LV Summer League - Game 2 - Recap
by eschalon on Jul 12, 2009 12:58 AM PDT
34 comments
Game 2 - GSW vs. Sac Kings
(By request I separated it out into a new post rather than lumping it all into one)
In typical GSW / Sac fashion, this game was a high scoring, sparse defense, barn burner with the good guys coming out on top 98 - 95. The Dubs however did do a better job on the boards today and finished the game much stronger than yesterday. Anthony Morrow still didn't play, although he did warm up with the team and his ankle didn't seem to be bothering him like it was yesterday. There were really only three Dubs players worth talking about in this game (the three combined for 82% of the Warriors points) and nothing that happened in this game that changed the first impressions that I got from yesterday.
Anthony Randolph - 24 pts (on 10 - 13), 11 rebs, 2 ast, 2 stl, 5 blks, 6 tos
Similar to yesterday's game AR put up another solid overall performance, with his share of highlights (that breakaway dunk and several massive blocks) and lowlights (pass off the ref was the most stellar turnover.)
He was extremely impressive on the defensive end, bringing energy to start the beginning of the second half that (along with Curry's scoring) got the Dubs back into the game after a dismal first half. His help defense continues to be superb. He still falls for pump fakes way too much (he needs to learn to jump after the offensive player leaves their feet, not before) but I think he has the tools to become one of the best help defenders in the league (similar to Birdman for the Nuggets.) The area of defense he needs to start working on though is his post defense and on ball defense. Several times he was outmuscled in the post by Thompson or sagged off his man too much on the perimeter and let Casspi and Greene get wide open looks.
Offensively he was extremely efficient (minus the 6 tos), yet I really feel he can do even better than that. His elbow jumper seems to be much more consistent and he did an excellent job slashing to the rim, however his post moves leave a lot to be desired. If he really did gain 15 lbs of muscle, it's not showing in the games. He was continually pushed around in the paint by Donte Greene, who isn't exactly known as a tough hard-nosed defender. Maybe he can ask Brandon Wright to teach him a few post moves before BW gets shipped off? I don't think he'll ever be mistaken for Amare, but even Lamar Odom and Rashard Lewis have decent post-up offensive games to take advantage of smaller defenders.
Don't get me wrong, he's still the most talented player on the court and he's playing well, but I guess I was hoping to see more expansion of his game with all the talk of his non-stop off-season workouts.
Stephen Curry - 29 pts (on 8-22), 6 rebs, 3 asts, 2 stls, 3 tos
After a dismal first half (0 for 8 shooting and 2 pts), in which he tweaked his ankle, Steph exploded in the second half / OT for 27 pts. He continues to impress me with his ball handling and decision making. He did drill three 3's in the second half, but surprisingly, he did the majority of his damage on drives to the hoop, resulting in either a layup or a trip to the line (sometimes both.) He utilized his quickness and ball handling to blow by defenders at will and was able to finish numerous times amongst the trees. He spent more time driving to the hoop in the second half than Jamal Crawford did all season long. The really impressive thing was that he was that while the defenders weren't NBA quality (Jerel McNeal is no slouch but I doubt he makes the Kings team), the bigs that he finished over were (Jason Thompson is a starter and Donte Greene, Jon Brockman, and Omri Casspi all will be contributers this year.)
His defense was again adequate, but then again he wasn't guarding the Kings best perimeter guy (Tyreke.) He was really good in transition defense, coming up with some key steals and deflections (I only remember one bad instance when he let Tyreke get around him for a layup.) He also pulled down the third most rebounds on the team and did a much better job communicating with his teammates on switches and in transition.
He performed well in the clutch, scoring the go ahead layup and sinking two free throws to ice the game in OT. The most impressive thing to me is his BBIQ. His 3 assists weren't indicative of some of the great passes he made, particularly running the pick and roll. He made some great passes to Connor Atchley and Othello Hunter off the p-n-r, but they weren't able to do anything with the passes. I'm not sure why they didn't run the pick and roll or pick and pop with Curry and Randolph (as it was successful yesterday), but then again I didn't understand putting Joe Ingles on Tyreke Evans for the whole game when he continued to get torched.
Even though he didn't shoot well again (though his 8-14 in the second half / OT was a great improvement) he seemed to make the right decision with the ball the majority of the time. It didn't seem like he was forcing shots, just taking them when he was open, even though he couldn't hit anything in the first half. The only really bad shot I felt he took was the shot at the end of regulation, but he had to do something with the time running out. The way he plays reminds me of a really good poker player. In poker you want to get your money in good when you have the best hand, what happens after that is up to how the cards fall. You judge yourself based on the decisions you make, rather than the results, because you can always make the right decision (taking the open shot / making the correct pass -> getting your money in with the best hand) and get the wrong result (missing the shot / not converting the good pass -> getting sucked out on.) Judging him based on his decision making (something the Warriors are sorely lacking in), I think he did a stellar job today, and he's quickly turning me into a Curry fanboy.
The one area he really needs to work on is hitting his jumper off of one or two dribbles. The majority of the jumpers that he missed were of that variety (and the majority of those were fairly wide open, off of screens.) When he was able to set his feet, he was money. He also does a good job at hitting PUJITs (pull up jumpers in transition.)
Cartier Martin - 27 pts (on 7-15), 4 rebs, 3 tos
Again Cartier continued to impress and fight for that roster spot. He must have read my fanpost yesterday, because he came out today and proved me wrong and shot the lights out. He was really aggressive on offense, hitting open threes and making strong drives to the hoop resulting in 10-11 fts and several and-1's. He still looks like the only one that has a shot at making the roster.
Acie Law, Jermareo Davidson, Joe Ingles
I'll give JD the benefit of the doubt after reading the MT2 article about him being injured, because again he contributed nothing to the team, which was a bummer because I ran into his parents in the stands (at least I think they were his parents because they were both wearing Davidson jerseys and his Mom's one said "Mom" instead of Davidson.) Acie Law really only got playing time when Steph Curry tweaked his ankle and went to the sidelines, and again didn't do much to impress me. Joe Ingles got a ton of playing time (which I'm not sure is a good thing) and he continued to be anemic on offense (3 pts on 1-7 shooting.) He spent the majority of his time on the court trying (unsuccessfully and inexplicably) to keep Tyreke Evans out of the paint. He gets an A for effort, but a D for execution. At least he contributed a little with 8 rebs.
Lawrence Hill, Jared Jordan, Quan Prowell, Conner Atchley, Lawrence Roberts, Jamal Sampson
Despite Conner Atchley's best Rob Kurz impression, it's still extremely doubtful any of these guys have a shot at the roster.
This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!
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Nice post.
Martin really impressed me,too bad he’ll just rot even if he makes the team.
Its time for a change...
nah, he’s already going to be 25 and he’s nowhere near Azubuike right now.
by homer simpson on Jul 12, 2009 8:40 AM PDT up reply actions
Nowhere near Azubuike? Based on what?
We all need to slow down with the Buike love. I think he’s a great part of the team. But he’s pretty one dimensional as a basketball player. Yes, he can get to the rack and hit the occasional trey, and play a little D, but Curry is already a much better decision maker with more of a hoops IQ and feel for the game. He’s a manager of a team on the court while Buike is a role-player on a team. Buike would not start on any playoff team coming out of the West.
And as a far as our team, where does Buike play on a team with Maggette already on it? I will continue to ask this question. While I would probably prefer Buike, we’re stuck with Maggette, so we really don’t have a choice but to try to move Buike while his value is as high as it’s ever been. He will never see the averages he posted last year on a depleted Warriors team. There just aren’t enough minutes to go around, especially if we think Morrow is the legit perimeter shooter that we’ve been desperately needing to complement our guards.
by eastbayglory on Jul 12, 2009 1:20 PM PDT up reply actions
Oh, I just realized you were referring to Martin. Sorry about that.
But the question about Buike’s role on the team stands.
by eastbayglory on Jul 12, 2009 1:21 PM PDT up reply actions
heh. no problem. i understand your pain with all the over glorification of role players that posters seem to spew out with reckless abandon on this site.
by homer simpson on Jul 12, 2009 1:58 PM PDT up reply actions
And as a far as our team, where does Buike play on a team with Maggette already on it? I will continue to ask this question. While I would probably prefer Buike, we’re stuck with Maggette, so we really don’t have a choice but to try to move Buike while his value is as high as it’s ever been. He will never see the averages he posted last year on a depleted Warriors team. There just aren’t enough minutes to go around, especially if we think Morrow is the legit perimeter shooter that we’ve been desperately needing to complement our guards.
I too have been echoing the exact same thing for a year now. Buike’s great, but his value is pretty high. Move him over Belinelli given that Beli’s half the price and can do more things than him that the team needs. Scoring is at a surplus, but the “little” things like threading a pass in transition or half court is not at a surplus.
Confident Marco Belinelli supporter
by Doctor Kajita on Jul 13, 2009 10:52 AM PDT up reply actions
Belinelli can do more of the flashy things, but he is limited in some critical ways.
Scoring may be at a surplus (albeit scoring efficiently is not). Rebounding was not something we had a surplus of. Belinelli cannot rebound. The team needs rebounding. Playing Belinelli instead of Azubuike makes this problem worse.
is martin quick and active enough
on defense to improve the perimeter coverage? the real test of course will be in the stiffer preseason games a month away, if he gets invited to training camp.
on the surface, he’d seem to be redundant with azubuike or belinelli, but either or both could be traded away and those d-leaguers come cheaper. martin did well enough in d-league to get two contracts from Cha and l.brown supposedly had high praise for him, which was backed up by the second contract.
Cartier Martin
They’ve been playing him at the 3, so he was matched up most of the game against Omri Casspi and Marcus Landry and neither of them did much but shoot spot up 3’s all game long. I would have liked to see them try him out defending Tyreke, since Joe Ingles wasn’t having the easiest of times and then we might have had a better idea of his ability to defend the perimeter. Since he was basically guarding spot shooters against the Kings, he didn’t have the defensive impact that he did against the Rockets. Against the Rockets he was really active in the paint, coming up with several deflections that led to steals and drawing three charges in the lane.
He’s listed at 6’7, so he’s a bit taller than Kelenna. He seems to have similar strength to Kelenna and possibly a little more quickness. He’s nowhere near the shooter Kelenna is though, despite the good showing today. The one problem I see with him is he’s not a great rebounder for his size. He’s averaging 4.2 rebs per 40 mins so far in the summer league and he was outrebounded by Stephen Curry 6 to 2 in this game.
I can’t say he’s a great fit for the team, nor does he shore up any of the team deficiencies, but he’s clearly the best non-roster player for this summer league team (in fact I’d say he’s actually a better player than Acie Law and Davidson at this point.) The rest of the guys on the team have me longing for the days of Rob Kurz …
thanks for all the scouting reports
draft express has martin’s combine measurements at 6’5+ w/o shoes and a 6’10 arm span—he spent a year in turkey, then the d-league after four years at k-state. he averaged 5+ rebounds in 37 min. in d-league so you’re right about that part of his game. the team already is jammed at the wing, with morrow getting his time in all those games m’gette and jackson missed, but none really have the skill set of pietrus
He’s listed at 6’7, so he’s a bit taller than Kelenna.
I can’t find it now but his pre-draft scouting report I saw yesterday had him at 6’4.5" without shoes. Maybe he grew since then, but I think his listing is probably pretty generous.
Thing A
1.5 in. of height = average fancy hoops sneakers
but his arms are long and i think he played more forward than guard in both d-league and college. i prefer standardizing a player’s position based on where he defends, and the all-purpose 2/3’s i consider wings. apparently martin is defending forwards in vegas so far.
1.5 in. of height = average fancy hoops sneakers
nah, those are pretty huge sneakers man, and that would take him to 6’6" anyway…..the measurements from this years combine indicate most sneakers are .75" with 1" sneakers being about the tallest. HIs did play mostly PF in college but I think in the D-League and with the B-Cats he was playing mostly the 3.
Thing A
Thanks for the recap
What did you think of Tyreke Evans? I feel like he doesn’t do a great job creating shots for others, and since the Kings already have a very efficient scorer in Kevin Martin, he doesn’t fit in like Ricky Rubio or Johnny Flynn might have. But I haven’t seen him play very much, so I’m curious to see what you think.
Tyreke Evans
My initial impressions of Tyreke are similar to yours, that he’s a bad fit for the Kings. He really only does one thing well, and that’s score the ball (although he does it at a much less efficient rate than Kevin Martin.) He’s terrible at creating for others right now and he’s one of the most ball dominant players I have seen. He did have 5 assists in the game, but they were of the feed the post / swing the ball on the perimeter variety (with the exception of one pick and roll), so that number is a bit misleading and not really indicative of how badly he struggles to create for his teammates.
He’s also not really good at adapting to situations and adjusting on the fly. He seems to make up his mind of what he’s going to do (usually barrel his way into the lane) and no matter what the defense throws at him, he continues on his course. As I noted in my first recap, he also has bad court vision (something that Monta gets criticized about alot around these parts) and wide open teammates are often left frustrated when he can’t find them. His defense is also suspect as he was the one guarding Cartier Martin for the majority of the game and Martin is by no means an offensive juggernaut, yet with Evans guarding him he went off for 27 pts.
I think right now, he’s best suited to being the sixth man for them and providing instant offense similar to the roles Jason Terry and JR Smith employ. Sergio Rodriguez, who is much more a pass first point guard (yet couldn’t score if no one else was in the gym), seems like a better fit alongside Kevin Martin.
Conor Atchley
He reminded me of Rob Kurz, too, except taller. I thought he looked like one of the five best players with a Curry, Morrow, Cartier, Randolph, Atchley being a legit Summer League smallball lineup. Funny thing, a successful Rob Kurz impression means he makes the squad. And my only problem with Kurz was his height.
Acie Law
I’m pretty sure this guy is worse than Marcus Williams so he’ll be here a year while his contract expires. Either that or we use his expiring contract (and Claxton’s) to get a quality guy later in the year.
Ellis to the RIM!
Monta for the win?! YES!
Anthony Randolph!!
I’m expecting him to put up those same numbers, except for the 6 TOs.
It is the shoes!!!
Remember Marcus Williams?
He just had 17 assists and only 1 turnover in 28 minutes for the Grizzlies. He got everyone else very good shots and made their offense look amazing. It’s just summer league, but damn why couldn’t he play that well for the Warriors?!
he's also
gotta be one of the oldest and most veteran guys playing summer league….I wouldn’t worry that we dumped a quality PG just yet.
Thing A
Did you watch the game? He really did look good though...
123707THIZZ<——————(is aware its only summer league)
by 123707THIZZ on Jul 12, 2009 10:40 PM PDT up reply actions
but damn why couldn’t he play that well for the Warriors?!
He could have if we din’t have nellie’s screwed up system for a game plan
Now wheres the rubbers? Whose got the rubbers?
I noticed there's so many of them
and there's really not that many of us.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jul 13, 2009 11:29 AM PDT up reply actions
I didn't watch him play either
… except for a few highlights in which he did look good. According to truehoop though (link) he’s still the same lazy defender and poor shooter. This is the same thing we saw in the regular season and what ultimately kept him on the bench.
I think this is largely why everyone who is pinning 2009-10 on Randolph will be dissapointed.
The season ended what 2.5 months ago? He’s not going to improve THAT quickly. He lacks the true basketball IQ to be a fast learner. He’s still only 19, young for his age, could be a kid entering his sophomore year. I think if we’re lucky we can see a taller shawn marion type, which would NOT be a bad thing, but even marion didn’t become a legitimate star till he was 25/6. My point is we need to bring AR along slowly.
Randolph and Expectations ...
I see that TafKasam wrote something similar, but I want to second his point.
If Randolph adds ONE new thing to his offensive game every offseason, that’s a success. This year, maybe it’s that elbow jumper – not the sexiest move, but that something that makes him a lot more dangerous. Maybe next offseason it’s the post moves, and the year after that the long two-pointer, or the ability to drive consistently from the wing.
It’s unreasonable to expect him to have completely revamped his game in one offeseason. Consistent, incremental improvement will turn him into the player we want him to be.
AR
There is usually something that separates a good player from a great player, it is a certain dynamic, for instance;
1) Court vision with an exceptional innate ability to know where players are going to be, kind of a built in turner: Magic
2) Superior speed, ala, tiny Nate
3) Power and speed in one body ala LBJ
4) Strgenth power and leaping ability, ala D Howard:
You get the drift, so what makes AR so intriguing is a number of things that are unique, his almost 7’ frame with guard handles: I don’t recall see anyone like this except maybe for Ralph Sampson, But I like AR much better.
Also the explosive speed coupled with his length for getting to the ball: his stride up and down the court is amazing to watch, he can get the ball up to half court in a few steps:
That kind of ball handling and speed with deceptive strength and heart looks unique to me in a player, I have a hard time comparing him to anyone, shads of different players but all in all he seems special:
He’s a bit KG like, with a bit of Bosh and a mix of Odom, but I think he has that tenacity and heart to excell.
By season four this guy may be a superstar, just depends in his BBIQ, he has more tools than most.
The majority of Randolph's blocks...
were of the goal-tending variety. Apparently the refs in summer league do not call goal tending.
He was beat off the dribble often and had a difficult time defending in the post. His strength on defense for the time being will be from the weak side help.
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