FanPost

Using the summer league to evaluate the young guys

While many of us enjoyed watching the summer league, you have to be careful with what you take away from it. The NBA Summer League, both Orlando and Vegas, feature teams with mostly borderline NBA talent. Unless a player is truly dominating the game, which did not happen this year, the best take away from the summer league should not be who impressed but rather who did not unimpress. Here are takes on the draft picks.

Nerlens Noel: While the big guy swatted a few shots out of bounds and scored in a variety of ways, I cannot say I see a perennial all star in him which is fine because not many people did. However, I have a few concerns about his game. From his one year at Kentucky, I could tell he will never be a 20 point per game player for his career, let alone 15. Both are hard feats to accomplish and not many people accomplish these in draft classes.

Nerlens is supposed to be a defensive guy; a guy that changes opponents’ gameplans. However, quite a few times in the summer league, people drove right into him and used their bodies to score over him. Nerlens does not have an NBA center body. He’s a generous 6’11" and lucky if he weighs 225. I’ve heard people compare bodies with Dwight Howard, but Howard outweighs Noel by 40 pounds. Nerlens will have neither a post game nor a consistent 15 foot jump shot, which means most of his scoring will come on dunks and layups, whether it be offensive rebounds or in transition. He runs the floor well for a big so that is a plus. I think he’ll be a solid starter/rotation player for a championship team, but if he’s your best or second best player, you’re in trouble.

KJ McDaniels: McDaniels was a player I was eager to see play because of his jump shot. While many scouts and analysts claimed that KJ’s weakness is his shooting, I would argue it’s more so his perimeter shooting from 18 feet on out. While only a 30.4% 3 point shooter last season at Clemson, KJ shot 84.2% from the free throw line. When watching him in the summer league, he did nothing to prove to me that he won’t be a good shooter. He didn’t prove he will be a good shooter, but he didn’t play himself out of that discussion. He’s obviously a good athlete and will be a good defender from day one, but he will only go as far as his jump shot improves. He will never be good by NBA standards at creating his own shot, but he could play a nice role as a guy who can hit open threes, run the floor in transition, and play multiple positions on defense. KJ McDaniels has the look of a solid rotation player who could compliment a good post player like Joel Embiid. McDaniels should outplay his draft position over the course of his career and as long as he stays healthy will hang around in the NBA for a while.

Jerami Grant: I was not very excited by the selection at the time because I was not into drafting a Syracuse player. When you look at it on paper, he was probably the best player left in the draft at the time. We all know about the 7’3" wingspan and the athleticism. But first, before people try to say we have ourselves a Kawhi Leonard, let me get that out of the way. Leonard’s per 40 college statistics are far superior to Jerami Grant’s. 19 points to 15.4, 13 rebounds to 8.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists to 1.8 assists, 1.7 steals to 1 steal, 76% FT to 67% FT. Stats are just one part, but Leonard was/still is a crazy competitor. He has an inner drive to improve that is few and far between. I don’t know whether or not Grant has that drive, but that drive to get better is what separates the Carmelo’s of the world from being truly great players. Grant will never have the offensive arsenal that Kawhi Leonard or most elite SFs in today’s game has, but that does not mean he can’t be a valuable rotation player.

Grant does not have bad form on his jump shot, he just needs more consistency. Consistency comes from practice and while he’ll never be a great shooter, he could improve his jump shot. Offensively he’ll most likely do most of his damage on the offensive glass and in transition. In college and the summer league he showed an ability to drive to the basket from 10 or 15 feet, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to do that against NBA level players. He moves up and down the court gracefully and could be a force defensively if the staff develops his physical tools. He seems to have a solid feel for the game which doesn’t surprise me given the NBA pedigree, all of which could help him develop. Grant is another player like McDaniels that could start for a championship level team or be a sixth man to provide energy. He was a great pickup at #40.

Jordan McRae: McRae was a guy I was excited we drafted. He was part of the reason I picked Tennessee to go to the elite 8 (1 game short) and I loved his versatility in the college game. He’s a lanky 6’6", but anytime you’re a SG and a legitimate 6 foot 6, you have something going for you. He’s athletic and can shoot. He created off the dribble very well in college and was good at drawing contact. Many of these skills translated into the summer league.

McRae’s biggest flaw is that he’s already 23. At the end of his rookie season he’ll be 24. Most NBA players take 3 to 4 seasons to reach their potential, and at that point he’ll already be 26. If he had the same college production but was only a freshman, he would’ve been a lottery pick (as many 4 year college players can say). What does McRae bring to the table besides a knack for scoring? He was a mediocre defensive player at Tennessee. There’s some reason to believe he could become a good defensive player, but no guarantee. He’s not known as a rebounder and while he could score and create his own shot with the ball, there’s no reason to believe that he’ll create a lot off the dribble for a two guard who has the ball in his hands a lot in the NBA. McRae still needs a more consistent perimeter jumper (35% 3 pointers last season and 34% for his career at UTjr) but that’s something that with good coaching will come when you consider his 79% free throw clip that’s improved every year at Tennessee.

One guy that impressed me for the seven minutes that he played was Pierre Jackson. I’d love to give him another chance if he recovers well. He was very quick with the ball and was good with the ball in transition. His perimeter jump shot is good too and he could be a good defensive player.

I thought Sean Kilpatrick deserved more minutes in Vegas. He shot the ball very well in the first game against the Jazz. While he’s undersized and played four years of college ball, he has a stroke and has some athleticism. With a jump shot and solid athleticism, I think he’s a guy you let play some against the real players, even if it’s only on a 10 day contract. Otherwise, he’s a guy to keep an eye on because if he develops his shot even more, he could be an NBA "3 and D" type player who could play 10-15 minutes a game and make some open shots.

I did not really touch on Casper Ware because he played in the NBA last year but it’s amazing what happens when you go from playing good NBA players to borderline NBA players and how much better you can look. I think Casper Ware will keep developing and be a nice player to have behind Michael Carter-Williams and Tony Wroten. He could potentially play on the court with either of those players since they have good size.

I also forgot about Hollis Thompson until now but he’s played a whole season in the NBA so no reason to touch on him, just go watch his NBA tape if you want to decide if he’ll be good.

The rest of the guys on the Sixers summer league teams will make camps somewhere, but I don’t think those guys are quite NBA level players. And that includes Brandon Davies. One or two of them may end up making a team, but the majority will most likely not make it. There are only so many spots and a lot of guys competing for them. We have (if you include Noel) potentially 4 more drafted rookies playing than we did last year and that doesn’t include our two first round picks who both will not be playing this year. There’s a decent chance that one of McDaniels, Grant, or McRae will turn into a good NBA starter and if that happens, that is just one more good player to help us reach the ultimate goal of a championship.

The key thing to remember: Take the NBA SL with a grain of salt. If you look historically, there is not a very strong correlation between playing well in the SL and playing well in the NBA. While most good players perform well in the SL, there are plenty of mediocre players that perform well in the SL. We can all hope that every one of these guys turns out to be a good player, but the reality is that those odds are not too high.

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