Yam - Playing in summer league

[Walker Wiggle]

Summer League is typically highly frenetic and disorganized, and dominated by the best athletes. I think there’s a chance for him to look severely out of place. I still think Yam needs to get much stronger and quicker to play in the NBA. Give the kid a couple years to continue developing overseas and see about him then.

What about him makes you question his quickness? His footspeed both laterally and downhill has always looked really good to me.

From what I’ve seen he doesn’t look clearly athletically superior to the other guys in the Israeli league. But I  suppose there’s no real way to gauge this sort of thing without throwing him out there against NBA-level athletes. So in that sense it’s good that he’s playing in summer league:

[boscel33]

Wish I was in Vegas this year.  I was there in 2018, had a great time watching the teams.  This year's C's team might actually give the 20-21 Rockets a good game.   

[Jvalin]

I have zero expectations from Yam. Never watched him play, but the team that he plays for is nothing special. If he were a legit NBA-level talent, I would have expected him to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv which is hands down the wealthiest/most succesful team in Israel. For instance, Avdija and Casspi were both playing for Maccabi prior to joining the NBA. Maccabi absolutely dominates the Israeli league. The rest of the teams are nowhere near good enough to challenge them. Btw, there's no salary cap in Europe. Big/wealthy teams can practically bully smaller/poor teams pretty much at will.

Anyway, hope he proves me wrong. If he becomes a fringe NBA player, I'll be happy.

[Surferdad]

Summer League is typically highly frenetic and disorganized, and dominated by the best athletes. I think there’s a chance for him to look severely out of place. I still think Yam needs to get much stronger and quicker to play in the NBA. Give the kid a couple years to continue developing overseas and see about him then.

SL is weirdly skewed to a run-and-shoot mentality.  There are guys who feel they MUST impress with SCORING or their hopes of an NBA spot are gone.  Defense is not tight, partly b/c it isn't valued as being impressive, and possibly b/c guys are saving their energy for the offensive end.

[Celtics2021]

I have zero expectations from Yam. Never watched him play, but the team that he plays for is nothing special. If he were a legit NBA-level talent, I would have expected him to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv which is hands down the wealthiest/most succesful team in Israel. For instance, Avdija and Casspi were both playing for Maccabi prior to joining the NBA. Maccabi absolutely dominates the Israeli league. The rest of the teams are nowhere near good enough to challenge them. Btw, there's no salary cap in Europe. Big/wealthy teams can practically bully smaller/poor teams pretty much at will.

Anyway, hope he proves me wrong. If he becomes a fringe NBA player, I'll be happy.

I wouldn't worry too much about that.  He signed his contract when he was 17, and had played for the youth team of his current club before then.  It's not a big red flag if he wasn't recognized by the top team in Israel when he was 14-15.  He was second-team All-League (or its functional equivalent) this year at age 20, with everyone else at least 3 years older, and most of them older than that, which is what you want to see from a top prospect of a mid-tier international league.  He's not Doncic, but he's a solid international prospect who I honestly think would have played his way into the first round had he entered the draft this year rather than last.

[gift]

I have zero expectations from Yam. Never watched him play, but the team that he plays for is nothing special. If he were a legit NBA-level talent, I would have expected him to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv which is hands down the wealthiest/most succesful team in Israel. For instance, Avdija and Casspi were both playing for Maccabi prior to joining the NBA. Maccabi absolutely dominates the Israeli league. The rest of the teams are nowhere near good enough to challenge them. Btw, there's no salary cap in Europe. Big/wealthy teams can practically bully smaller/poor teams pretty much at will.

Anyway, hope he proves me wrong. If he becomes a fringe NBA player, I'll be happy.

I wouldn't worry too much about that.  He signed his contract when he was 17, and had played for the youth team of his current club before then.  It's not a big red flag if he wasn't recognized by the top team in Israel when he was 14-15.  He was second-team All-League (or its functional equivalent) this year at age 20, with everyone else at least 3 years older, and most of them older than that, which is what you want to see from a top prospect of a mid-tier international league.  He's not Doncic, but he's a solid international prospect who I honestly think would have played his way into the first round had he entered the draft this year rather than last.

Yeah, my understanding is he was a guy with a ton of potential when drafted. Then he made a bit of a leap this past year. So, basically he's on track at this point to become what he was hoped to become when drafted.

[gouki88]

I have zero expectations from Yam. Never watched him play, but the team that he plays for is nothing special. If he were a legit NBA-level talent, I would have expected him to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv which is hands down the wealthiest/most succesful team in Israel. For instance, Avdija and Casspi were both playing for Maccabi prior to joining the NBA. Maccabi absolutely dominates the Israeli league. The rest of the teams are nowhere near good enough to challenge them. Btw, there's no salary cap in Europe. Big/wealthy teams can practically bully smaller/poor teams pretty much at will.

Anyway, hope he proves me wrong. If he becomes a fringe NBA player, I'll be happy.

That made me laugh. Who he plays for in the Israeli league is pretty irrelevant

[tstorey_97]

Ok, Yam played for a lower league etc.

I've got that Yam is going to be better than Jordan which might be optimistic, I'm going to assume he'll be "at least as good as Jordan" because come on! He's a point guard.

If Yam isn't any good, why did the Celtic's well paid and informed management draft him for? They watched hours of film and interviewed everybody necessary and just threw a dart at the draft board?

I've watched a lot of his film and can't tell from the level of play if he's going to be a star, but, he does not sit still on the court.

Pritchard is really good and when Stevens fired himself I was happy....for Pritchard who played more than half of his NBA minutes standing in the corner as a shooting guard.

Go Yam! Third string behind Chris Paul and Peyton Pritchard.

[Jvalin]

I have zero expectations from Yam. Never watched him play, but the team that he plays for is nothing special. If he were a legit NBA-level talent, I would have expected him to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv which is hands down the wealthiest/most succesful team in Israel. For instance, Avdija and Casspi were both playing for Maccabi prior to joining the NBA. Maccabi absolutely dominates the Israeli league. The rest of the teams are nowhere near good enough to challenge them. Btw, there's no salary cap in Europe. Big/wealthy teams can practically bully smaller/poor teams pretty much at will.

Anyway, hope he proves me wrong. If he becomes a fringe NBA player, I'll be happy.

That made me laugh. Who he plays for in the Israeli league is pretty irrelevant

I'm glad I amuse you. In the meantime, I still think that if he were a legit NBA-level talent, Maccabi would have signed him. All teams in the israeli league operate under an imposed limit of 4 non-Israelis per team. It's not like there are tons of elite-level israeli prospects. Anyway, I guess time will tell.

[Jvalin]

If Yam isn't any good, why did the Celtic's well paid and informed management draft him for? They watched hours of film and interviewed everybody necessary and just threw a dart at the draft board?

Possibly because we didn't have enough roster spots available and we wanted a draft-and-stash player. Remember Yabu? We wasted a mid first for him, just because we wanted a draft-and-stash player.

[Tr1boy]

Yam is supposedly a tenacious defender.   Look forward to this

[ETNCeltics]

Madar was 2020 Most Improved player in his league, and was an all star in the Euro under 20 tournament. Clearly, he's not the same player he was when he signed with his current team when he was 17 years old.

But it's still hard to have much expectations for a guy playing on a bad team in a bad league. Hard to imagine he'll do worse than 2 other foreigners we drafted much higher back in 2016.

[nickagneta]

If Yam isn't any good, why did the Celtic's well paid and informed management draft him for? They watched hours of film and interviewed everybody necessary and just threw a dart at the draft board?

Possibly because we didn't have enough roster spots available and we wanted a draft-and-stash player. Remember Yabu? We wasted a mid first for him, just because we wanted a draft-and-stash player.

There is also the fact that 2nd round picks, especially those after pick 40, simply aren't good enough to play in the NBA.....like:

Ben Bentil
Tremont Waters
Kadeem Allen
Jabari Bird
Demetrius Jackson
Marcus Thornton
Kris Joseph

I could go on for a very long time. Most of these late draft picks have only a cup of coffee in the NBA, if that.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Yes, but is Nesmith playing in this Summer league??

[nickagneta]

Yes, but is Nesmith playing in this Summer league??

I am expecting Langford, Nesmith and Pritchard to be playing but maybe they won't. Also wonder if they invite Tacko and Waters