NBA Draft Reaction: Lakers STEAL Knecht, Grizzlies draft Zach Edey, Wolves big trade | Hoops Tonight

NBA Draft Reaction: Lakers STEAL Knecht, Grizzlies draft Zach Edey, Wolves big trade | Hoops Tonight

all right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Thursday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great end to your week well the NBA draft started last night with the first round we had a couple interesting trades obviously we’re going to get into the guys at the top of the draft are going to kind of Bounce Around the first draft today and hit a bunch of the top storylines you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don’t miss any more of our videos follow me on Twitter atore Json LT so you guys don’t miss show announcements don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight and then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the end of this week and into next week all right let’s talk some basketball so to give you guys an idea of the kind of outline today I’m going to briefly hit on each of the top five picks and then I’m going to hit some of the bigger stories in the first round so Minnesota getting Rob Dillingham by trading up into that San ant San Antonio Spurs spot that was super interesting to me uh kind of like a a aggressive move from Minnesota to address a specific need so we’re going to get into that a little bit and how he fits the Grizzlies getting Zack Edy which I thought was really interesting we’re going to talk about whether or not Zack Edy can play in the NBA why I think kind of that debate is silly and we’re going to get into his specific fit with Memphis and why I actually think that’s the perfect spot for him to start one of my favorite picks out in the Eastern Conference uh khil wear going to Miami a guy who brings kind of like a rim protection and a floor spacing element and want to talk about him and then lastly a guy who was projected by most to be a top 10 pick Dalton connect falls to the Los Angeles Lakers we’re going to talk a little bit about him at the end of the show all right so we’re going to start with the top five so Zachary race takes uh goes to Atlanta at number one and this guy’s just a quintessential off ball role player 69ine he’s rangy off ball Defender really good kind of like making reads from that low man position whether it’s jumping passing Lanes whether it’s bothering uh uh Roll men in pick and roll covering ground on the weak side to Shooters and rotation remember this is something that we’ve seen become immensely valuable over the course of the last few years in the NBA this is that ground coverage concept that we’ve been talking about right so elite players require aggressive coverages right when you throw aggressive coverages you leave weak side two on- ones typically right and so having guys that can you know if there’s a pass to the wing who can close out to the passing Lane in between the wing and Corner shooter and effectively kind of be in multiple places at once guys who can win contested rebound battles with their length guys who can you know when you have to bring your rim protector up to the level of the screen and there’s a lob threat rolling down the lane a guy who can bother lob passes that type of like off ball ranging and length is super valuable right and then he brings a little bit of the same kind of uh offensive capability on the other end of the floor right like he was streaky but this kid can shoot and I actually think his game compliments Jaylen Johnson pretty well like Jaylen brings the more athletic kind of like downhill type of feel right whereas like rach’s he’s got the length but he’s more of like a finesse type of player good at attacking Closeouts better shooter at this point so like I kind of think that they represent an interesting 3 four type of pairing for Atlanta to evaluate over the course of the next few years now everything for Atlanta comes down to what they’re willing to do with Trey young and what they’re willing to do with Deonte Murray are they going to keep Clint capella how does DeAndre Hunter fit into this now that you have your three and four kind of lined up in terms of the future so it’s really hard to get a read for what Atlanta’s going to look like next year but at least at the three and four Zachary race and uh and Jaylen Johnson represent an interesting kind of future core to keep an eye on Alex SAR to Washington right Alex SAR um played in Perth last year played alongside a Tucson guy a guy named Bryce cotton who uh a guy that played a lot with when back when he used to live here and brings a lot of intriguing skills a lot of upside but the exciting thing with Alex SAR is he’s one of the higher floor guys in this draft because he’s just already an excellent Defender he’s especially in pick and roll he’s just got a bunch of Versatility in the way that he can guard like you throw him in a deep drop he’s got the length to bother stuff at The Rim he’s very good I’d argue it’s like one of his strengths being aggressive in ball screen coverages with his length on the ball handler although he can sometimes get burned on the backside as a result he’s a guy that can switch and guard perimeter players in space so like immediately he represents kind of like a foundational piece for a defense right now the offensive end is where his potential upside is like did a lot of work in perth’s five out system as like a dribble handoff kind of fulcrum right like he’s a guy who would uh kind of dribble at guys coming out of the corner and they’d either come off of him for handoff or cut back door he just was good at kind of making those reads has some uh Improvement to make in terms of like actually setting solid screens but that’ll come in time especially as he gets bigger did a got a lot of aggressive coverages towards Bryce cotton so he got some work in the short rle where he made good reads to guys cutting along the Baseline and kick out passes to Shooters in the corner I think that he just kind of has the potential to be that type of five out big that we talked so much about on this show where I think the future of NBA offense is heading anyway so it’s a high floor pick a guy that has a lot of offensive upside that may or may not be realized really just comes down to how well his jump shot develops over the years right but I like it as like a good ball screen fulcrum to pair with Jordan p and a defensive Foundation you can get a better look at how Jordan P fits into your team’s future looking forward I like to pick Alex star to Washington at three Reed Shepard to the Rockets just a ready-made role player he’s one of the best shooting prospects in this draft if not the best he’s really good at operating with an advantage this is when Reed was that is like the most fun to watch right like whether it was kind of in the open floor when things are chaotic or whether he’s attacking a closeout or kind of functioning in the offense when he has an advantage he’s just a really good ball handler and has a really good feel for like reading what uh where Defenders are leaning and hitting them with counter moves and then he’s just got all the footwork literally looks like he’s uh the kind of guy that you’d see in like a skill development video like he can take off left right he could take off right left he could take off off the H off the like he can do all of these different footwork things to get different kind of releases from different angles as a shop maker and so he’ll immediately be a really good connective piece for Houston he’s like he just is going to be a guy that kind of makes things work better offensively especially on a team like Houston that has a lot of raw talent he’s kind of more of a finished product that will help it like tie it all together doesn’t have the upside as some of these other guys in Houston but he should be able to immediately come in and help and iMed medely come in and be that type of connective piece especially for a team in Houston that as we know especially from the Intel wants to be good sooner than later like they want to be in the mix in the west sooner than later good Defender as well always in the right place doesn’t have great physical tools a little short a little uh doesn’t have a ton of length but he does his job he is always in the right place like I said he competes on the ball fights over screens one of the things that stood out to me on film when I was watching him was he’s really good at attacking the dribble pocket after chasing over the top of the screen got a lot of steals this year where he would Chase from behind and just swipe at the basketball and he’d generate transition opportunities that way and so again I I like the I like the fit with Houston as basically a guy that can kind of just immediately slot in and help uh kind of Grease the wheel so to speak offensively while also being a functional piece of their defense and like like we talked about earlier there’s lots of Intel that the Rockets could potentially be gearing up for Star trade at some point before the deadline and he just represents another asset that you could potentially use in a situation like that uh number four the Spurs Draft Stefan Castle Stefan Castle was one of my favorite guys to watch when we were doing our draft pep uh prep he’s just a classic big guard right kind of slow methodical doesn’t have a super quick First Step not a guy who’s looking to shoot a ton from the perimeter he’s just trying to kind of get into that short to mid-range where he’s got every counter move every floater every hook every short jump shot in the book and he just super comfortable operating in that area he’s got a lot of like that kind of like Shay gilders Alexander kind of crafty stuff within that like 10 to 15 foot range not as good a shooter as Shay and that obviously is going to be the huge swing factor for Steph’s career right like if he if he’s going to uh be anything more than uh than what he’s projected to be at this point he’s got to become a more functional shooter from the perimeter but the big thing that I like about Stefan Castle is he just has a great feel for the game he’s really good at playing alongside other good basketball players he’s not a guy that’s going to disrupt the flow of an offense he kind of it’s kind of like we were talking about with Reed Shepard he greases the wheel so to speak and so we know this is a Spurs team that desperately needs more feel around vikor wanyama right like guys who know how to play with other good basketball players right so this was a really good step in the right direction to pair him with Victor wanyama number five our last pick in the top five Ron Holland going to the Detroit Pistons kind of another high motor athletic wing with a lot of upside that hasn’t really come together in terms of his skill development so you’re betting in the long run that you pair him with assar Thompson and you basically just have these layers of wing athleticism to complement Kade Cunningham on the margins right and this is just kind of the direction we’re seeing the game going we’ve seen multiple different types of teams win recently right like Boston wins with all this Wing talent and driving and kicking Denver wins with this like interior Frontline presence and over-the-top shot making with Jamal Murray and Golden State wins with five out motion and the best pull-up shooting guard in the history of basketball right so like they’re all very different types of teams but in general if you were like asking what the single most effective form of modern basketball right now it’s rangy Wing athleticism that can drive and kick and specifically if there’s one offensive skill that run Holland’s already pretty good at it’s driving Closeouts and so I think that’s kind of the angle that they’re looking at here is benefiting off of the attention that Kate Cunningham draws and his ability to generate those types of clo uh close out opportunities again a lot of the downside of the pessimism surrounding Ron Holland is he just struggled a lot on the ball with g- League ignite last year but G League ignite was a total show and I’m going to say the same thing I said about male bridges last night like they’re just reps no one’s drafting Ron Holland to be this dominant on ball Creator it’s not even something that Detroit needs in the long run considering they’re kind of built around this Cade Cunningham Jaden Ivy kind of uh shot creation Foundation right so like what you really need is him to be a functional off ball offensive player and those reps on the ball they make it easier like it’s like one of those things where you’re trying to learn how to make these reads when you’re not very good at it against loaded up defense and then what happens is you slide into a smaller role and you’re constantly playing with an advantage and then suddenly that just kind of becomes a little easier because you’ve practiced doing a much much harder version of that and specifically for teams like Detroit that are just so far away from contention I like betting on wings with upside because they’re the riskier ones but they’re the ones that have the potential to pan out to guys that can be profoundly impactful especially in the later rounds of the NBA Playoffs all right let’s hit some of the bigger stories from the first round now that we got out of the top five get ready for a night full of big fights and big action it’s UFC 303 and it can be even bigger jump in on all the action at draftking Sportsbook the official sports betting partner of the UFC it’s super easy for first- timers to get started try betting on something simple like picking a fighter to win go to the draftking Sportsbook app select your fighter and place your first bet it’s that simple the light heavyweight title is on the line in the main event but there are so many more Amazing matchups happening in Vegas and speaking of amazing if you’re new to DraftKings listen up new customers bet $5 to get 150 in bonus bets instantly download the draftking Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops that’s h o o PS that’s code Hoops for new customers to get $150 in bonus when you bet just five bucks get that big fight feel only on DraftKings DraftKings the crown is yours one other pick I wanted to shout out before we get into some of the bigger stories was uh khil wear going to the Miami Heat I really like this pick on a bunch of different levels first of all like this this concept of like layering layers of athleticism on your front line essentially like instead of viewing bam necessarily as just a five like what does it look like if you put him alongside another freaky athlete to kind of layer that athleticism this is a thing we saw a bunch around the League this year this is a thing we saw with Minnesota that led to a lot of success against Denver Denver won last year with a massive Center as well as this massive forward that has bam at a bio type of size and Aaron Gordon at the four right and so like I like the idea of if you’re struggling with ball handling and you can’t find ball handling that meets that kind of meshes with what your ultimate goal is as a team I like the idea of finding functional tools that can help immediately and kware can shoot which is an interesting kind of pairing with bam a bio if he operates more as a dural handoff fulcrum and operates more close to the rim and then he brings just that height athleticism vertical spacing piece and so I just thought that was a really interesting fit for Miami and one of the things too is like the rub on kware is he can struggle with physicality right like he’s just not a very tough type of of big right and like give me that in Miami system if over anywhere else in terms of a system that breeds toughness that’s going to get him in the weight room that’s going to have him in the peak version of himself physically that’s going to hold him accountable that’s going to be that’s going to give him tough love I think like that’s the kind of thing like a lot of times you have to you have to find a way to drive that toughness out of them and and and kind of like uh like kind of get them to fight where they can struggle to fight sometimes and so I kind of like the culture of Miami as a foundation to help KH wear uh get going and and once again like that’s just kind of if you’re it’s an upside pick in the sense that if you’re dreaming about what the modern NBA Center looks like it’s the ability to stretch the floor shot over 40% from three last year I’ll be it on really low volume it’s the ability to stretch the floor and the ability to protect the rim with real vertical presence on the other end of the floor but it also brings that vertical uh spacing on the offensive end so I like that pick for Miami so the three biggest like stories that I thought were interesting in terms of like interesting aggressive moves it it had to do with three uh all three of them kind of had to do with bizarre circumstances right so the Timberwolves get Rob Dillingham we’re going to talk about that just had to do with the trading up right this is a team that was in the Conference finals last year that managed to get a top 10 pick via a giving future draft compensation then we have Zach Edy going to Memphis this is a pick that was available to Memphis because of the fact that they had this really bad season because John Morant was out because Marcus Smart was hurt so much so we have a really good team that drafted towards the top a really good team that traded towards the top and then Dalton connect a top 10 Prospect by most uh by most of the people that I trust covering the draft dton connect was one of the top 10 Prospects Falls all the way to 17 to the Los Angeles Lakers so those are the three kind of bigger picture story lines that we’re going to hit here in the next couple of minutes so let’s start with the Timberwolves getting Rob Dillingham so I look at Rob as kind of like a smaller version of Malik monk he was an overtime Elite guy and he trans ER to Kentucky and was immediately one of the best shot creators in the country he was 87th percentile among pick and roll players at high volume he’s already a really good pull-up shooter he’s got a deadly floater he shot 53% of them uh shot 53% on them this year at Kentucky he made some strides as a playmaker that was his biggest weakness when he was with overtime Elite basically just dribbling up the floor and shooting every single time and you know we uh we talked to Damen Wilkins on Monday and he made some good points about the fact that like that’s what he does and you want to lean into that but the growth as a playmaker is important because if you want to be a sixth man who just comes off the bench and shoots every time sure but if you want to be a functional part who plays significant rotation minutes on a great team you’re going to have to be able to play alongside other good basketball players and he did make some strides in in that area of the game at Kentucky Super explosive off the balance he has good start stop quickness a deadly like left-handed High hesitation dribble where he’ll like come to a complete stop and then shoot out of a cannon can really beat people off the dribble but the big thing that’s exciting to me as far as the fit with Minnesota he is a straight up deadly off ball shooter he shot 50% field goal percentage on unguarded jump shots this year that came out to 1.48 points per shot 48% overall field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots regardless of whether or not they were guarded he was a 97th percentile spot up player he got 1.3 points per possession those are like Michael Porter junr type of numbers right so the biggest weakness with Rob is that he’s small right and that can obviously cause cause some issues for him defensively but he does play hard and he does compete he’s got a good motor so like Minnesota makes a ton of sense for me in terms of a fit for Rob because if you had to construct a team that would allow him to have an achievable defensive role it would be on a team like this that has multiple Elite perimeter Defenders and an elite rim protector because what that means is Rob is most likely going to be on a movement shooter like any sort of on ball dribble Creator you’re going to put ant on you’re going to put Jaden McDaniels on right you’re going to ask uh Rob Dillingham to got guard a shooter who’s either operating on the weak side or maybe occasionally coming off of some screening actions that’s an achievable role for him right and then like yeah he’s going to be attacked in some ball screen situations where they bring his man up into the screen but he’s quick enough to throw a hedge and recover again like that was the thing what caused issues for Luca in the finals was he’s not fast enough to hedge and recover so he basically has no choice but to guard and he can’t guard and so it became an issue as Boston continued to get dribble penetration on him like the when it comes to weak Defenders you just have to have the ability to do something in terms of the game plan and as long as he can chase Shooters around and as long as he can functionally hedge and recover to protect himself from getting attacked in switches I think he can I think it can work not to mention in terms of uh in his lock and Trail situations he’s going to be in a pretty good spot from the standpoint of having Rudy go bear behind him and just the overall amount of length and athleticism behind him to kind of anchor him on that end of the floor and again he competes and and he competes and he’s got the quickness those are things that that I think make it uh doable things I like he’s just an absolute flamethrower off ball score and after what we saw happen to Minnesota in the Dallas series where Dallas just loads up the strong side and and just any of those swing passes to n Alexander Walker Jaden McDaniels or Kyle Anderson or whatever there just wasn’t enough off ball scoring Pop to make Dallas pay for loading up the strong side right especially with Rudy gobear who can really cause problems for the offense with his inability to catch and finish in traffic around the basket right so like Minnesota is uniquely set up to benefit from Rob dillingham’s strengths while also covering for Rob dillingham’s weaknesses and then in addition to that he fits a positional need Mike Conley’s 36 years old he’s going to start this year he’s going to be their primary guy in that position but he help Rob as a mentor if Conley has to sit out games he can slide into that role and over time if he shows the ability to compete defensively and shows that his scoring his flamethrower scoring can help uh in that backourt that could be his spot to take my one concern he’s not a natural playmaker he’s getting better at it but it’s not a natural thing for him and I don’t love the idea of having your back court be two ball handlers that both aren’t great passers right like an’s getting better but that’s not his natural strength either either and I would argue that overall ball movement in that fiveman grouping for Minnesota is one of their biggest weaknesses offensively right that’s how you beat teams that load up the strong side we talked about this a lot uh yesterday when we were kind of breaking down some of the five out stuff like you need to get the ball side to side if like imagine it like this if you have the three-point line and everyone’s loaded up on the strong side you need to get the ball to the other side so that defense has to shift and with multiple side to side shifts that’s where you can find cracks in the defense that you can take advantage of and you’re just not going to get those opportunities unless you have a certain amount of playmaking on the floor so that’s my one concern but that’s another thing that like if Rob can get better at it in the long run especially under Mike Conley’s tutelage it makes a lot of sense and I do I do like the off Ball scoring piece and ants development as a playmaker will help a lot in that regard as well um okay the Grizzlies and zachi this I want to look at this from two angles first I want to talk about zachi kind of in a vacuum as an NBA player and then we’ll talk about his fit in Memphis can Zack Ed play in the NBA that’s the big debate that everyone’s been talking about over the last few weeks and it’s a lot of like radical like he’s going to be awesome or he’s not going to be able to play at all and to me the answer is really simple he’ll certainly be able to play in some matchups when he can run drop coverage on defense meaning against teams that can’t really force him to guard in space and teams that can’t run him off the floor in transition when he’s in those situations he won’t just be playable he’ll be good cuz he’s huge and he’s a smart basketball player who knows how to use his size on offense he’ll set great screens and he’ll roll into the lane for deep seals and buckets around the rim and on defense he’s going to protect the paint and clean up the defensive glass he is a functional big man when he’s able to be close to the rim and when he can’t be capitalized on in space right but he’s definitely going to struggle against the pace and space type of teams that can run him up and down the floor and force him to guard on the perimeter but this is something that Memphis is set up to deal with Memphis can function as a team with jiren Jackson at the five and with jiren Jackson at the four right especially with the rise of GJ GG Jackson who I really like as a forward that can shoot the ball that you put next to jiren Jackson in their smaller looks you can actually see it all look work together right like here’s Memphis in a matchup against Minnesota a team that you can load up the strong side against and you’re not as worried about Rudy goar forcing Ed to guard in space or uh a Minnesota like just kind of running up and down the floor and transition right like in those situations you load you go big it’s Edy at the five it’s jiren Jackson at the four operating as the low man you can allow Ed to be aggressive on the ball handler and use his length to Kind Of Swarm there jiren Jackson’s running that back line you have GG Jackson is another layer of athleticism on the wing or maybe it’s maybe you can go smaller with that group and have Smart Bank and johnar out there but if you’re playing against the Golden State Warriors or uh or the Indiana Pacers a team that’s really going to like force Edy to cover a ton of ground and really kind of expose some of his quickness issues that’s where it may it might make more sense to take him out of the lineup go with jiren Jackson at the five GG Jackson at the four with smart Bane and johnar right like the idea here is is like Edy is only going to be functional in the NBA in certain types of situations but those specific types of situations are the only situations that Memphis is really looking at to use Ed anyway and so the fit makes a ton of sense when Memphis can load up the strong side and keep Edy by the rim he’s their big look when they can’t they have jiren Jackson his ability to play at the five and they can put a lineup out there with uh jiren Jackson GG Jackson Bane smart and John Morant where they just have a ton of perimeter speed the ability to contain on the ball a plenty of offensive skill and spacing right so like it makes a ton of sense and like I actually think Memphis is going to be a dominant regular season team next year like I think they’re going to be right back in that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Memphis got a top four seed next year so like Ed is going to have a small and achievable role alongside good role players I love the fit I’m excited to watch Ed play in Memphis and then lastly before we get out of here uh the Lakers getting dton connect so Dalton was by most of the people that I trust ranked as a top 10 Prospect in this class he does not represent something that the Lakers specifically need right like if I was listing the things that the Lakers need I would put it down to three specific types of players I think that they I I think Austin at the one is perfect or Austin at the two is perfect however you want to call it I one two doesn’t really matter to me on this particular team because they run five out and everyone operates with the ball so it’s more like backcourt right I like Austin is one of the backourt guys I like LeBron at the four and AD at the five I think those are all guys that are good enough to win a championship in those roles the problem is they were running DLo and D’Angelo Russell and Ru hamura at the two and the three DLo was redundant with Austin and that forced Austin to be your primary point of attack Defender and ruie was redundant with LeBron which forced ruy to chase Michael Porter Jr around screens which literally was one of the things that got them beat against Denver is as uh just ruy just kept losing him right especially when they shifted back to Anthony Davis on Nicole joic so like as far as the Lakers go there are three players that I think they need they need a guard to put next to Austin who is an athlete a guard who can beat people off the dribble and guard on the perimeter it needs to be a a starting caliber two-way athletic guard right at the three they need a guy who is the opposite of LeBron instead of a big bruising forward that functions more as a low man they need a slender more athletic forward that is quick and can work on the perimeter that can guard people over the top of screens guard rangy athletic scoring Wings they need athletes at the two and three that actually function in those positions and then lastly they need a five that will allow them to function defensively when Anthony Davis is off the floor they got very lucky this season with Anthony Davis staying healthy but chances are he’s going to miss 15 to 20 games this year and if you’re going to contend in those situations you got to have a better Center so they need three players they need a athlete two that can play both ends an athlete three that can play both ends to starting caliber players and then they need a bench big that can actually function as the foundation of a defense when Anthony Davis is off the floor those are the three biggest needs Dalton connect does not fit into that that said at 17 he was the best player available and he will immediately be able to ha help the Lakers as a weapon for them off the bench to qu I’m going to start before we get into Dalton Dalton’s evaluation I’m going to share just a quote from s en’s draft guide he straight up said Dalton’s the best off ball scorer in this class that is immediately functional within the Lakers offense especially when you don’t need him to be on the ball the rub with Dalton connect was like against super Elite defenses that had tons of length and athleticism he struggled to create on the ball so the question is will he be able to create on the ball in the NBA and who knows we’ll find out in the next few years but the Lakers don’t need him to right away what the Lakers need him to do is come into the game off the bench and Be an Effective part of their five out offense and Dalton is going to be excellent at that right away first of all he has an extended track record of being a great shooter consistently throughout his career at the uh in the Big Sky at Tennessee in juko this dude can just knock down three-point shots last year at Tennessee he shot 42% on catch and shoot jump shots 1.24 points per uh points per shot unguarded he shot 47% field goal percentage 1.38 points per shot just a deadly shooter he can knock him down on the move he can knock him down off the dribble he can knock him down in spot up situations he was a deadly closeout attacker as well he converted um he converted spot up possessions at 1.22 points per possession that’s in the 94th percentile so just a deadly off ball score but the big thing that I’m excited about is he brings a transition athleticism piece which is going to function really well with a Lakers team that loves to push especially like LeBron loves to throw those kick ahead passes LeBron loves it when athletes run on the wing he’s going to throw those kick ahads and Dalton’s going to get those opportunities to kind of snake two-on ones and or attack one-on-one in transition and use his athleticism towards the rim the other thing that really excited me as I watched Dalton uh film over the last week he’s a really good cutter they Tennessee would run a lot of like weak side action where they be like two or three guys weaving around screens and then he would just slip and cut to the basket hit him with a bounce pass he can quickly pop off of two feet and dunk in traffic he caught a lot of bodies this year on Cuts towards the rim and so when I think about a five out offense and I think about you know JJ reck implementing three-man action or you know while Austin LeBron are running ball screens you’re going to have weak side action with Dalton connect and Anthony Davis and who whoever it is that’s out there on the weak side he’s going to get lots of opportunities to cut along the Baseline and to cut from the uh from the from the slot that’s a team that’s going to be able to capitalize on that Austin and LeBron are going to hit him on a ton of those cuts he’s going to do a lot of finishing around the rim so like the offensive fit with the Lakers is absolute shoe in perfect he is a proven shooter right away who can shoot it from deep and can shoot it in every single possible way that is going to fit immediately and he can make good reads as a cutter off the ball the five out system the concern was his on ball decision making is he too much of a score can he read defenses that don’t matter he can figure that out in the long run if he needs to but within this Lakers team what similar to what I said about Memphis with Edie or excuse me uh Minnesota with Rob Dillingham they are set up to accentuate his strengths and to hide his weaknesses at this point now the defensive end that’s the major concern with Dalton connect a couple different things first of all he does have the athletic tools he’s about 65 a half without shoes on he’s got a 610 Wings span excellent frame excellent athlete right so like now there’s some questions about his lateral quickness but he actually tested okay on that at the combine so like he’s got the tools to be a functional Defender he just wasn’t good at it he struggles to contain on the ball was inent inattentive off the ball they those were issues for Dalton right those are the things he’s going to have to figure out if he wants to be more than just a bench rle player for the Lakers right but again in this situation especially when he’s going to have opportunities alongside Anthony Davis who can clean up a lot of mistakes he’s going to have time to try to figure it out and again I don’t view Dalton as the shoe in two I don’t think like who knows maybe dton does earn the starting spot I I doubt it though like I don’t view Dalton as a starting two or three for this Laker team I view him as a immediate ready-made role player off the bench on the wing and so to me like I get way more concerned about like the defensive upside and what he’s capable of for those two and three that I talked about in terms of who’s going to close games for the Lakers in big moments and yeah if Dalton’s going to be that he’s going to have to make massive improvements defensively but I I’m not as worried about it in terms of the fit for the Lakers because I view him as more of a bench weapon right and that’ll be the thing Dalton competes Dalton has the tools so Dalton is capable of being equality NBA Defender uh at least a functional NBA Defender he’s just going to have to put in the work and that’s the big question mark every player in this draft has question marks that’s Dalton’s question mark he’s going to have to figure out how to compete on the defensive end at the NBA level all right so that’s just like an instant reaction to the first round of the draft we’re going to have a bunch of draft content uh coming out um over the next week I want to do some film stuff on some specific players like I’ll put some film together on uh on Rob Dillingham and I’ll put some film together on Dalton connect and we’ll do some uh some videos like that we’re also going to be doing a mailbag tomorrow so make sure you guys drop uh I think that’s most likely going to be tomorrow’s show is just some we’re going to do some film sessions on a couple of guys and then we’re going to do a mailbag at the end so drop your mailbag questions in YouTube comments we’ll get to them tomorrow as always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me in the show we’ll see you guys then [Music]

Jason Timpf reacts to Round 1 of the NBA Draft featuring Zach Edey joining Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies, Dalton Knecht falling to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, and Anthony Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves trading up for Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham. Jason also shares his thoughts on the Top 5 selections including Zaccharie Risacher going to the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 1 overall pick, Alex Sarr heading to the Wizards at No. 2, and Reed Sheppard joining a young Houston Rockets team.

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:35 – 1. Hawk: Zaccharie Risacher
03:49 – 2. Wizards: Alex Sarr
05:49 – 3. Rockets: Reed Sheppard
08:01 – 4. Spurs: Stephon Castle
09:22 – 5. Pistons: Ron Holland II
12:37 – Why Kel’el Ware fits with Heat
15:52 – Timberwolves trade for Rob Dillingham
21:20 – Grizzlies draft Zach Edey
24:49 – Lakers steal Dalton Knecht

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