SB Nation User Blog: dreamleague

Summer League wrap-up

dreamleague — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:56:49 -0000

Sorry for the delay in summarizing my 3-day excursion to Summer League, in which I will list things out by team, for easier reading. There's also my analysis of DJ Strawberry and Dominic McGuire (links are below in the Phoenix and Washington sections, respectively).

The main reason for the delay started on early Friday morning, when I checked out The Dark Knight on one of Vegas's two IMAX screens (another great tidbit about Sin City). If I may just go on a little tangent, let me just say I wouldn't be the only person to say this film is Oscar-worthy. Seriously, I saw No Country For Old Men and The Departed, and this film is better than both. Of course, there's no way a Batman movie will win the Oscar because of it being too big-budget, too hyped, and the fact that it would be the third straight crime story to win one.

Which brings me to the other thing that has caused this delay of my final Summer League installment: I saw the film again on Saturday (IMAX again, of course)! Let me tell you, when you see The Dark Knight a second time, you can truly appreciate the storyline, the acting, and the themes. Now, as a kid, I was introduced to Adam West's Batman on TV, then got a Detective Comics book as a birthday gift when I was about twelve, at which point I fell in love with the realism of Batman (rejecting the Adam West version) as opposed to the supernatural foundations of Superman or Spider-Man. I still like the original Tim Burton Batman movie just because it was the best rendition ever at the time, then progressively hated the sequels as they got more and more far-fetched, but now, we are talking a whole new level. And to make a story where Batman becomes more than a hero, wow. If I saw Christopher Nolan walking down the street, I would kneel down and kiss that man's hand. Thank you, Mr. Nolan.

Anyways, back to Summer League. For this piece, I will comment on the following:

The unappreciated elements of Summer League
More Warrior Summer League player observations
Team-by-team observations

Reader beware, this is a long post because I am covering so many areas. I've also posted my thoughts on the NBA as a circus, and how the Knicks' Summer League team, perhaps not surprisingly, fits that bill perfectly.

THE UNAPPRECIATED ELEMENTS OF SUMMER LEAGUE

Even I have knocked the Summer League here and there, but I watch a lot of basketball in person, mostly recreational ball, and I can assure you that the quality of play here in Summer League is top-notch.

Guys will make open three-pointers a lot more often than not. The big men are truly huge human beings, who at any level other than these stratospheric ones (even most of D-1, I would think) would just use and abuse people down low, it would be unfair. As for the more gifted athletes, if you saw one of these guys playing pickup with your friends, you would nickname him "Jordan" in a heartbeat. The Summer League point guards could literally dribble through your team, and the team waiting for next, combined. And if you saw some of these guys shooting around in a gym, they'd be making 80% of their NBA-range three-pointers.

These boys of Summer League are damn good. Makes you appreciate how incredibly talented and basically super-human the NBA really is.

I've never seen an NBDL game, but assuming Kelenna Azubuike and CJ Watson are stars of the NBDL, with another benchmark of Rod Benson as an NBDL-leading rebounder, I would have to guess that NBA Summer League in Vegas is a notch above the NBDL. So even in the absence of teamwork and a playoff system, perhaps Summer League is in the next top three after the NBA and the Spanish league and whatever other European league is up there.

Sometimes I wonder how these teams are actually formed. I wouldn't be surprised if the NBA forced certain players on certain teams, or "politely asked" that teams made substitutions in some semblance of a real NBA game. Because if it were up to me, if I needed a big man like the Warriors do, I'd have like 5 big men just to see how they perform in a "real" game. Some guys I would play the whole game. Like I would play Anthony Randolph all 40 minutes, just to see how he handles it. Some lineups, I would play the whole half, especially if I've got four out of the five guys who will be on my NBA opening day roster as the Warriors do. In other words, I'd run it like a glorified scrimmage. But for some reason, this never happens.

There are a ton of rookies. I'd have to guess that most of the players in their primes are already playing overseas in contracts or have just fell off the radar. Which is too bad for us fans because we'll never see the talented, better-than-Summer-League American stars who are making a living in Europe and elsewhere play.

You'd have to conclude that making the NBA is extremely cut-throat. If you don't make it within the first 3-4 years out of college, you will be disposed of. The economics just don't work. Think about it, if you didn't make an NBA team and were stuck making a few thousand bucks in D-League, it would be mighty hard to keep in shape and even improve to the level of a pro who makes playing basketball his livelihood. At some point you have to put food on the table. So you have to shine in D-1 and get into the NBA young.

Also, at the clip of about one guy for every two teams, I have no idea how certain guys made it to Summer League. It's either a big man who has slow footwork or a guard who is too skinny or can't knock it down with consistency from deep, with pressure. I'm thinking these guys must be the result of some favor that needed to be repaid from an executive to an agent. Or a last-minute pickup out of desperation. Or random blind luck. That's the other quirky part about Summer League.

Now here's the problem with Summer League teamwork. You are putting a bunch of guys together who have hardly played with each other. You also have talent levels that could range from future hall-of-famer on down. A Summer League executive does not pickup someone to be a role player on a Summer League team.

There's really a huge lack of chemistry. It's no wonder there's no playoffs or championship -- and I'm sure NBA ownership rules prohibit it as well -- because it's kind of a waste, since Summer League is like organized pickup play.

Most of the players are trying to make an NBA roster. The typical Summer League player has no real "friends" on the team and constantly has to weigh various issues at hand. Will passing to the open player, who I think is not as good as me, be better for me or should I take it myself? I'll bet most Summer League players are not even aware of such things going through their heads as they make decisions on the court. Suffice it to say, on-court decisions are not necessarily made with the team game in mind. Summer League is like a solo trip to play pickup ball at the local playground. Each five-man team is a crapshoot. It skews more towards every-man-for-himself than anything else.

Summer League is a showcase of individual skills and how individual skills can fit into the larger puzzle of the existing NBA roster, or perhaps a future roster. Teams would be wise to scout out other teams' players as well, as we might be seeing with the pickup of Jamont Gordon onto the GSW Rocky Mountain Revue roster. It is not a showcase of winning games or having expectations of playing as a team. Sure, you want your players to run set plays correctly, as if on a team, but everything's more on the level of learning, as opposed to winning.

Now, I've mentioned that Randolph and Marco Belinelli have "ballhogged" on certain sequences, but this is not the same as saying Jerryd Bayless "was a ballhog" (presumably all game long is what the commenter was saying). Granted, Bayless had the ball in his possession a lot, but if I'm running the Trailblazers' summer league, that's what I want. Maybe not all game long, but during the important parts of the game. I want to throw stuff at Bayless and see how he will do. Let's take this baby out for a spin. Summer League is a test drive.

Now do you expect Bayless to do that in the presence of Brandon Roy? Do you expect Randolph to do that in the presence of Stephen Jackson? C'mon, to think that would be an insult to Bayless's and Randolph's employment as a professional.

So please, don't criticize star Summer League players for being ballhogs. It's not translatable to the next level where they will ultimately wind up. In a test drive, you want to punch it from 0 to 60 a bunch of times, peel around the corners to test the G's. But after you've bought the car, you're gonna think of gas mileage, engine wear-and-tear, and when to use the old minivan instead.

MORE WARRIORS SUMMER LEAGUE ROSTER NOTES

I forgot to mention in all the Randy/Marco hype that I saw someone in the stands interviewing Chris Mullin with a microphone. Then the microphone disappeared and they talked for a long while, about a quarter-and-a-half. There was no doubt the talk had to be about Randy. Turns out, the interviewer was JA Adande of ESPN.com. His article is called "Warriors future on display in Vegas".

Here are some brief comments going down the Warriors' Vegas Summer League roster. Keep in mind, these notes are for 2 out of the 5 games (games 3 & 4, to be exact). I skipped Belinelli, Randolph, Watson, and Brandan Wright (although I will say that B-Wright has a slow learning curve -- not something you would say of old-school Tarheels) because there's really nothing new to add besides what you saw in the NBA 2007-08 regular season and my other posts about Mully-ball and Randy/Marco. If there's nothing really to write home about, I'll just simply say "a dime a dozen", which is to say, there are plenty of other similar players available on other Summer League rosters...

Louis Amundson - 6'9" 225-lb white guy beast formerly of UNLV (he has 2 years pro). He has a pony-tail too. He's very muscular and athletic. You know, he could play Thor of Marvel Comics fame. He will not make it to the NBA unless he develops a consistent jumpshot. He didn't really even take any jumpshots in the games I saw, not with the players he was surrounded by. With CJ, Marco, Randy, and B-Wright on the floor, he was actually the "big man" on the team! He can run the floor.
Richard Hendrix - A big boy at 6'9", 255 lbs, from Alabama, rookie. He had a really nice "beastly" game down low in B-Wright's absence, but he's not fast or quick enough to make it to the NBA. He doesn't really have any special skills either. I guess there wasn't much to choose from at #49, but I've said that the undrafted Wilson Chandler of the Knicks' or Hilton Armstrong of the Hornets' Summer League teams would've been better prospects.
Dion Dowell - G/F 6'7" 205 Houston, rookie. A dime a dozen ("ADAD").
Robert Kurz - F 6'9" 232 Notre Dame, rookie. ADAD. Kinda resembles Troy Murphy, but not even close in terms of skill. Yeah, I know, that's basically an insult.
Reggie Larry - F 6'6" 225 Boise State, rookie. Did not play.
Jamaal Moore - G/F 6'6" 195 Rice, rookie. Did not play.
Anthony Morrow - G 6'5" 210 Georgia Tech, rookie. ADAD.
DeMarcus Nelson - PG 6'4" 200 Duke, rookie. Nelson has the strength to take it to the rack. He can finish too. The only problem is, his shot is absolutely terrible. The rotation sucks. I can name at least 20 guys in my rec league who would beat him in a three-point contest. For that reason, which on the one hand is a correctable thing, but on the other hand is really too bad, I do not think he will make an NBA roster. I will say that he seems to be a smart player, although you'd expect as much from a Coach-K-trained Dukie. On the opening tip, I think it was Amundson who tipped the ball back too far, where Nelson had to backtrack and chase it. He could have dived and saved the ball, but instead, he ate it out of bounds. Basketball purists will know that you never save the ball under your own basket, so DeMarcus did the right thing. Most Summer League players would have tried to save it.
Mykal Riley - F 6'6" 185 Alabama, rookie. ADAD.
Tamar Slay - G/F 6'8" 215 Marshall, 3 yrs pro. Did not play.
Ian Young - G 6'3" 200 Auburn, rookie. Did not play.

Check the Philadelphia 76ers comments on Jamont Gordon, who was picked up by the Warriors for the upcoming Rocky Mountain Revue.

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS: DJ Augustin (overall #9 pick) did not play in either of the two Bobcats games I saw. Nothing else to write home about. If the NBA is a circus, and I've been told that by Adidas grassroots power player Darren "Mats" Matsubara, the Bobcats have no one that gets to perform under the big tent... I do not like Phil Ford's coaching style. Sure, if you look him up on Wikipedia, he's got good credentials, but he's always yelling at refs. How about developing players? On one play really early in the game, he barked at a ref that didn't call an offensive 3 seconds on their opponent, saying, "He could have had a cup of coffee down there!" Uh, good point, I guess, Phil. Also, this was all directed at the little Korean ref. Ford discussed the matter further during the free throw and all I could hear was some Korean-accented response... The older guy getting autographs as mentioned in the comments of the Randy/Marco post was getting autographs that day at Cox apparently for his son, on some Summer League-supplied postcards. I'm guessing he got one from Augustin because it said "DJ". I mean, that's all the autograph was. "D" over here and "J" over there. Any dude off the street could have signed that. Maybe Augustin doesn't want to have anyone forging his signature at the bank?

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: J.J. Hickson (#19) is a 6'9" 242-lb big-bodied forward, but he doesn't have remarkable speed or skills. Not a good pick that high. Former Kansas players Wayne Simien and Billy Thomas did not play. Robert "Tractor" Traylor made an appearance, but didn't do anything special. He's listed as a 7-year pro. Last year, the 7-year pro in the Summer League was Lamond Murray, also on the Cavaliers. What is that franchise doing?!

DALLAS MAVERICKS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post. I'm on the fence about draft pick Shan Foster.

DENVER NUGGETS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post. I kind of lost a little respect for this organization.

DETROIT PISTONS: Check my scathing report on the Arron Afflalo post and my notes on this team on the Day 7 post.

HOUSTON ROCKETS: I barely got to see this team play. I noticed nothing special about #28 Donte Greene, as he probably played his best games previously, or #33 Joey Dorsey. I don't even remember seeing #54 Marty Leunen. Gustavo Barrera had one flash in the pan all game long. He's a 6'5" guard from Uruguay, which piqued my interest since, well, ya know, the NBA is a circus.

LA CLIPPERS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post. I cannot recall anything extraordinary about their players.

LA LAKERS: I barely got to see this team play. Coby Karl played tough again like last year. He's really solid and I'd like to see him in the NBA. No sign of Yi Li, Chinese 6'9" forward. 58th pick Joe Crawford didn't do anything special. Had I known ex-Cal star Sean Lampley (Go Bears!) was on the roster, I might have checked this team out more.

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES: Unfortunately, I did not get to see OJ Mayo play.

MILWAUKEE BUCKS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post. Joe Alexander (lottery pick) showed nothing special.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES: There's a few notes in the comments section of the Jerryd Bayless post... I know you're curious about Kevin Love. There's nothing he does that's ultra-spectacular, except for the oft-noted fullcourt chest pass, which I did not witness, but he should have a long NBA career if not for the fact that he is a pretty mobile big guy. And I mean not only big, but heavy. He just has these powerful strides. He's very intense, but lots of times he was pissed at himself for not making a basket or something. I can envision him refining his skills more and more. Right now, he's kind of like a physical tree. Whomever guards him just knows he has to withstand some lumber from Love. The key is, can Love make his defender worry about his skills, too?

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post. I had some good things to say about Hilton Armstrong... Almost forgot, point guard Bobby Brown did play well, but he's only 6'2" 175 lbs, so I'm not sure how his body will hold up. I just think he's too small to be effective in the NBA.

NEW YORK KNICKS: Check my NBA circus post about the Knicks.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post. I had some good things to say about Thaddeus Young.

PHOENIX SUNS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post and the report on DJ Strawberry... 7'0" 250-lb Serbian center Vladimir Golubovic was caught on a high screen and yelled in his European accent, "Sweeetch!!!". He also did not seem to understand the NBA defensive three-second rule... Robin Lopez had a strong move to the hole that resulted in a dunk, to which his former aforementioned AAU coach Darren "Mats" Matsubara gave a high-five to a friend sitting with him courtside. Afterwards, through Mats, I met Lopez's mom. She said Robin looked very tired and, despite her warnings, has been staying out late, being in Sin City and all. I sure hope he's been spending the last two games out late, because I didn't see anything terribly special in two games except that dunk. He has a nice hook which doesn't necessarily go in all the time. But the bottom line is, he is huge. And he has long strides going north and south. I have not seen his brother Brook Lopez play, but I'm assuming Brook is a better version, which could be considered scary... I also mention Marcus Vinicius in my post about the Knicks and the NBA circus.

PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS: Check my notes on the Jerryd Bayless post.

SACRAMENTO KINGS: Another Token Asian Guy found! Coaching staff of the Kings. Looks like he's a statguy or something... I don't see anything special out of Jason Thompson (#12). Could Kawakami be right? Did the Warriors rumor mill of Thompson coax the Kings into taking Thompson and give the Warriors a shot at Randolph at #14?

SAN ANTONIO SPURS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post.

TORONTO RAPTORS: Check my notes on this team on the Day 7 post.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS: Check the post about my man-crush on Dominic McGuire... Andray Blatche, the 6'11" 248-lb center picked out of South Kent Prep in Connecticut 3 years ago, has a glimmer of hope. He's got some handles and has flashes every now and then. He's a big boy and can take the NBA grind, but it's as if he hasn't made up his mind on what kind of player he wants to be. He's lacking a mean streak. He's a case study in favor of the 1-year-of-college NBA eligibility rule... I'm still not impressed by Nick Young, last year's first-round draft pick. He kind of reminds me of Harold Miner. Flashy set of tools, but nothing really stands out. Like they're almost there, but they're not. Hmmm, they both went to USC.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!

Summer Scout: Knicks epitomize NBA circus

dreamleague — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:28:01 -0000

While compiling the notes for the New York Knicks for my forthcoming Summer League team-by-team summary, I noticed that the tidbits I had on the Knicks were all kind of quirky. Adidas grassroots power player Darren "Mats" Matsubara once told me that the NBA is like a circus. We got to talking because I run one of the bigger Asian American recreational leagues in the nation (I've also run Women's Leagues and Open Leagues). At the time, he told me that it is inevitable that we will see an American-born Asian in the NBA someday, because the NBA "is like a circus".

I think Summer League is a reflection of that. Think about it, when there's a 6'9" three-point-shooting Brazilian named Marcus Vinicius on Phoenix, of course that's the first guy you're curious about, unless he sucks in which case you immediately tune out (I tuned out). It's just like on the pickup playground.

By contrast, if a guy is pretty good, but you've seen other guys like him who are also pretty good, then even though he is pretty good, you kind of tune him out. What grabs your attention? The oddities. And if the oddities perform well, then you've got hype. Even though there are other American players who can do the things Portland's Petteri Koponen, Koponen stands out because there aren't many guys from Finland who you've seen do the things you do. And another example is that Coby Karl stands out because he not only beat cancer, but he's the son of an active NBA coach. Therefore, in our current NBA, a guy like Vinicius probably has a better chance of making a team than an American who has exactly the same skills. We're definitely on the NBA's entertainment bit here.

Even in the new regime, it seems that the New York Knicks franchise, curiously the most valuable and one of the most recognizable NBA franchises, is right along that line of thinking.

Well, aside from Wilson Chandler, who at 6'8" 230 from DePaul (1 year pro), is a stallion. He's really mobile and athletic, strong with his game. He's got a chance to make an NBA roster somewhere. I'm really surprised he was not taken in the draft. After seeing him play, I don't know how you pick a Richard Hendrix over Chandler. Thanks to gsw55 in the comments below for clarifying that Chandler was picked by the Knicks last year: 23rd overall!!! Slap on the wrist to the guy who compiled the "What to look out for" section of the program guide. The program guide makes no mention of this. Btw, I would definitely not compare him to Popeye Jones, as Chandler's Wikipedia entry says!

Now, let's get back to the Knicks' circus, aka Summer League team.

Token Asian Guy spotted! 6'11" 212-lb center Zhang Songtao of China (rookie). He had a few good spin moves around the bucket, but sucked in general. Could never finish.

Nate Robinson was, well, Nate Robinson. Just a freak of nature, this guy. He's listed at 5'9" and obviously has amazing hops, being one of two Slam Dunk winners in the Summer League (Gerald Green is the other). One play, he knew Charlotte was going to foul with a few ticks remaining since they had a foul to give, and that's what you do in the NBA, so he jumped high when he got fouled and launched a trey. Therefore he got three shots out of what was supposed to be a routine foul-to-give, closing out the quarter.

But that just goes to show you how great Jerryd Bayless is. Nate was last year's MVP and has 3 years of legit NBA experience under his belt. Bayless, this year's MVP, is a better player already.

I don't get the Knicks' recent signing of Anthony Roberson. I mean, he's a great player and three-point shooter as compared to real life, a context which will be explained in my next post, a summary about Summer League. But at 6'2" 188, you want this guy in the NBA? Where you have beasts like 6'4" Chauncey Billups to play against? When you already have 5'9" Nate Robinson? Did they keep Isiah Thomas in charge of the Summer League team or something? Oh yeah, I forgot. The three-ring circus. Roberson is much more marketable than any of the many 6'4" guards in Summer League who can do exactly the same things.

Brandon Hunter resembles an oversized 6'7" 266-pound Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Whenever Robinson is not on the floor, Mardy Collins, listed as a guard at 6'6" 220 lbs, is playing the point. He's a good ballhandler in terms of protecting the ball and using his butt while creeping up to the halfcourt set, but has a hard time really moving forward in terms of north-south. I don't think he has the lateral quickness to handle big guards like Deron Williams or Billups or certainly not Jason Kidd, either, and the extra two inches he's listed at doesn't really help. So I'm not sure about that strategy of putting Collins at the point.

During one memorable sequence, Robinson was dribbling the ball around, killing some shotclock, when they finally found Paul Miller, 6'10" 250 rookie center from Wichita State, wide open and he shot a three which clanged. Nearby Knicks fans could be heard saying, "Oh yeah, let's give our center the ball to make the three." His buddy then added, "He's not Mike Miller!!!", to which another nearby Knick fan added, "Or Brad!"

Ah, the one thing we Warrior fans can always rest assured is, we're not the Knicks (although I have a feeling the Knicks will somehow get into the playoffs more than once within 14 years).

I really wish Danilo Gallinari hadn't gotten injured. He probably would have made me ignore the Knicks' circus.

Summer Scout: Dominic McGuire

dreamleague — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:18:17 -0000

I still have a man-crush on Dominic McGuire. Curiously, he's listed at 6'9" and last year's program had him listed at 6'8". I still think he's more 6'7-and-a-half with a long wingspan. So I wouldn't say he's a 4 so much as a 3, although he can cover 4s. Plus, on offense he plays more like a 3.

That being said, he's one of the few small forwards who will crash boards and post up. I hope the fact that so many Summer League players don't like to offensive rebound and instead like to hang and watch from the three-point line, expecting a last-second dish out to them, is not a future trend of the NBA, but McGuire certainly bucks that trend.

However, his forte is defense. He moves his butt to get around screens. One time, he switched when he shouldn't have, but at least he tried. Most Summer League players don't do a good job of anticipating a switch. They switch when it's too late.

Also as it pertains to off-ball defense, he does a great job of blocking off the ballhandler when his man sets a high screen. He'll come out of nowhere to help players, closes out well, and even moved his feet to get around a post-up by first-round draft pick big man J.J. Hickson of the Cavaliers, denying the entry pass. He's enthusiastic about playing defense and is the most vocal player on defense.

On offense, he's improved since last year and can actually hit a stop-and-pop, although the rotation of the ball rarely yields a swish; if the ball goes in, it's hitting the back iron.

If I'm the San Antonio Spurs, I've got my eye on this kid as an eventual replacement of Bruce Bowen. If I'm an old-school team like the Spurs, where you know it's easier to teach good offense than it is to teach good defense (although most teams don't really put a lot of stock in defense these days), I want McGuire on my team.

Suffice it to say that McGuire will probably never be a Warrior!

Summer Scout: DJ Strawberry

dreamleague — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:10:06 -0000

While doing a team-by-team summary of Summer League, I realized that what I had written on DJ Strawberry was getting a little lengthy. So here's my analysis on him. In short, I think the backup and/or potential heir to Steve Nash is still a huge question mark for Phoenix.

After I posted my initial brief scouting report on Strawberry amidst the Day 7 post, I felt maybe I was a little hard on him. Prior to the 2nd game vs the Knicks where I saw Phoenix play, I had read a link from TrueHoop saying that he probably wasn't going to be the backup point guard, since the Suns were eyeing Tyronne Lue, among others.

Maybe I came into the 2nd game jumping on the bandwagon a bit, but after focusing on his weaknesses, his weaknesses started to really overshadow the fact that he does a lot of things well, just not any one thing spectacular. As such, the best compliment I can give him is he's a smaller version of Scottie Pippen. However, one example where's he's majorly discounted from any comparison to Pippen was a fastbreak in which he had the big 6'9" Wilson Chandler as the only one between DJ and the tin.

Strawberry couldn't get by him, although Chandler did foul him. Strawberry tried to make a step inside on the fastbreak, but DJ's steps are not big steps (he ought to work on a bigger first step). DJ also does not have a quick hesitation lateral dribble. He does not have a quick spin. All of these things, you need from a point guard. I was thinking he could be a defensive stopper at 6'5", but he doesn't bend his knees. I don't think he can do any heavy squat-lifting. He needs to hit the weights in terms of his lower body. A higher vertical would have gotten him over Chandler, who was a bit flat-footed on the play, being sort of in a vulnerable defensive position.

Strawberry should be bending his knees with the ball as well. Worst of all, because he cannot get his body into a torpedo-like position to make a strong first-step past a similarly-sized defender, he tends to shoot himself out of situations. And that shot is not reliable. He did make some jumpshots here and there, but something's just not right about jump and/or the release. I can't put my finger on it. Again, the theme of doing a bunch of things good, but not great.

So I go back to my original assessment. He better find something other than his height to stand out above the noise, otherwise his NBA career will be over soon.

P.S. During one of DJ's free throws, the announcer accidentally reported his name as Darryl Strawberry, but DJ didn't flinch. I remember hearing that the "D" in DJ actually does stand for Darryl, but he distanced himself from the "Darryl" name due to his father being in jail for some time.

Summer Scout: More "Randy", Marco stuff

dreamleague — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:39:55 -0000

OK, so we've talked in general about some of Anthony Randolph's strengths and how it may portend an interesting Mully-ball era that could be the successor to Nellie-ball. After watching today's Warrior Summer League finale against the Raptors, which incidentally was without Brandan Wright ("B-Wright") due to a leg injury, let's add a few addendums for Randolph and Marco Bellinelli...

The Warriors coaching staff (and players, I assume) are calling him "Randolph", "Randy", or "Rand", but almost never "Anthony".
Summer League coach Keith Smart's offense is most definitely revolving around Randolph, at least when first starting the game, even more-so than Bellinelli. Smart interestingly uses a big tear-off memo pad (with basketball halfcourt lines already drawn in, of course) and a marker instead of the more popular dry-erase board when diagramming plays. Maybe they pin those up for classroom-type discussion later in practices? Early in the game, he had a picture of an "AD" circled in the middle, with another circled "1" and the requisite arrows. Basically it's the high pick-and-roll off of Randolph that you've been seeing in the Warriors' Summer League games. After the timeout, the 1 for the play was Belinelli, who came in to replace DeMarcus Nelson.
It turns out, Randolph does have a spin move, but the one time he used it he could not, as usual, finish strong enough near the rim and got swatted. That's been a recurring problem, finishing at the rim. He either makes, misses (and 50% of the time quite badly), gets swatted, or throws his body into harm's way to draw the free throws. This is no surprise when you are rail thin in the upper body and otherwise lack overwhelming body control. Wright has the same issue. Only on rare occasions is there a teardrop swish or fadaway make by either player, and those are always kind of all-or-nothing since the defense will likely get the rebound if you miss a finesse move. Then again, Randolph is getting to the free throw line a lot -- B-Wright has not been.
Randy's got a long, long way to go on learning the basics of team defense in the NBA. Early in the game, Smart caught Randolph with his brain stuck in neutral, in normal ball-you-man weak-side defense when he was supposed to double the strong-side baseline post. By the time Smart yelled, "Red, Anthony!" (I guess that was the one time I heard someone call him "Anthony" and guess what, he didn't really respond, did he?), Randolph was too late on the double and his original cover got the pass towards the hoop, easy layup.
Randolph often turns his back to the ball when he is weakside, which is a cardinal sin of fundamental man-to-man defense. As a result, and with his brain often stuck in neutral on defense, at 6'10" with a 7-foot-plus wingspan, unfortunately Randolph has almost nothing to offer in the form of help defense. Someone sit him down in a room with tapes of Marcus Camby, please.
With regard to ball-hogging in Summer League, I'll delve a bit more into this topic in my next post summarizing all the other teams I saw, but there was a funny sequence late in the game where Randy did some "ballhogging". Shooting guard Mykal Riley (pronounced "Mikhail") of Alabama was wide open in the corner as Randolph drove inside and drew one of his many trips to the line. Standing at halfcourt during Randy's free throws, Riley shook his head, turning to Smart. Smart smiled back, as he always does, and said sarcastically, "Don't get cold, Riley!"
Wright didn't have too many flashes against the Kings yesterday, but come to think of it, last year in the regular season, he did have some flashes. So I wouldn't be too worried about it and that might even make you feel better about the potential of Randolph in a real NBA game, too. Wright is also having some difficulties with the X's and O's. On the last play, with the Warriors down by three, one of the options on the out-of-bounds was a lob to Wright, which Smart had to point out after the buzzer sounded.

Now, please don't be too concerned about Belinelli...

Marco went on another shooting slump before finally hitting an open three, to which he shook his head, slapped his own thigh, as if to say, "At last!" However, one thing I'm impressed with is, during that whole slump, he never showed any frustration. He just kept playing. The only time he showed any emotion about his misses was when he made one to end the string.
Belinelli has not been concerned about his point totals. Early in the game, playing point, he encouraged teammate and Georgia Tech product Anthony Morrow to shoot the three after passing one up the last time down. When Marco found Morrow a few plays later for an open trey, Marco pumped his fist and nodded in approval. I get the sense, even aside from this particular game in which he played a lot of point guard, during the last two weeks his approach to this year's Summer League has been different than last year's. Even in the previous game against the Kings, Belinelli made one too many a pass on a fast break, which led to Smart telling him, "Marco, you had a layup." Last year was his coming-out party. This year, he wants to be a more complete player and get his teammates involved. This can, often times, lead to turnovers, if not blown assists.
Marco's passes are really pretty. He's especially good at dribbling by a pick-and-roll, then doing a no-look back to the roller. If he dribbles hard one way and the defender hedges, he'll pass back up top via behind-the-back. And one time, off of a baseline in-bound, he got stuck in the corner with a double-team, lunged almost out of bounds and somehow found a teammate on the opposite corner with a long bounce pass for a three-pointer.
However, one of two major knocks I still have is, he's reluctant to cut inside off-ball and offensive rebound. Son, this is the NBA. The day that fear goes away is the day you become a true professional. I don't care how much less you weigh than everyone else. You need to do it to keep your defender honest.
The other thing that bothers me about Belinelli is his man-to-man defense is, at times, terrible. Early on, guys were penetrating past him almost at will. He later stepped it up a bit, but I just wish he would bend his knees a little more and give me the classic defensive stance. Squats and stronger quads are usually helpful with such an endeavor.
Although he does in general seem to be taking Summer League with a grain of salt, Belinelli's still got a competitive fire burning. The two times that the smaller 6'3" former Duke player Daniel Ewing scored on him, Marco came right back with a little ball-hogging of his own and took it to Ewing. The first time, he got revenge with his own stop-and-pop trey. But the second time, he got swatted real bad on help defense by one of the Raptors' frontline bench players, although he did beat Ewing off the dribble to begin with. Incidentally, the three people sitting behind me were Ewing's family members.

Other tidbits from this game...

During warmups, I noticed that B-Wright and CJ Watson were in street clothes. Since I get nervous talking to famous people, I saw a guy who was collecting autographs of various players all day and told him, "Hey, there's Brandan Wright, go get his autograph and, while you're at it, ask him why he's not playing." After getting the autograph, which was lucky because B-Wright said no to a kid with a mini-basketball right after that, the dude came back and said, "He's got a leg injury. I told him, 'Yeah, right, you know you got that at the club last night,' at which point the coach [Smart] said, 'I knew it! We gotta do something about that, man!'"
Laker sage Tex Winter arrived at the scene with his wife, realized there were not too many empty seats left behind the teams' benches, and proceeded to walk her, hand-in-hand, along the very visible area behind the Cox Pavilion hoop stanchions, to the other side of the stands. What a cute couple, both of them with white hair. Isn't it amazing that Tex is probably older than your grandfather and yet he's still on the bench of every Laker game with Phil Jackson? Kinda like how Alfred is to the Batman.
Interestingly, the Lakers were about to start play at Thomas & Mack, but Tex and his wife were staying put for the time being. Last year, when Tex sat near me, he was always taking notes. I'm not sure if he was taking notes this time around. Anyways, he stayed the better part of the first quarter. He must've been checking out Randolph. After all, Tex wasn't watching the Lakers and, quite honestly, there's nobody on the Raptors roster worth looking at.
Rony Turiaf took a peek into Cox early on, then disappeared. Later on, I caught the last 20 minutes of the Lakers-Nuggets game at Thomas & Mack and, lo and behold, during a timeout, Turiaf's rebounding for a kid who is participating in a quick free-throw contest. I guess Rony forgot the Lakers failed to match last night. I guess he didn't catch much of the Warriors-Mavericks playoffs last year either. There were a ton of Laker fans at Thomas & Mack and they gave him a nice applause, but dude, we Warrior fans are gonna love you more than those Laker fans ever could. C'mon, show some love for your new team.
Chris Mullin and Don Nelson had a very lively discussion going on up there in the stands. Lots of head-nodding.
I love watching Keith Smart coach. He just doesn't get all riled up and is a very positive teacher. He doesn't worry too much about the refs unless it's a blatantly bad call on Randy, B-Wright, or Marco. Even then, he prefers a tempered approach. For example, there was a big non-call on a Randolph drive, resulting in a fast-break the other way for the Raptors. He got an explanation from the ref during the ensuing free throws and actually nodded his head and said, "OK, my bad" after hearing the explanation. Lots of times when things go wrong, he'll just smile and accept the fact that rookies are making rookie mistakes. In general, most Summer League coaches are good about that and almost never negatively yell at any players (I have yet to see it happen in two years), but Smart goes the extra mile with his smile. One time, Riley stole an inbounds pass, only to dribble the ball right back out of bounds on what should have been an easy layup. At the next timeout, as Riley walked towards Smart to sit down, Riley got the patented Smart smile. Smart obviously "gets it" and I think in this day and age of NBA coaching/psychology, with the youth movement and evolving style of play of the Association, Smart is destined to be an NBA head coach someday.

Summer Scout: A new Mully-ball era?

dreamleague — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:09:43 -0000

Last night I got a good look at Warriors draft pick Anthony Randolph up close. To cut to the chase, pop quiz: make a list of people 6'10" or with 7-foot wingspans who can handle the rock coast-to-coast, including between the legs and behind-the-back? And I mean under duress and looking like he can naturally do it. Like truly take someone to the hole off the dribble.

Makes me sort of recall last year's big Yi Jianlian pre-draft workout report and video by ESPN's Chad Ford. In it, you can see Yi smoothly handling the ball and taking some jump shots.

Well, based on what I've seen, for near-7-footers, Randolph's skills are orders of magnitude better than Yi's, although each player is being used for different roles (Yi's still a post-up player and there's no way you let him bring up the rock).

So how many guys did you come up with on your list? I have to be honest, I'm sitting here and I can only think of two other guys besides Yi, who doesn't really count. One of them is Toni Kukoc and he's retired. The other one is... Brandan Wright!

And I gotta tell ya based on what I saw in person last night, Randolph is better than all of the above. Yep, that includes Kukoc as long as Randolph keeps working on his outside shot, which looks pretty good thus far. Based on bringing-to-the-table skills coming into the Association, I have to say that Chris Mullin has pulled off another potential steal-of-the-draft with Randolph at #14. But as we learned from Marco Belinelli's rookie year, what you bring to the table isn't necessarily what you put on the table. That obviously remains to be seen.

I'm not sure we're maximizing our discussion time dissecting Randolph's ability to do this or that, as in my usual scouting reports. And you'll get the full game recap from Fantasy Junkie, I'm sure. The bottom line is, Randolph can lead a break or do a hesitate-and-break towards the hoop off the dribble, maybe even between the legs, no problem. Trust me, he can do it. I don't think he has a spin move yet, but oh my, if he did.

I think the more interesting discussion is as follows: when you see Randolph (or Wright, for that matter) get a defensive board and, with the guards such as Belinelli and CJ Watson realizing this and not hanging back for the traditional "Oh here I am, pass me the ball so we can bring it up safely" outlet routine, it makes you wonder.

So perhaps in the context of a real NBA basketball game, envision (a few years from now?) Randolph leading a break with Monta Ellis on one wing, Belinelli on the other, and Stephen Jackson trailing for a possible dish-out trey? Hmmm...

Are we witnessing the dawn of a new era of basketball?

Now, with Run TMC and the Baron Davis era, one of the things we Warriors fans can be proud of is the uniqueness of Nellie-ball. Nobody except Phoenix can come close to our style of play. Has it led us to boatloads of victories or even being remotely considered as championship-caliber? Well, we don't and didn't necessarily have a beast named Amare Stoudamire, so let the arguing with Suns fans begin. That's not the point.

I COULD BE WRONG (*wink* *wink*, Kawakami!), but we may just be seeing a glimpse of a new style of basketball with Randolph (who just turned 19 in July!) and Wright (who will turn 21 in October). Granted, we still have to figure out how Wright and Randolph, whose combined ages do not even surpass Mullin's, fit into the bigger context of the Warriors' starting five, but this is getting mighty interesting.

Mully-ball, where your two tallest 7-foot-wingspan players lead the break.

Folks, I don't think we've ever seen this before in the history of basketball.

Of course, it's not what you bring to the table, it's what you put on the table, but I'm just saying...

P.S. I do have some game notes from last night which I will share in a future post, along with notes from other games.

Summer Scout: Day 7 wrap up

dreamleague — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:10:50 -0000

So now you've heard about the big eye-openers in Jerryd Bayless and my disagreement about Arron Afflalo. Here are the rest of my notes from Thursday, sprinkled in with some other tidbits I found...

DETROIT/DALLAS

Spotted: Paul Mokeski. Guy sitting next to me said he saw Floyd Mayweather.
Nice to see Richie Frahm of Gonzaga working a little extra on his game (three-point shooting and dribble-pop). I can envision him stepping into a random gym and people wondering who is this tall white guy? Well, according to the program guide, it's at least his 4th year removed from Gonzaga and he will be 31 years old as of August 14th. I think this could be the end of the rope for Frahm. Btw, he looks more like 6'6" than 6'5". He's got a nice stroke from downtown, but it isn't automatic. He almost got called for an up-and-down (where you first intended to go up for a jumper then decided not to). He is the stereotypical stand-up face-the-basket type player, i.e., he's too slow to make an NBA roster and isn't lights out like Jason Kapono to make up for it. I wonder where he will end up.
OK, I think we can officially call the Amir Johnson project a bust. He's too slow making his moves, can't relentlessly crash the glass, and doesn't really know where to go on the floor. He was drafted #56 out of high school in 2005. So what we have here is the culmination of 3 years of NBA experience. Not good.
As I sprinkled before on previous posts, both teams' players, except for Gerald Green of Dallas, have difficulty penetrating the paint and, instead, settle for jump shots and fadaways. There's no real post play to speak of. Even the burly 6'8" 220-lb Charles Rhodes of Dallas tends to avoid the contact on posts.
Apparently, Green hasn't gotten the memo on the 6-second end-of-quarter-last-shot rule. He makes his move with 4 seconds left at the top of the arc and by then, it's too obvious he will shoot the trey. He misses, of course.
On the defensive end, Green does not seem to know the concept of help defense, especially when paired against an non-consequential offensive player. He tends to watch, as evidenced by the drive/dunk from 6'11" center from BYU, Trent Plaisted.
Speaking of Plaisted, why are the Mavs playing zone? You can't expect a hash group of 5 almost-random guys to learn and play zone together. What's the point? NBA championships aren't even won with zone. Eventually, a NBA roster player has to know how to play man-to-man defense. If you don't do that in Summer League, then where do you start? Take, for example, the fact that Plaisted just got open real easy down low for a jump hook as Green was wondering whether or not to bite to the high elbow on his side of the zone.
Walter Sharpe just threw an alley-oop to Deron Washington. Was that a 1-3-1 the Mavs were in? Ugh.
Shan Foster gets complacent standing outside and facing up and shooting his top-of-the-head-release jumper. I can see how he used that to his advantage at Vanderbilt, being named SEC Player of the Year, but he'll need to expand his game to play as a regular in the NBA.
I'm not sure if Foster has stepped foot in the paint this entire game!
Foster also doesn't come off screens tight enough.
The Detroit coach at one point took out all their better players, including Afflalo. Then Dallas took a big lead. Rule of thumb for all teams, all levels, no matter Summer League or not: never take out all your best players. Have at least one in there.
Jason Maxiell just walked by.
Foster sat for a long time, then came in for Green. They didn't spend much time on the floor together. Makes sense since they are both 3's.
Detroit's diminutive point guard Will Bynum is like an Energizer Bunny. I think he's played the entire game. Unfortunately, he's too small and not particular extraordinary in any category to be picked up on an NBA roster.
Aaron Miles seems to be getting inside a lot on defender Bynum, but I haven't been able to study Miles. He's getting more minutes than Keith McLeod. However, at about 6'2" 195 lbs (he's not listed in the program), Miles does not have an NBA body.
Wow, this 6'9" kid Sharpe can really shoot the trey. If he's been doing it all Summer League, then he's for real. Something tells me he hasn't been.
JaVale McGee draft pick of the Wizards and former Nevada-Reno player just walked by and is getting mobbed by kids for autographs.

NEW ORLEANS / LA CLIPPERS

Spotted: Journalist David Aldridge and Mike Dunleavy, Sr..
Bucking the "jumpshot/fadaway" trend, 6'11" 235-lb Hilton Armstrong from UConn seems to relish absorbing contact, but he also has a fadaway. He's got a longish neck and torso, kind of like a smaller version of Elden Campbell. I'm surprised Armstrong went undrafted. The Warriors could use a Summer League player like him, just for kicks. At least here's a guy who likes to create contact, unlike the entire Warriors roster (well, okay, I haven't actually seen the Warriors' summer squad, but their NBA roster lacks such guys!).
Nick Fazekas still has bad footwork, but I've noticed he has pretty good coordination with his hands. I guess instead of C3PO he is now C3PO with stickum!
I'm not sure Julian Wright is worth analyzing. He just seems to be a bit out of control. The best players in this game are Armstrong and point guard Bobby Brown. Al Thornton is not doing much.
Brown has hops. And one cool thing he does is, he gets in the air just before the defender can react in time. However, he does not have NBA size at 6'2" 175 and it's not like he makes up for the lack of size with anything explosive.
Adam Haluska of Iowa was the Hornets' #43 pick from 2007? I've observed at least half the other players on all the Summer League squads I've seen are better than Haluska. Honestly, I don't get it.
Everybody calls Julian Wright "Ju-Ju".
DeAndre Jordan is an imposing 6'11", 7-foot-plus-wingspanned center from Texas A&M. However, he needs a lot of work. He's not slow-footed, but he's not fast or even medium-fast. Everything about him is about a half-second too slow. He does not have any moves.
Token Asian Guy spotted! On the Clippers' coaching staff, although I don't think he's said anything to anyone yet.

PHILADELPHIA/TORONTO

Silence for a few minutes as they try to cue up the Canadian national anthem. Some of us are wondering if there's even a single Canadian in the premises.
The Canadian flag is like 8 times smaller than the US flag, both hanging from the rafters. Guess the XL size is a bit hard to find in Vegas.
Wow, what a nice Star Spangled Banner rendition by UNLV student Brianna Milan. Sign her up for American Idol.
Spotted: Maurice Cheeks.
This one was a pretty tough game to stomach. A notch below the rest.
We love Rod Benson, we love his humor, his blog. But he does not belong out there. First off, he's too skinny. He gets knocked to the floor too easily. Secondly, he seems a tad bit gimpy with that knee brace. With the other 6'11" players at Summer League, he has no shot at making an NBA roster.
The Sixers have three lefties: big guard Jamont Gordon, shooter Pat Carroll, and Thaddeus Young.
Let's hope for Pat's sake that he's not confused with the boyish-looking JC Carroll of Toronto. Pat is way better than JC, but neither will likely make the NBA.
There's also a Jamon Gordon (no "t") on the Nuggets. Jamont has an NBA body at 6'4" 225 and can play the point, but the Sixers choose to have the smaller 6'4" 190-lb Junior Harrington run the point. I don't get it. You might as well give it to the body that might have a small chance at the roster.
Thaddeus was easily the best player on the floor. At 6'8", probably excluding his slight slouch (does that mean he could really be 6'9"?!), he's pretty quick and mobile. I'm sure after a year of NBA experience, most Sixers fans already know that by now, though.

SAN ANTONIO / PHOENIX

I only caught the 2nd half of this game (at Thomas & Mack) because of the Raptors/Sixers game (bad choice).
Robert Pack, who doesn't look a day older than the day he last put on a uniform, is on the Spurs' coaching staff!
Spotted: Darren Matsubara of Adidas, obviously checking out his protege Robin Lopez. Oh, and Brook Lopez too. Unfortunately the Nets are not attending Vegas this year.
Phoenix coach Dan Majerle is a beast. At 6'8", he still commands respect from the team. He's always encouraging his players and the pen in the mouth seems to add credibility. He's taller than most of the kids. You can't help but reminisce seeing him launch treys. There still hasn't been a three-point bomber like him ever since. Six-foot-eight!
DJ Strawberry has good handles, but his shot isn't the quickest thing. His body is NBA-ready at 6'5" 200. He needs to start adding to his skillset before it's too late. I don't see that much of an improvement since last year's Summer League.
No one seems to want to punch the ball into Lopez, the Suns' new big man. Have fun guarding Shaq in practice, dude.
The Spurs are doing a full-court press for what seems like the whole game.
Biggest surprise: Spurs point guard Brian Morrison, listed from UCLA and 6'2" 192, 26 years old, Caucasian. Given the talent pool available out there, he's probably too old to make it, but this guy is surprising the heck out of me. He cleanly picked Strawberry one time at half court. He's a superb ballhandler and passer. He can nudge his shoulder against your body and step back for a jumper. He even almost posterized somebody with a dunk. Didn't know he could get up that high. Btw, that was really not the best move at that time. He could have opted for a different approach. Maybe a layup instead of the dunk?

MILWAUKEE/DENVER

I only saw the last quarter of this game (at Thomas & Mack) due to going ga-ga over Bayless at Cox.
Denver's coaching staff concerns itself too much with the (poor) reffing. They're still complaining with under a minute to play, with pretty much no hope of winning the game. I mean, that is why you would complain, right? Or maybe they're upset that they don't get as many offensive sequences to develop their players?
Milwaukee's Ramon Sessions is a halfcourt assists-machine. He sees things most point guards don't. The fact that the program guide said he recorded 21 assists on April 14, 2008, should reinforce that he's a bonafide NBA player.

Summer Scout: Afflalo flaw by TrueHoop/Thorpe

dreamleague — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:57:06 -0000

Four hours after watching a very informative Detroit/Dallas matchup here on Day 7 of the 2008 NBA Summer League, I read on my cellphone TrueHoop's latest installment. Complete with renowned expert David Thorpe's support, Detroit guard Arron Afflalo is, unfortunately, given a big thumbs up...

Afflalo is a solid guy. He always knows what to do and where to be. He doesn't waste dribbles or movements. He digs in on defense and makes the right play on offense. Out here he is showing a better ability to score because that's his role.

I often read Thorpe's analyses on TrueHoop and respect his position/experience, never having found any reason to disagree with him. Until now. This is the second year I have witnessed Afflalo's play and I remain convinced that he should have stayed an extra year at UCLA.

Before I dissect the matter, let me make a case for myself. True, I have only seen two Afflalo games from last year and today's. Thorpe and today's TrueHoop author, Maurice Brooks, have seen him two more times this Summer League, and not surprisingly I don't know how many they saw from last year.

However, I don't think there is a requirement of seeing a whole bunch of a player's short-stint Summer League games to get a gist of his skillset, especially when we're talking about a foundation of fundamentals. Plus, I've seen his skillset from last year and now this year. Sure, a kid could have a bad game here or there, but if you know what, where, and when to look, you can get a sense of his bedrock of skills/talent.

The better the fundamentals, the more pliable with any given team chemistry. But I don't think Thorpe is saying that Afflalo is "impressive" in the context of the Detroit Piston regular season roster's chemistry. I think he is saying that overall, Afflalo is impressive and this assessment could be applied towards Afflalo theoretically joining any NBA team, not just the Pistons.

Obviously, I disagree. Let us dissect...

First of all, Afflalo stands too rigid. To get explosiveness to the hoop, you need strong leg, butt, and back muscles. In short, unless you have those rare crossover abilities a la Allen Iverson, you need to be able to bend down quickly, use your shoulder to create a seam, and use your legs to propel you forward. Afflalo does not have said explosiveness. I thus remain skeptical that he can be an effective NBA 2-guard backup.
Second, if you don't have explosiveness, you better have a reliable release. Afflalo's shot takes too long to develop. By the time he's jumped, set the ball ready for the flick of a wrist, and flicked that wrist, someone as slow as Richie Frahm could swat him. Oh, guess what, Frahm did swat him. Therefore, even before he works on his dribble drive skills, he needs to work on that shot. Lo and behold, an extra year at UCLA, otherwise known as maybe, what, ten thousand jumpshots accrued over the extra 365 days (?), would have done him some good. Plus, I'm still perturbed he left an almost-guaranteed follow-on Final Four appearance, meaning a lot of those necessary shot-development attempts would have been in pressure-packed situations.
Almost every set offensive sequence the Pistons ran was for Afflalo coming off a screen. Clearly the organization has a role in mind for him, at least throughout this Summer League. Now let's compare his set to, say, Marco Belinelli's. Let's assume, even though I have not watched a Warriors Summer League game yet from start to finish, that every play the Warriors run is likewise run for Belinelli. Marco's averaging 16 attempts through 3 games. Why is Afflalo only averaging 12 shots per game through 4 games? It's because he hasn't the wherewithal to create that many scoring opportunities. Again, the lack of explosiveness or a quick release. Let's assume Afflalo had a bad shooting percentage day, which messed up his point total. He still only got 13 shots off. The volume of offense that goes through his touches should yield more than 13 attempts.
Afflalo has not played against quality talent in his first 3 games, which netted him 16.0 ppg. I plan to scout the Lakers tomorrow, so I'll let you know if there is a bonafide NBA-ready 2-guard on the Lakers' summer roster. The Clippers game in which Afflalo scored 25? Well, you already know from the Jerryd Bayless post that the Clippers have no 2-guards that raise eyebrows. And it naturally follows that the Milwaukee Bucks don't have good 2's in Summer League either, so Afflalo's streak has been against weak competition, I believe. But I could backtrack from this bullet point because I haven't actually seen those 3 games (nor do I plan to).
One thing I would not be able to backtrack from is that today's game against the Dallas Mavericks featured a bonafide defender on the 6'5" Afflalo: 6'8" Gerald Green. I also remember the aforementioned 6'6" Frahm guarding Afflalo, but specifically remember a time when Frahm asked Green to cover Afflalo so Frahm could cover a taller but less-mobile Deron Washington, a 6'7" forward on the Pistons.
I must reiterate that Frahm blocked Afflalo's stop-and-mini-fade-pop. Afflalo just takes too long to get the jumper ready to be shot.
I almost forgot about this, but Afflalo had to ask the coach if he was supposed to foul with 39 seconds left and down 4. If you're slated to be a backup to a player (Rip Hamilton) who has more skills than you, at least be a smart/aware backup to make up for some of the skill difference.
The best player on the floor in this game was Green. Like I said in the Bayless post, this Detroit/Dallas matchup mostly involved jump shots and avoiding contact (which seems to suit Dallas draft pick jump shooter Shan Foster just fine). That being said, Green was the only player who could routinely dribble penetrate to the paint. It's because he's the only guy on the floor who can get his body low and in a torpedo-like attack position. Check my subsequent post on other game notes from Detroit/Dallas to hear about Foster, Frahm, Adrian Miles, Amir Johnson and Will Bynum.

All I have left are smaller bullet points concerning observations of the other games I saw today. So I'll put that all into one more post and wrap it up for today. The biggest eye-openers today were Jerryd Bayless and the unexpected praise of Afflalo.

Summer League Scout: Blazers/Bayless Envy

dreamleague — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:59:07 -0000

I wanted to write a game-by-game account of scouting notes from today (Thursday 7/17), but stop the presses. I just got back from Day 7 of the 2008 NBA Summer League in Vegas and, as a Warrior victim of the Baron Davis departure, there is no question we should all be envious of our fellow Western mates, the Portland Trailblazers. Today, I saw one man dominate his offense and display pretty impressive fundamental defensive skills. My friends, drop what you are doing. His name is Jerryd Bayless and *gulp*, he's only 19 years old (he'll be 20 on August 20th).

I'm an avid reader of TrueHoop and on Wednesday, sure enough, Maurice Brooks wrote that halfway through the Summer League, his pick for MVP would be Bayless:

In both of the games he has played, he has been the best player on the court and it hasn't been close. Using his speed and exceptional handle to set up defenders, the combo guard has made a living at the charity stripe...

Well, make that three games now where he's been the best player (by far for the third). I sort of glanced over those accolades on TrueHoop yesterday. After all, remembering the NBA Draft, I didn't really recall the ESPN crew going ga-ga over this guy. Even at #11 overall, there were three other point guards picked ahead of him (Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and DJ Augustin). During warmups, I totally forgot about this guy, instead preparing myself to focus on Kevin Love, Cory Brewer, and maybe even Petteri Koponen (who has been mentioned a few times on Blazers-tilted TrueHoop). For real, by late first quarter, I had to stop zoning in on anybody else except Bayless. He's that fun to watch. Thus, no Love report here, sorry!

Oh boy, do the Warriors have their work cut out for them in this Pacific division Conference. We all knew Portland had young talent, but adding Bayless to that existing stack is basically unfair.

The first thing I noticed about Bayless is that he's a rock. He's ripped up top and has an unfaze-able demeanor, confident and steady -- pretty extraordinary for a teenager. He seems accurately listed at 6'3" 200 lbs.

The second thing I noticed was that he loves contact. If you watch enough (bad) Summer League games, you notice how guys tend to prove their mettle by hitting jumpers and facing up, trying to get open on the perimeter. Take, for example, the Pistons-Mavericks game, which I will detail in a separate post. That game was the epitome of "I don't like contact". Fellas, this is the NBA: No Boys Allowed. You better want the contact at some point, otherwise the most you can be is a filler. If you want to have an impact on the final score, you better absorb collisions, pick yourself up, and go to the free throw line.

Bayless has no problem doing that. Absolutely remarkable for someone that young. Also, I noticed that his feet were kinda big. Might that suggest he has another inch or two to grow? Yikes. Here are some more notes I took pertaining to Bayless. Basically, the kid is NBA-ready and then some...

He has great lateral movement on defense. It's almost textbook. He is a complete player, eons ahead of the typical Summer Leaguer that will make his team's regular season roster.
He even drew a charge on Love.
On a fastbreak, he had between him and the basket the spidery Cory Brewer, with two teammates coming up behind for a potential 3-on-1. It might have been difficult to execute a 3-on-1 in this case because the other 2 teammates were trailing a bit further than ideal, like Bayless was at about the three-point line when his two mates had only crossed halfcourt. Well, you either slow down and do the 3-on-1 or you take it strong a la Monta Ellis with the two trailing in case you miss. Man, Bayless was smooth. Right over an outstretched C-Brew. Nothing C-Brew could've done and it was pretty good defense given the circumstances.
Unlike the forthcoming bomb I will write on Arron Afflalo (and thus denounce what TrueHoop's "guru" David Thorpe has to say), Bayless comes off screens tight. He's definitely open by the time he comes around a screen off-ball.
He executes the high pick-and-roll in a textbook manner, coming off the big man with his shoulder, with no space for the defender to cheat. Someone close to Bayless needs to be given a pat on the back. Lute Olson and the Arizona coaching staff? His high school coach? His dad? Who taught him all this?
He can do a floater with either hand.
He's a natural-born leader. After a Timberwolves run capped by a Koponen (let's give him the nickname "PK") turnover on a penetration in which PK actually got fouled (he didn't complain, though, because it was a risky move to the tin), which then ended in free throws for the Timberwolves on the ensuing fast break, Bayless called the team to huddle and regroup. Again, very remarkable for a 19-year-old.
He can hit midrange jumpshots, but he's kind of got the "Monta" problem. He's so good at getting to the rim, that he doesn't really need that midrange right now, nor does he need the three-pointer. However, he will need to work on the three-pointer. He'll be fine for the break-in years, but as he starts getting into his prime (wow, I don't think I've ever forecasted that far for any Summer League player), he may need to lessen the pounding and make his perimeter game more lethal. Still, I'll bet you tons of veteran NBA players would kill to have what Bayless already has this early.
PK calls him "Ryd".

Finally, remarkable plays seem to follow remarkable players. Here are three more of note...

On one offensive halfcourt sequence, Bayless finds himself alone on the weakside, three-point area, free-throw line extended or a bit lower. I think it was PK who got him the ball off dribble penetration. Now, Bayless has the ball all alone at the three-point line and I'm thinking, he's not shooting that and, well, he doesn't (remember, the trey is not in his repertoire right now). The defense lunges out and he easily bursts pasts the guy, going baseline, but before anybody else on the Timberwolves can get to that side of the floor, Bayless slams it home with a tomahawk that made it seem like his elbow was above the rim. Holy smokes. He's only 6'3".
On yet another attack of the rim, Pops Mensa-Bonsu meets him at the apex of Bayless's throwdown and the ball goes the other way for a Minnesota fastbreak. Someone on the Timberwolves finally got him! Of course, out of all the possible Timberwolves, it could only have been NBA shotblock-proven Pops. As PK dribbles the ball down the next sequence, Bayless and Pops exchange smiles.
Near the end of the half with about 4 seconds remaining, with the Blazers on defense and Bayless helping the strongside on a dribble drive baseline right, the Timberwolves find guard Blake Ahearn alone beyond the arc on the left side, free-throw line extended. However, the pass is short-hopped and forces Ahern to lunge and get it. Ahern does retrieve it but with his momentum fading toward the sideline. With Bayless rapidly closing the gap, Ahern fires up a desperation fall-away 25-footer from the corner -- only to have it blocked by Bayless, then retrieved inbounds by Bayless, complete with a three-quarter-court heave by Bayless! He doesn't miss the 70-footer by much. Who else in Summer League can pull off a play like that? Maybe OJ Mayo?

Whew. Let's return to our regularly scheduled program. Here are some other observations that game...

PK's not a bad ballhandler or penetrator, with his hesitation moves and ability to spin, however, coach Monty Williams did have to remind PK to drive after missing an open jumper early in the game.
There was a big contingent of Portland fans at the game. Granted, the Blazers lost the game, but as I have written about Summer League before, who cares? Sometimes a dominant player can still lose a game because of his teammates' inabilities to fill in the proverbial blanks. Not to mention Summer League team defense is a crap-shoot. Although thankfully neither team employed a zone or otherwise "junk" defense, I will write elsewhere why it's stupid to play anything but man-to-man or fullcourt press in Summer League (shame on you, Dallas).
Portland's 6'11" 275-lb Aleks Maric looks like a huge Ben Stiller. I kid you not.
Someone just walked by with a "Boom Tho" comic-book-inspired-looking Rod Benson t-shirt promoting his blogsite on the back.
Cory Brewer is still skinny as a rail. I swear, his legs can have no larger diameter than yours or mine. Again, I kid you not.
A Minnesota power foward whose last name is Smith (he's not listed in the program guide's roster) lost his shoe while setting a high pick, then on the way back in transition on defense, picked it up and tossed it to the sideline. I haven't figured out why he did that. Luckily, there was a quick stoppage of play and he recovered his shoe, but that got me wondering. Is there a rule in the NBA where you cannot use your shoe for defense? What's the penalty if there is? Can you plead ignorance? Because, quite frankly, he could or should have held onto the shoe while playing defense. Turn your situation into an advantage, Mr. Smith, not a disadvantage!
Pooh Jeter's name is pronounced "jetter", not "jeeter". Guess we know he is not related to Derek.
On a disputed non-goal-tending call, Portland coach Monty Williams got a bit riled up at the refs and Maurice Lucas had to calm him down a little, giving him a "remember the big picture" love tap from two seats over. Let me take the opportunity to say that I'm tired of seeing Summer League coaches bitch and whine about calls. Especially in the 4th quarter with under a minute and no chance of winning the game (hello, Denver Nuggets?). It can only potentially perpetuate and justify frustration at the refs throughout your team, starting with your assistant coaches, then domino-ing down the bench to your players. Move on and focus your energy towards things that are under your control. I realize this is hard to do in meaningful NBA late-season regular season games, but this is inexcusable in Summer League. Summer League is for development, not winning.
Can someone put JR Pinnock on the right Summer League team? Last year, I think he was on the Wizards in which the spotlight was on Nick Young. This year, he's on a deep Blazers squad and hardly getting the playing time he deserves, especially if you consider some of the woeful 2's on other Summer League teams (take the Clippers, Spurs, or Hornets, for example). When Pinnock came in for the Blazers, the 6'5" 207-lb guard had a near-one-handed putback dunk, as well as a dribble-drive penetration that cut up the defense for an and-one. He's got handles which was evidenced by going coast-to-coast. He can stop and pop. He seems more confident this year than last. In fact, I'd take him over Afflalo.

This was easily the most enjoyable game to watch in my two brief annual treks to observe Summer League, but it's so much more fun just talking about Bayless.

Scout's Honor: Why I love Summer League

dreamleague — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:28:30 -0000

Poor Man's Commish here, back in Sin City again for the NBA Summer League. Last year, I ranted and raved about Marco Bellinelli in the infamous Belinelli! Belinelli! Belinelli! post. It was actually a sort of unfinished post, too. I didn't really get a chance to go through my notes and give you all my scouting "reports".

My three-day excursion for 2008 begins this afternoon and I'm very anxious to see how some of my observations from 2007 will hold true for any returning Summer League players this year, as well as new observations for those particular youngsters who we have been a bit curious about since hearing their names at the NBA Draft.

Take last year, for example. Almost 365 days ago, I really liked the diminutive J.J. Barea of the Dallas Mavericks. Lo and behold, Mark Cuban last week signs him to an extension, despite Barea having an otherwise anonymous 2007-08 regular season and with a roster already consisting of proven point guards Jason Kidd and Jason Terry. Maybe Cuban also saw a diamond in the rough?

I'm hoping to give you a few insights on players that don't make the headlines all the time. But before I take a look at some of my last year's unpublished notes, I'd like to explain why Summer League is so fun and, to a certain degree, important. I can't really figure it all out myself, but here goes...

Vegas, baby. 'Nuff said.
A few feet from the action. Depending on what time you get to the games, you can literally pick any seat you want, as long as it is not a courtside seat (which still cost more, of course) or in the section in the corner reserved for players awaiting their next game or chillin' after they've already played. I like mine at halfcourt, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th row. Tex Winter likes his around the same spot. Gavin Maloof obviously must sit courtside, albeit it's always with some family kids, and Chris Mullin likes to lean by the entrance whenever he makes a cameo (he's not so much scouting as checking things out, whereas Tex seems to be scouting). Like Pat Riley says, it's best to evaluate talent as close as possible to the action. You can also hear the coaches barking and the players talking. It makes a huge difference.
Trust me, you learn a lot more about the game up close than on TV. Early in the 2006-07 season, my dad offered to take me to a few Warriors games. I told him, let's try something different. Instead of so-so seats at a few games, let's get awesome seats at one game. Because I remembered the time when I was a peon one summer at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture and I obviously no longer work there), staffed in Chicago for the mandatory newbie training. My college buddy Carlos was also there for his family's business, so I took the opportunity to use Andersen's awesome concierge service to snag us some 4th row tickets to a Bulls pre-season game. Yep, I was 4 rows behind MJ, Pip (who was injured at the time), and Rodman.

Despite it being a pre-season game, Jordan scored 21 points in 3 quarters of play and completely dominated. Now, back in the day, you might have said so what, I can watch MJ on TV and dude, why did you pay over $100 for a pre-season game? Well, now you guys are jealous. To see the legend in action, in his prime, from 4 rows away was mind-blowing. Probably one of the best pre-season games he ever played. I can't really explain it. Basically, it ain't TV.

So I told my dad, let's splurge on one game and get really awesome seats. The game we selected happened to be against the Denver Nuggets (before Allen Iverson arrived), about 3rd row. Up close, you realize what a unique physical specimen Carmelo Anthony is. Sure, the man is 6'8", but I don't know if it's his high socks or what, but his calves seem to span like almost half his body! I mean, he has super-human fibula and tibia bones (the ones that connect the knee to the ankle). I swear, those extra-long bones must have something to do with his textbook jumper and ability to take a huge jump-stop past defenders.

The other thing I noticed from being so upclose was the energy impact of bench player big man Reggie Evans. He's always pumping up his teammates as they come back to the bench during a timeout. Aside from the inspiration during dead time, he does all the dirty work on the floor and never complains about his role. He may have limited skills, but I still think a serious veteran contender such as the Spurs could use a guy like him. He's currently on the Sixers and will backup Elton Brand, so you may hear more and more about Evans the more successful the Sixers become, I hope. There's no way you see this side of Evans on TV.

Also, J.R. Smith. Talk about athleticism. And he puts his body on the line. If this kid gets the right coaching, he can be special. He's of the Ron Artest "tru warrier" mold.

Finally, I remember Coach George Karl barking out instructions for probably Carmelo, in the waning moments of the 2nd quarter, to "go at six!!!" That meant, don't make your move until there are 6 seconds left. And you know what, that makes perfect NBA basketball sense to me. If you go at 8 seconds, you'll end up leaving too much time. Remember, even on a made basket anytime under 1 minute remaining (2 minutes in the 4th), the clock will stop. That gives the other team some time to muster an inbounds and a heave. Go too late with 5 seconds or less, then you don't leave your teammates enough time for a putback. I'm sure all the NBA insiders know that you go with 6 seconds left, no argument. It's just that there's no way an avid NBA fan ever learns that unless he hears it sitting in the 3rd row from an experienced NBA coach. You can never get that from TV.
Knowing why the hell someone got drafted. Or conversely, having reinforcement that so-and-so was not a wise first-round pick (e.g., Spencer Hawes). Basically, having any information about some guy you never heard of, and seeing him play in a competitive environment, is a lot more comforting. We fans do not like surprises, of course. Keep in mind, though, you can't get everything about someone just from one game. That's why Belinelli was so special last year. While every other player was doing something interesting every now and then, Belinelli was showing off some skills about 80% of the time. Well, aside from Marco, if you are closely observing one player (who happens to not do too much), you are not closely observing another player. Basically, you kind of have to get lucky when scouting a Summer League game for a diamond in the rough. It's uncommon for one player to be the clear cut best player on the floor (again, why Belinelli was so special), which would then cause you to stop taking notes on someone else and start focusing in on that one other player (e.g., Barea).
Seeing the NBA stars and other luminaries pop in and out. Hey, they're just as curious as you are. Brent Barry took a quick peek. Baron Davis checked it out. Ron Artest stopped on by. Tracy Murray was clearly doing some networking (I guess he hasn't found that elusive NBA job yet). Tex Winter sitting a row or two up from you is pretty cool, too.
Cozy confines. You walk across the "lobby" to get from Cox to Thomas & Mack. Doesn't get any better than that, especially when you want to digest a lot of games and player observation. I'm sure most real scouts would agree, Cox Pavilion is a much better place to watch Summer League. Sometimes Thomas & Mack ends up being so empty, you can hear the air conditioner in the background. Then again there are more Row 2 seats available at Thomas & Mack.
Kind of finding out what teams are up to. Why would the Spurs have an entire roster of 6'7" tall guys who can shoot? Hmmm. What does Joe Dumars see in Rodney Stuckey and Aaron Afflalo? Well, one year later, we know what Dumars saw in Stuckey. Stuckey just didn't do much of what he did in the 2008 playoffs in the one 2007 Summer League game I saw him play last year, but you could tell he had the right body type to take the grind of the NBA. Meanwhile, Afflalo doesn't seem to have a promising NBA career ahead of him and last year he was as uninteresting as Stuckey, only not as physically imposing as Stuckey. Maybe he was the insurance policy in case Stuckey turned out to be a bust.
Kind of figuring out what happened (or happens) to certain players. Belinelli is the perfect example. It's pretty clear that his rookie season was all mental. His success in Summer League probably made him put too much pressure on himself. Also, humility is an excellent way for someone to learn from his mistakes. After such a breakout Summer League, perhaps it was difficult to be humble. In other words, when you were hitting from left and right in Summer League, you start expecting to hit left and right in NBA practice and games. When you don't, all you do is launch some more, because you already proved you did it. Well, maybe you should be working on other aspects of your game, and the shooting will come back naturally? Also, the real NBA has a lot bigger guys. You have to have nerves of steel to train your mind to trust your skills even though everyone around you just got bigger than the previous environment. (Either that or go balls out on the weightlifting, which could adversely affect your shot.) You see how it gets all mental? I think Stuckey ended up being the opposite example of this. Barea is somewhere in the middle, too, similar to Belinelli's situation. McGuire just needs more minutes, maybe on a team that will value what he has to offer (that most other players can't, which is rock-solid defense).
Finally, the excitement of possibly finding a diamond in the rough. Granted, most Summer Leagues games are sloppy. Most of the big men suck. Some of the no-name guards, you wonder if they can merely get by the full-court pressure without dribbling off their foot (that kid Funk on the Warriors!). But when Barea shows flashes of controlling a halfcourt offense or DJ Strawberry takes it to the hole on a smaller point guard, or Dominic McGuire records multiple blocked shots and completely shuts down whomever he is defending, that's when there are a few sparkles that make you wonder. Hey, this is no different than how high school varsity used to be when there were summer leagues (well before the AAU era). Back in the day, we didn't really care what the score was and neither did our coaches. We were out there to show off our skills, possibly improve a little and listen to what the coach had to say (and mind you, he definitely had a lot of things on the plate he could bring up), learn how to play with teammates, while at the same time learn how to shine and enter some semblance of limelight. The play was sloppy, but you looked for flashes of brilliance. Then you evaluated whether or not you could possibly "bottle up" that flash for that player or not. You look for the things that could ultimately lead to the process of winning at a bigger stage sometime in the future. That's the magic of Summer League.

Without further adieu, I publish my notes from last year. Granted, some of these notes don't really dig all that deep. Like I said before, sometimes you have to get lucky and the sample size is not that much...

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES: Cory Brewer looks so incredibly wiry, like an alien. Without the illusion of those ultra-baggy Florida shorts, Brewer looks even skinnier in the standard-issue NBA nylon shorts. Mateen Cleaves just doesn't have the lightning quickness you need when you are that small. What's the fuss about Randy Foye (2006 Summer League MVP, I believe)? He doesn't appear to have anymore moves than the similarly sized Rashad McCants. In my notes, I describe Foye's passes as "plastic" (?).
SAN ANTONIO SPURS: I don't have any first names and I lost the program booklet, but in the two games I saw, Gadson seemed to be the best out of all the 6'7" shooters they had. Remember, the Spurs had no draft picks in 2007. Williams seems to be a lighter-skinned carbon copy of Cory Brewer. Matt Haryaz is not all that bad. He uses his long limbs.
DETROIT PISTONS: Neither Stuckey or Afflalo seem all that remarkable except for Stuckey's wide body. Neither seems quick enough for the NBA. Coach Terry Porter seems to argue too much with the refs. I mean, first of all, these are Summer League refs, not guys and gals who are in the regular season NBA rotation. Secondly, this is Summer League, for chrissakes! Maybe Porter just wants to show off that he's a dedicated coach ready for a head spot in the association?
WASHINGTON WIZARDS: Dominic McGuire is built strong and plays great one-on-one D. He drew a travel on the Kings' Garcia. McGuire is a like a more athletic Bruce Bowen. He also has way more upside than Bowen. I still can't believe McGuire used to be a skinny Cal Bear, but that's another story. JR Pinnock has pretty good moves to the hoop. Nick Young's jumper is suspect. Perhaps he holds the ball too low on his palm. If they are calling McGuire "Nic" (short for "Dominic"?), isn't that confusing with Nick Young also on the court? In the second game that I saw Young play, he had more "flash", but then again it was against the rather boring Pistons guards in Stuckey and Afflalo. One time at the end of a quarter, Young had the ball with 10 seconds to go when a fan yelled out, "Go!", but Young did not go until a few seconds afterwards. It reminded me of my witnessing George Karl telling Carmelo not to make his move until 6 seconds left.
PHOENIX SUNS: In person, DJ Strawberry looks taller than 6'5".
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: Gerry McNamara is just too small. He yells, "I don't just fall on my face!" to one of the refs (uh, Gerry, get over it, you're the smallest guy on the court, what did you expect?), who happens to be Riel Banaria, a friend of mine who has reffed our Asian American community tourneys. Banaria is now a full-time ref in the Korean Basketball League. Louis Williams has pretty good handles.
BOSTON CELTICS: Glen Davis is like a juggernaut. He yells, "Gimme that!" as he tries to grab a ball heading out of bounds. He even gets slapped in the face at one point, but doesn't seem to have felt it. Leon Powe is, as expected, hustling like crazy, but only shows a post-up hook move. As a Cal alum, I can tell you that he has more than that. Cool to see ex-Warrior Clifford Ray cracking the whip on the young big men, especially with his deep, deep voice.
CHINESE NATIONAL TEAM: Yi Jianlian's name is getting butchered left and right by the announcer. In fact, the announcer is butchering nearly every Chinese player's name. A Chinese lady and her mother chuckle a bit. Nice that they can laugh about a guy who clearly did not do his homework (c'mon, dude). Anyways, Yi tends to shoot from the right side of his head. There's no need for Yi to be hacking down on a drive by the Knicks' Renaldo Balkman -- just keep your hands up against the shorter opponent, young fella. On offense, Yi has trouble with the jump-stop, resulting in a travel. At one point, Yi had the ball down low on Nate Robinson, but kicked it out to Wang Zhi Zhi, who missed the three-pointer. Another time, the coach unbelievably took Yi out after an and-one. I guess Coach has never heard of adrenaline. Yi is always setting picks for guards who have tunnel vision. I've already posted about the sad situation of the Chinese National Team (I hope for the sake of the Olympics that they have disposed of their coach since last year). What's up with the ego of Wang? He quips to a ref, "First time, huh?", then waves his hand at the ref in disgust. Wang, that ref probably doesn't even know who you are.
NEW YORK KNICKS: Sure, sure, Nate Robinson looks great, but seriously, who on the Chinese National Team can possibly guard him? I think you could go out to Doolittle Community Center and pick five random guys and get better defense! At least they would foul him. Unfortunately, I cannot really say anything about any of the Knicks because this game against the Chinese National Team is a waste.
SACRAMENTO KINGS: Spencer Hawes has okay moves, a decent turnaround (except he can't hit). Fernando Garcia is a tall finesse point guard, but somewhat too rigid. He's not a good penetrator in traffic. He's the undisputed leader of the Summer League team, though.
DALLAS MAVERICKS: Popeye Jones is the coach! J.J. Barea can hit the open trey and although he is pretty short by NBA standards, in real life the man is ripped! He can force a change of direction on defense, but that's about it. Overall, he's tough as nails, fast and strong. Sort of a mini-John Stockton. Being from Warrior country and witnessing Keith Jennings and Earl Boykins, Barea certainly has the potential to become a Dallas crowd favorite. Brandon Bass plays bigger than his 240 lbs. Nick Fazekas can't even run down the court without looking like C3PO, but he is somewhat spidery on defense.
DENVER NUGGETS: Jelani McCoy is being aggressive and single-minded, which is good, but I don't understand the stare-down on Pops Mensah-Bonsu at the end. Why is Ed O'Bannon arguing with the ref? This is not the 1995 NCAA National Championship!
LA LAKERS: You know how George Karl has that scar near his cheek which makes him look a little intimidating? Well, his son Coby Karl looks even meaner, without any visible scars. Coby is fearless. He's also somewhat emotion-less in a good way. Nothing fazes him. I definitely think his apparent nerves of steel have a place somewhere in the NBA.

Well, this was all just looking back at 2007 and reminiscing. I can't wait until for the diamond-hunt again later today!!! And this time I won't wait a whole year to post about it (hey, I was busy and it's not like I'm getting paid to do this!)...