2025 NBA Draft Lottery recap, Charlotte Hornets’ No. 4 pick strategy & NBA Playoffs

2025 NBA Draft Lottery recap, Charlotte Hornets’ No. 4 pick strategy & NBA Playoffs

All right, Kennata Edwards, not a describe on Twitter. Uh, let’s get into the NBA draft lottery from yesterday. Yes. Um, I I mean, I guess we should start at the top. Uh, it’s not a conspiracy because, uh, way too many people would have to be bought and paid for. Uh, we’re talking about numbering in the thousands, which is never going to happen. Uh, so Dallas locked out and won the NBA draft lottery. Uh, Cooper Flag is the obvious pick. Uh, but I heard Jay Williams today on ESPN and I think Jay makes sense. If Dallas wants to win in this year, next year, year after, then trading the pick. If you I I would stop at Giannis. There’s nobody else I think you could trade for that. Uh, short of Luca, which I don’t think is going to happen. Uh, that would be a good fit for Dallas. But if you could get Giannis in a package for Cooper Flag, would you do it? Man, no. No. Because I think the way that this team is going to like the thing that you have to remember about the Dallas Mavericks is that they still have first round picks out there that are floating out there. Like let’s say you do trade for Giannis. You still have the Charlotte Hornets own a top one protected pick from for like they still own a pick from the Dallas Mavericks, right? That is something that like for me it’s a long-term piece. You just draft Cooper flag. You build around him. Now you don’t have to worry about all these max salaries. And as we’ve talked about before with these two luxury tax bands, the one thing that is probably the most valuable is a rookie salary. Nico Harrison would be an outright to trade Cooper flag. Now, yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, but but I I just say this, Adam, like it would be bordering on absolute lunacy to trade Cooper flag in an environment in the CBA like the one that the NBA has right now. Absolute lunacy. All right, that that uh that makes sense. So, uh for me, if you are I mean, what you’ve got is you have Anthony Davis. Uh I don’t know if they’re thinking about moving him on. And I guess that’s too many players for the same position. If you went uh Anthony Davis, Derek Lively, some of the other bigs, they are loaded with uh athletic bigs. Of course, they were all hurt this year, so it’s hard to tell. Uh and then you throw Cooper Flag, who’s probably going to be a three. I don’t know. Is he a three or a four at the next level? My sense is three. I would honestly scale it down. I think he’s a two three. I think with the body type and everything, he’s an ideal NBA three, but I can see some scenarios where you play him at the two. Well, his favorite player, the player he models his game after, and we’re going to get to uh what just happened, is Jason Tatum, correct? Yes. And Tatum is, you know, he is not 34. Yeah. He is he a 34 or is he really a perimeter player? He’s closer to 34. I’ve seen like now granted the Chrisaps Porzingis edition has made it where he plays more three than four, but I do remember I’m a Udoka using them a lot at the four as well. It’s one of those beautiful things where he’s got enough versatility to where it doesn’t necessarily matter. You can put him as a perimeter base four, but he also plays a lot of three. Yeah, Cooper Flag, man, they he he initiated so much offense. They treated him like a point guard. He really is such a perimeter player, but I mean he can do everything. And it has Has Has Has Has Has Has Has Has Has Has Mike Shasheesky essentially ruined uh position basketball by making everybody positionless? I don’t think he’s ruined it. I think that he’s No, honestly, I think he’s opened up the game a lot more. I do think that a lot of this defined by position thing, now granted, I do believe that there are three positions: guard, wing, big. I do believe that there are those. I do think that blurring those lines has only helped the game and created this offensive explosion that we saw for 82 games and helped create this defensive crunch that we’ve seen in the in for the 16 wins you need to win the finals. I do think that’s helped a lot. So, I wouldn’t say he’s ruined it, but I do I do thank Mike Shashevski for at least introducing us to a new era. Yeah, he has broken a lot of uh you know, a lot of dishes about what the what NBA people look, how they they look at the game. And I’ve always uh been told that when they go, he’s a one, he’s a two, whatever. It’s about the defensive side, not the offensive side of the ball. Kennata Edwards at Natscribe on Twitter. CBSports.com is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. So, the Hornets I it was I it was written somewhere that they actually won. I don’t I mean four fine whatever. Um compared to Utah and Washington, they absolutely did win. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Washington just got was a tough night for uh for the district last night. Capitals took one on the chin. The Nets got walked off and I think by the Braves and the uh and the Wizards did what the Wizards did. All right, let me uh me ask about the Hornets. Uh, who is the best fit for what they need? I don’t I don’t care about they draft four. I don’t care about who is available at four who they should take. Who’s the best fit? The best fit is going number one and that would be Cooper Black, right? The second be like the best fit after that, you can make a case for VJ Edgecom who’s who’s who might be there at four. You’re talking about He will be there at four. I’m I’m almost positive. I I I don’t know. I don’t know. You’re talking about a guy with explosive athleticism. Yeah. Whose jump shot who hit 47% of open jump shot, open threes this year in for Baylor. And we both know the Scott Drew system is kind of like Dean Smith. If you score 20 points, you must really be doing something. So, I I I tend to think he’s going to have a higher offensive ceiling than what we think. Plus, he plays some killer defense and you can slot him in between LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller and do some things and basically mitigate what they don’t bring you on defense. Like the closest thing I can come up with, closest comp I can come up with and it feels unfair is Victor Oladipo and we all remember Pacers Victor Oladipo and how dynamic of a guy he was before he shredded his knee. I think that’s the closest comp I can come up with. But I do believe that there are a lot of traits that that just make him the ideal fit regardless of where he’s drafted. The other guy that I would be c I would caution and I have to throw out there, Trey Johnson out of Texas is athletically better than he was than he showed. And I think he was in a horrible horrible situation in Texas and Rodney Terry like rightly got fired for it. I think with his numbers shooting 38% from three, he’s a sneaky good fit as well. All right, let me just throw one thing at you because when I when I saw the list of, you know, players that would be available to them and I don’t know that I would take this player at four, but what do you think of the future of Kaman Malawatch? I he is a project that I would be scared to draft in the top five. He’s a guy that I do believe the physical gifts are there. I do think that I’m not sure I ever believe he’s going to shoot threes at a regular clip. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. I’m not going to be willing to gamble on it. I do think that he left a horrible taste in final taste in a lot of scout mouths with the way that Houston game went. But to be fair, that man had a significant distraction of potentially getting deported. So, I don’t necessarily blame him. I do think that he’s one of those guys that like the closer you get to 10, the more comfortable I am drafting him. The closer to five you get like you get I get kind of uncomfortable because a top five pick while not being an in instant immediate gratification of wins. It needs to be somebody that can make an impact on like like a every other night basis at this point. Canada Edwards at not a scribe on Twitter is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. Uh yeah, because I was you’re not going to take him at four, but uh if you could trade back and get Malawatch, it would certainly make sense. It would give you maybe a little bit more of a defensive presence than Mark Williams gives you uh in that regard. And then if he grows into his offense then and I think there is offense to grow into he’s relative relatively new. um he looked I mean he was you know too young at the in the international stage but he certainly didn’t look completely overwhelmed by it all during the Olympics. So I just think there’s so much room and you can’t teach 72 if he could stay healthy. I think there is there is something to be said for that. All right let me get back to because you already mentioned we already mentioned Jason Tatum. Uh awful scene last night. This is literally adding injury to insult as the Celtics are 3-1 down in the series to the Knicks. Uh, and I mean, we haven’t gotten official word, but uh, there isn’t anybody that doesn’t think that it’s an Achilles tear, which now we’re talking about, forget about this playoffs, we’re talking about next year. And I know he’s much younger than Kevin Durant was when Durant had his Achilles injury. Uh, but it took Durant longer than the year off to get back, right? Yeah, it took it took Kevin Durant 500 days. And Kevin Durant when he came back looked like he missed a step, maybe a step and a half, but it was fairly seamless. And I look at a case similar in Brianna Stewart. It took her almost 400 days. It takes a while for this to get back. So, next season, like that’s out of the conversation, right? To start 2027, the 2027 20 uh 262 27 season should be the goal. That should be the goal. Like 2025, 2026 is out. Starting off 2026, 2027, having him back potentially, that should be the start of the conversation. Anything earlier than that is a pipe dream. And at that point, like we don’t know what the Boston Celtics are going to look like by 2026, 2027. Yeah. Are are they like I still think they could win this series. That’s not crazy to think, right? I don’t think they can. I think a lot of what they could do. Well, if Jaylen Brown had a better series, I think I could go with I I think I could go there. But I think you’re relying on a lot. And I also think that this is why it’s so hard to repeat like why we haven’t seen a repeat championship is because it takes so much to get there that getting back right now with the amount of depth in the NBA is just a a heavy lift that I don’t think is possible right now unless you’re quite literally 9 10 deep and the new NBA CBA does not allow for that. Yeah. And the truth is if you looked at the box scores from last night both teams basically played just seven guys. So, the Celtics are already a seven. They were a seven-man team. Tatum only had 42 last night. Uh, so let me get into uh really uh quickly about the Knicks. Jaylen Brunson had 39 26 in the second half. The Knicks scored 71 second half points. That’s probably the most troubling thing if I’m a Celtics fan that wait a second, we know what they’re going to do and we can’t stop it. I mean, it’s the worst offense in the NBA just to give the ball to Jaylen Brunson and everybody leaves. But it I guess it works. Jaylen Brunson is one of those players who could simply score at will, you know, even when everybody knows what they were doing. I joked during the Piston series. Oh, look, the Knicks are surprising everybody by just giving the ball to Jaylen Brunson. Uh, and Detroit couldn’t stop it even with uh Thompson, who I think is a dynamite defensive player. Um, but are the Knicks just tougher right now than Boston? I think the the Knicks are just more, again, I would go tougher. I would go much more resilient. I just There’s a lot of signs that the Boston wasn’t really going to be what they were. And a lot of people, including myself, ignored them. I thought Boston was the best team in the East. And then I start and then when you start looking at the numbers, they don’t like half of their shots are from three. That’s a recipe for losing. you start seeing that they don’t really get to the rim as much as they used to. Jaylen Brown doesn’t get to the rim as much as he used to. That’s a problem. The defensive numbers are slipping to the point where again they give up 71 points to a team that is basically running 14 ISO with Carol Anthony Towns and Jaylen Brunson and then everything else goes off of that. I do want to say like Josh Hart being him and being that guy that is just junkyard dog is so clutch. I OGNobi showing why like why quite literally you traded for him. Muel Bridges semi-justifying five first round picks being traded for him. like that. There’s a lot of this to where I don’t want to give the Knicks credit, but I kind of have to because the way they’re built, they are just built to wear you down. And dare I say it, the Knicks may be in the finals for the first time in 25 years. And I don’t know how to feel about that. And Latrell Spreewell nowhere to be found. Real quick, uh, but by the way, three guys from Villanovavva plus the Pope. I mean, you think maybe maybe the the intervention. Absolutely. One intervention. Yeah. Yeah. They could be dealing with something here. Um all right. So, real quick to uh to assuming the Knicks move on and assuming the Pacers move on, I am begging TNT. Uhoh. Give me Kevin Harland and Reggie Miller on that series. whenever TNT has those games. I just want that just because even though I hated the Pacers cuz that was almost at the height of my Nick fandom and I hated the Pacers. I want I want those uh those flashbacks. I want those highlights. Miller and Spike Lee. I want them. So, what you’re telling me is that you need an alternate cast with like Mike Brain, Clyde Drexler, we get LJ in there for the four-point play nostalgia. Yes. And maybe we find Go find Allan Houston, too. Is that Is that what you’re telling me? I would love that. I would absolutely love that. There’s a Capital One commercial there somewhere. Uh with Spikeley uh and Reggie Mill. There’s got to be It’s either a Capital One or a Wendy’s commercial. Uh Canada Edwards, you you’re right about the Knicks. They could end up in the finals, but I am I am uh team Tyrese Hallebertton these days. I love that kid. He is a blast. That man got called overrated quite literally right before the playoffs began and then has gone and just been on a tour of destruction reminding everybody why he’s that good and why he’s not overrated, but he’s just properly rated. He’s just one of the better point guards. He’s one of the better wings in the game right now. And I’m just impressed because it it’s like we almost forgot Rick Carile can coach. We almost forgot about that. Yes. And then it turns out like, oh my god, this team, which doesn’t have a draft pick above five, by the way, is about is one win away from going to back-to back Eastern Conference Finals visits. Think about how crazy that is after the whole kuruffle about the lottery and how you need top five picks and everything else like that. Indiana showing that maybe top five picks are overrated a little bit. Canad not to describe cbsports.com ion on college basketball podcast. I appreciate your time man. Uh talk to you soon. Next time I promise you next time we will work in NL East leading New York Mets. I I mean, at this point, I’m very happy to see it, but again, I just need Soda to really really get it going at this point. He’ll be there when it matters. He’ll let him figure it out. Let him figure it out. You It’s the Mets, man. Nobody ever comes here and is good ever. It took Lindor three years to figure it out. I don’t think it’ll take Sodto that long. Well, coming from Cleveland to New York is like going from like pre proto civilization to actual civilization. So, we got to give him a like we got to grade that on a curve. Exactly. Thanks, man. I’ll talk to you later. Talk to you soon, man.

Adam Gold is joined by Konata Edwards of CBS Sports to break down the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery results and what the Charlotte Hornets should do with the No. 4 overall pick.

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