Reacting to Cavs Summer League Debut! Cleveland Cavaliers News

Reacting to Cavs Summer League Debut! Cleveland Cavaliers News

this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for for the thousands Independant and the millions watching around the world let’s get ready for Welcome to the junkyard pod the Cleveland Cavaliers just played their first Summer League game of the year and I’m not really sure if we can call that a game uh listen it’s the summer league so we’re not going to make any sweeping conclusions today but it is worth leading off by saying they got smacked they got absolutely smacked by the magic it was a disappointing performance for anyone who was hoping to have anything tangible to take away from that game and joining me to discuss this one is my co-host Jackson Flickinger and let me just start by saying we’re having some technical difficulties recording this so bear with us hopefully we can Sal whatever this conversation turns into there’s a little bit of delay on our part I’m not sure what it’ll look like in the final you know editing process but bear with us we’re doing our best uh Jackson how are you feeling after this summer league game I’m feeling fine um I think I think all the technical issues are due to Tony going sleeveless here you know I think that we we’ve we’ve never had these technical issues when his uh arms are covered um so you know make it that what you will starting the episode by Body I’m C I’m not I’m not body shaming I’m saying I’m just pointing out what the difference is I know I live in the same area that you do anyways clearly you have better air conditioning I do not have better air conditioning I just I just tough it out you know I know the conditions I’m getting and I say you know what we’re just going to make it work um but the summer league I think like summer League’s great because you’re like man I really want to watch some basketball and then after about 2 minutes of watching this Cass game I was like man I don’t want to watch basketball and that’s that’s sort of what this game was this game was if you I’m going to say if you follow the charge like people watch charge games that aren’t me um if you follow the charge this was a very much like a charge game in the sense of it got out of hand quickly there’s no defensive principle there’s no offensive principles um and it became pretty much unwatchable you couldn’t really make anything of it after the first quarter so yeah we’re gonna have a fun time talking about it through our audio issues yeah I mean you’re right I I wanted to see some basketball and I would still like to see some basketball get played uh again we can’t even even if it was a competitive game we wouldn’t be making any conclusions off of summer league but in a game like that it’s really hard to take anything away uh but just to give my quick thoughts before we dive into specific players uh we’ll just call it what it is that was bad that was pathetic uh Port execution from the start from the Cavs they got completely ran off the floor from the jump I don’t know if the offense or the defense was worse they were both pretty ugly and organized the defense was just giving up open dunks that Huff guy never heard of him unfamiliar with this game he was throwing down reverse dunks every other possession it was crazy so uh the defense horrible offensively they didn’t move the ball really at all the the only time they passed it was like ineffective ball movement and by that I mean they’re just kind of passing the ball around they’re not actually creating any advantages or like running through much other than maybe a few like an off ball screen and that’s it so it was just ugly there was not much for me to be impressed by I don’t think anyone walked away with that game feeling too good about anything uh but before we talk more in depth about a few players here I want to to start by saying if you enjoy the junkyard pod and you want to help the channel maybe help us you know afford some better internet all you have to do is drop a like and hit the Subscribe button those two things go a long way to help the channel and it’ll help my Wi-Fi at some point I hope uh bringing this back to the Cavs yeah instead of hold on instead of Tony being on the like a street corner with his with his hand out waiting for waiting for some money he decided to start a podcast just so he maybe could afford some uh WI because this is clearly this is clearly bad but um hey the world needed more podcasts that’s what I thought yes exactly um why not me why not um or also why but that’s you know that’s that’s neither here nor there um the Cavs that was bad one of the things that I do want to get off my chest right away is that I think that Isaiah Mobley deserved more of a chance with with this team I think he was sort of he he’s sort of been miscast with the charge and I think that’s a problem and that he’s 68 he’s not going to be able to be a center in the NBA but I think he could be a power forward and we hadn’t really seen him develop as a power forward because he mostly played center his first year so I think that he’s a very good player especially in this context and I think he could be somebody who could be a power forward in the NBA if he was better developed and I was hoping that under this regime this new coaching staff that he would get that chance and obviously they didn’t extend the qualifying offer for him they could still bring him back but it seems like if that was in the cards he would be playing in summer league right now so that’s disappointing and I think seeing I don’t want to be too rude but I think seeing what like everybody else seeing what Pete Nance provides on the defensive end of the floor I think is why I’m kind of frustrated that they didn’t do that because it’s not like they’re keeping somebody who has real promise because as much as we like Pete n’s jump shot and the jump shot is very real you know I’m not sure what he would I don’t know what he shot today but he made some threes yeah he made some threes two of five he can shoot more threes uh the three-point shot is good and it’s reliable and it does open up the offense but you just can’t be that bad on defense and not and he’s not really like a finisher inside at all unless it’s a lob like he’s really limited and it’s really hard to see how he ever can be on an NBA floor um and I know that you know people are like oh Isaiah is only on the team because of his brother it’s like Well he kind of have the same accusations yeah but it’s for somebody who’s not even on the team so I I just think that Pete n no sorry I think that Isaiah Moy is actually could be an NBA rotation player I don’t think Pete ever has that and then also Isaiah MO is related to Evan Moy which I think is Meaningful like I know that you know nepotism has become a very big thing in the NBA nowadays especially with bronny but it makes like if like you’re not going to get rid of nepotism but if there’s somebody who is related to your upand cominging star player who could actually be a useful rotation piece I think it’s I think it is worthwhile to have them on your team on a two-e deal so I just want to get that out of the way quickly because if you’re looking at the biggest differences between this summer league team and last summer league team it’s Sam Merill obviously he’s he’s a real NBA player but it’s more so Isaiah Moy because Isaiah Moy was on the team last year and they didn’t play like this in the couple games that Sam sat out yeah I mean I think you noticed the lack of Isaiah Moy basically right away really the lack of a center um I think based on all the decisions that the Cavs have made with Isaiah in the last two years it seems like they aren’t very high on him and his ability to play but I still think as you said he belongs on a summer league roster I think he clearly helps this team if not for you know developing him as a NBA player but just to make them competitive enough to you know get something out of these games having him there would have helped he’s a good passer for a big man he knows how to play in a team system as we saw last year so I think he would have just help and again Pete Nance man it’s rough it’s really rough I know that everyone that three-point shooting is a premium in today’s NBA but we’ve really kind of moved past that to the point where you actually need to be more than just a three-point shooter you can’t like maybe a couple years ago thought like okay give me anybody with height and three-point shooting ability now we’re kind of transitioning into another era where you need to be able to shoot the three and do at least a couple other things and Pete n right now for starters is not a good enough shooter to justify having out there uh and he just doesn’t really bring anything else he was completely lost defensively he JPS at every pump fake I just it’s almost kind of funny how just anytime someone pump fakes near him he just jumps so it was a rough game for Pete Nance I I don’t really see an NBA future for him but you know Nance family hatred is something that is too prevalent on this PO so need someone to defend the that stays that stays in the um in the um group chat um no it’s it’s one of the things where with Nance it’s if this was a one-off performance it was easy to write it off but this is kind of what the G league is like and I think the center position in the G league is the easiest position to dominate in just because in the G League the center play is so bad that it’s really like it makes kind of evaluating things tough and he struggles to finish inside against g-league centers he struggles to defend g-league centers so it’s just really tough because as you were saying about like the three-point shooting one of the think is like we think about like good three-point shooting centers for the Cavs Channing fry Channing fry was an NBA Center who learned how to be a three-point shooter it seems like Nance is a tall three-point shooter who’s trying to learn how to be a center and it’s really tough to be an NBA Center so it is really easy to get to see the size to say hey he can he can do this but it’s tough yeah and that was a good place to start because I think for people who aren’t like super uh tied into what the summer league team is doing uh we should have mentioned at the at the start Isaiah Mobley not with the team Luke Travers did not play today because of a hamstring injury so uh those two are people who you know fans are interested in seeing those guys play neither of them were on the floor today uh someone who was probably the most at least for me I was the most excited to see was Jaylen Tyson the rookie now you mentioned that with Pete Nance if it was a oneoff performance it would be one thing I think that’s true for what we saw from Tyson he actually finished with a pretty strong overall game to start off it looked very bad uh he looked frantic he had some very awkward stumbles he dribbled off his own foot got his pocket picked trying to bring the ball up the floor and he had another play where he just passed it directly to the other team so it started off really rough but then once he settled in in that second quarter and especially in garbage time uh he looked very comfortable dribbling the ball getting to his spots uh something that’s always impressed me with him is just his size and the not necessarily his height but the way that he can take contact his strength he had some nice finishes at the rim and the thing that stands out to me a lot is that he crashes the glass on every shot he is constantly seeking some rebounds which is something that the Cavs could use and he finished with 15 points eight rebounds two assists shot seven to 14 so wasn’t super duper impressed but I liked what I saw from him overall uh Jackson what did you think of Tyson yeah it’s it’s tough because it was kind of the Colin ston special of all of the good stats kind of came when the game was you know 25 points or worse like behind so you know it’s tough to make too much of like the 15 points I think the rebounds is the thing that really stood out the most to me is that he’s somebody who has a nose for the ball and he’s always crashing uh it’ll be interesting to see how that fits into an NBA context if he’s able to do that the same way and still get back on defense and stuff like that but it’s super helpful to have guys like that especially on a team that despite their size doesn’t really get offensive rebounds so that was really cool but yeah it was just a really frantic first his first shift was really bad it seemed like you know it he looked like somebody who started playing a pickup game and realized whoa like I don’t actually belong with these guys out there and that’s like that’s how I look on like when I’m playing pickup basketball like well I I shouldn’t be out here with these guys and that’s kind of how he looked but he did settle down so that’s good I’m interested to see how game two and game three goes because it’s not uncommon to see rookies look like this uh I often think about Colin seon in summer league the second time I’m bringing him up um his first Summer League game it was like has this guy dribbled a basketball before does he know that you know like he was just going like 100 miles hour with everything that he was doing not in a good way and then it started to slow down for him and then throughout summer league he looked like a real you know he looked really good at that level so I think we could see we could see a similar thing with Tyson um but yeah it’s it’s tough to make too much of it because again the game it was a 30-point game by halftime so you know like what can you make of it yeah that’s where I am I think there was enough flashes there to where I’m feeling encouraged uh the way it started again started very poorly looked like he just was not ready for the moment which is you know he’s a rookie he’s the 20th pick in the draft it’s summer league might take him a while to get his feet under him and once he did I thought he looked much more comfortable I really like his handle again I know he dribbled off his foot and he got his pocket pick that one time but overall I do think he has shown like a pretty fluid nice handle for that size and so I’m excited to see how he continues to develop in the summer league because really I think he was a product of how disorganized the Cavs looked in general like this is his first game that you’re supposed to and we’re gonna talk about these next two guys in a second but like it’s really supposed to be Craig Porter and ammani and even Pete n the more experienced guys settling the team down and organizing things Jaylen Tyson’s out there and within the first couple minutes his team’s down by 30 and everything is just it’s just Mayhem so it’s it’s hard to judge him too harshly for that frantic start uh but I’m interested to see what he looks like in a more competitive game yeah and hopefully they get a more competitive game because not a whole lot from today made me think like oh yeah there’s there’s a competitive team in here I don’t know if they’re going back toback for the summer league title it might not happen this year they need they need Sam Merill they need Isaiah Mobley uh Luke Travers could help them but I they just you know it was not a very opening game I I wrote my Fear the Sword recap I was like L Travers could have really helped and I was like H yeah that’s that’s I don’t know don’t don’t push me on that too much but that’s neither here there I think Craig Porter just playing like a better more you know the traditional point guard that he usually plays as would help them a lot uh so let’s take it that way actually who do you want to focus on next Craig Porter or Amani I want to focus on you we got to get the we got to get things straight here where do you stand on Craig Porter Jr is this your guy is this like your guy like you know all caps guy like this is the guy you’re standing for I’m glad that you brought this up because this is where I was going to take my Craig forter tangents to begin with listen as someone who one of the founding members of the Craig Porter fan club I was one of the main guys driving the bus I would like to say there had there’s a reason why I’ve been subtly pumping the breaks since around February of this year so you’re leaving your guy I still believe in him I’m off the bus but we’re slowing down a little bit okay listen I still think he has clear NBA skills I think he could have a long successful career as a backup point guard but we are really starting to see the warts and flaws that led him to being undrafted to begin with the limited three-point shot is hurting him a lot uh non-factor on defense today that was never really a strong suit for him but he was at least at at the start of his career he was I do want to push back a little bit on the defense think because it’s so it’s so tough to play defense when you’re getting nothing inside when there’s no help whatsoever especially in these pick and rolls and stuff because it’s like like zy Smith is out there like zy Smith is a good Defender but when you have a backline that’s that bad it’s like yeah like what is what is good point of attack defense going to do if you set a screen and it’s like wide open from there so fair I do want to push back there but even even like second half of his uh NBA rookie season he started to get picked on defensively which before he basically just holding his own so that’s something that concerns me and and yeah the three-point shot hurts but really what disappointed me the most today and I don’t think this was much of a problem for him during his rookie season the decision making today horrible very very bad game from him from basically just a standpoint super bad shot selection I think he shot three for 10 the thing that baffles me with him and I’m being really harsh but the thing that just confuses me I guess is that he is a limited three-point shooter and I would argue he doesn’t have much confidence shooting three-pointers but whenever he does take a three-pointer it’s like really difficult step back off the dribble you don’t see him just kind of catch and shoot or take an easy three-pointer it’s like he forces them which is really interesting to me and he had zero impact as a playmaker tonight which I think was one of the main things hurting them he was not a floor General he did not really get them organized didn’t create many advantages to be fair it’s his first game back from that ankle injury I don’t know how much that was limiting him I know he said he’s not 100% yet but I thought he moved fine I just he looked out of it tonight so I I expect more from Porter he has shown that he’s better than this one of the things that I think was interesting is that like one of the things that stood out from Summer League last year was his feel for the game it felt like he was always making the right play and in the right spots at the right time but last year for most of the time I know like Sharie Cooper got hurt at the end of summer league but in the beginning of Summer League he was playing off of shareif Cooper who you know has his warts as a point guard himself which is why he’s not on this year summer league team um but he is somebody who can also do stuff off the dribble and it seemed like he’s kind of missing that other guy to be like a co- you know or organizer with him cuz it just felt like there was no flow there was no getting downhill there was no breaking the defense down there was just a lot of like passes to nowhere and that’s just you know like that’s what you’re hoping that when you have Craig Porter Jr on this team you’re hoping that okay he’s somebody who’s going to be getting downhill he’s going to be getting the bigs involved he’s going to be spraying out the shooters and you just didn’t see that and that’s where it’s kind of concerning because Summer League is typically a worse product than the G league and it’s just not good if you want somebody to like legitimately be a backup point guard this upcoming season to kind of have this kind of showing in their first game yeah and that’s a really important thing that I want to focus on because I know I’m being very harsh towards Craig Porter and again I still believe like the skills that he has the feel for the game the playmaking I know it didn’t show today today but I really really do believe he has NBA level feel for the game playmaking ball handling even his interior scoring is is pretty good it’s mainly the fact that he can’t score outside of 15 feet uh some of the mid-range shots well I actually I think the mid-range it’s there’s still a place for the mid-range in today’s NBA he was taking bad shots today like early shot clock step back I think one of the announcers I can’t remember who it was but they they mentioned that like you can get that shot at any point in the 24 seconds you don’t have to take that with 18 on the clock if you if you want a contested mid-range jumper you can get that at any point so but what you mentioned is is a good point that if you’re expecting Craig Porter to be the backup point guard this year which is something that I would have tentatively said as possible you’re gonna need to see a better showing from him because a second-year player who is going you know going to be an impact player they should be able to dominate summer league I mean it should look almost effortless in summer league and so Porter didn’t really come close to that to maybe he’ll end up looking better throughout the next few games again I’m being harsh on him because we know that he can be better than this he looked significantly better last year as a rookie so like there’s clearly you know this was just a bad game from him and I hope that he can bounce back one of the things I go back to is second year Isaac okoro in summer league was just like running he they were just like he was just like running through teams just getting to the basket at will and it’s like you know we know who helping him yeah dominating so you know and it wasn’t like he came back in second season and was like oh yeah you know like you know he still has to say more tonight we’ve we’ve talked about that plenty but it’s it’s just like that’s where you want to see Craig Porter Jr Dominate and Craig to be fair he is somebody who plays better when he’s surrounded with better competition I think cuz he’s kind of that like spark plug that gets units going and kind of gets them to be more coh iive and that’s it’s sort of tough to play that role when you have all these parts that don’t fit together at all so I do want to give him a little bit of Grace there and saying that like just because he’s bad here doesn’t mean that he is bad but it’s just it’s just disappointing because you wanted to you wanted to see you wanted to at least see what he was last year in summer league yeah and he what he played in like a one g-league game last season he dominated I mean it looked easy for him so that’s what you expected to see and maybe he’ll do that maybe moving forward he’ll have a much better summer league I don’t think he’s a bad player by any means I still think he could be a backup point guard in the NBA we’re just starting to see some of those flaws that there’s a reason he went undrafted now I don’t think he should have gone undrafted but there was a reason why teams passed on him and we’re starting to see that I think the only other thing that I want to mention with Porters that you kind of hit on this being a good playmaker is one thing but if you don’t have anybody to make plays Four it does become a little more difficult so that the point that you mentioned how he kind of plays better with better competition and better teammates I I do agree with that and he’s I don’t know if he’s a great playmaker I think he’s somebody who’s good in the open floor like making those passes there like I don’t think of him as somebody who’s like manipulating a defense to get the ball to the big in a pick and roll or like he’s just spraying out the shooters so maybe we’ve overestimated some of his playmaking ility just because he was getting a lot of his like he was getting a lot of his assists through you know open floor through stuff like that um so I think that’s fair to and by also getting the defense to collapse because especially early in his rookie season teams weren’t like his on ball Defender wasn’t playing Super off of him so he was getting a lot of help defenses coming and when the Heth defenses came he was able to make those simple passes um so I think that’s also point out too yeah and building on that he’s just a very fundamental playmaker like he’s basically he’s a very old school traditional backup point guard he’s not creating a many like a whole bunch of advantages but he makes good reads he makes the right pass and so that’s where as we’ve hit on a couple times it could just be you know he’s surrounded by some guys that aren’t moving great without the ball or they’re not big scoring threats so again it’s tough to make to make any conclusions off of such an ugly game but wanted to see from Porter last thing he did have the sick um weaks side help block so that was cool oh really he also had a sick behind the back dribble and and transition that was very nice so you know who said there was nothing to take away from this game huge fans rounding out this episode uh we have to talk about ammani bat still one of the most intriguing prospects in the G league and summer league this is someone who people are just really excited about ammani Bates because of how good of a shooter he is uh now I have thoughts that I want to share here that’s good we’ll start with the positives the added weight that he put on apparently 26 pounds of muscle it was noticeable I thought he looked stronger his frame looked more rounded out and I thought he could absorb more contact when he was dribbling I really really liked that he started the game by trying to get to the rim he missed those attempts but I like that he was getting to the rim and that you know he wasn’t being pushed off his spots as easily we saw a couple moments where he was able to get into areas the floor and just looked more comfortable and on balance and I think that added weight is a big uh reason for that now the negative here and it’s not really his fault I want to be clear this I don’t I’m not blaming Amman for this at all I just don’t like how the game progressed and how as it came out of reach they just started letting him do whatever it turned into the Wild Wild West it’s something that you know letting him run wild like that is what Eastern Michigan allowed him to do and I think it hurt his development I don’t like this process for Amman or this developmental path I don’t think it translates to the NBA at least not for the Cavs isn’t going to be taking those difficult pullup Jumpers in with the Cavs in the NBA he’s not going to get to dribble 15 times without passing and then take a contested shot he’s really skilled at making difficult shots I’ve said this before but he’s a shot maker at this stage not a shot Creator because he’s not creating that much space he’s just able to hit shots over contest and it’s a really really good skill to have but the Cavs don’t really need that they don’t have space on their team to say hey ammani it’s your turn go shoot seven for 17 tonight uh so I I would really have liked the process to be better in that department the I I would say the biggest problem would be he’s not a easy shot maker because like the tough shot makers like it’s easy to get like like fall in love with Kyrie’s ability to just make these crazy shots but what Kyrie does is he makes a lot of things look really easy especially like you know Prime Kyrie would you know he made so many things look easy but then he also hit you with like oh I also made this incredible ridiculous shot that nobody else in the world can make so having being a tough shot maker if you are an easy shot maker or an easy shot Creator is probably a better way to say that that’s really limiting um it’s it’s really tough to evaluate imman and I think it would be super easy to just write him off I think that’s super easy to do just say hey he he’s never going to be able to fit in any context um but I think he can because he’s so skilled as a shooter and I think he can improve as an an off ball Defender and as a off ball mover but you can’t improve in those areas if the team context is this and I think this is what we saw a lot of times with the charge last year where it’s really tough to do anything when there’s not any there’s not consistent you know on Ball scoring and you know he was in a better position last year with Sharie Cooper because Sharie Cooper is somebody who is a really good scorer a really good high volume scorer so it allowed him to play off ball a lot and he was doing you know some of this free willing that we saw in the second half he was doing that some with the charge but mostly when Cooper was off the floor in games without Cooper this is how it looked because you know know when there’s nobody else who has the ability to dribble or do anything it’s like what are you going to do tellman to watch you know yeah ex one of these guys dribble so that’s that’s where it’s really tough where it’s like it doesn’t feel very useful to watch and it doesn’t feel like you’re learning anything and if you’re not learning anything it’s just frustrating and he’s never going to be he’s never going to be like his best playmaking moments and his best kind of on ball moments happen when he catches the ball and he pushes in transition because teams have to really collapse around him because he’s somebody who can pull up from like 2 feet inside the inside the half court because he has unlimited range and then that allows him to make those passes to find guys and to really show what he can do off the dribble half court off the dribble unless it’s like you know a couple like coming off a screen and doing something quickly just is never going to be his game and it’s tough when there’s nobody else who you can give the ball to and again that gets back to the Craig Porter Jr thing that gets back to where I am disappointed in Jaylen Williams because sry not Jaylen Williams jayen Tyson because because it’s so um like they need somebody to really provide that so you can get the best version of Imani and Tyson didn’t provide that today even though you know he did get better was not like a secondary playmaker and Craig Porter Jr was not a a primary playmaker so that’s where it’s like if they’re not going to step up and you don’t have anybody else on the team who can do that well you’re just going to get stuck with this and I don’t want to like it’s hard to get too mad at him because it’s like what what is he supposed to do just stand there so it’s it’s just frustrating and it’s just not really productive for anybody yeah and and again it’s not his fault and I will say I do like the fact that he has the aggressiveness and the confidence to do these things I don’t think you can teach the confidence that am Mani bats has if you’re going to be a great shooter in the NBA which is what he basically needs to be to make it to that level you kind of need a rational confidence and he has it so that’s something that is actually a good thing the fact that he will go out there and shoot seven for 17 and not even really blink an eye at taking another jumper that’s good uh the problem is they need to simplify his role in my opinion and that of course becomes more difficult when no one on the roster today was creating advantages or setting teammates up that just wasn’t a thing that’s why the game devolved into what we saw but simplifying his role letting him move more off ball and as you said making quick decisions he had a couple plays today where there was one where I think both them semi transition I think first one he catches on the elbow they close out hard to him and he just drives I think he takes two dribbles gets to the rim he misses it was like a reverse layup he misses but I like that there’s no dancing around he didn’t snatch back and try and cross someone up caught it attacked the close out got to the rim that’s what you want to see the other play I think there was a a pick and roll catches it in semi transition throws a lob a quick like no look lob and that’s the stuff that you need to see from him as I mentioned with Nance at the top being a three-point shooter is a premium in the NBA but you also need to flash some other skills and I think ammani has some skills they’re just very underdeveloped because again I think Eastern Michigan really failed him in this department by not like round ing out his game in a very pivotal year for him in his development the charge found a better balance they they struck a finer balance there but they didn’t get that Groove today and I hope to see more of that moving forward in the summer league because that’s his path to the NBA being a guy who can come off a screen knock down three-pointers he’s not going to dribble that much but when he does he’s making efficient quick decisions creating either a shot for himself or passing to a teammate that’s what he needs to do to make it to the NBA they don’t need him taking you know dribbling the ball at the flooor and taking a mid-range pullup that’s not maybe on a lottery team he would have the space in the room to do that but on a team that wants to win in the playoffs the Cavs don’t have space for that and it wouldn’t be good for his development if he was on a lottery team doing that agreed yeah uh so like the best version of Bates that we’ve seen was last year in summer league when he was surrounded by real talent and was able to just kind of be that catch and shoot guy and that was really good for him and I think he’s developed his skills in an off ball player so much in that in his time with the charge but the problem is you just can’t really put it into action as often as you need to because it like the charge were a very bad team last year and the summer league team is basically an extension of that and it’s a very bad team so you’re just not going to see that and if you don’t have a good like if you don’t have a good g-league team you can’t really develop the these role player type guys because they’re not going to be in their role we kind of talked about that earlier with Isaiah Mobley he’s forced to play center and that’s obviously not what he can play in the NBA but now he’s not prepared to be a power forward in the NBA because that’s not really what he was able to do so that’s you know that’s where it’s a little bit frustrating uh but I do believe in Amani I believe in him probably more than you do but you know it’s people who don’t believe in him I totally get that and I could be wrong but you know you just got to put him in a better context and does he get that chance I don’t know yeah I I agree with everything you said there and I I will say I left this game feeling more encouraged by ammani than Craig Porter which is not something that I would have expected of course that could change especially after a bad game from bits like it wasn’t a good game they both didn’t play very good and I still left feeling more encouraged by B and the one thing that I will always say about ammani I know people YouTube comments tear me up because I I can be very critical of ammani I’d like to I’d like to think that I’m fair and critical of most players but with ammani the thing that I will always come back to as a positive is he is a very self-aware player all the things that we just talked about he talks about himself uh he knows what it’s going to take to get to the NBA level and I do think he’s putting in the work the 26 pounds I know people like listen he gained 26 pounds and he’s still one 96 at 6 foot n like that’s still pretty skinny so I’ve seen some people who are kind of dismissing that gaining 26 pounds is tough okay in one year give the guy credit for that and I do think that he is working hard he’s trying to develop like he’s improved as an offall player one of the first plays of the game uh he came off a screen I think he he missed the shot it was when Tyson got the putback layup but I was like wow that looked really fluid he came off a screen set his feet and he missed the shot but it looked really fluid and that’s what you need to see from him so I believe in ammani Bates as far as like I think he’s going to whatever his ceiling is I think he’s going to put in the work to reach it I think anyone who there was all those concerns pre-draft about his you know offc court stuff I think that would that’s silly that’s stupid the kid seems like he knows what he’s doing he’s working hard whether or not that will translate to the NBA I don’t believe in it as much as you do but I’m certainly not writing him off I want to be very clear not to you but to the YouTube comments I’m not writing aanii off I he has a genuine NBA talent that three-point shot he might literally he might be one of the best Shooters in the world like I unironically believe that it’s just the rest of his game needs so much work I’m confident he’s going to put in the work to give himself the best chance at that but will it translate we gotta wait and see he’s only 20 it’s tough because he’s somebody who when the game devolves he devolves with the game like it’s easy to get him you know when when the offense doesn’t have any FL he’s not going to create the Flow by moving off ball like not to bring it back to Sam Merill cuz I would never do that um but like in the G League like even when the offense had no juice Sam was still running around like an insane person coming off of screens and his continual doing that made a juiceless situation a situation with juice and imanii is not going to run around off screens when things devolve he will run around off screens when the team is like clicking on all cylinders he will be doing that not to the level that Merill ever has but he will be that off ball player it’s just that once it starts going south he will start calling his own number and if you don’t have anybody who can take the ball out of his hands you know you’re you are going to get this and this this is not like this is like nothing that he showed today translates to the NBA and that’s what the whole problem is is he needs to be getting those reps with a good team and that you know brings us back to you gotta have guys that kind of fit right now they don’t yeah listen it could just take him some time even speaking of Merill he’s 26 when Sam Merl finally got his you know real chance and made it made the leap to the NBA and became where he is now and so am he’s 20 I really think it’s it’s a shame that Eastern Michigan and just his time in college played out the way that it did because they he didn’t get a chance to develop the way that he needed to he didn’t get that proper development path I think the Cavs are giving him a better path I think this is a good environment for him to grow it’s G to take time hopefully uh you know the rest of the summer league turns around a little bit they’re they’re more competitive and we get to see any tangible improvements that he’s made because I do think he’s gotten better I think he’s a better player than he was a year ago so I want to be able to see that whether it’s in the summer league or in the G League the upcoming season maybe he’ll get some more opportunities with the Cavs right now though much like I said with Porter got to pump the brakes a little bit there’s still some things that he needs to show and it could take some time yeah it’s fair to be skeptical about either one of their ability to actually have a positive impact on the NBA court uh next season for the Cavs and yeah that’s something that you know the YouTube commenters are going to have to deal with yeah well if you want to have a positive impact on YouTube leave us a a positive comment leave us a comment on what you thought of this first Summer League game drop a like hit subscribe do all of those things if you would like to leave a positive impact on the junkyard pod and with that said that’s going to do it for this episode if you enjoyed I already went through the whole Spiel you know what to do and we’re going to continue covering the summer league hopefully we’ll have some more positive things to talk about I would love if ammani dropped 30 points the Cavs won next game we could just say hey he’s ready start him tomorrow I would love for us to have a more positive outlook but the C is going to need to show us something again thank you for watching or listening on Spotify and with all that being said go Cavs I agree go Cavs Brian what do you think about this sleeveless look from Tony [Music]

The Cleveland Cavaliers got stomped in their first NBA Summer League showing. We react to a few Cavs prospects.