Best of the Knicks on WFAN: Draft debate and Becky Hammon faces the music

**Evan Roberts** (0:00)
Here's the way I view NBA drafts and NFL drafts. I think I've been very consistent about this. There are guys I prefer. I will always make that clear. Hey, I prefer this guy for a variety of reasons. And very quickly, when I don't get my way, I move on because we're talking about young players I did not watch all of, and I have no idea. And so it's one aspect of Sports Talk Radio where I'll have an opinion, I'll give it, but I will very quickly just accept my fate.
Now, if it turns out that my opinion is really, really right 10 years later, I'll probably bring it up and scream and yell about it. But that's the way I view drafts very consistently. And I think you've seen that with me. Like two years ago, and I'm already forgetting who it was, there was a tight end. I preferred the Jets' draft. They didn't draft him, instead they went Memboo, and I very quickly was like, Tyler Warren. Tyler Warren, right?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:48)
By the way, he turned out to be fantastic.

**Evan Roberts** (0:50)
Right. So has Memboo. To a degree, right?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:52)
No, you're right.

**Evan Roberts** (0:53)
But my point is...

**Chris McMonigle** (0:54)
Because the alternative was just as good.

**Evan Roberts** (0:55)
I think I was pretty consistent, like the days leading up to it, I was very opinionated about it. When it happened, I let out my emotions and was like, I hope I'm wrong.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:02)
Right.

**Evan Roberts** (1:03)
I wanted the Nets to select Darius A. Cuff Jr. I have also known for two months or really since the lottery that they weren't going to take him. He's not a Sean Marks guy. He doesn't defend enough. They don't believe in him in that way.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:13)
Well, he's short.

**Evan Roberts** (1:15)
So is the guy they drafted, by the way.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:17)
He's not, I mean, they're the same height.

**Evan Roberts** (1:19)
They're both 6'3. The point is, I wanted A. Cuff Jr. and I admit there's a bias involved.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:25)
I thought he was 6'5. I think he's a little bit taller.

**Sean** (1:26)
He's 6'5. He's two inches taller than A. Cuff Jr. Yeah. He's two inches taller.

**Evan Roberts** (1:29)
Tweedle dee tweedle dum.

**Sean** (1:30)
Can you not pay attention to the Mets last night?

**Evan Roberts** (1:31)
The point is, I wanted A. Cuff Jr. mostly because of the bias of watching him in the tournament and seeing him take over and having him a 36 point game in the tournament and thinking that guy can be Damian Lillard. That guy can be a superstar. That guy can be a game changer.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:44)
Well, that just goes to the draft guys who play big in big moments. That's who Jalen Brunson is. That's who he was in college. That's who he has been in the NBA.
You think Darius Acuff could be like that?

**Evan Roberts** (1:57)
That was the guy.
My novice eyes, because I don't watch college basketball all the time. That was the guy who I circled around and said, I want him. Now, I knew Sean Marks wasn't going to draft him. I still hold out hope when the pick was announced that they were really going to play like a game of we confused you, we surprised you and they were going to take him. But I don't hate Mikel Brown. The truth is, and Sean just exposed it, I don't know that much about Mikel Brown. And you want to know why? Because he got hurt and didn't play in the tournament. I didn't see him have magnificent moments. Now, I know he had a 45-point game against NC State.

**Sean** (2:30)
10-3 second game, buddy.

**Evan Roberts** (2:31)
Okay. I know he's got great court vision. I know that he's got a very high ceiling. I know that coming in to the class last year, he was one of the most highly regarded guards. So I know he's highly regarded. And I'm just admitting, my preference, based on an ignorant bias, was Darius A. Cuff Jr. I didn't get what I wanted. But I'll tell you what really pissed me off, and it wasn't even the Australian.
It was the overreaction.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:56)
What overreaction?

**Evan Roberts** (2:57)
The overreaction of the Nets are idiots, they don't know what they're doing, how do they pass on A. Cuff? You guys don't know if they screwed up.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:05)
None of us know. Nobody knows, because these kids are 19 years old.

**Evan Roberts** (3:07)
So that overreaction kind of got me back to the Mikael Brown camp, because as much as I wanted A. Cuff, I never once turned on a microphone and said, they're idiots, they're morons, how could they do this? Because none of us actually know. So I don't know if that's the nature of sports talk in 2026, that we've got to be hyperbolic.