[Summer League]Thoughts & Pics

As Clutch posted earlier here, I had attended along with robgue of this bbs the last two summer league games in vegas.

My impression of summer league was great, its something i recommend to everyone, the tickets were 25 dollars and we sat pretty much in the 2nd row or right behind the bench for every game we attended. and yeah its 25 dollars for the entire day of games, not just one game. A lot of the players/team officials are very approachable and do make themselves available. I bumped into george karl when I was getting a drink and shook his hand and then ran away from his ugly son

anyways here is my thoughts and break downs of the two games starting with the game vs the kings on saturday the 14th:

it looks like already that adelman's crew are utilizing the high post and cuts a whole lot more. almost every set play down the court was a high post/elbow big man and having the guards cut and run off of screens. novak was usually the one in the high pivot and when butler was in he was utilized a bit. AK (i cant remember how to spell his name) was also used, but the most efficient high post man was actually Novak. This could be that he was probably the biggest threat to pull up and knock the jumper down if his man backed off to help with the cutters into the lane.



Novak's shot seemed to be a bit off in this game, he did have some decent looks which he rushed. Of course the star of the game was Aaron Brooks. This guy is going to become a fan favorite quick if he hasnt already. Besides the highlight alley-oop dunk he had early in the second half, he looked poised and steady when running the point. He would bark out the plays to the rest of the team and of all the players there the coaches hardly bothered him at all when it came to not running the right play or making the right play. They seemed to have a lot of confidence in him and his decision making ability. The rockets made a huge second half comeback to turn a blowout into a blowout going the other way and good portion of it was actually due to landry. Carl came out in the second half and did a superb job guarding Spencer Hawes who was eating up the rockets interior in the first half. He also picked up his scoring on the other end getting 4 of the teams first 8 points in the second half. Carl is a great rebounder but does lose his position a lot, on pick and roll defense he often was late getting back to his man, but a solid job on Hawes in the second half nonetheless.

Now to steve novak...I was wearing my Novak jersey for this game (if u saw the game broadcast i am that red blob that is just a row behind the rockets bench) During warmups I yelled out to him and he saw me wearing my jersey and just gave me a big grin. After the game ended as he was going to the lockerroom he said to wait and that he would come out again and I could take a picture with him (which I had requested earlier during the warmups) After he came out in he was standing at the end of the tunnel and he motioned for me to come down so I went down to go talk to him and get a picture and of course the security guy was being a jerk to me. I told him Steve asked me to come down and he was like no way i dont care if he said that, now mind you Steve was literally on the other side of this guy and he was being a jerk about it. I told steve that he was letting me go over there and asked him if he could come to the other side. Steve then told the security guard to let me through and so the security guard did. Steve said to the guard, "he is the only guy in the world that has my jersey" Steve was kind enough to take a picture with us and sign my jersey!!! Afterwards I told him to hit the triples to give yao and tracy space and he laughed and said no doubt. I called the clutchfans line hoping I could get him to do a shoutout on it, but he said he wasnt comfortable doing something like that. He was a really cool guy though, hopefully I get to meet him again in the future, and now I have to go get a new novak jersey so I can wear since the signed one is getting framed.




Carl Landry took a picture with us as well. We tried to get brooks but he signed a few things for the kids and then went to the other side to be with his family and back into the tunnel...he did have a big ice pack on his ankle.

 

After the game we talked to coach Turner who decided to sit right behind us and he said that he did like brooks and thought that Novak would "be a player in the league because he has that shot"

For the game against the Hornets it was more of the same really but a bit more balanced scoring. Brooks ran the show really well and I must say the guy splits the double team on the pick and roll exceedingly well. He is so quick that after he splits the double he can be at the rim in a flash. His hops are also great and he is the polar opposite of rafer when it comes to finishing at the rim. The one thing that was sorely lacking again was interior defense, Hilton armstrong and julian wright had their way inside for most of the game. Butler did the best job due to his height and size. Pick and roll defense with brooks will have to be addressed as he often gets caught under the screen or rotates onto the screener and the help defense comes late.

After the game we kept waiting for brooks in order to get a picture and as we were waiting i saw Daryl Morey walk by right in front of us and I was thinking, OH SNAP and I just shouted out his name.

Morey is an exteremely likeable guy. He was really nice to both robgue and I and we talked about various things. I told him that I loved the scola trade and he looked at me with a sly grin and said "so you liked that huh?" and we had a nice chuckle. He also said and it looks to be true that they were going to have Scola in uniform this year. As for picking up Brooks he said that he knew was going to get a lot of crap for it (which he did from this board!) but he was telling us: "everyone said to get a big and I looked around and was like 'Who's there?'" He said that they talked to all the Pac-10 coaches and asked who they had feared the most as an opponent the past season and they all had said aaron brooks (trust me i worried about him whenever he played ucla). He said that everyone thought he was an idiot, but "everytime someone said that I made an idiot move those were the ones that were often said to be best afterwards" I told him I didnt think they were idiot moves and he said that "well there is plenty of time to see if I am an idiot or not" we laughed at that. I then asked him about what he tought of the players so far and about Novak and Landry. He said that the coaches have been working with Novak a lot lately.....on his shot! Morey demonstrated that they feel Steve is brings the ball too low to go into his motion and want him to have his shooting motion start at a higher point. As for Landry he said that they were disappointed in his lack of focus and that he would need to work on that (he did pick up several ticky tack/cheap fouls in both games) and that "its not a big deal right now he probably wont be playing too many minutes this season anyway"

Finally I asked him what the chances of Francis coming back seeing how he was bought out. And Morey did say they were looking into but Steve was apparently being offered MLE or near MLE money and "that our guard rotation isnt as bad as people make it out to be" All in all Morey didnt seem to be too high on getting Steve back

Afterwards he told me that next time I am in Houston we should talk again and I told him I would hold him to that (and I will) and for those of you guys on the vspan trade thread where Clutch posted that Morey told him that Scola was going to play...Morey told me as well that he did speak on the phone with Clutch about the trade. I also asked him to say a few words on the clutchfans line but he also declined. He didnt know what it was but he liked the idea.

 

other random pics

 

landry is tall he was on the floor whereas myself and robgue were standing on the first row of the stands so we were at an elevated height...with novak we were on the floor of the locker room tunner so at the same level

 

haha yeah

oh yeah thats right 14-0 now whenever I attended a rockets game!

I was talking to Nelson Luis after the first game and said i was now 13-0 when attending rockets game and he said you should have been there at game 7 to which I said I tried to get ppl to pay for my airfare but no one would otherwise I would have been there. spent a decent portion of my "fun money" on the first two games tickets and airfare.

about the rowdies robgue asked nelson about it and he said adelman picked up some of the tickets but they are looking for some sponsorship