NBA Summer League | Mavs end off 4-1

[Winter]

Too much pressure to be "the man".  Needs to play within himself.  Like Josh Green.  Let the game come to him.

Still young.  Plenty of time.

Agree with this. Hardy is trying to do too much. I'm hoping it's different when he starts playing with some alphas.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

OKC and Utah look like the best teams in SL.

[Chicagojk]

While Lively is raw, I liked hearing Nico say he talks a lot on defense. That is something that will get him on the court.

Also, while he has not blocked a ton of shots, I have noticed that even though he is only 235 he has a really solid base. When people ram into him trying to get him off balance, he doesn’t really move. He has a chance to be so good on defense once he learns the tricks and gets some experience under him.

He has had some really nice rebounds but I would like to see a little more. Also with him contesting a lot of shots, you really need the other players to put bodies on players to eliminate the put backs when he goes for a block.

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Agree with this. Hardy is trying to do too much. I'm hoping it's different when he starts playing with some alphas.

Yeah, I am not worried at all about his shooting.   He is a good shooter.

I was expecting a few more things from him this summer league.   I was really hoping he would show up and be too good for summer league type of guys.   That is not the case yet.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Anyone that wants Lively to play 20 minutes per game this year has probably never watched an nba game in their life. Sorry but he’s further away than I thought.

[KillerLeft]

Anyone that wants Lively to play 20 minutes per game this year has probably never watched an nba game in their life. Sorry but he’s further away than I thought.

Man, idk…I’m coming away with the opposite impression. Super interesting, because I respect your basketball opinions, generally.

I think he has exceeded my wildest expectations when defending out in space, and affecting shots in the paint. I don’t know about a consistent 20 minutes per, but I can see him getting 20 minutes here and there.

[audiosway]

Man, idk…I’m coming away with the opposite impression. Super interesting, because I respect your basketball opinions, generally.

I think he has exceeded my wildest expectations when defending out in space, and affecting shots in the paint. I don’t know about a consistent 20 minutes per, but I can see him getting 20 minutes here and there.

I'm with you. Lively looks better than I thought quicker than I thought he would. He is picking it up fast in SL. He seems to be getting better every game. Some of those blocks, boxouts, passes, and serious intimidation going into the paint was impressive tonight.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

#FreeOMax

[SleepingHero]

Anyone that wants Lively to play 20 minutes per game this year has probably never watched an nba game in their life. Sorry but he’s further away than I thought.

I'm actually leaning closer to this takeaway right now, although I wouldn't claim the people clamoring for big minutes for Lively haven't watched an NBA game.

The potential is there. You see the flashes of what he can do and bring for an NBA team. And the stuff he can do right now is really hard for most bigs. He's managed to stay in front of many guards multiple times this summer league. His switches, vocality, and heck just general space eating-ness is something most guys can't ever get. The defensive potential is as advertised. But he's also a bit wild. I think he could get 6 fouls in less than 10 minutes of play. It's obvious most seasoned bigs will eat him alive with their tricks. His rebounding relies on jumping over people vs. sound box out mechanics. His picks range from great to trash. His offensive game is non-existent. 

I was (am?) still a big detractor of the Lively pick. This dude is 2 years away. But if he puts it together? Hard to see how he can't be an All-NBA defense first team guy.

Although, right now the real prize to me is Omax. Now that's a guy I think he can carve out a 20 minute role. Like he's already doing stuff like this:

https://twitter.com/mavsfilmroom/status/...06080?s=46&t=JCZO73vrym-K0Hu3J5z54Q

This clip shows why I believe OMax Prosper is much further along than Dorian Finney-Smith was as a rookie.

Even though he misses, look how fluid his crossover is as he goes into that fadeaway with the fake off the back shoulder.

Arguably better handles than Dorian has NOW.

That's a guy I'm really excited for. I think we're going to be debating whether or not Grant Williams or OMax should start come January of next season.

[Jym]

That's a guy I'm really excited for. I think we're going to be debating whether or not Grant Williams or OMax should start come January of next season.

Why not both?

[IamDougieFresh]

Any of you funny ducklings still wish we pushed for the 10th seed?

[Winter]

I'm not sure enough was said about Mike Miles Jr's play. Very effective, and he looked in control nearly the entire game. 19 pts including 6-11 from the field and 3-8 from the perimeter. He had some lapses on defense, but these looked like mental mistakes.

Give me him over Wright any day.

[Chicagojk]

I'm not sure enough was said about Mike Miles Jr's play. Very effective, and he looked in control nearly the entire game. 19 pts including 6-11 from the field and 3-8 from the perimeter. He had some lapses on defense, but these looked like mental mistakes.

Give me him over Wright any day.

Yes, he played pretty well.  The ball still sticks a little too much for me, but hopefully that is just how he has played and will learn he can't play that way in the NBA.   Him finishing at the rim is as good as advertised.

For the Two way, I think he is safe.  Lawson is probably safe too.  But he really needs to shoot better.   It is disappointing he has made very few threes and has had some bad misses as well.

I don't see a reason to keep Wright if he doesn't make the real roster.  No need to keep to 6 foot guards on two way contracts.   Same for Jelly Walker who looks fun but not sure there is a path for a real nba player there.   I hate to make quick judgements but just a quick judgement there.

Taze Moore has looked good.  He is 25 though and looks to be one of those tweener types.   Not sure he would be in consideration for the last two way spot for me.    If I am the Mavs, I am focusing on the 6-6 to 6-8 wings and guys who may have a chance to be one of those long 3 and D players.   I am also looking at the 6'10-6'11 guys who are mobile and athletic.  Those are the two prototypes I am trying to find and develop.

[Winter]

Taze Moore has looked good.  He is 25 though and looks to be one of those tweener types.   Not sure he would be in consideration for the last two way spot for me.    If I am the Mavs, I am focusing on the 6-6 to 6-8 wings and guys who may have a chance to be one of those long 3 and D players.   I am also looking at the 6'10-6'11 guys who are mobile and athletic.  Those are the two prototypes I am trying to find and develop.

I love his aggressiveness, but I saw him completely brick two-free throws late in the game. I'm not sure thats an indication of anything, but they were bad looking free throws.

[Chicagojk]

Hardy is out for the rest of the summer league due to a shoulder contusion. With his minutes he played last game, I was thinking it might be his last game regardless. But his play was poor against Golden State I was wondering if he would play one more.

So now Hardy and Wright are both out for the game on Friday.

[Scott41theMavs]

Hardy is out for the rest of the summer league due to a shoulder contusion.  With his minutes he played last game, I was thinking it might be his last game regardless.    But his play was poor against Golden State I was wondering if he would play one more. 

So now Hardy and Wright are both out for the game on Friday.

Enough Jelly bricks to build a temple incoming.

[Kidnova]

Enough Jelly bricks to build a temple incoming.

To be fair, Hardy wasn't exactly a sharpshooter out there.

[myconsumerclub]

One more game of Hardy ball is not needed anyway. We know what he has and now we need to help him clean his game up a little and that need was demonstrated and should motivate him to participate fully on that effort, so mission accomplished he knows he needs to fix things and not go crazy with it all the time. I am sure he knows this is not a playground but pro ball.

Now for this last game we can focus on seeing what the 2 rooks can do when they need to be more effective on offense plus maybe Miles can show us something special that makes Wright expendable that would be nice since I see no need to give 2 PG's spots on the roster with 2 way deals that third spot needs to be for a center/PF who can stretch the floor with a 3 pointer.

Lawson is there for scoring and playing defense from the 3 which is an area of need. Who takes Hardy's 2 guard spot is interesting. We need to get out of SL without any more injuries and get on to training camp so the team can get its core together and start fitting in all the new pieces.

SL has been real and it has been fun but it hasn't been real fun, at least sot as fun as it could be when the whole team is ready to play this season.

[Chicagojk]

Denver signed Braxton Key off our summer league roster to one of their two way spots. I really hadn’t paid much attention to him. He has prototypical size but is 26 years old and has been in the G-league for a few seasons. Denver is a well run franchise though. Anyway, I just found that interesting.

[SleepingHero]

One more game of Hardy ball is not needed anyway. We know what he has and now we need to help him clean his game up a little and that need was demonstrated and should motivate him to participate fully on that effort, so mission accomplished he knows he needs to fix things and not go crazy with it all the time. I am sure he knows this is not a playground but pro ball.

SL has been real and it has been fun but it hasn't been real fun, at least sot as fun as it could be when the whole team is ready to play this season.

Honestly Hardy's summer league was a bit disappointing. Sure he managed to score 24 in his first 2 games, but it was the difficulty he had in doing it. 

Maybe he can't be "the" guy, but looks way way way better next to the ones who are. Still, the talent is there. Hopefully he took this relatively rough SL where he forced a bunch of shots as a lesson he still has a lot of work to do. 

I felt his SL last year was better for him even though he didn't score as much.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Denver signed Braxton Key off our summer league roster to one of their two way spots.  I really hadn’t paid much attention to him.  He has prototypical size but is 26 years old and has been in the G-league for a few seasons.  Denver is a well run franchise though.  Anyway, I just found that interesting.

He also was on Detroit's roster for 2022