Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. We are live from the
Speaker 1: Blue Wires Studios at the Win here in Vegas. Victor
Speaker 1: wembin Yama has a much much better second game. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be breaking that down. I also have some thoughts
Speaker 1: on Jabari Smith Junior has been arguably the most impressive
Speaker 1: second year guy that we've seen at Summer League so far.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make the case for why a team should
Speaker 1: consider going after Dame despite the situation with the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: and I have a specific team in mind that I
Speaker 1: think would become a top tier contender overnight as a result.
Speaker 1: And then, last, but not least, I have some thoughts
Speaker 1: on Joel Embiid's comments surrounding James Harden and his trade requests.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: You can find them wherever you get your podcasts under
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, and last but not least, before we get started.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So Big Shock, the
Speaker 1: amazing prospect who already had a successful professional career in France,
Speaker 1: wasn't a bust based on one bad summer league game
Speaker 1: that involved a whole lot of pickup style basketball and
Speaker 1: not a whole lot of opportunity to show what Victor
Speaker 1: was good at. So finishes with twenty seven points, twelve rebounds,
Speaker 1: three blocks, probably would have had a chance to win
Speaker 1: that game if some of his teammates had it looked
Speaker 1: him off after he'd hit that late three point shot.
Speaker 1: Was really really impressive on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: especially as that game progressed. And what I wanted to
Speaker 1: take a second to talk about today is the difference
Speaker 1: between a player's floor and a player's ceiling, and why
Speaker 1: it's important early in a career to give a player
Speaker 1: an opportunity to demonstrate what he's great at while he's
Speaker 1: working on the things that he's not particularly great at.
Speaker 1: We talked about this was Shade and Sharp yesterday. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember, Shade and Sharp has this unbelievable superpower,
Speaker 1: and it's the fact that he's one of the most
Speaker 1: athletic two guards to ever set foot on an NBA floor,
Speaker 1: and so it's important with the way that he's utilized
Speaker 1: on a basketball team that he gets to showcase that
Speaker 1: particular gift. And so everything turned around for him in
Speaker 1: that game when he started attacking the rim with his strength, size,
Speaker 1: and athleticism and elevating over the top of defenders in
Speaker 1: jump shooting situations, Big shock. He got to use his superpower,
Speaker 1: and good things immediately started happening. Your floor is the
Speaker 1: weapons that you bring to the fight. Your ceiling is
Speaker 1: about your weaknesses, and if you can round out those
Speaker 1: weaknesses and fix those things, that's when you become the
Speaker 1: best version of yourself as a basketball player. Let's take
Speaker 1: Lebron James for example. This is the last great prospect
Speaker 1: that was at the same level of someone like Victor
Speaker 1: Webbin Yama, an all time great NBA prospect. When he
Speaker 1: was coming into the league. He had a lot of
Speaker 1: weaknesses too, but he had these strengths. He had these
Speaker 1: unbelievable tools. He had this ridiculous physical frame for a wing.
Speaker 1: He was an incredible downhill threat, especially in transition. No
Speaker 1: one could keep him away from the rim. And then
Speaker 1: he was a super gifted playmaker. He just naturally saw
Speaker 1: the floor better than everyone else, and so in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: when he was in the open floor, you got to
Speaker 1: see all of those things. When he was attacking the rim,
Speaker 1: you got to see all of those things and watch
Speaker 1: him spray out to shooters and make things happen within
Speaker 1: the Cavs offense. But he wasn't a great defensive player
Speaker 1: right away. Even though he had great defensive tools and
Speaker 1: the versatility to potentially guard multiple positions in the future,
Speaker 1: he wasn't a very good shooter, and that was a
Speaker 1: limitation for him. Didn't really have a low post game,
Speaker 1: so he had to polish those things to reach his
Speaker 1: eventual ceiling. When we talked about Lebron James as a
Speaker 1: prospect in his capability of getting to the conversations with
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan, it wasn't because of what he was when
Speaker 1: he was eighteen. It was because of what we thought
Speaker 1: he could become through hard work and effort over the
Speaker 1: course of the following half decade. That's the same thing
Speaker 1: with Victor Wembinyama. Victor Wenbnyama is not Kevin Garnett yet.
Speaker 1: Victor wen Minyama. He's has catered, he's kind of shaped
Speaker 1: his game around the Kevin Durant mold. He's not Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant yet. That's gonna take years of hard work and
Speaker 1: dedication and experience in learning how to score against NBA defenses.
Speaker 1: He's not there yet. So if you're expecting to see
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant in Summer League, that's a you problem, not
Speaker 1: a Victor problem. Your expectations are off. Victor has ridiculous
Speaker 1: weapons that he brings to the table right now. He
Speaker 1: has the best combination of height, length, and coordination in
Speaker 1: the history of the league. We've had really tall players
Speaker 1: come out, none of them that can move the way
Speaker 1: that Victor moves. He's already a top tier defensive player.
Speaker 1: He's got really good hands and can catch a finish
Speaker 1: around the rim. He's got a respectable jump shot. Didn't
Speaker 1: shoot particularly well overall last year, but he shot forty
Speaker 1: percent on uncontested catch and shoots last year. That's a
Speaker 1: reliable If he's standing still and has time to load
Speaker 1: up into his form, that shit's going in and shot.
Speaker 1: And he got a three on the left wing at
Speaker 1: the end of this game today that he knocked down,
Speaker 1: so he's already good at that. And then he's got
Speaker 1: a decent turnaround jump shot over both shoulders, particularly his
Speaker 1: right shoulder. So he's got some tools already. And so
Speaker 1: as long as his game is catered around those particular things,
Speaker 1: he's gonna look great. But yeah, if you toss the
Speaker 1: ball to him on the wing like they did in
Speaker 1: the first game and ask him to mix dudes up
Speaker 1: off the dribble, ask him to be Kevin Durant, obviously
Speaker 1: he's not going to be successful in that setting. Today,
Speaker 1: he played to his strengths. He took the vast majority
Speaker 1: of his shots within fifteen feet of the rim. He
Speaker 1: was attacking the offensive glass. He had four offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: got to the foul line a ton because guess what,
Speaker 1: and when he catches and tries to finish within ten
Speaker 1: feet of the rim, people who try to block him
Speaker 1: aren't gonna get the ball, They're gonna get his arm.
Speaker 1: And so he got to the foul line a ton.
Speaker 1: And then I thought, you saw a really interesting sequence
Speaker 1: from Victor Wmenyama at the end of this game that
Speaker 1: demonstrated an immediate ceiling for him and an immediate level
Speaker 1: of impact that's going to help the Spurs win games
Speaker 1: this season. They go down the floor, they set a
Speaker 1: ball screen with Victor. He gets a switch. Ball handler
Speaker 1: dribbles over to the right wing. Victor relocates to the
Speaker 1: dunker spot on the left side. The ball handlers kind
Speaker 1: of dribble in there, waiting for Victor to make himself available.
Speaker 1: He hard flashes to the middle of the floor, calls
Speaker 1: for the ball with two hands, catches hits. The guy
Speaker 1: turns over his right shoulder knocks down a little short
Speaker 1: jump shot. That's a legitimate skill that he's gonna be
Speaker 1: able to do right away in the NBA, and that
Speaker 1: is going to beat switching schemes. You can't switch Victor.
Speaker 1: You can't switch a small guard onto Victor, because he's
Speaker 1: just going to flash high post and turn and shoot
Speaker 1: a little jumper over his right shoulder, and he's gonna
Speaker 1: make it all the time. That's a weapon that he
Speaker 1: can use right now. Very next possession, ball is being
Speaker 1: dribbled up along the left wing. Someone attacks along the baseline.
Speaker 1: Victor relocates to the left wing. Why because the rim
Speaker 1: protector for Portland is containing the ball at the rim,
Speaker 1: which is going to be what a lot of centers
Speaker 1: do this year. They're going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: possessions where different players for San Antonio are trying to
Speaker 1: make things happen, and the rim protector is occupied and
Speaker 1: Victor is going to be open. He relocates to that
Speaker 1: left wing, takes his time, rises up, and knocks down
Speaker 1: to catch and shoot three. He's great at that right now,
Speaker 1: and so in this particular game, they funneled him into
Speaker 1: the things that he was great at. He got to
Speaker 1: demonstrate those things. He was great on the glass, he
Speaker 1: protected the rim, he got three blocks, had a huge
Speaker 1: clutch block there by the right block, beat a mismatch
Speaker 1: in the post on a pick and roll switch, popping
Speaker 1: to the three point line and knocking down shots, catching
Speaker 1: close to the basket and getting to the foul line
Speaker 1: or finishing closer to the rim. He showed some of
Speaker 1: the high level stuff. You saw the crazy crossover jumper
Speaker 1: he had in the first half. He's going to do
Speaker 1: some of that, but that's not his strength right now.
Speaker 1: That's the ceiling we need to when we're evaluating prospects.
Speaker 1: We need to differentiate between those two things. Their floor
Speaker 1: is what they're great at right now. Their ceiling is
Speaker 1: about their weakness, and if you're evaluating a player based
Speaker 1: on their weaknesses at that point, you're just going to
Speaker 1: be disappointed. They're kids, They're eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old.
Speaker 1: It's going to take time for them to develop those things.
Speaker 1: I did want to talk about Javary Smith Junior for
Speaker 1: a second, because I think he's been one of the
Speaker 1: most interesting and probably the most impressive prospect that I've
Speaker 1: seen in this particular tournament, and even counting the guys
Speaker 1: that I saw last week. Really fun gaming against the Pistons.
Speaker 1: James Wiseman hits like a little left handed hook over
Speaker 1: the top, just starts talking all kinds of shit, and
Speaker 1: Jabari just absolutely barbecues him all over the floor. You
Speaker 1: guys saw himIt that step back three and he turns
Speaker 1: around and he's like, he can't hold me, you know
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Obviously, that's fun, just as a
Speaker 1: basketball fantasy. Guys competing like that finishes with thirty eight,
Speaker 1: seven and six hits an array of pull up jump shot,
Speaker 1: just pull up jump shot after pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: from all these different spots on the floor. It really
Speaker 1: blows me away because I was here last year, and
Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of talk over whether
Speaker 1: or not Jabari Smith was going to be the number
Speaker 1: one overall And one of the big reasons why he
Speaker 1: slipped is he was so uncomfortable putting the ball on
Speaker 1: the floor. He was so uncomfortable looking to score unless
Speaker 1: he was catching and shooting from you know, above the
Speaker 1: break on the three point line. When he was in college,
Speaker 1: he was one of the most uncomfortable lottery picks when
Speaker 1: it came to trying to score the basketball that I
Speaker 1: can remember seeing. And for him to come back this
Speaker 1: year and to look like the most comfortable player on
Speaker 1: the floor, I don't think people realize how much hard
Speaker 1: work that takes. When it comes to your jump shot
Speaker 1: in your handle, progress is incremental. You shoot thousands of
Speaker 1: shots a week and you get a little better. So
Speaker 1: what this tells me is that Jabari's been in the
Speaker 1: gym and he's been working his ass off. And when
Speaker 1: you couple that with his physical tools. He's six foot ten,
Speaker 1: he has a seven to one wing span. Look at
Speaker 1: all that muscle he put on. He was bullying Jad
Speaker 1: and Ivy to get to spots all over the floor today.
Speaker 1: But he's demonstrating that he has the work ethic to
Speaker 1: go with it. I went back to look, as you
Speaker 1: guys know, I didn't cover Houston super closely last year
Speaker 1: because we primarily focus on the top half of the league.
Speaker 1: But he actually hit forty five percent an effective field
Speaker 1: goal percentage on his pull up jump shots last year.
Speaker 1: On volume, he shot one hundred and ninety five of
Speaker 1: them and he made forty five percent effective field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: That's what makes him a super interesting top tier prospect
Speaker 1: because with Paulo, it's all about you're worried about the
Speaker 1: defensive end. With chet it's like it's he's a big man.
Speaker 1: How much is he going to be able to be
Speaker 1: an offensive initiator? Is he going to be able to
Speaker 1: stay healthy? Jabari Smith has that elite two way wing
Speaker 1: potential and that particular archetype is one of the most
Speaker 1: impactful archetypes that we have in the league. So shout
Speaker 1: out to Jabari Smith Junior. I was really impressed with him.
Speaker 1: I think I don't think people realize how hard he
Speaker 1: had to work to make that type of improvement in
Speaker 1: just twelve months. All right. I wanted to move to
Speaker 1: this Dame Damian Lillar's situation. I talked about this a
Speaker 1: little bit with Live yesterday, and it's become a hot
Speaker 1: topic guys of late because of this idea of players
Speaker 1: signing a long term extension. Right, they signed a five
Speaker 1: year deal worth two hundred something mill and then one
Speaker 1: or two years into it they ask for a trade.
Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of this recently, Right, We've just
Speaker 1: seen it with Dame, we saw it with Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: That this is not exactly the most uncommon situation in
Speaker 1: the world. And these are big names. These are top ten,
Speaker 1: top fifteen players in the league that are making these
Speaker 1: types of moves, And it is a complicated situation. As
Speaker 1: I always say, you have to put your family first
Speaker 1: when you're making decisions, as especially as a primary breadwinner
Speaker 1: in your family, like these guys are. You have to
Speaker 1: put that first. So let's say you come to free
Speaker 1: agency and you're with your team, and you like your team,
Speaker 1: and you're committed to your team, but like, five years
Speaker 1: is a long time. I guarantee you all these dudes,
Speaker 1: if you really ask them when they're going through these negotiations,
Speaker 1: like are you sure you want to be here in
Speaker 1: five years, They'll all say no. Like maybe the rare
Speaker 1: examples like Steph Curry and Golden State, right, like, there
Speaker 1: are gonna be guys that are remarkably loyal to their
Speaker 1: French but hey, big shot, Golden State's one of the
Speaker 1: most competent franchises in the NBA. But you have to
Speaker 1: take the money. If you really ask these dudes, they'll say, eh,
Speaker 1: I'm committed, but one to two years from now. Who
Speaker 1: knows they're not going to sign a two year deal
Speaker 1: their bodies. All it takes is one awkward landing, and
Speaker 1: now that money's gone, you've got to protect yourself. You've
Speaker 1: got to take the deal. But there's an ugly side
Speaker 1: of it. And the ugly side of it in particular
Speaker 1: is that I only want to go there now. We
Speaker 1: have a show that we're doing later tonight with mister
Speaker 1: Colin Coward, and well, I want to pick his brain
Speaker 1: on this, particularly because he's just been around sports for
Speaker 1: so long, he's seen so many of these dynamics. But
Speaker 1: it is an ugly look. It's not good when you've
Speaker 1: got agents leaking that he's calling other teams and telling
Speaker 1: them he'll be unhappy if he goes there. It doesn't
Speaker 1: help it all It doesn't help at all. If you've
Speaker 1: got the agent saying he's not going to report to
Speaker 1: training camp, that's a bad look. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it is just posturing. Do you guys
Speaker 1: remember the Why Leonard situation, All the same things were said,
Speaker 1: He's not going to show up to camp, doesn't want
Speaker 1: to go anywhere. But La, you're making a mistake if
Speaker 1: you trade for this guy. But if you are a
Speaker 1: competent NBA organization and you bring him in, you have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to win him over. Kawhi Leonard played some
Speaker 1: of the best bat arguably the very best basketball of
Speaker 1: his career in a Toronto Raptors jersey because they put
Speaker 1: their they put themselves out there. Now, did they lose
Speaker 1: him in free agency, Yes, but the Damian Lillard situation
Speaker 1: in particular has a lot of years left on the
Speaker 1: deal and Kawhi Leonard was very devoted while he was
Speaker 1: in Toronto. So what I would like to see is
Speaker 1: I would like to see a team get into the
Speaker 1: sweepstakes here and allow them the opportunity to prove to
Speaker 1: Dame that they're a worthwhile destination and a team that
Speaker 1: can help him reach his ultimate basketball seiling. So I
Speaker 1: have a specific team in mind, and that team is
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder. This team is already one of
Speaker 1: my favorite teams in the league. Somebody that I very
Speaker 1: much look forward to covering next year. I think Shay
Speaker 1: Gills as alexand he is a top fifteen player in
Speaker 1: the league. I have said this before, but I think
Speaker 1: he's the North American player that has the best opportunity
Speaker 1: to compete with guys like Jokic and Luka Doncic and
Speaker 1: Jannison Tenna Kumpo over the course of the coming decade.
Speaker 1: I think he's incredible. Lou Dort is one of the
Speaker 1: very best defensive players in the league. Josh Giddy is
Speaker 1: a super interesting high pick and roll shot creator with
Speaker 1: this combination of size and the ability to pass the basketball.
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren was unbelievable yesterday. Alexei Polkoshewsky one of the
Speaker 1: better young stretch big prospects in the league. They have
Speaker 1: talent on top of talent on top of talent. We
Speaker 1: don't even talk about Jaalen Williams, who was incredible when
Speaker 1: he played in Summer League last week and has the
Speaker 1: potential to be Jalen Brown with better playmaking. They are
Speaker 1: already that talented. But as you know, what ends up
Speaker 1: happening is you end up having to pay guys, and
Speaker 1: more often than not, what you would determined to be
Speaker 1: your window ends up being shorter than you think because
Speaker 1: you got to extend this guy, you gotta extend that guy.
Speaker 1: And then there's the cap ramifications, and then there's the
Speaker 1: luxury tax apron, and there's all these different things that
Speaker 1: can derail you in those situations. And so I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in taking risks and going after it. Adrian
Speaker 1: wor Jonowski reported yesterday that the Oklahoma City Thunder have
Speaker 1: thirty five draft picks between now and seven years from now,
Speaker 1: including fifteen first round draft picks. They can get into
Speaker 1: these sweepstakes without having to give up a young prospect.
Speaker 1: We did some work this morning and put together a trade. Essentially,
Speaker 1: the deal would be the Davas Berton's contract, Victor Oladipo,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gay and David Nwaba in some number of first
Speaker 1: round draft picks for Damian Lillard. In that situation, this
Speaker 1: would be the lineup. You'd have Dame at point guard,
Speaker 1: Shay At shooting guard, Lou Dort one of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders in the league at the three, Jalen william
Speaker 1: is one of the best young forward prospects in the
Speaker 1: league at the four, and Chet Holmgren one of the
Speaker 1: best young rim protector, skilled A centers that we've had
Speaker 1: as a prospect in years. Off the bench, they would
Speaker 1: have Josh Getty, Trey Mann who was really impressive yesterday,
Speaker 1: Kenrich Williams, a Lexipokeewski, and Jaylynn Williams. That is already
Speaker 1: overnight one of the very one of the most talented
Speaker 1: rosters in the league, with a veteran presence and dame
Speaker 1: to top tier shot creators. A dude, you can throw
Speaker 1: at the other team's best player in lou Dort, legitimate spacing,
Speaker 1: tons of shooting all over the roster, tons of depth,
Speaker 1: and you can do that without having to give up
Speaker 1: a young player and still have I don't know, eight
Speaker 1: or nine first round draft picks left in the next
Speaker 1: seven years. Again, like Sam Presci's done an incredible job
Speaker 1: putting together this roster, and he's done an incredible job
Speaker 1: hoarding assets. But the ultimate goal is to win an
Speaker 1: NBA championship, and you're right there. It's time to push
Speaker 1: the Chips in so again, I don't think they're going
Speaker 1: to do it, but they're my favorite candidate for a
Speaker 1: team to get involved in the Dame Miami Heat sweepsticks
Speaker 1: because a super interesting young team, one of my favorite
Speaker 1: players in the league in Shay. That combination of young
Speaker 1: ceiling but with that veteran presence that can push you
Speaker 1: over the top in a league that is winnable right now,
Speaker 1: with a ton of parody, with no team that has
Speaker 1: an outrageous talent advantage. I would like to see the
Speaker 1: Thunder go after him. Think that'd be a ton of fun. So, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, Joel Embiid, asked about the James Harden situation,
Speaker 1: says quote, I want him to come back, obviously, so
Speaker 1: we can accomplish what we want, which is a championship.
Speaker 1: Hopefully his mindset can be changed. This is a really
Speaker 1: interesting situation to me because the problem with the James
Speaker 1: Harden contract is there's no version of this story where
Speaker 1: you trade him and you get positive value back. Your
Speaker 1: team will become a worst basketball team as soon as
Speaker 1: you pull the trigger on a James Harden trade. Now,
Speaker 1: think back to what we saw in the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: playoffs last year? How close was Philly really? Philly feels
Speaker 1: like they're on a tier below the top tier championship contenders. Right,
Speaker 1: you're Joel Embiid, You're in your mid twenties, you're one
Speaker 1: of the top five to six players in the world.
Speaker 1: You want to compete for championships. Going backwards is not
Speaker 1: an option, And so I don't blame him, And I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see the way this plays out, because
Speaker 1: if they can't convince James Harden to come back, the
Speaker 1: Sixers are a lesser team than they were last year.
Speaker 1: Why would Joel Embiid want to stick around for something
Speaker 1: like that. It's something that It's something that I'd like
Speaker 1: to keep my eye on. Again. I know we hate
Speaker 1: the idea of the star players requesting trades and the
Speaker 1: fan bases hate it and it feels like it's fantasy basketball.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, you're Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: You have an injury history, your needs, have had issues,
Speaker 1: your feet, I've had issues. You can't afford to waste
Speaker 1: time and running it back with James Harden flipped first
Speaker 1: salary filler is a waste of time for what talent
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid brings to the table, so for his sake,
Speaker 1: for Joel Embiid's sake, I hope they can work it
Speaker 1: out with James Harden and give him a legitimate chance
Speaker 1: to compete next year. All right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for right now. We'll move back later tonight
Speaker 1: with mister con Coward, and we have a bunch of
Speaker 1: interesting stuff to get into. I will see you guys
Speaker 1: then