'Dont get carried away its SL' (Fixed)

[Ogaju]

I am not getting carried away, I am just full - meaning I have seen enough to believe that Rozier and Hunter are the real deal, and Ainge/CBS made the right picks at these positions. Their style of play is where the NBA is headed and it fits right with the personnel of the Celtics.
Their shooting, ball handling, passing, and ability to drive to the basket is going to make things open up for how short range game bigs. The alley hoop is going to be there too because defendants have to stay home with these guys, and we have the athletes to go get the back door alley hoop passes.

The refrain 'don't get carried away its summer league' is what pessimists say when they are confronted with evidence. The way I see it a team or player can only play the team on the floor that does not mean that team or player cannot show you their proficiency and understanding of the game. Once you see the players proficiency the only thing better competition brings is strength and speed. Rozier has speed in spades, and the body to gain strength. Hunter has the body and length to gain strength and counter any speed deficiency.

These kids are for real.

[SHAQATTACK]

Our top three picks are decent ......not exactly tanking material .   

All three have something in common ......they are self starters ....driven to be good ....great motors ...and good IQ.

All three can contribute by the end of next season.  I like their potential .



Worried about what to do with Young and Bradley . 

Would like to see Holmes get a chance.....too.

Don' care Thorntons. Game at all ......if he isn't hitting his shots .......I don't like having him in the game ....he does very little to help the team ....like Fair .

[MJohnnyboy]

K you really need to phrase your titles differently. The title implies that you are telling people not to get carried away with this years rookie class when in fact you are saying the opposite. You should probably put quotation marks around the title or change it entirely so that people know what you're trying to say.

Anyway, I'm very excited about the rookie class and I can't wait to see what they can do, but I'm not getting too hyped up from what they've done in the SL because we have been teased by electrifying summer league play before. Kedrick Brown and Joe Forte come to mind. I know they are different but they killed it in the summer league, and they turned out to be awful. I remember reading Warriors fans got their hopes up really high when Anthony Randolph and Anthony Morrow were killing it in the summer league. Look how they turned out. Morrow's been okay but he's not a star and Randolph's out of the league.

The reason why I don't get so hyped up is so that I don't get let down, and that's not because I think Rozier, Hunter, and Mickey aren't going to be good, but because they probably aren't going to see much time this season unless they blow out the competition in practice. I have high hopes for the kiddies, but I'll hold judgment on how good they are when they face actual NBA competition.

[notbillsimmons]

Not overreacting but, they have performed better compared to last years summer league team.

Granted Marcus Smart has had 1 year of NBA experience under his belt, but I'm talking about the new guys, Rozier, RJ, and Mickey.

They are solid.

They've performed better in their first summer league compared to Smart and Youngs or even Kelly's first summer league.

[Jon]

This all may be true. The three picks may all end up being studs. But this happens every year. Players do well in the summer league, summer is slow for basketball, and people start to get overly excited and build up wild expectations and we get threads about we need to find a way to get undrafted Jonathan Holmes on a team already overloaded with power forwards because apparently a few summer league games where he performs adequately means he's going to be a stud.

Again, I have high hopes for these picks, but there have been way too many players who have looked like stars on the summer league floor and turned out to be complete busts to jump to any conclusion yet.

[footey]

Guys are playing much better team ball in LV than in UT, and their record shows it.

[Jesus Shuttlesworth #20]

Congrats to the thread creator for creating the most confusing thread ever made on Celticsblog. And you are sold on Hunter and his 31% FG percentage in Vegas, you must have extremely low standards for being sold on players. Are you still holding out hope for Joseph Forte and Kedrick Brown because you were sold on how good they looked in their uniforms? I'm sold on an extremely long climb back to the top because these guys will help very little. If Jamal Crawford is the standard for what they want Hunter to be then he has about 8 light years to go to catch Crawford at this point.

[P stoff]

Well if you use just FG % to judge a player then you are right. But look deeper and you might see that Hunter's passing and reactions are already far ahead of Avery Bradley, Young, Crowder, etc.

Hunter will not be forced to take some of the shots he has been taking (shot clock, off balance) if he were playing within a system. He (IMO) will be a great system player, and will contribute much more than shooting.

Both he and Rozier make Bradley expendable. We are not going to win it all anyway... and the upside from these two far outweigh the chance that AB develops any sort of ball-handling, creating, or passing court sense.

[Ilikesports17]

I am worried about his shot. How is it that we keep drafting "great shooters" who shoot 30% from down town.

If he can shot ~40% I think he could be a very good player, but  I am a little confused.

[Chris22]

Ainge had a great draft.
All of the wailing and gnashing of teeth here was silly.

[Monkhouse]

I am worried about his shot. How is it that we keep drafting "great shooters" who shoot 30% from down town.

If he can shot ~40% I think he could be a very good player, but  I am a little confused.

Tough shot selection, no dominant screen setting bigs to free up space, and the inability for Hunter to really create his own shot without being heavily contested come to my mind.

[libermaniac]

Ya, it's funny. You can tell Hunter is a great shooter just by how the ball looks in the air.  He's got a low release, but the ball comes out very clean, soft and straight.  Even though he's been shooting a TERRIBLE percentage in summer league, I'm still convinced he's a great shooter.

On the other hand, you have Marcus Smart.  His shot is way too high and heavy and misses left and right and short and long.  Even if he shoots a nice percentage for a short period, I don't think I'll ever be convinced that he will become a good shooter.

[cons]

I'd say its encouraging to see them play well in summer league.
Playing well there doesn't necessarily mean they'll be good NBA players...

But if they looked horrible there, then there'd be no chance at all that they could play during the real season.

So at least there's a chance!

[mmmmm]

Congrats to the thread creator for creating the most confusing thread ever made on Celticsblog. And you are sold on Hunter and his 31% FG percentage in Vegas, you must have extremely low standards for being sold on players. Are you still holding out hope for Joseph Forte and Kedrick Brown because you were sold on how good they looked in their uniforms? I'm sold on an extremely long climb back to the top because these guys will help very little. If Jamal Crawford is the standard for what they want Hunter to be then he has about 8 light years to go to catch Crawford at this point.

Hunter's shooting has been streaky and not yet overly impressive -- but the main problem has been a handful of misses inside the arc, in traffic.   He's only hit on 5 of 19 on 2PT shots.

But he's been at least overall decent from outside the arc, hitting 35% from 3PT land.

And most important he has gotten to the FT line a _lot_ (36 times) and converted those at a 92% rate, resulting in a very nice scoring efficiency (TS%) of 53.7%.

So while as a shooter overall he is maybe still looking raw, as an outside shooter, a FT shooter and most importantly, as as scorer, he has been very effective.

His highTS% is consistent with what he was able to do in his three seasons at Georgia State (56%, 62% & 55%).

Obviously, it is an open question as to whether that will translate to the NBA.

But we can only evaluate based on the competition they have been able to face.

[CelticGuardian]

I think some fans use that cliche as a defense for the poor play of their prized rookies.. see D'Angelo Russell and the Lakers fanbase.

It's a given that a player can adapt and come back with better ball skills later in the year whether it's preaseason(but that doesn't mean anything too, right?) or the regular season but first impressions are always important, you can see the areas a player needs growth and with due hindsight the areas that will contribute to the team's overall success.

On that note, I believe Rozier will do a good job picking up Pressey's responsibilities and even has the upside to see a bigger role on the team, he's been making winning basketball plays which is what we like to see. Hunter is an extremely smart player that contributes in areas people where not even raving about when he came out of college and Jordan Mickey looks to be a steal at this point. Very excited about these kids!