Rapid Reaction: Summer League Game 1

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4713768/rapid-reaction-cs-85-heat-77



Rapid Reaction: C's 85, Heat 77
July, 5, 2014
JUL 5
1:33
PM ET
By Brian Robb, Special to ESPNBoston.com



ORLANDO – Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 85-77 on Day 1 of the Orlando Summer League on Saturday afternoon at the Amway Center.

THE NITTY GRITTY
Celtics second-year forward Kelly Olynyk scored a game-high 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting and added eight rebounds and four steals in 31 minutes to lead a balanced Celtics scoring attack. Power forward Mike Moser also posted 17 points, three rebounds and three assists off the bench, but it was Boston’s defense that shined the most on Day 1 of Orlando Summer League. The Celtics limited the Heat to just 32 percent shooting from the field during the relatively sloppy affair that featured a combined 45 turnovers from both teams.

SMART SHINES ON DEFENSE
Rookie Marcus Smart started alongside Phil Pressey in the Celtics backcourt and showed off his defensive skills immediately in his Summer League debut. The former Oklahoma State star defended multiple positions and posted a game-high five steals. Offensively, was more of a mixed bag for the 20-year-old, as Smart went scoreless in the first half, but finished strong with 10 points after intermission.

TOUGH DEBUT FOR NAPIER
Roxbury’s own Shabazz Napier started at point guard for the Heat in his Summer League debut and had a performance he would probably like to forget. The Connecticut product started the game 0-for-10 from the field before drilling a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to break the ice. Napier finished with 12 points in the setback on 3-of-15 shooting.

SURPRISE HELP OFF THE BENCH
Much of the attention heading into Summer League has been on the current members of the Celtics roster, but a couple of unknowns made their presence felt in Orlando right out of the gate. Latvian guard Dairis Bertrans shined in limited action scoring 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Moser, an undrafted rookie out of Oregon, earned crunch time minutes with his strong offensive performance, highlighted by some impressive shooting from beyond the arc (3-of-6).

NO SIGN OF YOUNG
First round pick James Young traveled with the Celtics to Orlando, but did not see action during the win. The swingman out of Kentucky was sidelined during team practices this week with a strained neck that he suffered in a car accident last month. He remains day-to-day.

WHAT’S NEXT?
The Celtics will be off Sunday, but will play four more games in Orlando this week: Monday vs. Indiana (3 p.m. ET), Wednesday vs. Detroit (7 p.m. ET), Thursday vs. Orlando (5 p.m. ET) and Friday (Opponent and time TBA).



bob
MY NOTE:  No mention of Iverson?  Did this guy just read the boxscore?  Is he unaware of roster needs?


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Colton Iverson was 5-8 for 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Not bad.



KJ

k_j_88 wrote:Colton Iverson was 5-8 for 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Not bad.



KJ

KJ,

I saw one Euro pick and at least 2 if not 3 solid NBA picks by Iverson. He set two really good picks on one possession.

Honestly, that's all I want out of him. KG set and held great picks and that created a lot of opportunities for us (including his abiity to hit the 20'er after the pass out from the pick). I don't expect, nor want, Iverson shooting from there, but I'd love him to break Pressey, Rondo, Smart, Bradley free with a pick. Points from Colton Iverson, and today he had 10, are gravy, pure gravy.

2 points on a flip shot in the lane from a pass by, I think, Smart.
2 points from running the break.
2 points battling inside in a scrum
2 points on the first possession of the game, intercepting a pass to Miles Plumlee and going fullcourt for the dunk.
I don't remember the 9th and 10th points.

So, only 2 of the 8 points I remember, really, were off a set play. The rest were all off of pure effort by him.



bob

Also, Kelly Olynyk looks quite a bit bigger.  His body, his shoulders and arms, are more defined, like he spent A LOT of time in the gym moving metal around the past month or two.  I think he had more muscle, traffic rebounds in this game than he had all last year.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's weighing in now at 245-250#, up from 238#.  7'0", 250# is more like it.


bob



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Phil Pressey made Shabazz Napier look bad

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2120156-celtics-phil-pressey-crosses-over-shabazz-napier-in-nba-summer-league?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national



KJ

In addition to what has already been mentioned, I believe more mention should be made of Iverson's passing. He had at least three great looks for inside passes that were precisely of the type San Antonio used to frustrate the Heat. On one, the announcer said Iverson should have taken what would have been a poor angled layup, and that guy was full of crap. At the last second, Iverson spotted an open teammate to the left of the rim and hit him for an easy deuce. His very confident flip in the lane also surprised me. Since I'm only thinking of him as a backup, today showed me absolutely no reason why he shouldn't make the team.

Smart came as advertised (more defense than offense), but I wasn't wowed with his playmaking ability. Despite a couple of miscues (or midjudgments), Phil looked much more advanced as a floor general.

Others who showed some promise in certain areas were Babb (defense), Johnson (rebounding) and Moser (shooting).

It will be interesting to see what are genuine trends versus anomalies as the Summer League continues.

The Celts got six of a possible eight points toward the Summer League championship.

Go Celtics

Sam

A passing big man can work wonder (i.e.: San Antonio).

Iverson is showing good signs. Perhaps he may very well prove me wrong (I hope he does).


KJ

KJ,

I think you and I have very similar hopes and concerns about Colton. I also hope he proves me wrong. Today was a decent start.

Sam

I am beginning to think that summer league is way over hyped. Summer league is more like a pickup game at the park then it is a preseason game.  More disorganization then organized ball. Not sure you can really judge the skill sets of a player in this format.  Preseason is where you can best judge a players talent & skills.

Also you have 2nd year guys with an NBA season behind them, playing rookie players from college or Europe, and it shows the contrast between NBA experience and no NBA experience. Case in point KO and Pressey.

Small glimmers of positives .......KO has added some bulk and muscle and seems to have developed better foot speed and movement.  Pressey trying to finish better at the rim, Iverson seeing the floor and passing off to open teammates.  I was a little taken back that Iverson did not get more rebounds though. Smart has a lot of energy and skill set, let see how he fairs come October in a more organize setting in preseason.

112288

sam wrote:In addition to what has already been mentioned, I believe more mention should be made of Iverson's passing.  He had at least three great looks for inside passes that were precisely of the type San Antonio used to frustrate the Heat.  On one, the announcer said Iverson should have taken what would have been a poor angled layup, and that guy was full of crap.  At the last second, Iverson spotted an open teammate to the left of the rim and hit him for an easy deuce.  His very confident flip in the lane also surprised me.  Since I'm only thinking of him as a backup, today showed me absolutely no reason why he shouldn't make the team.

Smart came as advertised (more defense than offense), but I wasn't wowed with his playmaking ability.  Despite a couple of miscues (or midjudgments), Phil looked much more advanced as a floor general.

Others who showed some promise in certain areas were Babb (defense), Johnson (rebounding) and Moser (shooting).

It will be interesting to see what are genuine trends versus anomalies as the Summer League continues.

The Celts got six of a possible eight points toward the Summer League championship.

Go Celtics

Sam

sam,

You're right about Iverson's passing. You and I mentioned it on the Game On thread but I forgot about it. What I liked about it was that just about all of his passes were either towards the rim or to someone going to the rim. A lot of times big men in the low post will get the ball and, when they are stopped or doubled, will pass the ball out, AWAY from the rim. I had no idea he could do that. I don't know if that's just good IQ and courtvision or something they worked on the past few days in practice but it was nice to see. If it was practice, then I'm not missing Ron Adams as much because Larranagga's doing a good job.



bob


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cowens/oldschool wrote:Colton also ran the floor surprisingly well, hes looks alot more cut than last year, he seems to have lost weight and is more mobile than the player I saw last year in SL that was strictly a plodder.

cow,

I think the word "plodder" is an excellent description of Iverson last year. Not quite Frankenstein-like but stiff as all hell. I seem to remember, in one of the articles that have been written about Iverson over the past 2 weeks or so, he said that one of the things he learned to do in Turkey was to bend his knees more on defense.

Unfortunately, Drummond is NOT playing for Detroit's summer league team this year. I'd like to see how he does this year. Last year both Iverson and Kelly were eaten alive by him. Plumlee isn't playing for Brooklyn either so the talent level to measure both of them against is inferior.



bob




.

112288 wrote:I am beginning to think that summer league is way over hyped. Summer league is more like a pickup game at the park then it is a preseason game.  More disorganization then organized ball. Not sure you can really judge the skill sets of a player in this format.  Preseason is where you can best judge a players talent & skills.

Also you have 2nd year guys with an NBA season behind them, playing rookie players from college or Europe, and it shows the contrast between NBA experience and no NBA experience. Case in point KO and Pressey.

Small glimmers of positives .......KO has added some bulk and muscle and seems to have developed better foot speed and movement.  Pressey trying to finish better at the rim, Iverson seeing the floor and passing off to open teammates.  I was a little taken back that Iverson did not get more rebounds though. Smart has a lot of energy and skill set, let see how he fairs come October in a more organize setting in preseason.

112288

112288,


I've been saying summer league is over-hyped for years. What I look for is energy and some technique. I'm looking for Iverson to set picks. I'm looking for composure from Smart. I don't care about the final scores or boxscores other than how they back up my eyeballs.

Most of the players in summer league will not be invited to an NBA camp. Of the players who make it to camp, only one or two per team will make the regular season roster. In the case of the Celtics, barring trades, we know Kelly and Smart will be at camp. We're should feel confident Iverson should be too, because he fills a specific roster need. After that, including Pressey (if Smart shows he can play point now), Babb and Johnson it's all problematic.

I thought that, while Pressey looked a little helter-skelter out there for a while, he ran a coherent offense while Smart didn't. A few good passes by Smart but a lot of it was him trying to do it himself. It was his first professional game, so jitters are allowed.



bob




.

Yep...agreed Bob.  As Sam always says.......See me.....Ok ..........................See me in October.

I am more interested in what Danny does up to July 12th in adding free agents to the Celtics....right now NOTHING IN GOING ON.........I thought by now we would have some action & movement by now.


112288

112288

Even if Summer League is over-hyped, there are still indications of the potential represented by players. Iverson didn't just have good looks on those three passes, but he threaded them down low amid many arms and bodies. As I like to say, once I see someone do something, I know he can do it. In this case, I saw it three times.

Another case in point is Kelly Olynyk. Last year, one could say he was over-hyped in Summer League, but he showed potential to be capable of certain talents. And, lo and behold, by the end of the regular season, he was exhibiting those talents on pretty much a regular basis.

So, while I couldn't care less about Summer League hype, I do think it offers an opportunity for discerning basketball people to see glimmers, aka as assets to develop.

Sam

bob


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LOVE the pass from Iverson to a cutting Kelly at about :45 into the video.

Nice heads up pass by Babb to Iverson at 1:30

Iverson's flip shot, courtesy of a Bertrans pass, at 2:05

Nice penetration and dish by Smart at 3:50 (see, I was watching others than Iverson)

Another nice pass by Bertrans off a penetration to Iverson underneath

Iverson with the offensive rebound and putback at 4:05

Pressey winning the jump ball and then passing it up 3/4 court for a layup by the streaking Bertrans

Unfortunately this video only shows offensive highlights.  We held Miami to 32% shooting and 25 TOs.







bob



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I liked the overall pace of the game, for the first competition together of this group. When the lead see-sawed, they never blinked but kept on doing what was working for them.

Sam