2022 Summer League Thread - Beginning of the Chet Era

[ThunderBolt]

coming late from a congress just to see jdubs balling

feels good man

He’s been a pleasant surprise. I love what I’ve seen.

[Patches Perry]

I love the way Jalen he has been able to play off of everyone else with cutting, pick and pops/rolls etc.

Chet has been incredible protecting the rim, and better than I thought guarding in space due to his length. I also like his shot package so far. Pull-up three, the one-foot Dirk fade, the hook over his right shoulder, face-up jumper in the extended post are all great shots to develop for him and he already has them down in form.

Dieng doesn't seem to be as in tune as Jalen, but the potential is there.

Giddey seems a bit sloppy but I like that he is out there developing chemistry with the young guys

[kdthunderup]

I love the way Jalen he has been able to play off of everyone else with cutting, pick and pops/rolls etc.

Chet has been incredible protecting the rim, and better than I thought guarding in space due to his length. I also like his shot package so far. Pull-up three, the one-foot Dirk fade, the hook over his right shoulder, face-up jumper in the extended post are all great shots to develop for him and he already has them down in form.

Dieng doesn't seem to be as in tune as Jalen, but the potential is there.

Giddey seems a bit sloppy but I like that he is out there developing chemistry with the young guys

I'm excited to see Giddey/Chet/JDub mixed in with SGA and Dort. Those 3 guys were let down by the others around them tonight.

We will look a lot better with a genuine scorer and shot creator in SGA creating more space for guys around them.

[ThunderBolt]

Chet’s stats weren’t eye popping but he showed some good stuff. Also, it’s hard to see a lot of what Jalen Williams is doing not carrying over beyond some league in some fashion.

[NaturalThunder]

I’ve heard a lot of people say that Santa Clara Williams isn’t athletic. He seems real explosive to me. He for sure has a slow pace a lot of the time, but that actually just makes the explosive bursts more effective. I’m pretty sold on him becoming a very good player.

It’s kind of like Shai’s athleticism to me. Change of directions and pace are often more effective than the explosive athlete that goes 100% every move.

I recently listened to The Ringer's "NBA Show" podcast with Tjarks and Kyle Mann (both thought we were the biggest "winners" of the draft for what it's worth). Tjarks described SGA's, Giddey's, and Jalen Williams in a similar fashion in regards to the pace of play. I can't remember the exact adjective they used, but more-or-less it was that they are more "unpredictable" in a good way. They likened it to Luka's pace of play, and because they aren't constant speed demons, and not necessarily slow-paced guys, it makes it more difficult to mentally guard them because you can't exactly tell when they are going to kick it into overdrive.

It's essentially what you're saying and I like it. I hadn't ever really thought of it that way before. We'll see how it translates against true NBA talent in NBA games, but yeah, I like what I've seen from Jalen Williams. He's sneaky athletic. SGA and Giddey fit that mold, too, in different ways. Having several guys with good to great change-of-pace athleticism will make it harder for teams to defend if all pans out.

[Dn4sty]

Chet looks gassed again - his conditioning could be a big issue for his rookie season if he isn't able to make some progress before the start of the new season.

The season doesn’t begin for like 3 1/2 months. He will be fine

[timO]

Mann is very bad man, poorless decision maker.

Dieng keeps chucking, Giddey too, stop taking 3s with 20 seconds on the clock, you are not faking Curry. Dieng is very green, like rookie POku.

0/13 from 3 this 3...

Chet is great, but his development will require 2-3 years. I see him having a Mobley type rookie season, 15-8-3-3.

Jalen is solid, great cutter, doesnt need the ball in his hands and when the ball comes to him he knows what to do. Hes nba ready.

Wiggins keeps shooting well, we are gonna need him play 20 minutes a game, we need shooters. He can move Mann to garbage team rotation.

[Dadouv47]

Chet looked fine to me...don't care about statsline.

Love Jalen, still don't get the Dieng pick. Basically Summer league had no impact on what I thought about those guys

I still hate losing against the Rockets and I blame Mann for that.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Great Free throw shooting by Chet. I think he didn't miss one till now.

[Dadouv47]

Great Free throw shooting by Chet. I think he didn't miss one till now.

15/15 so far

[ThunderBolt]

Chet looked fine to me...don't care about statsline.

Love Jalen, still don't get the Dieng pick. Basically Summer league had no impact on what I thought about those guys

I still hate losing against the Rockets and I blame Mann for that.

I get the Dieng pick. It's just going to take some time. I think the picks like Poku, Bazley and Ferguson have made us weary of toolsy guys that don't really have a defined game yet. That being said, he moves well, has great length and showed much for flashes than the aforementioned guy in a professional league. The thunder had been scouting Dieng since his midteens. It seems a bit like Sam gets invested in a product and perhaps falls in love with who we wants the prospect to become rather than how the prospect compares to his peers. That being said, he's obviously going to take a couple of years. I'm going to be more patient with his struggles this year than I will be with Poku or even Mann.

[Old Man Game]

Interesting to me that presto picked two guys back to back that are sort of the polar opposites in terms of draft theory. Dieng, young, impressive physical tools.
Jdubb, older, great feel for the game.

I think I'd take guy who already knows how to play basketball over the dude who is the high upside pick so far.

[Dadouv47]

Interesting to me that presto picked two guys back to back that are sort of the polar opposites in terms of draft theory. Dieng, young, impressive physical tools.
Jdubb, older, great feel for the game.

I think I'd take guy who already knows how to play basketball over the dude who is the high upside pick so far.

I wonder what is Presti plan by taking two opposites players like u said (one of the most NBA ready player in Jalen and the second biggest project in Dieng). A mix of short and long term plan? To me it feels like Presti is willing to try to build a team around SGA but he's also drafting considering the possibility that it might take longer and we could be in this rebuild for much longer.

[slick_watts]

i generally don't take a lot away from summer league. it's disjointed, lots of these guys haven't practiced together much if at all, the goals of the teams aren't necessarily aligned with winning, etc.

the only two guys who have stood out to me in a positive way relative to what i knew about them beforehand are aaron wiggins and jalen williams. wiggins has really made the most of his opportunities- maybe if he can shoot he's an nba role player. jalen williams' athleticism is the most unexpected part of summer league to me. he had a flat footed dunk under the rim that made me stand up. obviously he's done other stuff too, but either i was ignorant about his skillset or he's been liberated from the shackles of his college program.

speaking of that, chet on offense hasn't been a world beater but some of the things he's been showing off the dribble in the half court and even in the post have been super encouraging to me. he hasn't been making everything, but he's demonstrated a lot more as a offensive creator than i remember seeing in his gonzaga highlights. obviously as a defensive presence he's way beyond summer league.

nothing else has really surprised me or seems noteworthy at this stage. i'm not moved by hot or cold shooting in summer league at all, so mann and dieng and giddey and whoever else- doesn't matter to me. another minor surprise is how big vit krejci appears. he was listed at 190 last season. he has to be more than that.

the thunder have like 18 players on guaranteed deals right now, and one of them who is not is kenrich williams who will certainly be on the roster. so i dunno what they'll do with all these guys.

[slick_watts]

on ousmane dieng- i'm very dubious of sam's infatuation with these nbl types who can't shoot. but if there's a guy in that mold who is worth a dice roll on it might be dieng. his shot doesn't look broken like giddey's or terrance ferguson. he's big and gets where he wants. i didn't know much about him before, but i can get on board with the swing, for now.

[Old Man Game]

J Dubs athleticism reminds me of Jeff Green. Sneaky hops.

[kdthunderup]

Chet: You can tell he has all the tools to dominate at the NBA level. His instincts and IQ are off the charts, he has shown flashes of shooting, handling, playmaking coupled with the ability to anchor the defense. He did look progressively more gassed as the Summer League went on - looks like the physicality and schedule of the NBA season may take its toll on him in his rookie season.

It will take him time to develop his body a bit more - I'm not expecting a huge leap but if he can gain 10-15ibs and get a bit stronger it will make a large difference for him.

Giddey: He has definitely taken a leap in terms of his conditioning and he looks a lot more comfortable driving to the rim. I love everything about his game besides his shooting - this is the only thing stopping me from going all in on him at this stage. You just pray that he is able to somehow correct his shot enough that he can be serviceable in that area.

JDub: He has probably been the standout for me and the most consistent player over the 4 games. He has a great feel for the game and has found multiple ways to score despite not having the opportunity to run the offense like he did at Santa Clara. His defense is also better than advertised - loved that block he had on Jabari's turn around jumper.

There hasn't been any other standouts for me besides these 3 so far - everyone else looks a league behind in terms of talent and impact at this stage.

[Devilanche]

I’m not sure if I remember last draft right but weren’t wiggins not on our radar but got onto our radar during the draft process with his interview etc ? It seems to me that while Sam still have ideals they abundance of picks is letting him pick up wing size players that can contribute now (and theoretically when we are ready)
Ie if the project wings reach their ceiling we will have great player but if they don’t we will have jalen williams and Aaron wiggins anyway .

[kdthunderup]

The closer we get to the start of the season, the more I’m struggling to understand how we are gonna get minutes for all the young project players.

If you care about winning, these are the guys you would want to give most of your minutes to.

Giddey
SGA
Dort
Kenrich
Chet

JDub
Ty Jerome
Wiggins
Muscala
Favors
Green

That leaves a bunch of guys who need playing time but are still far away from contributing to winning imo.

JRE, Mann, Maledon, Poku, Bazley, Dieng, Vit, J Will.

We are getting to a point in the rebuild where we want to start showing improvement towards winning to keep the main core invested going forward. We can’t afford to keep giving guys like Poku and Bazley big minutes when their chance of developing into solid players is very small.

[Dadouv47]

Still 3 to let go after Roby, no? Green won't play for us...likely traded or waived then I hope we can find a trade for Favors/Jerome.

If we keep one of Favors/Green, I would bet that Krejci is gone.