Doggy Portraits

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, would you schedule this game?

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my city. It's time for The Drive with Josh Grant. You are on a Monday Drive WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we might as well have a new segment titled, Today in Bryce Young. Because it feels like almost on a daily basis, there's gonna be something to talk about with him. After all, he is the number one pick in the draft and that's only going to intensify.

Talk surrounding him as the fall inches closer. With that in mind, today was day one of OTAs for the Carolina Panthers and it's pretty clear already that Bryce Young is ahead of schedule. That was made evident in a subtle moment this morning when Bryce first arrived in the building. Remember, he's been a Carolina Panther for 25 days. It's day one of OTAs. He doesn't fully have the playbook yet.

Or at least he shouldn't fully have it yet. But apparently, he got the script over the weekend for what day one was going to be like, the play script, the things they were going to run. And when he walked into the office and saw Andy Dalton, he came up to him with the question and said, looking at this play script real quickly, this doesn't seem to be right. And he noticed there was a tag on one of the plays that seemed off, that seemed wrong. And Andy agreed.

Oh wait, yeah, that does seem a bit off. And they went to the Panthers coaching staff and apparently, yeah, he noticed this one little detail on one play in the script that seemed a bit off because that's how dialed in he is, knowing what the play should be, what the tag should be, and how it's supposed to look like. Again, day 25 as being a pro. Day 25 of having this playbook.

Day 25 of being a Carolina Panther. Here was Bryce on that moment. Yeah, you know, just getting the script before practice, you know, going through it in my head, you know, practicing everything. And there's something that I was, it was just a tag on something based on the formation.

It didn't make much sense, but it was just because it was a different tag. And, you know, talking about an easy fix, they had actually already fixed it by the time we got here in the morning once I talked to Coach Bob. But again, I just, I want to be prepared, you know, I want to look through everything and go through everything, give myself.

Day 25. This is exactly what you want if you're the Panthers coaching staff. This is exactly what you want from your number one pick. This focused on the details.

This bright. And this is why they traded up to take the guy number one. His strength was always the intellectual side of the game. The criticisms was the physical piece, were the physical pieces of it. The positives were his acumen. What was the buzzword?

Processing. That was talked a lot about with Bryce Young. He sees the game a little bit differently and thus he should be ahead at these things. He started two years at the pressure cooker that is the University of Alabama playing in the SEC. On top of that, Mack Jones in the national title season Bama had last waxed everybody that season so much that Bryce played in nine games his freshman year. So on top of being the start of the last two years and the best quarterback in college football and the toughest conference and perhaps the toughest place to play, he also got nine additional games his freshman season too.

He's ready to go. Frank Reich, he had high marks for Bryce Young's first day of OTAs. It was 10 out of 10 I mean you know just and so were the other guys but just complete command control poise. You could tell the way he was seen at the way working through progressions, accuracy in the throw, ball placement of the throw was all very good.

Yeah he's so excited. 10 out of 10. I'm getting varsity blues Billy Bob vibes from Frank Reich. Usually I get Kevin Costner vibes. I think his voice sounds a lot like Costner but I'm getting I call it a 10. That's Frank Reich. He's standing there on the sidelines watching Bryce Young day one of OTAs.

He's like give it, give it a 10. They're gonna figure out a way to start him day one. That's how this was all designed when we had Scott Fitterer on the show when Scott talked all throughout the process after trading for the number one pick they wanted to be in a position what's the expression they use to drop a quarterback in. We're just gonna drop them on in and start them. That's why you trade for the number one pick and then after doing so you bring in Andy Dalton so he understands the assignment. It's why for the first time in Panthers history you hire an offensive minded head coach who's a former quarterback and then equip him with Josh McCown as the quarterbacks coach and a guy who came from the Sean McVay tree and Thomas Brown and you have these analysts because David Tepper has 13 14 billion dollars to blow so here's Jim Caldwell on top of that and Parks Frazier is your passing game coordinator. You have this Avengers like staff for developing quarterbacks their role is to get Bryce Young ready to go and Andy Dalton is part of that too so they're gonna figure out a way and right now it seems that Bryce is ahead of schedule day one of Panthers OTAs. On Twitter at WSJS radio if you want in on today's show three three six seven seven seven one six hundred is the phone number.

Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. W.D. between NASCAR's return to North Wilkesboro, the basketball we had yesterday, the golf the PGA Championship we saw yesterday, what took precedent to you as a sports fan yesterday? Honestly I was kind of keeping up with each thing equally like flipping through like I had the PGA Championship on during the afternoon I was watching the basketball game I was watching the race last night with my dad like I was kind of plugged in a little bit of everywhere. Yeah a lot of stuff going on tonight it's game three of the Carolina hurricane series with the Florida Panthers the Eastern Conference Finals as that series transitions to South Florida tonight for game three and even though even though they lost the first two games on home ice it's not time to bury the canes just yet. I was at game two on Saturday night thank goodness it was only one overtime still found a way to show up at church at 915 in the morning despite being back like 1.30 earlier don't think I would have done that if it was like W.D. in game one you getting back at 4 in the morning into your house in Greensboro so we were thankful for that even though the result wasn't what we wanted but going into that locker room I fully expected W.D. for it to be a despondent place the margins being so small you lose game one and quadruple overtime you lose game two and overtime too you had every opportunity to win but that's not what it felt like Jordan Martinook he was ready to talk to us tell us oh it's it's another loss but we're down to zip we can we can figure it out we always do we always do bounce back and that was the message it's not time to bury them because of how small those margins were you are talking about a couple of over times and frankly the Hurricanes they deserve better on Saturday night the first period they're all over Florida out shooting them I think 20 to 5 memory serves correct they needed a second goal there they didn't get it they had a bad break with a review but then again so did the Florida Panthers they had the first great chance in overtime a lot of focus was Oh Florida scored early in overtime this time well Carolina should have scored earlier 15 seconds in Jordan Stahl had that look but they ran into a hot goalie which is often the story this time of year Sergei Bobrowski just a little bit better than Ante Ranta was Freddie Anderson gonna be back in net for game three by the way tonight then you just look at to the history in hockey there are plenty of examples of teams winning the series after dropping their first two games at home plenty of examples of that in these playoffs in fact the Devils against their rivals dropped their first two games against the New York Rangers still won the series in seven games but you might be saying Josh we saw how much the Devils were a contender Carolina took care of them in five games contenders Stanley Cup teams they don't fall behind two games to nothing losing their first two games at home the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes did their first two games of the playoffs they lost at home to the Montreal Canadiens and do you know what they did and when it's seven they won four in a row to win that series so do not write off the games they know they have to win the night plain and simple they know they have to win the night that much is simple you can't fall behind three games to nothing but Rod Brind'Amour here he was after the game confident given the Canes track record they're gonna respond it's tough because you know again these are the tough losses it's two you're right there and you know you maybe should have had it tonight and you know it's it is what it is also you know do the same routine we just kind of came through we've been through this so this is not you know something that we have to you know it's not new to us we've been kicking teeth there a lot these last few years and we've always responded so I'm pretty sure that you know we will next game and hockey players would know about missing teeth let's go down the rabbit hole the North Carolina rabbit hole that is Jeremy Markovits joining us in studio in addition to the rabbit hole you also do stuff at wake yes yeah I work at Wake Forest that's that's my job I'm a director of communications for the program for leadership and character there's a lot but it's just I do lots of fun communication stuff for really smart people all three of us WD you myself we've been short on sleep a little bit over the last few days WD was at the for overtime game last Thursday for the canes I was at Saturdays one overtime game so I'm not complaining by any means and you were out at North Wilkesboro past midnight last night we'll get to the race in a second but since you mentioned you're tied to wake force baseball number one in the country and we just got this note in here that they cleaned up in the ACC Baseball Awards Rhett Louder pitcher of the year for the second straight year Tom Walter named ACC coach of the year how about this and a two-year span ACC football coach of the year Dave Clausen ACC basketball coach of the year Steve Forbes ACC baseball coach of the year Tom Walter five players are named on the first team all ACC four others are on the second and third teams now if you've ever been to the couch which I've been several times it's a smaller park and I'm struggling to figure out when they're hosting regionals and super regionals how they're going to be able to accommodate everybody that's gonna be tough yeah you know I don't it it's one of those places where you know like Wake Forest is just such like it like everything is like small and big there at the same time so Wake Forest obviously small school the athletics footprint is very very large like in fact I got to walk around inside the football complex for the first time about a month or two ago as part of my job and when I was in there just this large thing like wow this is this is huge it's amazing and then also in there there was like a like an arcade like an old-school like wake football like are like pac-man looking thing and my son who is eight loves he's gotten into like the old NES games and I took a picture of that and he's like when when can I do like early decision to Wake Forest because I just I'm like I'm like that's not for everybody you got recruited yeah yeah you could you might have to play football there to be able to play the video game buddy like if that's a trade-off you're willing to make that's cool and you also you get to go to Wake Forest but like but yeah I mean it's just it I love that place and and and actually this is just again a small place I was in a meeting a few weeks ago and the guy that was in the meeting was kind of presenting to a small group and he was kind of talking about himself and everybody's kind of listening and they're engaged you know like really good smart people that I work with and then he kind of says that the dada also one of the things that do it I'm the motorcycle deacon and everybody just like sat up like they kind of set up straight now we're listening and and like oh oh okay and it was kind of like he knows that like okay at the Q&A session afterwards somebody's like okay back to the being the motorcycle deacon part and I was like do you get a lot of wind resistance on the head is there like a top speed he's like yeah you really can't take that out on like University Parkway and just run up the motorcycle without like straining your neck to keep that thing on but yeah I mean just just pop the motorcycle deacon good dude the North Carolina rabbit hole seems like a good transition that story to some of the stories that you tell NC rabbit hole calm so getting to North Wilkes-Barreau at what moment last night did it feel real Dale jr. last week and Darrell Waltrip were mentioning to us that it would seem real only when they see the green flag wave and there are cup cars out on that old surface that have been there since the early 1980s you were there when did it feel real it felt real as soon as I pulled in and not before that because one of the things that I was worried about I was there when they ran late models back last August yeah and and you know the drive in from the highway down Speedway Road to the actual track if there's nobody out there takes about five minutes took me about two hours to make that drive and about what time you're probably smart enough to try and get there I try to get there early I was actually coming from work and I left afterward and and they you could hear as I was walking in the races parts started eight they're vamping they're like okay well you know it's just a few more people come in here we'll get around started everybody like they knew so many people were just trying to get there and and there they had everything we ran really smoothly I mean like super smoothly like there was no way I got right up I parked where I was supposed to park I got right in but I think it was coming around the corner and seeing this entire big field that had really been just vacant for 27 years nothing in it and it's full of RVs and flags and you can smell people cooking hot dogs and and just like talking to each other and golf carts going around and people walking around them I mean so like walking up and seeing that full was incredible and and one of the guys that I talked to nine years ago Dean Combs who you know his family was the family that controlled half of that racetrack really since its inception you know he lives on the property you can look you can sit on his back porch and look across this field and at the time you just watched the the speedway rot and you can't even see the speedway now because there's so many things in front of it now it's it's incredible like that is the part where it got real just seeing like a NASCAR race happening there like just walking up and seeing people getting in buying things like the infield full like it was just as soon as you got there you're like this is real this is really happening and if you want great storytellers do a great job of telling a bigger story through one person WD he hasn't seen the movie miracle he's gonna watch it later this week the first time and that entire story is told through the lens of Herb Brooks the coach you could tell the story of North Wilkesboro through Marcus Smith's lens where you mentioned the Combs family that owned half of it I forget if it was him or the other side that sold it to Bruton Smith who might be the most hated person in North Wilkesboro he's the one that halted all races being there for good back in 1996 his son is Marcus Smith and he is without a doubt the primary reason that last night was able to happen what most fascinates you about his story I think that just that he is so completely different than his father and they're from the same family yeah he owns the racetrack owns the racetrack the very short version if for those who don't know exactly what happened they get cut up North Wilkesboro opens 1947 first NASCAR race in 1949 supposedly if you believe if you're if you're a truther about this sort of thing actually NASCAR was founded in Wilkesboro and not in Daytona around the same time but basically this track operated for a very long time Enoch Stanley one of the owners great friends with the France family and they let him keep on running races there at this tiny track that was now in an environment where all the tracks are getting bigger the speedways are getting longer he kept on being able to run his little race in North Wilkesboro through it all and and in 96 actually 95 96 Enoch's daily dies and Bruton Smith kind of sees some turmoil happening goes to the Combs family and says I needed racetrack date for my track in Texas I can't get one I have to basically buy your half of the track and take the date but the plan is I will let you have the other one you can still run one race I have plans for this place because he thought he was gonna get the whole track well that didn't happen the Staley family was very much like we are not selling the Bruton Smith in fact we don't even we don't want to be in business with Bruton Smith because this man is like you know has so much wealth we can't be an equal partner with him Bob Bear who had owned New Hampshire International Speedway took it over and took over bought the other half the two men were 50-50 owners they did not like being 50-50 on it with each other and so it was just a 27 year stalemate basically at some point Bruton Smith owns the entire thing but just as like I'm this place is so far gone I'm gonna let it rot basically he could have kept it going had he gotten everything but he didn't and he holds a grudge that is Bruton Smith I mean Bruton Smith is not the kind of guy you that you trifle with I mean the reason why when you drive down to Charlotte and the road is called Bruton Smith Boulevard is not because they love Bruton Smith so much because you know that's not what they would they named it after him they named after him because he was threatening to pull the race out of Charlotte unless he got the concessions he wanted from the county down there they're like no we love you this is great it's pretty obvious he's hated so my question to you yes his son is Marcus Smith he makes North Wilkesboro happen what what does he love so much why was he so willing to fight so much for North Wilkesboro you know I think he saw something there that he just he had his eyes open to it I think it started when he went down there with Dale jr. to weed whack to help weed back the place when I get on I racing yeah so you have and then so you go there and he's like wow look at this place it's all still here like it's the reaction that like generations of people who have showed up there in the intervening time have realized like this place looks like they just left it yesterday and he goes down there he sees it then he sees the reaction to I racing like it being the number one track on our racing he's like huh and then Dale jr. is an advocate for it he starts thinking a little bit people in in in Wilkesboro that area Wilkes County started saying like you know this is this is gonna this we could work for it it slowly kind of dawns on him and he I think he realizes sort of the thing that I think a lot of people realize is that like you know there is something there in small places I think if you think about the places where you have maybe the strongest memories yeah they aren't always in like it I mean you you might remember going to see some show in some gigantic Stadium with a hundred thousand people and it was just a great concert you might remember that you know it's not like that's a bad thing but like do you remember the show when there's like five people in a little club and it's tiny and there's nobody there and you got to see some band before they made it big this is an excellent point you brought up in your story NC rabbit hole calm it is Jeremy Markovich who's with us that for both practical and societal reasons that last night was significant and happened because of the pandemic yeah I mean Jim Otter very smart dude who covers you know note has forgotten more raising stuff and I will ever know you know made this point to me and I was talking to him last night yeah I mean pandemic causes NASCAR to think about differently about what where can we run races if we don't have people it can takes that it makes us think about things a little bit differently than we're used to la Colosseum race happens Chicago what's coming up happens yeah and now North Wilkes-Barre and even think about like Bristol run on dirt yeah I mean it's the same thing it's like you think out of the box because there's no suddenly one of the big rules is off the table so now you're like well I hadn't even thought about this but I guess we could run it here so that happens also the recovery money that ends up going toward the track to reopen it doesn't maybe doesn't come along and also like in some way I think there is zoom fatigue I mean you know one of the reasons why I came into studio today is like because like I do stuff on zoom all the time but I'm like if I can come in studio and talk to you that's like a lot better it's a better experience I'm happy you chose that yeah you know hey we're here now so so that is one of the things that happens and I think what you're realizing is the things that happen in smaller places are more intimate you feel them more you know it is hard to be there with like a hundred thousand of your best friends but if you're there in a place with a quarter of that where everybody loves it everybody is into it everybody realizes that wow they shouldn't even be here it feels like you're getting away with something it feels like feels like you you stumbled into something amazing I think that is what the feeling was last night you know Kyle Larson ran away with this thing he didn't he he about lapped the field and he said man I was looking five with five laps left I was looking into the stands and I was like I hope these people don't leave not to be corny it sounds like North Wilkesboro ran away with it too it really it really did I mean it was just like they stayed they loved it they got excited I talked to Jeff Gluck and then another great reporter who is like you know I used to do this thing where I would just like rate the driver interruptions by but basically by noise level you know not by yays or boos but just by like the general reaction and he's like I had to stop doing that because you do this a lot of these big tracks nobody pays attention the right drivers come out there's like yeah it's like thanks you know a few things yeah there everybody was into it so he was and the end that you tell the drivers knew this too I mean Ross Chastain got by the way got the biggest reaction the second biggest was Kyle Busch who came out and and and you know knows he knows his lot in life he knows that he's gonna get booed and so he comes out and as his entire pit crew does a very grandiose like bow into the booze and but like again that only happens if the entire place is engaged or the driver introductions a thing that gets lost in so many other places and it was just it was such a great environment because everybody there cared everybody there was there because they appreciated what they were seeing they weren't there because it was like a thing to do they were there to see racing come back and that's exactly what they saw he's on Twitter at definitely a name and it's NC rabbit hole on line it's a Jeremy market the perfect blend of sports and pop culture happens this evening at six with the rich icing show now back to the drive with Josh Graham we've got a lot to talk about we can get into the NBA series from over the weekend that are now both three games to zip or we can dive into story time where I came face to face with my own fat head shout out to Kyle the Amazon driver who's a regular phone caller who has created the Josh Graham fathead tour and over the weekend on Saturday morning I got suited up and took Willow the dog and Sarah Bradford to get portraits done of us three elegant WD the place was super nice people there are pros in Winston Salem and I'm wearing a suit willow the dog's got a nice bow Sarah Bradford really nice dress on we were shooting for the types of portraits that you might see like of your grandparents or of your great-grandparents where you're all dressed up and you're looking super elegant and it kind of helps that will owe the dog is a white fluff ball kind of makes us look like supervillains in a sense what I'm trying to say is willow the dog makes us look cool you know how supervillains have the white cat well willow the dog kind of looks like that with the white fluff ball that she is so we got portraits done willow the dog might have had an accident at the place might have can neither confirm nor deny that that happened they were cool with it big it was everybody loves willow willow did a marvelous job at focusing on the camera I just wonder is this a normal thing is this something I shouldn't be bringing up on the radio right now I haven't gotten any text from Sarah Bradford yet give it a minute three three six seven seven seven one six hundred babe everything about me trying to picture this taking place in my head is just hilarious what's most hilarious to you oh yeah what's the image that's making you chuckle her having an accident on your suit that's not it didn't have it in it not only not on your suit not on my suit just you all sitting there dressed up in the viewing room just willow in between you yeah what a statesman you are and it's gonna be a big portrait that's on our wall how big is it gonna be pretty big portrait oh my so when you walk into our home power move myself Sarah Bradford and willow the dog come into a bachelor watch party near you boom bachelor watch party it's gonna make it happen nah nah Christmas cards they're gonna look great we'll send it your way and you let me know what you think of them before we get into the NBA while we're talking story time it was funny going to a dash game with my wife yesterday my wife and having a couple of friends who are not the biggest sports fans like I doubt they listen to the show or anything like that and then Kyle the Amazon driver rolled up wearing it like flavor slave wears the the huge clock on him my my face my face a fat head him and his lovely wife Brie who apparently bothered B dot at some event in Burlington over the weekend to six man of Carolina basketball oh they they're the best by the way Kyle and his wife but they have future plans WD this thing's going on tour right yes he's creating the Josh Graham fathead tour he wanted to take it to a fs1 broadcasted port pro bowling event apparently with the ACC baseball tournament being in Durham this week he plans to show up with my face and try to get that on television during the ACC baseball tournament so be on the lookout for that everything about this is fantastic you just see this thing from across the park we just need more location so we need more locales before the Josh Graham fathead tour so if you have ideas shoot them off at Josh Graham radio at WSJS radio you want to talk Eastern Conference Finals or Western Conference Finals first we can get into the West first we haven't really gotten to that the West the way that this is being talked about on television is always through the prism of LeBron James it's frustrating where all throughout the year regardless of how good the Lakers are whatever team LeBron's playing for LeBron's gonna be talked about that's how the media machine works over there and at a lot of the national outlets so when they fall behind three games to zip the reaction is all what does this mean for LeBron what does this mean for his legacy the answer nothing it means nothing for his legacy or at least nothing negative certainly not positive but nothing negative the reality is the Western Conference Finals are about the Nuggets it's about the Nuggets not the Lakers but that's not the way it's being framed that the Nuggets are the better basketball team they're the number one seat for a reason and they have the best player in the sport this is what's supposed to happen and it's happening that's the part that is frustrating to watch but as for LeBron's legacy Michael Jordan's career is not defined by what he did outside of the finals neither is LeBron's like if LeBron got swept out in the first round maybe that's something that might hurt him albeit at this point of his career 38 whatever you're getting at this point just feels like icing on the cake like with Michael who's talking about his return from baseball and losing to the magic in round two in 95 who's talking about that who's really talking about the times that Michael lost first round series in the 80s who nobody you're talking about six for six in the final that's what you're talking about with Michael and with LeBron you're talking about what he did in the final how many rings he has how many times he's been there depending on what side of the argument you're on nobody ears from I was gonna be like you know what the deciding factor was for me yeah he lost to the top-seeded Nuggets with the number one player in the NBA oh yeah that's what really swayed my opinion it doesn't really matter in the long in the big scheme LeBron legacy discussion so let's not make it about that quickly hitting on the Eastern Conference Joe Missoula is toast because and the guy got an extension earlier this year in the regular season Boston lost nine home games nine times Boston in the playoffs Boston's lost five home games and last night they completely rolled over and I'm pro honesty I like when people tell me the truth tell us the truth I like that but sometimes it's probably best for your job's sake that you don't really tell us the truth sometimes here's what I mean there's one time he decided to play it out at an end of the game and they had a bad possession I think it was in the Philadelphia series and afterwards he admitted yeah I should have called timeout and ever since then everyone's been writing him about timeouts why cuz you admitted you made a mistake with the timeout Roy Williams never said he had made a mistake with the timeouts except the time he forgot to tell his his team to foul after a timeout against Clemson the one time that Clemson won in Chapel Hill right so now everyone rides up about the timeouts and he's partly responsible for that and then last night he said this when talking about getting his team ready for a blowout loss yeah just I just didn't have him ready to play I should have whatever it was whether it was the starting lineup but it was an adjustment just I have to get them in a better place ready to play that's on me he just went on talking about how it was his fault his fault his fault to the boy where I could see someone with the Celtic saying yeah you're probably right it is your fault and we're gonna fire you now and they're going to because that's how poorly organized the poorly coached they've been they didn't want to get rid of email Doka but then they had to given how that situation turned out before the year started and they lost Hardy a very key assistant who was big on their defensive rotations we've seen how bad their defense has been they just couldn't get any stops against Miami they lost to key they lost Damon Stoudemire to become the head coach at Georgia Tech so they were a thin staff after losing email Doka and then promoting Joe Missoula he just wasn't prepared and this is a roster that isn't ready to have a coach figure things out on the fly you're ready to contend right now if Tatum and Brown and a roster that needs to be ready to win immediately that's not who Joe Missoula is and he should be out of the job after this series ends assuming Boston loses one more time which they're going to it's been a while since I tried to out precise the guys as Brian Geissiger joins us now I am NOT optimistic of how that's going to go but we'll get to that in a little bit the Charlotte Hornets had a big night last week it wasn't treated as a big night because everybody was focused on the number one pick and getting Victor webin yama which predictably went to the San Antonio Spurs Charlotte jumps up two spots and I thought the reaction was going to be positive in that oh it's Scoot Henderson now Oh Scoot Henderson time for Charlotte but then I read Jonathan Gavone from ESPN who is projecting Brandon Miller's the guy and said on a podcast that everybody he talked to in Chicago GM scouts there it was almost consensus that they believe Brandon Miller from Alabama is going to be the pick instead despite the fact Gavone even reported that he wasn't great in interviews seemed to be bit a bit out of shape so that's a little bit alarming apparently you know BG Mitch went to go see a Mitch cup check at the game he dropped 41 at South Carolina and was enamored with Brandon Miller ever since then there's a lot of time between now and draft day my read on it at first was it should be Scoot Henderson he should be the guy how do you separate Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller yeah well first off we'll just say these are both but real quickly Gavone also said later on the podcast he was on with Zach Lowe that he thought 6040 Charlotte was gonna take Brandon Miller and that's before you know either of these guys have you know interviewed or you know worked out with Charlotte at least in terms of like what was publicly known yet which could certainly sway something could sway a decision for someone like Mitch cup check but for me personally both guys are awesome prospects right like this I don't want to ever I don't want to get to the point where building one guy up meets having to tear the other one down these are both excellent process so you're not thinking this is like a vast difference this is no how long will you felt about Lamela versus James Wiseman a few well no certainly not not not that extreme but no I do think there is absolutely a difference in caliber between Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller like I I don't this is not like to a to be with me like I think Scoot is the superior prospect there is I have Scoot sort of in his own tier behind Victor when Vinyama as the number two like clear-cut prospect and I think in a normal non when Vinyama draft Scoot would be he pretty clearly the number one overall pick you know I do think Miller is benefiting a little bit from being the number one NCAA prospect and I think he also gets probably a little bit of benefit of getting to play in the system at Alabama where yeah he was clear-cut the number one guy but that's an offense that really puts a premium on shooting and spacing so it was good context for him this year in terms of offensive system at least but Scoot Henderson just in a uniquely athletic point guard prospect is in the caliber of guard prospects in terms of athleticism we just haven't seen too many of these guys last decade you're thinking of guys like John Wall Eric Bledsoe West Russell Westbrook he is that kind of special caliber of an athlete a guy that can be a three-level scorer has shown nice patience and in good vision as a pick and roll playmaker and a guy that looks like he could absolutely come in and be a primary creator in the NBA given given time and development but certainly has the ability to fit in next to another guard that wants the basketball lot with someone like LaMelo so look if you're a team like the Hornets you should be drafting best player best prospect available almost no matter what like they're not close and just because you look at the wing rotation say wow there aren't a lot of good wings here I mean no duh you know you wouldn't draft you know Brandon Miller if they had the number one pick uh-huh just because they have Mark Williams Nick Richards that doesn't mean they wouldn't take Victor when Benyama right like they wouldn't just look at their wing room and say wow we need a wing let's get a wing in here they're they can't draft for fit they have to go out and get the best prospect right now um Miller's awesome I think if you were drafting fourth or fifth he'd be a slam-dunk pick um but no for me it's pretty clear like scoot over Brandon Miller for the number two prospect in this draft I'm so glad Brian Geissiger you know him from the Buzzbeat podcast you know him for his stuff at 24-7 as well and you know him for schooling me and out precise the guys for years now but getting to the piece you brought up about the college advantage that Brandon Miller had I had a scout tell me a couple of months ago that this draft reminds him so much of the 2019 draft where all the oxygen was sucked out of the room by Zion but it was pretty much you know it was pretty much gospel that the second pick was going to be Ja Morant and the reason why Ja Morant isn't being talked about as an undersized guard the way that scoot Henderson's being talked about is because there was some reference point of Murray State and the things that Ja Morant did that we all were able to see and maybe not as many people were keeping tabs on G League at night or even watching when scoot Henderson went blow for blow with Victor webin yama and Vegas last year yeah go watch the first game they played that they played the doubleheader out in Vegas and scoot got hurt and didn't you know wasn't available for the second game but in the first game it was incredible like he was unbelievable in terms of half court decision-making playmaking scoot wise you're talking about scoot right yeah absolutely yeah I mean like women yam was was unbelievable both guys really like showed out but no I'm talking about scoot who was going at when the yam when finishing around him at the rim and making passes around him and scoot needs to get better um as a as a shooter but the pull-up shot and the floater are pretty good um he has good energy transfer he has good lower body mechanics like I think he's gonna end up being an okay shooter and at times it looks pretty good he saw again he's already pretty solid um in the mid-range and Morant would also be in this class of like just like special you know point guard athletes of the last decade or so that Henderson would be but scoot also if you I don't know if you've seen him play recently or if you saw him this season with G League at night he doesn't look like a normal rookie point guard like he's he's he's well built he's got really long arms like he's got a great frame I know he's listed at 6-2 but what he's got I probably like a 6-9 wingspan and again he's already pretty and he's built he's built like a like a you know fire hydrant too so um like again I think he's right now the defense is not a strength but I think you've got to look at the tools and sort of evaluate him um use lean on those tools in your own player development to think that this is a guy that could be a good or at least a passable point of attack defender at some point which in a long term if you're building around scoot and lamello hypothetically which I think Charlotte should be trying to do you know that is that would become a concern right like I don't worry about the offensive fit that much with those two guys it becomes like the perimeter defense but there's there's ways you can could construct around that and I still think there's a chance that's good becomes like a positive on ball defender at the next level so don't get me started on the lamello ball fit thing you're right we shouldn't be talking about fit but even if we were because lamello Oh scoot oh he struggled shooting this past year well lamello can shoot last I check and because that works having it an attacking point guard who can rim attack the rim like scoot can when that's a huge concern for lamello I just see these guys as two separate players one six to the guys the other six seven ones pass first the others more of a scoring guard they're totally different scoot touches the paint every time he wants to basically you know or he forces you to send more attention to him when he gets in the when he's trying to get downhill and what does that mean that means layups that means dunks that means passes to mark Williams hypothetically in the dunker spot for a dunk or a lob that means free throws he this is like scoot is also a guy like if you watched him play these two seasons for G League night like he does some dirty work stuff too like he gets on the offensive glass he competes there I know the motor didn't always run high defensively but you see it sort of in other other parts of his game and yet lamello ball is a 41% career catch-and-shoot three-point shooter pretty darn good on on a lot of volume mind you and the other thing with lamello look I don't you don't want to take the ball out of his hands completely because he's he is a really really special player and creative player and like you know one of the one of the ultimate passers of this generation already but you get lamello attacking closeouts you get him getting to come off of more off ball actions into dribble handoffs or into ball screens and all of a sudden lamellas getting to attack a tilted defense or a closeout or getting to cut into pockets of space that's when he is so dangerous as a passer getting to play that make the extra play make make the extra pass the tic-tac-toe passing the kind of stuff where you could see very easily scoot Henderson bends the defense on a pick and roll he kicks out lamello ball drives and either more to help comes and it's either a lob to mark Williams or a kick out to PJ Washington in the corner for a three like you don't have to like think that hard to envision how this could really really work but again it's it's less about fit and more about that like as good as Brandon Miller is he's an awesome prospect that I just think scoot is is superior and should be the guy Charlotte goes with that at number two Brian Geisinger making our show a lot smarter with his analysis on all things hoop and now we get to the main event of today's show which is out precise the guys Brian Geisinger is a basketball genius Josh Graham is not listen as Brian launches half-court shots and Josh well double dribbles all over himself and there's nothing you can do about it get off the bench and try to out precise the guys if you knew the proceedings BG he knows his stats he's a bit of a hoop nerd and I respect the hoop nerdiness of our friend BG WD has dug up some questions that gives BG a chance to flex but also gives me a shot so you're watching miracle for the first time yep you hadn't seen that you get to see the greatest upset in sports the US team upsetting the Russian spoiler alert by the way the US wins that game this might be the equivalent of that in sports radio me trying to to win and out precise the guys so I want to start with the Celtics because one of the big things that caused their implosion in the finals last year's was record setting numbers of turnovers so Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown in this series against the Heat I want to see if you can figure out what their assist the turnover ratio is so they have 21 assists combined between the two of them okay how many combined turnovers do they have in this series like this three game in this series okay pretty impressed you said 21 assists 21 assists yeah I got a number down all right I'll go I'll go 20 turnovers I got 28 written down that now feels really high it is 23 more turnovers than assists yeah so not good yeah Jalen Brown you might think it's his hand but then you brought up the context of last year this is not a new problem for Boston no the way that they turn it over yeah Jalen Brown's awesome like incredible athlete great shooting touch but man he struggles to dribble in it yeah it does seem like his hand has been messed up all playoffs to hurt and he's got the mass so he's playing for some things what's the second thing you got one of the burning questions throughout these playoffs has been who's the better player right now Jimmy Butler or Jokic in these playoffs that's been a question yes okay who's the who's the better so I'm gonna focus in on fourth quarter points points per game here clutch time spoiler alert Jimmy's averaging more than Jokic my question is how many more points per game in the fourth is Jimmy Butler averaging than Jokic yeah of course Jimmy probably benefiting from getting more I don't know they've had some blowout wins too yeah maybe I was gonna say maybe Jokic has benefited from or as has been hit a little bit from playing less in the fourth quarter but I don't know let's say let's say two points more for Jimmy or it is 1.6 Butler was 7.9 Jokic 6.3 what's the last one and in honor of Carmelo Anthony retiring today you see legend absolutely he finishes career night in NBA history and points how many points was that in his career in his career did he um ninth and NBA history did he get to I'll just I'm gonna go just a round number I'll say 30k Andre 3 3 30,000 points for a thousand points for Carmelo I have a number that's way too big I got 37 written down now that I think about it it's way too many points yes it's 28,000 280 because I just now realize where LeBron's at and I'm like that's a that doesn't I wish I had more time to think about this that's a stuff that's a 3-0 sweep next time we catch up with you we need to talk about NC State's national title hopes because of Casey Morsell coming back that's right we do need to do that shout out to Carmelo Anthony respect to a pretty unbelievable career yeah he's a he's the equivalent his career is the equivalent of the three and a half hour movie that if it was an hour shorter people would like a lot more that's that's Carmelo like if his career ended six years ago after the 2016 Olympics I think people and there weren't six seven years of memes of how old he was I thought people would remember him differently I really I think I do think the Portland years were good for him I think it was the the OKC run that wasn't those struggle I really think the circumstance or what hurt him the most like he came along at the peak of like he and LeBron like they're the careers are matched and you know just the time when the the game his prime was being lorded over by you know the best or second best player in the history of basketball makes sense Brian Geisinger it's good to see you and we'll chat sometime soon I'm sure sounds good guys