"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[MarkGrace]

The Top 2010 NBA Summer League Players
Opinion by David Berri
(2 Days Ago) in Sports / NBA
Editor’s Note: For those interested in Summer League results, Ty Willihnganz -- of Courtside Analyst (a blog I have included in The Wages of Wins Network) -- has examined some of the numbers. I have taken the liberty of re-posting his analysis below. In looking at these numbers, keep in mind that two years ago I did a small study of Summer League numbers and couldn’t find any predictive value from these stats. Such a study should probably be updated. For now, though, we need to remember that what we see during the summer might not be telling us anything about a player’s future prospects in the NBA. That being said, people who think Gordon Hayward and DeMarcus Cousins will be good NBA players can be encouraged by what has happened so far this summer.

Maybe the Bucks got a steal in Tiny Gallon. Despite his awful turnover problem, he is one of only three rookies who are posting positive adjusted Win Score numbers so far this summer.
I only calculated the numbers for rookies and others whom I was interested in evaluating. I adjusted each player’s WS to his projected position and then estimated how that number would translate to Marginal Win Score per 48 (this measure is explained by Ty HERE).

A player I was high on in the NBA Draft previous to the last one, PG Ty Lawson, is absolutely dominating. I do not even know what he’s doing playing in the summer. I still think the Bucks would have been better off drafting him. He was on the board when they selected Jennings.

Another player who is a man among boys is the third year player out of Memphis, C Joey Dorsey. Because of his size he seems to get only minimal respect in the NBA, but he just dominates wherever he plays.

The best rookie so far has been Utah’s Gordon Hayward. He was exceptional in the Orlando Summer League. DeMarcus Cousins, the player I was highest on, has proven himself to be a tremendous rebounder, but his True Shooting Percentage has not been high, and he has a turnover problem.

The first number listed is the player’s raw Win Score per48. The second is his WS48 adjusted for position. The third is his estimated Marginal Win Score, taking into account that most rookies Opp Win Score is slightly below average.
1. Joey Dorsey…(26.45)…(+13.53)…(+6.45)
2. Ty Lawson…(15.99)…(+9.19)…(+3.24)
3. Gordon Hayward…(14.84)…(+6.55)…(+3.01)
4. Tiny Gallon…(13.42)…(+1.52)…(+0.41)
5. DeMarcus Cousins…(12.52)…(+0.21)…(+0.02)
6. Luke Harangody…(11.57)…(-0.23)…(-0.46)
7. Hasheem Thabeet…(10.90)…(-1.40)…(-0.51)
8. Patrick Patterson…(9.70)…(-1.00)…(-0.92)
9. Evan Turner…(4.55)…(-2.45)…(-1.17)
10. John Wall…(4.34)…(-2.46)…(-1.26)
11. Luke Babbitt…(4.21)…(-3.59)…(-1.43)
12. Damien James…(5.16)…(-4.84)…(-2.14)
13. Wesley Johnson…(2.18)…(-5.32)…(-2.66)
14. Larry Sanders…(4.12)…(-6.98)…(-3.69)
15. Derrick Favors…(4.35)…(-7.55)…(-3.74)
16. Hassan Whiteside…(4.96)…(-8.94)…(-4.12)

Anything below -1.00 MWS48 is bad news for a regular player, and the vast majority of the rookies are below that mark. The NBA Draft is becoming harder and harder to predict, and less and less valuable it seems.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/the-top-2010-nba-summer-league-players

[CJF]

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/the-t...league-players

If that was supposed to make me feel better about this draft, it did not work.

[cougjunkie]

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/the-t...league-players

Where is Gary Neal on that list?

How about this guy for the Spurs, 6'5 guard out of Towson has averaged 16 points in 24 minutes during summer league while shooting 50% from the floor, and 50% from three (17-34).

[Jacob]

If that was supposed to make me feel better about this draft, it did not work.

All I got out of that was:
bla bla bla...random, meaningless stat says Hayward was good in summer league...bla bla bla.

On the bright side, I don't think I can really continue to hate on Hayward. I'm rooting for the guy. And I like this little move:

[YOUTUBE]<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cr4_EmL74Ew&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cr4_EmL74Ew&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

There's also this from Henry Abbott:
When Evan Turner was asked before the draft which of his fellow draft picks he would want to play with for the rest of his career, he said Hayward

[MarkGrace]

All I got out of that was:
bla bla bla...random, meaningless stat says Hayward was good in summer league...bla bla bla.

I see you don't pay much attention to advanced stats in hoop. PER is soooo 2008.

[MarkGrace]

Some Siler stuff:

They couldn't be higher on Ante Tomic, who's playing for Real Madrid, and think he could come over in next year or two.

There was some belief that Tomic is a better prospect than some of the big men who went in the lottery this year.

Fesenko's people, meanwhile, note how much better they think he could get playing against Al Jefferson in practice every day.

Between Mehmet Okur and Kosta Koufos, Fesenko hasn't had a true low-post big man to bang with since coming to the Jazz.

Dude even got a scanned box of Fess' most recent game: http://ukrbasket.net/fbu/file/news_1...082%5B1%5D.jpg

[Jacob]

Some Siler stuff:




Dude even got a scanned box of Fess' most recent game: http://ukrbasket.net/fbu/file/news_1...082%5B1%5D.jpg

Nice game for fess. Its too bad they really don't have time or the practices to develop talent in the NBA with 82 games a year. Especially if he player isn't playing in those games. I don't have much hope that fess is motivated enough to improve on his own.

[MarkGrace]

The Wolves now have three point guards the deserve to play after Luke Ridnour signed his contract. President of basketball operations David Kahn admits he needs to make a trade.

"It's not my intent to have three healthy point guards on the roster, and I was very clear with Luke about that," Kahn told the Pioneer Press. "I recognize that we have to alleviate the situation."

Most expect Kahn to try to trade Ramon Sessions and has spoken with agent James Wells.

"We don't know how this will play out," Kahn said. "We're trying to be as open and honest about the situation as we can when we talk to people. I told Sessions' agent that we have a situation where Ramon could be the starting point guard or we could trade him. In the meantime, he's a member of the team and nobody has stopped thinking otherwise."

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors?date=20100722#17504

Too bad we couldn't pry Sessions from them in the Jefferson deal.

[MarkGrace]

A breakdown of Hayward's off-ball movements (offense and defense) in summer league: http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/07/06/go...-off-the-ball/

[MarkGrace]

Analysis of Sap/Jefferson in the SnR: http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/07/20/wh...liams-and-how/

Also of note given our conversation the other day is that the Jazz ran SnR's on 10.6% of their possessions last year. I think the dominant impression is that they do it much more often than that.

[Donuthole]

A breakdown of Hayward's off-ball movements (offense and defense) in summer league: http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/07/06/go...-off-the-ball/

jozef?

EDIT nevermind. Unless his English has improved significantly in just a few months, that can't be jozef.

[MarkGrace]

Jozef has been AWOL for pushing half a year now. I miss the guy.

[MartyFunkhouser]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/featu...20100722#17504

Too bad we couldn't pry Sessions from them in the Jefferson deal.

Just be glad that Minnesota didn't go with their 2nd choice for GM because you wouldn't even have Jefferson. You are just being greedy right now.

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/07/13/david-kahn-at-it-again-ships-jefferson-away/

[MartyFunkhouser]

Wesley Matthews has good things to say about the Jazz in his opening press conference with the Blazers.

For me as a person and as a player, to embrace the present and prepare for the future, I feel you have to acknowledge the past. I really need to thank the Utah Jazz for giving me this opportunity to live my dream out and be an NBA player. The fans of Utah embraced me, the coaching staff, the organization trusted me, my teammates trusted me as a player, and soon we came friends and I just need to thank them for all that they've done.

Ross Siler on the other hand doesn't have good things to say about Matthews:

Salt Lake Tribune beat writer Ross Siler took to twitter to blast Matthews and his agent, joking that there was "no giant vanity check unfortunately" at the ceremony and claiming that the Jazz were left stranded during the negotiation process. "This is getting ridiculous as far as what Wesley Matthews is claiming. Jazz were strung along in negotiations for close to two weeks... Jazz tried to set up a meeting in Orlando during summer league to talk contract," Siler tweeted. "They were blown off. Next day Wes was flying to Portland."

I realize that Matthews story makes him sound better, but Siler's story is just more believable than Matthews.

Matthews also acknowledges that might be overpaid. I admire him for admitting it.

"People that say I'm overpaid -- I might be. We never know. I know one thing is that I'll be in the gym and I'll be working to give myself a chance to be the best that I can be."

http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/7/21/1580832/blazers-introduce-wesley-matthews

[MarkGrace]

I had hard time fully accepting Matthews side of the story when it first came out. Not that I think Wes was a fault -- my guess is his agent and the Jazz had some conversations, and what was said there wasn't completely relayed to Wes. Wes said he would have played for a little less had the Jazz offered, but the Jazz made it clear that they were told he expected the full mid-level, and KOC even said you could go "ask his agent."