Oklahoma City’s first summer league game is today at 4 p.m. and like reader Lefty said in the comments, “It’s only like five weeks until college football, and I don’t even care, because we get to watch the NBA summer league this afternoon. How messed up have I become?” I hear that. Here I am waiting for four o’clock to roll around so I can watch me some summer league basketball. Dedicated fan or over-obsessed nutjob? You tell me.
But there are things to be excited about. I’m psyched to see James Harden in action and also to see Serge Ibaka for the first time. But there’s some other interesting names on the roster, most of which have as much chance to make it to fall camp as I do, but nevertheless, it should be fun to watch some basketball again.
Russell Westbrook (PG) – Thunder
We all know he’s good. But what kind of progress has he made so far this summer? He’s been working on his jumpshot and decision making this summer so it’ll be interesting to see if he’s made any progress. He’ll be one of the elite players in the league and it’s hard to say how much playing time he’ll get. But he’s not participating in the Vegas league, so I’m guessing anywhere between 20-25 minutes a game. He’ll probably be able to get just about anywhere he wants, but the main think to look for is for more consistency on his mid-range jumper, a better ability to finish around the rim and also if he seems to have more control of the offense with the ball in his hands.
Shaun Livingston (PG) – Thunder
Livingston’s play at the end of the year was extremely encouraging for Thunder fans and extremely discouraging for Earl Watson. If Livingston continues to progress, Watson may be left on the end of the bench next to trainer Joe Sharpe. What’ll be most interesting to watch is if Livingston’s side-to-side agility has improved any and if he looks even more comfortable on his knee than he did at the end of the year.
Serge Ibaka (PF) - Thunder/Ricoh Manresa
With news coming out that Ibaka is going to be on the Thunder roster next year regardless of what happens in Orlando, this week became a lot less important for him. But he’s still the most interesting player to watch this week. Really nobody has seen much of anything from Ibaka and he’s a major unknown. We don’t know what to expect from him. Shot blocking? Rebounding? Post game? Any semblance of a jumpshot? We know he can dunk, but can he play defense? His unreal athleticism and length get me giddy and I know when he’s on the court, my eyes are only going to be on him.
D.J. White (PF) – Thunder
White has been working this offseason to add some of the weight he lost as a result of his jaw surgeries. The Thunder would love for him to be a quality mid-range big man off the bench that can rebound and play solid post defense.
Kyle Weaver (PG/SG) – Thunder
This is a big camp for Weaver. He showed last year he’s capable of contributing on an NBA squad, but he’s kind of caught in a tight spot right now on this roster. James Harden will likely cut into any and all playing time and Thabo Sefolosha does basically the same thing as Weaver, but better. Weaver needs a consistent 3-point shot and the ability to slide over and play a little point guard in order to be able to contribute to this team.
James Harden (SG) – Thunder/Arizona State
Second to Ibaka in players I want to see. How does he look shooting the NBA three? Passing skills? How does he look playing alongside Russell Westbrook? He played almost always in a 2-3 zone at Arizona State. How does he look defensively playing man-to-man? Can he get to the rim any time he wants? Harden was picked because he was the perfect fit. I want to see how he gels with Westbrook and Livingston and how far he’s got to go defensively.
DeVon Hardin (PF) – Egaleo AO/Cal
Hardin was a nice player at Cal and a guy that has NBA-type athleticism and an ideal NBA body. But his game is incredibly raw and there’s no real rhyme to to his offensive reason. He battled a foot injury in Turkey last year which cut into his playing time and ended up getting him released by the team. He caught on with another in Greece and played well for the rest of the year. He’s big, very strong and very athletic, but he’s got little to no offensive game. A good week could earn him a spot on Tulsa’s roster.
Robert Vaden (SG) – Thunder/UAB
He was added for one reason and one reason only: to shoot. If he does that well in Orlando, he may have a chance to make this roster. If he struggles and presses, he might be headed overseas or to Tulsa for the year. He’s exactly the type of stretch player the Thunder needs. That is, if he can actually shoot.
B.J. Mullens (C) – Thunder/Ohio State
This is a pretty big week for Mullens. Granted, you can’t totally judge and evaluate properly based on these summer leagues, but this is the best opportunity so far to get a sense of these players. With Mullens you want to see how he matches up on the interior with other big men. Is he strong enough to hold his own? Can he score in the post? Does he have any offense outside of four feet? If not, I think we’ll see him at the end of the bench or in Tulsa to start the year. Mullens is an extremely gifted young man for his size, but it’s about harnessing those gifts and working hard to refine them. He’s got the skill to play in the NBA, but does he have the desire to?
De’Angelo Alexander (SG) – EnBW Ludwigsburg/Charlotte
The former Midwest City star and Oklahoma Sooner has bounced around quite a bit in his short professional career. After transferring from OU to Charlotte, he earned All-Conference honors, averaging 17 ppg and 6 rpg. He was a deadly shooter in college, leading the Atlantic 10 in 3-pointers made as a junior. He then played a year in Germany where in 14 games, he averaged 20 minutes a game and scored 6.2 ppg hitting 59 percent of his shots from 2-point range, but just 16.1 percent from three.
Kyle Hines (PF) – UNC-Greensboro
An undersized power forward from UNC-Greensboro, Hines is one of only six players in NCAA history to score 2,000 points, grab 1,000 rebounds and block 300 shots. A four-year player at Greenboro, Hines averaged 18.2 ppg and 5.3 rpg including 19.2 ppg his senior year, second in the conference to Stephen Curry. Hines became just the fourth player in the Southern Conference’s 62-years of all-conference selections to become a four-time First Team selection and the first in 20 years. He scored in double figures in each of his last 81 career games, which was the longest active streak in the nation.
Moses Ehambe (SG/SF) – Tulsa/Oral Roberts
The only player on the summer league roster from Tulsa. The former ORU standout averaged 10.1 ppg for the 66ers last year, hitting 41 percent from both the field and from three. Ehambe is 6-foot-6 swingman and had highs of 26, 25 and 22 last year and one game where he hit seven 3s.
Marcus Dove, Keith McLeod, Doug Thomas and Richard Roby are only competing in the Vegas summer league. We’ll take a look at those four next week.
harden is not gonna be great he will more than likely be the worst guy on our team = worst player in the nba book it
Things will be clearer in Vegas with NBATV.
Summer league isn't really the place players showcase defense usually but in the end it will matter a lot when the real season cranks up.
Crow :
Did Ibaka or DJ guard the opponent center? If it was Ibaka that is worth watching. Anderson did alright against the other guy. Who did Hendrix do most of his damage on?
Was Livingston on Richardson? Pretty big numbers for him.
Actually Crow, the web feed isn't clear enough to see what exactly is going on. The jerseys are hard to make out, and you definitely can't make out facial features. I could only recognize three or four jersey numbers, the rest I couldn't even make out.
So it's hard to say who Ibaka was guarding and who Livingston was guarding. They started Livingston at the 3, so I'd assume he was guarding the 3 as well. I also have to assume that Ibaka was guarding the 4 and 5, since he played with Mullens alot as well, and I'm not sure which guy he was guarding either.
Happy 24, looks like it is just live webcast.
I guess the opponent center was just 6'10 and low level so it wasn't really like an NBA center opponent- this time. Still if you believe in 7 footers in your system you might play Mullens and Hardin more, to practice your system.
2 for 7 from 3 with just Harden hitting. Same pattern as last season. I'd think in summer league let em fly and try to find the stroke but I think there maybe heavy coaching to only take "good" ones. Well compared to a mid-range almost any 3 attempt is as good or better.
Did Ibaka or DJ guard the opponent center? If it was Ibaka that is worth watching. Anderson did alright against the other guy. Who did Hendrix do most of his damage on?
Was Livingston on Richardson? Pretty big numbers for him.
Is there anyway to watch the game now that it is over. I had to work late and missed it.
Joe :There may be more minutes in Livingston’s future than originally thought.
good point
people forget that Livingston is a pure point guard - he knows how to get the rest of the team involved . . . the only thing holding him back is his health . . .
@okcnba
I saw that too... his game seemed smoother than that to me. Maybe it's just confirmation bias, I don't know. It sure makes me look silly for raging on RW about his 4 turnovers - even if it was the erratic play early on that bugged me most.
Here is what RW seems to do, at least from the perspective of an avid fan like myself and not a coach.
On offense, Russ seams to pay too much attention to the guy that is guarding him. He focuses in on that one thing and seems to get some sort of tunnel vision that prevents him from seeing the whole game.
It's only when he runs out of options that he looks for a last second pass, instead of planning ahead and playing the angles and passing lanes. Fortunately, he is so athletic that he can usually manage to make something happen anyway. But, I would sure like to see him get to that next level soon.
Agree with Josh. It's summer league after all, and one game at that. So I think any sort of criticism is very premature. He showed me plenty by getting to the line 18 times, he played tough and went to the hole in a summer league game where plenty of NBA starters would have had a more laid back approach. More impressive, was the 9 assists. The guy continues to improve as a POINT GUARD, not just a player. Give him some time, even though he clearly doesn't need it.
James harden had 3 turnovers in 20 minues, that stat kind of surprised me, it didn't seem like he handled the ball that much.
@Josh
Clearly it's not fair to judge him on just one appearance, the first quarter of which was awful. That said, we should afford the same to Vaden and Weaver.
@Sammy
Agree. Should have hit refresh before my last post as you summed it up nicely.
@Joe
Agreed. Livingston continues to impress me, maybe more so than some others. All in all, I think the guard play will shape up a lot next year with RW/Livingston and Harden/Thabo and perhaps some help from Weaver at both the 1 and 2 if he can just be a bit more aggressive.
If you consider how bad the guard corps was at the beginning of last year before the team added Livingston, Thabo and Harden, it's pretty clear that things should improve. If even one of the DJ, BJ, Serge trio turns out to add solid minutes, it could be a decent season.
@Sammy
Yeah, other than the first 5-10 minutes I don't think he played as bad as everyone seems to think and I thought he actually did a fairly good job of controlling the game. I'm sure we were all hoping that he would come out and wow us with an improved jumper or better finishing and that didn't happen. However, it was just one game and I am still optimistic that he will improve in at least one of those areas next year.
@Nix
If you expected immediate improvement or evidence that he made some kind of leap, then yeah. It wasn't a good game by his standards, but he didn't just lay an egg.
There may be more minutes in Livingston's future than originally thought.
@Josh @Sammy
Yeah I just looked at the stats. It did seem like RW's turnovers were worse than that (but as I said earlier, I missed most of the second quarter and all of the third. Maybe he was only stinking up the place while I was watching. And he is a free throw machine. And he did have 5 boards and 9 assists.
He still has a lot of work to do, but I'm confident he can get there.
I thought Harden did VERY well. He looked plenty athletic. He always seemed to be in the right spot on the floor, his shooting and passing looked great and of all the players on the floor he looked like the guy with the most experience and most polish.
Ibaka and DJ looked really good, although Ibaka made some real bonehead plays here and there. Overall, I'd say they have great potential as a group. I think I agree with others in here in saying that Weaver left the most to be desired. I really like the guy and I think he plays solid D and has plenty of potential on offense. But he will have to do a lot more than that to stay off of the Tulsa roster.
@Sammy
Isn't that kind of the problem?
@Josh
For as much as people seem to be ripping RWests play, those numbers are pretty indistinguishable from plenty of lines he had last season.
@Bryan
No triple double for Russ (even with TOs or missed FGs), and the TOs weren't as bad as people seemed to think. 22 pts, 5 rebs, 9 asts,4 TOs, 16-18 FTs, 3-11 FGs.
Harden 6-9 FGs, Ibaka 6-8 FGs, DJ 6-10 FGs, were all pretty effective.
http://www.nba.com/media/magic/orlokc_boxscore_070609.pdf
Pretty exciting game, at least in the sense there was a lot to get excited about. My notes:
*That Orlando Summer League team is really awful. A more competent team would have crushed OKC tonight; I stopped counting how many missed rotations/wide open jump shots (usually missed) the Magic got off.
*Mullens has really nice touch on his jumpshot, and stroked at least 3 20-22 footers. Oddly, he missed a lot right around the basket. Really poor team defender, and he missed a ton of rotations.
*Serge Ibaka! I thought D-league or another year in Spain was the proper course of action until tonight. Way, way more skill and polish than I was expecting (I was expecting a completely raw dunker/rebounder). That post move in the fourth was real purty. I'd be happy to see him play every day.
*Harden played as advertised. Great great vision, was able to create one on one, hit his open threes. If this is the real James Harden, I'm pretty stoked.
*I was scratching my head at the Vaden pick on draft night and he hasn't done anything to change my mind about him. He's a 24 year old volume shooter who's numbers declined dramatically last year. I just don't think he has the chops to hang in the NBA.
*Glad to hear that Presti's passing on Millsap. Between Green, White, Collison, and Ibaka, PF is well covered.
*I was ready to dump Earl Watson two seasons ago.
I wish I would have caught more of the game. Ibaka looked good from what I saw but he would definitely add to the team's turnover totals...so would Mullens.
Seemed to me that Harden was the only serious player on the court...but then again, I did not see the whole game.
I gotta say, Ibaka might be one of my favorites when the season starts if he can continue to develop over the summer and make better decisions.
@James Hunter
That very well could be accurate from what a saw...but I did miss the part of the second quarter and all of the third so maybe I'm just going off of his worst minutes.
@Daniel
yeah...I know. I just hate watching him flounder around like he does. He may very well have a triple double though, he grabbed quite a few boards.
RW triple double is points, turnovers and missed field goals@Bryan
Kinda curious to see Swift play after watching mullens
1-0 in Summer League! NBA TITLE, here we come!!!
I'm gonna stay here and watch Bobby Swift with the Celts.
@Bryan
haha. Seriously though, I think Russell has 10+ assists, 10+ points, don't know about rebounds though.
Oh for crying out loud with the fouls already. This isn't the final four.
I wanna see Presti add a 3pt shooter in free agency.
RW tripple double: points, rebounds and turnovers
@James Hunter
Yup, definitely happy with what I see from the 5 guys you listed
@Daniel
Harden is enough to stretch the floor and give Durant some room. He's 1 more 3 point shooter than we had last year. I am so stinking excited about that kid, he's gonna be great!
man i wonder how close RW is to a triple double. I think he may be close actually.
yeah kyle and vaden dissappointing but DJ, serge, BJ, harden and Livinstone all been impressive
@okcnba
That's true. Other than that though, Weaver hasn't done much. I guess he's played good defense.
I'm still worried that we have no 3pt shooting (other Harden).
gotta mac ... not working ... im pissed
@Daniel
thanks...
It's a dang good thing that Russell can shoot free throws well.
these announcers are hilarious. i'd rather listen to them than mike tirico and bill walton or whoever
@okcnba
Assistant Brian Keefe.
@Daniel
I don't know, Kyle hasn't touched the ball much, he made that nice jumper while being fouled.
@Bryan
Yes, here: http://www.nba.com/magic/09sl_scores.html
Who's coaching our boys today? Anyone know?
Vaden and Kyle Weaver have been disappointing.
@Daniel
Yes. No telling how long it will take to have them though.