Summer League Recap: Game One

12 Jul 2010

Al-Farouq Aminu, Big Sofo, DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe, Nik Caner-Medley, Summer League

by D.J. Foster

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Six thoughts after tonight’s 89-64 loss to the Wizards:

Eric Bledsoe did a fantastic job getting into the paint, but his feet were just too fast for the rest of his body on many plays. Early returns on Bledsoe are that he’s lighning quick, but he’s got a long way to go in developing better court awareness and vision. That will come with time and familiartiy with his teammates, two things he’s short on right now. He’s got a ways to go before he can run a team, but the raw talent was clearly on display tonight. Summer League is typically dominated by ballhandlers, and that held true. Bledsoe was by far the most assertive guy on the floor for the Clippers, and his floaters and layups in the paint were the best offense the Clippers could muster all evening.
Tonight was a friendly reminder of just how sloppy Summer League play is. It’s not bad because the players aren’t talented, but rather the circumstances. These guys have played together for just a few days. Each guy is trying to stand out over the other one, which isn’t conducive to snappy, clean team play. With all that said, tonight was a little ridiculous. The young Clips turned the ball over 29 times on the evening, with a good handful of them being laughable. Even worse? Seven assists total on the evening.
Not exactly the debut I expected from Sofoklis Schortsanitis, but in hindsight perhaps I should have expected it. This is Summer League. The offensive sets are pretty much non-existent, and the spacing obviously isn’t going to be the best. On top of that, it’s not easy to get touches in a high pace game as a 300-pound man who does his work with his back to the basket. That all makes sense. Sofo forced the action a little bit on his first two post touches, and only got 14 minutes on the evening. It’s going to be tough to get a proper appraisal on the big man if he doesn’t get the minutes, touches, spacing, and cooperation from his teammates necessary to show off his talents.
Al-Farouq Aminu showed off some early nerves by airballing his first jumper, but he finally got something to go his way later in the game with a nice drive and emphatic dunk in traffic. Aminu never really looked comfortable on the floor, often choosing incorrectly when to be aggressive and when to swing the ball. He led the team in rebounds with 7, but he spent a good portion of the Clips’ offensive sets hanging out on the perimeter waiting for the ball to come to him. Not many rookies play instinctive, free basketball their first times out, and Aminu was no exception to the rule.
DeAndre Jordan should never, ever, be the focus of an offensive gameplan. That’s not a revelation, but it was nice to see DeAndre get some touches even if they were interesting, to say the least. Probably my favorite play of the evening was DeAndre facing up from about 17-feet, taking one dribble to his left, then spinning quickly to the right and trying to dunk from what looked like the free throw line. The crazy thing was, he almost did it right through the hard foul. Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious. Sometimes DeAndre plays just like an NBA Jam character, ya know?
Nik Caner-Medley just loves Summer ball, apparently. He tied Bledsoe for the team leader in points with 17, but particularly impressive was his 3-for-4 shooting performance from beyond the arc. End of roster guys don’t have to be as well-rounded as some of the other players do. Caner-Medley leaves a lot to be desired on the defensive end, but he’s kind of a ballhawk on the offensive glass and showed he’s got some range on his jumper. He’ll have to shoot his way into it, but the Clippers will probably give him a nice look if he keeps this up.

Five O

You hit it on the head DJ with your comments! Definitely Aminu looked lost out there and all of the 1st half was hesitant to take a shot. I loved his assertiveness on this dribble drive and dunk. Bledsoe showed why the clips traded for him and within a couple of seasons will be a legitimate point guard. At a minimum this season he can be an offensive spark and increase the tempo of the game. He could play along side Randy Foye and change the game on the defensive side while creating havoc in the paint with floaters.

Overall sloppy game and looking forward to seeing Aminu work out the nerves for game 2. It will be a battle this year for ROY between Blake and John Wall!
kenji

really sloppy game. but bledsoe did show a lot of promise. aminu clearly has no jumpshot, and is far from being the SF we want in the starting five this year. is it me, or does the kid not look like somebody who should be in the nba? his face is real geeky looking. i guess the urkel glasses he had on draft night weren’t just a fashion accessory.

i hope to see sofo get heavy minutes in the next game. I really want to see how he does with other nba players and guys scrapping to make a team.
AfishLClipp

I don’t understand why the summer league would schedule one team who hadn’t played against another team who just had and already got their first game nerves out. It’s no excuse for the Clippers play, but I honestly think it can truly be accounted for them all having barely played each other, that and the Wizards had 3-4 starters playing while the Clippers had all bench.

Having said that:

I think DeAndre Jordan actually had a very equal matchup against the underrated Javale Mcgee (who is actually taller, lengthier, & more skilled than DJ although less athletic).

As bad as Bledsoe’s turnovers were, realize that he was not only playing against a John Wall on defense, but a John Wall who probably knows Bledsoe’s game/moves better than anyone. We definitely can’t trade BD because I truly think Bledsoe will really flourish under his wings.

Even though Aminu/Warren clearly looked hesitant at times, you could definitely see flashes of their talent and sometimes the #s don’t do the off-the-ball plays and defense (in misdirected play) justice.

I completely agree w/Foster about Sofo, he just needs more minutes and probably conditioning. At 6’9″ he’s gonna have trouble playing the C no matter how big he is, which is why I was a little disappointed with the coaching substitutions. There was maybe 3min max that him and DJ were on at the same time, they should have started together and gotten more time together as they would probably be playing together off the bench. One plus about him that isn’t really talked about tho is his speed, he is actually pretty quick up and down the floor, way faster than I would have thought for his size. I heard recently that he was working strictly on cardio with his trainer and I think he was definitely more ripped/cut in USA/Greece ’06 game. Maybe he should still keep the strengthening up as he didn’t look like he could move people around as easily as he use to (although he did box out pretty well).

Caner-Medley: maybe we should sign this guy real cheap to fill out our roster the way he was shooting 3s, we all know we can’t get enough 3pt shooters. Interested to see if he can keep that up. It may be interesting to see him SF although he’d probably be too slow on D.

And finally, for the other guys, I expected a little more out of Benson, but the rest were as expected.
AfishLClipp

Edit: “having barely played WITH each other”

Also, got to say the Wizards were hacking the crap out of the Clippers which can really mess of the flow and rhythm of a team.
mark

I love the clips, and this blog.

But Mannn, I hope we pick up a sf somewhere.

Give me a Bruce bowen type player.

I think this roster is a lot like the spurs of a few years ago.

A guy like Barnes, battier, Gerald Wallace, or tayshaun prince would be great.
AfishLClipp

I say the Clippers pickup Sofo & Rhino (some big on the team is bound to go down unfortunately) on hopefully good/cheap short-term deals, and also Warren & Caner-Medley at the bare minimums. They’d still have flexibility for the following seasons.
I’d also take T-Mac for MLE on a 1 year deal to let him prove himself.
http://hitfix.com/awardscampaign jgroove

That’s some pretty lame excuses for Sofo DJ. Can we just finally realize this guy is not worth it? He’s not tall enough to be effective in the NBA. He was shorter than at least four other players on the floor at the time and this was SUMMER LEAGUE. Enough. Let him go back to Greece.

Bledsoe has talent. Would like to see him create a bit more, but he’s only 19/20, right?
James

Excellent comments by everybody, I was at the game, Sofo is very nimble and showed really quick feet for a guy his size,I think he will be fine but would like to see him more. Sofo and Rhino both would be awesome to have on the bench. You can tell the team hasnt played together too much and remember this is Sofo’s first NBA game.Someone give Caner Medley our 15th man spot please!! Bledsoe was fun to watch, Aminu was obviously finding his way and DeAndre seemed to be working on different things. After summer league they should lock him in a gym shooting free throws for the rest of the summer.
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http://Clipperblog AL

What wasn’t stated was the play of the second round pick Willie Warren was positive ! He D’ up John Wall the best, other than shooting an airball, he played pretty solid. He hit a couple 3′s, and had a nice steal and finish. More importantly, he looked comfortable defending the point and handling the ball if given the opportunity i think ?
JaySee

Where’s Benson? Bledsoe should be practicing setting up his teammates. He’s already on the team. Let’s see some playmaking.

In other news Charlotte is trading the 2 players we should’ve traded for.
Diaw and Chandler are going to Toronto for Calderon and Reggie Evans. If we offered up Kaman and Davis instead they would for sure take it over Calderon and Evans. It would let us get rid of Davis, get more future cap flexibility, and give us a starting SF. Now that we have Foye, he can start at the 1 and have Bledsoe and Warren back him up. Then sign a long defender to backup Gordon.
- hans
  
  are you nuts?
  
  calderon’s contract is even longer than barons. granted its for less, but he’s worse than baron seeing as he cant defend anyone and couldn’t even start last year.
  
  evans is garbage. unless you have some real plan for what to do with empty cap space, i don’t see why you trade a starting center , who was good enough to be an all star injury reserve (which still makes him better than what 75% of the starting centers in the nba?) for a scrub.
  
  if we did a trade like that, we’d have uh.. no center. and a longer salary to deal with at pg. and we’d be under minimum salary .
  - JaySee
    
    I’m not nuts, you just seem to be stupid. Try re-reading.
    - Bongstradamus
      
      No, you’re nuts. Calderon cant defend a fire hydrant, Evans has great hustle but absolutely no offensive game. Chandler has back issues that force him out of 40 of 82 games. Bad trade all around. Solves absolutely none of our issues and fills our team with contracts on guys who perform at a lower level than the guys you want to move out.
      - JaySee
        
        Add another to the idiot column. I never suggested getting Calderon or Evans. Do you people not know how to read?
      - Bongstradamus
        
        Maybe you need to construct better sentences.
        
        I had to re-read your message 4 times to finally understand what you meant. So youre saying trade for Diaw and Chandler. Still bad. Diaw isnt a 3, shoots a terrible percentage from downtown and is near retirement. Chandler has the aforementioned back problems. Both on bad contracts and solve no needs.
        
        Try again.
  - JaySee
    
    Actually, your response was so stupid I’ve decided to spell it out for you.
    
    “In other news Charlotte is trading the 2 players we should’ve traded for.
    Diaw and Chandler are going to Toronto…”
    This means we should take Diaw and Chandler.
    
    “…and give us a starting SF.” You seemed to have totally missed this as well. Reggie Evans is a PF not a SF.
    
    The rest of your nonsense proves what I already said about Charlotte rather taking Kaman and Davis instead.
    - http://deleted Qlippers
      
      I’m not saying your nuts, but I don’t like the trade.
      
      I do believe our SF situation is still a hole, but I don’t know if I want to have another SF on the roster. Aminu is a project player, he ‘s a great rebounder, but his offensive game is limited
    - Martin
      
      I agree with trying to get rid of Davis, but getting long-term contract players in return makes no sense.
      
      Besides the rookie turnovers, Eric Bledsoe looked good out there. Wow..if our team continues to develop, how good will the Clips look in a year (or two)?! Bledsoe, Gordon, Aminu, Griffin, Kaman. And of course the beast that is Jordan!
      
      Exciting stuff.
      - JaySee
        
        Chandler’s contract expires after this year. Diaw’s is not that bad and we could’ve traded him after a year or 2 of Aminu developing.
      - JaySee
        
        Correction: BOTH are expiring contracts. That would have gotten us into the FA circus for Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony.
      - Martin
        
        According to Yahoo! Sports,
        
        Diaw is owed $18 million over 2 seasons.
        
        Chandler will make $12.7 million this year.
        
        I don’t like Diaw (cuz he used to be a Sun) and Chandler gets hurt a lot. Ehhh I just don’t like those guys, and they make too much money.
        
        Signing Gomes was a good choice though. He has low turnover numbers, and can shoot the 3. Hes good for now.
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D Lamb

EB will be the man soon in LA just be patient because and wait on him and u all will see why he’s the best PG in the draft. He’s a patient distributor with the take pver ability like D Wade. EB do your thing and the clippers will be exciting to watch.
- Martin
  
  D Lamb, I like your thinking.
  - The Clipboard
    
    Pure myopia.
    
    Wall schooled Bledsoe last night — there’s clear separation between these two, in my opinion. Although Bledsoe is very good, Wall is in a different category. Bledsoe rushes whereas Wall is smooth. Both turnover the ball too much but they’re young and will have to learn to play more in control. Also, Wall is 6-4. Bledsoe is 6-0. This makes a huge difference at point guard. Bledsoe will have a harder time passing over bigs. Wall clearly has more upside over Bledsoe and he is no doubt the #1 player in this draft.
    
    Aminu – had a nice dunk and did make one long range jumper. The biggest difference between Gordon Hayward and Aminu right now is that Hayward knows the game at a higher level. Aminu — great athlete — doesn’t really understand the game of basketball at this point. Clips took Aminu over Hayward and will really look like idiots (again) if he doesn’t develop.
    
    Jordan – when are we going to realize that this guy is not an NBA starter. His game is terrible, all around, and he also doesn’t seem to understand the game of basketball. What has he been doing for the last two years? If you don’t understand the game after being in the league for a few years, you’re not an NBA player. Nice size and motor, but zero skills. Activity without achievement is nothing. That’s Jordan in a nutshell. Clip fans need to get real and stop including him as a positive piece of this team. He’s a bust. It was embarassing to see him get schooled by summer leaguers. And to think we could have had Chris Douglas-Roberts, who isn’t an All-Star type player, but at least he can score and give you something. Again, Clippers choose incorrectly.
    
    Warren – had a pretty nice game considering he was patient and let the game come to him. Can stroke pretty good and has hops. This guy is going to help us off the bench.
    
    Sofo – really didn’t show us much besides the fact that he seems too small in height to be very effective. Length is key in this league (ask the Lakers) and Sofo is a tweener that in my opinion should go to a team that can use him as a complimentary player. Clips will expect too much from him and when those unreal expectations are not met, well, let’s say it will be an uncomfortable situation for everyone. Don’t sign him — let him go elsewhere. It was embarassing to see him (also) get schooled by summer leaguers.
    
    Vinny Del Negro will have his hands full with this group. Unfortunately, looks like the Clips will be miserable again next year unless Blake Griffin can average 40 points a game.
    - Martin
      
      Hey guess what, its Summer League. There are plenty opportunities for guys to showcase their ball skills and intellect.
      
      But, it seems like, after one summer league game, you’ve already made up your mind on these players.
      - The Clipboard
        
        I call’em as I see’em.
        
        I’ve only made my mind up on Jordan. The others, well, you’re right, we need to give them more time, particularly the rookies. Sofo, I’m not sold on.
        
        I been watching Clipper games since ’91 so I think I know a little about our players. Jordan sucks. The others need more time before we can judge them.
Bruce

Positives – Bledsoe is quick. Warren looks like he can defend the 1 & 2 and should be a pretty good rotation player in a year or two. Caner Medley is a shooting god. It can’t get much worse.

Negatives – Everything else. AFA is a long way from being a rotation guy much less a starter, he may never be more than a 4 off the bench and he didn’t appear to be nearly as athletic as I was expecting. If Sofo makes the team Brian Cook won’t be the worst big man on the roster. He just isn’t an NBA player. Deandre at this point is six fouls on a good center and that’s about it. He’s no better than he was at A&M and he might have been better there. Bledsoe is long way from being more than a scoring combo guard off the bench. His decision making and ball skills are lacking and he plays too much Iverson defense. Let me take ridiculous gambles with the hope of coming away with a steal even though it open the middle of the court to penetration.

I know it is the first game of summer league but outside of Warren’s overall play and Bledsoe’s quickness there isn’t a whole lot to get excited about. I am most disappointed in Jordan. If Deandre can’t be a force in his third year of summer ball how can we expect to see anything close to valuable contributions in the actual league. We knew AFA was going to be a project and that Bledsoe was going to be potentially a disaster running an offense. Unfortunately both proved to hold up their ends of the bargain. I know that they probably weren’t planning on it but I’d like to see the staff give Warren some run at the point just to see if he has the skills to do it. I know they more or less gave him the reins the last few minutes but I would like to see more than absolute garbage time.
Dan S.

Bledsoe will be awesome in this league if he puts in the work. Aminu looked like he was a ways away from contributing.
- Martin
  
  Agreed. Bledsoe looks fit though…almost like a mini Maggette. Physically, he looks ready. But mentally, we shall see…
  
  This was my first time seeing Aminu play, and he looked thicker than I expected. Still, he needs to add some lean muscle.
  
  Summer league is Summer league. I will reserve judgment until at least preseason.
Josh

Apparently John Wall can turn the ball over an unlimited number of times, and everyone is awed by his performance. Bledsoe can do the same thing, and he’s years from running a team. The gap between the two is not nearly as large as people think.

Lots to like about Bledsoe’s game. He’s got some Rondo in him, the way he gets in the lane so easily and gets to loose balls. He’s a ways from reaching his potential, but he’s 19 yo and was an absolute steal at 18. His hesitation, change of pace is absurd. He’ll be an all-star in 4 years.
http://www.johnpezzetti.com Pez

Thanks for the great post and comments…i won’t be able to catch any of the summer league games so this is invaluable.
VH

Everyone with negative comments about Sofo should be ashamed of themselves… All i hear for months if not years on this board is how Sofo is the answer to all our problems, why hasn’t management convinced him to come over, blah blah, then he plays 15 minutes that were largely ineffective and everyone is ready to give up on him. This was a glorified pickup game. Of course a guy who weighs 350lbs isnt going to play well when John Wall and EB are just running back and forth throwing the ball out of bounds (18 turns btwn the two of them).

Slow down, relax, and give these guys a chance. Aminu is a project. Bledsoe is a project. Sofo is a project. DJ is still a project. Thats why they are playing in summer league, so that they can work on their weak points and become better players.
TNT57

I could give SOFO a pass if he’d shown even one spark of something great. I watched the game and didn’t see it. The Wiz big men looked stronger than SOFO. He looked like a bull in a china shop just trying to ram his way to the rim. He’ll foul out by halftime if he plays that way over here.
mikeal

why do you think the lakers rookies have been playing so well? theyre ranked 1 and 3 on the rookie ladder on nba.com. HAve they struck gold or is it just inflated summer league #’s? ALso i think Bledsoe is our man, and Aminu looks very raw
http://hitfix.com/awardscampaign jgroove

Can we please start the RICHARD JEFFERSON mantra please? He’s priced himself out of the Spurs (even though he had the highest scoring average at that position in their offense since Sean Elliott). He would be a great VETERAN presence that would encourage Baron and he knows how to get to the playoffs.

DO IT OSHEY!
NRM

Matt Barnes/ Rasual Butler are still available. Lets go ahead and grab one for insurance. I feel like AFA is less skilled Thornton.
Laknights

I’m going to wait more than one game before I get worried. That being said, Deandre was a MAJOR disappointment, if he doesn’t realize some of his potential this year, he will be a complete bust. At the very least, I thought we’d see improvement on his free throws, but he still sucks there too.
Dan S.

If DeAndre is going to try to dunk every time he gets the ball, he better learn to hit free throws. I would really like to see him develop more of a post game. He did have one very quick spin move. He was called for a hook but it looked good.
Matt

Deandre Jordan is still young and developing. They tried to make him the focal point of the offense in the first summer league game and as kevin mchale said he does not have the game to occupy that role. That role is falling on eric gordon, blake griffin, and kaman which leaves deandre jordan to be a finisher around the hoop and play defense. Remember this guy is great value for a second round pick and is still very young.
Joe Dumars

I am a Pistons fan first, and a Clippers fan second, and I have watched Detroit’s first two games online and LA’s debut as well. I mention this because I was very disappointed in how the Clippers played in their first game, with the Pistons looking much better in their games, though this might be due to the performance of much improved 2nd year players like Austin Daye, Durrell Summers, and Jonas Jerebko. Bledsoe was impressive and his sometimes out of control play might be attributed to his need to show that he can match John Wall. Deandre Jordan was disappointing, and I thought I remember him looking much better in last years summer league. AFA was described as raw, but I guess I was not prepared for how badly he needs time to develop more skills.
Tayshuan Prince has been brought up several times as an option for the Clippers SF position, but at this point I do not see a fit for a trade between LA and Detroit. The Pistons are not looking to get rid of Prince, and would be seeking a center in return, but if the Clippers give up Kaman they will be in trouble at center. Richard Hamilton is be a player that can be had for next to nothing, and he is 6’7 and can still score 18ppg with 4.5 assists. Rip does have 2 years left at near $12 million, which compared to the excessive salaries of Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay, and Paul Pierce is not bad, but probably limits the Clippers interest in him. This is a great site.
nimbo

Watched the game, as an unbiased fan and will say the following things. One, the guy from wake, will be a defensive role player at best. He’s got unbelivable lenght, but is a lost little puppy dog on offense. Shot is gross, feel for the game is gross, best case is a lock down 3 man….

Bledsoe…..Looks like he wants to be a Allen Iverson without the scoring ability. You could tell that last game he was extremely happy to be “the man” and able to take his shots when he wanted. This kid will not be able to be a scorer at the NBA level and needs to learn how to distribute if he wants a career. Only one game but not promising…..

Medley…..A 6’9 240 pound PF who can stretch the floor on offense, doesn’t seem like a bad option…..I also agree his defense could have been better at times, but he must have logged 36 of the 40 or so odd minutes….The reason….He knows how to play. He sets screens, hits shots, etc……

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Summer League Recap: Game One

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