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Lakers NBA Summer League

Allow for a correction and addendum to an earlier report. It was stated previously Scotty Pippen Jr. would earn a roster position, allow a clarification. Pippen Jr. is on a two-way contract so he might not make the regular season roster, the revision says he will likely spend more time with the parent club over the South Bay Lakers. Next up is Cole Swider who seemingly appears to be a lights out shooter especially from three. Now we realize the youngster is not facing regular season defenses, but his shooting thus far has been impressive.

Carmelo Anthony had a good season for the Lakers however given a choice of the two I’m going with the youngster. On the outside more than Pippen Jr. and Swider is Jay Huff. The 7-foot Huff’s spent time in the G-League last season. He’s played well in summer play however covid might have impacted a yes/no decision on Huff earning a roster spot. This is the part most interesting, despite their on-court record the Lakers have done an exemplary job of uncovering “hidden” talent in the past. The difficulty most of the youthful talent has been utilized in trades, there remains a question if this has been beneficial for them. In closing I will repeat, when asked for an assessment of the Lakers I said, “I’d much rather lose with youngsters than win with oldsters.”

Speaking of

A number of draft choices played one or two Summer League games and then were shut down. This makes sense for a principal reason and it’s this. Most believe the lottery choices and those chosen up to 24 or 25 are believed to be the best of the best i.e., above average talent. Why take a chance on a career ending injury for one of these prospects before they have the opportunity to begin an NBA career? We could cite the example of the Pistons draft picks Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duran, both suffered injuries.

Rather than allow them time to heal and return to the court Pistons management decided it would be better to shut them down for the summer. Rest assured NBA Summer League is good publicity for the league however consider this one fact. These future prospects especially those from the college ranks have faced one another in the past, summer play might be more intended for fans over management. Based on this we might see a future change; prospects might play two or three games and then be seated for the balance of the summer.

Superman

We are not sure where it began, someplace in time Shaquille O’Neal anointed himself Superman. Truth is he might have been close to the fictional character with his strength. Over the years we’ve read stories regarding the power of Wilt Chamberlain, he might be the only player of Shaq’s equal in might. There are references to his immense power this is one story. In this particular game Chamberlain had demonstrated thunderous dunks the first half of this game. At the beginning of the second half an inspection noted the basket rim contained a break; it had been severed. The game was held up while the maintenance staff replaced the rim.

Now was it Chamberlain’s dunks alone, you are the judge. As for Shaq there was his bank shot however the strength of Shaq was his ability to play bully ball and dunk. Do you think anyone dare take a charge from this 7-foot 1 325-pound behemoth? If we placed Shaq in the NBA of 2022 he might not even be as good as we might believe. The large one played in the NBA at a time the league allowed more aggressive play than today. Although Shaq played for several teams it’s the period, he played for the Lakers that manage to place a stamp on his legacy in the view of many.

There was his 3-peat championship with the Lakers winning in 2000, 2001 and 2002, in 2006 Shaq was a winner again this time with the Heat. The only negative on his outstanding NBA career might be the feud between he and Kobe, many believe this combo could have won a minimum of 5 or more championships. Shaq was 33-years old when traded to the Heat, he managed to play five more years although some might question the effectiveness of his play. The Shaq that arrived in the NBA with the Magic in 1994 through his time with the Lakers, he might have been the most dominating Big Man of that era. Check out the YouTube video below which is fuzzy, but you can see the end result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxKodu_a-n0

Carolina Blue

The Tarheels finished last season with a 29-10 (15-5 in the conference) record. The Tarheels stretch run found them playing for the NCAA championship, they would lose the game to the Kansas Jayhawks 72-69. We are going to look briefly at the coach Hubert Davis in his first season at the helm. Was Davis the first choice when Roy Williams decided to retire, we don’t have the answer however this is probably true. If for some reason the coach thought this might not be a good hire Williams could have vetoed the hire.

Davis will continue to be successful for a couple of reasons, he’s got the historic connection of Carolina basketball behind him, and he will grow in the job. Davis has 9 years behind him as an assistant coach under Williams. We are unsure what becomes of the ACC with all the talk of teams changing conferences, this we believe to be true. Hubert Davis will be successful in his role; just consider this fact the team was wallowing around mid-season with barely a winning record. The stretch run they made from that point to the end of the season is proof with talent this coach can win.

Twin Towers…sort of

A familiar name returned to the Lakers in Thomas Bryant. Bryant is a 6-foot 10 250-pound center who arrives after four seasons with the Wizards. He was drafted in the second round by the Lakers in 2017, his rookie year was split between the South Bay Lakers and the NBA Lakers. In July 2018, the Wizards claimed Bryant from the waiver wire. Bryant has developed an offensive game especially from the 3-line, he’s not a great defender but that’s where help arrives. He is coming off missing parts of two seasons with a torn ACL but claims he is 100% healthy now.

6-foot 11-inch 250-pound Damian Jones enters the photo, as mentioned previously the Lakers had Jones on a couple of 10-day contracts however he later signed with the Kings. Jones offers limited offensive skills; he is more suited as a defensive specialist who can score with lobs and other shots on occasion. The Lakers now have two, a 24- and 27-year-old center plus 36-year-old Dwight Howard. Does Howard remain on the roster, that would appear to be the case although nothing is set in stone at this point. With this latest Twin Tower addition plus adding Howard do we have a repeat of the 2019-20 championship team with Howard and JaVale McGee at center? We don’t have an answer, but this development should be interesting.