The NBA better get familiar with Kyle Filipowski!

The NBA better get familiar with Kyle Filipowski!

This Utah Jazz secondyear player is gonna start causing some problems and making his way into the rotation. Let’s talk about it. It’s the Hoopser Show. [Music] All right, guys. Like always, like the channel or like the video, subscribe to the channel. All right, let’s talk about this. Kyle Filipowski just won NBA Summer League MVP. His numbers were bonkers. He was 29.3 points per game, 7.7 rebounds per game, 56% field goal percentage, 39% from three. He did everything. He took the right shots. And in a summer league where everyone was really excited about Ace Bailey, which they should, Kyle Filipowski came out and showed that he is 100% ready to take that next step for the Utah Jazz. He was their best rookie last year and he was the one picked in the second round. He is looking like just one of the best steels the Jazz have drafted in a long while in the second round for sure and just absolutely produces when he’s on the floor. And we’ve seen him produce against against the varsity when he plays in an NBA rotation. Last year for a good portion of the season, he was shooting 40 plus% from three. It dropped that last month and it dropped pretty bad. He went through some sort of slump. I don’t know if he was tired or dealing with some sort of injury, but for a lot of the season, he shot the ball extremely well. And what this summer league proved is that those numbers are legit. It was not some sort of fluke that he was doing last year. They’re real. Now, when you look at the different summer league MVPs, here’s a list. I’m just going to read off the list to you, and you tell me if you notice anything about this, or tell me in the comments what you think. 2024, Jaylen Williams, and we’ll go from there. 2023 Cam Whitmore, Keegan Murray, Cam Thomas, DaVon Mitchell, Brandon Clark, Josh Hart, Lonzo Ball, Tus Jones, Kyle Anderson. 2014, Glenn Rice 13, Jonas Valentunis, Josh Selby, Damen Lillard, John Wall, Blake Griffin, Jared Bis, Nate Robinson, Randy Foy in 2006. Some of those are big-time names, but one thing you’re seeing a trend from all of those, those are almost all of them NBA rotation players or starters. At worst, they are backups and a lot of them are highlevel starters and a few allstars in there. So, really nice class of players to be in. Some, you know, some could argue, well, you know, a lot of players didn’t play the whole summer league, and had they played Cooper Flag all summer league, he would have won. Well, yeah, but then that means that Kyle Filipowski would have put up numbers similar to what Cooper Flag did in the summer league. There’s questions about what uh about what Kyle Filipki can become and be. I do have questions about his defense. I think it’s pretty def I mean I guess we should never say never. But I do think it’s pretty definitive that Kyle Filipowski probably needs to play at the four. He is just not a rim protector. But we did see some situations in summer league where he moved his feet, he could guard on the perimeter. And if he can do that, then that’s great because if he’s putting up numbers like this, 56% from the field, 39% from three, Utah would give him the ball and he would do things inside. He can hit uh three from anywhere on the floor. And you know, he’s not going to be a rim protector, but there are going to be times because he’s a sevenfooter. You can have him in five out offenses playing him at center to just open things up. Let’s say the Jazz are down eight with like 10 minutes. It’s the fourth quarter. They need to make a run with their bench. You put Kyle Filipowski at the center and you just go flamethrowers and you just ha you just try to outscore the other team, you know, and the defense. If you can have a few good perimeter defenders on there, you can get away with it a little bit at least against bench units. And then if Philipowski is playing with the starters, I think you do have to keep him at the four. A lot of people will say you play the posi position you can defend. And I think he can defend at the four. I think he’s almost solely a four too. I don’t think he’s quick enough to sit to play at the three. Nor is he, you know, tall enough or a good enough rim protector. I guess he’s tall enough. That’s what’s weird. He’s just not a good rim protector that he cannot play the five. So, you cannot, you know, when teams see him at the five, they’re going to go at him and pick and roll and they’re going to take him apart. But, you know, certain situations it might be okay if you’re if you’re hitting threes with Philippowski at the center and they’re coming back and they That’s one thing you got to always remember too is yes, certain players are situationally not very good. You know, certain teams will be able to take advantage of Philippowski, especially really good teams that are really deep. There are bench units where Utah could not get away with that. Most of the league you could probably get away with it a little bit. But even against the good teams, sometimes you can try to get a matchup you want so badly and you try to create that matchup so much it almost kind of puts a funk in the offense that’s going at you. I actually think you can get away with it against most teams. So, I’m talking myself as I speak into this video that I think they could do it against maybe anyone in certain situations. So, really nice to see. We talked about the defense. The offense is incredible. He gets his shots in the best spots on the floor. It’s the most moneyball type shots you can get near the rim at the three-point line and he’s going to the free throw line. I don’t believe his free throw percentage is as good as you’d want it to be, but he’s the type of shooter that you imagine he’ll always be at least a plus free throw shooter, right? So, offensively great, defensively really good. And well, not really good, but I think he’s passable defensively. And here’s the thing. And I want to say this really clearly for the haters and for the ones that have a problem with me giving my opinion, my honest opinion. And not just my honest opinion, but the correct opinion. This is for you. I think Kyle Filipowski, listen closely. I want you to hear me here. Is going to make Lowry Markin expendable. I think Utah is already very much okay with getting a deal done with Markin if it’s a good deal having Kyle Filipowski on a rookie contract and not just a rookie contract, a second round pick contract because if you don’t know already, a lot of you probably do, but each pick in the draft makes a certain amount based off of draft position. Number one pick makes like I think it’s like 14 or 12 or something like that and it just goes down. I think uh Taylor Hendris at nine made like 9 million. So you can just see it just progressively goes down and then after like the top 10 it goes down to like 2 3 million. Like I think Walker Kesler’s making like 2 to 3 million. I don’t know something in that range. It just gets progressively shorter. Utah was extremely smart with Kyle Filipowski. And I’m going to throw some shade at the Lakers right now. The type of thing that the Jazz did with Kyle Filipowski is the thing that smart teams do. And dumb teams like the Los Angeles Lakers who get away with the dumbest of moves because they’re Lakers and they don’t get criticized very much for some re I don’t know. It’s weird. The you the Lakers get so much hype and buzz and they they don’t see in my opinion get enough flak for some of the dumb things they’ve done on the margins. Like when we hear about Genie Bus selling the Lakers and then all these things they were doing to cut costs, like not getting synergy, something that all the other teams in the league use to get them to make the best decisions and just being really cheap and not resigning players that they should have. Like Brook Le Lopez goes to the Bucks and wins a championship. How did the Lakers not keep him? You know, he would have been perfect for what they needed. So, and uh what’s the guy that went to the I forgot his name, but the guy that goes he’s on the Thunder now and helped them win a championship. Um I forgot his name, but anyways, we’re going to move on. The Lakers make dumb decisions. The moral of this, the Jazz made a great decision because they gave Kyle Filipowski a four-year contract as a second round pick. Why is that important? Because typically they’re making two-year contracts. So, the Lakers, who are going to lose Austin Reeves at some point because they only gave him a two-year contract because he was a second round pick. I believe he was second round pick. Utah has Kyle Filipowski for four. So, he’s treated like a first round pick. They will have him for the long distance like they did with they like they will with Ace Bailey, like they will with Walter Clayton Jr., like they will with Taylor Hendricks and Keonte George if they want to. You get them longer if you get them in the first round. Utah was smart enough to make sure that they gave him first round type contract instead of second round contract. Really, really smart. And with him playing as well as he is with him shooting the ball, I mean him his shooting percentage last year was really impressive. He’s young, he’s cheap. If Utah has a trade out there for Lowry Markin, I think that they can have Taylor Hendrickx take that number four spot. they can have Ace Bailey in the three and then Kyle Filipowski is coming off the bench and if Taylor Hendrickx doesn’t have it, if it’s not going as well, if the leg isn’t healed, you know, and I think a lot of us have had this kind of maybe inflated view of Taylor Hendrickx a little bit. Not to say that I don’t think Taylor Hendricks is going to be great because I think Taylor Hendricks probably gets the nod right now just because of the defensive ability and he does shoot the three well as well. Utah all of a sudden has some really nice depth with Taylor Hendricks, Kyle Filipowski, Ace Bailey, and they can go into next season. They can go completely young, have clean books. So when Ace Bailey is in year two, Utah goes and wins the lottery, we all hope. Knock on wood, voodoo dolls, whatever you do, you get that top five pick again, hopefully top three, and you pair Ace Bailey with another star. You got your Batman, you got your Robin, and then you’ve got your uh group of side characters in the DC universe. You’ve got Hawkeye, you’ve got or no, Hawkeyee’s in the Marvel. Let’s just You got Green Lantern. You got Hawk Girl. You’ve got your your side characters. I ruined the video. We’re going a little long, but do you see what I’m saying? Do you catch what I’m Do you catch my drift? Personally, I don’t care if you have a problem with it either. If you want to make a comment about what I say, go ahead. Go ahead. And by the way, for those that said that I loved the market and signing, I went back to the video. I checked the receipts. It was fine. I did not say that. So, you can go back. Receipts are there. Go ahead. Anyways guys, I was excited to talk about Philipski. I think he makes a lot of sense for this Utah Jazz team long term. Provides that versatility that he they need. He needs to get strong. He needs to get more fit and athletic and just be able to withstand the long 82 game seasons because the seasons, yes, seasons because it is brutal. It is tough. It is hard and it wears you down. And so the players that are the strongest and fittest and keep themselves in the best shape and can withstand whoever they’re going up against night after night, they’re the guys that absolutely lead you to the promised land. All right, guys. Like always, like the video, subscribe to the channel. I will talk to you tomorrow.

Kyle Filipowski won NBA Summer League MVP and it’s a sign of how good he can become. His level of production is becoming really impressive and it’s going to start making players like Lauri Markkanen expendable if he can continue to put up big numbers. It’s just up to Filipowski and the Utah Jazz to continue his development next season.

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