Best of: Orlando Summer League

[kingsnation]

ESPN

First team: Oklahoma City's Westbrook and James Harden (14.8 ppg, 53.2 percent shooting); Indiana's Roy Hibbert (20.2 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 1.8 bpg) and Hansbrough (18.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 41 of 48 free throws); Orlando's Anderson.

Second team: Philadelphia's Marreese Speights (14.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg); Boston's J.R. Giddens (11.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and Nick Fazekas (13.4 ppg, 6.2 rpg); Orlando's Kasib Powell (14.8 ppg, 52.9 percent 3-point shooting); Oklahoma City's D.J. White (13.5 ppg, 56.1 percent shooting).

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WORST IDEA: With the sluggish economy affecting even NBA teams, several franchises opted not to field summer-league squads. And then there are the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Nets, who decided to share a team together.

New Philly coach Eddie Jordan said from the start that he didn't like the idea because he felt strange barking out orders to players on the Nets' roster. And the players weren't nearly as diplomatic about the decision for a split squad.

"It doesn't really benefit you at all to go out and play with guys who aren't going to be your teammates when the season starts,'' said New Jersey's Terrence Williams, the No. 11 overall pick of the NBA draft. "You get used to a guy's game, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter because you aren't going to be playing with them anyway.''

The Philly/New Jersey squad was the worst one of the summer league, going 0-5. Speights underachieved badly, while Williams and Philadelphia rookie Jrue Holiday struggled with turnovers.

Could you imagine?

 

[NME]

Could you imagine?

I think we and several other teams did the same the first few years we participated in the SL, back when it was in L.A. Of course, in the last several years SL in general has become a much bigger deal, with every team participating and some in more than one league, so it's unusal by current standards.

By the way, Speights "underachieved badly" but made the all-league second team?