Hour 3 - NBA Draft Goodness

Jason and Mike react and recap Round 1 of the 2025 NBA Draft! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. And uh, we'll get
back to the NBA Draft in a second. Got a
big takeaway from the first round. But first, two big
things have happened in this Dodgers game against the Rockies.
Number one, it was three to one, Dodgers bases loaded,

(00:49):
Max Munsey coming up just before Monsie's doing her update, Yeah,
and Frostburg goes here it is right here, grand slam
from Muncie. And I said, oh, is this a replay?
Like you know, we had all TVs on all the time.
Is this replea is no, He's up right now, And
I'm like really, and he hits a grand slam, yeah
this And I hear Monsey on the on the air
for updates. Say, and it's just a grand slam for
Max months you go Frostburg. That's like the best prediction

(01:12):
you've ever had. I mean you could have well, I
wish you could have won money on that. A second
best prediction? What's no.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Time?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, river to the next Listen if you if you
google doc Rivers Nicks. Okay, the first thing that comes
up is the Ron Burgundy Gift of its science. Right, No, no, no,
the first I'm not lining. The first that comes up
news about doc Rivers Nicks. Yard Barker report Nicks have

(01:44):
not requested permission to speak to Rick Carlile, Steve Kerr,
doc Rivers to Ron leeuw er jj Reddick. Yeah, that's
the show. Are those no? So are those the only
NBA coaches because they're enumerated as such that have where
the front offices were not contacted? Is that we we're
led to believe that the other offenty six teams were
contact You have to include the last word yeah, now, no, no, no,

(02:07):
they've not been contacted. Doesn't mean it doesn't mean it's well,
it's a parenthetical yet doesn't mean no, doesn't mean it's
gonna happen they're not talking to dog, doesn't mean it's
not not happening, not real. He might be circling the
the Times Square right now, just waiting on that call,
just hate activating outside of MSG doing the Jamal Adams
trying to swipe my pass in and yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
I'm waiting.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Let's got to work.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Hey, hey, JD, I even bought your CD. I bought
that JD in the Straight Shots, So I'm ready for
my interview.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I learned songs.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
I can Hey, I can win three games any round
of the playoffs. Don't ask me for four, but I
can win three any round, any round you want. I
could have won three against the Pacers, could have done.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
That, and I can be a backup dancer. Still, Robert
Palmer had the Wiggle Women back in the day. I'm
ready would have lost Game seven, but still I would
I would have. Uh, well, of course, I mean now
that's science. So look tonight you probably got to watch
at least a little bit of the NBA Draft on ESPN,

(03:06):
and you know, we got to watch some of it
before he came on there. Obviously been doing the show
the last couple of hours, but you know we got
to see the first ten or so picks right and
more what stands out again? And I'm watching the you know,
the broadcast, and it's just an odd broadcast and it
it cements why the inside the NBA guys are coming

(03:27):
in next year because ESPN just doesn't really have an
NBA identity anymore. Right, Kendrick Perkins is a hot take
guy that does great on the air during the day
debating stuff in the NBA, But now he's on the
set talking about NBA player these guys coming out of
college and from overseas that you know, nobody knows. And
it's not anybody's fault. I'm not saying, oh, but this

(03:49):
is what these are the guys we're gonna put on. Okay,
that's great, I understand that. But wow, you wonder why
people rip the product so much. And there's things that
ESPN does great. Right, I'm not saying it's ESPN does
college football great. They do college basketball great. There's things
they do really, really, really well. Right, They've always done
the NFL great, But the NBA they've struggled on because

(04:10):
they don't really have an identity, and it's just weird.
They cycle through their personalities every single year. It feels
like and they have a new philosophy, because that's kind
of how ESPN programs. They get ten people in a
room to ask what do you think about this? They Okay,
that's what we're gonna do for the next six months,
and then they do another focus group and that's what
gonna do for the next six months. But the NBA
has no identity now, and this is why inside the

(04:32):
NBA is coming in and that's gonna be the NBA
identity for ESPN. That doesn't mean the draft broadcast is
gonna be better because you know, Charles and Kenny, they're
not gonna know any of these guys coming out of
college basketball. But at least it's gonna help because the
the the identity they have ESPN the NBA it is,
it's like it's just, hey, we're throwing stuff out there.

(04:54):
And I know the big comparison was made game one
of the NBA Finals. Hey, ESPN's doing this game like
it's a game in the middle of February, and I
don't know that. That's why I don't. I don't. I
didn't see it like that. I saw it more of
I felt I feel like watching ESPN do basketball now
that they cycled through so many people. It's like watching
a in the nineties and early two thousands when other

(05:18):
entities started getting play by play rights two games, right,
because ESPN had the rights for everything for the longest time, right,
that all the all the national novel and you watched
your local teams, right, you know, CBS had the NFL,
so you had your local national NFL announcers and and
and you know, say, your local baseball announcers, like you know,
your local guys. That's how it was. But ESPN had

(05:41):
everything for a long time, but it was always this
is you know, you're getting a great broadcast. But then
when the other entity started to come around, you know,
Fox in different places, CBS, and they started to get
rights to things. Okay, now we're putting out our own
live broadcast, and it just didn't feel like the same.
It felt like the quality wasn't what you would expect
from a big time sports network or conglomerate putting this

(06:04):
on the air. And that's kind of how I feel
when I watch the NBA product on ESPN. There's there's
no idea. It's like, we're just gonna keep throwing stuff
out there. And I hope it gets better, or hope
something sticks and hope stuff happens. And when you keep
having turnover and you can't find the right combination, whether
your turnover because a guy is leaving to coach a
team or because someone is mad at another opportunity that

(06:28):
somebody else is getting, so they wind up getting let
go from ESPN, whatever it is. They've never figured the
NBA out, so it's no. So you watch more tonight
and go, yeah, it just seemed odd, it seemed awkward.
They what they try to do. Yes, it's the draft,
and you get the emotionate the players who are either
happy they're getting picked or upset they're getting picked. Their
family members are crying, they're very happy. You still get

(06:50):
those emotions, but the broadcast overall just doesn't feel like
what the NBA Draft broadcast should be. And again this
is why it's inside the NBA run into the rescue
for them. Next time. You unfortunately have the circumstance whereby
the draft doesn't have the same grandiose run that it
that it used to have. Regardless, right, it didn't matter

(07:11):
who would be hosting it at this point, because beyond
several top names, you're guessing who's who a lot of
the guys are, or you've seen maybe a handful of
games during the NCAA tournament or during conference tournaments. Maybe
you're a huge college basketball fan, so you really know
these rosters. Because even at the back end, right, we're

(07:31):
joking the guy that the the Clippers take the seven
footer out of Penn State, he averge seven points a game.
He's a big guy that they're hoping to come in
and be a defender, grow in and be a post presence.
But he's not a dominant seven foot guy coming in
Neederhauser need exactly?

Speaker 4 (07:52):
Is that a pledgement on your uniform? The point be
weepin from Penn State University.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
All right, now you're spitting all over the Clippers uniform.
But the idea being that you know you have you
have billis you have guys you can lean into it.
They can only sell so much because then you still
have to bring it back to the NBA game. And
we've seen time and time again with guys that are
covering the NBA. Yeah, Steven A. Smith on down, do

(08:28):
they know who are on these teams and are part
of these rotations? So how a guy fits doesn't even
if billis sets it up on a tee, isn't necessarily
gonna be hammered. So don't matter we other thing we
talked about you and I Oh, they're also not personalities
that fit together. It's like, does billis fit with with
Kendrick Perks?

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Bill?

Speaker 1 (08:45):
It's building the all Star team to come in and
do an event. Right. You don't see a lot of chemistry.
You see a lot of individuals standards like it's a
mishmash of people. Sometimes it's stephen A, sometimes it's not.
You know what he decides I'm gonna be on Hannity
tonight instead. Okay, I can't do this. It's just there's
never been any sort of Okay, what do we want?
What do we want this to be? And that's you know,

(09:08):
part of that is a byproduct of, Hey, this is
the hot take society that we have now, all our
talent are all hot takers. Right, so who can we
is there in a college basketball draft? Guy? We can
probably we don't have a college basketball mel kiper to
put on the ENIR tell you about these guys coming
out of UT Austin for the last four years, and
he's been watching video of in his basement for the
past three and a half months. Well that's it. I mean,

(09:29):
Billis is going to be as close as you have
to that, right. But it goes back to core competencies, right.
We we love our ear we're out of Los Angeles.
We love our in and out burger. Now bit by bit,
the rest of the country is starting to get it.
The outposts are showing up. But what do they do.
They do burgers, fries and shakes. Yeah, they've got a
secret man. You can get your your your Dutchman and

(09:50):
you can get your you know, protein style whatever else
you can get in and out animal style exactly. Yeah,
but you're not going crazy with the menu, like all right,
we've got chicken tenders, We've got you know, some squid.
We've got like no, no, no squid on the menu. We
do burgers, that's what we do. And for ESPN we
have this arth for pod menu on the side here

(10:11):
it's a squid and octopus and certain types of conks
and shells are also on the menu. But you have
your core competencies and then you start to bridge out
and you start to expand into many other facets add
to the streaming arms race and everybody having a little
slice of that pie, which means talent. Analysts have opportunity.

(10:32):
I hate using the term talent, but analysts have their
opportunity to go elsewhere to make their bones and be
number one. Like we were talking about before in terms of,
you know, if you had your choice to go play
in the NBA, are you going to be the ninth
guy in a rotation on a great team or are
you gonna go be number one? It's the thing we
talk in college all the time. Well, I could go
to Alabama, are you gonna play? No? But I was

(10:54):
an Alabama football player, Yeah, versus I'm CB one, you know,
going up against the best wide receivers in the game,
and maybe I'm a top ten pick because I got
playing time somewhere else. Same thing here is you have
a dilution of those people to go in and talk
about these players in any fashion of you know, a

(11:16):
grand scheme to give the draft that level that it deserves. Yeah,
it's it's it's it's not anything that's new. It just
surprises me that they could never figure it out right
Like and and the same thing went on with with
the Monday Night Football Booth for a while. I don't
like Levy, I don't like Jason Witten, and people complain

(11:37):
on social media. Okay, now we're gonna go spend a
lot of money and get Bucking Akman right now, because
now everybody's gonna like that and they're not gonna complain
about it. Like it's still complain about Buck. He hates
your team. He hates everybody's team. Right. It's it's really
something where where you know, you think that having a
big property like that and and and the resources that, Okay,
we're gonna make sure that this is the best thing

(11:58):
you can be instead of just we're gonna throw stuff
out there and and see what sticks. And instead when
it can't work, it's almost like free agency, right, like, hey,
we want to try to solve stuff in the draft, right,
Like you think that a big a place like ESPN. Look,
because I was there as as a talent and as
a producer and when talent got hired there, and it
happens with talent who get hired Now is people get

(12:18):
hired and the same thing at Fox and this is
how it works. You get hired, and you get hired
to be a sideline reporter for college football or college basketball.
You get to get hired to do to be a
late night anchor on ESPN News or on ESPN You
or on Sports Center, and then you work your way
up and and hey, guess what, guess who's a rising star.
People like this person get a big social media following,

(12:39):
which is really what they care about. And and then
all of a sudden, hey, now you're on the number
one college football booth. You you you are on the
on the NFL. Should have bought bots, but back it's
not a particular stock. I should have bought the cold
still buy bots. Yeah, but now everybody's hip to the
game now they don't care. Uh. But that's kind of

(13:01):
how it is, is that, Okay, when when that doesn't work,
we have to go just spend overspend on free agency
to go bring to go bring somebody in when it
doesn't work out. And it's really tough because you know,
for a long time, ESPN did the NBA really well,
like they did a lot of but it's it's really
amazing to see that some stuff they still do great,
and some stuff it is like, how do you not

(13:21):
get the NBA? Well, you need to go get these
guys to come in and spend all kinds of money
to save the NBA. Think about that. He has said, no,
we're gonna go get the guys we could competing with
for the last twenty five years to come in and
hopefully at least just steady the boat. Here a little
bit for our NBA broadcast that we can't turn on
social media and not see criticism, because that's the one

(13:44):
thing I know when they turn on social media and
they see criticism of a booth or a broadcast like nope, nope, nope, nope.
We gotta get we gotta move on. We can't have this,
we can't have this this out there people hate all.
They don't They don't seem to like Chris Berman. Every
time Berman does something. We're not gonna have Burman do
anything for us anymore. Like that's kind of what Let
me ask this though, if you're Adam Silver, are you
happy that ESPN's getting the incoming since you went and

(14:04):
did all your finger wagging about how they cover your league?
See see it feels so great? Does it exit out?
About a Fresca exit swollen down? The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Carmon. Coming up next, we
get back into the draft itself and h forget about
the thunder after tonight. Could there be a new power

(14:26):
in the Western Conference? It's next right here, Jason and
Mike Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon. Be sure to check out the Fox
Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.
You'll see a whole bunch of video highlights more shows.
Be sure to subscribe so you never miss our very
best Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. So Round one
of the the NBA Draft in the books, We'll have

(15:02):
more on Cooper Flag coming up in a couple of minutes,
because I think people are kind of missing what his
NBA future really can be. I don't think there's a
player comp for him, but I think there's a better
way to predict what's gonna happen in the next couple
of months for him. But first I want to say
this because this is very important, This is extremely important,
really important show Heo Tani. Yeah. Earlier tonight. I mean

(15:24):
the game is in the eighth inning. This game is
like seventeen hours old. Show heo Tani with a hit
the Jason and Walt MLB streak has it five? We
have it five now. My dad is very excited. Are
you just gonna do it and pick? I mean, obviously
you'll have to pick someone on an off day, But
do you just pick someone from the lineup playing the Rockies?

(15:45):
Well that was my part. I took Otani a couple
of days ago. Do I take Otani? Why wouldn't I
hear they're playing the Rockies. The starting pitcher's got an
ERA of six. Yeah, of course I'm gonna take Otani again.
Of course his eyes are wide as saucers going up
to the plate. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of d fly balls.
I mean yesterday right, two warning track flies before he
finally hit at the extra five feet to go over

(16:07):
the fence. But yeah, this game got out of hand
in a hurry after that early mishap of the would
be pop out to first. Hey, umpires can't call it,
you know, there's can you see on plate? Yeah? All right,
that's all we need. My dad send to me a text.
He goes, Hey, we're at five now. I said, yeah,
that's great, and he goes, oh, the leaders are at forty.

(16:28):
How long till we get there? And I wanted to say, okay, okay,
So if the leaders are at forty and we're at five,
and you pick a new person every day to try
to break the streak, how many more days will it
take us to pick a successful batter to get a
hit before we get to forty? Dad? I mean, come on,
my dad was a professor at Syracuse for a couple
of years. Come on, you gotta know that. How long

(16:50):
will it take us? I want to say, is well,
if you keep missing putting in picks like you have
so far, it's gonna take us longer than that. I
would have to go back if I were a student
that didn't get a good grade from Walt and challenge
it after that little bit of information, I think my dad. So,
if anybody out there is listening right now and you
feel you were robbed by a couple of percentage points

(17:10):
from a grade that maybe cost you your dream job,
I think you can go back for pain and suffering. No,
I see, I think my dad was a pretty easy grader.
I think he was a pretty easy grader. I think
it was if you show up and you you show
because he taught comedy writing at Syracuse, So I think
if you showed up and you had an effort and
you taught you comedy, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

(17:31):
yeah my dad, No, my dad, you'd be surprised. My
dad's a really funny guy. But uh well, he's been
on the radio with us a couple of times, but
he you know, he taught comedy. If yeah, if you
show up and you are wanting, it doesn't matter if
he doesn't think what you did is funny. Just as
long as you work hard. You know you you you do, Okay.

(17:53):
I had him for a class. I had comedy writing
with him in a class. Once I got an a,
but I had him, I had him for a class.
Seem it was great though, but he gave as to everybody.
It's not like I think I got a name, but
like everybody got to day. Did he write for any
shows here and holler jokes and get ten dollars?

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Check him? I mean, what do we got on my dad?

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Williams. My dad worked on the Tonight Show with Johnny
Carson before it left for NBC as a Marshall CBS,
and I forget what he did something on the on
the show and he submitted like it wasn't his job
to write jokes. But I think if I got he
wrote jokes that he submitted to them, and I think
they used a couple at some point and this is

(18:33):
back this like he's this is like nineteen seventy somethings,
like in the early seventies, and so I was like, okay.
So then you know he parlayed that into a career
of being a golf course manager and also but teaching
at Syracuse for a couple of years. That is interesting. Yeah.
He even told Peter, it's an interesting life. This is
a great story because I always thought thok about this
is that in the comedy writing class that we had,

(18:56):
there were there was a team of a that I
that we knew of, a guy and a girl that
wanted to take it because they wanted to learn how
to write, but they weren't comedy writers. But it was
one of the only things you could take as an
elective because if you wanted to take dramatic writing or
something else, you had to major in it. You had
to like it was only offered to that, but this
was something as an elective. So I said, want to

(19:16):
take comedy writing, but they said, hey, you know, we're
really not funny. We don't know. He goes, hey, no problem,
but you're gonna learn how to write. So what I
want you to do is in your in your script,
you write write joke to come, JTC, joke to come.
It means, so you learn about structure. You know where
to write, and you know where the punchline's going to
be where you say joke to come. Just put joke
to come. Okay, great. So when he was having us,

(19:37):
everybody go around and read like part of their scripts,
like their script is always what did you think, joke
to come? I don know, joke to come, joke to com,
joke to com, joke to com like all the way down.
So that became a thing like between me and our
friends and every time. So I don't have anything joke
to com Nah, joke to come. I don't know joke
to come, joke to come. But I think they did
well in the classic they got. I think they did
well in it. Okay, I think it happened. Yeah, and
the rest of you started doing improv with them. It's

(20:00):
their term to read. Yeah, yeah, I'm tagging in. I
don't need to write a joke. It's right joke to come. Yes, say,
it's all gonna work. So, boy, that's a lot of
holes in a structure. Can you write a book? How
about writing a series of books like that? The jokes?
Feeling your own punchline, Yeah, that's all you need, just
like choose your own adventace you Now you can have
a I write a punchline for you, and then and
and and Okay, you're gonna throw it. I've been told

(20:21):
that's wrong. No, Well, I mean, if you don't know
how to tell a joke, hey, I tell a punchline,
all right, look out because the that that guy from
uh Ultron's coming after you.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Ha.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
So you got no strings on me with the draft tonight. Yes,
love more on Cooper Flag coming up in a few minutes.
But yes, the Oklahoma City Thunder look like there's gonna
be a power in the Western Conference for the next
few years. Clearly, the way the team has been assembled
s g A. You have two stars on rookie deals
that are terrific, and Williams and and Chet and you
have an all defensive player of the year in Dort

(20:55):
you have role players in Caruso and Hartenstein that are
fantastic like this team, and you got first round picks.
You all kinds of picks the next few years to
get better or to uses as as leverage to get
something you might need. Uh. Yes, Thunder looked like they're
gonna be a power. But man, I will tell you,
I don't know that the Spurs might not leapfrog them

(21:16):
in a couple of years. Right. They get Dylan harper
tonight out of Rutgers, who is terrific dynamic score does
it in as many threes as I'd like, Like, he's
you know, he's on the low thirties percentage for threes,
but he is dynamic. He is a terrific defender. The
Spurs are just gathering talent like Thanos is gathering stones.
It doesn't matter. This is what's there. We go look

(21:38):
and this is what the Thunder did to get to
get really good. This is what the Rockets did to
get good. It's what the Magic have done to get
really good. We're just gonna collect talent and then a
positionless NBA we can get everybody on the floor because clearly, okay,
Dylan Harper needs the ball. The ball. You have Daron Fox, who, boy,
he's really good. Yeah, they'll figure it out, right, they'll
figure it out. Now you're adding Dylan Harper to a

(22:00):
team that's got you know, Wemby coming back. Obviously the
blood clot you want him to be healthy. But this guy, again,
the talent level that he has. I mean, it's gonna
be viewed as the best player in the NBA soon.
So you're talking about Wemby and Fox and Castle and
now Harper and not having to trade guys like Vascelyn.
I don't know that the Spurs aren't gonna wind up
being the next big power in the Western Conference because

(22:22):
they just keep adding talent. I'm glad they didn't go
in on the Kevin Durant sweepstakes when it's like, hey,
I'd like to go there. Hey we kind of like
the guys. We haven't, And you know, you keep the
sons keep asking for Castle, which we're not gonna do.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Right.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I told you las year I had taken him number
one overall. Right, you're talking about having the number two
draft pick a couple of times getting it. Look, obviously
this year you'll like that the number one to get
Cooper flag. It didn't happen, But still you're not unhappy
with Dylan Harper. I mean, you got some dudes, man,
You have some dudes on this team. And as long
as Wemby comes back healthy, no reason to think he's
not because it's you know, it's a medical condition that
he just has to get cleared for. The Spurs could

(22:58):
wind up being in two years saying we thought the
thunder were gonna be great. Who's gonna stop the Spurs?
Who's gonna stop a twenty five year old Wemby in
a twenty two year old Harper? And still darn Fox
is thirty years old. Whatever it's going to be, this
is a fantastic team and all you need the what
the NBA has shown you is that you don't need
to go out and sign three stars, but if you

(23:19):
can just stay under the radar and accumulate talent and
have enough time. And what I mean staying under the
raidar is because every team needs some time to let
their talent bake. If you're too front burner and it
doesn't work fast enough, that itchy trigger finger is going
to be there and and teams are going to make
a bad decision that Okay, you know, these four guys
is not working. We've had the half of this season.

(23:40):
We got to move on. We gotta make a trade.
We got to make a move. That's what happens when
you get too high profile to front burner. But teams
like the Spurs and the Rockets and the thunder who
can say, you know what, Yeah, we we're gonna spend
three or four years drafting our guys and as long
as we're right hey, and all of a sudden, when
you're not looking, bang, we're gonna be terrific. It's what

(24:00):
Oklahoma City did all of a sudden, we weren't looking
at Bam, they're the NBA champions now, Bam. The Rockets
look like they're gonna be terrific. And they just bring
in Kevin Durant or Landa. Looks like they could be
a power now in the East. Next year they could
be a top three team because of the injuries and
what they're adding to their team. When you can do
it the under the radar, away from the harsh spotlight
of hey, we're not good fast enough, this is what

(24:23):
you can do, and this is what the Spurs have
been able to do. And I'm telling you, man, a
couple of years is gonna be the Spurs are running
the Western Conference. I mean a lot of it becomes
the the microwave culture from our real I want it now,
what's the Simpsons line? And they could flash fry a
buffalo in forty seconds, but I want it now. Is
the go into the marketplace and go make the splash

(24:47):
for the already established, long tenured superstar. Sure there might
be some potential injury hiccups there, but we're going to
push all in for this year because you do have contracks,
you know, in the offing A year or two down
the line, you do have some uncertainty. Maybe in your
front office, some wandering eyes. Maybe you're gonna lose some

(25:09):
of the guys under the GM, maybe the coach is
someone that's at odds with your star. Whatever it is,
You've got all these different things on the back burner.
For the Spurs, they move forward in the post Greg
Popovich era. They're the eleventh favorite as we sit here
right now, Draftking odds at twenty five to one. And

(25:30):
it goes back to what we talked about when they
acquired dearon Fox. They didn't give anything away. You didn't
give away future firsts, which number two. Overall, you didn't
give away Castle or Vassal or Keldon Johnson or any
of those guys that were a key part. You've got
nearly ten guys that average nine points a game. You've
got good depth, good rotation. When becomes back healthy, already

(25:55):
showed an ability to step out and hit a three
point shot. He's only gonna get better terms of his
decision making. Obviously we worry about health, but the deeper
the roster, you can be judicious with your minutes and
not have to extend him, which is why I think
they're interesting the team in Texas. Also with them Cooper Flags,
a guy we talked about, is I look at their

(26:16):
roster and say, point, they're gonna be there to challenge
too if things break right, And that's the big question
for them, because you've got age, you've got injury history,
you've got all that that the Spurs currently aren't saddled
with outside of making sure they monitor and maintain when
Ben Yama's health, I mean he comes back health in
two years, we're gonna say, wow, how do you stop

(26:36):
this team? Right? And everybody's gonna be twenty five, Like
that's the thing to Aaron Fox is gonna be the
old man, He's still gonna have lots of time. Or
if Harper takes over the job, then hey, guess what
we're gonna spin the Aaron Fox off. So that's the
beauty of it is that maybe you've got a bit
of redundancy that all right, roll the ball out and say, hey,
you know we're room for aggressive expansion. Make it quick,

(26:59):
go full dur night, come on, exit out about a
fresco exit, swollen down. The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Carmon, who thought, after all this time
with the Spurs and how they're gonna be and oh
they're so boring and Tim duncan nope not get ready
for the era of the Spurs again once again. Get ready,
everything old is new again. It didn't take that long

(27:21):
discycle back. Get ready.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
When I watched the Knicks, my eyes feel like they're
gonna bleed. Nicks made it further, then the Lakers way further.
But you're getting doc and way way further. Maybe maybe
we're gonna get JJ Reddick and you're gonna get Doc.
That's not how it works. I really don't want that though,
because JJ Reddick hates me. That would be tough. I

(27:51):
don't want the Knicks head coach to hate me. But
but i'd have a pipeline to the Knicks then okay, alright, man,
But you might also I have the idea that the
current Knicks coach, whether it was Thibodeau or go back
in the annals of history, they all hated you because
you talked about them a lot. You know, we could
fly under the radar if this guy we just not

(28:12):
not talk about his fandom. So Cooper Flagg goes number
one overall tonight to the Dallas Matters, which we thought
was going to happen. Right, we knew what was happening.
Cooper Flagg is that kind of talent on thousand to one.
So I'll tell you somebody else, the next couple years
are going to be like for Cooper Flag and the

(28:33):
comps you're hearing so far, I don't like because I
don't think they're accurate. You hear Scotty Pippen, You hear
Andre Kirilenko like, yeah, now, I don't know about that.
I think he's a little bit more well rounded than
Andre Kirolenko. I think Scotty Pippen's not quite that guy.
So all the big comparisons that I've heard of this
is who he is and who he is. I'm like, yeah,

(28:53):
I don't know so much. But I think what is
better to be said for Cooper flagg is is that
in two years, the big conversation will be having in splat.
You're not not quite the level of Lebron or MJ. Lebron,
But the big conversation we'll have is who is the
best all around player in the NBA. Is it Cooper

(29:15):
Flag or Wemby? That's the conversation because that's the type
of player that Cooper Flag is. Right, he's going to
be a scorer, but he's not gonna be a guy
scoring thirty a game. Why because he's not a thirty
point a game guy in the NBA. Because he's also
a terrific passer. He's also terrific ball hander that could
do anything you need on offense. Right, you see him
play a duke, the way he sees the floor, what

(29:36):
he can do, he can do everything defensively, incredibly intense
on defense. There's not many guys in the lead. Is
why the guy was number one overall of why it
was the Cooper Flag Draft this year. Oh, we gotta
go get a guy that can flip the fortunes of
our team, and that's Cooper Flag and him or Wemby.
That's gonna be the conversation because Wemby clearly can do

(29:57):
so many things offensively right, he can step out and
hit threes and and handle the ball and move around
and obviously defensively, you see how he alters games like
that's gonna be the conversation who's the best all around player?
Because not many guys are built to play offense and
defense at the level that Cooper Flag can and think
about the end of games right for the Dallas Mavericks. Okay,

(30:19):
there's gonna be some players that are run for Cooper
Flag because he's a great score. There'll be some players
he's gonna be run where he's gonna be the facilitator
because he will find guys who are open, because you're
gonna have to sag defenses towards him because he's that good.
The vision he has on the court. He's also be
able to get the basketball rebound wise, Like, I don't
know that there's a guy that's come into the league
in the last few years that can do all the

(30:41):
things he can do. I will say, I don't think
he's gonna be a I'm gonna light it up and
thirty a game like, that's not gonna be him, just
because he'll do so many other things. He won't take
volume shots, he won't be a volume shooter. He will
be a pretty regular you know, he'll get his shots
the shots at star players get. But you're gonna see
like I would be surprised if he's like a twenty

(31:01):
two to twenty six points a game and around ten
rebounds in ten assists, like if he's like a triple
double guy like that for his for his NBA career,
well also playing terrific defense. Yeah, I mean, he'll have
his opportunities, and certainly with this iteration of the Mavericks
as we expect them to be constituted for twenty five
twenty six, there are games he's gonna need to because

(31:22):
Anthony Davis is not gonna be available for eighty two games.
Kyrie Irving, We're not sure when he comes back, So
you add the distributor side of it. But also you're
talking about a team replete with big men who've missed
some time. And you've got PJ. Washing, You've got Daniel
Gafford who they're resigning lively coming back off injury. You've
got a lot of top notch players for him to

(31:43):
distribute the ball to. But there are gonna be games
and circumstances where it's like, all right, kid, go get it,
and he'll be able to do it. Talking about him
as a thirty nine percent three point shooter at duke
forty eight change overall ability to see the court at
the six nine frame. This is where you get excited

(32:03):
when you think of the annals of history and guys
that you start doing the larger comps and grabbing. You know,
we're building Voltron, right, we're taking a piece of this
guy and a piece of that guy. The I vision
of some of the greats. It's what made Magic Johnson
that much better as a point guard. Right, being able
to see the court as a six to nine guy.
What we've talked about with Lebron James. Now he's got

(32:25):
to put on sixty pounds or thereabouts to get to
the physicality of what Lebron James. But it's not like
he's coming in with Linguini legs. He's coming in he's
built pretty what a big guy with a big bass,
and obviously he worked in a conference where he was
battle tested in his single season at Duke. But now

(32:46):
you take the next level and push forward. I like
the fact that he was quoting his mom saying, you know,
when you're the best guy or one of the best
guys in the gym, it's time to find a new gym.
And now he goes to the NBA and everybody will
be flying his direction. But we watched him work through
double teams, triple teams and court vision being able to

(33:08):
find the open player. That translates well. So yeah, that
Texas basketball. Between that and the conversation we've been having
about San Antonio on what Houston might be, it's gonna
be pretty fun this year.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Look, it's gonna take him a little while, which is
why it's good he's got a d and potentially a
healthy Kyrie irving out there, because look, he is gonna
be nineteen years old and getting through the riggers of
an eighty two game, regular season, You're gonna have your
ups and downs, but within a couple of years, a wow,
this guy has become the best all around player in
the NBA. Who would you rather have? What's your taste?
What Cooper Flag does or what Wenby does? Yeah, but

(33:41):
what's great is all three of those basketball teams in
Texas helped to take a little bit of heat away
from Jerry Jones exit out about a Fresco exit Swallen Dome.
We asked the biggest question coming off the first round
of the draft next