Reebok Vegas Summer League

[Next Level Game]

The Nets played their first summer league game tonight. I know the Antoine Wright thread alluded to it, but this isn't just about Wright and it deserves its own thread independent of Antoine. Anyway, we lost 89 - 66 to Dallas.

Here is the box score:

http://www.vegassummerleague.com/box_score.cfm?game=8

Some notes:

-It seems as if Antonie had a horrible shooting night. He also had only 2 rebounds too, something we need. Not a good sign at all.
-Christian Drejer, some who though could've been a lottery pick, didn't seem to do anything in 31 minutes of action. He was supposed to be a very good passer and yet only picked up 1 assist.
-Dallas' big men killed us.

 

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">July 6, 2005

The 2005 Reebok Vegas Summer League got underway Wednesday afternoon as the Dallas Mavericks took on the New Jersey Nets. The Mavericks got off to a hot start and never looked back, cruising to a 89-66 win in the opener.

Josh Powell and Marquis Daniels led the way for the Mavs in the first half as they built a 50-42 halftime lead. Powell chipped in 16 of his game-high 19 points and Daniels had 13 of his 16 points at the break. The Mavs shot a blazing 60 percent in the first half on 15-25 shooting. Dallas finished the game shooting 46.6 percent (27-58 FG).

Sam Clancy led the way for the Blazers with 17 points (7-12 FG) and six rebounds. Rookie Antoine Wright had 14 points on five of 21 shooting. Cliff Hawkins pitched in 10 points (4-5 FG). The Nets shot a dreadful 38.2 percent (26-68) for the game.

The Mavericks out-rebounded the Nets 50-27 in the game.

In 29 minutes of action Mavericks center DJ Mbenga had 15 points, eight rebounds and five blocks.

The Mavs will play the Boston Celtics next on Friday at 2 p.m., while the Nets will battle the Denver Nuggets tomorrow at 5 p.m.</div>


Box Score Recap

 

[Bobcats]

5-21 and 0-5 from long range for Wright. Ouch.

 

[Tomac54]

Its only the first game. I'm not worried yet. Wright is a very good player and he will show that soon.

P.S. Sam clancy played pretty good!

 

[Henacy]

Tomcat is right it is just the start of summer camp, nothing to worry about yet. I remember Dwayne Wade struggled in his first couple of summer league games a few years back now look at him,...Iam not saying the kidd is a D. Wade impact it is just to prove a point that it isnt going to be a walk in the park right out the gate...an adjustment period is needed. I wont be worried until it is game 40 of the regular season and the cat has shown no signs of getting better.

 

[Next Level Game]

Nets v. Nuggets

Nets played the Nuggets Thursday night and lost 89-65. Here's the boxscore

http://www.vegassummerleague.com/box_score.cfm?game=14

Notes:

-Antoine Wright had 11 points off of 3-8 shooting and in 37 minutes only had 1 rebound again. I know it's early but if we're missing so much, rebound the damn ball.
-Jelani McCoy was the leading scorer with 13 on 5-8 shooting. Only 3 rebounds though.
-Christian Drejer struggled whenever he got on the court.
-Julius Hodge played great for the Nuggets. 13/4/2 in only 23 minutes. Had four turnovers though.
-Louis Flores lead all scorers with 16

 

[Henacy]

I agree nextlevelgame the lack of rebounding is a concern..it seems by his assist & rebounding stats, that all Wright is focused on right now is being a scorer. And jacking up shots....which isnt the type of wing we need him to be so to speak...yes we need his scoring pucnh off the bench. But with RJ & Carter perimeter scoring is already going to be a strenght on this team...we need him to find a niche doing some of the little things like making plays for others and being a strong perimeter rebouunder, something Jefferson is but Carter is inconsistent at...so he can fill in certain holes...but it is still only game 2 of summer league

 

[Next Level Game]

Nets v. Kings

We played the Kings today and only lost by 11, final score being 71-60.

Here is the box score:

http://www.vegassummerleague.com/box_score.cfm?game=21

Notes:

-Antoine Wright continued to struggle with his scoring shooting 5-18 for only 12 points. But he had 7 boards which is a major improvement. However, he also had 6 TOs.
-Drejer seems to fallen out of the rotation
-Melvin Sanders from OK State led our team with 16 points on 8-13 shooting.
-We actually outrebounded the Kings 42-34
-Kevin Martin led all scorers with 21 on 8-15 shooting

 

[Henacy]

Didnt Drejer struggle overseas last season, so I dont think it is a shock to the Nets staff that he isnt doing well now. I think he should go back overseas and let his game hopefully continue to come to him. Other then Antoine Wright, I honestly dont see anybody on this summer league team that can come close to making the real roster...I wish we would have given an invite to some of the legit rookies Gilchrist, Graham, a guy like Roger Powell with his leadership and character should be given a chance...but instead we waste our summer league on guys like Jeloni McCoy who has been given about a 1000 chances to make the league on a consistent basis but cant....

BTW, does anyone know why Nenad Krstic is not playing in Summer League? he is still able to and I remember hearing at the end last year that he was going to stay in the states during the offseason to work on his game. It would be nice to see Krstic here getting some limited run in games. But more to get that hands on teaching from the coaches in practice and stuff

 

[Ma3oxuct]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Henacy:</div><div class="quote_post">
BTW, does anyone know why Nenad Krstic is not playing in Summer League? he is still able to and I remember hearing at the end last year that he was going to stay in the states during the offseason to work on his game. It would be nice to see Krstic here getting some limited run in games. But more to get that hands on teaching from the coaches in practice and stuff</div>

Kristic is playing a European tournament of some sort right now (I am not quite sure what it is).

 

[Henacy]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting xpehbamxyu:</div><div class="quote_post">Kristic is playing a European tournament of some sort right now (I am not quite sure what it is).</div>


good, I just thought he was taking the offseason off like he was a veteran or something...I would have still like to have seem him in summer league tho working with our coaching staff on how we are trying to develope him...but I guess training camp will have to do...and at least he is getting some in game action in.

 

[VinKanaddy]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Henacy:</div><div class="quote_post">I agree nextlevelgame the lack of rebounding is a concern..it seems by his assist & rebounding stats, that all Wright is focused on right now is being a scorer. And jacking up shots....which isnt the type of wing we need him to be so to speak...yes we need his scoring pucnh off the bench. But with RJ & Carter perimeter scoring is already going to be a strenght on this team...we need him to find a niche doing some of the little things like making plays for others and being a strong perimeter rebouunder, something Jefferson is but Carter is inconsistent at...so he can fill in certain holes...but it is still only game 2 of summer league</div>

It seems that you guys got the wrong player if you needed those things. While Wright is an average athlete that can score, he doesn't have a great D nor does he have the nack for doing the little stuff. Danny Granger / Joey Graham is much better at doing that and they were both available. I'm hoping Wright can improve in those areas of his game but if not, you're really going to need some major help in the rebounding department.

 

[Next Level Game]

I agree that we should've given more young college guys a chance. I especially agree with Roger Powell Jr. I understand he's undersized but he has a lot of heart and a good head on his shoulders. To me, he could be a poorman's Kenny Thomas with more strength and athleticism.

 

[XSV]

I wouldn't read too much into the summer league play of Antoine Wright. A lot of talented rookeis that end up doin great in the NBA play poorly in the summer leagues. I remember Bosh even in his second season of summer play was less than impressive. 'Toine it seems is forcing himself to be the focal point of the offense because he's the best player, and is consequently taking too many shotsand turning the ball over too much. Plus, as the best player, I'm sure he's drawing extra defensive attention that he's not ready for. Playing with the Nets season team will almost be easier for him because he won't jave so much attention on him in the offense, and can just let the game come to him and get open threes from the vince or RJ double-teams or Kidd's passing.

 

[Henacy]

^I agree that his offensive game should come alot easier to him when he doesnt have to create his own shot all the time playing alongside Kidd & co. I would just like to see some consistent signs of the other things mainly rebounding as Summer League goes along.

 

[Next Level Game]

Vegas Summer League

We have played two games.

7-11-05. We lost to the Knicks 86-74. Here is the boxscore:

http://www.vegassummerleague.com/box_score.cfm?game=33

Notes:

-Rebounding continued to kill us as they outrebounded us 37-27
-Antoine Wright actually had a great offensive night. 24 points, 6-11 FG, 11-16 FG, but only 2 rebounds. He and Nate Robinson led all scorers.
-The Knicks had 4 scorers in double figures, we only had 2.

We played the Hornets 7-12-05 and got killed 84-67.

Boxscore:

http://www.vegassummerleague.com/box_score.cfm?game=35


Notes:
-Antoine Wright had another great offensive night with 22 points, 8-17 shooting, 3-5 from three. Only 2 rebounds and 5 TOs.
-Chris Paul had a horrible shooting night only having 1 points, but 7 rebounds and 7 assists. In fact, he matched the best rebounder on the Nets...he probably was the shortest guy on the court too.
-Christian Drejer had 5 rebounds, but shot 0-5.
-We were only outrebounded by 5, 43-38.
-Sam Clancy who had 17 points in the previous game had 19 points and 7 rebound. He's turning out to be a good offensive player.

 

[Ma3oxuct]

I sure that you all have noticed this, but Wright is not a particularly good free-throw shooter. He shoots about 65%, while it was reported that he is a very good shooter.

The summer league that we have this year just plain stinks...Just two players consistently score points.

 

[Next Level Game]

Antoine was always a poor free throw shooter regardless how good of shooter he is.

 

[Mr. J]

The Nets starting off the Summer League 0-5 isn?t a good sign at all. While it is definitely wrong to start drawing conclusions, you guys should be a bit concerned with their performance ? especially Antoine Wright your 15th pick in the draft who many thought was a steal. In 35 minutes, he?s averaging 16.4ppg // 2.8rpg // 1.8apg, however, when you take into consideration he?s shooting 36% from the field and 28.6% from downtown, I would be a little concerned.

 

[XSV]

It's Summer League... don't look too closely into it. Have you looked at our roster? Wright and Clancy are the only players on the team who seem to know how to play basketball.

I'd be concerned with your team more. Sure, tiny Nate is putting up monster numbers but good luck finding him half decent minutes in your bloated backcourt during the regular season. Plus your #8 overall pick Channing Frye is turning out to be a bust. From the games I've seen he's putting up less than impressive numbers, all the while getting dominated by summer league centers on defence. I think he had like 10 fouls in just over 30 minutes one game, and like 7 in 20 minutes another game.

Summer league rcords mean nothing especially considering we have no center on our team and Krstic isn't playing.

 

[Henacy]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MrJ:</div><div class="quote_post">The Nets starting off the Summer League 0-5 isn?t a good sign at all. While it is definitely wrong to start drawing conclusions, you guys should be a bit concerned with their performance ? especially Antoine Wright your 15th pick in the draft who many thought was a steal. In 35 minutes, he?s averaging 16.4ppg // 2.8rpg // 1.8apg, however, when you take into consideration he?s shooting 36% from the field and 28.6% from downtown, I would be a little concerned.</div>


Well actually it is a rather meaningless sign other then the play of Wright. We dont have anyone who was on our active roster last year except Ardee Storey. And he wont be making this years team. So this Summer League is rather uninteresting and meaningless because nobody on the team will make the regular season roster other than Wright.

I know Wright is surpose to play a quality role for our perimeter off the bench to add depth. But I think that if he isnt ready for a big bench role right away then it still wont make or break our perimeter because of the strenght we have out on the perimeter with RJ, Vince, even Dooling can play the 2 spot some if we acquire him. So Iam not worry that there is anything in this summer league that will make or break our year.

 

[Next Level Game]

I think Rod is trying to find an energetic and athletic swingman like RJ was in his rookie year. Also, I think he wanted some collateral say if RJ or VC go down, cause both of them have had bad injuries in the past... Wright is better than RJ was offensively his rookie year, but things haven't been looking that great. Coupled with how much of a monster Warrick has been in his summer league, this might not panned out we wanted. I trust Rod though, he has a great mind and am ensured he knows what he is doing.