Why Khaman Maluach Should Be Spurs' 2nd Overall Pick

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00:00I think Kamon Malawac is worthy of the second overall pick.

00:04And I don't just mean, oh, like I would take him second overall regardless of who I was.

00:08I mean the Spurs, I think, should draft Kamon Malawac.

00:11And I fought that before.

00:13I fought that on my own.

00:15And then Coach brought it up on his own.

00:17So we're seeing it similarly, Coach.

00:19They're not going to do it.

00:20But I really believe they should.

00:23The reason why is, Kamon Malawac.

00:26You think they should trade back, though?

00:27I think they should trade back.

00:28Like you're not as high on Malawac as I am.

00:30I think you trade back.

00:32I think you could trade back and someone will come up and go get him.

00:38But to me, Kamon Malawac is this.

00:40At 7'2", he is scary athletic.

00:44They'll have to develop him.

00:46And you put Malawac next to Webb and Yama at 7'5", good luck getting to the hoop.

00:53Now, listen, people sit there and say, come on Malawac, catch Houston.

00:57Guy had no rebounds.

00:58I get it.

00:59I get it.

01:00But if you're talking about upside and what he can do and what they need, he makes more

01:06sense to Dylan Harper.

01:08Dylan Harper does not make sense to me.

01:11It doesn't.

01:13With Stephon Castle.

01:15With De'Aaron Fox.

01:17With Devin Vassell.

01:19He's the fourth guard on that team.

01:21I don't, I don't, and I love Dylan.

01:23He's a great talent.

01:24I don't think he's got the upside that people think like an Ace Bailey or a Malawac or some

01:29of these other guys.

01:30But to me, Tom, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense for San Antonio to take Harper over Malawac unless

01:38some big guard, and Kevin mentioned maybe De'Aaron Fox during the break, someone gets moved before

01:45the draft.

01:46Yeah, so that's what it comes down to.

01:47It's, it would be drafting him.

01:50First of all, drafting him.

01:51He's, the minutes just wouldn't be there to develop him.

01:54Like, he could play, you know, a handful in the teens of minutes per game off the bench.

01:58Who?

01:58Harper.

01:59Oh, they're going to start him.

02:01You're not going to draft him, too.

02:02I want to make this clear.

02:04I don't think what you're saying is crazy, because I understand why, but I'm telling you right now.

02:08If they draft him, they wouldn't.

02:09This whole offseason, I'm like, yeah, we're not even going to trade for Giannis.

02:12We just like Dylan Harper.

02:13Okay.

02:13Dylan Harper's starting.

02:14Okay.

02:14Steph Castle might get moved to the bench after winning rookie of the year.

02:17Okay, but I would say, I would say if they drafted Harper, it would be, and then

02:22they have something else lined up.

02:24Like, to move one of those guards, to move Fox and Vassell, like some combination of like,

02:29they have something else lined up.

02:30That's the only thing I would say that makes sense from a team perspective, but if they

02:34drafted him, you're like, listen, he's just starting, I wouldn't be shocked by that.

02:37I would say, my initial thought would be like, oh, he comes off the bench.

02:42So, here's kind of just my outlook on the whole thing, okay?

02:46San Antonio traded for De'Aaron Fox because Fox begged to be there, and they were like,

02:49oh, okay, cool, we can get Fox for not all that much.

02:52And, you know, it's not like every day people are beating down the door to be a San Antonio

02:56Spur, so they made the deal.

02:57I crushed it in real time.

02:58I was right.

02:59That's fine.

02:59Okay, boom.

03:00But they were like, well, we were never going to end up with the number two overall pick.

03:02They end up with the number two overall pick.

03:04Now, I am on the outside when it comes to evaluating some of these guys at the top end

03:09of the draft.

03:09A lot of people believe that Cooper Flagg is in his own tier, and then Dylan Harper is

03:14in his own tier.

03:14And then we get to everybody else.

03:16I don't know, you know, you're bored yet, JY?

03:18I think Harper may be number two, but I don't think that necessarily you view Dylan Harper

03:22levels and levels and levels above everybody else, which is why you're concerned about

03:26the fit.

03:26For San Antonio, they seemingly, again, believe what a lot of people believe, which

03:31is Harper, again, is separated from the rest of this class, and they're not going to go

03:35for a position of need when Dylan Harper is way better than everybody else.

03:38To that, I say this, you better be right, because the Iron Fox hit, right, as a player, but he's

03:49like, not right now, I would argue, a top 10 point guard in the league, and it kind of

03:54throw things off.

03:55And I'm not sure Dylan Harper, again, I'm just a little bit lower on Harper as a prospect

04:00relative to everybody else.

04:02I still think he is comfortably one of the five best prospects in the class.

04:06It's just relative to everybody else.

04:08But for San Antonio, it is also, I would be fine with Harper going second if they did

04:16not already do the Fox deal, because now it's a mess.

04:19Because now you have Fox, Harper, and Castle.

04:22Fox and Harper's ideal situation, personally, is to score 20 a game and assist a little.

04:28Castle is very, very, very good defensively, but also wants to score the basketball and show

04:33that level of growth, like, people can talk about the Pacers with Halliburton and Neesmith

04:39and Nembhard, who is what in the San Antonio trio of a relative comparison.

04:46It's what makes what Halliburton does so incredibly special.

04:50So, yes, it's one of these situations where the explanation for what San Antonio is doing

04:58is they think Dylan Harper is comfortably better than whoever you think the third best player

05:02in this draft is.

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