SB Nation - Trey Johnson

Turnover at the Top

Jon L — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00:44 -0000

Chris Hunter is one of only a few of last season's D-League leaders coming back to the league.

I've made a few oblique references this offseason to all of the D-League three-point shooters who will be playing overseas this year, and it's true that there will be some unfamiliar faces jacking up perimeter shots next month. But it's actually even more remarkable than I thought. Heres is the list of last year's D-League award winners:

MVP - Courtney Sims
Defensive POY - Brent Petway
Impact POY - Eddie Gill
Rookie of the Year - Othyus Jeffers
Coach of the Year - Quin Snyder
Sportsmanship Award - Will Conroy

Notice anything? With the exception of perhaps Sims, all of the players listed above are playing overseas (and RU's Coach of the Year pick, Bryan Gates, is in the NBA now). True, one of them could come back midseason (and be in the running for the Impact award), but those are still some relatively big names missing. It gets even more drastic than that. Here are the All D-League teams:

First: Blake Ahearn, Will Conroy, Erik Daniels, Courtney Sims, Marcus Williams

I expect Williams to join back up with the Toros, and we're still waiting to see what Sims will do, but Ahearn, Conroy and Daniels are all overseas now.

Second: Derrick Byars, Josh Davis, Chris Hunter, Trey Johnson, James White

Hunter's back in Fort Wayne, but Byars - gone; Davis - gone; Johnson - gone; White - gone.

Third: Lance Allred, Ronald Dupree, Eddie Gill, Dontell Jefferson, Cartier Martin

Jefferson is back with Utah but I would expect a call-up for him at some point this season (the defense is too good). Otherwise, they're all in Europe and elsewhere. And while I won't bother listing all of the honorable mentions, by my count less than half of them are with the D-League again this year.

So what's the point of this? Change, and lots of it. Sure it will be disappointing not to see these talented players, but I prefer to see it as a crisi-tunity. With training camps underway and the regular season starting in just two weeks, a lot of players will have a chance to make their mark on the D-League. Some of them we can probably guess - expect Marcus Williams to tear it up again until he gets called up, Garrett Siler should be one of the best big men in the league and Carlos Powell and Anthony Tolliver should both fill up the box scores. But just as likely is that we can't predict right now who's going to make those 2009-2010 All-D-League teams. It could be someone like Amara Sy, who started his career off promisingly in Europe; or Reggie Williams, who was a smart, crafty scorer in college; heck, it could even be Yaroslav Korolev (it probably won't be Yaroslav Korolev).

All this turnover at the top of the league, talent-wise, is both likely a little daunting for the league and a pretty exciting development for D-League watchers. Teams are busy right now sorting out who can play and who can't, then it will be our turn.

Ridiculous Transactions: 8/15-8/21

Jon L — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:00:13 -0000

Former Colorado 14er Sonny Weems is on the move again.

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We've done this enough that hopefully I don't have to explain what "Ridiculous Transactions" is, but if you're still confused consult this post. Not much happened this week, but a few signings still worth talking about and a trade involving a pair of former D-Leaguers.

August 16: Rob Kurz - signed a non guaranteed contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers

Kurz played 40 games with the Warriors last year, and he played okay with the Timberwolves' Summer League team this year. He's a 6'9" three-point shooting specialist, which might work in an offense where Shaquille O'Neal is chained to the post and LeBron James drives and kicks out, but the Cavaliers have signed too many forwards this offseason for me to think Kurz could stick. He may end up in the D-League this year.

August 18: Tulsa 66ers - hired Dale Osbourne as assistant coach; Milwaukee Bucks - Traded Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems to the Toronto Raptors for Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic; University of the District of Columbia - hired Jeff Ruland as head coach; Trey Johnson - signed with Gravelines (France).

A few news items regarding some current/former D-League coaches. Ruland was head coach of the Albuquerque Thunderbirds a few seasons ago, when they went 22-28. Last season he was an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers where his job was to work with post players. Frankly, I had no idea that UDC had a basketball team, but it looks like they're Division II. As for Osbourne, he's coached all over minor league basketball and the WNBA, and spent the last few seasons as the lead assistant for the Utah Flash. Combined with the hiring of Nate Tibbetts as the head man, it appears the Thunder realize that having guys with coaching experience isn't at odds with its player development goals. See Marge? These guys get it.

Trey Johnson-wise, now that he, Richie Frahm, Dominique Coleman, Luke Jackson and Gary Forbes have all signed overseas, there aren't going to be many three-point shooters left in the D-League next year. (Also, I know it's not pronounced the same way, but how cool is a team named Gravelines? I feel like that should be a band from here in Austin or something. In fact, I'm starting a band called that. Don't steal it.)

Dear Toronto Raptors - PLEASE DON'T CUT SONNY WEEMS. Thank you.

RU's Movie Quote Offseason Roundup Spectacular Part 2

Jon L — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:00:13 -0000

The Colorado 14ers winning the championship is just one development discussed in this look at the D-League offseason, using quotes from "Dave Chappelle's Block Party."

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Today we're wrapping up our look at the D-League's offseason so far through the lens of "Dave Chappelle's Block Party." Part 2 somehow ended up even longer than part 1, even though I left stuff out, both from the offseason and the movie. I mean, I didn't even get to talk about my favorite thing in the entire movie, when Michel Gondry asks Jill Scott if she's nervous about performing after Erykah Badu and she laughs at him for six solid seconds. Instead of rehashing things here, then, I'll direct you to part 1 for a brief summary of what we're doing here and of "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," and to my thoughts on offseason developments involving players and coaches below the jump.

"Ahmir Thompson, I'm the official photographer of this event."

The unsung hero of the concert is the Roots' drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, who not only plays with his band but who served as the concert's musical director, hiring musicians to play as a sort-of house band during everyone else's sets (except for the Fugees), and who had to learn/teach five songs for every artist who performed. Other than during the Fugees' set and Jill Scott's (and maybe one other, but that's all I could see), ?uest was onstage playing drums the entire time. The band he got together sounds good, too, and he's a somewhat-notoriously precise bandleader so that makes sense, but I can't imagine he had a ton of time to go over everything. His role isn't really discussed in the film - his non-musical time on camera is spent mostly talking about the other performers and their audience - and it's certainly not called attention to by others, but it's pretty clear the concert couldn't have been as successful as it was from an artistic standpoint without his leadership behind the drums. Sure they could've just used DJs (A-Trak was there for Kanye's set, for instance). After all, who cares what the guitar part sounds like as long as the raps are good, right? But the result has a lot more energy and contributes more to the block party atmosphere than just having a DJ would. And that leads me to talk about coaches.

There's been some recent discussion around here about what attributes a D-League coach should have - is it an ability to teach the offense a particular NBA team runs or is it an ability to help players develop their games and make themselves more NBA-ready? Hardwood Paroxysm's Matt Moore believes that a D-League affiliate should exist as a testing lab, to basically do whatever the NBA team tells it to do, and not worry about winning games. But here's the thing - you can do both. In Austin, Quin Snyder compiled the second-best record in the league all while helping Dwayne Jones dramatically improve his free-throw shooting and developing Marcus Williams into a capable point guard, not to mention all the call-ups, injuries and players joining the team mid-season that he had to deal with. The Utah Flash made the conference finals while having players from the Jazz and Celtics cycle in and out throughout the season. Another point is that, if at this point, with not every NBA team owning its own affiliate, if a coach is only focused on developing the NBA assignees, other talented players aren't going to want to play there, and that doesn't serve anyone well. Heck, even with directly-affiliated teams like the Toros, Williams wasn't an NBA assignee when he joined the team, but he showed enough and improved enough throughout the season that the Spurs decided to put him on their roster, even though that meant releasing Malik Hairston to do so. That's important because if NBA teams are truly going to benefit from having a minor league, they'll have to use it to find unsung players who can contribute to their team and who they can sign for relatively little, not just as a place to send the multi-million dollar center who needs to work on his offensive game.

That's the concern that we at RU have with some of the recent hirings and potential hirings - some teams understand that you can do both, while others have an offense apparently so complex that only members of the Adelman family can grasp it fully that they hire a coach to do nothing more than tell players where to stand at what times and hopefully, maybe, please, at least try get the ball in the basket occasionally. Or, they hire coaches to do nothing more than get people in the door because they remember he used to play NBA basketball in that state (for a team that isn't even affiliated with the team he's coaching), without giving thought to the fact that winning games and playing good basketball gets people in the door. So I'd like this opportunity to salute all the solid, ?uestlove-like head coaching hires that were made this offseason, but were done so long ago that it's hard to remember them happening. I'm talking about guys like Tony Fritz, Joey Meyer, Nate Tibbetts, Chucky Brown and Rory White. Not all of them will succeed in their opportunities, that's the nature of the business. But, I'd say right now that their teams likely have a better chance to succeed both from a player development and an in-game standpoint. Not flashy hires, but solid and likely effective ones.

"We took a trip on the Staten Island Ferry, a little ocean voyage to Staten Island. And as we walked the streets of Staten Island what did we discover in the gutter but an angel, broken in seven pieces. When we both discovered this I turned to him, who was not my husband at the time, and I said 'it's an omen! It's a sign! I'm to marry you, of all people!' and I did. I married him, and Sunday is our 46th wedding anniversary."

Guess who? The rest of the story is that the guy put the angel back together, and in its broken-and-glued-back-together state it acquired a kind of grace to replace its former factory-made stiffness. The house they found abandoned and broken, and are putting back together, and that's why they call it the Broken Angel house. But go back to that quote. You decided to marry a guy because you both found a broken statue? In the gutter? In Staten Island? That was the sign that this guy was the one for you? Did a watery tart lob a scimitar at you as well?

Speaking of odd decision-making processes, Bakersfield decided to lets its season-ticket holders and members of the media vote on three finalists for their coaching search, then when two of the three finalists took other jobs they just hired the third guy rather than asking for another vote or interviewing other candidates. The Will Voigt era has begun! Honestly, his resume is starting to look more and more distinguished as more relatives and guys who got bored with broadcasting become head coaches, but the process by which he was hired seems full of terrible ideas. The media should decide who the coach is? Really? People who, by and large, don't care whether someone can or should play or coach or not, so long as they give good copy? And while giving the fans a greater investment in the team is fine and all, especially when you're about to charge an arm and a leg for tickets, shouldn't basketball decisions be made by, you know, basketball people?

"This is called the Airplane Room that we're in now. My son named this room the Airplane Room. He had a tent, he lived in a tent, he was 15, and all the planes flying over to LaGuardia fly over this building."

The Broken Angel couple have a son! A child grew up in that insane house! If it's only one-third complete after 40 years, what state was it in when their son lived there? How old is this guy now, anyway? What does he do now? A public interest lawyer sounds about right, doesn't it? I'm pretty fascinated with this guy who never appears on camera and who's mentioned only once, in passing. And do you know who else has a son? Danny Ainge! And he was the best candidate the Red Claws could find for their head coaching position!

"I intend to live to probably about 400, as I am also a witch, but a good witch, and I only want happiness for mankind, not to create chaos and to be angry at everyone, but to he happy. That is my aim in life, to give happiness to the world."

Oh. Oooooookay. That's the Broken Angel house lady (their names are never given), but it's also how I reacted to the Dee Brown hiring. I know why the Armor did it. I'm not sure I agree with it, but he's at least been a coach before so we'll see how it goes. As with Ainge, and with Voigt, and with whatever coach ends up in Rio Grande Valley, they may succeed. But at this point I'm not all that optimistic of their chances.

(Also, now do you see why Gondry was so taken with the Broken Angel couple? Also, I've probably come across as a little too mocking of them, when in fact they seem really nice and genuine, and the outside of the house itself looks pretty fantastic. They also talked about their plans to put an old Sea King helicopter at the top of it and turn it into a sculpture of a whale, which is also fantastic. Oh right, BASKETBALL.)

Common is in this movie, did I mention that? There's not really a good quote from/about him so I'll just talk about it. He actually performed a set of his own at the concert, but that got cut from the film. Instead, he shows up in other performers' sets, rapping his part to Kanye West's "Get 'Em High" and Erykah Badu's "Love of My Life." He's also hanging around during Mos Def/Talib Kweli/Black Star's set. I don't know if they performed "Respiration" though or if he just decided to hang out onstage and be the hype man. Aside from the odd little bounce that Common does when he raps, the notable thing about his appearances in the movie is that he seems genuinely happy to be hanging out with the other performers and supporting them onstage. He's also something of a (pretty literal) spiritual leader for the group, as Gondry shows Common leading Mos Def and some of the other performers in prayer before the concert, and while he's gotten kind of annoying with his clothing ads and movie appearances and increasingly-misguided albums, it's clear there's a lot of goodwill among him and everyone else at the show. But right, right, basketball. How's this? Like Common getting his set cut from the film but still shown helping everyone else out, there are a pair of assistant coaches who probably should've gotten a look at a lead job this coming season - Mike Sanders and Randy Livingston. Both of them are considered up-and-coming coaches, with Sanders also having some head coaching experience in the CBA and time spent as an NBA assistant, but for now they're going to be helping their peers out. Sanders took a job as an assistant with Joey Meyer in Fort Wayne, and that strong staff combined with a fairly favorable schedule should make the Mad Ants a candidate for big improvement next year.

"Now how hot would it be if these kids got a chance to come through Bed-Stuy, beatin' them drums and playin' them horns, and the whole neighborhood is screamin', they sayin 'it's CSU!'"

Back to the marching band for a minute to recognize those D-League coaches who are taking it to the NBA next year, Bryan Gates and Robert Pack. Pack was an assistant in Rio Grande Valley last season who will be in the same gig for his hometown New Orleans Hornets this year. Gates was one of the most respected coaches in the D-League who helped develop a lot of good players and coaches, and who will be an assistant for the Sacramento Kings this year. Whether either of those guys convince their teams to use the D-League that they've largely ignored thus far remains to be seen, but we're hoping.

This is also a good way to transition to talking about players, because there are several players who spent significant time in the D-League last year but who have strong chances to make the NBA this year. Jawad Williams signed onto the Cleveland Cavaliers, who currently have only 13 players on the roster. They've signed several forwards this offseason in addition to Williams, so his roster spot isn't as assured as much as it was, say, pre-Leon Powe, but he's a good player and a friend of Mo Williams, and while he's been in this position with Cleveland before, and the Cavs have a history of signing a D-League guy, keeping him through preseason then cutting him five or so games into the regular season (this happened with Trey Johnson as well), this could be the year that Jawad Williams sticks in the league. The San Antonio Spurs have two such players, Marcus Williams and Malik Hairston, both of whom played extremely well for the Toros last year and who seem to have made their way onto the NBA roster. As I mentioned earlier, Williams wasn't on the Spurs' roster last year but played well enough and developed into a good enough point guard that they decided to sign him, while Hairston was a former Spurs draft pick (actually a Suns pick who was traded for Goran Dragic) who really just needed playing time and to work on his defense a little. The Spurs backcourt is actually fairly open beyond its three main players, and Manu Ginobili's back isn't getting any younger while Tony Parker has dealt with little injuries here and there for the past few seasons. Combine those with the fact that current backup point guard George Hill continues to be erratic, and both Williams and Hairston could expect to play solid roles for the Spurs this year. Now how hot would that be?

"Old people f-in love me, man. You know you must be doin' something right if old people like you."

Let's hear it for the NBA Draft. While this year's event had some interesting storylines - the group of guards may be stronger than previously thought, DeJuan Blair improbably (and probably disastrously for everyone else) falling to the Spurs in the second round, Ricky Rubio deciding to stay in Spain, but what the NBA Draft is about, what all sports drafts are about, is old people falling in love with young people.

"Where you goin'?"
"Somewhere in Brooklyn, we don't know."

From what I've gathered watching this movie a hundred times, the way they got people to come to the concert was announcing/leaking it on a few websites, telling people to show up at a bus depot somewhere in New York for the concert. From there they were taken to the show, but no one had an idea beforehand of where the actual concert was. That sort of sounds like someone, hang on...it's coming to me...

Jeremy Tyler everybody! Who one day decided/was convinced to go to Europe, but he didn't know where it would be. Would it be Greece? What about Spain? There are some pretty good French teams, what about those? How does Slovenia strike you? Tyler ended up in Israel, and best of luck to him, though as I've said before I have doubts as to how much development/playing time he'll get. he was bored playing high school ball, which is understandable, but I still need to be convinced that being a backup (or even third-string?) center in Europe is the best answer for that.

"It's good to see all these black people in college, you know what I'm saying?"

That quote comes from Wyclef Jean, who ends up talking to a group of the CSU students at some point and singing them his song "If I Was President." It's kind of a neat moment, because other than Kanye West watching the marching band perform "Jesus Walks" there isn't much interaction shown between the performers and the CSU students. There was a green room for the performers in the preschool on the block as well as a barbecue on the roof, and it looks like the Ohio contingent got to meet and mingle with some of the performers up there, but I don't know how many of the marching band members got to talk to the rappers and singers who performed.

Oh, and speaking of college, that's the route John Wall was told decided to take. He'll be at Kentucky next year, and he's already dunking on NBA players (however old they may be). I doubt Wall will be getting much of an education next year, but that's the de facto route for guys good enough to play in the NBA at age 18. I know David Stern would never go for this, and I've said this several times before, but the D-League can provide just as good a basketball education as college ball can, if not better.

"They was happy to see me doin' my work just like I was happy to see them doin' theirs."

This is the drum major who asked "compensation is what?" earlier in the film. He shows up a few times, and gives the impression that it was a positive experience for a lot of people in the band,who represent an HBCU in southwest Ohio. His quote above reminds me of Summer League, where several NBA players showed up to watch their younger teammates play. I know Antawn Jamison and Mike Miller were there, for instance,and there were others that I can't find references to right now. But the bottom line is, those guys didn't have to be there. Sure it was Las Vegas, but it was also the middle of summer when Nevada gets really hot. Any of those players could've been at home in the pool, or I don't know, somewhere else that wasn't sweltering. But they showed up to Summer League anyway, and that was nice to see.

"You want to see a rap concert I'm throwing?"
"When?"
"It's in Brooklyn on Saturday."
"Sorry, I can't do that."
"I can get you on the bus."
"I'm going to Canada on a bus."
"Canada? You dodging the war?"

Chappelle's exchange with an older Ohio lady is one of the few indications in the movie that things are happening in the world. There are a lot of mentions of racial issues, with dead prez performing, Fred Hampton Jr. taking the stage and the mic during Mos Def's "Umi Says," ?uestlove talking about how their audience "doesn't look like us" and a few others, but in terms of "this movie took place in America in 2004," Chappelle's draft-dodging joke is about it. It's a small but significant sign that these events are taking place in a real environment, one that had gotten fairly tense in September, 2004, and which a rap concert in which everyone's having a good time seems to have alleviated just a little bit.

Reality is intruding into basketball this year. Nothing as dramatic as war, but a lot of the economic pressures that NBA owners are either facing or exploiting (and let's face it, there probably are some teams that are going to use the economic stuff as an excuse when they don't have to), and as such NBA roster spots are scarcer. More and more D-Leaguers are heading overseas to larger, if not steadier, paychecks and ride out the current storm. Hopefully they'll be able to return in another year or two and come back to the D-League and a climate more accepting of their talents and willing to take a chance on a guy whose name you may not know but who can play better than the guy you do.

Special Appearances by: Pharoahe Monch, Bilal Oliver

Guess what? Neither of these guys are in the movie. At all. Oh they were there at the concert - Bilal performed during Common's set that got cut, for instance, but I've watched this movie I don't know how many times and I can't find them. It's entirely possible that they're at the back of the stage or out of focus in one scene that I just haven't noticed, but while they performed at the concert, they got cut from the movie. Speaking of guys who got cut, both Mike Taylor and Sun Yue are looking for work right now. Two D-League success stories (real in Taylor's case, part of Dan Reed's dreams in Sun's). I'm not sure why the Clippers cut Taylor other than Mike Dunleavy didn't feel like giving him time/room to grow. Sun Yue's a long way from being an NBA player at this point, but some further development might do the trick.

"All these people, what we all have in common? I think we all have a very personal message that they try to get across, and it's about more than just making money."

Lance Allred has a pretty incredible life story, and he finally sat down and wrote about it. His book, Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA came out a few months ago, and was reviewed by RU. The question gets raised periodically as to why players toil in the D-League making low (and in some cases very low)-five figures while they could make ten times that amount over in Europe. My answer is usually something along the lines of "they get more exposure and have a better chance of making the NBA," and while that's true, I don't think that always gets emphasized in the correct way. It's not just that by making the NBA they can earn enough to make up for all that time spent in snowy NoDak or hot-ass Texas. For a lot of kids growing up, playing in NBA is the dream, it's something that they think about every day because that's what they want to do. I haven't been fortunate enough to always know what I want to do with my life. Even now, when I think I've figured it out, most of my time is spent pretending I haven't because still, who knows?. Spending every day working to make the NBA every day and being willing to take an almost absurdly-low salary to do so takes love, and dedication, and an unshakeable belief in yourself and your abilities that's pretty admirable and is one of the great things about following the D-League. As Allred puts it in his book, "I do not care about the money, or the fame. I just want to say that I set an 'unreachable' goal and I made it."

"We shook up the world. We shook up the world!"

Our last quote goes to the D-League Select team, which finished 3-2 at the Vegas Summer League (and one of those losses was to a D-League-heavy Denver team, so that one's sort of a moral victory for the league) and impressed just about everyone who watched them. They're last win may have been the most impressive, where they beat Portland's team at the buzzer despite being down to seven players total and only one guard after injuries to Trey Johnson, Othyus Jeffers and Walker Russell. The Select team had five players shoot .500 or better over the course of Summer League and solidly out-rebounded and out-worked (that's a word, right?) their opponents. Unfortunately it hasn't translated into many NBA preseason invites and many of the players are going to be over in Europe next season (parallels to Chappelle stopping work on his show post-"Block Party" and leaving the spotlight?), but the fact remains that the D-League players, none of whom had gotten other Summer League invites, formed a team to be reckoned with and turned some heads in Vegas this year.

So there you have it: my summary of the D-League offseason so far. We still have a little over three months until the season tips off, and a lot can happen in that time. Who knows, maybe we'll come back and do this again. You like "Ghostbusters," right?

Vegas Summer League: A Look Forward

Jon L — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:45:08 -0000

Gary Forbes and the D-League Select team did well at Vegas Summer League. Should there be more teams in the future?

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Now that we've assessed who played well in this year's Summer League, both in Orlando and in Vegas, I thought I'd talk about an idea I mentioned in the comments a few days ago: next year, there should be more D-League teams. There were too many D-League guys stuck on the end of Summer League benches or only playing in one or two games for the current system to really benefit them. Assuredly, there were some NBA teams that "got it." Orlando, Denver and the Knick all come to mind as teams that invited players who spent all or part of last year in the D-League and then, and this is important, let them play.

Now, this is not necessarily the fault of the NBA teams. Some of them have several young players or guys who are under contract that they need to figure out what to do with. About half of San Antonio's roster was made up of guys who they've drafted in the last few years, for example. That meant that Squeaky Johnson only appeared in two games, and Erik Dawson didn't play at all. Now, neither of those players are on the short list of likely NBA call-ups, but they still have some talent and weren't able to demonstrate it. There were some guys who didn't play due because they couldn't - David Noel and Patrick Ewing Jr. of the Knicks' team were both sidelined with injury. But Maureece Rice averaged nine minutes in Vegas. Dwayne Jones played a total of nine minutes over only two games. Trent Strickland played in two games. Rod Benson appeared in three games, and after playing a little over 11 minutes in the first he never played more than 3 and a half minutes in the others. Dominique Coleman averaged less than six minutes over three minutes. Et cetera.

My solution? More D-League Select teams. The one team. Even excluding the D-League players who were out with injuries, there are enough guys who did play to form three additional 10-man rosters of players who come from the D-League. You also could establish fewer teams with more than ten players on each roster, as the injuries suffered by Othyus Jeffers, Trey Johnson and meant that this year's D-League Select team found itself shorthanded at times.

Below the jump I discuss the advantages I see for everyone involved.

Advantages for D-League players: More playing time, obviously. Sure guys like Kasib Powell and C.J. Giles got a lot of playing time, but as I noted above, that experience wasn't nearly universal. No one on the D-League Select team averaged less than 15 minutes a game. Having multiple teams means that both the Kasib Powells and the Trent Stricklands will be able to show what they can do. With three or four teams, the D-League also could turn it into an event where 40 or 50 guys are invited to try out, and NBA scouts and coaches are invited to observe them. That would lead to the kind of exposure given to players who attended the D-League's Elite minicamp, but on a wider level.

Advantages for the D-League: The D-League Select team generated a lot of positive coverage from newspapers, magazines and websites like TrueHoop. Quite simply, this was a public relations win for the D-League. The Select team was noted to be made up of talented players who were typically playing harder than the others and who beat several teams made up of first-round NBA talent. Hopefully this is what people will think of from now on when they hear "D-League" rather than the 31-year old mailman who played JV basketball in high school and wants to give it one more shot.

Advantages for other players: Fewer roster spots taken up by D-League players means more spots for the Pooh Jeters and Nikoloz Tskitishvilis of the world. While the odds those guys get an NBA contract coming out of Summer League are admittedly slim, more playing time for those types of players means they'll have more chances to show what they can do for European teams as well.

Advantages for the NBA: This one is a little tough to discern, as there may be a point at which the league doesn't really care how many D-League teams there are at Summer League, but ultimately benefits the D-League
benefits the NBA. The fact that the Select team did so well hopefully means more players will see the league as a viable option to get noticed by NBA teams and scouts, and that sponsors will see it as a positive venture as well. That can make Papa Stern happy.

A Look Back at Vegas Summer League: Part 2

Jon L — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:15:07 -0000

Jawad Williams, shown here playing for the D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers, played well for Cleveland at Vegas Summer League.

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In the wake of Vegas Summer League being over, and as I did with the Orlando Summer League, I've been taking a look at some noteworthy performances from "non-NBA" players. Part 1 dealt with guys who have been playing in Europe or who otherwise aren't currently under contract anywhere. Today examines the players from the D-League who were in Vegas, either on the D-League Select team or on an NBA squad's roster. Again, I'm only concerned with players who played three or more games, in order to get some semblance of sustained (such as it is) success (this means no Othyus Jeffers or Trey Johnson, who each played very well in two games for the D-League squad). I wanted to limit it to ten guys, but I cheated a bit and threw in an honorable mention category (which makes even less sense since the 10 guys aren't ranked in any way), which we'll look at first.

Honorable Mention: Brent Petway, Romel Beck, Mouhamed Sene, Will Conroy

Petway complemented Raptors rookie DeMar DeRozan fairly well, and while his scoring wasn't very consistent, he showed off his elite shot-blocking ability and averaged 3.6 blocks per 48 minutes, slightly more than he did last season with the Stampede. Beck made 43 percent of his three-pointers and 52.8 percent of his field goals overall, though he didn't contribute much other than scoring. Sene got a ton of blocks compared to his playing time, eight in 35 minutes, but while I didn't expect to see many points from him he didn't get many rebounds, either. Conroy was a solid point guard either starting or coming off the bench, and he made 52.2 percent of his field goals, but his assists were down a little bit from what they were in the D-League on a per-minute basis.

The rest of the players are after the jump.

Richard Hendrix (6'9" F, Denver Nuggets) - Hendrix had perhaps the best overall Summer League out of anyone, playing very well with the Orlando Magic team before repeating that performance in Vegas. He appeared in four games for Denver and started three, though he played the second-fewest minutes on the team. He still managed to shoot 63.2 percent from the field, average 13.4 rebounds per 48 minutes, and most impressively, turn the ball over only once in those four games.

Coleman Collins (6'9" F, D-League Select) - Collins was very solid for the D-League team, and I've said this before but it bears repeating: I don't understand why he didn't play more last season. Collins was one of the leading rebounders on the team and averaged 24 points per 48 minutes, all while picking up only six fouls in five games. He made 51.4 percent of his shots, too.

CJ Giles (6'11" F/C, Denver Nuggets) - Giles rebounded the ball very well for the Nuggets, averaging 15 rebounds per 48 minutes, and he made half of his field goals. He also averaged just over five blocks on a per-minute basis, though he also committed the most fouls on the team.

Kurt Looby (6'10" C, D-League Select) - RU binky Kurt Looby did what he does best, which is block shots and rebound. Looby grabbed as many rebounds as Collins did but in about 40 fewer minutes, and finished averaging 17 rebounds on a per-minute basis. He also blocked nine shots in five games. I keep repeating this, but while the offense isn't there right now, Looby will be ready to take on the NBA very soon.

Coby Karl (6'5" G, Denver Nuggets) - Yeah, yeah, he should've been listed with the "Europe" players rather than the D-Leaguers, but what are you gonna do? Coby Karl had a somewhat shaky Orlando Summer League, but he did very well in Vegas, making 61.5 percent of his field goals and half of his threes, as well as picking up rebounds and assists at decent rates for his position.

David Monds (6'8" F, Los Angeles Lakers) - Monds was a very solid player for the Lakers, though he didn't start any of the games. He led the team in per-minute scoring, shot 60.4 percent from the field and averaged 13.3 rebounds per 48 minutes, and only turned the ball over twice in five games. His free throws could use some work, as he shot 54.5 percent from the line.

Ronald Dupree (6'7" F, Denver Nuggets) - Yes, that Nuggets team was pretty stacked. Dupree was the team's second-leading scorer on a per-minute basis (and came in only .2 points behind Ty Lawson), and he also rebounded the ball fairly well, though he didn't do much beyond those two things.

Malik Hairston (6'6" G, San Antonio Spurs) - Hairston did a good job shooting the ball, shooting 52.8 percent from the field and averaging 21.4 points per 48 minutes. He didn't offer the kind of rebounding that he usually does, though that my be because he was sharing the court with two monster rebounders in DeJuan Blair and Ian Mahinmi.

Jawad Williams (6'9" F, Cleveland Cavaliers) - Williams showed off his scoring and rebounding in Vegas, making half of his three pointers and averaging 28.2 points and 10 rebounds per 48 minutes (that scoring average was best on the team). He's generally a solid defender as well, though Summer League isn't really the place for that.

DeMarcus Nelson (6'4" G, Chicago Bulls) This is also cheating a little bit since the Bulls called Nelson up before the end of last season, but he showed himself to be a pretty good all-around guard in Vegas. He had some off nights, but ended up shooting 48.1 percent from the field and tied for the second-most assists on the team. He finished averaging seven rebounds and 5.5 assists per 48 minutes, though he could stand to cut down on the turnovers a little bit.

Vegas Summer League Recap: Day 8

Jon L — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:00:15 -0000

Gary Forbes has played well for the D-League Select team at Vegas Summer League.

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Phoenix Suns 95, D-League Select 89

So, it finally happened. The D-League team lost, and to a team featuring Robin Lopez and Taylor Griffin. The Select squad was actually ahead for most of the game, but were outscored by 11 in the final quarter. The D-Leaguers were missing Othyus Jeffers and Trey Johnson due to some minor injuries, though, so I'm confident that a full squad would've won last night. Coleman Collins and Gary Forbes held things down in their absence. Forbes finished with 26 points on 18 shots, five rebounds and a pair of assists. Collins had 19 points on 11 shots, six rebounds, zero fouls and only one turnover. Jasper Johnson's final line isn't great (11 points from 12 shots), but he was pretty solid in the first half. Kurt Looby had five rebounds in nine minutes. He's close to being in the NBA, people. Walker Russell and Curtis Stinson both struggled with turnovers, picking up seven apiece, though Stinson also had ten rebounds and Russell's passing was otherwise on point, and he shot 10-11 from the free-throw line.

For Phoenix, Micah Downs saw his first extended action and made it count, scoring 19 points on 8-11 shooting and picking up five rebounds, five steals and three assists. I had never heard of Jiri Hubalek before yesterday, but he had 20 points on 11 shots, four rebounds and four blocks. Reading about Hubalek, his game sounds a little similar to Oleksiy Pecherov, in that he's a 7'0"(-ish) guy who shoots and rebounds, and that's about it. Former Dakota Wizard Carlos Powell played well for the Suns as well, with 10 points on five shots.

The rest of the games are after the jump, as usual.

Sacramento Kings 84, New York Knicks 71

If nothing else, Jon Brockman is a rebounding monster. He had 15 in just under 33 minutes yesterday, which makes up for his 1-5 shooting a bit. Nikoloz Tskitishvili has actually been really consistent in Summer League. Three games with 12 points, and each time it came on either eight or nine shots. The only real difference is how many threes he takes (anywhere from five to eight), and whether he blocks any shots (he had two yesterday). The numbers are all right in line through three games, which is sort of interesting (sort of) considering how flaky he was in Denver. Warren Carter's rebounding has been pretty good in Vegas, and he had six yesterday in under 14 minutes along with seven points on 3-5 shooting and a pair of blocks. If he doesn't get a preseason contract out of this, he might want to spend the season in the D-League, because I think he'd do well there and get some more NBA notice. Blake Ahearn finally had a decent shooting game, with nine points on five shots, though he also had five turnovers in 10 and a half minutes. Sigh.

Denver Nuggets 111, Portland Trail Blazers 93

Ty Lawson played well and has generally impressed people watching these games, and he had 26 points on 16 shots, five assists and five rebounds. Jeff Pendergraph also has gotten people talking, and while he didn't shoot the ball particularly well, nine rebounds in 23 and a half minutes is pretty solid. Denver has a fair amount of D-Leaguers on their squad, and they all played fairly well yesterday (to varying degrees). Sonny Weems did his thing to the tune of 24 points on 17 shots, four rebounds and two steals, and while he made only one of his five three-pointers, he was a perfect 9-9 from the free-throw line. Coby Karl was solid, shooting 5-6 and picking up four rebounds and three assists. Richard Hendrix shot 3-3 and grabbed three rebounds in 11 minutes. Ronald Dupree had 16 points on 10 shots and six rebounds, though he also picked up eight fouls. I don't care what people say, I still like the way Pooh Jeter's been playing in Vegas, and he had 15 points on 10 shots and five assists with only two turnovers in 30 and a half minutes.

Minnesota Timberwolves 89, Washington Wizards 82

TrueHoop's David Thorpe commented on Twitter that Nick Young is "too good" for Summer League, and while that may be true talent-wise, he's learning a new offense this year and will have to come off of screens a lot probably for the first time in his career. He's looked pretty good doing it, and yesterday he had 23 points on 17 shots, and he finally picked up some assists (which was worrying the Wizards fanbase) with three. Jonny Flynn has been playing well overall here, showing some nice speed and generally good decision-making. His shot hasn't always fallen but it did yesterday, as he had 21 points on 11 shots along with five assists and five rebounds. Wayne Ellington also has played well. John Edwards started off well before starting to foul a lot, and he finished with 11 points on 5-7 shooting, six rebounds and seven fouls. Garrett Siler had what some people refer to as a "Kevin Martin game," wherein he scored 11 points on two shots by going 8-9 from the free-throw line. Adam Parada's been rebounding really well, and he had seven in a little over 16 minutes, though he's not doing much else

Detroit Pistons 92, Cleveland Cavaliers 86

Austin Daye had another game in the point-rebound department, with 20 points on 14 shots and 10 rebounds. He had seven fouls and four turnovers, though, so there are still things to work on. Darnell Jackson has been pretty inconsistent this last week or so, but yesterday scored 13 points on seven shots and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jonas Jerebko was solid as well, with 19 points on eight shots and five rebounds. The Pistons had two players play 10 minutes each and combine for zero points and four rebounds. I reallllly hope Dwayne Jones isn't playing because he's injured (I don't want him to be injured, but you know what I mean). Jawad Williams has been playing fairly well, and he had 13 points on 11 shots yesterday (and made two of his three shots from behind the arc) and grabbed five rebounds, though he also had four turnovers. I haven't mentioned David Harrison much, because he hasn't done a whole lot (though he played okay the day before last), but he got two technical fouls yesterday. I don't know if that's an ejection, since you can't foul out of Summer League games, but he got two technicals. In a Summer League game. Think about that.

Chicago Bulls 80, Oklahoma City Thunder 74

James Harden has looked like a really solid pick for the Thunder, scoring efficiently along and picking up assists, rebounds and steals at a decent rate. He shot 7-15 yesterday, including 49 on threes, and had five assists. DJ White has had a solid Summer League of his own, and against Chicago he had 15 points on 11 shots, eight rebounds and two blocks. James Augustine was a perfect 4-4 from the field and 1-1 from the line, and he added 10 rebounds and two steals. Linton Johnson has apparently bulked up a bit in order to play some power forward this season, and he doesn't seem to have been too negatively affected by it. He shot 5-8 yesterday with five rebounds. DeVon Hardin had a "Kevin Martin game" of his own, with nine points on two shots along with four rebounds.

Vegas Summer League Recap: Day 6

Jon L — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:00:48 -0000

See these guys? These guys are better than your guys.

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So...we're officially past the halfway point with this Summer League thing. It both feels like it just started and like it's been going on forever. Orlando probably had something to do with it. I had a pretty interesting conversation (well, sort of) on Twitter that got to the heart of what Summer League should be about. I've talked about this before, but there are several competing goals that teams have: see how their new draft picks look on the court with other NBA players, help young NBA players continue to develop, and see if any D-League guys or "Europe" guys can fill in the back of the roster. Is it worth playing your second-year center 35 minutes if he's generally having an awful game and you have undrafted free agents or D-League guys you could look at? Or do that center's struggles mean that he needs more on-court development, and as such should stay out there and lean from his mistakes? I'm not completely sure of what the answer is, but looking at the box scores and seeing so many DNPs makes me go back to the question of whether Summer League is worth it for players who don't already have NBA contracts. If you play a lot and play well, like Kasib Powell did in Orlando, then sure you could say that was a good decision. But too often guys end up sitting on the bench for the entire game, unable to show what they can do while that second-year center shoots 20 percent from the field and an undrafted free agent plays five uneventful minutes. And because teams are playing either every day or every other day, there aren't really any practices to show what a player can do. Perhaps the solution is for the D-League to field several Select teams, thus ensuring that guys get playing time in which they can show they can hang with NBA players.

By the way, if these recaps have seemed shorter the last few days, it's because a.) A lot of these teams have relatively few D-League guys (hence the Select team, I guess), and b.) Not a lot of guys have been playing well, D-League or otherwise. There are players who I expected to have been talking about a lot, but because I'm trying to avoid harping on poor performances (ahem, Blake Ahearn) I'm left with little to focus on. If this keeps up I'm going to have a hardedrtime writing a "which non-NBA players did well in Vegas" post than I did with Orlando. Unless of course I just talk about the Select team, which beat another NBA squad yesterday. Hit the jump for the recap of that one and the rest.

D-League Select 105, Sacramento Kings 89

The D-League team was actually down by seven at the half, but they dominated the second half, including a 31-14 fourth quarter. And hey, I can actually tell you who played well in this one! Othyus Jeffers, Othyus Jeffers, Othyus Jeffers. (That wasn't meant to be a Clarence Carter reference, but feel free to make it one if you wish.) Jeffers again led the D-Leaguers with 21 points on 7-12 shooting and a perfect day from the free-throw line, plus seven rebounds and two steals. I'll be really, really surprised if he spends all of next season in the D-League; a call-up (or an outright signing) should be soon in coming for this guy. This was the first game where Trey Johnson played well without caveat, and he shot 8-10 for 20 points and added a pair of rebounds. Gary Forbes has been playing pretty well, both in Vegas and in Orlando, and yesterday he had 17 points on 11 shots and four rebounds. Coleman Collins shot 100 percent on the day, shooting 3-3 from the field and 4-4 from the line.Kurt Looby took zero field goals, which is probably for the best, but I'll take six rebounds and three blocks in less than 15 minutes any day (though I could do without the six fouls). Curtis Stinson has started both official games at PG, and he's been solid enough, but Walker Russell has been really impressive generally

Jason Thompson had a fairly solid game, with 31 points on 23 shots and 10 rebounds, but also nine fouls. Marcus Landry has played relatively well, and yesterday he had 10 points on 4-6 shooting, though he didn't do much else. Tyreke Evans is a very good rebounder for his position, but the shooting still isn't there. He cut down on his turnovers, though. Did I mention that the D-League team beat another NBA squad, this one also featuring several first-round picks

Denver Nuggets 77, Washington Wizards 70

Nick Young came down to earth a little bit, scoring only 17 points, but it came on 12 shots and he also had three steals. Andray Blatche's numbers looked good again, 27 points on 21 shots, 15 rebounds (eight offensive), three assists and two steals, but he didn't look great doing it. He was exhorting his teammates to make harder cuts on offense, but he had his share of boneheaded plays as well. If you expect me to say another Wizard had a good game, I can't. Those three assists were a team high. JaVale McGee finished with eight rebounds and five blocks, but he also shot 3-12 and by all accounts looked pretty terrible overall.

Sonny Weems bounced back from a poor game to score 17 points on 15 shots and grab 11 boards. Richard Hendrix had a nice, solid game, with 10 points on 4-6 shooting and six rebounds in 19 minutes. CJ Giles also played fairly well, with 10 points on seven shots and seven rebounds, though he also had seven fouls. Ronald Dupree saw his first extended action and finished with 11 points on 4-9 shooting along with three rebounds, three assists and a block

Houston Rockets 87, Portland Trail Blazers 8

Chase Budinger Summer League Jersey Retirement Watch: Budinger had an excellent 17 points on eight shots thanks to going 2-2 from behind the arc and 3-3 from the free-throw line. Maarty Leunen also had a fairly efficient day, with 14 points on eight shots, along with five rebounds and four assists. Jerryd Bayless had 13 points on 10 shots and six rebounds, though he also had only two assists and six turnovers. James White shot 3-4 but more importantly did a good job of getting to the free-throw line, and ended up with 16 points on four shots. Four turnovers, though. Pooh Jeter finished with 15 points on 11 shots and had a game-high six assists and only one turnover. Rod Benson only played a little over three minutes, but he had two rebounds in that time.

Milwaukee Bucks 87, Chicago Bulls 72

Not too much interesting about this one. Joe Alexander's shooting has been improving gradually, and he had 18 points on 16 shots yesterday with five rebounds and three blocks, and Brandon Jennings had 14 points on 10 shots with nine assists, but neither of those are really noteworthy. Taj Gibson has rebounded the ball well so far, and he had eight against the Bucks, but he also had 10 fouls. DeMarcus Nelson has been shooting the ball and rebounding fairly well, and he shot 6-12 with six rebounds yesterday, but he's not getting to the free throw line much and his overall efficiency is suffering (more with Nelson later today). My former college chum Linton Johnson (not really, but we were at Tulane at the same time) played just under five and a half minutes, but he had three rebounds in that time which isn't bad

Toronto Raptors 74, Phoenix Suns 73

DeMar DeRozan continues to impress, with 20 points on 16 shots, and only two fouls and a single turnover. Quincy Douby's also played fairly well, and he scored 16 points on 12 shots, though he also shot 1-5 on his three-pointers. Earl Clark can rebound, I'll tell you that, with 12 rebounds in just over 27 minutes, though he also had five rebounds and needed 12 shots to get 13 points. Smush Parker has pretty much disappeared since the first game against the Lakers. Coincidence? Paul Davis was injured and had to be taken out of the gym on a stretcher, so hopefully he's okay. He always stuck me as a guy who'd do alright in the D-League

Detroit Pistons 96, New York Knicks 73

This game was all about Austin Daye and DaJuan Summers. Daye had 27 points on 17 shots and 13 rebounds despite being what one person on Twitter called "all arms and legs." Summers finished with 26 points on 21 shots and eight rebounds. Jonas Jerebko was less efficient shooting-wise, but he had 12 rebounds, and he's generally been solid in that area. Toney Douglas has been racking up the assists so far, and he had 10 yesterday, but his shooting has been pretty terrible. Saer Sene played only nine minutes, but he had three rebounds and two blocks in that time. David Noel, Ron Howard, Patrick Ewing Jr. and Dwayne Jones all got DNPs. Booooooo. Just for that I stuck this recap at the bottom.

Recapping the Orlando Summer League: Day 5

Jon L — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:00:15 -0000

Yesterday was the final day of games for the Orlando Summer League. Some of the players looking to make an NBA roster are now headed for Vegas to play for other teams, while everyone else heads back home and prepares for the preseason. As I mentioned yesterday, I'll take a look back at the Orlando league's games, probably to run on Monday, but there's still the matter of the last three games to recap. Onward!

Boston Celtics 92, Philadelphia/New Jersey Frankensteins 79

Chris Douglas-Roberts got his scoring back on track in this one, scoring 15 points on 9 shots, and he also had four assists and three rebounds, which is good to see from him. Gabe Pruitt has been pretty solid running the point (with a few bumps in the road), and he had 13 points on 8 shots, nine assists and three steals. Jrue Holiday hasn't had the best Summer League, but yesterday he shot 4-8 and threw in four assists and four rebounds. At this point the fewer mentions of Terrence Williams's offense the better, though he had six rebounds, four assists and a block.

Nick Fazekas finally had himself a good game. He's been struggling a little bit to make his mark, but yesterday he scored 22 points on 17 shots and had nine rebounds but only two fouls. Gary Forbes shot the ball very well, going 7-11, and he added three rebounds, two assists and a block, though he also had five fouls in just over 26 minutes. Jason Ellis kept up the good rebounding work with six, but he also had five fouls. Coby Karl continued to contribute in non-shooting areas of the game, with six rebounds and five assists, and he only had one turnover in just under 28 minutes, which is an improvement over the rest of his week.

The other two games after the jump.

Utah Jazz 70, Oklahoma City Thunder 60

Both Russell Westbrook and Kyle Weaver sat this one out, and Shaun Livingston did well in his natural position running the point, with 12 points on 9 shots, four assists and five rebounds. DJ White also got into the game and did very well, shooting 7-10, though he also had four fouls and three turnovers. BJ, excuse me, Byron Mullens had a rough shooting day, missing all seven of his field goals, but he grabbed six rebounds and finished with only two fouls and no turnovers.

Larry Turner hasn't been very impressive this week, but he came through in the middle yesterday with 12 rebounds and three blocks. Andre Ingram was solid all-around, with 11 points on 4-7 shooting, including 3-6 on three-pointers, and he also had four assists, three rebounds and two steals. Kevin Kruger's been pretty solid all week, and yesterday he had 10 points, made half his shots (including half of his three-pointers) and had a game-high five assists. Josh Duncan also had a solid game off the bench, going 4-5 for 12 points, including making both of his three-pointers, and adding four rebounds in a little over 16 minutes.

Indiana Pacers 68, Orlando Magic 54

Ryan Anderson finally had a bad game, at least offensively, shooting 2-11 and picking up six rebounds, though he also had 10 rebounds and two steals. Tyler Hansbrough had a somewhat-similar night, shooting 1-5 with nine rebounds. Roy Hibbert played well, though, with 16 points on 13 shots, 11 rebounds and three blocks, though he also had three turnovers in 20 minutes.

I'm sure by this point you all think I keep mentioning him because he's been contributing to this site, but Kasib Powell's been playing really well all week. He didn't have a great shooting day yesterday overall, needing 14 shots to score 12 points, but he made two of his three three-point shots, and he's versatile enough to contribute even when his shot isn't falling and grabbed eight rebounds. Richard Hendrix had a solid game off the bench, with 10 points on 7 shots, five rebounds and four blocks. Trey Johnson had an okay day shooting-wise, but he didn't do much else and also picked up four fouls in 22 minutes. Scott Vander Meer may be headed to Fort Wayne this season, and while he's been relatively quiet all week he had a decent game yesterday with six rebounds and three blocks, though he also shot 2-7.

Recapping Yesterday's Summer League Games

Jon L — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:00:23 -0000

Teams, players, journalists and other basketball-related folks are beginning to descend on Las Vegas, where the larger Summer League officially starts today at 2 PM local time (I think? What is that, Mountain Time?). Today's also the last day of the Orlando league, and at some point this weekend we'll have a look back at some players who stood out. For now, though, let's keep taking the games one at a time.

Utah Jazz 92, Orlando Magic 84

This was the second Summer League game to go into overtime, if that matters. Ryan Anderson continued to be the breakout star, again, if that matters. It likely matters to the Magic, particularly the fact that he's getting it done in a variety of ways. Yesterday Anderson shot 5-11 on three-pointers and 4-6 on the rest of his field goals, and he also pulled down 9 rebounds and blocked four shots. He had 8 fouls, though, but from this looks of it there were a lot of fouls called in this game. Goran Suton "rebounded" (sorry...you'll see why in a minute) from his poor performance a few days ago with 10 rebounds (see?), though he's still not hitting a lot of his three-point attempts. Bobcats second-rounder Derrick Brown had a very good game, the first that I've noticed, with 10-15 shooting and five rebounds. He missed all of his three-pointers but shot 5-7 from the free-throw line.

Kasib Powell continued to show why he should be on an NBA roster this year. Even though he struggled with his shot (4-12), he made things happen in other ways by grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists. Kevin Kruger played a good game in relief of Eric Maynor, who didn't fare quite as well. Kruger, though, made half his shots and went 5-6 from the free-throw line, though his three-point shot wasn't falling quite as well. Cedric Bozeman played a pretty good game himself, getting four rebounds, four assists and a steal to go with 8 points in 22 minutes. Richard Hendrix didn't have a great game, with 7 fouls, 4 turnovers and only 2 points in just under 26 minutes, but on the positive side of the ledger he also grabbed 8 rebounds.

As usual, the other two games are after the jump.

Indiana Pacers 91, Boston Celtics 88

Tyler Hansbrough continues to do an excellent job of getting to the free-throw line, with 12 attempts, though I have no idea whether that will continue on to the regular season. He's a rookie, so I kind of doubt it. Roy Hibbert was his usual (for this week anyway) efficient low-post scoring self, with 28 points on 10 shots, and he also had 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals, but also 5 turnovers. Bill Walker had a good game, one that I don't have to qualify with his turnover or foul number. Walker shot 6-10 and had five rebounds, three steals and two assists. JR Giddens continues to put up turnover numbers that are a bit high, with four in 25 minutes, though he's still an efficient scorer (since he gets most of his points inside) and he had five rebounds.

Trey Johnson had probably his first all-around solid game this week, with 13 points on 8 shots, 2 assists and 2 steals, and, while I'm not sure if this is a positive sign or no indicator at all, he's been getting starts and a lot of playing time. The other non-guaranteed guys didn't really stand out in this one, and Derrick Byars didn't even play (nor did Mike Sweetney, who's missed the last few games with a hamstring injury). Robert Swift was better on the offensive end than he's been, making all five of his shots, and he also had four rebounds. He's still Robert Swift, though, and had three turnovers and six fouls as well.

Oklahoma City Thunder 82, Philadelphia/New Jersey Frankensteins

Guess what? Russell Westbrook is good. 6-10 shooting, 9 assists and four rebounds. He still hasn't figured out the turnover conundrum, though, and he had seven yesterday. Kyle Weaver is never going to be an offensive giant, but he had five rebounds, two blocks and two steals yesterday. James Harden continues to be fairly impressive, with efficient offense and a solid all-around game. Marreese Speights has struggled the last few days, and while he had nine rebounds yesterday he also had six fouls and six turnovers. in about 24 and a half minutes. Terrence Williams finally found some offense yesterday, making just under half his field goals and finishing with 14 points along with 5 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. BJ Mullins played a decent game as well, shooting 9-12 and grabbing five rebounds.

Jason Ellis finally showed his rebounding talent, with five in about 26 minutes along with 2 assists, 2 steals and a block. Blake Ahearn is unfortunately still struggling with his shot, though, and Gary Forbes didn't fare much better yesterday. Neither Shaun Livingston nor DJ White played, but Moses Ehambe finally got into a game where he, uh, didn't play all that well either. Both of these teams played their starters the bulk of the minutes for some reason. I mean, does Kyle Weaver really need to play 31 minutes in Summer League?

Summer Pacers Continue To Shine In Win Over Celtics

Tom Lewis — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:18:47 -0000

The Indiana Pacers summer squad moved to 4-0 in Orlando after holding on to beat the Boston Celtics for another close win.

After a strong and confident start to the game, the Pacers let an early lead slip away thanks to a case of the clanks which forced the blue and gold to mount a rally in the fourth quarter. As they have all week, the Pacers made enough plays down the stretch to sneak away with a 91-88 W.

With 7.1 seconds left, the result could've easily went the other way, but Celtics' summer big, Nick Fazekas missed two free throws with the Pacers leading 89-88. Tyler Hansbrough then cashed in two free throws to give the Pacers' their winning margin which was stout enough to withstand a Fazekas 3-ball miss at the buzzer.

Honestly, we saw much of the same from the Pacers tonight. They played hard throughout the game and found a way to win in the end. They're making it look easy, so here's a few specifics:

Box Score
The Pacers didn't shoot the ball real well (43.5 %) but they took advantage of excess possessions and a +17 advantage in made free throws. Once again, Roy Hibbert and Tyler Hansbrough led the parade to the line with the two bigs combining to make 17 of 19. Hibbert made all seven of his freebies while Hansbrough was 10-12.
At one point, Dante or Galante said, "just blow the whistle and put him at the line and save us some time" after Hansbrough caught a pass in the lane. Instead the play ended in a nice little 8-foot, fade-away from the rook.
Hansbrough and Hibbert combined for 50 points and just wore out the Celtics around the hoop. Hibbert's right-handed baseline hook is closing in quickly on automatic. Real nice option in a half-court set. If only the C's would trot out Robert Swift and Nick Fazekas during the regular season.
Brandon Rush sat out again and I assume he won't play in tomorrow afternoon's finale. I haven't heard anything that should raise concerns about Rush's sore knee. Well, except for the fact that Mike Dunleavy had a "sore knee" most of last season. Speaking of Dunleavy, he was in the house watching his teammates get after it.
Trey Johnson has taken advantage of Rush's absence and played plenty of minutes this week. He's looked pretty solid in the past two outings. He finished tonight with an efficient 13 points and only one turnover in 31-plus minutes of burn.
A.J. Price came out real strong, ended up struggling with his shot a bit but ran the team well and took care of the ball during his extended playing time.
The Pacers survived a 3-ball barrage from Celtics' guard, Chris Lofton who splashed 6 of 8 long ones. Lofton did pull up for an ill-advised three in a transition situation with the C's down one in the waning seconds. Personally, I love the effort, but that type of play could have Lofton heading back to Turkey next season. The kid can shoot it, though.
Finally, Roy Hibbert captured the Pacers' effort in Orlando all week in one play tonight when he went to the floor hustling for a ball headed out of bounds. Even Larry Bird offered up a round of applause for Hibbert's effort and The Pres isn't exactly known for his outbursts of emotions.

Pacers wrap up the week's play against Orlando tomorrow at 3:00PM EDT.