I liked Duval, House, Melton in that order from today. Edwards was alright. Looking forward to seeing Gary and Rob "I don’t care if you’re a good defender or not. Good defense … better offense" Gray.
Zhou Qi is the only one i have to somewhat disagree with you on he has shown that he can play on this level i say give him a little more time with MR. 34 and he will be ready.
Zhou's game doesn't fit MDA's system. MDA's system requires a rim runner. He's focusing too much on the 3-shot. He needs to be learning how to play Hartenstein's game. Unfortunately, they come in together usually.
Top to bottom, we have a really good summer league roster imo. Morey definitely finding at least one serviceable player or “asset”.
Why is this Zhou kid not putting on any meat and potatoes on himself. Eat! Eat! Eat! He is not going to survive for long if he stays like a twig. Also, his movement/coordination is still not here. He has been here for a while but he didn't look any better than the newer guys. Honestly, I dont see much of an improvement in a year. There has to be a timeline on his development?
Just watched the game, taped it while traveling. - Hartenstein: He's come a long way since I last saw him. He's not so hunched and seemed comfortable in his skin. Smart, team player with solid skills. Would have liked to see him shoot a little more to get a better feel for his offense. Much more versatile than I thought. - Duval: Elite quickness and very good ball-handling skills. Pushes the ball and the tempo. Great change-of-pace player and better shooter than I thought. Would seem to be the perfect apprentice for CP3 to groom as his eventual replacement. I definitely want to see more of what he can do. - Melton: Make it happen defender, but a pure bricklayer as a jump shooter. Had some decent finishes at the rim and ok ball-handler. Needs a lot of work on offense, at least that's my first impression. - Everyone else was not very exciting. House looks like a G-leaguer to me. Very disappointed in Zhou, as others have said he still looks lost and he's as skinny as before. Really want to see Clark and Gray play.
I'm actually shocked there's still people who think Zhou is going to contribute to an NBA team. Where's the laughing so much you cry emoji when you need it?
His outside shot? In college and in the NBA his percentages are nothing to parade about at all, and his basketball intelligence makes me want to cry. Did you watch the whole game? If we are going to go with raw counting stats, we should just grab Troy Williams.
I said it before last season. I've said it now. I'll say it next pre-season. And I'll say it the pre-season after that. Hopefully by then everyone will realise he was purely for cash purposes and was never intended to be a contributing player.
I think that's entirely possible. That said, those threes he knocked down yesterday were pretty damn sweet. And he seems to be running the floor pretty damn well for a project with a 7-8 wingspan. Can't wait for game 2 my Rocket Brother!
Yeppers, Yi Jianlian. And, frankly, I believed he had an NBA skillset that was offset by a mental what, block? about his peers that twarted his ability to achieve. T-Jones - - is he still playing? Anywhere? D'Mo? I. just. dunno. Love the guy on the court/hate the guy on the court.
I admit I saw only the highlights, his jumper was smooth at this level,since he has NBA experience with the Suns. This gave him more confidence to shoot than our other players. I believe that quite a few of the summer league Rockets can surpass him, with more experience. I just felt that he is more NBA ready, despite being a one dimensional player, since the other players need to gain more experience.
So he kind of reminds me of Troy Williams. He might be more ready to play in a physical sense, but some of the shots and decisions were bewildering. Had me thinking he is one of those 25PPG in the GLeague sort of guys, that never really break through to the NBA. I hope I'm wrong, but essentially everyone on the roster appeared to have higher basketball intelligence. (Except for maybe Markel Brown and RJ Hunter who also had the "KJ McDaniels" look) I really hope he does well since he was born in Houston and has some of that PJ thickness.
Thought this was a great write up. Thanks for doing that! From watching the game myself I would say I would agree with the majority of this.
