Photo. Brian Maranan PinedaCaught some more summer league games yesterday, with the marquee matchup being Sonics/Knicks. Another L and another bad shooting night for Kevin Durant, who went for 18 points on 4-for-19 shooting. Just like last time, KD got where he wanted to in order to get his shot off, but they weren’t falling for him. You want to say it’s just a bad run and eventually his shots will start falling consistently, but look at Adam Morrison last year. He had long stretches where he couldn’t buy a bucket … One thing that you can’t be too thrilled about if you’re a Sonics fan; Durant’s pulled down a total of two rebounds in his two summer league games. There was one missed free throw where Durant was standing on the block closest to the rim, was in position for the rebound, but let the ball get ripped out of his hands … Unlike Morrison, most the Sonics’ fortunes rest solely on Durant next season now that the team let Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis go. And speaking of Lewis, the Oregonian cited a source who says the Blazers made a pitch for Rashard in a sign-and-trade with the Sonics, but Seattle didn’t want to help Portland improve like that. Makes sense. You don’t see the Patriots giving the Colts quality players … Nate Robinson, who apparently didn’t have to be in Vegas but wanted to play so his West Coast peeps could see him, put up 19 points and 7 dimes and actually looked like a real point guard sometimes … Celtics/Spurs was brutal. In fact, every Spurs game this summer has been hard to watch; their two best players are James White and C.J. Watson, and the team’s scores are always in the 50s-60s range while other teams have been cracking 80-90 … Our in-house Boston fans were hyped at first to see their squad, but it wasn’t long before the looks of horror took over, mostly because it’s become clear the C’s don’t have a legit PG right now. Rajon Rondo doesn’t look like he’s ready to shoulder the load yet. He was horrible yesterday, turning it over 7 times next to just 1 assist. Even the announcers, who never try to bash a player too hard, had to acknowledge some of Rajon’s “mysterious” decision-making … And speaking of Boston PGs, Sebastian Telfair was in street clothes hanging out behind the Celtics bench, and during one timeout was sticking his head into the huddle just like any injured/inactive guy would during a game … You know it’s a bad game when we were laying lunch bets on whether San Antonio would crack 20 points by halftime … Gotta love the reversible summer league jerseys where you can see the tag sticking out if a team’s wearing white … We had a Donnell Harvey sighting. He’s playing for the Spurs and just CRUSHED Big Baby in the mouth with an elbow on one drive … During the Celtics/Spurs game, one of the announcers mentioned summer-leaguer “Tayshawn Green, who played at North Carolina.” That’s Reyshawn Terry, bro. His Tar Heels were on TV about 20 times last season … We thought Marco Belinelli would drop 30 easily on Philly, but he had only 23 points on 9-for-23 shooting. He could have had more, but Pierre Pierce ignored Marco’s hot hand because he was trying to get buckets himself. Hey, you can’t totally blame him. As a first-round pick, Belinelli is good money; Pierre is just trying to make the Warriors roster … During that game, one of the announcers said Philly “is like the Portland of the East.” Funny, we said that same thing last season, during that period between when the Sixers sat Allen Iverson and when they traded him. At the time, Philly matched up with the Blazers almost exactly: Chris Webber played the role of Zach Randolph, Andre Iguodala was Brandon Roy, and we’d go through the whole thing again but it was kinda depressing … Rashad McCants to the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “KG doesn’t want to go anywhere.” … As you know, Tony Parker and Eva go married over the weekend. Jessica Alba, Baron Davis, Boris Diaw, Sean Elliott, Ronny Turiaf, Gregg Popovich, Thierry Henry, Sheryl Crow, the mayor of Paris, all of the “Desperate Housewives” stars and William H. Macy were there. And we’d heard Deron Williams had been invited, but not sure if he was there. Same with Jamie Foxx. The place looked like a zoo for paparazzi and random people trying to get a look, but there were tons of security guards blocking the entrances and checking the rooftops … We hit you with a couple recaps of the action at RBK U (Saturday and Sunday), where a bunch of the country’s best high schoolers are showing off in front of a bunch of the country’s best college coaches. Our guy Kyle was on the scene Monday, so watch out for his recap later today. Apparently Hakim Warrick was in the house, and Villanova has another sick guard on the way … We’re out like watching San Antonio again this summer …
July 10th, 2007 at 3:08 am
E to the IZZO says:
Ughhh???, You forget to mention that JJ Redick put up 30 points against New Jersey.
Yeah I know it’s summer league and all, but you can’t hate on Redick on trying to prove himself after a lack-luster year.
I’m out like Tony Parkers bachelor life!!!!
July 10th, 2007 at 5:55 am
SL says:
well, the pats DID give up the best clutch kicker of all time to the colts…. and hm, the colts ended up winning it all this year. coincidence?
July 10th, 2007 at 7:00 am
ME says:
Did you really compare the Sonics/Blazers to the two premier teams in the NFL.
Couln`t you say something like the Knicks don`t want to trade with the Nets because they suck worse than the Nets?
Keep a perspective, please
July 10th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Celts Fan says:
The Pats didn’t GIVE the Colts anything. The Colts went out and overpaid for a kicker (albeit the only one I would gladly overpay for) and backed into a SuperBowl. Brady is better than Manning (because clutch matters, see Malone vs. Duncan)
Seattle should have done that trade. They probably could have gotten Zach Randolph and his posse for Rashard to at least have one good big that can do something other than dunk. Then you could start:
PG: Ridnour (maybe Delonte West)
SG: Durant
SF: Green
PF: Randolph
C: Wilcox
I know it’s pretty unorthodox, but so is having either Robert Swift and Nick Collison start on a supposed up and coming team.
July 10th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Austin Burton says:
Couldn’t find the box score for the Jersey/Orlando game. But thanks.
July 10th, 2007 at 10:12 am
AtTheCup says:
Any highlights from J. White? Also, what is Telfair’s status with the Celtics? Is he done?
July 10th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Celts Fan says:
Telfair is supposedly done, but that stance has been (slightly) softened in recent weeks. I’d bet he’s back w/ the team, but on VERY thin ice and probably more as a throw-in for a trade to make salaries work… I watched the whole Celts/SA game. No highlights period. They’re not exaggerating here. It was PAINFUL…
July 10th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Amar says:
deron and andrei (and their wives) were invited and showed up. they also all played some pick up ball with TP, his dad and his brother (who plays in the euro league).
if you have getty you can look it up, andrei has to do something about his wife’s hair though . . . ridiculous.
July 10th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Dee says:
What? No mention of that nasty Kevin Johnsonlike crush by LWill (6′ers) over the Harvard grad! SICK!
July 10th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
kudabeen says:
Or what about how agressive Rodney Carney looked in that game…I was very impressed with his attitude. People were scared to jump or guard his drives at one point.
Also what about Kyle Lowry’s game and him and Rodney stuckey going at it. I said it once and I’ll say it again. Grizzles didn’t need Conley. They have Stodamire and Kyle. If anything they could have picked up a big guard who can score and has point guard tendencies. Conley is feeling his way through, but Kyle is a Bull Dog on the court. On second thought. Conley may be an insurance policy, because Kyle puts his body on the line a lot. It was a sequence in the game where he was trying to check a big and got a hell of an elbow in the right arm and then on the other end was in he mix with bigs again and got kneed in the right side of his chest…
Belinelli is beaming with confidence…Euro League seems to be more competitive than people are giving it credit for. He was interviewing and talking about how the game here is easier, he is use to playing defense and having defense played on him. He said players just give up jump shots.
Is Telafair hurt? He should be on the summer team. Are they trying to giv Pruitt enough time on the floor to prove they can cut/trade Telafair with no worries about that position?
July 10th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Celts Fan says:
That’s exactly what they’re trying to do w/ Pruitt, who’s supposedly drawing a lot of comparisons to Delonte (ability to play both G positions, good shooter and defender…)
July 10th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Amar says:
Belinelli hasn’t impressed me just yet. He’s schooling guys in the summer league right now. When his shot is falling he’s amazing . . . when it’s not falling, he’s a John Starks who doesn’t d up his man. Carney looked like he wanted it, though, brother should play this hard in the regular season!
July 10th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
SL says:
Sorry, but the Pats DID give up Vinatieri to the Colts. Perhaps, they overpaid for his services. But I would be very shocked if the same package wouldn’t have kept him a Patriot. Besides, he has been franchised before and they could have hammered out a contract to pay for the best clutch kicker of his time. The Pats allowed for him to get out to the open market and it was over after that. It should have never gotten there. Thus, the Pats allowed their championship dream rivals snatch them from under their noses.
The Patriots last season decided to save money for whatever reason and they paid for it. Paying Deion Branch and Vinatieri could have definately helped. Especfially when looking at their moves this offseason, they seem to have learned from their mistake (Don’t waste Brady’s prime years with morons).
July 10th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
SL says:
actually, Vinatieri was franchised TWICE.
way to win a player over.