Top Storylines to Watch in Sixers Summer League

Top Storylines to Watch in Sixers Summer League

Welcome to the PHLY Sixers podcast along with Derek Bodner, Kyle Newck, I’m Devon Given. Bri is producing as always and we are presented by as always as we get ready to hang out with you through the entire summer talking Sixers. Rothman Orthopedics. Visit rothmanorththo.com/phy. Well, the summer league gets underway on Saturday against the Utah Jazz. VJ Edgecom, we get to see him for the first time against Ace Bailey and the Jazz. TJ De Leo against Omar Cooper. It is going to be a blast. So with that, we wanted to talk about some of our favorite storylines heading into game one of the summer league. This is the Utah, which is the Utah summer league, and then we’ll have the Las Vegas summer league that kicks off on the 10th, which is next Thursday. But we wanted to talk about just a few things that we have our eyes on for the be uh for the start of summer league. So Kyle, starting with you, uh, what are you most looking forward to for this this Sixers version of the summer Sixers? It’s pretty simple. I want to see how they use VJ Edgecom, right? We talked earlier this week about sounds like they’re going to give him opportunities to play the point. Jared McCain will not be there or on the summer league roster. So VJ’s going to have ball handling opportunities. We’re going to get to see what does the handle look like? How does he look running pick and rolls, dribble handoffs? He’s going to get to play with a variety of different bigs, right? Rim runners, stretch bigs, somewhere hybrid type of players. Janai Broom is more of a plays out of the post or at the elbows and can playmake make so he can cut off of that. He get some second side stuff. I just kind of want to see what the early vision for VJ is, right? Because this is a crowded backcourt. This is a situation where he’s not walking in right away and it’s just going to be handed 35 minutes a game. They are going to have to figure out one, what do we have here? How does he fit with our other guys? And and just what is he capable of doing as a young player? I think he I I’m not expecting VJ to come out and just light the world on fire, score 20 points a game, and and go crazy, especially in this environment where spacing’s at a premium, and there are going to be problems for him. There will be turnovers, there will be poor shooting games, but I think he’s got some good teammates. He’s got Justin Edwards. He’s got a Dembona. He’s got guys around him. and we’re going to get at least an outline of the player that we expect to see this fall and moving forward. You get a top three pick. It’s pretty hard for me to go anywhere else except that’s the guy I want to see and I want to see him doing any number of things. How about you, Derek? Well, obviously to Kyle’s point, when you got a top three pick, that is who you’re most looking forward to. Kyle laid that out well. So, I will go with the Dembona. You know, I think if you would have looked at where he was to start in summer league last year and where he finished the regular season at, few players on this squad made as much progress as he did. You know, somebody that I think we were all concerned with like how what was he going to be like how is he going to be utilized offensively? What were his hands like? Next thing you knew, you were looking up in January and February. Granted, it wasn’t exactly the highest stakes basketball, but he was taking dribble handoffs and exploding towards the rim the rim in ways ways that I’m not sure we really knew that he could do. So, I’m interested to see after, you know, last couple of months the work that he’s put in. Has he added a little bit more of a jumper? Is that face up game developing? Even just, you know, the defensive side of the floor, is he doing a little bit better staying on his feet and maybe not going for every block? How are his rotations? How does he look like he’s calling things out? You know, it is a big adjustment for young big men. uh you have a lot of responsibility defensively certainly I think we all see the vision with the tools that he has physically now can he get a little bit closer to really you know anticipating the way you need to at a high level and I think he made a lot of progress last year and I’m real interested to see what he has done over the last couple of months telling you man those fake dribble handoffs would you say five he’s gotten really good at those let’s see let’s he was doing that against real pros yeah I mean he did that against Milwaukee against Giannis against real teams who are actually trying to compete for something and he has it down at this point. So against these summer league bigs, while there will be some first round picks and some second round picks, there are also going to be some out there that are not accustomed to seeing it the way that he does it. And him letting that happen once again in that environment is going to be fun to see. My only real concern summer league tends to not be very forgiving for big men. It is you’ve got to have guards that will get your big men the ball and a lot of times the guards are playing for their NBA lives as well and trying to showcase for themselves. Not always a kind of environment that is conducive to big men really showcasing, but I think he can have a well in that play, he’s gonna unleash his inner guards because he’s the one that has the ball to decide if that play is going to execute out that way. I’m going to go with Hunter Salis, a guy you wrote about, Kyle, at all phy.com. He’s a 6’4 guard, played at Gonzaga and Wake and at Wake his final season. did average 18 points, didn’t shoot the ball very well as Kyle alluded to in his piece, but he’s a 6-4 guard that, as you titled it, a priority as a two-way, Kyle, that they made sure that they got that one done very quickly right after the draft ended. So with his scoring ability, but even at that 6’4 size where he has the ball handling as well, can shoot the basketball, it’s just a matter of what the percentage looks like. Because when he does get into that mid-range game, if you watch some of the stuff pre-draft from a year ago and even this past uh pre-draft process for him, that was something that he really worked on with his representation, having them in the gym of of what he did and and that is was a strong suit for his. So in this type of environment, like you said, Derek, guards are going to have the ball. So if he is out there with VJ Edgecom and maybe even I’m guessing like Jaylen Huskaphino or something like that, that this is an opportunity for him to show why he was that priority. And when you look down the line, even bringing back in a veteran player and an older player like Eric Gordon, we do see where a lot of times that these two-way players get an opportunity on the next level. And when you also project out how the Sixers have typically gone with Paul George missing some time, Joel Embiid missing time, lineup changes have to go a certain way. So, if he has that requisite amount of time that he can as a two-way player play and Nick Nurse likes some things, there may be some lineup combinations that he can be used as a player that we see maybe for, hey, this is calling for a stretch for Salah and we can use him for this time and if he plays out well, maybe those numbers stretch from five to 10 based on the performance that he has in that particular game. So in a in an environment like summer league for a guard like Hunter Sales, I am curious to see who he is and what he does on the floor for a Sixers team that while the focus will be on VJ Edgecomb and will be on certainly a Dembona and a few other names like Justin Edwards and Janai Broom. I want to see who Hunter Salis is at this level because he was a former five-star recruit and that’s how he landed at Gonzaga and he was on a team with Chad Hongren and Andrew Nimhard at that time that was still getting some minutes for Mark F. Unfortunately for him it didn’t work out. He went to Wake and still became an allAC player backal first team in in the ACC. The talent is there. So, I’m very curious and I’m very intrigued to see that player and and look, I think the hope for him and it’s a pie in the sky type scenario is that long term he puts on weight, he refineses the shot from from deep anyway because mid-range, you’re right, Devon, he is a very good mid-range player. The hope is that maybe this kid could be a three-level scorer at some point. Now, will that pay off for the Sixers specifically? Maybe not, right? like it it’s it doesn’t look like it’s likely that they’re going to have some big opening for a guard in the years ahead because of the other guys they’ve taken, but I think he’s an interesting player. Certainly has some intrigue to him. And circling back to VJ at the very start, he is a guard that can help VJ move into the different roles. You need a guy to play on the ball so you can move VJ to the second side a little bit. He can do that. You want a guy who’s just going to hit spot up shots. I know that the three-point shooting numbers last year were ugly, but generally as a catch-and-oot player, he’s someone I believe in a lot more and so he can at least be a set shooter playing off of VJ. Good guy to have with them there in Utah and in Las Vegas. Absolutely. So, make sure you follow along with us for the entire summer as always here at the uh PHLY 6’s podcast, but also for the summer when we are out in Las Vegas from the 10th through the weekend. We’ll be back on the Monday, which will be the 14th, to get back at it. But make sure you follow us at our show account. Our show account is phy_6ers. Personal accounts, you have Kyle Newck, Kyle Newbeck, Derekbodner at Derekbodner NBA and mine_ong given at on Twitter where you can follow all of our coverage from the time that we will be out there with the summer Sixers for summer league in Las Vegas. So, for everybody here, have a great rest of your weekend. Stay safe and happy 4th of July, everybody. Happy 4th of July. And uh make sure you stick with us right here for all your breaking Sixers news at all sixers. We’ll be here as always with our great producer Bri. We’ll be with you and we’ll have everything that happens with the Philadelphia 76ers as quickly as possible as those things take place right here. presented by Rothman Orthopedics at the PHLY Sixers podcast. We’ll talk to you on Monday.

The PHLY Sixers Podcast share WHO to watch & WHAT to watch for in this “Sixers Summer League” episode.

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