Summer League: Impressions.
For Centuries Man Has Ponder Over The Ideas Of The Future. Everyone, From novelists, Physicists, Journalists, And Music composers, has offered Theories And Pictures About What They Twenty-First And Half Century Could Look Like For humanity.
When You Think Of The Future, what Are Some Of The Images That Surface In Mind? Shining Chrome Streets With Then Epithet “Hover” ascribe To Every Mode Of Transport. Maybe This Future In Mind, Its a Place Where The “Eyes Are Everywhere” And “Thought Crimes” Are Punishable By Law? A place where: “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.” Maybe There Are No Need For Punishments If Crimes Are Predicted With Near Exactitude And Prevented, Ensuring A Safe Galaxy For All.
Maybe There is No Future For Us, Humanity.
Are Humans Destined To “devolve” Or Evolve (Depending On How You Look At Things)And Form A “Gorilla City,” A Habitat Of brilliant Gorillas?
In The New Social Paradigm, One Of A Digital Revolution That Iconoclast, The Future In A Media From Film to Literature, Has Taken Precedent In The Metaverse. Meta, Formerly Facebook, Has Under Development Devices and Programs To Bring All Future Fictions Into reality.
As With Life In Basketball, We Fans, Writers/ Analyst Think And DreamAbout The Game's Future.
Are There Lightning Fast Guard Rocketing Back and Froth From Paint To Logo? Small Guards With Sonic Ballistic Range Canons Releasing Barrages Of Threes In One Clip. And Thats How All Of The Mystics And Projections Informed Us. The Guard Would Reign And the Big Man Would Be No More Than Roster Ballast. Then The Big Man Evolved and Struck Back. In A Basketball World Pushing the Big Off The Stage, The Game Played Became “ Adapt Or …” and Subsequent The “Unicorn,” Everyone's favorite Fictional Basketball Appellative, Sprung Forth. Seven Foot Basketball Star With Boundless Skills. Adept Dribbling, Fluid Jumpers, Full Length Of The Room Offensive Attackers. The Kind Of Player Who Would Scoff At Kobe If The Mamba Repudiated Them For Floating On The Perimeter And Told Them To Get On Block And Post Up.
From High School Basketball Drills Five -Six Year We Could Infer that The Future Would Grow From The Unicorn Genome: A Skillset that’s Proliferated In Todays Game. Oklahoma City, That Last Franchise to Produced Two MVPs In The Same Decade, Now incubates The Latest iteration In NBA Traits Development. In The Past triad Of the “Tanking” Seasons and Nifty Trades To Move Stars, Sam Presti The Thunder Have collected The Most Interesting Group Of Skilled Bigs. The List Starts But Doesn’t Peak With Thunder “big?”, Stretch Center Chet Holmgren. The Second Pick In This Year's Draft. He’s Too Much Of Much A Capacious Presence To Miss. A Twiggy Thin Framed 7 Footer who Spot Up For Threes Off With Potential As A Playmaker And An Immediate Presence As A Fly Swatter Around The Rim. Against the Jazz, In His Summer League Debut, Holmgren 23 points On 7-9 From The Feild Whiles 4-6 From Three And 5-5 Free Throw Line To Go Along With seven rebounds, four assists, six blocks, and a steal. His Three Point Shooting Stood Out The Most. A Big Shooting Threes That’s Conventional Dribbble Pull-Up Threes are Attention-Grabbing. Which Means Holmgren Slots Right IntoA NEED for OKCs Offense. The Thunder As A Struggle To generate Good Looks Of Dribble From Three Posting The Lowest Efficiency Rating on Dribble Pull-Up This Season. He’s Crafty And Deft Dribble Driving To The Basket And Has A Nose For The Basket. Of course, He Punishes Smaller, “Weaker” Defenders. Against Stronger Defenses, It's No Hard Math To Extrapolate That Chet Could Easily Push Off His Spot.
The Other Ostensible Feature Of Holmgren, His Frame. Despite Standing 7 Feet With A 7-6 Wingspan, Similar Demimsions Define Deandre Ayton. Where Holmgren Doesn't Compare To Ayton, He Weights Only 195 Lbs. That Weight put Him In A Class More On Par with Nobody except Holmgren's Teammate ALEKSEJ POKUSEVSKI, Another Wing-Ish Player, Who Scales At 190 Lbs. The Two Are Unique To Themselves. That Uniqueness Has Caveat. Reports: His Physiology, His Body Composition, His Anatomical structure “Checked Out,” With Doctors. Which Means Something Positive, I Guess? If There Weren’t Concerns, I Assume Official Wouldn’t Need To Release Reports On It. The Thunder RESTED Holmgren Game 3 and Even In the “Load Management Era” That Struck Me as Strange. The Only Other Time I’ve Heard Resting a Player In Summer League, Zion Williamson. Chet Reportedly Had Knee Issue As an Adolescent, And Those Issues led To His Dad Pulling Him From Play At Times, In Middle School And Beyond. I'm interested To See First If He Holds Up Physically And Can His Skillset Transcends With The Group Sam Presti Has Assembled Already. I Dont Think He’s A STAR, and He Has A Almost an Inscrutable Projection.
Could Chet Become The Next Bowie Before Jordan Story? The Thunder Selected Chet three Picks Before Jaden Ivey. The Thunder Certainly Dont Neec Guard Play But Neither Had Portland In ‘84.
The Final Entry Of Unicorns Doesn't Qualify As A Unicorn, the Australian Sixth Overall Pick Of 2021 Josh Giddey. Giddey Stands Behind Only Shai Gilgeous- Alexander As The Second Best Player On The Thunder, Which isn’t Going Out On A LIMB, much But He’s One Of The Best Young Wings In A league Crowded With Young Wings. Standing 6’8, Giddey Has Millennium Eye Like Court Vision And A Instinctual Awareness of the Court Balance and How The Motions, Shifts affect Defensive Tendencies On Helps To Actions Will Open Chasm For Passes. Almost Feeling The Weight Of The Court More To The Strong Side Of The Court. He Envisions the Play Before Everybody Else—his Prescience Bely His Age. Players And Analyst Alike Have Praised Giddey’s Game. He Also Has That Reality Bending Ability To Male Accurate Live Dribble Passes. He Swings His Right Had Like A Magic Wand To Whip Up Offense.
So Much So Giddey led all Rookies In Assist His First Month, And All Of His Talents Culminated In triple Double Versus Knicks In New York In February. That Night In New York, Giddey Became The Youngest Player, 19-Year-Old, To Notch Two Straight Triple Doubles. Giddey Got Shut down in Late March Due To A Worrying Hip Issue, But they Finished the Season Averaging 12.5 ppg, 7. 8 RPG, 6.4 APG WITH A 43% Assist Rate Four Rookie Of The Month, And An Rookie First Team In 54. He’s Earned Comparisons to Luka, Magic Johnson, but He’s More Larry Bird With Elevation. Giddey picked Up In Summer League, Where He Left Off In The Season. First Game Versus Utah, he had 14 points, five rebounds, 11 assists, two steals, and two blocks. Playing His Natural Role As Orchestrator. He's Already Established A Connection With Chet Early. The Two Have Created a Boeing injection In SUMMER league. In Game 2, Giddy finished with a triple-double of 14 points, ten rebounds, and ten assists Against Memphis.
Giddey Weighs In At 205 Lbs Much Needed Girth On The Front Line For The Thunder. But He’s As Prospect With Elite Measurable Upside For The Thunder, A Team Hovering Near The threshold Of Basketball Irrelevance.
Keegan Murrays Meteoric Rise From Relatively “Unknown” to Junior College, Iowa Recruit, Big Ten Top Player And Ultimately Top 5 Pick Hasn’t Keeled Off Yet. If He Pans Out In The Association, He Could Become A Masterclass For When Preparation meets Opportunity. Armed With New Found Fame, He continues to Impress On And Off The Court In SUMMEr League.
‘His work ethic so far is off the charts. His development from his first year at Iowa to this year has been excellent.” New Head Coach Mike Brown Speaking To Fox Sports. Brown, On His Third Stint As A HEAD coach, As Well As The Brass Of Sacred, Will Need That Work Ethic To Flourish I'd They Want The Keegan Pick To Reap Any Positive. The Kings Finished Last In The Pacific Division Again This Year.
Sacramento Kings Also Garnered Some Flac For Selecting Murray With The Fourth Pick. Especially Considering Nearly Everybody With With A Horse In The Race Expected The Kings To Select Fellow Big Ten Extradoaire, Jaden Ivey, Whom Most Saw As The Better Prospect. The Kings Sordid History With First Round Selections Also Played Into The Conversation. Their High Strike Out Rate On Picks That Preceded Superstars, Became Another Worrying Note In The Conversation After The Draft.
Not Selecting Jaden Ivey, Who’s The Furthest Thing From A sure Prospects Could Become The Latest For Sacramento Psycho Flashbacks Through The 2010s. The Kings Have Always Found Themselves In The Wrong Spot In The Draft. With Keegan Murray, In 2022, The Kings Have The Right Man In The Right Spot For The Right Job.
Murray's Performance In Six Summer League Restored Some faith In the Kings’ Ability As An Organization To Aaaes talent Or, to A Lesser Degree Stick to The Models. A lot Of That Credit Goes To Murray. In Six Game Into His Summer League Campaign, Murray’s Averaging 21. 8 Points Per Game, On. 49 Percent Shooting From The Feild, 40% From Three, and seven rebounds. He Hit Maybe the Biggest Shot Of The Tournament. A CORNER three To Tie The Game Against Orlando. Don’t Get Overblown; it's Still July, But This Year Summer League Stats Are Relevant, And Murray Has His Hand On The Moment. Touted as the Readiest Prospect In The Draft, Murray's Greatest strength, His Shot, Propelled His Stock Up And Continue To Mesmerize. He’s A REMARKABLE shooter. From His Set Point. His Lock(Engaged) Point. To His Release Point. He's Been Unabashed a Flaunting His Form. Keegan Credits His Work Ethic For All The Promise He’s Shown.
The Hours Unseen That took from Unranked Prep Player To Junior College Into The NBA. Murray stepped Into NBA in The California classics and Immediately Made His presence Felt. During Summer League, Coaches and Plaudits Alike Noted Murray For His equable Demeanor. “I try not to get too high or too low,” But Murray Brought The “Ruckus.” He Finishes 26 points In The California classic Against The Warriors, Going 10/14 From The Feild. He added eight rebounds and punched 4-of-5 from 3-point, Most Of Which Were Set Shorts, Giving Murray 1.733 points per possession per Synergy Sports. Yeah, The Advance Statistical Elements Have Entered The Chat.
One Look At Murray's Build You Can Ascertain why Warriors Defender Had All They Could Handle With Murray. At 6’8 With An Ostensible 6-11 To 7 Foot Wingspan Murray Has The Prototypical Size To Crush His Position. The Stats Are evidently, averaging 24.0 points, six rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.7 steals while 47.4% from the field, 37% from 3-point range, and 80% at the free-throw line heading Into The Closing Of Summer League. The Hyper Efficiency That Earned Him Recognition In College Has Passed Over Into The Pros. He Shot Over 55% From Two In College, Where He Focused His Interest On OPERATING in The Post. Where The Translation From College To Pro Get Murky For Murray, On Defense. He's Not How One Would Say a Plus Athlete. He Doesn’t Create tremendous Separation On Drives To The Rim, More Like No Separation at All. That Struggle To Create Room Between Defenders Showed up In College and its Reflected Against G-League Level Competition. Of course, Didnt Dampened His Rise. His average scoring climbed from 7.2 points to 23.5, A DIFFERENCE of 16 Plus that Equated to the most considerable points-per-game increase In conference History. Big Jumps In Production Between Years Are More Difficult To Judge Because Volume Increases Don’t Buffer Positional Value.
Murray Also Lacks actual Playmaking Chops, As depicted by His Assist Numbers. Of Course, All All Of These Results Come From A Sample Size In the Quasi-Competitive Summer league, But That’s Something For Awareness Sake. He Doesn’t Have That Bend Your Reality Type of Handle. He Can Certainly Handle But He’s not Shifty Like Some Of The Higher End Guys at His Position, You Know, Your Durant and Paul George’s.
As A Sophomore, He Leads The Nation in Scoring With 822 Points to just 52 assists. That Puts Murray In A Similar Vein To High Volume Guys Like TJ Warren, Micheal Beasley, and Antwan Jemison. Guys Whom Murray Compares Favorably. You Can Throw Danny Granger and Mikal Bridges In There As Well.
In College, Murray Exhibited Traits Of A Plus Defender. He Dangled A lot In A Split Safety Position. Playing The Gap Between Two Defenders Where He Could Lurk and Utilize His Length To Disrupt Passing Lane and Block Shots. Exuding Flurries Of Two Way Potential. He Finished the His sophomore Season In With The Seventh Best Defensive rating In The Nation, the third-best block percentage (6.4), and the 13th-best steal percentage (2.3)(NBA.com). He Registered a 39 Inch At The NBA Combine—An Impressive Number For Any Position. The Question Arise Watching Keegan Move Laterally. He’s Not the Swiftest On The Perimeter. He Hasn’t Been Challenge Too Much By The Competition He’s facing, But Again, Just a Point Of Awareness.
Of course, summer League Offers Just A tiny sample size In a Mostly Controlled Environment.
Over The Past Ten Days, There Were Several Strong Performances By Players Whose Contribution Teams Are Expecting To Impact The Turn Out Of The Season. Other teams Are just Trying To Fill Out The Rows Of Question They Have On Their Prospects.
With The Exhibition Over, Players will Move Into Full Time Work With Their Respective Teams as they Look forwards To The Coming Season. A Season That’s Always A Month Away.
