Western Conference Summer League Notes

[Smitty731]

Hi all!

The last few years I've dropped a bunch of notes from Summer League. This year we broke them up by conference! Here is the West:

https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/250909/2018-Western-Conference-Summer-League-Notes

I learned a lot. And not just that I don't enjoy transcription!

Hope you enjoy!

Smitty

[Saberestar]

Thanks for the work. Interesting notes.

Phoenix Suns

Dragan Bender really struggled at Summer League. He hit the glass ok, but had a hard time defending on the perimeter. More than half his shots were three-pointers and he just couldn’t get them to go down. This is a make or break year for him.

Josh Jackson had similar struggles on offense. He took some really bad midrange shots and couldn’t get all the way to the hoop. The defense is still solid enough, but the offense has miles and miles to go to be even passable.

DeAndre Ayton on the hand was dominant. He looks like he’ll score 10-15 points per game right off the bat. Defensively he’s a little lost, but he’ll figure it out.

On drafting DeAndre Ayton: “When we came up at number one, we knew we had our choice of guys and we made the right one. He’s going to be very good for years. Rarely can you dump it into the post to a 20-year-old and know he’s going to score. We have that in DeAndre. And his jumper has the form to add range.”

On trading for Mikal Bridges: “He’s like a 10-year vet already. He’s just got that way about him. We think he’s going to be very good for us. The deal happened pretty quickly and we’re fortunate it did.”

On Davon Reed: “Bit of a lost season for him last year after he got hurt. But he’s got all the tools you want on offense. Good size, nice jumper, good enough handle.”

On signing Trevor Ariza: “We had to get another vet in here to work with the wings. Tyson (Chandler) has the bigs. Brandon (Knight) has the guards. Trevor can be that guy for the wings. And he’s still a really good player. He can help us win some of the games we’ve lost the last few years.”

On signing Devin Booker to an extension: “No brainer. He’s the best young scorer in the league. He’s developing very quickly as a playmaker. When the talent around him matures, he’ll look even better. We’re thrilled to have him signed for the foreseeable future.”

On expectations for the season: “Our kids need to grow up. Our vets will help them get there. We think we can move this thing forward quickly"