The Urban Gavel Podcast
On Urban Gavel, we chop it up about sports, music, and urban culture weekly with hosts Eric Graham and Patrick Williams. Unfiltered and raw, tune in to rehash old arguments or hear our takes on what's trending.
The Urban Gavel Podcast
Urban Gavel Ep. 4 - Just the Two of Us
The fellas discuss the move that sent Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks. We'll explore how this trade reunites Bridges with his former Villanova teammates and significantly bolsters the Knicks' prospects in the highly competitive Eastern Conference. We take a closer look at this year's NBA Draft, examining the risks and rewards of selecting young international talent and spotlighting standout American prospects.
E and P discuss Durant trade rumors and another chapter in the Reese/Clark rivalry. Finally, during recording, we react live to the Bronny James pick.
Instagram: @urban_gavel_podcast
http://urbangavel.buzzsprout.com
Spotify
welcome to urban gavel. This is episode four with my man, e graham.
Speaker 2:What's good with your brother well, well, well, welcome back to the gavel family.
Speaker 1:Let's get get to it. Yes, sir, man, it's a lot going on in the NBA right now. We had the draft, the first round of the draft, last night. The second round of draft follows tonight. But before we even get into that, man, I want to talk about this Bridges trade, man. So, for those who missed it, the Knicks traded five first round picks and, I believe, two more pick swaps for bridges from the nets so they could reunite them villanova boys together. What does that mean for the knicks? Is that a trade that moves the needle for you with the knicks? Tell me, tell me what you're thinking yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker 2:when that happened I was like, wow, that one slid under the radar for us, right? Because with all the talk out here around free agency, you know everybody's pointing to Paul George like he's the biggest fish in the pond as a free agent. We stopped to think about what trade move would actually move the needle. And if you look at it right now, man, in Phoenix, before they made the Durant trade, mikael Bridges was their leading scorer. I mean, he had a 50-point game, a 40-point game over with the Knicks. So he really is a younger version of a Paul George and a KD, when you ask me. So me, I think it's a great pickup, as well as locking down OG Ananobis, them boys, the Knicks right now they look like they number two when it comes to opposing the Celtics in the East coming up next year.
Speaker 1:That was a monster trade. They gave up a lot for him. They gave up a lot for him, but he is like the perfect fit on that team Bridges doesn't have to have the ball to score.
Speaker 1:He can feed off of Brunson Brunson passing the ball. And then you got no problems with chemistry whatsoever because him, hart, brunson DiVincenzo, all them dudes played at Villanova together under your boy, jay Wright, who you've been pushing for a job in the NBA for the last two seconds right, and I'm gonna still keep pushing for it, because Jay Wright is the truth and you can see his fingerprints are all over the NBA, in particular with the Knicks right now, man.
Speaker 2:So when you reunite those boys, those boys got two championships between two different years with those four players. So I think somebody's going to have to go, though, because if you project out their starting lineup, right now you've got Jalen Brunson, you've gotael Bridges, you got OG Ananobi, you got Julius Randle and you got Robertson, and I think right now I think Devin Chenzo might be the one to get caught in that mix a little bit, because Josh Hart, I think really he's an energy guy, he can play both ends they gave.
Speaker 1:OG Ananobi that bread family $260 million man.
Speaker 2:that's a big contract for that guy, but deservedly so, man. That guy will swing the pendulum on any team you went to. Imagine him if he went to Philly, dallas and I'm only going to talk about teams that really are in play, that have a chance to really um be right there in the final four when it's over. That og was a salt at the peace, absolutely yeah, and then the big thing.
Speaker 1:One thing about him, man. This lets you know stats don't mean everything. He didn't have the stats of our boy rj barrett, but when that trade happened for him and barrett, I think the knicks went 20-2 when nobody was playing for them. It was just a difference in what he brought to the table like defense and offense. Team player.
Speaker 2:And the thing I like about OG he doesn't do any talking. Bro, His talking is done between the lines. It wouldn't be, when you start to think about what the Celtics did, just that relentless pressure defensively on downhill on both ends of the court. Yeah, that's what they're going to look like next year.
Speaker 1:I think they need to make one more move to really be there. Figure something out I don't know what that move is. Cut some salary, maybe trade Julius Randle or somebody like that, and I think they can really be right there with the salesman. That was a. That was a monster trade. So let's move on to the draft. I'm not going to sit here in front, bro. Have these international dudes. My first time seeing anything for them dudes is on draft night.
Speaker 2:Yours and mine, man, how, how, friends. This is turning it into not the national basketball association draft, but the French Basketball Association draft. Man, we got four French players in the top 25 of the first round. I've never seen that like that happen, ever, brothers.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, but the thing is. The thing is is that you got these dudes in Europe who are getting professional experience at a really young age, so they're already proven hey, we can play with men. And then they're taking them at like 19 years old. Like I was looking at some of these dudes stats that were drafted man, I think you know there's dudes out here getting drafted number one, number two, averaging like nine points a game, four rebounds.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. So I'm like they gushing over these dudes, but then they be on somebody like Bronny, because Bronny averaged four at USC. Now they playing in professional league, so it's different. But at the same time I'm like, bro, we taking these chances on potential man I don't know. You kind of go with the stats, you go with the measurables 19 in the NBA, that's what you're telling me.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to sit here in front like I know all these foreign dudes. I'm going to focus on these dudes that I saw play Steven Castle from UConn. I didn't watch UConn most of the season. I watched him in the tournament. He's solid. He's not a great shooter, but he plays defense. He's a playmaker and that's what they need. They need somebody to get the ball to. Wimby is what it comes down to and control the ball.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, you know, when I looked at him, man, I watched his game. He's nice, but one thing about him he's big and he playmates I mean so big point guards at the end. That's the new thing in the NBA. I think his measurables he probably like 6'4", but he Castle, was 6'6". Yeah, see what I'm saying 6'6", 6'4" to 6'6", with that downhill and grappling defense right now can shoot the ball. See, that's what teams are looking for right now, especially when you got Wimby there. You know you start to build a nice little nucleus around him, build out the draft. I think what they do, they go get like an old, veteran rangy backup point guard like Chris Paul. Bring Chris Paul over there. Maybe you have him start in front of Castle or either back him up so we really can start to see what Wimby is like when he's put in position and give him opportunities, because that's what Chris Paul is going to do. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I'd love to see Paul go there, because, paul, you know how Paul does. Man, paul goes to a place and you got a player on your team. He's going to say, all right, he's going to learn where that dude wants to get the ball, where he likes to operate, and Paul's going to get you the ball right there. That's the type of player we could average 30 a game with somebody like Paul on his team. Right.
Speaker 2:I saw Zach E to Memphis. Everybody was Go ahead, you go ahead. Let me tell you something right now, everybody been talking about moves in the West and everybody been projecting next year. You know, denver be back, dallas will be back.
Speaker 2:I think Minnesota is like a highly touted to come out of the West and everybody's sitting over there forgetting about the Memphis Grizzlies. When you got ultra-athletic Ja Morant, who I expect to come back with his head on right, you got a defensive player of the year and stretch four in Jackson, you got Bain, who shoot the three really well. You got Marcus Smart, a defensive juggernaut over there. Steve Adams I mean that team is going to come back. They're going to come back really loaded and, I think, with a mission to prove. So I expect big things out of the Memphis Grivers and Edie. I mean man, he's a bucket around the basket, can shoot free throws. You're not going to be able to foul him. No hack or sh shack going on. The guy can ball. So I expect big things out of Memphis this year, absolutely yeah man With Ja Morant.
Speaker 1:I mean, they were at the top of the West when Morant was healthy. At the end of the day, this draft turned out to be a situation where you got all these young teams who can't win nothing right now and they're like like Zach Eady, two-time national player of the year, and your boy Connect, to drop to the Lakers Connect was probably the second best player in college basketball and those are teams that need dudes to win right now and they got exactly what they want.
Speaker 2:They got exactly what they want. Connect, I'm telling you right now, Dalton, hey, I seen him and he got that swag. You see the chain he showed up with last night. Yes, sir, Diamond, diamond-crusted DK, you know, just to show you. Like you can already tell he blend with the brothers. You know what I mean, you know you can tell that. And so he coming out there with the chain glistening, I think him man, I think of him as a tad bit less athletic Rex Chapman. You know how Rex Chapman remember back in the day when he had that swag.
Speaker 2:Can shoot the trade ball, can shoot the mid-range, get downhill under the ball and he checks in at around out close to 6'6". He's like 6'5 and 3 quarters so he's 6'6 out there. So I think they really got what they need and can shoot the lights out. So I think they really got what they need and shoot the lights out and can shoot the lights out and I'm wondering that man sitting somebody down, who going to sit down? You know what I mean? I can very well see that you may go him. Let's say they keep Russell D'Lo, they keep D'Lo.
Speaker 1:Do you go? D'lo, k'nick, lebron and AD. You know how D'Lo's a part. You know D-Lil going to give you that game, every other game, so that every other game, then you can slide your boy Hachimura in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah and Vincent. You know they got Vincent at the point guard over there.
Speaker 1:I forgot Vincent. Vincent been hurt so much. We haven't even seen him like that. Yeah, he was hurt this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think they helped they team up. I think you know they. If you, if you go ahead right now and probably in this second part of the draft, if they draft brani, then do you look at that as an excellent draft? From the lakers perspective, I'm gonna have to say yes, and you know why. One you got a bona fide ball player in the first round, first team, all-american 20-point college score, 23 years old, going to be ready to play when the season starts right. And then with LeBron, probably and I just thought about this P LeBron had to sign his new deal with the Lakers yet and the reason why he probably hadn't signed it to see if they're going to sign LeBron James Jr. So if they sign Bronny and they re-sign LeBron, I think the Lakers can say they had an amazing draft.
Speaker 1:There's one more piece floating out there that I'm going to talk about a little later, but yeah, if they get the two of them, I guarantee you LeBron is like so improved.
Speaker 2:So improved that you're going to do what you said you're going to do. You will not get no wet ink on the paper with my signature unless I see Bronny James in LA. That's it, give me that roster spot. You promise me, Give me that roster spot and that extra five million to go on my Sunbaker account and we good to go on my Sunbaker account and we good to go and don't think that if they draft Bronny, that Bronny not going to play now.
Speaker 2:Oh, he got to play you think listen, jj Redick knew when he signed the contract, bronny James would probably you get the pick. You got two players in this draft. You got two picks, one your choice, the other one is Brody James hey.
Speaker 1:I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but I got to talk about it. Our boy, kyle Filipowski, is still out there in the second round.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? What do you think about Kyle? I'm going to tell you what I think about Kyle. I think Kyle made a boo-boo. What I mean, like that, Kyle, what you did, brother, was what they do sometimes in the world. Is you mistake your worth? You know what I'm saying. When you didn't show up this year being a dog, I mean showing people that you can do something other than shoot tray balls and tenacity. We need you to go play hard defense, rebound the ball. People need utility beings and we can see they go in the first round. His game is passive. Nobody really is thinking about what he's going to bring to the table, because actually I feel like he's soft. So, being soft right now, he wouldn't have been on my draft board either. No, not at all.
Speaker 1:Should have stayed with them, dukies. We'll see who picks him up. Man, I'm not a big fan of his anyway. So we'll see. Outside the fact that he a Duke, he shouts out to Duke, but other than that, man, I don't care. I don't care at all. These Kevin Durant rumors you been following those I have. Stephen A reported that he talked to some people who said the Suns may be trying to move him and the president of the Suns came out and was like nah, we're not trying to move them. The question is whether we think Durant's going to get moved. And the other question is can Durant go somewhere still and be a factor and convert a team from a fringe playoff team, a middle playoff team, to a championship caliber team, or is it past his time?
Speaker 2:No man, it's never past a player like kevin durant's time. I mean until he really gets off. When you have a natural skill set like that and the body that he has, it's no way that you can say it's past his time because he he's a, he's a 50, 40, 90 guy. You know what I mean? The guy's gonna, he's gonna always be able to shoot the ball. But the teams that are talking about going to get him absolutely not. It doesn't help him. I know where he can go and help immediately Philadelphia. I mean period. I mean he instantly makes them a contender. You think they wouldn't like to have him over there at the small forward? Yes, they would, so he could help them. But what would they? I wouldn't trade too much for him to go get him, absolutely not. But who wants him is Houston. I don't think Kevin Durant makes Houston a contender. I think he makes them a solid, solid, legitimate borderline playoff playing team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that Kevin Durant, at this stage in his career, would even show up to play for Houston. If you want to be real about it, right.
Speaker 2:But like you said, Philly's a fit you know where else. I would kind of like to see him go Indiana. He could help Indiana at the small forward. That's a big three to me Halliburton, kd and Siakam With Miles Turner.
Speaker 1:I mean, we talk about places we know you're not going to go. You're not going to go. Kind of sucks. Now we're gonna go to the w. This angel reese, caitlin clark, rivalry man. It keeps cooking, keeps delivering man they played earlier in the week, four days ago. Angel reese gave it to caitlin clark. I love to see the back and forth. That's what makes a rivalry man when you have, you know, when it's not a situation where one person's always winning. Angel reese went out there, gave you 25 and 16 to win that victory it's a real rivalry.
Speaker 2:now I look at their stats right now I'm gonna give it to, I'm gonna lean to caitlin as rookie of the year. But you got to think, right now angel reese is averaging a double double bro. She's average. She's averaging 13 and 11. 13 points, 11 boards I mean as a rookie you'll take that from anybody, especially from the post, with almost two steals a game and two assists. So nice line for angel reese. But I got to go with the line with the person who has the ball in the hands the most, I mean the most, which is Kaitlyn Clark, who's averaging 16, five and seven and two steals. I mean she's the first rookie in the NBA to average 15, five and five. She's averaging 16, five and seven. I mean, come on now Ball player. But with what they're doing right now, you can see Angel Reese they were down about 15 to 18 points coming into the fourth quarter last week, last Sunday, and they say you know them girls won that game.
Speaker 2:So the Chicago team looks really good. I do like what I'm seeing from Kaitlyn, though she's growing. I think the WNBA game is starting to come to a little bit more now. So the W has a bright future. I'm wondering, looking ahead P, who they're going to get, because they probably be borderline to where they get a really good draft pick. Can you imagine her and Paige Buckets in the backcourt? I can't, I can't. I talked to one of my homeboys about that Scoop. He told me he said man, he said they'll be too unathletic back there. I said shit me, that's a whole lot of buckets.
Speaker 1:Listen, man, when you talking about one thing I like about the WNBA is it ain't all about athletics in the WNBA. If you smart and you have any fundamentals, you can shoot and play the game. You can ball out in the WNBA. You ain't got to be no super athlete to get by over there. Man, them girls are smart. They know how to play this Reese Kaitlin Clark thing. I've heard this previously, man. It know how to play this reese caitlin clark thing. I've heard this previously. Man has definitely given off some larry bird magic. Johnson vibes out here. Man, that college rivalry turned into an nba rivalry type of thing both of them balling out like that. I mean they ain't at mvp level. Now, the thing people don't remember about magic and bird is when they came in the league as rookies. Both of them was mvp candidates.
Speaker 2:What man? That's the best rivalry ever man. That is one of the greatest stories in sports man, magic and Bird. If we just want to talk about that man, how can you meet in the championship game in college, then meet in the finals a couple of times? I mean, just had to go through each other the whole career. Larry Bird said he woke up every morning and he got the newspaper delivered just so he can see what magic was doing on the west coast. He said he's got his stats in the morning on magic over a cup of coffee and want to see what's going. He say he was fueled by what magic Johnson did.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, bro library, had a short career, so a lot of people you know people respect him but at the same time know they don't put him up super high because he didn't do it for long enough. But as a rookie this dude finished fourth in MVP voting, took a team that was 29 and 53 prior to his arrival and they went 61 and 21 in his rookie year. Like you talk about coming in the league immediate impact, immediate. It's a big bird to say hey, hey, that's what we comparing y'all to. But I love to see the fact that this story just continues to the wmba man that's making people watch at the end of the day and I love angel, because angel don't care, bro, that girl's a dog like she don't care, she's like bro.
Speaker 1:You want me to apologize to kaylin? I ain't apologizing, I play a ball like she's straight up, she's real, real with it. I love it, man. And she plays the villain. She likes playing the villain and she knows that if she stay at Caitlyn like that, people are going to watch what it comes down to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when you talk about marketing man in the NBA, they do summer league out in Las Vegas Right now. What the WNBA should do is do their summer league in Miami, pick Miami Stadium, just making an event like that. You know. Have the players come in for summer league soon as it's over, where they can play, or either make theirs a winter league you know what I'm saying like a winter summer league, since their schedule is after theirs in the fall, where people can go to miami. The players can go, go see, see these type of ideas that'd be. You know, like I said to kendrick, you know you don't have to play me right now to w, but these type of things on the top of my mind. If you want some of this knowledge it's funny you say that, man.
Speaker 1:It's the same thing with track and field, like, for example, you think of something like sprinting. Everybody loves to see 100 meters and you watch it during the Olympics because it's all over the news it's going to be 100 meters. It's tonight, this is when the semifinals are, this is when the heats are, this is when the finals are, but you don't ever see no marketing for the world championships leading into that in all years. And I'm like, bro, if you put an ad out there that said the world championships 100 meters is tonight at nine, I would tune in, but I would find out about it until after the fact.
Speaker 2:Man, that's crazy, man. I mean, some of this stuff, I don't know why you don't think about it Like. I mean, I understand we talked about you know why they wouldn't. You know, take Kaitlin for the US team. I get that part, but I'm talking about right now. If you're not going to have her on the US team, you already start thinking about hey look, this is the first year that we're going to have summer league or the fall league for the WNBA.
Speaker 2:And what you do when it starts to be, you know, since the NBA have theirs in August, maybe you come back and have yours in October, when it's a little more chilly, right, it's cool. You let them go down there for a little bit. Right before football season gets really kicked off, you give us two more weeks of WNBA actually doing their thing. Man, that's a huge win for them, and they get paid for it, like they get paid for it in the WN another revenue stream for them, girls, where they don't have to go overseas and play. Man, that's what you do. That's how you build a game. You just keep hammering us with this marketing ploy you got right now.
Speaker 1:I want Brian to do good man, because the one thing I will say he didn't perform that well at USC but at the same time, like this, kid almost died.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You can't have a heart condition and almost die and then come back from that and be 100% confident about going full speed. Every game like you need to go to be successful. That's the one thing where I kind of give him a pass for where I'm like you can't come back from that and be a beast and from day one like you got to take a while to think, to run around without thinking about passing out on the court, I'm 100 in this corner because, like you said, man for the ability to bounce back on that, like that and and be, and be somebody with all that spotlight on you man, but but like he got access to the best everything, so I'm happy for him.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything against Bronny. I don't want him to come in there and shit the bed. Basically you know what I mean. So, pick us in for the Lakers, for the.
Speaker 1:Lakers Okay, yeah, let's see who it is. If I was Bron, I would be sitting in the draft room for this pick.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right.
Speaker 1:Just go ahead and stunt Like look, you know, I mean I'll be sitting in the draft room like, okay, who y'all going to pick? Who y'all going to pick?
Speaker 2:Y'all want to play games. Play games if you want.
Speaker 1:It has been confirmed Bronny James to the Lakers in the second round. My Bron got his wish, wish got his roster spot, yes, in addition to his contact. So tell me, man, tell me what you think of the pick. I'm glad to see it. To be honest with you, man, because you don't get to see stuff like this, like I think the last you know major situation where you got father son playing on the same team was ken griffey jr.
Speaker 2:Ken griffey, senior in baseball yeah, man, I mean, this is powerful man. It's powerful in so many ways. Like I said, now you're going to get a settled LeBron and for the Lakers, this is what you want. He's settled LeBron's going to end his career as a Laker. His son's going to be a Laker Jeannie Buss and Rob Plinker. They can say they did their job, well, done One. They kept King James on the marquee In the first round. They got a quality player that everybody in the organization loves, for sure, for sure, and I think he's going to be an above-average player. I think he has the skill set to be above-average.
Speaker 1:Like we said, the thing that helped a lot for the Lakers in making this pick is that Bronny balled out at the combine had the thing that helped a lot for the Lakers in making this pick is that Bronny balled out at the combine.
Speaker 1:Had he not balled out at the combine, I think they still would have made it either way. But had he not balled out at the combine, then I think the Lakers would have got some more heat and it would have been definitely all about LeBron. I mean, that's what it is. But at the end of the day, bronny made 26 of 29 threes at the combine shooting drills, had a 40-inch vertical and balled out in the scrimmages. He was moving up the board somewhat because of that. So that made him kind of okay, you can perform like this in the combine. It gave him some legitimacy behind the pick. But at the end of the day, man, I'm just here for the drama. I want to see it.
Speaker 2:I want to see it. You know this is getting ready to be the talk of the town at every sports show, everything in the NBA, and that they should be. I mean, it just basically says that's star power to be able to go and do something like that. I mean, the man said that was his dream. Who gets the chance to be able to do that? So, depending on how Brownie does this year, man, this might be one of the greatest pieces of LeBron's legacy. He was able to influence a team not a team either the most notable or most profitable organization in the NBA to get them to take your son and if he actually develops into a real player, then hey, what are you going to say about that? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's going to have every opportunity to. I mean he mean he's gonna be there. He's got all the advantages that lebron has, like you said, with technology training. I just saw a video the other day with him working with chris brickley. So you got the. I mean, if he got the, if he's got the work ethic which I have no reason to believe he doesn't man, he's gonna be, he's gonna be a solid player 100.
Speaker 1:This is the other thing I was just thinking about. E that may be in the back pocket of this here field. Now Bryce is 17. Bryce James is 17 years old, so he got about two years Now. Lebron probably not going to make it, but don't put it past LeBron to have in there yo. We need to go ahead and pick Bryce up in two years too. Let me get two rosters.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, he can't do that, fam. Now that's just going too far. That's going too far.
Speaker 1:Let me get that max deal and two rosters man.
Speaker 2:My God, man, this is not the move, but LeBron, I mean that's influence. If you did it, who are we to say that he shouldn't have did it? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:The thing that a lot of people are going to wonder, because what's going to happen now is LeBron's going to sign a two or three-year deal. That's going to be like 60-something, probably close to $70 million a year. I think he can make like $65 million at his max. Probably. A lot of people are going to be like, why are you going to pay this man that much money at 40 years old? But people don't know. A lot of people who watch the NBA don't know what these media rights deals are, and you're not getting these huge media rights deals if you ain't got somebody like LeBron on your team that everybody is going to want to watch at this age. Blake is going to make that money back. That's nothing, right, right, right, right, right. That's done, that's done. Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad to see it. Man. This is must watch. Man. We're gonna watch these boys play. I want to see how much time he's gonna get.
Speaker 2:But yeah, man yeah, good to see it. Good to see it that this a monumental moment. Just hope the guy has at least a quality out and shows up healthy and well. So we're gonna keep our eye on this one.
Speaker 1:That's what the gavel does good to my fam. We will see you next week on the gavel, as always.
Speaker 2:That's it, fam. Talk to you next week. We out of here.