[Video] Royce White's First NBA Basket (UPDATED: Full Royce Highlights)

There was no control out there. That is the PG's job to take control & calm/settle things down. Also the vets need to get on the rookies as well. I remember the first pre-season game where Parsons went off on D-mo when he came in & was not in the right position. Douglas & Scott were just adding to the chaos. But you can't just blame it all on them because the rookies are confused themselves don't think CP3 could have saved them tonight it was all a mess. It's a process though I just want to see growth by the time ASB roles around. I hope McHale really lays in on them though.

 

...bigger than any other rookie drafted

 

If Royce was really good defensively he could have made some noise about getting some time with the ball in his hands. But he isn't really good defensively so ultimately I agree with Clutch on this. That sucks because I like Royce but I think it is for the best.

 

If this were a real game, either Royce or DMo would have come out because Dallas was running small and had the advantage because we have no halfcourt continuity. So, in fairness to Royce, he was playing a mismatch. He wasn't playing a post up guy. I kept waiting for DMo or somebody to switch off. I suppose Crowder vs. DMo would have been even more of a mismatch for us than Royce playing him.

All in all, I don't put a whole lot of stock into these minutes for Royce. They were forced minutes and we weren't matching up.

 

I agree with this. I think it'll work out in the end and I'd be sad to see him go to the D-League, but if it would help him a year or two down the road, then I'm for it. RW has never played good defense though. The coaching staff knew this drafting him. His strengths are on rebounding (though tonight he did not do well), on offense, and screening guys.

From watching the guy play at Iowa State, I thought the entire Rockets team did not have good chemistry except one or two players. There are a lot of little things White does to help his teammates score, and the small handful of times he did these things, his players either didn't recognize it or did not receive it. It will come with playing together more and more of course as each player learns what the other players are capable of.

White can do a lot of things without the ball and unfortunately we weren't able to see it tonight. I think as he plays more, you'll see what I'm talking about more, but in the end as far as his defense goes? He's never been great at defense. It was opposite day for him on the glass. Whenever he had good position, the ball went in. Every other time..he was outside of the paint and was late to the party.

Don't write him off yet, but I will fully agree with you if he continues. He also told a reporter he thought he played terribly tonight even if he was able to be productive for a minute or two.

 

Biggest hands in the draft! And you know what they say about people with big hands... they make great passers

 

I forgot to add one more thing. Arguably one of White's best games last year was one he had a grand total of 2 points on with 1 shot attempt. He had the ball in his hands yes, but he did more off the ball that game and helping guys get open. The difference is that the players got him the ball when he was open, but he recognized he was being double and triple teamed and did more to help his team win than try and force it.

If they let White play like this, you'll see more of it and he'll look a lot better. Defense is something he will have to learn to get way better at. No way to sugar coat that one, but nobody who knows the guys game would tell you he's an excellent defender.

 

It's useless to put the ball in Royce White's hands because he simply won't be double, triple teamed in pro level, especially in half court. He can't make plays like in college except on the break.

 

The hands thing is a big advantage though and if you can dribble and pass, then look out....but we knew that already....

I agree that his cam holdout may cost him enough time to get a rotation spot. That's why you show up to class on the first day..SMH.

Problem is, he's not going to start in front of Parsons and he's not a good enough big to play the 4, which he'll have to, since he's not going to be handling the ball a lot with Lin at point. Same with Machado, who's not going to stand there and wait for passes to shoot or finish. Not sure he can even do it with Douglas. Maybe with Forbes.

 

I disagree, and I disagree because we haven't seen him do his inside scoring, or much of anything really. If he established himself on the inside, of course he'd be doubled down on occasions every once in awhile.

Anyway, this was just one example. He doesn't need to be double teamed to do things for his teammates. If you watched him play all last year, you'd know this. One of the big things he did when he DID have the ball in his hands near the perimeter was pass the ball to someone near on the perimeter and then back down his defender(s) giving the guy with the ball a wide open shot. He did this in the first half tonight. Don't know who he passed it off to, but White backed down two defenders. The guy with the ball squared up wide open, and then did an up fake, and decided not to shoot even though he had nobody on him for 5 feet. He passed the ball away. This is what I'm talking about with the players do not have great chemistry. He set the guy up with the wide open shot while holding off a few guys and still didn't take it.

He was NEVER double teamed on the perimeter because he's not a great shooter, yet he was always able to do these kinds of things. He is good at screening and setting picks off the ball. He doesn't need to be double teamed.

 

I do not think he needs to get double teamed to make good passes. The pass to Lamb in the summer league showed how he can get a pass to a cutter in the half court. He will excel in transition as there is more space but I think he can pass in the half court. I know it is summer league, but vision is vision it will take him time to understand the windows of the NBA versus college but I believe he can.

However all that said, Royce needs to shoot better. He needs to become a threat at the elbow on offense. On Defense, he needs to compete for position and work on his hands he does not have the raw size to force people to shoot over him at the 4.

We need to give all the Rockets time. Buckle your seat belts.

Fierguard

Bleed Red Rockets Red

 

Definitely. And as someone said before, his big hands are a huge advantage..well for shooting, huge hands are not a good thing. I do think it's a good sign he's taking jumpshots. It shows his growing confidence in his jumper. Unfortunately 2 or 3 of the 4 jumpers were forced ones trying to beat a shot clock. The last jumper looked pretty good for someone who's trying to develop a jumper. He also made his FT which is a good sign.

 

I think he's D-league bound. Pat, Jones, D-mo, and a little Morris = no spot for Royce in the rotation. He needs to play and work on his game. That's not gonna happen riding the pine. He's got the right attitude, I think he can handle it. Who knows, maybe someone goes down and he gets his opportunity later in the season.

 

I just think it's a little weird after one game, the first game, people are already writing someone off. I guess this would happen anywhere, but come on. Let the guy play a few more games before you make such a conclusion.

You need a minimum of two points to make a trend line, not one.

 

If Royce White had any resemblance of an inside post move, McHale would had him posting up already as he already tried with Pat, DMo or even Asik. McHale is dying for a back to the basket post up scorer but the fact is that there is none in this roster. As you said, White is non-threat on the perimeter either because of his lack of jump shot. Pro defenders aren't stupid, they only need to slag White off and cover his passing angle then he's useless in half court no matter how great his vision is. He's also not quick enough to break down offense off the dribble. You simply don't run your offense through someone who is a non-scoring threat in nba level.

 

He has post up moves, but for the NBA game he needs to work on them a little more since players will be bigger than him guarding that space. He has the height, but he has to work on some other moves for his height differential with some defenders. He's not LeBron quick with the ball, but he's quicker than you think with it.

Outside of practices and scrimmages, I've seen every game this guy has played in the last 2.5 years. Trust me on some of the stuff with him. Which of course you won't, because afterall, people think they know all about a player after watching 4 summer league games, 1 preseason game, and three 4 minute YouTube highlight videos.

 

Whoops. I meant he has the strength.

 

Not to mention he had a handful of times where he was open posted up and nobody ever gave him the ball. Watch the game more closely next time.

He also has the mentality of "do whatever it takes to make my team win." If that means scoring 0 points and helping guys get open while setting screens, and whatever else, blocking shots, etc then he's just as happy doing that as scoring 25 points if the outcome is the same - a win. Everyone should already know this about the guy. He's a very unselfish player. Fred Hoiberg had to actually make him become more selfish last year at times.

 

^^ Typical rookie "Wow..it's the...NBA..." experience.