The Bill Simmons Podcast
NBA Draft Questions, Harper vs. Fox, and the USMNT’s World Cup Ceiling
19 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
The Bill Simmons Podcast is presented by PayPal. We are also presented by the Ringer Podcast Network, where it is from Hell Month on the rewatchables. We put up Hand That Rocks the Cradle this week. I think we're putting up Domestic Disturbance, The Good Son, and Pacific Heights all before the end of June, because this is from Hell Month. So you have all that to look forward to.
All those movies are on Netflix. By the way, as well, I'm going to be on Netflix on Sunday night with Zach Lowe. We might have a mystery third with us as well. So probably 5 p.m., 6 p.m. ET range. We'll be going live for an hour and a half, getting you ready for a big NBA week that's coming. Speaking of, Tim Legler is coming up in one second.
We're going to be talking about the draft, what we learned from the finals, how does that help team building, predictions, all kinds of things. And then I'd love the World Cup. I've watched a ton of it. So I made Anthony Dibundo come on and we talked about USA's semifinals chances, final eight chances, some sort of chances. Things are better. Things are optimistic. A huge game coming on Friday.
I hope you're going to be out at a bar or somewhere fun watching it. But so we talked to Dibundo and that is the podcast. We're going to take a break. Pearl Jam and then Tim Legler. This episode of the Bill Simmons podcast is presented by PayPal. You know, a clutch move when you see one, a no look pass, a buzzer beater, a big steal. Well, imagine if your wallet could pull off moves like that.
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Credit card points subject to issuers, terms, and conditions. All right, so we're recording. It is Thursday afternoon, late Pacific time. Tim Legler is here. He did not join us during the finals because he was calling the finals, and we were coming live after every finals game.
I want to do some draft NBA stuff, and then at the end of this, I want to talk about what it was like to be there for such a crazy series. I was so excited today. I read that you're involved with the NBA draft this year for ESPN. I had this whole plan for stuff to talk about. I didn't know you were prepped for the draft.
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Chapter 2: What are the key NBA draft questions raised by Tim Legler?
This is unbelievable.
Well, listen, to be full disclosure, I'm not fully. I still have a few days to get there because this was kind of also a late in the game ad for me. To be part of it? I mean, it's fun. It's exciting. But at the same time, yeah, like there's a lot to acclimate yourself with. And I've been doing nothing, honestly, over the last couple of days, but watching a lot of film on a lot of guys.
I saw my new, seen enough of, kind of had a feel, but even those guys, you know, to really get...
into the weeds you need to see more film on guys and then there was a bunch of other dudes when you start getting down you know anywhere from 10 through 30 because i'm just doing the first night so yeah i'll be involved with the first round so like you you gotta you got a lot of catch-up to do so i'm kind of in the midst of doing that more or less i did the draft two years and i had an incredible amount of fun just diving a half hour on each guy and then basically making a decision on how i felt and i'm one of the one of the drafts i had yannis and i'm like
I don't know, man. He looks pretty good, but it looked like he was playing against 13-year-olds.
You know what? I'm going to tell you something, though. Here's the truth. You know the new thing, and I don't think this always was the case, but the new thing is with the draft is the player comps. Yep. Right? So drop a player name. And it's funny because...
And I'm looking, and so in my research and in my film work, and I'm pulling different stuff up, and you're seeing different player comps dropped by whatever source. I'm not going to get into those, but whatever the source may be. And I'm just like, man, I don't like these.
I don't like the comps because I feel like, I really feel like you're either, as an analyst, you're either going way out on a limb. Yeah. Like, damn, man, that's a big reach because you have no idea
ultimately how a guy is going to swim at the next level and a lot there's a lot that goes into that man like fit early just heart work ethic handling pressure maturity and like you can do all the homework you want you don't know man until those guys put an NBA uniform on so some of these comps I'm going wow okay that's a big bite but then there's other guys I'm like oh that's not fair enough to the guy like you know what I mean like I don't think the comp is enough so
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Chapter 3: How do player comparisons affect draft evaluations?
And you think about, you know, some of the guys like the Tatum, Jalen Brown, guys like that, how they grew into these adult bodies by the time they're 25, 26, 27, like the muscle he's going to put on, he can play their position. By the way, Washington's taking him. That's, that's how this is playing out. They're going to take him. And I don't. For sure, and he joins a group.
I mean, look at their roster and the number of top 10 picks on their roster. They've got a lot of lottery picks there. He fits in with what they have. Developing nicely, he does. And the one thing they don't have, though, they do not have a face of the franchise type of guy. They don't, they've got some, some former number one pick or former lottery picks.
And, and like, sorry, be the top of those for me. Like he's grown tremendously. I really like his game, but this, this guy is different because of the nature of the position. This is a guy that you could put the ball in his hands in the open four in the half court. He can go get his own against guys. That's a lot harder for a guy as tall as Alex.
So he's never going to have like that type of handle to just go break a guy down to Bonsai can do it. So they don't have this level of, of franchise guy, even though they've got some really nice young players. Trey Johnson was a guy I loved last year. Guy's a walking bucket.
Yeah.
But they don't have this. This is a different level. A guy with that kind of size that can play off the dribble, shoot it, go get his own and break guys down. They don't have that combination.
And has that a big spotlight on him for a while? It's the right pick. You know, there's a piece of me wonders if Boozer also was the right pick for them. And we always talk with the draft that you always hear, like floor, ceiling, floor, ceiling, high floor, low floor, high ceiling, lower ceiling. And Boozer seems like he has both a high floor but also potentially a high ceiling with his IQ.
He's just going to produce.
I like that way. You put it that way, Bill, because we've seen too many guys in the playoffs, particularly the separation between floor and ceiling. The variance between floor and ceiling is too great.
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Chapter 4: What insights are shared about the potential of Dylan Harper?
I'm just telling you, being at a lot of those games, and in that building, and being close, and kind of just observing... I also think there was a component of it was tough for him being the number one pick, dealing with the injury, and then when he would go into the game when he was healthy, I think it was like a lot of feeling that.
All eyeballs on number one pick, that market, that's tough, man. And I think it was, it got to the point where like, They went like, hey, T.J. McConnell, we took him out of the rotation at one point completely just because we got to see if this guy can go. And after a period of time, they put T.J.
McConnell back in there and the crowd went crazy because it was like, we need a guy that can come out here and contribute for whatever reason he was. And I was so happy for him, actually, when he went to Orlando. He played pretty well when he first got there. And I'm like, man, hopefully he's going to end up having a long career as a productive NBA guard.
But the number one pick that was difficult for him from the beginning of the injury on top of it made it impossible.
Ben Simmons was another one like that. Pressure, big situations. He had some sort of weird foul shooting thing. Didn't seem like he liked basketball that much. With the Peterson piece, there's some weird agency stuff too, where he has, he, he's represented by team, which also is George's agency. And that, that people think that's why they don't want him to go to Utah.
Um, so Memphis might be where he goes. I think Boozer is going to go to Utah and I think Peterson will go to Memphis, but who the hell knows? And then we'll, we'll talk, let's take a break and then we'll talk about Caleb Wilson. The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by my friends at FanDuel.
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Chapter 5: What are the key insights on Dylan Harper's role in the game?
How is Dylan Harper right now off the ball? Right. Why is he not the initiator of this? Why is Castle bringing the ball up? Well, even Fox was doing it. Because Castle does find himself repeatedly in foul trouble. I thought he looked absolutely exhausted in that game. He had a terrible shooting night himself.
Didn't really impact the game offensively at all, which is rare for Castle because I love him.
Chapter 6: How does the discussion shift to the future of the current NBA roster?
But it got to the point, okay, he looks gassed. He doesn't have it tonight. He's expended so much energy guarding Brunson. Maybe we got to go with Fox and Harper. Okay, cool. If you want to do that, go ahead. Harper needs to be the initiator. Because they hadn't figured out a way to keep this guy out of the lane. And they just couldn't do it. And whatever, it is what it is. Here's the thing.
You're going to have these three guards next year. And I don't know exactly what the plan is going to be because, like you said, Fox is a big number and it kicks in. Harper is on a rookie deal, palatable. But it's obvious to everybody what this guy is going to be. He's going to be one of the major forces at that position in the league. soon. If not next year, the year after.
So how do you handle that from a playing standpoint and a fit standpoint of who's on the court at the same time with Wemby as well? So it's a tough decision. I'm glad I don't have to make it. Harper is going to be the future, but Fox is a guy that's a big part of the mix, man. You can't just get rid of it. And the guy can still play. Trust me.
And Wemby will probably have a little say into this too. I mean, Harper was... I would take him over everybody in this draft. And I think this draft is better than last year's draft. But to me, he's like, I think he has a chance to be one of the best guards of the last 30 years. Like, I really do. Let me ask you something. I thought the stuff he was doing and how unafraid he was was nuts.
Yeah. It's a big statement. And I like him so much. I think I probably would agree with you. But that's what I know now. So let me ask you. So like going back to before last year's draft, Did you feel that way about him then? Everybody was so overshadowed by Cooper Flagg. It was like, we knew that was a normal pick.
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Chapter 7: What are the predictions for the USMNT's performance in the World Cup?
Or are you saying like, kind of like what you know now about Dylan Harper and especially the way he grew late in the year? Then you go, okay, kind of know now what this dude's ceiling is. And we might actually be underselling him. That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, because last year in the draft, the Rutgers season was so weird. I didn't know what to make of that. It's like, all right, this team's going to have two of the top five picks and they couldn't make the tournament. I'm like, what happened? Then you watch the clips. And we talked about him a few times when he came on my pod during the year. But I saw it in the preseason.
I was like, oh my God, what's going on with this guy? And then every time he would just jump out of the TV.
The thing that surprised me is this, in this particular stage, as much as I already kind of believed, right there in front of my eyes, when I was watching a guy with the stakes that high, with that much pressure, and his game was so physical, the way it was defended on both teams... Like he didn't speed anything up when he, when most guys that age get any daylight, you're going to rush it. Yeah.
He missed the layup in game five. It wasn't because of that. He just missed the shot. He didn't quite extend his arm fully. He missed the layup. That was a big play late in the game, but I'm not, I'm not, you know, that wasn't because of stress or pressure or playing too fast.
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Chapter 8: How do the hosts analyze the impact of Pulisic's absence on the team?
He could play as fast as he wanted, as explosive as he wanted. And then when it came time to control his body and put English on the ball, even with a bunch of traffic at the rim, he was so far beyond his years and his ability to finish under those circumstances with English and reverse layups. When you think there's no way he can extend and get there.
And he made it look so routine that I was like, man, It's amazing to me this guy has arrived at this level this fast in his rookie year. He's making a statement. This is kind of what it's going to look like for a while.
And was getting big rebounds. And I really liked his defense. Great rebounder. I loved how him and Castle... That's what made Brunson's series so crazy. I thought Castle and Harper defended him great. I loved everything they did. And Brunson just kind of solved it as the series went along and figured out how to score on him.
Bill, what he did, we haven't even talked about the finals. What Jalen Brunson did in Game 5 against that level of individual defender in front of him. And by the way, it's not just Castle or Harper. Vassell more than adequate. Champagny could do a nice job on him as well. And I know, by the way, if you get past all that, Wemby's back there. To drop 45 points on them efficiently...
in something that important against that caliber defense, defense in front of you, it's one of the greatest finals performances of all time. And, and again, he did it very matter of factly and very routine. And it was so smart in the way he attacked and the way he kept guys off balance, including Wemby a couple of times at the rim, we'd start stopping and Wemby would bump him and they couldn't,
Couldn't gather to jump to go get it. And Brunson would just extend because he's not jumping very high. And he's 6'2". And he's just laying the ball in wherever he wants and shooting mid-rangers. Like, it was nothing. It was amazing, amazing, amazing to watch a guy with that kind of composure as a scorer against that level of defender. When he's not blowing by you or going over you in any way.
Yeah, but... You know... So a Bucs fan friend of mine was like, well, you mentioned, you said Brunson had one of the greatest finals performances. Like, why didn't you mention Giannis five years ago? And Giannis had that 50 point game in the closeout, which was a great game.
The difference with what Brunson did in game four and game five was the inevitability that you could feel with the scoring. I was texting Nick Franz, like, here comes Brunson. This is it. He's going to score. He's going to go in a heater right now. And the Spurs, by game five, I feel like they kind of knew it, too. And he broke their will in a different way.
That's like that, you know, he's obviously not Michael Jordan, but there's very few players over the years that got that to that break your will level. And I do feel like he fucked with the Spurs. Like it was just over and over again. You fucked up again. We're only down seven with eight minutes left. I'm going to score the next nine. It's just worth the level he got to.
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