A Primo-time Performance: Kenner Week 4 Recap

With Brandon Murray not playing in Kenner League this weekend, it was Primo Spears' turn to take the mainstage.

As Kenner League playoffs approach, we’ve now had four weekends to get a good look at the players that will make up this year’s 2022-23 Georgetown squad. While you can’t make too many observations about a player during a summer league, there is still plenty of information to glean from these performances as the season gets closer.

Here’s what I saw from the Hoyas that played on Sunday, in the fourth weekend of Kenner League.

Primo Spears

With Brandon Murray appearing not to be in DC this weekend, per his Instagram, it meant Primo Spears was running the show for his team, and he put on a show for those in attendance, especially in the second half, when he was draining bucket after bucket in Kenner veteran Andrew Washington’s face.

Hilltop Hoops @HilltopHoops_

.@primo_spears dropping three after three in his defender’s eye today. What a show 🎯

Having seen Spears multiple times in Kenner by now, I now feel pretty confident in calling him the clear-cut favorite to start at point guard for Georgetown this summer. Quite simply, he is a better dribbler, shooter, and passer than Dante Harris is. At different points in Sunday’s game, he showed off different aspects of his game that show just how good he is.

There was the no-look pass to the open man under the rim after Spears was tied up by two defenders; the stepback three-pointer in Washington’s face; and the lightning-quick handles that let him get by his defender with ease. I’m really impressed with Spears so far, and if it weren’t for his Kenner teammate, Murray, I would say Spears has been the top Hoya in Kenner League this summer.

A couple of potential areas of concern for me with Spears:

• Size: Spears had a jumpshot easily blocked when he had a longer defender on him. The defender’s length negated the separation that Spears got on his stepback. On the other end of the court, Spears was taken into the low post by a bigger guard a few times, where his lack of lower body size came into focus, and allowed him to get moved pretty easily. This could be an issue for the Georgetown defense to cover up for once the season starts.

• Over-dribbling: Spears is a lot of fun to watch with the ball in his hands, but sometimes he can get a bit too dribble-happy, and the offense can stall out. It also often leads to him taking a contested shot. This could just be a Kenner symptom, but is something that will hopefully be worked on in practice.

Jay Heath

If Spears is the second-best Georgetown player this summer, Heath is not too far behind. The former Arizona State and Boston College guard plays with a poise to his game that I haven’t seen from a Georgetown guard in several years. His ability to put his shoulder down and drive to the rim is really good, but his three-point shot is just as good too. He looks to be a very complete player, perhaps even more so than Don Carey was for this team the last two seasons.

The balance that Heath plays with stands out to me. He is rarely knocked off his spot, and has the frame where he can absorb some contact and still get to where he wants to go.

Heath will give this team a lot of options in the backcourt this season. I expect Spears to start at the point, but Heath will fit in nicely alongside Spears and Murray with his ability to play on or off the ball. Those three playing together has me increasingly excited for this season after watching them hoop in Kenner.

Hilltop Hoops @HilltopHoops_

.@TheRealJayHeath breaks his man down and scores at the rack.

Jordan Riley

I am a bit concerned by Riley this summer at this point. The defense is above average, he competes hard, the athleticism is clear to see, but man…the shot is still a major issue. You have to hope that he is just still working off the rust from his shoulder surgery, but with how crowded the Hoyas’ backcourt is, it is hard to see where Riley is going to get minutes this season, unless there are injuries or he miraculously fixes his shot. It’s disappointing too, because a player with that much athleticism certainly could help this team, but until the shot improves, it’s hard to see how you can count on him offensively, especially considering how many guards there are in front of him on the depth chart who are much better shooters right now.

Ryan Mutombo

Mutombo had a couple nice blocks in his game on Sunday, and still shows the high basketball IQ that he has displayed since his high school days. He can get to the right spot on offense, and had a couple buckets off of good rolls to the basket. He also knows how to find good position in fighting for rebounds, where he overcomes his lack of physicality by getting to the right spot before his man does to secure the rebound.

Still, his lack of size and strength is an issue. Bradley Ezewiro, when he felt like it, had his way with Mutombo down low in the post. Perhaps the loudest play of the game came when Ezewiro came out of nowhere to absolutely destroy one of Mutombo’s shot attempts near the basket. The foot speed hasn’t improved much for Mutombo, which means he is going to continue to struggle when pulled out to the perimeter.

Wayne Bristol Jr.

Bristol Jr. had the ball in his hands a lot on Sunday, playing more as a point guard. It didn’t seem like a natural fit, but it’s never a bad thing to get on-ball reps. The three-point shot still looks shaky for Bristol Jr., which is an issue considering he was known as a good three-point shooter coming from Howard, where he shot 40% from deep.

To me, Bristol Jr. is at his best when he doesn’t think. He is a good athlete, and his straight-line speed is better than most. When he grabs the ball on the perimeter and puts his head down and goes, he can have success getting to the hoop. He gets in trouble when he dribbles too much, or tries to break his defender down one-on-one. That’s not his game.

If the shot isn’t going to fall for Bristol Jr., that could be an issue for him getting minutes this season. That’s what I am hoping to see improve in these final couple of weeks for Kenner for him.

Qudus Wahab

Wahab went up against GW’s Noah Brown on Sunday, which was a really good test for him. Brown might be the best center in Kenner this summer, depending on if you view AJ Wilson as a 4 or a 5. In my eyes, Brown and Wahab battled to a draw, with each having success against the other at different points. Wahab showed the ability to score in the low post over Brown with his feathery jump hook, but Brown also muscled Wahab down low on the other end for some buckets of his own.

D’Ante Bass

The three-point shot looks good, but it wasn’t falling for Bass once again on Sunday. He had a couple of dunks in this game that rimmed out, one of which would have been a true highlight-reel play, the other which was just a bad missed dunk.

Bass’ potential on defense is clear, and is how he will earn minutes on this team to begin his career. Whether that will be as a freshman or as a sophomore is the question. I would feel comfortable having him guard anywhere from the 3 to the 5 right away. His defensive versatility is very evident, as he can guard players out on the perimeter, but also come down low and provide some rim protection as well. On Sunday, he even took a few defensive possessions guarding Wahab, and held his own for the most part.

The challenge for Georgetown will be getting him up to speed on offense, but he already looks like he is improving since he began in Kenner. He appears to be thinking less offensively, and is dribbling less and moving the ball more once he gets it.

Bradley Ezewiro

Ezewiro was who I came to watch on Sunday. He has racked up the stats in Kenner so far this summer, and I wanted to see him for myself finally. I came away from watching him on Sunday with mixed feelings though, because the lack of energy from him was very evident, but so too were the physical tools that he has to work with, which could make him a very useful player for this team this year.

Like I suspected, a lot of Ezewiro’s scoring production is from cleaning up around the rim, dominating smaller opponents, and taking advantage of fastbreak opportunities. Ezewiro is a large dude, and can muscle his way through pretty much anybody in Kenner. That makes it pretty easy for him to score.

What I wasn’t expecting was the capable three-point shot that he showed off. I wasn’t taking stats, but he knocked down at least a few on Sunday that had me raising my eyebrows. The shot motion is a bit slow, and will get blocked if he speed it up in the regular season, but the form is good overall, and he looked comfortable taking the three.

My concern with Ezewiro was his lack of effort on Sunday. He had a good game stats-wise once again, but he spent a significant portion of the game loafing around on defense, and not running up the floor with his team when they had transition opportunities. You hope that he was just doing that because it’s summer league, but still, why get into bad habits? I didn’t like seeing that.

Defensively, when he wanted to, Ezewiro showed the ability to guard big men down low, where he uses his bulk to anchor down defensively. He had a high-flying block of Mutombo that was rather ferocious, and showed off the defensive potential he has if he gives a damn during the game. But on Sunday, he was in his own world a bunch, just milling around the floor and only occasionally glancing over at his man. He didn’t seem particularly interested in contesting any shots on the perimeter.

I’m still not sure what position Ezewiro is best at. The three-point shot shows potential, but in a high-major college basketball game, I’m not sure Ezewiro has the agility or quickness to be a true stretch 4 who can win on the perimeter against longer, quicker forwards who can contest his perimeter shot better than a Kenner defender can. I still think his best bet is as a smaller center who can stretch out to the perimeter, and also win down low against most centers thanks to his size.

The player that I kept coming back to for the closest comparison to Ezewiro was…and bear with me here…Zion Williamson.

Yeah, yeah I know. Classic Kenner overreaction. But let me explain.

Zion Williamson was 6-foot-7, 285 pounds at Duke. Ezewiro was 6-foot-8, 246 pounds at LSU last season. I would peg him closer to the 255-260 range after seeing him at Kenner.

Like Zion, Ezewiro is built like a bowling ball and has impressive leaping ability despite his weight. He can take advantage of smaller defenders with his size, and also has enough mobility to have success against bigger defenders too.

Where the two differ is that Williamson could take his man off the dribble and had better quick-twitch ability, and straight-line speed. I didn’t see Ezewiro show the ability to beat his defender in a one-on-one situation where he put the ball on the floor, on Sunday.

Look, I’m not saying that Georgetown has the next Zion Williamson on their hands. But Ezewiro’s size plus his dunking ability does evoke memories of Zion, and he could present favorable mismatches for Georgetown to take advantage of this season.

Ezewiro played so little as a freshman at LSU that there is still so much unknown with him. The lack of energy and effort (Patrick Ewing’s two favorite words, besides “REBOUNNNNND!!!”) from him on Sunday was disconcerting, but I came away optimistic that if the coaching staff can convince Ezewiro to lock in, there could be a useful player there that can help this team win games this season.