Well, what did people think? I'll start: Devoe definitely deserves at least a 2-way, but maybe he'd be better off with a less guard-heavy team giving it to him. Minaya is a good hustle player and maybe if it's a choice between him and Devoe we'd be better off with him. Reath is a legit NBA backup center. He just knows how to play. The team did a LOT better when he replaced Badji. But I kinda doubt that he came here to get an NBA job - it was probably to get a raise somewhere else. Badji was terrible for us if you look at +/-. And we did seem to get lit up by every lanky guy on the other teams. But he can definitely block shots, he's mobile for a tall guy and can throw surprisingly flashy passes (albeit often for turnovers). And he's younger than Jabari or Kris Murray. He'll be kept for development purposes, but I kinda hope he plays on the new G-League team.
I do wish that Reath can be kept around--would be nice to have a beefy-boy on the roster behind Nurk (or whoever replaces him). I hope Murray's skillset was simply hampered by the generally chaotic nature of summer league ball, but I'm not holding my breath. I wasn't a fan of the pick (I, like many others, wanted Leonard Miller), and he did nothing to reverse my opinion on the matter.
No comment on Miller - he's certainly put up better stats - but I'm not too worried about Murray. He looks smooth and I expect him to settle in.
Love Jabari but he is a big man in a 6'7" body without great athleticism, so he better be Draymond Green-esque. But he has to bear some of the blame for us getting killed by every tall player on the other team. He's definitely going to get more minutes on the Blazers this year, though - Joe saw to that by ditching Trendon. (Still fucking awesome for a #57 pick...)
Need to show him some tape of Buck Williams (Blazers version, not Nets), tell him to emulate that guy.
Like Jabari hustle around the hoop, but he cannot defend out front at all. He was getting beat by guys bigger than him, its his lateral movement which seems slow.
He's already got the rebounding down - he comes down with the rebound surprisingly often even when he's surrounded by taller and more athletic players. But maybe work on the strength in his legs. I can't see him fighting Karl Malone to a standstill... (Which reminds me of another Blazer he could emulate - Brian Grant)
Guys like that used to be valuable because they'd really lay the wood on people. Charles Oakley types.
Isn't Reath a member of the Rip City Remix? I thought he was on the G League team? I know Devoe is. So hopefully a good start to that team.
I hope Reath is on the roster. His ability to shoot 3-pointers will be a problem for defenses collapsing on Scoot and Sharpe. His defense is exactly what is needed by a backup. Not trying to look busy, just being in the right spot with his size. Big enough to box out so he or a teammate can get the rebound.
Basically shared them in another thread. Murray is ok. Rups is a project. Scoot is a baller. Badji needs a lot of work. Reath would be a nice backup center. Shaedon looks like he's going to be really inconsistent next year. He's going to have hot streaks and cold streaks.
- Scoot is ROY and yearly All NBA. - Shae is future multi MVP (3+). - Jabari is NBA all time rebound leader. - Kris is Paul George when healthy. - Rayan is perpetual All Defense.
Agree about Shae, he needs to fire up his jets before he takes the court and keep the burners on. And quit waking to the corners and hangin out.
https://theswishtheory.com/nba/2023/07/roundtable-summer-league-2023-takeaways/ Shaedon Sharpe showed advanced feel for manipulation Pick and roll play is not a staple of Sharpe’s game, at least not up to this point, but Summer League was potentially an inflection point. Sharpe accumulated 36 pick and rolls in his four games, his nine per game five times higher than his rookie season. It was not simply the usage, however, but also the execution. Sharpe will still not be mistaken for a Nash-ian playmaker, at only 2.5 assists per game in Summer League after only 1.2 as a rookie, but advanced understanding of how to set up screens to deploy his own scoring speaks to his star upside regardless. In the below Summer League clips we see Shaedon: Wait to start his dribble until screen set, initiate with hang dribble then in-and-out to attack Kai Jones as rim protector Jab to set up screen, hesi to set up re-screen, reject to attack Kai Jones as rim protector Cross between the legs into using screen, gets skinny to reset into pull-up in one motion Set up hand-off to then re-establish more favorable screen, wide open three
To me it was obvious that he was trying to be more of an all-around player in SL, and that's why I can forgive him his shooting struggles.
Reap played very well. Devoe is a score-first guard in summer league. Not at all worth writing home about.
