Summer League Team : Russell smooth 21 (1-4)

That 3rd quarter Mitchell and Nance were incredible on D, I kept wanting to find out more about him as I watched but couldn't leave the game. Mitchell could be a sleeper come training camp, really liked what I saw of him.

 

I'm sensing the Al Jefferson ceiling as well.

He's definitely NBA ready. Not a completely dominant figure, but he's smart in the post to get his shots and that's what's he's going to give you. A solid 18-20 ppl guy and 10 rebounds and that's pretty much it. That's awesome numbers but in terms of being a "superstar", I don't think that ceiling is there for him.

Russell on the other hand, with the skills he's already showcasing here and there, is really flashing brilliance to become a star once he gets acclimated to NBA pace and style.

 

So, is NYK we're facing tomorrow...are they starting Kristaps at the 4? Randle vs Kristaps? That's intriguing.

 

man, if okafor was a laker, we'd be hyping him and posting Russell's fg% and turnover numbers. he's clearly ahead right now. doesn't mean it was the wrong choice or it's over, but why deny the obvious, child? (that reference is older than me).

anyway, I'm trying to focus on the positive that is Clarkson looking like he's made that crucial 1st to 2nd year jump that quality players tend to make. hopefully, this translates into the real action.

 

TJ can play...

 

I wouldn't be hyping Okafor up; I mean, he is what he is; I said a couple of months ago he's as good as Al Jefferson right now, but I take that back. I don't even think he's there yet. Will he be better? Possibly.

NBA.com is hyping up Okafor, though. They have him averaging 33.2 ppg, 19 rebounds per game.

 

Okafor is absolutely an NBA player. I just don't see his impact on the court will be as large as his impact on the stat sheet. I'm not downplaying what he's going, he's got some serious grown-man skills.

He's slow though, his conditioning and shape is a huge question mark. He doesn't always run the floor as well as you'd like. He looks less mobile than Bynum his first year (from what I can remember, that was 10 years ago).

I think if he works with one of those big-time trainers and really muscles up and loses some fat he can be a real force. He's dominating fringe NBA players. We expected this, we saw it in college. Can he do it agains NBA bigs? What about good NBA bigs and crafty guards?

 

I'm not saying he's not an NBA player. He absolutely is an NBA player. Without a doubt. He's had 2 subpar games and 2 games where he's had double-doubles. He's also struggled with lengthier defenders and it has been a little hard for him to establish great position inside. He's had 3 other games besides the Lakers. I've watched them all, and I think he'll be fine.

 

Hi Guys,

I just got back in from Vegas a few hours ago where I was able to catch both Laker Summer League games. I got a couple of cool photos to share with you guys. I'll write up on some observations I noted in a bit. Sorry some are a little grainy...I had to tinker with them a bit to get them under 700 KB.

 

Some interesting tidbits I thought that would be cool to share from going to SL Live that maybe aren't as noticeable on TV...

- Jordan Clarkson's Leadership - In between timeouts, was giving pointers and putting his arm around the young rookies. You could tell he embraced his role during summer league as the "Vet" of the squad. Seemed to be pretty close with Anthony Brown, punching him around during a timeout trying to get him pumped up

- Jim Buss - something I thought was pretty interesting was Jim Buss' enthusiasm. Two times this summer league I saw him stand up and get pumped up in a Mark Cuban-esque kind of way. First time was in Game 1 when Upshaw rejected Towns, and the second time was when Larry Nance Jr. got the crowd chanting his name. For a guy who remains pretty mysterious to me, I thought it was pretty cool to see a little emotion out of him

-Tony Mitchell - Athletic Freak. He put on quite the dunk show in warm-ups for both games. That being said, I thought maybe he should have dedicated more of that warm up time to get his shot tuned in but hey what do I know

-Laker Personnel/Former players around:
- Mitch Kupchak - Sat next to Jim most of the game, and didn't show much emotion. Right before the 2nd game he was sitting right next to George Karl which I thought was interesting.
- Byron Scott - Sat Courtside with his family during the 2nd game. Jordan Clarkson came up to him a couple of times between timeouts...looked like they were going over X's and O's
- Rick Fox - Was there for the 1st game. My friend said she thought he was flirting with Kelli Tennant, TWC Lakers Sports Reporter. They chatted for a good five minutes and were pretty chummy, but I told my friend that she and Rick were most likely talking X's and O's...yeah right
- Trevor Ariza - Gave mad love to Laker fans. Took pictures with a lot of them and seemed pretty humbled when they gave him a little standing O as he walked to his seat during halftime.

 

Mitch and Karl are both UNC alums and former college teammates. So I'm not surprised they talked to each other.

 

I am trying my best to avoid the Okafor talk but since we apparently just aren't going to let this go and move on.....

I think Okafor is showing a lot of what the scouts saw - slow, a lack of conditioning, poor on the defensive end, and he struggles against taller defenders. There were questions about the validity of those scouting reports but I always thought those knocks on Okafor were valid. Those issues were evident in several games at Duke particularly against bigger teams like Utah, Gonzaga, and Wisconsin during the tournament. Also, if you've been following his games in the summer league, you see that he gets his shot blocked a lot. An ESPN writer noted that he has probably been swatted more in summer league than his whole career and I agree.

That said, his post game is still very good. With his moves he will be able to put up good overall scoring numbers even if his percentages aren't as high. I am getting the feeling a lot of people will just look at that to draw their conclusions and that's fine I suppose. But with Okafor's post game if teams really believed that he could solve his conditioning issues and be a rim protector he probably would have gone 1st before even Towns.

 

Thanks. Wow, #4 you could have reached and yanked on Harden's beard..... taken one for the guys here.

 

Cool tidbits indeed, thanks for sharing. Liked hearing Jim Buss was getting excited and Clarkson mentoring some already like Kobe did with him. Russell talks about that too. They have a good relationship. Foxy!! Ariza!!

 

^ No vids of Mitchell's dunk-a-thon? Booooooooo
Seriously though, nice recap, thanks for that.

 

Hmmm karl and mitch talking. .... demarcus cousins?