- 9 hours ago
Ben Strober joins The Sports Junkies to break down AJ Dybantsa’s Summer League debut.
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00:00The Locked On Wizards podcast.
00:03So that's where we're bringing our guy, Ben Strober, Unfunny Ben, back on the program.
00:07Ben is a stud.
00:08Ben, seriously, had you taken over Locked On Wizards five years ago, it would have been tough.
00:14But you're jumping aboard a rocket ship.
00:17The perfect time.
00:18What's going on, Ben?
00:20Not much. You guys missed me? You missed all the humor I brought to the show?
00:25Well, I haven't actually missed you because I've been listening.
00:28I've been so caught up in this draft hype.
00:31I kept saying I was so excited, so excited.
00:33Even though I was lobbying for Peterson, I acknowledge all along,
00:37I think all these guys at the top are going to be very, very good.
00:39I think they made the right choice, though.
00:41Just cemented it yesterday.
00:43The size alone, what he can do at that size,
00:46I think you have to see him in person to really get an appreciation for it.
00:51And then what we saw last night, Ben, in my opinion,
00:54look, I defer to you a little bit with Hoops.
00:58He passed every test, checked every box.
01:03I couldn't have asked for a better debut.
01:05I'm sure, would I like him to hit one or two of the threes?
01:07Sure.
01:08But, I mean, other than that, I mean, that was an A++++ debut for me.
01:14If you think about it, for a guy that just scored 27 points and lit the world on fire
01:20in the first 10 minutes that he played on an NBA floor,
01:23and it was considered a relatively rough shooting night,
01:27considering that he only went two of 13 on shots from outside of the painted area,
01:31that's about as good as you're going to get for a performance like that.
01:35Yeah, and it's still electrified in every way possible,
01:37because I think exactly what you needed to see was as advertised.
01:42Yeah.
01:42With A.J. DeBonsa, we talked the entire draft process about how this dude was going to just
01:48take names when it came to getting to the basket and living at the rim in the free throw line.
01:53And early on in the game, you could see the way Utah had to adjust their defensive coverages
01:57just based on what they were throwing at him, having a big hedge come out three feet behind
02:03the three-point line, because they simply didn't have an answer for his first step
02:06and his driving ability.
02:08It impressed me so much that he didn't shy away from any type of contact early on in the game,
02:13and they said he was going to get to the free throw line often,
02:15and my goodness, if they weren't playing this weird one free throw rule that they're doing right now,
02:20he would have had 15 free throws last night.
02:22Yep.
02:23No, 100% agree.
02:24I just can't believe his confidence with his handle.
02:27Very first gun.
02:28Now, I actually kind of knew he was going to ball out against these guys,
02:31because a lot of these guys, you know, there's some elite guys.
02:34He's been playing against all these guys.
02:36They're all younger, you know, for years.
02:38I knew his confidence level would be high.
02:40It surpassed even that expectation.
02:43It just blown away.
02:44And even when he missed shots, you know, he was two for 13.
02:47It wasn't really like any of those shots.
02:49I kind of cringed a little bit on the threes, because I know he doesn't have that range yet.
02:53But, like, to really consistently make it.
02:55But if you have a good look, a good take, the shot going in or not, that's just variance, right?
03:01So he just was two of 13 yesterday.
03:03But I think the next time he could be, you know, six of 13, seven of 13 on those looks.
03:09Right.
03:10This is not the Johnny Davis situation a few years ago, where it was just very evident in the first
03:15few minutes of the game that the dude could not play.
03:17I think everything about the process looked great for DeBonta last night.
03:21He was getting to his spots pretty much every time he wanted.
03:24And he had a couple of those instances where he had that little turnaround fadeaway midi jumper that was his
03:29bread and butter in college.
03:30And the shot didn't fall from last night.
03:32He came up short a couple times.
03:33That was a great run.
03:33Trey Johnson.
03:34Yeah.
03:35Right.
03:35And Trey Johnson said it himself.
03:36He's just got to stop missing short.
03:38So those type of shots will fall with time.
03:40And I was so incredibly impressed with his ability to get to his spot every time.
03:45What do you envision the starting lineup to be and then the guys coming off the bench?
03:52Because they're going to be a very deep team with this young talent playing so well.
03:57Right.
03:58It seems weird that a team that just won 17 games last season all of a sudden is talked about
04:03as a team that has incredible amounts of depth.
04:06But Will Dawkins has said multiple times since they've drafted A.J. DeBonta that they view him as a guard.
04:11Now, I wonder how that really plays out in the regular season.
04:15You just ink Trey Young to a four-year, $212 million contract.
04:18So he's going to have the ball in his hands a ton.
04:20And DeBonta is going to have to learn to be a basketball player, play off the ball a little bit.
04:24But you could see last night they had him playing point guard for a ton of the night.
04:28He was very comfortable with the ball in his hands.
04:30And I expect that to be part of his repertoire throughout the regular season.
04:34So maybe you see a lineup where A.J. and Keyshawn George or whoever is at the two with him
04:40there.
04:40It could be all cool volley for his defense.
04:43You see those guys kind of rotate around playing anywhere two through three or maybe even four if there's a
04:48lineup where Davis or Saar is out.
04:50But that's kind of why you draft a player like DeBonta because he provides a ton of positional flexibility.
04:56He could really slot him in almost anywhere on the floor with his size and his skill set.
05:00And I think he could thrive in a bunch of different atmospheres.
05:03I wonder if they do view Keyshawn George as the guy that's going to either start alongside him in the
05:09backcourt because they need defensive stuff there.
05:11Or he's just going to run the bench unit.
05:13They could be really creative in what they're doing.
05:15But you can't forget about what Trey Johnson did last night.
05:17He definitely wants to make his name known potentially to be a heavy rotational piece if not starting.
05:23Oh, he's going to be heavy in the road.
05:24He has to be.
05:25I don't know that I've seen a bigger jump in just a couple months.
05:29You know, just confidence-wise.
05:31Attacking the rim the way it is.
05:33I mean, the physical, the size he's put on in such a short period of time.
05:37I mean, that's a huge jump.
05:42He looked a lot quicker.
05:44He looked bigger.
05:45He looked a lot more confident in what he was doing without the ball in his hand.
05:49And I saw a lot of people joking around about how he did not pass the ball last night.
05:53And I guess the eye test would indicate.
05:55But he's a scorer.
05:56That's what he does best.
05:57Yes.
05:58If you want to say that we have Darren Peterson at home, you could say that.
06:01And Trey Johnson, they're obviously not the same player overall.
06:04But I was really impressed by his movement shooting last night.
06:07He had a couple of those instances where he comes off the screen.
06:09He looked a little bit more confident with the handle.
06:11And once he got a little bit of separation, you saw him with that little movement jumper
06:15from the mid-range was his bread and butter last night.
06:18For a night where he was 2 of 8 from downtown, so not as good as he could have been.
06:23Or like you expect for a guy who came out of college as a 40% three-point shooter.
06:27What an incredible night for him scoring-wise.
06:2911 of 20 from the field of 26.
06:32I think I've been bullish on him the entire time.
06:35And I told everybody not to let what was happening last season with the tanking and the injury
06:40stuff to blur what I think Trey Johnson will be.
06:43Because he's much better than I think he showed last year.
06:46And I think also, you know, also we don't want to get carried away.
06:48It is summer league.
06:49We all understand that.
06:51But it's jumping out at you.
06:53Some of the jumps and the talent these guys are assembling.
06:55We also have to remember that the 17 wins is a mirage.
07:01They did that on purpose.
07:03Like, I actually don't know if those guys all played.
07:07Like, if Keyshawn played all year, if Saar played, you know, meaningful minutes late in
07:12games, etc.
07:12I have no idea what they were capable of winning last year.
07:15I really don't know.
07:15Were they capable of winning 20, 23, 27?
07:18I just don't know.
07:19I know they weren't a 17-win team.
07:21That I know.
07:22And I think that raises the floor a little bit for this team.
07:27Maybe a little more than what people really realize.
07:31Definitely.
07:32I think maybe if they weren't doing everything that they were doing, they didn't have a lot
07:35of the injury stuff, they could probably climb up to 24, 25 wins.
07:40They'd still be a very young team.
07:41So they'd lose a lot of games just as a byproduct of that.
07:45But it is a manufactured win total.
07:47You are definitely right about that.
07:49But that is why they went out and acquired Trey Young, because what he brings to the
07:54table offensively is a true dynamic playmaker.
07:57They didn't have that type of player on this team beforehand.
07:59And they're going to be much, much better offensively.
08:02And that's going to elevate everybody around them to do so.
08:05So they'll be a lot better just by that alone.
08:08Anthony Davis is the big wild card, man.
08:09If he is healthy and he plays a good amount of the games, I know they'll have to manage
08:13his minutes because you're not going to expect him to play 65 to 70 games.
08:17We know that's probably not realistic for a 33-year-old Anthony Davis at this point, given
08:21his injury history over the last couple of years.
08:23But if he's healthy and he's playing, he takes their defense, I think, to a whole nother
08:27level and then provides the scoring stuff that he can do at a very high level, 20 and 12
08:32last year when he was actually on the floor.
08:33That would make them, I think, actually pretty good in the East.
08:36I've gone on record, Ben.
08:39And listen, I'm known to get over my skis.
08:41I'm an emotional guy, but I would be stunned if this team, if they stay, you know, with
08:48reasonable health, doesn't make the playoffs.
08:50Draft thinks I'm an idiot.
08:52Where do you stand on that?
08:53I want you to go one way or the other.
08:57So I won't get ahead of my skis saying that this team could be top five or whatever.
09:02I've seen some people already say that they'll be top four in the Eastern Conference.
09:06I think that'd be getting a little bit ahead of yourself.
09:07It's still a very, very young basketball team, but if Trey and AD are healthy, these
09:12are proven commodity players that can definitely help you win a lot of basketball games.
09:16The only issue is as at the same time that the Wizards decided they wanted to get good
09:20again and be competitive in the East, it seems like everybody else in the conference has gotten
09:25better this offseason.
09:27So you realistically got to look around and say, what teams can they jump?
09:30Toronto is obviously going to be very good unless this Kawhi Leonard, whatever is happening
09:35with that falls through or something like that.
09:37Um, the Pacers are going to be back with Halberton this year.
09:40Philadelphia is going to be really good after the Jalen Brown trade.
09:43There's a lot of teams that they'll have to compete with and try to jump next season.
09:48And they still have a lot of youth on this team as it stands right now.
09:52So it's hard to envision them being much better than I think a top eight team in the conference
09:58right now.
09:58But you have to remember with a 17 win total last season, if they got to 41 wins and jumped
10:03their win total by 24, that'd be a very impressive step forward for them and set the table for
10:08what would be a probably pretty big next season.
10:11I'm guessing the podcast is booming these days, Ben.
10:15Congratulations.
10:15You get to ride the rocket ship of AJ DeBonsa with Locked On Wizards.
10:21It's silly numbers.
10:22Silly numbers.
10:23That's awesome.
10:23It's been a lot of fun.
10:24And you get to sleep in too.
10:26Congrats, buddy.
10:27Hey, what are you going to have me on?
10:28Now you blow me off?
10:29You're not going to have me on?
10:29Too big time?
10:32No, we can get you on now.
10:34Early June, I wanted to get you on, but I don't remember if you were around or not.
10:37I think I was out of town.
10:38Yeah.
10:38But find a day when nothing's going on.
10:40You put the old man on.
10:42I'll give you some juice.
10:43All right.
10:44Let's do it.
10:44Let's do it.
10:45Appreciate you guys.
10:46All right.
10:46Thank you, Ben.
10:46Ben Strober, Unfunny Band, Locked On Wiz podcast, talking about AJ DeBonsa.
10:52Coming up next, the Commanders make another savvy move.
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