Summer Thoughts: Thunder 98, Nets 84
The Thunder are on the board in Orlando, taking down the Nets 98-84 behind 26 from Jeremy Lamb and a strong double-double from future Hall of Famer Mitch McGary. Some thoughts:
- No Steven Adams, no Perry Jones, no Andre Roberson, no Semaj Christon, no Josh Huestis today. I thought the Thunder had started to summer league tank. But I thought wrong!
- The two standouts for OKC on Monday were the two guys you’d hope for: Lamb and McGary. Lamb came out with his shooting boots on, firing up shots just about any time he got an ounce of space. He wasn’t shy, which I guess is good, but Lamb’s issue offensively can sometimes forcing bad shots and not hunting actively enough for the high percentage ones. He hit 8-of-21, and just 2-of-7 from 3, but he did get to the line nine times, which is a very good thing. Lamb too often resisted attacking the paint last season and never really got a hold on drawing fouls. He did well at that today.
- McGary showed a whole lot in this one. The most eye-catching play was probably him handling in the open court and no-look dishing on a fast break, but he flashed the whole package. He was stout inside, rebounding well, defended the paint and even hit a jumper off the dribble. The final line: 18 points on 8-17 shooting with 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
- The only real question left at this point is if McGary’s MVP speech will top KD’s next season.
- I do know this: The organization is really high on McGary. They love his energy, but more than that, the way he combines that with his skills. He knows how to use that big body and positions himself well on the offensive glass. Obviously you can’t draw sweeping conclusions from one decent summer league performance, but maybe McGary could claw his way into the rotation sooner than later.
- Darnell Mayberry pointed it out on Twitter this afternoon, but Reggie Jackson had a poor game in his summer league opener last year. Then he bounced back and had a really nice one in his second outing. And here was Lamb doing the same thing.
- I’d love to see a lot more McGary-Lamb two-man stuff the rest of the week. Those guys really need to develop a partnership and chemistry. Lamb had some good stuff going with Nick Collison last season and with McGary’s passing ability, there should be something there. This would be a good time to get cracking on figuring it out.
- Real thing tweeted at me after the first quarter of today’s game: “I’d like to see Stockton get a spot in the rotation where Fisher was at. Good handles/high iq.” Summer league is awesome.
- Breaking: Ron Anderson got his name on his jersey.
- Marcus Lewis is basically a poor man’s Big Baby, I guess. But he did have 13 on 6-8 shooting.
- Kendall Gill was very impressed that Mitch McGary finished with his left hand.
- Random: Remember Robert Vaden? I don’t know what made me think of that, but I always thought he would’ve tore things up at summer league and all he did was miss 3s.
Next up: Wednesday against the Pacers at 2 p.m. CT
