About Draft Night: Breaking Down What Happened and Pleading for Free Agency Patience
Zo and Spike give you the full Thursday morning post-game before the NBA's first-ever Draft Night Part Two.
ZO ON DRAFT NIGHT: WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT’S (MAYBE) GOING TO HAPPEN
Jered McCain
I had a feeling things would shake out with one or three of the high level guards/wings being available at No. 16 last night. I just didn’t know who – and still had little confidence the Sixers would actually be making the pick.
However, I’m glad they did, and I’m glad it’s a guy like McCain. At the end of the day, you need DUDES. I know we’re so hyper-fixated on what the next 96 hours or so will look like – and rightfully so – but using the draft to begin warming that pipeline up isn’t exactly a terrible thing.
Let’s be honest for a second: This is a team that frankly always finds itself on the hunt for younger, more cost-controlled talent. And what better way to acquire that than just using the damn draft pick that you actually already have?
I know some of us may have taken that as another door closing on acquiring a third star/big name – but I didn’t look at it like that at all. I took it as Daryl Morey and the front office digesting the earlier free agency news, looking at their draft board, and saying, “We’ll take a guy and then get ready to go spend $60 million in three days.” The first domino has fallen!
On the talent front, Philly will love this guy. He’s a big gamer, 89% from the free throw line, led the NCAA tournament with 16 made threes – not incredibly athletic, but very strong and very smart. I see a lot of Malcolm Brogdon/Seth Curry flow to him, which is honestly great, let’s go. Lastly, he’s just a great kid who loves to smile, is very well liked by his teammates and pretty much has an ownership stake in TikTok. Imagine the content from him and Kelly Oubre after beating the Pacers on a Friday night in November.
The Rest of the Way
Now the magic really happens. I don’t have a clue what the next breaking news will be, but now that they’ve used the pick, I think we can safely assume the focus now turns to the big dogs. Prediction is a strong word, but a few things I’ll be watching for:
Nets fire sale still going?
Ingram coming home yet?
Jimmy really not talking extension anymore?
Who’s next to strike in the great Wing race of 2024?
Tune in next week for the next installment of As the Process Turns!
SPIKE’S CORNER - I’LL WAIT FOR DARYL TO FAIL
It is admittedly maddening to watch the Knicks getting better this offseason, just days after the Celtics win the NBA title.
Of course it’s even more maddening to see them get better with a player who is from Philadelphia, went to Villanova, and WAS DRAFTED BY US AND TRADED AWAY ON DRAFT NIGHT FOR A GUY WHO IS NOT EVEN IN THE NBA ANYMORE (shout out Zhaire, who knows what would have happened if you never nearly died).
Last night’s decision by Adam Silver to announce that there’d been a trade with a sly smirk prior to the Sixers’ selection of Jared McCain at No. 16, only to make it a trade we’d already known about for hours, was definitely him toying with us. Dickhead.
But alas, nothing. That was the closest we got to a big Sixers move on draft night. No trades, no signings, barely any real rumors.
If Daryl Morey fucks it up this summer, there will be more than enough time to stomp our feet and obliterate him for putting all of his chips into an offseason full of cap space and not filling it with anyone exciting. Morey failing this offseason won’t just ruin this season, but could potentially be the nail in the coffin of the entire Process era. It could ruin everything.
We’ll have plenty of time to blame him then. But before I start condemning him to Process purgatory, I’m going to let the offseason actually start first. I might even do him the service of letting it conclude, too.
Unless you wanted him to trade every asset we have for Mikal Bridges (I didn’t, and we couldn’t have matched what the Knicks sent anyway), there isn’t a move Daryl could or should have participated in so far. We can’t just throw a spare first rounder out there for Deni Avdija, because we still might need all of them for one bigger transaction.
Sunday at 6:00 p.m. is when teams can officially start talking to (LOL) and coming to agreements with free agents. It could absolutely be clear by 8:00 p.m. that we’re already fucked. Paul George could be gone, Durant could profess his love for Phoenix, even Brandon fucking Ingram could be spoken for. If we’re left with “we overpaid Nic Batum so we have a tradeable contract at the deadline” as the entirety of the offseason, along with a 1+1 for Klay Thompson, it ain’t gonna fly. That’s when I’ll melt down.
But for now, I’ll just wait. It’s been over a decade, I can handle five more days.