The Summer League Thread: We Da Champs

[Nolan]

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2015/06/26/spurs-summer-league-roster-takes-shape/

Massachusetts forward Cady Lalanne, taken 55th in this year’s draft, was confirmed on Thursday by R.C. Buford, and it’s a given that 2014 first-rounder Kyle Anderson will join him after a rookie season in which he received scant playing time. (This year’s top pick, Serbian center Nikola Milutinov, will remain overseas to represent his country at Eurobasket 2015, where he could cross paths with future teammates Tony Parker and Boris Diaw.)

Other additions to filter out in recent days (all unofficially, of course) are Ohio State guard Shannon Scott; Virginia forward Darion Atkins; Louisville swingman Wayne Blackshear; VCU swingman Treveon Graham; Latvian guard Dairis Bertans; St. Bonaventure center Youssou Ndoye; and former Montana guard Will Cherry, who played last season with Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania.

Scott (6-1, 190): Shared lead guard duties with No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell…averaged 8.5 points and 5.9 assists last season…finished second in school history with 211 steals.

Atkins (6-8, 240): Averaged 7.6 points and 6.0 rebounds last season…the 2015 National Defensive Player of the Year…started regularly for the first time as a senior.

Blackshear (6-5, 215): Averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 rebounds last season…finished his career with 28 points against Michigan in quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

Graham (6-6, 220): Only player in Rams history to surpass 1,800 points, 800 rebounds and 200 3-pointers…described as a marginal athlete who plays with high energy.

Bertans (6-4, 180): Older brother of Spurs draftee Davis Bertans…averaged 6.5 points and 1.5 assists last season for Boston’s summer league team before he was injured.

Ndoye (7-0, 240): Will also play for the Magic in the Orlando summer league…averaged 11.8 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks last season…native of Dakar, Senegal.

Cherry (6-1, 180): Two-time Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year at Montana…has played for New Orleans and Cleveland in summer league…played NBA games with the Cavaliers this season.

In addition, Hungarian small forward Adam Hanga, one of the Spurs’ 12 prospects who played internationally last year, has indicated he will likely play as well. At 26, he is reportedly under contract with Spain’s Baskonia through 2018.

Our summer league team is shaping up to be a pretty decent looking team. Kyle Anderson is playing, we'll get to see what Lalanne can do and the possibility of finally seeing Hanga play is an added bonus.

We've also got a pretty solid group of guards coming in as well.

Shannon Scott is an excellent defender and solid playmaker, but his jumper is somewhat broken. Could be a solid backup PG.

Treveon Graham is a guy i'm a big fan of solid all around player that has some serious hustle. His problem is that he's just not that great of an athlete.

Will Cherry actually looked pretty alright in the few games he played with the Cav's.

Wayne Blackshear was a solid offensive player in college, don't know how well his game will translate though. Not quick enough to play guard and not big enough to be a small forward.

[co_laper]

The only one I want to see is Kyle because I think he's about to get some serious playing time this season. I think he'll be on the regular rotation.

It'll be interesting how the Spurs use him in this summer league games. When he got minutes with the Spurs, he basically plays SF. It seems like that's the position the Spurs want him to learn. Even Austin Daye got PF minutes over Kyle. But in Austin, he basically plays PF on defense but he handles the ball a lot offensively. I expect that to be his future role in the NBA, and if they continue to do this in summer league, perhaps that's what we'll be seeing during the season.

[Nolan]

Official rosters:

Utah


Vegas


So Becky will coach the Vegas team and Will Hardy our video guy will coach the Utah team.

Excited to finally see Jean Livo-Charles play. We also have a couple of potential roster filler guys showing up in Nate Wolters and Brandon Davies.

[Phreak50]

Surprised to see Livio in there and interested to see how he goes. I'm not a fan of skinny 6'9 PF's though (I'm assuming he isn't aiming to be a SF based on his youtube clips.)

[Nolan]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzJz_L_Nrr8[/youtube]

Highlights of Slo-Mo's 25 point game. You can tell that he's been learning from Diaw.

[Cactus Jack]

Watching Simmons for first time. Not too shaby. Looks like he's a good on ball defender. Can get to the hoop & provides a jolt.

[Nolan]

Watching Simmons for first time. Not too shaby. Looks like he's a good on ball defender. Can get to the hoop & provides a jolt.

Yeah i'm really liking him too. Kinda reminds me of Sonny Weems.

Kid's got hops too.

[co_laper]

Watching Simmons for first time. Not too shaby. Looks like he's a good on ball defender. Can get to the hoop & provides a jolt.

Yeah.. I mean that's one heck of a first impression.. What I like most is his aggresiveness attacking the rim and he's trying to dunk everything. Seems very athletic too and very speedy. Drove hard with his left a few times too and seems comfortable. I'm really curious to see how he looks in the 2nd game now.. Definitely the guy that opened my eyes the most..

[Nolan]

Slo-mo's looking really good. He's scoring and getting to the line at will.

Really liking Simmons as well, him and Slo-mo are polar opposites.

[SPURt]

Simmons looking like a great find! Love how his defense is the first attribute that jumps off the page. He shot 40% from three in the d league last year as well. Can't wait for the season!

[Frankie23]

I'm really impressed with Simmons. He has an all around game going on. Like his motor too. In Spurstalk they compare him (best case scenario) with Jimmy Butler.
Kyle is looking good, but i don't know how that translate to playing with real NBA players.
I think i'd rather see Simmons playing with Manu and Kyle running the 2nd unit when Manu is not playing.

And that guy Eddie can really shoot the 3..

[co_laper]

I'm really impressed with Simmons. He has an all around game going on. Like his motor too. In Spurstalk they compare him (best case scenario) with Jimmy Butler.
Kyle is looking good, but i don't know how that translate to playing with real NBA players.
I think i'd rather see Simmons playing with Manu and Kyle running the 2nd unit when Manu is not playing.

And that guy Eddie can really shoot the 3..

Simmons, to me, look like the better candidate to crack the rotation if it becomes Kyle vs Simmons.

With bench mainstay like Diaw, West, and Manu off the bench, if we put Kyle with them, that group can't run. It screams the need for athleticism. Also Kyle won't be able to do what he does best, which is to handle the ball and create. The only way Kyle gets to play his game is if they're resting Manu. That way Kyle can do most of the ball handling.

Simmons game seems like it fits the bench better. It seems like he's got the corner 3 down. He's been making them. He attacks the basket aggresively, and that's something we don't have with West, Diaw, Mills, and Manu. Also, I know people has been saying Marco is the backup SF on our 2nd unit, but that is so wrong. Every game, you see Manu guarding the opposing backup SF while Marco takes the backup SG. Right now, Manu has more strength in his legs than he does speed. Manu is a backup SF. Simmons has SG size.

Kyle has been used better by Becky instead of Hardy.. Becky been using him at SG and sharing PG duties and it allows Kyle to better showcase his game and get a lot of post up opportunities because he's big.

Our team is going to look really different IMO next season. With our offense, it was huge to have guys penetrating to the rim and kick it out for open 3s. It was only last year that we start going out of our offense to cater to Kawhi's post up game. Remember the year before when Kawhi doesn't have a post up game yet that we almost never post up anybody unless it was a huge mismatch.

Now we're short on rim attackers, while we're loaded on the post up game. You gotta feed LMA post up shots. Kawhi has been working on it too much to not be used. Then Diaw was arguably our best post up scorer for the past 3 years. Then there's David West. And Kyle Anderson likes to post up judging by summer league.

We might be seeing a lot of post up game next season.

[Nolan]

It's offical we just won the offseason lol.

Becky did a great job and Slo-Mo and Simmons both looked great.

Hopefully Eddie and Davies end up in Austin. Both have NBA potential but I don't think they're quite ready yet.

[SPURt]

Now, the Spurs winter is upon us. Stay warm fellas, take comfort in the dawn of championships starting it's rise in October. For the dark night of failure post Duncan has been postponed! The future waits with glory in tow!

[Nolan]

Now, the Spurs winter is upon us. Stay warm fellas, take comfort in the dawn of championships starting it's rise in October. For the dark night of failure post Duncan has been postponed! The future waits with glory in tow!

It's gonna be a lllloooonnnnnggg couple of months.