2007 Summer League Thread

[maes]

Anyone interested in posting summer league developments?

For one thing, i think some teams are going to be kicking themselves for not drafting Marco Belinelli higher. He was nabbed by Golden State pretty low, and just dropped 37 points in his first game.

So much for Euros needing adjustment. 14-20, 5-7 from 3 point range.

[cyanide]

The Raptors were eying him well before the draft, but they couldn't get him come draft time. I was never high on him, but the Warriors might have a special player.

[Anthony15]

Yeah just heard it, 37 points is damn good, but its only summer league, would be a big steal for Warriors if he drops 30+ for them in season games.

[---]

Sweet, I was waiting for someone to make this thread.

maes, what did you think of Spencer Hawes?

Before the draft I wanted Hawes, but since Pax got Noah I've warmed up to the pick alot. Now I can't stand watching Spencer Hawes play because it feels like I've missed out on something, a bit like when I watch Aldridge tear up summerleague.

Hawes was a beast offensivly (despite not getting the ball a whole lot) and showed some great passing skill, especially with his outlet passes that head back to halfcourt, basically generating fastbreaks that wouldn't be there usually. His skill level in terms of post scoring looked really high, he looked just as polished as all the scouting reports say and looks like the best ofensive big in the draft. I don't think this summerleague game means much, considering it was against team China who don't play much defence at all.

What I didn't like was his rebounding. He looks like he has no desire to rebound the ball. Most bigs will crash the boards as soon as the shot is up and jump if its there. With Hawes, one of the guards might of been about to jump to grab the board and Hawes would decide to not even jump. Sometimes when a guy put up a shot he wouldn't even move to the ball, just seal his man off and let someone else get it. He also looked slow defensively, but I don't think it was that bad. Alot of people said Hawes couldn't defend anyone, but he was guarding Jianlian for most of the game and it wasn't that bad. He wasn't lazy, he just didn't know how to defend properly.

If Hawes can work on his defence, and someone gets it through his head to crash the boards, he could be a very, very good player.

He looked like a fantastic passer, and he scored basically at will. He also showed range out near the three point line.

The thing that amazed me most about Hawes was his rebounding problem. He just looked like he didn't want it. The thing is he finished with 7 boards, but he could of had 16+ if he just wanted it.


EDIT: Anyone watching Portland/Dallas? I thought the referee's did a better job yesterday, but this refereeing sucks as bad as the first day of summerleague (which was really, really bad).

[Jing]

Ah man.. that China-Kings game made me want to smash things.. the Chinese team is playing like a bunch of high schoolers. They have an astronomical leap to make if they want to medal in Beijing. Even Yi wasnt himself that game, he was 0-9 before making his first field goal... and finished the game like 2-14 or something... Also.. WZZ guarding Hawes made Hawes look like an all star.... and WZZ is suppose to be the leader of team China too, but his attitude of slouching, afraid to go inside rubbed off on the entire team.... The refs were blowing their whistles like every 5 seconds anyways.

Hopefully Yi just had a bad game.. but Hawes really shined.

[NovU]

china has a basketball team?

[maes]

Haven't seen Hawes play as i don't have much interest in Sac but i'll check him out. It's been so long since we've seen a great outlet passer.

One guy i like in SL but may never see any PT is Maurice Ager, maybe the Sonics can pull a trade for this guy since they're lacking SG options.

[Jing]

Sweet. China won against the Cavs' summer league team on a Yi buzzer-beater with 0.4 seconds left. I was actually thinking that the China team wouldn't win a single game in the Vegas league, so this is pretty nice.

Team China Basketball 85, Cleveland 84
Las Vegas, July 8 -- Yi Jianlian’s turnaround jump shot from the right corner with 0.4 seconds left gave Team China an 85-84 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.

With Team China down one, it set a pick and roll with Yi to create a mismatch. When the mismatch happened, they fed Yi on the low post and he put home the game-winner.

Cavs’ Matt Walsh nailed a 3-pointer with 18.3 seconds left to give Cleveland an 84-83 lead before Yi’s heroics.

Yi struggled in the first three quarters, missing all six of his shots. His first field goal did not come until the 9:45 mark of the fourth quarter. However, Yi had a monster fourth quarter, scoring 17 of his team-high 20 points (3-11 FG, 14-17 FT) in the quarter. Yi also grabbed four rebounds and collected eight fouls in the win.

Wang ZhiZhi accounted for 18 points (5-9 FG, 5-6 FT) and seven rebounds for Team China.

2006 first round pick Shannon Brown had a game-high 26 points (11-16 FG) in 32 minutes of action for the Cavs, while Daniel Gibson produced 14 points (2-4 FG, 10-11 FT) in just 17 minutes of play. Gibson suffered a left ankle sprain in the second quarter and did not return.

“We didn’t execute down the stretch,” Gibson said of the Cavs play. “We gave them a lot of easy baskets. We had a lot of fouls which gave them a lot of easy points.”

[Indy]

One guy i like in SL but may never see any PT is Maurice Ager, maybe the Sonics can pull a trade for this guy since they're lacking SG options.

Ager is a poor man's Fred Jones.

[-Young Buck-]

Shannon Brown produced again, why wasnt he playing in the finals? I guess they wanted to play guys that stand around and wait to miss a 3 pointer, while brown who could slash sat on the bench and watched them lose. Im not saying he would of made them win, but still.

[maes]

Ager is a poor man's Fred Jones.

Which would be a huge upgrade over Desmond Farmar and the rest of the D-Leaguers we play at SG.

[[Q]]

watched Boobie gibson hurt himself vs China. China honestly isn't that bad until they start shooting too many turning and leaning fadeaway jumps shots from 20 ft out. if they pounded it into Yi or Wang Zhizhi they would be a lot better. there's too much bad passing and bad entry passes. they obviously don't shoot well enough to justify their number of outside shots. plus, they really really suck at rebounding so their opponents get a lot of offensive rebounds.

[---]

^

They don't play any defence at all. Wang Zhi Zhi plays like a taller Antoine Walker. Some of the players look like they ignore Yi downlow.

That's pretty much the 3 things I noticed about that team as a whole.

[[Q]]

I just finished watching the China/Cavs game.

Yi came out clutch with a turnaround bank to win it. he looked pretty poised while shooting. I'm pretty impressed by his footwork inside. while most bigs inside lose their balance and travel, I was waiting for Yi to travel inside but he never did. he pivots very well and doesn't shuffle his feet.

I was also impressed with Sun in the last two games. He is a deceptively decent ballhandler at 6'8" and is very unselfish. with his length he defends fairly well against other guards too. I can definitely see him making the Lakers this season and getting some burn behind Farmar. remember Phil sure loves his big guards.

[Dean]

He's gonna love Crittenton after today too

[[S]Reaver]

I've noticed the influx of fouls in the recent summer league games.

[---]

^

Yep, it marred Oden's summerleague performances so far. People are already talking about Oden being a bust. When he was on the court, he played well, especially defensively.

The summerleague refs are trying to make the NBA too, but they are way over the top on their foul calls. In Odens first game, about 6 of the calls against him were either bullshit or should of been no calls, especially in a summer league. He probably would of had 4-5 fouls all up and finished with 20/10 and 5 blocks, being able to stay on the court if the refs weren't so bad.

It got alot better on day 2, but it's back to normal.

[-Young Buck-]

Is this summer league the only one this year? years before they would have like the rocky mountain league, then another in orlando or somewhere, like 4 different summer leagues.

[Anthony15]

Is this summer league the only one this year? years before they would have like the rocky mountain league, then another in orlando or somewhere, like 4 different summer leagues.

I think there's going to be another summer league, because only like half of Eastern Conf teams and Utah Jazz (the closest city to Las Vegas ) aren't participating in Las Vegas summer league.

[maes]

Tyrus Thomas had a pretty good first summer game, was it 17 - 8, and 5 blocks? Or something similar? Unfortunately i heard he left injured.

[Dan's Brain]

Tyrus Thomas had a pretty good first summer game, was it 17 - 8, and 5 blocks? Or something similar? Unfortunately i heard he left injured.

All correct. He left the game late clutching his side. Probably just a knock to the ribs.

Thabo had an off shooting night (3-11), but Andre Barrett and JamesOn Curry both played pretty well.

I think the Pacers were only playing one guy from their actual roster - Shawne Williams.

[Gedas]

Belinelli with another good performance - 23 points.

[Dro]

Durant sure is having a tough time out there...3/17 from the field.

[[S]Reaver]

From the recent games, it seems as if all the top draft prospects aren't doing as expected, while the later draftees (Belinelli being the best example) are upping their game. I guess it takes a while to adjust to the league...but Belinelli...!

[adv1s5]

JJ Barea (Mavs) looks like a pretty solid point guard. Hope at least one team signs him; he's been around for a while.