Reactions to Round 2 of the NBA Draft

Reactions to Round 2 of the NBA Draft

what’s up y’all welcome in to Grind City Media’s coverage of the NBA draft brought to you by Southland Casino he’s John Roser i’m Lane Whitaker and John we talked last night for hours and hours and hours through the first round of the draft and tonight we got to sit at home and just watch the second round a little more peacefully uh the Grizzlies had two picks in tonight’s second round last night we saw him take Cedric Coward obviously in the first round uh a lot of questions about which way the Grizzlies were going to go tonight in the second round and with that first second round pick 48th overall they took Javon Small out of West Virginia a guy who some Grizzlies uh watchers and observers had kind of targeted as somebody who might be interesting for this Grizzlies team yeah chip Williams uh brought him up on Jessica Benson’s show yesterday that was the one name you know she she asked him at the end said “Give us a second round guy that you know maybe he’s there when the Grizzlies pick but could be around that area.” and he brought up Javon Small and I think you know the Grizzlies before drafted a former West Virginia point guard a few years ago and
and also a Javon spelled it
Javon Carter but there there’s a uh there’s a common theme with these guys and these West Virginia guys play really really hard and when you watch some of the highlights of Javon Small um I’m going to be cliche he does not play small he plays taller measured it at 61 at the combo but he with his wingspan plays a lot taller than that and the 40 and a half inch vertical too i think one of the things I the Grizzlies in this draft is that you’ll notice as a theme is they also made it a point to add athleticism yeah well in the interview with with Javon Small after he was drafted and after his pop was was in tears and amazing moment yeah when they interviewed Javon Small he said they’re getting a dog and I think that’s something else you’ve seen with this Grizzlies draft is kind of targeting guys who who fit that mold javon Small I was looking at like his bio you know he he was born in Indiana went to high school in Arizona uh played at East Carolina played at Oklahoma State ended up at West Virginia now he’s coming to Memphis he’s been all over the place yeah
uh and he’s gotten better every step along the way the one kind of weakness I saw targeted for him throughout the draft process was his size and like there’s nothing you can do about that you know everybody’s like well he’s he’s 6’1 6’2 maybe with shoes on um so he’s a little small but it looks like you know watching those highlights of him watching him play at West Virginia he was the best player in West Virginia this season uh size wasn’t really a problem for him and don’t you kind of think John like that this is a a guy who’s going to end up on a two-way anyway and playing a lot with the hustle and trying to work his way into the NBA yeah he very he very well could end up on a two-way and I think you know Bob Myers on the broadcast tonight as the former GM who’s up Bobby Marks also has been in a front office before in these draft war rooms uh Bob Myers is saying like that’s what a lot of this when you get mid late second round it’s a lot of calling around to these agents and seeing if players will take two no he he absolutely could be uh could be on a two-way i think you brought up like he he really has he’s gotten better every just about every and when his minutes went up in school his production didn’t go down it’s not like oh well you know some there are guys who were like this guy’s good when he plays 20 minutes but if you play him 2530 minutes the production’s not the same no he’s a guy that the more they played him the better he was i thought I thought also something good uh a really good free throw shooter he never shot worse than 85% from the free throw line in college and I think the free throw shooting is a big thing it shows that the shot can improve but as for the size with him he is also a defender and I think one thing this playoff showed there are a lot of guys who struggle when you put pressure on the ball they struggle to dribble and we David Dorp on today and he said it’s a ton of guys in the playoffs
like when you pressure the ball a lot of guys they don’t like pressure basically like there’s only like a handful of guys in the league who can handle any type of pressure
for sure
but a lot of guys they you you get up on them and defend them like that and they don’t like it and it also shows that I think the Grizzlies made a point to target these guys too yeah yeah well the Grizzlies also had the 55th pick in the second round and they they ended up flipping that and moving back to 59th pick they gave the 55th pick to the Warriors we don’t know exactly what the 56th pick we don’t know what that it’s going to end up being uh with the 59th pick the Grizzlies stayed a little closer to home and drafted Jamai Mhack out of University of Tennessee uh it’s funny because I saw all these draft like previews about Tennessee and they mentioned possible players chaz Laneir was a guy a lot of people talked about zakai Ziggler the point guard who was there and all these other guys and Jamaak wasn’t named a lot although if you watch Tennessee the last few years you saw him because he’s played like 140 games for Tennessee he’s been there all four years and kind of developed into a guy who is going to go down as as one of those kind of program cornerstones uh how he translates to the NBA i don’t know exactly because he’s sort of a defense first guard and that kind of fits the bill of what all these other Grizzly draft picks have been
no he absolutely was that that’s the one thing because obviously they were trying to sign off on the draft there at at the very they weren’t trying to spend much time on it with it being
the last pick but Jay Bilis that’s the one thing he said he’s like “This kid is a defender.” Like a monster of a defender and obviously you got a guy like that a guy Rick Barnes doesn’t want to keep off the court i was real quick because it was like right you know the draft ended with that pick and you and I hop on here
so I was trying to find some stuff on him and when I just t googled his name an article from Forbes came up from two days ago um and it says why you can’t forget about Jamai Mhack and it basically the first part of the article says last year the Memphis Grizzlies selected Jaylen Wells with the 39th overall pick and Washington finished third in rookie of the year voting the year before that the Blazers tooki Kamara um before that Andrew Nimhard was taken by the Pacers and it said Identifying the next second round stud is a million-dollar question but if I were a betting man I’d say a strong candidate to continue this is none other than former Tennessee V Jamai Mack so there’s at least somebody out here on the internet who identified Mhack as Matt Issa from Forbes who obviously felt enough about this guy to write a story on him but they say he is a he’s a rugged defender and you clearly see they are making it a point also Cedric Coward with his length and athleticism too they want to get guys that can pressure the basketball that can put pressure on the basketball well it kind of goes to what we’ve talked about on a bunch of these shows the last week of how watching the NBA Finals you kind of saw a blueprint laid forward by the Pacers and by the Thunder of finding guys uh who who can play on the ball or off the ball though like wing players who who gives you this sort of endless rotation of guys you can throw at offensive players from the other team and make life hard on them and I think the Grizzlies are kind of adding to their core of guys who hopefully are able to do that uh in this draft so So tomorrow we got a big day on Grind City Media i’m guest host for Jessica Benson and tomorrow morning to Michael Cole he’s going to join us from the Memphis Commercial Appeal and then you’ve got on the Chris Vernon show a special guest joining you guys
yeah we’ve got Cedric Coward cedric Coward’s going to be in studio with us um on the show tomorrow so we got that show starting at noon uh obviously tomorrow we got that i’ve got a couple of I wrote down so much stuff let’s Can I Can I hit these things
yeah i I wrote down a couple things first of all
this is weird because I I feel like I’m on your like postgame grizzly behind you and everything yeah
yeah you got the two plants behind me this is probably This probably probably going to be You’re going to be the last appearance the only guest app of the two plants from now on they’re not going to be there i thought the crew ESPN had up there tonight malikica Andrews is awesome
she’s an absolute star malikica Andrews Bob Myers uh Windhorse Bilis and Bobby Marks and then they would go to Gavon for the international guys but Bobby Marks was kind of there to explain a lot of the salary cap stuff bob Myers explaining kind of the process of how GMs are thinking about this stuff uh Bilis gives you all the college guys and Win Horse is there to kind of
tell you about NBA teams and all their their entire situation too i thought it was really good the Lakers trading up for Adoo Darrow um
yeah that was cool interesting here because they traded up to 40 from 55 to 45 then from 45 to 36 Lakers have had some success with these second round guys um and look obviously these are different front offices but the Lakers in the second round have gotten guys Nick Van Exel Ruben Patterson Luke Walton Mark Gasol was a Lakers second round pick pat Bev I evict Zubots Taylor Norton Tucker Max Christie and now Adu Adu Theo and they also on two-way contracts identified Alex Caruso and Austin Reeds as undrafted guys that they ended up putting on two-way contracts so I’d say if the Lakers had a conviction enough about this guy watch out for this dude he’s a really good athlete
the kid from Stanford did you write anything down about this kid from Stanford
reo yeah
okay because I see it pop up i didn’t know anything and it says
20 and 10 guy one and a half blocks and can shoot threes and he’s seven feet tall and I’m like why the hell is he going in the second round he was he was somebody Mike Wallace and I talked about as a possible Grizzlies target because you know if the Grizzlies need to add a center um I mean he he’s got a huge frame and you can set giant screens and he shot six three-pointers a game for Stanford this season um he played five years at Stanford like you know he he played a lot a lot of time in college so he has experience um they showed one of the highlights of him showed that there was people wearing masks so like it was from like the co era oh the co that’s Zer Williams team
yeah so he played he played a lot of college basketball um I don’t know i was always I thought he was going to go at the end of the first round um and so for him not to go and then fall to the second round I think he might be a really interesting player in the NBA uh he’s he’s not quite as athletic they said everything I read and then I saw clips of him like doing windmills and stuff
i saw the highlights too and I was like I’m like again like you just But anybody I guess a lot of people have great highlights i’m sure he has some low light too but I’m like he’s a sevenfooter who can step out and shoot threes and he averaged 20 and 10 and they said I was like when they’re showing his shooting and I’m like well I guess he probably just isn’t he’s probably just kind of soft and physical and Bill is like he is a rebounding machine i’m like why is this guy going 42 and then the Kings took him and I’m like well maybe I don’t know you know um when they read off and they read it off last night but I guess we were at the studio so I wasn’t
told don’t the Wizards had do I mean this has nothing to do with who they had who they got in the draft but they have Marcus Smart Chris Middleton CJ McCollum and Kelly Olen be a solid squad like five years ago it’s a weird team and then they have all those they have Alex Sar Bub Carrington it’s just a weird collection of guys
it is you got I would think they’re probably going to move Marcus Mark they picked up Chris Middleton’s $33 million option maybe that’s a deadline
oh no he picked it up he was It was a player option yeah
i don’t blame him for picking that up
i don’t either
um
I wonder if they try to if he looks okay at some point this season if they try to move that or whatever cam Jones shout out to the Memphis kid play Cam Jones drafted by the Spurs going to the Pacers that’s cool for him that’s a great situation right there with how the Pacers get up and down um Chris Harrington from the Daily Memphian I heard his podcast with Drew Hill and he said “I have new jitty there is new jitty there is a new jitty in this draft.” Oklahoma City got him brooks Barnheight what he said i was paying attention to him 17 points almost nine rebounds four assists one block two and a half steals per game
um 41% from the field and he shot 26.6% 6% from three this year which is weird because the year before he shot 35% from three so he had like a big drop off from three but I get I was like why would a guy who has those numbers go this late and it’s oh yeah he cannot shoot the ball at all
well there’s a couple guys like like Cam Jones numbers were down this year from last year and and there’s always like weird circumstances like with Cam Jones the the point guard graduated and they went to five out offense this year and he had to play point guard and you know there’s always these weird things um Liam McNeely his his numbers weren’t great because he had an ankle injury you know like there’s always weird things but that kid look up that kid’s uh mug shot head shot
oh with the mustache he’s got the mustache yeah yeah yeah he absolutely has the mustache it’s hilarious
man if we could have gotten that guy I’d have fun with some hustle games this year um the guy the T-Wolves got Rocco Zakarsski
yes
the Australian
73 18 years old he’s 18 years old i was like “Yes
oh well that’s a project right there.” And some of the highlights look good and then I went and looked up his numbers and I’m like “Wait this dude like can’t even average a block a game.” But he only played like 11 minutes a game so you know but they say he’ll be the third tallest guy in the NBA behind Edy and uh and Wimi so anytime somebody drafts somebody really tall like that and he’s 18 years old they’re like “Look he’s clearly a project draft and stash or is it hey we’re going to put them on our G-League team um by the way their G-League team was the worst G-League one of might be the worst GLeague team I’ve ever seen in my life last year the were uh they were bad bad um but Rock I just found that interesting anytime they’ve got these super tall guys um Amir Williams the big man from Kentucky who went to the Celtics
his passing is pretty
Yeah he’s good it’s why I I I’m I’m kind of a sucker for the big man who can really pass the ball um I It’s why I kind of liked uh Sorber Thomas Town he’s a really good passer um and then Sham’s when the when it came up for the Bucks to pick
okay this is my favorite moment of the day
okay yeah
I tweeted about this
i don’t know how to say this name i I would say
I don’t either
bogle Jub or Bogle Jub but Sham’s saying Giannis is closely monitoring
yeah closely monitoring how the Bucks i’m like you really like he’s monitoring like the 50 whatever pick that the Bucks have like he said and free agency i’m like yeah he’s more concerned with free
Bucks they got about four $54 million in dead money in Damen Lillard’s contract but what made me interested in this is I was like you know what the Bucks who what have what have they done drafting wise since Giannis and I seriously I looked this up since they drafted Giannis in 2013 these are their picks jabari Parker Damen Engles Johnny O’Bryant Rashad Vaughn Thawn Maker Malcolm Brogden there we go malcolm Progen DJ Wilson Dante Danchenzo there we go they got Dvenenzo they traded him before he ever got good though uh RJ Hampton Marjon Bochamp uh Chris Livingston Tyler Smith AJ Johnson and those are just the ones that were their picks that they did not trade i there are guys in here other bad picks that
I mean if you’re Giannis you would not want to watch them draft because clearly it is that is that is brutal
well just when they said Giannis is like Shams was so serious about he’s like Giannis is closely monitoring this Bucks off season and then they announced the guy and he had braces i was like “Oh man
braces.” If you’re Giannis and you just draft you’re monitoring this thing and they draft a guy with braces like okay clearly that guy’s not going to contribute this year
it’s like last year they drafted the AJ Johnson kid and he was like the youngest player in the draft and everybody like
why are the Bucks drafting him they need somebody that can help them win now like the Bucks are in win now mode with with with Giannis and Middleton like why are they drafting the youngest B and then they immediately traded him yeah
you know by the trade deadline they had immediately moved off him and now they drafted dude who’s got braces um
Yeah
but but so did uh so did Javon Small when the Grizzlies took him right after that
yeah yeah
so you know like
it doesn’t mean everything it doesn’t do that
but it means something when J when Giannis is closely monitoring
giannis is I wish you know Giannis has a sense of humor if he would have like videoed that if he would have seen that if he would have taken him taken had someone take a picture of himself like with his eyes like
two feet from the television close to during the NBA draft um but yeah those are just some things I wrote down from the second round tonight that I you know I thought
the one guy who the one guy I was really keeping an eye on was Kobe Brea uh the guy who Kentucky kid who played before that at Dayton and shot 50% on three-pointers and then in Kentucky it went down a little bit i think it was like 45% or some crazy number like that like he he was a guy who I was kind of curious where he was going to end up he gets drafted by the Suns
uh so that’ll be interesting to see how that plays out but I uh the Grizzlies end up with Javon Small and Jamaim Mshack to go with Cedric Coward and if you want to see Cedric Coward tune in tomorrow morning to the Chris Vernon show at noon on Grind City Media and you can check out me at uh what 8 a.m on the Jessica Benson show
8 a.m on the Jessica Benson show i got to go to sleep yeah all right well that’s John Roser i’m L Whitaker appreciate you joining us here for Grind City Media’s coverage of the NBA draft brought to you by South End Casino we’ll see you soon

Lang Whitaker and Jon Roser give their thoughts on the Memphis Grizzlies taking Javon Small and Jahmai Mashack in the 2nd round of the NBA Draft. They also discuss some of their biggest take aways across the NBA from the night.

#nba #nbadraft
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