Firstly I keep missing the 3pm game so I missed the Pacers-Sonics yester and then the Heat-Nets today.
I’ll breeze quickly over the Nets-Magic game from late last night
- This game was horrific. Barely watchable. Both teams were horribly disorganized and dysfunctional. Orlando lack huge amounts of talent on their roster meanwhile the Nets have talent but aren’t using it very well.
- Brook Lopez had zero rebounds. Overall he was quite disappointing and was too quick to make soft moves going away from the hoop (fadeaway) out of the post. I had larger expectations on him so hopefully we’ll see more as the tourney carries on.
- CDR showed off some of his talent and was able to create good shots for himself. Good sign
- Courtney Lee was disappointing. He had a solid game and was one of the better Magic players but again I expected more.
Sonics-Magic
- This was a rout by the end of the first quarter. Once again Orlando’s lack of talent made the game tough to watch but at least Seattle put their guys on the floor.
- Surprisingly Kevin Durant showed up and played. He dominated the game whenever he choose to but mostly allowed the others to involve themselves. Durant had an easy 22 points and 5 boards
- Jeff Green had a very good game. Before the tourney there was talk of the Sonics asking Green to work on his ballhandling especially in the open floor …. clearly he’s making a concerted effort at doing just that regularly leading the break and trying to get out in transition. Green was the player of the game as he dropped 28 points and played very good defense.
- Westbrook had his second straight fine game. I missed the first so this my first chance at seeing him in a Sonics uniform. The expectations of him being a dominant athlete, great defender and great finisher in the open court were all on full display. For those of you don’t know, I’ve been very doubtful of Westbrook as a lottery pick. But today I was happily surprised to see how composed he was on the ball and how good his decision making was. Kevin Kruger was the best opposing point guard tonight so I’m not making too much of it except to say he’s had himself a great start. Russell finished with 19 points and 3 dimes against 1 turnover.
- Courtney Lee had a quiet but excellent game for the Magic. He didn’t ever really go above himself or look to dominate the play but his team … who were getting their heads bashed in … but he did manage to score 27 points on 8-14 shooting and 8-9 from the line.
- There was a real ugly spell to end the first and start the second were Orlando just couldn’t buy a basket. Their poor play was the bigger reason rather than the Sonics’ defense.
- The Sonics clearly had way too much talent for the Magic putting three top 5 lottery picks on the floor and a decent supporting cast.
Indiana-Chicago
- Surprised that Chicago managed to win this one. When you were watching the game you always felt Indiana were winning and in control because they were in control, in control of everything. But Chicago kept slogging away and found a way to pull it out with their bench guys coming up huge.
- Before the tournament I was looking up and down the rosters seeing who’s names you recognize and who has a good squad. I thought Chicago clearly had the most quality and depth with a starting lineup of – Rose/Langford/Nichols/Ty Thomas/Noah – and Gray, Curry, Cedric Simmons. That’s all NBA talent or have NBA experience. Indy in contrast had only Shawne Williams as a proven NBA talent and two borderline cases of Stephen Graham and Andre Emmet.
So was I surprised Indiana lost a close game here?
The Talent clearly favours Chicago right?
- Indiana have the best prepared and best drilled summer league team I can remember in recent years. It was incredible to see their team defense and offensive movement. They knew how they wanted to play and were able to impose that style of play. The level of cohesiveness on that team was incredible. They looked like they’ve been playing together for a year or two.
- Which leads me to beg the question …. who the hell is coaching them? The answer is Lester Conner. Remember that name because we’ll likely start seeing it mentioned as a possible future head coach within the next 2 years.
- Indiana have a few good players who caught my eye. I haven’t seen much of them on the whole so I won’t comment too much on them. The two players that looked the most interesting were Courtney Sims (big man) and Earl Calloway (point guard). I’ll be keeping my eye on those over the remaining games. The rest of their team all look fairly talented too but probably not NBA talents. Here’s a link from the Pacers website on their local longshots on the roster
- In contrast …. as good as Indiana were and as well drilled as Indiana was ….. Chicago were awful.
- One of the surprising parts of this tournament was finding out that Vinny Del Negro was going to coach the team. Rarely do you see head coaches work the sidelines down here, they normally hand those duties over to an assistant. You see it the odd time with a top prospect and new coach and this is one of those times. Well I have to say that Chicago look the most disorganized team in the tournament. The talent is there, the game plan and the understanding of how to execute the game plan isn’t. This is only summer league and it doesn’t mean too much so don’t read too much into this …. but at the same time Del Negro has done nothing here to build up hopes over his coaching credentials.
- Derrick Rose struggled again. Whenever he got in the halfcourt he looked confused about where and how to attack. Again he was passive and looked to pass off rather than create. When he did try to create he ran into Indy’s help defense and couldn’t manage to get much going. In transition he showed some great talents and he’s clearly a huge threat in the open court.
- Chicago had their best spell offensively with Rose on the bench. JamesOn Curry was running the point then although he didn’t look like much. Looked worse than last year actually.
- Chicago had several stretches in the game were every halfcourt possession was coming down to the final 5 seconds in the shot clock. The reasons were twofold (1) Indiana was playing great defense, especially for summer league (2) Chicago didn’t have a clue how to create a shot or how to attack and Rose looked helpless on several of those possessions.
- Keith Langford again looked like a solid end of bench NBA player. He’s a 6-4 shooting guard with a decent all-round game and athleticism who shoots well. I think San Antonio had on their roster twice last season but I’m not entirely sure.
- Nichols also looked promising. He would have looked better if the Bulls guards created a bit more for him and didn’t keep throwing off target passes forcing him to lose his position for his set jump shot … ala Nate Robinson last year.
- Ty Thomas and Noah again looked unspectacular. It’s surprising watching them play at this level. They’re carbon copies of their NBA selves. They should be coming down here and dominating this competition but they’re not. The paint is up for grabs whenever they’re in the game. They’re blending in. It’s not so much that they’re playing down to the competition, it’s that neither really has the skills to be more than a role player even at this level of play.
Surprising Box Score from earlier
- Beasley was terrific in the opener going for 28 points in 23 minutes. Today he shot 1-16 from the field. Ouch. I want to know who was guarding him, I’m betting Sean Williams. I wonder if it was just a horrible shooting night or if Williams gobbled up all those high percentage looks and forced into bad shots. Disappointed I missed that game now. Beasley did look great against two very good athletes/defenders in Thomas/Noah which we shouldn’t forget.
- Chalmers dropped 19 and 9 to lead Miami to a victory over the Nets. I love this kid.
