00:00Mike, the needs haven't changed for our Hawks.
00:02Just because you have 8 and 23 and not 1 and 10, okay,
00:08it doesn't mean that, oh, well, we're not going to get the point guard,
00:11we're not going to get the size that we want.
00:14They can still address these needs.
00:15Now, how are they going to do it?
00:17Who are you going for first?
00:19That I don't know right now, okay?
00:22Because Ante Saleh, the general manager in the front office,
00:24has done a really good job of restructuring this team.
00:27But, you know, he's sitting up there, and when that came down,
00:30and the Atlanta Hawks will pick 8th, and you could just hear the silence,
00:35damn, across the city.
00:36We really did feel that we were going to maybe look into a top four pick,
00:39and that just, you know, unbelievable selection of everything from,
00:43you know, you want Boozer, you know, would Darren Peterson be there from Kansas?
00:47Because it's almost like consensus to Bance, it will be.
00:49By the way, did you see the look on DeBance's face
00:51when the number one pick came to be the Washington Wizards,
00:54and he's in a hostage video.
00:56Yeah, I reposted it because it was funny.
00:59Before this thing happened, he's laughing,
01:01and they're showing him he's having a good time.
01:03He's like, I can't wait.
01:05And the Washington Wizards, and then they go to him,
01:07he's like, hell no.
01:09So you don't want to play with Trey either.
01:10You know what?
01:11How did I know you were going to go there?
01:12What?
01:13How did I know you were going to go there?
01:15But, Mike, I don't know.
01:16Look, are we projecting that DeBance was, like, disappointed?
01:19Look, it's a dream to go number one.
01:20Right.
01:21Period.
01:22It's an honor.
01:22But, but, Saar did the same thing a few years ago.
01:27Look, again, Saar, for whatever reason,
01:28he had played some youth league ball here.
01:29He didn't want to play here.
01:31He was with Excite, right?
01:31He played with those guys.
01:33Didn't want to come to Atlanta.
01:34Saar would have been the short term,
01:35the better fit for us.
01:36Would have added some size to the front court.
01:38So we go to Reese Asher.
01:39That's another thing.
01:40Real quick, everybody's hitting us up on the text line
01:42and on Twitter.
01:43Well, we could, everyone's got their,
01:44the ESPN trade simulator machine working all the time.
01:48You know, I mean, there's no market for Reese Asher, guys.
01:52There's no, everyone's like, we trade a number one.
01:55And by the way, this, when I do this voice,
01:56this is my cousin, because Carl's met Tony.
01:58This is the way Tony is.
01:58I think if the Heat could do, he's a big Heat fan.
02:00I think we could get him.
02:01He makes these ridiculous, like, baseball card trades.
02:04You ever trade baseball cards with your kid
02:05and the parents of the other kid would come back
02:07and say, you can't do that.
02:09That happened to me a lot.
02:10I used to hustle a lot of kids in the neighborhood
02:11on baseball card trades.
02:12No, nobody's going to have any interest in Reese Asher.
02:15No.
02:16So that's, okay, they're going to want Jalen Johnson.
02:19Listen, if you want to get a guy down here, Carl,
02:21like, if you want Jalen Brown, I mean, who do you want?
02:23You want Giannis?
02:24I mean, you're going to have to give up Jalen Johnson.
02:27Yes, you are.
02:28They're going to want young talent that can help them now,
02:30and they're going to want talent for the future.
02:33And look, even though you might get a superstar,
02:36because that's what you're getting in Giannis.
02:37You're also getting an NBA champion.
02:38Who knows what it takes?
02:40But you need more people.
02:43I've been saying this, okay?
02:46That Jay-Z line, you need more people, man.
02:48It's more than just one guy, Mike.
02:51You know, and when we talk about these great championship teams,
02:53as good as SGA is, you're not watching Oklahoma City
02:57in how deep they are and how talented the team is.
03:01Now, Hartenstein, by the way, if he's on the free agent market,
03:03would that interest you?
03:04Yes.
03:05Big time, right?
03:05Yes, absolutely.
03:07See, I just wonder, how does Ansi Saleh approach this?
03:10How deep are we going to get into free agency, right?
03:13Yes.
03:14And by the way, and I've asked you before, but again,
03:16C.J. McCollum, you're willing to give him the three years about 60 mil?
03:18I'm not.
03:19Not three years, 60 mil.
03:20You can sign him with the exemption.
03:22There's other ways that you can get it done.
03:25They will have options.
03:26If they give him three years, $60 million.
03:28To a 35-year-old, it makes no sense.
03:29Somebody's made a mistake.
03:30Right.
03:31And that's why, just for guys, keep saying that to us,
03:33what Carl said.
03:34That's not, it's a non-starter.
03:35No.
03:36And guys, again, two years, right?
03:40$15 million a year, $30 million, and basically it's a one-year deal.
03:45You can get out of it, okay?
03:47And I'm not saying they would want to, but the fact is,
03:49I'm not locking myself into that, Mike, as I'm trying to build this roster.
03:53That just doesn't make sense.
03:55But yes, I would love to have him back under the reasonable price.
03:58If they do something like that, I'm going to tell you guys,
04:00and I'll come on the air screaming,
04:01you've spent money in the wrong place.
04:04That's what I'm telling you.
04:06All right, so with that said, though, these options that we have,
04:11I don't want people to feel like, you know, this is the crapper now.
04:15We act like we're picking 45th or something.
04:17We still have an opportunity to do exactly what we want to do.
04:22The real question now, Mike, becomes through the scouting,
04:25through the Chicago Combine, which has been a tradition, guys,
04:28and all these top guys go, and everybody will figure out more about these players
04:32outside of what you've seen in the tournament and the film and all that.
04:35But once they get that list together and you start saying, okay, reasonably,
04:39who's going to be there, there's a lot of projections out there.
04:41But guess what?
04:42They may like a guy who's projected to be later in the first
04:45more than a guy who might be projected to be at the top
04:48because they feel like his upside may be more.
04:51And that's something we just don't know.
04:52So, are you interested in Adey Mara from Michigan, the 7-3?
04:59I mean, a lot of guys are saying, the heck with the point guard.
05:02Well, we still need a point guard, too, guys.
05:04If you do that to free age, then all the money goes away.
05:06C.J. McCollum is here, as Carl said.
05:08He gave you the scenarios where you could keep him.
05:10But Kingston Fleming, the 6'4 point guard from Houston,
05:12or Mikkel Brown, 6'6 point guard from Louisville.
05:16I thought, you know, I did watch, I think day-to-day,
05:18we watched probably more of him than some of the other point guards.
05:21That's probably who's going to be there at 8.
05:22Now, unless there's some crazy swings or changes,
05:25the other question is, would you be willing to take 8?
05:28I don't think, does 8-23, what team's going to take 8-23,
05:31and they, oh, yeah, here, take my top four pick?
05:33That doesn't make sense.
05:35Again, that's not reality.
05:37Mike, I think, this is what's interesting.
05:40If the Pacers or one of these other teams that maybe they feel like,
05:44okay, we're going to get our superstar back, right,
05:47and we knew what this year was going to be,
05:49but you've already traded for Zubats.
05:51I'm using them as an example.
05:53Maybe that would have been a team, if they had gotten to the top four,
05:57that might be willing to do that to say, okay, you know what?
06:00We've got a really good team, and it's coming back to its full strength.
06:04We're willing to make a deal like that.
06:06But I don't think these teams that need players like we do
06:08are willing to do that right now.
06:10In a draft where you are going to get, I'm not going to say a game-changing
06:15kind of player.
06:16Somebody asked me yesterday, well, what do you think?
06:18I think this is a really good draft.
06:19But, guys, I do not think at the top of this draft, and I love DeBanza,
06:22I don't even know if DeBanza is as good as the last year's first-round pick, okay?
06:26Right.
06:27I'm being honest with you.
06:29So I think you're getting really good players who can come in and contribute
06:32and immediately help your team.
06:34But, again, this isn't Shaq.
06:36You've seen Wimby now.
06:37You're not getting that in this draft at number one.
06:39So I just feel like, Mike, most of these teams are going to be hard-pressed
06:43to trade away one of those top four picks.
06:46If a team was in a different position than the Wizards, I'm with you, that's the deal.
06:51So, again, in case you're wondering, Hartenstein making about 29 mil.
06:57Vucevic making 20 mil.
06:59Nurkic, these are all the centers.
07:00Okay.
07:0117-5.
07:02Mitchell Robinson making 15.
07:04He's 28 years old.
07:06That's reasonable, man.
07:07The guy hit me up on Twitter.
07:08He's like, you got obsessed on Mitchell.
07:09No, no.
07:10I mean, I'm not trying to – I want to take the Knicks and make it the Knicks South.
07:13I'm just saying he is the kind of scary, big dude that we don't have.
07:17We don't have a guy like that who's got edge.
07:19Yeah, I know.
07:20He's a butcher at the free-throw line.
07:21So what?
07:22I mean, but that's the kind of guy you need that this team doesn't possess right now.
07:26No, we don't.
07:28And, by the way, you know, when you talk about getting these picks back and trading,
07:32this ended up helping us.
07:33It just did.
07:35And so that's the other way to look at this.
07:37Like, if you don't make the trade, right, to go acquire these picks, the trade with New
07:42Orleans, to move back in the last year's draft from 13 to 23, you land the most favorable
07:46first-round pick between Milwaukee and ultimately it was New Orleans.
07:50We're not here.
07:52So this was set up, again, by smart management saying, hey, I'd rather have a chance down
07:57the road.
07:58I know we're not going to win a chip this year.
07:59And now it gives us an opportunity to add to this team.
08:02I think the most frustrating thing, Mike, is, you know, we entered that lottery yesterday
08:06with a 29% chance of getting a top four pick.
08:09Yeah, that's what surprised everybody.
08:10And it's just, yeah.
08:12And guys like, oh, I mean, is it, I don't know.
08:14Is it fixed?
08:15You would think the NBA would want to have one of the top markets.
08:18In the next sense, it's going to be the number six market in the country.
08:20We're going to leapfrog D.C.
08:21You know, it's a big market.
08:23Mo' money!
08:24And yes, for us, too.
08:25But yes, it should mean that you'd think they'd like to set them up.
08:30Ironically, the lottery has favored the San Antonio Spurs, one of the smallest markets
08:34in the country.
08:35Yeah, it has.
08:36But their front office has been great, too.
08:38Correct.
08:39And they were ahead of the curve on international draft, right, and bringing in those types
08:43of players.
08:44It just, to me, there's like three or four ways this can go for the Hawks.
08:48And I bet you whatever you're thinking is not the way Ansi Saleh is going to do it.
08:53Certainly not the way I'm thinking.
08:54I mean, I want to build on what we've got right now.
08:57I want to go get bigger.
08:57I want to spend...
08:58See, everything I want to do gets a wrestler into some apron of luxury tax, which they're
09:02never going to do.
09:03No.
09:04No, I don't think so either.
09:05It feels that way.
09:06Maybe we're wrong.
09:07Maybe we're wrong.
09:08I mean, look, when you're this close, how close are you?
09:10One more player puts us over the top.
09:12Then, okay, then we'll get in.
09:13No, we're a team which, look, we got our nose bloodied in the playoffs.
09:16We got a real taste in playoff basketball, and we were exposed to not having a rim protector.
09:21You know, we had a great run from C.J. McCollum, but he has his limitations at this stage of
09:25his career.
09:26So, Carl, number one, point guard or center?
09:28Point guard or center?
09:31I hate to say it.
09:33This is GM talking.
09:34You know I hate that.
09:35Best player available?
09:36Well, okay.
09:37Well, then that's going to be a point guard, because the centers are not...
09:40All the centers, starting with Mara from Michigan...
09:42Give me the most talented dude who's ever sitting there, and let's go to work.
09:48Let's start there, because, Mike, some of this stuff...
09:52You know, Kingston, you talked about him, and I don't want to get too deep into this,
09:55but, like, he's a really good player, but his three-point shot is suspect right now.
10:00He's got to come into the league and become a much better three-point shooter.
10:03He didn't shoot the three-ball great in college, let alone now moving to the NBA.
10:07Very good player.
10:09Everybody's going to have a black eye, right?
10:12Some kind of wart that you go, ah!
10:15You've got to be willing to say, the talent is so overwhelming, I'm willing to go ahead
10:18and take the chance, and that's kind of where I'm at right now.
10:20If it's a big, and you're so committed to it, and you need a shot, go get it at that
10:24guy.
10:24Well, then can you trade out of eight?
10:26That's another thing.
10:27You know, can you make a deal?
10:29A day Mara, 7'3", from Michigan, 21.
10:32Think about how he just...
10:33Nothing when UConn was dropping.
10:35Think about how good he was.
10:36Remember when they played Arizona?
10:36He was great.
10:37He changed the game.
10:38He was.
10:38He really was.
10:39All right, man.
10:40That's, you know, maybe big.
10:42Maybe big.
10:42Okay.
10:43See, that's where I'm at.
10:44I don't want to sound that way, because I know you want us to say, this is the guy I
10:47want.
10:48Right.
10:48But at eight, it's different than being one, two, or three.
10:52And so now I'm like, who is the most talented dude?
10:56Here's what's crazy, and I think he'll be gone.
10:58If A-Cup's there, you've got to go get him.
11:01Right.
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