Future Friday Ja’Kobe Walter

Future Friday Ja’Kobe Walter

[00:00:00] All

[00:00:04] Dustin Hawes: right, everybody. Welcome to the 372nd edition of the Holy Backboard Podcast. I am Dustin here in Rip City and I got my man,

[00:00:12] Dillon Sage: Sage, ready to talk about a very, very interesting prospect. And I want to wish Happy Lunar New Year to everybody who celebrates. Um, if you are in the Southern Oregon area, I will be running sound for the Lunar New Year event in Jacksonville, Oregon.

[00:00:31] Dillon Sage: So just a little shout out to

[00:00:33] Dustin Hawes: that.

[00:00:36] Dustin Hawes: All right. And also happy Super Bowl Sunday to all who participate. I was joking with my wife earlier before we recorded that if a presidential candidate would just say the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday and everybody gets it off, they’re going to win the election. Like, I don’t know why that just do it and you’ll win the election.

[00:00:56] Dustin Hawes: That that’s my, uh, Do you care about the

[00:00:58] Dillon Sage: Super Bowl?

[00:00:59] Dustin Hawes: This [00:01:00] Super Bowl. No, my grandpa’s a Niners fan and he’s kind of a had a rough, rough year. So I hope they win. Um, I used to be not as much, not, not at all in anymore. Uh, really, uh, I really wanted to see the Lions and, um, you know, the Chiefs has nothing to do with, with Taylor Swift.

[00:01:17] Dustin Hawes: I just, they’re on every single commercial and this is like, I think four out of the last five Super Bowls, three out of four, some that they’re always in there. And if you’re not a fan of a team that’s always in there, it just, I get fatigued.

[00:01:28] Dillon Sage: Yeah. Is it doing what they’re just annoying? Or

[00:01:32] Dustin Hawes: Yeah, yeah. Okay.

[00:01:33] Dustin Hawes: Yeah. I mean, they’re just, they’re good. Like Yeah? It’s like, okay, they’re not my team and they’re good. It’s like, I want to If, if your team’s not in there, what you want, two things you want. I’ll keep this quick. You want a good game, but you also want to see fresh faces and you want to see teams that haven’t usually won it as often before.

[00:01:50] Dustin Hawes: That’s why I was glad the Nuggets won the finals last year because they hadn’t been there before and they won. So, um, you know, as a neutral third party, you just [00:02:00] want a good game, but you also want to see some fresh faces. We saw this matchup in 2020, but I digress. Let’s get into the future Friday of Baylor bear guard, uh, Jacobi Walter, some background on Jacobi.

[00:02:12] Dustin Hawes: He is a, uh, six, five shooting guard from the university of Baylor. Uh, six, 10 wingspan weighs 180 pounds. He is going to be 19 on draft day. He was born on September 4th of 2004, which makes me feel extremely old. Uh, currently for the, the Baylor bears. He has played in 23 games. He’s averaging about 30 minutes per game, putting up just over 14 points on 39% from the field, 33.6% from three, nearly 86% from the line, pulling down 4.7 rebounds, handing out 1.7 assists, uh, 0.2 blocks, 1.3 steals.

[00:02:54] Dustin Hawes: 1. 3 turnovers, um, with a player efficiency rating of [00:03:00] 19. 6. Uh, the mock drafts are pretty all a consensus is building around, uh, Jacoby Walter. He is fourth on the tankathon big board. He is fifth on the ringers big board. And you’re looking at a player who I think his draft stock will never be higher. And I think that is a product of.

[00:03:25] Dustin Hawes: This current crop of players that are available to be drafted this year. Wouldn’t you agree sage?

[00:03:30] Dillon Sage: So I want to compliment us first. I think when we talk about individual skills like passing or rebounding or defense, we knocked the top three guys out. I think Alexander SARS defense is the best in the draft.

[00:03:48] Dillon Sage: I think Nikola Topic is playmaking. It’s probably the second best individual skill. I think Jacoby Walters shooting ability. And you can put Reed Shepard in with Jacoby because I think both of them are [00:04:00] awesome. But, uh, and then Reed Shepard’s fourth is his hands. Those are the four outstanding individual skill sets in this draft.

[00:04:09] Dillon Sage: And I think we’ve knocked down the top three. One, two, and three. So I think that this, what we’ve podcasted about are the top three. Individual skilled guys. So we were doing pretty damn good on like the programming of this show. I think that if as long as you’re not the Washington Wizards, Jacoby Walter fits with what you’re what you’re asking.

[00:04:32] Dillon Sage: I think he’s an unbelievably good offball guy, but you know, when you’re picking at three or four or five or six, you’re not looking for an unbelievably good offball guy. You’re trying to get a star. I don’t think Jacoby is going to be there are pathways for Jacoby to be a star. But it’s not the most likely outcomes for Jacoby to be a star.

[00:04:53] Dillon Sage: Yeah, that’s just what I was

[00:04:54] Dustin Hawes: what was thinking and it’s It’s a bummer that players aren’t staying in [00:05:00] school as long as they used to, and that’s just change. It’s inevitable. We’re moving past it. And clearly for Jacobi coming out this year is the time to come out. Oh, yeah. He’s never, I don’t think ever going to be a, a top five picket.

[00:05:14] Dustin Hawes: It’s, it’s a weaker draft and you also run the risk of, of getting injuries and, you know, maybe head coaching changes. Then you have to transfer and so and so on. So, I, I get it. It’s, it’s incredibly, it’s premium time for him. Exactly. It’s premium time for him to come out. But what I mean by staying for three or four years, I look at a prospect in this year’s class and I look at a prospect the Blazers drafted about 18 years ago.

[00:05:38] Dustin Hawes: You look at Brandon Roy and you look at Kevin McCuller Jr. Both players, when they were freshmen, were nowhere near the player that they were as a senior. And neither of them, McCuller’s probably going to be a top 15, top 20 pick. B. Roy was a top 10 pick. They were not, they were not in that realm. As first and second year [00:06:00] players.

[00:06:00] Dustin Hawes: And when you look at a player like McCuller, who was shooting low to load, a low thirties, high twenties from three. Now he’s up to, you know, high thirties, 37, 38 percent from three, he’s getting a chance to scale up his role. He’s getting a chance to, to play make, he’s getting a chance to play high level defense.

[00:06:17] Dustin Hawes: Brandon Roy was able to work on the jump shot. He was able to work on his pace. He was able to work on his overall. playmaking ability, both shooting and passing. And when I look at Jacobi, when you, when you struggle handling the basketball and you don’t have elite level athleticism, which I would never put Brandon in elite level athleticism, and I wouldn’t put McCuller Jr in elite level athleticism category.

[00:06:44] Dustin Hawes: It takes time to work on your craft, and we saw that with C. J. McCollum. It took him two or three years to figure out, okay, how am I going to get to the bucket? I’m not the tallest, and I’m not the quickest, and I’m not the most, uh, vertical, you know, burst pop type of guy. And he was able to work on that. [00:07:00] It takes time to do that, and CJ was lucky that he got drafted 10th by a team that didn’t need him to contribute right away.

[00:07:09] Dustin Hawes: You’re talking about anybody but the Wizards drafting him. You know, I was just kind of thinking about Jacoby. You get drafted in the top five, you’re expected to contribute right away. You don’t necessarily get a chance to come in and work on your craft slowly without having a lot of pressure on you.

[00:07:25] Dustin Hawes: And I just, I look back at Shaden two years ago, We questioned his handle like, can it get stronger? Well, when you have S tier athleticism like Shaden, You can make a lot of things happen. The handle can take a while and you don’t have to be as tight with it because you can just do things that other athletes can’t.

[00:07:42] Dustin Hawes: You can just simply rise above them and you’re getting your shot off. You’re getting to your spot. For a player like Jacoby, He is facing a few uphill climbs to get to, I think, starting level NBA shooting guard. And that is tightening up the [00:08:00] handle because he’s not going to have that, that elite athleticism ability.

[00:08:05] Dustin Hawes: And how is he going to generate separation? We already know he can shoot off ball, and that’s a very nice skill set to have. But for him to, I think, be more than just an off the bench punch, he’s going to have to be able to at least score a little bit in isolation sets, or at least, you know, one, two dribbles, quick jab, I’m going to get my separation, and I’m going to shoot that step back.

[00:08:24] Dustin Hawes: So I think that’s why I wanted to see him stay longer. It’s not going to happen, and whoever drafts him has to be aware of that, and that’s just kind of the nature we’re in. Modern NBA draft prospect, uh, scouting, but that’s, that’s the biggest thing for me, the jump shot. It’s a little, it looks a little funky, but it goes in.

[00:08:45] Dustin Hawes: And you

[00:08:46] Dillon Sage: know, I love funky shooting guards with bad form, but it goes like Desmond Bain, AJ Griffin. This is my shit having a shooting guard that, you know, all the deficiencies in the world for [00:09:00] Jacoby Walter at AJ and Des with his short arms, all of those issues. But the ball still goes in at a really high clip.

[00:09:10] Dillon Sage: I watched a Jacobi Walter like high school tape and he was slashing and getting to the rim and using his good athleticism to get to the ball, get, get hoops. And I think his touch is bad, but if he can get to the rim, he can score. And then coming into Baylor, you watch him and he’s probably the One of the best shooters in the, in the NCAA, because he works on his craft.

[00:09:40] Dillon Sage: I, I, I agree with everything you said, that the handle needs to get tightened up and the, the, he needs to work on the pick and rolls and the second side actions. But if I’m going to bet on someone to do it, it’s somebody that went from one style of basketball to a completely other and dominates at that.

[00:09:58] Dillon Sage: Cause the [00:10:00] jump shots, beautiful. Like, like the fact that it goes in is beautiful. He runs super hard off ball, off screens, like as a off ball shooter. I have no like he does his thing.

[00:10:14] Dustin Hawes: It’s primary what Baylor’s using him right now. It seems like and you look, there’s always a bit of six of six of his 11 attempts.

[00:10:23] Dustin Hawes: The game are coming from three. So that’s clearly where they want him to have the ball. Clearly NCA has a shorter three point line and you’re seeing more teams. We saw Alabama last year. They spammed that three point shot and more and more teams are kind of just. Kind of buying into that, uh, system. You would like to see the percentages show up a little bit better.

[00:10:45] Dustin Hawes: You know, 34 percent is not bad. The free throw line is usually what translates. And he’s shooting 86 percent from the line. So I’m not too concerned. Uh, but for somebody, I think, classified as one of the top two shooters in the draft, I would like to see that percentage [00:11:00] up, but he is, he’s taking

[00:11:01] Dillon Sage: some tough shots.

[00:11:02] Dillon Sage: And I think like he has a weird role with Baylor. They always have good guards. Like ever since we started looking at the Baylor bears for draft stuff, they’ve always had good guards and a plethora of good guards. So his role is spacer. And then at the last 10 seconds, if our offense fails, Jacobi, please save us.

[00:11:25] Dillon Sage: Take this difficult shot. Please save us. So it like, I feel like if you took out his grenade threes, his opportunities where he, it’s like a very difficult shot and he has to take it cause you know, like the other guards aren’t ready or capable of taking that shot. I feel like his three point percentage would go up.

[00:11:46] Dillon Sage: It’s just the nature of their scheme. The ball’s going to him with five seconds and he has to decide how and how he’s going to attack. And I think that takes away from his three point percentage, but I mean, if you [00:12:00] watch him shoot that man, the shit goes in at a really nice clip. It’s just schematics of that team.

[00:12:08] Dillon Sage: It’s just not good for his percentage.

[00:12:14] Dustin Hawes: Yeah, and take a thon. I think this is new this year, but they have for advanced stats. They have a projected NBA three percent. Oh, they’ve had that for a while. I guess I’ve just missed it. Three thirty seven point nine percent is what they project him to shoot at the next level. I mean, he’s also not going to be the first second.

[00:12:35] Dustin Hawes: No, let’s be real. Like, I don’t see a world in where he’s ever a top three option on a on a contending team.

[00:12:43] Dillon Sage: You might get him third. I like him. I like him a lot more than you, obviously, but like.

[00:12:51] Dustin Hawes: I think he’s, I think he’s going to be a solid role player. And I think if he’s your, I think you can win with him as your fourth or fifth starter.

[00:12:57] Dustin Hawes: But ideally, I think he’s, I think he’s [00:13:00] kind of a gunner off the bench. Like your six man, like not saying he plays like it, but like, if you can get him to be a Jamal Crawford, a Lou Williams, uh, Tim Hardaway jr. With the Knicks. Um, you can just get, come and score. That’s what you do. We’re going to run you off some screens and we’re going to, we’re going to get you open looks.

[00:13:18] Dustin Hawes: And I think he would thrive playing with, you know, two playmakers on the, in the starting lineup with him as well that can find him, get him open looks. I mean, could you imagine if the Nuggets had a lottery pick this year They wanted a KCP replacement and he could just feed off of Aaron Gordon and Jokic just diming him up.

[00:13:40] Dustin Hawes: I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s where he succeeds. You talked about the Wizards. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll even throw in the Hornets. I’ll throw, you know, there are a couple other teams in there that, Uh, if he comes in and they say, you’re a starting shooting guard and you’re going to take playmaking reps and you’re going to be a one or two option, he’s going to fail and that’s, it’s not [00:14:00] the same situation, but you look back at other prospects and like, why didn’t they work out?

[00:14:04] Dustin Hawes: I mean, one of them that comes to mind is Ben Macklemore, right? Kind of a similar player, like really good off ball, a little bit better athlete. Beautiful looking jump shot, but he goes to Sacramento, top 5, expected to be a savior, next to DeMarcus Cousins, and that role was too big for his skill set, and he never recovered, right, and confidence is, maybe he just wasn’t good, and that’s a possibility, but I also think confidence plays a role in building your rhythm and building your Take care.

[00:14:34] Dustin Hawes: Abilities. And I just think his confidence got shattered in Sacramento and bad teams pick in the in the top five and that’s where he’s going to go. So that’s, it’s, it’s really hard. That’s why it’s impressive when you see young players succeed in, in those types of situations, because they’re having to overcome a lot of obstacles.

[00:14:50] Dustin Hawes: And in this draft, a lot of role players are going to try to be scaled up and it’s really hard to scale up when that’s not even [00:15:00] Really in your, in your possible, in your realm, like it’s like you look at Kevin McCuller Jr. He has a role right now at Kansas where he’s never going to have to be asked to do that in the NBA.

[00:15:09] Dustin Hawes: It’s going to be much easier for him to scale back down because he already has that experience than to scale. Then to scale up, which you’re probably going to see teams ask, you know, Jacobi to do, um, maybe read Shepard, uh, a couple of those type of players who are going to get drafted super duper high because of the nature of this draft.

[00:15:27] Dustin Hawes: And I think teams just need to be aware, like, I think they need to be patient with every single player draft and you have to. Just because you took someone at five, like five and this draft isn’t five and last year’s draft isn’t five in the 96th draft. Where would you put

[00:15:44] Dillon Sage: Jacoby in last year’s draft?

[00:15:47] Dustin Hawes: I think he probably goes in a similar spot where like uh, Grady Dick and Jett Howard went.

[00:15:52] Dustin Hawes: Like he’s that type of prospect to me. I

[00:15:54] Dillon Sage: have him ahead of Jett and Grady. Cause, [00:16:00] we’re gonna talk about it, but like, the defensive stuff. I think there’s a lot of context in Jacoby’s defense where I can’t excuse yet Howard for being trash at defense. And I can’t excuse Grady Dick for being pretty bad at defense.

[00:16:15] Dillon Sage: The Baylor bears, no middle defense. A lot of the times when he gets burned, he’s expecting help right in the middle and it doesn’t show. So it looks really bad on him. So I would, I would have him, I think I would have him by, I know that the wizards and pacers made that trade. It messes stuff. So Jairus is obviously ahead of him, but I would have him at eight with, uh, uh, the French dude, uh, Blauco Ballet.

[00:16:47] Dillon Sage: So, yep.

[00:16:48] Dustin Hawes: I think, I think I had a pretty solid top 10 last year. I think Cam Whitmore and Taylor Hendricks. And if Sar Thompson were at the tail end of that, I’d probably, he’d probably be closer to 11 for me. I like those prospects, uh, better. [00:17:00] Yeah, I, I mean,

[00:17:02] Dillon Sage: he, he’s on, he’s, if a smart team is there, he’s, they see him and they’re like, ooh, Jordan Hawkins had some moments, or, you know, all of these players, Moses Moody’s finally doing well.

[00:17:14] Dillon Sage: Like,

[00:17:15] Dustin Hawes: he’s, he kind of reminds me of, of Jordan Hawkins as a, as a prospect, in the sense, like, I was super high on him. But I knew what his role was going to be, and I thought he would thrive in his role. And I think he’s having a pretty decent rookie year so far. I’ve haven’t seen a ton. He’s had some really beautiful moments early on in the season when New Orleans had some some bodies down, like he stepped up and I think a good NCA run is going to really help his, his, I think confident not as his stocks.

[00:17:44] Dustin Hawes: Probably it’s going to be. I want to kill over go one, but if he goes four or five, that’s really freaking high, but I want to see, like, can you carry team like Jordan Hawkins as a sophomore carried a team? And that again, that was the benefit of him coming back for another year. Kobe’s probably not going to do that.

[00:17:59] Dustin Hawes: So I would like to [00:18:00] see, like, which one of these freshmen is going to show that they can win. Play big time basketball when, when everybody, uh, is, is watching because I do think there is some translation into, uh, the league. Um, you, you talked about defense. Um, he does have 6’10 wingspan. But do you think he’s ever going to have the lateral quickness or the foot speed to, to be even a neutral defender on an island?

[00:18:29] Dillon Sage: I think he’s a good team defender. I think he’s pretty, and I think he understands the concepts of what Baylor’s running versus a man or a zone. Like, that no middle. Is it’s a complicated thing to scout like Jeremy Sohan dominated in a no middle. And that gave us confidence that he was going to be an elite defender.

[00:18:54] Dillon Sage: I think that Jacoby in that scheme is understanding it. [00:19:00] And then the mistakes that come out of his, of that defense, I can explain away with, there should have been somebody right there to cover for him. Do I think he’s going to be like, No, but I think that he can be a team defender because he’s, he is already participating and being part of a defense that is different than anything he’s ever played in.

[00:19:25] Dillon Sage: So I, I think that he can be a net neutral defender for sure, but I’m never going to put him against like, The Aaron Fox and hope that he’s going to hold them to 25 points. No, but I think that he’s one of the guys that I believe can play an off ball defense and not get confused and not allow back cuts and, you know, running off screens.

[00:19:49] Dillon Sage: Like, I think that he’s a good defender. I think he tries hard too. There’s just some of these guys, like we talked about Jed Howard, he did not try defensively. I think Jacoby tries [00:20:00] and, and, and understands how to play defense, and I think that counts for something. I don’t think that they can play Jacoby off the floor defensively, like in a playoff game.

[00:20:15] Dillon Sage: The shooting is too good for him not to be on the court, and then his defense is just neutral enough to, uh, be a, uh, a factor. On a, on a team, it’s just that the way that they play defense is really aggressive and not letting things happen. So in that Duke game in particular, he got blown by, by every single player, like flip got them.

[00:20:40] Dillon Sage: But I think that he was expecting that help. And maybe it’s a conversation where like they need to adjust defensively, but I see him as a net neutral guy until, until proven. Otherwise I think he’s net neutral. And the fact that he can shoot so well, it’s [00:21:00] gonna keep him on the floor for a long for a while.

[00:21:02] Dillon Sage: As long as they’re patient with him, and can see that this isn’t going to be You know, Scoo Henderson or, uh, Wemby. This is a guy that’s going to take a little while to develop, and the fact is he already has this, the one clear thing that everybody wants. A guy that can shoot off the catch, off the dribble, and movement.

[00:21:21] Dillon Sage: That’s, that’s going to keep him in the, give, give him options and, you know, keep him in the NBA for a long time.

[00:21:32] Dillon Sage: How do you

[00:21:32] Dustin Hawes: like his fit in Portland

[00:21:33] Dillon Sage: specifically? I wish he or I wish he was like two or three inches taller to be completely honest But I think that it could work because he’s not expect like if we draft to kobe walter He is not ant can’t be on the court because there’s we’re we’re replicating the the small guard issue So if we take Jacoby, there has to be a plan in a few years for [00:22:00] Ant to not be part of this team.

[00:22:02] Dillon Sage: Cause you can’t, you can’t live off of six, two guards forever. Then we need to have functional size. So if there’s a plan for Ant in a few years to move on. I like it a lot better, but I think offensively, it’ll be fine. I think defensively, it might be a little difficult unless Shaden or Scoot turns into a much better defender.

[00:22:24] Dillon Sage: But again, I trust that he’s going to fit the role and scheme defensively. He just won’t excel. Yeah. I feel like with a lot of

[00:22:32] Dustin Hawes: these prospects, you’re having to put a scoop on them. You know, a square peg into a round hole. You’re trying to really force something to make it fit. I, I agree. I think I wish he was six, eight, six, nine, because ideally Shaden stays at the two and he can excel at the two.

[00:22:51] Dustin Hawes: I think he’s a little bit of undersized player to three scoots got decent size at the point at six, two. And, and you’re right. If you take a, a guard, a long [00:23:00] term guard, And you, you’re like, okay, Shaden, you’re, you are going to scale up to the three. There has to be a plan. Like you can’t have Brogden and you can’t have Simons.

[00:23:08] Dustin Hawes: Uh, you have to say, these are the guys for it. We’re drafting. Like, I think, I think he would have to be far and away the best prospect available to take him. And I don’t think he’s going to slip to the warrior’s pick. And I just, I don’t know a world in which he’s going to be by far and away the best prospect at, let’s say anywhere between five and seven.

[00:23:30] Dustin Hawes: So even if he is a gunner off the bench, There’s already too many bodies in the backcourt, and we clearly know that Chauncey favors some over the other, and we don’t have a lot of playmakers to get those guys the ball, like, it’s really just Scoot and Shaden showing a little bit of signs, but Malcolm likes to shoot, Ant likes to shoot, uh, Jeremy likes to shoot, uh, we have a lot of shooters, [00:24:00] We need some people who are going to set the table as well.

[00:24:04] Dustin Hawes: So like, I think he, do you think it’s passing? And we were in a situation where we had our starting five, probably all all filtered out and we were ready to go and we needed somebody off the bench. I would be totally fine with taking him. I just I feel like we’re kind of I think it’s usually I am all for for best player available.

[00:24:24] Dustin Hawes: And in most part, most of the time I will lean that way. But it’s whether it’s so much more important this year. Yeah, whether it’s free agency or trades, the Blazers have to address the lack of playmaking because he will survive, he will thrive. If you can get somebody to give him the ball because yet he is awesome off of the off of the curl off of the bounce when he catches the ball like

[00:24:47] Dillon Sage: I love how he runs

[00:24:48] Dustin Hawes: so hard off the screen.

[00:24:49] Dustin Hawes: It’s such a hard skill set to be such a good movement shooter and but it’s funny it’s it’s almost like when guards bigger guards whether it’s Kobe Jr writer Steve Smith [00:25:00] used to back in and you know post up MJ. That skill set was so valuable. It won Portland a few series over the Jazz themselves because Jeff Hornosek could embody Steve Smith and J.

[00:25:10] Dustin Hawes: R. Ryder and Bonzi Wells. But that like, guards don’t do that anymore. And coaches don’t coach for that either. I kind of feel like we’re, we’re, we’re, movement shooting is, is a lost art because outside of the Warriors, Are there many other systems out there that are prioritizing movement shooters? Like it’s a beautiful style of basketball.

[00:25:30] Dustin Hawes: I think it gets great shots available, but you just, it’s, you’re seeing more just like pick and roll, drive and kick. Like that’s everything that players are doing. And like, I don’t wanna see him just get relegated to, okay, sit in the corner and just hit your three. Clearly we would need a new coach to, to work

[00:25:50] Dillon Sage: with.

[00:25:51] Dillon Sage: Oh yeah. Jacobi would not fit on this like, yeah.

[00:25:54] Dustin Hawes: But just in general, like I was, as I was talking, I was like, a lot of like, movement is not [00:26:00] being utilized. Like, well, even the pistons of, of the championship era with Rip Hamilton, like he was a beautiful movement shooter. And like, you can go back in time and like, okay, there’s Reggie Miller, there’s Ray Allen, there’s Rip, JJ Redick, like.

[00:26:16] Dustin Hawes: Right now it’s like, okay, there’s, there’s Steph and there’s Clay, but like, who else is a great movement shooter that’s getting those movement looks at that clip? And it’s, it feels like it’s a bit of a lost art, unfortunately. I,

[00:26:28] Dillon Sage: I, I don’t see, I don’t see Chauncey. Developing it. But when you have a guy that can do it, incentivize it.

[00:26:36] Dillon Sage: And I think a smart coach would absolutely there. I mean, I saw Jordan Hawkins get some love when we, when they were so injured, like Jonas Valanciunas would set him a screen and he would, I think when you have it, you utilize it, but there’s not that many got moving and shooting, like sprinting off of a screen and [00:27:00] getting the ball and shooting it really difficult.

[00:27:02] Dillon Sage: Even the way I just said it. That’s pretty hard. You have to have perfect balance. You have to, so I think that if we had a coach that was creative. He would use it. Now we have to have the screeners that help him get, get space. But I, I remember we tried to do it last year with Yusuf and Shaden, just getting him moving downhill off ball.

[00:27:25] Dillon Sage: I think that, I think that it can be a very valuable tool. It’s just, we need the creativity schematically to a movement shooter in that place. It’s such a great skill to have, you know, Like, it sucks that the Golden State Warriors and the Rockets of James Harden were the only real teams to utilize it, but if you have it, smart coaches are gonna develop.

[00:27:54] Dillon Sage: Motion

[00:27:55] Dustin Hawes: for it. Because all right. Early, you were about to ask [00:28:00] me a question. Do you remember what that was? Oh,

[00:28:02] Dillon Sage: yeah. I think that he can develop into a second side pick and roll guy. Do you have any thoughts about his passing? Because I think that if a smart team developed it, he could be a second side like Norman Powell pick and roll with eight seconds left.

[00:28:19] Dillon Sage: I think that he could do that. Like, I don’t think that he has the vision or the creativity of a Tyrese Taliburn. But I think that I don’t think anybody

[00:28:28] Dustin Hawes: has the crew. Did you see the play against the Knicks where he’s in jail, throws it off the backboard? Yeah,

[00:28:34] Dillon Sage: that that’s tick

[00:28:36] Dustin Hawes: tock. I’ve never seen that before.

[00:28:40] Dustin Hawes: Like, kind of just like blew my mind. So yeah, like Halliburton’s like in a whole other galaxy compared to everyone else. But

[00:28:47] Dillon Sage: I I think that he has the ability to do, to do better reads than Anthony Simons. Like I think that he could do second side, uh, actions with his passing. I know the [00:29:00] dribbling needs to be fine tuned, but I think that he is, I’ve seen him make plays when he gets to the rim and passes it off to Yves Mises.

[00:29:09] Dillon Sage: So I think that it’s there. It’s just, you need to develop it, but I think that he can do it. He’s been lucky in his career where he’s had point guards from high school to now, so he doesn’t, he’s never needed to do it, but I think that he has the ability to do second side actions with playmaking. That’s why I think I like them more than you is because I believe in the second side playmaking or, or, or the, you know, the, the secondary playmaking.

[00:29:39] Dillon Sage: It all comes

[00:29:39] Dustin Hawes: down to opportunity, right? We love Jeris as a playmaking bully. Jeris isn’t even playing for the Pistons. He’s a top seven pick. I mean, slipping the floor. Like, even in blowout games, either way, not playing. Taylor Hendricks, not playing, uh, for a Utah team that’s out of the playoff picture. So it’s, uh, Again, it’s really [00:30:00] hard to project it depends on what situation he goes to.

[00:30:02] Dustin Hawes: Is he going to get the opportunity to work on that? I don’t know. I

[00:30:08] Dillon Sage: think this is the, the draft where you just, it matters so much more than a normal year. Like obviously upside’s important, but there’s none of these guys that are forcing an established star out of their role. Like if Detroit gets one, they’re not going to go SAR.

[00:30:27] Dillon Sage: They’re just not, it doesn’t make sense. And he’s not going to play cause Monty’s ass doesn’t play rookies. Um, this one’s fit. This one is of course you can think upside and that’s obviously cool, but you got to think about the fit the absolute most. So Jacoby probably doesn’t fit with what the blazers are doing now, but is there a team that can use an off ball score?

[00:30:52] Dillon Sage: Sure. And he probably should go there.

[00:30:55] Dustin Hawes: I will say if he’s available at that later lottery pick. Oh, I would

[00:30:59] Dillon Sage: be wetting my [00:31:00] pants in excitement. Like I would. Then you

[00:31:02] Dustin Hawes: clearly take him because there’s a prospect we’ll talk about in a couple of weeks. Kevin McCullough Jr. from Kansas, who that’s that’s where I want to take him because I mean, he’s a little bit taller, but he’s got more experience.

[00:31:12] Dustin Hawes: But that’s. Like, we need a playmaker who can hit shots off of the bench. And that’s clear, that’s fine with a later lottery pick. With this, this number 5, 6, 7, whatever it ends up being, you just, you just, you don’t know who you’re going to get because like you said, it’s, there’s no consensus top pick. I don’t think there’s a consensus top three.

[00:31:33] Dustin Hawes: There’s not a consensus six. There’s just going to be like. It’s going to be dependent on the draft lottery results and where teams go and I think I don’t think there’s going to be a ton of movement because I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of teams jockeying to get up to a certain guy like I don’t know if that’s going to be the case again we’ll wait until the combine wait until pro days.

[00:31:58] Dillon Sage: Oh, uh, underdog [00:32:00] fantasy just air dropped me five extra dollars so I’ll use that today. Um, do you I know that you don’t have the time to do as many comps as me. Do you have the comp that you have for, uh, Jacoby

[00:32:14] Dustin Hawes: Walter? I mean, he kind of reminds me, like, we started doing this in 2020. Um, he kind of reminds me of, like, Aaron Neesmith at Vanderbilt, where he was such a good movement shooter.

[00:32:29] Dustin Hawes: Um, Neesmith got off to a bit of a rocky start in, in Boston, but he’s kind of carved out a role for himself in Indiana. And When I think of what Jacobi Walter could be, I think there’s a higher ceiling there. But like, Aaron Neesman starting for a team that’s going to make the playoffs, like that’s nothing to really scoff about.

[00:32:47] Dustin Hawes: I think if he absolutely peaks, you could look at a guy like J. J. Reddick, maybe a modern day Richard Hamilton, where You know, secondary creator, just [00:33:00] knockdown shooter, but really the role is off ball, do not give it to isolation. Um, I don’t know if he’ll ever be the defender that Rip Hamilton was.

[00:33:08] Dustin Hawes: Probably closer to, to a reddick where he’s just neutral. Um, so that’s what I, what I think you’re gonna get. Like, and that’s pretty much what you have to expect when you go into this draft. You’re not gonna get Kevin Garnett. You’re not going to get Shaq. You’re not going to get no T Mac. Like I just, that’s not this draft.

[00:33:29] Dustin Hawes: There might be a play. I don’t even know. Like I’ve been trying to like look at players like who is there a Giannis in this draft that people just don’t talk. I don’t, I don’t even know if that’s there. So you just really have to manage your expectations when you’re scouting these players and when they’re coming onto your team, who do you think?

[00:33:45] Dillon Sage: So Malik Beasley, I think Max Struess. Moses Moody would be on his lower end results and all of those guys have had moments where they’re shying Tim Hardaway Jr. and [00:34:00] Gary Trent. I mean, it’s obvious it’s the, it’s the shooter. That’s the, uh, the, the awful shooter. And then I, if he hits his peak, And he can do the second side reads that I, I think that he can, I think is a hundred percent is Tyler hero.

[00:34:20] Dillon Sage: And if he just becomes the best, uh, second, you know, best softball guy. I see some Desmond Bain in him, but I think Tyler hero is his most like is, is the best outcome. Tyler hero, like as much as we’d like. As people like him, he, when people press him, he struggles. So he’s a second side, secondary ball handler instead of, you know, Jimmy Butler’s obviously number one when he’s healthy and playing hero, second, third guy, of course he had those playoffs series and every, you know, He was the face of top shot for a few years.

[00:34:57] Dillon Sage: In reality, he’s a secondary ball handler that [00:35:00] can get really hot from three. So I, yeah, I, I, I really do believe in Jacoby just adding things to his game every year and that type of thing, that type of work ethic makes me think he can be that he can, he knows he needs to tighten up the handle to be as good as he can be.

[00:35:22] Dillon Sage: So I believe that he can achieve those darts. Like the work ethic. I remember, uh, I read that the Baylor, like he was working on his three point shot and he hit 43 in a row and like going from someone who doesn’t shoot to someone who can hit 43 shots in a row and be one of the best shooters. I’m going to bet on him to develop and be better.

[00:35:45] Dillon Sage: So yeah, Tyler hero, 99th percentile.

[00:35:52] Dillon Sage: Thank you so much for listening to our future Friday that will be released on super Sunday. Um, we definitely [00:36:00] appreciate all the love and, uh, you know, listen to it. This is a lot more demanding on our time thinking and watching these college games when we’re also watching and listening to every blazer game.

[00:36:12] Dillon Sage: So thank you for giving this a chance. Um, thank you for listening to the complimentary pieces series that I’ve started and, uh, we’re going to talk about my, my, my favorite college player, Providence guard, Devin Carter. So be on the lookout for that. It’ll be dropping by Monday. Um, thank you to everybody for listening and enjoy super Sunday.

[00:36:36] Dillon Sage: Bruce.