Summer League Observations: Is The Warriors House Into The Future Build On Sand?
Nobody Expects A Turn Around To Take Place So fast. Not Even One Of The Most Successful Organizations In Sports in Recent Years Could Convince the World They Could Recapture All The Magic Again in A Puff Of Smoke. But The Warriors Achieved The Almost Inconceivable. They Won The Championship. In Their Wake, They’ve Met With A Few Enviable Developments.
The Warriors Won’t Earn Any Sympathy From Anyone in The League For the Embarrassment Of Riches fate and Misfortunate Gift to The Team. Three Lottery Picks In The Past Two Seasons On Top Of Three Franchise Pillars. Coming Off Their fifth Title In A Decade, The Warriors Are In An Interesting Position. One Of The Few Franchises in Recent Memory To Win A title Without Absolutely Gutting The Roster And Mortgaging Developmental Assets, The Warriors Now Stand Over A Haul. Prospects Have A Interesting Quandary On Their Hands: Development—an Enviable Burden.
As I Mentioned, Very Few Team Have Had This Dilemma. Very Few Teams Return To The Top Of The Market With Gutting Shelves. The Warriors Have Roster So “Balanced” It Would Bring A Tear To Thanos’s Eye. Steph, Klay, And Dray Aren’t Forever. Wiggins and Poole Are In Their Primes and Then The Youth.
The Warriors Youth Movement Starts With Jonathan Kuminga. He’s The Youngest Of The Core at Just 19 And won't Turn 20 Until October. Standing a Little Over 6’8 210 Lbs, The Warriors Selected Kuminga 7th Pick Of 2021(Via the Durant/D’angelo Russell Trade To The Timberwolves). The Former Top Recruit of 2000 high Class Appeared In 70 Games For The Dubs. His Role On The Team Mushroomed as The season Progress and Injuries Remolded the depth Chart. His Peak Performance Around February Averaging 14.8 Ppg On 57.6% From The Field.
He Looks Invincible. A Puppet Doll Build With An Unmatched Blend Of Ball And Angular Knifing Through The Defense and A Unmatched Explosiveness. One Step In The Paint And Kuminga Has A “B-Line” To The Rim. His Jump Shot, That Looked Dilettante In High School, Looked Almost Apt And Polished On Occasion. Kuminga Coasted On Upside and Natural Ability In High School. He Coasted Through The G-League On Similar Action. That’s Where Most Evaluations Veered And. Cross Hair On Kuminga. Would He Always Coast On Natural Ability? Could Kuminga Ever Fell Out of His “No Ceiling” Level Of Potential? Would He Take His Position Within The Team’s Development Paradigm For Granted? Those and Other questions Loomed Over The Warriors At The Start Of Summer league? Another Of The Few Drawbacks To Winning A Championship, once Free Agency Starts, The Roster Gets Gutted. The Warriors Lost Guard Gary Payton Jr, Forward Otto Porter Jr. Amongst Other Key Role.
Young Kings, Like Kuminga, Will, Have Thrust Into Themselves Larger, More Consistent Roles Next Season. One Of The few Highlighted Knocks On Kuminga When The Warriors Selected Congolese Born Wing Out The The G-League Started With His Efficiency. Kumimga Played High Volume and Below Average Shooting From At All-Levels Of Scoring. So Far in Summer, Kuminga’s Done Little To Dilute some of His Early assessments. His Time With The G-League Ignite Kuminga Shot is below 40% From The Feild, 60% From The Free Throw Line, and 30% From Three. Those Woeful Conversion Rates Pushed Kuminga From Top Three Pick Consideration To the Number Seven Selected Player. Not The Most Embarrassing Slide, But That Profile Reflect Much of What We’ve Seen In Summer League. The Warriors have Played three Games, with One Game To Go.
In The Second Summer League game, Kuminga Put The Full Arsenal On Display. Against the Spurs, He Finished With 28 points on 10-22 From The Field, 1-7 Three Point Line, Leaving Eleven Points, 7-18 FT, seven rebounds, four assists, and one block. Following This Performance, The Dubs Leading Young Star posted 29 points, Shooting 11-22 From The Field, 2-7 3Pt, 5-8 Free Throws, Along With two rebounds, one steal, and one block in A loss to the Celtics. The Performance Against The Celtics Posited The Quintenese Of Kuminga Upside. He Delivered On Elbow Pull Ups, Spot Up Three Point Make, And one Of His Compulsory Body Catching Dunks. More Than Just Steadied Night Kuminga Proved His Potential Stretches Far Beyond A just High Wire Act, And He Only Committed One Turnover. On The Down Side, Those Efficiencies We Spoke Of Earlier are seriously Lacking.
Similarly, He Has Yet To Gain His Legs As a Playmaker. Against the Knicks, First Game Of The Summer, Kuminga Roused Dubious Suspicions about His Evolution and Disposition As A Player. After Finishing The Game With Four Points On Ten Shots with Five Tturnovers To This Point In His Process, Kuminga’s a Three Dimensional Scorer, With One Scale Efficiency And A Selective Palette.
According to ESPN's Kendra Andrews, The Warrior's Officials Have One Goal In Mind This Summer, Focus On Drawing A Picture Of What They Have Gathered As A Young Core In raw Materials Of Kuminga, Moses Moody, And James Wiseman. “The Warriors Would Like To See all Three Of Those Players Play Together.” James Wiseman Protend The Largest Enigma For Evaluators. After An ACL Injury Cut His Rookie Season In Half, the Former Number 2 Pick Had His Basketball World Stood Still As The Basketball World Around Him Kept On Moving.
Wiseman Grace, The Court With His Excellent Shooting Touch From the Outside, Finishing Around the Basket, And Elite Athleticism For His Size 39 Times For The Warriors. He Runs The Floor Like a Gazelle. Most, Meaning 64% Of His Shots Came Within Ten Feet Of The Rim, and 25% Of Were Dunks( A High Volume of Assisted Dunks). Overall, He Dynamics. A wise man Could Spring Off The Floor With Ease But Lacked Instincts On Block Attempts. His Displaced Timing Eventuated Into Whiffs On Rim Protection opportunities. He’s Not Fluid; He’s More Segmented In How He Moves And Flows Along The Court almost Caterpillar-Ish. Sluggish Almost. Despite Bring Considered The More Agile Player—Amongst Bigs—Wiseman Moves No Different Than Nikola Jokic.
As One Commentator Put “You can See [Wiseman] Thinking Through The [Game.].” His Position. His Action. His Next Move. The Game Doesn't Appear To Come Naturally To Him. He's A Project, But he's A GOOD project. His Biggest Strength As a Player: His Body, His Size, His Mass. He's Big, And That Mass Takes Up Space. A FACET of His Game is More Valued On Defense. His tremendous length(7’6 Wingspan) and Open Gait ALLOW him To Extend And Cover Tremendous Ground Like A Condor. Coming Off Of A SHORT stint In College, Scouts Were Falling Over Themselves For the Chance To Draft Two Way Big In Wiseman.
Only Half A Season Into He Wiseman Dilemma, He’S Mostly A Lob Threat With An Occasional Twitchiness From The Outside. Not Much Else. His Mechanics Are Decent at the start, So The Up. Wiseman Rebound Effort Weans At Time. He’s Two Big To walk Away With Just Two Boards At Any Level Of Competition. He’s Even Admitting in interviews To Lacking Awareness On Rebounding Opportunities. Wise man Hasn't Shown Exceptional Feel Or Aptitude For The Game, for He's Just Big. We’ve Seen Young Big Body Projects Modeled Into Forces Of Nature, Like Andrew Bynum or Dwight Howard. Other Big Man Like Jordan Hill Or Eddy Curry Never Filled Out. The Warriors Still Don’t Know What They Have In Wiseman. You Dont Want To Put The Decision-making Aspect Of The Game In His Hand Because His Processing Abilities Aren't Entirely Developed. Whatever Question The Warriors Are Looking To Answer, It’s Unlikely They’ll Get Those Answers this Summer.
I've Had The Opportunity To Watch Moses Moody Refine and expand his shot-making brand since his days at Montverde Academy In Florida. There He Plays With A Pair Of Lottery Pick Picks, Scottie Barnes and Cade Cunningham, on One Of The Greatest HighSchool Teams. The Eagles Of Montverde We're Undefeated. The Top Ranked Team Blasted The Competition. They Looked Sure To Win The High School National Championship. Then Global Pandemic upended The Entire Steamrolling Affair. Moody Finished Athe Truncated Season As A FIVE-star recruit. Overshadowed By His Top Ten Band Mates, Moody Played an Integral Part In The Machine. A Spacer For Scottie And Cade Always In The Right Spot. It’s There He Developed The Traits And Play style The Championship Aspiring Warriors Covet: “off-ball movement, leading passes, help-side defense.” In The Playoffs, In Crucial Moments Against The Mavs, The Played Moody Late Because could Turn To Him To Make Proper, Even Crucial Reads On Offense. Whether To Drive Or relocate For A Spot Up. Dropping Down On Help To Cut Off Passing Lanes On Defense. No Matter Where Moody Funnel Into The Picture. Whether Arkansas To Monteverde, forfeiting His home And Place As the Number 1 Option On A Team To The Number Three. From Falling In The Rankings to emerging And A Draftee In The Lottery By The Warriors. Moody Finds himself In the Right Place.
Of Three Warriors Triumvirate Of Prospects, Moody’s Feet Are Most Pressed TO The Ground. Most Of His Upside Appears Fleshed Out. He’s Closer To The Floor And Ceiling Of His Game, Which You Might Think Of As A Knock But Not Necessarily. The Warriors Wanted A Instant Contributor, An “NBA-ready Player” Coming Out Of The Draft. Moody’s Game Resembles Klay Thompson When The less Dynamic Just As Explosive Splash Brother Stalk The Three Point Line For The Cougs Of Washington State. Of Course, Klay roamed The Dorms For Two More Season Than Moody Did In College. Only Mood Has A Championship And A Full Year Of Pro Experience. I’m Not Saying He’ll Be Klay, But Moody Can Offer A Similar Contribution Level. He’s A sharp Shooter With A Limited Athletic Profile—Honestly, Klay Displayed Better Athletic Potential at Age 20. Moody Had a 7’1 Wing Span That Should Help Shorten The Gap For becoming A Better Defender. He’s Not Too far From Where Bradley Beal Took From As A Prospect Coming Out Of Florida Over Even Jamal Murray Coming Of Kentucky. A Prototypical Shooter Who Could Add Upside To An Otherwise Blank Canvas. Moody Spoke With The Athletics Anthony Slater to Detail The Range Shots And Motion He, Moody, And Trainers Intended To Improve On This Summer. No Surprise, The Regiment Revolves around Shooting:
“Mainly, I’m thinking about coming off down screens, coming off pin-ins,” Moody said. “Dribble handoffs. Knocking down shots like that. I want to become a better shooter stationary and of movement.”
Facing The Knicks In The First Game Of The Warriors In This New Summer league Experience Moody Gave The Knicks Perimeter Defenders As Much Stationary Shooting As They Could Stomach. Moody dropped 34 points, five rebounds, and two blocks. HE finished 8/11 From The Feild and
3/5 Three In Three Quarters. The Knicks Couldn’t Untether Moody From The Free Throw Line(15-17)
He Played Like A Quiet Storm. Not Actively Demanding the Rock On offense. The Warriors Didn’t Design Sets Structured To Free Up A Shot For Him Outside of The Offense---At Least Not From My Observations. He Played Within The Confine And Structure Of The Offense, And he Finished With The night With The most impressive Summer league performance Of opening Day. He Outperforms Kuminga. He outperforms The Entire Starting Lineup(35 Points). After Sitting Out Game 2 Of Summer League, Moody Return To The Dubs To the Lineup, And Earth--Or At least To Orbit--In A Loss To The Celtics.
After Struggling With Dehydration, Moody Ponied Up 6-19 FRom The Felid, 2-9 From Three 7-8 From Free Throw To Go Along With four assists, three rebounds, three steals, and one block. He Finished With 21 Points. The Game Against The Celtics Marked The First The Visage Of Wiseman, Kumiga and Moody Played In Live Action. Kuminga Rose To The Moment, Wiseman Still Has Work To Return From His ACL Injury. Moody, Struggled With Play Making, Turning The Ball Over On, Occasion And Struggle To Create Shots Off The dribble consistently.
I'm Not A Warriors Scout Or Executive, Who Cycled Back Over The Film With ruthless attention To Detail. Still, I Must Remark That The Evaluation Of These Three Are Just As Murky As When Summer League Began. There's A lot To Like, Of course, But None Of These prospects Did Much To Expand The Profile Already Scripted Of Them.
The Warriors also 2022 first-round pick Patrick Baldwin Jr.and second-rounder Ryan Rollins. To Evaluate Though Thanks To Prescient Moves Of The Past Two Season could Exercise Patience With The Develop Of Their New Introduced Young Legs Into The Fold. Both Draftees are sitting out Summer League coalescing From injuries, Ankle, and Foot, respectively. In The Case Of Baldwin, Who The Warriors Drafted On The Principle Of Upside, His Young Career continues Its Bout With Injuries. Many Of Those Injuries Precipitated His Fall In The Draft.
