Speaker 1: The month of June is upon us and so to
Speaker 1: that means is draft season. On this episode of the podcast,
Speaker 1: a deeper look at Luca don Chech plus updates on
Speaker 1: some of the prospects the seventy sixers had in Europe
Speaker 1: this past season. A conversation with Emmett Ryan begins in
Speaker 1: about ten seconds, but please if you have ten seconds
Speaker 1: to spare, just a very brief reminder that to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the podcast, you can go to iTunes, You can
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Speaker 1: Type in Sixers podcast network that will take you to
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Speaker 1: of our subscribers if you are not yet one already.
Speaker 1: Emmett Ryan from Ball in Europe dot com is our
Speaker 1: guy for all things happening overseas. You can follow him
Speaker 1: on Twitter at bie underscore Basketball. He has great content
Speaker 1: related to all things European hoops. Fresh off covering the
Speaker 1: EuroLeague Final four in Belgrade, in which Luca don Chich
Speaker 1: rejected top five at the worst pick, did more incredible things,
Speaker 1: we bring in Emmett Ryan to talk about it. Emmett
Speaker 1: First things first, have you recovered yet from Belgrade just
Speaker 1: about it just about like because I was straight back
Speaker 1: into my day job doing technology stuff as soon as
Speaker 1: I got back, and it was a really really really
Speaker 1: busy week in general in Ireland, like between sports stuff
Speaker 1: and politics stuff and me having to do my own job,
Speaker 1: I didn't have time to recover, but I just managed
Speaker 1: about to manage to get through it. So Belgrade, but
Speaker 1: I would say is ring is actually were considering going
Speaker 1: for non basketball reasons. Great if you're single or if
Speaker 1: you're a couple, but if you've got kids, wait till
Speaker 1: they're grown up, because there is nothing to do with
Speaker 1: children there. Like I'm a single guy, I'm fine, but
Speaker 1: like anyone with kids is just gonna have four children
Speaker 1: so fast. It's not going to go well for them,
Speaker 1: Like unless all I want to do is watch basketball,
Speaker 1: which in furnace with some of your listeners might be okay,
Speaker 1: they might have kids like that, there's nothing for them,
Speaker 1: all right, So I'm writing that down right now. No
Speaker 1: Seltzer Family Vacation twenty eighteen to Belgrade. Darn off the list.
Speaker 1: It is well worth doing for everything else though, if
Speaker 1: you know, but you've got a family, it's like it's
Speaker 1: jumped out to me almost straight away, like as I
Speaker 1: traveled a lot between my day job and between ball
Speaker 1: and Europe, it was one of the few cities where
Speaker 1: I've realized there's nothing to do with a family here.
Speaker 1: What was it just like from the atmosphere standpoint in
Speaker 1: terms of basketball vibes during the Final four weekend and
Speaker 1: how it took over the city fantastic, Like Belgrades one
Speaker 1: of the hardest cities in Europe to get to because
Speaker 1: it's not the best for flight connections, it is one
Speaker 1: of the best cities to have a basketball event and
Speaker 1: of any kind, to be honest, because the city just
Speaker 1: loves the sport and it's you know, it's a reasonly
Speaker 1: size city, like it'ld be about I think it's about
Speaker 1: a million a million, one hundred one point one million
Speaker 1: people in the city. Like you know, basketball it's not
Speaker 1: the same as football, but it's a lot closer too
Speaker 1: as a soccer than it would be in most European cities,
Speaker 1: which really really helps, you know. And so when you've
Speaker 1: got that going on with the locals, even though their
Speaker 1: own team wasn't in it, they were obviously interested pure
Speaker 1: to be house. There was a few Serbian guys playing
Speaker 1: as well, like I think someone did, Matt. I think
Speaker 1: it's like twenty odd of years since the Final four
Speaker 1: happened without at least one Serbian playing, So there's a
Speaker 1: long tradition of Serbians always being there when everything gets decided.
Speaker 1: And so in terms of the traveling fans, no debate
Speaker 1: about it. Who brought the numbers freender Bache and they
Speaker 1: just dominated everybody, Like I thought that they'd have by
Speaker 1: far the most and a majority, but I actually figured
Speaker 1: Zalgerish Countess would bring a good few more than they did,
Speaker 1: and it still brought a couple of thousand. But I
Speaker 1: actually thought they might hit the four or five for
Speaker 1: the Friday, which is the semifinals day. But it seemed
Speaker 1: that more or lesson this has happened before Lithuanian teams.
Speaker 1: The fans head of their bets and to decide to
Speaker 1: book literally the night before the final if they're going
Speaker 1: to come over fly in the following morning, which is
Speaker 1: very common with Lithuanian teams making finals. So it turns
Speaker 1: out that more than we're heading their bets, so like
Speaker 1: fender Batchet brought the numbers, and just for your listeners
Speaker 1: to explain, there was four teams, fender Batchey from miss Den,
Speaker 1: Bulls Algerish who are from Lithuania, Raal Madrid who were Spanish,
Speaker 1: and Sheshka Mosco who were obviously Russian. And normally at
Speaker 1: most Final four is the way they do it is
Speaker 1: the game which will expected to have the smaller tenants
Speaker 1: will go first and when the bigger tenants will go second.
Speaker 1: This time they switched it for the first instance twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: where the one that we knew we were gonna have
Speaker 1: a full house for went first, and that was expected
Speaker 1: to lead to a really weird dynamic Brian where you
Speaker 1: know you'd have basically the crowd leaving during game two,
Speaker 1: but they didn't basically because they all seem to want
Speaker 1: to stay to watch, mostly Luca Dontt. I'll openly say
Speaker 1: that that was definitely the main attraction. But then I figured, like,
Speaker 1: you know, we might as well watch the game as well,
Speaker 1: whereas normally they just go out and go into the bars,
Speaker 1: you know, understandably, but the kid was that much of
Speaker 1: an attraction. Most of the fender Batchian's Algerish fans stayed
Speaker 1: on afterwards to watch the game, and how big was
Speaker 1: the arena there. What type of crowd size are we talking?
Speaker 1: It's about twenty thousand, Like it's one of the biggest
Speaker 1: in arenas in Europe. I think it's like top five
Speaker 1: or top six in Europe or size they got. They
Speaker 1: got two arenas there, and that's not the regular one
Speaker 1: for their teams, but it's the main con venue in Belgrade,
Speaker 1: and so it's like huge, really really big arena. Surprisingly
Speaker 1: sort of modern because it's not the youngest stadium. I've
Speaker 1: forgotten how old it is. I think about ten years.
Speaker 1: I might be wrong with those. Apologies then to the
Speaker 1: Serbian listening, but it's like, you know, not the newest
Speaker 1: of new arenas, but still pretty pretty well up the
Speaker 1: speck and was really it felt like a basketball arena
Speaker 1: as well. Like I've been to these sort of you know,
Speaker 1: some eurostadiums which are very very large, but they don't
Speaker 1: feel like an MBA gym. They don't even feel like
Speaker 1: a college gym, Like they feel very much like they're
Speaker 1: a concert venue first and they happen to have sports there.
Speaker 1: This one definitely was a basketball gym. We're gonna dive
Speaker 1: definitely into Luca Doncher talk in just a second. But
Speaker 1: I've got to tell you, I'm not sure if it's
Speaker 1: good for your health. I think it is great for
Speaker 1: my health. I need more. I feel like I need
Speaker 1: more smoking Emmet on periscope in my life. I promise
Speaker 1: I'll keep doing it until I quit smoking. I hope
Speaker 1: you quit smoking for my own sake. So and if
Speaker 1: I do quit, I'll replace it with something and maybe
Speaker 1: Emmett does lollipops on it. I don't know. Like it's
Speaker 1: a Russian friend of mine, Alex Basic. He screen grabbed
Speaker 1: it when I was just having a smoke while doing
Speaker 1: the video after game at europe Basket, and now people
Speaker 1: are upset that they don't see a cigarette, so I
Speaker 1: have to smoke on camera. I'll be honest. Last year
Speaker 1: during EuroBasket, Charlie Wittis and I were talking in the
Speaker 1: office just how awesome it was. Again, certainly not if
Speaker 1: it's a habit that you want to kick, we prioritize
Speaker 1: and support that. But it just like it definitely oozed
Speaker 1: and dripped the type of intensity that I guess the
Speaker 1: atmosphere brought on. It was a it was a look
Speaker 1: that put your mind in the right type of place.
Speaker 1: I felt, Yeah, definitely, especially for that time as well
Speaker 1: as a knockout phase where you know it's like you're
Speaker 1: running out because even as a nuteful, you're so you're
Speaker 1: finding it so intense. You need to calm down, like
Speaker 1: you know, like because I guessaid I ended up a
Speaker 1: dog in the fight in eurobost and even I was
Speaker 1: getting worked up, like you know, just like some of
Speaker 1: the games. That was kind of cool, all right, Well
Speaker 1: down to more serious pertinent manners. Seventy six ers for
Speaker 1: the first time in a couple of seasons will not
Speaker 1: be in position to draft someone of Luca Donche's pedigree,
Speaker 1: at least that high at the moment in the draft order.
Speaker 1: But I still definitely want to talk about him. How
Speaker 1: much have you actually been talking about him as of
Speaker 1: like how much does dontech talk dominate the daily life
Speaker 1: of Emmett Ryan An awful lot, to be honest, especially
Speaker 1: in the basketball side, because even though in Ireland, Blake,
Speaker 1: where your league isn't that big, they've all heard of
Speaker 1: him and think so they're asking because they know me
Speaker 1: as the earlyage guy in Ireland and said they'd be
Speaker 1: asking me a lot. Then obviously, you know, I do
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, sort of American readers as
Speaker 1: well as obviously people like yourself, Brian, like on the
Speaker 1: media side, and he's a first name that comes out
Speaker 1: of their minds and also from a European perspective, like
Speaker 1: for us as like, you know, we're all very sort
Speaker 1: of we I think garden is the wrong word, but
Speaker 1: we're like sort of, you know, we'd probably be accurate
Speaker 1: in the terms we used to describe him. Were not
Speaker 1: necessarily saying he's the best European prospect ever, because we
Speaker 1: don't want to message any historians said, we're saying he's
Speaker 1: easily the most observed European prospect ever, Like no one's
Speaker 1: ever had this much discussion around him. You know. It's
Speaker 1: also you got ever, like he's been playing tier basketball
Speaker 1: in Europe for three years and three full seasons now
Speaker 1: and so we've seen a lot of them, and it's
Speaker 1: really you know, we have to remind ourselves, you know,
Speaker 1: that he's only nineteen years old, like that he does
Speaker 1: make kid mistakes. And it was even funny like when
Speaker 1: he was kissing his girlfriend after the final, it was
Speaker 1: very obvious that he's nineteen because any mac haven't kissed
Speaker 1: that bad since I was a teenager. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like you're a reminder. He's definitely young, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it is sort of that stuff when you're
Speaker 1: kind of going, he's the same age as Marquel Fulls, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like he's young. He's that young. But
Speaker 1: he's been playing top tier for three seasons and it's
Speaker 1: still mind blowing to me to this day because the
Speaker 1: way he played this season where he had to come in,
Speaker 1: you know, Serio Yuey, who was beyond the radar of
Speaker 1: some of your listeners, I was because he was considering
Speaker 1: the Rockets a couple of years ago. He was done
Speaker 1: for most of the season with an ACL came back
Speaker 1: in the playoffs in April. So basically he had been
Speaker 1: sort of the boss of the backcourt and happily to
Speaker 1: the fair to Luke at certain times, but like Luca
Speaker 1: had to be the boss of the backcourt. There was
Speaker 1: no debate because there was no one else to do
Speaker 1: it that was of the sufficient quality of, particularly defensively
Speaker 1: speaking for the role. And so the veteran players on
Speaker 1: his side, and you're time with some guys who are like,
Speaker 1: you know, not exactly close to thirty anymore. Like they're
Speaker 1: well north of it now and they said, yep, that's fine,
Speaker 1: and trust the kid because if we don't, we have
Speaker 1: no we have no backup plan. And it worked, to
Speaker 1: be honest, it worked really well, and so and Rayals
Speaker 1: got their fitness their healthiness together at the right time.
Speaker 1: Like you know, obviously, had they stayed unhealthy for too long,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have made the playoffs, but they manage to
Speaker 1: keep healthy enough long enough and then you hit their
Speaker 1: stride with a pretty much fully healthy roster coming into
Speaker 1: the final four weekend and it worked out fantastically for them.
Speaker 1: And we were counting back because they won like twos
Speaker 1: their third titles since the early nineties, but it's their
Speaker 1: first title in Europe that wasn't one in Spain since
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty the contact the city was back then was
Speaker 1: known as West Berlin, not Burlin, where they wont it
Speaker 1: because the wall was still up by with a few
Speaker 1: years to go yet. So that's how far back and
Speaker 1: going for Yale's last win of the biggest title in
Speaker 1: Europe outside of Spain, so like where the finals wasn't
Speaker 1: earned Helen Spain, so quite quite a long time. That
Speaker 1: is some crazy perspective, and it was interesting the way
Speaker 1: that you framed it that Dantage among the media over
Speaker 1: there is viewed as the most observed prospect perhaps to
Speaker 1: come out of Europe. So how has he handled that
Speaker 1: aspect of all this remarkably well, I've got to say.
Speaker 1: So we have their immedia sasition before the games on
Speaker 1: a Thursday. The games are on a Friday, and everybody
Speaker 1: knew going into this because the same as last year,
Speaker 1: Dontage was just going to get covered with bodies and
Speaker 1: he was grand like we all got our bit. He
Speaker 1: was talking in three languages, Laveni and Spanish English, and
Speaker 1: he was totally relaxed. Anyone asked an NBA question, he
Speaker 1: come on, ask me Sunday. You know, It's like because
Speaker 1: it was going to be around Sunday no matter what,
Speaker 1: and he was there listening all to care about this
Speaker 1: weekend is winning this. And then by Sunday even he
Speaker 1: was like very relaxed with the NBA related questions and
Speaker 1: he was kind of yeah, listen, I just wanted yearly,
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to do now to celebrate. To come on, lads.
Speaker 1: In episodes, he's like, you know, he doesn't care if
Speaker 1: he goes first, isn't care if he goes second. Like
Speaker 1: I've seen some guys thinking he could drop down to
Speaker 1: fifth all the way. Personally, on an entirely selfish level,
Speaker 1: I would love for him to drop to a city
Speaker 1: which happens to have a direct group from Dublin. I
Speaker 1: think it's lost three and five. Have those you know
Speaker 1: in the top five, so I we can go third.
Speaker 1: I think Atlanta third and like the MAVs are five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can take that. That'd be great, Like Phoenix is
Speaker 1: hard to get to two warm from my for my
Speaker 1: sort of skin now, Brian, to be honest, although you
Speaker 1: know Zacto probably more more tempered, I could manage that
Speaker 1: a bit better. He just had done did a phenomenal finish.
Speaker 1: Have you, in your years covering basketball in Europe ever
Speaker 1: covered a finish like that. I mean, we're talking about
Speaker 1: a superfecta of honors here between Rising Star MVP, Final
Speaker 1: four MVP and then the Champion of course with Rayal.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anyone do it in a long long time.
Speaker 1: Someone has done the Rising Star in MVP in the
Speaker 1: same year, but I don't think even won the Final
Speaker 1: four MVP that year, which says at all. But like
Speaker 1: also he won all the all the Spanish league honners
Speaker 1: as well, like everything you just described there, he won
Speaker 1: all those in Spain two of the national league. There
Speaker 1: so apart from sorry the finals MVP, which he will
Speaker 1: win in about three weeks, I think, because when he
Speaker 1: wins the final Finals MVP, doing the rough timeline on it,
Speaker 1: and you know it's actually it's because if the series,
Speaker 1: it's actually one fun one for those of y'all who
Speaker 1: are going to be watching the drafts. In most of you,
Speaker 1: he is a very good chance he won't be at
Speaker 1: the draft because game four of the Spanish finals and
Speaker 1: its best to five, so it could be over by then,
Speaker 1: is the day after the draft. And of course Frank
Speaker 1: Nika from France went over last year and flew back.
Speaker 1: It's been made pretty clear to everybody that Luca Dongge
Speaker 1: is not going to do that, not least because Frank
Speaker 1: was absolutely exhausted looking on the floor and that the
Speaker 1: siding game in the French finals, and Luca Dodgage is
Speaker 1: all into trying to win a Spanish title and so
Speaker 1: you know, leave a champion from Spain on the way out.
Speaker 1: And also because he knows that being there won't affect
Speaker 1: where he gets picked. Like the way people are making
Speaker 1: this year, the personal factor isn't going to be as
Speaker 1: much in terms of on the day, Like he's met
Speaker 1: all the executives, like, you know, the the guys from
Speaker 1: the Sons have been over, the guys from the Kings
Speaker 1: have been over. I'm pretty certain the six year over
Speaker 1: back when you didn't know what you're going to be
Speaker 1: doing this year last year, Like everybody's been over and
Speaker 1: he's met them all. Like so there's no oh, this
Speaker 1: kid's self it or anything like that stuff. It's gates
Speaker 1: of No, this kid wants to win for the team
Speaker 1: he's still employed by, and most NBA executives seem to
Speaker 1: be aware that that's an actual thing. So that so
Speaker 1: he won't be over for the draft unless they win
Speaker 1: the Spanish title in a sweep. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: any chance he returns to Royale No, I think it's
Speaker 1: very at every chance. He claims he will though in
Speaker 1: order to get some more leverage going into the draft,
Speaker 1: but in actuality, if he gets drafted, no matter where
Speaker 1: he lands, he's going to go there and he'll show
Speaker 1: up first day training camp and all that or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, the first year you're expected to turn up voluntarily,
Speaker 1: even he'll be there. I just think if he's smart.
Speaker 1: I guess if I was him, which is a long
Speaker 1: time making, I'm much younger and much healthier, Brian, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know I would. I would also be making sure
Speaker 1: there's like sort of you know, if I'm if I
Speaker 1: was thinking, maybe I want to go to Sock too,
Speaker 1: maybe I want to go somewhere else. I'm putting the
Speaker 1: feelers out that i'd consider another year in Spain, you know,
Speaker 1: just to sort of, you know, see if I could
Speaker 1: use it as leverage, like you know, it's a sensible
Speaker 1: thing to do. You know, that's a smart work from
Speaker 1: the agent. Let's talk about these skill package that Luca
Speaker 1: Nanjag brings to the court. Puts up great, versatile, diverse numbers.
Speaker 1: In your opinion, what has been the reason why he's
Speaker 1: been able to generate this much hype and attract this
Speaker 1: much attention. It's a versus Hilly, it really is, because
Speaker 1: he does he is sort of you know, multi talented player,
Speaker 1: Like we've got the initial hype was everything, but his
Speaker 1: defense is how I put it, like, so he's got
Speaker 1: the shot he can. He's got this this speed despite
Speaker 1: not the explosion. That's there's a difference there. His timing
Speaker 1: is brilliant, his passing is great, so you know, but
Speaker 1: also he's got that multipositional option, like if you're gonna
Speaker 1: go three guards set, he fits in. Well, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna go regular two guards set, you can go to
Speaker 1: one or the two. Because if you put him beside
Speaker 1: you know, say, you know a bog Down Bogdanovich bo
Speaker 1: Don as a shooter, but he's also a creator Luke,
Speaker 1: you can take some of the shooting load. You'll put
Speaker 1: him beside a bucker in Phoenix. He's happy to have
Speaker 1: a shoot first, you know guy beside him as well.
Speaker 1: So there's so many sort of situations you look at
Speaker 1: sort he can be the one, he can be the two,
Speaker 1: or he can be the hybrid. It's not like your
Speaker 1: typical hybrid where he's not enough of either. Luca Done
Speaker 1: is enough of both to be either. And like frankly,
Speaker 1: you can put him at the three und as well,
Speaker 1: like you know the three on defense, which is you know,
Speaker 1: quite a versatile mix. So when you've got that options
Speaker 1: defensively offensively, like I said, he can just you know,
Speaker 1: get everything through. And like most people I've spoken to
Speaker 1: with a sort of any NBA interest to all has
Speaker 1: said the explosive thing is massively overblown. Like he's built
Speaker 1: up a good bit in the last three years as
Speaker 1: it is, and we've seen with the likes of Christopsperzingiz
Speaker 1: who one year of NBA conditioning. Because the type of
Speaker 1: bodies that work in the NBA are necessarily the ones
Speaker 1: that work in Europe and vice versa, you know he'll
Speaker 1: be basically, as you know, big and powerful athletically speaking,
Speaker 1: as he needs to be to get by. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not concerned about it less him at all going over
Speaker 1: You bring up something that I was just about to
Speaker 1: ask you in terms of toughness physicality. It seems like
Speaker 1: you can only get so much looking at highlights over
Speaker 1: here and even streaming and watching games, but what about
Speaker 1: the toughness factor for him? Well, in the playoff series
Speaker 1: really showed that because Panath and Ikas, who have a
Speaker 1: very the toughest home arena to go to in Europe,
Speaker 1: they targeted him early and often they were just going
Speaker 1: after him and we're trying to beat him up. On
Speaker 1: Game one, he got his ass kicked, there's no doubt
Speaker 1: in that. But in the next three games led to
Speaker 1: the reverse sweep that he was just on top basically
Speaker 1: like he was necessarily necesarily getting any shots off, but
Speaker 1: he gets kept getting to the line. And that's it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's one of the more borings. That's the
Speaker 1: followers foul to draw, and especially as for a rookie season,
Speaker 1: it's not going to help you much because rookies don't
Speaker 1: get calls in the NBA. But as he develops as
Speaker 1: a player, like when you see him at that year
Speaker 1: three four player, he's just going to be a foul
Speaker 1: drawing machine. Like in the NBA, it's gonna be ridiculous
Speaker 1: because his year three four, remember his twenty two, twenty three,
Speaker 1: you know, so it's like he's just going to be
Speaker 1: ridiculous to look at in that respect where you're just
Speaker 1: going to see this Kip get to the line so
Speaker 1: often because it's not just that he draws files and
Speaker 1: he can draw them in so many different ways in
Speaker 1: places and it sort of can get teams in trouble.
Speaker 1: And this is like you know, probably is like seventh
Speaker 1: or eighth best attribute. This is the bill just get
Speaker 1: to get to the line, and so you put it
Speaker 1: all together with him, it's like there's nothing particularly weak
Speaker 1: about him, and there's enough a lot of things to like.
Speaker 1: The only thing I would say for a lot of
Speaker 1: fans is where I reckon some patience is he's I
Speaker 1: wouldn't got him streaky. It's more that he's very very consistent,
Speaker 1: only has like, you know, a down game for as
Speaker 1: many super up games. So he's gonna have games where
Speaker 1: he's putting up like, you know, five of six from
Speaker 1: three and some crazy numbers like that, and then he's
Speaker 1: going to have a one of nine from the field
Speaker 1: period of games straight afterwards, you know. So there is
Speaker 1: that little bit of very instill in this game, whereas
Speaker 1: more often than not, he's just a guy who shoots
Speaker 1: very much like his average number suggest and as well,
Speaker 1: like he's gonna frankly not get the same level of
Speaker 1: attention in his first season in the NBA as he
Speaker 1: got in Europe because he was seen as the primary
Speaker 1: threat for Rayal Madrid when he had the ball, and
Speaker 1: you know he's gonna be a rookie next year. I'm
Speaker 1: sure that you guys wanting to give him the physical
Speaker 1: attention but the bottle lids. You put him alongside a
Speaker 1: guy who's a non proven shooter and no improven score,
Speaker 1: that guy's the one getting the attention, not Luca donchet.
Speaker 1: So I think he's gonna find his rhythm pretty pretty
Speaker 1: comfortably in the NBA. You mentioned the age thing. It
Speaker 1: really is incredible that he's still right now closer to
Speaker 1: eighteen years of age than he is twenty. And the
Speaker 1: fact that he made his proe debut with Rayal and
Speaker 1: ACB what was it two months after sixteenth birthday, and
Speaker 1: he's been doing this for such a long time. In
Speaker 1: the period that you've been tracking and covering him, in
Speaker 1: what areas of his game, would you say he's made
Speaker 1: the biggest strides and leaps comfortably decision making, like when
Speaker 1: it comes to like knowing when to pass, knowing when
Speaker 1: to like sort of also call his own number, like
Speaker 1: because you know, he sort of he saw the youthful
Speaker 1: both exuberance and nerves at Amerily on where if he
Speaker 1: had if he had a down streak, he would just
Speaker 1: basically stop shooting. It would be only passing the course
Speaker 1: that was being telegraphed. Likewise, if he was too hot,
Speaker 1: he'd be pushing it that little bit too much. Like
Speaker 1: even last hee's me so bitter than that when he
Speaker 1: was always very exciting but still a little bit you know, undefined.
Speaker 1: This year, his decision making on both sides has just
Speaker 1: gone up so so much at also the last year.
Speaker 1: It's his defense, it's just it's and again it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily the physical side. He can be physical, but it's
Speaker 1: his spacing, it's his positioning, it's his knowing how to
Speaker 1: make a guy's shot worse without even touching him, you know,
Speaker 1: without even like you know, putting his hand in his face,
Speaker 1: just my pure positioning. Like he's just gotten so much
Speaker 1: better at that over the last year, whereas that was
Speaker 1: a big question mark going into last summer, and I remember,
Speaker 1: like you know, you know, even the guys I was
Speaker 1: talking about it, what's going on, dude, he's eighteen, He goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: trying to fix that, like you're older. There's time to
Speaker 1: fix that was the classic thing with the defense, And
Speaker 1: sure enough, in time he's fixed a largely speaking, just
Speaker 1: being around old Chuck widdows a lot, you hear about
Speaker 1: Luca pretty frequently. But if we can retrace the timeline,
Speaker 1: when did his star really start to rise in terms
Speaker 1: of media attention surrounding him, and did you remember what
Speaker 1: it was a season or a tournament anything like that
Speaker 1: that prompted the needle to move in respect to him,
Speaker 1: I suppose in Europe, even with the hardcore. The big
Speaker 1: one was sort of the under eighteen qualifier for the
Speaker 1: under eighteen Yearly Tournament in twenty fifteen, which is going
Speaker 1: back a good bit where he lit at that up
Speaker 1: in Spain, and so a bunch of guys who were
Speaker 1: like hardcore youth trackers were saying, you got to watch
Speaker 1: this kid. And he gets to to Madrid actually was
Speaker 1: where it was, which of course where he was living
Speaker 1: and playing, and so you know, guys like me who
Speaker 1: wouldn't follow prospects as much, we're going along kind of going, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: this kid's good, this kid's good. And then but it
Speaker 1: was really apposed for mainstream European media in terms of
Speaker 1: basketball media. There was a game against Chescom Moscow the
Speaker 1: following season where he went in after this famously aggressive
Speaker 1: time out, you know, ranked by his coach Pablo Lasso,
Speaker 1: and immediately like nailed two threes as a sixteen year old.
Speaker 1: Everybody kind of going Okay, you're just doing that sight
Speaker 1: to the best team in Europe as you do. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, casually enough. But I think really
Speaker 1: for most people, it was start of last season when
Speaker 1: that season just done, the one before the twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: seventeen season, where you suddenly realize he's not just a
Speaker 1: guy who's going to be you know, growing in minutes.
Speaker 1: He's going to have starter minutes this year. And it
Speaker 1: was through preseason when you know, in Spain, which was
Speaker 1: like it was like early Facebook Live in terms of
Speaker 1: facebool living thing where they were showing all the preseason
Speaker 1: games on Facebook Live, and he was going out there
Speaker 1: and playing hard minutes from the start, and you're kind
Speaker 1: of going, oh, oh, oh, they're featuring them this season,
Speaker 1: you know, because we weren't sure, like and then it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're they're they're all in. They're all in, like surge,
Speaker 1: every dygas has gone, It's Luca Dante's time. And you know,
Speaker 1: that was sort of when yeah, we're just going to
Speaker 1: be all in and this kid for the year. So
Speaker 1: and that was most even most of you know, so
Speaker 1: to people like yourself would have been talking to me
Speaker 1: as well about him. Because obviously I told Harry about
Speaker 1: him back in twenty fifteen and saying to get on
Speaker 1: the radar. But it was really the start of that
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen seventeen season where sort of you know, American
Speaker 1: journalist who weren't big on the draft. The best way
Speaker 1: to put it, like for whom the regular MBA is
Speaker 1: their day to day, which is understandable as well, we
Speaker 1: all have different parts in our jobs. That was when
Speaker 1: they started to hear about him. Actually, he's the son,
Speaker 1: Luca is of a former pro basketball player in Slovenia
Speaker 1: and someone who dabbled in coaching as well. In your opinion,
Speaker 1: how much of what we're seeing from don Chich is
Speaker 1: developed talent over the years and how much of it
Speaker 1: is natural gifts that some of the stuff he just has. Oh,
Speaker 1: I think his dad, based on admission, would say it's
Speaker 1: definitely more developed talent, you know, the entire IQ because
Speaker 1: his dad was you know, one a couple of Slovenian leagues,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't. He never reached the heights that Lucas
Speaker 1: already reached a nineteen, never mind what he's hopefully going
Speaker 1: to reach further on. You know, I'm sure daddy Dante
Speaker 1: would agree with me on that one. I definitely did
Speaker 1: help coming from a family which was heavily involved with
Speaker 1: the big club in Slovenia and his dad won won
Speaker 1: a Slovenian tambit tip with Goran dragged. So Luca had
Speaker 1: gore on sort of there a sort of a mini
Speaker 1: metro when he was a very very very young boys
Speaker 1: and like you know, it's still single digit age young
Speaker 1: and so he had he had that going for him,
Speaker 1: and you know, like, but also I think it was
Speaker 1: the dad knowing the like Madrid was a good place
Speaker 1: for his kid to go, because you know, there was
Speaker 1: the right discussion, Like he knew that that was a
Speaker 1: kid that was a team that could look after him.
Speaker 1: You know, it's because there are places where they got
Speaker 1: good repped for youth, but it turns out they don't
Speaker 1: get many minutes. Like look at anyone who's gone through
Speaker 1: Barcelona in the last few years. It's just a disaster,
Speaker 1: you know, frankly for any youth player in the last while.
Speaker 1: You know, of understatement, actually keep on losing guys, where
Speaker 1: as real they've shown it's not just developing NBA quality guys,
Speaker 1: it's developing yearly quality guys, but they're going their minute's
Speaker 1: still quite young. So if you're good enough, they will
Speaker 1: give you that shot. But also they'll find a way
Speaker 1: to give you a shot as much as they humanly
Speaker 1: can as well, so for development being in that system
Speaker 1: in real Madrid, like like he's their best ad Ford,
Speaker 1: but he's not their only at obviously Morota was there
Speaker 1: as well, and a few other guys, but like Luca's basically,
Speaker 1: if you come here as a young man, they will
Speaker 1: do right by you. And there's not much more you
Speaker 1: can say than that when you look at what Lucas
Speaker 1: gonna what's gonna happen with Luca a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: time in the draft. You know you touched on this earlier,
Speaker 1: but pretty safe to say that consistent could be a
Speaker 1: word to describe the presence that NBA executives have had
Speaker 1: over in Europe scouting him over the last couple of
Speaker 1: months and couple of years. Oh, absolutely, the absolutely, Like
Speaker 1: you know, there's been plenty of the classic one as
Speaker 1: well as like any local journalists, they see somebody sort
Speaker 1: of who knows who's recognized from from an association franchise,
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, tweet the photos say they're in
Speaker 1: the building lads tonight and you know so and like
Speaker 1: with Luca, like it's just been comic a lot of times,
Speaker 1: like sort of you know, okay, you have teams who
Speaker 1: have no hope of drafting because you knew they were
Speaker 1: going to finish way up, and even they be over
Speaker 1: to watch them just in the off chance there was
Speaker 1: a move that happened that somebody offered them something. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it was worth like having having
Speaker 1: the sort of the body there. And again the ways
Speaker 1: the European scouting networks are as well for the NBA
Speaker 1: now like what they are these days compared to even
Speaker 1: seven eight years ago, it's just so much more mature
Speaker 1: now what what you what you guys have over here
Speaker 1: in terms of scouting networks and so as a result,
Speaker 1: like you know, a player liked on which is not
Speaker 1: just getting like you know, talked up like sort of
Speaker 1: you know, in the way you have even like kind
Speaker 1: of pubkhuse conversation. There are guys you know, sort of
Speaker 1: all over continent going back to their bosses in the cities,
Speaker 1: would do tail sort of breakdown data sheets like the
Speaker 1: real nerdy stuff and you know, that's getting the attention
Speaker 1: back home, because those guys aren't paid to big up Europeans.
Speaker 1: Those guys are paid to, like, you know, find real
Speaker 1: players who can make real differences. I think that Luke
Speaker 1: is excited about the possibility of coming to the NBA.
Speaker 1: Have you gotten any sense of that just in observing him,
Speaker 1: talking to him, seeing him in his media availabilities. Yes,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think he's trying to
Speaker 1: enjoy the last bit of Europe he has in his
Speaker 1: career as much as he possibly can, because you know,
Speaker 1: there is again he's you know, it's a big move.
Speaker 1: I think actually one thing that will stand to him
Speaker 1: is he had that big move as a much younger
Speaker 1: teenager from Lubiana to Madrid, So who's gonna have this
Speaker 1: other big move now? But as a much older person
Speaker 1: like you all be at, still under twenty across to
Speaker 1: another continent, there's definitely excitement there because he likes to
Speaker 1: test himself, he likes to challenge himself. He even saw
Speaker 1: that when he was going against Porzingis and EuroBasket, he
Speaker 1: was going for Christas because he knew this is the
Speaker 1: guy who's maybe the start of the tournament. And he's like,
Speaker 1: this is my tournament. It was his attitude, which is
Speaker 1: great obviously to have that he wants to go after
Speaker 1: the the top dogs, and you know it's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like there's definitely an excitement there, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a calm as well, like you know, as because he
Speaker 1: knows in his own heart he can be a very
Speaker 1: very good player at the top level. And it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, he wants to have the fun as well,
Speaker 1: but like you know, the kid kids used to winning championships,
Speaker 1: so you know, that's a big thing to bear in mind.
Speaker 1: He's used to being a factor, so it's gonna you know,
Speaker 1: he knows he's got to get readjust his equitations in
Speaker 1: the short term so he can get what he really
Speaker 1: wants in the long term, regardless of where he ends up.
Speaker 1: Can't wait to see him. Just a really fascinating story
Speaker 1: in someone that you know you've been tracking for a
Speaker 1: long time. Other than that kind of a light draft,
Speaker 1: it's looking like Emmett in terms of euros this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a bit unfortunate that, to be honest, Like I think,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a few guys who will be on
Speaker 1: the radar for like you know, the next year's draft,
Speaker 1: you know, but like this year, Yeah, it's like we
Speaker 1: were looking. I think it's because like last year, Ibou
Speaker 1: was he We had a load in the second round,
Speaker 1: a couple of obviously on your books, which will will
Speaker 1: always mentioned one in the second But yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: a very euro deep draft this year, which is a
Speaker 1: little disappointing. But aspos it's year a heavy one by
Speaker 1: our standards last year that they sort of they tend
Speaker 1: to come in waves, so like and the classes coming
Speaker 1: through oddly the classes saw at the junior tournament this year.
Speaker 1: In the yearly no one where who stood out as
Speaker 1: being a guy who's going to make it over in association.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's definitely there's like guys on the radar.
Speaker 1: Obviously I've mentioned the Charlie before that the one I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to. He's like a top fifty prospecting high
Speaker 1: school in the nation, Aidan, Harris, Sicker, Horndkin and Dublin
Speaker 1: going into He's been offered a few different schools full
Speaker 1: rides already for next year. You know, he's the best
Speaker 1: chance at the first that being the first Irish born
Speaker 1: player in the NBA since Pat Burke of the Sons
Speaker 1: and Magic. That's the big hope from Arland at the moment,
Speaker 1: and I thank goodness for editing. So outside of that though, yeah,
Speaker 1: the European side, yeah, it's kind of weird because there
Speaker 1: are definitely prospects coming through, But I think there's a
Speaker 1: cycnical nature to it as well, like there's always gonna
Speaker 1: one or two drier years than others because I'm a
Speaker 1: glass year at Laurie Marketing as well, who all rookie
Speaker 1: as well over Goet. So you see sort of all
Speaker 1: those guys coming through and it's like there's going to
Speaker 1: be the year where it's not as amazing. So that
Speaker 1: jumps out. But obviously we mentioned the sixties with last
Speaker 1: year's draft that are in Europe. Not a European but
Speaker 1: he's playing in the EuroLeague this year. Jonah Bolden, now
Speaker 1: what sixty Times may not be aware of it is
Speaker 1: his season nearly ended a lot faster than everybody was
Speaker 1: expecting because, without getting into the reasons behind it, there
Speaker 1: was a strike by the Israeli players in the Israeli League,
Speaker 1: which looks to have killed the season because there were
Speaker 1: a certain timelines or it had to be done by
Speaker 1: and it looked like they had managed to basically spike
Speaker 1: at the exact perfect time to ruin any hope of
Speaker 1: doing that. And now the season is saved and the
Speaker 1: playoffs are on again. But there was a very good
Speaker 1: chance Jonah season was already over if you had asked
Speaker 1: me this, like Brian, if we'd recorded this three days earlier,
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about how John Bolden seasons over, you know,
Speaker 1: whereas instead, oh no, he's actually got the playoffs and
Speaker 1: he'll probably get into the Israeli Final four and we'll
Speaker 1: see how he gets something there. But it was a
Speaker 1: very very weird end of the season, like his maccaby side.
Speaker 1: Not a great year for them, no playoffs, clearly still
Speaker 1: they're going in loosely the right direction, but still need
Speaker 1: an awful lot more work to do, it seems though.
Speaker 1: Looking at it from Afar, Jonas definitely held his own
Speaker 1: this season, had some flashes in good moments. What's been
Speaker 1: your impression of where he's at right now? Development is
Speaker 1: looking great? Yeah, because again he moved up a step
Speaker 1: as well as year to McCabe from FMP and he
Speaker 1: looked like he belonged at that level, which I think
Speaker 1: it's a major question when it's a guy moving up
Speaker 1: from very much lower standard of basketball in Europe, despite
Speaker 1: being an impressive player at that level, when you're moving
Speaker 1: up to the top tier, the look a guy who
Speaker 1: belonged on the court was a great sign. Obviously seeing
Speaker 1: if he's going to be NBA's in or debate. But
Speaker 1: you know, I know, you know, six Ers heads are
Speaker 1: massively high him because of his overall tools tools that
Speaker 1: what I would hope for is assuming McCabe or firing
Speaker 1: air coach no matter what this season, which the broad
Speaker 1: impression is they are that he is in a situation
Speaker 1: coaching wise next year that is more suited to his development,
Speaker 1: not just because you know, he wants to go to
Speaker 1: the NBA, but because that's the type of coach mccabey
Speaker 1: needs right now when he's actually gonna, like, you know,
Speaker 1: work around the strength of the players rather than sort of,
Speaker 1: you know, just here's a ball and hope for the best,
Speaker 1: which has been a little bit of what we've seen,
Speaker 1: like you know, have been a few too many egos
Speaker 1: in a team which doesn't really deserve to have that
Speaker 1: many egos. As we were discussing Luca don Chechi's in
Speaker 1: a class in and of himself. But if you looked
Speaker 1: at some of the pi R numbers and statistics of
Speaker 1: Rising Stars trophy qualifiers in your ear league play, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jonah Bolden who was in fourth place as the vote getter,
Speaker 1: and then Matthias Sort who was in third. So it
Speaker 1: seems like some of the prospects of the sixers acquired
Speaker 1: last year, who have been plying their trade over in Europe,
Speaker 1: they've been moving in the right direction. Oh, it's we
Speaker 1: definitely saw, especially front end of the season, we saw
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, the he belongs to your
Speaker 1: type big man moments, which is very important really for
Speaker 1: a young guy in your early because young big men
Speaker 1: are going to get targeted because they're young big man
Speaker 1: as the nature of the sport, and so he was
Speaker 1: really able to establish his authority early. Like his team's Vezda,
Speaker 1: they're not in the best plays right now, they're not
Speaker 1: on in your early next year, it's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: to see if they keep him, because he'd be better
Speaker 1: off moving and they'd be better off moving him on
Speaker 1: not because of quality, because of finances for them, that
Speaker 1: would make more sense for them to like take in
Speaker 1: a cheaper at it than Matthias and for him it'd
Speaker 1: be better obviously still playing early next year before he considers,
Speaker 1: you know, going over to the six years. Like I
Speaker 1: think we've had this chat last season when we're discussing
Speaker 1: a Lasors, like I was saying, the guy's backup center
Speaker 1: material in the NBA for like years and years. It's
Speaker 1: a big guy where you plug a manager backup center
Speaker 1: on the bench and you can feel comfortable for the
Speaker 1: next five six years without having a need to fill
Speaker 1: that role in essentially, which you know, it's like not
Speaker 1: a bad thing to have considering the price of backup
Speaker 1: center is like then the reliability of them more than
Speaker 1: anything else. And with as possessionis, who spent the season
Speaker 1: with Grand Canarios, sounds like might be exploring the opportunity
Speaker 1: to go to a higher level of competition, the likes
Speaker 1: of which as you said, Bond did this past year
Speaker 1: and Les sort also with the yearly club. That's right,
Speaker 1: and well as a recording that said we're going to
Speaker 1: be finding out in a couple of hours times if
Speaker 1: the seconds is going to help Grand Canaria not Barcelona
Speaker 1: out of the Spanish playoffs. So that's a good their
Speaker 1: season's going, that's only best at three in the first round.
Speaker 1: And grank had got a huge win on the road
Speaker 1: in Barcelona in Game one Barcelona out there this evening
Speaker 1: and is like again it's a case of if ever
Speaker 1: there's a guy where you know, the eating and dieting
Speaker 1: and overall training of NBA will help his physique. He
Speaker 1: is the definition of whatever it's about Luca, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: for him, I want to see the guy you know,
Speaker 1: basically brought to a Denny's very quickly. You know, he's
Speaker 1: like still too, He's like I see him working out
Speaker 1: far more. Like in his current physique, he can't really
Speaker 1: be a five of the NBA, even though his skill
Speaker 1: set is already suited to it, Like he could be
Speaker 1: fine as a four. Like but even then him kind
Speaker 1: of going, if he's gonna be a Davis Birstand type four,
Speaker 1: I want more meeting him, like you know, maybe like
Speaker 1: you know, get to Davis Birstand's type size. But you know,
Speaker 1: he's definitely the skills to be a five. I just
Speaker 1: think he needs to, you know, just get eating. Like
Speaker 1: and France Christaps was that way when he went over
Speaker 1: as well. He was a scrawny little fellow like people
Speaker 1: forget that he was a string being and he started
Speaker 1: eating fast like. But again, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: that is down to the conditioning. But he's in a
Speaker 1: great place in Grancin area, like he gets his minutes,
Speaker 1: he's in a good organization and like the coach. Famously,
Speaker 1: he led to the greatest upset in Spanish playoff history
Speaker 1: about twenty years ago at Manreitha. Who are if you're
Speaker 1: saying I've never heard of those, that's kind of the point.
Speaker 1: They managed to win a Spanish title out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and you know, so the good coach situation as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'd like to see who move up. But
Speaker 1: if he does move up, I hope he's very careful
Speaker 1: where he goes because he does need a place where
Speaker 1: they will give him reps. You know, with Grandca, he's
Speaker 1: guaranteed that at the moment. Obviously, different teams in Europe
Speaker 1: have different sort of priorities, like who get offered a
Speaker 1: conference to say by fs who are in Istanbul, and
Speaker 1: they might offer him a lot of money. But the
Speaker 1: bottom line is Bryan Dunson is there starting center, and
Speaker 1: if he's still there, Peschekness is not seeing the floor
Speaker 1: that often during the game, and that's going to stunt
Speaker 1: his development. All right, and you always leave us with
Speaker 1: terrific pearls of wisdom. But as he wrapped this thing up,
Speaker 1: one final question which I probably should have asked you
Speaker 1: you towards the start, that could have helped us contextualize
Speaker 1: how we look at the production and output of some
Speaker 1: of the players that we've been discussing over in Europe.
Speaker 1: Can you explain to us PI R and just how
Speaker 1: the index rating is used over there as a statistical
Speaker 1: measure relative to per game averages, whether it be points, rebounds, assist,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, because it seems like when there
Speaker 1: are conversations about prospects in Europe, the index rating is
Speaker 1: something that frequently comes up. Yeah, it's it's a strange
Speaker 1: one because it's not Pe or just for starters. It's
Speaker 1: it's nowhere near as mathematically complex. It's essentially based on
Speaker 1: all round performance. So it's there's a formula based on
Speaker 1: free throw make miss, make make make miss, feel regular
Speaker 1: field goal and three pointers, rebounds, assists, steels, turnovers. Obviously
Speaker 1: it's very raw arithmetic, but so as in the best
Speaker 1: describe it is, while I wouldn't read too much into it.
Speaker 1: If a guy's got like a pr you know that's
Speaker 1: above say fifteen for the season, he's had a pretty
Speaker 1: good year because the odds are means you be doing
Speaker 1: a lot of everything all year. If it's over twenty,
Speaker 1: he's had a great year. And if frankly, if it's
Speaker 1: over thirty, he's a miracle worker, you know, as in
Speaker 1: like the second coming up. Both it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we've we've found a way to perfectly still the ultimate
Speaker 1: basketball player, you know, and absolutely every tools because very
Speaker 1: much it's an all round stat. I'm not a huge
Speaker 1: fan abot because I guess why they have it because
Speaker 1: it's because there's not enough games ready for pear to
Speaker 1: be an efficient actual you know, measure at European level.
Speaker 1: But if we ever go with a full close league,
Speaker 1: I think it would be worth re examining that pi
Speaker 1: R is much better in small sample sizes, is the
Speaker 1: best way to describe it. And what a thirty game season,
Speaker 1: he's a small sample size compared to an NBA season obviously,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's like it's fine, like it's you know, personally,
Speaker 1: if if you guys want to learn more, the best
Speaker 1: option is to google it because rather than actually asking me,
Speaker 1: which you know it sounds weird, but like it's easier
Speaker 1: for you to see for yourself and sort of almost
Speaker 1: take performance from Marquel, from Simmons, you know, from Joel
Speaker 1: and see sort of how you know, sort of if
Speaker 1: you use pi R you compare three different players in
Speaker 1: their games, but they're all around. Contribution was essentially well,
Speaker 1: listen for a guy who's not taking a mathematics course,
Speaker 1: since I want to say, really junior year in high school.
Speaker 1: That was explained simple and straightforward enough for me, so
Speaker 1: it sounded good on this end. The short version is
Speaker 1: Luca's number is high enough because he's very good. I
Speaker 1: like that is the type of analysis we come to
Speaker 1: Emmett Ryan for plus all of the things eurohoops related
Speaker 1: ball in europe dot com. He is the man from
Speaker 1: overseas keeping tabs on what we can expect in this
Speaker 1: year's draft, perhaps from Luca don chich and also with
Speaker 1: some really helpful updates on six Ers prospects over in Europe.
Speaker 1: Emmett great to chat as always, Thanks so much, man,
Speaker 1: that's a pleasure, Brian always good. Welcome to him. Att.
Speaker 1: Emmett is the best and his insights ain't too bad either.
Speaker 1: Once again, Ball in Europe dot COM's Twitter handle is
Speaker 1: at bie underscore Basketball. Big thanks to him for taking
Speaker 1: the time and talk about Luca Dontchich and given us
Speaker 1: updates on the seventy sixers talents overseas in Europe. Coming
Speaker 1: next week, more full fledged draft coverage on the podcast
Speaker 1: as we continue to move towards June twenty first, and
Speaker 1: also some pre draft workouts in Camden with the Sixers.
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend, talking next week here on the podcast.
Speaker 1: See