Category: Sports News

Very few days in Utah Jazz history have made me as excited as Thursday, June 22, 2023 – the night of that years NBA draft. As a plucky 18 year old, I (unwisely) fancied myself quite the prodigy in the draft field, and 7 to 10 P.M was my time to show off my stuff. I thought Taylor Hendricks was a pretty solid selection , and didn’t feel too strongly one way or other about Keyonte George (though I would’ve preferred Brandin Podziemski).

I had set myself up for disappointment that night – there was a player that I had convinced myself beyond all doubt was the correct pick at #9, but who was so outside of the realm of possibility that this pipe dream was bringing me nothing but grief. He wasn’t picked at #9 and, even more heartbreakingly, he wasn’t picked at #16. Surely, he wasn’t going to last until the Jazz’s last pick at #28. Surely.

But someway,

somehow,

the Utah Jazz selected Brice Sensabaugh at #28. We are going to win the championship.

2023 Grant Nielson has not yet been completely validated (I hope I have not shot down 2026 Grant Nielson’s credibility in the opening 200 words). Brice has shown flashes each of his first three seasons, but he cannot yet even be labeled as categorically positive – the shooting has been less consistent than hoped, the shot selection has often been morbidly fascinating, and the defense has been unequivocally awful. His smoothness in the mid-range has not yet served as the foundation for a winning basketball player.

However, I will continue to stubbornly, almost paternalistically, stand in defense of my younger self and his contrarian draft opinions, because, in spite of it all, I still endorse pieces of my 2023 evaluation of Ohio State’s freshman bucket-getter. As Sensabaugh continues to make year-by-year improvements, I concurrently become less and less ashamed of my pre-draft championing of him. Brice was as effortless of a shot-maker as I had ever seen for a player his age, from any area on the court. He had the mass to avoid the fate of other spindly scorers in his archetype (I’m glad the Jazz didn’t take Jett Howard), and a sneaky athleticism that should do just enough to allow him to translate his game to the next level. Coming out of high school, he was marketed as more of a point forward, leading me to believe that the flashes of passing I saw at Ohio State could be harnessed and developed into something more. Then and now, Brice Sensabaugh had and has it.

A comment given by Austin Ainge, given in an interview with new Salt Lake Tribune Jazz writer Shreyas Laddha, provides me with some hope that the it that Brice has is finally becoming the it that the Utah Jazz need. When asked which players have stood out over the summer, Ainge didn’t begin by gushing over either Ace Bailey or Darryn Peterson, the two youngsters with the most pedigree and (hopefully) room for growth – instead, he said begins by saying that Brice Sensabaugh has had a “particularly good summer”. Immediately, I was struck by how odd this comment would read if Brice is not apart of the opening night rotation, which is not yet guaranteed; the Jazz are hoarding wealth when it comes to competent back-up shooting guards.

But after that initial reaction, I asked myself – “what does that even mean?” In an empty gym, Brice has always looked great. Purely from a shot-making perspective, Sensabaugh isn’t substantially worse than a lot of the 20 points per game, household name, franchise faces. Does a “particularly good summer” imply more of the same beautiful mid-range jumpers, or is Austin referring to something more?

The Utah Jazz backup shooting guard race is still decidedly up in the air, so in this article I will lay out the 3 (feasible) improvements necessary for Brice to make if he wishes to secure consistent playing time this year, and that I hope were the foundation of the Summer that Austin Ainge found so praiseworthy.

On-Ball Playmaking and Passing

Normally, when teaching a highly talented youngster how to become a winning player, it involves some degree of scaling down. No longer are you the #1 option – you have skill, and you need to learn how to translate it to the very specific role that we need you to play. Strangely enough, I feel the opposite is more applicable to Brice, and that is all entirely due to the context of the team around him, especially when he is playing with bench units. The backups brought in this Summer have clearly been chosen to shore up the team’s obvious defensive shortcomings – Jaxson Hayes, Josh Okogie, and Josh Green all have paid their bills on the defensive end, but conversely offer very little offensively. Now, I don’t think that trio will play very many minutes all together, but I do anticipate minutes with two of the three on the court; those minutes will live and die by the hand of the offensive conductor that accompanies them. Hayes, Okogie, Green, and even slightly more well-rounded bench pieces like Svi and (likely) Ace – none are players that, at this point, are consistently creating offense for themselves or their teammates. They can be positive, but they, for the most part, prefer to receive than to give.

Brice Sensabaugh, being one of the few competent ball-handlers on the roster, has the capacity to be a huge boon to the second unit when placed next to more defensively oriented players. While my 2023 dreams of a point forward Sensabaugh are dead and buried, I have consistently been impressed with the accuracy and decision making Brice showcases when he does decide to function as a playmaker. I’ve been especially impressed with his passes on the move – his ability to situate himself, pick up the ball from the dribble, and deliver accurate passes are three small skills, but still quite valuable ones. This pass below was probably the Utah Jazz assist of the season, and exemplifies what I hope Brice has been focusing on this Summer.

So, while I don’t want too many sets to be initiated by Brice dribbling the ball up the court as a traditional point guard, I think there are other ways for his passing to open up the offense. I picture him in the corner to start a play, running off of a Filipowski pin-down, catching the pass from Collier on the wing and then, with the pressure of his shooting shifting the defense, taking two or three dribbles into the middle of the court and making an accurate, quick decision. His shooting is the one skill that we can unequivocally count on heading into this next season, and it has the potential to unlock so much of his game. The play outlined above only works because of the gravity Sensabaugh will have as a shooter running off that screen – defenders who have read the scouting report know that Brice is a contender for the best off-the-catch shooter on the team, and will be strained in their attempt to stay on their man and make Brice’s shots more challenging. I don’t mean to sound blasphemous to Jazz fans, but I would love to see Brice play a role similar to a modern-day Jeff Hornacek (this is only a comparison of role, not skill) – a player made so dynamic by their unique combination of shooting and playmaking. We’ve seen the signs from Brice in this regard, and this development (both in Brice’s skill and Hardy’s gameplan) looks to be some tantalizing low-hanging fruit.

Rim Pressure and Shot Selection

This change requires both a shift in attitude and physicality. Even back to his collegiate days, Brice has always been a bit too comfortable in settling. Sure, he’s never possessed overwhelming quickness or burst, but he has always had the physical size necessary to impose his will on smaller players. To this point in his career, Brice has simply not gotten to the rim enough. He shot 11% of his total attempts at the basket this past season – a career high – but, for reference, that would be the 3rd lowest mark of Svi Mykhailiuk’s entire career. Instead, when he begins to face resistance on the path to the rim, he too often falls back on his floater or a short, fall-away midrange – he has a comparative advantage over much of the league with these shots, but even he doesn’t shoot them efficiently enough for them to act as a substitute to a rim attempt. Additionally, with every subpar floater or midrange, two naturally contact-averse shot attempts, Sensabaugh lets the referees off the hook. Even if he misses a contested layup or two due to his limited verticality, his frame could be ideal for physicality and, in turn, foul drawing. Free throws are the most efficient shot in basketball, especially for a player like Brice (85% at the line over his career thus far), and he is leaving those points at the table with his inefficient shot selection and avoidance of contact near the basket.

I believe rim attempts will become more plentiful as Brice plays for a team with the goal of winning. Offense is not a 1v1 game – Sensabaugh is not the only player who has an impact on his individual shots at the basket. As the team improves, both in mindset and performance, our offense will be better. As our offense improves, more strain is put on the opposing defense. As strain on the defense increases, it becomes easier and easier for a player to get to his spots. No longer are we incentivized to give substantial minutes to Bez Mbeng and Kyle Anderson – instead, Will Hardy will use his best players and his best schemes to produce the best offense. I see a world where, with only marginal improvements to Brice’s talent as a player, he jumps to a 20% rim frequency this next season, driven by his inclusion in an offense with a newfound desire for competence. He certainly has to want to get to the rim, but infrastructure may be the independent variable most causally linked with Brice’s shot selection.

The midrange shots sure are pretty, though.

Defense, Defense, Defense

At the end of the day, this is the improvement. It’d be great if Brice showcased his passing, and I’d love if he got to the rim more frequently, but they are almost inconsequential in comparison to defense, defense, defense. In each of his three seasons, Brice has populated the very bottom of the barrel in every advanced defensive stat you can find. Unfortunately, these one-number metrics are substantiated by a putrid eye-test. He’s too slow to guard guards, too contact-averse to guard bigger on-ball wings, too large to chase off-ball wings off of screens, too short to guard forwards and bigs. He doesn’t steal and he doesn’t block and he doesn’t rebound. Even more fatally, it is painfully obvious that defense has not been Brice’s priority. He was recruited to Ohio State as a scorer, he was drafted as a scorer, so, seemingly, he still considers himself as only a scorer. I don’t enjoy participating in armchair psychology, but the chasmic difference in effort level between his mid-range isos and off-ball defense makes some theorizing inevitable. In an era where coaches are more persistently and meticulously attacking mismatches than ever before, If Brice does not improve on defense, he cannot play basketball in the playoffs.

Thankfully, he seems to know this just as much as we do. When asked about his work over the offseason, Brice responded with defense as an emphasis:

Brice does not need to become a lockdown. He doesn’t need to become a steal+block machine or start pulling down 10 rebounds a night. He just needs to be fine. His offense gives him his NBA-level skill, and all he needs to do now is make sure that the rest of his game isn’t nullifying it. Currently, if Brice is having a bad shooting game, he is providing some of the harshest negative impact in the league – the defense is damaging enough that he cannot afford the low shooting percentage games that will naturally, inevitably come to every player. However, if it is true that defense has been one of the two primary focuses of Brice’s summer, his value could legitimately skyrocket. Even a marginal improvement defensively could exponentially increase the value of Sensabaugh on the basketball court – a worst-in-the-league level defender is so much more detrimental than a simply bad defender, and a coach can much easier utilize a bad defender’s offense than a worst-in-the-league level defender. Maybe it requires losing weight and maybe it’s just a mindset shift, but either way – Brice Sensabaugh can guarantee himself 20 minutes per game and a decade in the league if defense changes from an intermission to a priority.

I’m rooting for Brice Sensabaugh. I’ve been rooting for Brice Sensabaugh for over 3 years. I hope that he is the backup shooting guard selection because I believe that, of the available options, he clearly has the highest ceiling. However, from my over 3 years of fandom, I have become just as well acquainted with what Brice is bad at as what he is good at. So, while it’s good that I wasn’t in the Jazz brass championing Brice as a potential #9 overall selection in the 2023 NBA draft, with a few well-directed tweaks over this particularly impressive summer, Sensabaugh can still be a home-run #28 draft pick.

What are you hoping to see from Brice this year? Let me know below!

Minnesota sports fandom is not for the faint of heart. To be a Minnesota fan is a constant wade through the lingering vape-waste left by departed stars who found greater success in another city. Both sides of the Mississippi clutch their heads, reeling from second-hand champ syndrome.

Everyone sees it. In my day job as a wastewater communications specialist, I’ve traveled to many parts of this great, combined-sewer-overflow inundated nation. And what is the first thing people say when they learn I grew up tracing Paul Bunyan’s footsteps? “Did watching Karl-Anthony Towns win an NBA title with the New York Knicks break your heart?”  And four months earlier, the question was the same except for an oblong ball: “Did you die inside when Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks?”

I assume, dear Canis readers, that you are Minnesota sports fans. Your iron hearts forged by so many Traumatic Sports Losses that a Gary Anderson 32-yard gimmie merely doinks unfulfilled beside your steely resolve.

This means you know my reply. No. My heart is fine thank you. Still left of center, all four ventricles beating as expected.

But that’s not to say I felt nothing … no there was a…a…tingle. The slightest flop of sweat against my brow. I did follow KAT with fervor for seven years and I don’t (exclusively) root for mere laundry. Watching Towns win it all was less a heart attack than a satisfying yet tumultuous bite of a bánh mì sandwich with one too many jalapenos. 

So let’s put our tortured sports experiences to good use. I propose applying the scoville spiciness scale to rate the complex mix of joy and suffering that comes from watching a Minnesota legend hang a banner with a new franchise. 

Are you ready to feel the burn?!

Bell Pepper – Andrew Wiggins

Wiggins was miscast as a franchise player with the Minnesota Timberwolves. I felt bad for how he was treated by Jimmy Butler, but also had accepted that the former number one pick was never going to be the key ingredient for a Timbo title. When Wiggins miraculously stepped up to play a Pascal Siakam-style role for the 2022 Golden State Warriors, I was flabbergasted. He rebounded with passion and scored just enough second banana bank shots to let Steph Curry carry the day. What a pleasant surprise! But seriously no sweat from this one, this was never gonna happen in Minnesota.

Good for Wiggs. 

Banana Pepper – Brad Johnson 

Imagine me in 1998: a fresh Robert Smith jersey draping past my seventh grade knees and a middle school mustache wisping across my upper lip. “Brad Johnson is gonna take us to the promised land!” I declared. Brad got hurt early in the season, unleashing an incredible Randy Moss fever dream from fall to winter. I always rooted for Mr. Johnson after he left Mankato and he ably embodied the Trent-Dilfer-Plus game manager role that the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers needed. His title left a mild tang at most. (In a similar vein, Doug Mientkiewicz’s Boston Red Sox title was probably a Friggitello pepper.)

Poblano Pepper – Kevin Love

Now we’re feeling some heat. David Khan did K-Love dirty, low-balling him when who else was going to be the face of the Wolves? Derrick Williams? Darko Miličić ? At the same time, Kevin did me dirty. I bought partial season tickets two days before he performed the most catastrophic knuckle push up in jealous boyfriend history.

Instead of watching a frisky Wolves team led by the best rebounder in the league, I spent a season watching Rick Adleman guzzle heart medication while Alexey Shved re-enacted Anna Karenina on the court. This was the only time in my life I wished I drank more. Love winning it all with the Cleveland Cavaliers definitely brought emotional spice, but ultimately did not cause too much distress. 2016 was a LeBron title and Love was just a role player learning how to fit out. (Love did play great defense on Curry during a critical fourth quarter possession in Game 7 of the 2016 finals. I was proud of him.)

Jalapeno Pepper – Karl Anthony Towns

KAT was an oasis. By the time he came to the Wolves in the 2015 draft, I resembled an unraveled mummy. Drained of hope by years of futility. But KAT was different from Wiggins and Anthony Bennett and Michael Olowokandi and all the former number one picks who’d disappointed in a Wolves uniform. I loved his furious (if offensive-foul prone) dunks and sweet three-point release. By the 2020s, the team was finally good enough to make the playoffs and the enigma of KAT fully emerged.

When he was great, he was capital “G” Great (he out-dueled prime Nikola Jokić!), but when he got sloppy…my god. The bone-headed fouls at the worst time. The early in the shot clock threes. With each foolish mistake, I found myself muttering “Karl” under my breath in a full on walrus voice like Tom Thibodeau after three milkshakes.

When we traded Towns to the Knicks, I got depressed because it felt like the trade was more about saving money than building a better team. Maybe, I thought, a new city would finally unlock KAT’s true potential. Nope. He was basically the same player on the Knicks as on the Wolves. Fully capable of going blow for blow with Victor Wembanyama one game, and then fouling out early multiple games in a row with the title on the line. Jalen Brunson brought it home, but I didn’t feel cheated out of a banner. It was, as stated, a satisfying yet tumultuous bite of a bánh mì sandwich with one too many jalapenos.

Serrano Pepper – Lakers move to Los Angeles

My favorite lake in Los Angeles is the fetid tank of pure hubris Lakers fans swim in everyday when they celebrate their “seventeen NBA titles.” Excuse me???  I believe at least five of those were won in Minneapolis (Yay!) when the league was… openly segregated (Yikes). Okay, probably best not to get too upset over this. The major bummer about this one is that the Lakers uniforms and Vikings uniforms look great together.

Ultimately, can’t give this one a high spice-pain level because eventually Minnesotans got a new team and a chance to root for Malik Beasley. Who’s the real winner now Hollywood?

Cayenne Pepper – Sam Darnold 

Sam seemed nice and all. Played hard. Great attitude. Aired it out to Justin Jefferson. But his torrid love affair with turnovers was a crippling vice in Minnesota. This one only burns because it shows how the Vikes can’t catch a break. Somehow Darnold led the league in interceptions with the Seattle Seahawks and won the Super Bowl anyway. The Vikings would have found a way to turn those I-N-Ts into T-E-A-Rs. This one scalds the tongue–in the immortal words of Bruno Mars “so hot, makes a dragon wanna retire, man.”

Habanero Pepper –Kevin Garnett

Ouch! Ouch! Too hot! The only thing more intense than my sadness at the KG trade was the Big Ticket’s general demeanor every day of his life. But still, I watched his ‘08 Boston Celtics team with extreme passion and partisanship. Garnett was my guy, even if he rocked shamrocks. Seeing him win the title was an exquisite high-spice meal–so much joy, so much pain.

I’m not crying, its just the habanero heat I swear. 

Ghost Pepper – AJ Pierzynski

Why does this one sting so bad? For some reason, it irks me more to have a “you-love-it-when-hes-on-your-team” guy win it all with a division rival than to see a former hometown superstar reach their destiny elsewhere. Imagine how a Golden State Warriors fan would feel if Draymond won a chip with the Lakers.

Also. Look at this guy’s face…man, he had to win it with the White Sox? Boooooo!

Carolina Reaper – Chauncey Billups

As someone who bought Troy Hudson’s rap album, I have major regrets. Mr. Big Shot was a perfect floor general for KG, instilling a strong defensive identity at the point of attack and flashing a knack for timely threes. His stats don’t look too gaudy now (around 12 points and five assists per game in ‘02), but this was during the slugfest era of the NBA when a final score of 88-82 was a common occurrence.

The Wolves let Billups leave in free agency for nothing, dooming the team to chase a trustworthy guard for KG for the rest of his tenure (Marko Jarić, T-Hud, Randy Foye, Rashad McCants…I would go on but my keyboard is too slick with tears.)  Like the fearsome Carolina Reaper, this one really hurts. Honestly, I’d only relive this experience/taste the terror flames again if I needed to promote an upcoming film project to the audience of Hot Ones.

Pepper X – David Ortiz

The Minnesota Twins discarded a franchise messiah because he hit too many home runs. I will never get over this. Seriously, who looks at a man of Ortiz’s generous girth and thinks “that guy should bunt more.” To pour a gallon of gourmet Icelandic sea salt in the wound, Ortiz slayed the Yankees for another city’s cursed franchise while the Twins lost six straight playoff series to the Bronx Bombers. It burns! Why would a just God make such a pepper???

Chernobyl – Nazereon Hilton Ried

If Naz wins it all with the Charlotte Hornets, the resulting cloud of toxic emotions will plume across oceans for decades.

So stay strong Wolves fans! You’ve been tempered by steel and at least we’ve got the ring-laden Lynx in our city. Pile on the Tabasco and share your most mourned Minnesotan players in the comments.

All told, Kevin Porter Jr. is coming off a better season than I initially thought. I mean, averages of 17.4 PPG, 7.4 APG, 5.2 RPG, and 2.2 (!) SPG are nothing to sneeze at. Granted, those numbers are somewhat inflated because 1) he only played 38 games, and 2) he got heaps of minutes when he did play (33 minutes per night). Still, it’s impressive. Porter played a key role and hit a number of huge shots last year; I cast my mind back to that game at home against the Cavs late last season:

For all his warts, one thing I appreciate about KPJ is his confidence and self-belief. He’s not scared to take big shots and assume that responsibility. Also, Porter is really hard to stop when he gets going downhill; his goofy same-hand, same-foot finishes routinely catch shot-blocking bigs off guard, and he’s got the passing vision to go with it.

With all that said, Porter is no perfect player. Firstly, he turns the ball over far too much (nearly three per game last season). He also takes some horrible, out-of-the-flow shots, which often lead to runouts down the other end and thus might as well be classed as turnovers. I still have nightmares from that 2025 playoff series against the Pacers. Yeesh.

The biggest issue I have with KPJ, however, is that he needs the ball in his hands for the offence to work; he shot 32.2% from deep last season, so his utility as an off-ball player is limited. Now, that becomes an issue when you consider the influx of guards Milwaukee has brought in over the offseason. Are they really going to prioritise Porter over Ryan Rollins or Tyler Herro? What about Brayden Burries? At least Jakucionis profiles well as an off-ball player.

This is one of the main reasons—along with the off-court stuff, obviously—that I don’t think the 26-year-old is long for this team. I reckon there’s a good chance Horst lets him walk in free agency once his player option expires at the end of this upcoming campaign. For now, though, let’s hope he has a great season.

Who’s up at six?

Former Duke star Brandon Ingram was recently traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, but he won’t be playing for a while, as he has had surgery for a partial Achilles tear and also a heel spur.

There’s not a ton of information about his status, but our guess, for what it’s worth, is that it’s not as serious as what Jayson Tatum went through with his Achilles injury.

Still, the estimated recovery time is 6-9 months, so it’s no minor injury, and of course, we don’t know what the heel injury requires. And Ingram is now 29. It’s not old by NBA standards, and both training and rehab methods are vastly improved.

On the bright side, the surgery was in May, and the recovery is going well, so hopefully, he’ll be available before too much longer.

• Brandon Ingram’s LA Clippers Debut Will be Delayed
• Clippers news: What’s really going on with Brandon Ingram’s partially torn Achilles injury
• Brandon Ingram Suffers Achilles Tear as Clippers’ Nightmare Begins With Four Concerning Injury News on Media Day
• Clippers’ Brandon Ingram to miss start of season after surgery revealed partially torn Achilles
• “Cursed franchise”, “He didn’t pass the physical?” – NBA Fans Perplexed As Clippers Reveal Shocking Brandon Ingram Injury On Media Day

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Darius Acuff Jr. fueled by his own competitive fire, low Kings expectations originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO — Darius Acuff Jr. approached his first NBA media day like any other day.

To everyone else, Acuff was one of the biggest storylines as eyes followed the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft everywhere he went once he first walked onto the Kings practice facility court. To him, it was just Monday.

Why? Because becoming an NBA player never was some far-fetched dream for the Arkansas product. It never was something that was unspoken in his Detroit household that bled and sweated the game of basketball. It was reality within reach. It was manifested. It always was meant to happen.

But the confidence in himself should not be mistaken for ungratefulness.

“I always felt like [an NBA player]. I always dreamed of it,” Acuff said Monday. “So it’s kind of hard not to feel like you’re not there. But when you actually get here, like doing this is kind of another thought, like, damn, I really made it. But like I said, just soaking it all in, just trying to be that young player willing to learn from anybody. It’s still great, though.”

Acuff is a 19-year-old with the maturity and mindset of a 40-year-old man.

He attributes that to his upbringing in Detroit, a home he always will rep as he embarks on embracing his other new home in Sacramento.

He spent his summer mostly in California’s capital, getting adjusted to his new environment and teammates. He worked out a lot with his fellow rookies, Alex Karaban and Emmanuel Sharpe, as well as with second-year guys such as Max Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell. But his on-court work with veteran big man Domantas Sabonis is what could become a real dual threat for opponents.

“Yeah, it’s been great,” Acuff said. “A couple of the five-on-five sessions we were on the same team, and it was kind of easy to play with him. I’m going to get some layups off him, he can pass, too. It’s great building chemistry with him. It’s very exciting for sure.”

Like Acuff, Ben Simmons is new to the Kings organization.

The rookie is excited to share the floor with someone he grew up watching and never imagined he would be teammates with.

“Nah, I ain’t ever thought that. Watching Ben he got drafted in 2018, right? 2016. See, I was in like third grade. I was in third grade and watching Zach [LaVine], of course, dunk contest, all that. So even Malik [Monk], I watched Malik play. He played for coach [John Calipari]. So just being here is great, man. Learning from them guys is going to be great for me all year.”

He revealed that both Monk and LaVine texted him as soon as he was drafted by Sacramento. And since then, they have been among the many veterans who have guided him along the way and will continue to do so throughout his rookie season.

Acuff will be the starting point guard for the Kings during the 2026-27 season, which presents questions about what Simmons’ exact role will be. Acuff acknowledged that the logistics will be sorted out throughout training camp and preseason, but for now, the team is focused on honing in on one of its identities, which is playing fast.

However, it won’t take long for Acuff to realize words mean very little to the Kings fanbase, who have experienced just one playoff appearance in two decades. He is a competitor; he wants to win, but he also knows the odds are against the Kings.

He doesn’t mind that.

“Yeah, for sure,” Acuff said when asked if the Kings’ low expectations could be used as bulletin board material. “We want something to fuel you. Like I said, my one thing that I said is I’ve been really trying to win. So you know, I’m not too worried about what other people say. I’m focused on what me and the team are trying to do, and that’s win games.”

Despite being a 19-year-old rookie, he believes that starts with him.

He recognizes and accepts that responsibility wholeheartedly. It begins with accountability — one of general manager Scott Perry’s six pillars.

“I say just staying level-headed, just being smart, and just being a leader as the point guard,” Acuff said. “You got to lead the team. That’s how y’all are going to win. So just getting everybody where they need to be. Everybody taking accountability, no matter who you are, and just like I said, being together as a team, being together on and off the court is going to help on the court.”

Acuff, so far, has been a man of few words with the media, but when he speaks, he speaks with conviction.

It is early, and there is a lot that has to fall into place for Acuff to thrive in his new role as the face of the franchise over the next several years. But whether it be his rookie season or Year 10 for him, he only has one thing on his mind.

His goal is simple.

“Win.”

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