The Caleb Wilson hype train pulled out of the Las Vegas station last month after the Bulls rookie was must-see-TV in every Summer League game he played in.<\/p>\n
It has been four weeks, and that locomotive really hasn\u2019t slowed down.<\/p>\n
It started right after the Bulls left Las Vegas and podcaster\/media entrepreneur Bill Simmons went on his show to give his take on what he saw from Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the record saying I thought Caleb Wilson was the most undervalued guy at the draft, even at No. 4,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI think there was a real case to just trade back, and he might be the best player anyway, which I don\u2019t even normally feel that way with a draft. And he comes in [to Summer League] and he hits a three. I\u2019ve got to say, we\u2019re a little older than [other hosts on his show], but he looked very T-Mac-ish to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simmons wasn\u2019t close to done even with the comparison to former NBA standout Tracy McGrady.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the one that jumped out to me. I was like, \u2018This is like watching T-Mac again.\u2019 Like, he\u2019s taller; he\u2019s, like, 6-10, but same kind of skinny, inside-outside. But then is adding this explosive Shawn Kemp side, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was a Bulls fan, I would have no sperm left in my body. I would lose my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
OK, maybe a take gone a bit to the wild side, but point made.<\/p>\n
McGrady wasn\u2019t the only comparison, either. There have been a few Pascal Siakam comps, the Kemp comps have been out there since last season at North Carolina when Wilson was dunking anything not nailed to the hardwood, and then there\u2019s the Kevin Garnett comparison.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lofty one, considering the Hall of Fame career of the \u2018\u2018Big Ticket,\u2019\u2019 but one that grew legs when Warriors great Draymond Green said, \u201cI actually think that Caleb Wilson will be the most special of the group. He\u2019s so good, and I think he\u2019s still clumsy. I think he still can\u2019t walk and chew gum at the same time, and yet he\u2019s already that good right now. So if that guy is still clumsy and he\u2019s that good right now, what happens when he continues to grow into his body and he ain\u2019t clumsy no more? I saw people saying his floor was Paul Millsap, his ceiling was Kevin Garnett. No disrespect to KG, KG is probably top three of power forwards we\u2019ve ever seen in our lifetime. Now, obviously you gotta do the work, and he ain\u2019t gonna walk in like this, but the type of talent he is, I actually think his floor is Kevin Garnett.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garnett wanted to check out the hype, pulling up in person to Wilson\u2019s last Summer League game, not only leaving it impressed and giving a stamp of approval, but embracing the comparison enough to dub Wilson \u201cLittle Ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was praise that Wilson was honored to receive, but he responded with: \u201cI just have expectations of being Caleb Wilson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Vegas ended, however, the hype hasn\u2019t. Wilson and Matas Buzelis turned heads when they showed up on a loaded team for a South Side pro-am run a few weeks back, and then there\u2019s Wilson\u2019s collectible cards \u2014 the closest thing to the stock exchange for individual athletes \u2014 which have doubled in value since Summer League and are highly sought after.<\/p>\n
The next test for the rookie?<\/p>\n
Bulls veterans will start filing into town \u2014 if they haven\u2019t already \u2014 for open runs at the Advocate Center. Highlights always leak out. That\u2019s good news for Wilson because he can\u2019t help but be a highlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Caleb Wilson hype train pulled out of the Las Vegas station last month after the Bulls rookie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-865673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}