Wizards Summer League Preview With Chase Hughes
[Music] today’s top story from the perspective of someone who’s there you are looking live this just in not my beat and that top story is that the Wizards are kicking off NBA Summer League tonight uh as is kind of tradition they’ll do number one verse number two pick Zachary RAR and the Hawks facing alexar and the Wizards and Chase Hughes are a buddy from Monumental Sports network is there Chase what’s up dude not much uh in Vegas right now looking at an ancient Egyptian pyramid and a sphinx and a and an obelisk uh so yeah there you goate in the middle of the desert yeah yeah exactly um now before we get to the the serious basketball at hand I must ask the uh I saw earlier on Twitter you put out a video uh as did a couple other uh media folks are out there the Wizards brought their own court and wait room so their guys can have access 24/7 does this mean that there’s also media pickup games when the guys are busy and you guys have free time I haven’t asked about that but yes it’s their uh their boundary Stone Court that you probably remember it’s actually the the the specifically it’s the one that they had for the playin tournament games which is sort of like teal and gold and black so it’s sort of an alternate court but yeah they still had it handy and it’s not something that you’re going to see used I don’t think ever again in an actual game so it’s like might as well get some use out of it and at the hotel that they’re staying out there there’s a ginormous conference room uh big enough to set up a weight room and a full court with baskets so they’ve got a pretty good setup now are they charging rent to other teams to use it as well like are is this just purely for wizards guys to get up shots while they’re out there I think it’s purely for the Wizards you know usually they have shoot around at Thomas and Maxon or where they’re going to play tonight so it was very easy for me because I’m staying close by to where they’re staying so all I had to do was go down a few escalators love that well in Vegas you can go down a few escalators you wind up in seven hotels down like some of the were just connected like that but this this sounds very convenient and really it’s about convenience for you chase yeah absolutely and speaking of escalators I went to the sphere last night which I’m sure everyone’s heard of but I don’t know if if you’ve seen the scale of the escalators in that place uh you feel like you’re taking off on a plane I mean you go way up in the air it’s crazy oh that’s not no I have I’ve been to Vegas a couple times since it opened we are actually there right before it opened but I have not had a chance to go like when we were there for Super Bowl everyone went to that you show and I wish that I had figured out how to get there because apparently it was the sickest thing that anyone’s ever seen like even for people that weren’t big YouTu fans they were like that’s the greatest kind should have ever been to what were you at the sphere for I went to see dead in company with John Mayor as the guitarist which uh you know you don’t really get to choose when you’re in Vegas who’s going to be there but I was plenty fine with that being the act and they were amazing I mean they played for like three hours the screen was unbelievable I mean I suggest anyone who’s out here to to give it a shot um but just be careful where you buy your tickets cuz when they say obstructed view uh they mean it because there’s two levels of seats and you basically get a good look at the stage or a good look at the screen and so I had a better look at the stage so I had to walk around to see the screen because obviously it’s massive and that’s the big appeal yeah okay all right that’s a good that’s a good scouting report on the sphere from Chase Hughes who’s out in Vegas not to cover the sphere but to enjoy it as he also covers summer league basketball okay uh what do we expect from SAR we’ll start with him um I I think he’s so fascinating because there’s a lot of options I think in terms of what he could be used as at this stage in his basketball development what do we expect the Wizards to try to do with him during this summer league session well on defense I think it’s going to be pretty straightforward he is the rim protector he’s a seven-footer with a 75 wingspan you know Park in the paint and block shots but on offense uh there is a world of possibilities even more than I expected coming into this because I knew he was versatile I knew he could make plays off the dribble shoot from the outside pass a little bit he’s got some unicorn Tendencies but the Wizards plan to try him out with basically everything you can imagine on the offensive end like just for instance when it comes to pick and rolls he’s going to set screens and roll to the rim he’s going to set screens and step out to shoot threes and pick and pop actions and he’s actually also going to be the ball handler in pick and rolls and run them as if he’s a point Center which is not something you see very often especially with the Wizards I was looking back at some tracking data to see like if any Wizards big man done this in recent years sure enough christs porzingis did a little bit but he was here for two seasons and only did it 13 total times so it’s not something you see very often from a seven-footer no doubt and this is the beauty of summer league is you put guys in roles and figure it out like and is that kind of the plan here is like let’s try everything see what he can handle because obviously if they were trying to win an NBA game tomorrow you You’ shrink his down his role down tremendously and he’d have a lot better players around him with all due respect to all the guys he’s playing with in summer league but you’d have actual NBA players is that kind of like how much of this is exploratory versus you know testing a hypothesis if you will and and that’s a different enough options for the question I think it’s testing a hypothesis I think it is Baseline testing to see where he’s at right now in those areas but you’re right you’re probably not going to see him do too much of that as a rookie unless he you know passes that test with flying colors I think it’s probably more of a long-term thing but I think it actually says a lot about the team that the Wizards hope to build in the big picture you know GM Will Dawkins said this on draft night I thought it was a really interesting way to put it that they want to be random within a system and what he meant by that is they want to create an offense that is your um your five out offense which NBA fans have probably heard of where you have five Shooters on the floor so even the four and the five are on the on the three-point line and you just don’t know where the attack is going to come from but what the Wizards want to do is take that to the next step and have five guys who can beat you off the dribble so you’re going to see some experimenting with not just Alex SAR but a lot of players on that roster in the summer league and one example is anytime that the other team misses a shot basically whoever gets the defensive rebound is going to have the green light to take the ball up the floor in transition so prepare your eyes for that because Alex sawar is seven feet tall and he might be running the team in the Fast Break yeah that’s going to be a lot of fun to watch again that is the absolute beauty of Summer League you see some wild stuff and you not the say this going to happen to s but you know you’re going you’re going to see this over the course of many of the games that you’ll be at you get to see some guys fail spectacularly and it’s really fun just like Hey Big Man okay we know you gave you the green light but we’re gonna we’re going to rain you back in I don’t think sar’s going to have that problem uh at all but you will see some some guys that maybe perhaps belong as more traditional post players on other teams maybe with the Wizards down the roster that uh get a little crazy in the open court which is part of the fun of Summer League uh Chase H’s with us from Las Vegas all right bub Carrington um obviously this is a guy that’s going to be in the role he’s going to be in uh during the regular season to an extent just you know more minutes here we would imagine uh he’s going to be handling the ball we see what the shot looks like what do you expect to see from bub Carrington like what’s your what do you expect to see that you feel confident about and what are what’s the thing that you’re really wondering that that’s the unanswered question for Bob Carrington I think it’s going to be a mix of him playing the one and the two and my question that’s unanswered is how much is he gonna play at the one because when they drafted him and they had three first round picks I thought wow they’re gonna have a fun summer league team and Bub Carrington’s probably going to be the point guard running the offense but then I saw the roster they put together and they’ve got nine of their 15 players with NBA experience and that includes some point guards uh you know most notably Jared Butler who last year was on a two-way contract and played his way toward the end of the season into an actual NBA deal so I think he’s probably going to be their primary point guard um but we’ll see bub Carrington on the ball because he’s really good at creating his own shot off the dribble and another question I’ll have uh as I watch him and and and see how he can answer it is his best skill is creating space off the dribble he was one of the best players in college basketball last year it’s shooting off the bouns he also did the same thing at the NBA draft combine he put up really good numbers in shooting drills but there’s always an adjustment for young players in the NBA who have to create their own shot because there’s a difference between being open in college and being open in the NBA and one of the adjustments they have to realize uh is just what constitutes an open shot because in college you know you might be wide open you think that’s an open shot but in the NBA it might be a split second of daylight that you have to capitalize on so can he get separation at this stage in a very athletic league that is the NBA Summer League and where’s he at right now because he’s only 18 years old even if he does not get separation with guys right now he’s so advanced in that area he’s 6’4 without shoes which is really a really good size for his skill set and his position I think he’ll be fine long term but I want to know where’s he at right now in that regard yeah that’s a great Point too summer league is super super athletic cuz you that’s like a lot of these guys that’s the thing that gets their ticket to summer league is they’re freakish athletes and so in some ways it’s more athletic than the actual League itself where you have veterans who maybe lost a half a step or a half inch of Bounce here there just a bunch of young guys running around uh and so that’s that’s a great Point good test uh even if those young guys may not have the knowhow of a Savvy veteran uh kesan George the third and final of the first round picks of course Chase uh what do we expect uh and really for all of these guys this this will play a big part in the answer about what we expect from George like what’s the minutes distribution here and how long into the summer do we expect to see them I think they’re going to play plenty of minutes in the games that they do play I I can’t promise that the first round picks are going to play all five games because as we’ve seen in the past things kind of Trail off towards the end and you know if you see what you want to see out of Alex saw or kesan George or bub Carrington in three games you might not feel like you need to push it over the last two but for kesan George the first thing that’ll Stand Out is his three-point shooting he was a 40% three-point shooter last year at Miami really good off the catch so I’m going to be interested to see you know how can he make teams pay for overloading on bub Carrington and Alex Saar who are very Dynamic offensive players who can also pass like they’re probably going to be able to find him on the perimeter and then also defensively you know they’re going to go up against Zachary Reet the number one overall pick tonight 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Monumental Sports neck by the way hey well done well done there you go and kesan George is about the same size as Zachary Reet so I’d expect that he’s going to guard the number one pick at least a little bit tonight and I think that’ll be a great test for him defensively because he was known for his shooting in college but GM Will Dawkins has really praised his potential on the defensive end a lot over the last few weeks so there’s a ton of interesting names on like almost the entire roster like guys that not just I have heard of and and that you of course know who covers us every day but like anyone who’s a Wizards fan knows like because they’ve been around the team they’ve played on the team it’s it’s one of the most NBA Laden Summer League ERS I think I’ve ever seen and so there’s a couple more guys I want to hit on real quick starting with Johnny Davis because it’s not often that going into year three a former first rounder is playing in the summer league but like is this not to be dramatic about it but just practically speaking like is Johnny Davis playing for his job for his roster spot like what what how how like deep in the pecking order with the turnover and obviously this is not the regime that drafted him is Johnny Davis at this point in his Wizard’s tenure well on one hand they did pick up his contract option for next year last October so you know they did make that decision they did give him that sort of stamp of approval but it’s a big test for him for sure I mean you know he’s been through two summer leagues before you don’t often see players go to a third summer league so clearly there’s still a wait and see mentality from the front office and they just drafted a guy who’s a combo guard in bub Carrington who you know essentially does a lot of the same things at least on the offensive end so I I think the path for Johnny Davis to establishing himself in the NBA Remains the Same same and that is on the defensive end you know Bub Carrington Jordan P the the guards that they have at that spot were more known for their offense and Johnny Davis is more known for his defense and they want him to just play Scrappy you know ball stopping defense on the perimeter and if he can do that then I I think he has a chance to stick around but you know we’ve seen him in the summer league have some mixed results so certainly it’d be great for him if he could have a better performance no doubt just some other names to name them real quick Patrick Balwin Jr Jules Bernard Butler who you mentioned Justin champeny uh Eugene omaru so like ton of ton of names that that Wizards fans will know that especially played towards the end of last season as the injury stacked up the last guy I’ll ask you about real quick as Chase Hughes is with us uh and by the way they have a special tonight uh it’s Chase it’s West Hall uh and Company out from Las Vegas ahead of the summer league game at 6 o00 on Monumental and the game like Chase said is at 9:30 but Tristan vukovich the second round pick from last year showed some really nice flashes when he came over late in the season what do we expect to see from him and like is this a guy that we think is going to be in the rotation in 2024 25 for the Wizards well he was pretty solid last year in 10 games with the Wizards and of course um was also pretty good in the summer league a year ago so now it’s just like what is the growth year-over-year and their head coach Cody topper said that he’s going to be focused on the defensive end when it comes to evaluating Tristan vukovich because he’s gotten stronger he’s gained some muscle and they want to see him play more physical def defense I’ll be interested to see does he share the floor with alexar they’re both about the same size they can both shoot from the outside so I could see them being playable together but sometimes with big men you know teams like the Stagger things where they’ll have a rotation where one guy’s on the court is the starter and then the other guy just replaces him as the bench guy so um I I think it’ll be interesting to see Tristan bic’s growth and also within the context of a lot of depth at his position now you know vich played 10 games in the NBA last year and they drafted Alex R second overall and then they signed Jonas Valen chunis who is another 6117 Foot Center and they still have ran Holmes and Marvin Bagley III so it it it’s kind of crowded at that position I think he could play some of the four and the five and of course he’s young so that’s going to help his cause as the Wizards are trying to rebuild but it would certainly I think go a long way for him to have a strong summer league showing going into training camp in the fall yeah the other thing to remember uh we won’t do the the trade speculation here but this is the time of year when the entire NBA is in one place and so we’ve gotten through this first wave of free agency everyone’s on their cell phones now but like things happen at Summer League because all these GMS are all of a sudden together and so it does feel like at a couple of positions there maybe is another move to be made for the Wizards because they have some positional glut so I think that’s a good point too and we’ll see if this roster uh NBA roster is the same for the Wizards on the back end of summer league as it is going in it’s just the nature of this time of year uh Chase hes West Halland company talking about all of this at 6:00 and then the game tonight 9:30 as they get started for summer league on Monumental Sports Network Chase always a pleasure sir thank you yeah thanks for having me this is the Hoffman show on the team 980 in The Odyssey app
Monumental Sports Chase Hughes joins the show live from Las Vegas where Alex Sarr and the Wizards kick off their preseason tonight against Zaccharie Risacher and the Atlanta Hawks. We talk expectations for Sarr, Bubb Carrington, Kyshawn George and more!
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