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Speaker 2: co slash MMA. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're
Speaker 2: at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope all if you
Speaker 2: guys are having a great end to your week. Well,
Speaker 2: the NBA Draft started last night with the first round.
Speaker 2: We had a couple of interesting trades. Obviously, we're going
Speaker 2: to get into the guys at the top of the draft.
Speaker 2: Are going to kind of bounce around the first draft
Speaker 2: and hit a bunch of the top storylines. You guys
Speaker 2: know the drip before we get started. Subscribed to the
Speaker 2: Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more
Speaker 2: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason
Speaker 2: lt so you guys don't miss SHO announcements. Don't forget
Speaker 2: about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under
Speaker 2: Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail back questions in
Speaker 2: the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout
Speaker 2: the end of this week and into next week. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. So to give you guys an
Speaker 2: idea of the kind of outline today, I'm gonna briefly
Speaker 2: hit on each of the top five picks, and then
Speaker 2: i'm gonna hit some of the bigger stories in the
Speaker 2: first round. So Minnesota getting Rob Dillingham by trading up
Speaker 2: into that San Antonio Spurs spot. That was super interesting
Speaker 2: to me, kind of like an aggressive move from Minnesota
Speaker 2: to address the specific needs. So we're gonna get into
Speaker 2: that a little bit, and how he fits the Grizzlies
Speaker 2: getting Zach Edy, which I thought was really interesting. We're
Speaker 2: going to talk about whether or not Zach Edy can
Speaker 2: play in the NBA. Well, I think kind of that
Speaker 2: debate is silly, and we're gonna get into his specific
Speaker 2: fit with Memphis and why I actually think that's the
Speaker 2: perfect spot for him to start. One of my favorite
Speaker 2: picks out the Eastern Conference, khalil Ware going to Miami,
Speaker 2: a guy who brings kind of like a rim protection
Speaker 2: and a floor spacing element, and we're talking about him.
Speaker 2: And then lastly, a guy who was projected by most
Speaker 2: to be a top ten pick, Dalton connect falls to
Speaker 2: the Los Angeles Lakers. We're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about him at the end of the show, all right,
Speaker 2: So we're gonna start with the top five. So Zachary
Speaker 2: usas Takes goes to Atlanta at number one, And this
Speaker 2: guy's just a quintessential off ball role players six ' nine,
Speaker 2: He's rangey. Off ball defense are really good, kind of
Speaker 2: like making reads from that low man position, whether it's
Speaker 2: jumping passing lanes, whether it's bothering role men in pick
Speaker 2: and roll, covering ground on the weak side to shooters
Speaker 2: in rotation. Remember this is something that we've seen become
Speaker 2: immensely valuable over the course of the last few years
Speaker 2: in the NBA. This is that ground coverage concept that
Speaker 2: we've been talking about. Right, So elite players require aggressive coverages.
Speaker 2: Right when you throw aggressive coverages, you leave week side
Speaker 2: two on ones typically right, And so having guys that can,
Speaker 2: you know, if there's a pass to the wing, who
Speaker 2: can close out to the passing lane in between the
Speaker 2: wing and corner shooter and effectively kind of be in
Speaker 2: multiple places at once. Guys who can win contested rebound
Speaker 2: battles with their length. Guys who can you know when
Speaker 2: you have to bring your rim protector up to the
Speaker 2: level of the screen and there's a lob threat rolling
Speaker 2: down the lane. A guy who can bother lob passes.
Speaker 2: That type of like off ball rangeness and length is
Speaker 2: super valuable, right, And then he brings a little bit
Speaker 2: of the same kind of offensive capability on the other
Speaker 2: end of the floor, right, Like he was streaky, but
Speaker 2: this kid can shoot, And I actually think his game
Speaker 2: compliments Jalen Johnson pretty well. Like Jalen brings the more athletic,
Speaker 2: kind of like downhill type of feel, right, whereas like Rasachez,
Speaker 2: he's got the length, but he's more of like a
Speaker 2: finesse type of player, good at attacking close outs, better
Speaker 2: shooter at this point. So like, I kind of think
Speaker 2: that they represent an interesting three to four type of
Speaker 2: pairing for Atlanta to evaluate over the course of the
Speaker 2: next few years. Now everything for Atlanta comes down to
Speaker 2: what they're willing to do with Trey Young and what
Speaker 2: they're willing to do with de John Tay Murray. Are
Speaker 2: they going to keep Clint Capella? How does DeAndre Hunter
Speaker 2: fit into this? Now that you have your three and
Speaker 2: four kind of lined up in terms of the future,
Speaker 2: so it's really hard to get a read for what
Speaker 2: Atlanta is going to look like next year, But at
Speaker 2: least at the three and four, Zachary Resache and Jalen
Speaker 2: Johnson represent an interesting kind of future core to keep
Speaker 2: an eye on. Alex Sar to Washington right. Alexar played
Speaker 2: in Perth last year, played alongside a Tucson guy again
Speaker 2: named Bryce Cotton, who a guy that I've played a
Speaker 2: lot with when back when he used to live here
Speaker 2: and brings a lot of intriguing skills, a lot of upside.
Speaker 2: But the exciting thing with Alex Sar is he's one
Speaker 2: of the higher floor guys in this draft because he's
Speaker 2: just already an excellent defender. He's especially in pick and roll.
Speaker 2: He's just got a bunch of versatility in the way
Speaker 2: that he can guard. Like to throw him in a
Speaker 2: deep drop he's got the length to bother stuff at
Speaker 2: the rim. He's very good. I'd argue it's like one
Speaker 2: of his strengths being aggressive in ball screen coverages with
Speaker 2: his length on the ball handler, although he can sometimes
Speaker 2: get burned on the backside as a result. He's a
Speaker 2: guy that can switch and guard perimeter players in space.
Speaker 2: So like immediately he represents kind of like a foundational
Speaker 2: piece for a defense right now. The offensive end is
Speaker 2: where his potential upside is. Like, did a lot of
Speaker 2: work in Perth's five out system as like a dribble
Speaker 2: handoff kind of folk rum, right Like, He's a guy
Speaker 2: who would kind of dribble at guys coming out of
Speaker 2: the corner and they'd either come off of him for
Speaker 2: handoff or cut back door. He just was good at
Speaker 2: kind of making those reads. He has some improvement to
Speaker 2: make in terms of like actually setting solid screens, but
Speaker 2: that'll come in time, especially as he gets bigger. Got
Speaker 2: a lot of aggressive coverages towards Bryce Cotton, so he
Speaker 2: got some work in the short role where he made
Speaker 2: good reads to guys cutting along the baseline and kick
Speaker 2: out passes to shooters in the corner. I think that
Speaker 2: he just kind of has the potential to be that
Speaker 2: type of five out big that we talk so much
Speaker 2: much about on the show where I think the future
Speaker 2: of NBA offense is heading anyway. So it's a high
Speaker 2: floor pick a guy that has a lot of offensive
Speaker 2: upside that may or may not be realized. Really just
Speaker 2: comes down to how well his jump shot develops over
Speaker 2: the years, right, But I like it. It's like a good
Speaker 2: ballscreen Folkrum to pair with Jordan Poole and a defensive foundation,
Speaker 2: you can get a better look at how Jordan Poole
Speaker 2: fits into your team's future. Looking forward, I like to
Speaker 2: pick Alex Start to Washington at three. Reed Shepherd to
Speaker 2: the Rockets. Just a ready made role player. He's one
Speaker 2: of the best shooting prospects in this draft, if not
Speaker 2: the best. He's really good at operating with an advantage.
Speaker 2: This is when Reid was at his like the most
Speaker 2: fun to watch, right, like, whether it was kind of
Speaker 2: in the open floor when things are chaotic, or whether
Speaker 2: he's attacking a closeout or kind of functioning in the
Speaker 2: offense when he has an advantage. He's just a really
Speaker 2: good ball handler and has a really good feel for
Speaker 2: like reading what where defenders are leaning and hitting them
Speaker 2: with counter moves, and then he's just got all the footwork.
Speaker 2: Literally looks like he's the kind of guy that you'd
Speaker 2: see in like a skill development video, Like he can
Speaker 2: take off left right, he could take off right left,
Speaker 2: he could take off off the hop, off the hop,
Speaker 2: like he can do all of these different footwork things
Speaker 2: to get different kind of releases from different angles as
Speaker 2: a shop maker, and so he'll immediately be a really
Speaker 2: good connective piece for Houston. He's like he just is
Speaker 2: gonna be a guy that kind of makes things work
Speaker 2: better offensively, especially on a team like Houston that has
Speaker 2: a lot of raw talent. He's kind of more of
Speaker 2: a finished product that will help it like tie it
Speaker 2: all together. Does he have the upside as some of
Speaker 2: these other guys in Houston, but he should be able
Speaker 2: to immediately come in and help and immediately come in
Speaker 2: and be that type of connective piece, especially for a
Speaker 2: team in Houston that, as we know, especially from the Intel,
Speaker 2: wants to be good sooner than later, like they want
Speaker 2: to be in the mix in the West sooner than later.
Speaker 2: Good defender as well, always in the right place. Doesn't
Speaker 2: have great physical tools, a little short, little uh doesn't
Speaker 2: have a ton of length, but he does his job.
Speaker 2: He is always in the right place. Like I said,
Speaker 2: he competes on the ball fights over screen. One of
Speaker 2: the things that stood out to me on film when
Speaker 2: I was watching him was he's really good at attacking
Speaker 2: the dribble pocket after chasing over the top of the screen.
Speaker 2: Got a lot of steals this year where he would
Speaker 2: chase from behind and just swipe at the basketball and
Speaker 2: he'd generate transition opportunities that way. And so again, I
Speaker 2: like to fit with Houston as basically a guy that
Speaker 2: can kind of just immediately slot in and help kind
Speaker 2: of grease the wheels, so to speak, offensively, while also
Speaker 2: being a functional piece of their defense. And like we
Speaker 2: talked about earlier, there's lots of intel that the Rockets
Speaker 2: could potentially be gearing up for star trade at some
Speaker 2: point before the deadline, and he just represents another asset
Speaker 2: that you could potentially use in a situation like that.
Speaker 2: Number four, The Spurs drafts to Fon Castle. Sefon Castle
Speaker 2: was one of my favorite guys to watch when we
Speaker 2: were doing our draft pet prep. He's just a classic
Speaker 2: big guard, right, kind of slow, methodical, doesn't have a
Speaker 2: super quick first step. Not a guy who's looking to
Speaker 2: shoot a ton from the perimeter. He's just trying to
Speaker 2: kind of get into that short to mid range where
Speaker 2: he's got every count, remove, every float, every hook, every
Speaker 2: short jump shot in the book, and he's just super
Speaker 2: comfortable operating in that area. He has got a lot
Speaker 2: of like that kind of like Shae Yelders Alexander kind
Speaker 2: of crafty stuff within that like ten to fifteen foot range.
Speaker 2: Not as good as shooter as Shay, And that obviously
Speaker 2: is gonna be the huge swing factor for Steph's career,
Speaker 2: right like if he if he's gonna be anything more
Speaker 2: than than what he's projected to be at this point,
Speaker 2: he's got to become a more functional shooter from the perimeter.
Speaker 2: But the big thing that I like about Stefan Castle
Speaker 2: is he just has a great feel for the game.
Speaker 2: He's really good at playing alongside other good basketball players.
Speaker 2: He's not a guy that's going to disrupt the flow
Speaker 2: of an offense. He kind of it's kind of like
Speaker 2: we were talking about with Reed Shepherd. He greases the wheels,
Speaker 2: so to speak. And so we know this is a
Speaker 2: Spurs team that desperately needs more feel around Victor wembin Yama, right,
Speaker 2: Like guys who know how to play with other good
Speaker 2: basketball players, Right, So this was a really good step
Speaker 2: in the right direction to pair him with Victor wembin Yama.
Speaker 2: Number five, our last pick in the top five, Ron
Speaker 2: Holland going to the Detroit Pistons, kind of another high motor,
Speaker 2: athletic wing with a lot of upside that hasn't really
Speaker 2: come together in terms of his skill development. So you're
Speaker 2: betting in the long run that you pair him with
Speaker 2: sar Thompson and you basically just have these layers of
Speaker 2: wing athleticism to complement Kay Cunningham on the margins, right,
Speaker 2: And this is just kind of the direction we're seeing
Speaker 2: the game going. We've seen multiple different types of teams
Speaker 2: win recently, right, Like Boston wins with all this wing
Speaker 2: talent and driving and kicking. Denver wins with this like
Speaker 2: interior frontline presence and over the top shot making with
Speaker 2: Jamal Murray, and Golden State wins with five out motion
Speaker 2: and the best pull up shooting guard in the history
Speaker 2: of basketball. Right. So, like they're all very different types
Speaker 2: of teams, but in general, if you were like asking
Speaker 2: what the single most effective form of modern basketball right now,
Speaker 2: it's rangy wing athleticism that can drive and kick. And specifically,
Speaker 2: if there's one offensive skill that Ron Holland's already pretty
Speaker 2: good at, it's driving closedouts. And so I think that's
Speaker 2: kind of the angle that they're looking at here, is
Speaker 2: benefiting off of the attention that Kaid Cunningham draws and
Speaker 2: his ability to generate those types of close out opportunities. Again,
Speaker 2: a lot of the downside of the pessimism surrounding Ron Holland,
Speaker 2: as he just struggled a lot on the ball with
Speaker 2: G League Ignite last year. But G League Ignite was
Speaker 2: a total shit show. And I'm gonna say the same
Speaker 2: thing I said about McHale Bridges last night, Like they're
Speaker 2: just reps. No one's drafting Ron Holland to be this
Speaker 2: dominant on ball creator. It's not even something that Detroit
Speaker 2: needs in the long run, considering they're kind of built
Speaker 2: around this Caid Cunningham, Jade and Ivy kind of shot
Speaker 2: creation foundation, right, So, like what you really need is
Speaker 2: him to be a functional off ball offensive player, and
Speaker 2: those reps on the ball, they make it easier, Like
Speaker 2: It's like one of those things where you're trying to
Speaker 2: learn how to make these reads when you're not very
Speaker 2: good at it against loaded up defense, and then what
Speaker 2: happens is you slide into a smaller role. You're constantly
Speaker 2: playing with an advantage, and then suddenly that just kind
Speaker 2: of becomes a little easier because you've practiced doing a
Speaker 2: much much harder version of that. And specifically for teams
Speaker 2: like Detroit that are just so far away from contention,
Speaker 2: I like that on wings with upside because they're the
Speaker 2: riskier ones, but they're the ones that have potential to
Speaker 2: pan out to guys that can be profoundly impactful, especially
Speaker 2: in the later rounds of the NBA Playoffs. One other
Speaker 2: pick I wanted to shout out before we get into
Speaker 2: some of the bigger stories was a Khalil Ware going
Speaker 2: to the Miami Heat. I really like this pick on
Speaker 2: a bunch of different levels. First of all, like this
Speaker 2: concept of like layering layers of athleticism on your frontline essentially,
Speaker 2: like instead of viewing Bam necessarily as just a five,
Speaker 2: Like what does it look like if you put him
Speaker 2: alongside another freaky athlete to kind of like layer that athleticism.
Speaker 2: This is a thing we saw a bunch around the
Speaker 2: league this year. This is a thing we saw with
Speaker 2: Minnesota that led to a lot of success against Denver.
Speaker 2: Denver won last year with a massive center as well
Speaker 2: as this massive forward that has Bam at a biotype
Speaker 2: of size and Aaron Gordon at the four right, and
Speaker 2: so like, I like the idea of if you're struggling
Speaker 2: with ball handling and you can't find ball handling that
Speaker 2: meets that kind of meshes with what your ultimate goal
Speaker 2: is as a team. I like the idea of finding
Speaker 2: functional tools that can help immediately. And Khalil Ware can shoot,
Speaker 2: which is an interesting kind of pairing with Bam and
Speaker 2: a bio if he operates more as a Gerbil handoff
Speaker 2: folkrum and operates more close to the rim, and then
Speaker 2: he brings just that height, athleticism, vertical spacing piece. And
Speaker 2: so I just thought that was a really interesting fit
Speaker 2: for Miami. And one of the things too, is like
Speaker 2: the rub on khalil where is he can struggle with physicality, right,
Speaker 2: Like he's just not a very tough type of big right,
Speaker 2: And like, give me that in Miami system, if over
Speaker 2: anywhere else in terms of a system that breeds toughness.
Speaker 2: That's gonna get him in the weight room, that's gonna
Speaker 2: have him in the peak version of himself physically, that's
Speaker 2: gonna hold him accountable, that's gonna be that's gonna give
Speaker 2: him tough love. I think like that's the kind of
Speaker 2: thing like a lot of times you have to you
Speaker 2: have to find a way to drive that toughness out
Speaker 2: of them and and and kind of like get them
Speaker 2: to fight where they can struggle to fight sometimes. And
Speaker 2: so I kind of like the culture of Miami as
Speaker 2: a foundation to help khalil Ware get going. And once again,
Speaker 2: like that's just kind of if you're it's an side
Speaker 2: pick in the sense that if you're dreaming about what
Speaker 2: the modern NBA center looks like, it's the ability to
Speaker 2: stretch the floor shot over forty percent from three last year.
Speaker 2: I'll be it on really low volume. It's the ability
Speaker 2: to stretch the floor and the ability to protect the
Speaker 2: rim with real vertical presence on the other end of
Speaker 2: the floor. But it also brings that vertical spacing on
Speaker 2: the offensive end. So I like that pick for Miami.
Speaker 2: So the three biggest stories that I thought were interesting
Speaker 2: in terms of like interesting aggressive moves. It had to
Speaker 2: do with three All three of them kind of had
Speaker 2: to do with bizarre circumstances. Right, So the Timberwolves get
Speaker 2: Rob Dillingham, we're going to talk about that just had
Speaker 2: to do with the trading up right. This is a
Speaker 2: team that was in the conference finals last year that
Speaker 2: managed to get a top ten pick via giving future
Speaker 2: draft compensation. Then we have Zach Edy going to Memphis.
Speaker 2: This is a pick that was available to Memphis because
Speaker 2: of the fact that they had this really bad season
Speaker 2: because John Morant was out, because Marcus Smart was hurt
Speaker 2: so much. So we have a really good team that
Speaker 2: drafted towards the top, a really good team that traded
Speaker 2: towards the top. And then Dalton Connect, a top ten
Speaker 2: prospect by most by most of the people that I
Speaker 2: trust covering the draft, Dalton Connect was one of the
Speaker 2: top ten prospects, falls all the way to seventeen to
Speaker 2: the Los Angeles Lakers. So those are the three kind
Speaker 2: of bigger picture storylines that we're going to hit here
Speaker 2: in the next couple of minutes.
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Speaker 2: Let's start with the Timberwolves getting Rob dealing it So.
Speaker 2: I look at Rob as kind of like a smaller
Speaker 2: version of Malife Monk. He was an overtime elite guy,
Speaker 2: and he transferred to Kentucky and was immediately one of
Speaker 2: the best shot creators in the country. He was eighty
Speaker 2: seven percentile among pick and roll players at high volume.
Speaker 2: He's already a really good pull up shooter. He's got
Speaker 2: a deadly floater. He shot fifty three percent on them
Speaker 2: this year at Kentucky, he made some strides as a playmaker.
Speaker 2: That was his biggest weakness when he was with Overtime Eleade,
Speaker 2: basically just dribbling up the floor and shooting every single time.
Speaker 2: And you know, we talked to Damian Wilkins on Monday
Speaker 2: and he made some good points about the fact that,
Speaker 2: like that's what he does, and you want to lean
Speaker 2: into that. But the growth is a playmaker is important
Speaker 2: because if you want to be a sixth man who
Speaker 2: just comes off the mention shoots every time, sure, but
Speaker 2: if you want to be a functional part who plays
Speaker 2: significant rotation minutes on a great team, you're gonna have
Speaker 2: to be able to play alongside other good basketball players.
Speaker 2: And he did make some strides in that area of
Speaker 2: the game at Kentucky. Super explosive off the balance, he
Speaker 2: has good start stop quickness, a deadly like left handed
Speaker 2: high hesitation dribble where he'll like come to a complete
Speaker 2: stop and then shoot out of a cannon. Can really
Speaker 2: beat people off the dribble. But the big thing that's
Speaker 2: exciting to me as far as the fit with Minnesota
Speaker 2: he is a straight up deadly off ball shooter. He
Speaker 2: shot fifty percent field goal percentage on unguarded jump shots
Speaker 2: this year. That came out to one point four to
Speaker 2: eight points per shot forty eight percent overall field goal
Speaker 2: percentage on catch and shoot jump shots, regardless of whether
Speaker 2: or not they were guarded. He was a ninety seventh
Speaker 2: percentile spot at player. He got one point three points
Speaker 2: per possession. Those are like Michael Porter junior type of numbers, right.
Speaker 2: So the biggest weakness with Rob is that he's small, right,
Speaker 2: and that can obviously cost some issues for him defensively.
Speaker 2: But he does play hard and he does compete. He's
Speaker 2: got a good motor. Like Minnesota makes a ton of
Speaker 2: sense for me in terms of a fit for Rob,
Speaker 2: because if you had to construct a team that would
Speaker 2: allow him to have an achievable defensive role, it would
Speaker 2: be on a team like this that has multiple elite
Speaker 2: perimeter defenders and an elite rim protector. Because what that
Speaker 2: means is Rob is most likely gonna be on a
Speaker 2: movement shooter like any sort of on ball dribble creator.
Speaker 2: You're gonna put Anton, You're gonna put Jaden McDaniels on Right,
Speaker 2: you're gonna ask Rob Dillingham to guard a shooter who's
Speaker 2: either operating on the weak side or maybe occasionally coming
Speaker 2: off of some screening actions. That's an achievable role for him, right,
Speaker 2: And then like, yeah, he's gonna be attacked in some
Speaker 2: ball screen situations where they bring his man up into
Speaker 2: the screen, but he's quick enough to throw a hedge
Speaker 2: and recover again. Like that was the thing what cause
Speaker 2: issues for Luca in the finals was he's not fast
Speaker 2: enough to hedge and recover, so he basically has no
Speaker 2: choice but to guard, and he can't guard, and so
Speaker 2: it became an issue as Boston continued to get dribble
Speaker 2: penetration on him, Like that, when it comes to weak defenders,
Speaker 2: you just have to have the ability to to do
Speaker 2: something in terms of the game plan, And as long
Speaker 2: as he can chase shooters around and as long as
Speaker 2: he can functionally hedge and recover to protect himself from
Speaker 2: getting attacked and switches, I think he can. I think
Speaker 2: it can work. Not to mention in terms of in
Speaker 2: his lock and trail situations, he's gonna be in a
Speaker 2: pretty good spot from the standpoint of having Rudy Gobert
Speaker 2: behind him, and just the overall amount of length athleticism
Speaker 2: behind him to kind of anchor him on that end
Speaker 2: of the floor. And again he competes, and he competes,
Speaker 2: and he's got the quickness. Those are things that I
Speaker 2: think make it doable. Things I like, he's just an
Speaker 2: absolute flamethrower off ball score And after what we saw
Speaker 2: happened to Minnesota in the Dallas series, where Dallas just
Speaker 2: loads up the strong side and just any of those
Speaker 2: swing passes in Nikkeiele, Alexander Walker, Jaden McDaniels or Kyle Anderson,
Speaker 2: whoever they're just wasn't enough off ball scoring pop to
Speaker 2: make Dallas pay for loading up the strong side, right,
Speaker 2: especially with Rudy Gobert, who can really cause problems for
Speaker 2: the offense with his inability to catch and finish in
Speaker 2: traffic around the basket.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So, like Minnesota is uniquely set up to benefit from
Speaker 2: Rob Dillingham's strengths while also covering for Rob Dillingham's weaknesses,
Speaker 2: and then in addition to that, he fits a positional need.
Speaker 2: Mike Conley's thirty six years old. He's going to start
Speaker 2: this year. He's going to be their primary guy in
Speaker 2: that position, but he can help Rob as a mentor.
Speaker 2: If Conley has to sit out games, he can slide
Speaker 2: into that role in overtime. If he shows the ability
Speaker 2: to compete defensively and shows that his scoring, his flamethrower
Speaker 2: scoring can help in that back court, that could be
Speaker 2: his spot to take. My one concern, he's not a
Speaker 2: natural playmaker. He's getting better at it, but it's not
Speaker 2: a natural thing for him. And I don't love the
Speaker 2: idea of having your backcourt be two ball handlers that
Speaker 2: both aren't great passers, right, And it's getting better, but
Speaker 2: that's not his natural strength either. And I would argue
Speaker 2: that overall ball movement in that five man grouping from
Speaker 2: Minnesota is one of their biggest weaknesses offensively, right, That's
Speaker 2: how you beat teams that load up the strong side.
Speaker 2: We talked about this a lot yesterday when we were
Speaker 2: kind of breaking down some of the five outs, Like
Speaker 2: you need to get the ball side to side. If
Speaker 2: like imagine it like this, if you have the three
Speaker 2: point line and everyone's loaded up on the strong side,
Speaker 2: you need to get the ball to the other side,
Speaker 2: so that defense has to shift and with multiple side
Speaker 2: to side shifts. That's where you can find cracks in
Speaker 2: the defense that you can take advantage of, and you're
Speaker 2: just not gonna get those opportunities unless you have a
Speaker 2: certain amount of playmaking on the floor. So that's my
Speaker 2: one concern. But that's another thing that like, if rob
Speaker 2: can get better at it in the long run, especially
Speaker 2: under Mike Conley's tutelage, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: And I do like the off ball scoring piece and
Speaker 2: ants development as a playmaker will help a lot in
Speaker 2: that regard as well. Okay, the Grizzlies and Zach Edy,
Speaker 2: I want to look at this from two angles. First,
Speaker 2: I want to talk about Zach Edy kind of in
Speaker 2: a vacuum as an NBA player, and then we'll talk
Speaker 2: about his fit and Memphis. Can Zach Edy play in
Speaker 2: the NBA. That's the big debate that everyone's been talking
Speaker 2: about over the last few weeks, and it's a lot
Speaker 2: of like radical like he's gonna be awesome or he's
Speaker 2: not gonna be able to play at all. And to me,
Speaker 2: the answer is really simple. He'll certainly be able to
Speaker 2: play in some matchups when he can run drop coverage
Speaker 2: on defense, meaning against teams that can't really force him
Speaker 2: to guard in space and teams that can't run him
Speaker 2: off the floor in transition. When he's in those situations,
Speaker 2: he won't just be playable. He'll be good because he's
Speaker 2: huge and he's a smart basketball player who knows how
Speaker 2: to use his size. On offense, he'll set great screens
Speaker 2: and he'll roll into the lane for deep seals and
Speaker 2: buckets around the rim. And on defense, he's going to
Speaker 2: protect the paint and clean up the defensive glass. He
Speaker 2: is a functional big man when he's able to be
Speaker 2: close to the rim and when he can't be capitalized
Speaker 2: on in space, right, But he's definitely going to struggle
Speaker 2: against the pace and space type of teams that can
Speaker 2: run him up and down the floor and force him
Speaker 2: to guard on the perimeter. But this is something that
Speaker 2: Memphis is set up to deal with. Memphis can function
Speaker 2: as a team with Jaron Jackson at the five and
Speaker 2: with Jared Jackson at the four, right, especially with the
Speaker 2: rise of GG Jackson, who I really like is a
Speaker 2: forward that can shoot the ball. That you put next
Speaker 2: to Jaron Jackson in their smaller looks, actually see it
Speaker 2: all look work together, right, Like here's Memphis in a
Speaker 2: matchup against Minnesota, a team that you can load up
Speaker 2: the strong side against, and you're not as worried about
Speaker 2: Rudy Gobert forcing Edy to guard in space or Minnesota
Speaker 2: like just kind of running up and down the floor
Speaker 2: in transition. Right, Like, in those situations, load you go big.
Speaker 2: It's Edie at the five, it's Jared Jackson at the four,
Speaker 2: operating as the low man. You can allow Edy to
Speaker 2: be aggressive on the ball handler and use his length
Speaker 2: to kind of swarm there. Jared Jackson's running that back line,
Speaker 2: you have Gg Jackson as another layer of athleticism on
Speaker 2: the wing. Or maybe it's maybe you can go smaller
Speaker 2: with that group and have Smart Baane and John Moriant
Speaker 2: out there. But if you're playing against the Golden State
Speaker 2: Warriors or the Indiana Pacers, a team that's really going
Speaker 2: to like force Edie to cover a ton of ground
Speaker 2: and really kind of expose some of his quickness issues,
Speaker 2: that's where it might make more sense to take him
Speaker 2: out of the lineup, go with Jared Jackson at the five,
Speaker 2: Gg Jackson at the four, with Smart Pain and John Moran. Right, Like,
Speaker 2: the idea here is is like Edie is only going
Speaker 2: to be functional in the NBA in certain types of situations.
Speaker 2: But those specific types of situations are the only situations
Speaker 2: that Memphis is really looking at to use Edi anyway.
Speaker 2: And so the fit makes a ton of sense. When
Speaker 2: Memphis can load up the strong side and keep Edie
Speaker 2: by the rim, he's their big look. When they can't,
Speaker 2: they have Jaron Jackson in his ability to play at
Speaker 2: the five, and they can put a lineup out there
Speaker 2: with Jared Jackson, GG Jackson, Bain Smart and John Morant
Speaker 2: where they just have a ton of perimeter speed, the
Speaker 2: ability to contain on the ball, of plenty of offensive
Speaker 2: skill in spacing right. So like it makes a ton
Speaker 2: of sense, And like I actually think Memphis is gonna
Speaker 2: be a dominant regular season team next year. Like I
Speaker 2: think they're gonna be right back in that I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised at all if Memphis got a top four
Speaker 2: seed next year. So, like, Edie's gonna have a small
Speaker 2: and achievable role alongside good role players. I love the fit.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to watch Edie play in Memphis. And then, lastly,
Speaker 2: before we get out of here, the Lakers getting Dalton connect.
Speaker 2: So Dalton was by most of the people that I
Speaker 2: trust ranked as a top ten prospect in this class.
Speaker 2: He does not represent something that the Lakers specifically need,
Speaker 2: right Like, if I was listing the things that the
Speaker 2: Lakers need, I would put it down to three specific
Speaker 2: types of players. I think that they I think Austin
Speaker 2: at the one is perfect, or Austin at the two
Speaker 2: is perfect, however you want to call it one two
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter to me on this particular team because
Speaker 2: they run five out and everyone operates with the ball,
Speaker 2: so it's more like backcourt, right I like Austin as
Speaker 2: one of the backcourt guys. I like Lebron at the
Speaker 2: four and ad at the five. I think those are
Speaker 2: all guys that are good enough to win a championship
Speaker 2: in those roles. The problem is they were running d
Speaker 2: Lo and D'Angelo Russell and Ruya Chimura at the two
Speaker 2: and the three. Delo was redundant with Austin and that
Speaker 2: forced Austin to be your primary point of attack defender,
Speaker 2: and Ruy was redundant with Lebron, which forced Ruy to
Speaker 2: chase Michael Porter Junior around screens, which literally was one
Speaker 2: of the things that got them beat against Denver as
Speaker 2: RUI just kept losing it right, especially when they shifted
Speaker 2: back to Anthony Davis on Nicole Jokic. So like, as
Speaker 2: far as the Lakers go, there are three players that
Speaker 2: I think they need. They need a guard to put
Speaker 2: next to Austin who is an athlete, a guard who
Speaker 2: can beat people off the dribble, and guard on the perimeter.
Speaker 2: It needs to be a starting caliber, two way athletic guard.
Speaker 2: Right at the three, they need a guy who is
Speaker 2: the opposite of Lebron. Instead of a big, bruising forward
Speaker 2: that functions more as a low man, they need a slender,
Speaker 2: more athletic forward that is quick and can work on
Speaker 2: the perimeter, that can guard people over the top of screens,
Speaker 2: guard rangey, athletic scoring wings. They need athletes at the
Speaker 2: two and three that actually function in those positions. And
Speaker 2: then lastly, they need a five that will allow them
Speaker 2: to function defensively when Anthony Davis is off the floor.
Speaker 2: They got very lucky this season with Anthony Davis staying healthy,
Speaker 2: but chances are he's going to miss fifteen to twenty
Speaker 2: games this year, and if you're going to contend in
Speaker 2: those situations, you got to have a better center. So
Speaker 2: they need three players. They need a athlete two that
Speaker 2: can play both ends, and athlete three that can play
Speaker 2: both ends to starting caliber players. And then they need
Speaker 2: a bench big that can actually function as the foundation
Speaker 2: of a defense when Anthony Davis is off the floor.
Speaker 2: Those are the three biggest needs. Dalton Connect does not
Speaker 2: fit into that. That said, at seventeen, he was the
Speaker 2: best player available and he will immediately be able to
Speaker 2: hate help the Lakers as a weapon for them off
Speaker 2: the bench. To quote I'm going to start before we
Speaker 2: get into Dalton Dalton's evaluation, I'm gonna share just a
Speaker 2: quote from Sam Vessini's Draft guide. He straight up said
Speaker 2: Dalton's the best off ball scorer in this class that
Speaker 2: is immediately functional within the Lakers offense, especially when you
Speaker 2: don't need him to be on the ball. The rub
Speaker 2: with Dalton Connect was like against super elite defenses that
Speaker 2: had tons of length and athleticism, he struggled to create
Speaker 2: on the ball. So the question is will he be
Speaker 2: able to create on the ball in the NBA, And
Speaker 2: who knows, We'll find out in the next few years.
Speaker 2: But the Lakers don't need him to right away. What
Speaker 2: the Lakers need him to do is come into the
Speaker 2: game off the bench and be an effective part of
Speaker 2: their five out offense. And Dalton is going to be
Speaker 2: excellent at that right away. First of all, he has
Speaker 2: an extended track record of being a great shooter consistently
Speaker 2: throughout his career at the in the Big Sky at
Speaker 2: Tennessee in Juco. This dude can just knock down three
Speaker 2: point shots. Last year at Tennessee he shot forty two
Speaker 2: percent on catch and shoot jump shots one point twenty
Speaker 2: four points per shot. Unguarded, he shot forty seven percent
Speaker 2: field goal percentage one point three to eight points per shot.
Speaker 2: Just a deadly shooter. He can knock him down on
Speaker 2: the move, he can knock him down off the dribble,
Speaker 2: he can knock him down in spot up situations. He
Speaker 2: was a deadly close out attacker as well. He converted
Speaker 2: He converted spot up possessions at one point two to
Speaker 2: two points per possession. That's in the ninety fourth percentile.
Speaker 2: So just a deadly off ball score. But the big
Speaker 2: thing that I'm excited about is he brings a train
Speaker 2: transition athleticism piece which is gonna function really well with
Speaker 2: a Lakers team that loves to push, especially like Lebron
Speaker 2: loves to throw those kick ahead passes. Lebron loves it
Speaker 2: when athletes run on the wing. He's gonna throw those
Speaker 2: kick aheads, and Dalton's gonna get those opportunities to kind
Speaker 2: of snake two on ones or attack one on one
Speaker 2: in transition and uses athleticism towards the rim. The other
Speaker 2: thing that really excited me as I watched Dalton film
Speaker 2: over the last week. He's a really good cutter. Tennessee
Speaker 2: would run a lot of like weak side action where
Speaker 2: there'd be like two or three guys weaving around screens
Speaker 2: and then he would just slip and cut to the basket.
Speaker 2: Hit him with the bounce pass. He can quickly pop
Speaker 2: off of two feet and dunk in traffic. He caught
Speaker 2: a lot of bodies this year on cuts towards the rim.
Speaker 2: And so when I think about a five out offense,
Speaker 2: and I think about, you know, JJ Reddick implementing three
Speaker 2: man action, or while Austin Lebron are running ball screens,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have weak side action with Dalton connect and
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis and whoever it is that's out there on
Speaker 2: the weak side. He's going to get lots of opportunities
Speaker 2: to cut along the baseline and to cut from the slot.
Speaker 2: That's a team that's gonna be able to capitalize on that.
Speaker 2: Austin and Lebron are gonna hit him on a ton
Speaker 2: of those cuts, and he's gonna do a lot of
Speaker 2: finishing around the rim. So like the offensive fit with
Speaker 2: the Lakers is absolute chew in perfect He is a
Speaker 2: proven shooter right away who can shoot it from deep
Speaker 2: and can shoot it in every single possible way. That
Speaker 2: is gonna fit immediately, and he can make good reads
Speaker 2: as a cutter off the ball in the five out system.
Speaker 2: The concern was his on ball decision making. Is he
Speaker 2: too much of a score? Can he reid defenses that
Speaker 2: don't matter. He can figure that out in the long
Speaker 2: run if he needs to. But within this Lakers team,
Speaker 2: similar to what I said about Minnesota with Rob Dillingham,
Speaker 2: they are set up to accentuate his strengths and to
Speaker 2: hide his weaknesses at this point. Now, the defensive end,
Speaker 2: that's the major concern with Dalton connect a couple of
Speaker 2: different things. First of all, he does have the athletic tools.
Speaker 2: He's about six five and a half without shoes, on.
Speaker 2: He's got a six to ten wing span, excellent frame,
Speaker 2: excellent athlete. Right, So now there's some questions about his
Speaker 2: lateral quickness, but he actually tested okay on that at
Speaker 2: the combine, So like he's got the tools to be
Speaker 2: a functional defender, he just wasn't good at it. He
Speaker 2: struggles to contain on the ball, was inattentive off the ball.
Speaker 2: Those were issues for Dalton, right. Those are the things
Speaker 2: he's gonna have to figure out if he wants to
Speaker 2: be more than just a bench role player for the Lakers. Right.
Speaker 2: But again, in this situation, especially when he's gonna have
Speaker 2: opportunities alongside Anthony Davis who can clean up a lot
Speaker 2: of mistakes, he's gonna have time to try to figure
Speaker 2: it out. And again, I don't view Dalton as the
Speaker 2: shoe in too. I don't think, like who knows, maybe
Speaker 2: Dalton does earn the starting spot. I doubt it though,
Speaker 2: Like I don't view Dalton as a starting two or
Speaker 2: three for this Laker team. I view him as an immediate,
Speaker 2: ready made role player off the bench on the wing.
Speaker 2: And so to me, like I get way more concern
Speaker 2: learn about like the defensive upside and what he's capable
Speaker 2: of for those two and three that I talked about
Speaker 2: in terms of who's gonna close games for the Lakers
Speaker 2: in big moments, And yeah, if Dalton's gonna be that,
Speaker 2: he's gonna have to make massive improvements defensively. But I'm
Speaker 2: not as worried about it in terms of the fit
Speaker 2: for the Lakers because I view him as more of
Speaker 2: a bench weapon, right and that'll be the thing Dalton competes.
Speaker 2: Dalton has the tool. So Dalton is capable of being
Speaker 2: a quality NBA defender, at least a functional NBA defender.
Speaker 2: He's just gonna have to put in the work. And
Speaker 2: that's the big question mark. Every player in this draft
Speaker 2: has question marks. That's Dalton's question mark. He's gonna have
Speaker 2: to figure out how to compete on the defensive end
Speaker 2: at the NBA level, all right. So that's just like
Speaker 2: an instant reaction to the first round of the draft.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have a bunch of draft content coming out
Speaker 2: over the next week. I want to do some film
Speaker 2: stuff on some specific players, Like I'll put some film
Speaker 2: together on Rob Dillingham, and I'll put some film together
Speaker 2: on Dalton connect and we'll do some some videos like that.
Speaker 2: We're also gonna be doing a mail bag tomorrow, so
Speaker 2: make sure you guys drop. I think that's most likely
Speaker 2: gonna be. Tomorrow's show is just some We're gonna do
Speaker 2: some film sessions on a couple of guys, and then
Speaker 2: we're gonna do a mail bag at the end, so
Speaker 2: drop your mail bag questions and the YouTube comments. We'll
Speaker 2: get to them tomorrow. As always, as sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 2: guys for supporting me in the show. We'll see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume