MM 2.0's more important summer league game 2 grades

Yes. Rebounding is a skill, and he doesn't have it. He doesn't even have his hands up sometimes. I really don't see him contributing much this year. If we signed Joel P., Leonard would get very few minutes, except perhaps in the D-League.

I'm not as enraged by the pick as I was at the time, but I certainly am not rethinking my view that we should have taken Royce White. Unless the Bulls decide to bring back an Illinois grad and trade us Noah for Leonard.

 

If you're into adding a Center one guy who just been amnestied is Blazers-killer Chris Andersen.

 

What exactly is the nature of his legal troubles? Has he really been found in possession of child porn?

If not, I still don't want him. I could stand to look at him right up until the neck tattoos. You've got to think, given his recent growth of a disgusting beard, that he regrets them too.

 

Remember, too, that many of the players in SL are at best inexperienced and at worst guys who will never make an NBA team. When Lillard is passing to "real" NBA players he'll probably get more assists by default because they'll hit the shots.

 

Where are the games cached? I have subscribed but can't figure this out.

 

ok, i think i figured it out.

 

Just click on the left where it says to look at games by team. You'll see all the old games when you select the Blazers.

 

Lillard: A- Yes, he made too many turnovers, but summer league is for trying stuff out and seeing what works and what doesn't. His energy seemed low.

Leonard: D- You have to identify an NBA skill. He doesn't have it on the offensive end, OK, then give me defense and rebounding. To me rebounding is the most important - it's LMAs Achilles Heel, so it is critical we get it from the Center position. What'd he do? 4 F-ing rebounds, 4. SIX OTHER BLAZERS got that many or more. He was outrebounded by Nolan and Lillard - diminutive guards. Think about this for a moment, probably 2 of his rebounds were from missed FTs meaning he got 2 legit rebounds the entire F-ing game. He seemed like a slug out there, he was tired or "something", needs to get into better shape? Houston didn't play basketball, they held a track meet. Leonard has the speed to keep up, yesterday he just didn't.

Smith: A He's averaging 24.67 PPG on 58% shooting (if I remember correctly) in 1.5 games. The off-season discussion with Coach K did wonders for him (Coach K told him he needed to be much more aggressive). I'm impressed.

Babbitt: F We were outrebounded by 19, and they had countless fast break points. LB neither rebounded nor got back. On one of the video game summaries you can see a Houston player start from well behind LB sprinting to the other end and finishing the fast break. Incidentally, that's what we need from Babbitt - a fast break.

Barton: C He's doing great with the intangibles that don't show up on the box score. Now it's time for him to start doing more of the stuff that does show up in the box score. I definitely like him better than MM does.

Diebler: D Again, I like him better than MM does. He does a lot more than Babbitt, but not near enough for a shooter who is missing. One thing I heard or read was "we won't be seeing Diebler next summer." I agree that he really needs to show more in the next couple of games or he won't make training camp.

The team: We basically lost by 9 while being outrebounded by 19, and being fastbreaked to death. If we were only outrebounded by 10, I think we win this easily and everyone above gets better grades. Babbitt just killed us at both ends. Blazers (HCP), please make a youtube video of Babbitt's shotmaking and stats from last year, sprinkle in an a Rasta post or two about how exciting the 2 new Euros we got from NY are, and a video or Derrick Williams lowlights sprinkled with Adelman comments and send them to Minny.

 

I don't know how to read if he had "passion" through the television screen, but I could definitely see confusion and frustration. Jones, White and Motiejunas had him spinning in circles by the end of the game. In particular White's comment to Leonard about "getting his weight up," that got him teed up was pretty emasculating and he never seemed to engage defensively after that.

Hopefully it was a teachable moment and he rebounds (figuratively and literally) in the next game.

 

You know Lillard is going to be special when he puts up 27 points and people grade him a B/B-. He's currently the third leading scorer in Summer League.

He's averaging 5to's/game to only 3.5 assists, which is a pretty fucked up ratio. So I can definitely see why people aren't giving him A's.

I guess it depends on how you want to grade him. Personally, I think he deserves an A for this summer league if he proves he can start on opening night of the regular season. From what I've seen so far, I think he's earning that A.

 

Well, I can understand Leonard's frustration. It was him against a bunch of solid bigs for Houston. Leonard had no help whatsoever.

It's kinda like me when I'm fighting 15 Asian dudes at once.

 

I'll be honest, I'm probably one of those being a little too hard on him. He's doing a lot of good things, but after that second half of his first game he kind of raised the bar in terms what I think he's capable of doing. Giving him a C+/B- for last night is a bit of relativism on my part because I thought he was so good at setting tempo and taking over, that when he didn't take over against Houston it left me a little bit disappointed.

 

I'm not criticizing him, but I'm not going to give him a free pass either. I wanted to see a lot more fight from him, instead he kind of folded like a cheap lawn chair.

 

Yeah, it wasn't that he lost the fight. It's that he didn't fight while he was losing. Being a tough guy is not a part-time job.

 

I know you weren't. And I wasn't trying to excuse him. I just know how frustrating the entire game would have been, and I'm not surprised, given he's a rook, that he kinda just began to go through the motions. Doesn't make it right, but it's correctable, and a teachable moment.

 

Agree completely. As far as I'm concerned he's VSL MVP so far.

OTOH, I think people grading him down is a very good thing. Nothing wrong with high standards. I lived in Kentucky for 3 years and found something similar - which I was totally amazed at. After a UK game (Rick Pitino, '95-'98) callers would get really, really mad about how they played and insist that they needed to work harder and get better or they'd be bounced in the 1st round of the tourney. What's so odd? This was after a game in which they won by 20. Pretty damn high standards by some fans, and I kind of like it. You do know the term "fan" is short for "fanatic", right? Seriously, it is. We're fanatics, though some who don't give Lillard an A for this game are more fanatical than others.

 

Ben Golliver ‏@blazersedge
Blazers Gm Neil Olshey says Meyers Leonard was puking in a garbage can last night due to stomach flu.


Leonard now gets a 1/2 grade improvement

 

His performance still gets a D from me, but it now gets an asterisk, so D -> D*

 

I personally think the asterisk is a slap in the face to Mr Leonard, but it's your conscience.

 

BTW, technically, shouldn't it be MM 1.0? Seems more like a reversion to the original than a next generation.