NBA Summer League: Kingston Flemings’ Skills Coach Dishes on Client’s Unique Workouts, Criticism About Shooting Mechanics

Through both unconventional workouts and simple drills, Kingston Flemings’ longtime skills coach has marveled at how he embraces any challenge.

Flemings won’t scoff at performing simple drills that just emphasize his footwork. He won’t feel overwhelmed when multiple defenders swarm him the moment he has the ball.

Instead, Devon Agusi has seen Flemings’ simply rep those drills out both with his skills coach and on his own until he perfects them. No wonder the Atlanta Hawks selected Flemings with their No. 8 pick after earning All-Big 12 Conference first-team honors during his freshman season at the University of Houston.

“That’s maybe, in my opinion, his most impressive gift. That’s his will and his ability to compete,” Agusi told R.org. “Things that come challenging to him, he rises to that occasion.”

Agusi, who has worked with Flemings since he was in middle school, spoke with R.org on a number of topics. Among them: an inside look on their unconventional albeit fundamentally sound workouts, scrutiny about his shooting potential and mechanics and which NBA players he studies the most. That includes De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, and Tyrese Maxey for how they handle their point-guard duties and Cason Wallace for how he defends.

Editor’s note: The following one-on-one interview has been edited and condensed.

Interview with Devon Agusi

What’s the past been like for Kingston ever since he got drafted and acclimated with the Hawks?

Agusi: “It’s been phenomenal, man, even with the process leading into it. We’ve been working together since he was in sixth and seventh grade. But this is a different chapter.  This is the ultimate chapter as he goes into the NBA. We were preparing him for the Combine and preparing him for Summer League. We were strategic with those checkpoints. At the Combine, we took some things kind of slow. When the Combine wrapped up, we revved up the basketball and physicality to prepare him for Summer League. It’s been eventful and it’s been phenomenal to be part of the ride and watching him grow.”

What did that strategic prep entail?

Agusi: With the Combine, me specifically from the skills standpoint, we worked on a bunch of shots. Kingston, myself and his longtime coach, Koty Cowgill, worked with him on his shooting and getting a ton of reps up. They were game-like reps and there were a lot of Combine drills. We had a script to the Combine so we really, really focused on that. We were able to peel off the Combine stuff a little bit and work on his pick-and-roll, his pace and the shots that he would get within those pick-and-roll looks.

We showed him a ton of film of guys that we think he can have a chance to kind of play like. I believe he’s his own player. He’ll tell you that. One of his favorite quotes is, ‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’ So we don’t do a ton of comparisons with him. But it’s the NBA. Archetypes are archetypes. We find guys that we believe he is similar to, and show him how they navigate through the league and how they’re successful. So we set up those scenarios and give him some unorthodox workouts where we’ll have a bunch of defenders guarding him. It’s different things like that. We show him stuff that he’ll likely see in the league and things that he would have to do to adapt and be successful at that level.”

Even though Kingston is his own person, who are the guys you’re showing film of to him?

Agusi: “We believe from an athletic standpoint that he’s similar to De’Aaron Fox. So we show him how De’Aaron plays in space and gets his shot off  as well as the pressure that he puts on defenses. We also feel like he’s a blend of Tyrese Haliburton with his ability to get guys involved, push the pace and pass ahead. He’s another guy that has shown he’s not a huge breakdown one-on-one guy. Kingston can break guys down one-on-one. But Tyrese does a really good job of getting his game off within the team setting. We think that’s very similar to Kingston. We also show him Tyrese Maxey. He’s another one that is really, really quick with going downhill. He’s strong and impactful. He has a little bit more of a compact style. We think that’s similar to Kingston.”

Obviously Fox, Haliburton and Maxey are great players. But given their overlapping skills, how do you see Kingston incorporating what they do into his game?

Agusi: “His athleticism is the first thing that pops out to everybody. So we’re showing him how those guys change their speed in small spaces and in the open floor. You have the ability to change your speed. Your speed is a real weapon. So you have to really learn how to weaponize that. It’s also about being savvy enough in the game and having a feel in the game as well with shooting. That’s a bit of knock on Kingston as well as the volume of shots that he puts in. At Houston, he shot a really good percentage. But everybody wants to see more. So it’s really about showing him how those guys weren’t big volume shooters in college. But when they got to the NBA, they shoot a healthy dose of 3s and off-the-catch-shots to keep the defense honest. That’s something we gear to him as well.”

What’s your perspective on the knock about his shooting?

Agusi: “My perspective is that Kingston is a winner. He’s going to do everything that you want him to do. He believes in the people that are coaching him and training him, if you earn his belief. Once you earn his trust, he’s all in. He’s all in. If you’re about winning, he’s about winning. So whatever you ask him, he’s going to do. So my perspective is that when he was at Houston, they needed him to play a certain way. They probably didn’t ask him to shoot a ton of 3s. They want him to be more of what he showed throughout the season with putting rim pressure, defending and shooting the open ones. So I believe in that situation. He did what his coaches asked him to do. When he’s at Atlanta and if Coach [Quin Snyder] asks him to shoot more 3s, he’ll be comfortable and do just that. Whatever he’s asked to do to win for the betterment of the team, he’s going to do. In short, that’s what he was asked to do in Houston. However he’s asked to morph his game, I think he’s more than capable of doing that.”

Kingston had success in Houston, and Atlanta drafted him for a reason. But dealing with the substance with some of the mock drafts, they mentioned concerns about his mechanics. How do you look at that?

Agusi: “I get it. The league is a bit cookie-cutter with some of the stuff that they want. They want guys to shoot a certain way and play a certain way so they can fit it in with how they want to fill it and sell it how they want to sell it. So I totally get it. But I think it’s not all about how it looks. It’s just a matter of whether it goes in. Tyrese Haliburton is one of the guys that he watches. He shoots a little bit of an unorthodox ball. But that sucker goes in a lot. There have been a lot of really, really good shooters that don’t have a conventional release. But I think so much of this is the confidence. If you get to the point where you rep out a certain shot and it comes out smooth enough, it’s a confidence thing. If you’re confident and comfortable with shooting that ball, it’s fine.

He’s not a bad shooter from his percentages. He’s never been a bad shooter. If you look at all of his statistics all the way through high school, he maybe had one season in high school where he shot 35%. Other than that, he’s always been a 40% plus shooter on good volume. It just looks different. It doesn’t look like your conventional shot.”

Do I understand this correctly? Of all the things that you’re working with Kingston to prepare for the NBA, do you view this specifically as, ‘Don’t fix something that isn’t broken?’

Agusi: “I would say so. I know his senior year [in high school], we did tweak his pull-up a little bit. We changed something very, very minimal. It was an adjustment for him. But I believe it paid off well. There are some things here and there that he can clean up. We talk about it all the time. There was a time he didn’t love holding his follow-through. Now if you see him shooting, he’s holding it a lot longer. The way the ball comes out, he’s moved his follow-through a little bit more to the side instead of over his head. So there are little tweaks here or there that myself and the Houston staff kind of slowly began to chisel.

But there’s no thought of an overhaul for somebody that has put in as many shots as he has. He’s a real worker. With he and his Dad, Coach Koty and myself, there have been so many reps. The ball really goes in. So to think of an overhaul in something like that, I don’t believe it in personally. But to answer your question, it’s more so, ‘If it’s not broken, why fix it?’”

With those unorthodox workouts you’ve put Kingston through with multiple defenders, what has that all entailed?

Agusi: “For example, he has a really close friend group. They all played. Some of them played in college now. We do some different things. We’ll put a lot of pressure on him. I have two or three different defenders guarding him at different sequences. He’s seeing different bodies flying at him. They’ll pressure him at 94 feet and be really physical with him. That forces him to be physical. Then the next layer will be something that is completely different. But that could be another one, two or three bodies coming at him. You have to kind of navigate through that. You have to finish through another defender with a defensive stick. You have to finish over that. So there are a bunch of unorthodox workouts that put a little bit of pressure on him, make him think and make him process things.

When he was really young, Coach Koty Cowgill would make him do math. Kingston would have to say the ‘multiples of five.’ Once he got to the final number, he can play. Meanwhile, he is being pressured the whole time. It’s little stuff like that to help his mind more than anything. From a physical standpoint, there is not much that he can’t do. I already believe he’s one of the better athletes in the NBA in his position, even as a rookie. So from an athletic standpoint, he checks so many boxes. But we don’t want to only train his body and physical frame. We also want to do a deep dive on his mind and keep him constantly processing and thinking, especially at that position. You have to make so many split decisions. We try to be as unorthodox and outside of the box that we can be in that space. So it’s stuff like that.”

Can you clarify how did the ‘multiples of 5’ drill works?

Agusi: “For example, Kingston would have the number, 25. When he was younger, he would have to say the multiples of 5: five, 10, 15, 20 and 25. Or his number is 49 and his first number would be seven. So then he’ll say ‘seven, 14, 21, 28, and all the way to 49.’ He can’t play until he finishes. So he’ll be under pressure. A defender is pressuring him, trying to push him or take his ball, and he can’t just blow by his defender until he reaches the final number. Once he gets to that number, he can play one-or-one or whatever else we’re doing. But he has to count up until that. Coach Koty Cowgill introduced him and all of us to that concept. So I took a page out of his book and incorporated little thinking things like that.

Or he’ll be in a shooting workout. As he’s shooting, I’ll scream out another spot that he has to shoot. So he will sprint to that spot. Even before the shot goes down, he has to get there at a certain time. He’ll shoot from the wing and I’ll scream, ‘Corner!’ Then he has to get to the corner. Then I’ll scream, ‘Dribble handoff!’ or ‘Flair!.’ I’m screaming different things at him, and he’ll have to perform it pretty much in real time. It’s a lot. It’s little stuff like that.”

How did you see him handle those challenges?

Agusi: “That’s maybe, in my opinion, his most impressive gift. That’s his will and his ability to compete. Things that come challenging to him, he rises to that occasion. He taps into another gear mentally. There have been struggles. He’s failed in these workouts. But he doesn’t fail for the lack of trying or competition. He goes as hard as he can to it. If he messes up, he wants to go again. Then he wants to go again. I believe that is his greatest gift to the game. It’s his ability and want to compete. But he handles it well, man. Over the years, he has gotten so much better. He’s such a high-level process player. So as his personal skill guy, I really have to dig into my bag of tricks for that guy on a consistent basis. He attacks it. He attacks everything. You’re not wasting your time. He comes to work to get better.”

Considering you’ve worked with Kingston since middle school, you have a lot of reference points. What examples jump out of Kingston struggling through a challenging workout, experiencing frustration and then bouncing back pretty well?

Agusi: “It’s been a while. But there have been many times when he’s come into workouts. He’s such a worker. He’s so detailed and a bit of a perfectionist. When you give him new movements and you give him new things that he’s not familiar with, he’ll struggle with the movements. He would struggle with executing the crossover, or whatever I give him. But I always thought that was special of him that he would figure it out within 24 hours. I’ve found out that he would leave the gym with me, go to another gym and then go and reenact whatever I gave him.

I always noticed the next day he would come back better. Over time, he explained to me and admitted to me that he would go wherever he would go and vigorously train on it until he felt good about it. He would come back with a little smirk on his face. He couldn’t wait for me to pull the workout on him and he would knock it out. Then I would smile. I would champion him. I would talk him up and tell him that he’s better. He finally admitted to me that he would go off and rep it, rep it, rep it. Then he would come back and feel good about it.”

What were the most notable drills where he repped it?

Agusi: “It would be something like the separations on his pullup, how he would get into his pullup or his pickups into a shot. It was just movements. His thing was he would struggle in certain movements. Maybe I would ask him to play lower, play higher or put certain footwork into his shot. We do a lot of deadleg work. With the gather stuff became popular, James Harden can be the one to thank for that with the pick-up gathering with the extra two steps. That was a really foreign concept for a lot of kids when that came out, especially for somebody like Kingston. There is not a lot of gimmick in his game. So it’s about unlocking different movements. That was a little challenging for him. But a lot of the time there would be different movements and asks with footwork.”

The Hawks have talked up on how Kingston has done defensively. What was the work that has gone into that? 

Agusi: “Defense is a lot about having the will and want. I believe the greatest power in his game is his competitiveness. So when it came to just competing, he always was a good defender. He would get in trouble sometimes, I feel like if there was somebody across from him that he didn’t have to prove anything to. There were times that Kingston was the underdog. So he always felt like he needed to prove something against anybody with a ranking or anything like that. You would really see that dude guard and show what he does today. He wanted that spot. He dressed it up in his mind. Or maybe somebody wrote about a kid being better than him or higher ranked than him. He’ll go out there and guard him like a maniac. He’s a super smart kid. I believe his IQ helps with a lot of that stuff. He can just see the game before it happens. He understands players’ habits and player tendencies. He picks up on those things really quickly. That gives him a leg up.

His high school coach, Coach Cowgill, is really surgical with how he teaches the game. Same thing with Coach Ian Ward (assistant at Brennan). Those guys did a phenomenal job with just teaching. Kingston was then getting stronger. Then when he went to Houston, defense there is a complete non-negotiable. If you’re going to play, you have to guard. I believe once he got there, he learned the different techniques and learned it every day against the guys that they have in that gym. I think it unlocked everything that he had already. It taught him the importance of being an every-day guy and guarding everyday no matter who it is. No matter if the guys are ranked before you or behind you, defense is not a habit. It’s not a choice. That’s where he is with it.”

Who are the guys he’s studying defensively?

Agusi: “From a defensive standpoint, I would say Cason Wallace. It’s funny because Cason Wallace’s father used to cut my hair when I was younger. It’s funny how it works. There were plenty of times when I was younger that I would talk about Cason and his brother, Keaton, as well. I thought Cason was a better defender. So growing up, I would talk to Kingston about Cason and show him games of Cason. Cason is from Dallas. I’m also originally from Dallas. So I talked about the mentality those guys have. They are groomed to be two-way players. I think Kingston gravitated to that. I would show him how Cason gets up under guys, his motor and his toughness that he brings.”

Cason has those large hands. Cason is on a whole other level. But how is Kingston’s hand length?

Agusi: “I’m not sure on his hand length. I know his arm length measurements came out at the Combine. NBA Twitter was a little bit of critical about all of that. But I love some of the things that Kingston talked about in regard to that. He can’t control his arm length or his hand length. But it’s about his heart, his IQ and his technique. And it’s his ‘want-to.’ This is somebody that wants to guard and wants to defend. He doesn’t get discouraged by defending or being told to defend. You don’t have to tell him to defend. That’s something that he knows he brings to the table that changes the game and his teammates for the better. So he took that really well. As for myself, I didn’t love hearing some of the stuff or seeing some of the stuff that is doubting him as a player because his arms came back shorter than some people thought.

But Kingston being Kingston, he takes it as a challenge. The next day at the Combine, he came in super dialed in and had a great Combine. He shot it really well. He tested really well. But going back to what we discussed earlier, when that guy feels slighted and it’s time to compete, he shows his greatest gift in the game.”

Though you’ve done some unconventional work with Kingston, you’ve said in other interviews that it’s important to simplify workouts. Pertaining to Kingston, what were the simple things that you had him do that were pretty important?

Agusi: “His game is very, very simple. Because everybody sees it from a scoring standpoint, his pull-up entails the same reps, footwork and release point. We may add stressors with the unconventional workouts with adding bodies, speeding him up and being physical with him. But it’s all the same. If you watch a lot of film on him, you can see he shoots at a lot of the same spots. He gets to a spot and he’s really comfortable at those spots. I spoke about this on another pod-type interview. A lot of our youth are overcomplicating the game. Unfortunately with being in a training culture, you watch kids and they’re not really great at anything or great at any spot on the floor. With Kingston, a lot of the times, if he’s able to get into a certain spot, if he can rise into that pullup, he’s shot that shot so many times in training sessions, practices and games. I know people say the midrange is dead. But he shoots that shot with so much accuracy. It’s almost like a layup for that guy. We’ve really just simplified that. We tweaked some mechanics as he got older and his body changed.

Working with him over the years, he’s a different body as a freshman as he was as a sixth grader. As a sophomore, he’s a different body. Then as a senior, he was a different body in terms of his height and his muscle mass. He got stronger. We had to tweak some things here and there. Once we mastered the pullup with him, I would put a lot of resistance on him. If you watched him play, he’s really comfortable with playing out of bumps. He actually wants to bump you. He wants to invite that physicality. He has that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander bump. Some people look at it as a pushoff. Kingston got called for one the other day. But those are really, really simple and repetitive moves that he’s seen and has felt so much. His pullup is all the same.”

Given all the work you’ve done and seeing his growth since middle school, what do you expect out of Kingston in his rookie season?

Agusi: “There’s an adjustment period that he’s going through. But this isn’t his first rodeo. Kingston has always been the young man who has found his way. When he came to middle school, he filled his way through things. In high school, he filled his way through things. At Houston, his Dad, his high school club coach and I would talk every day. It sounded like he was feeling his way through that situation. So I think it’s the same thing with the NBA. He’s always been that way. He’s feeling his way out. He’s seeing what he can do and can’t do, and what translates for him. But I think every other chapter in his life, once he gets through the stage of filling it out, he’s going to take off. He’s going to be who he’s going to be. He’s a winner. I believe he has the skillset to make a difference immediately. I think he has the heart and the understanding. I think he has the skill.

For what Atlanta is with their roster, I think somebody like him can really catapult that team. They have a lot of really good young players and young pieces. He can be that distributor, that leader, that point-of-attack defender and that paint generator and get guys the ball. I wouldn’t say that player has been missing. They have a lot of really good guards over there. But Kingston will see that is his niche. He understands that. Once he gets comfortable with understanding the bodies, the length and the speed, I think we’ll see a lot of what we saw him in Houston and in high school. I truly believe that.”

Kingston will also play with CJ McCollum. What do you think being around him can do for his game and development?

Agusi: “Oh, man. CJ is phenomenal. He’s extremely smart. He’s brilliant. He’s been around the league. He seems like the perfect vet and perfect mentor for somebody like Kingston. I’m sure they have spoken to CJ about possibly mentoring him. So if that is on the playing field and is the plan, I couldn’t think of a better vet than CJ McCollum. I truly believe that.”

What does it mean to you that Kingston has made sure to remember everyone, including yourself, that have coached him both in interviews and including them during Draft night?

Agusi: “It’s a warm feeling, for sure. I’ve seen situations where guys enter the next chapter and have even pushed to revamp who they are and revamp what they need to do to continue to push forward. It’s a breath of fresh air that Kingston is not quite that. Myself and others that are included have always believed in him. It was never, ‘We’re going to work with this guy because he’s going to go to the NBA. Each and every one of us knew he was obviously talented.  But it’s also about who we are. It’s about the community. I believe that’s who Kingston and his family are like. We are attracted to each other because of that. It’s about helping one another. That was always the goal.

His Dad approached me around sixth or seventh grade. He needed help in growing Kingston. He and Kingston would bump heads quite a bit amid that father-son dynamic where they’re getting to the age where sometimes you just need a different voice. Kingston would always tell me that he was appreciative of me. He was always a team guy and was always about the people. You see it now. He gifted his teammates some ‘Dre beats.’ I saw Kingston embrace Asa Newell after he had a big game. That’s just who Kingston is. In every situation he’s a part of or touches, it’s better. He’s not a selfish guy. He understands that it’s not all about him. He actually gets a little awkward when you start complimenting him and start talking about him. You can see a little awkwardness about him. That’s just how much he is about others.

Over the years, he’s found his voice. It’s a breath of fresh air that he shows that admiration for people who helped him. It’s not only us, but his family. His Dad and Mom are a fireman and a nurse. So they’re natural givers in their profession. They live their life to help others. Over the years, that’s all Kingston knows.

When he’s in those interviews and talking about us and others that helped him in a point in his life, that’s genuine. That’s not just lip service. He really appreciates the people that helped him. Sometimes that gets lost a little bit. You’re around different kids and listening to different interviews and things like that. A lot of these kids, it takes a lot to get them where they are. He’s a young man who is introspective enough to remember that and navigate through that and speak on it. It’s a beautiful thing.”