Dr of Dunk's Summer League Reports

July 15, 2002 vs. Dallas Mavericks

Rockets 90
Mavericks 101

No shows...

How did Eddie Griffin do? Well, he didn't. Eddie didn't play today. According to Rudy, they let him rest for the night.

No sign of Maurice Taylor anywhere in the stadium either. He sat with the Rockets on the bench for the first 3 games, but he wasn't around for this game. No dedication; let's trade his ass, right?

Jason Collier was on the bench in street clothes today. I tried getting his attention so I could ask what was up, but either he ignored me or couldn't hear me.

Get everybody involved, Tierre!

That's what Rudy was yelling during the first quarter to Tierre Brown. Brown was pretty much getting into the paint at will in this game and popping shots with relative ease. Apparently Rudy was looking for more distribution from his point guard. To be honest, Tierre must've thought he was the only guy on the court when the game started, because he came out driving and gunning. I can't blame him, because he was hitting early and often, but I guess the coaches want to see other people do their thing, too. Tierre was great on his penetrations in this game, but he was prone to one or two bonehead plays. An example : The Rockets had possession at the end of the first half with about 20 seconds left on the clock. Instead of holding the ball for the last shot, he jacks one giving the Mavs another opportunity. On the trip back, Larry Smith and Rudy let him know his mistake. Tierre responded by pointing to his head and saying "My mistake, coach, I was wrapped up in it". Meaning the moment, of course. Not a bad game by Tierre from a fan's perspective, though. On the plus side, Tierre did start looking to distribute the ball more the rest of the game. He was one of the only bright spots today.

Just when you think they've turned the corner...

... they regress. I watched Tito Maddox today put on one of the most frightening displays of ball-handling on consecutive plays I've ever seen. Everytime he touched the ball, it was an adventure. I saw him beautifully penetrate into the paint, but once there, make dreadful moves and decisions. I watched as he made into the interior of the defense, then attempt to perform wild spin moves on a number of possessions and turn the ball over. He would sometimes get the ball stripped while other times he would simply forget to take the ball with him as he spun. I'm not kidding when I say this, but there must've been a string of about 4 or 5 consecutive plays in which either Tito turned the ball over or made a questionable decision. I see so much in this kid that would be a benefit to the Rockets, though. I see him driving and pushing the ball. I see him penetrating causing the defense to collapse on him. At the same time, I see him make crazy decisions. It's almost as if he's a point guard, but once he smells the paint, he becomes a shooting guard and tries to do too much. Ah well, he's young so maybe we'll see something better from him in the remaining games... (I hope).

The remaining cast...

To be honest, I didn't watch Oscar Torres too much. He started the game extremely slow, but began hitting some shots later as a result of some good shooting and opportunistic baskets. I'm hoping someone else at the game kept watch on him, because I really have nothing to add.

Terence Morris had tough time shooting the ball. I'm not sure exactly how many shots he put up or what his percentage was, but one shot was a massive airball. A shot so painful to watch, it was as if he were asking me to remember who he was from last year. Wow. If Terence could ever find his shot, he'd be such an asset to this team. As it is, I guess he's going to have to rely on his defense because the shot just wasn't clicking.

I watched Ismail Ahmed's game a bit closer today and have come upon what I think is his biggest weakness, at least from what I've seen at the SPL. When he puts the ball on the floor, he's in trouble. He can dribble, but he's a bit sluggish and a quicker defender can cause him all kinds of problems by harrassing him. He still has a wide array of shots he's capable of taking, and unlike Terence, he can actually hit a few. He's not a bad player. He does a lot of things well, but he really doesn't excel at any one thing from what I've seen. I'm trying to figure out if the guy's name is Ismail Ahmed or Ahmed Ismail.

Outside of that, Kyle Hill and Dane Fife got some playing time with Collier and Griffin out. Fife played his usual scrappy defense, but didn't really stand out in many other ways. Kyle popped a few outside shots.

Thomas Hamilton (a.k.a. "Two Sandwiches") walked by and said hello to Rudy. Rudy smiled and said "hey" back. I also saw Del Harris (there's a blast from the Rockets' past) sit down and chat with Rudy for a while. I wish I hadn't gotten out of my seat to move further up for pics, because it would've been interesting to hear what they had to say to each other (if I could've heard them). Oliver Miller also walked by and said "hey coach" to Rudy. Between Miller and Hamilton, that's probably about 625 - 700 pounds of "hello" Rudy got.

If you guys are in the LA area, the SPL is a great way to sit right behind the Rockets bench and listen to the coaching the coaches do. At times I was paying more attention to Rudy T, Larry Smith, and Jim Boylen than the game itself. Their commentary is pretty eye-opening. When I think "woo hoo, Tierre scored a basket", Rudy chimes in with "get everybody involved, Tierre!". It lets you kind of know what the coaches are looking for and are expecting from the players. They're not out there just to score.

Fairly non-eventful game. Dallas started a bunch of scrubs outside of Jaren Jackson and our big gun, Eddie Griffin, was taking the night off. The biggest point of the night for me the last game was when I got to shake hands with Rudy. Today Rudy put me to work. Some kid wanted to take a picture with him, so Rudy said "hey, come here and get in the picture, he can take the picture". Of course, "he" ended up being me. Woo hoo. I took a picture of Rudy and some kid. I'm spayshul. Damn, it's fun sitting behind the bench.

 

Pay attention, buffalospeedway! Collier was on the bench in street clothes.

 

More pics. Thanks again to rockHEAD for hosting these. Pictures are getting better, but I still would rather use a flash. The pics would look soooo much nicer.

Enjoy :

Timeout : Tmo, Ike, Venson, Larry, and company

Tito playing defense

Tito prepares to drive into the twilight zone (you never know how his drives end up...)

Oscar gets ready to play D on the inbound while TMo tries to stop from tipping over as he falls asleep...

Jim Boylen works with Tito during the halftime shootaround...

Larry preaches the plan... there obviously were some non-believers tonight...

I'm just going to sit here and pretend I don't hear Dr of Dunk calling my name to ask me a question

Tierre gets into defensive posture...

Another shot of Tierre playing D

Rudy T coming to kick my ass after I took too damn many pics... (actually, i had to fumble with my camera fast enough to take this pic, hence part of Rudy's head is missing. )