MIAMI, Fl. – Among the standouts of the second Pangos Miami Fantastic 40 was a player whose dad is a legendary NBA jump shooter – including with a notable stint with the Miami Heat.
Ray Allen III, a sophomore at Miami’s Gulliver Prep, dazzled over last weekend with the “Florida Lightning” club team that mostly is made up of Gulliver Prep teammates.
His dad – inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2018 after helping the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat win titles in 2008 and ’13, respectively – was the team’s coach as it won its four games over the weekend at the Pangos Fantastic 40.
At about 6-foot-2, the younger Allen (pictured) doesn’t yet have dad’s size (6-5ish) nor the stunning vertical pop he possessed while raining jumpers and dunks over any defender who came his way in the NBA.
But his feel for the game – and jump shot – have obviously been influenced and polished by his pop.
Look for his college “stock” to skyrocket the more coaches get a look at him.
Not surprisingly, the three-day event (held at Gibson Park) also featured other quality club programs and players from within the state.
*Another former NBA player, Marreese Speights (who played on championships teams with the University of Florida and Golden State Warriors), front two “Team Speights” clubs – based out of St. Petersburg – at the event.
And Speights was the coach for his “17U” squad that included a roster of players from the Class of 2022.
Three of his guys, 6-foot-4 Jamar Franklin (Rockledge), 6-5 Derrick Mitchell (Tampa Catholic) and 6-8 Jaylen Jordan (Hilliard), played like SEC prospects when I watched knock off Miami-based “LAB 17U” Saturday night.
Two of that club’s players, 6-6 Marcus Allen and 6-3 Clarence Burts (each from Miami Norland), rate among the 50 or so of the best of the Class of 2024 that I’ve seen in person.
And Coach Adrian Brown also had one of the event’s best prospects from the Class of 2023 in 6-7 Scotty Middleton (who played this past season at The Patrick School, where he was a third-team, all-New Jersey choice). Middleton is also a member of the Nike/EYBL New York Rens program.
The Rhode Island squad (based in Providence) showed off its litany of prospects during a Saturday afternoon loss to the Belmont Shore team that had some high-quality talent from Southern California.
Those RI guys most impressing me over the weekend were the Phelps School (Malvern, PA) duo of C/O 2023 7-footer Isaiah Miranda (dang, he reminds me a lot of former UCLA and NBA player Ryan Hollins!) and 6-5 junior Neel Beinwal, as well as 2022s Isaiah Earl (6-7/Hamden in Connecticut) and left-handed jump shooter-deluxe Sam Kodi (Bradford Christian in Haverford, MA).
One more “NBA player-fronted” program on display was Milwaukee-based “KL Power 5”.
That’s the organization established by Golden State Warriors’ forward Kevon Looney (who is from Milwaukee and played at UCLA).
And its point guard, 6-2 Tyshawn Bridges (Milwaukee Academy of Sciences), left no doubt that he, too, is one of the best that the national Class of 2024 has to offer at the position.
There was strong representation from the “west”, as well, at the Gibson Park, two-court facility over the weekend.
*Former UNLV forward Evric Gray’s Salt Lake City Rebels’ program was repped by three squads, whose standouts included 6-11 senior Preston Squires (a sizzling jump shooter from Layton) and juniors Jason Heiden (6-8/Alta), Dylan Jones (6-7/Pleasant Grove) and Tyler Burraston (6-4/Corner Canyon in Draper).
*Out of Arizona came the “High Major AZ” squad that was led by Class of 2022 twins Ausar and Amen Thompson (originally from the Oakland, CA, area, they led Pine Crest of Ft. Lauderdale to a 21-1 record this past season), as well as a “real” Arizona player in 6-9 Duke Brennan (who attended Gilbert High in Perry for three years but has spent that past fall/winter/spring with Chandler, AZ, Compass Prep program).
Thompson could be “Top 50ish” (or better) in their national class while Brennan – forceful and skilled in the lane and along the baseline at the event – is one of the best remaining unsigned “bigs” in the western Class of 2021.
*From Washington was “No Mercy Flow), based in Spokane and with one of the better 2023 forwards at the event in 6-6 Nathan Hocking (Ferris High).
*And I wasn’t the only “Californian” making the long-ass west-to-east haul for the event . . .
*Event Director Dinos Trigonis’ Belmont Shore squad including 2021, All-L.A. City guard T.J. Wainwright (Westchester) – one of the best unsigned “combos” in the west – along with 2022 standouts Joseph Hunter (Fresno San Joaquin Memorial) and Jorge Ochoa (La Mirada).
And 6-4 Isaiah Elohim (Heritage Christian in Northridge) showed ample support to the wide-held opinion that he’s the most gifted freshman in SoCal right now.
*The Orange County-based Cali Rebels sent a couple of teams, with their “Elite” squad losing just once.
It only had six players but each was very good – 6-6, Seton Hall-bound Tyler Powell and his C/O 2022 Ribet Academy teammate Barrington Hargress (a point guard built like an NFL cornerback); two of the better unsigned 2021 SoCal guards in Barry Wilds (Fairfax) and Bam Johnson (Lynwood); and two other 2022 guards in Roddie Anderson (one of the “County’s” best at Fountain Valley) and Nate Perez (Saugus).
*Desert Storm (out of Palm Springs) and the Dynamic 2022 Duo out of Shadow Hills in 6-4 Cord Stansberry and 6-5 Chris Carter.
*And Inland (via the “Inland Empire” region of SoCal) got nice efforts from very quick 5-10 senior David Black (Bloomington), 6-3 junior Michael Miller (Oak Hills in Hesperia) and 6-5 sophomore Jaden Henley (he’s a teammate of the best PGs in the west in Brenton Knapper at Colony in Ontario).
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