Hawks sign Horford and Law

[bretski33]

... according to realgm

[DrReality]

Summer league blues

By Sekou K Smith | Monday, July 9, 2007, 12:50 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It only took two summer league games for the legions to jump off the bandwagons of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant and hop over to passing ships of Marco Belinelli and Yi Jianlian.

The two American teenagers haven’t blown the world away in Vegas with their early performances. The international stars have been as good or better than advertised, which makes it a lot easier to see why certain people were so high on these guys.

One or two lousy outings during summer league play is not always a good indicator of who can or not play - I watched Qyntel Woods dominate in Salt Lake City a few years ago, and I mean dominate like an All-star would, and it never translated beyond summer league. The extremists are ready to redo the draft based on two games, of course. And that’s where the Hawks come in this week.

They’re off to Salt Lake City later this week for the Rocky Mountain Revue. The last MVP of the Revue [Marvin Williams] wont’ be with them this time. But Shelden Williams and Solomon Jones will be there and so will rookies Al Horford and Acie Law, the two guys everybody is really waiting to see in game action.

Neither of those guys needs to set the world on fire to impress me. They need to handle their business. But winning MVP honors isn’t necessary for me to stay a believer in either of these guys. Granted, I said the same things about Shelden last summer and then he had a really up and down rookie season. This time is a bit different.

I’m looking for other things from Horford and Law. With Horford, I need to see how strong of a post presence he is against professional players. I need to see if what he showed us at Florida translates. For Law, I only need to see if he can be the facilitator the Hawks will need him to be (in whatever capacity) this season. I know he’s a deadeye shooter and as clutch a college player as there has been in these past few drafts. But can he run the show?

I think that’s what we all need to see (and a little bit more never hurts).

[Hawk88]

Summer League, are these folks kidding.

Marvin Willaims even looks good in summer league and we all know what happens during the regular season.

I would put zero wait into these games, unless of course Law and Horford start putting up 30 a game.

I would love to unload Marvin for Yi.

Law

Johnson

Yi

J. Smith

Horford

Very green but I like it.

[Hawk88]

Does anyone still have the link to the long video of Horford?

[Sothron]

I agree 100% about SL games not really meaning anything. Especially for big men.

[capstone21]

To give you an idea how important SL is: Ostertag outplayed Duncan in the summer leagues.

[coachx]

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I agree 100% about SL games not really meaning anything. Especially for big men.

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Exactly. Summer league is just a time for scorers to show out. (Slasher will get like 25 free throw attempts b/c it takes 10 fouls to foul out.) Guys who's strength is scoring like: Marvin Williams, Woods, and Yi show out. Guys who have good over all game, solid rebounding, and good defense do well but don't stand out b/c scoring the ball is not their forte. Then in the NBA guys like Yi, Woods, and Marvin find out they are not the match up problem they were in summer league. In fact they are now the ones getting abused on the defensive end of the floor.

The wings are ball hogging so much to draw attention to themselves the bigs are left to fight for post position and rebounds. Ah......the quitet dirty work we contiually forget about but desperately need.

Law should make it a point to feed the post every trip down. At least Salim won't be there to prevent Law from running a real offense through the post.

To the people who think Law is just a Salim clone.....get ready for a pleasant suprise. Law has real PGs skills.

[Diesel]

Like I say every year...

The summer league is only good for lookign at a players footwork, a players passing ability, and how a player defends one on one. The problem with SL is that the play is too disconnected and players are out for Self most of the time. The Chinese National team is the closest thing looking like a team that we have seen in several years.

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

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It only took two summer league games for the legions to jump off the bandwagons of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant and hop over to passing ships of Marco Belinelli and Yi Jianlian.

The two American teenagers haven’t blown the world away in Vegas with their early performances. The international stars have been as good or better than advertised, which makes it a lot easier to see why certain people were so high on these guys.

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It would appear that someone who at least has a professional (exclusives and coverage) reason to side with the Hawk's management/ownership is willing to acknowledge the good play of Yi.

All the irrational belly-aching about Yi's play as a "defense" of the Horford draft selection would seem in contrast to Sekou.

W

[Diesel]

I think there will be a much different tone about Yi once the Hawks begin playing.

I think too things will happen.

Shelden will pick up where he left off and Horford won't be bad, but if the Yi haters dare pick apart Horford's game the way that they have picked apart Yi's game, it won't be nice.

THE OTHER THING...

We're playing Utah a lot. I think they have a squad.

Dee Brown, Morris Almond, Ronnie Brewer, Paul Milsap, and Araujo.

Araujo is Mr. Roid Rage!!

Dee Brown vs. Law!!!

[BusBoyIsBack]

Yeah Horford may have to go up against Milsap.

That could be an interesting matchup

Milsap may be the next big thing.

He led the NCAA in rebounding 3 straight years.

Funny thing is he's a big guy from LA Tech who got drafted by Utah.

Sound familiar?

I won't be dissapointed if Milsap gets the best of Horford but I will be dissapointed if Law doesn't abuse Dee Brown.

He's got like 5 inches on that midget

[Guest Walter]

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if the Yi haters dare pick apart Horford's game the way that they have picked apart Yi's game, it won't be nice.

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Especially his game at center. Won't be nice at all. But Horford at center is getting the "free pass" treatment MW and SW got. Nobody seriously, critically assessed this on this site. It's not only a HUGE question mark, but it is unlikely that Horford can play NBA center 82 games a year and even if he can doing so will severely diminish his prospects as it would just about any prototypical Pf.

W

[killa3312]

Well, one thing's for certain, Horford won't be going 5-25 any time soon. Yi did one impressive thing yesterday (hit the game winning shot over a 6'5 player), but was invisible most of the game and shot horribly (once again) from the floor. I won't even bring up his 2-14 performance the day before.

[DJ_Money]

I don't expect for Horford to have a huge scoring output in SL. No reason for him to not dominate on the glass, though.

I think Law is a guy who will put up a lot of shots at the RMR. If they're going in, he looks good. I'd love to see him be a distributor, but that's not so easy to do playing with guys you've practiced with for a week, and some of whom will be playing in a far off land very soon.

[gsuteke]

Sekou obviously hasn't watched any games either.

[gsuteke]

Quote:

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I don't expect for Horford to have a huge scoring output in SL. No reason for him to not dominate on the glass, though.

I think Law is a guy who will put up a lot of shots at the RMR. If they're going in, he looks good. I'd love to see him be a distributor, but that's not so easy to do playing with guys you've practiced with for a week, and some of whom will be playing in a far off land very soon.

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i wish the Hawks had sent Salim to play in the SL to get some time at PG.

[BusBoyIsBack]

Quote:

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I don't expect for Horford to have a huge scoring output in SL. No reason for him to not dominate on the glass, though.

I think Law is a guy who will put up a lot of shots at the RMR. If they're going in, he looks good. I'd love to see him be a distributor, but that's not so easy to do playing with guys you've practiced with for a week, and some of whom will be playing in a far off land very soon.

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My only question is will Horford start

It will be very lame if Solomon and Shelden get PT over him just because of their rank

It would be cool if Law and Horford were both starters because they could create some chemistry

[Guest Walter]

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I won't be dissapointed if Milsap gets the best of Horford but I will be dissapointed if Law doesn't abuse Dee Brown.

He's got like 5 inches on that midget

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I will mind if our 11th pick Pg prospect, Law, does worse than a 2nd rd Pg...because Law is taller.

I won't mind if our 3rd overall pick CENTER prospect Horford does worse than a 2nd rd Pf...because...

WHAT THE [censored]?!?

Shouldn't our 3rd overall pick have TWICE the talent of any 2nd rd Pf?

Shouldn't our "center" prospect "have 5" on that midget" Pf?

And you wouldn't mind it when you would mind the same but less regarding Law?

A clear double standard in favor of Horford. A clear underwhelming "support" for the Horford pick. If you believe in Horford don't start making excuses for him not playing better than a mid 2nd rder, midget Pf when he's supposed to be our CENTER prospect. Especially not when you list height advantage for Law as a reason to NOT make an excuse for him.

If Horford can't manhandle Milsap, then playing center in the NBA is OUT OF THE QUESTION!

[killa3312]

Quote:

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Quote:

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I won't be dissapointed if Milsap gets the best of Horford but I will be dissapointed if Law doesn't abuse Dee Brown.

He's got like 5 inches on that midget

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I will mind if our 11th pick Pg prospect, Law, does worse than a 2nd rd Pg...because Law is taller.

I won't mind if our 3rd overall pick CENTER prospect Horford does worse than a 2nd rd Pf...because...

WHAT THE [censored]?!?

Shouldn't our 3rd overall pick have TWICE the talent of any 2nd rd Pf?

Shouldn't our "center" prospect "have 5" on that midget" Pf?

And you wouldn't mind it when you would mind the same but less regarding Law?

A clear double standard in favor of Horford. A clear underwhelming "support" for the Horford pick. If you believe in Horford don't start making excuses for him not playing better than a mid 2nd rder, midget Pf when he's supposed to be our CENTER prospect. Especially not when you list height advantage for Law as a reason to NOT make an excuse for him.

If Horford can't manhandle Milsap, then playing center in the NBA is OUT OF THE QUESTION!

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Dwight Howard was abused by Diop in his first SL game. Tim Duncan was abused by Ostertag, and Oden was badly outplayed by Leon Powe. Paul Milsap is better than all those players. The point he was trying to make is, the NBA game is a big adjustment, and on top of being a four year starter in college, Millsap also has a year of NBA experience and is a very strong player. If Horford struggled somewhat, it wouldn't be a huge shocker. Not at all.

[gsuteke]

if you can play you can play. you shouldn't look like a fool in SL play against a bunch of scrubs. people have bad games, but for the most part you should be able to hold your own over the course of the week.

on the flip side there are some players (see Dion Glover) who will look alot better than they actually are in SL play due to the inferior competition.

that being said your play should only go up overall in SL play, not down.