NBA Draft season is upon us…

Uh, how excited are you for the draft? This is your time of the year.

Yeah, very excited. Um, you know, a lot of work goes into this, so this is the culmination of things. And I kind of think by this point, you've, for the most part, everyone's done their, you know, done, hopefully done their homework and their scouting. And so at this point, it's just putting together whatever projects you have and, you know, recaps after the draft and yeah, I guess getting ready for a free agency in Summer League. But, um, as someone that covers and follows the NBA and is, you know, lives here along Tobacco Road, this is, um, like, I don't know, this is an important, uh, well, we can head here. Oh, there's, there's no question about it.

So I, I dealt with the two Duke players real quick about them. Um, which one is more likely to be a lottery pick? I mean, at this point, it seems like, uh, I don't know if you saw the, the mock draft that Jonathan Gavone of ESPN put out yesterday, but he had to wreak whitehead at, at 30, which is like a little hard to believe. And unless Darique's medicals are like, you know, really problematic, but I just can't imagine him slipping, flipping that far. I still think Darique is, is a lottery talent.

My hope is it's the answer. This is still Darique, but based off of that, like that, that sort of maybe it makes me think that there's some Intel that's being floated out that, uh, that has Darique slipping to the back half of the first round, which is, uh, you know, would be a real bummer if that happens. And I think I'm a missed by a lot of teams, you know, sort of like, uh, medicals, uh, permitted all that as a long way of saying, I mean, I guess now I would say lively, um, because he's sort of like a fringy, like mid first round fringe back into the lottery player. And like, I think you can't, like, you already know what you're getting, which is like a defensive Savant at center and a guy that's got some, some skills and some, maybe even a little bit more upside along with the rim running on offense.

Look, I love, I love both players. Now let's talk about NC State's Terquavian Smith. Uh, there was talk that he could have been a late first round pick a year ago, chose to come back to state economically.

Does that pay off for him? I mean, I think we'll see, uh, draft night. I mean, he definitely, I mean, part of this is we don't know how much, you know, it took way beyond made, uh, playing of at state last year via NIL, probably a good chunk of money, you know, um, probably, unfortunately though, it probably would have been less than, you know, whatever his rookie salary would have been assuming like the 25th pick in the draft last year.

That's probably a, you know, a couple of million dollars or, you know, just, just under two. I mean, we can look it up, like all of that, all of those rookie scale contracts are slotted, but probably not the same type of Delta between like playing for free versus, you know, what he made via NIL. Um, unfortunately, you know, I don't think to play beyond, uh, played himself, like into the lottery this season, which is like maybe where he could have made up some of that number a little bit, but look, he wanted to come back and he loves, he loves playing at NC state. He wanted to come back and get this team to the tournament and have fun. And like, no, no matter how you slice it, that NC state team was the most fun, even for a first round exit tournament. I mean, how, when's the last NC state team that was that much fun. So I think he built a legacy here, which, uh, you know, you probably can't put like a direct price on in terms of return, return on investment or whatever, but I think they're going to still have the chance to slide into the backend of the first round.

Um, I know you didn't have a great combine. I know he's still skinny. There are the defensive concerns, but I thought he showed real growth this season as a playmaker and as a pastor and a guy that could like take care of the basketball drew more fouls this season, you know, what he can do as a shooter, he had a cold snap to end the year, but, but this guy's a big time shooter, even if he is a little streaky. And I thought with the playmaking growth of this guy's still an interesting bet in terms of the creation upside, uh, for the next level, Brian Geisinger pack pride, uh, dot com. He joins us on the Adam gold show. Um, what, any other players from the triangle area, whether they play in the area or even at wake forest, uh, or from outside the area that are on NBA draft radars?

Yeah. I mean, I feel like you were maybe trying to get at, uh, I mean, like, I think there are a handful of guys that were like good college players that have at least gotten invited to, uh, work to pre-draft workouts and we'll maybe they'll get a chance to play in summer league and maybe even pick up an exhibit 10 contract and go into training camp. I mean, we're talking about Jarkel Joyner from NC state. We're talking about Davian Williamson from Lake forest, like guys like that, that maybe have a crack at it. I mean, unfortunately like one of this guy was one of my favorite players in the ACC this past season, Bobby Clinton, and a guy that I was really bullish on going forward. But you know, with a little bit older for a freshmen, uh, and decided to, uh, put his name in the draft and then, yeah, this ended up turning into sort of like one of the more bizarre and also kind of like disheartening, uh, at least for the time being experiences of the draft, because, you know, it seemed like for a period of time, maybe he got like a, uh, a promise of some kind in the draft. So he keeps his name in, um, he skips out of certain stuff at the combine.

Um, and, and there even, even Kevin O'Connor of the ringer had him mocked at 15, like in his hot draft, like two weeks ago, uh, which was ludicrous. I mean, if anything, Clinton was like, uh, you know, like early to mid second round pick and in a guy that I like, and I think will play in the NBA at some point, but ultimately like he stays in the draft pool past the NCAA deadline. Then when he withdraw from the draft, now he can't go back to wake forest. He can't play college basketball. So he'll either have to go abroad or play in the G league and then enter the 2024 draft.

These aren't like terrible options. Like he'll, you know, make money and play basketball and hopefully bolster his stock some, but, uh, yeah, his agent or whomever else was around him. This was not, uh, I, I don't blame Bobby Clinton or wake or anything like that. Um, this is the people around the handling the situation that I think really fumbled it.

And unfortunately it put him in a spot that, you know, limited his options for where to play basketball next year. Every, my opinion is that every player has the right to make that, I guess, mistake, right? I, I don't, I am, I am a proponent of, if you are 18 years old, then if you want to go into the NBA draft, you should be allowed to go into the NBA draft.

I feel the same way about the national football league. If you want to do that, you should be allowed to do that. Now I understand collective bargaining agreements. So no, don't tweet at me, but don't you understand? I'm like, no, I understand it. My feeling is just that if you are of legal age, if you are an adult, you should be allowed to do that.

I bet that's the way I have always approached it. But I also understand why either leagues have age limit rules to protect really to protect teams from making too many mistakes, because it is just an absolute guess whether or not somebody who is 18, somebody who is 18 is going to develop physically, you're hoping that you get it right, develop physically to, to be able to withstand an NBA season or an NFL season. Let me ask you, speaking of, of developed physically, do you have any reservations at all about, we're talking with Brian Geisinger, who covers basketball at all levels. Do you have any reservations at all about Victor Wimbunyama and his ability to stay healthy? It is tough for a guy who is 7'4 or whatever he is to not develop issues physically. It's, it's a pounding. It's a grind. Yeah.

I mean, I, let me, let me, let me, let me take this. Let me start by saying, I think with someone that size, of course, you have to have those concerns because there is a track record and there's like, you know, real like biological reasons to, to, uh, to sort of like understand why guys that size, um, you know, uh, can have injury concerns. And obviously like there's plenty of like, you know, freak stuff that can happen when you're playing a lot of basketball, but you know, you may have read some of the stuff that's come out about, uh, Victor. Um, I want to say maybe Jeremy Wu from, uh, who's been contributing to ESPN.

Maybe he's written about this. There's probably been a couple of things, but just sort of like how seriously weapon Yama has taken. Um, you know, really all parts of like, you know, the, the pre draft process, but one of the big things that he's been building up, ramping up for NBA play has been his conditioning is stretch routine is post game and pregame routines and what he does, his diet. Like he's, he and his team around him have, I mean, they've built like kind of a fortress and I think like sort of Titan, I mean, there's not a ton of, uh, like weak, weak spots and how they prepared him for this.

So, you know, I don't think you have to worry about Victor. Um, you know, he's going to be in shape. He's going to do all the stuff that he can to hopefully, uh, have a long and, uh, incredible career in the NBA. And so ultimately I'm not too worried about it. I mean, like with everyone, you got to have some injury concern and maybe it's slightly elevated for someone that's seven foot four with an eight foot wingspan. Like there really isn't like an analog for a person of this size and, and, uh, you know, athletic skill. So we'll, I guess we'll find out, but I, he is certainly going to do all the things necessary to like better his odds for having a long sustainable career.

Brian Geisinger at big guys, underscore bird. I appreciate your time, my friend. I'll talk to you soon. You guys be good.