Hawks go for that guy

Wizards, Wolves, Edey, Bulls, Blazers, Lakers, Sixers, Stephen A. Smith

I guess that guy was Atlanta’s guy all along, Zaccharie Risacher, the man whose name autofills when you type “Z” into a search bar. This week, at least.

The Hawks clearly couldn’t find a deal to their liking, no other team could find a Hawks deal to its liking, typifying the 2024 NBA draft’s particular bottleneck.

Better to go for a Full-On Guy. Every other prospect in the opening pangs of the this draft effused immediate mitigating elements, Risacher comes complete, even if his complete bag may take a few years to fill. I won’t be overwhelmed until Risacher becomes the best player in this draft and a whole heck of a lot of people think he will be, so I am awfully happy to welcome the NBA’s latest smooth dude who makes me smile.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS DEAL BIG

And it was the only deal with a veteran. And it happened before the draft. We wanted more roster shakeups, Adam Silver saying Chris Paul’s name at the lectern as he announced the No. 29 pick.

Moments lost, but Portland picking up Deni Avdija for the price of the No. 14 pick in the 2024 NBA draft and the 33-in-December Malcolm Brogdon’s upcoming contract season, strong deal. Depending on how dour the re-drafts sort themselves out in five years, swapping Deni for Portland’s No. 7 pick mighta worked, too.

But the Blazers get the 23-year old Avdija for the least of Portland’s two lottery picks, and Avdija’s already on his second contract. A weird one, four years and $55 million, starting in 2024-25 when he makes over $15 million, yet the numbers decline from there to the point where Avdija will make only $11.8 million in 2027-28.

That’s a slim commitment for Washington to move off for Brogdon (on his fifth team in seven years in 2024-25, perhaps sixth by February) and the charms of Bub Carrington, selected by the Wizards with that No. 14 pick. Perhaps the Wizards didn’t want to pay Avdija after paying him through 2021’s broken leg? Perhaps the Wizards liked Bub as much as they love looking busy pushing papers around.

Portland earns a player it should like and moves off a roster spot in this landmine rebuild. I wouldn’t fancy supplying two rookie extensions from 2024 NBA draftees at the same time in 2028, either. But Clingan is great. And if anyone was impressed with Portland’s pair of pivotmen before Wednesday, kindly turn the scouting reports back into the boss.

Washington earns Brogdon, a chip losing its value by the spin, and Carrington. Depends on how one views Bub, I reckon. Hard to earn a bad grade after drafting a 7-footer with the No. 2 overall pick. Wait.

Alexandre Sarr is a spiral defensively and an odd story, spurning the good-time Atlanta Hawks for the never-fun Washington Wizards. I hope he leads a dutiful revival in the nation’s capitol, there exists a fan base waiting to let loose its screams over a good NBA team again.

MINNESOTA’S TIMBERWOLVES

The Wolves did what we wanted every relevant team to do in the 2024 NBA draft. Trade into the lottery and make the damned thing interesting.

Minnesota made sure of that. The children of the 2031 NBA draft were called inside at dusk around the same time Minnesota traded its 2031 first-rounder for 19-year old Kentucky point guard Rob Dillingham. And Rob thought he was young.

Dillingham gets to learn point guard from Mike Conley, which must be what it is like to learn peace and love from Ringo Starr. Minnesota needs backcourt buckets, penetration from up top, Dillingham owns the tools and savvy to provide this before he turns 20.

More fun for us, quoting “the Dillingham trade” in whatever context Minnesota’s draft exploits provide from 2029-through-2031.

An unprotected 2031 pick and a 2030 pick swap with San Antonio may look ridiculous in exchange for the No. 8 pick in an underwhelming draft, but Minnesota doesn’t value Dillingham as the draft’s eighth-best prospect.

Factor in opportunity and need — Monte Morris isn’t what he used to be, Jordan McLaughlin is best kept as the NBA’s top third-string point guard — and the deal scans if Dillingham plays to potential and Anthony Edwards has suitable support during the 2030-31 season, which may or may not be played in space. Suitable space support, if necessary, given gravitational conditions.

It is a stare down. San Antonio needs a point guard far worse than Minnesota, each side probably discuses “2030” and “2031” in genuine terms, as if they can control the ship for this long. You’d feel that way too, with Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards under sail.

Space sail.

ZACH EDEY GOES TOP TEN

Giving Memphis the rights to Edey in my fake draft was only partially a comment on what the center brings to that playbook, that lineup, those screens, that space where Steven Adams stood. It was mostly a statement: Zach Edey is at least a top-nine player in this draft.

Trust your eyes with the guy. It’ll be a struggle his entire career, it always is for centers, and he’ll make others struggle. His skills are multifold, the league will be surprised how often he ducks in for lefty hooks. Not stiff and labored jump hooks, but slippery shots off the end of an unfurled arm. The guy has a sense of humor about his game, able to view it from the same outside perspective as those cheering him on. And the weirdos rooting against him.

We all watched the same first-round, at this point in the proceedings nearly each of these first-round picks looks like a winner, a right-there contributor, ready to play when it is time, NBA-bound, rotation-chomper.

That won’t be the case, though. At least a handful of these 30 will utterly wash away, which is weird, because each of the 30 look like beaming sweethearts at the moment.

If Edey is, at worst, guaranteed-Boban (analysis I don’t agree with, Zach is more mobile) shouldn’t that be worth a top-ten pick in a first-round with (maybe) 15-to-20 players with extended careers?

DA BULLS DA BULLS DA BULLS

If the Bulls’ starting lineup announcer introduces Matas Buzelis as “from Chicago” the Bulls will hear an endless array of “the suburbs aren’t Chicago!”-complaints. Noise to make those “Chicagoans don’t eat Chicago-style pizza” protests echo tamely.

Chicagoans eat Chicago-style pizza all the time because they’re not from Chicago, but moved there because their families are rich and always ate garbage pizza because they grew up somewhere outside the great state of Illinois. It is people from Chicago’s suburbs who do not eat Chicago-styled pizza.

Anyway, I love Matas. He isn’t as tall or sturdy or as athletic as Lauri Markkanen but there is no qualifier and this is the end of the sentence.

LEBRON GETS HIS WIN-NOW ROOKIE

Absolutely nothing wrong with a list of late lottery teams drafting for need in a poor draft, a 23-year old senior has no complaints falling to No. 17, even if some had him tabbed sixth or seventh in the order. Nobody wants to hear anyone whine while they’re packing to move to Los Angeles.

Dalton Knecht will be fine, he doesn’t hurry like most other shooter/scorers with size and his size, strength and, let’s be accurate, age should allow Dalton to adapt to the longer NBA line sooner than his fellow first-rounders. He was a ton of fun as a Volunteer and this early positioning is sound, despite the Laker drama which preceded him.

And after him. When the Lakers draft Bronny James at No. 55, the NBA plus the three teams picking behind Los Angeles (the Nuggets, Suns and Grizzlies) should all sue the Lakers for tampering.

SIXERS GET THEIR SHOOTER

With two aprons dangling from the summer line, it is more imperative than ever to nail that mid-to-late first-round draft pick. Either presciently procuring a prospect two years away from being two years away, or someone sooner like Jared McCain, the Sixers’ pick.

If he can become a capable, don’t-have-to-worry-about-’im rotation member his second season, marvelous. The Sixers need it, all the star-laden teams do, securing production from rookie-scale prices is the latest edge, man, this is why they’re televising the second round.

The opposite of this is New York, employers of Tom Thibodeau, who chased the No. 24 and No. 25 picks into Pacôme Dadiet, a 3-and-D stash project who turns 19 next month, and six future second-round picks.

The Knicks need helpers to finish the rotation, the club is nearly out of cash after re-signing OG Anunoby and nearly out of draft picks after dealing for Mikal Bridges. Part of me wants to wait until October, watch how Leon Rose fills out his roster. Some part wants to pen Thibs’ seven-man rotation into the Finals. Another wants me to stamp them out in the second round. Another wants to chase a kitten, but playfully.

REVEAL THOSE HANDS

Along Philly’s lines, I love it when we can pin a single player on a single front office, maybe a single exec.

Teams choose from what is available at their spot in the draft, the pick is a collective decision, all hands in.

In trades? Trades up for a specific player? That’s a preference, not a choice. Denver prefers DaRon Holmes II, knew it couldn’t get him at No. 28, wanted him more than Ryan Dunn (the No. 28 selection) and the four players the club’s gathered intelligence expected to be chosen between. We’d never compare the careers of these particular players, that would be unfair, but we can surely compare the preferences of Denver Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, and whatever title Josh Kroenke’s dad gave him.

The same rolls for Oklahoma City. Sam Presti moved into the late first-round and established a value of currency, five second-round picks = one No. 26 pick in a bad draft. In this instance, Dillon Jones. Sam’s choice, flooding the market with cheap product again.

Presti stashed Nikola Topic with the No. 12 pick, a former and in some realms current top-ranked prospect whom the Thunder do not expect to play in 2024-25 as he recovers from a “partially torn ACL.” Topic only fell in the draft because of that injury, Presti either views him as a primo trade candidate on a tiny deal or the Thunder’s latest Sixth Man of the Year whom Presti’s fracking bosses refuse to pay in four years.

REMINDER

Philadelphia and Phoenix do not have second-round picks this year because they tampered with NBA veterans, so, worth it.

This is a second-round pick. I’d tamper with 30-year old Kyle Anderson for a second-round pick. I wouldn’t tamper for KCP or Josh Richardson but I’d tamper for Tobias Harris. I wouldn’t tamper for Keita Bates-Diop but, wait, did the Suns tamper for Keita Bates-Diop?

THE GREEN ROOM

Some players attended Wednesday’s first-round and were not taken in the first-round of the draft. Dressing in their draft suit, no dancing.

Not sure what to do about it, though the NBA will likely respond by limiting the amount of prospects at the draft, which stinks, the best part about this thing is the influx of youth and the cheering families following them.

This group of rookies needs to set the party paradigm. Kyle Filipowski needs to show up in flip-flops. Johnny Furphy needs a beer and his Australian ID, where he can drink legally at age 19, mumble something about “second-round rules” before leaving the bartender a large, cash tip. We need twice as many players in the audience, ready to walk down to meet Adam Silver, they need to bring the buns, condiments, paper plates.

The NBA needs to bring the meat, and grill, beer, liquor and ice and mixers and cups, get extra ice, you can afford it. I don’t know what the Day Two presentation will look like, but if it is anything like the first half of Day One, I’ll be mowing my lawn late Thursday afternoon.

ESPN

The network’s initial draft coverage was an embarrassment. I do not understand what it was trying to promote, create, or spark with the Bob Myers and Stephen A. Smith pairing. All I got was Dude Energy, it wasn’t good. Weird and personal put-downs, non-jokes, constant fake laughter from host Kevin Negandhi, a good guy trying his best but making it worse.

ESPN is still hopelessly, haplessly after its Big Show, its Inside the NBA. Negandhi and Smith and Myers are the latest in a long line of Gen X’ers who grew up watching Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann and Rich Eisen and Stu Scott trade pre-written patter, and giving it an unrehearsed try.

Later, via Inside the NBA, barbs became norm, tips tinged with toxic history between the archers: Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley played consecutive seven-game series against each other five years before pairing on TNT, Barkley losing each.

Bob Myers and Stephen A. Smith do not have a history, and it was lousy and disingenuous for the network to pair the two as if their interactions were natural, or a long time coming. But because these are the people ESPN employs this particular NBA season (the network gives us a new NBA draft lineup every year), ESPN thinks we should think they are entertaining and funny together.

There was no draft coverage. No insight. No basketball talk. The closest Smith came to putting himself out there was complaining over Portland choosing Donovan Clingan when the Blazers needed offense, as if the Blazers (who traded for two centers in September before happily drafting Clingan in June) don’t need ev-er-y-thing.

Yet there was no chance in hell Smith could name a superior selection, or any other prospect on the board. Let alone the ones who could shoot well for the Blazers, nor which Blazer non-shooters the draftee would displace.

There was no coverage until the second half of the broadcast, led by Malika Andrews, who was great. Richard Jefferson better every time, Jay Bilas terrific for the 22nd draft in a row, where the hell was he the first 15 picks? Andraya Carter on point, where was she? There was none of the forced patter which marred the initial opening. Why Adrian Wojnarowski wasn’t around for the lottery boggles the mind, most viewers are only after his personal explanation of Woj Bombs plus the occasional ESPN Family Content mixed in with the panel’s best-we-can basketball analysis over 20-year olds.

Monica McNutt was perfect. The production was marvelous, the aforementioned Family Content was well-suited for the evening, if not the broadcast.

Yet the draft’s proudest moments were covered by two dudes creating insults out of nothing, cracking up over borderline-incoherent lines which did not land. Why would they? These aren’t comedians. Bob Myers is a slumming executive, Stephen A. Smith a proud provocateur. With the sheer amount of talent on its roster between hosts and analysts, this should absolutely be a low point for ESPN’s NBA coverage. But you heard about Stephen A.’s contract extension, this is the shape of ESPN to come.

In related news, we do presidential debates in June, now.

SOME PEOPLE CAN DO WHAT THEY LIKE

Shout out to Malika Andrews for referencing the French Revolution and French New Wave of Cinema in one line.

When it comes to French New Wave Cinema analysis, I’m Stephen A. Smith at the 2024 NBA draft. Can’t name an auteur, inexplicably comparing it to Allen Iverson.

Further draft and trade coverage as the long draft weekend moves along. I’ll get to your team! And probably the Bulls, again. Also, I’m not saying Barnaby’s is best, I’m just saying I would please like 24 pieces thank you.

Sorry this was delayed, we got a kitten, I’m using a laser pointer to distract my three other cats from harming it. No, it doesn’t have a name and yes, I will ask my wife about “Bub Carrington.”

It only takes about 20 minutes to mow my lawn but I like to burn the batteries all the way down driving over lines I already made, throwing off the scent to my neighbors. No headphones. Just me and those lines.