Spring Eternal

The move is being made to SB Nation. I'm officially calling a moratorium on all posts on this page.

The last post will be a link to the new site once it's up and running.

The Fall

Summer League is officially over, with the Summer League Grizzlies defeating the Summer League Spurs 76-75. Marcus Williams hit the final layup with about a half second left to get the win, as he and Sam Young took the majority of the shots in the final minutes. Lets get to the bullets:

• DeMarre Carroll impressed again this game, even snagging the post-game interview. I counted four steals, though he only got three in the box score. He defended George Hill on their final possession and held the sneaky, experienced point guard in check until a big screen came his way. He was active every minute on the court. On the down side Carroll finishes with the ball low under the basket, using sneaky moves like circus layups to finish given his lacking height and stand still hops. Lots of the shots he drops in these summer leagues will be swatted into the upper bowl by great weakside shotblockers like J-Smoove and Dwight.
• Jeff Adrien wasn't great on offense tonight, but he rebounded well and brought a ton of energy. I like the kid, and think he would be great to lock up for a couple years with a minimum salary. He's really quick, not unlike Darrell Arthur. They will provide good practice buddies for each other.
• My best buddy Thabeet doesn't get the final bullet tonight. He played a pretty solid game tonight. Didn't show any more or any less than the other games. Just to remind everyone, his offense is at least as bad as advertised. Doesn't seem to have much of a motor; not a particularly impressive effort out there.
• Haddadi backed up Thabeet well enough. He was basically as effective as Thabeet when on the court. Needs to learn to play far harder.
• Marcus Williams looked pretty solid again. His risky passes finally caught up to him and he picked up a bunch of TOs tonight. I knew it was going to happen given how many were getting deflected. He was relatively poised down the stretch and hit the game winner, though he also took some TERRIBLE looks. His three point form is really poor. He fades away almost constantly and in all kinds of directions for basically no reason.
• Sam Young was tonight's most notable. He really scored well. Really sneaky skills in isolation, Young reminds me a lot of a younger Paul Pierce. While nobody actually projects that kind of upside to him, he has that sneakily skilled game. Always knows where his opponents hands are, and when he pulls up on jumpers they're almost never challenged. Not quite as crafty when driving though. Young's move are lacking when he's attacking the rim; he normally just tries to go over the top, which he doesn't do particularly effectively.

Tomorrow I'll come back with some overall Summer League thoughts, but I'll admit I'm obviously pretty happy with the Grizzlies 5-0 showing.

Above the Influence

Scott Cacciola wrote an excellent article on Zach Randolph in the Commercial Appeal today. It included lots of stuff I'd never even heard, and is certainly worth a read.

Also, if you're still wondering, yes, you should be terrified for OJ Mayo. Gay, Conley, Carroll, Sam Young and Thabeet should be alright, I think, but I could see OJ attending one or two of the famed Z-bo suburbia block parties. Sam Young's two talents outside of basketball are poetry reading and piano. There is no information to back Mayo up, yet I'm terrified, he has had some character questions in the past at USC and while a mini-celebrity during his high school days. Mayo strikes me as somewhat similar to Randolph in that way; everyone who knows him sings his praises, but those who don't worry about his behavior.

Oh well, he's only around for two years anyhow. Right? Right...

Playing the Right Way

Summer League Grizzlies killed the Summer League Suns today. Absolute obliteration, 97-60. And again, I will be supplying bullet notes, but no stat lines because Summer League stats don't matter.

• Sam Young scored sneaky well tonight, killing it on the wings of the break, but struggling in the half court. I don't think he's comfortable playing on the perimeter constantly, since in college ball he was more of a 3/4 than a 2/3. Dribbles with his head down though, which is not a good thing.
• Carroll got a lot of minutes today. He has a little hop in his step that I like to see. A winner for sure, but showed questionable shot selection. I think he might be the glue guy for the Summer Grizzlies, but can't tell. Body language is always positive. Not as good of a dunker as I thought he would be though.
• Thabeet logged a bunch of minutes today too. Looked modestly better, but missed two dunks with the monstrous (6'6") Taylor Griffin on him. Seems to be getting pretty frustrated with his play this week, but I don't know that he has the skills to do any better at this point. Seems to be struggling without a clear "system" in place like college ball had at UConn, especially on defense. Not comfortable at all.
• Marcus Williams played pretty well, but still looked for his own shot a little too often to really fit the "pass-first" profile. Then again, everyone looks for their own shot in summer league (see DeMarre Carroll). In all these games he is lucking out keeping his TO count down, lots of his passes are getting deflected but ending up in Grizz hands. I think I would prefer him to Anthony Carter; the announcers said lock him up for 3 years for 6 million, I'll cosign that contract.
• Haddadi was pretty impressive in limited minutes yet again. He is really ambidextrous, Chris Wallace said its because he lost feeling in his right arm for awhile because of an injury while in Iran. Good finesse, he's like a more imposing Zydrunas Ilgauskas, but minus the range jumper.
• Jeff Adrien, undrafted out of UConn, was in for a bunch of minutes because of Darrell Arthur sitting with injury precautions. He could be a roster filler this year, kind of like a crappy DeMarre Carroll, but will be a hard worker.

A Woman Spurned

Hasheem Thabeet not even in David Thorpe's top 14 rookies to watch in the upcoming season.

Sadly, I think he just might be right.

Untouchable

Again, not like Summer League scores mean anything but the Grizzlies won another contest 85-68 last night against the Clippers, led by Blake Griffin. I'd like to stress here that Summer League box scores don't really mean anything, because you have no clue who was defending who, what kind of talent they were on the floor with, and all kinds of other variables that involve non-NBA players.

So again I'm going to avoid giving any sort of box score style recap. If you want that look at the box score above and imagine one. Instead I'm going to drop a quick list of thoughts from the game, which will include more Thabeet slamming, but start with another top pick:

• Blake Griffin is an extremely skilled player. He caught a bit of a bad rap for being raw or relying too much on his athleticism, but I don't see it. He played the Summer League like it was a real game, deferring to his teammates, playing great defense, getting his points without needing set plays. Also his handles are quite good already, and I have no doubt that they'll continue to improve. He is much better than Michael Beasley.
• DeMarre Carroll looked excellent again, whenever he got action just in the flow of the offense or on the break he looked great. But like Griffin it's not like he forced anything and played the Summer League like it was a real game. He finished creatively around the rim and did the little things. I have no doubt he will be an excellent rotation player this season.
• Sam Young, on the other hand, is difficult to get a bead on because he seems to be forcing things. This wasn't manifested in the box score for some reason, but despite only having 1 turnover he really looked out of control. Also he doesn't seem to have a great sense of how the defense is going to shift and move based on his own actions. Not as smart as he should be at 24, I can see some of the concerns that made him slide on draft day. Will still be a serviceable sub over the course of the season though.
• Marcus Williams might have put up a killer stat line but he didn't look great or even NBA ready. Barely passed the ball, settled for fading threes with 15 seconds on the shot clock, looked for his own shot to a fault. Mike Taylor might have sent him to the line 20 times, but a real NBA point guard wouldn't be so foolish. I would venture to guess even Mike Taylor wouldn't foul him 9 times in a real game. Rumor has Anthony Carter coming to Memphis for the veteran's minimum because he'll be losing minutes with Denver picking up Ty Lawson. I would certainly advocate the steady, experienced Carter over Williams, who doesn't seem to have figured out that his game is as a pass-first guard.
• Darrell Arthur looked like nothing this game, still quick I suppose. He was playing against Blake Griffin pretty often, however, which would be a tough matchup for lots of young power forwards in the league. Arthur did have one nasty dunk in transition.
• I liked the look of Haddadi again, but he's not ready for more than 10 minutes a night. Still his passing tools are there, which is an interesting skill. He just needs more experience to get the vision to couple with the skills. Turns the ball twice as often as he makes a fantastic pass, but at least he is making fantastic passes, unlike...
• Hasheem Thabeet looked terrible again, he is a project. Sorry, there is no other way to put it, but Thabeet is not going to be ready to contribute unless he travels to the Joshua Tree and "finds himself" later this summer. The kid just has no basketball skills. Both Chris Wallace and Rudy Gay stepped into the booth to provide a fun guest for the 3rd and 4th quarters, respectively. Wallace tried to defend Thabeet as a valuable asset this season, but Rudy knew better and openly admitted that his UConn buddy is still extremely raw to contribute. I'm not terribly worried because Gasol is still a solid starter for what the Grizzlies want to do these next few seasons, but Tyreke Evans, Rubio, Harden, Curry or even guys like Terrence Williams and Jennings would have been better options.

Championship Appeal

If summer league is any indication of real success, the Grizzlies are readied for a storied season this year. Of course summer league isn't any indication of real success, but is still modestly amusing and can tell you something about the young players on the floor. Seconds ago the Grizzlies beat the Knicks 90-86 in what was perhaps the closest thing to playground basketball I'll watch on my computer all year.

I liked the point-by-point format I used earlier in the day, so here are a few more points:

• Darrell Arthur looked very quick and effective on the defensive end, as well as the offensive end of the floor at times. He was very comfortable, but often too comfortable, and was taking spot-up jumpers at near college 3-point range. Needless to say he missed almost every single one, but his speed and athleticism were encouraging.
• Marcus Williams didn't look nearly as interested in facilitating tonight, with only 5 assists and 5-15 from the field. He took over the game in the final minutes, though I'm not sure it was a good thing.
• Sam Young got off to a decent start but struggled and often looked lost.
• Ditto for Carroll. These two players are much more similar than I thought they would be, always looking to drive and having questionable floor vision. They both run shamelessly, but don't know when to pull back and set up the offense.
• Carroll and Young's handles both looked better than advertised, however, and they may be struggling because of the lack of organization.
• Haddadi looked capable again, and his passing showed special promise. Rebounded and defended solidly, might actually have the second worst post game behind...

No room for a bullet point here, this is an all-out rant. Hasheem Thabeet again looked terrible in a league he SHOULD be dominating as the #2 pick overall in this year's draft. Jordan Hill routinely dominated him in the post despite being undersized, Thabeet couldn't extend on anyone, and his offense was absolutely terrible. Yes, occasionally he flashed an acceptable move, but more often than not he was nowhere near finishing. On top of that, he regularly mistimed his rebounding or failed to box anyone out. Thabeet is quick for his size and can jump, but so could another player in this game, Mouhamed Sene, who Thabeet barely outplayed.

I really don't see Thabeet making any impact this season. He's just not a professional basketball player. His rebounding is terrible, and he looks like he's playing highschool basketball when he tries to block shots at this level, barely jumping but still waving his arm the full way down. When you're 7'3" the goal isn't to block the ball in someone's hand, it's to predict the shot path and block it around the rim or before it reaches its decline. I don't doubt that this kid has tools, but he has shown me absolutely no game at this point. Even on defense, which was supposed to be his calling card, Thabeet has no identity. I'm not going to damn him yet, but he is beginning to look more like a bust with each passing game.