The basketball summer league is underway. As they say the NBA keeps things rolling. A week after the finals concluded the NBA draft happened, and a week later the NBA summer league. It gives teams a chance to see the value of their players as well as fill potential roster holes with free agent rookies. Even if some of the free agents do not make their summer league squads they often get a formal invite to another teams training camp. It also gives teams with first round selections and second round picks a survey of potential bargaining for that athletes contract.
Over the next two and a half weeks we all know about the athletes that are supposed to stand out, who we all want to see is the under the radar athletes. Will keep you posted on who emerges but here is a look at a few players that have started off very well.
Lance Stephenson- Stephenson had more downs than ups while at Cincinnati but decided to jump the gun anyways as a freshman. Indiana will let him develop and try to see if he can play the point a bit. He doesn’t have the craftiness of a Tyreke Evans but he sees the floor fairly well. He’ll have to continually work on his perimeter shot to get decent playing time.
Patrick Ewing Jr- The son of the Magic’s assistant coach, Patrick Ewing, has been getting big time minutes and making use of them. The first two days of the summer league Ewing has been able to knock down shots and be one of the biggest factors of any player thus far. If he can keep it up he’ll find himself earning an invitation to someone’s training camp.
Daniel Orton- Rumblings of Orton being the Kentucky player that was not near ready are starting to be seen vividly. He played limited action behind DeMarcus Cousins in Kentucky and still was a first round pick by Orlando. Hopefully for Orlando’s sake his 1 for 14 start in two days is just jittery bugs. He has had foul and turnover trouble and looks completely lost on the court. Sadly he could be spending his guaranteed contract years in the D-League with Hasheem Thabeet.
Luke Harangody- One of a few players who went undrafted that had your head shaking. Harangody played in one of the top if not best conferences in the country and was a force every season. Teams were not sure about his ability to transform a college skillset to the NBA. Maybe right now he has the edge of proving everybody wrong. Whatever it is he is making a name for himself.
Eric Maynor- Maynor isn’t lighting up stats thus far, but he is the best point guard in Orlando’s summer league. He has that natural knack of knowing how to run a team, and not over dribble. He penetrates the lane well and puts his wing players in perfect spots on fast breaks. Maynor bounced around a bit being traded last year, but should find a solid backup role behind Russell Westbrook.
Gerald Henderson- He has strong athleticism and seems to have worked on his dribbling. That has allowed him to create better space for himself as a smallish two guard. Where he may be halted in stepping on the court for the Bobcats is his defense. He was burnt a few times on simple blow by moves that just aren’t going to be tolerated by an NBA coaching staff.
Jodie Meeks- With his torching scoring ability he’ll fill someone teams eleventh or last man roster spot. You have to give it to Meeks because he could easily be banking big money overseas right now. Instead he is going to try to continue to work on elevating his game and battling to make it in the NBA.
One of the biggest pleasant surprises on my fantasy team last year came in the form of Vernon Davis’s monster season. Honestly, I drafted him out of loyalty. He showed signs of being a big part of the offense, but his stats were sub-par, and everyone began to wonder whether he would live up to the expectations that come with being a high-first round pick. As a 49ers fan, I figured I would take him and hope that he could produce.
I didn’t expect him to grab 13 touchdowns and be a consistent source of points. While the quarterback position continued to be a source of controversy and inconsistency and Michael Crabtree held out and missed the beginning of the season, Davis became a reliable target for Shaun Hill and Alex Smith, and after seeing coach Mike Singletary banish him from the field and the sideline during a game in the 2008 season, it was good to see Davis post elite-level numbers.
Davis should put up similar numbers next year, and exceed them if the team can get a sense of consistency, and stay healthy. If the team puts some faith in Alex Smith and gives him control over the offense, that would accomplish a lot in terms of team chemistry and continuity. With offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye coming back, Smith can be coached by a familiar face, something he hasn’t been able to do his whole career. A boost in Smith’s production should also increase Davis’s numbers.
Added and returning weapons should also help the offense, and free up Davis for more looks. With Crabtree coming back for a second season, and his first full season with training camp, preseason, and a full 16 games, he should only improve upon his solid rookie season, in which he established himself as a target. Frank Gore has been a top-tier running back and pass catcher out of the backfield, and backup Glen Coffee shows promise. If rookies Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati can beef up the offensive line, Smith should have more time to look down the field, and Gore and Coffee should be able to run wild against the NFC West. On the other side of the football, Patrick Willis leads an up-and-coming defense with an improving secondary and consistent pass-rushers, which should produce more three-and-outs and turnovers to get the offense on the field.
Davis should be able to pick up where he left off in 2009, and continue to be a top-level fantasy tight end. If the quarterback question is finally answered, and players around him continue to improve, Davis should be a great pick. I wish I could say I drafted him last year because I knew he would have a big year, but any owner who uses a pick on Davis this summer should do it with the belief that he will gain 800+ yards and put up another double-digit touchdown year.
On Christmas day the Phoenix Suns got a great gift with the return of Leandro Barbosa to their bench rotation. Barbosa had missed twelve games with a bum ankle. During that time the Suns found a new nucleus of role players to compliment their starters. Young players such as Jared Dudley and Goran Dragic have come in and earned their minutes. Alvin Gentry is going to have a rough time dividing up the minutes now with a bench as deep as his.
Barbosa’s minutes are near a career low only averaging 21 minutes a game. Do not look for Barbosa to get buried to the eighth or ninth spot off the bench. He is an electric player that has not lost the speed that has differentiated him as one of the best sparks to come off the bench. Instead of the Suns cutting the minutes of Dragic and Dudley look for them to reduce Grant Hill’s.
At 38, he is playing as if he did during his Detroit days. His great start though early on has been a bit shaky as of late. Some games he can be a great force and others he seems a step slow. We believe this has to do with his high minutes of play and the hectic schedule of the NBA. If the Suns can figure out a better system to utilize him that will prevent his erratic play and keep him fresh for a full season. The Suns will definitely need his size and defensive presence throughout the season.
The other player the Suns need to figure out their main plan for is Channing Frye. There is plenty to rave about Frye on the year. When the Suns are running and gunning he is one of the players teams are puzzled on matching against. He spreads the floor nicely as a big man, and is showing a three point shot teams never were aware of. That’s the good part of Frye. His weakness has always been to bang on the boards as a 6’10 big man. It’s part of the reason why Lou Amundson has been gaining minutes.
Expect games that the Suns aren’t getting high proficiency from Frye for him to take a seat on the bench. He is averaging by far a career high in minutes at nearly 32 a game. We don’t see that trend continuing and for him to probably slip down to the 25-28 minute average.
Fantasy owners should be racing to their mouse clickers and logging in to their Yahoo Fantasy NBA Leagues. Barbosa is only owned in 57 percent of leagues currently. You know that he is going to be a high percentage shooter with his slashes to the whole and ability to attack and get to the free throw line. Barbosa is just a solid steady player that isn’t going to kill you with horrible shooting like most bottom tier role players in your fantasy leagues.
Oklahoma City made a quiet move but one that’s going to keep their team young and up and coming. They traded for rookie point guard Eric Maynor from the Utah Jazz. It looks as if the experiment with using Shaun Livingston as their backup point guard did not pan out. Livingston was waived to make the move possible without going over roster limits.
Before we delve into how much of an impact Maynor will be, lets give huge credit to Shaun Livingston. We had the chance to do an interview with him while he was rehabbing through his horrific knee injury. He worked his tail off and has been positioning himself for a regular rotation spot since that injury two years ago. If there is someone that isn’t going to give up it is Livingston. He has the size at 6’7 but lost a ton of quickness and lateral movement he once had. Look for him to keep working with trainers to get some form of sharpness and foot speed back.
Eric Maynor is just another young player the Oklahoma City are stock piling. Maynor is instantly going to pay dividends and be able to be a complimentary backup point guard to Russell Westbrook. Maynor had a tough time keeping minutes and finding an primary role with the Jazz. Their intentions were to have him backup Deron Williams and develop from there. For whatever reason the Jazz decided to unload him and now he is in a perfect fit with the Thunder.
Maynor will not let this trade curtail his rookie campaign. If anything he should be able to step in and help this young team due to the fact he played all four years in college. Arguably Maynor could have been looked at as the top point guard coming out of last years draft. He was part of one of the best classes in a long time from a point guard standpoint. Just being selected 20th overall in that class shows how much value the Jazz saw in him.
Deron Williams did miss some time in mid November. During that three game stretch the Jazz inserted Maynor to play some big minutes. With the increased minutes Maynor averaged 17 points, 7 assists, and four rebounds a game. The shot selection may have not been the best and his turnover margin was a bit high. There isn’t a young guard in the league that doesn’t struggle in that area though.
In limited minutes overall with the Jazz, Maynor made the most of them and had decent numbers with 5 points and 3 assists a game. Oklahoma City will surely use Maynor more than the Jazz did. Shaun Livingston was averaging ten minutes a game before his departure, and based on Maynor’s skills we could see him getting around fifteen to seventeen a game.
Maynor is definitely a player to keep your eye on. They have a lot of athleticism and could play just about any five athletes on the floor. Oklahoma City wasted no time in getting Maynor involved by inserting him in the game against the Suns. He seems very comfortable already and adds that element of running with the core of players the Thunder have and allowing them to finish. Livingston was more of a steady half court point guard which tended to slow their offense down for stretches.
The Atlanta Hawks were supposed to be a team similar to the Golden State Warriors of several years ago. A team that has budding young talent that can be scary on any night but the truth in their 8th seed would not blossom into much more than that. We saw the Warriors use their youth to upset the Dallas Mavericks and cause quite a stir for their style on the court. That did not make the proper move forward partly due to poor veteran leadership and the powerhouse of the western conference. Over in the East though the divisiveness of power has been usually considered between a few teams. The Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, and up until last year the Detroit Pistons.
The team that’s replaced the Pistons and maybe started to even edge up on a few some of the top tier are the Atlanta Hawks. The organization has let coach Mike Woodson develop a great young core and it’s translated to an extremely unselfish team. On any given night a different Hawk player may rise to the occasion and be the leading scorer. Unlike most teams that have to rely on that go to player or second primary scorer the Hawks are so talented that they’ve deferred without flinching to the hot hand on a particular night. The generosity of distribution has the Hawks flying high and for the first time in awhile the leading sports franchise in the Atlanta area over the Falcons and Braves.
This isn’t more evident by the fact that six of their players are averaging ten points a game. What other team in the NBA has that type of potency and reliability on a given night? It’d be hard to find one. Currently, Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Josh Smith, and Al Horford are the leading dynamic players that have stirred this tremendous turnabout. The good willed unselfishness displayed by their superior talent is started by their leader in Joe Johnson. Questioning his aggressiveness offensively to take over games use to be a problem, but with the growth of the team as a whole his all around talent is rubbing off. Johnson’s averaged over five assists a game for quite some time, and is the veteran leader of this team with Mike Bibby.
There is one key ingredient that has been the biggest difference of addition to this Atlanta Hawks team. That was the key signing of Jamal Crawford. Players know his game as he has been one of the leagues most electrifying scorers on several teams. He comes in and is not necessarily going to be a guy that sets up the offense and passes the ball into the post to Horford and Smith. When he is on the court you can expect Crawford to want to take over the game offensively. Be it no surprise that Crawford is the second leading scorer on the team averaging sixteen a game. He gets his shot off with regularity and is putting a shot up at a rapid pace per minutes played.
There are just moves that make perfect sense. Crawford was that missing piece to just slightly take that pressure off of guys that necessarily couldn’t put up 15-20 points a game every night. Players like Josh Smith, Al Horford, and Marvin Williams are going to have their nights of dominance, but bring more to the table with their athleticism to hinder teams. Credit for this team getting to the level of play they’re at has to all circle back to their leader in Mike Woodson. Woodson’s been a patient developer with this team and has brought in the necessary ingredients to get to this point.
How Crawford is only owned in 80 percent of Yahoo leagues is mind boggling. We would consider highly in grabbing Crawford as he is content with his role and you know he is going to be a consistent factor each night. As long as this team stays healthy expect to see Atlanta challenge strongly in the Eastern Conference playoffs just as they did two years ago taking the Celtics seven games, and then last year by defeating the Heat in round one. They’ve taken the necessary steps the past few years to get to this point. With all the attention still centered on the Celtics tremendous talent and LeBron that’s exactly how the Hawks would like it to remain.
It seemed as if JJ Redick was ready to be labeled as most Duke high profiled college athletes do, and that is a major bust. Often times college powerhouses are built by the coaches too have complimentary players that fit the team perfectly. When Redick was drafted as a high first round pick by the Magic it seemed a pretty fair assessment that Redick was not going to pan out. Similar to Chris Duhon, another former Duke Blue Devil, Redick kept working on his game and improvements began to show here and there.
In the playoffs of 2009 Redick was able to show some toughness to knock down some shots here and there and by playing aggressive defense. Once the Magic signed Vince Carter, Jason Williams, and Matt Barnes it looked as if there would be limited minutes for Redick. When you can shoot the ball like Redick can though a team is going to find minutes for you. With Rashard Lewis’s early season suspension, Jameer Nelson going down to injury, and Jason Williams coming off a year in which he did not play basketball, minutes have arose to a career high average in 24 minutes a game for Redick.
When you enter the NBA and things don’t go your way off the bat it can be hard to remain focused on being that 10th-12th person on your teams rotation. That’s exactly what Redick was, and most of those players buried on benches get maneuvered around their whole career in that same role. Redick is worth a look at including on your fantasy nba teams if you are in a deeper league. He has eclipsed Anthony Johnson in the rotation for coming off the bench. With Jason Williams only playing 25 minutes a game it favors to see Redick likely keep hovering around the 20-24 minutes a game area.
Redick has exploded for a 27 point game already this year, and is coming off another game of over 20 points, scoring 20 against the Jazz. He is shooting the ball just about as good as any guard in the NBA right now. Percentage wise he is shooting 48 percent overall and 46 percent from three point range. Great statistics for people hurting in those columns in your rotisserie leagues. Factor in that over his last seven games he is averaging 12 points a game and two triples as well, while shooting 60 percent from beyond the arc.
