Summer League Game 1: 7pm CST on ESPN

[omahen]

It was also good for Cooper to go against Bazley. No idea if he is a good defender but did pretty well on Cooper. Those are the type of guys he will need to get comfortable with. Those long athletic wing players. Every team has those type of players.

Bazley, a former FRP for OKC, is having a very good summer league (Lakers already played three games in the California classic before this one) and making a case for himself for a roster spot. He is sort of DJJ light. Very athletic, good motor, plays hard but limited offensively. I was wondering how he would do on Cooper Flagg. I didn't watch the game but my guess was Lakers will put him on Flagg. It shows he is really trying hard to get back in the league.

Lakers have another older (26) guy in Swider, who has also been very good in the summer league so far. Basically playing same role as Knecht, but he was better so far. Good shooter with iffy defense. He is scoring 20ppg in his four games on roughly 50 % from three on high volume.

[Nowitzki Way]

It was also good for Cooper to go against Bazley. No idea if he is a good defender but did pretty well on Cooper. Those are the type of guys he will need to get comfortable with. Those long athletic wing players. Every team has those type of players.

I was thinking the same thing about Bazley while watching the game. He was giving Cooper some problems with his length and size.  Just our luck, he'd go against a team with a guy like that who can match up with Flagg.

[Winter]

Nembhard highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x1sx12-H8Q

Flagg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Q-SqaMIIs

"I'm just glad we got the win," says, no one ever in summer league.

Clearly the guy has a competitive streak

[hakeemfaan]

He is not Luka and will never be the offensive wizard Luka was. Not a big deal. Very few are like that.

He has been dominant at every level and a few games and maybe even a season of poor play is not going to change my opinion. Dirk took year 3 to break out.

At the end of the day he is a 6’9” guy who has solid handles, plays defense, seems unselfish, and offensively he is very good from the FT line. His midrange has also been pretty solid previously. Even if his 3 pt percentage remains iffy his floor is still very high due to the above things. I have always felt that about big guys who can handle the ball. That’s why even with the grainy highlights I was high on Giannis before the draft. That’s why players like Odom and Josh Smith had long stints in the NBA, even with the former doing his best to sabotage his own career. Very athtletic bigs with good handles will always have a high floor in this league.

[Chicagojk]

Maybe Kelly stinks for the rest of summer league, but first impressions is the Mavs scouting did well there. He was a guy who was not on most drafatable draft boards. I watched highlights of him and there is no doubt he is a movement shooter, despite a few meh shooting seasons. Kelly seems very comfortable movng to open spaces on the run and getting shots up quick. I will need to watch the rest of his game but my first impression is he is a good long shot gamble to bet on.

[Normtalmbout]

I think last years ROY was 0-12 or something like that. Flagg had a better handle than I expected, but he doesn’t look like a dominant offensive talent or a good rebounder.  He mainly needs to figure out his three point shot and combine that with good playmaking and solid defense.  That would be enough for now. He’s only 18.

He’s 18….hes not gonna be dominant at anything right now….

[Winter]

In his interview yesterday before the game, You got the distinct impression Kelly knew exactly what his game is. He will try to score - from anywhere - if he's left open. After the game, it was exactly as he said. He's not confused about what he can do offensively. He was one of the few players who always seemed in-rhythym

Kelly is quick enough to play defense I think, but I suspect an inordinate amount of his evaluation from coaches will be defense and the off-ball stuff.

[Kidnova]

He’s 18….hes not gonna be dominant at anything right now….

Honestly, I think the expectations for year 1 are entirely unrealistic right now.  Flagg is only a few months older than Kobe was when he got to the league.  Even Lebron, the most NBA ready 18 year old we've ever seen, took a year to adjust to the league.  Sure he scored 21 pts per game, but the efficiency wasn't there yet.  I would love for him to step in game one and be a MVP candidate, obviously, but it's going to take time.

[Scott41theMavs]

Honestly, I think the expectations for year 1 are entirely unrealistic right now.  Flagg is only a few months older than Kobe was when he got to the league.  Even Lebron, the most NBA ready 18 year old we've ever seen, took a year to adjust to the league.  Sure he scored 21 pts per game, but the efficiency wasn't there yet.  I would love for him to step in game one and be a MVP candidate, obviously, but it's going to take time.

Luka spoiled us. Better hope he eats and drinks his way to irrelevance, or Cooper is going to have to play in his shadow for years to come.

[KillerLeft]

I'm not sure what the expectations of Flagg were, but reading some of the criticism, I'm thinking they're too high (if that was disappointing, because I thought he was pretty great). FWIW, here's Timpf saying the kid is one of the most NBA ready rookies he's ever seen, based on the same summer league team that's bumming some of you out. There's also loads about Nembhard, plus a lot of insight towards the end on what makes offense work at the NBA level. This whole thing is great, as usual.

https://youtu.be/T-M-V3PpjGE?si=CVPnBkWbd3Ff7pIa

[SleepingHero]

Luka spoiled us. Better hope he eats and drinks his way to irrelevance, or Cooper is going to have to play in his shadow for years to come.

They are totally separate entities and shouldn't be compared. I know Flagg is supposed to be the next franchise guy, but it's unfair. 


Luka is Luka. Flagg is Flagg. We can revere both of them without tearing down either one in comparisons. 

I will say Flagg looks to be the perfect 3 next to Luka. And AD is probably the perfect 4. And Lively the perfect 5.....


Hmm are we still ruling out a homecoming for the Slovenian prince next year?

[Hooper21]

I'm not sure what the expectations of Flagg were, but reading some of the criticism, I'm thinking they're too high. FWIW, here's Timpf saying the kid is one of the most NBA ready rookies he's ever seen, based on the same summer league team that's bumming some of you out:

https://youtu.be/T-M-V3PpjGE?si=CVPnBkWbd3Ff7pIa

It's been, what, a grand total of 15 days since the draft?  I doubt he's had a ton of time to work out and stay sharp since then.  Typical knee-jerk over the top reaction we're used to seeing.  These are some of the same people that say a traded player needs a full training camp to get in sync with the new team that expect him to come in right off the bat playing with a bunch of spares that will likely never make an NBA roster and look perfect.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

I will say Flagg looks to be the perfect 3 next to Luka. And AD is probably the perfect 4. And Lively the perfect 5.....

I don't understand what's going on with this fan base. All of a sudden, everyone has Nico's vision of what positions look like.

AD is a 5. Cooper Flagg is a 4. You don't draft a generational prospect and play him out of position so you can accommodate the rest of the roster.

[KillerLeft]

Me checking the calendar to see which year it is...

I am not critical of Flagg.  I am critical of this thinking.  You dont draft a generational prospect and play him out of position so you can accommodate PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford.

I agree...but I'm not so sure they're going to play him that out of position yet. He seems like he'll be fine at either forward position to me, at least until he gets a little more niche, and some of the charm of his game right now is that he isn't niche at all. I imagine they want to see how far they can push that as a concept. 

Penciling him into (heavily used) lineups at the 2 isn't realistic, imo, but I don't think they're going to do that. I think the starting backcourt on opening night is Russell and Thompson.

[Jmaciscool]

I'm not sure what the expectations of Flagg were, but reading some of the criticism, I'm thinking they're too high (if that was disappointing, because I thought he was pretty great). FWIW, here's Timpf saying the kid is one of the most NBA ready rookies he's ever seen, based on the same summer league team that's bumming some of you out. There's also loads about Nembhard, plus a lot of insight towards the end on what makes offense work at the NBA level. This whole thing is great, as usual.

https://youtu.be/T-M-V3PpjGE?si=CVPnBkWbd3Ff7pIa

I expected him to walk on water in his first summer league game playing with guys he just met.  Are you saying that's too much???

[Winter]

It's been, what, a grand total of 15 days since the draft?  I doubt he's had a ton of time to work out and stay sharp since then.  Typical knee-jerk over the top reaction we're used to seeing.  These are some of the same people that say a traded player needs a full training camp to get in sync with the new team that expect him to come in right off the bat playing with a bunch of spares that will likely never make an NBA roster and look perfect.

I don't think the conversation in this thread would look at all similar if he had scored 24 points.

He had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and one block. He had ONE turnover when he slipped on the floor. In his last important play, he had a block on the opponent's go-ahead shot, followed by an assist on Nembhard's game deciding 3-point play. He was asked to be very aggressive - which he admitted later was not something he was used to. What's he going to look like when he gets "comfortable" being aggressive?

He's 18. 

In Luka's very first regular season game in 2018, he scored 10 points against Phoenix. His plus\minus was a -18. He was 5-16 shooting. He had no steals, no blocks, 4 turnovers, and was 0-5 on the 3-point attempts.

[DallasMaverick]

I don't think the conversation in this thread would look at all similar if he had scored 24 points.

He had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and one block. He had ONE turnover when he slipped on the floor. In his last important play, he had a block on the opponent's go-ahead shot, followed by an assist on Nembhard's game deciding 3-point play. He was asked to be very aggressive - which he admitted later was not something he was used to. What's he going to look like when he gets "comfortable" being aggressive?

He's 18. 

In Luka's very first regular season game in 2018, he scored 10 points against Phoenix. His plus\minus was a -18. He was 5-16 shooting. He had no steals, no blocks, 4 turnovers, and was 0-5 on the 3-point attempts.

So, you’re telling us not to knee-jerk?

Really?

Because that’s what we do here.

[Winter]

So, you’re telling us not to knee-jerk?

Really?

Because that’s what we do here.

And damn... we're good at it!

[SleepingHero]

I don't understand what's going on with this fan base.  All of a sudden, everyone has Nico's vision of what positions look like.

AD is a 5.  Cooper Flagg is a 4.  You don't draft a generational prospect and play him out of position so you can accommodate the rest of the roster.

AD is a 5. 

But I am a realist. AD is a 4 because he wants to be a 4 and forcing him to be a 5 will either make him demand a trade or eventual apathy. 

So in this framework, AD is a 4. 

I would rather AD be a 5. Me stating AD is a 4 is solely because realistically he will play as a 4 so long as he wants to be a 4. Ignoring the AD motivation side of this is silly. This isn't NBA 2k where we can force players to do what we want all the time.

[KillerLeft]

AD is a 5. 

But I am a realist. AD is a 4 because he wants to be a 4 and forcing him to be a 5 will either make him demand a trade or eventual apathy. 

So in this framework, AD is a 4. 

I would rather AD be a 5. Me stating AD is a 4 is solely because realistically he will play as a 4 so long as he wants to be a 4. Ignoring the AD motivation side of this is silly. This isn't NBA 2k where we can force players to do what we want all the time.

I don't think AD has literally ever played 100% of his minutes at 4, and there's no reason to expect that to happen this year. I think we're making way too much of his comments. Last season, he played 96% of his minutes at the 5, before coming to Dallas, where he barely played at all. 

Yes, I think they'll start games with two bigs on the floor, and yes, I find that mildly annoying, but I bet they'll play a LOT with only one big, and he'll be the one they use in that situation the most, imho. I think this has officially become too big of an issue around here. They're not going to extend PJW not to play him.