re: NBA Summer League Thread (Game Thread?)

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What has Lewis done to this point exactly

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He's shown elite speed, an ability to get to the basket at will, and great ball hawking instincts. Kira has been a bit miscast here. He was drafted because he was a good PG, one of the top P&R ball handlers in college. He's played a mostly off ball role because of Point Zion. The hope was/is he could become more of a combo guard and thrive off ball too, but that will take time to develop.

Depending on what we see from Seabron, I think Kira still has a future here because between the injury and the limited role he'll have as others have passed him on the depth chart, I think he can be kept relatively cheaply on his 2nd contract.

I think it’s a bit unfair to judge any player the season SVG was here. This past season for him was cut short less than 2 months into the season. He was starting to show some promise before his injury.

We were trying to figure out our rotations, dealing with injuries, and learning the new system at the time. I don’t think we had enough time to see where Kira fits yet. I need to see him for a full season under Green. It’s a little unfair to judge him since most of his games last season was during the 3-16 period.

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Jose is just an older and more experienced basketball player at this point

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Absolutely. Kira has one great skill at this point and that is his speed. But he shows promising flashes of talent doing several other things you'd like to see from a PG. If he improves on any of his other skills he becomes a pretty solid backup. There is no reason to think a kid his age can't become a better defender, a better shooter, or a better passer. That's really the typical NBA trajectory these days. He's probably not even done growing.

4th string PG

This is where I come in, steal your typical line when you disagree with someone’s viewpoint on a prospect, and just let you know, you are flat out wrong/this is an awful take. I forgive you. You are really only guilty of optimism bias. You are also guilty of wanting your own predraft assessment of Kira to be correct. Look, I thought the guy would be good too. He isn’t though. And it’s been obvious for a long time, that his absolute ceiling is Darren Collison and he might have a 10% chance of actually hitting that ceiling.

Look, this same board for 18 straight months, denied that Tyrese Maxey was better than Kira, even though it was obvious within the first month.

This same board, for 6 plus months, assumed Kira was better than Jose, even though Jose ran circles around him in SL, while Kira legitimately played terrified and was maybe the 6th most influential player on that SL roster.

If Kira was any good, any good at all, you would have the occasional fans from other teams say he was good, or saying they wish they had drafted Kira, or be pining to potentially trade for him. You have exactly none of that. Kira’s rookie card market is non existent. And that is also usually a good Indicator of what unbiased basketball people/collectors/investors overall think of someone’s skillset and upside.

I like Kira the human. But we have to make far too many excuses for Kira the player. Oh he was miscast, oh SL isn’t the right format for him, OH SVG, OHHH YADAYADAYADA.

Perhaps Kira isn’t any good. If you Truly evaluate what we have seen from Kira from a winning basketball perspective over the last 2 years and you don’t base your evaluation on hopes, dreams, Pels fandom, and top end straight line speed, Kira is not even a top 30 player from his own draft class.

So, when the decision comes down to trading Hayes (who on his best day is some variation of Anthony Davis) or Kira, who on his best day gives you an average Darren Collison game, I think the choice is easy.

Because if we are completely honest with ourselves and we ignore the fact that we burned pick 13 on Kira and passed up on Maxey and other solid players to take Kira, and you just judge him in the lense of if he is any good or not. If you line up Kira, Graham, Naji, Hayes, and even Jared Harper, I’m likely picking Kira last if I want to try to win a basketball game this year, or even 2 years from now.

Jose > Graham > Kira > Jared Harper right now IMO.

Maybe Kira > Graham in a year or two. Either way, we'll be debating over our #3 PG option.

Johnny Davis is struggling mightily again. 2-8 from the field, 0 asts, 3 turnovers.

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Is this guy fricking serious?

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I mean it’s not the measuring stick, but it’s a nice barometer.

Lewis hasn’t shown enough where investors-typically connected to Vegas, believe he’s anything but a replacement player.

Optimism abounds for young players. I was high on Frank Jackson-a good athlete at his position. He’s not an NBA level rotation player.

Lewis is probably closer to Frank.

Anyone seen this clip of Cam Thomas?

LINK

That comes across as bad as the Shaeden Sharpe “their little shine” comment.

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What has Lewis done to this point exactly

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What has Jared Harper done to this point exactly? Kira Lewis has at least had a few good games in his career and has actual nba caliber talent and athleticism.