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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by FANDOL here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a good
Speaker 1: start to your week. Today is going to be a
Speaker 1: Warriors themed show. I did get to see Jonathan Cominga
Speaker 1: and Moses Moody in person in Summer League, but as
Speaker 1: soon as I found out that James Wiseman was gonna
Speaker 1: be playing last night, I wanted to wait until after
Speaker 1: I saw James Wiseman before diving into the Warriors guys.
Speaker 1: For those of you guys who missed it yesterday, I
Speaker 1: did a show went for about forty five minutes where
Speaker 1: I hit on everything else from Summer League, the overall experience,
Speaker 1: what it was like, all of the RUSS drama with Lebron,
Speaker 1: all of the other stars and celebrities that showed up,
Speaker 1: and then I did a deep dive into the top
Speaker 1: five players in this year's draft, which I got to
Speaker 1: see one after the other up close and personal at
Speaker 1: the Thomas and Mac Center. So do not miss that.
Speaker 1: If you haven't heard it yet, go to our YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: You can find it there. Don't forget to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel while you're there, so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our our videos. If for whatever reason
Speaker 1: you can't get over to YouTube today, you can also
Speaker 1: find it on our podcast feed, which for the time
Speaker 1: being is under Lakers Tonight. Last, but not least, don't
Speaker 1: forget to follow me on Twitter. I underscore Jason LT
Speaker 1: so you guys can see show announcements and video breakdowns
Speaker 1: and things that I do along those lines. So game
Speaker 1: plan for the Warriors today, Oh quickly give my two
Speaker 1: cents on the first game that I saw in person.
Speaker 1: Then we'll go one by one through them, starting with Wiseman,
Speaker 1: and we'll hate coming good Moody as well. I'll give
Speaker 1: you guys what I liked from them, what I think
Speaker 1: they're already great at, and then I'll talk about things
Speaker 1: that I think that they can improve on over the
Speaker 1: next couple of years to actually become functional rotation pieces
Speaker 1: for this Warrior's team. So let's start with that first game.
Speaker 1: And it was a big wake up call for Jonathan
Speaker 1: Cominga and everything I've heard from Warriors people. And what
Speaker 1: was nice is I've had some friends and Warriors Twitter
Speaker 1: for a while that I got to meet in person
Speaker 1: while I was out in Vegas. And you know, the
Speaker 1: common refrain with Jonathan Cominga is that he's very, very confident.
Speaker 1: You know, that's his attitude. His attitude is that of
Speaker 1: a lot of young basketball players that come up in
Speaker 1: America in the sense that they are, you know, highly recruited,
Speaker 1: highly ranked, highly touted, and then they run into a
Speaker 1: situation where they are no longer the best player on
Speaker 1: the floor, and sometimes there's a little bit of an
Speaker 1: adjustment in terms of their personality and their attitude. And
Speaker 1: you know, Jonathan Cominga and Moses Moody were sent to
Speaker 1: Summer League with James Wiseman, not just to get better
Speaker 1: as basketball players. But because they need reps, you know,
Speaker 1: the with the the grown up team in Golden State,
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily get a ton of opportunity. It's inconsistent.
Speaker 1: You know, one series you're playing Jonathan coming a little bit,
Speaker 1: the next series you're not seeing him at all. You know,
Speaker 1: then Moses Moody will get a lot of run. But
Speaker 1: then you get in the finals and you don't see
Speaker 1: any of those guys. Right, this is the best place
Speaker 1: for them to get reps because real, live game reps
Speaker 1: are the best way to improve, especially on things that
Speaker 1: aren't directly related to your skill, things like seeing the floor,
Speaker 1: things like making reads, attacking closeouts are out of high
Speaker 1: pick and roll dealing with real intensity and practice. It's
Speaker 1: just really difficult to duplicate urgency. Right. So in this
Speaker 1: in this type of setting, going against fringe NBA players,
Speaker 1: either soon to be NBA players that are very very talented,
Speaker 1: like lottery picks, or guys that are scratching and clawing
Speaker 1: for their opportunity to get an NBA deal. And Jonathan
Speaker 1: Camingo rolled into that game on Friday night very confident,
Speaker 1: too confident, and he got punched in them out so
Speaker 1: to speak, by the players on the floor that were
Speaker 1: scratching and clawing for their NBA lives. And I was
Speaker 1: really interested to see how he would respond last night,
Speaker 1: and I actually thought he responded very well. He brought
Speaker 1: the physicality rather than letting people bully him. Even though
Speaker 1: he didn't shoot the ball particularly well, he got involved
Speaker 1: in so many other different ways on the floor. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get into that later. In that first game, what
Speaker 1: Moses Moody was amazing, very very savvy, the ready four
Speaker 1: points got to the free throw line of Ton. He
Speaker 1: is clearly the most NBA ready in terms of being
Speaker 1: able to play in a playoff rotation. We'll get a
Speaker 1: little bit further into that later. So let's start with
Speaker 1: James Wiseman. First of all, I really really liked how
Speaker 1: they started that started that game with a high pick
Speaker 1: and roll with Jonathan cominga. Noticed they set the screen
Speaker 1: way far out beyond the three point line. I really
Speaker 1: really like running pick and roll that high away from
Speaker 1: the basket because it really allows your ball handler and
Speaker 1: your rollman to get momentum. You know, a guy who's
Speaker 1: running full speed is is a bigger physical challenge than
Speaker 1: a guy who's trying to get started, and when you
Speaker 1: run pick and roll too load to the basket, it
Speaker 1: can be difficult for guys to really get momentum going
Speaker 1: towards the rim. Jonathan Comingga comes off the screen and
Speaker 1: is barreling down the lane. James Wiseman is barreling down
Speaker 1: as the roll man. Because Jonathan Cominga is barreling down
Speaker 1: the lane, the guy in drop coverage has to step
Speaker 1: up to stop Cominga, which left James Wiseman wide open
Speaker 1: for the lob. I really liked the play design and
Speaker 1: just the the idea there. Hey, James Wiseman hasn't played
Speaker 1: any basketball in a long time. Let's get his confidence
Speaker 1: going with a play ran for him to start the game.
Speaker 1: He got that dunk and immediately you could just tell
Speaker 1: he was feeling confident. Very next play, going down the floor,
Speaker 1: Spurs on offense. They were on to pick and roll
Speaker 1: themselves and James Wiseman is in drop coverage. The ball
Speaker 1: handler for the Spurs stops to pull up at about
Speaker 1: twelve feet and James Wiseman gets a block, which is
Speaker 1: what you're supposed to do in that position as a
Speaker 1: drop coverage big. You're supposed to drop back contain the
Speaker 1: role man but dissuade the pull up jump shot, and
Speaker 1: he demonstrated that he can do that very very well.
Speaker 1: A couple of plays later, down down the floor, he
Speaker 1: hit a nice off the dribble three. You can tell
Speaker 1: that he was just dripping with confidence at that point,
Speaker 1: which is good to see because this is a player
Speaker 1: that you know, you can see kind of drift in
Speaker 1: and out of games in terms of his physicality and
Speaker 1: his confidence. And then obviously with him not being on
Speaker 1: the floor for a while, you start to get some doubts, right,
Speaker 1: and so to get to see him have some success,
Speaker 1: that's a great sign. It's just like a breath of
Speaker 1: it fresh air. If your warriors fans to know that
Speaker 1: he can still go out there and can and can
Speaker 1: compete at a super high level, you could see unbelievable potential.
Speaker 1: The combination of length and mobility is super intriguing. Defensively,
Speaker 1: he blocked or changed three shots in his first shift,
Speaker 1: two blocks directly, and then he had another play where
Speaker 1: a guard tried to kind of swoop around him to
Speaker 1: the right side of the rim, and James dissuaded or
Speaker 1: disrupted the shot enough to where the guard shot the
Speaker 1: layup over the rim, that mobility covering ground on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: There was even a play where he committed a foul
Speaker 1: on a three point shooter where obviously he needs to
Speaker 1: check himself up and not run underneath the shooter, but
Speaker 1: just the amount of ground he covered to get out
Speaker 1: to the shooter was really really impressive, and that's gonna
Speaker 1: be very important in the Golden State scheme, which obviously
Speaker 1: can get rotation heavy because they have some small guards
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. He has a really really pretty turnaround
Speaker 1: jump shot over his left shoulder. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: ready going over his right shoulder yet, which we'll get
Speaker 1: to in just a second, but that turnaround over his
Speaker 1: left shoulders super super for comfortable and fluid. That's a
Speaker 1: great sign because that's a go to move that he
Speaker 1: can that he can have later on in his career. Right,
Speaker 1: I we need team needs a basket eight seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot clock. I got a decent matchup bump fade
Speaker 1: over that left shoulder. If he can knock that down,
Speaker 1: that's a really really nice go to move, and it's
Speaker 1: been to go to move for a lot of the
Speaker 1: great power forwards and centers in NBA history, very very
Speaker 1: very you can just you can really just see all
Speaker 1: of the potential. He's very comfortable dribbling in space, which
Speaker 1: is good for a big obviously, just like with chet Homegrin,
Speaker 1: He's gonna struggle a little bit dribbling in traffic. After
Speaker 1: his first block at the second possession of the game,
Speaker 1: he tried to push the ball up in transition, trying
Speaker 1: to weave in and out people and got ripped. That's
Speaker 1: gonna happen when you're a big man. We talked about
Speaker 1: this a little bit yesterday, but when you dribble higher
Speaker 1: off the ground as a big man, there's just so
Speaker 1: much more space for the defenders to come in and
Speaker 1: take the ball away from you. That's the stuff that
Speaker 1: he has to learn to take out of his game entirely.
Speaker 1: You know, like only the eightist perimeter bigs of all time,
Speaker 1: the Kevin Durance of the world, can comfortably dribble in traffic,
Speaker 1: and even he can struggle, as you saw against Boston.
Speaker 1: It's just really really hard for tall guys. But he
Speaker 1: does look comfortable dribbling when he has space, which will
Speaker 1: really help him when he's attacking slower, lumbering bigs. That
Speaker 1: will give him space and then, last but not least
Speaker 1: as a positive, he's a real vertical spacing threat. The
Speaker 1: guy can catch everything around there. And there were several
Speaker 1: plays in this game where people threw him lobs in
Speaker 1: traffic where he didn't have the opportunity to dunk it,
Speaker 1: but he could just go up and snatch it over
Speaker 1: everybody and then come down and make a play off
Speaker 1: of that. Lots and lots and lots of really good
Speaker 1: foundational pieces in James Wiseman's game. That said, he does
Speaker 1: have a lot to work on, and so I wanted
Speaker 1: to take a couple of minutes here to point out
Speaker 1: the things that he needs to get better at for
Speaker 1: him to really be a functional center in UH in
Speaker 1: this Golden State system. First of all is seeking out contact.
Speaker 1: He's got a little bit of that Anthony Davis syndrome
Speaker 1: where he likes to be Kevin Durant. He likes to
Speaker 1: be a finn ass big, and there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: having that in your game. It's actually a huge plus.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, the perimeter big was a huge part of
Speaker 1: how the Lakers won the championship in two thousand twenty.
Speaker 1: It's a it's an awesome weapon to have as a team,
Speaker 1: but you've got to be both. You've got to also
Speaker 1: be able to fight for better post up position not
Speaker 1: get pushed off of spots. He definitely was catching the
Speaker 1: ball further away from the basket than you'd like on
Speaker 1: your post up moves seeking contact. There was a play
Speaker 1: in the second quarter where he cut from the top
Speaker 1: of the key and caught just about like two U
Speaker 1: two U two aligns up the lane line on the
Speaker 1: right block, and he catches the ball and he does
Speaker 1: a power dribble, but he doesn't initiate contact, and then
Speaker 1: he goes up with a left handed hook and he
Speaker 1: misses it. The whole point of a power dribbles to
Speaker 1: help you control the basketball while initiating contact, you're pounding
Speaker 1: the basketball and dropping your shoulder into the guy's chest.
Speaker 1: If you do that, he'll fall back a couple of feet,
Speaker 1: which then allows you to go over the top with
Speaker 1: the hook, as opposed to if he's standing there and
Speaker 1: you have to shoot over the top of him, it's
Speaker 1: a much much more difficult shot. Get Learning to love
Speaker 1: that contact is a huge part of what makes a
Speaker 1: dominant NBA big. Actively seeking out that contact The reason
Speaker 1: why that's important is most of the best bigs in
Speaker 1: the league do and so if you're playing against the
Speaker 1: big that loves to initiate contact and you don't, then
Speaker 1: you're more likely to get pushed off your spots and
Speaker 1: they'll be the aggressor on you, and when you start
Speaker 1: to lose that battle, it can work out poorly for
Speaker 1: you in the long run. So definitely getting more physical
Speaker 1: with the basketball, fighting for post up position, and then
Speaker 1: Um in post in the post moves themselves. Even with
Speaker 1: his little fade away over his left shoulder, he's kind
Speaker 1: of just turning and firing right now. I'd like to
Speaker 1: see him use his right hand to pound a dribble
Speaker 1: into the guy's chest and then go up into that shot,
Speaker 1: because that will allow him to not have to fade
Speaker 1: away so much. UM one other area where he needs
Speaker 1: to learn to seek out contact more his box outs.
Speaker 1: He has a tendency to just kind of like look
Speaker 1: up at the rim and put his hands up then
Speaker 1: rather than to turn around, find a man box out
Speaker 1: and then go to the ball. Um. We talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot on the show during the playoffs, but
Speaker 1: at the end, since the NBA has gone more towards
Speaker 1: three point shooting. It's been more important than ever for
Speaker 1: bigs to box out rather than to go to the ball.
Speaker 1: You know, back up in time fifteen years, the average
Speaker 1: distance of an NBA shot was so much closer to
Speaker 1: the rim that you had so many fewer long rebounds,
Speaker 1: and so in that case, big men were more capable
Speaker 1: of just jumping over everybody to try to grab rebounds.
Speaker 1: And in that era, James Wiseman could have been great
Speaker 1: at that specific thing. But in this era, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of long rebounds, so you need your guards to
Speaker 1: help crash and it's become more important than ever for
Speaker 1: guys to box out. And that's something that James Wisemen
Speaker 1: is gonna have to get much better at. He only
Speaker 1: had two rebounds in twenty minutes. The Spurs had eleven
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds in twenty minutes last night, so that he's
Speaker 1: just got to be a more impactful rebounder, which he
Speaker 1: can do by being more physical. That's gonna be the
Speaker 1: big thing to watch with him all season long. Just
Speaker 1: pay close attention to him during the game and how
Speaker 1: how often he is the aggressor physically seeking contact rather
Speaker 1: than being the guy who's being aggressed, if that makes sense. Um,
Speaker 1: his role on on on this particular Warriors team is
Speaker 1: gonna look a lot like kevn Looney, right Like, That's
Speaker 1: the thing you gotta understand is he's not gonna come
Speaker 1: in and be Anthony Davis. He's not gonna come in
Speaker 1: and be LaMarcus Aldridge's not gonna come in and be
Speaker 1: Kevin Garnett with a bunch of post touches and a
Speaker 1: ton of offense, offense ran directly through him. He's trying
Speaker 1: to fit into an existing championship team that is already
Speaker 1: having an issue with players competing for shots. Right Like
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins was the second best player on that championship
Speaker 1: team last year. He's gonna be the kind of guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna need a certain amount of offense run through him,
Speaker 1: like he demonstrated he can do and last year's playoff runt. Right.
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson, first full year back from injury, He's gonna
Speaker 1: want to get back to the level of usage that
Speaker 1: he had before his injury. Right, Jordan Pool, you know
Speaker 1: this is gonna be yet another year where he's gonna
Speaker 1: be looking to make another leap and looking to make
Speaker 1: another great offensive impression. Right, So in this particular group,
Speaker 1: his role is going to be similar to Looney. What
Speaker 1: does Looney do for the Warriors. He's a very versatile
Speaker 1: defensive player who protects the rim well, can switch out
Speaker 1: to wings and guards and cover ground on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and then on the offensive end of the floor, he's
Speaker 1: a beast attacking the offensive glass. That was one of
Speaker 1: the best weapons that Golden State had in this playoff runt.
Speaker 1: So if you want to take minutes, right, because we
Speaker 1: gotta find minutes for all these people. So if Draymond
Speaker 1: is going to play a certain amount of minutes at
Speaker 1: the five and a certain amount ements at the four,
Speaker 1: and then the minutes that Draymond's at the four, Looney's
Speaker 1: gonna play the five. You know, Wise, he's got to
Speaker 1: find a way to cram himself in there somehow, right,
Speaker 1: and the best way for him to do that is
Speaker 1: to get really good at doing the stuff that Looney does,
Speaker 1: so that he can have the opportunity to be in
Speaker 1: there and flash all the potential that he has elsewhere
Speaker 1: on the floor as a perimeter shooter, and with all
Speaker 1: of his length and athleticism, it's just important for him
Speaker 1: to understand his role and to dive into that. His
Speaker 1: best pathway two minutes will be the little things, not
Speaker 1: all the high end stuff. The high end stuff is
Speaker 1: down the line for you, which is great. You're a
Speaker 1: young basketball player. You've got a long career ahead of you.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get his opportunities to play no matter what.
Speaker 1: My guess is that there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure from the front office on Steve Kerr to play
Speaker 1: James Wiseman and Jonathan Cominga, even if Kerr doesn't see
Speaker 1: them as rotation playoff players here, He's gonna get his opportunity.
Speaker 1: But in order for him to be in the actual
Speaker 1: playoff rotation, those are the things that he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to be able to prove. Offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, defending
Speaker 1: without fouling. Committed seven fouls in twenty minutes last night
Speaker 1: undercut at three point shooter. He's gonna have to figure
Speaker 1: that out, set some illegal screens. Those are little details
Speaker 1: that he's gonna have to figure out in order to
Speaker 1: make the playoff rotation. So onto, Jonathan Comica, like I said,
Speaker 1: he had a bit of a wake up call in
Speaker 1: that in that first game, but he was so much
Speaker 1: more physically aggressive in game two. He was the guy
Speaker 1: seeking contact and it was honestly, really really impressive on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor to see him do that.
Speaker 1: He has really really astounding hang time. There are a
Speaker 1: bunch of players where he would get into the lane
Speaker 1: and jump into a guy's chest, wait for that person
Speaker 1: to come down while he's still in the air, and
Speaker 1: then finish over the top. That's just you know, everyone
Speaker 1: talks about dunking as it comes to athleticism, and like
Speaker 1: I've always told all the young players that I coach
Speaker 1: here in Tucson, like dunking is the most overrated talent
Speaker 1: that there is in all of basketball. And I was
Speaker 1: a dunker, had like fifteen twenty dunks when I was
Speaker 1: in college. But like they're just they're they're two points,
Speaker 1: but they're usually produced by something else. So usually produced
Speaker 1: by a player getting into the lane and dropping it
Speaker 1: off to you or you'll I had a handful of
Speaker 1: driving dunks or a handful of tip slams, but they're
Speaker 1: not there's there's nowhere near enough there to build a
Speaker 1: game around. You have to build your game around things
Speaker 1: that are replicable on a possession by possession basis, where
Speaker 1: your athleticism helps you a lot in a functional way
Speaker 1: to help a basketball team on a possession by possession
Speaker 1: basis is crashing the glass as a rebounder. Right, that's
Speaker 1: hanging time. Like I was just talking about with Jonathan Comingo,
Speaker 1: the ability to finish over the top of defenders on
Speaker 1: plays that aren't dunks. Had a really nice and one
Speaker 1: in that second quarter where he want into traffic and
Speaker 1: elevated over everybody, waited for guys to come down, and
Speaker 1: went up with his left hand off the glass. There's
Speaker 1: just like with James Wiseman, just a ton of tantalizing
Speaker 1: potential on defense. Uh, when he gambled a little bit
Speaker 1: too much, got out of position a few times, but
Speaker 1: when he actually sat in his stance and slid his
Speaker 1: feet and played physical without fouling, he was downright disruptive
Speaker 1: on on the spurs perimitive players. Now, this is a
Speaker 1: different level of talent than what he'll face in the
Speaker 1: NBA that he has faced in the NBA, But I
Speaker 1: like what I'm seeing from him defensively. I think that's
Speaker 1: the place where he's most ready right now. I just
Speaker 1: think he's got so much, he's got so far to
Speaker 1: go elsewhere on the floor. Um, you know, he's getting
Speaker 1: a lot of reps with the ball in his hand.
Speaker 1: Here in summer league, you can see him basically running point,
Speaker 1: bringing the ball up the floor, running high pick and roll,
Speaker 1: running dribble handoffs, doing these sorts of things and making reads.
Speaker 1: And he's not good at it yet, right Like, it's
Speaker 1: seven assistant, ten turnovers through two games, a lot of sloppiness,
Speaker 1: really struggling to shoot the basketball. But he's getting reps
Speaker 1: and that's all that matters. Like, when it comes to
Speaker 1: those things like ball handling, you can work on it
Speaker 1: at the gym. You know, shooting you can work on
Speaker 1: at the gym. But when it comes to making reads
Speaker 1: against the real defense that's actually running a real defensive
Speaker 1: scheme and trying to stop you, the only way to
Speaker 1: get better at that is just to do it time
Speaker 1: and time again. So I thought it was really smart
Speaker 1: for Golden State to stick these guys in Summer League,
Speaker 1: get the ball incoming his hands, and just give him
Speaker 1: a ton of reps. The reason why that's specifically important
Speaker 1: is playing in the Warriors system alongside Steph Curry requires
Speaker 1: you to constantly make high level reads. This was the
Speaker 1: issue they had with Kelly Ubre two years ago. Right,
Speaker 1: They brought in a guy who was one of their
Speaker 1: better defensive players because of his athleticism, so they needed him.
Speaker 1: But then on the offensive end of the floor, he
Speaker 1: just didn't flow with the Warriors system. The ball would
Speaker 1: stick with him sometimes when he would attack closeouts. He
Speaker 1: would like remember that stretch to start the year where
Speaker 1: all he had made was dunks and missed every other
Speaker 1: shot he took for like for like a week, right,
Speaker 1: like that, Like he just he struggled. In the read
Speaker 1: and react system of Golden State. The vast majority of
Speaker 1: teams are going to trap the high pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Steph Curry or mess up on their rotations to
Speaker 1: send multiple defenders to step or to Clay running off
Speaker 1: of pin downs. Right, So the Warriors are constantly operating
Speaker 1: in a four on three situation. And you know that's
Speaker 1: That's part of why Draymond Green has been so valuable
Speaker 1: over the years is when he's the guy who operates
Speaker 1: as the short roller there, he's so good at making reads,
Speaker 1: but it's usually more than one read, especially against a
Speaker 1: good defense. Draymond will roll down the lane and Jonathan
Speaker 1: Cominga's man will step into the lane and he'll kick
Speaker 1: it out to Commina. Now it's on Comino to either
Speaker 1: knock down a shot or to further attack the clothes
Speaker 1: out and make reads. So this is why it's important
Speaker 1: for him to have the ball in his hands a
Speaker 1: lot in Summer League. He needs to get as many
Speaker 1: reps as possible and making those reads because in order
Speaker 1: for him to eventually make the playoff rotation for Golden State,
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr and Steph Curry and Draymond and Clay are
Speaker 1: gonna have to trust him to be able to make
Speaker 1: reads when the defenses is sending extra attention towards the stars.
Speaker 1: One last note or two last notes. He's got to
Speaker 1: get better with the shooting. Obviously, he's one for seven
Speaker 1: from three last night, seven for eighteen from the line. Now,
Speaker 1: there's two ways to look at that. The good news
Speaker 1: is is one he's getting to the line a lot,
Speaker 1: which is a great sign. We talked about this a
Speaker 1: little bit with Pala Bankara Bancho on Saturday Saturday. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: if a team is fouling you all the time, every
Speaker 1: time we're rolling down the lane, that's a sign that
Speaker 1: they're struggling to keep you in front. The first instinct
Speaker 1: as a defender when you get beat is to reach
Speaker 1: out and grab, and that's why if a guy's going
Speaker 1: to the line a lot, it's typically a sign that
Speaker 1: he's got the defender off balance consistently and he's getting
Speaker 1: into spots. Secondly, one for seven from three is at
Speaker 1: least confident he's rising and firing. He's not doing the
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons thing where he just doesn't take the shot right.
Speaker 1: But in order for him to eventually realize his full potential,
Speaker 1: that's going to have to be his biggest area for
Speaker 1: improvement is shooting and touch, very similar to the stuff
Speaker 1: we were talking about with Josh Kiddy yesterday. In terms
Speaker 1: of his form up top, it looks fine. He's got
Speaker 1: a good release. You want to see a little bit
Speaker 1: more dip with the legs a little He's a little
Speaker 1: bit upright on his shooting motion. But right now he
Speaker 1: does have decent forms. So I do think he will
Speaker 1: project to be a good defensive player, especially excuse me,
Speaker 1: a good shooter, especially in Golden State, surrounded by the
Speaker 1: motivation he has from Stephen Clay to do so last,
Speaker 1: but not least. We talked a little bit about this
Speaker 1: at the beginning, but his attitude. You know, I always
Speaker 1: used this as an example, like you need to you know,
Speaker 1: it helps to have a humbling experience as a basketball
Speaker 1: player for you to you know, make changes, right Like
Speaker 1: I the I tell the story a few times, but
Speaker 1: I was trying to play professionally in my mid twenties
Speaker 1: and and I got a deal with this league in
Speaker 1: India and they were gonna paying me a thousand bucks
Speaker 1: a week. Was the first one that was enough for
Speaker 1: me to quit my job, and so I signed the deal.
Speaker 1: I was gonna do it. And uh. I went into
Speaker 1: uh this like camp that they had and I played
Speaker 1: against this like six eight dude from Toronto who was
Speaker 1: like just as good, if not better, at everything that
Speaker 1: I do. And he was six ft eight and like,
Speaker 1: I struggled against him in our individual matchups. And it
Speaker 1: was a major, like humbling experience for me. And in
Speaker 1: the months after that, I put in so much more
Speaker 1: work to get better because I had to realize, like, oh,
Speaker 1: like this dude who's not even an NBA player, is
Speaker 1: so much better than me. Right now, I have to
Speaker 1: get better. That would help me like wake up, right,
Speaker 1: And uh, that's kind of what I'm hoping for from
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga, Like he's been kind of hyped up throughout
Speaker 1: most of his career, lottery pick, all of these things.
Speaker 1: He needs to be humbled a little bit. And so
Speaker 1: having that rough first game um on on Thursday night
Speaker 1: or Friday night, and then struggling to shoot the ball
Speaker 1: again last night, like hopefully that will help him realize, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're John the Cominga, your lottery pick. You've got the
Speaker 1: potential to be like a better, more athletic version of
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown. That's all on the table for you. But
Speaker 1: you have to get so much better at these things.
Speaker 1: And so it's the sooner he understands that and humbles
Speaker 1: himself and really dives into the work of it all,
Speaker 1: then that's that that will be the biggest thing that
Speaker 1: pushes him in that direction, and his attitude will be
Speaker 1: the big thing to watch there. If he has many
Speaker 1: more nights like Friday night where he walks into the
Speaker 1: arena kind of just expecting to walk into the gym
Speaker 1: and dominate without actually you know, attacking the basketball game,
Speaker 1: that'll be a sign that he hasn't quite learned that
Speaker 1: lesson yet, no judgment there. He's a kid, Okay, like
Speaker 1: I I that lesson. I just told you I was
Speaker 1: like twenty four when that happened. So like he's a kid,
Speaker 1: he's he's got a lot to learn. There's no judgment there.
Speaker 1: Those are just things I want Warriors fans to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on in terms of him reaching his ultimate potential.
Speaker 1: Um last, but not least, Moses Moody. You can tell
Speaker 1: the game is slowed down for him. He's very under control. Um.
Speaker 1: You guys probably heard this this phrase before and it
Speaker 1: seems like a basketball cliche, but there's truth to it. Like,
Speaker 1: when the game is too fast for you, you struggle
Speaker 1: to make decisions. A lot of times you can see
Speaker 1: guys rushing. They'll they'll make a kickout pass, but before
Speaker 1: you need to, like you could make one more advanced
Speaker 1: table to pull the health defender in more you can
Speaker 1: make that kickout pass, or like you'll be open and
Speaker 1: you'll rush the shot as opposed to taking your time
Speaker 1: to knocking it down. You get a little bit of
Speaker 1: drible penetration and instead of patiently working your way into
Speaker 1: the lane, you just fly into the lane like a
Speaker 1: cannon and you're out of control right like when you
Speaker 1: can you can see with players like Moody, the game
Speaker 1: is slowed down for them. They're very under control. They
Speaker 1: never rush anything. They're always going where they want to go,
Speaker 1: rather than allowing the defense to send them where they
Speaker 1: want them to go. Um. The reason why that's so
Speaker 1: impressive and important is you, as the Warriors, you lost
Speaker 1: Auto Porter and you lost Gary Payton this summer, and
Speaker 1: they were two guys who were significant rotation pieces in
Speaker 1: your playoff run. Tweeted this out and said it on
Speaker 1: the show before. But Gary Payton, in particular, his on
Speaker 1: off numbers for the Warriors in the playoffs were jarring.
Speaker 1: There was so so much better with him on the
Speaker 1: floor than when he was off the floor. So those
Speaker 1: are two very important roles that they need to fill.
Speaker 1: And I don't think Kaming is ready for this year,
Speaker 1: and and I uh and James Wiseman obviously can't play
Speaker 1: the wing. So you need to fill these two spots.
Speaker 1: And it you have Dante DiVincenzo as a as a
Speaker 1: free agent signing, but you still have that other spot
Speaker 1: you need to fill. And Moses Moody to me, looks
Speaker 1: like the guy that's ready. He plays the game slow
Speaker 1: and under control. Like I just said, he's got the
Speaker 1: shooting touch. He was fort last year for the entire
Speaker 1: regular season on wide open threes. That's great, especially for
Speaker 1: a player his size. He was three for six in
Speaker 1: his game that he played in Summer League. He's got
Speaker 1: a low ceiling, like this guy is not going to
Speaker 1: be a star, but he's a classic Warriors wing. Even
Speaker 1: plays like an old guy. But he's a guy that
Speaker 1: they can put on the wing, that they can trust
Speaker 1: to make smart reads in four on three situations, who
Speaker 1: can knock down the three when they're open, and he
Speaker 1: plays the game slow and under control. I think he's
Speaker 1: the guy that's seamless, slides into that out of border
Speaker 1: junior role, and then I think you'll see Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: kind of slide into that Gary Payton roll. So overall,
Speaker 1: to kind of put a bowl on it, all three
Speaker 1: guys are well, let's focus on the first two. Wiseman
Speaker 1: and Cominga have star potential, absolute star potential, and they
Speaker 1: have things right now that they're very good at. Cominga
Speaker 1: as a perimeter defensive player, I think he's going to
Speaker 1: be a good option there for the Warriors this year.
Speaker 1: James Wiseman with his length and athleticism on defense's ability
Speaker 1: to stretch the floor, those are real skills that he
Speaker 1: has right now. But they both have gaping holes that
Speaker 1: they have to fix. Comingo with his decision making and
Speaker 1: with his shooting. James Wiseman, with his physicality and his
Speaker 1: rebounding and his ability to defend without fouling. Those are
Speaker 1: gaping holes that will keep them out of the playoff
Speaker 1: rotation unless they fix those holes this season, They're gonna
Speaker 1: have tons of reps. They're gonna get all of training camp.
Speaker 1: I read a report yesterday that they're gonna have them
Speaker 1: play more games in Summer League to get them more reps.
Speaker 1: So they have lots of time to figure it out.
Speaker 1: But those are the things that they have to figure
Speaker 1: out in order to make the rotation. Moses Moody is
Speaker 1: ready right now. I think he can slide into that role.
Speaker 1: I think he can do what Otto Porter Jr. Did,
Speaker 1: So that's that's a good fit there. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I had some people ask me about Mac McClung. I
Speaker 1: watched a bunch of him last year because he was
Speaker 1: with the Lakers like his game. Totally solid G league guard,
Speaker 1: but he's not an NBA player. Uh And again, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to discredit the guy. He's like. He's he's
Speaker 1: very very good at what he does. He's just not
Speaker 1: quite good enough to do what he's doing at the
Speaker 1: NBA level. So I wouldn't worry about him in terms
Speaker 1: of the Warriors roster this year, my guests, as he'll
Speaker 1: end up playing in the G League. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. Um, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what else we got going on this week, but
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter and underscore Jason LT and I'll
Speaker 1: send out some show announcements as soon as I know.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys a support and I'll
Speaker 1: see you next time. The volume