The Orlando Summer League will tip off at 5 p.m. today with what promises to be an instant classic, the Sixers vs. the New Jersey Nets! In all seriousness, though, I'm really looking forward to the game and a couple of matchups in particular.
Here are the matchups I'm looking forward to:
- Terrence Williams guarding Evan Turner - Williams is probably a better defender with better size than just about anyone Turner faced at Ohio State last season. Good way to kick things off.
- Speights vs. Derrick Favors - This one has some comedic potential. When the Sixers have the ball, Favors will be tested early and often. Speights isn't shy about getting shots up, he can pull Favors out away from the hoop, and the Sixers have two legit playmakers on the floor in Jrue and Turner, expect the #3 pick to be put into pick-and-roll situations. This should be a nice test to see how good he is defensively. On the other side of the ball, you've got one undeveloped offensive player going against an apathetic defender. I guess the only thing to look for is whether Speights can keep Favors off the offensive glass. Since we're talking about bigs, make sure you keep an eye out for the uber-toughness of Brian Zoubek, who spurned the Sixers for a chance to go the Summer League with the Nets.
- J.R.U.E. - Last Summer, Jrue made the most of a pitiful situation in Orlando. He played the point on that horrible Nets/Sixers combo team and really stood out on the defensive end. He was hawking the ball like you never see in these somewhat meaningless games. I'm expecting more of the same from him, and I'm really hoping he can pick right up where he left off
I'm on vacation so I won't be able to watch this one live. I'll be watching the replay on NBA.com at some point throughout the night. If you're watching, use this as your game thread. Keep it clean, stop talking about the Dalembert trade and how bad Iguodala is, and try to focus on the stuff that's happening on the court.
dude i've always loved T-Will. will be fun to see him play a prominent role.
watch Turner just run over everybody in this summer league. dude is gonna kill it.
yo brian how the heck am i gonna catch summer league sixers games in nyc? pls lemme know.
hope i didnt say anything which might get me crucified here...i just love the 76ers i hope thats cool
joey the game are on the nba channel. If you have direct then your in like Flynn, if not then you need to check if your cable company has nba tv.
Hey Brian,
Where can we watch summer league games? You mentioned NBA.com, but do you need some kind of league pass or is it free? You think comcAst will broadcast the first game b/c of the chance to see evan turner live in his first game as a sixer?
Happy 4th yall.
-Silk
I think it's on NBA TV, if you have that.
It's about 15 bucks. Go to nba.com and you should see an advertisement for it at the top of the screen. Follow the directions from there.
Likely, ATDHE.net will have it
Do any of you guys watch the whole games live ?
Just wondering. I will DVR it--looking forward to seeing the team, and favors.
I'm looking forward to the games- but watching the last few Summer Leagues has prepared me for some ugly basketball. Nothing resembling an NBA or College game. Closer to what you might see at a high end rec league. Lots of dribbling, lots of fouling and almost entirely one on one.
I remember Salmons, Lou Williams nd Lou Amundason dominating. I remember Speights putting up 20 shots and 10 fouls. And Jrue and Thad looking very lost on offense their rookie years.
So I'm not sure what to expect. I'm certain that Jrue and Turner will be amongst the best NBA players in the league- but not really sure how that will translate. So I guess I'm looking forward to seeing some Sixers basketball, but don't come in with expectation.
You are very right, it is really ugly basketball. Way too much one on one and fouling. With Speights, Jrue and Turner, I hope the Sixers play a more unselfish brand, but we'll see. The one thing I don't want to see is Speights put up 30 shots. I know he can do that.
Says here the game's at 7, not 5:
http://www.nba.com/news/features/2010.summer.league.schedule/index.html
If you're setting your DVRs, the games are running (unsurprisingly) an hour behind...if you only set it for the two hours on NBA TV - you'll probably miss half of the game
the dalembert trade was great, iggy is terrible. :)
So who is the better GM, Rueben Amaro or Ed Stefanski?
Rueban Amaro traded 3 prospects for Cliff Lee. Then he traded his 3 best prospects for Roy Holliday. Since the Phillies were over the payroll he had to give up Cliff Lee for prospects that were worse than the ones he gave up. If he let Cliff Lee walk in FA he would have gotten two first round draft picks. If he had'nt resigned Jamie Moyer or signed Raul Ibanez he would have had the money to keep Cliff Lee.
Ed Stefanski has made three bad moves so far as a GM, signing Elton Brand, hiring Eddie Jordan and trading Dalembert.
Being forced to trade Lee because of budgetary reasons isn't something Amaro can control - if he was forced to rush into a Lee deal - that's on ownership - not on Amaro
As for 'if he hadn't signed ibanez' - it's not like that's a vacuum - the phillies would have needed a left fielder the past two seasons, and even average ones aren't cheap.
They're both pretty terrible, but i would say amaro is slightly less terrible as he got the best pitcher in the game while keeping onto the number one prospect in the game
Michael Taylor has been pretty dreadful thus far in the Jays system. Read that Drabek threw a no hitter yesterday in AA. I have less respect for Amaro because he adopted a very successful roster. Giving 3 year deals to aging veterans isn't an excuse to be handcuffed financially. The Howard deal will be a nightmare for those of us who believe in advanced statistics and the rapid decline of power hitters in their 30's...
While I don't think much of Stefanski, he has a lot less to work with than Amaro does.
While I don't think much of Stefanski, he has a lot less to work with than Amaro does.
The phillies are still contending, the sixers have gotten worse each season since stefanski took over.
It's impossible to predict the AMOUNT of injuries the phillies have had this year.
I'm no amaro fan, I hate the howard contract, i hate the organizaitonal approach to many things (but that's not amaro's fault) - but stefanski just sucks
Jime Thome ?
You can't retro-fit Ibanez with the Cliff Lee trade - they needed a LF and he was fine last year (Burrell was and still is horrific - they knew when to cut ties there). Moyer is another story but as John noted, a lot of this was passed down from ownership. I always cringe when people say "they could have just kept lee" - well no shit and i'm sure Amaro would have been fine with that too. He's not a moron. He just wanted Halladay locked for 3 years and Lee was no guarantee. He wasn't given the option for both.
A. Burrell wasn't horrific in Philly - just a victim of the irrational hatred of the fanbase much like Abreu was
B. They jumped the market on Ibanez and gave him too big and too long a contract - it was a mistake - it panned out for a year - but it's a 3 year deal - so those 2 years count.
No, no - I meant after they let him go. He was an albatross last year. I was never a hater of Abreu or Burrell - I used to loathe the WIP talk about Abreu. Lot of idiots out there unfortunately.
I think he is saying that Pat is bad now.
They could have gotten two first round picks if they had just let Cliff Lee walk after this season
They could have gotten two first round picks if they had just let Cliff Lee walk after this season
It's not that simple - and there are a lot of first round busts in the MLB draft (especially when you're the phillies and follow slot recommendations)
My biggest problem was linking the two deals, they didn't have to trade Lee right away before starting to pay him (I was also bothered that all 3 teams involved had the pat gillick stain on them - a little too incestuous of a deal)
Could've kept Burrell and gotten, admittedly, a fraction of the production last year, but no one could've predicted that in 2008. And, Burrell is hitting with the Giants since they picked him up.
It's more complicated than that, Burrell didn't really want to stay and the phillies didn't really want him (cause they're idiots)
Um... the Phillies not wanting to keep him is on the GM, right?
We're next!
Jrue looking like a savvy vet!
Evan Turner is a bust
I kind of feel the first half of the first summer league game is a little early to make that decision.
I kind of feel he was making a joke.
Only thing I saw in the first half of the summer league game worth mentioning is that Speights still is useless on the defensive end and not much of a passer - gets away with a lot of moving screens/picks though
Someone posted the other day about how bad these games are to watch. They weren't kidding. Tons of whistles, but still - its real (allegedly) Sixers basketball on NBA TV (and in HD).
Turner had a nice strip of Favors that led to a break in the first half. Lot of fouls as he's all over the ball (even helping out on bigs).
yea, I was just joking.
couple of points:
Derrick Favors looked impressive
Jrue Holiday looks like a stud
Speighs has can not play interior offense or defense all he can do is shoor jupshots
Evan Turner has been a little sloppy
Jodie Meeks may end up being a nice bench player
I think Turner has looked good. He has out rebounded Favors, and been very active.
Anyway, I think NYK gave Amare a reasonable deal. How much do they have left on their salary cap? They still need a SG, PG, C, and a SF.
I predict that they sign Raymond Felton, David Lee, and Ray Allen
5 years 100 million for Amar'e is reasonable?
yea, compared to Joe Johnson it looks reasonable. He will only be 33 when his contract expires. I would have tried to get an extra two years of salary. I haven't seen his contract but I thought he could have had his 20 million dollar annual salary escalate as the years progressed.
The knicks gave amar'e 5 years 100 million dollars.
The suns were going to renounce their rights (Had to) to sign warrick.
NO TEAM could have offered him more than a 5 year contract, you could have tried to get 2 more years, but you wouldn't have been able to as it would have been a violation of the NBA Rules.
Just because the hawks gave joe johnson too much money doesn't mean Amare isn't getting too much money - at least joe doesn't have a serious injury history like amar'e has.
Thsnks for the lesson. I didnt know that the max amount of years was 5.
Report cards from game 1 are in...of the players who we should care about:
Jrue: A+ (Only knock on his play is he needs to hit the free throws)
Meeks: A- (Really like how decisive he was when he got the ball...Also needs to make his free throws. He could be a viable scorer off the bench)
Turner: B- (On the negative side, saw the turnover propensity, looked a little rusty. On the positive side, made it to the free throw line and made them count, filled out the stat sheet with rebs, steals, and assists)
Speights: F (looked like garbage. With all that meat ud think he would take it hard to the basket rather than shooting fade away jumpers. He just looks out of shape and slow on his feet.)
Nice drive by Turner on Favors
Nice pass by Turner, good finish by Simmons
There were a couple moments where Evan Turner also showed his ball handling and court vision abilities which is an asset on a team that is going to be looking to run - Holiday, Turner and Iguodala can all run the break pretty well and find the open man...
Sorry DVR time
I would've liked to see Turner score the ball more. Holiday looked fantastic, and perhaps Simmons can make the team. He's talented enough. Interestingly, Ndudi Ebi, former next-Kevin-Garnett, first-round pick out of high school, productive Euro player in a bad league, is on our summer league team. Didn't play a minute.
With as bas as Speights looked tonight...I think we might regret not having taken Favors when we had the chance!
I didn't get to see the game. Would anyone say that Favors force Speights into his 1-11 performance? Speights dominated this league last year so I wonder if the horrible night was because of Favors defense. I wanted Favors personally but I'm ok with Turner.
Wait, what?
John,
The Speights comment was about his offensive performance last year in the summer league where I think he averaged close to 30 ppg. I'm not saying it was all good shooting and good basketball but his performance was much stronger last year compared to game 1 tonight, 1-11 is pretty terrible. I didn't see the game so I don't know how it played out. I just saw the final stat line.
Oh, ok that makes more sense
And no - favors didn't 'shut him down' - speights was bad offensively all by himself.
And on defense, all the nets big men pretty much seemed to do what they wanted
OK, Thanks.
So you are saying all those low-carb wraps Speights has been eating has not improved his laughable defense? lol I'd like to see what kind of adjustments that Collins will be able to make from Game 1 until the last game and see if Speights shows any intent on listening to what his coach is telling him.
BTW, I think that Aaron McKie is coaching them but Collins is in Orlando working with the team. Is that correct?
That's the rumor yeah - Mckie was on the bench - Collins was watching...I don't know if you can get speights to be better - I mean this is the knock on him from the moment he was drafted - work ethic/dedication.
I wonder what he can do with Thad's defense. He has all the ability to be a good player on that end but he hasn't shown the desire. The thing that stands out to me is his comments after Turkaluv scored the winning bucket against his in the playoffs 2 years ago where he just seemed indifferent to losing the game by playing so far off his man. He just said something like "Well, that's something that I will learn as I play in this league so it's not a big deal." I don't remember the exact quote but that is how I interpreted it.
I don't believe Thad has as high a basketball IQ as first determined...I think that's his problem - can you teach a higher bball iq?
I don't think you can. That is the big difference between Turner and Favors IMO. That is why you see people like Aaron McKie and Eric Snow who played solid defense against a young Kobe have success against elite players while they lacked the overall athletic ability. I even think Kobe at one point said that Eric Snow played the best defense against him over anyone else in the league back in 2002-03.
Aren't you being a little hasty? You haven't seen him play one game under a real coach with a legitimate defensive philosophy. Even Iguodala had a sub par year defensively compared to previous years.
Speights hasn't ever played defense...not even in summer league, watching him pushed around by rookies and second stringers was pathetic
I just looked it up and I spelled it really wrong, Hedo Turkoglu. I was referencing the game 3 or 4 when he his the 3 pointer to win the game when Thad was guarding him.
It was good to see Turner go up against an elite athlete like T. Williams (who I am a fan of, he has a lot of Iguodala in him.) But would have preferred to have this match up after a couple of warm up games :)
Like Jrue last year, Turner will have to learn to adapt to a higher level of athlete. But even in a game like this one you can tell his high BB IQ, and I'd expect he will adapt and get the most out of his talent.
Did Evan Turner play SG, SF, or PG?
I was more focused on baseball, but I had a few thoughts on what I saw. I was in and out throughout the first half and saw almost all of the second half.
1. A lot of basic offense, which I liked. Basic motion sets with pin downs for Meeks and Turner. Pick and roll with Jrue and whoever. Vanilla stuff, which should suit this team well. They have about as much talent and experience (especially with their starters) as any team there, so no need to go crazy with intricate offense. Let these guys try and make plays.
2. Jrue was awesome. One thing that the Sixers should do going forward is try put an emphasis on guys that can knock down wide-open shots consistently. Sure what we really need are defensive rebounders, but hopefully they also can knock down open shots, because Jrue will find them. Maybe even Spencer Hawes will be able to make defenses pay when Jrue finds him :) Jrue could have had more assists tonight if he even had a willing shooter from the post like Brand. He reminds me of a quarterback the way he disects a defense to find open men. A true dual/threat guy like an earlier version of McNabb. Only problem was he took a few plays off on defense, maybe he was tired? Well, he had no help defense and Williams threw down a hellacious dunk on one of the plays.
3. Speights was really discouraging. His defense was terrible and he took jump shot after jump shot. He's kind of like an Iverson type as a big guy, taking a lot of tough fadeaway type shots. I wasn't disappointed that he was missing them, but some weren't great shots and were bad decisions. His rebounding and D were not good either. As of now, this guy is slated to play heavy minutes for this team, which is worrisome.
4. Turner was just getting settled, and I didn't think he was bad at all. He looked a little shy on the offensive end in his first game, but at least he didn't force things. He had a difficult matchup with Damion James and got overpowered a few times, but he learned and stripped the ball from him. I loved the play with a minute left when he got the ball at the top of the key trying to put the game out of reach, that's why we got him. I felt comfortable and he found Plaisted(?) for a three point play. Good to see him in a 76ers uniform.
5. I loved the way they were pushing the ball offensively off defensive boards. The one thing Speights did well was outlet the ball and Jrue/Turner/Meeks got easy buckets. Reminded me of a few years ago. The difference was that it was done by the pass, not just Andre Miller dribbling up the floor.
6. Last thing- I was fascinated by Collins watching the team on the other side of the court. He was clapping for the players when they made good basketball plays (Mike Green's stop and go, Turner's behind the back moves, Turners P and R at the end, anything Jrue did) and not on bad plays (anything Speights did).
All and all, it's great to be away from Eddie Jordan. I like basketball again.
Jazzy about to chat Sixers.
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/Phil_Jasner_chats_Sixers.html