12 Potential Breakout Players & Remembering Nellie

Summary

No Dunks – 12 Potential Breakout Players & Remembering Nellie

Date: August 10, 2026
Hosts: Jay Skeets, Tasm Ellis, Trey Kirby, JD

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Episode Overview

This episode of No Dunks opens with a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Don Nelson, whose recent passing shook the NBA community. The crew reflects on his enduring influence as a player, coach, and revolutionary basketball mind. The main focus then shifts to an engaging draft: each host selects potential breakout NBA players for the 2026-27 season, providing reasoning and debate for each pick. The episode is filled with basketball insight, personal anecdotes, and the familiar, friendly banter that defines No Dunks.

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Key Segments and Timestamps

• [05:02] – Remembering Don Nelson
• [13:35] – NBA News Roundup (rumors, free agency, summer updates)
• [14:46] – MIP Winners Trivia Challenge (and draft order)
• [18:00] – Potential Breakout Players Draft Begins
• [71:57] – Corrections & Fact Checks (Don Nelson stories)
• [Non-content segments: ads, intros, outros, cross-promo omitted]

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Remembering Don Nelson (05:02–12:29)

The Legend's Passing and Legacy

• Jay Skeets: Announces Don Nelson's death at age 86, recapping his career as a five-time Celtics champion and innovative coach:
  “He pioneered a style of basketball called Nelly Ball... very entertaining basketball.” [05:02]
• Trey Kirby: Recalls Nelson's innovations, including the point forward, Hack-a-Shaq, You Believe Warriors, and being instrumental in drafting Stephen Curry.
  Quote: “He even helped the Golden State Warriors pick Steph Curry. So the influence of Don Nelson just continues, even though he's passed on.” [05:46] Also mentions Nelson's quirky side—his infamous fish tie and his post-retirement Hawaii weed farm poker games with celebs.
• Tasm Ellis: Shares a favorite Nelson anecdote about being crafty during the draft; willingness to protest bad trades with Luka Doncic shoes.
  Quote: “He said, I’m wearing Luka Doncic shoes here to protest that trade. What a dumb trade. You traded away that guy.” [07:10]
• All: Reflect on Nelson’s impact as a player (five rings with the Celtics), his weird one-handed free throw, and his “ahead of his time” vision.

Influence on the Modern Game

• “He revolutionized basketball... invented the point forward, was instrumental in the stretch four, leaned into space and pace, and was ahead on international scouting.” [08:04–08:55]

Player Tributes

• “Current and former players—Steph, Nash, Dirk—everyone sharing what he meant for their careers.” [10:21]
• Trey Kirby:
  Quote: “Steph Curry became a two time MVP, was drafted by Don Nelson. Steve Nash became a two time MVP. He told the Mavericks: don't let this guy get away.” [10:43]

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NBA News Roundup (12:29–13:35)

• Updates on free agency rumors and slow news, featuring Peyton Watson’s possible destinations, Pistons–Jalen Duran impasse, Lakers’ interest in Kaminga, Harden nearing a Cavs deal, and Ben Simmons’ new selfie and possible Boomers cameo.
• “Ben Simmons... might get like a camp invite or two here. And you won't believe this. I saw a photo of Ben Simmons without a shirt on looking jacked.” [12:34]
• NBA schedule tease—first games to be announced on nationwide morning shows.

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MIP Winners Trivia Challenge (14:46–18:00)

Lighthearted trivia breaks to determine draft order; the challenge: name past Most Improved Player award-winners born outside the US.

• Occasional playful ribbing for brain farts and deep-cut knowledge, e.g., Ronnie Seikaly, Hedo Turkoglu, Siakam, etc.
• Sets the order for the “Potential Breakout Players” draft.

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Potential Breakout Players Draft (18:00–65:00)

Format: Each host selects in rotating order. Twelve picks, with justification, analysis, discussion, debate, and occasional pushback.

First Round

1. Brandon Miller, Hornets (Trey Kirby) [18:00]

• Rationale: Now leading the team post-Lamelo Ball and Miles Bridges. Proven playoff pop (23/5/5 in Play-In). “Are they Brandon Miller’s team or Con Cany Nipples’ team?” [18:00]
• “27–11 when Miller scored 20+... can he be a playmaker?” [19:28]
• Concerns about playmaking without Lamelo.

2. Colin Murray-Boyles, Raptors (Tasm Ellis) [21:19]

• Rationale: Bigger post-season role, set to leap in minutes, fits small-ball era.
  “I think at times we’re going to see this guy be the second best player... behind Scottie Barnes.” [22:12]
• Potential starter, per-minute monster, unique defensive flexibility.

3. Peyton Pritchard, Celtics (Jay Skeets) [27:52]

• Rationale: With Jalen Brown gone, major opportunity: “When there was no Jalen... 25/7/5. Jamal Murray-like numbers.” [27:52]
• Could become a 20-PPG scorer, possibly even an All-Star conversation.

Second Round

4. Cooper Flagg, Mavericks (Trey Kirby) [31:32]

• Rationale: “Flagg... still a teen, nearly an All-Star as a rookie. 22/7/5 after the break. If jumper comes around, we’re talking top-15 player.” [31:46]
• New teammates (Kyrie) to aid development. Jump shot is swing skill.

5. Kobe Sanders, Clippers (Tasm Ellis) [34:48]

• Rationale: “Big wing, second-year leap coming, has modern skills... combo guard, can catch-and-shoot.” [34:48]
• Clippers’ crowded backcourt discussed, but should stand out as a shooter and defender.

6. Dylan Harper, Spurs (Jay Skeets) [37:19]

• Rationale: “There were instances where you’re like, this guy is the real deal... only hesitation is how much the Spurs slow-play him.” [37:19]
• Showed playoff flashes as potentially the best player on the floor.

Third Round

7. Ty Jerome, Grizzlies (Trey Kirby) [41:20]

• Rationale: Only played 15 games last year, but “legitimately a good player, crafty scorer, impressive shooting splits, playing for contract year.” [42:17]
• “His nickname on Basketball Reference is Milk.” [43:36]

8. Nikola Jovic, Heat (Tasm Ellis) [44:39]

• Rationale: Disappointing last season, but bar is low: “Bounce-back year... now with Giannis, Bam, and a thin depth chart, Jovic gets real opportunity.” [44:45]
• Needs to step up—or risk being the “Heat’s Patrick Williams.”

9. Keyshawn George, Wizards (Jay Skeets) [49:18]

• Rationale: “Classic third-year leap candidate, does a bit of everything, plays hard, may flourish as a fourth option with more talent around.” [49:18]
• Shot 38% from three, poised for breakout in new environment.

Fourth Round

10. Johan Berenjay, Timberwolves (Trey Kirby) [53:44]

• Rationale: “Has Gobert-level talent with more athleticism, raw, but opportunity opens up with departures. Only 19 yrs old, will get more minutes.” [53:44]

11. Hugo Gonzalez, Celtics (Tasm Ellis) [57:26]

• Rationale: “Only averaged 4 PPG, but prime candidate to double stats. Plug-and-play wing, can do a bit of everything, effort guy.” [57:26]
• The ghost of the “almost a Giannis trade” hovers over him. “There's gonna be a doc or story told one day about that trade...” [59:31]

12. Donovan Clingan, Blazers (Jay Skeets) [63:00]

• Rationale: “Intrigued by development as a pick-and-roll big for Ja Morant and Damian Lillard. Upped usage, improved boards, less foul prone.” [63:00]
• Already among the league’s best offensive rebounders.

Additional Notable Moments & Quotes

• On Jovic: “[He] needs to play solid rotation player to be a hell of a jump from the disaster I would say that last year was.” — Jay Skeets [46:26]
• On Keyshawn George and the new Wizards: “I'm literally excited for the Wizards this year, at least for November and December. We'll see.” — Trey Kirby [51:15]
• On Johan Berenjay’s opportunity and ceiling: “Just by the way the personnel shakes up, he’s going to have a little bit more time. … I think he’s got Gobert-level talent, to be quite honest.” — Trey Kirby [53:44]
• On Hugo Gonzalez/expectations: “You come out and have a breakout performance year. Not, of course, 30 points/game Giannis style. But you show there's a reason they wanted to keep me.” — Jay Skeets [60:08]

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Honorable Mentions & Leftover Names (65:15–67:36)

• Jay Skeets: Jaden McDaniels (Wolves), Jaeger Joman (Nets), Keegan Murray (Kings bounce-back), Peyton Watson (Nuggets, pending situation), Malawatch Ware (Bucks), others.
• Trey Kirby: Will Riley (Wizards—“most broken out face in the NBA, looks 14”), Ziaire Williams (“could get up to ninth man for Lakers”), Bona (Sixers backup), Jared McCain (Thunder), Anthony Black (Magic—competition with Jalen Suggs).
• Tasm Ellis: Hawks possibilities: Asa Newell, Devin Carter, Aaron Wiggins (“Could they keep the MIP dynasty alive?”).

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Tone, Style, and Final Thoughts

• The conversation is lively, friendly, and deeply knowledgeable, full of back-and-forth, inside jokes, and sharp analysis.
• Hosts question each other's picks: e.g., “You took Cooper Flagg? Then I'm taking Dylan Harper!”; defend their rationale, and consider fit, role, opportunity, and team context, not just raw stats.
• Don Nelson’s tribute is respectful and warm, sharing personal reminiscences and the impact of his life on the NBA and beyond.
• The draft is both comprehensive and lighthearted, pulling names from All-Star sleepers to deep-cut role players.
• “The highlight of the off-season!” as one fan described previous drafts.

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Memorable Quotes

• “Steph Curry became a two time MVP, was drafted by Don Nelson. Steve Nash became a two time MVP. He told the Mavericks: don't let this guy get away.” — Trey Kirby [10:43]
• “I had him on my shortlist... some hesitation, just with, yeah, adding to his game. He's a scorer... but is he more than RJ Barrett or will he plateau?” — Jay Skeets on Brandon Miller [19:36]
• “Bounce-back year... now with Giannis, Bam, and a thin depth chart, Jovic gets real opportunity.” — Tasm Ellis [44:45]
• “You come out and have a breakout performance year. ... You show there's a reason they obviously wanted to keep me around, saw potential in me...” — Jay Skeets, on Hugo Gonzalez [60:08]

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Key Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• Deep-dive tribute to Don Nelson’s legacy, innovations, and personality.
• Whip-smart, highly entertaining draft of twelve breakout NBA players for 2026-27, spanning All-Star leaps, second-year jumps, and deep-rotation long shots.
• Insightful team context: The panel does not just chase raw stats but considers coaching, roster, fit, and opportunity.
• Loads of names for NBA fans to keep an eye on.
• The podcast exemplifies smart, passionate basketball discourse—with room for banter, pop-culture analogies, and obscure trivia.

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Transcript

[Jay Skeets]

This is an I heart podcast.

[Tasm Ellis]

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[Jay Skeets]

90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle

[Trey Kirby]

for the future of America plays out

[Jay Skeets]

in one small town. Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land.

[Tasm Ellis]

We need cities on a shining hill.

[Trey Kirby]

This is Our Town, A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back.

[Tasm Ellis]

Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you?

[Trey Kirby]

Listen to Our town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your PODC.

[Tasm Ellis]

Hey, Portlandia fans, Kerry Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form.

[Jay Skeets]

We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode

[Trey Kirby]

of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going

[Jay Skeets]

deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made.

[Trey Kirby]

And we'll also be joined by the

[Tasm Ellis]

people who helped bring it all to

[Trey Kirby]

life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle

[Tasm Ellis]

McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it.

[Jay Skeets]

Here you fully improvised, not just words,

[Tasm Ellis]

but a song about.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, I thought you were all going

[Tasm Ellis]

to write a song. I remember you thinking that.

[Jay Skeets]

Listen to Podlandia AO rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman.

[Trey Kirby]

Your duolingo is not going to come back to you when a man is inside of no.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where

[Trey Kirby]

I can say yes without asking anyone else first.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Monday, August 10th, 2026. I'm Jay Skeets here in the classic factory and alongside me, as always, Tasm Ellis.

[Tasm Ellis]

Podcast listeners, this is for you.

[Jay Skeets]

Next to him, it's my top shot, hot boy Trey Kirby. And over yonder, right over there, making the magic happen, super producer JD Hello. There he is. Here we are. Hello to everybody joining us live right now. Hit the like button. Subscribe Share the Show Podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews. On today's show, we have some fun drafting some potential breakout players for the 2627 season. Which, by the way, I just saw the NBA sharing on their socials. They're going to start announcing the NBA schedule tomorrow morning on Good Morning America and the Today show. I guess they're going to tease us with some of the big games on those shows and then we'll get the rest of it this week.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, that's the thing. What a tease, huh? You just play all that once?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

And Christmas, here's one game. Yeah, you know, it's gonna be a real teaser.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, my God. Hold on, hold on. They can't do that type of team.

[Tasm Ellis]

No, just one of the five. Christmas, that ain't a present. Yeah, that's rough.

[Jay Skeets]

So, yeah, we'll get that this week. Otherwise, a Fairly quiet weekend. NBA news worthy. Unfortunate news on Sunday, legendary NBA coach Don Nelson died over the weekend. He was 86 years old. Nelson won five titles as a player for the Boston Celtics and as a coach. Well, he Pioneered a style of basketball called Nelly Ball. It was named after him. You know, favoring a fast pace, smaller players just outrun the opponents. Very entertaining basketball. Second winningest coach in league history. Only Popovich with more wins. Tributes you saw rushed in former players, colleagues, teams executives for Nelly. Your reaction to Don Nelson gone at 86 years old?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, sad news, for sure. A guy that has been a part of the NBA as long as we've known and watched the NBA for us, he's obviously a coach and one of the most innovative coaches there has ever been. Retired as the all time winningest coach in NBA history. But like you're saying, he came up with Nelly Ball, kind of invented small ball. He invented the small forward or point forward position. I couldn't believe this looking at his Wikipedia page. He invented hack a Shack. He was the first guy to hack a Shack back in the 90s. He was the coach of the, we believe warriors, who were one of the first upset teams. He even helped the Golden State warriors pick Steph Curry. So the influence of Don Nelson just continues, uh, even though he's passed on. The other things I think of, of course, are his fish tie. Like that was the first thing I thought of. And somebody else ever wear a fish tie, but he had several of them. And then of course, his post retirement weed farm where he'd host poker games with Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson. Seems like an awesome life this guy had.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yes, for sure. Yeah, yeah. Light one up for Don Nelson. Yeah. Whether. Whether it's a cigar, which he did, you know, in his coaching days, or the weed, as he said, that's post coach career. He made that specifically clear when he was on that press conference with Stephen Jackson and Corey McGetty. I remember, of the Golden State warriors, which was, which was great. That guy's a real one, man. I went back and just watched him in his press conference just last year. He was 85 years old when he accepted that Chuck Daly lifetime achievement Award during the NBA Finals. And he just told it like it is. He said, I'm wearing Luka Doncic shoes here to protest that trade. What a dumb trade. You traded away that guy. He's got stories. Four days as. As Trey kind of brought up the one about I heard from Mark Stein who asked him before he drafted Dirk Nowitzki, you going to draft Dirk Nowitzki? He said, no, that guy was crushed in his workout by Dan Gadz reach. There's no way I can draft him. Then he drafted him. Then Stein asked Him, hey, what was that all about? He goes, well, you can never trust me. Well, before the draft, never trust anyone. And that's, that's a word of wisdom for everybody going into the draft. Never trust anybody before the draft. But yes, just go watch Don Nelson stuff. He was, he's an incredible person.

[Jay Skeets]

So he coached the Bucks, coached the warriors twice. He did coach the Knicks. That was a very short stint. That one didn't go well. Obviously coach the Mavericks there with Dirk and Steve Nash and that great team. Coach of the year three times. 83, 85, 92. He made the playoffs a whole bunch of times, I think 18 times total. Won a bunch of division titles. Now he unfortunately never coached actually in the finals. He had a really good Bucks team or two and then made the conference finals for sure with the Mavericks. I think they fell to the spurs Coach Dream Team 2. I had completely forgotten about to the 94 World Championships. And he was inducted into the hall of fame in 2012. But you said it, Trey. I mean he like this guy revolutionized basketball for a couple of the things you said. He invented the point forward. He obviously was pretty instrumental in the stretch four when it came to Dirk. He leaned into small ball, the space and pace, using the three point shot as an absolute weapon in this league. And he was sort of like a couple steps ahead of many other franchises when it came to international scouting as well. So he's sort of at the forefront of that. Just saw the game differently and challenged convention, which was pretty cool. And also just seemed like the coolest hang of all time.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, seems awesome.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And if you're old enough, you're like, oh yeah, he actually was a great basketball player. As you're five times titles with the Celtics back in the 60s and 70s. That was the first thing my dad said. One of the most unique free throw styles in NBA history. Looks like a kid shooting a free throw, shoots it one handed and jumps, but somehow shot 75 at the line. Yeah, there's guys that brick away shooting proper style. But you could go to the hall of Fame if you actually do what works.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, I love seeing him in that Celtics uniform, number 19 with just one hand on the ball and so much separation and he gets, he got down so low.

[Trey Kirby]

Oh yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Jerry Stack has type squad for sure.

[Tasm Ellis]

It was. But he was ahead of his time obviously, as he was even when he last year when he was talking about today's modern era and they were asking him how do you like it in comparison? He goes, yeah, this is, this is awesome. This is what I foresaw when I was with the Boston Celtics, you know, he didn't take credit for that by any means. That's not the kind of guy he was. But it fits, it really fits his style of ball.

[Jay Skeets]

And again, like so well liked, so generous, open minded. You had all these like legends, let's call them, they are legends. And Steph, obviously current players, still Nash, Dirk, like everybody I saw like on social media jumping in and you know, sharing their thoughts on how much he Don Nelson meant to them and their career. A lot of these guys are like, yeah, he basically made help make me who I was.

[Trey Kirby]

Well, Steph Curry became a two time mvp, was drafted by Don Nelson. Steve Nash became a two time mvp. He told the Dallas Mavericks, don't let this guy to get away. And Dirk Nowitzki became an mvp and he said, go stand by the three point line and let it fly, buddy.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Last year when he was talking about Steve Nash leaving the Dallas Mavericks, he said, that's where I got into my scrap. And we never were able to settle it between myself and Mark Cuban because he let Steve Nash go. And in that instance he told like it was cubes, don't let this guy go. Big mistake.

[Jay Skeets]

Another favorite story was Nick Van Exel on social media saying he was like the one coach who would get upset with me if I didn't shoot. He'd be like, I'll pull your ass if you don't shoot. It's usually the opposite, right? Like a coach is gonna be like, all right, too many shots, you take another bad shot, I'm taking you off. It's like Don Nelson, he looked at it completely differently. You gotta play free, you gotta have confidence, let it rip and stuff like that. Obviously focusing on the offensive end. So Don Nelson gone at 86 years old, hall of Famer Don Nelson in the hall of Fame for coaching. But yeah, five titles with the Celtics. Not bad either. Number retired by the Boston Celtics. Other news from the weekend, I just want to give you a whole bunch because again, not all that exciting. But we still have multiple teams in theory pursuing Peyton Watson, including the Hawks, Clippers, Bucks and Cavs. The Pistons remain the favorite to sign Jalen Duran, but two sides are at an impasse and they've been told, or we've been told, it might take a couple months here. The Lakers are still interested in Jonathan Kaminga. James Harden is still on track for a multi year deal with the Cavs. DeMar DeRozan has drawn interest from a bunch of teams, Heat, Nuggets, Wizards, Cavs as well. And then the latest one, I guess Ben Simmons is generating interest from several teams. So he might get like a camp invite or two here. And you won't believe this. I saw a photo of Ben Simmons without a shirt on looking jacked.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Said he wouldn't change a thing about his NBA career. I would.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And he might, he might, he might try. I don't know if try not try out, but might be a part of the Australian team which is, you know, he has not been involved with at all from what I can remember for a very long time. So that has some eyebrows being raised. But anyway, that's all the news and

[Tasm Ellis]

he doesn't regret that. I mean, the whole relationship there, although that's not part of his NBA career. Maybe that's separate. But yeah, very odd. The whole Peyton Watson thing, very interesting because the Denver Nuggets are the only team in the second apron of all the teams. A team that's criticized for, you know, not paying guys a lot. So it's very interesting to see if they were just are able to reel him in like it's Ben Simmons reeling in a fish based on what their salaries are. Because they've got to do something. Otherwise if they do bring him back because. But it could be him that ends up somewhere else. So that's a very interesting scenario to me, books wise and talent wise. That guy is very important to that team.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And I don't think we need to do it again here today because we've talked a lot about Peyton Watson and we'll just wait for more news there. For sure. Get that sort of in front of everyone. He could be a guy that might be drafted in our breakout players draft here. Let's get to this. We're doing four rounds, so we're drafting 12 players in total of potential breakout players for this coming season. Trivia question to decide who gets to go first here. I think I came up with a fun one here. You guys will go back and forth. It'll be one of these trivia questions where I need you to name the 10. There's 10 in total most improved player award winners who were born outside the U.S. okay, so international most improved player winners. You know, and I'll say this right now, what's fun about this is there's, there's the 10th one is a bit of a oh, you sly Skeets. But there's nine real legit international guys, but no duplicate countries, no Dukes. I couldn't believe it. Okay, so maybe that's a little. A little hint there for you. Taz, you start first here. Give me an international MIP winner.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's good you're starting with me because once upon a time, people thought that Hito Turgolu looked like me, so. Yes. Hiro Turgolu of Turkey A.

[Jay Skeets]

There you go. One down, lots to go.

[Trey Kirby]

I thought you were gonna say him the way you were preambling. Giannis Antetokounmpo.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, yes, from Greece.

[Tasm Ellis]

That's funny. Yeah, That's a good one. I've. Yeah. Sometimes you forget about how many awards yanistan Kubo won. C.J. mcCall. My God, he's American.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, he's American. Yeah. Trey, back to you to get the win here. Just give me one more.

[Trey Kirby]

I'll take Dyson Daniels and Nikhil Alexander.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

Australia and Canada.

[Trey Kirby]

Two local guys.

[Tasm Ellis]

Too busy thinking of the Greeks and the Turks fighting.

[Jay Skeets]

Can you get. Just for fun, can you give me any others?

[Trey Kirby]

Siakam.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes. Cameroon. Thank you.

[Tasm Ellis]

Nice.

[Jay Skeets]

You've got four, sort of five left.

[Trey Kirby]

Victor Oladipo. Was he born in the United States?

[Jay Skeets]

Yes, he was born. Not. Not on the list here. There's one guy who represented U.S. basketball in international hoops. Was. Who was born in Lebanon. This was the. The tenth one born outside the US That I would have. Didn't think. You got to go way back. You got to get on the.

[Tasm Ellis]

Oh, Ronnie Cycling ones and twos.

[Jay Skeets]

Ronnie Cycley.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's not a guy who strikes me. He's Lebanese.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

I wanted to say.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, but four other, you know, gettable ones. Gettable ones. I don't want to give you the countries. I think you'll get them right away. Yeah, but I will think, think, think. Very cold in northern countries.

[Tasm Ellis]

A lot of marketing.

[Jay Skeets]

There you go. There we go.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Now we're getting back to the earlier. Some of the, you know, earlier days, I guess. These are some. Maybe. These are probably 90s. At least one of them is Romania. That's a tough one. He's a big man.

[Tasm Ellis]

It wasn't George Merson.

[Jay Skeets]

He won most improved. Yes, he did. Gotta remember, most improved used to go to weird guys. Not now. Where it goes to. Yeah, exactly. This guy was an NBA champion, though, from France.

[Trey Kirby]

This guy was an NBA champion from France. Mikhail Pietras.

[Jay Skeets]

No, much better at all. Much better.

[Tasm Ellis]

Tony Parker.

[Jay Skeets]

No, not that good. But this guy loved coffee.

[Trey Kirby]

He was mip, huh?

[Jay Skeets]

Nice final one.

[Trey Kirby]

Remember that?

[Jay Skeets]

He had a brother with a damn near identical name in the league.

[Trey Kirby]

Seth Curry.

[Jay Skeets]

No, but it's like it's like that Seth and Steph, very similar to that from Slovenia.

[Trey Kirby]

Goron Dragon.

[Jay Skeets]

You got them all. Yeah, we eventually got them all there.

[Tasm Ellis]

Real brain fart there.

[Jay Skeets]

Hey, that's all right. That's all right.

[Tasm Ellis]

I'm just thinking time wise. Yeah, countries, that's. Countries ain't easy.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, so Trey has the number one pick here in our potential breakout players draft. Now, I think it's important to note, I mean, I had a trivia question about most improved. It doesn't mean we're trying to find like first year All Stars or like the next mip, though. It can. I think there's overlap, but you can go wherever you want with whatever your definition will be of a potential breakout player.

[Trey Kirby]

TK all right, I'm going to go with the guy who I think very well could make his first All Star game this year. Definitely could be an MIP candidate as well. Now that I'm thinking about it. Give me Brandon Miller from Hornets. Because I look at the Hornets now and I think, are they Brandon Miller's team or are they Con Cany nipples team? I kind of think time will tell. The only thing we do know, not Lamelo Ball's team right now. I'm a little encouraged though that Brandon Miller was actually good in the play. In games that the Hornets had last season, 23, five and five, hit five threes against the Heat and then when the Hornets got whomped by the Magic, at least he had 14 points and four threes. That's better than basically anybody else on the Hornets can say. I guess Lamelo actually played pretty well. I think Lamelo and Miles Bridges were both solid in both these games and they're both out gone. But I look at The Hornets now 27 and 11 last season when Brandon Miller scored 20 or more. The question for me is can he be a playmaker for this team? Because the Hornets were great offensively last year, top five in offense. But that was with Lamelo creating a ton of the looks. Brandon Miller was much more efficient when Ball was on the court. Put up bigger counting numbers at least when Lamelo was out. So I look at Brandon Miller as a guy who's currently extension eligible. They'll probably do a deal I assume before the start of the season or maybe they say go into restricted free agency next year and he's going to try and go for a gigantic max contract. But I'm in general think Brandon Miller

[Tasm Ellis]

is a good player.

[Trey Kirby]

I think he steps into the number one responsibility guy this year. So that screams breakout to Me, Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

I had him on my short list. He was in the running. Some hesitation just with. Yeah. Adding to his game. He's a scorer. This guy can score. But like is he is. Does he have more to his game or is he going to turn. Is he like RJ Barrett in sort of that regard and that's sort of where he plateaus. Probably not because he's so young here. Still what he's like 23, 24. So going into his fourth year. It's a good pick.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's a good one.

[Jay Skeets]

Definitely a potential first time all star if the Hornets are obviously still good even without Lamelo ball.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. I was wondering just what happens out there with the dynamic but I think Charles Lee as a head coach will make sure everybody fires away. Strictly that. Just let him fly.

[Trey Kirby]

They got a lot of shooters.

[Tasm Ellis]

They do, they do. And they love the guards getting space, whether it's them picking and getting out there and firing away. So I think Brandon Miller would be part of that. He's just going to be part of that. He's going to shoot. But as you said, the shooters they've added now, Grayson Allen coming into with that trade for Miles Bridges. There's they're going to fire so they're going to score a lot and I guess that's what other teams are going to scout them as a team that's just going to shoot against.

[Trey Kirby]

This is going to be a bombs away team because it's Grayson Allen, Royce o' Neal and Nas Reed were the three guys that they brought in. That's even more shooting than they're losing with Bridges and Ball going out. So I think they're still going to be a potent offensive team but they were kind of middle of the pack last year in assists and that's with Lamelo being a passer. I don't know that they have a playmaker like that on the roster this year unless Miller shows us something that he hasn't really flashed so far in his game.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, that's the biggest question. Who is running the point? I mean who's running every single possession there?

[Jay Skeets]

I guess they're hoping it's Kobe White for the most part and probably the ball in con can apple's hands a little bit more.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. But yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Brandon Miller off the board. Where are you going?

[Tasm Ellis]

It's a fun one. Fun one to take a guy who's got strictly a bigger role and that's why I'll stick. Trey always influences me with the first pick after I make a mistake in the trivia with the angle, he goes, I'm going with Colin Mary Boyles of the Toronto Raptors because he's going to get a bigger role. In the regular season, he didn't have that at all. He played only 57 games and just 22 minutes per game and then became a huge player, you know, both physically and strategically in the off season or in the postseason for them. He was so good playing 27 minutes game. I think he's going to get up to 30 minutes as they push him to do more. Will he start for Jakob Hurdle? Probably not. But at the same time, because they know the limits that Jakob Hurdle has. Colin Murray Boyles and his very, very variety of type of game he plays is going to be out there. He's known for defense. Of course, he's good at guarding perimeter guys, but he showed he can guard big guys as well. But his skills of passing out, being able to shoot a little bit, the push shot, I think he's gonna actually run pick and rolls himself where he's the ball handler and also the pick setter as well. I think at times we're going to see this guy be the second best player that we know on this team behind Scotty Barnes. Now, is Kawhi Leonard going to join the team?

[Jay Skeets]

Maybe.

[Tasm Ellis]

But sometimes you, you, you're gonna watch games, you're gonna say, well, this guy played 30 minutes a game. He had more of a factor. Played more of a factor than RJ Barrett or played more of a factor than Emmanuel Quickley. He's going to be that good. And I, I think he's going to be pushed to do that as he has been in the off season. He's going to be awesome. I think he's going to be really, really good. He is, you know, small ball center at a perfect time in his career. I think it just fits with what's going on in the NBA. So I think he's going to be really, really good.

[Jay Skeets]

I just wonder if he's still going to be limited a little bit because of Purdl being there. Yeah, if he's, if Pearl's healthy, I mean, he. Purdo will start if he's healthy. And I think that's fine. But you're right, he'll end games and he was awesome in the postseason. Yeah. I just wonder, numbers wise, are they gonna pop?

[Tasm Ellis]

Last year in the, in the playoffs, he was 14 and 6, 14.4, 6.4 boards, one steel and a block. They were really, really good numbers in comparison to what he did in his regular season. Yeah. Sometimes I look at these breakout players and I look at the stats and say, whoa, people are going to look at stats of the first regular season compared to the second and they're going to be a jump because Yaka Pearl just physically can't do all that much anymore. Will he be able to play even, you know, 70 games? And I think the fact that Column Murray Boy is going to play way more. A guy who was questioned when he was drafted, does he want to go to the team? Is he saying, oh no, I don't want to go to that team when he was drafted at the table there, I think he's just going to be super pumped for his new role.

[Jay Skeets]

I like it. CMB

[Tasm Ellis]

I've been rocking linen lately, top and bottom. God it feels good. And all season long I keep checking what quarter Quince has got in the linen department. I wore linen for the show and I'm too lazy to change so I had it on till I went to bed. And that's when Danielle says that linen shirt is too nice to wear all day. It's more of a night shirt. You gotta change it up.

[Trey Kirby]

What?

[Tasm Ellis]

My hundred percent European Linen Relax short sleeve shirt from Quince is not too nice. They're versatile, timeless and transition seamlessly from a casual workday to dinner out. Quint's 100% European linen pants and shirts are breathable, easy to throw on, and they start at just $34. Hey Danielle, what about this premium Mongolian cashmere sweater I got from Quint for the fall? Quint specializes in everyday staples that work harder. Everything at Quint is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for high quality, not brand markup. And it's not just clothing. Quince has become a go to for everything from hotel quality bedding and bath essentials to premium cookware and travel must haves. I've been thinking about changing my greens powder to one from Quint's. They got it all. Upgrade your everyday Download the quint app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com noduck get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's q-u I n c e.com nodunks hey, it's your ceiling vent. So I'm dripping. Could be the rain, could be the upstairs bathroom. Yikes. You could hire the guy your neighbor recommended, but I'm pretty sure that's just his cousin. Do we know if he's licensed or does he just own a ladder?

[Jay Skeets]

Listen to your home go with thumbtack. Upload a photo or voice note, and we'll diagnose your project and match you with the right pro for the job. Thumbtack, we know homes hire the right pro today. We've all been there. We've had seasons that have shaken everything. The question is, what remains when the shaking stops? Hi, I'm Gary Valenciano, and on my podcast Unshaken with Gary Vee, I sit down with amazing personalities and we talk about the seasons that nearly broke them, the lows that carried them to their highs. Listen to Unshaken with Gary Vee on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the solid verbal college show. I'm Ty Hildenbrandt. He's Dan Rubenstein. How's it going? Every week we preview the games that matter, sort through the biggest storylines, and tell you what to watch before kickoff. There's a lot to keep track of. Who's for real, which upset is hiding in plain sight and which storyline is about to take over your group chat.

[Tasm Ellis]

And when the games are over, join

[Trey Kirby]

us in the aftermath, too. We're going to react to what happened,

[Tasm Ellis]

talk about the biggest results.

[Trey Kirby]

Of course, we'll cover the playoff picture and all the little details you might

[Jay Skeets]

have missed while flipping between like 12 games at once. Whether you know every coach and coordinator or just want to understand why everybody is yelling, we're here to help make sense of the madness. Listen to the solid verbal college football

[Trey Kirby]

show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

[Tasm Ellis]

or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm going to take Peyton Pritchard from CMB to pp. I'll take him because of the whole Jalen Brown not being there. And I think the Boston Celtics themselves are banking on the idea of, like, all right, more opportunity, more chance for Peyton Pritchard to sort of to shine here. And he was awesome when there was no Jaylen Brown. Now, the smallest of sample sizes is something like 10 games last year, but the numbers are like 25, 7, and 5. Basically, like Jamal Murray, like, numbers from Pritchard. There again when there was no Jalen Brown and he's not there now. So, you know, I think Tom Haberstroke is like, oh, they probably see the potential of like, like with Peyton Pritchard when Jalen Brunson sort of got his own team and wasn't under the sort of umbrella of Luka Doncic. Now I think that's a stretch. Just how they play. JB can still put a lot of force on a defense and get it to the line. Pritchard has not shown that he can do that, but the guy can shoot, the guy can score and looks like a very competent starter. Obviously getting a lot more starter opportunities last year so I think his numbers are going to bump up quite a bit. Will he? I think he could be in an all star conversation. If he hits the 20 plus plateau and is right there with Tatum as the best player on the team, he'll be in the mix. But I think his numbers just with the opportunity alone and where he's at, he's an older guy here I'm selecting too. He's in his prime so I feel like he knows his identity here. So I'll go. Pritchard.

[Trey Kirby]

He seems like he's in the exact same situation to me that he was last year because there was no Jayson Tatum last year but there was Jaylen Brown last year. Started 50 games and his numbers were almost identical to when he was coming off the bench. It's pretty crazy, but I love Pritchard's game. I think he's one of the best one on one players in the league. I do wonder who the second all star would ever be on the Celtics because Celtics fans wanted to be Derrick White. Like they're telling you this guy is an analytics darling. But Peyton Bridger is the guy who could maybe average 20 a game. I doubt that's the case. He was at 17 last year after coming off a six man of the year. But I think he's a fun player to watch and when he's hot like he's one of the best on fire guys I think.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, for sure.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. The, the, the description of him that game though, best one of the best one on one players. It's totally true. When you see him get going, he is so, so good. Maybe they hope that their wings can take another step up unlike last year. I mean their wings were fine in Baylor, Shireman and your Hugo's coming off the bench and those guys. So maybe they hope that can happen for Peyton Pritchard. But the numbers, yeah, I think they will be pretty similar in comparison to last year.

[Jay Skeets]

I think he could average 20 a game. Yeah, I think he easily could average 20 a game but he's going to be. Yeah, he's not, they're not going to go down. I don't think I'm pretty confident with that. Like you said, what was 17?

[Trey Kirby]

It was 17 a game last year.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, I think he's going to be flirting with 20 in this league. So many guys get there and he's going to. There's I again, I think it's part of the equation with obviously the trading of Jalen Brown and all that, what they see in him and these other guys to sort of step into a bigger role and they had success. I mean, they look, they racked up a ton of wins when JB wasn't there. Now, I'm not one of those saying, get rid of JB and you're going to be better. No, I do not believe that at all. But he is good and I think there's still one more level for him to go to and that'll be his best chance, let's say, at an All Star season here.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. And there's a chance that Jason Tatum plays fewer games than Jalen Brown did last year. There's a good chance that he takes a step back and Peyton Pritchard has to step up more. And I didn't even mention Paul George as a support player, which is good for their wings. But also will he be healthy and not taking drugs you're not allowed to take? So there's. There's that part of it. But yeah, Peyton Pritchard, a fun player to watch. No doubt.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, round two. Back to you, T.K.

[Trey Kirby]

i don't know if this is going to be allowed. Can Cooper Flag be a breakout player?

[Jay Skeets]

I'm glad you asked because I was going between Cooper and Pritchard and I was like, yeah, absolutely. Then, yeah, because he's going to probably be an All Star. He's going to.

[Trey Kirby]

Maybe. I think he will. He will be in the All Star snub conversation this year. I think for Cooper. Flag doesn't turn 20 until December. Still a teenager right now. After the All Star Game last year, he averaged 22, 7 and 5 with a block and a steal per game. Unfortunately, he still couldn't shoot. That was the thing we were waiting.

[Jay Skeets]

He was horrible in March.

[Trey Kirby]

Ever come around for him to shoot 44% from the field in the second half of the season, 28 from three, but 83% at the free throw line. He can shoot the ball and I. It's not surprising to see a first year player struggle to adjust to the different line. So. So I'm interested to see if he can get closer to like, you know, between 33 and 35. But the main Thing for me with Cooper is not only is it year two, he's going to be playing on a much better team this season. He's going to be upgrading from Max Christie and Brandon Williams to Kyrie and other veteran players. Like his most used teammate last year was Max Christie and I'm a Max Christie fan. But it's not the same as Kyrie Irving out there. So he's going to be better. I think the team is going to be better. They're coming into this year a completely new era in Dallas. The swing is going to be can he shoot the ball? If he's like 35% from 3, we're going to be talking about a guy who's like a top 15 to 10 player in the league.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, the jump shot is the swing skill here. The three point shot, I guess more specifically because I couldn't believe that you said the numbers after the All Star break and that was despite him. He hit like eight total three pointers in March. Like he was really bad from three in that month and it ticked up a little bit. But the guy's Already probably top 25 in the league when it comes to like transition scoring, putting pressure on the rim. And he's still a rookie. I mean, excuse me, still a teenager. He's talented defensively too, both on and off the ball. I think he'll be in the definitely in an all star conversation here only in year two. Just like Wemby.

[Tasm Ellis]

Right.

[Jay Skeets]

It was not the playbook from Wemby, so I liked it. I have no problem him being selected here.

[Trey Kirby]

Excellent.

[Tasm Ellis]

I got no problem with it either. I think he'll have a problem if Kyrie Ring doesn't play basketball because he is coming back from his injury and she. He should be playing, but we don't want it to start like last year for Cooper Flag where he didn't have a point guard beside him and they tried the Brandon Williams experiment and all that, but hopefully Kyrie's out there just to literally be able to be Kyrie Irving and. And take some of the burden off Cooper Fly because the guys that they tried to get around Cooper Flag, you know, your Zachary Reese and your B. Barovich is. They're fine players. But yeah, they're not Kyrie Irving. But hopefully even year one to year two, he's just better in March, something he's never had to do, play that many games and have that much on his shoulder. So Kyrie, Kyrie's really key to me.

[Trey Kirby]

It's also funny because they did start him at Point guard last year it was bad. They moved him off. They started playing Brandon Williams and then by the end of the year he was their point guard again. And guess what? He was good.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

So he's not going to play 100% of his minutes with Kyrie, but those minutes are going to look good.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, they will.

[Jay Skeets]

New coach too there in Dallas. I keep forgetting kids out with Dusty May.

[Trey Kirby]

Everything's new there.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, that's right.

[Tasm Ellis]

Masai, the whole thing.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, Cooper gone. Where you going?

[Tasm Ellis]

All right. I'm not going with such a big name. I went smaller in terms of name. But I think Kobe Sanders is going to be really good for the Los Angeles Clippers.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, deep cut.

[Tasm Ellis]

He's good. He's going to a second year. He's a big wing, modern day player. He could play for Masai in Dallas because he's that type of wing. But with the Clippers, I think he's going to take it to the next level here in year two. He's 24 years old. Forget about that because he's. I, I forget that he's a five year college player, but he can really shoot it. We saw it last year as a catch and shoot guy. He really just let everybody else create and that'll still be a thing with Darius Garland being the guy at 41 3. Okay, those are going to be good. But over his ha, over half his shots were threes. He didn't put the ball on the floor a ton, but you can see that's already developed. He's a combo guard really. He can put it on the floor. So I think that will just develop here in year two. No matter who's there, if it's Kwai or Brandon Ingram, I think he'll be able to be a secondary creator. 24 years old again, big wing who can defend Kobe Sanders. Numbers gonna take a big jump. I think that's just a natural thing. I think that Ty Lue is gonna push him to create more instead of just standing and catching and shooting. As I said, you know, it's not quite Duncan Robinson type of number of threes, but over half is gonna change this year. And when he does shoot it from three, he's a really good shooter if he needs to catch and shoot. Numbers are really good. They're all good. Kobe Sanders moving on up.

[Jay Skeets]

I had Jordan Miller from the Clippers as a possibility, but I don't mind the Kobe Sanders.

[Trey Kirby]

I couldn't decide who to pick either.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Because they're both sort of there. Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I think Jordan. I'm more of a Jordan Miller guy. I think he's got a better bag. But you're right. Kobe Sanders can shoot. There's just a lot of guards on the Clippers now. A lot of guys who have the ball.

[Tasm Ellis]

So I was.

[Trey Kirby]

It was hard to decide.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's who Tyloo trusts, I think, to play more and. And be a part of the starters, even so, I think Kobe gets it over Jordan Miller for me. Jordan Miller's coming off the bench. Kobe could start both.

[Jay Skeets]

Both great names to be good players.

[Trey Kirby]

Who are they gonna start, though? Yeah, it's a great start for sure. I imagine Chris Dunn will probably be next to him as the starter for defense.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. And then we drafted a point guard at number five and Wagler. Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

And also Benedict Matheran is still a restricted friend.

[Trey Kirby]

Ingram has the ball a ton if he actually gets to play there.

[Tasm Ellis]

And a Rui Yachimura, too.

[Trey Kirby]

So just a lot of guys that are here now.

[Tasm Ellis]

And A Derek Jones Jr. Too, if they want to go that road again. Yeah. Tonight.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, I have the. I guess our sixth total pick here. Where do I go? Do I go with a deep pull here or do I keep it more simple? Okay, well, if you took Cooper flag, then it's only right that I get to take Dylan Harper here for the San Antonio Spurs. But you could debate between Castle and Harper and maybe both will be selected here in our draft. But I'll go with Dylan Harper, who we saw at times in playoff series or at least in games where we're like, my God, is he the best player out on the court right now? There were instances and he was on a floor not only with Wembanyama and Castle and even Fox, but all whoever was on the other side. And there were moments where you're like, this guy is the real deal. I think the only hesitation is like, classic spurs, how much do they slow play him in terms of just unleashing him? Because that's sort of. They don't like to do that. Right. What do you play, like 20? He played like 20 minutes a game during the regular season, but then got much more of an opportunity at times with the Fox injury and stuff like that in the postseason. But I'll bank on this guy blossoming into a star here. And even the spurs know this. He's got to get more. More opportunity whether it's the three guard lineup or not. And you never know. Maybe an injury hurts a Castle or a Fox and you just step into that role even more. But I'll take Dylan Harper and confidence in him blossoming even more.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's hard to argue Dylan Harper being better than he was to see a rookie like that do it in the playoffs. There just weren't many rookies out there doing it. Colin Murray, Boyles gets to join the. Gets to join the crew.

[Jay Skeets]

A little different in the first round versus the Cavs.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen. How many. There weren't really many. No.

[Jay Skeets]

It's very rare for a rookie to have that impact.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. So. Yeah, well, Dylan Harper, he's. He's there in France along with de' Aaron Fox, along with, you know, Wemby brought them all there. So I think Darren Fox is going to be back. Part of the team. I mean, that's the big question. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Nobody would trade for him right now. Of course he's going to be back. This is the biggest impediment to Dylan Harper is that Darren. Darren Fox is making $50 million this year, so he's going to have to play. Even though we've all seen that Dylan Harper is probably better than Dear and Foxes for sure.

[Tasm Ellis]

I don't think the spurs want to trade Dear and Fox, though.

[Trey Kirby]

No, I agree. I. They want to bring him back. They want him to prove that the postseason was. Injury problems were contributing to his play. But him playing just means you're keeping Harper off the court. I'm sorry. Everybody wants Harper over Fox at this point, spurs included. I would say probably would rather start Harper, but they did the deal for Fox, you know.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I think Harper's better than Castle too. So it's not just Fox that it's out there. There's two guys in his way.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. We'll see how many guard lineups they play. As you said there, that three guard lineup.

[Trey Kirby]

You didn't play three guards when he got a 75 guy back.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, that's the thing. They didn't do it all Obi Wan Totoby is Harris. He's. He's a bigger four that they have there. It's just a fun time. You know, it comes August every NBA season where the name's got to get super creative. You know, you just get a little bit more credit. But Tobias Harris is a bigger four and so. Yeah, that's a weird one. That's a weird one to say. You know, I thought about it as an ob. No, forget it. For. I'll stop. But yeah, the interest. The guard lineups are interesting.

[Jay Skeets]

Did you. Did any of you have Castle on your list here?

[Tasm Ellis]

No, I did not.

[Jay Skeets]

Not as a. As a breakout player. I mean that he definitely could be a potential first time All Star, right? Absolutely. With that, you know, you know you want him to shore up some things in terms of turning the ball over and stuff like that, but it also did as the postseason went on. So I think I had Castle in the mix here, but I'm going Harper, I won't overthink it.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, it could easily be a sort of a Thunder situation with San Antonio where you throw in a second player along with Shea, Gilgis Alexander or along with Victor Wembanyama to join the All Stars. It's going to happen.

[Jay Skeets]

Absolutely.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's going to happen at some point.

[Jay Skeets]

I mean I, I think the spurs will win a lot of regular season games too and probably warrant an All Star too. Okay. Third round back to Trey Kirby.

[Trey Kirby]

This guy will not make an All Star team.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay. Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I don't think he'll ever make an All Star team in his career.

[Jay Skeets]

That's fine.

[Trey Kirby]

Ty Jerome from the Memphis Grizzlies only played 15 games last season, but a I think the Grizzlies are more settled this year than they were last year. I just think Ty Jerome is legitimately a good player. A small sample size from last season, only those 15 games, but went for 19 points, three rebounds, five assists on 47, 42, 88 shooting splits better per 36 numbers than he had when he was in Cleveland the season he finished third and sixth man of the year voting. He's just so crafty. He makes his wide open three pointers but he's great at just getting to this floater and he's got really, really good touch. He's on a player option for $9.7 million next season, which means he's playing for a big payday. If he's able to stay healthy, put up some numbers like he did last season and go into free agency next year, he could easily make more than 10 million. I'm thinking because he's just a solid ball handler.

[Jay Skeets]

A good.

[Trey Kirby]

He's a starter for the Grizzlies. He's going to be like one of their number one options, but he's probably best like as a third guard who's a sometimes starter is a sixth man option for you. I just think Ty Jerome gets buckets when he's out there and the Grizzlies are going to need somebody to score.

[Jay Skeets]

This pairs nicely with your Grizzlies over pick from late last week too. You had a little confidence in them at least winning what, 30 games or

[Tasm Ellis]

being better than that, yeah, I imagine he does start, even though he would work perfectly as the six man, as he did for the Cavs as that guy. But they need scoring, as you said. So, I mean, Jalen Wells and Scottie Pippen Jr. Could be your starting backcourt kind of thing, but because he needs to score, it'll be a mistake to. To try and bring him off the bench. Even though Isaiah Stewart wants to bring back the grit and grind. Memphis Grizzlies now, here as a member of the Grizzlies, you need scores. And so, yeah, I do think he starts. He's gonna score a ton.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. You've always liked Ty Jerome as well. Who doesn't. Can't really disagree with you when he plays.

[Trey Kirby]

Not disliked.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, he's not. When I said the mention. Now that I've said grit and grind out loud, Ty Drone don't fit into that. He is not that kind of player. He's not. He's not grinding.

[Jay Skeets]

No.

[Trey Kirby]

According to Basketball Reference, his nickname is Milk, which is pretty funny. But also it said his middle name is Jeremy. So his name is Ty. Jeremy Jerome.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Interesting.

[Jay Skeets]

The biggest thing with him is, like, can you just play? Can you play more than half a season?

[Tasm Ellis]

That's true.

[Jay Skeets]

Because he had one full season, right?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Really?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Sixth and third. Third and sixth man.

[Jay Skeets]

Right, Right. That was one really, really good year. And then last year, like you said, 15 games, you had the one year they missed basically completely other seasons. He's like a half sort of type of guy. So, yeah, they have guards, needs to stay out there.

[Tasm Ellis]

They have Walton, Walter Clayton Jr. Is he gonna play a lot? We'll see. D' Angelo Russell's got to be cut at some point. He's not going to play for them. There's no doubt they're gonna buy him out. So there's. There's some competition there.

[Jay Skeets]

Hey, competition's good, man.

[Tasm Ellis]

It is good. They're, you know, they're trying to be a deep team. That's. That's. That's what the roster is made up of right now.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, your pick here. Tas. Where are you going?

[Tasm Ellis]

I'm going to the Miami Heat. And Nikola Jovic is going to bounce back.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow.

[Tasm Ellis]

Bounce back here.

[Jay Skeets]

We gotta believe her.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, why not? He's a very skilled guy. We know that. He's a huge wing. He can shoot the ball. Last year, that didn't happen. The year before it did, Giannis walked into that Miami Heat locker room, he saw Jovic. She said, it's going to be easy for you this year, that could be true. If Giannis is playing basketball, there's going to be open shots to be had. Will Yovich be out there shooting them? I don't know. Eric Spoelstra didn't trust him last year and so he went to the bench. But this year, along with Bam and Giannis and Andrew Wiggins as your starters in the front court, I don't know who goes along at that shooting guard spot? Not sure. You know, Davion Mitchell's definitely gonna start at the point guard spot. But it's so interesting just how it all bounces around for this Jovic team with. With Pelly Larson or Tim Hardaway as shooters. Tim Hardaway the main shooter, or Simone Fontechio sort of being out there as a shooter. You could see that being the idea and Jovic, you know, remaining on the bench, but I could see him sort of being a 4 or 5 combo with Bobby Portis as your backup bigs. He is 6 10, and he's got to get better at when he has a guard on him just to take advantage of that. And he could kind of replicate a little bit of what Jaime Hawkez was for that team when he to Milwaukee. Just more of a, hey, I'm going to take over here and take advantage of my situation and score because he can handle a bit. So I see a bounce back. I see a bounce back for this guy, dbd. But with Norm out who went to Chicago, he has the opportunity here right now to be able to score a lot. So we'll see.

[Jay Skeets]

It's a sneaky pick because, like, his bar is very, very, very low. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not like he needs to turn into an all star player. He just needs to, to be. He needs to play solid rotation player to be a hell of a jump from the disaster I would say that last year was. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Unfortunately for me, his contract is looking a little bit Patrick Williamsy and that would be the breakout for me is do literally anything.

[Tasm Ellis]

Oh, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Because I don't. I don't know what he's good at.

[Tasm Ellis]

You can, he can shoot. Last year is very bad, but he can shoot. And I think he can take advantage of his as a secondary playmaker. I'm going to go buy you and use my height. That's it. I mean, he's not a ball handler. Like, I'm taking you taking over the one on one matchup. That ain't happening. But with Giannis getting attention, Bam, getting some attention. He can be that. So this Miami Heat Offensive, let's fire it around. I think Jovic can take advantage of that, too, like Haikas did last year. But, yes, the contract is. And the numbers even very similar to Pat Williams. And that number. Contract starts this year, right here, right now. Four years for that big, big contract. But when he signed it last year, he had improved. And so we all thought, okay, four for 60. Not bad. If it's, you know, I may be inflating, or the number might not be exactly 460, but we all thought, okay, that's decent. But last year, yeah, it was. It was really bad. So he sees that fellow European, come on over, Yanis, come on over and say, all right, I can play with you. Because the best that we've ever seen him probably was when he played for Serbia. Yeah, he looked awesome. And he's playing with Jokic. So we'll see what happens here.

[Jay Skeets]

We'll see. I mean, look, the depth chart is obviously much more shallow now after the trade for Giannis. So he's bumped up, like you're saying, in the pecking order. Like, it's sort of like, okay, yeah, prove why we gave you that deal and the promise we saw or the potential we saw in you. So I hear your thinking there.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

And he will. I don't think he's going to be as bad as he was last year. I'm with you on that.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. Sponsor didn't trust him. That's the thing that's most worrisome. He played 17 minutes per game. He didn't play a lot.

[Trey Kirby]

Shot under 40.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

From the field, he was bad. Yeah. Pat Williams is a good. Definitely a good comparison.

[Jay Skeets]

Never want to hear.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, Patrick Williams didn't even make my long list for breakout players here. I did think about Pella Larson, though. Yeah, he seems like a guy. He seems like he's going to be the default starter probably at the very least. So that's a good opportunity.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes.

[Trey Kirby]

But it'll be great for the Heat if Jovic can do anything this year.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, Pelly Larson was a starter for a lot of last year. He started 54 games because he's that connector type of guy and he could start again. And I thought the debate was, you know, him or Norm Powell. Starting Norm Powell, though, it's probably Pelly Larson just to keep. Keep it. Keep it flowing. He can handle the ball. But it could be Jovic, too, at time. But Yovich, I mean, he's so big. I think that Pelly Larson is probably the guy.

[Jay Skeets]

All right. For the ninth pick overall, I am going to take Wizards forward. I guess he's a guard forward combo type guy. Keyshawn George, I'm going to take him to continue his trajectory here. He'd be entering his third year, I figure. I have a vet in Pritchard, I have a second year guy in Harper. So give me that classic third year where we've seen players really blossom and sort of level up. And last year, I mean the numbers were solid. I mean nobody was watching the Wizards I get unless you were caught the Bam game against them. But he played nearly 50 games, so he was a little injured there. I think he had an elbow injury near the end of the year. 15 points per game, five boards, five assists. So he is to me like Keechon George is this classic, like sort of just does a little bit of everything. Really solid as sort of like your fourth or fifth guy here. Shot 38% from deep on about five and a half three point attempts per game. He's a really good free throw shooter. He's got a great just shot. He's very confident in it. Needs to see it like uptick like overall from the floor. But again, 14 points or 15 points per game. I could see that going up now. There's a lot of new guys there. Like how will that, how will he work with Trae Young and Anthony Davis, who Trey and I talked about probably having a monster couple first months here, whether to set the tone or eventually get moved or whatever for that next contract or final big contract AD's planned for. But I believe in Keyshawn George from what we've seen here in two years, again sort of in the wasteland of Washington where now there's actually a little bit of hope there'll be some more eyeballs, I assume on this team just because of the star power. And I think people are going to, you know, casuals or whatever are going to be like, oh, who is, who is this guy with, you know, the crazy hair there? This guy can play. So Keyshawn George is not an all star level. I'm not saying that by any means, but just improving on the two years we've seen so far.

[Trey Kirby]

There is going to be less opportunity for him this year because they're going to be bringing in new three new starters for the Wizards, all of whom are going to have the ball quite a bit. But that's better for Keisha George. He's probably a little bit overtaxed and this is a good spot for him to be like a bench unit runner and maybe a fourth option in a starting lineup. I'm with you. He can just kind of do a little bit of everything, and that's a solid player to have around. And now he's going to be playing on a team that for the first time in his career is efforting towards winning games and figuring out the right way to play together. I'm just. I'm literally excited for the Wizards this year, at least for November and December. We'll see how it goes after that. But the beginning should be cool.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, it was interesting. You guys said that with the Clippers, that there's a lot of options. Same thing with the Wizards. It's like, who do you take? I kind of wanted to take Alex Saar as a guy who gets better. Are his numbers going to inflate a lot? Probably not if Anthony Davis plays beside him. But there's games where Anthony Davis isn't going to play and Alexar is just that good. And so it is interesting with how much. How much talent this team has besides those three new starters in Trey, Anthony Davis and DeBonsa. Yeah, your Keyshawn Georges, your Alex Sars, Trey Johnson's. There's just a lot of guys who can score on this teen. Your Bubs. I mean, there's going to be guys who take a backseat and aren't going to be able to score, but it is exciting.

[Jay Skeets]

But that's okay with Keyshawn, Like Trey said, I. Yeah, like that's. I don't think he's never going to be, I don't think a 25 point per game scorer, but he does all the other things. He's a solid starter. He plays defense hard enough. Can't wait to see him again on a team with some promise here, maybe to even sniff a plan or something like that, I think he's just going to get a lot more attention from the rest of the league. Oh, yeah, because again, nobody's watching him. Nobody cares about the Wizards. Why would have you over the last couple of years?

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, and that's why I had difficulty picking a breakout player, because I want those numbers to go up. You see, you'll get more attention. Keyshawn George to get more attention. Alexar get more attention. But when Trey's there and AD's there and DeBonts is there, how much are his numbers going to jump up? How much are his 15 per game last year? Yeah, Keyshawn George. Can it go up a lot?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, but he'll be a classic guy. If the Wizards maybe impress people early on or whatever, or like you'll. You'll see like 12 other fan bases going, hey, can we trade for Keyshawn George? And he'll be that type of player where we're like, wow, he'd be awesome in our system. Wow. He can do a bit of everything.

[Tasm Ellis]

So he shot well.

[Jay Skeets]

I think his. Yeah, his. Just. His spotlight will get a little brighter here, and I do think he'll. I think the numbers will. Will tick up here. I mean, the guy's only. He's not. He won't even be. He's 22, 23. He turns 23 next season, like halfway through the season. So he's still a fairly young guy. All right, final round. Lots of names left.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, there's a lot of names left in the NBA. I'm taking a random flyer on a guy that I just think is good. Not going to be a starter for his team this year, but I think he'll play more. Johan Berenjay of the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think he's got Gobert level talent, to be quite honest, with a little bit better athleticism. It's worked out well for him in the Minnesota front court with the moves they made during the off season. Julius Randle's gone. Nas Reed is gone. They basically haven't replaced any of their front court guys. So just by the way the personnel shakes up, he's going to have a little bit more time. They're also bringing in the best passer that's been on the Timberwolves in the Anthony Edwards era. And Lamelo ball that's good for centers. Rudy Gobert has a long history of being frustrated about not getting passes. Lamello is going to throw you passes, and I think that some of those will go to Bear and J. Now, the problem for him is that Rudy Gobert's a pretty healthy player. Like, he plays a lot of games for the majority of his career. 76 games last season. So there's not a massive opportunity for Bear and Jay unless Gobert picks up some kind of an injury. But the size and the springiness and the fact that this is another guy who's still only 19 years old, there's talent there for sure. It's just going to be a matter of him having to wait out go Bears end of his prime before he can assume the number one job. But I think we'll see a lot more of him this season.

[Tasm Ellis]

I don't think there's any question he's going to play a ton yet with NASD read out. He's a talented player. We know that this is only year two, so. Yes, that's a good pick. Numbers won't be amazing. No, maybe the block numbers will be really, really good. Because he's good at timing blocks. He. Even if he plays 18, 20 minutes a game, the blocks will be good.

[Jay Skeets]

I saw the Wolves are doing a Paris trip as well.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, I was in Paris. My biggest question was, where is Joan Baron J? Because I couldn't tell.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, is he not in that photo?

[Tasm Ellis]

He must be right beside Rudy Gobert. But he doesn't look huge. Maybe it's because he's got a lean back, but Rudy looks a lot taller than him. I just didn't know him.

[Jay Skeets]

Rudy is taller than him?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, he. I think so.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, Rudy's listed at 611.

[Tasm Ellis]

Go bear. What?

[Trey Kirby]

Seven to somewhere.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, Rudy's big surprise.

[Jay Skeets]

Big.

[Tasm Ellis]

He's also. Baron J is also wearing sunglasses. So.

[Trey Kirby]

Well, his future is so bright he has to wear shades. I'm saying higher block percentage than Rudy Gobert.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

You have a higher block percentage than Victor Wembanyama. Only time will tell, man.

[Tasm Ellis]

The guy blocks a ton of shots.

[Trey Kirby]

No, he didn't.

[Jay Skeets]

No, he done before.

[Trey Kirby]

I still got him.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, just. Just because you're talking heights there. I like randomly saw this the other day when I was going through teams. The most surprising seven footer in the league. Can you name it?

[Tasm Ellis]

How. To me, how young is he?

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, good. Good question. He is 25 years old.

[Tasm Ellis]

Okay.

[Jay Skeets]

So we talk about him a lot. And he's. He's changing teams for the. For the first time. I just never think of this guy as a seven footer.

[Tasm Ellis]

Trey Lyles?

[Jay Skeets]

No.

[Trey Kirby]

Walker Kessler?

[Jay Skeets]

No. No. Enter us from Spain. That might help you out here.

[Trey Kirby]

Oh, Santee Aldama. Santel Dama sure has never felt like a seven footer to me.

[Jay Skeets]

No.

[Trey Kirby]

He never posted up once.

[Jay Skeets]

If you would ask me, how tall do you think he is? I'm telling you, I'd go. I'd probably go six. I would say six, eight, six, nine. I'm like, I'd lean more towards that size. So seeing 7ft on basketball reference, man, mind boggling to me.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. Doesn't feel like a seven. No, not at all.

[Jay Skeets]

Not at all.

[Tasm Ellis]

And you think, oh, Damas, here's another thing that people think of. Aldama. Great shooter. Nah, willing shooter.

[Jay Skeets]

Sometimes the same. All right, so your. Your final pick here.

[Tasm Ellis]

Let's stay in Spain.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow.

[Tasm Ellis]

Ugo Gonzalez. Yeah. It's gotta happen at some point. Like Barry.

[Jay Skeets]

You sound like Brad Stevens. Right now for sure.

[Tasm Ellis]

Hey, I sound like me. I said his name so many times last year because you watch him and he is the kind of guy you want on your team. Kind of like you brought up Okisha on George. Yeah, you look at that guy. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect plug and play type of guy. He'll play in the corner and he can shoot that, but then he'll come rebound anything. He can put it on the floor a little bit as a secondary playmaker guy. And he just works so hard defensively on both sides. So I believe in him that he can slash and do that kind of thing. Now he only averaged 4 points per game last year, so this is a fun, hey, breakout player, that guy there who averaged four, because it's going to go up.

[Trey Kirby]

He can double it.

[Tasm Ellis]

He can double that very easily. And there are going to be games when Paul George doesn't play or Jason Tatum doesn't play and of course Shireman's going to play And Ron Harper Jr. Is going to play and Sam Houser is going to play on the wing. But I think this guy is going to force himself into the lineup because he's a second year guy like Baron J. He's super, super young and he was that good. So yeah, put him in there. And there's again, I don't know how many games Jason Tatum is going to play. We expect him to play a ton. We expect Paul George to play a ton. But it also could be a situation where their wings need to play a lot.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, what do you think of Gonzalez here? Breakout player?

[Trey Kirby]

Well, he only has to average like 30 a game to put up Giannis numbers. They're hoping for a breakout.

[Jay Skeets]

That's what I mean. Brad Stevens is open.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I think he can improve on his playoff performance. Zero points in the playoffs. I was also not super encouraged by Hugo Gonzalez during the summer league, but this is a guy that's just going to be in my crosshairs. No offense to Hugo Gonzalez, but like you could have had Giannis and that's what it is for me. I think he can be a lot better. It's just hard to tell on the Celtics because they have so many players at the wing positions. But this is a guy that obviously they feel is a big part of their plans going forward and he does do a lot of stuff as well.

[Tasm Ellis]

There will be a, a doc or a story told one day about that trade and if it was legitimate or not, if they could have legitimately got Giannis for Hugo Gonzalez. Because I'm not Sold on that. Did they want to take Giannis's huge contract and bring it to Boston? I don't know about that. I don't think that's the case of a guy who has been hurt for the last several years in your private equity. I don't think they want to buy into the Yanis stock.

[Jay Skeets]

So whether it's true or not, though, it's out there. Those rumors and like, TK's, like JJ Hickson.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. Was he really offered for Amari Stoudmeier? Who knows? But that's in. In the annals of NBA history. He was.

[Jay Skeets]

Do you know how you quiet that noise? You. You come out and have a breakout performance year. If you're Gonzalez, I'm not. Of course not. 30 points per game, Giannis style. But you. You show. Oh, there's a reason that they obviously wanted to keep me around, saw potential in me, and I'm on my way to turning into sort of an all star player. That's a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure that maybe he doesn't deserve. Honestly, it's not his fault that his name is linked in these Giannis trades. But, yeah, he's a good player.

[Tasm Ellis]

He's gonna be good player.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, I have the final pick here. I'll throw some honorable mentions, potential names that I thought about. Maybe you guys did as well. Back to the Wolves. I mean, Jaden McDaniels. I mean, you talk about having an opportunity because sometimes that's what this just comes down to. Like, they're basically saying, you're the. You're our four now, man. You're sort of a small ball four. Nelly would love it. Have at it. And now he gets to play alongside Lamella ball and there's still ant and like, he could have a really potential, maybe blossoming into an all star, like, year. Who knows? Jaeger Joman of the Nets.

[Trey Kirby]

He was on my list.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Look, I hate saying this, but he looked good at summer league. I was a little more impressed with what I saw from him.

[Trey Kirby]

They had a disaster team last year.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

So still believe in him? Bounce back year for Keegan Murray. You talk about a guy that was injured. His, like, numbers have sort of gone down, down, down. Can he turn that around?

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. I got into the breakout fun with the Sacramento Kings. If Demonte Sabonis is good, is it a breakout year for him?

[Jay Skeets]

To the Bulls. Boozelis could continue a trend here, right? Sure.

[Trey Kirby]

Yep. He should be better than last. Last year he plateaued. That's fine. Like, if you don't go backwards in year two. You did good.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes, yes. Peyton Watson, you know how we sort of started this whole thing with him in these sign and trade rumors. It's like a tbd. It's like where is he? I mean, I don't even know what the best case is. Maybe it is still to be in Denver, play alongside obviously the joker there for him to sort of go, you know, in more of a role and stuff like that. But I'm ultimately coming down and picking between three young centers, Malawatch Ware now on the Bucks and Donovan Klingon. And I'm going to take Clingan because I'm intrigued by him now in an offense where I assume he's just going to be doing a lot more pick and rolls with John Morant there and with the return of Damian Lillard and he needs to be in more of those actions. Was used differently when it was sort of him and Denny Avdia and he's sort of just hanging up top and trailing at the three point line. But the guy already took on a heavy minutes load, heavier minutes load last season compared to the year before, increased his usage, still shot better from the floor from deep as he added that three point shot a little bit, upped his assist and rebounding rates. He's one of the league's best offensive rebounders already and he got better at staying on the floor by not fouling. So that was key too. So I'll take him here to round out breakout players. It won't be a numbers like Whoa overload, but the way he'll be used again in sort of the new system there with these players coming in, I'm intrigued at least. So I was sort of debating between all these young centers who will pop off the most.

[Trey Kirby]

Well, he's a guaranteed starter on the Blazers, so I think that's a good choice. I don't think it's, I mean I assume where we'll start for the Bucks, but Miles Turner is there and then, you know, Big Mark is holding it down for until Malawatch is ready. But Malawatch made my list as well and I'm in general like I'm a clinging fan. To me the thing that he really needs to improve is his speed and like being able to change ends of the court. I think it's going to be even more important this year playing with a team that's like 80% point guards now they're going to need him running but it also means he's going to have good setup guys. So I thought he Took a step forward last season and he's just a good player. Disappointing playoffs, but like, yeah, you're going to get swim.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

You know?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. You gotta learn from that. Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

And he was the guy that they kept for because they didn't want to trade him for Jalen Brown. Is that correct? That's. That's the one.

[Trey Kirby]

Right.

[Tasm Ellis]

So that's a good thing that you guys didn't mention him at all. You didn't mention Jalen Brown, so that's a good thing for Donovan Klingen that he just hasn't been. He doesn't been thrown into, but obviously a very, very, very talented guy and that's why they want to keep him around because he was that good.

[Jay Skeets]

Any other names on your leftover list?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, Malawatch, like you said, Joe. And like you said, Will Riley is a wizard for me. And he also has the most broken out face in the NBA. That guy looks like he's 14 years old.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes.

[Trey Kirby]

Good situation, guys. Hello, Larson. Like I said, just going to step into a starting lineup spot. It seems like with the Heat, I think Bona A Dumbona is going to look good for the Sixers in the games that Embiid misses. They're gonna look like a fast, athletic team and he's just gonna catch alley oops from all of the guards. So I think he's gonna look good and just a random dude that I think is a decent player. Zaire Williams, he's gonna be like the 11th man on the Los Angeles Lakers, but I think you can get up to ninth man.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, that's a. That's one that's been on a roller coaster. High draft pick, left Memphis to go to Brooklyn and he's kind of just evaporated in. In terms of the NBA world. Yeah, in Brooklyn there. So. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. But LA will give plenty of wings a shot, so. Yeah, that's a good one.

[Jay Skeets]

Do you have any other names?

[Tasm Ellis]

Well, I want to pick somebody from the Atlanta Hawks. Like is. Is Asa Newell gonna have a breakout year? Is Devin Carter gonna be great coming over from Sacramento? Is Aaron Wiggins just going to have a bigger role than he had in okc?

[Trey Kirby]

Can they keep the dynasty alive? Three straight most improved players after trades. Aaron Wiggins might be the guy.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, he would be. After Dort.

[Trey Kirby]

Dort averages 20 a game.

[Jay Skeets]

Be tough to win Mip. That'd be very tough. I think Wiggins is the better chance, but I don't think it's likely.

[Trey Kirby]

You don't think Dort's showing up to training camp with a deep bag. Check these handles.

[Jay Skeets]

I keep forgetting Dort's on the Hawks. I'm completely honest. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Other guys, I consider Jared McCain for the Thunder. I'm predicting a top three six man of the year vote for this guy.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah, it's an interesting one.

[Trey Kirby]

There's. There's a lot of, like, second guards there. Now.

[Tasm Ellis]

That's the thing.

[Trey Kirby]

Okc with Dort going that spots kind of open. It's like, probably A.J. mitchell will start, but it could be Case and Wallace. Those two will be dueling for the sixth man. And then Jared McCain involved as well. And Anthony Black, I think, is in an interesting situation with Jalen Suggs there on the Magic. Like, Suggs is constantly injured. Black got hurt last year as well. But this is a guy that's coming up for his second contract. He's better inside. He's got better size than Jalen Suggs, but Suggs is a better playmaker. It doesn't feel like these are two guys that should be playing in the backcourt together, especially when Desmond Bain is there. So I feel like the Magic got to figure something out between Paulo and Franz and also between Suggs and Black. We'll see.

[Jay Skeets]

I learned this weekend that Anthony Black's brother, Beckham Black is like a five star.

[Trey Kirby]

It's supposed to be point card. It's supposed to be better.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The clips I saw, I believe it. I was like, holy crap, he looks. He looks a lot like him.

[Trey Kirby]

Yes. My, my buddy coaches the under 17 team and that was the guy he was raving about. He's like, beckham Black will be the best player from this set of teams.

[Jay Skeets]

It's a cool ass name, too.

[Trey Kirby]

Beckham Black and Jojo Bumche. Bumche were the two stars for Team usa.

[Jay Skeets]

There you go. All right. Those are some potential breakout players. Obviously. Lots of other names still out there. Let us know in the stream team. Let us know in the YouTube comments. Holler at us on Spotify or on all our social media channels. That was a lot of fun here for a Monday morning. We'll call it there. But later this week we might be back at some point this week. We'll see. J.D. you're headed to. To the Great White north in Canada for. For a week or so. You're driving.

[Tasm Ellis]

Driving.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, baby.

[Jay Skeets]

Where are you. Where are you stopping?

[Tasm Ellis]

Troy, Ohio.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, beautiful at this time of year. Said no one ever. Sorry, Troy. I mean, you have to. You have to stop in Ohio when you drive home from here. I mean, because it's like. It's like. It's too big.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

The state is too large. It's weird. It's like, how are we still in Ohio? We were checking through all the states. Oh. We were flying through states there, and then suddenly you hit Ohio and you're in it forever.

[Tasm Ellis]

You drive for two hours in Ohio, two or three hours, and then you stop and you're like, okay, well, I'll just hit the border first thing in the morning. And it's three and a half hour

[Jay Skeets]

drive away from the border.

[Tasm Ellis]

So anyway.

[Jay Skeets]

Crazy. Okay. Troy. Have you stopped in Troy before?

[Tasm Ellis]

I have. We have our route all. We got our.

[Jay Skeets]

We got your map quest.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Printed out.

[Tasm Ellis]

Printed out. MapQuest ready to go.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

Oh, they're worried for you. JD and the stream team, they're saying if you're going to Troy, we're not going to see you for 20 years.

[Jay Skeets]

This guy liked Spider man more than the Odyssey Edge. Just fired up your thumb war episode.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

[Trey Kirby]

I did.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, that's.

[Tasm Ellis]

Come at me.

[Jay Skeets]

Go ahead and at me. All right, so, yeah, we don't know if we'll be back at some point midweek, but I can guarantee you that on Friday, it's our first of the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Booty Boys, as we're calling this series. Watching every Pirates of the Caribbean movie, all five in total. These will drop every Friday, starting this Friday, August 14th, and then you can expect the next one the following Friday. Had a lot of fun. We've already recorded. These are not live. These are not live, guys. Or at least the first couple are not. But we had a lot of fun talking about these movies. Spoiler. We really enjoyed this movie. I would say this first one and maybe even the second one there was some love for. So we break it down only like we can.

[Tasm Ellis]

Only JD Liked the second one more than the first one.

[Trey Kirby]

But.

[Jay Skeets]

But I saw other people echoing that sentiment.

[Tasm Ellis]

Really?

[Jay Skeets]

Yes, I did. I did. Because I was looking for. In terms of the graphics and stuff, like thumbnails or. Sorry, the logos for the movies, for all that. And I saw a couple lists and rankings and people. People like the second one. What's it called again?

[Trey Kirby]

Dead Man's Chest.

[Jay Skeets]

Thank you. Yeah. Keeping track of these names. First one, Curse of the Black Pearl, which again, doesn't make any sense. Yeah, that's the Black Pearl's not person.

[Trey Kirby]

No.

[Jay Skeets]

Anyway, we talk about that. That's on Friday, so that'll be in these feeds. I saw some people wondering on substack and stuff like that. Yes, it's in the no Dunks feed. It's on YouTube. We'll premiere it at 10am you can come talk with everybody about the movie live if you want. And obviously goes up on Spotify and Apple and all that good stuff. And substack ad free on Substack. Hit that link in the show notes. You want to support the show and you want the show without ads. It's a good way to do it.

[Tasm Ellis]

People complain about the ads, that's for sure. But the new skip ahead button on Spotify is pretty good. You've seen that. Oh, while you're playing a podcast and the commercials come on. You said skip ahead and then it'll jump to the perfect spot. You don't even have to think about the 15th. Wow.

[Trey Kirby]

Wow.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, that's.

[Tasm Ellis]

I like that.

[Trey Kirby]

I like that too.

[Jay Skeets]

I like that a lot.

[Trey Kirby]

Wow, that's a great invention.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yes.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

It's about time. Yeah. It's weird that it hasn't been invented until now.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, it's almost like, thank you Spotify for implementing that, but sort of weird.

[Tasm Ellis]

Do you really want to implement that? Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

I hate to say it.

[Tasm Ellis]

So true.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, I know you're thinking.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, you want to hear our ads.

[Jay Skeets]

Apparently not on Spotify. People get very upset with our ads on Spotify.

[Tasm Ellis]

That's why I threw it in there. But yeah, advertisers never know if you really listen to them anyways. Right? They don't.

[Jay Skeets]

Thanks for tuning in to today's show sponsored by FanDuel until later this week, or at least on Friday. Clipper bro, you heard it here first.

[Trey Kirby]

Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.

[Tasm Ellis]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, I'm gonna pull an old Lee Ellis here on the shows where he used to do the. The fact checking where we would make a mistake in the show. This is. This is on me. You know, the late, great Don Nelson had a great press conference where he said he smoked weed post coaching career. I said it was with Corey McGetty and Stephen Jackson. It was with Jason Richardson.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, okay.

[Tasm Ellis]

And Stephen Jackson.

[Jay Skeets]

Not Matt Burns.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

You know who? He wasn't there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tasm Ellis]

And I gotta give credit to my corrector. It was Leo Gomont. Oh, no, I don't want to give credit to him, but he did it.

[Jay Skeets]

Look at that olive branch.

[Tasm Ellis]

I will say no, those are my olives. I do want to say I blame it on bad pixelation. Jason Richardson kind of looked like Corey McGetty on my picture. You know, back. Back then. Yeah. This is 22008 or something. You know, SD, SD camera. Maybe it was later.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, he last coached. I was shocked. Like, was it 9, 10 that last year? Don Nelson.

[Tasm Ellis]

Oh, it was like, I thought it

[Jay Skeets]

wasn't that long ago, but that's, you

[Tasm Ellis]

know, because he was there for the drafting of staff in 2009.

[Jay Skeets]

Right, right.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah. So I guess it was a little later.

[Jay Skeets]

It doesn't feel like it. Right.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Because he's such a larger than life character that he's sort of always still been in.

[Tasm Ellis]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

You know, NBA lexicon.

[Tasm Ellis]

And they go hang out.

[Trey Kirby]

His name's Don Nelson and they called what he invented Nelly Ball. And his son is Donnie. So he's Donnie Nelly. That's like his third name.

[Jay Skeets]

Right. Rest in peace to the legend, Don Nelson. Brace the day people.

[Tasm Ellis]

This is an Iheart podcast. Guaranteed human.