You're in the Zone with Brandon Kravis and Tyler Carroll on FM ninety six nine. A Jack.
Okay, okay, all right, I'm about to go on our rent here this text just you know that meme where the guy where the little uh the yellow, little yellow face his head is exploding. Yep, that was me reading this. Okay, this is this says this is five O eight five seven. We welcome all feedback and if we don't like what you text them, we will yell at you. Was hoping that the aggressiveness from the trade would have carried over into the draft. Nope, same old Magic we see at
draft time. Hope Jace likes it in Osceola County. I'll start with the nice part. Jace Mike play in Otiola. I have no idea. Maybe that's where he spends his time next year. So would you have preferred then if the Magic would have waited until Draft night to trade the sixteenth overall pick as part of the package to land Desmond Band, Would that have made you feel like
the Magic were being aggressive on draft night? Do you realize in your thick skull that it's the exact same thing they did make a Draft night trade they just did it two weeks before the draft. It's the same result. It's all about perception. They traded their better pick to make ready an aggressive move to get better that did happen. How dense can people be? You just want to complain, Just admit it to yourself, stand in front of the mirror and say, hi, self, I like to complain. The end,
thank you for listening. I'll take the back of the text.
Their just a little bit here because you made great points that the Magic were aggressive on Draft night. It just came a couple weeks prior when trading the putting that sixteenth pick in a trade to obtain an all star caliber player in Desmond Bane. If that would have happened on Draft night, it probably wouldn't have mattered who the Magic took at twenty five, because that wouldn't be
even what would be remotely talked about. However, with that twenty fifth pick, I think you can argue that the Magic weren't necessarily as aggressive into the win Now as what they could have been. So the players that I think fit the win now mold the best at the guard position were off the board at that point.
So if you're.
Looking to go guard, and you are set on guard at twenty five, then that was the best player available.
That was the best choice.
But then you do have some of the other guys, some of the other Thie guys that I think are more win now impacts now players and Maxim Reno in Rasher Fleming, those guys are more of a finished NBA product where you see the result of what they are going to be sooner than what I think you'll get from Jace Richardson. So to the Texter's point, I think that's an area that you can look. However, to say that they weren't aggressive on draft night, it's really difficult
to be aggressive with the twenty fifth pick. That's also a factor in this as well. And the aggressiveness came in a trade that went down.
Two weeks ago. You will be breaking down the trades that went down in the first round. We're going to give you some reactions to what other teams did and where other players fell right now. In this segment, we're going to do a bit of a trade recap during our first four things, so we'll have this covered in all different directions. But correct me if I'm wrong about this. Did a single team of the thirty that occupy the National Basketball Association, Did any of them make a trade
last night? Of the many that went down that involved a player that is currently in the NBA? I was the Mark Williams move, wasn't Did that involve one? Did that involve a draft pick?
Or did that just go along during the I think it involved a draft pick, but I think Mark Williams was the only one I believe right.
So, and then the rest were draft picks because that's how that goes. Players aren't dealt on draft night. We just don't really see that. So I don't even know what you're asking for you and I don't know what you're asking for in the present, and you're completely neglecting the fact that what you're asking for already happened. Just crazy to me. Somebody else said, you guys and Metcalf, who was our guest yesterday, are selling me on Jase TJ. McConnell did a great job on SGA in Game seven
when they isolated him. Drew Holliday is a perfect example of a pesky defender of a guy at any size, and Jay I will have his back on the second unit. Drew Holliday is one of the best on ball guard defenders in the NBA. So I'm not willing to go that far, but if you can be that in spurts, than great.
I did look up the measurables. Drew Holliday two inches taller his wingspan. That is one positive thing about Jase is the positive wingspan. He's six to one, almost six to two. Does have a six to six wingspan. That's a promising sign for a defender. Drew Holliday was a couple inches taller, his wingspan was a couple inches longer, and he was twenty pounds heavier coming into the draft than what Jace Richardson is. So maybe we can draw
some comparisons. Because Drew Holliday is a finished product at this point. You have to look back to what was he ten years ago coming into the league. That's what he was, so he already had the tools the size to be a better defender.
But there could be those type of moments, where did Drew Holliday go to college UCLA? I do not remember him playing in college. I only Rember Drew Holliday, the NBA player.
Vague memories of Drew Holiday in the in the Bruins jersey, shaved head or short short hair, nothing long like he has now sold baby face Drew Holiday and if I recall coming out, it was a good on ball to score who defends like hell.
And that's about what he's turned into in the NBA. So the first four picks went as expected, Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, vj Edgecombe, con K Nipple, and then the fifth pick is when the chaos started, Ace Bailey getting selected by the Utah Jazz, when all of the reports that were coming out said the Ace Bailey had stuck his nose up at the entire draft process, and perhaps the team that was the most bothered by that was
the Utah Jazz and they were totally hands off. That's what I was hearing from the various outlets that I do research on, and they said, screw it or taking him anyway. Most talented player on the board. This is probably a guy that if he had put his best foot forward, apps could have gone two, definitely could have gone three, and instead you get him at five. That's incredible value. If you believe this guy is going to play for you. I happen to think he's never going
to play basketball for the Utah Jazz. I think they are going to move him. I think they did this was with a purpose. I think it's very intelligent what the Utah Jazz did. Hey, we have Ace Bailey, now, I bet you all want him, and then dangle him as they look to turn the page and becoming a winning franchise again. There's a team in the Northeast that has said very loudly with a megaphone, we are not
interested in winning anymore, and it's the Boston Celtics. Wouldn't it make just so much sense for Jalen Brown to go to the Utah Jazz and Ace Bailey go to the Boston Celtics, and then when Jason Tatum comes back in a year, he looks around like Will Smith in the empty room, going where are these people? And I think it would make a lot of sense. Ace Bailey has the upside of Tracy McGrady offensively, and the Boston Celtics are turning over a new leaf. The Jazz want
to take themselves seriously. Ace Bailey doesn't want to play in Utah. It just makes perfect sense to me. So if they can find a way to make the money work, that's my prediction that Ace Bailey is gonna end up playing for the Celtics and he will never play for the Utah Jazz. I won't count it out, but my question would be, why wasn't it done already? What what's holding I mean, the cs I thought we were gonna see it last night. That's how That's how confident I
am that it's gonna go down this way. But you know, these things get they get hung up in legal something like that.
It could I mean, if there's no rush on it, very well could be. I think the other angle of this all is if Utah selected Ace Bailey with the promise, the handshake, the wink wink, whatever it is, that they are in the works to trade him to Boston.
Boston can just kidding. At any moment, they can.
Say where where, where where, we don't want we don't want any part of that, and then Utah is well to say that you're stuck with Ace Bailey is quite the statement. But at that point it's okay. You have a player that didn't want to play for you drafted.
Him with the intent to move him.
Now you've got to try to find a different trade partner that you still get a great return on like a Jalen Brown caliber of player.
So I think that we see Ace Bailey suit up in Utah. It is clunky. Oh my goodness that that depth chart, that rotation.
They just drafted Cody Williams last year who plays a similar position. Taylor Hendrix is more of a forward whereas a more of a guard. But you've got a lot of guys in Utah right now that are young, that still have a lot to prove, and that are going to be fighting with each other every day just to see the court for a twenty win ball club, and
it is going to be fascinating up Itsil Lake. And before we move off of the Jazz completely, they also made a trade with the Washington Wizards at eighteen and are the team that ultimately selected Walter Clayton Junior. So we're gonna see old Walt play for these mysterious Utah Jazz next season as well.
So I think a big win for the Jazz last night. They got a proven player in Walter Clayton Jr. And they have a trade piece that they can now dangle to the Northeast and say you want to hear this is where he wants to be. Give us stuff we want stuff. I think it's really smart what they did elsewhere in the draft, and just sort of combing through some of the reactions. I have a notepad full of notes, so this could be a jumbled mess, but we'll figure it out as we go along. I'm sure that you're
the same. Come on, Mala Watch as somebody that you really sold me on in the process. Him going to Phoenix makes a lot of sense because they have nothing but guards and they needed somebody with some size. I love the emotion that he saw that we saw from him when he was drafted. It was the exact opposite reaction of what you saw from Ace Bailey, who looked genuinely pissed off that he was drafted by the Jazz and did not hide it. And Malawatch was just over
the moon. Meant the world to him, and I think he's a perfect fit in Phoenix, so I'll start there. I thought that was one of the better picks inside of the top ten, just fit wise.
Really like the pick. He is a top ten player in this draft. What was curious and questioning is that you trade for Mark Williams the same night you go from having no centers. Nick Richards being your starting centers to here are two young, good centers that you can plot in as you're starting five for the next ten years. Generally not a move that you see. The other interesting angle, Nick Richards was dealt to Phoenix last year from Charlotte.
Kind of unconnected.
You now recenters that played basketball last year in the state of North Carolina.
Come on, Mama, watch.
At duke Mark Williams, who was with the Hornets, and Nick Richards who started with Charlotte.
It just kind of fascinating. Yeah, the Mark Williams trade is sort of odd in all of this. Now you're gonna break down the trade details. But Derrek Queen going to New Orleans was just based on his build. Was the one place I said, this man cannot land in New Orleans, and there he is. So they get Derek Queen, who hilariously updated his LinkedIn profile. Thank you for sharing that with me in the pre show. And they also drafted Jeremiah Fears at seven and his number in the
New Orleans. How cool is this is zero zero Fears is going to sell like hotcakes in New Orleans, Louisiana. I believe that's what he was at Oklahoma as well. Yeah, that's I mean, that's just brilliant marketing. Yeah, he could be a late second round pick that Jersey would still sell because of the you know the phrasing there. But he's also the top ten pick. So how do you think New Orleans did in the draft outside of the fact that they gave up a future unprotected pick.
I think that getting there's really good value of getting Derek Queen at thirteen.
The trade moves.
By New Orleans will dive more into that they're getting a lot of heat for the trades that they made last night. But you look at this roster, so you go and get your point guard at seven and Jeremiah Fears. You have de Johntay Murray that'll be returning from injury. You made the move to acquire Jordan Poole just a
couple of days ago. You still do have Jordan Hawkins, who was a lottery pick a couple of years ago, has shown some signs that he can be a solid backup shooting guard in this league and even on his rookie contract. So you're looking at some of the other options at that point. This was where you saw kind of the hole in guard play. You add Jegor Demon taken eight to to the nets. The next guard point guard really that you saw taken was Walter Clayton junior
at eighteen. So this was the time where it was a lot of bigs. It was a lot of wings. Cedric Coward fitting into the mix, but even he wasn't available for the Pelicans at thirteen. So at that point, with what is available, you don't want to go and get Thomas Sorber. Very similar to Eves Mecie. That a promising rookie season last year. I think you feel pretty good about Eve's kind of playing that starting five and adding and not having just a copy and pace in
that second group. Carter Brian, it's too much unproven. New Orleans is in more of a win now situation. Yang Hansen was the surprise of the first round. We'll get to that in a moment. Yan Baron Jay an unfinished product.
So when he looked at what was available, even if the fit isn't great, one thing that you know is Derek Queen can be a leader of the second group in scoring and rebounds and facilitating along with Jeremiah Fears, and I think that's something that New Orleans is pretty interested in and if Zion goes out, which we figure
will happen at some point in the year. I think that he's a guy that a push comes to shove, and depending on the health of some of the other guys that they have in New Orleans, you feel okay sticking Derek Queen out there in the starting five as a power forward with the rim protector in the defensive anchor leaves me Sie playing right beside him.
He is kind of They're different stylistically because Zion is a much more vertical player and it seems like Queen is a little bit more crafty, better shooter. He's pretty horizontal, right, He's not dunking over anybody. But in some ways they are very similar in their build and they would if you have to replace one for the other, I guess you could do worse than that. Okay, we have to talk about the Nets because they made four first round picks last night and they make five. They made five.
It was a record setting first team in WBA history. To see that. This is the mistake that I made. As I went to the team's tab, I know they had five first round picks, and then I went to the teams tab under Brooklyn, and it only has four players listed because they because it doesn't have the trade with for Drake Powell in there, so that Drake Powell is the one that I was missing from the list
that was in front of me. But they made five picks Drake Powell out of UNC, a Goor Demon out of BYU, Nolan Trey Ore out of France, Ben Sarah out of Israel, and Danny Wolf out of Michigan. It feels it feels random. I but I'll rely on you for this. This feels like they had five first round picks. To me, it kind of feels like if you had to judge it based on did they crush it or did they waste it? It kind of feels like they
wasted the opportunity drafting a lot of the same players. Yeah, I think it's what mindset do you want to break this down in? Because when you have five first round picks, you can go with one of two options. You can a build out a starting five or what holes does your team have?
And with Brooklyn it's pretty much everything. You can't draft the wrong player. If they have one draft pick, you can go in any direction. You have pretty good case for it. So you can build out a starting five of trying to balance it out position by position by position.
Which is I think that's the move that I would make.
So here's what I'll say, first round draft picks, and they add three from nineteen to twenty six, yes, and Drey Ora and nineteen twenty seven rather that was their last first round pick where they got Danny Wolf Ben Saraf in the middle there at twenty six. When you're selecting in those spots, a lot of more often than not, those players are not going to hit right. In the NBA, you know, you can be a starter, you can be
a rotation player, you can be an all star. But there are a lot of nineteen overall selections that are out of the league by year four out of their rookie contract.
Don't get that second contract.
So one thing that Brooklyn did do that I think can you can spend positive is they did go and get a lot of the same players. Jagor Demon, Nolan Trejore and Ben Sarah all going to be point guards in this league. What are the odds they all miss? At least one of them has to hit.
Yeah, but you have to I totally get where you're going with this, but you have to give them time on the court to figure that out, and when you draft three of them, it's not possible. So it's a waste because what's gonna happen is one of the guys. You know what's gonna happen. I'll give you a perfect example. Dearon Fox and Tyrese Haliburton on the same team in Sacramento, and you go, oh, well, Fox looks better. Now let's trade Tyres Alburton. Oops, you traded the wrong guy. That's
what's gonna happen. Chances are you did hit on someone. The better chance is you're also gonna have to get rid of them before you figure it out, and you screw yourself. Not to say you can never have you can. You can't draft a player that's the same position as somebody else on your team. I think it's different when you already have somebody that's in that position, as opposed to we're just gonna we're gonna do it all in
one draft, because then everybody's on the same timeline. I really don't like that approach, really don't like that approach. I'm not saying that it's the right move.
I just think that it could potentially play out positive and knowing that the odds are stacked against you of going five or five of draft picks that hit, with three of them coming in the final eleven picks of the drafts. While picks in the draft, I think that there's there can be a method to the madness of we're gonna get all these guys in the building, and we're gonna put them against one another, and we're gonna see who comes out alive, and that's gonna be our
guy moving forward. One of them goes down so that you get the next one in and you just kind of see what you have by process of putting their feet to the fire against one another. Sou I don't love what they did. A guy like Rashier Fleming, Drake Powell was I believe he was one of my do not touch guys. I think he was underwhelming at UNC last year. I don't think that he was the best wing player available that they could have gone to get. So I don't think that they made all of the
right selections. But I can try at least to make sense of the three true point guards in the same draft with three.
Of your five first round picks lastly, and there's still so much to break down. But Yang Hanson, I think, is how you pronounce his name, the center out of China who they called on ESPN last night. They called him Chinese Jokic, so high praise. But I did not see a single soul that had this guy drafted in the top sixteen. And he is headed to Portland where they also drafted a center last year and Donovan Klingen. But whatever, maybe they're not sold on him. Your thoughts
on that. As little as we know about this Chinese product, so I wanted to make sure that it was the same guy.
I believe that it was young who had a really good draft combine. Like in the scrimmages, all the highlights they were showing from the combine, it wentked electric.
So in this he had a really good combine.
In the scrimmages, I think he moved a little slow for my liking. And seven footers are more and more common in this league, and you have seven footers that can handle, can shoot, can do everything as well as provide the defense that a seven footer does. But he had a really good combine. But you have to consider who's playing in those combine scrimmages. It's not any of the top fifteen players that were taken before him. It's a lot of guys that are in college another year.
A lot of the other standouts from the combine went went back to college for another year, and they'll try again next year. We'll see what it plays out to be. I don't have a ton of research on him. However, there have been people that I respect and listen to and read that have been calling on young Hanson for all season long now, all through the draft process and beyond.
So who knows.
With Portland, you have Eton, you have Donovan Klingen that you took last year with a high pick. You still do have Robert Williams on roster, so you've got a trio of centers that you hope two of them are healthy at the same time. You know, I think this could have been a wasted pick, but I think Carter Bryant was where you Portland really wanted to go with him being taken.
Off the board a couple of picks prior.
I think it was, Hey, let's go for a five hundred foot home run. Swing right here and take the seven footer deemed the Chinese Yokic.
Well, we have some center log jams that are forming in the NBA, so perhaps some trades on the horizon. The draft process is a bear to deal with the home buying process, even