Draft expert Sam Vecenie on Ace Bailey’s Sixers fit & why he’d draft Kon Knueppel

Draft expert Sam Vecenie on Ace Bailey’s Sixers fit & why he’d draft Kon Knueppel

hey hey hey [Music] all right welcome to the PHLY Sixers podcast on a Friday man it’s been a busy week here for us as the 76ers buzz has just been all over the place as we have been saying the draft starts at number three and they hold the third overall pick but there’s been a lot of things going on and we’re just going to get right into it because we have a big guest coming up here shortly so as we always do introduce you Derek Bodner Kyle Newbeck I’m Devon Given Bri is here our president of basketball operations and all of you in the chat we really appreciate it but without further ado because we this is going to be a heavy show is going to be a fun show to get a lot of information on some of these prospects we’re going to go right to our guest line here and bring in our featured guest for the day and that is the senior writer at the Athletic for the NBA and the NBA draft of course you can also check out his game theory podcast which is which is a very informative podcast as well sam Vini joining us here on the PHLY 6’s podcast sam thanks so much for joining us man devon what’s going on man dererick and Kyle like I’ve known I’ve known Derek for like a decade kyle you know how you doing buddy good to see you you know I feel like we’ve seen each other a few times here and there uh I’m glad to be here i’m glad to finally get a chance to come on the PHLY i think I might be the first Pittsburgger you’ve ever had on PHLY i’m sorry about that but you know we’ll get through it in the No that’s a good start for the Pittsburgers to I feel like Pittsburgh there’s not much of there’s not a lot of overlap in the really it’s Flyers Penguins is the big one and other than that they don’t play each other enough the other teams to have any There is always that beef of Waw Wa versus Sheets though so you know you know you know what I mean I’ve never eaten Waw Wa that’s the thing you know I can’t I can’t genuinely give you a take i’ve never had Waw Wa i’ve only had Cheese all right well one thing we do have in common is the basketball and that’s where we’re going to start so I did want to start off though because you did drop your highly anticipated 2025 NBA draft guide this is the sixth edition of your draft guide uh it’s very big you have your tears all that stuff we’ll get into that but the first thing I wanted to ask you for the people who are watching and listening is how do you get to the process of doing all of this putting this together because it is it is very informative it is deep dive plus pages it’s It’s a lot there’s a lot so the process Sam uh for how you get to this point and as you even said it in your introduction it’s one of your favorite parts of the year where you are able to drop this and release this to all the basketball fans out there whether it’s the you know the normal just general basketball fan or maybe even an executive that is peeking at it and seeing what information you do have in there so just a general uh overview of how you get to this process and and what it is you look for look what you look to do when you put this together yeah like when I started doing this thing like six years ago it felt like fairly overwhelming and like all-encompassing in a weird way uh I called you know one of the first people I called was Dane Bugler who does the NFL version over our web over at our website and we kind of figured out the you know what the structure would kind of be for like what an NBA one would look like and then I talked through it with editors and everything but now I’m going to be honest with you Devon like it it doesn’t write itself like it’s a lot of time don’t get me wrong but the processes are like pretty set in stone now to where it’s not as like difficult in term like the structure is what it is at this point you know what I mean like we can I have to write about prospects and write about things and we changed to like bullet points and things like that this year but the process in terms of each player is as I’m watching games throughout the season I take crazy notes on all the games that I’m watching be it NBA be it college for the college guys particularly I’m really focusing on all right what are tendencies here like you know Kanipple like his you know most common screen partner this year was certainly common Malawatch you know he had better chemistry with common Malawatch than any of Duke’s guards did this year so like what are we looking at here uh trying to figure out you know little tendencies defensively in terms of closeout tech i’m really trying to dig into the weeds and figure it all out so that when I go to sit down and like really write these profiles at the end of the day here and I start that process really in like February even like January at some point that’s a that’s a lot of time to put together writeups and and when people actually read these writeups and see how much is said and the background and intel and whatnot on all these guys you can tell that it has taken you know 3 months four months to just write this all out and take I don’t know if your notebooks or your notes look like uh Zodiac Killer styled scrawlings but uh I’m sure it’s a lot to sort through at the end of the day just off the top of your head yeah it What was the final word count of the guy uh was in the 160 range 160,000 that’s like legitimately a full book like that’s like a 250 page book give or take yeah it was funny when I would go on um Mark Titus’s show at the Ringer back when he was there his old producer Jim Cunningham would literally list off a number of books that the draft guide was longer than and it was just genuinely like really funny like I can’t remember what the funniest one was but it was like there are like classics that are shorter than this it’s it’s a completely absurd project all right well all right let’s That’s funny man a that’s a pretty good book and a very popular book over the last six years and I want to let everybody know of course our show is brought to you by for the summer uh for the Sixers content that we’ll bring you throughout the entire summer Rothman Orthopedics all right so Sam with that preamble I’m curious how in the last six years maybe your view on prospects has changed and maybe affected how you rank players right because the league evolves very quickly frankly right two years is the end of an era in some cases now right for styles and teams and whatnot so you know as you watch the different trends come in and out and watch how defenses change and offenses evolve like in that period of time what what is much different for you or most different for you right now compared to when you started doing these draft guides yeah I think that the big thing that I would point to there is that I well a I’ve just gotten smarter at this like I’ve gotten better at it as I’ve gotten older like I was doing the like I did the first one at like 28 years old or whatever and if you think about how smart you were at 28 versus what you know now you know it’s I’m sure drastic in terms of the tonnage right of what you can you know actually think about in the way that your complex thought processes work about basketball and the way that you see it spatially and things like that so like I’ve just gotten better at this i like I always make the joke like I started doing this when I was 24 like I was really stupid when I was 24 as are most people frankly yeah like I was genuinely not good at this at 24 and I was like incredibly lucky to have this job at CBS and like was you know I got some hits i’m sure I have some misses if you go back like I was really high on Fred Vanley uh also like did not like Rudy Goar at all you know what I mean like there there are so many different things that go into it i’ve gotten better at it the thing that you know to answer your question about what I look for now in prospects I think that you’re right my evaluation process has changed it’s really funny that you asked that question because one of the projects I’m working on right now is ranking the top 20 prospects that have come through like in the last decade that I’ve been doing this right and looking back through I had the who I had the highest grades on i’m just like yeah like this was stupid like what were you looking at like why did you why did you have h have such a high grade on this guy right and like even like three or four years ago like Jabari Smith Jr like you know looking back through it I think I just didn’t have quite the same understanding of like body dynamics and like dynamic movement that I do now um the other thing that I look for generally is just like my my thought process on the NBA has changed in a real way right like I basically want guys who have real positional size or length or strength uh point blank and then have like dribble pass shoot defend capabilities like th those are the things that I look for most right now i want as many of those boxes ticked as possible and look like there are precious few players in every draft that tick all of those boxes is the reality but figuring out what the most important ones of those are for the role right like if you’re going to be a lead guard you probably have to be able to dribble and shoot and defend if you’re going to be a wing you really have to be able to shoot and defend if you’re going to be a big you have to have like genuine positional size and you have to be able to defend at a super high level and your hands have to be great um the other thing that I really look for a lot now and where I think I went wrong a little bit early on was looking at like a player’s center of gravity because there are a lot of things that you can change like there are ways you can get stronger you can add strength to your lower half you can add strength to your upper body if you need to right you can’t really change how high your hips are you know what I mean like you can’t change where your center of gravity is and like that’s you know I’m a little bit lower on common Malu watch than some people are right like I have them in like at you know 11 or 12 something like that and I worry that you know that game against Houston that we saw in the Final Four I don’t want to overindex on it but like he struggled to to defensive rebound throughout the entire course of the year and being a great defensive rebounder for a you know relatively limited center in terms of passing ability in terms of handle anything like that like he’s never going to be a shot creator being able to control the defensive glass is critical and I worry that because his hips are as high as they are he’s going to kind of just get wedged out and anchored out of his position a little bit more often than what we all want him to so you know that’s like just even like a very specific thing that you know I think that there are so many ways that these kids can improve and they’re going to be different human beings by the time that they’re 25 as they are at 19 and 20 but the one thing that you kind of can’t change is like there are just certain physical things that you can’t change um and like high hips is one of them that always really worries me a little bit so in that same vein to get more into some specific prospects but definitely guys that we’re talking about at number three the Sixers are talking about at number three your third tier of guys in this class coniple VJ Edgecomb Trey Johnson Ace Bailey and that order i know you’ve said that’s the order in a vacuum right and that that’s not the order team to team that if you were whether it’s the Sixers whether it’s whoever else that you would reorder these guys so what’s the order for the Sixers that you would put those guys in and you know related to the the physical stuff you do have Khan third and there are a lot of people with athleticism and you know agility concerns with Khan defensively why are you maybe less concerned about those than I guess probably the general draft community seems to be well like here’s a here’s a project like as we’re going through this like let’s talk through what a Sixers draft board should look like for all for all of us right like so with Khan the reason that I think I’m a little bit higher on Khan is because there are just fewer holes right now in his game than there are for the others in my opinion khan is certainly a deficient athlete like I I’m not going to make a case otherwise yeah um he will be I don’t know in the bottom seven six% of athletes in the NBA probably in terms of pure explosiveness uh speed twitchy movements leaping ability etc right didn’t really hinder him this year hasn’t really hindered him in high school could hinder him in the NBA defensively I think particularly would be the question but in terms of what his skill set is he is a 6 foot five you know guy with like an 8 foot6 standing reach 220 pounds has that really low center of gravity real dribble pass shoot skills like genuine really highlevel dribble pass shoot skills was a 484191 guy this year as a freshman it is exceptionally rare to find guys that are able to be that efficient as freshman uh in college basketball especially playing at the high major level uh you know 14.4 points 2.7 assists versus 1.4 turnovers another skill that like I always just look for in terms of guys that I really like processing ability how quickly do you read things that are happening on the court it kind of goes into the passing ability but it’s more than that it’s how quickly do you relocate how quickly do you kind of find the open areas of the defense when you’re off the ball how quickly do you move the ball when you catch it like are you somebody who’s holding the ball in order to try and make plays he makes really quick rapid decisions and he’s very comfortable playing as a part of a team or he’s comfortable as he showed in the ACC tournament leading a team when he was the ACC tournament MVP after uh Cooper Flag went out with his ankle injury and led them to the ACC tournament title at Duke so I look at the completeness of his game he is genuinely somebody who can dribble pass shoot and make decisions then on top of it I think he’s like a way underrated defender yeah that dude is competitive as hell like he is a battler he scraps he claws if he gets his chest in front of you you aren’t going through him that’s the reality like it it he has such a low center of gravity and he’s so physical and strong the other thing that I think he does really well yes he’s not all that quick he does a really really good job of leading his man into where he knows the help is and that’s a really critical skill as you kind of move toward the NBA yes the wider driving lanes that you will see in the NBA because the geometry of the court is just wider because of the three-point line because of the shooting ability that every NBA player has but he’s good enough to where I think he’s going to be able to lead those guys into help and not be like a disaster on defense i’m not sitting here telling you he’s going to be you know a stopper i’m not sitting here telling you he’s going to be even like what Max Streus has turned into for the Cavs and I think like Max is like a pretty good defender i think he’s a solid defender though and he’s not he’s not going to be like an a guy that you can’t play in the playoffs like I think you’re going to be fine playing him in the playoffs so to that point you released a mock draft today where the Sixers essentially gave up uh what three Drummond and Gordon and got back 618 and 32 did I get that right got it right and then you had them select you had them selecting Khan with that pick when you rank sort of like your goals with that overall series of moves it seems like you know part of it is you know sort of like decreasing cap hits uh because the Sixers do have those apron concerns part of it is getting Khan um and I guess part of it just getting more draft capital what do you think weighed most heavily in that uh you know fake trade that you brought up it’s kind of all of it to me like it’s the the totality of being able to accomplish you know killing three birds with one stone so to speak right i don’t have a massive difference between number three and number six in this class i just don’t uh I I can totally see people that think Ace Bailey has this massive upside and they want to take a bet on that i’m like honestly like with where I am with Ace like I almost think of him almost as like he has like a safer floor than what people think but I’m not as convinced on the upside as what some are uh it would just take a lot of things to come together and we’ll talk about Ace I’m sure at some point here oh we we have to because it is it’s nonstop every day in our show chat that is we have a couple dedicated Ace fans who if they do anything other than take Ace it’ll be a travesty yeah I see some like wild like you know Philly media folks like who’s the radio guy that’s just like his former podcast my former co-host on another show Elliot Shore Parks my guy loves Ace Bailey yeah he’s all in um so like it’s it’s very fun when I see those things online vj you know what worries me a little bit is like the lack of ball skill that he has like he doesn’t really have a great left hand right now a little bit slight as well but like strong and physical and explosive like I think he’ll be okay defensively and everything he’s a really high level defender um but I worry about the ball skills at the end of the day and then Trey just going to take some time physically and he’s not really a disruptive defender i see all four of those guys con you know not a supreme athlete by any stretch i see all the four of those guys as just being really close so if I’m Philly and I might be able to take advantage of teams that don’t see them as being really close and more than anything I have like multiple things that I have to achieve this summer i’m looking at it as like okay I can get off this Drummond deal which is like a total you know disaster hanging around our neck right now i can maybe get off the Eric Gordon deal and bring in like another draft pick to replace that that maybe can play but at the c it certainly at the very least will provide me a real you know cheap contract for the next four years as this team continues to hopefully build and will continue to be expensive for as long as Joel Embiid and Paul George and Tyrese Maxi are under contract um continuing to get cheaper players and then the financial flexibility piece of it of you know I think that going from number three to number six I believe is like a 3 million drop in terms of commitment financially uh in terms of the rookie scale plus the 8 million 8 and a half million that you get rid of with Drummond and Gordon it it just it ticks all of the boxes that they kind of need to achieve this summer outside of you know signing Quentyn Grimes and Gersian Yabiselli and figuring out kind of what their numbers are at the end of the day all right let’s take a quick pause we come right back we have a special guest hanging out with us here from the athletic senior writer Sam Bassini we’ll come back we’ll get into more of the prospects especially the ones that we just talked about we’ll get into Ace By folks yes we will right here on the PHLY Sixers podcast all right folks i got to tell you about my good people i’m glad if your hairline’s been slipping yeah mine has a little bit i know that slipping and fantastic money and thinning out and you’re thinking about doing something about it listen up hair transplants aren’t just cosmetic they’re real surgery and if you’re considering flying overseas to save a buck think again i’ve told you about that you’re not going to Turkey you’re not you’re just simply going to Balakinwood you’re going to Glad Hair at Morgan Stern Medical in Balakinwood getting care from boardcertified surgeons with over 30 years of experience they follow strict US safety standards 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time on the projects that really matter with your friends your family maybe even people you don’t like all that much you just have you have time to do whatever you want with it if you want to try to be evil and take over the world Ace Hardware is saving you time saving you money and giving you that opportunity to do so they’d obviously rather you be a good person though you get free estimates on equipment installation and replacement with trusted advisors and options that are best suited for your home and budget their teams also live and serve their communities they’re dedicated to keeping their neighbors comfortable in their home they’re your people helping you in your home so visit Aceharbor Home Services online at aceh hardwarehomeservices.com to get started on your next project welcome back to the PHY6’s podcast presented by Rothman Orthopedics with us again from the athletic senior NBA writer and NBA draft Sam Vini so Sam I before we get to the Ace part for me I just we talked we’ve talked much about how the Sixers season was a disaster as you just pointed out in the last segment about the drumming contract and even Aaron Eric Eric Gordon for where they are right now but when you bring up the Kanipple piece over those other three that are talked about more in Sixer fan circles I I I wanted to ask about the fact that they are in this unique situation of they are not Charlotte Washington Utah and any of these other teams that really don’t see a playoffs in sight where the 76ers are looking to get right back into that and having this young player to come in and add to that but also be a long-term fit alongside Tyrese Maxi who is already an all-star and then a player you like from last year’s draft and Jared McCain so how much of that did factor into that by eliminating the other three and ultimately landing on Kona for the fact that you know there are two parts here of now and then later oh look like they could try and trade out if they wanted to like I’m I guarantee you there are a number of teams that would love to get the number three overall pick that have talented win now players but you know a huge piece of where the league is going right now uh with the new collective bargaining agreement with how ownorous the aprons are not only financially but in terms of team building restrictions actually it’s really critical to have guys that you can trust on rookie scale contracts like it is so so important to have cheaper guys that you think can play on the court and you know the Sixers have a real opportunity here I think to be able to add multiple of those players in this draft even if they don’t trade down right like use number three you can use number 35 in the hopes that you can eventually you know have those guys in a rotation with Tyrese Maxi on a max deal with you know whatever is going on with Joel Embiid hopefully Joel Embiid being on the uh court and playing i don’t know if any of us know at this point what’s happening with Joel you know hopefully he gets healthy but you know and then the Paul George deal is obviously something that they have to figure out so I think it’s really really important that they continue to add young pieces not only you know if you think that you have to rebuild because Joel is not going to play again or whatever you think Paul George is cooked like what whatever you think you know they have bigger problems if those two things are true but if they aren’t true and if those two guys can play it is still just genuinely really important that the 76ers have cheaper players that can actually contribute given where the second apron is and how ownorous that is even the first apron makes life a little bit harder when constructing deals and trying to find things that work so we have to talk about Ace i think it’s it’s about time if it’s the the Ace Bailey segment of the show uh Sam I think there’s a a line of thought that this is a a much better situation to bring Ace into than if he goes to a rebuilding team and you’re asking him right away to be featured player number one number two option and he gets to kind of you know do what he wants to some degree and you’re chasing a ceiling that maybe reinforces some of the the more problematic parts of his game so if you bring him here next to Maxi and Joel Embiid if he’s healthy and Paul George if he’s healthy and and maybe you can take advantage of you know the catch and shoot stuff the the movement shooting potential to some degree um I guess what’s your read on do you think Ace would view it that way right like because he does these interviews he plays a certain way like up to this point in his career he has been the player he is do you think based on watching him based on you know interviews talking to people that he actually would accept that type of role and situation here or are you just getting what you see in Ace Bailey and that’s kind of you have to accept him for who he is yes and no like honestly like it’s shades of gray within that conversation because from what I understand like Ace really looks up to Paul George like I actually think Paul George being on this team more than Tyrese more than Joel even though I think we all think Paul’s probably the third best player of that group now like I think that having Paul George would actually like kind of help him understand like what he needs to do like you think about how Paul George came into the league right in Indiana like didn’t play a ton his rookie year really started to emerge played as a rookie I shouldn’t say that like played as a rookie didn’t have a massive role though as a sophomore like started to emerge started to figure some things out like by the time he was a thirdyear player was really quite good at that point and George by the way has said multiple times how much he feels like Bailey is on the same tier as even Cooper Flag yeah i mean he’s out of his mind um you know like look look like we are in the middle of an NBA finals where Tyrese Hallebertton is up you know and the Indiana Pacers are up two to one on the Oklahoma City Thunder i respect all players and I genuinely like do want to hear what players have to think of things but if there’s ever been an example of you know NBA players not always being right and not necessarily always uh being as on top of the rest of the league maybe as people on the outside think they are go look at the athletics player poll where Ty Tyrese Hallebertton was the most overrated player in the league uh that they did in like March Right it was completely asinine whenever that player pull happened and it just continues to remain like the most obscene absurd thing I’ve seen all season i digress uh I think that having Paul George around would actually just like kind of help that process a little bit like I think that I think Ace would like I think Paul George would be able to go to Ace you know maybe I’m wrong about this but like you know given how much usage the 76ers are going to take up between Maxi and Paul George and Tyrese Hallebertton right like there aren’t going to be a crazy number of shots but like having somebody like Paul George that has gone through it and come out on the other side and become a genuine AllNBA player who’s probably going to go to the Hall of Fame at some point I I do think that there’s value in him being able to go to Ace Bailey and be like “Dude like it’s a process like it’s a grind it’s going to take a minute you’re 18 years old it’s cool like this is this is good for you and if you look at all the players in A’s theoretical let’s go with outcomes guys like Jason Tatum like they didn’t come in and have like this massive let’s take 17 shots per game role kawhi Leonard did not have this crazy let’s take you know 15 shots per game role as soon as they got to the league like I assume that’s where Ace Bailey wants to get to at some point i think that a lot of the best wings like they do take some time and you know whether or not Ace wants that or not i do think it’d be valuable more than anything to have somebody there that has gone through it and can genuinely tell him like hey it’s going to take a second like it’s okay you know this this is a normal piece of the development where you come in and you knock down shots from the corner you hit catch and shoot threes i actually think he’s really good at that i think that I would love that to be his role now how effective will he be in that role like we can talk about that he can hit catch and shoot shots but there’s more to it than that like he’s somebody that really holds the ball like I mentioned that Coniple does not hold the ball he’s somebody that maintains advantages by passing and making quick decisions ace Bailey catches he holds he jab steps he takes one dribble and like gets to a turnaround jumper he takes one like crossover dribble to get to his step back going to the left he’s very capable he loves baseline mid-range jumpers like I’m really worried that like he’s going to try and like catch a corner three that’s open with like a you know close out coming at him and just be like no I feel better about the mid-range jumper here like that [ __ ] just doesn’t fly in the NBA but like I I do think that if he was going to go somewhere Philly makes sense there like I think Utah would make sense even though they don’t have like a great shot creator necessarily they do have like you know a younger point guard who can get him the ball in Isaiah Collier like they have some other guys who can at least take shots like Lowry Markin i think Will Hardy’s a really creative coach in terms of the way that he uses movement offensively and it might make things a little bit easier for Ace i think Philly works for Ace i just don’t know if Ace works for Philly is kind of what my read is and I guess we can talk about that a little bit more now that I I’ll give you guys a chance to talk here yeah well I I think so and and you know there’s a lot of like I agree with you that I don’t think I don’t necessarily see the star equity uh that a lot of people do and one of the main reasons is he just doesn’t get to the rim much at all for a high level prospect and I think people have a lot of reasons for that whether it’s ball handling you know decision- making Rucker situation maybe a little bit of strength and whatnot to take some of the bumps on the drives in what do you think is the biggest thing hindering him from getting uh you know creating shots off the dribble and getting all the way to the brim at a high level yeah so multifaceted issue here for me uh I mentioned high hips earlier in regard to common Malawatch ace has just like really high hips and he tends to play very high he tends to play very upright he doesn’t play with a ton of bend right now i think that the first thing that I would be trying to do if I was a team that drafts Ace Bailey is unlock that ability to play with more bend because he is an explosive athlete like he makes explosive movements on the court it’s just that for whatever reason he doesn’t play with a lot of bend and then you see that as well in the handle the handle is very high right now like I remember talking to a coach that was playing Ruckers earlier in the year and I like he asked me like “Yeah what would you do like with Ace?” I’d be like I would send digs into his handle every single time it’s not like they’re you know surrounding Ace and Dylan with shooters right now across the court there weren’t many shooters it was a really tightly spaced court i’d just be sending digs into his handle every time i think he’s going to stop for pull-up jumpers and if he’s taking pull-up jumpers you’re winning probably at the end of the day so I look at that i look at the high hips i look at the just it’s a rudimentary handle like he has a bag to be able to get to his mid-range jumper he actually has like a pretty advanced bag I would argue to be able to get to that mid-range jumper but the issue is that you know it’s kind of exactly like Derek said like the rim pressure is just not there i mean I I’ll look at the numbers here but you know going through it you know looking through it was took 38 layups all season and made just 42% of them his gathers I think going toward the rim are actually quite poor right now he really tends to lean away from the rim as opposed to like somebody like Will Riley is also quite skinny in this draft and if you watch him at Illinois he’s going direct to the basket every time he doesn’t care if he’s gonna get knocked on his ass he’s just taking direct lines to the rim with his footwork every time i think Ace really needs to improve his footwork going toward the basket i don’t think he decelerates all that well right now going toward the rim there’s no like okay I’m going to plant on my left leg and I’m going to bump and then be able to like extend up using my seven foot wingspan be able to get to the basket there there’s just a Nothing is easy for Ace like that that’s the biggest issue I have like there’s no there’s no shot outside of a catch and shoot three that feels easy for him and even the catch and shoot threes I feel like he tends to hold it and there ends up being a closeout on them right that was one of the things that really jumped out going back through the tape was like “All right if you go to synergy and it’s like I’m going to watch every catch and shoot three he took and the catch and shoot threes it I’d have to hand log them.” But it almost felt like half of them were catch jab step jab step jab step and then you shoot right it’s not a it’s not what you would think of when you hear the term catch and shoot three now he was still very good on those but it is a you know it’s a slower decision-making process yeah it’s an issue of like flexibility on some level to me too like he just feels a little bit stiff in his forward movements like and again like I don’t think he takes contact well right now so it’s kind of all of those things combined that make me think like the name I’ve always brought up with him is Michael Porter Jr like not the prospect version that we saw at Nathan Hail when he was in high school and like you watch Michael Porter Jr when he was in high school that dude was a dynamic like fluid shot creator prior to his back getting hurt i I don’t see that like dynamic movement but the thing that Ace has is like this is the advantage of having the higher center of gravity he has very long strides to be able to get a lot of separation on his step back jumper like he really strides backward to be able to get to that shot and I think that will be very effective in the NBA especially by the time he’s like 23 24 25 all of this leads me to like my kind of thing here which is why I probably wouldn’t take Ace if I was Philly i don’t think he’s on their timeline i think that a lot of this is just going to take a lot of time and if I was that Philly front office if I was Daryl my would be really worried that he is somebody that’s just a project right now i don’t I don’t know how great Ace is going to be at coming in and playing like real minutes and helping you win this year uh I think he has a lot of a lot of room for growth like I I think he is I think he’s definitely going to be like a real NBA player for quite a long time but I don’t know that I see this year being wildly successful for Ace and this is a year where Philly in that front office has to win it feels like all right let’s take another quick pause we come back we’ll continue our conversation with Sam Vini right here on the PHLY Sixers’s podcast all right guys we also want to make sure we tell you about Empire today because just like your favorite team needs a homecourt advantage your home needs a home floor advantage as well and Empire T can help you get it empire Tay has flooring experts dedicated flooring professionals who focus on flooring every single day we’ve all been to some of those big box stores and 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don’t injure yourself and wind up at Rothman Orthopedics see you breaking something h you know I could but you know I’ve already been there i’ve already done that and we have to talk about our presenting sponsor here on the PHLY 6’s podcast Rothman Orthopedics my friends and your friends too should you need them we’ve all been there trying to power through those plans the summer plans with the nagging injury or that stubborn pain that you’re just trying to ignore uh but when rest isn’t cutting it it’s time to call in the experts that’s why we trust Rothman Orthopedics whether you’re running on the beach swimming your golf clubs or lifting the little ones for a pool day or a get together family get together a barbecue Rothman’s specialists are here to treat whatever’s holding you back their top tier care will have you moving and enjoying every minute of the summer like normal if pain is slowing you down this season take the first step head to rothmanorththo.com/phry and schedule your 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because uh we we started the week off Sam with Baylor head coach Scott Drew joining us uh to talk about his prospect his player and uh what that would look like as an NBA player but also here in the situation in in Philadelphia in that third tier for you your your overall view of him when you talk about the Sixers need to win right now he also does seem like a player that doesn’t waste a lot of movement out there on the floor he does the right things and Scott Drew certainly talked about that uh but is it the shooting maybe that put Khan Canipple ahead of uh ahead of of him as a prospect versus uh something else because his athleticism is totally different from what Khan Caniples is what what was it the separation there especially when we’re looking at the Sixers yeah look I mean first and foremost great that you had Scott on scott’s a Scott’s a great dude uh I’m sure that you had a blast talking to that dude talking about cheese steak and all kinds of other stuff too scott Scott’s the best scott I remember one time I like tweeted an image of being on vacation in Bali and he’s like “Oh man like uh my my wife and I like we have a vacation coming up like where are you like that seems like such a cool idea uh to go there.” And I’m like “Scott man like you this this is a good spot but you can do you can do a little bit better um he’s just the best uh so with VJ what worries me is the ball skills more than the shooting i I think he’s going to shoot off the catch at a pretty high level we’ll talk about the pull up in a second with VJ that that does worry me quite a bit but I think he’ll shoot off the catch at a real level i think that he’s an awesome defender i I love what VJ brings on that end of the court um not quite like a Kase Wallace level defender i think Kasein’s a little bit longer i think he’s a little bit stronger and more physical through his torso and like has a bit of a lower center of gravity but VJ’s really really good and I think honestly VJ is even a little bit more disruptive off the ball like you watch his like rotation like weak side rim protection like plays you’re just like “Oh wow.” Like this is this is pretty sick uh he blocks jump shots more often than what you think on closeouts because I think people like kind of misjudge how athletic he is he’s very twitchy uh in all of his movements in a way that I like i just don’t love No no uh the issue for him is the left hand for me uh like really does not have much of a left hand right now both like handling the ball and when trying to get to the basket and like score with his left hand uh teams like you know Iowa State Houston this year like the really high pressure defensive teams they really gave him problems whenever he was trying to bring the ball up the court like if they would blitz ball screens and he was going to his left or you know even if he was going to his right and had to counter he he struggled with that in quite a real manner like I I think of him more as an offguard than I do as like a primary um the thing that is worth noting in terms of like okay maybe I’m wrong about that is that you know when Rob Wright was not in the game VJ looked much better as a primary honestly like in the moments where he was able to up his usage he was a little bit more efficient uh in general like I I may maybe he can continue to improve because the other piece of it with VJ and you know I’m sure you guys have gotten this now that VJ has been into Philly unbelievable kid and like you’ve talked to Scott Drew like I remember talking to their staff in the like in the preseason and they were just like yeah like VJ has like stepped in and like become like already one of the leaders of the team he’s been here for like a month and it was just so quick um the way that like he commands guys to come in and you know he he’s willing to talk to them on the court even as a freshman who’s known these guys for a month like he’s willing to come in and be like oh no like we got to do it this way we got to be serious about how we’re operating right now we got to be on the court and we got to be like a genuine team that is like practicing hard and making sure that we’re you know going through not just going through the motions every single day like he is somebody that really cares about the game and really wants to get better at a super high level and like super engaging personal like he he has like all the things that you look for on the like offc court side all of the interviews that he’s done with teams that I’ve talked to have just been awesome uh to this point that you know really really exciting on that front but I think that what worries me is just like the ball skill and then additionally I think he made like three of 21 from pullup jumpers from three this year uh if I remember I can look up the numbers in the draft guide kind of while we’re here but it it was somewhat concerning and I think even the way he like loads into those shots is not particularly impressive uh I think his feet his footwork just like needs to desperately improve uh it’s going to take some time to like really be able to get him on balance uh to the point where he can really knock down those shots it was nine of 35 pull-up attempts uh in senior year in high school and like think about that like he only took 35 pull-up attempts in his senior year in high school you know playing at Loo and like that’s or not at Lu I’m sorry Luhigh and um it it’s it’s a low number for a guy that played as on the ball as VJ did right it’s just that he’s not super comfortable doing that he made 13 of 49 in total this year on his pull-up jumpers according to Synergy um you know the legs fly everywhere the shot tends to flatten out you know just just the rhythm and balance like aren’t really there yet in terms of that piece of his game and then as a finisher you know we mentioned Ace’s concerns as a finisher yeah VJ is like a wildly explosive athlete but made just 48.9% of his half court attempts at the rim uh according to Synergy at Baylor uh made under 45% as a junior and then was at 52% as a senior in high school so like the gathers the ability to deal with contact like these are things that he’s always kind of dealt with in terms of issues um yeah i love like I really like the player i just think he’s more like I’ve been using like the he’s like Gary Harris with a jetpack like attached to his back kind of the way I think of him like super explosive athlete and like I think he’s going to be able to step in immediately and I think people hear that and they go “Oh like Gary Harris like who the [ __ ] wants that?” But like you know Gary Harris was like probably like a top 50 player in the league for you know a three or four year stretch there and if he had a jetpack you know think of how much higher he could have gone in those rankings literally totally right uh and like you know he was averaging like 17 three and three getting all defense votes like those guys help you win and that’s why VJ ended up in the top five for me even though I have the on ball concerns but I think VJ will help you win i’d have no problem with the Sixers taking him at three you know it’d either be him or Con for me that I would take if I was them all right look one more quick break got to take this one in squeeze this one in fit this one in so we can come back get some more prospect talk in maybe fit in even the number 35th overall pick and what they should target at the top of the second round right here with San Vini on the PHLY Sixers podcast we also want to remind you about the Ball Knowers Bonus do you think you know ball unlike the people you see in front of you we’ve got another ball knower bonus that we’d like to tell you about for each game of the NBA Finals all you have to do is pick the winner of the game you can win a gift card to the PHLY merch merch store if you pick correctly first click the link in the description below and make your pick 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calendar clear your schedule 12 hours of content on Wednesday PHY Streamathon subscribe now welcome back to the PHLY 6’s podcast from the athletic senior writer for the NBA and the NBA draft Sam Vassini talking about VJ Edgecomb uh Derek where you want to go with this one uh so I I guess one thing because we talk a lot about Trey Johnson as well and I like like a lot about him uh the one thing I didn’t like his defense especially off ball was pretty disgusting at times um he certainly has physical tools that you hope he can grow into it with a 610 wingspan and whatnot what’ you get from like his high school like looking into it was he a little more engaged back then when he didn’t have quite the role or the usage that he had at Texas like is there any kind of indicator that he might make the most of that physical tools especially if he obviously bulks up considerably but is there any indicator that he might be better down the road yeah so like it’s funny with Trey i generally agree that like he was not a disruptive offball player defensively i did think that like he at least made rotations like it felt like he knew where he was supposed to be on defense and like he is very engaged on the court like he is somebody that like is competitive like he wants to win like he is a he’s a real like this guy is a crazy crazy worker like you know one of the guys I’ve gotten in this class where it’s like no like if you’re going to bet on somebody to improve bet on Trey Johnson because he’s not going to quit working um in terms of actually being able to disrupt guys defensively I I’m skeptical that he’s going to be like you know we’re hoping for neutral here I think for Trey like we’re hoping for neutral and you know it might end up a little bit less than that but I think that he is a real shooter like he he and Khan are the two guys in this class i guess Kobe Brea as well at Kentucky given that he’s like a historic statistical shooter but like Khan and Trey are the two guys in the first round where I look at it and I’m like look these guys are like no fail prospects because they’re such elite shooters that there’s just no way that this goes poorly like you know entirely right they’re both super competitive they’re both hard workers like given how important shooting is these guys are going to be fine now like do you love it at number three given that you have Jordan McCain given or Jared McCain Jesus Christ it’s been a long week guys uh given that you have Jared McCain given that you have um Tyrese Maxi and Quentyn Grimes and you know all these guys that probably profile best at like the two three outside of Maxi right like maybe not like I don’t know that Trey is like the best fit in Philly necessarily because I would want somebody that’s like a little bit more uh a little bit more engaged defensively I think not even engaged but like a little bit a little bit more disruptive defensively than what he is um but like I I think Tre is going to be a really good basketball player and uh I think that he has a real chance to you know be you know a 20 to 25 point per game scorer uh you know he Like the the downside for him to me is like that it’s something like what Malik Beasley is and like Malik Beasley is still like a really good basketball player at the end of the day he’s still somebody that you know was the second leading scorer on a team that was sixth in the Eastern Conference this year it you know but the upside to me is that he could be like one of these primary scoring types who’s like a genuine weapon off the ball if he finds the right coaching staff that like knows how to use him that that’s the other thing like you know I’m sure you guys watching the tape like Texas just didn’t do anything for him off the ball like this dude is a lethal shooter like I watched him go through a workout in Santa Barbara and he sprinted off of actions for like an hour this dude did not get tired he did not ever see like any sort of drop in terms of like the shot stopping falling i like I told him after the workout I was like that was one of the most impressive workouts I’ve ever seen from a teenage shooter like there are guys in their 20s like coming into the draft where I’ve seen where like they’ve gotten hot and dropped like 75 or 80 out of 100 but like you know what Trey did like this dude just goes and he goes hard and he is very well conditioned and like he is all about hoops like it is he’s somebody that like I do just want to bet on continuing to improve like that’s why like when people bring up the defense I’m like yeah like I think he is more focused on scoring right now like I think he wants to like maximize what he is as a scorer it feels like to me but I think he’ll figure it out like I think he wants to win so bad that like he’ll eventually learn that like okay I can’t just do this one way like I got to go both ways on this i got to defend so you know that that’s the upside of Trey Johnson it’s just like a great shooter great movement shooter comfortable with the ball able to get to his pull-up spots um but needs to be able to again pressure the basket which is something that he did not do well this year uh similar to Ace Bailey and VJ Edge sam to that point about you know Trey being about the right things talked about VJ being this you know high character leadership type guy um we’ve been trying to peg you know what is a Daryl my prospect right and and it’s difficult to say “All right he did this this and this at pick 25 and so this is what he’s going to do at three.” But I if you were reading into Daryl’s history and thinking about the types of players but also people that they he has drafted and they have drafted who do you think checks the most boxes in terms of if I was just going in blind this is like the small handful of people that that fit their MMO so first and foremost I want to say this is kind of why I think trade down is the most like likely option here i don’t really think there’s a guy in this class for them at number three that like ticks all of the Daryl my boxes kind of i think that he will certainly look for guys that are you know guys that tick models you know but it’s not just models like I think that’s like the misnomer with Daryl is you know oh like he’s just gonna draft the guy that the model ticks over as being the number one guy right not going to do that like he is genuinely somebody that like likes to see you know workouts on some level and likes to you know uh watch tape and like dig in and see what’s going on like I think that he the models matter you know he’s not I don’t think he’s gonna take somebody where they are like catastrophically low on a model right that’s what makes me very skeptical of them taking Ace Bailey is like Ace Bailey does not perform super well on models in just about for just about every team I’ve talked to um you know I’ve like kind of asked like you know is Ace like give me a general sense of where some of these guys are on your model without you know divulging too too much and Ace tends to be lower on in that regard so like that that’s what makes me like a little bit skeptical of Ace vj like you know I can see him liking VJ i can see the pullup shooting you know being a real question in terms of the upside for him right the thing we know about Daryl is like Daryl is always like star hunting more than anything right daryl is looking for guys that he think has like tremendous upside that could like really really come through on you know whatever you know he’s you know whatever the asset capital or pick capital or whatever he’s putting into a trade or a um you know a draft pick whatever it is so my issue with this is that I just don’t know that any of these four guys really tick all of it for me and it’s kind of why I like look I I don’t know what they’re going to do like I’m just going to straight up say like I think that they are looking at so many different options right now i think it is very plausible they stay at three i think it’s very plausible they move down i would be surprised if they were able to move up um that that would like genuinely pretty pretty much stun me um it just given Cooper and Dylan and yeah the level to which I think they are ahead um but I think that they will look at a significant number of options and try to you know determine the best course for them but the reason why I think it I’m not sitting here and saying it’s definitely going to end in a trade down i think the most logical option given what I you know think about Daryl my told about Daryl and like what I’ve been told about the Phillies you know the 76ers process and everything like trade down just feels like the option here to me uh because like I don’t I don’t know how much upside any of these guys like truly have i think they’re all going to be really really high level starters i like I I really like all of these players i think they’re all going to make a hundred million dollars in their career and like have really successful runs but I just don’t I don’t know that any of them tick all of the Daryl boxes in terms of like models you know eye test star making upside like kind of everything like that and and with your hypothetical trade that you did have at six with Konipple 18 uh for the Sixers in this one making the deal with Washington that Danny Wolf was the 18th overall selection in your hypothetical mock trade why Danny Wolf at that spot i just I love Danny Wolf very Danny Wolf uh Danny Wolf is look like I’m there there’s no intel on what the Sixers like at 18 you know what I mean like they’re just like not in that range of the draft you know so I just thought through it and was like hey you know what do they need they could use another big option but like a big option that’s like a little bit different than what they have right so Danny Wolf is like this dribble pass shoot you know like some some of the things he does are like basketball soanty in terms of like how capable he is uh I I I love I love watching him play as much as anything i think he’s way better defensively than what people like people see like 611 250 pound like white dude and they just assume he’s like a big stiff right he’s not like Michigan like switched with him on defense this year uh like people look at Common Malawatch and then look at Danny Wolf and they think of Common as being like the more switchable defender and I’m just like “Yeah you guys just like didn’t watch this year.” Like Commonmen is a guy who can go out and go on an island and like if he’s if he’s caught out there like he’s okay he’s he’s solid at it danny like like a part of their scheme was switching this year like it’s a little bit different in terms of the responsibilities and the number of reps that they had in those roles so uh I think he moves like a little bit better than he gets credit for he’s an unbelievable passer the key is going to be the shot the shot looks super funky he has like a super left the line release kind of coming out of his hand and you know I think he’s working through kind of improving some of those things in the pre-draft process he still made I think like 34% from three this year so it’s not broken by any stretch um but yeah just like a really interesting weird athletic prospect that uh I thought you know could play at the four with Philly occasionally could be like an interesting you know counter at the five at times like just a you know a few different things well when we did our first round mock draft I was picking for the Timberwolves I believe at 17 and I shocked the guys and went with Danny Wolf at 17 a couple of weeks ago so not a not a Devon guy typically that we would think of devon loves the the the true hoopers like he was early on Trey he was early on Fears he that’s that’s his weird that’s his uh wheelhouse normally devon he’s a he is a true hooper though yeah that’s why I selected him at 17 people look at Danny Wolf and they go “Oh this like big white stiff dude.” Like he he’s more in line with like the hooper gene than he does the like Yes oh like you know the coniple gene let’s go with I guess uh last one last one for me at least um just because we talked about it in yesterday’s show do you have Harper because you’ve got obviously got Flag here you got the third tier here sure is Harper closer to Flag or is he closer to the guys at three through eight or whatever closer to the guys three through eight only because I have like an obscenely high grade on Cooper um like I I think Cooper Cooper’s the second best prospect I’ve evaluated since I’ve been doing this maybe not in terms of upside like Zion’s upside was probably higher if it all went right for Zion but like Zion had already dealt with some injury stuff and you know we all had some vague worries about what the frame was going to continue to age into cooper you know knock on wood has not been hurt yet uh in his career there’s no real injury concern you know he’s an elite competitor like you go through like all the intel work on him and he’s just like this is incredible like from the moment that Cooper got to Duke’s campus like he completely transformed what they were doing like from a practice perspective from like a competitive perspective um like I remember talking to John Sh in the preseason he was just like “Yeah like Cooper has changed us just through straight up competitiveness uh all he cares about is winning like there’s nothing else that he cares about um the improvement on the ball was significant this year uh all of it is just fantastic this doesn’t have to turn into a love fest for Cooper Flag but like in terms of Dylan I love Dylan as a player i think he’s going to be really really impactful and impressive needs to work on the pull-up jumper as well like I think that will improve he has enough of a base there it’s not quite as bad as BJ’s it’s like he’s like a you know I think he was somewhere between like 29 and 32 this year from three so I think that you know Dylan Dylan like was almost a tier one player for me like he’d be like I’m like going into the freaking Greenberg tiers now like another Titus but like you know going into the Greenberg of like yeah he was like two tier 2 A C you know or whatever uh no like Dylan was very high uh in tier two for me like he was one of the better tier two guys that you’ll find um yeah I think he’s gonna be an all-star level player i’m I’m a very big fan of Dylan Harper dying more boys do you guys talk about 35 i think the people would be disappointed well so give us your elevator pitch on a player at 35 at least that you think is you know as much as we can predict the draft that is likely to be in that range and you think makes sense for the Sixers i don’t like I’ll give you a couple players but like the thing I will say about 35 is it’s like right on the edge of where we start getting into the drop off for me um I think that there will be players available at number 35 that will probably be worth a guaranteed deal if I was them I would be looking at Elijah Martin Scion James Seon James sorry I always do that for some reason seion James I would like hope beyond hope that somehow Ryan Kulk Brener got to 35 because that is like the perfect We’ve talked about him a lot we’re fans of his for sure i I would move up for Ryan Kulk Brener if I was Philadelphia like I would be trying to do what I could to get him um I mean like look like Adutierro could get there in theory ben Sarath could get there you know i don’t I mean maybe Max Ray Node but like I don’t I don’t think he gets there at the end of the day um seems like Drake Powell’s probably a little bit higher than this right now too i mean Tyrese Proctor you know another Duke guy can really shoot the ball very skinny but like competitive on defense um Janai Broom I’m sure is another guy that’s been brought up just as like a backup center for you guys um Janai’s fine yannik Neerhauser would be another guy just like pure rim runner but I’m not a huge huge Netherhauser fan um yeah like honestly my favorite like last year people you know that follow my show will know like I have like an an obsession with Cam Spencer like I think Cam Spencer is one of just one of my like favorite basketball players because he’s just like my kind of like competitive I I mean this positively like he’s just like a competitive psychopath i think we saw that like on the court this year in the like minutes he played with Memphis where he’ll just go up to Devin Booker and start talking [ __ ] uh and like chirp constantly my guy this year is Elijah Martin um I I love Elijah Martin he’s an absolute bulldog on defense like this is a dude that was a legitimate like real division one football prospect like as a quarterback that was like a dual threat quarterback you know super super physical has that kind of frame absolute freak athlete and he uses it and he talks on the court if you talk to the Florida staff like look they’re well aware that like Walter Clayton was the best player on the team but they will straight up tell you that like they do not win the title without Elijah Martin in the way that just his mentality completely shifted their defensive uh capabilities elijah is my guy in this class like that okay a final one because we do have two Philadelphia guys one a little bit higher in the first round conversation with Rashier Fleming from St joe’s and then Eric Dixon from Villanovavva who’s you know a fifth year senior and had a fantastic career led led the league and led the college basketball and scoring this year uh just your observations on those two with Fleming if you could start there yeah so I wish I was a little bit higher on Rashir and I ended up uh very theoretical player to me people will look at the fact that he’s enormous like 6’9 75 wingspan and can shoot and like a super athlete as well and they think of him as like this wing i almost think of him like I think he’s more of like a big like I think he’s more like Bobby Portoris than he is Yeah like you know name big wing that you want to bring up in this com like Trevor Arza or something like that right um like he he’s more that to me and he’s val like I think he can be a valuable player for sure uh I didn’t love the feel for the game um I didn’t love like I felt like he was a consistent gambler on defense in a way that worried me um I I’m probably one of the few that have him as like a second round grade as opposed to a first round grade uh seems like an awesome kid from everything I know intel-wise so like I he’s one of those kids where like you you put him on the board and like you really hope that you’re wrong kind of like you just want that kid to succeed more than anything um and another guy that is like that is honestly Dixon for me too um Eric Dixon’s like one of those people like I just would like to meet at some point he seems like such an interesting thoughtful human being um like really into like art history and like really into you know a whole lot of like really cool things uh you know yeah he seems like an awesome dude i just don’t know how he survives on defense in the NBA uh re real shooter obviously now um but like a lot of what they did beyond the shooting was even just like some weird post stuff and that’s you know that’s just not gonna fly at 6’5 or 6’6 at the next level right uh you know if I thought he could survive on defense I would have him quite a bit higher but you know I see him as like a two-way guy and you know I think that he could be an interesting two-way guy for somebody all right Tim before we get you out of here dust settles we’re on draft night sixers don’t move anywhere they’re just sitting at three who are you taking with that pick and who All right who are you taking and who do you think the Sixers are taking with the It could be the same could be different yeah i’m torn personally between Khan and VJ for them i think I would take Khan because I would want the slightly bigger player given that McCain and Maxi seem like the two like real long-term building blocks here right you know we’ll figure out what happens with Paul George we’ll figure out what’s going on with Joel Embiid but like if I’m them like I think I’ve got like two dudes here that are like there for the long term in Maxi and McCain i would want the slightly bigger player with all things like being equal obviously Edgecom and Khan are not in any way similar as basketball players but uh they are certainly on my board like very similarly graded and I think I would go with Khan over VJ at the end it’s very close though i think that they would go VJ if you made me bet because I think that you can sell yourself just slightly more on upside if you think that VJ is going to continue to uh improve at the rapid rate that he has over the course of the last like four years of his career um I I think that they would sell given like the Daryl my like upside swing yeah you know kind of mentality i think they would sell themselves on VJ at number three and that that’s kind of been my opinion um since like the week after the lottery uh if you know they end up staying at three but I I still think if you made me bet one way I would say a trade down all right top 100 prospects ranking tiers and analysis that’s the 2025 NBA draft guide from Sam Vini of The Athletic senior writer for the NBA and the NBA draft make sure you go sign up to become a member at the athletic subscribe and when you do you get a chance to take a peek at the draft guide of course and see where all of these players do fall from Cooper Flag to Rashier Fleming all the way down to Eric Dixon and so many more make sure you also check out his podcast tremendous listen and that is the game theory podcast as well san Vini thank you so much man for joining us spending some time with us a lot of time with us on this Friday as we are less than two weeks away from the NBA draft can’t wait to see how it all plays out and continue to follow your work as we do so thank you so much man thank you Sam yeah thanks guys i appreciate it so much oh man that was fun really appreciate speaking to Sam longtime fan i know you guys know him so well and this was the first time I had a chance to really talk to him in this way so that was really He’s been like an unofficial member of the show the amount of times I think we’ve brought him up during the pre-draft process yeah so hopefully you all enjoyed that hopefully we all got a little bit of an education there on his thought process of how he puts together his draft guide and all of that don’t forget to make sure not only his draft guide the uh All City draft guide with Derek Bodner and CHGO’s Will Gotautle make sure you check that out become a member by signing up at the all phall city you know all that stuff with the allphy.com go sign up so you can make sure you check out Derek and Will’s draft guide as well uh so on the way out we got to say goodbye we’ll see you tomorrow if it if the rain cooperates you know we’ll see you tomorrow hoping for good weather at this golf outing yeah at the golf outing the uh second annual and we hope we’re all able to hang out with you talk little hoops and uh see how it all plays out for us so let’s get ready to say our goodbyes it’s been a long week and a long Friday it has been a long Friday we’re going to do an abbreviated roll call and unfortunately super chats are getting shelved until Monday because we have arrangements to make but obviously we got to thank all our our regulars jay at the jungle my girl Winona hey Nona jess Randy Rubar Brian Knight Melo three point my man Rick Morse Valhos go get him Rick who else we got who we who we missing today ins of course the letter N b Pump who I don’t know if he’s excited or angry densley another member of the Acehive yeah duck Holiday we got you know we love you all but today we talked for with Sam for a lot longer than I think we were expecting coming in so again super chats on Monday we will circle back on those in the meantime guys those of you who are coming to the golf outing on Saturday we’re excited hopefully if the weather holds out to see some of you down there or up there I guess based on where we’re at i I actually need to look into where it is exactly on the on a map because I’ve never been there before brook Country Club i know where it is blackwood New Jersey there you go you’re good to go i don’t look at maps too often anymore anyway guys on your way out could you please hit that subscribe button hit the bell icon so you get notifications each and every time we go live hit that thumbs up button as a thank you to our friend and our guest Sam Vini but also to super producer Bri putting it all together making it all happen making it look well making us look much better than we would otherwise thank you to Bri as always everybody oh how could I it’s how rude of me very disrespectful mom’s grandchildren i didn’t It’s okay i I I take responsibility for that one shout out to mom shout out to all of you those of you we won’t see on Saturday we’ll be back Monday 3:00 as we are Monday through Friday we have a bunch of stuff coming up in the next week and a half leading into this draft busy schedule subathon next week a whole lot going on until then enjoy your weekend take care of yourselves goodbye 12 days away see you [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Sam Vecenie believes Kon Knueppel should be the Sixers pick at No. 3 and that Ace Bailey doesn’t fit what the Sixers are probably looking for. He also talks through VJ Edgecombe’s fit, Rasheer Fleming’s pro prospects, and what Daryl Morey will be looking for on draft night.

#nba #nbadraft #sixers #76ers #dukembb #acebailey #konknueppel #dylanharper #samvecenie #darylmorey #vjedgecombe #nicknurse #joelembiid #tyresemaxey #paulgeorge #jaredmccain

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