Las Vegas Summer League 2010 - Day 1

[Uncia03]

Last year I had the fantastic opportunity to vacation in Vegas and attend the Las Vegas Summer League for all five days that the Kings played. I watched four games each day, and then broke each game down discussing how the main players from each team played.
It was far more difficult to watch the Kings games last year, but with this great change by NBA TV, and online on ESPN3, watching the Kings is far easier for all of you in Sacramento.

This year, my wife and I planned our vacation around Summer League, and I'll be attending all 6 games. As I did last year, I'll be breaking down all the games I see, and indicate who impressed and who disappointed.
Because most of you were able to watch the Kings play, and because there was a great Game thread and Grade thread, I won't be spending as much time breaking down the Kings game as I did last year. As you can see from my write-ups last year, I was very impressed with Evan's play, and I'm hoping that Cousins and Whiteside will show dominance this year.

Also for those of you who don't know, they play 4 games in one arena (Cox Pavilion), and also hold 1-2 additional games going on at the same time in the Tomas and Mac court. So each day I'll have to choose which game to watch. I'll usually base my decision on which team has the best group of young/intriguing talent.

Also, the title of this is "Day 1", but today is actually the 4th day of Summer League. I indicate "Day 1" to mean the first day that the Kings play, because, well, that's all that really matters.

The four games I watched today were:

Game 1: Knicks vs. Lakers (BOOO!)
Game 2: Pistons vs. KINGS (YAY!)
Game 3: Mavericks vs. Bucks
Game 4: Wizards vs. Clippers

Now....on to the games:


Game 1: Knicks vs. Lakers

I'm not a Knicks fan, but obviously I became one today. Derrick Caracter has been playing well for the Lakers, and Tony Douglas has been playing well for the Knicks. So I figured it would be post play vs. guard play, and my hope was that guard play would prevail in this game. Also, one nice thing about summer league is that the Lakers typically field a weak team, so it's fun to watch the players representing the team lose, even if it doesn't mean anything.

New York Knicks: Tony Douglas (6'2 Guard)
28 minutes, 6 points(3/10 fg, 0/1 ft), 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, 4 turn-overs

So Douglas was averaging around 25 ppg in summer league and I had him on my 'watch list', and was looking for him to be a scorer. He really didn't play that role today
Let's just say that he was...active.

He didn't shoot well today (3/10), but for a 'scorer' he didn't really take a lot of shots, especially since he was out on the court for around 28 minutes. (Summer League games are only 40 minutes long)

What he did show was a good ability to get into the lane, especially off of a screen.
He worked to run the team and set up his teammates, mostly on the drive-and-kick, and he ended the day with 7 assists.
He was also really active with his hands and his body on the defensive end.
He had a lot of steals (5) and he is one of those guys who will throw his body to the floor in an attempt to get to the ball.

As I mentioned, he did a good job in getting into the lane, but he ended up with 4 TOs, and 2-3 of those were bad passes as he drove into the lane and was cut off from the basket.

All-in-all, I'd say he was active in a positive manner. He did well on the boards (5) and looked to push the ball when he got it. He had a lot of steals, but also made some bad decisions when gambling for the steal and letting the defense break down. He had some positive moments with the drive-and-kick game, but also made some bad passes.

He didn't play the game quite as I expected, but his game did help in tranlating into a win for the Knicks.

New York Knicks: Bill Walker (6'6 Guard/Forward)
25 minutes, 14 points(5/11 fg, 4/4 ft), 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turn-over

One of the funnest things about Summer League is watching a kid you've never heard of make an impression on the basketball court.

Bill Walker was the first player to do that to me this year. He had a great 1st quarter, and then slowed down, but he did make a great first impression with that first quarter of play.

His play almost entirely consists of getting the ball on the wing and slashing into the paint with a finish at the rim.

He's an athletic player with a good handle, and he also knows how to move with-out the ball.
He made two off-ball baseline plays during the game with good effect. One was a nice alley-oop jam, the other was a finish with a reverse lay-up.

He started off the game with a nice spinning drive in the lay for the finish and he ended the first quarter with that baseline reverse lay-up.
He also had a nice drive and drop-off pass to another cutter for an assist in the 2nd quarter.

His defense was solid, and he did hit a nice turn-around in the 4th quarter, though that didn't look to be his game.
All-in-all, he looked to be an athletic slasher with good handles. He was able to get into the lane on a consistent basis, and was fun to watch.

New York Knicks: Patrick Ewing Jr. (6'8 Forward)
21 minutes, 8 points (3/6 fg, 1/2 ft), 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks, 1 turn over

Most of you should be somewhat familiar with Ewing's game, considering that we drafted him two years back and watched him on our Summer League team. He's known as an athletic defensive player but with an inconsistent offensive game.

For those of you who were following him in the Orlando Summer League, he didn't play the role as a 'gunner' as much as he had been in Orlando last week.

As expected Ewing played a good defensive game. I had expected Ewing to start, but he came off the bench in todays game. And when he got in, he started off defending Caracter. Ewing probably gives up about 40 pounds to Caracter, and it's not a good defensive match-up, but Ewing was able to bother Caracter's shot enough in the first few possessions to prevent Caracter from scoring until NY got a bigger player in to defend.

He said in Orlando that he wanted to do a better job on the boards, and he did that here today. He had a great rebound in traffic early in the game, and in the 3rd quarter had another good rebound which he took the length of the floor and finished.

He was active defensively and had 4 blocks, and he is very, very good at anticipating driving lanes and providing weak-side help by getting himself in position to take a charge. He was only able to draw one charge today, but he consistently got himself into good position by rotating over help by clogging the driving lane and take potential charges.

The downside of his game is on the offensive end. He showed bad ball handling, especially when pressured. He also has a very poor shot selection. He only took 6 shots today, but 3 of them were very high difficulty shots that he had no business taking. One of those three went in, but it's not the kind of shot you want him taking.
He knows that he has to prove himself on the offensive end, and you can tell that he's been working on it, as he's vastly improved to where he was a couple of years ago, but I think he'd be better served taking the simple shot, and if the shot isn't there to pass it along.

New York Knicks: Jerome Jordan (7'0 Center)
24 minutes, 8 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 5 turn-overs

One of the few times that Hassan Whiteside's Marshall was televised was when they played against Tulsa and Jerome Jordan. I was able to see Whiteside's potential, but I thought that Jordan had the better game of the two in that game. So this was my 2nd time to see Jordan play and he started for the Knicks today.

I don't think he had a very impressive game today, though I think that his next game will be better, as he looked to get more comfortable as the game went on.

I don't have any notes for him in the 1st quarter, so he might have grabbed a defensive rebound, but by-and-large didn't show much.

In the 2nd Quarter he had a nice offensive tip-in, which accounted for a quarter of his points and rebounds for the game. Also, in the 2nd Quarter he had two back-to-back blocks in the same sequence. Those were the only two blocks he had, and unfortunately because the Knicks were not able to secure the rebound, the Lakers ended up getting fouled and sent to the line.

His length and defense were about average. He wasn't able to really use his size and length advantage to stop Caracter from getting good looks at the basket.
He did have a very aggressive take to the basket and slam dunk in the 3rd quarter, and again in the 4th quarter.

 

[Uncia03]

Day 1: Knicks vs. Lakers (Continued)

New York Knicks: Landry Fields (6'7 Guard/Forward)
24 minutes, 17 points (7/11 fg, 2/3 fg), 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 3 turn overs

Fields also came off the bench today. He was one of the Knick's 2nd rounders and he looked good today.

He wasn't anywhere as explosive as Walker, but he played a steady game, hit open perimeter shots, got rebounds, and didn't make too many mistakes. It was one of those games where by the end you're thinking, "This kid has had a very solid game." and you look up to see the 17 points, 5 boards.

That is how it was with Fields.

He hit his open threes, he finished strong in his 2 fast-break transition opportunities, had a nice weak-side block, and was just a solid player and ultimately the leading scorer for the Knicks today.


New York Knicks: Andy Rautins (6'4 Guard)
25 minutes, 3 points(1/6 fg), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 turn overs

So if you watched a lot of Syracuse last year to get a peek at Wesley Johnson, you'll remember Rautins. He spent most of his time trying to free himself up on the perimeter to hit the 3 point shot.

The Knicks picked him up in the 2nd round, and he started today's game. As you can see, he had a very poor game.

He took 6 shots today, and hit one of his threes. Almost all of his shots were contested, as he had a problem getting himself free. His handles need to improve, and he needs to work on contributing to other areas on the basketball court if he's not able to get his shot off.


Los Angeles Lakers: Derrick Caracter (6'9 Forward/Center)
30 minutes, 16 points(7/13 fg, 2/3 fg), 10 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 8 TOs

As I mentioned earlier, the Lakers do not field a very good Summer League team. This isn't surprising as they have a veteran team and do not need to develop youth in order to be competitive.

They drafted Caracter in the 2nd round and he's been playing good basketball for them. He's an undersized forward/center at 6'9, but he does weigh around 275, so he's got some meat on his bones. He doesn't appear to be in the best of condition at the moment, and that probably impacts his performance later in games, especially due to the heavy minutes he logs.

Caracter is a pure post player. He's very good at using his body and footwork to clear enough space to allow him to use his little mini-hook. He can use either hand for his hook and is effective with it.

He isn't an incredibly explosive player, and because he has to rely on his footwork to clear enough space to work in the lane, it leaves him prone to getting stripped while on the block. He had 8 TO's and most of them came because he spent too much time trying to get set up to get his shot off.

It will be really interesting to see him against Cousins and Whiteside tomorrow. Cousins has the bulk to really impede him in the lane, and because it takes Caracter some time to get set up, Whiteside should have an absolute field day.

Caracter had 10 rebounds, and 6 of them were on the offensive end. He does a good job anticipating his own misses and getting the ball back. When he does get an offensive board, he goes up much more quickly with his shot.

He didn't have any assists or blocks. So when he gets the ball he's looking to score. He also doesn't have the length to really be an intimidator in the paint, and I think both of these things will effect the impact he can have in the league.

Los Angeles Lakers: Devin Ebanks (6'9 Forward)
39 minutes, 7 points(2/13 fg, 3/4 ft), 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 4 turn overs

Ebanks was the Laker's other 2nd Round Pick.

I watched the game he had against the Pistons and he had a good game. Today he had a very bad game, and I think a lot of it had to do with being guarded by Ewing.

I don't have very many notes for Ebanks, mainly because he was practically invisible out there. He played all but 47 seconds of the entire game, and had no impact at all.

He ended the game shooting 2/13, but I don't remember him taking a lot of bad shots. They were just shots in the flow of the game that did not hit. He didn't do anything of note to get himself free to make shots, but just struggled mightily.

His one assist came from making a nice drive into the lane and then finding a cutter to finish. He also had a nice take to the basket which he finished with a short-range bank shot. I also have him blowing a fast-break slam dunk.

But he just didn't have much of an impact and it was probably due to his inability to hit his shots.

Los Angeles Lakers: DJ Strawberry (6'5 Guard)
28 minutes, 12 points(4/11 fg, 4/7 ft), 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 block, 0 turn-overs

DJ Strawberry is the son of Darryl Strawberry and he's always been an exciting player to watch in these summer league teams. He, like Ewing, is someone you watch play and think he's got enough to make the end of the bench on someone's roster.

He's a very athletic guard with a fairly good handle. His game is mostly about using screens to get into the lane and either finish or kick to an open shooter.

He started for the Lakers at the SG spot, and spent most of his time at the position, moving with-out the ball in an attempt to get the ball and dive into the lane.

He got to the foul line more times than anyone else on the team (7), but didn't do a good job converting those into points.

Due to his athleticism, he's a fiesty defender, and you can tell that he's extremely competitive.

He had a decent game today, but he needs to work on getting an outside shot, as most of his offense comes from driving into the lane. He took three 3-pt shots, missing them all.


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That's all I have for the Knicks vs. Lakers. I've completely run out of time, and I'm going to be leaving for Tuesday's round of basketball in about an hour. So I'm going to have to finish my write-up for the other 3 games, as well as all four of today's games later. I'll try to get these up as soon as possible

GO KINGS!

 

[Uncia03]

Day 1: Kings vs. Pistons

This was our first time to see Cousins and Whiteside play. I'll tell you what impressed me the most about the game, and that was the defense. We held them to under 30 points in the 1st half, and we were not letting them score at all in the paint while in their half-court sets. Their points came from free-throws, transition, and jumpshots.
It was fantastic to watch them play stiffling defense.

As this game has been greatly discussed in other threads, I'll just give a few thoughts on some of the players.


Sacramento Kings: DeMarcus Cousins (6'11 Center)
26 minutes, 14 points (5/11 fg, 4/6 ft), 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 turn overs

I think it's safe to say that the drafting of DeMarcus Cousins has been the most raved about signing by the Kings since Petrie's been in charge. Today was our very first chance to see him wear that Kings uniform and go at it.

More than anything else, he showed that he's got immense offensive skills. And not fluffy offensive skills that we've been accustomed to seeing in our big men, but powerful offensive skills. He's showing to be a very good passer, both in finding the open man when double-teamed, and hitting cutters at the rim.
He had a few nice post moves, and really didn't seem to be bothered by anyone that the Pistons threw at him.
It's clear that he's going to have to work on establishing better low-post position, as he seemed to allow himself to be pushed out a bit further than I'd like. Of course, he hit a face-up jumper as well as a fade-away, but he seemed a bit too content to attempt that sort of shot, and even if he can make it, I'd like to see him more dominant in the post, especially against the competition he's facing.

He also showed good rebounding skills. He had a number of very good rebounds in traffic, and he showed a willingness to outlet those rebounds to guards streaking down the court. Of course, this did cause him to turn it over more than if he'd just held on to it, so he'll have to be more selective in his outlet passes.

Also, it looked as if he was getting a bit tired, and he allowed the Pistons to secure an offensive rebound or two that he should have been able to control, but getting into the right condition will take him some time.

His defense wasn't porous nor was it spectacular. He definitely was not a weak-side threat, though after the first part of the game, he did play good man defense. He's got good footwork, and he looks to be quick enough to slide into position to take charges, so I expect his man defense to be very solid eventually.

All-in-all a good outing for Cousins. He tried to do too much, which led to a few unnecessary turn-overs, but he was clearly the dominant big man out there, and there wasn't anyone on the Pistons who could stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He completely dominated the 'big-man' match-up against Monroe, and made it clear that the Kings are very fortunate to have picked him up.

I do want to mention that the crowd out here loved him. So I'm sure he was definitely feeding off of the support.

Sacramento Kings: Hassan Whiteside (7'0 Forward/Center)
28 minutes, 5 points (2/5 fg), 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 5 blocks, 2 turn-overs

Hassan was the crowd favorite tonight. All game long I kept hearing, "Where is that kid from?".

Hassan isn't nearly as polished as Cousins as a basketball player, but his instincts, timing, length, and quickness in regards to blocking shots is at an NBA elite level right now.

He made his presence known on the court and in my mind was the primary reason why our defense was so elite. As I mentioned, the best part of the King's game was the complete denial of the Pistons from getting half-court points in the paint. And that had everything to do with Hassan lurking near the rim just waiting for someone to hap-hazardly throw something up.

One thing I really liked about Hassan's game, at least in this initial one, was that he seemed perfectly content to just be that elite intimidator. I didn't see him getting frustrated for lack of touches, which is exactly the mindframe you want from him.

He took one mid-range shot which he missed, but had a very smooth-looking post move. That move was over Monroe, and Monroe did absolutely nothing to challenge the shot.

His other basket came from him running the floor hard and finishing with a dunk in transition.

He had a goal-tend called, but I have zero problems with him picking up a goal-tend a game, if he can also deliver 2+ blocks a game while forcing opponents to alter their shots to avoid being blocked. His defense was key to the King's success tonight.

Sacramento Kings: Donald Sloan (6'3 Guard)
20 minutes, 6 points(1/5 fg, 4/6 ft), 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 turn-over

So we signed Sloan to a minimum deal, and today was the first time I've had the opportunity to watch him play.

I was actually pleased with his performance in the 1st half of the game. He seemed to have good handles, and was looking to run sets and get the ball where it needed to be.
Early in the 1st quarter he had a great behind-the-back dribble into the lane, and later on in the 1st quarter he had another good penetration into the lane.
He wasn't able to hit his shots, but I didn't seem him force anything.

In the second quarter he mis-handled the ball while dribbling for his 1 turn-over, and later in the 2nd quarter he completely let his man drive right past him to the rim. I wasn't pleased with his defense on that possession.
One of the last things he did in the 2nd quarter was a great fast break finish.

I don't have any notes for him for the 3rd and 4th quarters, mainly because Tyrese Rice seemed to get the majority of those minutes in the 2nd half.

So, all-in-all I thought it was a decent first outing for him. He didn't force anything on the offensive end, and other than the one play, he played good defense.


Sacramento Kings: Ryan Thompson (6'6 Guard/Forward)
18 minutes, 12 points(4/5 fg, 4/5 ft), 1 rebound, 1 assist

I watched Ryan play two games in the Orlando summer league before heading out to Vegas. In both of those games he played very good defense, and had an 'attack the rim' mentality.

I expected this game to be a battle between Ryan and Sylven for a shot at our SG roster spot. Ryan got the start in this one, and had a very, very good game.

He started off with the Kings first two baskets, and one of them an offensive rebound and put-back. That's as good a start as you can get.
He also hit a long jumper early in the game to show his range. Just from watching him in Orlando his outside shot is a bit inconsistant, but he didn't show any inconsistancies into today's game.

On defense, unfortunately he was matched up against Austin Daye. Ryan probably outweights him, but Daye is not only taller than him, but much longer as well. Despite the length disadvantage Ryan was able to keep Daye in front of him, and use his body to keep Daye off balance and out of rhythm.

Ryan didn't get much playing time in the 2nd or 4th quarters, but in the 3rd he had a nice aggressive take to the basket for the bucket and 1. He also played good defense against Daye again.

It was a very good game for Ryan and he showed the coaches that they made the right decision in giving him the start.


Sacramento Kings: Sylven Landesberg (6'6 Guard)
4 minutes, 6 points, 1 rebound

I just want to mention Sylven, as most of you did not see him play due to the Stern TV interruption.
He came in with 4 minutes to play, and played very well.

He was very aggressive and attacked the rim, getting 3 buckets in those 4 minutes. He showed good handles, and I look forward to seeing him get more playing time soon.

I will say that he definitely does not look as big as Ryan Thompson. Ryan looks to be much thicker, and can probably play the 3 spot as well as the 2 spot, while Sylven looks to be too slight to be able to play the 3 spot. In fact, I don't think that Sylven would have had any change in guarding Austin Daye today, which is probably the main reason that Ryan got the start and the majority of the minutes.


Sacramento Kings: Donte Greene (6'11 Forward)
18 minutes, 11 points (5/11 fg, 1/1 ft), 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 2 turn-overs

Donte got the start today over Casspi and promptly got his face smashed by an elbow from Monroe I believe. I don't have any notes for him in the 1st quarter, so with blood on his jersey and cotton up his nose he came out and had a solid game today.

Of course, it isn't a game for Donte with-out an out-of-control drive, and early in the 2nd quarter he drove, left his feet, and committed the bad pass for the turn-over. But he only had 2 turn-overs today, and his shot selection was actually fairly good. He only took 1 three-point attempt, which he missed, but he was basically in attack mode when getting the ball. He had a good mid-range pull-up, a good post and kick to Casspi for 3, and one of his really nice drives into the lane with the drop-off for the dunk.

He had two blocked shots, but didn't do as good a job closing on DeJaun Summers as he should have. Having watched Summers play, a lot of his game comes from that long-range jumpshot, so Donte should have played him better in that regard. I'll consider it a lack of paying attention to the scouting report, because his defense against Summers when Summers had the ball was fine, he just didn't do a good job in closing out.

Also, Donte has to get better at rebounding the ball. Only claiming 2 rebounds in 18 minutes is not acceptable for someone with his length. It could be his lack of rebounding that costs him the starting SF job, and I for one want to see him win that starting position. But he's going to have to step it up in the rebounding department.

Sacramento Kings: Omri Casspi (6'9 Forward)
20 minutes, 16 points (5/10 fg, 5/6 ft), 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turn-overs

This is one of those games where I don't think the box-score tells the story. I was sitting behind a father and his son who obviously had no real interest in the Kings. After being in the game for about 5 minutes, everytime Casspi would get the ball either the kid or the dad would say something like "He's not going to pass it. He's going to take that shot."

Now, he shot well from the field, but it did look like a fairly selfish shooting performance from Casspi today, especially when people who don't have any investment start commenting on it early into the game.

With that said, he did have a good game. He rebounded well, he did make two nice passes for assists. One for Donte and the other for Hassan. He hit one of his 3 three point attempts, and shot better from the line than we're used to seeing.

 

[Uncia03]

Day 1: Kings vs. Pistons (continued)

Sacramento Kings: Tyrese Rice (6'1 Guard)
18 minutes, 15 points(5/8 fg, 4/4 ft), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turn over

Tyrese got the majority of the 2nd half minutes at the PG spot.
He shot very well from the field, hit his 3-point shot, and all of his free-throws.
With all that said, I wasn't happy with his performance, and felt that Donald Sloan played the better game.
The primary reason was due to his defense.
As I mentioned, the thing which impressed me the most about this game was the defense, and Rice did a poor job in my opinion on the defensive end.
The Kings gave up 3 3-point shots in this game, and 2 of those three came due to poor close-outs by Rice on his man. (1 by Sosa the other by Slaughter).

He also allowed his man to get better penetration into the lane. So though he ended up with the 15 points, he allowed 6 back on the 2 three-pointers, plus hurt the overall team defense by not being able to keep the opposing guard out of the lane as well as Sloan did.

He also didn't seem to spend much time or effort in trying to run set plays and get the team involved. He had more of the gunner mentality, and since he was shooting so well it worked out for him, but I'm not certain he's as good a shooter as the numbers indicated tonight.


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That's all I'm going to discuss as far as Kings players as I don't think that either Wayne Chism or Dionte Christmas are going to have a chance to make the roster, though I felt that Chism had a solid game for us today.


Detroit Pistons: Greg Monroe (6'11 Forward/Center)
25 minutes, 7 points(3/7 fg, 1/2 ft), 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 4 turn-overs

I'm so relieved that we did not select Greg Monroe, and that we had the opportunity to draft Cousins. First of all, when watching him play at Georgetown I always looked at him as a powerforward. Later, prior to the draft there was the discussion of playing him at center. In this game, he played the PF position, and after watching, I don't think he's cut out to play the Center position.

He was not very aggressive at all and didn't really seem to make much of an impact in this game. He was most aggressive at the very end of the game when we brought in all the reserves, and he made a concerted effort to get into post position and score, though he had little success doing so.

The defensive efforts of Cousins and Whiteside really hampered his ability to get into an offensive rhythm, and it showed with only 7 shot attempts in the game, and only a single assist, and four turn-overs.

Hassan scored easily over him, in his one attempt at a post move, and Cousins had no problems getting position and finishing in the post the one or two times that Monroe ended up being the man to guard him.

So not a great game for Monroe. I just thought he was very passive against our new frontline, and didn't show the skills he was supposedly drafted so high for.

There was no doubt that Cousins was the superior talent, and even Whiteside had a bigger impact on the game.

Detroit Pistons: Austin Daye (6'11 Forward)
17 minutes, 5 points(0/7 fg, 5/5 ft), 0 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turn-overs

Daye was one of the players I most enjoyed watching in summer league last year. He had a couple of very, very good games.

Today was a complete debacle.

Everything was off for him today, and I think the credit really has to go to the King's defense.
Daye airballed two 3-pt shots, and was heavily contested for everything he put up. He was able to get into the lane a couple of times and draw the foul, but was never given any room to maneuver in the lane and get off a good shot attempt.

He's an excellent rebounder with his size and length, but he wasn't able to grab a single one, which is very unusual for him. I think the Kings really threw him off balance, and he struggled the entire game.

Detroit Pistons: DeJaun Summers (6'8 Forward)

Summers usually plays well in summer league. He is built in such a manner that you'd think he'd be a post player, but his game relies more on hitting the long spot jumper, and then attacking the rim if you try and close out to quickly on him.

He didn't shoot well from the floor, but was able to get to the line and convert at a high percentage.
He didn't have as good a game as normal, and again I'll give the credit to the King's defense.

 

[Uncia03]

Day 1: Mavericks vs. Bucks

I was really looking forward to watching this game because one of my favorite players from last year’s summer league was in it. I first saw Rodrigue Beaubois in a head-to-head match-up against Brandon Jennings. In my mind Beaubois completely outplayed Jennings in that game. The next game I saw of Beaubois he put up over 30 points while having around 8 assists, and dominated that game. The last game I saw of his, he didn’t do very well, but basically took the team on his shoulders to win the game in the last 10 minutes. So I had never seen him play prior to summer league, and came away very, very impressed.
He plays for Dallas and I was looking forward to seeing him play again. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a very fun game to watch. It was fairly sluggish, with-out a whole going on. What ultimately made this game great was the ending.

Dallas Mavericks: Rodrigue Beaubois (6’2 Guard)
30 minutes, 15 points(6/14 fg, 0/2 ft), 0 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 6 turn-overs

Beaubois didn’t play that well for much of this game. He ended up with 7 assists but coupled that with 6 turn-overs. He over-dribbled and got himself into trouble quite a number of times. He also didn’t manage to collect a single rebound the entire game.

However, he played very good basketball for the closing of the game. With the Mavericks down in the fourth quarter he hit a pair of huge 3’s to get them close and another basket to get them tied in the final minute. The Bucks then ended up scoring on a broken play with 0.3 seconds left. The Mavericks called time out, and Beaubois made a beautiful inbounds play which was tipped in by J.R. Giddens to send the game into overtime. (Overtime is only 2 minutes long.) The lead went back and forth, but Beaubois hit the game winning basket with 0.7 seconds left in overtime.

It was a very exciting game to watch the final minutes, and Beaubois was the reason the Mavericks pulled out the victory.

Dallas Mavericks: Dominic Jones (6’4 Guard)
35 minutes, 9 points(3/12 fg, 3-4 ft), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 3 turn-overs

Dominic Jones was another reason why I wanted to watch this game. As you’ll recall he was one of the more popular choices for the King’s 2nd round draft pick prediction. A 6’4 guard who could possibly fit well next to Tyreke. At the time I was disappointed when he was selected by Memphis as the 25th pick in the draft, and was even more bummed when he was traded to the Mavericks for cash. Of course Whiteside was still on the board, so it was all fine and dandy, but I was curious to see how he was going to play.
He did not have a very good shooting game, but he did have a good all-around game. He had some rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals. Two of his three shots came from nice drives and finishes at the rim. He didn’t do anything which really stood out, but was a solid contributor.


Dallas Mavericks: Omar Samhan (6’11 Center)
33 minutes, 9 points(3/11 fg, 3-4 ft), 9 rebounds, 1 block, 4 turn-overs

I was rooting for Omar to have a good game today, and I’m afraid that he did not. He ended up with 9 rebounds for the game which was great, but he just lacks the athleticism and power to really have an impact in the league. The Bucks don’t have any centers on their team who got minutes in this game, and Omar was not able to take advantage of the fact that he was playing against PFs for the night. His primary match-up was against forward Darnell Jackson (6’8 250), and he wasn’t able to get to double-digit points while shooting 3/11.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t have the quickness to be able to guard Jackson, so as he didn’t really have another big body to match up with on defense, his overall defense did not look good. Had he been able to make the Bucks pay for going small on the other end, then it might have been ok, but he was unable to do so. He collected rebounds, but he was the biggest guy on the court and didn’t really have as much impact as he should have given the players he was matched up against.

Milwaukee Bucks: Larry Sanders (6’11 Forward)
33 minutes, 9 points(4/15 fg, 1-2 ft), 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 6 turn-overs

Sanders was the Buck’s 1st round pick and was the main player on a somewhat underwhelming Bucks summer league roster. I’ll be honest. I don’t have a whole lot of notes for Sanders for this game. Basically he had a nice offensive rebound tip-in which caught my eye in the 3rd quarter, but beyond that nothing really stood out. There weren’t any moments where he caught my eye and demanded that of the 10 players on the floor I should be noticing him.

The Bucks fielded other players such as explosive athlete Deron Washington, questionable character Sean Williams, and big Tiny Gallon. But none of these players really had a ‘stand-out’ moment in this game.

 

[Uncia03]

Day 1: Wizards vs. Clippers


This was the last game of the day and the ‘headliner’ in many ways. The Cox Pavilion was absolutely packed with everyone wanting to see John Wall, and a huge contingent of Clipper fans in attendance.
I was looking forward to this game due to all the talent on these teams. I knew that Blake Griffen wasn’t going to be playing, but the Clippers still field a talented summer league roster.

One thing I want to mention is Clipper Darrell. If you don’t know who he is, he attends all the Clipper games and wears a suit which has a solid blue half and a solid red half, and he tries to get clipper fans excited during games by leading cheers and the like. He was fairly obnoxious in today’s game. Everytime John Wall went to the free-throw line he’d chant “Oh-ver ray-ted”, and he was yelling stuff out on the court for the first half of the game. Once the Wizards had basically beaten down the Clippers he didn’t say much for the last half of the game, but I’ll tell you what. I would imagine that John Wall isn’t going to forget about that, and will be looking to put together dominant performances against the Clippers when he faces them

The final item I want to mention before getting to the players is that this looked to be a great match-up between John Wall and Eric Bledsoe. As freshmen teammates at Kentucky, you know they went at each other in practice, and I know that Bledsoe had a lot of motivation to try and prove himself against Wall in today’s game.


Washington Wizards: John Wall (6’4 Guard)
28 minutes, 18 points(6/11 fg, 8/8 ft), 1 rebound, 10 assists, 5 steals, 8 turn-overs

Wall showed what he’s good at as well as what he needs to work on in today’s game. He was able to get into the lane on a very consistent basis and either finish at the rim, get fouled, or kick to an open man. He got to the foul line 8 times, hitting all of his free-throws, which is a good sign as he looks to be an aggressive player who will be spending a lot of time at the foul line.

He also showed fairly good consistency with pulling up and hitting his mid-range jumpshot. He did this a lot at Kentucky and showed this aspect of his game again today. He took and missed 2 3-pt shots, and that clearly is not his strong suit at this point in time.

Defensively he’s a big guard who is very quick, and he took advantage at Bledsoe’s over-dribbling to get a good number of steals in this game.
One the fast break he had one full-court take with the great finish and one, while on another fast break he had a nice alle-oop pass for the slam.

The biggest downside to his game today was the turn-overs. He had 10 assists, but also had 8 turn-overs. Most of those turn-overs came in the half-court set, on entry passes which were either too hard to handle, or ill-advised passes where he thought he could slip the ball through the defense and wasn’t successful. He also had a turn-over or two where he was just going too fast for his own good and couldn’t keep control of the ball.
I’m certain he’ll learn better recognition of what he can and can’t do as far as passing the ball in the half-court set while working to ensure that he doesn’t get out of control by going too fast, but it’s clearly something that he’s going to need to work on.


Washington Wizards: JaVale McGee (7’0 Center)
24 minutes, 10 points(3/10 fg, 4/6 ft), 12 rebounds, 5 turn-overs

McGee played very well in last year’s summer league, and also had a great game against the Kings last year. He’s starting his 3rd year, and I expected him to play very well today.

McGee basically controlled the boards for the Wizards in this game. He was the only player with double-digit rebounds on either team, and had almost twice as many rebounds as any player on the Clippers.
He had a good number of offensive rebounds, but only once was he able to get the put-back. He didn’t do very well on the offensive end, mostly because he was being challenged by DeAndre Jordan who was able to consistently bother McGee’s shot.

Though McGee did not have any blocks, he actually had a decent defensive game. Eric Bledsoe was very aggressive in attacking the lane, and McGee did a very good job in challenging those shots and forcing Bledsoe to make adjustments. He also did a good job keeping DeAndre Jordan from getting good position for easy scoring opportunities.
So a solid game from McGee, and his rebounding really helped the Wizards take control of the game while cruising to an easy victory.

Washington Wizards: Nick Young (6’6 Guard)
28 minutes, 18 points(6/11 fg, 2/2 ft), 1 rebound, 2 steals, 1 block, 2 turn-overs

I was surprised to see Young play as he wasn’t on the summer league roster. He’s going into his 4th year in the league, but I think it makes sense as he’ll be spending a lot of time with Wall and the coaching staff probably wants him to have the opportunity to get comfortable playing with their newest star addition.
Young always does well in summer league, as this environment is tailored-made to showcase his talents. Today was no different. He was 4/7 from the 3-pt line, and he just spotted up and waited for Wall to kick it out to him. He also made a really tough turn-around 3 point shot with time running down.
But he didn’t do much else beyond shooting the ball. One of his turn-overs came from him over-dribbling, and he gambled too much on defense. He picked up 2 steals, but hurt the team defense a couple occasions as well.



Los Angeles Clippers: Eric Bledsoe(6’1 Guard)
33 minutes, 17 points(6/15 fg, 5/8 ft), 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 10 turn-overs

Bledsoe was completely charged up to go against Wall in today’s game. You could just tell that he considered this game to be a statement game.
Bledsoe was very active on both offense and defense. He did a fairly good job on defending Wall, but wasn’t able to stay with Wall when McGee would come and set a screen.

I have a lot of notes for Bledsoe in this game and they almost all follow the same pattern. “Great drive into the lane with the finish.” “Dribbling turn-over in the lane.” “Good move into the lane and kick-out.” “Penetration into the lane with a bad pass.”

He did a great job getting into the lane, but also had a number of turn-overs due to trying to do too much, and he made a number of bad passes when getting cut off and finding himself in a position with no-where to go.
All-in-all it was a good game for Bledsoe. He tried to do way, way too much and that hurt him with some bad passes, dribbling turn-overs and forced shots. But he played better defense against Wall than I thought he would, and he clearly has the ability to be able to get into the lane and he has the explosiveness to finish strong. One thing I liked was that he didn’t take any 3-pt shots. That isn’t his game right now, and he at least tried to maximize what he does best.


Los Angeles Clippers: Al-Farouq Aminu(6’9 Forward)
30 minutes, 11 points(3/9fg, 5/7 ft), 7 rebounds, 1 block, 3 turn-overs

When the Clippers selected Aminu in the draft I felt it wasn’t a good pick for them. They desperately needed help in getting a SF who can space the floor with his shooting. Aminu does not fit that at all. Aminu is a great rebounding tweener-forward with a PF’s game and lacks the shooting and ball-handling needed to play the SF spot. With Blake Griffen being the starting PF for the Clippers, it forces Aminu to have to play the SF spot with-out having the necessary small forward skills.
All this played out in today’s game.

Aminu did lead the Clippers in rebounding, but with only 7 rebounds it’s more a statement of DeAndre Jordan’s lack of rebounding than anything else. He was very active on the offensive glass, collecting 4 of his 7 rebounds on the offensive end, but he was only able to convert one of those offensive rebounds into a put-back basket.
He does not have good ball-handling skills, and I believe that all 3 of his turn-overs came when he decided to put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket. At the tail-end of the game, he finally had a successful drive to the basket with a strong finish through contact, but that was the only time he had success there.
As far as his shooting goes, it’s clearly not his strength. He had a horrible shot off the dribble, and for some reason he took three 3-pt shots, missing them all.
He did get to the line a good number of times and shot fairly well from there, collecting half of his total points from the charity stripe.
He showed a good amount of athleticism and a willingness to bang with the big boys, but these tendencies just show his preference for playing the PF’s game rather than the SF’s game, and I’m not certain that is what the Clippers need of him going into the regular season.


Los Angeles Clippers: DeAndre Jordan(6’11 Center)
27 minutes, 9 points(3/7 fg, 3/10 ft), 3 rebounds, 1 block, 5 turn-overs

Jordan did not have a good game today. McGee just killed him on the boards, and though he was active and got fouled, he had a miserable experience at the line shooting 30%.
He had five turn-overs, four of them coming when he brought the ball down or put it on the floor in the post, and the other coming on the fast break. He also missed a couple of gimme shots which he should have made.
He did play good defense against McGee and was able to keep McGee from getting good position and easy looks, but it was still a game which I’m certain he’ll want to forget.


Los Angeles Clippers: Nick Caner-Medley(6’9 Forward)
28 minutes, 17 points(4/9 fg, 6/6 ft), 4 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 steal, 3 turn-overs

I don’t have any notes for Caner-Medley. If you all recall, he played on our summer league team 2 years ago, and showed that he’s a great hustle player who has some skills. He always plays well in summer league and I expected him to have a good game. He didn’t disappoint in that regard. Unfortunately he can’t quite seem to make an NBA roster, and since I have a good feel for his game I didn’t feel it was necessary to keep tabs on him.

 

[Uncia03]

Placeholder
Day 1: Wizards vs. Clippers

Didn't need the place-holder.

This concludes the Day 1 games. Sorry it took so long to get posted.

I've got half of Day 2 games already written up, so I should have all of those finished tonight. We'll see about Day 3...

 

[Purple Reign]

How much are the tickets at the door? I will be down there on Friday.

 

[Uncia03]

How much are the tickets at the door? I will be down there on Friday.

They are $25/person for the day. 1st game starts at 1pm each day.
Kings play at 3pm on Friday against the Raptors, which should be a really good game if Demar Derozan plays as well on Friday as they did tonight against Houston.

 

[Bricklayer]

If you continue giveing us 20,000 words per SL game I am going to feel nothing but shame at my own laziness.

 

[pshn80]

Brick, I read yours and his, both good and useful to me. Please keep it up. Thanks

 

[NME]

Thanks again for the detailed writeups!

 

[Uncia03]

If you continue giveing us 20,000 words per SL game I am going to feel nothing but shame at my own laziness.

*chuckle*

Well, at least you're getting yours out on time.

Fortunately tomorrow there isn't a game so I'll have all day to finish up Day 1, and get the write-up for yesterday's games and today's games. I was hoping to at the least have Day 1 finished before today's round of games, but it's not going to happen. Just way too much basketball going on.

 

[Uncia03]

Finished the write-up for the Day 1 games. (Mavericks vs. Bucks and Wizards vs. Clippers)

 

[sono]

How did I miss this thread... suggestion, can you finish the Kings games first for the 2nd & 3rd days? (means wink) please...

 

[Boogie-havoc]

Thanks for the insights m8, joy to read