Welcome to the Washington Wizards, Bub Carrington: A Dynamic Pull-Up Scoring Weapon with more upside

Welcome to the Washington Wizards, Bub Carrington: A Dynamic Pull-Up Scoring Weapon with more upside

hello and welcome to Game Theory I’m your host Sam Vini today bub Carrington joins the show another one of my favorite prospects in the 2024 NBA draft bub Carrington is an absolutely tremendous pull-up shooter passer playmaker allaround awesome lead guard for the University of Pittsburgh this season I have him as a top 10 player in this draft class and I’m really really excited to have you guys get to watch us break down film together but first let’s hit the music [Music] they do have a timeout decide not to use it way down bang than what’s this going to be are you kidding me hello and welcome to the game theory podcast I’m your host Z but if you watch the tape what you will see completely orchestrated this game so let’s just kind of jump in and talk about basketball because that’s what I’m like most excited to do with you and the thing that really stands out to me about your game I love your craft as a ball handler I love your ability to decelerate I love your ability to get into pullup jumpers I I just think that the way that your game builds upon itself in ball screens is just so incredibly impressive so I guess what I would ask you before we even jump in and really start looking at the tape how did you go about developing that ball screen part of your game honestly really just by watching it and I drilled it obvious you know in practices and stuff like that but this is really my first year playing point guard so yeah coming off ball screens was kind of new to me so kind of just I feel like I’m a visual learner so just watching uh Pros watching um College athletes that were in my position you know last year and things like that I was really just like film I feel like helped me a lot and for like people that may not be aware like your dad you know the Elder bub is a longtime coach in the Baltimore you know AA scene you know High School scene younger players certainly um how do you feel like he kind of helped you develop and kind of grow in that way I would say just about always being in my ear like always always kind of just being that vocal role model vocal uh like influencer I would say like he would always just kind of tell me right from wrong tell me different ways to look at it you know just kind of always trying to pick my brain but also giving me like the real stuff that I might not see yeah yeah I mean the thing you know you’ve always been known more as a scorer right and you were a guy that coming in you were like a top 100ish recruit or whatever like the rankings are meaningless once everybody gets on the court like we know that but you know is this coming like a little bit sooner than you expected maybe because like I know for instance like after the Wake Forest game in the ACC tournament like you even said like no like I’m planning on coming back to pit for a year but then like everything turned kind of quickly and you ended up deciding to go pro so like was this an expectation for you coming into this year that this would be like a real possibility to get to the NBA after one year honestly it wasn’t uh I always obviously I planned on being there or getting there but not this soon at all I I feel myself seen too at least uh but fortunate enough to I’m fortunate enough for people to think that I should so I feel like I should take that opportunity yeah and you know look like I you know have a top 10 grade on you in this class like I’m I’m there with those people right like I I certainly agree with them so let’s kind of just talk about basketball you know so this one here I love the way that you navigate with your screener for somebody that like didn’t grow up playing like within a ton of ball screens right I think that your Synergy with your screeners be it you know the Diaz Graham Twins or Federico this year I thought the way that you just had like an understanding of how to reject screens and like force your bigs into rescreens and little things like that like for instance this one you take a drip dble handoff you kind of reject the dribble handoff is this a is this a set play where you’re rejecting a dribble handoff because you see you know your teammate here I think that might be Jaylen low there um kind of in your space or is this a reaction because you see him in your space this is more of a reaction just being on the same page with my big like you said so you try to reject it again kind of coming across and then you decide to go and just pull up once you see your man go underneath here what are you seeing and this is from that Wake Forest game you know that I mentioned earlier but or no this is from the home game that you guys played against Wake Forest but what are you seeing here after that initial cut off drive I’m seeing that he’s over playing the uh my left as I feel like he’s they were icing the ball screen they weren’t trying to let me get to it so once I realiz that I took a few dribbles to set him up going one way so I could use the ball screen and he ended up getting fed he ended up setting a good great screen he ended up getting flushed under so I a shot I’m taking nine 10 times out of 10 yeah and I mean the the thing that I think I want people to recognize is how lethal you are as a pull-up player right you were unequivocally one of the best pull-up players in college basketball this season Point Blank I believe that you had the second most points per game game out of pull-ups of any player in college basketball this season behind Jordan Pope at Oregon state did you say you didn’t know that I didn’t know that yeah uh yeah you averaged like I think like eight points per game out of pull-ups this year and you know we’ll talk about you know getting to the rim and everything because I think that’s one area where like you know people have probably certainly asked you questions about but the pull-up game is so lethal for you that it’s just such an immediately translatable weapon this one you just kind of go behind the screen and you drill it you know you’re going to come up here again dribble hand off this one you decide to go and the thing that just stands out so immediately upon watching you is the way that you use like a hostage dribble or you know keep somebody on your hip right so as you come off of this action here what are you trying to do as you see uh who is that number one for Duke trailing you uh on your hip here I’m trying to make the the big make it decision uh is he going to commit or is he going to try to like fall back to protect the rim and he kind of fake stunt tried to get back so I was patient and I knew that I could get to my spot right there and rise up over the little bit of a smaller uh Defender yeah I’m really glad you brought up like engaging the big here right like that’s just the thing that you constantly do you are so good at pressing that Advantage once you get that little Advantage uh with your man on your hip here and forcing this man to engage right like you do it constantly and that ability here to just like keep this guy on your hip right like you use that little off arm right like I love this little off arm move here yeah where you can see there you’re like kind of shoving him back shoving him back I mean you were what did you what weight did you play at this year I played at 18 83 around 183 85 yeah I feel like you’re going to get so much bigger too that like these kind of things where you’re able to keep this man just like completely in jail like on your hip that’s only going to get like better for you don’t you think like it’s gonna be easier for you at that point that’s the plan [Laughter] yeah that you know kind of deceleration as well like we’ll talk about that momentarily but you know whenever we get into this want to talk about mid-range stuff as well I love the little natural lean back that you have on your shot in that mid-range while still maintaining balance I love that you elevate into the shot at a really high level and I love the high release point it’s kind of the exact like blend of skills that you need to be a great mid-range scorer in the NBA do you know what you shot from mid-range this year on pull-ups I don’t you shot I think 52% this year on mid-range pull-ups that would be like you know among the higher numbers in the NBA like that’s a it’s it’s a very lethal number to really be able to attack how did you get so comfortable in that mid-range area drilling it a billion times it feels like just constant workouts with my dad uh any hour of the day they just constantly just going in the gym and focusing on that one area and I feel like that’s why I’m like so comfortable in it because it’s just all I’m used to yeah and you know that ability is really evident here as well when you’re going to get into this you know again rejected ball screen you reject these ball screens incredibly well you I think you read the way that your man is defending you again like this is an ice situation you brought that up earlier with Wake Forest you know you see here that Riley cougal for Florida is trying to force you to go to your left you just feel like very comfortable handling the ball with both hands I would imagine at this point right like there’s no like concern either way um it’s just very impressive that you have no issue keeping this guy that’s like R Riley is a freak athlete man like riy is a powerful athlete he is strong like that is an NBA caliber you know Defender athletically on you here and you just have again no problem kind of keeping him on your hip and then again I love the off arm move like you give that little shove off right and it’s the deceleration that I love with your game to be able to stop and get to a point you’re not the fastest dude in the world necessarily but think yeah but I think you stop better than other guys you know what I mean like I think that your ability to slow down and stay on balance and like kind of put that Force into the ground in a real way is so important to your game is there anybody that you kind of watch that you feel like that you play like um in that way to like you can like put Force into the ground and stop like that I would say Kevin Durant definitely was a huge fan of Kevin Durant growing up and constantly watching that mid-range among monst drilling it feel like was where you kind of you start seeing that mesh that blend yeah I mean you know DMV guy certainly I don’t know is is uh is is where Kevin’s from considered Baltimore I don’t it’s not Baltimore is he’s from like a deeper part of Maryland yeah but you know DMV guy like it makes total sense that you would like really connect with that like you know the guys that like kind of stand out to me watching you you know because I think you’re more of like an on ball guy whereas Kevin’s gonna be you know running around screens running around like all sorts of different actions right like like LCA donic and James Harden have this superpower right like they’re they’re bigger than you obviously but that ability to just like put Force into the ground and stop like I I think that that’s what’s so impressive about like your game and how you get into these mid-range shots here uh you know this one here you’re going to come off of a screen you’re going to get into a rescreen from Diaz Graham you know that’s another NBA a draft prospect there and Zion pin you know 23y old dude and you just use those shoulders to be able to get into him and kind of create that separation right you know the next one here another dribble hand off into a reject rescreen you just feel very it flows so easily for you uh is kind of the easiest way to put it there’s never a point where you feel flustered on the court to me in terms of keeping your handle alive right like are you just like an extremely comfortable how do you develop that Poise to like keep your dribble alive and to maintain that live dribble I would say just knowing that when you have the ball in your hands the team is Flowing off of how you are moving and you can’t get sped up like once you start getting sped up then everyone starts getting sped up and that’s bad basketball so y always being kind of like taught at a young age to like never let them speed you up you know you go as fast as you want to go and yeah that always kind of stuck with me so this one you know you have cor M Ryan guarding you again like older guy knows how to at least guard certainly uh from having played I think six or seven years of college basketball now in cormax case uh you get this screen here what makes you decide to snake this screen in the way that you do uh I would say I noticed that he got clipped like I noticed that he was in a bad like position because of the screen that fetty set and bacock is known more for playing a deeper drop so I knew that he wasn’t really G to try to stop me so it was more like I seen the space I knew that that was my spot so I was going to get to it this is a really good example of another thing that I think you do exceptionally well it’s you can realign your body in midair I feel like you are so comfortable and confident kind of pulling up from any angle in any type of footwork right so like this is realistically not like the ideal space to start getting into your jumper right like I think people would look at you and they would see like you know your butt is like back toward the free throw line there and like your balance like might be a little bit off again I think that like speaks to the deceleration and the force that you can kind of put into the ground but more than that it’s this ability to really realign your body in midair how do you you know how how do you go about being able to work on those different footworks to be able to get that into uh to get into these shots and then like be able to turn your body and get your elbow like perfectly aligned to the rim in a circumstance like this uh I know my dad’s going to watch this and be and pissed if I don’t say anything about it but it’s definitely just from like drilling this with my dad like doing these exact drills uh sometimes coming into workouts with him and just literally doing that for like 45 minutes just working on twisting your body in the air still squaring up to make any shot kind of look like a good shot make every shot have a chance yep and uh so I would say it was definitely just from doing that constantly yeah and you know again like all of these pullup moments here that we’re going through and we’re seeing right like this one here you just kind of almost string out this big right and then you just decide to burst to the rim you know one area that I think is worth kind of discussing with you is just that ability to consistently get to the basket right uh I think that you do showcase like real moments where you use your stride length particularly and get all the way to the rim but this year I think you averaged like I think it was under two shots per game at the basket in half court settings is it a deal where you just kind of feel more comfortable in that mid-range area or you know you know this is a weird way to phrase this question but like why don’t you end up getting as much Rim pressure as you know some other guards that you know end up in your position playing on ball as much as you do yeah I get this question a lot and I would say it’s two things for one I would say you were right like I’m I’m just so naturally built and wired to pull up and I feel so comfortable doing that it’s more like that is not in a sorts a layup for me but if a layup is considered the easiest shot a pullup is considered the easier Shot for Me yep and uh and I would say the second thing would be just because I wasn’t de sized nearly my whole life like yeah my majority of my life I was the smallest got on the court playing basketball so yeah I wasn’t can you explain that for people like when you had your growth spurts kind of yeah so I would say let’s start from freshman year high school I was 57 about five uh eight my sophomore year and then that’s when Co that was during that Co year and I grew like like four inches that Co year like kind of in my sleep and I was six foot six yeah I was about six feet six feet one for the remainder of my High School uh career and then in college actually like that summer going into college and a little bit during college is how ended up being 64 right now so yeah it it was funny when I talked to a few NBA Scouts that had like gone to a pit practice and they were like he looks like way bigger than what we like remember yeah uh and I think that that does like really reform like change your game in some way you know what I mean like it it adjusts things for you how did you feel like it changed the game for you uh when you went through those growth spurts um I would say it changed the game physically like I was I could be physically imposing at at times more times than not and um obviously that helps in every aspect of the game um so and also kind of yeah like it just took me a minute to get used to it because I wasn’t used to it you know so that so when you were when you were 5 foot eight were you like trying to like do the same like [ __ ] that you’re doing now where you like put you know your shoulder into dudes and like really try and like play because you play like a pretty physical brand of basketball as it is yeah I would say no not at all I was I was trying to get away from people I used a lot of space dribbles and uh Retreat dribbles and things like that yeah that’s interesting interesting and you know to speak to like the rim thing we’ll talk about this as we go through like a few more Clips here but I think that you actually have like some pretty real craft around the basket that maybe like people don’t notice like this is like a same foot you know same hand righty finish right like this know it’s not like the easiest shot like you would expect most you know NBA level lead ball handlers to be able to do this but you know I think that you are very comfortable and on balance in a number of different foot works and that does translate hopefully long term to you being able to continue to get better as a finisher around the rim and even be able to get that kind of Rim pressure as we go here um this one which we kind of played already I’d imagine again like this is kind of similar to the bacock clip right where Jesse Edwards is going to be in a deep drop yeah and I seen that the side that the ball screen it was a step up towards the sideline and what a Defender the corner so it was going to be cramped over there so I kind of told Will to when he set this screen to hold so I can snake and he can roll behind me to try to get that space in the middle of the floor so when you’re communicating with him are you like are you just yelling out like hold hold hold in this circumstance no I I would like we would run this play and like I would see it and so before we run it again I would tell him like before we run the play I mean this is another like kind of prime example of you just like getting into all sorts of footwork stuff this is this is glorious you’re you’re the third straight player I’ve recorded with where I’ve called out this like beautiful Little Durk like fadea away jumper right with that little off knee how how did you uh go about figuring this out that this is a this is a move that you can be pretty effective with trying it right there oh wa I’m not even gonna like say that’s s not necessarily drill or anything that was that was one where you just kind of found it yeah it was just yeah but like that speaks it speaks to your inherent creativity right like with your feet that’s funny that’s awesome that is very awesome was funny like Baylor shyan was telling me like yeah no I’ve been doing that since like South Dakota State days like you know I’ve just like kind of know that like that’s how I you know get into that shot I’ve never been the most athletic guy in the world and like you’re just making it work you know in college basketball as an 18yearold like trying it uh this one here I mean again it’s just the craft the footwork the pump fakes you just like kind of put dudes through the ringer I feel like every single time that you have the ball again like Riley cougal is like a physical strong dude yeah indeed like did you you kind of feel that strength on you like is he’s like guarding you in terms of bumping and stuff oh yeah for sure sure older guard more physical yeah you feel it definitely in this one here again like is this just you recognizing you have the man in the corner so Walter Clayton’s gonna be there to help so you have to kind of snake it and get it back to the middle yes just take advantage of the open space and then this one like you have Zion p in there like kind of getting ready to like it in your handle the pump fake and again that natural lean back on the jumper to be able to just create that little bit of separation kind of talking through this with you I’m curious like it I would imagine that that kind of developed when you were younger and just smaller right and like you felt like you needed that little bit of like natural Fade to get shots off nah no not really I would say this is more developed in like my senior like junior senior year high school interesting cuz like I like my my game like we flip like me and my like got of flipped my game on what I was able to do so like when you’re small you’re not really able to get into these pull-ups like this yeah As I Grew is as I developed this game c can you kind of like talk about that I hate those style questions where I’m just like ask like telling you to talk about something but like can you kind of explain like how you and your dad like flipped your game and what you mean by that like in a real way so I would say when I was more younger like early high school days and um middle school as used like as I mentioned I was Tiny like I was usually the smallest guy on the team so I was mainly trying to my me and my dad we focused on mainly like defending like because if you’re small you’re already at a disadvantage you got to be able to knock down a three and guard somebody you got to be able to make a point guard’s life hell in a way so um that was mainly what focus on just the defense and passing like I feel like I’m a natural distributor because that’s the first thing I ever learned in basketball was being that kind of uh table setter in a way yeah and then um as he started to grow as I started to kind of get more athletic uh more like stronger able to get into shots like this because they they spend more energy uh is when we took advantage of it and got in the gym constantly and drilling this because you had to break old habits to get room for the new ones yeah that’s really really interesting because like I almost felt like you were more of a scorer like at the high school level but like you’re telling it it actually like totally makes sense in terms of how your game like came together this year that you came up more as like a passer playmaker and then kind of developed this part of your game like later in high school and then this year you kind of Blended it all together in that way that’s really interesting thing so kind of getting into this next one again you know again just like ball screens all day you get into this dho and again you’re just like kind of floating into that mid-range area knocking it down side ball screen this time they decide to I mean are you taking this yeah this is definitely a switch but as you kind of come across like the mesh point of the screen here are you assuming this is a switch or a hard hatch I was assuming it was a switch the guy that was guarding me was already pretty big so I was assuming it would switch so as you kind of attack this switch is your whole plan here just to get back into that step back jumper um it wasn’t that was more of a kind of I was flowing I think I had I was scoring I think pretty much this game so it was kind of like a I’m feeling it you know you you had a good few days uh at the ACC tournament you had a you had a good few days I would say and and look like it was interesting like and one thing I want to talk to you about here and maybe we can talk about it now is you know early in the year like I thought that you were great early and then I thought that you know in the middle of the year like you might have like went through like a little bit of a lull right like like shooting particularly it felt like was a bit of an issue for you and then like in your last like 12 or so games I think you drilled like 45% from three and you just like really felt it at that point how much of that was just like an adjustment process for you like adjusting to college and like getting used to playing against like more athletic players in that way I would say it’s a it’s a major part of it but I would say a lot of it is also just the mental thing like I feel like I wasn’t being as young as I was I wasn’t as disciplined enough in my jump shot to keep it the same way every time yeah so I feel like once you kind of you get used to it I was adjusting to the physicality by changing my Dum jump shot you know every two shots and that would result to inconsistency with it so once I fix the inconsistency I’ve seen consistent results yeah no I think that that’s really really smart and really really like it takes like a honestly like you coming up within the game like it you’re probably like a little bit more mature than like 18-year-old you know what I mean just being around your dad all the time and having that you know understanding of what the game is you know what I mean and how to kind of adjust to all of those things so this one here you know this is just you kind of finding this you know easy mid-range like walk-in jumper because PJ Hall decides to play in like a heavy drop again you snake it I I love how you snake ball screens I think it’s just super uh you’re great at cutting off those angles for those smaller guards like you just make it so difficult for them to stay attached to you and the thing that you know I haven’t really brought up yet but that you do really well for a teenager particularly is you can shoot both going to your right and to your left uh you we’ve watched a few jumpers where you know for instance the one that I called out where you were wrong footed and then you realigned in midair that’s you going to your right this one’s you going to your left here most right-handed shooters by and large not everybody are a little bit more comfortable like stepping back to their left because it just kind of gets them into like a natural Rhythm you were like completely comfortable and confident going both to your left and to your right how did you I mean like I keep asking just like how did you go about developing this but like that is a real specific skill set for a teenager to have so how did you like really go about trying to you know make that a part of your game by by trying not to have a a weakness in that mid-range area like as I mentioned earlier like we were trying to mold my game into this mid-range and all when you’re trying to get into a league where this shot is probably less valued the Le least valued shot on the floor you got to be able to not be a hindrance in any way in this shot so I feel like trying to master every kind of way you take a pullup so it’s not really looked down upon as much when you take it because you always been doing it you always were able to Showcase it well like on ball guys too like you do need a mid-range game like that’s that’s kind of like the secret of the thing like you know the guys who take the shots at the rim and the threes are the guys that are like catch and shoot guys like those are the ones where you really can’t like have those guys taking anything other than threes in layups right but the guys who are going to operate on the ball I mean you you absolutely need like all three levels at the NBA and I think that you’re 100% right to develop that part of your game and continue to grow and mature and I think it’s like an enormous building block for you like this one here you know this is you know talking about getting to the rim like this is tyres Proctor you’re going against like a really really good Defender and a big one too 6’4 6′ five pretty long arms you know much stronger after his first year at Duke and I love how you tuck it like a football player like did you grow up playing football at all yeah I did yeah I was sayball first love really how has that kind of impacted the way that you kind of think about basketball um I would say you think about it on a you think about it in a more like skillful way I would say because football is the one of the few Sports where you don’t really got to be as skillful to be good yeah so but you got to be skillful in basketball so you kind of think of it in a a way where you’re trying to balance both so this one here you know I mentioned earlier that I love your stride length right like this is one where you like extend out as far as you can I love the length extension here that 6 foot eight wingspan that you have to be able to get that you know arm all the way out get the ball as close to the rim as possible finish with the left obvious like that’s a really really important thing being able to finish with both hands this one here you know pump fake drive I love that little extend out like I I guess I would call this like a Euro Step Right you plant left and then kind of go to the right so what are you seeing here as you come off of this screen and decide to go all the way to the rim I’m seeing that there isn’t really strong help and the fact that I was able to kind of beat him off of one dribble I see that I’m trying to cut basically cut him off I have the advantage so I’m trying to completely eliminate him by doing that yearo in this one here like I’d imagine that if this guy comes early and I swear we’re going to get to the passing here momentarily which again like one of the more fun parts of your game like I’d imagine if this guy comes and you know shows here as early as you know earlier let’s say you feel like fedy has a real angle on this man here having him on his back so you could just kind of throw this lob right definitely yeah look like I I think that you have the ability to get to the rim and I think that you know the way that you phrase your growth and your development right is so critical to what you know your future can be getting to the basket because it’s just not something that you did a lot of being smaller right it’s not that you can’t do it it’s just that you didn’t do it whenever you were you actually couldn’t do it when you were younger you know what I mean uh this one here you know we’re going to get into like a little ghost into a empty side ball screen I call a foul right here yeah they got you with a foul and I kind of wanted to just like talk with with you a little bit about just like you were not in any way like turnover prone this year at all but you know I think you average under two turnovers per game if there’s one thing that like I thought you did occasionally is like kind of pick up your dribble in the mid-range area and like kind of get caught right uh you are quite good at keeping alive dribble but just kind of take me through this one and just kind of tell me what you see here and where you think you kind of made your like slight mistake here I would say by not attacking um bacock fully directly like yeah as you mentioned earlier like I was pretty I would say kind of efficient at snake and ball screens but I kind of get I would kind of do it too much and I feel like if I would have attacked B here directly it would have opened up fetty a lot more or make someone tag heavier to for a three kick out three yeah and like the cool thing is that you know the defense is good at basketball too like North Carolina was awesome defensively this year right uh you know you see here like cormack Ryan is Gonna Come and he’s gonna like really get a body on fetty here so like fetty doesn’t have that kind of you know immediate Rim gravity for you to be able to just throw this lob up right um yeah it’s just like again like I think that you could stand to attack the basket there I think you know it at that point and I think that that’s you know you’re a teenager you’re gonna get better at this stuff at the end of the day right yeah uh you know and you’re a teenager that’s grow like grown so much and is still trying to figure out how to use that frame right so that’ll come along I think we’re now going to get into the uh real fun stuff which is the passing uh this this is sick explain to me what you see here um we ran a play but we ended up running it wrong actually so this was a broken play but it ended up working because I seen the empty side and I kind of just try to take advantage of it immediately and I mean anytime someone’s kind of sent to the two to the ball someone’s open yeah and I’m glad that you know after that last play we see you just like attacking space here right and trying to get downhill get all the way to the rim one fun thing that you do is you are a very serious jump passer and I think that that has like a negative connotation sometimes yeah I in your case where you average 1.9 turnovers per game I don’t really care I think so how how do you process things when you’re in the air I guess and like jumping it seems like this one you had a plan but like I’ve seen you make passes where it feels like mostly you have a plan but then like maybe sometimes you’re kind of still trying to you know process it all uh at once um so I’m glad you brought that up actually because this kind of brought to my attention and I kind of realized it recently I’m still not used to how tall I am yet I feel like so I feel like like I jump a lot thinking that like I got to see over defenders or like so I would say that’s probably a main reason but I’ll say the second reason is when you have the like the offensive I guess gravity that I kind of had this season whenever you even like look at the rim or attack the basket or jump people are going to react so I was mainly doing it to get create reaction to get everyone to kind of focus on me to open up no I love that I think that’s a really really smart way to put it I mean like Tyrese halberton is one of the you know three best passers in the NBA something like that the guy jump passes constantly right like he just is excellent at keeping his body in the air making the defense commit and going from there and part of the reason he’s successful with that is that you know particularly pull up Gravity from 30t from like in your I think it’s the mid-range game right like having that ability to pull up from any angle you know right left footwork Left Right footwork like whatever you have like you are a threat to shoot and realign in midair so you have that you know a similar sense of gravity I think in that way when you jump pass so you know this one here just kind of explain to me what you see knowing that UVA is a heavy heavy hedge team that usually leaves rollers open so they have to be a heavy help team as well so kind of just realizing that if that immediate slip isn’t there it is because someone is wide open on the backside because he has to tag so once I realized once I was able to see over the big I seen that Zach was open just feel like I jumped for a strength reason there I had to try to get it there thing that you do on this pass that I really love and I realized I went too far is this guy here this guy Ryan Dunn right Ryan Dunn is one of the best defenders I thought he was the best defender in college basketball this year was either him or Jamal shed unbelievable on defense unbelievable in help defense particularly the way that you look him off here just like very briefly like you give like just a little minor like glance here and that forces him up yeah and that’s what opens the angle for you I think that is what’s really sharp just like using your eyes to manipulate that backside defender in the one on two and Ryan Dunn is not an easy guy to manipulate I thought that was really really impressive and you kick this out Austin drills it this one you’re going to come off the screen again hard hedge as you can see they get back they recover hard hedge is that just like you kind of self-processing in the moment like they’re going to hard hedge again and you know hopefully uh whichever Diaz Grand brother that is slips uh yeah it was kind just recognizing that it is gonna happen like they they drill that they make sure they do it every time so just knowing that it it slips will always be there against the edge yep yeah and you know you can see here I think that’s McNeely a little bit frustrated that like nobody’s there and it’s just like well you’re hard hedging like that’s an impossible spot to put uh this man on the backside here and like I don’t know like what what is expected of him in this circumstance but on the slip there’s just no recourse whatsoever uh in that play I love that play from you this one again you take the screen hit the kick out here so as you’re coming downhill what do you see I see that it’s a lot of bodies in the paint like truly I didn’t know that Blake was going to be necessarily over there I knew someone was over there and I knew that they would be open because I just felt like I was crowded in there yeah yeah so how much of what you see on the court is kind of you you know counting bodies almost right you’re kind of yeah go ahead yeah I would say a lot of it um one thing that I was taught at a pretty young ages you always wna you always want to push the advantage when you have more uh your color jersey so I feel like I just count jerseys or clock jerseys often just to see when we have the advantage or not interesting yeah I mean that’s a really really sharp kickout right like you know feels like to me you’re kind of you know trying to you jump pass again I love it you’re seeing here you’re putting velocity on this with your off hand as well like this is a live dribble like or not really a live dribble because you picked it up at that point but that is an off-hand B like zip on that ball like that has real velocity to get that ball out to Blake Henson right in the shooting pocket perfectly accurate this one you know again jump Pass Perfect I love how you draw the defender with that jump pass here right you know this is DJ Burns you know they’re going to play Drop obviously with DJ Burns I assume you’re just trying to engage him at that point yes just making him fully commit and you get the ball down little drop off perfect uh this is one that’s fun where again like yeah you just kind of take me through it here what are you saying um we run this play to make that tag Defender make a decision and so coming off these ball I’m just reading that weak that low man Zach’s guy and he has a decision to make whether he protects the rim or he protects the three and once I seen that he took even that one or two steps inside I knew that Zach would have that window to take that shot so I tried to get it over there as fast as I could yeah no it’s it’s a perfect read it’s the exact way you’re supposed to look at that play just that little shake like right up to the from the corner to the wing this one again like you throw these skip passes just like absolutely perfectly I don’t think he called bank but whatever def this one here uh little rescreen with uh fetty here and again it’s just reading that backside Defender how did you go about developing that Vision because like literally you looking at him here like where we have this screen paused how did you kind of get so comfortable looking at that just like backside weeks side Defender I would say credit shout out to like credit to the coaches the coaching staff uh just constantly showing me that film like showing me you can make the game so much easier by not worrying about the man in front of you because in your head he has to already be beat you have to read the next man so I would say them constantly showing me that you know that t those tags will be there college basketball principles are pretty standard in a way yeah so knowing that that will always be there I mean by and large like you know similar principles in the NBA too on that weak side tag because you know if you have you know I’m trying to think of like a great like Rudy goar like unbelievable like Rim threat like coming downhill off of a screen if you don’t send a tager it’s over you know what I mean yeah those guys are so big and so strong and so long that the same principle applies so I think that you know these are all just so directly translatable more than anything passing wise to me that that’s what immediately stands out about you all of your passes for the most part are just very translatable to what you do this one you know I kind of wanted to get into your off ball game now because like I’ve seen people question whether or not like you’re going to like be able to play off the ball probably just based off the three-point percentage being 32% or whatever but you you are a very real shooter and like I’ve seen you come off of screens and like knock down shots off of movement and catch and shoot from three right like I don’t really think you’re gonna have a problem shifting off the ball at times like you you played a decent amount off the ball in high school a little bit didn’t you I played majority off the ball I played off the ball I didn’t play point col yeah I thought so so how comfortable are you just like playing off the ball after this year at pit um it’s like night and day like that’s that’s always that’s been the basketball player I always been it wasn’t until I like I mentioned I got to college to where I was predominantly a ball handler it’s just like that Comfort level like you showcase very real you know Talent in ability whenever you’re playing off the ball you know how to space right like this is pretty simple here right like you understand that you know I can play deep look at that like you have the like you are ready to catch and fire from three there like you have your legs bent you have your body turned like toward your player but also like set to get into a shot off the hop right like this is all you’re sliding like you’re just kind of moving across the three-point line to get into shooting position like some on ball players like they don’t necessarily have those like immediate skills right because they’ve just grown up playing on the ball and they’re easily developable right like this is just like stuff you have to learn as you get older but you know you having that immediately coming into the NBA I think is actually a real credit to you and I think it kind of goes understated within your game a little bit just like having that level of comfort off of the ball and you move well like these are a lot of these are just like sets but that last one is not a set like that’s one where you’re just spacing naturally and you’re kind of relocating across the three-point line and trying to create a dangerous situation for your Defender having to close out or not close out and you’re going to be able to take a three you know this one here coming off of just like you know that middle pin down and you’re just like firing from three again like what is the difference for you firing from three off the catch versus off of a pull-up because your ball pickups off of pull-ups are so good but off the catch it’s just like totally different mechanics right yeah I would say it’s a mental thing more than anything um just try like don’t get too comfortable I feel like that was one thing I kind of struggled with like when I was catching and shooting I was kind of just relaxed I guess because I wasn’t necessarily moving into it so which Rel which translated into like a more like lazy looking jump shot so I don’t realize you know just don’t get too comfortable get out of your head yeah and right there yeah like so look at that like your knees are bent you’re set arms ready to catch fire you just drill it right like your shot prep there is perfect the the next place I do want to talk about and this will be the last place we talk about is defense I thought you struggled a little bit early in the season defensively I thought you got drastically better throughout the season defensively to the point where I thought you were like a pretty damn good Defender by the end of the year this year at pit so what was that growth process like for you coming into college adjusting to the physicality everything that comes with that and then maturing and growing throughout the year defensively at pit um I would say it’s kind of it was natural for me like I said that was that was kind of what I started my game off of was defense and kind of being sound in my defensive principles yeah and then you know adjusting to college basketball is you know different than anything you’ve played in for sure but I once out you know you realize how big you are and how strong you are you kind start growing into your body you know how to use it and you combine that like kind of length with your natural defensive instincts you you can you have the potential to be a good Defender like you said yeah like you clearly have an attitude like you want to defend like there’s never a there’s never a question like some dudes like you know it’s indifference or anything like that like you you don’t have that indifference on defense at all like you are engaged it feels like to me every sing time you were on that end of the court is that like I mean you we kind of talked about it a minute ago but like that’s just like something that you were like brought up within it sounds like yeah it was it was something that it was unexcusable you know inexcusable you know was yeah you you gotta be able to stop your man you got to have a certain attitude about it you gotta ha getting scored on you know that’s right no I think that’s that’s a great way to put it so this one here know you’re dealing with RJ Davis ACC player of the year right like another prime example of like you certainly very least by the end of the year becoming a guy that was like a real Defender they they wouldn’t give you this assignment otherwise you know what I mean like that guy that guy can go so this one you know I love the way that you kind of stay attached you navigate the screen you call out a switch right you stay attached to kdo you close out out you get the contest right he makes it but you’re engaged the whole way like sometimes RJ Davis is going to make a three on you and you just kind of have to live with that right but I love the way that you’re communicating here I love this this like shot here is perfect for me right like you’re clearly like calling out and communicating what’s happening you’re here on the backside obviously there’s a double you’re in a one-on two situation here where Elliot CAD is going to cut to the rim yeah you’re responsible for both of these guys right because Blake is up here against Harrison Ingram obviously Zack’s here against cormack Ryan and you have two on the ball with uh Bott you’re just like there’s there’s no way like you know exactly what your responsibilities are here you make sure you stay on the guy at the rim but you still have your momentum going the other way right because you can see that that kickout is a real possibility here I love how like you’re very clearly reading where Bott is trying to go here because your momentum is starting to go that way while still being connected to Kad in these one on- two situations like you watching as much NBA as you do all the time they come up all the time in the NBA and you have to be able to get out and cover that ground I think you cover the ground here fine is that kind of everything that you’re kind of seeing on this play like as you deal with that one on two yeah you called it out perfectly um communicating switch we usually the double would have came from me but we sent the double for more matchup reasons so communicating that know JLo youo and uh you know stand in his stance trying to read his eyes and like you said a good player is gonna hit good shots quite often so you gota live with that I think that was that that was everything that you can do right on that play just the shot went in you know what I mean and that’s going to happen uh this one you know you’re kind of trailing tracking another you know potential NBA Prospect this year obviously he decided to go 2025 in Hunter Salis but you know just staying attached to him and you made his life miserable in this game like you absolutely made his life a living hell it felt like just look at the hands disrupting with the hands trying to get into the dribble he gets unsettled right and kind of throws it away so kind of talk me through what you’re seeing throughout this like is this something that you kind of saw in The Scouting Report or like you know in the in the you know pregame where they would kind of run this set regularly and you kind of had a feel for it yeah I would definitely say scouting helps a lot we scouted a quite a lot this year so we knew with the sets we knew what sets they were running but I would say after they kind of didn’t use the screen this is one-on-one defense and just trying to pressure the ball make his like you said make his life pretty rough because you know he’s their main scorer so if you try to cut him down they got a lot of slack to pick up yeah I mean again like the the best evidence that you were a really good Defender by the end of the year is you know the two things that we’ve seen here in the ACC you defending Hunter Alis who averaged 18 points a game or whatever and RJ Davis who’s the best player in the ACC this year right like you getting those assignments is like great evidence to me and you’re doing a good job on them this one here immediately just like you’re talking look at that like very obvious like I don’t need to be there at the ACC tournament to know you’re talking to your teammates like you’re pointing out you’re saying like I got ball I got ball here calling it out for everybody or no you’re saying are you saying to Jaylen to get the ball yes so you’re saying to Jaylen to get the ball here and then you’re gonna take the trailer you call out another switch right like just even just this little thing here right you can can see your left hand go up right there calling out another switch communicating talking look at the way you get over that screen like that is outstanding that’s exact like Trail technique that you want to have there this one you get over the screen with just that little hop step right like that’s perfect like that’s exactly what you want to do you use your length to recover yeah like you end up giving up a tough contested mid-range or a three-point shot but that’s that’s textbook like this is all this is all textbook to me and again like you mentioned coming up playing defense you know I can only imagine you like when you were smaller having to do this like now that you’re bigger how much easier is it for you to defend having that size and length I would say it’s easier for on Ball but definitely harder off ball because you with a biger with a bigger frame you get hit more with those screens and things of that nature man I thought you were awesome getting over screen like getting around screens off the ball even though and that was contribute to the fact that when I was when I was smaller I was so easy it was so easy to and I was just small like last year so it was kind of like I still had that same like kind of attitude about it yeah I mean this is again like coming off that off ball screen they’re clearly trying to get it to RJ here and you know you’re right in front look at that length like you’re touching him but you’re still like right at the three-point line making it hard on him like you made it really really hard on these dudes on the ball I thought next one here this is against Georgia Tech you’re on the ball and you just like completely shut it down right like that’s one where like you use your length and strength like I think that’s Stant and stant’s like a fifth year guy um theoretically could go right through you and you just use your size your length you cut off the angle get the block shot this one again like coming off of screens right man I I don’t know what you’re talking about like you did a great job coming off of screens off the ball I thought I mean it’s the because I got tell you one one big reason is because I didn’t like getting hit it’s like a mind like I can’t get hit yeah I mean like you Trail like that’s that’s a that’s actually a really difficult screen to get around there without getting bumped in the way that you do like he took that angle tight that’s uh is that Gerard I think right Gerard is an expert at this yeah I don’t know if you were I don’t know if you were Blake got credit for that seal but I think that uh you know it was blown up certainly by you uh being able to get through that action and being able to kind of come around here and get back in front of Joe Gerard uh this next one here I think is like the one area where if I remember correctly on what this is so you you kind of Chase around you do a good job you know you end up switched on to jir Watkins I believe that is and you kind of end up having to navigate this it’s just like a strength factor for you right now on some level right like just being a little bit skinnier than these guys being 18 years old whereas jir Watkins is you know I think 21 or 22 and like he is a big dude a strong physical food like you kind of end up having to go through this you Retreat like I don’t I agree with you for what it’s worth here uh I’m not sure where the foul is uh I appreciate that you have your hands up here but like yeah it’s just like you know you’re gonna have to deal with that strength Factor right like you have to continue to be able to get bumped and like kind of go through the play right so how comfortable you know you’re comfortable doing it I know you don’t like you said you don’t want to get bumped on those things but I think that you you are comfortable playing through contact though that’s the thing that like yeah your game you know what I mean like that’s a joke that’s not a uh you know I don’t like contact that’s a you know if I get contacted in some spaces I might get you know my momentum thrown off right now right yeah so look like I think you really developed into being a good Defender I think you’re going to be a good NBA Defender at the end of the day and you know I think that again like everything we kind of talked about here everything in terms of how your game flows upon itself right you have excellent on ball capabilities you have the dribble pass shoot stuff you have comfort playing off the ball your vision is awesome you process the game and you can defend like I I I’m you know an enormous fan and the fact you’re doing all this at 18 is just uh it’s really really remarkable to me I mean you know you kind of mentioned you didn’t necessarily see you know one and done as a thing but uh you know I think that you know certainly you’ve deserved uh all of the accolades you’ve received this year to be sure um the the final couple things that I always like to ask guys is you know who was the best player you played against this year you thought best player DJ barns interesting tell me why he dud that dude is actually like really good at basketball and I I think people take like his physique so they like his attitude or like not his attitude but like his personality and they view it so they take him as a joke but like he’s yeah he’s a real deal good and if he was able or not able but like if he played more minutes a game than he did he would people will really see how efficient he was yeah I was talking to somebody that went down to see him he’s obviously doing pre-draft workouts and stuff as well um you know he apparently has lost like a crazy amount of weight yeah yeah it’s like looking pretty good so I’m I’m I’m interested at least to see where it goes like he might end up starting overseas or starting in the G league but um you know him getting a chance to prove it will at least be interesting uh last question for you what is your favorite sports movie of all time favorite sports movie of all time I’ll probably say Coach Carter it is really your generation that loves this movie you are at least number three maybe number four out of like the seven people that I’ve done this with that have said Coach Carter why do you love Coach Carter I feel like just an amazing movie uh and it really it really like Drew you in it’s almost like like you were a player yeah but um was what what yours why did you say this generation what yours no it’s just funny that it’s Coach Carter because Coach Carter I almost think of as like my gener like I’m 34 right and Coach Carter I always think of as like that movie came out when like I was 15 you know what I mean but I feel like you like anybody from like 18 to 24 it’s almost you know like I’m like the white dude saying hooers now like I’m cognizant of that but like like I’m like the you know for me it’s almost like that movie is 18 19 years old now like when I was you know in 2005 and I was 15 hoers was 18 or 19 years old and like maybe it’s that kind of thing where you know generationally like people in my era like really liked hooers and in like the previous era maybe it’s just like kind of trickling down in some way to you know your era where you know Coach Carter was 18 years old and is you know kind of coming down into your uh into your area yeah maybe I would say yeah that’s interesting I’m just uh um so yeah it’s a great movie I I love Coach Carter it’s fantastic you asked me for mine mine is I like Warrior but like that’s also like a Pittsburgh movie like I grew up in Pittsburgh the literally like the high school where they film like the high school scenes in Warrior is like the high school that was like my rival like high school oh really yeah it’s like the MMA movie with uh Tom Hardy and Joel ederton yeah um so like I just like know the area and like I can like literally like see all the stuff like as they’re like walking around it so yeah so like you kind of you love you love where you come from right yeah that’s I am with the wire is it so yeah it’s another one man you you just just like love the you love the 2005 era stuff that’s where you’re at guess were you were you born when the wire came out or like was done even I don’t know because you’re August aren’t you yeah yeah July yeah July yeah that’s funny man uh BB I appreciate it man is there anything else you want to like kind of impart to people um you know before you go um I think that you know we we we all love your game like we’re all super excited to see where you go and um you know anything else you feel like that you didn’t you know get a chance to let people in on as a part of your personality um I would say I’m actually really athletic and that I’m about to start showcasing my athleticism and start dunking on people people don’t believe me but I’m gon start showing you it’s it’s funny it’s very funny I love it I’m excited man like I I would love to see you just like throwing down on dudes and you’re so the thing is that like guys that have the late growth spurt like you do right they tend to take a minute to grow into their bodies and also grow into like their muscles in some way that like help with that pop I believe it man I’m here for it I’m ready I’m ready to see it uh thanks Bob I’m excited

Bub Carrington is one of my favorite guards of this class. He has all the tools to be a bucket getter in the NBA and will add a new dynamic to the Washington Wizards. We hop into the #FilmRoom ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft.

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Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.