Darius Acuff Jr holding himself accountable: “Gotta be better…I’m playing terrible. Too inefficient. Make more shots in a row and get my teammates involved”
That 4th quarter nuked his box score lmao. Had a great game til then.
He was gassed. Tbf he’s actually been playing pretty good defense
Yeah it’s just summer league but the defense looks infinitely better than what his college tape showed. He’s competing hard and made some plays in passing lanes.
Don’t think he’ll ever be a good defender but the “worst defender in the league” narrative is greatly exaggerated
The Arkansas team he played for had very little depth and he was by far the best player. I think he was told to really avoid foul trouble and as a result didn’t try as hard on defense. Not 100% sure, but I thought I read that somewhere.
That’s how Calipari coaches.
Also he was banged up. His ankle or whatever was bothering him the whole last half of the season. If anything it’s wildly impressive what he achieved given that fact, and the number of minutes AR needed him to play.
That seems more promising than anything because the offence will be there
Yeah, you have to get used to the game. Develop those muscles so you don’t get tired.
my buddy shoots hot then ghosts in crunch time too
It’s been the opposite the two other games lol, 4th was his best quarter the first two summer league games.
“Too inefficient” on 6-20 and he says he needs to be better
Philon goes 6-19 and he leaves the floor like the hero of Philly.
I already like this guy.
What’s the point of randomly slandering Philon? Lol
fr that felt personal lol
Because I was watching that game and following along with Reddit and you would have thought he was the next AI. But it’s good for some of us to watch most of the games and keep things in perspective for those who have to follow along with highlights.
You’re weird bro
If you’ve been following the draft, then Philon was often mocked in the same tier as guys like Acuff and Wagler. But obviously NBA teams felt differently and he ended up way down there. Regardless, that doesn’t stop people from comparing Philon against other lead guards.
Yes the 7th overall pick has higher expectations than a guy who went 22nd
Any player who goes in the first round better have a “I need to do better” mentality if they can’t score 20 points in a summer league game.
I just don’t get the random Philon slander
It looks like this user has some sort of weird personal issue with him lol. Parasocial af. Such a random player to hate so much too 😂
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/qnqTjQctcg
Yeah the dude was shitting the bed and playing poorly. Not just playing poorly for a 22nd pick but playing poorly for a player trusted with the ball every possession.
Keaton Wagler dropped 7 points with -23 +/-. Tarris Reed Jr dropped 14 with -15. Kingston Flemings dropped 5 points on +22. Labaron dropped 18 on +3. Labaron obviously has some stuff to work on, but it’s the Summer League, and most of those guys will do fine. This is the time where you make those mistakes.
Didn’t watch those games aside from Philon.
Bro caught his girl getting Philon’d, only explanation
Dephiled her lmao
For real I always wonder what causes parasocial rivalries like this, have they somehow crossed paths in real life or is it really just a random resentment? Such an interesting concept
damn you got me
Why does it bother you so much that a rookie took a bunch of shots in his first summer league game? You seem to be spending a lot of time shitting on him, even in threads like this that have literally nothing to do with him.
Seems personal to me which is weird
Because they were terrible shots. It was a 1⁄1 sample size and I do hope he grows out of this but tonight he was trying to drive in to shot from mid or go to the basket and he always just panicked and tossed out or shot a brick. Believe me I gave him a lot of chances to prove me wrong but the only consistent thing I saw was he is a solid POA defender.
I will follow him through this summer league to see how he grows but he was given the ball 90% of possessions and he didn’t do much while Okorie was a solid playmaker let down by his teammates lack of shooting
That’s great. I’m just asking why you’re so committed to slandering him all over the sub after his first ever summer league game?
Okay how about this. I won’t talk about him again until the end of the season and we can reconvene to see how his season goes.
and yet we have a larger sample size of Acuff being inefficient in the summer league. give these guys time to grow, this is exactly what summer league is for.
Its almost like one is a high draft pick expected to be a starter and the other will be coming off the bench
Do any of yall have any frame of reference on draft picks and their growth? Players who say “I need to do better” always excel and players who are complacent are always playing overseas in 6 years.
I’m confused on how what people say on Reddit or other social media translate to Philon’s actual mindset in these games and his process going into his first NBA season?
Acuff also played 4 games and had bad efficiency in all 4? Meanwhile that was Philon’s first game??
He discovered America is what he did, and in this house Philon is a hero. End of story.
Acuff: “I saw what happened with Brown, I need to pass more than the eye test”
He can pass the ball but can he pass the advanced analytics test?
Passing the ball to your teammates can help a lot here. Jaylen chooses to pass to his teammates by bricking contested long twos hoping they get the offensive rebound.
Or he makes a “save me Tatum🥺” pass back to Tatum with 6 seconds left on the shot clock after doing a Sengun spin and going nowhere.
This is more accountability in his fourth game in the NBA than Fox ever showed with us all 8 seasons. I love this kid!
I moved to Arkansas before the last season started and really loved watching this guy play. He’s got it all, hope big things for the guy
Bit of a random stray to Fox?
Na it’s warranted. In the loss that got Mike Brown fired we were up 3 Fox had a mind blowing mistake fouling Ivey on a 3 that he made and completed a 4 point play to beat us.
Fox just shrugs it off after the game like he’s too cool to be there and says “doesn’t matter nothing I say is gonna change it”. There’s a reason so many Kings fans wanted him gone long before he forced his way out.
Seeing this type of accountability from Acuff after wins no less is such a breath of fresh air.
Less random than the dude attacking philon in this thread lol
Fox made you guys relevant for the first time in decades lol
He really didn’t. They didn’t win a single playoff round with Fox.
Kings fox is crazy overrated
Bruh it’s the KINGS… they had thier best season since like 2002 because of fox and the beam team…
Blaming him for decades of terrible front office moves and draft picks did soooooo unfair…
Sabonis brought the success.
Fox was the best player
We don’t have to lie to ourselves because Fox was a jerk on the way out
Sabonis was their best player in 2023 and 2024. It was not particularly close. He was the one who made the all-star team, Fox was an injury replacement. Sabonis made All-NBA in 23 and 24 and Fox just 23.
I don’t have to lie it is just the reality.
Yeah… Kings were perennial bottom feeders even with Fox until Sabonis showed up and suddenly we’re in the playoffs. Sabonis was the best player on that team, he was the one that made the Kings relevant lol. Sadly his skill set just isn’t built for being the best player on a team so he wasn’t as effective in the playoffs but even then if the Kings shooters could shoot they probably make the 2nd round.
The kings being in the playoff mix is relevant for them historically
I mean, they haven’t won one since 04. Lebron’s rookie season.
Fox did nothing for us until sabonis and brown showed up
I would argue if any player should get credit it should definitely be Sabonis
They’re just mad he left
I promise you we don’t give a fuck that he left, just the way he did it. Enjoy that albatross contract of his
We’ll take Acuff too once you fumble him. He deserves better.
Didn’t watch the game was he taking a lot of mid range shots? Or missing at the rim?
He was missing at the rim for sure. I think he’s been actually trying to defend in summer league and losing his legs as he nears the basket. The conditioning will come
He got blocked on a ton of jumpers in the California Classic games and missed a lot of mid range shots, so he has been taking less. He took one that I can recall in the first quarter and it was a bad shot and it missed. He honestly doesn’t elevate that much on it atm. He’s been ok at the rim.
He will be really good.
On the basis of?
The summer league having just close to no correlation to regular season games
So because summer league games don’t matter that’s why he’s going to be good? That’s certainly some logic man
It’s more that these games don’t prove he’s gonna be bad, and since this draft is hyped to be really good it’s not a bad assumption to assume he is gonna be good as well
Yeah I didn’t say he was going to be bad, the guy posted a surface level answer from a post game interview and wanted to know why he thought he’d be good
Yea I just like talking down on summer league whenever I have the chance
At the end of the day it’s still basketball, they’re trying their best, and they’re playing against tougher competition than in college. Most players that turn out good were also good in the Summer League. Yes, there are outliers, but the Summer League hate has got way out of hand.
Defense matters bud
It’s so funny seeing people comment this because his defense has actually been noteworthy in all 4 games this summer league.
Not elite by any means but definitely not as much as the parroted “defense matters” crowd who haven’t watch any of our games imply it to be.
Yeah the effort has been there. Needs a bit of polish in terms of positioning and what not, but if you didn’t know he was the “worst defender in the draft” before watching the games, his play wouldn’t suggest it.
a couple summer league games in and I’m already loving this dude!
Watched a good amount of this game today as well as his other summer league games so far. He needs to learn how to pick his spots. Just because he can get a shot up at any time doesn’t mean he always has to shoot it. I think when he realizes this, his efficiency will rise. He’s trying to do too much out there. I know they want to put the ball in his hands and have him run the offense, but he needs to make better reads.
Kobe would never admit he played bad he doesn’t have mamba mentality
That’s alrite, hes AI not kobe
At least he’s self aware
….then why do you keep doing it?
Summer league is summer league… But I still maintain that giving Acuff the absolute green light to shoot it every time this early in his career will be a disaster and negatively impact his development.
For his sake when the real games start I hope Sacramento slow rolls the whole “offensive engine” thing…
The focus should be on getting Acuff to defend adequately and contribute elsewhere, before letting him have his offensive cake - because on that end I really don’t have many long-term worries… But if he starts prioritizing offense over everything else, the defense will never come along.
I see the high upside, but that last 4th quarter stretch was bad. He couldn’t handle a double team, bad passes and wrong reads. He missed a free throw that would have sealed the game earlier
He’s 19 playing in his first few summer league games??!
I didn’t say he played bad. It was just an ugly last minutes. He has a solid body for manipulating a screen, and keeps his defender behind him. Nothing crazy in passing in terms of Hali, Jokic, but he makes the correct play 8⁄10 times. I’m interested in how he plays with an actual center and offense firepower of Lavine if he is still on the team
6⁄20 mamba mentality lmao
Well, Kobe averaged 7 and a half points on 42% shooting his first season, so perhaps we should cut Acuff a little slack.
Buddy Hield SL numbers
Oh he’s already been fully infected by the Kings
Welcome to the Kangs
6-20 f outta here and they glaze this dude like he the second coming of mj, got more ego in podcasts rather than scoring outputs lol😂
You see the shooting splits of the number 1 pick yet man?
I feel like he’s the most obvious “this guy won’t defend and will be a shot chucker” type of prospects in a long time, but that can still get you picked in the high lottery lol
Forreal lmao