Jason returns from Las Vegas and reacts to the biggest NBA storylines from his time at Summer League, including how nobody knows where former Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will end up, the bizarre Miami Heat story between Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro (who Miami traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo), more games to review from AJ Dybantsa (Washington Wizards), Darryn Peterson (Utah Jazz), Cameron Boozer (Memphis Grizzlies), and Caleb Wilson (Chicago Bulls), as well as Victor Wembanyama's new contract with the San Antonio Spurs and Gary Trent Jr.’s new contract with the Bucks.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, welcome to him to night here at the
volume Heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had
a great weekend. We are back home from Las Vegas.
It was definitely a very different trip to Vegas this year.
I used to live in Tucson, Arizona, so I'd go
from one hundred and ten degrees to getting off the
plane in one hundred and ten degrees. Kind of felt
like home away from home. But now that I live
in Colorado, that was quite a shock. That was my
(00:35):
first real taste of the Southwest desert heat of the season.
But it was great to get out there see Jackson
in person. Our families were both out there too, so
we got to hang out a little bit. We had
a wonderful dinner, We got to spend some time time
with some of our friends in the business. Lots of
news bouncing around, and it just was a fun weekend
and got to see some great hoops. The Devonsa Peterson showdown,
(00:58):
especially on Thursday night, was something that lived up to
the hype. It's a great weekend that is officially like
kind of like our finish line for the NBA season.
From here, we're gonna be toning it back to three
episodes a week throughout the rest of the summer. We're
gonna do this weekend next week stick with offseason stuff. Today,
we're gonna do a little bit of an update on
the Lebron situation. I'm going to talk about just kind
(01:21):
of my takeaway from the stuff that I heard in
Summer League. We'll hit three other kind of stories Victor Women,
Yama taking a discount, Bamine, bio punching, Tyler Hero, Gary Trent,
and some potential cap circumvention. Then I want to talk
about the top four prospects and how I think actually
all four of them were more impressive than expected in
(01:41):
Summer League. Later this week, we got some episodes that
we recorded while we were in Vegas. I've got the
Lakers guys, Trevor Lane and Yovan Bujak coming on the
show to just kind of break down the Lakers offseason.
Haven't had a chance to do that with them since
I left the Lakers Collective show. And then we did
kind of like a stock Rising stock Falling pod that
covered twelve different NBA teams that's going to be coming
(02:02):
out later this week. The following week, more offseason stuff
we're expecting Lebron to sign, We're expecting Kaminga to sign,
We're expecting potential trades, so that will continue to kind
of close out our off season. Then from there we're
going to get into player rankings and get dig into
some of our fun off season topics. But we're gonna
be toning down to Monday, Wednesday, Friday until we get
into the NBA season from here. You guys know the
(02:24):
joke before we get started. Subscribed to hoops and on
YouTube channels so you don't miss any more of our videos.
We didn't quite make it twoe hundred and fifty k
before the end of Summer League, but we got close.
I thought we had a really successful playoff run, by far,
the most successful playoff run we've had in the history
of the show. And we're hanging a little bit north
of one hundred and forty two thousand subs. Still want
to get that up to one point fifty as our
next milestone. You guys want to help us get there,
(02:46):
just scroll down and hit that subscribe button. If you're
already subscribed like this video, sign up for post notifications.
That helps us a lot, and then no mailbag this week.
Because we're going through some of our pre recorded stuff
that we did in Summer League. But we will be
getting back to mail bags starting next Friday, and we
will have mail bags continuing throughout our player ranking series
on Friday like we did last year, where we kind
(03:08):
of debate back and forth. So keep getting your mail
back questions in go into our full episodes on YouTube.
Underneath the video mail bag colon, write your question. That's
how we will get to them on Fridays throughout the season.
Let's talk some basketball. So my biggest takeaway from Summer League,
at least that had nothing to do with the prospects
out of the draft, was that nobody has any idea
(03:29):
where Lebron is going. We had other stories. Victor wemen
Yama took a discount. I thought that was kind of
a classic example of the competitiveness that you'll see from
a player like Victor wemen Yama seeing the Knicks win
the title, knowing that they won because they have all
these good basketball players, mature talented veteran basketball players. But
(03:49):
mature talented veteran basketball players are expensive, and it's a
lot easier to be able to afford them if your
star is willing to take a discount like Jalen Brunson did,
and Victor women Yama did the same thing, taking thirty
percent escalators instead of thirty five percent escalators in his deal,
which is going to give the San Antonio Spurs more flexibility.
If you look around the league and you look at
(04:10):
all the top tier superstars, they tend to have an
average annual value on their contract north of sixty million,
and Victor's is right around fifty and so that's going
to make him among the top tier superstars, the most
affordable in the league, and that's going to give the
Spurs a lot of opportunity to build around him successfully.
One thing that I thought was funny. I've seen the
(04:32):
conversation about like, oh, it's unfortunate that Wemby has to
pay the tab instead of the owners for the situation
that the Spurs are in. I think that's a mischaracterization
because the whole point is Wemby's taking less so that
his teammates can get more. It's not like Wemby's taking
a discount to just hand money over to ownership. It's
(04:55):
very much about trickling that down the rest of the roster.
Now do I think that there are flaws in the CBA.
Do I think that it's possible that the second apron
is too punitive? Do I think that it's ridiculous that
homegrown talent used like acquired via your draft picks, should
(05:15):
have to take discounts at all from their market value.
Like we could discuss the CBA at large, But I
do think it's important understanding like Wenby's taking less money
so that his teammates can get more, not so that
his owners can get more. Everybody is effectively hard capped
at that second apron, and that's you know that that
is the rule at this point. Should they get rid
(05:36):
of the second apron? That's a conversation for another day.
But I do think that it's important to understand that
Wemby's trying to make it so that Dylan Harper and
Steph Castle and Carter Bryant and all, you know, Devin
Vessel and all the other young players on his team
could make sure that they get paid and that they
don't lose one of those guys in the process. Bamine
Bio punches Tyler Hero. I think you know, there's some
(05:56):
interesting reporting surrounding the fact that you know Tyler and
some of the other Heat players were a little bit
disappointed or frustrated with how much Bam was like elevated
within the Heat organization. I don't really understand that because
Bam just frankly was far.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And away the best player of this era of Miami
Heat basketball.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Like he's the staple, he's available all the time, anchors
their defense, he's the just like you know, there's flawed
players around him, And I'm not saying that BAM's perfect.
I've been critical of Bam in his short range finishing
and you know, even his three point shooting in recent seasons,
and hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows. But I mean,
Bam is treated the way he is like a franchise
(06:38):
cornerstone because he's a franchise cornerstone talent, and the other
guys that came through the system weren't franchise cornerstone talent.
So I'm not sure exactly what caused that resentment. I
think that's just you know, just some you know, irrational jealousy,
if that makes sense. But Tyler was talking reckless, and
you know, with the way he was talking, it was
only a matter of time before Bam ended up stepping
(07:01):
in and doing something about it. And obviously it happened
in the hotel I was staying ati, I wasn't there,
but he ran into the where Tyler Hero was hosting
an AAU practice, and you know, things escalated and next
thing you know, a punch is thrown. And I mean,
the one thing that's interesting there is just whether or
not that ends up impacting you know, if Bam does
(07:21):
get suspended, I don't think he will. I don't think
there's going to be any fallout from this beyond maybe
a fine, But if there is some sort of fallout
or a suspension, that could affect their chances to get
lebron So it's at least worth keeping.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
An eye on.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And then Gary Trent, in what appeared to almost certainly
be a form of caps or convention, the Bucks and
Clutch Sports come to terms on a deal of four
years north of sixty million, and again coming off of
a veteran minimum contract and then having the worst season
of his career, there is quite literally no case at
all for Gary Trent to get the deal that he got,
(07:58):
and so that is another thing that I think we'll
get investigated and looked into, which I think was interesting
from the week, but the Lebron story dominated the weekend,
and you know, the buzz is still kind of exactly
what it was. There's the Cleveland buzz still as the
favorite in this case, although I think it's worth mentioning
when you look at like prediction markets and things like that,
(08:19):
it's still considered like les like less than fifty percent
likely that he chooses Cleveland, But among the options, Cleveland
still gets the most buzz. There was a big Miami
push at one point over the weekend. There's a big
Golden State push that has taken place in the last
day or so. But the reality is is no one knows.
I think even the Cleveland buzz stems mostly from hope
(08:42):
more than actual tangible evidence or reporting, because all the
options are flawed. Right Like Miami might have the weakest
backcourt of any serious team in the league. The Philly
fit is like super clunky on offense. I'd say the
same thing about Minnesota. Cleveland has a similar offensive dynamic
to the Lakers that we literally saw Lebron complain about,
(09:02):
and you can question the basketball character of that team
because they just quit in their last playoff series. Golden
State currently doesn't have enough talent. Well, they do have
the assets to go get talent, which is worth mentioning,
but they're not there. They're probably, as of right now,
the worst on paper team of this entire list. And
then Denver went out sad in the first round last year.
So like all of the six flaws are six teams
(09:24):
are flawed. So I think what happens is people look
at those six teams and they naturally end up thinking, well,
Cleveland is Lebron's home, He's probably gonna end up there.
I think that's what's driving the majority of the Cleveland optimism.
But I actually go the other way there, and I say, like,
if it was as simple as like Lebron wants this
storybook return to Cleveland, why would he be dragging it
(09:45):
out like this? If it was that simple? To me,
there are two plausible explanations for why he would drag
things out like this. One is that he just wants attention,
and I understand with Lebron's personality and with his history,
that that explanation is plausible. I think it's someone unlikely
because it has all sorts of trickle down ramifications. Like
(10:07):
any team, all the teams that get spurned by him,
the fan bases will be upset, probably dislike him, like
Cleveland for example, Like if Lebron just like announces he's
going to Golden State later today, like Cavs fans are
going to be devastated. Their team just quit in the
conference finals. Everyone else in the Eastern Conference got better
except for maybe Boston, and you could argue with a
healthy Paul George and Tatum, they'll be better than they
(10:29):
were last year. So it's like the Eastern Conference is
getting better and Cleveland is like kind of taking a
step back from the team that literally quit in the
conference finals, Like they're going to be upset if they
don't get Lebron. It's holding up free agency for all
sorts of teams and players that are kind of in
a holding pattern, especially in that power forward market, right
(10:49):
in the trade market and in the free agent market.
So like I do, I think deep down Lebron's enjoying
the attention. Don't get me wrong, Like I think Lebron
turning on the TV and seeing them talking about Lebron
all the time, or him opening up Twitter and seeing
them talking about Lebron all the time, I'm sure he
enjoys that part. I just don't think that's what's driving this.
I think that that is like a side effect of this,
(11:11):
which takes me to the second plausible explanation, and this
is the one that I think is most likely the case,
and it's that he doesn't know.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Where he's going to go.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And there's all sorts of circumstantial evidence that shows this.
Teams are still making pitches. Draymond literally just said he
was pitching him on a golf course. I saw a
report this morning that Lebron met yesterday with the Cleveland
brass out in Vegas. Like the earlier mentioned that all
the six destinations have flaws, I think that's evidence, right,
like if none of the six options are obvious, Like
(11:42):
sometimes in life there are obvious decisions to make, and
then sometimes in life there are difficult decisions to make.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
This is clearly a difficult one.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It's not like we look at these six teams and
it's just like clear cut, right, you know. Like I
was talking with Colin yesterday and Colin said, you know,
if Philly's rass was in Cleveland, I think he'd be
in Cleveland right now.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And I think he's right.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think like if there was like this obvious hole
at a starting position for a team that was obviously talented,
and that was wired with the right types of guys
and that obviously had all the juice that they needed
to compete. Like I think Lebron would go, I'd say
the same thing about Miami. Like I think if I
think if Giannis and Bam and Andrew Wiggins and Davion
Mitchell were in Cleveland, Lebron would have announced he was
(12:24):
signing with Cleveland literally immediately after announcing the fact that
he was leaving LA Like that's the reality of this
whole situation is there isn't an obvious destination they all
of them. If he wants to go to Miami, they
have literally the worst backcourt rotation of any serious team
in the league. If he wants to go to Cleveland,
that team is fundamentally broken in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
If he wants to go.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
To Philly, like I talked about last night with Colin,
he's gonna have Knights where he just is you know,
Colin Savannah, and he's just extremely frustrated after a game
where the team didn't play good offensive basketball. Now he's
on the opposite side of the country of his wife,
and his daughter and his sons, and he's just frustrated.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I think when you look around at all of this,
it all comes with flaws, and I think that that
is kind of leaving him in this situation where he
is taking his time to really kind of wait for
things develop, like even Golden State, which is my preferred destination.
And again, what I keep saying about Golden State very
simply is like that's the one place where Lebron can
(13:24):
go and have the basketball itself resemble what makes Lebron great.
I would argue Denver as well, but Denver and Golden
State are the two teams where it's like they can
actually make the most use of Lebron's skill set as
a big, physical forward that can playmake and do all
sorts of things in the flow of offense. Right, if
(13:47):
I stick Lebron James on the corner and I ask
him to be Ruy Hatchamura, is he going to be
pretty good at it?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, Like, you won't.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Shoot like Rui, but he can drive close outs and
he can do different things as a connective playmaker. But
that's going to lead to diminishing returns in Lebron's game Similarly,
if you throw the ball to Lebron in the post
or give him the ball in high pick and roll,
and you ask him to initiate a bunch of offense
while Mitchell and Harden stand around off the ball, while
Jaln Brown and Tyres Maxie stand off the ball, while
(14:14):
you know, Giannis and Bam are off the ball, like
that is similarly going to lead to diminishing returns elsewhere
on the roster. Denver and Golden State are the only
two teams where I can like definitively say Lebron fitting
into the offense makes Lebron better and makes the team better,
like it's going to like Lebron and steph will very
(14:35):
naturally fit together. Lebron and Jokics will very naturally fit together.
I think there's a lot of like basketball fit there
that I think is worth mentioning. Those are the separators
for me with those two particular teams. But even Golden State,
which is my preferred destination, requires an Anthony Davis or
a Trey Murphy trade to make much sense, and probably
(14:55):
requires both and or another second trade for some sort
of substant angel upgrade in the two three, like on
the wing, for them to actually be a true contender,
And so I just think it's a complicated decision. You
talk in Vegas, no one knows. I heard all sorts
of you know, pontification about you know, what people think
are going to happen. But the truth of the matter is,
(15:17):
no one knows. I think it's because Lebron doesn't know.
He's very clearly keeping it extremely tight lipped, meaning like
he's not telling a bunch of people and there's not
like a lot of like real intel out there, or
if he is discussing it with his circle and they're
all leaking it elsewhere, he's clearly indecisive about it because
there's a lot of different intel out there. So I
think we're all just still in a holding pattern while
(15:37):
Lebron figures it out. And it might just be as
simple as waiting for one of these teams to make
a move, Cleveland trading Jared Allen and getting back some
pieces that makes Lebron feel better about the team, or
James Harden and feeling better about the team. You know,
like like teams like Miami and Philly probably more of
like a fallback kind of option, or maybe you know,
maybe Philly needs to make some sort of move in
(16:00):
their front court as well, because he doesn't like the
center rotation, or he's waiting to see if Anthony Davis
makes his way to Golden State. He's waiting to see,
you know, if Denver's able to retain Peyton Watson. Like
there's my guess is that that's what's going on here.
Is Lebron's just kind of continuing to wait and see
if one of these teams can kind of rectify one
of his individual concerns.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
But again, no one knows. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I have my preferences, but I don't think. I don't
think there's any sort of of like game being played
here where Lebron's made up his mind and like and
there's this clear direction he's going. I think everyone's just
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want to spend some time talking about the top four
guys in the draft. Usually you go into the draft
(18:52):
and you know, maybe a guy has a frustrating debut.
You know, maybe a guy looks exactly like what you expected. There.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
There's usually just.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Some like a lot of noise, right, you know, And
we typically don't have drafts that have this many like
kind of a plus prospects at the.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Top of it too.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
But we have four of them this year, and aj Debondsa,
Darren Peterson, Cam Boozer, and Caleb Wilson. And with those
four guys, I actually think all four of them have
pretty significantly improved their like stock, so to speak, what
I think of them as prospects in long term in
the NBA. I think all four of them have been
(19:32):
more impressive than expected, and all four of them have
shown parts of their game that I think are exciting
for their development. I'm not gonna spend too much time
on Debonsa and Peterson because we talked about them a
lot while we were in Vegas. But Aj Debonsa, I
just continue to see this relentless ability to get to
the basket with the with the ability to get to
the foul line and the counter from mid range, which
(19:54):
I think when you talk about efficient scoring in the NBA,
there are two real pa athways to that. And what
I mean by efficient scoring is like I'm talking about
dudes who are in the like low sixty percent through shooting.
So getting north of sixty percent through shooting, you got
to either get to the basket a ton and get
to the foul line a ton, or you need to
(20:16):
be a high volume three point shooter that's in the
high thirties to low forties from three. If you can
get into one of those two areas, then you're gonna
be able to be extremely efficient in the NBA. It's
when you're not super efficient at the rim and you
don't get to the foul line, or if your shot
diet only involves two or three three pointers per game,
(20:38):
that you're going to have a hard time getting into
the high levels of efficiency.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
So, like, uh, when I look at Aj debonsa. There
is this clear ability to get to the basket a
ton and to draw a lot of fouls when he
gets there. That's a foundational trait that's going to get
him north of sixty percent through shooting. There's a lot
else to be excited there. He showed more good one
on one individual defense in that second game against Sacramento,
(21:04):
blocking jump shots, just showing his length on the ball.
He there's the jump shooting piece of it, the mid
range jump shot which has been kind of off for him,
the three point shot, which has been kind of off
for him in Summer League. But we saw the mid
range jump shot in particular be very reliable for him
in his college in his one year in college. The
(21:25):
three point shot, he just keeps leaving it short off
the front of the room and he doesn't shoot it
with enough arc. What that tells me is it's kind
of I think he just practices the mid range a ton,
and he kind of needs to figure out how to
connect something with his jump shot between the mid range
and the three point line so that he can have
some more consistency as he changes ranges. He wouldn't be
the first player that's had that issue. There's been a
lot of guys like that, Brandon Ingram DeMar Derozen. If
(21:47):
you over index towards the mid range shot, you can
have a hard time shooting threes. But we've seen players
like Kevin Durant be really good at both. I'd argue
Shakils Alexander is another player that over index towards mid
ranges and has made it so that he's not very
reliable from beyond the three point line. So I think
Debance has got the touch and the lift and the
ability to get separation. I think he just needs to
(22:07):
continue to practice the three point shot in a way
that balance is a little bit better with his mid ranger.
But you know the comp that you know, Jackson actually
showed me this this morning. I think he saw it
on Twitter. But the comp that he saw for aj
Debonsa's Pascal Siakam, like kind of like a more athletic
Pascal Siakam. And that's like the first comp for Debansa
(22:29):
that I actually really like. I've seen a lot of
things get thrown around. I've talked about like him being
like a Paul George KD but like mixed with like
a Zion Giannis and that doesn't even really make a
ton of sense. But it's the basket attacking Witham that
I think makes a ton of sense. Siakam is like
the year that they made the finals, he ended up
shooting over five hundred layups and shooting in the high
(22:50):
sixties on them. That's something that reminds me of De Bansa,
like the ability to get to the basket a lot,
even at his size, and to kind of slither into
gaps and like slide past people and just fine little
finishing angles, but at the same time be very efficient
as a layup maker, but then also having the counter
of that little mid range pull up that Siakam has.
And again, de Bonsa is a better athlete Thanakam, so
(23:12):
he's got a higher upside there. And before you take
that as a downside, like Pascal Siakam was like this
close to winning Finals MVP literally two years ago, Like
he is a very very good basketball player, I don't
take that as a demerit at all. Like I think
that's a really interesting cop a better, you know, evolutionary
version of Pascal Siakam. I think Debonsa was more impressive
(23:33):
than expected. And the simplest way that I could describe
it is Darren Peterson kicked his button all their head
to head matchups they played on Thursday, and Debonsa kicked
his butt, so got revenge on some of the recent
history between him and Darren. I thought he was the
best player on the floor in that Thursday game. I
thought he looked out of the weekend as the clear
number one overall pick. So I think that's given the
debate surrounding him as the number one coming into the draft,
(23:57):
for him to look more definitive as a number one,
think that that's a successful weekend for him. Darren Peterson
kind of rough in the two Summer League games in Vegas.
Did have a really impressive dunk yesterday where he kind
of had a nasty left to right crossover, got down
the lane, threw it down in traffic, got to his
spots pretty effectively in that game against the Clippers. Wasn't
(24:18):
making shots he was six for eighteen, but I liked
the attempts he was getting, miss some mid rangers that
I thought were pretty good looks. Showed some strong individual
defense on Keaton Woggler. Like it wasn't the best Vegas
Summer League for him, but overall, from the four games,
there was some real on ball Chops showed that I
didn't think. I didn't think we're really on display when
(24:40):
he was at Kansas. So I think Darren looks closer
to that eventual ceiling that I see with that many
of us see, which is like that kind of Devin
Booker kind of two guard. He looks further along in
his development to get to that level than I think
we thought coming out of a disappointing year in Kansas.
So undeniably an impressive summer league for Darren. And then
(25:01):
Cam Boozer and Caleb Wilson. They had a really fun
game there on Friday, and it was a fascinating game
because I actually thought Cam out played Caleb, and I'll
get into all the reasons why in just a minute,
But Caleb also demonstrated this three point shooting piece that
makes him dramatically more interesting as a prospect if he
can can sustain it now again he plays again today,
(25:23):
I think it like pretty late in Vegas tonight, and
so we'll see over a larger sample if he's able
to continue to make threes. But like Caleb made seven
threes all year last year at North Carolina and if
he dig into his high school tape similarly, like very
low volume at the three point line. There was some
(25:43):
pre draft shooting buzz before the combine. I remember there
was a video going around of him doing a workout
where the shot looked really good. His guide hand was
getting off the ball, the release looked really crisp, the
rotation was good, he had good arc. There was not
wasted motion in his jump like it just looked like
really good form his jump shot, and he was shooting
the ball really well. It was getting into a groove,
(26:03):
and I think in the video that was going around,
he was like making you know, six seven threes in
a row, and I was like, oh man, that's interesting.
Like what if Caleb can shoot a little bit better
as he gets into the league, but then he goes
to the combine and he shoots really poorly. And I
don't quote me on this because I can't remember the
exact number, but I think it was like eleven for
twenty five. Now, my thing with that is, like any
singular shooting drill, you can have a bad shooting drill,
(26:26):
Like I do shooting drills every single day where I
do five shots at five spots for twenty five and
I do it twice every single day, and I will
have rounds where just I just don't shoot well for
a round. Like I don't think that that was somehow revealing,
but it was somewhat disappointing coming off of what happened
in those videos where you're like, oh, man, like, is
Caleb going to shoot the ball really well? And then
(26:47):
he goes in and he has a bad, a bad
shooting day at the combine, But then he goes into
this game and again, like after making seven threes all
year at North Carolina, immediately comes out. I know he
he made seven threes, but it was deeper than that.
For me, it was the confidence with which he was shooting.
For him to come out in like the second possession
of the game and take like a hesitation pull up
(27:07):
three off the bounce and just nail it, and just
to come out super aggressive as a jump shooter. The
way he did that said to me more like a
I know I can shoot, and I'm here to show
you guys I can shoot. And it felt very intentional
and very like it felt very like confident on his part,
and I just was really impressed by that specifically, and
(27:29):
again just like we were talking about earlier, when it comes
to efficiency, one of the best ways to drive efficiency
is either to get to the rim a lot and
be to get to the foul line a lot when
you get there, but to be like to make the
high sixties, low seventies and shot attempts at the rim
while also get to the foul line or high volume
three point shooting in the high thirties low forties.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
So, like, if Caleb's able to become a player that
can take five six threes a game in the NBA
and shoot in the high thirties, low forties, that's just
a very different player than the kind of guy that
we were scouting coming out.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Of North Carolina, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And I would argue, especially as a four, you don't
want to have a four that can't shoot in the
modern NBA unless your five can really shoot right.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And like we looked at, like.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Even just MOBILEI and Allen at Cleveland last year, one
of the like kind of fail points for the Calves,
even in the pivotal game in Game one of the
Eastern Conference Finals, he's just popping out of ball screens
and he can't hit shots right. And like that that
ultimately is is kind of like a mandatory minimum for
the power forward spot in the NBA, now unless your
five can really shoot. So I mean, Caleb demonstrating that
(28:37):
I think is super impressive. And there were other things
that he did in the game. He showed some work
off the balance, He had some nice driving finishes, he
had some mid range makes, he had a chase down
BLOCKI he had a zero his six turnover game, which
was really sloppy. I don't look too much into that
because I don't think he's a ball handler at this
phase in his career, but like he had a you know,
dribbled off the right wing through kind of a sloppy
behind the back pass.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
It's a turnover.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Uh, the Grizzlies are running out the other way, and
he just throws shows these crazy strides recovering down the
floor in transition, pops off the ground off two feet,
just swasts that shit off the glass, just like a
really really impressive athletic play. In transition. He flashed a ton,
but we knew that was there. We knew Caleb was
a good straight line and vertical athlete, Like those are
(29:20):
his two best strengths as an athlete is running and jumping.
Lateral quickness, first step quickness, those remain to be seen.
You saw a little bit about like on the like
Kam Boozer at a possession after so he goes down
and he hits these three jump shots in a row,
and the third one is like this kind of fancy
step back along the right wing, and then Cam Boozer
switches on to him and Caleb struggles to shake him,
(29:42):
and Cam is playing physical defense, and Cam struggles to
shake him because like again, excuse me, Caleb struggles to
shake him. And part of the reason is because that
requires a different type of athleticism. It requires a lateral
quickness for step quickness type of athleticism to blow by
a guy like Cam Boozer, who, again, Cam Boozer is
not exactly the quickest player that you're going to run
into in the NBA. Although I do think that Cam
(30:05):
was impressive in his athleticism in Vegas, which we'll talk
about in a second. But like all the other stuff
with Caleb kind of is what it is in meaning
like what I expected coming out of my scout around
the draft, but him demonstrating that three point shot just
makes him a dramatically more interesting prospect if he can
sustain it, So let's keep an eye on that. I'm
not sure how much longer he'll play in Summer League.
(30:25):
A lot of the guys stopped playing after that first weekend.
I would imagine Caleb will play tonight and that'll probably
be his last game, So we'll see. We may not
get much of a sample size before he gets to camp,
but if he can shoot, that's going to be interesting.
Cam Boozer just showed a very mature all around game,
and again, like you know, it's like, oh, Jason, why
did Why are you saying that Cam out played Caleb?
(30:47):
Because there are certain things that are like in your
control in a basketball game, and then there are things
that you're in a basketball game that are out of
your control, like just very simple the three point shooting.
Like I don't care how much you work on your shot,
I don't care how many drills you do, I don't
care how good your touches. You're gonna have games where
you go out and you take six or seven threes
(31:08):
and you make one or you make zero. That's just
kind of part of the game. It's a make or
miss leak, Like that game was a game where Caleb
was making shots. And even if Caleb is a great shooter,
even if Caleb projects to be a great shooter in
the NBA, He's not gonna make seven threes every game.
So like that was an outlier high level shooting performance.
Even for great shooters. There ain't anybody in the NBA
(31:30):
who's averaging seven three point makes a game, right, Like,
like I don't have the numbers in front of me,
but prime Steph Curry is going to struggle to make
seven threes every single game when he goes out right,
So like that was a somewhat of an outlier. I
look at the totality of the game and how the
guys were playing cam what really impressed me with him
(31:50):
is just how mature and easy he made things look
on both ends of the floor, just like easy baskets
and screening action, Like how many times did he burn
Caleb on Just like little backscs on baseline out of
bounds plays where he just you know, sets up his man,
catches Caleb a little bit too aggressive out by the elbow,
sets his man up for the screen, kind of shoves
him into the screen a little bit back cuts gets
(32:11):
deep position, pump fakes to get Caleb to go flying
past him and then just goes up and easily finishes,
or like making reads is the high posts fulk crum
Those are like, again, you're gonna have a certain amount
of variability in every game, but the team that generates
the most easy shots is usually going to win because
those are the ones that are more sustainable over the
larger sample. Right, So like getting easy shots as a
(32:32):
high post folkrum passing to guards, cutting and slipping out
his screens. Good defense, like he picked Caleb clean on
a little point guard possession dribbling the ball off the floor.
He was the one who cooled off Caleb when he
got on the three shot hot streak there showed some
impressive lateral quickness and just anticipation guarding Caleb in space,
while also showing some of the upside right, Like he
(32:53):
hit this kind of like hard jab left into like
a dribble right into like a snatchback dribble tween his
legs into like a pull up three at the top
of the key. That was a disgusting move and showed
some really high skill level and like he certainly has
some of that upside as well as like a skilled player.
But you know, Cam Boozer is probably the best player
(33:15):
out of all these four as like a day one
NBA player, just because he's a he has a very
mature all around game and he's going to walk right
into the NBA and he's going to be great at
like six things that's going to allow him to help
a basketball team win.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
And like I think one of the again, the thing.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
That impressed me the most about Boozer was just the
combination of mobility and anticipation that made him more useful
on defense than I thought he would be right away
in this setting. And so I just think he looks
in great shape, he's moving really well. I think he's
going to walk into Memphis and be good right away. Again,
is the ceiling as high as some of these other
guys know, It's going to depend on several things. The
(33:51):
jump shot really has to come around like that. That's
the big swing factor. It's like, oh, what does the
star version of Cam Boozer look like? The star version
of Cam Boozer looks like a guy who's going to
take six or seven three is a.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Game and shoot forty percent on them.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
That's gonna be like the big kind of like pivot
point for him, the stuff around the basket, a little
bit better playmaking than what we saw in the last year,
like in terms of efficiency and volume. Those are like
the two kind of pivot points for him as a star.
But I just think he's ready to play in a
winning context right away. And again, like on a night
where Kayleb Wilson went for thirty five points, I thought
Cam Booser was the best player, and so I think
(34:24):
that that kind of speaks to his NBA readiness. So overall, again,
like all four of those guys, I just left the
weekend more impressed with them than I thought going in.
And I just think that's what makes this such a
great draft. And I think all four of these teams,
Like if you're Washington, you got to be just super
excited about DEMONSA Utah. Can't wait to watch Darreon Peterson
play alongside their rock solid starting five. Cam Boozer is
(34:48):
going to immediately be a fan favorite in Memphis, and
Caleb Wilson showing the three point shot and some real
superstar upside. So a lot to be excited about if
you're a fan of one of those four teams. All right, guys,
that is all I had for today is always a
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the
show again. Later this week, we'll have the Laker guys
coming on as well as our stock up stock Down,
(35:08):
and then we'll get into some more offseason stuff as
deals come down, instant reaction style. If Lebron signs, if
there's a trade that goes down, we'll react when it happens. Again,
I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
We'll see you on Wednesday.
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, welcome to him to night here at the
volume Heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had
a great weekend. We are back home from Las Vegas.
It was definitely a very different trip to Vegas this year.
I used to live in Tucson, Arizona, so I'd go
from one hundred and ten degrees to getting off the
plane in one hundred and ten degrees. Kind of felt
like home away from home. But now that I live
in Colorado, that was quite a shock. That was my
(00:35):
first real taste of the Southwest desert heat of the season.
But it was great to get out there see Jackson
in person. Our families were both out there too, so
we got to hang out a little bit. We had
a wonderful dinner, We got to spend some time time
with some of our friends in the business. Lots of
news bouncing around, and it just was a fun weekend
and got to see some great hoops. The Devonsa Peterson showdown,
(00:58):
especially on Thursday night, was something that lived up to
the hype. It's a great weekend that is officially like
kind of like our finish line for the NBA season.
From here, we're gonna be toning it back to three
episodes a week throughout the rest of the summer. We're
gonna do this weekend next week stick with offseason stuff. Today,
we're gonna do a little bit of an update on
the Lebron situation. I'm going to talk about just kind
(01:21):
of my takeaway from the stuff that I heard in
Summer League. We'll hit three other kind of stories Victor Women,
Yama taking a discount, Bamine, bio punching, Tyler Hero, Gary Trent,
and some potential cap circumvention. Then I want to talk
about the top four prospects and how I think actually
all four of them were more impressive than expected in
(01:41):
Summer League. Later this week, we got some episodes that
we recorded while we were in Vegas. I've got the
Lakers guys, Trevor Lane and Yovan Bujak coming on the
show to just kind of break down the Lakers offseason.
Haven't had a chance to do that with them since
I left the Lakers Collective show. And then we did
kind of like a stock Rising stock Falling pod that
covered twelve different NBA teams that's going to be coming
(02:02):
out later this week. The following week, more offseason stuff
we're expecting Lebron to sign, We're expecting Kaminga to sign,
We're expecting potential trades, so that will continue to kind
of close out our off season. Then from there we're
going to get into player rankings and get dig into
some of our fun off season topics. But we're gonna
be toning down to Monday, Wednesday, Friday until we get
into the NBA season from here. You guys know the
(02:24):
joke before we get started. Subscribed to hoops and on
YouTube channels so you don't miss any more of our videos.
We didn't quite make it twoe hundred and fifty k
before the end of Summer League, but we got close.
I thought we had a really successful playoff run, by far,
the most successful playoff run we've had in the history
of the show. And we're hanging a little bit north
of one hundred and forty two thousand subs. Still want
to get that up to one point fifty as our
next milestone. You guys want to help us get there,
(02:46):
just scroll down and hit that subscribe button. If you're
already subscribed like this video, sign up for post notifications.
That helps us a lot, and then no mailbag this week.
Because we're going through some of our pre recorded stuff
that we did in Summer League. But we will be
getting back to mail bags starting next Friday, and we
will have mail bags continuing throughout our player ranking series
on Friday like we did last year, where we kind
(03:08):
of debate back and forth. So keep getting your mail
back questions in go into our full episodes on YouTube.
Underneath the video mail bag colon, write your question. That's
how we will get to them on Fridays throughout the season.
Let's talk some basketball. So my biggest takeaway from Summer League,
at least that had nothing to do with the prospects
out of the draft, was that nobody has any idea
(03:29):
where Lebron is going. We had other stories. Victor wemen
Yama took a discount. I thought that was kind of
a classic example of the competitiveness that you'll see from
a player like Victor wemen Yama seeing the Knicks win
the title, knowing that they won because they have all
these good basketball players, mature talented veteran basketball players. But
(03:49):
mature talented veteran basketball players are expensive, and it's a
lot easier to be able to afford them if your
star is willing to take a discount like Jalen Brunson did,
and Victor women Yama did the same thing, taking thirty
percent escalators instead of thirty five percent escalators in his deal,
which is going to give the San Antonio Spurs more flexibility.
If you look around the league and you look at
(04:10):
all the top tier superstars, they tend to have an
average annual value on their contract north of sixty million,
and Victor's is right around fifty and so that's going
to make him among the top tier superstars, the most
affordable in the league, and that's going to give the
Spurs a lot of opportunity to build around him successfully.
One thing that I thought was funny. I've seen the
(04:32):
conversation about like, oh, it's unfortunate that Wemby has to
pay the tab instead of the owners for the situation
that the Spurs are in. I think that's a mischaracterization
because the whole point is Wemby's taking less so that
his teammates can get more. It's not like Wemby's taking
a discount to just hand money over to ownership. It's
(04:55):
very much about trickling that down the rest of the roster.
Now do I think that there are flaws in the CBA.
Do I think that it's possible that the second apron
is too punitive? Do I think that it's ridiculous that
homegrown talent used like acquired via your draft picks, should
(05:15):
have to take discounts at all from their market value.
Like we could discuss the CBA at large, But I
do think it's important understanding like Wenby's taking less money
so that his teammates can get more, not so that
his owners can get more. Everybody is effectively hard capped
at that second apron, and that's you know that that
is the rule at this point. Should they get rid
(05:36):
of the second apron? That's a conversation for another day.
But I do think that it's important to understand that
Wemby's trying to make it so that Dylan Harper and
Steph Castle and Carter Bryant and all, you know, Devin
Vessel and all the other young players on his team
could make sure that they get paid and that they
don't lose one of those guys in the process. Bamine
Bio punches Tyler Hero. I think you know, there's some
(05:56):
interesting reporting surrounding the fact that you know Tyler and
some of the other Heat players were a little bit
disappointed or frustrated with how much Bam was like elevated
within the Heat organization. I don't really understand that because
Bam just frankly was far.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And away the best player of this era of Miami
Heat basketball.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Like he's the staple, he's available all the time, anchors
their defense, he's the just like you know, there's flawed
players around him, And I'm not saying that BAM's perfect.
I've been critical of Bam in his short range finishing
and you know, even his three point shooting in recent seasons,
and hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows. But I mean,
Bam is treated the way he is like a franchise
(06:38):
cornerstone because he's a franchise cornerstone talent, and the other
guys that came through the system weren't franchise cornerstone talent.
So I'm not sure exactly what caused that resentment. I
think that's just you know, just some you know, irrational jealousy,
if that makes sense. But Tyler was talking reckless, and
you know, with the way he was talking, it was
only a matter of time before Bam ended up stepping
(07:01):
in and doing something about it. And obviously it happened
in the hotel I was staying ati, I wasn't there,
but he ran into the where Tyler Hero was hosting
an AAU practice, and you know, things escalated and next
thing you know, a punch is thrown. And I mean,
the one thing that's interesting there is just whether or
not that ends up impacting you know, if Bam does
(07:21):
get suspended, I don't think he will. I don't think
there's going to be any fallout from this beyond maybe
a fine, But if there is some sort of fallout
or a suspension, that could affect their chances to get
lebron So it's at least worth keeping.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
An eye on.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And then Gary Trent, in what appeared to almost certainly
be a form of caps or convention, the Bucks and
Clutch Sports come to terms on a deal of four
years north of sixty million, and again coming off of
a veteran minimum contract and then having the worst season
of his career, there is quite literally no case at
all for Gary Trent to get the deal that he got,
(07:58):
and so that is another thing that I think we'll
get investigated and looked into, which I think was interesting
from the week, but the Lebron story dominated the weekend,
and you know, the buzz is still kind of exactly
what it was. There's the Cleveland buzz still as the
favorite in this case, although I think it's worth mentioning
when you look at like prediction markets and things like that,
(08:19):
it's still considered like les like less than fifty percent
likely that he chooses Cleveland, But among the options, Cleveland
still gets the most buzz. There was a big Miami
push at one point over the weekend. There's a big
Golden State push that has taken place in the last
day or so. But the reality is is no one knows.
I think even the Cleveland buzz stems mostly from hope
(08:42):
more than actual tangible evidence or reporting, because all the
options are flawed. Right Like Miami might have the weakest
backcourt of any serious team in the league. The Philly
fit is like super clunky on offense. I'd say the
same thing about Minnesota. Cleveland has a similar offensive dynamic
to the Lakers that we literally saw Lebron complain about,
(09:02):
and you can question the basketball character of that team
because they just quit in their last playoff series. Golden
State currently doesn't have enough talent. Well, they do have
the assets to go get talent, which is worth mentioning,
but they're not there. They're probably, as of right now,
the worst on paper team of this entire list. And
then Denver went out sad in the first round last year.
So like all of the six flaws are six teams
(09:24):
are flawed. So I think what happens is people look
at those six teams and they naturally end up thinking, well,
Cleveland is Lebron's home, He's probably gonna end up there.
I think that's what's driving the majority of the Cleveland optimism.
But I actually go the other way there, and I say, like,
if it was as simple as like Lebron wants this
storybook return to Cleveland, why would he be dragging it
(09:45):
out like this? If it was that simple? To me,
there are two plausible explanations for why he would drag
things out like this. One is that he just wants attention,
and I understand with Lebron's personality and with his history,
that that explanation is plausible. I think it's someone unlikely
because it has all sorts of trickle down ramifications. Like
(10:07):
any team, all the teams that get spurned by him,
the fan bases will be upset, probably dislike him, like
Cleveland for example, Like if Lebron just like announces he's
going to Golden State later today, like Cavs fans are
going to be devastated. Their team just quit in the
conference finals. Everyone else in the Eastern Conference got better
except for maybe Boston, and you could argue with a
healthy Paul George and Tatum, they'll be better than they
(10:29):
were last year. So it's like the Eastern Conference is
getting better and Cleveland is like kind of taking a
step back from the team that literally quit in the
conference finals, Like they're going to be upset if they
don't get Lebron. It's holding up free agency for all
sorts of teams and players that are kind of in
a holding pattern, especially in that power forward market, right
(10:49):
in the trade market and in the free agent market.
So like I do, I think deep down Lebron's enjoying
the attention. Don't get me wrong, Like I think Lebron
turning on the TV and seeing them talking about Lebron
all the time, or him opening up Twitter and seeing
them talking about Lebron all the time, I'm sure he
enjoys that part. I just don't think that's what's driving this.
I think that that is like a side effect of this,
(11:11):
which takes me to the second plausible explanation, and this
is the one that I think is most likely the case,
and it's that he doesn't know.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Where he's going to go.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And there's all sorts of circumstantial evidence that shows this.
Teams are still making pitches. Draymond literally just said he
was pitching him on a golf course. I saw a
report this morning that Lebron met yesterday with the Cleveland
brass out in Vegas. Like the earlier mentioned that all
the six destinations have flaws, I think that's evidence, right,
like if none of the six options are obvious, Like
(11:42):
sometimes in life there are obvious decisions to make, and
then sometimes in life there are difficult decisions to make.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
This is clearly a difficult one.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It's not like we look at these six teams and
it's just like clear cut, right, you know. Like I
was talking with Colin yesterday and Colin said, you know,
if Philly's rass was in Cleveland, I think he'd be
in Cleveland right now.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And I think he's right.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think like if there was like this obvious hole
at a starting position for a team that was obviously talented,
and that was wired with the right types of guys
and that obviously had all the juice that they needed
to compete. Like I think Lebron would go, I'd say
the same thing about Miami. Like I think if I
think if Giannis and Bam and Andrew Wiggins and Davion
Mitchell were in Cleveland, Lebron would have announced he was
(12:24):
signing with Cleveland literally immediately after announcing the fact that
he was leaving LA Like that's the reality of this
whole situation is there isn't an obvious destination they all
of them. If he wants to go to Miami, they
have literally the worst backcourt rotation of any serious team
in the league. If he wants to go to Cleveland,
that team is fundamentally broken in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
If he wants to go.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
To Philly, like I talked about last night with Colin,
he's gonna have Knights where he just is you know,
Colin Savannah, and he's just extremely frustrated after a game
where the team didn't play good offensive basketball. Now he's
on the opposite side of the country of his wife,
and his daughter and his sons, and he's just frustrated.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I think when you look around at all of this,
it all comes with flaws, and I think that that
is kind of leaving him in this situation where he
is taking his time to really kind of wait for
things develop, like even Golden State, which is my preferred destination.
And again, what I keep saying about Golden State very
simply is like that's the one place where Lebron can
(13:24):
go and have the basketball itself resemble what makes Lebron great.
I would argue Denver as well, but Denver and Golden
State are the two teams where it's like they can
actually make the most use of Lebron's skill set as
a big, physical forward that can playmake and do all
sorts of things in the flow of offense. Right, if
(13:47):
I stick Lebron James on the corner and I ask
him to be Ruy Hatchamura, is he going to be
pretty good at it?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, Like, you won't.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Shoot like Rui, but he can drive close outs and
he can do different things as a connective playmaker. But
that's going to lead to diminishing returns in Lebron's game Similarly,
if you throw the ball to Lebron in the post
or give him the ball in high pick and roll,
and you ask him to initiate a bunch of offense
while Mitchell and Harden stand around off the ball, while
Jaln Brown and Tyres Maxie stand off the ball, while
(14:14):
you know, Giannis and Bam are off the ball, like
that is similarly going to lead to diminishing returns elsewhere
on the roster. Denver and Golden State are the only
two teams where I can like definitively say Lebron fitting
into the offense makes Lebron better and makes the team better,
like it's going to like Lebron and steph will very
(14:35):
naturally fit together. Lebron and Jokics will very naturally fit together.
I think there's a lot of like basketball fit there
that I think is worth mentioning. Those are the separators
for me with those two particular teams. But even Golden State,
which is my preferred destination, requires an Anthony Davis or
a Trey Murphy trade to make much sense, and probably
(14:55):
requires both and or another second trade for some sort
of substant angel upgrade in the two three, like on
the wing, for them to actually be a true contender,
And so I just think it's a complicated decision. You
talk in Vegas, no one knows. I heard all sorts
of you know, pontification about you know, what people think
are going to happen. But the truth of the matter is,
(15:17):
no one knows. I think it's because Lebron doesn't know.
He's very clearly keeping it extremely tight lipped, meaning like
he's not telling a bunch of people and there's not
like a lot of like real intel out there, or
if he is discussing it with his circle and they're
all leaking it elsewhere, he's clearly indecisive about it because
there's a lot of different intel out there. So I
think we're all just still in a holding pattern while
(15:37):
Lebron figures it out. And it might just be as
simple as waiting for one of these teams to make
a move, Cleveland trading Jared Allen and getting back some
pieces that makes Lebron feel better about the team, or
James Harden and feeling better about the team. You know,
like like teams like Miami and Philly probably more of
like a fallback kind of option, or maybe you know,
maybe Philly needs to make some sort of move in
(16:00):
their front court as well, because he doesn't like the
center rotation, or he's waiting to see if Anthony Davis
makes his way to Golden State. He's waiting to see,
you know, if Denver's able to retain Peyton Watson. Like
there's my guess is that that's what's going on here.
Is Lebron's just kind of continuing to wait and see
if one of these teams can kind of rectify one
of his individual concerns.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
But again, no one knows. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I have my preferences, but I don't think. I don't
think there's any sort of of like game being played
here where Lebron's made up his mind and like and
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gambler in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, or Tennessee. I
want to spend some time talking about the top four
guys in the draft. Usually you go into the draft
(18:52):
and you know, maybe a guy has a frustrating debut.
You know, maybe a guy looks exactly like what you expected. There.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
There's usually just.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Some like a lot of noise, right, you know, And
we typically don't have drafts that have this many like
kind of a plus prospects at the.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Top of it too.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
But we have four of them this year, and aj Debondsa,
Darren Peterson, Cam Boozer, and Caleb Wilson. And with those
four guys, I actually think all four of them have
pretty significantly improved their like stock, so to speak, what
I think of them as prospects in long term in
the NBA. I think all four of them have been
(19:32):
more impressive than expected, and all four of them have
shown parts of their game that I think are exciting
for their development. I'm not gonna spend too much time
on Debonsa and Peterson because we talked about them a
lot while we were in Vegas. But Aj Debonsa, I
just continue to see this relentless ability to get to
the basket with the with the ability to get to
the foul line and the counter from mid range, which
(19:54):
I think when you talk about efficient scoring in the NBA,
there are two real pa athways to that. And what
I mean by efficient scoring is like I'm talking about
dudes who are in the like low sixty percent through shooting.
So getting north of sixty percent through shooting, you got
to either get to the basket a ton and get
to the foul line a ton, or you need to
(20:16):
be a high volume three point shooter that's in the
high thirties to low forties from three. If you can
get into one of those two areas, then you're gonna
be able to be extremely efficient in the NBA. It's
when you're not super efficient at the rim and you
don't get to the foul line, or if your shot
diet only involves two or three three pointers per game,
(20:38):
that you're going to have a hard time getting into
the high levels of efficiency.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
So, like, uh, when I look at Aj debonsa. There
is this clear ability to get to the basket a
ton and to draw a lot of fouls when he
gets there. That's a foundational trait that's going to get
him north of sixty percent through shooting. There's a lot
else to be excited there. He showed more good one
on one individual defense in that second game against Sacramento,
(21:04):
blocking jump shots, just showing his length on the ball.
He there's the jump shooting piece of it, the mid
range jump shot which has been kind of off for him,
the three point shot, which has been kind of off
for him in Summer League. But we saw the mid
range jump shot in particular be very reliable for him
in his college in his one year in college. The
(21:25):
three point shot, he just keeps leaving it short off
the front of the room and he doesn't shoot it
with enough arc. What that tells me is it's kind
of I think he just practices the mid range a ton,
and he kind of needs to figure out how to
connect something with his jump shot between the mid range
and the three point line so that he can have
some more consistency as he changes ranges. He wouldn't be
the first player that's had that issue. There's been a
lot of guys like that, Brandon Ingram DeMar Derozen. If
(21:47):
you over index towards the mid range shot, you can
have a hard time shooting threes. But we've seen players
like Kevin Durant be really good at both. I'd argue
Shakils Alexander is another player that over index towards mid
ranges and has made it so that he's not very
reliable from beyond the three point line. So I think
Debance has got the touch and the lift and the
ability to get separation. I think he just needs to
(22:07):
continue to practice the three point shot in a way
that balance is a little bit better with his mid ranger.
But you know the comp that you know, Jackson actually
showed me this this morning. I think he saw it
on Twitter. But the comp that he saw for aj
Debonsa's Pascal Siakam, like kind of like a more athletic
Pascal Siakam. And that's like the first comp for Debansa
(22:29):
that I actually really like. I've seen a lot of
things get thrown around. I've talked about like him being
like a Paul George KD but like mixed with like
a Zion Giannis and that doesn't even really make a
ton of sense. But it's the basket attacking Witham that
I think makes a ton of sense. Siakam is like
the year that they made the finals, he ended up
shooting over five hundred layups and shooting in the high
(22:50):
sixties on them. That's something that reminds me of De Bansa,
like the ability to get to the basket a lot,
even at his size, and to kind of slither into
gaps and like slide past people and just fine little
finishing angles, but at the same time be very efficient
as a layup maker, but then also having the counter
of that little mid range pull up that Siakam has.
And again, de Bonsa is a better athlete Thanakam, so
(23:12):
he's got a higher upside there. And before you take
that as a downside, like Pascal Siakam was like this
close to winning Finals MVP literally two years ago, Like
he is a very very good basketball player, I don't
take that as a demerit at all. Like I think
that's a really interesting cop a better, you know, evolutionary
version of Pascal Siakam. I think Debonsa was more impressive
(23:33):
than expected. And the simplest way that I could describe
it is Darren Peterson kicked his button all their head
to head matchups they played on Thursday, and Debonsa kicked
his butt, so got revenge on some of the recent
history between him and Darren. I thought he was the
best player on the floor in that Thursday game. I
thought he looked out of the weekend as the clear
number one overall pick. So I think that's given the
debate surrounding him as the number one coming into the draft,
(23:57):
for him to look more definitive as a number one,
think that that's a successful weekend for him. Darren Peterson
kind of rough in the two Summer League games in Vegas.
Did have a really impressive dunk yesterday where he kind
of had a nasty left to right crossover, got down
the lane, threw it down in traffic, got to his
spots pretty effectively in that game against the Clippers. Wasn't
(24:18):
making shots he was six for eighteen, but I liked
the attempts he was getting, miss some mid rangers that
I thought were pretty good looks. Showed some strong individual
defense on Keaton Woggler. Like it wasn't the best Vegas
Summer League for him, but overall, from the four games,
there was some real on ball Chops showed that I
didn't think. I didn't think we're really on display when
(24:40):
he was at Kansas. So I think Darren looks closer
to that eventual ceiling that I see with that many
of us see, which is like that kind of Devin
Booker kind of two guard. He looks further along in
his development to get to that level than I think
we thought coming out of a disappointing year in Kansas.
So undeniably an impressive summer league for Darren. And then
(25:01):
Cam Boozer and Caleb Wilson. They had a really fun
game there on Friday, and it was a fascinating game
because I actually thought Cam out played Caleb, and I'll
get into all the reasons why in just a minute,
But Caleb also demonstrated this three point shooting piece that
makes him dramatically more interesting as a prospect if he
can can sustain it now again he plays again today,
(25:23):
I think it like pretty late in Vegas tonight, and
so we'll see over a larger sample if he's able
to continue to make threes. But like Caleb made seven
threes all year last year at North Carolina and if
he dig into his high school tape similarly, like very
low volume at the three point line. There was some
(25:43):
pre draft shooting buzz before the combine. I remember there
was a video going around of him doing a workout
where the shot looked really good. His guide hand was
getting off the ball, the release looked really crisp, the
rotation was good, he had good arc. There was not
wasted motion in his jump like it just looked like
really good form his jump shot, and he was shooting
the ball really well. It was getting into a groove,
(26:03):
and I think in the video that was going around,
he was like making you know, six seven threes in
a row, and I was like, oh man, that's interesting.
Like what if Caleb can shoot a little bit better
as he gets into the league, but then he goes
to the combine and he shoots really poorly. And I
don't quote me on this because I can't remember the
exact number, but I think it was like eleven for
twenty five. Now, my thing with that is, like any
singular shooting drill, you can have a bad shooting drill,
(26:26):
Like I do shooting drills every single day where I
do five shots at five spots for twenty five and
I do it twice every single day, and I will
have rounds where just I just don't shoot well for
a round. Like I don't think that that was somehow revealing,
but it was somewhat disappointing coming off of what happened
in those videos where you're like, oh, man, like, is
Caleb going to shoot the ball really well? And then
(26:47):
he goes in and he has a bad, a bad
shooting day at the combine, But then he goes into
this game and again, like after making seven threes all
year at North Carolina, immediately comes out. I know he
he made seven threes, but it was deeper than that.
For me, it was the confidence with which he was shooting.
For him to come out in like the second possession
of the game and take like a hesitation pull up
(27:07):
three off the bounce and just nail it, and just
to come out super aggressive as a jump shooter. The
way he did that said to me more like a
I know I can shoot, and I'm here to show
you guys I can shoot. And it felt very intentional
and very like it felt very like confident on his part,
and I just was really impressed by that specifically, and
(27:29):
again just like we were talking about earlier, when it comes
to efficiency, one of the best ways to drive efficiency
is either to get to the rim a lot and
be to get to the foul line a lot when
you get there, but to be like to make the
high sixties, low seventies and shot attempts at the rim
while also get to the foul line or high volume
three point shooting in the high thirties low forties.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
So, like, if Caleb's able to become a player that
can take five six threes a game in the NBA
and shoot in the high thirties, low forties, that's just
a very different player than the kind of guy that
we were scouting coming out.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Of North Carolina, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And I would argue, especially as a four, you don't
want to have a four that can't shoot in the
modern NBA unless your five can really shoot right.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And like we looked at, like.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Even just MOBILEI and Allen at Cleveland last year, one
of the like kind of fail points for the Calves,
even in the pivotal game in Game one of the
Eastern Conference Finals, he's just popping out of ball screens
and he can't hit shots right. And like that that
ultimately is is kind of like a mandatory minimum for
the power forward spot in the NBA, now unless your
five can really shoot. So I mean, Caleb demonstrating that
(28:37):
I think is super impressive. And there were other things
that he did in the game. He showed some work
off the balance, He had some nice driving finishes, he
had some mid range makes, he had a chase down
BLOCKI he had a zero his six turnover game, which
was really sloppy. I don't look too much into that
because I don't think he's a ball handler at this
phase in his career, but like he had a you know,
dribbled off the right wing through kind of a sloppy
behind the back pass.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
It's a turnover.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Uh, the Grizzlies are running out the other way, and
he just throws shows these crazy strides recovering down the
floor in transition, pops off the ground off two feet,
just swasts that shit off the glass, just like a
really really impressive athletic play. In transition. He flashed a ton,
but we knew that was there. We knew Caleb was
a good straight line and vertical athlete, Like those are
(29:20):
his two best strengths as an athlete is running and jumping.
Lateral quickness, first step quickness, those remain to be seen.
You saw a little bit about like on the like
Kam Boozer at a possession after so he goes down
and he hits these three jump shots in a row,
and the third one is like this kind of fancy
step back along the right wing, and then Cam Boozer
switches on to him and Caleb struggles to shake him,
(29:42):
and Cam is playing physical defense, and Cam struggles to
shake him because like again, excuse me, Caleb struggles to
shake him. And part of the reason is because that
requires a different type of athleticism. It requires a lateral
quickness for step quickness type of athleticism to blow by
a guy like Cam Boozer, who, again, Cam Boozer is
not exactly the quickest player that you're going to run
into in the NBA. Although I do think that Cam
(30:05):
was impressive in his athleticism in Vegas, which we'll talk
about in a second. But like all the other stuff
with Caleb kind of is what it is in meaning
like what I expected coming out of my scout around
the draft, but him demonstrating that three point shot just
makes him a dramatically more interesting prospect if he can
sustain it, So let's keep an eye on that. I'm
not sure how much longer he'll play in Summer League.
(30:25):
A lot of the guys stopped playing after that first weekend.
I would imagine Caleb will play tonight and that'll probably
be his last game, So we'll see. We may not
get much of a sample size before he gets to camp,
but if he can shoot, that's going to be interesting.
Cam Boozer just showed a very mature all around game,
and again, like you know, it's like, oh, Jason, why
did Why are you saying that Cam out played Caleb?
(30:47):
Because there are certain things that are like in your
control in a basketball game, and then there are things
that you're in a basketball game that are out of
your control, like just very simple the three point shooting.
Like I don't care how much you work on your shot,
I don't care how many drills you do, I don't
care how good your touches. You're gonna have games where
you go out and you take six or seven threes
(31:08):
and you make one or you make zero. That's just
kind of part of the game. It's a make or
miss leak, Like that game was a game where Caleb
was making shots. And even if Caleb is a great shooter,
even if Caleb projects to be a great shooter in
the NBA, He's not gonna make seven threes every game.
So like that was an outlier high level shooting performance.
Even for great shooters. There ain't anybody in the NBA
(31:30):
who's averaging seven three point makes a game, right, Like,
like I don't have the numbers in front of me,
but prime Steph Curry is going to struggle to make
seven threes every single game when he goes out right,
So like that was a somewhat of an outlier. I
look at the totality of the game and how the
guys were playing cam what really impressed me with him
(31:50):
is just how mature and easy he made things look
on both ends of the floor, just like easy baskets
and screening action, Like how many times did he burn
Caleb on Just like little backscs on baseline out of
bounds plays where he just you know, sets up his man,
catches Caleb a little bit too aggressive out by the elbow,
sets his man up for the screen, kind of shoves
him into the screen a little bit back cuts gets
(32:11):
deep position, pump fakes to get Caleb to go flying
past him and then just goes up and easily finishes,
or like making reads is the high posts fulk crum
Those are like, again, you're gonna have a certain amount
of variability in every game, but the team that generates
the most easy shots is usually going to win because
those are the ones that are more sustainable over the
larger sample. Right, So like getting easy shots as a
(32:32):
high post folkrum passing to guards, cutting and slipping out
his screens. Good defense, like he picked Caleb clean on
a little point guard possession dribbling the ball off the floor.
He was the one who cooled off Caleb when he
got on the three shot hot streak there showed some
impressive lateral quickness and just anticipation guarding Caleb in space,
while also showing some of the upside right, Like he
(32:53):
hit this kind of like hard jab left into like
a dribble right into like a snatchback dribble tween his
legs into like a pull up three at the top
of the key. That was a disgusting move and showed
some really high skill level and like he certainly has
some of that upside as well as like a skilled player.
But you know, Cam Boozer is probably the best player
(33:15):
out of all these four as like a day one
NBA player, just because he's a he has a very
mature all around game and he's going to walk right
into the NBA and he's going to be great at
like six things that's going to allow him to help
a basketball team win.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
And like I think one of the again, the thing.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
That impressed me the most about Boozer was just the
combination of mobility and anticipation that made him more useful
on defense than I thought he would be right away
in this setting. And so I just think he looks
in great shape, he's moving really well. I think he's
going to walk into Memphis and be good right away. Again,
is the ceiling as high as some of these other
guys know, It's going to depend on several things. The
(33:51):
jump shot really has to come around like that. That's
the big swing factor. It's like, oh, what does the
star version of Cam Boozer look like? The star version
of Cam Boozer looks like a guy who's going to
take six or seven three is a.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Game and shoot forty percent on them.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
That's gonna be like the big kind of like pivot
point for him, the stuff around the basket, a little
bit better playmaking than what we saw in the last year,
like in terms of efficiency and volume. Those are like
the two kind of pivot points for him as a star.
But I just think he's ready to play in a
winning context right away. And again, like on a night
where Kayleb Wilson went for thirty five points, I thought
Cam Booser was the best player, and so I think
(34:24):
that that kind of speaks to his NBA readiness. So overall, again,
like all four of those guys, I just left the
weekend more impressed with them than I thought going in.
And I just think that's what makes this such a
great draft. And I think all four of these teams,
Like if you're Washington, you got to be just super
excited about DEMONSA Utah. Can't wait to watch Darreon Peterson
play alongside their rock solid starting five. Cam Boozer is
(34:48):
going to immediately be a fan favorite in Memphis, and
Caleb Wilson showing the three point shot and some real
superstar upside. So a lot to be excited about if
you're a fan of one of those four teams. All right, guys,
that is all I had for today is always a
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the
show again. Later this week, we'll have the Laker guys
coming on as well as our stock up stock Down,
(35:08):
and then we'll get into some more offseason stuff as
deals come down, instant reaction style. If Lebron signs, if
there's a trade that goes down, we'll react when it happens. Again,
I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
We'll see you on Wednesday.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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