2024 Summer League Thread

[Rose2Boozer]

Matas is about a two or three year project. He's going to have to get stronger, tighten up his handle, and become a reliable shooter. 22y/o Matas Buzelis should be a very good rotation player.

[Indomitable]

The motor and confidence is what sets Matas' apart from a prospect compared to someone like Pat.

Kevin Knox found his heart. I have faith in Pat finding it too

Knox was out of basketball and on his last leg.

Pat got 90 million.

[Indomitable]

Matas looked kinda like Lauri tonight.

No he did not. He far more fluid and Lauri a much better shooter.
Matas is a more natural passer, defender, and explosive.
Lauri never was undersized.

[Indomitable]

Lauri cannot dribble tho or shoot stepbacks. It was all straight line drives. But he attacks with similar aggression. I liked him and Drell tonight

That is patently false lol. Maybe you haven't seen much of him since he left Chicago.

This is only one play, but I watched around 70% of Lauri's games as a Jazzman thanks to league pass and the dude is good for at least one step back 3 per game, and he handles the ball a ton for a 7 footer

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dk0rAI26SR4

I am not talking about Lauri now. Who is more improved and hell of a lot stronger.

I’m talking about the guy who was knocked out of position by guards. Regardless I thought it wrong to choose Zach over Lauri. I just wasn’t as loud as others on here

We chose Vuc over Lauri and Wendell.

Lauri contract was doable. He got a Pat like contract.

The Organization chose to take a short cut. They blew rebuild up and plus blew 5 years of assets.

[Dez]

That is patently false lol. Maybe you haven't seen much of him since he left Chicago.

This is only one play, but I watched around 70% of Lauri's games as a Jazzman thanks to league pass and the dude is good for at least one step back 3 per game, and he handles the ball a ton for a 7 footer

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dk0rAI26SR4

I am not talking about Lauri now. Who is more improved and hell of a lot stronger.

I’m talking about the guy who was knocked out of position by guards. Regardless I thought it wrong to choose Zach over Lauri. I just wasn’t as loud as others on here

We chose Vuc over Lauri and Wendell.

Lauri contract was doable. He got a Pat like contract.

The Organization chose to take a short cut. They blew rebuild up and plus blew 5 years of assets.

Vucevic had nothing to do with Lauri.

[DuallyNoted]

Really stupid take by that guy that said that Buzelis he's not good yet. He's already our best player and easy to build around.

No personal attacks (others, please do not respond and continue down the attack path)-doug

[Dez]

Really stupid take by that guy that said that Buzelis he's not good yet. He's already our best player and easy to build around.

I assume you mean the Summer League team?

[DuallyNoted]

Really stupid take by that guy that said that Buzelis he's not good yet. He's already our best player and easy to build around.

I assume you mean the Summer League team?

uh yeah. no the other team that isn't the **** topic of the thread you goddamn (Please Use More Appropriate Word)

No personal attacks (others, please do not respond and continue down the attack path)-doug

[JohnnyTapwater]

Matas can play.

[Jcool0]

That is patently false lol. Maybe you haven't seen much of him since he left Chicago.

This is only one play, but I watched around 70% of Lauri's games as a Jazzman thanks to league pass and the dude is good for at least one step back 3 per game, and he handles the ball a ton for a 7 footer

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dk0rAI26SR4

I am not talking about Lauri now. Who is more improved and hell of a lot stronger.

I’m talking about the guy who was knocked out of position by guards. Regardless I thought it wrong to choose Zach over Lauri. I just wasn’t as loud as others on here

We chose Vuc over Lauri and Wendell.

Lauri contract was doable. He got a Pat like contract.

The Organization chose to take a short cut. They blew rebuild up and plus blew 5 years of assets.

To be fair at the time it was a good call and would still be if Lauri didn't have an unexpected jump in Utah.

[Jcool0]

Fwiw Pat averaged 21/9 in Summer League.

And for the record I wasn't talking about stats, I was talking about flashing high level ability.

I'm not gonna say he's never done it, but I don't recall Pat truly posterizing someone (emphasis on truly) or hitting contested step back threes or doing fast and smooth dribble moves like Matas has already shown in just 2 SL games.

Matas's handle, athleticism, explosion, lift, speed, agility, and fluidity are noticeably superior IMO.

And I'm not saying Matas is better right now either.

PWill stood out because of his NBA body and physical attributes. Not his basketball skills. That's why the 21/9 didn't translate into the big boy league. I have only seen snippets of matas and I gotta go watch this game but from what I'm seeing, matas is standing out for the opposite things (weak body but legit skills/mentality)

I might give 90M to this guy

Watch on YouTube

[Jvaughn]

Speaking of Steward, why'd he declare for the draft after his freshmen year anyway? Seems like a head-scratching decision.

Listening to bad advice or just hardheaded. Scouts said at the time he wasn't projected to be drafted and needed to go back to work on his PG skills. He thought differently.

[dougthonus]

To be fair at the time it was a good call and would still be if Lauri didn't have an unexpected jump in Utah.

Blowing up their roster to try to win now with old players was a terrible call, but from a process perspective, only the Vuc trade was god awful. If you had undone that trade and did everything else, we still might be crying about the Lonzo injury, but you would have had a softer landing and similar success before his injury.

[Jcool0]

To be fair at the time it was a good call and would still be if Lauri didn't have an unexpected jump in Utah.

Blowing up their roster to try to win now with old players was a terrible call, but from a process perspective, only the Vuc trade was god awful. If you had undone that trade and did everything else, we still might be crying about the Lonzo injury, but you would have had a softer landing and similar success before his injury.

Lauri being an All Star now doesn't change the fact he wasn't even a full time starter here because of his lackluster play. No one was all that sad to see him go. He played slightly better with Cleveland but still wasn't near All Star level, so cant really say Bulls were the issue with him. WCJ was a fringe starter here and has been a fringe starter in Orlando. He is right now is giving the same impact as a broken down Vuc so i wouldn't say its a disaster. FWIW there is no guarantee the Bulls take Wagner at 8 if they keep the pick.

[Clint Eastwood]

And for the record I wasn't talking about stats, I was talking about flashing high level ability.

I'm not gonna say he's never done it, but I don't recall Pat truly posterizing someone (emphasis on truly) or hitting contested step back threes or doing fast and smooth dribble moves like Matas has already shown in just 2 SL games.

Matas's handle, athleticism, explosion, lift, speed, agility, and fluidity are noticeably superior IMO.

And I'm not saying Matas is better right now either.

PWill stood out because of his NBA body and physical attributes. Not his basketball skills. That's why the 21/9 didn't translate into the big boy league. I have only seen snippets of matas and I gotta go watch this game but from what I'm seeing, matas is standing out for the opposite things (weak body but legit skills/mentality)

I might give 90M to this guy

Watch on YouTube

Kind of a depressing clip. Not sure there has been any improvement or change to his game since this summer league clip…

[ChiTownHero1992]

Speaking of Steward, why'd he declare for the draft after his freshmen year anyway? Seems like a head-scratching decision.

Listening to bad advice or just hardheaded. Scouts said at the time he wasn't projected to be drafted and needed to go back to work on his PG skills. He thought differently.

Thats only partially true, DJ was the 2-guard at Duke and they brought Roach in at the same time to be PG, then during the season recruited Tyrese Proctor and Trevor Keels to come in as the guards and he had no desire to "compete" for minutes. Steward was good enough to be drafted (2nd rounder likely) but should've just transferred for 1 more season. His biggest issue was being a "tweener" too small for the 2-guard and not enough PG skills to play there. He was always more of a 2-guard/scoring guard then a PG. Kinda the downfall of big-time programs, they get a "star" class of 5 freshmen and 1-2 are gonna fall off no matter what. People forget that was also the year of the coaching switch, DJ's first season was under Coach K, the second would've been under Scheyer and many guys bolted too soon (Stanley, Carey, Hurt, Steward, heck even Jalen Johnson took 3-4 years to figure it out in ATL)

[GoBlue72391]

To be fair at the time it was a good call and would still be if Lauri didn't have an unexpected jump in Utah.

Blowing up their roster to try to win now with old players was a terrible call, but from a process perspective, only the Vuc trade was god awful. If you had undone that trade and did everything else, we still might be crying about the Lonzo injury, but you would have had a softer landing and similar success before his injury.

Lauri being an All Star now doesn't change the fact he wasn't even a full time starter here because of his lackluster play. No one was all that sad to see him go. He played slightly better with Cleveland but still wasn't near All Star level, so cant really say Bulls were the issue with him. WCJ was a fringe starter here and has been a fringe starter in Orlando. He is right now is giving the same impact as a broken down Vuc so i wouldn't say its a disaster. FWIW there is no guarantee the Bulls take Wagner at 8 if they keep the pick.

It's interesting that you seem to be pro-Pat and anti-Lauri despite Pat not showing even half of what Lauri did while he was here.

[dougthonus]

Lauri being an All Star now doesn't change the fact he wasn't even a full time starter here because of his lackluster play. No one was all that sad to see him go. He played slightly better with Cleveland but still wasn't near All Star level, so cant really say Bulls were the issue with him. WCJ was a fringe starter here and has been a fringe starter in Orlando. He is right now is giving the same impact as a broken down Vuc so i wouldn't say its a disaster. FWIW there is no guarantee the Bulls take Wagner at 8 if they keep the pick.

Let's see:
1: Vuc has been an absolute disaster as a player here. He has been god awful on the court
2: We traded WCJ, whom has been slightly better than Vuc since the trade and costs half as much, and is younger and more sustainable, and doesn't whine and pout and demand touches despite being the least efficient guy
3: We traded a lottery pick that became Wagner (no guarantees we'd take him of course), who is more valuable than Vuc ever has been in his career
4: We traded a second lottery pick
5: We took on bad salary that forced us to give up a 1st round pick to get DeMar DeRozan

We effectively lost 4 things worth more than Vucevic to get him and he's presently an albatross contract we can't move.

I don't know your definition of disaster is, but if this isn't it, I don't know what is. As a factual statement, it is hard to more comprehend a trade that we could have lost more completely than this one.

We lost on money
We lost on short term on court talent
We lost on long term on court talent
We effectively lost 3 1st round draft picks due to the move

You can lose a trade 1:1 pretty frequently, you just guessed on the wrong player. It is hilariously bad to lose on money, short term talent, long term talent, and draft capital without injury being a major factor.

[Jcool0]

Lauri being an All Star now doesn't change the fact he wasn't even a full time starter here because of his lackluster play. No one was all that sad to see him go. He played slightly better with Cleveland but still wasn't near All Star level, so cant really say Bulls were the issue with him. WCJ was a fringe starter here and has been a fringe starter in Orlando. He is right now is giving the same impact as a broken down Vuc so i wouldn't say its a disaster. FWIW there is no guarantee the Bulls take Wagner at 8 if they keep the pick.

2: We traded WCJ, whom has been slightly better than Vuc since the trade and costs half as much, and is younger and more sustainable, and doesn't whine and pout and demand touches despite being the least efficient guy.

Vuc down year is on par with WCJ best year. Not sure anyone loses sleep over WCJ being off the team. A disaster would be if WCJ became what we hoped he would be a 17/10 guy playing All NBA defense. But it just wasn't in the cards for him.

[dougthonus]

Vuc down year is on par with WCJ best year. Not sure anyone loses sleep over WCJ being off the team. A disaster would be if WCJ became what we hoped he would be a 17/10 guy playing All NBA defense. But it just wasn't in the cards for him.

Vuc has had nothing but down years for us, because Vuc is now old, past his prime, and has been exposed as a career empty calorie guy anyway. I don't lose sleep over WCJ, that isn't the point at all.

WCJ is a fringe starting center, making a very appropriate amount of money and competes on both ends with an appropriate attitude relative to his abilities. Vuc is perhaps the worst defensive center playing major minutes in the league, and makes your offense worse by slowing it down, not spacing the floor, demanding a crap ton of touches relative to his ability, and pouting all the time and costs twice as much.

I don't care about losing WCJ even a tiny bit, but I'd rather have WCJ by a fricken million making a shade over 10M than Vuc making 20M to be a worse player whom also completely irrationally demands to have the offense flow through him because he spent so many years being the man on a crap team that he thinks he's a star.

But I agree, of the four ways we colossally lost this trade, WCJ is by far the last important of them, but it was still a loss.