My Summer League Thoughts

[feckless]

Does anyone else see a ton of Denzel Valentine in Naders game? Versatile wing/forward that can pass, shoot, score, pretty much do whatever

Nadar is way more physical than Valentine..  Valentine is more of a playmaker while Nadar is more of a finisher to me (if that makes any sense)

I agree with this Valentine  = Nader comparison.

My one question on Nader is how he fits in with more talent--right now he is trying to impress and is always aggressive, especially when the ball is in his hands, exactly what he should do to make the team.  But i can't really tell what he contributes as a supporting role player--he could be good at it but no way to tell from summer league so far.

[Ed Hollison]

I've also been impressed with Nader, but keep in mind that he'll turn 23 in two months. There's a reason he looks more seasoned that the other guys: he is.

The one thing I think could be an issue for him really sticking in the league would be lateral footspeed. A couple times I watched him defend another guy driving to the hoop and it looked he was just a split second late and had to recover after his man got a step on him. But if he improves in that area, he's got that really good build and size, wide shoulders, strength. Could be a really nice defender of multiple positions, plus does a lot of things well on offense.

[PickNRoll]

I've been able to catch all the games, so I'll add my thoughts.

Agree on the fouls

Rozier - he's ready to make the jump to full-time rotation player.  I don't care about labeling him or his position.  He's not Chris Paul, and he's not Kobe Bryant either.  He's Terry Rozier.  He's learning to spot scoring opportunities and he's learning FAST.  He pushes tempo and probes the defense and his J is way better than advertised out of college.  He's also a ballhawk when it comes to rebounding and loose balls.  Stevens said he wants the team to "fly around" on D this year.  Here's your guy.  Nice FT shooting too.

Mickey - biggest disappointment for me.  Hoping he could dominate this year, but looks very limited as a finisher under the hoop.  Still have high hopes for him.  Shows a very nice jumper and good defensive instincts.  Needs to get stronger and play tougher.  Nice screen the other night tho. 

Nader - biggest surprise.  He looks like he could have a career.  Great fundamentals, footwork, and shooting.  Not sure what position he would play, but doesn't really matter.  Solid all-around player.  Happy to have him in Maine.  Would pick ahead of Bender.

Yabusele - pretty good in spurts, but conditioning doesn't look great. i.e. good motor, but runs out of gas quickly.  The pick seems reasonable.  He's not explosive, but he is a very unique athlete at that size.

Jackson - has mostly disappointed.  I still think he's fine value at #45.  Better than Young.

Hunter - fundamentally very good.  Still needs the game to slow down a notch and needs to play at a more measured pace.  He can be a rotation player once he learns to play within himself.  Shooting was never in question, just needs to find a rhythm.

Bentil - I like his effort and he has some tangible skill, but he may be one of those fringe players that just isn't quite good enough at any one thing.  GL Ben

Young - He's shooting it well, but I don't see how he ever cracks an NBA rotation.  Just too bad in other areas.  He does show improvement as a defender, but not enough.  Still can't get his own shot.

Brown - exactly as advertised.  Couldn't be happier with the pick.  Legitimate chance to be one of the 2 best players in this class.  Lives at the FT line.  Plays hard and aggressive.  Shows flashes of excellence on D.  What more can you ask for.

[loco_91]

Agree Rozier isn't a PG. He will pair well with a big PG like Smart who can guard SG's. Problem is he doesn't pair at all well with IT. I still think he'll have an NBA career, though.

[danglertx]

TP for the thread and thoughts.
A much more tangible matter than all of these potential/fake trades.
Even with the mentioned minuses TR could give us a much cheaper Bradley replacement.
Some similarities:
- they can shot, probably will improve
- have a SG skillset in a PG body
- tenacity and the defensive aproach, they can and want to get that 50/50 ball

Rozier can be a 2 guard.  His outside shot spotting up has been way beyond expectations coming out of college.  If we slot him into Bradley's spot after a trade, like many suggest, that offensively works out great.  Rozier can be a 2 with IT running the point doing the P'n'Rs hitting Rozier for spot up threes.  The problem is, we are then tiny on defense with an already undersized front court.  I'm not sure that is ideal.

[feckless]

Agree Rozier isn't a PG. He will pair well with a big PG like Smart who can guard SG's. Problem is he doesn't pair at all well with IT. I still think he'll have an NBA career, though.

Between Rozier and Smart, Rozier is a far better PG.  I see nothing about Smart that says he can be a point-- not sure why you say Rozier isn't a PG and Smart is?

I also wanted to point out, to all, how Jonathan Gibson had played strongly against Rozier --even getting the better of him here and there--but at the end of the game, when it counted, Terry blocked his shot and took the ball--to seal the game.  A very clutch important play.

[danglertx]

I've been able to catch all the games, so I'll add my thoughts.

Agree on the fouls

Rozier - he's ready to make the jump to full-time rotation player.  I don't care about labeling him or his position.  He's not Chris Paul, and he's not Kobe Bryant either.  He's Terry Rozier.  He's learning to spot scoring opportunities and he's learning FAST.  He pushes tempo and probes the defense and his J is way better than advertised out of college.  He's also a ballhawk when it comes to rebounding and loose balls.  Stevens said he wants the team to "fly around" on D this year.  Here's your guy.  Nice FT shooting too.

Mickey - biggest disappointment for me.  Hoping he could dominate this year, but looks very limited as a finisher under the hoop.  Still have high hopes for him.  Shows a very nice jumper and good defensive instincts.  Needs to get stronger and play tougher.  Nice screen the other night tho. 

Nader - biggest surprise.  He looks like he could have a career.  Great fundamentals, footwork, and shooting.  Not sure what position he would play, but doesn't really matter.  Solid all-around player.  Happy to have him in Maine.  Would pick ahead of Bender.

Yabusele - pretty good in spurts, but conditioning doesn't look great. i.e. good motor, but runs out of gas quickly.  The pick seems reasonable.  He's not explosive, but he is a very unique athlete at that size.

Jackson - has mostly disappointed.  I still think he's fine value at #45.  Better than Young.

Hunter - fundamentally very good.  Still needs the game to slow down a notch and needs to play at a more measured pace.  He can be a rotation player once he learns to play within himself.  Shooting was never in question, just needs to find a rhythm.

Bentil - I like his effort and he has some tangible skill, but he may be one of those fringe players that just isn't quite good enough at any one thing.  GL Ben

Young - He's shooting it well, but I don't see how he ever cracks an NBA rotation.  Just too bad in other areas.  He does show improvement as a defender, but not enough.  Still can't get his own shot.

Brown - exactly as advertised.  Couldn't be happier with the pick.  Legitimate chance to be one of the 2 best players in this class.  Lives at the FT line.  Plays hard and aggressive.  Shows flashes of excellence on D.  What more can you ask for.

Agree Mickey has been horribly underwhelming after getting so much run in the D-League.  He is dominated on the boards.  He is pushed around on the block.  He is being shot over at an alarming rate on defense for a guy who is billed as a shot blocker.  He has been inconsistent with his shot, but did knock down a three... so there is that.  And maybe he is still injured and that is slowing him down.  He did miss the Utah league with that shoulder injury.  Moreover, Mickey isn't the kind of 5 Olynyk and Horford are.  We can't hand him the ball at the top of the arc and let him get us into our offense.  He looks lost out there, almost in a panic to get rid of the ball.  If we are going to use him, our offense needs to change when he is in the game.  When he didn't finish RJ's ally oop that really started to sour me on him.  There are just so many taller, longer, and stronger bigs who can finish those plays to warrant keeping Mickey on the roster.  It seems like every other team has two guys like that.  Heck the 76ers are going to have to cut a guy like that in Wood who can also stroke the three.  Why keep Mickey? 

Nader is just solid.  But he is 23.  How much can he improve?  What he is showing now though makes him serviceable for small minutes off the bench.  I think he could give you 10 minutes of defense and spacing if you needed some night because of fouls or injuries.  I think he could even do it against smaller 4's and bigger 2's.

I can't think of any way Jackson has been better than Young.  At least Young does have one NBA level talent.  That stroke has looked sweet this summer for Young.  Jackson can't dribble.  That is going to be a problem for a point guard.  I haven't seen a Celtic PG struggle to dribble and get the offense going like this since Eddie House.  At least House was a great great shooter.

Bentil could really fill it up in college.  More than anyone else, I think he is being hurt by our lack of a true point guard.  I'd definitely like to keep him into the preseason and see if working with better players brings out his skills more. 

On Yab.  I just don't see how you can want to be an NBA basketball player and not run hard in games that are deciding if you are going to be an NBA basketball player.  That worries me to no end.  It isn't that he isn't running the floor on offense, because he does.  It is that he trots back on defense.  He has the physical tools and skills though, but so have a lot of other people who didn't have the "want to" that washed out.

[loco_91]

Agree Rozier isn't a PG. He will pair well with a big PG like Smart who can guard SG's. Problem is he doesn't pair at all well with IT. I still think he'll have an NBA career, though.

Between Rozier and Smart, Rozier is a far better PG.  I see nothing about Smart that says he can be a point-- not sure why you say Rozier isn't a PG and Smart is?

Smart is a far better passer, and just overall more fundamentally solid. Knows where guys like to catch the ball and delivers it on time.

[dannyboy35]

I see both rozier and smart as not great decision makers. Neither looks like a real pg. smart killed a bunch of man advantage breaks by pulling the ball out because he couldn't make decisions. This could be his lack of ball handling/ instincts. I dunno. I think smart plays very hard but is a low iq player. If have to see Rozier more.

[dannyboy35]

Rozier reminds me of Dee Brown. He doesn't have to pick up the ball like smart does under pressure but his dribbling when pressured runs the clock and is often without purpose.

[footey]

Young's biggest problem is that he is just not athletic enough to take it to the hole. He really struggles getting by guys and finishing.

For him to carve out a spot in this league, he has to model his game after Ray Allen and Richard Hamilton and Kyle Korver. Basically, run through picks to get open for a split second to launch a 3.

The same with Hunter. He is dreadful when dribbling the ball, because he has zero ability to blow by anyone guarding him. He needs to become really good at running through picks. Otherwise he is toast.

[CelticsJG]

Jaylen giving off I don't care about basketball body language

[rochrist]

When's that? While he was scoring 25 points and grabbing 9 rebounds tonight? Or yesterday when he was scoring 2o points, grabbing 10 rebounds and 4 steals?

[BDeCosta26]

I see both rozier and smart as not great decision makers. Neither looks like a real pg. smart killed a bunch of man advantage breaks by pulling the ball out because he couldn't make decisions. This could be his lack of ball handling/ instincts. I dunno. I think smart plays very hard but is a low iq player. If have to see Rozier more.

You shouldn't think of a "Real PG" as an important term anymore. Very few guys have Rondo/CP3 level court vision and ability to run an offense. It's important in today's game to have multiple guys who can play both on and off the ball, and so far both Terry and Marcus have shown an ability to do that.

We don't need a "true PG".

[esel1000]

When's that? While he was scoring 25 points and grabbing 9 rebounds tonight? Or yesterday when he was scoring 2o points, grabbing 10 rebounds and 4 steals?

Nope he's a bust. Fire DA. Bad body language. Too smart.  Should have taken Bender. Am I missing anything?