How good is the 2026 NBA Draft Class? with Sam Vecenie | Slam N Jam
The Athletic NBA Daily
The Athletic
4.1 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andrew Schlecht is joined by Sam Vecenie to discuss the 2026 NBA Draft, if it is worth tanking for, what the quality of the top of the draft is, and where else teams will be able to find value. Plus, how NIL is thinning out the 2nd round. Then in part 2 the guys discuss the NBA’s rookie class, how Kon is exceeding expectations, what Cooper is doing for Dallas, and much more. Then they end with a few Giannis fake trades.
Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/eme2tPcUM2
Host: Andrew Schlecht
With: Sam Vecenie
Executive Producer: Andrew Schlecht
Audio/Video Producer: Monica
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Saturday Slamin' Jam here on The Athletic NBA Daily, brought to you by Amazon Prime on today's show. |
| 0:13.2 | Sam Fasini joins me to discuss the 2026 draft class, the current rookie class. |
| 0:18.8 | And I hate to say it. |
| 0:21.1 | Alex Spears is sick. And he can't be on the show, which is so sad, which means no trivia. |
| 0:26.5 | So please send him get well soon notes on Blue Sky with me is San Vasini. |
| 0:33.4 | The only man I want to talk to about the draft, just because, listen, you do the best work. |
| 0:39.1 | The contractually obligated is really the reason. |
| 0:41.2 | That's not even true. |
| 0:42.5 | That's not even true. |
| 0:43.5 | It's not even true. |
| 0:44.4 | I just want to talk to you about the draft. |
| 0:47.5 | Thanks for coming on. |
| 0:48.4 | The first question I have is we keep hearing about how great this class is and how teams need to be tanking |
| 0:55.8 | to get these high draft picks, which I think is true in most drafts, but like, how deep is |
| 1:02.2 | this class of guys that could potentially be franchise changing players? Yeah, I mean, so first and |
| 1:09.0 | foremost, I want to apologize to everybody for like sweating profusely while we're doing this just because my wife and I are moving in a couple of weeks and like we just don't have like a great situation right now that will allow me to get stay cool and listen, everybody in America is like we wish that we were sweating. |
| 1:26.1 | So, you know, Andrew, it was 105 here on Tuesday. |
| 1:29.8 | That's crazy. |
| 1:31.2 | It's crazy. |
| 1:31.9 | It's going to be negative six in OKC tomorrow. |
| 1:35.1 | So crazy. |
| 1:35.9 | Yeah. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.