Kyshawn George & Tre Johnson shine in the Wizards 103-84 loss to the Suns in NBA Summer League

Kyshawn George & Tre Johnson shine in the Wizards 103-84 loss to the Suns in NBA Summer League

What is up, Wizards fans? Welcome in to another Believe in Wizards podcast. I’m Matt Maderno, please to be joined by Jim Coulter of the Wizards Weekly Podcast. We’re coming to you live after the Wizards first summer league game. We were going to be talking about the Wizards campaign to win summer league for the first time in uh I don’t know, forever. Um but running ran into a little roadblock here in the name of the Phoenix Suns. The Wizards lose 103 to 84. Uh, we’ll get into all that, but just first, Jim, how how are you? You surviving? Like, I’ve been trying not to overreact here. So, how are you doing after that uh that performance? Uh, Keshan George is keeping me sane, so I’m uh I’m doing all right. I don’t know where I’d be without without him. Um, but yeah, that was not uh not an ideal start to Summer League for sure. I think Keshan George is keeping Keshan George sane right now too because he just looked to be like kind of doing his thing out there just sort of independent of of anybody else which is maybe not the best thing in the world but uh you know they they needed someone to just look like they belonged on the court and he was really kind of the only guy where I was like oh yeah like this is this is a dude and I thought we’d have like a couple candidates for the like oh he’s too good for summer league team. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case yet. But I think you may see Keshan kind of play his way into that territory. Like if he looks that way in another game, that’s probably the only other game we see him play this season. And I bet he’s in, you know, an early bet for for some heavy rotation minutes. So, um, we’ll get into all that here. I mean, let’s just start with Keshan’s actual stat line here because it was sort of the bright spot. He was 10 of 18 from the floor. First of all, I just love the 18 shot attempts. like it wasn’t like uh just I’m going to like gun every time I touch the ball. I think he did give other guys opportunities and then it seemed like nobody else wanted the moment. He was like, “Okay, cool.” Like I’m I’m ready for it. Three of nine from three. Would like to see one or two more of those go in. A couple were close. Seven rebounds, which I like. Three assist, three steals. The five turnovers, like whatever. It’s summer league. I don’t ultimately care that much about those. the five fouls, you know, a couple of them were bad, but the three steals, it felt like probably like seven or eight more deflections than that. He just gets a hand on everything. And I think he’s going to be a real menace on that end of the ball this year. Like we saw flashes of it last year, but I I think he’s he’s going to take a step forward on that side, too. Yeah, he was everywhere defensively tonight. Um it felt like he was just so locked into his rotations and he was like on time with everything. um his hands are like always active and that’s kind of a balance for him of not fouling too much while still making plays defensively and I think he still needs to work on that. But uh yeah, that was awesome. And like the 18 shot attempts, they all felt natural. None of them felt forced like it was he was playing his game um and just letting it come naturally to him. and he just looked like a guy who had played 82 games of NBA regular season basketball and like he was he was ready to go and he frankly did look too good for for summer league. So I think we get one more half like this from Keshan and he might he might be done. So it was really impressive. Yeah. 14 points to start the next game or something in the first half. He’s getting the hook for the rest of the rest of the Vegas trip, which I’m sure he’d be okay with just to go out and enjoy the uh the rest of the experience there. But also felt like he just kind of like I have this like quiet leadership role on that group too. Like the confidence level was just different than I think a lot of the other guys and and that’s okay. Like he can kind of just be, you know, one of the big brothers on this team with with a couple of the younger guys here. even though one of the Wizards rookies is still considerably older than him in Jamir Watkins, but that’s that’s okay. Um, just I guess Jim, what was your like sort of next bright spot here? If there is a second one, I’m going to make you like make you force you to pick a second bright spot here. I think Trey was overall a bright spot um for a rookie. We’ve seen a lot of these rookies like struggle pretty mightily so far in summer league and I think he just looked like he belonged out there. Um, I don’t think he was like spectacular or anything, but he had some really good plays and some not so good plays, but overall I just felt like he looked like a dude and he looked like someone who can take on NBA minutes next year and and be comfortable. And uh, certainly we saw some of the shot making flashes that are that are really fun that get you excited. That one pull up three off the screen in particular got me got me out of my seat. So, um, yeah, he showed some really fun flashes and I think just overall looked like, uh, someone that was comfortable out there, which is kind of what you want to see in, you know, the first summer league game for a rookie. So, not scared of the moment, I think, is a big thing. Like, I we heard all last week that Kasparus Yakonis for the Heat was a bust because he couldn’t make a shot in their uh early summer league games and and now his first real Vegas summer league game, he went on a tear. So it it’s obvious like for these younger guys like how much of a just an acclamation period there is going into just even the first game. So for Trey to come out and go seven to 13 from the field, three of five uh from three. I saw a couple people tweet things about like oh man looks like Trey Johnson’s going to be a chucker. I didn’t feel that way. Like I thought his shots were rel, you know, relatively like in rhythm. He didn’t really force a lot. There was like maybe one where he could have like kicked it out to somebody and he had like a three rim out, but overall like pretty good. He did a little bit of other stuff tooish. Maybe you could make the case for it. Uh had three rebounds, two assists, one steal. The three turnovers were fine. One he threw directly to somebody else and they dropped it out of bounds. So I’m I think that was one of the turnovers. So I can kind of live with that. He had the bad one to to AJ. Kind of threw it behind him. But for the most part, he just he looked fairly under control. And I think we’re going to just see lots of those kind of minutes from him uh throughout the course of the year here. Yeah, I thought he got a little sped up at times and that resulted in some turnovers which is like totally fair um and expected for a rookie, but you did see some of the passing flashes like he made a really nice read um and hit Will Riley in the corner when he made that drive to the basket. Had a nice finish. Um and I thought his defense was better than I expected. I think it was certainly better than it was um at Texas at times last year. So um I don’t think it was great or anything, but I thought he was solid at times, which is there was like respectable level of effort there, I think, at the very least. I’ll take that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that was also a positive. So yeah. Uh all right. I’m second bright spot for me. Like this isn’t like super bright, but we’re sort of picking grasping of Charles here, whatever the expression is. Uh overall, I kind of liked Jir Watkins minutes. He played 14 minutes, went two of four, missed his only three-point attempt, and didn’t really do a ton else in the box score, one rebound, no assist, but then you see the three steals. I thought he was very active defensively. Uh he got up in people like nobody was just getting by him. Like I think that’s something that you want to see. And there was one possession uh where AJ Johnson took a really like in my opinion bad transition three because someone was wide open under the hoop and he he missed it pretty pretty badly and didn’t get back on defense and Jir like sprinted past everyone to get back. And I think that’s the thing I liked most about that pick is you’re not going to have to like push him to play hard and and a couple more guys like that, you know, with this group in practice I think is a good thing as well. Yeah, he was going to be the other guy that I shouted out. There wasn’t a lot there for him offensively. I I just he didn’t get the ball much. We didn’t really see him do much. I would have liked for him to take a couple of those threes. It looked like he hesitated a bit off the catch, but I thought his defense was really good. The ball pressure, he’s super physical. He got a couple like really tough rebounds, which was good to see. Um, and I thought off the ball he made some really nice plays as well. And I just think his, like you said, his mentality is going to be going to be good for us to have someone who can just come in and push these dudes in practice and, you know, he’s going to play hard and be super physical. So, um, I thought he was a real positive. I like I liked his defense a lot, which, um, was not a surprise if, you know, you watch him in college, he’s he’s awesome on that end of the floor. though on a night where nobody else other than he and maybe Keshan and a few others you could say were passable like just anybody that played some defense I think is kind of a positive there just catching up on the chat a little bit man 12 says at least the top eight pick isn’t in danger yeah I’ve been trying to tell people that every time they pick someone new up it’s are we way too good now like what is Will doing uh are we going to comp like are we going to be like solidly in the playoffs and it’s like guys we do this every year like when I worked for ESPN every year somebody would call in and be like, “Hey, this is the year we go 11 and five for the Commanders and then they would finish you five and 11.” But I I appreciate our fan base’s ability to do this like irrational like, “Hey, did we just totally turn this franchise around because we added Malachi Brandom and Blake, you know, Blake Wesley here?” But, uh, yeah, we’re going to be bad. Uh, and and that’s okay. That’s the goal is to be bad and mission accomplished, I think, is pretty uh safe to say. Austin MJ64 says, “Sar is hilarious when he actually wants to play basketball. He’s pretty good.” That was my big takeaway from Alex Sar tonight. The word I used was disinterested. He just looked like he was there to get cardio in. And and I don’t blame him. Like it doesn’t really matter. He knows he’s going to be the starting center on an NBA team this year. So the two summer league games he’s probably going to play aren’t ultim, you know, ultimately that meaningful for him. We saw it last year where he looked bad in summer league. he just wanted to play like shooting guard essentially and then he was, you know, relatively positive in his, you know, his NBA minutes. So, I think we’ll see him be just fine over the course of the season. But the things that bother me or about him are the way they use him more than anything. And the things that bothered me last summer league and still bother me. There were two times tonight where he and Keshan George ran pick and roll together and Star rolled to the rim and he got two really easy looks. another one where somebody else threw him a lob. I forget who. And it was like those are basically the baskets he made tonight. Like he ultimately went five of 10 after starting one of four, but he was one of three from three. Uh did make his free throws four for four, which is good. Only four rebounds, which is not great from your starting center. Two assists, which I like. A steal, which I like. Three blocks, which I like. So like the stat line, you know, 15 and four is probably better than I thought he actually looked out on the court. It’s just he was just kind of loafing for a lot of this game and and he and Malawatch I thought were both kind of bad overall even though the box scores might look uh you know that’s why summer league is mis like misleading if you just look at box scores like I would say that was a an underwhelming performance from him just given because we know what he can do in an NBA setting but I don’t know anything there that concerns you Jim is it does the play I don’t know the utilization I was going to say play calling but like the way they try to utilize him does that still bug you the way it bugs a little bit. Yeah, I I think the we didn’t see much of that last year from Sar with him like rolling hard to the rim and catching a lob and finishing and he did that three times tonight. One of them got called back for like a basket interference. But that was probably like the one positive I had from Sar is like at least we saw that a few times. I wish they went to it more, but um if he can just do that a couple times a game, that’s going to help him and make his life so much easier. And it’s also going to open things up for, you know, other players. When you roll hard to the basket, you know, you got to crash in on the weak side. And he just he likes to kind of roll and then kind of stop in that, you know, little pocket pass area instead of rolling hard to the rim for the lob. And I don’t know whether that’s coaching or whether that’s him, but I just would like to see more of uh you know him just rolling hard looking for lobs rather than that. Um so yeah, he exclusively pick and popped it felt like last year and they that he got asked or Brian Kee got asked about that at some point and said that was basically what they were telling him to do, which I I don’t really understand again like get him a few easy looks around the rim and work his way out. get him to the free throw line some. Like if he’s gonna make he’s not gonna go four for four from the line every night, but I want him taking at least, you know, a half dozen free throws uh in some of these games, especially when you have a bigger drop coverage big. He drove once tonight and got a foul on Malawatch. I was like, “Yes, please do this.” Like five more times and then he went like 10 more minutes without touching the ball. But overall, uh not not ideal. I thought his second half was definitely better than the first half. He came out and had a couple nice defensive plays to start the second half and was showing a little bit more effort, which was good. Um, I honestly think my biggest issue with him offensively tonight was his screen setting. I I’m not sure he made like solid contact on a screen. Yeah, he’s like ghosting screens he’s not supposed to. Yeah, he loves to like slip the screen and which is fine, but like he does it a lot. And I think it did like I think Bub and um I guess even Trey like to a degree struggled a little bit because they weren’t getting freed up with a lot of solid screens. Um so that’s something I just like really want to see him improve on is just like make really good contact on on these screens. That’s such a good point. I thought Bub played a lot of really good minutes with Yonis Valenunis last year because it got him like wide open a couple times and he’s not the most dynamic guy. So I think he needs a little extra time and you know I would say he was one of the disappointments overall tonight. 32 minutes, one of nine from the field, one of five from three, made one of two free throws, had three rebounds, the five assists were were fine, two steals, uh no turnovers, which which I like. The ball control was relatively decent. He didn’t try to do too much, but he also didn’t try to do too much playmaking in general. It was basically just he got the ball and he shot it and uh or he dribbled a bunch and then he shot it, which which I don’t love. So, I think that’s a that’s a great point about how they utilize him with Sar. And if you’re going to play a bigger body guy like Dylan Jones, let him be the screener because I think he’s going to at least, you know, put a hip on somebody uh and maybe get you a little extra room there. Uh, but there’s a lot of skinny dudes on this team. So, if your center is not screening for someone effectively, there’s probably not a whole lot of other guys that are going to do it. Yeah. I mean, I think with with Bub, like I did like the passing and some of the decision- making, he just being guarded by Ryan Dunn most of the night does not Yeah. As a as a UVA fan, that dude can play defense. So I, you know, I do want to give Bub a little bit of of slack there because he was the best being guarded by the best defender on the Suns pretty much the whole night, but I certainly was like hoping to see a little bit more just aggression. He didn’t really look for his offense. It felt like a lot. Um, and so for a second year guy, I was hoping for a little bit more from him. I actually I thought his defense was fine tonight. Bubs like I feel like Dunn hit like a one-footed fadeaway over him and some other guys hit like some frankly like ridiculous shots over him. So I think he kind of got unlucky honestly um defensively tonight. I thought he was actually like fine on that end of the floor and showed some improvement. I I think fine is the exact word I would use. Like I didn’t have an issue with it but there weren’t like a whole lot of like standout moments. It was just sort of like he was he he didn’t stand out. And I think if you get that from him most of the year defensively, that’s that’s actually probably a good thing where he’s not getting picked on. Uh the Ryan Dun thing, I’m going to give myself a tiny pat on the back here. I had him as a lottery pick the year he got taken solely because I thought he’d turn into at least a serviceable jump shot and the defense is outrageous, but the shot was so broken and the fact that he’s like I don’t know more than a serviceable shooter. like he he probably would have he went two for five from three tonight, but it actually felt better than that. Like him being 40%. Is kind of all you can ask for from a guy who’s like going to be an all world defender. He had 17 points, seven to 12 from the field, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and he felt more impactful than that. So, whoever they’ve got working with him as a shooting coach, uh like that’s who the Wizards need to be trying to steal off their uh their staff because it it’s it’s worked. Yeah. give that dude a blank check. Yeah. Uh yeah, I think that’s one of the bigger concerns here of of the night for me and a recurring theme is at some point like you either have to start taking some shooters in the draft or show that you can actually help these guys positively improve in that department. The Suns were 12 of 30 from three, that’s 40% which is obviously pretty darn solid. The Wizards were nine of 35, so they took more and made less. And there’s just a lot of one and three, one for three, one for five, over for three, over for three. Like it just there’s a lot of nonshooters on this team. The only real bright spot I would say was was Trey as a shooter. He went three of five. Like, but that’s kind of it. And uh I I don’t know. I still just kind of hearken back to the like we don’t need shooting coaches on this staff thing because we can all teach shooting. It’s prove it then. Like at some point guys have to show a step in the right direction. I’m with you there. Yeah. No, no disagreements for me. Yeah, there’s just there’s really not a whole lot you can even add to that. Like start making some shots or or do something different. Uh couple other comments in the chat here. Uh Jose Gonzalez said Keshan George is will be a great connector. Yeah, I agree. I think when you don’t have like he was actually their best facilitator tonight I thought even though he had more turnovers than assists but just got the ball moving kind of got the offense flowing and I like that. Uh Ven Jones says sorry needs to play hard from tip to end. I hate when Star starts the game with threes. Yep. We we agreed with you there. Jimmy go outside. AJ Johnson looks skinnier. Keshan is our JD dub. Uh I would love that. Yeah, let’s have the AJ Johnson conversation because the dude is an allworld athlete. He probably makes a top 10 plays tonight uh with with that open court dunk. But at some point, if you want to make it in the NBA as a guard, you either have to be like a creator, a scorer, or a shooter. And and thus far, I don’t know how he does any of those three things. and in male level or like an all world defender and when you weigh a buck 15 uh that’s that’s just going to be tough to do in the NBA. Yeah. Like he nobody can really stay in front of him. Um and he can kind of get to the paint whenever he wants. It’s just what does he do off of that? Um he doesn’t always finish when he gets there. He doesn’t always make the right pass out of that. Um, and if he’s not on the ball, like he isn’t a consistent shooter yet. And it’s just he’s so talented. Like it’s his talent level is crazy. But are like top 1%. Like it’s crazy. Yeah, it’s wild. And he’s got like a really nice handle to pair with that. So like he can just he can get where he wants on the court, but he needs to get stronger to make the defense like playable at a certain point. And the shot needs to get better. And the decision-m I think is my biggest thing with him is it doesn’t seem like he makes quick decisions with the ball. It’s a lot of I don’t want to call him like a ball stopper, but I just think he he over dribbles at times and just doesn’t like make those quick decisions that you need to make. So, you know, but he’s certainly going to make some highlight plays when he’s on the floor. I mean, he’s a ridiculous athlete. So, uh, so, so you mentioned the ball handling there, and and that’s one I want to pull the thread on a little bit because I feel like the ball’s on a string when he’s like isoing at 35 ft away from the hoop. Uh, but it doesn’t seem like he uses the dribble to get any advantage. It’s kind of high and I feel like he’s like less confident about doing it when anybody, you know, gets up in him. Maybe that’s a strength thing too because he’s afraid he’s going to get bumped off his spot a little bit. But most of the time I feel like he gets by dudes is like from you know triple threat almost and it’s a straight line kind of drives. I I don’t feel like he like is breaking somebody down and then blowing by them and you know like he had like a really nice like behind the back move tonight and I was like oh okay like he can dribble and then the next one was like headle level dribbling and I’m just like this how is this the same guy? So, it’s like functional dribbling. Like sometimes guys have a good handle but then like don’t use it as effectively. I don’t know. That’s how I felt watching him at least. I think that’s fair. I I think the ball pressure thing is like a strength issue. Yeah. Um because he really he doesn’t deal with ball pressure super well. And you know, I think it’s because he can’t really just like shield the ball like a lot of guys do when they’re through his skinny ass arms. Yeah. So, I think I think that’s a big issue there. Um, and he just kind of plays with the ball a little bit too much. Like you’re an all-world athlete if they’re pressuring you at half court. Sometimes like the best way to beat that pressure is just go like stop playing with the ball and and just go. Um, but I think I think he is a guy who will still get minutes this year. Like we’re trying to tank. Like he’s kind of the perfect type of guy to play. Like he has a ton of upside. You might as well just let him figure it out. But I don’t know if I saw anything really different from what we saw from AJ at the end of last year. It was kind of the same the same strengths and like the same issues popping up. So that that’s honestly kind of my issue is I don’t think he actually looks any different than watching him play in the NBL the year before that. Like I just don’t know where the improvements come from. And if you just saw like okay the shot looks a little more fluid. He doesn’t shoot it from his chest. It was a little quicker release. like just some little nugget to like kind of like, you know, like glam on to. I think that would be that would be nice. But, um, it’s still worthwhile experiment like you said. you just keep giving him minutes and and I think this year is going to be big for him to just kind of just at least start to have an idea of what he is or will be in the league and you don’t need to pigeon hole him or any of those kinds of things but some sense where like oh yeah I could see him being Gary Payton the second or you know I mean like somebody that’s at least an aggressive point of attack defender because he’s athletic or I don’t know you just you need something to kind of pop a little bit I would hope yeah he he needs to be really good at like pressuring the ball because with how skinny he is, u you know, he needs to pick guys up pretty far away from the basket. He’s got the the athleticism to do that. So, that’s something I’d like to see more from him. Yeah, let him be a terror. Pick up people 94 feet or something and just you’re not you’re never going to blow by him and he can definitely catch up to you. So, um that that would be great. Uh ain’t no half Stephan said this team ain’t trying to lose but just does. I think that’s unfortunate. There’s there’s going to be an organic tank. Uh Jimmy go outside said Dylan Jones isn’t making this roster. I was not overly impressed with the Dylan Jones exper experiment tonight. Obviously, he’s kind of probably a late add-on there to to this group. He only played eight minutes, so it’s kind of hard to judge. He’s such a high usage guy in college. He probably needs a little bit more minutes than that to get in rhythm, but he went 0 for two, had one rebound and one turnover. And he just kind of looked like like a big body, like just sort of pinballing off of people out there. And I don’t know. I just I don’t I don’t see the pathway for him either, like, oh, this is his role in the NBA just yet. I agree. He’s uh he was like a super high volume guy in college and put up crazy numbers, but that’s like not going to be his role in the NBA and he’s not a great shooter off the catch. So, I just think he’s like struggling to adjust to kind of this new role that he’s playing and um you know, eight minutes. So, he didn’t play a ton like you said, but I also did not see much to be impressed with unfortunately. I tweeted this, but he gave me like very distinct Eugene Amarui vibes and there was some good to that and some bad to that of like this linebacker that plays really hard, but he definitely played hard. So, yeah, we’ll take that. You know, that that’s a win for tonight’s group overall. Uh Chriselle said, “Matt, what are you wearing?” It is a Florida shirt. I’m not a Florida fan. I have like friends that coach and I have a bunch of random gear and at home, so most of the sit around in my house clothes are from random teams. is like I had Eastern Washington shorts on today. Just I don’t know. Let me live my life, guys. Come on. Uh let’s see. Um Gabe 31 uh 1319. Let’s see. Cut away. Uh Portland’s up 214. That’s great. Um good for them. City of Oaks. Do the Whiz have a defensive specialist coach or is it the same thing with the uh the shooting coach line? Uh, I think they do the Yeah, we all can coach defense here, but there are a couple guys that they’ve propped up as being better on one side of the ball than the other. I don’t remember who that sort of the the defensive guru on this particular group is. Was uh I want to say it was Mike Miller on the last group that came down from the Knicks, you know, um with the last coaching staff. But either way, it’s summer league. Like you’re not nobody’s running anything super complex. They’re all running the same couple offensive sets. Maybe somebody gets a little more creative with an atto or something like that, but at this level it’s just effort and getting back in transition defense, I think, more than anything else. I don’t know how you feel about that, John. Yeah. No, I I agree. It’s uh you’re not going to see the most highlevel tactical basketball here in uh in summer league. So, yeah, agreed. Yeah. Uh let’s see, couple others. Byron Man 12 said, “I’m very grateful for Trey, by the way. Just he was a bit more wish he was a bit more explosive. He’s also young and skinny and I think as he fills out a little bit maybe gets a little more juice to him. Uh Quad said Sar played decent defense. Yeah, again Jim nailed it. I think the second half was definitely better than the first. He looked a little more consistent from an effort uh perspective. It never makes no sense that Dylan Jones wasn’t good with last year with OKC. Again, it’s a guy coming up from a mid- major level where, you know, he probably would have been better served playing one year at the Power Five level just to maybe take a half jump up. So, he’s a guy that could acclimate. uh he’s super productive for a reason. Again, I think he’s just got to carve out more of a niche there. Can he be a Grant Williams type guy or you know, one of those kind of things? Uh would be nice. You know, half Stefan said our youth doesn’t think the game as well you should expect as well as you should expect from young ballers. I don’t know. I think that’s sort of tough to judge. Uh you know, I don’t know about thinking. I I don’t think I could judge their thinking in the game. I think the effort was kind of inconsistent and they missed more threes than the other team did and that was the big separator to me, you know. Thoughts, Jim? Yeah, I think I think we have a lot of smart basketball players even for their age. Um, that’s probably not the biggest thing I would be worried about with the young players. Like I think Sar is like a pretty smart passer and Keshan is and Bub. like it’s more so the, you know, defense and uh putting the ball in the basket seem to be the bigger issues to me. Um I I thought there were a lot of like decent open looks tonight and that wasn’t just by happen stance. So you just got to make them at some point. Uh said Will Riley has a lot of work to do on defense and off the ball in my opinion. Got bumped very easily and got back to it a couple times tonight. He looked deer in the headlights to me or baby deer or whatever expression you want to use. I think that’s to be expected. Starting him didn’t make a ton of sense to me. I would have gone with one of the older college guys like Jabir Watkins or even a Keshan Gilbert. Give him some minutes. Somebody that’s going to just be a solid guy that doesn’t need a lot of touches and will play some defense and let Will like very much ease into this year. But I think some G-League minutes are definitely in store for him this season. That’s what I was going to ask you is do you think he’ll start in the G-League? Because I I kind of do after tonight. I just think he needs some physical development. He’s really skinny. Um, but I mean, he’s got a lot of offensive talent. I mean, you saw made a couple shots tonight from the outside, had some some nice plays, you know, driving to the basket. It’s just the defense is extremely far away. So, yeah. Another guy, Skinny. Um, shout out my guys Jack and and Wayne for both saying that, uh, you know, he looked a little nervous out there. I thought he looked kind of spazzy when he got the ball like hot potatoing it back to somebody and that’s kind of to be expected too. So if he doesn’t like if I don’t know he he’ll be on the bench with the Wizards the first couple games but his first real minutes of basketball this year I think like meaningful minutes are are going to come with the go- go. That would be my guess. Um Kevin Burke said what do you think about the Wizards effort organization overall? Uh seem to be disorganized and just let them go for it. Again I think that’s kind of summer league. Usually the guards do stand out. I bet we’ll get a bounceback bub game in the next game for that reason. Jimmy go outside said, “I’d like for Will Riley to just eat and get stronger.” Yeah, agreed. Uh, you know, Half Stev said, “Thanks for the platform. Thank you for tuning in. We appreciate that.” Quad said, “Uh, great point. There should be more screens and not just star setting them.” Yeah, let’s do some inverted stuff, right? Like, let Bub set a screen for Keshan and just get weird with it. And I I think just anytime you can create some mismatches, I would definitely uh enjoy seeing more of that. Personally, I thought Sar had some of his best plays as a rookie as the ball handler in screening. Like sometimes they’d have P or Kissper, they’d have a shooter come up and set a screen for him. And he honestly looks more comfortable like handling and driving the ball from the perimeter. Yeah. Than he does at times like catching and finishing down low. Mhm. So, um I I agree with that. I would like to see I would like to see him use Trey as well as a screener because he’s such a good shooter. Like it’s just going to be hard to guard for defenses. So, yeah, I agree. That’s a good point. Uh BG the pro said, “I would love to try a sign and trade for Josh Giddy. We need a real point guard to set up SAR and the others.” The other problem with that is just Giddy’s not a particularly great shooter, and I I think spacing is going to continue to be a problem for this group here. So, I’d almost rather just let him figure it out with the guys they have personally. Uh he said he was disappointed in how Bob led at point guard tonight, though. Yeah, that’s uh I was just underwhelmed, right? Like I He’s just not a dynamic creator. And I think the more I watch of him, the more I think like this is a really good first guard off the bench because he’s not a dynamic scorer. He’s not a dynamic facilitator. He’s just sort of like solid at everything. It’s It’s really hard to be a lead creator in the NBA if you can’t get paint touches. Like, it’s just really hard. Um, and at this point, the NBA is kind of weird because it’s almost like there aren’t the defined positions as much anymore. It’s like you’re either a creator or you’re like an offball guy. Like Jason Tatum is basically the Celtics point guard even though he’s a wing. And so for Bub, I think I think he can handle the ball a bit, but I I don’t see him as being like a lead guard at the next level. I think he’ll probably be more of like a a combo guard and and he will play, I think, a lot off the ball, whether that’s as a starter next to a lead ball handler or coming off the bench. Um, remains to be seen. I still really like Bub, but I I just think the level to be like a a number one option is so high in the NBA. And if you can’t get in the paint, it’s just it’s tough. So yeah, if they can get a really dynamic creator, a Darren Peterson out of next year’s draft or something like that who is like a walking paint touch or even an AJ Debanso wing who’s a walking paint touch, like that really kind of sets this group up. And then Bubs is going to be a capable enough shooter around him, Trey, those kinds of things, then I think you’re you’re cooking with gas a little bit more. Yep. Uh, all right. We’re going to start to wrap this up. We kept Jim longer here than I meant to. Thank you all for tuning in. If you are watching this on YouTube, please hit that like button for us. We we always appreciate when you guys do that. Uh, just last couple I’ll read through the comments here. Uh, let’s see. Um, 11th North says, “Alex does see baseline cuts well going back to last season.” Agreed. It never makes no sense as ironically. I think Kiss and Pool were our best screeners last year. Probably true. Uh, I think Kisser had some really good moments and he just sort of would cut off of them. So, that that was good because he’s a bigger body for for Wing. I think uh Kevin Burke said, “Can the Wizards fans donate money to get SAR to attend a two-day Kevin Garnett FU mentality camp before the season starts?” That’s the thing that we we hoped, you know, Marcus Smart was going to be able to help him with. He made a lot of comments in their exit interviews about wanting to work uh with with Alex on that. So, so need a little of that to uh to bleed over. Gabe 1319 said Bile and AJ are the best paint touch guys for the Wizards. I agree. And you can’t really rely on AJ much yet. And and Bel, you know, obviously isn’t with this group. So, um, he’s got to be a better, more competent shooter as well to kind of fully unlock those things. But if he is, I don’t think anybody can stay in front of him. And you saw games last year where Bel made some shots and it was like, oh Like, okay. Like, now he’s got 27 points or whatever the case is. And it just looked different. Uh, Big J52 said, “Gee, Scotty Pippen wasn’t himself yet. Why are you guys so all- knowing already? Patience, please.” I don’t think we’re trying to be all knowing. I think it’s just a this is where we’re at with these guys right now. It’s summer league. It’s our evaluation of things that haven’t improved from last season drastically. And I think hopefully they’ll look better over the course of summer league and playing through NBA minutes. But, um, things like the shooting, like that’s pretty straightforward to say like the shot hasn’t changed much. uh doesn’t mean that they won’t be better overall. Like Keshan clearly leveled up. Uh I think Bubble will be better than last year. I think Star will be better than last year, but it’s just how much and is it enough to be, you know, real needle movers for this franchise? I think those are still sort of the questions overall. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. All right, Jim, let’s call this a night. Any parting shots or anything we didn’t touch on that you’d like to? Not really. I think I think we touched on on pretty much everything I wanted to. Um, yeah, I will say with with with Sar, like the the one point I we talked a lot about his offense and I thought he was better defensively, but he’s a little frustrating at times because I think when he’s locked in and he’s like really active and he’s in a stance and he’s got his his his arms out, he’s like really really impactful defensively, but there’s just a lot of moments where he’s kind of upright, arms down by his side and it’s like um it’s a little frustrating. So, I thought like the start of the second half you saw like some really really good Alexar defensive moments where he was being super active, but I would like to see that all the time. So, yeah, I think that that’s spot on. Yeah, he like hedged a ball screen at one point. I was like, “Yeah, like he’s in a stance. Like he’s seated. This is amazing.” And another one he met I think Malawatch at the rim. Like you’re like, “Yes, okay.” Like these are the things he can do. And I think that’s perfectly said is the consistency uh is is going to be uh it’s going to be big. All right, the big takeaways, Keshan George much better at basketball than last year’s summer league, which is awesome. And Trey Johnson pretty darn good uh at scoring for first night out. So those are two wins. We’ll happily take that uh from the first game. And uh the next game for anybody uh who is is going to run it back with us. I’m going to try to do this again. Uh July 13th at 8:00 PM. It’ll be on ESPN 2. They play the Brooklyn Nets, who I don’t know had 11 first round picks this year, so they should be uh they should be pretty raw as well. So, we’ll see how it goes. Uh Jim, tell people where they can find you because you do a very good Wizards podcast yourself. Thank you. Yeah, you can find me. It’s uh Wizards Weekly. It’s on Spotify, Apple Music, wherever you listen. Um then you can follow me over on Twitter or X as they call it now. um at uh whiz_weekly. And uh yeah, if you like this podcast, I’m sure you’ll you’ll enjoy hopefully enjoy my my content as well. So, you do a great job. Uh Jim is probably the best hooper on Wizards Twitter himself. Uh the only one with any collegiate level experience. So, I I think that’s uh uh he clearly knows ball and I’m sure you guys got the flick of that tonight. So, definitely go check that out and hope to have Jim on uh more this season. Uh would love to run this back a bunch. So, we’ll check youall next time if there’s anything you guys want us to talk about between now and then. I do want to hit uh next game on the uh the Marvin Bagley edition. Haven’t covered that at all yet. So, uh we’ll save that for for next week’s game. Uh all right, everybody. Have a great night and we’ll talk to you guys on the 13th. All right. Peace.

Matt Modderno and Jim Coulter of the Wizards Weekly Podcast provide analysis of the Washington Wizards first Summer League Game, a 103-84 loss to the Phoenix Suns. Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson were the standouts for the Wizards so Jim and Matt cover what went well, what went wrong, and what it may mean for the Wizards season.

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