A Drazen Petrovich video popped up in my feed today. The offensive similarities were there, but Kon has 20+ pounds on Drazen and hustles on defense.
+26 lmaooooooooooooo
The next pass is just as much. Then the turn around. Very similar style to Legend
So yeah Kon has shown us the whole bag over the last couple of games, must have just been nervous first game. Pretty impressive game for 19, he plays like he has been in the league for 7 years. And imagine all of those corners 3s that Josh Green bricked last year that Kon will drain. He might average 13-15 pts from corner spotups alone haha
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He was okay I guess. I’d only give him an A- 
. Kidding aside, he looked awesome out there.
Full vid from his interview with Taylor.
I just love how heady and intentional this kid is. Easy to see a bright future.
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This was really a great interview. He’s so down to earth as well.
Taylor is really good at her job
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She’s so likable and asks some really good questions and seems to really care about the answers as well.
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It’s great that Melo is taking the time to personally welcome these guys and to show his appreciation (from another video). That too counts as leadership and a team mentality.
I am a lot less apprehensive about Kon. Not only did he get better every game but he seemed to get better every quarter. Even when things were not working he found a way to contribute. I am sure that the coaches loved that! Kon should be able to contribute at the start of the season behind Collin and Brandon at the 2 and 3. We might not need Curry and Pat as much.
I’ll admit, I started to have a sinking feeling after the first game. Yes, logically I know it was a veeeeerrry short sample size. But I couldn’t help that creeping feeling of, “not again, what did we do?”
I just needed to see that second game to feel better. Then the rest of his games gave me confidence that he’s definitely a building block, if not just in the games, but for the culture and the mindset.
The shooting will be there, he’ll have way more open looks with the better players he’ll play with. But I liked his ability to create space, and hit off of movement. Shot short when tired, but good conditioning will fix that.
I really liked his passing and vision. I saw him kill it in the pick and roll in college, but he’s able to create passing lanes with the gravity of his shooting threat.
He also showed short space quickness. The foot speed won’t blow past anybody, but shaking someone off balance and getting a burst, plus being able to use his body to bump a player off track, I can see how he can create scoring at/near the rim, or get enough space for a 3.
Defensively, he definitely improved from the first game. Instead of getting blown by, he seems “sticky?” Like a guy can start getting past him, but he’s right there in his pocket to bother the jumper. And he’s constantly moving his feet and arms, almost pushing/influencing the player into help.
But the thing that’s best, he doesn’t get out of position or become a space cadet when the ball is away from him. He’s always engaged and figuring out how he can help, and that ball awareness allowed him to get a bunch of rebounds.
The thing that really opened my eyes were a few competitive observations. Like these mean nothing if you don’t have the skills to help out. But since I’m confident he’ll be a gamer, I’m pretty excited about it.
Obviously, diving on any loose ball is amazing. But coming back after getting stitched up, determined to win a Summer league championship showed that hunger we want. During the game, they tried to interview him, but he was still locked into the game and not really listening. He cheered Baugh when he hit a 3, but he winced and looked pained when they responded with a 3. You could see not just the competitive spirit, but more that he hates to lose, that its physically painful. That every possession means something, whether he’s in or not.
Another thing that I think drives the great ones (he’s not great yet, but the mindset is similar), he was very critical of himself. Even though he got MVP, he thought he didn’t deserve it. Quick to give praise to his teammates and build them up, but it seemed to burn him up that he didn’t play up to his standards. Which leads these types of players to become obsessive with improvement, working out non stop from sun up to sun down.
So yes, I’m a dook hater, and our prior dookies never really panned out much. But I’m a fan of this one, he doesn’t have that typical dook smugness of their other stars that come out. Ace/Tre may produce better counting stats, but Kon may be a much bigger difference to winning in the long run.
Oh, and he should keep that headband look, it really works for him and Liam.
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Hate to say it QC, but Kon hated the headband and told us so during an ESPN in game interview. Lol
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That interview was probably my favorite part of the game
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I know. Maybe we can get Taylor Rooks to interview him again and tell him how much she likes it. He’d wear that headband everywhere, to the store, to sleep…
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I really appreciated the honestly… and how focused and intense he was during that interview.
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I was concerned until I got to number 1:
How did cooper not make this list?
Terrible first game combined w missing two of the last three games.
He’s washed up. He’s old news.