John Wall made his debut last night at the Las Vegas Summer League in front of a sold out crowd at the gym on UNLV’s campus.  Despite the nerves (and there seemed to be a good amount of them), John Wall had a fairly impressive start to his professional career.  Wall put up 24 points and 8 assists, but more importantly looked really good when moving around the court for the first time with other professionals.  To breakdown Wall’s debut, I am going to look at both the good and the bad of his performance.

The Good

The Jump Shot

Wall was impressive enough to draw comparisons from Derrick Rose from many people on hand.  I held off from making the comparison in college, but it was obvious watching the game last night that John Wall does have a lot of Derrick Rose in him, from the physical skills to the style of play.  However, there is one big difference between the two of them, John Wall has a pro-ready mid-range jump shot that he looks comfortable taking off the dribble.

Wall’s form when taking his jumper off the dribble is real solid.  He always seems to be taking off using the right amount of steps with a solid load up dribble (A dribble that takes him from attacking the rim to rising up for a jumper), and he also seems comfortable doing when attacking either side.  The only thing that bugs me with his form is that he has a tendency to kick is leg too far out from time to time (as in the top clip).  When you do that, you don’t really land on balance and it tends to have you miss your shot.  I’d like to see him do what he does in the bottom clip (landing on both feet) on every single jump shot attempt.

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After every day of games here at the Vegas Summer League, “Unsigned Hype” is going to be looking at the best performances from players who don’t have contracts with NBA teams or who were drafted by a team in the past year’s draft. Guys who with great performances in the Summer League, may be able to play themselves into a training camp invite and maybe even a NBA contract.  Due to my schedule, we are now going to be looking at both day 2 and day 3 here…

Day 2

Edgar Sosa

Sosa only played 16 minutes on day 2, but he looked really impressive in my opinion.  Edgar Sosa only scored six points, but he did a good job managing the team and getting the ball to scorers both in the half court set and on the break.  Even more impressive, Sosa’s running seemed to get Greg Monroe going, and Monroe’s best stretch of basketball so far was mostly a result of Edgar Sosa.

Day 3

Shane Edwards

After a really solid day 1 performance, Edwards’ game dropped off a bit on day 2.  Day 3 allowed for Edwards to get back on the unsigned hype list.  Again, it was Edwards’ efficiency that really impressed me, scoring 15 points on just 7 shots.  Edwards also showed an ability to grab rebounds, getting six of them in 27 minutes.

Coby Karl

These are the type of performances Karl can put up when his shot is falling.  On Day 1, Karl couldn’t hit his shot, but his ability to everything on the court allowed him to have a productive game.  Day 3 saw Karl do all those little things, grabbing seven rebounds and recording four assists.  In addition to that, you saw Karl’s shooting stroke.  He scored 22 points on 10 shots including 3-5 from the three point line.  Karl’s ability to get to the foul line (7-7 from the stripe) is what might get him a camp invite/roster spot this year.