Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, what's going on? Welcome back to the Voice of
the Nets. I'm Chris Carrino. As we continue to pour through,
uh some of the Nets players who played a big
role in last year's team and expect to play a
role this year. And today we are going to attack
Jalen Wilson, not literally, but attack him figuratively in terms
(00:30):
of breaking down his game. Joined by Lucas Kaplot of
Nets Daily, Tim Capstraw Daily of the Nets Broadcast and
guys you know and Lucas you may not know, but
Tim Capstraw at one time was the youngest Division one
head coach in America.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Oh, I've read his Wikipedia page. I've read his Wikipedia page.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I wrote it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
One of the great things is that that cap everyone
one time? Uh you may so. There's a great basketball coach,
Pete Carell, the late great Pete Carell one known as
one of the all time great coaches in NCAAA history,
famous of Princeton University, one of the all time winning
(01:19):
his coaches in in NCAA history. And he used to
be a consultant for the Sacramento Kings. And one time
we were out in Sacramento old oar Co Arena and
I'm walking by and Capra sitting on the bench courtside
before the game with Pete Carell, and they're reminiscing about
some things, talking some old college days, and Capra goes, Koreans,
I want you to meet Pete Carroll, Hey, coach. He goes, Yeah,
(01:42):
you know, between the two of us over a thousand
victories career wise. Of course, Pete Carell had most of those.
Capra had a bunch.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
My point I'm getting here, though, Capra is, I know
you as an old coach, there are certain guys is
that just they may not have the overall sky's the
limit kind of potential. But if you're talking about quality
of life and you want to be able to get
a good, good sleep in at night so that you're
(02:15):
nice and charged up for the end of the day
for the next day, you like having guys like Jalen Wilson, right,
They they help you sleep better as a coach, don't they.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
They sure guys like Jalen Wilson that they are so
special for coaches because I know that in this in
this age of analytics and a stat for everything, the
ability to just give coach coaches peace of mind and
understand it. They know how, first of all, how to win.
You don't go to Kansas. You're not the Big twelve
(02:49):
player of the year, and people don't think you can win.
A guy gets into the second round but then gets
this opportunity with the nets right now, and I'm telling
that's a winning player. That's a winning player in a
lot of ways, and probably the biggest and we saw
it again this summer, is his ability to mix in again,
(03:10):
a guy that can attack the basket, be pretty physical,
but he's shooting the ball incredibly well. And if that
shot can stay consistent. Remember he came into the season
off of last summer shooting it really well, shot it
well for a big portion of the season this year
when he got his opportunities, but then tailed off at
the end. But man, he shot it really well again
this summer. If he can do that, Chris, there's a
(03:32):
place for him on everybody and everybody's lineup in the NBA.
He's that kind of guy, always in the right place, defensively,
works really hard, moves the ball well. But again, the
NBA has a lot to do with your ability to
mess with the defense and knock down to three point
shot and if that can be consistent, he becomes a
(03:53):
terrific player. I think he's in the process of that
because certain guys it looks like it should go in.
And when he's shoots the basketball, I think it's going in.
The arc is good. That is great. It's repeatable. The
way he shoots the basketball. I know he came out
of college shooting it at a low percentage and it
was a bit of a surprise. I think he's that
(04:13):
good of a shooter. I think he's gonna I think
he's gonna do great.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, And I think before I don't I don't want
people to get the impression that I'm just, you know,
setting the bar low by saying he's a guy that
helps coaches sleep at all night. What I mean is,
I think he can. When you look down and you
you go to call his number and get him in
the game, you are you are confident that he's gonna
he's gonna know what he's doing, he's gonna make the
(04:37):
right plays. And then I think when he showed this summer,
and remember he came in as a twenty three year old,
I mean he came in basically older than camp Thomas.
I believe last year, but all the time that he
played at Kansas. But then he goes to Summer League
where he's playing with all these young, hot shot guys,
some guys that are really high draft picks that you're thinking,
our teams are gonna build around these guys, and then
(04:59):
some guys that are just strugg to try and make
an NBA roster. But he goes out and you know,
wins MVP and then somehow, yeah, we can get into
how he ended up second team All Summer League and
wins the MVP. But Lucas, I think he's I think
it shows you that there there's not just sometimes solid right,
being the nice guy doesn't necessarily mean that you still
(05:21):
don't have the skill to become a really good player
in this league, maybe develop into a starter on a
good team.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah. Well, two things I think of is that he
did what he was supposed to. These guys that come
in and they're older and thrived in college, as you mentioned,
they should be outplaying younger guys that were also just
in NCAA or international level, and that's what he did,
and that helps you sleep at night. And the other
(05:49):
thing you mentioned about, you know, being someone a coach
can rely on is I've read. You know, there's a
lot of conversation draft prospects, floor for ceiling, if you
have skills that can get you onto the court, things
we maybe typically associate with high floor, low ceiling. But
if you are a reliable guy, you can throw out
(06:10):
there and play all of a sudden, you have time,
you have reps to work on all of these parts
of your game. So maybe you know your floor and
your ceiling as a player are more closely correlated than
we think. But because Wilson's good at all of the
fundamental stuff, he's in the right places, he plays hard,
he's going to get those minutes. You know, his flaws,
(06:31):
whatever they may be, he's going to have a chance
to work on them. And the one thing that you know,
stands out to me about Jalen Wilson, something that was
just a lovely coincidence. After Summer League, he's shooting exactly
forty percent from three in his career as a pro.
If you add up G League, summer leagues, NBA. You know,
(06:54):
as we build out the sample size, he's taken about
two hundred and fifty three pointers. He's made forty percent
out of them. Copper said it that needs to continue.
You know, we're not one hundred percent short it's going
to continue. But if it does, man, that that means
a lot about his direction in this league and for Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Yeah you could. If you could rebound, play defense, and
shoot forty percent from three, you're a twenty million dollar player. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Like, if you can keep
developing that you could be You're a twenty million dollar
player in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
He's the kind of guy he was just you know,
he's the kind of guy that be the same player
for a you know, uh, a potential championship team. Right.
You want those kind of guys that you can just
fill in and you can count on and they can
to make shots. He's got all, he's got a gonna
have a lot of opportunities in this.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
League, especially with a young coach like Jordi Fernandez. You
want young players with a high ceiling that you can trust.
You know, it's gonna be hard, You're gonna have to
You're gonna have to deal with some frustration levels at
(08:06):
times with guys that are really his super high you know,
high ceiling. They're talented, but maybe they do things that
it will make you scratch your head or lose sleep
at night, right, like we're saying, So with a young
coach like Jordi Frandiz, I expect him to lean a lot.
I mean we saw, we saw the you know, Jacques
(08:28):
Vaughan and then and then Kevin Ollie last year. Uh,
not afraid to lean on Jalen Wilson a little bit.
I think that goes to another level this season with
a young coach like Jordi Fernandez.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, and he has a year of experience under his belt.
I mean, Jalen Wilson's going to get better. I know
we think of him and he was an older prospect,
but that first year of experience, once you're in the league,
you have an off season to work on what you
need to work on. We should expect and hope that
Wilson earns even more minutes now.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Chris, how many have we seen in the NBA that
were older players from established, great NBA programs that ended
up being good NBA players that were drafted low. You're right,
they didn't maybe late first round, maybe not into the
second round yet, but they've got those four years, three
or four years into high quality programs and they end
up being guys that have ten fifteen year careers. What
(09:21):
we've seen it year after year or sometimes you know,
everybody drafts potential an awful lot, but it's getting I
think there's some players around the league right now that
are proving that if you get guys from those teams,
from those uh certain certain schools that develop talent, that
can really help your team. I think Jalen Wilson is
(09:44):
a great example of that.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, how many times I point out during the course
of years sometimes of guys that are late second round
picks or undrafted players who are conference players of the
year in good and really good conferences.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
You said that for years, and I'm going to try
to go through some of the guys like like Pascal Siakam,
who I never heard of before he was drafted, was
the player of the year for New Mexico or it. Yeah,
there are Mountain West, Yeah there have been.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Uh Fred van Vliet, you know, Fred van Vliet was
a yeah, he didn't guy we didn't know, undrafted, didn't
know what he could be. Two time Missouri Valley Conference
Player of the Year. I mean in the Big Twelve
is different. Usually those guys don't get overlooked like that,
And yes there's a there's an exception every once in
a while, But I think the point being is that
if you can navigate through the rigors of the Big Twelve,
(10:34):
the A c C, the SEC, the Big Ten and
win conference player, there is a lot of good players
in those conferences. And I think, you know, jalaln Wilson
was a guy who had declared for the NBA Draft
a year prior to coming out and then didn't go
into the draft, decided, you know, saw that he might
not get drafted. He took himself out of the draft,
went back to Kansas. One Big Twelve Player of the
(10:55):
Year still last to the second round. And Sean Marks
and his stat who've done a great job of identifying
players that you know, you think about. Since the Nets
have gone to Brooklyn, they've never had a lottery pick,
you know, the lottery picks have all gone to Boston
in the Pierce Garnett deal and then other reasons that
the Nets never have finished in the lottery. Nets have
(11:17):
had a lot of maybe not long deep into the
playoff runs, but they've been playoff team, so they've had
to do well in the latter part of the first
of the first round in the second round and they've
done that. And I think there's other guys who are
going to talk about, like Noah Clowney and Derek Whitehead
that could could add to that. But Jalen Wilson, a
second rounder, is that kind of guy. And I think
(11:37):
at one point we are going to look back at
Jalen Wilson and go, how did this guy, as a
Big twelve Player of the Year get to the second
round of the playoffs, And it's because I think he's,
you know, body wise, he's kind of mister average, you know,
you could you think you could find a lot of
guys at that size and shape and athletic ability. He's
(11:59):
a little older, which works against you in the draft
guys they're looking for. They'd rather go with an eighteen
year old out of France that has a limit that
the sky's the limit than a twenty three year old
guy who we kind of know who he is. But
I think all the things we knew who Jalen Wilson was,
I think the thing that's exciting about him is he's
(12:21):
turning out to be even to have a little more upside.
You know, he's everything we thought he was, which is
really solid, and maybe people thought, well, he's going to
be just solid, and but that's good. You know, you're
looking to fill out your roster with good, solid guys.
But I think, like you said, what we saw in
the summer League and what Lucas pointing out about his
three point shooting ability, like that's a little more than solid.
(12:43):
And I think character, why, that's another thing we talk about.
There's a reason guys interview people and interview and get
to know their families and their friends and know everything
about him because character does matter in this league. It matters.
It might not be the be all end all you can.
You can go with a guy you're kind of iffy
(13:05):
on his character if he just is an unbelievable talent,
But those guys also can kill you, and if they
don't play extremely well, they hurt your team. Jalen Wilson's
a guy. He's got a high character. We talked about
it with guys like Cam Johnson. You know the guys
that are great in the locker room. Jalen Wilson is
(13:26):
he's a he's malleable, right, I think he can. I
think he's he's he's got a certain personality that lends
himself to And I don't pretend to know him deeply,
but just the time I've spent around him is I
think he could probably mosey up and have something in
common and find common ground and talk to a Noah
(13:47):
Clowney as the same way he could to Dennis Shrewder.
You know, I just feel he's one of those type
of guys and and and that's why I think he's
he's to me, he's one of my favorite guys on
this team.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, I mean, there's a reason he was able to
walk down to Long Island for the first half of
last year and be a leader and have a great,
you know, half season with them and kind of not
have the same basketball impact obviously in the NBA, but
earned the same reputation the one you just described. I mean,
(14:23):
you're only talking about half a season with him, and
he's I think left that impression on anybody who's covered
or been around him, coach, his teammates, whatnot. And so
that says a lot about who he is. You know,
he's done it on two different teams than just a
year of being a pro.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Absolutely all right, Well, Jalen Wilson one of the guys
we've got our eyes on breaking it down. Hopefully enjoyed
that more to come thanks to Lucas Kaplan, Thanks to
the Capper. I'm Chris Carino and this is the voice
of the Nats.