Phoenix vs Washington tonight on NBATV

[slinslin]

8 pm ET on NBA TV playing their first game in the Las Vegas summer league.

www.proexposure.com has all the boxscores.

 

[elindholm]

Thanks, slinslin! No way would I have known about this otherwise. I'll try to watch some of it.

 

[slinslin]

All Suns games in Las Vegas are televised but on Friday it is tape delayed.

 

[NJYAJ09]

We just got the cox digital cable package a while ago, and when I click on the NBA Tv channel its just a preview that runs for 24 hours a day. Does that change today or am i just out of luck?

 

[Biclops]

If anyone gets to watch the game on TV please tell us how our young guys did (Barbosa, Lampe, Jacobsen)?

I am especially curious about Barbosa since they raved about his improvement

Also if it looks like Vroman can handle the C position?

Thanks alot!!

 

[scotsman13]

at the end of the first quarter. the suns have looked good. casey had a nice post up move, lampe is about what we have seen out of him from the season. barbs looked good with some drives and a mid shot (that rimed out), but the person who has looked the best to me is vroman. he is a player that does the little hard working things. boxing out taking charges and just working hard and moving the ball.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Thanks for the updates Scottsman. I figured Lampe would be about where he was last year. Nice to hear that about Vroman though.

 

[scotsman13]

btw barbs looks like he has add some weight. looks good. vroman isnt being a scorer type player but more of a solid role player like jake. i have already seen something where other players seem to be getting upset with him for always being there. also vroman runs the floor very well.

 

[elindholm]

I guess Lampe did all of his good work in the first six minutes, which I didn't see. Since then he has looked awful. Vroman reminds me of someone, but I haven't figured out who yet. Barbosa's shot mechanics may have improved slightly. Derrick Dial is making a lot of shots, but I don't see how he'd have a role with the Suns.

Arthur Johnson has a chance of making the team, if only because the Suns are so starved for big men. He's a reasonably active wide body -- not that much different from Jahidi White, really, except not quite as strong and without much leaping ability. I just read his profile on draftcity (http://draftcity.com/profile.htm?player=18) and, from what I've seen, it seems pretty accurate.

 

[Yuma]

Also, the one time they got the ball to Vroman underneath, he finished well and made the basket. That's something guys like Jahidi, and sometimes Jake had trouble doing from a standing start.

I agree Barbosa looks "bigger." Also, when you think Casey is not that good, you can see he his a lot better than the summer league talent at least. He scored the Suns second basket with a nifty up and under that left his defender in the dust.

Lampe came out and swished a twenty foot jumper to start his play. Then he almost airballed a baseline shot. Then he clanked a couple shots, but one thay called a foul on.

One bad thing, is Vroman has only played power forward. No center play in the first half to try and gauge him.

 

[elindholm]

One bad thing, is Vroman has only played power forward. No center play in the first half to try and gauge him.

He doesn't look anywhere near big enough to play center. Draftcity lists him as 6' 10", 230, but even that seems generous. Basically he looks like a slender power forward without a perimeter game, although he is a decent ball handler and shows some court awareness.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

One bad thing, is Vroman has only played power forward. No center play in the first half to try and gauge him.

He doesn't look anywhere near big enough to play center. Draftcity lists him as 6' 10", 230, but even that seems generous. Basically he looks like a slender power forward without a perimeter game, although he is a decent ball handler and shows some court awareness.

Ouch. I guess the suns HAVE to do something about the C rotation then. With Vroman in there they could have tried and stick with it if worse came to worse........

 

[Joe Mama]

I agree with Eric. If Jackson Vroman is playing more than a few minutes per game that center (in a small lineup) this team is in big trouble. He's going to be an undersized power forward.

The new guy that has impressed me the most has got to be this little foreign point guard, Tebusi. He and Barbosa have been in foul trouble most of the game, but both of them have played very well. Casey Jacobsen has played well. Lampe has been mostly unimpressive. He has a perimeter game on offense, but he has missed a ton of open shots. Defensively he has struggled inside and outside.

Offensively I'm sure Amare Stoudemire and Lampe will be a very good combination. Defensively they will probably give those points right back.

Joe Mama

 

[scotsman13]

barbs and tebusi looked good (do you think that we can wave eisley and keep him?).

lampe was playing center when he was out there. whoever said that he was another dirk was an idoit. yes he is a good shooter but he lacks the quickness and jumping ability of dirk. i dont think his defense for a 19 year old was that bad. he worked at staying in front of his guy. i would say his biggest problem defensively is that he gets pulled out front and and driven by by players who dont have an outside game. also lampe seem more willing to go inside at times even making a couple spin moves. really i think in a year or two he can turn into a player very much like brad miller (outside shot and good position rebounder).

dail and wright both brought something to the game. i think they will be invited back to camp.

 

[elindholm]

Lampe came alive offensively in the fourth quarter. His footwork on offense is somewhat similar to Nowitzki's, when he gets in a rhythm and starts playing with some confidence. In the second and third quarters he was lost and hopeless.

Defensively he has a long way to go. He isn't strong enough to defend the post (even though his frame looks pretty good), he doesn't anticipate well enough to defend the basket, and he lacks the lateral quickness to defend the perimeter (where he often got stuck tonight). Maybe he was having a bad day, but based on this game, the Suns simply won't be able to afford using him much because of his defensive liabilities.

Arthur Johnson didn’t play much in the second half, which was a bit of a disappointment. I compared him to Jahidi White earlier, and he’s actually nowhere near as big as White, but I stand by my assessment that he could be a similar type of player.

Michael Wright got a lot of time in the second half. Unless I’m really confused, he’s left-handed, which is always a novel wrinkle. He had a nose for the ball and looked to score when the opportunity presented itself. I guess you Arizona fans would know more about him. He’d probably be strong enough to serve as a backup PF if the Suns can’t find better options. Basically I think they have to figure out whether Vroman, Arthur Johnson, or Wright can be the primary backup PF, or whether they’ll have to give up and go to small ball whenever Stoudemire sits (or gets moved to center).

 

[George O'Brien]

I was hoping Lampe would show more, but it's only one game. I'm encouraged to hear he is going to basket, but he needs to keep working on his overall game if he is going to do what is needed this season.

We'll have to keep an eye on Arthur Johnson. He certainly sounds like the kind of guy who might make the roster, even if only on IR. I would guess Wright is another option, but he is certainly only a PF.

 

[Yuma]

Noone has mentioned one of Vroman's best skills tonight, his passing. He found open guys out of the low post area a lot of times tonight. If the guys he passed to that were wide open had hit their shots, he would have had a lot of assists. He also was a strong and opportunistic rebounder. I think he's our back up power forward at this point.

Casey was by far our best player. His shot looks better than last year, and he is playing smarter, too.

Barbosa had some outstanding plays offensivly and defensivly, but he threw a lot of bonehead passes and got caught jumping in the air with the ball at least twice that I saw. If he can cut down on the mental errors he will be one heck of a back up point guard for us.

Lampe has a chance to be our "brick a minute" guy off the bench. So far it looks like Jake has the starting center job sewn up. Lampe makes a beautiful shot, then cranks up three ugly shots in return. He did grab some good boards tonight, though. Now if he could just block a shot or two a game...

To be honest, Dial was the only guy doing anything, and the problem is, if we get Q, Dial won't ever see any action if he made our club. Tebusi is just too raw yet, too. No big guy really opened my eyes on our squad tonight.

 

[Mainstreet]

I wished I could have watched the game. I remember that Tabuse had a pretty good camp with Denver last year and was a fiesty, quick little player like Boykins. I'm not sure about his shot or really much else except he made things happen before Boykins took his place on the roster.

 

[slinslin]

Lets not get down on Lampe because of the first summer league game...

Chris Bosh was 0-2FG 0reb 1ast 6pts in 19 minutes in his first summer league game. And everyone seems like they would trade JJ in a heartbeat for that guy.

 

[George O'Brien]

Lets not get down on Lampe because of the first summer league game...

Chris Bosh was 0-2FG 0reb 1ast 6pts in 19 minutes in his first summer league game. And everyone seems like they would trade JJ in a heartbeat for that guy.

One of the risks of having a guy spend a lot of time working with the weights is that he has to relearn his shooting stroke. I'm sure that's what happened to Marion early last season. Realistically, I have no doubt that Lampe will regain his touch because he has picture perfect form. Marion's form is so awkward that it is hard to figure out how to fix it when he goes into a slump.

BTW, I rather suspected that Casey would do well. He's a third year guy and I'm sure he has been working on his game over the last few months. I expect him to eventually become a Steve Kerr type player. Do you think hearing about Q hasn't motivated Casey to work even harder?

 

[elindholm]

Jacobsen looked good in the summer league as a rookie too -- I remember he scored something like 35 points in a game that I went to two years ago. His decent play tonight might mean that he has improved, but I don't think it's a very tight logical inference.

 

[George O'Brien]

Jacobsen looked good in the summer league as a rookie too -- I remember he scored something like 35 points in a game that I went to two years ago. His decent play tonight might mean that he has improved, but I don't think it's a very tight logical inference.

I agree. It will be hard to monitor his performance from box scores because what matters is HOW he scores and if he is able to make his own shot. Playing against rookies who leave shooters wide open doesn't prove a thing we didn't already know.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Michael Wright was one of my favorite Wildcats. I believe he led or was barely second on the 2001 runner up team in scoring and led them in rebounding. That team also featured pros like Richard Jefferson, Loren Woods, and Gil Arenas. In college, him and Arthur Johnson were essentially the same player although I remember Johnson was a little bigger but with less offensive ability.

 

[George O'Brien]

Did Jerry Holman play? There were some nice comments about him in practice.

 

[Yuma]

I agree. It will be hard to monitor his performance from box scores because what matters is HOW he scores and if he is able to make his own shot. Playing against rookies who leave shooters wide open doesn't prove a thing we didn't already know.

Watching him was different than the box score. He looks more poised and confident. Of course this is against a different talent level, but Casey also played "smarter," too. You just had to watch him to see what I'm saying. The box score wouldn't show that. of course.