RealGM

Marshon Brooks seemingly had his way with the Pacers D. On a positive note Plumlee made a few impressive plays. While watching this game; I was considering which player would be the most likely to make the Pacers roster or get an invite to camp (other than the guys already on the roster). It looks like Mavunga might be the best option. Although Hamilton hasnt played much because he's hurt. I wouldve like to have seen more of Hamilton. Thoughts?

Kramer and Mavunga for sure deserve camp invites


Johnson has been nothing short of terrible the entire week really disappointed in him h

Mavunga has been surprisingly one of the best players for the Pacers' summer league team, only second to Stephenson. Stephenson was great for the 3 games he has played in. He's turning into what looks like a solid rotation combo-guard, when used effectively. He gets frustrated with his teammates often, and gets rattled when the other team has momentum, but he took over the game late against the Nets.

Ben Hansbrough has proved to have the ball handling ability of a center, after playing only 6 minutes against the Nets with 3 turnovers.

Plumlee has played as well as expected, with bursts of energy and scoring ability but most of the time fails to rebound the ball effectively and has trouble defending in the post.

Pendergraph is just... bad. He can rebound well, but has no other talents. His contract is fully guaranteed, and that's just too bad. Hopefully we can throw him in on a trade so we don't have to waste a roster spot on him.

Orlando Johnson has turned out to be a flop, as far as summer league is concerned. I had high hopes for OJ, out of college he seemed like he could've been a good replacement for Barbosa, but it doesn't look that way after his poor performance in the summer league.

Kramer has also done fairly well; he's played well enough for the Pacers to look at further at training camp.

As far as I'm concerned, Kramer and Mavunga are the only players worth inviting to camp.

Jake0890 wrote:Orlando Johnson has turned out to be a flop, as far as summer league is concerned. I had high hopes for OJ, out of college he seemed like he could've been a good replacement for Barbosa, but it doesn't look that way after his poor performance in the summer league.

Just wanted to add that this kid has been in the NBA for about 2 weeks so far. He was not impressive at all but i would take nothing from it. I didn't see today's game, but, don't judge the player based on 5 games (in 5 days), he has played well in his entire career in college and impressed our scouts enough in the gym for work outs. Like i said, he may be a awful NBA player or he may be a solid contributor, but, i'd take very little from this past week.

OJ's shot finally started to fall in the last quarter of the last game. I wouldn't call a player terrible based upon bad shooting. we know he could shoot in college and if there is a mechanical flaw, the coaches can work on that. physically he looked good. decent size. good hops. he just couldn't put it in the ocean. he looks to be our fifth guard and could spend a lot of the season showing off his new suits at the end of the bench, so he should have plenty of time to get past shell shocked. I hope his next stop is several months working out at the fieldhouse with the guys.

Grang33r wrote:

Jake0890 wrote:Orlando Johnson has turned out to be a flop, as far as summer league is concerned. I had high hopes for OJ, out of college he seemed like he could've been a good replacement for Barbosa, but it doesn't look that way after his poor performance in the summer league.

Just wanted to add that this kid has been in the NBA for about 2 weeks so far. He was not impressive at all but i would take nothing from it. I didn't see today's game, but, don't judge the player based on 5 games (in 5 days), he has played well in his entire career in college and impressed our scouts enough in the gym for work outs. Like i said, he may be a awful NBA player or he may be a solid contributor, but, i'd take very little from this past week.

Oh, I know. I was basing my post on his performance in the summer league, and nothing else. You're right; he could turn out to be a second round steal, but as I said, all signs point to that not being the case. His performance in college should not be considered in his pro potential; he played at the University of California Santa Barbara. Obviously, UCSB is not a basketball powerhouse, and they don't face highly ranked opponents either. The transition from playing the bottomfeeders in college to the best basketball players in the world is a huge gap. I understand the nerves involved in playing in your first summer league games, but his shooting and performance overall was just god awful.

Jake0890 wrote: I understand the nerves involved in playing in your first summer league games, but his shooting and performance overall was just god awful.

I dont think he played awful; He shot the ball terribly; but he rebounded and made other plays. He will get better with time and practice. He displayed ability to get his own shot; while drawing contact and getting to the charity strike. I doubt that he displayed his best in five games. Paul George shot terribly in his first season; and improved in year 2. He should be given time before making a judgment about what kind of player he is.

SmashMouthRod wrote:

Jake0890 wrote: I understand the nerves involved in playing in your first summer league games, but his shooting and performance overall was just god awful.

I dont think he played awful; He shot the ball terribly; but he rebounded and made other plays. He will get better with time and practice. He displayed ability to get his own shot; while drawing contact and getting to the charity strike. I doubt that he displayed his best in five games. Paul George shot terribly in his first season; and improved in year 2. He should be given time before making a judgment about what kind of player he is.

That's true, but Paul George is a completely different animal than OJ. And he proved he could create his own shot, but they weren't great shots. This is not to say he can't be a decent player, but I think he was underwhelming to say the least.

George has an undeniably sweet stroke. His length allows him to get it off at will, length OJ will never have.

George also had 7 stls. in one summer league game, and I don't recall him going 0-10, or 1-9. We should've taken QMiller.

Boneman2 wrote:George has an undeniably sweet stroke. His length allows him to get it off at will, length OJ will never have.

George also had 7 stls. in one summer league game, and I don't recall him going 0-10, or 1-9. We should've taken QMiller.

He had a sweet stroke, until the playoffs.

I'm not sure about taking Miller; was he even available when the Kings' pick came around? I still think the Pacer's should've moved back to to draft Plumlee, no team had any intentions of taking him in the first round or early second round. They still could've managed to get both Plumlee and OJ.

perhaps they could have traded back but not without risk. sometimes when you want one guy and he's there, you just take him. that's what the Colts did with Freeney even though the so called experts said we could have gotten him lower. Polian said other teams wanted Dwight and Pritchard said other teams wanted Plumlee. I wouldn't second guess a judgment made in the head of the draft that there was no offer on the table to trade back to a spot where we knew he would be there for sure.

and going from memory, I think that Quincy Miller and Quincy Acey went right after we took OJ. we all liked that pick at the time. it was only when shots stopped falling for him in Orlando that we started to worry. he picked it up at the end of the last game though so I think he'll be fine.

Boneman2 wrote:George has an undeniably sweet stroke. His length allows him to get it off at will, length OJ will never have.

George also had 7 stls. in one summer league game, and I don't recall him going 0-10, or 1-9. We should've taken QMiller.

I agree; However Johnson does have good length; and he is playing against mostly second; third and some fourth year pros coming from the NBDL and NBA. He wasnt expected to walk out there and dominate these guys right away. I really think he will be GOOD with time. Notice I said good and not great. He will get stronger and a better understanding of the pro game with time. Most of the good guards in the league have taken time to develop. If u look at any player that you would compare him to; none of them came into the league as good as the player they developed into. Hell even Kobe came into the league riding the pine because he needed to improve.

Paul wasn't a good 3 point shooter his rookie year, but he was one of the best midrange shooters in his rookie season. He shot 44% from 10-23 feet and 31.8% assisted.

League average for a wing was 39.4% assisted on 53.6% of the makes in 10-11.

Orlando's free throw form looks terrible. If his jumpshot is anything like that he'll have to change it or he will never be a good, consistent shooter in the league. He definitely has to work on his shot.

Indy2thaWindy wrote:Paul wasn't a good 3 point shooter his rookie year, but he was one of the best midrange shooters in his rookie season. He shot 44% from 10-23 feet and 31.8% assisted.

League average for a wing was 39.4% assisted on 53.6% of the makes in 10-11.

Orlando's free throw form looks terrible. If his jumpshot is anything like that he'll have to change it or he will never be a good, consistent shooter in the league. He definitely has to work on his shot.

He's gonna have to do a lot more than get a good jumpshot to be a solid player in this league. His defense still needs some work, and he needs to quit dribbling the ball so much and pass to his teammates more often. He got too isolation friendly, he turned into a worse shooting version of Carmelo Anthony.

Here's a good assessment of Orlando Johnson after watching him in the summer league.

Positives: When he drove to the basket, something good would happen almost every time. He has a nack for finishing tough up and under layups or whatever else he has to do to score off the drive. He has a nice little spin move that I think will serve him well in the future. It’s a good strong move that allowed him to muscle his way to the basket and catch his defender off guard. I like his athleticism. He’s built to play shooting guard. He’d be basically the prototypical shooting guard if he were an inch or two taller. He has the neccessary speed, quickness, strength, and vertical to become a very successful shooting guard in the league. He plays good defense, not great defense, but good defense. He also has a nice jump shot when he’s open. He can hit threes and mid-range jumpers whenever he can get himself enough space. He’s a good overall player.

Negatives: He wasn’t letting the game come to him. More often than not, he’d take a few dribbles to the basket and pull-up with a defender or two glued to him. The shots weren’t falling. He needs to look at what he does well (driving), and do that. The contested jumpers will come with practice, but for now he needs to take the ball to the basket. He had terrible shot selection this past week, and definitely needs to think about some of the shots he’s taking.

Read more: http://sportales.com/basketball/pacers- ... z20hsduzwe

I feel this is dead on with the way I felt about him as a player after watching the five games.

those negatives aren't very negative to me. the negatives are all about getting used to the NBA game while the positives were about physical ability. we're a good enough team now to let a rookie be a rookie and learn slowly. lets give him at least one season before calling him a bust. if you want to say he flopped the summer league, okay, but that's not the same as saying he was a blown draft pick.