Today, we try to determine what’s going on with the NBA Draft…
and admire the Knicks sticking to their type.
Who Goes Where Tonight?
What Happened: The NBA Draft used to be such a simple exercise. Who was the best player in college basketball that season? Boom, there’s your first pick.
Now, you need to be hipped to French basketball to know who is shaking hands with Adam Silver. But the success of Nikola Jokc, Luka Doncic, and Victor Wembanyama (among others) will only fuel NBA teams’ scouring the globe for talent, no longer content to simply select from the NCAA’s best of the best.
Why It Matters: Well, if you only watched college basketball this season, you might expect Zach Edey to be going first overall. But that’s not happening. (More on that for our subscribers later today!)
The Atlanta Hawks seem to be choosing between Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr with the first pick of tonight’s draft, with UConn’s Donovan Clingen emerging recently as a potential dark-horse contender.
With no perfect candidate in this draft pool however, no one knows how this draft will play out. When everything seems like a coin-flip, betting on outcomes seems like a fool’s errand.
How We’re Feeling Today
Wondering if Jay Wright is New York bound at this point.
Villanova’s NYC chapter got even more Wildcatsy as the Knicks swung a deal to acquire Mikal Bridges from the rival Brooklyn Nets last night, giving Tom Thibodeau four former Nova players on his team.
Thibodeau has done a fantastic job coaching his team, but with Jay Wright just sitting at home these days, what happens if the Knickerbockers get out to a slow start? Will James Dolan wonder if Wright is the only coach who can get the most out of a team built primarily around his former charges?
It’s probably nothing to worry about Thibs! But enrolling in summer classes and earning a quick degree from Villanova couldn’t hurt your chances of sticking around either…
The Look Ahead
Sean Manaea STRIKEOUTS – As if a Subway Series game needed to be hyped up more, we are watching for Manaea to rack up some Ks tonight. The Yankees have hit double-digits in strikeouts five times in their last 10 games, so the potential is there. As for Manaea’s numbers, he’s gotten at least six whiffs in five of his last seven starts, including his last two times on the mound. His line tonight: 5.5, certainly an achievable target based on his recent form.
