KINGS! Summer League-Vegas Gm 2 - 7/9/17

he is bringing nothing. again and again he brings nothing. Give his spot to Cooley
Never apply to be an NBA GM.

By again and again, I mean last year too... this is not all about one or two summer league games. again and again... that's what I said. shown nothing, again and again... since the day he arrived.

I hope you and Slab have reason to gloat when he becomes a real rotation player in the future, I swear to God I'm rooting to be wrong. But now... he is not valuable.

analogy to WCS is dumb come on... WCS was a successful Div 1 player it is not the same at all./
I hated the Papa pick at #13. I hated the way he played to start out last season; I was probably really, really biased against him. I wouldn't have been caught dead defending him, and I've still picked him apart more than any other rookie from last year up even up until now.

This statement is BS and you know it.
 
0-2 in Summer League don't mean squat.

I am concerned about the poor rebounding on both ends and the poor shooting percentages.

I'm sure both will improve over time.

I didn't see any NBA starters in Kings Uniforms tonight. No one who could challenge
The Kings were only out-rebounded by 1 despite having 4 more orbs. The problem they had was shooting 36% from the field, 14% from the 3, and missing 14 FTs.
 
Jackson looks like he was the difference (negative) in the game. Hate to pin it on one player... From the time I watched Fox also needed a stronger input on the game. Really, leaves everyone on the team to critique about at this point in SL
 
Blown defensive assignments, missed passes, not running crisp sets - none of that is a big deal in Summer League. But missed free throws, horrible outside shooting, poor rebounding, lack of physicality, those bother me a lot.

And Skal and Papa not being able to get anything going other than dunks off dumpoffs or offensive boards is a big concern, especially for Labissiere.
You have it backwards. Shooting isn't concerning in Summer League; it's barely organized, there's no practice time, and no preseason to get into rhythm. Buddy has proven himself in the NBA, and JJax was a proven marksman in college. They were 1/13 together, they will shoot better. We already know Fox cant shoot, but he's looked terrific in all other respects.

The defense is a big deal. That's about intelligence and effort, which isn't something subject to random cold slumps like shooting is. The defense was fine. There weren't any issues with the rebounding. Papa got 7 in 19 minutes and Skal got 8 in 28. Kings only got out rebounded 42-41, a miracle considering how poorly the team shot.
 
While it is notoriously misleading to place expectations and frame opinions based on the summer league, I have to say the two players that have looked to be NBA standard are Fox and Skal in patches. The rest of the mob has looked pretty average from NBA talent perspective.

When Buddy's shot is not falling, it's an ugly viewing (especially when he is handling the ball under some pressure......deer in the headlights type stuff)
 
You have it backwards. Shooting isn't concerning in Summer League; it's barely organized, there's no practice time, and no preseason to get into rhythm. Buddy has proven himself in the NBA, and JJax was a proven marksman in college. They were 1/13 together, they will shoot better. We already know Fox cant shoot, but he's looked terrific in all other respects.

The defense is a big deal. That's about intelligence and effort, which isn't something subject to random cold slumps like shooting is. The defense was fine. There weren't any issues with the rebounding. Papa got 7 in 19 minutes and Skal got 8 in 28. Kings only got out rebounded 42-41, a miracle considering how poorly the team shot.
Buddy has proven himself in all of 25 games or how every many he played with the Kings. His shooting percentages were fantastic BUT March and April are notorious for making young players look better than they are because some teams are flat out tanking and not paying too much attention defensively and the play-off bound teams are cruising and getting ready for the playoffs.

Let wait to see how Buddy fares the whole season in the NBA where defenses start focusing on him defensively a lot more and he doesn't quite have the time and the space to get that shot off. At least with ZBo there is a chance that teams will start focusing on him more, giving Buddy more room to operate in. But then again ZBo has been known as a bit of a black hole over his career.
 
Justin Jackson needs to get a lot stronger. I see him spending 1/2 the year in the DLeague unless we really need SF depth. His shooting is really inconsistent right now too
 
You have it backwards. Shooting isn't concerning in Summer League; it's barely organized, there's no practice time, and no preseason to get into rhythm. Buddy has proven himself in the NBA, and JJax was a proven marksman in college. They were 1/13 together, they will shoot better. We already know Fox cant shoot, but he's looked terrific in all other respects.

The defense is a big deal. That's about intelligence and effort, which isn't something subject to random cold slumps like shooting is. The defense was fine. There weren't any issues with the rebounding. Papa got 7 in 19 minutes and Skal got 8 in 28. Kings only got out rebounded 42-41, a miracle considering how poorly the team shot.
Hield's shooting is concerning me because it seems to be concerning him. Every shooter has slumps but they have to believe they'll make the next one. But Buddy was hanging his head too much for my liking and hesitating instead of letting it fly. Glad he hit that three late in the game.

And by the numbers the rebounding wasn't bad but the Kings should have killed this Grizzlies squad on the glass. Not enough boxing out/putting a body on people and a lot of bobbled balls.

Wayne Seldon has looked better in his first two games than all of our second year guys. Better than all our guys except maybe Fox. I want to see some of our guys break through and look like they are going to take a big step forward this season. So far they look like they've regressed a bit.
 
Not worried about being 0-2, If Jakkar Sampson and Cooley play a bigger role and close the game we win, does not seem like we were trying to win.

I think they want to get Papa and Skal some real reps.
 
Few concerns for our players

Fox: We saw Fox's lack of a 3pt shot exposed today. Memphis put a PG in front of Fox who was just as quick. Fox couldn't fly by them anymore. This is why having a 3pt shot is extremely important. Defenses will just guard him for the attack, while wings defend the passing lanes. Meeting him at the rim will be the NBA's 240lb rim protectors.

Hield: His lack of quickness was evident. He just can't get by defenses and constantly traps himself up. I've always said this.. I think he's much more better in a JJ Reddick role where he can come off screens. His shots will eventually fall, but I don't like Buddy with the ball in his hands, not until he improves his handles. I'd rank him below average in that category.

PapaG: Did better today, but he's still struggling in the SL. Even though he lost 12lbs, he's still slow and heavy footed. Yes people will say it's just SL, but I expect him to spend 90% of the season in the GLeague when he's not on our bench.
 
Jackson looks like he was the difference (negative) in the game. Hate to pin it on one player... From the time I watched Fox also needed a stronger input on the game. Really, leaves everyone on the team to critique about at this point in SL
Hard to blame only Jackson. Hield and Mason missed plenty of shots. Hope those are buckets against the Lakers.
 
I also don't like Hield handling the ball towards the end of the shot clock. The PG should have the ball and Buddy should be prepared to receive the pass and swish a 3.
 
I know it's just SL, but what concerns me a bit is that we're supposed to be much better than this Grizzlies team. The players on our SL team will get significant minutes next season...

Don't know what happened to Buddy. I hope his shot will come back. If he continues to shoot like this, his most important asset is gone. As of right now, I assume that Bogdanovic will take his spot from day 1.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
The biggest surprise by far this summer league is the Kings being 0-2. After all, these Kings players are going to be playing in the big league in a few months, whereas most of the guys they are playing against are going overseas or to the D League. Who woulda thunk? They don't have the physicallity to win against these teams, and they don't have the shooting. Not a great combo. With Ingram being held out for a muscle cramp (How wussy can you get, Magic?) the Kings might have a chance against the Lakers. But it won't surprise if they go 0-3 either. Yeah, it's just the summer league, but in a few months its just the real deal, and it's not comforting to be watching our young roster lose against the D League.

Carter is such a class act. I heard one announcer earlier in the day say that from his talking to several management guys around the league they thought he was the best player in the league to mentor a young team. He's got to be wondering though what he got himself into.:eek:
 
Last edited:
I get why people are distressed but Fox is looking good, Giles is being rested and may be a big piece next year, and I think people fearing this team would play their way out of a top five pick next year can sleep easy right now. I have no doubt a few of these kids will put it together and be solid contributors in 2-3 seasons when we may actually have a window.
 
Ah, seems time for my annual "Summer League is pretty much worthless and isn't indicative of anything really" post. The concerns about shooting are actually funny too; it's such a ridiculously small sample size of bad shooting from guys we know are going to be good shooters. Buddy tore it up with us last year, he's going to be fine.

The only real benefit of Summer League and the only real thing we can gleam from it is the experimentation that goes on with putting guys in roles they aren't comfortable in. So like Skal and Papa in the high post, or us running the offense through WCS last year. Or letting Buddy get a lot of ball-handling run. That's it. Even Papa, who hasn't been impressive at all and someone I've been critical of quite a bit, I'm willing to still let him get some run on the big boy team once we define his role better into something he's capable of handling.

Essentially, relax. Trust in the developmental process we saw from Joerger and staff last year and lets get these guys in a training camp.
 
Last edited:
Ah, seems time for my annual "Summer League is pretty much worthless and isn't indicative of anything really" post. The concerns about shooting are actually funny too; it's such a ridiculously small sample size of bad shooting from guys we know are going to be good shooters. Buddy tore it up with us last year, he's going to be fine.

The only real benefit of Summer League and the only real thing we can gleam from it is the experimentation that goes on with putting guys in roles they aren't comfortable in. So like Skal and Papa in the high post, or us running the offense through WCS last year. Or letting Buddy get a lot of ball-handling run. That's it. Even Papa, who hasn't been impressive at all and someone I've been critical of quite a bit, I'm willing to still let him get some run on the big boy team once we define his role better into something he's capable of handling.

Essentially, relax. Trust in the developmental process we saw from Joerger and staff last year and lets get these guys in a training camp.
The thing I don't get though, is that we are in a very unique situation where we can actually field an actual lineup that we could see, or at the very least 3/5 of a regular lineup. With that in mind, I don't understand why we would choose to be cute instead of running the same action that we would see in the regular season.
 
The thing I don't get though, is that we are in a very unique situation where we can actually field an actual lineup that we could see, or at the very least 3/5 of a regular lineup. With that in mind, I don't understand why we would choose to be cute instead of running the same action that we would see in the regular season.
Because the coaches are using Summer League as a development environment where they are getting players to work on their weaknesses and try and implement then in a game situation.

Why is Buddy handling the ball so much? Why aren't we seeing a lot of pick and roll or pick and pop action with Skal and Fox? Coach March said they wanted to see Fox run some plays that they want him to run, hence why there was not much pick and roll action with Skal (in game 1). I am really not concerned with not "playing to win at all costs" as they are picking spots in how they continue to develop these players before the season starts.