Summer League Thread Part 5: Raps win Finale 86-72. Banton 9,9,4/Morgan 24pts

[nestea]

Gillespie took Baynes' powers. If we decide to tank another year, he will be the commander.

Lol

[Dalek]

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No Raptors make the first-team list, but neither did Cade, Green, Suggs or Mobley. What are the supposed media members seeing here. A couple selections stood out:

I was amazed that Jalen Johnson went so low in the draft and his summer league was pretty impressive: 19 and 9 and 42% from three. Maybe be somewhat influenced by Sharife Cooper spoonfeeding him looks. Look at how high JT Thor went.

Trey Murphy III was my pick for lottery and a guy at 6'9 who can shoot 50/40/90 in college and defend is special. 56/44/100 in a handful of summer league games is crazy. He also had nearly 2 steals and block per game.

Why Davion Mitchell makes first team makes no sense. I guess he was such an amazing defender you ignore the fact he only scored 11 PPG and only hit 29% from the freethrow line. He did hit on over 47% from three and get nearly 6 assists.

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Second Team announced and shockingly no Scottie Barnes, but Green and Cunningham made it. Luka Garza made it!

[OAKLEY_2]

Supreme b.s. any way you slice it. This all stays in Vegas.

[ciueli]

I was amazed that Jalen Johnson went so low in the draft and his summer league was pretty impressive: 19 and 9 and 42% from three. Maybe be somewhat influenced by Sharife Cooper spoonfeeding him looks. Look at how high JT Thor went.

I posted a question as to why everyone thought Scottie Barnes was a significantly better prospect than Jalen Johnson and people basically laughed at me. In the months leading up to the draft several mocks had him higher rated than Barnes and their numbers are very similar. Jalen Johnson had the advantage in blocks, rebounds, and scoring efficiency, while Barnes was better at assists.

[gojoorange]

I was amazed that Jalen Johnson went so low in the draft and his summer league was pretty impressive: 19 and 9 and 42% from three. Maybe be somewhat influenced by Sharife Cooper spoonfeeding him looks. Look at how high JT Thor went.

I posted a question as to why everyone thought Scottie Barnes was a significantly better prospect than Jalen Johnson and people basically laughed at me. In the months leading up to the draft several mocks had him higher rated than Barnes and their numbers are very similar. Jalen Johnson had the advantage in blocks, rebounds, and scoring efficiency, while Barnes was better at assists.

He was mocked pretty high up until a month or two before the draft. As he fell down mocks, posters started to get lower on him. There were a few posters in the draft threads that were pretty high on his talent throughout the process. The fact that the Raps worked him out at 4 should tell us about his talent. Teams must have really worried about the character concerns. Those types of things might not come up until a couple years down the road though. It's interesting that the Magic, Warriors, Thunder, Rockets all let him go by with their second picks also. Between his play and stats at Duke and his combine measurements, he is the type of prospect teams will take a swing on pretty high. There must be something going on there.

[Dalek]

I was amazed that Jalen Johnson went so low in the draft and his summer league was pretty impressive: 19 and 9 and 42% from three. Maybe be somewhat influenced by Sharife Cooper spoonfeeding him looks. Look at how high JT Thor went.

I posted a question as to why everyone thought Scottie Barnes was a significantly better prospect than Jalen Johnson and people basically laughed at me. In the months leading up to the draft several mocks had him higher rated than Barnes and their numbers are very similar. Jalen Johnson had the advantage in blocks, rebounds, and scoring efficiency, while Barnes was better at assists.

I don't think that was fair, but I can see why people didn't know what to think of Johnson. Johnson to me was really hard to evaluate properly. He quit on Duke and his highschool team so you had a very small sample size, but in his flashes he looked pretty amazing. In that Klutch Pro Day I was struck by how ridiculous an athlete he is.

From a physical perspective I think he is comparable to a Kuminga. It is in that mold of a traditional big physical dominant wing player.

Scottie is similarly big, but he doesn't have that level of high level athleticism and depend on it like Johnson and Kuminga. They are the guys who punish you at the rim and can get hot from three. Scottie is more impactful on defense and spends most of his energy getting into guys.

Playmaking, I'd have to watch Johnson more, but I think Scottie is pretty special the way he reads the game. Overall, you can tell with Scottie he is a basketball player who knows the game. Johnson and Kuminga seem more raw. Overall, I think they are on the same tier which is anywhere from an all-star to a high level role player (3 and D).

[DreamTeam09]

I was amazed that Jalen Johnson went so low in the draft and his summer league was pretty impressive: 19 and 9 and 42% from three. Maybe be somewhat influenced by Sharife Cooper spoonfeeding him looks. Look at how high JT Thor went.

I posted a question as to why everyone thought Scottie Barnes was a significantly better prospect than Jalen Johnson and people basically laughed at me. In the months leading up to the draft several mocks had him higher rated than Barnes and their numbers are very similar. Jalen Johnson had the advantage in blocks, rebounds, and scoring efficiency, while Barnes was better at assists.

I don't think that was fair, but I can see why people didn't know what to think of Johnson. Johnson to me was really hard to evaluate properly. He quit on Duke and his highschool team so you had a very small sample size, but in his flashes he looked pretty amazing. In that Klutch Pro Day I was struck by how ridiculous an athlete he is.

From a physical perspective I think he is comparable to a Kuminga. It is in that mold of a traditional big physical dominant wing player.

Scottie is similarly big, but he doesn't have that level of high level athleticism and depend on it like Johnson and Kuminga. They are the guys who punish you at the rim and can get hot from three. Scottie is more impactful on defense and spends most of his energy getting into guys.

Playmaking, I'd have to watch Johnson more, but I think Scottie is pretty special the way he reads the game. Overall, you can tell with Scottie he is a basketball player who knows the game. Johnson and Kuminga seem more raw. Overall, I think they are on the same tier which is anywhere from an all-star to a high level role player (3 and D).

I don't think Johnson has the wing type of game compared to Kuminga, Johnson should be a 4 at the NBA level. I guess if he's hitting 40% from 3 tho u can get away with it

[PD28]

Is there a playoff tournament in summer league this year?

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[Indeed]

I posted a question as to why everyone thought Scottie Barnes was a significantly better prospect than Jalen Johnson and people basically laughed at me. In the months leading up to the draft several mocks had him higher rated than Barnes and their numbers are very similar. Jalen Johnson had the advantage in blocks, rebounds, and scoring efficiency, while Barnes was better at assists.

I don't think that was fair, but I can see why people didn't know what to think of Johnson. Johnson to me was really hard to evaluate properly. He quit on Duke and his highschool team so you had a very small sample size, but in his flashes he looked pretty amazing. In that Klutch Pro Day I was struck by how ridiculous an athlete he is.

From a physical perspective I think he is comparable to a Kuminga. It is in that mold of a traditional big physical dominant wing player.

Scottie is similarly big, but he doesn't have that level of high level athleticism and depend on it like Johnson and Kuminga. They are the guys who punish you at the rim and can get hot from three. Scottie is more impactful on defense and spends most of his energy getting into guys.

Playmaking, I'd have to watch Johnson more, but I think Scottie is pretty special the way he reads the game. Overall, you can tell with Scottie he is a basketball player who knows the game. Johnson and Kuminga seem more raw. Overall, I think they are on the same tier which is anywhere from an all-star to a high level role player (3 and D).

I don't think Johnson has the wing type of game compared to Kuminga, Johnson should be a 4 at the NBA level. I guess if he's hitting 40% from 3 tho u can get away with it

I think he is more Melo type. I was high on him (not at #4, but before lottery when we were drafting at #7 or #8). However, character issue (quitter) is a big concern that I had him between #10 to #15.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

yes but he was still effective. Some players are not at all suited to summer league. Any big that lives on the PnR may be playing SL with a fringe PG which makes it almost impossible for them to showcase skills

Not even that. Dude is missing point blank at the rim lol


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I think people are being way too hard on the guy. It was a bad summer league which was 4 games and he was put in more of a role where people were passing to him to create a shot quickly and/or was a bit too far from the basket. He is just a screener and a guy you park for offensive boards.

Freddie played 20 actual games and averaged 5 and 5 and 1 block which translates to 13 and 12 and 2.5 blocks per 36 mins. I mean for a third string C on a rebuilding team he is more than fine.

You sign a guy like Isaiah Hartenstein who is probably better, but he will expect to play and not sit on the bench (remember Alex Len asking to be released last season). I think part of the good with Freddie is he is a team first guy and can play well in spot minutes and he brings all kinds of toughness and physicality and knows how to defend. We are talking about the guy who led the G-League bubble last year in rim protection.

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Just a quote from the Athletic today:

Freddie Gillespie: Gillespie had one of the worst offensive performances ever in my Raptors summer league database, shooting 23 percent, almost entirely around the rim, and barely getting to the free-throw line. It seemed to get in his head early on that his finishing wasn’t there, as he rushed a few easy shots in close that would have been obvious buckets last year. That can make it a bit tough to evaluate him — we have a 20-game NBA sample and 15-game G League sample that he’s a better offensive piece than this (and has good hands! what happened to his hands!), but players on the roster fringes can rarely afford performances like this (see: Scott Machado or Alfonzo McKinnie). Still, with only a $50,000 guarantee locking in on Sept. 5 and a solid defensive showing in the tournament, Gillespie should get another shot in training camp to steady himself and make a case for a third-centre role.

He has an uphill battle for a camp/roster/rotation spot. Let's see what he can do.

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[LBJKB24MJ23]

I was amazed that Jalen Johnson went so low in the draft and his summer league was pretty impressive: 19 and 9 and 42% from three. Maybe be somewhat influenced by Sharife Cooper spoonfeeding him looks. Look at how high JT Thor went.

I posted a question as to why everyone thought Scottie Barnes was a significantly better prospect than Jalen Johnson and people basically laughed at me. In the months leading up to the draft several mocks had him higher rated than Barnes and their numbers are very similar. Jalen Johnson had the advantage in blocks, rebounds, and scoring efficiency, while Barnes was better at assists.

character issue.

quit on his team in high school
quit on his team in college

you know Masai and most NBA teams count that as a red flag. I think talent wise, he's really good - but you don't want a cancer in your locker room. he's selfish and that is what cost him. for teams in the lottery - you take him with a lottery pick - you're pretty much taking a huge risk on a player that could set a bad precedence in the locker room and you just invested your short term future on this kid - whose known to quit when times get hard or when it doesn't benefit him anymore. ATL has a veteran team but they are young, but I see them having enough high character guys on team to hopefully get Johnson in line.


as for Barnes vs Johsnon. Johnson is probably going to be a 4 or small ball 5 in the L. don't know about his defense. Wings who have an above average play making ability and plays defense are probably something the Raptors are looking for. Barnes' attitude is also a 180 from the the Johnson persona. He's infectious with his good nature and talked about winning (per Masai).

[Indeed]

Not even that. Dude is missing point blank at the rim lol


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I think people are being way too hard on the guy. It was a bad summer league which was 4 games and he was put in more of a role where people were passing to him to create a shot quickly and/or was a bit too far from the basket. He is just a screener and a guy you park for offensive boards.

Freddie played 20 actual games and averaged 5 and 5 and 1 block which translates to 13 and 12 and 2.5 blocks per 36 mins. I mean for a third string C on a rebuilding team he is more than fine.

You sign a guy like Isaiah Hartenstein who is probably better, but he will expect to play and not sit on the bench (remember Alex Len asking to be released last season). I think part of the good with Freddie is he is a team first guy and can play well in spot minutes and he brings all kinds of toughness and physicality and knows how to defend. We are talking about the guy who led the G-League bubble last year in rim protection.

Read on Twitter

Just a quote from the Athletic today:

Freddie Gillespie: Gillespie had one of the worst offensive performances ever in my Raptors summer league database, shooting 23 percent, almost entirely around the rim, and barely getting to the free-throw line. It seemed to get in his head early on that his finishing wasn’t there, as he rushed a few easy shots in close that would have been obvious buckets last year. That can make it a bit tough to evaluate him — we have a 20-game NBA sample and 15-game G League sample that he’s a better offensive piece than this (and has good hands! what happened to his hands!), but players on the roster fringes can rarely afford performances like this (see: Scott Machado or Alfonzo McKinnie). Still, with only a $50,000 guarantee locking in on Sept. 5 and a solid defensive showing in the tournament, Gillespie should get another shot in training camp to steady himself and make a case for a third-centre role.

He has an uphill battle for a camp/roster/rotation spot. Let's see what he can do.

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My concern with Gillespie is more than offense. Out side of his occasional blocks, his positioning wasn't good. He was also fouling too much, reaching in or bumping at people, perhaps he was half a second late, so he got those calls and out of position. I think the game maybe slightly too fast for him, so I am not sure he made it being the third-centre.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

I think people are being way too hard on the guy. It was a bad summer league which was 4 games and he was put in more of a role where people were passing to him to create a shot quickly and/or was a bit too far from the basket. He is just a screener and a guy you park for offensive boards.

Freddie played 20 actual games and averaged 5 and 5 and 1 block which translates to 13 and 12 and 2.5 blocks per 36 mins. I mean for a third string C on a rebuilding team he is more than fine.

You sign a guy like Isaiah Hartenstein who is probably better, but he will expect to play and not sit on the bench (remember Alex Len asking to be released last season). I think part of the good with Freddie is he is a team first guy and can play well in spot minutes and he brings all kinds of toughness and physicality and knows how to defend. We are talking about the guy who led the G-League bubble last year in rim protection.

Read on Twitter

Just a quote from the Athletic today:

Freddie Gillespie: Gillespie had one of the worst offensive performances ever in my Raptors summer league database, shooting 23 percent, almost entirely around the rim, and barely getting to the free-throw line. It seemed to get in his head early on that his finishing wasn’t there, as he rushed a few easy shots in close that would have been obvious buckets last year. That can make it a bit tough to evaluate him — we have a 20-game NBA sample and 15-game G League sample that he’s a better offensive piece than this (and has good hands! what happened to his hands!), but players on the roster fringes can rarely afford performances like this (see: Scott Machado or Alfonzo McKinnie). Still, with only a $50,000 guarantee locking in on Sept. 5 and a solid defensive showing in the tournament, Gillespie should get another shot in training camp to steady himself and make a case for a third-centre role.

He has an uphill battle for a camp/roster/rotation spot. Let's see what he can do.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

My concern with Gillespie is more than offense. Out side of his occasional blocks, his positioning wasn't good. He was also fouling too much, reaching in or bumping at people, perhaps he was half a second late, so he got those calls and out of position. I think the game maybe slightly too fast for him, so I am not sure he made it being the third-centre.

ya NBA summer league is pretty bad for poorly skilled players in general lol thats what i've been saying about Gillespie. he has instinct and such and that 7'3" wingspan does wonder when blocking shots but he's just lacking fundamentals and touch. people have seen him do well defensively in a structured system where a defensive system leads the offense into a no-win situation and Gillespie is usually the benefit of that last stand. throw Gillespie into a loose/non-stuctured defensive system and he's just relying on his natural instinct for defending the ball.

[Indeed]

Just a quote from the Athletic today:

Freddie Gillespie: Gillespie had one of the worst offensive performances ever in my Raptors summer league database, shooting 23 percent, almost entirely around the rim, and barely getting to the free-throw line. It seemed to get in his head early on that his finishing wasn’t there, as he rushed a few easy shots in close that would have been obvious buckets last year. That can make it a bit tough to evaluate him — we have a 20-game NBA sample and 15-game G League sample that he’s a better offensive piece than this (and has good hands! what happened to his hands!), but players on the roster fringes can rarely afford performances like this (see: Scott Machado or Alfonzo McKinnie). Still, with only a $50,000 guarantee locking in on Sept. 5 and a solid defensive showing in the tournament, Gillespie should get another shot in training camp to steady himself and make a case for a third-centre role.

He has an uphill battle for a camp/roster/rotation spot. Let's see what he can do.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

My concern with Gillespie is more than offense. Out side of his occasional blocks, his positioning wasn't good. He was also fouling too much, reaching in or bumping at people, perhaps he was half a second late, so he got those calls and out of position. I think the game maybe slightly too fast for him, so I am not sure he made it being the third-centre.

ya NBA summer league is pretty bad for poorly skilled players in general lol thats what i've been saying about Gillespie. he has instinct and such and that 7'3" wingspan does wonder when blocking shots but he's just lacking fundamentals and touch. people have seen him do well defensively in a structured system where a defensive system leads the offense into a no-win situation and Gillespie is usually the benefit of that last stand. throw Gillespie into a loose/non-stuctured defensive system and he's just relying on his natural instinct for defending the ball.

lol, he has 7'8 wingspan, much like the length of Jonas, but the skill level and soft touch are far apart

[LBJKB24MJ23]

I wonder what type of player Banton will be after this year. Masai said Banton would be a high pick next year

Banton can't shoot. but he's got everthing else in his bag. he's a terrible FT shooter, terrible perimeter shooter, terrible at anything related to throwin the ball into the rim from a distance. I think he's got layups and dunks though lol

if Banton develops his shot, thats a upgraded Shaun Livingston comparison.

[WuTang_CMB]

https://theathletic.com/2776044/2021/08/19/summer-league-rookie-scouting-reports-from-cade-cunningham-jalen-green-and-davion-mitchell-to-standouts-and-surprises/?source=emp_shared_article

The Top Five Picks
Cade Cunningham, Pistons
Cunningham was every bit of what was expected given the constraints of what this event and what his team environment was. This is not the type of situation where he’s going to stand out as the best player, as it’s largely a transition show with a whole bunch of guys around who don’t quite have the processing speed of typical NBA players. The guys who stand out to the general viewer at summer league aren’t the ones who play the right way and do the functional things. They’re the dunkers, the crazy ballhandlers, the exciting players. Cunningham is a metronome of consistency, regularly making the right play at the expense of his own numbers.

Having said that, I thought he got the better of Jalen Green in their head-to-head matchup early in the event. I know Houston won the game, and I know Green scored more points. But most of Green’s positive moments came driving into the lane and getting fouled by poor defenders like Luka Garza or leaking out in transition, or losing dudes like Saben Lee and Killian Hayes off the ball. Cunningham’s moments in that game were a lot more translatable to critical NBA moments. He made a couple of self-created step-back 3s, played some killer defense on Green and generally did extremely well when he was allowed to make plays on the ball. Consistently, he made the correct basketball decision. His teammates didn’t always take advantage of his passes. The Pistons hit 3 for 26 from 3 in that game if you remove Cunningham’s attempts. Overall, Detroit made just 19 of 74 from 3 in the three games Cunningham played if you remove his attempts, which is about 25 percent. There were a lot of assists left on the table just with poor shot-making, but that doesn’t stop him from making the right reads. Be it to hit the hit-ahead pass in transition, or to swing the ball quickly to the next man on the perimeter to try to get a minor advantage, or little clear-outs in the lane to make sure his man has an easy runway for a layup, Cunningham proved what we knew: he impacts the game both with the ball and without it.

That skill to impact the game when he doesn’t have the ball likely led to the Pistons trying to play him more often off the ball. That is a mistake, and we’ve already got some warning signs here about how the Pistons are planning to utilize him. He played more as a wing than a lead guard at summer league, with the team getting Killian Hayes some reps at the lead guard spot. There were so many possessions where Cunningham just started in the corner. Honestly, it was pretty brutal to watch Cunningham sit in the corner for possessions at a time while Hayes dribbled around and tried to separate from his man at the top of the set. Given Hayes’ completely ineffective performance during the event, my bet is that the Pistons quickly figure out during the actual season that letting Hayes have the ball while giving Cunningham fewer opportunities to make reads and decisions doesn’t actually make the team better just because Hayes is more of an on-ball player and Cunningham has the capability of shifting off-ball. It’s better to let your best guys have the ball more often, even if Cunningham is unselfish enough to do whatever the team tells him.

Jalen Green, Rockets
Just because I thought Cunningham was a bit better than Green in their head-to-head doesn’t mean I thought Green had a poor outing in Vegas. Honestly, I thought he was great and did exactly what was expected of him. Unsurprisingly, his athleticism popped in a big way. He got where he wanted, and flashed the kind of pull-up game that made everyone extremely excited about him pre-draft.

He averaged over 20 points per game and shot over 50 percent both from the field and from 3. He’s so much more patient now than he was as a young player. Out of ball screens, he knows how to use his body to keep defenders on his hip in jail and unable to do anything to contest him already. But beyond that, if you give him any semblance of open space, he’s so fluid in the way he can get in and out of his inside-out dribbles and step-backs. He creates so much separation going backward, while also being able to explode very quickly moving forward. It’s an incredibly difficult combination of skills to stop in a spaced-out NBA court.

Given the Rockets’ situation, I would bet on him averaging 20 points as a rookie if I could. And that’s saying something, given that the only players to do that in the last decade as a rookie are Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell. Still, he is going to take some time in a few places that lead to wins. Teams had a relatively good amount of success blitzing him in ball-screens. While he’s a creative ballhandler, he can get a bit loose with it when flustered, which leads to some turnovers or him just purely needing to toss an escape pass. His defensive intensity will need to keep evolving, as will his ability to read the way defenses are playing him as a passer. But he absolutely passed the first test of summer league with flying colors, and should be on the verge of a terrific rookie season.

Evan Mobley, Cavaliers
In terms of what performance at summer league says about long-term potential, I think it means less for Mobley than it does for any of the top five prospects. He’s just so clearly not quite there yet physically, or strong enough to deal with this level of professional competition. Mobley is incredibly skilled, but his frame makes him more of a long-term project than any of the others. He got bullied inside at an unsurprising level and struggled a bit. On drives to the rim, players smaller than him had very few issues displacing him. It’s going to be tough for at least the first part of Mobley’s rookie season. The most important thing Mobley can do long-term is put on weight and get stronger. In some vein, this year will just be about getting him acclimated to that level of physicality.

But I don’t really think that matters, because once he gets stronger, we saw some of the flashes that make him one of the most intriguing big men on planet earth. There were multiple moments where Mobley, as a legitimate seven-footer with all sorts of length and dexterity, attacked closeouts from the corner with two dribbles, took off and dunked from, like, 10 feet away from the rim. He threw some impressive passes on the move, in addition to the passes we know he can make at the elbows and in dribble-hand-off actions. He made a few jumpers with a more fluid-looking shot from midrange than he had in college. Defensively, at least as much as one can at an all-offense event like summer league, he showed some of the mobility on the perimeter and instinctual awareness as a shot-blocker that the Cavaliers hoped they were drafting.

In terms of past performances from skinny bigs who were high draft picks at their first summer league, Mobley’s 11.3 points, eight rebounds and two blocks aren’t really all that different from guys like Jaren Jackson (11.2 points, eight rebounds, four blocks per game), Jonathan Isaac (10.3/8/1.7) and Kristaps Porzingis (10.5/3.3/1.7). All of those guys have turned out just fine for different reasons, and I’d anticipate the same with Mobley.

Scottie Barnes, Raptors
Barnes did what was largely anticipated of him in summer league, as well. He’s such a fun, energetic presence on the court. He brings it on both ends, and plays with great intent. Even at an event like this, he played so hard. He played every bit at the level that a top-10 pick should.

The problem is — unfair as it may be — he’s going to be compared for the rest of his career with the people taken around him in the top five. That’s the burden the Raptors put on him by selecting him over Jalen Suggs. Barnes has innate creativity that shines through, but he’s just much more of a project as a ballhandler and playmaker than the other players taken around him. He made some high-level reads as a passer on the move in the halfcourt. There were some positive moments getting to his spots as a scorer. He’s a freight train in transition because of his size. But they were much fewer and farther between than Cunningham, Green, and Suggs. He was much more comfortable out in transition as opposed to a halfcourt creator on the ball. He used his length at times to get to the rim, but just doesn’t quite have the handle yet to be able to consistently create when the game is more condensed.

On top of that, we continued to see many of the same concerns that Barnes displayed at Florida State in terms of scoring efficiency. He can’t shoot from distance yet, and he isn’t a natural finisher in the halfcourt. He made a couple of nice midrange shots that were self-created, but he also made only four of his 15 halfcourt jumper attempts overall. Barnes is going to be a good NBA player, and on some level you have to remove the context from which he was selected by the Raptors in order to evaluate him on his own merits. His performance was positive for a 20-year-old playing his first professional action. But the team used a top-five pick on him over the next guy we’re about to talk about, and every executive I talked to who attended summer league was absolutely effusive about praise for…

Jalen Suggs, Magic
Suggs was awesome. He was everything evaluators who loved him thought he was. The numbers may not look that different than Barnes’ (Suggs averaged 15.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists) but remember that he went out after just 11 minutes in his third game due to a minor thumb injury that forced Orlando into shutting him down for the event.

It went beyond the numbers, though. The main thing worth noting with Suggs, though, is that a majority of his offense came perfectly within the run of halfcourt play, in translatable situations to NBA settings. He broke guys down off the bounce to get to the rim with skill and explosion. He hit catch-and-shoot jumpers and took advantage of mismatches both big and small. He made multiple pull-up 3s out of ball-screen actions that he’ll be asked to hit when defenders go under on him. And he was every bit the defender that Orlando thought it was getting when they drafted him, playing terrific on-ball and anticipatory off-ball defense. That included this play, where Suggs completely shut down a 2-on-1 transition opportunity by himself with a block and gathered his miss.

Suggs looked every bit the guy I thought he was pre-draft when I ranked him No. 2 overall. The Magic should hand over the keys to their offense to Suggs to start the year and let him grow through some of the eventual pains that’ll happen as a first-year player in the NBA. His upside is higher than anyone else’s on the roster, a legitimate potential All-Star who plays on both ends of the floor and can take over the game both as a scorer and as a passer.

[ciueli]

character issue.

quit on his team in high school
quit on his team in college

you know Masai and most NBA teams count that as a red flag. I think talent wise, he's really good - but you don't want a cancer in your locker room. he's selfish and that is what cost him. for teams in the lottery - you take him with a lottery pick - you're pretty much taking a huge risk on a player that could set a bad precedence in the locker room and you just invested your short term future on this kid - whose known to quit when times get hard or when it doesn't benefit him anymore. ATL has a veteran team but they are young, but I see them having enough high character guys on team to hopefully get Johnson in line.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2021/2/16/22285449/jalen-johnson-duke-leave-nba-draft-2021

Pundits branding Johnson with the “quitter” moniker are intentionally ignoring the nuance of the situation. A talented player, who took to the court in a middle of a global pandemic, playing on an objectively terrible Duke team, decided it was in his best interest to prepare for the next level. There was never much nobility in the idea of trying to carry a disappointing Blue Devils to the NCAA Tournament in a trying season for everyone involved. Instead, Johnson prioritized his own health, safety, and future by using his time to train for the draft rather than finish out a lost season.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

character issue.

quit on his team in high school
quit on his team in college

you know Masai and most NBA teams count that as a red flag. I think talent wise, he's really good - but you don't want a cancer in your locker room. he's selfish and that is what cost him. for teams in the lottery - you take him with a lottery pick - you're pretty much taking a huge risk on a player that could set a bad precedence in the locker room and you just invested your short term future on this kid - whose known to quit when times get hard or when it doesn't benefit him anymore. ATL has a veteran team but they are young, but I see them having enough high character guys on team to hopefully get Johnson in line.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2021/2/16/22285449/jalen-johnson-duke-leave-nba-draft-2021

Pundits branding Johnson with the “quitter” moniker are intentionally ignoring the nuance of the situation. A talented player, who took to the court in a middle of a global pandemic, playing on an objectively terrible Duke team, decided it was in his best interest to prepare for the next level. There was never much nobility in the idea of trying to carry a disappointing Blue Devils to the NCAA Tournament in a trying season for everyone involved. Instead, Johnson prioritized his own health, safety, and future by using his time to train for the draft rather than finish out a lost season.

bro look at the title:

Jalen Johnson doesn’t owe Duke anything
Jalen Johnson realized Duke needed him, more than he needed Duke.

tell me why he went 20th instead of the lottery if teams didn't think he was a red flag.

I told you he has talent. yes even lottery talent. i'm just explaining you a hypothesis on why he went 20th. you giving me an article , thats seems like a damage control fluff piece on/for Johnson, isn't going to change all the team's take on Jalen Johnson lmao.

[ciueli]

character issue.

quit on his team in high school
quit on his team in college

you know Masai and most NBA teams count that as a red flag. I think talent wise, he's really good - but you don't want a cancer in your locker room. he's selfish and that is what cost him. for teams in the lottery - you take him with a lottery pick - you're pretty much taking a huge risk on a player that could set a bad precedence in the locker room and you just invested your short term future on this kid - whose known to quit when times get hard or when it doesn't benefit him anymore. ATL has a veteran team but they are young, but I see them having enough high character guys on team to hopefully get Johnson in line.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2021/2/16/22285449/jalen-johnson-duke-leave-nba-draft-2021

Pundits branding Johnson with the “quitter” moniker are intentionally ignoring the nuance of the situation. A talented player, who took to the court in a middle of a global pandemic, playing on an objectively terrible Duke team, decided it was in his best interest to prepare for the next level. There was never much nobility in the idea of trying to carry a disappointing Blue Devils to the NCAA Tournament in a trying season for everyone involved. Instead, Johnson prioritized his own health, safety, and future by using his time to train for the draft rather than finish out a lost season.

bro look at the title:

Jalen Johnson doesn’t owe Duke anything
Jalen Johnson realized Duke needed him, more than he needed Duke.

tell me why he went 20th instead of the lottery if teams didn't think he was a red flag.

I told you he has talent. yes even lottery talent. i'm just explaining you a hypothesis on why he went 20th. you giving me an article , thats seems like a damage control fluff piece on/for Johnson, isn't going to change all the team's take on Jalen Johnson lmao.

You didn't need to explain it to me, I understand that there are a lot of bad GMs out there who will pass over a more talented player just because of some perceived attitude issue.

The reality of the NBA is that @$$holes are often some of the best players. I mean, the Raptors traded DeMar DeRozan, a nice guy who just wanted to keep playing in Toronto for Kawhi Leonard, a guy who quit on the Spurs and it resulted in an NBA championship. Nice guys finish last and all that, the history of the NBA is that alpha me-first type players win championships (Jordan and Kobe as the biggest examples).

[LBJKB24MJ23]

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2021/2/16/22285449/jalen-johnson-duke-leave-nba-draft-2021

bro look at the title:

Jalen Johnson doesn’t owe Duke anything
Jalen Johnson realized Duke needed him, more than he needed Duke.

tell me why he went 20th instead of the lottery if teams didn't think he was a red flag.

I told you he has talent. yes even lottery talent. i'm just explaining you a hypothesis on why he went 20th. you giving me an article , thats seems like a damage control fluff piece on/for Johnson, isn't going to change all the team's take on Jalen Johnson lmao.

You didn't need to explain it to me, I understand that there are a lot of bad GMs out there who will pass over a more talented player just because of some perceived attitude issue.

The reality of the NBA is that @$$holes are often some of the best players. I mean, the Raptors traded DeMar DeRozan, a nice guy who just wanted to keep playing in Toronto for Kawhi Leonard, a guy who quit on the Spurs and it resulted in an NBA championship. Nice guys finish last and all that, the history of the NBA is that alpha me-first type players win championships (Jordan and Kobe as the biggest examples).

I don't know where you're going with this when it comes to Jalen Johnson. unless you're a transcendant talent, you don't get away with a **** attitude. I don't think Johnson is a transcendant talent by any means.

maybe he also didn't have a long enough wingpspan for Masai lmao he measured 6'7" in shoes and 6'11.5" wingspan