KINGS! Summer League in Vegas! GM 1 7/7/17
- Thread starter New Era
- Start date
Man, Fox's quickness looked dynamic tonight. That alone is going to get him so much space and the ability to get wherever he wants on the floor, because defenders will always be worried about him getting to the rim with ease. That last second lay-up is a great example; just made that dude look silly and extremely slow. The mid-range jumper looked good too from him; just a lot of positives from the guy we want to be our franchise player.
Jackson came as advertised as well; good scorer, does a lot of things well, plays under control, knows what he's doing out there. That floater too is going to be a great weapon for him to have.
Boy, I also started to get that sinking feeling that we're going to regret passing on Chriss. He's showing A LOT of nice strides in basically all facets.
Jackson came as advertised as well; good scorer, does a lot of things well, plays under control, knows what he's doing out there. That floater too is going to be a great weapon for him to have.
Boy, I also started to get that sinking feeling that we're going to regret passing on Chriss. He's showing A LOT of nice strides in basically all facets.
Positives:
Fox has great legspeed and looks willing to harass his man, quick hands too - I like his defensive potential. Even though he was playing against stronger guys, he didn't back down and he continued to attack the basket. And I especially liked the way he communicated with his teammates - very vocal, very confident but not over the top. Wasn't out there to prove, that this is his team now and to rub that in everyones face. Encouraged his teammates and admitted mistakes.
Jackson was playing within himself. Looked like the smartest guy out there and rarely made bad plays. Just solid, unspectacular but effective.
So all in all 2 out of 3 rooks looked like they belong.
Negatives:
Our sophomores looked poor. Buddy forced way too much and his handles are still a thing to worry about. Malachi was looking completely lost and like the game was moving way too fast for him - passed a couple of good looks only to dribble into a contested jumper or force a drive. Skal just didn't play his game at all and Papa did make the same little mistakes as last season like taking unnecessary dribbles or bringing the ball down.
With sophomores you expect them to dominate the competition in SL. But none of our guys did that. In fact both Fox and Jackson outplayed them and made better decisions. And this is something that worries me. I can live with missed shots, but the decisionmaking should be on a different level after one year of NBA experience. The sophomores should be the guys leading the charge in SL. But in our case I felt more comfortable with Fox making decisions, than with Buddy or let alone Skal, Malachi or Papa.
Just one game though so I'm trying to not read too much into it.
Biggest complaint of the night:
The coaching staff - please tell me, this is just our SL approach to the game to give our bigs some touches. Please tell me we aren't trying to establish an offense, that puts Skal, Papa and Willie in post up ISO's or let them initiate the offense out of the post. Please don't do that. In this case the Zbo signing absolutely makes sense, because he is a guy able to teach how to post up and how to make plays out of the post. And I wouldn't like that one bit.
We are a team with bigs, who have great legspeed and can get up in traffic. Skal, Willie, Giles (only from what I've seen on YT) and even Papa are tailormade to be finishers in the pick&roll. And that's the way the league goes nowadays. Forcing them to post up and for the team to play from there, is just wasting their potential. It made sense with DMC. It makes sense with Zbo. But I don't want to watch Skal trying to back down guys 40lbs heavier, or want to endure Papa's clunky and predictable post moves, that always end in a right handed hook.
Skal suddenly looked like he belonged, when Fox ran pick&roll with him and he could just catch and finish strong. That's his game. Heck if he is able to shoot like I expect him to be, he can pretty much finish from everywhere on the floor and playing with a guy like that is every PG's dream.
Of course you want our bigs to develop some kind of postgame. Nothing wrong with that. It can give us a bucket here and there, when the opponent locks our guards down.
But please for the love of god, tell me Joerger isn't going to force these kids into an oldfashioned inside-out system, when we have dynamic guards and athletic bigs at our disposal.
Let Hill run the show and let him teach Fox how to do it on the NBA level. Let everyone else play from there.
Loved the Cooley chants from the SAC crowd. The guy really deserved it.
Fox has great legspeed and looks willing to harass his man, quick hands too - I like his defensive potential. Even though he was playing against stronger guys, he didn't back down and he continued to attack the basket. And I especially liked the way he communicated with his teammates - very vocal, very confident but not over the top. Wasn't out there to prove, that this is his team now and to rub that in everyones face. Encouraged his teammates and admitted mistakes.
Jackson was playing within himself. Looked like the smartest guy out there and rarely made bad plays. Just solid, unspectacular but effective.
So all in all 2 out of 3 rooks looked like they belong.
Negatives:
Our sophomores looked poor. Buddy forced way too much and his handles are still a thing to worry about. Malachi was looking completely lost and like the game was moving way too fast for him - passed a couple of good looks only to dribble into a contested jumper or force a drive. Skal just didn't play his game at all and Papa did make the same little mistakes as last season like taking unnecessary dribbles or bringing the ball down.
With sophomores you expect them to dominate the competition in SL. But none of our guys did that. In fact both Fox and Jackson outplayed them and made better decisions. And this is something that worries me. I can live with missed shots, but the decisionmaking should be on a different level after one year of NBA experience. The sophomores should be the guys leading the charge in SL. But in our case I felt more comfortable with Fox making decisions, than with Buddy or let alone Skal, Malachi or Papa.
Just one game though so I'm trying to not read too much into it.
Biggest complaint of the night:
The coaching staff - please tell me, this is just our SL approach to the game to give our bigs some touches. Please tell me we aren't trying to establish an offense, that puts Skal, Papa and Willie in post up ISO's or let them initiate the offense out of the post. Please don't do that. In this case the Zbo signing absolutely makes sense, because he is a guy able to teach how to post up and how to make plays out of the post. And I wouldn't like that one bit.
We are a team with bigs, who have great legspeed and can get up in traffic. Skal, Willie, Giles (only from what I've seen on YT) and even Papa are tailormade to be finishers in the pick&roll. And that's the way the league goes nowadays. Forcing them to post up and for the team to play from there, is just wasting their potential. It made sense with DMC. It makes sense with Zbo. But I don't want to watch Skal trying to back down guys 40lbs heavier, or want to endure Papa's clunky and predictable post moves, that always end in a right handed hook.
Skal suddenly looked like he belonged, when Fox ran pick&roll with him and he could just catch and finish strong. That's his game. Heck if he is able to shoot like I expect him to be, he can pretty much finish from everywhere on the floor and playing with a guy like that is every PG's dream.
Of course you want our bigs to develop some kind of postgame. Nothing wrong with that. It can give us a bucket here and there, when the opponent locks our guards down.
But please for the love of god, tell me Joerger isn't going to force these kids into an oldfashioned inside-out system, when we have dynamic guards and athletic bigs at our disposal.
Let Hill run the show and let him teach Fox how to do it on the NBA level. Let everyone else play from there.
Loved the Cooley chants from the SAC crowd. The guy really deserved it.
What impressed me the most is that his steals weren't of the gambling type. He just dug down and took it away from people. Strong hands and great timing. His speed is special but he's also one of the best defenders at the guard position to come out of the draft in awhile. You can tell he takes his job seriously on that end and he's always poking the ball loose and getting into guys. That's when his speed is most deadly... when he gets the ball with only one or two defenders back that's an automatic layup.
THIS... After watching him play I looked up Cooley's biography, guys been banging around the D-League and Europe for 4 years and even holds a record for 29 rebounds in a game in the D-League. Not to say any of that translates all that well into NBA stature numbers, but he just has more experience against this kind of player than Papa. That being said after one game I'd have to put Cooley on the short list of favorites for a camp invite. With the Advent of the two-way contract young Raw Talent and tough guys who just play hard like Cooley are worth keeping an eye on.
Yup, and apparently skal who averaged 4.8 rebounds in 18.8 minutes in the NBA as a rookie can't rebound to save his life. Because you know summer league. People need to relax. Just like u can't anoint fox as a superstar because of 1 summer league game u can't call people busts either. We a fickle bunch.
I was very displeased about thw way we ran offence tonigth. Allways two non shooting bigs both sides of the basket. It lead to a lot of situations where our player drove to the basket and there were allways 1-3 players on a great position to contest the layup. If we would want to create a system where Fox and Hield could thrive, we would need to have only one player inside and four outside or at least that other big on a mid range shooting position. Then the pick n roll would open up a lot more space, thats what efficent basketball is nowadays. Having two bigs inside works only when both of those big men are able to punish the smaller defenders in the post or offensive glass.
We have way too many big men who doesnt shoot threes. In todays nba if you are a big and dont shoot threes, you are a center. The way I see our big men situation, we have too many bigs who are best as centers: WCS, KK, Zbo,Giles, Papa G and even Skal if he doesnt develope a three point shot.
All in all I feel like we looked the best when Fox ran pick n roll and that is what we should build on and build our team to support that. Its only summer league but the basic set that we ran most of the time looked very bad to me. Ball to the post to Skal or Papa and they would facilitate from there. Lot of cutting and screens but no room inside to drive. Plus not enough open threes from drive and kick situations since defence doesnt have to rotate so heavily when there are two bigs inside the paint.
We have way too many big men who doesnt shoot threes. In todays nba if you are a big and dont shoot threes, you are a center. The way I see our big men situation, we have too many bigs who are best as centers: WCS, KK, Zbo,Giles, Papa G and even Skal if he doesnt develope a three point shot.
All in all I feel like we looked the best when Fox ran pick n roll and that is what we should build on and build our team to support that. Its only summer league but the basic set that we ran most of the time looked very bad to me. Ball to the post to Skal or Papa and they would facilitate from there. Lot of cutting and screens but no room inside to drive. Plus not enough open threes from drive and kick situations since defence doesnt have to rotate so heavily when there are two bigs inside the paint.
We ran the same offense last Summer with WCS who also struggled mightily with the same things that Papa struggled with last night. This is the time to work on things for better or worse. Over reaction on Papa, over reaction on Malachi who I thought played very good D. The guy I was most disappointed with was Buddy who was just chucking. Knowing Joerger, the SG position is wide open with Temple, Buddy and Bog. Add a backcourt of Fox and Hill at times. The competition is going to be awesome for our guys
I think there is a huge amount of pressure in these SL games for some players. Hield is expected to dominate against lower competition. Malachi knows this might be the one ahot he has t gwet minutes and show how he can score to get playing time in the season. Must feel he needs to outdue Buddy and so he falling back to his Syracuse chucker days out of desperation. Same thjng for Mason.
Papa seems like he has trouble getting loose due to major lack of confidence that makes him think everything out twice. But he hasnt earned confidence yet. Needa more lower body strength and experience he will juat play inatead of tbinking so much and will look a lot better. Once everyone settles i think theybwill look a lot better
Papa seems like he has trouble getting loose due to major lack of confidence that makes him think everything out twice. But he hasnt earned confidence yet. Needa more lower body strength and experience he will juat play inatead of tbinking so much and will look a lot better. Once everyone settles i think theybwill look a lot better
Precisely why I and others lobbied all Spring for this guy. As I said then, he's got some elite abilities and is a hard worker that really loves the game. Whatever deficiencies he has will become strengths soon enough, IMO. A perfect example is the kid is a natural righty that developed into an even better lefty.
Precisely why I was struggling to decide between the two players closer to the draft. As much as I really wanted Fox in a Kings uniform, I couldn't have been too upset had Jackson fallen to 5 and they had taken him instead. In a perfect world for Kings fans, it would have freaking fantastic if they were able to land both. They were my 2 favorite players in this draft and would have went 1 and 2 in my mock.
As I stated in another thread, I'm not seeing what some others are seeing in Chriss. Sure, he has some talent and can be an explosive athlete, but I also see a lot of bad shots, poor decisions and bad defense. Like everyone else, he's young and may very well improve greatly over the next few years, but I'm certainly not in regret mode just yet.
Precisely why I was struggling to decide between the two players closer to the draft. As much as I really wanted Fox in a Kings uniform, I couldn't have been too upset had Jackson fallen to 5 and they had taken him instead. In a perfect world for Kings fans, it would have freaking fantastic if they were able to land both. They were my 2 favorite players in this draft and would have went 1 and 2 in my mock.
As I stated in another thread, I'm not seeing what some others are seeing in Chriss. Sure, he has some talent and can be an explosive athlete, but I also see a lot of bad shots, poor decisions and bad defense. Like everyone else, he's young and may very well improve greatly over the next few years, but I'm certainly not in regret mode just yet.