Speaker 1: What is a Fellasiko's I Am Dana Valley coming at
you with my certified fantabulous co host, mister Grant Hughes.
We're here to talk about some NBA rookies, just the
rookies that have stood out are some of the biggest
names that we feel like we need to dole out
grades for. This is our third grading podcast in like
two weeks. That this will not become a super staple,
but it's like, all right, fifteen plus games into the season,
it feels like a good way to just package and
deliver our overall evaluations of these rookies we've seen so far.
We'll get into our criteria of course as to how
we figure out these grades. But first and foremost, Grant,
it's Thanksgiving week? Are you already in We're recording this
on a Monday morning? Are you already in Wednesday? Before Thanksgiving?
Energy mode?
Speaker 2: What is that energy level? Is that a high energy
level or low?
Speaker 1: If you've ever worked in like typical like outside of
retail where like people actually have to do work in
corporate America, this whole week is just a disaster. Even look,
I'm you want people behind the curtain, like as people
who have deadlines like we're we're working, but it's just
like we know the people that like set the deadlines
like probably aren't going to be around when we find so,
Like I just this week is always weird because everyone
talks about how little work they get done, and I'm
always just like, I don't I'm not complaining. I don't
feel that. No, we always have like the slate before
Thanksgiving is so fucking crowded. So I this is to
say I'm highly caffeinated. If I get Wednesday before Thanksgiving energy,
it's not right now. I'm just I'm so stoked to
podcast with you again.
Speaker 2: I'm just yeah, well this also thanks for heading off
my how are you doing question at the past. I
know you're doing great. Now I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know what day of the Thanksgiving weak energy
level I'm at. I'm fairly caffeinated. You can always be
more caffeinated, in my opinion.
Speaker 1: You can never be too caffeinated in my opinion.
Speaker 2: No, and until you're at the hospital with arrhythmia or whatever,
as you're you're in good shape. I'm excited to do
this the rookies this year. I mean let's just get
into it. This is in a lot of ways the
rookie class we were promised. There have been some surprises
and exceptions, but this does just feel like a group
that you know has some has It's going to require
a lot of eye test, I'll put it that way,
because some of the numbers aren't great. So we'll get
into it. But that that's kind of the first thing
I would point out coming.
Speaker 1: In right and the way we approach this is we
did try to focus on notable names people care about,
even if they didn't necessarily play as much as we
were expecting that we'll be part of this, But we
had some tough cuts needed to be made because this
is just not a podcast that needs to be eight
hours long. I think we end up talking about I
think we have like twenty rookies. Will shout out some
other ones that kind of like that we think are noteworthy,
but we just didn't want to do deep dives on
maybe we've covered their team a bunch already anyway, as
we didn't do this when we were grading the old
faces and new places. A CE is re like average
relative to expectations. It's not a bad grade. If a
rookie's getting a sea, it means that he's basically holding
up his end of the bargain. In our eyes. Now,
anything below that is where you want to kind of
be worried. However, when it comes to rookies, you I
tend to be a little bit more generous, and to me,
it's more about it's less about the grade. And I'm
not throwing numbers out the window. We all have numbers
and we all have observations. But these guys are twenty,
let's say, about twenty games into their career, fewer than
twenty games into their career. So I'm not going to
come out and, oh, man shooting thirty one percent from three,
that's an.
Speaker 2: F well, right, And the other complicating factor is, like
several of these guys it's a small sample anyway, just
because of where we are in the season, but it's
also like some of them weren't in rotations and then
are starting, and then some of them were and then
are have their roles shrink or had injuries crop up.
So it's like even in like a fifteen what almost
some nobody's played more than eighteen games, you might have
nine of those where it's like, well, this was the
before the before and after point of his season where
he actually started to play or you know, actually was
getting shots like that kind of thing. So really, again
you pointed out or mentioned the relative to expectations. It's
not like, you know, there's gonna be one A and
one B and one C and went dan on down,
you know, and we'll just it's like a ranking of
the rookies. That's not what this is. Like if you're
a mid round pick or even a second rounder and
you've outperformed expectations, like that's just gonna get a better
grade than a high pick that's been you know, has
the counting stats, but like has played like as expected.
If that right, Like that's kind of how you look
at it. It's not everybody's graded on the same scale,
which feels unfair, but I don't think there's a better
way to do it.
Speaker 1: I will say. What does become difficult, though, is because
if they're not playing a ton is, can you like,
does that ding their grade unless you think that I
can't get there unless you think so. An example would
be and we will talk about him read Shepherd. Do
you grade him? Do you demerit him? Because he's not
playing more, and you think he has control over that
and he hasn't impressed enough to get more minutes or
is it? Oh, the Rockets are really good and deep.
We've talked how many times about them just having so
many dudes that you just grade him relative to the
minutes that he's been on the floor, not the fact
that this is the number three pick. Who is what
is he even in like the top twenty five of
minutes played for rookies.
Speaker 2: I know he's like eighth or ninth on his own
team among not long with rookies obviously, but like, yeah,
he's just he's on the fringes of like you know,
of the rotation.
Speaker 1: Basically we begin grant the number one overall pick, mister
Zachary Resiche, how you feel about this kid?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a So he has definitely had the most
consistent role I would say of any first year players
number one overall pick. Obviously, only a handful of guys
have played four hundred minutes. He's one of them. He's
got more starts than any other rookie this year. So
he's you know, the Hawks are an okay team so far,
kind of up and down, and he's had a starting
role and decent, you know, fairly consistent amount of minutes
all year like that alone in a rookie class, like
that's now your number one pick, that should probably be
the expectation. But I think he's met that, like he's
been good enough to stay out there and you know,
again low usage, the shot looks good to me, Like
he does shoot like a pretty easy ball. It's not
going in that it's twenty five percent from three that
that's bad if like your role right now is you're
a connective passer who is gonna make spot up shots
and defend. He still looks like I understand why he
went where he went in the draft, Like I can
see the numbers aren't good, but the eye test stuff
like he just looks like a big wing that's going
to be able to do a little bit of everything.
And I do believe in the shot even if the
results haven't been there. So to me, like he he
didn't come bild as like, oh he's going to be
a star, right, like that was priced in to him
even being pick number one. He's got a thirty three
point game, so you know he's getting a couple of steals.
He looks okay, in the passing land, just like he
seems okay to me. He seems kind of like what
what you expected? And I haven't maybe more importantly, I
haven't seen anything where it's like, oh, I don't like
he's he's not gonna stick, or like he he looks
weak or like that kind of nothing jumps out as
a glaring problem. So I'm mostly positive on him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would be too. I think that he's probably
been he's been better than I even would have expected,
and maybe I was just too low on the draft class. Overall,
he's he's plug and play, and that's basically what you described.
I've been impressed with his movement, like because a lot
of his stuff is going to happen away from the ball.
He set some screens and he's looked pretty well in
those situations. He is scoring grant about the same number
of movement points per seventy five possessions as Jamal Murray
and Klay Thompson. So he's like right in that area.
And that's look, they're not coming as efficiently and it
probably is more of a volume thing, but he's a
rookie and so you want to see the shooting percentages
come up. In the macro, I think defensively too, relative
to the workload that they have him carrying. I've been
mostly impressed there. I still don't know if he bills
is like his path to start him is is there
more self creation on offense than we've seen, or is
he just so he's super plug and play on the
offensive end and then he's like a capsock stopper on defense.
I don't know that I've seen evidence that I can
view him as such, but like the pairing of him
in Dyson Daniels' long term super intriguing. And again they're
not like I know Dyson Daniels is on this team,
but like Zachary Recha's getting reps against top guys. They're
not insulating him like you're gonna see him Againt Zaclavine
or Jaylen Williams, like just some of the matchups I'm
remembering anecdotally.
Speaker 2: That's a big part of it. It is like he
is starting and playing a lot, and he's not being
really hidden, you know in the wa ways, like some
of these rookies we're gonna talk about are getting a
lot of second unit minutes in the competition you face
is just worse and your role is not as big,
so we've got them both in the B plus area.
So I think, like that may seem a little high,
but I do think just considering like what he's asked
to do and like how he's looked relative to what
we were told he'd be, he's just been like a
good version of that player, Like the numbers will come up.
He's super young too, He's one of the younger guys
in the class, So think about that too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and that's the other thing here, And
it could be just in his role, like if you're
not guaranteed a consistent number of touches within Atlanta's pecking
order even with and look, the point guard situation aside
from Tree Young isn't great right now, Like you have
kind of a by committee thing happening by Donovis missed
a ton of time. Who seemed Dison Daniel's handle it
a bit, And he's someone who is of right now
for sure, Like you'd like steady or point guard play
overall around him. Our next guy up, mister Hughes Tjan
Salon kind of a mystery box leading into the draft.
I think some people were surprised that the Hornets ended
up taking him where they did. Was that was number six, right?
That was an eight, Yeah, that was six. What have
been your impressions of him?
Speaker 2: So, like really good size, not necessarily for a center,
which is where he has actually spent a little bit
of time. Because every guy that could possibly play center
that's played for the Hornets this year keeps getting hurt.
Grant Williams the latest to go down. Tough tough break
like major knee injury, ACL and some other stuff. Mark
Williams out, Nick Richards out, Taj Gibson is on this team.
Salon to me is a forward, like the frame is there,
and he's very young too, Like he's pretty filled out.
Like you can see a level of physicality, competitiveness, like
he's I've even seen him like get into it after
you know, some perceived shoves under the underneath the boards,
like he'll confront guys. The three point attempt rate is high,
the conversion rate is low. Like he's just he's such
a project, right, which is exactly what we were told
he'd be. So I don't know, I think some of
the numbers are kind of like concerning, but just just
looking at him on the floor, I could see the vision,
it's just a long long way off, you know, to
where he's eventually a pretty multi skilled combo forward type
that has can be really physical and maybe shoot the three.
But like we just we haven't seen anything close to
the like high production level yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just like chaos and bodily form. Like the
energy is there and you love the way that he's
going to get up and down the floor. He's actually
done a really good job of drawing shooting fouls in transition.
But I think this is someone that you should have
expected to be a project, and I think you could
argue that he wasn't supposed to have as much of
a role as he does now if it wasn't for
some of the injuries up and down Charlotte's roster. So
he's probably I think I see the vision of him
more as a player to where it's just like, oh,
this sort of like bigger wing sized guy could be
a play finisher. You've been able to move him around defensively.
I wanted to see plus here because I think even
just by virtue of playing as much as he has
so far, he's probably exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got him right there. I have him as
a C. It's just like it's more it's he's projectable,
like I can understand the appeal, it's it's just very
very far off. And I think like that's basically his
draft scouting report, like, yeah, there's something in there, but
it's going to be a while.
Speaker 1: You want to lead us through this next guy, mister Hughes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is modest bizillis for the Chicago Bulls. So
we had like it's always interesting when you get a
G leag ignite guy because you sort of have what
feels like I don't know, I don't know why I
think this, but it's like he shot it this way
for the in for the ignite and like or he
played this way or had this turnover issue or whatever.
Somehow that feels more predictive or more useful than college numbers.
He shot twenty two percent from three last year in
the G League, and so that was a big concern
coming in. Like good athlete, good size, like Rangey. I
don't know, you see him six nine or six ten,
depending on where you look good in the open floor.
He's already got a handful of like highlight dunk that
have been impressive mostly just kind of with a clear runway,
super competitive, like wants to dunk on people, which is
another part of his like pre draft profiles that he's
like very confident, like just like that kind of thing. Still,
so this is probably a couple games all through his
first fifteen games. We'll just to keep it accurate, just
under thirty five percent from three so that that's solid.
But he was eight to twenty three. That's a small
he's not getting him up, you know, he's not playing
a ton. I think just the open floor stuff, the
hints that maybe he's a guy that could develop some
like just beat his man out of a triple threat
type of thing and maybe develop into a guy who
can shoot it, you know, off the catch offf movement. Again,
he's a little like Salon. It's like I can I
can see it. He's got more ball skills and stuff
than Salon does. But so I think I've been encouraged
by the flashes. But we just don't. I mean, as
you're talking, I'm gonna look up his minutes like he's
not getting it.
Speaker 1: So, yeah he was. I didn't even mean to have you.
So I think he's been better than I expected, just
because he hasn't played a ton. I didn't expect him
to play a ton because the Bulls are all over
the place getting some more run over the past couple games.
When I kind of looked at him, I expected the
shooting percentages to be all over the place. I want
to know if there was going to be enough on
ball flashes, which I think there have been. He also
runs the floor really well. I don't know if this
is someone who's going to generate ever blow by separation,
but he can play like he gets separation with that shoulder,
like when he's able to pull back, and so I
see the outlines of a player, and then I think
he's just been like he's made more plays at the
rim than I would have expected to see from him
this season, even in the small minutes prior to his
most recent two games. And if like, if that's someone
that he can be just like an offensive confident who's
going to make some plays on the defensive end. Black
Way his block rate four point eight, like just as
a rookie, and who's like at what is he six
' nine? Is he even listed that high? So I
favorite I went with for his grade. I went with
a B. I think that maybe I'm a little bit too.
Maybe the past two games, because I've seen a lot
of the Bulls have maybe tilted me more towards Oh,
this is the high end. But I'm also looking at
it from the perspective of I didn't really expect him
to do anything this year because they just have so
many bodies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got him out a c plus, I think
you know, he's He's been kind of kind of what
we thought so far. Actually, a lot of these guys
have basically lived up to their their pre draft billing
in a lot of ways, so he's just been a
little better. The Flashes have been a little more intriguing
to me than maybe I expected them to be.
Speaker 1: Next up, what are your thoughts on Ron Hollins.
Speaker 2: Sir man, the low light of the year. Those two
free throws. He missed that that could have essentially staved
off over time and got the Pistons and win against
I think it was the Bucks. Then he and then
the next night out goes four or four from the
foul line. I don't know if you saw a clip
of those misfree throws, but they were both like the
barely grays the front of the room, short, like nervousness
kind of thing. So glad he got over that and
moved past that. The athleticism, the defense, and the inability
to shoot are kind of all there. So we've sort
of got another guy that's kind of aligning with with
his you know, pre draft stuff. If he could he
just hit a few more threes, I feel really good
about it. I still think, like I understand why some
people were really really high on him. He competes really
hard on defense, like all that stuff is really pretty
clear in the early going. So I like him. It's
just like, can the Pistons draft the guy whose principal
question isn't about shooting? Like? It just makes you We
just got Jade and Ivy seems okay. Now we've still
got Thompson, we still got Holland.
Speaker 1: Isn't try Weaver articularly still a consult with the organization
or he transitioned to that role. So the answer to
your question is no, they can like that just as
long as he's associated with them. They need to They
need to draft those types of players. Maybe try Rever
isn't with them anymore?
Speaker 2: What does he? No? No?
Speaker 1: He oh yeah, he's an advisor for the Wizards. I apologize.
So I'm behind on the times on that.
Speaker 2: Uh I.
Speaker 1: So the shooting we knew was going to be a concern,
And when I watch him shoot, I feel like, Okay,
this is someone who can shoot better than he's at
ten percent now on catch and shoot threes. So I
don't hate the way the jumper necessarily necessarily looks. He
has some really good moments in transition. He's drawing shooting
fouls eighteen point nine percent of the time in transition.
That's a good rate. I just and even look the handle.
I can kind of see there, and he's hits them
like these runners floaters, like he's not really taking a
ton of floaters, but like he can score before he's
getting to the basket. The thing that I think actually
concerns me the most, and he does feel like a
guy who will fight on defense and it is hard
to screen. I just feel like, and I don't know
if this is by virtue of when he's playing, because
he's only started one game this season, it feels like
they've insulated him more defensively than you would have expected
and even would like Whenasar Thompson has yet to play
as we record this, and so I haven't seen, and
maybe that's by design, but I haven't seen as much
as just Okay, Ron Holland go match up with star X,
And again, I know because of the way that the
pistons are the excuse me, when he's coming into the game,
that's not necessarily intuitive. But I've been I've been impressed,
and he certainly has like the hands and he can
be disruptive on the defensive end, but I would like
to see him in higher leverage situations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's definitely to your point, like he he and
Reed Shepherd are the only rookies I think who played
eighteen games as we record this, he's like in the
top fifteen in minutes. Yeah, he's fifteenth in total minutes,
so like he's playing every night. But you're right, like
he just isn't You would have been nice if they
just said, like, you don't worry about offense at all,
just go guard Jason Tatum like that. And he has,
you know, he has guarded like some of the higher
you know usage guys. But I agree, like you may
as well, just cause he's gonna be good at that,
I think. But if we don't know what the offense
is gonna look like if the SHOT's gonna fall, I
do think defensively, like, as long as he's gives a shit,
he's gonna be a plus defender. Like that's just I
feel like that's that's fairly certain. So I game a
B minus, you have a C. I think it's anything
in like the the C minus to like B plus
ranges defensible just because he's again the numbers are terrible,
but it just he does he look like an NBA
wing or not? Like, yeah, I think he does.
Speaker 1: We have Reed Shepherd next, my Rookie of the Year pick,
who's boiler Alert's not gonna win rook And I said
this in spite of not only being warned by people
that he wasn't gonna play a ton, but us acknowledging
that he probably wasn't going to play a ton. But
I went the route of he's going to be so undeniable,
he's gonna end up playing enough minutes. How's that looking
for you?
Speaker 2: Same opinion. I didn't care about the glut of young
guys and guards and different combos that you had to
try out with Houston. I just thought he'd be so
good in so many different ways, right because we saw
in the summer league and preseason, like, oh, well that
floater is gonna fall. Oh look that handle. He's getting
to the spots he wants to, So we don't need
him to shoot fifty plus percent from three like he
did in college. Like he could be a creator, he
can be like a paint scorer. He can be a
guy who's gonna get a ton of steals and hold up,
you know, an individual. There were so many ways for
him to get out there. And the thing is, like
he's kind of showed all that stuff. It's just he's
not getting on the floor. And his role is never
a big one. Like it's very rare for him to
be in a like anything close to an alpha offensive position.
Maybe that's not his role, but like that's suppressing the numbers.
The percentages are good. He's thirty eight and a half
percent from three. I's got ten steals in eighteen games,
and that's small roles, like doing stuff.
Speaker 1: His defensive activity, and I know they're kind of built
to let him do that, but it's been a lot
higher than I would have expected. I just they have.
I just I'm disappointed he's not playing more. But I
see the outline of someone who aside from like, okay,
the defensive activity has been better than I expected. Shooting
forty percent on above the breakthreees is a great indicator
for him. I really do think that this is someone
who could be the primary engine of an offense, though
he's shown it a little bit, not running a ton
of pick and rolls, but one point zero five points
per possession out of the pick and rolls the ball handler.
That for a rookie, even in the type of lineups
he's going up against, that's great because look, Houston's offense
is kind of I don't it is getting wins, and
they have had knights where they're really good. I have
I'm not understand Houston's offensive hierarchy at all, and so
to be kind of thrown to that where you're not
getting a ton of like regular minutes, like you can
even look at his minutes like, oh, eleven minutes here
and sixteen minutes there, Oh there were seven minutes there
or whatever it was. I am. I don't want to
say him coming away higher on Reed Shepherd, but I
think in this situation would be easy to be concerned
that he has not figured out a way to carve
out more minutes and maybe we see that later in
the season. Although Houston profiles as a team that will
be playing for real stakes. I haven't seen anything though
that would move me off of believing that he's going
to be the best player in this draft class.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I that we both said that,
didn't we.
Speaker 1: I know, I think that's fair, every fair. I did
have Cody Williams number one of my big board. That's
not that's not.
Speaker 2: We will discuss him briefly at some point. We both have.
We both game would be. I think like part of
that is just not wanting to move off of our
priors of this guy's, you know, God's gifts of basketball,
and part of it is like he really has kind
of done what we thought he would do. It's just
he's not getting the opportunity to play quite as much as.
Speaker 1: We And by the way, the Rockets are good enough
to where you can't oh yeah, you can't ding them
for that, because it would be they do need more
consistent spacing, which he would provide. But when you look
at the guys they're playing, I mean, can't wait more
spend time in the G League this season. That's not
necessarily something And maybe you could have seen it coming
when looking at their depth, cart you just what are
the Rockets supposed to do here? Yeah, our next guy,
mister Hughes. I don't know if anyone's ever heard of him.
Don't Connect play Lakers.
Speaker 2: So do we need to? I mean we don't need to,
But it's annoying when partisan fans of a team who
talk up every player they have get to do the
I told you so when they're right occasionally, and that
is very much the case with don Connect, because we're
both of the mind that like, oh yeah, this rookie
that's coming in is gonna play a huge.
Speaker 1: Role better than Torrian Prince for you, rookies never help.
Speaker 2: It's just the best he could do is be a
break even player. He's been awesome. I mean everybody. He's
on the radar of everybody now, Like he's a quality
starter that can space the floor, is smart, like knows
where to be. He's kind of a good as another
good like example of guys that uh was, you know,
stay stay in school. You know you get these fully
developed prospects. Why why why do these guys always fall
in the draft. They're ready to help, and like he's
just validated all that. Now, the only negative you can
offer is like, maybe he's not gonna get all that
much better, Like he's he's very old for a rookie,
and like this just you know, there's not a ton
of upside. But that's not what this great is about.
This great is about how well his Dalton connect playde
relative expectations. And unless you're just like in your purple
and gold onesie twenty four hours a day, like he's
exceeded your expectations, I would say certainly has mind shot
the ship expectations?
Speaker 1: Is he not exceeded? I want to know what they
thought he was going to be.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's got to be some fraction of Lakers
fans that were like, yep, I'm a little surprised he's
only shooting with like forty five percent from three.
Speaker 1: I kind of thought this was gonna be like the
second coming of Steph Curry meets JJ Reddick meets Desmond Baders.
I don't know. I So also, my thoughts on him
kind of aligned with what you were saying. The movement
is divine and not really an element that the Lakers got.
You can say JJ Reddick came in and implemented more
of it. But they didn't even have someone on the
team last year. And unless you think Max Christy is
that type of player that you could kind of just
plug in here and say, well, hey, do that he
runs the floor really well. He's shooting seventy seven percent
at the rim. He's also been six in the sixty
third percent Tiland points score per possession off screens. What
I really the two things that I think have surprised
me is because he's not like a super fast player
even when he's on the ball, but like he's been
able to attack some aggressive closeouts, get to like a
floater runner type, and that shot is in his bag.
I did not, you know, over time, maybe I thought,
but I wouldn't have predicted, like, no, this is just
someone who just really needs to, you know, get up
threes and that's all he's gonna do. And he's not.
I don't think he's a good defender. He's been harder
to screen or to take out of plays than I thought.
When you go back and watch him now before I
reveal the grades, do you think there's any hint of
Because let's try to be a little self aware. I
think some families get frustrated it's well, it's because this
dude plays for the Lakers, and if he was on
Charlotte or if he was on I don't know, like
Portland or something, he wouldn't be getting as much love.
Do you think there's any of that at play here
or are we playing like look where this guy was drafted?
It's like, what are you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's hard to say there's no like Lakers
bump or whatever whatever the issue is. But like just
just take the team out of it and say, there's
a rookie that has taken over a starting job next
to superstars in a in a big on a big
market team that's trying to win. Now he's got a
sixty seven true shooting percentage, and like it looks like
he understands what to do on both ends. Like that's
that's gonna be a high grade whether whether you play
for the Lakers or or anybody. So, I don't know
how you divide, it's like kind of indivisible. He does
play for the Lakers, so that's gonna skew a lot
of thoughts or just at least put him in the
public eye more than other players would. For other teams,
but like he's just been objectively great. Like that's so
I got an A plus. I don't know what, what
else do you want him to do for a mid
round pick?
Speaker 1: I went with an A because he didn't get Lebron
lying about his pre draft thoughts on him until like
game I don't know if it was like twelve or something,
and that's just late here. I did find that funny,
and I love Lebron, he's my goat. But it's just
where he has to speak in hyperbole and it's just
so funny where he's like, we didn't we didn't find him.
Other teams fucked up.
Speaker 2: Right, That's like a shot at your team in a way,
it's like, oh yea like this.
Speaker 1: Honestly, this front office has found talent. I'm not gonna
give credit to Rob Blake specifically. I'm sure he has
the scouty department deserves a ton of credit here. They've
found guys, like dating back to the guys that they've
let walk that shouldn't or move that they shouldn't have. True,
they've been able to identify talent, so this isn't necessarily surprising,
but he's been I'm just wondering as they're like, do
you think that this is someone who should be like, okay,
closing unit member, pencil it and Stone like Dalton Connect
kind of.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it'll be interesting when Ruy comes back
because whenever he misses time, it's like, man, the Lakers
are really missing that bigger wing and so like what.
Speaker 1: Happens when Jared Vanderbilt. Maybe he'll be healthy at some point.
Speaker 2: Man, Man, how long we've been saying that? You know,
I think Connect is just like he's a he's a
good starter that has has a premium skill. You know,
I love the premium skills. He's just a great, great
three point shooter.
Speaker 1: I don't remember how many teams have multiple rookies that
we're gonna go through, but I can assure you that
Memphis Grizzlies are one of them, and we we had
a narrow it down to two despite them having like,
what is it like twelve that we could have chosen
from so many? Yeah, mister zach Edie Grant, how we
feel about him pretty.
Speaker 2: Much as advertised. He's out right now, but when on
the floor, he just gives you the size, the offensive rebounding,
the physicality, like all that stuff and also that comes
with it is like, yeah, it is kind of hard
sometimes in space on defense for him, and like, you know,
I don't know like what ultimate his offensive role should be.
He does have like very good touch and those little
hooks that he shoots are like he's I think he
is someone that can score if it were twenty five
years ago and like post up centers were still a
major thing, Like I think he would just you know,
he's kind of in the wrong era, I guess. But
he does have more you know, you'd say, like unconventional
skills for a guy his size than I thought, but
just good you know, high rebound rate, block shots is
a big deterrent in there. It's just kind of pretty
much what we thought right Like and like again, he's
another guy that he was thrust into a big role early.
He's got more experience than some other guys. But still,
like I'm mostly mostly encouraged. He's another one, though I
don't know, like kind of in the mold of connected,
like how much better is Zach Edy gonna get? And
how much better do the Grizzlies need him to be?
Maybe that's a better question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm not concerned at all his
some of the foul stuff. I actually thought that that's
been like a bigger issue than I would have expected.
The other thing that I'm kind of just wondering, and
I don't know if this is a they're doing this
specifically for zach Edi or if this is how they
wanted to develop, but like over four post uffs for
thirty six minutes just feels high, giving them direction of
the game, and just like what type of mismatches are
you looking for him to punish? And especially when you're
I know they're the Grizzlies offense is still at its
best when it's in transition or after they're grabbing an
offensive rebound, which, by the way, zach Edy's a really
big part of that. But I also find myself wishing
sometimes when he's grabbing an offensive board that he would
make a better decision with the ball there. So, like
their second chance offensive rating is is fine, it's through
the roof, but he's not shooting as well in putbacks
as I would have expected. Again, are made super high him,
and I think anyone who thought he couldn't necessarily hold
up defensively in this teams are shooting like more of
their shots at the rim when he's on the court.
I don't know how much of that has to do
if they're gonna get out in transition or if Zach
Edy's just going to be too far in front of
certain plays, but I think he's eventually going to be
someone you look at it's, oh, like he's a big
deterrent on the interior and he doesn't look physically or
mobilely overmatched in most a lot of games at least
that I've seen.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, tiny sample six to ten
from three and like the ball comes out pretty good.
I think he has he has good touch around the
rim and on full you know, shorter hooks and stuff
like that. As I mentioned, So there's like there is
a brook Lopez possibility here, like I think, you know,
if he by the way.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I forgot to mention, but just like you
mentioned brook Lopez, he's contesting about it's over forty two
percent of all shots at the basket when he's on
the court, And just for context, that's like about on
the level of a Jared Out. It's not a good
number to be at as a rookie, especially if teams
are kind of actively looking to get you away.
Speaker 2: Round that area. Yeah, so I could see he's a
drop coverage big that maybe develops some three point shooting
and can just will be a better rebounder than Lopez
for sure. So like there's there's a vision here. So
I gave him a bee just because I I I
was really legitimately worried that, like he just he can't move,
like you know, he's knocking. The speed of the game's
too much. He's going to be a target. I don't
think that's going to be the case. So I'm I'm
a little higher on him now than after he was drafted.
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe I should go up from a
seed plus just because of what you mentioned. He is
six of ten from three, but I kind of expected
him to be doing even more. Yeah, I like that weird. Yeah, So,
and the defense has been again, I think he's going
to be fine. They're really good on that end. Another
Memphis grizzlyes Rooie though here Grant, mister Jalen Wells, who Now,
we talked about doing this exercise in September. Do you
think that you thought we were gonna have an individual
segment on Jalen Wells I.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just I don't know, is he the most
we haven't gone all the way through, but like gotta
be the most out of nowhere huge rookie contributor. Right,
there's just no one everybody else was was you knew
the name at least you know. I don't think Wells
was on almost anybody's radar. As like a starting caliber
wing fifty plus from the field, forty percent from deep.
He has the wing size, can defend. Like really, I've
mentioned this every time we've talked about him, which the
fact that we've talked about Jalen Walls multiple times in
the first month of the season, I think speaks to
what he's done. He's second in the among rookies in
total minutes played by the way. That's a factor. But
he just defensively, like he competes. And there's the second
effort stuff. That's the part I always mentioned, which is
again there's not a stat for that, it's just you
watch him play and like he really does have the
game that you could project forward as like this guy's
a two way wing that can do a little bit
with the ball on his own too, Like that's just
kind of a bonus. But got over thirty assists. That's
up there high, certainly among rookie wings. Shoots the ball well,
doesn't play outside himself like all those cliches. It's just like,
this is just a very good NBA wing that it
was I don't know, a draft afterthought to me, Like
was just someone that was projected as like the thirty
or fortieth best prospect in the draft.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we probably just should have known that
there were gonna be injuries in Memphis and he would
just play shit we at this point, it should have
but like opening up the year basically know, oh, Vince
Williams and Gigi Jackson out of the rotation, like just
knowing that even before the season started, maybe he should
have been more on our radar. I would echo everything
you said. The two things that have stood out that
I think you like just didn't Well, you mentioned his defense.
He is guarding number one options more often than anybody else,
I mean Grizzlies. And by the way, like the Grizzlies
don't suck on defense. It's like to have a rookie
shouldering that type of workload and then to not suck
on the defensive end. Hey, that's a pretty big deal,
and then the shooting. I'm like the three point shooting
has been divined also, like quietly forty seven percent on
pull up twos. It's like, no, not someone you necessarily
want operating with the ball a ton, but like, are
we about to have the conversation? Like I kind of
thought we might have had it with Gig Jackson this year,
but it's oh, haveing Grizzlies kind of found like a wing,
a properly sized wing of the future where it's not
like Vince Williams he's six y four, but he kind
of plays like he's six to eight, or Marcus Smart
when they traded for him, kind of the same deal.
So to now have two of those guys, even when
Gig Jackson is healthy, that's like not insignificant for this
team because they've needed a wings like Rudy Gay. It's
really true, and I think some gristly sense at the
time would have argued even before that, like before you
actually yet, Oh this was I think this was the
easiest grade I gave out A plus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's the second rounder A plus. Like, I
don't know what else would you possibly have asked for
him to do. Devil's advocate this, can you, I can't.
We're onto Rob Dillingham, so he has not played a ton.
Speaker 1: He did, he did help lead the charge and that
come back against the Celtics that winds up falling short
on Sunday night. I look at him, I look at
the state of Minnesota's roster at this point when you
look at Mike common missing games, Mike commonly not playing
up the snuff, and I just sort of find myself wondering.
And we also know by the way, like this has
been a big topic of what you gave up to
get him, even if you considered him a longer term project.
And I think we're getting to the point where it's like,
maybe Chris Finch, like this is you unearthed something against
Boston when he plays a whopping total of sixteen minutes,
scores fourteen points, shoots six of ten from the floor,
Like it might just be time to have the conversation,
especially if you're if this is the version of like,
think about how up and down healthy Mike Colmley has been,
who's talked a lot about having to find himself on
the team than dealing with the wrist injury. It's probably
time to unwrap Rob Dillingham more often, and I think
before I throw it to you, just my initial thoughts,
Like this is even before the Celtics game. Defenses react
to him like there's real on ball zip there, so
like just try him more. And he's shooting like five
of eight on drives that not like five of eight,
he's actually shooting five of eight off of his drives.
So he's like when he gets into the paint, like
there's a real reaction and he can be a little
bit frantic. Like when I watch Minnesota's offense in the
half court sometimes they can kind of use that like
phrenetic energy because Julius Randall and you feel like some
like he's been pretty bad. I'm it's interesting seeing Timberwolves
like try to reconcile what like Randall's transition defense are
lacked thereof and like kind of oh first time, I
mean for them, but like he's going to give you
more of just like the word is probably zip to
where Julius Randall's gonna be more methodical. He'll want to
bully his way down there. I know Rob Dillingham's a
little smaller, he's slighter, but like you might just need
that quick connectivity and I don't think we've seen it yet.
As much like this dude will get off the ball,
I'd probably want to see him like be a little
bit more variable when he does get going downhill and
like either throw like more complicated passes or just like
not try and just be so determined to score. Which,
by the way, if he's in the game, it might
just be what you want from him is the on
ball creation. I'm just sort of wondering, Hey, like this
might just be a lever you need to pull more
often at this point. I know that defense has probably
been a bigger concern for the Timberwolves overall, but like,
surviving the minutes offensively without Anthony Edwards remains a concern.
I don't think Dillingham is ready to do it, But
is there something there where it's well, it's not necessarily
punt on defense, but can you get enough out of
him in units without an Anthony Edwards to kind of
prop up your offense a little bit more, which finally
you are in the twenty fifth percentile of offensive efficiency
when Andy Edwards is not on the court.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say I think I think I agree
with all that. I do think he just needs to
play more that Celtics teams was the first one all
year he played more than ten minutes, and like there
are a lot of low single digit nights where just
it's pure garbage time. I think there's there's room for
all of the stuff we thought when the Wolves gave
up what they gave up to get him, there's room
for that stuff to still pan out. Which was which
is to say they did this because Conley's getting older.
They want more playmaking and scoring, and that's like what
Rob Dillingham does. That's kind of all he like defensively,
it's going to be an issue, but I agree, it's
just like this is a team that needs what he
does well in theory, and I think it's time for
him to have larger stretches of minutes to prove that
he can do that. His per thirty six numbers seventeen
and five. His shooting splits are nuts, So those are
all very small samples you shot at great like I guess,
like up until That's Celtics game where you saw him
actually play, it was really confused, like why did you
give up two first round assets for this guy? We're
trying to win now, Like like he provides in theory
what you need, like why why do that if he's
not going to play, And now maybe we're kind of
tipping over that point if he's gonna play.
Speaker 1: But it's over. What happens when Mike Conley suiting up
is also the.
Speaker 2: I will say too. In that Celtics game he had
he had a play where it was semi transition and
he's kind of caught between Jason Tatum at the top
of the three point arc and I forget who was
on the wing, but he like stunted at Tatum. Tatum
has the ball, stunted at Tatum and leaves the ball
and goes to like cover the wing that he thought
Tatum was going to pass to, and they were talking
about it on the broadcast. Tatum had to have been
like are you are you serious? Like you're just leaving
He left Jason Tatum alone for an open three at
the top of the arc, and it was just like rookie,
that's just it was. It was rough.
Speaker 1: This is sort of like it's not a perfect analog
for Denver, but it was leading. We'll have to see
what happens in the games moving forward and how his
minutes are distributed. But it is a tough balancing act
to prioritize development when you're looking to contend for a title.
And then they threw this mega trade basically during training camp. Ords,
wasn't it not approved until like five or something days
into training camp? However long it took.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like fifty teams ultimately or is there a
bunch of machinations?
Speaker 1: Well? Which is it? Kind of lead you back to
what was the thought process throughout all of this, and
it made me think, like, okay, it is like you know,
did Chris Finch and like the front office like we
need to kind of get and Tim Conley need to
get together and like what's the plan here? And it's
something to monitor moving forward because you gave up real
stuff and you can say it's a long term game,
but when you're not as good as you wanted to
be in the short term, and then how do you
juggle that? Is he the answer? Do you steer even
further clear of him when you're at full strength? I
just like, as someone who could punish switches in the
half court, he might just be better to do that,
like than a Julius Randall. At this point, he's a
little bit he's more, he's just he's gonna be slower.
He's looking at bully people and like this guy just
zip is the word, and then'm going to continue to
use it?
Speaker 2: Well, and who of than Ant is going to just
cook his guy and get two feet in the lane
and he make a decision. It's like it doesn't really
happen if it's not him. So Dillingham can do that.
He's just he just got to play. Yet for so
many reasons, he's got to play.
Speaker 1: I went with a c you went with a d plush. Look,
it's I don't even know how to great him when
he's being used. I didn't expect him to be used
a bunch. I Meanwhile, I thought Reed Shepherd was going
to be so undeniable on a deeper team that he
would play. But I kind of thought they were going
to run into this issue despite especially post trade, I
was like, Okay, well, what's gonna happen here? I had
thought that he would just have the inside track before
that trade on Oh, he'll have to play somewhat regularly.
But it felt like between Dante Divinceanzo and Julius Tradell Oh,
it was going to be a struggle to get the courts.
This has about been as I expected. If you're looking
specifically like his role combined with the minutes he's played,
it's probably still been as expected. Some of the issues
are the issues would be concerned about it even if
he had a larger role.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought he was gonna play a lot. I
thought he was going to have a major role. It's
I mean, I would say this feels unfairly low to
give him a D plus, but I will say he
he's got about as much room to bump that great
up as anyone we've talked about, just because, like the
numbers are good when he does play like he can
be a productive offensive player. I just kind of holding
it against him that he didn't just he did. He
didn't make himself undeniable, you know, and he came in
as as an asset that like you would assume would
have a big role and just hasn't. So as that changes,
I think this grade will come up next.
Speaker 1: Up we have mister Jared McCain. This was also maybe
this was the easiest grade I gave out between him
and just no suspense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an A plus like other than connect, like,
who are you even just from a productivity standpoint, not
saying Jared McCain or connect has the highest ceiling in
this draft or they'll be, you know, regarded as one
of the five best guys in the class. But for
what he's done so far, it's like what again, Like
what's the what's the Devil's advocate case against him? It
took him too long to get a huge role. That's
on the Sixers, that's not on him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I just he had can do so
much on the offensive end, Like he can work on
the ball, he could work away from the ball. I
like he The thing that's standing out to me is
we have to wonder can they get minutes with him? Him?
Minutes with him and Tyres Maxie have not gone well
this year minus thirteen point nine net rating, twenty first
percent tile of offense, but the offense in the seventieth
percent tile when he's on the court without embat in Maxi.
And so I'm wondering if, as Jared McCain, not something
the Sixers were thinking, but like, okay, has he sort
of if they're ever at full strength, Like we have
a staggering pattern now, like we can tether McCain to
Paul George in the offense, because Paul George is he's
always been a good secondary guy. But as he's gotten older,
it's been Alright, he's more of like a two five
or like an actual number two rather than he needs
to be the number one, even in some of these
like tertiary units themselves. But you look at Jared McCain's
efficiency forty seven point five percent on catch and shoot threes,
fifty one point six percent on pull up twos. When
he can kind of get from that in between area,
he looks really good navigating things and poised going downhill.
I'm curious to see both in the short term and
long term what is this guy as a playmaker, because
you can see it in moments. But it feels like,
particularly with the live dribble, that he has room to
do more of that, and maybe that would make him
more unpredictable to defenses. But this wasn't something like people
were probably talking about him more so as a salary
ballast in a trade this coming season, and oh, he's
a first round pick technically in that vein more than
he might actually contribute to the Sixers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, yeah, I guess I would say
it's a great problem that the Sixers have to start
thinking about, like is is is the Maxi McCain backcourt
too small to start for a contender? It's like, okay,
that's what we're talking about with Jared McCain now, after
where he was drafted and what expectations were. Now there
were people that were high on him just because in
a draft that didn't have a ton of uh, really
obvious like this is a projectable shooter slash scorer, he
did seem like one of those. But the size was
if it's like he's one of the you know, I
really like would you say he's like shooting guard sized
and maybe a little under that Like that's yeah, you
know that. It's that's a tough like archetype. Really, there's
not a lot of success on great teams where that
guy and maybe Donovan Mitchell is someone, but he's got
the length and the athleticism that mcinerally doesn't. It's hard
to find comps that have been successful. That's beside the point,
Like he's just made forty of his one hundred three
point attempts, Like that's a lot of shooting for a
guy that really was not playing a ton. You know,
he's only started six games. It seems impossible, but like
he he's just been one of the best, one of
the two best rookies all year. It's it's just him
or connect it, you know, Yeah, whatever your preferred flavor is.
I think both of them are more than willing or
more than deserving of the highest grade we can give.
Speaker 1: Do you think really quickly, like what is a role?
Like it's just sort of because the vailability has been
so all over the place, but like, is there a
path to him continuing to stand out when you have
him be George and Maxiet, Like can you play well?
Can you play all four of those guys together in
real volume?
Speaker 2: I I mean, I think just his shooting, is you
gotta at least try? I think because you limit him
and you kind of you put a cap on, like
how productive and helpful he can be If you just
kind of say you're gonna be more of a spot
up threat, you know, that's just gonna be what you're doing.
But you have to try it because I mean, if
you're just trying to get your best players on the floor,
presumably when everyone's healthy, Like, isn't he the fourth best player?
Or has is. At least he's one of their five best,
so he's got to play. What sucks is with guys
like him. I always just go to do this with
Matherin all the time. It's like, ah, he's just he's
gonna be a good six man, are you know with
with the the weird combo guard sized guys that are
you know, offense first, that that aren't primary primary shot creators.
It's like, oh, he's a bench guy. I don't think
it's way too early to say anything definitive about McCain,
but like, if that's the outcome where he just comes
in and is in charge of the offense against reserves,
like that's still a great result where he was picked.
Speaker 1: It's just even if he has a pathway too much more, which,
like he said, it is too early, but it does,
like projecting forward, I think Maxie, like it does gum
up the trajectory a little bit. But again, maybe he
improves defensively because right now it's I mean, he's had
some pretty bad moments on the defensive. But again he's
a rookie and he's not especially big. Next rookie mister
Ryan dunne Hughes. They feel about him? Why do I
call you Hughes?
Speaker 2: Right? It last like that before It's like you're mad
at me? So, uh, had we done this what three
weeks ago? Uh, the grade would have been better. Come
back to earth as a shooter. Still though, it doesn't
feel to me like we're in danger of being a
couple of years down the road and saying, hey, remember
when Remember wasn't it funny when Ryan done? We thought
he was going to be like a forty percent shooter
and he's at nineteen percent. Since then, It's like, I
don't know that he's going to be a plus plus shooter.
I still am, you know, very much moved by the
growth that he's made from coming out of college. Is
just like, this guy has got nothing from the perimeter.
He's down into the low thirties. I think he's thirty
three percent last time I looked. But still might be
not might be. Is one of the best defensive players
in this class. Is capable of guarding multiple positions, can close,
especially he's gonna hit threes, So I guess he still
has to be regarded as exceeding expectations because the shot
was really there for a while and still seems like
it can be an at least like at like a
passable level to keep it's good enough to keep his
defense on the floor, is what I'd say, which is
which is really like that was not a given when
he was drafted.
Speaker 1: No, And I think even there are moments where it
doesn't look like this, but his best moments, like there's
a rhythm to the way that he is taking threes.
And so if you can make opponents pay to like,
because there are just gonna be people that even if
he's shooting and he's not he's sub thirty two percent
on wide open three, even if he was shooting forty
percent on wide open threes, teams still aren't gonna care
about him relative to the other threats on the court
and other actions that they're gonna be trying to stop.
But if you're like kind of taking them in rhythm,
there's still gonna be people that will gamble on it.
In the playoffs, but then he becomes a player where
it's like, oh, he just nailed like five threes that
game or something. So I have more hope there. The
defense has been mostly as advertised, I kind of hope
that some of the and I think it speaks more
to the Suns as like makeup of the roster. I
kind of hoped when it was the Done Durant when
and obviously the Urrant's been banged up, but when it
was the Done Durant, like that was sort of the
archetype of your front court, I was hoping those units
would fare a little bit better than they have thus far.
But yeah, we're talking about leaning on a rookie. Bradley
Beal is the only player on this team, which, like,
kudos to Bradley Beal, He's only a player who defends
number one options more often than Ryan Done. Right now,
I'm very curious to see how his role is impacted
when Phoenix is one fully healthy two post trade deadline.
When I assume they'll make like upgrades in the front court,
I assume we'll see if they actually do. But then
also just too like we're talking playoffs or if they're
worried about seeding, like what does the closing rotation look like?
And is there a way for him to wedge his
way in there? But look, I think there's even just him.
He's not a ball stop er either. I think that
really helps them on the or I shouldn't they really helped.
Like that's more of a voted confidence in him. He
will keep the ball moving on offense even if the
SHOT's not going down. He at least won't let you
like he's going to fuck up the spacing that way
by holding onto the ball too long or trying to
play outside of himself. So I've been mostly impressed with him,
and I ended up going with a bee, like he's
contributing to a team that like has immediate aspirations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I'm, I'm right there. I give him a
bee as well. One one thing to just flag real quick.
So he's played two two hundred and eighty two minutes,
has attempted six free throws, and the flag we're planting
is that he's made one. So if you're concerned about
the shooting, you know, the foul line stuff does tend
to be a pretty decent predictor of three point accuracy.
So if you are concerned that that early season shooting
is really fluky, like that's that's a decent data point,
tiny sample. But like, also, he's got to shoot more
than six free throws in two hundred and eighty minutes,
you now opportunity to be on the ball is like
nil on this team, even if Durant is out, because
you've still got two other high usage guys and Tyas
Jones is gonna have the ball. But like I think,
if you're gonna play one of the wing positions, you
and you're not going to be an ace a shooter,
you got to like cut your way or do something
offensive rebound your way to more than six free throw
attempts in fifteen games.
Speaker 1: He needs to take a page out of a Kogey
Zone book and be there for the throw yourself in there,
Cling Kong, mister Hughes, Donald Cleon, who I look. I've
had to do a Maya coleplus for him like eighty
times already. But how do you feel about him?
Speaker 2: I mean lately? Great? For a minute. I mean part
of this is the is the roster makeup right, because
there's seventeen other centers, at least two of which the
Blazers should hopefully trade. But it's taken a little while
for Clinging to play. Now. He's has four of his
last five games, he's gotten over twenty minutes. He's just
had like these statistical outbursts. The most recent game against
the Rockets had nineteen boards. He has at least one
block in every game and at least two in each
of in each of the last five. He had an
eight block game against the Wolves, which was a win
for the Blazers back on November thirteenth. Offensive rebound, Like,
I bet you he's got the most offensive rebounds among rookies,
even though he sort of was just like not on
the floor as I'm scrambling to look that up. He
has fifty four offensive boards, that leads all rookies. He's
played like one hundred fewer minutes than like Eve Me
c Saar all these other guys, and way fewer than
guys like Reesa Scha and on down the line. So
he's been, like I don't know, maybe even a better
version of what I thought he could be just lately
now that he's playing. Because those you know, as an
offensive rebounder and shop blocker, like you're helping on both ends.
Like that's that's just what it is. Like the mobility
stuff is an issue and all this other thing like
not going to be a spacer obviously, but like, I
don't know, I can see it on both ends. And
to hit he to me more than Edie was a
question mark because of the size and because of the
like his game. So he's been really good lately and
I'm I'm I'm a stock up and I'm buying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we both b pluses here. I mean, opponents are
shooting fifty percent against him at the rim. You probably
could be a little bit trouble that he's shooting under
sixty percent at the rim himself. So for a big
that's not ideal. But Portland's offense is just we talk
about having like a weird hierarchy in Houston, like Portland
has like a weird hierarchy now and terrible spacing and
just not great on that side of the floor anyway.
But he is averaging, like I think one point. Let's why.
I take he's at one point twenty five points per
possession as the pick and roll finisher and like to
do that within Portland spacing. I would he's at one
point three sixth grant I was wrong. That's a eighty
nine percent tile. So that's like we really talking about
a possession and a half a game. But that's something
to cling to. I still would. I'd like to see
what he's gonna wind up being on offense. And I
think it's probably gonna require do they have the primary
playmaker of the future who could work with him the best,
or do they need better spacing is there? Does he
have any range? He's at seventy three percent roughly from
the foul line. He's three of nine from three, so
like he's dabbled in it a little bit. I'm most
curious about him on the offensive n but I maintained
coming into the reft that he wasn't gonna be able
to make an impact defensively. I mean, I was more
confident and just Zachi Edy being massive in the ground
he could cover, and just donminic Quingen he put me
wrong in his summer league. I was already walking back
everything I said. So he's been a he's been a
great ad. And it's funny that I don't think this
has been necessarily like the Portland media or like the
people who cover follow team, but now the nationally is
like man like Portland would prefer to trade DeAndre Ayton
rather than move Robert Williams a third or Klingon And
it's well, no shit, like look at look at it
like that was the That was the sentiment probably leading
out of draft night.
Speaker 2: They got him. Yeah, no, that's that's that's right. He
makes what does he make three x what Robert Williams
makes or something like that. Of course you'd rather move him.
Speaker 1: We love playing around these parts. Now we also love Grant.
Oh yeah, Stephan Castle, this is this is your guy.
Speaker 2: I just I have just decided he's my guy among
rookies at least, so again, like another guy, how many
times were we gonna say it? This a guy that
came in with like shooting and offensive questions, most of
which have not been answered. He's under forty percent from
the field under thirty percent from three. He has like
as he's gotten a bigger role ironically the like and
had to do more and play more, the shooting percentage
will come up thirty three percent from three. As a starter,
he started ten of the seventeen games he's played, so
I guess that's encouraging his usage and just like I
don't know, importance in the offense, as that has gone up,
he's become more efficient. For again, he's another just eye
test guy on both ends. Defensively, he's like a menace
on the ball against guards. He's really really tough, moves
incredibly well good size, strong, athletics, super quick, and then
on the ball on offense, he has a burst that
is like it's one of those like you know when
you see it kind of things, like he really is
someone I think that is gonna athletically overwhelm. And we've
seen the highlight dunks, but I'm talking about like the
subtler like shift into fifth gear from like whoa, Like
it's you know, quick blink and he's past his guy
or has it created an advantage like that stuff jumps
off the screen when you watch tape of him. So
I get it. The shooting is gonna be a question.
We knew that. But just as an overall like potential
high impact guy, like who's going to be an all
star out of this class? I think Castle is like
very very close to the top of that list for me,
different than a Connector and McCain because the production hasn't
been there, but like just projecting forward, I don't know
if there's someone I'd rather have than him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's been interesting and the shooting is still concerned.
He's at sub forty effective. He'll go percentage on pull
up jumpers, but they've had him spacing way out beyond
the three point line all season, and I initially thought
he should come in, and it's like they were falling
at a pre high clip. There was like a five
or seven game span and they've kind of pulled back
now off of that. But if he's gonna be comfortable
taking them that far, as people pointed out to me,
like if his jumper is gonna take a little bit
while to load, having him out that far could be
a benefit because then defense is they're gonna have to
close out further on him. They're not gonna stay And
if you're going to tell yourself to Stefan Cassele twenty
eight feet from the basket, that's going to open up
things for everybody else. The passing's been I know he
can make some I mean shocker. He's a rookie who
love the ball in his hands. At points like he's
going to make mistakes with the ball. He's going to
make bad pass, he's going to turn it over, and
he has on his drives he's turned over. But I've
also been I wasn't sure if this guy profiled is
like a floor general type, and I think having him
learn from Chris Paul is gonna end up being huge
for them, so you kind of pair the offensive flickers
and flashes. You mentioned the rim pressure already on offense,
and like he's able to get to the basket because
of using his speed and even coordination on the ball.
On a Spurs team, again, there are some lineups that
are spacing the floor quite well, but like he's been
in some pretty tight traffic jams in the games and
possessions that I've watched. I'm way higher on him that
I was like. I wasn't. I didn't think that the
Spurs made a mistake, but when they picked him and
you trade away the number eight pick, I was just
sort of like, this felt unspectacular. But now I kind
of see the vision more. I do think though the
jumper is gonna be the swing development for him, especially
if you want to pair him with Wemby long term.
Speaker 2: I think like he he's someone that if if defenses
have to guard him, like honestly, because you know, it
changes so much because he is so quick downhill to
where it's like it's a little bit like the I
think part of the reason Anthony Edwards is chucking a
bunch of threes among others is like he knows that
if guys have to come out on him and are
really on their toes leaning forward to contest threes, like
he's gonna overwhelm them athletically. And I think Castle Edwards
is like maybe in a class by himself explosive wise,
but like Castle can benefit the same way, it'd be
different than like, so if Resiche is a forty percent
three point shooter, I don't know how much that really
changes about the type of player we think he's gonna be,
because like he was thought to be, like, oh, he'll
be fine, He's gonna be a good spacer if Castle
can really shoot it at all and make defenders come
out and like have to account for him off the
ball or like close out hard like it's it's Curtains
because he gets downhill and he'll make a good decision
and or just dunk on the whole team. So shooting
you're dead right is like is the swing skill for him,
maybe more so than any other guy we've talked about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean if this is someone who can hit
pull up made rangers or even just like set threes
you already mentioned it, like the ceiling is there's an
all star there. So I went as un a would
you is there a Kate like what would be the
devil's advocate to go lower here?
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're just not convinced that the maybe
what I'm pricing in is I think the shot is
going to get better, just as evidence by it's improved
a little bit as the role has increased. Like I said,
I don't know, you could give all the normal rookie knocks,
but but I don't know, it's just the shooting. Like
you'd say, well, statistically he's been a terrible offensive player
like which is just true. But that's that's not going
to swing me from from the rest of the stuff
that I've seen.
Speaker 1: We have next up again with one of the Wizards.
As many rookies, which did you? Someone post in our
discord the graphic where or said that like the NBA
account retweeted a tweet that had Washington rookies. I think
it was bilacool, ball Bali and Keishaw, George Well one of.
Speaker 2: Those guys is I guess I'm guilty of lumping all
four of those guys together though that's how I think
of the Wizards. It's those four guys and like everybody else.
Speaker 1: And he brought it up when we did our Wizards
deep dive the other week. Was it like that? It
wasn't the core four was something else? You you said it?
You already forgot it?
Speaker 2: Did I call it the core four?
Speaker 1: I don't know that was it?
Speaker 2: I mean they are so you know what, that's what
the Wizard broadcast called it. When I one of the
games early in the season, they called him the core four.
Like all right, I guess we got a core four?
Speaker 1: What we begin with bub Carrington?
Speaker 2: So he well, he's been the most productive offensive rookie
of the group of the of their four of their
three and a half rookies. I guess if we're gonna
call cool Bally half a rookie, he's just like already
pretty clearly has like good craft. Like really, now you
can start to question, like, well, how useful is it
if he's able to kind of like worm his way
into the lane and pin his guy on his back
and get a pull up to or or you know,
throw a lob to the guy in the dunker spot.
That's even better. If he's hitting his threes, which he
basically is like well enough to be you know, honored
as a three point threat. He just has good feel,
good pick and roll ball handler, like got over fifty
assists and twenty made threes. Not a lot of rookies
doing that. He's getting over a steal a game. There's
some two way potential there, good size, like he just
he feels like a potential like long term starting point
guard in the NBA, which is not always easy to
see this early. Now the Grand Malcolm Brogman Showcase is
upon us, so he's gone to the bench, unfortunately for
the Wizards because you know, priorities. But I think he's
he looks like a starter to me, just just because
of the feel and the craft with the ball. I
think he's just like that stuff doesn't go away. I
think if you have that early, that's just going to
be part of your whole makeup.
Speaker 1: One of the things we flagged is a good thing
was the pull up two point percentage. It's still at
like fifty one point eight percent and he's taking almost
two attempts from there per game. I like it, Like
you said, the poise, the feel. He's got good size
for both as a passer and then also just as
like on the defense. This event is not someone who's
going to get targeted overly, so one of the things
I would like to see. And he's actually been like
as a pick and roll score, I think he's in
the eighty first percentile of efficiency. I think he can
stand to be a little bit more aggressive looking for
his own shot at points that he can be too deferential,
I feel like when he's getting downhill, but like as
a rookie who's trying to probably prove that he can
floor generalize the offense and add coherence to it. He's
been fun and I think we've been on the fence,
like on both sides of the Denny Avia trade, like
gone back and forth a zillion times and probably will
continue to. But when you watch him play, I think
you start to under like, if you're just comparing the
first parts of the season, there's been bright spots in Portland,
don't get me wrong, and Denny's been great defensively for them,
but like you kind of understand what the Wizards were
thinking more than the Blazers at this point.
Speaker 2: I think, oh, yeah, it's way easier from the Wizard's
side just to get a first round or in another
first round asset, and Carrington is probably I don't know
these yeah, I guess he probably has outplayed Avdia just
because Obvidia has shot it so poorly. I got a
A minus. I think I'm really encouraged. He's super low usage,
as you pointed out, like you'd like to see him
be a little more aggressive. That's fine, we can fix that.
Like that's just the make the offensive package feels real
enough that I'm I'm not concerned he's gonna be a
fifteen percent usage guy going forward, He's gonna do more.
Speaker 1: I would be plus because I'm a hater.
Speaker 2: So said.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be really good though, Like there's the redraft
of this class and we'll probably have to do one
like two weeks from now or something. Who knows, but
it's gonna be fascinating, Keyshawn George. Also, we're just gonna
claim ownership of the Wizard's Corps at this point. I
feel like nationally we've been infatuated with their core more
so than the consensus. Right, we can take ownership. Yeah,
allowed to do that.
Speaker 2: The Kolabali thing last year, just like couldn't get enough
of them.
Speaker 1: I forgot to include Koli Bali in these rookie grades.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, guys, So George Is. I mean, we've obviously
not gotten to Sorr yet, that's the higher profile one.
But George uh Is, I don't know, He's really interesting
because cause you shouldn't be able to get this type
of guy where they got him, which is to say
now again, like almost everybody here, the numbers are bad,
like just inefficient, thirty five percent from the field, twenty
eight from three doesn't get to the line a ton,
But he's playing twenty seven minutes a game. He's had
these stretches where he can hit you know, this may
have only happened once or twice, but multiple threes in
a row, and they look good and he's confident, and
it's It just creates a version of the Wizards that
otherwise does not exist. Big wing slash, combo forward size
competes like hell defensively could just theoretically be like a
scalable three and D guy or maybe more than that.
So again, like this is this is this is the
one of the because Carrington was kind of a known
commodity star, we had a rough idea of what he
would be. This is like the found money player, right,
like this is this is the one where oh man,
they got a third rookie in here that might actually
be a starter long term. So I guess in a
way most impressed by George, even if that has lots
to do with like where we set our expectations to
begin with.
Speaker 1: Yeah he is, you know you mentioned can he is?
He just sort of a plug and place prospect when
he wind up doing more. I feel like this is
someone who wind up doing more. Grant he's fifth, and
this is just leading into what I've probably been most
surprised about. We talked about feel with bub He's George's
fifth in assists off drives among rookies, and there's just
been there's a better passer there than I thought. I
think they've done a good job of Okay, he looks
the archetype of someone who maybe once he gets stronger,
can do more defensively. But they they haven't tried to
over tax him on that end. Well, I mean one
they have fellow rookie blah Koolabali just to do that
and Reek Havoc on the defensive end. So I like
kind of the way they're using him to You would
like to see the offensive efficiency as a scorer though,
tick up and I think maybe as the Wizards as
a team get a little bit better, that'll be easier
for him. But this is someone where I think there's
like real Yeah, I'd like to see him shoot more
than like twenty percent or whatever it is on his
catching threes. I think he'll get there, but there might
just be more on ball work to plump from him.
And I actually do think though, while the passings impressed
me the most, I don't know what he profiles as
defensively though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard to say I wanted to get you
brought a stat I want to mention mine. He's got
forty four assists this year. Now, he's played a fair amount,
but every one of there are three point guards among
rookies ahead of him and Jared McCain so just and
he's like a big wing. So to get any kind
of facilitation like that out of him is a huge bonus.
I mean, we've probably spent too long on him and
at the expense of SAR, But I don't know, I'm
I'm I'm mostly encouraged by him. I think George is
going to be a player.
Speaker 1: What do we go with b pluses across the board
for for Keishan George.
Speaker 2: I think that's right. I can't remember. It is either
a beer B plus for me.
Speaker 1: We are on too, mister Alex Saar, who is the
main attraction for the for the Washington Wizards, Grant, how
do you feeling about him?
Speaker 2: I feel semi encouraged. Defensively, I can see the vision
of he's pretty mobile. He he's been a solid shop blocker.
Klingon's the only rookie that's got more swats than him rebounds. Okay,
I just offensively, I don't know what this guy's gonna be,
which is kinda well, I don't know. Maybe that's not
fair to say that was the draft profile, but it
was really more like what position can he play? And
I had to do with well, is he gonna be
a spacer? Is he gonna be someone who attacks off
the dribble? Is this like a yawnis model? Like? Who
is this guy? Offensively, I don't feel like we're any
closer to knowing that, but I do think like whatever
comps I might throw out there offensively for him are
quite a bit below some of the names that had
been mentioned, so you know, it's kind of a split thing. Defensively,
I get it, like I think he's gonna be fine.
He could even be very good offensively, the finishing inside,
he gets knocked off his spot a lot. The three
point shot, I don't trust. I don't know what he
is offensively, So it's kind of down the middle for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you right there he's been And it's
funny because, like you wonder if, okay, if he's more
physical on offense, like that would be the pathway for
him to do maybe more of the traditional big man stuff. There.
He's been more physical than I would have expected defensively,
and so that's like, I guess that booms him like
that gives him sort of a nudge up there. He's
contesting over forty seven percent of all shots at the
basketball he's on the court. I think that's a really
good number for a rookie he has had, Like do
you think so when you dig into the offense though,
little bit, because defensively, I think he's just gonna be fine.
Like there's someone who's not gonna get hung out to
dry on the perimeter. I think he's shown that, all right,
this isn't even his strongest final form yet, and this
is someone who can at least be a reasonable to
really good rint protector and break up stuff. Excuse me
on the back line, do you think like they're not
having him do enough big man stuff? Like are they
too reliant on all right, let's have him like he's
taking mid rangers, he's taking three pointers. He's taken over
fifty threes from above the break and made only eight
of them. Only twenty percent of his offensive possessions are
coming as the pick and roll roll man. And again
he's grant every point three points per possession in those situations.
So that's that's really bad for anyone who doesn't know that.
But would they be fit from Hey, let's maybe use
him more like a big man. I just I mean
a traditional or conventional big man type.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like under a quarter of his shots come inside
three feet and a lot of that is forty plus
percent come from deep and but there's just too many
of the in between things. And I mean, yeah, it
would be nice if, if, if there were evidence to
suggest this guy makes more sense as like a high
volume roll guy. Let's throw lobs up to him. That's
the other thing is his athleticism is not like, you know,
not jaw dropping, Like he's not rising over everybody to
catch lobs. He's and same thing with like finishing inside.
He's not coming up and finishing over the top of players.
So I think, like, what he what they're having him
do on offense, I think is kind of just playing
to relatively speaking, his strengths. So I cause, I just
I think the theory of him that is most like
plausible and I guess optimistic is he is just like
a multiposition defensive rebounds. Okay, I just offensively, I don't
know this guy's gonna be, which is kinda well, I
don't know. Maybe that's not fair to say that was
a draft profile, but it was. It was really more
like what position can he play? And I had to
do with, well, is he gonna be a spacer? Is
he gonna be someone who attacks off the dribble? Is
this like a Yannis model? Like? Who is this guy? Offensively?
I don't feel like we're any closer to knowing that,
but I do think like whatever comps I might throw
out there offensively for him are quite a bit below
some of the names that had been mentioned, so you know,
it's kind of a split thing. Defensively, I get it,
like I think he's gonna be fine. He could even
be very good offensively, the finishing inside. He gets knocked
off his spot a lot. The three point shot, I
don't trust. I don't know what he is offensively, So
it's kind of down the middle for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you right there he's been And it's
funny because, like you wonder if, okay, if he's more
physical on offense, like that would be the pathway for
him to do maybe more of the traditional big man stuff. There.
He's been more physical than I would have expected defensively,
and so that's like, I guess that booms him like
that gives him sort of a nudge up there. He's
contesting over forty seven percent of all shots at the
basketball he's on the court. I think that's a really
good number for a rookie he has had, Like do
you think so when you dig into the offense though,
a little bit, because defensively, I think he's just gonna
be fine. Like there's someone who's not gonna get hunting
out to dry on the perimeter. I think he's shown that,
all right, this isn't even his strongest final form yet,
and this is someone who can at least be a
reasonable to really good rim protector and break up stuff.
Excuse me on the back line, do you think like
they're not having him do enough big man stuff? Like
are they too reliant on all right, let's have him
like he's taking mid rangers, he's taking three pointers. He's
taking over fifty threes from above the break and made
only eight of them. Only twenty percent of his offensive
possessions are coming as the pick and roll roll man.
And again he's granted every point three points per possession
in those situations. That's that's really bad for anyone who
doesn't know that. But would they benefit from Hey, let's
maybe use him more like a big man. I just
I mean a traditional or conventional big man type.
Speaker 2: Yeah, under a quarter of his shots come inside three
feet and a lot of that is forty plus percent
come from deep and but there's just too many of
the in between things. And I mean, yeah, it would
be nice if if there were evidence to suggest this
guy makes more sense as like a high volume roll guy.
Let's throw lobs up to him. That's the other thing
is his athleticism is not like, you know, not jaw dropping,
Like he's not rising over everybody to catch lobs. He's
and same thing with like finishing inside, He's not coming
up and finishing over the top of players. So I think,
like what he what they're having him do on offense,
I think is kind of just playing to relatively speaking,
his strengths. So I cause I just I think the
theory of him that is most like plausible and I
guess optimistic is he is just like a multiposition defensive
weapon like that can also defend the rim, and on
offense he's like a spacer down the line that maybe
can attack off the dribble. I'm not seeing the in
your game, like the feel, the physicality, like I'm not
seeing that yet, So it would be nice, but I
so far it's hard for me to imagine what that
would look like if it were to ever show up.
So I m as I give him a C, you're
a C plus. I think we're kind of of the
same mind that it's like if we could grate his
defensive rookie season, it's like B plus a minus and
the other end is probably close to a half.
Speaker 1: It's almost wondering even if he gets to a point
where he's either or rather than thinking he's one of
those guys that can serve the dual role of oh,
he's gonna set screens, he can catch the ball, make
decisions with it, roll, or even if he's just the
pick and pop option, if he has to commit to
a lane and ends up hitting in one of those
rather than having to straddle both lines, that ends up
being a big deal for him. Based off again, the
defensive indicators from him as a rookie on to the
Utah Jazz have two names for them. This one hurts.
I feel like I should be absobed from talking about it.
Cody Williams grant, I.
Speaker 2: Mean not a lot to you want to? Can I
do my Cody Williams impression? You ready? Yeah? I disappeared.
Speaker 1: No, that's so mean.
Speaker 2: That's like, I mean what okay? I want to get
his usage rate, right, I think it's in the like,
I know it's like underfit eleven point four percent usage rate?
Speaker 1: Hey, well, could we just at least know what that
that's higher than eleven point three?
Speaker 2: It is? It is.
Speaker 1: It is true.
Speaker 2: If there's a rookie out there with an eleven point
three percent usage rate, you disappear. So he just like
he didn't shoot in his nineteen minute debut as a
rookie way back in October, and that was a sign
in hindsight, like he just there are long, long stretches
of jazz games where it's he's just not doing anything,
not scoring, not looking to score, not making impact plays
on either end. So like this was the rap on
him a little bit, I think, and like it just
has carried over. So it's a weird thing to criticize
because it's like, well, you know, he's just he's a rookie.
He's trying to find his way. He's not he's trying
not to play outside himself. But this is like too
far in that direction to where it's like you worry that,
like is he ever going to be someone that is
a reasonable volume score that impacts the game? Like he's
still he looks like a player, he's got a good frame,
like he's lean, he moves well, like all the stuff
that was true before he was drafted. It's just like
he just isn't like impacting the game. So I don't
know what to do with that. Like it's not like
he's been terrible. He's like not actively hurting anybody, although
like some of the advanced metrics would say he has
been he's just not doing anything.
Speaker 1: It's and I think the words you're looking for is
just he's two words is too passive. And that's what's
disappointing to me is that I think this was people
that they had earmarked this as he was coming out
of the draft, But when I watched him, I was like, oh,
there's a fluidity on the ball. We've seen some aggressive
moments from him mostly before this season. It's this can work.
But like Grant, he's passing on more of his drives
than are ending in like a shot attempt or free throw.
And that's just it be admirable if all those passes
were turning into assists. They're not. And like he's made
like he's made some nice passes, but I really thought
that he would be both in powered and have the
ability to be more aggressive as an offensive player. I
think defensively as a rookie, he's not even close to
the best defensive rookie. I want to make that clear.
But like they've rolled him out against some tougher assignments,
like he does shoulder like a fairly sizable workload relative
to other rookies. This has been an unspectacular debut campaign
for him and if he doesn't. And Tony Jones the
Athletics said this to me when we were doing the
Utah Jazz look Ahead, and it's it's almost annoying how
much it rings struggle of Tony. To be clear, I'm
annoyed at how right he is this late end of
the season to where it's like Cody Williams needs to
realize that he's good at basketball, and that feels like
an oversimplification, and it's just the deference. He's overly deferential.
It's just too passive, and it makes you feel that
I don't think I don't necessarily consider him a low
energy guy, but with the amount of vanishing acts, it
feels like he's turned it on offense where you don't
feel him or with someone who doesn't seem to trust
his own like scoring ability, or I think people can
obviously conflate that with well, is there a lack of aggression?
So we need to see him just be the word
is can he be more aggressive? Overall? I grated this
pretty hard. I went with a D minus because I
picked him to finish Top three and Rookie of the Year,
and so my expectations for Cody Williams are and will
remain high. But I am. I guess I'm distraught.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough. I gave him a D and I
would just say that all of the qualities that recommended
him highly as a draft prospect are still there. So
it's just like whatever this is, whether it's like a
confidence issue or just like you said, he's just passive,
get past that, and all the tools and all the
projective like all that stuff is still there, right, Like
it's just it's just that this first month has been really,
really tough.
Speaker 1: I favorite, just just get past it. That's what you
can get over it. That's your fastue. I'm here for it.
We're onto his teammate, Kyle Philipowski. I feel about him, Grant.
I mean, he's got geral starts, been notable enough to
be included in this exercise.
Speaker 2: Right he made the exercise. Well, I mean we're gonna
do Cody Williams. We've got to just not totally dump
on the jazz. He's got just been more balanced contributor
than Williams that or you know a lot of other rookies.
He had a double digit points in three of the
last four game, three of his four games between November
twelfth and seventeenth. He can do a little bit of everything.
He's got a six assist game, getting a couple of steals,
just like a guy that you know, when when he
went in the second granted the first pick of the
second round, I think he was thirty first, everybody was
kind of like, that's that's a good value there, because
he is like a you know, a multi skilled contributor
with good size. He's and just like is going to
be able to contribute right away, and like has just
kind of rounded into a role where he's doing more
and making a bigger impact than certainly Williams and Isaiah Collier,
who's another jazz rookie we're not really going to talk about,
but like there's a minute there where Collier was a
top five pick when people were mocking up drafts. So
for Philipowski to have exceeded both of them, I think
it's a pretty good value.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I mean he's shooting almost sixty percent
on drives Grant, and he's used like quite a few
of them relative to playing What is he at like
two hundred and sixty six minutes as we record this,
What have you thought about him defensively.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't I'm not going to pretend
to have watched like a ton of Kyle Philipowski defensive film.
I would say, better than I expected, but I did
not expect a ton.
Speaker 1: From the outside. So I watched in anticipation of doing
this from the outside in like from the outside. Okay, Oh,
there's more. I don't want to say the word wing.
There's more mobility there. I guess if you're gonna need
to make plays around the basket, it's just not happening.
Uh So that's but again, he didn't profiles like a
capslock big. But they're running into this weird situation where
I feel like they have a bunch of non centers
who aren't quite wings.
Speaker 2: And on Collins, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: And then also like Larry market In, I guess he's
a non center, and I guess he meets the wing criteria,
but we both this is not I was curious what
his wole was gonna be. I guess it's I don't know,
if that's like overshot. I think he's been more productive
than I would have guessed.
Speaker 2: And so I went with a bee to your point,
the point seven percent block rate for a quote unquote
big is not going to cut it. Yeah, game would
be as well.
Speaker 1: Keane George is contesting a higher percentage of opponent shots
when on the four than Kyle Philipowski is, and I
will say that number is not for a lack of
proximity when you're looking at where Kyle Philipowski may end
on certain defensive possessions. So that will wrap up the
ones we're doing like dives on were there any we
have some notes like a couple others that we didn't
have the time to get to. What name stands out?
We could go back and forth on which one we
would do as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Tristan de Silva has started a ton of
games since Paul Big Carrow got hurt for the Magic
and is I think it's fair to say he's like
a connective player, that the three ball is a huge
part of his game and it's thirty four percent so far.
But defense, like defenses treat him like a shooter, so
that's kind of half the battle. And he's just like
making good connective passes, has goods an yet another like
big forwardy wingy guy that the Magic can just put
the ball in the hands of and expect good results offensively,
So they're kind of cornering the market on that player type.
He's just been very a very good rookie and a
solid overall contributor for a team that is in the
top four in the East. Like that's that's huge. It
just he's He's another name that I think got overlooked
as like, well, what's the upside for this guy coming
into the draft or coming out of the draft, I
should say, But he's made as big an impact as
I mean, maybe bigger. I'm trying to think of, like
what other Maybe you'd pointed Wells as the guy who's
made an impact on like a pretty good team. But
de Silva has been awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, he's been really good. And I think it
helps what he's only at, Like he's had sub thirty
five percent from three, but when you have four thirty
four but that number is pretty good when you have
KCP shooting like eight percent, that's an exaggeration for anyone
who's watching. Yeah, I want to shout out at East
MESI was Pelicans fans can take the victory lap in
the sense they were telling us he was going to
have a role in his first year, but they've also
been obliterated by injuries, and I think you could maybe
argue that, well, it's weird that he hasn't even played
more minutes than that. He plays with a lot more
like force and thrust in physicality than I was kind
of expecting here he's been. He does feel like he
needs a little bit more honing if you're gonna try
and use him as like a screener and then finisher
out of that, which is someone who's gonna battle defensively
and make his presence felt. I think he's been. I
don't know if this is just relative to circumstances, but
he's been really good, or at least someone who's standing
out I would throw.
Speaker 2: Into the Raptors have three rookies that have played a
fair amount. Jonathan Mobo is like a very undersized, like
undersized to the like Mantres Herald extent, maybe even smaller
as a big energy player can grab and go has
you know, kind of MUCKs up the game in a
good way. And then Jamal shed hasn't shot it well
at all, is a good distributor, plays hard on defense,
but the size is like he's just a very undersized guard,
so I don't know what that ceiling is going to be.
But he's played a lot, way up there among rookies
in total assists this year.
Speaker 1: And Jamal Shed's a psychopath on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he plays really hard the sizes like is it
a Davion who ironically Davion Mitchell is on his team?
Like is it where he's a one position defender that
you know the ball? Also like Mitchell if he can't
make threes, like, I don't know what you do with
him offensively, but I still I still like both of
those guys. And then Jamison battle As shooting forty percent
from three, like just the third guy that is helpful
as the first year player. I think Mobo is my
favorite of the group just because I mean it was
Jacoby Walter right, like he hasn't done much but.
Speaker 1: That although he's injured, still isn't he Yeah, I know that.
Speaker 2: He uh has the lowest minute total. I haven't kept
up with with Yeah, he hasn't, he's been out, But
Mobo is my favorite of the group just because you
can see like the different the impact he makes just
as a like a activity guy.
Speaker 1: So I like that that's doing a J Mitchell on
a two way. I don't think, like, what are you
expecting to see him like as much as you have
through the first early part of the season, even if
you like if you would have said, okay, there's going
to be injuries, did you just think that AJ Mitchell
was going to be what is he rank in minutes
played at this point? I think he's in like the
top twenty five. He's eighteeneen in total minutes, So like
that's not you have to just shut out by virtue
of being on the court. He's kind of another one
where I said leading into the season that he reminds
me of like what if TJ. McConnell played with a
moral compass? I feel and like there's like a real
you can say it's about everyone on the Thunder. But
the two things I think have stood out is that,
all right, this guy's going to compete defensively, and then
I do think there's like some exploration to like explore
as a passer. I don't think that he's ever going
to be I would question right like what does this
guy come when it comes to generating his own shots?
What is he going to look like as a scorer
moving forward, but as someone who just might be able
to direct these possessions, I think you have to be
encouraged with like just some of the flashes you've seen
there from him. And to counter my own point, like, uh,
he is scoring one point five points per possession as
the pick and roll ball handler right now, excuse me,
it's point nine six. I feel a little bit better
seventy fifth percentile. So like he's just been he's been
able to come in and just do stuff for them,
And I'll be curious to see, like if you can
get a little bit of the turnover stuff when he's
you know, working in traffic or in slower down sets.
But like they might have they just might have a
player there. Shocker, Okay, so he might just have a player.
Speaker 2: Uh, do you have any quick thoughts on the Knicks guys,
the Kolak or Dattier or even hook Porty, like all
they actually have like laid a fair amount for a
typical ball.
Speaker 1: I mean, look look at their depth. Pocoon Dadia is
just kind of intriguing. He's played with a lot of
just kind of defensive panache, like is there, and so
I'm curious to see what he would look like in
the if you're gonna play on this team, what do
you kind of look like? Offensively? Is it just someone
who you hope can space the floor there?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Tyler Koleak. I know a lot of people thought he
was gonna be in the running for maybe beating out
campaign for minutes. Uh that like campaign has been too
good for that to happen. Uh he does. I don't
want to use to work deer in headlights, Like he's
a fantastic passer, but like he hasn't moved in like
I think when you looked at all the Knicks rookies,
you probably thought he was gonna have the biggest impact.
I think you can argue he's been the least impressive
of the three. Don't know too much what to of
Ariel huck Porty just yet. There's like if he wanted
to ever use a big in this way under Tom Thibodeau, Okay,
there might be more of a short roll passer there
than we're seeing. And he's had some really good moments
when it comes to like deterring shots or just swatting
away shots at the basket. Last I looked, opponents are
shooting fifty two point seven percent or fifty three point
seven whatever it is at him at the rim. So
they've been fought, I don't think, But what were your
expectations for I think huck Porty and Dottie have exceeded
expectations just by virtue how much you've had to turn
for them. I argue some Nicks might feel that Colic
has missed expectations, but that bar was just set too
high for him. Yeah, I was gonna Saydaro, we probably
could have mentioned him when we were doing Ryan Dunn, Like,
if you're gonna look for like some of Phoenix's more
switchable lineups, it does feel like he has the ability
to work within those and he probably gives you. Am
I going too far saying he gives you more offensive
dynamism than Ryan Dunn at this point if you were
looking for that offensive optionality.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got a weird like in between game that
I think is kind of play as well. Who's another one? Oh,
I was gonna mention disappointed Cololware or Khalil I'm never
gonna remember which remember in maybe it was Summer League
where he was really showing out and it's like, look
the great size, like athletic flirting with a three point shot,
like is he going to start next to Bam and
he's played under fifty minutes on the air, I'm just
just Pela Larson has played more than him, which I
did not have in the on the rookie minutes Bingo card.
Speaker 1: I just want to say that I did well. I
don't know if I had him getting minutes, so I
was pretty high on pel Larson. He gets an A
plus for me if we were going to grade those
shooting grade anybody else at work on at any of
the Warriors were He's that you need to get into.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen a lot of Quinton post Re speakman.
I think played like three or four minutes win one,
a couple of games. That's about it. Unless you're in
How do you feel about him? Just do I want
to do his G League numbers? He could play at
some point? I think like, I think that is a
real case of like there's just not minutes for him
because this team, the Celtics are too good.
Speaker 1: I'm actually we mentioned Aj Mitchell, we had mentioned Dylan Jones.
I mean we were talked about is we're talking about
players who need like a jump shot swing skill. He's
four of twenty three from three on the season and
shooting only three of six at the foul line. Just
something to I guess, if you have a j. Mitchell,
do you need Dylan Jones.
Speaker 2: Which is well and like, I mean, the the highest pick,
the thunder made Topic like obviously hasn't isn't gonna play
this season. But uh, there's as I was if you're
grading their whole rookie class between Mitchell having just these
ridiculous uh measured against expectation contributions, and Topic is just
sitting there like theoretically coming into a role next year, Uh,
looking pretty good.
Speaker 1: Like why are they if Topich was healthy because Dylan
Jones is played one hundred and twenty six minutes, they
would just have found a way for Topic to get minutes.
At this They just find ways to get guys minutes
on this team. It's incredible. That's it for me, unless
you have anything else.
Speaker 2: I'm scanning, I don't. I don't think I know. Antonio
Reeves for the Pelicans had like a thirty something point
game out of absolutely nowhere within the last week or so.
But that's I think we've We've probably covered thirty already.
Speaker 1: What about Trey Alexander replacing Jamal Murray?
Speaker 2: Are you there yet? Twenty nine minutes on the season
and not quite. I could get there at some point,
but yeah, good job, good job by us just talking
about this many rookies this early in the season, as
if any of this is set in stone.
Speaker 1: Good good job by us.
Speaker 2: I think that's gonna do it, though, everybody, thanks for
let us know if if there's a rookie we probably
should have covered. I'll be impressed if you can come
up with one that has played at all that.
Speaker 1: I think the Raptors hands will be mad at their
guys and get their own slides. But we've focused a
ton on the Raptors. We were trying to really just
spread the love here. I sure Bells Ironman people will
be very angry.
Speaker 2: All my Raptors' thoughts go into r. J. Barrett in
his most improved player case, So I don't really have
room for the rookies.
Speaker 1: And apologies for not being able to get the rookie
blow cool BALI that's a miss.
Speaker 2: Next well, we should do a whole episode on guys
that aren't rookies that we just call. That's gonna do it.
Thanks for listening, Thanks for watching. Make sure if you
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leaks for that on YouTube and podcast description. It's gonna
do it for our one month in Rookie Rookie report cards.
Sorry if we were too harsh.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe next time we'll be a little kinder
as these guys get deeper. Hit there for you, shouts
Frank Millikeean. Apologies. Chair down,