Kings vs Timberwolves - Summer League Game 4

[Uncia03]

This is not as worrisome a sl performance for Ben as it was for t-rob last year.

With that said, there is certainly very little to be excited about.

At this point you hope that he settles into his shot and becomes a good defender.

That would put him into 3rd option territory( hopefully). I don't see 2nd option potential unless he makes some massive strides in both attitude and skill level.

 

[swisshh]

The thing is:

1. No other NBA talent on the squad besides Ben and Ray.
2. So every team can key in on Ben without fear
3. This highlights his dribbling weakness
4. Every problem he is having goes right back to his handles. Defenders are hugging him with no fear of getting beat on the dribble. Can't score in transition because he's scared of dribbling the ball. Defenders going up into his face has made him rush shots. Rushed shots don't fall.

 

[Kingsfan23]

i take it m16 will not be penciled in at the starting sg like most of us had and ray isnt dethroning IT anytime soon.

m16?

 

[Bricklayer]

On a more positive note I kinda like what Clyburn has brought throughout summer league. Not enough to make our roster, but he's shown a little something.

And we may have to define overreacting. There is more overexcusing going on than anything else. Will Mac look better with the real team, right now likely off the bench? Almost surely. Would just have to. Does the #7 pick in the draft, who people thought could go #1, who we were dancing around celebrating, look helpess as a babe against teams full of scrubs not even good enough to make the NBA? Yes also.

There's a few little encouraging things. He was showing some energetic off the ball movement early. Using his athleticism a bit better on the boards etc. etc. But these are little things. Reminds me of the squint I had to put in with TRob last year. We've had 8 halves of summer league so far, and he's been bad in 7 of the 8.

 

[nebs]

m16?

I'm just gonna call him Ben because that's his name.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

The fight for -40 isn't too exciting.

 

[Uncia03]

Every single time he drives he forces a shot, and it basically has no chance of going in. That's far more concerning than the jump shooting - the fact that if his jumper is off there is basically nothing else he can do to contribute. The jumper will come and go. The dribble and drive does not have the look of hope to it.

I mentioned this to bajaden yesterday and continue to see it confirmed today. Ben has absolutely zero feel around the basket, especially on the drive

 

[Padrino]

This is not as worrisome a sl performance for Ben as it was for t-rob last year.

With that said, there is certainly very little to be excited about.

At this point you hope that he settles into his shot and becomes a good defender.

That would put him into 3rd option territory( hopefully). I don't see 2nd option potential unless he makes some massive strides in both attitude and skill level.

yup. mclemore's gonna have to make good on his defensive potential if he wants to crack a starting lineup anytime soon. he moves very well without the ball, and he'll get some shots up against nba defenses, but i'm more skeptical than i'd like to be based on what i've seen so far. a guy like klay thompson isn't exactly a world beater off the dribble, but he's competent enough that it allows him to be more than just a spot up shooter...

given that weak handle, i sure would have liked to see drive-and-kicks from tyreke evans to an open mclemore, but with the absence of a consistent rim attack, the kings' coaching staff is going to have to get creative with the team's off-ball movement in order to get mac open in the halfcourt during the regular season...

 

[steelevt]

I'm just gonna call him Ben because that's his name.

you do that. i call him that because they use it on str. just like i sometimes typed b52 for brad miller, ak47 for andrei kirilenko, IT for isaiah thomas, or JT for jason thompson or cuz/dmc for demarcus cousins.

 

[Chubbs]

On a more positive note I kinda like what Clyburn has brought throughout summer league. Not enough to make our roster, but he's shown a little something.

And we may have to define overreacting. There is more overexcusing going on than anything else. Will Mac look better with the real team, right now likely off the bench? Almost surely. Would just have to. Does the #7 pick in the draft, who people thought could go #1, who we were dancing around celebrating, look helpess as a babe against teams full of scrubs not even good enough to make the NBA? Yes also.

There's a few little encouraging things. He was showing some energetic off the ball movement early. Using his athleticism a bit better on the boards etc. etc. But these are little things. Reminds me of the squint I had to put in with TRob last year. We've had 8 halves of summer league so far, and he's been bad in 7 of the 8.

It's hard to excuse away a performance this awful. He's playing against sub NBA players and except for one streak, been dreadful. We saw what he CAN do, but he has to actually do it more than 1 out of 8 quarters or he can sit on the bench with jimmer.

He's not an alpha. That much is sure.

 

[swisshh]

m16?

Like the firecracker, it tends to blow up in his hands.

 

[nebs]

you do that. i call him that because they use it on str. just like i sometimes typed b52 for brad miller, ak47 for andrei kirilenko, IT for isaiah thomas, or JT for jason thompson or cuz/dmc for demarcus cousins.

haha jk, I don't care. I'll be calling him Ben though.

 

[Mojo]

Did they say we have to play again tomorrow? Uh oh.

 

[jsb]

Kind of hard to get an accurate reading of Ray and Ben when no one else on the team is even a 12th man caliber player. Nor does anyone on the roster have an NBA minute.

Yeah and you can also look at it that Ben cant dominate against a bunch of college scrubs. That is more concerning to me. At this point he would have a hard time beating Marcus or Jimmer for playing time. . I thought Jimmer had bad handles, he looks like Michael Jordan compared to BM.

 

[Darren]

 

[Darren]

 

[Darren]

 

[Darren]

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Did they say we have to play again tomorrow? Uh oh.

I believe the consolation bracket game is Friday.

 

[AaronPDX]

Oddly, what I come away with after 3 of the 4 games is that McLemore looks like a child playing among grown men. Trying to keep an open mind and stay positive, but damnit.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

I don't know how you couldn't be worried about McLemore at this point. They will never admit this, but part of the reason why Evans isn't here anymore is because McLemore is.

He couldn't hit a shot in his pre draft workouts and that contributed to his slide in the draft. For such a good shooter he isn't shooting very well. He can't hang on to the ball, and he can't shake his man and get open. He's going to need a ton of work.

I said this before, but Thornton is a starter again.

 

[sdballer]

I don't know how you couldn't be worried about McLemore at this point. They will never admit this, but part of the reason why Evans isn't here anymore is because McLemore is.

He couldn't hit a shot in his pre draft workouts and that contributed to his slide in the draft. For such a good shooter he isn't shooting very well. He can't hang on to the ball, and he can't shake his man and get open. He's going to need a ton of work.

I said this before, but Thornton is a starter again.

But he's a superstar in the making. Ray Allen with better athleticism. Plus Reke's a loser with equal value to salmons.

 

[steelevt]

I don't know how you couldn't be worried about McLemore at this point. They will never admit this, but part of the reason why Evans isn't here anymore is because McLemore is.

He couldn't hit a shot in his pre draft workouts and that contributed to his slide in the draft. For such a good shooter he isn't shooting very well. He can't hang on to the ball, and he can't shake his man and get open. He's going to need a ton of work.

I said this before, but Thornton is a starter again.

Well the bright side is we're not paying 8 million for a backup 2 and it won't put so much pressure on a rookie to produce right away. Also with more pt. Thornton can increase trade value...hopefully

 

[Kingsfan23]

I don't know how you couldn't be worried about McLemore at this point. They will never admit this, but part of the reason why Evans isn't here anymore is because McLemore is.

He couldn't hit a shot in his pre draft workouts and that contributed to his slide in the draft. For such a good shooter he isn't shooting very well. He can't hang on to the ball, and he can't shake his man and get open. He's going to need a ton of work.

I said this before, but Thornton is a starter again.

I think that stopped being in question a little while ago, and yes, they could have very well went in a different direction with Tyreke had free agency started next week. Ben hasn't looked good at all. Most of the summer league analysts might even label him the biggest bust of the league to date, which doesn't give us fans much to go on. he does have the physical attributes and the natural stroke, its going to come down to his heart/passion to get better, and from his interviews and the pre-draft talk I never got a proper sense of this kids hunger and work ethic.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Well the bright side is we're not paying 8 million for a backup 2 and it won't put so much pressure on a rookie to produce right away. Also with more pt. Thornton can increase trade value...hopefully

It's not a bad thing, really. I actually feel for Thornton. One could make the case that he got the 'most screwed' by Keith Smart last season. Thornton is only 26 (and he just turned 26). He only played 24 minutes per game last season. That is just way to low for a player of his caliber. He scored 18PPG two years ago that went down to 12 last season. No reason why this coming year can't be his best year ever, particularly when he will be the no question about it #2 option and he'll be playing with a PG who will get him the ball. Always been a good hustler, good cutter, gritty, clutch player. I still believe in him.

And like you said, if McLemore actually figures it out Thorntons value could skyrocket next offseason, or even by the trade deadline.

 

[gunks]

Wow, just checked the box score. McLemore is pretty Doubyesque out there.

Maybe worse.

If he is this bad against SL competition, I'm not too optimistic about his chances in the NBA.

Sure, its too soon to declare him a bust, but he has been abysmal.

 

[Hallama]

McLemore will be better in a system, especially not as the top dog. This is discouraging, no doubt, would love for him to have dominated. He's looking more like a Nick Anderson type of player at this point, a later in his career Nick Anderson. We'll see. I think he's still a deadly shooter when he spots up and that will happen with the big team. But yeah, disappointing at this point.

 

[ESP47]

Wow, just checked the box score. McLemore is pretty Doubyesque out there.

Maybe worse.

If he is this bad against SL competition, I'm not too optimistic about his chances in the NBA.

Sure, its too soon to declare him a bust, but he has been abysmal.

If I remember right, Douby actually played very well in the summer league.

The only game I didn't get to see was his lone solid game. I've seen the rest though and I honestly don't see anything from this kid. Can't shoot, can't get open, can't pass, can't play defense and can't move without the ball. I'm not going to write him off...I'll at least give him a season to start forming an opinion but holy crap does this kid look terrible. He reminds me of Thomas Robinson. Highly touted out of college and has no real discernible skills that you think could make him a legit NBA player.

On the other hand he's real young and could just be in a bad stretch of basketball where he's beating himself mentally by starting out so badly. Everyone has had those situations where absolutely nothing goes right so I'm hoping this is just one of those situations for him. The crappy thing is that now Thornton is probably going to be our starter...which means we are going to be one of the worst defensive teams again.

 

[theclash4u5]

I know it's too soon to say anything, but I'm tired of us drafting players that never worked out for us and were sliding down the ranks of the NBA draft for a reason. He wasn't impressive in his pre-draft workouts and several sources said he showed up out of shape and uninterested. I hope he proves me wrong, but I didn't want him from the start and I guess we'll have to hope that he doesn't end up like the other Kansas player we picked last year.

 

[KingsFanGER]

Player that shine in the Summer League can create a shot for themselves. They need to, cause there is no actual system and very little teamwork. McLemore is not able to create for himself. It will be interesting how he does after the training camp, when he and his teammates actually know, how to get him open looks.
Far too early to provide a final assessment.