2025 New York Knicks Draft Special f/ Ball Up Top w/ Xander Foreman #nba #nbadraft #knicksfans

2025 New York Knicks Draft Special f/ Ball Up Top w/ Xander Foreman #nba #nbadraft #knicksfans

[Music] [Music] hi this is Fritz of the NBA Economy Show uh just coming with you with the the 2025 Knicks draft special and I’m with a friend Alex Exander Foreman he’s some really good uh like draft analysts and uh hopefully we can have a a great time reviewing the draft and seeing what uh impacts I’ll have on the Knicks um so introduce yourself uh my name is Xander Foreman uh I got the YouTube channel Ball Up top of Xander Foreman mostly surrounded by NBA drafts mostly or obviously NBA content been a Knicks fan basically all my life i’m from here in New York and yeah I’m just really excited to talk draft get into this type of stuff with Fritz here and yeah my first collab too see how this goes i’m excited okay so you say you’re a Knicks fan um the Knicks recently had a coaching change um what did you think of this last 24 25 season i honestly I know a lot of Knicks fans are very eccentric like about the team like it’s boomer bust basically since we became playoff relevant i honestly don’t think like last season was that terrible a lot of people think uh because we didn’t win a championship we fell short in the conference finals uh it was a loss of a season but I think this is a season we can grow off of we can add some more players uh probably some moves we can make during the off seasonason to get to the level we want to get next year um so yeah I think this is a good building block um firing a coach we’ll see how that goes especially with you know all the candidates we have left to pick out of but yeah it’s a good building block we’ll see how we are next year um but yeah there’s some holes in the team you have to fix i think we could do it though yeah definitely posit feeling positive uh about the next season um without uh Tom Tibido uh we’ve seen some new coaching c candidates come up um does any of the coaching candidates that are out right now um are they is there one that you keep your eye on well originally when we uh fired Tibido I was thinking maybe Mike Malone but I don’t know if that’s going to materialize anything like that just because Malone has experience with an offensive hub in Nicole Joic obviously Cat not the same player but with the ball in his hands you know creating for himself I thought maybe we could have built something off of that uh Mike Brown should for sure be interesting i think that is definitely something we could go after and then I think some assistants too especially Johnny Bryant um someone that has been in the Knicks system before in the organization he knows how he runs stuff over here um I think if there was one main assistant I would go after it was would be Johnny Bryant and then for the head coach Mike Brown is also a pretty solid candidate for me as well okay good good choices good choices um yeah I I just want to see for me personally I just want to kind of see change someone who’s opening open to change willing to adjust willing to take willing to take like uh input from others i think that’s kind of like the key thing for me on this next year having a coach who at least just does that i I think we would be pretty fine um no matter who it is actually um all right so So that’s for the Knicks so that coaching change um you know it impacts how the the the team plays um how do you think a new coach uh would impact the draft i’m going to be honest i don’t think it would impact it too heavily i think like the pieces or the holes that the Knicks have on their team right now don’t really depend on who their next coach is we saw during the playoffs Landrew Sham was getting big minutes don Wright getting big minutes which you know when we were watching it wasn’t that bad um Sham had his big moments dylon Wright was inconsistent at best on offense um so I think we do have to add some more wing help during the draft i don’t think it’s going to be um going to be too much decided upon the head coach overall we need wing defense we just need production off the bench from our wings um that’s I think that’s what we need i don’t think that head coach really determines that too much but I don’t know we’ll see okay okay all right so we do So we’re we’re talking particularly about this draft um we see that the Knicks don’t have a first round pick this season because they traded it in the Muel Bridges trade um and I think they also had another draft pick in the Muel Bridges trade that went to um to the Nets so the Knicks have the 50th pick in this NBA draft um but we know the draft anything could happen uh we know there are teams with multiple picks so the Knicks could move up and the the Knicks could move down the Knicks can add picks and we know with Brock Holler the draft is usually a little roller coaster um so yeah so we’re going to talk a little general general draft first cuz we’re not we’re not 100% that the Knicks are going to stay at 50 and then we’ll get into like Knicks specific scenarios um so what’s your thoughts in general for this draft class cuz we we know historically sometimes say “Hey this is a this is a weak draft or this is a great c class.” What what do you think about this draft class well I think even since like last July at the beginning or for me personally beginning of the draft process when I was first looking at the guys in high school overseas wherever you want even G-League in some cases um I always thought that this class was probably going to be topheavy um you have great guys at the top obviously Super Flag Dylan Harper Ace Bailey uh VJ Edgecom there’s a lot of great talent at the top trey Johnson one of my personal favorites um but after that kind of feels like it falls off just a little bit um and I think that is really uh expedited especially this year by all these players returning because of NIL to college you know if I was a college player personally I’m going to take the two mill $2 million $3 million I’m going to get at college the next year and instead of taking way less if I’m a late first round pick or an early second round pick it just makes complete sense the NBA is going to have to adjust to that somehow we’ll see how that happens um but yeah it’s topheavy this year even more because of how the NIL has affected it and then apart from um stuff like that just overall about the prospects I think there’s a lot of dynamic scoring in this year’s draft class like I said before Dylan Harper I think he’s one of the most impressive scorers we have in this draft class and then me personally my favorite who’s probably my favorite player there’s one more guy I’m going to mention later but my favorite player in this class Trey Johnson i think he was the best at getting the ball in the hoop in college um just as a freshman led a Texas team to the NCAA tournament i think that this class what mostly stands out to me has to be the dynamic scoring we have from the top prospects yeah lot of scoring um yeah it’s a very interesting draft because usually when I when you look at the draft there’s like certain you’re looking for the guys who like kind of jump out the gym you look for like those surefire players but there are some really good players like throughout throughout like throughout the whole draft class like there’s interesting players I I think will be all the way at the back of the draft so I I think this is going to be a really interesting draft um so we know that there’s there are plenty of teams um so there I think 59 picks this year because the Knicks have a forfeited pick in there um do you and there’s many teams who have multiple picks do you think there could be any trades associated with um teams who have multiple picks i think there’s for sure going to be some trades probably early into the draft as well um a team that doesn’t have multiple first round picks but might just look to move the pick is going to be Philly at number three um we could see them trade down possibly to maybe five to Utah six to Washington maybe even eight to Brooklyn just to trade down get more assets that can help you win right away this the Philly team that is trying to win the NBA finals next year um but then after that Houston at 10 what’s going to happen with the Kevin Durant situation is he going to be is he going to be moved on draft night is he be moved before how does Kevin Durant trade affect what we see in the NBA draft then also San Antonio another team that’s looking to get Kevin Durant they’re at 14 could that pick potentially be moved as well i think there’s a lot of different scenarios whether that’s players whether that’s just teams uh how their trades will affect what happens in the beginning of this draft we’ll see what prospects are available i think especially after the lottery ends um there’s going to be a lot of probably nonunderclass prospects available that teams would like to move up for right outside the lottery the Thunder at 15 they’re a win out team they would not be opposed to trading that 15th pick to go ahead and try to get a win out type of guy um but yeah a lot of potential trades we’ll see what happens i’m definitely excited though yeah me as well um me personally just looking I’m hoping the Knicks can move up move up a little um we don’t have a lot of draft capital going forward um but we do have second round picks and maybe that that’ll you know convince someone to help help us get up near the near the first round or or or higher up in the second so those that’s something I’m looking forward to and let me see and um so what about are there any big draft stories that you’re that you you’ve been you’ve been um looking into well I think one of the biggest draft stories that kind of has materialized uh within the last week I would say is what happens with Ace Bailey at number three ace Bailey is a guy who throughout the whole season we believed was going to be a top three pick the number three overall prospect behind Coupe and Dylan Harper um but now apparently Philadelphia is going to look at DJ Edgecom at number three and then after that what’s going to happen with Haze Bailey because not only is he potential faller in this draft class but he only scheduled a workout with the Philadelphia 76ers pre-draft which is not a good sign because if he doesn’t go to Philly how far is he going to fall especially when you have a player who’s inconsistent you know I think I could say that in college how far is he going to fall now only scheduling one pre-draft workout it’s going to be tough to see but I’m going to be interested in that and then the second one I kind of glossed over earlier is going to be the Kevin Durant trade is it going to affect maybe number two with the Spurs i doubt it but who knows that could be involved number 10 with the Rockets is going to be the biggest one most likely and then 14 with the Spurs as well uh those are probably the two biggest stories right now i’m really interested to see what happens with Ace Bailey if he gets picked as high as three or if we see him fall to maybe even 10 to the Suns or the Rockets depends who picks there yeah I was also interested in um see if Igor Deon gets picked higher in the draft or does he fall um other ones Hansel Emanuel does he get picked and where does he get picked so it’s like th those are like two stories I’ve kind of been looking at as well so so hopefully we get those we’re going to get those answers on the 25th 25th and the 26th so um how do you like the two the two-day draft thing the two-day uh honestly I like it i thought originally I was like is this kind of pointless maybe they’re trying to get some more ahead time something like that um but I think there’s a lot of possibilities that can happen between the end of day one and the beginning of day two um especially last year I thought there was a lot of players that slip into the second round that teams could trade up for now that they had a whole night to discuss trades um but this year we don’t know what’s going to happen there’s going to be some guys that slip out of the first round there’s probably going to be some trades discussed for picks like 31 32 maybe the Knicks can get involved in something like that as well especially there’s one prospect I like to them specifically um but yeah I at first I didn’t love the two-day draft but honestly I don’t mind it now i think it’s a cool thing yeah I I I just thought it was kind of like I think they had it in ESPN office last year but this year they they like have it legit at night both of them are nights uh I think last year was the second day was in the afternoon it wasn’t in it wasn’t in an auditorium it was it was interesting i’m glad they kind of corrected that because that was kind of weird last year yeah for sure yeah um and Okay and so we’re going to get to the Knicks portion so let me see so we’re at 50 but are there any players that stick out to you that you wouldn’t mind the Knicks moving up for i think the number one guy for me is going to be Adutierro out of Arkansas uh this is a player I’ve honestly fallen in love with a draft pro uh process he’s a guy he’s a late bloomer he uh all of high school he played the point guard position he was point guard size but then coming into college he grew to 6’8 so he’s a wing an insane defender that has great guard skills and I think he would fit perfectly for what the Knicks need and if there was a guy for them to trade up for maybe beginning of second round if he’s available it would be a Dutier yeah uh also uh let me see on my list there’s a few um let me just make sure I pick one um let me see uh at 31 I’m hoping I got to go through my notes my mind is going blank right now oh uh Kobe Prea kobe Brea is is someone uh I wouldn’t mind the Knicks moving up for where he lands is kind of in flux so we’ll probably kind of get to that kind of later um but the Knicks at 50 what what kind of players you think will be there around the 50th pick well first things first you pray for Dutier the Arrow i know it’s crazy he’s most likely not going to make it to the 50th overall pick but I just think the fit is so seamless but after that like you said Kobe Brea could that be an immediate Landry Shammit replacement you know uh one of the best shooters last year in college at Kentucky uh back when he was at Dayton two years ago he was one of the guys that you know my personal I’m a college basketball fan Yukon i wish that they targeted him that probably would have been a lot better for us this year um but yeah Kobe Brea for sure one of the one of the guys i would also throw Jir Watkins out there out of Florida State very dynamic score also has great size as well seion James out of Duke he not the greatest prototypical wing size he’s a bit shorter but really good defender and is a great catch and shoot player system that we have next year i would also say maybe RJ Lewis keep him in you know New York i understand his draft range is probably wider than what the Knicks are trying to look for at pick number 50 but I would say him possibly and then last thing probably Micah Peavey out of Georgetown another really good dynamic scorer who also is a very talented perimeter defender as well which is I think what the Knicks need okay so you are a Knicks fan so do you think any of the players that you just mentioned could be in the rotation not day one but by mid-season do you think any of them could be in the rotation i could see maybe a Leon James end up in the rotation just because of what he can do on the perimeter defensively also if you can catch and shoot in the NBA you’re going to find a spot other than that Kobe Brea as well because of his shooting ability like I said before Kenny immediate replacement and then finally maybe Jamir Watkins that’s probably the furthest one two main guys that I think can be at 50 and Seion James and uh Seion James and Kobe Brea i think if those guys are at 50 and we take them we could see them enter the rotation you know maybe post trade deadline maybe post Allstar break we’ll see what happens that’s pretty neat pretty neat so yeah so there is value in this draft it isn’t like a just um you know 50 is not a throwaway pick um usually back in the day like you know toward the end of the draft you used to think of um draft and stash at the end of the you know um draft and stash at the end of the draft so so we could see actually someone valuable come to the Knicks at at number 50 um do you do you see any value in the Knicks buying another pick um originally I could before all of the you know player dropouts from this class i thought maybe at 50 there’s going to be maybe an underassman that we thought had high potential that we could snag at 50 but it’s tough now so many players returned um to college and like I said the draft is definitely especially at the end it’s getting a lot skinnier in terms of players I actually think can make an impact on the NBA level so I’d say for right now maybe not in terms of buying a pick I think we should look at 50 we should especially look to trade up but buying a pick is probably going to be tough in the long run yeah yeah and then and with the last year the Knicks brought on I think four players um four players uh ultimately onto the roster and they didn’t get a lot of time so it’s almost like you’re adding more rookies on the squad so it’s not like you’re just adding one or two rookies you’re almost like infusing like six players at once on the Knicks so it’s a tall order to for multiple multiple picks to be added to the Knicks at this point yeah so um see okay is there So I did mention drafting and sashing so is there any player you think who’s maybe not there yet that is worth drafting maybe bringing on at a at a later point um yeah there’s definitely I mean dang to begin the process there’s a couple of guys I would consider for Draft and Stash draft and Stash is at this point becoming probably a bit of an older concept um but yeah but to begin the process you know guys like Momo Fay he’s a big man he was a guy that I believed could use some extra time before coming to the NBA but I’m pretty sure he recently dropped out of the draft and then there’s a guy Michael Rusich um a guy I had in the beginning of my way too early draft i had this guy in the first round he’s definitely not materialized to become that and then outside of that just like looking possibly I’m not I’m not sure there’s a couple of guys maybe early that could drop early second round that I could see uh Boba Marovich from Serbia he’s a guy I could potentially see draft and stash um I think he actually could be a pretty solid player over time other than that though you know there’s guys Rockars I would see come in right away from um where is he i think he’s Austria yeah he’s in the NBL same thing with Alex Tui um and then Hua Gonzalez honestly a lot of people believe he could be a late first round pick early second round pick he was I mean it hurts to say but he was my favorite prospect coming i think he could benefit well from a drafting stash type situation um didn’t play like basically at all last year for Real Madrid so if he comes in next year more prepared for Real Madrid and we’re able to bring him on I don’t know if he’s going to drop to 50 but if the Knicks decide to trade up if we’re able to bring him on that would Yeah that’d be great like with the with the G- League like there there’s less less reason to just leave somebody overseas other than they don’t want to come over so like usually you can put them in the G-League um with the situation now like you can even like the Knicks ever since um ever since deuce they made it a regular thing of having the G-Leaguers stay in a G-League but jump over to the big club and at least practice with the Knicks on a regular basis so it isn’t like the old days where we send you to the G-League and you just sit there um yeah I think G-League 2A contracts two things that have definitely pushed Draft and Stash kind of into the back seat as of recently yeah so now we have uh three 2A spots set of two and and you have to pick new 2A every year now so this is uh Yeah so this so there’s less than a need to to do what we used to do okay so those pretty neat okay all right so if it’s Is there any players you hope slide so you still have 50 you’re still at 50 um but is there a player like between like 35 35 to 40 you hope I said mainly before if I do the arrow slides oh my gosh that would be the greatest situation of all time but other than that Kobe Sanders is somebody that was supposed to be um supposed to be probably a high second round pick if he slides that would be a nice addition to the Knicks right there and then Jir Watkins Kobe Brea guys are probably in the 35 to 45 range if they just drop one tier down and the Knicks are able to snag them that’s a perfect situation right there okay and also like just a question like for next year you know the Knicks have a first round pick um do you think with that 50th pick would you be upset if the Knicks punt it and put that 50th pick maybe trade it in for next year honestly no i don’t know how the second round’s going to look next year if it is stronger that would be probably the right decision if the guys we want at 50 aren’t there okay all right all right okay all right so so if you had the the the chance um would you would you go up to the first round if it um I it’s tough because of what we have right now in terms of um our draft capital i mean we gave so much up from Muel Bridges it’s tough but it’s just the scenario we’re right now um I think I think probably no the strongest move would be to trade high second round because we’re now in a two-day type of draft situation and the first round would be pretty tough for the Knicks to jump in yeah and what actually what the Knicks did last year is um we had two first rounders and then we like split that that was it the higher one and then we actually got several in the second so the Knicks the Knicks like to pick high in that second that second round um so that’s something to look forward to all right all right so do you think there’s a certain So let me just go into just a couple people into the draft and see what you think about them um what do you think about the obvious first round first pick uh Cooper Flag cooper Flag is such a enticing prospect i think a lot of people probably not a lot of people but some people would say the generational the generational type prospect I would not throw him there he’s going to be a franchise moving prospect but generational I give that to Victor Webinama LeBron James Kum Abdul Jabbar um that happens once in a generation Cooper Flag though what he does defensively I think absolutely insane the fact that he can guard one through five on the court he’s able to switch on everything his uh shot blocking at only about 6’8 is going to be at one point some of the best we have in the NBA offensively really great at finishing through contract and he’s really aggressive at the rim as well um the mid-range jump shot I think came in to Duke I was questionable ended up being really good and then the three-point shot elite honestly this year especially what we from what we expected for Cooper flag it’s really impressive yeah yeah i’m kind of looking here at the comps and the comp for Andre Karolinko is what I see like every time I see him that’s he looks just like Andre Karolinko um yeah defensively huge yeah yeah but it was this it was the the time in the NBA where they really didn’t appreciate that type of player so yeah he’s gonna get a whole lot more um latitude than Andre Kolingo did um back in the day see okay all right and you really um watched a lot of college basketball um is there what is who is your uh favorite NCAA oh got to be got the other side right here got to be the Yukon Huskies huskies where my dad went a Yukon fan bas not basically my whole life I like remember times back in 2014 uh those were some fun times we had 2014 that was Shabbaz Napier Ryan Boight that was really fun and then obviously recently back-to-back titles that was extremely fun to watch yeah um I got to see some games obviously MSG even traveled to you know Connecticut Gample XL Center to watch some games as well um yeah for sure the Yukon Huskies my favorite team will always be my favorite team even no matter where I end up going for college it’s going to be the Yukon Huskies that’s my ride or die yeah yeah i I love the Yukon Huskies grow grew up in Connecticut um have I been I haven’t been to a Yukon game but I’ve been to like their they have like a Yukon Up All Night like it’s like the how they kick it off it’s like a big like Oh yeah i I remember I did that i I remember my job gave me like front row seats so I did that so I did that one year but yeah always love Yukon men and women like it’s like for real like Connecticut is like for real for real yeah it’s crazy how like a not like a super small campus but like middle of nowhere just ends up being basketball royalty like for both men’s and women’s it’s crazy yeah it’s in like it’s in the it’s in the trees and even like campus campus like you you get off campus you see like a couple like shops and then there’s like nothing like there’s Yeah it’s crazy yeah but yeah hopefully hopefully they yeah they do great again this year i you know I was you know it was great talking to you um hopefully we can talk again cuz like seriously you did a great job uh thank you yeah it was fun great job on this um tell us a little bit more about your channel um I originally started with like football NFL type stuff but I think for sure my main thing is going to be basketball my first love basketball it’s 100% that um but yeah started about 2020 what was it june 2023 i wasn’t really confident in myself but obviously just got further my feel like my voice is now more pronounced in terms of how I’m confident in terms of making my videos but yeah mostly it’s NBA it’s college basketball a lot on the NBA draft i feel like that’s a big moment in the NBA where you’re able to just pump out your ideas pump out content um just infinite there’s literally infinite possibilities for the NBA draft it’s just so fun with that um but yeah I just want to keep on going i’m excited to see like potentially where it takes me um yeah it’s just what I like to do all right and where can they find you like if you if you have like a not only YouTube but also your socials uh Instagram I think is or is Bob Top Show um then it is I don’t think I have yeah no Twitter right now youtube obviously B ball B ball B ball B ball B ball B ball B ball B ball B ball B ball B up top with Xander Foreman those are the two main things right now instagram and YouTube okay that’s great um yeah I’m just talking to somebody in the audience like Fritz who are you taking with the 50th pick um yeah so I like I like I said I’m really hoping we move up uh for Kobe Brea uh but if we’re staying at 50 there’s a bunch of people I would love to slip and what the the approach I’d probably take is choose three or four guys who are supposed to be around 40 and hope they slip and pick whoever’s there there’s there’s a lot of fun guys yeah yeah so Cam Jones even though I know people I know a lot of people would like like more height he’s also he was Tyler um sorry Tyler Kolix’s teammate for one year i think he’s he’s pretty for me he’s pretty complete like he he kind of reminds me of some like a little shorter but like Victor Oladipo kind of reminds me of that um who else um another one I really wasn’t somebody kind of convinced me that this is a pretty good pick but Eric Dixon Villanovva NCAA yep so big score um 6’8 a little short but he can really shoot he could pretty much do it all i know like the build isn’t exactly what people want but I think he’s really skilled and I think he’s kind of like a guy you could put on the bench and he could fill a few positions so I I really like Eric Dixon um what are your thoughts on like uh RJ Lewis you know St john’s New York guy stay stay in New York what are your thoughts yeah you know what i I think the Knicks really love bringing in New Yorkers um I think they kind of learned their lesson with some some kids who aren’t ready for the big city um so having a local New Yorker would be like big for New York he has great size um that’s something that we need we have a lot of like players listed at 6’2 listed at 6’4 who probably aren’t the heights that they say they are so like RJ Lewis getting like a like a for realsiz like shooting guard wingish player would be big for New York um I think with the right coach Taylor Jenkins who’s known to play a lot more of his roster I’m excited i’m excited for just just allowing some of the young kids to play uh if they do well they’ll get time like that’s that’s all I want that’s all I want yep yeah that’s all I want and what’s your what’s your outlook on the the next season for um the next season i think right now I’m pretty confident i think that because of Boston most likely not going to be where they were at last year because of Jason Tatum’s injury there’s going to be another runway for us to go ahead and we know about the Pacers we’ve dealt with the Pacers these last two years i’m still pretty confident that we can win a series against the Pacers even though it’s been tough the last two years injury from two years ago but this year just not putting it together just tough um the Cavs not too worried about them right now be honest i think they could have some internal movements right now maybe make some moves so next year if we’re able to get some more wing depth off the bench give us some more production we stay with Carl Anthony Towns don’t tra I mean don’t train them for Yiannis i know maybe if it’s potentially there I would like to keep what we have right here um okay I’m confident in what we could do next year i think we could make the NBA finals okay so and so none of the uh the current rumors um doesn’t move you so like the name KD the name actually Katie I’m the the the rest of the rooms I’m not even going to go into but like KD is like the main name right now so that that doesn’t 37 year old KD isn’t isn’t the move no not if we’re moving cat if we’re moving cat for KD no situation but we should do that um I saw I think ESPN uh they said like OG and Mitchell Robinson which I don’t know i love Mitchell Robinson on this team i thought he was big during the playoffs um but I think we should stay where we are right now i know it’s going to be enticing this is maybe the greatest score of all time but we have a system here we’d like to keep yeah yeah i I think it’s hard to move on it’s hard to move on from what we have it when I thought we left some potential on the table last year and then not see it and just move on for it before you actually see it is pretty tough so like I couldn’t I couldn’t like I wouldn’t want to just like switch everything up when I thought last year we really had potential so I I think we’re kind of on the same page on that one um yeah yeah it was it was great talking to you uh definitely going to have you back on uh again you’re doing big things please follow him uh yeah so that’s uh ball up top the Xavier Foreman and and this is the NBA economy show uh again my my my Fritz handles on Twitter i do have an NBA economy like Twitter handle um please like and subscribe and I will see you next time [Music]

We will discuss the Knicks needs and what may happen during the draft.