Dr of Dunk's Summer League Reports

July 10, 2002 vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Rockets 82
Grizzlies 81


Woo hoo I have my own thread.

Well, I made it over to Long Beach to watch the Rockets play and get the hell away from work and Texas heat. Let me start out by saying that I know some of you are looking for pics, and yes I took my camera, but I must not have figured out how to take pictures with it becase out of about 30-40 pics, not one is worth putting up on the Internet. lol. Sorry, but I'll try to make up for it and hopefully one of the other guys that knows the difference between f-stops and a shortstop will be able to post pics.

Who's this Ahmed guy?

There was some guy named Ahmed something or other playing for the Rockets. He actually did fairly well, but he has no spot on this roster... next.

Who was the Rockets fan with the big beard and ponytail?

I'm just curious if they're on this bbs. He was earing a Rockets jersey I think. Speak up dude!

Collier, Griffin, and Mo Tay - the hottest men in CC.net weight discussions

If you've seen Collier for the past couple of seasons, you'll notice that he's basically a mobile barrel. He has always had that human cylinder look to him. Well that's changed a bit. Collier has lost weight and has trimmed down. That's the good part. The bad part is he hasn't really trimmed down his suckitude. I watched Collier play against guys that probably wouldn't even make NBDL teams this game and he was used on several plays and on other plays he looked woefully inept when attempting attain vertical lift. It was sad to watch Collier play in this game. I watched as he was rejected once and as everyone else ran back in transition, poor Collier was huffin' and puffin' trying to catch up on defense. The upper half of his body really wants to go, but the lower half of his body just says "no". Rather tragic to watch. The fact that Collier is on this team is testament to the desperation we must have to just have a big body. I feel for the guy...

Mo Tay... Mo Tay... Mo Tay... You came, you saw, you kicked all the nay-sayers' asses. I saw Mo-Tay, and although he still wears pants seemingly made by Goodyear (the man just loves the baggy stuff), I could tell, he was no longer anywhere near that 330 or 340 pound freighter tanker status people had placed on him. Maurice looked close to being back to his playing weight; at least in his upper body. There's no telling what the hell lurks in those pants, though... (shut up pervs). Mo was signing autographs for kids during halftime so I walked over to where he was and said "Hey Mo, smile for the camera!" (I always was witty). He painfully put forth a smile, and I think I have that pic somewhere. Anyway, the guy has definitely lost weight.

Eddie Griffin... he's 7'8" and 310 lbs now. Ok, so I'm kidding. Eddie was lookin' GOOD out there today. You can tell he's added some upper body strength, but I don't know if it's enough to make you guys look at him and say "damn!". As a wild guess, I'd say he's added maybe about 5-10 pounds of bulk - nothing serious. He won't be bowin' Shaq anytime soon.

That steal of a guard...

How many of you guys were saying that Tito Maddox could be this year's Cuttino Mobley? All scouting reports said this kid was a great player who just ran into some tough times. Well, I have news for you... he just ran into some tougher competition. Maddox was over-aggressive in his play out there. He was fumbling the ball and trying to create when there was nothing to create. He turned the ball over several times. He was an open-court explosion and a half-court disaster. He tried several times to push the ball up the court on the break, to his credit, but it wasn't always a success. You still could see the a type of uncontrolled explosion in his sprints downcourt, so he definitely does have the ability to push the ball up the court. In the halfcourt, ooh, man, that's another story. As I said, he would often make poor decisions, turn the ball over, or fumble the ball. It got to the point, he had his head down and was dejected after a couple of plays. Someone from the Rockets' bench kept encouraging him to keep going. Of course this is just one game, but from what I saw today, I'm going to have to say Doc Rocket was right when he stated he believes that Tito may not make the team.

Tierre the Texas Terror

Ok, that was cornier than Nebraska. So sue me. Tierre had a very good game today. He wasn't perfect, but he penetrated, dished off, and made some dazzling interior moves. Many of his inside moves were fakes and spins that resulted in scores inside the paint. He, like Tito, also did end up with a few too many turnovers, but I suppose this is our 3rd string PG, so I'm not going to complain too much. I think Tierre ended up with something like 12 or 13 points.

Terence Morris - Mr. You Don't Know I'm There, but I Somehow Still Get Stats

Terence had a quiet game offensively, but he was a solid defender. He had some nice blocks including one on a drive by Drew "Mr. Geography 2002" Gooden. I can't really say much else other than Morris seemed to always be around anything that dared to encroach the paint. Good role-player game for Terence today. Oh, and he even hit a 3... I remember last year his shot was so bad, if it hadn't been for the fact that he was standing on a planet, he would've missed everything.

Edddieeeeee...

This kid's good, and he's going to get even better. He had a quietly awesome game today. I think he ended up with something like 23 points, but at least 2 were credited to the wrong person. The stats guy gave Terence 2 of Eddie's points. So lets' say Eddie had about 25 points. I don't know what he ended up rebounding, but he was always around the ball inside. Rudy (actually Boylen I suppose), let him play the majority of the game. What was fun to watch was Eddie playing d on Drew Gooden. Gooden ended up scoring something like 25 points, but most of those points weren't on Eddie or over him. Eddie frustrated Drew a lot when Drew decided to take it inside. Eddie swatted his shot at least 2 times. Don't get me wrong - Gooden is good and he'll be even better, but Eddie is just as good maybe even better now. Eddie is still playing that nonchalant game where he seems to be bored and still ends up altering or blocking a myriad of shots. I tried comparing Gooden and Eddie's physiques as they stood next to one another on the court. Eddie has bigger legs (he's got thick calves - better to post you up with my dear!) and his arms are bigger than Gooden's. He also seemed at least 2 inches taller than Gooden when they were close to one another on the court. Eddie didn't hover around the 3 point line much this game. He hit about 2 or 3 of them, but most of his points were coming on jumpers and putbacks. He's looking good. If he bulks up and can still defend and shoot, he'll be a dynamite player... oh wait, he already is! My only worry about Eddie is that he seemed to be winded by the end of the game. Wasn't this a problem last year that helped to cause his late-season fade? Oh well, he's still young, he has time to work the kinks out of his conditioning.

Drew Good,

Drew reeeeal good. He has an explosion to his game. Just as Eddie is so nonchalant and methodical, Drew is tenacious and aggressive. The only problem is that whereas Eddie has a steady pace, Drew seemed to disappear. He'd reappear when Eddie wasn't guarding him. Drew had one or two nasty put back dunks that drew ooh's and aaah's from the crowd.

Nobody else really stood out in this game. Dana Fife played a bit and had a great steal and no-look pass that led to a bucket (if I recall). He's scrappy and does work hard on defense, but he didn't get much playing time in comparison with the Tierre or Oscar Torres. I didn't see Rice out there anywhere, though he could've been hiding in the stands, who knows. I saw Oliver Miller in the stands sitting with what looked to be Troy Murphy (not sure about that). Rudy was at the game, but he wasn't coaching. He still looked as tense as ever though. Damn, he loves this game/team.

Anywho, that's my take on the first game... as I said, sorry about the pics, but I just got the camera a few days ago and didn't really get to mess with it, and it shows. Can't wait till the next game to see how we do.

 

Oh, and I'll go ahead and put future summaries from games into this same thread to have everything somewhat organized...