Yam - Playing in summer league

[Roy H.]

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.

That’s like saying every elite soccer prospect in England plays for Chelsea or one of the Manchester club.  Or, closer to home, that Ja Morant would never make it in the league because he went to Murray State.

No team or even subset of teams has a monopoly on elite talent.

[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.

That’s like saying every elite soccer prospect in England plays for Chelsea or one of the Manchester club.  Or, closer to home, that Ja Morant would never make it in the league because he went to Murray State.

No team or even subset of teams has a monopoly on elite talent.

Apples and oranges. Soccer is another story, especially in England where all Premier League teams can spend loads of money to entice their players. The NCAA is an amateur league. Teams make deals under the table, but at the end of the day everyone gotta be discreet about what they do. The israeli league is a fully professional league. There's one team with seemingly endless streams of money (Maccabi Tel Aviv). The rest of the teams are nowhere near the same level in terms of revenue/popularity/success/you name it. I mean, Maccabi has won 54 israeli championships throughout their history. All the other teams combined have won just 12. I cannot think of another example of one team completely dominating their national league like Maccabi does in Israel. To a lesser extent, maybe Bayern Munich in soccer? Still, the rest of the teams make plenty of money themselves, hence they maintain some semblance of power when negotiating deals. This ain't the case in basketball. The vast majority of basketball teams in Europe are in the red literally every single season. I bet Maccabi operate at a loss as well, but they simply don't care.

[Celtics4ever]

I am going into summer league with no  expectations for Yam as well.  If he plays well great and if he does not he is a second rounder.   I temper my expectations of him with fact that Dragan Bender played in that league.....

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 do agree this is the case most of the time.   But Kyle Korver was the 51st pick, Manu Ginobili was a 57th, Trevor Ariza a 43rd,  Lou Williams a 45th, Paul Millsap a 47th, Marc Gasol was a 48th, Goran Dragic  was a 45th,  Danny Green a 46th,  Paddy Mills a 56th, Isaiah Thomas was a 60th and Nikola Jokic was a 41st pick,   So it is possible but unlikely that you will be a good player this low.

I do think Bird was going to be an NBA player then he went nuts

[slamtheking]

I am going into summer league with no  expectations for Yam as well.  If he plays well great and if he does not he is a second rounder.   I temper my expectations of him with fact that Dragan Bender played in that league.....

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 do agree this is the case most of the time.   But Kyle Korver was the 51st pick, Manu Ginobili was a 57th, Trevor Ariza a 43rd,  Lou Williams a 45th, Paul Millsap a 47th, Marc Gasol was a 48th, Goran Dragic  was a 45th,  Danny Green a 46th,  Paddy Mills a 56th, Isaiah Thomas was a 60th and Nikola Jokic was a 41st pick,   So it is possible but unlikely that you will be a good player this low.

I do think Bird was going to be an NBA player then he went nuts

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

[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

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.

The fact that you're already writing off a player without watching him is what amuses me. It doesn't make sense

[Diggles]

A guy in my fantasy league picked him up last year!  If is wasn't a Celtics league I'd say Yam is a lock for rookie of the year!

[trickybilly]

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.

TP for the Ben Bentil shoutout. I was convinced that dude would be an all-star

[Somebody]

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.

That’s like saying every elite soccer prospect in England plays for Chelsea or one of the Manchester club.  Or, closer to home, that Ja Morant would never make it in the league because he went to Murray State.

No team or even subset of teams has a monopoly on elite talent.

Apples and oranges. Soccer is another story, especially in England where all Premier League teams can spend loads of money to entice their players. The NCAA is an amateur league. Teams make deals under the table, but at the end of the day everyone gotta be discreet about what they do. The israeli league is a fully professional league. There's one team with seemingly endless streams of money (Maccabi Tel Aviv). The rest of the teams are nowhere near the same level in terms of revenue/popularity/success/you name it. I mean, Maccabi has won 54 israeli championships throughout their history. All the other teams combined have won just 12. I cannot think of another example of one team completely dominating their national league like Maccabi does in Israel. To a lesser extent, maybe Bayern Munich in soccer? Still, the rest of the teams make plenty of money themselves, hence they maintain some semblance of power when negotiating deals. This ain't the case in basketball. The vast majority of basketball teams in Europe are in the red literally every single season. I bet Maccabi operate at a loss as well, but they simply don't care.

Maybe COVID has put them deep enough into the red where they're starting to care? Yam made a leap this year, right in the middle of the pandemic.

[Celtics4ever]

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

I was listing higher quality players than those guys in all honesty.

[slamtheking]

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

I was listing higher quality players than those guys in all honesty.

E'Twaun played this season if I remember correctly and Gomes and Powe were pretty solid players early in their careers.  I'd say they qualify for the initial argument of finding good players after pick 40

[AshyLarry]

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

I was listing higher quality players than those guys in all honesty.

Leon Powe is Celtics royalty.

[spikelovetheCelts]

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

I was listing higher quality players than those guys in all honesty.

E'Twaun played this season if I remember correctly and Gomes and Powe were pretty solid players early in their careers.  I'd say they qualify for the initial argument of finding good players after pick 40

Nader was second round too.

[nickagneta]

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

I was listing higher quality players than those guys in all honesty.

E'Twaun played this season if I remember correctly and Gomes and Powe were pretty solid players early in their careers.  I'd say they qualify for the initial argument of finding good players after pick 40

Nader was second round too.

You guys do realize that in my post I said most late second rounder don't amount to anything. You examples are very, very, very much the exceptions to the rule.

I named 7 guys from just the last 4-5 years or so. Now multiply that by going back decades for the Celtics. Now multiply that for all teams going back decades.

Simply put, you have to get extremely lucky to nab a real NBA player picking late in the 2nd round of drafts.

And that's why I think we should temper Yam expectations. Based on pure numbers, his chances aren't good. Couple that with the fact his highlights from a bad Israeli team don't look any different than Euros that played in better leagues, were drafted high in the first and were busts and there is more than enough reason to doubt he makes it

I will rout for the kid because I like his size and I liked that he worked on his game so much he improved to the point he was a top 10 or so guy in his league. That shows a good work ethic and ambition. That's the type of stuff you can work with.

So, yeah, I am looking forward to Summer League and getting some film on Yam against much better athletes than he played against in Israel. I'm just tempering expectation because history shows guys chosen that late usually don't become anything. But boy it would be nice if he turns out to be a gem.

[Silas]

missing our own E'twaun Moore taken at 55, Ryan Gomes at 50 and Leon Powe at 49.   Danny did pretty well picking in the second round.

I was listing higher quality players than those guys in all honesty.

E'Twaun played this season if I remember correctly and Gomes and Powe were pretty solid players early in their careers.  I'd say they qualify for the initial argument of finding good players after pick 40

Nader was second round too.

You guys do realize that in my post I said most late second rounder don't amount to anything. You examples are very, very, very much the exceptions to the rule.

I named 7 guys from just the last 4-5 years or so. Now multiply that by going back decades for the Celtics. Now multiply that for all teams going back decades.

Simply put, you have to get extremely lucky to nab a real NBA player picking late in the 2nd round of drafts.

And that's why I think we should temper Yam expectations. Based on pure numbers, his chances aren't good. Couple that with the fact his highlights from a bad Israeli team don't look any different than Euros that played in better leagues, were drafted high in the first and were busts and there is more than enough reason to doubt he makes it

I will rout for the kid because I like his size and I liked that he worked on his game so much he improved to the point he was a top 10 or so guy in his league. That shows a good work ethic and ambition. That's the type of stuff you can work with.

So, yeah, I am looking forward to Summer League and getting some film on Yam against much better athletes than he played against in Israel. I'm just tempering expectation because history shows guys chosen that late usually don't become anything. But boy it would be nice if he turns out to be a gem.

Agree 100%, but as that great Celtics sage KG once said, "Anything is Possible"!  Also, remember that our friend Isaiah was drafted with the 60th pick of the 2011 draft.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Yam this summer.

[Celtics4ever]

You guys do realize that in my post I said most late second rounder don't amount to anything. You examples are very, very, very much the exceptions to the rule.

That is why I said, I agree with you most of the time on the matter.  There have been diamonds but there was way more Coal.   Still it pays to scout and due diligence.

E'Twaun played this season if I remember correctly and Gomes and Powe were pretty solid players early in their careers.  I'd say they qualify for the initial argument of finding good players after pick 40

Solid career and good player are two different things.   Some of my list has won rings as an integral part.  Powe won us a game as I recall in the playoffs if memory serves.