This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Wednesday Drive.
It's WSJS. Newstalk Sports for the Triad. Happy draft day to you and yours. We're expecting to hear 3 Duke Blue Devils names called in the top 10. Cooper Flag obviously going number 1 to the Mavericks. Heck, we might even see Tar Heel Drake Powell taken in round 1 as well. Remember, the draft is now a 2 night event with round 2 being held tomorrow night. A lot of angles to hit on with this draft, but let's focus on the Charwood Hornets. This might not be what Hornet fans want to hear, but Charlotte is in prime position to trade back from the number 4 pick tonight. That's the scenario you need to prepare for. It is almost likely that it happens.
And here's the case. Their top target is likely going to be taken third. That is Baylor's Vijay Ejkum. That's a guy who fits Charlotte perfectly, has the highest floor of players not named Cooper Flag and Dylan Harper.
Think like the comp that J. Bill has had. Think Victor Oladipo on the low end, high end, something closer to Dwayne Wade given the way that he plays. When the Sixers or whoever is picking third takes Vijay, Charlotte could be looking to add as many assets as it can. This is a team that is still on the build and needs more swings at the wheel, so to speak. They have picks 33 and 34 in round 2, but maybe some more in the first round could do.
But in order to trade back, you need a team that's wanting to trade up. The Brooklyn Nets, they have the will, they have the way, they can provide the assets that Charlotte's looking for in order to get a trade like this done. The Nets, they have the eighth pick, the 19th pick, 26 and 27 tonight.
Also got 36 in round 2, by the way. Four first round picks. Now there's no chance that Brooklyn wants to end up with four guys in the first round. So if they're picking eighth and the guy they really want is somebody they don't think is going to be there at eight but might be at four or five, Charlotte might have the want to move back and get some more of those first round picks while Brooklyn has the need, the want to move up. Who might Brooklyn be targeting though? It would make all the sense in the world if Brooklyn landed Ace Bailey. That if Brooklyn traded into the top five at number five or number four, Utah's pick or Charlotte's pick, and acquired Ace Bailey. Wouldn't it explain the bizarre behavior that's been in the headlines with Ace Bailey and his representation that seems to be costing him millions of dollars if he falls outside the top five? A guy that at the start of the college season was up there with Cooper Flagg, now not even a top three pick.
Wouldn't this explain a lot of that behavior? Blowing off workouts from teams that are in the top five, right, Philly? Reportedly like Charlotte?
This guy, he played at Rutgers, right down the road from Brooklyn in New Jersey and he threw the first pitch out of the Mets game. Wouldn't a lot of this behavior be explained if at the combine the Nets said, don't work out with anybody else, we want you, we're telling you this, we have all these draft picks, we're going to do what's necessary in order to take you. And if Charlotte gets the eighth pick and two more of those first rounders, whether it's whatever combination, 19, 26, 27, two out of those three picks, the Nets get their player, Charlotte gets a lot of swings tonight in a really good draft, and only has to move back four picks in order to get it done. Then at number eight, Charlotte, they would hope that either Trey Johnson or Dukes Conk nipple falls to them.
You would hope. That's the best case scenario for Charlotte. When you look at the mock draft that Jonathan Gavone just put out at ESPN today, he has come on Malawatch being taken with the seventh pick in New Orleans. And if that happens, again, just projecting the draft here, Cooper one, number two, Dylan Harper, number three, Vijay Edgecombe, Ace Bailey in this hypothetical goes four, Conk nipple goes five to Utah, some combination of Knipple, Jeremiah Fiers goes five and six. That's the Washington Wizards player they want to, or the Washington Wizards pick, they want to play maker in that spot. Okay, those two guys off the board, then you need the Pelicans to choose come on Malawatch, rather than taking Trey Johnson.
And that's exactly what ESPN is projecting that the Pelicans do. And if they did that, then a guy that some were talking about being a player at four, Texas's Trey Johnson is available to you, and that might be the best case scenario. If you're talking about the best case scenario for the Charlotte Hornets tomorrow, the thing that, well, that's Vijay Edgecombe falls to them at number four.
Let's start there. If the Sixers or whoever's picking third passes on Vijay, that is your best case scenario. The next best scenario would be Charlotte moves back to eight and gets Trey Johnson with that pick out of Texas and gets multiple first round draft picks on top of that, where you could take a guy such as vaccine Rayno late in the first round and maybe in the teens, a guy who falls a little bit, maybe it's the Boyle kid from South Carolina or Carter, Carter Bryant, someone that falls as well that you take multiple swings at it and you feel really good about yourself. If Trey Johnson isn't there at eight, that's where you probably take the Illinois point guard, 6'5, Casperis, Yakichonis, because you know Charlotte loves big, tall, foreign guys that no one's really heard of that might tick off the fan base if they took in the top ten. So the Hornets, they're in prime position to trade back. That's what we are expecting to see a little bit later.
On X at Josh Graham Show and at WSGS Radio, that's where we're streaming video. In addition to YouTube and Twitch, Will Dalton is the executive producer of the show, and he is visibly upset with what we're saying right now because he thinks that Conca Nipple is better than Vijay Edgecombe. He thinks that Conca Nipple should be Charlotte's pick at four if he's there. I do, because I don't think Vijay's going to be there. I think Philly's going to get him. Let's say the Nets move up to the third pick and take Ace Bailey. So Charlotte has the pick between Vijay and Conca Nipple. What's WD doing?
I'm taking Conca Nipple. So you do think Conca Nipple's better than Vijay Edgecombe? Yeah, and I think he fits their needs better. I think they need shooting and he is a sharp shooter. I think he's good defensively.
He's fine defensively. But to trade back? Because the whole point of keeping people sane without getting Cooper when they didn't get the one pick was that, oh, you've got so many other options at the top. The organization shouldn't care about that. Well, I think it's right, though. I think there are options at the top. I don't think they should trade back.
I don't think so. Shifting things. Expansion is the name of the game in college sports today. You might have missed some of these headlines amidst the draft. The Zombie Pac-12 with Washington State, Oregon State and some of the leftovers in the Pac-12. Been adding Mountain West teams and might be trying to add Texas State.
That's happening. And then Pete Thamel threw this headline out there from ESPN that the NCAA is expected to make a decision soon on potential expansion for the NCAA basketball tournament. Now, this is incredibly unpopular. Fans do not want this.
Who does? Coaches that want bonuses for making the tournament. Conference commissioners, Jim Phillips, Greg Sankey, who constantly want more and more teams a part of the field. It's not TV partners that want this based on reporting that's out there. It's not going to be extra money that's gained from expansion. So that's not what's driving this.
NCAA tournament expansion, it's unnecessary. It's unpopular. But no, it's not existential. And no, it's no longer scary. It was scary.
It was existential. It was worrisome when the NCAA a few years ago put together this committee, this group, that gave a suggestion on what should happen with NCAA post-seasons broadly. Where they said, they gave a number. They recommended 25% of teams that compete, programs that compete in a given sport, should participate in post-season. 25%.
Okay. What's that mean for men's basketball? There are 300, over 360 men's basketball D1 programs. So what you are suggesting, more than 90 teams make the NCAA tournament with that recommendation.
96 was the number specifically that was thrown out there and it was ripped. Rightfully so. If that happened, you ruin college basketball. The regular season means nothing. The tournament isn't recognizable. The thing that is so profitable and beloved is tarnished. So that's not what we're talking about here.
If it was, then yeah, have issue with it. But NCAA president Charlie Baker has already said that that's not what they're looking at. What they're looking at is instead going from 68 to either 72 or 76. Expansion of four or eight teams. And that isn't a huge deal because you'd still have that first Thursday when things are starting the tournament, so to speak, the first round starting, 64 teams as we've seen every year since 1985. If you expand four teams, all it would be is, you know how you have those double headers Tuesday and Wednesday, the first four in Dayton? Well, now if it's four teams added, it's three games. You have an extra game on Tuesday, an extra game on Wednesday. And if it's expansion of eight teams, then it's an all day affair where we don't have to wait till the evening to watch that double header. You're going to have two games in the afternoon, two in the evening. And are you telling me you're not going to watch those games? Of course you would if you like college basketball. Now, is this me pushing for expansion?
No, it isn't preferable, but it's inevitable. So get over it. They've gotten too far in these conversations to do nothing. It's like when the ACC told us and Jim Phillips told us, you know, after hiring this committee and hiring this firm, we're still considering keeping headquarters in Greensboro. Really? You're going to spend all that money just to say not we're good, we're going to chill?
Of course not. And they left to Charlotte. And that's what's going to happen here. They're going to expand. The only question is if it's going to be four or eight.
And I can't lie to you and say that it's existential or it's going to be this great problem, or it's going to be something that you absolutely should hate, because that's not the case. Connor O'Neill going to join us in studio. Is Dallas the best fit for Cooper Flag? We'll discuss next. So much we want to get into with Connor O'Neill.
Such little time. Deacons Illustrated, Devils Illustrated feel obligated on draft day to lean into the Devils piece of this. Cooper Flag going number one to the Dallas Mavericks.
Breaking news. This is the perfect place for him to end up. It feels that that piece has been lost because of the shock value of the Luca trade and Nico being bailed out around lottery time. But even when you look at the teams that you might think, oh, Philadelphia, San Antonio, that would be good destinations. If he goes to San Antonio, that's still Victor's team.
He's still the future. Philly, Joel Embiid, that's kind of a mess. With Dallas, you don't have to carry the team. You don't have to be the savior. But you can still be the centerpiece of what that team's going to be moving forward and learn under Jason Kidd, Klay Thompson, Anthony Davis. To me, it's hard to imagine a better place for him to end up.
What do you think? I'd argue San Antonio checks a lot of the boxes that you're talking about and has the added benefit of having a guy who's already the savior. They've already got one and be there. I, before the lottery, had kind of sold myself on the idea of him going to Brooklyn because it was a major market. Or put him in San Antonio and you can get the NBA's, quote, unquote, small market team that isn't really a small market because they've won so much and they have such a wide ranging fan base. San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the conference finals every year for the next decade.
Who doesn't sign up for that with those young cores right now? Now it's Dallas OKC and San Antonio that are interesting because I forgot to mention Kyrie Irving signed an extension yesterday. So you have him in that mix too.
And are the T-Wolves moving to the east? Oh boy. Yeah. W.D. Don't forget about that. Oh, forget about that. No, that's not where I thought he was heading.
He was restraining himself. The Lakers. Hello. LeBron. Luka. Luka.
Luka. Dalton Connect. You'd take Charlotte Hornets legend Dalton Connect?
That's right. Here's the question. This is kind of like the National League versus the American League in baseball right now. How many teams in the West would you take before you get to your first Eastern Conference team for next year? No Tatum and the Celtics seemingly jump, you know, planning for 26, 27 already.
And Indiana without Tyrese. How many teams in the West? Four? Five? It's got to be a minimum four. Yeah.
That's nuts. That's where I'm at on the National League versus the American League though. Probably about four teams. We have to see what happens with Giannis. We have to see what the Knicks do if they improve. They still haven't hired a coach, right? No.
Yeah. Atlanta just added Kristaps Porzingis and they have a $25 million trade exception. Get too excited about that one.
That one's funky. Trae Young going to carry them. Hey, Porzingis is on the last year of his deal. You got contract year Kristaps. Watch out. That could be interesting in the East.
Orlando. It is lopsided star power wise. It feels like the NBA gets like that every now and then. How many number one picks have you covered at Duke now? For me, it's the three because I don't go as far back as Kyrie and Jason Tatum was the third pick.
Yeah. So Zion, Paulo, Cooper Flack. How would you rank those players in order?
In terms of what? In terms of how they're going to be in the NBA? College player. Best college player?
Yeah. I would have Cooper number one. Over Zion two or Paulo two? Zion two. Now, if you're talking about obviously like impact across college basketball, that's Zion. No doubt. He was transcended. Yeah. And well, Cooper versus Zion.
That's interesting. Well, tiebreaker would be that he went to the final four. Cooper went to the final four. Paulo went to the final four. But I mean, Zion didn't get the ball in the final five seconds of that Michigan State game. They lost by a point. Is that his fault or the guy who called the play?
Probably the latter. And that's the elite eight. Let's not act like there's this wide distinction between what Paulo and Cooper did in the tournament and what Zion didn't do. It feels weird that Paulo is a distant third, but throughout Paulo's entire season, we had to hear about how Chet Holmgren or Jabari Smith would be the number one overall pick. And even up till like 24 hours before that draft, that was the thought.
And then the odds dropped overnight, if I remember correctly. Where would you like to see Konka Nipple and Kamon Malawach end up? Do you have preferences?
Not really. I think the... Better question. Where would you not like to see them end up? Oh, gosh. If I say Charlotte, am I going to be blasted by W.D.
from across the glass? No, he's a Laker fan. I'm not a Laker fan.
I think Konka Nipple would be great on the Hornets. They need shooting. Nah.
He's grounded. I think it's a good worst case scenario, but I think that's worst case. I think if VJ Edgecomb's not there at four, as I've said throughout the show, I think they're moving back. I think they're going to move back in the draft.
Because I still think Ace Bailey's acting the way that Ace Bailey's acting because Ace Bailey knows that there's a team that may or may not have four first round draft picks that wants him and potentially might move up and take him, whether that's Philly's pick or Charlotte's pick. Okay. Okay.
I'm trying to... That team's Brooklyn. Yeah. Kamon Malawach, you want to get in on the Kamon Malawach, Konka Nipple debate that Randolph Childress started the other day?
Yes. Am I sitting in the same seat that Randolph was? You are. Randolph's name tag in San Antonio one night, that was a fun one. Did anybody correct and say, you're not Randolph Childress?
It was a... It is uncanny, you and Randolph. It was a Field of 68 party and they had a whole bunch of name tags out that were unclaimed and there was no person handing them out, they were just on this table. And I texted Randolph and got permission.
And for the rest of the night, I donned the lanyard and I was Randolph Childress. Outstanding. People were asking me about that 95 AC tournament.
Oh man, you had one of the best ones ever. Dude, do you still talk to Jeff McInnis? Jeff McInnis?
Yes. Come on. Dean was yelling. He can't do that. That's taunting. Dude, your son was so good.
No, I did... I saw what Randolph said. We just laid out the facts of the case. So his case is that, come on Malawatch, what he does defensively and what he can do offensively that he didn't have to do at Duke, so we didn't see so much. That upside is higher than what Khan's upside is. I do think that the floor is higher with Khan than come on, but if we're talking ceiling, it's higher for Malawatch.
Yeah, that's exactly the way I would put it. I mean, come on Malawatch. You also think... And this is the point that I've made with Cooper Flagg throughout the year. The ascension of a guy that has been playing basketball for five years and who's able to do the things come on Malawatch is able to do, there are times when he does things and you're like, oh my God, he's just scratching the surface. And he is going to be one of those players that you look back on his time at Duke and you can say with some pretty much certainty, we knew he was going to be a better pro than he was a college player. To me, I don't know if that's even debatable. This dude was playing in the Olympics against the United States last year.
Right, right. But to throw it back to the other side, everybody thinks they know what Khan Knipple's athletic limits are. They think they know... I get it that Reed Shepherd was not the pro that he was supposed to be as what the number two or three overall pick last year.
I get that there would be some reticence of making the same mistake of a team making the same mistake. The Rockets were the ones that picked him right. He's bigger, he's thicker. I would take the gamble on Khan because even if you think he has these limits, how much did those really affect him at Duke playing the highest level of college basketball that he could? The answer to the question might actually be decided tonight depending on your destination.
Where you end up plays such a giant role in this. And if you want to support the Khan argument, just like you argue that there are things that Khman didn't show because of the talent around him, to your point the same might be true of Khan Knipple and what better example than how Khan played in the ACC tournament when Cooper Flag went down. One more on Cooper. Just because you spent this entire year covering him, we did as well. When we first heard about Cooper Flag.
We started turning the page, well after last season ended, and we were starting to turn the page to what the Cooper Flag year was going to look like. I remember, won't say who told me this, someone said, I think he's a jerk. I think this guy is smug, good luck covering him, this is going to be Laitner 2.0 or he's going to be the next dislikeable Duke guy. He's from Maine, not friendly, all these things. And that's what I went in expecting, oh this guy's going to not care about talking to us, going to be awful to deal with media wise.
It was the opposite. I think Cooper was really good with us. I found him to be genuine, humble. I even liked dealing with his parents the few times I talked to them, especially about their time living in Greensboro for the year with Ace at Greensboro Day. How would you describe your experience covering the Cooper Flag year, is there something that stands out? So I'm glad you ended it with something that stands out because I can't place the game.
It was one of those November games at home against a mid-major where it was non-competitive in the second half type of game. I wound up with him one-on-one at his locker toward the end of when everybody's clearing out of the locker room and making their way back to the press conference room for Jon. I don't know how we landed on the subject, but I talked a little golf with him. Anybody who's listened to me on here for a while, anybody who follows my talk, I like golf. So I was talking to him about becoming a golfer and... Cooper, what are your thoughts on Rory?
He told me, you know, go figure. He didn't play much when he was growing up in Maine because he's in Maine. The golf season is only so long when it's under 50 degrees for a long year.
But you go down to Florida, you're at Mount Verde for two years. As much as he might tell you and as much as people would say about him that he's a gym rat and he was only working on his game for 24 months that he was at Mount Verde, he's not in the gym 24-7, he had to go out and spend some rec time, he took up golf. And lo and behold, two years of being a golfer, Cooper Flaggs' handicap is... I can't remember what exactly he said. I think he's about between a 12 and 15. Wow.
Which is just... Two years. Yeah. I mean, so maybe some of what you were told is true, that he is a little arrogant, but it's like, well, when you pick up golf and you're already a 12 to 15 handicap when you've just picked up the game, you have some room to be arrogant.
Find if you want a take on this topic, John Mulaney talking about his week dealing with Mick Jagger at SNL, talking about how some people are just different and they live a different life and thus they might seem like jerks in normal context, but in the context of their life, maybe not so much. Connor O'Neill is with us here. Do you have a favorite college player in this draft that you're like, I know that guy's going to be good.
I'm planting my flag in the Maxime Raynaud camp. I'll tell you what, since learning so much about him in the recruiting process before he picked Baylor, I think Vijay Edgecombe is a stud. Me too. I think he is going to be so good. I think that's another guy that is scratching the surface of what he's going to look like four or five years from now. Me too. I hope he falls to Charlotte some way, somehow.
Don't think that's going to happen. I like the comp that Jay Bill has had. This is comp season of low end Victor Oladipo, best, best, best case scenario.
He has a game that's similar to Dwyane Wade and you can see it with that type of athleticism. Let's talk birds. To be clear, this is not me officially saying I'm out after last night. What I am saying is it is tempting to write off the Orioles because when they lose, they lose in horrific fashion. Just in the last week, you blow an 8-0 lead and lose 12-8. You are up in the eighth against the Yankees and you have several missed opportunities with runners in scoring position. You blow that game. Last night, no hit through six, five runs without an out being recorded in the seventh to go up and then just awful defense. You lose an extra to a Texas team that fired its hitting coach a month ago.
There are 11 games under.500 right now, 11. They're going to sell. They're going to. That's what they do.
They probably should sell. Somewhere in there, this is a good baseball team, and I'm still rooting for them to get over.500, but when you don't have a real manager and Adlai Rutchman's hurt and he's not going to be back until after the All-Star break, I think it's tempting, Connor. What you say could push me over the top of being out, just being out, and by out is I'm going to watch, but I'm going to have no hope or expectation that anything good will happen.
Honestly, I'm not out. In the time span that you're describing, aren't they playing about.500 ball? Yeah, but you can't play.500 ball anymore when you were 18 games under.500.
That's the problem. Today, we'll decide the series against Texas. Jacob DeGrom on the mound tonight against one of our AAA pitchers, Raiden Young. They just beat Max Fried.
That's true. With our B lineup, scrub lineup. How's that feel, W.D.?
I'm not really overly worried about it. We still lead the division. I just- Smoked Yankee fan. I do want them to sell certain plays. I want them to sell high on Cedric Mullins because they have enough outfielders coming. O'Hearn's going to be starting in the All-Star game.
I hope you can get a pretty penny back for that. I would rather not sell on O'Hearn unless you know Kobe Mayo is ready. First base. You're not out.
If you can get anything for Jorge Mateo, although he probably has zero value. No, yeah. Jeff Passa did a long story. A lot of Orioles were featured in the trademark.
And also, here's the other thing. You can play the game where it's like, hey, you're like six and a half, seven games out of the wild card or whatever it is. The Orioles, the only two teams in the AL worse than the Orioles right now are the White Sox and the A's. So it's not just, oh, this is how many games you're back. You're competing with the rest of the American League too.
It's a lot more palatable if you're six or seven out and you only have two teams to leapfrog. But they've got about the whole league other than the division leaders. So you're not out. No, I'm not out. They've not played 82 or 81 is the halfway point.
They have not played 81 games yet. Okay. Am I right? You are right. 34 and 45 maybe?
Or 33 and 44? By the end of this week, we'll be halfway there. Okay. So, okay.
You didn't fully sell me, but I just said it was tempting. I didn't say I'm out. I'm saying one more horrific loss this week and I might be out. How many times will I come in here and tell you if you live and die with every single game? But it's not every single game.
You're going to drive yourself crazy. Every time. But I've never once said I'm out.
Okay? You got pretty darn close. I know. We were 18 games under. You're like, oh, if we lose to the White Sox, two out of three, I'm done, I might not even go to Baltimore. And we didn't. We didn't. Okay?
I've been pushing that off. I'm not crazy overreactionary fan. It's not me.
Connor O'Neill isn't either. Connor, Deacons Illustrated, Devils Illustrated, appreciate you coming in to hang out with us. Thanks for having me. Now comes the moment you have all been waiting for. All right.
Whenever you're ready. This is The Drive with Josh Kraft. Chase Burns, former Wake Forest standout, had his major league debut last night.
And it was a success. And at night, out of Great American Ballpark, culminating with an extra innings win over the New York Yankees. As expected, Chase's electric stuff, it plays in the big leagues. He struck out the first five batters that he faced. 6K is to the first two innings, including a strikeout of Aaron Judge to close out the top of the first. He finished with eight strikeouts, no walks, and really, he had two pitches going. Well, he had his fastball. In the first inning, here's where his fastballs clocked in at.
98, 100, 99, 100, 100, 100, 99, and 99. And then he went to his slider. That's what he struck Judge out on. He threw five of those in the first, 93, 90, 91, 92, 91. That is his slider. It wasn't all clear skies, though.
The turbulence came the second time through the order. Ben Rice, home run, Aaron Judge single, Volpe tripled. Three runs in the Yankee fourth, but that's expected. You're a 22-year-old rookie making your major league debut.
You're facing a Yankee lineup that has all-stars all across it. They're bound to figure some things out against you, but almost as impressive as the way he started last night was that he was able to recover and finish with a solid start. He finished with a flourish. In the fourth, the Yankees scored those runs. He got one more opportunity against the top of the Yankee order, struck out Trent Grisham. He got Rice to line out, and with a runner at third base and first base open, he did not pitch around Aaron Judge. He went right back at Judge, and Judge popped one out, and Chase Burns was able to escape the inning. Five complete, 81 pitches, a great success for Chase.
Wouldn't you agree, Will? He pitched very well, very well. This has become a fun tradition on the show on draft day. We watch a lot of college basketball, probably more than any other sport that we follow. During the NFL draft, Ryan McGee, who loves college football a lot more than Sundays, as he puts it, says that it's easy to assume that draft guy knows more than the people that follow the college game, but it's not true.
He told the story about how he was on a plane one time. It was the year that Russell Wilson went third in the third round, and a scout, I forget if it was a scout or one of those top draft gurus, experts, said to Ryan, dead face serious, been hearing that this Russell Wilson guy's pretty good. And Ryan McGee's like, yeah, he went to the Rose Bowl with Wisconsin.
He was pretty darn good. That's how I feel with college basketball. So you hear all these NBA experts, all these draft guys, this guy's gonna fit, this guy isn't. We watch a lot of college basketball, so each year we pick a guy that we watched in college basketball that we felt pretty confident was gonna be pretty good, that is sure to be taken outside of the top five, and will all these guys end up being at least a rotation piece. And that might not sound like a lot to you, but look at each draft, and you will find a lot higher miss rate than you'll find in the NFL draft. A lot of guys, once you get past the first few picks, these teams, the best case scenario is that they find a rotation piece. And each year we identify somebody taken outside the top five.
That's gonna be that. Davion Mitchell was taken outside the top 10 in 2021. Right now he plays for the Heat, talking about 10 and 6 that he gives you each game, not bad.
Rotation guy. Dan had his best statistical year last year with the San Antonio Spurs, both those guys out of Baylor. Derek Lively in 2023, don't need to really go through how good Derek Lively was his rookie year on the Mavericks run to a NBA Finals appearance. And Jared McCain was our guy a year ago, Sixers, he just kind of knew that the guy was gonna be good out of Duke, and he was just that. So who's the guy this year? This might be our biggest swing yet.
The five years that we've now done this. This player might not be taken in the top 20. Think he will be, I think he might sneak in, someone's gonna fall in love with him. But Stanford's Maxime Reynaud is my favorite player in this draft. He's our guy this year that, based on watching college basketball, I know this guy's good. NBA guy might not know, because he's not watching Stanford basketball.
But you're gonna find out. He's gonna end up on a team. He's gonna be good.
And you're gonna have draft guys say, whoa, nobody saw this coming. His offensive game, absolutely translatable. He's seven feet tall. He can knock down perimeter shots, 35% from three last year. His handle, not incredible, but good enough for a guy his size. And how did you play when you played at Cameron? How did you play when you played at the Smith Center? Stanford won at the Smith Center, he scored 25. Played at Cameron, Stanford got the break speed off them, but Maxime Reynaud scored 18 points in the first half of that game at Duke. His intangibles are exactly what you want.
And while that might sound like lazy draft lingo, it isn't when it comes to Max. Super smart, excellent parents. He was highly recruited, but his parents said, no, he's going to Stanford.
Understood the educational piece, did well in class. His competitive level, honestly got a lot more of a sense of this, Will. Seen him play in person a few times during the regular season, but sitting behind the Stanford bench at the ACC tournament and seeing how well he communicated with his teammates in huddles, hearing some of the things he says, the competitiveness that this dude has.
When you watch it up close, it is impressive. And then his charisma off the court, just a guy that is so easy to fall in love with. You could see him doing well in all these draft interviews and the fans will like him the minute they hear from him.
Maxime Reynaud, since it's likely he's not going to go in the lottery, this is the other piece. So much of your destiny, how you're going to do in the NBA or the NFL or Major League baseball, it depends on which team drafts you. And when you're not being taken in the lottery, Will, what do we know about the teams that aren't in the lottery? Well they're usually pretty good.
They're usually pretty good! So what if the Boston Celtics select Maxime Reynaud and you're now being coached by Brad Stevens running things and there's some room there in the post now that Kristaps Porzingis is on the move. What if it's the Oklahoma City Thunder, who still have two first round picks in this draft? What if it's them? That's not a good situation to step into? What if it's the Orlando Magic?
Ah, you'd really like that. Picking in the 20s, another good team. What if it's honestly, what if it's Atlanta? Who just, they got Jaywin Johnson coming back from injury, great Jaywin Johnson, that's a joke. Kristaps Porzingis, Trae Young, you got a trade exception, we're $25 million, you could maybe add somebody else, the East isn't all that great, like, there's a chance he ends up on a team that's better than these teams picking in the top 10.
So Stamp, there you go. It might be seen as a swing for some, Stanford's Maxime Reynaud, he is our favorite player in this draft. We'll see where he ends up, it'd be pretty cool if it's the Charlotte Hornets, that'd be pretty cool.
That would be cool. But that would require the Hornets doing something that we want, which even when they're right, they don't do. I don't know what they're gonna do tonight, I got a feeling Hornet fans are gonna be upset, somehow some way, they're gonna be teed off. What would make Hornet fans most upset? What is the scenario tonight, because that's what we need to prepare for. I'm telling you right now.
What would it be? Because we study these things, so we kinda know there's some value if you maybe get some later first round picks, but your average maybe just fan that doesn't pay his close attention doesn't realize that, and they're thinking, we didn't get Cooper, but there is some stuff at the top with Khan and Vijay, but if you don't get that, and you move back, and they have no clue who the dude from Illinois is. Right. Would they be more mad at that scenario than Ace Bailey? Yeah. Would they be more mad about that than Trey Johnson? Yeah.
Okay. Because there's some name recognition there I think, because of Mott Draff's. If you want me to be upset, like if you're gonna upset Josh Graham, it's taking Ace Bailey with the fourth pick.
Yeah, it screws everything up. That's the one that would make me most upset, because Lamelo Ball, Ace Bailey, don't know if this room can hold both of them. This is it. You ready? All right, hold on. All right, do it.
Do it. All right, listen up. It's The Drive with Josh Graham. When Wake head coach Tom Walter joined us yesterday, we spoke about the chain reaction you normally see during coaching carousels in all sports, but particularly in college baseball. So Mississippi State poaches Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor, who's a legend, in Charlottesville, which then leads Virginia to poach Chris Pollard from Duke, and then Duke poaches Wake pitching coach Cory Mascara, who was officially announced to be the coach late last week. He announced today through Duke that four assistants are coming with him from Wake Forest to Durham.
Got a couple pitchers entering the transfer portal as well, which leads us to our buddy Darren Vaught, D1 Baseball, ACC Baseball, et cetera, here to talk about it. Between Virginia, Duke, and I guess Wake Forest, how much differently do you view these teams based on how things have settled? Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, because at Virginia, I mean, it's essentially the entire Duke coaching staff. You are using a syringe to take the DNA of one program, and it's been intentional by Chris Pollard.
He built it there the way that he built it, and you're just transferring that to another program. The question with Virginia will be, okay, how different from old Duke will that be? Wake Forest has got some change afoot, and they've had as much success as anybody recently, and Cory Mascara has had a lot to do with that as their pitching coach for four years. It'll be interesting. I love the hire of Eric Neeson.
It's a lot of fun. From the Astros to replace Mascara in Durham or in Winston-Salem. So that'll be interesting. And then with Moose in Durham, it's the first time head coach. We had zero clue what direction he was going to take with this hiring of his staff. A lot of the guys followed Pollard either to Virginia or elsewhere when he left the Duke program, so you got to throw a roster together pretty quickly.
Thankfully the portal doesn't shut down for entry until July 1st, so he's got some time to do it. Now let's answer some unusual questions with Darren Vaught. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.
That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham. Happy draft day to you, Darren. My question is draft related in a sense.
I prepped WD during the break about this question so he can answer this while you have a little bit more time to think. If we were putting together a big board for a draft and what we were drafting were athletes to fight the aliens with, who would be the number one pick? We're fighting aliens. The aliens are coming and we need to pick out of the human race who we're drafting. We're drafting a team to fight the aliens. Let's say the aliens are putting together their best five and we need to put together our best five in a fight. It's physical.
It's violent. Who are you drafting? WD, you've had some time to think about this. Who are you going with first?
I think I want Cam Newton. Today? Yeah. With his foot and such?
Well, it's not such anymore. That was a long time ago. Cam Newton, how old is Cam now? We can't do better than Cam? It doesn't change the fact that he's a specimen. He can't make an NFL team. We don't need him to get on an NFL team. He's 36. We need him to fight an alien. He's 36 years old. You want Cam Newton today?
He can fight the heck out of an alien. I don't need him to throw a football right now. I think Julius Pepper's over Cam Newton. I think Josh's point is well taken here. We need prime athletes.
We need, at the very least, athletes who are currently participating because they physically can keep up. It'd be like the Mavericks selecting Dirk Nowitzki tonight. It's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. We can't find somebody who's a little bit more physically ripe? I regret giving Will time to think about it. This is Superman we're talking about. I regret to give him, yeah, Superman who couldn't play his last three years with the Panthers because of his foot and shoulder. Superman. Right.
Are these, like are the front lines of this war with the aliens going to have an IL? Yeah, that's right. I have written down three names, four names here. Okay. Let me hold off on that because I think there's a lot of clarification that would be necessary for this. I don't want it.
Because we don't know what these aliens are capable of. Exactly. However, I'm just going to simplify it.
I'm going to simplify it for sake of the argument. We need the modern day Jim Brown. Yeah. You guys remember Mars attacks Jim Brown where he's like in Vegas and he's doing the whole Spartan bit and he like sacrifices himself basically. Correct.
To defend the others and he's just slugging these Martians. That's what we need. We need Jim Brown. So here are the guys I think might be most Jim Brown like.
If we're going in the NBA, Giannis or Victor, those are the two that I look at. Like these guys are monsters, they're freaks. One is actually called- That's the other qualifier here. Are we sure Wimby's not abandoning us to fight for the other side? He's going to like unzip himself and then like he's like a lizard person.
Okay. He's the societal implant that is going to trigger this whole war. Aaron Judge in baseball kind of has that maybe.
Of course. And then I saw a video over the weekend of Miles Garrett at OTAs, how quickly the guy runs and how big he is. Miles Garrett might be my choice in the NFL if I'm going to the NFL player.
I don't hate that. DK Metcalf feels like all sizzled, no steak. He's a diva.
He's a receiver. Someone writes in James Johnson, we saw him get thrown out of a finals game over the weekend. Shout out hashtag pro dekes.
Big week for hashtag pro dekes in more ways than one. Darren, what's your unusual question? Let's move this thing along. Yeah. I had fun with the New York Times is compiling a list of the 100 best movies of the 21st century.
So the first quarter century of the 21st century, 2000 to 2025. We revealed our ballot yesterday. Oh, okay. Well, this is probably a good time for me to reveal mine.
And with that, ask a question. I'm curious what the one on your ballot is that you are most confident the fewest number of people also have on their ballot. 500 days of summer. Okay. Yeah. Second choice would be La La Land. See, I think I've seen La La Land on a bunch of them.
Okay. Then 500 days of summer is the answer. That might be the second least likely. And then Moneyball's the third. Those are probably the three least popular ones.
I've also seen Moneyball on some too. You haven't seen another with 500 days of summer. So that's the answer. No, I haven't. I haven't.
That's the answer. What do you have on your New York Times movie ballot? What's the one on there that you're most confident nobody else has or a very small number of people have? Rogue One.
Rogue One should be on there. I've seen several. Okay. Maybe I associate with too many absolute nerds. I've seen that a lot. Because you know why? Because it's regarded as not just one of the best Star Wars movies, it's just regarded as a really good movie that happens to be a- I'm serious.
That's what this is, Will. I know. Because a lot of Star Wars movies- That's why it's on the list.
He's asking what might not be on other people's list that would be on your list. What's the one that is most unique to you? Well, I mean, hmm. Did you put like Hitch on there or something? This century. I love Hitch. Yeah. I love Hitch.
I do too, but it has no place on the best 100 movies of the 21st century. Can we do Elvis? Oh my God, yeah. By the way, somebody- That's not on anybody's list. So that works out great.
I was answering the phone, somebody passed along for the alien question. Sophie Cunningham. She can handle it. Yeah, good point. She can squabble up. Yes, valid.
Darren, what's your answer to the question? You guys tell me. Here's my list. Okay. The most recent is American fiction. Yeah. 2023 Oscar nominee, loved it. Jeffrey Wright, yeah.
Second most recent. The Gerard Carmichael directorial debut from 2022 on the count of three. That's definitely not on one other person's list, not even on Gerard Carmichael's list.
I think that's my answer, but just to offer up a couple more, Ed Norton in Leaves of Grass 2010, and then Ed Norton also, and Robin Williams in Death to Smoochie 2002. Love Death to Smoochie. Also on my list.
Smoochie, fantastic. Yeah. I don't even think Gerard Carmichael has that movie on his 10, and do you know where Gerard Carmichael's from? He's a triad guy, Winston-Salem, right?
The pride of Winston-Salem. Yeah. All right.
WD, what's your unusual question? So I was thinking, I went to, we've been talking about doing our show from the zoo for a while now. So I went to the Greensboro Science Center about a month or so ago, which has a zoo type section. It actually has a red panda in there. It does.
We learned that yesterday. Okay. And it just got me thinking, when I was there, it got me thinking back to field trips in my childhood and had that vibe to it and just how much I love going to things like that.
What is the best field trip you ever went on? Okay. Hold on. Clearly you don't love it that much because you associate places like that with a time that's long ago in your life. So you don't do it enough. That's what that tells me.
That would probably be true. Yeah. Sporting events. Like when you would go to a baseball game or something like that. Did you do that for a field trip? We did. There was like Education Day, Carolina Mudcats. We didn't have that in Virginia.
Education Day, not a thing. So I don't know that I did a sporting event for those. We've got a local theater, like a legit regional theater where they put on really good plays and I'm a nerd for that kind of stuff. We did several trips to see The Tempest and Phantom of the Opera. I'm trying to remember what else we saw there.
I've seen a ton of stuff there. Music Man? No. Mm-mm.
Did not see Music Man. See, I have two. When we went in fourth grade, when we went to the Biltmore, that was a pretty good one. And then in sixth grade, we went to Celebration Station that has the go-karts and the arcade. That one was pretty cool.
Biltmore and Celebration. I'm not familiar. So it's like a Discovery Zone kind of thing?
It's off-window. Yeah. They got like arcade games.
They got bumper boats and go-karts. That's the equivalent of also going to Biltmore. And related news, W.D.
's 12 because he still does all those things. Darren Vaught, it's good to see you. We'll see you at the NSMA in Greensboro on Monday. Appreciate you doing this. Can't wait. We'll see you guys there.
