2024 NBA Draft Preview with John Hollinger | Sleeper Picks, Trade Talk & Who Goes No. 1?

2024 NBA Draft Preview with John Hollinger | Sleeper Picks, Trade Talk & Who Goes No. 1?

[Music] you are the pineapple to my lemonade done hey and welcome to no dunks an NBA basketball podcast on the athletic podcasting Network whether you’re with us in the Stream team live on YouTube right now we’re listening to the podcast a little bit later on any of these various platforms thank you very much I’m Trey Kirby and joining me today in the classic Factory it’s Tas melis It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year I don’t care if it’s a subpar draft right it feels like it feels like yeah it feels like Christmas here especially in Atlanta we The Man Behind the boards making the magic happen JD hello hey hey good to see you man no ski today but we do have a special guest senior NBA columnist for the athletic and fellow Atlanta area resident somehow keeping cool this week it’s John Hollinger uh are you sure I’m keeping cool I I’m I’m just telling you I’m sitting in the dark the rest of the day after after I’m done here I’m turning all the all the lights off and just getting in an ice bath or something hey if you want to come down to the swimming pool John just let me know they put in a diving board this year if you want to go one for one on cannonballs nice nice I might have to take you up on that well John you’re here to educate us about the NBA draft maybe talk a little free agency but I know you’re watching game seven of the Stanley Cup Final last night what did you think about the KMI trophy going to a player from the losing team I am totally fine with it because the conm trophy is for the entirety of the playoffs and not just the finals H fair enough does it well they do it well yeah it could be NBA award someday yeah that’s true got to find another Celtic to name it after though but uh Conor McDavid he won the km trophy he was an easy number one draft pick and here’s a segue for you not an easy number one draft pick in this year’s draft is there John you just released your top 75 players on the athletic go and check that one out your tier one the top tier for this draft was called Best Bets in a bad class I started laughing right there just how bad is this draft if you’re leading with these guys stink but they’re the best ones it’s sort of like if we could just start this draft at six I think everyone would be totally fine like the top five picks are already gone and now here’s who’s left and we have the number six pick and here’s who we’re choosing from what are the Hawks going to do with the number one pick John is are they going to go with a a fancy Frenchman because it is fun to say those names for now Alexandra SAR zachari R I know I’m saying it with that French accent we just talked about hockey I grew up in Canada it’s it’s hard not to or are they going to go with the Donan kingan I don’t know what will the Hawks do I think what the Hawks would really like to do is trade down but I think they haven’t gotten good enough responses from sort of what they’ve put out there the most interesting thing to me is for them to Bluff as though they wanted SAR enough that it proceeded Washington to trade up one for two and I I thought they could have played that card a little more harder than they have so far uh because it seems like they’re kind of between R and uh did I do that well and and clinging and I gotta say I’m not super excited about race it feels almost like he fits better but it’s like are are we using the first pick in the draft for Wing depth like I don’t know just it just it feels a little underwhelming kingan has has a chance to be a dominating big man um I think offensively still has some steps to take and then it makes creates another question like if you were the Hawks if you if you knew you had a Clint capella trade in hand I think you’d feel better about drafting kingan but right now you’re going to have three basically pure centers on your team with capella kongu and kingan if you go that route yeah R does seem to be the guy that’s at least mocked to the to the Hawks right now I know that that’s the case in s bassini’s latest mock draft for the athletic the same for Jonathan gavon uh over at ESPN you mentioned Alex SAR uh he hasn’t yet worked out for Atlanta even though he was literally here in the city at overtime Elite uh getting in some ball handling drills you’re saying maybe this is a bit of a smok screen John back when you were working for the Grizzlies did you ever pull a smoke screen like this like trying to send out signals we’re taking this guy but we’re really just after a trade out here you know a lot of times we weren’t really drafting high enough for that to be a valid thing you know like hey let’s put a smoke screen out there at number 37 like it nobody cares you know the the year the year we had the the fourth pick was was sort of interesting uh in in that respect but uh it it was really it was really what was going on ahead of us where where there was more in like we still weren’t quite high enough to really make some make something like that stick it’s really like one two three where you can really do some stuff with the smoke screens and maybe get get people to trade up when otherwise they wouldn’t have uh so I I I can’t really say from personal experience that there was like a really good one like there were a couple times where there were like false rumors out there about guys we liked and we would just let people ride with it because we we thought that was like you know sort of a mini smoke screen on its own but I I can’t really say that there’s anything like truly intentional like that like I’m discussing here with maybe the Hawks could have done with SAR yeah it seems uh who knows I mean I guess uh during the the Jabari Smith Pao banero draft we thought Jabari was going to be the number one pick like the morning of the draft before it ended up uh being Paulo to the magic there but yeah it seems like rishia say in the mix for number one SAR seems like a Washington guy for sure and then clinging is a desirable uh type of player do you think it’s reasonable though that the Hawks could actually trade back we don’t see that from the number one pick all that often no we don’t the last one I think was the uh Tatum folz draft right mhm and it worked worked out pretty well for Boston uh trading down there um they also felt pretty assured that the Lakers were going to take uh Lonzo ball at number two which I think helped them feel comfortable train down to three knowing they could still get Tatum and I it’s I guess it’s sort of like that if you’re the Hawks that you could trade down to three and knowing that the Washington’s going to take SAR at too if you’re down to one of the one of the other two guys I don’t know maybe you could do something like that um I I just don’t know what’s out there for them to do it because I I mean Houston’s a team of three right now is Houston trading three to one their team people talk about trading down or trading back too well let’s stay on that Atlanta Hawks thought train there because we’re in mediocre land here in Atlanta we we we’ve watched Trey here in year six and I know you wrote about it when Trey went out this is the first time we get to see the team without Trey young because he was injured and what happened with dejon Murray mediocre land just another 500 type team but they’ve got so many guys that are invested in John inre and deante and DeAndre Hunter and Clin capella and bdon MCD donovich soon to be Jaylen Johnson I just gotta ask you because you know so well what is going to happen in in your eyes when it comes to free agency and that time are they going to make a trade uh with one of these guys in Trey dejonte or could it be somebody else like you mentioned a Clin Cabella did did they trade John Collins yet I know that went under the radar did that did that finally happen um yeah it’s they have to make a move basically because like they’re in the luxury tax just with the players they have in the first pick so so that something has to shake out here something has to move uh sadik bay is also a restricted free agent so it’s going to be interested to see what happens there but yeah I think I think basically the the Crux of it is Trey and dejon don’t really fit and those are the two guys that they could trade that they that had value um part of the reason I think that we’ve seen that the Hawks haven’t been able to do anything with like Hunter or capella or these other guys or it took them so long to make a deal with Collins is just they they can’t get anything for these guys and like with their contracts people the other teams just aren’t valuing them and so that that’s why I think it’s been hard for the Hawks to get any deal to I mean they basically didn’t make any Personnel moves last year at all other than the Collins trade uh you know once their draft was done that that was a wrap the only other thing they did was promote Trent forest from a two-way so uh that they do have to do something now I I do think there’s a chance like especially if they pick re you could see them doing something with Hunter where maybe they just move off him and aren really aren’t really that worried with what they get back uh but they they have to cut money somewhere cuz we know they’re going to pay the tax and I think the the first Domino is still Trey and Deon that seemingly one of them needs to go because that’s where they can get some value back how about V Cree I know you’re a big fan just like us I think probably uh three of the four biggest V Cree fans on Earth held myself back from starting with him and then working to the other guys yeah I’m holding myself back seeing that 23 Hawks Jersey over your shoulder and saying maybe that’s Wesley Matthews Jersey but he did wear 32 last year and I was going to say come on they signed Wesley Matthew this is as an as an inseason tournament Enthusiast this is the ATL jersey for the 23 inseason tournament there we go wow oh wow so it wasn’t it wasn’t for any particular player that’s all we got going for us here the End season tournament here in Atlanta that’s all we got hey a play in team won the n Season tournament last year so maybe it could happen again this year here uh John I teased this I said I was going to ask you um the dumbest question of the entire 2024 draft cycle so here it is I see that Ron Holland was number one on your big board in the midst of all of your draft preparation did you ever think that Ron Holland sounds kind of like John Hollinger hey I told you it was dumb man wow he didn’t think it was going to be that dumb I mean V for yic is like mental level and it’s like I had stealed myself for this and yet you still like went beyond it’s like at another level removed from what I had PR prepared myself for um yeah I got I got nothing well okay that’s a fair enough segue though who do you think is the best ignite Prospect I was surprised to see that Holland has remained number one on your board because you look around some of the other mock drafts and like on S vini’s mock he’s going 13th meanwhile Matas buellis who you say has left shrimp type upside love to see that he seems to be going higher in these mock drafts uh even though I maybe agree with you that Holland could be a better Prospect yeah I mean Holland is almost a full year younger and was the better player at ignite last year so I’m I’m sort of I’m sort of thrown by how buellis has has Lea frogged him and how several others have leap frogged him I I I just don’t like Holland was the number one guy coming into the year he put up despite everything that went wrong with Ignite you compare his numbers to what like Jaylen green did uh to what uh Daniels from New Orleans did to what Jonathan kaminga did and they they’re as good or better than all those guys and yet everyone seems to have soured on him so I I’m not sure what’s going on there but for me he’s still the number one guy in a week class let’s get to some Zack Edy talk John U because I know where he from oh you better believe he’s from the GTA the greater Toronto area played a lot of hockey as a kid but that seven4 kid decided to play basketball after a while uh that was a great write up on the athletic to realize that Zach e yeah put the skates on and then I think it was at 11 or something like that he decided man maybe a little too big uh want to be Theo char No nice nice a Dano Char reference very well done um well speaking of him and all the teams that potentially want to trade down I see the Sacramento Kings at 13 I think they got to get big deont sabon playing the center I understand that you probably don’t want to start Zack Ed beside him but there’s lots of potential there I I see that as a possibility but where do you think Zack Edy should be drafted if we can ask you that one so I have him I had him like 24th or 25th on my board um which I think is a little lower than a lot of other people have him yeah had him 25th M uh so I he he needs to be drafted somewhere where they need a center right like Sacramento for all sub bonus gives him they they backup center has been an open sore right so if you can if you can draft 80 and have him come in and play backup five right away then then you’ve you’ve done something now the one thing with Sacramento like they want to play Fast right and so I’m I’m not sure how well he fits in in with that um so there there are some other teams maybe that that I might feel a little better seeing him where the where the tempo’s going to be a little slower and they have a little more chances to just run through you know halfcourt set give him the ball with the second unit uh that kind of thing so uh it’s it’s gonna be it’s going to be really interesting though to me to see who pulls pulls a trigger on because he’s such a unique Prospect in terms of what he’s going to face at the defensive end and there’s this Divergence with college centers right because the game is completely different for them in college than it is at the pros in a way that that it isn’t for the guards and wings as much and so that makes it a tougher evaluation in some ways uh how how is he going to do defensively against NBA offense is is he going to be bobon or is he you know is he going to be able to you know have more Mobility than that be able to get enough stops you can keep him on the court for his offense really regardless of who the opponent is yeah I was interested on your big board that you kind of cop to being a center hater and you even just put all of them into one big tier called centers why is that what is it more that the the bus potential is so high or that you can find serviceable Rim running centers around the center position has become devalued yeah uh because you can there are other things you can do you can take you can take a four and make them a five you can uh do different things to junk up the game and and the bar the bar for being a truly impactful Center who can stay on the floor in all kinds of matchups and a playoff series is really high so I it’s actually it’s easier to evaluate in some ways because the center position there’s a there’s a minimum height requirement right like there there’s only so many guys who are This Tall uh so picking out the ones who are likely to play in the league is is in some ways easier than at the other positions uh but I also think that the the value in the draft is really finding those guys in the 66 to 69 range who can do all the all the switching the position changing you can play multiples of them at the same time uh whereas the centers you know there’s this there’s always this constraint that you can only have one guy of that size on the court at the same time usually and so that’s why the the value in the draft tends to really tilt That Way Gone are the days of Marcus and Zack rph am I right uh you know it’s funny when we were actually talking about that when at Mark Jersey retirement uh when I was talk about that with a couple of H former Grizzlies players like could could we have even like would we have just gotten run off the floor if we tried to play like this today uh because yeah that I mean the the game the game has changed and trying to play uh multiple big bigger slower players like they it’s just it’s too perimeter it’s too fast it’s just really hard at the defensive end I saw some of Randolph’s uh perimeter possessions back when he was a New York Nick maybe you could have developed the game there that could have been somewhere but uh you mentioned that everybody’s looking for these guys that are 65 to 69 switchable Defenders can kind of do everything and there’s definitely a bunch of wings uh in this draft you got the couple of guys from the ignite and Holland and buellis and then you’ve got like Stefan Castle Cody Williams Devin Carter Dalton connect outside of uh who’s number one on your board is there one of these wings that you see being really successful in the NBA uh I really like Stefan Castle from Connecticut uh who is I mean he’s 66 I know he’s talked himself about himself as a point guard maybe he can play point but I like him as a really like him as a wing as a secondary ball handler too I think he defends I think he showed at Yukon he can play a ro come in and and play a role uh but I also think he has more in his bag than he was able to show there that he can be a good pick and role player and if the shop comes around uh he’s almost like a mini Paul George and so I I think there’s a lot of upside there with also a pretty decent floor so I have him number two on my board yeah that was something I was wanting to ask you to when you’re doing all this evaluation stuff and you see a guy like Stefan Castle who’s saying I was I’m a point guard I played point guard in high school how much do you factor in what was going on with a guy in high school because to me I’m like well yeah you were a player who was able to go into the NBA one year after high school I would have given you the ball to bring it up every single time too if I’m in high school yeah it’s it’s it’s different I mean some of these guys play on stacked high school teams so it’s a little like it’s not like it’s not like you just go into your dear Town’s public high school like when we were you know when we were kids or whatever so it’s it’s a little different now but uh usually Castle’s a little different because I think he didn’t get as many eyeballs on him like at some of these events at the end of the year like the hoop Summit and the uh and the Jordan classic uh where guys Scouts can see guys like in a little bit different role than they maybe end up playing for their college team but still against really high level competition uh so yeah it’s sort of an a little bit of an unknown with Castle I mean You’ seen you’ve seen enough of his of his reps at Yukon though to kind of have an idea of where where the probability is there so so to speak like you wouldn’t Pro probably wouldn’t quite call him a pure one but he definitely has some ball handling traits where he can be a secondary guy yeah I’m still a little burned on Patrick Williams who I heard could have been a point guard as well and that guy uh he’s not doing a ton of ball handling uh at this point uh for the Bulls another evaluation question I had for you kind of relating to a guy like mates buellis who has a nice looking shot the mechanics seem good just doesn’t go in all the time whereas you’ll have other players like Cody Williams his jumper doesn’t necessarily look the smoothest but he shot 40% from three uh on very limited attempts during his college season which is more important having an ugly shot that goes in or a good-look shot that doesn’t go in like which is easier to actually turn into a shooter that’s actually a topic of some debate because the the the argument is that if somebody’s form is good and they still aren’t making shots maybe it’s just lack of talent right and whereas whereas if it’s bad form maybe that’s fixable uh the the other thing though is that just looking at 3o percentages can be a little misleading uh the the things we found is that Shooters tell on themselves a little bit by how frequently they shoot from three uh you know sometimes just a case of terrible judgment uh but a lot of times good good Shooters will just take more shots from three and more difficult shots and the bad Shooters will only take the wide open ones or if they have a very slow release they’re sort of constrained to that and then the other thing to look at is their free throw shooting numbers um and then the thing I would add on top of that is one of the things that really helps is watching guys shoot before a game because you’ll see them take so many shots I mean you can almost see them take a a half season’s worth of three-pointers in in one pregame session and so tracking that seeing how you know act how accurate they are how their form looks and you’re right next to the court for it I I think I think that is very helpful from a scouting perspective as well simple question for you John which team is most likely to make a trade at the draft I would say either Houston or Memphis because Houston it might be Houston trading with Memphis yeah it seems like a a nice match made in heaven there yeah and uh one guy you just mentioned Paul George he made the comparison to bronny James as either a Derek white or Drew holiday type of player and I’m fascinated by the Brony James story because it’s such a heartwarming story obviously the cardiac arrest that he’s recovered from less than a year ago and now you know Rich Paul coming out and saying he said to be he just wants to get drafted he doesn’t care about where he gets drafted even though he’s reportedly just working out for the Lakers and the Suns it’s a great story where do you think he goes I I know we’ve we kind of jump all over the place with where a player will be drafted in this type of draft but but is there an idea for where bronnie James will end up uh pick number 55 to the Los Angeles Lakers I think he’ll be locking in it’s it’s very it’s very odd when you like you feel more confident about pick 55 than pick one you know the day before the draft it’s like an anti-smoke screen uh the Lakers potentially drafting uh bronnie James it’s a fan you know you clear out all the smoke uh in the way I saw uh that you did have bronnie in your I do not get it tier tier 13 I believe pretty low rated down with Tristan da Silva who I kind of thought was going to show up as one of your sleepers John you have sleepers you have one super sleeper and you have quasi sleepers all three separate tear my first question is what makes somebody a quasi sleeper versus just a regular sleeper uh the the the regular sleepers are the ones who got into my top 20 so I feel a little better about those guys so Oso igodo and Trey Al Ander um and then my super sleeper was because I wasn’t even sure he was going to keep his name in the draft because he was that much of a sleeper and then that’s Jonathan Mugo from San Francisco and then the the next tier like my quasi sleepers are like yeah yeah I could I could see it happening yeah but maybe not like totally totally feeling it but like yeah okay like I had Bob Carrington there who’s actually moved up quite a bit it seems like and now it’s probably going to go higher than than that um Tyler Smith hasn’t quite gotten his due I don’t think he had a good year for g-league ignite there’s like some some Christian Wood similarities in his game um if he can be a better Defender than wood I think he’ll be a really useful player and then homeier okay again killing with it killing with the accents from France playing in Germany right now uh I think he’s been a little underrated through this is he a stash kind of guy or is he coming over immediately I think yeah I mean you don’t really see first round picks get stashed these days I think he’d come over right I think he’d come over immediately are there any other Mystery Men to know about in this draft like I know nicoa topich topic uh has the partially torn ACL he was a guy who was a potential number one pick and now you know he’s talked about as a Spurs guy potentially uh ton Salon uh seems to be the French Mystery Men is there any anybody else out there who is kind of off the radar right now uh I don’t know if Juan Nunes is quite off the radar but he’s he’s an interesting player who hasn’t been talked about that much uh kind of a a flashy I don’t know if flashy is the right word but a point guard who can really pass um really unathletic and that has turned some people off uh needs to shoot the ball better uh but he’s he’s got good size and and again really tremendous passer just needs to fill out some other elements in his game I think he’s a guy who might be a stash pick uh and taken in the 30s sounds like uh Andre Miller kind of Clone that’s a comparison I would have like to see in in your draft profiles because like I said dead left shrimp was amazing there was a couple of Christian Wood mentions which I don’t know if you’re excited about that if you’re drafting that guy uh but Christian Wood at his best man when he was going to Dallas I thought he was going to be six man of the year if you can get that guy uh how much do you care about the comps or or are you doing this for us l folk who don’t know what we’re really looking at here you’re trying to yeah I’m trying I’m trying to draw a picture for people so that’s that’s usually what I’m trying to do with the with the comps because you always go back and look in 10 years and just laugh hysterically at the comps usually except I’ll give one exception my comp for Dereck Lively last year was Tyson Chandler and I think that one is cash money pretty good pretty good what about uh Baylor shyan is that guy going to get drafted I liked watching him when he played for South Dakota State we always uh take an interest in the jack rabbits he obviously went and played for kraton for a couple of years uh he’s about our age at this point but uh seems like he could play in the NBA yeah and he was really good at the combine too I think he’s going to go toward the back end of the first round like picks 25 through 30 somewhere in there uh that’s where usually you know where the better teams are picking where you know they want a guy who can maybe uh be closer to helping them uh versus versus being you know more of a project and so he he can really shoot it he’s a plus rebounder he can do some stuff handling the ball I I think he’s he’s an interesting guy uh once once you get to that part of the draft okay so it sounds like you’re interested in the end of the first round but what about the second round will you be watching on day two of the NBA draft which is just the second draft will you be paying attention to that oh absolutely yeah and I love that it’s 5 minutes between picks now I mean on the team side two minutes between picks I don’t know if yall realize how insane that was right to just like track because these picks are getting traded too so like you’re trying to track down who even has the pick before you can call them to make an offer for the you know for the pick if you want the pick and and so it was really quite hectic and then the the other nice thing so this is going to be 4 in the afternoon eastern time that the second round runs so there’s this whole Afterparty when the draft ends where you’re signing guys for summer league you’re signing two ways you know you’re dealing with all the guys who didn’t get drafted and that goes until the we hours of the or back in the day would go until the we hours of the morning now it’s just it’s a nice civilized two-day process so I’m I’m glad they did for the people who work in the league sake I’m glad they did this yeah and it probably increases the likeliness of Trades happening in between round one and two as well just more conversations happening then I assume absolutely right so the the party I guess doesn’t start till after day two but the conversations begin after day one I imagine uh yeah yeah for those yeah for those second round picks especially and then we’re GNA you know we’re going to see the the other thing is teams can negotiate with their own free agents and teams I yeah I of course would have never done this but some teams have negotiate with other teams free agents before July 1 what um I I’ve heard stories about it anyway and so uh you’re going to see some of that too I think like some teams as soon as that first round’s end they’re going to you know get get on the phone and work on their side hustle and free agency because it’s a really quick turnaround this year so even the likeliness of a bigger trade could be heightened right like with actual players that are on currently on NBA rosters I imagine just because yeah just because you’re there yeah we’re GNA see some traits well I hope so because the last thing I was kind of curious about John was if you kind of wrapped your head around the new CBA that’s going into effect and the first apron and second apron rules which are very restrictive for what these teams that are spending so much money can trade can sign uh free agents is that going to put a damper on things during the draft during free agency this summer as teams kind of figure out where the loopholes are and what kind of moves they can actually pull uh it is going to put a damper on some of the trading because there are some teams who just the their possibilities are so constrained um now they may end up doing smaller deals than the types of deals we would have seen in the past uh so that that could be part of it too like you know you can’t Aggregate and you can and you can only take back less than you sent out so now you’re you’re talking about doing trades with guys more toward the back end of your roster maybe um it it’s just it’s just a different kind of mentality for the trades I think we could see more kind of small fry deals because of that exciting times tasty stuff yeah I could have some small fries right now getting a little hungry so it sounds like we know about the 55th pick we know of the first pick is going to happen and who’s going to make it maybe uh is there anything else we should be looking forward to on draft night John I’m interested to see what happens with all these older players because there’s an unusual number of them in this draft and historically drafting old has not been the way to go uh there are multiple 23y olds projected in the first round this year uh when you when you look at uh Dalton connect Tristan de Silva Tyler kch um there’s one other who’s whose name on uh I’m blanking on oh Baylor shyman excuse me uh your fave uh so you know how will those guys where will where will where will they be picked uh and how will those guys pan out after they’re picked I’m really interested in that whole story because the the underlying thing is that these some of these college guys because of the covid year because the nil a lot more guys stayed in college for five years than would have in the past and so we’re getting a lot more 23 rolls in the draft we’re going to see it really in the second round especially uh and what what happens what what what is their trajectory in the NBA I think is a really interesting story to follow all right go check out John’s draft uh big board it’s at the athletic now you’ve also got a whole bunch of free agency stuff dropping this week uh throughout the week your rankings there uh before we let you go what should the Bulls do with the Rosen you know here here’s the thing if you’re trading for Josh giddy the thing you really need to do is have like the shooting around him so giddy D rozan is a really odd fit to me and uh then the other thing that’s tied into that is with with d rozan and with Patrick Williams who they just made the qualifying offer on um if they’re trying to keep both of them and uh I Pres assume they’re not going to spend into the luxury tax uh so there’s you know based on there’s some historical precedent for me saying this right and so uh H how are they gonna gonna manage all that with their cap uh especially if if like if they’re going to do a LaVine trade well now you’re trading your best shooter off of the team so now you have even less shooting and how are you going to back fill that exciting times in Chicago can’t wait wait John thank you so much uh I’ll see you at the pool in a couple hours sounds great as for us we’re going to talk about some more basketball stuff in the up down report it’s the [Music] uport there was a lot going on in the NBA so let’s do it in the up down report many many topics first topic Kenny is back Kenny Atkinson is named head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers according to reports it’ll happen soon as the contract is good it’ll happen Kenny last coached with the Brooklyn Nets as a head coach in 2020 who left the team after the Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving everything didn’t work out he went was an assistant with the Clippers and then the Warriors for several years he said no to the Charlotte Hornets jaw but now he is the Cavs head coach soon anyway up down on the Cavaliers hiring Kenny ainson as their head coach Tri yeah I’m up on this um and yeah you mentioned the Hornets I guess he did say yes to the job before then saying no and honestly I would rather have this Cleveland Cavaliers job with the talent that they have there in Mitchell Garland Moy and Allen we’ll see what ends up happening with Mitchell and Garland though Jason Lloyd just reported at the athletic that Mitchell is expected any day now to sign a lucrative extension to remain in Cleveland so maybe Kenny ainson Donovan Mitchell not necessarily a package deal but at least encouraging and from Jason Lloyd’s reporting this was apparently it came down to Kenny ainson and James bergo and it’s quite likely that Dan Gilbert stepped in as the governor of the Cass and said I’m more interested in Kenny ainson and I think that’s fair because one of the things you saw when the report broke that Kenny ainson was going to be the guy for Cleveland W mentioned that this was going to be huge for Evan Mo’s development I think that is key for the Cavaliers Kenny ainson gets a lot of credit for turning Al Horford and Brook Lopez into three-point Shooters guys that had good touch and were able to expand their game out to the perimeter that’s obviously going to be huge uh for Evan Mobley going forward he’s also got a relationship with Jared Allen and Carris Levert from his time there in Brooklyn so yeah I think this is good I think definitely an upgrade from uh JB bicker sta yeah you said Jared Allen part of the reason why he was Leto resigned from Brooklyn was because he wanted to start Jared Allen over DeAndre Jordan but Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving who had just signed there that was their first season didn’t like that he just wanted to go to the more talented player so he’s got that relationship sure what I also like is that he spent years with the Golden State Warriors who obviously made Steph Curry Excel and so he saw how guards play together in Steph and clay and that bodess well for Donovan Mitchell who seemingly has approved this signing and Darius Garland which is another key here we’re talking about four guys they think they have four talented guys in Mitchell and Garland and Allen and Moy and so to get the most out of Darius Garland Kenny ainson is gonna have that on his back and and I think look he got the most out of D’Angelo Russell in Brooklyn in his younger days I know it’s I know it’s D’Angelo Russell and it didn’t work out all that well but that was the best D’Angelo Russell and I know he made an All-Star Game and that’s just an All-Star game but I think he was with this is going to be his second attempt as being a head coach essentially and being with the Golden State Warriors and A-Class organization has got to help and so he this is a guy again he said no to the Charlotte Hornet J deine it which I get it the Charlotte Hornets should be more popular they’re not as as a basketball team in the NBA uh so I I get why he left uh you know Steve Clifford also left it’s it’s an interesting scenario there but I just do think those years off probably helped a little bit and that whole Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving thing that just wasn’t all that fair for Kenny Atkinson so I think this is a good second attempt for him yeah everybody was a fan of what Kenny ainson did when he was with the Brooklyn Nets getting that rag tag bunch to the playoffs and getting the best performances out of guys like Carris Levert Jared Allen was his breakout seasons were there uh in Brooklyn with Kenny ainson as the coach and then you mentioned D’Angelo Russell he did make an All-Star team that was the best he’s ever been probably the one piece that was missing was like Superstar relationships right so you go to Golden State where they’ve got some huge names you feel or and figure out what those guys are like in person you know in the locker room so I think this is a good move uh for the Cavaliers though I will say it was a little odd that Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland were not mentioned at all uh when they were talking about why they went after Kenny ainson it was because of the mo the development of Moy the relationships with the previous Nets guys it felt kind of to me like the Cavs weren’t willing to commit to saying both of these guys are going to be here and apparently with Jason Lloyd reporting about Mitchell signing an extension maybe Garland will be on the move we shall see yeah that’s interesting they did yeah shove him in there as Shams reported initially Kenny Atkins is coming Donovan Mitchell is staying he also reported that as well so it sure feels like they wanted to make sure that everybody knew that Donovan Mitchell was coming back and they aren’t being forced to sign him or trade him excuse me and just because they sign him doesn’t mean they won’t trade him down the road but I think Ken Ain said is going to try and make Mitchell and Garland work as much as possible in that back cour but he’s got some a heavy job here as well because he’s got to make Evan Moy work at the four spot because we always talk about Evan Moy we just talked about these centers with Tron Hollinger he would Thrive as the five he would be so great if Jared Allen wasn’t there and he did and he was really good so this it’s really interesting to see how those two work and I’m sure Evan Moy is out there working on that three-point shot right now to spread the floor as much as possible because he did improve on that but it is interesting just that Dynamic of of those guys CU they are talented mhm and it’s going to be up to Kenny to make that all work yeah lot going on for the Cavs this summer yeah next topic a lot going on with the Los Angeles Lakers it’s been a roller coast as to who they were going to sign as their head coach well it’s happened it is JJ reic exciting after an introductory press conference yesterday which was also exciting he said these three things he said he talked to Anthony Davis about being the Hub the center of their offense he said he will not be podcasting at all now that’s not going to be part of the mix at all and he was asked about misconceptions of him he said I don’t give a bleep I don’t care up down Trey on the Lakers hiring JJ reck as head coach I got to be up on this because JJ himself said that he has been excommunicated from the content space so great news for us because we’re going to be flying up the podcast rankings with old man in the three and mind the game coming to an end oh yeah yeah I didn’t realize old we’re moving up just like that simple stuff so thank you very much to the Lakers and uh to JJ reck I also wonder is that the most times that a coach has ever said an the f- word in his introductory yes conference I would have to think yeah I got to say 100% yes to true I’m interested to see what JJ does because clearly he’s a smart guy basketball-wise he’s hardworking the guy’s podcasting and broadcasting all the time up until now he said in his uh press conference he’s going to use math he’s got LeBron and ad on his side these are all important things I think for the Lakers since they’ve been a bottom five three-point shooting team last season he says he wants LeBron to shoot more threes after he shot 41% the best of his career that’s a good way to save his body a little bit and still allow LeBron to take over when necessary then he also mentioned that he wants Anthony Davis involved as a hub of the offense kind of shouting out joic damont sabonis that’s definitely not something we’ve seen from Anthony Davis really skilled player great defender great scorer how is he as a Creator I guess we’re going to find out it was curious to me though that he didn’t mention D’Angelo Russell or Jared Vanderbilt mentioned basically all the other guys ruy haimura Austin Reeves Max Christie Jaylen Hood chafino younger guys on the Lakers but maybe DLo and Vando are still kind of could you know uh but at the very least I think that you know for all the zeroing in and zeroing out and zeroing back in on JJ this seems like it was going to be the choice even if they’re saying LeBron had nothing to do with it NADA yeah it will be interesting to see uh if DLo and Vando will be on the outo I am searching right now who was at JJ reck’s press conference because there were players there Gabe Vincent was there uh I don’t have the list in front of me but I just remember Gabe Vincent I guess because I’m a Gabe Vincent fan and that’s why I remember that but it was a bunch of the smaller name players LeBron and AD were not there but I do think as you just mentioned about Anthony Davis sort of being the yices Hub of the offense I kind of look at at JJ reck and watching him broadcast and podcast throughout these three years it reminds me a little bit of Steve Kerr and how Steve Kerr he was in the front office of the Phoenix NS but then was just a TNT broadcaster and and saw it from a different perspective and I think that helped JJ reck just simply look at coaching a different way look at basketball a different way and I see Steve cerr in that same light and that’s what the warriors were as a a hub for them it wasn’t staff bringing the ball up that’s what he changed for Mark Jackson it was Draymond Green a lot of the time and just those guys flying around him so I mean this is a very different team because LeBron James is on this freaking team so it’s a different it’s a different Hub but it is a similar idea that we have space uh that we’re covering with all these shooters let’s get a center that can find everybody and Anthony Davis I think will be willing to to make trades and uh he is just coached his kid he’s coached his son and that’s all he’s done so people are you know can easy to easy to ridicule this this guy a head coach he’s never coached before we don’t know how he will do we I I honestly don’t know but I do think the experience of just being on the other side uh getting interviewed for a bunch of head coaches uh has helped him and given him just the prospect of how hard it is to be a head coach it’s going to be freaking hard and I think just stepping away for a few years probably helps see that but he obviously wants to take on that challenge so that’ll be fun it’s La so that’s a it’s a big challenge we just talked about like Charlotte and he talked he talked to Toronto Joe moula wanted him to be an assistant coach asked him on the golf course according to JJ reic and the paary podcast but this is another level this is La uh so it’s going to be a lot of questions like that one I just mentioned about how do you feel about these misconceptions of you and right away as you said I don’t give up right away the in the first press conference it felt like a UFC uh press conference in a way because everybody’s everybody’s bleeping well I shouldn’t say not not everybody R Linka did not swear I don’t think but JJ was and he was okay with it yeah uh JJ had some great lines I thought at the press conference he was basically saying yeah I wasn’t mad uh that the Lakers were talking to Dan Hurley he’s a two-time NCAA champion and I’m a two-time 55 swish Youth League League champion I thought that was very funny he seems to be at least pretty self-aware about where he stands in things and it’s going to be uh pressure pack situation for JJ because the Lakers did not have a great roster you know they’re going to be bringing back LeBron and AD it seems to me like they’ll bring back Austin Reeves and some of these other younger guys but clearly they’re going to want to upgrade the roster and they’re going to need to if they actually want to be able to challenge for another championship while LeBron’s still at the very tail end of his prime I guess his prime is just going to ever end the the one guy who retires at the end of his prime because he’s 42 years old yeah turning 40 on December 30th LeBron James JJ he is older than LeBron though oh yeah by months or what yeah literally by months because I guess it was JJ’s 4th birthday yesterday and the Lakers got him a coaching job for his birthday LeBron doesn’t turn 40 until the end of this year was there a cake at the press conference I didn’t realize that no he’s got to come on our summer league show to get a exactly we know how to do that all right next topic here speaking of pressure pack situation Scotty Barnes is getting paid from the Toronto Raptors the Raptors have kept Scotty Barnes for the long term a 5-year max deal which will be between 225 and 270 million depending on if he’ll make the all NBA this next season and I call it pressure packed because he is the number one guy clearly the number one guy here so up down on the Raptors signing Scotty Barnes to a 5-year Max extension oh this is an easy up uh it’s what likely to be 5 years 225 million but if he makes all NBA this upcoming season that could jump up to 270 good deal for Scotty Barnes and pretty nice for the Raptors because back at draft day everybody thought they were going to take Jaylen Suggs Messiah Jeri said I see it differently he took Scotty Barnes and it’s worked out he led the Raptors in points rebounds and assists this past season if I’m not mistaken dark rakovich said he needs to have the ball all the time hopefully they’re going to be putting some other good players around him I don’t I personally don’t love the RJ Barrett fit with Scotty Barnes I think that you need a little bit better shooting from your wing positions but with quickly there who I assume they’re going to bring back on a restricted free agency deal the Raptors seem to at least have the outlines of what they want their team to be going forward Barnes is a huge part of it quickly is a huge part of it and Barrett probably is too yeah that’s a good point about dishing it out he his number one skill is his passing uh the the interesting part is signing a guy like this to a monster deal which I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to wrap my head around literally could be $50 million a year um for for a guy who didn’t have monstrous numbers scoring the ball and I I do think as you said the points rebounds assists going up a career high in true shooting percentage rebounding percentage and assist percentage I say all that just not because I want to talk about stats but he is locked in he’s focused on getting better and he did that and he went through that Year One he had you know a bit of a a difficult year two but he wants to grow he shows he can grow like at the end of you I guess it was February at the end of a game against the San Antonio Spurs he walked off the floor early he just wasn’t happy it also was just right after OG was traded and then he came back the next game against the Indian Pacers he had a monster game it was a 292 and 8 assist game it was a great game and I do think that’s important there’s but but but it’s it’s different now being the number one guy with OG gone with Pascal cakam now gone to start a season as the number one guy as you said Ms jeru Buys in and he comes in every single training camp like a guy who has really really worked so this is being a number one guy for the first time I understand people will say this was not a good team with Scotty Barnes last season it just wasn’t um so why would you pay a a Max to start there they do have as you said the bones for him to be finding guys in EM manual quickly I do think like if you want to be absolutely great you do need some of those guys to take a step as well which is I’m not sure if it’s going to happen but I you know I love the Emanuel quickly deal for that reason to be sort of a a sidekick so we shall see if it works but you got to believe in Scotty Barnes and you got to believe that this contract is who cares about the dollars because really it again like I just said what are these what are these figures what are they these are Big Numbers these are huge obviously because the NBA TV deal is going up and the salary cap is going up and so he’s just paid as a Max and it just looks right looks huge right now but eventually people will be making more than this uh even um so I don’t find it a big deal for a young guy who’s taking on more on himself every single offseason to be given this responsibility I think he I think he owns it he doesn’t need he does need scores around him that’s for sure because you look at him in the fourth quarter situations and he he not he doesn’t struggle but there are times where he can’t score the ball um and and try has to do too much but that’s also up to Darko rakovich and getting those guys around him being able to score around him and I think Barnes will find them so this is a new season for them Al you know all that said they made two big trades in the uh middle of the season so this is this is a new start uh for them and to be whole in training camp so I think it’ll be good Yeah you mentioned on a podcast last week you think the Raptors will be better next season compared to how they were this season only 25 wins this season but by the end of the year they were playing to keep their draft pick which didn’t end up happening but that’s basically uh they just didn’t have guys out there uh so what do you think it’s a good season for the Raptors yeah great question so if it’s him quickly and Barrett as your your core three i’ say at least 37 30 big jumpers yeah you got to be big jumpers yeah it’s it’s like the Rockets last year you know that type of jump yeah I think that that close to 500 is a good season if you don’t make quite make it what do you think what it’s a good season for the Toronto raaps they could be coming for that nine seed they could be coming for that Bulls nine seed the Bulls have had it on lockdown for the past couple of years but as we’re seeing here things have changed in Chicago I I hope things change in the Eastern Conference where we’re not talking about a 38 and 44 win team gosh all right next topic speaking of those Bulls got to hear your opinion on Alex Caruso and the Josh giddy deal so let’s get it up down the Bulls trading Alex Caruso straight up no picks to the Thunder for Josh giddy I got I gotta go 90% down here Tas I got I have many thoughts many thoughts number one it’s crazy they didn’t get a pick from the Thunder considering the Thunder have the most picks to and as we’ve seen from reporting like the Bulls have been in talks dating back to last trade deadline I know they talked with the Warriors maybe Moses Moody could have come over uh in a trade traced Jackson Davis plus a couple of picks there was a report that the Sacramento Kings offered the 13th pick so at least there was enough interest that you would think the Bulls would actually be able to uh start some sort of a bidding war for Caruso a guy who’s going to be a perfect plug-and-play player uh for for OKC but Chicago hadn’t made a trade in 3 years so maybe AK had just uh lost a little bit of the negotiating juice not that he has great juice but you don’t do something for three years if you Lo if you don’t use it you lose it so I don’t know what went on with there number two I don’t like Josh giddy his offc court stuff uh definitely not a fan of that his player Style guy who if he shoots can be good is one my least favorite player Styles in the NBA because I think the guys who actually learned to shoot are so few and far between it’s like Kawhi Leonard and Jaylen Brown everybody else basically is a question mark Or maybe they’re able to hit 35% of wide openen threes like giddy might be able to do and I’m sad to lose Caruso he was an awesome player to watch and if he’s on your team you instantly become a fan of him he was also the only good Bulls Defender I guess IO Duma is a fair Defender but Caruso all defense first team one year all defense second team this year to me he’s the best guard defender in the league cuz he’s good at point of attack and he makes plays all over the court and he can guard up to Fours if you need him to like he was the Bulls Kevin Durant Defender way back when so all of that is my general thoughts on Caruso and giddy when I first saw that happened but you know digging back into the trade I think this is at least a fair gamble for the Bulls GID he’s 21 years old the guy’s got major flaws in his game he’s not a great finisher at The Rim he obvious obvously can’t shoot not a big Defender but he’s not a bust right like he can still improve I don’t know if think he’s going to become a great shooter but him having the ball in his hands in Chicago I think he’ll probably look better than he did with OKC when Shay gilis Alexander and then Jaylen Williams came along and took a bunch of possessions from giddy as well it kind of signals to me though that the Bulls are considering going down the rebuilding path trading a 30-year-old guy for a 21-year-old guy obviously they’re offering LaVine around the leag no takers yet we’ll see what they do with d rozan he might become an in demand free agent if Paul George decides to stay with the Clippers so uh I don’t know I I was very sad to see that uh Caruso is going to be gone and that no picks were coming back but at least I can understand why the Bulls decided that this was the move I like how you said the Bulls are in consideration of retooling or rebuilding or whatever they thinking about it man they are probably thinking about it cuz it would be super weird to have the ball handler because that’s what he is alongside demard Rosen and Zack LaVine who need the ball in their hands to go along with Kobe white and IOD dumu who kind of need the ball in their hands so it is a puzzling situation there because Josh giddy has shown that you know like in in a similar way although he does play off the ball at times he is best with the ball in his hands and he’s a very good passer and so that’s why OKC bought in on the number six pick on him and they really did like him but he just didn’t fit as well with Shay and Jaylen Williams and so it was time to go and so yeah zooming out you just look at Alex Caruso you say man every good team would love to have Alex Caruso on their team because if you have scores and you have uh Bigs like you just need one of these guys and so he fits so well he is obviously getting a little older but who cares uh he’s got a relationship with Mark dnot playing for him he played that’s crazy played for the blue in the g-league he played for him i’ totally forgotten about that back when he had hair he was playing with Mark digno was it what was there was there a Caruso that was on NYPD Blue David Caruso wasn’t that his name I think so 100% we need to see a David cruso Alex cruso NYPD OKC blue photosh cuz man what a throwback to see that he actually played for Mark dagal that was pretty crazy uh I do think um great pickup uh for OKC they knew that g they wanted him to come off the bench he said no thank you he got played off the court in the playoffs which you know sucks you hate to trade for a guy that you see that but also the Bulls aren’t getting into the second round of the playoffs so not too worried about that but I do think OKC uh got smaller trading for Caruso so they’re going to have to look for somebody to help them out on the glass but guess what they didn’t give up any of their picks so they could still make a move going forward yeah he was starting to rebound as well at 68 the fact that he was beside Lou D um you know and Jaylen Williams sort of has their 234 call him whatever you want he was helping out on that end uh but his trade value probably couldn’t be any lower it just feels that way maybe it’s just because and forget about the off SE or the offc court stuff I’m not referring to that because really I’ve got no idea what happened off court with Josh Giddy and this team this team bought in to Josh giddy they they did like him and they were going forward with him but just who they’ve constructed the team around it just didn’t make sense there um so they dealt him to get Alex Caruso which worked extremely well uh and you’re right it would have been nice for the Chicago Bulls to have one pick thrown in because yes the Sacramento Kings reportedly were able were willing to give the number 13 pick but then you start to think about it in the draft like this is the number 13 pick a better player than Josh giddy giddy has been solid solid is is the word I’ll I’ll go back on because he he is a a good Handler and good at assisting but does he fit in today’s NBA is the question and he has to he needs Shooters and a ton of them and so that’s why this offseason’s really interesting because yeah maybe he replaces Lonzo ball to be sort of that ball handler who’s not a shooter if Lonzo ball can’t play anymore but like I just said D rozan LaVine there’s so many white dumu like he I guess assume he doesn’t need the ball in his hands but still uh there’s just so many there so man I hope he succeeds as you said 21 yeah so hopefully he gets better and I do think uh comparing him to the 13th pick like I do think giddy is a better player than what the Bulls would probably get if they traded with the Kings and got the 13th pick but also they have to pay giddy next summer so yeah a good you know the cost controlled this of the 13th pick either way though I do think uh that the Bulls are going to be bad enough that they can keep their pick yeah next year which I think is important they’ve got a top 25 top 10 uh or 2025 top 10 protected pick goes to the Spurs so if the Bulls are in the bottom 10 they get to keep uh that draft pick which would be good uh to get a Cooper flag because it seems to me that the Bulls uh best teams come when they’re able to get a very good player in the draft I’m thinking Michael Jordan and Derrick Rose um we saw W mentioned it and even Sam presty uh in his press release talking about why the thunder traded giddy for Caruso do you actually think that Josh giddy has All-Star potential well yeah that was uh that was extreme that was that was high it really depends on the team well the Bulls yeah well the Bulls without I the guys who are going to make the All-Star team as currently constructed it’s not going to be Josh giddy it’s gonna be it’s gonna be Zack LaVine or DeMar rosen so if like we just talked about leel D’Angelo Russell making an All-Star game if they’re a 500 team like let’s say it’s just built around Josh Giddy and Kobe white and I Sumo then yeah maybe it could be Josh maybe um but you really got to be a good team and you don’t have you can’t have better players on it Rosen and Zack LaVine would be the allstars on that team so I guess there’s potential there I suppose yeah a lot of guys make the All-Star team yeah yeah we need I don’t think it’ll happen this year though absolutely probably not but I don’t think this year we we’re going to see those guys all on the team I I don’t they have to trade one of those guys they have to I know it’s the Bulls I mean you say that you say that it makes no sense especially because like it’s a good point that Josh giddy has played in the league for three years now so they’re going to have to pay him soon uh if they’re going to want to keep him around and do you want him playing with d rozen and LaVine like they’re not going to be good he has to handle the ball a ton um and he again there was there was Good Times where he was off the ball and he was in the corner uh but in the playoffs that yeah he was left open and some of the shots went down against New Orleans in the opening round on the road he had four threes but they weren’t going down all the time and if you put Alex Caruso in in there where he doesn’t have to be part of the offense at all he doesn’t have to handle the ball at all OKC is Happy how many picks do they have why can’t they just give one up why can’t why can’t Kish just say give us something that’s the question man you have to think they didn’t even ask yeah that’s fair that’s the only way that you wouldn’t get one thrown in that just toss them around yeah that’s true H who knows uh but it feels like the the Bulls ninth seed Dynasty is coming to an end very sad R man the Raptors are stealing that as long as we got a no dunks Team in the play in we’ll be excited all right final topic here speaking of plays this is one team that was in it uh this past season the Sacramento Kings kept an important piece of that playin team they signed Malik monk to a long deal who was injured uh through the back half of the Year there so up down on Malik monk staying with the Kings for four years and a 78 million deal Trey I like it I especially like it for the Kings because four years 78 million yeah not crazy expensive uh for a guy who finished second and Sixth Man of the Year voting last year career career highs sorry in scoring and assist became very important uh for the Kings as one of their crunchtime guys it’s like literally either him or dearen Fox making the plays so this was the max that Sacramento could offer still pretty cheap for them but monk did get a player option in the fourth year so if he has another three Good Seasons he could go back and ree agency and maybe sign another deal uh somewhere else so I think good for Malik monk getting his biggest payday good for the Kings to be able to retain him on a pretty solid dollar amount yeah it is a good deal U somebody probably would have offered him more and that’s why they allow teams to start negotiating legally uh with their players right after the finals is done as opposed to July 1st when they’re all supposed to be able to uh NE start the negotiations so yeah he agreed to a three plus an option which could vote well for him after 3 years he goes out and gets some more money um it is uh easy to forget I guess that this team was 46 and 36 not a bad team at all and they fell in the play in tournament because primarily I would say a big reason I I I don’t know for sure if they are able to beat New Orleans if Malik Monk Is there but Malik monk was hurt and so that’s a part of it yeah he was as you said a key part of their team now other key parts of their team are just getting bigger um to help out on the defensive end so I I don’t know if they go get a starting center for deumus I I highly doubt that um to put sabonis at the four but they need that they need Keegan Murray to take another step otherwise it’s just such a such a tough conference it’s a tough conference and the Kings last season basically brought everybody back remember they were in the mix for Kyle kozma but they decided to use their cap space to extend sabonis they’re obviously bringing back Malik monk here so they’re betting on continuity but I’m with you I think they still need to make some kind of move and I know they were a team that was rumored uh in the Zack LaVine trade sweep Stakes if you want to call it that I don’t know if it’s a sweep Stakes if you AER around to 15 teams and nobody says yes but it was apparently Kevin herder and uh Harrison Barnes for Zack LaVine and who knows uh probably maybe the Bulls would get a pick if they decide to ask for one but they need to change something up just a little bit they need a little bit more oomph defensively because like you’re saying the West conference is tough and it’s only getting better with johnar coming back from injury and suspension next year the Rockets want to be better the Spurs are going to be good eventually with Victor wanyama so things are tough uh in the Western Conference but after a decade and a half of not making the playoffs Sacramento is happy to be part of the postseason consistently yes this might be the year after talking about it year after year after year will they give up Harrison Barnes for something and that seems like that could happen because otherwise you know you’re rolling with the dear Fox Keegan Murray type of backourt and then you’re bigs are bigs I mean you’re going to roll with Harrison Barnes and sabonis again at the 45 I mean they they definitely need to change something up for their defense but again 46 46 and 36 ain’t bad what would they get you in the East like a solid six seat I mean it is so weird when you compare the conferences because the two seed got the 50 wins in the Eastern Conference hey man you’re you’re just hating right now yeah 46 wins for the Miami Heat and they were the eighth seed last year yeah there there was a lot of Parry the drop off starts after that whoever came in ninth Had a Bad season yeah that’s true uh I do forget that they’re they really I don’t forget I remember that the Pacers were good and they all those bucks the Bucks they’re all good they just weren’t great um so the Kings Kings win more games if they’re in the East I say just because of the teams that they get to play so that kind of hurts but it is a good signing for the Sacramento Kings either way yep they could use a vo type don’t you think no V and sabonis that’s defense for you right there defense and shooting not g giddy finding V is going to happen a lot they’re both going to be open they’re going V will be standing there waiting yes yes indeed uh I think that’s about it though that I got with uh the king so let’s talk about some tweet of the night action tweet of the night wow TW uh yeah tweet of the night it’s uh not necessarily from last night but it relates to the Boston Celtics and their Championship parade remember the Boston Celtics they won the NBA Championship just last week on Friday they had their parade and I saw only in BOS that’s only in Boston on Twitter someone is selling confetti from the Celtics Championship parade on Facebook for only $10 you can get parade confetti 10 pieces five green five white for those that couldn’t make it it’s a great Christmas gri gift it’s a great Christmas grift for the true fans across the world now look this seller I believe this seller yeah they really got this confetti as we saw at the championship lot of parade or a lot of confetti after the Celtics won also a lot of confetti at the parade so I think this is legit however you could very easily fake this 100% just get a piece of tissue paper and cut it cut it up and ship it out $10 the margins on that are insane yeah if it’s tissue paper like if it’s soft I want to know the texture is it firm how crinkly is it yeah I listen this is one thing that I would willing to be giving my money for even though there’s a chance it’s totally fake yeah there’s a lot of fake things on the internet this could definitely be one of them but as you said it’s the most confetti I’ve ever seen yeah um at the championship game I I wasn’t really paying attention to the confetti at the parade but I guess there’s just a lot of it in Boston there was a lot of it floating around uh from the clips I saw I know that my stepbrother went uh took his family and also got some confetti I don’t think that’s him selling it though but if anybody wants to pay $9 for it I could maybe talk him into it you catch any of the parade at all well the guys out there on the duckboats yeah I saw Luke pornet Luke cornette was doing the dabbing he was really dabbing and people were making fun of him CU he was going you know hyper level of dabbing like he just rapid going crazy um and I saw Jaylen brown lost his ring not his championship ring just his ring for that represents his clothing line yeah juice juice but it looks like I guess that is it looks like 7 UI C but yeah but it is it is a because he wears seven but I guess it’s called juice um so he’s looking for that and there’s probably some people faking that they got that too yeah lot of fakers definitely could be I saw Al Horford was in a cowboy hat oh yeah he cool very cool I didn’t realize that this was going around on uh the internet Al Horford and Luke cornett’s dad played together for the Milwaukee Bucks what yeah I mean Tito Horford I barely know that he was in the NBA only cuz he’s always showing up at these games so you look it up I didn’t even think to look up Luke cornette had a dad that played in the NBA as well and they played together way back when and then these guys join together and win a championship crazy yeah they’re drinking chocolate milk together probably cuz I I I always follow Tito Horford I know he was R and I know that uh Al Horford after reading an article about him he doesn’t celebrate really he doesn’t drink really drinks chocolate milk so um I don’t know why I made that connection to their parents in drinking chocolate milk that’s not true U it’s not something they did but I just like saying chocolate milk I didn’t even know luk cornette’s dad was in the NBA what yeah nobody nobody knew nobody knew that one I also saw the Celtics uh already have dented the trophy somehow the larrian they have has like a giant dent in the side of it a I like that yeah it actually looks cool uh I got this uh this water bottle for Christmas Once Upon a Time uh and I got this dent in it within 20 minutes of getting it for for Christmas and I was so upset but now I think it adds character so I don’t think the Celtics should ever get that fixed they say they’re going to which you know respectful but it looks very cool with the dent in it yeah it’s like the Stanley Cup all the dents in it are cool but uh is that their real trophy no that’s a mystery that’s another fake that’s a mystery $10 from milberry Massachusetts for that trophy uh good stuff Celtics are champions still what’s Milbury Massachusetts oh that’s just where that Facebook was okay that’s where the confetti came from yeah yeah uh so yeah draft is tomorrow you can check it out on playback join our playback room playback. tv/ no dunks I guess the draft gets started at 8:00 p.m. Eastern now SK is going to be hopping on here I’ll probably try and make an appearance to see who the balls get number 10 Ron Hollinger love to draft that guy told you man that was a dumb question huh yeah yeah I was excited I was excited I was doing all my prep work but I just kept saying Ron Holland like man that sounds so similar to John Hollander uh so yeah we got playback going on on Wednesday night we will be back here on Thursday to recap night one of the two-day draft then we’re going to be back again on Friday uh we’re going to go 3 to four hours solid uh just on night two or I guess afternoon 2 the Dr uh the draft we’ll do a little drop stuff there and then we’re planning something uh for Sunday because guess what free agency starts I mean I guess it kind of already started it sure did started a little bit uh but officially gets going uh on Sunday so we’ll do something uh for that as well see where Paul George is going see if LeBron James Ops in We’ll Be Live We’ll Be Live We’ll Be Live yeah for sure Thursday Friday Sunday and who knows what else is going to happen this is we’ll get a big trade maybe we’ll get lots of Trades the NBA did a good job of putting it to two days splitting it up I say good job because it’s working we’re doing multiple show go it’s like we’re the NFL they did it they did it man they did it it’s like we’re the NFL Clipper Bros you heard it here first have a great time turn up love you guys awesome thanks for joining us and remember Tito Horford played in the NBA and so did Frank cornette Francis Milton cornette how tall do you think Francis Milton cornet was uh Lucas tall I’ll go 610 yeah you’re good you’re good not overestimated he’s 6 69 um probably 68 but listed is 6 don’t believe in the listings from back never never tape measures weren’t is good embrace the day people [Music]

On Tue.’s ep. of No Dunks, the guys preview the 2024 NBA Draft with The Athletic’s John Hollinger. Who should the Atlanta Hawks take No. 1 overall: Zaccharie Risacher, Alex Sarr, or Donovan Clingan? Which teams are most likely to move their picks? Who are this year’s sleepers? And where will Bronny James land? That, plus the latest Paul George rumors, the Cleveland Cavaliers hire Kenny Atkinson as head coach, Raptors’ Scottie Barnes to sign max rookie extension, thoughts on last week’s Thunder-Bulls trade, and more.

0:00 Classic loading
0:18 Cold open
0:24 Show starts
1:10 John Hollinger joins the show
2:25 How ‘bad’ is the 2024 NBA draft?
3:25 What should Hawks do with No. 1 pick?
7:15 Will Hawks trade Trae Young or Dejounte Murray?
10:40 Worst/corniest NBA Draft question
11:15 Best G League Ignite prospect?
13:17 Where should Zach Edey be drafted?
17:25 Which underrated wing could be good in the NBA?
22:25 Where will Bronny James be drafted?
23:10 Biggest sleepers in the draft?
27:06 Is the two-day draft a good idea?
30:00 Effects of new CBA?
Up/Down Report
34:10 Up/Down: Cavaliers hiring Kenny Atkinson as head coach?
40:00 Up/Down: Lakers hiring JJ Redick as head coach?
46:07 Up/Down: Raptors’ Scottie Barnes signing a 5-year max rookie extension?
51:37 Up/Down: Bulls trading Alex Caruso to Thunder for Josh Giddey?
1:01:44 Up/Down: Malik Monk staying with Kings on 4-year, $78M deal?
1:06:26 Tweet of the Night

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📈 John Hollinger’s Top 75 prospects: https://bit.ly/45DUZn7
📚 The Athletic’s 2024 NBA Draft Guide: https://bit.ly/3RCVdoQ
👀 Join us on Playback for Wed.’s 2024 NBA Draft: https://www.playback.tv/nodunks
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