Comments on: NBA Orlando SL: Please tell me that’s not Serge Ibaka on the floor!

By: Trane air conditioners

Trane air conditioners — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:03:59 +0000

I have a broken Trane Outside AC, please help fix cheap?…

Sweet……

By: james hardens beard

james hardens beard — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:24:07 +0000

it frusterates me nearly every time the announcers talk about how the thunder’s roster is “stacked” like we’re the damn yankees or something. oh excuse us, sorry presti has built a great, young team where even our 2nd year backups happen to be good enough to get playing time in the actual NBA. every single player that we have in there SHOULD be there and needs to further develop. they have yet to mention that once. i don’t hear them saying that about jrue holiday. he’s destroying those dudes out there but yet it doesn’t hurt to have him there…

By: Sammy

Sammy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:08:07 +0000

DJ also looked super awkward with the ball on the wing. He just kinda dribbled around aimlessly before raising up for a shot on the elbow.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:05:01 +0000

@Jax Raging Bile Duct I tend to agree. It wouldn't be worth the trouble to grade out White, he's just plain TERRIBLE at defense. He seemed even slower and less athletic yesterday, wasn't sure that was possible. Mullens and Harden may be more intriguing to grade..

By: Jax Raging Bile Duct

Jax Raging Bile Duct — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:59:43 +0000

@Greg

My general impression of DJ’s defense yesterday was two fold:

1. DJ got a little lost in rotations. That’s disconcerting, given the amount of time he’s had to figure those out. He wasn’t too bad one on one, but ball movement lost him.

2. I’m to the point where I think DJ just lacks enough lateral quickness to play good defense. He was really good on the boards and played really physical down low. But he’s slow. He’s slow in general, but really slow laterally. I don’t think that’s something that will get any better for him.

I think if Kev were to go to the trouble to rate the games, I think you’ll see him come up with several “DJ was too slow to get to his man. DJ was too slow off the rotation. DJ was too slow to help. DJ was too slow to close out. etc…”

Not to put words in Kev’s mouth, but I’m just saying that’s what I expect the report to be.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:58:52 +0000

@J.G. All the more reason :)

By: J.G.

J.G. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:53:48 +0000

@Greg I think Kev's system might spontaneously produce tears if it tried to score the Summer League.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:35:25 +0000

@Kev Have you put any thought into doing any defensive breakdowns for OKC's summer games? Reading White's score would be entertaining at the least, and it could provide better insight as to whether or not Mullens has improved much on the defensive side of the ball. Harden's defense would be noteworthy as well, as that will be the primary deciding factor for his starting spot.

By: justin

justin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:33:30 +0000

@Mastrmatt There are restrictions but it varies wildly. I read something awhile ago about this when Vlad Radmanovic busted his knee snow boarding. Some player contracts have serious restrictions on when and where they can play basketball during the offseason.

By: J.G.

J.G. — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:30:48 +0000

Kev :guys are going to play whether it’s summer league or piuckup ball on the street – injuries happen – no way around it . . .

Hit the nail right on the head. Anyone remember all of the injuries the Thunder had last year from practice during the season? It's a part of the game. What are you going to do, not practice? Thankfully, the Thunder bring it every day and when you have competitive, hungry guys going 100% at all times, injuries will happen. But to further answer the question, YES, Ibaka needs to play in Summer League. Until you average more than 18 minutes a game during the regular season AND are going into your sophomore year, you need all the reps you can get in a competitive environment (really lose definition of competitive since we're talking Summer League, here). Ibaka needs time on the court against players not wearing an OKC on their jerseys and he also needs an opportunity to work on some new parts of his game (like post moves) against a little lesser competition before jumping into the deep ends of the NBA regular season (crawl before you walk). Now next year on the other hand, he better not even sniff Orlando. :)