Rockets - 93
Raptors - 78
High Scorers - Dion Glover - 20, Chuck Hayes - 17
A team effort
The Rockets were down 23-16 after the first quarter and their usual slow start but came back to take a 2 point lead into halftime, 38-36. The Raptors took over the lead after 3 at 56-55. The fourth quarter, as has been the case, in most of the games this summer session was owned by the Rockets. They cranked up the defense and turned on the jets to run away with a 93-78 win.
Reflections on the 2005 Minnesota Summer League Games...
Dion Glover ended the game with 20 points on mostly jumpers. From what I've seen Dion would make a good addition as a backup to this team. It's difficult to tell how well he could fit in since he was a level above the competition he faced. His shot isn't automatic, but he can penetrate, pass, and shoot when necessary. The only thing I worry about after seeing his game is whether or not he can pull back on the throttle and realize he isn't one of the top 2 or 3 options unless TMac and Yao are seated. I hope he gets an invite because it will add a big guard (6'5"), athleticism, and youth to our team. Of course all this may depend on what becomes of the James, Sura, Wesley trio. One thing I liked about Dion today happened towards the end of the game. Hollis Price and a Raptor both grabbed ahold of the ball and tried ripping it away from one another. The other guy was at least 6'7". The ref blew the whistle and the Raptor player kept trying to rip the ball away and nearly pulled Hollis arms out of their sockets. Apparently Dion went up to the defender and shoved him out of the way or something. Dion got a tech and came back to Coach Thibodeaux and said something along the lines of "I'm not going to let him do that". Those probably weren't the exact words, but it was along those lines. Now that kind of player is good to have on a team. One thing that's still missing off the Rockets with the exception of maybe Sura is a ass-kicking mentality - one that says "we take no crap". Nice to see Dion has some of that in him.
Malick Badiane's game really hasn't improved much in the last 2 or so years since I watched him last. One thing I noticed during these games is the fact that Malick was never really a focus of the offense. I'm not sure if he had any plays specifically run for him - especially in the latter games. The reasons you saw goose eggs from him in a couple of games was because he was foul prone and he really never got the ball. I also remembered the Chronicle (?) interview where he said the coaches had told him to focus solely on rebounding and defense. They weren't kidding. Malick scored about 4 points in this game and on at least one of the buckets he showed he does have range. The biggest disappointment I've seen in Malick's game so far is that I really didn't see anything different from 2 years ago where I said "Wow, that's new". He still has problems holding people down low. He's too slow laterally to guard PF's and he may be too weak/small to hold people banging down low. His game isn't natural except for rebounding and weakside shotblocking; two things he seems to be adept at. When it comes to offense, he is often out of position or he has trouble holding onto the ball when he gets it. His body control is still as it was 2 years ago - awkward. Some of you have compared him to Deke and he's not that awkward on offense, but he's not much better. If he's open at 16 feet and you pass him the ball, his jumper looks legit. When you pass the ball to Deke at 16 feet, you start praying he doesn't shoot. One of the things I noticed Thibodeaux doing during the entire summer leagues was screaming at Malick to set screens/picks to free up a PG and get the play rolling. I remembered he did that during the summer leagues in Long Beach 2 years ago. Only the Rockets can say - but is this an indication that Malick doesn't learn plays easily/is still learning the game of basketball or is it just a reflection on how foreign he is to the NBA and its style of play? It could be the former because I really can't believe setting screens/picks to free people isn't taught overseas.
I don't know what to make of Malick. I had a ton of hope for the guy 2 years ago after watching what he was doing at 19 years of age. His motor was insane. He was a Ryan Bowen or Eduardo Najera in that respect. But he could block shots, he could fly in for rebound jams, and although he was awkward, he had competent moves. Can training correct his awkwardness on offense? Did Deke do it? Whatever Malick's future holds, he needs to bulk up to be a center because he won't be able to bang with guys down low otherwise. This is one reason why he picks up fouls quickly. They say he went from around 220+ to 240+. If he did, I don't know where it is - he's still rail-thin. I mean consider that Stromile Swift is about 6'11" and 230+. Stromile is everything I think the Rockets were hoping Malick would be. This is another reason why I think Malick's future as a Rocket may be in jeapordy - he just got knocked down the pecking order. We shall see.
Luther didn't play much in this game either. More importantly, he wasn't around in the 4th quarter. Luther is still a mystery to me. This doesn't mean he "sucks" or anything. On the contrary I was impressed by his ability to not be the man and be willing to pass the ball to teammates on the perimeter or after driving into the paint. That'll be a necessity when you have 2 studs and a Stromile on your team. His shot was pretty much the entire series, but he has a beautiful shot. He was active on defense as you can tell by his steals, but he sometimes went for the steal and got burned, and the stats don't show that. He was calm at all times. When he was called for a foul he disagreed with, he would grimace and chat with the ref - there was rarely any screaming, yelling, or jawing with the refs. He played under control and rarely forced the issue. I can't wait to see what this kid can do with some more training and playing time. He didn't disappoint me, but the fact that his shot was off did. He would've had a great summer session had those shots been falling.
Lonny Baxter has probably had the best summer session of anyone. Most teams had no answer for the guy's array of moves. The ways he scored on the opposition were many. He has a pumpfake that juked many defenders out of their shoes as he blew by them or went up for the shot after the pumpfake and got fouled. He's got the one thing that I think would help the Rockets from his position - a good 12-16 foot jumper. He showed the ability to get his shot off in traffic, but I wonder if he'll get many of the calls he got today when playing a real NBA game. Admittedly the refs were whistle-happy the entire summer league. Lonny got into early foul trouble, but I think the coaches had seen what they wanted out of him, but he really didn't get too many minutes in the 2nd half. He went out at around the 3:00 mark of the 3rd, and I don't think he made a return appearance. Lonny seems a bit aloof at times. His defense didn't look like anything great. At times he was spun around facing the wrong way on defense. Other times, you'd see the defender just blow by him. Lonny's stamina appeared to be low during the entire series. I know we're not expecting him to be a starter, but he seemed out of shape in terms of cardiovascular conditioning. If he played most of the first 3 quarters (each 10 minutes in length), you could bet he would be near death by early or mid-fourth quarter. The fact still remains that Lonny seems to have a jumper and all kinds of moves down low. I don't see why we couldn't use that for around 10 mins a game. Here's to hoping they give him a shot.
The rest of the guys that played during the summer league session made impacts here and there, but nothing that makes you say "wow". I think the team ran and played the best with Hollis Price at the PG position. He played a solid game all around. He even nailed a couple of long range shots during today's game. Pat Carroll helped put the game out of reach with his long range shooting today. He nailed a couple of 3 point shots late in the game to extend our lead. Both Carroll and Price had 13 points. Chuck Hayes scored 17 points in todays game, finally breaking out. His games were mostly on inside moves and short drives. The 17 points were the kind you look up and say "hmm... how'd he get 17 points - I don't even remember him scoring that much". I doubt Hayes gets an invite since he really only did anything in this game. He did get good minutes though.
