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Summer League notebook: Early Warriors winners and losers at California Classic

By

Jacob Hutchinson

/

© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

SACRAMENTO – Summer League games are great. They are innately weird, semi-disastrous and entertaining for both the previous two reasons and the fact that young guys are going all-out in the hopes of securing a roster spot. You don’t want to make judgment calls based on what happens in Summer League – and especially not on a box score alone – since it’s a part-tryout, part-mini-tournament lacking any sort of chemistry or collective roster identity. Still, it is impossible not to reach for some conclusions.

Summer League is for seeing who shows the spark of becoming who they were acquired to one day become, who shows they think and act mostly like a professional, and most of all, who simply does not cut it. There’s a Summer League adage that goes along the lines of, “Summer League tells you who you can’t play.”

For the Warriors, through three days of the California Classic, there were some clear winners and losers:

Winners

Eric Paschall

Let’s get this out of the way. Yes, Paschall has a very similar game to Draymond Green. He has a similar size and athleticism to Draymond Green. He reads the game, from the glimpses we’ve seen in Summer League and his performances in college, in a similar way to Draymond Green. He was also a great college player at a nationally-competitive program drafted in the second round… like Draymond Green.

So, what’s it like to be compared to Green? Paschall shook his head and smiled when the comparison was made by a reporter on Tuesday.

“I knew you was going to say that,” he said.

But Paschall’s aversion to that comparison is likely a product of his mold. He was undeniably appreciative of Green’s game and the opportunity he’ll have to grow under Green’s tutelage.

“Super excited, just knowing that he’s such a great player, and all the things he does on the court,” Paschall said. “I can’t wait to learn. I can’t even express how excited I am to learn.”

Those comparisons are only going to be made more frequently as the season gets underway, simply because Paschall will be good from the get-go, and his skillset can give Green a break in a season in which Green and Stephen Curry are expected to take more breaks than they ever have. On Tuesday, Paschall put up 18 points (6-of-8 from the field, 2-of-2 from 3-pt, 4-of-6 from the line) along with three rebounds and one assist, steal, block, turnover, and foul.

Summer League stats are not worth reading too much into, but on a second night in which Damian Jones looked feckless on the offensive end, Paschall was like Green; marauding, defensively aware, looking for the best pass, taking advantage of the opportunities available, and when the offense was stagnant (which, in the Summer League, is quite frequent, if not constant), he created his own opportunities.

Summer League head coach Aaron Miles was impressed by Paschall’s shot selection after Game 2.

“Paschall was good. I thought yesterday he didn’t get as many touches and opportunities, but he picked some good spots and it was good to see,” Miles said. “He’s a pretty good on-ball defender, he’ll continue to get better off the ball, but he’s good.”

Alen Smailagic

There were times over the first three days in which Smailagic made me wonder, “Why on Earth are the Warriors so enamored with this guy?” Those were the times he got lost on defensive assignments, closed out too late on 3-point attempts clumsily, missed his own 3-point attempts by a particularly uninspiring margin, and showed a lack of strength required to finish under the hoop at a Summer League – let alone NBA – level.

Then, I remembered he’s a soon-to-be 19-year-old with two more years of G-League eligibility coupled with a Warriors training staff that will be dedicated to developing his jump shot. Then, he ran a high screen-and-roll as a screener, slipped off his man, secured the offensive rebound and finished the putback for an and-one opportunity.

Then, he caught a nearly full court pass, put the ball on the floor, switched hands and slammed home this stunning dunk, which featured a similar theme as the ones on his highlight reel. His hands and comfortability handling the ball are perhaps the most definable and immediate upgrades in his game over Damian Jones’, who’s had passes slip through hands countless times over the past few years:

His highlights confound due to the fact that Smailagic does not appear to have any sort of vertical talent. In fact, he looks to get very little lift off the ground. Yet, somehow, his dunks are impressive, surprisingly athletic, and remorseless. It’s reminiscent of when one of the Lopez brothers – neither of whom have spectacular leaping ability – assault the rim in a way which takes every single person in the arena off guard, and pulls them immediately out of their seat.

Here’s a second example of Smailagic’s almost methodical brand of explosiveness:

He seems to be athletic without looking at all athletic. He doesn’t look quick, but he is for his size. He doesn’t look to move well side-to-side, but he has the ability to recover in just a step. He doesn’t seem to be able to jump very high, yet he gets up quick enough to block an occasional shot, and assertively enough that he can take the hoop for a ride. Smailagic will be a very fun, somewhat confounding player to watch over the next few years, with an unclear, but enticing ceiling.

As Eric Paschall said after Tuesday night’s game, “Smaily, he’s gonna be a player. People forget he’s only 18. He’s 18 years old. I would say that kid’s going to be special in a few years. I definitely believe so… Goes at anybody, super skilled. Has a lot to learn about the game and wants to learn. Just being with him for a week, I see that he wants to learn and he’s willing to do whatever for the team, so Smaily’s going to be real good.”

Ky Bowman

Bowman snagged the Warriors’ first two-way contract this season. He’s an undersized guard at a listed 6’1″ but projects to provide a decent shooting touch off the bench and plays with energy. As cliche as “plays with energy” is, it’s true for Bowman, who was full-court pressing, fighting through screens and chasing down loose balls frequently.

Miles was complimentary of Bowman after Game 2, praising his defensive energy as much as his sparkplug offensive nature.

“I like Ky a lot man,” Miles said. “He’s quick, obviously. He pressured the ball, really pressured the ball, got a great handle, can get to the paint, confident, can score the ball a little bit. But more importantly, he’s a great young man, he’s a great culture guy and he’s competitive.”

Bowman has not appeared like he’ll be setting the world alight with his scoring, but he’s picked his spots intelligently and like Miles said, has been active defensively. Last year at Boston College, he averaged 19 points (40 percent from the field, 37.4 percent from 3-point (2.5/6.8 per game), 76.1 percent from FT), 7.5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.5 turnovers per game, and has hit a couple threes in Summer League within the flow of the game, a positive sign from a player who could see some time with the Warriors this year.

Jacob Evans

Evans looks like he’s at least corrected some of the sort of hitch-like flaws in the jump shot that he entered the league with last season. His jumper looked woeful last summer, but so far, he looks much more like the first-round caliber player he was drafted to be. Evans may be in line for substantial minutes this season with Klay Thompson projected to be sidelined at least through December, and likely through to February and March.

With Alfonzo McKinnie and Glenn Robinson III currently the only small forwards on the roster, Evans could see his role expand to the wing, or play as a ball-handler in a multi-guard lineup, and should be expected to book double-digit minutes per game this year.

He scored 18 points in his second game, and while his ball-handling isn’t flashy, it has also improved from last season, as has his level of aggression going to the basket. The most impressive part of Evans’ game is the body control and awareness he’s shown driving down the lane. Some of his finishes at the rim have been eye-opening, and wasn’t something we had a chance to see last season. His defense needs work, but he’s athletic enough where there’s definite room for growth on that end.

Malachi Richardson

Richardson will have the opportunity to show much more of his game in Las Vegas, but there were bursts where he reminded why he was a first-round pick (22nd overall) by the Charlotte Hornets (immediately traded to the Sacramento Kings) in 2016. He’s only 23 years old, has fantastic size at 6’6″, and a knock-down shooting stroke. Hit hit a triplet of threes in four attempts (9 points) in Game 2 along with 4 rebounds and 2 assists while looking active defensively, but regressed and went 0-for-4 in Game 3.

He’s the exact size and mold the Warriors will likely look at to fill their second-to last roster spot. He is ineligible for a two-way contract due to having three years of NBA service time. Richardson has the pedigree, potential and game to be a solid option with that second slot for the Warriors, especially with the team’s lack of depth at shooting guard and small forward.

Richardson told KNBR that he thought he had an “OK effort” in Game 2, and said the process of trying to stand out while working towards team success in Summer League is an inexact and tough process.

“It’s difficult, but you have to know yourself,” Richardson said. “I think that’s the most important part in going through this whole process again. I think that’s something that I’ve learned being able to contribute, but still not get too out of it or do too much is a big piece of it.”

Richardson said that despite the potential of securing one of the final guaranteed roster spots with the Warriors looking for wings and youth, it would derail his play if he started to think about roster fits.

“I’m going to show my value first,” Richardson told KNBR. “All that stuff is down the line. I can’t worry about that right now. If I worry about that, I won’t play well, so I’m going to worry about that when it’s time for it.”

Having gone from a first-round pick to not knowing if he’ll make a roster, Richardson said he’s learned so many lessons that he “can’t count” them all. He was traded on draft day from the Charlotte Hornets to the Kings, then acquired by the Raptors in the 2017-18 season, and played 22 games last season before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and subsequently waived.

The former Syracuse man, who averaged 20.8 points (41.1 percent from field, 39.3 percent from 3-point on 8.9 attempts per game) in the G-League last season, says he now understands the reality of many things being outside of players’ control, and the importance of moving forward in a productive way when things break in a disappointing way.

“Back then, I didn’t understand that, but now I do. For sure,” Richardson said. “With this process you can’t be negative about it. Everything happens for a reason. You just have to find a fit and take advantage of any opportunity that you get.”

Juan Toscano-Anderson

Toscano-Anderson probably isn’t going to make the Warriors’ roster, but he showed his experience bouncing around in and out of the NBA for the last few years. He’s a long, athletic wing who lacks a shooting touch, but defensively, he was everywhere. After losing Andre Iguodala, Toscano-Anderson wouldn’t be the worst option to at least bring into camp.

He was active in passing lanes, one-on-ones and in switches, and showed an ability to drive to the hoop with solid vision. While his finishing and shooting were inconsistent, he created his own space, looked for teammates effectively and is a decent rebounder. At the very least, he’s athletic, works hard and improved his own stock on Day 3.

Davon Reed

Reed played 19 minutes in Game 3 and nearly carried the Warriors to their first Summer League win before the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn (a Warriors Summer Leaguer last summer) went off for a combined 41 points. Reed scored 12 points (4-of-8, 2-of-5 from 3-pt) with 3 rebounds and an assist while helping on defense and demonstrating his athletic skillset while not forcing his shots.

Losers:

Damian Jones

The only excuse for the way Damian Jones is playing is that he is still recovering from his torn right pectoral. But physically, Jones is there. He’s demonstrated he can elevate for some of those dynamic, literally rim-rattling dunks and athletic blocks he’s made a young career out of. Yet, for a fourth-year player who spent significant time as the Warriors’ starting center, he should, as The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss said on KNBR 680 on Tuesday, be dominating Summer League.

He is far from dominating. Jones has shown signs that he could improve, like in Game 3, when he looked at his most aggressive on the offensive end. But even with more aggression, there’s no finesse in his game. His stats look fine, and Game 3 was his best game by far (15 points, 7 rebounds), but he still makes too many simple mistakes on defense and poor passes.

There’s no offensive move he can pull off consistently in the post and while he can recover on defense to block a few shots, they are too often the product of bad initial defense, when Jones either gets caught flat-footed or misses an assignment. Because he’s so large, he can get away with recovering late and blocking shots on Summer League guys, but that does not fly in the NBA.

More than anything, it’s the jumping at pump fakes and dropped passes which highlight the flaws in Jones’ game.

When some guy from the second string of the Lakers’ Summer League team has Jones, a fourth-year NBA player who plays a defense-first position, jumping out of his shoes at the laziest of pump fakes, there is a monumental problem. When Jones drops passes that a center needs to be able to catch and facilitate quickly, it’s hard to see how he can be used for any sort of extended stretch, or improve above an energy-burst, athleticism-focused player.

Jones will likely have highlight moments this season, but he needed to show new elements to his game against the weakest competition he’ll face all year. Aside from a mildly promising free throw stroke, he did not show that he’s developed anything new in the only part of Summer League he will be involved in.

Jordan Poole

The reason Poole is on this list is because he was drafted 28th overall. If he was a second-round pick, I might be more impressed with his knack for drawing fouls, like when he pulled the James Harden-esque “whoops, my feet landed three feet in front of me” move that secured him three free throws in the first quarter of Game 2. Drawing fouls is a tremendous asset, especially for a ball-handling shooting guard.

He was, however, extremely turnover prone, to the point where it outweighed his ball-handling capabilities. The Warriors won’t need pure creativity from Poole, as they’ll look to set back screens and get him open for shots, which will naturally happen as a product of playing alongside one or both of Stephen Curry and D’Angelo Russell. Still, he’ll need to create his own shot sometimes and will have to figure out how to do that more consistently as the year goes on.

Poole had one fantastic drive to the hoop early in Game 2 coupled with a beautiful spin move that saw him head to the line. But he stopped going to the rim, and looked uneasy handling the ball under solid defensive pressure on the perimeter. He set up Toscano-Anderson for a beautiful back pass for a massive dunk, and clearly has a creative flair to his game, though it’s not clear how practical that flair is.

More concerning than anything is the 3-point shooting. We know Poole was a volume shooter at Michigan, but in his first two Summer League games, he went 1-for-11. Again, Summer League stats don’t mean all that much, if anything. But Poole missed wide-open looks and then pressed himself into taking bad shots. He’ll improve once the Warriors get him into camp over the summer, but there’s a massive lack of polish in his game at the moment.

Jimmer Fredette

Let’s just examine what happened on Tuesday. Fredette 2-of-6 from the field while looking like your friend’s little brother who you allow to play because you need an extra body. Fredette was the oldest, and simultaneously most immature player, arguing with referees on a somewhat questionable offensive foul that featured a look that could be described as, “Wha wha whaaaaaat? Meeee?”

Yes, you, Jimmer. A 30-year-old who picked up the only technical foul most people will probably ever see in Summer League, for arguing with the referee on a separate call. Fredette made some nice passes, hit a couple of threes, and looks like he still has the shooting form that made him at BYU. That’s no surprise. But all his worst flaws were borne out as he, the most seasoned player on the court, looked like a selfish rookie trying to hog the ball.

Fredette made a steal on defense, demonstrated good reflexes and made at least what appeared to be a somewhat consistent defensive effort. But he’s 6’1″ and is offensive-minded at his core. He can only guard a point guard, and if he’s caught on a switch, the other team simply will score unless they make a mistake.

His offense, while capable of opening up other players, was the same black hole it was in college. It sort of worked on Monday, when Fredette had 14 points (5-of-10, 1-of-5 from 3-pt) and 7 rebounds, but hitting threes is going to be the only way he makes a roster, and it didn’t work on Tuesday (he was 0-for-2 from three).

You either live or die by him, and while he did look to get other players involved, it came too late. His decision-making was so focused on creating his own chances, that those passes to open up others often came a second or two too late, to the point they didn’t actually open up a shot.

Fredette was apparently fed up with his time enough that he left the Warriors’ Summer League team by Game 3. He looked nowhere near opening up a roster spot for himself, whether with the Warriors or somewhere else.

Dedric Lawson

Lawson still has a chance to show he’s worth a two-way somewhere, but based on his defense, it’s not going to be with the Warriors. He’s listed at 6’9″, but looks much closer to 6’11”. He’s got solid ability in the post, but was lazy setting screens and lost his assignments more times than not on defense.

He was the BIG 12’s leading scorer (19.4 points per game) and rebounder last season (10.3 rebounds per game) with .490/.393./.813 shooting splits on the season, yet he was outworked for rebounds frequently and slow on offense. He scored 7 points on 3-of-5 shooting on Day 3, a positive sign for him heading into Las Vegas. Yet, for a player with that sort of pedigree in college as a sleeper two-way prospect, he completely underwhelmed for most of the California Classic.

He’ll need to show much more in Las Vegas, and to his advantage, he should get the chance now that Jones is done with Summer League.

No change

Brandon Sampson, Ebuka Izundu, Malik Dunbar, Kevin McClain, Travis Wear

Of the players above, only Sampson played in both of the first two games (Izundu and Wear played some underwhelming minutes in Game 1, Wear also played in Game 3). Dunbar played with energy and almost helped the team to a win in his only minutes in Game 3, while the 28-year-old Wear tried to show everyone how he’s a stretch-five who can shoot… by missing plenty of shots. None besides Wear had enough time to really show too much value.

The Warriors are younger and need wings

Stephen Curry, at age 31, is the oldest player on the Warriors’ roster. Unless the team signs a player to the veteran minimum, it’s probably going to be another young guy or two filling out the final two roster spots after the team waived Quinn Cook on June 3. To provide context to what the team will be evaluating when the Summer League Warriors head to Las Vegas, here’s a look at the team’s roster:

Guards:

Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson (out through at least December, likely longer), D’Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans, Jordan Poole, Ky Bowman (two-way)

Wings/Forwards:

Draymond Green, Alfonzo McKinnie, Eric Paschall, Glenn Robinson III

Centers:

Kevon Looney, Willie Cauley-Stein, Damian Jones, Alen Smailagic (likely signs at least semi-guaranteed deal)

The needs:

Assuming Smailagic and Paschall sign non-two-way contracts (which seems like a certainty), the Warriors will have two available roster spots and one two-way contract. Yet, as explained here, even with the team allowing Quinn Cook to become an unrestricted free agent, the team can only afford to fill one of its final two roster spots at the moment. Bobby Marks projects the team to have $215,000 in space under the tax apron if the team signs one minimum player and both Smailagic and Paschall.

This is due to the fact that the Warriors sign-and-traded for D’Angelo Russell and cannot, for any reason, exceed the $138 million tax apron this season. With that final minimum roster spot and two-way, the team will almost certainly be looking at wings, and/or a backup point guard.

The team tendered an offer to now-restricted free agent Damion Lee, who had one of the team’s two-way deals last year, and with his relationship as Curry’s brother-in-law and proven scoring ability off the bench last season, he seems like both a viable option and solid fit for the 14th and for the moment, final roster spot. The last two-way spot seems up for grabs, and out of anyone on the current Summer League roster, Reed would seem to be the most likely candidate, providing ideal size, ball-handling, athleticism and shooting. Richardson is ineligible because he has three years of service time.

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