Summer League 2018: who you excited about the most?

[Boob-No-More]

One guy everyone should be rooting for is Papa G, especially with how the roster is currently constructed. Leonard is the backup center right now.

If Papa G can show an ability to stretch the court, he could really push not only for a spot on the roster, but the backup center job. There are reasons to believe he can do just that. He’s a very good free throw shooter (near 80% in the g league) and shows a pretty good stroke on jumpers when given looks. Defensively he’s much superior to Leonard and has mentioned a focus this offseason was improving his lateral agility. He’s also a very good offensive rebounder, something Leonard is awful at, and probably the thing we’ll miss most about Ed Davis. His pick and roll ability is also much better than Leonard’s.

So he’s got a huge opportunity in front of him, hope he takes advantage. Please god.

Unfortunately, PapaG has looked worse than Meyers Leonard, and he's doing it against summer league "talent". So far, I have not seen him do one single thing better than Meyers Leonard, and if that isn't damning, I don't know what is.

Yeah, I know summer league is typically a guard dominated league, but Papagiannis has looked horrible at both ends of the court.

No way does this guy make the team let alone crack the rotation.

BNM

 

[Scalma]

No way does this guy make the team let alone crack the rotation.

BNM

Really going out on a limb there.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Really going out on a limb there.

Just responding to your claim that: "he could really push not only for a spot on the roster, but the backup center job."

I take it you've changed your stance?

BNM

 

[Scalma]

Just responding to your claim that: "he could really push not only for a spot on the roster, but the backup center job."

I take it you've changed your stance?

BNM

Congrats on responding a week later, after summer league, real convenient.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Congrats on responding a week later, after summer league, real convenient.

Sorry, I prefer to actually wait to see a player play basketball before assessing his strengths and weaknesses.

Not one single thing you said about Papagiannis turned out to be true. I guess that explains why you are being so defensive.

BNM

 

[Scalma]

Sorry, I prefer to actually wait to see a player play basketball before assessing his strengths and weaknesses.

Not one single thing you said about Papagiannas turned out to be true. I guess that explains why you are being so defensive.

BNM

“I prefer hindsight so I can condescend others.”

 

[Boob-No-More]

“I prefer hindsight so I can condescend others.”

How was my original post condescending to you?

It was critical of Papagiannis, and I started it with the word "unfortunately" as in unfortunately, he's not as good as hoped.

BNM

 

[hoopsjock]

Played as team, check. Not completely messing up, check.

Simons, skills-wise close, but overall not quite there, not a PG yet. He's 6th guard, so no pressure to rush development. But he'll be ready to go next year.

Swanny, very poor decision-making, everyone gave up on him, then he kills it. Could use consistency, in a good way

Trent, If there's an injury, could step in as 4th guard right away. Much better dribbler and defender than advertised.

What do you think?

Pretty acurrate.

 

[jlprk]

I CALLED IT! MVP OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!

Just noticed that K.J. McDaniels' PER was 21.4 last season in the D-League (31 games, good sample size). #32 pick 4 years ago, 6-6, but Olshey got 4 SGs, so he will get no time, and later be picked up by another team.

Lmao.

There's multiple players that did well in the G-
League last year that aren't good enough to make the NBA. Elite athleticism is always an advantage at that level (remember Elliot Williams?). You need more than that to be an NBA player.

McDaniel has a career 1 to 1.7 ast-tov ratio. That's horrible for a guard. He can't shoot (career 29% 3pt shooter, career 51TS%) yet hes a black hole (Career 1.6 assists per 36 minutes). It's reflected in his -3.6 OBPM for his career.

There's a reason he's not in the league.

Before posting that, I read about McDaniels for an hour, and guess who I passed by. Elliot Williams. Somehow he kept playing a few more years, but stopped about 3 years ago. Caught up to date on him. Anyway, there's no comparison because McDaniels hasn't gone through major surgeries.

McDaniels is supposed to be high on athleticism, as in leaping around the basket, and putting it in. If someone throws him a pass near the basket, he'll turn it into an assist. He's not good from the 3. He's listed at 6-6, 205, but the 205 was the same at the end of high school, so I bet he's heavier now. Sounds like a natural forward just barely too short. As you know, I'm looking for such SFs unnoticed by other teams. Too bad about the 3-point shooting. How is his dribbling?

Trent is a SF that can shoot and dribble.

I don't think it's good considering his TOV rate.

You would rather have someone like that instead of Trent?

 

[BonesJones]

I CALLED IT! MVP OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!

And as I've said in other posts, you can dominate lower levels just with pure athleticism. And KJ proved that tonight.

 

[jlprk]

And as I've said in other posts, you can dominate lower levels just with pure athleticism. And KJ proved that tonight.

I AM DOMINATING THIS THREAD WITH PURE ATHLETICISM !

 

[BonesJones]

I AM DOMINATING THIS THREAD WITH PURE SUPERCILIOUSNESS !

FTFY

 

[jlprk]

The letters in "superciliousness" rearrange to "u penis sclerosis, u."

 

[BBert]

Still Simons

 

[James lamphear]

I think both rookies Trent and Simons held up really well against older players. I think Trent might hit the rotation by January. But it really going depends how Nik play's. Or if one our small forwards goes down. Simons will have little more difficult to crack the rotation when he behind few more players but that alright it will be his year to learn.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Related question: who on the SL team do you see cracking the regular rotation?

 

[Natebishop3]

Related question: who on the SL team do you see cracking the regular rotation?

Collins.
Baldwin
Layman (maybe)

This is how our minutes were broken down last season:

Dame 36 MPG
CJ 36 MPG
Aminu 30 MPG
Nurk 27 MPG
Turner 25.7 MPG
Harkless 21.4 MPG
Shabazz 20.7 MPG
Ed Davis 19 MPG
Patty C 18 MPG
Collins 16 MPG

I think Dame and CJ stay around 36 minutes per game.
Aminu at 30 still makes sense.
I'm hoping that Nurk's minutes go up to at least 30.
Turner at 25-26 MPG is fine.
Harkless should be playing at least 30 MPG.
Napier is gone
Davis is gone
Patty is gone
Collins should go up to 25 minutes per game.

So......

Dame 36 - leaves 12 minutes at point guard
CJ 36 - leaves 12 minutes at shooting guard
Harkless 30 - leaves 18 minutes at small forward
Aminu 30 - leaves 18 minutes at power forward
Nurk 30 - leaves 18 minutes at center

That's what I think the starting rotation could/should look like.

Bench
Baldwin
Curry
Turner
Collins
Meyers? Biggie?

Unknowns
Layman
Stauskas

You want to get Collins minutes, and enough that it's impactful, so if you give him 12 minutes at power forward and 12 at center, that's 24 minutes of gameplay. That's not bad. That leaves 12 minutes total between those positions for someone else.

Turner is going to get his minutes, and unfortunately if you give him both the available minutes from the guard positions that puts him around his average for last season. Or you could give him the backup small forward minutes and some of the shooting guard minutes to get to around 25 minutes and still have 19ish minutes for another guard like Curry or Baldwin. So.... maybe?

Dame 36 / Baldwin 12
CJ 36 / Turner 7 / Baldwin 5
Harkless 30 / Turner 18
Aminu 30 / Collins 18
Nurk 30 / Collins 7 / Meyers 11 minutes

That's a 9 man rotation. However, maybe they don't want to play Baldwin and instead give Curry those minutes. That's also possible. Either way, I think it's going to be

Dame/Baldwin
CJ/Curry/Stauskas
Harkless/Turner/Layman
Aminu/Collins/Biggie
Nurk/Leonard

 

[Natebishop3]

I forgot about Trent and Simons.... honestly..... I hope Neil makes a trade. I don't see any way we can have 7 guards on our team next season.... 8 if you count Turner.