HOUSTON ROCKETS 2003 SUMMER PRO LEAGUE ROSTER 1 Juaquin Hawkins* G 6'7" 225 Long Beach St 4 Kyle Hill G 6'2" 185 Eastern Illionois 6 Tito Maddox* Fresno State 7 Jason Miskiri G 6'2" 200 George Mason 8 Jermaine Boyette G 6'2" 190 Weber State 9 Bostjan Nachbar* F 6'9" 225 Slovenia 10 Michael Hicks F 6'5" 215 A&M Corpus 15 Malik Badiane F/C 6'11" 230 Senegal 16 Shea Seals G 6'5" 220 Tulsa 18 Demarco Johnson F 6'8" 250 UNC Charlotte 19 Brent Wright F 6'9" 235 Florida 20 Louis Truscott F 6'7" 210 Houston 22 Raitis Grafs C 6'11" 240 Valpo 24 Shawnelle Scott C 6'9" 265 St Johns 25 Jason Keep F 6'10" 275 San Diego * On last years team Schedule Los Angeles Lakers Friday, July 11 at 9:30 p.m. - NBA TV Raptors - 7/12 Warriors - 7/15 Nuggets - 7/16 Grizzlies - 7/17
Many of you may not have seen him play plus he wasnt on a power house. I've seen Louis Truscott play ...he is from the Univ of Houston. Great shooter, good size, loves to drive. Awesome addition for the Rockets. Dont know if he will make the team but he is a nice player to bring in. Anyone know about this Jaon Keep guy? He is 6'10 275...thats nice size...can he play any, does he have an athletic step? Where is he from?
Sounds like Kevin Willis, but not as Tall: JASON KEEP Position: C School: San Diego High School: Moscow (ID) Conference: West Coast Ht., Wt.: 6'11, 280 BIO: Keep had an impressive showing in setting a Chicago pre-draft camp record by bench-pressing 185 pounds 27 times. Keep played one season in college at San Diego after transferring from Oklahoma State, where his bad attitude and frequent flareups with coach Eddie Sutton forced him to change his address. Last year, Keep collected 30 points and 16 rebounds in a victory over UCLA and was named the MVP of the West Coast Conference tournament after leading San Diego to the title. Keep shot 60 percent from the floor and averaged 18.0 points and 9.1 rebounds last season. Keep earned all-tournament honors at the Portsmouth Invitational, where he averaged 16.3 points per game. The 25-year-old Keep has ben married for nearly three years. ANALYSIS: Keep is strong and physical, and he loves to bang in the post. He can score with brute strength, but also has an effective jump hook. Keep has good hands and gets good position for rebounding, but he's not the most athletic big man in the world. He needs work on his face-up game. POSITIVES: Keep pushes people around the paint like rag dolls. He once broke a backboard at Oklahoma State and was an all-American in football as a high school senior. At Chicago, Keep set the event's bench press record by lifting 185 pounds 27 times. By comparison, many of the league's projected first-round selections at his position could not lift the bar 10 times. Keep becomes even more intriguing when you consider his soft touch, an ability which is often overshadowed by the more brutal aspects of his game. The Idaho native looks as if he can be a long-term backup in the league. NEGATIVES: While Keep excelled at Chicago in the bench press drill, he performed poorly in the height and wingspan portion of the physical testing. Keep measured just 6-8 without shoes, and his wingspan was that of a player who stands 6-6. That makes Keep a smaller player than he might appear. What Keep does on the court, however, will determine whether he makes it in the league, not a set of numbers. PROJECTION: Late Second/Undrafted 2002 - 2003 Season Stats
Kyle is a 6'2 shooting guard so I'm not really sure we have a spot for him on our team. I'm glad to see we're giving Truscott a chance to show he can play.
The only thing I know about Jason Keep is from when USD played Stanfurd in the tourney last year and damn near beat them. Keep was a big reason. I remember him being a monster on the inside. Got in foul trouble, though. That's the good news. The bad news is I have this vague recollection that he had all the mobility of a dump truck and thinking that he was going to have big problems on the next level with NBA players who were as big as him but faster. But we need somebody to take Collier's spot ... I also remember that Shea Seals had a pretty good jumper, doesn't he? I think I'd still rather have the Hawk as an 11th man for D, though.
Interesting. Tito Maddox is on the team even though his contract was not picked up. Yet Terence Morris is not on the team.
Not exactly a talent laden team, but it's summer leagues. This is Nachbar's chance- he's the only first rounder on the roster, which more or less should make him the de facto #1 option. Maddox, Hill, and Hawk now have a chance as well. We'll get to see if Tito improved at all sitting on the bench, and probably if Hill will ever be worth anything. The big man choice could be a showing of what JVG wants. We've heard Badiane is aggressive/explosive (anyone else looking forward to seeing him in action? ). Jason Keep also seems to be a bruiser inside. Look at his nbadraft.net profile- like Scot Pollard minus the crazy hair. Shawnelle Scott is an interesting name IMO. I recall him playing with San Antonio and Denver, and I think we tried to sign him a few years ago. Upon looking at his profile on nba.com, he played with Denver a couple of years ago. He's listed at 6-11 there, which is what I remembered him as. His most impressive stat was 4.9 rebs in only 12 mins. All sound like guy without a lot of offensive skills or tools, but play pretty tough inside. Perhaps a JVG trait?
If memory serves me correctly, Scott played on the Varese Italian team with the huge Russian guy that pulled out of the draft... and with Rusty LaRue!
The guy on that list that I find most intriguing is Boyette out of Weber State. I know the college basketball world was high on him throughout his college career which lead up to him being named player of the year in whatever conference Weber State plays in (I want to say Big Sky, but I'm not completely sure). I saw him play a couple of times during championship week last year and he was a very energetic, aggressive guard that knew when he needed to take over a game and carry his team on his back. I thought he may have a future in the NBA at the time. We'll see if he pans out. A little short for the NBA as far as his scoring ability goes, but I like players like Boyette, Ford, and Price in spite of their size because they seem to have the work ethic needed to succeed at the pro level in spite of their physical short comings.
I'll keep an eye on Jermaine Boyette and Jason Keep. These are guys I wasn't even expecting to be on the rockets squad. Jermaine Boyette I think from what i heard he is a grat scorer but is too short for the shooting guard spot, and he does not have the mentality of a piont guard. He might be kind of like the Hollis Price's and Marcus Hatten's. Jason Keep is one strong dude. He benched 185 lbs. 27 times in the strength and agility tests in chicago. Don't know much about his game but i think he could be a banger down low. Both of these players could've been drafted in the second round so I'm glad the rockets get to see if they could be at least good role players.
I've never heard of none of them. No Eddie Griffin? OH well....this gives a chance for the other players to show off their talent. No Terence?!? I wonder where he went..... Tito Maddox....well he had to come back here...no one wants him. Kyle Hill? Don't know who he is....but he's always on the REALgm thing...I guess we have his rights. Well...I'm sure this team can beat the Lakers summer team! Not the Cavs though.
Who do you think the best starting line-up would be? PG - Maddux SG - Hawkins SF - Nachbar PF - Badiane ? C - Scott
If Shea Seals had came out as a jr, he would have been a lotto pick. He went back to Tulsa and had a bad sr season and went 2nd rd or undrafted. He lit the Dream Team up when they played against the college player including all world defenders Jordan and Pippen. His stock was so high, but shot 37% his sr yr.
I saw Keep play again UCLA last year and he looked like an All-American in that game. Physically, he sort of looks like Jason Collier -- you know, the big-Frankenstein-white-guy kinda look. What really impressed me was that he was super-aggressive. If Collier is leaving and Badiane isn't ready, Keep might be a good choice as a 3rd center. Looking over that summer league roster... who's this Nachbar guy? His name sounds vaguely familiar. Anyone heard of him? Is he any good, or just a bench warmer?
Here's a partial recap of the USD/UCLA game I mentioned above: San Diego 86, #14 UCLA 81 (OT) LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Jason Keep collected 30 points and 16 rebounds to make Brad Holland's return to Westwood a memorable one as San Diego posted an 86-81 overtime victory over the 14th-ranked UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavillion. UCLA (0-1) lost the services of the 6-11 Dan Gadzuric, a four-year starter who is currently starting for the Milwaukee Bucks. His replacement is 6-10 T.J. Cummings, who is more of a power forward. Keep simply decimated Cummings inside. "It was a hard effort from the whole team," Keep said. "Everyone looks at me because I dropped 30, but this is all about the guys that are all on the floor with me." "When I was guarding him, I did the best I could," Cummings said.
