SB Nation User Blog: dreamleague

Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington, Corey Brewer: Summer Glimpse to Fall For-Real

dreamleague — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:03:23 -0000

The Warriors face the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first time this season tonight, so I thought I'd share my notes and observations from Vegas Summer "Glimpse" 2009, especially with the GoldenStateOfMind.com community, where I've been posting for three years (GSoM permalink), and since the Warriors often play defense like a Summer League team!

Note: Vegas Summer League is a complete misnomer. It's not a league. In a league, you have round-robin games that make sense and where you care who wins, you have playoffs, and you have a championship. Therefore, I call it Summer Glimpse.

Each year, new guys you didn't have time to watch in their college stints, or you never heard of from overseas, will turn heads in the Glimpse. In 2007, it was Marco Belinelli ('07 NBA Draft pick #18), which he followed up with two totally forgettable regular seasons including a drop-off-a-cliff Summer Glimpse '08 in between, although playing for the Warriors and a coach who plays mind games can probably do that to a young prospect.

In 2008, it was Jerryd Bayless ('08 #11), who will eventually break out in an NBA regular season, as soon as someone gives him playing time.

In Glimpse '09, only three months ago, it was...well, Blake Griffin ('09 #1), but you already knew that. The surprise glimpse had to be Jonny Flynn ('09 #6). Very similar to Bayless, during Glimpse '09 Flynn surgically dismantled whomever was guarding him. I was also satisfied by the play of Flynn's fellow Minnesota Timberwolves rookie, shooting guard Wayne Ellington ('09 #28).

Incidentally, I was impressed by Tyreke Evans ('09 #4) as well, albeit not as much as Flynn, but yesterday I was running 54 games in Dream League, so I didn't have time to blog about it. And I certainly don't have as much to rave about 'Reke as I do Flynn. Still, I'll save that and a glimpse of Spencer Hawes ('07 #10, yikes) from 2007, plus a quickie glimpse of Omri Casspi ('09 #23), for a separate "post-mortem post" (considering that the Warriors got blown out by the Kings last night), later today or tomorrow.

Read the rest of the story at Poor Man's Commish

Need extras in a basketball-related Doritos commercial

dreamleague — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:42:35 -0000

Hey folks, I posted this to our league participants, but only got one response. If you're free and in the SF area (Potrero Hill district to be exact), please let me know by leaving a comment or going to my original post below, which has more contact info.

They are looking for "ballers" (you don't have to be a good bball player, you just have to wear the garb) with the following ethnicities: Latino, Caucasian, or African-American. Need 2 more guys asap.

It starts at 12p but might start a little late. Probably ends at 3p. Again, in SF.

Here's some more detail from the producer...

It is a spec commercial for Doritos. It is about a 70 year old asian lady that eats Doritos and schools all of the young guys at pick up basketball. It is very important that everyone wear dull colors like grey, brown, black, white and that they have clothing that doesn’t have brand names and logos on it.

For the original post, click here.

New Warriors logo

dreamleague — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:16:07 -0000

via dreamleague.org

I see that this was posted in a previous FanShot from GSoM'er Precise Film Productions a few days ago, but I thought I'd do a little clipping and bring it out front and center in a FanPost.

Giving credit where credit's due, it's from Kurt Snibbe of ESPN.com in his Page 2's new and improved NBA logos article. Pretty funny!

There's also more "improved" logos that are kinda clever too. I especially like the Minnesota Timberwolves one paying homage to the (ex-?)bespectacled Kurt Rambis.

Live-Tweeting from Row 8!!! (GSoM's Charity Auction seats)

dreamleague — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:24:44 -0000

Dear GSoM community,

I know that Fantasy Junkie and Atma Brother ONE have been Twitter-averse in the past, but I actually got their permission to try and see if we can find new value out of live-tweeting. I thought doing this from their very own Row 8 season tickets would be the perfect setting to do this.

I'm no expert on Twitter, but I do think there is more to it than when Atma says, "The world dumbed down to 140 characters." (haha! Maybe true, but...?) On the flipside, I think it could actually enhance your real-time game experience.

Now, for those of you who are avid Game Thread commenters, I'm not sure that Twitter adds a whole lot of value to what you're already doing except if the guy who is tweeting is actually at the game vs also watching the game on TV, but remember what you're doing: you're typing on a computer while watching the game on TV, or online, or radio, or similar. It's great that GSoM will get like 2,000 comments tomorrow night, but I don't know, I tend to think that Game Thread commenters are actually a minority of all GSoM'ers, and 500+ will already be at the game.

I know that there's http://mobile.goldenstateofmind.com, but I just think commenting on any website using my smartphone is just kind of clunky. For me, I'd need to make sure I'm tapping the right place on my smartphone browser -- just too much work. The Twitter way of sending a text message is a lot easier.

I'd like to find out how the community feels about this, but first let me explain Twitter in the easiest way possible, at least as I know it (after the jump!)...

...So here is what Twitter allows you to do:

The simplest use of Twitter is what you've heard in the news. If you're at some place that's important (or if you're a celebrity), you can tell the world what's happening at your place of importance without the need to pull out a laptop and login to a blog. You can just send a 140-character tweet with your phone, and the people who want to know what's happening will get that news via text messages on their phone. So if you're not there and you want to know what it's like to be there, Twitter is beneficial for you. Note: it will not be humanly possible to do a strict play-by-play; the best place for that is still NBA.com or ESPN.com (more on this later).
Now here's the fun part. You can send what are called @replies ("at-replies") to the guy who's tweeting. Of course, you have to be a registered Twitter user to do this. People can tweet a reply/comment to my tweets; then I can tweet a reply to the reply/comment, and everyone will see the conversation (sort of, more on this later).

In essence, it's like having the Game Thread available on your phone. But there are pros and cons with Live Tweeting From The Game vs The Game Thread. Here are some that I have thought of thus far:

Where the Game Thread is better than Twitter:

The ability to see ALL user comments
You can type a message of any length, not restricted to 140 characters
Can initiate a conversation with anybody else currently logged into the Game Thread

Where Twitter is better than the Game Thread:

No need to be on a computer, but you do need at least a regular phone that has free text messaging
Easier to type a message and send, although it is restricted to 140 characters
Can get quality "what's happening" content without having any access to the game
Easier to have a conversation with the person who is live-tweeting

The all-user-comments-of-Game-Threads vs conversation-with-Live-Tweeter thing explained: I'm sure you all "get" how to look at the Game Thread, post a comment, and see your comment along with the others. That's been here since Web 1.0 discussion boards. What's unique (good/bad?) about Twitter is that using the aforementioned @replies, it's like the Live-Tweeter is the hub and the people who reply are the spokes. You, as the replier, can't "see" (unless you have a cool smartphone Twitter app) other repliers' conversations with the Live-Tweeter, but you can see what the Live-Tweeter says in response to the replier. Hope that made sense.

However, since I know this is a possible built-in limitation of Twitter, I will do my very best to sort of give context to every @reply I give, so that in a way, every conversation I have with someone who replies will be shared a little bit.

I know what I just wrote above is confusing. So let's take an example. Let's pretend the Twitter username for me, the Live-Tweeter at Opening Night, is @gsom. [NOTE: This handle is already taken. Atma, FJ, and I will figure out what handle to use. My only beef with the existing @unstoppablebaby is that it is a chore for followers to type in that whole handle on your cellphone if all you want to do is type a quick reply.]

So, let's say Monta goes after a ball careening out of bounds, leaps over a few rows of seats and lands near our seats.
I'll tweet something like: "Wow, Monta just chased a ball out of bounds, landed near us. He looks hurt :-("
If you've "followed" @gsom and set your Twitter account to hook up to your cellphone, you will see the following tweet as a text message on your cellphone: "gsom: Wow, Monta just chased a ball out of bounds, landed near us. He looks hurt :-("
You're watching the game on TV and you can't quite see Monta on the screen, he's buried in the crowd.
Let's say you are Joe Schmoe and your Twitter handle is @joeschmoe. You tweet this: "@gsom: What do you see? Does he look like he's in pain?"
NOTE: Nobody else following the @gsom handle can see what you, @joeschmoe, just tweeted back, unless they happen to have a cool Twitter app on their smartphone which allows them to "click around" to other Twitter users' tweets.
Unbeknownst to you, another user with the handle @janedoe tweets something similar: "@gsom: How far is he from you? Did he twist an ankle or a knee?"
Meanwhile, the TV broadcast breaks to a commercial. People watching the game on TV cannot possibly know the status of Monta's potential injury real-time.
During the commercial break, you get my next tweet: "gsom: @joeschmoe @janedoe Monta's not hurt. He got up and jogged back to court."
I've essentially replied to Joe and Jane's tweets by including the @ symbol and their usernames in my tweet, which is a good idea in case other people want to know where the current conversation is coming from. FYI, if more than a few people are asking the same thing, obviously I'll probably skip the @username thing.
But when you want to join the conversation, you must include the at-reply and my username. So in this example, you must put @gsom before every tweet because I will automatically see any tweet that has @gsom in it.

Incidentally, you can use the web-based version of Twitter to search on keywords. So in the above example, you actually could see all the conversations going into and out of @gsom if you have a smartphone and do a keyword search on "@gsom" (this is just an example, we don't really have the @gsom handle!).

TV broadcast comes back from commercial and shows a replay of Monta getting up and jogging back to the court.
My next tweet: "gsom: Curry and Acie are at the table gonna check in, 3-guard small ball if Monta stays"
My next tweet: "gsom: Crowd cheers, now that they see Steph at the table"

I hope I've illustrated the benefits (and limitations) of Twitter. I think people expect Twitter to be something that's everything to everybody, and people get disappointed when it's not. To curb some of the limitations of Twitter, as well as re-enhance its benefits, I plan to:

Begin the Live-Tweet as soon as I arrive at the arena for shootaround.
Answer as many @replies as possible.
Check the Game Thread on my smartphone during timeouts.
Try to tweet things that aren't readily apparent from someone not also at the game.

I also plan not to do any play-by-play per se (because it's really not possible as the action is way too fast for typing on a cellphone), so if you're one of those people who is out of the country and can't see or hear the game, or even if you have no access to the rote play-by-play on NBA.com or ESPN.com, my tweets will be the best you got. That being said, I'll occasionally tweet out the score when there's a few minutes of dead time, just in case.

If you've read this far, congratulations, because I'm giving away the other ticket I won!!! Just post a comment below what your Twitter username is, then tweet me @poormanscommish and I'll give the ticket to the person who has the most Warrior fans followers. How can I tell if you have the most Warriors worriers in your follower list? Well, I'll do a little research, but certainly the absolute number of followers will figure into the equation.

OK, so I was wondering how you all feel about this Live-Tweeting thing. Any questions, please leave a comment...

Poll

How do you feel about the Live-Tweeting idea?

Yes, let's do it!

20 votes

Hmm, I don't know yet

6 votes

Nah

16 votes

I still don't get it

9 votes

51 votes | Poll has closed

Summer League Highlights from this week

dreamleague — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:03:59 -0000

I've been live-tweeting from Vegas for the past 3 days (today is my last day) and here are my favorite observations...

- Blake Griffin is as good as advertised and should be a regular contributor highlight-wise to ESPN SportsCenter this season. I feel blessed to have seen his monster dunk putbacks and alley-oops up close from Row 2 the other day. If that was the only game I saw all week, it would have been worth the trip to Vegas alone. One of my tweets was this: If he works on his full-court end-to-end dribbling, we may be looking at a 6'10" version of young Charles Barkley. CLIPPERS VS WIZARDS TODAY AT 5:30PM, WOOHOO!!
- Jonny Flynn is my favorite draft pick. He's like my last summer's report on Jerryd Bayless: he can penetrate into the paint anytime he wants. He's fun to watch. He's having fun playing. He (and Bayless) epitomizes the reason why I come to NBA Summer League every year -- that diamond in the rough. I'll definitely do a more detailed analysis of his game, but I already tweeted (you have to hunt for them) the various incredible moves he made.
- Watching Anthony Morrow drop 47 was a treat. GSW starters beware. If Morrow can avoid a "Belinelli" (heretofore basketball's equivalent of a Mulligan) and play with the same confidence in the Association, the franchise better be prepared to sign him for big money very soon. Alas, I missed Anthony Randolph's 42, as I arrived in Vegas the day after, but I'm sure that was well-reported here on GSOM.
- Austin Daye is not bad, not bad at all. Hella skinny and I mean HELLA. But kid has got some moves to be envious of. He's the ying to Anthony Randolph's yang in the world of skinny 6'11" guys who got skillz. Daye's worth a blogpost.
- Joe Alexander will become a solid player, but it's too bad Milwaukee spent a lottery pick on him. I'll look at the list and see which players they should've picked ahead of him. But again, he's pretty solid. I'll write on him too.
- Intriguing: Jonas Jerebko, Jodie Meeks, Chase Budinger, Coby Karl, Omri Casspi (barely), Brandon Jennings, DaJuan Summers, Wayne Ellington, Tyreke Evans (although his stock gets trumped by Jonny Flynn). I might be forgetting a player or two more here.
- Meh: Jordan Hill, Jason Thompson (GSOM collective sighs of relief!), Jeff Pendergraph. Again, I'm probably forgetting a few more here.
- Ex-Warriors playing well, but not necessarily getting playing time nor making a huge splash: Richard Hendrix, DeMarcus Nelson.
- Disappointments: Hasheem Thabeet, Acie Law (sorry!), Andray Blatche, Dominic McGuire, Danny Green, and, dare I say: Stephen Curry.
- So to top it off: I'm a little concerned with Stephen Curry. I'll write about this in another summary post.

Remember, these are just some thoughts off the top of my head from the past 3 days. I'll also try to make a team-by-team list. Still another full day of action, so I'm out! Feel free to comment below if you have specific questions on various players (listed or not listed).

Live-tweeting from NBA Summer League @poormanscommish

dreamleague — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:24:46 -0000

NOTE ON TWITTER: I'm sensing that most of you don't know about Twitter's ability to get you info realtime by connecting to your cellphone for text messages. So after you sign up, setup your account so that "tweets" get sent to your cellphone realtime, then "follow" @poormanscommish. Then as things are happening at NBA Summer League and I type those on my smartphone into my twitter account, you will be texted these updates in realtime.

UPDATE: Twitter stream from Saturday's, Friday's and Thursday's games (including Anthony Morrow's incredible game) have been posted below. Most intriguing player of my 3 days thus far has been Jonny Flynn.

I plan to do a full analysis of Jonny Flynn, Joe Alexander, maybe Brandon Jennings, maybe Blake Griffin, and summarize the Warriors' summBer league squad overall (with the exception of Anthony Randolph, which I think we don't need to talk about anymore)...

- - -

Hey folks, for the 3rd straight year, I'm happy and thankful for GSOM providing a platform for my coverage of NBA Summer League in Vegas. You can search on "dreamleague" in GSOM's archives (and click on my FanPosts for a list of previous Summer League info), or just click on this convenient URL for my coverage the past two years...

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/search?btn=Go&order=date&q=dreamleague&type=FanPost

It's kind of hard to believe that Twitter wasn't even mainstream last summer, but thanks to this wonderful technology (well, except for archiving as you'll see below), I'm able to give you guys some live-tweeting this year. My twitter account is @poormanscommish.

http://twitter.com/poormanscommish

PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL BELOW IF YOU LIKE MY LIVE-TWEETING BETTER THAN TRUEHOOP'S DAVID THORPE...SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST (OR HIT CTRL-END)!

I've already posted a ton of tweets from yesterday's (Wed July 15) action! Hit the jump to see it copy/pasted in this post...

I tried to use Twitter's embed feature, but it's not working here on SBnation, so I guess you'll just have to hit the twitter link above to follow my tweets real-time. Don't know if SBnation has some built-in way to post tweets live (seems like it's only blog-to-tweet and not tweet-to-blog). As such, I've also copy/pasted my entire stream from yesterday, in chronological order, thanks to TweeTake.

I'm not usually keen on reading or answering comments, but go ahead and leave any questions you might have in the comments and, if you keep things civil, I may be inclined to reply (or I might be too pooped -- VSL is really fun for me but pretty draining). Thank you, GSOM community!

Directly below is my Twitter stream copy/pasted (I used TweeTake). Btw, I'm HIGHLY disappointed that Twitter lost probably 50 tweets prior to the first one. I guess you get what you pay for. I'll do a blogpost (you know, prose instead of 140-character bursts) late tonight after returning from VSL and fill in the details that were missing...

TWEETS FROM SAT JULY 18:

Forgot to say "that's a wrap" yesterday. Here again. OKC-DAL has started.
Shan Foster (sg 6'6" Vanderbilt) is on DAL but I think he was on SAS last summer even tho he's listed as a rook...
...so anyways Shan Foster just drilled a trey and I believe he was on last summer's Spurs team full of 6'7" shooters.
Rodrigue Beaubois just hit a nice looking 25' trey. Hopefully not a fluke. Announcer calls him "boobois".
Between tweets, Beaubois and Foster have each hit another trey. So anyways, I thought ur s'posed to pronounce it "boh-bois" (French way, ?).
Beaubois has now made 2 bonehead turnovers in a row. A pass to no one underneath and dribbled off his foot.
I've seen Shaun Livingston argue too many calls (just got an offensive using his arm while dirbbling)...
...I feel like he should just kinda be happy he's on the floor playing and just focus on playing hard.
Wow, Livingston looks incredibly slow getting back on D after Aaron Miles made a steal (on somebody else).
San Foster layup, which brings to mind that he did not play yesterday, at least not that I can remember.
Just noticed and remembered that Nick Calathes (DAL 45th pick) isn't here and wasn't yesterday either.
When I saw James Harden play vs Cal from Row 5 last Feb, he wasn't moving w/o the ball. We'll see if that's the case still.
OKC shotclock violation. Sure enough James Harden was standing around on week side and too high anyways for a good angle swing.
As I already knew, James Harden is still very capable of getting to the paint with his righthand (he's lefthanded).
For you Bay Area Cal fans, Devon Hardin's getting a ton of PT but he's not doing much.
Beaubois with another trey, straight on. Again, he reminds me of Brevin Knight plus, apparently, a 3pt shot.
James Harden hung back too far again watching and big man BJ Mullens couldn't find him, took an ugly shot in traffic.
Musa Seck just checked in for DAL. Rail thin, looks about 7'3" or 7'4". Probably from same country as Manute Bol.
Did Donnie Nelson find Seck? I wonder. Any ties to Manute wouldn't be surprising.
I'm overspeculating and wildly connecting the dots here, but maybe Chris Mullin ends up in the DAL front office?
Halftime here. So anyways, BJ Mullens (OKC 24th pick, 7'0" 275 Ohio St) looks like a terrible pick by OKC. 24th?!!
And James Harden has done nothing to justify the talent level you're supoosed to be picking at #3.
Just goes to show what hype and numbers can do 4u in the NCAA (see Danny Green). Too bad for OKC that GSW got what they lookin for: Morrow.
Kevin Durant is entertaining the halftime crowd shooting 30-footers sitting down from the OKC bench. He ended like 1-for-7.
Back to the thought on draft picks and talent, I also feel based on my one game of analysis, that Hasheem Thabeet was totally not worth #2.
I haven't seen all the lottery picks, but in hindsight #2 shouldve been Jonny Flynn.
Shan Foster trey. He officially came to play. Another nice play fastbrk pass to Luke Jackson.
Devon Hardin showing some life. Monster dunk assist Shaun Livingston. Prior to that blocked trey on slow attempt by Luke Jackson.
Just when I was about to say Shaun Livingston was lolly6agging, he goes strong baseline and hits a stop n pop. Do that more, fella!
Rodrigue Beaubois pull up trey back iron. As Doc Rivers would say: "Hero shot."
Livingston fumbled ball to Beaubois easy layup for Rodrigue other end but Shaun slipping trying to foul Beaubois break is concerning.
I was just about to say James Harden has disappeared this qtr and he throws the ball away trying to swing pass. Oh lord.
There you go. At his best. Iso coming down early offense at top, juke, spin, finger roll. That's Harden's trademark.
Harden bad pass tipped out after elbow screen. He's just not that great a passer in the halfcourt set.
James Harden shouldve killed a trey early in the set with BJ Mullens high screen but he didn't do what he's getting paid to do (passed it).
Another turnover off the dribble by James Harden.
Devon Hsrdin had ball right after halfcourt with pg Keith McLeod and James harden crowding. James should just go get the ball. TO on Devon.
Serge Ibaka and Alfred Aboya get into it under hoop after missed heave by Curtis Jerells at buzzer. Ibaka's 6'10" 220 from Congo...
...I'll try to pay more attention to Ibaka and see if he can be a contributor down low.
Ibaka screened but didn't roll (smaller guy on him).
Ooh, OKC's Marcus Dove (6'9" 212 Okla St, rook) is impressing on D. Bends knees, bothers dribbler, blocked fadaway so far.
Shan Foster still on fire although it didn't count. Foul called, ball fell to him, took a free shot, swish.
Wow, Shan Foster stutter step to come off the flex screen down baseline. He really came play today.
Beaubois shoots a knuckleball, but those are going in today. Another trey. He had McLeod tricked cuz he took McLeod off-dribble layup before
KD's bro Tony Durant (6'7" 245 Towson) checks in and it's apparent who stole all the food in the Durant household.
Guess that might be it for James Harden. Hasn't played all 4th qtr and more I think. 2:27 to go in a sloppy game.
Ironically, the DAL coach calls out a play named "sloppy". I kid you not. Or maybe its "floppy".
I've seen better games at the university rec hall. Bad duck turnovers in lobs to Seck, ugly shots and missed layups by Tony Durant.
Buzzer mercifully ends. Bulls-Knicks next. Ok James Johnson and Jordan Hill, are you guys for real?.
Hey Walt Frazier! Don Johnson called and he wants his pastel light blue shorts and white alligator shoes with no socks back!
Ha! Skeeta's getting interviewed by a pretty lady reporter. (that's Nikoloz Tskitishvili, i'll see him in a couple wks @ Flight Club)
Kevin Durant getting mini-mobbed by autograph seekers. Certainly easier to get one here than the usual regular season way.
Most pros have been gracious is allowing photographs too. Even Mark Cuban the other day. Did I mention I saw CJ Watson walking around lobby
...saw CJ Watson in lobby for 2nd straight year in a row? Nobody notices him!
The Bulls' black unis are a little fancier than usual. I'm sure UniWatch would want to know that one.
DeMsrcus Nelson didn't take advantage of a screen switch which had Jordan Hill on him.
Nice behind the back change of direction by James Johnson, the welfare man's Paul Pierce.
James Johnson 6'8" 245 Wake Forest, fyi "welfare man's" means 1 level lower than "poor man's".
DeMarcus Nelson has hurt his shoulder spinning baseline into a wall that is the NYK frontline.
Jordan Hill finally acting like the #8 pick: dunk putback then fade 10-ftr tickle rim in.
Jordan Hill back to normal on a zig when zagged bad pass out of bounds.
Jordan Hill nice block on James Johnson drive, nice dish to Skeeta underneath.
Meanwhile James Johnson has airballed and nicked rim on two treys from same spot, left elbow. Yikes. Nice rotation tho.
Linton Johnson of CHI (6'8" 205 Tulane) is listed as a 6-yr pro.
James Johnson two straight bonehead plays: alley oop floater to no one and a half hearted attack then airball when left wide open...
...that's what happens when you try to start the game off with treys and end up missing those badly.
Good to see that DeMarcus Nelson is back in and doesn't appear affected by the shoulder.
There you go James Johnson, attack, draw the foul, and get back into this with free throws.
James Johnson with a jab fake at full speed in transition. Not many 6'8" players have that move.
Jordan Hill's been quiet for awhile now. That's the problem I have with him.
Heck, Skeeta's been making more noise than Jordan Hill lately!
Thx to krvinarnovitz's tweets I've noticed there's another game across the way. No way I'm gonna miss Jonny Flynn. I'll go there at half.
Oops that's @kevinarnovitz tweeting for TrueHoop.
Meanwhile Jordan Hill made a power move and-1 then got a press steal. NYK D'Antoni style press?
Another player slipped on that center court covering. This time it was Toney Douglas's career that flashed before his eyes.
Damn, I think I just missed a Jordan Hill block. Oops.
I've been having a brain fart the last 2 days: Gerald Henderson is on MIN but he's playing for CHA this season, right? Totally forgot.
Jonny Flynn penetrates and uses his body to fend off 7'2" 265 Luke Nevill of Utah. Remember Flynn is 6'0".
Darren Collison got hurt on play and he's s'posed to shoot FTs, came out so MIN coach comes over to pick...
...Brian Cusworth of Harvard to shoot em! Literally pts at him to come off bench, the MIN coach. Way over here by CHA bench!
Cusworth makes both! Crowd yells to keep him in. Foul on other end, Cusworth still in!
Julian Wright is now switched on Flynn, sags way back but Flynn does not shoot.
Hecklers telling Oleksiy Pecherov (7'0" Ukraine) to shoot.
8 sec ledt, Flynn dances at top of key (stutters, no joke), launches trey as defender sags...SWISH!
Pecherov hecklers yell 'MONEY!" and Flynn points to him. I told ya earlier. Flynn is having fun. What a great pick by MIN.
I meant Jonny Flynn points in acknowledgement to the Pecherov hecklers for saying "money".
Is there anything Flynn can't do? So MIN is doing a pretty good job of oressing on the made basket and Flynn is about to rcv a soft lob...
...inbound that could get picked so he pretends the ball isn't coming to him and snags it at the last second, foolong Earl Calloway.
Wayne Ellington: sweet stroke whether or not it goes in.
Flynn drew three guys and dished to Pecherov. Having fun w Oecherov on ensuing FT attempts by Corey Brewer who got putback dunk attempt.
Flynn spins around outside, big man helps, yet he finds Brewer wide open deep opposite corner trey attempt.
As the guys behind me are saying about Jonny Flynn, "Thts court vision at its finest".
Been talking to Tre Maddox, summer league ref for yrs, who has access to 1st row seats here...
...to supplant TurueHoop's wonderful piece on refs, there's 24 total refs in 3 sessions...
...1 of 3 is an actual NBA reg season ref. This seassion there's 2 women refs who are actually sisters...
...and these refs don't get paid cuz it's a camp. They get put up nicely tho (flights too).
Gerald Henderson sweet floater. He's bigger than Wayne Ellington of course but Wayne gets his shot up easier, slightly quicker than Gerald.
Henderson and Ellington very similar tho, as most ppl prolly already know.
@kevinarnovitz: have you been to sushi twister yet, tropicana and boulder hiway?
They've just announced that Jonny Flynn will be signing autographs in the lobby after. Should be a mob scene.
Flynn's so quick, he's able to stop on a dime on defense and avoid getting hit on the high screen. I've seen NO other guards do that here.
Kevinarnovitz tweets that he went to go watch PHX-MEM, presumably for the "big" Thabeet vs Robin Lopez showdown? Huge mistake to exit...
...when Blake Griffin is coming in next!
Flynn finally took a bad trey. Down three with one min, nobody moving so why not. But missed badly.
Wayne Ellingtondeep trey in 7'0" Earl Barron's face. Oh so smooth.
8 sec left on shotclk, down 2, about 30 sec left game clk and Flynn drives on Carroll, 2 guys come up...
...and of course he somehow finds Ellington deep right corner trey but off rim!
How the heck did Jonny Flynn find Wayne Ellington on that one?
Wayne Ellington misses deep trey from same spot he drilled on Barron earlier. Misses left badly. End of game.
Blake Griffin in the house! Looks like JaVale McGee has suited up for WAS for this one. So blessed to be sitting Row 1.
Per kevinarnovitz's recent tweets, I don't see how you could go confirm how BAD someone is (Thabeet) vs ENJOY how great someone is (Blake).
Blake Griffin is wowing the crowd here in warmups.
And Josh Heytvelt (6'11" 260 Gonzaga rook) gets the honor of manning up Blake Griffin.
Blake Griffin had a 1-on-1 early offense opp vs JaVale McGee but "faked himself out" on the stutter step. JaVale gets called foul, BG slips.
Blake Griffin getting triple-teamed. Much yelling/instrs from WAS bench as he has ball low post.
Blake Griffin dribble fake penetrate on Heytvelt, jump stop shotput in but NBA ref calls a charge! Mightve been within restricted area, idk.
JaVale McGee help from weakside block on Blake Griffin but its another dbltm. BG draws a lot of attention.
Hopefully the real Clips will have enough talent on the floor besides Blake Griffin and Baron Davis...
...cuz there's no one else on this Clipper summer squad who can put the ball in the hole. Poor Blake.
Blake Griffin swish right baseline. That's all they're giving him.
Not sure but I think LAC coach is telling Blake Griffin not to stand there outside...
...DeAndre Jordan had ball deep post and Griffing waited for outside shot.
LAC Nik Caner-Medley 6'8" 240 Maryland rook passes to Blake Griffin cutting, who goes up_ hangs, ...
...clutch scoop, gets held and falls to ground hard, maybe hits shoulder?2 tmmates rush to aid. Blake's ok.
They call a flagrant foul (I don't think it should be). WAS coach Sam Cassell argues vehemently but bottom line: BGs ok.
LAC fastbreak! Dionte Christmas (6'5" Temple rook) underthrows the alley-oop to Blake Griffin! Misses but gets his own putback in one leap.
My mom couldve made that alley oop pass! Christmas!
Shouldve been on SportsCenter tonite but no.
Blake Griffin steal from midcourt! Behind the back dribble to weave through traffic. The fact he's 6'10" is unfair.
Griffin got another steal on WAS set halfcourt. Mike Taylor misses an alley oop opp by a full second. Oh the humanity how bad these other 4.
Nick Young is way more confident out on the perimeter this summer. He's improving.
From here on out, an alley oop attempt with a bad pass shall be called a Christmas. That play shudda brought the house down.
Note to all kids participating in the timeout dance contests: do the Worm. You will win every time.
Kyle McAlarney (6'0" 195 Maryland rook) only Clip other thsn Blake who has a smidget of talent. Assist to Blake dunk.
It's kinds funny how the Clips' summer league team sucks too.
No but seriously: Baron Davis, Blake Griffin. One more needed for a Big Three. Better than most NBA teams have it.
Actually Eric Gordon is one other Clip summer teamer with talent but he's not playing due to Team USA according to kevinarnovitz.
I don't get it tho. (a) this is the NBA, (b) Blake Griffin is playing in the Team USA stuff.
Note to Clips guard (eg Mike Taylor): when Blake is open underneath by himself, the lob is the better choice than the bounce pass.
This is the biggest crowd I've ever seen at Thomas & Mack.
Imean biggest crowd @ T&M for summer league, of course. Lower level is halfway filled.
Mike Taylor apparently got the "lob" memo. Blake Griffin 2 pts layup.
Sam Cassell is getting on Dominic McGuire for not rebounding. But Sam, dude, he's guarding Blake Griffin.
Second time I've seen ref call delay of game warning for a sub not having their shirt tucked in.
Blake Griffin can do the behind the back dribble so easily. And the spin.
Had mismatch down low vs Jason Rich (6'3" 211 Florida St rook) but Mike Taylor missed it (again).
How could you assemble a summer league team with Blake Griffin on it and have NO shooters?
Baron Davis in the house! Wearing his trademark hat and glasses. Sitting next to Mike Dunleavy Sr courtside.
Blake Griffin needs to make his move before the double team comes.
Nick Young swish trey straightaway. He's so confident shooting now.
Sam Cassell called a high screen for Javaris Crittenton and said, "Attack his ass!"
JaVale McGee alley oop dunk. He's having a solid game.
JaVale McGee blocked shot.
Baron Davis sings autograph. Nice to see that. Told ya, its different in summer league.
JaVale McGee blocked shot on Blake Griffin off glass but it's rightfully called a goaltend.
JaVale McGee is outplaying DeAndre Jordan despite being 30 lbs heavier.
Blake Griffin airball getting too far underneath on JaVale. He's got to work on that, sometimes gets too deep for his own good.
Blake Griffin another 2 missed FTs but he looks tired.
Someone just said he's shooting 48% FT but he does have a nice rotation on it.
Griffin just pump faked and put the ball in the hole with Javaris Crittenton on top of the ball! Strong.
WAS Brandon Wallace (6'9" 203 South Carolina rook) let Blake Griffin shoot a trey right elbow which hit rim left. Baron Davis: "Good shot!"
Clipper Darrell is joking with Nick Young at the FT line: "Nicky, I love you!" Nick nods, laughs, swishes both, points to Darrell.
Blake now made 4 FTs in row at least. Stroke has returned.
Alrite, 6:45 to go and I'm still waiting for a Griffin alley oop.
Blake Griffin caught cherry picking by Nick Young and they have a laugh about it.
Timeout. Clipper Darrell gives Baron Davis a hug. Then he gives Mike Dunleavy a hug.
Blake Griffin receives outlet left halfcourt, one man to beat, fake jab left, go right swoop under layup. Like I said, 6'10" Charles Barkley
Crittenton gets by McAlarney, draws foul, but Blake Griffin sends his shot into the 3rd row baseline.
2:20 to go and JaVale McGee just posterized Blake Griffin. Blame poor team D.
Wow, Blake Griffin avoided double-team press after D reb by dribbling lower. I mean this is an NBA rook! No 6'10" guy in NBA can dribble low
Credit Sam Cassell. I'm sure he told WAS before the game hell no are we letting Blake Griffin embarrass us.
Two-handed bock for JaVale McGee. How many does he have?
Checkin out POR-SAS at Cox. HUGE line in lobby for Blake Griffin autographs.
Jerryd Bayless wearing a neoprene calf sleeve. Remember he had a calf injury yesterday. Guess it was worse than a cramp.
DeJuan Blair rumbin down low. Tough match for taller David Padgett (6'11" 230 Louisviille rook).
Wish there couldve been a DeJuan Blair vs Joey Dorsey (HOU) head-to-head matchup. Spurs never played the Rockets this summer league. :-(
I said it before and i'll say it again: Jerryd Bayless is seeing the floor better these days but vision not as good as Jonny Flynn's.
For you Warriors fans, Stephane Lasme has checked in for the Spurs.
Pooh Jeter nice layup and-one. Now how come the Clips couldn't pick him up? Mike Taylor's garbage.
George Hill nice finish fastbreak out speeding Pooh Jeter before Jeter can decide what angle to take.
Jerryd Bayless scissors around but eventually steps out left baseline, upset that Bobby Jones didn't setup trey corner (was at elbow).
No response by Bobby Jones to Jerryd, Bayless expletive. I feel ya, Jerryd. This is Jerryd's summer team, Bobby? U didn't know that?
George Hill blew by Jerryd Bayless. Not bad.
Jerryd Bayless shot put floater hit on head and-one! Flashes of Tony Parker!
Romel Beck (6'7" 185 UNLV rook) looks too lanky and slightly awkward, yet he's made at least 3 good plays: jumper, thread needle, jumper.
Guess Bayless was right last time cuz he just found Bobby Jones 3-ball corner pocket after same drive to baseline.
Jerryd Bayless showing off his strength as he lays it up right with Ian Mahinmi all over his left shoulder.
And-one but Bayless missed the FT.
INTERESTING CASE STUDY. THE PLAY BEFORE Jerryd Bayless's snd-one, George Hill couldn't muscle the same drive right.
Oops sorry for the all caps. Anyways DeJuan Blair has really impressive footwork.
Pooh just juked Beck and finished at the cup. Jeter's getting better every game I see him including since last summer.
Ian Mahinmi (6'11" 250 France 1yr) with a couple strong moves. Can run floor. Athletic. Long.
Wow, Jerryd Bayless got up pretty high against Stephane Lasme, but there was no way he was gonna win that tip.
Jerryd Bayless showing off his athleticism as Pooh alley oops to him backdoor, Jerryd fumbles it but instantly recovers quik hop bak up 2pts
Jerryd draws foul on jumpshot with 2 sec left on shotclock. Do that more and he becomes really deadly.
Jerryd says bye-bye to Donnell Taylor (6'5" 193 UAB 2yr) then gathers himself, draws contact, 2 FTs. He seems to have more ways of finishing
5 sec ledt Jerryd on D, smart foul on ground. Non-shooting.
Pooh Jeter just outmuscled George Hill to draw a foul putting his shoulder into Hill's chest. Hill listed at 190 lbs but that's generous?
Pooh Jeter trey. He's playing like he wants to be in the NBA.
POR's basic play is called "power" and its essentially a singl-single both sides.
DeJuan Blair nice and-one. Good footwork again.
Jeff Pendergraph good D, block on DeJuan Blair, who btw has good hands too. Good battle of big 2nd-rounders.
DeJan Blair nice timing to draw the slap on the arm, and-one. He's ultra-coordinated for a big man.
Coby Karl checks in with 3:45 left. Finally a reason to watch this game (DEN-NBDsquared).
Oh, and Ty Lawson.
15 yrs ago, who wouldve ever thought that Stacey Augmon would eventually COACH a team inside Thomas & Mack?!
That's a wrap! I'm done for this summer. Check out my wrap-up blogposts (fanposts) on GoldenStateOfMind.com. See yall in da Bay soon!

TWEETS FROM FRI JULY 17:

Pistons-Cavs starts out Friday. Guess i'll have to do a GSOM post analyzing Austin Daye now that this is my 2nd look at him.
Austin Daye with a nice give and go, hang, layup. Nice lateral movement on D next time down too.
Jonas Jerebko came to play (again). Crowd likes him too
Of course the Cavs are one the worse(r) summer league tms but DaJuan Summers is a solid 6'8" 240 pf. Did Joe Dumars pick all these guys?
Jonas Jerebko: 6'10" 231 from Sweden. Listed as rookie: 22 yrs old.
Daye just did a two dribble to baseline stop square pop. Nice.
DaJuan Summers can shoot too?!
Daye left-handed sling pass to Trent Plaisted under basket D head turned but Plaisted missed layup. Daye has skills.
DaJuan Summers stutter step and pop.
Daye has a pretty nice crossover change of direction too. He got into paint on his man, jumpstop pump fake, but missed banker. Nice move.
Jonas Jerebko just attempted a hook shot, a rarity in summer league but I didn't know he had that in his repertoire.
First side out of bounds play by DET with 8 sec left was designed for DaJuan Summers.
Austin Daye just took Christian Eyenga (CLE 30th pick) from top of key, jab step, two dribs left, pull up fade, 2 pts. Smooth.
Next time down, Daye crossed over Jamont Gordon but ended up with a offensive charge. Still, Gordon and Eyenga are supposed to be quicker!
CLE's David Harrison just got his 2nd technical! Following some confusion as to whether or not he has been ejected, he's been ejected.
At least he still gets to sit on the bench, but what a bum move. Not a good way to lose PT. Fyi his 1st tech was for arguing with ref...
...this one was for jawing with Daye. It was a double tech on Daye and Harrison.
The Cox announcer said "That's the 2nd technical, it's an explusion" but for a sec there I thought he said "it's (B.S.)".
Daye's pretty good at keeping his negative emotions in check. He was called for a ticky-tack but basically bit his tongue. Good poise, kid.
Daye just took Danny Green (CLE 46th pick) jab step left drib baseline, bank shot.
The Knicks must be up next cuz Mike D'Antoni's in the house.
Eyenga's a pogo stick but can he do anything else? Haven't seen much else from him (yet?).
Jerebko with another hook attempt! It was ugly though, barely drew iron. Not sure if he should keep that in his arsenal but its fun to watch
Another no-look thread the needle pass by Daye to Jerebko underneath, who got hammered (won't show up as assist).
The DET coach is over-coaching Daye. Let the kid play a little. He needs exp right now. But Daye listens, is coachable.
Specifically, Daye shot a trey when he souldve swung it but it's not like he has a bad habit. Was only borderline bad shot I've seen by him.
Two bonehead plays in a row by Danny Green in a row. Swing pass sailed right through his hands then he passed a ball into a defender's knee.
Danny Green doesn't move very well or gracefully for a guy 6'6" either.
Daye missed a trey last seq, this time open again but took a dribble in then shot. Didn't fall in love with shooting trey.
When I do my writeup later, I will make a list of lower- or non-pick summerleaguers I would pick before Danny Green or Christian Eyenga.
Knicks-Kings next. Can't wait to see Tyreke Evans up close again.
Hmmm, I don't see Mike D'Antoni anywhere. Maybe he was checkin out Austin Daye?
Nevermind, D'Antoni's at the TV table doing color.
Toney Douglas just picked Tyrese's pocket at halfcourt. That's the fatal flaw of Tyreke (being so big) against small quick defenders.
Omri Casspi threw a bad pass to Brockman near baseline. Pete Carril: "Throw it to where he is!!!"
To Casspi's credit, Brockman didn't cut, but there was no way he was gonna catchup to it, Casspi ought to know that.
Tyreke just took the worst shot in basketball. You know, dribble to inside the arc with no one within 7 ft of you.
Props out to HoopForLife.com. They've been regularly playing MJ during timeouts all week.
Tyreke huge crossover step past Toney Douglas plus long finger roll. That's his trademark.
Another huge step crossover but this time he got called for a forearm charge (questionable). Still his trademark.
Lets face it, Tyreke's jumper is ugly. His shot selection is not that good either. Gotta long road to go in this dept.
I dunno, nothing about Jordan Hill really jumps out at me.
Wayne Ellington (MIN 28th) shooting with a lot of confidence. He's got a dead eye.
I like MIN's backcourt: Jonny Flynn, Ellington, and Gerald Henderson. We'll see.
Tyrese Rice of Boston College in for WAS. Remember that was Jeremy Lin's breakout game Harvard vs BC and Tyrese in Feb.
Latino player A.Parada (not listed) in for MIN at the 4. Ex-Warrior Rob Kurz is the 5. Plus Flynn/Wayne/Gerald.
Ellington had an open trey look but coaches said "last shot" so he was able to stop himself, got fouled on drive anyways.
That tells me he has high IQ. He's not just a one-track mind, one-dimensional player. He can ball.
Sure enough, at end of qtr, shotclock went off but he had presence of mind to keep playing cuz there was still time on main clock, got reb,
...drove hard and got a layin at buzzer. It's really hard oncourt to know diff betw buzzers. Kudos. Smart.
Jonny Flynn's just able to scissor his way into the paint.
Flynn just somehow always knows where his shooters are. He penetrates the defense a little and can kick out at tough angles.
MIN needs to get itself a big-time shooter or else they're wasting Flynn's talents...
...for example if they had Anthony Morrow, that'd be the unsung but high potential 1-2 in the Association.
Lets start counting out of how many times Flynn wants to scissor into the paint, he's successful.
It's too bad MIN didn't/doesn't play POR for a Jonny Flynn vs Jerryd Bayless matchup. Now that would be fun to watch.
He got in the paint again! And-one!
He's like Tim Hardaway without the UTEP-two-step. Instead he just uses his shoulder.
Flynn thread needle early offense pass to streaker layup from halfcourt right side! Wow!
That was a bounce pass from halfcourt. I just saw Tyreke Evans and I'd take Flynn at point any day.
Flynn now defending Nick Young.
Without dunking, Jonny Flynn just posterized Dominic McGuire. Rose up, cocked, use strong left fore-arm to fend off McGuire...
...who is taller by 9", and scored the finger roll.
That settles it. Jonny Flynn and Jerryd Bayless: two best, most exciting point guards in summer league.
Thunder vs Bulls is in other gym, but OKC plays at 1p and Bulls at 2p tomorrow so i'll stay here and watch Flynn.
Dare I say that Jonny Flynn has better vision than Jerryd Bayless? I think he might.
Incidentally, Corey Brewer has not played yet for MIN.
WAS should play Tyrese Rice more. No one taller than Flynn can possibly keep up with him.
Btw Andray Blatche is a complete waste of 6'11". He's got some skill but can't apply it. He doesn't move w/o ball, he watches. Ugh.
So anyways its halftime and JaVale McGee incidentally has not suited up for WAS. Blatche's opportunity to shine is gonna come and go.
Flynn is not starting 2nd half, but I think he played the entire 1st half.
Bobby Brown, darling of TrueHoop last summer, is the pg for MIN while Flynn's on bench.
Yes! Flynn's back in after a timeout.
Nick Young's got confidence and he's been working om his jumper. Work on it some more, get more consistency, and maybe he can start.
Tyrese Rice vs Flynn at pg now.
Series of crossovers by Flynn on Rice but he ended up throwing it away, misreading Ellington. On that play, Flynn seemed to get quicker!
Got into the paint again splitting the double team, hung, 2 pts on scoop. He's smiling back downcourt. Kid's having fun.
Gerald Henderson with a poor man's (young) Grant Hill move, initiated by Flynn's attack of paint, of course.
MIN reb 5 sec left, outlet to Flynn, and he crosses over Rice badly left to right, fallaway baseline jumper no good at buzz but crowd in awe
Flynn is human. First possession 4th qtr, Rice takes Flynn off dribble. Good offense always beats good D.
Flynn gets into paint AGAIN. Jump stop, layup 2 pts. This is getting to be routine.
Flynn scissors left side this time and finds Ellington 3 ball corner pocket.
Next time down, Rice covers ground on Flynn drive and blocks it off him.
Andray Blatche turnaround airball left side. Horrible. He walks around as if he'd rather be doing something else.
OMG! Flynn steals a rebound loose ball from Blatche leaning wrong way near Flynn's FT line...
...it's 3on1 triangle w Flynn at FT line and he does a RH windmill behind the back pass to his left guy (Kurz)!!!
...or was it Parada. Who cares, guy gets hammered but that was a highlight that won't be shown for Jonny Flynn.
Another assist for Flynn off dribble. How many dimes does he have?
Another Flynn assist to trey.
Up 4, 45 sec left and Flynn gets into paint righthanded AGAIN. Missed layup on contact from defender, trying to draw F but big man reb FTs.
I guess it's too late for this, but WAS shouldve just sagged way off Flynn and forced him to shoot. Hasn't happened once all game.
Oleskiy Pecherov unwittingly attempts a trey with 19 sec left up 3 after Flynn passed to him but expecting it back. CLM.
Back in my professional days at Andersen Consulting, that's a Career Limiting Move (CLM).
Announcer was saying Javaris Crittenton with too much enunciation on the T's.
Laker fan sitting behind us funny quirks: "Too many constanants (sic)", also when Tskitishvili was playing earlier.
Announcer was pronouncing "Pecherov" like "piss her off".
Laker fan was Kings' Jon Brockman (big man rebounder) "algae-eater".
Guess they switched the POR-DEN game here to Cox. Jerryd Bayless vs Ty Lawson!
Coby Karl alley oop to Ty Lawson layup!
Nice cutoff of baseline on David Moss 6'5" 210 (indiana St) by Coby Karl but Moss hit the stop n pop. Moss playing tough both ends, Coby too
Jerryd Bayless just did a floater although he charged. Didn't know he had that in his repertoire.
Ex-Warrior Richard Hendrix in the game for DEN, nice spin layup in post.
Pooh Jeter in for POR so Ty Lawson on Jeter not Bayless, they're doubling to try to get ball out of Bayless hands.
Ty Lawson drove hard right, drew big man, used left shoulder/arm to fend him off, layup hangtime scoop. Not bad.
Jump ball at DEN free throw line, tap out fastbrk to Jerryd Bayless, beats Ty Lawson to cup with step-over. Big man block but goaltending.
Dunno why Thorpe went to other gym. Ty Lawson is intriguing.
Thorpe tweeted that Blake Griffin's shot looks better than his bro's, but he means Taylor's is better. PHX on other court not LAC.
Kevin Durant, his bro, and James Harden (with ice bags on his knees) have come to see this game (DEN-POR).
Hopefully Harden will tomorrow as first game will be DAL-OKC. Wanna watch Harden.
Tough game for Jerryd Bayless but it looks like DEN came in w a game plan to double him every time.
Coby Karl has a knack for drawing contact.
Thorpe is tweeting about how the NBD-Squared team is undefeated. That's because when you have no talent you MUST and WILL play as a team.
But summer league is about developing individual skills in a team setting. It's not "normal" bball.
Which is probably the reason why Danny Green of UNC looked sooo unimpressive to me. He's a system player. Not a good fit for NBA.
So I disagree that the difference betw NBDL and NBA is small. It's small when you're talking the 12th roster spot but not...
...when trying to crack the regular NBA rotation (top 8-10 guys).
So anyways good teams can overcome talent that's not nec playing as a team which is the overwhelming situation in summer league. No surprise
Sonny Weems (6'6" 203 Arkansas, 1yr) is playing in limited ed Jordan XII's! To Ross Lim: see, it's ok to play in those!
Jerryd Bayless has added a shotput floater since last summer. He just added another dimension to his game. Good for him.
I think we're seeing the next Tony Parker here with Jerryd Bayless. That's a bold stmt but reminds you how awesome Parker is.
Jerryd Bayless is now hitting pull up jumpers when the defense collapses. See? Tony Parker comparisons are not out of whack.
Coby Karl hit an open trey on a swing to which Jerryd Bayless was yelling "Coby Coby!" to get him to miss. Guess they are buds.
The slight difference betw Jerryd Bayless and Jonny Flynn is Jerryd dishes near the limit of his drive...
...while Flynn can dish before he gets stuck. However Jerryd has a floater and jumper. They're quite close tho. Flynn got ridiculous upside.
So I think I'd have to pick Jerryd Bayless over Jonny Flynn because Jerryd has more dimensions right now plus 1 yr exp. Tuf not 2 pik Flynn.
I guess the knock on Coby Karl is that he's a little stiff running around out there. He needs to bend his knees more like a 100m dash sprntr
Nice fastbreak alley oop to Sonny Weems.
Ty Lawson is getting to the cup off high screen on Jerryd Bayless (bad team D). Nuggets will be just fine w him backing up Chauncey Billups.
No one in summer league has yet forced Ty Lawson or Jonny Flynn to take a jumper. My guess is they don't have it yet like Jerryd Bayless.
Bayless called for charge trying to step right then left (couldve been walk) against bigger defender. He should pull up and jumpshot.
He did the step right then left on that jumpball then fastbreak earlier against smaller Ty Lawson. Not gonna work against bigs.
Alley-oop Pooh Jeter to Jerryd Bayless but Jerryd has a cramp now in his calf. Yeah, coaching staff played him too much. Aint worth it here.

TWEETS FROM THU JULY 16:

Bucks-Raptors about to start. I saw both tms yesterday. Maybe i'll analyze Demar DeRozan and Brandon Jennings, maybe Joe Alexander.
Joe Alexander a little to slow to rise and throw down on a mini-dish fastbrk led by Brandon Jennings.
Amir Johnson slipped center court again running back to D fastbrk. Whoever's idea that is at center ct shud be fired.
Joe Alexander's triple threat reminds me of that commercial w the Will Ferrell look-alike taking forever to make a move...
...i'll try to find it on YouTube but the point is, he's a tad too slow. Just a tad.
Sometimes in triple threat, slowness can negate the triple threat advantage. In those cases, make ur move b4 the D can set. Joe Alexander!
Just a big first step is all he needs to explode (Joe Alexander). Its not in his repertoire quite yet. Almost.
Kinda weird to see Kelvin Sampson assisting under the leadership of head coach... Joe Wolf! (Bucks)
Brandon Jennings looks a little sluggish, coupla bad turnovers. Maybe didn't get a good nite's sleep. This is 1p tip ("early").
He seemed to have more pep in his step yesterday head-to-head vs DeMarcus Nelson. Maybe he's not motivated as much vs skinny Quincy Douby.
However Brandon Jennings' floater is working. His "sling" shot gets it done but highly unorthodox. Hard to find good shooting pg these days.
Swish trey by Jennings. He's on today.
And another all-net trey by Jennings, blowing away TrueHoops' theory that guys mathematically can't get hot.
Coupla dunks so far from DeMar DeRozan, but there hasn't been much opps to check out his skills. Def can jump tho.
Joe Alexander ought to just take shots from a standstill. He just made a jumper, but he worked so hard to get it. Watch Hedo Turkgolu tapes.
Joe Alexander: 6'10". Hedo Turkoglu: 6'10". That's what I mean.
Slowest player in summer league award goes to David Doblas 6'9" 285 from Spain. A couple yrs back it was prolly Spencer Hawes.
Joe Alexander's gotta run the floor w more prupose. He's just floating around mostly, till he gets ball.
He does have flashes tho. I think he's worth the investment. I just hope he keeps working on his explosion (and when to do it).
Program lists Smush Parker as his 5th year. I don't think he has much of a future left in NBA.
Lamond Murray still holds the record for most yrs pro (was it like 11?) last year. That was a joke forcing him to play last yr.
If you're Year 5 in summer league and you aint killin, I dunno how much time you got left. Then again if u was killin, u wudnt be here
Joe Alexander cudnt rise fast enough after o-reb in paint, had to dribble back out. He needs to work on lunges.
And squats.
Thorpe was right about Jodie Meeks. He's on fire w 2 long swishes. NBA body. Solid.
Make that 3 long swishes. I think he just played himself a contract if not already signed. Tip my hat to Jodie Meeks. He came to perform.
Jodie Meeks sort of reminds me of summer league sensation 3 yrs ago Randy Foye in terms of size/ability. Rough comparison tho.
Then again this Raptor summer squad is junk. Maybe discount Buck performances a little.
Joe Alexander's release tends to come off the right side of his head. That's problematic.
Joe Alexander just stutter stepped nicely to the hole, but it doesn't count in my book cuz it was against all-slow David Doblas.
Joe Alexander, why are you facing up a smaller defender? Post him up and back him in, do a turnaround! Aaargh. Recognize.
Joe Alexander turn his body clockwise when he shoots. He doesn't square up properly.
Heh. Thorpe just tweeted Joe Alexander is "quick and explosive". I would add "every now and then against slower players".
See? Brent Petway just swatted/embarrassed a predictable pinch post face-up by Joe Alexander. NOT quick/explosive.
Jodie Meeks knows his role. Catch and shoot, catch and shoot. Sometimes the simplest plan is the smartest.
Jodie Meeks another swish to go up 1 with 15 sec ledt (clutch!). See you in the Association.
Jodie Meeks' performance today is rare for summer league low draft picks.
Quincy Douby just one-upped Meeks with his own swish with hand in face, now up 1 with 1.3 left.
Bay Area dreamleaguers who are tuning in, if you know Mark Scates, that's who Quincy Douby looks like (except he's a guard). Spittin image.
No wonder so many ppl here. Rockets vs Lakers next. There's a lotta GSW fans here already tho.
No sign of Adam Morrison for the Lakers :-(
Chase Budinger is not starting for the Rockets. Aussie Brad Newley instead.
When the summer squads of Western Conf Playoff Semifinals franchises meet, it's usually a boring game.
Chinemelu Elonu 6'10" 240 wingspan over 7ft, what a physical specimen. He's athletic. We'll see what he got. #59 pick Lakers.
Dreamleaguer John Lin passed by on way to lobby and sure enough, he said this game is boring.
I like how Chase Budinger moves. At 6'7" he's pretty nimble. If I had to pick a biggish mobile white guy, I'd pick Coby Karl, way ahead.
Just goes to show, it's better to get all-league in a big conference. TV contracts has its privileges.
Washington State has their pg and c on Lakers roster. Wonder if that's coincidence.
Thorpe's tweeting about Joey Dorsey's rebounding prowess. Kid is cut as heck and big at 6'8" 268.
Taylor Rochestie, Laker pg from Wash St is wearing his Cougar matching Nikes, which do not match purple and gold!
I take that back. Dorsey is the physical specimen, not Elonu. The physical specimen to end all physical specimens!
Announcer just called Rockets c Darryl Watkins (Syracuse) Darryl Dawkins!
So Joey Dorsey's got 1 yr under his belt and most every Rocket is a rook, so its kinda funny 2c a 6'8" beast as the floor leader/director.
Dorsey has got to have at least 15 rebs by now. 3rd qtr almost over.
Mitch Kupchak is sitting center court courtside.
Chase Budinger is having a really nice all-around game (against the worst summer league team).
Up next: the one you've been waiting for GSOM'ers: GSW vs NOH.
Anthony Randolph is not starting.
Uh oh, Stephen Curry just made a bonehead play on O and compounded with a silly foul other end (and-1).
Stephen Curry listed at 6'3" is generous.
So is the 185 lbs.
Darren Collison is listed at 6'0" and there's no way Stephen Curry is 3 inches taller.
Stephen Curry: he has the lost art of the pull up jumper at FT line. Point guards just don't do that enough anymore.
A 15' pull-up is like a layup for a shooter like Curry.
Anthony "Mohawk" Morrow is too good to be playing summer league. I kinda think this is a waste if time for him. He belongs. Done.
Actually an asst coach was talking to Morrow in depth last timeout re D so maybe he needs work on D. Certainly not O.
GSW is running a play called "New York".
I don't think Morrow has missed yet. He's on fire. Wowing the crowd.
Ehm, Anthony Morrow has 17 pts and we got 35 sec left in 1st qtr.
Morrow is the director on defense for the team.
End of 1st qtr. Doesn't look like Anthony Randolph will be playing.
Acie Law for Curry at pg.
Stephen Curry has really quick hands. Twice he's saved otherwise bad passes by teammates to him.
Keith Smart to Steph: "When you get (to the rim) you gotta be looking for people". This after he got blocked 2 seqs in row layup.
Token Ivy League player spotted: Brian Cusworth 7'0" (Harvard) 3rd year.
Wow, Aussie Joe Ingles can run the floor with the rock in hand (6'8").
Morrow is on pace to break Randolph's record: 32 pts w 6:30 left 3rd qtr.
Coulda been 3 more there on early offense but Lawrence Hill kept it for a layup strong move.
Lawrence Hill is 6'8" Stanford (rookie).
Morrow sits w 4 min left 3rd qtr, 32 pts.
Ballhandlers should be looking for Morrow on the wing on every early offense. Acie Law missed him again. Not the only one (Steph's out).
Morrow swish trey. 37 pts 7:30 left 4th qtr.
Acie Law missed Morrow AGAIN on an early offense. No vision.
Darren Collison is defending Morrow and they're routinely trying to post Morrow up on him.
Another 2 long range for Morrow with Collison draped over him. Morrow has such a quick release.
3 more pts and Morrow ties AR's 42-pt record. 5:00 left.
Rnadolph enjoying cheering Morrow on from bench. Entire bench support.
Morrow just tied record w open trey swish. Crowd goes wild.
4 mins left. Morrow has increased his stock bigtime today. Keep it up and he'll be worth millions more.
Even with the respectable but smaller Collison draped over him, Morrow's in complete control.
Morrow just scissored through 3 defenders and rimmed out a shotput floater that wudda broke the record. Crowd enjoying this.
2:54 left. Will he do it? I think there's too much time left and he's too good for it not to happen.
Morrow's like a man among boys this game.
He simply owns the floor when he has ball 1-on-1.
He just broke the record with a fake then easy wide open jumper.
1:10 left and Morrow hits another trey! 47! Crowd wants 50!
40 -ec left! Oh 8 sec backcourt call on Steph! Doubleteamed.
Morrow subbed out w 37.1 left to a standing ovation. you NEVER seen a standing O in my 3 yrs here.
Another token Asian guy spotted: Spurs coaching staff.
Checked out of uneventful Spurs-OKC. Mark Cuban in the house at Cox. Sparse crowd.
Dennis Rodman (I think) sitting 3 seats down from him.
Nah maybe that's not Rodman. Hard to tell.
Pretty boring DAL-CLE game btw. Not much to report.
Funny how you never see Cuban with family. Hoops is a solitary business.
Rodrigue Beaubois made a smooth spin then drive layup and Mark Cuban was shaking his head in admiration.
Rodrigue Beaubois kinda reminds me of Brevin Knight.
No one can understand what the Korean ref just called! (3 seconds for the record)
Seen enuf. Gonna go catch Blake Griffin vs Hasheem Thabeet.
Hamed Haddadi from Iran (7'2") on Memphis.
Holy damn Blake Griffin's got some handles. Plus a jumpshot? That's not fair.
Blake Griffin lefthanded putback dunk flying in righthand angle over Hamed Haddadi!
Steve Kerr just walked by. Mike Dunleavy Sr enjoying the game courtside.
Blake Griffin with a monster block but its funny how he shows no emotion.
Wow 2 more ESPN da da da da da da's for Blake Griffin! Watch on TV tonite. No use writing it!
I'm blesses to see this from Row 2. For free to boot.
Blake Griffin is like a 6'10" young Charles Barkley. Seriously.
Blake Griffin is actually getting his shots blocked a lot after attacking on post. Needs to come up w fakes or kickout.
I'm sure it will get fixed at Flight Club in a couple weeks.
In Blake Griffin's defense, he is getting routinely doubled and tripled. Mainly cuz everyone knows the other guys can be left alone.
Hasheem Thabeet's nickname should be Grendel. He's kind of a dirty player cuz he's not very mobile.
It's always freezing in Thomas & Mack cuz the A/C is supposed to be for 10,000 people.
Another SportsCenter alley-oop to Blake Griffin. All you gotta do is toss it near the rim and he'll flush it.
Before wrapping up, Blake Griffin had another sure-fire oop with about 20 sec left but...
...remember how I said "toss the ball anywhere near rim and he'll flush it"? Mike Taylor's pass hit the rim! Blake still almost got it.
If Blake Griffin works on his fullcourt dribbling, he will become a 6'10" Charles Barkley.
That's a wrap for today.

TWEETS FROM WED JULY 15:

Daye comes off screen nicely, swishes jumper. He's done that a couple times already.
Note to 2nd-tier players (i'll look up NYK's Crawford's first name later): this is NBA summerleague not NCAA summer league.
i.e., if you're the 2-guard weakside, setup beyond the arc to receive the pass. Your pro career is on the line here.
Daye just took Hill off dribble, spin, fadeaway over Skeeta helping. Nice finesse.
Guy with a NY accent just said Daye's better than his father. I can't remember who his dad is. Will lookup later.
Skeeta just hit his 2nd trey after a few misses. Basically he should just watch tapes of Robert Horry. Who knows?
Bill Simmons ought to do an all-skinny team. My first 3 picks wud b Corey Brewer, Anthony Randolph, and Daye.
Oh yeah put Kevin Durant on there too.
Daye's got range too. Anybody the NYK puts on him, he outplays.
If 1 guy could have Daye's finesse and Randolph's ferocity, we'd have the greatest 175-lb player ever to pickup a bball!
Ok I'm now also intrigued by DuJuan (sp? I don't have a program yet) Summers. Big body, mobile, skills, shoots, drives. Versatile.
This New Yorker sittin behind me's got good hoop observations. Daye: he has huge hands. Summers: he'll have nice NBA career if knees hold yo
...if knees held up.
Again, Daye did not avoid the contact in a cut/receive to the hole. Most skinny guys don't like contact. I'm impressed thus far.
Dayum, nice jump stop layup that covered about 12 feet by Summers. Boy's got some strong NBA-ready moves.
Summers has a shoulder fake stop-and-pop too? As I said: dayum!
So in case you haven't noticed, the DET summer squad has a Big Three. Pretty rare here or maybe NYK just sucks.
Whom do I credit for that, Joe Dumars? Who puts these rosters together besides the draft picks? I wonder.
So in hindsight, Jordan Hill wasn't the splash worth a top ten pick. Clearly the talk of the GSW/Nellie interested in him was fake.
OMG I just read on TrueHoop that Adonal Foyle gets a $500k bonus for winning MVP or Finals MVP. Will hafta confirm this w him next week...
...at SF Pro-Am. Btw up next is Bulls-Bucks. It's too crowded this year to leave my 2nd row seat to buy a program!
There's been an Amir Johnson sighting on the Bucks summer squad. I proclaimed him a bonafide bust last year on goldenstateofmind.com.
Holy mackerel Brandon Jennings is small by NBA standards. Ok kid, show me what you got!
Anthony Roberson, who shot well for NYK last summer and got signed (to my surprise since he's so small) is now playing for CHI.
To the GSW fans: great to see DeMarcus "rock" Nelson playing again!
Ooh this is gonna be good matchup DeMarcus Nelson vs Brandon Jennings.
Jennings tapped the ball away twice from DeMarcus in backcourt in opening possession. Nelson went strong left base and muscled a layup.
Ensuing inbound: DeMarcus full court presses Jennings. Tell me he wasn't motivated by this challenge.
Brandon Jennings has what appears to be a long scar down his right calf. Are his legs bionic? I wouldn't be surprised. He's lightning quick.
Joe Alexander swish left baseline. Ni hao ma, Joe!
Sharif Abdur-Rahim just walked by. Shoulda wore my Cal t-shirt damn! Oops all I have are dreamleague tees. Anyways, is he a coach now?
For some reason, Brandon Jennings keeps being able to pass to a receiver inside the paint. I can see where this is all going ("special"?).
Kelvin Sampson is assistant coaching the Bucks.
Not to grossly speculate and being a biased GSOM'er, if DeMarcus ever develops a trey, he becomes eerily similar to Derek Fisher.
Fisher didn't have a jumper when he first started out, right?
Except DeMarcus has kinda skinny legs and is right-handed. I dunno maybe I'm blowin smoke.
Apparently Amir Johnson's not in the program roster. NY guy behind me correctly pts out that GMs do agents last-minute favors.
Josh Shipp totally reminds me of Arron Afflalo: size, build, gait, the way he cuts, inability to dribble. Breeding em in test tubes @ UCLA?
It is way more crowded here than last year. And it's a Wednesday. Friday and Sat should be a zoo.
Btw i'll see Afflalo at Flight Club in a couple weeks.
I had a scathing report on Afflalo last year too. I hope he's improved since then. We'll see.
Jennings just did a Rajon Rondo fake-the-behind-the-back-then-layup play.
Token Asian guy spotted: Chicago Bulls assistant coach or trainer.
Taj Gibson right jumper assist Josh Shipp: UCLA-to-USC. Hand slap on way back down court. idk, that's just kinda cool to see.
Joe Alexander good sequence on D, sidestepped a drive, yelled "low low low" to tell high screenee where he was.
Oh yeah, that's right, Brandon Jennings has a contract with Under Armour.
The Under Armours look alright.
Ok I just checked out David Thorpe's tweet session on TrueHoop. I shudda spelled it DeJuan Summers. Ok lets make more comparisons.
I do not agree that Jordan Hill is a "beast". I've seen more beasts at Flight Club and summa those guys still in college.
Who would win, Sene or Swift? WHO CARES.
If Thorpe's near scouts who are buzzing about DeJuan Summers picked up by DET (FWIW, I agree), I know where he's sitting.
And I have a feeling I just spotted Thorpe tweeting (I have no idea what he looks like). My seats are better, nyah nyah.
And my Palm Pre shuffling from one web app to another is better than his CrackBerry. Nyah!
Well, Joe Alexander (I think, maybe got switched on a screen) got embarrassed on an inbounds that I've drawn up countless tms in dreamleague
I meant Joe on D, of course.
Its only been 2.5 quarters of play but I do not agree that Taurean Green is an NBA player (Thorpe).
Joe Alexander's at the 4 cuz he's too small to be a 5 (with no post moves), too slow to be a 3. But he's too slow to be a 4! Bust, sorry.
I hinted at it before, the bottom line that makes Brandon Jennings special is that his passes are received within 2 feet of the bucket.
Another disruption by Jennings in the backcourt. Drew oohs and aahhs from crowd.
Agreed with Thorpe that Jennings needs more humility. The bucks need to bring in a pg mentor to put him in his place.
Jennings has now argued at least 3 or 4 calls. Play ball, young man.
Of course, you can't be surprised that a kid who goes to Europe to avoid NCAA-to-NBA needs improvement in the humility dept.
I disagree with Thorpe. In summer league, Joe Alexander is effective from the elbow. In the ASSOICATION, he's not and won't be...
...unless he quite simply works on quickness and explosiveness, esp off the line (like at the gun of a 100m dash).
Again, I disagree with Thorpe that Brandon needs to work on his right hand. He's like 19 or 20! Let him play. Righthand comes year 2 or 3.
The very fact that Brandon Jennings is left-handed gives him a one-season advantage in the NBA...
...because if you're part of the majority and righthanded, it's harder to push off your left foot when defending Brandon Jennings.
David Thorpe's is @coachthorpe, btw.
Bucks' pg Delaney slipped and fell near center court. I've seen that now over and over again for past 3 yrs. Someone fix that hazard!
Cuz the center court is overlayed by a large rectangular "sheet" saying NBA Summer League. Lame.
Not sure what Thorpe means by James Johnson's body language but this big kid does have good body control...
...he's got a good touch, has shown flashes of handle, and his size and gait reminds me of Paul Pierce.
Just makes me appreciate how awesome a player Paul Pierce is. But again, James Johnson is pretty damn mobile and got a good skillset w size.
James Johnson = Poor Man's Paul Pierce. Nah, lets call it Welfare Man's Paul Pierce. At least he's not a Homeless Man's Paul Pierce.
Luc Richard Mbah Moute swish left baseline. He's haveing a solid game. Nothing spectacular though.
Hmmm Joe Alexander just had a pretty quick drive from the elbow, in which Taj Gibson hipchecked and fouled out, but I'd just guard Joe's RH.
Amir Johnson has not improved since last summer. Same slow moves.
Brandon Jennings wudda jus been called for a sportsmanship warning in dreamleague: shouting out a fake countdown of shotclock on D!
Simone Szewczyk (I had to look thrice at is jersey back for spelling) is on the board with a slam with 1 sec left!
Distant cousin of Coach Krzyzcewzski (j/k and yah I know I butchered his name!).
I love disagreeing with Thorpe. This is where I differ from all other summer league analysts. James Johnson is 2-11 blah blah. Who cares
What matters is that he has the size skill mobility touch (tools) to play in the NBA and I never heard of him before. This is y I luv this!
If James Johnson fails, trust me, it will be all mental a la Marco Bellinelli (or injury).
To all you Cal fans, I just talked to Josh Shipp (he's signing autographs in the lobby) and his bro Joe Shipp is playing pro in Brazil.
And yeah you dreamleaguers, of course he played with and knows Matt Lee!
Speaking of asianballers, PHX has that guy Kawamura from the BJL (Japan). I'll lookup his first name later.
GSOM'ers, POB (Patrick O'Bryant) is starting for the Raptors summer league team!
Finally got me a program but Kawamura is not listed at first glance.
TONS of intrigue here. Robin Lopez, Goran Dragic, Earl Clark, Roko Ukic (Croatia), Demar DeRozan. Again, why I luv summer league.
I don't think I've ever been so curious about so many players in one summer league game.
I forgot Alando Tucker who played well enough last summer to earn an opening day spot.
Small thing, but they are playing with a very newish orange ball. NBA vets wud def complain.
I dunno man, I like Taylor Griffin. He's a rock at 6'7" and very active, very fast.
The fact that his bro is Blake made Taylor an auto-bargain (perhaps).
Oh yeah my favorite summer league coach, a tad more-o than even GSW'S Keith Smart: Dan Majerle. Class act. Positive.
For all you dreamleaguer Wolverines, Brent Pentway just rose WAY above the rim for an alley oop slam.
Oh yeah Smush Parker is TOR's pg. After 1 qtr of play lotsa intrigue but nobody stands out. That's the prob w lotsa intrigue spread out.
For all you GSW/Nellie/Bucks fans: Paul Mokeski! Assisting Dan Majerle. The Big Serenity!
I guess Thorpe bolted to see Tyreke Evans play against the D-League Nobodies... er, All-Stars. Shud I stay for Kawamura minutes or Tyreke?
Wait, is Robin Lopez the starting 5 for the "real" Phoenix Suns this season? BIG dude. Somewhat mobile. Starting 5 playin summer league?!
Back to Taylor Griffin, who FINALLY checked back in. I mean, Charles Oakley was 6'7" 240 right? Taylor'd do dances around Oakley.
No new Tyreke tweets by Thorpe. Guess I picked the right game to watch. (?)
OMG I just looked at the NBDL roster. All rookies, 1 first yr. That's like JV vs varsity...
...what's the point in developing NBDL ROOKIES? I wudda put a DL vet team together. I don't get it.
I shall heretofore refer to the NBDL summer squad as D-squared. NB-Dsquared-L Select team.
Its the developing players of the Development league. Seriously, this idea makes no sense to me.
I look up and Taylor Griffin is once again out of the game. This may be the boringest hour-and-a-half in the history of summerleag (Cox+T&M)
So anyways, Keith Smart is now my #1 and Dan Majerle slips to #2 in my fave coaches ranking.
Haha! Thorpe tweets that Tyreke is not starting and maybe not playing...
...against the NBD-squared. Just had to say that!
Geary Claxton just checked in for PHX. Wonder if he's related to Speedy.
See young dreamleaguers (esp my tourney team I'm talking to you Rich Lum!), ALWAYS one shot even giving up early offense.
TOR coaches said "One shot, Smush!" with 19 sec left and Smush maybe thinkin bout taking his man. Learn the game, young'uns!
With no PT for Taylor Griffin or Kawamura, I've goe over to Thomas & Mack for Kings vs NBD-Squared and what do I see?...
Dreamleague ref Jim Buntin is reffing this game! Go Jim! You Greek god, you, hahahaha!!!
Just in time! Tyreke Evans has checked into the game. I believe for the first time.
Oh yes! Pete Carril yelling at Israeli Omri Casspi for getting backdoored even tho NBDsquared threw the ball out of bounds!
Ha! Casspi just said "Fuck me!" coming out of the game. Americanized? I'll hafta ask Doobie Dorzia, Israeli league "agent" @ next SF ProAm.
OK, now this is straight diss: the NBD-Squared team has no names on the backs of their unis! Mean, NBA. Mean.
Got a host of Israelis here sittin behind the Kings' bench (to watch Casspi of course).
Holy shit, Tyreke is huge. I guess for some reason I thot he was always listed at 6'4" (NBA Draft?). He's listed at 6'6" in the program.Yup.
The Israeli sitting in front of me just confirmed that they say "fuck" all the time so no biggie with Casspi's previous remark.
Fyi, I've noticed there are quite a few women refs this year. I'd say one out of every four or five or six.
I have a feeling these Israelis are scouting for their league. They seem to be talking a

Poll

Do you like @poormanscommish live-tweet better than @coachthorpe (TrueHoop's David Thorpe)?

No, I prefer @coachthorpe

21 votes

Yes, I prefer @poormanscommish

14 votes

35 votes | Poll has closed

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.