NBA Draft WILDCARDS for Pelicans’ 7th Pick | James Borrego’s Future | Yves Missi Honor

NBA Draft WILDCARDS for Pelicans’ 7th Pick | James Borrego’s Future | Yves Missi Honor

Who the Pelicans could take with the seventh pick might surprise you. Let’s break down the top wild cards in the NBA draft, plus coaching rumors and an award for Eve Mei. It’s the Thursday episode of Locked On Pelicans. Let’s [Music] go. You are Locked On Pelicans, your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Welcome to another edition of Locked On Pelicans, the daily podcast covering your favorite team, the New Orleans Pelicans and NBA. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube. I’m your host, Pelicans Insider, credential member of the media, JakeMadison, Nola Jake on Twitter. Here with y’all on this Thursday. We’re not going to end up doing a live show this week. I’m working on some kind of secret things for y’all that hopefully will be coming soon. So, it’s just a little too busy right now. We’ll definitely try and do one next week for y’all here. But, let’s get into the draft top draft wildcards that could surprise you, but potentially be the seventh overall pick coming to New Orleans. So, we’re going to break them down. We’re looking at Noah Asenua, Maxine, uh, Reo, Cedric Coward, and Carter Bryant in that segment. I want to get into James Burggo and the Phoenix Suns a little bit in the second part of the show here. And then Eve Mei making an all rookie team. That’s a cool award. We’re breaking it all down in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans. Today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And of course, thank you for making Locked On Pelicans your first listen today and every day. We’re here Monday through Friday, the number one Pelicans podcast, covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and become an everydayer. That means you listen Monday through Friday to Locked On Pelicans. And if you’re an everydayer, let me know in the comments down below. So, let’s get into four prospects that I think are wildcard type players. guys that are not in the top seven, not necessarily in the top 10 right now, but have a very good chance of rising up to that point. And I think these are all names that we need to keep an eye on as a lot of these preworkouts and things like that are happening here because these are going to be guys that I do think are going to end up getting a lot of buzz in the NBA draft. So, let’s put them on your radar right now. So, let’s start with Noah Asenua from Ratio Farm. That’s in Germany. He’s a 6’9 wing. He’s going to be 18 and a half on draft night. This is someone that I think is a really interesting prospect because of the physical tools that he has. This is someone with really good size, really good athleticism, good switchability to be an excellent defender, but someone that also is going to need a lot of work going forward as well. He has like a Nick Batum type of NBA comp to him. I think very fluid player, high versatility with a lot of upside if he develops a jumper. You know, one of the things I think to keep in mind about a Senua here is he was young. This is someone who at the start of the season was 17 years old playing professional basketball in Europe and still averaged 12.4 points per game, 5.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.4 four steals, half a block. Um, and doing that all in under 24 minutes. He shot 56% from the field. Not great from the three-point line, under 30%, 29.4 on two attempts per game. His free throw strokes a little bit better, 73%, but not an elite number. His shooting is going to be straight up the swing scale that either makes him or kind of breaks him at the NBA level. He’s got very good athleticism for that size. Moves in a very fluid manner. And when you watch him, he’s a natural ball handler, I think. You know, he has a pretty good overall handle. He likes to get downhill and attack the basket. And as you’ve seen him, his shooting is getting better. So, that’s an important thing. But again, he gives the type of just wing defender that can create for others, make some shots at the rim that every team needs multiple of. and his passing is pretty good overall. He’s decisive. He doesn’t turn the ball over an absolute ton. So, I really like that the the basketball IQ is there from him for what he needs to do. You know, the shooting is really what it’s going to come down to. He needs to put on some strength, too, but he needs to add shooting. If he can do that, this is the type of guy that we’re going to look back at this draft and be like, “Why did he go 12? He should have been in the top three.” That’s how high his ceiling can be in my opinion. And all it takes is someone kind of falling in love with those uncoachable things, right? The size, the athleticism, the length, all of that. Him being a tenacious defender and his age where there’s so much more room to grow. It’s going to take him a couple of years. You need to be patient with him, but he Noah Sangua is someone I think to keep an eye on when it really comes down to it. our Lockdown NBA big board podcast has him eight on their big board here. That’s how much Raphael Barlo really likes him here. Let’s get to another guy. This guy is 12th on our lockdown NBA big board here. And that’s Maxine Reo, senior out of Stanford, 7 foot, 7 foot2, be a little bit older, 22 uh.2 years on draft night here. He’s someone who’s starting to get a lot of buzz because the workouts have looked good. And when you look at him at Stanford, four-year player, he improved every single year, culminating in his senior year of 20.2 points per game, 10.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, a steal, a block and a half. He did this while shooting 46% from the field overall. And he does have some threepoint range, actually like pretty good volume three-point range. Five and a half attempts from three. his senior year shooting 40 35% 34.7%. Those are good numbers, frankly. And you have some people who are really high on him, some people who are a little bit low on him here. And I think as a legit sevenfooter who’s going to give you probably at the NBA level, you know, depending on his minutes like 14 and eight as a rookie, that’s pretty good. That’s really good size and that’s really good skill for his size, too. particularly with the three-point shooting. And he’s arguably the most polished uh post score in this draft. And so he has a number of different moves. When you look at someone like Eve Mi, we’ll get to him a little bit later in the show. There’s not a lot on offense there from him to do. He started to show some, but someone like Maxine Moreno, who’s French, can step in and just do this immediately. The big concern for me is, is he actually a rim protector or was he just swallowing up much smaller guys at the collegiate level? And I think that is something that’s fair to ask. You know, he is a guy, let me pull up one other thing from him. There we go. You know, that, you know, was looked like a good defender. Will that translate to the NBA level? And I’m not entirely sure. His NBA comp to me is Brook Lopez. I’ve seen some people mention Alper and Shenun as well. I don’t think he’s as good of a passer as Shenun is where he’s going to kind of be your offensive hub, but if he can develop into that, oh boy. Yeah, you got to watch out for this guy, right? His he’s got a pretty he is a you know a good passer. Is he elite? I’m not entirely sure. And when you look at it, he turned it the ball over more than he had assists at the collegiate level. That’s not per game. That’s not particularly great. And I wonder if that’s going to lead to too many turnovers at the NBA level here. But all of the tools and everything we’ve said that are kind of big concerns about him. Even the rim protection, that size means he can absolutely get there. Will he be able to defend in space? Will he be able to switch or you got to play drop coverage with him is a valid question, too. But overall, he’s someone who’s going to be rising up draft boards as well. So I think that’s worth keeping in mind that if you’re looking to go in a big direction, you know, we’ve mentioned Derek Queen, we’ve mentioned Kay Wildatch from Duke, someone like Maxine Reo really makes a lot of sense with what you want to put next to Zion Williamson and is a name to certainly keep an eye on. Let’s go through let’s go to let’s get to the next guys in the next segment here. There’s two more I want to look at. I want to look at Cedric Coward out of Washington State and I want to look at Carter Bryant of Arizona. Let’s look at those two names along with James Burggo. rumors coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans. Today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlightworthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’tmiss moments. So whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. And FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props, performance trends, and same game parlays. Fans have more ways than ever to to play smart and to win big. You want to get in on the Thursday night match up between the Oklahoma City Thunder game two and the Minnesota Timberwolves. OKC ran him out of the building in game one. They’re minus 7 and a half. I like that. I think OKC is going to really take this series kind of easily. They’re going to win this one at the very least. And we’ll see what happens when it goes to Minnesota. But that – 7 12 looks pretty good. And how about $200 in bonus bets to the ad? Add to the excitement if your first $5 bet wins. Whether that’s a same game parlay or just the spread, you’d win $200 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, so new to FanDuel, it’s the perfect time to sign up. Head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet. And if it wins, you’re going to get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with VanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. And thank you for making Locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day. We’re here Monday through Friday, the number one Pelicans podcast, covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well. And become an everydayer. That means you listen Monday through Friday to locked on Pelicans. For your second listen today, check out the locked on NBA big board show. NBA draft expert Raphael Barlo, we’ve been referencing him a ton here. Reacts to every workout, interview, and rumor leading up to the NBA draft. Find Locked on NBA Big Board on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Make them your second listen. It’s actually it’s a really great show. I’ve been using that to just get more insight on things. They are out there actively scouting these players throughout the year which I think is just a very very cool thing. So make sure you give a listen to locked on NBA big board here. So let’s get into a couple more guys who I think are starting to rise up draft boards here. On locked on NBA big board, Raphael has him at 19th, but I think you’re going to see when he does a new one that he’s higher than that. And that’s Cedric Coward out of Washington State. He’s a senior, a wing who’s 6’6. On draft night, he’s going to be 20 21 and 3/4 essentially. He is a workout warrior here. Last year, his junior, sorry, his senior year at Washington State, 17.7 points per game, seven rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 blocks,8 steals. He did this while shooting 40% from three on five attempts per game, 55.7% from the field. Those are really good numbers that make your eyes pop open here. So, what I love about his story is he’s gone from a division three player to a first round pick in just a couple of years here, showing the development that he brings. Someone who is an elite 3 indeed type of player in the NBA are the type of people you’re looking at. I’ve seen his NBA comp on the very very high end, right? Very, very high end. Be Kawaii Leonard. That is eyeopening here. The athleticism is outstanding. His combine was really good looking at the measurements, the jumps, and everything like that. A very good wingspan. needs to add a little bit of muscle, but certainly he’s going to be a guy that is got an NBA ready body and the shooting is legitimately there. 40.6% by the way for his career on catch and shoot threes. Those are excellent numbers that make him fit next to Zion Williamson right away. Very smart player with a high basketball IQ and you see it with his passing. He’s not a primary creator, but as a secondary ball handler, you need multiple of those type of guys on the court, right? Shoot, pass, defend, something like that. Those are what you’re looking for here. He can do all of that. And with that good size and good athleticism, he’s going to be a versatile defender. Now, he is doesn’t have the best handle out there. He certainly needs to kind of work on self-creation, being able to get his own shot off, but the Pelicans don’t need that from him. right away. He keeps moving. He cuts off ball well. He doesn’t need to have the ball in his hands, which in a sense is a very good thing. I think this is someone who’s really improved his draft stock. And I think he’s going to be shooting up NBA draft boards. Maybe not into the top five, but top 10 borderline there, which is kind of where the Pelicans are picking. That’s definitely worth keeping an eye on. I’m really starting to like him a lot. Next guy I want to get to here. Final one is a wild card because he’s also kind of rising up draft boards and I don’t totally get it but I also kind of get it and that is Carter Bryant of Arizona 6’8. He’s a wing and he is a freshman. He’s going to be young. He’ll be under he’ll be 19 and a half when he is drafted. You know, you look at his numbers in college and you’re like, wait, what? 6 the one year 6.5 points per game, 4.1 rebounds. Just nothing particularly great, right? But the tools are there, the athleticism is there, too. If you’re looking for just a really versatile wing a lot like a Trevor Arza played here in New Orleans, this is a guy that I do think kind of fits that. He is very raw, but the intangibles, the stuff you can’t coach are there. He’s really good at moving without the ball. That’s something I’m looking for in these players. When we talked about the Indiana Pacers yesterday and how they’re constantly making you work, you need those high motor offball guys. Carter Bryant fits into that, right? with that size, with the quickness, with the strength, he projects as a player that’s going to be able to defend multiple positions, switch on defense, something that the Pelicans do. Now, he does not have a great handle to create his own shot. He’s a solid enough three-point shooter in my opinion. The mechanics look overall good, 37% from three, but it’s really only in catch and shoot situations he needs to improve that self-creation. But that catch and shoot number, the athleticism, the offball work, that’s making him a very intriguing prospect. I think Noah Sanga, Maxim Reno, Cedric Coward, and Carter Bryant could all be kind of wild cards in this draft that really opens up, you know, starting at the third overall pick. All right, let’s shift gears because I’ve gone a little long on those guys, but I really enjoyed talking about all of these players and these and the names here. Let’s get into James Burggo. And we have a bit of an update here and I want to share something with y’all that I’ve been told too. Sources, right? So, Phoenix is still trying to hire their head coach and they’ve moved on to the second round of their head coaching search and that is per Mark Stein of the Steinline NBA substack here. You know, there are eight candidates from the assistant coaching ranks confirmed for Ranchu. So, there’s a lot here, right? One of them is James Burggo. you know, he’s got a lot of competition for this job and I certainly think if he’s named the head coach, he’s going to take it. Obviously, I also don’t think it’s a guarantee that he’s gone. We talked about this. You know, if you’re Willie Green and James Burggo was kind of like a David Griffin kind of guy, do you want him here? Do you want to make that kind of change? And when Burggo was brought in to, you know, kind of be the offensive mastermind, I I didn’t love his offense in Charlotte. I think it was a lot of transition, less so half court. We talked a lot of the everyday kind of understand the difference between that significantly better after yesterday’s show. That’s probably partially why I haven’t seen the Pelicans offense kind of be supercharged. Do they actually have the guy for it, you know? So, I think he’s definitely under consideration for the Phoenix Suns job. Don’t know if he’s going to end up taking it s or if he’ll get selected for it. And if not, I think it’s still up in the air if he’s going to stay or go. But what I got told was if he ends up leaving, it’s of his own volition. it was his choice to leave and go to a different situation, not Willie Green trying to push him out. That speaks to maybe a little bit more harmony with everything, which is good. And it’s partially speculation of like, well, if this was the David Griffin guy and Griffin wanted to fire Willie Green to elevate James Burggo and that was a big part of bringing him in in the first place and they didn’t let him do that, you know, does Willie Green want that guy on the on the bench? You know, I couldn’t tell you. I’m not Willie Green. But if it’s true that it’s Berago’s like own choice on whether he stays or goes, that does say at least some good thing. You know, it says a lot of good things in my opinion about, you know, how the Pelicans are at least operating in terms of everyone being happy and liking each other and not worrying about distractions in interpersonal politics and all all of that kind of stuff. So, that was somewhat encouraging to hear when it comes to all of that. So, we’ll see if he stays or goes, but if he ends up leaving, he’s certainly, what I’ve been told, not being pushed out by head coach Willie Green or anyone else for that matter. We’re keeping an eye on as, you know, once that domino falls and they hire their head coach, the Phoenix Suns, you know, I would assume Adam’s going to be up there full, you know, is going to get the Denver Nuggets full-time job. I think that’s all the coaching positions. Look, if Willie Green’s going to leave, like, you know, if they fire him, they can still do that later. You know, when you look at some of the names in the mix for the Phoenix Suns head coaching job, there are a lot of good options out there, even if you’re not going with someone like a Taylor Jenkins or a Michael Malone. And I just don’t see the team paying those guys the kind of money that they want. You know, Miami has an assistant coach and Chris Quinn, who I’m very high on. Minnesota has Mike Mory, who I think can be a really good head coach at some point, too. Those are also names to kind of keep an eye on. You also have um Sam Cassell who I’m very high on and think should be a head coach at some point too. So there’s still options in the future and it’s not like the Pelicans are getting left behind if they’re truly like taking the time to evaluate Willie Green and making the decision which is what they should be doing and maybe it just takes time with a new person coming into the building trying to learn as much as they can in Joe Dumar. So, what I also got told was it’s not 100% certain that head coach Willie Green is back next year, but I mean it’s far more likely than not. So, coming up next, Eve Mi won an award. That’s cool. But there I’m putting an asterisk on it. Let’s get into that. That’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans. and thank you for making Locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day. We’re here Monday through Friday, the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and become an everyday. That means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked On Pelicans podcast. And for your second listen, Ross Jackson, who’s been on vacation but still putting out Locked On Saints. Go make locked on Saints your second listen today. get all the updates on the black and gold that you want part of the lockdown podcast network your team every day. So let’s get into Eve me because I actually this is think this can impact the NBA draft a little bit too or it should for the Pelicans. Eve me Pelicans first round pick last year not in the on the short list for NBA Rookie of the year nor did I think he was going to be. I did that show earlier on in the year where it’s like he’s not going to win. He’s not going to come close. Thought he could on the high end finished third. didn’t even get to there, but it was announced that Pelican Center Eve Mi has been named to the 2024-25 Kia NBA All Rookie second team. 73 games, 67 starts, 9.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. Those are really good numbers for a guy that has not played organized basketball for a long time in his life. He has looked pretty good overall. Ranked first among all rookies with 26 double double uh sorry uh with 26 double-digit rebounding performance and second with 14 double doubles. Second among all rookies in rebound per game, third in blocks per game, third in field goal percentage and third in minutes per game. He was thrown into the fire here in New Orleans and you know in a role that was probably not expected as the center position for New Orleans looked not great. Not great whatsoever. You know Daniel Ty was the opening night starting center. He didn’t even finish with the team. It’s pretty impressive for me to just step in and do his job and grow the way that we saw and he did an admirable job of that. And so getting an all rookie nod even if it’s the second team I think is very much deserved and he should be it’s something he and the team should be really really proud of. He’s by the way the seventh player in franchise history to earn all rookie honors here. Played really well. Like I you know I think that’s kind of impressive right like when you look at him he’s still a very raw prospect and still has a long way to go to develop. The good news with that is this is a who’s hyper intelligent, picks up the game so quickly, so well that you know you can immediately see the growth from him and how quickly he just keeps improving overall overall overall. That said, and this is where, like I said, we’re throwing an asterisk on certain things here. I don’t think I don’t think that this is the type of player that should preclude New Orleans from drafting another big man. Whether it’s Mallet Launcher, whether it’s Derrick Queen, who I’m starting to not like as much or Maxim Reo or someone else out there, another big man that kind of plays the same role as Mei. Mei’s long-term development to being like an elite NBA player, particularly on like the offensive end where it’s like you don’t have a jumper. He’s not, you know, he’s a bit of a lob threat, but that’s about it. You know, it’s going to take a while for him to really grow into the player that he can be. So, if that’s the case, you can draft someone else who maybe has like a slightly higher ceiling than Mei or fits a little bit better and develop Mi to be a really good backup and that’s not a bad thing, right? You know, I remember Larry Nates Jr. I think it was on my show or somewhere else talking about role players like role player, you know, is are useful and now role players thought of as kind of as like a negative thing when it’s not like unless you’re a star player, you’re you’re a role player. You’re there to kind of do what you do. And so Misi can be that guy. And I think one of the things that you need at the NBA level, you you’re learning this in the playoffs, and we’ve really learned this lesson this past season is you need multiple different kinds of bigs to throw different kind of looks out there. Maybe it’s just two big dudes that block shots and rebound and you put them out there on the court. Maybe you need one to be a stretch guy or more of a finesse kind of player, right? Maybe one’s just a pure rim protector, one’s a rebounder. You need different kind one that can defend on the perimeter, one that’s better in drop coverage. You need those different kinds of bigs to match up well or force other teams to match up with you. So with Mi and Toe knowing that he’s part of the future of the team and then getting a guy like a Maxim Reo or a Derek Queen and kind of having a different kind of big, that’s a good thing. So just because you drafted a center in the first round last year doesn’t mean you shouldn’t draft another center or big man in the first round this year because you need a collection of them that do different things particularly well and Mi is doing a lot of things well and so we can see that and we can know okay there’s other kind of looks that the Pelicans need to throw out there as well and have them go and do that. Let me know what you think when it comes to the NBA draft. What do you think about Eve Mei? I completely spaced right there. Eve Mey getting all rookie second team. Let me know in the comments down below. Any of the names that I threw out there earlier, Senua, Reo, Coward, or Bryant really stand out to you? You like any of them? Let me know in the comments down below on YouTube. That’s going to do it for this episode of Lockdown Pelgans No Live Show this week. We got one more show coming to you tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to. As always, I’m your host Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter. This is the Lockdown Pelicans podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. See y’all next time.

Can the New Orleans Pelicans’ Draft Picks Reshape Their Future?

Explore the New Orleans Pelicans’ potential wild card picks in the upcoming NBA draft. Host Jake Madison analyzes prospects like Noah Essengue and Maxine Reynaud, discussing their fit with the Pelicans. Dive into the coaching rumors surrounding James Borrego and his possible move to the Phoenix Suns. Celebrate Eve Mese’s impressive All-Rookie Second Team selection and what it means for the Pelicans’ strategy.

Don’t miss this episode for insider insights and strategic discussions on the Pelicans’ path forward.

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