Post steps it up after squandered rookie season By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle July 15, 2009, 11:59PM http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6531527.html The grace period, if there ever was one, was over. Joey Dorsey had played in just three NBA games, and not many more practices. It was time, however, to work and perform like a NBA player among the summer-league hopefuls. Dorsey was so far removed from the Rockets’ rotation, that when Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo went out for the season during the playoffs, Dorsey still could not get playing time. A second-round pick on a crowded roster, he has another chance to demonstrate his potential to contribute to the Rockets and knows if he shows nothing this time around he could quickly run out of chances. Dorsey may not have reached his summer-league goal — “to dominate” — but he has played well in the ways the Rockets expected a year ago. Through four NBA Summer League games, he might not have proved himself, but he has earned another long look. He defended with strength and tenacity, ran the floor with energy, and most of all, hit the boards hard. “This is why I worked out so hard, to prove to them they did draft a good player,” Dorsey said. “Everybody was sitting around, talking about I might never play in the NBA. I’m just trying to prove to everybody that I am dedicated to playing basketball. I want to show them that I do want to play this year.” Heading into tonight’s summer-league finale, Dorsey is the tournament’s top rebounder, averaging 12.8 boards in 31 minutes per game. He averages 9.5 points on 59.1 percent shooting. He also has shown the rust accumulated in a season spent sitting out with plantar fasciitis and growing out of shape. Waiting on timing “I’ve been trying to tell everybody that,” Dorsey said. “Like, sometimes I have a wide-open dunk and I’m hesitant to go up and dunk. I’m looking to pass because I haven’t played in a while, but I’m getting back to it. It’s timing. That’s it. Once I get my timing back, I’ll be good. “My conditioning, it’s not there yet. But I’m playing well, trying to rebound, block shots and everything. It’s coming along. I’m starting to box out and go after every rebound.” Dorsey showed no hesitation Wednesday, finishing a spin move with a slam on his first touch of the game. It was, however, his only basket of the first half. The 6-8 center twice grabbed rebounds of missed free throws in the first quarter, but had only one other rebound in the half. He had a pair of strong blocked shots, coming over to help defensively. But he threw an elbow after fighting for position, drawing a technical foul. Led by Chase Budinger’s 17 points, the Rockets held on for an 87-82 victory over the Trail Blazers to move to 4-0 in summer league. Dorsey had a stronger second half, getting eight rebounds to finish with 11, along with nine points and three blocked shots. Two out of three not bad The Rockets will want more from him. But with Dorsey showing far more in four summer-league games than he did in his three NBA games — and all the months on the team before and after those games — they finally have reason to consider him heading in that direction. “Joey’s doing well,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. “We wanted three main things from Joey. We wanted a defensive presence. We wanted rebounding. And we wanted to cut out the mental errors. “On the first two, he did what we wanted. He really impacted the game defensively and he really helped out on the boards in a major way. Mental errors, he probably has to cut those in half, but overall, a lot of progress from a tough first year.”
“On the first two, he did what we wanted. He really impacted the game defensively and he really helped out on the boards in a major way. Mental errors, he probably has to cut those in half, but overall, a lot of progress from a tough first year.” sounds like Morey hates him.
I like Dorsey's attitude. I'm still very skeptical that his summer league performance can transfer to the NBA, however he seems to have the right work ethic that could get him there. Out of curiosity, how low was Ben Wallace drafted?
If Dorsey ever resembles the game of Ben Wallace then the Rockets should be the luckiest team in the NBA. Assuming that it is the Ben Wallace of the 2003-2005 seasons Getting a bench player to come in and give starter's production while YAo's out.
A lot of people compare Dorsey to Ben Wallace, but from what I've seen Dorsey can definitely develop a better offensive game than Big Ben.
Unfortunately, Big Ben was around for a few seasons before he developed into a beast. In that case, I see Dorsey takign 3 - 4 seasons to become a defensive power house (of course I'm being super positive about this, but he could be morey's biggest bust too). I just hope he doesn't jump to another team like Ben did. I'm not sure who signed him first, but I remember he started makign a name for himself in the Magic before he became the Big Bad Ben of the Pistons.
Is he Chuck's main competition for backup center this year? Sounds like he may get some minutes but will be on a short leash due to his "mental errors". May get a real shot if Andersen or Hayes miss some time with an injury though.
Exactly and I see Dorsey as a Ben Wallace type. Guys blessed with those kinds of athletic, huge bodies... they just have to be determined to make an impact on a game within their game... Dorsey will be OK. He isnt expected to be a star, never was. If he can come in and play a good 15-20 minutes of hard, physical basketball, eliminating lots of mental errors (as Morey said), block a shot... or two and pull down 6-8 boards... I would be good with that.
Develop a better offensive than Ben Wallace ain't that hard... the hard part is to develop a defensive game LIKE Ben Wallace.
A decent assessment. He would rebound like Hayes but will probably score more then Hayes. Dorsey just needs to play his role and He will be fine. Developing a consistent low post move would be a plus.
Dorsey still has my all-time favorite post-draft press conference quote. When asked who he would compare himself to as a player. Dorsey responds: "Ray Lewis with a basketball." Classic!
Every undersized big man with no offensive game is Ben Wallace, just like every pitcher without a plus fastball is Greg Maddox.
Umm Greg Maddux's fastball was never really that great it was his command of his pitches.......John Smoltz and Steve Avery were the plus stuff guy's in the braves rotation. Just a fun fact......anyhow....
we also have the option to run Scola out there as a center and shift players to the PF. I think we are still looking at a 4 man rotation through PF and C: Scola, Landry, Hayes, Andersen, with Dorsey picking up leftover mins from time to time. Preseason will give us time to work all this out.
I'm really skeptical on Dorsey. He is athletic, has a great attitude, has proven to be working hard. But after seeing John Lucas III tear up summer league a few years back, I am very skeptical about reading too deeply into summer league performance. Yes, he has been averaging a good amount of rebounds, he has been a powerhouse on the defensive end but if he averages over 5 fouls per game in the NBA, he won't get the minutes to prove that. I hope he can be more than a summer league stud. Lord knows how great our need for a young defensive-minded center is right now. Hopefully him and Andersen can hold it down while Yao is out and then become backups to Yao after his return. But I am still expecting a lottery year (which I do not think would be the worst thing, I don't think that this team w/o Yao is capable of winning a championship. Adding a lottery pick and then using our capspace to pursue Amare or Bosh next offseason with Yao hopefully coming back healthy next year can really make this team the team to beat for the 2010-2011 season).
