Vegas Summer League - Day 1

Uncia03

Uncia03

Starter
#1
#1
I'm fortunate enough to be in attendance for all five of the Kings games in summer league. I've made at least one Kings game during SL the last few years, and decided to go all out, and spend the whole week this time, especially with all the excitement surrounding our team this year.
Since I'm there, I decided to jot down some notes on what I saw from all of the games during those five games. I know that CruzDude will be doing his normal SL thing for the last three Kings games, so this will just be another perspective from someone there in attendance.

I thought it was going to be strange to actually take a look at the boxscores after getting back from the games to see if what I saw taking place on the court was being reflected in the box scores. It's quite interesting, with the rookie ref's, 10 allowed fouls, and the pre-season mentality. With that said, here are my thoughts on the first four games of the 2009 Summer League:

Game 1: Rockets (Go Adelman!) vs. Warriors

Before each game I took a look at the Roster and told my wife which team I expected to win, based on who was going to be on the court. I glanced at the program and said definitively, "The warriors are going to win this one handily".

I saw Chase Budinger and Joey Dorsey on the team and that was all who caught my eye for Houston. For the Warriors I saw Anthony Randolph, Stephan Curry, Acie Law, and Anthony Morrow.

When the game started, Houston started Joey Dorsey at Center which I don't consider his position, and Chase Budinger didn't start. For the Warriors, Anthony Morrow didn't start, and did not play. I don't know if he was in attendance or not.

The Houston offense was really bad at the start. The ball was just being dumped to Dorsey and he had to try and figure out where to move the ball so they could get a decent shot. It did not look in sync at all.
On the opposite end, Acie was bringing the ball up the court for the Warriors but it was almost exclusively being handled by either Curry or Randolph. It was clear it was a two-man team for the Warriors on the offensive end.

Golden State: Stephan Curry
The crowd was really in favor of Curry, in fact, I think he was the most popular player from a crowd-perspective all day long. His first shot of the night was a one where he curled around a screen, got set at around 18 feet, had the ball passed to him, and hit the jumper. Quite a bit of cheering. For Randolph, he also took an 18-foot shot early, (1st or 2nd shot) and hit it, so it looked as if the Warriors were going to run away with it.

At the start of the game, Houston had Wil Conroy (6'2 guard) covering Curry. A few minutes into the game they moved James White (6'7 G/F) onto Curry, and White completely shut Curry down. White made a few defensive lapses where he left his defensive assignment going for a poke-away steal, or trying to bring some help-defense, and in those moments Curry was able to get free, and hit the shot if he was set and given the ball.

On the defensive side, Curry guarded Wil Conroy, and did decently. Didn't lock him down, but didn't really hurt his team either.

Curry handled the ball quite a bit. He has a fairly good handle, but had almost zero success getting into the lane. He also shot extremely poorly off the dribble. He might have made one of his shots that way. His other buckets came from coming off screens, getting that second to set himself, having his teammate find him the ball and getting the shot off.

As expected, he did well from the free-throw line.

As far as passing goes: He wasn't able to get into the lane much, and so finding open teammates by drawing in the defense didn't happen. He made one very nice fast-break half-court pass to Anthony Randolph for a duck. He also made once nice pick n' roll pass to a cutting big man wide open under the basket. Those are the two assists I remember, boxscore has him with three so that third one wasn't memorable to me.

All in all, I wasn't too impressed with Curry today. He couldn't shoot off the dribble, so he had to find his offense by having other players hit him off of screens. He also didn't have the quickness to get into the lane and break down the defense. His defense was decent, but the man he was guarding didn't really look to be trying for his own shot.

Golden State: Anthony Randolph

By far the best player on the floor for the Warriors. I'm constantly working to get my wife into all the details, and told her that it was going to be interesting watching Randolph's NBA career and sizing it up against JT's. Tonight, Randolph looked very, very good. I think one of the reasons why was due to the match-ups.

As I mentioned earlier, Dorsey played Center, and I would have preferred to see a Dorsey/Randolph match-up. Instead I got a Maarty Leunen(6'9 220)/Randolph match-up. And Randolph was just a much, much better athlete and a far more skilled player than Leunen.

I mentioned earlier, he hit his first outside (20 ft) shot of the night, which was probably a bad thing. Boxscore has him 10/17 from the floor, and I'd say that most of those misses were from 18-20 feet. It's clear that he really needs to work on his outside shot. I just don't think he's going to be a natural 4, and he'll need that outside shot if he wants to play the 3. His ball-handling skills for his size was just as good as its been, very smooth driving in to the basket. (I really wish Donte could improve his handle to that degree)

He rebounded well, but the same things I saw last year plagued him this year. He picked up a lot of fouls by being far too aggressive on the defensive end. He's going to have to learn how to pick his spots or tone it down, or he's going to find it difficult staying on the floor.

But over-all, he looked very smooth and athletic out there. He had a number of very nice dunks as well as takes to the basket.

Houston: Joey Dorsey

I felt that Dorsey was the 2nd best player on the floor for the Rockets. I think it hurt him a bit playing at the Center spot, but it was clear he was the primary player for them when the game first started. As I mentioned earlier, it looked as if the initial offensive plan was to get him the ball either in the low post (didn't happen much) or in the high post, and then have him try to move the ball to a place where a shot could be taken.

In looking at the box score I see that he had 2 assists. I was surprised, because I remember two absolutely fantastic assists from him in the game, and thought he had a few other pedestrian ones as well. The two assists he had were beautiful passes from the high post to a cutter for a lay-in.
He also had the five TO's which isn't surprised given the amount of time he had the ball in his hands.

Houston: James White

I had not seen or heard of this guy before. 6'7 2oo lbs G/F, 2nd year out of Cincinnati, and I thought was the best player on the floor for the Rockets, and the reason why they won today's game.

As I mentioned earlier, he completely shut down Stephan Curry. I think Stephan might have put up 4 points in the 20+ minutes they were matched up against each other. He was able to fight through screens very effectively to keep close to Curry, and with his length and quickness, Curry had almost no chance of getting by him.

In addition, White is a slashing offensive player, and though he could work on his handle a bit more, he was very aggressive at hitting the seams and getting to the bucket.

He was 3/7 from the field but 7/8 from the line, which is basically in line with what I saw. He got to the rim, and was fouled a bit. His 1 assist reflects that he was looking to score, and his 4 TOs shows that his handle needs some more work.

But he had the biggest impact on the floor when he was in the game, both from a defensive end, and from an offensive end putting a lot of pressure on the Warrior's defense.

Houston: Daryl Watkins

When Joey Dorsey went to the bench, they announced his replacement as Daryl Watkins. I completely did not see him when I first glanced at Houston's roster, and so had another player to keep an eye on.

The box score shows him with 3 rebounds and 0 points in 15 minutes. I have to say that the boxscore does not do him justice at all. He was very good around the glass in this game. He was active on both the offensive and defensive end and kept balls alive, or away from opposing players on a lot of the possessions. Even though he only ended up with 3 boards, I'd probably give him at least another 5 he was responsible for helping his team acquire.

He missed a set 15 foot jumper which I remember him making consistently back when he played for our summer league team, and he missed another shot around the rim. But his energy and hustle on the glass was instantly noticable when he came off the bench.

Houston: Chase Budinger

It was going to be very interesting to see how Chase Budinger played after falling so far on draft night. It's actually quite funny, because during warm-ups I was going through the player roster, discussing the players with my wife, telling her what to look out for each team's players. While I was doing that she said, "Oh my! That guy can really jump!" I didn't see what caused her exclamation, but I glanced up and saw that it was Chase. So I explained to her that he was very athletic, how he had fallen in the draft, due to potential issues with softness, lack of handles, ect.

So how did he do? According to the boxscore it was 11 points on 5/11 shooting, 5 boards, 2 TOs in 20 minutes of work. That's what the boxscore said and that sounds pretty good, but he looked terrible out there.

I don't remember the 5 boards, and so most of them must have been the 'fall in my lap' variety, as I don't recall him going into traffic and pulling them down.

There was one play in particular where he was cherry-picking and got the ball on the break, and instead of dunking it, went for the lay-up and completely missed it.


He wasn’t able to drive the ball at all, just didn’t look as if he was helping much while he was on the floor.

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I'll be watching both teams play again tomorrow, so I'm curious how each of these players will fare after getting their first summer league game out of the way. For tomorrow, I'll add notes about any other player which happens to catch my eye.
It was nice to see what I thought to be an inferior Rockets team pull out the win.





 
Uncia03

Uncia03

Starter
#2
#2
Game 2: Kings (Go Kings!) vs. Pistons

Once again I looked at the roster, saw what the Pistons had to bring to the floor and said with confidence, we're going to smash the Piston's today. *sigh*

I come all this way to watch the Kings play, and their game isn't my favorite of the day. The Houston/Warriors game was quite fun because it was back and forth all game long, and tight till the closing seconds. This game? It was just...bleh. I wanted to yell and scream, and for the most part I didn't feel as if there was much to get too excited about.

Going in, I was curious as to what the starting line-up was going to be. Were they going to play JT at the 4, and play John Bryant at the 5? If not, was Omri going to play the 3, with Greene at the 5, and JT at the 5?

Starting line-up was: Tyreke at the 1, Jerel McNeal at the 2, Donte at the 3, Brockman at the 4, JT at the 5.

My first thoughts were, "I hope Brockman dominates the boards, and gives us a reason to keep him on the team. My goodness McNeal looks small out there. There is no way he's 6'3"

I think the primary reason why we lost this game was due to free-throw shooting. FT shooting and turn-overs were the to main reasons, however I think the FT shooting was more important in this game, primarily due to the fact that had we hit our FT's early, the Pistons would not have been able to jump all over us early. But it seemed as if our shots weren't falling, that combined with missing our FT's killed us. The TO's obviously didn't help, but I was sitting there thinking, "How many FT's have we missed? We're killing ourselves right now." So I'm looking at the boxscore, and see 67.5% which is very poor, but compound that with the fact that we had 40 attempts, by far the most of any team of the night, and close to double what most teams took, it shows how much of an impact it had on us tonight. In comparison, the Lakers only had 14 FT attempts, made all 14, and ended up winning by 1 point. (bleh)

So I think if we can get ourselves up to 75% and continue to stay as aggressive, we'll do fine in the upcoming games.

I also really liked that we played fairly controlled on the defensive end, and probably were one of the best teams all day when looking at keeping out of foul trouble.

On to the players:

Sacramento: Tyreke Evans

To me, Tyreke far and away looked to be the best player on the floor for the Kings.
First the defense. For most of the game, he was covering Devon Washington (6'7 G/F). And Tyreke shut him down completely. Washington ended up having two field goals and I know that at least one of them (the put-back slam) was while Tyreke was not on the floor. I felt that Tyreke did a decent job fighting through screens and keeping on his man.

For the offense, he didn't seem to have any problems bringing the ball up. And just as advertised, he was able to get past his man and into the lane at will. It was fantastic seeing him move to post up his man, when he got a little guard trying to cover him. As mentioned, he got into the lane at will, looked to take the shot more than make the pass, but he made a number of great passes, where the shot taken was promptly missed depriving him of an assist.
The boxscore shows 2 assists and 4 TO's, but since he was be far the primary ball-handler for the Kings, and his teammates were missing everything left and right, it really is a misleading stat. I felt he did a great job at running the team, getting into the lane and making a good play. It will be interesting to see what the boxscore will say over the course of the next four games if his teammates can make some shots.
But there wasn't anyone on the Pistons who could stop him, and I would have liked to see him play more down the stretch.


Sacramento: Jason Thompson

I was very excited to see Jason Thompson back in action. So my first thoughts after a few minutes into the game were, "Wow, we are getting dominated on the boards."
Looking at the boxscore, it shows that we ended up killing the Rockets on the boards in the game, but at the start, we couldn't get a rebound to save our lives, and the Pistons were really taking advantage of us.
Boxscore only has JT with 3 rebounds, and I did not think it was that bad at all. I would have guessed around 7 by the end of the game, as I don't recall him being that terrible.
I consider his play today to be...ok. Not great, probably not even good, but decent. He was hustling down the floor to get into good offensive position a lot during the game, which is typical of him. I thought he was hustling through-out the game, but just wasn't making a huge impact. I was very pleased to see him it his free-throws, and hope that he can continue improvement in that area.
I really liked seeing him work on the block, and I hope that he continues to work hard on improving that part of his game.
So, an ok game, but not really much of an impact.

Sacramento: Donte Greene

This is another one of those games where the boxscore does not at all reflect what I thought I saw on the court. I was pretty disappointed with Donte today. My dream would be to see him bring it all together and become a major star for us at the 3-spot. He's still so young, and I'm going to give him a few years, but I really hope he realizes his potential.
On to the dissapointment...
Donte was not at all aggressive with the ball. I think it's due to his lack of handles, and he's got to improve that part of his game. I want to see him get the ball, and drive to the basket. Instead he was 3/9 from the field, and I'd say that 7-8 of those attempts were beyond 15 feet out. He was in the post one time that I remember, and made a good move but missed the shot (I think) and I was very happy to see the attempt. I want to see more of that from him.
The boxscore does show him doing other things. 7 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 TOs.
I don't really remember seeing 7 TOs. I would have guessed it closer to 4, maybe 5. His defense was decent, which was good to see.
I just need him to be more aggressive on the offensive end, and I think that improved ball handling skills are going to be required before he feels comfortable attacking the basket like he needs to.

Sacramento: Omri Casspi

Omri, Omri, Omri.
I was excited to get to see this guy play. And he looked absolutely terrible in the first half. Very, very bad, though he did have a nice pass during the horrible stretch.

He was losing his handle, making poor passes, not hitting his shot, just not looking good at all.

In the 4th quarter, he looked a little bit better. Hit a few shots, made a few nice passes, and played more under control. But all in all, a very poor game for him.

Now you know what I liked? I loved the fact that he was aggressive in going at the basket. Time after time, he would drive in and look to pass to an open teammate, or put up a shot. I truly hope Donte looks at his game and tries to follow in that.
Omri made some wonderful passes, which were created by his aggressive takes to the basket and then dishing to an open man, so that was great to see. But the poor shooting, lack of rebounding, and some really bad passes need to get cleaned up. Also, he needs to work a bit more on his handles, as there were a few times where he was driving to the basket, and things got pretty shaky.

Initially, it looks as if he's got more of a complete game than Donte, especially with the passing and the aggressiveness, and his athleticism was quite good, so we'll see.

I hope today, was 1st day jitters, and we'll see a more under-control Omri in tomorrow's game.

Sacramento: John Brockman

As I mentioned, one of the first things that came to me while watching the game, was that we were getting killed on the glass.
I was not happy with that, especially as we had Brockman in there, along side JT and Donte, and we should have owned the glass.

So I wasn't much impressed with Brockman at the start. With that said, after a couple of shaky minutes, he started to get things under control. He made a few wonderful hustle plays, diving for loose balls, and a great rebound where he came back for the ball and snagged it in traffic, which were memorable. So, in all, I think he played as advertised.
I want to watch him more over the next few games to see if I think he'll actually be able to make an impact for our team, but I'm rooting for him to keep the hustle and board cleaning up to a very high level.

Sacramento: Jerel McNeal

I've always liked the idea of finding the undrafted guy, picking him up, and watching him become a good piece for your team. So with that in mind, I was really looking forward to watching Jerel McNeal play today.

If his play continues as it did today, I do not want him anywhere near this team.

First is his size. He's listed as 6'3 and doesn't look anything close to that size. I know he's an undersized shooting guard, but he's far too undersized for my taste.
In this game, the Pistons decided to have Deron Washington (6'7) guard Tyreke, which meant Sean Singletary (6'0) was left to guard Jerel McNeal. You know what? It worked out pretty well for the Pistons. In an actual NBA game, the Pistons would have to decide if Sean Singletary should guard Kevin Martin or Tyreke Evans, and regardless of their choice, it would be an instant mis-match in favor of the Kings.

Jerel, due to his size, instantly negates the mis-match potential of Tyreke Evans, as the opposing team can have their PG guard Jerel. I don't like that at all.

Next is his defense. Sean was able to around him and set up his teammates almost everytime down the floor. Jerel could not keep in front of him, so his defense was inadequate.

Jerel had one good take to the hoop, other than that his offense was quite lacking. He only took 4 shots, and didn't seem to have the space to take wide-open 3-pointers, which is what he did so well in college.

He had only 1 rebound, and 0 assists, along with 4 turn-overs. Just very poor play all across the board.

It's interesting. At one point in the game, we took out Tyreke Evans and had on the floor: Jerel, Landry, Omri, Donte, and Battle. I asked my wife, "who's going to play the point guard?"
The next offensive play, was where Omri was over-dribbling at half-court trying to see what to do about the offense when he had the ball stolen and the Piston's laid it in. We played horribly during that stretch with a couple of TO's, so Jerel cannot play the PG spot, at least from what I saw in this game.

I wanted to like him, and was disappointed, we'll see how tomorrow goes for him.

Sacramento: Robert Battle

Battle looked huge out there. He's a definite space-carver. He hustled, scrapped, and played a very good game. I'm not certain if both he and Brockman have a place on this team together, and Brockman probably has the edge going into this thing, but it will be interesting to see if he can maintain this play through the Summer League. I think he'll be able to just due to his size, but then the question is, will that translate to the NBA.


Sacramento: John Bryant

I saw him warming up, and thought he had a good chance to start, with Spencer being out. He didn't play at all, so we'll see if he plays tomorrow.

 
Uncia03

Uncia03

Starter
#3
#3
Detroit: DaJuan Summers

He was very, very good today. Seemed to hit all of his set 15-18 jump shots, and did well on the boards. Was clearly the best player for the Piston's today. I really think that both JT and Donte should have played him far more closely than they did. Summers didn't show much ability in driving to the bucket, and they gave him room to get off his jumper all day long. I'll be watching him play tomorrow, and will be curious to see if he puts up another fantastic game.

Detroit: Austin Daye

Daye looked really slight out there. His frame is just noticably for being a reported 6'11. Compared to JT he looks like a sheet of paper.
With that said, he looked very good in the opening minutes of the game. Then suddenly I notice that he's out of the game, and realize that he was taken back early and I thought that perhaps he got injured. He finally did get back in the game later in the 3rd quarter, but he didn't start the 3rd. I guess he's ok, but I really thought he got injured, or maybe just extremely winded.
So he looked good for the opening minutes, then was taken out early, gone for a very long stretch, and looked poor when he finally returned.

Detroit: Sean Singletary

Looked nice and quick out there, which is to be expected. I felt he outplayed Jerel. The time or two when he had to guard Tyreke, he did poorly, as Tyreke is just so massive compared to him.

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As with the Rockets and Warriors, I'll be watching both teams play again tomorrow, so I'm curious how each of these players will fare after getting their first summer league game out of the way. For tomorrow, I'll add notes about any other player which happens to catch my eye.


Game 3: Raptors vs. Lakers (Boo!!!!!)

I'll be honest, I didn't really want to watch this game. The Lakers don't have any players of interest on their team that I want to watch, and though the Raptors have some players of interest, I didn't think that sitting in a stadium with a ton of Laker fans cheering their team on, would be worth watching the Raptors play.

I guess it's fun to speculate on whether or not Adam Morrison should be considered a bust or not. He's the only player on the Summer League team who should be on the team Roster, and he's not going to get any playing time.

In the end, I decided to suck it up, and be a basketball fan and watch the game. Also, I was really hoping to see the Raptors kill the Lakers.

This game was pretty close down to about 15 seconds, and the Lakers pulled away. I know it says that the Lakers won by a point, but really, they were up 4 with 3 seconds left, and hit a 3 bringing the score with-in one point.

As for the players:

LA: Adam Morrison

Is he bust? Will he get more than 5 minutes off the bench in LA?
Ultimately I think the answer is Yes, to the 1st and No to the 2nd. We'll see.
As far as this game goes, he played very well, and was probably the 2nd best player on the floor in this game.
He moved very well with-out the ball, and had a quick release on the catch and shoot. He hit his free-throws, had 5 rebounds, and more assists than turn-overs (3 to 2), so it was a very good game for him.
He also played very good defense against DeMar DeRozan.
I don't think any of this translates to getting off the bench in LA, but he did play well today.

LA: Ben McCauley

Who?
Haven't you heard, he's the dominator! Played the Center position today at 6'8.
He's the reason the Lakers won the game today. 24 points on 12/19 shooting, and 15 rebounds.
But....0 FT's, which should tell you everything about his game. All of his shots were outside of the paint, and he hit what would basically be the game winner with about 14 seconds left. (Adam Morrison would hit 2 FTs to cement things later).
To be honest, I saw him grab a good number of boards, but was shocked to see the 15 in the boxscore. It didn't seem like that dominate of a performance.

LA: Mustafa Shakur

Mustafa was playing for the Lakers today. I was curious to see if he'd improved his game since playing for us. He didn't show much of anything in today's game. Not memorable at all.

Toronto: DeMar DeRozan

He's the primary reason I watched the game today. He's the sort of player, that you could look back on in 5-10 years and say, "Wow, how could 8 teams have passed up DeRozan".
We'll see if he is ever able to go from a potential type of guy to a dominate NBA player.
If today is any indication, then the answer would be 'No'.

He was, really really bad out there today. I think it was nerves, because he was very tentative, and not aggressive at all.

He could not shoot the ball at all, and the 5/12 from the field sort of bear that out. I think he hit one outside shot today.
He also seemed to have no handles at all. He couldn't drive the ball past Adam Morrison, and he repeatedly tried through-out the game. I don't recall Morrison being a lock-down defender, so if DeRozan is struggling against Morrison, then he's in trouble.

He did have a few very athletic takes to the basket, however. So his athleticism was quite apparent in the game. Had two offensive boards, and one memorable put-back. He also did have one nice dribble-drive then pull-up from about 5-7 feet that went in.

But he wasn't aggressive with the ball because he couldn't get past Morrison, he had 3 TOs and 0 assists, which shows that he couldn't set up his teammates.

What also hurt was that he couldn't guard Adam Morrison. Morrison moved well with-out the ball, and DeRozan was unable to fight through screens and keep on Morrison. Morrison was also able to dribble fairly well against DeRozan, and get to his spots.

A poor showing, and one where he was completely outplayed by Adam Morrison as they went head-to-head for much of the game. I'm really hoping to see a better performance from him tomorrow.

Toronto: Patrick O'Bryant

I was really excited last year, when it looked as if we were going to get Patrick O'Bryant basically for free in one of our mid-season trades. We didn't get him, and I was curious to see how this young big was going to play today.

All in all, it was a tale of two sides of the court for Patrick. He did well on the offensive side. He showed a good feel around the basket, and I don't think took a shot outside of 5 feet. He had fairly decent post-moves and worked hard on getting his shot, and his 7/9 from the field bear that out.

However, he's a 7-footer and only picked up 5 boards in his 30 minutes of play, while allowing Ben McCauley to grab 15 boards, and 5 of those offensive boards.

Also his defense was not very strong at all in today's game.

We need a big man who can play man and weak-side defense, block shots, and pull down boards. From what I saw today, O'Bryant would not be bringing those things to our team if we had him.


Toronto: Quincy Douby

The crowd was having fun with Quincy's name through-out the game. It's expected, but it was strange hearing it, and it not being applied to my King's team.
As expected Quincy had his typical Summer League game. Had a few nice drives and floaters for baskets. Didn't look to pass the ball much, though he did have 2 assists and 0 TO's.
He was only 4/7 from the free-throw line, and had he hit all his shots the Raptors would have won the game.
So nothing different from Quincy today. 6/12 shooting for 16 points (0/3 3-ptr), 3 boards and 2 assists, with pretty decent defense.

------------------

I'm very bummed that I have to watch another Laker's game tomorrow, when they face off against Cleveland. I'll also be watching the Raptors tomorrow, and I expect to see DeRozan have a better game. We'll see.
 
Uncia03

Uncia03

Starter
#4
#4
Game 4: Bucks vs. Mavericks

I did not enjoy the previous game with the Lakers. The main guy I wanted to watch (DeRozan) had a horrible game and the Lakers hit all of their free-throws and won the game by a single point.

I gave the clear win to the Bucks with their roster. They had Joe Alexander, Brandon Jennings, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Jodie Meeks. I then saw Amir Johnson and had forgotten that they had acquired him from the Pistons.
That's a very good summer league roster.
For the Mavericks I saw no-one who really stood out to me. I knew that Rodrigue was a point picked up in the 2nd round, but his name was the only one I was familiar with. (Calathas, wasn't there as far as I could tell.)

As I'm not at all fond of the Mavericks, I was rooting for a nice blow-out by the Bucks.


Milwaukee: Joe Alexander

I remember when he was shooting up the draft board last year, and was really, really hoping that we wouldn't pick up this guy. I didn't think Petrie would do it, and was very happy to see him picked ahead of us. ( I was also happy, because I really wanted Bayless, and it meant one more spot closer to getting Bayless. Portland... :( )
I was at the summer league game last year when we played against the Bucks and I didn't think he looked good at all there.
This time around...?
First, he looks as if he's been very hard working in the weight room as he looks far more filled out then I remember last year.

Now, as to his potential, and his improvement as a basketball player goes, it doesn't look as if he's improved much at all. He did not look good out there today.
First of all, he still can't shoot. And by that I mean, couldn't hit broad side of barn, can't shoot. He was 4/18 today, and it looked that ugly out on the court.
Next, he can't finish. At all. He's a terrible finisher.
After watching him shoot the outside shot, you think you want him to be aggressive and take it strong to the rim.
And you know what? He does. He does a great job at taking it strong to the rim, the problem is that he can't finish.
He did end up going to the line 7 times, and hitting 6 of those 7, but it was just ugly. You figure that's around 21 possessions for 14 points, not good.
He had a stretch I think at the very end of the 2nd quarter and start of the 3rd, where he hit 3 of his four shots, then from the early 3rd till the very end of the game he completely disappeared. He had 12 points from around the 8 minute mark of the 3rd to around the 1 minute mark of the 4th. He couldn't finish, wasn't getting fouled, and was basically a waste of space.
He did have 7 rebounds which was nice, and a few of those rebounds were ones where he had to battle, but his 1 assist and 2 TOs combined with his offensive ineffeciency really made for a poor outing.


Milwaukee: Brandon Jennings

What to say, what to say.
I'm glad, really glad that we didn't pick him.

First, he was completely unable to penetrate and get into the lane. Both Beaubois and Miles were able to stay in front of him the entire game. He was only able to get into the lane once in the game, and in that drive, he got to the rim, but wasn't strong enough to finish. The Mavericks also really went after him when he was bringing it up the floor. They put a lot of pressure on him, and did a good job in making him struggle to initiate the offense.

During the game, he made I believe two entry passes into a big man in the post, neither of which were good enough passes to allow the big man to move into a scoring motion and get some points.

Because he couldn't penetrate, he couldn't drive and kick or break down the defense, which means his passes were very pedestrian. He also did very poorly on the fast break. I don't believe the Bucks scored any points on a fast break that he led.

He did have three assists, but all three were courtesy of Jodie Meeks. These assists were the "I'm going to pass it to Jodie who is going to immediately put up a shot."
He didn't really create the opportunity, just did a regular pass to the man with the hot hand who then put it up and in the basket.

Next, he couldn't shoot at all. Clank, clank, clank. Along with Joe Alexander, it was really painful. He had zero field goals in the first half.
Early in the second half, he took a poor 18-footer which went in. The next offensive play, someone passed him the ball, and he took a contested 3-pointer which went in. I don't think it was good for the team, when he made those two baskets in a row. He must have felt that he was on fire, because the next few possessions he threw up junk. Including one of those really annoying 3-point attempts with 20 seconds left on the shot-clock and none of his teammates anywhere in position to try and get a rebound. Suffice it to say, he missed all of the shots he took in the next 5-10 possessions.

He only had one more basket, which was a Quincy Douby special, a little floater in the lane. He then was intentionally fouled and got a few FTs to get his points into double digits, but the 3/12 shooting was really poor, and along side of Joe Alexander, just painful. His shot mechanics need major work.

On defense, he really struggled. Beaubois was able to blow by him at will.

There was also a point in the game, where he was frustrated and tried to snag the ball out of a Maverick's hands after the whistle was blown. A scuffle almost ensued.

Milwaukee: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

We all know that he had a fantastic season last year. As an undersized 4, he brings a lot of energy and good athleticism to the floor.

He didn't have that great of a game. For whatever reason, it almost seemed as if he wasn't there. He wasn't incredibly aggressive on offense, taking only 5 shots. It could be due to the fact that Alexander and Jennings were hoisting away. He was able to grab 5 boards, but that isn't much considering the 30 minutes he played.
All in all, he was pretty much a non-factor in this game.

Milwaukee: Amir Johnson

As I mentioned earlier, I had completely forgotten that the Bucks had acquired Amir, so I was looking forward to seeing how this big-man was coming along.

Amir had a terrible game. He only played 20 minutes due to foul trouble. I know the box score is only showing him with 7 fouls, but he picked up around 4 fouls in the first 5-8 minutes of the game. From there he then sat for most of the 1st half. He then picked up another quick 2 at the start of the third. He ended up playing a lot of the last 6 minutes or so of the game, but was never really in rhythm.

He had two memorable blocks, which were nice, but he missed some open shots and had 7 turn overs. All in all, just not a good game for him.

Milwaukee: Jodie Meeks

Jodie Meeks won the game for the Bucks. He didn't do anything spectacular, he just moved well with-out the ball, got himself free, and hit the shot when he got the ball.

He shot it well, wasn't a liability on defense, and was generally solid.

He couldn't create for himself, although he tried once or twice, but that didn't seem to be his game.


Dallas: Rodrigue Beaubois

As I mentioned, at the start of the game I was rooting for the Bucks since I don't like the Mavericks. I don't really like Joe Alexander or Brandon Jennings either, but was still pulling for the Bucks. However, it only took a few minutes for me to decide to root for the Mavericks to win this game. Mostly it was due to Beaubois. I'm looking at the box score and it is strikingly different to the game I saw played out on the floor. I hadn't really seen Beaubois play before, but in my opinion he was by far the best player on the floor in this game.

First his defense.
He completely shut down Brandon Jennings. Jennings wasn't able to get by him into the lane once. He also effectively harassed Jennings when Jennings was bringing the ball up the court.
At times he did get too aggressive in his coverage, so he'll need to work on that.

Next was his quickness. He was able to get past Brandon Jennings at will. It was very similar to the Sean Singletary/Jerel McNeal match-up, and Beaubois just blew past Jennings over and over again. He got into the lane, made the nice pass to a teammate, but as you can see from the box score with the 2 assists, his teammates either did not take the shot, or did not make the shot if they took it.

In addition to his drive and kick game, he made some great entry passes to big men in the post. So his passing, while not incredibly fancy, really was good, despite the 6 TO's it shows on the box score.

He was also very athletic, and even dunked the ball emphatically on an alley-oop jam.

If you asked me after tonight who I thought the best non-king players of the day were, I would have said Rodrigue Beaubois as my top choice with Anthony Randolph as my 2nd choice. Beaubois was just very impressive on that floor.

Dallas: Ahmad Nivins

This is another player I knew little about. I knew that Beaubois had been taken in the 2nd round, but I knew nothing about Ahmad Nivins.
However, after watching for about 3-4 minutes I really took notice of this guy. He was the 56th pick in the draft this year, and looks to have been a good one.
He was very athletic and made an impact right away. He only took 1-2 outside shots, preferring to mainly work around the basket, and he shot it well going 8 for 10.
I thought that he rebounded the ball much better than what the box score shows at 6 rebounds for the game. Perhaps much like Daryl Watkins, where he created the rebounding opportunity for his team.
He played good defense against Joe Alexander, keeping him from getting to the rim and finishing.

Nivins stood out as a solid player in today's game.

-----------------

I'm exhausted. I wasn't able to get to putting this together right after the game, and as it's taken a few hours to get all this down, I'm ready to crash for the night.

Since they aren't showing these games for free, I'll try to continue to give a break-down of each game, and the players which I'm taking notice of (for good or ill), so that you all can have the perspective of someone who is there.

I'll do the best I can, and though I can't promise that the next few games will be to this amount of detail, I'm hoping to provide this amount of detail for each day I'm there. Though I'm in Vegas for all of this week, I'm only attending the games on the days that the Kings play, as it's a very fair trade-off to spend the other days doing things my wife really wants to do. She's a sweatheart to come to Vegas and then spend 8 hours a day for five days watching basketball. (That's like heaven to me.) She's a fan, but she doesn't love it quite as much as I do.

For the last 3 Kings games, I might have some very brief thoughts on the Kings, but will probably just keep it short as Cruzdude will be there to officially represent KingsFan.Com. I'll still try to give detailed information for all the other games though.

Finally, I'm a bit bummed at the Summer League schedule. Tomorrow, all the teams that played today, play tomorrow except for one. So the only new team I get to watch is Cleveland. So due to this poor schedule design, I won't get to see Memphis play at all, and I wanted to see Thabeet play. And I'll only have the chance to see one Clipper game, but unfortunately, that one game is against the Lakers, so I have to sit and watch that horrible Laker team again if I want to see Blake Griffen play. *sigh*

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this break-down of the games, and I'll try to keep it coming for four more days.

Go Kings!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Emma

Emma

Starter
#10
#10
I'm surprised your wife didn't try to smash your computer, considering the amount of time and effort that went into that post.;)

Nice work.
 
SacKings7

SacKings7

Starter
#12
#12
Rubio is staying overseas for 2 years isn't he? So I'd assume he won't be participating in SL.

PS, thanks to the OP for posting this, great read.
 
Uncia03

Uncia03

Starter
#15
#15
ryanandty said:
I'm surprised your wife didn't try to smash your computer, considering the amount of time and effort that went into that post.;)

Nice work.
Click to expand...
She was asleep!

*grin*

A new day has started, so we'll be headed off in the next hour or so.

I'm really excited to see Tyreke go against Curry. I just hope they don't play Jerel next to Tyreke to start, because if they do, the Warriors will probably try and have Acie Law guard Tyreke, and I'd rather see Curry try to guard him.

Also, it will be fun to watch JT vs. Randolph.

Should be a great game.
 
gunks

gunks

Hall of Famer
#16
#16
Great post(s) man!

My prediction for today:

Tyreke completely shuts down Curry. AR pad's his stats with some hustle boards and transition dunks, but for the most part JT eats him alive (I mean JT does outweigh him by about 60 lbs). Some unknown scrub on the Ws burns us for 30 pts. We win it by 5.
 
Showtime

Showtime

Starter
#18
#18
"I had not seen or heard of this guy before."

James "flight" White can dunk from the FT line...and under the legs at the same time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4L-_Wic78&feature=related

FT dunk with a full step behind the line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8yHQ15TdHU

Almost touches top of backboard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh6Dho5J0_I

Basically, the dude is an incredible athlete but has trouble with understanding the game. I think he was drafted or signed by the Spurs, but he never played if I remember correctly. If he has truly committed to defense, that might be a step in the right direction for him.
 
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