Tuesday: WOAI NBA draft party

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
We're doing a special draft show that will follow this
show next Wednesday night out at the Rock. It'll be
andrewsz Emmo and Dylan Emery. We'll host things from out there,
and I guess breakdown every pick that comes down the
pike and see what the Spurs do with the number
two pick when they get to that. After we know
that Dallas is going to take Cooper Flag.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
What if they don't. Oh my god, come on, Nico Harrison,
screw this up.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Screw this up.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, I had We did a topic on this a
few weeks ago, and there are those in the Cooper
Flag camp that have said they really don't want to
play in Dallas, at least on the on the it's
not been it's not been loud, it's not been should
do or Sanders like, But it's like, man, we really
thought we were going to the Spurs. We were really

(00:59):
hoping to go down there and play with Wimby and
that would have been a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, yeah, you saw the excitement in his eyes when
he you know, he realized he was down to Dallas
and he was like, oh bleep.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
But listen, if Nico Harrison, there's you talk about getting
a break.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
You completely screwed up the trade, whether it was your
idea or ownerships or whatever. You're going to take the
heat for this. In Dallas Mavericks lore forever and now
you get a reprieve. And this trade could have paved
the way for you to get Cooper Flag and the
Dallas Mavericks could have the next Dirk Novinsky for the
next fifteen years and win a couple of championships, and

(01:38):
Nico will be looked at it as well. You gave
away Luca, but she got his Cooper, so all it's forgiven.
Did he really get him Cooper? Or did Adam Silver
be like, hey, we're gonna go.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
We got you. Don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
The one point four percent chance and either saying there's
a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I don't like it. I really don't. I've had this
conversation before.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
You think it was fixed.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
No, I know, I'm not gonna say that it was fixed,
but I don't. I've never liked the lottery system for
the NBA.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
So what should they do?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Just give it to the worst team.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
I I would say yes.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Because the Purgatories would have fifteen years of good players
that they still couldn't play together because they have no
culture in chemistry.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I get that, But how how else are bad teams
supposed to get better if they do not have the
opportunity to have I'll tell you players, I'll.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Tell you how they get better. And and it gets
back about management ownership on the court. It starts with
management and ownership. I'm not talking about management.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Then there's no way.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
I'm talking about players.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
You can't get better without. You can have the best
players in the world. I can give you an all
star roster, and if you have a bad coach, a
bad GM, and a bad owner, you're gonna lose. I
can give you an all star team and you're gonna lose. J.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
I was gonna say JJ Burrew, JJ Reddick.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
You know he didn't Yeah, he played, but he was
a lane duck key coach that didn't know what to
do and they still managed to do it.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Who's that? JJ Reddick the Lakers head coach. When did
he ever coach before? He didn't know? That's what I'm
saying is you're saying.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
They got to the playoffs, but they're not winning with
that formula. Yeah, And that's and and and the Lakers
are not the best example of a bad run organization.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
And Cheney Bus is okay. She's not as good as
she could be, but she's okay.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
But I'm talking about Washington, and I'm talking about Brooklyn.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
And I think you can talk about the Clippers back
in the Donald Sterling days. Uh. And there's just there's
just teams out there that are so poorly mismanaged that
it doesn't matter who's on their roster. Well, the Clippers
were to fail because they had Doc And I'll give
you the whatever I'll give you, I'll give you this example.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
The spurs, the spurs between.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Red buying the team in eighty seven and selling the
team to the group that eventually is what it is
now in the whole family Red did. Red was a
billionaire and a philanthropist for this city, and it was
always kind to me and always remembered me. I had
not an open relationship, you know, but a very good

(04:15):
one with him. I think the world of him, and
whether it was real or not, he was always pleasant
around me. I have no animosity towards Red. But Red
was not going to spend money to win championships. He
was going to spend money to keep the team in
San Antonio and he would not. I remember that they
were the coaching staff wanted to invest in players and
pay them a big time dollar amount that were not

(04:37):
going to be starters. And he vetoed those traits and
he was about sizzle. He wanted Larry Brown because he
won a national championship. He wanted John Lucas because John
Lucas was a lightning rod. And it's kind of like
the Jerry Jones approach. Do you talk to me, I
don't care if you talk good about me or a
bad about me, as long as you're talking about me.
When when Pop took over the team as general manager,

(05:00):
the culture changed in that you're not only going to
have to pay pay players, but you're gonna have to
pay to develop players and to find players. And there's
a definite line of demarcation in the sand between ninety
four to ninety five and everything before that on how
the organization was financially run, separating basketball from the business

(05:21):
side of the operation and focusing on you know, we
have an unlimited budget and sometimes we go over it.
And that's how that how the Spurs got great, and
Dallas can be great if they're if they're run properly
with Cooper Flag. So you cannot have a great organization.
You have all the talent in the world in that organization.
But if your owner is gonna meddle and your general

(05:44):
managers not is going to not know what the lay
of the land is, like the Giants saw on hard
knocks last year, and your coach is incompetent, it doesn't
matter what your players are, You're not going to win.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
So back to Cooper Flag.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
If if Luca were on this raw steel and that
trade had never happened, and you could get Jannie or
Kevin Durant for Cooper Flag, it would be absolutely accepted
in Dallas that you could do that. You make more
more people, you would, you would make it. You could
put Kyrie, Luca and and and Cooper Flag together and

(06:21):
that's a championship material team. The Dallas Mavericks would have
had no not for Cooper Flag, but Yiannis and Luca
and whoever Kyrie. So if you had not, if you
had not traded him, then you could trade Cooper Flag
and get away with it for the right piece.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
But because you.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Traded Luca, you cannot trade for You cannot trade the
number one pick it's it's uh uh. For those who
repurchased their tickets after they sold them after they are
denied that they wanted to re up after they traded Luca,
and then they went back after they got the lottery pick,

(07:01):
there would be an empty building if they traded away
Cooper Flat.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
I'm just saying I would hold the right to reservation
until the actual pick is made.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
I'm just saying the only thing that's going to keep
Cooper Flag from not playing his entire career in Dallas
is him deciding after his rookie year is up, I
don't want to be here anymore.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Or if he flat out pulls a uh Brownie James
Rich Paul style and say, Dallas Mavericks, do not draft me.
If he's not going to we are not going to
come back.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
He's not doing that, I know he's not, but I'm
just saying.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
The other scenario is he could just flat out and
not be that good, which I don't think is since
he's been good at every level he's ever played at
and then some that's highly doubtful that that everybody's missed
on this. But you cannot not draft Cooper Flat. That
is mandated, and even if the Addelson family decided to
do it, there'd be a collection played in every church

(07:55):
in Dallas to buy the Mavericks from that team if
they got rid of this this pick.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Joel Epstein's just to just lose in Houston. I thought
he was in Dallas. No, Jal's in Houston. Yeah, he's
in the old side. I actually, I actually do have
a little.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Bit of a workaround for the lottery instead of having
the percentage that it is because again one point four
percent chance that the MAVs had to get the number
one draft pick, and.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
They only got that because they won.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
A freaking coin flip against the Atlanta Hawks to get
that last lottery potential, I would say something along the
lines of, let's say the teams one through three that
had the three worst you know, so in this instance
it would have been Utah, Washington, and Charlotte. Those three teams,

(08:42):
you have a thirty three percent chance to get one, two, three,
you can't finish any worse than third, and then the
next four, five, and six you only get four.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
The only problem I have with that is that those
three teams in particular are perennially in the top three
picks and I'm sorry. There's got to be a penalty
to pay for constantly sucking because your owner won't spend money,
and your GM doesn't know who to draft, and your
scouting department doesn't know anything, and you've got a coach

(09:11):
that you're just paying minimum wage because we got to
have a coach because we can't do it ourselves. It
comes back to having an organization from the top down
that has committed to winning. And if you want to
come out to your fans and go, we're committed to
making money and to put on an entertainment. We're not
committed to winning, and that way they know whether they
should buy tickets or not. But the teams that have

(09:31):
won in the last thirty years in the NBA, for
the most part, are committed to winning. And I don't
want Cooper Flagg playing for Charlotte or Washington because he's
just going to be wasting away for five years.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I get that, But in this instance, it should have
been Utah. Utah was seventeen and sixty five, had the
worst record in the league. Utah is picking where are
they fifth?

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Fifth? I'm sorry, that's wrong. When the team that had
the number one pick that won twelve.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Okay, let's let me. Let me put it to you
this way. And here's what the league is trying to prevent.
If if if Dallas knew that after Luca got hurt
and Lucas traded and Kyrie got hurt and Anthony Davis
got hurt, they would have purposely lost and tanked every
game they did they years, and they they would keep

(10:22):
doing it because I don't care how much you find me,
I'll pay the fine to get Cooper flag. And that's
the reason the lottery happened in the first place, because
back in the early eighties, when the season was over,
you had teams purposely tanking games so that they could
get the last pick, that they could be last and
get the first pick in the drafts.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
What they did two years ago when they were mathematically
out of it and they decided to tank the last
game of the season so they could increase their lottery right.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Now and they'll get And that's the reason why the
that's what if you don't have a lottery, you're gonna
have three teams like Utah and and and and.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Uh always back they're not.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
But Utah showed in Washington in a bad year, would say,
let's keep losing. And even the Spurs when they got tim,
you know that we were still in the lottery, and
they weren't trying to lose, they just organically lost because
by the time the fourth quarter rolled around there was.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Nobody left to play.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
So yeah, it's you're trying to prevent organic tanking or
tanking in general, and that's why the lottery exists, and
it's worked in every sport. The only league that doesn't
have a lottery is the NFL. Everybody else does. Major
League Baseball draft is ridiculous anyway. They have six hundred
and forty five rounds. All right, Well, a couple more
segments to go. We'll continue this conversation in more next

(11:35):
at six thirty three on the Ticket