Wizards
Despite shooting 0-of-15 in a rough outing at the Las Vegas Summer League, rookie center/forward Alex Sarr has the type of game-changing potential, particularly defensively, that the Wizards could use.
“He’s got such a high-character disposition about him,” Wizards summer coach Cody Toppert said, via Josh Robbins of The Athletic. “He cares about his teammates. I think we want to see a little bit of a killer come out on the court. We want to see a guy who is bringing an aggressive mentality on both sides of the ball, a level of physicality on defense that’s going to establish a baseline for what he’s going to be in the future. And then on the offensive side, it’s got to be a level of aggression. We don’t want him to hide on the offensive end. We want him to hunt action.”
- Meanwhile, guard Carlton Carrington, the No. 14 overall pick, has also shown flashes of major promise. “I’m just trying to be a leader,” Carrington said, via Robbins. “I came here to play a guard position, and at a guard position, you’ve got to be vocal. So, coach has been staying on me, and some of my older guys have also been helping me throughout that, just trying to keep me active, keep me vocal, just because I have to be one of the leaders on the team.”
- In case you missed it, the Wizards agreed to a three-year contract with forward Saddiq Bey, formerly of the Hawks. We have the full story here.
Celtics
Head of basketball operations Brad Stevens suggested Celtics star Jaylen Brown is likely to be motivated by his Team USA snub.
“Jaylen’s a great player. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Jaylen could be on any team, any Olympic team in any year,’ Stevens said, via Bobby Manning of Celtics Blog. “But at the end of the day, his approach, he talked about how he called (Derrick White), he talked about his own feelings.
“Whether he has success, or he gets all the accolades, like Finals MVP or Eastern Conference finals MVP, or he feels like he got left off the team. He’s going to be motivated and hungry regardless. That’s what I’ve always loved about him. He always goes back to work.”
- Stevens also addressed the fact majority owner Wyc Grousbeck is placing his share of the Celtics up for sale. “I learned not long before everybody else did that was going to happen,” Stevens said. “I’m obviously very thankful for Wyc and his family and everything they’ve done. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens from here. I don’t want to get too far into the weeds of it all, but how does it affect us? It doesn’t really right now … we’re just head down doing what we think is best for the now of the Celtics and the future … we’re lucky we got a good team.”
Pacers
Second-round pick and rookie forward Johnny Furphy has been a pleasant surprise for the Pacers’ entry at the Las Vegas Summer League.
“The Pacers were thrilled he was still on the board at No. 35 in the NBA draft, so they traded up to take him even though they had never met with him or brought him in for a workout because they had him graded as a top-20 player,” wrote Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. “General manager Chad Buchanan suggested Furphy might take a while to develop and the Pacers would show patience with him, but he might not require as much patience as they were expecting.”
- In case you missed it, the Pacers added depth to the frontcourt by signing former No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman early in free agency. We have the full story here.
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