Summer School: Game 3 grades

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The Thunder are on the Summer League board! Oklahoma City whipped the Pistons 83-62 to improve to 1-2 in Orlando. The big news is that Perry Jones III didn’t play as he’s out for the remainder of the week because of an ankle sprain. Disappointing, because Jones was certainly one of the more intriguing and interesting players to watch on the roster.

Grades for the three roster guys that played and a few leftover thoughts:

Reggie Jackson: A-
Quietly, Jackson appears to really be finding his rhythm. He’s finding the pace he plays best at, the style he’s effective with and his best spots and pockets to score. He played his most complete game yet of the summer finishing with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 25 minutes.

It really looked like Jackson was comfortable. He was confident with the ball in his hands and decisive. He used the pull-up game a bit more, which was nice to see. He ramped up his defensive intensity a bit and finished with seven fouls, but overall, Jackson put in his best game yet of the summer and definitely should encourage Thunder fans about their third string point guard.

Perry Jones: N/A
Again, Jones sat out today’s game because of an ankle sprain and won’t play in OKC’s remaining two games.

Cole Aldrich: B
Finally, Aldrich showed a little something. He was active, played hard, showed some touch on the offensive end in the paint and used his length defensively. It wasn’t anything incredible, but it was a solid 28 minutes for Aldrich. He finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, but played a really nice second half challenging shots, finishing in the paint and defending the pick-and-roll.

Aldrich is never going to be someone that blows you away with a big 18-12 kind of stat line, but he can be a solid big man to do his job, defend the paint and score when he has chances. Which is what he did. It’s at least a little something to feel better about after two largely lackluster efforts from Aldrich.

Lazar Hayward: B-
Hayward is really shooting the ball pretty terribly in Summer League, but it feels like he’s making a lot of good plays, scoring points and stacking the box score. Another 15 points (on 4-13 shooting) and four rebounds. Dennis Scott called him a “hard hat small forward” which really fits. He doesn’t do much of anything flashy, but has been consistently solid.

A few other notes:

  • Hasheem Thabeet has officially signed with the Thunder so there’s a chance he might play Thursday.
  • Latavious Williams didn’t have the same kind of impact today, but I just like the way he looks and plays. He has the look of an NBA player. Maybe not a starter or even rotation player, but he’s got NBA talent.
  • Kyle Singler’s hair. Whoa.
  • Garrett Temple put in a nice game scoring 15 points on 5-9 shooting.