Bayless is going to

uggh not fair lol

 

The bad news is that Oden won't be joining him in Summer League. I haven't the slightest idea why he wouldn't. He could use the time to work on his game.

I hope he works hard this off season. I don't want my faith in him to be shit on.

 

I had a feeling he wouldn't, but I didn't know for sure. Where did you hear he wasn't playing?

 

I wish they had sent Bayless to the D-league this past season, where he would have gotten lots of valuable burn. The D-League is no longer looked upon as an insult - it provides valuable experience and confidence, with a decent path back into the NBA. This is far better than just riding the pine all day, imo.

 

Good. Too many hacks in the summer league. Being triple teamed would not of helped his development, because he won't ever be triple teamed in the regular season. I see no upside in having him out there.

 

Not only that, it's a guard's league

 

From what I have seen so far, I really doubt Koponen will play in the NBA.

 

How can playing against quality opponents be bad for Oden's development? Is it better for him to post up Bill Bayno all summer?

He needs to get experience posting up big men and dealing with being hacked. That really isn't going to happen outside of actual games with players who want to beat you.

 

why? it was a debate if he was going to make this past years roster or not.

 

Doesn't being a first round pick guarantee him a 3-year rookie deal though? What's the rules on players drafted in the first round who's teams dont want to sign them? Could they force the issue and sue until they were signed or something?

 

Agreed. And this also implies that we won't be drafting a PG. Which is also unfortunate.

(All of this assuming that Bayless IS to play the point, because how much more CAN he do in Summer League playing SG. Aside from entertain us in the dull Summer Months, which I would gladly accept.)

More importantly: what's Batum doing?

 

Bayless does too much of that already. He needs to practice with other human beings (other than assistant coaches to rebound for him). He needs to play summer league with the instruction not to shoot either at all or until 3 other people have touched the ball in this possession.

 

The real problem with JB in the summer league - who does he have to pass to...

 

I thought about that last year, but it's not like everybody there is YMCA or rec league scrubs, they've all been good college players or high level Euros at one point or another. I'm guessing Bayless is going to skip trying to dominate the game from an individual standpoint this year and try to be more of a facilitator ... to what end and to what effect remains to be seen.