2022 NBA Draft Preview

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast. Brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at CapitalFinancialUSA.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. Always a time for Tom Petty. Are you a satellite radio subscriber at all, Dennis?

I'm not, actually. Tom Petty's channel might be the best music satellite channel that there is, but actually, before Tom Petty passed a number of years ago, they recorded a bunch of stuff where he hosted some hours here and there. And he actually told the story of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame song in which they were inducting George Harrison posthumously as a solo artist. And they played While My Guitar Gently Weeps and they talked about getting Prince to do the guitar solo at the end of it. This is just an interesting story and then they played that and it's one of the greatest versions of any great song you'll ever hear. And I probably said this a hundred times, go to the Googles and do While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Prince, and then just love it.

And the guitar solo at the end is just amazing. Alright, before we get to the wall of sound, Dennis. Okay.

Well, this will be the first time I've mentioned it, so let's do the breaking news sounder, but it's been out there for about an hour. Deshaun Watson has settled all but four of the lawsuits settled against him. Remember, there were 20... 24. Well, there were 22. No, there were 24 in the class action suit.

Yeah. And there were two additional ones that came in late. So all but four, so 20 of the 24 original in the class action, they have all been settled. Or the joint lawsuit, I don't know if it's class action or not. Not that smart. One of the four that he hasn't, Ashley Solis, the first masseuse, massage therapist to sue.

So she is not interested. Not only was she the first, she has been the most public, the most unafraid to attach her name to this. She went on HBO's, what, the Bryant Gumbel. Yeah, the Bryant Gumbel Real Sports.

Yeah, Real Sports, yep. She went on that and told her story there. She wasn't the only one. But anyway, the attorney for all the others, Tony Busby, said that 20 of the 24 had accepted a settlement. There was a story that he offered $100,000 each to all to settle. We don't know what the total number was. It might have been higher.

Look, he just got guaranteed $230 million by Cleveland. I'm going to guess it's probably north of 100 grand each, but I don't know how much north. Really don't. I don't know if it's Arctic Circle North or if it's, you know.

Pennsylvania line north. I don't know. But it's, I'm sure it's north of $100,000 each. And that's where we are. The NFL did come out and say, this has no bearing at all on any discipline we meet out. So the NFL will do what they want to do. I wouldn't even begin to venture a guess as to what they would do.

I wouldn't even begin. To me, this should be a year, but who knows what they're going to do. Adam Gold in studio with my friend Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement. Coach, how does longevity risk figure into our retirement and income plan?

This is the best of times and the worst of times, Adam. The longevity risk means we're going to live too long. But to me, every day I live is not too long. Right.

Absolutely. So we want our money to outlive us. And unfortunately, many people have seen, you out there listening, maybe one of them, your money is not designed to outlive you. You might outlive your money and that's not what we want to have happen. Because when we get to that day after you run out of money, it's not going to be a fun time. So let's design a plan that guarantees you'll never run out of money. We call it the GPI plan, Growth Protection Lifetime Income, for the next 10 people. This is a golden ticket, Adam. $1,000 value, we're going to do it at no cost or obligation. All you have to do is call, we make it so easy.

Would you like financial independence into your retirement? And beyond it, 800-661-7383, that golden ticket is a $1,000 value. Or you can text Adam to 21000 for Coach Pete DeRuta. Alright, with that said, Wall of Sound time.

The Wall of Sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. Alright, there's going to be a fair amount of basketball in here. Kyrie Irving.

We've already heard Jay Williams, we'll get to that in a second. But I want to hear from Brian Winhorst of ESPN, NBA Insider. Rumors are, is he going back to play with LeBron with the Lakers? Or is he going to the Knicks?

Well, let's handle the first part of that. Brian Winhorst, Lakers. Yay?

Nay. I know that the Lakers fans got very excited yesterday at the possibility of Kyrie being a Laker. But I can tell you, there is no interest from the Brooklyn Nets in a trade that would bring Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving. Because that would not advance the Nets' title hopes. And that would undercut what Kevin Durant did last year, which was sign a four-year, $200 million extension.

So you can forget about that. The only player that the Nets would have interest in in the Lakers in a Kyrie Irving trade would be Anthony Davis. And I am told that Anthony Davis is not available in such a scenario. So the only way that Kyrie is going to be a Laker is if he goes there in free agency, which he'd have to leave $30 million on the table. And I just do not see that happening. All of that is probably true, but can I just say that it would be delicious if there was a Kyrie Russell Westbrook trade and Durant who started his NBA travels by leaving Westbrook in Oklahoma City. If he was reunited with Westbrook, I'm sorry.

I would laugh. You know what? It would actually be fitting because the way we discuss the NBA oftentimes, or at least a lot of media, it's like it's a soap opera.

So you know what? This would actually be a fitting soap opera ending to their story. Did you see the latest Kevin Durant BS? No, with Charles Barkley. So Charles Barkley says, and I don't even know where he said it, but the Barkley quote is, Durant needs to win a title in order to get the respect as a, not as a great player, but as a champion, right? And Durant, of course, snapped back at that. I think there is a lot of truth to what Barkley said. Look, I think Durant is one of the 15 greatest NBA players ever, right?

If we're just talking about raw talent, he's a top five talent, might be a top two talent. But the, I think there's a lot of truth to what Barkley said in that Durant had cracks to win a title in Oklahoma City, got to the finals, lost to the Heat, first time Miami won a title. They had a 3-1 lead with Durant and Westbrook together over the Warriors, blew that 3-1 lead. Then, of course, the Warriors blew the 3-1 lead to the Cavaliers when Kyrie was in Cleveland.

And then Durant joined the Warriors. Look, I mean, I don't think it's unfair to say that Durant, you know, if you can't beat him, join him. I don't think that's unfair.

So I'm not saying that Barkley is absolutely right, but he might be. I mean, I think it's fair to at least consider that. I guess. I mean, it is a soap opera. I understand what you're saying, Dennis.

Oh, it's 100% a soap opera. But I understand why people don't want to give Durant credit for those titles. Well, like he was just part of that team.

I agree. I think he was just part of that team. He was certainly probably the most talented player on that team. But I still think Steph is the driving force behind that group, but that's just me.

All right. As for the Knicks, Kyrie, yes? The Knicks do not have appreciable salary cap space. So one of two things would have to happen. One is they'd have to begin trading players off immediately within the next few days so that they would have cap space available to sign Kyrie in early July.

And then they would undercut where their team would be. The second thing is they could call Brooklyn and try to work out a trade. But again, I'm not sure that there's anybody on the Knicks roster that if traded to the Nets would make Kevin Durant feel comfortable about competing for a championship next year. Yeah, no, it ain't, it ain't happened. I mean, but it would be just like the Knicks to be so desperate to reach out for Kyrie Irving.

I've said this before. I don't know why anybody wants Kyrie. To me, he is as talented as he is. I think he's a drag on your organization.

I could be wrong. And what I said about Durant, he might be one of the two most talented players of all time. I'm not sure Kyrie's not two or three on that list. I mean, he's probably the most physically gifted point guard we've ever seen. His ability to get to the rim, handle, jump shot, creativity, all of that. Everything but reliability for Kyrie Irving.

Everything but reliability. All right, one more thing. This is about hockey, but it's about Charles Barkley. So Barkley, who is a huge hockey fan, was at Game 3 last night sitting with Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL. He was on in the first intermission, by the way, on ESPN talking hockey with those guys. And then in the between in the second intermission, he did a stand up with Kyle Bukauskas with Sportsnet.

They're the rights holder in Canada. And he did an interview in the second intermission. And this is a piece of that interview.

Charles Barkley. So Charles, great to speak with you. What do you think of Cooper and company through two periods here so far?

Well, they're playing fantastic. I got to say a couple of things. Number one, your hair is freaking awesome. Your hair is awesome. Hey, well, you're a good looking man, too. You're like a Canadian Tom Brady to me. Gosh, well, that's maybe the biggest compliment I've ever received from a big bad for Charles.

Thank you again. No, thank you for having me. I mean, Charles, Charles always delivers. That sort of reminded me of when Joe Namath wanted to kiss Susie Cole. Oh, yeah. I want to kiss you. I thought I thought the way she handled that was about the greatest you could ever handle a moment like that. Huge compliment.

You know, there's a website for a long time called Kissing Susie Culver. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was. I remember that. Gosh, name.

It was so bummed. He has since gotten help. He's an absolute legend. Joe Namath. Brian Geisinger. Speaking of legends, the NBA draft is upcoming. We've got three, well, five Duke guys, two Wake guys and a state guy. All part of the mix.

And Brady Manning. We got a lot of guys to talk about. Talk to Brian Geisinger about it next. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts, NBA draft Thursday night. So Thursday night or is it next Thursday night? This Thursday, two nights. My gosh. What happened?

Why did you get here so quickly? Yeah. Why don't we have five months of buildup? I thought the NFL had everything right. Give us, give us four months of stupid before the draft.

All right. I don't even know. I'm sure Brian Geisinger has a mock draft. Let's find out what his big board says.

He joins us on the Adam Gold show. Mr. Geisinger, how you doing? I'm doing well. Yeah. We're back to an NBA draft as like normally scheduled after the last two being delayed because of the pandemic.

All right. Let's let's start with Duke because they have like half the draft with five guys who are potential first-round picks. Obviously, Paulo Bancaro is going to go first among those five. How good an NBA player can he be? I think he can be an incredible NBA player. I mean, we've seen the offensive upside, the ball handling, the skill, both in the open court and in the half court setting, how Duke could run an offense through him, the way he was playing, especially at the end of the season, what he did in the NCAA tournament, the passing, the court mapping, his ability to find guys and to see stuff a step ahead. He could be a really, really special offensive player because of his size, his skill. We've seen at times like the shot making, it kind of fluctuated, but we've seen it from multiple levels of the court, the mid range face up, the pick and pop threes, the step back threes.

He can do that stuff. I think the main questions for him come down to how can he lock in defensively? Can he improve as a defensive rebounder? We saw flashes for sure, but as far as the offensive side of the floor goes, he's so skilled and so talented and he's still young and despite that, he already has a pretty good understanding of the game and good vision and court awareness.

I think he has the chance to be a special all-star caliber offensive player for a long, long time. He's a four, right? He's a stretch. He's kind of a modern stretch four, right?

Definitely. I think you'll see him, like you did at Duke, he'll play some small ball five, two and some certain lineups when you're trying to juice the offense a little bit and you just put more shooters around him. But yes, I do think predominantly full-time, he'll be a four with some minutes as a five as well. AJ Griffin, 6'6", softest, I mean, a marshmallowy jump shot. It's not really a jump shot though and that would concern me.

What are your thoughts on him? Yeah, I mean, he's a special, special shooting prospect. Always has been. Like, you know, working here, we certainly saw it up close at Duke this season, but even if you go back to AJ's, you know, his work with USA basketball, his work as a prep, like has always for years now has been a special shooting prospect.

So what we saw at Duke was just really the continuation of that. I mean, it just does. It's that, you know, it's this, it's like a, what, a 12 to 6, what's the, what's the curve ball 12 to 6 or whatever? 12 to 6 is a straight over the top curve ball.

Yes. And it just falls off the table and right into the hoop, you know, 49% of the time. Incredible range. And you saw it not often because Duke had a lot of guys that played on the basketball, right? You know, Paolo, Wendell Moore, Jeremy Rhodes, Trevor Keels. And so every once in a while though, one or two times a game, AJ would get an isolation possession, right? And there were only flashes of him going downhill as a driver, but we saw that he has the ability to create space with the step back and get to that isolation three. It's just, you know, is he physically like, assuming the knees are fine, like, and I'm, by the way, I'm willing to bet on AJ as like a top seven, six, seven, or eight pick in this draft. Like, I think he's really like potentially a special player in part because like he can shoot off of movement. We saw them use him as a guy that could shoot coming off handoffs, coming off pin downs in the NCAA tournament, he started running all that action for him coming off the elevator door screen. Like, can he be a guy that you run sets for at the next level?

I think that's absolutely in the deck of cards for him. So assuming physically he's ready, he improves defensively, really, I think one-on-one especially, you know, on the basketball, assuming that gets better, he gets more confident in the knee than like, yeah, I just think he has the chance to be an excellent player for a long time in part because that shot, I know he doesn't get, like, he's got that wide, we've talked about this before, Gold, that Jeff Bagwell like batting stance on his shot, but he gets it off, like he does, and I mean, I know it's a little bit of difference to do it against NBA length and those type of closeouts, but he still has the ability to create enough space and get that shot off that I feel pretty confident about him translating to the next level, assuming, yeah, physically he's good to go. Too good a shooter if his knees check out, he's going to play in the league for a long time because he can absolutely shoot it. All right, real quick on Mark Williams, I mean, I've seen the Hornets been attached to him, I've seen him go later in the draft, what do you think about Mark?

Yeah, I mean, even a team like, I mean, the Chicago Bulls have pick 18 and that's another team that's been linked to Williams if he were to fall in and if they kept that, that pick could also be on the move for the Bulls. But yeah, I mean, Williams is sort of like the archetypal modern day center in a lot of ways, right? And far as like the one, you know, a guy that can't shoot, but just like give you some scheme versatility guarding the pick and roll, going to play a lot of drop coverage, but can play up to the level. And on offense, he's there to screen, dive, catch lobs and hit the offensive glass and do the back taps a la Tyson Chandler, which he was very good at doing at Duke, you know, keeping possessions alive, nine foot nine standing reach, which is just like, is ridiculous.

Seven, what, seven, seven wingspan. I mean, to be like a really, really good drop center in the NBA, one of the baseline requirements you need is just like elite size and Williams has that. So no, I think, you know, I don't think if he's going to, I think, I think at times the NBA, he will run into issues the way that he did at Duke at times the season where there are some teams that are going to be able to play him off the court at the end of games.

Right. But that's okay because he can still play a lot of minutes earlier on in the game. He can still be a starter for a long, long time. He can still be a starter in the NBA for a long, long time, make a ton of money, you know, be anchor some really good defenses like that type of stuff.

I think that's in the cards from, from Mark. Yeah. Look, we've seen, you know, Robert Williams get played off the court at the end of games too. We've seen a lot of good players. I mean, I'm not comparing the two, but there are players who get played off the court based on match-ups. All right. Real quick Wendell Moore Jr. Trevor Keels, either likely in the first round.

Yeah. I mean, it's, I think it's going to be tight for both those guys. I could see both sneaking in and I saw someone recently was talking about Keels as like maybe a, an option for golden state at 28. I actually think that's a little intriguing more, I think does sneak in Keels is like right on the fringe and you never know, maybe a team like Toronto at pick 33 early in the second round.

Like that would be such a great landing spot for Trevor Keels. Moore, I just love his game as like a, like a jack of all trades kind of guy, like can shoot it a little bit, can run a pick and roll, can be a very good hit ahead passer in transition. Nice team defender can guard, you know, a couple different position types. We'll see how that translates to in the NBA, but should be able to guard, you know, ones and twos, maybe some threes guarded one through five at times when he was at Duke. So again, he has some of that, some of the versatility and just a guy that I think understands offensive flow and moves without the basketball.

I thought Duke was at its best late in the season playing through Ben Caro, playing through Jeremy Roach and letting Wendell Moore Jr. just sort of like roam and cut relocate for threes, cut along the baseline for dunks and layups. So I kind of like his all around game. I think both have a chance to sneak into the first round, but I'll say more in the first round peels early second real quick on Wendell Moore. If he's just a little bit quicker at the next level, I think he's got a chance because he's what six, five, maybe six, six. And you can, he can initiate, can be a secondary initiator of your offense.

He can defend his three point shots certainly got a lot better, but I think he needs to be just a, a, a tad quicker in order to do it. All right, Darien Seabron and Brady Manick. I was looking at Sam Vassini's mock draft and neither is mentioned, I believe, in their two round mock drafts, maybe more so than Seabron. I'm confused by Manick at 6'10 with that stroke. Why that guy's not more of a prospect.

Yeah. I mean, like again, we've talked about this multiple times for months now, even going back to the regular season. Like there just aren't a lot of guys that size that can shoot from that far away coming off movement. So again, I wouldn't, obviously like, I don't know if Manick's going to get drafted, but he's going to get his shot one way or the other.

You know what I mean? Like you're going to see him in summer league, he'll get an exhibit 10, he'll be in a training camp and maybe he'll have a chance to get a two way or, or go through the G league and perhaps work his way into an NBA system by that. Like it's not the most glamorous pathway, but like, because he is that size and because he can shoot, Manick in part, because he just had this season at UNC, which like, you know, like there's a, like, there is a, there's a certain, you know, there's a, there's a big UNC element in the NBA and people watch those NCAA tournament games.

So it's like, that stuff does matter. So no, no, no, I think he'll get his shot and Seabron, like, I don't understand him not being like, I think both, I think ESPN's mock at him at like 54 or 55, like I would dress like I would definitely see Ron. I think he should be like a top 45 pick pretty safely, but just with his frame, that rangy athleticism, his ability to slash, get downhill. I know he struggles shooting the basketball, but his ability to cut, hit the offensive glass.

Like I mean, assuming the jump shot comes online, then I think you really have something even if the jump shot doesn't come online, you've still got like an interesting skill set in like a body that makes sense in the NBA. I know, I know he's skinny, just weighed at 182 at the combine, but just thinking about what the wingspan with his ability to slash, get downhill, the ability to change directions, change speed, the Euro step, like all of that kind of stuff that he packages into one really fun, you know, downhill driver. I think he deserves a shot. I think he should be drafted. Like, I think, again, I think C. Ron should be a top 45 pick in this draft.

I think he can add size, like he can add bulk. It still comes down to this for me, and I've been saying this about every, in every draft, you know, since I've been talking about this, if you can't shoot, in this NBA, everybody has the ability to shoot unless you are just a massive human being, and you're going to be a rim protector. Everybody's got the ability to shoot.

So I don't see Ron shot it, okay. This past year, I just, I just don't know if he can do that. So if he can demonstrate that, then I've said this before, I think he can be a very good player and a rotation player in the league. But I just, to me, that's what they're saying is that they don't believe he can shoot. He shot it pretty well at the combine, which means almost nothing. He shot, like, I think he shot, I think 71% from the line this season.

Like, that's a decent indicator. And I did think, like, the sample was incredibly small, but there were times this season when he had space and, like, emphasis on space, like, he needed room to have, like, the time and to have his comfort level up to, like, step into a catch and shoot three. But he was able, like, he showed some ability to, ability to do that. It's not like he, like, was punting the ball into the second level of PNC, you know, on the handful of times he had the ability to do that. I would see all the other tools he had that you can't develop. And I would say, okay, well, now I'm going to try to figure this out, this other piece out. And if he can't do it, again, it's a huge problem. I do think there are other ways to sort of, like, assuage that, which is like, you know, the ball is in his hands, or even, I don't know how much you watched, like, the Brooklyn Nets this season, but the way they use someone like Bruce Brown, who's the one that will set a screen for Kevin Durant and then dive to the rim is like the, you know, instead of having the seven footers, you know, slip to the rim or dive to the rim, you've all of a sudden, you've got a, you know, six, six guy going downhill in space with some advantage. Like, I don't know, that's maybe a tough, like, needle to thread. But I think Cebron is another one of those guys because of his decision making, his ability to slash, that I would be tempted to try to like, you know, give that role to even if the shot, you know, wasn't there. All right. We're, we're out of time here. But real quick, does Jake La Ravia or Alondis Williams get drafted in the first round?

It's tough. I think, I think Alondis should, I think he, I don't think he will. And I think La Ravia has a chance, maybe again at 28 to Golden State.

But boy, he like Lake Heales, he's like right on the cusp of the first round. So I'll say no, but I hope to be surprised. All right. We got to check in again on draft day. Is that cool?

Yeah, absolutely. All right, Brian Geisinger. League pass layer accsports.com at B Geis underscore bird on Twitter. This is the Adam Gold show. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.