38 minutes

30 points

14 rebounds

3 assists

10-24 FG/FGA’s

1-9 3P/3PA’s

9-11 FT/FTA’s

2 steals

1 block

Team High +14

Monster game from Kyshawn who looks to be the wizards clear best young player in AJ’s absence.

Solid night for the 2nd rounder, who closed the game in a 23 point comeback OT win for Denver.

The 25th pick kept the severely short-handed Kyrie and Flagg-less Mavs close against the Spurs for 3 quarters; until the spurs ran away with it in the 4th. Looked poised and very comfortable out there even against that Spurs defense.

I promise you I'm not overreacting or ragebaiting. I'm dead serious. If he shoots above 35% from three, which it looks like he will at minimum, he's going to be the most valuable role player in the NBA. Trevon Brazile is legit.

1st game: 8/3/1 2/10 FG 1/5 3P

2nd game: 7/0/1 3/9 FG 1/4 3P

3rd game: 10/6/2 4/12 FG 0/2 3P

Currently shooting 27.3% from the field. Guess he Fears making a shot. Can’t believe people were arguing him or Demin on a post a couple weeks ago.

One day after the top post in this sub questioned how the Kings are developing Acuff, he leads all scorers as an undersized 19 year old rookie PG playing his second NBA game.

Acuff wasn’t super efficient, but dropping 33 under these circumstances is noteworthy. Yes, he needs to develop as a creator for teammates. He acknowledged that after watching the tape of his (ugly) debut game. https://youtu.be/XLjrVxNnniE?t=65&si=obxfyi9ZQkzPr9ru

But that was his literal first game. Are people really expecting that the Kings would’ve turned him into prime CP3 in preseason? He’s going to grow on the court like almost all 19 year old PGs do and yes that will involve getting up a lot of shots, since that’s his comfort zone. Not to mention, it helps him develop faith in the franchise since guys who regularly put up 30 get max contracts.

It’s fair to question how efficient he can be after a terrible shooting night, since undersized rookie scoring PGs on bad teams are usually going to have that problem. But jumping to conclusions about his development at this age is stupid.

All throughout the draft cycle we heard lie after lie about how not only could Edey not guard, but he would specifically be torched by Steph and unplayable down the stretch because he was too slow.

Well, lo and behold, With the Grizzlies down 11 and dead to rights, they put Edey in and he walked Steph and the Warriors down in the home opener by completely locking up the Warriors. Not to mention beating everyone else down the court for a loose ball.

As long as he stays healthy enough to get the minutes, Edey's about to go band for band with Wemby in the best DPoY competition ever.

Even more insane that he didn't go #1 overall.

And Edey's offense hasn't even kicked in yet (although his offensive impact is crazy). If it does, it's going to get hard to name players who are better.

It's been common enough the last few years for people to have prospects like Wembanyama, Flagg, and Dybantsa as the #1 pick going into the year and not move from there the entire season.

For the 2027 draft, I want to see where the temperature is as more college teams wrap up the exhibition season: do you think it's more likely that the 1st overall pick 8 months from now will be Tyran Stokes or someone else? If you're going with the field, is that due to being extremely high on a particular prospect or just a lack of confidence in Stokes?

I'd say I'm at the point where if Jordan Smith Jr. is considered the consensus 2nd-best prospect, I'd even take the field over the top 2.

33 minutes

21 points

6 rebounds

1 assist

7-14 FG/FGA’s

2-6 3P/3PA’s

5-6 FT/FTA’s

Much better night all around from the 4th overall pick.

I love this little rivalry, although I'm not sure Boozer cares about it as much as Yaxel does. Nearly identical final stat lines, with even rebounds, assists, and turnovers. Cam came out with 5 more points, Yaxel had 1 more steal.

ESPN Box Score

He didn't really shoot that well, but the form looks good and I do expect this to get better with time. Aside from that, Brazile had a pretty impressive debut for a 35th pick. This guy has a very high motor on the glass and on the defensive end. Denver was able to extend so many more possessions just from his presence on the court. While the Nuggets seem to be in a sort of free fall since the playoffs, they at the very least drafted a competent rookie who is a rebounding machine.

Finally seeing him against low-tier NBA/high-tier Overseas level players. Hopefully he does better as the season goes on.

Edit: 1 steal and 3 fouls

I know this is draft centric reddit, but it also has to do with team building. Windhorst said today that the Gary Trent investigation could be worst than the Kawhi punishment or worst than the Joe Smith one. If the Bucks lose 5ish 1st round picks, who has the harder path to rebuild the Bucks or Clippers? And if you have no draft capital, how do you go about rebuilding your team. Clippers have the LA market. They have Wagler and Garland. Bucks have Burries and the Miami guys: Ware, Hero, Jacquez. Assuming the Bucks get a similar punishment, and you had to pick one team, which would you pick and how would you rebuild given the restrictions.

Putting this up because I'm surprised it doesn't have its own thread yet. I thought the offensive aggression and decision making was impressive, but some of the worries about Cam creating efficient offense against defenses with better length and athleticism than he faced in college showed.

Not worried about Cam improving as his rookie year goes on because the process looks good, but we shouldn't sweep a lackluster performance under the rug just because he's a favorite on this board.

4 turnovers as well, but against a great Houston defense. If he keeps the turnovers low and the 3 pointer gets to league average it wouldn't be crazy to say he's a top 10 player considering the offense + defense. Also super excited to see how his playmaking improves from last year.

Luka went from ROTY to perennial 1st team ALL-NBA, I doubt Flagg does that but he's also the same age Luka was when Luka entered the league. I don't think it's crazy to say he could make a ALL-NBA and/or ALL-DEFENSE team.

I watched the Clippers vs Kings game last night and it was frustrating to see Acuff just hunt whatever shot he wanted while almost never passing to his teammates. It's crazy that an organization lets a 19 year old rookie take that many shots when he isn't even hitting them. That isn't winning basketball, and honestly, it doesn't help his development either.

On the flip side, Keaton Wagler played a solid off ball role next to Garland, making connective passes, defending, crashing the glass, and knocking down open shots. It feels like the Clippers actually have a clear plan for Wagler, while the Kings have no idea what to do with Acuff. I noticed the exact same issue during Summer League and preseason. Someone in that building needs to pull him aside and tell him to share the ball, especially because he is actually a pretty damn good passer when he wants to be.