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Learn more at marines.com. Hello

0:56

and welcome to the Game Theory Podcast. I'm your

0:58

host Sam Zaccini. Today,

1:00

we're talking about Anthony Edwards ascension into

1:02

superstardom, Bilal Kulabali being out for the

1:05

season. And then we're going to do off-season

1:07

previews for the Portland Trailblazers and the Detroit

1:09

Pistons. We might even talk a little bit

1:11

of an NBA draft at the end. But

1:13

now, let's hit the music. Let's hit

1:15

the music. Hello

1:37

and welcome to the Game Theory Podcast. I'm your host

1:39

Sam Zaccini. But

1:42

if you watch the tape, what you will see

1:44

is completely orchestrated this game. Bryce,

1:52

what's going on, buddy? What's

1:54

up? Hey, it's the day before the

1:56

best four-day stretch of basketball of the

1:58

year. And here's

2:00

the thing Sam real quick. My eighth grade

2:02

students are on a field trip tomorrow So

2:05

like there is legitimately only a hour

2:07

and a half window Where

2:09

I am NOT gonna be able to fully

2:12

focus on these games. So I'm excited That's

2:15

amazing. I love that so much for you Bryce.

2:17

I Couldn't be more excited

2:19

for the NCAA tournament Having

2:21

said that if you're here if you're watching this

2:24

video live if you're watching it afterward Hit

2:26

that like button hit the subscribe button to the channel.

2:28

It really helps grow the channel It really helps grow

2:31

the show over on YouTube hit that

2:33

subscribe button If you listen to this afterward on

2:35

the podcast feed, it really helps. I

2:37

don't know what our click-through rate is Maybe Dave can

2:40

give me those numbers at some point. Maybe we'll find

2:42

out on the next episode, but I feel like There

2:45

are not as many people there's subscribe to the

2:47

channel that watch the channel. So hit that subscribe

2:49

button hit the like button It really helps Bryce

2:53

the topic that I just wanted to

2:55

dive into above and beyond everything today

2:57

was Anthony Edwards. Yep Anthony

3:00

Edwards has been unconscious Recently,

3:02

it feels like to me every single time

3:04

I watch an Anthony Edwards game. I'm blown

3:07

away with just How

3:09

much he continues to grow as a

3:11

scorer? How much he continues

3:13

to grow as an overall defender

3:15

how much he continues to just

3:18

take things over? Every

3:20

single time that I watch a game now

3:22

last night against Denver The

3:24

Timberwolves lose this game 115 to 112, right? They

3:28

hold it the Edwards scoreless in the fourth quarter

3:31

and we'll talk about that because I thought it

3:33

was really interesting I felt they loaded up really

3:35

really well against them But

3:37

the first three quarters were like magnificent.

3:40

They were absolutely staggering. They were

3:42

stunning. They were incredible The Last

3:45

few weeks for Anthony Edwards It feels like

3:47

there's a new highlight every night whether it's

3:49

him blocking a shot at the end of

3:52

the game and hitting his face On the

3:54

rim or it's him dunking

3:56

and dislocating a finger against

3:59

John Collins and like hitting John

4:01

Collins in the face as he's doing

4:03

this, Anthony Edwards is like taking

4:05

a real leap into superstardom it feels

4:08

like, even above and beyond what

4:10

we've seen so far from this now two time

4:12

All-Star. Well, and it started this

4:14

last summer, right? Like coming out of the summer,

4:16

I think a lot of people felt like he

4:18

was on this path. And I don't want to

4:20

say he like had some sort of slow start

4:22

to the season. It wasn't that by any means,

4:24

but it seems like it's ramping up here at

4:27

the end of the season as, like the

4:29

thing with that loss to the Nuggets, Sam,

4:31

is they were, they started Kyle Anderson at

4:33

center and then had to play Luca Garza

4:35

20 minutes at center against the best player

4:37

in the world in Nikola Jokic. And they

4:39

were still there in large part too, some

4:42

other guys, but Anthony Edwards, since the All-Star

4:45

break, he's six in the NBA and points

4:47

per game. He's six and fourth quarter points

4:49

per game, shooting better than 50% from the

4:51

field. I know the Nuggets were

4:53

able to slow him down a little bit in

4:55

the fourth quarter in that game, but in general,

4:57

he has been amazing. And I'm excited

4:59

to look at the film, talk about what

5:02

makes him great. I assume on both ends

5:04

of the floor. If not, I have some

5:06

things I want to talk about defensively, even

5:08

from that Nuggets game where he's holding teammates

5:10

accountable. So I think it'll be a lot

5:12

of fun and probably overdue us

5:14

giving some of flowers, some

5:16

of him his flowers. Yeah,

5:19

so I totally agree. I didn't grab anything defensive

5:21

today because I really just kind of want to

5:23

focus on like the growth in the footwork offensively.

5:26

Because to me, that's kind of where it starts and we'll

5:28

kind of break it down. I'm

5:30

glad you brought up the defense. We'll talk about the defense

5:33

maybe after we get into the offense. But I think what's

5:35

made Ant just so special recently

5:37

has been the overall

5:39

growth on offense. And I think that that's

5:41

exactly where I want to go with this

5:44

just to begin is you

5:46

and I last week when we broke down Jaylen

5:48

Williams, we talked a lot about three level scoring,

5:50

right? We talked a lot about how

5:52

Jaylen is able to, you know, in the

5:54

first six minutes of that game

5:57

or whatever, get to the rim on a...

6:00

drive, get to his favorite mid range areas,

6:02

knock down a catch and shoot three. I

6:04

mean, we're going to see the same things here with Anthony

6:07

Edwards as we dive into this to start. Right. So this

6:10

first clip here is literally first minute of

6:12

the game. Jaden

6:15

McDaniel sets like a little mini flip

6:17

screen. And I just want to point

6:19

out the patience for Anthony Edwards here.

6:23

This is stuff where when he was

6:25

in college first year in the league,

6:27

he took a lot of really inefficient

6:29

shots. I think that honestly, Anthony Edwards

6:32

probably would have shot this

6:34

ball like here. I

6:37

think he probably would have like hang dribbled

6:39

and taken like a mid range pull up,

6:41

like right in this area somewhere

6:43

like that. Instead

6:47

he's patient. He's calm. He

6:49

takes three, four dribbles, then

6:51

goes step through against

6:54

Michael Porter Jr. Who's a bigger defender

6:56

than he is. I love

6:58

the way that they use screens in this game

7:00

as well. I thought it was really intriguing just

7:02

to look at. So they start with Mikkel Alexander

7:05

Walker here. He's going to

7:07

set this little flip and

7:09

then watch like Kyle Anderson. They kind of come

7:12

through as, uh, yeah, Kylie Anderson's going to come

7:14

through and

7:16

set what looks like a little flare

7:18

here for

7:20

Alexander Walker to come off. So

7:23

Aaron Gordon can't

7:25

really trap here. That's you.

7:27

Like you can't really put two on Anthony

7:31

Edwards here. That's why Aaron

7:33

Gordon's eventually going to point and go, Hey, Michael,

7:36

I need you to take him. I need you to take

7:38

him. He goes and turns

7:40

around and goes. And then answers

7:43

realizing he's got this math up here and the

7:45

step through is absolutely sick. He

7:47

also scores this if Carl Anthony towns

7:49

is on the floor and Yokech has

7:52

to give more respect. Like Yokech essentially

7:54

hung out in the lane this whole

7:56

game because he was guarding Kyle Anderson

7:58

right there. Anthony Edwards. as a sick

8:01

in and out hesitation right there. He has

8:03

Michael Porter Jr's hips all the way open

8:05

a little before that in a driving lane,

8:08

but Jokic is standing in the lane right

8:10

there. He gets him like, this is a

8:12

layup, but Jokic is really able to commit.

8:14

But what I love is then he stops,

8:16

doesn't settle for a fade away. And

8:19

then as Jokic starts to have

8:21

to get out of the lane eventually, right? Then

8:24

he does this step through move and all the

8:26

footwork stuff you wanna get into. Yeah,

8:29

again, this is just clear growth for Anthony

8:31

Edwards. There's not another way to put this.

8:34

Everybody's gonna melt down about the dunks and

8:36

the blocks. And look, he had a disgusting

8:39

putback dunk in this game that we're about

8:41

to get to. It's the footwork

8:43

for me. The footwork is absolutely gross. It's

8:46

the patience, it's the poise. And let's get

8:48

to this next one here. They're gonna set

8:50

like a double pin down action here for

8:52

Ant and get into just

8:54

a little dribble handoff with Luca Garza. The

8:58

Nuggets cut this thing off, do a great job

9:00

with it. And

9:03

then he's just gonna get Contavious Cobalt

9:05

Popon skates with this sick crossover. And

9:07

he's gonna knock down just this little

9:09

step back jumper. I think this

9:12

is the most impressive shot of the game

9:14

for me, Sam, because watch KCP

9:16

and MPJ and where they are at

9:18

in relation to like his feet and

9:21

his legs when he takes this shot.

9:24

I definitely wanna point that out as well. I also

9:27

wanna point out, cause you're gonna see this on the

9:29

next clip. Look how high KCP

9:31

is above the three point line here,

9:34

defending Anthony Edwards. The

9:36

next clip here, you're gonna see, there's

9:39

an issue there, but look how high he is on this one.

9:42

And I would imagine the next clip is an adjustment to

9:44

what happened on this clip, right? So

9:47

he gets this crossover between the legs,

9:49

right? He drives and

9:52

look at just the ability to stop.

9:55

Look at how split his legs are

9:57

here. Yep. normal

10:00

like body mechanics for somebody who's this powerful

10:02

and physical real quick Sam. So for anybody

10:04

who's not watching on video, one, you should

10:07

be, go over to YouTube and all the

10:09

things Sam says, but he has one foot

10:11

that is legitimately outside the three point line.

10:13

And the other foot is at the top

10:16

of the free throw line circle. So like

10:18

that is the distance that he is covering

10:20

right now. And it's not just about the

10:23

distance. It's about the explosion he's going to

10:25

have out of this when he stops his

10:27

momentum. It's insane. He

10:29

gets to this step back double

10:32

contest. Like you said, Bryce, you wanted

10:34

to point out where KCP's feet are.

10:36

Look at both of them. They're

10:39

right there. That's ridiculous. Like I

10:42

know as somebody who took a lot

10:44

of jump shots, that somebody being in

10:46

that space, cause I couldn't do anything

10:48

else, Sam, somebody being in that space

10:51

whenever I elevated would bother

10:53

me. It would affect me mentally and you

10:55

can feel it cause you can see he

10:57

does it awkward thing with his foot on

10:59

the landing and he still has the concentration

11:01

to knock it down. This was crazy impressive.

11:05

Yeah. Like Bryce, I'm assuming you could

11:07

do this, right? Like this just full

11:09

flexibility, you know, with all this power

11:11

and strength and coordination, this was you,

11:13

right? Like getting to a step back.

11:15

So whenever I train kids, I teach

11:17

this like getting low and all of

11:19

that stuff in very slow motion. And

11:22

Sam, it's so sad. It's so sad. After

11:24

the workouts, how sore I am. Like I'm

11:27

about to rip a hamstring, just stepping it

11:29

off, let alone doing it full speed and

11:31

then doing a step back off of it.

11:34

My goodness. Yeah, this is disgusting for man.

11:36

And then this next one here is literally

11:38

the next possession down the court for the

11:40

Timberwolves, right? The last one was at 835.

11:43

This one's at 819, right? First

11:45

quarter, Anthony Edwards going to come

11:48

down. KCP

11:51

look where his feet are now. His feet

11:53

are below the three point line now because

11:55

he recognizes shit. I have Anthony Edwards coming.

11:57

He can get a little bit down. against

12:00

me, oh by the way, drilled a step back on

12:02

me last time. I'm

12:04

all the way below the three point line now. And

12:06

then he just hits that pound dribble and

12:08

just goes right up for it. Like just

12:10

an absolutely sick, sick player right now. I have

12:13

the Edwards next one here. This

12:17

is a Nikhil Alexander Walker or a Jaden

12:19

McDaniel's mystery. That might be Jaden in the

12:21

corner. Uh, miss

12:24

three here with literally the next possession down

12:26

the court. Or

12:29

no, this is two minutes later. This

12:31

is the three. And

12:34

you can just see he, I

12:36

can just like imagine the way he's

12:38

walking. It's just like purely gleeful here.

12:40

He knows it's coming. He

12:43

knows that nobody has gotten a body on

12:45

him. Yep. Aaron Gordon just said, forget about

12:47

it. This is

12:49

about to be curtains and Anthony Edwards. The

12:52

thing that's so impressive about this to me, his

12:56

left arm. Is like over

12:58

here. This is a one

13:00

handed catch in traffic. Yo

13:02

Kich's arm is right here, right?

13:05

Like Yo Kich's arm is right there. He catches

13:07

this one handed. Below the rim right

13:09

now or like at the rim. So he has to

13:11

control it and then bring it back up over the

13:14

rim. Yeah. And

13:17

he somehow finishes this. This is insane.

13:19

This was truly insane to see somebody

13:21

do this. Like I just kind of

13:23

want to watch it in full just

13:26

to be able to get the full understanding of what we're

13:28

looking at here. It's gross. Yeah. So disgusting

13:30

that that happened. Uh, this next one here,

13:32

Michael Porter throws a bad pass in transition

13:35

332 of the first quarter. And now we've

13:37

got Anthony Edwards in space and

13:39

just, I mean, Oh,

13:42

this one is beautiful. That's such, I'm

13:44

so glad you clipped these out Sam,

13:47

because with somebody like Anthony Edwards, people

13:49

just fall. You said it already. They

13:51

fall in love with the athleticism and

13:53

they forget the nuance with his skill

13:55

level. You don't do these things just

13:58

because this is. and

14:00

preparation and putting in the time. He does

14:02

another nice little in and out with his

14:04

left hand here, but this step through stuff was

14:07

so beautiful in this first quarter. So,

14:09

he sees Aaron

14:12

Gordon coming out at him. As

14:14

soon as Aaron Gordon's momentum starts going toward

14:16

him, he's like, I'm just gonna in and

14:18

out this guy. And I feel like

14:20

I can get by him at any point once I

14:22

do that. So in and out some, Gordon actually does

14:24

a pretty good job. This is a really good job

14:26

by Aaron Gordon. And then it's

14:29

just string and dribble moves together. It's string and moves

14:31

off the bounce, right? Look

14:33

at his head right here. This

14:36

is what's crazy about Anthony Edwards's balance.

14:39

His head is like

14:41

going this way momentum wise. He's

14:43

putting that ball with his left hand through

14:46

his legs up to his right

14:48

hand right here. Able

14:51

to, oh no, this is

14:53

behind the back. But like the fact that he's

14:56

able to get back to that behind the back,

14:58

yep, is disgusting even. I

15:01

don't understand how somebody is capable of

15:04

like doing these things.

15:08

Like he takes that extra dribble and then gets them

15:10

behind the back. He goes behind the

15:12

back to attack the front foot, right? Like you're

15:14

always trying to attack front foot, attack front foot.

15:18

Basically nobody can get there to

15:20

attack the front foot from

15:22

this spot by going behind the back like this.

15:25

This is what makes this so absurd. And

15:28

he gets that extra separation. He's got

15:30

Aaron Gordon dancing. Aaron Gordon is like

15:32

a borderline all defense defender in the

15:34

league. And he goes up

15:37

and under to get there. Well,

15:39

the thing is like at a certain

15:41

point, Aaron Gordon's like, I've just given

15:43

so many efforts. Like we talked about

15:45

multiple efforts defensively. This is in pseudo

15:47

transition. Gordon lunges at him, does a

15:49

great job recovering. Now, Ant makes the

15:51

change of direction move with

15:53

the behind the back right here. Gordon

15:56

changes direction with him again. He's gonna

15:58

cut him off again, Sam. And

16:00

it looks like he's gonna take the fade

16:03

away jumper and by that point like you

16:05

have to imagine how like Exhausted Gordon is

16:07

on this possession from all those efforts whenever

16:09

he goes to the fake fade away and

16:11

step through It's just over like you just

16:14

you can't continue to move your feet and

16:16

stay in front It's completely

16:18

sick completely completely sick. This is the

16:20

next possession down the court I

16:22

believe three minutes left in the second quarter.

16:24

No, this is second quarter now that first

16:26

quarter So this is a quarter later This

16:30

is just power right? Like yep. KCP

16:32

is an unbelievable defender He's

16:34

got help here with Nicole Yocha. They've Luca

16:36

Garza on the court Agencies

16:41

this mini like crease

16:43

here Where he's

16:45

like, okay, I can leverage here and I think I

16:47

can get to the spot before you can get there.

16:50

Yep And

16:52

he gets there he was neat powers through

16:56

He's strong enough to do it balance. Yeah

17:00

That's what's crazy about this just look post

17:03

position They ran a

17:05

lot of post-ups for Anthony Edwards in this game. I thought that

17:07

was pretty interesting It felt

17:09

like they felt like he had the strength

17:11

advantage on KCP and on Jamal Murray at

17:13

times Talk about that in the second

17:15

half particularly But the ability

17:17

to just power up and go through

17:19

these things is completely absurd. It's

17:22

completely absurd This next one

17:24

here a minute left in the second quarter now. He's

17:27

got Aaron Gordon on him screen

17:29

comes KCP kind of

17:31

shades toward the ball as

17:33

if there's gonna be two on the ball because

17:35

he's guarding Monte Morris Then

17:38

guards is gonna come up for a screen here

17:43

And again, I want to point out the

17:45

patience in the footwork Compared

17:47

to what Anthony Edwards used to be right?

17:50

So I think there's a chance a Then

17:53

Anthony Edwards Might have

17:55

just taken this empty side sure previously. Yeah

17:57

and tried to get like into all of

18:00

this open space in

18:02

order to just try and be an athlete, right?

18:05

Because that's what he used to do. Instead,

18:08

he's patient.

18:10

He lets Monty Morris clear to the

18:12

corner. He

18:15

takes this ball screen instead

18:18

from Luca Garza. And

18:21

I think previously he takes

18:23

this shot here. I

18:26

think that this would have normally, like in

18:28

past years, I think Anthony

18:31

Edwards just rises up and takes this jumper from

18:33

18 feet. You know,

18:35

probably makes it 43% of the time,

18:38

something like that. I don't know what the exact number would

18:40

be, but he probably makes it a decent amount

18:42

of the time, right? Instead,

18:45

he pump fakes, gets

18:49

Jokic going backward to go and

18:52

rebound, and

18:55

then just takes this little leaning shot where,

18:58

again, because his hang time is so sick,

19:01

he's able to realign his body in

19:04

midair and get to

19:06

this little right-handed floater. I

19:10

mean, this is tough. This is really

19:12

hard to guard. So by year, 16

19:14

feet to the three-point line, Anthony Edwards, 28%, 36%, 35%. So

19:19

you get inside of 15 feet, and as most people, like

19:23

even this year, the difference between those two

19:25

areas, inside and outside of 16

19:27

feet, inside of 16, 10 to 16, 43%, 16

19:31

feet to the three-point line, 34%. So

19:34

you're looking at almost a 10% difference in

19:37

those areas. The other thing, you brought it

19:39

up. If he goes sideline, baseline

19:41

here, he probably ends up getting

19:44

double teamed by KCP and Aaron

19:46

Gordon, as opposed to doing what

19:48

he does, which is Jokic, knowing

19:50

he's in drop, because that's what Jokic did

19:52

the entire game in this game because of

19:55

who the Timberwolves had. He also does a

19:57

good job setting Aaron Gordon up here. off

20:00

close hit to hip, not great, but I watch

20:02

a lot of NBA players that are way worse

20:04

at coming off hip to hip than this and

20:07

he is able to now attack Nikola

20:09

Jokic instead of probably doubling or dribbling

20:11

into a trap from Gordon in KCP

20:13

if he goes to the baseline. Yeah,

20:16

it's just ridiculous. He's just completely

20:18

ridiculous right now. This next play here I

20:21

think is going to get us into the

20:23

second half. And what I want you guys

20:25

to watch for in the second half here

20:27

is they really went

20:29

after Jamal Murray here in the third quarter,

20:31

it felt like. They set

20:35

a lot of actions where the primary goal

20:37

was to get Ant onto Jamal

20:39

Murray as a player. And like, I think Jamal

20:41

has turned into an okay defender.

20:43

Like he doesn't take anything off

20:46

the court, in my opinion defensively. He's not

20:48

like a killer on defense, but

20:50

he's pretty close to like a net neutral at this

20:53

point. He probably is a net neutral to be honest.

20:57

This one here, Conley

20:59

is going to throw it back to Jamal.

21:01

Conley I think recognizes that they've got three

21:03

guys low here and that Jokic

21:06

is kind of going backwards. So Jokic can't go

21:08

up to the level and help a little bit.

21:11

And that means he can just go screen. So

21:14

we're going to get a Mike Conley screen here and

21:17

the Nuggets tend to switch everything

21:19

like this. So we

21:21

get that switch and it just like

21:23

goes right behind the screen. It's like, all right, I'm just

21:26

going to fire this thing. Jamal is

21:28

not quite there yet. Jamal's

21:30

got his feet below the three point line

21:32

here. And

21:35

Ant can just get into this shot with ease. Right.

21:38

Yeah, I mean, he's the

21:40

acceleration, the explosion, elevation on

21:42

this jump shot anywhere it's

21:44

at is impressive. He

21:48

drills this one next time down the court now. Here

21:53

comes Anthony Edwards in transition. He's got Aaron Gordon guarding

21:55

him in transition. And

21:58

I just want to say that he's got a lot of

22:00

wonderful this for the craft off the bounce. I

22:03

swear like Anthony Edwards had some

22:05

stuff off the bounce when he was younger. He

22:08

had nowhere near the tightness

22:10

of handle that he had

22:13

that he has now when he was younger. Like

22:16

he's going to inside out this

22:19

into a crossover with

22:22

full leverage full

22:24

speed staying low

22:27

staying keeping this ball

22:29

away from Jamal Murray by the

22:31

way who's digging into help. Look

22:34

at how Anthony Edwards like extends

22:36

this ball out here

22:38

to get it away from

22:40

Jamal digging into the handle.

22:42

The tightness of handle is sick here

22:44

and then just

22:47

the ability to adjust in

22:49

midair to put his back

22:51

to Aaron Gordon to shield

22:53

off Gordon and then throw

22:56

up like a

22:58

behind the back layup basically like an

23:00

inside hand like behind the back kind

23:03

of layup here. It's sick. Well

23:05

and the pull-up jump shooting plays into

23:07

all of this as well because if

23:09

there was no threat for him to

23:11

stop on a dime right here and

23:13

take this shot the in and out

23:15

move and all of that wouldn't be

23:18

as effective. Aaron Gordon could just keep

23:20

backpedaling. I'm also glad you brought up

23:22

how he navigates that secondary defender in

23:24

Jamal Murray. So for all the viewers

23:26

and listeners guys really watch an NBA

23:28

game when somebody is attacking off the

23:30

bounce and watch the little nuance they

23:32

use navigating the second defender the defender

23:34

that's stepping over to help in. They

23:37

can't come all the way over in the

23:39

NBA to cut them off because the floor

23:41

spacing is too good. The shooters are too

23:43

good. So they just try to get a

23:45

hand in there watch the really good guards

23:47

wings whoever even some bigs use that that

23:49

little like they'll throw it out ahead they'll

23:51

in and out it what if they do

23:54

to navigate that secondary defender it's really impressive.

23:57

Yeah and you know we can go

23:59

back to the third

24:01

clip we watched, right? So

24:03

this play here

24:05

is very similar to this one, right? It

24:09

8-16 in the first quarter, where Ant has

24:11

this ball coming down, he pound dribbles there,

24:13

right? Still has one hand

24:15

on the ball. This

24:18

could easily be a drive still in

24:21

the first quarter. He decides to

24:23

pull up and drills it

24:25

in KCP's face. This time,

24:27

he's coming down in transition.

24:33

He has the ability to do

24:36

that again, and he sets up the same

24:38

way, right? Like he goes for that little

24:40

pound dribble in his right hand. So Gordon

24:45

has to be up here at the level a little bit

24:47

higher of the three point line. And

24:52

now we're inside outing into a crossover

24:54

into this ridiculous layup package. It's completely

24:56

absurd. Next one here,

24:58

Anthony Edwards, gonna take this again,

25:00

kind of a dribble handoff situation.

25:06

Takes the DHO, they switch it, it

25:08

gets them on to Jamal Murray again.

25:12

He's like, I am just stronger than Jamal Murray. I'm gonna

25:14

back him down, get to my spot, get to that like

25:16

13 foot range that

25:18

Bryce brought up earlier being so important.

25:21

Hands that, next

25:23

one here again, ant

25:26

being guarded by KCP. This

25:29

time, instead of running the two

25:31

one ball screen, they

25:34

run the one two ball screen, and

25:36

he just kind of seals off Murray and makes it

25:38

so that he has to take them. And

25:42

then this is just gonna be a little pull up jumper here. It's

25:48

just ridiculous. He's completely, completely

25:50

ridiculous in this game. This

25:53

one's gonna be a steal off of the wide

25:55

pass. He throws a really nice hit ahead to

25:57

Monte Morris here, who just kind of bobbles it.

26:00

Gets it around to Jordan

26:02

McLaughlin throws up this like

26:06

Sam Young level pump fake. Do you

26:08

remember Sam Young at pit? Yes I

26:10

do. Yes I do. Throws

26:13

up the Sam Young level pump fake here

26:15

to Jokic. Gets

26:17

Jokic all the way up on his toes.

26:23

This Eurostep is impressive. Eurostep

26:27

starts outside the lane.

26:30

Outside the lane here. And

26:34

oh middle of

26:36

the lane. Middle of

26:38

the lane there. And

26:41

then because he's so strong and

26:43

so powerful and so explosive off

26:46

of one foot even. He

26:49

can still get it to where he's taking this

26:52

final step here from what we're going to

26:55

call that seven and a half feet away

26:57

about right. Sure yep. And

27:00

he's still going to get close to the rim to

27:02

be able to finish. Like

27:04

takeoff points are really important right like

27:06

most guys when you get to your

27:08

takeoff point. It

27:12

needs to be as close as possible to the basket. Unless

27:15

you're an athlete like Anthony Edwards and

27:18

you can not only explode

27:20

you know forward but also explode upward

27:22

and have real hang time and

27:25

can absorb contact as well because that's the

27:27

other thing. You're going to get bumped in

27:29

that area every single time. I

27:32

want to highlight like most NBA players

27:34

are going to be this way but just you

27:37

know like somebody like me Sam who wasn't near

27:39

this close to this. A

27:41

lot of people will be one foot jumpers right so

27:43

you have a lot of players that are right hand

27:45

or left hand dominant. A lot of people are leg

27:47

dominant as well. So what I want to highlight here

27:50

is he Eurosteps off his left leg and if the

27:52

NBA lane is 16 feet wide he

27:54

covers about eight feet on this Eurostep.

27:56

He may not get all the way let's say seven feet and then he's

27:58

going to get a little bit of a break. And now he's

28:00

jumping off his right leg, exploding

28:03

to the rim through contact from

28:05

seven or eight feet away. Now

28:08

he doesn't get all the way to the rim,

28:10

but he takes the contact and finish. My point

28:12

being, think about how explosive he is off both.

28:15

So he's explosive off both legs at

28:17

the same time, but individually he's explosive

28:19

off both of his legs as well.

28:22

And that's what makes guys crazy athletes

28:24

and practical athletes is they can do

28:26

it off two, off one, off each

28:29

foot. Yeah, it's

28:31

completely absurd. And by the way,

28:33

you're like about Anthony Edwards's height, right?

28:36

Like you're like pretty close. Yeah.

28:38

Like you're probably like half an inch taller than

28:41

Anthony Edwards or something like that. Like maybe even

28:43

an inch taller. Like in

28:45

theory, you could

28:48

cover this ground. Like

28:50

you understand the mechanics of how

28:52

you could cover this ground. Like

28:56

in practicality, like you're saying, it's

28:58

just different. I could cover

29:00

in my day, I could have covered

29:02

the Euro step ground and

29:04

then I would have had no ability to

29:06

elevate off my right foot,

29:09

take contact and finish. If that makes

29:11

sense. Like I, here's the other thing.

29:14

This is all in traffic. Like Yokich

29:16

is right behind him as

29:19

well. So some guys look really good

29:21

in layup lines, covering ground, Euro stepping,

29:23

exploding to the rim. It's

29:25

a whole nother thing when there are bodies

29:28

and hands and feet around them. This

29:30

is practical athleticism at its finest, being

29:32

able to do this in a crowd.

29:36

And he's even got KCP here for

29:38

on the side where the drive started.

29:40

It's completely absurd. Final

29:43

clip here, 225. Garza

29:46

is going to get this seal and

29:48

now we've got ants coming down again.

29:52

Did you see the smile after this one, man? He

29:54

was, he was feeling pretty good after this one. I

29:56

like to see it. It's

29:58

a shame that he didn't score again. after this

30:00

one, I thought Denver particularly did

30:03

an absolutely fantastic job

30:06

of getting in his space and

30:09

of crowding the lane. They made it so

30:11

it wasn't just, you know, Jamal

30:13

Murray in charge of him or Aaron

30:15

Gordon in charge of him, right? They

30:17

really did a good job of like

30:19

making it like it's a village, right?

30:22

We're making sure that we're getting multiple bodies

30:24

throwing multiple bodies at Anthony Edwards all the

30:26

time, making it so that it's tough for

30:28

him to get anywhere. I loved

30:30

the first three quarters of this game. That's

30:32

why I didn't score in the fourth. I

30:35

thought Denver really locked up and

30:37

did a great job schematically, defensively. Michael

30:40

Malone deserves a lot of credit. I

30:43

will say before

30:46

we get to the defense, this

30:48

is a game where Anthony Edwards had like eight assists,

30:51

right? I still am

30:53

of the belief that there is a lot

30:55

of growth potential for him as a passer.

30:58

A lot of his assists in this game came

31:01

off of like, I

31:04

wrote them down, like he had two post passes,

31:06

like where he was posting a man and like

31:08

hit a kick out. He had

31:10

like one like little easy like pick and

31:12

pop, like slip pass to Garza. He had

31:15

like an easy kind of like drive and

31:17

dump to Luca. He had like a bounce

31:19

pass like into wide open space to Kyle

31:21

Anderson for one of these, like six of

31:23

his assists were like just super

31:25

easy reversals or post

31:28

kick outs that are valuable, but

31:30

not necessarily like you're on the

31:32

move, you're attacking, you're processing

31:34

what's happening like within the help defense, not

31:37

as a scorer, but as a playmaker. He

31:40

had two in this game that I thought were really

31:42

quite good. He hit like a little mini skip pass

31:44

to the corner off

31:46

of a drive. And that was the one where I

31:48

was like, okay, like you have the wherewithal to do

31:50

this. That to me is

31:52

where the next step is going to come for Anthony

31:54

Edwards. And I think that's sometimes why,

31:57

which has been Minnesota's biggest problem throughout the

31:59

entirety of the this season has

32:01

been late game

32:03

offense. Teams

32:05

basically try and make Anthony Edwards a

32:07

passer and playmaker, and I think that

32:10

he's not quite there yet in

32:12

terms of being able to do it. As

32:15

soon as that comes, this guy might be the best

32:17

player in the NBA is where I'm at. Yeah,

32:19

I mean, that would be the next

32:21

level of things, not just getting assists

32:23

because the defense loads up on you, but

32:26

getting assists because you see how they're

32:28

doing it, where it's coming from, manipulating

32:30

the defense with your eyes, with ball

32:32

fakes, with your movement, making those high

32:34

level reads, and doing it that way.

32:36

And I think even more specifically, Sam,

32:38

in the biggest moments, right? Here's

32:40

the great thing about all of this. A

32:42

month from now, we're going to see this all out

32:44

play out in the playoffs. We're going to see what

32:46

he can do because people are going to, Jay McDaniels

32:48

was awesome in this game offensively,

32:50

but I think people are still going

32:53

to say, let's make Jay

32:55

McDaniels beat us. Let's make those guys

32:57

beat us, and it'll be fascinating to

32:59

see. Because if he adds that to

33:02

his game, along with what he does

33:04

defensively, forget about it. There's obviously

33:06

going to be an argument for him being one

33:09

of the best, if not the best player in the game.

33:12

Yeah, do you want to talk about his defense even a little bit

33:14

more because it sounded like you took a bunch of notes on it.

33:16

I didn't take a bunch. One,

33:18

I do think he really guards and

33:21

defends, and he can make life miserable

33:23

for people. My notes from this game

33:25

specifically was there was plays

33:27

early on, and we highlighted this with

33:29

Brandon Miller a few weeks ago. And

33:32

he got after his teammates. He was

33:34

calling them out. I don't know if

33:36

he was necessarily right or wrong. I

33:38

think he was, but he was getting

33:40

after them about not making rotations, getting

33:42

back in the play. And then it

33:45

happened again where they didn't attack a

33:47

defensive rebound, and the possession actually ended

33:49

up with a Michael Porter, Jr. made

33:52

three-pointer. And it's kind of

33:54

that leadership with Anthony Edwards in

33:56

terms of being vocal, holding people

33:58

to a standard. holding people accountable

34:00

and he was doing it on the defensive

34:03

end. So I just kind of wanted to

34:05

shout that out because it's something we had

34:07

highlighted whenever we did the Brandon Miller breakdown

34:09

a few weeks ago. Yeah,

34:11

I think that's dead on. Look,

34:14

I think Anthony Edwards is a real

34:16

shot to take the Timberwolves on like a run

34:18

here. Like I think he

34:20

has a real chance to take the Wolves to

34:24

like a serious like Western Conference Finals kind

34:26

of situation. They need to get healthy obviously

34:29

we'll see if they can get healthy at

34:31

the end of the day. They need towns

34:33

back. They're going to need, you know, Rudy

34:35

Gobert missed the game last night. You know,

34:37

I think that and Nas Reed. Yeah,

34:40

particularly serious feel. Nas Reed missed the game

34:42

last night as well, like you said. I

34:46

think that the way Ant is playing right

34:48

now and like the seriousness and the gravity

34:50

of his game, it feels

34:53

like we're seeing yet another leap from him. And

34:55

this is a guy that has like a playoff

34:57

track record that we've seen already at times. Is

35:00

he first team all NBA or second team all NBA?

35:05

Probably second. I can't get him ahead

35:07

of Shay or Luca, I would say. Jokic

35:10

certainly should be there. I think Giannis

35:12

deserves to be there. And then

35:14

who is the obvious fifth one

35:17

was in bead. Tatum

35:19

now, right? I mean, I'm not saying that's

35:21

obvious, but the next like, does it come

35:23

down to between him and Tatum? You

35:29

would put him on. K.D.

35:32

Bronson. Yeah,

35:35

Bronson in this group. So I think

35:37

it's like Katum, K.D. and him. Right?

35:43

Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

35:47

Who am

35:49

I missing? Because Mitchell's not going to get enough. So

35:52

Donovan Mitchell, I looked at him, I left him out

35:55

of the conversation because I think if he misses one

35:57

or two more or something like that, like I'm assuming.

36:00

He's out for a week now too. Yeah, he's not

36:02

gonna get there. He's not gonna get... these

36:04

were the only names I could come up with that

36:06

I thought were really in the conversation. Yeah,

36:10

I mean like I would have said maybe Kawhi,

36:12

but like I think... I've

36:15

been super high on Kawhi, but like the Clippers right

36:17

now are four

36:20

games back of the Timberwolves. Yeah,

36:22

I think you probably give the edge

36:24

right now to Ant over Kawhi. So

36:27

yeah, like maybe it really is like

36:29

Ant versus Tatum for that last first

36:32

team all NBA spot right now. That's where

36:35

I landed. My conversation was gonna be, you know

36:37

MVP, but all NBA works exactly

36:39

the same and the four names you listed initially,

36:41

it's like those four are all gonna be yeses

36:43

by Sam that you would take those guys over

36:45

him and then Tatum and Durant

36:48

were my next two names. And

36:51

I was like, I don't know

36:53

that it's an automatic yes. I think there's

36:55

a conversation. It's hard to leave Tatum off.

36:57

The Celtics are so stinkin good.

37:01

But like Jalen Brown's getting a lot of love

37:03

rightfully so right now with the Celtics for the

37:06

way they played. Yeah,

37:09

I just I think it's an interesting conversation and it

37:11

might come down to these last few weeks, right? Like

37:13

if he continues on this tear and they

37:16

finish as the one seed even with you know Kat

37:18

missing some time and all of that like I think

37:20

it's still up in the air. What

37:23

I guess I would say that like so

37:25

right now we have what like 16 games

37:27

left something like that depending on theme. I

37:30

think like the same I think the Thunder have like 15

37:32

games, right? Right

37:35

now I would vote Tatum over

37:37

A&R. I agree. I think

37:39

that the trajectory of where

37:42

those two are heading right

37:44

now not in terms that Tatum is playing

37:46

bad or anything like that. I think

37:49

that there is a real chance that Ant

37:51

could catch him. Yeah, that's

37:53

what that's what I would I would have those five

37:56

and then I think Ant would be my first second

37:58

teamer along with probably then Kawhi, Katie. then

38:00

you get into the Jalen Brunson conversation and some

38:03

of those guys. Yeah, I

38:05

think there are eight. I think you're right that there are eight right

38:07

now. So yeah,

38:12

let's get in to Bilal Kulibali.

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42:37

Okay. Let's talk

42:40

about Bilal Kulibali. He has a fractured

42:42

right wrist that

42:44

unfortunately is gonna

42:46

hold him out of competition here for the rest

42:48

of the season. I

42:51

am sad about this. I

42:54

also, you know, kind of wonder

42:56

if getting a chance to like sit down

42:59

and kind of see the game from a different angle might

43:01

be kind of helpful for Kulibali. Overall,

43:06

I thought his rookie season for the seventh overall pick

43:08

in the 2024 or 2023 NBA draft was

43:13

generally a positive. He

43:15

averaged eight points, four rebounds, 1.7

43:18

assists. Shot

43:21

44% from the field, 35% from three, 70% from the line. A

43:27

lot of these shots were open and in transition.

43:29

He was a very low usage player, but

43:32

he was able to at least like get

43:34

on the court for 27 minutes a night,

43:36

which was something that I was actually a

43:38

little bit skeptical on for

43:40

his rookie season. I thought there was a chance that he

43:42

might have to spend some real time in the G League.

43:44

And if he was playing on a better team, that might've

43:46

been the reality where he had to spend some time in

43:48

the G League. But the fact that they felt okay putting

43:50

him out there for 27 minutes, I

43:52

thought that was really, really important and impressive.

43:57

The defensive side was really good.

44:00

where I thought he showed the

44:02

ability to stay on the court. His

44:04

length, his activity, his instincts, I think he's

44:06

just really sharp on that end. Overall,

44:09

do you have any Palau Koolabali thoughts now

44:11

that we're not gonna see him again until

44:14

next season or realistically summer league? No,

44:16

I mean, I think that's where I'm at

44:18

as well in terms of like this kid

44:20

is 19 years old. Everybody kind of knew,

44:22

like think about the rise he went on

44:24

into the draft, right? So I

44:27

don't think it's crazy that this kid went

44:29

the path that he went, rising up with

44:31

his organization overseas and then

44:34

coming in, turned 19 at the end

44:36

of July. So

44:39

he played summer league as an 18 year old. And

44:42

a lot of my notes sounds like a

44:44

kid that's a 19 year old in terms

44:46

of he is willing to drive and take

44:49

contact. He just can't finish because he's not

44:51

strong enough yet. He's being crazy disruptive on

44:53

the defensive end, but he has some foundational

44:56

things to work out in terms of being

44:58

a little bit more solid. Like all of

45:00

those things make sense for someone his age

45:03

in the situation he was in. I think

45:05

a lot of Wizards fans were upset with

45:07

his usage. I get it, but

45:09

I don't think Sam, he was ready for

45:12

any more usage. He ended up 20th

45:14

among rookies, which was actually between

45:16

Omax and Kamara. But I

45:19

don't know, like I think if he would have

45:21

done more than what he was asked to do,

45:23

I don't think it would have been good. I

45:26

think you get in the jeopardy of

45:28

maybe hurting some confidence or developing bad

45:30

habits because the process isn't right. I

45:32

thought a lot of the process when

45:34

I would watch Bilal Koolabali was good.

45:36

I don't care about the results for

45:38

a rookie on the Washington Wizards. The

45:40

process was good. I'm still excited about

45:42

him. Yeah, if you go through the

45:44

raw stats of where he ranked among

45:46

rookies, a lot of it's 13th, 15th,

45:49

those types of things, I'm not

45:51

worried about it. I still think he ends up

45:53

being a high level player, especially like you said,

45:55

with what he can offer defensively, and then as

45:57

he continues to figure out the offense. I

46:03

don't know if you're muted Sam or yeah I

46:06

was muted I think what's disappointing to

46:08

me more than anything about

46:10

it is that I felt like in

46:13

these last few games he kind of

46:15

did start to explore the space just

46:17

like a little bit more often consistently

46:19

right like he would have games where

46:21

you'd have you know two

46:23

shots three shots you know six

46:25

shots right you

46:28

know not regularly but somewhat regularly

46:30

especially early in the season and

46:32

then as we got

46:34

you know later in the season it felt like he was

46:36

getting more comfortable if you look at his

46:38

last five games here before he got

46:41

hurt including the game that he got hurt took

46:44

seven shots eight shots twelve shots nine shots

46:46

and nine shots got

46:48

to the line a bunch right like got

46:51

to the line 16 times in

46:53

those five games which for him given

46:55

where he was coming from this season

46:58

seemed to be quite a bit whenever I

47:00

would watch late and then you look at

47:03

the game against Philly on February 10th right

47:05

before the All-Star break got to the line

47:07

ten times that game it just felt like

47:09

he was kind of

47:12

figuring out the space a little bit more

47:15

and I do wonder if like getting to

47:17

play these 15 games maybe getting up into

47:19

that like 10 shots 12 shots per

47:22

game zone over the course of the last 10 games

47:24

of the year right like that might have been helpful

47:27

for him in some way shape or form

47:29

but end of the day I think

47:31

this is a positive rookie year for Blaukullibali I

47:34

have no real

47:36

complaints concerns you know

47:39

anything that any

47:41

any worries about where he was drafted you

47:44

know he needs to continue growing like

47:46

this is nowhere near a finished product yet and

47:49

he might not get there like this is a real risk

47:52

for the Wizards like he might end up

47:54

just being a rotation player if he doesn't

47:56

continue to grow his game off

47:58

the bounce if he doesn't continue to him improve his

48:00

shot if his frame doesn't come along in

48:03

a more substantial way. But given where he

48:05

was coming from this year and given the

48:07

trajectory that you brought up, I

48:09

think that this was a really positive season for him. Yeah,

48:12

I mean, he was fit in free throw

48:14

attempts amongst rookies post-All-Star break. So if there

48:16

was one thing to kind of highlight and

48:18

it stands out whenever you look at his

48:21

numbers compared to his fellow first year players,

48:23

that was it post-All-Star break, as you mentioned.

48:25

And so, yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting

48:27

to see where it goes. You brought up,

48:30

you know, like there can be some learning

48:32

that goes on. Like, obviously, you would rather

48:34

see a player on the floor. But

48:36

if he does this the right way, which by all

48:38

accounts I assume he will, like I have no reason

48:40

to think that he won't sitting there

48:42

and watching these things, especially I don't think

48:45

this helps the player as much if they

48:47

haven't played any games. But since he has

48:49

played so many games in so many minutes,

48:51

being able to take a step back, watch

48:54

breakdown film, watch the game from the sidelines,

48:56

what works for other. I think there is

48:58

something you can take away from that where

49:00

you can take a deep breath and just

49:03

kind of absorb all of that information that

49:05

then you can take into the offseason, work

49:07

on it, grow from it, all of that.

49:09

So is it ideal? No, it would be

49:12

nice to allow him and see him explore

49:14

the studio space over the end of the

49:16

year. But there is still some stuff that

49:18

can be taken away. And then just looking

49:20

at this field goal percentage by distance, 67

49:22

percent, zero to three feet. Not bad. Even

49:25

the three point percentage at 35 is probably

49:27

about as good as I expected. He was

49:29

not good in all those in between ranges.

49:31

Thirty five percent, 13 percent, 25

49:34

percent moving out from three to ten,

49:36

ten to sixteen, sixteen to three point

49:38

line. That looks like it could be

49:40

a real area for growth in year

49:42

two in terms of finding ways to

49:44

score the ball efficiently in those mid-range

49:46

areas. I think that's

49:48

right. That's all

49:50

I've got on Balal. I'm excited to see him

49:52

at Summer League. I think that they should really

49:54

kind of give him the keys, assuming they don't

49:56

like draft a point guard here. I

50:00

guess they could in theory take you know,

50:02

the whole pitch or Reed Shepard or something

50:04

like that, depending on where their pick is.

50:07

But I would really love to see

50:09

them kind of give the ball to Balal in

50:11

the summer in summer league and just kind of let him rock

50:14

a little bit and see what it looks like. Yeah. All

50:17

right. Time for

50:19

all season previews. We've got two more

50:21

teams that have been eliminated. As Bryce

50:23

and I explained on the last Thursday

50:25

episode, as teams get eliminated from the

50:27

playoffs this year, we're going to do

50:29

off season previews for each of them.

50:32

We've got two more teams today. We've got the Detroit

50:34

Pistons and the Portland

50:36

Trailblazers. Let's

50:39

start with the Detroit Pistons

50:41

here, Bryce's beloved

50:43

Pistons. The

50:47

Detroit Pistons are in an intriguing situation

50:49

this off season as much as anything.

50:51

They have realistically like $75

50:53

million in cap space that

50:56

they can spend, which is a wild,

50:59

wild number to be able to get

51:01

up to. And honestly, I don't know if they're going to be

51:03

able to spend $75 million competently this

51:08

off season, which is a worry for me. They

51:11

have a few objectives here that I think that

51:13

they have to get to, right? The

51:16

first one is you have to extend Cade Cunningham.

51:19

To me, that is just the number one

51:21

assignment here. I

51:24

think this is just very clearly a max

51:26

situation. I can't imagine him asking

51:28

for anything less than the max. And

51:31

I think the Pistons are just frankly going to

51:33

have to give it to them, right? Especially given

51:35

the way he's played basically since

51:39

the All-Star break, right? He's been absolutely

51:41

monstrous. If you take away his last

51:43

game where he went, your last two

51:46

games here, where he played Miami twice

51:48

and it was kind of a mess,

51:50

he'd been averaging 23

51:53

points, eight assists, five

51:55

rebounds, 2.9 turnovers

51:57

per game, shooting 47, 40. 91

52:02

over his last 15 games, just an

52:04

absurd, absurd, absurd little run

52:06

that he's had in total this

52:08

season, 22 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.6 assists, 45% from

52:10

the field, 35% from three,

52:16

86.5% from the line. I

52:20

mean, look, like the true shooting percentage is

52:22

still like 6% below league average, which is

52:25

not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

52:28

In part, I think it's just because he is

52:30

such a mid-range heavy player, but end

52:32

of the day, I think you just have to get to the point

52:34

where you max them and you

52:36

hope it works because everything that the

52:38

Pistons have built toward at this point

52:40

is centered around Cade. And

52:43

if it doesn't work, your organization

52:46

is set back for five years anyway. This

52:48

is a different conversation than the one like

52:50

with Jalen Green with the Rockets. Like they

52:52

have three other guys ahead of

52:54

him, you know, in the pecking

52:56

order right now as prospects in my opinion, the

52:58

Pistons don't have anything resembling that with Cade Cunningham

53:01

and Cade's a better player than Jalen as well.

53:04

All due respect, Jalen Green is playing right now. End

53:07

of the day, I think you just got to max them and go. Yeah,

53:10

I mean, I don't think there's any question. Like at the end of

53:12

the day, in my opinion, this

53:14

organization is kind of hitched to two

53:16

people. I think it's Cade Cunningham.

53:18

And based on the contract they gave Monty Williams, I

53:20

think they're probably hitched to Monty Williams for a little

53:23

while. I know you can get out from under a

53:25

coach's contract. Like I get it. It's a salary cap

53:27

thing. It's just a money thing for the owner and

53:29

all of that. This is just

53:31

my perspective is that they are number

53:33

one for sure. Cade Cunningham. We'll talk about

53:35

some of the other young players. And

53:38

then I think Monty Williams is probably as well. And

53:41

like, like, like, listen, the thing is people may not

53:44

want to believe in Cade Cunningham. That's fine. Like

53:46

they have to like they have to, or

53:49

they might as well sell off everything and

53:51

just completely restart. And I don't think there's

53:53

any way anybody has the appetite for that.

53:55

So I think you go with Cade Cunningham.

53:58

I think he's shown enough in flashes. He's

54:00

shown improvement with three-point shot. I think

54:02

the biggest area of growth for Kate

54:04

is actually at the rim I think

54:07

another off season of adding strength and

54:09

weight is gonna allow him to be

54:11

more efficient at the rim We have

54:13

seen improvement with the three-point shot the

54:16

finishing at the rim I think is

54:18

the biggest step from this season to

54:20

next season Yeah,

54:22

I completely agree. I think that what

54:25

Kate His showcase

54:27

in terms of that finishing

54:29

ability a lot of it

54:32

is like stopping short of the rim Yeah like

54:34

in getting into that like little floater game and

54:37

Trying to make those like little leaning shots and

54:39

using his length to kind of go over the

54:41

top that way It's got to be

54:43

like getting more physical Getting

54:46

into like length extension stuff and being

54:48

able to score that way I think

54:51

like that's that's where he's got to make

54:53

the leap to me I think you're dead

54:55

on just in terms of strength and look

54:57

like this is a guy that has not

54:59

had a crazy number of You know high-level

55:01

off seasons at this point, right? like

55:03

he really just kind of needs an offseason to be able

55:05

to go and hopefully get

55:07

to a place where They're

55:10

in a you know Better position continuing

55:12

to build around him because they need more

55:14

talent around him Yeah, and he also

55:16

has to work like how do I draw

55:18

fouls in this league? Like how do I

55:20

use what I'm good at to get myself

55:23

to the free throw line? And again, I

55:25

think his efficiency is the

55:27

questions are understandable Sam. They absolutely

55:29

are But I don't

55:31

think it's that far off again I think the

55:33

three-point shot I think has to be strengthened his

55:36

legs because when he misses he misses short You

55:38

can almost watch the ball come out of his

55:40

hands and I can tell you whether he's gonna

55:42

make it or not Based off how

55:44

it comes out. It's either gonna be short or he's

55:47

gonna make it most of the time So he's

55:49

figured that out to an extent. He gets to

55:51

the rim and finishes a little bit better he

55:53

learns to manipulate defenders to draw fouls and get

55:55

to the free throw line and all of a

55:58

sudden you have a player that looks

56:00

a part of what everybody thought when the

56:02

Pistons drafted him. And as you build the

56:04

roster around him, there's more energy left for

56:06

defense and some of those other intangible things.

56:08

The one thing I'll say about Kate is

56:10

all of those intangibles have shown through. He

56:12

said the right, he took a really bad

56:14

shot the other night that I actually, I

56:16

don't call Kate out very often, but like

56:18

I highlighted it and brought it up and

56:21

tweeted about it. He took full responsibility for

56:23

it. He didn't hide from it anything. I've

56:25

always loved and appreciated that about Kate Cunningham.

56:28

Yeah, it just seems like a real dude

56:30

that wants to be able to take

56:33

accountability for everything within the

56:35

organization. He wants to be a leader. It's been

56:37

how he is since he's been younger, to be honest

56:40

with you. He's been that same way. In

56:42

terms of the long term core pieces

56:45

around him, Jade Naivey to me, do you

56:47

have thoughts on Jade Naivey season? Yeah,

56:49

I mean, I want to hear what you think.

56:51

I over at the Pistons polls, I talk every

56:54

episode about Jade Naivey and how good of a

56:56

player I think he is. And I've been bullish

56:58

on them working together. I have

57:00

quickly become the minority and thinking this thing

57:02

can work. I would guess if

57:04

you pulled Pistons fans, Jade

57:07

Naivey would be the name on this list

57:09

that gets traded. Yeah,

57:11

I think that's wild. I would continue

57:13

to grow around the Kate and Jaden

57:15

back court. But like my

57:18

issue continues to be like is Monty Williams

57:20

gonna let Jaden kind of go a

57:22

little bit cuz I don't think so. He

57:25

needs confidence and he needs to be able to go. Like so,

57:28

if Monty Williams is not going

57:30

to be moved on at any point in the next two

57:32

years, let's say after this one because

57:34

the money is too substantial to be

57:36

able to do so. Look,

57:39

as much as I think Jaden Naivey is

57:42

awesome, and I think Jaden

57:44

Naivey is worth like trading a top five

57:46

or six pick four in this upcoming 2024

57:48

NBA draft. It's

57:51

even given the contract control that you'd have over him,

57:53

you'd still only have him for two years and 18

57:56

million as opposed to four years and

57:59

40 million or whatever. for top five picks. I

58:02

still would probably do something like that for Jaden. I

58:04

think his upside is better than anybody in this upcoming

58:07

draft, point blank. Yeah, I'm

58:09

very bullish on Jaden Ivey. I think it can work.

58:11

I think he's willing to play off the ball. I

58:13

don't think he has to be a knockdown three point

58:15

shooter for it to work. I

58:18

think you put other guys that make sense

58:20

around them. And then just the complete unwillingness

58:23

to stagger them. And I understand people that, oh,

58:25

your two best players have to be able to

58:27

play together. I get it, but they can also

58:30

be staggered. And like that still works. That's part

58:32

of the process. K doesn't play 48 minutes a

58:34

night. So it makes sense

58:36

for your second best player to be able to do

58:38

that. And not that these guys aren't

58:40

anywhere close, but we just talked about it with

58:42

Jalen Williams. I'm very much in the minority is

58:44

what I've realized. Like I think Jaden's shown growth

58:46

defensively, winning on the margins. He's

58:48

figured out how to be a good offensive rebounder, those

58:51

stuff. He does have to make shots, Sam. He

58:53

has to be able to knockdown catch and shoot jumpers. He

58:55

has to be able to do some of those things. The

58:57

finishing has regressed a little bit throughout the year. I

59:00

still feel like he's really good. My

59:02

personal opinion, I am not a reporter.

59:04

I do not have sources. I have

59:06

no insights. My personal opinion is Monty

59:08

Williams is not a fan. And I

59:10

would not be shocked to see him

59:12

be the one that is traded of

59:14

those three names below Cade Cunningham. Hot

59:17

take. I would absolutely

59:19

trade Jalen Duren before Jaden Ivey. I

59:23

don't know about you. I

59:25

have not been wildly impressed with Jalen

59:27

Duren this year. I feel

59:29

like Pistons fans get super excited

59:32

and really love Jalen. But I

59:35

feel like honestly, I

59:38

don't wanna say he's regressed across the

59:41

board, but I feel

59:44

like he's making fewer and fewer interesting

59:46

passes, which is one of the things

59:48

that like, that is

59:50

really interesting. People about Duren

59:53

is the ability to make passing reads

59:55

and be able to short roll and kick out and things like that.

59:58

I don't think the defense has gotten. better to you. It

1:00:01

has not. Yeah, I think that

1:00:03

honestly, like, it's just continuing to stay the same.

1:00:05

The same, I would agree. He's

1:00:09

still just like powerful and is a great

1:00:11

rebounder and is physical and like, I respect

1:00:13

all of those pieces of his game, but

1:00:15

like, if this is who

1:00:18

he is, and look, he's still 20 years old, like he's still

1:00:20

incredibly young, there's still a lot of time, but like, there

1:00:23

isn't like a trajectory there. You

1:00:26

know what I mean? There's not a move upward,

1:00:29

it feels like.

1:00:32

With Kade, like you saw like him getting better

1:00:34

and better and better. I haven't

1:00:37

seen that with Duren yet,

1:00:39

which is disappointing. The one aspect of his

1:00:41

game that is improved, and I have no

1:00:43

idea how this translate to the aspects of

1:00:45

his game we need to see improve, notably

1:00:47

the defense, is he has really developed some

1:00:49

nice footwork with his finishes. He'll catch in

1:00:51

the lane, he'll do this reverse pivot, like

1:00:54

he has some really nice stuff with that.

1:00:57

The passing has not grown. Like, I was super

1:00:59

high on Jalen Duren. Like, don't get me wrong

1:01:01

here, this might end up being a miss for

1:01:03

me in terms of what I thought his ceiling

1:01:06

could be. He hasn't

1:01:08

really shown what I thought may be

1:01:10

capable of in terms of that passing

1:01:12

and some of those type of things.

1:01:15

He puts up crazy numbers, he does.

1:01:17

He'll play finish, he'll rebound the ball,

1:01:20

but the defensive anchor thing is a real worry

1:01:22

and I think what it comes down to with

1:01:24

these four guys and really the three guys other

1:01:26

than Kade is, how do you think you should

1:01:28

build out a team? How do you think you

1:01:31

should build out a winning team in the NBA

1:01:33

around Kade Cunningham? Do you need that? You know,

1:01:36

the Denivi, do you need this guy

1:01:38

in Jalen Duren? Can Jalen Duren be

1:01:40

successful if he's not a rim protector?

1:01:42

And then we'll talk about Asar Thompson,

1:01:44

who can't space the floor right now,

1:01:46

but is pretty good defensively. Is that

1:01:48

the most valuable piece? Like, there's people

1:01:50

who very strongly feel that Asar Thompson

1:01:52

is the one that should stay. Like, maybe you

1:01:54

should just trade Ivy and Duren for whatever you

1:01:57

can get and build around, you know, Kade and

1:01:59

Asar. So I

1:02:01

think where I'm at on this is like I wouldn't move

1:02:03

any of these guys this off season, just like kind of

1:02:05

point blank I would keep all four of them and

1:02:08

kind of go into next season, having to figure out

1:02:11

what they are I would love to get an off

1:02:13

season worth of growth, basically from

1:02:15

them, trying to figure out like

1:02:17

hey, can we be who

1:02:19

we want to be with these players right. I

1:02:23

want to see an off season of growth from all of them

1:02:25

before I make a decision. Honestly,

1:02:27

I wasn't really going to talk much about a star he's the

1:02:29

one that has three years left like he's got all the time

1:02:31

in the world. Like they've,

1:02:34

they're going to figure out what to do with them. I think Isaiah

1:02:38

Stewart is locked in four years 60 million.

1:02:41

The decision that they have to make this summer,

1:02:43

there are two of them that I think are

1:02:45

like important are Quentin grinds

1:02:47

and Simone Fontechio. Quentin

1:02:50

Grimes would be an extension. He's only played

1:02:52

six games with the Pistons so far. I

1:02:55

mean like unless it's like a reasonable like

1:02:57

cheap number, I think you probably just have

1:02:59

to let this go to restricted free agency,

1:03:01

right? Yeah, and probably Matt, I mean, to

1:03:04

on the positive for the pistons he hasn't scored

1:03:07

the ball well at all like you can't make

1:03:09

a shot whenever he has played. So

1:03:11

it hasn't been great. The one that's a

1:03:13

little more like Simone has been awesome, like

1:03:15

absolutely way better than I even thought. Been

1:03:19

able to attack off the bounce a little bit

1:03:21

done some things defensively. I do want

1:03:23

to make a quick note on a star Thompson just like from

1:03:25

a health perspective like shout out him that he's

1:03:27

okay. He had this weird thing where he went

1:03:29

out in the math game when you could tell

1:03:31

he just like couldn't catch his breath and it

1:03:34

was like asthma. And it being a blood clot.

1:03:36

I don't know all the specifics about it. I

1:03:38

know that sounds really scary and really dangerous by

1:03:40

all accounts. He's okay, but he is shut down

1:03:42

for the season. So just like wanted to send

1:03:44

the best to a star Thompson dealing with that.

1:03:47

And for what it's worth, Isaiah Stewart also has done

1:03:49

for the year with a hamstring. So

1:03:52

the next kind of question

1:03:54

here for us is we kind of

1:03:56

talked through this is what do you

1:03:59

pay for this? Hey, Simone Fonteccio. That's

1:04:02

the question. I don't know what the market

1:04:04

is going to be for him. Can

1:04:10

you get him back on the essentially, I

1:04:13

would want it to be somewhere in the 10 to 12, 13, the

1:04:17

non-tax MLE. That's where I would

1:04:19

want. I feel like

1:04:22

that's reasonable and realistic. Simone

1:04:24

right now is averaging 15 points per game

1:04:27

on 48, 43,

1:04:29

85 for the Pistons has

1:04:32

been fantastic. And he was

1:04:34

great for Utah this season.

1:04:36

He was absolutely amazing, I thought. And

1:04:39

really helped them be a

1:04:41

real play in contender for a minute there.

1:04:44

I think losing him was really,

1:04:46

really important and probably just as important as

1:04:48

losing Kelly Elinik to be honest with you,

1:04:50

if you're the Utah Jazz. So in terms

1:04:54

of what they should do with Simone,

1:04:56

I think you have to retain him.

1:04:58

He's fairly useful on defense. He's not

1:05:00

a great defender or anything, but he's

1:05:02

useful. He's net neutral with what he

1:05:04

does off the ball, communicates, plays hard

1:05:07

in his size. That's it.

1:05:11

I think that, here's the

1:05:13

question. If it gets to 15 million, do you just have

1:05:15

to bite the bullet and do it? Three

1:05:17

years, 45. That's

1:05:19

not impossible that they try and squeeze them.

1:05:22

My guess is that that doesn't happen because

1:05:25

he's restricted and not

1:05:27

unrestricted. If he was unrestricted, I think it'd

1:05:29

be a significant problem. Them holding

1:05:31

his rights, I think there's a chance

1:05:33

that this probably does not get

1:05:36

above the mid-level, would be my guess. The

1:05:39

other thing is they have all this cap space

1:05:41

you're talking about. They can probably afford, what's scary

1:05:43

is you don't wanna go too many years. If

1:05:45

it's not too many years, and Fonteccio is a

1:05:48

little bit older than what people probably realize because

1:05:50

of how long it took him to get over

1:05:52

here. As long

1:05:54

as you don't extend the years too far,

1:05:56

because eventually the team could get expensive, either

1:05:58

with these guys getting their rookie deals

1:06:00

or you trade them for a real star,

1:06:03

you know, whatever ends up happening. And so

1:06:05

you want to keep some flexibility into the

1:06:07

future. That's why like the Isaiah Stewart deal,

1:06:10

it's probably too much now, but there is

1:06:12

a team option on the end of that

1:06:15

that they could get out from under. So

1:06:17

with Simone, you have so much cap space

1:06:19

this offseason. Like, I

1:06:21

don't think you can like, it's not going

1:06:23

to hinder you crazy as long as it's

1:06:25

not too many years. The

1:06:27

other big thing with Simone is that he has

1:06:29

a 3.8 million dollar cap hold. So there's

1:06:32

going to be a real overage there where they

1:06:34

can wait to sign him until the end and

1:06:36

use that 75 million or

1:06:38

73 whatever it is

1:06:41

after they're over the cap by using

1:06:44

their, I believe they have full bird

1:06:46

rights on him. They might

1:06:48

only have early bird rights on him now that

1:06:50

I think about it. But regardless,

1:06:52

like I think that they should be able to

1:06:54

use those to be able to

1:06:56

retain him, even if they

1:06:58

can't, they have the space to do so. Real

1:07:00

quick on Quinton Grimes, like it would be pretty

1:07:02

disappointing if he left, or

1:07:05

doesn't at least start making shots just because of

1:07:07

there was nothing that really came back

1:07:10

in that trade. You know what I

1:07:12

mean? So like, you know, bogey

1:07:14

and birch haven't been great since they went

1:07:16

to New York. So I think maybe as

1:07:19

Pistons fans and people that

1:07:21

cover the team, like even myself, I

1:07:23

think I probably overvalued where those guys

1:07:25

were at in their careers because they

1:07:27

just look good on this Pistons roster.

1:07:30

But it would be really frustrating to

1:07:32

like Grimes walk this off season and

1:07:34

essentially you got nothing in that trade.

1:07:38

Yeah. So with Simone,

1:07:40

the Pistons should be able to

1:07:42

get up to like, I believe it's

1:07:44

like 13 million using

1:07:46

his early bird rights, like something in

1:07:49

that ballpark in order to retain him.

1:07:53

Okay, like here's our last question here. Like you see

1:07:55

this roster, you have 75 million. What

1:08:00

are you using the 75 million on? I

1:08:02

think it's got to be a trade because I don't

1:08:04

think there's a free agent. Like I know you put

1:08:06

Tobias Harris there. Like that's not necessarily what I want

1:08:08

to do. If it is Tobias Harris, I want it

1:08:10

to be that one year, like

1:08:13

then you're out the next year. Yeah,

1:08:15

balloon payment. As

1:08:17

good friend Keith Smith says, you can't

1:08:19

overpay for one year when you're a

1:08:21

rebuilding team. Like they just, if nothing,

1:08:23

if everything else falls through and you

1:08:25

have to pay Tobias Harris, then do

1:08:27

it. Like I don't love it.

1:08:29

I think that's not a successful off season, but

1:08:32

you have to get better. Somebody brought up

1:08:34

like what the Rockets did. You have to

1:08:36

put some quality vets on this roster. You

1:08:38

have to go win some games next year.

1:08:40

We're entering fourth year of Cade Cunningham, third

1:08:43

year of Jay Nivey and Jalen Durnan.

1:08:45

As young as Durnan is, you have

1:08:47

to put real basketball players on the

1:08:49

floor. You can't just draft somebody at

1:08:51

two or three or wherever they end

1:08:53

up, somebody in the fifties in the

1:08:55

second round and take on

1:08:57

sin contracts again. I think it's

1:08:59

a trade. They have some future picks

1:09:01

now they could use if they really want to go

1:09:03

all in. I know that's super scary, but they're

1:09:06

already at a negative with capital.

1:09:10

But yeah, I think it ends up being a trade. I don't know what

1:09:12

that trade is. I don't know what the name is. Yeah,

1:09:17

I have a couple of names that I wonder

1:09:19

about in terms of free agency. I haven't thought

1:09:21

a crazy amount about necessarily

1:09:23

trades with the Pistons yet.

1:09:26

The name that I'm wondering for them is like,

1:09:28

do you go and get somebody like Malik Monk?

1:09:31

A thousand, I would be so happy.

1:09:33

I love Malik Monk. Yeah,

1:09:35

Malik Monk has been fantastic this year. He is a

1:09:38

free agent. They would

1:09:40

be able to pay him just very real

1:09:42

money, obviously, in order to go get him.

1:09:46

To me, they need just somebody who can go get

1:09:49

a bucket out of structure in

1:09:51

some way. Cade is somebody that does

1:09:54

need to be able to play within

1:09:56

structure a little bit. Monk this

1:09:58

year is averaging 16 points, five. this

1:10:00

shooting 45, 37, 82.

1:10:03

I will say if you do go get

1:10:05

Monk, like I wonder about Jade and Ivy's

1:10:07

future there and maybe that is a situation

1:10:09

where you look into a trade, but somebody

1:10:12

like that makes a ton of sense to me. I

1:10:16

mean if Monk is willing

1:10:19

to come off the bench because you paid

1:10:21

him so much with the understanding that he

1:10:23

still will, that bench unit or what I

1:10:25

want the bench unit to be could use

1:10:27

somebody like that. Like you put him on

1:10:29

the bench with Quentin Grimes with I

1:10:32

still like Isaiah Stewart is a bench

1:10:34

big to me. Like I think that's

1:10:36

where his real value comes from. Maybe

1:10:38

even a star until he really fills

1:10:40

out his floor spacing plays as like

1:10:42

a bench four and you're rattling off

1:10:44

a staggered Jade and Ivy with Monk

1:10:46

Grimes, a star, you know something like that.

1:10:48

I mean that you know or maybe it's Fontecchio instead

1:10:50

of a star whatever it is I think

1:10:52

that is what would be interesting to me. Yeah

1:10:56

look I don't disagree with you I just think that if

1:10:58

you know you're paying Malik Monk the money you're probably gonna

1:11:00

have to start at the end of the day. The

1:11:04

big forward spot is something they still need though.

1:11:07

Like they still need an answer there and

1:11:09

I don't know if there's a guy that exists

1:11:12

like I'm assuming Pascal Ciacom is off the board.

1:11:14

I'm assuming that OG

1:11:17

Ananobi is off the board here. I want

1:11:19

nothing to do with Miles Bridges if I'm

1:11:22

Detroit like I can't imagine that like bringing

1:11:24

him home is like a particularly good idea

1:11:26

for them. Also just

1:11:28

like generally the Miles Bridges experience is something I

1:11:30

want nothing to do with. An Ananobi

1:11:33

put here is Pat Williams. I

1:11:35

wonder what the Bulls are gonna do with

1:11:37

Pat Williams. He's a restricted free agent obviously.

1:11:39

They have to find a way to spend

1:11:42

the money somehow and they're

1:11:44

a team that because they have so much money

1:11:47

I wonder if

1:11:49

they care less about tying their money

1:11:51

up for a day or two in

1:11:54

restricted free agency because

1:11:56

it doesn't necessarily impact all of

1:11:59

their plans. Pat

1:12:01

Williams sits on an age timeline perspective. He

1:12:03

is out for the season. He just had

1:12:06

foot surgery, right? Like average

1:12:08

10 points per game this season, shot 39% from

1:12:10

three again. Big

1:12:13

physical body, doesn't really rebound, but like

1:12:16

has some real potential on defense. I

1:12:18

can see this being a Troy Weaver guy, is

1:12:20

kind of what I'm saying. Yeah, I

1:12:23

mean, I can see that for sure.

1:12:25

They don't have a true foreman on

1:12:27

the roster, in my opinion. Isaiah

1:12:29

Seward, we've seen it. He tried it, it's not it.

1:12:31

He needs to be off the bench with 70% of

1:12:33

his minutes at the five and 30% of

1:12:36

his minutes at the four against certain match ups.

1:12:38

I think a saw is interesting as a four,

1:12:40

but he's still not a true foreman. And

1:12:43

Simone, I think can do it, but again,

1:12:45

he's still more of a three. So I

1:12:48

think someone like Pat Williams would be interesting.

1:12:51

He spaces the floor, so then maybe you can play

1:12:53

a saw at the three in that lineup. Duren,

1:12:55

if he's still your center, makes up for the

1:12:57

rebounding or lack. So

1:12:59

you squeeze Patrick Williams between a saw

1:13:01

and Jalen Duren. He doesn't need to

1:13:03

rebound with those two guys on the

1:13:05

floor. And then he provides floor spacing.

1:13:07

So that makes sense. Maybe then Fonteccio,

1:13:09

Stu, Sasser, Grimes, kind of lead your

1:13:11

second unit with a top five pick.

1:13:14

That's interesting. It's not as talented. It's not as

1:13:17

much as what I would want, but it's a

1:13:19

start. Like eventually there's gonna be a trade. I

1:13:22

think this is a trade at some point with

1:13:24

a couple. Like I don't think all four of

1:13:26

those young guys, I wouldn't do it this offseason.

1:13:28

I think like the deadline makes a lot more

1:13:30

sense, but eventually you're gonna move one

1:13:32

or two of those guys a pick

1:13:34

to get the guy that really is a piece.

1:13:38

Final question here, Bryce. They

1:13:41

have this draft pick here, projected at

1:13:43

number two, who knows what it is. Could

1:13:47

be somebody like an Alex R, right?

1:13:50

Like somebody that is a bigger potential

1:13:52

four man, potential five. Could

1:13:54

be somebody like a Cody Williams, who's a

1:13:56

big three, four that we're

1:13:58

talking about. Is

1:14:01

there somebody that you like for that pick? Yeah,

1:14:03

I mean, I would take, I would take

1:14:05

Reeseshe if they have the ability to do

1:14:08

so. If he's not on the

1:14:10

board, you know, then it becomes do you take

1:14:12

Cody Williams? Do you take Matos? I

1:14:15

know there's been a lot of conversation, you know,

1:14:17

depending on where it falls, like even, you know,

1:14:19

potentially Reed Shepard, right? Like you just get a

1:14:21

floor spacer on the floor. Like this probably means

1:14:23

the end of Jaden Ivey or I mean,

1:14:26

they did it last year. They brought Jaden Ivey off or

1:14:28

this year, they brought Jaden Ivey off the bench to start

1:14:30

the year. Like you start doing something

1:14:32

like that again and seeing if he becomes that type

1:14:34

of guy. Like I don't know. I'm

1:14:37

also willing to entertain the conversation of

1:14:41

Alex Sarr and then, you know, do you ask Duren

1:14:43

to come off the bench? Do you trade Duren? Those

1:14:45

types of things. I still don't like the idea of giving

1:14:47

up on a 20 year old, 20 year old. But

1:14:50

a lot of these options are on the table. And

1:14:52

so it will, it will be

1:14:54

this. What's great about this draft is it makes

1:14:56

things really interesting regardless of where the pick lands.

1:14:59

Yeah, look, this is subject to change. We're doing this

1:15:01

on March 20th. My

1:15:04

little mini board right now for the Pistons would

1:15:06

be something like Rissaché,

1:15:10

probably Sarr,

1:15:12

then like

1:15:15

Modus and Cody Williams in

1:15:17

there. And

1:15:21

then probably like Reed

1:15:23

and Steph Castle next, I

1:15:25

think. That would

1:15:28

be kind of where my inkling

1:15:30

and inclination is right now. Yep.

1:15:33

No, that's kind of where

1:15:35

I'm at. We brought up Reed

1:15:37

Shepard, Mr. Ray. I think we both talked about him. Yeah.

1:15:41

Okay. Next up,

1:15:44

it's time for us to

1:15:47

dive into the Portland

1:15:51

Trail Blazers offseason. The

1:15:54

Blazers have also been eliminated from the playoffs this

1:15:56

week. So it's time for us to talk a

1:15:58

little bit about what we're doing. we think their

1:16:00

future holds and where this could go. Let's

1:16:03

dive in and just kind of look at this

1:16:05

little brief preview that I created for them as

1:16:07

well. Number of different options

1:16:09

here, number of different potential opportunities that I

1:16:12

think you could look at. Having

1:16:14

said that, this is gonna be a shorter discussion than

1:16:16

the Pistons one, just because it's acquired their potential

1:16:20

off season for them. They're over the cap.

1:16:23

They have trade options for

1:16:25

sure, but probably

1:16:28

not a free agency team. They

1:16:31

have Scoot Henderson who, I don't know,

1:16:33

like Scoot, like what has been

1:16:35

your take on the Scoot experience? It

1:16:37

just feels stop-starting because of the injuries

1:16:39

and he's a young guard in the

1:16:41

NBA and young guards are always hard.

1:16:44

Darius Garland, De'Aaron Fox, you

1:16:47

can go back all the way through history and

1:16:49

there are a number of them that have struggled

1:16:52

pretty immensely in the same way

1:16:54

Scoot has. I'm not as

1:16:56

concerned about that moving forward for

1:16:58

Scoot. I still think he has a pretty

1:17:00

substantial and tremendous upside and he's still the

1:17:02

guy for me that I'm building around if

1:17:04

I'm them. Yeah, like

1:17:07

do I have a little bit more concerns than

1:17:09

I did going to the draft? Maybe, but again,

1:17:11

like he's dealt, like it hasn't been super smooth

1:17:13

for him. He watched the game

1:17:15

recently, he got to his spot. He just didn't

1:17:17

make them. Like I believe in the mid-range jumper,

1:17:19

the first one looked smooth, the next couple he

1:17:21

missed, he got to the rim some, he wasn't

1:17:24

able to finish. He's going to have to figure

1:17:26

that out in terms of NBA bodies and strength

1:17:28

and athleticism and all of those types of things.

1:17:31

A three point attempt off the dribble looked good. The one

1:17:33

off the catch, not so much. And so a lot

1:17:35

of the things we were a little nervous about have

1:17:38

come through fruition, but I

1:17:40

don't have any concerns that we

1:17:42

haven't just seen it be perfect

1:17:44

so far in his rookie

1:17:46

season. I think my biggest takeaway is I thought

1:17:48

Scoot was a really good passer in

1:17:52

the pre-draft film. This

1:17:54

is actually the game I watched against the Bulls. I would

1:17:56

have liked to see him break down the defense and

1:17:58

create a little bit more. Now there's some. context with

1:18:00

who he is on the floor with, but I think

1:18:02

that would have been my bigger takeaway more than anything

1:18:04

is like, hey, can you, you know, how are you

1:18:06

breaking down the defense and finding your teammates and creating

1:18:08

for them? But yeah, I'm

1:18:11

with you. It wasn't a stellar rookie

1:18:13

season, but I'm not like sounding the

1:18:15

bell or, you know, the sirens in

1:18:17

worry. Yeah, that's kind

1:18:20

of where I'm at as well on this and, you

1:18:23

know, trying to

1:18:25

figure out the guys around Scoot

1:18:28

is interesting because the

1:18:30

way I've kind of laid it out here, I

1:18:32

have Shaden Sharp and Jeremy Grant

1:18:34

in like their long-term core under contract and

1:18:37

I put Anthony Simons in

1:18:39

like the other assets like under

1:18:41

control. And that's not

1:18:43

because I think Anthony Simons is a

1:18:45

worse player than Jeremy Grant or like

1:18:47

a worse player than Shaden right now.

1:18:50

I think Simons is Portland's best player, if

1:18:52

I'm being honest with you. But

1:18:55

the time, the timeline is

1:18:57

becoming fuzzy with Simons to

1:19:00

me. And

1:19:03

right now, like in the minutes we've seen

1:19:05

and Shaden, you know, missed a lot of

1:19:07

time this year and everything, so it's hard

1:19:09

to, you know, really get a full picture

1:19:11

of it, I think. There

1:19:14

does seem to be a lot of

1:19:17

overlap between Scoot, Simons, Shaden

1:19:19

Sharp, right? And then you throw Brogdon

1:19:21

into the mix, like the whole

1:19:23

backcourt felt very samey a lot of

1:19:25

the time when things

1:19:28

were happening for them. So given

1:19:33

that this roster seems unlikely to change

1:19:35

much going into next season, and we'll

1:19:38

talk about like the potential for trades here

1:19:40

momentarily, but given this seems unlikely

1:19:42

to like go down a road

1:19:45

of complete overhaul in a

1:19:47

lot of ways, you'd

1:19:50

be entering a season next year with Amperie Simons

1:19:52

where he's still extremely young, like 24-25 years old,

1:19:54

but only

1:19:57

has two years left on this extension that he...

1:20:00

signed. And

1:20:02

if you get to the deadline, you're at a year

1:20:04

and a half left on the extension.

1:20:08

That's probably when like the

1:20:11

perfect time to move him

1:20:13

is. And I actually wonder if

1:20:15

they would get more by moving him

1:20:17

this summer than anything.

1:20:20

But if you move him, you

1:20:22

need to be damn sure that Scoot

1:20:26

or Sharp can be like your guy

1:20:28

that can handle the offense. This

1:20:31

is why I think that they

1:20:33

probably just have to keep Simons this summer. But

1:20:36

this is the summer where I think this

1:20:38

becomes like a something

1:20:41

of a question at least, right? Yeah,

1:20:43

I mean as I look at it, I kind of

1:20:45

wonder because are you gonna start those three guys together?

1:20:47

If not, who do you ask to come off the

1:20:49

bench? You know, can you talk, do you

1:20:52

want to work Sharp into it slowly to

1:20:54

start the season? I think... And

1:20:56

do you know enough about who should come off the

1:20:58

bench yet? Yeah. Tell it wise for them. Like I

1:21:00

don't know if we have that answer yet. Yeah,

1:21:03

exactly. And so they're there. I'm with you. I

1:21:05

think I would rather trade

1:21:07

Simons this summer, go

1:21:09

into the season with this young back court

1:21:11

of Scoot and Sharp and just know that

1:21:13

that's probably what the future is. But

1:21:18

the other side of it is I kind of...

1:21:20

Because we don't know how good that is gonna

1:21:22

be yet, especially this early in their career. I

1:21:24

kind of want to keep Simons around for insurance

1:21:27

reasons. Like, hey, we may need this guy to

1:21:29

come in and give us all the things that

1:21:31

he does. And so I feel

1:21:34

like the happy medium, the compiz is

1:21:36

keep them all on the roster throughout

1:21:38

the offseason, trade them at the deadline

1:21:40

and do it that way. Or

1:21:42

if it's like, oh my gosh, one of these

1:21:45

guys isn't it? We get some more data and

1:21:47

we're really worried about... I don't even want to

1:21:49

say either their names because I don't think this

1:21:51

is what's gonna happen. But we don't think that

1:21:53

they're gonna develop the way we thought. Okay, let's

1:21:55

reconfigure with Amfron or Simons at 24 Years

1:21:58

old. Maybe He's the one we... The to keep

1:22:00

on the roster and move on from one of the other

1:22:02

ones. right? That this is why I

1:22:04

think the end of the day they're probably just enough to

1:22:06

keep him. I think little timer. In terms

1:22:09

of like seeing the way this works. but. I

1:22:12

bring this up the say we're rapidly

1:22:14

approaching were like this does need to

1:22:16

be a conversation and if I was

1:22:18

another seem like orlando that like needs

1:22:20

another scorer. I. Would probably

1:22:22

be calling Portland at least the summer

1:22:24

and seeing like hey, Know

1:22:27

you've. Got some overlapping pieces here we really

1:22:29

like and funny he's only got two years

1:22:31

left. He's the one where. It might

1:22:33

not fit quite the same timeline. Can.

1:22:36

We go about your having a conversation

1:22:38

on this. maybe? Come. In and

1:22:40

now the interesting ride in Orlando with

1:22:42

the defenders day have around him. that

1:22:44

kind of make up for any limitations

1:22:46

there. And to say hague discuss get

1:22:48

buckets man I just go get bought

1:22:50

it and will take care of a

1:22:52

lot of the difference inch infrastructure now

1:22:54

be interesting Verlander. The

1:22:57

other like interesting player here

1:22:59

is the andre eight. and

1:23:01

because. Like the audrey

1:23:03

started the season like to. So incredibly

1:23:06

disappointing. Lead. To me I

1:23:08

thought he was so frustrating to

1:23:10

watch and was just so not

1:23:12

there in terms of your screening

1:23:15

effort. He and consistency like defensively

1:23:17

like I thought there were a

1:23:20

lot of really frustrating moments with

1:23:22

them. Adjusting to a

1:23:24

new city obviously has never really left like

1:23:26

the southwest of the United States before This.

1:23:29

I. Get it? Over

1:23:32

his last twenty games, the audrey eight

1:23:34

and is averaging twenty one points, twelve

1:23:37

rebounds, shooting sixty three percent from the

1:23:39

field and never getting to the free

1:23:41

throw line, but shooting ninety percent from

1:23:43

wind. They have

1:23:45

really figured out how to weaponize him

1:23:47

as a roller again, which is. What?

1:23:50

He should be in. He has

1:23:52

been like a fantastic, fantastic offensive

1:23:54

player. I think in been. You.

1:23:57

Know look like gonna want to overstate it

1:23:59

and say like he's been like some incredible

1:24:01

defender but like they are a catastrophe. On

1:24:04

defense and like he's been pretty okay. I do

1:24:06

want to. Just like all out. I.

1:24:08

Think that you keep the honorary eight and in

1:24:10

you keep rolling with this. Given. That

1:24:12

he was a big part of the dame return

1:24:14

and given. What? He is now shown

1:24:17

over these games that frankly don't really

1:24:19

matter for Portland Foot like. There's.

1:24:21

At least been. Enough

1:24:24

here. Now to where. I.

1:24:27

Want to keep him and I wonder if.

1:24:30

You're. We get the next summer. He.

1:24:32

Might be like an asset for somebody

1:24:34

I is very least like. Could be

1:24:37

like a useful rim runner and screen

1:24:39

and roll big for these guards to

1:24:41

continue to grow. Yeah. I'm as

1:24:43

he I keep on the roster for sure.

1:24:45

I just don't think he would stop me

1:24:47

from drafting one in the draft if somebody

1:24:50

fell to me that made sense right? like

1:24:52

you you moved up in the lottery and

1:24:54

sar falls the three because you know whoever

1:24:56

Risa say and encoding Williams go one to.

1:24:59

I'm not not taking Alex are if he's

1:25:01

the top guy on my board because I

1:25:03

have the andre eaten or something like that

1:25:05

right? or even with their second first round

1:25:08

pick if somebody is that makes like you

1:25:10

fall in love with ease me see or

1:25:12

something. Like that, right? Like destroy names out

1:25:14

there. Idol or nothing, I would do that.

1:25:16

I'm just saying if the blazers have him

1:25:18

as a number one guy in their board

1:25:21

whenever they're pictures up, I think that stops

1:25:23

you from taking them. But because of what

1:25:25

you've talked about kids, he does rebound the

1:25:27

ball. He does offer something and pick and

1:25:29

roll. He can make some shots He sees

1:25:31

never going to be as physical people want.

1:25:33

He's never going to be as authoritative as

1:25:36

people want I get it, but still valuable

1:25:38

to these young guard specifically scoots. And so

1:25:40

I think because of that, like you don't

1:25:42

move. Him. And so you really really

1:25:44

know that you have the replacement. Yeah

1:25:47

to me, it can't be a true big.

1:25:50

Ah, If. A sleazy can't be

1:25:52

a true big The you're drafting because you have

1:25:55

Rob William so on this roster and as through

1:25:57

through through your that whopper He on this roster

1:25:59

and whoppers. There's been really valuable. Very

1:26:01

daunting. Really good minimum

1:26:03

deal now moving forward for them. Worth

1:26:05

your. They've got him for two more

1:26:08

years. beyond this one it like yet

1:26:10

or million total john. He's like a

1:26:12

definite like. Useful. Backup Center

1:26:14

in my opinion. I go. Astray.

1:26:17

That for fi I think you probably can't go

1:26:19

true big in the draft, but I think that

1:26:21

you can probably look a few different. Scenarios.

1:26:24

A few different places and trying to

1:26:27

figure things out. I. The.

1:26:30

Guy that I do wonder about. This.

1:26:33

Summer is broaden. Obviously.

1:26:36

Could have gotten moved it deadline this

1:26:38

past year. The

1:26:41

question for them is gonna be now.

1:26:43

Do. You try and extend him or do you

1:26:45

try to move them? You. Have to

1:26:47

do one this summer I think if you

1:26:49

really like having him around for the younger

1:26:51

guards. Maybe. You do give him

1:26:53

an extra year and then just like kick the

1:26:56

can down the road. but a can't be more

1:26:58

than an extra year given broadens your injury history.

1:27:01

In it can't. Really be

1:27:03

like for crazy money it couldn't be

1:27:05

for more than what he's on now

1:27:07

in my opinion. So.

1:27:10

If I'm them, I'm probably just trying

1:27:12

to move on. And I think

1:27:15

I could probably get like only first rounder worth

1:27:17

of value in some way, shape or form, Be.

1:27:20

A Go Distressed Assets player or something

1:27:22

like that that that? that's probably what

1:27:25

I'm trying to do though. from Portland.

1:27:27

I think this is the summer. Remove

1:27:29

Rondon. And. I think a little bit

1:27:31

I depends on what you do with the

1:27:33

Simon situation as well. I don't know that

1:27:35

I would sign up for trading for those

1:27:37

guys this summer because then you know if

1:27:39

you're going to say Simon's I can see

1:27:42

were brought in becomes a little more valuable

1:27:44

being I know Simon's again only twenty four

1:27:46

but you're a little more experience there and

1:27:48

saw if you're unsure Simon's for sure the

1:27:50

summer I might consider keeping brought an extended

1:27:52

like what you're talking about by yeah I

1:27:54

would be inclined to doing what we've talked

1:27:56

about keeping those three guys in the backcourt

1:27:58

and then just go. Had seen what I

1:28:00

can get for broaden. Still a guy hate

1:28:02

to say it like it sounds. Bad.

1:28:05

But. When. You can

1:28:07

trade in the summer as opposed to halfway through

1:28:09

the season when there's a chance to these hurt

1:28:11

and then you can't treat him like I would

1:28:13

rather just get. Get that moved on whenever I

1:28:15

can get some value for it. I

1:28:18

think that's right now. I think that's how I

1:28:20

feel about it as well. But. Generally.

1:28:25

The. Feels like the seems doesn't have

1:28:27

a lot of. Maneuverability:

1:28:30

The summer likes they could try move

1:28:33

but he seibel they can try and

1:28:35

move Robin Williams. I. Don't know

1:28:37

what they get for those guys. The Rub

1:28:39

Williams injury stuff seems quite scary given his

1:28:42

contract and then the T. Seibel, it's. Don't.

1:28:45

Has been outplayed by to money

1:28:47

mara. Frankly, this year or so

1:28:49

To Mahdi feels like your defense

1:28:51

first guy moving forward. I

1:28:53

think they did a good job this off season,

1:28:55

hitting on the super margins like. Nailing.

1:28:58

The dwarf read to s yelling.

1:29:01

Getting. To money Comoros throw in

1:29:03

in the. Ah, Damien Littler

1:29:05

deal right? Like they, they nailed a

1:29:07

lot of the marginal stuff. They just

1:29:09

need to hope that the big stuff

1:29:11

can come at some point. I know

1:29:13

the stress gonna be hard to find.

1:29:16

Like a true. Number one

1:29:18

option but. To. Scold state

1:29:20

pick in their own pick. They're.

1:29:23

Gonna have a lot of potential maneuverability. They're

1:29:25

like they could do some things were maybe

1:29:27

if they want somebody and. Somebody.

1:29:29

Wants to move down? No one's surprise me

1:29:31

if they wanted move down in this class.

1:29:33

Could you attach? You know if it ends

1:29:35

up at number five? Number five? A number

1:29:38

thirteen To get up the number two because

1:29:40

you love somebody, right? Maybe

1:29:42

something like that could be real? Yeah. I

1:29:44

mean I think what you put there's exactly

1:29:46

right. You You have the backcourt. We talked

1:29:48

about it. you have some big right. We

1:29:51

talked about the Andre Can I do I've

1:29:53

read is really interesting so it's like you

1:29:55

have some of these wings and forwards in

1:29:57

your August. The German Grand A completely different

1:29:59

level. But you know I'm interested in

1:30:01

Toumani Camorra can he figured out ostensibly Chris

1:30:03

Murray. Like though gets. But you you need

1:30:06

some a high upside wings for like some

1:30:08

real potential supporters and then Camorra and Murray

1:30:10

in those guys can just come off the

1:30:12

bench and be in the walls that they

1:30:14

need to be in. And so I think

1:30:17

the question becomes do trade up to two

1:30:19

to draft Cody Williams a researcher or do

1:30:21

you stay where you're at and maybe one

1:30:23

of those false to you at five Or

1:30:25

you take Brazil is that five and then

1:30:28

you get another bite of the apple with.

1:30:30

Dot to neck and older prospect or

1:30:32

saloon or somebody like that are. you

1:30:34

know if it falls even lower than

1:30:36

you're getting into the Keyshawn? George? Johnny

1:30:38

for Fi some of those guys, potentially.

1:30:41

if it hits a little bit later,

1:30:43

use a two bites at it and

1:30:45

see if you can hit on one

1:30:47

or both. Obviously, Yeah I

1:30:49

think that you probably take to buy

1:30:51

that it is. I would have right

1:30:53

like given this draft. Given what everything

1:30:55

is like I would think that they

1:30:57

will if they end up it no

1:30:59

three, four, five, six, something like that.

1:31:02

In. All likelihood one of. Zachary.

1:31:05

Fisher. Modest. Zealous

1:31:07

Alex are Cody Williams gets to

1:31:09

them. I agree that. I. Would

1:31:11

agree. I. Said. I would kind

1:31:14

of just let that happen young then. The

1:31:16

or use thirteen and. Take. Whoever

1:31:19

I think the best player available is

1:31:21

it Thirteen right? Like Whoever? whoever I

1:31:23

really like and go from there doesn't

1:31:25

have to be a young guy like

1:31:28

I. I like powerful, healthy for them.

1:31:30

way I think I'll be really interesting

1:31:32

your bigger for five hybrid they had

1:31:34

success with to operate this year. but

1:31:36

you know, sicko like true big in

1:31:39

my opinion. and you wouldn't want to

1:31:41

Pixar and like so healthy. but you

1:31:43

could take. One. Of those who and then

1:31:45

take like a bigger wing which would mean you'd want to

1:31:47

take the bigger wing it. In. Three, Four

1:31:49

five if you could, and hope that

1:31:52

no one of the bigs is there

1:31:54

Like saloon thought Ascii. the Skilled Ones

1:31:56

is kind of their thirteen. Babylon.

1:31:59

Options though. I didn't boiling water for

1:32:01

a lot of options in the draft this year

1:32:03

to be able to do some things. I.

1:32:06

Don't think that they are close enough

1:32:08

to where they should be making like

1:32:10

big structural moves. where they go and

1:32:12

like trade number thirteen and shade and

1:32:14

and simon's for like a sore that

1:32:16

doesn't make sense to me. I.

1:32:18

Think they need to keep building

1:32:20

this gradually and that's not exciting

1:32:22

or thrilling or anything. and I'm

1:32:24

sure Blazers fans. My. Love

1:32:26

to hear that necessarily. But.

1:32:30

I. Think the end of the day is gonna have to.

1:32:33

Keep. Going unlike probably accumulator twenty

1:32:35

twenty five draft pick that's pretty

1:32:38

high, right? Yeah. And

1:32:40

I say when. You can't make

1:32:42

any these ground baking breaking decisions are game

1:32:44

changing since the you know what you have

1:32:46

in the backcourt like it it's it's too

1:32:48

early to do those things. It's a you

1:32:50

know exactly what school is, not exactly what

1:32:52

have a better idea and more data. What

1:32:55

skewed is what is Gentry is same thing

1:32:57

with shade and all of that. Once you

1:32:59

have that information or some more data to

1:33:01

make you feel comfortable about that then you

1:33:03

can start to look to make those moves.

1:33:05

I think they're set up these I say

1:33:07

it's not going to be naturally fine for

1:33:10

blazer sans are crazy exciting. I guess maybe

1:33:12

there's some trades year but you're set up

1:33:14

there with those two first round picks to

1:33:16

to again take to swings on guys that

1:33:18

could come in and still positions that you

1:33:20

need find out with this young group is

1:33:22

and and go from there. Yep!

1:33:26

I think that's right price. A

1:33:29

thought got on the blazers. Really, it's not going

1:33:31

to be like a super thrilling summer for them.

1:33:33

I don't. Think. You'll. Agree.

1:33:37

I got Lessing Roads talk about and be addressed

1:33:39

real quick before we get into the Nc A

1:33:41

term it. We did a big tournaments preview on

1:33:44

Sunday. I don't think we need to do that

1:33:46

again, but. But. We can do is

1:33:48

talk about. Two. Things

1:33:50

that I want to talk about least

1:33:52

in the know give the forty servers

1:33:54

rind on. Played last night in what

1:33:56

could only be described as a catastrophic

1:33:58

Virginia game. right? Score! Fourteen

1:34:01

First, F Boyd's the whole thing was

1:34:03

a total disaster. I thought on Virginia

1:34:05

basketball that aren't really need to get

1:34:07

into now. I think they. Need.

1:34:10

To figure out the recruiting side on.

1:34:12

Ah, thanks again. It just feels like

1:34:14

such a substantial issue. I've heard that

1:34:16

the and I L situation there has

1:34:18

been an issue for a while now

1:34:20

and yet. The. Key the

1:34:22

people forget with them is that they won

1:34:24

their title. In the third year

1:34:26

of their yo best recruiting class in

1:34:29

school history with tighter Kyle guy, the

1:34:31

Audrey Hunter i think Jay half was

1:34:33

in that class as well. like. Those

1:34:37

are for N B A players that he recruited for

1:34:39

guys that got a cop coffee at least in the

1:34:41

and yeah. And that's

1:34:43

why they are able to win the title.

1:34:46

They. Need to get back to the level where

1:34:49

they are recruiting high level players. If.

1:34:51

They don't. They're. Not

1:34:53

going to get back to the level they were. You

1:34:55

know, three years ago. If. they do

1:34:57

in job figure out what it is is

1:34:59

it and i yell is it your recruiting

1:35:01

the wrong players? Is it the off into

1:35:03

scheme is not allowing you to recruit the

1:35:05

right players. You. Need to

1:35:07

figure that out. But. Ryan.

1:35:10

Dunn started out this game the first five

1:35:12

minutes and was. On believable he

1:35:15

had like. Four. Unbelievable

1:35:17

rim contests in five minutes including

1:35:20

to block shots. Make

1:35:22

like a turnaround baseline jumper. Makes.

1:35:25

I like a little like floating

1:35:28

shot like in the mid paint.

1:35:30

Their. And then from

1:35:32

that point forward was just like completely.

1:35:35

And you know, Utterly. Invisible

1:35:37

on release the often thought of the

1:35:39

court like is always active. An aggressive

1:35:41

on defense is an incredible where do

1:35:43

you think we learned anything about Ryan

1:35:45

Dunn ah in his first four games.

1:35:48

Know, I mean just watching it.

1:35:50

It kind of was who he

1:35:52

is, right? Like, the defense is

1:35:55

incredible is awesome. There's great versatility,

1:35:57

there's great disruption and playmaking, and

1:35:59

often. Really, it's really scary on what

1:36:01

that's gonna be and it'll be. I'm fascinated

1:36:03

to see what in the A teams are

1:36:06

gonna think of it. I said that's is.

1:36:08

It's something I'm really encouraged to find out

1:36:10

as we really get into the same as

1:36:12

a center is exciting to watch March Madness.

1:36:14

It's also exciting that we're getting to the

1:36:17

into the year to than we really get

1:36:19

into this stuff and go pre draft workouts,

1:36:21

sword and intel starts and and all of

1:36:23

that stuff and guys inter guidance or the

1:36:25

portal guys decide they're not going to answer

1:36:27

all of those things and so I'm fascinated.

1:36:30

So like or may learn something about

1:36:32

how image teams feel about this archetype.

1:36:34

a player I know. I've dropped him

1:36:36

on my board because of some conversations

1:36:38

I've had with scouts and teams. Whoa.

1:36:41

So here's the question. We just talked about

1:36:43

the blazers, right? Where

1:36:45

would you take the money? Camera in this draft.

1:36:49

Money Camorra in this

1:36:51

drafts? No No No

1:36:53

No. Ah,

1:36:56

I'm. Late. twenties? maybe?

1:37:00

They're. Lucky be a first round pick for me.

1:37:02

You have where. I don't know

1:37:05

where would be a brautigam earlier in late

1:37:07

twenties? Beyond? you'd probably be like early twenties

1:37:09

to me, but. Why? I

1:37:11

with a demonic Mara in this draft in

1:37:13

the first round. Like no questions asked. And.

1:37:17

Know. That that the lot of what

1:37:19

rind on his. And frankly, I think Grind

1:37:21

On is probably a better defensive player than

1:37:24

Demonic Mars right now. And I get that

1:37:26

that sounds probably pretty wild Portland fans, but

1:37:28

Ride.is that good on defense like he is.

1:37:31

Similar size six foot eight, two hundred and

1:37:33

forty pounds, turned thirty pounds. Flies.

1:37:35

Around incredible help: the

1:37:37

Fender. I: You're

1:37:40

incredibly disruptive. Great

1:37:42

scramble rotations. He's the best defensive

1:37:44

player in college basketball. The

1:37:46

joke these not up for. College.

1:37:49

Basketball Defensive player the Year The new Smith

1:37:51

Ward like what are we doing Guys do

1:37:53

better. Yet to meet

1:37:55

it's he's. You know it's. Probably.

1:37:57

A slightly better to money tomorrow and. We.

1:38:00

You would take to money. Camorra is. Probably.

1:38:03

Pretty similar to where you would take grind on in. I

1:38:05

think that. Hear. The Blazers would probably take to

1:38:07

money in the first rounder. I think a lot of teams

1:38:09

would. Guess not Etti right

1:38:11

until for some prospect assists it'll be interesting

1:38:13

as a a be really interesting to see

1:38:16

how how he ends up getting value. Next.

1:38:21

Question: So I poise this

1:38:23

to you because you have.

1:38:26

A guy that I have really come around

1:38:28

on a lot is John I. Broom. And

1:38:30

on. Six

1:38:32

ten long arms. One.

1:38:35

Of the best defensive players in college

1:38:37

basketball. Point blank, right. A versatile on

1:38:39

defense you can do a lot of

1:38:42

different stuff of them. Play him and

1:38:44

drop I think yes. Obsession played level

1:38:46

a little bit more often than other

1:38:48

big scan I really strong rim protector.

1:38:51

Communicates really well, seemingly on

1:38:53

the inferior and then offensively.

1:38:56

Could. Runs a dribble hand off stuff is

1:38:58

made pick and pop three this year think

1:39:00

is made like ten of them. I. Obeyed

1:39:03

thirty five percent of his seventy seven

1:39:05

threes overall. I

1:39:07

think that there is some real.

1:39:10

Ceiling. With.

1:39:13

Did I broom in terms of

1:39:15

being like a good, solid backup

1:39:17

center? Where. Are

1:39:20

you out on Jun? I've room. Yeah. I

1:39:22

me I was late to the party

1:39:24

on this right? Like we talked about

1:39:26

this. I think let Leah last episode

1:39:28

of that I had people kind of

1:39:30

Texan text me about him ask me

1:39:32

about him. So I really dug into

1:39:34

the film over the last couple days

1:39:37

that the office is interesting because it's

1:39:39

like a small ball. that small smaller.

1:39:41

You know you have like crazy size

1:39:43

for five. stretch big. but the shooting

1:39:45

metrics or. I don't want to

1:39:47

say concerning, but they don't necessarily. Back.

1:39:50

It up on. he's had some nice passes out of

1:39:52

the mid posts I would like to know like. If.

1:39:54

I knew for sure that was get a chance late

1:39:56

to the short roll. I would feel a little bit

1:39:58

better about it and in. This is Lee. I

1:40:01

love the positioning. I don't often write

1:40:03

about communication and guys scouts because only

1:40:05

write about it if it actually shows

1:40:07

up. I love these. it's of communication

1:40:09

like. he was very demonstrative with the

1:40:11

I think he might be one of

1:40:13

the better defensive communicators of the bigs

1:40:15

I've watched. This is nuts. A real

1:40:17

value in the M B A is

1:40:19

calling out schemes and actions and what's

1:40:21

coming. so I think that provides real

1:40:23

value so I'm deathly entry. He went

1:40:25

from like not on my radar to

1:40:27

my top sixty as I watched those

1:40:29

couple games. And then things could move in

1:40:31

shape as I watched in Cel A tournament games.

1:40:33

Now specifically with him, he's a guy like I'll

1:40:35

deftly want to key and on. Know

1:40:38

like I've got him like in

1:40:40

the forties or ago. we I'm

1:40:42

pretty interested way I have I'm

1:40:44

ahead of like the called printer

1:40:46

range of got him you know.

1:40:49

Like. Are honestly like the name I brought

1:40:51

up to you? Yeah, I still like this

1:40:53