Hoops Tonight -Breaking down Victor Wembanyama & Scoot Henderson's DOMINANT Las Vegas performances

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gambler dot net in West Virginia. YEA, all right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. Today we're going to be covering the epic showdown last night in Las Vegas. Between one of the most exciting NBA prospects ever in Victor wemban Yama out of France and Scoot Henderson another in a long line of undersized but frighteningly athletic guards that have come up in the n B A he's

playing with the G League. I Knight right now. I've seen highlights of these eyes, but this was my first time getting to watch a full game of them. You guys know the deal. I don't focus too much on pre draft or or or you know, NBA prospects because I focused most of my energy on the league. But I've always um I had a great interest in players skill sets and strengths and weaknesses, as you guys know

when we talked about NBA players. So I wanted to share about fifteen twenty minutes today on on the things that I saw and learned last night from that showdown. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt S. You guys don't miss any show announcements as well as film breakdowns. That's where I keep our NBA

footage in voiceovers and things along those lines. I did two more videos yesterday, one on the Brooklyn Nets into Philadelphia seventy sixers and one on the Lakers. There's a Warrior's breakdown on their lots of good stuff. I think I hit on the Raptors as well as well as the Suns, and some stuff with DeAndre Ayton. Lots of film breakdowns that are on the Twitter feeds. Gonna want

to be there. And then, last, but not least, if you miss one of these shows for whatever reason and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. So we're gonna keep this very simple. I'm gonna go with Victor talk about what I liked, what I think he needs to work on. Then we'll go to scoot that I have one larger point I want

to make about just player development in general. Then we'll get out of here or keep it nice and easy today. So already, right now, before he gets any better, before he puts on any muscle, before anything, he already today would be the best rim protector slash stretch big that we have in the NBA. There are a lot of players in the league that kind of fit that archetype, right, Like we look at Carl Town's who can shoot the ship out of the basketball, but he's not a very

good defensive player. Or Kristaps porzinga same type of thing, can shoot the ball pretty well but just has never really amount to two as good of a defensive player as we hoped he would. Or have guys like Anthony Davis, who in theory should have been that type of guy but never really materialized offensively consistently enough and was one of the worst volume three point shooters in the league

last year. Right, And then we have guys like Kevin Durant who kind of are like that but are more like a wing and once again never really impacted the game enough defensively to fit that mold. We don't really have a guy in the league who's truly elite at both like, truly dominant around the rim as a rim protector, rim deterrent, and knockdown three point shooter who's going to

make more than one three point shot per game. As a matter of fact, if we go back to last year, there were only two players in the entire n b A who averaged at least one block and at least two three pointers made per game. Take a wild guess who you think that is? Carl Towns and Lebron James. I was stunned by that for two reasons. First of all, Lebron,

that's just ridiculous. How how is it that he keeps being on all of these weird lists that I that I formed by just adding a couple of simple qualifiers. And then Carl Town's. I mean, he averages a block per game, but he's not known as a good rim protector around this league, which tells you it confirms our suspicions that he might very well in terms of a role player, a guy who just screens and dives to the rim, or screens and pops to the three point

line and protects the rim. On the other end, I'm not sure there's a player as good as Victor right now, and that instantaneously before we go any further, makes him an extremely exciting prospect. The most important thing that I appreciated about his shooting display last night was the array of footwork. You know a lot of players work on catch and shoot shooting. That goes without saying. It's one of the easiest things to do. It's easy on your legs.

You can go up to the gym and you can shoot five shots and it's not gonna wear you out because you're just stationary, right. And so one of the things that I work on a lot with my high school kids is all of our shooting drills have some

sort of complication. So I have a pivot drill where the guy the kids on the catch are always facing away from the basket and they have to reverse pivot with their right foot, reverse pivot with their left left foot, pivot over the top with their right foot, pivot over the top with their left foot, jump and spin and

face the rim and a jump stop. I do that so that they get used to different footwork, because when you're playing a basketball game, especially if you want to be a volume three point shooter, meaning you want to take more than a couple of game, you need to be able to be adaptive with your release, meaning all

of them are gonna look different. Sometimes you're gonna be coming over the top of the screen and curling, so you're gonna have to plant really hard with that right foot and elevate up into the shot, or plant really hard with that left foot and elevate into the shot. Sometimes the the uh, the guy chasing you over the screen is gonna go under the screen, in which case you need to kind of flare back. Now, it's a different type of footwork. It's more of like a shuffle

step right. If you're shooting off of the drib well, there's different footwork that you get to your shot from. If you're gonna take volume three point shots a lot of them in a game, you have to be comfortable rising up out of any footwork. And so almost every shooting drill that I do with my kids is based on stuff like that. Even when I'm trying to work on catching or like shooting form in a stagnant environment, I'll have them do it on the move so that

the they get used to establishing a base quickly. And if you looked at that game last night, Victor had a movement shot going to his right where he planted his left foot first and then planted his right foot and elevated into the shot. He had a similar one off of a dribble handoff in the second half where he planted his right foot first and then planted his

left foot and elevated into a shot. He had a jab this first three, the first three point shot he made early in the first quarter on the left wing, jab step, right slide step with one dribble with his left hand, elevate up into a shot. Every conceivable type of three point shot he took last night. And that's what's so exciting about him, because there's really a ton of work to do elsewhere in his game. He gets

pushed off of his spot way too easily. He's not very strong with the basketball, so when he catches in traffic, guys just take it away from him. Guys are constantly

going to try to disrupt his base. My guess is because he's so tall and no one's really gonna be able to bother his release, You're gonna see a lot of teams go with a kind of like a p. J. Tucker type of defender on him, Somebody that's a little bit more of an undersized wing but that's very strong, that will try to disrupt his base for the purpose knowing that they can't bother the top of his shot, so they'll try to bother the bottom of his shot

by knocking him off balance. Rule Number one was shooting if you're off balance, it's just way more difficult. That's why all of the best step back shooters and fade away shooters are actually very balanced. When they're going up and down. It's not much of a dramatic fade. It's more of like physicality getting to a spot and then

going straight up and down. Even when you see steph take wild step backs and you see James Harden take wild step backs that usually if you if you highlight just the end of the shot, they're going straight up and down. So attacking his bass is going to be the best strategy with which to try to stop him. So everything with him is going to be working on footwork, in fluidity in his release. You know, when I look at comps for Victor, I keep coming back to k

D and I know that sounds insane. Victor is gonna be playing the five for basically his entire NBA career. But Kevin Durant, you know, Kevin Durant has one weakness. And it's kind of wild to even consider because we always think of him as like the perfect basketball player. But Kevin Durant doesn't get to the rim very well.

He only averaged one point seven restricted area makes per game last year, and one of his peers who's considered and criticized frequently for not getting to the room enough is Paul George, and he averaged two point two restricted area makes per game last year. Guys like Lebron and Janice are up at like seven restricted area makes per game.

I think Kauai was around five. Like so many of the bigger wings in the league, they get to the basket a lot, Katie does not, and the reason why is with his upright frame, he's not actually overly quick compared to the other wings around the league right, and then in addition to that, he's not gonna win physical confrontations going in a in a straight line. If Katie drives in a straight line and the defender bumps him, he's gonna give ground before the defender does in most cases.

So k d smartly takes advantage of his physical advantage over those defenders, which is height and an extremely high release points. So even when he gets to the rim, a lot of times he stops short and takes Kevin Duran is one of the best short range jump shooters I've ever seen, Like he can make five foot jump shots, six foot jump shots. The vast majority of perimeter players if they tried taking those shots which shoot them over the rim because they just never practice them, they go

all the way to the basket. That's kind of the way I see Victor women Yamas shot profile developing a lot of like the Katie stuff where he starts on at the block and kind of sets his defender up and then just kind of runs up to the top of the key and catches and shoots like an eighteen foot or twenty foot or you're gonna see a lot of pick and pop. You're gonna see a lot of moving like dribbling the ball up at the floor and

transition and pulling up a three. Or he Kevin Durant has made a living out of that what he calls that tween has he I can't remember exactly what he calls it, but where he has the ball in his left hand and he basically just does a dramatic hesitation and then rises straight up that move. The defenders almost always right up right up on him, but he's got a quick enough release and a high enough release point that he just shoots it over the top and he

can knock it down. Those are the kinds of shots that I see Victor woman Yama taking. The reason why I pulled that original stat that to three pointers made in one block per game. I think right away, when he comes into the league, Victor is going to be attempting at least six threes per game, if not seven

or eight, because that's the best shot profile for him. Like, for instance, a Carl Towns takes about five three point attempts per game, but he's big and strong and has a quick first step, so like he can physically impose his way to the rim. And while Victor, if he, if he gets better at fighting for a position, he will have some stuff around the rim. He's just not gonna be slashing to the basket the way Carl Towns does, or slashing to the basket the way so many of

your more athletic wings do. I think this is a Kevin Durant type of shot profile, a ton of off the catch shooting, a ton of off the dribble shooting, a ton of pick and pop shooting, a heavy jump shot profile. And he's already one of the most proficient big men shooters that we see around the world. So I I I find that to be really, really, really exciting,

and then on the defensive end of the floor. You know, so many of these guys that we talked about that are proficient from the perimeter, guys like Katie, guys like Carl Town's, the guys like Christaps Prezingis, they aren't as good on the defensive end as Victor already is. And he's got a long way to go. Like he still gives up position a little too easily. He committed some fouls when he got out of position last night. But the truth of the matter is is his length covers

up for most of his young guy mistakes. At this point, he's impacting shots at the three point line when he's standing four ft back. When a player decides to shoot and he raises up his hands, it's just a difficult target to shoot over. There was a early in the game Scoot Henderson made a really nice step back three at the top of the key. He got a ton of separation and Victor still almost blocked it because of

how long his arms are. So his combination of like that potential KDE shot profile plus defensive impact, he could I I want to see more. It's early. I don't like being hot take guy. It's I feel crazy saying this after one game, but he might be the best prospect at his age that I have ever seen because of the combination of shooting ability height that gives him the release point over everybody in his defensive impact at this point, very very exciting stuff from Victor wemban Yama.

We got a lot more UH to watch of him over the course of the next year, and I will make a point of making some time um to watch him. But it's truly exciting stuff. I used to joke all the time that Kevin Durant, if he had ever committed to the defensive end of the floor, he could have been the goat. You guys have seen me say that

on the show before. Well, I mean, obviously Victor's got a like miles and miles to go in terms of offensive fluidity to get to where Katie is, But defensively he's got the ability to be many many times as good as Katie ever was on the defensive end of the floor. It's all very very exciting. So Scoot Henderson um very undersized six to even though he's built well, he's undersized, but he's frightening lye athletic, just like that dunk he had in the first half where he took

off just inside the free throw line. That's that's athleticism you only see from the very top, top, top tier athletes in the league. So that means he's the next in a very long line of hyper athletic guards. Your Derek Rose, your Russell Westbrook, your John Wall, your John Moran. Right, We've seen this type of player in a bunch of

different iterations. So we talked about this archetype. If you guys remember over the summer when we did our superstar archetypes, and if you remember when I was talking about this superstar archetype, I had it at the bottom of my list because of the fact that they frequently have glaring flaws that kind of cancel out some of their great strengths, Like, for instance, Russell Westbrook never became a great defensive player and never became a great shooter, and so his freakish

athleticism combined with strength and an ability to knock people off of their line, that just never amounted to the type of deep playoff impact that the bigger Wings did because he never figured out the defensive end and because he could never shoot. John Wall, same type of thing. Never quite became the type of defensive player you needed.

Jump shot never was consistent enough. You know, Derek Rose injuries did him in, but it was a lot of jump shooting stuff with him and defensive stuff with him as well. Looking at John Moran, it the jump shot, it projects to be better than any of those guys, But defensively he might be worse than all of them right now, and worse than all of them ever were. So all of them have these glaring flaws. So what I look at with those, with those that particular archetype

is how old do they pass the ball? How old do they shoot the ball? What is their physical presence like are they a short, super athletic guard that's super thin and can be knocked off his line, or does he got some you know size to him that makes him a little bit more physically imposing in the last but not least defense. And so looking at Scoot already passes the ball super well. The announcers were raving it about, raving about it last night, but it actually reminds me

a lot of Westbrook. A natural feel for where open shooters are in the corners and then um at the basket, he's really good at drop off passes and pocket passes and things along those lines. Obviously, just one game, so I want to see a lot more, but the natural passing feel is there. Shooting, the release looks good. It's really really quick. Another thing that reminds me a lot of Russell Westbrookie elevates a lot and has a very quick release. But he's already a much much, much better

shooter than Russell Westbrook ever has been. And then his handle looks pretty good looking at his physical presence, he's built like a truck already that will only get better as he gets older. What I like about that is that's what made uh, That's what made Russell Westbrook so dynamic getting to the basket is he was also bigger and stronger than most cards that will open up post up stuff. Now scoots a little bit shorter than Russ.

It looks like he's at least an inch and not an inch and a half shorter, but he does have that good, strong base, low center of gravity, so he's gonna have a lot of that stuff. Um On the defensive end, lots of bad. There were some exciting moments though. Treemott waters as a pro that dude has played in the NBA before, He's been overseas for a while now. He's not very quick, not very big, but he's a very smart guard and he's gonna know how to attack

young players. And he got several straight line drives on Scoot catching him. Like Scoot would kind of be a little hoppy with his defensive stay ants, and he would like catch him as he was hopping and hit the gap. So as he's off the ground, he obviously can't move, and so he would just kind of take advantage of little body positioning tricks. Those are little things Scoot's gonna

have to get better at. You always want to be um in your stance, and you want to be careful with chopping your feet or jumping side to side because

it leaves openings for guards to attack you. But then at the end of the game, right about mid fourth quarter, about five minutes left, there was a play where uh, he kind of cut off Tramont Waters a couple of times, and then Triuma had to create at the end of the shot clock, and you actually saw him get in his stance, slide his feet, stay disciplined, and he really swallowed him up on that play and and and and I think he ended up jacking up a very very

difficult three that he ended up missing. So again, he has the potential to be a very good defensive player. It's just a question of whether or not he ever gets there. Um. His short range game reminds me of Colin Sexton. This is like where the differences are the similarities of Russell Westbrook kind of disappear. He stops on a dime instead of like sometimes will go directly to the rim and finish. And he was able to finish

over Victor several times, which was really impressive. There was one where he went down the lane and got Victor pinned on his backside and kind of jumped back into him, so he had a little bit of separation. And then you guys saw the the lanky right handed finished on the left side of the rim where he just extended out and beat Victor to the spot. So he can finish over the top of shot blocking. But he also

had a really impressive short range game. There was a really nasty move in the third quarter, I believe, where he drove hard and just stopped on a dime and Victor and one other shot blocker went out of bounds and then he was able to kind of shoot a little short pop shot. That kind of stuff reminds me of Colin Sexton the below the rim game from a great athlete close to the basket, push shots, floaters, short jump shots, a little bit of that Alan Iverson type

of feeld. Lots of good stuff there with Scoot Henderson. That's exciting again. With this archetype of player, there's lots of good sides and bads. None of the none of those guys who came before were able to race all of the bad sides. Like Russ never figured shooting in defense. John Wall we'll see this year because I've heard some good things about his shooting, but he's never really figured out shooting in defense. You know, Derrick Row has never

figured out shooting in defense. Uh, it looks like John rant might figure out shooting, but he's got so far to go on the defensive end of the floor. With Scoot, is he going to be the first guy who figures out how to be an impact defensive player and has the consistent shooting touch. If that's the case, he could be the first one of this archetype to reach the heights that like a Steph Curry has, as in a undersized player in the NBA that truly can hang with

the best big wings and bigs around the league. He's a high risk, higher reward pick Um definitely projects to be something like a star, but he's definitely behind Victor woman Yama in my in in my opinion, the last thing I wanted to say today um mentality ends up playing a bigger role in all of this than anything, then the physical tools, than than really anything. I mean, all you have to do is look at the top of the league. Look how good Steph is, Look how

good Nickela yoke it is. And you know, look how good Luka don Chich is. And you see that the freak athlete type doesn't necessarily run the league. That's three of the top six or seven players that are not exceptional athletes. And it's because that mentality ends up control, like really controlling your destiny. There are tons of freak

athletes that come through the league. You know, like, uh, how many of these six six super athletic guards turn out to be like a Terence Ross or a Ben McLemore instead of a Zach Lavine or a James Harden. How many of your big wings that are versatile turn out to be like a Jeff Green instead of a

Paul George or Kawhi Leonard. Right, Like, all of it comes down to, are you willing to dedicate your life on a daily basis to working harder than all of the other pros around the league that are also working hard. That will be what determines whether or not Victor becomes the guy, or Scoot Henderson becomes the guy, or an of the other young prospects that were looking at around the league. I'll give you two examples to kind of

drive this point home. After everybody said Anthony Davis might be the best player in the world, I had him I think fourth if I remember correctly, um after that playoff run and then what happened. He lost his drive, showed up in the camp out of shape two seasons in a row as a result, dealt with injury problems and inconsistent shooting, and never has been the same player. I had him eighteenth in my player rankings. ESPN had

him like his mentality is just not the same. We sat there and we looked at Anthony Davis and thought, Hey, this guy might rule the league one day. At one point in time, he was considered in the same conversations as Janice, that's how good he was, but it just never panned out because he didn't have it up here.

Same thing goes with Carl Towns. There were some moments in early in Carl Town's career where everyone talked about him is potentially one of the best forwards power forward to ever play the game in the future, but he just never figured out the defensive end of the floor, and he just never was consistent enough in his night and night in and night out approach. And now both of those guys are kind of just like out of sight, out of mind when we're having best player in the

League discussions. So all of this stuff with Victor is exciting, all of this stuff with Scoot is exciting, But it's

really up to them and how much they care. Obviously, luck plays a role to in terms of health and situation, but at the end of the day, only they know deep down when it comes to their love of the game of basketball and how much they hate losing basketball games, how much they hate not being the best version of themselves, yet how much that drives them on a night in the night out basis that's gonna be what determines their outcome more than anything else. All Right, guys, that is

all I have for right now. We'll be back either later tonight or tomorrow with the video with me and Carson. We're gonna be going over um NBA futures, so bets that I like based on like over unders championship favorites, things along those lines, and as well as the annual GM Survey, which always has a bunch of interesting stuff, some interesting um similarities between the way GM see the game and the way we see the game, like we've talked about on the show so much over the year

or so that we've been doing this. All right, As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys to support and I'll see you next time. The volume