 What's the word, y'all? I just got back in from Vegas, man, which is crazy because there's so many content creators going into Vegas to watch Summer League, but a lot of them are getting in to date. I was there from Thursday, the first day until Monday. I took a red eye and I'm back here, but I wanted to get there early this year because in previous seasons, we went to Summer League and by the time we got there, the top prospects not even planned no more. So it's like, why are we even here? So I wanted to get there a day one and it was worth it, man. And I got to watch a ton of basketball, which was great. So in today's video, I am going to be grading slash talking about what I saw in Summer League, 95% of these prospects I've never even seen before. Until last week, I was pronouncing Paulo Ben-Kero's name wrong. So that just tells you everything you need to know about me. And in usual years, I watched a little bit of College Hoops leading up to the draft and trying to figure out who are my favorite prospects. This year, I ain't do none of that. So I don't even know what you've brought to the table until I got to Summer League. So just keep that in mind as I'm talking about these prospects. Also keep in mind, Summer League don't mean a dang on thing. You know what I'm saying? Like you can take bits of piece away from it, but there are players in NBA history that went to Summer League and tore it up. Like Anthony Randolph gave my Bulls like almost 50 in a Summer League game. For Con Corkmas put up like 40 and he's a shooter who forgot how to shoot. I still believe in your For Con. It's not a shot. I do believe that next season you're going to hit 40% from three. But you know, you can come into Summer League and dominate and then you get to the real thing. And you don't because 90% of the people that are playing in Summer League won't make an NBA roster. So it's like you're going to get people that you want to get to get some college. You're going to get people who just came back from overseas and trying to get that next attempt at the NBA. So the competition of course is raised. So we have people come in and be great at Summer League and then get to the real thing and just be average or below average. And then we've seen the opposite. Derrick Rose was bad in Summer League. Had me a little bit nervous and then he went on to win an MVP. So I'm just saying just because somebody that you're seeing drafted might be bad in Summer League don't mean he going to be bad for real. If I'm not mistaken just last year Franz Wagner was struggling in Summer League. He got to the real thing and bro it's all rookie. You know what I'm saying? So a lot of things to talk about but you don't have to dive too deep into these Summer League things. Couple of housekeeping things really, really quick before we get into these grades. Number one, I still have a newsletter. People thought that since the season was over that the boys won't go be still right and they are, but it's out of three times a week. It's two times a week. I personally believe that the stuff that they're putting out now is some of the best work because you got to get creative in what you're talking about. So hit that link in the description. We're very close to 30,000 and oh, it's a giveaway. Hold on. See I know we dropped merch a little while ago. It was very exclusive. I think we only had 500 units because we wanted people that got it to be like the real OGs. We got one more and once we had 30,000 subscribers to the newsletter we're giving away that one more shirt. It is, it's like, it's the tan, it's a large and if you already subscribed you already entered but once we had 30,000 we're auctioning one away for the free for somebody out there. So hit that link in the description. Subscribe to the newsletter. And the last housekeeping thing is that I'm going to start a series on this channel because this channel as y'all know has been very reactionary. So when a big trade happens to hop on but in the dead of the off season I still want to create content. So I'm going to do a series where I invite 30 different content creators slash people in the NBA world to talk about their favorite team. And I need your help trying to figure out who to represent your favorite team. So in the comment section it could be a content creator, small channel, big channel, it doesn't matter. It could be a podcaster, it could be a writer just somebody that you like within your NBA fandom circle. Is that what I'm saying? And just let me know who that is. So you can say, Charlotte Hornets, this guy. We want him to represent us and it's going to be like 15 to 20 minute videos of me just chopping it up with this person about their favorite team. But don't be going to look for them. I've been on the opposite side of that man. Don't be tweeting them Kenny looking for you. Just let me know who they are, who you like and you want to see on this channel talking hoops with me. And then I'll go out there and reach out to them. Thank you. Let's talk about these prospects now. Let's talk about the people that have impressed me the most. And I'm starting off with Paulo Ben-Kero. He is getting an A. Nobody's getting A plus because nobody's going to be perfect in summer league. He's getting the A for me because he looked like the number one pick. No matter who was on the court in the two games that I went to of his, he was the best player on the court and it was so very obvious. He was C69, 16 and something like that. But he always felt like the biggest player on the court whether it had been his height or his overall size. He looks like an NBA ready player. And it makes sense that the Orlando Magic said that was their guy, even though they was saying or telling people Jabaru's our dude. They was throwing a little curve ball and I don't know how it's going to work out for their entire careers but Paulo put together some amazing performances. The shot creation and shot making was elite and his playmaking was a lot better than anticipated for a guy that I knew that a lot of people who had come in as a top score. He was looking for his teammates, you know in that last double overtime game, which was crazy. It's the greatest basketball game I've ever been to by the way. He passed off a couple shots and I saw the noise. Oh, he don't want to take the big shots. They were sending doubles and he found his teammate. It's just that simple, at least in my eyes. Dude, does that mean he not a killer because he passed it off? Only time will tell. But it looked like he was making the right basketball play and that right basketball play led them to the win at the end of the day. I'm giving him an A. His defense was even a lot better than I expected because I remember coming into this, people were like, oh, will he care on defense because I guess you saw flashes when he was over at Duke that he can be a defender but he wasn't actually trying. There's a lot of times, at least in that double overtime game where he came out of nowhere with a swat. He was even one that they challenged and they overturned because he came in behind and they thought it was a goal team but it was clean. So he was giving a lot of effort on both sides. And I know he understood that the lights were on him and he wanted to come out and perform for the world to understand that I'm the first overall pick. No matter who they were going against, he tried to take the toughest excitement and I love that from one of my top players. So Paolo Ben-Kara, I'm super excited about his future which is crazy. He's the first overall pick in here. Everybody knows he can who. Heck, let's just go in order. Number two overall pick, Chet Holmgrenau. I got to watch some of him, of course, in the Salt Lake City, Summer League. I wasn't there, but of course it was on TV and everything and he started off really amazingly with that big game where he was setting records for blocks and then again, number two, he went against Kenny Lofton Jr. And Kenny Lofton Jr. bodied that man a couple of different times. And Kenny Lofton Jr. Hey, he's one of my favorite prospects now because his body type, you know, I like the abnormal. You don't see players of his size and his weight going to the NBA and do great things. So I'm a fan of him, but it's not like he's a top player in the NBA. So people are looking at what Kenny Lofton Jr. was doing and trying to say, hey, if Kenny Lofton Jr. is doing that, imagine what this player is gonna do in the actual NBA. I'm not extremely concerned about those things, at least not yet. Just because we're talking about a guy that came off one year of college, I don't think he's gonna come out in year four and be buff. He's not gonna turn into like Yanis did in this couple of years, but I do believe he's gonna fill at least a little bit more. And honestly, even though he is a supreme shot blocker, I'm not expecting him to be the guy that's always guarding the opposing team centers. I just don't think he's there just yet, which is fine. I think he's gonna be in that Romy road that we've seen over the last couple of seasons where like a guy's playing free safety and getting blocked at the rim, but also helping defensively because that's what it seemed like he was doing in Summer League as well. And you do have the times where he's trying to back down his opponents and he struggles, and obviously a lot of that comes to a side. I think I'm giving Chet Holmgren's like Summer League so far like a B. I see the flash, I understand why he drafted so high with his elite shot blocking ability and his ability to create his own shot. But you know, there's still some question marks. And the best thing about him, he doesn't need to come in and be elite elite because he's got Shay Gilles Alexander on his team who's very good. And you got people like Josh Giddy who we gonna talk about because I've seen two sides of the coin when it comes to Josh Giddy's conversations, guys that couldn't create for him. And that's why I bring up Josh Giddy because he's an elite level playmaker. So I'm not really worried about Chet really, he look fine. Jabari Smith, I'm thinking I'm giving Jabari Smith a C. Again, we're talking about two games of this person's career and it's not even like his real career, right? But still, when I was watching him, he didn't look like one of the top guys on the court. Again, it's completely fine. Everybody doesn't come out and become the dude day one of the job, right? But it's one thing that really, that I was really thinking about watching him is that he didn't have an handle. And Chet, Palo, the people that were drafted before him, they haven't handled to create their own shot and Jabari doesn't have that just yet. He was very fundamental with his movements, right? It wasn't like I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna soft shoot up and I'm gonna get this shot off. It wasn't like that. It was like I'm gonna do a couple dribbles and I'm gonna pass to my teammate. I'm gonna do a little crossover and I'm gonna pass to my teammate. I'm gonna go and take the shot. But I do see the shot making ability, even though he didn't shoot it great, but I saw some of the shots of him like, okay, that's replicable. You know what I'm saying? That's replicable. I wanna see him with an elite level playmaker. They don't have that just yet. I mean, they have Singul. And Singul might have that boy looking nice. Singul was at Summer League and his fit was fire. But yeah, I wasn't extremely impressed with the two games I saw of him. But again, it is Summer League. Kiggy Murray, I'm giving him an A, bro. I'm giving him an A. And this is what I'm giving him an A. For the third year in a row, there has been something that has happened that convinced me that the Sacramento Kings might be okay. And I say okay. Cause I'm not, as of right now, I don't know if I'm picking them to make the play in or make a playoff. You listen, the Western Conference is elite and it's gonna be hard to do it. But Kiggy Murray, and I think this is probably because of the expectations. When he got drafted legitimately, a lot of the podcasts that I listened to, I won't say they laughed, but they were like, oh, the Kings did it again. And then he gets to Summer League. He looks like the best player on the court when it seems playing. They say he was one of the most NBA ready talents and I completely understand that. Great shot, making ability to defense was great. I'm like, bro, he's making me excited about the Sacramento Kings. And then you look at what Deere Fox did after the Sabonis trade average in 29 points per game. And you look at Sabonis and now them two having a little bit more time under the belt. You think about the trades and the signage that they had in the league month coming into the team. Kevin Herter was a trade piece. I feel like they did one more thing that I'm forgetting about. Either way, it's convinced me that the Kings are at least gonna be fun again. They probably not gonna defend a damn thing with the people that I just mentioned, but they're at least gonna be fun. And I wouldn't be surprised if they're competing for a playing spot next season, which is great. Keegan Murray looked really, really good. And the shot that he hit to send it to overtime was one of the best moments I've ever been in the arena for. Jada Naivi, I can't give him anything less than A as well. I mean, he tweaked his ankle in the game that I was there and he had 11 points in like three minutes. I don't even know what else to say about that. Him, K, Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart, turning into a shot maker is very interesting to me. I guess when he was in college and in high school, he was a guy that took jump shots and stuff. But once he got to Detroit, he stopped because they needed center. And now they have Jalen Durant, and they believe Jalen Durant is their center of the future. Now, Isaiah Stewart is like, hey, I'm gonna go out there and shoot again. And he was like hitting three or four from three. I'm very intrigued about the Detroit business. I'll just say that. And it looks very good. The Pacers were benefiting math right now. If you know Summer League, the way it works is there's two different games going on at the same time. There's the main gym, which is the Thomas and Max Center. And it seems like a lot of the time Thomas and Mac is where the big time names are gonna be playing because that's where a majority of the seats are. That's where the media section is big. And we have media credentials, which is dope set out to Bleach Report for getting us those. And then while that game is going on in Thomas and Mac, there's also a game going on in the Cox Pavilion, which is another gym, like 10, not even a 10 minute walk. It's like five minute walk around the arena. There's another court. And those are for the smaller games, it felt like. The Pacers played in the smaller arena a couple different times. And I'm telling you that to tell you, I didn't get to watch a lot of the Pacers because I was watching the bigger games at Thomas and Mac. So I don't really have an impression on Benedict Matherin just yet. He seemed like a cool dude. He walked past us, we said, what's up? He said, what up fellas? And chopped it up for a couple of seconds. Seemed like a cool dude, but I didn't get to really watch him. And now I'm saying that for a lot of the other people. Shane Sharp, we were there and he got injured in the first two minutes. We legitimately walked out of the gym. We walked out of the gym when he got injured and then we got to the second quarter. He went and put it back on the court. We were like, let's go back to the hotel, let's go gamble, let's go do something else. Because he wasn't there able to hoop. And I know he's frustrated because he didn't hoop last year. And then now he gets two minutes of total game time and he tears his labor. I've torn these labrums in both of these shoulders. Now they said a partial tear which could have him back really soon. So that's good, but like, not great, not great. And then when he did play, he didn't really get an opportunity to showcase literally anything. Jeremy So-Chan, I don't think he played. Johnny Davis, I didn't get to watch him play. Who's my, okay, can we just get to the other people? We ain't gotta go in order. Another guy that I absolutely fell in love with on the court. And I think if you go back and watch my video where I was just predicting who's gonna be my favorite prospects, I think I mentioned Jalen Williams or J Dubb because it's two Jalen Williamses. J Dubb, which is the 12th overall pick from Santa Clara. He was elite. Again, it's summer league. I gotta keep saying again, it's summer league. But he looked like an NBA ready player. And I know he wasn't one of the one and done. Like I think majority of the people within the first round, or at least in the lottery, like one and done or played one year overseas or played one year in the G League at night. He was one of the people that would spend multiple years at Santa Clara. And one of his big questions was like, hey, he's playing at Santa Clara. He wasn't playing in one of the top conferences across basketball. So can he replicate some of that stuff when he's playing against NBA players? And throughout the first couple of games of summer league, he did, he looked like one of the best players on the court when majority of the time he was there. And what I love is the diversity of the buckets. He was getting out there in transition. He was creating for himself. He was catching and shooting. He was getting downhill. Like he just looked like a well-rounded offensive player or an defensive player too. He's just a well-rounded basketball player. And in OKC, you could never get too many of those. So shout out to Jaylen Williams. He might be my second favorite prospect out of draft from what I saw. I think number one is Tarysen. Now, my co-workers, what the hell? Why did I call them my co-workers? My homies through the wire podcast, they told me early, early on that I was going to fall in love with Tarysen because he is the type of player that I really like, a high-energy guy that does a little bit of everything that's not afraid of any competition. And that's what Tarysen was when they were playing. And of course, he plays with Jabarisen Jr. He's going to be playing for the Houston Rockets. He was the best player on the court for them a lot of the times. We're talking getting posters. We're talking shooting jump shots. There were some times where he was like, I'm going to take this shot. Like he will get a rebound and his guard will be like, come on, give me the ball. He's like, nah, I'm an ISO real quick. And I like that for Summer League. I don't like that for the NBA. But bro, I really, really like Tarysen, bro. Really, really like Tarysen. So one of my favorites, probably my favorite from what I've watched from Thursday to Sunday. Tatey Watson, Houston did it right. You know, Houston did it right. Whether or not you enjoyed what Jabarisen was doing, the other people that were the rookies for, the Houston Rockets really showed up. Tatey Watson hit way more shots than I was anticipating them to. I thought he was going to be one of those little guards. It's just fast, fast, fast. And he was that, but he also had some big time shots as well. Caleb Houston, second round pick, 32nd overall. Coming into it, I remember they were saying he was such a streaky shooter back at college. And I think he shot 32% in college. And they're like, ah, he was supposed to be a elite shooter and he got to college and didn't do that. When the first couple games of the Summer League, he was doing that. And even the first game, he was heat check. He like fast threes in the room. It felt like heat check, heat check, heat check, heat check. And the Orlando Magic have so many players specifically on the guard tip. I don't know if he'll ever see PT in his rookie season, but he looked like a guy that I would be interested in. Jaden Hardy gave the Bulls some work. I only got to watch one of his games though, but in that game he was very, very good. And I see the Mavis fans already super excited about him because he might be a guy that could come in and play some minutes in his rookie season. It's crazy that he felt so low. I guess he was one of the top ranked players in that class that fell to the second round. Big time steal. Another player that I really like that I feel like might be a pretty good role player for his time is Josh Minot. Is that how I pronounce it? For the Timberwolves. They traded away all of their depth to get Rudy Goubert. And I don't know if this rookie is gonna come in and play minutes or be a big time part of this Timberwolves scene is trying to win some stuff. But he looked like a guy that could come in in the next couple of seasons to help develop. And he could be one of those rangy wings that defend and he was also hitting threes, which I guess wasn't really in his game last season. So he played at the Cosperville so I'd get to watch a ton of him. But again, what I did see, I enjoyed. And the last guy was, what is his name? Santos from the Warriors. I don't remember what his first name was. I had no idea who he was. He was like the 58th overall pick in this year's draft. I don't know if the Warriors have stole enough dude, but he played with so much high energy and he was just cutting, he was doing a lot of good things. You know, the Warriors love a good cutter. And if you can defend and cut, you might find some PT. I don't think he will, not in this rookie season. But it might be the wantous kind of way Anderson replaced him. I don't know. Let's talk about the year two guys or whatever who stepped it up. I don't know why Josh Giddy, Quinn Grimes and Moses Moody. I don't know why those boys suited up. Oh, B-Ball Paul. There's just so many like year two players, year three players, whatever they fall into. They came to Summer League and just look elite. They just look a great above everybody else, which is great, you know, it is great if you're OKC fan. It's great if you're a Knicks fan to see Quinn Grimes go out there and just splashing threes over people. But I'm like, man, why are they hooping right now? Why are they hooping right now? You know what I'm saying? I understand reps are more important than anything. But they just felt like a class above everybody else. Like Wesley, wow, I forgot about him. There's just so many people that I was impressed with. Josh Chris for another guy that's multiple years into his career, high-value score for sure. He is not afraid to shoot their boats. I kind of like, but I feel like the team has so many people on the roster that are very similar. As far as like, I'm going to try to get my own. So I don't know where he's going to fit in. But yeah, a lot of moments in those games are like, dang bro, bro out here. I guess the last guy I'll talk about is Mack McClung. We were there yesterday for the James Wiseman debut, which was amazing, by the way, to see him get back on the court after, I think it was 15 months of not being a part of professional basketball. He's an NBA champion. And now the Warriors just have these dudes. I said that Moses Moody looked too good to be out there. Jonathan Camiga struggled and gained number one and gained number two. He had like 26 points, even though he missed almost every single free throw. But Mack McClung, and I was telling the home, he's like, I'm not completely sure if Mack McClung is a real NBA player or not. But he is so fun to watch, bro. He understands the entertainment part of basketball. He's still on behind the back passes. He has crossed the people over. He's trying to do the jelly on the layups. Overall, he's just a super fun player to watch. And I would hope that some team seeing what he's doing and give him another chance at the NBA. The Bulls tried to give him a chance and it didn't work out too well once we got to real basketball. But if he can keep, I can't say if he keep this up because he put up like 25 yesterday. If he can put up 25, he won't even just be an NBA player, it'd be an NBA star, it'd be an NBA all star. But if he could just showcase a little bit more flashes and maybe try to hold his arms a little bit more defensively because that's the big thing, he's a small guard. But he was fun. He's been fun as heck to watch. And listen, like I said, I was there from Thursday to Sunday so I couldn't watch every single game. But I know I'm missing some people. It is what it is. Let me know what you've seen throughout the summer league that you've liked, that you didn't like. Man, I met so many people while I was there. That was the most fun part about everything, whether it be people that watch the channel, other content creators or NBA players and themselves, you know what I'm saying? For the first time in my life. So okay, this is the way this has been worked for my entire life as far as being an NBA fan. I would walk up to an NBA player and be like, yo, my name's Kenny. You know, I try to introduce myself and like, can I get a picture or can we chat? You know what I'm saying? Stuff like that. For the first time, it was the opposite where a player came up to me and it was my boy, Tamezi Metu, man. Tamezi Metu saw me over there because I was sitting in the media section. He saw me over there. He's like, Kenny, I'm like, yo, this is the first time an NBA player has approached me instead of, NBA player that I didn't know already. You know what I'm saying? Like me and Mezi follow each other on socials but we've never met before. So he saw me. It was like, oh, there go Kenny. Let me say what up to him. And that's just super cool to me. That's just so very cool to me. Like, you know, I have people like Tarris Halliburton who's the homie. He saw me in a sense. He came to say what's up. But they don't count because we've already been friends. But for somebody, me and Mezi have never talked to each other. He saw me and went to come say what's up as fire. Met Patrick Williams. I can't say Met Dame. I can't say Met Dame. But within two feet of Damien Lillard, LeBron, Carrie Irvin, it was an absolute blast. So yeah, I appreciate all the, I mean, I wouldn't go to Summer League if it weren't for y'all showing support in these videos to help me have a platform. So it's worth them sending me to Summer League. So I appreciate all the y'all. Subscribe to the newsletter. And then lastly, let me know who you want to see represent your favorite team in a 15 to 20 minute video of Chop and Hoop Swimming. Appreciate y'all.