Posted by VDesai:

His college statline is EXTREMELY impressive, even though he just played for Utah St. Very nice shooting percentages. Seems like he was more of a scoring point though.

All things considered (first summer league game, playing a brand new position, unfamiliar teammates/environment), this was a very successful outing for #4 draft pick Russell Westbrook. His GM Sam Presti took a little bit of heat for drafting him so early, but from the very small snippet of information we were about to gather about Westbrook, he seems to be backing him up thus far.

Westbrook started off the game a bit tentatively, looking like he was thinking very hard about how to get his team into the offense. As the game wore on, though, he came out of his shell, and really started to show all the different things that made him such a tantalizing collegiate prospect, as well as some new wrinkles that we may not have been able to see in his minimal role at UCLA.

Westbrook was nearly impossible to keep out of the lane when he put his mind to it. His terrific first step, combined with his nose for the basket and surprisingly effective crossover to get his man off-balance got him into the paint time after time, allowing him to show off the breathtaking leaping ability finishing above the rim that we’ve all come to know and love over the last season.

He showed a good demeanor on the floor, knowing when to try and make things happen individually and when to settle in and get others involved, even if it’s clear that he’s no finished product as far as his playmaking skills are concerned.

Westbrook was fairly effective running the pick and roll (surveying the options nicely and finding open teammates on the drive and dish), and generally didn’t seem to have much of an issue getting his team into their offense once he settled in. He wasn’t immune to taking some bad shots from time to time, but you certainly could have expected a lot worse all things considered. He hit one NBA 3-pointer even (but bricked other shots and some free throws) and also played his typical fantastic defense, being a menace on the floor with his athleticism, but smart and active enough to take advantage of it effectively.

At the end of the day, this performance might not tell us all that much about how ready Westbrook is to come in and run an NBA offense from day one, but it definitely highlighted his strengths and showed that “Oklahoma City” has a lot to look forward to.

Douglas-Roberts looked very comfortable making plays in New Jersey’s dribble-drive motion offense, which just happens to be the same offense his team ran in college. He made a number of very impressive plays offensively, particularly in one on one situations where he was able to create shots for himself and pull-up off the dribble for a traditional mid-range shot or his trademark floater. He rarely went all the way to the basket, but instead preferred to elevate as soon as he had space to operate—which works well for him. He was extremely aggressive and at times showed that same loose handle dribbling the ball right in front of his defender that worried some NBA execs on draft night, but at the same time he got the job done offensively the way he always does, and took one small step forward in terms of proving that he went much lower in the draft than he should have gone.

Sweet-shooting Jaycee Carroll showed that he can do a lot more than just make shots today, going off on a scoring barrage (19 points in 22 minutes) that had to impress anyone that stuck around for the third contest of the day. He took the ball to the basket aggressively time after time, finishing with an array of floaters and pull-up jumpers, and getting to the free throw line at will. We’re not talking about a guy that is going to stand out in a crowd as far as his looks (he’s a skinny 6-2 guy with underwhelming athleticism), but he surely knows how to score, which is probably why he was such a popular fixture on the private workout circuit in the month of June. Carroll played a lot of point guard—which is not his position as we all know by now—and did what he knows how to do best, which is look for his own shot. It was hard to fault him considering the way things looked out there at times. Defensively, he was not a presence at all, which is going to be a big concern for the NBA.

-Ryan Anderson looks like a great fit at the power forward position in the dribble drive motion offense. He can do everything a power forward needs to be able to do in that offense—playing on the perimeter to space the floor, but capable of making shots out there and put the ball on the deck to attack the rim with a high skill level. He had a very nice game with 14 points and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes, much better than Brook Lopez for example with 10 points, 5 fouls and 0 rebounds in 20 minutes.

Posted by playa2:

Posted by nyk4ever:

Does anyone know if my man Josh Duncan is on anyone's summer league roster? I said it before and I'll say it again - SLEEPER.

Josh Duncan is on the Heat's SL roster.