KINGS! Summer League-Vegas Gm 3 - 7/10/17

I don't know who the heck this Alex Caruso guy is but he is an NBA player. Great passer, fast hands, sweet shot, tough, nice hops. Far better than the so-called "rebound game" from Lonzo Ball. He was killing us out there!
 
I don't know who the heck this Alex Caruso guy is but he is an NBA player. Great passer, fast hands, sweet shot, tough, nice hops. Far better than the so-called "rebound game" from Lonzo Ball. He was killing us out there!
FWIW, I think I heard the announcer say those were his first points of summer league, so he is only an NBA player against the Kings summer league squad.
 
I like a Cinderella story as much as the next guy but Caruso is pretty much your archetypical summer league and done story.
Didn't realize you spent so much scouting the Oklahoma Blue. Some guys bounce around before they stick and he has chance as much as any D-Leaguer I have seen this summer.
 
I hope Caruso takes Lonzo's spot on rotation! would be great to see the overhype continue to fail.

I was actually about to post I don't think Mason is NBA ready...but he showed some glimpses tonight, I know another L bothers some ppl on here randomly, but I loved watching more activity and energy from the guys to see some actual potential if I'm gonna watch a summer league game.

Now is Jackson's turn to have a feisty good game.

Whatsup with Pappagianis though? He looks like he doesn't even want to play in the NBA, just not even grabbing fairly easy rebounds.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
It seemed like Mason showed some heart and dug this team out the deep hole. The other guys were ghosts out there. Then Buddy went crazy. Poor Skal had a ton of good shots and just couldn't get them to go down.

Hopefully, Fox's ankle doesn't prevent him from playing in the next game.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
I feel sorry for anyone who turned this game off in the 3rd quarter. :) I was almost there... life is too short to watch scrubs in Lakers jerseys blow out anyone. But I hung in there anyway and was rewarded with a Frank Mason and Buddy Hield party! See what happens when you stay aggressive? They put the defense on their heels and suddenly the game got a whole lot easier. It all started on the defensive end though. We had that possession where the Lakers were forced into a 24 second violation and we were still down by 20 but you could see the momentum shifting. We didn't have any energy in the first half but once guys were getting embarrassed they dialed the intensity up to 10 and suddenly it was this Cinderella Lakers squad (with all their lotto picks sitting the game out) who were flat footed and a step slow on every play.

I wrote this morning that Summer League doesn't mean anything as far as evaluating NBA potential and I'll stick by that but there was a lesson in this game for anyone who was paying attention. We were unquestionably the more talented team coming in considering Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma didn't play and yet a couple of guys on the fringes of the NBA, Alex Caruso and Vander Blue, just took it to us again and again because we were playing lazy as if we were entitled to a win by virtue of our roster and didn't actually have to earn it the hard way. This has been the MO of Sacramento Kings teams for far too long and so it was a pleasant surprise to see these kids respond the right way and match their opponents intensity and then some when the game started to look out of reach. You play hard and things start to go your way. Maybe not all the time, but the inverse is certainly true -- if you don't play hard than nothing is going to go your way. Would have been nice to get the win but a lesson learned can be better than a win if they use this game to get better.
 
Colin Cowturd said Lonzo's passing could change the game like Curry's 3's. I guess he never saw Rondo who can pass or just look at Ben Simmons from last years SL. Much better passer and player. Not even close.
https://twitter.com/procityhoops/status/884602339700637696
He doesn't have competitive fire either. I saw Dennis Smith Jr over the weekend, a player that I criticized pre-draft, playing with a lot of competitive fire. He was completely engaged. Lonzo coasts. Frank Mason was playing hard tonight. He's tough. De'Aaron Fox gets into it. He goes into the lane and throws his body into the bigs. He fights around screens. I don't see Ball do that.
 
It seemed like Mason showed some heart and dug this team out the deep hole. The other guys were ghosts out there. Then Buddy went crazy. Poor Skal had a ton of good shots and just couldn't get them to go down.

Hopefully, Fox's ankle doesn't prevent him from playing in the next game.
I think Skal is being used to run predetermined half court plays each time, papa too. So they are likely just doing as they're told and looking for easy baskets whenever they can get them.

There was a few instances where he had a one on one matchup where he can do his slick turn around but he basically held the ball and waited for an obvious half court play to develop where he gives it up to a slasher. Papa has been subject to this more. The spacing gets so bad and then they look bad...Papa more so because he's having trouble exposing the ball.

It's obvious the Kings will want to run a lot of high post stuff and I think the future they want with Papa and Skal is a C-Webb and Vlade dynamic where they run through them. Even if they aren't passers on that level. Kings don't want to be an up top team(point guard playmaking dominant) They want to go inside-out. Princeton offense again. Neither are looking to do much offensively except initiate the offense and it's not working here. Clearly the staff isn't looking for Wild West youth movement. I think they're looking for to establish a clear system and are grooming their bigs into certain roles instead of giving Skal free reign to see if he's the next Chris Bosh. Then again, it's only summer league.

I think they'll run these a lot with Willie come preseason time.
 
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Those people complaining about us signing Hill, Randolph, and Carter got shut up quite fast. Those youngsters are talented, but nowhere near to compete in the league without any help. They can't even beat future G-League players. Good we got the old guys to give the young ones time to develop. I get the tanking spirit, but there is no point in winning less than 10 games next year, that's not how to create a culture.
 
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I'm just saying I liked the way Caruso imprinted his will on the game :)
Caruso and Blue are both undrafted G-League scrubs. That's the thing with Summer League. There's lots of scrubs playing and some of them blow up for a game or two. It means absolutely nothing.

Without even looking it up, I'm willing to bet neither of them did anything the 1st two games. They just happened to play the Kings tonight who have always had a penchant for making scrubs look like future hall of famers, whether it be during the Summer League or the regular season. Tonight was no different.
 
Oh hey, so this time we were down 28 with 7:00 min remaining in the third when we changed the offense and put Sampson at the 4. Guess it worked again. Maybe in the next game we can try to only fall behind by 10 or so and change things up in the second quarter already?
 
Those people complaining about us signing Hill, Randolph, and Carter got shut up quite fast. Those youngsters are talented, but nowhere near to compete in the league without any help. They can't even beat future G-League players. Good we got the old guys to give the young ones time to develop. I get the tanking spirit, but there is no point in winning less than 10 games next year, that's not how to create a culture.
Not the signings themselves, but the fact we passed on the Caroll deal for the ghost of ZBO, I'll continue to complain about.