Comments on: Vegas Game 5 wrap: Mavericks 74, Thunder 54

By: Crow

Crow — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:03:27 +0000

Thanks for the replies, including John starting it off.

I’ll answer a few of them. Mostly I wanted the opinion of those who saw more of the video feeds.

2.Russell has a good chance of doing all 7 by end of year 4. Least important is tough, but I might go F (surprisingly) or G.

7. Hardin (the center) reminds me of or has the potential become…. a poor man’s Varejao?

8. I’d guess Ibaka “has” stamina and consistency issues. A sports car. He’ll have to adjust to the NBA schedule, perhaps slowly but it was probably going to be slowly anyways.

9. Mullens’ rebounding is about everything. Now Swift went thru this too and picked that part up. Ultimately the make or break test will be defense.

10. Meeks is a scorer in the way Vaden is hoped for. Jeter will make Blazers or somebody’s roster. I like Dante Cunningham but nobody is getting him. Houston needs Dorsey. Lots of teams need a raging bull. The players in summer league I semi or completely realistically want Presti to try to pry away from another team are Calloway or Conroy or DeMarcus Nelson if he doesn’t stick in Chicago or maybe Coby Karl. They need a another PG. Maybe James Augustine or somebody that size and style.

By: nick

nick — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:43:28 +0000

haha, the question and answer format is pretty fun. here’s mine:
1. tough to tell when we didn’t have anybody to feed in the post. i thought in general though he was a little more patient and less erratic, though not as improved as i would have liked
2. agree with royce, great question. i think he accomplishes c first, and i’m hoping for e. b, e, and f are far and away the most important in my opinion
3. mullens-terrible, ibaka- ok-ish?, white- decent, harden- decent (and very good off ball)
4. couldn’t really tell you, but i think he did once or twice. he definitely had a lot of o boards according to the box scores though
5. um, not sure, he looked really good to me. maybe develop more comfort going right
7. hardin’s a banger, maybe … kendrick perkins. shooting a bit high though, but in that mold
8. agree. definitely seemed to wear down with all the games.
9. hugely positioning (bj needs to watch kevin love, who rebounds like a beast with 1/2 of bj’s size/athleticism), some timing
10. killer shooter off the bench (since vaden doesn’t look like he’s got that). maybe kyle mcalarney from notre dame, he can really shoot

By: Royce

Royce — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:47:52 +0000

1. I think so. He looked like he had a better idea of it and was more patient.

2. This is a great question. I think cutting turns down is the first priority and then racking up assists, then defensive team.

3. Mullens and Ibaka weren’t great, Harden was pretty good and White is ok.

4. He did a few times. He didn’t have a lot of putbacks, but he is pretty quick off his feet.

5. Actually, that’s tough to say. I think one thing is that he sometimes kind of fades out for a minute or two. But I really don’t have a major complaint.

7. DeVon Hardin looks to me like maybe a Udonis Haslem-ish player. Big, physical but needs to polish is game before he can really be anything.

8. I agree, I thought it was more both. He was consistently good in Orlando, but he was erratic in Vegas. I bet some of that was conditioning and some was just inconsistent play.

9. He’s just not where he’s supposed to be. I don’t think it’s effort because he was trying. But he just wasn’t where he needed to be to grab rebounds. He mis-timed his jumps, he was out of position or he didn’t look sure of himself.

10. I actually REALLY liked Shan Foster from the Mavs summer team.

Good questions Crow.

By: John

John — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:39:56 +0000

I’d be curious what your answers are to your own questions Crow. I’d say:

1) No idea. We still don’t have a great post scorer, so I’m not sure it’s that big of a deal. It’s a skill he’ll need to develop over time though.

2) I would say C, D, and G are likely (in that order), hopefully he’ll get there this year. Averaging 20pts per game would not be a great sign, in my opinion, since we have more scoring options this year – I think averaging 8 assists and less than 3 turnovers are most important but I don’t know if he can do that this year.

3) The only comment I feel qualified to make is that Harden is a slightly better team defender than 1 on 1. He’s pretty good 1v1 but his defensive IQ is great and he plays the passing lanes well.

4) No idea.

5) He’s been flat-out awesome so far. I’d say that his biggest area to improve is his 3pt shooting. He also has the size to post up some smaller guards and I would love to see him really develop that aspect to his game.

8) I’d say stamina AND consistency, and as he works out more to improve the stamina I hope the consistency will come as well.

9) Didn’t see a lot of Mullens play but I gather it’s a combination of quickness and IQ / Spacing knowledge. Also, our guards tend to crash the boards a lot (especially Westbrook and Harden) so they’re probably “stealing” a few rebounds from him as well.

By: Big G

Big G — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:40:12 +0000

Pooh Jeter on draftexpress
http://www.draftexpress.com/blog/Pooh-Jeter/#Pooh-Jeter-I-Just-Want-to-Be-Successful-3291

By: Big G

Big G — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:27:26 +0000

Anonymous :
Robert :
Crow : 10. The player in summer league I semi or completely realistically want Presti to try to pry away from another team is…?
Jodie Meeks!

Pooh Jeter - A spark off the bench for league min.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:22:41 +0000

Robert :
Crow : 10. The player in summer league I semi or completely realistically want Presti to try to pry away from another team is…?
Jodie Meeks!

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:10:57 +0000

Crow : 10. The player in summer league I semi or completely realistically want Presti to try to pry away from another team is…?

Jodie Meeks!

By: Duncan

Duncan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:03:55 +0000

With the overall lack of focus and effort in Vegas do you think the Thunder are regretting attending both summer leagues?

By: Cpt. C-Note

Cpt. C-Note — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:17:24 +0000

@Crow
Nice questions, mate!
I was out of town with no laptop, so I missed the last two games.
(It didn’t look good from the box scores…)

btw…
I saw we finally got rid of Watson and Swift. Nice!! Does anyone know what our depth-chart is now? Is Shaun ready to backup RW? Who’s gonna be our leading rebounder/inside tough-guy this season? Are Vaden and Byron going to Tulsa for a bit?

also btw…
What’s up with the CP3 Trade rumors?
Who/what would we be willing to give up to get him? I say RW or Jeff and some furture picks would be fine with me. (that way The Hornets could dump some salary and we could be in the playoffs…soon!)
That would be a pretty darn good offensive scoring line with: 1) CP3, 2) Harden, 3)K-Smooth, 4)Unkie Jeff, & 5)Krysic. (I don’t know if we could stop anyone, though…)
Maybe a Defensive line of: 1)Weaver, 2)Thabo, 3) KD (we still need to score!), 4)Unkie Jeff, 5) Collison.

What say you, bros?