00:00Because right now we are at the halfway mark of the NBA draft.
00:04Round one last night, round two tonight, and of course moves being made all throughout the league as well.
00:10Last night, if you watched the opening round of the NBA draft, it was not chalky, that is for sure.
00:15Plenty of mock drafts out there, got a whole lot wrong.
00:18Wasn't overly compelling with respect to trades.
00:22There were a lot of trades in terms of assets, draft picks, guys picked last night that were moved around.
00:27Some questionable decisions, I'm looking at you, New Orleans Pelicans, but there was not a lot of movement among current NBA players, guys with NBA experience, other than Mark Williams changing teams again after that failed trade to the Lakers from the Hornets last year.
00:45We will get to that.
00:46But it all began, of course, with number one, the main event, Cooper Flagg, the man that we all knew we have no, I don't know why teams insist upon running out the clock to build up the drama.
00:56We all knew Cooper Flagg was going to go number one to the Dallas Mavericks after the Mavs.
01:01Somehow, someway, despite having a less than 2% chance, won the NBA draft lottery and the conspiracy theorists all over social media in the wake of that happening on draft lottery night.
01:15The questions of, well, is this kind of a give back to Dallas, to Nico Harrison for making that deal that sent away Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that was mocked and ridiculed from the very second it was made with Anthony Davis coming back the other way without even shopping Luka around the league.
01:34And so, I don't know, Cooper, any funny business?
01:39We're on behalf of all the internet conspiracy theorists who couldn't be here tonight.
01:44I have to ask, there are tons of rumors floating around that the NBA gave Dallas the pick to get you in exchange for Luka Doncic.
01:53Do you have any reaction to that?
01:54No, I don't know what to say about that.
02:00I have no insider information, if that's what you're looking for, but, you know, I just feel blessed for the way it all worked out.
02:09Front row on the right.
02:11Congratulations.
02:12Has it started to sink in yet?
02:15I know the journey has been a long one, and it finally culminates tonight.
02:23I don't think so.
02:24I don't think it's set in yet.
02:26It feels surreal.
02:28I'm just playing the moments back in my head, standing up, hearing my name, and it just, it went so fast.
02:34Like, it feels like a blur, but I just feel really blessed and honored just to be here.
02:39The now former Duke stud and 18-year-old reigning player of the year in college basketball, multiple player of the year awards, joins a Dallas Mavericks team that is, you know, has a lot of talent.
02:53You know, I'm not going to call it a great team, a contending team, but a team that definitely has promise between Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, when he comes back from his injury, a whole collection of bigs there, and veterans like Clay Thompson as well.
03:05Cooper Flagg joins an opportunity to, you know, cement himself, as obviously everyone expecting him to be, and he is the odds-on rookie of the year betting favorite.
03:15But, you know, what can he do as the elite two-way player that he is in his first year in the NBA?
03:19It's going to be a lot of fun to watch.
03:21Now, that was a known commodity.
03:23We knew that Cooper Flagg, the main native, was going to wind up down in Texas.
03:27What we did not know is where Rutgers star Ace Bailey was going to wind up.
03:32Now, that is in large part because he was basically actively tanking his own draft stock for the sake of having a preferred destination.
03:40A lot of people believe that would be Washington or it would be Brooklyn.
03:43This is a guy Philadelphia was interested in, reportedly anyway, at number three.
03:48Thing is, he is the only prospect, American prospect anyhow, that refused to meet or work out with any teams.
03:55There were no workouts, and so he winds up going number five to the Utah Jazz, a team that was not one of his preferred destinations and was not necessarily on his radar.
04:07Ace, there was a lot of speculation, the buildup in your draft process.
04:11You know, you seem pretty happy to me to be going to Utah.
04:14What do you say to people that maybe just don't believe that?
04:16I mean, I control what I control, so how they feel, how they feel, but my team and me, just me focusing on the basketball and them doing what they doing, so it happens.
04:26Ace, this is a Utah Jazz team with a ton of young talent, particularly at the guard spot.
04:29How do you feel like you're meshing with them, and what's your outlook for this Jazz team?
04:33Oh, I feel like once I come in, it's going to be a lot of work.
04:36I mean, I feel like I'm one of the people that like to work out a lot.
04:38I'm going to push my teammates to be the best they can be.
04:40I want to come in and be a leader as a young cat, so.
04:46You're going to Utah.
04:47What do you know about the state of Utah, and what do you know about the history of Utah, Jazz, Stockton, Malone, like anything you know about the Jazz?
04:55I don't know a lot, but I'm learning.
04:56I'm learning as I go.
04:57I know it get cold and hot up there, but I'm used to the cold, though, because I've been in Jersey, but I'm used to the heat because I'm from the South, so I get along with it.
05:05Look, if Ace Bailey's goal was to get to a position where he would have opportunities on offense, the elite shock creator that he is, Utah's probably a pretty good spot because that is a team with a good coach, a good front office, some talent on that team, no clear-cut path to the playoffs anytime soon, but a miserable offense throughout last year.
05:29And Bailey, coupled with another rookie, Walter Clayton Jr. out of Florida, who joins him as a top-20 pick, two guys that definitely have an opportunity to put forth really fun seasons.
05:40So I mentioned there were very few current NBA players that moved around the league last night, just a couple.
05:46One of them, certainly the biggest name, not that it's a huge one, Mark Williams of the Charlotte Hornets, who, of course, you'll remember during the year was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
05:56Then there was a failed physical in there, and that trade was undone.
06:00He wound up back with Charlotte.
06:02Can't imagine it sat well with him.
06:04It was only a matter of time before they were going to move on from him, so they wind up doing so last night.
06:09As the former Duke product moves to the Phoenix Suns, a team that has certainly been in need of bigs, and he's not the only one.
06:18You see it on their screen.
06:19They also drafted Kamon Malawach, also of Duke, a couple years behind him.
06:25And so these two bigs together wind up going to this situation in Phoenix, who is a team that is in transition, as we know, with Devin Booker still there.
06:34Kevin Durant no longer there, now a Houston Rocket, and a good fit for both these guys to potentially work together.
06:39Certainly, Malawach with that athleticism is going to be a really solid pick-and-roll, lob-threat kind of situation with Devin Booker.
06:48Should be fun to watch next year for a Phoenix team that, admittedly, probably isn't going anywhere.
06:53We switched to the Diamond, and yesterday, I know we have afternoon baseball today, game starting in just a couple hours.
07:00A whole lot of fun ahead of us, but yesterday, it's always good luck.
07:04Home runs are fun.
07:06I know.
07:06Home runs are a good time.
07:07Chicks dig the long ball, as Tom Glavin and Greg Maddox used to tell us in that famed Nike commercial.
07:13But pitcher stools are a pretty good time, too.
07:15And for a little while, we had one between Jacob Mizorowski, as well as Paul Skeens, the reigning rookie of the year in the National League with Pittsburgh.
07:24It was a wonder what we were going to get between the Pirates and Brewers yesterday.
07:27And what we got was Mizorowski continuing to just deal.
07:32Man, this guy is 3-0 in his short Major League career with an ERA barely above one.
07:38Didn't allow a hit in the first 10, 11 innings of his Major League career.
07:42He was fantastic, 4-2 win over the Pirates for Milwaukee.
07:46As for the Braves and Mets, got together again, and I'm not stuttering when I say this.
07:51The Mets won a game, folks.
07:54I know they've really struggled, but Juan Soto coming alive at the right time.
07:58How much more fun has June been compared to April and May?
08:02It's been great.
08:03It's been great.
08:04I think it's starting to happen.
08:10You know, my swing, everything is going the right way.
08:13Definitely, that's only personal because at the end of the day, we're trying to win games.
08:18It doesn't matter if I hit 2, 3, 10 homers.
08:23What I care is about winning games.
08:25So, it hasn't been that good at all.
08:28So, we just got to try and keep going.
08:32Soto Homer twice for the Mets.
08:34That is only two wins in the last dozen games, but a necessary one yesterday.
08:39The Cubs, meanwhile, thumped the Cardinals in a bounce back, 8-0.
08:44You saw Matthew Boyd with six scoreless innings to help Chicago.
08:47The Yankees and the Reds got together again.
08:49Max Freed, first 10-game winner, led the Yankees to a dominating 7-1 victory over Cincinnati.
