Welcome to another Wral Triangle in two. He's Luis Fernandez. I'm Mark Bergen. Today we get to recap the 2023 NBA draft. Now that the dust has settled free agencies right around the corner and Lewis for the next decade. Plus, we're gonna be talking about the Hornets decision to draft Brandon Miller with the number two overall pick instead of Scoot Henderson Lewis, I want you to make the case for me for why the Hornets made this decision. So I'll, I'll make the case for why, but it, I don't agree with the decision. I think, I think that's part of it. Um So with Scoot and Brandon Miller, right? You had two players who I think, you know NBA circle especially, they were viewed as pretty equally talented. Um I think that uh Brandon Miller, some a lot of people at corner reports that Brandon Miller as a more talented prospect. Um And so that's, that's a big part of the reason why they end up going with Brandon Miller at the spot. Um He is a, you know, wing 69 has uh a great shooter's touch, um is a very good shooter in general elite, you, you have to do almost like any really anything, any improvement in his just spot shooting ability is gravy at this point. Um But the things that kind of concern me a little bit about Brandon Miller, uh inability to finish at the rim, um athleticism just because kind of worried he might not be able to create his own shot because he, he kind of struggled to create separation at the college level. The NBA, everyone's gonna be a lot more talented, although to be fair spacing will be better in the NBA as well. Um So, I don't know, I, I go back and forth on that. Um Personally, like I said, I kind of preferred scoot uh for a variety of reasons, but neither prospect was perfect. Um And, and ultimately, I think too, I know they said that they don't think they're good enough to uh choose fit over talent. Um But the fit with Brandon Miller is a lot better. Um Just from the perspective of like you need a wing and you already have a great guard and Lamela Ball Lewis even Hugo, the Hornet was devastated by this pick. And our former WBIR colleague, Nick Carboni, who's now at WCNC in Charlotte had a great shot of the Hornets mascot during the watch party in Charlotte. And it, there's an old slogan in sports. The sideline tells the story and that told me everything I need to know about this pick Lewis just on an emotional level. You the the person who's inside the Hugo mascot, I imagine uh they had someone talk to them about that, right? Like, hey, man, you're the mascot or, or woman, hey person, you were the mascot, you gotta, you gotta not have such a negative reaction that like. Right? Or II, I was, I was a little conversation before or after though because it was pretty evident to me, Lewis, I, I, someone probably pulled him aside after would be, would be my guess because that's wolf. That was, that was rough. Here's the logic to me and we were talking about this some before the pod today. Look at the last 20 NBA champions and most of the best players on the winning championship team is either a wing or a big. So Nikola, yo, this past year, you say, well, what about Steph Curry? Steph Curry is a much different player than Scoot Henderson because Steph Curry is like the most prolific shooter we've seen in NBA history. Scoot Henderson, that's an area of his game that he has improved and needs to continue to improve upon is his outside shooting. You go to Janis and lebron and Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan, all these players are like 68 and above Lewis. So if that's your logic in drafting Brandon Miller instead of Scoot Henderson, I can kind of understand it from that standpoint. I, I think in the NBA in general, they prioritize shot creators, they prioritize wings, they prioritize uh people who can kind of transcend athletically. Um And so Scoot is definitely a shock creator. Um what, what he's able to bring from a guard perspective, I think is incredibly talented 62, which is not great, but, you know, 69 wingspan. So he has that ability as well. That's I think ultimately, that's kind of what, what also it like, that's part of what led to them not drafting him, I think. Um, because there's, there are gonna be times when scoot gets matched up against a taller, you know, player in the, in like the playoffs, for example, there's some kind of switch and, and he's gonna have to try and, you know, put a, put a body on them, uh gonna try and distract them however he can. Um, but that's, that's just part of it. Right. Steph Curry, like you said, is not a, um, massive individual either. He's 62 and so 6263 and he's able to finish. Well. Scoot is another person who's able to finish. Well, obviously, scoot is not the kind of outside shooter that Steph Curry is. Um, but it's, it's interesting, um I don't think it's like egregious to pick one over the other from a purely talent perspective. Um, but it's like I said, I, I just, I would have gone, I was in the scoot camp as well. I was telling you about that last week. He just has an it factor that he brings to the table. Now, if you will. Yeah. Yeah. Now with Miller to Lewis, we're recording this. It's June the 26th, 2023. That's the reality we live in. We're a little bit more than a week away from Fourth of July Brandon Miller's reality and I credit his confidence coming into the league but saying Paul Jo George is the goat and then doubling down on that when he's asked in subsequent interviews to say, hey, did you actually mean that? Did you understand the question? I don't even think Paul George thinks that Paul George is the goat. Not to mention he's also saying like he thinks the Hornets are gonna be in the NBA finals next year. I like the confidence, young man, but the reality we're living in two different worlds with the hornet stuff. I mean, ok, you gotta, you gotta be, you, you gotta, you know, want it, you know, you, you gotta believe it. So at least I understand that. Ok, what else is he supposed to say? Oh, I don't know. I don't think we're gonna do well this year. I get that at the very least. But yeah, the Paul George stuff like strange. It's strange. I'm still convinced at this point. Like maybe he means like his goat, like, you know, personally, like he models his game after Paul George. That was that was one of the comps that he was getting coming out of, you know, college. That's, that's like the only thing that makes me say, ok, sure, I understand. I understand Brandon Miller but that it's ii, I don't know. It, it feels, uh not living in reality is a, probably a good way to phrase it in all seriousness. You bring in Miller who coming into the draft. A lot of questions about off the court in that Tuscaloosa police in Alabama testified that Miller brought a gun to former teammate Darius Miles, which was then used in the deadly shooting. Miller had not been suspended, he had not been charged from a criminal standpoint. So there's that free agency starting on July 1st Miles Bridges who missed like all of last season and pleaded no contest, got suspended 30 games. You have the decision if you're gonna bring him back onto the, uh onto the team or not or if he's going to test the waters in free agency thought this was very interesting, Lewis, this was Michael Jordan's final draft as the majority owner in the team. General manager, Mitch Kak also didn't like, he didn't even hide that as a secret. So if we question this pick years from now and if we question this free agency, which again starts July 1st recording this on the June 26th, he can then go back and say MJ was still in charge of the team at that at that point in time, it's gonna be very curious how we remember this and if there's gonna be a revisionist history, five years from now, 10 years from now, but this was mjs decision point blank period at the end of the day. And I'm hopefully that we remember that at this moment in time as the Hornets had a real fork in the road with this number two overall pick. Yeah. Well, I think too because like cups got, like, I think part of it is he's got some new owners, some new majority owners, some new bosses that, you know, may want to bring in their own type of person. So it's, it's the kind of thing where there's a lot of pressure on him and the Hornets to succeed at this point. Um Yeah, the, the Brandon Miller off the court stuff, uh a lot of layers to that, but it's, it's definitely the best way I would phrase it is, it's not a good look uh for the Hornets. Um, and especially when you start now, you're bringing in Miles Bridges. Like, what is that situation gonna be like? Will he stay, will they go, will they want to keep him? It, it's one of those things where, um, the, the dividing line, the separating line between like sports and not sports. Um It kind of, it's, it's something you don't, you don't want your fans to think about negative things when they're looking at their players and things like that. So it's, it's gonna be one of those. He's Brendan Miller at this point, you know, he's, he has not been charged with anything. He's not gonna be charged with anything. Um, the, the Alabama assistant, uh, district attorney has gone in on to detail about why that is, um, but it's, it was a huge story and it's just gonna be, I think, um, difficult to, to separate the two for, for a little bit. Uh People have short, have short memories. Um And if he plays well, I'm sure they're gonna continue to say, oh wow, Brandon Miller, great pick, but it's just, it's one of those things that will probably be in the back of the mind for, for people for a while. And so outside of the Hornets scoop the Trailblazers who back in the day famously picked Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. And so now they have a, a glut at the guard position. You've got Damien Leonard, Anthony Simon Shad and sharp. So I'd imagine this means Dame is on the move. Now, the two likely teams, I think he could wind up at maybe the heat, maybe the Nets. We'll see if he moves on from Portland coming off some of his career best averages from an efficiency standpoint. Still a very, very high level player in the NBA went healthy. Damien Lillard. So there are a lot of repercussions with this move because Miller would have maybe better slotted with the Hornets. But then, ok, you have to pair Scoot and Lamelo together. How does that work too? So the Hornets decide to go to uh Brandon Miller instead of scoot Henderson. And we'll see again. We're gonna be talking about this like a decade from now and I hope I look smart in retrospect future Mark. I hope I look smart with this Lewis. Uh any final thoughts before we get to some of the other picks, Lewis. No, it just, it, it's funny because I feel like the time before the draft was very chaotic, but I feel like everything from that point on was kind of like, ok, like pretty normal. Um pretty, pretty, pretty standard. Uh I, no, no massive trades uh from uh you know, the Zion perspective or anything like that. Uh But yeah, it's all of this is great. The NBA is, is different than like the NFL or something because the draft happens before free agency. Um So now these moves are great, but what, what do these teams do to continue to bolster their rosters once free agency gets started, uh you know, later this week, let's go really quickly to some of the Hornets, other picks, Nick Smith, junior, uh freshman of Arkansas. He was like one of the top recruits in the 2022 class. Now. I I know he didn't have a great freshman season, but you can build upon the pedigree and maybe you mentioned the floor spacing earlier Lewis get some better floor spacing now that you got Lamelo now that you bring in Brandon Miller and it's just like, OK, you're gonna compete with Terry Rozier in that backcourt. But Nick Smith Junior could get onto the court and say, hey, I've got more space than I had when I was a member of the Arkansas Razor back. So I think this is a big upside pick and the fact that he fell all the way to 27 uh I thought it was pretty telling Lewis in the sense that he was a much more heralded recruit and didn't, probably didn't quite play the level he had hoped for, uh, as a freshman this past season at the college level. Yeah, he, he was injured, um, for a big chunk of time essentially from like, like December to February, essentially like knee injury stuff and he was incredibly talented coming out of high school, you know, um, I, I really think that the knee is why he dropped as much as he did. So, and I think that's gonna be a trend here when you look at the rest of the Hornets picks, are they pick some guys who there's some high upside potential? So, uh, not, not necessarily the people who are going to be able to contribute immediately but high upside, high potential people. And that's James, he's nai played at Barcelona. He's a Nigerian 7 ft tall uh 18 years old, so a bit of raw talent, but can he get into the mix? You got Mark Williams and Nick Richards already on the roster. So do you want to start him in the G league in NAI in saying that? Ok, you get some reps at the G league level and then once you're ready, you can come on to the NBA and then UCL A is Amari Bailey, another player who dealt with some injuries at the college level. Lewis. I really like that Amari Bailey pick though at the end of the draft, I really do because he was injured, but then he came back and was big in that run in the postseason that UCL A made, I mean, his last, the last three, three games of the season for him 17, 14, 19. Um he had double digits in five of the last six. I think he's 66. Like I, I am to me that was a, I was a good late second round flyer type pick. I like that one a lot. I want to see if Bailey gets those minutes or whether it's um whether it, it would be Nick Smith Junior this, this upcoming season because I imagine ball and Terry Rozier are gonna be your starting backcourt. But who's that first guard off the bench for the Hornets? I think the two rookies could compete for that spot.