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A show about basketball
0:00:00
Welcome to Gucci Row on the Rebel HD 2. I'm your host Kevin Kelly with co-host Will Despar. Thanks for tuning in to our court side conversations covering all things NBA.
0:00:14
Alright, welcome back, Gucci Rowe, I'm here, your host, Kevin Kelly.
0:00:28
Your co-host, Will Despart. And we're back with another one, man. How we feeling, Will? Good, how are you?
0:00:33
I'm feeling well, I'm feeling well. We're right in the swing of things, about to be in the dog days of this summer, so yeah, the draft. settings like how their fit is, guys that we think can immediately impact or things like that. So I guess we'll just start off with the fit and yeah like do you think Will there's any guys that went to the perfect spot in the draft like their roster construction or how the franchise operates was just perfect for what they can bring? I don't know if it's perfect, but I like the Amon Thompson pick for the Rockets. I think he's kind of what they need in there, like a high IQ player that can keep, because they were not a high IQ basketball team last season.
0:01:47
I think combining him with Emake could really turn that franchise around.
0:01:51
Yeah, that's a good pick. You know, he's so valuable as a playmaker and that's something they really needed in the backcourt last year. Not that KPJ can't pass or Jalen Green, but they tend to look for their shot more so. And men really can help them in the backcourt just getting things facilitated. And beyond that, he's an incredible defender. So yeah, I agree. I think the interesting thing to me will be to see how they use him along with sangoon who I think he may said that he plans to use a lot more as a hub and like to start actions and facilitate the offense, which I love because I mean we've seen that Very light but Joker light type stuff from him in terms of vision and how he's able to Move it. So yeah, I think having another playmaker there would be awesome One guy who I think fits really well in the system he's in right now is Grady Dick who got drafted to the Raptors. You know, in the draft he's just been labeled as one of the best movement shooters and one of the best shooters in general, which is something they really lacked last year. And obviously getting rid of Fred who But he he took up a lot of their three-point attempts So, you know, I think he's a guy who can come in and immediately help with shot making and that's a big one Do you have another one there? I also think it feels like dick has a really high floor Like I don't see him like I think he'll be a solid role player No matter like what happens in his career because he's just like that kind of makeup. Yeah, like a Russo or even like up ability when needed to get into pockets and create his own shot which is something that guys maybe didn't expect from him. One more that I think I'd be remiss not to mention is Jaime Jaquez to the heat. That was a pick that I didn't really expect them to take at the moment but after they did it and looking back immediately it fits right in. Everything he does on the floor Just in terms of you know how he's so versatile. He's able to fit different roles and Can slot right in on the wing I think that he can make a pretty immediate impact with the heat if he's not involved in One of those packages. Yeah, we'll see but he's definitely a high IQ guy
0:04:43
Yeah Have a guy I'd want in the lineup for the heat you kind of like cut from that Yoko's cloth a little bit, not anywhere near as athletic and skilled, but he's like a high IQ player that he plays mentally first and he can see the whole court.
0:04:58
Yeah, real jack of trades, all trades. But yeah, he also, like a lot of the off-court stuff that I've seen from him is something you'd like to like, just the way he talks about wanting to be a part of the culture and how he said he reached out immediately to UD. It just seems like he really is on board with coming in and making a difference in Miami. And then the last two I'll mention is Keontae George for the Jazz who is on a team that does lack shot creation from the backcourt. and And I think they even abandoned best player available for that fit Which I guess that number two isn't something that I'd recommend But that said like with their questions with PJ Washington's free agency and stuff It seems like he's slated to come in and you know have shots and have a position on the floor immediately. I
0:06:22
Didn't really hate the Brandon Miller pick, I obviously understand Scoop's the better prospect, but I don't think the difference was that crazy where it's like you're making a huge mistake by drafting for fit in that position. I don't think it's like Wiseman and Ball in 2020.
0:06:38
Yeah, and despite I think that it would work, there would be questions if it was those two in the backcourt. So the fact that it is Brandon going in there I think immediately helps them more than maybe you'd have to figure things out if you took school. Another I guess the next thing I'll hit on is like just guys that we think fell later than we expected or guys that jumped up and were in the draft taken way earlier than expected. Yeah, I think one for me that stands out is Bilal who has had a draft rise that I don't remember seeing from anyone. In early spring, he wasn't even really on first-round boards for basically anyone. And as we progressed closer and closer to the draft, he just got more looks. Obviously, he's from France, played with Wenbonyama, so that added to the hype but yeah he jumped way up and I think the talk late really came up about his upside and what he can maybe bring because he's super young so I think that one was a big surprise to me. I think going back to Hawkeyes I was surprised he got drafted that high. I was expecting him to be more of like a late first rounder maybe early second but I mean I don't disagree with the pick I didn't think it was horrible I just think you know. Yeah like I said I mean I didn't expect that at that point. I was, you know, looking at the big boards and best availables and, you know, I'm no GM but it wasn't who I would have picked. And like I said, immediately after, you know, even a day after, until now, you look back and I'm really glad we went up and got him at that time. I agree. And then another one that we could talk about who jumped up was Ben Shepard, who I don't even think was on the board for most people in terms of the first round and jumped way up. And then also Brandon Podziemski, who went to the Warriors, who I think can make a pretty big impact. Maybe not immediately, but he's really able to shoot it. He's got that like Luke Kennard type style and I think that he can, you know, add to that bench. And then, yeah, one more I think is Cam Whitmore who, this is the most obvious one, but was projected to go top 10, even top 5 in most mocks and fell all the way to 20. You know, it felt during the slide like it was, he would go eventually and it was just like, alright, is he gonna go now? Is he gonna go now? Yeah, it was definitely interesting to watch that happen. All the way to 20. And I saw him, you know, he took it in stride pretty well. He just turned 19, like he's not, I think we kind of forget like how young these guys are and how difficult it might be to adjust to something like that. But yeah, you know, he's, he's added it as just a chip on his shoulder and I think that he fits really well and the Rockets got a steal with two probably top six guys with just 20 and four so. That's another one to me. And then, oh, okay, I guess lastly, Nick Smith Jr., who in the summer league has had a pretty big impact. He had a rough year at Bama, just struggled with some injury and when he came back he had some shining moments but wasn't able to really piece it together consistently. He fell a little later than I expected and I think in the redraft he'll end up being a lot higher. So I guess to move on I think it's important we'd talk about the second round as well because Especially, you know in this draft. I heard a lot of people talk about how One through five Seemed to be pretty far separated from everyone who's like five to through 40 almost So it seemed like the talent pool after you know, the first couple tiers what was pretty similar so you you were able to get some late first round and early second round steals so i guess a couple of those uh... i don't know if you want to start that
0:11:01
well
0:11:02
uh... i love the amari bailey pick for the celtics i think he has one of the higher defensive upsides in the entire draft and i think he's the type of guy that you could plug into the celtics right away and get real consistent playoff minutes
0:11:14
yeah he got moved to the Hornets. But I agree, I mean, in terms of his skill set and everything, I think he can impact that immediately. I think he's one of the top three perimeter defenders in the whole draft. You know, I think I agree there. I don't know why I said Celtics, I meant the Hornets. Yeah, no, but he, you know, I agree. I think that's a great pick. Another one for me speaking of Celtics is Jordan Walsh who I think I mentioned in our last episode a bit about him just about how he's like a real rangy long defender on the wing a real hard-nosed guy puts in a lot of effort on both ends and you know so far through the summer league we saw he was really effective and shooting the ball from deep, which is something that wasn't projected to be a polished part of his game. As well as his ability to pass the ball. I think we've seen him make some reads that, again, probably weren't expected. And yeah, I'm going to go with some hometown picks from upstate New York. We got Jalen Pickett who transferred from Siena to Penn State and then got drafted by the Nuggets. He's got a really interesting skill set. He's like a 6'4 guard who plays way bigger than that. Like post playmaking type stuff gets into like mid-range pockets and is a really good passer So I like that a lot and then the other one will go with Andre Jackson junior who went to the Bucs from UConn and is a Graduate of Albany Academy, so shout out to him. I like that pick for the Bucs I think is a guy like I said about a Marley Bailey
0:13:07
You can slot him in right away, and if your team makes the playoffs, he's a guy that can make an impact right away.
0:13:17
Yeah, his big upside on how his career arc goes to me is going to be if he can add a consistent jump shot. Because besides that, what he brings to a team is phenomenal in terms of how he's able to run the break, get guys involved in the half court and in fast break scenarios. And then on defense, he's so versatile, can really move his feet with guards and is also long enough to slot in on the wing and guard some bigger guys. So that's a really good one too. And then another one which is just a real big upside pick for me is G.G. Jackson, who fell in the draft and he was supposed to be a senior in high school this year and reclassified early and went to South Carolina. And you know, had a bunch of hype coming into that and didn't have a bad year by any means at South Carolina but didn't shine enough to jump into the lotto or anything and fell all the way down to the second so I think the Grizzlies might have got a steal there. He's you know got such upside as a wing that's able to create his own shot and I like I like the way he moves. And then another one I got is Imani Bates who went second round to the Cavs. This one's more again upside stuff not someone you're expecting to immediately come in and already be ready to impact in a winning way. But, you know, he's someone that was touted as one of the highest rated, ranked recruits in high school ever. Even too much at times where, you know, people were probably calling him KD and giving him expectations that, you know, were probably a little unrealistic but I think that he I heard him talking about how his mindset on the Cavs and how he's coming in and wants to just defend and be able to hit open shots because they have stars like DG and Donovan already there which I think is a really important mindset to have as a young guy like so many guys want to come in and be able to like has between pull up but Half the time you have to just sit in the corner get your open shots cut and play defense it The BS account tweeted about this fake stat line about how he had like 27 blah blah blah and he reposted a screenshot of it on Instagram. So everyone was wondering if like he didn't know his own stat line or if he just didn't see it. He's a fun master.
0:16:16
Yeah.
0:16:17
But um, so yeah, I just think that, you know, these second rounders, some of them we mentioned that are going to be more upside guys and might not have that immediate you know
0:16:31
impact on winning
0:16:32
But there's also guys that we might not have mentioned in this second round that I could guarantee will come in and help the team a lot and we've seen that a lot in the recent drafts like when you look at just the last handful of Drafts and second rounders some guys that have made impact like you know Herb Jones, Io DeSumo, Aaron Wiggins, Trey Jones, KJ Martin, Nick Claxton, Terence Mann all those just within the last handful second rounds. So there's plenty of role player value and like we mentioned about the upside, again I'd be remiss to not mention that Nikola Jokic, the reigning finals MVP, two times was a second round pick so it's not like these guys are not capable of developing into something incredible. To get past the second round to move into just some of the undrafted guys that signed deals because again we've seen those have impacts too especially you talk about how the Heat have constructed their rosters recently and they're able to find talent not in the draft so i think couple of those guys even some that uh... were mocked higher in the second and earlier in the year probably in the first uh... a couple of those are turquoise young smith from nc state and ricky counsel from arkansas you know to guards who can go get their own shop uh... and probably lack a little bit on the other end you know i think that those are the type of roles that can get guys, even if it's only 12 minutes a game, those contributions end up being really valuable to a team. So I guess one more that I'd go with, just because he's so fun to watch, is Marquise from Kansas State who we saw have an incredible run this year and he was the engine of that offense. He's only 5'7", so that's a tall task. I think the easy comparison is Isaiah Thomas. Yeah, and you know, those guys are a much more rare breed nowadays just because it's so hard to be on the floor at 5'7 because with how we've seen offenses evolve in terms of matchup hunting and how it's so important to not have a Super weak link out there on defense and makes it so these guys it's tougher for them to get under the floor for sure So I guess we should get into a bit about the summer league It's uh as we record this just about ending it's coming into the second weekend of it Which you know a lot of the guys end up sitting after the first, you know a handful of days anyway So that's a lot of this good stuff is out of the way that we can talk about I want to open just by talking about the summer league itself and the atmosphere there This year was just unbelievable You know, I've only I've only been able to make it to a couple of them so far, but the whole first weekend was sold out, which has never happened, but The first day even sold out since Zion in 2019 You know, I heard like Chris Vernon talking about how he had to literally go up to the high 200s just to get a seat and yeah, the whole thing was just jumping for the first few days, obviously, to see Wemby. So I don't know if you have some thoughts.
0:20:08
I moved here beginning of 2021, so I've been at every summer league since then, the last three. And that was the only time that I've really been able to see people in the 200s at all. It was crazy. But yeah, it's absolutely insane how many people wanted to come see Wemby. And I think it just shows how excited people are to see him
0:20:28
come in the league. Exactly. And I wonder, you know, I wonder how much of that is attributed to the fact that guys that are people, fans, haven't really seen him play like that because, you know, he's not from the U.S. he didn't play in March Madness, he's not on the Ignite where we can see him play all these G League teams. So, you know, the NBA streamed some of his games on the NBA app, but you have to go out of your way to watch that. And I think for a lot of people, they didn't have this sort of immersion into the Wemba Nyama experience, even just through video. So it built the hype a little bit. But I also wonder if it's more so that, or more
0:21:35
for him to go to, not to go all tinfoil hat, but it definitely seems like, I don't know, maybe they asked him.
0:21:42
Like the original one is the Ewing draft with the...
0:21:47
Yeah, I could see this being the new Ewing conspiracy.
0:21:50
The dog marked card, yeah.
0:21:52
Just makes too much sense.
0:21:54
No, for sure. And it's like, you know, I think that the NBA is going to keep that going. Obviously, we're not going to get another prospect coming up here like Wemba Nyama. I mean, to expect that would be foolish of anyone. But that said, the NBA has like they showed Peach Jam this year on the NBA app for like the AAU tournament, Peach Jam, which has all the best recruits in the nation. And like they've done well at promoting guys like Cooper Flagg and Cam Boozer who are, you know, three years out from being drafted. It's not like they're coming in next year. But like I said, the NBA has done a better job at understanding that even as young as 15, 16, these guys can build a lot of hype and I think we've seen that play out.
0:22:46
The NBA can also start to focus on Boozer and Flagg because there isn't really any huge prospects for the next two seasons coming in so it's kind of worth it to build the hype train on those two.
0:22:55
That's true, yeah. You know, I guess next year we have some Vegas hype just because Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland, the projected first two picks will be right here on the Ignite, but no for sure, I mean they're not, no one is labeling them as generational like we saw with Wemby or even even Scoot for that matter. So yeah I think also to just add on to what I was saying about the atmosphere there if you're a hoop fan at all and you haven't been you absolutely have to go to Summer League here in Vegas you know it's a hub for everyone that loves the the sport you talk about like the media presence there like last year I was able to just meet Shams and have just a regular five-minute conversation with him just like he wasn't you know preoccupied or people are just hanging out like you see coaches front office all the time um players I bumped into Brandon Ingram at the Cosmo yesterday like it it absolutely is a must if you're a hoop fan so you I think, and they really didn't even jump out as like anything abnormal. So he had a slow start. I know the socials were dunking on him after the first game, just like Kai Jones did, which is funny to me because you see like his incident with Britney Spears and like they were chanting Game 1, like hit me baby one more time in the crowd. crowd and then like, you know, after he got dunked on by Kai Jones, that clip was all over the Stan Twitter. Yeah, they had a good time with that. I thought it was hilarious. Not the type of people you want to get into a battle with on the internet.
0:24:55
Yeah, they don't really...
0:24:56
They'll bury you.
0:24:57
They don't stop.
0:24:59
But so that said, like, I like to take everything I see here at Summer League with a grain of salt because it's not really always indicative of what we see next year or this coming year not Points 12 blocks. I mean 12 rebounds 3 blocks, but more importantly like I said when I look at it He just looked much more comfortable on offense like he wasn't he didn't seem to be in spots that were forced He got into pockets more comfortable like pick and pop middies and more post touches Like he had one play where he went up for like a baseline floater Got his own rebound on the other side of the hoop tipped it to himself and dunked it. Like just, you know, stuff that you've never seen from any anybody. So that type of stuff is fun to watch. Everyone's been impressed by his passing ability so far and his vision. Like a quote about it, he mentioned the court is like way more open in the NBA. It's going fast but it's less physical. He said, I get fouled a a lot but not as much, which I think is interesting to see, especially because he came from a Euro style of play and not like college.
0:26:35
One concern I had watching him was it definitely seemed like he was like, his condition was a bit off. It seemed like he got gassed really easily. The second half, it didn't look like he had much left in either game, so I think that's something he's definitely got to improve. I'm pretty high on him. I think he's an instant home run, I believe all the hype, but I don't see him being a home run rookie of the year if he doesn't get his conditioning up. I think Cech could bury him in that regard.
0:26:59
I did see that talked about, even just from players. I heard someone mention that they had a few players come up and mention that that was the thing that caught their eye, that he looked a bit winded after short stints. But that's going to come along with the new game you know even like i mentioned how it's much different from europe but cam Whitmore who played at Villanova last year was uh... on a through the wire podcast here and mentioned uh... about how the biggest shock to him was just about the speed of the game to experience and he's not like a a tall lanky guy who doesn't move well so well not that he doesn't move well but a tall lanky guy I think it's also important to talk about a couple of the second year guys. I think Jabari Smith Jr. has probably been everyone's MVP so far of the summer league. Tari Eason's looked really good. Orlando Robinson they were calling the Wilt Chamberlain of the summer league because he had like 35-13, some ridiculous stat lines. And then, yeah, you know, Jaden Harvey, Jaden Hardy and Ivy, we've just seen like these guys who have, you know, like Ivy has Kade that takes a lot of the touches and usage. Hardy obviously has Kyrie and Luka. So these guys get a lot more chance to be the hub of the offense and run it through them which I think is really valuable for their future.
0:28:37
It's definitely a place where we see guys make a bit of a jump too. I think like IQ in his second year of manual quickly, I remember seeing him at summer league and it definitely felt like that was the time he was making a jump from like role player
0:28:49
to a guy who can actually make an impact. Yeah, and you know I think there's a lot of guys that don't play after their first year, be it for ego or any other reason. Which you know I saw they also, through the wire, they asked Jalen Dern about that, just about you know whether third, second year guys should come back or not. And I thought it was interesting. He said, I really like his response. He said, it's not real cookie cutter. I don't think you can just like say yes, you should come back year two or three. I think it really depends not only on where you're at in terms of like your own growth, but also health. Like it's a long summer conditioning. I think these things are important and it's not fair to just assume that because a guy is not playing, it's, you know, he thinks he's too good or whatever but that said I think you see like you mentioned taking jumps a lot of value for these guys that do return and also it helps the young guys a lot like I saw Kim Wentmore was mentioned in a bit about how Tara Eason is like the real vet for them so far so I think that that's big for these young guys giving them a voice of like what the real NBA is going to look like and how to adjust to this. So yeah you know like I said if you haven't been, Summer League is absolutely a must and you get to meet all vets, young guys, coaches, you get to see whoever. It is just really really a spectacle of the sport. So glad to cover that and hope you guys can tap in soon. That was pretty much it for this episode. I appreciate y'all for being here. Thanks. That's a wrap for Gucci Row this week. Thanks for tuning in on The Rebel HD 2 with your hosts Kevin Kelly and Will Dusparte. You can find us on with your hosts Kevin Kelly and Will Dusparte. You can find us on Instagram at 1kevkelly and willdusparte. We'll see you next time on The Rebel HD 2.