2016 NBA Summer League

[ATTL]

Man I hope our guys gave a good showing this summer league.
I know a good summer league doesn't mean anything but a bad summer league usually does.

[sunsbg]

Lakers' rookies and sophomores look good and I hate it.

Ingram really reminds of Durant. Probably a 25+ppg scorer in a few years. Many here including me wanted Zubac @28 and he already looks like a steal for the Lakers. Now let's see what our rookies are made of. Looking forward to watch the game live on a stream as the game is with european friendly start time.

[bwgood77]

^I just hope he progresses faster than Len did. It's so frustrating developing bigs because they take so much more time.

We will see. He has so many more skills and is further along in development (despite being younger) that I expect him to develop faster. He is probably 2-3 years younger than Len was when drafted though, so he will take time to reach his peak, but I think and hope his skills show pretty quickly.

He doesn't really play like a big. He plays like a wing. Not sure how that will impact the speed of development but I would think it would be faster.


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I didn't say he played like a big, but that he was probably more developed as an overall player than Len was coming into the league. I envision him being a perfect guy to guard (on the perimeter) some of the long type of wings who can shoot over people because of their height and wingspan (Durant, Leonard} but also being able to switch and guard some of the guards and be able to really bother them with that length, and keep up with them with his quickness. Being a pg just a couple years ago gives him all sorts of versatility. Ideally at some point he can put on enough muscle (though not too much that he loses quickness) that he can play center too and we can run a lineup of Bledsoe (or young pg..maybe even Ulis)/Booker/Warren/Chriss/Bender Now that may seem like a small lineup but it's really not that small and would be amazinly quick. Of course the 2-4 positions would have to develop drastically on defense, but the bigs could switch and be quick enough to guard the smaller guys too.

[bwgood77]

From Pelton

Day 1 from Las Vegas is in the books, with some of the NBA's best up-and-coming youngsters from 23 teams in action.

Here are the grades for nine players from Friday's games, with lottery picks ranging from a grade of A to a grade of D:


Wade Baldwin, Memphis Grizzlies: C

Baldwin, the No. 17 pick, had good moments in his debut, scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds. However, he shot just 4-of-13 from the field and got his shot blocked three times.

Baldwin shot just 50.4 percent on shots at the rim in college, according to Hoop-Math.com, so it's no surprise he struggled against superior summer-league shot blocking.

Sam Dekker, Houston Rockets: B-plus

It was just nice to see Dekker on a basketball court after the lingering effects of back surgery limited him to six minutes during his rookie season.

Dekker was a bright spot in a disappointing loss for a Houston team with four players from last season's team, including veterans Michael Beasley and K.J. McDaniels. He efficiently scored 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, showing no rust whatsoever.

Kris Dunn, Minnesota Timberwolves: A

When talking about point guards who have the ability to make plays off the dribble, coaches and scouts like to refer to them having "shake." They don't come much shakier -- in a good way -- than Dunn, who dropped defender JaKarr Sampson to the ground with a crossover and regularly got to the rim en route to 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Notably, Dunn also drew 10 free throws.

I'd like to see Dunn drive and dish more frequently after handing out only two assists, and he badly missed one of his two 3-point attempts (hitting the other). But that's quibbling with what was overall an impressive debut.

Gary Harris, Denver Nuggets: B-plus

An interesting trend this summer is how many third-year players are playing summer league, even those -- like Harris -- who have carved out important NBA roles. After starting throughout his second season, Harris is probably too good for this level of competition, and looked the part in casually scoring 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

Buddy Hield, New Orleans Pelicans: D

Hield's first game in a Pelicans uniform was one to forget, starting with dribbling the ball off his shoe under defensive duress for an early turnover. Hield tried to do too much early in the game, leading to another near-turnover and a missed 3 that wasn't close, before settling in a bit.

He did have a nice floater and a score in transition after halftime, but followed that up by airballing a 3. He finished 5-of-20 from the field, including missing seven of his eight 3-point attempts. Oof.

Brandon Ingram, L.A. Lakers: A-minus

Lakers fans were excited to see the No. 2 pick in action and were immediately rewarded with Ingram hitting a jumper for the Lakers' first points and following it up shortly thereafter with a monster block from the weak side.

While Ingram's stat line (12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, four rebounds) wasn't overwhelming, in some ways I thought he showed more potential than I saw from him at Duke in terms of the ability to create his own shot off the dribble.

Emmanuel Mudiay, Denver Nuggets: B-plus

One of the stars of last summer, Mudiay picked up where he left off last July with 23 points, eight rebounds, six assists and a series of highlight plays. Mudiay's ability to control a game has clearly grown over the last year, and his three turnovers were reasonable in 33 minutes.

The only minus for Mudiay was his shooting: 1-of-6 from 3-point range and just 6-of-12 from the free throw line.

Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets: B

After struggling in the first half, Murray settled in during the second half and showcased the skills that made him the No. 7 pick. In part, Murray just needed more touches. Seeing little of the ball in the first half, he settled for contested 3-point attempts off the dribble.

Murray scored 11 of his 14 points after halftime, making plays off the dribble and knocking down open 3-pointers.

D'Angelo Russell, L.A. Lakers: A

As a rookie, Russell had an uneven summer league, struggling with turnovers and his shooting percentage. More confident and experienced a year later, Russell was the best player on the court in the Lakers-Pelicans game. He flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, albeit also five turnovers.

One interesting wrinkle was the Lakers putting Russell in the post and letting him play with his back to the basket against smaller defenders. Russell hit a turnaround jumper and drew a foul on post-ups, and his passing skills help neutralize bringing help.

Ivica Zubac, L.A. Lakers: B-plus

The Lakers' second-round pick, No. 32 overall, Zubac was a bit of a mystery to everyone but draftniks. His first impression stateside was a positive one.

Zubac showed both the power to back down defenders in the post and the patience to either get a good shot or move the ball. He demonstrated touch out to midrange and looked better than advertised at the defensive end of the court.

Zubac will join the Lakers this season after signing a multiyear contract and the early returns suggest he might be a rotation-caliber player right away.

http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/16909327/nba-las-vegas-summer-league-grades-day-1

With Denver's three young guards here, and their stud big in Jokic and solid other big in Nurkic, along with vets Gallinari and Chandler, I think they will be much better than many here seem to expect them to be.

[LV-Suns]

Just got my tickets, I will be at the games today!

[JMac1]

Kris Dunn is a freakin 'stud, his handle is smooth splitting defenders and breaking ankles and his midrange was good. Ingram is showing some more burst/ hesitation ability than everyone thought he had, really enjoying DLo's craftiness with his teardrops/post up turnaround. Zubac is a steal in the second round, already has an NBA body his footwork is really polished and that dropstep will be his go to move

Aww crap, I 100 percent agree with Saint.

[JMac1]

Who is everyone most excited to watch in SL? Personally, I want to see the unicorn. We all know what Booker can do, and I expect when he plays he'll be working on weaker aspects of his game so I actually don't see him dropping more than 20. If Bender can play as aggressively as KP does I'll be pretty ecstatic.
#TeamBender

Bender
Chriss
Uliss
Brown

in that order.

[JMac1]

Lakers' rookies and sophomores look good and I hate it.

I don't hate it. I grew up rooting for the Lakers (when they played Boston. I didn't have a team), moved to LA when I was a 17 and didn't began hating them until Shaq came to town and the bandwagon came out. Once Kobe exploded and all the Bull fans turned coat, I really started hating them. But now Kobe and Shaq are gone and the Lakers are irrelevant and it kind of stinks to not care when they lose.

I think it would be good if they and us were filled with good young talent and started up the rivalry again and it mattered. I am happy for them, its a new era, and I don't think D'LO or Ingram will be Kobe and Shaq, so the rivalry will be a lot more equal.

Booker=D'Lo
Bender=Ingram
Chriss=

[JMac1]

Lakers' rookies and sophomores look good and I hate it.

I don't hate it. I grew up rooting for the Lakers (when they played Boston. I didn't have a team), moved to LA when I was a 17 and didn't began hating them until Shaq came to town and the bandwagon came out. Once Kobe exploded and all the Bull fans turned coat, I really started hating them. But now Kobe and Shaq are gone and the Lakers are irrelevant and it kind stinks to not care when they lose.

I think it would be good if they and us were filled with good young talent and started up the rivalry again and it mattered. I am happy for them, its a new era, and I don't think D'LO or Ingram will be Kobe and Shaq, so the rivalry will be a lot more equal.

Booker=D'Lo
Bender=Ingram
Chriss=

[NavLDO]

^I just hope he progresses faster than Len did. It's so frustrating developing bigs because they take so much more time.

We will see. He has so many more skills and is further along in development (despite being younger) that I expect him to develop faster. He is probably 2-3 years younger than Len was when drafted though, so he will take time to reach his peak, but I think and hope his skills show pretty quickly.

I don't know about that; Bender needs to 'grow' into an NBA Body, which Len already had, and Len was only 20 when drafted, and Bender turns 19 in Nov, so really only about 1.5 years difference.

And remember, Len has had injury issues, and was developed, IMO, incorrectly by Horny. Horny tried to make him a shooter, but when he did that, he took away, to me, the best part of Len's game in Rebounding/Blocking/Defending.

May just be me, but I expect to see a much improved Len this season, if healthy and allowed to play C, not some hybrid PF/C, which worries me about Bender, that he won't be developed to his strengths, and MAY be tried out at the 3, which IMO, would be a mistake. But, since we have Watson, and not Horny, maybe Watson will be smarter in how he approaches developing Bender/Chriss.

[Villalobos]

which worries me about Bender, that he won't be developed to his strengths, and MAY be tried out at the 3, which IMO, would be a mistake.

Yep. This Bender at 3 stuff sounds like a really bad idea.

[sunsbum]

Im looking forward to Chriss the most because I feel Bender will be a solid player no matter what. I also think Ulis is going to come out and play like its his 4th year in summer league.

We all knew Dunn was going to be good at getting to the rim and create for himself, now lets see if he can make a smooth transition into making the timberwolves better and not just his own stats. Holy **** his jumper is so broke looking, I dont think hes ever going to have a great sbot with those mechanics.

Thon maker 5-14 doesnt impress me at all but if you can find another way to contribute which he did with rebounding, It makes it easier to look past the bad shooting.

[NavLDO]

Dunn has a broken but fixable jumper. Man, I really wanted him but was happy with Bender too.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDIK6OqNLms[/youtube]

But looking down the road a bit, I'd feel much better about a Bledsoe/Bender/Chriss/Ulis combo than a Dunn/Ellenson/??/?? combo, but who knows, and this is coming from a guy who wasn't very impressed with Dunn's overall game. He looks great, but again, his results were shooting issues and ball security, overall well, were less than ideal for a 'star' PG, IMO. But NBA coaching may very well fix all that.

[sunsbum]

which worries me about Bender, that he won't be developed to his strengths, and MAY be tried out at the 3, which IMO, would be a mistake.

Yep. This Bender at 3 stuff sounds like a really bad idea.

His strenths are shooting and play making, how is playing some 3 a mistake?

Also - i ate a half bag of hot takis last night... BM is coming, Im scared.

[MrMiyagi]

I wanna see Ulis

[NTB]

I wanna see all of our rookies but I want to see Booker as much as our rookies. I missed Booker man!

[darealjuice]

I'm not sure why Bender at he 3 is a bad idea? The kid can move like a wing at 7'1", is a very natural playmaker with the ball in his hands, and has a good outside stroke. He will need to tighten his ball handling skills a little, but even then he is already comfortable handling the ball and bring it up the court himself. In my opinion, it'd be a waste of his skill set to restrict him to playing solely as a pick and pop/roll guy, and I'm really excited to see him coming off of ball screens with Chriss considering his passing skills and Chriss' freaky athleticism. Just my 2 cents, though.

[Saberestar]

I expect decent numbers and overall play in the summer league for Ulis and Bender. Not sure about Chriss yet, hopefully he surprises me.

I predict this stats for the Summer League:

Ulis 13p, 7a, 2s
Booker 20p, 4r, 4a
Troy Williams 9p, 5r, 1a
Bender 11p, 8r, 3a, 2b, 1s
Chriss 9p, 5r, 1b

[NTB]

Let's not forget Booker will play only 2 games.

[WeekapaugGroove]

I have tempered expectations for both chriss and Bender today. Both were drafted as projects so expect some dumb mistakes. Plus guards always seem to fair better than bigs in summer league. Ulis playing well would have a positive effect on these two.