Jul 20th, 2010
Landry Fields was the most impressive. Jeremy Lin benefited the most. Omar Samhan turned some heads. Jerome Randle should look for work in Europe.
Don't recognize this player? Well, Jeremy Lin may be playing for the Warriors this season.
Those interested in a concise report on how local players did in the NBA summer league may digest those sentences and get on with their day.
Of course, anyone interested in how players did in that recently completed pseudo-season are unlikely to be satisfied unless plenty of filler is provided. You see, those people may fall into the Get a Life category. (It is generally understood that anyone writing about such issues is a charter member of the Get a Life Club. So welcome to our nonprofit organization, and just make sure to pay your dues on the first Wednesday of every month.)
In the NBA summer league, the most important statistic is not points or rebounds or assists or shooting percentage or turnovers. It’s playing time. If a player sees a lot of action, it’s because team officials wants to take a close look at him. If team officials want to take a close look at a player, it means they are seriously interested in what he can do. If they are seriously interested in what he can do, they are considering putting him on the team and/or giving him playing time during the season. If teams don’t give a player much playing time, it means they have seen enough and are not interested. Certainly points and rebounds may affect playing time, but minutes played is the bottom line.
By our reckoning, eight players who participated in the NBA summer league have Bay Area ties.
Here’s how they did:
Landry Fields, rookie from Stanford – People were stunned when Fields was drafted early in the second round by the Knicks, so it stands to reason they were surprised by how well Fields played in the summer league. (We could issue a bunch of I-told-you-sos at this juncture, but we are above such childishness – be we did tell you so and you need only reference this story or even this story.) He averaged 15.6 points on 52.7 percent shooting, 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals in five summer games, including one start. The key stat: He averaged 26.0 minutes a game. Fields may have been the biggest surprise in the entire summer league. Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni was quoted by the New York Post (and we all know what the Post reports is gospel) as saying of Fields, “Now he’s on the chart with a bullet. He’s put a bullet by his name by what he’s doing, how he’s playing. He’s played really, really well.”
Fields has played so well, in fact, that he had the gumption to ask for the jersey number the Knicks had been reserving for LeBron James if they had been able to lure James to New York. Fields will be No. 6.
Jeremy Lin, rookie from Harvard by way of Palo Alto High School – Undrafted, Lin played so well for the Dallas Mavericks’ summer team that the Lakers were interested in signing him as a backup to Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher. But Tuesday afternoon came news that the Golden State Warriors are on the verge of signing Lin. (Now how do you think that came about? Let’s see, Donnie Nelson is the general manager of the Mavericks. Donnie Nelson is the son of Warriors coach Don Nelson. Hmm.) An announcement could come any day. Lin averaged 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.2 steals and made two of three three-point attempts in four summer games for the Mavs. The key stat: 18.5 minutes a game, including 27 in the last game. Lin’s situation was very much like Fields’. Neither was expected to be drafted because teams couldn’t figure out what position he would play (the 6-3 Lin is a combo guard, the 6-7 Fields a guard/forward hybrid), and neither had a particular skill that stood out. But both impressed NBA teams this summer with their versatility, consistency and court sense during the summer. Both come from egghead colleges. And both were coached by starters on Duke’s 1986 team that went 37-3 (Stanford’s Johnny Dawkins and Harvard’s Tommy Amaker). And Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln, and Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, and both have seven letters in their last name, and the assassin of both went by three names, and . . . sorry, we got carried away with conspiracy-theory mania. (My favorite is Lincoln was shot in Ford Theater, and Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln, which is made by Ford.)
Patty Mills, second-year player from St. Mary’s – Mills needed to play well, because the Trail Blazers offered him a nonguaranteed contract in June that could be terminated by July 23. He’s in pretty good negotiating position after averaging 14.2 points on 41.8 percent shooting, 3.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists while averaging 29.8 minutes in five games for Portland’s summer team. He had 19 points and hit 4 of 8 three-pointers in the final game. Mills reportedly has an offer to lay in Italy, which is considered the best foreign pro league.
Omar Samhan, rookie out of St. Mary’s – The 6-foot-11 quote machine started four games and averaged 25.8 minutes for the Mavs’ summer team, averaging 10.5 points of 52.8 percent shooting while averaging 7.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocks. He had 12 points, eight bords and two blocks in his final game. He might have caught on with an NBA team, but he reportedly has signed to play in Lithuania, where he can get playing time to prepare him to get into the NBA in a year or two. All we can say is, they better be prepared in Vilnius (that’s Lithuania’s capital for the geographically-impaired) for the orating handful that’s coming their way.
Rod Benson, fifth-year pro from Cal – Benson, who is trying to rise from the Developmental League, averaged 4.8 points and 2.5 rebounds playing 9.0 minutes in four games with the the Utah Jazz, but averaged, 6.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 18.5 minutes in two games for the Clippers. He had 13 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals in 32 minutes in his final game. The NBA is not in his immediate future. Two fun facts: Benson’s middle name is Zsorryon, and he has helped produce a few videos for YouTube. Take a look:
She’s ready like spaghetti, so we’re in there like swimwear.
Love it.
We truck on.
Jerome Randle, rookie out of Cal – Randle went undrafted but was getting a lot of buzz just before the draft, which is why the Orlando Magic took a good look at Randle early on. He started the first two games for the Magic, playing 22 and 27 minutes. His playing time diminished from there, though, which means the Magic was not sufficiently impressed. He averaged 7.0 points and 3.3 assists for Orlando, but did not get off the bench in two games. Randle was the backup point guard to John Wall at Washington so his playing time dipped further. He did not play at all in one game, and he averaged 12.3 minutes in the other four, averaging 5.0 points and 0.8 assists. His biggest mistake was going 1-for-16 for the summer on three-pointers Guys his size ( 5-foot-10, maybe) must prove they have shooting range. The poor shooting comes as a surprise to those of us who saw Randle knock down threes regularly from well beyond NBA three-point range while at Cal. Anyway, no NBA team is likely to sign Randle now.
Lawrence Hill, second-year player out of Stanford – Hill averaged 3.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 13.0 minutes in five games for Phoenix. He did not leave the Suns on a good note, going without a point or a rebound in nine minutes in his last game. He played in Mexico last season, averaging 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds, and he’s probably headed for a similar destination if he chooses to continue pro ball.
Patrick Christopher, rookie out of Cal – You have to feel bad for Christopher, who seemed to have NBA potential when he was a sophomore and junior at Cal. But he did not improve as much as expected, and when he scored just two points in the Bears’ NCAA loss to Duke and did not impress anyone in the pro camp in Portsmouth, NBA teams lost interest. That was evident in the summer league. He played in only two of Detroit’s five games and he failed to score a point, going 0-for-3 in 18 total minutes of action. The D-League or foreign ball awaits. The love is gone; it’s a business now.
