Re: Summer schedule: Celtics in Salt Lake, Vegas

by **tjmakz** Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:02 pm

rambone wrote:Porzingis or Turner would have probably been even better picks than Okafor for the Lakers. Randle isn't good enough to cross PF off your draft needs.

I really think Russell was drafted because of his perceived marketing value, aka good looks, charm, flashy play style, and ability to sell tickets and products.

We know that LaMarcus Aldridge came away from his meeting with the Lakers complaining that they talked about marketing for the entire first hour of the meeting before the basketball people talked, as an afterthought.

The Lakers clearly thought and think that Russell will be a better basketball player than Okafor.
Russell wowed them in his workouts.
Okafor did not wow the Lakers in two private workouts.

by **tjmakz** Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:09 pm

Here's a perfect example of why summer league does not mean much.
In the Knicks vs. Philly game, two players scored at least 20 points.
Have you heard of either of them?

Ndour - 23 points
Wilbekin - 26 points

by **worcester** Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:35 pm

TJ, Scotty Wilbekin had many disciplinary problems at FL, but he was one helluva guard. That could translate into a spot in the NBA.

Re Okafor, I noted his laziness and lack of drive at the Final Four, but so far Russell has not shown much at all in SL. I hope for your sake that's an abberation.

by **tjmakz** Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:45 pm

worcester wrote:TJ, Scotty Wilbekin had many disciplinary problems at FL, but he was one helluva guard. That could translate into a spot in the NBA.

Re Okafor, I noted his laziness and lack of drive at the Final Four, but so far Russell has not shown much at all in SL. I hope for your sake that's an abberation.

Russell has not shown much in the first 3 games.
He started off game 1 against Minnesota quite well early on but didn't finish strong.
I have been away and fortunately missed the Lakers last game.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, I do not pay attention to summer league stats.
I know Russell can play.
I do not expect anymore games close to 8 turnovers and 1 assist.

Wilbekin was not listed in the Draft Express Top 100 Prospects.

by **worcester** Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:08 pm

Yes, but Scotty can play. He's just a head case.

by **rambone** Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:25 pm

Wilbekin wasn't part of this draft class, I'm pretty sure. I think he went undrafted, or drafted second round, last year.

by **rambone** Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:32 am

Marcus Thornton Full SL Highlights vs Heat (2015.07.14) - 21 Pts

by **Sam** Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:41 pm

TJ,

The main knock I've seen on Russell involves his defense. What's your opinion?

Is it possible that, since Cazzie couldn't do the job, the Lakers drafted another Russell of their own just to try to get the rubbery taste of balloons out of their mouths? (Only kidding.)

Sam

by **rambone** Thu Jul 16, 2015 5:12 pm

R.J. Hunter Full SL Highlights vs Heat (2015.07.14) - 13 Pts

RJ Hunter Full SL Highlights 2015.07.12 vs 76ers - 21 Pts.

R.J. Hunter Full SL Highlights 2015.07.09 vs Spurs - 18 Pts.

by **bobheckler** Thu Jul 16, 2015 8:49 pm

rambone wrote:R.J. Hunter Full SL Highlights vs Heat (2015.07.14) - 13 Pts

RJ Hunter Full SL Highlights 2015.07.12 vs 76ers - 21 Pts.

R.J. Hunter Full SL Highlights 2015.07.09 vs Spurs - 18 Pts.

I just re-watched all 3 of these highlight films. His range, for a rookie, is unreal. Absolutely unreal. He's taking 25-28'ers with no hesitation at all on his shot and hitting them. Anybody can take them but he hits them and when he takes them they have the look like they could go in. A lot of times guys will take those shots and if they go in you think "lucky". Not Hunter. If he can see it, he'll take it and you feel good about it too.

Next step will be to see if he can get the separation he needs to take and hit them in pre-season, where the players are longer and where they're quicker to the spot than these summer leaguers.

bob

.

by **Sam** Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:19 pm

But hopefully the screens, passes and motion offense are also better.

Sam

by **gyso** Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:04 am

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/game_recap/071615-smart-goes-down-but-celtics-still-advance

Smart Goes Down, But Celtics Still Advance

By Marc D'Amico
Celtics.com
July 17, 2015

LAS VEGAS – The Boston Celtics lost Marcus Smart Thursday night, but they didn’t lose the game. Boston overcame the loss of its best player and took down the Portland Trail Blazers 91-85.

Smart sent a scare into the Thomas & Mack Center crowd when he went down with 6:34 left in the second quarter. His screams of pain were audible throughout the building as he was helped off of the court by athletic trainer Ed Lacerte.

News broke about 10 minutes later that Smart had suffered dislocations to his right index and middle fingers. He left the game to undergo X-rays, which came back negative.

Boston surprisingly didn’t miss a beat after Smart left the game. In fact, the C’s caught their groove immediately after the injury.

Jordan Mickey, Royce O’Neale and Malcolm Miller combined to score eight straight points to tie the game up at 37-37. Mickey canned two free throws, while O’Neale and Miller each connected on a 3-pointer.

The Celtics finished the second quarter on a 20-6 run overall to gain a 47-43 edge at halftime.

“Marcus goes out and we didn’t really play great in the first half when we were down double-figures, and then those guys really rallied,” Celtics summer league head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “We threw a bunch of different guys in just to try out and see who was going to give us a spark and certain guys did it.”

That spark carried over into the third quarter as well. Boston opened the second half on a 9-0 run and eventually pulled ahead 61-44 for its largest lead of the night. Portland, however, wouldn’t go away quietly.

The Trail Blazers slowly chipped away at Boston’s lead over the next 14-plus minutes. Noah Vonleh keyed Portland’s run by canning three 3-pointers in a span of three minutes, the last of which sliced Boston’s lead down to six points. The Blazers then scored the next nine points of the game to take an 81-78 lead with 3:43 remaining.

Neither team was able to take control of the contest until the final minute, when rookie point guard Terry Rozier took over for Boston. He scored the team’s final eight points, all during the final minute of the game, to push the C’s into the win column. Rozier finished the contest with a team-high 19 points.

“The coaches believed in me. My teammates believed in me,” Rozier said after the game. “They gave me space to make plays, and that’s what I did.”

Rozier and the Celtics are undefeated during Las Vegas Summer League play and have earned a day off on Friday. They will return to the court at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon to take on the San Antonio Spurs in a win-or-go-home game.

_____________________________________________________

Next game: 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon vs. San Antonio Spurs. I don't know if that time is Eastern or Pacific, but we will get it figured out by Saturday.

gyso

by **gyso** Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:15 am

Here is a link to the bracket:

http://www.nba.com/summerleague/bracket/?ls=iref:nba:specials

Here is a link to the four games on Saturday:

http://www.nba.com/gameline/20150718/

by **cowens/oldschool** Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:25 am

tjmakz wrote:
cowens/oldschool wrote:
worcester wrote:Dim Buss makes Paul Gaston look like a competent owner. I feel sorry for the Lakers as they suffer through poor management decisions which are hurting the team's performance terribly. Oh well, the Celtics went through such a tough spot in the 90's. Now it's the Lakers turn. Russell over Okafor, really? What genius ran that draft?

If I was a Laker fan I couldn't express how pissed I'd be as a second pick in the draft is very rare and it can make or break a franchise. Right now Okafor looks like the second coming or a poor mans version of Tim Duncan at worst and Russell looks like a 6'4" version of Evan Turner, only not even as good. Buss picked Russell, a supposed playmaker because he assumed he was gonna sign LeMarcus Aldridge, but when Aldridge got there all they were prepared to discuss was marketing, nobody there could talk hoops or basketball, the whole staff wasn't prepared?

cowens,

You must be watching a different Okafor than I have been watching.
Okafor has put up some numbers in summer league but his lack of athleticism and laziness is being shown already.
Okafor had his shot blocked 5 times yesterday and has been blocked more than any other player this summer.
He is a below the rim center with no drive, which is not appealing to me.
Yes, Okafor has talents. All of the top players do.

Towns and Russell both have gotten off to slow starts in the summer league.
Do I expect that to continue? Not at all.
If Russell puts up 20 tonight with 7 assists and 2 turnovers will the Lakers now be geniuses?
FYI, Russell is 6'5".

You put a lot of weight in summer league basketball.
I don't at all. It's part of the process.

The Lakers didn't only talk about marketing with Aldridge.
It's hard to sell a player just on basketball when you won 21 games, have virtually rookies at the guard positions, Kobe who is ending his career and a guy in Randle who plays the same position as Aldridge.

actually at the time of that post had not seen the Knicks-76er game, later saw clips of Porzingis blocking some shots of Okafor. Porzingis's defense has shocked me, he reminds me of a taller version of Keven McHale. I agree Okafor is not an elite athlete like say a Cauley-Stein, but he still has huge hands and strong practiced post moves in the paint, his defense is not terrible, he still reminds me of a poor mans Tim Duncan. Alot of these young bigs still try to force things in the post, like some earlier games I saw with Randle, they want to see how their game works as they have done that at every level leading up to the NBA....well that won't always work at the NBA level, so adjustments will have to be made, as they all have to improve.

by **cowens/oldschool** Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:15 am

and I agree the its only SL and the results don't have any bearing.

Doug McBuckets is tearing up the SL, he couldn't do a thing last year in regular season. KO tore up the SL too, that didn't translate to the next level.

However if the young player can't do or show anything at this level, thats not good either, as the next level is much better....just sayin.