00:00K&C Masterpiece right here on 105.3 The Fan.
00:05Would you want the Mavs to move up in the draft for any of these players?
00:10So I know we quick hit a few yesterday.
00:15I still think Braden Burries makes a whole lot of sense on this team.
00:20I had an update about Nate A. Mint.
00:23So while we're leading up to the combine and stuff like that, he told people, per the reporting of Mark
00:34Spears, that he's six foot nine and a half without shoes.
00:39And he was told by a doctor after x-rays that by looking at his growth plates, he could possibly
00:46still grow another two inches.
00:49How old is he?
00:50He's 19, maybe.
00:52All right.
00:54So he could be 6'11 and a half.
00:56And so all of a sudden, like all the things that we were talking about, and you're just two inches
01:01taller.
01:02I mean, that would obviously logically help with potentially shot creation just from a height standpoint.
01:08Interesting.
01:09Maybe a little bit of separation, maybe help on his wingspan.
01:11So I just wanted to throw that out there as well.
01:17And then I want everyone to just keep an eye out on Kareem Lopez.
01:22Because we talked about Yaxel Lenderborg, and maybe he'll move up in the process.
01:28Same with A. Mint.
01:29Same with Burry's.
01:30But Kareem Lopez, because it feels like less known about him than the other kind of top 15 prospects.
01:39Yeah, you've talked about him for a while, too.
01:41He's the top player in the international class.
01:44Mexico?
01:45Yeah, that's right.
01:46Now, the counterpoint is this is a weak international class.
01:49But if you're looking for a player, like we're about to get to players that would you think the Mavericks
01:54would have to trade up for?
01:55For these players.
01:56Mike L. Brown, I know, is somebody who's come up a lot.
01:58Well, the ascension of Kareem Lopez could help with that.
02:02You know, like we talked about in the NFL draft.
02:03Oh, man, I'd really love to see a bunch of offensive linemen go, or wide receivers, or like players that
02:08you probably didn't have any interest in.
02:10Because they could kick down the people you really wanted.
02:12I think Kareem Lopez is that guy.
02:16And unlike Ty Simpson, hopefully he will not fail us.
02:19Kareem Lopez is an interesting dude, man.
02:21That is for sure.
02:22You can think about, so, the defensive skills-wise, I think kind of an O.G. Ananobi, maybe an Andrew
02:30Wiggins vibe.
02:32He's really physical and explosive in transition.
02:35He's kind of like a bigger Buries, if you want to look at it that way.
02:39But so much of the NBA at times, especially in clutch times, can boil down to how do you look
02:46in the half-court offense.
02:47He is not polished in the half-court offense.
02:50So, still work to be done right there.
02:52But, I think the pre-draft workouts could be big for him, and maybe he can move up.
02:58I'm kind of curious, because AAU's been such an important factor in that.
03:03Now, I know we've also collected a phenomenal amount of foreign players in the NBA over our history.
03:10But, when it comes to a dude from the NBL, when you see something like that, is there a huge
03:18learning curve in adjusting with NBA teammates and stuff like that as well?
03:23I think that's one of the reasons that he's maybe projected lower than it feels like his raw physical attributes
03:31would have us thinking.
03:33Because you don't know, like, how exactly that's going to look.
03:37Or, I guess there's some concern about level of competition as well.
03:40I also, the other thing, too, is not being a point guard and being the one that has the ball
03:45in his hands all the time.
03:46He can't conduct everything that he wants.
03:48So, he has to build relationships pretty quickly to be able to see, you know, he's the one without the
03:53ball in his hand.
03:54So, he's got to figure out how to be productive and get the trust of that player that might not
03:59even know him.
04:00You know what I mean?
04:01So, there are five players that I think maybe the Mavericks could be in position to reasonably trade up for.
04:07So, I'm skipping the big three.
04:09Even though, supposedly, the Wizards are like, yeah, man, we don't need a savior.
04:13Maybe we will trade the number one pick.
04:16I would think it would be far less likely that you'd be in position to go after DeBonsa, Peterson, or
04:21Boozer.
04:21So, I wanted to focus on the next group of five.
04:24Caleb Wilson, Keaton Wagler, or Wagler if you're not fancy like me, Darius Acuff, Kingston Flemings, and Mike L. Brown.
04:32You said, let's start with Darius Acuff.
04:35Yeah, Acuff's the guy that I started becoming keen on when we went to spring training.
04:40Now, we're right there at that time around the tournament, but the nosebleeders were going nuts over him.
04:48And I was like, all right, let's check this dude out.
04:49Got to watch him, and I was like, he's a fantastic, fun, offensive dude.
04:53He also played on a team that didn't have as much talent as other teams, and he was kind of
04:58the key to the entire thing.
05:00So, he was the one getting the majority of shots, the majority of offensive production out of him.
05:05That's what it was built around.
05:06He also did not care on defense.
05:08Well, but you told me to add.
05:11Yet.
05:11Because I'm going to say a lot of positive things.
05:14Okay.
05:14But at the very end, I wrote, doesn't appear to give a damn about defense most of the time.
05:18But you said put yet.
05:20Yet.
05:21All right.
05:21Get him in the system, and Jason Kidd, or whoever the coach, Jason Kidd, obviously will have him carry.
05:28He is an electrifying offensive player.
05:31Yeah.
05:31All right?
05:31So, he has an offensive style, and I'm going to use three kind of pieces here.
05:37Okay.
05:38Maybe, if you want a throwback, Tim Hardaway Sr.
05:42More contemporary, has some of the same offensive stylings as Darius Garland.
05:49And then he has, this is an interesting trait.
05:52He has the Kyrie-esque difficult shot-making ability and offensive creativity.
05:58Now, I don't know how much you value, because it felt like Luka had that as well.
06:02Of, like, just making these idiotic shots that you're like, how in the world did you do that?
06:06That is a skill.
06:07But it's two different styles, too, right?
06:11Like, Luka's odd shot-making ability does not have to deal with his athleticism.
06:16Oh, agree.
06:17And Kyrie's odd shot-making ability absolutely has to deal with his athleticism and flexibility.
06:22And I would put Acuff much closer to that, that it's his athleticism that allows that.
06:29He is also, he is very creative offensively.
06:33He has a great handle, and you'll, that's, I mean, I feel like people would argue for the longest time
06:39Kyrie maybe had the best handle in all of the NBA.
06:42He has really deep range.
06:44He wants the ball late in games.
06:46So, he has most of what you would want offensively in a player.
06:50Question to go along with this, outside of defense, are you running him at the point?
06:56And if you're not, is he too small to be the two-guard?
07:00Like, let's say you kept Kyrie.
07:02Then, I don't know if these two make sense to, next to one another.
07:08In fact, I don't particularly think they do.
07:10Can I ask you about Coach Cal, Coach Calipari.
07:15He found two dudes in Derrick Rose and John Wall.
07:19Right.
07:20Who, in college, we were like, holy cow.
07:22They're the next whatever.
07:24You know what's really funny?
07:26I think there's a person in this group that kind of comps out close to Derrick Rose that is not
07:31Acuff.
07:32Now, individually, Derrick Rose was a phenomenal player.
07:36Yep.
07:37And then later, I think, became even a better team player.
07:39Sure.
07:40I don't know where John Wall's career kind of went.
07:43It just didn't quite live up to what we wanted.
07:47But when you look at that, this is a guy that in college was told, you're the offense, you're the
07:52motor, you go.
07:53And that's where I kind of question, like, does he come in, you give him the keys to the thing,
07:58and he's like, I'm still the offense, or does he fit in if he's a two-guard?
08:03And he's like, I fit in with Kai, and I fit in with Flag, and now I can play in
08:08a more Duke-style system.
08:09Sure.
08:10Where it is team-oriented basketball and making the right decision is the bigger deal.
08:15So, what I'm worried about...
08:16Rather than going out and making a play.
08:18Yeah, no, and that's a logical train of thought.
08:21What I'm worried about if you do that is, I think he's too small to be an effective two-guard
08:26in the NBA.
08:27But, to your other point, if you ran him at the point.
08:31So, last year, offensive freaking machine.
08:34Also, still averaged six and a half assists a game.
08:36So, like, assist numbers are, you know, to the point where you would hope,
08:42and he still had a 5.3 assist in the tournament when he was scoring all of the points.
08:48So, he can still score a ton of points and be a distributor.
08:51That's why I just don't think it makes sense to have him here if Kyrie is still here.
08:56And I feel like I'm going to trust what...
08:59Would you be okay...
09:01Do you think Kai would be okay moving to more of a two-role and being a shooting guard type
09:06guy?
09:06I know you're still losing size and defense there with both of those guys on the court.
09:11And I think that's my primary issue, is you'd have the most...
09:17I would also worry about Kyrie being undersized, especially since he's a little older at the two.
09:22But wouldn't you have, surely, one of the best offensive backcourts in the entire NBA,
09:27but also one of the worst defensive backcourts?
09:29So, in a scenario where Acuff would be a maverick, you see a trade involving Kai...
09:35Agreed.
09:36...and getting somebody at a power forward or a center...
09:39Absolutely.
09:39Absolutely. And see, and that's the thing.
09:41I'm not saying that... I think Darius Acuff can be a really, really good player.
09:45I think offensively, he could be potentially special.
09:48I just don't know about the fit on this team the way it is constructed right now.
09:53All right, let's throw out Caleb Wilson.
09:55I think Caleb Wilson is the guy I like the most, which makes sense because he's probably going to go
10:01higher than the rest.
10:02And I did just see from the 2-1-0, I'm reluctant to trade up to fifth because the Clippers
10:07have PTSD over the bat.
10:09The botched SGA trade.
10:11But maybe they would cut you some slack because they...
10:16Was it the Clippers that fleeced Indiana?
10:19Or no for that pick.
10:22But I understand your point, and they're worried that the price would be too high.
10:26Okay. And then another person said, I would trade Kyrie, PJ, and Gafford for two firsts.
10:33That feels like that would make a lot of Mavericks fans mad.
10:36I think you could get significantly more from that if you split them up.
10:41But if one of those firsts is Washington because they want all of your former really good players,
10:46well, then I would be inclined to think about that.
10:49Caleb Wilson, Kevin, at 6'10", still looks like he's 15.
10:53And it throws me off by, like, I've watched him play during the tournament.
10:58I was like, this dude's fun to watch.
11:00But it's weird to see a dude that big and be like, you still look like you're 15 years old.
11:04All right, so I'll read you the very last line of the scouting report I have for him then.
11:08He needs to get stronger, though, and really needs to expand his offensive game and jumper.
11:13So what's really crazy about Caleb Wilson is fascinating to no end.
11:18So kind of think maybe a more rudimentary offensive game at right now version of Chris Bosh.
11:26Okay.
11:27Or you can think of Jaron Jackson Jr., I think is a fascinating...
11:32I saw Jermaine O'Neal name thrown in there.
11:34Okay, if you want to go back a little bit further.
11:37And that makes sense.
11:38I'm not saying those three are the exact same player.
11:42But I think Jermaine O'Neal, especially for his size, started to open up offensively a little bit more.
11:47Kind of reminds me of some of the Jaron Jackson vibes.
11:50So you're right, he is very lean.
11:52But he has good face-up offensive skills.
11:55So, again, despite his size, he's not going to be give it in the post, give it in the post.
12:00That's just not going to happen.
12:01But he's a good defender and a modern, bigger player who can switch defensively, play the perimeter.
12:08He's kind of like a wing, but he's giant and can run in transition.
12:13So defensively, he's everything you would want in your modern, kind of bigger player.
12:18But on the flip side, offensively, he's not like that.
12:21Why?
12:22He doesn't shoot three-pointers.
12:23Oh, no.
12:24And so, I know, it feels...
12:27He does it or he hasn't developed one.
12:30And I don't know what the difference is, because there are some dudes that just don't.
12:34I don't remember his AAU game the way I did lively when we were like,
12:39well, I mean, he can shoot the three if he gets a chance.
12:41He just didn't shoot the three hardly at all at North Carolina.
12:45And when he did, it was not good.
12:47But I will tell you, in addition to the positive things defensively, he's a very good rebounder.
12:53So he has so many skills that you want.
12:56And I guess the argument could be made, well, if he shot the three well, wouldn't he be the No.
13:001 pick?
13:01Or, like, wouldn't he be in the mix with DeBonsa and Peterson for the No. 1 pick?
13:05I guess I watched more UNC basketball before the tournament.
13:08I forgot that he was hurt.
13:09Yeah, yeah.
13:10I watched more of it.
13:11I didn't realize I was watching that much UNC earlier in the year.
13:14And that's one of the things, because he was out for that last Duke game as well.
13:19And that's the thing that I feel like a lot of people thought just cratered any hopes they had.
13:23To really do anything in the tournament.
13:25He was that much a valuable piece.
13:28But if you're going to trade up, if we're starting with Acuff and Wilson,
13:32the way the team, the Mavericks, is constructed right now,
13:36I think Caleb Wilson makes infinitely more sense.
13:39But you could make some moves and change that entire dynamic.
13:43And if you wanted to turn the keys over to Acuff at the point and say,
13:46Hey, you're pretty much the same age as Cooper Flagg.
13:48Let's go do this for 10 years.
13:50Yeah, I do know that what I did see about Wilson was that he was very loved in that locker
13:56room
13:57and amongst the UNC group.
13:58And that is something that they're talking about when the Mavericks said immediately,
14:03Schmitz, our new GM, was like, Hey, we want somebody that has high character
14:07and fits in with this organization what we want for the next 10 years from the guy.
14:12I think he kind of fits that right now.
14:15But again, a little bit high for the Mavericks.
14:17Yeah, I mean, you would have to make a move.
14:20And then that's where we'll have to determine what are you willing to move on from
14:24to make that move.
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