It started today - not all teams have an entry, but the warriors do :classic:
http://www.vegassummerleague.com/scores_recaps.cfm
http://www.vegassummerleague.com/scores_recaps.cfm
NBA Las Vegas Summer League
- Thread starter AC Transit
- Start date
Portland- 82 Houston 88
Trailblazers
Travis Outlaw
Outlaw did a great job in the first half showing us exactly why he cannot get any minutes anywhere outside of the summer league. He settled repeatedly for weak mid-range jumpers and 3-pointers, pulling up sharply off the dribble with his body flailing in every direction imaginable. Unsurprisingly, he bricked almost every single one.
Last year, Outlaw did a nice job making up for his shortcomings in the shot-selection category by filling up the stat-sheet with rebounds, blocks and steals. So far, we’ve seen none of that.
In the 2nd half, Outlaw continued to show just how much of a liability his combination of poor ball-handling, shot-selection and feel for the game is. He ran into brick walls repeatedly, turned the ball over, was called for charges and generally was a huge disappointment.
Joel Freeland
Freeland didn’t do too much as far as showing actual skills go, but he did drop quite a few glimpses of his potential by running the floor in transition, getting scrappy in the paint going up for rebounds and defending and even coming up with one fantastic block on Chuck Hayes to eliminate an easy basket on a fast break. Freeland has a ways to go as far as his skill level is concerned, but he shows good physical attributes (nice frame, excellent athleticism) and a great attitude to continue to develop.
Ha Sueng Jin
Ha actually started and played a little bit, but he was here in spirit only.
In the 2nd half, Ha got his first and I believe only shot of the game when he got the ball in the paint with an opportunity to post his man up. He clumsily put the ball on the floor with a rather shocked look on his face and threw up a dud that barely graced the side of the glass. That was the extent of what Ha Sueng Jin showed today.
Martell Webster
Webster came in here billed as the top player in this game considering his lofty draft status and the expectations most Trailblazer fans have of him, and came away with pretty positive results after a very poor start. Webster was repeatedly challenged to put the ball on the floor and go to his left hand by perennial allstar defender Pat Carroll, and either did so and turned it over or just took himself out of the play completely by passing up a one on one opportunity. Having quite a few plays called for him, Webster was brought off multiple screens and couldn’t really find his mid-range or 3-point shot, even airballing one opportunity badly. Webster continued to show his lack of aggressiveness and potentially athleticism by missing a fairly wide-open layup in transition that he most definitely should have dunked. One 3-pointer and then an and-one off an iso with just a few seconds left in the first half redeemed him a little bit.
Webster continued right where he left off at the end of the first off, establishing himself as Portland’s go-to scorer by moving off the ball and freeing himself up for open looks from the perimeter. He drained a number of shots in succession, both from NBA 3-point range (possibly with a foot on the line) and mid-range, looking very smooth and effortless in his release, and being extremely aggressive throughout. Offensively Webster remains mostly a spot-up 3-point threat, but he is damn good at it when his shot is falling the way it was in the last 25 minutes of the game, a 6-7 version of Steve Novak, if you will. He played excellent defense as well, being aggressive in staying in front of his man, but not being able to do much about Steve Novak’s height and incredibly quick shot release with the amazing day he was having.
LaMarcus Aldridge
Aldridge surprisingly was brought off the bench and came out quite rusty to start things off. He refused to do any kind of work inside the paint, settling for weak turnaround jumpers repeatedly, facing up and spotting up for the 16 footer, and generally taking the ball up softly in almost everything he did. Somewhere in the 2nd quarter things started falling for him more, and the turnaround jumpers he continued to settle for went down for him at a very nice rate. Defensively he did a great job moving his feet out on the perimeter and hedging the pick and roll, using his quickness and length to challenge shots and showing a lot of potential in this part of his game.
Aldridge’s rebounding was a bit of a concern today. On numerous occasions he just stood around as the ball came off the rim and refused to go after it, possibly expecting PJ Tucker or Brad Buckman to come and do the dirty work for him. Offensively, he wasn’t very active either and really didn’t get too many touches. It didn’t seem to bother him all that much.
Brandon Roy
Roy warmed the bench for the first 8 minutes of the game, and then played for the rest of the first half. He was played strictly at the point and did not look out of place doing so, moving the ball around unselfishly, finding the open man, keeping all of his teammates happy and getting to the rim at will. His ball-handling skills looked especially sweet, but he was a little bit too aggressive at times and was called for a couple of questionable charges. One extremely pretty pull-up jumper floating left from 14 feet out showed everyone in the building exactly how large the gap is talent-wise between him and everyone else on the floor.
Roy continued to play the point in the 2nd half and did not look as comfortable as he did in the first. Portland’s offense looked very stagnant and Roy didn’t do a great job initiating things. It would have been nice to see him do some work off the ball as well, but the Trailblazers didn’t want to use Sean Dockery at all. Defensively, Roy really struggled trying to stay in front of the much smaller and quicker John Lucas. Lucas got to wherever he wanted on the floor and there wasn’t much Roy could do to stop him.
Rockets
Eric Weiss
John Lucas III
Lucas manned the point with authority in the first half of action, mixing timely passing with efficient scoring bids. Lucas kept his head up constantly and set an excellent pace for his club while promoting solid ball movement and tempo. In the first quarter, Lucas had five strong drives, with three being finished for scores and the other two for assists. Lucas showed good body control and a soft touch while elevating for the completion of each play.
Lucas really picked up the tempo and got his team firing on all cylinders in the 2nd half. Lucas brought Pat Carroll into the shooting fray and the pacing of the game that Lucas set enabled Chuck Hayes to do plenty of garbage work on the glass. The larger the lead got and the faster the pace became, the greater Lucas’ bravado and creativity went. The confidence established with his strong drives allowed Lucas to explore his perimeter game a bit late in the game and with good results; he hit two smooth 3-pointers using his teammates help on separation.
Great inaugural performance…
Steve Novak
Novak came out blazing in this game, converting his first three deep balls and four of six overall. It was Novak’s movement off-ball that was the most encouraging, something that he wasn’t able to show in the less organized pre draft camps. Novak’s ability to shoot over defenders in close spaces as well as setting quality picks and making smart decisions with his shot selection, was quite evident throughout the first half.
The 2nd half was more of the same. Novak coupled with Pat Carroll to put on an outside shooting display. Novak showed the full arsenal in this half, once he got the set shots cooking, he began to utilize the perceived threat to shot fake and get cleaner looks. Novak’s release and results suffered no ill effects from the motion and as the 4th quarter progressed the speed at which he executed his moves drastically increased.
Pat Carroll
Carroll was quietly effective in the first half, but nothing substantial enough to warrant mention. However, in the 2nd half Carroll absolutely came alive. Taking the lead from John Lucas and Steve Novak, Carroll began to find the rhythm from the perimeter and used the confidence generated from that to explore his dribble-drive. One particular drive to the hoop found Carroll cut off near the rim when driving hard off the left elbow. Carroll changed direction toward the baseline and finished an excellent reverse lay-in, which took tremendous body control and showed a level of athleticism previously unseen.
Chuck Hayes
Chuck Hayes did all the dirty-work in this game and brought his own energy to the frenetic mix the Rockets team showed. Hayes was active running the court in transition, used excellent anticipation in the half-court sets, and finished his put-backs well. No one element stood out aside from his board work, but it was evident why the Rockets valued his presence on the team last season.
Trailblazers
Travis Outlaw
Outlaw did a great job in the first half showing us exactly why he cannot get any minutes anywhere outside of the summer league. He settled repeatedly for weak mid-range jumpers and 3-pointers, pulling up sharply off the dribble with his body flailing in every direction imaginable. Unsurprisingly, he bricked almost every single one.
Last year, Outlaw did a nice job making up for his shortcomings in the shot-selection category by filling up the stat-sheet with rebounds, blocks and steals. So far, we’ve seen none of that.
In the 2nd half, Outlaw continued to show just how much of a liability his combination of poor ball-handling, shot-selection and feel for the game is. He ran into brick walls repeatedly, turned the ball over, was called for charges and generally was a huge disappointment.
Joel Freeland
Freeland didn’t do too much as far as showing actual skills go, but he did drop quite a few glimpses of his potential by running the floor in transition, getting scrappy in the paint going up for rebounds and defending and even coming up with one fantastic block on Chuck Hayes to eliminate an easy basket on a fast break. Freeland has a ways to go as far as his skill level is concerned, but he shows good physical attributes (nice frame, excellent athleticism) and a great attitude to continue to develop.
Ha Sueng Jin
Ha actually started and played a little bit, but he was here in spirit only.
In the 2nd half, Ha got his first and I believe only shot of the game when he got the ball in the paint with an opportunity to post his man up. He clumsily put the ball on the floor with a rather shocked look on his face and threw up a dud that barely graced the side of the glass. That was the extent of what Ha Sueng Jin showed today.
Martell Webster
Webster came in here billed as the top player in this game considering his lofty draft status and the expectations most Trailblazer fans have of him, and came away with pretty positive results after a very poor start. Webster was repeatedly challenged to put the ball on the floor and go to his left hand by perennial allstar defender Pat Carroll, and either did so and turned it over or just took himself out of the play completely by passing up a one on one opportunity. Having quite a few plays called for him, Webster was brought off multiple screens and couldn’t really find his mid-range or 3-point shot, even airballing one opportunity badly. Webster continued to show his lack of aggressiveness and potentially athleticism by missing a fairly wide-open layup in transition that he most definitely should have dunked. One 3-pointer and then an and-one off an iso with just a few seconds left in the first half redeemed him a little bit.
Webster continued right where he left off at the end of the first off, establishing himself as Portland’s go-to scorer by moving off the ball and freeing himself up for open looks from the perimeter. He drained a number of shots in succession, both from NBA 3-point range (possibly with a foot on the line) and mid-range, looking very smooth and effortless in his release, and being extremely aggressive throughout. Offensively Webster remains mostly a spot-up 3-point threat, but he is damn good at it when his shot is falling the way it was in the last 25 minutes of the game, a 6-7 version of Steve Novak, if you will. He played excellent defense as well, being aggressive in staying in front of his man, but not being able to do much about Steve Novak’s height and incredibly quick shot release with the amazing day he was having.
LaMarcus Aldridge
Aldridge surprisingly was brought off the bench and came out quite rusty to start things off. He refused to do any kind of work inside the paint, settling for weak turnaround jumpers repeatedly, facing up and spotting up for the 16 footer, and generally taking the ball up softly in almost everything he did. Somewhere in the 2nd quarter things started falling for him more, and the turnaround jumpers he continued to settle for went down for him at a very nice rate. Defensively he did a great job moving his feet out on the perimeter and hedging the pick and roll, using his quickness and length to challenge shots and showing a lot of potential in this part of his game.
Aldridge’s rebounding was a bit of a concern today. On numerous occasions he just stood around as the ball came off the rim and refused to go after it, possibly expecting PJ Tucker or Brad Buckman to come and do the dirty work for him. Offensively, he wasn’t very active either and really didn’t get too many touches. It didn’t seem to bother him all that much.
Brandon Roy
Roy warmed the bench for the first 8 minutes of the game, and then played for the rest of the first half. He was played strictly at the point and did not look out of place doing so, moving the ball around unselfishly, finding the open man, keeping all of his teammates happy and getting to the rim at will. His ball-handling skills looked especially sweet, but he was a little bit too aggressive at times and was called for a couple of questionable charges. One extremely pretty pull-up jumper floating left from 14 feet out showed everyone in the building exactly how large the gap is talent-wise between him and everyone else on the floor.
Roy continued to play the point in the 2nd half and did not look as comfortable as he did in the first. Portland’s offense looked very stagnant and Roy didn’t do a great job initiating things. It would have been nice to see him do some work off the ball as well, but the Trailblazers didn’t want to use Sean Dockery at all. Defensively, Roy really struggled trying to stay in front of the much smaller and quicker John Lucas. Lucas got to wherever he wanted on the floor and there wasn’t much Roy could do to stop him.
Rockets
Eric Weiss
John Lucas III
Lucas manned the point with authority in the first half of action, mixing timely passing with efficient scoring bids. Lucas kept his head up constantly and set an excellent pace for his club while promoting solid ball movement and tempo. In the first quarter, Lucas had five strong drives, with three being finished for scores and the other two for assists. Lucas showed good body control and a soft touch while elevating for the completion of each play.
Lucas really picked up the tempo and got his team firing on all cylinders in the 2nd half. Lucas brought Pat Carroll into the shooting fray and the pacing of the game that Lucas set enabled Chuck Hayes to do plenty of garbage work on the glass. The larger the lead got and the faster the pace became, the greater Lucas’ bravado and creativity went. The confidence established with his strong drives allowed Lucas to explore his perimeter game a bit late in the game and with good results; he hit two smooth 3-pointers using his teammates help on separation.
Great inaugural performance…
Steve Novak
Novak came out blazing in this game, converting his first three deep balls and four of six overall. It was Novak’s movement off-ball that was the most encouraging, something that he wasn’t able to show in the less organized pre draft camps. Novak’s ability to shoot over defenders in close spaces as well as setting quality picks and making smart decisions with his shot selection, was quite evident throughout the first half.
The 2nd half was more of the same. Novak coupled with Pat Carroll to put on an outside shooting display. Novak showed the full arsenal in this half, once he got the set shots cooking, he began to utilize the perceived threat to shot fake and get cleaner looks. Novak’s release and results suffered no ill effects from the motion and as the 4th quarter progressed the speed at which he executed his moves drastically increased.
Pat Carroll
Carroll was quietly effective in the first half, but nothing substantial enough to warrant mention. However, in the 2nd half Carroll absolutely came alive. Taking the lead from John Lucas and Steve Novak, Carroll began to find the rhythm from the perimeter and used the confidence generated from that to explore his dribble-drive. One particular drive to the hoop found Carroll cut off near the rim when driving hard off the left elbow. Carroll changed direction toward the baseline and finished an excellent reverse lay-in, which took tremendous body control and showed a level of athleticism previously unseen.
Chuck Hayes
Chuck Hayes did all the dirty-work in this game and brought his own energy to the frenetic mix the Rockets team showed. Hayes was active running the court in transition, used excellent anticipation in the half-court sets, and finished his put-backs well. No one element stood out aside from his board work, but it was evident why the Rockets valued his presence on the team last season.
