2013 Orlando Summer League Game 3: Rockets vs. Celtics

Generally, it's better to be good in the summer league than to suck. I don't have the statistics, but my impression is that if a player is going to be any good against NBA competition, he should probably at least look competent against summer league low level competition, if not flat out dominate such competition.

So, good summer league performance doesn't guarantee success, but it does indicate that success is more likely. A bad summer league performance, on the other hand, may well be a significant red flag.

Jimmer, Thomas Robinson and Hasheem Thabeet are 3 of lotto pick rookies that I remember looked bad to ordinary in the summer league. None of them went on to have success at least in the early parts of their careers.

 

Summer League is hard to watch (I know, I watch it!). SL puts competents with incompetents and makes understanding the real value of a player difficult (for me) to discern. That said, TJ looks smooth if totally left-centric. He looks like he belongs. Honeycutt looks like a roster spot worthy player (since rosters are 15 deep, after all).

Dadgum, I hate SL. And I hate that I watch it.

 

Damn jeremy lamb went off today..32 points..

 

If Morey can trade them for future second round draft pics, it's great

 

This Orlando league play isn't even as good as Las Vegas last year. And that was hard enough to watch. Watching these guys just scrambling around, dribbling all over creation, stumbl'n, bumbl'n, fumbl'n, out of control most of the time, won't pass to wide open shooters, it's almost more than my stomach can stand.

 

Yeah I agree with that completely.

If a guy bombs out in summer league it is less likely they are going to have any success in the NBA right away...maybe they turn it around (but you can say that for any player under 26) so it's good to see a guy play well here.

So that's a better way to put it. Playing good in summerleague doesn't guarantee success but it means that player is much more likely to contribute sooner rather than later (or for some players never)

 

agree to that

 

urrrhh mmmmuuu geerrddd we lost the trade! we mortgaged our future for the present! fire durl murray!

 

Harden with his measly 26 ppg in the NBA... We were robbed...

 

Yeah, Olynyk was scoring so easily. I want to marry that girl.

 

That T.Jones high arc 3-pointer looked awkward, but he hit it from the top of the key. He needs to work on his right hand dribble ASAP, scouting reports will come out and teams will shut down his left side.

I think James Anderson will get the spot over Honeycutt, he's more experienced and a better defender.

 

Greg Smith's summer league performance is largely irrelevant since we more or less know the baseline of what he can do at the NBA level already. My guess is that he hasn't forgotten what he can do during the last couple of months-- now if Greg Smith all of a sudden is showing off a 3 point shot, that'd be something significant, but otherwise, bleh. The same pretty much goes with Patrick Beverley.

Summer league performance is one data point through which we understand a player. For rookies and guys who haven't played regular NBA minutes, it may well be all that we have to go by at the moment. However, the summer league data point is less important than actual NBA games when it comes to guys who already have played non-trivial NBA roles.

Guys like Smith and Beverley may well be just using these games as extra practice instead of going all out to test what they can do against fellow rookies and at least fringe NBA guys and, in the case of guys like Jack Cooley, trying to impress teams watching these games so that they can land a job.

 

Is Vander Blue roster worthy?

 

I hope so, I really liked him at marquette.

But he is already signed up to play for the grizzlies summer league team next week so they could steal him away.

 

Jones is can be really good

has a lot of potential

 

He needed the money .....

 

No. He's a very one-dimensional player. He has a nice jumper and an okay handle. But in my limited time watching him, he's extremely undersized on defense at the 2 and is far too streaky/inconsistent. His inability to create for others make him a highly unproductive option at the 1.

PASS.

 

He needs to get a shot doctor to work on mechanics, and he needs to develop his ball handling skills.

I think with the right improvements, he could be a valuable rotation player for an NBA team, but he needs a couple of years. I don't think you can use a roster spot on a long term project at the guard spot.

All that having been said he's just about the only guy on the summer roster (outside of the 'known quantities' like TJ) that physically has the potential to be a genuine NBA player. Physically, I think he compares to someone like OJ Mayo - he just doesn't have anything remotely like the skills that Mayo has.

 

Okc 20 pts
Hou 16 pts

If the rockets win the game and at least 3 quarters vs the nets it'll make the rockets 1st seed and most likely to play Okc on championship day. Can't wait, even though it's only summer league.

 

How can we get Jeremy Lamb back before he blows up in the NBA?