Did anyone catch last night's game on NBATV....

[MoonKnight]

It was our first summer league game against Utah. I was impresssed with Marvin and his aggressive play (at least for most of the game). I was glad to see him get upset after Rafeal's dirty play. He was everything you have read about in the written articles about the game. I was also pleasantly surprised about Shelden's play. After the poor reviews I was not expecting much from Shelden. But after watching him closely he was decent defensively. He was generally at the right place at the right time but did appear to be somewhat dazzled at the speed of the game. It is evident that he really knows how to play defense and he will certainly contribute once he adapts to the speed of the game. Whether he will justify the 5th pick overall remains to be seen (Ronnie Brewer looked very good and did remind me somewhat of JJ).

I was disappointed in Salim's first game. IMO, he still has trouble handling the rock and staying in front of his man (Deron Williams looked great in every facet of the game and blew by Salim on several occasions). I also did not see much of an improvement in his decision making as he took several wild shots at inappropriate times. As for Edwards, every one of Utah's low rent bigmen outplayed him. Even the very raw Soloman Jones at least matched Edwards' game. Outside of MW, there was not much to get excited about in this first game.

[vdunkndunk]

Thanks for the report. I'm glad to hear Shelden wasn't quite as bad as his box score suggests.

[Johnnybravo4]

I disagree on you assessment of Salim. He did take a few too many shots in the beginning but they were open for the most part, he just shot coldly in the first half (he is a streak shooter). I had no problem with his running the offense although he did have a couple of lazy turnovers. I think they played him too many minutes in the first half.

As far as his defense on Deron, he got blew by because he sought to make Deron go to his left, assuming that he had help on the inside. When he funneled him into the hole Edwards, Shelden or Solomon didn't make the defensive stop.

As far as Marvin goes I thought that he was aggressive and they could not stop him off of the dribble. I think that with a little more weight room work he could have a Lebron type game.

Shelden did pretty ok. He seemed hesitant though when he got the ball in easy put back situations. He needs to be more decisive.

I was disappointed in our teams attitude however. We have too many nice guys. Utah was ruffing up Marvin all night. Basically everytime Marvin went to the hole he hit the floor. Our players have to realize that he is the franchise pretty much. When Araujo slammed him to the floor, somebody (like Shelden or Edwards) should have cleaned his clock. Do you think that Charles Oakley or Horace Grant would have let someone slam Williams on the court like that....TWICE! I wish Este would have been there.

[er9dverk]

you make a good point about taking care of your teammates. that is the main reason i would like to have wilcox. i want a bunch of guys, like esteban, shelden and wilcox could be, that the other team just dont want to set off.

[swolehawk2]

Salim is a scorer, this staff should let him do what he does.

[Lascar78]

in that case he should never expect any role other than instant offense off the bench because he will never be able to guard 2s. If he wants a prominent role in the long run he needs to learn how to pick up at least SOME PG tendencies

[DJlaysitup]

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...When Araujo slammed him to the floor, somebody (like Shelden or Edwards) should have cleaned his clock...

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Did you see the close-ups of Araujo? We didn't have anybody at that game who coulda cleaned his clock. Este?...maybe but it'd be close. Araujo is a monster of a physical specimen. Edwards could have been killed.

[Johnnybravo4]

Have you ever seen a basketball fight? Those cats can't fight anyway. I just wanted him to get run up on. I don't care if you would win or not, somebody should have just snuck one on his azz. I don't care if it was Salim.

[DJlaysitup]

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Have you ever seen a basketball fight? Those cats can't fight anyway...

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Well you're right there...generally. But every now and then somebody gets "Tomjonaviched"...so I doubt it was worth it in an SL game.

From what I could tell, the Jazz had about a dozen aspiring PFs out there all trying to make an impression by being physical. Lotsa big bodies. Luckily they won't all make the Jazz team or get playing time when the real season rolls around.

and PS on the MW toss. MW seemed to be off balance leaning backwards and Araujo got his jersey at just the right time. It looked worse than it was. Actually Araujo was the one who took the hard elbow to the nose from MW.

[exodus]

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I disagree on you assessment of Salim.

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What a shocker!

[Johnnybravo4]

If you read the other thread you know I have an unconditional love for Salim...lol

[exodus]

Your Salim love may be approaching KB's BK love, and that can't be good.

[MoonKnight]

I do agree with you somewhat about our failure to respond to Utah's physical play. Partly that may have to do with the nature of the summer league team. Most of these guys barely know each other and may not feel the chemistry needed to protect a teammates back. If Shelden were not a rookie in his very first professional game he may have responded to Araujo. Edwards has no real excuse (though I am not sure he was on the floor during that second incident). Este could easily go toe to toe with Araujo. I still can't agree with you about Salim.

[Johnnybravo4]

Nah it ain't that bad..lol

[Plastic Man]

it didn't help that it was a home game for utah. the fans were cheering the dirty play and booing marv from aruajo's ejection til the end. marv seemed to feed off the jazz crowd's intensity and was resilient.

grundy was decent. bozeman didn't impress me at all. john ed looked lost. shelden was extremely timid on offense. but it was only 1 game. i think there's another on tonight.

[DJlaysitup]

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...shelden was extremely timid on offense. but it was only 1 game. i think there's another on tonight.

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I think Shelden did have some offensive troubles...mostly due to just being outnumbered in the paint. He had Edwards in there with him a lot of the time (aaaarrggh), and MW was out on the wing a lot. Jazz were pumping in a fresh 6'9" PF every other minute or so it seemed.

That's not to say that I think SW will turn it around instantly...it'll take some time for him to become a competitive nba PF. But it will help a lot when he doesn't have to line up next to Edwards.

[Plainview1981]

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It was our first summer league game against Utah. I was impresssed with Marvin and his aggressive play (at least for most of the game). I was glad to see him get upset after Rafeal's dirty play. He was everything you have read about in the written articles about the game. I was also pleasantly surprised about Shelden's play. After the poor reviews I was not expecting much from Shelden. But after watching him closely he was decent defensively. He was generally at the right place at the right time but did appear to be somewhat dazzled at the speed of the game. It is evident that he really knows how to play defense and he will certainly contribute once he adapts to the speed of the game. Whether he will justify the 5th pick overall remains to be seen (Ronnie Brewer looked very good and did remind me somewhat of JJ).

I was disappointed in Salim's first game. IMO, he still has trouble handling the rock and staying in front of his man (Deron Williams looked great in every facet of the game and blew by Salim on several occasions). I also did not see much of an improvement in his decision making as he took several wild shots at inappropriate times. As for Edwards, every one of Utah's low rent bigmen outplayed him. Even the very raw Soloman Jones at least matched Edwards' game. Outside of MW, there was not much to get excited about in this first game.

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I watched some of the game.... I didn't get to see but two games last year so this was one of the few times I've actually got to see Marvin.

He looks like a SF to me. Somewhere between a Jamal Mashburn and a Antwan Jamison type of player. He looks like he'd be quicker than most PF's and that's probably the reason some would want him to play the 4... But, I think he'd struggle to play defense and rebound at the 4 spot.

[NickJYD]

Whats amazing is the Hawks constantly get reemed for their bad draft picks but Araujo is basically a hatchet man and nothing else and we never hear anything about how terrible he is.

What I loved about Marvins game was his aggressiveness and his ability to play well and aggressive when the whole gym was against him. Hes gonna be a good one fellas.