NBA Summer League: 7/16/08

Finally catching up. Old posts:
7/12/08
7/14/08

Tuesday's games weren't great, we spent a lot of time bouncing around, so I only have thoughts on two of them:

Milwaukee 73, Detroit 59

After a dismal performance in his first outing, Joe Alexander looked a lot better here. He's still playing too fast and his shot still doesn't look that good to me (though it did go down a bit yesterday), but he played a much better game that included firing some pretty nice passes for assists. The more I see him, the more it looks like he's more comfortable playing a four-type game, which may be a problem at his size. His strength and athleticism will make up for some of that, though.

The Pistons were terrible without Rodney Stuckey, but Walter Sharpe showed a very nice, soft jump shot in limited minutes.

I was waiting all game for Alexander and the Pistons' Deron Washington to meet at the rim, but it never materialized.

Speaking of Washington, there was some kids in front of us who went and got his autograph on a basketball after the game. When they came back up, I saw that he had signed the ball "Deron Washington #8." Who sings a ball with their Summer League number?

Golden State 99, Charlotte 93

I'm higher on D.J. Augustin than most, but I really do think this guy can run an NBA team. He can't play defense, but he is super quick, the best passer here, and he finished almost everything at the rim against the Warriors, including two or three and ones. He's going to surprise some folks.

Wednesday's action includes the Knicks, Wizards, T-Wolves, Cavs, and Rockets, so I'm sure I'll have plenty more that tomorrow.

NBA Summer League: 7/14/08

In my first post on the Summer League, I forgot to mention one thing: O.J. Mayo's defense. It's supposedly a strong point of his, but he hasn't looked great so far on that end of the court. In Saturday's game vs. the Bucks, for example, someone named Trey Johnson was tearing him up. Defense isn't always something to worry about in Summer League, because some teams simply choose not to play very much of it, but the concerning thing here is that Mayo looked like he was trying to play good D and simply wasn't able to keep up.

On to Monday's games of note:

New York 97, Cleveland 94

After a first half in which he scored zero points, Danilo Gallinari ended up with 14 points on 5 for 11 shooting, and did nothing to change my opinion that he's got an NBA-style game. It may have taken the first half to adjust to his teammates, who simply weren't sharing the ball. Is anyone surprised that the Summer League Knicks don't pass?

The real story of the day was Cleveland's J.J. Hickson, who was an animal on the glass and displayed good post moves, as well. He had at least two followup dunks on the offensive glass, and another two where he got the rebound but wasn't able to slam home the putback. The best part of his performance, though, was that he spent a lot of time going head to head with Ronaldo Balkman. There aren't too many proven NBA role players in Summer League, but when you find one, performances against them have a bit more meaning. Hickson dominated Balkman -- a noted energy guy, remember -- on the glass. Cleveland has to find a place to play this guy.

Houston 100, Phoenix 97

If we are to be more impressed with Hickson's performance based on who he played against, we must do the opposite for Robin Lopez. Lopez did some positive things offensively -- he made 9 of 11 free throws and hit a little lefty jump hook at one point -- but he's not in the NBA because of his offense. And his defense and energy left a lot to be desired. He pulled down just five rebounds in 27 minutes against Houston's no-name front line.The really interesting thing, though, is that after his first seven-or-so minute stretch on the court, during which he looked fine, he couldn't play two minutes afterwards without getting fatigued. Is conditioning going to be a factor, or was he sick or something? Hard to know, but it's certainly a concern. The Suns don't play again til Thursday, but then they play the next four days in a row. We'll see how Lopez holds up.

My boy Donte' Greene put on the show of the Summer League. The official box score has him down for 40 points on 12-of-20, including 5-of-10 from deep. The problem with Greene, as I mentioned to one of my friends who was watching the game with me, is that while he won't always shoot that well, he'll always shoot that much. He's got a great-looking shot -- as good or better than anyone here not named O.J. Mayo -- but he's definitely a chucker (although he did have the assist on a key basket on one of the game's final possessions. It's a littled crowded on Houston's wing, but I have always thought and continue to think that Greene has a chance to be very good in the NBA.

There was a guy in the crowd this day wearing a University of Miami Jack McClinton jersey. i think this marks the first time that someone other than McClinton himself was wearing his name and number.

NBA Summer League: 7/12/08

19'9" is in Vegas all week for the NBA Summer League. Here are my impressions from Saturday's games(a little slow in getting them up, but hey, I'm in Vegas). I hope to get Monday's games up soon.

Sacramento 93, Toronto 86

Jason Thompson looked nothing like the 12th overall pick, or even a first-rounder. He was completely lost on both ends of the floor for a large portion of this game.

Fortunately for him, I thought that Glen "Big Baby" Davis looked lost during the first few games of last year's Summer League, and he looked good in his finale and then contributed during stretches of his rookie campaign. If Thompson can prove to be as quick a study as Davis, he might be okay.

Charlotte 81, Los Angeles Clippers 66

Eric Gordon didn't impress during his first game on Friday - 5 of 17 shooting - and he wasn't anything special in his second game, either. He went 4 for 10 from the field, and his jumper certainly has not, as yet, looked as advertised. He also left the game in the fourth quarter with a leg injury. They may very well have been keeping him out just as a precaution, but it's not a great sign for someone who spent a large portion of his lone college season hampered by injury.

One thing about Gordon, though; the baby fat he carried at Indiana is gone, as is the t-shirt he wore under his jersey as a Hoosier, often a sign that a player doesn't have an "NBA body." He's still short for a shooting guard, but he definitely has the arms and chest of an NBA player.

Denver 99, Philadelphia 85

The Sixers put in a horrible defensive effort despite having the best several players on the floor. Denver won convincingly despite having a roster full of marginal NBA talent.

Jason Smith played awkwardly, and we may quickly be seeing why Philly signed Elton Brand and drafted Marreese Speights, though Smith is big enough that he should get some minutes backing up Samuel Dalembert at center. Speaking of Speights, he, like Gordon, appears to have shed weight since college, and he too looks like an NBA player now.

Memphis 88, Milwaukee 79

The most entertaining part of this day came in the warmups to the day's final matchup, when Milwaukee's Joe "Vanilla Sky" Alexander and Memphis' Brent Petway held an impromptu informal dunk constest. Alexander had what a buddy of mine who worked at the scorers' table of home games for the Vancouver Grizzlies for three years called one of the best warmup dunks he'd ever seen (a windmill that I missed because I was watching Petway on the other end). My favorite of his was an alley-oop where he caught the pass at chest level when he and the ball were still on their way up, the extended it high above his head while gliding in for a jam. Think of a weightlifter doing a clean and jerk, and that's similar to the effect. Petway, for his part, may even be a better leaper, and his jam where he stuck his whole forearm in the basket, Vince Carter style, was sweet.

I've never been high on Alexander, and he certainly didn't change my mind with this performance. He made just 2 of 13 shots and grabbed three rebounds in 33 minutes. They played him in the post a little bit, and while the pro of this is that he is athletic enough to get off a turnaround jumper, he's not a good enough shooter to make it. The ball doesn't get up to the rim particularly softly, and he was offline more often than not.

Other quick thoughts from Saturday's games:

-Watching Mike Conley Jr. go head-to-head with Ramon Sessions made it clear why Conley was the fourth overall draft pick in 2007 and Sesssions went at 56.

-O.J. Mayo is a small dude. Not just short, which we knew, and not necessarily lacking definition in his upper body. He just doesn't have a particularly think torso and upper body. He's also something of a turnover machine who doesn't have the handle yet to play point guard in the NBA. But man, can he shoot. Hands down, he has the best looking shot of anyone I've seen in the first two days of games I've watched. I'm not talking about his form -- who cares about his form when his ball looks as good as it does? High-arcing, soft on the rim. A thing to behold.

-Poor P.J. Tucker. He's a terrific player and the kind of guy who will always kill it during Summer League and against less competition because of his effort and savvy, but he's too small to play four in the NBA and his skill set just doesn't translate to the three (and even there, he's undersized).