I think the concerns about his defense on the perimeter is a little overblown. Watching the game again and he got beat mainly by guards. Most bigs will get beat by guards. He got beat by Kuzma but he also stayed with him a couple times. Hes never going to be a Draymond, but he'll do just enough to not be a liability. No different than Zbo. I like the idea of him at center, especially in our system where he can just sag back and not worry about getting switched onto a guard or wing. He handled Zubac rather well and that's a big boy.
If you can't see how obvious your defensiveness was, nothing I can say will help you see it. Nevertheless, I stand by my suggestion.
My point was Randolph carved out a long, successful career despite obvious shortcomings defensively. You could say he was helped by Gasol, but Swanigan will also have an anchor behind him in Nurkic (and Collins compliments him as well)
One thing I remember about Zach was how he'd get set up to set a screen, but then he'd roll too soon, which forced the guard to give him the ball every time. I'm not sure I ever noticed him set an actual pick, LOL. (Admittedly, I don't have a photographic memory.)
Well, that is a common technique--it's called slipping the screen. You set up as if you're going to screen but when the defense moves to be ready for the screen, you roll instead of screening, hopefully wrong-footing the defender who's chasing you. Whether that was what Portland asked Randolph to do or whether he was doing that on his own is another question.
Yeah. I started to get the feeling it was Randolph, and he wanted the ball, period. Don't know though, obviously. He was damn efficient once he got it, I'll give him that.
Biggie looked good on the PnR in summer league, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what he could do while playing with some very good PnR guards--unlike summer league.
When you draft a player in the first round you expect him to do pretty well in summer league. Does that mean his performance will translate to the NBA? Not necessarily. But you still expect him to play pretty well--and you know he has a CHANCE to duplicate that performance in the regular season. A first-round pick who struggles in summer league, however, is a different story. It is the first sign that he MAY struggle in the NBA because it is the first time he is facing better competition than what he saw in college. So . . . That's the way I look at it. Your draft pick plays well in summer league, no surprise. Your draft pick plays poorly, there MAY be reason for concern. Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule. I'm hoping that Zach Collins is an exception in this summer league. For those who study these things, I'd be interested in hearing about any good NBA players who had a horrible summer league. Please share if you are aware of any. I'm sure there must be some.
KAT has already been mentioned. He was godawful his first two games (as was Collins - at least on offense), but turned it around a little after that. Westbrook was nothing special during summer league. He was WAY, WAY, WAY outplayed by Bayless, but was also outplayed by a lot of other lesser players. Steph Curry didn't suck, but again, he was outplayed by lots of lesser players, both teammates and opponents. Of course, Nic Batum looked totally lost and clueless in summer league, but was a full time NBA starter on opening night of his rookie year. I'm sure there are many more, but those are just a few that come to mind. BNM
People really need to relax. Summer league posts don't matter. Let's wait and see how you post during pre-season.