Join Eddie Aparicio and Anthony Twan Coral on Buzzer Beaters Episode 52, your go-to basketball podcast from Grumblings Media. This episode covers the thrilling NBA Finals matchup between the Thunder and Pacers, analyzing key players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton, and predicting series outcomes. The hosts also preview the 2025 NBA Draft, breaking down needs and targets for 15 teams across the Pacific, Central, and Southeast Divisions, including the Warriors, Kings, Bucks, and more. Tune in for expert insights, fantasy points analysis, and draft strategies.
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Chapters:
00:01:11 NBA Finals Discussion
00:02:09 Hosts’ Personal Updates
00:03:34 Live Show Details and Audience Engagement
00:07:03 NBA Finals Game Analysis
00:12:28 Thunder’s X-Factor Players
00:13:38 Coaching Adjustments in the Finals
00:15:15 Viewership and NBA Finals Market Impact
00:17:59 Fantasy Points and Player Efficiency Breakdown
00:22:46 Overall Playoff Fantasy Points Rankings
00:27:20 NBA Draft Preview Introduction
00:28:09 Sacramento Kings Draft Needs
00:35:40 Golden State Warriors Draft Needs
01:27:17 Cleveland Cavaliers Draft Needs
01:29:25 Milwaukee Bucks Draft Needs
01:34:14 Chicago Bulls Draft Needs
01:37:47 Atlanta Hawks Draft Needs
01:42:14 Charlotte Hornets Draft Needs
01:49:35 Miami Heat Draft Needs
01:54:05 Orlando Magic Draft Needs
01:59:36 Washington Wizards Draft Needs
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Yo! What’s up? Hoop Head nation, this is Eddie Aparicio on this show, and I’m joined by my co-host
Anthony Tuan Coral. And this is episode 52 of Buzzer Beaters. We are a podcast dedicated to basketball. Brought to you by grumblings. Medium.com. You can find us at Grumblings. Medium.com. You can also find us on any other popular
podcast site that you can think of. So it says Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, Apple and, Facebook acts, you name it,
you can go ahead and find us whatever suits you. Just go ahead and type in Grumblings Media
and you can find us if this is your first time here. Hey, where have you been? Where the hell are you, man? Yeah, we’ve been here. We’ve been. This is our 52nd episode, right? And, we are going to go ahead and cover
the NBA finals. It’s already just started. Actually, game three is going on right now
as we’re having this. So if you’re here. Hey, thanks for listening to us
as the game is going on. Because if you’re watching this,
that means you’re a hoop head. And if you’re a hoop head, you’re
definitely watching the finals. So appreciate, you know, listening
and as we’re doing this but we’re going to go ahead
and cover the finals first. And then two weeks from today
is actually the 2025 NBA draft. And we’re going to go ahead and cover
15 teams today. Yeah. And 15 teams next week. We’re going to go ahead and cover
three divisions today, namely the Pacific Division, the Central Division
of the Eastern Conference, and then also the South Eastern
Division of the Eastern Conference. And then the following week, we’re going
to go ahead and cover the remainder of it. So essentially
that’s going to be the, Atlantic and the Eastern Conference
in the northwest and then the Southwest Division
of the Western Conference. That’ll be next week. So, we’re going to go ahead and go ahead. And before we get started on
what’s been going on with the man, how’s everything been, man? I’ve been good. I’m enjoying my man. You know, another working,
another workweek. Working. I’m working on my garden. For those that don’t know.
Oh. You took your. You have a green thumb, bro. I don’t know if my mind has got a green
thumb, dude, but, you know,
you know, when you work from home and you’re know, you’re in the house,
like, 40 hours a day, and. Yep. And so whenever I get an opportunity
to go to the yard and cut this clip, that water, this water
that, you know, we do, I do it. So, hey, I’ve heard
that gardening is a therapeutic thing. It is for me. Yeah. So, yeah, for sure, because, you see, you kind of cultivating something,
watching it grow, right? Eat it. The right ingredients for it to thrive
and exact wording for you to see something that thrives. Right. You know, in our household, bro, we buy like flowers when it’s dead
and like three and 3 or 4 days. So we’re not doing it right. And then so we got two things
to learn from you, bro. Yeah, right. You gotta, you gotta
you gotta talk to them and give a little water
and a little fertilizer a little food. Yeah. They stick around for a minute, but yeah, so did a lot of gardening,
you know, in the yard. And, you know, there’s usually,
since you work all week, the whole weekend is for catching up
on chores. The Costco runs and crud like that. So you, man nothing,
nothing out of the ordinary. How about you?
And how was it? How’s your week been? All good. And before I get into that, you’re feeling better now
because you were hacking up my last. I’m better. So my beats. Yeah.
My cough will come from time to time. I mean, you see,
you may see me mute myself here and there, while I’m coughing, but, you know, it’s
just a cough now I feel okay. A little lethargic still,
but overall, I’m all right. I’m here and kick your butt, man.
So. Yeah. But anyway, for me. Oh, by the way,
we are live. We heard live every Wednesday at 9 p.m. eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. So go ahead. We’re here for you
because we want to hear from you. Your comments or questions. Anything you’d like to ask, just
please feel free. Go ahead. If your platform allows you to go ahead
and put a comment, please do so. Twan. So for me, what’s been going on? Nothing. Nothing. You know, out of the ordinary, bro. It’s just normal. You know, every day is kind of
a, you know, I go through a routine of my routine base
guy, right? I get up,
you know, at a certain time, do some work. And in this, you know, I do some working out in the middle of the day,
like, right around lunch time. And really, only one meal a day.
You see me eat, bro? I do that for a time. You. Yeah, right. So I today I have my one meal and I,
you know, I went to lunch with a coworker, of mine that a former coworker,
a coworker colleague. And he saw me eat sushi, dude. And he was like, oh, my God,
I can’t believe what you just been eating. But this is my only meal,
so I gotta do it, right? But, you know, the other thing is
that, you know, we talked about this over text is that, you know, fantasy
football is around the corner. No. Yes. Podcast right around the corner. Know it’s, you know, you’re you’re
you’re kind of standing in line, you know, as the first person in line,
is it to fill a void. That’s in our league. But we have a 14 team league
that’s going on and we already hit. We already go ahead. We went ahead and, soon selected the draft picks. So I randomly selected,
you know, the draft order. And now everybody knows where they are going to be seated
so they can go to this thing right now. Right. Because the last thing you want
is kind of like what we used to do is go ahead and, and and make selections
right on draft day. And everybody’s
kind of has the same during the same, you know, boat where they kind of
just don’t have much preparation. They just kind of just wing it. And sometimes those drafts
take a long time. And what I found is when you go ahead
and give the, the members in your league some time to prepare,
it goes by a lot faster usually. So, yeah, go ahead and do this. But dude, I got, I got
I got the kiss of death, bro. Is that the first pick. Yeah,
that is the kiss of death, dude. Yeah. So are you. Are you, are you guys are you
are you guys a snake draft? Do you snake. Yeah. We just serpentine snake draft.
Yeah. Yeah. I’m I’m I’m a fan. I’m a fan of being somewhere. If you’re a 14 team
league, I’d be somewhere like seven. Eight would be where I’d want to be. Yeah. It’s it’s the safer pick me. I mean, when you’re right in the middle, you definitely tend
to get a better team usually. But it really depends on, you know, kind of like the players, you know,
because there’s, there’s a, there’s a big, emphasis
usually on the running backs early just because you’re not that many of them
that are really, really good. Right. And then after that you have white fever and then you usually pick quarterbacks
kind of late and tight ends kind of late. But you know,
that’s that’s kind of what we did, man. We did our we went ahead and came up
with the draft order. Everybody’s kind of excited.
Now we’re going to go to Tahoe. And no, dude
when you you’re in our league, bro. Hopefully when you get in our league
at some point it kind of yeah. It conflicts with Dale,
your wife’s birthday that week that. Yeah. The way we do it is we have our draft
the first Saturday right before the Sunday of game starting. So the Thursday games, because there’s
a Friday game going on this year. Those games are are we going to happen
and people can draft those. And you know those players and you know some of those guys go out
sometimes or does. And it it really affects
kind of how people draft. So yeah. Anyway that’s that’s what’s going on man. So anyway, so without further ado, man,
let’s get into a man. Let’s get into,
so the NBA finals is going on right now. Game three is going on
as we’re talking about right now. And let me tell you, man,
we knew this is going to be a doozy when that first game happened, you know,
and when the Pacers were kind of just you know they were hanging around man. And usually the Thunder you know the Thunder at home
they usually just tax people man. Because you know
especially when they’re well rested. And they were rested right. Because it had been some time
since they played Pacers you know had just finished their series
and kind of only have a couple days off, you know, before they started. Yeah. When I saw that game and I’m like,
oh, this is going to be this is going to be a serious competition
here. Because, you know, in Tyrese
Haliburton, man, that guy’s got like,
you know, ice water in his veins. Now he’s doing you notice
this clutch player. And it’s interesting
that this is all happening when, you know, he was kind of voted as one of the most
overrated guys by his peers. And he’s just letting everybody up
with that man. Yeah balling man right. You know so
but but you know signals that signals Alexander is going to do what he does. He’s a he’s a he’s a boss right. I mean yes
an MVP for a reason. He’s taking over. But these are the two deepest teams
in the NBA playoffs. And you’re seeing it. They’re going ten deep which is kind of
not usual at most teams go like 7 to 8. And if you’re Tom Thibodeau
or you know no longer time to review. Tom’s always 60. But yeah but these two guys are 2010 2010
people deep. And it’s showing, man. I mean, I think the others are going to go ahead
and dictate the outcome of this series. I mean, that’s my call right now,
I think. Yeah. Like, you know, guys coming off the bench
like a TJ McConnell, you know, guys like, you know, Obi Toppin, you know,
some of these guys that are kind of, you know, filling in the blanks when those
starters kind of get their blow. I think these guys are going to dictate
what’s going to happen. And I in my opinion I think the Pacers
I think is going to go seven. I mean I called them before, you know everything started that I thought
this series would go at least six. And so far we’ll see. And if the Pacers win tonight
it’s definitely going six right I agree. Yeah. So what are your thoughts for the
so you know the the fascinating stat that I have from game one. And I didn’t know how to read it because
I really thought on this for a minute. Was the Pacers led that game for point
three seconds. Yep 0.3 seconds. That’s all they had
which was the final point three seconds. Yeah. And then triple that. And and they had like 21 turnovers in the half in the first half
something like that. And I just think you know obviously
as we’ve mentioned a million times before, we’re Warriors fans
and we know how much of a death case, the how much of a death case
turnovers are. And I was thinking to myself
and they’re given, they’re given the Thunder way
too much, way too many opportunities. But I think the Thunder raises they’re
giving the Pacers way too many options. No no. Though the Pacers were giving the Thunder
Thunder too many off turnovers. Yeah. But shockingly the Thunder were only able
to convert about 11 points of those 21 turnovers. Right. Which is not it’s
I don’t think it’s even barely 50% right on the turnovers which turnovers
usually you want a much higher percentage. And so I thought that that was the difference in the game
that the Thunder were unable to convert. Take advantage to take advantage
and then gain two, as you saw that that was kind of more true to form more
how I expected the games to go. You know, Halliburton had a Halliburton’s
had a rough first half in both games. He had a little bit of a limp
at the end of game two. We’ll see. You know, I haven’t had an opportunity
to check out the game. I’ve been prepping for this
or I haven’t seen, you know, how if he looks hobbled at all
or anything. So that’s going to be interesting. But yeah, absolutely. A deep team. Normally, when you have a deep team,
the people on the bench are younger players and usually
younger players play better at home. So I would I would expect overall the, the Pacers to play better at home
than, than they do on the road. So right now they’re behind,
by about eight points or ten points, and that’s going to be expected. And you know that the Thunder you know,
the Thunder lost an opportunity to to take command of the series
in game one. Do you the guys who take game
one are usually, you know, 77% win the series, right? Whatever that stat is. But you know, they knew
they kind of squandered an opportunity. And you know that you knew
that they were going to come out really, really strong in game two,
which they did. But the pieces were no slouch either. They actually played
well up until like the third or later the third quarter
and less in the fourth quarter. But today’s you know, you knew the Pacers knew that
they were going to get their best in the first quarter
from the Thunder. Yep. If they can weather the storm
which I think they might man I think this I think this this series is going to go
at least six. Man. At least you know
there’s people that are predicting that the game one is the only game at
the Pacers are going to win. I don’t think so. I mean this team you know they’re deep. They they play defense in spurts. They’re an office and they’re offensive
juggernaut man when they’re on right. And you know are two. But what really really you know rallies
the Thunder’s offense is their defense. And their defense is tenacious right. Yes. And and if they create the turnovers
they’re going to win. If they don’t create the turnovers
then you’re going to see that Malcolm
that summer that you saw in game one I think you know if they don’t
take advantage of the turnovers either that then you’re going to see
nothing more or less than one. So yeah yeah. No the Thunder
definitely has to take advantage of their the they’re definitely the better
defensive team. You know offensively we can argue
who’s might be the better team. But without a doubt
the Thunder are the better defensive team. And they need to take full advantage of
the opportunities their defense creates. And that’s the best way to do
that is on turnovers right. All right. Well let me ask you something. So we will see Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s here. Yep. He’s definitely the best player on the
the Thunder okay. Correct. Who do you think on
the Thunder is the X factor for them? Who do you think is the guy that’s going
to dictate the outcome of this series? If the Thunder were to go ahead and just
clean house and take the Pacers out. So I have I have two I have two people. But I think one is obvious
which would be Jalen Williams right. That guy. But I think the X Factor is Caruso right. So you know I agree with you
I think Caruso is too. But you know they have been starting
this guy case and Wallace now. And he’s been actually performing
pretty well as a starter, which I thought was a weird adjustment
that they did. You know, Mark diagonal
decided to go small and take up Isaiah Harden saying, come, you know,
have him come off the bench. When I saw that, I thought like, oh. This is kind of like usually
not a good sign when it when the team does that adjustment, especially a team of that
caliber does an adjustment. Right. We talked about this
in the previous podcast. It’s kind of like when the Mavericks
are just the Warriors on small ball. Remember that. Yeah. Yeah. It was in that series
I thought this is the same kind of thing. I thought maybe the Mavericks or
excuse me, the the Thunder were kind of doing the same thing. So you will see maybe. But it seems to be that
that adjustment seemed that worked out initially,
but towards the end of the game, you know, it kind of
went back to the Isaiah Hartenstein a little bit and you know,
but you know we’ll see. We’ll see. You know, you know
what’s funny? You know what’s funny, Eddie, is these, these adjustments
that coaches make in the postseason. There’s so. There’s so like Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde like if, if a coach doesn’t
make any changes the fans are on him. Like why didn’t you adjust right then. And then when they do adjust you’re like
why are you changing the same recipe you’ve been using all season? You know,
it’s like they’re damned if they do and they’re damned if they don’t. You know, to me,
one of the biggest changes was, you know,
in, in in the early Warriors year when they put a dollar
in the starting five, you know, after he’d been,
you know, been a six man off the bench and they put him in the starting
five to win against Cleveland. I think it was the third year,
the third championship. Right. And that was kind of like Dean like,
oh, that was you know, that was that was the creation of the death
lineup. Right? That was the birth of the death lineup. And and so to me, you know,
I think that if you’re going to tinker and you’re going to do these
kind of things, you want to do it
earlier in the series than later. So, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you. Because because if you were to look
at the Dallas series, they did that after,
I think the second game, I think it was after the game one.
It was actually I think the second game I knew it was they
they were in a dogfight. Whereas you know this you’re right. You know
Daigneault can go ahead and tinker. He is he can afford the to do that right
now. Right. Because he does have a strong rested team. And, you know, he wants to kind of be able
to hang with the speed of the thunder of the, of the Pacers. Right. And you know, the Thunder play fast too. These both these teams play fast. And this is what makes great basketball. Now what’s interesting
is the viewership right. You know the NBA did not want to see this
matchup. Yeah. So far you know the
and you know the NBA fans true NBA fans you know have been
you know been given a gift right. Because the games are really really good. And this is the correct answer right. The thing is
that they’re both small market teams. And you know, it’s it’s it’s we’re going
to we’re going to see what happens here. But I, I predicted because William
you know, he he says that, you know
this is probably one of the lower. It’s actually the lowest. Yeah. Rated finals
since the Covid finals. Right. I predicted that this game, you know,
game two would have been an increase I think game three, I think it’s going to be even higher
just because it’s now, you know, it’s it’s a series
that people didn’t expect that the that the Pacers would take in one. But that’s
what makes compelling basketball. Well you know what’s funny
Eddie, is you know, the NBA fan that’s, not a well,
I say not a true fan, but the NBA fan that doesn’t
get into the minutia of the players. Typically, they go for the names, right? Oh, is LeBron playing? Is Curry playing. Is Giannis playing. You know is Jokic playing. You know that’s what they
that’s what they look at the names right. And so what you have here
even though SGA was the MVP of the league he’s still relatively unknown. You know in terms of like league fame
you know. And so and then you look at like Haliburton he’s
not he’s not very well known either. You know I think that you know
had these guys been to the championships a couple of more years and then they play you know, and then that
you’d get a lot more watching. I think that this is a treat for like
the fans that do actually like the game. And I follow the league
all season long street. Because what I look at, you know, for me,
I look at this game as a game of a team of skill versus
a team of moxie, right. Indiana’s just a team of moxie, bro.
They’re just good. They’re going to ball out
and they’re going to do whatever they whatever the hell they can to win. And and the Thunder
is just a team of skill. They’re skilled offensively.
They’re skilled defensively. They’re a smooth team. They’re you know they’re a complete team
in every sense of the word. And that to me is what I find fascinating. You know it’s kind of like,
you know, professionals versus streetball almost like or like David versus Goliath
or anything like that. Right. But Indiana’s bigger than David, right? I mean, they’re they’re not quite
that much of a difference. But they are
they play a completely different style. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just just from an overall like,
you know, net rating I mean this this team set a record on
net rating right. 12. Yeah. To one
I think it was the net rating. Pacers are nowhere close. That’s
why I’m saying that this is considered the best net rating team of all time
that we’ve seen in history. Therefore there are David Wright
or Sydney Goliath in the David or the the Pacers
because they’re not necessarily, you know, even supposed to be
even in this series. Right. But they are they made all right. They made the series, man. So, Yeah. Hey, bro. You you have the slides. I think we had, I think the first flight
up there for the Pacers, you know,
kind of just showing kind of the, the bring it up against the points
per minute. You know, just kind of
want to go ahead and and dovetail into,
you know, the next segment after that. But anyway
so you can go ahead and put maybe sweet. Yeah. There we go. So for those of you who haven’t seen this,
this is your first time seeing it. What I put up here
is, you know, the the fantasy points and the statistics
that are accumulated in the game. And what you can see on the totals
are the totals, fantasy points that these players have accumulated
throughout the entire playoffs. Right. So you can see someone like a
Tyrese Haliburton, you can see the 750.1. That’s how many fantasy points
he has accumulated throughout the entire playoffs. And this is including game one in game
two of this series. So, you can see the wizard are highlighted
in kind of that light orange. There are the ones that have the
that they’re the most efficient from a fantasy points
per minute standpoint. And that’s what you’re looking for. For those of you who play fantasy
basketball, you’re looking for efficiency. Where do you want to spend your money?
Right. You can we do like, you know, daily
fantasy sports, for instance. This is what you’re looking for.
You’re looking for efficiency. You can see on the other end, for for the, the Thunder circuit,
say, Gilgeous Alexander. He’s got like, you know, 938.2 points. That’s ridiculous. And we thought, like, New York is at 817,
we’re thinking, wow, that’s not going to be possible. This guy is just blown right by right now. But you know I don’t know about blown. He’s had two more series than he has. But he’s I mean he’s to you can get a thousand points
you know over a thousand points. I think it’s going to be the only guy
that’s going to get to a thousand points
in all of the playoffs, right? Of course. Right. But you can see he’s the most efficient
guy on both games, right? Yeah. He’s actually 1.42 and one point, 811. I think it is. I can’t see why they want. Yeah. So so so and but if you look on the bench,
like I said, I think the bench is going to dictate
who’s going to win the series. Right. And they’re both very balanced. And look how many players are all playing
you know 5 to 6 players deep. You can see like in game two they haven’t
played Jairus Walker the Pacers. So he’s got zeros you know. But you can see in the first game in game
one you can see that on the Thunder side Jalen Williams and Kendrick Williams
didn’t play but they did play in game two right. So so you can see there’s a lot of mixing
and matching depending on the on the on the on the on the matchups. Right. So but anyway for those of you
who haven’t seen this before, at the very bottom you can see Terrence
Big get carved in six. We thought at this point
it was going to be the Cavs Glenn. So that does gonna be Cassius I was gonna
be Celtics versus the Clippers. This is why we’re highlighting.
We were both wrong. There were some concerns that we had. And you know
he already bought me ones for it. And it wasn’t a Happy Meal by the way. It was actually a legit
freaking lunch. So thank you to one, anything else you want to call out? Yeah. Well, for me, the one thing I want to
I want to notice or acknowledge
is if you look at the Thunder’s numbers. Right, the 142, 181, they’re on par with
what they’ve been doing in previous games. Right. So the good team, the winning teams
are usually I’ve been kind of noting this are usually somewhere in the 1.2
to 1.6 range. You know there’s players in there. And that’s what the Pacers
have been doing prior to these two games. When you look at these two games now
they’re 1.1, you know or Pascal Siakam. They’re getting that defensive action. Yeah. So so and the one that really stood out
to me was TJ McConnell McConnell because TJ McConnell was in some games
against the Knicks. The highest three point fantasy points
per minute player on the court. You know he was like in the 1.41.5. And what’s interesting
is how much of a harder time he’s getting, he’s having on getting to the basket
than he did against the Knicks when he was playing the Knicks. He could get to the basket
almost every or two. And in this game he he turns the corner
and there’s like another player there and he’s got to zip out. Right. So it’s a fundamental difference. Oh yeah. It’s
because the Knicks were just worn out bro. Yeah exactly exactly. They’re not going to be playing as
tenacious of a defense as the Thunder are. Right. Because all their players are playing
like 40 something minutes per game man. So yeah. But yet yeah but it’s a good observation
because in the past we’ve seen the Pacers you know fantasy points per minute
roughly about 1 to 1.2. And you’re seeing only like 1 or 2
in the one point. Barely in the ones
you can barely in the ones. Yeah yeah yeah.
So it’s a good call out man. But you know
this is going to be an interesting because you got one very,
very predominantly defensive minded team. And one that’s very predominantly
offensive minded. And we’re going to see who wins.
We all know that. The adage is that, you know,
the defense wins championships, right. And the Thunder are the best defensive team in the league
and the best defensive team in history. So let’s go ahead and dovetail
to the next slide bro. All right. So we’ve been keeping track of all of the overall fantasy points and overall player
efficiency for all the entire playoffs. So this is your first time
checking this out. We go ahead and rank the one through 15 for the total
fantasy points that you see on the left. And then the one on the right
is the fantasy points per minute. They’re sorted in order
based on the right, fantasy points from the left
being fantasy points total. Now the ones that are highlighted in red, those are the guys that have been
eliminated. There’s no longer there,
no longer accumulating any points. But the guys in black are the ones
that are continuing to accumulate points. But you can see that in order
for somebody else on the Thunder
or the Pacers to get on this list, they’re going to have to displace
Josh Hart at 527.2 points. And there is nowhere close
no close on the Pacers right now. I think the only one who could come close
right now is nembhard. Them hardest is one
that could probably get there. He’s at 486.9. And then you have on the the Thunder. You have Isaiah Hartenstein. He’s at 443.1 and he’s not on this list. So those are the only two that I think it would probably displace
Josh Hart and or Jamal Murray on the list. But what you see here is pretty much
what you’re going to get for the entire, fantasy playoffs
as far as efficiency. But what’s interesting to Eddie here is, the whole starting
five of the Knicks are on this list. Yeah. You know, but you can see that. But, like, look,
you look at the efficiency side of it. Oh, no no, no. Understood. But to me.
Yeah, yeah. Tell me how heavy how might how do you go
play those games for how much they play. You know. Absolutely. Because you look at like Oklahoma City
there’s three of them right. Yep. You know there’s only three players. But yeah Minnesota there’s only two right. Denver there’s two. So everyone is like in the two
maybe three range. And then all five Knicks are on there. Yeah yeah yeah. But you know the Thunder they have three. And Indiana only has two right. Yeah I know
they both have three three and three. They both have three and three.
So we’ll see. You know who emerges who’s going to be
getting there as the fourth is going to be the Pacers are going to be a Thunder
I think pacer because nembhard is the guy
who’s closest he’s closer to correct. Hartenstein. So, all right, man,
before we go on to the next, I mean, any other comments or questions
or, by the way, for those of you who are watching,
thanks for being here. Please, if you have any questions
or comments, please feel free to go ahead and type in a question
or comment on your, on the platform. If your platform allows you
to go ahead and do that because we’re here, live for you. So, if you pay,
you’ve been here for other, podcasts. We appreciate you coming back
and listening and again, and you probably have seen some of the, you know, a couple episodes ago
we had JJ Stokes here. Great. It was a great, great interview,
great conversation. And then we’ve also talked about player
greatness in this. We’re going to talk about that
this week. Yeah. But we’re going to go ahead and continue
punting, you know putting that in every now and then, as the summer comes,
you know, as the summer goes on. So, all right, so, any other comments
before we move on to our next segment? No, no, I think this is this is good. It’s still surprising. You know, obviously,
there’s only, you know, five players. Come on. Obviously there’s 5 to 7 player
5 to 8 players that would qualify on this. But it’s surprising
how many Reds are still in here. You have any players
that have been out of the series? You know I’m just kind of taking a look
and seeing, you know, how how, how long it’s been since the person,
the team has been eliminated. And it looks like everybody here
was at least in the conference finals. I don’t see anybody. Actually, Denver wasn’t in the conference
finals. Yep. So Denver
is the only team that I see, right. Because Minnesota was in the conference
finals. The Knicks were in the conference finals. Yeah. So the Denver is
the Denver is the only one. So interesting. Hey, by the way,
one thing I want to point out before we advance the slides,
I did highlight in green in the, the fantasy points, the one on the left,
you can see that highlighted in green with the minutes
played as well as Myles Turner. Those are the lowest of the group. That’s why I wanted to highlight them
because the 15 they were the lowest and then the highest
was highlighted in red. And that’s Myles Britt. Mikael Bridges is at 701 minutes. That’s crazy man. You know Shea Gilgeous-Alexander is going
to get probably after this game today. But he’s the only one
that’s going to get there, man. Yeah. And then right behind him is OG Anunoby
which is also a nick at 696. Yep. But they just you know I give it I give the Knicks props
that they got as deep as they did. Because man they play a lot. Yeah big time big time.
Yeah I mean those guys had to be in serious shape to continue that
all right man. So we’re going to go into our pre-draft
preview of all. We’re going to cover 15 teams. Like I said we’re going to cover the
the Pacific Division. Then we’re also going to cover
the Central Division of the Eastern Conference
and then the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. We’re going to cover 15 teams today
and then 15 teams next week, and then we’re going to go ahead and we’re
the like, we have our live draft show. We haven’t talked to our producers yet. We’re more than likely we’re going to have to do a live draft
show here on the 25th of June. So let’s go ahead and, oops,
I put the wrong, by the way, you know, I put these little things up
here, and it’s covering your face, man. Maybe you can move yourself
to the other side. Maybe we could do that. We could do like this. No, it doesn’t work that way. We should do it. We can’t. Oh, that’s even worse. Oh, man. What are you doing? We can’t move us, man. Anyway.
Well, let’s see, let’s try this. Yeah, that’s a little bit better. I mean, we can listen to them
now. We’re not. We’re tiny. Yeah. We’re tiny.
We’re just for right now. They were tiny,
but they can still see us, man. All right. Okay, go for it. All right. So for those of for you, Eagle eyes out there, Eddie and I, had a little bit
of a different template to work off of. You’re going to see that Eddie put, you know, some likely free agents
that would be good for the team. I did not. I’ll talk to it here live, but
I just wanted to, kind of highlight that. So the Sacramento Kings had a you know, what I would consider
a disappointing season? You know, they were preseason. They were one of the teams that were,
I think that were, you know, thought that they would make the playoffs.
They never they didn’t make the playoffs. They made the play in,
but they never made the playoffs. You know, they lost their starting,
point guard De’Aaron Fox, which in my opinion was a huge loss. Oh yeah. They they fired they fired their coach. You know early on in the season
which in my opinion was a mistake. But whatever. Doug Christie now is the coach. And so they did that
in terms of their stats, you know as you can see offensively
they were pretty decent. They were the seventh ranked team
in the league at 115.9 points. Now keep in mind that De’Aaron Fox was
part of that for at least half the season. So some of that you know obviously he
contributed to defensively they were poor. You know you want to I in my opinion
to be a playoff caliber team. You want to be 15 or higher in
each of these and each of those categories I agree with each of those categories. So when you’re the 22nd ranked
defensive team, that’s that’s subpar. They had a net rating of 0.6,
which put them right in the middle, which basically means, you know,
on average they won a game by 0.6 points, which, you know, that’s interesting too.
Let me let me interject real quick. So yeah, yeah, we do at least 15
for offensive and defensive rating. Right. What’s interesting is their net
rating is exactly at 15. Exactly. It feels
it tells you more than likely that, you know, this team
should have been better than they are. Right. Because, correct
usually means that you’re you’re definitely vying
for a playoff position, right? You just they’re 16 teams that make it. This is a team
that probably should have been there. Correct? Correct. Which also tells me that if they could
bring up their defense, you know, 5 to 6 spots, they’re going to be
a significantly better team, right? So I think if they can drop that defensive
rating to somewhere around 111, 112 points, that gets them at a net
rating of three point something, which is which is,
much significantly on the better side. Like all teams you’re going to see,
they were starter heavy. But in this case they were particularly
starter heavy in terms of their scoring. So their starters scored
almost 90 points a game, which meant they were third
best in the team. So in the league. So what that means out of all the teams that had
their starters, they had the best. They had the third best starting
group. Right. So I would
I would probably say that probably Denver or the Knicks were number 1
or 2 respectively. These guys are number three, correct? Right. That’s a that’s a good pass. So and their bench scoring is where
they were really sour right there. Again towards the bottom. Almost almost dead last. They weren’t scoring
very many points off the bench. So that had them at 28. In terms of roster needs, you know,
like I mentioned, they last year in Fox, they had a couple of people
try to play the point guard, but they didn’t
really have a two point guard. So they’re going to need a starting point
guard, you know, one name. He’s been hurt. He was with the Warriors. De’anthony
Melton is a player. I think that would be a nice fit here
if he can stay healthy. Oh, it’s a free agent acquisition.
Yeah, it’s a free agent, actually. Yeah, I think he’s going to be
highly coveted, man. De’anthony Melton is going to be
highly coveted in this offseason. I think so too. But the problem is his his injury
his injury history. Yeah. So you really you really
if you’re going to pick up a player like the Anthony Melton,
then you better draft somebody or you better have a secondary starting
point guard that you’re going to pick up, because right now he’s got a he’s
got a long track record of being injured. And so it’d be challenging to count on him
for the whole season. Excuse me. They need some frontcourt size, you know, so bonuses,
they’re kind of they’re big man. But outside of that,
they’re not particularly big. You know, they’re not even
Sabonis is a particularly athletic. And when I when I mentioned athleticism
here I want to be clear. What I reference here is not so much their
ability to dunk or score offensively. It’s more the defensive end. Absolutely. How quickly they can get from one end of the perimeter to the other,
how quickly they can switch on defense, how quickly they
how good can they block shots. You know. So it’s more on the defensive end
that they need some help. So I think this year by the way,
that’s what GM’s look for when they look for athleticism
is that reason. It’s primarily for defensive purposes,
mainly because you have to be athletic to contain some of these NBA you know,
athletic you know, offensive players. You need someone who can,
you know, contend against that on the defensive side. That’s what they need for that first.
Yeah exactly. Exactly as I’m looking through
the free agent you know kind of roster. You have players like Nicolas Batum
who’s older not exactly you know but you got someone like that. Plumlee who’s a free agent who’s
not exactly very athletic on the defensive end. A lot of these players you know
aren’t don’t really fit that. Khris Middleton is another one. You know that you could probably consider
all that’s a $35 million a year though Brook
that’s the thing. He’s yeah. Yeah exactly exactly. You know Spencer Dinwiddie you know
he’s a little bit on the older side. But he’s a pretty good three and D guy. So at some some kind of
I wouldn’t call it exactly front court. But midcourt help
you know in terms of their salary cap right there 51.5 million over the cap. Sorry, I didn’t do the math on where
that was on the apron’s. Hey, by the way, and we’re not
I mean, there’s people that do this as a job, right? Do they do this? The salary cap analysis
or just GM’s in general, have to know all this stuff inside
and know us as we’re, you know, we’re we’re doing our best
to kind of keep up with all this, but I think we’re pretty armed
and dangerous on some of this stuff. Yeah. I’ll tell you real quick, bro. Is that the the,
the salary cap for 2025 and 2026 is $154.6 million. And what you’re going to see here,
for those of you who are watching, is that every team that we are covering
is over the salary cap. Every single team is over the salary. It’s just a matter of how badly they’re over the salary cap
and how close they are to the difference. So if you see something in the,
you know, 30 to 40 range, that’s great. If you see something in the 50,
that’s not that bad either. But if you see anything like in the 75 to 80 to 90 to 100,
they have no freaking flexibility. None. Right. So go for it, bro. That’s why I just want to bring that up. Absolutely. Yeah. So I’m kind of kind of kind of mixed
things around here. So in terms of the draft,
the Kings have the 42nd pick, which is the second round
is the second round pick. Which is why I put them as a draft. They trade unlikely. They may try to pull the Warriors, which is what I say, you know, buy
or purchase a trade for a second. You know, something along those lines. But in terms of the players and things
of that, they’re going to move around. I find it at this point unlikely
that they’re going to make any trades. You know, they’re probably going to
look more towards the free agent market. You know, Doug Christie’s kind of I don’t know if how how much he’s going
to get his own coaching staff in there, whether or not he’s
going to keep the existing coaching staff. So there’s a little bit going on there
and then the players that are likely gone, or at least the players that are eligible for free
agency is Trey Lyles, Jae Crowder, who didn’t play much, and then Markelle
Fultz, who you know is a point guard. But they didn’t really they didn’t seem to use him
or want him or need him for the most part. He did fill the gap a little bit towards
the end of the season. And then and then for the draft targets,
you know, Isaac McNeely, he’s A67 guard. That’s somebody that, you know,
they would be interested in, as well as Caleb Foster,
A65 Duke player. Those are the players that I had. Any other comments, Eddie,
or anything else? No. I mean, I think we’re good as good
coverage, man, so. All right, all right. We got like, 14 more teams to go, man. All right. Next, our beloved warriors. Right.
All right. So, the Warriors did make the playoffs
this year, obviously, as we know. They lost in the, in the second round
after beating Houston. They lost to Minnesota
in the second round. You know, if you’re,
if you’re a fan of the Warriors, your argument would be that they lost
because Steph Curry was hurt. You know, obviously that I would argue
I would I would yeah. In favor of that man.
That didn’t help the situation. But in any case from an offensive rating
they were the 16th best team in the league, which you know, given given the ups and downs of the season,
I consider that fairly well because, you know,
we didn’t have Jimmy Butler till after the, you know, after the trade
to our, at the trade deadline, which is, you know, like three weeks past
the all star break, which I think when they do it nowadays is like 24,
25 games left in the season. So that was pretty good. Their defensive rating,
which was getting better, they were a much better second half defensive team
than they were in the first half. I believe when we looked,
on one of our shows, they were somewhere in the low teens, high 20s, right around
because before the trade deadline. Right? Yeah. They were horrible. Yeah. And then when the trade deadline,
they shot up as high as the seventh, in terms of their net rating,
obviously 3.2, they were better than middle of the pack. They were in the ten slot.
So which is really good. And so here’s
the kind of the opposite of the Kings. Right. So the starters only managed to score
70 points a game, which is poor, right? That’s surprising with a team like this
led by Steph Curry. And you know Jimmy Butler
of course. Right. Yes it is. It is surprising. But then it’s not because you know
who’s your starters right. Draymond Green that’s that’s a that’s a
that’s an offensive vacuum right. He doesn’t score much. So that’s already one of your four spots. And then the other spot you know
was kind of rotated between rotated. You know post scheme. But you can see moving. So there’s a lot of players
that aren’t exactly either they’re still kind
of figuring themselves out or they haven’t really, or haven’t really established
kind of an offense yet. So that it is surprising
because of the Steph Curry factor. But when you think about the other
players, not so much. And even Jimmy Butler, you know, which I didn’t know his game
really, really well. You know, the one thing that became evident to me
with Jimmy Butler is Jimmy Butler’s a pass first guy he’s looking to create, and he’s
not really hung up on his own offense. And so he had a couple of games
where he’s, you know, 20 plus 30 points. But outside of that he was really hovering
in the mid teens you know with you know kind of high assist numbers. And I think, you know it’s one
I think the main reason why Jimmy Butler became that on the Warriors
is because I think Butler’s career, at least most recently
with the Miami Heat, he felt like he probably had to take over
a lot of times. Right. Because at the time
they were kind of an up and coming team. Bam Adebayo was still developing you know. Yeah Tyler Herro who’s you’re not it’s
not yet the Tyler Herro that we see today. You had a dumped Duncan Robinson who you
had to kind of take over more offensively. Were now on the words. You know he has Steph Curry right. And he you know
and and he has other young players. And I think he kind of took
it took that role on he wanted to be a facilitator
more than a scorer. When I think in reality
I think he probably should have been more of the scoring the facilitator
because Draymond Green, the facilitator on the team. Right. Yeah.
You have two facilitators on the team. You know, and they’re you know, you’ve
combined Jimmy Butler and Fremont Green. Yet you got one hell of a player. But we needed
you know the Warriors needed Jimmy Butler to be more offensive
oriented in the playoffs. But I think in his mind
he felt I can’t do this by myself. We need to get other guys going in order for us to get to the next
level or the next, you know, series. We have to go in and get other guys
involved, which is the right way to do it. But he also has to assess
when he has to go out and assert himself. You know? Yeah, you’re in spots. Yeah. I think you’re 100% right. My, my concern with your position,
which I think is accurate, is I think that part of him
deferring to other players, it’s also acknowledging his age
and his limitations at his age. Yeah. And my biggest concern is
I don’t know if we can have Draymond and Butler on the court at the same time
and be remotely offensively efficient. I think those two guys are going to hurt
us, especially depending on who the other three
that we put around them. Right. And so that’s going
to be really interesting to me. Which is why in the, in the draft,
a trade I’m putting, it is likely
because I think the Warriors understand, you know,
they have some offensive limitations. Yes. And when Curry doesn’t play
they are a very poor offensive team. And they’re in a win now mode. You know a win
now mode in the next two years. Well they they made that choice
when they picked up Butler. That’s exactly choice. But to win now. Exactly. And they can’t wait for a guy
to develop from the draft. So I agree with you. I think it’s likely I’d actually probably
say highly likely that they’re going to. Yeah. Well I yeah, you’re probably right. It’s probably highly likely. And you could see that cap number
which you were just talking about if it’s 80, 90 or 100,
they’re way over way over there. They’re way over in that. And that in part is the 59 million that
they paid Butler for the next two years. I think it’s 56 this year
and 59 next year or something like that. So that’s obviously
a huge contributor to that. So it’s going to be interesting
because in terms of their roster needs, you know, they need a center
and they need a what I call a modern day center, which we were talking about.
They need a center that can defend. They need a center that can somewhat shoot
the three. They need a center that can block. They need a center who’s agile. Because the one thing that was killing us
was the bigs. Whenever we played a team that had
athletic bigs, we were in trouble. Now post has the shooting
and a little bit of the defense. He’s got no low post game
and he’s a very poor blocker. And he’s a rookie though he’s a rookie. No no. Understood. And I’m just judging him
by his season one. That isn’t where he was improve. He can improve or get better. But I think we need a defender
that can move well, you know you know who’s out there
as a free agent after this. And it kind of like blew me away. But you know
Myles Turner is the free agent after this. He’s the guy
that’s going to be highly coveted. You know, this is the guy
that was tied to the Warriors when they were about to draft trains. Wiseman interest from Indiana
and go ahead and trade. You know,
Myles Turner to get that second pick. What’s interesting is that James
Wiseman ended up on the Pacers anyway and then ruptured his Achilles tendon.
So yeah. Anyway yeah. No you’re right. And so Myles Turner
someone like so I don’t know if we can get all of the things that we need
out of a center in one player. But you can pick up like Steven Adams
who’s a good low low post defender
a blocker doesn’t dirty work. He’s. Yep. He’s an oak tree. You know Brook Lopez kind of fits
that as well. He’s older you know and maybe not an exciting name
but he kind of fills some of that. So maybe you could piecemeal
it between two guys. But again being that far over the cap
I think he’s going to I think it’s going to require some sort
of sign and trade with commingle, some sort of trading of some of the
things that we have, which takes me to, the players likely gone, I put an asterisk
on an asterisk on Jonathan Kuminga because I think in an ideal world,
the words would absolutely sign and trade. I think that that’s what they want to do. I think that they’ve
I think all parties have acknowledged that even though Kuminga is a he’s
got talent and he’s an athletic player, he doesn’t fit what they’re trying to do. They just they don’t need they don’t
they don’t overly need what he has. They need him to focus on
the things that they’re weak. And I agree with you. And I think that the their assessment of whether or not he could be
the heir apparent to when, you know Curry, you know, retires,
that he would be the heir apparent. I think that they’ve already figured out
that he’s not that type of player. Yeah, he’s probably, second to third best player on a, on a I would say
championship team, but a good team. Right. And but you know he definitely
has a great offensive skill set. He has a great body.
He’s got great athleticism. And the one reason
why I didn’t really play him is because Kerr didn’t think that he did
all the small stuff enough, which he didn’t rebound
well for his size, right? He didn’t really pass that well. When the ball came to him,
it kind of stopped, right. The bus stopped with with him. You know,
that was what’s fluidity, after that. So yeah I think that’s what frustrated,
you know, the, the read and react offense that, you know Kerr has frustrated him
that he didn’t do all these things that the team, the team really needed.
And Jonathan can make it. Look he’s he’s trying to get paid man. He’s you know before he got injured
he was balling out right now whether or not
you know that led to winning. You could argue that right. Yeah. But once Jimmy Butler came you could see
that you know the writing on the wall. You know the
you know, you would think that he would learn from someone like Jimmy Butler
to become more like a Jimmy Butler. But I think his game is in
is nowhere close to what Jimmy Butler is. Right? I mean, no,
but he could be if he applied himself to be that he just, for whatever
reason, doesn’t want to do it. So yeah. No, I, I hear you. I mean, you know,
I’m kind of trying to put myself in kuminga shoes and I’m wondering to myself,
okay, if I’m super athletic and I can get out and I feel like I can get around anyone
at any time, how much thought or effort do I put into schemes and into rotations and into flows? And like,
how much would that matter to me? Right. And, and and you know, and people like to
maybe use the word basketball like you. I don’t know
if Kuminga has a high IQ or not. What I know is that when he’s on
the court, he’s very self-centered. In what his purpose. Right. How can I get open? How can I do this? And and and when he is passing around,
it looks very robotic. It looks very forced. Right? It doesn’t look like it comes natural
to him. Like finding the slasher or rotating
or looking for the empty spot on the court, or he just like,
just give me the ball. And if there’s one guy in front of me,
I can get around him, you know, that’s it, you know?
And that’s kind of his alley. So I don’t know if I equate that to IQ
or just him just not really seeing the necessity
to look at the world differently. But you know, the one thing
and you and I’ve talked about this, the one thing that I’ve harped on
is coming at is, in my opinion, one of the few and only players that can
create their own shots on this team. Right there are there are very few players
that can do that. You know,
and that was nothing more evident than in the in the series
against the Minnesota. Right. They just could not score, man. They could not move there. So acclimated to
to Curry opening the floodgates for them. Yeah that when Curry wasn’t there
they just came to a screeching halt. It did man. And I mean the game plan was to go ahead. You know initially before Curry got hurt,
Minnesota’s game plan was to go ahead and just put as many defenders on Curry
and make somebody else beat them. Yeah. And you know when Curry came out you know the first game after 12 minutes
he got hurt. Everybody
you know like we already talked about it. Everybody was fresh out of that Houston
series. Everybody was geared up man.
They were ready to go. Right. And I think that tenacity is what has
ultimately won the Warriors game one. But then after that,
when Curry is no longer there, the game plan is already successful. That was their game to take out Curry
right when he was on the court. But now is the,
you know, not an accomplishment. It makes it. Yeah. It makes it a lot easier
for them to defend the words because you don’t have to worry about
that guy who can shoot from 35 to 40ft up at any time, right? Yeah, absolutely. So so the other players here, you know,
fan favorite long time, warrior Kevon Looney, I think that, you know,
there’s every other season it seems like we’re trading him
or he’s going away. But in my opinion, I think this might be
the real time that he leaves. And not because of his decision,
but I think ours. We just need more versatile bigs. We need bigs that can do more than Looney
is a fantastic player at what he does. You know he’s up. He’s a he’s a solid offensive rebounder. He’s a very good rebounder actually. You know and he’s good. He’s good at I don’t
want to say in rotations on perimeter. But if he’s got a guard
a small in the perimeter he moves. He can do well enough to do and do it. But he but his rotations are slow
and so it takes him a minute to get from one
end of the court to the other. They just need someone more versatile. And then Gary Payton, which is ironic. Gary Payton is everything we need in a big
except he’s a little, you know, like if we can get a big
that could do what he does, right? I mean like, dude, I’d be a home run. And and so, you know, and he’s been hurt,
you know, low key. He’s been hurt quite a bit.
He misses a lot of time. You know, he had a poor postseason. So in my opinion,
I think all three of these guys are gone. Maybe they you know. Oh well sorry. Looney and Payton I think are gone. Kuminga
if they can find the right sign and trade. Otherwise
I think Omega comes back or something like 20 a year or something
like that. Right. And then maybe
wait till the draft deadline at the middle of the season next year
to try to move him for something else. As we know that that, Jimmy Butler,
trade gave up their first round pick. So the words are only left with the 41st,
pick, which is in the second round. And some draft targets here that I identified with Simon
James, A66, shooting guard from Duke, which I think, which I didn’t
mention here is, you know, in addition to its center, they need some shooting,
you know, what’s his name? I forgot his name. Not. But, geez, the guy from Sacramento
that is our off guard. That the shooter? Anyway, we need a backup point
guard. Yep. We need more shooting.
We need more consistent shooting. And so,
I think that you trust my buddy Hield. Buddy Hill. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Yeah. Buddy healed
you know he’s been off and on. You know he’s really good. Yeah. And I I don’t know if I shared this stat
in a previous episode. And if I did forgive me. But you know, somebody came up
with the stat that I found fascinating. So buddy healed is percentage
use when he is just passing. Like when somebody passes the ball
and he shoots right away, his field goal
percentage is like 81%. No way makes 80 like close to 80, a little over 80% on that type of shot. But when he has to dribble. Yeah. Or move even an inch. Yeah that drops to like 15%. No way. That’s right. And ever since someone said that
I’ve been I’ve been watching for it. And when he doesn’t have to think
at all, it’s just boom, boom. Yeah.
That that ball almost always goes. It. But the minute he’s got move or create
or forget it, you just don’t leave it shooting. Well you know a lot of people
or maybe you know that are watching the podcast that are not as close,
you know, to the Warriors as we are, you know, the broadcaster
locally always bring this up that, you know, in the last five years,
the one player who has the most three point field goals in the NBA, people would say it’s Steph Curry. Yeah, no it’s real yield. And that would
that was like whoa, no way in traffic. He is right.
So but he’s streaky as heck man. So he is streaky. And he is very much
cannot create his own shot. He is very much at the mercy of someone
setting him up. You know, his defense was a little better
at the end of the year. But anyway, draft targets,
like I mentioned, Zion James, Ryan Nam heart out of Gonzaga,
six point backup point guard. That’s Andrew Nimbus, brother. Man. So, yes, that is Andrew
Nam Hart’s brother. Yep, yep. And then C.J. Huntley, a big out of Appalachian State. You know,
maybe he could help with, you know, the small forward power forward position. So those were kind of the people that I. That I’m hoping would be available at that
slot, you know, that they could target. All right, moving on. Let’s do it, man. All right, so now it’s my turn. Well, this is the only team that I’m
covering on the in the Western Conference. I cover a lot more teams in the other,
divisions. But anyway, you can see the coach schemes
a little different. I’m going to go ahead and cover, this
so that you guys can see the slide better. So anyway,
so with respect to the analytics, the, from an offensive standpoint,
the Suns are top ten team. They’re really good offensive team. Anytime you have the Kevin Durant Devin Booker Bradley Beal
you’re going to be a good offensive team. Know what the problem is. Look at the defensive rating
I mean third to last right 28 2930. They’re the third to last team
that gives them a net rating of negative -304 which is 23rd. You know horrible for the top 16
teams from net rating are usually the guys that make the playoffs. Right. And this team is like close to the bottom
because of their defensive efficiency. So, but if you look at their starters
scoring, it’s kind of, you know, 79.6 per game is respectable. Their best scoring. You know, it’s not that I mean, because
if you look at the the best best scorers in the league, you know,
they’re roughly around 45, 44 points. So it’s like ten points less. It’s not like a big discrepancy. You know when you see the best scoring
being 20th, you know 34.2 or 34.3 could be like 1817. There’s not a big discrepancy
at that point. I just wanted to point that out. So, but if I were to go ahead
and look at their roster right. You know, if you look at the roster,
you know, they have a, you know, they they have a as Jones as a, as a,
as a point guard there, Devin Booker, Ryan Dunn,
who was a guy that they, drafted last year actually became a pretty good
defensive player Kevin Durant. And now you have this newly acquired
Nick Richards as their center. They have some decent pieces. You know, Bradley Beal
I think we talked about this. You know, I think it’s probably,
you know, with the Budenholzer is kind of downfall is that, you know,
he trying to he figured out later that Bradley Beal is probably a better use
coming off the bench. Right. Because something that kind of was
indicating that they need to figure out to put this guy off the bench,
because you put all three of those guys who then have come off the bench. He figured out later that Bradley Beal
should be coming off the bench. Right. So but you know, they have
you know, Grayson Allen, you know, they have also Egor Da who’s another guy
they drafted last year there. Royce O’Neale
Russell Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen’s are very
they’re very good players. You know from a defensive standpoint. They’re also you know Grayson that was a
pretty good throw a three point shooter I think he led the league in three point
shooting for quite some time. So they have decent players. But I think they need more guys like that to be because I think
the trend like we pointed out last week, the trend is, you know, the Thunder
I think have unveiled this new recipe or new formula
to go ahead and be competitive in the NBA. You’re going to see a lot more two way
players in the league. You’re going to see a lot more thunder
like, you know, teams where they’re athletic, long can shoot,
defend it all levels. You know position this basketball I think that’s the trend
that we’re going to see moving forward. And I think the Phoenix Suns
need more players like that. Correct. The over under salary cap. Look I mean they’re like near the bottom.
Geez. I mean, I you know, they’re not as bad
as the Warriors, but they’re close enough. Right. And the worst playoff team. These guys I thought when they
when they first got these three players you know that these three players
in Durant and Booker and Bradley Beal together
I thought they were like a championship contender
especially with the championship. You know coach at the time
when this happened. But it didn’t pan out right. So but if you look at the player the players they’re you know
they have two draft picks. They had one in the first round
and the second one in the second round. Even with their cap space,
I’m putting them in the draft. The trade category is very
highly unlikely. I agree on that. I just think that they still have
much wiggle room to do anything. But there are some free agents to target. You know, you
have you know, like I already mentioned to Anthony Melton is going to be highly,
highly coveted. I think Malik Beasley is another guy
who’s going to be highly because these guys can shoot
and they can play. D Bruce Brown is essentially
the poster boy for that, right? I mean, he could do I mean he’s on. He can you know after he left the Denver
Nuggets he’s been looking for a team to kind of you know
bring him back to the championship. And I think he’s going to be very selective on where he wants to go
because I think, you know, he’s he’s still under 30 years old
and he’s still a very good player. I think he’s going to be highly coveted
as well. The other guy I put in
there was Jericho Sims as a center. You know, he’s very athletic. I think he’d be a better complement than
Mason Plumlee to Nick Richards to come up. You know, that’s why
I’m thinking he might be a better pick. The players are likely gone. Cody Martin I think he’s just not
he doesn’t really play in a message. You know he’s a good little shooter. But you know it’s
kind of one of these journeymen. You know he’s kind of young in his career
but really hasn’t landed anywhere. And you know I think 8.1 million, 8.7
million for guys that don’t play is probably going to be too much money
for them to take. They want to alleviate some of that salary
cap, challenge that they have. And I think those guys are gone. Eddie, Eddie for for players likely gone
where do you rank Durant? You know, there’s been a lot of chatter
about trading him moving on from him. You know I think he wants to move. Where do you where do you
how do you how do you rank that. And what’s your thought process for possibly not including him in here
in this in this portion. Yeah. Like, well, you know, I just put more of
the guys that are for sure going to be on based on their salary
based on kind of like their, you know, their makeup. Kevin Durant,
you know, it’s been, you know, lately that they have been talking about
he’s likely going to be somebody that he I think he just talked to his agent
about wanting to be traded now. Right. You know, he had an opportunity
to do that last year. And the obviously,
you know, during the regular season. Right. And he just opted
not to do it. At the time. He felt like, you know, he’s he’s kind of
one of these touchy feely guys right. He he goes by emotion right. And at the time he probably felt like
yeah I’m happy I’m good here. You know I like my buddy Bradley Beal
I like Devin Booker I’m happy here. But then you know
it didn’t happen for him. And I think this guy you know he’s he’s
starting to recognize that he’s you know at the twilight of his career
he still can play. He still can contribute to a team
that is winning. And I think you know, we talked about this
I think the Houston Rockets would be a great fit for this
for him. Right. If if he went to the Houston Rockets
depending on what they gave up. Yeah dude. They got to be a title contender
almost from the get go. Oh yeah. I mean and there’s a lot of people
that argue that that’s not the case. But I think he it’s
just because that’s all they really need. I think they need a starter who can shoot
and then bring somebody else that, you know, off the bench
that could shoot two. Right. So when you trade for somebody else
like that, you know, or get one of these free agents
because, you know, De’anthony Melton, he’s actually a pretty decent shooter.
When he actually is healthy. Right. He would be somebody to target
like we are. I always brought up Jordan Clarkson. Jordan Clarkson is just a microwave,
right? He’s a guy that you could probably get to
that could do that role right. To come up. Yep. And just bring you know offense. But you know Kevin Durant
I didn’t put him in here only because at the time when I when I did this,
there was a lot of speculation. And now there’s just reports
that he just talked to his agent about, you know, making some moves. Right.
So I you know, you’re right. He probably should be somebody that, that
I put on. Yeah. You know, and the thing is, you know, it’s
fascinating to me. You know, there’s only two players
in the whole NBA that have no trade clause,
which is LeBron James and Bradley Beal. They’re on the same. Oh no. Bradley
Beal and Bradley Beal right. And to me Bradley Beal broke all of this because I’m a believer that
if they were to if they could have traded Bradley Beal for Jimmy Butler
which is what everybody was talking about I think most likely Phoenix would have gone deeper
into the postseason than the Warriors do. And I think the Warriors would have missed
the postseason altogether. Yeah I agree man. It’s possible man. Yeah yeah. So it’s just fascinating. You know like be careful who you trade for you know and what you’re trying to build
because they can bite you in the butt. And Bradley Beal really hamstrung
this organization. Absolutely man. Absolutely. Yeah. All right brothers
so let me get to the draft picks. So at the number 29th pick,
I picked three players. I had Jace Richardson at Michigan State
who’s also Jason Richardson’s, So, yeah, this guy is actually a very,
very efficient player. He’s actually a really good shooter. There’s a lot of good things. The only problem with this guy, he’s only
six foot one. He’s not even that.
You like this 6.5ft, you know. So. So that
limits his ceiling in the draft, right. But yeah, it’s also tough to be
a shooting guard at only six. Correct. You’re right. Guard at six one
you can might get away with it. But to be a shooting guard is six one. You better have a tall point guard,
that’s all. Exactly what the screen from Monty Ellis. Because that’s
what kind of Monty Ellis was. He’s the
you know they listen to me like six two. I don’t believe that. But he’s kind of Monty Ellis ish. Right. Okay. Yeah. But, you know,
he’s a guy that I think they would target. You know,
I put some of the roster needs, like, you know, two way athletic players. You know, Danny Wolf out of Michigan. He’s a center who’s, you know,
six foot 11, 252 pounds. Kind of they compare him
to like a Frank Kaminsky type. You know Frank Kaminsky okay. You kind of nimble quick footed
you know Frank Kaminsky was initially an athletic guy. But this guy seems to move like a guard. He’s a little bit more fleet footed
than, Frank Kaminsky and has good passing and vision,
and he has a nice size shot. So, I think he’d be a potential, good,
pick for them if he’s there. The last guy I put in,
there was no option to out of France. He’s a six foot eight, 242 pound guy. Kind of a big bodied, crafty
offensive game. He’s got great vision, great,
you know, poses, great touch. I haven’t seen this guy play. These are just some of the things
that I’ve read about him. They do think that he needs to improve his, three point shot a little bit,
but they compare him to a DeMarre Carroll and to Murray Carroll’s,
you know, as a serviceable three. And the guy in the NBA right. Yep. You know when when he’s healthy. So but that’s why I have the 29 pick. And then at the 52nd pick
you know I have John Tansey out of, out of Wisconsin,
six foot five, 212 pounds. You know, he’s he’s got a refined
skill set. He’s got a good three point shot. You know, because he’s an older player,
he doesn’t know he’s not being viewed as, you know, a lot of these guys,
you know, teams want guys that are young. And this guy has been,
I think on the team 3 or 4 years already. So, that’s that’s reason
why he’s not going as high, you know, in the maybe in the,
in the higher second round pick. And then the guy that I really like and I’m surprised
this guy is kind of right around there. But Caleb love out of Arizona,
six foot four, 200 200 pounds, kind of a streaky shooter, but
they compared it to like, a Jodie Meeks. You know, he can, you can shoot at all
levels. He’s not necessarily
one of these guys that you say, oh, man, this guy’s got like a,
like a great outside looking. You got a great, you know, jumper,
you know, it’s like, you know, ideal
the way looks like a Klay Thompson. It’s not like that.
He’s a little bit more. He needs a little bit
more refinement on his shot. But he’s a streaky shooter. And strong shooters in the NBA
survive right. We all we have one right now.
But he healed in the team. So yeah. So you know see them okay. All right. So we can go on to the next one
that you’re the next guy. All right. You know, I just just just mentioning
really quick on John tangent, you know I think the so you know obviously
there’s everyone wants youngsters. But I would consider
Phoenix is one of these teams that wants to win sooner than later. And getting a player
that has been in, in college for 3 or 4 years, he’s going to come in
and most likely contribute some right away, which might be a good fit
just from that level on his his ceiling might be lower
than some of these other players. But, you know, Booker’s getting older, you know, like like how much time
do you want to put into that? And to me, it might not be a bad idea
to get the get a player that has some experience. Yeah. All right, moving on. All right. Back to me. So, the Clippers,
for those that don’t remember, they were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets
in the second round of the playoffs in the first round of the playoffs.
Forgive me. And, we me and Eddie both viewed this team as a serious dark horse
to possibly win the NBA title. You know, Kawhi was playing at the best, you know, at his best here at the end,
which to me was really if I’m a Clipper fan,
I’m kind of depressed because the Clippers were really clicking on all cylinders
and they couldn’t get past, you know, Denver, which at that point was still a little uncertain. They had just fired Mike Malone
like three weeks before they played. You know,
everything was a little bit shaky. And, you know, Denver
really came into their own. And beat them. But, you know, so that was that,
in terms of their offensive rating, they were right in the middle,
which is, you know, what we want to see, you know, 15th or higher, at 114.3 points on defense,
they were a fantastic defensive team. Right. So so their defense was really good,
which gets them for fifth in that rating, which is the numbers
you want to see for a playoff team. Which they were but also shows you
how competitive the West was because they were
I believe the seventh seed. Correct. If I’m not mistaken, I think they were
the seventh seed and, you know, and they just missed being the ninth
seed by one game from the Warriors. Right? So even with these numbers,
they were still. No, they were they were actually higher. They were the 16 fifth seed. They were the fifth seed. Oh. With okay. Yeah okay. So the fifth. But they were still a game away from being the ninth versus
more like five to like nine. It right around there
it was like 1 or 2 game separation. Yep yep yep. And as as you can see
they were very very starter heavy. Their starter scored
the 10th most points in the league at 81. The bench was on the lower end as well. 31.6 things that they need
you know, they need, they got they need a backup center. They got their, their center. That Kuzma. What’s his name? What’s their something? Zubac. Zubac. Thank you. Zubat. He’s a he’s a really good player,
you know? Very good, player for them.
But they need a backup. They need a little bit more blocking. They definitely need some bench. You know,
Norman Powell, was a power that, he’s not a starter now. He was a starter
now, but, you know, he’s a starter. He was one
that really stepped up this season. So they need a little bit more coming off
the bench some off the ball scoring. So those are some of their roster
needs in terms of cap. They’re not too bad there.
Actually pretty nice. They’re really good position
man from a of cats. Correct. You know they have a couple of picks
end of the first round. Towards the end of the second round,
which is why I put them as a draft day trade. Unlikely.
I think they want to keep their veterans. You know, James Harden has, an option
to, stay. It’s his. Is the player option to stay
or he can opt out. I, I everything that I could read
and research was even if he opt out, he’s likely going
to stay with the Clippers for more money. So I don’t see him leaving,
although there’s the possibility. So with him, with them
possibly resigning, Harden and all of that going
on, I just thought it was unlikely that they were going to make a draft day
trade. They may make something down the road
after the draft picks have been made, but I don’t think it’s unlikely players
that are gone. Patty Mills, Amir Coffey and then Ben
Simmons is finally at the end of that, disastrous Philadelphia contract that he
signed, I don’t know, 4 or 5 years ago. He’s going to be really interesting
to see what happens with him, what the market looks like for him. You know, he’s mentally not the same man. He’s not the same player.
He doesn’t have the swagger. The ease. Oh, no. He’s a lot of swag. Offensively he’s broken. He’s broken offensively. Yeah, but he’s just not right now
honestly. Yeah. But I’m asking you if you’re like
I think the Kardashians us them to do with the bro. Yeah you’re probably right. But if you’re like the New York Knicks
or the Denver Nuggets right where you’re just starving for some bench
help, you might turn to someone like him. Yeah, I know he’s a skill player, man. It’s just that,
you know, he he diverts the shot. You know he doesn’t want to shoot. No, he won’t score, but he’ll run.
He’ll run. He can run from him. Does everything else.
Well yeah. He can defend. He can rebound. So he’s going to be an interesting,
option here. And then in terms of draft picks,
they have the 30th pick like I mentioned, the last
pick of the first round. And they have the first the 51st pick,
which is in the second round. Some people that I identified
here was Todd Pettiford, point guard, six one out of Auburn. You know, as, as,
I had mentioned, there’s some bench steps him off the ball scoring, Ryan Brenner,
seven foot one. Great player. Yep. Good player. He, he could feel the backup center
position. And then BJ Edgecomb, who might
who might possibly be drafted earlier. So I acknowledge that some of these
players, Michael earlier than that pick. But, he’s a, shooting
guard, small forward, 65 out of Baylor. He also fits some of their needs. Those are the players that I identified as his players
that they’re probably looking at and and making an option for. Yeah. Any any feedback from you? Oh, man.
We just got to keep moving. Broca’s. Yep. I hear you. And it’s all right, all right. And now we move to the Lakers. So, the Lakers offensive rating. They were 11th at 115. Lakers on the defensive end were 17. So a little below
what we would like to see at 113.8. But they were still managed to stay above the first half of the teams
in the league at one point. They were the fourth seed, correct. In the, in the. Yeah, we went one, two, three
I think going to. Yeah. Okay. They were the fourth seed anyway. So they, they need quite a bit. Okay. They need quite a bit
in terms of roster needs. They need a center. You know, they traded for,
I believe, Mark Williams, and they rescinded that trade. So that’s no longer
they need some frontcourt depth. They need bigs. They need versatile players
three and D guys and they need defense. You know, their defense was lacking
one of the reasons that they didn’t go anymore further forward,
in, you know, in the playoffs because Minnesota
just abused them on the offensive end. Right? Because the defense, you know, they got,
they got some considerations to make, you know, both LeBron and, don’t
you know, they’re, so they need to decide,
you know, who’s the main dog, how they’re going to build,
who they’re going to build around. LeBron is a free agent. My guess is that
he’ll resign with them this year, which is why I didn’t put them on here. But, they are they have a somewhat decent
cap number at, -59 million. I think that they’re very likely
to make a draft. They trade. I think they’re very like, they need a lot of help
on the defensive end. They need a lot of help
on the defensive perimeter. They need a starting center. I think they’re going to do whatever
they need to do to pick up a player. So I think it is very likely that they’re
going to do, players that are gone. Alex, Len,
they all player from Sacramento. They’re Markieff Morris out of Maryland
one of the twins. And then this one is interesting to me
I think I think that Rui Hachimura is probably going to be gone.
And I think he’s a good player. Managed to stay here. Yeah I think he’s a good player as well. But I think that they’re going
to have to do something to get that that defense up. And I think it might come
at the cost of Rui Hachimura. They don’t have their first round pick. They have their 55th pick
which is the second round. And here I I’m eyes on Almanza. Power forward center
610 out of the Australian League, the NBL which is with the Perth Wildcats. Lamont Butler
a point guard, six two out of Kentucky. Isaac Knox, out of the G League,
the Rip City remix, six five. C.J. Huntley, who I think I mentioned
earlier with I believe the Warriors, 611 out of Appalachian State and then Clifford
Omoruyi 611 out of Alabama. So they’re looking for size.
They’re looking for starters. They’re looking for quite a bit.
I mean, they got LeBron. They got Johnson. And I think and they got Austin Reeves. And everybody else is like up for grabs. Who can fill the rest of that roster
and who could be on the bench. I think I think it’s good, man. Good, good break down rule. That’s a lot of players
that they can choose from at the 50 man. Correct. Yeah, yeah. And so one one of the one of the benefits
of being, in the 55th position, if all of these players are available,
which I’m not saying they would be, then they could, they could pick
some players up after the draft is over. Yep. Undrafted. Yeah. Yeah. Because they’re probably not all going to
disappear if they’re still on the, on the they’re if they’re still available.
So anyway. All right moving on. All right. Oh, this is still me, man. It’s still you, man. I’m continuing. All right Detroit Pistons. I think Detroit had a heck of a year. You know, I,
I compared them my my my feel for them this year was sort of like, Memphis
the previous year. You know,
I thought that they were going to move up. I mean, Eddie actually had,
not really a bet, but just kind of, a running comparison between Detroit
and the Portland Trailblazers. We were kind of trying to decide
who might have the better record for the season start
before the season started, and I thought Detroit would,
and they definitely did. And you got it right, man. But, yeah, but, very good team. Growing team, as you can see in middle, middle
of the pack on the offensive rating. Better than middle of the pack
on the defensive rating. Better on the overall net rating there. The higher half. You know, they got what I would consider
pretty good, I’m gonna say balanced. But you know, 19 for the start. Scoring is a little subpar. You know, you want to be 15th or higher. But their bench scoring was really good. They were, you know, sixth in the league which makes them,
you know if they can just get another. As I mentioned here under roster needs
they need a Robin for Cade Cunningham. Right.
They don’t have a Robin. He’s Batman. They need a Robin Wright. And then they need a backup big,
you know, stretch five defender. Someone that, you know, again, the modern center,
someone who can defend the perimeter. Someone who a center
that could be in the backup. I think that they they have beef stew out there, but
he’s had a little bit of a turbulent year. He seems honestly a little off his rocker. I don’t know what his future is there. Or what his contract
is, but, you know, they have him, in terms of the cap, they are also on the lower end,
38 million over the cap. I also think that they’re likely
going to make some trades. They got some pieces, they got some youth
that they can move around. Players that are likely going to be gone. I think, Tim Hardaway
Jr is probably going to be gone. Dennis Schroder I’m not certain
I put him here, but I wasn’t 100% sure whether he’d be gone or not. He was a good,
injection of, energy into the team. And I thought that he helped the team
quite a bit, into the postseason. But, you know,
I don’t know what he’s going to demand. And you know what? His things are,
so I can he is a free agent. So I kind of put him on there and
then maybe a little spark plug for him. Honestly, I thought he is. Yes. I thought it was a really good fit. And by the way, the real quick
I was trying to remember the name of the Robin
currently on the Detroit Pistons. It’s actually Jalen Duren. Yes. Right now is there Robin. But he’s not one of these you know
he’s a more of a traditional kind of five. He’s not one of these guys like correct. All of the things really really. Well yep. Yeah. Exactly correct. For the draft, they have the 37th pick,
which is in the second round. And some targets that I put
here is a do throw six, eight. Small forward power forward
out of Arkansas, Sergio Dallara, six five Valencia out of the Spanish league,
which, by the way, just, for those out there listening, Eddie
and I, we go to lunch regularly, and I kicked up a topic, and I’m curious
for your guys’s feedback, Eddie and I. And yet I talked about
we might have an episode where we talk about all
the different leagues around the world. You know, I don’t know about you,
the audience, but for me, you know, I see so many leagues,
I don’t know how to rank them. I don’t know which are the better leagues. You know, obviously, from what I hear, you know, the
the Australian League is very good. You know, they got in some Italian
leagues, they got some Spanish leagues. So you know, if you can give some feedback
would you like the a breakdown of the different leagues. You know not you know who the best player might have
been out of each league to join the NBA. Not really. Not to talk about the leagues in depth,
but just more how we would rank them, where we would see, you know, who. Like if we’re looking at a player
and they’re not from college and they’re not from the G League,
which I still think G League is probably the the better
than any of these other leagues right now. It is correct. Maybe prior it wasn’t because it’s really. But yeah, but if we’re looking at someone
from like the Spanish League for example, historically, how have those players done?
Is that a good league? Is it not a good league.
You know. So something like that. Yeah I think it’s a good idea
because it’s educational. Because for us we’re hoop heads. Right? We don’t know much about these leagues,
but it’d be a great kind of it’d be a good research project for us
to look at all the different leagues, look at how many players that came from
those leagues that are in the NBA. Which ones
were the most successful in the NBA? There is a big,
you know, a lot of information gathering that we can do on this. It’s yeah, it’s something
we definitely want to do for the summer. You know, probably
after the summer league is over. Because probably realistically
after the summer league, we’ll probably have
a couple more episodes. Maybe we’re going to do shorts from here
on out at that point until the pre-season starts again, like in,
you know, September, October timeframe. But we’ll probably have some time,
you know, to, to maybe research that during that, during
that kind of the downtime in the NBA. So. Okay. All right. Let’s see Alex to he small forwards
six eight from the Sydney Kings out of the Australian. I’ve actually just saw an article
this morning that that might be a player the Warriors might want to pick up. So this guy’s got a little bit of pub,
obviously the is draft lower in the second round. So if Detroit is interested
in Mark Sears 61. guard out of Alabama. And then to play. Yep. And A67
shooting guard out of Kentucky. So you know, I think that, you know,
we didn’t have it here, but I think the Detroit Pistons
are a team on the rise. I think they need some parts here
and there. But, you know, I think if they make the right
trades, this, this draft, and, and who they pick up and free agency might go a long way
into improving them and possibly them cracking the top five in terms of,
rankings for next year in the East. Not on them. Any questions? Eddie? No, that’s moving on with moving on. Moving on. Right. This is my team and the Pacers are they’re
they’re a team that’s playing there. Actually they were leaving at halftime. Believe it or not
by four points tonight. Yes. So for the play a little spoiler alert
for those who are watching us. Yeah I’m sure you guys there up
there was like, Feldman with
the guys is either the one I saw. Yeah. Marty Feldman is today. Feldman. Marty feldman. Yeah. That’s what a lot of our
audience is doing. Right now. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, so we’re covering the Indiana Pacers
even though their season is not over. But, you know, we just wanted to go ahead
and just be complete here trying to get something done in two weeks. So anyway, if you look at their offensive rating,
they’re in the top ten offensively. What’s interesting last year
defensively they were like in the 20s man. And we said if they went ahead and put
most of their effort on the defensive end, you know they would be a team. And yes interesting. Last year
they were the second rated offensive rated team in the NBA
behind the Celtics last year. This year, I think they decided to go ahead and
put more of that energy on the defense. And it’s it’s showed out well man. You know
now they’re a top 12 net rating team. And they are vying for a chance. If they are really
they’re pushing the best team probably arguably
from a net rating standpoint in history. You know and I think this is going to go
like I said 6 or 7 games starter scoring. You know, it surprised me that
I thought they would be higher than that. You know 16. But their best screens top seven, you know
well remember it. Remember Eddie they had a rough start. They did you know they did it. All right. So that’s going to that’s
going to play into this into these stats. Yep. Yep. And you know and by the way I forgot to mention that they were forced
seed this year. And they actually had a 50 and 32 record. So I just wanted to go ahead
and bring that up. So just really quick, another help
for their defense is, you know, Ben Mason was hurt last year or most of last year,
and he was he’s a decent defensive player. So that also helped. You know
that’s almost like getting a free agent. You know into this season. So yep. And you know and if I look at this team
from a roster standpoint this team is deep.
And they’re strong right. They lost to back a big man
in Isaiah Jackson. And teams Wiseman
to the exact same injury. And a torn Achilles tendon
I think that’s all they need man. That’s why
I said they don’t need much man. They just need a backup
big to kind of spell. You know Myles Turner
when he needs some some rest right. Because right now
that’s the big gaping hole. Right now they have Thomas Bryant
who’s been serviceable. We also had Tony Bradley
who’s been kind of put in here and there. But you know Isaiah Jackson’s probably
the better fit I James Wiseman he’s a you know he’s he’s a project. He has a great offensive game. It’s just that
the feel of the game is not there yet. And his injury
history is definitely hindering him. And by the way,
I don’t think I ever told you this, but I had a bet with my brother
in law on this, you know, UCLA. Mike, that, you know when they drafted him
I like you know he’s he’s Mr. Bruin. So he’s all about you know the the balls you know
Lonzo Ball and and LaMelo ball right. And LiAngelo ball. He he you know he bet me that
that Lonzo Ball before the you know their seasons began that he would have
a better career than James Wiseman. And I said James Wiseman because being
a homer at the time with the Warriors. Right. And we put like a $500 minimum sports
bet on that right now I’m screwed bro. I’m gonna have to save up now for that
freaking bubble, these guys, because I’m kind of screwed
because James Wiseman injury, he’s pretty. Yeah.
Just blown out his whole career, man. We’ll see. He’s young enough to try to bounce
back from it, but we shall see. All right. So, the like I said earlier, the
the salary cap, everybody got two seniors in the red, but they’re not as I
mean, they’re bad, but they’re not as bad. I mean, there’s
some guys are in the hundreds. These guys are in the 70 million range
with that that they’ve been spending wisely, you know, because they have a really,
really good team right now. Right. I think that based on, you know,
their make up based on the draft picks that they have,
they have the 23rd and the 54th pick, I don’t think they’re going
to make any tradesmen. If anything, they’re
I think they’re going to continue. I think they’re going
to draft their players. If there’s a great opportunity
to get somebody, you know, especially if they lose like a Myles Turner,
then they might go ahead and make a draft. You make a trade at the draft. We’re not going to know that short after the, the finals are over,
whether Myles Turner is gone or not. Right. But I think they’re going to go ahead
and drop these, draft, you know, keep their draft picks and draft. So, the guys that I think are gone, Tony
Bradley, I think he’s gone. I mean, he’s cheap, but,
you know, they’re they’re stacked. They don’t they don’t need that much help.
They’ll bring Isaiah Jackson back. Maybe James Wiseman who’s who knows. But I thought if they needed some help at the center spot precious to Tua
they got hardly play for the next man. I mean yeah,
he’s a pretty damn good player man. Jackson Hayes who barely played for
the for the money. Is is he restricted who. Precious I know I think is a free agent. Free agent who didn’t
they just draft him like two years ago? You know that he came from the rafters. Oh, okay. He was drafted by the Raptors. Okay. This trade
he was traded to the, to the Knicks. So. But Jackson Hayes would be
a potential good fit for these guys too. Especially if they can’t if they lose an
injured Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman. He’s a similar mold to those guys. So yeah, one thing one thing to note,
you know, you know, we’ve talked about it many times, you know, the Myles Turner
resigning, right? One of the you know, you’re right,
depth is the key guy. But in order to have depth, you got to be
careful how much you pay your big three. Right. And Myles Turner would be considered
one of the big three for sure. And Indiana is right. Yeah. So it’s going to be really interesting. You know how they calculate that. Because the reason that, you know, Denver
doesn’t have a deep bench is because they pay Murray
Young and Joker. I mean, all the money went there, right. It’s up to the bench. So it’s going to be interesting how
they play this because I agree with you. Depth is going to be really key. And you know it’s going to be interesting how Oklahoma does this as well
because they’re also a very deep team. And they got to make decisions. Are we going to pay
or are we going to keep our how are we going to go about this. Right. And so I think that this
this is going to be really telling for the Indiana
and for Indiana in the offseason. On what what they do with monster. Yep, yep it will. We shall see man. But or I mean so as far as draft picks. So I have Nick Clifford
and the reason why, you know, I’m thinking some of these guys is that
I don’t think they need much. This is right now. They’re just kind of, you know, being spoiled and just pick
whoever the best available players are. And these are some of the guys
that I thought would would be good fits. So I have a, Nick Clifford out of,
Colorado State. He’s a small four,
six foot six, 210 pound. He compares closely to Terrence Mann. Very good defender, very good passer. Looks like a good you know he’s already
NBA ready for as a rule player. He just needs to improve his three point
shooting. But you know you know a lot of that
if the defense is already there you’re seeing a lot of GM
go ahead and take a chance. Because we all know what happened
with Kawhi Leonard. We all know what happened
with Jimmy Butler right. These guys became
you know really good offensive players when they were a defensive minded players
at first right off the draft. And you can say the same thing
about Tim Duncan because did Tim Duncan was the same thing. He was more of a defensive minded guy
out of Wake Forest rather than offense. You just developed this that bank shot
that he had, you know, for years. So yeah. Team A really good offense, guys. That’s to some extent Russell Westbrook
yeah yeah yeah exactly Russell Westbrook
was a really good defender and and UCLA. And then he developed
his offensive game in the pros. So and he was this guy
put his for sheer Fleming. He’s a power forward at a Saint Joseph’s. He’s a six foot nine 232
pound guy compared to Markieff Morris. Right. He’s kind of like one of these stretch
fours who has a pretty good shot. He’s, you know, extremely he did pretty
well at the, at the, at the combine. But you know, they think that, you know,
he’s maybe his athleticism isn’t necessarily the best, but, you know,
I picked, him as somebody that, you know,
could be a good fit for these guys. Again, these guys just had the luxury
of picking the best available player. And these are some of the best
of the best players that I can see at the number 23 pick. The last guy the 23 pig is Ben Saraf. At it is really the six foot six, shooting
guard at 200 pounds. This is the guy that made me intrigued
who is being compared to because out of all the guys that I’ve been calling out or being compared
to, you’re like, yeah, okay, whatever. Right? These are not guys that like
really stand up, but this one did this guy is been compared to Manager
nobody. Right. Who. Yeah exactly. He’s been you know because he’s got he’s a skilled
finisher a skilled finisher a good scorer. That’s good strength good size
can play off the ball on the ball. He just has natural instincts. And you know that’s kind of what Manu
Ginobili was. So, Ben Saraf might be the guy that they
pick is out of all the comparisons. If that’s the guy this is the best
comparison we’ve had so far anyway. Yeah I agree. Yeah. So all right. So then at the 54th pick
we already mentioned John Thomson. He’s a shooting guard
out of the Wisconsin. Since the 512 pounds. We don’t have to worry about
you know I’ve already talked about him Caleb Love he’s another guy
I’ve already talked about. I like that guy a lot. I’m surprised he’s going to be,
you know, at that position at 54. But, you know, right around there,
I just think that I when I saw him play at Arizona,
I thought he’s a pretty damn good player. So, All right. Both. So I think you’re next. All right. Here we go Cleveland Cavaliers. All right. In terms of their of their overall
ratings, they had a hell of a year. They were my pick to win the whole thing. Yep I thought
I thought they would win the whole thing. You know, a lot of things have,
have come about the last couple of weeks that I find fascinating,
which I’ll talk about here in a minute. But in terms of offensive rating,
number one in the league right now for one in the league in offensive rating
and that that rating if defensive rating eighth. Yeah. Task. Right. And if it wasn’t for Oklahoma I mean
this is a fantastic net rating right. They’re third in the league. And if not you know obviously Oklahoma
I think was 12 and change which obviously is number one when when
we get to Oklahoma we can talk about that. They had excellent balance. You know Ty Jerome was a big hit for them
off the bench. They had some other bench players,
you know starter scoring. They were seventh, bench scoring.
They were eighth. I mean, all of these metrics are exactly
what you want to see for a team. Actually, they’re better than what
you would want to see for a team, right? Yeah, definitely a team on the rise
for sure in terms of their roster needs. You know, they’re a little bit
they need some depth at small forward. Some depth at center. Now some people are going to go, well they have Jared Allen
and they have Evan Mobley. But Evan Mobley has been kind of put in a position more of a power
forward power forward center. So so I’m thinking, you know,
if you can have a backup center somewhere, that can help dispel Jared Allen. I think that might help them
a little bit. In terms of cap, they’re not horrible. And they’re at, 87, -87 million or 87 under or over the cap,
I should say I put lightly for draft
that, draft day trade. And one of the reasons I put there and
I didn’t put them is players likely gone was now we’re hearing the same thing
with, the, the point guard there. Oh, there’s Garland, Darius Garland. So he just had, elbow surgery or he just had some surgery on his hand
or arm or something. He was out six months. I’m hearing a lot of talk again
about wanting to trade him. So I don’t know if this is a cap issue. I don’t know if they just still feel that him
and, spider Mitchell don’t fit together. I don’t know, I don’t know, man. They fit pretty well, man. Most of the. I don’t know why in the playoffs. I don’t know why.
There’s this talk, though. Like, I just I don’t understand. They when you look at all the metrics,
they had a hell of a season. They played well together. But I’m hearing
all of these conversations. And so if if that’s all true,
I think that you might see, you know, a likely a likely trade,
whether they can get a first round pick for, for Darius Garland, you know, maybe
whether they can pick up a player, I don’t know, but, you know, players
likely gone and again, likely gone. I use loosely, you know, one never knows. But the free agents, Ty Jerome, Ty Jerome
may have priced himself out on this team. Right. Yeah. You would love for man. Yeah. I love a season. You know, we there was a couple of teams
that we talked about. They needed a point guard
or a backup point guard. You know, depending on what they have in the cap
space, he’d be an ideal player for them. Sam Merrill, Tristan Thompson,
who’s been with them forever. You know, I’m to be close to retirement,
man. That. Yeah. Yeah,
I think he’s just a casualty of just, you know,
he got to stay under the cap and jump. All right,
so these are players that are likely gone. I think if the if the Cavs had their way
they could keep Ty Jerome. They would do it I just again
I think he price himself out probably I think you’re right
in terms of draft picks. They got two later round draft picks. And again if they could package that
for something with Garland I don’t know. I’m not a fan. I was promoting this last year
when Cleveland was out, but after watching this season,
I’m not a fan of them getting rid of golf. I think they should keep them. I agree. Yeah, so I don’t know. But if they are entertaining that then maybe they’re trying
to move up in the draft. I don’t know. And the guy that I have here identified only identified one player,
which is Michael Russett and Power Forward Center
as the backup center that I identified here
at, you know, meeting, so back up there, and he’s out of league,
and I believe league is an Italian league. Who ventured, which in Spanish would be youngster
Quinn Booth, but I don’t know if that’s
what he was doing. Yeah, yeah. Which is and I’m not sure if that’s what
it means in Italian, but the youngsters. And so he’s the one guy that,
I had identified, which is, you know, something that would come cheap
in that second round and someone that they could possibly use
or at least trade. Right. And thoughts? No. Yeah. I think we’re just we’re right. An hour
and a half. We’re trying to we’re
trying to move this thing. Lauren. Move it on. This one before I go into my segment, or my team, for those of you
listening, we’re here for you. So please go ahead and chime in, ask us
any questions, give us any commentary. The what what are the things that you like
to see moving forward more from us. What are the things that you like that
we that we’ve covered? What are some of the things you like
to see us improve? Anything. Any question. Just please feel free to go ahead and,
type that in if your platform allows that. So all right. So the the Milwaukee Bucks, so
the Milwaukee Bucks were the fifth seed. The, ended up with a 48 and 34 record. They, you can
look at their ratings offensively. They’re in the 11th and 12th
from a defensive standpoint. You know, net rating of 11th,
I mean that they’re a playoff team, right. That’s what that tells you. Anytime you see ratings like this
that spells playoffs right. Your starters scoring and and their bench
scoring they’re pretty balanced team. The only thing about this team overall
is that they’re getting old quick okay. They look they just they plod right. They just move slow. The only guy who’s really fast on
that team is Giannis. You know
he’s he’s everything to that team. And now there’s kind of talk about him
possibly wanting to go elsewhere right. You know he’s one of these guys
has been kind of really loyal to you know his fan base there in Milwaukee. You know he’s been very appreciative that you know
this guy wants to win another one. And there’s been a lot of rumblings,
out there, grumblings, I should say, out there that he’s looking
to, you know, go to a championship team. There’s been a lot of teams linked to him.
So we shall see. If this plays up. But if you look at their salary cap,
they’re over at 72.6. It’s not ridiculous, but it’s getting kind
of close to the bottom, right? It’s not there. But, you know, looking at just overall
they have, you know, only one second round pick, but they have a lot of assets
that, you know, could be tradable, right. You know, you know, especially well,
these guys are likely gone. This these guys are all free agents. So you know, they’re not gonna be able
to trade any of these guys. But there are some other assets
that they could potentially trade. But you can see that
Brook Lopez 34.5 million. That’s a lot for Brook. Me
is likely gone man. Taurean Prince is a good little player
at only 2.296 million Gary Trent is another guy
I think is going to be highly coveted. Pat Connaughton That’s kind of expensive
for a guy who is in play. So that’s what I’m saying.
I think he’s gone. So I see that there’s going to be
a likelihood that this team goes ahead and makes some kind of trade. They don’t have many answers
for this year to trade, but they do have future assets
and they have a future draft assets as well as players
on their team that I think some teams would find interesting. Right. So I see these guys making a trade. But there are some trade
as far as free agents to target. You know, I feel that, you know,
I already mentioned Myles Turner is a guy that, is is
I think is going to be highly coveted. This guy is going to come for big money,
especially if they win the title. Right. And you got, you know, Jake Arabia,
you know, as somebody I think, you know, is a pretty
serviceable, defensive minded, player. Not necessarily the most offensive
skill from an outside shooting standpoint, but he’s kind of like one of these,
you know, slasher types. Nickeil. Alexander-Walker
for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think he’s another guy
that, you know, could be targeted. Very good defensive minded player. Also can shoot, a decent three. And Bruce Brown,
I think he’s the poster boy for that type of two way player
who can just do it. All right. I think that guy is going to be
highly coveted in the offseason as well. So they only had one draft pick. They had the 47 pick. So the guys that I have here, I have
let me see if I can say his name. Nicholas. Dallas. After all this Nick Nicholas of Dallas, he’s out of Greece,
small forward at six foot seven. He’s kind of a combo, kind of a player. Good offensive, package,
good size as good NBA scoring ability. You know, the Euro guys have the influx
of Euro guys over the years. I definitely give him a great reputation
to the European leagues out there. So when we do this kind of overall, you know,
assessment of all the different, you know, leagues that are out there
that, you know, kind of feed the NBA, I’m sure Europe is going to be very,
very high when we do that assessment. Right. So the other guy that I picked here was RJ
Lewis at Saint John’s. He’s a six foot seven, 210 pounds. There are no comparisons that I saw
from any of these, what I read. But he’s also a very strong athlete. He’s, you know, a good scorer,
not considered the most exposed explosive player, but he’s just
a very fundamentally sound tech player. So RJ Lewis is another guy. I think they might do so or my pick. So. All right, bro, you got the next guy. Yeah. Just one thing I want to know. Obviously Damian Lillard is probably going
to be out all of next year, which is going to going to impact what they do. You know, so, you know,
that’d be really interesting. You know, if I’m a team, an older team
that needs a point guard like Phoenix, do, I want to trade for Damian Lillard
and wait for him the year after? I don’t know if maybe we’ll see. Anyway, just wanted to point that out
because I think that’s going to have a lot,
especially in the draft day trade. I think that’s one of the reasons
that’s likely as well, because they don’t have a point guard. So it’s up, you know moving on. All right Chicago Bulls all right. So Chicago Bulls lost in the playing
didn’t make the playoffs. I actually thought
they would make the playoffs. But they didn’t offensive rating there
in the lower half in the 20th seed. Their defensive rating. They’re also in the lower half at 19. And their net rating is at 20. And that,
you know, that does go to show you, the the imbalance at least this past year because their playoff team,
the Western Conference, they were a they weren’t playing team. Playing team that became of team.
Yeah. Yeah. And these rankings in the West
would not have gotten you anywhere near correct game. So you know in terms of starter scoring
pretty good. You know 81.8.
They’re they’re eighth in the league. Even the bench scoring
still pretty decent. So they’re it’s respectable. Their scoring was good. But clearly their defense
gave up more than their offense score. So which is why they were in the position
that they’re in. You know they need some backcourt depth. They need more veteran presence. You know,
that’s kind of what I, what I put here. They’re not that bad in terms of the cap. They’re over by 36 million. I put them as unlikely,
because in terms of their draft day trade,
I think they’re going to have some trades, because I think some of their big players,
and I put here Nikola Vucevic, he’s not quite a free agent,
but I think that, you know, the direction they want to go in
is going to move him away from some of these players
Kevin Huerter Zach Collins Lonzo Ball Jalen Smith I
these are kind of big names. But I think that to some degree the Bulls
want to do a little bit of a reset. Reset I agree. And so I think that these players
are going to be players that they’re going to go look to move. Now obviously Lonzo Ball
they just resigned I want to say at the beginning of the season
or maybe at the end of last season they just resigned
I think Boucher which has a year left. So some of these players
still have contract, but I think they’re going
to make some trades. I just don’t know
if it’s going to come around the drafting. Right. I think it’s going to be after
the draft is done. And as we come into the free agency, I think that that’s
where we’re going to see some movement. Well, you know, the guard that they got in the in the trade with the
with the Thunder man, Josh Giddey, yes. Has turned out to be a really good player
for these like a revelation, you know. Yes. Like yes. You know, for the reasons
why the Thunder got rid of him, he worked on his game
and got better at all those stuff. Yep. Shooting was his main issue
and he got way better at that. Right. And he’s a matchup native.
So freaking tall. He’s six foot eight and he can pass. Yep. Very good distributor. You know I you know bravo to him
man that he turned around his, you know, his short career. Yep.
You know in the right direction. So, you know, I, I agree, and Coby
White’s a decent player, you know, for that. Absolutely. And, and, who’s, who’s my,
Italian guy that I liked, he, he started to pick it up
at the end of this. Oh, no. Matas. Bill. Sellers. Montes. Montesquieu. Sellers. Right.
So he started, I don’t think Italian. I don’t know where he’s. I think he’s
one of the Eastern Bloc countries. I think that’s where he’s from, too. Okay. I thought he came from an Italian league
or something. For some reason I had him associated
with Italy, I don’t know. Yeah, yeah, maybe I’m trippin, but,
in any case, for draft picks, they have the 12th round, the 12th pick in the first round,
which is, you know, I believe that the lottery still and,
they have the 45th pick in the second round. So Derek McQueen, or Derek Queen,
I should say, power forward, center out of Maryland, 610 is someone
that they might want to look at. Common. Malloch, center while the watch model
watch is that I would say. And then Colin Marie Boyle’s, power
forward six seven out of South Carolina, I think are some targets that I had
identified for Chicago to take a look at. Right. Oh, man. Right. All right, moving on. Let’s do it, man.
So this is all me. Now, the next five five teams are all me. And so the show is now,
coming to an end. I’m going to take a nap with me, man.
All right. So. All right, so here we go.
So the the Atlanta Hawks. So, the Atlanta Hawks finished at
as the fifth seed at 48 and 34. They have two draft
picks the 13th and the 22nd pick. You can see that from their metrics. They look like
you know, a team that you know from. They’re pretty much 18 across the board
right there on the lower half. Right.
But yet they were playing team. Right. So again, the imbalance between the East
and the West, you could see it, you know, definitely with some of these ratings
that we’ve posted here from all the from all the teams starter scoring
was kind of near the bottom, you know. But I think their their team took
a big hit after Jalen Johnson upper right. Jalen Johnson got hurt that that team didn’t look the same
because they look pretty dangerous with Jalen Johnson. You know especially when they had Tyson
Daniels come over from you know the the we call it the the New Orleans Pelicans
you know in that trade for Dejounte Murray that that guy won you know
the most improved player of the year. And he looks like a really good player. You know the guy that I think when when
when they drafted him out of a New Orleans they thought he was going to be
this player. He emerged to be this player. But then also but you have,
you know, their starting five, you know with Jalen Johnson, it’s actually pretty decent
because you had Trey Young Tyson Daniels and then your boy from your you know
Zachary Sasha you starting right. He was a guy that they drafted last year
the number one pick and then Jalen Johnson. And then you have Onyeka Okung who came on to be a really good center
for these guys. They have like you’re the rotation pieces of Clint Capela
who’s likely going to be gone. Caris LeVert Terrence Man Georges Niang. You can see that some of these guys I’ve noted
here is players that are likely gone. You know Clint with Clint Capela
hardly played I mean he did. But that’s 35.7. He should be starting all the time. If you play that he paid that much. You know Caris LeVert. You you know one of these six man
guys all the time. You know 24.9 million. That’s a lot to
I think you know he’s going to be gone. He’s a free agent right. So Larry Nance also very expensive
for a guy that’s coming off the bench. So I think that a lot of these guys
are going to be gone because they’re at 98.9 million for the,
salary cap over. And they need to go ahead
and make some changes. So I think that their draft day,
is going to be pretty busy. I think they’re
they’re probably going to make the trade. That’s where as likely
because they have to coveted, first round picks
that a lot of teams would covet. But in case they keep those picks or they might go ahead and draft
for another team. These are the guys that I put on here. So I had Thomas Silver at number 13, center out of Georgetown,
six foot ten, 263 pounds. He compares to Jarrett Allen. Right. That’s another player. Right. And some nice players. And I’m calling out, you know the best one
has been Nano Ginobili right now Gerald I don’t the second best player
I’ve called out as who you know these players are are comparison. He because he he’s a big body son
who just impacts both ends right. He’s you know, he actually played
a really good season for the Hoyas and, you know, he had, his season ended with a foot injury. But, you know, also, all signs, all signs point to this guy
being a pretty good NBA player. The other guy that I put on here is
prosperous Jack Souness out of, Illinois. I’ve seen this guy play in the tournament. A lot of these guys, I don’t know, because I didn’t see a lot of these guys
in the tournament. And a lot of people see, you know,
they kind of pay attention to the draft of the players
that they see in the tournament. But I seen this guy
play in the tournament. He’s actually a pretty good player. He’s actually compared to Lonzo Ball
because he’s tall. He’s a six foot six, 205 pound. He’s is a really good decision maker. Exceptionally skilled
and seems to be NBA ready right now. So those are the two guys
that I think that they would pick at 13 if they keep the pick and not trade it. Okay. So then as far as the the number 23rd
to the 22nd pick with the 23 to 20 second, they have 22nd. Yeah. At the 23 on my notes here. Anyways, as the 22nd pick
we have a Nick Clifford. I’ve already brought him out at Colorado
State 200 to 2 pounds compared to Terrence Mann
and then Austin Newell out of power forward out of Georgia,
six foot ten, 234 pounds. He’s a guy that compares to Joakim Noah. So we brought him up in other podcasts, pretty,
you know, he’s a pretty active guy. Six foot ten. He was pretty versatile. Apparently, this guy’s stock is moving
up, so, he’s got good a good mix of very athletic tools and,
for spacing ability. So I think this guy’s a guy to watch out
for, in the draft. So. All right, man,
so we can go on to the next, team. All right, the Charlotte Hornets. All right. So audience, we’re going to be
probably almost at two hours, which is going to be our longest podcast. Next week when we do this, we’re
going to try not to keep it a two hour. You’re going to give to an hour
and a half, right. So we’re going to be a little bit
more short winded so we don’t go, but for those of
you were on the repressor, you still didn’t hear a thing with this.
All right. So Charlotte Hornets, this team
was one of the worst in the team. Yeah, they were horrible. You were on one of the worst
teams in the league. So you can see that they’re the 15 seed. They had a 19 and 63 record. But fortunately for them
they had three draft picks. They had the fourth,
the 33rd and the 34th pick. But if you look at their metrics,
I mean, it’s, it’s it’s in line with a team that’s not very good, right? They, you know, this is the
this is the the aforementioned the Lonzo Ball’s brother. LaMelo ball
who’s kind of the leader of this team. But this guy
LaMelo ball has an injury history. He keeps getting hurt. And all of this because of his Baller
Brand shoes. It’s possibly that hopefully the heat
changed to a different shoe. So he’s not injured as much. But you know these guys, you know
if you look at their starter and their bench scoring you know
they’re actually towards the bottom right. This team is it needs an identity. And I think that what helps this was going to help this team is getting
more defensive minded players. Right now they’re two offensive oriented
way too offensively where in my opinion their salary cap, they’re actually one of
the better ones that you know, -29.1. That means they have a lot of room
so they can do a lot of things. Although you know I, I put unlikely but you know, I think I’m going to go ahead
and change that to likely. Okay.
They’re likely going to do something. But the only reason why I say likely is
because they’re totally in rebuild mode. Usually teams that make, drafted trades
or guys are trying to get that, that have a window of opportunity
to be really, really good, you know, in the next 1 or 2 years.
Usually that’s the case. But this team is in total rebuild mode. So that was of my thinking of unlikely. But I think that they might want
to get incrementally better and might want to do some trades. You know, some of the draft picks again,
maybe some, better players to offset some of their, their starters. Because if you look at their starting
five, you know, they have LaMelo ball, they have Miles bridges,
they have Brandon Miller, who was injured most of the year last year that Mark Williams,
who almost got traded to the Lakers. But Steve, because he did
he did get traded. Then he got booted back. Exactly. Exactly then yeah.
Josh green was another starter. I mean that
that they’re they don’t look bad on paper. But the thing is
that these guys are all very offensive minded players
except for me about Williams. Right. Yeah. So that’s what I’m saying that they get
an influx of defensive minded players. This is going to help this team
quite a bit because I think their best defensive player
is Grant Williams. Remember Grant
once for the Boston Celtics. Yeah for him right. And then they had Steph Curry
who was on the team last year. Although I think he’s going to be a guy
that’s going to be gone. Yusuf Nurkic
you know he’s a back of center. Mark Williams is really their center. So you know these guys they just
they’re in total rebuild mode. You know and I already listed
some of these guys are going to be gone. Guys that I mentioned already. But as far as free agents to target,
you know, you’ve seen these names over
and over again, De’anthony Melton, Bruce Brown that these guys
are going to be highly coveted. The only thing is, are these guys going
to want to go to this team? That’s the only thing. Right? But, I’m just putting these guys as guys
that could essentially help turn this, this team around,
give them an identity. The kill Alexander-Walker is in that same
old as Bruce Brown and De’anthony Melton. So as far as draft picks, they have,
three picks at the fourth pick. I have con connubial out of Duke. This guy is six foot six, 219 pounds. He compares to Corey Kispert, right. Corey Kispert is a player
who plays for the Washington Wizards. Has a good shot, but, you know, doesn’t
really do that much more. He has a decent shot. Yeah, looks like a decent player. But I do want that. How you want that high on him
I wasn’t I don’t it’s because I don’t see him
being a very athletic player, man. You know, honestly,
you know, but he’s he’s a scoring I think he benefited for having Cooper
Frye going to see him. Honestly, bro. That’s that’s
that’s me and Duke. You know, I mean Duke has three players
that are going to probably be in the top ten with,
you know Cooper five be number one. Continue
being in that four to 5 to 6 range. And then you have a, Molly watch
who you already mentioned. He’s going to be in that top ten for. So they had three top
ten players in the draft. I just think that this guy is good,
but I don’t think he’s as good. And I don’t think he’s he’s going to be kind of
kind of a back to Mike Dudley done lady. Right. So you think so you think maybe at 13 he’s
that’s about the right slot for him. Or would you slot. Yeah. But right now
I haven’t for he’s he’s kind of slot. It’s all right. Yeah. You have at four
so I’m sorry. Yeah. Fourth. Like could you put draft targets. I pick number 13 I don’t know make. Oh might. Sorry mistake I might have made him. Yeah. No worries no worries. Yeah. Yeah I didn’t make him see. No. Yeah I just made him a secret
draft targets. The number 13 should be
number four. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So. Okay. So. So Trey Johnson, by the way,
that’s my first mistake of the season. All right, so, shooting guard the Tre
Johnson of Texas six with 690 pounds. This guy compares to a pretty good player,
Richard Hamilton. Right. Okay. I know this guy supposedly has,
you know, a great shot. He’s got one of these competitive edge,
you know, an edge to himself. Very kind of ice
in his veins type of person. The personality. I think that, you know, this guy
is going to be a good fit in the NBA. As far as, the picks at number
33 and third and 34, you already mentioned, Ryan, Carpenter out of,
Creighton. You seven foot, 257 pounds. He compares to Kosta Koufos. Remember, coast to coast. The good news there for him right. So he’s considered one of the best shot
blockers. You know in the in college basketball. He’s kind of like more of
like a old school big, you know, just kind of, you know, there’s all the dirty work,
you know, rebounds. Well, just the plays. Good defense. He’s that type of guy. Right. So, that’s that’s that’s what I see for
these guys at the 33rd pick at the 30th. At the 34th pick, I see a do. Theo, I think you mentioned this guy
out of Arkansas, six foot seven, 218. Pass this guy compared to Taurean
Prince. Right. So, this guy is kind of a two way player as it is, is this three point
shooter is getting better. He plays with a lot of power
and a lot of force. So this guy looks like to be an NBA ready
player, because of his size and his athleticism. So the other guy that I put down
there is Rocco Tokarski. Now this dude. Dude, listen to this. Seven foot four, 257 pounds. That’s a big dude, man. At a speed right now. You check this out.
You know who they compare him to? Room. The Taco Falls beans on drill. This is regions. This region. Compare him to Andre visa. It’s not is not on his visions for
the Warriors is actually a pretty decent center of dexterity. This dude, that guy had the greatest hands
you can throw anywhere around him. That guy was in to catch the ball. Yep. The only thing is that he could not shoot
with the Croat right now. He was a double double machine
for most career. Right. Until he gets a ten rebounds. Just getting out of bed. Exactly, exactly. So this is a guy supposedly this guy has
got a pretty good mobility for his size. He’s a pretty good rim protector. He has a pretty good shot. Right. So, you know, he’s considered
one of the top 15 international players to watch out for in the draft. So, All right,
so what’s going on the next one, bro? All right, so we have the, the Miami Heat. Yeah. So, the Miami Heat,
they were the eighth seed. They were 37, 45 record. They have, one pick in the first round,
and that’s the 20th pick. But if you look at their metrics,
these guys were a play in team okay. They were a offensive
rating of 21 defensive rating. Like we know that these guys are
a defensive minded team. This is what they’re all about. This is what,
you know, heat culture is all about. Yep. That’s right of this Pat Riley’s there. They’re that defense obviously. You know I got to say this team impressed me for all the turmoil
that they went through last year because Jimmy Butler
put him through the ringer, man. I mean, you know, the Pat Riley
Jimmy Butler feud was long and ugly. And finally when Jimmy Butler left this,
you know, it left a little lasting impression to this team. But they rebounded well man. And actually,
you know got into the playoffs. You know it’s
just that they were overmatched. They were just way over matched by the
Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round. And and you know that’s that
that’s still their fate. But but as far as the starter scoring
there at 22nd it’s kind of surprising. You know I guess because they’re so defensive minded
that they just that’s their whole game. Best scoring of the 15. But the roster needs I think
they really need a two point guard. They need a two point guard. And I think that they need
a two way player, because if you look at their starting lineup, they have Davion
Mitchell, who actually they got, you know, in a trade,
you know, for the Sacramento Kings. And I think even the Raptors
excuse me he’s better teams
before he came from the Raptors. But Tyler Herro was their shooting guard. And then Andrew Wiggins
you know from the Warriors. He was shooting a small forward. And Bam Adebayo was their power forward. And then where you know was their center. You know it’s a pretty decent
starting five if you look at it. But I think that they’ve got Mitchell. He’s a good maybe off the bench point
guard I don’t I agree really a starter. And he showed out well in the playoffs. Well early or he’s a good starter
if you have four other very strong offensive players. Right. Right. Yeah. But I think they need a point guard
you know. And I think they just need more two way
players like a guy like you know Haywood Highsmith, more
guys like him okay. Because he plays on that team already. And I would say that more players like him
that can shoot better than him are what they need, because they have Duncan
Robinson coming off the bench right now. The Haywood Highsmith already people
your bitch Intel Larsen who was drafted out of Arizona last year. You know they need some help on the bench. They just don’t have you know
enough of a playmakers on the bench. So what happened to Hyman Vasquez
is he just fall off the face. He just of the rotation man. He’s just he’s
just not hasn’t been playing. So okay so quiet players
that are likely gone Alec Burks
I think he’s got Josh Christopher. Dude I didn’t know
that guy was on the team. Right. But, but you know, these guys,
they’re they’re kind of dead weight. They have a pretty high.
They’re pretty high over the salary cap. I think they need to go ahead. And I don’t think
they’re going to make a draft. I put them as a, unlikely
to make it drafted. I think they’re trying to build
a little bit more. They have some free agents
to go ahead and pick from. You know, Caris LeVert is actually a pretty good fit
for this team in my opinion. I think Luke Kennard, you know, is another guy
who fits that fits to, to a best player, although his defense is not the greatest
that the guy could shoot. And of course, the Anthony Melton,
Bruce Brown, these guys all the time because these guys are going
to be highly coveted by many teams. And I think if it was left up
to Bruce Brown at the Anthony Melton, this is a team they would probably go to
if they had the right. So okay. All right. All right. So we got the draft targets at number 20. So I have Liam McNeely. You mentioned him already. So he’s a small forward at a UConn,
six foot seven, 215 pounds. You know, he compares to man Thunder Dan
Marley bro. Now that’s a pretty good comparison there. That is a pretty good
good nursing man. Yeah. Because you know
he he’s he’s just a good connector. He does a lot of different things
very well. All right. His three point shot
is actually pretty good. You know, the guy who was right
was running up the bottom so that this the big fan of this guy,
you know, this guy has a complete game and is going to be a force in the NBA
and good value at number 20. So I think that’s a that that that the heat would probably target
Walter Clayton out of Florida. This guy is kind of a Bradley Beal
ish type. But he’s not being compared to him. He’s being compared
more to Randolph Childers. But you know, you don’t remember
Randolph Childress this game. Right? So you know,
but this guy has a really good shot. The only thing is he’s kind of small. He’s six foot two 199 pounds,
which has a really, really, really good shooter
read can get really red hot at any time. But he’s just undersized and that’s the
that’s the challenge with him. The other guy that I have here, Nick Clifford, we’ve already talked about him,
is that compared to Terrence Mann. So but that’s pretty much it for,
for that. We’re going to learn quickly now man. So that’s it for the Miami Heat. All right. So then the the
I think I have one more team, right. The Orlando Magic. Two more I have two more teams.
I have Orlando Magic. All right. The Orlando Magic had they’re the seventh. They had the seven.
They were the seventh seed last year. They were 41 and 41. Which kind of a disappointing season
given that where they were at the the year before that
they had three of their four draft picks. Right. That they
they’re likely to do something right. Their starters or Jalen Suggs
can take this Caldwell-Pope, France Bogner Paolo Banchero Wendell Carter
Jr rotation is Cole Anthony, Gary Harris, Jonathan Isaac, Goga Matodzi
Anthony Black. You know, so they have a lot of good
defensive minded players on the team. They just need more offense. So I put down
some of the things that they need. They need two players who can shoot
because this team can shoot with the league. Yes, I agree
and I think they need a point guard. I mean Jalen Sauce is a good point guard
but he’s not a traditional point guard. I think they need more of a facilitator. Jalen Suggs is a very good defensive
point guard right. That’s what he’s really known for. Yeah. These are the things that I had his needs. So they are 56.2 over the salary cap. I put them as a draft, a trade of
being very highly likely because they have a lot of draft picks that, you know,
are coveted by a lot of teams, and they are they need to get
I mean, they have a good core right now. They have a good core of players, maybe
for 3 to 4 players that can build around. And I think they can go ahead
and get some free agents out there, like I thought,
like a loose cannon who can shoot. He’s a guy that can shoot,
and I think you could fit Malik Beasley, another guy
who can shoot plays defense. Two. Gary Trent can shoot
three from the Milwaukee Bucks. The only Melton bro. The Anthony Middleton’s coming up
quite a bit. You can see I think you know
if he didn’t have this injury history he would be hired I mean he would be first
off the board right I mean people yeah. Why don’t I if he didn’t have his injury
history, he’d be under contract right now already like playing for some team. Yeah I yeah I agree
he’s a he’s a hell of a player. Oh I agree man I agree. All right. So as far as their the Denver 20th pick. So I’ve already mentioned Walter Clayton. I’ve already mentioned Liam McNeely. The other guy, the one guy that we have not mentioned
is Cedric Howard, out of Washington state’s, Washington state, six foot six,
213 pound, who he compares to Khris Middleton, Khris Middleton and Khris
Middleton was a good player. You know he was drafted at
I think of the Detroit Pistons. This who Khris Middleton got drafted by. But you know he’s got good size
I mean the champion size. You know he can shoot. You know you know he’s kind of considered
one of the bigger rises in the draft. You know I wouldn’t be surprised
if he goes higher than 20. But that’s a guy that I thought that
that would be a good fit for the magic, because he can shoot
and he has. And he’s a good size. Okay. Going to number 25, we have,
Hugo, Hugo Gonzalez, that is Steven Gonzalez, six foot six, 200
pounds, compares to Evan Fournier, right. He’s a decent little player you know. Remember
he came out of the Denver Nuggets. Kind of been all over the place. Now he’s a really good
this guy Hugo Gonzalez is good shot maker good good passer. Just has good feel for the game. He just he moves well off the ball. Great. Cutter uses a good playmaker initiator. And this is I think this guy you know based on his size and just the comparisons
that he’s drawing to as far as like and and his ability as a player I wouldn’t
be surprised if this guy goes higher. All right. So then other guys I put it was Derrick
Powell, at a North Carolina six foot six. A lot of the six, six guys, you know,
there’s a lot of guys out there. Yep. That’s right. These are these, these long,
athletic guys that the gyms are cutting. 200 pounds is another one
six foot, 600, 200 pounds. Just like Gonzalez. This guy compares Ricky Davis. Remember Ricky Davis,
you know, out of Ricky Davis. You come inside.
You do that anyway. Yeah. This guy is considered a true high flier. We’re probably one of the more explosive
guys, in the draft. You know, he has he’s he’s a really good,
high flier athlete. Just needs a lot of development
on a shot, primarily. So, and I’ve already mentioned
Ben Saraf out of Israel. You know, the guy that compares him,
I don’t, you know, with, you know, another guy
that I think that would be on there. So. Okay, then have the last two picks
a high flier out of North Carolina that,
that that reminds me of someone. Yeah. Michael Jordan. Right. All right. So then, number four, okay. At number 46, you already mentioned
this guy is on Al-Mansour. He is, he compares to Brandan Wright,
by the way, six foot ten, 220 pounds, high handed. Right? Oh, yeah, I remember grinning. Right. That’s the, we lose to us wears. We lost. We lost him. We lost. Was it. Who was it that we lost? Was it
Jason Richardson? Not this region that we lost. Mitch Richmond for granted, right? No, no, no, it was Jason Wright. Was it? It was this one. I think it was Jason Richardson. Yeah, I could have sworn it. Yeah, yeah. You’re right,
it was Jason Richardson. Yeah. Yeah. Because because we have the worst history
with big man. We just can’t. We couldn’t make it fit. But anyway, that’s what this guy,
And then the last guy I put down there is Amari Williams out of Kentucky,
seven foot 260, 202 pound guy. That’s a big dude, long athletic center. And, just rebounds at a high level
and a good playmaker. So these are the guys right. But and the last one is Arthur Kalama. Kalama. He he compares to Alex Poythress. You know I don’t remember I remember the name I don’t remember this
guy’s I don’t remember his game. You anytime you get compared to
somebody doesn’t really play. That’s not really. Yeah. That’s not good. So he’s six foot six, 221
pounds is a big powerful wing leap frame. He has a good all around game,
but it just needs a pause. His ball handling and just shooting. So that’s, that’s that’s it
for the, for the, the the magic. So. All right, last this is the last team. All right? We’re going. Eddie, not only is it the last team,
but it’s the last team. It is the last team, right? You’re right. All right, so we are now at two hours. We’re going to be done here
in about five minutes. Right. So but thanks for those of you
who have stayed here. But anyways Washington Wizards,
this team is like dead last as you mentioned, right? 30th and offensive
rating 30th in net rating. The only thing that’s really decent about
this team is their defense at 27 at 119.27 if you can call that decent bro. Right. But you can see that
their starter scoring is second to last. Right? Then scoring
is actually one of their strengths. They were top ten. But in my opinion bro
this team is a complete overall. They just need to start all over. Press the reset button
and just start all over. Right. Now Eddie, Eddie, Eddie,
think about what you’re saying. They played like they started, like,
four rookies. Yeah, they started out well. They started three. It’s the Keyshawn, Bob.
Carrington. Eleazar. Keyshawn. George.
Those are the three that they signed. And after starting three, Ricky’s here. Like they need to reset. Like. Yeah I mean they had Jordan Poole right? You know Jordan Poole just I don’t know. Yeah. Jordan Poole is a good player. They need to they need to trade him in
because there’s a lot of teams out there that would like someone like him
to come off the bench. And just for God’s sake, the words need. Right. But anyway. But as bad as this team is, bro, that
really surprised me on their salary cap. Look at that. That’s a mess. 96.5 million. That’s a mess, bro. That is. I mean, you’re 30th in the league in almost every category
and you’re you’re almost near the bottom. Salary cap. That just screams a bad GM, bro. In my opinion, right? I agree, I just think they have no room
to make any moves. Highly unlikely
they’re going to make any trades. But you can see that the guy that that really the guys are really expensive on a team
is Khris Middleton. And then also Jordan Poole right. The Khris Middleton is 34 million
I think he’s gone too deep. He’s not you know that costly 6.1 million. Not that costly. They could probably keep if they wanted to Anthony Gill he’s
a kind of a don’t care right. But these guys they you know
they’re just needed for a lot of help. And luckily for them
they had draft picks, right. They have three draft picks. They they can build from those two drivers
that they had last year and then continue that build. But as far as free agents they can target already put them De’anthony Melton again,
another high guard is always appearing. Bruce Brown
these are the two most popular guys that I think a lot of teams
are going to go ahead and covered. Gary Trent, the other one you of the Angelo Russell I think would be a good fit
for these guys and Caris LeVert. But the thing is, is
that if these guys are free agents, you know the money’s going to top. And these guys this teams already proven
they’re going to pay for whatever they need. So maybe these guys will choose
to go to that team. You know if they if given the choice if they pick up D’Angelo Russell,
that defensive rating is going down. They’re going to 30th. Exactly
man. Exactly. So all right. So as far as draft picks, we already talked about a lot
of these guys continue at number six. Come on Molly watch another guy
that we were talking about. At number 18, we already mentioned,
Walter Clayton multiple times. You mentioned
Callie Marie Boyle’s already. And then at the number 45th, the 40th pick,
we have a Cam Jones out of Marquette. And Michael Russo is one that
that you had mentioned as well. Yeah. So, but that’s Duke. That’s it. Man. That is in our draft. So we did our first draft of the first
15 teams. And next
we’re going to go ahead and continue. We’re going to cover the Eastern Conference, one Division,
and then two of the Western Conference to finish up all of the draft,
the pre-draft coverage. We’re going to continue talking about the
finals, which is what we did this week. We talked about, you know, right now,
the game still going on. I don’t even I mean, we’ve looked about who’s winning,
but I know that the Pacers were up by two points at one point
last time I look I know it’s a close game, but
we’re going to more than likely next week. We might be over the finals might be over
at that point is all. Might be. We’re just going to talk about that and a little bit more about the draft,
pre-draft coverage. And then we’ll just be ready for our live
draft that we’re going to have here
on the 25th of June. So, if you’ve been here this whole time,
we really appreciate you. Marty Feldman, for the words
you guys looking at this time, right. But we really appreciate
you guys being here. You know, we’re pros and readers. You can find us at Grumblings media.com. You can also find us at any
popular podcast you can think of such as YouTube, Spotify, Google, Apple,
Facebook X, Pandora, you name it. You can go ahead and find us. Just put in Grumblings media.com. We’re here live every Wednesday at 9 p.m.,
eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. We are also known as the Cisco Kids. We would love to be able to license that war song so we can have that
starting song, one that we can’t. You know,
our producer says too much money. But anyway, we’re Cisco kids
because we’re both from San Francisco. Eddie Aparicio
and this is Anthony Twan Coral. And we are going to go ahead and sign off, have a good of the rest of the week,
everyone. Thanks for staying here. Thank you.
