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Shaquille
O'Neal: "When you are 60, hang out with 60-year-olds, not 20-year-olds.
That is all I got to say about Jerry Buss."
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HoopsHype.com Articles Howard
a defensive star
The officiating this year was much better. The referees let the players play a little more freely, but didn’t let the reigns loose completely. The play of second-year guys stood out. They looked far more schooled and ready than players who haven’t gotten a taste of NBA life yet. The rookies all played up to par too. There were no Darkos sitting out with injury this year. Some of them stood out. Here are the stars of the week and also a recap of how the teams did in Orlando. Orlando Magic (3-2) With Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson, the Magic were the team everyone came to see. Neither player disappointed. The kid out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy averaged a double-double over five games. Howard also blocked 3 shots per game game and altered quite a few others. If nothing else, Howard showed that he would at least be the equal of Connecticut’s Emeka Okafor. Howard was especially impressive defensively. He’s a good man-to-man defender, but he is a better help defender at this point. He has good basketball instincts, knowing where to be to rebound and block shots. On the offensive end, it was a struggle. Howard only shot 35 percent, and didn’t seem to fit inside or outside. When he went down on the block, he was pushed out too easily and when he caught the ball outside, he too often settled for a jumper. His jump shot is flat and he shoots it too low. He will need to bring the ball up higher when he shoots, or he will continue to struggle. Howard is a nifty passer; he recognized the double-team and hit the man cutting to the hoop quite a few times for layups. He shot 71 percent from the line after getting there 31 times. He struggled during the last game, going 3-9. One odd note: he doesn’t dribble the ball at the foul line. He takes a long pause, spins the ball in his hand once, and shoots. Howard will be a good player, particularly on the defensive end where he could be amongst the league leaders in blocked shots as a rookie. He is a quiet player on the court, he coaches teammates, but doesn’t get very emotional one way or the other – much like Tim Duncan. To be great, he needs to get stronger and work on getting his shot release from a higher point to maximize his effectiveness. Jameer Nelson showed why he was the college player of the year. He missed two games with injury, but over three days he averaged 12 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. Nelson looked very confident. He is a natural leader. He showed the quickness to blow by people and created numerous easy shot opportunities for his teammates. He is short, but has the strength to score in the paint as he demonstrated on a couple different occasions where he took the bump and still got the shot up and in. Other noteworthy players on the Orlando squad included second-year player Keith Bogans, Britton Johnsen, Jimmy Hunter, David Bailey and Mario Kasun. Bogans shot nearly 50 percent and looked like a player on the rise. He is a good defender with good court awareness and should be a factor in the Magic rotation this season. Britton Johnsen played in 20 games last year for Orlando and could make a roster somewhere in the league again this season. David Bailey, who was the CBA Rookie of the Year in 2004, was a spark plug. At only 5-8, he is a longshot, but he is a quick, accurate shooter that totaled 26 assists in a backup role. Mario Kasun, a Magic second-round pick, was improved over last season, but is still a year away. Washington Wizards (4-1) The Orlando Pro Summer League champions would have gone undefeated, but sat their “stars” in the second half in Game 5. The Wizards got great play from three roster players: Jarvis Hayes, Steve Blake and Jared Jeffries. Hayes, the second-year forward out of Georgia, is expected to start at small forward this year after the team traded Jerry Stackhouse last summer – and he appears to be ready for the job. Hayes, who has added bulk to his previously sturdy frame, scored nearly 18 a game and added 4.5 boards per as well. He has the ability to shoot over the top of people, run the floor, finish in transition and play tight defense. You’d like to see more quickness from him in terms of deflecting passes and getting into the passing the lanes, but that’s a skill that can't be learned. Steve Blake was one of the stars of the week for sure. He consistently made great passes and even hit a game-winner to beat Orlando. Blake had a league-high 28 assists over the week. His jump shot is still inconsistent. He is a streak shooter, and doesn’t really create his own shot off the dribble. What he does well is run a team and get others easy looks. He’s crafty player, not quite Jason Williams-fancy, just creative enough. The 2003 second-round pick is in the last year of his deal and he’ll probably stick in the league. Jared Jeffries was the Wizards 2002 first-round choice and has already taken a backseat to the 2003 first-round pick Hayes. Jeffries, a 6-11, is not a power forward, but the Wiz would like him to be. Even in the summer league, he gets pushed around too much. He struggled to keep box out position. He managed 6.4 rebounds over the week, and used his quicker hands to get 11 steals. Jeffries is a solid fundamental basketball player, but even lacks the quickness to beat power forwards consistently off the dribble or with moves around the basket. If you can’t control things in the summer league, there is no way you will do it when the real season starts. He would be best served as versatile backup forward. Others of note on the Wizards included Maurice Evans and Jelani McCoy. The former Longhorn star started all five games at the shooting guard and played pretty well. He definitely benefited from a stronger supporting cast, but he did a nice job defensively and never seemed out of place. Not that that’s enough to make a roster, but his steady play was worth mentioning. McCoy blocked some shots, intimidated others and rebounded well. He lacks the instincts that good NBA big guys have, but with the lack of depth in the frontcourt across the league, McCoy could make a team this season. New Jersey Nets (3-2) Nobody under the age of 22 on this team. When was the last time you heard of something like that? Brian Scalabrine played. If he wasn’t on a NBA team, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that he’d make it. He did nothing outstanding to separate himself from the other group of guys. Two Syracuse alum, John Wallace and Damone Brown can play, but they are NBA garbage time players at best. Jeff Trepagnier played solid defense and shot well. He could very well find himself in the league again next season. Zoran Planinic, the Nets 2003 first-round pick, will probably not pan out as much more than a backup in the NBA. But New Jersey has him under contract until 2006. Oh well. Cleveland Cavaliers (2-3) The Cavs team included three lottery busts still trying to prove they belong and a rookie – Luke Jackson – that probably does belong. Dajuan Wagner, DeSagana Diop and Kedrick Brown all probably thought that they would only be attending summer league games as spectators at this point in their careers, but instead are trying to hang on to NBA jobs. If Dajuan Wagner was going down, he was going down shooting. Wagner put up more shots (72) and scored more points (93) than anyone in Orlando. He didn’t exactly light it up from the field (38 percent) and really failed to prove he can run the point for an NBA team as demonstrated by his assist-turnover ratio (16-14) for the week. Some nights he’ll thrill you, but most nights he’ll kill you. Speaking of killing, DeSagana Diop should thank his lucky stars everyday that he grew to be seven-feet tall because he can’t play to save his life. In three years, he has shown no improvement from my vantage point. He shot 8-30, which is just unacceptable for a seven-footer. He blocks shots (11 for the week) and nothing else. He can rebound his own area, but doesn’t get hustle rebounds or effort rebounds. He is a bad free-throw shooter too. Kedrick Brown showed signs of life, but nothing to make you think he’ll ever be more than an NBA journeyman. The rookie, Luke Jackson, was solid. He displayed the all-around floor game that shot him up NBA Draft boards. For the week, he averaged about 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He did struggle from behind the arc, going 2-9, but suspect that will improve with more open looks to come playing with LeBron James. Jackson made some silly rookie mistakes, but overall showed an understanding of the game. He made some nice backdoor passes and proved he could score off his own dribble. He may never be an All-Star, but he should be a nice complementary player. Another name to keep track of is Dan Langhi. Langhi, a four-year player that has bounced around the league since coming out of Vanderbilt, played very well and shot the ball efficiently (45 percent for the week, including 4-7 from three-point land). He could find himself on somebody’s roster again on opening day. Boston Celtics (2-3) Boston featured three first-round picks from this year and two first-rounders from last season. Starting with this year, Tony Allen looks most ready to contribute now. He is an undersized shooting guard at 6-4, but plays great defense. He has tremendous foot and hand quickness, and can really jump. The biggest surprise was his ability to take the ball off the dribble on the offensive end. He can go and finish at the rim. His struggle will be his shot, which is quite bad. But he can lock down opposing point guards – like he did with Jameer Nelson at the end of their game vs. Orlando. The high schooler Al Jefferson was also superb. He averaged 13 points, 8 rebounds and 2.6 block per game. He can really finish around the basket, gets off the floor very well and has a game with his back to the basket. His footwork needs some improvement, though. Jefferson doesn’t back away from contact and plays with emotion – even yelling at himself for something simple like a missed foul shot. Seems like he will be a high school kid with a real good shot at panning out. He is not the defensive presence Dwight Howard is, but he may have a better low post game sooner than Howard. Delonte West, much like Tony Allen, is kind of a tweener. Boston is going to play him at the point, but he isn’t really a point guard. West is a good passer with a good basketball IQ like Dwyane Wade. West isn’t explosive, but he is a smooth player that knows how to score the ball, which is his strength. If Boston gives him some free reign, West could be a Cuttino Mobley type of player. He will struggle if the Celtics just want him to initiate their offense, because that isn’t his strong point. Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins both struggled for the most part. Banks is quick, and should be better, but he struggled from the field, only shooting 35 percent. Most disappointing is that he had only 7 assists versus 17 turnovers. Perkins scored 11 of his 33 points in one game. He just has no game with his back to the basket and isn’t a forceful rebounder. Justin Reed, a rookie small forward out of Ole Miss, is the only other player that showed any promise. Miami Heat (1-4) Definitely the worst roster in Orlando, and it got worse because rookie Dorell Wright got hurt and only played in the first game. He was the story though. The 6-7 swingman out of South Kent Prep in Connecticut was extremely impressive in his debut scorching the Wizards for 30. He is a combination of a Ray Allen physique, a Sam Cassell stroke and a Richard Hamilton athletic ability. Wright displayed a very smooth mid-range jumper off the dribble. He doesn’t have the strength or lift to finish strong, but instead showed a nice floater. He is a featherweight at this point, listed at 190, but looking like 170. With some added muscle, he definitely looks like he could be the eventual replacement for the aging Eddie Jones. As for the rest of the roster, second-round pick Matt Freije showed he could do what everyone thought he could do – hit the longball. Freije was 9-19 from beyond the arc over the five days, but didn’t really contribute much else. The Heat’s second-round pick from the previous year, Jerome Beasley, was so-so at best. Wang Zhizhi, Ron Hale, Josh Powell, Darius Rice were ... well ... they were present. MIKE TUCK'S ALL-ORLANDO PRO SUMMER LEAGUE TEAM G Steve Blake,
Washington SECOND TEAM G Jameer Nelson,
Orlando Mike Tuck is a producer/on-air talent for 740 The Team in Orlando and a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com Tell us what you think about this article. E-mail us at HoopsHype@HoopsHype.com _____________________ |
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