That.
So my Super Bowl was Tuesday. Me as a Portland Trailblazer fan the NBA lottery, It's been a long time since I've paid attention that close quickly. This is another side road. Is it just me? Or would we rather see the ping pong balls come out? Because I know I would. Like, there's just something about like an Oscar style and the winner of the fifth pick goes to the Orlando matt Like. I don't like that. There just feels something very sus about that, And I've looked into it.
It seems like they've got a whole team of accountants and lawyers and media members ensuring that this thing is legit. But at the end of the day, I need to see the ping pong balls myself, and I need to feel the weight of them in my hands to know that there's not one that's heavier than the other. Transparency, Accountability, Where is it, folks? Where is it? Anyway? So, my team Portland, we were the sixth worst, sixth worst team this year, and boy did we try hard for worse.
Like we said everyone, we couldn't even play Josh Hart, we couldn't play Eric Bledsoe. Like the amount of fake injuries that we made up for these guys to not play. Like at one point, what's that kid's name, Keljin Blevins, He couldn't even play Blevins, the guy that I thought was a fake name. We had to sit him because it was we were winning games we weren't supposed to be winning. It literally was like four time Ten Day
All Star. Drew was his name, Drew U Banks, Drew U Banks, and like, of course Anthony Simons wasn't Blak. Of course Dame wasn't playing. Of course NRK wasn't playing. But I'm talking about like guys I've never heard before had to be benched for us to get to a place where we could maybe get in the top four and maybe hopefully this is a bridgeier for us and we can get back to some level of not prominence, but like whatever, middle of the road, and it's you know,
like we're bad right now. And then of course the Pelicans pick didn't convey to us. It ended up going to Charlotte. And then of course the LA pick that we could have maybe made a back door for that went to the Pelicans didn't go to us either. So one pick we had a thirty nine percent chance of getting in the top four, almost forty percent chance almost half almost to pick them to get in the top four. And I had all the excitement of a little kid
on Christmas. Tuesday came and when they don't do the ping pong thing, that goes by fast, because they did a pregame of the Miami Heat Game one series, and I'm like, yo, that took seven minutes, Like what was that? So that took all the air out of my balloon? As well. I wanted Paolo, as everyone knows, like very very badly. I want Paolo. I've had visions of him and Dame, I've seen him up close. He's like Bigfoot. He's so big, so strong, so athletic, so his hops
so high. And to my disheartenment, did we get the first pick? No? Did we get the second pick? No? Third pick? This is where it starts like getting interested. No fourth pick? Could we just get four? Maybe we just trade up once?
No, we get the seventh pick seven, And you might say, Trista, Steph Curry went seven, Like it's not I don't know that we're getting that.
I don't know that we're getting Steph Curry, babe. So all that resting of guys, all that fee, all of that shame for a pick that might not even help Dame one bit. So let's recap. I think Brock needs to take notes on where I cussed, because we have to cut these things into segments. Amazing. I literally watch him ride them down at Curry at five twenty. He has to do it again every time. I do it, all right, So let's recap where everyone finished and who
had the best luck, who had the worst luck. Number one Orlando Magic. They get the number one pick for the first time, or for the first time in like four years. I mean, they just keep getting the first pick. Okse gets two. The odds of them getting two were like ridiculously low. I think that they should have gotten like the eighth pick something like that was their highest likelihood. Houston Rockets get the third pick, Sacramento gets the fourth pick.
Detroit five Pacers, six Blazers, seven Pelicans, eight Spurs, nine Wizards, ten Nicks, eleven, Thunder Again twelve, Charlotte Hornet's thirteen, which should have been our pick by the way. It was, by the way, that was supposed to be ours in the fourteen. I think they might have to never mind. I think they got the fifteen from Pelicans carry on and the Cleveland Cavaliers at fourteen. That's got mad there, all right. So to me, the low key biggest winner's
gotta be one. Okay, See, they're gonna get somebody that's gonna change the franchise again.
After they got after they got I tried to fix it after they got over last year when they ended up taking Josh Giddy at six, which ended up being a very good pick.
But I think they thought they would be one, two or three. I think they thought they might get Evan Mobley, which could have helped them tremendously. Then you get the Pelicans. Uh, they end up getting a good pick. They by getting the Lakers pick in the ad trade, which I think was gonna go to them outside of the top four something like that. Sacramento, they get incredible luck, even though
we know that they're just gonna mess it up. We know that, like they had the fifth worst record, they get the number four pick, even on they had only a thirty percent chance of getting the top four. We had a forty percent chance. They had a thirty percent chance. Teams that got screwed of course me of course, Blazers number one pretty much the only one that I can
that I can make note of. Uh No. But truthfully, Detroit also they had the number, they had the first best odds for a top four spot and they get five, So that's screwed. Wizards get the tenth spot. You see Wes on sale looking just furious. He's just so mad stoic, but like agitated. It would be, it would be kind of the way to describe it. So yeah, I would say that that's kind of like where the cookie crumbles. You've got Portland, Detroit, and Washington getting screwed. Best best pickups,
best lottery luck, OKC, Sacramento and Pelicans. I did a quick, little early impression mock, which will speed through because I've done a little mokin up to my pick one through seven mockin early impressions. I think Orlando takes Chet. It makes the most sense for them. I think he fits more with them than somebody like Jabari Smith does for a variety of different reasons. I think him and Franz
Wagner would work very well together. I'm not necessarily sure how they would want to use Jabbari versus how they want to use somebody like Chet. They need a center. They don't have very good centers. They're off on Mobamba, They're off on Jonathan Isaac. I think Chet plays more versatile role with the roster that they currently have, and I do know that he's not slated to be the number one overall consensus pick. I think Jabari is. I think Jabari is minus one ten. I think Chet is
plus one forty. So I think that's the first upset to me, feels like an upset. I think okay See takes Jabari. Presty says he wants this team to have the ability to create a new defensive identity that pushes them to be more physical in the future. To accomplish this, That to me sounds like if Chet is taken, they're gonna go for a pesky perimeter defender to pair with lou Dort. We know Shay Gil just Alexander doesn't like to play a lot of defense, so they gotta get
another guy on the perimeter to do so. Gonna be a toss up, But I like Jabari. If he's gonna be available, Houston, I think they trade back. I don't think they take that pick. I don't think they want Paolo even though I would I would take Powlo in an instant, and maybe, just maybe they'd be interested in trading with Portland for the third pick. I don't know. Like they are a team that is constantly rebuilding. They're
a team that's just like I think. Random scouts have come on the record recently and say that Houston might be the worst place to be drafted by an organization if you're a new pick, because they're just a dumpster fire. They have no organizational credibility. They're again a team that is not built very effectively, and they are a bunch of young gunnahs that are fun but probably aren't gonna win a lot of games anytime soon. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong because they're fun. But doesn't that
sound perfect for Anfrety Simons? Like? To me, that sounds exactly like what Anfrey Simons? Who cares you have two other anforty Simons and Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Junior. I don't care. That sounds like a fun little experiment to me. Sacramento kinks, doesn't it seem like to you for the fourth time in five years, they'll take another guard Like, let's try it again. Why not. We know that Davion may or may not have worked out. We know we took Tyree Salibert and we traded him for Demonis.
But like, let's do the Jade and Ivy thing. Let's do that. Who knows, Like I know that Jade and Ivy's perfect? How do I know he's perfect for Sacramento One. He folds up in big time moments, and he's never gonna receive big time moments in the future because he's gonna be playing for Sacramento. You're never gonna need to have any of the expectations that you will need going to a place like I don't know Indiana. Indiana's gonna want you to be the next Malcolm Brogden. And Malcolm Brogden, sir,
you are not God. I hope. I don't regret saying that. Detroit team very fun, very long, very Rangeye. Troy Weaver is a good evaluator of talent. I think he's gonna do what the Toronto Raptors did and surprise some people with the fifth pick. Even before the ping Pong Bass came out, he said, listen, I'm happy with five. If I get five, there's there's not a three team. There's
not a three person draft for me. There's a lot of value out there that I like, And you're like that kind of scares me, Like what do you know that I don't know? He said, I don't see it as a big three. I think that there are tremendous players all along the board. We're gonna pick the best player for us, and I think that he's gonna come and work out for us. I don't see a scenario where we don't get the guy we want. What kind of what kind of kahonees is that you got the
fifth pick and you don't see any scenario. Who are they gonna get? Maybe Shade and Sharp feels like that's a possibility. There's reports that they might go after keiging Murray, but I don't see why they would do that other than the fact that he's quote unquote NBA ready. He doesn't feel he doesn't feel like a pick for Detroit. But my pick for chaos because I don't even know what Indiana would do if Kigan Murriy's not there. My
pick for Chaos is them taking Keigan Marie quickly. Indiana must move their pick if Keegan is not there because there's no shot in hell that I looked at the notepad again to make sure that it's okay. I think that one's okay. If Keegan's not there, there's no way
they take Shaden Sharp. Like is Shaden Sharp like a kid who wouldn't even play one year at Kentucky decided to do one and done without doing the one and like he's gonna go into the draft after just sitting on the bench for coach cal Do you see him being an Indiana pacer one of the most conservative, like low paying franchises with a guy running the company, like owning the franchise. It's like ninety No, Shady Sharp is
not an Indiana Pacer. If they were to take him, I mean, didn't it make perfect sense when they went out and got Chris d'Arte, a high predigree, older, immediate impact, light skinned Indiana Man, they've got a type. I ain't got no type they do, though they do Portland. This is where it gets interesting for me. I've come to terms. I've come to Jesus with who I think we will take. I think we're gonna take Benedict Matherrin from Arizona. Benedict
Mathern is six to six. Benedict Matherne can score at all different levels. He can defend, He's got a pretty long wingspan. He can immediately contribute. John Hollinger has Benedict Mathern as the number five best player in the draft. I think he's a sleeper. I loved him when he played at Arizona. He pops off the screen. He's a very hard working guy who shows up in huge. If Sacramento was smart, they would take Benedict Matherin at four. Would they would trade back and they would take him
at four. But they're not smart, so we know we won't do that. Another side pick would be if he's available as Shaden Sharp. That feels like another Anthony Simon's long score different levels. He can actually play defense, unlike Anthrony. I'd be interested to see what he would look like with Dame. He's pretty big. I think he's sixty six to sixty seven as well, or possibly Johnny Davis at a Wisconsin Johnny Davis. He's a guy who can get
it in the mid range. He's not a He's not like a Brandon Roy, but he kind of moves like Brandon Roy, like like molasses, but like just shifty enough where he gets open. I like him. He's a high IQ player. He can defend like he's known for his defense. You see where I'm going with this. Blazers get somebody who can guard more than a part car police. Gonna be very very interesting to see what happens at the
combine in the pre draft process. As we know, nothing is set and like the NFL draft was, it's completely wide open. Oh, let's move forward really quickly and talk about this recent tea on my man DeAndre Jordan. No, he hasn't been relevant since twenty twelve. Let's talk about the recent tea on my man DeAndre Ayton DA Right now, most people who love hoops know that there was some kind of scuffle or to do going on in Game seven of The Sun's mav series right between Monny Williams
and Ayton. Skip Bayless, like I said in last episode, reported that Lil Wayne crazy that he and Lil Wayne are actually friends. Were they text Like there's a world Skip Bayless and Lil Wayne are friends. Just think about
that for a second really quick. Anyway, according to sources named Little Wayne who was at the game, he told him that he watched court side what happened between Mani and Ayton, and Ayton was like, I'm not going back in, and then Manni yelled at him, you're quitting on us, you quit on our team, and the two were screaming at each other and had to be broken up. Trouble in Paradise, babe. Uh yikes. Yike's ugly outcome from an
ugly game. And for sure we know that Ayton didn't play at all in the close out game, really getting under twenty minutes. Full disclosure because I'm about to give my bias here. I've had my Twitter bio for a long time. I recently took it out. DeAndre Ayton deserves to be maxed out. I am very clear. I've never done that for a player before. DeAndre Ayton deserves all the money. He is so underrated. I am an Aighton fan. I think he's top five best center in the league.
I think he's being used completely out of out of the realm of reason, and it's probably the best thing that could have ever happened to DeAndre Ayton fans, because maybe you can get him in a way that you never were going to be able to. Number One overall pick. He's been a phenace since he's been fifteen years old. I've watched him play up close when he was fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old, and the Sons have just used him like some scrub role player, like you're not Clint. He's
not Clint Capella. Okay, Like DeAndre Ayden can pay play face up to the basket, he can tween tween, he can put the ball on the floor, he can shoot mid range, he can shoot the three, he can go up, up and under. DeAndre Ayton has moves, he can spin. He's not Embid, so I'm not gonna say he's Embid, but he can do a lot of the things that Mbid can do. He's not as big as Embid, dominant
as Embiid, but he's got really good footwork. He's a hard worker and when he thinks you believe in him, as we a lot a lot as a society feel like, if we feel you have our back and you believe in us, we're gonna work so much harder. Right, And as soon as the Suns didn't max him out, he was basically like, I mean, you'll get me in the good times and not in the bad times, and that's fair. And like they've used him as a rim roller, as a guy who sets screens and gets Devin Booker and
Chris Paul open. He maybe gets a random lob here or there. If it gets thirty, it's because it happened by happenstance, not by design. He gets put backs and rebounds. He's just like a solid, solid role player who could be, in my opinion, a star. Shack decided he wanted to weigh in on the eight and stuff, So let's quickly talk about that if that's still allowed.
And that's all he would say. Shed no more light on on why DeAndre Eaton played so little. Yeah, I'm in game seven if I'm a sorver. The kid did it the respectful way. Me, I'm different. Oh you're not gonna pay me, all right, I don't worry about it. He didn't complain, He made one statement about it, and he played and he played his tail off, played like a true big man. Get a kid what he wants. You got other people talking about signing four for two seventy.
They don't deserve it. Get his kid what he wants. He had a great year. Just one of those nights to night. Phoenix had a great year, just one of those nights tonight. This is a classy organization, it's a classy team. Can't say bad things about him. They played hard. It's just listen again. Even great players have one of those nights. I've been in twenty years. I probably at fifteen where just it just couldn't go fifteen what fifteen?
Fifteen times where you know it just wasn't going. Oh you had word board, yeah boy, fifteen, Well I still got four round. You played bad boy in fifteen times? You're talking about yes dot Com No, no, no, no, all that stuff. Don't tell me that you have enough. You have a fifteen bad games and in twenty years, yes, fifteen bad games. Oh yeah, okay, that's not that that.
I don't give a man what he wants, give him what he wants. So I decided I would go through. And so this is no shade the people who are currently getting paid. I just want to say that for everyone currently getting paid, you are getting paid what you deserve. You got what you got, your agents did their job, and you accepted it. But I decided to go through the top forty salaries and ask myself, would I rather have this player for this money or DeAndre Eyton right now,
and it will surprise you. I would rather have eight and over half of the top max guy's crowing playing in the NBA right now. Steph Curry of obviously no, James Harden yes, John Wall yes, Russell Westbrook yes, Kevin Durant no, Lebron, no Jannis, no Lillard maybe Age Durability ball dominates. Kawhi Leonard No, Paul George Maybe maybe he gets hurt a lot too. He's not always available and
his mind's not always available. Klay Thompson, probably not so. No, Jimmy Butler no, Tobias Harris Hell yes, Chris Middleton no, Anthony Davis yes, Rudy Gobert yes, Kyrie Irving maybe, Bradley Beal yes, Pascal Siakam yes, Ben Simmons absolutely yes. That's a lot of yeses for DeAndre Ayton. I mean there's
barely any nos. I paused for a long time when it came to Dame, when I first thought about it, and I have to admit, as much as I love Dame, I would probably trade him for eight and in a heartbeat, because I don't trust his health. He's thirty two years old. He's had an abdominal injury that does not go away. That's not like a tweak of an inkle. And I think you could probably build a more versatile roster around DeAndre right now. And I'm not saying that they should
trade Dame. I want everyone to know who's listening to the podcast, I'm not advocating for that, so do not say that. But if you could get eighton for Dame in four first round picks or something, I would think about it. I would think about it. James Jones thinks that the gem for the Suns, thinks that the riff can be healed. He said, DeAndre had an amazing season. He's progressed every year he's been here. So he's a big part of what we do. Doesn't sound all that enthused.
His future with us is something that we will address at the proper time. The time, James is last summer. Uh, he's a free agent, and I've said all along, he's about the same things what we're about, which is winning. We'll address it at the proper time. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. What's the proper time when the league comes out and says Robert Sarver must sell the team. It's very hard to get a guy into a max contract, puts yourself into a luxury tax situation, and then okay,
you're selling the team to someone. They're like, yo, you guys are paying one hundred and seventy million dollars in roster right now, I have to pay what Electree text? Oh yeah, no, I'm I'm good. I'm good. So yeah, I see that. There's a lot of complexity here, but that's not DeAndre Ayton's job. His job is to get paid what he deserves and to get as much money as he can. So I tell you what Portland is
salivating for him. Right now. We have a max spot open, we've made the time, We've cleared the space, relinquish rights to whoever for DeAndre Ayton. I don't know how him and Dame are gonna work, but I know Dame's on the tail end and DeAndre is on the up end. So it's gonna be fascinating. Game seven in the Valley disaster is going to have long term ramifications. And if you get Ayton in the West, you've removed some strengths from your competitor in the West. As well as added,
so gonna be awesome. It's gonna be interesting. Either he's gonna get his max money or he's walking. That's pretty much it. There's no in between. It's not gonna be a scenario where you're like, oh, DeAndre Ayton took a team friendly deal that is off the table, folks, and that will change everything for the Suns if he is outing