"The international debut of Donatas Motiejunas is delayed for at least one more year after it was announced that the 21-year-old forward won't play for his country this summer." Thoughts? Still working on his game in that over seas league?
Yep. Expect Motiejunas to sign his rookie deal at some point during the July Moratorium. If the Rockets stand pat in the draft, their summer league team will be LOADED, with as many as nine rostered Rockets players on the team. Patrick Patterson (said he's willing to play summer league if they want him to) Chandler Parsons (he'll likely play unless the Rockets don't want him to) Marcus Morris Donatas Motiejunas #14 pick #16 pick Greg Smith Courtney Fortson Diamon Simpson
Now if we can just get Anthony Davis to join our Summer League team instead of playing for the national team.
Not a fan of Courtney Fortson, but I'm looking forward to the Greg Smith-Motiejunas-Morris frontline. I'll be nice to see Zoran Dragic in there as well. I'd actually prefer Patterson and Parsons not to play in the summer league, so that D-Mo and Morris get to play, but it sure wouldn't do any harm for them to practice against/with the summer-leaguers.
There's two weeks of camp before the league games begin, so I hope they all show up for camp. It can't hurt for all of them to play as well, maybe PPat and Parson get very limited minutes, but I'd still like to see them on the court with DMo besides the camp practices.
Wouldn't be surprised if Patterson or Parsons isn't on the rookie team, also wouldn't be surprised if a couple of those guys are released or traded.
PPat needs it, because he's just had surgery, but keep Parsons away. It's a long season, avoid burnout.
His national team is going to play in a qualifying tournament for the Olympics, which takes place in Venezuela. Rockets summer league squad is playing in Vegas. No offense to Venezuela, but Motiejunas made the obvious choice for a 21-year-old new millionaire.
Even camp? Where they get assigned a weight room regimen, get schooling on video, do two-a-day practices (mostly non-contact)...etc. I actually think summer workouts and weight-training helps avoid injuries come fall camp more than it creates injuries/burnout.
If I remember correctly, teams play 6 or 7 games on consecutive days, with maybe one day break in between. So, there's plenty of time to play different guys and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have different rotations for different days so as to not tire guys out.
I would be surprised if Parsons gets more than token minutes. He does not have to prove anything at this point.
Although Venezuela could be an obvious choice for a 21 year old male...the millionaire part could help there too.
