Kuminga Signs with Minnesota & Our 2026 Breakout Candidates

Hello and welcome to Sports Illustrated's NBA podcast, Open Floor.

I am your host this week, Liam McEwen.

With me is Blake Silverman, as has been the case for the month of August.

And my goodness, has it been an entertaining month of basketball news and discussion for us.

We really enjoyed it.

It's a lot more fun than most August in the NBA for those who follow along.

It's usually a dry month, but we've had all sorts of stuff happen.

Both, uh, off the court and on the court.

And for this week, we're gonna focus mostly on the on the court stuff after last week, we touched a lot about the Lakers sale and everybody's heard enough about the Lakers.

So, uh, first off, we got another piece of news last night.

Jonathan Kainga finally came off the free agency market .

He signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves on a two-year deal worth $13 million in total.

A little bit of a surprise as far as the final final dollar amount goes, given Kainga has been in search of a big payday since he left Golden State.

He was traded.

By the Warriors at the deadline last year to the Atlanta Hawks, extended restricted free agency negotiation the previous year in search of a big payday.

He settles for the low number, he joins the Timberwolves.

Uh, Blake, what would, what do you think about this news when it came down the pipe?

Well, I think we're finally all set with, almost all set.

There, there's one big offseason question still looming, uh, pending potential other things that we aren't expecting happening, but Jalen Duran still doesn't have a new deal with the Pistons, but this last week we saw the Klay Thompson situation come to a close, with him going to the Heat, Benedict Matherin goes to the Pelicans, and then the Jonathan Kainga situation.

Ends, uh, late August here.

So, I think we have most of our questions answered.

My initial thought, which I'd love to hear your take on it, is, so when this deal was broke by ESPN Sham Sharania, he mentioned that Kainga is going to go into the starting lineup.

They need forward depth after trading Naz Reed, that's no secret .

You also sign Ao Deumu to a 5 year, $112 million dollar deal this offseason.

So, you add LaMelo Ball, AO is re up, you're gonna have Jonathan Kamena start next to LaMelo, and Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels.

I initially I was like, huh, are you gonna pay AO all that money and he's not gonna start, but Considering Dante Di Vincenzo is, is gonna miss at the very least, the majority of this season.

I kind of like Aoredefined our expectations on the Achilles front, but I think it's probably safe to feel that after tearing his Achilles in, no, actually earlier than Tatum did last year, but out till March at the absolute.

Latest I would say early.

There were already pictures, I don't think we've seen any clips, but we've seen pictures of Dante back on the court, which is incredible, but I would love for the, if I, I mean, I don't know why it feels like it starts with Tatum necessarily, maybe it's because he's such, he's such a big time player and came back so quickly, but like.

If the tide starts turning a little bit for these Achilles guys and it's no longer kind of like the Brandon Jennings death knell of it all, if Dame and Hallie come back this year and they play awesome, if Dante can Dame won the 3 point competition last won the 3 point competition on one leg technically, which is 2nd most impressive behind Larry Bird winning in a warm-up jacket easily, um.

But if these guys can redefine that, that'd be great, that'd be awesome.

I would, you know, it, it sucks so bad to see these talented players go down with that serious of an injury, so it's, I'm, I'm, I'm, I was stoked to see those pictures and I'm rooting for him to get back out there as soon as possible.

Yeah, and with, with that, I mean, I kind of, uh, the Wolves' depth was always the biggest question after you trade for LaMelo, you don't have Dante.

So, coming around on it about 16 hours to digest this deal, I I kind of like it, especially when you consider Jonathan Kainga is still gonna be playing for a new deal.

He has the security of a player option, but it's a small player option, so presumably he's gonna want more money after reportedly turning down much bigger presumably about Kamena, we can be pretty certain that we know what he's angling for, no, no shame about that.

Money is money, baby, you gotta make that bread, but he, uh, we know that.

Things go well, it's an opt-out, so it feels like a one year arrangement for now.

I, I like it.

I think it could definitely go wrong to a degree.

I mean, my biggest on-court thing about it is Kinga isn't the, he's not like a horrible defender, but he's not the greatest defender in the world, and is he, how many shots is he going to want when you already have you're playing alongside LaMelo and Antt for most of the time, but I think when you uh compare that against, you have Rudy Gobert out there, you have Jane McDaniels out there.

Like, I'm curious if that's enough to avoid the defensive concern of LaMelo.

Like, I don't think Kainga is the cleanest fit to do that.

I think he brings other things, um, but then you have Ao coming off the bench, presumably, who's an awesome defender, so.

It might help things if if they're able to thread the needle, but I, it's definitely an upgrade for the wolves, so I, I don't think you can be too mad about it at all.

Yeah, definitely.

I, I mean, from a fit perspective, it's perfect because the Wolves did not have a power forward.

You talked about their depth and you were, I think, alluding to their bench depth, but in terms of their forward depth, it was also terrible because they traded away Julius Randall and Naz Reid.

To get the Lamelo Ball trade done, leaving them without a playable power forward.

So, adding Kainga, he is best, I would argue, as a power forward.

And really, I think for me, the biggest win is that They were going, before the Kainga signing, it seemed like they were gonna go with Jaden McDaniels as their power forward, which works because he is such a great defender, but the guy's listed weight is 185 pounds.

These power forwards are all 220 and up nowadays, and even the skinnier guys are, you know, not, they're heavier than McDaniels.

McDaniels is, you know, and that's the listed weight, these, these kinds of measurements can be a little iffy sometimes, but Kainga's listed weight is 220.

25 pounds.

He's 40 pounds, he's got 40 pounds on Jaden McDaniels, and even if those numbers are a little fudged a little bit, that paints the picture that you need to grasp in terms of how undersized McDaniels is from just a sheer bulk perspective to a, you know, a kind of a typical, like, wing forward who plays the 4.

And every minute that they can save him from having to guard up like that will benefit them.

He is such an impactful and game-changing defender, particularly, I mean, he was a huge reason they upset the Nuggets in the playoffs, which had just as much to do with his off the court attitude and trash-talking as That is on the court, but the guy is, he's one of, he's probably at now with everything kind of settling, he's our 3rd most important player.

Kaminga, he's gonna get the job guarding the bigger guys now, gives McDaniels a more natural position of playing the 3.

So that alone is big for the Wolves.

They were going to have a hard time finding someone who could do that at an NBA starting caliber level.

Before this, particularly given they have almost no money to, you know, throw around, even with the Kainga trade, I believe they still have to clear a little bit of cap space, or I mean, the, even with the Kainga signing, I believe they have to clear a little bit of cap space in order to finish that.

So they don't have any wiggle room.

The power forward options were extremely limited.

This is, they're gonna be hard capped at the second apron too, and this would put them over, so they have to do something to get under.

So we'll see what that is.

We'll see what that is.

Josh Green, your time in Minnesota may be limited, but That, I mean, from that perspective alone, if you're not, as long as Kuminga doesn't come in and try to hijack the offense every time he's in, that is a win from what the Wolves were previously gonna look like.

Now, insofar as is Kuminga gonna buy in, that's the big question, because that's been the problem.

The talent has never really been in question, although, Um, as you noted, the defense, I think he has a reputation for being a stronger defender than he, you know, really is in terms of his impact , but he's a big, solid athlete, like we mentioned.

He, but he needs to mentally buy into what he's gonna be, and he's gonna be.

The 3 option, I guess, technically.

Um, but if there are any possessions that finished with him playing, it's my turn basketball when Ant and LaMelo are both healthy, that's a huge loss.

That's a huge win for the opponent.

It's a huge loss for the Timberwolves.

That's not what they want and that's not gonna be his job.

His job is gonna be And down in transition, his job is gonna be taking those lobs.

His job will probably be to guard the 2nd best offensive player, which McDaniels getting the top defensive assignment, which will be, you know, I think that's more, more notable or more suited for his skill set.

And You got, but you gotta buy in, like, he didn't really buy into the Warriors.

I think there was a lot kind of going on there behind the scenes beyond just him wanting a bigger role that's been indicated by reports and such, and so it's impossible to chalk it up, chalk up their divorce to just one thing.

But he clearly was not satisfied being like a tertiary guy next to a superstar.

He goes to Atlanta, I think he buys in a little bit more to what Quinn Snyder wanted him to do as the head coach down there.

And he did help in the playoffs.

I would say that he probably helped them win at least one playoff game against the Knicks and nobody else took more than 2 off the Knicks in any series that entire year, so that's a feather in the cap to an extent.

But he was still kind of doing that, you know, when he got the ball, it's like, all right, it's my turn to do something with it and not, not really being connected.

And so, there are guys, that's just not them, and that's, that's OK if you can provide enough value in other areas.

Kamingo struggled to do that to this point.

I think the matter of it being essentially a prove it deal is lends it, it would have been a benefit to to any team.

He's obviously gonna do what he can't.

Is it the cleanest fit, uh, or is it like the best player that Minnesota could have put into this role, if we knew everything we knew at the start of the offseason?

Maybe not, but at this stage of the offseason, I think it is the best move that they could have made.

I'm curious.

So Shams reported that Kumingawade offers from Portland, Chicago, and the Lakers, who Kamingo is probably most associated with the Lakers, like, they were most commonly linked to them.

Everybody was trying to put together to sign and trade packages, it kind of felt inevitable because after the Luca thing, it's kind of hard, again, it's like the modern generation feels this way, and I know the older generations felt this way.

The Lakers are gonna get their guy if they get linked to them is like what it feels like, it's not true, but it is kind of what it feels like.

Well, it didn't, it didn't happen here, and So, do you think that Minnesota was the cleanest fit, or maybe best opportunity for Jonathan Kainga, the player of those suitors, or like, should he have just went to Chicago and got more more run for it?

What do you think?

I think that at this dollar amount, it is, and if this was the dollar amount that everybody else was offering him, then he made the right choice.

I think the kind of previous reporting had the Lakers linked to him, and in tandem, the same reports said that Kinga was looking for something like $20 million annually, not even for, then he ends up signing a deal worth less than that in total.

So, I'm not sure how large the gap was between those teams, but assuming all else equal with the money aspect, This is the best place for him to maximize his potential earnings, and I think this is, like, his best role, is being an uber athletic, like, run the floor kind of forward, who can, you know, he's not really gonna stretch the defense and his defense, his own defense is gonna wane a little bit.

But in terms of being more athletic than the guy across from him being able to stress defenses with that athleticism, that's what he'd be best at.

And for the Wolves, he will be doing so in what we all presume to be for a contending team in an environment that is structured around somebody else.

And in Chicago, he wasn't gonna get that, and I think it's kinda weird that Chicago was in on it, given their front office.

Has been very adamant about how much the future matters in Chicago was just and then they were like, Oh, we're gonna sign the guy who plays the exact same, yeah, right.

Sign the guy who's good at playing the exact same position as our number 4 pick in the draft.

A Little odd, little odd.

I'm not sure if that passed the smell test, and Portland would have been fun because Portland, God only knows what they're need wings.

Yeah, they need wings in theory.

I think they need a lot more than that, but it's gonna be fun to watch.

But I mean.

If you wanna talk about, like, if he can, he, if he's trying to prove that he checks every box for essentially a starting caliber, not quite star, but secondary guy, of, you know, high-end role player, this is where he does it.

He's gonna get his opportunities to score points because he's playing with a, you know, a legit point guard, LaMelo Ball.

Steph Curry is many things, a true point guard, he probably isn't really.

And he's gonna be playing off a star, he's gonna be playing for a team that's gonna, like , trying to make a run, it's not empty calorie shots, it's not, you know, he's gonna be the number one option on a super mid team, like in Chicago, it, it gives him the best chance to get something resembling the, you know, 15 to $20 million dollar per year deal that he wants .

Yeah, and I think it's, it's funny to say when the Lakers were his most Clear suitor, um, but I think Minnesota is potentially the best place for him to be seen, and on the national stage, like, if he can prove that he's an impactful player for a team who, uh, you're gonna have to get past the Thunder and the Spurs, but a team who will most likely be in the 2nd round of the Western Conference playoffs, and Hope to upset one of the Giants, if he can prove that he's an impactful starter for that group, and that's not even considering, like, everyone is gonna wanna watch this team to see how the Lamelo Ball of things works.

And everything like that.

So I think it's a good opportunity for Kinga, and we're gonna get to run this whole discussion back next year, which is, which is fun, cause I'm sure he'll opt out.

And I'm sure nobody is sick of hearing about what Jonathan Kammena wants to do in free agency, not a single person.

After 3 years of rumors about how happy he was with the Warriors and his free agency, get ready for more Jonathan Kammeno.

The bummer for him, he did.

Miss out on the Wolves trip to France.

The Wolves all went to France on Rudy Gobert's dime, really cool thing that actually, a lot of NBA teams are doing this summer, which is sort of interesting.

I feel like that happens every summer.

These guys take team trips and bonding and all that stuff, but these are collectively, like, group organized, like player-organized activities that are being paid for by a superstar.

So the , you know, Wolves are in France with Rudy.

The Jazz went to Finland with Laurie Markinen and, like, all his, you know, his family and, like, they had, not as many, it wasn't like a full team trip, but they had a couple of jazz guys out there.

The Spurs went to France as well, Victor Wambayama let every, you know, led everybody around, a lot of good content from that, and now Luca is in Slovenia with the Lakers.

And that inspires the question that every fan wonders in their mind is what would they do with the unlimited amount of money that athletes appear to have.

And specifically, in the context of this discussion, where would you bring your teammates if you had all the money in the world?

Yeah, and I I don't think, like, obviously the trend we're seeing here is international stars are bringing their, their team, at least as many players that can go, it's fully led by the players, like, to my understanding, the teams are not involved at all, but we have seen some other things, like, Cade Cunningham brought the Pistons to San Diego, which I believe is going on right now, and Uh, it, Tom Gores definitely lives on, the Pistons owner definitely lives on the West Coast, so I think there's some connection there where they're doing stuff, so it doesn't just have to be San Diego just kind of like rules generally year round.

I heard it's humid in California this year, rumors, rumors.

Yeah, but, and also just, we get some incredible clips that come out of it, like, I mean, Ant is just your classic meme whenever he gets in front of the microphone, and there was that video of him telling Rudy Gobert that the Eiffel Tower looks like Walt Disney, which I'm not 100% sure what he means by that, but I definitely laughed.

Um, but the, the point being, like, it doesn't have to be.

International focused.

I think I was thinking about this long and hard, and I was like, oh, where's an interesting place that's like, on my list, but um it, like, isn't a most well traveled destination.

Where I landed, I think has emerged as a very hot vacation spot the last couple of years.

I still have never been to like Montana or Wyoming area, and I think that would be an awesome sky action.

Yeah, like western theme basketball camp, just hang out in the mountains, do some hiking.

Um, so that's where I would go, and it really, it's just because I haven't been there yet, and I'd love to be there, um, and I think like a cowboy themed NBA mini camp would be pretty cool and not as hot as like doing something similar in Austin or a place like that.

Well, speaking of Texas, I know Keldon Johnson would be jacked about that.

He is the Sur Bruce Brown and Bruce Brown, a couple wannabe cowboys in the NBA.

Uh, I went a completely different direction.

I went for a good balance.

I thought, my thought was that I'd bring everybody to the Bahamas.

VJ Edgecombe, bring your Sixers friends next year, because Number one, tropical island, checks every box as far as that aspect goes, who doesn't love a tropical island.

Michael Jordan hangs out there.

There was that video that goes viral once a year of him playing pickup with Tom Brady, so he could probably convince MJ to swing by, drop some tips, give us some, give us some advice, and then in terms of the, so I respect, I respect your take.

That hiking would be a good activity for everybody.

I disagree, and not just because I'm not a hiker .

These are very, I'm not really either for the record, but I, if the opportunity was there, like when in Rome, you know, yeah, OK, well, fair enough, but if you're then, if you're flying yourself to Rome and then saying when in Rome, how much, when in Rome is it really?

Anyway, these are very tall dudes, very expensive.

bodies.

Their whole livelihood is based on their bodies.

I'm thinking, low energy, low effort, recreational activities when you're not practicing the Bahamas, beaches and spades.

They got a whole resort down there called Atlantis.

Let them only ride the lazy river, none of the other, you know, water parks, like, that'd be great.

They can do some, you know, gambling is legal there, do a little bit of casino fun.

Get on a yacht, just go have a boat day.

Boat days are only cursed for NFL teams, not NBA teams, you're totally good.

So that feels like for me, that checks every box and perhaps most importantly for these guys who all have unlimited money, relatively speaking.

It's not a far flight, real quick, 333 hours from New York City, something like that, and I mean, you're, you know, comparing that to overseas, we're talking France and Slovenia, that's a trek, and these very tall men are on airplanes for that long.

It doesn't matter how nice your plane is, the legroom is always gonna be a little iffy, you know.

And it's keeping, like, uh, where did, where did LeBron go with the Cavs on the reunion they did this summer.

I think they did like a Euro, yeah, they did a Euro trip and golfed a bunch of the places.

So I think we've seen a lot of international, so I like years of being international, but not a long flight.

It kind of reminds me, I don't think anyone's done Hawaii yet.

I mean, that would be cool, dude, it's 12.

I know it's a far flight.

It's a beautiful, obviously, what a place, but like that's, uh, you know, you're committing, it's, it is basically overseas.

I mean, it is literally overseas, but it's the same thing as going to Europe where like that's like a hardcore commitment.

So I guess to that lens, it is kind of interesting that nobody's chosen Hawaii, especially if you're any of the California teams where it's like a hop, skip and a jump, relatively speaking.

Yeah, well, I don't know if any owners like want their players surfing in the offseason or something like that.

Um, so, but yeah, for us two, like East Coasters, it's about 10 hours of flight time.

So yeah, it is, it is a lot.

So, no, I like, I would like the Bahamas.

I'm a big uh vacation, like, chill by the beach, as opposed to fill every day with activities guy, like, Activities are good every now and then, but I'd be, I'd be with you on that, especially if you're doing some sort of basketball activities.

And I mean, maybe I'm making, maybe I'm making too much of an assumption here, but it feels like a lot of NBA guys might be the same given their regular lives are so activity-based and go, go, go, you know, try and, and it really does have something for everybody because if you are a little bit more into an activities man or woman, there's a, you know, jet ski or something, yeah, lots of good, lots of good options there.

Uh, I did see a video of Bronnie doing like a, a backflip into a lake in Slovenia, uh, with the Lakers, so it's kind of like parents, parents are gone now.

I'm interested to see how that, how, uh, that whole Linka isn't looking over your shoulder to check for rocks.

The parents are out of town, or his literal dad, that's great point, or his literal father, yeah.

Uh, anyway, looking ahead to next season, we wanna do one of my favorite segments on any podcast or written NBA content, and it's about looking forward to the breakout candidates of the upcoming year.

I love keeping an eye out for these guys.

I think it's, you know, one of the great things about sports is when potential is realized and kind of the breadcrumbs that these guys show over the course of their first years in the league, then explode into or they come together into some Form of a new, basically a new player who can change the trajectory of his career, his team season, maybe even the entire NBA team season.

But I think there's also a lot of definition for breakouts.

There's the breakout, you know, all-star guy makes a leap to MVP candidate.

There's the, nobody's ever heard of this guy who's gonna make the leap into being a rotation player, someone who is going to earn NBA caliber money and can for the rest of their career.

There's a lot of there, there's a lot of wiggle room there, and, uh, you know, Blake wanted to have this discussion, so I'll let him start.

So Blake, who's your breakout guy you're keeping an eye on this year?

I think, yeah, like you mentioned, I think there's a lot of ways you can define it, like trades or movement can change roles.

We see it every offseason, whether it's a player finding a new team, like, I don't know if that's necessarily a a breakout, because it's like new opportunity, um, and that's what brought it there, but if someone else leaves and a player on that roster steps up, That could be one too.

I went a bit down the barrel for this, just like trying to find guys who maybe didn't have as much of an opportunity last season, but that might change this season, whether it's because roster movement, personal development, what have you.

I'm really interested to see what happens with Will Riley in Washington.

He was really good down the stretch of his rookie season, huge for my fantasy team down the stretch as well.

Definitely, I could definitely see that, um, like, he was huge in March, where you have a lot of absences, and obviously the Wizards were, uh, not exactly playing for any postseason spot or the play in at that point or anything like that, but he was really good and the opportunity he had.

Why I'm interested with him is it's all of a sudden a crowded roster, like Washington needs to figure out what it's doing with Bilal Coulibaly pretty quick.

You obviously add in AJ Debana, Anthony Davis is presumably gonna be back, maybe, that's a tough thing to assume, no matter what, but then you have all these other wings, like.

Keyshaw George, Trey Johnson, and that's before you even talk about Trae Young, so.

I'm not sure if like the opportunity is as clean for Will Riley, but I think he showed enough toward the end of last season, where you have to give him some sort of role and see what he does with it, and if he needs more time, he needs more time, he's still only 20 years old, he needs to, the shot needs to fall.

His 3 ball wasn't very good, I think that's something you can look for him to improve this year, but I think the scoring potential is pretty real there, and if Washington has another young guy that is an impactful uh contributor to this young and developing roster, like.

That makes things a lot easier.

Maybe you have to make a tough decision about Coulibaly, but Will Riley showed me enough even in Mickey Mouse March, as they call it, where I'm intrigued to see what he is next year.

Mickey Mouse march will go down in history.

This is totally unrelated to what you're talking about, but like what we saw at the end of the last NBA season, we may literally never see again.

It was so bad, they had to change the lottery rules.

There were like 8 teams who were all trying to lose, they weren't even trying a little bit to win.

And that's gonna lead to a lot of interesting implications even beyond the lottery aspect of it.

I think multiple executives have alluded to the idea that the last two months of this previous season may have inflated people's expectations because any team who was trying to win cleaned up against the 8 to 10 teams who were not trying to win.

And that's why it frustrated the NBA and Adam Silver.

That's what I would.

Presume would be why it frustrated Adam Silver in the NBA so much is that it, you know, tilted the scale a little too much towards, if you're just trying your best every night, you're probably gonna beat these guys.

So, I, but there's, you know, there's real stuff mixed in there.

Maybe not in the, you know, bigger scheme, maybe not from 1000 ft up, but when you get into the granular, there is some real stuff and I think I kind of agree with you that Will Ragley is on that list, and he's gonna get a serious opportunity this year.

He needs to, he needs to earn it in training camp.

This is gonna be the first competitive Wizards training camp and since Bradley Beal was on the team, but there's some decent vibes in Washington, which is like crazy to say.

Yeah, I mean, Will Dawkins, the GM, I'm, I'm a huge fan of him.

I think he's done a really interesting job putting this team together, and I think this is the year it's all gonna really like coalesce into something that resembles a competitive basketball team.

Injuries as you alluded to with Anthony Davis kind of do feel like the number one risk to it, but there's no he gets traded, who knows, or he gets, I think they wanna try it.

I definitely think so too.

I think the question is whether AD wants to try it, and that will largely be a result of whether or not he signs the extension that he became eligible for this month, but both parties have been kept kind of quiet on that.

Um, but at large, I mean, you know, they're gonna give guys with NBA caliber skills right now playing time.

That's why they're working on the shot is gonna be so important for him, but they are gonna, you know, they wanna put a functional team around their number one overall pick from this year.

They don't want, they want to avoid the punishment that will come with finishing as a bottom 3 team, and I think they wanna make a push for the play because that's kind of been their plan for a couple of years.

And so, Riley, I mean, You know, I, at a certain point, giving guys like him run when there are no stakes and expectations, does kind of hurt, in my opinion.

And I think now the focus is gonna be much more narrow.

It's gonna be, what can you do to help us win these games, not what could you be maybe good at at some point this year if we give you enough opportunities.

And I think he's more well-built to take advantage of that than most of the guys on the team, including sadly, Bilal, who I'm a big fan of him too.

He's the, one of the stocks kings of the lower rungs of the NBA.

Yeah, you're gonna see a lot less like weird injury shutdowns, if that doesn't need to, like, if it's not an actual injury.

So it, it might, it's, it's probably gonna take away some of the insane marches like we saw from Riley, but that said, I mean, injuries still happen, they're gonna be teams at the bottom, but they're gonna be trying to win.

So if some sort of shift like A player like giving Will Riley more minutes, like, add some more juice to your team offensively, I think you'll still see that, but it it'll, it'll definitely be different, and I mean, yeah, Washington signs Trae Young to this massive extension that uh was one of the biggest, like, oh wow, things that happened this offseason, not.

LeBron James to Philly and like Jalen Brown trade wise, um, so they need to figure out the best pieces alongside Young and De Bansa and Keyshawn George, who seems like he's very much a part of this young core, um, but I think, I think Riley could potentially grow into that, maybe not.

Star level, but I think he's at least a guy who can at least give you some like offensive juice off the bench at the very worst.

You're thinking like, maybe leap to like 7th man sort of situation.

Or maybe even 6.

I mean, there's a lot of, like, Trey Johnson still has, we need to see what happens with him too.

Um, so there's a lot, weirdly to say there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen there, and I think you're gonna see a couple of the young guys like, rise to the top, you've already seen Keyshawn George do that, um, but then it, it makes the decisions on the rest of the roster a little easier, so, I like Riley and Johnson of the bunch.

Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be fun Wizards basketball for the first time in a while, which everybody loves, but it is gonna make for some genuinely tough decisions.

They have acquired a very intriguing collection of young talent, but if you're being serious about winning, only 9 or 10 of those guys could play every night, and you know, 2 of them are going to, or, well, obviously there are a couple who have cemented their spots, but like, Trey and Anthony Davis are gonna demand 30 minutes a game, not literally, like they're gonna demand .

It, but like, they're veteran stars in the NBA.

Trae Young is not at the level that he was when he made that Eastern Conference Finals run with the Hawks a couple of years ago, but he's a 2010 guy, a point guard at a size that not many guys have figured out how to succeed before.

Like, they have earned the right to play those minutes.

And so then if you have those two guys chalking up to, you know, a certain amount of minutes on your rotation every night.

It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be hard to stand out, and so that's going to be, you know, one of the training camps worth watching, even though training camp is rarely an interesting thing this year, you know, lots of things interesting in the NBA that weren't interesting before this year.

I think they definitely and AD wants slash needs an extension, so after the happenings of last year, and really like since he got to Dallas, he's gonna wanna change the narrative a little bit, uh, obviously health is always the .

Biggest question, but that's obviously the other storyline to watch and lays the groundwork for a potential Alex Sar breakout, if we're talking breakouts.

I think that is exactly the kind of player that Sar needs to play next to, even though AD is extremely unique, so basically he needs to play next to Anthony Davis.

But for AD, like if SA can take on a little bit more of the rebounding and the banging down low with the big guys, even though he doesn't really have the same bulky frame that some of the Centers Davis has played next to in the past, I mean that really good rim protector though, like, shockingly, which was a huge mark against him in his 1st 1st year, he was so bad on that end, and he's made a lot of big strides, it's been really impressive to see.

Um, on my end, my choice for the break my breakout player next year, who I'm probably most excited about is.

Matas Buzeli, that's a great one.

Yeah, I love, love him in Chicago.

I really think he's got, he's got some juice, he's got some game, and when you kind of are looking for, so he's the breakout that, you know, we described for Will Riley was kind of relatively unknown guy to useful player.

The reason I'm so enthusiastic.

About his elite potential is how much he improved from his rookie year to his sophomore year.

He nearly doubled his points per game average from 8.6 to 16.3. He increased all of his counting stats across the board, and his true shooting percentage rose.

Normally, guys who take on more responsibilities, which therefore, you know, gives them the opportunity to rack up more counting stats.

Don't do so at an increased efficiency.

That's what Buzelis did.

His advanced stats all collectively look better besides true shooting percentage, and he did all of that without playing as many games next to Josh Giddy, who is a true point guard, I guess is probably what you could call him at this point.

He's certainly the most talented ball handler in Chicago.

He missed a Early All-Star conversations last year, by the way, like Giddy was having an incredible start.

No, he played awesome, and then he goes out and then Bo Ellis was kind of the guy that Billy Donovan went to to fill in a lot of that gap, and it was before he was really ready to do so, and he managed to hold his own.

Now, for this upcoming year, you obviously don't anticipate, you know, twice as good on all fronts.

It won't be as large with and Caleb Wilson is coming in, the #4 pick.

They're really, really excited about him, and generally improvement is, oh my, by the way, that guy was awesome in summer league.

Oh my God, yeah, what the.

The bombing he did from deep was unbelievably sick , and then his defense, I mean, him and Bzelis could be a really, really good defensive combo as a young pair of forwards next year.

I think there will be a lot of, you know, young guy mistakes made, but insofar as the athleticism, feel, and block numbers go, it could be very interesting.

And like, An exciting, uh, dunk, lob catching pairing, like, they, they're no, they're no Thompson twins, but like they're an incredible athletic pair.

No, yeah, 100%, and that's, I mean, it's the, it's the inside game that's gonna be big for them, and I think that's where I'm most excited about Buzeli, he is really good at getting to the rack, and he doesn't finish at a super high level there, but for, you know, forwards among his age, around his age, he is well above average, well above the curve in terms of how many times he can get to the paint per game and how How well he can finish over bigger guys when he's in there .

Um, the two things that he needs that are gonna be the defining aspects for this are, of course, his 3-point percentage.

That is the swing skill for every NBA player.

He's not bad .

His first year, he shot 36% from 3, but it was only on a handful of attempts per game.

So, he clearly went into his sophomore season with more of a focus on draining shots or taking shots from deep and draining them at a high number.

He took 6.3 per game last year, good number.

You don't really want him taking more than that given that he is good at finishing inside.

But his percentage dropped.

It was the only kind of area of his game where he took on more responsibility and had more attempts and didn't increase his efficiency along with that .

A 36% three-point shooter is about league average, and that's a guy you gotta respect.

34%, they might leave you alone.

So, how well he can shoot from there will really determine how much space he gets to operate in terms of emphasizing his inside finishing.

And then there's the defense.

He went from being a Questionable rookie defender we'll say who had glimpses of some awesome stuff but for the most part was kind of just running around out there and he averaged 1.5 blocks gangly.

Yeah, it's just, he's just trying his best, you know, but last year he averaged 1.5 blocks per game.

He was more involved in the scheme, I think, and he's still, you know, I like most skinny gangly guys.

There's a little bit of weight gain that needs to happen until he can really be like a Premier wing defender, and I think Caleb Wilson might already be a little bit ahead of him in terms of his like athleticism on that front, but there, you know, if he can morph himself into, you don't need to be a stopper, it's his 3rd year, he's gonna be 22 years old.

It's not a, you know, this isn't the end all be all, but if you can get him to be a good help defender and an acceptable isolation defender, then that creates a very interesting two-way player to me.

Obviously part of his leap last year were the just not much going on in Chicago, it created a lot of opportunity for him, but I think what this new Bulls regime did is actually going to help him, like you said, he's not gonna jump in and double his production again, that's like not possible based on what he did last year, but going and getting Norm Powell, Giddy will be back.

Nick Claxton is there, and then you add Caleb Wilson.

I think it makes Moddis's life a little bit easier to get more open looks for 3, and there's just gonna be a lot more space on the floor all around, and Let alone playing next to a guy who has the vision and passing ability as Giddy, I think, will, will help him a lot, and the Claxton of it all makes Makes defense like less of a, it's still a big priority, but it's not as high pressure as I think it'll help a little bit, and that's all to say like Chicago's roster still.

They need some time, it needs some adjustment, they need some internal development until they're actually going to compete, but I actually think that what the new front office has done, um, will at least like help aid the development of Maddas, definitely Caleb Wilson, as he comes into the league, which is crucial for the young players, but I mean, Can the Pat Williams experiment like come to an end?

All right, I know they can't like get off his contract.

Pat Williams is gonna keep cashing them checks and then we're never gonna hear from him again, and I will shake his hand on the way out because that is an admirable NBA career.

But I agree, I think the Bulls are working really hard to put a structure around their young guys in the same way that the Wizards want to, and kind of the way that is becoming after the years of Wildly and aggressively losing games in order to uh accumulate the most aggregate talent possible.

They're kind of coming back around on the idea that if you let these guys kind of just like float in a weird like, middle ground space for years at a time, it may not develop the best habits, it doesn't help them reach their potential.

But I think the Bulls do need to prove it a little bit to me that that's what these moves were.

Their new head of Basketball operations, Patrick Graham got up in front of the press and missed it all, all the things that Bulls fans have been waiting years to hear about the future is the priority.

The long-term development of our young guys is how the Bulls are going to reach their heights that they once reached before.

These are the organizational priorities that we need to follow.

Not chasing the play in tournament, not chasing a playoff revenue stream.

It's all about how do we build a championship in the coming years, not how do we win as many games as possible this year.

Then he goes and trades for Claxton and signs Norm Powell.

These are not moves that were unneeded.

Claxton, the Bulls basically didn't have a center at the end of the year last year after they traded Nikola Vucrovich to the Celtics.

It was crazy.

It was one of the, like, they're, the only, the starting center for the last couple of months was like Nick Richards, who remains unsigned in August.

Um.

And so Nick Claxton, that fills a hole for them, and he's a, you know, really good defender.

He's a couple of years off from like Defensive Player of the Year kind of good defender.

And then Powell, it was a 2 year, $45 million dollar deal.

They had money to burn, having a guy who can, you know, kind of be the secondary ball handler to Giddy, and if Giddy goes down, it's a little bit of insurance, was an All-Star last year in like his 13th NBA season, was an All-Star last year, so.

You can make the case that these are beneficial to the development of their young players, but what really needs to happen is a proof of priority.

Like when they take the floor, who is getting the first crack at the possessions, who is the game playing around, and that is obviously not 100% the front office's decision being that, you know, the head coach makes those calls, and Tiago Splitter, coming off a great year with the Trail Blazers, there's a reason to believe that he'd be, you know, he can, he can do that and he can do it well.

But the front office kind of sets the tone, they set the pace, they set everything that the organization is working towards, and if Norm Powell is playing 35 minutes a game while Boozeli is getting 28, like, we know it's the same old Bulls, but if not, very interesting.

It becomes a very, very interesting situation.

We meant to mention or talk about the Norm Powell's great quote that like, we have the potential to be good, but we also have the potential to be really bad.

I think that any such cases, Norm, is the perfect way to phrase it.

I don't know how good they can be, but uh I just thought that was hilarious and and worthy of mention, and I couldn't put it any better.

I have a few other names for breakout candidates.

I tab want me to just run through them quick.

You tell me if you uh yay or nay.

So stay on the wolves, we started with the Wolves, Joan Baronjay, I think, I think he will be a big part of what they're, and when we're talking about the depth as well, I think he in the Wolves dream of dreams, yes, in reality, I think he's 2 years away still, 2 years away from being 2 years away.

Bruno Caboclo, shout out Bruno, dude.

The, I mean, this is new opportunity, but The Bucks are, have some usage.

Casperus, Yakuhoni and Kahalel Ware.

I mean, I think you can really pick anyone on the Bucks roster and go through, like, I love Khalel Ware specifically.

Danny Chow over at the Ringer wrote a great piece on this very topic earlier in the week, and I wanted to choose Ware, but I didn't want to copy him.

But I think like, what a bizarre combination of athletic traits and production to this point.

I think I love him as a breakout candidate, so that's a yes for me, um.

Yakuhonas might need more time.

Yakuhonis might need more time.

Yeah, they have some other, like Ryan Rollins might even be a better name.

He kind of broke out last year, but maybe he continues it with with more opportunities available.

Um, maybe not a star one, but I like Dayron Sharp in Brooklyn too, with no Claxton, I think he's broken out a little bit, but Nola and just more opportunity for him and a new deal there.

If we're talking breakout like he goes from reserve to starter and everything scales appropriately and he averages 12 points and like 8 rebounds, yeah, I'm in.

Anything more than that, yeah, we're not talking a future All-Star or anything like that, just a good NBA center, which I think he already is.

I don't think I saw him play against the Lakers at Barclays last year and he Just smoked DeAndre Ayton on the boards, like, that guy can get a rebound even though he's a little bit limited athletically, but.

Maybe my favorite one is just trying to see after the Thunder lose, Lou Dor, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Jared McCain already broke out with that, he was really good at times over the playoffs.

I think he can have it, it'll be his first full season in Oklahoma City.

I don't know, like, he's not gonna reach the SGA JWub chat level in their core, but I think he can be an elite, uh.

Bench shooter or like 4th or 5th option that can shoot the lights out, cause the guy is just like an incredible shooter.

Sometimes he's off it, but when he catches fire, he's absolutely on fire.

But the problem with him as a breakout candidate is he might be 2nd on his own team in breakout candidate.

Potential AJ Mitchell, who, everyone kind of forgot about him because he got hurt at the end of the playoffs and McCain had so many entertaining moments against the Spurs and throughout that playoff run, and obviously being that the Sixers were involved, everybody likes poking fun at the Sixers.

They got their revenge, didn't they?

But I think Mitchell is more inclined to be that guy you're describing.

I think McCain and him are going to prove to be one of the most dangerous bench scoring combos in the NBA, especially, God willing, better health for the Thunder because watching Jalen Williams get hurt all year was a huge, huge bummer for everybody.

Um , but it might, I think McCain might have to wait until Mitchell is either gone or inserted the starting or whatever is gonna happen down the, down the line with the Thunder, but It feels like Mitchell's a little bit better than McCain at that kind of stuff, so he's gonna get a little bit more opportunity.

Those are the names in Oklahoma City for sure.

The other one, I, this is the one I like the least, but Modest Boozalis's G-League Ignite RIP teammate , uh, Ron Holland, who kind of similar issues, like, Holland is still struggling with the shot, he's like an energy guy, he was kind of in trade discussions if Detroit was gonna make a big move.

I think this is Uh, not a now or never year, but he has to really prove it, uh, that he's a part of this team, or he'll probably be included in a trade at some point.

So I'm not like confident in him breaking out, but I think if he was going to, like, this has to be the year.

Yeah, I think he's at a disadvantage because it feels like every team can have one really athletic wing who plays good defense and can't really score, and the Pistons have a guy like that in the starting lineup in Oser Thompson, who is Significantly better than Ron Holland, which has nothing and Jalen Durran can't shoot either, so that doesn't help him.

And like you don't wanna be derivative and say that anybody who can't shoot can't play in the NBA.

But like when it with the Pistons that you kind of do gotta shoot if they're playing Ozer and Duran.

But even just generally speaking, like, you know, you look at the rosters around the NBA and there's usually like one guy who like really can't shoot who is in the center, and the Pistons have their spot.

And so I think Holland is a great change of scenery candidate.

At the trade deadline this year, but in terms of, I think he can be helpful though, that's the difference is that Ron Holland is a high effort, high athleticism player who has enough of a feel for the game at this point, based on what I've seen that he can find ways to do things that help winning, even if it's not, you know, shooting or he doesn't make the, you know, life easier for his teammates or anything like that.

But insofar as being kind of a chaos agent on both ends, being kind, and especially with Uh, Isaiah Stewart gone, it feels like Holland might be the next guy up in terms of setting the tone attitude wise, and like, you know, you don't wanna mess with the new era bad boy piston kind of thing.

Oh yeah, yeah, for sure, that's exactly what I was gonna say.

He's, he's probably the enforcer now, even though he's like, he's not anywhere close to, and he's also like 21 years old still, he was drafted, he was so young when he was drafted.

Yeah, yeah, but it, I agree with you.

I think the more likely outcome there is a trade, but maybe he's a lot more impactful than than we think, and he finds some sort of opportunity, but those are anyone I missed, I feel like you hit a lot of the good ones are the, we don't want to talk about the obvious ones, like Cooper Flagg is gonna make a leap.

Like K Knipple, gonna make a leap in some capacity.

Like, there are a lot of super obvious breakout candidates in the way that are more typically understood, but these are the ones who are it's, if things break a certain way, then they are going to be players to know next year, and I think that's always my favorite line of conversation.

Yeah, yeah, cool.

And that will be it for today, listeners.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Open Floor and Sports Illustrated's NBA podcast.

I am Liam McEwen.

This was Blake Silverman, and we will see you next time.