Summer league - Dallas Mavericks vs OKC observations

[juanc]

Ok inspired by the one and only Mavsluvr aka Mr. Followil here are my thoughts about the Mavs first summer league game.


First of all let's start with the opponent the Mavs were facing. OKC has one of the most, if not the most, talented rosters in this years edition of summer league. With guys like Tre Mann, Jaylin Williams, Ousmane DIeng, Chet Holmgre, Cason Wallace. Okc also already has 3 games behind them, whic also is a factor.
 


OK now on to the Mavs.

 
Jaden Hardy – I've got to say that I was a little dissapointed with Hardy in his first 23' summer league game. Listening to coach Dudley before the SL, when he said that the focous is for him to not take that many bad shots and to make progress as a playmaker.. I haven't really seen much of that. My main concern is the shot selection part. There were really some forced shots, ok a few were at the end of clock, but nontheless, I feel a little underwhelmed with his shot selection. As fort he playmaking part, he had a few nice passes to the roll man, but I missed him making some skip passes. Also his body looks better, but it hasn't really shown on defense..
 


Dereck Lively – Let's start with his defense. He is amazing on defense, OKC hesitated to go to the rim when he was in the game. He officialy didn't have a block, but altered almost every atempt at the rim. It was evident that he only had 1 practice with the team, some missed possesions, some lapses, but all in all he simply understands how to play defense and the ammount of ground he covers on defense is just absurd. He has all the tools to be an all defensive o reven DPOY type of potential, from his mobility, wingspan to ther most important thing – bbal IQ
There were a few possesions when he switched on smaller guys, well let's just say none of them scored a basket.
In the PnR he was amazing. Kidd will be able to use him in all type of coverages from drop, blitz, to switch. I was really impressed with him in drop, his positioning is phenomenal, he really takes away both the pass and the drive.

-      
  
On offense he is raw. THe screens are not ideal, but Duke wasn't really a PnR team, so he'll need some time to adjust. As someone who played as a C in his younger days, I understand that as a Roller you have uniqe chemistry with every ball handeler and it takes time to »get« what the ballhandler wants. He also need to add a few pounds and it'll all be easier.
The same thing with the »bad hands« comments. If you don't have chemistry with your teammates even a 5cm difference in where the ball is heading makes a huge difference. Repetition is everything and I can almost ensure you he'll catch all those balls by game 3.
The part of his games that impressed me the most is his passing. I saw that in Duke, but yesterday he made 3 great reads out of the roll, and that will be HUUUUUGEEEEEE once he'll get Luka as his PnR partner.



 
OMax – I'm also going to start with his defense. His on ball defense is.. Phenomenal – there were a few possesions (2 or 3) where it looked like the offensive player broke him, but he came back in a split second and contested the shot. We all loved DFS, bet man Omax is a tier or two above Dorian as an athlete. He basically put Chet in his pocket and was everywhere on the court.
On offense he did what will be expected from him. Spot up and making smart reads on cuts. I like his patience and timing on cuts, somehow reminds me of Josh Green. I missed some shot creation from him, but love the decision making. Just making all the right plays.
 


Sorry for the bad english and to be continued…

[Winter]

I think Hardy was setup to have an average game. Everyone was telling him what a stud he was. It was inevitable that Hardy was going to try and do too much to prove he's the stud the coaching staff thinks he is.

Omax, to me, should see minutes on the court pretty soon and pretty regularly. He was instant energy when he was on the court. The guys he defended could do nothing.

[ItsGoTime]

Thank you juanc! Don’t worry about the english, you got the thoughts across very well. I always loved the mavsluvr recaps as well. Good job!

[Chicagojk]

Dereck Lively – 
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On offense he is raw. THe screens are not ideal, but Duke wasn't really a PnR team, so he'll need some time to adjust. As someone who played as a C in his younger days, I understand that as a Roller you have uniqe chemistry with every ball handeler and it takes time to »get« what the ballhandler wants. He also need to add a few pounds and it'll all be easier.


 

That is a real astute point.   The chemistry is a real important factor.  Especially with someone who likes thing done a certain way in Luka.   McGee and WCS never got the chemistry/basics down.  Same thing with Wood to a point.  You can't tell me that McGee shouldn't have gotten 10-12 points on accident if he could stay on the court and had a better chemistry with Luka.   Luka is that good.  If you do your job and role hard to the rim in sync with Luka the defense is going to need to make some choice.   Luka has a way of making that the wrong choice in a lot of these situations.

[KillerLeft]

That is a real astute point.   The chemistry is a real important factor.  Especially with someone who likes thing done a certain way in Luka.   McGee and WCS never got the chemistry/basics down.  Same thing with Wood to a point.  You can't tell me that McGee shouldn't have gotten 10-12 points on accident if he could stay on the court and had a better chemistry with Luka.   Luka is that good.  If you do your job and role hard to the rim in sync with Luka the defense is going to need to make some choice.   Luka has a way of making that the wrong choice in a lot of these situations.

Yes, it's almost as if what Powell offers isn't quite as common as everyone says around here on a nonstop loop.

[audiosway]

Yes, it's almost as if what Powell offers isn't quite as common as everyone says around here on a nonstop loop.

That's a really good point. I think Powell will be able to help tutor Lively most with PnR. Powell is one of the better rim running 5s I've seen. And that's mainly where Lively needs help. That and cutting down fouls.

OMax reminds me a ton of a young Marion. He has that swarming length that just envelops offensive players.

I think realistically that both of these guys will be seeing rotation minutes this season.

[SleepingHero]

This was great. Thank you so much for the effort.

I also agree that Hardy left me a little disappointed although I can't quite put my finger on it as to why I felt that way. I wasn't trying to go in with any expectations. I just wanted him to score and flash his talents.

And he did score pretty well. 24 points on 44% shooting isn't bad at all. He was perhaps the only player on the Mavs that could score. Was it his 4/12 3pt shooting? Probably. I did think he settled a bit vs. finding creative ways to score. Did I perhaps subconsciously build up an expectation that Hardy is going to dominate and get an easy 30 and be benched by the 3rd quarter? Maybe.

But he didn't have a bad game at all. I'm curious to see how he plays against PHI.

[Dundalis]

One thing to note about Hardy is that he was guarded by a guy who I think will make multiple all defense teams. Wallace was outstanding defensively, he had Chet to back him up protecting the rim, and some of the other OKC guys look really good defensively too, they had a lot of length and athleticism. I don't think Hardy would play against that good of a defense that often even in the NBA, especially not when he's coming in against bench units. To me that puts his actual performance in perspective, along with the fact OKC had already played games, and this was Hardy's first game. He was not just playing against random summer league dudes by a long shot.

Now he certainly had some rough moments, but I've mentioned before people forget not everyone develops like Luka. Literally everything is there skillset wise with Hardy, but sometimes it takes 2-3 years for the game to slow down for some players. Think Dudley mentioned that in one of his pressers. He's just going through that phase.

[Chicagojk]

What I would really like to see is a 5 offensive rebound game by Lively and one game where he gets at least 10 shots. The 10 shots is unlikely and it would probably look ugly, but I would like to see it. For offensive rebounding, I think with Luka it is going to be tough for team to play a lumbering center. So if teams go small and switch, Lively will really need to cause issues at the rim.

For OMAX, I would like to see some creation. Again, it may be ugly but let’s see if he is capable of this yet.

for Jaden, can he lift the rest of the roster besides just getting buckets for himself. I would also like to see him run pick and role after pick and role. Let him be the center of the offense and let him try to make the right play.

Really want to see OMAX guard a smaller player/wing. He did excellent against Chet. Want to see him chasing around a guard.

[haveitall]

Ok inspired by the one and only Mavsluvr aka Mr. Followil here are my thoughts about the Mavs first summer league game.


First of all let's start with the opponent the Mavs were facing. OKC has one of the most, if not the most, talented rosters in this years edition of summer league. With guys like Tre Mann, Jaylin Williams, Ousmane DIeng, Chet Holmgre, Cason Wallace. Okc also already has 3 games behind them, whic also is a factor.
 


OK now on to the Mavs.

 
Jaden Hardy – I've got to say that I was a little dissapointed with Hardy in his first 23' summer league game. Listening to coach Dudley before the SL, when he said that the focous is for him to not take that many bad shots and to make progress as a playmaker.. I haven't really seen much of that. My main concern is the shot selection part. There were really some forced shots, ok a few were at the end of clock, but nontheless, I feel a little underwhelmed with his shot selection. As fort he playmaking part, he had a few nice passes to the roll man, but I missed him making some skip passes. Also his body looks better, but it hasn't really shown on defense..
 


Dereck Lively – Let's start with his defense. He is amazing on defense, OKC hesitated to go to the rim when he was in the game. He officialy didn't have a block, but altered almost every atempt at the rim. It was evident that he only had 1 practice with the team, some missed possesions, some lapses, but all in all he simply understands how to play defense and the ammount of ground he covers on defense is just absurd. He has all the tools to be an all defensive o reven DPOY type of potential, from his mobility, wingspan to ther most important thing – bbal IQ
There were a few possesions when he switched on smaller guys, well let's just say none of them scored a basket.
In the PnR he was amazing. Kidd will be able to use him in all type of coverages from drop, blitz, to switch. I was really impressed with him in drop, his positioning is phenomenal, he really takes away both the pass and the drive.

-      
  
On offense he is raw. THe screens are not ideal, but Duke wasn't really a PnR team, so he'll need some time to adjust. As someone who played as a C in his younger days, I understand that as a Roller you have uniqe chemistry with every ball handeler and it takes time to »get« what the ballhandler wants. He also need to add a few pounds and it'll all be easier.
The same thing with the »bad hands« comments. If you don't have chemistry with your teammates even a 5cm difference in where the ball is heading makes a huge difference. Repetition is everything and I can almost ensure you he'll catch all those balls by game 3.
The part of his games that impressed me the most is his passing. I saw that in Duke, but yesterday he made 3 great reads out of the roll, and that will be HUUUUUGEEEEEE once he'll get Luka as his PnR partner.



 
OMax – I'm also going to start with his defense. His on ball defense is.. Phenomenal – there were a few possesions (2 or 3) where it looked like the offensive player broke him, but he came back in a split second and contested the shot. We all loved DFS, bet man Omax is a tier or two above Dorian as an athlete. He basically put Chet in his pocket and was everywhere on the court.
On offense he did what will be expected from him. Spot up and making smart reads on cuts. I like his patience and timing on cuts, somehow reminds me of Josh Green. I missed some shot creation from him, but love the decision making. Just making all the right plays.
 


Sorry for the bad english and to be continued…

Lively stood out.  His size and fluid movement was something else.  He looked dominant defensively, not good, dominant.  He had amazing positioning.  Free throws were a problem.  Omax made the most of his time.  But man, Lively looked like a lotto pick for sure.

[Chicagojk]

What I would really like to see is a 5 offensive rebound game by Lively and one game where he gets at least 10 shots.  The 10 shots is unlikely and it would probably look ugly, but I would like to see it.  For offensive rebounding, I think with Luka it is going to be tough for team to play a lumbering center.  So if teams go small and switch, Lively will really need to cause issues at the rim. 

Really liked the 4 offensive rebounds from Lively last night.   That is going to be something that keeps him on the floor while he learns.   Rebounds, setting good screens and knowing the right defensive rotations are three things that will get him on the floor early in the NBA.   If he does those three things, you will be able to live with the rest as he learns on the go.

[burekemde]

I only watched highlights from Omax Prosper from this game and some from the college. Easy to see he can put the ball on the floor, dribble, finish around the rim. To me essential attributes that show bbIQ. Way way better than DFS ever could do this, he was raw at this part and major limitation for our team in ball movement. Can Omax become the defender and 3 point shooter as DFS? If he can he will be a major upgrade for this team. He looks even more athletic than DFS. At this point its unknown how well he will be able to shoot in the NBA. I really like this pick and exactly what the team needed, there is the potential for a much much better version of DFS. Omax is smooth on offense and that also gives at least the potential for an all star player in the future that can contribute two ways. DFS has pretty much reached his full talent potential while that for Omax is significantly higher.

[juanc]

First of all thank you guys for the positive feedback!

Does anyone have a ling for the 2nd and 3rd game? I watched a part of the 2nd game on the Mavs.com, but can't find it now.. I'll make the PHI and GSW games together since I wasn't able to watch them.

[SleepingHero]

If you're a league pass subscriber all summer league games are available to watch after some time. If not I found this website:

https://basketball-video.com/

They have the Mavs PHI game on page 3 and the Warriors game on page 2. I've never used this website, so I can't speak to how well it works. Also it definitely seems a little sketch, so please be sure to use an adblocker and a popup blocker if you don't have one already.