo, it's one hundred percent right, and we've seen different archetypes of
players get played off the floor. I'll just give you one example, like
Isaac Accorro Jared Vanderbilt from this year's playoffs. They're really impactful wing defenders and
they're in the regular season. Their lack of shooting ultimately catches up to them
by the playoffs. Unbiased Pistons fan e Many Bates flash in the pan,
who will only be remembered by his high school mixtape or an all star lurking
in the second round in joking, no one between. You must take or
claim and you will be held accountable. Oh I gotta pick one here.
Amani Bates is a difficult one. I think what goes under discussed in this
conversation around him is just how many highly touted high school prospects end up not
making it to the league or end up not getting drafted. It's a shockingly
high number that this is actually pretty common. It's not a super unique story
to a guy like Amanti. It's been more in the mainstream and in the
media, so people are following it more. But guys who kind of fall
flat from the expectations they had early in their careers is not that uncommon.
I still get it and see the upside for a guy like Amani Bates,
but I don't see a lot of the tools that lead me to believe that
he's going to overcome kind of the perception in the area that he's at right
now. He's got a lot of things that he would need to fix about
his game. Kelsey asked, what are the knocks on Kobe Buffkin? Numbers
look good, he has decent size. Why isn't he cracking the top fifteen?
I will say not everyone knew or I don't think I even mentioned that
you were coming on, so maybe I should have. This was not directed
at you, because I know I think he was fifteen. Wasn't Buffkin fifteen
on your latest big boards? So he is in your top fifteen? If
that makes Kelsey feel any better. Spence spends it all over Buffkin. Sam
Vassini and I both have him in our top fourteen. I think Vassini might
have him at like nine, ten or eleven. I'll probably have him at
fourteen or fifteen come time to the draft. The knock on Buffkin right now
is that it's been a really quick ascent during the season from spot up role
player has some skills to running the offense and doing it at a fifty forty
ninety level. It's a small sample size to trust that he's put it all
together, And I think what we're maybe seeing is just a little bit of
hesitance to buy into that small of a sample size and moving a guy super
far up our boards. I rely on you too much. I didn't even
know I've seen he had him. I just looked yet him going. I
think eleven Buffkin in his latest mock that is high. So among players we
haven't talked about so far, did any of them materially impact their draft stock
at the combine? First in a good way? I think the guys who
helped themselves the most of the combine this year were those who chose to play.
We had seventy seven invitees to the NBA Draft Combine this year, and
only like forty four forty three of them ended up playing in scrimmages. There's
an unbelievably low amount of participation in those games. So the real winners are
the ones who bet on themselves competing in won and those are Olivier Maxen's prosper
who went to Marquette and as a six seven, six eight like defensive minded
long wing who started to turn into a really good getch shoot prospect, just
look athletically different on the floor and belongs in that first round. The other
one is Brandon pagems Sky six five combo guard with unbelievable touch and shooting ability
out of Santa Clara. There are some athletic concerns for him, but time
and time again he just pieces it together on offense and finds a way to
make so many different positive plays for his team. So those two guys really
help themselves at the combine. Who if anyone hurt themselves at the combine?
You know, I don't know if anybody really hurt themselves at the combine.
I think a lot of teams right now are somewhat frustrated with the Brandon Miller's
situation, particularly in you know, there's some legal allegations and things going on
surrounding him. He's involved in that process and can't really divulge information. So
teams that are drafting and you know, about to hand a multimillion dollar contract
over to a young kid, they can't get the answers that they necessarily need
in order to feel comfortable overlooking some things and really drafting him and handing him
that contract. So I just think there's some frustration around everything that he's got
through the last several months. That is, I can't and won't comment on
the legal allegations because those are serious. I hate the and there's at least
a player higher in the draft every year. It feels like where there's this
slander campaign about how poorly his interviews are, workouts go, and it just
feels like bullshit to me a lot of the time where there's this information out
there because either as a team trying to impact his draft stock, or is
it just like like a team's mad that they didn't get access. I hate
though we went through it. I think the most notable name recently was Anthony
Edwards. Remember he like basketball and that bullshit, And so I'm just always
inherently skeptical and annoyed when I again just the basketball stuff, not focusing on
whatever is happening off the court. I'm always annoyed when it's like these are
just still kids, Like it just frustrates the hell out of me too.
Damn this question, but I teared. It came from JT Alexander talking about
draft sleepers. Who are you much higher on or most higher on relative to
the consensus? The right guy here is probably CD Sosoko. I mean,
there have been a lot of guys that I end up being higher on early
and then the consensus starts to climb a little bit closer to where I'm at
as we get, you know, two weeks out from the draft. Now,
CD Sosoko is probably the one guy there's still a pretty large gap to
where I have him and a lot of other mainstream analysts do. I've got
a borderline lottery grade on him. Just love the competitive nature, how he
defends multiple positions. Built like a tank like this guy is thick and strong
and uses every inch of his power to his advantage, competes on every possession
on defense. And I am a sucker for guys who hit a late growth
spurt but grew up playing the point guard position, and that's what Sosoko is.
He ran the point over in Europe before coming to the G League nine
team this year. I can really see him just being one of those high
feel utility wings that makes a really positive impact on both ends. And who
are you most lower on relative to consensus? Yeah? You know, I
would have said Jet Howard. Again, this is starting to fall a little
bit closer to where I am in terms of the mainstream. I just never
really was that high on the six eight shooter out of Michigan. I'm going
to go with I'm gonna go with the sare Thompson here because this is one
that I'm just I'm really struggling to get in on. The lack of productivity
in the half court is important to me to be able to focus on.
I don't buy the passing ability translating to like a consistent ball in my hands
type of role, so he ends up being like a non shooting struggle to
score connective piece. I just don't think that I would value him as highly
as some other people do. Right now, where do you land on?
Are you in the middle ground or are you higher or lower relatives everyone else
on bright sensibip, I don't know where most people are at with Bryce,
to be honest, I see a lot of differing opinions on something like him,
Like I think he's a lad in love with him. It's basically what
I'm getting at. I know the defensive concerns. I just feel like he
has it offensively, and I think he might be you know, you're not
drafting him to be your one A, and it almost feels like he might
be better equipped to be the guy who's playing off that guy anyway, and
so could he wind up thriving more than people expect. And I understand the
defensive concerns, but I kind of look, because you look at his size,
I think the question would be canny hold up at actual wing spots.
Yeah, And I feel like I don't have the answer to that, but
I would absolutely take a gamble on him potentially being able to downline. He's
a high upside pick, Dan, and this freshman one and done class is
filled with these like high upside but really questionable in some regard scoring combos or
wings, and no one knows which of those players is going to hit,
and no one really knows who out of them are going to go first or
who's gonna go last on draft night. It's just it's a really jumbled group
of guys. I'm laughing right now or smiling because I saw that you provided
a response to the document. My question to you was, are there any
prospects in particular that you struggled to evaluate or get a grip on leading into
this process, and you responded with, yeah, Dan, thanks, let's
talk about who I suck out of evaluating. I didn't mean it like that.
I'm just who's who's giving you the most pause or struggle when you're trying
to figure out how they scale to the pro game. Yeah, we know
you didn't mean it, Dan Wing Wing. We know that I'm a perennial
doubter of your basketball knowledge. Yeah. I actually just wrote a piece about
this kind of the guys that I'm struggling with most in this draft cycle and
decided to ask this question, and you were offended by it anyway, but
please carry off there we get I think the Thompson Twins we talked about just
the frustrations of the overtime elite program and knowing what to translate from that being
a part of this. You know, we can talk about all those oft
injured players in this draft cycle. That's always a challenge to get a grip
on guys who've missed a large part of the season due to injury. I
think Jalen Hoodshafino is a sneaky, difficult one and he checks so many boxes
that you look for in the modern NBA six six point guard. Really long
defends at the point of attack, unbelievable decision maker with the ball in his
hands, really smooth pull up jumper. Just controls the pace of the game.
But he has two glaring inefficiencies on the offensive end. I think you
can live with one of them. I don't know if he's going to be
very impactful if both of them persist. And it's the ability to finish with
athleticism at the rim, very grounded player who had only one dunk in the
half court this year, one dunk as a six six primary ball handler.
The other thing is he doesn't shoot the ball well as a pull up guy
from three, very mid range heavy, and you have to really commit to
putting the ball in his hands if you're gonna let him play his play style,
because he's not a catch and shoot threat. There's just a lot of
things that need to go right for Hoods Chaffino to get the role that allows
him to be the best version of himself. That just gives me a lot
of pause in the evaluation. I don't know how much role players scalability there
is for him. I first want to applaud you because I'm allowed to ask
that I can ask this question because the fact that you know so much about
the NBA game, like not just the players, but like the team builds,
their aims, their front offices, just the transactions. I thoroughly appreciate
it, and so I did want to ask you when you're looking at the
circumstances towards in the lottery, specifically Orlando two picks in the top eleven,
A handful of teams in the top five might be looking to accelerate timelines Portland,
Houston, Detroit, the quality of teams that we have in the back
end where it's New Orleans and Toronto and Dallas, and then just the overarching
party in the league where I think teams can just talk themselves into being a
lot better and more relevant sooner than maybe a couple of years ago because of
how compacted the standings were this season. Do you think there's more potential for
trades in this year's lottery, even if they're not necessarily happening on Draft night?
But it's all we look back and it was July, and you know
the Blazes are traded whoever they drafted at number three. Yeah, I can
see a little bit of movement in there. I understand that there are a
few obvious points and teams in that lottery that could be looking to move based
on either how things fall or the decisions they make with the direction of their
organization. My gut keeps going back to we kind of hear this year after
year that it's going to be a lot of movement in the draft. Teams
are always looking to make this type of deal, and then everyone plays chicken
and stays where they're at, takes the guys that they think are going to
fit their organization long term. I do think this is a pretty good draft
class. I don't think it's a weak one. There's two absolute stars,
but there's depth to be found throughout the rest of the lottery and parts of
the first out. I also think that there's a lot of eyes on next
year's draft by the league executives as being a potentially weak one or at least
one that doesn't have a top tier star or two or three or four.
And the result of that is a lot of times teams make those moves on
draft day in order to acquire some future assets in general, and I don't
think the twenty twenty four draft is predictably strong enough to want to trade into
a lottery pick in next year's draft right now, So it just takes away
another one of the mechanisms that a team would utilize to slide up or down
that board. Do you think if they move the draft to after free agency
for the free agency before the reft of you want to frame it, that
that would be more conducive to draft movement on actual draft night or would it
be more prohibitive. I think it would be conducive to more, but it's
probably not a good thing for the league long term because it kind of devalues
the draft picks in some regard. I think that if you discard them away
because you need to make different salary cap maneuvers in order to get this rumored
guy that's still available, it just ends up making these young guys and the
value of draft picks kind of skyrocket down the board, and that's not a
good thing for the NBA. They want to protect the draft as an entire
entity, So I think it's probably good where it's at. I'm with you
there by the way, I don't think they should change I know a lot
of people do. Our final question comes from the big fella looking back at
the King's taking Keegan Murray over Jay n Ivey. I think you look at
that pick as a win and probably the right choice. How do you think
the way that turned up will impact teams decisions this year, if at all?
And what teams should maybe try to make more of a win now over
potential with their pick. Yeah. I don't know if i'd call it a
win now move, but I think what Keegan has done has shown the importance
of adding the right high end role player like fourth or fifth starter to a
team that's ready to burst. That's the value here. And if there's one
that I would circle in this lottery area, really I'll go two teams that
I would circle, it's Detroit at five in Indiana at seven. And that's
continually why guys like Jaris Walker and Taylor Hendricks kind of show up here.
Is the right role player who brings everything together really can help tie Kid Cunningham
and Jade and Ivy in a half court offense with Jalen Durhan and the right
big men in there together that the right four man in Indiana can allow Miles
Turner, Tyrese Haliburton and the litany of floor spacing. They have to just
let them become a playoff team sooner than later. So it's not it doesn't
go back to the fit versus best player available conversation we had earlier, necessarily,
but I do think that there is value in just going with a guy
you know is going to help tie those pieces together. Before I ask you
about how you know your lottery mock would shake out there any one anything in
this draft, I didn't ask you about that. You think we should discuss,
you know, we hit on a lot of the top prospects. I
think a couple other names to mention one. I'll go with one last one
here, Balal Kolabali for Metropolitans, teammate of Victor Wemban. Yama's starting to
skyrocket up draft boards in a lot of different ways, and that's based both
off of kind of different analysts seeing the upside in him now and putting him
in the lottery grade, as well as the rumors that are out there that
he may have a lottery promise. Just an athletic freak eighteen year old from
France. Really raw game right now shows so many flashes on the defensive end
of the floor and is starting to get some on ball creation reps as a
teenager playing in the French League playoffs. That's so rare, and people are
trying to with only two weeks three weeks left to the draft, makes sense
of what all that means. It's really challenging to do. But he's a
name that is just starting to creep into that higher end conversation now. So
you think there's a real chance, then, like there's validity to the reporting
that he might have a lottery promise. I think there's from what I'm here
and what I'm seeing, there's some real buzz around it that is pretty incredible
because where was he being if we were to rewind two months ago, where
was he mocked around or where was he on big boards? Yeah, I
think he probably in a lot of places, would have been a late first
round, high upside draft and stash investment, or a guy that just goes
back to France next year in prepared to the twenty twenty four NBA Draft trying
to be a top ten pick. Then okay, so I'm going to ask
you a twenty twenty three NBA mock draft for just a lottery I'm just going
to give you the team, and I just want to know who you would
take. And so we're going to begin the biggest mystery of all. The
San Antonio Spurs at number one. Oh boy, tough one for me,
but the first overall pick. San Antonio's first select, Victor wemban Yama.
The Hornets at number two. I'm going best player available in a guy I
absolutely buy into. Scoot Henderson the Blazers at number three. I think Portland
probably goes Brandon Miller here. That to me seems like the right fit.
The Rockets at number four, Big Amen Thompson, guy who love the long
term upside. I'd love to see him in Jalen Green together in Houston in
that backhourt long term. The Detroit Pistons at number five. This is what
we just talked about here, was is prioritizing the right guy to tie everything
together. Jaris Walker from Houston goes to Detroit Pistons. Just a really solid
team defender who has a lot more skilled than he was able to show in
his one year in college on the offensive end. The Orlando Magic at number
six, going high upsides. Swing Cam Whitmore from Villanova is just another athletic
paint touch guy who you cannot keep out of lane, unbelievably untapped upside for
him. I'd love to see in a couple of years what he Palaman Carroll
and friends Wagner looked like together. The Indiana Pacers at number seven, your
boy Taylor Hendrix's Yeah, it's the right fit for the team. Their length
on the defensive end of the floor, still young enough in their team building
trajectory that they can allow him to try to tap into different things offensively if
they see that upside in him. The Wizards at number eight, I think
a sar Thompson is going to be the guy that is most likely to go
here, eight and nine here, and these are back to back picks with
Washington and the Utah on the clock. Like a Sara Thompson and Anthony Black.
It's really a pick your poison there. I'm a big Anthony Black fan,
but both of them are high processing lead guards so to speak, who
make good plays with ball in their hands, don't shoot it really well right
now, but could also be connective players with how they defend, like very
similar kind of profiles. I just into Anthony Blacket hell of a lot more
as an intangibles guy, So Anthony Black to the Jazz at number nine.
Anthony Black to the Jazz at number nine. Congratulations to Utahn winning the NBA
Draft. The Mavericks at number ten, Derek Lively, the big man out
of Duke. I think it's still a little bit underrated how much of an
impact he is having as a rim protector the final eight weeks of the basketball
season for him as a freshman. We're on par with the elite of the
elite NBA rim protectors that they've turned into. Dallas needs help on defense.
I think it's okay that he's not on the floor late games because he's kind
of a rim bound center, but just a legitimate defensive anchor. The Orlando
Magic at number eleven after daycin best player available earlier with Cam Whitmore. They
need some shooting and floor spacing badly. Going with Grady Dick out of Kansas,
Oksey Thunder at number twelve. Thunder liked to go with these high character,
high work ethic, but positionally long and skilled with the ball in their
hands players. Leonard Miller from the G League I Knight definitely fits that mold.
He can help them be a unique front court partner for chet Homegren long
term. He just strikes me as a thunder e guy. The Toronto Raptors
at number thirteen, here's where I'll go, Bilal Coolabali out of Metropolitans.
Just seems like he's trending in that direction right now. Messiah Jerry has not
been unwilling to take wings on international prospects, and these raw athletic wings before.
I'd be really curious to see what he and Scotty Barnes look like together
on defense long term. And finally, the Pelicans at number fourteen, My
boy Kobe Buffkin going here. I think that in New Orleans they need to
continue to thread the needle between guys who can play on ball and off ball.
Next to a Zion Williamson type of court. They need a little bit
more rim pressure. Buffkin shot seventy seven zero percent at the rim this year.
Is a six four guard. He's also a very good shooter from beyond
the range. And yeah he's got some l to him on the defensive end
too, very pelicany type of player here at fourteen, here's open Kelsey from
Discord as a Pelicans fan. Then, since they wanted to see some more
top fifteen love for for Kobe Buffin Spins. This was great. Are you
able to tell our listeners where they can find you and all the fantastic work
that you put out. I am so able and I am happy to do
so. Anyone out there who wants to find more draft covers that I put
out, go to my Twitter page at the box in one underscore. It
links to where I have all my other work. You can find me on
YouTube with my name Adam Spinella. A lot of scouting reports, mock drafts
and big boards over there, and then on my substack page the box in
one dot substack dot com. I have the written companions that go with those
videos, put them into context a little bit more and talk about where I
project all these players out to be so great resource for people. As we're
about two weeks away from the draft here, can't believe that the end is
coming, but I am eyeing that finish line so I can get some fucking
sleep. The link to that spins a substack will be in the podcast on
YouTube description, So go clicking and subscribe, consume all that fantastic work Spins.
Thank you. As always, I am related that in a few weeks
I'm you will be going to get some sleep, and I hope you were
able to steal some obviously in between now and I will be talking to you
very very ste