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Thomas Sorber to OKC! - Draft Discussion · Bring The Thunder Podcast

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  Welcome in Bring the Thunder podcast here with Thunder Fan
• 0:04
  Zone, Landon and Jack Thunder coverage.
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  We're going to be talking about Thomas Sorber, the 15th pick.
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  Also, we're going to talk about the trade that we had on draft
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  night. Give some draft grades here.
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  We're going to start up some of this film and talk a little bit
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  about Thomas Orberman. Let's kick things off.
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  What do you guys think about this pick up for us?
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  It's good value at 15. I think Sam Presti made the pick
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  thinking into the future. We have Hartenstein who's on an
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  expensive contract. We have Jay will his future on
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  the team's kind of in there. I would personally love to keep
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  him around as like a locker room presents kind of a loyal, keep
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  him around as a loyal guy who spends his whole career here.
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  But I don't know, that may be dreaming.
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  Then you have chat. So this guy's 19, he probably
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  still needs two or three years to grow in the league, so the
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  timeline just kind of works out. Yeah, What do you think, Jack?
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  I think it's a great pick, just adding better defense.
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  I will one of the better defenses of this draft to the
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  best defense in the league. We started with Casey Wallace a
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  couple years ago, not much to it, probably the best pick.
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  A couple guys like Cedric Cow, Derek Queen went just before us,
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  said well on everyone's OKC big boards.
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  But I'm pretty happy with it. Like Landon said, great
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  developmental big that we can bring up depending on what
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  happens to our bigs in the future.
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  But either way, great to have this big depth.
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  Yeah, Going into the draft, we we really said that we need
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  either consistent shooting or big to bring up for when Hansen
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  eventually leaves. And it's been answered here, so
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  I'm pretty happy with it. Yeah, I would say I'm overall
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  like happy with the trade or happy with this pick.
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  I guess he's he's got the length, he's got the defense.
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  He was ranked as like the second best defender in the class.
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  Like he's 69610 good, got good size out of the pressing mold.
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  He can, you know, play make. I think we needed more play
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  making. He can be someone that's at the
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  top of the key play making as you guys can probably see some
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  of the passes that he'll make in the highlights.
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  And then also he's good in the post, some rim crasher.
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  I don't think we had enough consistent rim pressure.
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  We have a lot of jump shooters and that can vary when you're in
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  the play offs and just in the regular season as well where we
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  have stretches where we don't make a lot of shots.
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  And so this is a guy that can just go get a bucket when we
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  need a bucket high motor guy. We needed someone like this.
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  I've been waiting for Presti to draft another, you know, power
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  forward that's a little bit more traditional.
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  I think he's going to be solid for us.
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  And he's not just a traditional power forward like he can do a
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  lot of other things. The other big thing that I had a
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  question mark on was can he guard the perimeter?
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  And from the highlights that I've seen, he's guarding smaller
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  guards. We'll just see if he can do that
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  in the NBA because it's a different level of athletes.
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  So those are the only like concerns that I have is like if
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  you can, you know, develop that 3 point shot.
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  He's got good mid range, like face up play.
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  So overall he's good. Like you can see he moves his
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  feet pretty quick even when he gets beat because of his length.
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  He'll get blocks on guys, but in the NBA he's going to have to
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  develop his speed. So there's going to be some
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  developmental pieces to his game.
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  But overall, I think he can come in and play decent minutes for
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  us. Probably just to start off the
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  season, him and Topich in the summer league are going to
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  dominate, like probably demolition job.
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  So I'm at least excited about that.
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  What kind of draft grade are you giving this one, Landon?
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  I'd go AB. It's very good value.
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  At 15, you're probably getting the best guy you can get.
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  I was actually, I was between when I saw the guys that that
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  were available at 15, I thought it was going to be him or Noel.
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  And then Ace of Newell dropped very far into the 20s.
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  I'm not sure exactly what pick that kind of shocked me, but
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  just to because I mean, I would have loved to get like a wing
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  guy like Carter Bryant or Cedric Coward.
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  Cedric Coward went really high, which honestly wasn't a shock to
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  me. He's low on a lot lower on some
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  mock drafts, but he ended up going where I thought he would
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  go. I thought if we wanted to get
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  him, we might have had to trade up and Carter Bryant went to the
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  Spurs to pick before us. But I would go be just because
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  it solves a lot of roster construction issues we might
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  face in the future and Sam Presti's already thinking one
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  step ahead. We're not going to have to bring
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  in it if this guy ends up developing into what he's
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  supposed to be. We're not going to have to go to
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  free agency inside a big or trade some of our guys and go
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  get a big because we'll already have one on our roster.
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  Yeah, I completely agree. What do you think, Jack?
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  I got an A for the draft grade. I think for what press he could
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  could have done with that pick, I think that's the most we could
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  have asked for him. I'm sure while those reports he
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  tried to trade up, but I think some teams would have been a bit
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  salty that we just won and try to trade off and probably denied
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  us. Not much he can do.
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  I mean, out of the players left, there's no one else I would have
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  preferred other than Thomas Sober.
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  But yeah, it's hard to to get someone with a better fit if we
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  didn't trade up. So I think that's the best case
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  scenario. So hey.
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  Oh and then I do want to say he wasn't able to do pre draft
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  workouts because of a toe injury.
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  So I think he should be all good there.
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  But it's definitely interesting that Presti kind of just drafted
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  him off Phil and not actually getting a glimpse of him in a
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  workout. Yeah, I think that was an
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  interesting piece that that's probably a reason that he fell a
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  little bit further because I feel like if he did do draft
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  workouts, he would have been drafted much higher for the type
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  of skill level that he's at. I'm going to give this an A
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  minus for where we were picking all the guys that were picked
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  before him. So for value, I think it's
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  really good to get like a top 2 defensive guy in the draft
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  that's a big man at that pick. I think that's really good.
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  Let's move over to if you guys have any other thoughts on this,
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  you guys can mention it now, but I want to mention over to the
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  Kings trade at 24. What do you guys think about
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  that one? What is it?
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  Top 16? Top 16 protected.
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  So the exact trait is the Sacramento Kings are sending a
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  top 16 protected 2027 first round pick from San Antonio to
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  Oklahoma City in exchange for the 24.
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  And obviously they get neat Clifford in that trade.
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  It's like you have a nucleus of guys who have proven they can
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  want a championship. Why break it up?
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  Why not stick with what you know wins championships and you add 2
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  guys, that probably means you have to actually get rid of
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  someone. That's key to irritation.
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  But you draft one first. One guy in the first round,
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  you're probably good on that. And you also have tofich coming
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  in. You have to keep that in mind.
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  So it's probably the best move coming into the season. 2 first
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  round guys could really 'cause some roster problems make life
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  hard for Sam Press. He just made his life 10 times
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  easier by making that trade. And I think what's 2027 top 16
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  protected Spurs? Yeah, that's.
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  At the time, with their young core, they just added two more
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  guys. They had a Dylan Harper at 2:00
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  and then Carter Bryant pick before us.
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  By the time 2027 hits, they're going to be in the playoffs and
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  they're not going to be a tough, they're not going to be a bottom
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  16 team, so we're going to get that pick.
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  Yeah, I would assume the same thing.
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  What? Do you think?
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  Oh, sorry. OK.
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  I was just going to say, I was just going to say a 2027 pick in
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  the 20s would be a lot more valuable to to us than a pick in
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  the 20s and 2025. He's just extending.
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  He's just extending our timeline.
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  He wants to turn this thing into a dynasty, and I can't blame
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  him. Yeah, As for Grad, I've probably
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  given a minus exactly what I mean.
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  We were all expecting it. He can't draft three players
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  this year because I mean, even we don't know what's going to
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  happen with the roster with Sober now, but we basically just
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  got the same pick two years later, which is perfect.
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  Nick Clifford would have been nice, but again, how does he fit
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  on the team? So this is exactly what Presti
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  had to do and for him to get it done is pretty, pretty cool.
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  So I'm sure we'll be enjoying this pick and two years after
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  our three pick. Yeah, side with a minus.
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  Great. I mean, there, I guess there's a
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  small chance the Spurs could have a fallout and end up
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  screwing it up, but I really don't see that happening.
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  Yeah, I'll give this trade probably like a overall like it
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  was just kind of expected needed to happen.
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  There wasn't much value that you could really extract from it.
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  So he kind of just got what he could and I think it's OK.
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  Like it's, it's solid. I guess moving over towards the
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  second round for the next, I guess pick pick #44.
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  What do you guys think about that?
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  Any ideas on who will take over there?
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  I don't think it gets used if I'm being honest.
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  I mean, I guess, I guess that's two way territory.
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  So I mean if, if we like, the only way I see Presti using it
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  is if there's value there and there's a guy he pinpointed
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  before the draft and that he really likes there.
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  I guess that is two way range. So I guess you could drop one of
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  our two way contracts and draft a guy there and sign them to a
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  two way contract if the opportunity presents itself.
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  Definitely what we should do with APEC.
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  Couple of names, the Rashef Fleming and Maxim Reynold.
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  I think if we can get out with one of those guys, then this is
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  going to be another world class draft from Presti.
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  I'm very high on Richard Fleming.
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  He fell into the second round so I think it'd be a no brainer to
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  go and get him. Maybe trade up in the second
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  round. But to add someone on a two way,
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  a bit like AJ Mitchell last year and then if they get enough,
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  bring them onto the full just to increase that depth at the the
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  fourth slot or you could add some shooting.
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  Who knows what Presti's going to do.
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  I think it it might be an older guy with a bit more experience
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  we can head to this team, but I think will be the move.
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  Would it shock me if it's just someone that can shoot the
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  lights out of the ball? Yeah, yeah.
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  Or or someone or someone super raw that we can develop behind
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  the scenes. Yeah, it'll definitely be a two
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  way guy. I think we take the pick because
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  like, why not? Why not, you know, test someone
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  out? We'll probably get a bunch of
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  undrafted guys on the G League team anyways.
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  So, you know, Thunder are known for that development of factor.
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  The name that I've heard being thrown the most is the best
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  shooter in the second round, which is Kobe Brya.
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  We've seen that comment come in a lot.
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  He's kind of recognized as one of the best shooters.
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  So I think why not get him if we can trade up to get him because
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  I don't think he's going to drop that far down.
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  But also we've seen Presti use up a lot of his seconds because
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  there's no real use for them in our in our case, like there's
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  not much value that we can extract from the second with the
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  level of roster that we have. So I could see him trading up
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  for that name or any other lights out shooter because
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  shooting is a big need for us. The other thing I guess we could
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  go for is maybe another play making guard on a two way
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  similar to like AJ, maybe a little bit more size, something
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  like that, just to, you know, have another another guy just to
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  see if that'll work out for us. But I'm excited to see what we
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  do. And also I wanted to mention for
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  Sorber, his stats as a freshman, he averaged 14 1/2 points, 8 1/2
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  rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1 1/2 Seals, 2 blocks per game while
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  shooting 53% from the field. He only shot 16% from three.
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  But we've seen like our team developed guys like Jay Will
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  into knock down shooters. So I don't, you know, I have
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  faith in Chip, who is one of the best shooting coaches in the
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  league to develop him and, you know, get a shot at least enough
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  to where he can space the floor. He's not like a high volume
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  shooter. Most of our team is at high
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  volume and he's another guy that doesn't really require a lot of
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  touches from what I've seen. So I think he fits in good with
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  the system that we're trying to run.
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  And on the shooting, he he shoots 70% from the free throw.
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  So I think that shows he's, he's got some framework, some fan
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  dashes to build off. So I think he could become a
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  shooter in the on the next level.
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  No, the forms there, it's a work in progress and the free throw
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  form looks good. I think I don't think he'll have
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  it right away, but I think that's the next step in his NBA
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  journey is developing an outside shot and then back to the 44th
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  pick. I I was thinking about it and I
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  know press, he's always looking into the future.
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  I'd be shocked if all three of our two way guys end up staying
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  on two ways for in the long term.
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  I think one of them is at least one of them is capable of being
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  on an NBA team. And I see one, at least one of
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  them ending up on an NBA contract somewhere.
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  Because if you're a two way guy, you're not just going to sit and
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  stay on a two way. You're going to, you want to,
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  you want to make more money, you want to get more opportunity.
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  And I mean in a standard NBA contracts better than a two way
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  contract. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
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  I think Presti's very commutative with this player, so
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  he's definitely, you know, make the best opportunity for them
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  and, you know, let them know early that what he's thinking
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  about and what they're thinking about.
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  Anytime someone asks out from Sam, Presti usually obliges with
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  them. He's very player friendly.
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  But that's kind of all for you guys in terms of our draft
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  analysis, grades and everything else like that.
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  Hopefully you guys enjoyed this. We got more content coming out.
• 14:51
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• 14:53
  guys hit that like button as well.
• 14:55
  Thank you so much.