Summer League Awards

And the envelopes, please...


Winner of The Blue Chip Award - Jared Sullinger. That's what his agent, David Falk called him when he was introduced to the press, and based upon what I saw this week, it could well be the truth. Here's a quote, provided by Sam Amico, from an NBA scout about Sully after watching him at Ohio State and now at the summer league.

"Coming out of college, I heard a lot of people compare him to (Cavs forward) Samardo Samuels," said one scout. "That's ridiculous. Samuels is just fine, but the only thing they have in common is their wide frames. Sullinger is so much more skilled it's not funny. He understands the game and is a tireless worker. If he stays healthy, a lot of teams will regret not (drafting) him sooner."

The scout went on to predict Sullinger would be an immediate starter for a lot of teams. "In some situations," the scout said, "he'd be a go-to guy."

My observations are that he's a baby bull. He has back-to-the-basket moves and can hit from mid-range (he took some threes, but I predict we won't see any of those during the season). He scored on drop steps and rolling across the lane with hookshots. He is an above average passer for a big man. Good IQ. He cannot play center in the NBA. Sorry, Danny. He is a dependable force with good IQ and not likely to "pull a Pietrus" (i.e. do something that's so dumb you slap your forehead). He'll have Brandon Bass looking over his shoulder by the All-Star game.


Winner of the Most Pleasant Surprise Award - Kris Joseph. Four good games, one unimpressive. Had an 11 rebound game, but seems to average around 5 or so, which is fine for a SF. Hit some 3s and was very effective coming off of weak-side pindowns. This is the same play we saw Ray Allen do so well for 5 years. They ran it for Joseph a few times and he didn't miss the shot once. When he gets a rebound he turns and looks to motor upcourt. He had several coast-to-coast trips this week. While Doc might be telling him to look for Rondo or Terry to pass to and then run without the ball, I'm ok with a 6'7" player who can lead a break too. I was also impressed with how well he played NBA man-to-man defense. Quite quick and opportunistic on defense. He'll probably need to get stronger, for the NBA, but he's a greyhound now. Our bench at SF last year was Daniels, Sasha and Pietrus. Daniels runs a coherent halfcourt offense, can play good D, and is a surprisingly effective low post scorer, but makes you cringe if he shoots outside of 8'. A SF really has to be able to extend the defense. Sasha is a physical defender, smart player, can hit 3s (he isn't Ray Allen, but when he is in rhythm he is dangerous) and runs the floor. He cannot create his own shot. Pietrus is a physical defender with a brain by Mattel. Loves the 3 too much, even though with his body he should be powering his way past his defender. Compared to these three, Joseph looks like an upgrade, as long as we have the ballhandlers to replace Daniels on the second unit. He'll be a good 3rd player on the depth chart at 3, behind Pierce and Green.


Winner of the "Where the hell did he come from?" Award - Dionte Christmas. This kid did everything well and, in a couple of games, rebounded outrageously well for a SG. He's a natural PG, wanting the ball in his hands and running an offense. Very good courtvision, he thinks pass first. Drives to the basket well in the half and fullcourt. At 6'5", he's a big PG. He's playing for Houston in the Vegas league unless Danny does something to stop that. I wish he would. He has definitely earned an invite to camp. If Danny doesn't sign Gilbert Arenas or Shannon Brown or some other proven, legit guard for the veteran's minimum he should grab this kid. He has played in Europe for a couple of years now, so he has pro experience.

Winner of the Student-of-the-Year Award - Fabricio Paulino de Melo. Definitely a project. Plays as if he has never seen a pick-and-roll before. Plays purely upon instinct. This is understandable given he has only been playing basketball for 5 years. After a year of having KG screaming at him he may be wishing he was a foot-and-a-half shorter and still playing soccer. He has soooo much to learn. He should be 3rd or maybe even 4th on the depth chart at 5. In my personalized version of Hell, he's currently 2nd (cue my primal scream). Perhaps in a few years he can let go of KG's skirt, but it'll take that long. He is completely unseasoned and raw.

Winner of the Most Improved Player Award - E'Tuan Moore. Yeah, he had a horrible game at point on Thursday, but everybody on the Game On thread for the first 3 games this week were all remarking how much more comfortable he was at point now (and how much more comfortable they were with him playing it). Not a point guard, but ok in a pinch. Shooting, though, is his thing. Other than his bad game on Thursday he looked strong and confident. His shot dropped, he was the team's designated T shooter. Set a pick for him and he will free himself up for a shot, and he can score in bunches. Other than Pierce we don't have a lot of players who can create their own shots. Moore can do that, especially if you give him just the most modest pick (I'm withholding judgment on Jason Terry until I have a chance to see him play in Doc's system). It's good to have players on both units that can salvage an otherwise shot clock violation. The departure of Ray Allen has provided him with a glorious opportunity to earn a rotation slot.

Winner of the Booby Prize - Sean Williams. He looked like Ryan Hollins without the energy. Living proof that basketball is not about how high you can jump.


bob

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Here's an article from the Boston Herald. It appears that Danny used his head and convinced Xmas to play for us in Vegas instead of Houston. Read his comments about JJJ and Moore.



Dionte Christmas will continue with the Celtics [team stats] to Las Vegas, where they play in a second summer league next week, but first he needed a statement, a nice blast of energy to make sure that someone noticed.

So before sitting down for most of the second half in the Celtics’ 94-73 win over the Magic in their Orlando Summer League finale, the 25-year-old veteran of three international leagues exploded.

He scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half, including 11 straight, and also finished with five rebounds, four assists and three steals. For someone who is trying to catch on with an NBA team, the energy stats may matter more than the scoring. From the time he was at Temple, the entire league knew that Christmas could score.

“I went overseas and developed a lot,” said Christmas. “There’s a lot of scorers in the NBA, and to get on a team, they don’t need a guy like me to come in and score 20 a game. Boston has KG, (Rajon) Rondo, Jason Terry, Paul Pierce [stats], all of these guys who are great scorers. They just need a guy to come in and fill the void. They need an extra guard who can rebound. So I just try to do the little things.

“If you can’t do nothing else, you have to have energy, man, especially playing in the NBA summer league, there’s nothing greater,” he said. “You have to have energy, man. That right there is what gets me going. You’re playing the Orlando Magic in front of all these people, you have to have energy. You’re playing the sport that you love. I’ve had energy ever since I’ve played basketball. That’s nothing new to me.”

It’s also nothing new for Christmas to try and break into the league. His closest chance came in training camp in 2009 with Philadelphia. He moved from there to Israel, and the start of an international tour that also took Christmas to Turkey and Greece.

But he keeps working for an NBA breakthrough.

“First of all it’s home. And making the NBA is every kid’s dream,” he said. “That’s been my dream forever. I’ve been in great countries: Greece, Turkey, Israel. But there’s nothing like the NBA, and I’m not going to stop until I get there.

“I thought it was a pretty good week, first of all as a team,” Christmas added. “Individually, hopefully I opened up a couple of eyes. I’ve been getting great feedback. The (coaches) have said I’ve been doing great out there, and I just wanted to come out and be consistent, keep playing ‘D,’ and I did it.”

Purdue duo doesn’t

As well as Christmas, Kris Joseph and Jared Sullinger played this week, last year’s rookies were inconsistent.

JaJuan Johnson closed with seven points and seven rebounds yesterday, and averaged 9.2 points and 5.8 rebounds over five summer league games. His thin frame — an issue that may never improve — occasionally led to the Celtics forward getting lost in traffic against bigger players. He was predictably at his best drifting outside for jumpers.

“Up and down,” Doc Rivers, who was off-site hosting a golf tournament yesterday morning, said about Johnson Thursday. “He can score. He has to get better defensively. There’s been guys weaker than him who have played for a long time, so if he doesn’t get the strength he has to figure out how to play with not having strength.

“He just has to be more active,” he said. “He’s never going to stretch the defense out to the 3-point line, so I don’t know how much of a stretch four he can be. He has to get a 15-foot jump shot, face-up jump shots, but he can do things.”

Asked about E’Twaun Moore, the Celtics coach was equally blase.

“E’Twaun has been up and down,” said Rivers. “We know he can play the game but he tries to do too much at times.”

Moore had a strong second half yesterday, when he scored 12 of his 18 points. Like Christmas, he had three steals. He led the team in scoring (14.0 ppg) and assists (2.8 apg) this week, but went through some rough patches with his shooting (43 percent).

However, Moore was also playing in pain. He strained his hip the second game of the week, but continued to play. Joseph also suffered a hip flexor yesterday.

Board meeting



Sullinger, who was given the morning off and will next play in Las Vegas, ended up second in the field this week by averaging 8.3 rebounds a contest. Only Utah’s Enes Kanter (8. boarded at a higher rate. . . . The Celtics [team stats] don’t plan to make any roster changes heading into Las Vegas, where they play their first game Monday. . . .

Celtics assistant Tyronn Lue, who has jokingly (we think) threatened to apply for the Magic’s coaching opening based on his success this week, is now 4-1 as a head coach.

“I should retire now,” said Lue. “An .800 winning percentage isn’t bad. The greatest of all time.”


bob

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Where is the MVP award?

dboss wrote:Where is the MVP award?

Some people are so hard to please...:-)

I didn't look at the games this week like the playoffs, where you look for the player that was THE difference-maker, but rather how players stood up to expectations. This was, after all, a collection of players who were a team about as much as a pickup game in the schoolyard has teams. They have little to no experience playing with each other, nor as a unit. Moore and JJJ know Doc's system, Sean Williams should know it but his brain hasn't returned yet from Planet Jumptron, and the rest of the "team" knows what Tyrone Lue put up on the greaseboard 1/2 hour earlier. They're not told to play roles, they're told to go out and play hard and be aggressive. They might as well use a grease pen to draw the plays on their forearms, for all the time they've spent practicing them.

If I had to pick one player, I'd say it was Sully. I pick him, not because he had the best numbers or because he was so dominant (in fact he struggled mightily when he was matched up with opposing centers like Andre Drummond and Miles Plumlee) but because of our need for bigs and The Blue Chip can deliver. By that definition, he is the Most Valuable Player on the Celtics summer league (Orlando and even in the not-yet played Vegas) team as long as he doesn't completely blow up. Melo would be the MVP, because if we have a need for bigs we have a bullhorn-amplified scream for centers, if I thought there was any hope he could be a near-term contributor to the team, but there realistically isn't any such hope.

If we define MVP as "who was the best player on the floor?" or "who dominated at their position?", I'd have to lean towards Kris Joseph with Dionte Christmas coming in a close second, but with Pierce/Green and Rondo/Terry in front of them on the depth chart they're just not as "valuable".

bob


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Bob yes I am hard to please. At least that what my wife Bonnie says. U been talking to her.

Dboss