Unselfishness Contagious At Pangos Camp!

The 2025 Pangos All-American Camp, the 23rd edition of the top-notch summer individual showcase event annually held in Las Vegas, showed once again why the event continues to be unique evaluation setting for the elites of high school basketball. Over its first two days, the campers have displayed a refreshing level of unselfishness that has created a buzz among national media and scouts. 

An elite individual showcase setting on the current grassroots event calendar is bound to have some ill-advised shot attempts or some bone-headed plays. After all, the players have a short time to get acclimated with each other, while some are traveling from far distances and have to get off a plane and prepare themselves to compete against some of the nation’s finest high school basketball talent.

The 2025 Pangos All-American Camp had a rough ending to its first day of competition on Sunday with a round of lackluster games after a good opening set of games. On Monday, however, the campers picked it up big-time. The intensity was better, the play more crisp and most importantly, the majority of campers continued to play unselfishly. The unselfish contingent was led by a crop of table-setters at the point guard position and a group of bigs that just did their job and made simple plays when necessary. Many of those simple plays led to winning basketball.

The Pangos All-American Camp is designed for national Top 150 prospects and Camp Director Dinos Trigonis did a fine job of finding some a bit under the radar or looking to cement their national reputation by coming to the camp with the mindset to compete. Leading the way with this mentality were point guards such as 6-foot-1 2027 Jason Gardner Jr. of Fishers (Ind.), 6-foot-2 2027 Tyler Sutton of Roman Catholic (Philadelphia), 6-foot-3 2026 (rising senior) Jordan Skyers of Our Savior Lutheran (Bronx, N.Y.), 6-foot-3 2026 Rokiem Green of Bella Vista (Scottsdale, Ariz.), 6-foot-3 2026 Trey Beamer of IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) and 6-foot 2027 Micah Gordon of Plainfield (N.J.).

Gardner and Sutton lead the way with their approach, feel and I.Q. and it has been contagious. Gardner always knows where his teammates are, has his eyes on the targets that many times the defense can’t see before he does, is nearly flawless in pick-and-roll decision-making and most important, know how to get and play with defenders on his hip. He’s the son of former Arizona point guard Jason Gardner and is easily a Most Outstanding Player (MOP) candidate at this Pangos Camp.

It’s easy to see Sutton knows the game and has a tight handle to boot. The Philly guard has a nice combination of burst while playing under control. He can easily get in the paint, as can a group of guards who are a bit more scoring oriented. Skylers is a strong driver and finds the open man, while Green was passing it well and has a nice square form on his jumper. Gordon simply grows on you and won’t be denied in this setting.

The scoring-oriented lead guards include 6-foot-2 2027 Reese Alston of Second Baptist School (Houston), 6-foot-3 2026 Kaiden Bailey of Santa Margarita (Rancho SM, Calif.) and 6-foot 2027 Cayden Daughtry of Calvary Christian (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.). Daughtery’s team didn’t get off to a good start at all, but he’s making plays, can score in a variety of situations and has a quick set of hands defensively. Alston, the son of former NBA player and playground legend Rafer Alston, can get into the key as well as any guard in attendance and has a terrific mid-range pull up jumper. He’s spectacular at times and just needs to develop more consistency on his deep jumper to be considered one of the nation’s overall best in the 2027 class.

Bailey has been somewhat under appreciated as a national Top 100 prospect, but that has been put to rest at Pangos Camp. Bailey started off camp with a spectacular triple double of 21 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists and hasn’t let up. Bailey has improved his tunnel vision tendencies and even though there is a big range of opinions among scouts, there is no denying his production. He is a cinch pick for Tuesday’s Cream of the Crop Top 30 Game reserved for the camp’s best performers and is even getting some MOP consideration.

Others in consideration prior to the two all-stars games for camp MOP include, but not limited to, 6-foot-7 2026 Aiden Derkack of Colonia (N.J.) and 6-foot-10 2026 Quinn Costello of The Newman School (Boston). Derkack is drawing raves for his play in Las Vegas and was the best player on the court in a Monday evening contest. His outside shooting has been on and he is a strong finisher in nearly every situation.

Costello has earned rave reviews and is the one player that has helped his national stock more than anyone in attendance, by a wide margin we might add. Costello has few, if any, holes in his game and is a fluid athlete with good first step pop. Not only that, Costello has good length, a motor and face up skills as a stretch four-man who can keep defenses honest with the 3-ball. Don’t bother to look at his national ranking because it’s comically too low. Sure, it’s one camp and one setting, but Costello has all the tools to attract high major interest from nearly any blue blood in the country.

There is still plenty to be decided on the final day of camp, but one thing concrete is 6-foot-7 2026 Jacob Webber of Kearney (Neb.) is the most consistent outside shooter at the event. He is a knock down shooter, especially in catch and shoot situations, and has terrific mechanics on his catch, form, release and follow through. He will spend his senior season in the Nike EYBL Scholastic League at La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.).

There are a handful of 2028s (rising sophomores) Trigonis invited to the event and there is little doubt 6-foot-2 2028 Tai Bell of Mater Lakes (Hialeah, Fla.) and 6-foot-4 2028 Branden Sharpe of Westminster Academy both belong. Bell, the son of former NBA player Raja Bell, is a tough driver who can pocket pass as the defense collapses quite well, while Sharpe is part of the unselfish group. So far, based on what we’ve seen on the circuit (not just at this camp) the 2028 class has a chance to be mouth-watering.

We can’t forget the unselfish play of the bigs, who just went to work and have done their job through two days. That vast group incudes 6-foot-10 2027 Tyran Frazier of Hazelwood East (St. Louis, Mo.), 6-foot-8 2026 Lucas Toukam of Bella Vista (Scottsdale, Ariz.), 6-foot-9 2026 David Abisogun of Fairmont Prep (Anaheim, Calif.), 6-foot-9 2026 Preston Wade of Providence Christian Academy (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), 6-foot-10 2026 Kuol Deng of Calvary Baptist Day (Savannah, Ga.), 6-foot-8 2026 Joe Philon of Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) and 6-foot-9 2026 Ater Maker Bol of Brewster Academy (Wolfeboro, N.H.). The group has been making the right reads in traffic, blocking shots at a high clip, working hard on the offensive glass and been physical when needed.

One spectacular play by Toukam where he made a contested catch and correct read in paint traffic and flipped the ball over to teammate Trevon Carter-Givens, a 6-foot-9 post-graduate out of SoCal Academy (Valencia, Claif.), for a dunk to force overtime in a camp game, must be mentioned. It exemplified what the bigs at this Pangos Camp have been about.

Two players who hustled and showed fight and grit were instructed by respected scouts to be more aggressive offensively and that’s something that’s rare in a Pangos Camp setting. It’s refreshing to see, so it will be interesting to see if 6-foot-8 Adama Tambedou of Putnam Science Academy (Putnam, Conn.) and 6-foot-9 Zion Green of Camden (N.J.) heed scouts’ advice and take the initiative, although the unselfishness across the board has been refreshing to see.

Ronnie Flores is the national Grassroots editor of Ballislife.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores

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