Summer League Post Game 4 vs Houston

We had two game on threads.

http://www.nba.com/games/20130710/BOSHOU/gameinfo.html

KO had an "off" shooting day.  He only shot 8-14 for 19 points.  10 rebounds.

Pressey finally ran the point well.  10 assists and 4 TOs.

Iverson had 8 boards in 18 minutes and continued to bounce opponents around like billiard balls.  God knows we could use an enforcer.

Tony Mitchell finally had a bad game.  He showed me quite a bit this week, though.

Courtney Fells looks smooth.  He played in Israel last year, the Israeli league is pretty good.  He looks very smooth, nothing especially great, but everything well.

Abromaitis had a good game.  He's an intangibles guy.  He does a lot of the little stuff you love to see a player do, he's just physically handicapped (at 6'8", against the players he goes against).  If we needed practice bodies I'd love to have him on the team, but he won't get invited to vet camp because our roster is already overloaded.

Darius Johnson-Odom had a very good game, not that consistent.  He's a 2 in a 1's body.  Have a nice year in Europe.

Eli Holman had some moments, not enough though.  

Poor Nolan Smith never got a chance to show himself due to injury in game 1.

Granger's gone.  Omar Reed is gone.  Lawrence Hill is hell-and-gone.  I can only wish Fab was gone. Pull a rabbit out of your hat, Danny, and package Melo for a dog. We could always find the dog a good home.


bob


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http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4706022/rapid-reaction-rockets-85-celtics-78


Rapid Reaction: Rockets 85, Celtics 78
July, 10, 2013
JUL 10
5:05
PM ET
By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

ORLANDO -- Rapid reaction after the Houston Rockets defeated the Boston Celtics 85-78 on Day 4 of the Orlando Summer League at the Amway Center:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Kelly Olynyk scored a team-high 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds (six on the offensive glass) over 28 minutes. Phil Pressey had another nice outing, handing out 10 assists (negating 2-of-9 shooting and four turnovers over 26 minutes; he was plus-14 during his time on the floor). Tim Abromaitis kicked in 14 points and was a team-best plus-20 in plus/minus, while Courtney Fells added 10 points. Hop HERE to read the full box score. A quiet night for Fab Melo, who had one point and zero rebounds over 10 minutes.

TURN UP THE BASS
Brandon Bass was the latest visitor for the Celtics, dropping by for the afternoon to see Boston's summer entry and meet new coach Brad Stevens. Bass said he's been laying low this summer and asked about all the changes on the Boston roster, he offered, "I don’t have no impressions, no feelings. It’s the business of basketball." Bass stressed he's focusing on his own game and noted, "I’ll be ready come training camp."

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Celtics have an offday Thursday -- and it's needed for a team that's been active for seven straight days (including the three days of practice when they first arrived in Orlando) -- and will wrap up summer league play on Friday with a championship-round game that will be determined by the overall standings after Thursday's games.


bob


,

Bobh,
Couldn't agree with you more about Fab Melo.
First I kind of gave him benefit of the doubt, so to speak: in comparison with other 7-footers, KO and CI, he just didn't impress that much. But then I noticed on a couple of occasions (on defense) he was totally lost. While the other 2 guys also made mistakes but at least they recovered. And it's after the whole year in D-league. Plus all that softness and absence of aggression. I'm kind of surprised that Danny gave him contract. Maybe to have a filler for future trades?

After watching this game I have the same impressions as after the 1st game: KO, Pressey and Iverson should get into the camp. The rest are not cutting it (for whatever reason).

AK

Sinus,

I'd add Fells to the list for camp. He looks enough like Sam Jones (stylistically and in shooting touch) to make me want to see him get some serious minutes playing among veterans. Sam had to be convinced by Red to shoot, and so will Fells. I know Fells, at 6' 6," is listed as a small forward, but I see no reason he couldn't play shooting guard—especially given his range. He might become a good swing man too. And I believe he'd be a great wing to fill a lane in transition; he, Green and a recovered Rondo could very possibly wreak havoc on the break. I haven't been focusing on Fells in the defensive end, so I don't know whether that could potentially be an issue.

Sam

Week Summary

The Irresistible Force:  The Big Knock Out.  KO has the most NBA ready offense of any big man (and, considering how inconsistent Caldwell-Pope and Carter-Williams was, perhaps of any rookie) in Orlando.  Offensively, he did it all.  He tied Reggie Jackson for highest scoring average, 19.5, but that's because Jackson had that monster 35 point game.  Consistently, KO was better.  He shot a gaudy 57.4% and he did it from everywhere in a multitude of ways.  He had 2.3 steals per game.  His east-west defensive movement needs work.  I'm not sure how you fix slow feet, but he needs to.  Some experience with spacing will help.  Offensively, though, he's there.  Period.  Rebounding, which was also supposed to be a weak point with him, didn't seem to be.  He was 4th with 8.0rpg.

The Immovable Object:  Colton Iverson.  Unlike his fellow 7'ers (KO and Melo) he did NOT get pushed under the basket.  His reputation for being a physical player is well deserved.  Opposing players who ran into him bounced backwards.  Stonewall Jackson got his nickname because his soldiers saw him standing upright in a battle with bullets flying around him and said "look at the General!  He's just standing there like a stonewall!".  Iverson's nickname should be "Stonewall", because that's what he must have felt like that when they ran into him.  His offense is basic, pick-and-roll, but that seems to be more advanced than you-know-who.  He's a white Perk.  He doesn't want the ball, doesn't need the ball, he just wants to hurt your man.  Unfortunately, he also shoots free throws like Perk.  I don't understand why, he has a nice stroke, they just don't go in.  Unlike Perk, though, he seems to have reasonably soft hands.

Nicest Surprise Who Won't Make The Team (aka The Kris Joseph Award):  I'd have to give that to Tony Mitchell.  He hit from range, he slashed to the basket with and without the ball, he ran fullcourt.  Defensively, he did ok man-to-man but was outstanding coming from the weakside including one fullcourt-run-him-down-from-behind block.  A strong finisher.  Against Detroit there was a stretch where our Tony Mitchell went up against their Tony Mitchell (the 6'9" bruiser drafted out of North Texas) and they went back and forth.  They don't play the same position, so it wasn't a man-a-mano battle ala Bird and 'Nique, but they dominated for several minutes and our Tony kept us in the game.  3 of his 4 games were good (his last one wasn't).  Unless he can play at least some 2 we probably don't have room on the roster for him at 3, and that's a shame.

DPCSL (Defensive Player Celtics Summer League):  Phil Pressey.  A surpriser, really, given his lack of stature but he played pitbull-like fullcourt pressure on his man all the time, every game.  He was a pest.  We all watched to see if he could run point, which he didn't do really well until the last game, but his defense was actually consistently good all game, every game.  He also was 4th in assists/game in Orlando.

Honorable Mention:  Courtney Fells.  I'm not as high on him as Sam is.  He did a lot well, but nothing really well.  I'd be hard put to come up with any aspect of his game that stood out.  No big offensive outbursts, no spectacular defensive plays, no big rebounding games.  Just in there, all the time.  He's 6'6" like Tony Mitchell but not as strong, didn't run the floor as well, good man-to-man defense (but not great) like Mitchell but without the spectacular weak side ESPN highlight blocks that Mitchell had and is NOT as strong a finisher as Mitchell.  I would have loved to see Tony Mitchell play 2.  He might have been at 3 because that's his position (if so, he's not going to make it in the NBA as a 6'6" 3, not anymore) or because Larranagga thought that Fells was a more natural 2 and played him there.  The key for Mitchell, playing 2, is his foot speed.  He's a rocket compared to 3s, but 2s are faster.

The El Busto Award:  Who else?  Melo had a lousy summer league last summer.  The hope was that a year of seasoning in the D-league would teach him the fundamentals he didn't grow up learning.  He had a couple of monster games up in Maine too.  This summer league was, if anything, worse than last year's.  He did very little right, very little.  He averaged 18.5mpg, averaged 5.0ppg, only 3.0rpg, 0 assists (zero), .5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.  By comparison, Eli Holman (who?) averaged 9.7mpg, 4.7ppg, 4.3rpg, .3 assists and 1.0 blocks per game.  Iverson averaged 17mpg, 3.3ppg (not THAT big a difference from 5.0), 5.3rpg, .3 assists, .8 steals and .5 blocks.  None of these stats tell you how many points were given up because the player was out of position on defense.  Pick-and-roll defense is as basic as it gets and Melo just doesn't get it.  Still.  He felt he wasn't part of the team last year?  Wait 'til this year.  The only way we should see him in Boston is on the side of a milk carton.

http://www.nba.com/summerleague/2013/statistics/orlando/index.html


bob


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BobH,

I have to disagree about Courtney Fell's ability to run the court. I think he's whippet fast and agile. I like his outside shot more than Mitchell's too; I think it's better grooved. Maybe both he and Tony Mitchell will be invited to camp and have a head-to-head duel for a spot on the team (or perhaps more likely in the D League).

Sam

It is funny that you say Stonewall because that is literally my last name in swedish, Stenvall.

I haven't seen any of the games, but would Olynyk's defensive lateral movement improve if he adopted a lower stance? The guy obviously has enough physical and mental ability to be a decent defender, so I'm just wondering if there's something mechanical that's impacting his lateral movement. Standing too upright on defense is the first thing that comes to mind.

Stonewall was accidentally killed by friendly fire from his own troops. General Robert E. Lee never won another offensive battle after his demise.

Outside wrote:I haven't seen any of the games, but would Olynyk's defensive lateral movement improve if he adopted a lower stance? The guy obviously has enough physical and mental ability to be a decent defender, so I'm just wondering if there's something mechanical that's impacting his lateral movement. Standing too upright on defense is the first thing that comes to mind.

outside,

It probably wouldn't hurt to get lower but I'm not sure that's it.

I think some of his problem is that he tries to run with his man, NOT a good idea if you're slower because you're never going to get that extra step you need to get in front of him and square up unless he does something dumb and cuts the corner too short and tries to run straight over you. He should retreat a bit, sorta go east-west and slightly back, and force his man to pull up for a jump shot because he's not turning the corner.


bob


.

Usually when you have bad lateral movement it is because you are planted on your heels instead of on your toes.

KO must be remembering when he was a pg and could move laterally. Lol