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July 9, 2010 part II ...Among the under-hyped players in the Orlando Summer League, we like former Texas standout, P.J. Tucker. He was the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2006 but he has spent the majority of his professional career overseas. He plays extremely hard and he has the body to match that physical style. He is 6’6” 225 lbs and he has been labeled as an “undersized post”. That actually is a bullshit label. If you watch him play—he demonstrates guard skills just as easily as many of the more heralded young players that also do not yet have NBA ready jump shots. The biggest thing with Tucker is that he knows how to play and is capable of making plays. Forget his size. He rebounds better than many Power Forwards, and he moves his feet as well as your average NBA Shooting Guard. I’m not his agent. I’m not affiliated with him in any way. I just think he should be in the NBA. ...The Player of the Day for day four of the Orlando Summer League was Oklahoma City guard Mustafa Shakur who helped his team keep the Orlando summer entry winless with a 80-78 victory. Shakur scored 21 points (6-10 FG, 7-8 FT) while grabbing five boards, and dishing five assists in 30 minutes.  Our “All Day Four Orlando Summer League Team” (their game efficiency rating). PG: Shakur - OKC 1.068, SG: Donell Taylor - ORL .916, SF: Tucker - CHA .739, PF: Magnum Rolle - IND .833, C: Kosta Koufos - UTA .894. Bench: Guards: Jaycee Carroll - BOS .680, Joe Crawford - ORL .666, Oliver Lafayette - BOS .531. Forwards: Derrick Brown - CHA .636, Ndudi Ebi - PHI .636, Luke Harangody - BOS .615, Center: Paul Davis - ORL .727

 

July 9, 2010 ...Since it is being over-analyzed I will just say quickly that I believe Miami with LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade will be great. The talent pool is deep enough in this day and age to surround those three plus Mario Chalmers with eight guys capable of getting it done. ...Now back to what really excites me - which is the actual games being played in the Orlando Summer League. A power outage over here kept us from the DVR and the computer for an agonizing 17 hours. On Friday at 2 am—I just finished watching the final Orlando game of day three (Wednesday). Of interest was Avery Johnson, the Nets new Head Coach accurately stating that Damion James has been their best player so far in Orlando. This despite the Nets having the number three pick overall Derrick Favors on their roster. Favors has shown intermittent flashes of goodness but overall he has struggled. ...The Player of the Day for day three was Celtics guard Matt Janning who led his team to a 92-71 beatdown of the Summer Bobcats. The Northeastern product scored 20 points, grabbed eight boards and dished three assists in 25 minutes. Our “All Day Three Orlando Summer League Team” (their game efficiency rating). PG: Janning - BOS .880, SG: Joe Crawford - ORL .750, SF: Damion James - NJ .735, PF: Josh McRoberts - IND. .774, C: Marreese Speights - PHI .607. Bench: Guards - Othyus Jeffers - UTA .695, Jeremy Pargo - CHA. .650, Ryan Thompson - BOS. .650, Forwards: Luke Harangody - BOS. .600, Paul George - IND. .600, Magnum Rolle - IND. .600. Center: Byron Mullens - OKC .583.

 

July 7, 2010 ...Eight games total (two contests for each of the eight teams) into the Orlando Summer League is just enough to remind all that making judgments on a player after one game is never prudent.  If all you did was see the games from Monday you may have thought that Oliver Lafayette was a candidate to someday start at Point Guard in the NBA. However - a second game revealed that he could not get anything against Jrue Holiday, a young elite defender. Lafayette was forced into five turnovers and his game EFR was a putrid .045. Holiday, meanwhile,  was our Player of the Day for Monday but 24 hours later his offensive game was horrible. His deep shot was ugly and flat and he had four turnovers on 3-10 FG shooting. If all you did was watch Monday’s game - you may have thought that Kosta Koufos could NEVER contribute in an NBA game. However if you saw him dominate on Tuesday - your mind would have been changed. Ditto for Jazz second round pick Jeremy Evans.

…The point is… you have to WATCH the games to really know. And then you need to back up what you think you saw with some data so you don’t get lost in the flair that a player may have. Paul George looked spectacular at times for the Summer Pacers. He set a Orlando Summer League record for steals in one game with seven! He had some sweet finishes in the open court. But the stat sheet doesn’t lie and George, as good as looked, was only .419 EFR for the game. Why? He was 5-15 FG (0-7 from three) and he had five turnovers. I would be willing to bet most folks never would have thought George was actually just so-so in this game. His flashy athletic game probably had most saying, “Wow! That Paul George was GREAT!”. ...Josh McRoberts plays with grit and I appreciate that but a glance at a stat sheet from Tuesday shows that “J-McBob” was not getting it done. He jacked up 18 shots, and made three of them. His game EFR was .090 (about equal to a Milli Vanilli recording). Yikers! ...Pacers Head Coach Jim O’Brien showed just how ridiculously old school (and out of touch) he is when he bristled at Rick Kamla referring to Tyler Hansbrough as “Psycho T”. O’Brien said something about not liking nicknames and he came across with the charisma of the late Richard Nixon. This helps me understand a little further why T.J. Ford is not playing up to his known ability. O’Brien clearly does not believe in Ford as he stated publicly on NBA-TV, “We need a point guard and that will solve a lot of problems for us.”  I will repeat again that I strongly believe Ford is worth whatever perceived risk there is. He is said to be available via trade by the Pacers. Ford is in the last year of his contract. ..Notes:  Kyle Weaver has clearly improved his outside shooting. That is crucial to his development in OKC because he already is an excellent defender. ...I thought P.J. Tucker outplayed James Harden Tuesday. Tucker is looking for an NBA gig as a bruising post-up Two Guard. He competes on every play and showed that he could keep his man in front of him despite weighing more than the average SG. ...Jeremy Pargo hit a game winner at the buzzer to lift the Summer Bobcats past OKC.  ...The Player of the Day for day two was Koufos who led his team to a 78-73 win. The former Ohio State Center scored 13 points, grabbed eleven boards and blocked four shots in just 20 minutes. Our “All Day Two Orlando Summer League Team” (their game efficiency rating). PG - Lance Stephenson - IND .600, SG - Gerald Henderson - CHA .676, SF - Gordon Hayward - UTA .750, PF - James Augustine - UTA .650, C - Koufos - UTA 1.100. Bench: Guards: Jodie Meeks - PHI .586, Eric Maynor - OKC .529. Forwards: Patrick Ewing Jr. .592, Tony Gaffney - BOS. .583, Luke Harangody - BOS .580. Centers - Paul Davis - ORL .652., Marreese Speights - PHI .586.