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Kings and Pistons Observations - Vegas Summer League
Jul 13 2010 12:00 AM | Joel
in On the Court
I'm usually one to get a little overexcited about the summer league. The league has always been one to make average NBA talent look like superstars. That stated, I went in to this game planning on curbing my enthusiasm... I can't do it. The young Kings looked fantastic. The things that really stood out to me will translate to the games that count.
The Kings absolutely manhandled the Piston's summer squad. Not just on the scoreboard, but in hustle, display of player skill and in coaching.
Demarcus Cousins (14 pts 10 rbs) is a beast to handle. He made Greg Monroe look silly at times. I expected paint scoring dominance in this setting. I expected him to use his size to bully his opponents. His dunk over three defenders was sublime. What I didn't expect is the adept footwork. On one possession he pump faked from the left baseline, made a quick shoulder fake, like he would pivot for a tough fade away, then stepped through with a gorgeous drop step for the easy bucket. I was absolutely stunned by his passing skills. Several of his teammates weren't ready for passes in to the paint that we're very reminiscent of vintage Vlade Divac. His ability to see over the defense on the double was extremely impressive. He made a beautiful over the top pass to Tyrese Rice for three that few big men in the league can make.
Defensively, Cousins used his size well but he needs help with fundamentals. He is not afraid to give up his body. He had a couple of blocking fouls, but I'm happy to see them. He's willing to take the charge. A few of his 10 boards were the out of range type that only elite rebounders get.
The real defensive star was Hassan Whiteside. I didn't get to see any of him games at Marshall, but it's now no secret how he averaged over 5 blocks. He was only credited with 5 blocks in this game, but I counted at least seven. Most of them were the spectacular weak-side variety. He has ups and length that are absolutely stellar. He also appears to have that unteachable timing gene. His defensive positioning wasn't always perfect, but he more than made up for it in his recovery. Offensively he didn't show much. He had one nice post move against a non-NBA player. He was lost of offense quite a bit. Mario Elie was visually frustrated when Whiteside came out to the free throw line when Elie called a 5-flat clearout play. He has a lot to learn, especially on the offensive end, but his potential is absolutely enormous.
Omri Casspi and Donte Green were both solid. Omri showed a little more patience on offense than last year. He also showed some leadership qualities calling off teammates to shoot the technical. He wanted that responsibility. He also looks more solid defending the pick and roll. Donte showed a nice mid range bank shot that he didn't have last year. He also showed flashes of bad decision making, but it was less frequent than in the past. The battle for the Kings starting SF spot is very intriguing.
The PG play was also very solid. Donald Sloan looked comfortable running the team, but his shot was off. His play was more impressive than his box score (1-5 FG, 2 AST). Tyrese Rice looked for his shot often, but never seemed to be forcing. He has a nice quick release. I'm not sure either is an NBA player, but in this setting, they looked pretty good.
Mario Elie is definitely a future head coach. Jerry Reynolds said as much in his Kings.com feature. The players responded very well to him. You could feel that his defensive intensity has rubbed off on this team.
I'm excited for the upcoming season. It can't get here soon enough.
Highlights:
The Kings absolutely manhandled the Piston's summer squad. Not just on the scoreboard, but in hustle, display of player skill and in coaching.
Demarcus Cousins (14 pts 10 rbs) is a beast to handle. He made Greg Monroe look silly at times. I expected paint scoring dominance in this setting. I expected him to use his size to bully his opponents. His dunk over three defenders was sublime. What I didn't expect is the adept footwork. On one possession he pump faked from the left baseline, made a quick shoulder fake, like he would pivot for a tough fade away, then stepped through with a gorgeous drop step for the easy bucket. I was absolutely stunned by his passing skills. Several of his teammates weren't ready for passes in to the paint that we're very reminiscent of vintage Vlade Divac. His ability to see over the defense on the double was extremely impressive. He made a beautiful over the top pass to Tyrese Rice for three that few big men in the league can make.
Defensively, Cousins used his size well but he needs help with fundamentals. He is not afraid to give up his body. He had a couple of blocking fouls, but I'm happy to see them. He's willing to take the charge. A few of his 10 boards were the out of range type that only elite rebounders get.
The real defensive star was Hassan Whiteside. I didn't get to see any of him games at Marshall, but it's now no secret how he averaged over 5 blocks. He was only credited with 5 blocks in this game, but I counted at least seven. Most of them were the spectacular weak-side variety. He has ups and length that are absolutely stellar. He also appears to have that unteachable timing gene. His defensive positioning wasn't always perfect, but he more than made up for it in his recovery. Offensively he didn't show much. He had one nice post move against a non-NBA player. He was lost of offense quite a bit. Mario Elie was visually frustrated when Whiteside came out to the free throw line when Elie called a 5-flat clearout play. He has a lot to learn, especially on the offensive end, but his potential is absolutely enormous.
Omri Casspi and Donte Green were both solid. Omri showed a little more patience on offense than last year. He also showed some leadership qualities calling off teammates to shoot the technical. He wanted that responsibility. He also looks more solid defending the pick and roll. Donte showed a nice mid range bank shot that he didn't have last year. He also showed flashes of bad decision making, but it was less frequent than in the past. The battle for the Kings starting SF spot is very intriguing.
The PG play was also very solid. Donald Sloan looked comfortable running the team, but his shot was off. His play was more impressive than his box score (1-5 FG, 2 AST). Tyrese Rice looked for his shot often, but never seemed to be forcing. He has a nice quick release. I'm not sure either is an NBA player, but in this setting, they looked pretty good.
Mario Elie is definitely a future head coach. Jerry Reynolds said as much in his Kings.com feature. The players responded very well to him. You could feel that his defensive intensity has rubbed off on this team.
I'm excited for the upcoming season. It can't get here soon enough.
Highlights:
mrlaze
12 July 2010 - 10:55 PM
i like how when cousin gets fed in the low post three guys fouled him and there's no call. then the next clip is him shooting a 15' and he gets grazed and they call that.
smltwnrckr
13 July 2010 - 08:41 AM
One summer league game does not make a franchise. But I found myself trying to make it home after work in time to see the game (my first year with NBATV). I would expect a team like the Kings to have a good go in summer league -- high draft pick, a couple returning players who got good minutes last year because the team is so young and wasn't very good. But I was also really impressed with how dominant the team was.
Even though Monroe is playing decent in summer league, I kept thanking God the entire game that Cousins dropped to the Kings. I thought he looked really good up against another high-pick big man, nice passing, strong finishes. Whiteside looked a bit lost at times, and he needs to get stronger, but a couple of those blocks were pretty sick, and it looked like he was keeping them in bounds or at least trying.
I also liked how they were hustling and playing with intensity even in a summer league game. Hopefully that indicates they are heading into the season with the same kind of fire they showed for the first few months of last season before it got stomped out of them by the string of close losses.
Even though Monroe is playing decent in summer league, I kept thanking God the entire game that Cousins dropped to the Kings. I thought he looked really good up against another high-pick big man, nice passing, strong finishes. Whiteside looked a bit lost at times, and he needs to get stronger, but a couple of those blocks were pretty sick, and it looked like he was keeping them in bounds or at least trying.
I also liked how they were hustling and playing with intensity even in a summer league game. Hopefully that indicates they are heading into the season with the same kind of fire they showed for the first few months of last season before it got stomped out of them by the string of close losses.
joethecrow
13 July 2010 - 11:28 AM
smltwnrckr, on 13 July 2010 - 07:41 AM, said:
I also liked how they were hustling and playing with intensity even in a summer league game. Hopefully that indicates they are heading into the season with the same kind of fire they showed for the first few months of last season before it got stomped out of them by the string of close losses.
Thanks to Mario Elie, we are going to be seing a lot of that type of play this year. Guy preaches hustle and defense. Young moldable minds.
Sacramental
13 July 2010 - 11:47 AM
I know there is a great debate about Omri or Donte at SF, but Omri is clearly the better player, right now. He just makes better decisions than Donte.
Omri is super-tough. Love his attitude on the court.
Donte has a higher ceiling though. I think Omri will win the coaches over for next season.
Omri is super-tough. Love his attitude on the court.
Donte has a higher ceiling though. I think Omri will win the coaches over for next season.
EJay
13 July 2010 - 03:54 PM
Joel, on 12 July 2010 - 07:52 PM, said:
I'm usually one to get a little overexcited about the summer league. The league has always been one to make average NBA talent look like superstars.
I was thinking about this yesterday after I heard someone try to spoil DeMarcus' performance by stating that "a player of Cousins' supposed talent should put up 40 and 20 against these scrubs".
Don't people realize that, while not on par with what we'll see come the NBA regular season, the talent in Summer league is better than what these players faced in college? These teams are essentially college 'all-star' teams. Most all of these players were the very best players on their collegiate teams. And there are even a few NBA vets that participate each year.
Point is, don't expect a player like DeMarcus to average 30 and 15 in the Summer league when he didn't do that in college against lesser talent.
Joel, on 12 July 2010 - 07:52 PM, said:
He had one nice post move against a non-NBA player.
That post move Hassan made was against Greg Monroe.