Speaker 1: Welcoming into this show. We've got our guy, Ryan McDonough.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be asking him some of the inside baseball
Speaker 1: questions on the draft. I have not spoken ever to Ryan,
Speaker 1: so I'm happy to meet you. I'm super excited. Former
Speaker 1: GM the Phoenix Suns spent a decade working for the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics, where he was everything from an international scout
Speaker 1: to assistant GM to my man Danny Trader, Danny Ainge.
Speaker 1: Currently our Odyssey Basketball inside. That's where I'm from, Odyssey
Speaker 1: Basketball Insider cannot wait to ask him a ton of questions.
Speaker 1: How are you doing, sir.
Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, Tristan, I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: I want to because there's a lot of people doing mox.
Speaker 1: I'm not really too interested in debating who's gonna go
Speaker 1: where or who's the best fit wear. I'm really interested
Speaker 1: in the process of drafting and just kind of how
Speaker 1: it all works from someone who's been there and has
Speaker 1: been there with a bunch of different teams. First and foremost,
Speaker 1: there's this big debate about team needs versus best available.
Speaker 1: What is your stance on that and is that a
Speaker 1: trend that sort of changes over time? And what are
Speaker 1: some examples of ways that door one works and doesn't work,
Speaker 1: and door two works and doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really good question.
Speaker 3: I think the first thing you have to ask as
Speaker 3: a franchise is if player X in the draft is better,
Speaker 3: And he probably won't be better immediately, obviously these things
Speaker 3: take some time. But if he has a chance to
Speaker 3: be better than anybody on our roster, we should probably
Speaker 3: draft player X because we can move the other guys
Speaker 3: on the roster, you know, if he's that good, if
Speaker 3: he has a chance to be a special, transcendent player.
Speaker 2: Now, now there are some arguments the other way.
Speaker 3: I mean, one of the things that we get criticized for,
Speaker 3: and I certainly had some involvement with was deandret and
Speaker 3: with the number one pick in Phoenix. Thought process at
Speaker 3: the time organizationally right or wrong. And keep in mind
Speaker 3: I was fired the following preseason, so there may have
Speaker 3: been some disagreement.
Speaker 2: But was it.
Speaker 3: We had a young backcourt star and Devin Booker offensively gifted,
Speaker 3: you know, struggled a little bit defensively and rebounding. He
Speaker 3: certainly improved in those areas, but the thought process was
Speaker 3: devon in the backcourt eight and in the front court.
Speaker 3: Mckail Bridges, who we later acquired on the wing. You know,
Speaker 3: people can nitpick, and they certainly have about the Luca
Speaker 3: donsas versus eight and pick and I understand that and
Speaker 3: I take responsibility for that. Obviously, the Suns were in
Speaker 3: the finals a year ago and won sixty four games.
Speaker 2: So that's why so hard Tristan.
Speaker 3: That's where I think people on the fan side or
Speaker 3: even some of the media side, don't realize as much
Speaker 3: you were picking for a team. You know, you're not
Speaker 3: just picking in a vacuum individually, and when people will
Speaker 3: go back and do redrafts and things like that, the
Speaker 3: context and the roster at the time is important because
Speaker 3: you know, the reality is once we get in October
Speaker 3: and training camp starts, you have to hand the coach
Speaker 3: the ball and say, figure out how to play these
Speaker 3: guys and put together a functional team. So you know,
Speaker 3: generally speaking, it's most talented player you'd want that, but
Speaker 3: there is some context and nuanced to that as well.
Speaker 1: I wasn't planning on asking you this, but I think
Speaker 1: one of the greatest steals in that draft was mckil bridges.
Speaker 1: Can you can you give me just a little bit
Speaker 1: of insight into how that all went down, if outside
Speaker 1: of what's already kind of been written about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a really unusual deal, tristed just because
Speaker 3: Philadelphia seventy six ers, who had the tenth pick, drafted
Speaker 3: Bridges with the intention of keeping him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was there for that was at Barclays.
Speaker 3: Okay, and you know mckhill's history and what it was
Speaker 3: like at Barclay's. His mother worked for the franchise. He
Speaker 3: won multiple national championships of Villanova. He's a Philadelphia kid,
Speaker 3: and it seems on paper, at least to me, like
Speaker 3: a very good fit between Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
Speaker 3: But Philly was big game hunting, I think, and we
Speaker 3: had a draft pick, a future first round pick that
Speaker 3: we got in twenty fifteen for Goran Dragics from Miami
Speaker 3: that was unprotected, and then we had the sixteenth pick
Speaker 3: in the twenty eighteen draft as well. So it's a
Speaker 3: bit unusual because I called Philly's front office we were
Speaker 3: chasing picks up in that range. Because one of the
Speaker 3: things that I think people don't talk about enough Christa
Speaker 3: is there are tiers in gaps in the draft. And
Speaker 3: what I mean by that is you know, the value
Speaker 3: of each player to the next is not always even right.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it is close. Sometimes there's a gap between players.
Speaker 3: Sometimes there's a gap between tiers of players. So that's
Speaker 3: what teams do. It's there's like most teams use a
Speaker 3: tiering system rather than let's just rank them one to six, year,
Speaker 3: one hundred or whatever. So with us, we felt the
Speaker 3: group of players in that late lottery, you know, say
Speaker 3: eight to fourteen range, we're going to be significantly better
Speaker 3: than who was available or we thought was going to
Speaker 3: be avaible to sixteen. So anyways, so long story, relatively short.
Speaker 3: Philly drafted Bridges. I was on the phone with them,
Speaker 3: say is there anything we can do? They said no
Speaker 3: at the time, and said, okay, we're coming back at sixteen.
Speaker 3: We like Bridges a lot we'd give you some value.
Speaker 3: We'd give you sixteen plus and we can discuss what
Speaker 3: the plus is. But are there players you know, you
Speaker 3: guys are potentially interested in and they said yeah, one
Speaker 3: in particular. Obviously they didn't tell us who it was.
Speaker 3: So fast forward to fourteen fifteen, picking that range, we
Speaker 3: re engage with them and Zyer Smith, the Ford out
Speaker 3: of Texas Tech was still on the board who they liked. Obviously,
Speaker 3: Zayer's had some injury issues and other health issues that
Speaker 3: have derailed his career, but that plus the future Miami pick,
Speaker 3: that was how that deal got done. And this is
Speaker 3: funny in hindsight, especially given how well mckel's done and
Speaker 3: how well the team has done Trista. But I wasn't
Speaker 3: really looking forward to calling the kid his mom who
Speaker 3: were excited being in Philly. His mom works for the franchise,
Speaker 3: and saying, I know you thought you were going to
Speaker 3: stay at home, but what do you think about heading
Speaker 3: a couple thousand miles to the southwest and Phoenix.
Speaker 1: That's wild. Another thing I think that people are interested
Speaker 1: in is and I guess the context around it are
Speaker 1: players like Shaden Sharp players like Jaden Hardy. So two
Speaker 1: different paths, right. Both of those guys were consensus lottery picks.
Speaker 1: Shaden doesn't end up playing a minute for Kentucky. Jaden
Speaker 1: Hardy goes to the G League. Shayden Sharp's kind of
Speaker 1: like a while card in terms of his draft hasn't
Speaker 1: hasn't fell. I mean, we are not really sure. Maybe
Speaker 1: he's top five, maybe he slips to mid maybe post lottery,
Speaker 1: but Jayden Harney seems to have fallen off a cliff
Speaker 1: in terms of consensus draft picks. Should players that are
Speaker 1: already deemed Patrick Baldwin Junior is another one deemed to
Speaker 1: be a lottery pick. Is there some sort of debate
Speaker 1: now in terms of whether they should actually play in
Speaker 1: college or go to the G League or go the
Speaker 1: Shade and Sharp path.
Speaker 3: Well, I speak from a former executive's perspective. I think
Speaker 3: they should play somewhere. I think it's one thing to
Speaker 3: try to manipulate draft stock and you know, potentially hide,
Speaker 3: you know, things like that.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, is you know Tristan.
Speaker 3: In fact, in just a couple of weeks, they're going
Speaker 3: to be off on a court in Las Vegas with
Speaker 3: ESPN and NBA TV and all these groups there, and
Speaker 3: they're going to have to perform. So I think, especially
Speaker 3: as a teenager, taking a year off and not playing
Speaker 3: is not something I would advise.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I really like what the NBA has done with the
Speaker 3: JU League Ignite. That was one of my criticisms of
Speaker 3: the league or things I think the league could have
Speaker 3: done better earlier instead of letting And I'm going back
Speaker 3: aways here, but instead of letting Brandon Jennings go play
Speaker 3: in Italy and Emmanuel Moodier go play in China. Recently,
Speaker 3: LaMelo Ball go play in Australia. You know a lot
Speaker 3: of us executives in the league were saying, why don't
Speaker 3: we keep these guys here? It's better from a fan
Speaker 3: and marketing perspective, it's better for the players developmentally, it's
Speaker 3: easier to recruit and evaluate them, and this is what
Speaker 3: the players want. Those guys that you know, eighteen nineteen
Speaker 3: years old didn't want to go live overseas by themselves
Speaker 3: and things like that. So I bring it up. I
Speaker 3: think the league's done a terrific job with the G
Speaker 3: League Ignite. Just look at last year's draft. I believe
Speaker 3: they had two of the top seven books. Jalen Green,
Speaker 3: who I think is going to be a star among
Speaker 3: the scoring leaders in the NBA someday. And then Jonathan
Speaker 3: kaminga who you know, talented young developmental player for the Warriors,
Speaker 3: got some run in the playoffs on the NBA champion
Speaker 3: and this year Dyson Daniels will be another lottery pick.
Speaker 3: So I think it's you know, it's good to have options,
Speaker 3: you know, shading sharp situation was unique. And the final
Speaker 3: I guess point I'll make on Shade and trist is
Speaker 3: that he is the kind of player as an executive
Speaker 3: that keeps you up at night. And what I mean
Speaker 3: by that is it scares you to take him because
Speaker 3: you don't have a body of work, and it also
Speaker 3: scares you to pass on him because of the talent.
Speaker 2: You know he's talented enough.
Speaker 3: His highlight film is incredible that that kid can end
Speaker 3: up being the best pick in the draft. But that's
Speaker 3: why it's scary and hard to be an executive at
Speaker 3: this point of be impossible to say either way where
Speaker 3: his career ends up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Drey and I would imagine that as a
Speaker 1: GM job, security makes that decision making tree a little
Speaker 1: bit more complex. I'm curious, why do some guys skyrocket
Speaker 1: after the tournament has has been over and we've gotten
Speaker 1: through the combine, we've gotten through team workouts, so it
Speaker 1: seems like nothing's really happened, right, and you got take
Speaker 1: a guy like Mathrin Matherin was like in the ten
Speaker 1: that's like eleven to fifteen range and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, now even though he looked awesome at Arizona,
Speaker 1: went to the tournament, looked good there too, to go
Speaker 1: why do some guys fall significantly? And why does some
Speaker 1: guys skyrocket?
Speaker 3: Really good question, and that's one of the things where
Speaker 3: as evaluators you have to remind yourself and keep going
Speaker 3: back to the film because see, you know, at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, the games are a little bit
Speaker 3: different college or international versus the NBA, but it's still
Speaker 3: five on five basketball. And after the guy season's over,
Speaker 3: he's not really playing five on five basketball, he's doing
Speaker 3: the individually. You know, they do a little five on
Speaker 3: five there. But the recent trend, which is unfortunate as
Speaker 3: the top players don't play there in the five on
Speaker 3: five action, and then the workouts a lot of them,
Speaker 3: especially for the top prospects now are individual one on zero.
Speaker 3: So that's one of the things as an executive you
Speaker 3: have to manage expectations. Frankly, it can be really dangerous,
Speaker 3: especially when the people who don't do this year round,
Speaker 3: like your coaches, your head coach in particular, if he
Speaker 3: has a strong voice, strong personality, and your owner, especially
Speaker 3: see a guy in an individual workout or you know,
Speaker 3: as you know, trust to anybody in one or workout
Speaker 3: can look great or look horrible. It's not really reflective
Speaker 3: of who they are. But they can just have a
Speaker 3: great day or horrible day. That's just you know, human nature.
Speaker 3: So that's why you have to rely on your process.
Speaker 3: That's why you have to go back to the film
Speaker 3: and watch them playing games. And then also you know,
Speaker 3: bake in some of the offseason stuff with the combine
Speaker 3: with the individual workouts and hope you make the right decision.
Speaker 3: But to answer your question, that is why. And I
Speaker 3: always can't get a kick out of when somebody says
Speaker 3: a guy's stock is rising or falling or this or that. Well,
Speaker 3: in reality, it hasn't gone anywhere. Nothing has happened till
Speaker 3: tomorrow night. It's just you know, you know, media articles
Speaker 3: and things like that seem to manipulate players up and down.
Speaker 3: The teams just set their boards probably today as far
Speaker 3: as who they're going to draft, so and anything that
Speaker 3: happened before today is I don't say irrelevant, but I
Speaker 3: think you know, it gets more traction on the media
Speaker 3: side than it does when you're working for a team.
Speaker 1: Wait, so the draft board gets created only the day
Speaker 1: before the draft.
Speaker 2: Usually do it pretty late.
Speaker 3: You know, probably the week of the draft, I'd be
Speaker 3: surprised if any teams did it well before this week
Speaker 3: because as you look at on the league, teams are
Speaker 3: still working out players as recently as you know, Monday
Speaker 3: or Tuesday. I don't think we have any you know,
Speaker 3: on Wednesdays, we sit here about forty eight hours see me,
Speaker 3: twenty four hours before the draft. And the NBA does
Speaker 3: want the players to come to New York earlier now
Speaker 3: to do the media circuit and be available prior to
Speaker 3: Draft night. But yeah, when when I was in Boston,
Speaker 3: in particular, because the proximity to New York City, the
Speaker 3: draft is you know, either Madison Square Gardener now the
Speaker 3: Barclay Center in Brooklyn, we would try to get guys
Speaker 3: in Wednesday morning, I mean the day before the draft,
Speaker 3: and say, look, we know you're headed to the Northeast.
Speaker 3: You know we have to do some recruitment. We love
Speaker 3: your guy, get him in here. It will be the
Speaker 3: last workout. We'll take good care of them, we won't
Speaker 3: keep them long. We just want to see him one
Speaker 3: more time and then we'll get them on the shuttle
Speaker 3: down to New York, you know, to be available for
Speaker 3: the draft. So that's why teams wait. And then also
Speaker 3: the medical piece of at the intel. You want to
Speaker 3: go over that with your trainers, doctors, people like that
Speaker 3: one more time, tristed, just to make sure, because that's
Speaker 3: the other thing that keeps you up at night, one
Speaker 3: of the things as an executive, you draft a guy
Speaker 3: who's not medically sound, he breaks down. That's probably one
Speaker 3: of the quicker ways to get fired if you drafted somebody,
Speaker 3: especially if you should have known and you didn't do
Speaker 3: your job as far as knowing whether the guy was
Speaker 3: medically fit or not.
Speaker 1: You mentioned ownership and a bunch of different voices in
Speaker 1: the room. Can you kind of highlight just what it's
Speaker 1: like on draft night in a war room, all of
Speaker 1: the different people that are sounding off and kind of
Speaker 1: what your experience is like for people who haven't really
Speaker 1: had insight to that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's certainly different with different franchises. I did probably
Speaker 3: ten or eleven drafts in Boston and then five or
Speaker 3: six in Phoenix. You know, ideally, what you'd want is
Speaker 3: the top decision makers in the room you're peat of basketball,
Speaker 3: whether the president or GM his or her, you know,
Speaker 3: top lieutenants, and then same with the head coach. You know,
Speaker 3: the top men and women who work under the head
Speaker 3: coach and then your owner.
Speaker 2: And really that's it.
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't want a lot of you know,
Speaker 3: theatrics and things like that. A lot of teams have
Speaker 3: draft parties in both places, in Boston and Phoenix. Cre
Speaker 3: did a good job of keeping that separate because you know,
Speaker 3: you have to concentrate and be prepared to pivot for
Speaker 3: trades like the one we just discussed from Michel Bridges.
Speaker 3: You know, you have to be prepared obviously to really
Speaker 3: do anything. And what I mean by that is you
Speaker 3: want to move up in the draft? Do you want
Speaker 3: to move down in the draft? Do you want to
Speaker 3: move out of the draft? Do you want to trade
Speaker 3: the pick for a player? Do you want to trade
Speaker 3: the pick for a future pick. You know, all that
Speaker 3: happens in real time and is fluid, and then you also,
Speaker 3: even as the draft is going, sometimes have to be
Speaker 3: prepared in case there's a slider, so to think, you know,
Speaker 3: a guy you didn't think would be there all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, you know, gravity sets in, the guy starts
Speaker 3: coming down, the players nervous as agents calling you, and
Speaker 3: then you have to kind of go through your process
Speaker 3: to make sure you're prepared, you know, if he's on
Speaker 3: the board when it comes up. So really the most
Speaker 3: important people generally are the head of basketball, the head coach,
Speaker 3: and the owner. And you know, the ownership involvement depends
Speaker 3: on the franchise and how involved they're uninvolved that guy
Speaker 3: wants to be.
Speaker 1: How many or what percentage of NBA teams have extremely
Speaker 1: a vocal and hands on owners during draft night, I'd.
Speaker 2: Say a growing percentage.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I think as franchise values escalate and some new
Speaker 3: money comes into the league, you know a lot of
Speaker 3: tech and a younger group of owners. I guess I
Speaker 3: think some you know, talking to guys who have done
Speaker 3: the job longer.
Speaker 2: Than I have.
Speaker 3: You know, some of the old guard owners frankly wouldn't
Speaker 3: come around for draft night. They just you know, get
Speaker 3: get a call or you send them an email, maybe
Speaker 3: a fax back in the day. So here are the
Speaker 3: guys we're looking at. You know, you try to prep
Speaker 3: them for we might take this guy or that guy. Okay,
Speaker 3: it sounds good. That is getting you know, less and
Speaker 3: less standard, I guess, so they're more involved. So that's
Speaker 3: one of the challenges, you know, from a front office
Speaker 3: perspective or a coaching perspective. I think from any job
Speaker 3: right managing out managing the boss and his expectations. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't think that's a trend that's going anywhere. Let
Speaker 3: me put it this way. When the average franchise is
Speaker 3: selling for one and a half to two plus billion
Speaker 3: dollars and guys right to check at that level, I
Speaker 3: think they're going to want to continue to be involved.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting, especially considering I talk to somebody within
Speaker 1: the Golden State organization and I asked them and I said,
Speaker 1: why do you guys consistently draft so well and find
Speaker 1: value wherever you're at in the board. And they said, well,
Speaker 1: I think the main reason And they said a lot
Speaker 1: of people get it confused like that. There are certain
Speaker 1: teams that don't have great scouting departments or talent evaluation departments.
Speaker 1: There's pretty high level of talent evaluation all over the league,
Speaker 1: but it really is a matter of whether an owner
Speaker 1: decides they want to allow those decision makers and evaluators
Speaker 1: to have agency to make those decisions. And they said,
Speaker 1: you know, Joe Lacob has really given us a lot
Speaker 1: of agency to make those decisions. What's it like when
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you see a decision one way and
Speaker 1: an owner disagrees.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a challenge for sure. And I'd reiterate that
Speaker 3: I've heard the same about Joe lacub. You know, he's
Speaker 3: an owner, is very involved in the process. Obviously, he's
Speaker 3: good at his team spin in the finals six of
Speaker 3: the last eight years and won four championships. And I
Speaker 3: give him a lot of credit, Triista, because as much
Speaker 3: as you know any majority on I can think of
Speaker 3: off the top of my head, he works. I mean,
Speaker 3: he goes around, he scouts games, he watches films, yet
Speaker 3: he loves it. So where you get in trouble you
Speaker 3: probably see where I'm going with this, but is where
Speaker 3: you get in trouble is when a guy does not
Speaker 3: do all that and bases it off of you know,
Speaker 3: pre draft workouts or highlight tapes or things like that,
Speaker 3: and thinks he knows, well, ultimately he's the boss, so
Speaker 3: does he know you know?
Speaker 2: And so it's hard.
Speaker 3: I think, like anybody, when you disagree with you know
Speaker 3: somebody you're working for, you need to be persistent and
Speaker 3: make your points and be respectful, but also know when
Speaker 3: to relent right, because ultimately, you know, at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, unless you own a company or you're
Speaker 3: you're the CEO or whatever, you work for somebody, so
Speaker 3: you have to, you know, pick your spots. You hope
Speaker 3: that the relationship you built up and the process you
Speaker 3: have is sound. Maybe if you have a track record
Speaker 3: of success doing something, you can fall back onto that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think anybody who's disagreed with the boss,
Speaker 3: you know, goes through the same calculation. When do I push,
Speaker 3: how hard do I push? And when I realize it's
Speaker 3: not going to go my way or not likely to
Speaker 3: go my way? I do I let go of the
Speaker 3: rope and relent, even if I don't agree with the
Speaker 3: ultimate decision.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this happens at all, But when
Speaker 1: I disagree with someone for whatever decision, if I'm in
Speaker 1: a collaboration or I'm working for someone and I allow
Speaker 1: them to be the one and it does not work
Speaker 1: out or vice versa, it's pretty hard to not be like, well,
Speaker 1: you see, like Frank Kaminski really probably shouldn't have gone
Speaker 1: like whatever the what was he thirteen twelve?
Speaker 3: Maybe I say no so quickly because I know who
Speaker 3: was the thirteenth pick in the twenty fifteen Oh yeah
Speaker 3: it was Devin.
Speaker 1: Booker wasn't here, so I think he came. I think
Speaker 1: Frank Kaminsky ended up going right before Devin Booker, didn't
Speaker 1: he I.
Speaker 3: Think Frank went ninth or tenth. Yeah, night change, maybe eleven.
Speaker 3: The direct pick before Devin was his college teammate Trey
Speaker 3: Lyles with the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 2: And this is why it's so hard.
Speaker 3: I mean, Dennis Lindsay and staff did a phenomenal job
Speaker 3: of building the Jazz when he was there. They drafted
Speaker 3: Donovan Mitchell in the late lottery and Gobert in the
Speaker 3: late first round. They had also drafted Rodney Hood, who
Speaker 3: played well at the time, you know, late teens, early
Speaker 3: twenties there, so they had a perimeter heavy team. They
Speaker 3: wanted a frontcourt guy. They went with Lyles over Booker
Speaker 3: in a vacuum. That pick doesn't look great, but then
Speaker 3: you look at the totality of their draft, like, yeah, Utah,
Speaker 3: you know, they've been one of the best teams the
Speaker 3: league last few years.
Speaker 2: So that's why the job is hard.
Speaker 3: Tristan And obviously one of the frustrations, as you can imagine,
Speaker 3: and players get this too, But as an executive, as
Speaker 3: a head coach, you know, for certain members of fans
Speaker 3: of particular, certain members of the media, just picking a mistake,
Speaker 3: you know, picking a mistake rather than looking at the
Speaker 3: totality of it and.
Speaker 2: Saying, Okay, it's a hard job.
Speaker 3: And nobody, literally, whether you're Red Hourback or Jerry West,
Speaker 3: Everybody's going to make mistakes. You know, the guys who
Speaker 3: do it better make fewer mistakes and adjust to their
Speaker 3: mistakes quicker than everybody else.
Speaker 1: So I heard this story yesterday, and I believe it
Speaker 1: was Mark Stein talking about the Dirk the Dirk draft pick,
Speaker 1: and he was talking to the Mavericks organization and asked
Speaker 1: him how Dirk did, and they basically said that that
Speaker 1: Dirk had a horrible workout and that this other I
Speaker 1: forget who it was really excelled. And you know, it
Speaker 1: was disappointing because they liked Dirk and all of this.
Speaker 1: Obviously they end up loving Dirk. That was complete lie
Speaker 1: and Dallas the Mavericks organization said to Mark, don't listen
Speaker 1: to us at all before draft because it's all lies.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the whole disinformation
Speaker 1: campaign that goes on pre draft from team to team
Speaker 1: in the media. How you know how front offices use
Speaker 1: media to sort of like take you off the scent
Speaker 1: and who's the best at it in the league right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, all really good questions. Trist to look at it
Speaker 3: this way. If you work for a team, why would
Speaker 3: you want anybody to know what you're doing? Right, You
Speaker 3: wouldn't want anybody to know what you're doing because there
Speaker 3: goes your competitive advantage.
Speaker 2: And in this draft.
Speaker 3: That's coming tomorrow night, I think the Orlando Magic have
Speaker 3: done a good job injecting some uncertainty into the process.
Speaker 3: I mean, most people think they're going to take Jabari Smith,
Speaker 3: the forward out of Auburn. I think that's who they take.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be shocked if they take you at home
Speaker 3: Gren personally. Now, we've seen on the betting markets, and
Speaker 3: I know, obviously given your multiple gigs with Odyssey for
Speaker 3: all the betting markets closely, Pollo Bencerro is skyrocket and
Speaker 3: he was a distant third on the betting markets. Now
Speaker 3: he's moved up just behind ched Holmgren and into that
Speaker 3: number three slot, close to number two. So I mean
Speaker 3: they're doing a good job of that now we'll see. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: all that matters to the franchise is whether they draft
Speaker 3: the right guy and how he develops. But yeah, if
Speaker 3: you're Orlando, for example, you want people thinking you could
Speaker 3: take any of those three guys or maybe even Jade
Speaker 3: and Ivy, because if a team falls in love with
Speaker 3: a player, you don't want them to say, Okay, well
Speaker 3: we know Orlando's going to take Jabari Smith for example.
Speaker 3: Now let's just talk to Oklahoma City at two and
Speaker 3: try to trade for two because we know who wanted to.
Speaker 3: You know, you want all your options to be open.
Speaker 3: So that's why it happens. And yeah, the disinformation, it's
Speaker 3: easy on the team side the spot a lot of
Speaker 3: times because when you see stuff about your own team,
Speaker 3: you say, well that's not true. You know, you know
Speaker 3: obviously when you're living it, when you're doing it. And
Speaker 3: so what I would say, just from a general perspective
Speaker 3: and free fans is consider the sources, right, I mean,
Speaker 3: some of the NBA's top newsbreakers. You and I know
Speaker 3: a lot of them. But Vadrimorrzanowski, Chamserrani, as some of
Speaker 3: these guys say, it's probably pretty legitimate. If it's some
Speaker 3: guy with an egg with six followers on Twitter, you
Speaker 3: probably don't want to listen to that person if it
Speaker 3: is a person and not a bot.
Speaker 2: So that's the challenge.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Teams will use it to throw, you know, throw out
Speaker 3: smoke screens. Agents will use it to try to as
Speaker 3: you talked about players rising or falling, especially, try to
Speaker 3: spike their guys value right before draft time and prevent
Speaker 3: a free fall on the other side of it. So
Speaker 3: as far as teams, honestly, I think just about every
Speaker 3: team does it. And then, you know, one of the
Speaker 3: new trends is interesting. I guess this is more related
Speaker 3: to free agency, but I was thinking of today is
Speaker 3: one of the things we're seeing now trista is teams
Speaker 3: using the media to set the expectations for free agency.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So it's for example, a recent example in the last
Speaker 3: twenty four hours, PJ. Tucker opts out in Miami with
Speaker 3: the Heat. We see that the Philadelphia seventy six ers
Speaker 3: will offer PJ. Tucker a three year, thirty million dollars
Speaker 3: deal and that the Miami Heat better be prepared to
Speaker 3: you know, pay that amount.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of.
Speaker 1: The wide Yes, that's got to be coming from the
Speaker 1: agent side, right, I think it's both.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I think a lot of it probably is the
Speaker 3: agent side. You know, he's doing what's best rist player,
Speaker 3: that's his job, But a lot of it's the team
Speaker 3: side too, where if you're a PJ. Tucker, so I
Speaker 3: didn't know that team was interested and at that level,
Speaker 3: let me start, I was thinking about maybe re signing
Speaker 3: in Miami. You know, comfortable here, we just went to
Speaker 3: the Eastern Conference Finals, almost played in the NBA Finals
Speaker 3: at South Beach, no state income tax, all those kinds
Speaker 3: of things. But Philly is interested whether they have James
Speaker 3: Harden and Joel Embiid and you know, so that's kind
Speaker 3: of the way the game is played now, as Draymond
Speaker 3: calls it the new media, and I don't think that's
Speaker 3: a trend that's going to change, not only with players,
Speaker 3: you know, doing media like Draymond and CJ McCollum, but
Speaker 3: with teams and agents and even players leaking stuff to
Speaker 3: try to manipulate situations the way they wanted to go.
Speaker 1: What percentage of what we've seen rumor wise, specifically this year,
Speaker 1: considering it's a very wide open draft, would you consider
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 3: False more than half you know, you know, I think
Speaker 3: you know a lot more than half because you know, honestly,
Speaker 3: one of the things that is funny with NBA teams
Speaker 3: is they'll spend just about all their time talking about
Speaker 3: what every single other team's going to do.
Speaker 2: And then you know, and you ask somebody, what are
Speaker 2: you guys going to do, it's.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm not sure, you know, because because
Speaker 3: there's no reason to tell another team what you're going
Speaker 3: to do, you know, So so I think that perpetuates it.
Speaker 3: You know, where kids like the game telephone where you
Speaker 3: tell the person next to you and then they tell
Speaker 3: the next person and by the time it got to
Speaker 3: the end of the line, the message was kind of similar,
Speaker 3: but like pretty different. That's kind of like the NBA
Speaker 3: where you know, you hear this team is interested in
Speaker 3: this guy or may do this, and and then it
Speaker 3: gets you know, parroted and maybe changed and tweaked a
Speaker 3: little bit, and by the time sometimes it hits the
Speaker 3: media or it gets back to you say, wait a minute,
Speaker 3: that's not what It's kind of like what I heard,
Speaker 3: but different. So there is a lot of that in
Speaker 3: NBA front offices, and that's why I think in some ways. Honestly,
Speaker 3: it's a little bit of a waste of time to
Speaker 3: do all that. If you're an NBA executive or with
Speaker 3: a team, just you know, focus on what you're doing,
Speaker 3: the draft, the film, the trades. Don't worry about it,
Speaker 3: you know, and just rely on your direct conversation with
Speaker 3: other teams rather than what you read on Twitter some
Speaker 3: of these NBA gossip sites.
Speaker 1: If we're betting on the NBA draft, if you're in
Speaker 1: a state where you can bet, does it make sense
Speaker 1: to look at kind of the past decision making lens
Speaker 1: of an organization in terms of how they like to draft,
Speaker 1: how they like to construct a roster, in terms of
Speaker 1: how they may actually select. A good example that I
Speaker 1: guess I could use is like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: chatter around Toronto last year taking Jalen Sugs, but when
Speaker 1: you look at Massi Usieri and what he likes to do,
Speaker 1: he likes to get these six six to six ten
Speaker 1: guys that can switch everything, that can also handle the
Speaker 1: ball with exception obviously to Fred van Fleet, which makes
Speaker 1: the Scottie Barnes pick make more sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really good question, And so I don't want to
Speaker 3: say disregard what I said up until this point, but
Speaker 3: if there is a time, especially if you're betting it
Speaker 3: to rely on NBA insiders, you know, you know, the
Speaker 3: elite NBA insiders news breakers, it is in the next
Speaker 3: twenty four hours from now up until the draft. Because
Speaker 3: that was one of the things that that I got,
Speaker 3: you know, for Odyssey. I think it was in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty the draft that they were going to take the
Speaker 3: Chicago Bulls were going to take Patrick Williams with the
Speaker 3: fourth pick.
Speaker 2: I had a number of.
Speaker 3: People tell me that I think you would have gotten
Speaker 3: good value there on the betting markets because he was
Speaker 3: not a projected top four pick. So I say, you know,
Speaker 3: pay attention to some of that, like now you know,
Speaker 3: the other three hundred and sixty three or four days
Speaker 3: it's less relevant. But generally the mock drafts, especially Jonathan
Speaker 3: Givoni runs one for ESPN, are pretty accurate close to
Speaker 3: the draft, so I would pay attention to those. And
Speaker 3: then yet to your point, the team history, I'll give
Speaker 3: you another example that's you know, probably to me, the
Speaker 3: most interesting thing in the draft tomorrow night is the
Speaker 3: Sacramento Kings at four. They they have the Aaron Fox
Speaker 3: and the roster max player. They drafted Davion Mitchell a
Speaker 3: year ago, which was controversial because at that time they
Speaker 3: had Tyres Haliburton on the roster. They traded Haliburton obviously
Speaker 3: for Sabonis with Indiana.
Speaker 2: Will they do it again? Will they draft Jay and
Speaker 2: Ivy again?
Speaker 3: He's the best player on the board in my opinion,
Speaker 3: maybe the best player to come out of this draft.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised, but I think there's maybe some
Speaker 3: value in a if you can get those kind of odds.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you can't trust it, but like
Speaker 3: Jade and Ivy with the fourth pick, not necessarily jayd
Speaker 3: and I two second. You know, with the fourth pick,
Speaker 3: I think there's probably some good value there because I
Speaker 3: think he probably does go number four, whether that's Sacramento
Speaker 3: or another team swooping in by a trade.
Speaker 1: You are an international scout. I just watched The Hustle
Speaker 1: with Adam Sandler, so I have a new found appreciation
Speaker 1: for all the miles that you've logged in your life,
Speaker 1: and all of the room service and places you've woken
Speaker 1: up and you don't even know where you are. I
Speaker 1: am curious, based on your international experience, how places and
Speaker 1: regions and styles of play go in and out of style.
Speaker 1: You talk about a bunch of NBL guys or guys
Speaker 1: from Australia in general, like Gidey that have ripped things
Speaker 1: up early, you know, made an immediate impact. How does
Speaker 1: that that impact other like decision makings and how other
Speaker 1: players from that area and how teams evaluate them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question, and I think if you
Speaker 3: go back thirty years, what the Dream Team started is
Speaker 3: really powerful and impactful. And you see that as an
Speaker 3: international scout. In fact, you know, look at the recent
Speaker 3: award winners in the NBA, you know, two time MVP
Speaker 3: now Nikola Jokic from Serbia. Before that, Yannis you know,
Speaker 3: born in Nigeria, raised in Greece, maybe the best young
Speaker 3: player in the league, Luka Donsich from Slovenia. Pascal Siakam.
Speaker 3: I believe he recently won Most Improved Player from Cameroon.
Speaker 3: So it really is a worldwide game, you know, globally.
Speaker 3: We've talked about Dirk on this show. We could talk
Speaker 3: about you know, Yao Ming and other international players over
Speaker 3: the last couple of decades as well. So I think
Speaker 3: that's a good thing for the League. And I think,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the ways honestly that you see
Speaker 3: the rest of the world catching up to the USA
Speaker 3: and why it's so important to scout internationally is just
Speaker 3: watch Team USA play.
Speaker 2: This is not you know.
Speaker 3: Bird and Jordan and Magic and those guys beating Angola
Speaker 3: by one hundred points in the nineteen ninety two. Know,
Speaker 3: these these international countries, A lot of the top ones
Speaker 3: are pretty good. You know, you watch Spain or you
Speaker 3: know some of the top international teams. They really pushed
Speaker 3: the American guys. So I think, you know, that'll continue.
Speaker 3: I think the next region, honestly that that the NBA
Speaker 3: is invested in it is Africa. You know where they
Speaker 3: have the Basketball Africa League. You know a lot of
Speaker 3: times that most of the time historically the top African
Speaker 3: players like Serge Ibaka for example, of left they played
Speaker 3: in Europe and then they come over to the US.
Speaker 3: So the NBA is really trying to develop the African continent.
Speaker 3: But yeah, if you're in that role, you're in the
Speaker 3: Adam Sandler international scouting role, you better have your passport
Speaker 3: ready with the extra pages in that book to get
Speaker 3: you know, more stamps. You better get a lot of
Speaker 3: frequent flyer miles, because it's not like you're just scouting
Speaker 3: the US or just going to Europe like you could
Speaker 3: in the past. You're probably going to you know, Oceania
Speaker 3: they call it New Zealand, Australia, Asia, and then probably
Speaker 3: sometime in the future you going to Africa as well.
Speaker 1: My lord, I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: and I know you got to get out of here,
Speaker 1: but I got like three more about teams that are
Speaker 1: looking to like trade their picks and they need immediate
Speaker 1: impact guys, a current role player. I'm thinking about Portland specifically,
Speaker 1: have promised Dame that they're going to retool. A lot
Speaker 1: of chatter about them trading that pick to get og
Speaker 1: and Nnobi or John Collins, and the disinformation campaign now
Speaker 1: is alive and well that they're going to keep that
Speaker 1: seven pick. Help me understand why a team would go
Speaker 1: one direction, We're going to trade the pick and get
Speaker 1: a current role player that's you know, we need to
Speaker 1: win now, and then they do an about face and
Speaker 1: they keep that pick.
Speaker 3: I think because Trista, ultimately, as an executive, your job
Speaker 3: for the franchise is to do what's best given what's available.
Speaker 3: Right you can want to do whatever. I mean, every
Speaker 3: executive the league would love to put together, you know,
Speaker 3: a super team of all stars at every position.
Speaker 2: That's obviously not realistic.
Speaker 3: But you know, a lot of times, like in life,
Speaker 3: you only make the decisions are in front of you. You
Speaker 3: can't force something that's not there. So I think Portland
Speaker 3: probably does want to trade the number seven pick. It
Speaker 3: seems like they have told Damian Lillard to your point
Speaker 3: that you know, this is not.
Speaker 2: Going to be a long drawn out rebuild.
Speaker 3: He's in his thirties now, he's made a ton of money,
Speaker 3: he's an All NBA player, He's going to the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame someday. He doesn't have the patience for that,
Speaker 3: nor to be prudent for the Trailblazers to keep Lillard
Speaker 3: in a Blazer's uniforms. They're going to do that, you know,
Speaker 3: makes sense to get young players and draft picks and
Speaker 3: things like that. So that's but the challenge is, you know,
Speaker 3: you don't want to trade the seventh pick for just whatever,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, for anybody, if he's not going
Speaker 3: to impact winning. You know, the other school of thought is, okay,
Speaker 3: you know, we'd prefer to trade the pick. I imagine
Speaker 3: the Blazers have a list of players they would trade
Speaker 3: to pick four. But if you can't get one of
Speaker 3: those players, you know, then let's try to draft the
Speaker 3: best available guy we can. Maybe he shows out in
Speaker 3: summer League and builds value there and we could trade him,
Speaker 3: you know, later this summer, even into the season next year.
Speaker 3: Keep in mind, the trade deadlines not till February, so
Speaker 3: those are decisions that take place, and you know, on draft,
Speaker 3: that's where the best executive, the best teams are flexible.
Speaker 3: I think one of the best recent examples of that
Speaker 3: is Golden State and the maneuvering they did with D'Angelo
Speaker 3: Russell first and then with Andrew Wiggins in the pick.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think that was something that they
Speaker 3: necessarily could have predicted in advance, but they gave themselves
Speaker 3: that optionality and flexibility, and it culminated in Wigans being
Speaker 3: maybe the second best player on the team that just
Speaker 3: won the championship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a wild turn of events man for
Speaker 1: him to turn into mapele Jordan after being somewhat disappointing
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. It goes to show you that, you know,
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr said that you know any that the majority
Speaker 1: of NBA players could be impact players if they were
Speaker 1: in the right situation. Do you think that's true.
Speaker 3: It's not something that we discuss enough situation, role fit.
Speaker 3: And what I would say Trista is they're only a
Speaker 3: handful of guys in the NBA that, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: are that one a alpha guy that you know, you
Speaker 3: hang on the marquee, you sell tickets, they you know,
Speaker 3: people come visiting, fans come to see that guy play.
Speaker 3: There aren't many of those guys. There certainly aren't thirty
Speaker 3: of them. And so if you're Andrew Wiggins, who is
Speaker 3: you know is backstory son of Mitchell Wiggins, former NBA player,
Speaker 3: one of the anointed ones. From a young teenager, this
Speaker 3: kid was the number one player and potential NBA star.
Speaker 3: It's hard to live up to that pressure in those expectations,
Speaker 3: especially when you are drafted number one by Cleveland and
Speaker 3: then traded, you know, for Kevin Love to Minnesota and
Speaker 3: the Timberwolves and their fans expect that. So I just
Speaker 3: think of it from Wiggins perspective, going from the guy
Speaker 3: who's expected to be the guy in lead Minnesota championships
Speaker 3: and obviously the Timberwolves are well short of that. He
Speaker 3: gets traded, you know, as a quote unquote disappointment in
Speaker 3: the eyes of a lot of people to Golden State.
Speaker 3: In fact, and if you know, I'm not saying that's
Speaker 3: pick on Wiggins, but keep in mind that Minnesota threw
Speaker 3: in a pick that ended up being Jonathan Comenda, the
Speaker 3: seventh pick in the draft along with Wiggins. Gives you
Speaker 3: an idea of his value at the time. To now,
Speaker 3: he's the fourth guy in Goldens He's not the guy anymore.
Speaker 3: That's we know of that is that's Steph Curry, the
Speaker 3: best shooter in the history of the game. But they
Speaker 3: also have Draymond Green and Clay Thompson who are also
Speaker 3: head of the Hall of Fame some day. So now
Speaker 3: Wiggins can just be himself. He can just play his role.
Speaker 3: He's not the focal point. He's not the guy that
Speaker 3: everybody in the media and the fans wants to hear from.
Speaker 2: He's not the center of the defense of game plan.
Speaker 3: In effect, is probably not even the second or maybe
Speaker 3: it's probably the third guy in the game plan when
Speaker 3: you're playing against Golden State and he strived, you know,
Speaker 3: so I think.
Speaker 2: That's what Kurr is referring to in his situation.
Speaker 3: It is opportunity and the teams that usually win have that,
Speaker 3: you know, one a alpha guy at the top, and
Speaker 3: then everybody falls in line beyond behind him.
Speaker 1: I think one of the most complicated evaluation decisions I
Speaker 1: guess of this draft seems to be Chet. Right, Chet
Speaker 1: Holmgrin from Gonzaga seven footer, elite shooter, elite shot creator,
Speaker 1: elite passer, defender, really good shot blocker, probably one of
Speaker 1: the most unique Unicorn type players that we've seen. So
Speaker 1: they say right, but he's one hundred and ninety five pounds,
Speaker 1: has all the tools. My guess. My question to you
Speaker 1: is do you think that Chet's frame can functionally work
Speaker 1: at the NBA level with this full toolbox of skills
Speaker 1: if he does not put on another pound, No.
Speaker 3: He needs to add weigh and this is why one
Speaker 3: of the reasons why the job is so hard. I think,
Speaker 3: at least in my opinion, clearly chet Holmgan has the
Speaker 3: most upside of any player in this draft with his size,
Speaker 3: his length, is shooting potential, his shot blocking. I think
Speaker 3: he blocked three and a half shots a game bag
Speaker 3: in twenty six minutes. You know, he can be a unicorn,
Speaker 3: but is he going to be healthy? Is he is
Speaker 3: he going to make it? So to speak?
Speaker 2: And we've seen guys with unusual bodies.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't want to scare anybody's fishing Orlando
Speaker 3: Magic fans, but Greg Odin wrote down, you know, recently,
Speaker 3: there's some questions, I think valid questions about Chris steps
Speaker 3: Sporzingis and his long term health. You know, it's just
Speaker 3: checking to be one of those guys, or is he
Speaker 3: going to have a successful ten or fifteen year career.
Speaker 3: And honestly, Trista, that's part of the reason the job
Speaker 3: is so hard that as an executive, you really have
Speaker 3: to rely on your medical staff, your doctors and trainers
Speaker 3: or scientists. I imagine the Magic in particular probably Okay,
Speaker 3: see as well has put Home Run through a battery
Speaker 3: of tests and gotten his medical information and dissected it.
Speaker 3: And really it's like anything else, it's a projection. Is
Speaker 3: this guy going to hold up? Is there anything chronically
Speaker 3: wrong with him? And then it's you know, it's like
Speaker 3: building a house with his frame. How much can you
Speaker 3: add to it before it potentially crumbles or falls apart? Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I think those are legitimate questions. Let me put
Speaker 3: it this way, I think if chet Holmgren's body were
Speaker 3: solid like, he'd be the number one pick for sure.
Speaker 3: But I think that is a legitimate question and a
Speaker 3: reason why you may see Tubori Smith go off the
Speaker 3: board if Orlando doesn't want to take that risk.
Speaker 1: Last last question about Jade and Ivy. For him, I
Speaker 1: guess on what I've read to what I've seen. What
Speaker 1: I've read is that he has a ton of skills
Speaker 1: physically right and very explosive athlete, but the one question
Speaker 1: mark is his decision making ability, and a bet on
Speaker 1: him is really truly a bet on whether you can
Speaker 1: develop him into being this really good decision maker, a playmaker,
Speaker 1: and five the ability to drive and kick well right,
Speaker 1: He's made some pretty bad shots in the tournament, kind
Speaker 1: of taking bad twos and threes when he can make
Speaker 1: the open look. So I guess the question is how
Speaker 1: do teams evaluate on the front end whether a player
Speaker 1: you can do that with them, and whether they're they're
Speaker 1: capable of getting better on the IQ and decision making side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 3: It's the in person scouting and the film work, you know,
Speaker 3: you really want to get technical and break it down,
Speaker 3: especially the pick and rolls is you know, that's such
Speaker 3: an important part of today's NBA game. And then there's
Speaker 3: decision making. And one of the things we did when
Speaker 3: I was jam with the Suns is when we met
Speaker 3: with players, we would pull film clips of their games
Speaker 3: and then have them talk us through what they saw,
Speaker 3: what they were thinking. You know, obviously there's some good
Speaker 3: plays mixed into some bad plays. You want to see
Speaker 3: how a player thinks the game and how he talks
Speaker 3: through it. And then you also, frankly have to evaluate
Speaker 3: the whole roster and the coaching staff and things like
Speaker 3: that as well, because if a player was used a
Speaker 3: certain way before gating the NBA, but you're not going
Speaker 3: to use them that way. Keep in mind you, as
Speaker 3: you know trist especially compared to Big Ten basketball at
Speaker 3: Purdue with Ivy, the NBA game can be faster, it
Speaker 3: can be more open. It's actually less physical. I think
Speaker 3: that's more intuitive to some people, but there's less contact
Speaker 3: on the ball handler. So that's part of the reason
Speaker 3: I'm a fan of Jade and Ivy. I really like
Speaker 3: the kids potential. I think with the NBA now with
Speaker 3: hand checking basically disallowed, where as a defender you can't
Speaker 3: really put your hands on a guy. I think it's
Speaker 3: going to be really hard for people to stay in
Speaker 3: front of that kid. And that's why, you know, I
Speaker 3: see shades of John Morant. You're right, the decision making
Speaker 3: has to improve. I see flashes of a young John Wall.
Speaker 3: He just moves at a different speed with the ball.
Speaker 3: And given his background too, keep in mind his mother
Speaker 3: and Yale was an excellent player coach with the Grizzlies,
Speaker 3: now the head coach in Notre Dame. This kid's you know,
Speaker 3: comes from an athletic family and a basketball family, and
Speaker 3: watching him play and seeing him interview, he seems like
Speaker 3: a pretty sharp guy. So for me, just from Afar,
Speaker 3: I think he'll be able to figure it out. I
Speaker 3: think he has a lot of things you can't teach,
Speaker 3: and he seems certainly smart enough and willing to learn
Speaker 3: the things you can't teach.
Speaker 2: As an NBA team follow Is.
Speaker 1: That what you saw with Devin Devin Booker some similarities? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously, you know Devin didn't have the freaky athleticism,
Speaker 3: he had the beautiful shot. I think we stood out
Speaker 3: to us more than anything, Christa was a competitiveness. I mean,
Speaker 3: we saw the shooting at Kentucky, but then when we
Speaker 3: brought him into our gym for a free draft workout,
Speaker 3: the hyper competitiveness. He didn't want to lose a drill.
Speaker 3: Nobody could stop him. And then when we did some
Speaker 3: two on two or three on three in particular, you
Speaker 3: saw some of the ball handling and playmaking that if
Speaker 3: you go back and watch the high school film, it
Speaker 3: was there, but that was not his role at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: So that's part of the reason the job is hard. Right,
Speaker 3: If you just watched him with the wild kiats, you said, well,
Speaker 3: he's an excellent catch and shoot player. What else can
Speaker 3: he do? Well, it was first team All NBA guy.
Speaker 3: He can do a lot, but that wasn't obvious at
Speaker 3: the time. Really, that pre draft process helped to solidify
Speaker 3: that he was the guy, and luckily he was there
Speaker 3: at thirteen in the twenty fifteen draft.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting how situations sometimes can throw teams off
Speaker 1: the scent. I think Duke is really good at hiding
Speaker 1: players to what they can be. I think Powell could
Speaker 1: be a start, just was kind of used in a
Speaker 1: different way then maybe he'll be used in the NBA,
Speaker 1: but awesome stuff. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you giving me a plethora a swath of
Speaker 1: your very valuable time. I hope we can do it again.
Speaker 2: Soon anytime, Tristan. Always great to be on with you.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Appreciate that that was Ryan McDonough, former
Speaker 1: GM of the Phoenix Suns, assistant GM of the Celtics,
Speaker 1: former international scout, current Odyssey, NBA and Basketball Insider. Awesome
Speaker 1: stuff like I'm going to go back and listen to
Speaker 1: that and listen some more. So I'm really happy that
Speaker 1: he gave us his time. I actually am out of time.
Speaker 1: I got to run as well. I'll give you guys
Speaker 1: some more post draft insight, quick wildcards, things that I
Speaker 1: think might or may not happen. I still have some
Speaker 1: things I want to say about Pat Baldwin and Shaden
Speaker 1: Sharp and Jeremy Soshan and some others. But thank you
Speaker 1: to our guest, Ryan McDonough. He was very generous with
Speaker 1: his time. I'll find us on the podcast. You want
Speaker 1: to listen to that back worrire Iver, you get them.
Speaker 1: That's the heat check. That is all the time that
Speaker 1: we have for heat Check moving back Friday with a
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