Summer League 2023, Multi-Game Thread – Celtics (2-3) in Vegas, July 7-17

[playa-hater]

waive JD, sign 3 other guys who can actually have a shot at contributing at some point if we're destroyed by injuries this year

Name those 3 guys - I doubt you can.

We're not gonna be *that* decimated by injuries that our season depends on the 16th man.

and if we are, you could just sign some free agent to contribute.

Lots of teams have young, development projects on their 2-ways. You're not really gaining anything by trying to put a win-now piece as your 16th man..

At this point no one knows who will be cut or make training camp and be cut then. There will be lots of talented players being squeezed out..

[return2glory]

I'm really surprised we didn't see 1 minute of Vincent Valerio-Bodon during the entire SL. I wonder what that was about. Are they hiding him?

[meatball sub]

I'm really surprised we didn't see 1 minute of Vincent Valerio-Bodon during the entire SL. I wonder what that was about. Are they hiding him?

he's gotta be terrible

[darrendaye]

I'm really surprised we didn't see 1 minute of Vincent Valerio-Bodon during the entire SL. I wonder what that was about. Are they hiding him?

Agreed. Why would he have agreed to join THIS team if no promise of PT was given. Have to think he had at least some other offers.

[BK_2020]

Maybe we can get that Uber driver guy again.

[snowman]

I really hope Balceroski gets signed to a team contract. I would put him ahead of Kornet om the depth chart right now.

Based on what? Kornet would be balling out in SL against this level of competition.

Yeah unless Brad likes a tweet of Balcerowski soon I don’t see that happening

With Horfords age, RW# minutes limit for his knees, Porzingis injury issues early in his career, I feel we are going to need to carry 5 bigs, like we did last year. (Horford, RW3, Grant, Kornet, Blake, Muscalla and even had Gallo but I'm not counting him). Now we can have Porzingis, RW3, Horford, Kornet and Balcerowski as our project big since we know what we have with Kornet. I just think Balcerowski is more mobile on both sides of the floor than Kornet is. Porzingis and Balcerowski are a great improvement over Grant and Blake.

[31to6]

Based on what? Kornet would be balling out in SL against this level of competition.

Yeah unless Brad likes a tweet of Balcerowski soon I don’t see that happening

With Horfords age, RW# minutes limit for his knees, Porzingis injury issues early in his career, I feel we are going to need to carry 5 bigs, like we did last year. (Horford, RW3, Grant, Kornet, Blake, Muscalla and even had Gallo but I'm not counting him). Now we can have Porzingis, RW3, Horford, Kornet and Balcerowski as our project big since we know what we have with Kornet. I just think Balcerowski is more mobile on both sides of the floor than Kornet is. Porzingis and Balcerowski are a great improvement over Grant and Blake.

I don’t get how you’re making a leap from “okay performance in 4 SL games” to “Blake or Muscala replacement.” And I’m watching every SL game.

[31to6]

I'm really surprised we didn't see 1 minute of Vincent Valerio-Bodon during the entire SL. I wonder what that was about. Are they hiding him?

Hiding him from what?

[Hal14]

I don't think walsh necessarily helped his stock or hurt his stock tonight.

I think he solidified his stock - as a guy who can compete for minutes with Brissett, Pritchard and possibly Hauser..

[Hal14]

I'm really surprised we didn't see 1 minute of Vincent Valerio-Bodon during the entire SL. I wonder what that was about. Are they hiding him?

Summer league isn't over yet. Another game tomorrow.

also, he's not the only guy on our team who hasn't played - Reggie Kissoonlal hasn't either. They both just be not quite at the level of our other guys - it is what it is..they both came from pro leagues that are weak in competition prior to joining the Celtics.

[snowman]

Yeah unless Brad likes a tweet of Balcerowski soon I don’t see that happening

With Horfords age, RW# minutes limit for his knees, Porzingis injury issues early in his career, I feel we are going to need to carry 5 bigs, like we did last year. (Horford, RW3, Grant, Kornet, Blake, Muscalla and even had Gallo but I'm not counting him). Now we can have Porzingis, RW3, Horford, Kornet and Balcerowski as our project big since we know what we have with Kornet. I just think Balcerowski is more mobile on both sides of the floor than Kornet is. Porzingis and Balcerowski are a great improvement over Grant and Blake.

I don’t get how you’re making a leap from “okay performance in 4 SL games” to “Blake or Muscala replacement.” And I’m watching every SL game.

Because with our salary constraints, even if Muscala were available, signing either Muscala or Blake would put us over the second apron. Because of the number of years of service for either, their minimum salary would put us at or over. A 10 year + years of service minimum salary starts at 3.2 mil. According to Spotrac, we are just 3.3 mil under the apron with 13 contracts. We could sign Balcerowski for the same as Walsh, starting at 1.1 million, and still have room for a 15th minimum player like Scrubb or someone else in that salary range. Also, I never said Balcerowski was better than Blake or Muscala. If you read the bold print of my post, that you reposted, I said Porzingis and Balcerowski were better than Grant and Blake. Which IMO they are, and I have watched all the Celts SL games also. You are, of course, allowed to have you opinion on them and disagree with me. It's all good as long as ultimately were rooting for the best for our Celtics.

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

If this Celtics Summer League team was a horse,
someone would have already taken it out back
and shot it...

[Parliament10]

Watch on YouTube

Read on Twitter

[Fencer reregistered]

With Horfords age, RW# minutes limit for his knees, Porzingis injury issues early in his career, I feel we are going to need to carry 5 bigs, like we did last year. (Horford, RW3, Grant, Kornet, Blake, Muscalla and even had Gallo but I'm not counting him). Now we can have Porzingis, RW3, Horford, Kornet and Balcerowski as our project big since we know what we have with Kornet. I just think Balcerowski is more mobile on both sides of the floor than Kornet is. Porzingis and Balcerowski are a great improvement over Grant and Blake.

I don’t get how you’re making a leap from “okay performance in 4 SL games” to “Blake or Muscala replacement.” And I’m watching every SL game.

Because with our salary constraints, even if Muscala were available, signing either Muscala or Blake would put us over the second apron. Because of the number of years of service for either, their minimum salary would put us at or over. A 10 year + years of service minimum salary starts at 3.2 mil. According to Spotrac, we are just 3.3 mil under the apron with 13 contracts. We could sign Balcerowski for the same as Walsh, starting at 1.1 million, and still have room for a 15th minimum player like Scrubb or someone else in that salary range. Also, I never said Balcerowski was better than Blake or Muscala. If you read the bold print of my post, that you reposted, I said Porzingis and Balcerowski were better than Grant and Blake. Which IMO they are, and I have watched all the Celts SL games also. You are, of course, allowed to have you opinion on them and disagree with me. It's all good as long as ultimately were rooting for the best for our Celtics.

Huh? Why doesn't the usual vet minimum discount apply to Blake? He's exactly the kind of guy it was invented for.

[zoyathedestroya]

Coach, you can’t fault him for taking a wide open transition layup. Two points are two points!

Read on Twitter

[31to6]

Coach, you can’t fault him for taking a wide open transition layup. Two points are two points!

Read on Twitter

SEE none of the summer Celtics have done that yet so it’s not that bad:)

[31to6]

I don’t get how you’re making a leap from “okay performance in 4 SL games” to “Blake or Muscala replacement.” And I’m watching every SL game.

Because with our salary constraints, even if Muscala were available, signing either Muscala or Blake would put us over the second apron. Because of the number of years of service for either, their minimum salary would put us at or over. A 10 year + years of service minimum salary starts at 3.2 mil. According to Spotrac, we are just 3.3 mil under the apron with 13 contracts. We could sign Balcerowski for the same as Walsh, starting at 1.1 million, and still have room for a 15th minimum player like Scrubb or someone else in that salary range. Also, I never said Balcerowski was better than Blake or Muscala. If you read the bold print of my post, that you reposted, I said Porzingis and Balcerowski were better than Grant and Blake. Which IMO they are, and I have watched all the Celts SL games also. You are, of course, allowed to have you opinion on them and disagree with me. It's all good as long as ultimately were rooting for the best for our Celtics.

Huh? Why doesn't the usual vet minimum discount apply to Blake? He's exactly the kind of guy it was invented for.

I agree with Fencer, and also don’t understand the concept of not considering each player’s merits independently. Like: Tatum and Kornet are the two best players on the Celtics if you average them, but it doesn’t mean Kornet is particularly good.

My thesis is simply that I don’t think Balcerowski looks like an NBA player. I’d be happy to be wrong, and I have been plenty before!

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

Tragic The Magic!

[Parliament10]

Because with our salary constraints, even if Muscala were available, signing either Muscala or Blake would put us over the second apron. Because of the number of years of service for either, their minimum salary would put us at or over. A 10 year + years of service minimum salary starts at 3.2 mil. According to Spotrac, we are just 3.3 mil under the apron with 13 contracts. We could sign Balcerowski for the same as Walsh, starting at 1.1 million, and still have room for a 15th minimum player like Scrubb or someone else in that salary range. Also, I never said Balcerowski was better than Blake or Muscala. If you read the bold print of my post, that you reposted, I said Porzingis and Balcerowski were better than Grant and Blake. Which IMO they are, and I have watched all the Celts SL games also. You are, of course, allowed to have you opinion on them and disagree with me. It's all good as long as ultimately were rooting for the best for our Celtics.

Huh? Why doesn't the usual vet minimum discount apply to Blake? He's exactly the kind of guy it was invented for.

I agree with Fencer, and also don’t understand the concept of not considering each player’s merits independently. Like: Tatum and Kornet are the two best players on the Celtics if you average them, but it doesn’t mean Kornet is particularly good.

My thesis is simply that I don’t think Balcerowski looks like an NBA player. I’d be happy to be wrong, and I have been plenty before!

Also, the teams only pay the equivalent of a 2nd year Vet. The NBPA pays the difference, for a Vet over 2 years.

[CelticsWisdom]

Dmytro Skapintsev, the 7'1" undrafted Ukranian Center who blocked Walsh and Azubuike, was something of a phenomenon on the Knicks Westchester G-League team, in limited minutes...

[url]
https://clutchpoints.com/knicks-must-watch-prospects-2023-nba-summer-league[/url]

Dmytro Skapintsev

Dmytro Skapintsev is a Ukrainian big man who played well in 28 games for the Knicks G League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks. He averaged 8.1 points, 1.6 assists, and 5.9 rebounds in 18.9 minutes a game last season. He also averaged 1.6 blocks per 36 minutes

.

He also played in FIBA 2021-2022, against the best in the world, and averaged a block a game...

https://www.fiba.basketball/europecup/21-22/player/Dmytro-Skapintsev

Sometimes you have to give credit to the other team's player's, for their shot-blocking talent, rather than criticize your own...

Also, if the Celtics utilized backdoor cutters, or point guards that do wrap-around passes to cutters, or the 2 big man lineup, they could have neutralized the lone big-man's effect on protecting the rim, but Celtic's coaches seem unable to innovate their way out of such stumbling blocks...

What Azubuike did do well was luring the big-man away from the basket so that the guards would have opportunities to score uncontested layups. So it wasn't all bad for Doke. However, unfavorable match-ups do happen, and he did do the right thing by passing the ball back out, rather than trying to force more shots at the rim, against an elite shot-blocker.

I still think Azubuike has unmatched physical attributes that pair well enough with his skills for him to be an NBA bench weapon ... Azubuike has a Dreamshake and floater, that, along with his thunderous dunks, would allow him to be an effective scorer against other big men, when there is NBA spacing; his rebounding is outstanding, but he still needs instruction in how NBA defenses work.