- 2 days ago
Danny and Tobi want to see the Wizards' number-one overall pick play another game.
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00:02I want to talk about A.J. DeBonsa last night.
00:05This might be the last we see of him in Summer League.
00:07I would actually keep playing him.
00:09I know that might not be a popular take.
00:11But just give me impressions.
00:13And I want to go around the room.
00:14We've got a couple, frankly, four hoop heads here who are interested in it.
00:18But impressions of DeBonsa last night in a 104-85, I'm sure the score matters at all,
00:23Summer League win for the Wizards.
00:25First play last night, first points for the Wizards.
00:27I loved seeing A.J. comfortable.
00:30And transition, seeing that it's probably going to turn into a one-on-two situation
00:33if I go to the rim.
00:34Let's just see if I can knock down a dribble pull-up three in transition.
00:37That was Tracy McGrady.
00:38Knocks it down.
00:39So you're too young to remember.
00:41I'm sure Strober is too.
00:42Darius is old enough, I think, where that inflow, little quick.
00:48I don't know how to say it better than that.
00:49The quick, choppy steps to slow down, to get in rhythm, rise higher than anybody can deal with,
00:55and just easy, like he's throwing a rock into the ocean.
00:59Just the most simple, clean delivery.
01:01That was Tracy McGrady.
01:03That's what that used to look like.
01:05And when he's in rhythm like that, that's when it looks pure.
01:08I'm with you.
01:09I was doing spin kicks when I saw that shot.
01:11Yeah, so that was good to see.
01:13And overall, offensively, you've seen everything you could want out of this guy.
01:17You saw all the reasons he was the number one overall pick.
01:20He can get to the rim at will.
01:22Like, there's just nothing the defense can do right now, especially with these players.
01:26I'm sure, you know, facing real defenders in the NBA, guys that are competing for Defensive Player of the Year
01:31awards,
01:31he's going to face some more opposition in actual NBA games.
01:35But with what he's going up against right now, he's had no problem getting into the paint.
01:40He's made passes when he's needed to, but it's a summer league also.
01:43He understands he's one of the stars, so he's going to try to go score the basketball.
01:46But when he's needed to rise and fire, he can.
01:48He can knock it down from the mid-range.
01:50And he's just been so impressive and so smooth.
01:53You know, it felt like, too, in game two of the summer league, he was a little more confident,
01:58understood what was going on a little bit more.
02:00His handle was a little bit tighter.
02:01It felt like it was a little loose in the first one against the Jazz.
02:04This one just looked like what you want to see out of the number one overall pick.
02:08It's everything you could want.
02:10There are still things to improve on, but every reason why you drafted number one overall
02:14showed up in the summer league so far.
02:15Locked on Strobes, what'd you see?
02:18I think if he wants to be a really great playmaker in this league, that's going to be all up
02:24to him.
02:24Because you saw instances of that last night where he is doing his best, I think, to try
02:29to collapse the defense down a little bit more.
02:31And I think he got himself in a little bit of trouble doing it, especially in the third
02:33quarter, which was his coldest quarter, the game where he missed the first five shots
02:37that he took coming out of the break.
02:38His process still looked pretty good to me.
02:41And I think when he has legitimate NBA spacing and the talent that's going to be on the floor
02:45with him in the regular season, he's going to be more efficient as a byproduct just because
02:49he is going to be out there getting a little bit less touches than he is right now.
02:54But when he has those opportunities to get downhill and attack, he's going to do so and
02:57score, I think, at a high rate.
02:59Darius, what'd you say?
03:00The thing that everybody tried to tell me is how he's not that good of a defender.
03:05And all I've seen so far is some very impressive things from him on the defensive end.
03:09Now, you mentioned last week, that second, maybe third effort is not all the way there.
03:15But I think just the natural talent, the natural build that he has is just going to allow him
03:20to basically run into getting occasional blocks and occasional steals and running up those
03:25stock numbers, which is awesome.
03:28And the other thing that pulls me into him is when he's on the court, your eyes just gravitate
03:36to him.
03:37There's just no denying.
03:38Right, exactly.
03:40He just has that gravitational pull to him where he's on the court.
03:45You feel like he's one of the best players on the court every time.
03:48And it's just awesome to watch that.
03:49I can't believe this guy's ours.
03:51So I saw pretty much everything you guys did.
03:53And a couple of notes, I want to piggyback on what Strobe was saying.
03:55There are a couple of moments that are not sexy at all, where he's kind of begun, because
04:01again, they're running this initiation part of the offense where it's a different way to
04:06get into it every time.
04:06It's a staggered screen here, or maybe they just have him sort of posting up upside the
04:12three-point line.
04:12But they're giving him the ball at the top of the key and saying, enjoy, AJ.
04:16We'll see what happens.
04:18Right?
04:18I think it's part of a developmental process where it was like at BYU, especially in that
04:22third quarter that Strobe was talking about.
04:24There was a moment.
04:25He's got the ball.
04:26Eight eyes are focused on him.
04:28One guy was down low and the defender was covering that play.
04:31I think it might have been Akpara.
04:32But everyone else was looking at him, waiting for him to initiate a move.
04:35There's nowhere really to go.
04:37There are a couple of times where he's dribbling into action.
04:40Here comes the double team.
04:41And again, it's not sexy, but he's able to use his body, pivot, and whip a left-handed
04:46pass, just making the right pass with defenders drawn that leads to a pass, which leads to
04:52it.
04:52It's like the hockey assist, the secondary assist there.
04:55Now, whether the shot goes in or not, I don't care.
04:57Some of the playmaking stuff, he hit a couple of guys for what could have been a three missed
05:01or could have been a layup.
05:02See, the assist totals aren't what they were going to be, certainly.
05:05But there's a lot to like, again.
05:07So I saw more last night.
05:10I think I'm in the minority on this, that I didn't love.
05:13And that's why I'm playing him again.
05:14I don't think the Wizards will.
05:15I think they're going to shut him down.
05:17But the reason I'm doing that is this is such a low stakes environment for teachable moments.
05:26And if you guys have ever coached any sport, baseball, basketball, soccer, football, whatever,
05:31you know this.
05:32Now, this is not the same.
05:32I'm talking about coaching kids.
05:34And this is a professional.
05:35This is a world-class professional basketball player that deserved to go 1-1.
05:39But you're looking for those teachable moments.
05:41And here's what I saw in the third quarter.
05:43You guys remember the play where he bricked the shot and didn't get back on defense and
05:48kind of moped for a split second and looked like he was feeling sorry for himself?
05:51Now, whether he was or wasn't, whether the coaches said, do not sprint back and don't
05:56get yourself in a chase-down situation where you could land awkwardly.
06:00I have no idea what he was told.
06:01I have no idea what instructions he was under or what restrictions or rules.
06:04Because I just know that there were a couple of moments where he was clearly frustrated.
06:09And I'm going, thank God that happened.
06:11Because, again, it's not, you know, I don't know, you're not going against Jalen Johnson
06:18in Atlanta who did it to you.
06:19You're not doing it against the Miami Heat.
06:20We're going to figure out a way to frustrate you for sure.
06:22This is Wizards Summer League.
06:25And I don't, if they lose every game by 50 points and they win every game by 100 points,
06:29ain't no trophy.
06:30Nobody's writing home about it.
06:31Nobody cares.
06:32You're looking for those teachable moments.
06:34And we got a couple.
06:36And that's the beauty of this.
06:38That's the whole point of this exercise to me is, A, to make sure that he's ready to
06:42play in the NBA and, good, checkmark, thank you, we got one.
06:46Everyone else is on notice now.
06:47They're going to have to deal with him.
06:48They got to deal with him and he belongs to us.
06:51I love him so much.
06:51But you're also looking for those moments where you go, here, this isn't ideal.
06:56Here's what's, here's correctable.
06:57Here's how we can improve.
06:59Here's the, you know, and some of those things are going to happen.
07:01And it's, you'll get in the lab, you go to training camp, they'll, they'll get rid of
07:05some of those moments, that little hitch sometimes he has in his jump shot when he has too much
07:08time.
07:09You know, some of those footwork moves where he hasn't played in a while that he's, you
07:13know, cooking guys kind of down in that mid post and he's missing those fallaways.
07:17They're going to start to fall.
07:18He's too good.
07:19He's getting to the foul line to, to buoy his offense.
07:21He's going to get his points, but you find those instances that are teachable.
07:27And I want to give him as many of them as possible.
07:30And I know the risk if he gets hurt, if he, you know, something terrible happens, God forbid,
07:34he's going to miss a long time.
07:36But to me, these games are so low stakes.
07:38It's long enough before we're going to report in a training camp and getting into the flow
07:42of the season.
07:43And it is a grind.
07:44I want him to do more of what they've got him doing, which is we're not going to put
07:50you in the best possible spot to get an ISO after a couple of screens, you're getting
07:55run off, or we're not having Trey Young out there, get you a catch and shoot.
07:59We're not going to do anything other than get you the ball with everybody looking at you
08:03and force you to go through some adversity.
08:06If that's their thought process, do that again.
08:10That's where I'm at.
08:11Yeah, I completely agree.
08:11I would love to see him continue to play in the summer league, assuming that, you know,
08:16it felt like at times against the Jazz in the first game that there were some harder fouls.
08:21Some people were saying he was foul baiting, which is ridiculous.
08:23He was getting fouled a lot against the Jazz.
08:25And that's going to be something that's a part of his game, by the way.
08:27He is really good at drawing fouls.
08:29He's working through contact, can finish through contact.
08:31You've seen that in the two summer league games.
08:33But if he's playing against the Bulls on Tuesday and it's just a regular game and occasionally
08:39you run into a foul or whatever.
08:41If they're not hacking and being crazy and being reckless, then play him.
08:45There's no reason not to, in my opinion.
08:47I understand that you would like to make sure that he's healthy, but guess what?
08:51I still need him practicing in the lead up to an NBA season.
08:55I still need him playing.
08:57These are game reps.
08:58These are, it's not like the results matter that much, but people look back at these
09:02things.
09:02Yeah.
09:03And to, and kind of to your point, if I'm, you know, uh, G League Jerry and I'm trying
09:08to make a club, what's a, what's the better, what's the best resume builder right now?
09:12Nobody gives a buttered, you know what, if you can knock down a couple shots in summer
09:15league.
09:16Good for you.
09:17There's, there's a million dudes at Rucker Park right now, you know, playing on West
09:204th street in New York who can knock down some open shots.
09:23I locked up AJ DeMonsa or I gave AJ DeMonsa work.
09:27I took on the number one pick and I did well.
09:30So people might be trying to make a name for themselves.
09:32So yeah, you're running the risk of that, I would say, but still that's worth it to
09:37me.
09:38That's worth it to me.
09:39Cause again, they've already shown you talking about the wisdom, the staff, we're willing
09:43to put him in less than ideal spots right now.
09:45We're literally going, take the ball young man.
09:47And we want almost saying, okay, if you turn it over, what's teachable?
09:51If you don't turn it over, what could, what could we have done?
09:53They want that film of the basketball in his hands, knowing that that's going to be a
09:57little bit less.
09:58He's not going to be the offensive initiator.
10:02I don't think in the regular season, this is not your average guy.
10:05That's a one, one pick going to a hot garbage fire team where they're going in Dallas.
10:10Okay.
10:10Cooper flag.
10:11We'll go as you go.
10:13Okay.
10:13You know, uh, uh, Wemby a couple of years ago, we go as you go.
10:16There's literally when Wemby came into the league, there was no point guard on that team.
10:19Um, I say that again, they literally didn't have a point guard.
10:22They were going, yeah, we'll kind of do this, um, uh, Jeremy Sohan.
10:27Yeah.
10:28He's not a point guard.
10:29He's a, he's a bench Billy for somebody, but they're going to let him, they're going
10:33to let Wemby just sink or swim.
10:34This is not your average bear situation for a one, one pick.
10:37He's going to go play with Anthony Davis sometimes and Trey young and a couple other guys that are
10:42already, I don't want to say established, but working on some stuff.
10:45Yeah.
10:45I also like, like you're saying, getting him experience of playing on the ball in the NBA
10:50summer league, because once you get into the regular season, Trey young's going to have
10:53the ball in his hands and rightfully so Keyshawn George might be initiating the action.
10:58And I'm not to say that AJ to bonds is not going to work on the ball.
11:00And I think they may run him at the point at certain times during the season, but he's
11:05essentially the guy will Riley's getting some of that as well.
11:08And by the way, looked incredible as well.
11:10Like if you want to sit him down, I fully understand that one.
11:13I'm good on Will Riley for this summer.
11:15He's done his job, but for the Bonsa, keep playing him.
11:17Just give him those reps, give him more opportunities.
11:20And it's just good exposure as well for the wizards.
11:23I'm with you.
11:25We'll talk Blake Butera.
11:26He said something after the game on Friday, when I was doing post game that Toby and I
11:30immediately did a little Tim Allen.
11:31We went, very interesting.
11:34We'll do that at three.
11:34But next when you mess with the bull, yada, yada, yada.
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