That was an
incredibly enjoyable game for me to watch.
Not only got to see a full game with all of our prospects, but against good competition and not a bunch of scrubs (even if nobody from Denver really wanted to be there).
All of our guys gave a really good effort so it was fun to see.
Kind of a really good opportunity to take a snapshot of where everyone is at.
Luka Garza (Mr Walking Bucket) I think is ready to be a low minute rotation player. He's strong enough to stand up big physical centers and was making the right decisions in his defensive rotations.
I watched mutliple possessions where he checked players who were coming off screens that would have been layups were it not for his awareness. He just doesn't have enough length to alter much of anything around the rim.
He's going to have to be a defender much in the mold of Kevin Love (who was an awful defender for all his time here but became serviceable after he left) and use his body and smarts to his advantage.
He kinda needed to pick a lane after last year, do I slim down and try to be quick enough to defend the 4 or bulk up and become a 5?
I think he picked the right lane.
Josh Minott is the other guy I thought was ready for rotation minutes right now.
Gaining your "man-strength" in your arms and legs can have a tremendously positive effect in your shooting consistency, and I think that's a lot of what has happened with Minott (Jaylen Clark is the other guy who has noticeably added upper body strength since last year). Even the layups and floaters look a lot better.
Beyond that, he's more confident in his decision making and defensive rotations, and made some shot blocks and alterations I was not expecting him to be capable of.
I like him at the 4 a lot more than at the 3, but I think he's going to have to prove he can defensive rebound effectively from that position in order to take the next step.
Minott was the one guy that gave Denver any problems at all defensively.
TJ Shannon is close. He made a lot of nice passes that resulted in buckets and took on a tough defensive matchup.
His slashing game was pretty good as advertised. The shot was not though. It was pretty ugly, both in form and result.
He's going to have to become a consistent 3 point threat to crack the rotation, because good defenses are just going to use his defender as a free safety until he does.
Rob Dillingham showed flashes, he's clearly the most talented of all our young guys, I don't think he's ready yet to be a net positive on either end of the floor though, and that's okay, he's still just 19
He's giving good effort and Finch is doing a good job not trying to throttle him too much.
The challenge is going to be continuing to get him experience and keep his confidence up while we are trying to win every single game. I think we'll see some spot g-league time when the schedule dictates, but Finch is also gonna want Mike in his ear all year long.
Leonard Miller is not quite there yet. Has more growing to do both physically and learning the game.
Was more active defensively and around the rim. The talent is definitely there to be a rotation player some day.
How he handles this year and the frustration of not playing is going to be super important.
Does he go down and tear up the G-League and go 30-15 every night like Luka Garza with super high effort, or does he get benched for halfassing it on defense like last year?
Daishen Nix is miscast as a PG or primary ballhandler. Just don't think he is ever consistently good on either end of the floor.
Jaylen Clark has an NBA body and motor. He needs to prove he has enough ball skills and 3 point shooting consistency.
He kinda reminds me of when I play NBA videogames when I'm trying to steal the ball every single possession.
You gotta do that within the team concept though.
Jesse Edwards didn't look amazing but he looked a lot better than he did in summer league.
More aggressive and a little better balanced.
Had a couple of really nice wallups and a couple of really bad ones.
Not convinced he's any kind of Gob-heir apparent but give him a year in our program with NBA coaching and strength training and see what he can do.
KBD is fine as the 14th or 15th guy on your roster and emergency forward depth.
Dozier - absolutely not a ballhandler let alone PG. Not any better than Jaylen Clark I never understood the signing.
