The Orlando Summer League has been finished for two days, and after some reflecting, I decided to look at the performances of our two guys Chris-Douglas-Roberts and Terrence Williams.
Before we get to that, let’s look at that team record of 0-5. While it doesn’t look too pretty, can you say that this wasn’t expected? You had two different coaching staffs with two different philosophy’s, plus you have players who have never really played together before. Now I know that a lot of you guys would much rather see a record of 5-0 instead of 0-5, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that our big 2 (T-Will and CDR) showed what they can do. Now let’s look at the Nets/Sixers stats:
Chris Douglas-Roberts:
CDR is the player who really impressed me the most (well, besides Ryan Anderson, but let’s not talk about that right now) this summer league. He shot over 50% for the league, and he scored a total of 69 points on only 40 shots (1.725 points per shot – anything over 1 is pretty solid). Compare that to the “great” Marresse Speights scored only 2 more points on a total of 31 more shots.
CDR also showed he was very determined to get to the basket. Douglas-Roberts only attempted 1 three pointer, and he got to the line a total of 35 times in 5 games. I would have liked to see him make a couple more foul shots to get his percentage over 80% (He shot around 77% from the line), but that will improve with practice. CDR limited his TOs to 6, but he wasn’t really effective rebounding the basketball (only 2.0 RPG). If he is going to want to play the 3 spot, he is going to be a little more aggressive attacking the glass. However, that is the only flaw I see in his game right now after the summer league.
Some people were a little worried when they saw CDR’s play and scoring drop off a little bit from the first two games to the next 3. This isn’t anything to be worried about though. Why? Because he was just following orders:
“We talked the first day, talked a lot,” Douglas-Roberts said. “He said you have to police yourself sometimes. He said he policed himself a lot in his career and that’s what I have to do. And that is what I’m learning.”
So while feeling in his gut he could take the ball and score, or at least get to the line, Douglas-Roberts accepted the role on the split Nets/Sixers squad that was asked of him in the last two games, including yesterday’s 83-62 wipeout loss to Oklahoma City.
“The first two games I played really well. The last two, the game was going in a different direction,” said Douglas-Roberts, who has worked tirelessly this off-season on his shooting and ball-handling. “The first two games, we were running things that put me in a position to be aggressive. Simple as that.”
Not so the next two.
“I always say I’m not going to force anything,” he said. “The last two games, the game wasn’t coming to me so I was pretty much following directions, doing what the coach and the team wants.”
Terrence Williams:
Terrence Williams had a rocky start shooting the ball in the Orlando Summer League, and while it improved a bit over the final three games, it still wasn’t great (19-56/34%). What he lacked in the scoring department, he more than made up in different areas. Terrence Williams averaged 6.6 rebounds a game (from the 2-guard spot where he played most of his minutes). Terrence also totaled 14 assists in the 5 games for an average of a little under three. He also picked up about a block per game (1.2 to be exact). This is why I was so high on Terrence before the draft. Despite not being the best shooter, he can do so many other things on the court. So when he has a poor shooting night (lets face it, they are going to happen), he can still be productive.
So the poor shooting doesn’t really worry me. I mean you can work on that. The one thing that did worry me about Terrence’s play is the TOs. The Nets/Sixers squad turned it over a bunch as a team (and that is expected when you have guys not familiar with each other playing together), and Terrence Williams was the leader with 20 over 5 games. For someone who wants to be used at the point from time to time, this isn’t acceptable. Now these turnovers can be blamed on nerves and stuff like that. When the preseason games come around, I will be watching Terrence closely to make sure he is more comfortable with the ball.