NBA Draft First Round Midnight Reactions!!!

as prom is late night, wednesday night, right after the draft. We have analysis, we have thought, we have thoughts, we have observations. We also have what the hell happened like we got some teams and we really need to have like an actual therapy session on and we will be getting to all of that. Welcome to front runner podcast. Collective nba draft special right after the first round. I am your host. Vince Soraya will be producing this show. She will be on the ones and twos, silently assassinating all the stats, all the quotes that I will need to get to you on this very intriguing 2025 NBA Draft 2025 NBA draft.

Now we will start with the biggest non-secret of the draft, which was literally the top three picks. Cooper Flagg went one to the Dallas Mavericks. We all knew that was going to happen. Generational talent, two-way player shades of Scottie Pippenen, shades of kawhi leonard. So uh, jonathan gavone says uh, we will have to see on that, you know. Then dylan harper went to san antonio, which we all knew that was going to happen, and the thing that we did know is that Vijay Edgecombe was going three to the Philadelphia 76ers. You might have thought hey, ace Bailey, what have you? Keep in mind, they already have Tyrese Maxey. They already have Joel Embiid. Having Ace Bailey would have been terrible for them. You know, having ace Bailey would have been Terrible for them.

But getting somebody like VJ edge comb, I think you talk about an elite athlete. He is all defensive tools and if the shooting comes around Now, the draw, you would think, would start at four. I personally think that con canoe pull would start at four. I personally think that con canoople at four with the charlotte hornets. To me this signals the maturity level of the new franchise, or not the new franchise, the new ownership group, the new leadership group of the charlets? Um, they have really. I thought they did an excellent job with Brandon Miller a couple years ago.

I thought that the situation with uh, with Tejon Salon, also made some sense. And now you have a situation where you get con canoe and it was awesome. Here's a guy who is going to be connected. Here's a guy who is going to be good scorer, plays pretty good defense for somebody who supposedly lacks the athleticism, supposedly lacks all the you know uh agility situations that you would hope for out of number four pick. The one thing that I do know is that the kid works extremely hard. He also is one of these kids that will, um, get in the lab and get into the tape and start to look at your tendencies and get himself together when it comes to those type of things. So for me, personally, I love the con canoople pick because it seemed like we're trying to put grown-ups in charlotte for the first time last couple years. Grown-up picks, grown-up selections we'll talk about the mark williams trade. That happened as well.

Um, now, this is where the draft started. Number five right utah is on the clock. Danny ange, his son, austin, running the draft. Salt lake city all the buzz. And you're thinking, is it going to be All the buzz? And you're thinking, is it going to be Jeremiah Fears? Is it going to be Igor Demin from BYU? That seemed like a, a reach. Then you got, you know, maybe Common Mollewak.

People were talking that, even though they have Walker Kessler. But they did the thing. They stared down Ace. They stared down Ace Bailey. Now, ace Bailey, if you don't know, he did not work out for any NBA team. He was the only College kid To not work out For any NBA team, what so ever. He was trying to maneuver himself to either the Washington Wizards or the Brooklyn Nets. This is from the little snooping around that I've done. His camp was looking to get to this point in time, get to this situation, and the Angels stared him down and said no, son, you'll be coming to salt lake city, you, with your bling and your lifestyle that you want to live. That's probably over in salt lake city. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you'll be balling for the jazz, so take note of that. So ace bailey goes to the utah jazz. We are like whoa, whoa, okay, now we got it cooking. Then, once that happens, poor washington is just sitting there going like again, we're always one pick off again. Now consolation prize for them Trey Johnson, out of Texas, a smooth shooting guard, smooth shooting guard out of Texas, fearless. He needs to get stronger. Obviously His defensive consistency needs to get better, but we're also talking about somebody who is like 19 years of age as well. That solves that one. We think that will get better.

Now the Pelicans in pick. Jeremiah Fears out of Oklahoma, smaller guard. Now here's the thing they wow New Orleans, make some head scratching picks. And when I saw this I was like wait, hold on. They got Jordan Poole. Now I'm not saying that Jordan Poole is long for New Orleans. But what I was thinking to myself was Washington just got rid of Jordan Poole because they didn't think that he was a good mentor for the younger players that they had. So then you get Jordan Poole down to the Pelicans and I'm thinking, okay, well, maybe he's the stopgap between DeJounte Murray, because my first thought was like isn't DeJounte Murray coming back next year? And maybe they know that he's not going to be ready until sometime later on in the in the season. But then when they drafted Jeremiah Fears, I was sitting here going wait, hold on. So you now have Fears, dejounte Murray and Jordan Poole.

But here's the best part about New Orleans. This is not the most head-scratching move they made all night. We'll get to it later. The most head-scratching move they made happened later on in the evening. So as we start to go down these picks, brooklyn then takes Igor Denim of B byu. It was another kind of head scratcher, but we were like okay, long connective piece. You know, if you're thinking about resigning, cam thomas, this is the perfect guy to put next to him. A big, taller, you know, offensive hub, offensive initiator, great, just a wizard as a passer, definitely going to upgrade your offense, be able to get you into good shots and what have you Love this whole situation Now, as far as the score, as far as all that, I don't know. But maybe you're thinking like, hey, we still got Cam Johnson, we got a couple other people. Maybe this is the way we're going. Trust me, there's some other Brooklyn picks that we will also be Head scratching about momentarily.

Now the Raptors come up at nine and I think this is the spot where Common Mollewak goes off the board. Right, I am thinking, okay, you got Jakub Pertl there, getting a little bit older, you know he's also becoming a little more expensive. Here is your chance to go ahead and get a young, very defensive minded, big, also a good kid, hard-working kid. What have you? And who do the Toronto Raptors take?

They take Colin Murray Boyles out of South Carolina, and I thought to myself hold on, here's a multi positional defender. He's a. You know he's a lefty, you know he can switch on to any position on the court. He needs to work on his jumper, because his jumper is just like wildly inconsistent. He needs to find whatever his offensive kind of dna is going to be. But I was thinking to myself like, hold on, don't you have scotty warrens? Don't you already have rj barrett? Don't you already have brandon ingram? So you got another wing and you got another guy who a lot of people want to compare colin murray boils to our guy draymond green, and the thing about that is is that what makes Draymond Green special is the freedom that Steve Kerr gives him. Well, if Darko gives Colin Murray Boyles the same kind of freedom, that's going to take away from our guy Scotty Barnes.

So I didn't understand that pick either. Now, I do like the player, I like the talent. I just don't know how it necessarily fits with the team and what the concept is which then leads us to 10. And then the Phoenix Suns. You sit there and you go oh my god, what are they about to do? Right, they just got their pick back and they draft Common Mollewak from Duke and I thought okay, we are back to normal. Here we go. Phoenix made a great pick. Here we go.

Here's a defensive-minded center. He is in the mode of like a Nick Claston kind, of Mitchell Robinson type. I think he will be absolutely a offensive, re, offensive, rebounding machine. I think he'll be great at rim protection. I think he's more of a drop covered big than he is like a switchable big. But people are telling me that his feet, his footwork, is a lot better than what it showed at duke and once they clean up some of the movesets and things of that nature, that he will be able to slide his puppies to the point where he will be able to switch on to smaller players. Now I am not 100 sold on that. That is something I will have to see through his developmental process.

But as of right now, the one thing that you do know about this kid is this he is not just a good kid, this is a hard-working kid. This kid wants it. You saw it on his face, all the emotion that he showed during the draft. I mean it. I mean as an old man, you know, my heart melted a little bit and I was like, wow, how can you not, you know, root for a kid like this? All that he's gone through, you know, coming from South Sudan, getting involved with NBA Africa and their developmental system and then coming over it has been a wild ride for malouak. But I trust the kid, I trust the habits and I think that the phoenix suns actually made a really good pick here. Now will he be able to do all the things that they think he can do. I don't know, they might have to adjust their thought process on that, but I I'd like to be able to give him the runway to, to be able to learn those, those situations and go from there. So that's where we are with the top 10. So malua goes 10 to the suns and then all hell breaks.

First and foremost, I want to paint a picture for you. We on this podcast talk about our love for desmond bang and, when memphis drafted him, how we were so excited because this was the one guy like early on in our processes when we were like literally doing this on mics. You know, when we were talking about player evaluations, desmond Bain was one of our guys. Lo and behold, we have talked about Cedric Howard being one of our guys. We told you about his story he comes for. Now. Here's the part about the Division 3 thing that I did not know until tonight. That man went to Division 3, william Nett. He paid $25,000 out of his pocket to play at William Nett. Then he goes on to Division I, plays at Eastern Washington and then plays at Washington State and then gets drafted, and I knew as soon as it was announced. I was like my God, kleiman and Tayshaun, prince, and all the fellas the fellas down in Memphis.

I know our guy Chris Vernon right now is jumping for joy because Cedric Coward is a Memphis Grizzly, the six foot five wing, who shoots it like 40 percent. He has a seven foot two wingspan at six foot five. He loves to defend hard working kid. Uh, high motor defender moves off the ball well and he processes the game so um, like compactly, and he's such a good decision maker. Now, does he have like a lot of on-ball juice? No, he's more of a 3 and D guy. He'll make like the right pass, you know, when he gets the ball. He's not a type of guy that I'm going to make a lot of creative passes. You don't want him on wall the whole time, but if you want him to shoot it, you want him to make a quick decision and then you want him to defend his ass off. Cedric Howard can do that and he can do it at a high level and he will start in his role in that situation. I love this kid.

This is. This is one of my guys out of the 2025 draft. This is the dude that I was like, yep, this is the guy I'm putting my, I'm putting my staff on. Cedric coward is my guy. I get one a year and he was the one. I love him and here we are. So I think he's gonna be plug and play now. Keep in mind, they just lost desmond bay. Now jaylen wells is there. He's coming off an injury. So this is great insurance and memphis just does this. They just do this all the time. I'm so excited for what they've done here. This is such a great pick. Then chicago comes up. They drive noah asengway. We will see, we will see on that level.

Um, a lot of people have, uh, real, have real high hopes for him. His upside what have you? He flashes on d. He is very, very quick for his size because he's 6'10, he's 230, he's an animal. On defense, uh, he can draw a lot of fouls and things of that nature. My whole thing is is that can he shoot right now? No, does he have a loose handle? 100? Is he a good passer? Absolutely not. Defensive consistency is up and down. But here's the kicker.

Kid is 18.

I don't know what you were like when you were 18, but I was a complete and utter well, other than the baseball. I was a maniac at 18. I didn't know. You know where to put my head, how to do it, whatever the case may be. But if this kid can figure it out, you're betting on the tools, you're betting on the athleticism. And if the motor is as high as what people think it is, we shall see.

He is very raw. This is the. It's so funny that Chicago picked this guy, because this is basically the patrick williams bet all over again. So you remember when patrick williams was drafted and they talked about how athletic he was and like, if the shot comes around and how tools he is and things of that nature. This is the same thing for this kid. He's raw, toolsy, big with flashes, fits the modern nba size athlete profile. What needs major skill development now the great thing is is that he's on the team with Modest Boozellus. He's on the team with Josh Giddey, he's on the team with Kobe White. So as far as ball handling responsibilities and things of that nature, he doesn't have to do a thing. When it comes to that Like right now we need you to finish, we need you to stand in the corner, shoot threes and we need you to defend like a banshee. Can you do that? And if he can fall into that role, then we think we got a player.

But this is for Chicago Bulls fans. Every time we say the name Patrick Williams, you know it reminds. I'm sure there are a lot of Chicago Bulls fans out there that start to kind of flinch and twitch, kind of like Smokey in the chicken coop during Friday. Y'all y'all seen the movie. Y'all know what I'm talking about. I'm holding my observations on this one. I do understand that this is, you know, a upside play.

I was, I was really shocked that that chicago took this, this kid, not because of the fact that this isn't the right play, I'm just saying I would have thought they would have shied away from it because of how bad the patrick williams thing went. Now this gets me to our thing that we need to discuss. We're gonna spend a little time on this one. I told you new orleans was gonna come back. I told you new orleans was gonna come back and here we are. So at 13 new orleans trades up with at Atlanta. Now you would say okay, and then who they got? You would go even better, because New Orleans gets Derrick Queen, a 6'10 big from Maryland. We'll talk about him in a second. We love the kid, whatever, but this is what we need to talk about. You move up, orleans moves up. Now remember joe dumars and troy weaver. And if you remember the name, troy weaver, he was in detroit a couple years ago and we remember how bad that was going.

Detroit does not want to think about Troy Weaver at all. We personally don't want to really think about Troy Weaver because it gives us like really bad nightmares about what happened. It's not that you trade it up for the pick, it's what you gave up on the back end of it. You gave up a unprotected 2026 pick and you go well, do they have a ton of talent? This is definitely a team that's like a top two or three seed in the West, right? No, we know that new Orleans is not that they are in a kind of I don't know what they are it's. You know it's a transitional period. You can definitely tell by what they're. You know it's a transitional period. You can definitely tell by what they're doing with the roster right now, because we're about to get into the Derek Queen of this whole thing. But let's focus in on the 2026 pick. They put no protections on this thing whatsoever.

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but the little work that I've done so far I've done some work on it. Now the 2026 draft is supposed to be very good. Now I'm going to hold judgment for that one, because I was on here saying that the 2025 draft was going to be super awesome and with some people going back to college and what have you maybe not as awesome as we thought it was going to be. I think there are a lot of good players in this draft. Personally, I think it's a lot deeper than the 2024 draft. I think there are starters all over this place littered in this draft where I thought there were role players in the 2024 draft. With all that being said, we sit here and you give up an unprotected pick in a draft that's supposed to be at least if you want to talk about the top, let's say just the lottery. Right, the lottery has a lot of dudes in it, that, a lot of people that do this uh, not from my level I'm talking about who are actually working in nba front offices. They are salivating over and you give up a unprotected 2026 pick.

Does anybody remember what happened to joe dumars and why he got ran out of town in detroit. It's so funny, new orleans. Takes the two dudes that got run out of town in detroit now. One was like 15, 16 years ago and one was very recent, but still the same exact situation. These guys, dumar and Troy Rebert, get run out of town for bad decision making, uh, bad trades, uh things that just kind of fell apart on them. You know, we can't blame them for everything, but we can't blame them for making terrible draft picks and terrible moves. Right, we can't do that. And now they're down in new orleans, they're running new orleans and you do something like this. It's like you didn't even settle into your seat, we don't even know if you broke your, your, uh, your office chair in yet and you're making just mind-numbingly bad trades and I just don't understand it.

Here's what we will say about derrick queen we love him as a player. Now you're gonna have to put some stuff around him. Now you're gonna have to put some stuff around him. But if we're talking about offensive hub, we're talking about the playmaking ability. Think alperin shangoon. Think, uh, demontis to bonus, but with better feet, because this dude is quick nimble, what have you? He has elite touch passing uh, a lot of skill, a lot of dribble drive skill for somebody as big as he is uh, he's consistent, high level production everywhere he's been.

His conditioning tell me if you heard this before. His conditioning leaves a lot to be desired. He has defensive limitations because of his agility issues which are factored into his weight. His shooting needs some improvement and it will be the big swing of what turns him into an absolute superstar or a role player. This sounds like Zion Williamson a little bit. How good did that go? And here's the thing it wouldn't be so bad if you didn't give up the 2026 unprotected first. I wouldn't be sitting here talking about this for as long as I am if you wouldn't have gave up the 2026 first.

Bottom line on the kid though high skill level for a big. He has unique passing skills and a an outstanding outlet game. Um, he can be a 20 and 10 guy if the conditioning comes around. His fit with zion is questionable because they kind of do all some of the same things because point zion is a real thing and guess what? Derrick queen would be kind of the same old and he's too skilled to totally bust but his, if you want to say his ceiling and his floor right. I think he has a lower floor because of the conditioning. If the conditioning was better, you know, we would not worry about like soft tissue injuries and things of that nature with him. But because of the fact that he's in new orleans, it's a new regime and you know we I would have loved if this kid would have went to like a miami or something like that, where you know like they get down with the conditioning, they get down with the whole health regimen programming and all that sort of thing.

But I was absolutely shocked about this. When you sit there and you move up 10 spots and you're like, okay, and it's not like you're moving up 10 spots where it's the fifth overall selection, 13 is literally one pick away from the end of the lottery. So usually the person who's getting drafted 13 has some warts Right, has some thoughts where it's not like a can't miss type person. Atlanta in two years in a row have fleeced the New Orleans Pelicans Because, remember, they traded DeJounte Murray and got Dyson Daniels and some other stuff. Dyson Daniels becomes a all-defensive player, dejounte Murray gets hurt and I think also there were picks involved in that. Atlanta got picks in that. Then this year they move down 10 spots and they get an unprotected 2026 pick and people don't want to make trades with the Lakers Because they think like they're going to get taken to the cleaners. Hey, atlanta's out here doing people dirty. Okay, they out here making moves. I don't know if they got some pictures on some people. I don't know if there's some high stakes, uh, coercion going on. I have no idea what for them to be able to get away with this kind of pilfering two years in a row to the same team. Buddy, buddy. Can't do it, can't do it, won't do it can be, can be a part of it.

Now the San Antonio Spurs. They pick Carter Bryant, the wing, out of Arizona. Now, he didn't play a lot at Arizona but a lot of people love him. They love his upside what-have-you, his. His offensive game is pretty basic, but his defensive size, his competitive spirit and he has defensive plus instincts when tracking either the player or the ball. He is very, very good at what he does. Now he can stand into a corner and shoot the three. We're gonna even be better. We are at the midway point, like literally at the midway point.

We are talking about the oklahoma city thunder. Now here's the thing that I want to say. The first thing that I want to say Congratulations to the OKC Thunder for winning their first championship. We gave them some flowers on our last podcast, but I think it's worth bringing up again Congratulations on winning your first title. So what do the Oklahoma City Thunder do to celebrate their first title? They go out here and make another good, dead-ass, solid pick. That's what they did. Sam Presti is like listen, did you think that for one second? I was going to rest on my laurels? Ain't happening. I'm Sam, sam prestey, you know what I'm saying. I get it done. That's what I do. I make good trades, I make good decisions and we build championship rosters. That's what we do here at oklahoma city. So oklahoma city watches all this stuff happen above them, right, all this happened and they get the best.

To me, the best big man in this draft in thomas sorber. And people will say well, vince, hold on, there's other people in this draft. How can you honestly say that? How can you honestly say you're not gonna give those accolades to, you know, to the wings or whatever? No, no, no, no. Think about what I said. He's the best big man in this draft. He's 6'9", almost 6'10", and you would say, okay, he has a 7'6 wingspan. Super long arms, just super long arms. Here's the best part about him he's going to know his role. He's going to know his role and he's going to do it to the highest levels and he's gonna star in his role. So, as hartenstein, who is going to be making like 26 million dollars, he's the eventual successor. I can see them holding on to Hardenstein for one more year.

And then the skill set and the footwork and the ability to score the basketball. He has tremendous hands. His hands are like I mean, they're like baseball mitts. They're huge Catches, everything he rebounds Exquisitely for for his size he's a great rim protector, drop coverage, big, no doubt, but can move the feet to the point where he can come up and hedge and then get back to the, to the roller. I mean there's a lot of things to like about Thomas Swerber. And then here's the best part about him is that Sam Presti says something in his press conference at the end of the season, and it's something that he said throughout his time. And I think, as we started to figure out how good Sam Presti was at his job, out how good sam pressy was at his job.

He talks about people and he talks about their makeup and he talks about we want good citizens here. Do you got good parents? You know they give a shit about you. What's your self-esteem like? Are you a additive to the community or are you a hindrance to your community? How are you in the locker room? And I'm not talking about with your teammates, I'm talking about with, like, equipment, managers and, uh, support staff and things of that nature. And all the things that come back on.

Thomas sorber is this is that he's an excellent kid. He's a hard worker. He treated everybody not just fairly, but he treated them like they were important. He knew the names of the support staff. He knew the names of the people that were like around the program and what have you. He can say good day to the janitor, or he can say good day to the president Of the university. This kid Is a model citizen. He works his ass off and he is going to fit Right in To what Oklahoma City does.

Sam Presti has done it again. Done it again. It is absolutely amazing that we are going to give this man praise again about a draft pick. Keep in mind, he's already got 15 players under contract right now. How many people can you have on a basketball team? You say to me 15. So there's some decisions to be made. But I will tell you this Thomas Sorber is a part of the future.

And I would say to the other Jalen Williams, not J-Dub, but the big from Arkansas hey man, I think you need to get real familiar with Zillow, okay, like you need to get real familiar. Also, if you have a home in Oklahoma City, you need to start talking to your realtor. Put that bad boy on the market, maybe give it to uh sorbert, because he's taking your position. So now we get to the other head scratching moment of the joe cronin and the Portland Trailblazers are on the clock at 16. Okay.

So now I want to, I want you to hear some of the names that come in after this pick, but I just I need you to understand where I was with this. So Johan Berenger is out there. Now, I know that's a stretch right there. Kasper Jakacunas hasn't been drafted yet. Now I know Portland has a ton of guards, so that doesn't make a lot of sense. Will Riley is out there. Drake Powell is out there. Asa Newell is out there. Okay, asa Newell is out there Now, maybe a little rich, but I'm thinking like, hey, you know 16. Hey, he's a big kid. Try hard, kid. You need rebounding, you need athleticism. And you also already have Donovan.

Now think about this. Portland already has Donovan Klingin, who they drafted last year in the lottery. They have DeAndre Ayton, who was the first overall pick in the Luka Doncic draft, right, so Luka Doncic goes third. Deandre Ayton goes first to the Phoenix Suns. Now they have him as well. They also have Nickards. No, I'm sorry, this is portland, sorry, I was thinking of phoenix for a second. They also have robert williams, the third. So you got deandre. You got donovan clinging, who needs the minutes in the development. You got often injured robert williams.

Oh, and the fourth center that I didn't talk about is duat wreath. Duat wreath is kind of like the stretch big that they have. He's like six, nine, six, ten. Um provides a lot of energy and what have you? With that being the backdrop, the portland trailblazers select hanson yang, who you would say well, huh. Well, here's the thing. Hanson yang is seven foot one. He's out of china. Uh, he has great size. He has good passing ability. Yes, he's a theoretical five out type of dude, major defensive questions. With the lateral quickness and the strength he is unlikely to establish NBA position early on in his development arc. And again, he would be the fifth center on the Portland Trailblazers.

So I know there's probably trades coming, but my whole thing is that this kid was ranked 48th on Sam Vicini's draft board 48th. So why is this a stunner? Not just because he was 48th and he was supposed to be a late second round pick, which that should be enough, but then you you couple that with they already had like three. They had three, let's put it this way. They had three bigs that played deandre ayton, donovan clinging and di and DeOtt Reeve. Those three played.

Now Robert Williams is a guy who is always nursing some sort of injury. Unfortunately he cannot stay healthy. It is so unfortunate because he is so talented. But you draft somebody with your 16 overall pick who at best, from what I've been able to tell by watching his tape, is that he is a backup dude at best. Like at best, this is a backup dude. Like you could have took danny wolf before you took this cat. You could have took a lot of Wolf before you took this cat. You could have took a lot of people before you took this dude and nobody would have blinked. But by taking Hanson Yang with the 16th overall pick, we look at Joe Cronin and go what the hell are you doing Like? What the hell are you doing? Are you doing like what the hell are you doing?

Now, with the 17th pick, minnesota gets johan beringer, who is a french kid who played in the german league this last year very bouncy, best moving, big in the class with flexibility, twitch and hands, high character upside with this kid. But he's raw, very, very raw. You know like I don't know how much he going to get on the court at this point in time. But here's the thing that I do love about this I think he went to the right team and here's the reason why they got Rudy Gobert there. If there was anybody for this kid to learn from, it's Rudy Gobert.

This, this is the all defensive player. Okay, he has been a first team all defensive player like 10 times. He's won defensive player of the year like three or four times. If johan beringer was going to learn or be the understudy for any center and to basically mimic the behaviors and see a template for himself to succeed in the league, it would be rudy gobert. So tim conley, frpc frontrunner podcast collective, we salute you. We salute you and your, your forward thinking. It's a hell of a lot better than what we just saw with the portland pick, that's for damn sure. So, just off the note of what portland did you see? Minnesota and start contrast. One pick later and you go hmm, I wonder why they're successful and why portland is not successful. You don't have to ask that question anymore. Just looking at these picks will tell you exactly what you need to know. We move along to Utah.

Who picks up to me one of the best stories, not just in, not in the draft, but if we go back to March of this year and we start talking about the tournament and what have you? Walter clayton jr of florida was one of the best stories bar none of the actual tournament. First of all, he hit clutch shot after clutch shot. Who can forget the shot where he literally drooped like? He gets the rebound, probably about 14 feet away from the hole and with time running out, he backs up to the three point line and shoots the shot, and he hits it cold cash killer, okay, cold cash killer.

Walter Clayton Jr Goes to Utah and I don't know when he fits in With the Keontae Georges of the world, with the Isaiah Colliers of the world and whoever else. They got at guard Because they got a ton of them. But I will say this this dude can shoot the ball and he has a ton of confidence. So I don't know how they're gonna work out their guard rotation. Keep in mind jordan clarkson is still on this team, colin sexton is still on this team. You know what I'm saying and you just. And now we got walter clayton jr.

I hey, I love the kid. I think he's a good pick. I'm sure there's gonna. You can reshuffle your guard rotation and get this guy some minutes. My whole thing is is that I just want him to be able to develop and have the runway to develop, because if this kid's shooting translates into, translates into the NBA, lookout, because here's a football player that Decided to play basketball. This kid had like Major scholarships to To football programs when he was coming out of high school and he wanted to play basketball and football and he went to Iona and we know who was there at that point in time. That was Rick Patino was there and he got to shoot the lights out the ball there and then he went down to Florida, won the national championship. Bing bang, boom. You know how it goes, how you doing. Keep it moving.

Now the Brooklyn Nets come up on the board again. They drive Nolan Traore. Traore is a guard who is phenomenal as far as offensive creation. For others, he can't shoot worth a damn. So we will see how that works out. Now, if the shot comes around. You know what time it is. Now, if the shot comes around, you know what, you know what time it is, this dude is going to be box office on the on the highest level.

But if this dude does not learn how to shoot, this dude is going to be um, what was our guy's name? What was klc's guy's name? Oh my god, it's gonna kill me. What was his name? The french dude that came a couple years ago. He played for detroit. I can't remember. It's too late in the evening, I'm not gonna get into it right now, but he's gotta shoot. He hasn't shot it. He didn't shoot it. Well, uh, for his team. Uh, san quentin, in in the french league. He has to get in the lab and just take a million jump shots. That's what he needs to be doing. So we shall see then miami heat do. What miami heat does is they allow other teams to do stupid stuff so they can look really, really smart. So the Miami Heat at 20.

They take Cascaris Yacachunas, the guard, out of Illinois. He's a versatile playmaking guard. He's kind of a A Bogdan Bogdanovich With more passing. He is aessential dribble pass, shoot, superb feel and processor with great size for a ball handler or a secondary playmaker. What he can't do, he can't separate because he doesn't have the foot speed, but he does have the size. Does he need to improve his ball security? Yes, he's also 19 years of age, so sometimes that comes with age right. But I love the kid, I love the pick, because anytime that you can get somebody who can handle the ball, who can, who has that offensive awareness, has that spatial awareness that you, that you, that you can't teach, it's just like a instinct, instinctual situation. I just think these kind of guys they always play up, and what I mean by play up is that they always outperform what you think they're going to be. This guy really thinks the game through. He is usually two steps ahead of you and if given the runway, I think this kid will be an absolute contributor to the Miami Heat.

We love to pick a Kasperis Jakuc tunas to the miami heat. Is it a steal? Yes, he's just a versatile guard and also he's the. He's the playmaker that tyler hero wishes. He could be no shade towards tyler hero. It's just, this kid passes on a different level than what Tyler Hero can give you. Now the Wizards come up again and they draft Will Riley, also out of Illinois, so we have back-to-back teammates go, which was kind of cool.

This kid is 6'8". He is not 200 pounds. Okay, I will say that again. He is six foot eight and he is not 200 pounds. But when I tell you that this kid will drive the ball right into your chest because he's got no fear, he is a plus size length guy. Uh, he can be a secondary like initiator he's. He's not the fanciest passer in the world. He does have natural feel for the game and flashes of creation upside. But he gotta put on some weight. He's hold on.

We gotta figure out what restaurant he need to go to, I definitely. Well, he's going to be in the maryland area. He's going to be in the in the virginia area. I'm sure there are a bunch of crab. You know places down there. He gonna have to eat a lot of butter, a lot of crap. He gonna have to eat a lot of burgers, a lot of steaks. I'm sure there's great steakhouses in in washington dc. Somebody, can you know? Hit me up on twitter at frontrunnerpc. Let me know which steakhouses that we need to recommend to will riley, because he needs to eat.

He is not a big dude but he is fearless and I tell you this he can shoot the ball and if you close out on him aggressively, it is going to be a pump fake and go straight to the basket and whoever's standing at the rim. I understand that you will not be scared of the kid coming at you, but also know that the kid coming to the rim coming straight at you is not scared of you either. So whether it's big strong clint capella or big strong um Jonas Valanciunas, or if it's big strong, whoever it is, will Riley is not scared of you. He is coming to the hole with bad intentions just saying just go watch the film. If you have not watched the film on will reilly, it is going to be absolutely entertaining. Just on that beat alone, we move along.

Brooklyn has another pick from atlanta. They get drake powell. Drake powell is a wing, a defensive wing. He can shoot the ball. We will see um about the shooting needs to be better. He can't shoot it, I just it needs the. His mechanics need to be cleaned up. He needs to shoot it a little bit faster than he does because his release is kind of a slower release. But once he shoots it it goes in pretty well. He's just gonna have to clean it up, being at the nba level, but he can defend his ass off. And when I say that he takes the ball away from the opposition and I'm not talking about deflections, I'm talking about literally, you have the ball, I am literally going to take it from you. It is pretty awesome to watch. I love that.

Now atlanta picks on 23. This is the pick that they got from new orleans and they get asa newwell, the kid, out of Georgia and you go. Well, that's interesting. I don't think it's that interesting because you know Clint Capella is gone. Asa Newell is a big who is all effort. Elite athleticism Covers a ton of ground. He can switch On to guards. He can switch on to smaller guards. He will rebound, he will get on the floor, he will make pass deflections. He will do all of those things. He doesn't shoot. He shot Less than 30% from three last year. He has an undefined nba offensive role at this point in time, so he will have to be in the darker spot most of the time, um, and you know it's just gonna take some time for him. He is a young player, but the good thing is is they have they have, uh, a neck of congo right now and they also have christoph portisinius. So who the hell cares? This kid can just develop and watch these and watch these uh grown-ass men, uh ahead of him and basically learn through osmosis.

Now the sacramento kings interesting 24th pick that they basically traded with to from oh, they traded to get from OKC and I thought that they made a really excellent pick. They got Neek Clifford out of Colorado State. He is kind of, uh, what I would call a, uh, a Kyle Kuzma-esque player, and what I mean by that is an older player who will be able to come in and fill a specific role for you and he will do it at a pretty, I would say, above average level and he improved every year. When he was in college. He started off at colorado and then he moved to colorado state for more opportunities. He did get way better at colorado state. He's a two-way wing, he's smart, he can dribble, pass and shoot. He defends at a high level and I think the one thing that we would ask of him is that the jump shot sometimes not as steady as it needs to be. But you wonder if that gets better with better spacing. If he had better spacing, would the jump shot be more consistent? And I think in the NBA you could say that he'll probably get that Way better than he did in college.

And then we get to Orlando with the 25th pick overall and they pick Jason Richardson's son, jace. Jace Richardson, out of Michigan State. So also, jason Richardson played for Orlando. So his son comes and plays for Orlando. All good synergy, all good vibes all day long. Right, small King? Okay, we are talking barely 6-1, and we are being generous when we say 6-1. He is not a point guard, that is. I want that to be very clear.

Now. Did you go to the right team on this? Yes, you did, because you got a bunch of bigger play claim-making guys like Paul Oguncaro, like Franz Wagner, like Jalen Suggs. Desmond Bain is a pretty good passer for a second-side initiator. So if Jace Richardson is going to connect, he will have to do two or three things. One, he will have to shoot the ball. Guess what Check and check will have to shoot the ball. Guess what check and check. He can shoot the ball. This dude can. He's an immediate shooter off movement. He's an nba caliber off movement shooter. Now again, we talked about. He's not really a point guard, but he does defend. He has defensive tenacity for somebody his size. He will try to fight over screens. He will be a point of attack defender as far as that's concerned. So I think he will find a role on on your second unit.

No doubt and here's the best part he will be the shooter that you thought that jet howard would be. So the 610 guy who you thought was going to be able to shoot the ball. Jace richardson should be that guy for you, at damn near 10 inches shorter than jet howard, also another legacy guy. So jet howard, the son of jawan howard, and then jace richardson, the son of jason richardson. Now here's the best part. Jet went to michigan, just like his daddy jawan. Jace went to michigan state just like his daddy Juwan. Jace went to Michigan State, just like his daddy Jason. So a lot of synergy going on. I love it. Orlando does big things all the time.

Kudos to my boy, um John Wellman, out there getting Desmond Bain. You know how much I love you for getting Desmond Bain. That's our guy. We always going to support Desmond Bain on this podcast. Our love for him, no matter where he's at. He was one of our first guys that we locked in on and said that dude is going to be good and he has not ever disappointed us. Brooklyn is on the clock again and they're going to be on and he is not. He is not ever disappointed us. Brooklyn is on the clock again and they're going to be on the clock twice in a row.

They picked Ben Serif out of Germany. Well, he's out of Israel, but he played in Germany. He's a lefty. Josh Giddey okay. So elite tempo guard, elite deceleration guard, high level passer vision off the charts. Sees the game early. Okay, all of those things. So feel you never have to worry about this kid. Okay, understanding the game. Never have to worry about that. What does he need to do to improve shooting? He needs to improve on shooting. He's also 19. Uh, he needs to get stronger, but he's also 19. You know, I don't know if I was as strong as I need to be at 19. That's neither here nor there.

Now, with the 27th pick, they took Danny Wolf, the big, out of Michigan and this dude was crying Like the emotions started running out of this kid and he was actually kind of pissed off when Ben Seraph went ahead of him with the 26 overall pick Because I think he had known that Brooklyn had a ton of interest in him. And then when they skipped over him with the 26 pick, you could see him in the green room and there were a lot of like questionable. You know he was kind of looking around like what the hell's going on? You know, I thought when am I gonna get picked? This is bs and the next pick. He went and then the emotion just just gushes out of this kid, gushes out of his mom, and the most heartwarming part of it was is that we always say at the end of the show we say the best part of you is you have people who support you, whatever those type of things. That's not a, that's not something. Those are not throwaway lines or whatever.

But we saw the absolute definition of this during the draft. So if you watch the draft I don't know if you watch the coverage on espn or whatever but his brother, danny will's brother he was so happy for his brother, he was tears flowing down. He just he couldn't even compose himself. He was just so happy that his brother got drafted in the first round and I thought to myself, man, this whole family is locked in. It's locked in on this kid, and I was like, hey, I don't know what he's going to be in the NBA. I have no clue. What I do know is that he can pass the ball, he can shoot the ball decently well. He's kind of a I wouldn't say a tough guy what is it? He has tenacity to him. He has some 5 out ability with him because he can shoot it and he can hang out at the nail and just hit people cutting to the basket and what have you.

The question with him will be his defense and his switchability in the NBA, because he's not a true center, he's not a true big. But we will see if the defense is such an albatross around his neck where he can't get on the court. But I will tell you this this kid works hard. He's coachable. A lot of stuff that we saw in college is a scale up and it translates to the nba. It will just be on the situation. Can you move your feet enough to get to a point where you can stay on the court? Now, boston they took hugo gonzalez of rio madrid. Uh, this is kind of like. Uh, what's the kid's name? Ricky rubio this is ricky rubio reincarnated. He definitely needs to touch the field, the passing, all that, great, great. He's really good at defense as far as that's concerned. He has to shoot it, he has to shoot the ball. That will be his bugaboo.

And then our guy, liam McNeely, got charlotte with the 29th pick overall. I think this is great for charlotte, especially after what charlie did early in the draft, right. So they go four right to, uh, con carnival, right. And then they go with the 29th pick overall. They get Liam McNeely. And Liam McNeely is part of that team that played at Mount Verde. He was with Asa Newell, with Derrick Queen and Cooper Flagg. He played completely out of position last year. He was the point guard for UConn last year. This is not his role. His role is I'm a catch and shoot guy, second side initiator, that sort of thing, him and he being on ball all the time was not conducive to him, but that's the role he had to play for UConn because they lost playmakers with injury early in the season. So this to me, I think it shouldn't have hurt his stock because you were asking him to do something that he was completely foreign in doing. But hey, charlotte, 29th pick overall.

Liam McNeely, french kiss. Love it all that. Not French chef kiss, french kiss. Different story, sorry, tired, been a long day. So, love the kid, love the pick. 19 years of age and charlotte again picks a kid. That I think as far as um, emotional maturity, so the things that we want out of lamello ball, it's almost like we're gonna vote, we're gonna force you to be emotionally mature because we're just going to put emotionally mature people around you, a la Brandon Miller, a la Conn Knipple, a la Liam McNeely. We're just going to continue to put just emotional mature people around you and we are hoping that you will also just kind of meld into the system and become emotionally mature. Best of luck to you, charlotte, with that whole situation. I don't know if my guy LaMelo can buy into that, but we will see. We will see.

And then with the last pick of the draft of the first round the Clippers took. They took a kid out of Penn State. It's a big. His name was Yannick Conan Nietenhauser, who's a rim running big. He's a project. But here's the thing Elite leaper, elite hands, elite vertical threat, huge shot blocking upside. But you got to teach him the game, like he's gotta learn better positioning, better awareness. You can't just rely on your athleticism. You gotta get better about doing the things properly, taking the proper steps. What have you doing the things properly, taking the proper steps? What have you? He went to the right team. Jeff Van Gundy is their defensive coordinator with the Clippers. If there's anybody who can get this kid to kind of lock in, it will be Jeff Van Gundy. I think this is a slam dunk pick for the Clippers and of course they've done it again. Of course they have.

Now here's a couple things that I want you to look forward to. For day two. We got a couple questions about who didn't go. Um, now, a guy who was getting a lot of first round buzz was noah penda. Noah penda is still waiting to be drafted. Maxine Maxine Grinnell, the big out of Stanford. He was also looking to be like a first round pick. He is still waiting in day two, ryan Kalkbrenner out of Creighton another big who is waiting as well. Creighton, another big who is waiting as well. Uh, the one that I really it's not that I have a problem with, because I I've given up on it.

Rashir Fleming is a guy that I really kind of thought to myself. That is very Taylor Hendricks-like and I have a real affinity for Taylor Hendricks, even though he had the gruesome injury last year. But I was hoping that our guy Richie Fleming would go in the first round. Now here's the thing that I found out towards the end of the process people are not sold on his three-point shooting. His three-point shooting this year was it was over 40 percent. But if you look at the years past, it wasn't, as it wasn't as good as it was this year. It wasn't as good as it was this year. I personally thought that the mechanics were good. He plays such a good brand of defense. He's a weak side rim protector at 6'9" or 6'8" with a 7'5 wingspan. You know what I'm saying. I thought this was slam dunk. No, you know, first round pick, what have you? Maybe like early 20s, at the worst mid-20s. I never thought he would make it to the second round. But here we are and it's because people do not believe In the shot and I Believe in the shot, so you know you take it for whatever it's worth when it comes to that. I am a big proponent on Rashir Fleming and I think he'll be one of the first dudes Off the board In the second round.

A couple other names that we want to look forward to Day two Is this in the second round? A couple other names that we want to look forward to to day two is this is that, uh, our guy janai broom, who was who was battling for like player of the year with cooper flag. He also did not go, but that's not as a bigger story, as some of the other, like noah pender, a lot of people thought he might go in the first round. Jani Broome was not really expected going the first round at all, but I thought maybe because of the, the, the year he had this year was so magical, maybe the emotion and and whatever, and people just kind of squint and see something that they think is there with him. But a lot of people didn't do it. So I'm impressed with some of the talent evaluators not doing that. I want to see what Janiro turns out to be in the NBA, but a lot of people feel like there needs to be better athleticism with him.

A couple other guys that we need to keep our eye on is cam jones out of marquette. Here's a guy who is, if you're looking for a team that is pretty ready to go and they're in that process of you know you're trying to win a championship or you know you're a real serious contender, playoff contender. Having a Cam Jones who is a 23-year-old ball handler, 6'4" smart, what have you connecting piece? Tyrese Proctor out of Duke, the sharpshooter. Tyrese Proctor out of Duke, the sharpshooter, high IQ ball mover. You know that's another guy who should go early in this second round.

There are a lot of guys that are still available in the second round, at least within the, I would say, until about 42, 43. And then there's a major drop off. But I am really stoked about the the top end of the second round because I think there's a lot of guys that can help teams impact winning, like immediately in the second round. So we have a really good, interesting second round to go. I am looking forward to it personally, um, I think the one thing that we do need to get to is that uh kairi irving signs a three-year deal with the dallas Mavericks for 119 million dollars. Now here's the best part about that by him signing that contract, they did open up a full, like mid-level exception, so they are looking to get a point guard to kind of hold off until Kyi is, uh, rehabbed his knee and we will see how that goes. Now some of the names that you're we've been hearing is d'angelo russell and I'm like okay. And chris paul we've heard chris paul's name and I think there was somebody else, but can't think of it right now.

The other thing that happened that we kind of need to talk about, that we weren't able to talk about yesterday, but it was on our blog. So, please, if you did not listen to the podcast yesterday, shame on you. You know we were going to do a preview of the draft and we did Right Plus. We need to talk about the preview of the draft and we did Right Plus. We need to talk about the KD trade and a couple other things. We need to talk about the Drew Holiday trade, which we did in great detail In the previous pod. But Kristoff Porzingis getting traded to Atlanta Was not on my bingo card. Not because he was not supposed to get traded, because he definitely was supposed to get traded. Because he definitely was supposed to get traded, because we did talk about that in our last pod, that he was the other domino to drop Him being traded to Atlanta.

And now that the Boston Celtics have kind of undone $28 million off their salary cap, they are now a first apron team, which means they have cut away from some of the restraints of a second apron team, which we know is absolute hell. Shrew moves by our guy Brad Stevens. He's just doing just yeoman's work over here every single day. It's great. It's so great. We love it so much so that, with that is pretty much our thoughts on the first round and also what to look forward to in the second round, with a couple little nuggets on player movement and what have you.

We went a whole podcast without talking about the Lakers. I just want everybody to know that I do not need to talk about the Lakers Because they didn't do anything. So, with that being said, we can get a lot out of here. I want to thank my staff staying up late doing this with me. Fantastic, thank you, soraya, for what you do. Appreciate you. Um, we will be back on friday. We will cover the entire draft all over again. We will have draft grades. If there's any other trades that come out of this situation, you will be the first to know about it and we will break it down like it's never been broken down before, like we'll. You know, we'll make it low, we'll get low for sure.

I think the one overarching thought of this draft class is I think we saw a lot of teams, a lot of good teams, make very smart decisions, continue to be on the hamster wheel and continue to make head-scratching decisions and you wonder to out loud why these people are making these decisions. It's like who is really running the asylum over here? Portland I'm looking at y'all. New Orleans what the hell y'all doing? And again shots out to the Angels in Salt Lake City, utah. Let me tell you something. They looked at Ace Bailey and said hey bro, we don't care what kind of deal you have In place with Washington or Brooklyn. We have a pick that is higher than theirs and we are going to take you.

That took some stones To take a inner city kid and drop him off in Salt Lake City, utah. Did anybody see his get up that he had on. You know, at the draft my man was blinged out. The jacket, the coat, the suit jacket Was blinged out. He had ice on his neck. It was super, super frozen. His neck was frozen. I'm sure he had frostbite on his neck because of all the ice that he had on. And now we're dropping this kid off in Salt Lake City. Best of luck to Ace Bailey.

Enjoy the nightlife in salt lake city, or lack there, lack thereof. You will get a lot of developmental time, my guy, because there is not a lot to do in salt lake city now. Ski country different, a lot of snow bunnies and stuff like that. Whatever might have a good time there, but I'm talking about like the regular accoutrements that you might think of in a big city. Um, you're not gonna have in Lake. So we shall see how that all goes.

But I was very impressed that Danny Ainge did not care about where that kid wanted to go. He was like he's very talented, he can shoot the ball, he has translatable skills to the NBA and we are going to draft him and he can come kicking and screaming, I don't care, I love that. I thought that was great because sometimes you don't get what you want, but you damn sure get what you need and it is so. With that being said, the best part of you is you Surround yourself with people who are going to support you. Give you love, show you love. Make sure that people are a sounding board for your ideas.

And if you got some no people around you, you got some no people. Get rid of them. We only have room for why not? Why not do that? That's what we got room for, that's what we got space for in our head. Why not people? Why cannot? Why cannot this happen? Our guy, cedric Coward, division 3, paid $25,000 to go to school, then went to Eastern Washington, then went to Washington State and it became this the 11th overall selection, because he has some why not? People in his corner. When you got belief in yourself and you got a support group that believes in you, there's nothing you can't do. Those are words to live by. We are frpc. We will go ahead and sign off. We will be back on friday to close up the draft. We will talk about day one, day two also, whatever trades that go down, we will be in the middle of it. So for serea and myself, good night and we will see you on friday. Deuce, deuces.