brooks1957 Posted July 15, 2023 Share Posted July 15, 2023 Cavs defeat the Bulls to finish the first portion of the SL slate undefeated. They advance to the semifinals on Sunday, and with a win - the championship on Monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candyman93 Posted July 16, 2023 Share Posted July 16, 2023 Quote The Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury are moving forward with putting their games on free broadcast television after their regional sports network partner declined to match the competing offer. The convention-changing move had been blocked by a bankruptcy court judge this spring after the teams announced their decision to end a longtime partnership with Bally Sports Arizona, whose parent company filed for Chapter 11 in March. But the transition now has the go-ahead after Bally Sports, which had sued to enforce a matching rights clause in the expired contract, let a Thursday deadline pass to do so. https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/38011984/suns-mercury-moving-forward-free-air-tv-deal Slowly but surely, cable will die. NBA needs to just follow the NFL model and partner with NBC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candyman93 Posted July 16, 2023 Share Posted July 16, 2023 Love his shooting 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterCallSaul Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 2 hours ago, candyman93 said: Love his shooting He looks like exactly what we need. It’s summer league, but that shooting translates. He will be even more open than he is now. God I hope he develops some defensive abilities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETSGOBROWNIES Posted July 17, 2023 Author Share Posted July 17, 2023 10 hours ago, BetterCallSaul said: He looks like exactly what we need. It’s summer league, but that shooting translates. He will be even more open than he is now. God I hope he develops some defensive abilities. What’s interesting is he’s always been “the man” on every team he’s been on and always had the focus of opposing coaches and players. With the Cavs he’s going to be just a dude and should get lots of open looks with guys like Garland, Mobley and Mitchell drawing defenses. The game obv won’t be easier in the league, but his role sure should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterCallSaul Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 1 hour ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said: The game obv won’t be easier in the league, but his role sure should be. Precisely. He is gonna get exposed defensively when he is on the floor and punished on switches. He needs to add weight and improve his atrocious defensive awareness. I think he tries on defense, but he doesn’t look like he really knows how to play. Consistently out of position and plays extremely high. Has upside as a defender if he can devote himself fully to that. Bates with defense = superstar. Unlikely he ever figures that part out, but if he does…hot damn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETSGOBROWNIES Posted July 17, 2023 Author Share Posted July 17, 2023 1 hour ago, BetterCallSaul said: Precisely. He is gonna get exposed defensively when he is on the floor and punished on switches. He needs to add weight and improve his atrocious defensive awareness. I think he tries on defense, but he doesn’t look like he really knows how to play. Consistently out of position and plays extremely high. Has upside as a defender if he can devote himself fully to that. Bates with defense = superstar. Unlikely he ever figures that part out, but if he does…hot damn. The thing about defense is nearly anyone can be competent if they try. Like, learn basic defensive principles regarding positioning, switching, spacing, communication, etc and you can be decent. Guys like Heinrich, Korver, etc who have no more athleticism than Bates were solid defenders because they understood the fundamentals. Will Bates get there? Who knows, but it’s not impossible by any means. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkronsWitness Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 (edited) 13 hours ago, BetterCallSaul said: He looks like exactly what we need. It’s summer league, but that shooting translates. He will be even more open than he is now. God I hope he develops some defensive abilities. He seems much more in control as the games have went along. The first game was a chuck fest, but it seems like he has improved/getting used to playing IN an offense and not being THE offense the past few games. Almost like he is settling into his role as the guy who moves around the arc and shoots when it gets swung to him. I have high hopes, but man is he a moldable ball of clay right now. Its like he has so much natural scoring/shooting ability but has no idea how to best use any of it yet. For the defense, his effort has been there and thats all you can ask. He can be a league average defender with effort alone simply because of his size/wingspan on the perimeter. There is a difference in being a intelligent defender and a willing defender. Right now he is working on being a willing defender, the intelligent part is going to have to come with a looot of reps. Edited July 17, 2023 by AkronsWitness 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malibuspeedrace Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Hang the banner!!! is anyone else super pumped for the parade? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdrawkcab321 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 When’s the parade? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonanza23 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 14 hours ago, malibuspeedrace said: Hang the banner!!! is anyone else super pumped for the parade? I can’t lie, I love summer league and I’ve always wanted a summer league championship! 🥳 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FGK Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 That was a super fun summer league for us. Winning and being undefeated obviously is fun, but much more so, a lot of our young guys looked great. We've got our stars (Mitchell, Mobley, Garland, Allen?), we need role players now. And we had, legitimately, 4-5 guys who looked like they at least have a chance to do that. Mobley - Looked fantastic. Looked too mature to be out there at times honestly. Like, I think this is our answer for the 3rd center behind Allen and Jones this year. Bates - His shooting was on for the second half of the tournament, but much more importantly, he seemed like he was actually really committing to playing within a system. He actually had a couple "hold up" passes in the final game that were amazing. If he can put on 15 pounds this year and get experience playing real defense, he could be a real threat as a three point shooter and overall scorer, like a wing Lou Williams. And that would be crazy good for us. Porter - Just a great view of the court, tough guy, really ran the system well, we don't need extra guard depth right now, but having him in the G league and available as a break glass in case of emergency guy is nice. Merrill - We need shooting, he's a knock down shooter, candidate for the 15th roster spot, but also a guy with a real shot to develop into a bench shooter in the long run. Travers - Played good defense in the last game, looking forward to seeing how he develops in the G league this year. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterCallSaul Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Very encouraging summer league. Bates is literally a perfect fit for where we got him & can help us right now. I think there are 4 dudes who could be playing real significant minutes for us in the future with Merrill, Bates, Travers, and Mobley. I like Porter, but his skill set doesn’t seem made for the NBA. He lacks the size and athleticism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkronsWitness Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 (edited) On 7/18/2023 at 3:37 PM, FGK said: That was a super fun summer league for us. Winning and being undefeated obviously is fun, but much more so, a lot of our young guys looked great. We've got our stars (Mitchell, Mobley, Garland, Allen?), we need role players now. And we had, legitimately, 4-5 guys who looked like they at least have a chance to do that. Mobley - Looked fantastic. Looked too mature to be out there at times honestly. Like, I think this is our answer for the 3rd center behind Allen and Jones this year. Bates - His shooting was on for the second half of the tournament, but much more importantly, he seemed like he was actually really committing to playing within a system. He actually had a couple "hold up" passes in the final game that were amazing. If he can put on 15 pounds this year and get experience playing real defense, he could be a real threat as a three point shooter and overall scorer, like a wing Lou Williams. And that would be crazy good for us. Porter - Just a great view of the court, tough guy, really ran the system well, we don't need extra guard depth right now, but having him in the G league and available as a break glass in case of emergency guy is nice. Merrill - We need shooting, he's a knock down shooter, candidate for the 15th roster spot, but also a guy with a real shot to develop into a bench shooter in the long run. Travers - Played good defense in the last game, looking forward to seeing how he develops in the G league this year. Merrill is the guy that I'm looking at saying why is he not on the roster. He seems like the guy we wanted Windler to be or become and the type of guy we would pay if he were on the open market. The best part about him is everyone knows his shot is dangerous so I saw so many hard closeouts on him, opening up space for everyone else. He also has a game bigger than just being a shooter, which is great to see. He had some nice drives when they overcommitted on the closeouts. He is the type of shooter the Cavs have been missing on the wing I would really like for him to get a contract and be that 10th-12th guy on the bench that comes in for 10min a game and gets 3-5 shots up. We complain that we need shooting and he's right there. Bring him up! Let him take those Danny Green mins from last year Edited July 21, 2023 by AkronsWitness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterCallSaul Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 29 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said: He also has a game bigger than just being a shooter, which is great to see. ehhh not for the real NBA. Which again, I am fine with. He's going to make the roster...that's like a 100% guarantee. IMO. PG: Garland/Rubio/Jerome SG: Mitchell/LeVert/Merrill SF: Strus/Okoro/Bates PF: Mobley/Niang/Wade C; Allen/Jones/Mobley Not even sure who else would be in consideration for making the final 15. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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