Suns 2010 Summer League games thread

[Griffin]

Game 2 underway. Pretty ugly game so far for the Suns. Similar to game 1.

 

[jlove]

Is it just me, or is Earl Clark worse of a player than Kwame Brown?

 

[tobiazz]

Clark's shot is SO hard, esp. compared to Daye's.

Griffin is obviously a scrub, but he has improved his shot and will likely keep gradually improving so he's a fine 13th man.

Lawal is alright but his ceiling is backup PF. He is not a drop in replacement for Lou.

 

[overseascardfan]

Earl Clark needs to be a PF. He supposedly bulked up to 238 but I would rather him turn into a post player than a Channing Frye lite.

 

[tobiazz]

I dub thee Earl Clank. He may go the way of Julian Wright. Damn.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Earl Clark needs to be a PF. He supposedly bulked up to 238 but I would rather him turn into a post player than a Channing Frye lite.

No kidding. All this talk about his SF skills is highly overrated. Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane. No toughness at all, and he compounds it with terrible shot selection. The most frustrating thing is that he looks like he should be an absolute beast, but for whatever reason, it just doesn't come together. The summer Suns are extremely discouraging at best.

 

[95pro]

clarks' is a black hole. the guy will never get an assist. everytime he gets it, its a jumper or attacking but only to miss. he is soft and cant finish at the rim. he reminds me of amare in that, length bothers hims and he finds himself out of position on rebounds.

i dont think we should expect much from clark or lawal for the upcoming season.
i know its d-league the first couple games of d-league, but clark looks awful.
clark just seems to want to prove too much, and lawal is definitely a project and had some bright spots during the game.

 

[95pro]

clark just had a bad sequence in the game against toronto.

jacks up a 3pt attempt, misses bad
goes up soft for a rebound and easily gets it swiped loose.
then throws a bad entry pass for a t/o.

 

[jlove]

Lawal is a project, don't get me wrong. His footwork needs a lot of work and needs to get stronger. He gets pushed around quite a bit. However, for the most part he looked pretty good today vs the Raptors.

Janning looks like he'd be a much better fit for the Suns than Dowdell does.

Pruitt looks like he'd be a fairly solid addition at the end of the Suns bench, in the mold of Mbenga and Powell for the Lakers. He's got a pretty solid offensive game and has a soft touch. Releases the ball at all different levels to keep the defense from getting the block or tip.

 

[95pro]

janning looks like a high tempo kind of guy.
but i dont thinnk he can finish at an nba level and his handle might need some work.
he's 6'4" but plays smaller than that imo.
i dont know how well he can distribute the ball though.
he may be a better passer/distibutor with better finishers.

 

[Errntknght]

NBA TV was the pits for me today - it just jumped from one freeze to the next up until halfway thru the 4th quarter and then it suddenly began working just fine. Of course, I did get a live feed of the score and player stats the whole game - what a deal!

If anyone has advice on how to make it work better, I'd be very appreciative.

After the game the announcers said that Reynolds should play in either the next game or the one after that. Crap, game 3 is to be aired at 4am in Phx.

 

[Joe Mama]

I liked the Earl Clark pick last summer, but he doesn't look like he has progressed one bit. In fact he looks even worse. He has awful hands, he is soft, and kind of lazy out there. I hate to give up on him already, but I have.

 

[Folster]

Clark is getting a lot of unfair criticism considering he is playing with a bunch of D-league rejects outside of Lawal (Pruitt looked decent as well). Clark is the only player on the team with any sort of an offensive game and had to create everything himself. I guarantee you, he would look a lot better with some competent guards surrounding him like Dragic. Our guard play which is crucial in the summer league and perimeter defense were just plain atrocious. Nobody could even make a simple entry pass. Dowdell and Janning can be left; we can definitely pick up a better third guard on the free agent market for the minimum. Although, I'm still waiting for Reynolds to play so I'll reserve final judgment. Seriously, it seems the Suns filled out the roster at the YMCA.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Clark is getting a lot of unfair criticism considering he is playing with a bunch of D-league rejects outside of Lawal (Pruitt looked decent as well). Clark is the only player on the team with any sort of an offensive game and had to create everything himself. I guarantee you, he would look a lot better with some competent guards surrounding him like Dragic. Our guard play which is crucial in the summer league and perimeter defense were just plain atrocious. Nobody could even make a simple entry pass. Dowdell and Janning can be left; we can definitely pick up a better third guard on the free agent market for the minimum. Although, I'm still waiting for Reynolds to play so I'll reserve final judgment. Seriously, it seems the Suns filled out the roster at the YMCA.

He may be playing with a bunch of D league rejects but for the most part, that's what he's playing against also. I'm more worried about his shot selection than anything else and he exhibited that same weakness when playing with the "real" Suns.

Steve

 

[jlove]

NBA TV was the pits for me today - it just jumped from one freeze to the next up until halfway thru the 4th quarter and then it suddenly began working just fine. Of course, I did get a live feed of the score and player stats the whole game - what a deal!

If anyone has advice on how to make it work better, I'd be very appreciative.

After the game the announcers said that Reynolds should play in either the next game or the one after that. Crap, game 3 is to be aired at 4am in Phx.

That's just the time that NBA TV is replaying the game. The game will actually be on Monday at 530 PM on radio and NBA.com

 

[Chaplin]

He may be playing with a bunch of D league rejects but for the most part, that's what he's playing against also. I'm more worried about his shot selection than anything else and he exhibited that same weakness when playing with the "real" Suns.

Steve

Not exactly true. In both games he matched up with lottery picks. #13 today and #14 yesterday. Plus, he was also matched up with experienced guys that played a lot more minutes than him last season.

That shouldn't excuse him, but I just wanted to point out that you're generalizing without looking at the opposing roster. It also didn't help that the refs were awful, especially for a summer league game.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Not exactly true. In both games he matched up with lottery picks. #13 today and #14 yesterday. Plus, he was also matched up with experienced guys that played a lot more minutes than him last season.

That shouldn't excuse him, but I just wanted to point out that you're generalizing without looking at the opposing roster. It also didn't help that the refs were awful, especially for a summer league game.

Chap, I did say "for the most part". And, wasn't he drafted right around that same spot a year ago? I watched yesterday's game and I don't think it was the weakness of his coworkers that caused him to make such bad decisions. Now, it's possible that the coaching staff has encouraged him to be a gunner and he's struggling through the transition but that's the only glimmer of hope I see when I look at him. It's too bad too because he really has the tools to become an effective defender.

Steve

 

[mojorizen7]

We need Earl Clark to develope. I don't have the resources to watch any summer league games this year so i'm gonna have to get my info thru you guys.

I agree that he needs to groomed as a SF,which probably presents him(and the coaching staff)with a bigger challenge,which may be the cause of his struggles.
Hopefully his confidence doesn't get shot in the process.

 

[Chaplin]

Chap, I did say "for the most part". And, wasn't he drafted right around that same spot a year ago? I watched yesterday's game and I don't think it was the weakness of his coworkers that caused him to make such bad decisions. Now, it's possible that the coaching staff has encouraged him to be a gunner and he's struggling through the transition but that's the only glimmer of hope I see when I look at him. It's too bad too because he really has the tools to become an effective defender.

Steve

Could be, could be. Which really supports my thought that Dan Majerle is doing a TERRIBLE job coaching this team.

 

[ArizonaSportsFan]

Could be, could be. Which really supports my thought that Dan Majerle is doing a TERRIBLE job coaching this team.

This.

Why Majerle has him at out on the perimeter every play baffles me. If it is Clark doing it on his own, then he should be "reprimanded". If Majerle is doing it though, Gentry should have a talk with him.

On the other hand, perhaps they want him to be a slashing 3?

 

[95pro]

with all of clark's positioning, yeah it seems like he's a 3 who wants to use his quicks and athleticism to get driving shots to the basket. i noticed he wasnt playing inside the paint. whether its him or a coaching move is something we dont know.

 

[Chaplin]

This.

Why Majerle has him at out on the perimeter every play baffles me. If it is Clark doing it on his own, then he should be "reprimanded". If Majerle is doing it though, Gentry should have a talk with him.

On the other hand, perhaps they want him to be a slashing 3?

Well, it's 2 straight games that he's been pretty bad, so they should probably try to mix it up a bit. They only have 3 games left--gotta take advantage of it.

 

[Mainstreet]

Anyone have a link to the summer league box scores for the Suns as well as the other teams. I have goggled but I seem to be able to find the link. I particularly would like to see the box score for the Suns where Toronto thrashed them.

 

[Mainstreet]

I found the link to the summer league box scores after continued looking. Just in case anyone doesn't have it, see below.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=2010summerleagueschedule

 

[tobiazz]

NBA TV was the pits for me today - it just jumped from one freeze to the next up until halfway thru the 4th quarter and then it suddenly began working just fine. Of course, I did get a live feed of the score and player stats the whole game - what a deal!

If anyone has advice on how to make it work better, I'd be very appreciative.

You could get the summer league broadband for $15. The flash player has issues, but it's watchable unlike last year. You can replay any game so that you can check out all the prospects. If Earl Clark is getting you down, you can watch better SFs like Daye or Paul George.