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G League: Brian Shaw teaches Kai Sotto, Team Ignite to 'block out the noise'

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Camille B. Naredo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/news/12/16/g-league.jpg"/><figcaption>Coach Brian Shaw (R) instructs the players of Team Ignite, including Filipino center Kai Sotto. NBAE/Getty Images/NBA G League Ignite</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA, Philippines -- Team Ignite coach Brian Shaw has done a good job of keeping his young players focused on the task at hand, even as a series of mock drafts from various outlets speculated on their NBA prospects.&quot;We tell them to block (it) out,&quot; said Shaw during a conference call after his team&#x27;s first official scrimmage against a group of G League veterans, Tuesday in Walnut Creek, California (Wednesday in Manila).&quot;That&#x27;s what it is -- noise on the outside,&quot; he added. &quot;People&#x27;s opinions.&quot;Shaw is calling the shots for a team that is composed of some of the best prospects of the Class of 2020, who opted to forego college and instead turn professional by joining the G League squad. In playing for Team Ignite, they expect to receive training both on and off the court that will prepare them for the next level -- the NBA.Even before his team has played a single game, there were already projections on how Team Ignite players will fare in the 2021 NBA Rookie Draft. At least two of Shaw&#x27;s players -- Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga -- are tipped as lottery picks, with Green expected to go as high as No. 2. Some of his players -- including Filipino center Kai Sotto -- don&#x27;t appear on most mock drafts. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/12/13/20/kai-sotto-not-paying-attention-to-rankings-mock-drafts-ahead-of-g-league-debut">READ: Kai Sotto not paying attention to rankings, mock drafts ahead of G-League debut</a></li></ul>For Shaw, the various mock drafts aren&#x27;t a cause of concern. He shrugs them off, pointing out that many who put together these lists have not even seen his players in action.&quot;Some of them may have an agenda,&quot; he also said. &quot;You know, they may be impressed by the fact that they&#x27;ve been able to see some of the other guys that chose to go to college. They&#x27;ve been able to see them play, and haven&#x27;t been able to see our guys play.&quot;Indeed, the seemingly consensus No. 1 pick in the 2021 Draft is Cade Cunningham, the freshman point guard of Oklahoma State who has already impressed with his play in the US NCAA.Shaw tells his players to ignore the &quot;noise&quot; -- a piece of advice that the players of Team Ignite appear to have taken to heart. Sotto, the 7-foot-2 teenager who&#x27;s trying to be the first homegrown Filipino to make it to the NBA, has said that he doesn&#x27;t pay too much attention to the rankings.&quot;For me that doesn&#x27;t really matter as much. I&#x27;m just focused on getting better, and whatever place they rank me, it&#x27;s their opinion and I can&#x27;t do anything about it. So I&#x27;m just gonna focus on getting better,&quot; Sotto said.Green, the first player to commit to Team Ignite, says he doesn&#x27;t even see the mock drafts. &quot;I don&#x27;t follow a lot of people on social media, a lot of those accounts that post things like that,&quot; the 18-year-old explains.&quot;But everyone around me really knows that I&#x27;m not really too focused on what people say could happen or what could be,&quot; added Green, who has Filipino heritage on his mother&#x27;s side of the family. &quot;I&#x27;m just gonna keep working every day, and as long as I keep doing that, sky should be the limit.&quot;At this point, Shaw&#x27;s focus -- and that of his players -- is on their development. They have the luxury of focusing on basketball 24/7, with no academic requirements to worry about. Even the wins and losses aren&#x27;t much of a concern for Shaw; he&#x27;s looking at how much his players grow and learn, particularly as they play against bigger, stronger teams. If they develop as they should, Shaw expects them to impress the NBA teams who will be making the decisions come draft time.&quot;At the end of the day, we tell them that it&#x27;s about the development and the work that they put in over these next few months, building up to the 2021 Draft, so that when they are put in a position to be able to work out against some of those other guys, or work out in front of scouts, they can really show what they do,&quot; the coach explained.&quot;We&#x27;re developing all five positions to learn all the skills. So we&#x27;re not just putting big guys down low, with their backs to the basket. We let them handle the ball, set picks, receive picks, step outside, shoot the ball,&quot; he added. &quot;We wanna make sure that they all have every skill set that the game has to offer.&quot;The key, he says, is &quot;to your play do the talking.&quot;&quot;When it&#x27;s time to do that, I think people will be able to see how talented these guys really are,&quot; said Shaw.

Team Ignite coach Brian Shaw has done a good job of keeping his young players focused on the task at hand, even as a series of mock drafts from various outlets speculated on their NBA prospects.

Team Ignite coach Brian Shaw has done a good job of keeping his young players focused on the task at hand, even as a series of mock drafts from various outlets speculated on their NBA prospects.

G League: Brian Shaw teaches Kai Sotto, Team Ignite to 'block out the noise'

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G League: Brian Shaw teaches Kai Sotto, Team Ignite to 'block out the noise'

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Dec 16, 2020 06:18 PM PHT

Read More:

NBA

NBA G League

G League Ignite

Team Ignite

Kai Sotto

Brian Shaw

Jalen Green

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