re: NIKE Hoop Summit on now ESPN2

Simmons was the best player on the court, although Jamal Murray was fantastic as well. Murray had 30 points and 5 assists. Simmons was so damn complete. Great passer, great defender, one of only three guys with an excellent basketball IQ (Kennard and Ingram were the other two), and can take over when he wants to.

I can see him putting up a really weird stat line next year, like 15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists per game while shooting 50 percent from the field. Basically something that no one does these days. He's a surefire top 5 pick and seems like a perfect teammate. If anything, I'd like him to shoot the ball more.

Murray and Skal LaBissiere were the second and third best players on the court. SKal is really good. Very skilled and also a smart player. If he makes it to UK, he will be a real stud for them. Diallo is very unrefined but can do some things (100% energy, rebounding, cleaning off the glass) better than anyone in high school. Maker looked pretty terrible.

For the US team, Kennard was their best player, but that's not saying much. Their team is selfish, stupid, and overrates themselves since they think they are in the same stratosphere as the highly gifted 2013 and 2014 classes. They have some awful players. Ingram was excellent. Great shooter and so tall. Newman was quite good at times although he is not an elite player in the realm of a John Wall/Derrick Rose by any means.

Jaylen Brown is garbage. If dunks were worth 10 points, I'd understand why he is so highly regarded. But they're not. Briscoe isn't all that impressive either. Probably the worst PG for UK among their "one and done" guys. And the worst since Ryan Harrow, overall. Allonzo Trier is a fricking embarassment. If I got a dollar for every time he passed the ball in his life, I'd probably have 40 bucks.

Zimmerman looks solid, but he's weak. Swanigan and Jeter look terrible, but only Jeter realizes it. The fact that the coach kept playing Jeter, who is a legitimately bad player but understands it and passes the ball and sets picks, over all the other team USA bigs is an indictment of just how bad and overrated (in their own heads and those of the 24/7, Scout, and Rivals guys) the rest of the USA bigs are.

TL; DR: Simmons is a prize. Mature, intelligent, and highly skilled. Also a very good athlete. No one else in the class even comes close, besides LaBissiere.