00:00If you watched last night, A.J. DeBonce's debut, we made our picks as far as what we thought A
00:06.J. would do.
00:06He got more run than, I said, 20 minutes, 16 points.
00:10He ended up playing 27 minutes, 19 points, 8 of 12 from the field.
00:15Is that good?
00:16Very efficient.
00:172 of 2 at the free throw line.
00:19Had two boards, two assists.
00:21The first time he touches the ball, you see that alley-oop.
00:26Listen, A.J. was great on the alley-oop.
00:28The pass from Trey Young.
00:29The pass from Trey Young is unbelievable with that.
00:31It's like 65 feet of a pass.
00:33It's like a Jaden pass.
00:34But you were listening to Drew last.
00:36Drew was like, another one?
00:38Because Trey at any moment can let that thing fly.
00:42If he see a guy and they make eye contact and he know they can get to the basket, he's
00:47letting it fly.
00:48Totally.
00:48And they can go get it.
00:50The first time DeBonce touches the ball, he's on the wing, kind of foul line extended at the three-point
00:57line.
00:58And he immediately just attacks the rim.
01:02Yeah.
01:03And who's my guy?
01:04I want to give him credit.
01:05I think his name is Jackson Payne.
01:07The young man we had on that covers BYU basketball.
01:10And I interacted with Jackson a decent amount during the pre-draft process.
01:16And he was at the draft.
01:17And he had this tweet that's like, oh my gosh, AJ's doing the same stuff he did at BYU that
01:23he did in Provo.
01:24And if that dribble drive, like the first play of his NBA career, he's able to get to the rack.
01:32Now, he doesn't finish the dunk, but he gets to the free throw line, which is one of his superpowers.
01:36Knocks down both free throws.
01:37And it's just like, this dude's it.
01:40Like, you understand.
01:42The thing, like, I don't understand why that's something that's eye-opening.
01:49If he was that good in college and he was the number one pick, he should be able to do
01:52that in the pros.
01:54You know, AJ DeBonce, like, the thing about basketball is that one sport where when we are growing up and
02:02we see a bunch of grown-ass men playing football,
02:04we don't see no young kid playing with them.
02:07Right.
02:07You see a dude or you see a basketball court, and that's a young dude out there.
02:12And he's cooking.
02:13And you know what?
02:14When they start picking teams, you know what they do?
02:16Let me get AJ first.
02:18So that transcends.
02:21So, I mean, I expected him to give us a little bit of what he got.
02:24And the thing about him is he's going to have to get a little stronger.
02:29And I think the whole team down the stretch, they got to play better defense.
02:32Dude, they've got to rebound better.
02:34They've got to shoot threes better.
02:36Because them three, second, third, fourth chances, I didn't like that.
02:42It's funny because, like, there's so much excitement from DeBonce's debut, but they did lose the game, right?
02:48And they've now lost two in a row, two and three.
02:50I did Hoffman's podcast this morning for Monumental, the District of Basketball,
02:54and talking with him, like, you know, somebody that's inside the building
02:57and understands kind of the bigger picture was really interesting.
03:01They've played, the Wiz have now played five games.
03:03Do you know what that correlates to in an NFL season?
03:06Mm-hmm.
03:07Week one.
03:08Because they play so many damn games.
03:10Yeah, yeah.
03:11I think for DeBonce, you are correct in that our expectations are high,
03:17and in game one, I think he met or even surpassed those expectations.
03:22Like, he looked explosive offensively.
03:25But that's what makes it so exciting is that, unfortunately, we have seen over the years
03:30where, in the NBA, sometimes you draft a project.
03:34Sometimes you draft a guy that, in three years, you hope is a star.
03:37Sometimes you draft a guy that proves to be a bust, right?
03:40Like, those things happen.
03:42One game, small sample, A.J. looks like the real deal right away, and that's what you wanted.
03:47Yeah, you want that.
03:48And, like, the number one picks in the NBA hit more than the number one picks in other sports.
03:54You know, I just think that a guy that can actually handle a ball and play like A.J. played
03:59is going to be able to take that to the next level.
04:01Now, some guys who don't play in the competition, you know, they may not be able to do it
04:06because once you get to the NBA, you've got to be at your best all the time.
04:10Sure.
04:10And you listen to people talk about him and how he works and things like that.
04:15He didn't seem to be – when he got drafted, some guys are like, ooh, yeah, I made it.
04:21He felt like, let's go, a nice time to work.
04:24And I think that's the mindset that guys have to have.
04:27It's easy to get drafted.
04:29It's hard to stay there.
04:31Sure.
04:31You know?
04:32And I think his mindset is where he's going to put the work in,
04:36so you expect good things from him.
04:38Like, I saw it last night.
04:40I thought he did a lot of great things.
04:43I just – I'm very hesitant to go way out there because I want –
04:50I don't want to throw it all on the first move when the second time he threw something,
04:55I just say how great it was.
04:57I might not have no more words for it.
04:58You know what I'm saying?
04:59So I kind of back off a little bit.
05:01You know, I'm not Ryan.
05:03You know, everybody is so good, so great.
05:04I do want to open the phone lines up about A.J. DeBonce's debut.
05:09He finished the game 27 points – I'm sorry, 27 minutes, 19 points,
05:138 of 12 from the field, 1 of 3 from the three-point line,
05:17made both his free throws, two boards, two assists, had the two turnovers, four fouls.
05:22But you know what he did?
05:23He did exactly what we said.
05:25Played so well to where Friday night, he didn't have to wait until Friday to do this.
05:31Left hand up.
05:32I did Hoffman's podcast this morning.
05:34I said to him, I was like, B. Mitch and I actually disagreed that I wanted to wait
05:38and have the debut Friday night.
05:40B. said no, get him on the court when you can.
05:42And two, that will only raise the excitement for Friday night.
05:45You were proven correct, sir.
05:48Speaking of left hand up, they were playing that in the commander's locker room yesterday.
05:52What?
05:52Like the song, like who are we?
05:54Like the left hand up song.
05:57And it was really funny because nobody could figure out who was playing it,
06:01and they were all looking around like, what the hell?
06:03Especially guys that, like free agents this year, rookies this year.
06:06They don't know the song.
06:07They were like, what is this?
06:09It was really funny.
06:09So who were playing?
06:10Did you figure that out?
06:11I don't.
06:13I'm not at liberty to say who I think it is, but I don't know the answer.
06:18Nobody knew the answer.
06:20There were a number of theories going around.
06:23I can tell you who I think it was in the break.
06:26All right, here's what I want to do, though.
06:27I want to talk to Bonsa because he was electric, dynamic last night.
06:32800-636-1067.
06:35800-636-1067.
06:39I like this from Josh Robbins, and I wonder if this is a lead to his story.
06:44I'd like to properly credit him.
06:47The tweet Josh Robbins put out, Josh Robbins covers the Wiz for The Athletic.
06:51The Wizards have areas of their game to improve to be more than merely competitive against teams like the Cavaliers.
06:58But in his NBA regular season debut, A.J. DeBonsa showed a world of promise.
07:05I think that is a tremendous synopsis of last night.
07:10They lost.
07:11Cleveland was able to close them out late.
07:12They kept it tight.
07:13But DeBonsa showed you this flash of something that you don't know exactly what it could become.
07:23And the excitement that that creates is palpable.
07:28And I don't know this answer, B, and I'm curious what you think.
07:34I thought the Wiz had a pretty disappointing game Monday night in Charlotte.
07:38It seemed like they came out flat.
07:42Questioning effort becomes too easy, but they just never looked sharp.
07:47And I didn't think it was a particularly impressive performance from Saar in that Hornets game.
07:52And they play 82, so there's going to be some off nights, and I'm cognizant of that.
07:58But I don't know, and perhaps there's no way to know.
08:02Last night, the Wiz came out on fire.
08:05Saar came out on fire.
08:06Maybe that's just a reaction to the previous game.
08:09Maybe there's a lift from DeBonsa being on the court.
08:13He certainly creates more space offensively.
08:16I think what we do is we watch sports, and we think we just get excited.
08:23The people in that locker room feel that, too.
08:26They feel the elevation of the, like, A.J. DeBonsa is not the young guy.
08:33He's a young guy who's going to help us win.
08:35And they feel that, and they see that.
08:37Because, like, when they look around, they say, okay, we got all our pieces.
08:41We should be able to compete.
08:42He's damn sure one of those pieces.
08:44So they get the same level.
08:46They may not react to it as the outside world does,
08:50but internally they know now we're getting to be full.
08:55And now I can just do what I'm supposed to do.
08:57I don't have to do too much.
08:58I don't have to try to overdo something.
09:01I got other help now.
09:02And a guy with escape abilities, it makes you begin to feel that.
09:06That's why I think the DeBonsa debut feels so different than maybe John Wall
09:10because the Wall team wasn't going to compete.
09:13This team might, and DeBonsa might be a huge part of that.
09:17I want to sneak in, Sean is in Falls Church.
09:19Let's kick the phones off, Sean.
09:21What did you think of A.J. DeBonsa's debut?
09:24It was amazing.
09:26I mean, the efficiency from shooting it to, you know, seeing him drive,
09:30I think it's going to be something that, well, one, it's going to get me in seats.
09:34This is the first time I've wanted to buy tickets in 15 years for a game.
09:40Yeah, I mean, it's that exciting.
09:42But they've got to figure it out from length.
09:45Anything outside of 25 feet, it needs to be a little bit more efficient.
09:50Yeah, you're not wrong about that.
09:52Great call, Sean.
