Kai Sotto in a Gilas Pilipinas jersey. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Kai Sotto is taking a new path to the NBA and his new club Adelaide 36ers are more than willing to help the Filipino center prepare.
Sotto announced his move to join the club in Australia’s National Basketball League after leaving Ignite in the NBA G League.
“We have the people that we think will do a great job surrounding him and developing him and getting him ready for the NBA,” said 36ers coach Conner Henry on Wednesday in a press conference.
“We’re excited also to get not only Kai here, but hopefully get his family and the people that represent him here to Adelaide to see what we’re really trying to build here, which we think we have the structure in place to be an ideal landing spot for Kai and in his development.”
Henry believes Sotto is a “fit” for the 36ers. and he and the team’s staff can help polish the 18-year-old heading into the 2022 NBA Draft when the former Ateneo center becomes eligible.
“He’s got a really solid feel for the game. He does the little things within the game already and those types of things you can’t really teach, you can try. But when you see, elite players already possess a really solid feel for the game and as coaches you get you get excited about it,” said Henry.
“You couple that with the young man being 7’3”, his ability to run up and down the floor, which he has to get stronger. He realizes that there’s certain parts of his game that will develop over the time as he matures physically. But he’s got great hands, he’s able to shoot the ball from range, and he’s developing an inside game.”