Frank Kaminsky’s statement game in the G League Winter Showcase

This is how writer Colin McGowan described Frank Kaminsky back in 2018.

“Kaminsky moves like he’s turning out of a black ice skid, like there’s a drunk marionettist in charge of his limbs, just barely keeping it together. Watching him attempt anything complicated is stressful.”

Against the San Diego Clippers, we witnessed a marionettist who seemed to be strung on adderall after being injected with a healthy dose of inat and learned how to manipulate a unicorn. The marionettist executed Kaminsky’s limbs perfectly, so perfectly that if MJ actually turned down four first-round picks to draft Kaminsky in 2015, you saw what he saw almost 10 years ago.

In his second Winter Showcase game, Kaminsky was a stretch-five who overpowered bigs down low (even when he drew the double), shot the transition 3 accurately (3-for-5 from downtown), and made plays with his back to the basket. 

Offensively, he struggled very briefly at the start of the third quarter, but came up big in crucial moments – hitting a catch-and-shoot 3 to tie the game late in the fourth, completing an and-1 play to inch within one point, and then drawing a foul in under five seconds, hitting one of two free throws to send the game into OT. He then had a statement dunk in the 905’s 7-0 overtime run. Simply put, Kaminsky played like he way too good for this league.

He also displayed great spatial awareness with his back to the basket — I’m tempted to use words like “vestibular” and “proprioceptive ability” to sound smarter than I actually am. He knew where his teammates were on the floor, and knew when to pass or steamroll through them when the double came.

In the first half, Kaminsky made a beautiful pass to Kennedy Chandler, who sliced through the lane (Chandler was a superb cutter all game), after recognizing Braxton Key coming on the backside to help (Kaminsky tried doing the same after making a baseline spin move, but threw a bounce pass a little too early on a subsequent play). When Cam Christie came to help, Kaminsky threw the ball to the weakside wing, and two swings later, the ball came back to Kaminsky’s side, where an open wing 3 was attempted.

Most notably, Kaminsky’s greatest potential assist was drawing the double with his back to the basket, and firing a perfect pass into Charlie Brown Jr.’s shooting pocket in the weakside, left corner 3 – so perfect was the pass that the mics caught Brown’s roar of disappointment at the missed opportunity. 

Kaminsky battling Key down low was the proverbial “iron-sharpening-iron” match-up. Key has played in 34 NBA games compared to Kaminsky’s 413. At times, Kaminsky dominated him down low, and, at other times, Key got a stop or pump faked and dropped a bucket on the NBA vet. 

But solely focusing on Kaminsky would not be fair as the 905 got contributions from Evan Gilyard, Ulrich Chomche, and Kennedy Chandler. 

Evan Gilyard hit two clutch free throws in overtime to help the 905 secure a dub. Gilyard played the whole game with high energy, and made plays when it mattered — he had a clutch bucket at the end of the third quarter, and hit a big three-pointer at the start of the final frame. Gilyard was equally high energy on defence too — after Charlie Brown didn’t get a foul call on the offensive end and missed, Gilyard sprinted full court, all the way back to the corner three, and got a massive three-point block. It was the type of hustle play that made the thought of pouting at a missed call simply unacceptable.

Ulrich Chomche showed a lot of fight in this game. After getting overpowered by Drew Cisse on a dunk attempt, Chomche flipped the screen, dove, and beat the tagger to the rim — the result: absolutely posterizing Canadian Nate Darling. In the second quarter, he had a nice over-the-left-shoulder hook shot from the low block, and  when San Diego was one point shy of hitting the target score in OT, Chomche had a huge block on Braxton Key. 

Kennedy Chandler has been a model of consistency, and his elite cutting ability makes basketball easier for his teammates. Most notably, he used Kaminsky’s backscreen perfectly, and got an easy bucket. Perfectly timed cuts helped the 905 get easy points on the board. In this game, he continued to prove his versatile scoring ability, both at the rim and beyond the arc.

The 905 return to Paramount Fine Foods Centre on Friday, December 27th to play the Birmingham Squadron at 4 pm.

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