Was that the best summer league game Celtic has played in the last 5 years?
Any Celtic? It's hard to remember since the games are pretty meaningless, but Pritchard was excellent last year, right?
And Nesmith had a 33 point game.
Pritchard was pretty good last year. I don't remember Nesmith's 33 point game. But almost 30 points with 10 assists and playmaking on defense was pretty special.
I don't think these games are meaningless. I think its pretty meaningful when a late second round pick can have a game like that. in his first summer league as one of the younger players on the court.
How much meaning do you put into his first three games?
I mean, there's a long history of summer league telling us almost nothing (if not nothing) about a player's potential.
And that's not just one game. We've seen guys like Glen Rice Jr., Brandon Clarke, Josh Selby and Jerryd Bayless win Summer League MVP.
I'm glad you're excited, but I don't think any projections are possible based upon summer league performances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpHB9mE_e8A
A lot of those guys were older when they had their good performances. Guys like Bayless and Rice both leveraged those summer league games into multiple years of being on NBA rosters.
You can definitely overvalue summer league.. However, I really like what I'm seeing.
- He demonstrated the ability to run the pick-and-roll and find open teammates in all three games. His assist numbers were good and the other Cs missed a lot of open shots that he set up in the first two games.
- I thought he looked like one of the most athletic players on the court in each game.
- I thought he handled pressure (especially against Miami) really well and still was able to conduct an NBA offense in each game. I thought he'd look more like a Terry Rozier scoring guard/tweener guard, but he actually looked like a point guard out there and very comfortable running the offense.
- I like his shooting form a lot. Other than the fact that he leans back sometimes, his form looks compact and consistent. I think that means he is likely to become a reliable spot-up shooter.
- He made effort to be extremely disruptive defensively. He had blocks and steals in each game - the type that show he is already comfortable with the speed of the players in the summer league. He made the types of defensive players that you would hope solid prospects would make.
The item I was least impressed by was his driving. He looked like he could not reliably and comfortably get to his spots on the court to shoot shots he wanted, until today. I think that may be the area he needs most work on (also he has to work on not getting stuck on the screener when he is defending a ball handler in the pick-and-roll).