Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, we are live from the Blue Wires Studios
Speaker 1: at the Win in Las Vegas covering NBA Summer Lake.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking today about the rough debut for
Speaker 1: Victor wembin Yama in his matchup with Brandon Miller yesterday,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna do a quick rundown of a
Speaker 1: bunch of the other top prospects and their debuts at Summarily.
Speaker 1: Just a good old fashion episode of Hoops Tonight, just
Speaker 1: talking about basketball. You guys know the drill. Before we
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Speaker 1: before we get started. It may be the offseason and
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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All Right, So, one of my prevailing
Speaker 1: theories about Summer League basketball is everybody struggles because generally speaking,
Speaker 1: with basketball players in their development always more advanced on
Speaker 1: the defensive end when they're younger than they are on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. Makes sense. They're the biggest, strongest athletic
Speaker 1: versions of themselves at that age. But their skill sets
Speaker 1: aren't as well rounded and developed as they're going to
Speaker 1: be in their mid to late twenties, right, And then
Speaker 1: you throw in the you know, dynamic of having a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys that are scratching and clawing and fighting
Speaker 1: for their spot in the NBA bringing a level of intensity,
Speaker 1: particularly on the defensive end, that you just don't see
Speaker 1: even in regular season NBA games. It just becomes really
Speaker 1: really difficult to succeed. And so go through and look
Speaker 1: at all the stat lines and it's, you know, Scoot
Speaker 1: Henderson's five for thirteen and Brandon Miller's five for fifteen.
Speaker 1: No one's out there just lighting it up and hitting
Speaker 1: every shot. But even within that standard and that kind
Speaker 1: of like curve that we're grading these guys on, it
Speaker 1: still was a particularly rough game for Victor wembin Yama.
Speaker 1: He went two for thirteen from the field, He had
Speaker 1: more turnovers than assists, did have five blocks, but it
Speaker 1: didn't feel like he was all that impactful defensively. And
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about some of his limitations
Speaker 1: because he certainly has things that he needs to get
Speaker 1: better at. That's not exactly a hot take, but I
Speaker 1: want to defend Victor Wembinyama today because honestly, I did
Speaker 1: not think it was the ideal basketball environment for him
Speaker 1: to be able to showcase what he can do. I
Speaker 1: was watching with the nerd SESSH guys in the stands,
Speaker 1: Carson and Logan, and I look at him before the tip,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I wonder what they're gonna do with
Speaker 1: him on offense. Are they gonna be running picking pops
Speaker 1: and setting him up with advantage situations where he can
Speaker 1: attack a defense that's already compromised, or are they just
Speaker 1: gonna dump it to him in the post? And almost
Speaker 1: immediately from the opening tip, they're just tossing him the
Speaker 1: basketball on the wing against Kai Jones in a set
Speaker 1: defense situation with nine sets of eyeball staring at him
Speaker 1: and asking him to mix up and make a play.
Speaker 1: And look, here's the thing that's a part of the
Speaker 1: game of basketball. You need to be able to rescue possessions.
Speaker 1: You need to be able to beat switches, you need
Speaker 1: to be able to Oh, this guy on the floor
Speaker 1: is a weak defender. We have to target him. That
Speaker 1: is a part of the game, but it's a small
Speaker 1: part of the game. Even the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: and there's only like seven or eight guys that are
Speaker 1: really good at it, that are really good at just
Speaker 1: picking on matchups one on one with a live dribble
Speaker 1: against the set defense in the entire league. And even
Speaker 1: then they might only do it three or four times
Speaker 1: a game, and Victor did it three or four times
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, And so I'm not surprised that
Speaker 1: he struggled in that environment. That's just a really hard
Speaker 1: way to play the game of basketball. He is a
Speaker 1: stretch big. The way that he is going to be
Speaker 1: used with the Spurs, especially early in his career, is
Speaker 1: setting ball screens, rolling to the top of the key
Speaker 1: or popping to the top of the key, catching there,
Speaker 1: having a slow footed center closing out at him, and
Speaker 1: him either hitting a three or pump faking and attacking
Speaker 1: that closet. That's what chrisops Porzingis does. Hell the best
Speaker 1: player in the world, Nicola Jokich, that's what he does. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's posting up. Yeah, there's a lot of complicated stuff
Speaker 1: that he does. But the bread and butter is him
Speaker 1: running two man game and him either pop in or
Speaker 1: short rolling to the basket. And so especially on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. I didn't think the Spurs
Speaker 1: did Victor any favors because they were asking him to
Speaker 1: play an extremely difficult brand of basketball and he's going
Speaker 1: to struggle in that environment. Now, I will say there's
Speaker 1: some stuff that he has to get better at, because
Speaker 1: they did run some pick and pops in the second half,
Speaker 1: in particular, and he would catch with Kai Jones closing
Speaker 1: out at him, and he'd just be slow. He'd stand
Speaker 1: there and he'd jabstep and he'd wait for him to
Speaker 1: close out. And now, all of a sudden, even though
Speaker 1: you ran in action to get him an advantage, he's
Speaker 1: staying in there getting ready to play isolation basketball again.
Speaker 1: So he does need to learn to be quick in
Speaker 1: the specifically in off ball situations. And we can talk
Speaker 1: about that because that's the big difference between like a
Speaker 1: guy like Brandon Miller, who was playing in slow motion
Speaker 1: but in a good way. Like making reads on the basketball,
Speaker 1: you do want to take it slow, but when you're
Speaker 1: popping and someone's closing out at you, you need to
Speaker 1: make a quick decision. It's catch and shoot, catching rip
Speaker 1: towards the baseline and try to make a play. There's
Speaker 1: definitely some things that Victor needs to get better at.
Speaker 1: But that was just a really difficult situation for him
Speaker 1: to just pop in a summer league setting, just attacking
Speaker 1: in isolation like that, and then even on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, and he did end up with
Speaker 1: five blocks, which goes to show you just how insane
Speaker 1: his defensive ceiling could eventually be, or we should just
Speaker 1: call that his defensive floor. But the reality is if
Speaker 1: you watch that game, he's gotten Brandon Miller the whole time.
Speaker 1: He's chasing him around on the perimeter, he's chasing him
Speaker 1: over the top of screens, he's away from the basket
Speaker 1: for the most part. So just in general, looking back
Speaker 1: at that game, I didn't think it was the best
Speaker 1: example of an opportunity for us to see what Victor
Speaker 1: is good at. And so on Sunday, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if they dramatically changed their approach, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: going into the season with the Spurs, it's not going
Speaker 1: to look anything like what you saw yesterday. I saw
Speaker 1: way too many people taking an opportunity to take a
Speaker 1: victory lap, or to bury Victor wembin Yam, or to
Speaker 1: call him a bust or way overhyped from one Summer
Speaker 1: League game, And to me, that's completely nonsensical. Even if
Speaker 1: you wanted to reach that conclusion, you're gonna need a
Speaker 1: hell of a lot more evidence than just one particular game.
Speaker 1: And no matter what, that's just not what he's going
Speaker 1: to be doing for the Spurs. Let's watch him do
Speaker 1: what he's going to be doing for the Spurs before
Speaker 1: we make a judgment call and what type of player
Speaker 1: he's gonna be no matter what, as a big who's
Speaker 1: protecting the rim and picking and popping, He's probably not
Speaker 1: gonna win Rookie of the Year anyway. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: some guy like Scoot Scoot Henderson who was awesome yesterday
Speaker 1: applying a ton of rim pressure and generating offense for
Speaker 1: his teammates and competing defensively. Guys like that are going
Speaker 1: to pop earlier in their careers and they're gonna win
Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year maybe get an earlier All
Speaker 1: Star selection. But Victor wom Minyama's all time ceiling is
Speaker 1: infinitely higher than all of those guys because he has
Speaker 1: the capability of being the best defensive player in the
Speaker 1: world while also being the best offensive player in the world,
Speaker 1: and that's a super unique quality, So I do want
Speaker 1: to defend Victor. Also, I thought it was really cool
Speaker 1: to hear that coach Greg Popovich has renewed his contract
Speaker 1: for five years now. It's a little convoluted because apparently
Speaker 1: he's also the president of basketball operations and he can
Speaker 1: potentially fulfill that contract outside of a coaching role. So
Speaker 1: we'll see in the long run, and maybe he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to groom somebody to fill his particular shoes. But
Speaker 1: I can think of nobody better to guide Victor in
Speaker 1: this phase of his career, especially since he's gone through
Speaker 1: a similar situation with Tim Duncan in the late nineties,
Speaker 1: in the early two thousands, developing this all time great
Speaker 1: prospect at the forward center position. I can think of
Speaker 1: nobody better, and I'm glad that he's going to be
Speaker 1: around for that. Also, shout out to Kai Jones. We
Speaker 1: all went there to see a Victor wenbin Yama highlight.
Speaker 1: In one of the most unbelievable highlights that I can remember,
Speaker 1: seeing Kai Jones dunking over the top a top of
Speaker 1: Victor wenbin Yama, good old fashioned Blake Griffin over Tim
Speaker 1: if a Mosgov style, just throwing it down through the rim.
Speaker 1: That was fun. And we had a lot of poster
Speaker 1: dunks last night between Shade and Sharp and and then
Speaker 1: Victor wenbin Yama getting dunked on by Kai Jones. There
Speaker 1: was just an unbelievable highlight reel in Summer League yesterday.
Speaker 1: All Right, so we're just gonna go rapid fire through
Speaker 1: the rest of the prospects. I have six or seven
Speaker 1: other guys I wanted to hit on. Brandon Miller. Really
Speaker 1: was impressed with the pace that he played at. Again,
Speaker 1: when you're initiating offense, you want to take it slow
Speaker 1: and have change of pace. Why because you need to
Speaker 1: make reads. And the guys that are firing like a
Speaker 1: bat out of hell every single time they have the basketball,
Speaker 1: those are the guys that are reckless. That's that kind
Speaker 1: of like Russell Westbrook type syndrome where everything's happening so
Speaker 1: fast and there's no change up and then it's always
Speaker 1: just feast or fame And in the result, right is
Speaker 1: pull up jump shout looks really smoothie at one in
Speaker 1: Pick and Roll yesterday when Victor died on a screen
Speaker 1: and I was really surprised at how good he was
Speaker 1: passing the basketball. It's something that I look forward to
Speaker 1: watching develop young in his young career. And then defensively,
Speaker 1: you had a big two handed block at the rim yesterday.
Speaker 1: Really impressed by Brandon Miller. Scoot Henderson again spitting image
Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook. Just that unbelievable downhill rim pressure, this
Speaker 1: competitive energy that just like comes off of him in
Speaker 1: waves that you can just see with the way he's
Speaker 1: interacting with his teammates, with the way he's interacting with
Speaker 1: his opponents, the unending energy. Now, you guys have heard
Speaker 1: me say that that's my least favorite archetype of player
Speaker 1: because that super athletic guard tends to tail off earlier
Speaker 1: in their careers and struggle in some of the ancillary
Speaker 1: areas of their game. Hopefully Scoot Henderson is the one
Speaker 1: who breaks the mold and the key will be getting
Speaker 1: in the gym. All of these super athletic guards, they
Speaker 1: rely so heavily on their athleticism to generate offense that
Speaker 1: when their athleticism starts to fade, their skill deficiencies rise
Speaker 1: to the surface. And so what will make or break
Speaker 1: Scoot's career will be his ability to develop that skill
Speaker 1: set as his athleticism fades. Jaden Sharp I thought he
Speaker 1: had a really rough game for about three and a
Speaker 1: half quarters and then he has that monster dunkin transition,
Speaker 1: and it was like everything turned around for him. Suddenly
Speaker 1: he's just getting downhill like crazy. He had that wild
Speaker 1: contact layup on the left side of the rim. He
Speaker 1: had a really nice turnaround fadeaway that he hit in traffic.
Speaker 1: You could tell when he really upped his athletic intensity
Speaker 1: was when the game turned around for him, and that's
Speaker 1: his best skill. Remember, you, as a basketball player bring
Speaker 1: weapons to the battle. You have to use those weapons,
Speaker 1: and if you table those weapons, you're not doing yourself
Speaker 1: any favors. One of the things I noticed early in
Speaker 1: the game, he would come off of a screen and
Speaker 1: have some space and he'd slow down and shoot like
Speaker 1: a set shot, and it's like, dude, you're the best
Speaker 1: athlete on the floor. Rise up. This is a big
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant staple in his training regimen. Do everything at
Speaker 1: game speed. If you are taking those shots at game
Speaker 1: speed in practice and rising up at game speed in
Speaker 1: the game, there won't be any sort of break in
Speaker 1: your rhythm and you'll feel comfortable in those situations. It's
Speaker 1: really hard as a freak athlete to come off of
Speaker 1: a ball screen and then slow yourself down, especially in
Speaker 1: a game setting like that. So I'd like to see
Speaker 1: shade and elevate a little bit more on those jump shots.
Speaker 1: He's got such an athletically gifted body that if he
Speaker 1: can develop that part, he can be a really gifted
Speaker 1: shot maker in this league. You get a spinning fade
Speaker 1: away that he took over Jabari Smith Junior that he missed,
Speaker 1: and when he took it, he got like literally like
Speaker 1: six feet of separation against an outstanding perimeter defensive player.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of exciting stuff that you can see
Speaker 1: in Shaden Sharp's future. A Men Thompson, he ended up
Speaker 1: hurting his ankle unfortunately on a huge clutch block down
Speaker 1: the stretch that game, making an extra effort on a
Speaker 1: multiple rebound situation, made the block, came down and suffered
Speaker 1: a Grade two sprain. He's gonna end up missing the
Speaker 1: rest of Summer League, but I will say I was
Speaker 1: really really impressed with the effort, the competitiveness his playmaking
Speaker 1: popped off the screen. Obviously he's got some stuff with
Speaker 1: his shot he's got to work out, probably needs to
Speaker 1: overhaul his form. He's got a little bit of a
Speaker 1: crossfire thing going on, and the problem with crossfiring is
Speaker 1: so many more angles have to be dialed in for
Speaker 1: it to work, Whereas if you have a good power
Speaker 1: line in your shot, you won't miss left or right,
Speaker 1: so then you only have to worry about the distance
Speaker 1: on your shot. So I'd like to see him kind
Speaker 1: of reconfigure some stuff with his shot. Really exciting young
Speaker 1: player Jambari Smith Jun you ended up hitting the game winner,
Speaker 1: got to the foul line a bunch, had thirty three points.
Speaker 1: He was so so so underdeveloped as a ball handler
Speaker 1: and as a scorer last year, and he still is
Speaker 1: a little bit sloppy, but you can start to see
Speaker 1: the development coming along as he's getting more and more reps.
Speaker 1: He ended up hitting a big jap step jump shot.
Speaker 1: Getting to the foul line is a big, a big
Speaker 1: sign of you getting defenders out of position, which means
Speaker 1: the defenders don't know which direction you're going to go.
Speaker 1: I was talking with the nerd Sez guys in the stands.
Speaker 1: To me, this is one of the most interesting parts
Speaker 1: of skill development in basketball. You can go in the
Speaker 1: gym and work on ball handling drills all you want,
Speaker 1: You can go do shooting drills all you want, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, in a basketball game,
Speaker 1: it's not a static environment. Dudes are shoving you on
Speaker 1: the hip, Guys are hitting you on the arm. You're
Speaker 1: probably getting fouled, and it's not getting called. There's a
Speaker 1: certain like physical battle that's taking place, and the only
Speaker 1: way to get good at that is to get reps.
Speaker 1: You have to do in games against live defenders. That's
Speaker 1: something you're never going to get in the gym by yourself.
Speaker 1: And so Jabari Smith watching him make those mild leaps
Speaker 1: as a score, I'm excited to see more of that
Speaker 1: as he grows as well. Moving on to the Lakers Warriors,
Speaker 1: Max Christie has been a revelation for the last two games,
Speaker 1: showing a lot a pull up jump shooting. Had a
Speaker 1: ridiculous driving dunk. That was the fourth ridiculous poster dunk
Speaker 1: that we got in yesterday's game. I think Julian Champagne
Speaker 1: he ended up having a really good to shout out
Speaker 1: to Julian Champagne. He was awesome yesterday. Really smart signing
Speaker 1: by the Spurs to tie him up for four years
Speaker 1: on a good number. That's great team building. There, really
Speaker 1: smart stuff from the Spurs front office, but Max Christy
Speaker 1: gets the ridiculous dunk. What's interesting with Max is all
Speaker 1: of the skill development stuff is great, but the really
Speaker 1: interesting thing is gonna be whether or not he can
Speaker 1: defend on the perimeter for the Lakers, because if you
Speaker 1: look at the Lakers roster, they're stacked with shot creators.
Speaker 1: Ousires can run pick and roll, D'Angel Russell can run
Speaker 1: pick and roll. Lebron James can run pick and roll,
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent can run pick and roll. You don't need
Speaker 1: any more shot creation necessarily on that team, not to
Speaker 1: mention Anthony Davis and everything he can do with the
Speaker 1: ball on the post. So really, what you need for
Speaker 1: Max Christi is a three and D player. And so
Speaker 1: what I'm really interested in is what Max Christy can
Speaker 1: do as a perimeter defender this season, because if you
Speaker 1: look at that roster, the one weakness is it's like
Speaker 1: if I needed to guard a quick guard, who's the
Speaker 1: one guy I trust and it's Jared Vanderbilt and not
Speaker 1: a whole lot else. And so if Max Christi can
Speaker 1: add some depth at that position. He's gonna earn some
Speaker 1: playing time. There's gonna be some minutes in those three
Speaker 1: and D roles for the Lakers this year, and I
Speaker 1: think Max has developed enough that if he can compete
Speaker 1: enough defensively, he'll have a chance. Max Lewis looked great.
Speaker 1: Hit a couple of really nice plays attacking close outs.
Speaker 1: He had to step back, jump shot attacking and close out.
Speaker 1: He had a pull up jumper and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He's probably my favorite prospect from the Lakers in the draft.
Speaker 1: I like Jalen hood Chafino, but I think Maxwell Lewis
Speaker 1: is a little bit more NBA ready, especially for the
Speaker 1: role that they'll need from him. He reminds me of
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy a little bit in that lanky wing with
Speaker 1: real catch and shoot ability, with just that little bit
Speaker 1: of extra flash attacking close outs, and that has the
Speaker 1: tools to be a great defender, even if he isn't
Speaker 1: one yet. On the warrior side, Brandon Patziemski still struggling
Speaker 1: to shoot a little bit, but he's getting good looks,
Speaker 1: so I expect him to fall eventually. Again, this is
Speaker 1: a very intense physical environment. The skill players are all
Speaker 1: playing poorly, so I don't want to judge him there particularly,
Speaker 1: but I'm really impressed with how he's built. This is
Speaker 1: my first time seeing him live. He's got a physical
Speaker 1: profile that's going to allow him to hold up during
Speaker 1: the NBA season and then defend up positions, which I
Speaker 1: think will help for some of his perimeter limitations. Even
Speaker 1: if he can't slide his feet super well, if he
Speaker 1: can switch and guard a bigger wing because he's big
Speaker 1: and strong enough, that helps a lot. His passing continues
Speaker 1: to just stun me every time I watch him. He
Speaker 1: had a transition play where he got into the lane
Speaker 1: and up and under and just threw a rifle pass
Speaker 1: with his left hand to a shooter in the right corner.
Speaker 1: I think he's just Golden State Warriors basketball personified. He's
Speaker 1: going to be a perfect fit there. And last, but
Speaker 1: not least, Trace Jackson Davis did not play. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: we'll get to see him on Sunday. I continue to
Speaker 1: think that he's going to be that forward that they
Speaker 1: were looking for. They were looking for a veteran forward.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to find one in the veteran minimum market.
Speaker 1: It's very possible that Trace Jackson Davis at age twenty
Speaker 1: four in this upcoming season ends up being that player
Speaker 1: for them. I'm hoping to have the opportunity to scout
Speaker 1: him on Sunday. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your sport
Speaker 1: and we will see you next time. The volume