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Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Coast to coast. Yeah, Asia Wilson and Asia Reese are going at it in Chicago. Yeah, Bronny James got drafted. Yeah, it is NFL players complaining about their contracts. But yeah, more importantly, the NBA draft is done. It took place over two days up in Brooklyn, New York. Zachary Rissachay drafted number one overall, but all anybody talks about is Bronny James at 55.
But there's a lot that happened at the beginning, the end, and also in between. To talk about it all right now, we're being joined by someone very familiar with everything going on in the NBA, including the draft that just took place right now. We got Zach Cohen joining us from Visa. Zach, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time to hop on. I kind of bookended the draft. We got Zachary number one.
We got Bronny 55. What stood out to you the most over these past two days when it came to the draft? I'll be honest, I think the biggest winner of the draft was the Utah Jazz, which is obviously not the sexiest team to start with, but I think that they went into the draft with the 10th pick and the 29th pick, and they came away with players that I think are a lot better than that. I think that Cody Williams at 10 was my third favorite player in this draft.
I just think we've seen what his brother has become. Jalen Williams with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a big wing that could defend, score off the dribble, finish at the basket, just a player that we've seen in the Boston Celtics winning the championship. Those are the types of players you need, so I think that Cody Williams landed in a really good spot with the Jazz. They also drafted Isaiah Collier, who is a player that was viewed as a top five pick before this season.
Obviously, things didn't go very well for him at USC. He measured a little bit small at the combine, but at the same time, he's a really talented player, a top five guy before the season, getting him at 29. I think the same thing goes for Kyle Filipowski, who they got at 32, just a player that I thought could have been a borderline lottery pick, a big man that can shoot, dribble, defend a little bit, moves really well for a guy that's six foot 11. They just kind of made a similar move work where they traded for Lori Markin and turned him into a star. I think that Filipowski has a very similar skill set, so I think that that was a really good draft for a Utah team that kind of deserves a little bit of luck because they're one of the few teams in the league that does not tank.
Is Zach Cohen joining us from Vison? When you take a look at the draft, we know that the league has changed over the past, you know, we can go into 15 to 20 plus years when it comes down to the international players. When you look at the guys who were selected, who do you think has the best chance of having a winning impact, a big impact this upcoming season on whatever team they got drafted onto? Yeah, I mean this season, it's hard to say because, you know, Risa Shay is joining a Hawks team that is potentially going to look to rebuild. I mean, we've heard a lot of talk about Trae Young being traded, Dejounte Murray being traded, but if they do end up keeping one or both of those guys, Risa Shay should at least be, you know, a shooter and defender on the wing for them. I'm not as high on him as a number one pick that, you know, you normally would be, but at the same time, yeah, if they do opt to try to win this season, he's going to help them a little bit. I think Sarr will probably be the best of the international guys in year one, but at the same time, it's a Wizards team that looks pretty lousy heading into next season.
So I don't know if we're going to say he's going to impact winning, but he will have the opportunity to grow his game this year. Obviously as a tremendous skill set, one of the best defenders in the draft potentially has the ability to shoot the boss, you know, at seven feet tall. So that's obviously a guy that should be pretty good.
It's just, it's hard to find someone that's going to impact winning because most of the international players did land in losing spots. I will say Nikola Topic who got to the thunder at number 12. That's the player that I think is going to end up being the best player in this draft. He's going to have to sit out one year because he has a partially torn ACL, but a lot of similarities honestly to O'Shea Gilda's Alexander in that he's a six foot six guard, like a really attack downhill. His jumper is a little bit further away than you want it to be, but at the same time it's, he's going to have a year to recover from that ACL injury. He's going to be doing a lot of shooting in an NC gym, a lot of working out on that body. I think that he's going to come back and be a great, great player for Oklahoma City.
Zach Cohen joining us from Vison. Quite ironic, of course, that the Oklahoma City Thunder get their hands on yet another young player. What do they got, like a secret recipe? Like how do they keep doing this? Yeah, it's almost not fair. Like I really thought that there was no chance that Topic would get to them. And then once I saw him drop there, I'm like, yeah, Preston's not passing this up, even though they do need some help this year as they try to compete for an NBA championship.
But he's not going to pass from, from taking the best player on the board and that you really can't blame him for it. Not at all. Not at all.
You talk about impact. This was a little bit of a surprise yesterday as well. Zach Eady going at number nine to the Grizzlies. What are your thoughts on where he got drafted and what he can contribute to this team?
I mean, they're not going to ask him to go out there and just, hey, get us some buckets. They got enough guys to do that. What do you think about how he fits in with this team? Yeah, that was an interesting one because I think that they were really trying to move up and get Donovan clinging, who I think is going to be one of the best players in this draft.
And I think that once they were not able to get him, they kind of panicked a little and pressed his back Ed button. I think that Ed is a player that can probably give them 15 to 20 minutes a night, just because he is massive. He has some ability around the basket, obviously a two-time college player of the year. He's going to be ready to go right away, but it's an interesting fit because he's just, you know, it's a team of the point guard that wants to play fast and it's a team of the point guard that does not play defense. And I worry about what's going to happen when him and John Moran are on the floor together and, you know, teams are just going to push off rebounds and just trying to, you know, attack of Moran, who might not be paying attention and Ed, who might not be able to get back on the floor.
He's just doesn't have the foot speed required to just get back there. I think that offensively, he'll probably make an impact from day one, but I'm interested in seeing what the defense looks like. Well, there's another team that's likely to be competing for a playoff spot.
I mean, it'd be a massive disappointment if they were not. And that's the Philadelphia 76ers. I mean, they didn't waste too much time at all in bringing in some backcourt help with Jared McCain out of Duke. How much do you think we'll see him play in that backcourt with Tyrese Maxey or maybe even backing him up? Yeah, I think he's going to play a lot. I actually thought the Miami Heat should have taken McCain at 15.
I'm really high on McCain's game. I think that he's one of the best shooters in this draft. He could create a little bit off the dribble for himself.
Really reminds me of a manual quickly offensively and defensively. You know, he's not the tallest guy, obviously with him and Maxey, you're going to have a bit of an undersized backcourt, but he plays pretty physical defensively. When he first got to Duke, he really struggled defensively, ended up getting a lot better throughout the course of the season that ended up being one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. He played a big role in that. So I think that he's going to play a pretty big role for them right away, and I think he's going to really enjoy getting screens from Joel Embiid.
There's been a lot of shooters that have had success with Embiid as dribble handoff guys, and he can really knock them down. Is Zach Cohen joining us? Contributed a visa on the basketball side. Selected right behind him was a Laker selection. We know what they did last night.
Dalton Connect out of Tennessee. We know what they did earlier today, a couple hours ago, drafting Bronny James. What say you about what the Lakers have been able to do over the past two days?
Man, that's a great get for them in Dalton Connect. I mean, the guy that people, everyone really thought he was going to go in the 6 to 10 range. I don't think anybody saw him falling all the way to 17. So you bring in a player that's ready to play immediately, you know, a big 6 foot 7 wing that can shoot the heck out of the basketball. Obviously, JJ Reddick is going to like that quite a bit. He's going to have, you know, ways to get him open because it's going to look a lot like JJ and the way that he got open throughout his career. I think the Connect landed in a really good situation. I know it probably hurts. You know, you lose a lot of money when you drop out of the top 10 and go all the way out to 17, but you know, you landed a situation where LeBron James is going to be setting you up.
There are minutes to go around for a shooter like him. So that was a really good fit both ways. I think both of them should be really happy. And with Bronny, you know, it is what it is. I'm not as mad as other people are about rich Paul potentially forcing, you know, his way to LA, or if you people want to say, you know, that they drafted him only because of LeBron. I thought that Bronny James, I had him at 52nd best player in this draft.
I think he coming out of high school, you know, this is a kid that was 20th in his high school class, right around the range where Reed Shepherd number three pick in this draft way. And I think there's a lot of context surrounding what went wrong for Bronny James at USC, obviously, you know, the cardiac event that happened last summer. It gave him a really slow start to the season. He wasn't able to get a normal training camp under his belt. He had a slow ramp up to get himself started during the season. And then he played for a USC team that just didn't really have a pure point guard.
They didn't have a lot of floor spacing. It was a really messy game that he tried to get himself out there for. I think you almost have to flush what you saw with Bronny in his first season and just kind of bank on the, you know, six foot two with a six seven wing span, really tend to fend on the perimeter. And he's a guy that proves you can knock down shots with the draft combine. And so Zach, what is the expectation for Bronny?
How is he going to grow? Is he getting garbage time? What should we or what can we expect?
It's interesting. I mean, I don't know if you're going to spend a lot of time in the G League. I know Rich Paul said that he doesn't really want to spend time down there, but you definitely want to get him some big minutes when you can.
So I do think that they should send them down a little bit. I think you have them on the bench, just kind of picking the brain of everybody in that Lakers organization. It's going to be hard for him to crack that rotation as they try to win games immediately. It's a team which championship aspirations, but I don't know. I mean, LeBron might insist that he gets to play with him at some point, but I do think Bronny is going to take some time just because I do think that last season he really needed bigger minutes, didn't get him.
Like I said, it was a weird situation. So I think Bronny probably wants to play 25 to 30 minutes somewhere. That's probably going to have to happen in the G League. Zach Cohen joining us from Vison. Well, I think we've talked about everybody from the top of the draft to the bottom. When we look at next season and they have to hand out a rookie of the year award, I know this is a tough one. Who do you think is the favorite? Like who is Vegas saying this is the guy who's likely to win the award?
Like who the hell is it? I think that sorry is the betting favorite, but if I had to pick somebody, I'd go with Stefan Castle with the San Antonio Spurs. I just think that they desperately needed a point guard in this draft. They drafted Castle to be the on-ball creator.
I think the Castle is a really good defender. He will get a lot of praise for the way he defends immediately, but offensively there's going to be a lot of opportunity for him to just kind of get downhill, create for himself, create for Wemenyama. I think that there's a lot of opportunity for him. I think he's a great player. So I thought he's one that's stepping immediately into a big role. There's going to be a lot of eyeballs on him because of Victor Wemenyama.
I feel pretty good about Castle as a bet in that market. Oh, you think about another you think about another Spurs draft pick that they did not keep. Rob Dillingham goes over to the Minnesota Timberwolves. With Michael Conley getting older, is this a slow burn for Rob Dillingham? Do you think this is going to take a few years for him to grab the reins or should we see a healthy dose of him this year? I think you're going to see him because one of my biggest criticisms for the Timberwolves last year is I thought they needed a shot creator off the bench that could come in, give him 20 minutes of just instant offense.
So I do think that he's going to be able to do that right away. He's a fantastic shooter can create off the bounce at will. I mean, he's a guy to create separation like nobody else in the league. Obviously, he's a little bit smaller, but like you said, he's going to be see behind Mike Conley. He's going to help him with the nuances of being a smaller point guard. So I do think that he's going to play a lot as a score right away. And I do think he's going to take over for commonly.
Eventually. I really liked Minnesota the whole draft. Honestly, they were aggressive and going out and getting at some help in that backcourt for the long term. Terrence Shannon, Jr. is another player that I do think is going to help them as an older college player that is a good shooter on the wing, a lot of energy, a good size. I just thought that they really went for it in this draft. I think it's going to pay some dividends.
Zach, final question for you. With all of the changes in college athletics on this side of the pond, I guess we can call it. And then you think about how overseas is continuing to develop. Is the draft that we've seen this year more of the norm, more players that we've never seen and less of guys just lighten it up in college? Should we get used to what we saw the past two days?
I don't think so. I think this is a strange year where there were just not a lot of great prospects playing college basketball. And I think that the G League Ignite program ended up folding. So you're going to see some of those guys like Ron Holland, Matas Buzelos, Tyler Smith, those guys are going to end up playing in the in college basketball. You know, now that they're able to pay players, they don't need to take these alternative routes like the MBL also, overtime elite.
These are things that people were taking because they wanted money immediately. They're now going to be able to get that in college basketball. So I think it's going to start bouncing out. I think we're to see the top prospects in the college game again.
Excellent conversation. Zach, where can people follow you and all of your work? On Twitter, I'm at betting on X and at bsyn.com.
You can find all my stuff. I'm doing basketball once the season starts back up. We just released our NFL betting guide and I'll have a lot of Wimbledon picks over the next two weeks.
I do a lot of tennis. Oh, you know what? At least some of them older tennis guys are gone, man. It's time for some new blood, Zach. I've been waiting on it, man. Yep.
Yeah, we got Sinner and Alcaraz now. No doubt. Hey, Zach, thank you so much. We'll catch you on down the line. All right. Yep. Thanks for having me on.
Absolutely. That's Zach Cohen of Vison breaking down every single one of these draft picks that really people will give a damn about. A lot of them are anonymous.
And he came through and he dropped the information. The guys from overseas, the people that are are domestic here. And who knows? He makes a good point. Like now that college athletes can get paid, they're going to be playing in college, making that money unless college decides to screw things up again, which I wouldn't put it past them. Let's see what structure they put in place.
