Lemon, your wish came through.

[Oracle]

The game wasn't as close as the final score might suggest, the Knicks looked like us closing the huge gap, only to lose  

We got good outings from the main guys, and Cade looked good. I'm beginning to warm up to him and Hayes playing together, it presents a large backcourt that is very good defensively.

But we also saw the most efficient Cade so far, and I do mean efficient(see below).

[lemonpen]

What's your pleasure????

Pistons Summer League game #3.  Time to get serious.

Lions 1st pre-season game under new management.

Tigers MIGGY WATCH, for 28th ever to hit 500 dingers.

My choice is all of the above.  Power is out till Sunday.
Running basics off of a generator.  Wife and kid have deserted me & the mutts for the comfort of A/C.  My only delimma is what's for dinner?

[lemonpen]

Isn't this the point where DNPs are handed out to guys who have little to no chance of making the big roster.
Promises to agents of showcasing poorly regarded
clients should be fulfilled by now. It's time to enter the fray with more cohesive units who just might have some impact on our regular season.

The Knicks feature a kid who was a finalist for 2021 ROY in Quickley, and the high flyer Obi Toppin. I hope they present a strong challenge.

There was a lot talk from our side about winning the SL. Time put up or .... you know. I don't really want to see us end this event with tails firmly tucked.

[Oracle]

BTW, an aside, I didn't know this: Jalen Green makes history as highest-drafted Asian American player, third Filipino player in NBA

But back to the point of this post. Here are 3 guys with two different takes on who will be the best pro, and they do sort of meet in the middle near the end.

[Oracle]

@Lemon: Two very good observations, 

1. It felt like last season all over again. The only difference is that last season, they won some of those, and they were a bit more impressive.

Either way, it's always going to be easy to mount a comeback when you're down by a lot and the other team has taken their foot off the gas.

2. I was also very impressed by Houston cohesive offense, and you correctly attribute it to coaching. They were a well oiled machine, intelligent cutting and passing, they rarely missed a cutting open man. I was embarrassed a bit by how easily the took us apart.

This is entirely on our coaching staff, and teams that can play like Houston will take apart rag tag teams almost every time. One thing I noticed that helped Houston's playmaking work so well was that our guys would get lost in their motion. They'd lose the man they were guarding and he was wide open, sometimes right at the rim.

Not only do the players need to get better, our coaching needs to improve as well.

Color me impressed by the Rockets offensive organization.   Sure, they shoot the ball well, but their passing, cutting, recognition and IQ were executed at a pretty high level.  They. really sliced us up.  Is anyone familiar with their SL coach.

On the flip side, our approach closely resembled the regulars.  Early leads lost as the result of a rather long string of missed 3 pointers.  Later comes the metaphoric pat on the back for playing hard to the end.  Oh well.

[Sparma]

Didn't watch this game, but that's a great description of last year's typical pattern, Lemonpen.

6'8' would surprise a bunch of DBB folks, but maybe that was a crowd surge. In the olden days, the NBA would release official heights, with and without shoes. As I remember Brandon Knight was a full 2 inches taller than sans shoes. That reaction thread I referred to likely refers to sources, but I'm not going back there (a third time). My sense is that colleges pretty routinely exaggerate heights.

I'm guessing that Murph's right, that he'll come to be known as 6'7".

The McGruder resigning surprised me. Could he himself be the one cut come the beginning of the season? Don't know that there's an in season guarantee.

Someone surprised at all the favors going around, included Sirvydis and Cook playing in the Summer League after getting cut, and the McGruder resigning. The Joseph resigning was richly deserved, not a favor.

Seems like Weaver has a price point with Diallo, as he said he did last year with Wood. Fine with me. He should be back unless he gets a big offer

Color me impressed by the Rockets offensive organization.   Sure, they shoot the ball well, but their passing, cutting, recognition and IQ were executed at a pretty high level.  They. really sliced us up.  Is anyone familiar with their SL coach.

On the flip side, our approach closely resembled the regulars.  Early leads lost as the result of a rather long string of missed 3 pointers.  Later comes the metaphoric pat on the back for playing hard to the end.  Oh well.

[lemonpen]

Color me impressed by the Rockets offensive organization. Sure, they shoot the ball well, but their passing, cutting, recognition and IQ were executed at a pretty high level. They. really sliced us up. Is anyone familiar with their SL coach.

On the flip side, our approach closely resembled the regulars. Early leads lost as the result of a rather long string of missed 3 pointers. Later comes the metaphoric pat on the back for playing hard to the end. Oh well.

[lemonpen]

Who the heck is Sengun, the Rockets center. Dude has had two impressive SL games.

[lemonpen]

With McGruder back in the fold who will be the odd man / men out. Someone must go.

Or, will Diallo be allowed to walk?

[lemonpen]

Have you seen enough Tyler Cook. He isn't really a center, is he. I'm interested in seeing if the starting unit can be more effective on both ends with Garza.

[lemonpen]

Cade woke up in this one and looked a lot better.

Court Vision - Check!
3 Point Shooting - Check!
Poise and Cool - The kid is poised beyond his years, but he's acting like a Joey Harrington, he may get on people's nerves communicating too much too early, but he's a talker.
Excellent Defense - Check, I didn't expect to see him this good this early on defense, the dude is just plain active.
Assists - No, but with an explanation!
Efficiency - Average, needs to improve!
#1 vs #2 - He lost, Green outscored him(not a surprise, but also not by much), and was WAY more efficient(not good)!

But this was a very good outing for Cade, and here are the caveats as to why the Pistons lost this one.
1. Cade needs to sue his teammates for lack of support, even though he was team high scorer, they failed him in 3 areas
     a. Lack of scoring, especially from the guys with NBA experience
     b. Bey was horrid, shooting 34% and 16.7% from deep. Sekou may not survive training camp, he's BRUTAL!
     c. Cade probably would have had 10-12 assists. He got the ball to teammates in good position, only to have them blow it almost every time.
2. Very poor transition defense, and even poor in the half court. Surprisingly, the man defense is pretty good from individual players, but lack of help defense negates the effort.
3. Lemon may be right, the coaching is either lacking or the players just aren't executing, like a combination of the two.
4. On the matchup with Green, Green also had it a lot easier because his teammates were awesome, Cade just needs better coaching and teammates.

However, Garza impressed again! This dude is damn efficient, and his 3 point shot is down right pretty! He shot 50% from deep on only 2 shots, but shot 83% overall... impressive and good for 2nd leading scorer on the team.

One observation: They aren't playing Cade at PG much, he's mostly a spot up shooter, and he needs to adjust to the speed of the game. He can't really take people off the dribble yet, but I can see that he could with practice and time.

Finally, he really looked good this game, I saw a lot of the potential that I didn't see in the first game. He's going to be good, the only question is how good... stay tuned!

@Sparma: I found the article, and they reference his height multiple times, and it's all 6'8. Murph says 6'7, so if he's 6'7 and change, and college rounded up, that's ok!
Breaking down how Cade Cunningham’s game translates to the NBA

Nice summary.

[Oracle]

Cade woke up in this one and looked a lot better.

Court Vision - Check!
3 Point Shooting - Check!
Poise and Cool - The kid is poised beyond his years, but he's acting like a Joey Harrington, he may get on people's nerves communicating too much too early, but he's a talker.
Excellent Defense - Check, I didn't expect to see him this good this early on defense, the dude is just plain active.
Assists - No, but with an explanation!
Efficiency - Average, needs to improve!
#1 vs #2 - He lost, Green outscored him(not a surprise, but also not by much), and was WAY more efficient(not good)!

But this was a very good outing for Cade, and here are the caveats as to why the Pistons lost this one.
1. Cade needs to sue his teammates for lack of support, even though he was team high scorer, they failed him in 3 areas
     a. Lack of scoring, especially from the guys with NBA experience
     b. Bey was horrid, shooting 34% and 16.7% from deep. Sekou may not survive training camp, he's BRUTAL!
     c. Cade probably would have had 10-12 assists. He got the ball to teammates in good position, only to have them blow it almost every time.
2. Very poor transition defense, and even poor in the half court. Surprisingly, the man defense is pretty good from individual players, but lack of help defense negates the effort.
3. Lemon may be right, the coaching is either lacking or the players just aren't executing, like a combination of the two.
4. On the matchup with Green, Green also had it a lot easier because his teammates were awesome, Cade just needs better coaching and teammates.

However, Garza impressed again! This dude is damn efficient, and his 3 point shot is down right pretty! He shot 50% from deep on only 2 shots, but shot 83% overall... impressive and good for 2nd leading scorer on the team.

One observation: They aren't playing Cade at PG much, he's mostly a spot up shooter, and he needs to adjust to the speed of the game. He can't really take people off the dribble yet, but I can see that he could with practice and time.

Finally, he really looked good this game, I saw a lot of the potential that I didn't see in the first game. He's going to be good, the only question is how good... stay tuned!

@Sparma: I found the article, and they reference his height multiple times, and it's all 6'8. Murph says 6'7, so if he's 6'7 and change, and college rounded up, that's ok!
Breaking down how Cade Cunningham’s game translates to the NBA

[lemonpen]

I heard the same thing about Cade's height.  Something to do with college exaggeration v NBA measurement.  CC appeared to be identical to Bey when standing side by side in a huddle.

ESPN has Cunningham listed at 6’7.  That’s the exact height ESPN has Bey listed at.  So I think 6’7 will probably be CC’s official height moving forward.

Thanks

[Murph]

I heard the same thing about Cade's height.  Something to do with college exaggeration v NBA measurement.  CC appeared to be identical to Bey when standing side by side in a huddle.

ESPN has Cunningham listed at 6’7. That’s the exact height ESPN has Bey listed at. So I think 6’7 will probably be CC’s official height moving forward.

[lemonpen]

Oh my God has the local media been stressing out over their game 1 scoring difference. Look for over the top coverage of their game #2 head to head matchup. I would recommend evaluating more aspects of their game than scoring.

[lemonpen]

Oracle, I'm thinking I found out about CC's shrinkage in the reaction to Sean Corp's August 6 DBB article "Breaking down how Cade Cunningham's game translates to the NBA."  Within the article, Corps describes him as 6'8", but then the first reaction is "6'6" Point Guard???".

Frank Jackson back on a two year deal, terms undisclosed.  Glad to hear it.  He was an outstanding shooter last year.  Health may be the biggest question mark for him.

Can't see Diallo getting a big pile of money now.  Just as well.  A skilled but selfish player.  Still expect him back.

Really glad to see the deal is done for Frank. He could be a 6th Man of the Year candidate.

I heard the same thing about Cade's height. Something to do with college exaggeration v NBA measurement. CC appeared to be identical to Bey when standing side by side in a huddle.

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