Bulls Summer League thread

[cjbulls]

History of Summer League MVPs

Randy Foye
Nate Robinson
Jerryd Bayless
Blake Griffin
John Wall
Damian Lillard
Josh Shelby
Jonas Valunciunas
Glen Rice Jr
Kyle Anderson
Tyus Jones
Lonzo Ball
Josh Hart

[Red Larrivee]

I gotta disagree with the notion that many great players have been bad at SL as a useful lens to look at our players' bad play. Reason being, that for every good player that played bad during summer league, there are 10 bad players that also played bad at SL.

It's a useful reminder, because it doesn't matter. Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, and Derrick Rose are three prime examples. On the other hand, Kris Dunn, Malcolm Thomas, and Antonio Blakeney tore up SL. It still surprises me that each year there are posters here who try to make projections based off it.

Summer league is the equivalent of rookie minicamp in the NFL; the results don't matter. There may be small things you look for to see how players are addressing it, but that's it. The goal is to get your conditioning back after months of traveling, interviewing, not being on a consistent diet, and not playing full-court basketball. The other part is interacting with the coaching staff and getting an idea of what NBA practices can be like.

It's why I don't understand why anyone is scratching off Chandler Hutchison, who's six months removed from a season-ending injury and is clearly playing in summer league to get his conditioning back.

[AshyLarrysDiaper]

Nothing should be drawn from summer league production. The stats just don’t matter.

But for nearly every NBA player, there are through lines between the player they were in SL and the player they eventually became - even the guys who were god awful in Vegas, like Rose. Problem is, identifying those through lines in real time is hard. I don’t know anyone who’s done it well consistently. But that doesn’t mean the exercise of trying to id them is pointless, it just has to be couched in humility and perspective.

[MGB8]

My final Coby impressions:

-Passing vision and ambition are farther along than he showed at UNC. Good signs.

-Not worried about the shooting. It’ll come or it won’t. His shooting splits at UNC weren’t so impressive that we can assume he’ll get there, but I’d be somewhat surprised if he didn’t become a 36% three point shooter at some point during his rookie contract.

- Transition play: I see the knack for finding seams, but he didn’t ram fast breaks down the defense’s throat as much as I expected. The coaching staff probably asked him to slow it down, which is fine. We’ll see if he goes full throttle during the season.

-Tools: He plays physically but isn’t strong. Hustles for lose balls but doesn’t have the length or hands to make 50/50 plays. I wonder how that’ll work alongside Zach who isn’t a playmaker in that way either. He did come up with a couple good on-ball steals, though, so maybe he does have a nose for the ball.

-Poise: Something about him inspires confidence. He just seems really up for this. It’d take a lot for me to write him off, even if he has a miserable rookie season. I think he’ll will himself to become a plus player eventually, even if his skills don’t top out where he hopes.

Great point on poise. I can’t say that the poor shooting and not great assist to turnover numbers don’t give me concern. But I do think that the poise factor is bigger in terms of figuring out his potential trajectory as a player than a lot of folks realize.

[D_GoLow]

Doug McDermott dominated SL.

Doug McDermott. Doug McDermott and Kris Dunn. Always when I watched these guys, and yeah you read all the hype stuff, my brain was instead constantly pushed to go

Dont forget Jerian Grant!

[Fl_Flash]

White will be fine as the game slows down for him. I like his demeanor - or to use a Boylenism - his spirit.
His 3's, while not connecting, looked good. Mostly all were on line, just fell short or a little too hard. He had quite a few shots rim out also. Get him playing in a system with set plays and responsibilities and he'll shine.

Gafford looks like a second or third string big. Love the athleticism, not liking what looks like a lack of awareness on defense. He seems to get tired easy. He may run like a deer, but it's a deer that's been living in their parents basement, gaming on the Internet all day long and eating Doritos and Coke. Not a lot of stamina there. Hopefully he can either dial back a bit on the 110% effort or get in better cardio-vascular condition so he can stay out on the floor longer. I like what he does bring to the table though. Just has to work on a lot of the little things that add up when you're a big.

Hutch got better as the games progressed which is encouraging. Not sure about his shot as he didn't seem to take many jumpers. Hopefully he can start working on all that now and be ready for training camp.

Mokkoka looked decent. Didn't try to do too much. He just seemed to be, for the most part, in the right place at the right time. Pretty much all you can ask of a two-way end-of-bench guy.

The rest? Meh. Nobody really stood out.

[DanTown8587]

The only thing Summer League does is set expectations for what you think you’re getting next season; nothing about the long-term aspect of a player (especially if they are rookies). It’s probably less likely now than 10 days ago that Coby was a day one starter but thats about the only thing I’d say about it.

[Indomitable]

Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose both kicked off their NBA career yesterday in Summer League action. Beasley and Mario Chalmers led the Heat past the Chicago Bulls in the first pro game for all three rookies.

Michael Beasley dominated most of the game, and finished with 28 points and nine rebounds in only 23 minutes. Beasley was asked how he performed, and he gave himself a C.

Beasley looked very "tall" on defense and when rebounding. One issue teams had with Michael is that he only measured 6'8'' with shoes on at the NBA rookie combine. He was matched up against the Bulls Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, and never showed signs that he was smaller.

Keith Askins did limit the time of Beasley, because he had three fouls in the first half. Riley then reminded the Heat summer league head coach that there is no fouling out in these games.

The Miami Heat are searching for a point guard to start for them this year, and may have found one in the second round of the draft. Mario Chalmers was able to shut down Derrick Rose and force him into five turnovers.

Chalmers, acquired in a draft day trade for two future second-round picks from the Minnesota Timberwolves, finished with 11 points, six assists and six steals, while only committing one turnover.

He may have been the better point guard in his first game for the Miami Heat. The Heat will be looking very closely at what Chalmers can do in the upcoming days, while they have four more summer league games in four days.

While Rose struggled, but showed signs of one day being a star, the Heat rookies looked very impressive. Rose showed signs of why he was the number one pick; he was very quick with the ball to the basket.

In transition, he was the first man to the basket every time. Rose had his moments, but did finish with only 10 points, five assists, and five turnovers. Who have thought that Derrick rose would have a 1-1 assist to turnover ratio, while Chalmers would produce a 6-1 in their first games as pros?

While the Heat rookies had very productive stats in their first games, the most important lesson that this Heat team must learn is the way of winning again. The Heat forgot how to win last year, and these rookies are already reminding them how

I gotta disagree with the notion that many great players have been bad at SL as a useful lens to look at our players' bad play. Reason being, that for every good player that played bad during summer league, there are 10 bad players that also played bad at SL.

Does that sentence make sense to you on any level?

The lesson isn’t that bad SL means good career or vice versa. It means there is no correlation between SL play and NBA play. That is all. We’d be saying the same thing if White hit 40% threes.

It is 5 games. With all new teammates. Playing against people who target you as their chance to be noticed. After not playing for six months. And being asked by coaching staff to play a role you do not normally play.

You are wasting your time but I do agree with your point.

[RememberLu]

Fact is, if White had lit it up in SL we'd be saying Dunn is expendable and White has a great chance to start.

as it is, Dunn seems more necessary than ever and at this point I place White's chances to start far behind Dunn's and Satoransky's. Yeah yeah, I know, SL means nothing.

[Shill]

Fact is, if White had lit it up in SL we'd be saying Dunn is expendable and White has a great chance to start.

as it is, Dunn seems more necessary than ever and at this point I place White's chances to start far behind Dunn's and Satoransky's. Yeah yeah, I know, SL means nothing.

I still think Dunn is gone, and I always assumed Satoransky would start.

[bad knees]

The fact that the Bulls have not signed Luke Kornet shows that they are still hoping and trying to trade Dunn, in the hopes of creating cap space with which to sign Kornet. If they had already decided that Dunn would be a Bull come training camp, they would just sign Kornet with the RMLE and call it a day.

[Shill]

Summer League is deeply, deeply important.

Watch on YouTube

[cjbulls]

Wow, NAW sucks. What a bust. 5-23. Two TOs when the game was on the line. He clearly can’t handle any pressure. I knew he was terrible. Good thing they still have summer league mvp backcourt of Ball and Hart.

[TheFinishSniper]

Summer League is deeply, deeply important.

Doug had a talent to be excellent player. Maybe not price we paid to draft him, but some guys just arent NBA players. And Doug was one of them, he was college star and grew up as college player. You can just see he was born to dominate lower competition with what he learned at college. But to be NBA player you need to go beyond that mentality and with Doug his head was as big of problem when better competition stood in front of him, beyond his defense and lack of lateral movement.

[Repeat 3-peat]

Why is Jarrett Allen playing in the SL?

He's going into his third season, he should be letting someone else get the playing time.

[fleet]

Spoiler:

Summer League is deeply, deeply important.

Watch on YouTube

SL is not deeply deeply important. But it is useful to scouts. Guys get contracts based on SL sometimes. And it's not about the numbers. Again, it is bloody scouting for NBA skills and tools in an NBA setting. Not only how many shots a guy made. Maybe some scouts were troubled by what they saw from Doug there in SL. They aren't looking at it like fans reading box scores. Deeply deeply important? IDK. But the entire NBA universe is there in the stands for some kind of reason. Probably not just for the Vegas hookers.

We go through this every year, and still, there is confusion over what scouts are doing there. It's pretty basic.

[kulaz3000]

Why is Jarrett Allen playing in the SL?

He's going into his third season, he should be letting someone else get the playing time.

Coaches probably asked him to work on some areas in his game after the season, and he wanted to get in some reps.

Sure, someone else could be playing, but he is going to be a big part of their team, so if there are areas in his game he wanted to work on during live action, I don't blame him for wanting to play, or the team allowing him to.

[NWIBullsFan]

I wonder why, with so many folks putting any emphasis on SL stats, I haven't seen more love for Gafford (#15 SL player per B-R)? His numbers are pretty dang impressive

25.0 min, 13.8 pts, 68% FG, 7.8 reb, 2.80 blks

19.9, 11.2 and 4.0 per 36?

[AKfanatic]

If you are basing your opinion of players on the numbers they put up in summer league, you are watching the wrong things.

Now that’s not to say that a player putting up numbers, or not, can’t be used in judging the player. But, it’s how those numbers are gotten with other indicators, which imo are more important, when judging a player.

How do they move on the court? Are they getting to the right spots on D and O? How’s their footwork look on D? Do they move the ball to the right spots quickly and instinctively? Do they put their body on guys to boxout? Do they appear to have good athleticism for their position? Do they play “tough” and with energy?...

Mokoka is a decent example. He didn’t light it up. But when watching him, his footwork in man D was excellent. He did well using his length to challenge shots without biting on fakes. He filled lanes well and seemed to know where to be naturally.

That’s not to say he’s a star in the making, but it bodes well for his prospects as a solid role player at some point.

[Dominator83]

I wonder why, with so many folks putting any emphasis on SL stats, I haven't seen more love for Gafford (#15 SL player per B-R)? His numbers are pretty dang impressive

25.0 min, 13.8 pts, 68% FG, 7.8 reb, 2.80 blks

19.9, 11.2 and 4.0 per 36?

Gafford has been getting love here. Especially after that 1st game