The Nets wrapped up their Summer League excursion in Las Vegas with a 102-95 victory over the Celtics on Saturday night to finish the tournament above water at 3-2. Not that the record means anything—and beating the Celtics had absolutely zero effect on the payback scale from Boston’s four-game sweep of Brooklyn in the first round of the playoffs. In truth, if you went into this thing with high expectations based on the fact that the Nets’ starting five were all returning players, with four of them having NBA playing time experience, you should be disappointed that they didn’t look all that superior to teams with nobodies.
If RaiQuan Gray has some Draymond in him, we should invest another season of development in his growth. While his height is less than ideal, his body type should allow him to tangle with other Power-Forwards and, at best, hold his own. I can imagine him struggling against Giannis and Anthony Davis. Then again, who's effective guarding them? Perhaps only a healthy Jonathan Isaac.
Steve, is the ideal situation to bring back all three of our Stars and allow these role-players to show what they can do with the starters and veteran role-players? If we could get Thomas, Williams, Edwards, Gray, and Sharpe to play 10-18 minutes off the bench as a cohesive unit, many would guess something catastrophic happened to our team. Hopefully, we get closure on the Durant and Irving situation sooner than later
I completely agree with you on Cam Thomas, specifically his defensive lapses. I only got to see the one game against the Timberwolves. I do see Kyrie as a 6th Man type off the bench. If he's gonna find success by mirroring his game after Kyrie, management must prioritize a guy like Ben Simmons.
To that end, I saw Alondes Williams as a guy that should've played a bunch of minutes at starting 2-Guard next to Cam. I heard he couldn't shoot and if our coaching staff fails to put him in the best position to optimize his skills, we're wasting time
If RaiQuan Gray has some Draymond in him, we should invest another season of development in his growth. While his height is less than ideal, his body type should allow him to tangle with other Power-Forwards and, at best, hold his own. I can imagine him struggling against Giannis and Anthony Davis. Then again, who's effective guarding them? Perhaps only a healthy Jonathan Isaac.
Steve, is the ideal situation to bring back all three of our Stars and allow these role-players to show what they can do with the starters and veteran role-players? If we could get Thomas, Williams, Edwards, Gray, and Sharpe to play 10-18 minutes off the bench as a cohesive unit, many would guess something catastrophic happened to our team. Hopefully, we get closure on the Durant and Irving situation sooner than later
STEVE!!
Hope you're doing well brother.
I completely agree with you on Cam Thomas, specifically his defensive lapses. I only got to see the one game against the Timberwolves. I do see Kyrie as a 6th Man type off the bench. If he's gonna find success by mirroring his game after Kyrie, management must prioritize a guy like Ben Simmons.
To that end, I saw Alondes Williams as a guy that should've played a bunch of minutes at starting 2-Guard next to Cam. I heard he couldn't shoot and if our coaching staff fails to put him in the best position to optimize his skills, we're wasting time