← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
The Spurs’ New Ceiling, Plus the Top of the 2026 NBA Draft Class With Sam Vecenie
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Today. The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by DraftKings. On today's show, we go deep, but the top part of the draft, we're not going to do the entire lottery or anything like that. But Sam Vicini, he had some great thoughts on Darren Peterson and then we're going to talk about some of the other players. You know, go six deep or so. And then some love for college basketball. Except for our St. John's UConn result that we had. I've got some thoughts on the spurs and what is actually possible. Can you sit here and say they can't win the NBA title? Because that doesn't seem fair, Although history tells us it would be fair. And we've got life advice with just me and Kyle, including shoveling out a parking spot in Boston. What are the rules? No one knows. DraftKings sportsbook puts you right in the middle of basketball's biggest star driven moments. The moments when the ball finds a superstar and the game turns in a heartbeat. Stars heat up. 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Wager tax pass through. May apply in Illinois, 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG CO Audio Limited time offer I wanted to spend some time on the spurs here on the podcast. We did some stuff on good 10 minutes after that terrific win against Detroit, which again, if you're only listening to the podcast or watching on Netflix, it's just one of the best regular season games considering just how much it seemed to matter to both of those teams. You know, newer teams on the scene, Detroit a one seed, San Antonio fighting for the one seed. And anything is possible now with this team. And that's kind of just how I feel and how I want to frame the way I want to talk about the Spurs. They're down a bunch double figures going in the fourth quarter last night against a Toronto team that I really like the way they play. I like their defense, I like their options, I love when they get out in transition. But the spurs just decide to kick their ass in the fourth quarter 32:17 and take the game over. I mean, they had moments where, you know, whether it was Wemby on Scotty Barnes and blocking him from the three point line and then Scotty Barnes got Dylan Harper on him. So you're thinking, okay, Scotty Barnes against a rookie, like it doesn't matter what you have. And Dylan like hung with him on a couple possessions and actually I think stripped him on one drive. And you know, Ingram has a tendency, I think at times if you get a little physical with him. We saw in the Lou Dort matchup in that OKC game against Toronto. So, you know, this isn't really as much about Toronto. It's what's possible in the way you talk about the spurs, us guys doing in the media, or you as fans. Because new is always something that I have a hard time with in sports when something is brand new. And then you start saying like, do you actually think this team can win an NBA championship? So they've won 10 straight. They're two behind OKC. OKC starts 24 1. They've gone 21 and 14 since. Their battle last night in Detroit was remarkable. And again, another statement of how deep this team is and the culture of OKC and the way they take on these games. And you know, I had a tweet very early in the season where I was like, I actually think OKC is a playing team. If SGA and J Will one were not there for the entire year and then after they started losing a bunch of games, guys being out, it's like, oh, and it's like, well, look at, look at the records of those teams. You know, 2114 isn't exactly anything to be excited about. But they, the missed games keep piling up here for the Thunder. SGA was out last night. J will one's out last night. Caruso's out, Chet's out, AJ Mitchell's out. You know, McCain's playing 30 minutes. Buddy Bayheim got in for a minute. Yes, that's right. Buddy Beheim is on the Thunder. So the number one seed is entirely in play here for San Antonio. And I was looking at some of the stuff historically because, you know, I just want to go back and like think about in just some recent years where it felt like a one seed was, was new, was too new for us. And I think the same thing can apply to Detroit a little bit where it's like they're going to run away with the east, it feels like. And it may speak more to like, who are you actually afraid of in the east if you're Detroit? Even with the Detroit shooting flaws, maybe the creation around Cade flaws that they have. But you know, this is kind of the way we talk about title contending teams. It's like Indiana and college football. They have a close one against a Penn State team that's fired their coach and they've got a backup QB in there and it comes down to a game winning touchdown. It's like, okay, but that's, that's going to happen. Even with the best football teams, there's probably going to be a couple games like we can get really, I don't think spoiled is the right word, but we can get really difficult sometimes in football. It's like, oh, they won 21 14. Like I thought this team was supposed to be a title contender. It's like, that's likely going to happen. You're probably going to lose one or two of these things and Indiana stays clean. Indiana being new is like there's nothing to even compare it to really in sports. So I'm not comparing the spurs to the Indiana Hoosiers winning a national championship in college football. But if you go back last year to 25, Cleveland, 64 wins, number one seed. They had stretches where it's like, are they the best team in basketball? They get bounced in the second round. They had only 48 wins in 24. They've had this string of playoff runs now for a couple years that generally feel disappointing. So it's not necessarily completely out of nowhere, but to get to 64 wins and look as good as they did, as they at the peak of what they were, you're like, all right. You know, I don't know if people were dismissive of them because it's like, hey, it's new. But I know that I do it sometimes because you want to see those playoff scars. Even if you could argue this Cleveland team has had some of those. The Orlando series, the Knicks loss a few years ago, and then that Boston series that they lost in 24. They just, they were running out of bodies Left and right. OKC being the 1 seed in 24. They lose in the second round of Dallas. I'm still kind of, There's a few series in the west the last few years. I'm like, how do they lose that one? I can't believe Minnesota lost the Dallas series. I mean, can't believe Strong, but you get the point. And I still was like, watching that OKC Dallas series in the second round going, like, how did they lose to the Mavs in this one? But look, the Mavs post trade deadline were a team that was rolling. They were a really good team. And clearly, you know, they get to the NBA finals. But that OKC team went 40 and 42 in 2023. So I don't know if that's the comp here for, like, what the limitations are on the spurs because they're different teams or different players. Like, we all understand that. But, you know, somebody goes, well, hey, look at OKC and what they became. But it still would have felt really early for OKC to be winning an NBA championship in 2024. Utah is an interesting one. They went 52 and 20 in a shorter season in 21. So that puts them at a 59, 60 win pace. And that team had all sorts of numbers that looked terrific the previous year. They were like, they were a 6 seed in 20. They lose in the second round. They were up 20 on the Clippers. Kawhi ended up missing games 5 and 6. That's when Paul George kind of finally felt like, hey, it's all on you in a playoff moment. And he did. Although Terrence Mann, I'd already forgotten this. 39 points in Game 6. Terrence Mann, good for him. So Utah gets bounced after kind of a 60 win profile regular season, and it's like just an afterthought of a team that kind of made this huge jump. They looked really good all regular season. And I do think there are times too, when you look at teams in the regular season, it's like they feel like they're approaching the regular season, especially a newer team with a different level of intensity. Like, we've seen this a lot over the years where when something's new and it's kind of clicking, there's almost this like competitive edge that these teams will have in their first edition of them in the regular season for six months. That's just not what other teams are necessarily interested in doing. And then we kind of learn that lesson again in the playoffs. So that kind of circles us back here to the spurs and just going like, what? What is like, is an NBA championship as we sit here today? Is that off the table? Like, are you not willing to have that discussion? Because I. I am. I'm open to it, man. You know, when you watch the Detroit game and it's Vassell going, so Vascelle can get you 20, Fox can get you 20. No, Wemby can get you 20. Keldon's been terrific. They have their eight guys, they have their extra big. When I look at playoff teams, it's like, you know, I really want your backup big to be somebody where it's not like you're just going to get killed for those 12 minutes. Because sometimes you'll see teams you're like, man, I really like their five. But there's going to be some of these backup big minutes where they're just going to get killed. Everybody's going to be driving the hoop for free for all. And Cornet holds up enough even in the rare times. I don't think we see it as much lately where they want to play both of those guys together. And then you've got castle, who's the fourth guy that I should mention. So that's four guys there that if they have 20 in a playoff game, it's not surprising at all. We already know that Wemby's an MVP caliber guy, but Castle's jump from last year to this year, I think is it's not as big as Wemby because we're talking about a top five player in the world, but it's a huge part of, like looking at this team that's 34 and 48. Last year, granted, Wembanyama missed 36 games last season. But that's a monumental leap to be going from that to maybe a one seed. And then on top everything else, knowing how they've done against OKC this year, they're 4 and 1 against them, and they're 8 and 1 against the top three seeds in the east and Western Conference. So there's just so much there, whether you look at the offensive profile being eighth, defensive profile being third. If you go net rating since January 1st, and they've really started cooking here, it's fourth, which is probably even lower than I expected it to be. Charlotte's number two, which is wild, Detroit's number one. So if you just tiered it out, which, you know, we're all kind of addicted to now in sports talk, San Antonio, okc, Denver in that tier, I struggle with Minnesota. I'm dismissive of Houston. I know Minnesota has made to the Western Conference finals. So maybe I have to kind of give them the benefit of the doubt of, like, maybe they could break through this whole thing, and that's fine. But when you really look at the rest of it and what's around you, if you're San Antonio, I don't know that there's any limit on what this team could do this year. Which, again, is an example of a new team that normally, it's like, I don't trust a young team that's also new to take this kind of leap and then go from the win total they had last year for very obvious reasons, because if Wemby plays a full season, are they at least a.500 team? Likely. But it's not like they were a 2 or a 3 seed last year with a fully healthy Wembanyama. And now I'm like, I guess, you know, these last two weeks, watching them, I go, you cannot leave them out of the small list of teams you think can win an NBA championship. And when it comes to Detroit in the east being in the championship tier. Right, with these other Western teams I'm talking about, sure, there's a couple things I don't necessarily like, but when it comes to. When it comes to comparing with the rest of the teams in the east, like, who are you actually afraid of? I think the Knicks matchup is. It favors Detroit big time. We've seen that in the regular season. I think Boston's one of the most incredible stories we've seen based on expectations, whether it's a culture thing or whether it's Missoula winning coach of the year. It's incredible. You want to tell me Boston's going to win the east or win a title. There's just no way. There's no way. I mean, granted, we were writing the Pacers off and the Pacers put together that kind of January 1st stretch on where you're like, you realize how good this team has been here. But even that's not necessarily supposed to happen. That team's not supposed to be in a Game seven of NBA Finals. I mean, it's sports, so sometimes you have to be surprised. But it's kind of like 40 years of NBA Finals history that I'm aware of, where you're like, this Pacers thing is a massive outlier. So if you want to argue that that's going to happen back to back years in the east with Boston getting out of the east and maybe that Denver game last night or on Wednesday night reminding you a bit of like, yeah, there's probably a gap between them, but look, that's a game at Denver. There's no shame in that. Boston's been on a really nice run here. But when I look at the teams and how they've done against over 500 teams, there's only two teams in the east that have a winning record against teams that are.500 or better, and that's Detroit and then it's Boston in the West. All top four teams have that, which I think is a really important indicator of like, who you actually are. And I want to kind of pivot into some of this Ayton conversation with the Lakers because there was a big feature from Dave McBennaman on ESPN does a great job talking about Ayton, and I'm a little surprised that year eight we're still talking about DeAndre Aidan, but I think that's what happens when you end up in Los Angeles, because I'm not even thinking about the Lakers as a title contender. You can hit me with the well, they've only had LeBron, Luka and Reeves for 13 total games. That's fine. And the best version of them is going to be all of those guys cooking and they're really tough to defend and they're going to find a way to beat some other team. Four and seven games. Yeah, maybe in the first round, but I don't even know if I'll like the first round matchup, depending on who they're going up against. The strength of schedule stuff, if you want to get into that. Like Denver, okc, Minnesota have the three toughest remaining schedules, so that'll factor into the seating here a little bit. San Antonio's at 16th, Cleveland's at 27th. If Harden's thumb is okay, then I would expect them to be the 2 seed. It's the weakest remaining schedule of any of the playoff or playing teams besides the Clippers, who are sitting there as a 10 seed in the West. But you know, this Ayton story was kind of profiling the idea of like, man, he's so talented, he's the number one overall pick and some stuff's on him, but some stuff's a little unfair. At some point you just have to give up asking the questions. Before the season started, I was totally okay with the acquisition because they were desperate for size and considering how little it cost them, it was a no brainer. It'd just be way better if he was a backup for a title contending team. I don't know how often you have to see it, Lakers fans, because I think you finally come around on this and it's like, those are the nights where it's like, oh, he's just not engaged whatsoever. And the quote that is making the rounds today where he said, I ain't no Clint Capella. They're trying to turn me into Clint Capella. And I think you've probably already heard this by the time this will come out. But it's like, Pete, Clint Capella would be perfect for the Lakers right now because there's one thing to be disappointing, but there's another thing to be loud and disappointing. And that's generally what Ayton is every stop. Like it doesn't work out for every top pick. You know, the skill is there, the touch is there, the athleticism is there, the size is there. He's 27 years old. Like everything is there. And as you know, whether it's in sports or in society, there's just some people that you go, I just don't think that person's going to figure it out. And as a basketball player, I would never expect him to figure this out. So, you know, it's so much energy to manage him. You know, you got to run plays for him to start the game. They run a play for him to start of the second half. Like, hey, if he gets an easy look, he was great in the Orlando game because Orlando was just letting themselves get hooked up in the 15 switch where Ayton's getting sealed, Luke is passing it to Ayton and Ayton's finishing and it's like, okay, finally we get a little momentum here. But those are the rarities, those are the rare Nights. And it just sucks for Orlando Lakers team that, you know, they have enough things to worry about whether it's, you know, the LeBron timeline and where he's at. Like, it does feel like it's a collection of guys that are kind of. I don't know if there's just the collective buy in that you would need, but you're like, I got to spend this energy on a guy who's like the fourth or fifth option out there, who's been bounced around the league now a couple times the last few years. You know, is. Is. Was Phoenix wrong about Ayton? Was Booker wrong about Ayton? The time Mikhail Bridges got into it with him, they were yelling at each other as teammates. Was he wrong? Was Chris Paul wrong about him? Was Portland, who couldn't really find much of a trade market for him, so he ends up costing himself money to be able to go to the Lakers, hoping he's going to cash in this summer? Like, were they wrong? Was the league wrong? No. And, like, I'm not trying to be unfair and, like, beat up on him. I guess I just. I read that piece and go, you know, the only reason this is happening is because he's on the Lakers. Because when the Lakers are bad, there is. Well, I shouldn't say they're. Because they're not bad. Although when I look at their record, every time that record comes up, I'm like, I can't believe the record's actually this good. And sometimes I wonder if it's because they've just been so good in the clutch. They're 163 in clutch games now, 164 after the Orlando loss, which is the best record still in the NBA. But sometimes you look like the point differential, you go, maybe they just got a bunch of bounces their way, or maybe it's just Luca being that spectacular as an offensive player that gives any team the edge that has him in some of those clutch games. But, no, they're winning 80% of their clutch games. OKC is winning 60% of their clutch games. So there's probably some correction coming on that one on top of everything else. But, yeah, as I was alluding to, like, the Lakers, if they're not. Not a title contender, I think they get talked about as much as when they actually are a legitimate title contender. And I know that this. That's the standard. I know the history of the franchise. And the problem for Ayton is, is you're caught up in the middle of it. There's no feature on disappointing Deandre Ayton if he's on like 20 other basketball teams. So he wanted the LA thing, he got it and now he's experiencing it. And for anyone to hold out any hope that this is going to take some turn where it's consistent effort and real production from him the rest of the way, I'd be shocked because there's nothing that tells me that that's going to happen. The gametime app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use and the game time guarantee means you can Trust you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price. Plus fees are always included. So what you see is what you pay. I was perusing the app and I'm seeing tickets for Pelicans Clippers Sunday starting at only $26. Who wants to see the Red Hot Pelicans? I know this guy. His name's Ryan Little James Borrego. You seen what our guy is doing down there in New Orleans? Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets at GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use the code RUCILLO for $20 off your first purchase terms. Apply again, create an account, redeem the code Rusillo R U S S I L L O for dollar this segment is sponsored by Microsoft. I'm ramping up a little bit earlier this year because this 26 NBA draft class is going to be so much fun and the different rankings to talk with teams. So no one I want to talk to more than Sam Pacini of the Athletic and also his Game Theory podcast that is out every single week. He joins us now. Where are you right now? You're back home, right?
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In beautiful Melbourne, Australia. You know, just moved into this house. We're loving it. I have a new background. Just things are, things are rolling here. How are you?
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I'm good. I'm good. That background is simple, it's efficient, much like some of these freshmen. So let's start though, because the Darren Peterson topic has crossed over into like once you have just regular shows talking about him. Usually this is not the case in February that you're talking about like draft picks. I think we all understand the talent part of it, but I know that recently you were doing some comps of like looking at his athleticism or lack thereof and some of the explosion, the jump shot stuff because you go back and you've watched these guys through all the high school circuit stuff. So let's do the meaty Darren Peterson conversation now because it is kind of on an absolute collision course with what could happen in June.
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B
Yeah, totally agree with you. And it's funny when you talk to teams, as I'm sure you have, everyone I've talked to is just like, yeah, look like we'll find out what's going on with the Medical in May when he goes to the combine and we'll see where it sits then. It just feels. I understand why it's such a story right now because he's not playing full games a lot of the time and it just, the optics look so strange. But then when you start to do the intel and talk to people that have been to Kansas for three, four, you know, five times this year, six times, even in one case of one person that I talked to, people kind of understand that have been there. Yeah, he's clearly like not working with a full compliment of what he's capable of health wise. Especially if you've watched what he did at Prolific. If you watched what he did on the AAU circuit, it's just abundantly clear that he doesn't have the same level of explosiveness on his drives. His same level of verticality is a finisher. He doesn't even have like the same elevation on his jumper is what he had then. And I've heard some people kind of come up with the idea that, oh yeah, he's playing against college competition now. It's like, no, that's not what's happening. Like you can tell if a guy has the same level of bursts or not. It's not the marginal difference of going up against higher level competition because you can watch him play against Columbus Prep, which is where the Boozer twins went, and you know he's getting guarded by Jackson Richardson, who's the top 25 recruit in the upcoming recruiting class. And you can watch him play Long Island Lutheran with the Mingo brothers, Dylan, who's a top 10 recruit in the upcoming 2026 recruiting class, and Kaden, who's at Penn State right now and he's just. Is more explosive than these guys. And if you watch him right now for Kansas, he doesn't have that same level of explosiveness. And what NBA teams are going to have to sort through come May, is that okay, let's see what the Medical says. Let, let's see. Is this a long term thing that's going to be a problem or is it a short term thing where he hurt his hamstring in the beginning of the year, is dealing with cramping we'll get them figured out once we get him into a very high level of, you know, training and strength and conditioning. Not the Kansas doesn't have that. But yeah, every NBA person I've talked to is just kind of like, hey, let's keep this very simple and not overreact to what's happening while also trying to gather the intel of, okay, so why isn't he playing? Is it an injury? Okay, the tape says it's probably that he's not 100%. Is he trying to play through this injury? Meaning that he's just trying to be very competitive, which is mostly the intel that I've got is that he's like a high level competitor and he's just a quiet kid in general. You know, he said he's a loner in that previous press conference he did after the Houston game. That kind of tracks with me like that. You know, he's just a quiet kid that doesn't want to put up with all of the mess of the behind the scenes and just wants to go out and hoop. And I think that he's just trying to play through whatever he has right now and we'll see what it is once we get the medical.
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The argument that it's like, okay, this is hurting his. His draft stock, which I can certainly understand because if it were the other side of this, which you are not pushing that, that like, he has these big first halves, then becomes indifferent and then decides to leave. But ultimately, I mean, unless there's some nil motivation behind it, like if we, if we were doing the worst version of the story, right, of what we could theorize, then I just don't understand why he wouldn't just shut it down. I mean, even with the nil money or whatever, the obligation to be like, wouldn't the smart thing to be if he just didn't care about competing or any of this kind of stuff, when he just go, like, all right, like, I'm probably gonna be the number one pick. Like, you can make the argument that this process, although maybe the better answer about who he is as a kid and is a player, that this speaks more highly of him, but it's actually hurting his draft stock. Although I don't know that the teams necessarily agree with that, as you pointed out in the very beginning, but, like, the conversation around it isn't doing him any favors. So if he were really a guy who's like, who gives a shit about any of this, Then he should have already just shut it down and prepare for the draft and still likely be the number one pick. Because when he's right, he's clearly the most talented player in college basketball.
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B
Yeah, like to me, if you watch the first half of the BYU game, you could have just gone, oh, yeah, he's very clearly on the court with AJ DeBancer, his top competition for the number one overall pick. And he's the better player. At the end of the day, he's just dominating this game and absolutely destroying whatever coverage BYU puts in front of him while AJ Is playing fine on the other end. Right. He could have shut it down then. He could have shut it down after the North Carolina game if he wanted to. He could have shut it down in the preseason after the hamstring injury, if he wanted to. I think that it's more of a competitive factor. I think the conversation isn't doing him any favors. And I think what the conversation is, realistically for NBA teams putting into a stark kind of, you know, manner here is that he is just a very quiet human being. And I do wonder if that will be a thing that teams look at and say, like, okay, we have these other guys here in AJ DeBance and Cam Boozer. AJ, like, very clearly wants to be a leader. Like, he wants to be the guy. Cam is absolutely that kind of human being. He's a leader. He communicates on the court incredibly well. Caleb Wilson's another guy that. Like that dude, you watch him, he's incredibly vocal, demonstrative. Darren isn't like that. So, like, is that a guy that we want to take at number one over these guys? Those are things that NBA teams will genuinely look into and genuinely try to decide. I think even more than, like, the play itself, that that might be what this is putting into. Stark, you know, contrast with the other play players that he's competing with. And realistically, Ryan, like the. I had one scout tell me that it's just very reminiscent of the Kyrie thing, right? Where Kyrie. There. There are two differences in that Kyrie decided to shut it down. A and B. There wasn't really any sort of high level competition at number one. Like, all due respect to Derrick Williams, but like, Kyrie was very clearly the guy at number one, talent wise in this class. There are just three. Or, you know, realistically two, but could be three other guys that you can look at and get really excited about. So I think that that hasn't done Darren any favors in this conversation either. And, you know, I would just implore people, like, you know, dig deeper than the surface of the optics of, you know, why is he coming out? What's going on? Don't just look at and go, oh, he's coming out. You know, he must have something wrong with him as a human being or he must have something wrong with him injury wise. Like, no, go figure it out and go do the intel, go do the research and try to understand why this is happening. I think
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A
whenever I think about, like, the history decisions, when it comes down to this, I think more often than not the decision makers, you know, the pool of teams that could have the number one pick, which, because it's, you know, we're still talking about a third of the league here, likely what we really are.
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B
Like, it's just crazy that, like 10 teams have no incentive to win right now in the NBA, right?
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A
So, you know, I just always kind of default to like, whenever there's that. That star that's got some baggage and you're like, who wants to pay this guy? And it's like, oh, people are actually trying to trade for this guy because when he's good, he's really good and he can score and they know that he can score in the playoffs because he scored in the playoffs before. Even if there's a million things that we don't like about this player. And so when I think about that first half against BYU, I think most GMs, unless there's some insanely alarming red flag medically after the combine part of it, where they're just going to go, I'm going to take that guy. I'm just going to take that guy. I was thinking about the Embiid class when I was trying to think of any sort of comp. And that's not entirely fair because Wiggins was held in such high regard. I thought Embiid was. And I'm not saying this because it was right historically, because I will share the stuff I was wrong about, but I thought watching Embiid, it was like, he's clearly like the most. I think he's like the best pick. But you're talking about the back issue and his ascension. His improvement just in that one year in Kansas is unlike anything I've ever seen. From, like, who he was at the beginning of the year to all the things that he had figured out in just one season as a freshman. I'm like, okay. But then it's. He's from a different part of the world, which I think there are other teams maybe going back years ago that would be worried about, like, you know, sometimes you worry about the medicals on guys from other parts of the world. And it felt significant enough for him to drop down to number three. But that was. That was also a love for Wiggins. And that's why, you know, and I've done. To let, you know, the audience know, like, I've done my synergy prep on the top guys, but I'm not. I'm not even close. You know, I don't feel comfortable by saying, like, I absolutely like this guy better than that guy. I understand The Boozer and DebonSA conversations. I think I'd be more inclined to, like, if I had to take somebody number one. And the Peterson thing scared me a little bit. I see Boozer. I see how that works more so than even DebonSA.
- [30:55]
B
I think what I would just say is that it's going to be so dependent on who gets the pick, right? Like, that's just what it's going to come down to, to me. And I felt that way at the beginning of the season, and I still feel that way now, even though these guys have all exceeded expectations when they've been on the court, right? In Cam's case, he's going to be the national player of the year. He's dominated college basketball in the way that we expected. And the thing that, you know, people always look at Cam and they go, this is what he can't do. He can't, like, separate from his man by crossing you up four times and exploding to the rim with, like, a lethal first step, right? He doesn't have that, you know, coordination and, you know, balance that AJ To Bonsa does, where he can, like, Euro plant on his right foot, foot go to his left on a slow step, and just like, explode up through contact with, like, such suddenness, right? But what Cam can do, and I think we often underrate these guys, is he can just literally do everything that you want on the court, right? Okay, you want to run a ball screen. He can run four or five ball screens as the ball handler. You want to run him with a guard kind of ghost ghosting, right? Like Isaiah Evans and Cam Boozer. They love to run those actions where Boozer's the ball handler and Evans is, you know, sprinting out to the wing, right? You want to run him as a screener, okay? He can roll all the way to the rim and finish. He can short roll and pass. He can pick and pop, right? You want to run him on the wing, you can have him as a floor spacer because he knocks down 39% of his threes. He can also attack closeouts. He can obviously post up mismatches or even not necessarily mismatches. He can grab and go on the break. Like, think about all of those things. Like not even like AJ DeBonso, like, can't really do all of those things. I would argue on a court right now, like, I don't love him exploiting mismatches in the post. I don't love him as a spot shooter right now because I think it'll take him a little bit more time to get the shot in order from beyond the NBA line. The guys who can just do everything, great coaches can figure out how to weaponize those guys in really advantageous matchup situations. And I think that's like Cam's biggest advantage to when comparing him to these other players that he's being consistently compared to.
- [33:16]
A
I understand some of the Cam stuff where it's like, all right, but is he going to be able to bully NBA players? He's going to finish out the rim. Are we even going to run him in the post? Like, he works so hard before the pass. The way he uses his body and he's sealing guys. Like you could, you could dump it down to him every single possession and like still feel pretty good about it. But that's such a limit on what he actually is. Like. I watched the Notre Dame game and to start the game and granted I know you know that it was Notre Dame, right? So it's not the top competition he's going to be facing. But you know, he's, he's setting up the offense. He's essentially the point guard. He throws in an entry pass, he kind of gives his teammate a chance to cook and it's stalling. And then he sees what nobody else sees, where he then just cuts through. And nobody's expecting him to cut. Cause he's 245 pounds and he's about beyond the three point line. And before anybody even knows what the hell happened, he's finishing. And then right down on defense, he's kind of shading his man defensively, but he's paying attention to the ball handler at the top and there's a cut that's going to be run. And normally the defender like puts his head down and follows through. And Cam does something really simple. He's like, I already know what you're going to try to do here. And he picks off the pass pass. Then he has a play like immediately after that where he sets two screens to try to get somebody else free. And then he delays his Cut. Where it's, it's not even like a role. It was just. He read it you. Maybe it was part of the design of the play, because how spectacular Duke is with the. They run like. I love what John Shire does so much that I almost just want to send him a text and be like, I hope, you know, like, there's those of us that are watching this just appre. He makes me like Duke in a way that I've never ever liked Duke in my entire life. Because I can't believe that Shire can get that many guys this young with these profiles to come in and all know where they're all supposed to be. And it's not like it's new just this year. And granted, this team is even close to as talented as last year's team, but, you know, Boozer sets a couple screens, try to get other guys work. He's like, all right, whatever, what's happening here? And then it's this, like, delayed cut and he goes up to the rim. Everybody collapses on him. And then he still keeps a handoff open because he still knows what's going on, and it's to his teammate. Those are like three plays within two minutes to start that fucking game. And I'm like, you know, Preston must watch him going, is this the guy that I like offer up a bunch of first rounders for? Because he fits the mold of, like, the guy with the ball in his hands that I can trust to kind of do everything. And so, sure, he's not explosive like Caleb. He's not the high ceiling guy of Debons, of, like, what you imagine, what's the best version of it? And I don't even really want to insult Cam by saying, like, he has the highest floor, which he probably does out of the guys outside of Peterson. But I don't even have to give you the advanced metrics because they're just so off the charts and how he's going to finish up on some of these numbers that are just ridiculous. But I have such an appreciation for all the components of how he plays basketball that I'm like, you know, this guy with more space, like, okay, maybe he's not going to be beasting guys in the NBA. Maybe there's going to be some rim finishes that feel a little challenging. And, you know, where's his body going to be in five years? Like, I hope you want to stay at like 245ish here, but my God, I love the way he plays the game. And, you know, I, I, I don't know how much you agree or just disagree with there. There's just, there's a processing with him that is absurd for somebody his age.
- [36:50]
B
Yeah, I completely agree. And it's been like that since he was, you know, 15 years old, frankly. Like he's just thought the game at a level that is totally different than everybody else in his age group. And now he's going above his age group, you know, at 23, sometimes playing 24 year olds in college and just dominating games because he is smarter than everybody else. Like in the to speak to the Shire point, like in the Michigan game they're playing this incredible front line with you know, three potential first round picks in Yaxel, Linda Borg a day, Mara Mares, Johnson. Right. And the whole scheme was basically just, okay, we're going to let Cam dictate everything from the paint. Every time that he can be the low man, we're going to, you know, for lack of a better term like pre switch or auto switch to where he is the low man, he's staying in the paint. We're going to have him guard either Yaxel, Linda Borg or Mahrez Johnson at the start of possessions and just sag off of them and treat them as non shooters and just let him communicate and dictate everything out on defense. And it was funny like people were asking me what was going to happen in that game early on. I said yeah, I think like Michigan's probably going to roll them unless two kids, you know, 10 to 15 threes and they made six of them. It was just that Shire ended up figuring out the defensive scheme because he has this guy on the back end who can talk through things and communicate things so well to be able to, you know, figure out everything on the court. Now like on defense, I will say I think he's like somewhat caught between the four and the five, right. He is not a good rim protector, is like a primary five man. His game is like, I'm going to get my chest in front of you. I'm going to put my hands all the way up and I'm not really going to jump because jumping for me doesn't really do much. It just puts me in potential foul situations and guys have finished over the top of him. Like you watch the UNC game, you know. Henri Vasar, another potential first round pick who's like seven foot tall, just jumped over the top of him like four times in the second half to finish. And that is consistently the thing you hear. But to your point on like Oklahoma City, right so, like, I, you know, Isaiah Hartenstein has a team option this year. Can you imagine if, you know, they just let Hartenstein walk and traded all of their picks to be able to go get Cam Boozer and play him next to Chet Holmgren, who can protect the rim and they're allowed to play five out with everybody like that, that would be the terrifying thing for the league to be me.
- [39:14]
A
Yeah. Because I, you know, I'll never forget. Like, I've seen the handsbro comps and I don't.
- [39:18]
B
It's Kevin Love. H is what it is, bro. If you put Kevin Love in the modern era. To me, like, Kevin Love, when he was coming up ucla, he played in like the Ben Howland system. And you know, I grew up in Pittsburgh. Like, God knows I love those Ben Holland team shout out like Julius Page and Jaron Brown. Right. But not exactly the most fluid offensive scheme that you'll ever see. And plus, when Kevin Love was coming up, like, guys just didn't get a chance to develop their perimeter skills when they were 6 foot 9, 250 pounds by the time that they were 15 years old. Right? So I think if you put Kevin Love in like today's modern developmental system, it would look pretty similar to what Cam Boozer is. But because Cam is getting that early on, I think it's going to change the trajectory of their careers. Like, I think that you're looking at something similar to Kevin Love, who's probably going to be a Hall of Famer, except maybe even like a little bit more elevated if he can find the right scheme and situation for him.
- [40:22]
A
He's a plus. He's a BPM of plus 20.4, which is number one in college basketball. Again, the metrics for him are like, there's a bunch of guys might be
- [40:30]
B
that might be number one ever, Ryan. Like, that's close. If it's not
- [40:35]
A
Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done. Copilot works across Microsoft 365 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook. Turning chaos into productivity. Need a presentation. Copilot builds it. Need a summary of a meeting? You definitely zoned out in. Copilot's got you. Let copilot do the heavy lifting. You just take the credit. Learn more@Microsoft.com M365 Copilot Foreign let's do more on DebonSA. Because I see somebody that I totally get it. The NBA wing that we all fall in love with. I do see somebody that his entire life, because he's been so physically dominant in his athleticism, that it's like one on one, like I'm going to score every single time and even in college, like it's not going to be as easy, especially whenever he's loading. I think he goes one on one and he'll go one on three. Kind of thinking it's the same thing where he's like, well, I'm, I'm just gonna go. But I just told, I completely get, I don't, I don't know that I see him as, as the number one guy. Unless the Peterson stuff comes back, I really do feel comfortable saying there's clear separation between those guys because Peterson just feels so polished and gets to where he wants with this effortless thing where even in the BYU game when he took off for that dunk, I'm like, he's going to go for that. It's like, oh yeah, I guess he is. And it worked where DebonSA. It can look fluid and really not fluid all within the same possessions.
- [42:06]
B
So I generally agree with you. And I had AJ at 3 coming into the year and was a little bit more questionable on him than what some people were. I think what has impressed me most about him this year is the way that he has improved his, the way that he processes the game in game, in problem solves situations. Right. So like you can go back and watch the Connecticut game in late November, early December and he really struggled with them in the first half. They dug into his handle on every single drive. They really made his life miserable. I think he went like 1 for 5 with four turnovers or something in the first half. And then like five minutes into the second half you could see that he figured it out a little bit. He like figured out the timing of when the digs were coming. He figured out when he was going to be able to have, you know, driving lanes, particularly to his left. He likes to go, you know, jab, step right and then get to his left a lot of the time when he's in the middle of the court. Then in the Iowa State game, which was their not most recent game, but their game over the weekend on Saturday, he figured them out. And that's a top 10 defense in the country with a lot of seniors and a lot of, you know, really high level players in nine minutes or eight minutes or something and it was just like, oh no. Like you now are processing these things and problem solving things quicker on the court. And with AJ I don't think anybody denies that he probably has the most physical tools out of all of these players, right? Like 6 foot 9, real explosiveness. Bendy, it's 6 foot 9 as well. In the same way that, like, Cooper Flag is to where he can really leverage opponents who are even smaller than him because, yeah, like, his ankles are really strong. Like, he's able to kind of catch and plant, like, on one leg and maintain his balance. And, like, you know, that's what makes. I'm not comparing these two players, but, like, that's what makes Shay Gilders Alexander so special, is the fact that he can like, really flex his ankles in tight spaces and kind of get through those creases in tight ways. With AJ it's really a matter of, like, process to me right now, and I don't love his handle. I think that when he has, like, open space and when he can set somebody up with one move, you know, right. As soon as he catches, he's really good. And I think he's excellent on his, like, straight line gathers to the rim. But I don't think that when the defense takes away his initial primary option, he is all that good at being able to counter what they do. And his goal is like, I'm just going to try and get there in a straight line, right? And because he's so physically gifted a lot of time, it's very much capable of. It works, right? It just works. But yeah, like, I think he's gotten better throughout the year at finding his teammates. I think he's gotten better throughout the year at finding creases and cracks in the defense. It would be hard for me to bet against him too. Like, that's what makes this class so hard and so special at the same time. Like, I think all of these guys are just really incredibly gifted basketball players and are all probably going to be all stars in their own way. And really it's just dependent on A, what your developmental situation is, how much do you trust being able to get the most out of these guys, and B, what is your scheme? How do you feel about these, like, downhill slashers who don't always make the right plays? Like, if you're Boston, I would understand taking AJ to Bonsa at 1. And like, if you wanted to move Jalen Brown to get, like, cap space or something like that, or flexibility or something coming off of a massive season, that that would make sense. Like I say Boston because this is never going to happen because they can't get that pick. But, you know, if you wanted to do something like that where you always have wide open space because of the Missoula Scheme and everything. I would get that. But if you're a team like Oklahoma City, I think you probably are more of a boozer team. You might be a little bit more of a Darren Peterson team. It just depends on what you want at the end of the day.
- [46:17]
A
Yeah, we're figuring the best teams that won't be drafting these guys. There was something I saw from debons a later though, that I. But with that frame, it's like you should, you know, forever when you're younger, you're avoiding players, right, to get to where you want to go. And he had to play right side and he used his shoulder before he took off and that gave him all the separation he needed because there's just not a lot of room. Like you're not going to get these free runs unless something stupid happened or somebody wasn't paying attention.
- [46:44]
B
What I. The way I think about this a lot of the time, Ryan, sorry to cut you off. Is just.
- [46:49]
A
No.
- [46:50]
B
What happens if they fix their biggest problem? You know what I mean? So like, what happens if AJ develops a pull up jumper? How do you stop that guy? Basically, right. In Darren's case, like, what happens if, when he gets his legs back, you know, hopefully he's able to just drive downhill and get wherever he wants at the rim. Right. How does that impact their game? Because the thing is that These kids are 18, 19 years old. They're gonna all improve. So what happens if you fix the biggest problem here with Cam? I think there's less inherently to fix, which, you know, maybe you could try to change his frame a little bit. You could thin him out and he could get like a little bit more explosive. But I don't know that you necessarily want that given how good he is with aj. The thing that, you know, I keep coming back to in terms of his upside is like, if he takes the Jason Tatum route and becomes like a real pull up three point guy. I actually don't know that he's guardable
- [47:51]
A
at that point because I think when I was, I was asking teams the last couple of days like, hey, give me your top five, right? And the Caleb Wilson love was, was there. You know, it was ahead of Kingston, it was ahead of Wagler, who I. I want to get to those guys. But when I look at Caleb being like maybe an inch taller than aj, like, this is the separation of like as dynamic and as powerful as Caleb is. Like, you're already projecting him as a 4 you hope can get you more than a couple dribbles, but that's A four that doesn't have the shot profile that AJ has. Like, even if DebonSA goes two and Caleb goes four, it's not even really a discussion about like what you're projecting them to be despite similar frames. I mean, Caleb's probably get a little bit more to him there, but there's, there's some limitations to him perimeter wise. Even though they're going to go right next to each other, like they are already mapping out completely different paths on what their NBA positions are.
- [48:57]
B
Yeah, I agree. I think Caleb is more like the name that comes up most with him is Pascal Siakam. If it all comes together right. Like it's more of that athletic transition four man who can really, you know, make plays from the mid post and can, you know, be one of the best. Like where I love Caleb most potentially in the NBA is he gets potential to be the best baseline player in the NBA. I think where, you know, he's off the ball and you put him in the dunker spot. I think that he'll eventually shoot open corner threes as well.
- [49:32]
A
Like an Aaron Gordon type kind of.
- [49:35]
B
Yeah, exactly right. Like, and I think he probably has even like a little bit more juice than what Aaron did. And I think the world of Aaron Gordon, that's not a shot at him, but like just the, the comfort level with the ball that he has as a four man is there. It's not there as a perimeter player in the same way that it is with AJ. And the other thing I'll note with AJ versus Caleb is that with a lot of AJ's passes, they're coming off of his own self created opportunities. Right where he's isolating, he's in a ball screen, he's on the move, he's making the right kick out with Caleb. A lot of the passes to me feel like they are preordained in the run of a set. He's at a standstill, like at the elbow and they're throwing a lob, you know, off of a back screen to Henri Basar or something like that. Right. So I just would like to see like a little bit more, you know, play like within the flow of the game from Caleb as a passer as opposed to these like preordained, like with a quarterback. Right. You know, you're getting these completions by running screens, by running slants. You're not like getting through the second and third progression and hitting the, you know, over, you know, in the, over the middle of the field on the backside. Right. You know, I Think AJ can do a little bit more of that. I certainly think Cam can do a lot of that. I don't know that Caleb is getting there yet. I think is what I would say.
- [51:03]
A
Who do you like better as a prospect, Jabari Smith or Caleb?
- [51:06]
B
Caleb, for sure.
- [51:08]
A
Going back to Jabari coming out.
- [51:09]
B
Yeah. Look like I was higher on Jabari, and I think that where I screwed up at that point was that dribbling is important, for lack of a better word. Yeah, like, I thought Jabar. I really liked Jabari as a guy that was going to be able to be like a second or third option in the NBA because I thought he was like a monster shooter, not just like a good shooter like he's turned into. But I really undervalued the importance of, hey, like, even though you are 6 foot 10 and can shoot over the top of anybody, it doesn't matter because, you know, opposing teams are just going to be able to take that away if you can't dribble and counter what they're doing. But, you know, that was four or five years ago. I'm certainly, hopefully a better evaluator than I was then.
- [51:59]
A
Yeah. But I think there's also a habit that you run into is like you start to round up, you know, because there was so much about him that we all liked. I mean, the shooting touch alone and the way he competed defensively. Like, you're like, holy shit. Like you could have. You know, that's. That's the thing with these guys that are this big where. And I think it works out perfectly with this classic. And it's even kind of a little bit of an Aaron Gordon thing, because the idea, the design with the people that loved Aaron Gordon was rounding up like, oh, he can be a three. It's like he's going to be a three. He's going to get out and he's going to be able to bring the ball up a little bit, too. He's not going to be our primary guy by any stretch. And then it's just like, you know what, you're just letting your forward dribble a lot. He's not a small forward, and Jabari is really just a stretch four because he. The handle never picked up. And from right now, again, just repeating myself a little bit here. Caleb looks much more like a four, even if he wants to set up on that left side, get. Get spread out a little bit, be. Be going one on one. And some of the shots are just brutal decisions, how hard the shots are. And then some of the stuff is just spectacular. So that's what we're talking about here.
- [52:59]
B
All right.
- [53:00]
A
I want to get to two more guys here just because if. If A guy scores 46 at Purdue as a freshman, as Keaton Wagner did, Wagler did for. For Illinois. I'm really glad that I watched the Purdue game after I watched UCLA game. It's. It's already made the rounds that Wagler's like, oh, you know, a little like sga. It's like, well, if he's like sga, and I'm going to bring back an oldie for you. And you probably remember it because shout out to my guy, Chad Ford. But when Marshawn Brooks was coming out of Providence and I think Grover had him. I probably bring this up every year for the rest of my life, but there was a little bit of like, Marshawn Brooks looked like Kobe and you had to just allow it to happen because it actually wasn't insane. Nobody was saying he was going to be Kobe. His trainer wasn't saying he was going to be Kobe. Chad wasn't going to say. There was just some stuff that Marshawn did with the way he would start his possession, his lean, the way he was set up. And then, you know, the first step and the jabs, you're like, oh, it kind of looks a little bit like Kobe, except for the part where it's not going to work out. He's going to be out of the league. If, if you allow me to say with Wagler, like, I get it at least because it is this dance that he's doing on the court where it's. It's like dribbling with a purpose and the simplicity of like a 1, 2 dribble just to create all this separation from the three point line. And you know, the, the shot that he hit at Purdue at the very end when they desperately needed. And the shot clocks going down and he looks like there's no one in the gym. It looks like it's a practice. His composure. I think that part, if you allow, like, I'm not projecting him to be arguably the best player in the league. There are just similarities with the way he carries himself at six six and that size. And look, the shooting's already better than where SGA was at this point. Maybe I should stop saying SGA here, but I think you understand what I'm saying here, because I don't. There. There are similarities in the way they go about their work.
- [55:08]
B
Yeah. So there are.
- [55:10]
A
Is that fair?
- [55:11]
B
Okay, there are, I agree, the differences That I think Keaton's probably going to be an inch shorter. He's going to have arms that are probably three inches shorter. He is not near like the, the athleticism is the difference here. To me, like Keaton just isn't all that explosive. Like just for a point of comparison with Shea. Right. So, you know, Shea had, you know, 11 dunks. I think Keaton has none.
- [55:40]
A
You know, that's at that size is a little.
- [55:44]
B
Yeah, in half court settings definitely has none. But I think he has none in full court even still. I'll look that up.
- [55:49]
A
I can look it up.
- [55:50]
B
But like, yeah, like. And even the pull up game for mid range too was different. Like Shay was taking a couple of those per game and make them at like 43, 44%. And Keaton right now like doesn't really have that mid range game in part because the shot pocket is so low and he really has to like elevate it up over the top. So. But where he is is he's way more advanced as a three point shooter. Right. And I think there really is something to the fact that, you know, the minute that he took over Illinois offense, they basically spiked to being the number one offense in all of college basketball by a significant margin. Part of that is that Tyler Underwood, who is Brad's son, who runs their offense, is a stud and like clearly watched the tone of the Celtics and figured out how to get space for these guys with five guys who could really shoot and dribble and pass. But a big piece of it is that Keaton is really capable of making decisions and he never makes the bad decision. Is the thing that stands out to me with Keaton. Like he is never the guy that makes the wrong read out of a ball screen. He doesn't try to hit the home run. Like he's very comfortable with the double or he's very comfortable with the productive out quote, unquote, like, you know, guy on second base and you know, zero outs and the nine hitters up and he just needs to, you know, hit the ball to second base to advance the runner. Right. Like he's very comfortable doing that too. And he doesn't make bad choices in terms of any like really anything on the court. So I love Keaton. I do have a top six, you know, grade on him. There's. He'll be anywhere from five to seven or eight on my board. But, you know, it's not impossible he would get to four. To me, part of it is the, what you said, the, the comfort like just walking into Purdue and dominating in the way that he did. And that's not the only road game where he did that either. Like, he went into Nebraska, which is like a sneaky, really difficult spot to play in. Nebraska is really good this year, and dropped 28, 5 and 5 in that game, too. And, you know, went to Iowa and had 19. And you can look at all of his road games since he took over at point. Like, he. He's been pretty good outside of that terrible Michigan State game. So it's the poise, the confidence, like, all that. I'm a big woggler believer based on what we've seen so far.
- [58:10]
A
Yeah. Some of the synergy stuff. And you're right, he's had one dunk attempt, I believe, and it didn't go through. So. And that's all shot types on synergy here. Right now, I was looking at the jump shot, like, he's 92nd percentile on the points per shot. The catch and shoot stuff is terrific. The dribble jump, like, dribble up, you know.
- [58:28]
B
Yeah.
- [58:28]
A
Jumper off the dribble, he's 94th percentile. The guarded, unguarded stuff both rank in the 75 area for him. So there'd be certain players that can score. And then it's like, oh, wait a minute. Every time he's guarded, like, the efficiency drops off in half. Or, hey, if he's not off the dribble, then it's falling apart. And you just love to see somebody this young that seems to kind of check every box on some of that scoring stuff. But, yeah, it does. It's not explosive. It's not explosive in the way that some of the other guys are talking about. The last guy that I want to hit on here is Kingston, and Fleming's at Houston. Just because you want to talk explosion, even though it was kind of strange because he's. He's listed at 64190. And I forget which game I was watching recently where the broadcast was like, supposedly he was 64165 a year ago in high school. So I don't know that he put on 25 pounds. I saw another listing this morning is at 175. That part doesn't matter. So let's stay with the positive here. If you want to get to the cliche of, like, quick but not in a hurry, that's what stands out. Like, he is quicker than everybody. The rim finishes. Maybe you'd like to see him be a little bit better. But he also feels a bit like Wagler of, like, in These huge spots, some of these amazing games that Houston has played in with all these other dudes that have been through some of the wars. And it's like, hey, freshman, calm us down and get us into a good look. That's as important as any number that you're going to throw out there that he so often is coming back to the top to get the ball late in the shot clock. And he is tasked with bailing one of the best teams in college basketball out of their possession.
- [60:00]
B
Yeah. And you know, the fun numbers with him are that, you know, a lot of the times with these younger guards, they tend to be a lot better with their senior guard out on the court, right? Like Milos Use and is the older guard who's been like a really steady hand for them last year and, you know, has experience in Oklahoma as well. You look at Flemings, right, like they're a plus, I think like 32 points per 100 when he's out there without using. They're like a plus 20 when he's out there with us. And so like he is the one that is really driving their play a lot of the time, even more than the senior guard. You look at their rim, you know how much they draw rim pressure when Flemings is on the court. They take 17 shots at the rim per 40 minutes with Flemings on the court by himself, versus just 12 when Flemings is out there with us, and then nine when Usanne is out there without Flemings. Like, they really draw so much more rim pressure when Flemings is out there being able to just go and create and do his own thing. Right. And I'm not saying they're a better team without Usan, but like, I think they'd be even better off just like kind of letting Fleming's cook even more sometimes than what they do. But, you know, look, the question with Kingston is the efficiency, right? Like, has a funky looking shot. It kind of comes out of his hand a bit strange. He very clearly has great touch. He's making, you know, 85% of his free throws this year. He has really soft touch around the rim that you see on these like touch shots as well. But he's making 33% of his threes in conference play. He's only at 43% from the field in conference play as well. Doesn't draw quite as much contact and like foul, you know, ability to get to the line quite as much even as like Keaton Wagler does, for instance at Illinois, let alone these guys like Debonsa and Boozer. At the top of the draft. So Kingston's a guy that at the end of the year I think NBA teams are like really looking at trying to figure out, okay, we love the speed, we love the explosiveness. Like you said Ryan, like the process is awesome. He is another one that like doesn't really make poor decisions ever. But how much of the inefficiencies that we see is that okay, he's playing next to like Jojo Toggler and Chris and Nak at the four and the five teams don't really care to guard Sinac from three, you know, Although I
- [62:23]
A
kind of love Samak by the way.
- [62:25]
B
Fun player, like really, really interesting high upside swing for sure. But you know, in terms of the way he's getting guarded and the way it impacts the rest the of of the team.
- [62:34]
A
Yeah, yeah. Snack runs out to the corner and some of the possessions I was watching today and I was just like, whoa, totally. Like the hope is that his defender is going to get out of the way. And in college it's like, go ahead buddy. Although leaving sack like that I think leads to just how dominant he is on the glass because like you lose track of him because you don't respect him, you don't want to be near him. You're going to help off of them every chance you get. And then he's like, cool, I'm just going to destroy you on the game. It feels like he's on an every single rebound. I think it's trying to think which was it the Arizona game? Because it felt like Houston was going to run away with that home crowd. The whole thing's going nuts. I'm watching more college basketball this year than I have watched in a really long time. So that was all I want to do on the draft. That's a lot for us. But I do want to bring Sam back here in just a moment and finish up on just talking about this tournament coming up. All right. Before we dive into today's breakdown, a quick word on the tool that keeps people's workflow tighter than my takes. Microsoft 365 copilot the world moves fast. Your workday even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps that you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through the clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more@Microsoft.com M365Copilot My whole day revolved around St. John's at UConn in the rematch, and it wasn't my favorite day. But, yeah, I've been watching a lot of the St. John's Games. But then on a flight back, like, I didn't want to watch NBA. I watched Michigan, Duke. I watched. I think Houston, Arizona was that day. I've watched a bunch of debonsa games. I've watched all this stuff the last couple weeks. And it's funny, because much as I bitch about conference realignment and football and destroying the PAC12 and these stupid scheduled games, now I'm realizing, like, in the college basketball world, it's probably the best thing that ever happened to it because we have so many awesome games every single week. So I don't know if your world is like, maybe the football guys should stop bitching, because it's been great for yourself sport, which, you know, is on a real momentum run right now.
- [64:48]
B
I love what college basketball has been this year. I had no idea you were a St. John's fan, by the way.
- [64:54]
A
Oh, you never knew that. Yeah.
- [64:55]
B
How does that even happen?
- [64:57]
A
Dad used to bring me to the Civic center for the old Dom Perno Yukon days, and we would go and watch all these Big east teams come in and bludgeon them. That was our thing. My dad and I would bring. And so, you know, Georgetown would come in and kill him. Providence would kill him. Seton hall wasn't that great back then. Syracuse is always awesome as well. I just. It was one of my favorite things ever. And then, yeah, I don't know if I was racist at, like, 7 or 8, but I was just so amazed that Chris Mullen was so good. I was like, dad, how come. How come one of us is this good? Like, what the hell's going on there?
- [65:31]
B
Are you, like, trying to get aggregated now? Like, is that. Is that your goal?
- [65:36]
A
I've done a pretty good job lately. No, I think everybody will understand that I was being a totally. It's a joke now. You've made it worse. I just. I fell in love with the St. John's thing, honestly. Like, I like Walter Berry probably as much as I like Chris Mullen. So there you go. And I. I still remember being incredibly disappointed when it was the three Big east teams in, and I was like, God damn it. They got to play Georgetown again. And we all know how that went. But then it just stayed through it, through all of it. Jason Buchanan, you know, I bought the Felipe cover and was like, we're back. This is awesome. Omar Cook. I mean, I was there in the building for a huge Eric Barkley game. So, yeah, I love. I love St. John's I don't talk about it a ton, and it's been a lot of fun to have him back in this, but they are an incredibly. Like. I don't know if they're the worst best team or the best worst team. They're on this great run, but I don't know, I just feel like their offense that's been at St. John's thing now for a little while where it just feels like. Like there's. It's going to be really hard for that team to win four games, to get to a final four of who they are offensively.
- [66:39]
B
It's kind of how I feel, too. I just don't know how that offense is going to work. Like, I don't really trust the guards enough to be able to separate and to be able to, like, have space to separate, frankly. You know, people get excited about Zubi. I think Zubi's really good, but, you know, he's not a good enough floor spacer to get the guards enough separation. Dylan Mitchell's really fun on defense, but, like, you know, offensively, there's a reason he, like, scored zero last night against Connecticut. Like, they're just in a tough spot, but, you know, look like the teams at the top of college basketball this season are probably. It feels like they are better and more talented than what I can remember in the past. And part of that is, you know, we have a confluence of events this season that are just incredible. Like, we have this amazing recruiting class that has somehow exceeded expectations. Like, Kingston Flemings was, you know, the 25th best recruit in that class or whatever entering the year.
- [67:36]
A
Where was Wagler, by the way? Because I was trying to find all of his high school stuff, and it seems like if he was a riser, it was late because sometimes he was outside the top 100. Is that right?
- [67:45]
B
Yeah, no, he was outside the top 100 for everybody. Like, he was the, you know, probably 1 50th best recruit.
- [67:52]
A
And I think that's the exact number, Sam. That's why you're the best.
- [67:55]
B
Yeah. Like, he just got, you know, noticed. And, you know, Illinois, I think it was Tyler Underwood, actually. Illinois, like, just went to go scout. They had a kid on that team who's going to Michigan State next year. I can't remember his name off the top of my head.
- [68:10]
A
And that's okay.
- [68:11]
B
Tyler's him. Yeah. And was like, no, wait, we have. We have to look at Keaton, because I think that, you know what the funny thing is that I think that Ben McCollum it Drake and then now at Iowa with starts and those guys, that was like the highest offer that Wagler had at that point. And it seemed like he might end up at Drake. And of course, McCollum being, you know, an awesome basketball coach that he is, identified it. But then Illinois came in and was able to get it done late. So, yeah, awesome. But like, to speak to, you know, again, just how good college basketball is. Like, you have this incredible freshman class where it seems like nobody is really disappointed. And we've even had guys, like, step up and be incredible in that class. And then on top of it, like, Nil has allowed guys to stay longer and make, you know, somewhere between 2 and $4 million, depending on who you are. And you know, where you ended up deciding to stay or transfer to or from, right? Like, being able to keep a guy like Yaxel lend a Borg in college instead of having him go to the NBA to be like a top 35 overall pick last season was huge. It was a massive differentiator for Michigan, for instance, right? You can look at a team like Florida being able to keep Alex Condon and, you know, Thomas Halk and, you know, then Chignellu gets better and, you know, they bring in the two guards. They look incredible right now and like, they might make another deep run. Illinois, you know, the third piece of it that's amazing with this confluence of events is international recruiting, right? Like, Illinois just goes over the eastern block and gets all the Serbians and Croatians and is like, okay, like, we have all these big, strong, physical, skilled dudes who are going to be bullies. And then on top of it, we nailed the Wagler evaluation, right? So, you know, then you look at Duke, who always is loaded, and, you know, Michigan has crazy money to spend. And Arizona did an amazing job evaluating talent this summer. Like, like, it's just a loaded, loaded group at the top. To where I do think this is the most talented that I have seen. College basketball just like point blank is where I'm at.
- [70:25]
A
You know, there's other guys that I promise certain people out there, like, we didn't get to acuff. We didn't get to men. There's just so many other guys that I still would talk about too, that are going to be lottery guys, but we'll do that in greater detail because I'm. I'm just behind. So that's just the way it works. What's up with your guy down in your neck of the woods? Breakers. Who's ball? Breakers. Ball. Is it Lopez with New Zealand?
- [70:51]
B
Karim Lopez? Yeah. Yeah. Fun. Fun player. Like, I've been having this debate with, like, a couple of people down here, like, you know, a head coach and a GM of a team. Like, is he, like, the best player in Europe by the time he's, like, 24 years old, or is he, like, a really, really good NBA player? It's not. I'm not real sure yet. I think he's probably an NBA. I think he's probably, like, a good NBA player. He's going to have to shoot, but he plays like this really, like, aggressive, bully ball style that worked down here this year because this league is just so physical on the interior. And, you know, I'm intrigued to see where it goes. I don't have, like a. I don't have a great sense of him yet, and I've watched him the whole year, right. Like, I know what he does well.
- [71:38]
A
Like, yeah, that's. Isn't that the worst when you just watch a guy a ton and you're like, I still don't know any. Like, I don't even know.
- [71:45]
B
Yeah, I've watched him a ton, and I'm just like, all right, like, this might really work in the NBA, but he's also, like, really bad on defense, and he got a little bit better throughout the course of the year. But I wouldn't say he got to a point where he was, like, an average defender in the nbl. Like, he was like, Ryan, he was probably the worst defender in the NBL to start the year, and he got better, and he wasn't that by the end of the year, but, you know, he's very skilled, too, and his numbers stack up with the guys like Saar and Lamelo and those guys. Like, I don't. I don't know, man. There. There are guys like that in this class where, like, I just don't. It's hard. Like, once you get outside of that top nine, I think that this thing is just so wide open in this draft class. And part of it will, you know, filter through with the nil stuff as well. Where, I mean, like, the market is out of control on some of these kids with, like, the nil stuff, even compared to rookie scale deals. So, like, could you see guys like Braylon Mullins at Connecticut? And, you know, I'm just looking through my list right now. Like, you know, everyone knows the Texas Tech has crazy money right now. Could they pay Christian Anderson like an insane amount of money to go back to school. You know, just all of the bigs like previous and Vasar and Mara, like all those schools have crazy money to spend. So does the class kind of thin out and not be as deep as we want it to be? Do those guys stay in? Like we're just working with a new paradigm in a real way to where I don't really know what to expect.
- [73:14]
A
I think the teams are thrilled though that the nil part of it allows some of the European players and maybe to be overdrafted playing in college, you know, like, I don't think skittish really happens in an nil world.
- [73:26]
B
Oh, Nicholas skittish feeling.
- [73:29]
A
Unless he was getting a promise. He's like, what am I supposed to do? Go to Creighton like to see in Denver?
- [73:34]
B
Yeah, Dragon Bender like not playing at all for Maccabi his year before the draft and still going fourth overall. I think he played like 500 minutes that year or something. It was crazy. Yeah, look, I agree, like I think that everyone, everyone's just on an equal playing field is the key. You know what I mean? And it just makes it easier to evaluate at that point.
- [73:55]
A
The basketball's awesome. So look, if you're one of those college guys that got away from it and you're all about the NBA, like I'm trying to find more time. I'm trying to assign a night on like a non taping morning the next day of going this is so much fun. I mean we have so many high level matchups and you know, college basketball always had the intensity on any given night over. The NBA for the most part understood that. But there would be some years there where I'd go, this is a tough watch man. It's just all clogged up. There's just like where are the scores? There's a couple years there I'm like where like maybe it was just a bad draft class and I was doing the work after the fact, but I would be like, where's the guy that like gets buckets? Like is this, do we have a class void of any actual like fucking bucket getters.
- [74:40]
B
Honestly Ryan, I think next year is going to be be pretty, pretty similar to that if you made me back.
- [74:46]
A
Oh cool.
- [74:46]
B
Yeah, next year is not going to be great. But like honestly post all star break, like it's been a little bit challenging to get me to like be excited to watch NBA right now.
- [74:58]
A
Yeah, but then you get Detroit, San Antonio, like that's the kind of thing is that I'd argue is you go, are you expecting all nine games? The tip to be awesome, because I'm going to tell you right now, that doesn't happen on NFL Sundays either.
- [75:08]
B
Totally.
- [75:10]
A
But what I always hope for is there's usually like one or two games. There's one or two games. It's like, okay, this is the game that matters. And the guys are super into it as of. It's one of 80. But you just know the odds are you start getting late in the conference play here and then the conference tournaments and everything else. It's just an intensity that anybody that loves sports can appreciate. As I let you go, I'll just let you know, I went to Portugal and I checked out the men's league there and I saw Benfica play in person. I think they're still in first place. They're terrific. Plenty of seats available, less than 300 people. Benfica, incredible point guard for them. I'm going to give you the details. He had 22, I think, at the half. But the defense, it is. It is something, though. When you're in, you're like, all right, so this is the professional Portugal league. And it would. There'd be like a guy comes off, you know, he looks like Dinkadare and you're like, oh, my God, like, who's this? And then it's like, oh, he has an incredible fatal flaw. Like, once he has the volley, doesn't know what to do. Like, he can get. He can seal, he can get you deep post position. He'll give you. He'll give you a nice big old target. And then it's like, okay, but dude, now that you have the ball, you have to do something with it. And it's like, you know, so don't. I haven't scouted the league before, so maybe, you know, I don't want to just. I don't want to do small sample it, but I have anything you need, anything you need. If you need anything on Bengfika and their opponent.
- [76:34]
B
What did you read while you were on the flight? Like, something good at least?
- [76:38]
A
Yeah. American Kings, Wickersham's book on quarterbacks. Wickersham's the best. So I'm reading that. And then also I always look around because usually it's somewhere next to me as I try to hit the golden hour here a little bit later in the day. But I'm reading this Settling the West thing. I'm on this big West. We might do an American West 3 part podcast where right now we're Cumberland Gap, establishing Kentucky. Kentucky was like, hey, can we just be the 14th state right now? And they were like, there's a process, guys. Like, fucking nice cabins. There's a little bit more that goes into it than you guys just deciding it. Although back then, dudes just decided whatever they wanted to.
- [77:20]
B
I think this is how you get Costner on the show, is that you just let him do Horizons in parts three and four. You know, it was like, you know, a five part miniseries on the Resillo Show.
- [77:32]
A
I don't know if I should do this because it'll probably get back to him. But I ran into somebody super bowl week that is involved in, let's say, some of those fancy properties in Montana. And I was talking to him about it, which is outside of my market. And because you know how Cheek is, like, do you know why it took off? And I was like, yeah, the TV show. And he goes, we couldn't pay Costner enough. So he said, if you ever talk to Costner now, who knows? I don't know if this. I don't want to hold anybody responsible for any sort of offer or anything legally, but it was so much fun to talk to this guy about it just because of the TV show and blowing up the demand for these properties that it was like, if you paid whatever the cut would be for normal sales on real estate deals like, Costner would set a record. So I think Taylor Sheridan would have something to say with it to say about that as well. San Versini, the great San Versini, the athletic. Read all of his stuff. I could do this all day. We'll do it again. Probably do it a couple more times before the draft, man. So thanks for all the work you do and thanks for the time today.
- [78:43]
B
Thanks, Ryan.
- [78:46]
A
This episode is brought to you by Raising Canes. I'm a huge Cane's guy. You already know that. The crispy chicken fingers, the crinkle cut fries, grilled Texas toast, and of course, the cane sauce. I also go way back with Cane's founder, Todd Graves. I've hung out with him in Baton Rouge, gone to LSU games with him, and he's always a great time. That's in. I'm not name dropping. It's in the script. I've been on his private van as well. Football is over and it's pure basketball season. So whatever you're watching, make sure you're watching with a box combo from Raising Canes. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [79:33]
C
So now you know what's possible.
- [79:35]
A
Let me tell you what's possible. Required live advice. Live advice. RR gmail.com. just Kyle today. So Rudy Little. Four day break for our guy. Tough one.
- [79:46]
C
I'm hoping. I'm hoping this goes better than last time.
- [79:49]
A
Why? What happened last time? I don't know.
- [79:50]
C
You just said something. You were just like low energy. You said something. Yeah, you said something in so many words.
- [79:57]
A
Yeah, but I probably was just, I don't know, soft jabs. I don't even know if that. That was a soft jab. I think it was more like I
- [80:03]
C
was in my own head. Don't worry about it.
- [80:05]
A
An audience jab. Right? So, like, I just made the statement, so this will get off to a good start. We've already talked about it with Vicini. Kyle and I just sat down at the same time. We were texting last night about our Johnny's in Hartford.
- [80:21]
C
That was gross, man.
- [80:22]
A
That was tough. So. But we haven't heard from you yet. Do you have an official statement?
- [80:28]
C
I mean, halftime, it just. It was, it was. There was no hope at halftime. I immediately was like, shouldn't have beat Creighton that bad last week. This is. This is karma. I don't know. I was. This is the game I was most nervous about. And then having. Having them just lose to UConn as well, I was like. Or having them lose to Creighton as well, I was just like, this is. It's got. It's all the recipe for a bad, bad news for me. And I'm just glad that DraftKings doesn't let you bet on college basketball teams in New York if you are in New York, because I certainly would have made a stupid play which would have made last night worse.
- [81:01]
A
But you thought they were going to win that game, huh? I just.
- [81:04]
C
I just bet with my heart, dude. I don't bet with my head. I mean, you know, obviously for the alliance, I use my head, but for stuff like this.
- [81:11]
A
Yeah, that was. I didn't have a lot. My whole day was like, I can't wait for this game. I cannot wait for this game. College basketball has been incredible this year. So again, we've already touched on this with Vicini, but you and I needed a moment alone on this one. So there you go. That's the official statement, which is a perfect transition into this, which normally we try not to do much travel advice on life advice, because we do get A lot of emails asking for like hotel recommendations, that kind of stuff. It's just like.
- [81:37]
C
Just muddying up the inbox.
- [81:39]
A
Yeah, yeah. But you know, people. People love a heads up. It actually makes sense. It's efficient. I understand why people want to do it, just. But this one really hits close to home. We have a guy emailing in. The headline is Providence or Hartford trip. Hey, fellas. 38 year old male from Pittsburgh. Basketball comp would be someone like Nick Collison. Somewhat undersized, but can spit shine the boards because of my superior box out ability. And Collison was huge. But maybe I. Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. Yeah. I think what he's saying is like Collison in the NBA world and then this guy, you know, So I think I get what he's saying. But we didn't want to short our guy. Nick Collison. No impressive gym stats, but I did just win my dynasty fantasy football league, so that has to count for something, right? I mean, dynasty leagues are so much more fun, I think, but it's hard to keep everybody aligned. Right. My partner and I are looking to do some traveling in late March. We were wondering whether Hartford or Providence would be a better fit. Providence would be a better fit since they both have quick and easy direct flights. For us, we're just going to the Airbnb route. Would prefer whatever location is most walkable. Don't really have many unique requests, more just looking for something that's our vibe. We like breweries, distilleries, museums, coffee shops. The only real restriction we have to worry about is that my partner needs gluten free options. I'll tell you, I don't have a list of all the gluten free options in both cities. I just cannot fathom getting on a plane from another city and landing in Windsor Locks and then pulling into Hartford and being like, we did it. I'm allowed to say that. Former taxpayer in the city. And I just. There's just not much there. I mean, maybe it's changed a little bit in the years that I've left. I don't think that it has because I did have to go back not that long ago for something, so. Had to go back. Yeah.
- [83:28]
C
I think it's all pointing to Providence here. Yeah.
- [83:31]
A
I mean, Providence, the restaurants alone. I'm not telling you, there's stuff about Providence that I'll always like. A lot of family connections to Providence. And even though I spent time actually living in Hartford, not just West Hartford, like Hartford, Hartford for real. Hartford?
- [83:51]
C
Yeah.
- [83:51]
A
It's a walkable city. It take you five minutes. I don't know how much time you want to spend in the park. You go to the Mark Twain House. I guess there are a couple nice restaurants. There's much nicer restaurants. There's. The West Hartford downtown thing is actually really nice. But I still couldn't fathom being like, hey, so I would do Providence and then maybe try to get out towards the Rhode island coastline, maybe for the day trip, even if it's going to be a little bit later. But I, I just, I almost want you to pick Hartford and then get back to us late March, and there'd
- [84:25]
C
be some minor league baseball starting then.
- [84:30]
A
Yeah. So I, I just, I don't know that anyone's asked for advice on, like, should I. I mean, you're basically. This is you saying you want a vacation in Hartford, and I'm telling you, don't do that. There is plenty of parking. Yeah.
- [84:47]
C
The weather might not be so great either. I think I'd rather be on like one of those, like. I mean, Providence is sort of like a sea town, right? Isn't that like near the coast?
- [84:55]
A
Providence is kind of sick, I think. But I don't know that it's necessarily for everybody. It's not some major city that you're also, like, walking around. But Providence has it all. Like, I don't know that there's ever been anyone that I've ever met that's like, I like Hartford better than Providence. Yeah.
- [85:10]
C
I've never been to either place. But just doing the show with you and Sarif for this long, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring for Providence as well.
- [85:18]
A
Can you stay in Pittsburgh? I think I heard Utica. I just don't know this time of year if you know. And again, I haven't spent a lot of time there recently, but I know the restaurants or there's a lot of history kind of driving around, all that kind of stuff. I don't know. I mean, you could do the drive through the old insurance estates, but this sounds awful. West Hartford's great. You know, I could have alternative path for me. 2.5 kids, place out in Avon. Hanging out West Hartford Center. Like, if I were a simple person, stayed at ESPN for 30 years. Yeah, I could have done that. Maybe it would have been the worst. Yeah. Inviting guys over, playing golf five months a year, probably a little bit more.
- [86:11]
C
I never spent enough time card table stashed under the stairs for when it gets nuts.
- [86:17]
A
Hey, some of those guys that Were, like. They were a little bit younger, but they were doing better, you know, maybe 30s. And they were on TV, and they're. They're buying, like, fancy houses and Avon and. And, you know, whatever. Like, they. I go visit the neighborhood sometimes, be like, hey, you guys have it pretty figured out here. Yes. This is cool. You know, not everybody has to be complicated. All right, this is a different one. We got a woman checking in here, female listener, running in to get some clarity on an issue. No gym stats. Just had a baby nine months ago and have two under two, so just trying to keep everyone alive. You don't need the gym, ma'. Am. Congrats on everything. Here's my issue. My husband insists that sitting to pee makes him less of a man.
- [86:56]
C
Yep.
- [86:59]
A
Do we need to keep going?
- [87:00]
C
It sucks, though, because she's right, you know, there's just a splash.
- [87:04]
A
There's a splash zone, man.
- [87:05]
C
It's crazy. No matter what I do, I try to hit the corners or try to just go right in the. There's nothing. There's nothing to stop. There's nothing to stop it.
- [87:17]
A
Therefore, both of our bathrooms constantly smell like pee. I don't know if you've ever seen the black light images of a bathroom after men use them. I haven't. I don't have a black light where I'm like, let me see what's going on over here in the tower. But especially when they stand up, it goes everywhere. Is this a universal agreement, or do most men sit to pee? I can tell you right now, most men do not. Torn calf. Did I give it a test drive? I mean, I didn't want to admit it, but I did. And I can see the benefits, you know, starting your day, tight back, getting a little older. Like, let me just take 60 seconds here. But I don't. You know, look, I. I just don't think that's something that you want. I don't think you want to go down that road. And for you to ask him to do this, I just don't think you can ask him to do this. Like, this is. This is one of those things. You have to trust us on this one. You can't ask your husband to do this because of aiming.
- [88:17]
C
It's not even aiming, dude. It's not even aiming. It just comes out, you know? Like, I. I'm barefoot a lot, and I'm standing. I'm. I'm hitting it. I'm 100% hit rate. And it's like, yeah, my ankles are wet. That's weird. We know. What that is just move on. But you know, this is funny because this happened to me when I was like, well, you know, we're in a blended family over at my, my father's house where I'd spend half the time. And he was just like, next race one day, no blended family. You know, like, you're being funny. I guess you haven't met my parents. Why would you know? Yeah, but I remember I came back for like my second half of the week there or whatever and my dad was like, he knew, he, he knew that he was gonna have to tell me this and he couldn't even really get through it without like, like sighing. He was like, new rule. We have to sit when we pee.
- [89:02]
A
Wow. Like what?
- [89:03]
C
You guys made this choice when I wasn't over here. It's like, dad, there's no way. And like we, it was a couple days back and forth and he was finally like, all right, but you have to remember to wipe when you're done. Wipe the bowl when you're done. I just remember him telling me I was like 10 or 12 or something and he was just like, I feel bad for him now that I'm an adult. Knowing that his wife and him had a talk and they were like, family meeting. You're going to tell this kid he's got his head to pee and he's coming back from his mom's house. And it was just, I remember even feeling bad for him a little bit in the moment, but I just was like, this is, is insane.
- [89:35]
A
I refused.
- [89:35]
C
But I did say that I would, I would wipe the bowl when I was done. Didn't always do that, but I tried to remember.
- [89:41]
A
Yeah, wait until you start getting older. It's like three in the morning. You know, I, I bet you dude starts sitting down, you know, it starts really happening. We have a two year old who will be potty training soon. Am I doomed to have two peers sprinkling in my bathrooms? Yeah, you are. Here's the thing is the two year old's giving your husband cover now too, because you already know you're going to be dealing with a way worse mess from a 2 year old. So like you could talk total volume of units here and say like he's just adding to it by the act itself. But it's not like it's ever going to be pristine in there with a two year old exploring standing up. So you know, it's, this is also
- [90:27]
C
hard to say to somebody who's a parent of two under two. Right. And I think there's probably different standards about this. Some people say you got to wash your bath towel every week and you got to wash your sheets on your bed every week. And I just can't imagine where people find the time to do that stuff. It's usually too late. And I'm playing catch up. But I think that's also could be said for like, how often are you getting the foaming bubbles and cleaning the bathroom? You might have to clean the bathroom a little more or you get some help, some outside help. It might be that, you know, cleaning the bathroom's a big job, it's gotta be done. But, you know, you can see how people put it off you. You see how some of those kitchens are when you go to bar rescue and you're like, yeah, I know that it would. It's easy to snap your fingers and say, clean all the grease out of the traps and everything, but it's a fucking lot of work. So maybe, maybe you just have to up the. The cleaning regimen too.
- [91:19]
A
There was. Somebody had a tweet the other day about bar rescue. And it was like, imagine bar rescue showing up to some place and the guy's like a late stage alcoholic who's been drinking for 50 plus years. And Jon Taffer's like, okay, we need to start doing wontons with this special dill aioli. It's basically half the guys that he
- [91:33]
C
walks into, by the way.
- [91:35]
A
Guys like, what if. What are we. We were just trying to steam some hot dogs here, buddy.
- [91:40]
C
50% of those guys are ready to fight him on the walk in.
- [91:44]
A
And then they come back and say,
- [91:45]
C
sorry, but 50% of the. I was watching one the other day and it's like, the guy was like, let's go out in the alley.
- [91:50]
A
Then it's like, do you know what
- [91:51]
C
the show is about? He's about to put 150 grand into this bar, trying to fight him at 9 o' clock on a Tuesday.
- [92:00]
A
What expresses the history of Hartford that the community could rally around at this bar? Lamb chops. This is the Mark Twain lamb chop. That speaks to the history of the greater harbor area. Like, I can't believe. I can't believe you guys are slammed. We let in 100 people at the same exact time. I know, I've already said that joke over and over again. It's not even a joke. It's just a pissy observation that I always have, like, oh, they're little in the weeds. No shit. P.S. love life advice. The only section I listen to, my husband even bought me an RSLO sweatshirt for Christmas. Oh, wow, that must be brutal. To your friends. Yeah. Shout out to Kyle and his hilarious stories that got me hooked. Congratulations on the move. Thank you. She said her name's Kelsey and she wants her name to be heard so that her husband listens to this and hears it. So there you go.
- [92:49]
C
Tighten up, dude.
- [92:50]
A
Don't make them. Don't do that to them. All right. Are we on the same page? Yeah. Yeah, dude.
- [92:56]
C
If you're listening, just give it a wipe when you remember. You're going to forget a lot, but
- [92:58]
A
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Tastytrade Inc. Is a registered broker, dealer and member of finra, NFA and sipc. We got two more here because we have time with the way the taping schedule works today. All right, Longtime listener since the NBA pod days home gym guy now. So I don't max out or have any stats. Pickup game is a poor man's Bobby Sura. I coach basketball at a small Christian school. The varsity boys team I coach is one of the worst in the state. We lost every conference game this season with the closest loss being by 37 points. So again to emphasize that was the closest score. How do you keep going out there, man? Well, because of this coach, you know, trying to set a culture, trying to change the culture. Earlier this week we lost the play in game for our conference tournament which will be held next week, placing us in the tier two loser bracket. We are now in a lose and your season is done situation. The team we play next week beat us by 40 something earlier this year, but it actually isn't as much of a matchup nightmare. As most teams, they don't have an overwhelmingly. They don't have any overwhelmingly big guys we don't have an answer for. They're just better one through five than we are. Here's my conundrum. My son is an eighth grader, has been playing with varsity all season. Not because he's so good, but really just out of necessity. He's really grown as a player this season. I, I believe he is the best man to man guard defender on our team. He's not much of an offensive threat as his ball handling and passing skills are good enough for this level yet. But his shot has gotten a lot more consistent from three. He did start one varsity game this season due to injury and sickness. The offense of our opponent centers around entirely around their point guard in a stretch five. I believe our best chance this game is to have someone locked in on their point guard all game and just hound him every possession. My son is the best one equipped to do this, but he's in eighth grade and would be replacing either a sophomore or a junior who Both average about 3 1/2 points per game in the starting lineup. All right, so you're not, you're not replacing Chris Mullen out there, is what you're telling us. I'm mostly just worried about the optics of it. I am friends of both the other players and they do help out doing stats for a team. Does it make it look like nepotism if I start my own kid? I'll finish because that's obviously the main problem here. I could just start our regular starters and sub my son in after. After two minutes or something. My worry with that is our opponent is a very emotional team. I love the advanced scouting and they thrive off of fast starts, but get frustrated and play stupid when they don't. We also have a tendency to be down 12 oh after the first two minutes of our games. So should I start my son or just bring him off the bench? Thanks. Well, you know, I don't know what the evaluation is of a father son. Okay, I can imagine. Like, I actually wish my dad told me I was worse. Worse. Like he, he got it in my head that I was like, good. And then I showed up to Manchester playing a pickup game at like 14 years old. I'm like, what the sport are they? What is that so. But generally, you know, dads tend to believe their kids are incredible. I think most youth coaches would agree that the parents tend to overevaluate. You seem to be very pragmatic, very straightforward in the Way you've described the email and the situation, all these different things. So no matter what, if you start him, the nepotism thing is going to happen. Even if he actually is, like, in a vacuum and neutral parties involved would be like, he actually is the best defender. There's also something to be said of, like, if you went to the team and told them and go, hey, I'm going to do something a little different here. I'm just going to sic my son after their point guard and you kind of see how it goes and if it works, great, and if it isn't, you yank him out of there. But, like, you sell it, you message it as I want to.
- [97:22]
C
They're not a little crazy here.
- [97:24]
A
Yeah, they're not expecting this thing. And like, look, when you're not that good and you're subbed in in a big spot, the effort level that you play with usually. Now, granted, if your kid's an eighth grader and he's maybe a little overwhelmed physically, I don't know his mentality. But I know in a couple games where I probably should have been out there and I knew I shouldn't have been out there, I was going to play so hard because I probably knew I was getting yanked anyway. Yeah, yeah, right. Can't. You can't quantify what I'm doing. Doesn't show up in the box score here. So I don't know if your kids like that, but that'd be awesome if he was, because then your decision is kind of justified by seeing him play with just ridiculous effort. Maybe there's a little father son moment where it's like, hey, I'm putting you out there. You're starting the game and you have to get after him like you've never gotten after anybody before. And then your decision will look like the smart decision because he's playing with all this effort. Especially if you're worried about, you know, bringing them in a little bit later if they get off to this, like 10, 0 start with the whole thing. So I think you seem so reasonable in the email that I would say just go for it. You guys are terrible. You know, it's. How mad is anybody really going to get? This isn't like it's a state title
- [98:33]
C
game and you're not a senior either. That's the thing. It's not this dude's last game.
- [98:38]
A
The other guys are going to play. Like, that's the other part of coaching. And granted, like, everybody gets disappointed with all this stuff, but if you, if you do, like A collective like, hey, guys, I just want everybody to know what I'm doing here. I want to mess with the opponent. I'm going to play my kid. I think he's a terrific defender. See what his energy is. And, like, you guys are going to get your minutes. And by the way, you just be like, dude, you average three points a game, man. Like, you'll hit your average tonight. Don't worry about it.
- [99:01]
C
Yeah, I think you're right. Did your dad ever coach anything T ball for me? And then he kind of gave up. And then with my brother all in, he was like, everywhere doing everything with my brother. But Also we're like 10 years apart, so I think he just. He was like. Everyone else was older, by the way.
- [99:17]
A
No resentment there.
- [99:19]
C
I don't think so.
- [99:20]
A
I don't think so.
- [99:21]
C
I do love to bring it up every once in a while, but whatever.
- [99:26]
A
You could just think of yourself as, like, without me. Then maybe that would have happened for your brother. Paid it forward without even doing it.
- [99:33]
C
Well, there was three of us all pretty much grouped together in age. And then my brother comes along 10 years later, and I just think. I think they had more time to go around.
- [99:42]
A
Boston parking spot savers.
- [99:43]
C
Ooh, dude, I know. I got to know what you think because this has, like, been a legend in my world where it's just like, there's a chair out there. Don't fucking touch it.
- [99:51]
A
Like, every year, man. Every year. My place wasn't. I wasn't as in a neighborhood place like Southeast, where it was just legendary. And then they would, like, send news crews, every single snowstorm to cover the Boston saving of spot thing. We'll read the email, but I don't even know that I have the right answer for this. Hey, guys, I'll get right to it. Just got back from work. The only spot left in my street had a chair and indicating they were trying to save it. Since they were the ones that shoveled it out, I moved the chair and parked there. Anyways, some additional details are that I also spent over an hour shoveling out my spot in the same street earlier in the week. Also, where I live is not uncommon to see people trying to save their spot, but it's definitely not the norm. Oh, it's not the norm. I feel like it's not as ridiculous as it used to be because I think they're afraid people are going to start shooting people over it. But I don't know. I haven't lived there in a long time, but I lived there. It was like, front page of the Herald sometimes was not the norm and was happening more after the second storm. You guys got absolutely smashed with snow. So I get that it's annoying to shovel out your spot and then have trouble finding parking when you get back, but I think it's such an entitled move to save your spot when everyone else on the street also had to shovel and didn't put a chair in their spot when they left. So am I the wrong for. In the wrong for taking the spot? Also, is this a thing in other cities? I'm 25, and I've only lived in Boston, so I don't have a good frame of reference for how wide spread this practice is. I imagine it has to happen somewhere else. I've just never heard about it the way I've heard about these Boston battles. So. Yeah, why don't you just jump in first, Kyle?
- [101:27]
C
I was gonna say it's like one. It's like a special thing of this city. It's like you go to Rochester or whatever, and they're like, yeah, we have this thing called a garbage plate. It's just a bunch of stuff that we love. But you walk, you're out of town, or you're like, that looks awful. It's just like, that's what they do up there. You go to. You go to Philly, you get a cheesesteak. And when you're in Boston, you don't. With the chairs on the street. Like, it's just a thing that I heard of that I'm like, you know, not really too interested in figuring out whether it's true or not. I just consider it like, dogma.
- [101:54]
A
I mean, look, it's one of those, like, bike seat things when you're in college. Like, one guy steals a bike seat, and then it sends off this butterfly effect.
- [102:03]
C
Steal my north face. All right, look out, everyone.
- [102:06]
A
Hold on. The bike seat thing is, I. I locked up my bike, I left the bike seat in it. I come back, my bike seat is gone. There's 10 other bikes that have bike seats. And, like, I can make it to class or I cannot.
- [102:19]
B
Right?
- [102:19]
A
Like, I understand how the next guy steals a bike seat because he already feels like he's down a bike seat, even though it sort of sucks because you're just keeping it going. So it's not the same thing because you're not necessarily stealing because it would suck. 20 plus inches, 30 inches in some spots. You shovel out your car, and then you come back. The problem with Boston was there started to become this, like, absurd stretch of the rule. Like, I remember there was a snowstorm by me parking on Comm Ave. And so people were saving spots, which was a little weird for that to be happening. And then it's like, man, you can barely even see the snow. There's moisture on a rock and a guy has a plastic chair out in front, and you're just like, dude, what are you doing? Like, it's over. It's. All the spots are. You don't get to keep it for a fucking month. And that's the problem, is that there's no, like, defining line of.
- [103:11]
C
Doesn't decide whether you can do this or not.
- [103:13]
A
Yeah. And that's the problem, is that some people just started being, like, cool, you know, because they're thinking, like, if nobody actually takes my spot and I leave this, this is always the plastic chair that you would buy it. I don't know if Ames is still around, but you get the idea. Yeah. Target now just plastic chair right in there pulling the spot. But that's kind of the game when you live in those areas. It's like all of a sudden now it's like, oh, I got an assigned spot when you never have one the majority of the year. So the guy did follow up. He said he parked. He goes, they covered my car in snow. So he hit us up a day later.
- [103:46]
C
I'll take snow instead of, like, keys or smashed windows. Because that's what. That's where my mind goes.
- [103:51]
A
Yeah. In some of those neighborhoods where it's impossible to find a parking spot. You want to cover my car with snow the next day? Fuck it. I don't care. Take me five minutes to wipe it off. I'll take that.
- [104:01]
C
Yeah. No ticket. No. No dents. No new dents and no tickets. I'm good.
- [104:05]
A
I'd like to say I wouldn't take somebody else's spot. I wouldn't take somebody else's spot if I hadn't shoveled myself out right now. It raises, like, all right, the pay it backward approach necessarily, of like, somebody took my spot, so now I'm going to take somebody else's spot. But I also know what it's like when you can't find a spot and you're in Boston. Yeah.
- [104:27]
C
How many times would you have to circle that chair before you're like, like, sorry.
- [104:31]
A
Yeah. There'd be a couple circles, maybe one, and you'd go, well, I'm slowly gonna crush your chair. Yeah. And pull up. All right, that'll do it for the podcast.
- [104:44]
C
Wait, can I give a shout out Real quick.
- [104:46]
A
Yeah, please do.
- [104:47]
C
Do you remember that guy at the Denver show who basically hijacked the Q and A to talk about his fucking drinks, Oslo. Do you remember this?
- [104:56]
A
Yeah, I do.
- [104:57]
C
I just thought because you read a five minute ad read for some guy who gave an email about their YouTube travel show. Guy and gal actually is a family.
- [105:05]
A
Hope they're doing well.
- [105:06]
C
Yeah, me too. I hope you got some subs off of this, but these are not alcoholic and they showed up yesterday and I'm drinking some lavender lemongrass. Non alcoholic drinks, so just wanted to show Oslo. Pretty good.
- [105:22]
A
Oh, wow. Live action shot right now. Kyle having a sip.
- [105:26]
C
Yeah, just wanted to shout out that guy.
- [105:27]
A
That was nice.
- [105:27]
C
He sent me a million. And also I was saying it took
- [105:31]
A
over two years to get these though.
- [105:34]
C
Well, he just said, I heard you weren't drinking and you were looking for something.
- [105:37]
A
Oh, so it was new.
- [105:38]
C
It was more just because he's still a listener. It was just like, hey, you know, I know it's gonna be a long month. It's something to take the edge off.
- [105:44]
A
Right. But you understand, like, what I was saying was the Denver show was what, end of 24?
- [105:50]
C
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
- [105:52]
A
And he talked about the drinks then to you?
- [105:55]
C
Yeah, no, he. He hit me up recently talking about, hey, listen. Yeah, I just. I just remember him because it was such a crazy turn at the Q A where he like brought that thing out. Thought that was pretty ballsy.
- [106:09]
A
Yeah, he really went for it. I do remember it. It was. It's hard to forget. But I'm glad. I'm glad you got some beverages in your hand. I'm glad you gave him a shout out. Thanks for continuing to listen to the show. So there you go. All right, that'll do it for us. Thanks to Tom, thanks to Kevin, thanks to Kyle. The Ryan Rosillo Show, Arsenal Sports, Sam.