Kasparas Jakučionis Has Miami Heat Breakout Summer Performance! | Erik Spoelstra Impressed w/ Rookie

Kasparas Jakučionis Has Miami Heat Breakout Summer Performance! | Erik Spoelstra Impressed w/ Rookie

Viva. Viva Cas Vegas. Hey, listen. I always told you guys summer league does not start until you get to Sin City. And that is what Casperis Yakonis brought to the table here today. And I don’t really care about the score. I don’t really care about the collapse in the fourth quarter. I care that the Miami Heats first round pick had a breakout performance today in the Miami Heat Vegas summer league opener. Casper’s Yakonis with a game that really felt like finally he got the pressure off his back, especially in the first half with how he was able to play in that game. It was absolutely pristine. I mean, we got to see it right off the bat. And you know, I we talked about this a little bit in the video this morning because I was reading some of his quotes. He seemed very confident. He was holding his head high. He was handling all this stuff well. People talk about the Goron Dragage comparisons and like right out of the gate, he gets on the board today with this beautiful spin move right to the to the paint. Gets himself on the board. Uh he finds Pella Lararsson for an assist, but then what are we taught? We just need one three for this kid to drop. It just felt like if one of these threes would drop, the cheeks would be less squeaky and things would start going in the basket. And this this is what happened for Cass out there today. This man was nailing everything. Yeah. Listen, I I was just very very impressed. He was hitting threes on the fast break. He was hitting step backs. He was drilling it left and right and B b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b basically swung that first quarter right into the Heats game and even got fouled shooting a three late to tie things up for Miami. A really really impressive performance and you just felt tremendous for the kid. I mean he was like you you could just I imagine that had to feel like a huge weight was lifted off of him. Just absolutely excellent from him every which way. So, I love that from him today. And then in the second quarter, Miami really felt like they were putting the grip on this thing because it was not only Casper Yakonis who was getting going, but Javvante Cook, my goodness, what a what a second quarter this this guy had for Miami. He was four of eight from downtown. He had 14 points. He was nailing everything. But the exciting thing about this was Yakonis was continuing to really just show everything that he had. He had strong drives to the rim. So, it wasn’t just the three-point basket where you’re starting to see like that that beautiful move right into the paint being able to to handle the contact, but I think my favorite play that he had was when he shook Buddy out of his shoes. Really put the moves on him and he found Cook in the corner for the three ball. I was like, it was it was a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I don’t mean this lightly when I say I don’t know if I have been this happy as a Heat fan in two years. I don’t know if I have been this happy since the Miami Heat evened up the NBA finals at 1-1. Maybe I’m just trying to think, but this was like, oh my goodness, he played so well and it was really really exciting. It was I think everybody was buzzing about it because look, California was a drag. It was like the the team was playing pretty well as a whole, but you’re just like, “Yeah, but and it’s great that Pella and Keshot had their moments, right?” And uh today not as impressive a game from those guys, although Pella really picked it up in the second half. I mean, you know, wasn’t expecting him to to also be be thrown in when you have two guys who were near nuclear hot from downtown like the Heat had, but you know, you you want your first round pick. you feel like, oh, you got away with one, you’re just like, did we get away with one? Did something happen? Not that you’re going to call bust on anybody, but just want to see some flashes, right? And it just looked today, you’re like, now we see the goods of what this kid has. And it was really encouraging because Eric Spolster gets on the broadcast in the third quarter. And he was talking about, you know, it’s actually a pretty good first mental obstacle for him to get over that you’re not good offensively because how do you handle everything else and how good are you defensively? And he was talking about he goes, “Man, the intangibles, the the the the type of energy that he was bringing to the table, all of that stuff was really, really, really encouraging from Miami standpoint.” and Spo, you know, really seemed like he was impressed with the kid and talking about the size that he had and and uh, you know, even the defense that he was bringing to the table, he was saying he has positional size, 65, close to 69 wingspan, moves his feet well, and he competes. We saw that with him. Um, he did foul a little bit late. I mean, we’ll get into the fourth quarter. It did kind of fall apart. And the other, there was an other side to the coin of this game. I’m not going to be it’s not going to be all flowers. We do we do have to talk about the other thing that remains probably the second biggest story of uh of summer league, but this was this was by far the biggest was like Miami’s first round pick has come out here and it has not been a good go and then today completely explodes. So that’s an exciting thing for Miami by by a huge huge measure. So Spo was talking about that and and just how he has liked that he was able to handle that by uh by a long shot. So that was exciting. The you know and so we get into this third quarter. Miami feels like they have this game well in hand. Um you know and the heat pel hitting some threes. Vlad Golden had a really, really good run there in the third quarter where he was getting a bucket and foul. He was getting alioop dunks and I really thought this puppy was over. I thought it was going to be like the last game. I didn’t think this was going to be a fourth quarter that was going to have much juice to it, you know, cuz it’s just like a come on, if you got this in hand, like what the hell is going to happen? Well, what happened was is the Hawks went on a 20 21-4 run. um just were relentless attacking the basket and Miami couldn’t stop him. Miami couldn’t stop him and in the fourth quarter they were outscored 3722. You had uh a fourth quarter where the Hawks nearly scored uh what did they shoot? 67% from the field in this game. Yeah, 66.7%. They were 10 and 15 from the field and they were 14 of 16 from the free line. 12 of those free throws. I know a couple of them were late based on the anxious rep, but Kobe Buffkin basically got to the free throw line before even the puppy was over. He got to the free throw line a ton. Um, and Miami just couldn’t contain him. And then the other big thing about it was, yeah, there just wasn’t a big defensive presence for Miami. And so like this kind of brings you to the other side of things which is uh Kalware and you know it happens once all right you know we talked about this like it happened the first game and we’re like you know the he kind of coasted but the fourth quarter I gave him credit I’m like you know fourth quarter he really took over second game we talked about 28 minutes three rebounds that ain’t good enough and you know third time It’s like, okay, the scoring was better. They certainly made an emphasis today on taking away the lobs. They probably I would say I think Atlanta probably broke up like at least four to my mind. Alioop. So, they knew that the game plan was to get after Kell, but I’m telling you like this is this has not been an encouraging summer so far for wear. It it hasn’t. I I can’t really, you know, dance around it. And I haven’t lost faith in the guy. And Eric Sper did say like, look, he’s put in the work in the weight room. He’s put on like 8 to 10 pounds this summer. And I I I you know, I can’t make every excuse under the sun for him. Like, hey, it’s a wonky game. It’s, you know, a lot of threes. Hey, he’s got a bunch of people holding the ball he’s not used to. I I mean I could do this if you want me to be like Kell wear a muse and make every excuse under the book. And if that’s a real thing, I’m not taking a shot, dude. Just everybody has a muse at this point. Um but I think that Miami really is hoping like Kell comes into one of these games, runs rough shot, dunks on everybody, gets a ton of rebounds and and calls it a day. But he he kind of looks like a guy who needs reps in summer league. And I get it like sophomore year can be challenging. We saw that with Haime last year. And Kell is a younger guy. So sometimes development isn’t always straight up. But this is a guy who was untouchable, right, in the the Kevin Durant trades. They didn’t want to throw him on the table. And I think are, you know, they’re counting on this guy, right? And now you’re kind of wonder does he have the starting job next year? I I I don’t know. I mean, I think he does. like I don’t think that you know there was part of me that’s like is he into summer league like is he is he all the way in this spot and you know I think again he’ll have his flash moments like he he he will um he had like a putback late he had a block late but it was kind of like the damage was done on the game already and I just think Miami is looking at Kell to come in and it’s like I It’s like, yeah, he’s doing okay, but he’s not he doesn’t look like he he’s he doesn’t look like the the the most dominant thing. Like, he’s never he hasn’t and and and la and I I remember back in last year’s summer league run. I mean, there they couldn’t contain this guy. He was such a force going to the basket. He get to the free throw line a ton. Uh today, he got there twice, six rebounds. Uh this one was a killer. you had uh by by both bigs really wasn’t a great showing by Miami and and the and the size of Atlanta really showed they had some sick blocks on Keshot Johnson today. Um uh NJ was that yeah that one that he had was he he stopped him cold in the air and he almost got hurt. So today Atlanta had 20 offensive rebounds. 20 offensive rebounds. Like yesesh, second chance points in the fourth quarter. No, I’m sorry. Second chance points in the game. Hawks outscored Miami on second chance points 22 to 12 points in the paint. 4634 in favor of the Hawks. Yeah, that’s you know and so it’s not all on Kell wear, but again we’re now Casper Yakonis has had his moment, right? He’s had a defense. He’s had a dominant couple of quarters. Pella Larson probably been their most consistent guy all summer league. Keshaw Johnson had that third quarter in the finale in California. I think we’re just looking for like a even just a stretch of like six minutes here where Kel Wear just looks absolutely unstoppable and we just haven’t seen that yet. So that’s the downside of it. If I had to weigh it, like I’m much more excited about Casper’s game than I am discouraged about Khal Wear because ultimately I’ve seen what Khal Wear can do um in the NBA and I know that he could be an effective player. Um, does he have work to do? For sure. But people who are completely rats of a ship too much. Again, you’re doing the thing like with with with Cass like too much. Don’t completely sell your stock on KL Wear. But I can understand the frustration of like, hey man, let’s let’s go let’s let’s go take it to this next team. Miami will be back in action on Sunday in uh summer league action. But Spo did say, yeah, he put on 8 to 10 pounds. So, I think they’re getting that. He said an interesting thing where he was like, “Yeah, he kind of exceeded our expectations last year. Certainly, we could get the the feel of that with House Boas.” And he said going into the season, he had added more weight from the time they had drafted him. Um, and he also said that he’s very excited about the Norman Powell trade, which was uh which was great. You know, I think I think Spo is definitely going to dig having some more uh some more options and weapons at his disposal. But I I know one thing, summer league or not, the Miami Heat are never going to be encouraged with another, you know, this team kind of it was a little reminiscent of the regular season team that couldn’t hold fourth quarter leads and Miami given up a margin of 3722. Coach Glass is not going to be pleased with that and they’re going to try and find a way. But big picture-wise for me, Yakonis’ performance today in that first half was was something marvelous. We finally got to see the kid unleash all the tools and it was gooseies galore.

Tobin recaps Miami Heat lose to Hawks in Summer League. They blew a 4th quarter lead in their best regular season impression. The big news…Kasparas Jakučionis had his break performance w/ 24 points and showed off all his skills. Erik Spoelstra explained to ESPN why he’s so impressed with his first round pick. Meanwhile Kel’el Ware continues to coast in the Summer League. Cause for concern? How do they get better from their starting center?
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