Been watching a few games today but mostly watched Indiana vs Orlando to see the likes of Paul George, Lance Stephenson, Daniel Orton, Stanley Robinson and others.

Second-round draft pick Lance Stephenson, a point guard from Cincinnati, dazzled in his NBA debut, scoring 21 points to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 86-77 win over the helpless Orlando Magic in the second game of Orlando Pro Summer-League action. He even impressed All-Star small forward Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, in town to support his Thunder teammates participating this week, who posted this message to his Twitter account during the game:

Lance Stephenson is out here in Orlando puttin on a clinic!! He can hoop!!

Stephenson made everything look effortless, getting through Orlando's perimeter defense with ease and finishing inside. Second-rounder aren't guaranteed NBA contracts, but Stephenson's a safe bet to make it to Indiana's training camp. The Pacers' alternatives are A.J. Price and T.J. Ford, which does little to inspire confidence in their rotation. He capped off the day with a tomahawk slam after shaking Orlando's Curtis Stinson with a right-left-right crossover, putting the Pacers up 11 with 1:25 to play.

Stephenson and McRoberts looked like co-MVPs until McRoberts drew an ejection for tussling with Orlando's Daniel Orton. The first-rounder from Kentucky had the roughest day of any high-profile player so far, shooting 1-of-8 from the floor and 1-of-4 from the foul line for 3 points before his ejection. He also had 5 fouls and 4 turnovers. On his Twitter account, he called his first day "terrible" and vowed to "slow down" before tomorrow. Patrick Ewing Jr. led Orlando offensively, scoring 15 points, and his jump-shooting in the third quarter helped the Magic challenge a Pacers lead that had ballooned to 18 points in the first half.

But with Ewing earning a breather, the task of generating offense fell to the likes of Donell Taylor and Joe Crawford, and the Magic had no inside players on whom to rely. Just no way for them to get easy buckets, despite their best efforts; power forward Jeff Adrien, who stands just 6-feet-7, deserves credit for giving an honest effort inside. He scored 13 points and grabbed 10 boards as fellow big men Paul Davis and Ben McCauley preferred to launch 17-footers.

Later tonight it's the Nets vs the 76ers so I'll keep you guys updated if you have any interest in this stuff.

Orlando Summer League: Charlotte Bobcats take Game 1 from Utah Jazz 85 - 83

Utah Jazz fans got to see their first glimpse of Gordon Hayward, the ninth overall pick of the 2010 NBA draft, Monday afternoon.

Gordon Hayward got his first taste of NBA action early Monday afternoon in Orlando. Although his numbers from the opening game of the Summer League were not all that impressive (8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals), he was able to show many in attendance just how versatile he stands to be at the next level.

With Game 1 of the Orlando Summer League seemingly out of reach, Hayward did his best to push the Jazz to an impressive comeback victory, surprisingly, with his defense rather than his offense.

After playing the passing lanes and scoring on a breakaway dunk cutting the Bobcat's lead to four with less than a minute remaining, the ninth overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft helped force another pivotal turnover on Charlotte's ensuing inbounds play.

Although the Utah Jazz wound up, ultimately, losing their opening game 85 - 83 to the Charlotte Bobcats, Jerry Sloan and company have to be impressed by the heady play of their rookie small forward. He showed many in attendance and watching on NBA TV just how versatile he should prove to be at the next level. Definitely a solid, smart Jerry Sloan type player who will play hard until the final buzzer.

His ability to rebound, defend and make plays for his teammates stood out more in his professional debut than his true calling card, which is, obviously, shooting the basketball from the perimeter. Getting the first game finally under his belt will surely help the 6'8" Hayward get rid of some of the opening butterflies and jitters and, ultimately, help him get more comfortable competing against NBA talent as the Summer League continues.

Charlotte was led by their two athletic picks from the 2009 NBA draft, Gerald Henderson (20 points on 7 of 13 shooting) and the active Derrick Brown (20 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals).

Tyrece Rice (12 points on 3 of 5 shooting), formerly of Boston College, led the charge back for the Utah Jazz as they trailed 52 - 38 at intermission. Power forward James Augustine led the Jazz with 20 points on 9 of 10 shooting.

Thunder Complete Big Comeback Over Celtics,87-82.
The first two games of the Orlando Pro Summer League featured comebacks that never amounted to anything, but the Oklahoma City Thunder broke through today against the Boston Celtics, erasing a 21-point first half deficit with some impressive work at both ends of the floor in the fourth quarter, escaping with a 87-82 win. Second-year men James Harden and Byron Mullens led the charge, scoring 37 of their 43 combined points in the second half. Harden couldn’t find the range from the outside in the first half, so he added more drives to his shot mix in the second, which paid off; a foul-drawing machine, he shot 11-of-16 from the stripe after intermission. He also recorded a clutch blocked shot, cleanly swatting JayCee Caroll’s attempt at a game-tying three-pointer with just under 15 seconds to play. An impressive turnaround for an impressive player, whose well-rounded game made him the third pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

Boston can’t feel good about the loss, but the play of second-round draft choice Luke Harangody should be encouraging. Harangody isn’t a lock to make the final team, but his outside shot—no matter how unconventional—could make him indispensable. He shot 4-of-6 from beyond the arc and led Boston with 23 points, but his defense is so suspect that the Celtics were rotating him in and out of the game in late offense/defense substitutions.

Harden stole the show, but Mullens made an impression as well. Though he has a slight build, Mullens isn’t afraid to mix it up inside under the boards. He has a solid shooting stroke for a big man, and range out to around 19 fee. What made him especially important in this game was his ability to finish in traffic, however. In the second half, he was more active on the weak side and on his rolls to the hoop, and to their credit, his teammates looked for him more actively. He appeared in just 13 games as a rookie, but could crack the rotation this year as long as he continues to bulk up and refine his work with his back to the basket.

Oliver Lafayette shot 6-of-10 from the floor and scored 14 points for Boston, while Ryan Thompson (the kid brother of Sacramento Kings forward Jason Thompson) poured in 13 on 9-of-9 foul shooting off the bench. Oklahoma City point guard Eric Maynor had a sneakily effective game, with 15 points, 3 boards, and 5 assists with just 1 turnover.

NJN and 76ERS playing now

Awesome dude, thanks for posting these and keeping us all updated. Howl. I like to hear how all these rookies/young dudes are playing.

I think summer league is mostly worthless, but its still interesting to see how the guys do from around the league.

Lastly in a game that didn’t live up to the hype it received, the Philadelphia 76ers knocked off the New Jersey Nets, 84-74, to cap off Day One action at the Orlando Pro Summer League. Billed as a battle featuring Evan Turner and Derrick Favors, the second and third overall picks in the 2010 NBA Draft, the game instead turned into a foul-a-minute affair,which detracted from a fantastic individual matchup between second-year point guards Jrue Holiday and Terrence Williams.

Turner shot 2-of-5 from the floor and scored 12 points, adding 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 fouls in 27 minutes. Favors also struggled with his shot and on defense, missing 6 of his 10 shots and committing 7 fouls.

Again, the point guards made the game about as worthwhile as can be, given the fouls. One gets the sense that Williams in particular could have scored 30-plus points if he were so inclined. But the Nets are converting him to point guard, so he thought pass-first this evening, with mixed results: 7 assists to 4 turnovers. He finished with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, and got wherever he wanted to on the floor with relative ease.

Holiday tallied 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists of his own. Last year, he became the first player born in the 1990s to appear in the NBA. He’s younger than plenty of the players here, and even though he’s not a rookie, he deserves a lot of attention this week.

Philadelphia’s Jodie Meeks also had a solid game. He struggled after arriving in Philly following a midseason trade from Milwaukee, but scored 18 points and excelled in transition today He shows promise as a gunner off the bench at the NBA level.

Thanks CW. Hope WJ puts up better numbers in our game than Favors and Turner did when we play in the Vegas League!!! To bad we didn't stick MW on the team! Flynn, Wes, and he could have got early practice on playing together!

wop612 wrote:
Yeah, hopefully indeed.

I don't even know... when is the first game?

I'm also enjoying these writeups.

I have to say that I don't fully get why the NBA even does summer league. Is it just an excuse to keep the young guys busy while letting the veterans rest? It seems to me like between the predraft stuff and the fact that rookies aren't used playing so many games they'd be better off resting for a few weeks and learning in camp or just being in their home city practicing a few hours a day.

So few of the non-signed guys actually make a team via summer league that doesn't seem like a reason to do it. That is why you have D-League.

pants wrote:
Good point, I guess I can see why it exists "in theory", but it doesn't make a ton of sense when you think about it.

Plus, Summer League can only hurt, not help, players that are already drafted. The competition is so weak that if they play well, it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter because 90% of the SL guys won't be in the NBA anyways, so who cares if they are putting up points (see Jerryd Bayless.) However, drafted players can be hurt by SL if they struggle, because then that means they are sucking against terrible, terrible players. (see: Foye and McCants.)

Moreover it hurts if you come down on someone's foot grabbing a rebound and are out for a few months.

Summer league should exist for player development and as a mechanism for teams to tryout bench players. I believe it actually exists so that there is never a break in NBA programming.

You can't give me and off-season Stern? Please?

pants wrote:
The Wolves could still send like 10 players on our roster to summer league!!!

Summer League Day 1 recap:

http://nbadraftblog.com/2010-articles/july/orlando-summer-league-day-1-review.html

The Wolves start there summer league July 12th vs the Spurs at 3:30 PM. We then have Sacramento July 14th at 7 PM(Cousin's Is Going To Kill Us). July 16th we play Memphis at 7 PM. July 17th we get the Blazers at 7 PM and to end it off the Wolves get Atlanta on July 18th at 3:30 PM.

It's weird to see the Wolves get the spotlight of the last game(7 o'clock) three out of the five times we play! The roster were bringing goes like this:

www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/blogs/...:aUgOy9cP3DieyckcUsI


All in all I'm looking for the Wolves to go at least 4-1 maybe 5-0 we should have no problem winning with our lineup! I'm excited for D Johnson and R Westbrook from the Gophers, hopefully they play well and gain roster spots on NBA teams.

And sorry I have yet to watch a game today. Maybe I'll do something like CW and just post a re-cap of the day 2 games.