The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LeBron & Russ show up to Summer League, Chet & Paolo impressions, Lillard cashes in

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

Jason Timpf shares his observations from the NBA's summer league, discusses LeBron James and Russell Westbrook showing up to games but not sitting together, his impressions of Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero, and Jaden Ivey in action, and notes why he is not impressed with Damian Lillard despite supporting him staying in Portland with the Trail Blazers. #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In Tennessee, redline, dial 1-800-9-9-97889 in Tennessee. Visit www.1-800-gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight, presented by Fanduel here at the Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend. I literally just walked in the door home after a weekend in Las Vegas. And what an incredible weekend it was. I had never been to NBA Summer Lake. I'd always heard great things. I had always wanted to go. And the stars aligned for me to get to go this year. And I had super high expectations. And everything completely lived up to those expectations. It was an amazing weekend. I'm super

excited to share everything about it with you guys. I'm going to give you guys a little bit of my impressions of what the Summer League experience is like for those of you guys who have never been. I want to talk about that whole thing two nights ago with Kyrie and Russ and LeBron, or more specifically Russ and LeBron in the arena sitting on opposite sides. Some of the stuff I heard involving the Kyrie Irving trade. I'm going to give you guys my breakdown of the top five players in the draft that I saw there yesterday. I literally sat 10 rows up and watched game after game. Didn't leave my seat unless I absolutely had to watch Paolo and Chet and Jabari and Jaden Ivy and Kagan Murray all one after the other. Up close and personal and learned a ton. I'm excited to share my thoughts about that with you guys.

And then after that, I'm going to give a quick, my quick thoughts on Dame and his recent press tour trying to proclaim himself as, I don't know, some sort of morally superior NBA player to his peer around the league. And then a little bit about James Hardin and him potentially taking a discount to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers. But I want to start with the overall summer league experience for just a minute because it really is amazing for those of you guys who have never been. And I highly recommend you go check it out. Even if you can just get out there for a day, if you're not into the Vegas thing,

like my big takeaways, I probably won't go for as long next time just because Vegas is a lot to deal with. But basketball is almost secondary, which is weird. Like, my favorite part of the trip was the basketball, but that's because I'm a basketball junkie. But, like, it's weird. The event, the basketball is almost secondary. Everyone who is someone in the NBA in any capacity is there. Every member of the media that you can think of is making an appearance.

Every player around the league of significance is making an appearance. And if they aren't, it's because of some scheduling conflict or they're coming later in the week or they're coming next weekend. there's just a train of former NBA players, current NBA players, young aspiring NBA players, and media members. It's just an unbelievable overwhelming experience that is the NBA. And then you combine that with Vegas, which is just something else. Like, first of all, it's outrageously expensive. I probably spent $100 on water bottles while I was there, just trying to stay hydrated in the Vegas heat.

and just nothing. It's kind of a remarkably set up city. I've been there several times in my life, obviously, but every time I go, I'm always blown away at just how wild that experience is in that city. A couple other quick takeaways. The basketball is super intense. It's as high urgency as you'll find anywhere outside of the NBA playoffs

because literally these guys are fighting and scratching and clawing for their NBA dreams. The level of defense and physicality. I complained about the refs a lot on Twitter for blowing the whistle too much. One thing I'll say in their defense is like these guys who are fighting for their NBA careers, they're playing super physical defense.

And it does get difficult to officiate. But all in all, it's an amazing way to evaluate talent. Like I said earlier, I got to sit up close and personal just one after the other and watch all of the top picks in a super intense environment, going against defenses that are completely locked in, in a pressure environment. You guys don't think Jabari Smith is feeling pressure, you know, being the third overall pick after having some hype is potentially being a number one pick and his weaknesses being put on display for the world to see.

There's a lot of pressure there. And so in a lot of ways, it is a great way to learn a lot about basketball players. And being in person is always the best way because you can watch their demeanor during commercial breaks while they're in the huddle. The little details that the camera doesn't always pick up. You know, as long as I have the, you know, as long as I have the capability, I'll try to make it out there each year, at least for a sequence like yesterday's games, because it's just a great way to learn about those draft picks and get a better impression of what they're good at, what they're bad at, what their personalities are like. We are going to go through the top five players in this draft again, and I'm going to give you guys all of my thoughts on what I saw from them this weekend. A couple of guys that really blew me away.

People that I'm a little disappointed in will get into all of that. But before we get into that, I wanted to get into this Russ LeBron fiasco, because it was kind of crazy because I didn't know he's coming. Nobody knows he's coming. It's not like he's announcing these things. But, you know, you're getting ready for the Lakers game. There was a Warriors game before it earlier in the night. So the arena's packed for the Warriors game.

Jonathan Caminga and James Wise, or excuse me, Jonathan Caminga and Moses Moody both played in that game. Warriors fans, tonight James Wiseman is allegedly going to play. I am going to watch that game in its entirety on tape and sift through the plays little by little as best as I can through the film. And I'm going to tomorrow do a video that kind of just focuses on the Warriors summerly guys, since they're all NBA guys that are allegedly going to be, hopefully going to be in their rotation next year.

I'll go over those guys with all of you then. I'm not going to get into them today, though, because I do want to get to James Wiseman. But after the Warriors game, you know, everyone's kind of, you know, going to the bathroom, getting food, getting a beer, whatever it is that they're doing, and getting ready for the Lakers game. And, you know, I kind of walk into the concourse.

I got to see my guy, Raj. You guys remember Raj from State of the Lakers? It was my first time getting to see him in person. I met him right before the Lakers game started. And we walk into the arena. and there's kind of like this buzz and a buzz that wasn't there the rest of the day

and everyone's standing in the arena and I'm like, what's going on? And everyone's standing with their phones out looking down towards one of the baskets and I look down and there's LeBron James. And like I've been in the arena with LeBron three times in my life. You know, once in 2016, the year they won the title

and then once the year after that. and, you know, I've never seen, and I know there are other players like this in the league, namely Steph or Kevin Durant, but like I've never seen a person that has the fame aura that LeBron James has. And every time that I see him in person, that's always the biggest thing that stands out to me. There's just everybody stops what they're doing and stares. It's just, it's a wild thing. But, you know, so LeBron's sitting down and then I hear that Russ is there, but I can't find him. So I'm like looking around all over the place

and I'm trying to use Twitter to locate where Russ is. And then I notice he's all the way on the opposite end of the court. I was sitting just about like maybe 10 rows up from where LeBron was on that side of the gym. And I'm like zooming in with my cell phone camera trying to get a look and I see him over there sitting by the Lakers bench. I'm like, okay, that's interesting. But you know, you're not going to read too much into it, right? But then everyone starts coming by to say hi to LeBron.

And it's just one after the other, like, here comes Rich Paul, like, here comes Damon Jones, like here comes, you know, Rob Polinka, here comes Darvin Ham, here comes all of this line of other NBA players and personnel and people that are friends with LeBron. And it's just kind of like a train of people coming to say hi, except for Russ. There's none of that going on with Russ. Nobody, you know, none of the Lakers personnel that I could tell went up to Russ other than Rob Polinka was the one that I saw. and then Russ never came up to see LeBron.

Now, do I think Russ and LeBron aren't friends anymore? No, I don't think that's the issue here. But the point is, it's awkward. It's awkward. And, you know, everything is, especially with LeBron, who's so calculated, you know, there's just kind of a weird vibe going on there. But one of the things that I, that I, that was so, what I thought was so bizarre about that whole situation was Russ, you know,

it's kind of strange that he subjects himself to this. Like, you know the rumors, and you know what everyone's saying, and you know what's about to happen. Like, the vast majority of people, we're going to get to this in a minute, think that Kyrie Irving is going to be traded for you. And you're sitting by the Lakers bench,

you know, not going to say hi to LeBron or whatever, which that's partially his fault too, right? But then you're also getting into the Lakers huddle and you're like coaching up Lakers players and like kind of acting like you're a part of everything. And you are. But it's like I almost felt bad for him. But at the same time, I'm like, but why did you do that to yourself? Like he kind of became the butt of the joke on Twitter that night, right?

Like everyone's just kind of talking about Russ being at the game, not being with LeBron, and hanging out with the Lakers guys. And from a certain standpoint, I want to be like, dude, like you don't have to do that to yourself. But like this is the greatest example of why it's so important to move on from the Russ experience. Like, yes, Russ is toxic and he brings a lot of this on himself. But the Laker fan base is also extremely loud and some elements of the Laker fan base can be toxic. And I mean, obviously a lot of Lakers media is sick and tired of him, including myself. I covered the team last year. And it was like one of the hardest players that I've ever had to cover and like arguably the most offensive basketball player that I've ever watched.

Like I just, he's offensive to me as a basketball fan, as I always tell you guys. just a lot for him to be under that all the time. And I'm ready for Russ to go somewhere else where he can be in a low stakes, low pressure situation with a fan base that will love him because they don't have the insane title aspirations that Laker fans always do. And there he can kind of fall into the background a little bit and be Russ. Because as much as I know he brings this on himself, I just, it's sad. It's starting to get sad. And I'm just ready for this whole fiasco to be over. So I don't want to jump to any extraordinary conclusions because there was a lot of intel in 2019 in the summer that was pointing to Kauai going to the Lakers. It was like

everything looked like Kauai to the Lakers and then it just didn't happen. And people within the Lakers thought Kauai was going to be a Laker and then it just didn't happen, right? But there's a similar feel from the Kairi stuff that everything appears to be kind of pointing that way. from what I heard from people who would know, including people that are involved with the team, they think he's coming. The Miles Turner stuff and Buddy Heald stuff is not a, it's not fake.

It's kind of like a backup plan, but they think Kyrie's coming, right? So like everything's kind of pointing in that direction. I still believe it's going to happen. There was the night, the night before Kyrie showed up, he was at, I believe, a WMBA event or something like that, and someone yelled at him, you know, when are you going to be a Laker?

And he said, soon, soon, or something like that. that. So Kyrie seems to believe it's happening as well. The one thing I was hoping would happen that would just cut, just for the sake of the Twitter moment is it would have been cool to see LeBron come into the arena last night too and just go sit next to Kyrie just to get everybody, just to whip everybody up into a frenzy. But I mean, it's never over till it's over, and especially after what happened with that Kyrie stuff, you never know, or excuse me, the Kauai stuff, you never know. But everything is pointing towards Kyrie being a Laker and from what I understand, people with the Lakers also believe that's going to be the case.

And there was, I believe it was Chris Haynes, if I remember correctly, but someone straight up came out and reported yesterday that LeBron's not even going to sign his extension unless Kyrie's a Lakers. So I would count on that happening in all likelihood. Let's get to the basketball, though, because, you know, I had a lot of fun. I met a lot of people this weekend. I got to meet a couple of people on the Lakers coaching staff. I got to meet a ton of my friends in the industry.

like I said, I got to meet Raj. And that was all great. And I loved that and that is important and it's a big part of why I went. But my favorite moment of the trip was yesterday when I got down there early and I showed up early enough to get a decent seat. Ten rows up, middle of the court. And I just watched basketball. And for three games, for six hours, longer than that because of the double O.T game early on, I just, I only got up if I absolutely had to.

And at one point at like half time of a game, I got up to get some food just so I wouldn't die of hunger. But I sat there and I just soaked in the basketball. And the first game, I got to see Keegan Murray versus Palo Bontaro. Then in the second game, I got to see Jaden Ivy. And then in the third game, I got to see Chet Holmgren versus Jabari Smith Jr. And I just keyed in on them and tried to learn as much as I can. and it was by far.

I actually texted my wife while I was sitting there because I was having like a little moment. I'm like, this is cool. The summer league stuff is great. All the extracurriculars, but this is my favorite part. This will always be my favorite part.

I love the basketball the most. And it was so cool to get to just sit there and evaluate basketball players for a couple hours. And in some alternate universe, I would have loved to have been a scout just to see what that is like to do that for a living. But anyway, so let's start with Palo. I want to work through the top five, and I just want to tell you guys my thoughts from what I learned. So I came into Summer League already high on Palo.

You guys knew that. You watched my pre-draft special. You guys watched my post-draft special. I thought he was a clear cut number one. I'm even higher on him now than I was then. His combination of size, he's so, like, first night on Thursday night, it was Palo versus Jabari. He is so much bigger than Jabari.

It's not even funny. In an entirely different level of presence in terms of his physical presence. His combination of size and body control, how nimble he is, gives him so much capability to get to his spots. We're going to talk about this with Jabari Smith Jr. here in a minute, but he can't dribble the basketball right now. Paulo's not much better at dribbling the basketball. He's a little bit, but not much better. But he has the ability with his body to protect the basketball. And that kind of allows him to, even though he's a somewhat weak ball handler, to get to his spots. You guys probably noticed in that game yesterday that he missed a lot of fadeaways,

and I understand that. But what I was looking at there was how he was able to get to his spots and comfortably get a fadeaway off. In general, he didn't shoot well yesterday. His shot has a long way to go. The big thing with him for his ultimate ceiling will be his ability to shoot the basketball. I don't think that's going to be a problem, though. His form is more than good enough.

I was impressed by his ability against great defensive players, and in super intense settings. Like I said, this is such a great way to evaluate because the players on the floor are fighting for their NBA lives. And they take, if they can lock up Paolo, that looks great for them in their attempt to get a job in this league, right? And Paolo was just comfortably getting wherever he needed to on the floor. And that was the most impressive part of his game.

He almost has like a little bit of a LeBron Janus type of thing where I believe he shot 15 free throws yesterday, he had 20 overall through the two games that I saw. Once he kind of gets by you off the dribble and starts going downhill, he's so damn big that everybody doesn't really have much of a choice but to foul him. As long as he's strong with the basketball,

they just start kind of wrapping him up. And it's like, yeah, they're ticky. Some of them are tic-tack, but it's like he's getting fouled as he's rolling downhill towards the lane. There were a lot of plays where you're like, oh, they're going to blow the whistle here. he's going downhill and everybody's grabbing him. And that comp, again, I attribute it to the combination of size and body control.

Like, the body control is crucial for the back to the basket stuff. He's so good at getting you on his backside, feeling which shoulder you're on, and then spinning the other way. Generally speaking, when a player puts his back into you and starts to back you down, you have to push back on him to hold your ground. I mean, some people can pull the chair, but you have to try to hold your ground. When you hold your ground, chances are you're going to be leaning on one, of his shoulders and he'll feel where you're at and he'll spin off of that shoulder.

He's got all of the, he does kind of like that LeBron full court post-up thing where he'll be working from the top of the key with the dribble. He'll push hard to the elbow. You'll get, you'll cut him off and then he'll spin back to the middle. He got bothered a little bit by help there at that spot on the floor. He had some turnovers that were sloppy there, but that's stuff that'll come in time as he gets better at seeing the floor. Overall, though, I was really, really impressed by his ability to get to spots and to get quality. these shots, even though he wasn't overly efficient, that stuff will come in time. His passing ability was the revelation of this tournament.

So obviously when you're a taller player, the advantage there is you could see over the defense. And his ability to catch the ball at the top of the key, he operated out of the top of the key almost exclusively. And when he was operating at the top of the key, he could see cutters and hit them consistently. When he does that spin move in the middle of the lane, he carries the ball high and he keeps his head up and he'll hit guys cutting back door. He makes the extra pass. He keeps the ball moving. There are a handful of stretches, which is typical when you're in that environment when you're

playing well, where he got a little shot happy, especially with the fade away. But for the most part, he kept the ball moving. He kept the offense flowing. He consistently made good reads. And if he can pass the ball that well, that's where he can potentially be an even better player than Carmelo Anthony. Like I explained Carmelo as kind of like the player that he reminds me of the most as the big forward that can score from all three levels. If Paolo can get that, if Paolo can get the passing ability, and his defense, which we're going to talk about in a minute, even if he doesn't reach the ultimate offensive ceiling that Carmelo had,

he can be a better player overall. With his defense, he makes plays with his length, which is to be expected, because he's a little bit big and a little bit heavy, doesn't have overly quick feet. He did get beat on closeouts a bunch. He does give up dribble penetration. That's to be expected.

But overall, with his overall, impact as a shot blocker. There was a play in the second half of that game where he was on the right block, and there was a skip pass to the opposite wing, and he closed out from underneath the basket to block a three-pointer. A lot of you guys probably remember the play in overtime where I can't remember who it was for Sacramento, but someone drove to the basket and had a wide open layup, and Palo made an extra effort play from out of the play to come over and block the shot from behind.

He got called for foul, but they reviewed it and they overturned it. He made a lot of plays defensively just with his length. And that's awesome because his instincts will get better. His foot speed will get better as he becomes an elite NBA athlete in terms of taking care of his body. He will get better at that stuff. So to see him already making plays with his length is super impressive. And last but not least, his demeanor, and this is the kind of thing you can only notice when you're there in person. This dude is a competitor.

He's angry when he makes mistakes, but he doesn't sulk. He lifts up his teammates. He makes the right play. He won the game making a pass when they went to sudden death. By the way, incredible game. Moment of the entire Summer League. The magic are up by six with like 10 seconds left. And the Kings go down and make a three.

Force to steal on the inbounds. And Keegan Murray actually patiently pump fakes and knocks down this three. The arena completely explodes. It was awesome. Then they go into overtime. It's this epic play where Paloans, blocking the dude at the end to save the game. And then the half court shot almost goes in.

And then it's sudden death overtime. But in sudden death overtime, the crowd is egging Palo on to take one of his fadeaways to try to win the game. But he just made the right play. He saw his big man cutting underneath the basket and hit him. They made the layup and the game was over. My friend, Roosch Williams, who covers the Houston Rockets, was down in the scrum. And he asked, he asked Palo about his fadeaway.

And he said it's something that he's been working on a lot. but that he doesn't want to fall in love with. It just says all the right things. Super smart kid is already savvy with the media. I thought he was a clear number one, and I thought he had a super, super impressive start to Summer League. Moving on to Chet. So Chet had 12 blocks through three Summer League games,

which is the most that you've seen in Summer League in five years. His blocks were impressive to me because of the second efforts that he was making in the out-of-area plays. it's not like he's just the low man, you know, underneath the basket and guys are driving right into him and he's getting a block. Or he's guarding a player and the player's driving into him and he's, you know, absorbing contact and blocking the shots. In a lot of these situations, he's completely out of the play, either in transition or his two passes away, and he's making extra efforts to come over and block shots, which is what you have to do to get 12 blocks in three summer league games. No one's stupid enough to just repeatedly drive right at Chet Holmgren and try to take a try to, try to,

take layups. That would be a suicide mission, right? Chet was making these plays out of area, which I was super, super impressed by. First of all, his handle was probably better than Palo and Jabari. Maybe not quite Powell, but he's at that level. He handles the ball really well in space, in transition. That was the most impressive part, probably, that I saw from Chet, was just when he gets the rebound and he leads the break. He had a couple of really nice dishes in transition, including one for a layup at the start of the game, just confidently dribbling the ball at the floor with his head up, keeping himself aware of the options that he had around him.

The one thing I did notice, though, is that when he handled the ball well in space, but when he was pressured, he struggled, which is typical for tall guys. Think of it like this. A short player, the distance that the ball has to travel to get to the ground is significantly less. A tall player, the ball is just moving a lot more from higher off the ground. there's just more room for people to get in there. That was where Jabari Smith was most important.

In the first game on Thursday night, he definitely let Palo get way too comfortable, giving him space. In this game, he was getting up into Chet every time he had an opportunity and he actually forced a lot of turnovers taking the ball away from him. The best example I could think of to kind of explain this concept to you guys

is what happened with Jalen Brown in the finals. When you're dribbling the ball in traffic and people are allowed to kind of hit at your arms, it's hard to dribble no matter how good you are at ball handling because it's not like you, like if your brain is planning for the ball to be in one place and some dude hits your arm, you're not going to get the basketball.

So where Palo has this figured out is he turns his back to you and he protects the basketball with his body. That's what you have to do as a tall guy. So both Jabari Smith and Chet will have to learn, even as they get better as ball handlers to use their body to protect the basketball because they're never going to be able to just mix up in front of people because of how tall they are.

His defensive presence is real. Like I mentioned earlier, there were a handful of plays where guys drove right at him, but most people aren't actually challenging him if they can't avoid it. His motor is real. Out of area of plays, extra efforts. He is running up and down the floor in transition. He doesn't look like one of those classic big guys that hates basketball. He's a competitor.

You can see... Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast.

It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because, of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your See it in his demeanor.

He, like similar stuff to Palo, like angry when he makes mistakes, cheers on his teammates, has all of that positive, infectious energy. I was definitely a fan. He didn't necessarily blow the roof off of that place with his skill, didn't shoot the ball well, struggled, like I said, handling the ball around Jabari. But you can see, you can see the tools there, especially on the defensive end. He had this screen and roll with Josh, Josh Giddy that was really effective yesterday. Now, Josh Giddy ended up looking like the star in this particular play, and don't get me wrong, Josh Giddy was the best player on the floor,

but a lot of it has to do with the way teams guarded the pick and roll. And it was exciting because you're going to see this pick and roll a ton over the course the next few years. Josh Giddy with Chet Holmgren. So usually you'll see when teams are guarding a pick and roll, they're usually prioritize one over the other. They'll either bracket the ball handler, meaning like the big man will come over to the ball handler in a drop,

and the guard will chase over the top, and they will kind of bracket and try to corral the ball handler, or they'll prioritize the role man. The guy who's guarding the screener will stay with the role man to take away the role, in which case the guard has to do a lot more work to get over the screen. Well, because of Chet and his ability to basically be already a great elite vertical spacer in the NBA, the screen defenders were prioritizing Chet as the role man. And so as a result, Josh Giddy's man was getting caught on the screen.

And Josh Giddy kept getting right into the lane and getting fantastic looks in the short range to right at the basket. That's going to be really interesting to see because now a lot of this is going to be on Josh Giddy. He has to stay a scoring threat. I was really impressed by Josh Giddy, but his shooting is not there right now. He's got an awful hitch. He doesn't dip his legs the way he's supposed to. He looks very rigid while he's shooting. So he's going to have to work some stuff out on that front.

because if he can get the defense to key in on him as the screen and roll guy, that's where Chet will have openings as the in pocket passes and in lob passes up around the basket. One last note on Josh Giddy, obviously his passing is amazing. You guys all know that. The specific type of passing that he does that I think is super interesting are these baseball skip passes. And I think I tweeted about this yesterday, but it's such a great way to combat help defense. because if you got the ball in the left wing and the defender guarding the guy in the weak side corner

has a foot in the paint or a foot by the block, you know, it makes it hard to do things on the strong side of the floor, driving to the basket, running screen and roll because that defender's in there. But if you throw a skip pass, usually the guy has time to close out because it's such a large chunk of the floor that the ball has to cover.

And LeBron made this famous over the years, but Josh Giddy has this as well. If you can lull the defense to sleep by keeping your attention focused on one side, but then hurl a quick baseball pass that's on a rope that hits the shooter in the pocket, that will make, not only will it generate an open look, and he got three assists early in the game with those baseball passes, but it also causes that help defender to think twice about coming that far over.

And if you're always paranoid about a LeBron or a Josh Giddy making that baseball skip pass, it pulls that defender an extra step closer to that weakside corner, which opens everything up for you on the strong side to run your actions. But I'm really impressed by Josh Giddy. He did a great job of getting into the lane and initiating contact and using his size to Euro over the top to make plays scoring and dropping off to Chet. He had one in the first half of that game where he did that Euro step and Chet got a dunk on it. But he definitely has to work out something with his shooting.

And it's not just his jump shot, it's also his touch. he missed a lot of floaters and hook shots in that like five to ten foot range. Guys, that's what makes Luca so deadly is when he gets to those spots on the floor as a big point guard. He's so good at making those short range shots. Josh Giddyke has the potential to do some of that stuff. He just needs to work on that touch in that spot on the floor. With Chet, one last note with him, the Kenny Lofton game, which was in, I believe it was in Utah. Everybody saw that.

Chet Holmgren has this incredible first game, and then Kenny Lofton just bullies him. And everyone goes like, oh, this is what's going to happen to him when he gets into the league. He's just going to get bullied. And I don't worry about that at all. And there's a couple of reasons why.

How many players in the league play like Kenny Lofton? Like maybe Julius Randall, right? Maybe. And not to say that there are guys that play bully ball, but not like that. They don't. and there's tons of film from when I was studying Chet of guys attempting to bully him and him still blocking them because of his unique combination of physical tools.

So I wouldn't overreact to the Kenny Lofton thing. Kenny Lofton is a very unique player and he's going to make that Memphis roster. I don't know that he'll be in the rotation because what I worry about with Kenny Lofton is his foot speed and his ability to cover on defense in a five-out system just because I don't think he's fast enough. But Kenny Lofton is going to bully people out of the post at the NBA level, regardless of, I mean, there's only going to be a handful of guys that can actually check him physically. So that I wouldn't overreact to that for Chet.

Chet is an immediate impact player right now in the NBA as a stretch five. He has a ridiculously high ceiling if things break right. I was impressed with him, even though he didn't play exceptionally well. Jabari Smith, Jr. So on offense right now, the only thing he can do is rise and fire. He's tall, he's long, and he's got a good shot. So he can just elevate over the top of most people. That's the only way you can get to a shot right now, though.

Can't dribble at all and doesn't have that ability to protect the basketball that I was talking about where he turns us back to the defender. Now, the rise in fire thing is a good foundation. It's a great place to start, especially with how well he can shoot the basketball. But it's just a foundation. He has so much more that he has to build. around that. And the problem was, is you could tell his inability to get to spots so that he could generate

easy shots, that started to affect his confidence. So then even when he was rising and firing, he wasn't hitting. And I can't remember what he finished with yesterday, but I think he was like three for 16 from the field at one point. And he had missed some makeable shots. But that's what happens. When you don't have a way to generate easy shots on a night like that, It starts to get in your head.

Now you're rising up for those jumpers and you're like, it's just not my night. And it becomes even more likely that you'll miss. And it just starts to, it's like a compounding effect. So where I'd like to see him kind of improve there is to get a little bit more of a back-to-the-basket game. Work on fighting for position closer to the rim and get that fade away down over both shoulders so that he can get a little closer and start making stuff at about 10 feet because that's a shot that he'll be able to make a much higher percentage. so on a night when he's not shooting particularly well,

he can fight closer to the rim. And that's where when he gets his ball handling worked out, it'll be even easier for him because that's where he can start to get to spots closer with finishing, getting to the rim as, you know, and finishing over the top of defenders with his length around the rim, or like I was talking about earlier, turn-around jump shots that are closer to the basket. He has to round that stuff out so that he doesn't get so down on himself when his shot isn't falling.

Because he is absolutely a better shooter than he showed this weekend. His form is great. He's got good arc. Everything looks good. Just didn't shoot well because he's not confident because he's got some big holes in his game. In the first game, the confidence really started to show in his demeanor. And you could tell because he wasn't being overly aggressive. At least in the second game, you could tell he was carrying himself more confidently.

And that was showing in his shot selection. He did not go quietly into the night. He was firing. He was emptying the clip and doing everything he could to try to get himself going. The defensive stuff is real. He was really, really bothering Chet by getting up into his handle. There were several plays where Chet tried to bury him under the basket, and he disrupted him and forced him to either miss layups or blocked shots,

which is difficult to do against a player as tall as Chet. Everything with the defense is real with Jabari Smith. That should get you excited if you're a Rockets fan. But he's got a long, long way to go. If we redrafted, I think I'd take him forth. Like that's my big takeaway from the weekend. I think Ivy is just significantly better than him right now. But, you know, it's not a disaster.

It's not like he's a bust. He just has a long way to go and it's going to be a process. But fortunately for Houston, you got lots of time to figure that out. Jade and Ivy, if we did a redraft, I'd take him second. I was absolutely blown away by him. Now, you guys already knew I was high on him. I would have taken him forth over Kagan Murray. I thought that was a disaster from the Kings.

But watching it in person, it was even more of a disaster. I talked about this a little bit in my pre-draft video, but there's different kinds of athleticism. You know, if you watch Jonathan Caminga, you think, oh my gosh, freak athlete. Because you just see the dude putting his head above the rim and jackhammer smashing everything that he gets a chance, right? But that's just one type of athleticism.

There's foot speed. coordination. You know, Steph Curry, for instance, with coordination, that's a form of athleticism. Just about everybody playing in the summer league was a better athlete in terms of size, strength, and speed than Steph, but that hand-eye coordination, that

conditioning, those are all parts of athleticism. With Jayne ivy, it's starting and stopping, the ability to go from full speed to a stop to back to full speed, and the ability to change direction while going full speed. And this is what reminds me

so much of Dwayne Wade. We've had a couple of players that have been mentioned with Dwayne Wade in the past. Everybody mentions Donovan Mitchell. I don't really see that. John Morant, he's not like Dwayne Wade, but there's a similar impact on officiating where people can't keep him in front and he's flying into the lane and he gets like knocked over and he falls all the time and you just are waiting for the whistle to blow. But neither of those players really, really fit the actual physical profile and feel of a Dwayne Wade. Jaden Ivy is the first player I've seen in the last, God knows how many years, that moves the way that Dwayne Wade does. Yesterday, he only played like six minutes before he checked out of the game with an ankle

sprain, which he tweeted out this morning that he thinks is fine. But like, he was just confidently working up the floor and just dusting dudes off the dribble. But then comes the step of the athleticism. Here comes the help. While going at full speed, he can just veer off to the right to get around people and then veer back towards the rent. There was a play that he drew a foul on

on like the first drive of the game. I encourage you guys to go watch the film of it because it was ridiculous. First play, I believe it was the first play of the game where he got to the free throw line. He missed the layup. The entire defense collapsed on him and he just weaved through all of him,

all of them, and went up and under and damn near made an hand one layup. every trip down the floor nobody had a snowball's chance in hell at keeping him in front it was truly remarkable to see he hit a three on the left wing as well he drew a foul on a three at the top of the key

was getting to the rim was dropping off passes in transition just an unbelievably impressive performance from jaden ivy I think I think he's going to be so incredibly good almost right away especially in NBA spacing they got him a real vertical spacing threat in Jalen Duren that's going to actually help loosen things up around the rim.

I was just blown away. A couple nitpicky things. His shot is still a little too slow and set. It's not a hitch, but it's just very slow and set. But at the same time, Dwayne Wade's shot was slow and set. But because he was so incredibly athletic and teams were so paranoid about his slashing ability, they played off of him.

so it might not end up mattering. But that was the one, if I had to be really nitpicky, I would go, I would say that his shot needs to be a little quicker, a little more fluid. But he was arguably the most impressive, most impressive player I saw an actual play.

Overall, I'm most impressed with Palo as a player in the sense that like he will project to be a better player in the long run because of his other physical tools with his size. But Jade and Ivy, in terms of actual on-court play was the best player I saw this weekend by a decent margin.

It just looked out of place like he didn't even belong there. Just incredibly impressive. Keegan Murray, shot looks good. It's a little flat, but it's accurate. It goes in. You'll need to add a little bit of arc there probably.

Another guy kind of like Chet where he's got a smooth handle when he has an advantage, but he really struggled with the uptick athleticism, had a bunch of turnovers yesterday. I think he had a half dozen turnovers. But when he was like actually operating in space, his fluidity is, it stands out. And that's to be expected. He's a little bit older. But when he was actually in isolation, meaning when defenders were up in his airspace, he really struggled. He got bullied on

post-ups, which was disappointing because when I was scouting him, I really liked his back-to-the-basket game. I thought he was uniquely equipped with the back-to-the-basket game that you don't see often from players at his position. But I saw him posting up and getting pushed off of his spots, which was disappointing by smaller players. The uptick and athleticism in that setting clearly bothered him a little bit, which was, you know, to be expected. That's not his strength.

This athleticism is not his strength. He did make a massive shot to send that game to OT, which I thought was the moment of the weekend, really, really cool moment for him. But like, I like Keegan Murray. I think he's going to help the Kings. I think he's going to have a productive, long NBA career. I could totally see him being like an Otto Porter Jr. type of player. But this was a catastrophic mistake for the Kings.

Jaden Ivy was right there for him. I think Jaden Ivy might be the second best player in this draft. I thought he was the best player this weekend that I saw. He was the guy that stood out the most in terms of his incredible ability, and he was right there and the Kings did it again. the Kings willingly passed on the better player for whatever the hell reason it was. I have no idea how they keep landing on these decisions,

but I mean, I feel bad for Kings fans because Kegan Murray is going to be fine, but Jade and Ivy is going to be a star, and you absolutely could have had that guy. A couple really quick special shoutouts from some other players that I saw. Aaron Wiggins for the Thunder, the 6-8, 3-D wing.

I don't know how they got this guy. He's under contract two for the next three-season. seasons on team options and non-guaranteed deal. So it's basically he's just under team control. And, and like, I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, the Lakers can't get a guy who's over 6-6 that can guard multiple positions and shoot three. And here, OKC just has another one. And Aaron Wiggins. I was really, really impressed with him yesterday. Another guy for the Thunder, Jalen Williams, had 10 points by the time that I left the game, but loud points. Freaky athleticism, had a really nice up and under, had a really nice dunk driving baseline,

and then had a cut out of the weak side corner where he like went up and under and reversed it on the other side of the room. I tweeted out the video of it. Really, really impressive athleticism from him. The biggest thing that stood out to him is, you know, stood out to me about him was his ability to cut. Everybody thinks of like spotting up as like shooting, but it's not the only way to spot up. If you catch your defender in help and you cut and you time it right, and you have a head of steam, you can elevate over everybody because you have the momentum because you're cutting, and it's another way to punish people for helping off of you in a shooting position.

And last but not least, Tye-Tai Washington of the Rockets, I was really impressed with his ability to get separation. Again, in this setting with how intense everybody was playing with how physical the defense was, it's just not easy to get to your spots. And so when you see a player that noticeably is getting separation from this level of athleticism and this level of defensive focus, it's really, really impressive. So I was impressed by Taitai Washington.

A couple of quick things before we get out of here, Damien Lillard in this weird morality play. So you guys all saw the quotes, I'm sure. But he basically said that he's hoping he can set an example to the future generations that you can be loyal to your team and play for the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back. Now, to be clear, I think it's cool that Dame's staying in Portland.

And I do wish more players would stay. I talked about this with Colin after the finals, but I think it's a big part of the future health of the league. But make no mistake, here's what's actually happening here. This is one gigantic attempt to control the narrative. And Dame frames leaving as taking the easy way out. And in a literal sense, it is because basketball is easier when you play with more talent. but it's also the easy way out to do what Dame is doing

in the sense that he's taking all the pressure off of himself. If you stay in Portland and everybody in the league knows you don't have as much talent as the other top teams in the league, if you win, you're the hero who brought Portland a title. If you lose, it's you were supposed to. And again, I can't speak for Dame, but I like to think that I'm pretty sure

that's a factor here. And that's why I don't like the morality play. It's dope that you're staying. I'm happy for you. I'm happy for Portland fans. It's great for the league. But it also makes sense for you to stay because it relieves pressure.

And at the end of the day, if you never win a title in Portland, no one will judge you because of the fact that you never really had that much talent there. And I know Dames aware of that, and that's why he's releasing these quotes. He's not releasing these quotes

to try to set a trend for what future stars will do. He's releasing these quotes to protect himself and protect the narrative of his time in Portland. And I just, again, let's just call it what it is. It's great that you're staying, but we know that this is a part of that story, and that's why you keep pumping these quotes out into NBA Twitter.

And the last but not least, James Harden. Intel is still working on a deal, but Intel is he's going to take a discount? Hey, man, like I have been really critical of James Hardin as someone who's distracted and who doesn't put the team first, if he takes a discount to help the Sixers round out this roster and put together a contender, tip of the cap to James Hardin, that demonstrates a willingness to commit and a willingness to try to achieve the ultimate goal, which is winning.

So kudos to James Harden. There was some intel in the tweets. I was saying that the team is essentially pushing James Hardin to take his conditioning more seriously. We're going to find out if that's the case. at the start of the next season. All right, that's all I have for today, guys. A couple of quick shoutouts.

It was several of you came up and saw me in Vegas and talked about how much you guys enjoyed the show. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that. It was great to get to meet some of you guys. Special shout out to Nigel, who one of the days I went up to UNLV to the rec center to play some basketball. And the guy walks up, really friendly dude,

and he goes like, hey man, I was just listening to your show on the way to the gym. And that was such a cool moment for me. Because, you know, it was funny. It wasn't on Twitter. It wasn't, didn't see us there. It just happened to find our show on YouTube and has been following. And you know what? Him and I guarded each other, played a little bit of basketball, which was a cool moment.

And it was really great to meet you, Nigel. It was really great to meet all of you guys that I met there this weekend. And as always, I appreciate you guys supporting the show. That is all I have for today. Remember, tomorrow I will have something focused on the Warriors in Summer League. I will see you guys then. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy,

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