Suns: Summer League

[INFORMER]

The most impressive thing out of the Suns summer league this season is Ulis's ridiculous assist to turnover ratio.

[Indy]

And his defense.

[INFORMER]

Not as impressive to me. The gargantuan steal numbers are somewhat easier to come by in sloppy summer league play. Plus, he showed great, full court on-ball pressure at Kentucky.

When I question his defense, it was with going up against guys in the halfcourt like Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Emanuel Mudiay, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Reggie Jackson, Kyris Irving, and so on. I don't know how long you can keep him on the court against those guys.

The assist to turnover ratio is ridiculous because these are brand new teammates he hasn't been around for very long, and the play is sloppy to begin with yet he's finding guys and taking care of the ball.

[In2ition]

Not as impressive to me. The gargantuan steal numbers are somewhat easier to come by in sloppy summer league play. Plus, he showed great, full court on-ball pressure at Kentucky.

When I question his defense, it was with going up against guys in the halfcourt like Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Emanuel Mudiay, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Reggie Jackson, Kyris Irving, and so on. I don't know how long you can keep him on the court against those guys.

The assist to turnover ratio is ridiculous because these are brand new teammates he hasn't been around for very long, and the play is sloppy to begin with yet he's finding guys and taking care of the ball.

Who does a good job against those guys?

[Superbone]

Not as impressive to me. The gargantuan steal numbers are somewhat easier to come by in sloppy summer league play. Plus, he showed great, full court on-ball pressure at Kentucky.

When I question his defense, it was with going up against guys in the halfcourt like Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Emanuel Mudiay, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Reggie Jackson, Kyris Irving, and so on. I don't know how long you can keep him on the court against those guys.

The assist to turnover ratio is ridiculous because these are brand new teammates he hasn't been around for very long, and the play is sloppy to begin with yet he's finding guys and taking care of the ball.

Who does a good job against those guys?

Time will tell but I think he'll be fine. How does Thomas stay on the court? How did Bogues, Boykins, and Webb do it?

[INFORMER]

It's all relative. You're not going to stop them, but you also want to be able offer some resistance.

[Ring_Wanted]

Cool stats: Devin Booker is leading the league in assists per game, and Ulis is second.

I doubt Booker leads the league in assists per game. As some people have been pointing out in here, he's been making a spectacle of the Summer Leagues and just trying to get his and shouldn't be participating.

Didn't even Ryan say that he wasn't going to play back-to-back games until he found out it was on ESPN?

From what I understand he's best friends with Ulis and close with Alan Williams. I would say that's a big reason why he wants to play. He enjoys playing with his buddies and their is a good chance he won't get alot of reg season PT with them, atleast at the start of the yr. I have no problem with him playing in competitive summer league team with guys that he will be expected to grow with to help become the suns future. I'm not a fan of him playing 25-30+ mins in a game where we are blowing the other team out. We were up by like 18 vs the Celtics the other day and he was still in.

Yeah, but I also like watching Suns dominance once in a while, for a change hahaha. Don't pimp the kids, though. Get out and get ready for the USA team.

[Ring_Wanted]

And it's cool that he is buddies with Ulis who is a real talent by the way. Comps to Paul don't seem unfounded.

[Cap]

There are probably some opponents who can exploit Ulis' lack of size, but it's not like we're counting on him to get us through four rounds of the playoffs.

[Ring_Wanted]

There are probably some opponents who can exploit Ulis' lack of size, but it's not like we're counting on him to get us through four rounds of the playoffs.

Very true, but the guy looks like a pest at times. And he doesn't turn the ball over. He has crazy body control and doesn't panic. I really like him and Booker as a combo.

[INFORMER]

Time will tell but I think he'll be fine. How does Thomas stay on the court? How did Bogues, Boykins, and Webb do it?

Thomas got killed for his defense while he was here. I felt the criticism was over the top, but it wasn't baseless. Thomas stays on the court because of what he gives you on the other end. He carries that Boston offense at times.

Bogues and Webb played in a different era. You weren't facing a scoring point guard every night like you are today. Charlotte never went far with Bogues starting anyway. And Webb was an athletic freak.

Boykins is definitely a relevant case study to consider. But how many good teams did Boykins play for?

I'd like to also reiterate that for Ulis, it isn't just about height; his height wouldn't be an issue for me if he was stronger.

[Indy]

And it's cool that he is buddies with Ulis who is a real talent by the way. Comps to Paul don't seem unfounded.

Agreed.

[Indy]

Not as impressive to me. The gargantuan steal numbers are somewhat easier to come by in sloppy summer league play. Plus, he showed great, full court on-ball pressure at Kentucky.

When I question his defense, it was with going up against guys in the halfcourt like Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Emanuel Mudiay, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Reggie Jackson, Kyris Irving, and so on. I don't know how long you can keep him on the court against those guys.

The assist to turnover ratio is ridiculous because these are brand new teammates he hasn't been around for very long, and the play is sloppy to begin with yet he's finding guys and taking care of the ball.

I guess there is a difference between impressive and surprising to me. I was really impressed with both his defense and his ability to help his teammates while not getting TOs. I wasn't surprised by his defense after what I have read about his time at Kentucky.

[Big Jake Little Jake]

I went to summer league on sat, sun and monday and saw a hell of a lot of basketball. When you see the games live, most of the guys are all kinda the same. 6-4 to 6-9, hyper athletic...but really only a few made their presence felt. It's sort of like watching a student film or play. When there's some one who can really act, you can see through the bad dialogue or cheap settings. Your eye is just drawn to them.

Here's a few of observations I made seeing it all live:

From the games I saw, Russell and Booker were clearly better than anyone else out there. No big surprise there. Booker has really beefed up. I saw him last year at summer league and he must have added like 10 pounds of muscle since then. I love how he slows the game down and generally makes the right play. Very rare in these games of super athletes flying around everywhere. He's definitely trying hard on defense, but he would still get beat off the dribble or destroyed by a pick a little more then you'd like. Still better than last summer league at least.

Tyler Ulis is the best rookie PG by far. Watching his defense in person was incredible. He will obviously get bullied around in the NBA, but he uses his size very well. He slithers through screens and gets the ball hander extremely uncomfortable. Insane hands. He did get turned around a few times, but did a good job funneling the guy to the help defender. He'll probably have to become a good three point shooter to get a lot of time in the NBA. Really pleased with this guy.

Simmons was a ton of fun to watch on offense - though he missed so many easy shots and his jumper is so off that you have to worry if he's more Rondo then Magic. I'm sure he'll figure it out.

Ingram has some very nice moves to get open shots. Even though he's skinny, he uses his hips and shoulder to get in front of guys then just shoots so high no one can block it. Defense will be a challenge for him this year I think.

Bender moves insanely well. Like you just have to see it live to understand why everyone was gushing about him. Great balance, great lateral movement, effortless speed. His jump shot looks just about perfect, even when he was missing (reminds me of Booker last year...). His reaction time was way off, but, like someone else said, he's getting used to the speed and physicality of these players. You'd like to see him be a little more aggressive going toward the basket and kicking out or drawing a fould, but either that's just not going to be his game or he wasn't comfortable yet knowing where his teammates would be. They were calling some terrible fouls against him and you could see the coaches basically telling him not to worry about some of them. He brings his arms down sometimes when contesting shots, probably to brace for a hit to the chest from guys bigger then him. Once he gets stronger he'll stop doing that. He's 18. Have to keep that in mind.

Chriss, for all my worries, was out there hustling. I don't think he has a low motor at all. I do think he gets confused on what he should be doing and relies on his athleticism to get him out of situations. You're going to see a lot of lobs from Booker to him this season. He moves well on defense, until he thinks the guy is going to shoot, then he over commits. If he'd just stay straight up and wait for the fake or reverse, he'd be in great shape. His jump shot looks pretty good until he steps behind the line. It gets a little flat. You can tell he hasn't practiced that as much as the 20-footers. No reason to think he can't get there even this season though. It's not a quick release and is a little low, but it should be enough to get defenders to get up on him to space the floor. I really don't know what to expect from this guy.

Kyle Anderson is hilarious to watch. He just slowly and quietly dominates these guys who are playing way too fast. Tough to tell if he can be that much of a factor in the NBA where guys are smarter and stronger. He's too good to not at least have a role though.

Buddy Hield looked exactly like I expected. Super competitive, elite shooter, but kind of a chucker. I know this is summer league, so you can't worry too much about that, but he would just completely miss wide open guys to take tough fade away jumpers. To be fair, he made a lot of them. He'll be a great fit for the Pelicans.

Lots of other guys looked good - Poeltll, Jamal Murray, Dunn in spots. I'm not sure what Jaylen Brown is good at besides forcing contact.

Should be fun to watch these guys this season.

[Indy]

And I read he had a pretty good Assist to TO ratio before. I looked it up to find out it was a great 3.6. What I find amazing is that he only had a total of 69 TOs last year, in nearly 1300 minutes. That means he gets about 1 TO every 19 minutes of game time. That is amazing.

[Indy]

I went to summer league on sat, sun and monday and saw a hell of a lot of basketball.

.....

I'm not sure what Jaylen Brown is good at besides forcing contact.

Thanks for the insight! I couldn't agree more with that last comment.

[carey]

And I read he had a pretty good Assist to TO ratio before. I looked it up to find out it was a great 3.6. What I find amazing is that he only had a total of 69 TOs last year, in nearly 1300 minutes. That means he gets about 1 TO every 19 minutes of game time. That is amazing.

[Indy]

And I read he had a pretty good Assist to TO ratio before. I looked it up to find out it was a great 3.6. What I find amazing is that he only had a total of 69 TOs last year, in nearly 1300 minutes. That means he gets about 1 TO every 19 minutes of game time. That is amazing.

That is twice as good as our "fantastic" back court.

[Ring_Wanted]

Ingram has some very nice moves to get open shots. Even though he's skinny, he uses his hips and shoulder to get in front of guys then just shoots so high no one can block it. Defense will be a challenge for him this year I think.

I see Melo's game inside a knockoff Durant's athleticism. Unsure how far that will take him.

Chriss, for all my worries, was out there hustling. I don't think he has a low motor at all. I do think he gets confused on what he should be doing and relies on his athleticism to get him out of situations. You're going to see a lot of lobs from Booker to him this season. He moves well on defense, until he thinks the guy is going to shoot, then he over commits. If he'd just stay straight up and wait for the fake or reverse, he'd be in great shape. His jump shot looks pretty good until he steps behind the line. It gets a little flat. You can tell he hasn't practiced that as much as the 20-footers. No reason to think he can't get there even this season though. It's not a quick release and is a little low, but it should be enough to get defenders to get up on him to space the floor. I really don't know what to expect from this guy.

I still don't see the insane athleticism, although I'm about to watch the last game.

[Big Jake Little Jake]

I still don't see the insane athleticism, although I'm about to watch the last game.

He's just a really, really quick and high jumper. He probably could have been an amazing WR or CB. He's not sprinting past everyone or anything, but when the ball goes up in the air, he's the first guy to it. It's like he's just suddenly way up high in the air.