And finally, I leave you with this sweet little crossover hesi midrange pull-up, for no other reason than that it looks soooo much like KD... /fin

Watch him pre-help from the dunker spot so Nurk can help on the ball. Only works because Key then rotates down, but again, not super typical for a rookie to be this plugged in on help defense all the time.

There's more defensive stuff, too, but I'll mostly save those for another time. Just two I have to show you. Starting with ... watch him navigate multiple switch/no-switch decisions here (on and off ball), then stay in front of a driver, knocks the ball away.

Quick recognition on this pass to a cutting Flip, too. What's funny is this is after an error. Both he and Flip pop, but they recognize it and right away Ace sees the angle on the pass. There is no way this is planned or drawn up. This is a quick read by a smart player.

Look at how quickly he recognizes the seam in the defense after executing this guard-to-guard switch on defense.

Pair of identical pindown-dho-flare setups here. First one just glides past everybody after a switch (again -- ATHLETE). Second one the big is dropped so the pass isn't there. He cuts, seals a smaller defender and then goes to work from the midrange.

So far just opportunistic stuff... let's see how his brain works when they involve him in the action.

Runs a little stagger twist to get the ball, jab steps to create space for the shot. Misses, but then resets position, smartly makes a "Lauri cut" when defender cuts off the top side. 🧠

A long rebound bounces out, could have easily gotten past him. But he's alert, grabs it, goes coast to coast. Blows the bunny but I don't care -- look at where the last dribble occurs. Then dances through 3 guys. Holy smokes. That is just an athlete. (And gets right back in the play after missing)

Here's another one. The attentiveness gets him the rebound, but watch just the processing speed on the drop-off to Nurk. He misses, but who cares. This is a good sign.

Because he's attentive, good things just happen a lot for him. Like here where he comes in the o-board and instinctually leaves is off to Lauri in a 2-on-1 situation. (Hardy mentioned this play, so I'm cheating a little by including it... sue me)

He does some smart stuff off the ball. Like here, the logical thing to do when he doesn't get it on the little flash cut is to cut all the way through the paint, and he starts to... but then sees the give-and-go brewing and steps AROUND a defender so he can stay out of the way.

Here's another one where he doesn't even touch it, but this is a really smart play. The cut in *behind* Lauri from the left corner while Lauri makes a right-to-left drive is really heady.

One of the big things rn is just how engaged mentally he is on both ends. Doesn't always do the right thing, but he's not just tuning out, which often rookies do.

Like here, watch how active he is despite never touching the ball. Makes all the right cuts, clears, dives in after the shot, etc.