Day five of the NBA Summer League is also the penultimate day before the Orlando League goes tournament style on Friday. While that is going on, let’s look back at Thursday’s results and noteworthy performances.
Indiana Pacers edge the Utah Jazz, 79-73.
- Once again, Solomon Hill had himself another solid game: 12 points, three boards, three assists and went 4 of 6 from three-point range, but did commit four turnovers.
- Remember Justin Harper? He was an integral part of the 2011 Richmond Spiders’ team that went to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. He finally gets a special mention in this column with 13 points and six boards.
- Orlando Johnson out of UC-Santa Barbara has not shot the ball particularly well in this league, but has managed to find ways to score: 12 points, one rebound, four assists, but finished with a plus/minus of -7.
- For the Jazz, Chris Roberts has had a solid Summer League, shooting the ball well. He finished this game with 18 points, four rebounds, but four turnovers.
- Trey Burke has been a disappointment in this league, most alarming is his poor shooting performance. He finished with eight points, four rebounds, and four assists. He only committed one turnover in this game, but was 3 of 15 from the field including 0-for-5 from three-point land.
- Frenchman, Rudy Gobert has shown flashes of his athleticism and Thursday’s game was his best performance so far in this league. He had a solid line of 11 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and one steal.
The Miami Heat fall short against the Detroit Pistons, 78-77.
- Ian Clark, listed as a point guard from Belmont, has had a good Summer League showing and Thursday, he continued to pad the stats’ line with 15 points on 6 of 12 shooting, four rebounds, two assists, but committing four turnovers.
- Eric Griffin, an undrafted player in 2012 from Campbell, displayed high energy in this contest: 10 points, five rebounds, two blocks, and three steals.
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for the Pistons has been coming on lately. He still hasn’t shot the ball well, but made 10 trips to the foul line. he finished with 15 points, four rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
- Andre Drummond has been averaging a double-double in this league, but he busted loose in this game against the Heat. We mentioned that in Day 1 of the Orlando League, Drummond “looked like a man among boys.” Well, in this game, he looked like a muscle car among Smart cars. This line is ridiculous, even if it’s just the Summer League: 23 points, 18 rebounds, two blocks, two steals. He did have to take 23 shots to score this many points and he also committed five turnovers. You don’t want your big man getting sloppy with the ball, but he did everything you would want from a dominant presence in the middle.
- And I’m starting to like Peyton Siva. He struggles to score, but he’s always looking to make plays for his teammates: Nine points, nine assists, a whopping seven steals, and just two turnovers.
The Houston Rockets blasted the Brooklyn Nets, 92-76.
- Terrence Jones had another good game, but committed seven turnovers. The rest of his line: 16 points, five rebounds, seven assists, two steals.
- Greg Smith also managed to score in double figures again: 12 points, nine rebounds, two steals.
- Undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft, Robert Covington out of Tennessee State has now given the Rockets two straight solid performances: 16 points, four rebounds, two assists, three steals, and two blocks and it all added up to a game high plus/minus of +27.
- The Nets were awful in this game, but I can’t really blame Tyshawn Taylor, even though it would be easy for me to do so. He scored 15 points but shot terribly from the field (4 of 13). To his credit, he did play aggressively, making eight trips to the line, but he also had three of his shots blocked. The rest of the line: four rebounds, seven assists, but four turnovers, and three steals. He also had a plus/minus -4, but of all the Nets’ players that played more than 25 minutes in this game, Taylor’s -4 was the lowest.
The Philadelphia 76ers lose by one to the Orlando Magic, 90-89.
- What more can we say about Michael Carter-Williams? Like Burke, MCW has been an underwhelming player to watch. He started the league playing assertively to score and take jump shots, but he’s been brutal from the field, shooting 26%. Yesterday, he did score 11 points, but it was on 3 of 10 shooting, but he did make eight trips to the foul line. He also grabbed six rebounds and dropped nine dimes, but committed eight turnovers. This coaching staff has a lot of work to do before training camp–not the regular season–begins because he’s been full of inconsistencies since he started playing in the league.
- Arnett Moultrie, the 27th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft out of Mississippi State has gone through a pattern of bad-good-bad games. He was now due for a good game: 23 points, 12 rebounds, three assists on 10 of 22 shooting.
- Arsalan Kazemi has played hard, but has not posted the numbers to prove it. This might be as good as it gets for the first Iranian player to be drafted to the NBA: 10 points, six rebounds, two assists (three turnovers), two steals, and one block.
- The Magic’s Andrew Nicholson has also followed Moultrie’s pattern of good-bad games. He too was due for a good game finishing with 23 points, but just three rebounds. Nicholson has only averaged 3.0 rebounds per game. He looks like he has the size to play power forward, but plays more like a small forward.
- Moe Harkless had a good shooting game scoring 15 points, five rebounds, four assists (two turnovers), and two steals. He’s quietly had a good Summer League as well.
- Finally, Victor Oladipo’s crash course in point guard continues on in this game. As we mentioned, Oladipo can score at will, but his playmaking skills are going to need some fine-tuning: 24 points (7 of 16 shooting and 7 of 8 from the foul line), three rebounds, six assists (five turnovers), three steals, but had three of his shots blocked.
