My Observation of Josh Adams During Summer League

Josh Adams during Las Vegas Summer League

Credit: Denver Nuggets via Twitter

For many fans around Wyoming, they see Josh Adams as a hero, or one of the greatest players to ever wear a Cowboy uniform. He battled and fought, helped Wyoming win a Mountain West championship and a trip to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The first time since the year 2002. But now Adams’s college career has ended, and after all the accolades that came with it, like Mountain West Player of the Year, and First Team All-Conference, he starts from ground zero.

Adams didn’t get his named called on draft night, but he did get a call from his hometown Denver Nuggets to be signed as a undrafted free agent. Adam’s is now geared for his next task; the Las Vegas NBA Summer League. As we all know, the NBA consists of the best basketball players in the world. And knowing that, it’s very hard to make the NBA, and Adams is realizing it very quickly.

In this article, I will be evaluating Adams during his Summer League debut. What his disadvantages and his weaknesses are. But we’ll find his silver linings and see if we can find what he does well to break through and hang on in the NBA.  And to clarify for any questions, this is the weaknesses he has in the NBA level, not college.

Weaknesses

Being the pick and roll ball handler: Not all of this is his fault, most of it is because he’s too small. Off of the screen, he has trouble seeing over players to pass on the perimeter. Then, when the screener rolls he can’t see over the roller. And if he can see him, the pass to the roller is usually is low and near the ground. This is problematic because it’s easy for opponents to steal the ball or simply stick their foot out causing a kicked ball violation. Lastly, he doesn’t have the height or length to shoot over the bigger defenders when he doesn’t pass which causes a lot of ill-advised shots. I call it the Bryce Cotton effect.

His athleticism is no longer superior to his opponents: During his time in Wyoming, Adams relied on his bounce and speed to score and play. His speed was lightning quick and his bounce was like a pogo stick in Wyoming. But now, there are athletes who are far more athletic than Adams and these players are only in summer league. It’s a hard knock, but it’s true. Adams needs to have his game adapt to not rely on his athleticism. His three point shooting is great, and I also believe he is using it more often. But shooting 22% from the three point line doesn’t help at all.

Gets caught up on ball screens very easily: This is fundamentals. Adams has to do better. When he’s defending the ball handler the opposing teams set screens regularly on him. When he gets screened, he doesn’t fight through them and it seems like Adams get sucked underneath the screen. It hurts his team a lot. It causes players to rotate over to help Adams getting sucked into the screen. If you plant your foot in the middle of the screeners legs and fight through. It’s uncharacteristic of him to be lazy on defense, but on the pick and roll defense, it seems like he is.

Lack of versatility: There has been a big buzz about versatility in the NBA, and the NBA is shifting to players who can play multiple positions and can do numerous things on the court both on the offensive and defensive end. Adams’s has no versatility. He’s only a point guard, and could play off the ball at times. But he can’t defend multiple positions, he can’t switch on bigger players, and can’t play more than one position on the offensive end.

Measurables: Standing at the mere 6’2 with shoes, 6’3 wingspan, and a 7’10 standing reach, It may seem tall for us normal people, but for a basketball player he’s small. If someone is as short as he is, they can stay in the league because of their wingspan. It affects many things on the court. Defense, driving to the basket and getting shots over players. Everything Josh Adams does will be made harder due to his physical limitations.

• In Jeremy Woo’s SI article on May 13th, 2016 he said: “Guys that look tall on TV are … still tall. Nevertheless, there are some first-day takeaways: good measurements and test results (or bad ones for that matter) will affirm certain things for scouts, giving everyone numbers to agree on—at least until teams have players in to acquire some of the same data for themselves.” Scouts and teams take the measurables very, very seriously.
• Measurables are so valuable to scouts and General Managers due to the tons of options the Scouts and GM’s are able to have with the players. Players who have height and length have more potential because you can't change what you have. For instance, Josh Adams who lacks in those areas can't get taller or longer, but he can get faster, build muscle mass, and can improve his vertical. It’s observable in NBA history for more physically gifted players to last longer and have a longer career in the NBA versus the less physically gifted players in terms of height and length have a shorter career.

Strengths

Creating separation: Adams has always been able to create separation. And you can see it here with this vine:

As you can see, the shot clock was running out and Adams hit a phenomenal step back jumper that created his separation from his opponent. It was a very good isolation play.

This was niiiiice 😎#NBASummer #Nuggets pic.twitter.com/mPSI0v0mrL

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) July 15, 2016

Driving to the basket: Adams is a great slasher and is phenomenal at adjusting his body while he goes to the rim. His finishing is great as well and has the special touch at the rim. He reminds me of Alec Burks because it seems like he finishes around the rim, but the stats don’t back it up. It’s all about the observations here.

Passion and drive: This is where Josh Adams is the best. He wears his heart on his sleeve and plays hard every play. His drive is bar none, he’ll work as hard as he can to make it in the NBA. NBA teams will notice it, and hopefully, it can help him breakthrough.

Josh Adams has a high mountain to climb, probably higher than the evaluation in Laramie, Wyoming. He is relentless in his pursuit of his NBA dream, but sometimes, the odds are stacked against you. It’s been like that for his whole life, when he was at Chaparral High School, when he was at the University of Wyoming, and now in the NBA. Time will only tell for Josh Adams and his NBA dream.