Fez does bring up an interesting point though. We stashed him for a long time to develop overseas. You would assume he wouldn't need summer league to get better, which would support your belief that the team is allowing, not asking him to do summer league. However if I were right and they do want him to do summer league then it would suggest that he is not where the team wants him to be, or they see growth in him. Perhaps the team brought him over prematurely? If I recall he came here those 2 or so years ago when we had no front court depth. Him and Claver were both kind of emergency situations. The difference is I see Potential in Joel that I don't so much see in Claver.
Well wiggins and Parker will kill Orlando summer league. Going to be interesting seeing vegas vs Orlando SL this year since most of the stars went to the east. I can see Julius Randle doing well. Depending on the minutes they get obviously Will and CJ are capable of being summer league MVP if they wanted to.
Freeland's work ethic and dedication should be respected. I love this player, I love that even with limited athletic ability and without amazing talent he's able to make a positive impact just by being smart and working hard. Here's hoping he can use this summer to further improve his game (like he did beautifully last year) and earn real minutes in the rotation.
What are Joel's other options in getting better over the summer? Working out with his teammates and coaching staff in Portland/Vegas or hitting the local gyms in England/Spain? I give him a lt of credit for making the right choice. Especially since he is away from home the rest of the year as well.
So Blazers will probably give CJ and Barton a run at PG. But any pure PGS on the roster from D-league on the roster that Blazers might be eyeing for that last roster spot?
I would love to see a Coby or someone like that on the SL roster. I've made my thoughts known on the Kaman trade ( and not much has changed after prcocessing it further). But what's done is done and Blazers have to go forward from here. Fact is Blazers used up their MLE on a backup center while having two backup centers and no backup PGs. Blazers can not go into the season with the current roster. NO has all summer, but he has to fill that last spot with a PG or it will be an ugly season coming up. I guess we can always sign an aging PG on the downside of their career for 1 yr or maybe the Blazers have a PG in mind and will test them out in SL.
I have been told repeatedly on this board, that the PG position is the easiest position to fill. Although I still don't prescribe to that theory, I think there are enough vets out there that we will not come up empty.
Bobby Brown averaged 30.7 ppg in China last season. He's been traded for a 2nd-round pick twice, so he must have something. http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2014/05/bobby-three-chinese.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/brownbo02.html http://prosportstransactions.com/ba...ndDate=&PlayerMovementChkBx=yes&submit=Search Most SL teams have 2-3 draftees. Last summer we had 6 like now, and most Blazer fans expected the championship. Instead we were near the bottom of the 30 teams. McCollum was no Lillard. Leonard was horrible and avoided all contact, when he opened his contact-drooped eyes. Expect us to suck. Results aren't as obvious as you guys think. It's a very competitive league. Replacements for Earl and Mo will be found in the NBA, not SL. We burned him a couple of years ago. He was trying out for the NBA and got forced into an entire D-League season.
I think it's safe to say that it's a disappointment if these guys fall anything short of Phoenix last season. Our roster should dominate. They should want to win it all and wipe the floor with the competition. Show that they are above that level, and that they are ready to contribute when it matters.
Kinda surprised Claver makes that roster. How can he do that but not make use of playing time for us at all..
What playing time? He played in 21 games and averaged 8 minutes a game. Not saying he deserved to play over the other players, but given more of an opportunity I think he would have more confidence and would help this team.
That was said a year ago for the same reason, our 6 draftees. A game in, when it was obvious we were in way over our heads, the apologists crawled out of the woodwork to squeal with nervous mousy laughter, "Summer League doesn't mean anything." Of course SL means something. It predicts how good those same 6 guys will play in the upcoming season, and whether Olshey should make a change. Sure enough, we had a weak bench in the regular season.
And did nothing with those minutes. He's supposed to be a key component to our backup floor stretching and the fact we are looking all over for bigs who can do that tells you he's got the bust stamp on him.
