Joan Beringer

[Lipoli390]

From an article:

A first-round pick by the Timberwolves in the 2025 NBA Draft, Beringer dominated in his NBA Summer League debut, scoring 18 points with 11 rebounds and four blocks in a 105-92 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. But he may be ready for more, as he revealed that he’s watched a lot of Antetokounmpo to prepare for his sophomore season.

“I love his (Giannis') game,” Beringer said via Travis Singleton, who goes by Sneaker Reporter on his X account. “He’s my favorite player, so I try to watch him. …His ability to drive…[play] through contact. All of that stuff.”

[FNG]

Dane and Kyle's pod after yesterday's game is a fun listen. They're admittedly homers at times like most of us are, but the excitement they had after watching Joan yesterday was notable...Kyle especially sounded like he was out of breath half the time! In addition to his improved on court play, they also pointed out how much more comfortable he is off court. His English is much improved, and he acts more like he belongs than he did a year ago. Again, just one game...but we all saw a different player yesterday.

[Lipoli390]

Dane and Kyle's pod after yesterday's game is a fun listen. They're admittedly homers at times like most of us are, but the excitement they had after watching Joan yesterday was notable...Kyle especially sounded like he was out of breath half the time! In addition to his improved on court play, they also pointed out how much more comfortable he is off court. His English is much improved, and he acts more like he belongs than he did a year ago. Again, just one game...but we all saw a different player yesterday.

Yes we did. Like Kyle, I was sort of breathless describing to my wife what I saw watching Joan.


By the way, are you in Vegas?

[kekgeek]

I'll say that while I'm plenty excited about Beringer idk if I'm as excited as Lip is about his potential. I mean Giannis is a pretty high bar. One thing we don't know yet is just how good he will be defensively. Everything is there for him to be excellent but we don't know for sure if he will have the mind for that side of ball. Rudy isn't the defender he is just because of his size etc. He is a a bit of a genius on that end. Beringer doesn't have to be that good especially since there are some physical things he has that Gobert doesn't but he does still need to be able to think the game on that end at a high level.

The reality is if he can become even the Capela type archetype that's a terrific outcome. I do think he can become more on offense but we have to see. I hope he gets to show a little more of that dribble drive game in summer league.

That’s a good take, Monster. I think the Capela comparison Q suggested is a good one. One advantage Joan has that shouldn’t be overlooked is his soccer experience. Footwork inside will come easily to him as it did with Hakeem.

Here’s how I view Joan’s potential:

1. I see Capela as Beringer’s floor. He’s already close. Just needs a little more strength and technique.

2. I see Bam as his intermediate and most likely end point. He’s actually longer than Bam. I think Joan Will develop a decent mid-range shot.

3. I see some version of Giannis as his potential high point. The significance of that developing dribble-drive game we saw from him yesterday is huge. Giannis’s moniker, “Greek Freak”, emerged from his extraordinary combination of size and athleticism. I see a lot of that same freakish combination in Joan. I’m not going to predict that Joan gets to the level of Giannis. But I see the potential there in the raw tools he has and his relentless competitive drive on the court.

I like beringer a lot but I think you are a little high on Beringer. You have his floor as a high end starter on a top 2 team in the league, his average a multi time all star and the 2nd highest scoring game in history, then his ceiling being a MVP and a top 20 player of all time.

We have to remember yesterday’s game was against 0 NBA caliber bigs and 0 current rotation players.


Beringer had some flashes of solid play at the NBA level but he also really struggled with fouling, defensive rebounding, he has 0 jump shot, had terrible body language (from a confidence standpoint), he had just as many turnovers as assists.

He has a long ways to go. But we have no idea how he responds to the grind of an nba season, what he looks like when he is tired after playing a long stretch does his athleticism decrease, what happens when he is on the scouting reports and attacks his weaknesses. The wolves had the worst defense in the nba when Rudy was off the floor and Joan couldn’t find the floor, that tells me he was not there mentally defensively yet.

My hope is that he becomes a solid backup big this year. Right now I will be happy with a Bismack type career, with the hope he becomes more because we all see the potential.

[FNG]

Dane and Kyle's pod after yesterday's game is a fun listen. They're admittedly homers at times like most of us are, but the excitement they had after watching Joan yesterday was notable...Kyle especially sounded like he was out of breath half the time! In addition to his improved on court play, they also pointed out how much more comfortable he is off court. His English is much improved, and he acts more like he belongs than he did a year ago. Again, just one game...but we all saw a different player yesterday.

Yes we did. Like Kyle, I was sort of breathless describing to my wife what I saw watching Joan.


By the way, are you in Vegas?

I didn't go this year, Lip...had a few things keeping me in town. It's nice to have Monster there though as our correspondent.

[Q-is-here]

I'll say that while I'm plenty excited about Beringer idk if I'm as excited as Lip is about his potential. I mean Giannis is a pretty high bar. One thing we don't know yet is just how good he will be defensively. Everything is there for him to be excellent but we don't know for sure if he will have the mind for that side of ball. Rudy isn't the defender he is just because of his size etc. He is a a bit of a genius on that end. Beringer doesn't have to be that good especially since there are some physical things he has that Gobert doesn't but he does still need to be able to think the game on that end at a high level.

The reality is if he can become even the Capela type archetype that's a terrific outcome. I do think he can become more on offense but we have to see. I hope he gets to show a little more of that dribble drive game in summer league.

That’s a good take, Monster. I think the Capela comparison Q suggested is a good one. One advantage Joan has that shouldn’t be overlooked is his soccer experience. Footwork inside will come easily to him as it did with Hakeem.

Here’s how I view Joan’s potential:

1. I see Capela as Beringer’s floor. He’s already close. Just needs a little more strength and technique.

2. I see Bam as his intermediate and most likely end point. He’s actually longer than Bam. I think Joan Will develop a decent mid-range shot.

3. I see some version of Giannis as his potential high point. The significance of that developing dribble-drive game we saw from him yesterday is huge. Giannis’s moniker, “Greek Freak”, emerged from his extraordinary combination of size and athleticism. I see a lot of that same freakish combination in Joan. I’m not going to predict that Joan gets to the level of Giannis. But I see the potential there in the raw tools he has and his relentless competitive drive on the court.

I like beringer a lot but I think you are a little high on Beringer. You have his floor as a high end starter on a top 2 team in the league, his average a multi time all star and the 2nd highest scoring game in history, then his ceiling being a MVP and a top 20 player of all time.

We have to remember yesterday’s game was against 0 NBA caliber bigs and 0 current rotation players.


Beringer had some flashes of solid play at the NBA level but he also really struggled with fouling, defensive rebounding, he has 0 jump shot, had terrible body language (from a confidence standpoint), he had just as many turnovers as assists.

He has a long ways to go. But we have no idea how he responds to the grind of an nba season, what he looks like when he is tired after playing a long stretch does his athleticism decrease, what happens when he is on the scouting reports and attacks his weaknesses. The wolves had the worst defense in the nba when Rudy was off the floor and Joan couldn’t find the floor, that tells me he was not there mentally defensively yet.

My hope is that he becomes a solid backup big this year. Right now I will be happy with a Bismack type career, with the hope he becomes more because we all see the potential.

I agree that Lip is being a bit unrealistic with his Floor/Most Likely/Ceiling outcomes, but c'mon, Bismack!? That's definitely his floor and he may already be above that!

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Quick point on the FT% thing. Yes he shot 70% last year, but that was on, like, 40 total FTs. His FT% in Europe was more like 55%, which was on about twice as many FTs. Still a small sample size. It is possible he's improving. But his shot mechanics are ugly, so I do think we should temper our expectations for his jump shot so we don't set ourselves up for disappointment.

There are some other modern guys who are at least physically and athletically somewhat similar. Yves Missi and Moussa Diabate. But I haven't seen enough of them to really compare.

Capela? I definitely see Joan having some similarities and very potentially being better than Capela, though we should remember how good Capela was in his prime. He was arguably one of the top 3 lob threats there in the league for a while, and he ran the floor very well. I see Joan being able to play the role of the rim protector like Capela, but I think he looks like he can definitely defend on the perimeter better, which will make him more switchable. That is a good thing, because you can imagine him potentially playing next to a floor-spacing center like Brook Lopez. He shows better raw athleticism than Capela to me, and potentially a bit more ballhandling, which is promising.

Respectfully, I'm not sure about Bam comparison. Joan is bigger and longer and I think actually shows more rim-protecting potential. I think he could potentially defend in space as well as Bam, which is really exciting because of the switchability that gives him. Joan looks like the kind of big who opponents wouldn't try to target with a super quick guard in the playoffs the way that teams used to do with Rudy (though which Rudy himself has gotten much better at). BUT Joan would have to really come a long way to get to the point of having Bam's on-ball skills. Even when he was young, Bam's ballhandling was really good for a big, including bringing the ball up the court at times. He could run the floor at fairly high speed while handling the ball and keep his head up and then make a tough pass under control. I just don't see that from Joan, and that's ok. Bam averaged over 5 assists per game at one point, I think. I don't think it's fair to ever expect anything like that from Joan. And as a shooter, it's true that Bam was not a great FT shooter very early, but his shot motion was always more fluid than Joan's, which is honestly pretty mechanical, although it looks like he's releasing it higher than last year, which is good. Bam evolved into a dude who confidently (but irrationally) launched a bunch of 3s last year. That honestly probably wasn't a good thing, because he hit, like, 32% of them. I don't see Beringer EVER stretching the floor like that, and he probably shouldn't even try. Still, I think Bam is just a much more controlled offensive player with the ball in his hands initiating plays, and I don't think that's likely going to be something Beringer will ever really do. Which is ok! As I said, Joan is already a better rim-protector than Bam, even though he can also probably defend in space like Bam. So, really, I just think they're two pretty different players.

Giannis? Stylistically, in some ways, defensively, ok? But Giannis is arguably one of the greatest NBA players of all time because of what he can do on both sides of the ball. Basically the only thing he can't do extremely well is shoot the ball well as a jump shooter or from the FT line. So in the sense that they are both huge and athletic and not great shooters, yeah, I see the comparison. But again, I think it's unfair to bring that comp. up because Giannis has otherworldly athleticism that always somehow seems completely under control while also having the ball skills to dribble full court at full speed, run pick and rolls, and create shots for others and himself off the dribble offensively. Beringer is huge and very athletic, but it just doesn't look as under control as Giannis, and while he does show some nice promise as a potential straight-line driver, I just think he's so far away from Giannis. I get what you're saying though in terms of seeing a big guy who can defend in multiple ways and yes, I see the potential for him to make an impact off the dribble. It's just that it's on that latter point especially where I think we really need to squint to see the comparison.

Defensively, I think he's going to be awesome for us. I don't know that he'll ever be as good as Rudy. Maybe one day, maybe? Rudy has been one of the better defenders to ever play the game. The stats really bear that out. Joan's not as long as Rudy, and he needs to learn Rudy's discipline (it looks like he's making strides in that regard). So I don't see him being the rim protector Rudy has been. But I do see him being more switchable defensively (again, Rudy's gotten better at that) so he's not purely in the "drop-cover center" mould that Rudy mostly fit into early in his career. But of course, I see the the probability that he could become a better offensive player than Rudy because he's clearly got better hands and is a better finisher.

Along with what looks to be his very good defensive game, offensively, there are a couple of roles I do see him fitting into. I fully expect Joan to be better than this guy, but Jaxon Hayes is another guy who is/was huge and just athletic as hell and was a threat to dunk everything. But clearly, I think Joan's got a better motor and better hands, so I think offensively, he'll definitely be better than Hayes, while still playing a similar role. Also, offensively, he's not as long as Derrick Lively, but he definitely looks like he'll be a lob-catching big and a guy who could catch, dribble a couple times to the basket and go for the dunk like Lively. But again, I think Beringer will be a better defender than Lively, so that's not really an insult to compare him to either of those guys.

Whatever he is, I think he's going to be really good. I think he'll always have to play next to another big who spaces the floor, which will be a roster-building limitation, but I suspect he'll be worth it. His defensive role really looks like it could overlap with what some great defenders do/have done (Capela, Jarrett Allen (whom he's so much more athletic than), Rudy, Giannis, even AD), and that in itself is awesome as a defensive role. I think he'll be more athletic and make more WOW plays than Capela and Allen and Rudy while serving a similar rim-protecting role. I'm thinking like a smaller Deandre Jordan (without (yet) the good footwork Jordan had). I don't think he'll have the same statistical impact Rudy has. I hope he can learn some of the discipline that those guys (Capela, Allen, Rudy) had that made them such good defenders, because it would keep him out of foul trouble, and with his athleticism he could still really pop. But where I see him potentially going further is that I do think he'll be able to defend in space more like Giannis and AD and Bam, though again, I really don't see Joan becoming nearly as offensively skilled as those guys. Again, offensively, I'm thinking a bit more like a smaller Deandre Jordan or Derrick Lively or a more athletic Capela. On top of that defensive profile, that projects to be a really valuable player.

So what mould would I describe for him?

How about this:

A super-athletic, high-motor, rim-protecting switchable defender and an offensive rim-finisher who can straight-line drive, but needs to play alongside a floor-spacing big and will benefit most offensively with a lob-tossing teammate (like LaMelo).

That sounds pretty damn good! Probably not as effective defensively as Rudy, and he will need those two types of players I mentioned around him, but he does promise more excitement and versatility on the court than Rudy, and that could give us a little more offensive/defensive balance, which would be nice.

EDIT: I get the Biyombo comparison in the sense that both of them seem to love blocking shots and are really athletic and get a little out of control at times. But where that's all Bismack ended up becoming, we can already see Joan starting to become more rounded than that.

EDIT EDIT: Just saw this ESPN headline. "Sources: Adebayo struck Herro in Vegas Altercation"
C'mon, ESPN! That's why you keep real humans to write stories! The headline for that story should obviously be: "Bam! Adebayo struck Herro in Vegas According to Sources" That headline writes itself!

[Monster]

Lip Capela also played Soccer and is a massive Soccer fan.

[kekgeek]

That’s a good take, Monster. I think the Capela comparison Q suggested is a good one. One advantage Joan has that shouldn’t be overlooked is his soccer experience. Footwork inside will come easily to him as it did with Hakeem.

Here’s how I view Joan’s potential:

1. I see Capela as Beringer’s floor. He’s already close. Just needs a little more strength and technique.

2. I see Bam as his intermediate and most likely end point. He’s actually longer than Bam. I think Joan Will develop a decent mid-range shot.

3. I see some version of Giannis as his potential high point. The significance of that developing dribble-drive game we saw from him yesterday is huge. Giannis’s moniker, “Greek Freak”, emerged from his extraordinary combination of size and athleticism. I see a lot of that same freakish combination in Joan. I’m not going to predict that Joan gets to the level of Giannis. But I see the potential there in the raw tools he has and his relentless competitive drive on the court.

I like beringer a lot but I think you are a little high on Beringer. You have his floor as a high end starter on a top 2 team in the league, his average a multi time all star and the 2nd highest scoring game in history, then his ceiling being a MVP and a top 20 player of all time.

We have to remember yesterday’s game was against 0 NBA caliber bigs and 0 current rotation players.


Beringer had some flashes of solid play at the NBA level but he also really struggled with fouling, defensive rebounding, he has 0 jump shot, had terrible body language (from a confidence standpoint), he had just as many turnovers as assists.

He has a long ways to go. But we have no idea how he responds to the grind of an nba season, what he looks like when he is tired after playing a long stretch does his athleticism decrease, what happens when he is on the scouting reports and attacks his weaknesses. The wolves had the worst defense in the nba when Rudy was off the floor and Joan couldn’t find the floor, that tells me he was not there mentally defensively yet.

My hope is that he becomes a solid backup big this year. Right now I will be happy with a Bismack type career, with the hope he becomes more because we all see the potential.

I agree that Lip is being a bit unrealistic with his Floor/Most Likely/Ceiling outcomes, but c'mon, Bismack!? That's definitely his floor and he may already be above that!

You’re right. Just trying to think of a high end backup center or low end starting center. I like Beringer a lot but we just haven’t consistently seen it at the nba level yet.

[Monster]

I went back and watched some of Giannis in Summer league. Physically he looked like a giant wing more like Jaden than a big. He also had some 3's he made that his shot looked pretty good.

It's also worth remembering that it was reasonably early on in his career the Bucks experimented with Giannis as a PG.