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

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guys are having a great end to your week. Well, the NBA Draft started last night with the first round. We had a couple of 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 and hit a bunch of the top storylines. You guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribed to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason

lt so you guys don't miss SHO announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail back 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 gonna briefly hit on each of the top five picks, and then i'm gonna hit some of the bigger stories in the

first round. So Minnesota getting Rob Dillingham by trading up into that San Antonio Spurs spot. That was super interesting to me, kind of like an aggressive move from Minnesota to address the specific needs. So we're gonna get into that a little bit, and how he fits the Grizzlies getting Zach Edy, which I thought was really interesting. We're going to talk about whether or not Zach Edy can

play in the NBA. Well, I think kind of that debate is silly, and we're gonna 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 the Eastern Conference, khalil Ware going to Miami, a guy who brings kind of like a rim protection and a floor spacing element, and we're talking about him. And then lastly, a guy who was projected by most to be a top ten pick, Dalton connect falls to

the Los Angeles Lakers. We're gonna talk a little bit about him at the end of the show, all right, So we're gonna start with the top five. So Zachary usas Takes goes to Atlanta at number one, And this guy's just a quintessential off ball role players six ' nine, He's rangey. Off ball defense are really good, kind of like making reads from that low man position, whether it's jumping passing lanes, whether it's bothering role men in pick and roll, covering ground on the weak side to shooters

in 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 week 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 rangeness and length is super valuable, right, And then he brings a little bit of the same kind of 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 Jalen Johnson pretty well. Like Jalen brings the more athletic, kind of like downhill type of feel, right, whereas like Rasachez, he's got the length, but he's more of like a finesse type of player, good at attacking close outs, better shooter at this point. So like, I kind of think that they represent an interesting three to 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 de John Tay 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 is going to look like next year, But at least at the three and four, Zachary Resache and Jalen Johnson represent an interesting kind of future core to keep

an eye on. Alex Sar to Washington right. Alexar played in Perth last year, played alongside a Tucson guy again named Bryce Cotton, who a guy that I've 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 to 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 folk rum, right Like, He's a guy who would 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. He has some improvement to make in terms of like actually setting solid screens, but

that'll come in time, especially as he gets bigger. Got a lot of aggressive coverages towards Bryce Cotton, so he got some work in the short role 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 talk so much much about on the 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. It's like a good ballscreen Folkrum to pair with Jordan Poole and a defensive foundation, you can get a better look at how Jordan Poole fits into your team's future. Looking forward, I like to pick Alex Start to Washington at three. Reed Shepherd 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 Reid was at his 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 where defenders are leaning and hitting them with counter moves, and then he's just got all the footwork.

Literally looks like he's 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 hop, off the hop, 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 gonna 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. Does he have the upside as some of these other guys in Houston, but he should be able to immediately come in and help and immediately 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, 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 screen. 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 like to fit with Houston as basically a guy that can kind of just immediately slot in and help kind of grease the wheels, so to speak, offensively, while also

being a functional piece of their defense. And 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. Number four, The Spurs drafts to Fon Castle. Sefon Castle was one of my favorite guys to watch when we

were doing our draft pet 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 count, remove, every float, every hook, every short jump shot in the book, and he's just super

comfortable operating in that area. He has got a lot of like that kind of like Shae Yelders Alexander kind of crafty stuff within that like ten to fifteen foot range. Not as good as shooter as Shay, And that obviously is gonna be the huge swing factor for Steph's career, right like if he if he's gonna be anything more than 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 Shepherd. He greases the wheels,

so to speak. And so we know this is a Spurs team that desperately needs more feel around Victor wembin Yama, 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 wembin Yama. 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 sar Thompson and you basically just have these layers of wing athleticism to complement Kay 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 Ron Holland's already pretty good at, it's driving closedouts. And so I think that's kind of the angle that they're looking at here, is benefiting off of the attention that Kaid Cunningham draws and his ability to generate those types of close out opportunities. Again, a lot of the downside of the pessimism surrounding Ron Holland, as he just struggled a lot on the ball with

G League Ignite last year. But G League Ignite was a total shit show. And I'm gonna say the same thing I said about McHale 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 Caid Cunningham, Jade and Ivy kind of 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. 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 that on wings with upside because they're the riskier ones, but they're the ones that have potential to pan out to guys that can be profoundly impactful, especially

in the later rounds of the NBA Playoffs. One other pick I wanted to shout out before we get into some of the bigger stories was a Khalil Ware going to the Miami Heat. I really like this pick on a bunch of different levels. First of all, like this concept of like layering layers of athleticism on your frontline 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 like 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 biotype 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 Khalil Ware can shoot, which is an interesting kind of pairing with Bam and a bio if he operates more as a Gerbil handoff folkrum 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 khalil where is he can struggle with physicality, right, Like he's just not a very tough type 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 gonna get him in the weight room, that's gonna have him in the peak version of himself physically, that's gonna hold him accountable, that's gonna be that's gonna 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 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 khalil Ware get going. And once again, like that's just kind of if you're it's an side 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 forty percent 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 spacing on

the offensive end. So I like that pick for Miami. So the three biggest stories that I thought were interesting in terms of like interesting aggressive moves. It had to do with three 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 ten pick via 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 ten prospect by most by most of the people that I trust covering the draft, Dalton Connect was one of the top ten prospects, falls all the way to seventeen to the Los Angeles Lakers. So those are the three kind of bigger picture storylines that we're going to hit here in the next couple of minutes.

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That was his biggest weakness when he was with Overtime Eleade, basically just dribbling up the floor and shooting every single time. And you know, we talked to Damian 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 is a playmaker is important because if you want to be a sixth man who just comes off the mention shoots every time, sure, but if you want to be a functional part who plays significant rotation minutes on a great team, you're gonna have to be able to play alongside other good basketball players. And he did make some strides 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 fifty percent field goal percentage on unguarded jump shots

this year. That came out to one point four to eight points per shot forty eight percent overall field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots, regardless of whether or not they were guarded. He was a ninety seventh percentile spot at player. He got one point three points per possession. Those are like Michael Porter junior type of numbers, right. So the biggest weakness with Rob is that he's small, right, and that can obviously cost some issues for him defensively.

But he does play hard and he does compete. He's got a good motor. 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 gonna be on a movement shooter like any sort of on ball dribble creator.

You're gonna put Anton, You're gonna put Jaden McDaniels on Right, you're gonna ask Rob Dillingham to 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 gonna 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 cause 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 that, when it comes to weak defenders, you just have to have the ability to 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 and switches, I think he can. I think it can work. Not to mention in terms of in his lock and trail situations, he's gonna be in a pretty good spot from the standpoint of having Rudy Gobert behind him, and just the overall amount of length athleticism behind him to kind of anchor him on that end of the floor. And again he competes, and he competes, and he's got the quickness. Those are things that I

think make it doable. Things I like, he's just an absolute flamethrower off ball score And after what we saw happened to Minnesota in the Dallas series, where Dallas just loads up the strong side and just any of those swing passes in Nikkeiele, Alexander Walker, Jaden McDaniels or Kyle Anderson, whoever they're just wasn't enough off ball scoring pop to make Dallas pay for loading up the strong side, right, especially with Rudy Gobert, who can really cause problems for

the offense with his inability to catch and finish in traffic around the basket.

into that role in overtime. If he shows the ability to compete defensively and shows that his scoring, his flamethrower scoring can help in that back court, 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 backcourt be two ball handlers that both aren't great passers, right, And it's getting better, but

that's not his natural strength either. And I would argue that overall ball movement in that five man grouping from 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 yesterday when we were kind of breaking down some of the five outs, 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 gonna 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 like the off ball scoring piece and ants development as a playmaker will help a lot in that regard as well. Okay, the Grizzlies and Zach Edy, I want to look at this from two angles. First, I want to talk about Zach Edy kind of in a vacuum as an NBA player, and then we'll talk about his fit and Memphis. Can Zach Edy 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 gonna be awesome or he's not gonna 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 because 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 Jaron Jackson at the five and with Jared Jackson at the four, right, especially with the rise of GG Jackson, who I really like is a

forward that can shoot the ball. That you put next to Jaron Jackson in their smaller looks, 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 Gobert forcing Edy to guard in space or Minnesota like just kind of running up and down the floor in transition. Right, Like, in those situations, load you go big. It's Edie at the five, it's Jared Jackson at the four,

operating as the low man. You can allow Edy to be aggressive on the ball handler and use his length to kind of swarm there. Jared Jackson's running that back line, you have Gg Jackson as another layer of athleticism on the wing. Or maybe it's maybe you can go smaller with that group and have Smart Baane and John Moriant

out there. But if you're playing against the Golden State Warriors or the Indiana Pacers, a team that's really going to like force Edie to cover a ton of ground and really kind of expose some of his quickness issues, that's where it might make more sense to take him out of the lineup, go with Jared Jackson at the five, Gg Jackson at the four, with Smart Pain and John Moran. Right, Like, the idea here is is like Edie 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 Edi anyway. And so the fit makes a ton of sense. When Memphis can load up the strong side and keep Edie

by the rim, he's their big look. When they can't, they have Jaron Jackson in his ability to play at the five, and they can put a lineup out there with Jared Jackson, GG Jackson, Bain Smart and John Morant where they just have a ton of perimeter speed, the ability to contain on the ball, of plenty of offensive skill in spacing right. So like it makes a ton of sense, And like I actually think Memphis is gonna

be a dominant regular season team next year. Like I think they're gonna be right back in that I wouldn't be surprised at all if Memphis got a top four seed next year. So, like, Edie's gonna have a small and achievable role alongside good role players. I love the fit. I'm excited to watch Edie play in Memphis. And then, lastly, before we get out of here, the Lakers getting Dalton connect. So Dalton was by most of the people that I trust ranked as a top ten 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 think Austin at the one is perfect, or Austin at the two is perfect, however you want to call it 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 as

one of the backcourt 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 d Lo and D'Angelo Russell and Ruya Chimura at the two

and the three. Delo was redundant with Austin and that forced Austin to be your primary point of attack defender, and Ruy was redundant with Lebron, which forced Ruy to chase Michael Porter Junior around screens, which literally was one of the things that got them beat against Denver as RUI just kept losing it right, especially when they shifted back to Anthony Davis on Nicole Jokic. 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 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 rangey, 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 fifteen to twenty 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, and 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 seventeen, he was the best player available and he will immediately be able to hate help the Lakers as a weapon for them off

the bench. To quote I'm going to start before we get into Dalton Dalton's evaluation, I'm gonna share just a quote from Sam Vessini'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 in the Big Sky at

Tennessee in Juco. This dude can just knock down three point shots. Last year at Tennessee he shot forty two percent on catch and shoot jump shots one point twenty four points per shot. Unguarded, he shot forty seven percent field goal percentage one point three to eight 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 close out attacker as well. He converted He converted spot up possessions at one point two to two points per possession. That's in the ninety fourth percentile. So just a deadly off ball score. But the big thing that I'm excited about is he brings a train transition athleticism piece which is gonna 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 gonna throw those kick aheads, and Dalton's gonna get those opportunities to kind of snake two on ones or attack one on one in transition and uses athleticism towards the rim. The other thing that really excited me as I watched Dalton film over the last week. He's a really good cutter. Tennessee would run a lot of like weak side action where there'd be like two or three guys weaving around screens and then he would just slip and cut to the basket.

Hit him with the 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 Reddick implementing three man action, or while Austin Lebron are running ball screens, you're gonna have weak side action with Dalton connect and Anthony Davis and 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 slot. That's a team that's gonna be able to capitalize on that. Austin and Lebron are gonna hit him on a ton of those cuts, and he's gonna do a lot of finishing around the rim. So like the offensive fit with the Lakers is absolute chew 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 gonna fit immediately, and he can make good reads as a cutter off the ball in the five out system. The concern was his on ball decision making. Is he too much of a score? Can he reid defenses that don't matter. He can figure that out in the long run if he needs to. But within this Lakers team, similar to what I said about 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 of different things. First of all, he does have the athletic tools. He's about six five and a half without shoes, on. He's got a six to ten wing span, excellent frame, excellent athlete. Right, So 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 inattentive off the ball. Those were issues for Dalton, right. Those are the things he's gonna have to figure out if he wants to be more than just a bench role player for the Lakers. Right. But again, in this situation, especially when he's gonna have opportunities alongside Anthony Davis who can clean up a lot of mistakes, he's gonna have time to try to figure it out. And again, I don't view Dalton as the

shoe in too. I don't think, like who knows, maybe Dalton does earn the starting spot. I doubt it though, Like I don't view Dalton as a starting two or three for this Laker team. I view him as an immediate, ready made role player off the bench on the wing.

And so to me, like I get way more concern learn 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 gonna close games for the Lakers in big moments, And yeah, if Dalton's gonna be that, he's gonna have to make massive improvements defensively. But 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 tool. So Dalton is capable of being a quality NBA defender, at least a functional NBA defender. He's just gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna have a bunch of draft content coming out

over the next week. I want to do some film stuff on some specific players, Like I'll put some film together on Rob Dillingham, and I'll put some film together on Dalton connect and we'll do some some videos like that. We're also gonna be doing a mail bag tomorrow, so make sure you guys drop. I think that's most likely gonna be. Tomorrow's show is just some We're gonna do some film sessions on a couple of guys, and then we're gonna do a mail bag at the end, so

drop your mail bag questions and the YouTube comments. We'll get to them tomorrow. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me in the show. We'll see you guys.