Summer league

[Pacers Forever]

Looking at age 27 6 ft guard Keifer Sykes stats for Australia NBL this past season he shoots 45% from 2, 36% from 3, 86% FT, 3 reb, 5 asst, and why he probably is candidate for Mad Ants 2.2 TO . Getting his chance.

Got a real good look at him during the season just gone as he played for my team down here in Australia.

He's a super tenacious defender for his size, was arguably the best on ball defender in the league. Several times went up against Bryce Cotton (who's pretty much universally considered the best guard in the league if not the best player) and defended him better than just about anyone else I've seen in the NBL. He's got absolutely insane hops for a 6ft guy and is a pretty reliable but occasionally streaky shooter. Generally he took care of the ball fairly well, but was prone to frustration and tunnel vision when things weren't going well for the team, I think his TO rate was artificially inflated by a couple of poor games in that respect.

He seems like a super locker room guy too, seemed to immediately step into a leadership role and all of his media soundbites were refreshingly honest. He's got a documentary on Amazon prime about his journey too, if anybody's interested!

Watch on YouTube

Not sure how he'll translate to the NBA given his smaller stature but I'm super excited to see him getting a chance.

Awesome first hand information King Malta. Thanks for giving us more insight into what made his stats I posted. I’m glad to hear about the tenacious defense and I’m sure the Pacers knew as they seem to be searching for defensive upgrades recently. I’m all for finding talent upgrades any way possible and best of luck to him.

[Pacers Forever]

Some info on summer league players we don’t know much about

Bennie Boatwright
The 6-10 USC alum (2015-19) averaged 12.7 points and 6.6 rebounds with Memphis in the G-League in 2020-21. He hit at least 5 3-pointers in a game on three occasions.

Jordan Bone
The 6-2 Tennessee alum (2016-19) played in 14 games for the Magic in 2020-21 and 10 for the Pistons the season before.

Terry Henderson
The 6-4 North Carolina State alum (2012-17) has played in the G-League and averaged 14.0 points per game in a Polish pro league in 2020-21.

B.J. Johnson
The 6-7 LaSalle alum (2013-18) has appeared in 17 NBA games, most recently with the Magic in the 2019-20 season. He averaged 18.4 points and 5.6 rebounds for the G-League's Long Island Nets in 2020-21.

Devin Robinson
The 6-8 Florida alum has 8 games of NBA experience and averaged 15.1 points and 8.6 rebounds for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2020-21.

Keifer Sykes
The 6-0 Green Bay alum (2011-15) has played internationally the past three seasons, averaging 14.4 points and 5.0 assists in Australia in 2021. Just won $80,000 in TBT.

Terry Taylor
The 6-5 Taylor was undrafted out of Austin Peay, where he started all 127 of his appearances. He averaged 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds over four seasons for the Governors.

Tyrone Wallace
The 6-5 California alum has appeared in 106 NBA games over three seasons. He averaged 16.6 points and 6.2 rebounds for the Agua Caliente Clippers in the G-League in 2021.

Duante Washington Jr.
The Pacers signed the 6-3 guard to a two-way contract after went undrafted out of Ohio State. He averaged 16.4 points per game in his third season with the Buckeyes.

[Pacers Forever]

https://www.nba.com/summer-league/2021/vegas/schedule

Tom here’s what I found for Pacers summer games tv schedule. I’m not sure what all outlets we can see NBA TV Canada on. Research time ha!

Edit : I will most likely will do the 1 month subscription Scoot referenced on NBA tv if they will show the Canadian station as it lists 3 of 4 Pacers games on Canadian station.

[Tom White]

https://www.nba.com/summer-league/2021/vegas/schedule

Tom here’s what I found for Pacers summer games tv schedule. I’m not sure what all outlets we can see NBA TV Canada on. Research time ha!

Edit : I will most likely will do the 1 month subscription Scoot referenced on NBA tv if they will show the Canadian station as it lists 3 of 4 Pacers games on Canadian station.

My Sling TV subscription includes ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. Interestingly, from what I've read, ESPN3 might be a way to watch the NBA TV games. Seems the two channels may be multicasting those.

EDIT: Just checked the ESPN3 schedule. It is showing our games on Aug. 8, Aug. 10 and Aug. 12. So far, that is as far out as my schedule goes. I'm now feeling confident the other games will be on there as well.

[Wizop]

Looking at age 27 6 ft guard Keifer Sykes stats for Australia NBL this past season he shoots 45% from 2, 36% from 3, 86% FT, 3 reb, 5 asst, and why he probably is candidate for Mad Ants 2.2 TO . Getting his chance.

Wiretap has him signing Exhibit 10 deal which gives the Ants Gleague priority.

Sent from my phone.

[Scoot McGroot]

-snip

Thanks for the first hand info! Certainly seems to fit into the defense first mentality that Pritchard/Carlisle have mentioned of getting back to.

[Topofthekey]

Devin Robinson

Sounds like the type of name the computer comes up with when trying to generate random NBA players

[Tom White]

I got sent this link.

Read on Twitter

I thought it was said he had a sore back. But this?

Sometimes the universe tries to send you a sign. Other times it just slaps you in the face.

[Pacers Forever]

I got sent this link.

Read on Twitter

I thought it was said he had a sore back. But this?

Sometimes the universe tries to send you a sign. Other times it just slaps you in the face.

Any extra information coming out on anyone’s subscription accounts ? Real deal family or personal issues, potential trade coming, home sick, sad to see Aaron traded, out of shape, misses G. Foster, upset with Jackson draft pick ?

[Scoot McGroot]

I got sent this link.

Read on Twitter

I thought it was said he had a sore back. But this?

Sometimes the universe tries to send you a sign. Other times it just slaps you in the face.

Any extra information coming out on anyone’s subscription accounts ? Real deal family or personal issues, potential trade coming, home sick, sad to see Aaron traded, out of shape, misses G. Foster, upset with Jackson draft pick ?

Nothing clear, but Scott Agness heavily implied that Indy fans shouldn’t say anything mean about Goga, or they’ll feel real bad when they find out, or something to that extent.

Sounds like maybe a real family emergency type situation.

[Pacers Forever]

I got sent this link.

Read on Twitter

I thought it was said he had a sore back. But this?

Sometimes the universe tries to send you a sign. Other times it just slaps you in the face.

Any extra information coming out on anyone’s subscription accounts ? Real deal family or personal issues, potential trade coming, home sick, sad to see Aaron traded, out of shape, misses G. Foster, upset with Jackson draft pick ?

Nothing clear, but Scott Agness heavily implied that Indy fans shouldn’t say anything mean about Goga, or they’ll feel real bad when they find out, or something to that extent.

Sounds like maybe a real family emergency type situation.

I saw his statement about being mean. I was just adding a bit of humor, but hope the best for Goga and that he can get his issues resolved soon.

[Tom White]

I saw his statement about being mean. I was just adding a bit of humor, but hope the best for Goga and that he can get his issues resolved soon.

I thought your post was pretty funny. Didn't see a mean word at all.

[8305]

Seemed to me our most glaring weakness last season was the lack of a combo forward or a guy with the size and skill set to match up at the 4. As it turned out Oshae was the perfect developmental player. What would be the perfect developmental player this year? For me it would be a FVV like guard. Thoughts?

[Scoot McGroot]

I saw his statement about being mean. I was just adding a bit of humor, but hope the best for Goga and that he can get his issues resolved soon.

I thought your post was pretty funny. Didn't see a mean word at all.

I think he meant that Scott Agness was remarking that twitter users should be careful about being mean, not that Pacers Forever was being mean.

[Scoot McGroot]

Seemed to me our most glaring weakness last season was the lack of a combo forward or a guy with the size and skill set to match up at the 4. As it turned out Oshae was the perfect developmental player. What would be the perfect developmental player this year? For me it would be a FVV like guard. Thoughts?

For me, I think we’ll have to see through camp. But we’ve got a great combo guard in Sumner developing. We’ve got a 3 and D guard with some handles in development in Duarte. You mentioned Oshae. We’ve got Jackson as an above the rim 4/5 we lacked in development. I guess, really, the one glaring hole I would see is a true distributing PG at this time? But that could change quickly as the season starts.

[Wizop]

Seemed to me our most glaring weakness last season was the lack of a combo forward or a guy with the size and skill set to match up at the 4. As it turned out Oshae was the perfect developmental player. What would be the perfect developmental player this year? For me it would be a FVV like guard. Thoughts?

For me it'd be a Marcus Smart/Patrick Beverley/PJ Tucker type coming off the bench. I'm thinking backcourt defense.

[Wizop]

theAthletic has a full article on Sykes

[Pacers Forever]

Seemed to me our most glaring weakness last season was the lack of a combo forward or a guy with the size and skill set to match up at the 4. As it turned out Oshae was the perfect developmental player. What would be the perfect developmental player this year? For me it would be a FVV like guard. Thoughts?

For me it'd be a Marcus Smart/Patrick Beverley/PJ Tucker type coming off the bench. I'm thinking backcourt defense.

For me I think our biggest weakness is a two fold problem. Having Malcolm Brogdon playing point guard is a weakness as he should be playing shooting guard. The second part of that is we have duplication with LeVert already at shooting guard. I don’t think he can defend small fast guards either. So yes we need to solve this issue having two weak guards starting defensively that are strong offensive players.

I’m hopeful that Carlisle can come up with an effective starting lineup that won’t bruise egos and strengthen both starters and second unit. If not we really need to trade one of them for a solid point guard.

As I read Scoot’s reply it dawned upon me after the first 9 guys we’re a very heavy developmental back half of the roster. I hope maturity comes quickly especially for Duarte, Sumner, Bitadze, Brissett, Jackson, and Martin. That’s 15 of 17 so last 2 are like G league raw.

[Wizop]

after the first 9 guys we’re a very heavy developmental back half of the roster.

Isn't that the answer to the we're too deep complaint?

Sent from my phone.

[Scoot McGroot]

Read on Twitter

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