How has connection to Tuscaloosa shooting affected Brandon Miller’s draft stock? | Ball Don’t Lie

Yahoo Sports NBA Draft expert Krysten Peek is joined by ESPN Draft Analyst Fran Fraschilla on the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast to discuss how the connection to the January 15 fatal shooting in Tuscaloosa, AL, has affected Brandon Miller’s draft stock, and how he will have to approach the situation at the next level.

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Video Transcript

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KRYSTEN PEEK: How has the gun incident affected Brandon Miller's draft stock with NBA teams?

FRAN FRASCHILLA: Well, they're going to dive in.

KRYSTEN PEEK: Yeah.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: They're going to dive in. And they're going-- you know, like, if you're Michael Jordan and you're sitting down with him in your office, you're going to be blunt. And you're going to say, I need to know everything that happened. And, you know, this is confidential.

We're thinking of taking you and making you a multimillionaire. You know, you got a chance-- you're a young man that has a chance to make $500 million in your career. And before we draft you-- and again, they've got detective work.

When I say detective work, I literally mean they probably have people, former law enforcement that are doing--

KRYSTEN PEEK: Yes.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: They're doing their due diligence.

KRYSTEN PEEK: Exactly.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: Because they have to-- they have to-- they have to know that--

KRYSTEN PEEK: It's an investment.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: It's an investment. But, you know, so they're doing that in the background. And if you're Michael Jordan and you're Mitch Kupchak or you're, you know, the people in Portland, you're just going to sit down with them face to face in a room without microphones and just say, tell me what happened. And tell me how you're changing.

You know, like, I have a thing. I get to speak to some college teams every spring and summer. And one of the things I always tell these young people is just don't surround yourself with toxic people.

KRYSTEN PEEK: Right.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: You know, toxic people just cannot-- you know, are going to ruin your career, even if you're not toxic. And so I think, again, because of the investment you make-- you used that word, it's a great word-- they're going to try to dig in. And my sense of the young man is he's going to get through this and he's going to have to probably have a better answer once he gets to the league. It'll come up a few times.

KRYSTEN PEEK: Absolutely. Absolutely.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: And whether it's the PR people-- and again, you can be genuine and say, listen, I made a mistake. I regret that I was in it. I put myself and my teammates and my school in a bad situation and I feel terrible for what happened.

But he's gonna-- he has to own it the rest of his career. And at some point in time, if he handles himself well and he's the player we think he's going to be, it'll be in the background. But he has to handle it. Luckily for him, he seems like a pretty mature kid.

KRYSTEN PEEK: Yeah.

FRAN FRASCHILLA: A young man, he's not a kid anymore. But it has to come up with both of those teams. And could he fall to 4, 5, or 6? It's not out of the realm of possibility. But I think based on what we know now, you know, that's not going to happen. He's going to go 2 or 3.