Hoops Tonight - NBA Summer League Reaction: Victor Wembanyama's sloppy debut vs. Brandon Miller

talking about basketball. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS you guys don't miss anyhow announcements. And if, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight, and last but not least,

before we get started. It may be the offseason and there may not be any more basketball other than Summer League right now, but there are still plenty of events for you guys, to go see, whether it be a baseball game, which is becoming increasingly hard to find on television, or a concert or a comedy show. And the best way to get a ticket to one of these events is on game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States, for amazing last minute deals on tickets

to see your favorite baseball team, band, or comedian. Download the game Time app. Again, it's not just sports, well, I means huge summer concerts and comedy shows all around the country, and game Time has your tickets. Download the game Time app and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Again, download the game Time app and enter code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. No matter where you live, get out and have some

fun this week. Download the game Time app. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All Right, So, one of my prevailing theories about Summer League basketball is everybody struggles because generally speaking, with basketball players in their development always more advanced on the defensive end when they're younger than they are on the offensive end. Makes sense. They're the biggest, strongest athletic

versions of themselves at that age. But their skill sets aren't as well rounded and developed as they're going to be in their mid to late twenties, right, And then you throw in the you know, dynamic of having a bunch of guys that are scratching and clawing and fighting for their spot in the NBA bringing a level of intensity, particularly on the defensive end, that you just don't see even in regular season NBA games. It just becomes really

really difficult to succeed. And so go through and look at all the stat lines and it's, you know, Scoot Henderson's five for thirteen and Brandon Miller's five for fifteen. No one's out there just lighting it up and hitting every shot. But even within that standard and that kind of like curve that we're grading these guys on, it still was a particularly rough game for Victor wembin Yama. He went two for thirteen from the field, He had more turnovers than assists, did have five blocks, but it

didn't feel like he was all that impactful defensively. And we are going to talk about some of his limitations because he certainly has things that he needs to get better at. That's not exactly a hot take, but I want to defend Victor Wembinyama today because honestly, I did not think it was the ideal basketball environment for him

to be able to showcase what he can do. I was watching with the nerd SESSH guys in the stands, Carson and Logan, and I look at him before the tip, and I'm like, I wonder what they're gonna do with him on offense. Are they gonna be running picking pops and setting him up with advantage situations where he can attack a defense that's already compromised, or are they just

gonna dump it to him in the post? And almost immediately from the opening tip, they're just tossing him the basketball on the wing against Kai Jones in a set defense situation with nine sets of eyeball staring at him and asking him to mix up and make a play. And look, here's the thing that's a part of the game of basketball. You need to be able to rescue possessions. You need to be able to beat switches, you need to be able to Oh, this guy on the floor

is a weak defender. We have to target him. That is a part of the game, but it's a small part of the game. Even the best players in the world, and there's only like seven or eight guys that are really good at it, that are really good at just picking on matchups one on one with a live dribble against the set defense in the entire league. And even then they might only do it three or four times a game, and Victor did it three or four times in the first quarter, And so I'm not surprised that

he struggled in that environment. That's just a really hard way to play the game of basketball. He is a stretch big. The way that he is going to be used with the Spurs, especially early in his career, is setting ball screens, rolling to the top of the key or popping to the top of the key, catching there, having a slow footed center closing out at him, and him either hitting a three or pump faking and attacking that closet. That's what chrisops Porzingis does. Hell the best

player in the world, Nicola Jokich, that's what he does. Yeah, there's posting up. Yeah, there's a lot of complicated stuff that he does. But the bread and butter is him running two man game and him either pop in or short rolling to the basket. And so especially on the offensive end of the floor. I didn't think the Spurs did Victor any favors because they were asking him to play an extremely difficult brand of basketball and he's going

to struggle in that environment. Now, I will say there's some stuff that he has to get better at, because they did run some pick and pops in the second half, in particular, and he would catch with Kai Jones closing out at him, and he'd just be slow. He'd stand there and he'd jabstep and he'd wait for him to close out. And now, all of a sudden, even though you ran in action to get him an advantage, he's staying in there getting ready to play isolation basketball again.

So he does need to learn to be quick in the specifically in off ball situations. And we can talk about that because that's the big difference between like a guy like Brandon Miller, who was playing in slow motion but in a good way. Like making reads on the basketball, you do want to take it slow, but when you're popping and someone's closing out at you, you need to make a quick decision. It's catch and shoot, catching rip

towards the baseline and try to make a play. There's definitely some things that Victor needs to get better at. But that was just a really difficult situation for him to just pop in a summer league setting, just attacking in isolation like that, and then even on the defensive end of the floor, and he did end up with five blocks, which goes to show you just how insane his defensive ceiling could eventually be, or we should just

call that his defensive floor. But the reality is if you watch that game, he's gotten Brandon Miller the whole time. He's chasing him around on the perimeter, he's chasing him over the top of screens, he's away from the basket for the most part. So just in general, looking back at that game, I didn't think it was the best example of an opportunity for us to see what Victor

is good at. And so on Sunday, I wouldn't be surprised if they dramatically changed their approach, and most importantly, going into the season with the Spurs, it's not going to look anything like what you saw yesterday. I saw way too many people taking an opportunity to take a victory lap, or to bury Victor wembin Yam, or to call him a bust or way overhyped from one Summer

League game, And to me, that's completely nonsensical. Even if you wanted to reach that conclusion, you're gonna need a hell of a lot more evidence than just one particular game. And no matter what, that's just not what he's going to be doing for the Spurs. Let's watch him do what he's going to be doing for the Spurs before we make a judgment call and what type of player he's gonna be no matter what, as a big who's protecting the rim and picking and popping, He's probably not

gonna win Rookie of the Year anyway. It's gonna be some guy like Scoot Scoot Henderson who was awesome yesterday applying a ton of rim pressure and generating offense for his teammates and competing defensively. Guys like that are going to pop earlier in their careers and they're gonna win the Rookie of the Year maybe get an earlier All

Star selection. But Victor wom Minyama's all time ceiling is infinitely higher than all of those guys because he has the capability of being the best defensive player in the world while also being the best offensive player in the world, and that's a super unique quality, So I do want to defend Victor. Also, I thought it was really cool to hear that coach Greg Popovich has renewed his contract

for five years now. It's a little convoluted because apparently he's also the president of basketball operations and he can potentially fulfill that contract outside of a coaching role. So we'll see in the long run, and maybe he's gonna

have to groom somebody to fill his particular shoes. But I can think of nobody better to guide Victor in this phase of his career, especially since he's gone through a similar situation with Tim Duncan in the late nineties, in the early two thousands, developing this all time great prospect at the forward center position. I can think of nobody better, and I'm glad that he's going to be around for that. Also, shout out to Kai Jones. We all went there to see a Victor wenbin Yama highlight.

In one of the most unbelievable highlights that I can remember, seeing Kai Jones dunking over the top a top of Victor wenbin Yama, good old fashioned Blake Griffin over Tim if a Mosgov style, just throwing it down through the rim. That was fun. And we had a lot of poster dunks last night between Shade and Sharp and and then Victor wenbin Yama getting dunked on by Kai Jones. There was just an unbelievable highlight reel in Summer League yesterday.

All Right, so we're just gonna go rapid fire through the rest of the prospects. I have six or seven other guys I wanted to hit on. Brandon Miller. Really was impressed with the pace that he played at. Again, when you're initiating offense, you want to take it slow and have change of pace. Why because you need to make reads. And the guys that are firing like a bat out of hell every single time they have the basketball,

those are the guys that are reckless. That's that kind of like Russell Westbrook type syndrome where everything's happening so fast and there's no change up and then it's always just feast or fame And in the result, right is pull up jump shout looks really smoothie at one in Pick and Roll yesterday when Victor died on a screen and I was really surprised at how good he was passing the basketball. It's something that I look forward to

watching develop young in his young career. And then defensively, you had a big two handed block at the rim yesterday. Really impressed by Brandon Miller. Scoot Henderson again spitting image of Russell Westbrook. Just that unbelievable downhill rim pressure, this competitive energy that just like comes off of him in waves that you can just see with the way he's interacting with his teammates, with the way he's interacting with

his opponents, the unending energy. Now, you guys have heard me say that that's my least favorite archetype of player because that super athletic guard tends to tail off earlier in their careers and struggle in some of the ancillary areas of their game. Hopefully Scoot Henderson is the one who breaks the mold and the key will be getting

in the gym. All of these super athletic guards, they rely so heavily on their athleticism to generate offense that when their athleticism starts to fade, their skill deficiencies rise to the surface. And so what will make or break Scoot's career will be his ability to develop that skill set as his athleticism fades. Jaden Sharp I thought he had a really rough game for about three and a half quarters and then he has that monster dunkin transition,

and it was like everything turned around for him. Suddenly he's just getting downhill like crazy. He had that wild contact layup on the left side of the rim. He had a really nice turnaround fadeaway that he hit in traffic. You could tell when he really upped his athletic intensity was when the game turned around for him, and that's his best skill. Remember, you, as a basketball player bring

weapons to the battle. You have to use those weapons, and if you table those weapons, you're not doing yourself any favors. One of the things I noticed early in the game, he would come off of a screen and have some space and he'd slow down and shoot like a set shot, and it's like, dude, you're the best athlete on the floor. Rise up. This is a big Kevin Durant staple in his training regimen. Do everything at

game speed. If you are taking those shots at game speed in practice and rising up at game speed in the game, there won't be any sort of break in your rhythm and you'll feel comfortable in those situations. It's really hard as a freak athlete to come off of a ball screen and then slow yourself down, especially in a game setting like that. So I'd like to see shade and elevate a little bit more on those jump shots.

He's got such an athletically gifted body that if he can develop that part, he can be a really gifted shot maker in this league. You get a spinning fade away that he took over Jabari Smith Junior that he missed, and when he took it, he got like literally like six feet of separation against an outstanding perimeter defensive player. That's the kind of exciting stuff that you can see

in Shaden Sharp's future. A Men Thompson, he ended up hurting his ankle unfortunately on a huge clutch block down the stretch that game, making an extra effort on a multiple rebound situation, made the block, came down and suffered a Grade two sprain. He's gonna end up missing the rest of Summer League, but I will say I was really really impressed with the effort, the competitiveness his playmaking

popped off the screen. Obviously he's got some stuff with his shot he's got to work out, probably needs to overhaul his form. He's got a little bit of a crossfire thing going on, and the problem with crossfiring is so many more angles have to be dialed in for it to work, Whereas if you have a good power line in your shot, you won't miss left or right, so then you only have to worry about the distance on your shot. So I'd like to see him kind

of reconfigure some stuff with his shot. Really exciting young player Jambari Smith Jun you ended up hitting the game winner, got to the foul line a bunch, had thirty three points. He was so so so underdeveloped as a ball handler and as a scorer last year, and he still is a little bit sloppy, but you can start to see the development coming along as he's getting more and more reps. He ended up hitting a big jap step jump shot.

Getting to the foul line is a big, a big sign of you getting defenders out of position, which means the defenders don't know which direction you're going to go. I was talking with the nerd Sez guys in the stands. To me, this is one of the most interesting parts of skill development in basketball. You can go in the gym and work on ball handling drills all you want, You can go do shooting drills all you want, but at the end of the day, in a basketball game,

it's not a static environment. Dudes are shoving you on the hip, Guys are hitting you on the arm. You're probably getting fouled, and it's not getting called. There's a certain like physical battle that's taking place, and the only way to get good at that is to get reps. You have to do in games against live defenders. That's something you're never going to get in the gym by yourself. And so Jabari Smith watching him make those mild leaps as a score, I'm excited to see more of that

as he grows as well. Moving on to the Lakers Warriors, Max Christie has been a revelation for the last two games, showing a lot a pull up jump shooting. Had a ridiculous driving dunk. That was the fourth ridiculous poster dunk that we got in yesterday's game. I think Julian Champagne he ended up having a really good to shout out to Julian Champagne. He was awesome yesterday. Really smart signing by the Spurs to tie him up for four years

on a good number. That's great team building. There, really smart stuff from the Spurs front office, but Max Christy gets the ridiculous dunk. What's interesting with Max is all of the skill development stuff is great, but the really interesting thing is gonna be whether or not he can defend on the perimeter for the Lakers, because if you look at the Lakers roster, they're stacked with shot creators. Ousires can run pick and roll, D'Angel Russell can run

pick and roll. Lebron James can run pick and roll, Gabe Vincent can run pick and roll. You don't need any more shot creation necessarily on that team, not to mention Anthony Davis and everything he can do with the ball on the post. So really, what you need for

Max Christi is a three and D player. And so what I'm really interested in is what Max Christy can do as a perimeter defender this season, because if you look at that roster, the one weakness is it's like if I needed to guard a quick guard, who's the one guy I trust and it's Jared Vanderbilt and not a whole lot else. And so if Max Christi can add some depth at that position. He's gonna earn some

playing time. There's gonna be some minutes in those three and D roles for the Lakers this year, and I think Max has developed enough that if he can compete enough defensively, he'll have a chance. Max Lewis looked great. Hit a couple of really nice plays attacking close outs. He had to step back, jump shot attacking and close out. He had a pull up jumper and pick and roll. He's probably my favorite prospect from the Lakers in the draft.

I like Jalen hood Chafino, but I think Maxwell Lewis is a little bit more NBA ready, especially for the role that they'll need from him. He reminds me of Trey Murphy a little bit in that lanky wing with real catch and shoot ability, with just that little bit of extra flash attacking close outs, and that has the tools to be a great defender, even if he isn't one yet. On the warrior side, Brandon Patziemski still struggling to shoot a little bit, but he's getting good looks,

so I expect him to fall eventually. Again, this is a very intense physical environment. The skill players are all playing poorly, so I don't want to judge him there particularly, but I'm really impressed with how he's built. This is my first time seeing him live. He's got a physical profile that's going to allow him to hold up during the NBA season and then defend up positions, which I

think will help for some of his perimeter limitations. Even if he can't slide his feet super well, if he can switch and guard a bigger wing because he's big and strong enough, that helps a lot. His passing continues to just stun me every time I watch him. He had a transition play where he got into the lane and up and under and just threw a rifle pass with his left hand to a shooter in the right corner. I think he's just Golden State Warriors basketball personified. He's

going to be a perfect fit there. And last, but not least, Trace Jackson Davis did not play. I'm hoping we'll get to see him on Sunday. I continue to think that he's going to be that forward that they were looking for. They were looking for a veteran forward. It's really hard to find one in the veteran minimum market. It's very possible that Trace Jackson Davis at age twenty four in this upcoming season ends up being that player for them. I'm hoping to have the opportunity to scout

him on Sunday. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your sport and we will see you next time. The volume