2013 NBA Summer League: Day 4—Raul Neto’s Debut and Jeremy Lamb

Finally, we saw the debut of Raul Neto as he was given clearance to participate in this NBA Summer League. He didn’t even get a chance to practice with the Utah Jazz as he was thrown into his first game and basically was told to improvise.

Neto was selected in the second round of the 2013 NBA Draft and was described as a speedy, smart point guard from Brazil. Everything good and bad about his game was on full display but he made a few highlight-style plays on offense and looked good in the pick-and-roll game. He even displayed his quick crossover and it was as good as advertised. His best attribute is his playmaking ability as he was constantly trying to make plays for his teammates.

Unfortunately, his lack of strength and length was not only on display on defense, but I saw too many times where Neto would get pushed off the ball and his momentum would get instantly halted by opposing defenders. He can be exciting to watch, but will he survive the grind that is the NBA season?

The Jazz went on to defeat the Brooklyn Nets, 98-69:

•  It is funny to see former Nets’ coach, Lawrence Frank as an assistant to Jason Kidd. There have been several instances where I have seen Frank drawing up plays for the Nets on timeouts. Plus a source on the Boers and Bernstein show explained to Dan Bernstein that the loudest person on the Nets’ bench throughout this Summer League has been Lawrence Frank. Are Nets’ fans ready for Head Coach Frank-Part Deux?
• Solid game out of Jeremy Evans. He shot the ball well from the field and did a good job padding the stats and did not commit a single turnover. Evans leads the team in rebounds with 7.3 per game as well as 10.3 points per game and is shooting 52% from the field.
• After giving Mason Plumlee his much deserved props, he showed up to this game and put up a stinker, posting a -27 in the plus/minus category. How very un-Duke-like. We’ve mentioned how he can look very robotic with his movements and that was definitely on full display in this game, especially in the 4th quarter as his lone, shot blocked occurred on a transition, lay-in attempt.
• Tyshawn Taylor’s continues to frustrate. If people ever wonder why Taylor doesn’t get an opportunity to play more minutes during the regular season despite proving to be an able scorer in this Summer League, he finished this game at -21, shot poorly from the field, and committed six turnovers.
• Chris Wright is a point guard out of Georgetown and suffers from multiple sclerosis.

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 74-62.

A day after Reggie Jackson broke an Orlando League record for points scored in one game, Jeremy Lamb took advantage of an idle Jackson and blew up for 32 points. While much has been hyped about his scoring ability in this game as he shot the ball very well, inside and outside the three-point line, but was assertive in driving to the basket as well, he also committed eight turnovers. He leads the team in turnovers with 4.3 per game. I understand that when you’re handling the rock as much as he did in this game, turnovers will happen, but eight in one game is just sloppy.

• Just like Lamb took advantage of Reggie Jackson getting a day off, Steven Adams has flourished in a starting role as Daniel Orton also missed time due to a mild concussion suffered after a nasty collision with Jackson.
• As you will notice, no Sixers’ player was recognized in the box score of this piece. Not one player had a game worth mentioning here. However, one thing worth mentioning is the poor play of Michael Carter-Williams as he finished with the worst plus/minus for Philly with -16. He committed four turnovers and had another atrocious day shooting the ball. After three games, he’s now shooting 25% from the field and 7.7% from beyond the arc. We were warned about his terrible shot, but a supposedly talented point guard like him should not be this sloppy with the basketball.

The Boston Celtics fall to the Houston Rockets, 85-78.

Terrence Jones had another good game scoring 17 points and getting six rebounds. He shot terribly from the field, but made up for a bad shooting game by making 14 trips to the foul line. After three games, Jones is averaging 15.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game. His shooting could be better (41%), but he still finds ways to be productive.

• Kelly Olynyk earned himself a double-double, but while he looked good using his big man skills in this game, he inexplicably attempted five 3-point attempts and committed five turnovers. To put it in perspective, five of his 12 total 3-point attempts were shot in this game; five of his total 11 turnovers were committed in this game. Olynyk sometimes goes into these stretches where he wants to show off his guard skills. Eventually, he’ll have to realize it is counterproductive for his development as an NBA big man. 
• Worth noting is Phil Pressey’s game running the point for Boston. He’s done a terrible job limiting his turnovers, but we can’t be too critical of a guard that dropped 10 dimes in this game. He is the son of former NBA player, Paul “P-Double” Pressey. Paul gets credit for being one of the first–if not the first–point forward in the league.
• Now I’ve seen everything: Colton Iverson outplayed Fab Melo in this game. Iverson garnered more minutes and had the better stat line. Unbelievable!

Felipe Melecio

Felipe Melecio was the managing editor for the blog Pathological Hate. He believes that math is your friend and numbers can be fun, especially when it comes to baseball. Keep tabs on all his knee-jerk reactions on Twitter: Follow @pathological_h8 !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

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