CHICAGO - Rivals analyst Travis Graf was on hand for the Jordan Brand Classic practices and scrimmages on Thursday afternoon, the day before the All-Star event on Friday. The practices were held on the 17th floor of the 167 Green Street building in the heart of Chicago, which was an awesome venue overlooking the city. Here are four standouts from this morning’s practices, two from Team Air and two from Team Flight. Each team practiced and scrimmaged amongst themselves for an hour and a half.
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2022 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2023 Rankings: Rivals150
2024 Rankings: Top 40
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Team Air
Iwuchukwu brought the energy on every possession and in every drill. He ran the floor hard and made numerous plays at the rim at both ends of the court, most notably stuffing Dereck Lively on a dunk attempt. In the scrimmage setting, Iwuchukwu played to his strengths, which is rim running and protecting the paint. In the one-on-one big-man drills, he showed a soft touch out to 15 feet.
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Johnson had a few minutes stretch of the Team Air scrimmage where he absolutely took over the game. He surveyed the court well and created for himself and others. He and Amari Bailey both played point guard, and both guys were effective without the ball. Johnson threw some flashy passes and you could tell the big men on his team were very happy to be playing with him. He had his usual flashy finishes at the rim, but also knocked down a couple of jumpers in the short scrimmage.
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Team Flight
Smith was the best player to step foot on the court for either team today, plain and simple. He scored from all three levels and made dazzling plays as a scorer and creator with the ball in his hands. Smith dished off a ton of beautiful passes to the bigs on his team and he and Kyle Filipowski showed some nice chemistry. There was a short stretch during the scrimmage where he accounted for all of his team’s points, either off of scoring or assists. Smith’s mid-range pull-up and ability to get to the rim whenever he wanted were on full display.
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Filipowski’s offensive repertoire is easily the most advanced out of all of the big men in the senior class. His touch around the basket and soft hands are the first things that jump off of the page, but he also showed off some mid-range game. Filipowski was fantastic when attacking from the top of the key and made a lot of great passes out of the post and after creating off of the dribble.
