Kai Sotto Thread

[Giannis34GOD]

Credit to Kai, he had a good game against a powerhouse Latvia. Finally he is listening to just raise his hand and jump straigth up in his defense and dont hesiate to shoot the three. As i said before, if Bronny is in NBA, Kai deserves to be in NBA too.

He needs big time backer to reach that goal… that’s reality

[paliganibossalfrancis]

Bronny was a top college prospect coming out of high school. In fact ESPN ranks him as the 20th best prospect coming out of high school. And was McDonald’s All-American.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings/_/class/2023

Bronny had a health scare after suffering a cardiac arrest. He came back but was not the same prospect as projected.

To be fair to Bronny was ranked within the Top 60 of any Top 100 prospects for the 2024 NBA Draft including ESPN. In contrast to our boy Kai Sotto, who did not even barged into any Top 100 Draft prospects board.

Sotto has made strides to be better since the World Cup including gaining weight. He proved tonight he is one of the upcoming stars to watch in Asia. The NBA dream is still alive. He just needs to be a dominant figure for the Philippines and Asia to get that NBA call up.

Correct. Bronny stayed in the NBA radar, Kai went out of the radar.

No matter how good you are of a player you have to work x20 harder if you're outside the NBA radar to get noticed.

I just had a realization that 36ers never really took Kai seriously and his NBA potential. Not even branded him as an NBL Next Star, just another tall role player that can contribute. They sort of looked at him as a prospect with a distant shot to make the NBA. Wasserman did Kai good by putting him in Japan shores. Look at the difference of NBL Kai vs NBL MVP Xavier Cooks and BLeague Kai vs Xavier Cooks... in the former Kai is just another center, while Kai was visibly the best player on the floor in the latter.

[paliganibossalfrancis]

Why won't Yokohama sign him to a new offer/contract? Does not make sense for the team.

$$$ is definitely the issue. they wanna sign Yuta Watanabe next season.

[magic_chiongson]

To be fair to Bronny was ranked within the Top 60 of any Top 100 prospects for the 2024 NBA Draft including ESPN. In contrast to our boy Kai Sotto, who did not even barged into any Top 100 Draft prospects board.

nbadraft.net had kai at 99, so technically that's not true lol. he was as high as mid 60s in 2020/21 after his performances in fiba tournaments. this was before he started playing in australia

[The_Big_Cat]

Credit to Kai, he had a good game against a powerhouse Latvia. Finally he is listening to just raise his hand and jump straigth up in his defense and dont hesiate to shoot the three. As i said before, if Bronny is in NBA, Kai deserves to be in NBA too.

Bronny was a top college prospect coming out of high school. In fact ESPN ranks him as the 20th best prospect coming out of high school. And was McDonald’s All-American.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings/_/class/2023

Bronny had a health scare after suffering a cardiac arrest. He came back but was not the same prospect as projected.

To be fair to Bronny was ranked within the Top 60 of any Top 100 prospects for the 2024 NBA Draft including ESPN. In contrast to our boy Kai Sotto, who did not even barged into any Top 100 Draft prospects board.

Sotto has made strides to be better since the World Cup including gaining weight. He proved tonight he is one of the upcoming stars to watch in Asia. The NBA dream is still alive. He just needs to be a dominant figure for the Philippines and Asia to get that NBA call up.

[paliganibossalfrancis]

True, Kawamura help build his confidence and getting some tongue lashing from Coach Tim in the Poland game wake him up. But he still has to be stronger and better in his seal and low post.
But he played well that is whats important.

his face up and slashing game is still work in progress. Slight changes nalang. Remember when hooked Bertans when he saw an open lane, gave him an offensive foul + turnover.

His killer instincts are already there it's just that there are nuances in the game that he needs to learn. An NBA player with a quick first step would've advanced the ball and finished with 1 dribble (for example Giannis). He can't blow by people because he's not low enough to the ground when dribbling.

[yogaflame]

truly.

Another solid performance later vs Georgia then he's NBA-bound.

His confidence after teaming up with Kawamura and being under Tim Cone is on a whole 'nother level.

What i noticed is he's not forcing things and just follows the play to the dot. Not hesitant to take the shot and also always aware of where his teammates are on the floor.

True, Kawamura help build his confidence and getting some tongue lashing from Coach Tim in the Poland game wake him up. But he still has to be stronger and better in his seal and low post.
But he played well that is whats important.

[paliganibossalfrancis]

Credit to Kai, he had a good game against a powerhouse Latvia. Finally he is listening to just raise his hand and jump straigth up in his defense and dont hesiate to shoot the three. As i said before, if Bronny is in NBA, Kai deserves to be in NBA too.

truly.

Another solid performance later vs Georgia then he's NBA-bound.

His confidence after teaming up with Kawamura and being under Tim Cone is on a whole 'nother level.

What i noticed is he's not forcing things and just follows the play to the dot. Not hesitant to take the shot and also always aware of where his teammates are on the floor.

[yogaflame]

Credit to Kai, he had a good game against a powerhouse Latvia. Finally he is listening to just raise his hand and jump straigth up in his defense and dont hesiate to shoot the three. As i said before, if Bronny is in NBA, Kai deserves to be in NBA too.

[ARMIR]

Yeshkel has been objective of Kai’s play. Although he praised his play early on, he pointed one bad mannerism. He tries sealing in the post once but the ball got tipped. So there after, a couple of plays I think, the guard did not give him the ball when he sealed. After that, Kai had a bad body language and was disinterested in his play. Yeshkel, said it well, this team has no superstar. Even Brownlee, who scored 30 there, doesnt throw tantrums if he doesnt get the ball.

Kai has improved a lot already. But he still need to learn this.

I like his take more than anyone else,he actually breaks down the game is layman's term,where even a not so basketball savy die hard fan can understad.I liked the fact that Kai is still throwing tantrums on the floor,that really gets on the nerves of CTC and that mannerism when it doesn't go his way he throws up his hands in front of his face,then shrinks his down to 6'11,never gets old.Kai just needs to understand he's a role player like everyone else,its the system,not just the player.

[Rds]

Lol, they are back, milking kai again!
anyway any news if Kai will play in the nba summer league

Yeshkel has been objective of Kai’s play. Although he praised his play early on, he pointed one bad mannerism. He tries sealing in the post once but the ball got tipped. So there after, a couple of plays I think, the guard did not give him the ball when he sealed. After that, Kai had a bad body language and was disinterested in his play. Yeshkel, said it well, this team has no superstar. Even Brownlee, who scored 30 there, doesnt throw tantrums if he doesnt get the ball.

Kai has improved a lot already. But he still need to learn this.

[CoJ]

Lol, they are back, milking kai again!
anyway any news if Kai will play in the nba summer league

[Juan Lun]

[ARMIR]

Why won't Yokohama sign him to a new offer/contract? Does not make sense for the team.

Could be that he was padding his assists stat too much,that the rest of the team suffers,even Kai was way too dependent that he won't even creat his own shots,until he was forced to,when Yuki went down.Probably the team is looking to have a combo type guard instead and take the team to a different direction.

[thatweirdguy]

Why won't Yokohama sign him to a new offer/contract? Does not make sense for the team.

I hope it isn't $$ issue. Yuki is probably responsible for 80% of Kai's points.