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2012 Cavs Summer League

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DELONTEizDad said:
What's going on with Thompson? Why isn't he playing more?
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I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing because Thompson has looked bad in his minutes. Frankly, he's by far my biggest concern coming out of summer league so far.

Tristan looks like a mess when he has the ball inside against any sort of contest. Fumbles the ball, hesitates, and then doesn't seem to have the strength to explode thru contact. For all his athleticism he doesn't seem to have the agility and the strength to actually use to it's potential.

I'm hoping we see more out of him in the remaining summer league games
 
Yeah Tristan has not looked good at all to me. He seems more physical but other then that he's not showing much improvement. During last season the homer in me wanted Tristan to be really good but I'm really starting to second guess the Cavs draft plan in drafting him especially at 4. He's not über athletic and does nothing on offense besides put backs. He's really an Anderson Varejao at best but Varejao at least has an offensive touch around the basket. I know it's only summer league but for a #4 pick in his second year to not put up numbers against lesser big men is troubling IMO.
 
I'm also curious about his minutes. He only played 8 tonight. Maybe he's still a little banged up.
 
TT tries to be too smart with the ball. Off an offensive board he pump fakes and pivots expecting a shotblocker and turns into another defender. I think if he was to just land get 3 points of contact on the ball and then explode upwards then he would get fouled at the very least. His main issue is he has massive hands but struggles to grip the ball for some reason. He loses the ball so easily. If he can fix that then he'll be fine. He is not goign to be more than a 10ppg player this year.

I still don't consider him a bust as no one below him is any good either. I was speaking to a friend last night who went to school with jonas and he said he is not as good as advertised and has struggled in the lithuanian team this summer, for what it s worth
 
Tris played one game and a quarter. He looked alright to me. Once he gain more muscle and strength, I think he'll be fine.
 
red. said:
Tris played one game and a quarter. He looked alright to me. Once he gain more muscle and strength, I think he'll be fine.
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*Once he doesn't suck at basketball, I think he'll be fine.
 
red. said:
Tris played one game and a quarter. He looked alright to me. Once he gain more muscle and strength, I think he'll be fine.
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I didn't think he looked bad out there. His D was good, Morris hit maybe two really tough shots over him. I think last game he nabbed 4 boards in 8 minutes, which isn't shabby. I don't know what people are expecting out of him at this point. Did people really expect a full offensive repertoire? It took Andy years to develop his touch around the basket. It's going to take time for TT to fully develop. Patience. TT has the physical tools, the IQ, and the work ethic to succeed in this league. At the very least he is going to be a very decent defender and rebounder, and i don't think anybody doubts that.
 
The only thing i can make out of trstan from his short time on the court is that looks like hell be a very good rebounder. I cant make too much out of his offense bcuz not a single perimiter player on this squad can make an entry pass, so hes barely had any touches in the post
 
Rich said:
The only thing i can make out of trstan from his short time on the court is that looks like hell be a very good rebounder. I cant make too much out of his offense bcuz not a single perimiter player on this squad can make an entry pass, so hes barely had any touches in the post
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Great point. Summer league turns into a lot of one on one, with poor off the ball movement, because they just haven't had enough time to work together and develop a consistent offense. That's going to make guys who can create their own shot, or dominate one on one, look good, but the "glue" guys who do all the dirty little things in the flow of a game look worse.

TT really is most suited to the traditional weak side rebounding position that PF's used to have before it became more of a skilled offensive position. Still, the dude has to learn not to get so many of his shots blocked. Either get it up more quickly, or kick it out faster.
 
Rich said:
The only thing i can make out of trstan from his short time on the court is that looks like hell be a very good rebounder. I cant make too much out of his offense bcuz not a single perimiter player on this squad can make an entry pass, so hes barely had any touches in the post
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He's just so rudimentary in the few times he does catch it down there. He doesn't even show flashes of anything anymore. It truly appears to me that he's regressed since the start of his rookie year, where we at least saw him attempt to attack the hoop with a fairly quick first step and pretty aggressive move directly toward the hoop, rather than his patented escape from pressure across the paint to the twisting one-handed jumper (not a true hook) bullshit. No footwork, no strength, and absolutely atrocious ball-control... it looks like the thing's covered in grease when it's in his hands.

He is currently awful at utilizing what athleticism he has, never really exploding upwards when there's a defender even ostensibly in his vicinity. Is that weakness, lack of suddenness in his jumping ability, a mental block, a combination of all, or none of the above? I don't know, but I do know that I'm caring less than I used to.

There are just so many things that he would have to improve on immensely to ever become anything more than serviceable. This is just summer league, but just look at guys like Markieff Morris, Kenneth Faried, hell, even Sammy Samuels, and how they move while playing -- it's so much more confident and there is more evidence of basketball-oriented coordination and ability, and none of them are even that good. Tristan's unveiling of his new jumper last night, where he took an awkward dribble, suddenly realized he wanted to shoot, went up off-balance, and got swatted, was particularly hard to watch. Tristan's defense has not looked especially impressive against scrubs, especially given that he has a year of defending in the NBA under his belt. He's not blocking shots or protecting the rim all that well. He can board, so I guess there's that, but is that all we want out of our starting PF?

There are players picked after him that I would have rather had on that draft night and that I would rather have right now, though there are only a scant few about whom I can say both of those things. But that's not really even the point. Currently, I'm just kind of disappointed that I can't imagine our #4 pick last year being any sort of special player in this league in any way, not thinking about the specific draft, but just generally as a "I wish we had gotten another stud in the top 5" kind of way. I'm rooting for him to prove me wrong, but I'm finding it harder and harder to have any sort of reasonable hopes that he will.
 
narbar32 said:
He's just so rudimentary in the few times he does catch it down there. He doesn't even show flashes of anything anymore. It truly appears to me that he's regressed since the start of his rookie year, where we at least saw him attempt to attack the hoop with a fairly quick first step and pretty aggressive move directly toward the hoop, rather than his patented escape from pressure across the paint to the twisting one-handed jumper (not a true hook) bullshit. No footwork, no strength, and absolutely atrocious ball-control... it looks like the thing's covered in grease when it's in his hands.

He is currently awful at utilizing what athleticism he has, never really exploding upwards when there's a defender even ostensibly in his vicinity. Is that weakness, lack of suddenness in his jumping ability, a mental block, a combination of all, or none of the above? I don't know, but I do know that I'm caring less than I used to.

There are just so many things that he would have to improve on immensely to ever become anything more than serviceable. This is just summer league, but just look at guys like Markieff Morris, Kenneth Faried, hell, even Sammy Samuels, and how they move while playing -- it's so much more confident and there is more evidence of basketball-oriented coordination and ability, and none of them are even that good. Tristan's unveiling of his new jumper last night, where he took an awkward dribble, suddenly realized he wanted to shoot, went up off-balance, and got swatted, was particularly hard to watch. Tristan's defense has not looked especially impressive against scrubs, especially given that he has a year of defending in the NBA under his belt. He's not blocking shots or protecting the rim all that well. He can board, so I guess there's that, but is that all we want out of our starting PF?

There are players picked after him that I would have rather had on that draft night and that I would rather have right now, though there are only a scant few about whom I can say both of those things. But that's not really even the point. Currently, I'm just kind of disappointed that I can't imagine our #4 pick last year being any sort of special player in this league in any way, not thinking about the specific draft, but just generally as a "I wish we had gotten another stud in the top 5" kind of way. I'm rooting for him to prove me wrong, but I'm finding it harder and harder to have any sort of reasonable hopes that he will.
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But but hollinger had him rated so high last year? Oh no whats happening??? Surely he should be a stud, right?

Sadly, jonas v will probably do a lot better in his career.
 
narbar32 said:
He's just so rudimentary in the few times he does catch it down there. He doesn't even show flashes of anything anymore. It truly appears to me that he's regressed since the start of his rookie year, where we at least saw him attempt to attack the hoop with a fairly quick first step and pretty aggressive move directly toward the hoop, rather than his patented escape from pressure across the paint to the twisting one-handed jumper (not a true hook) bullshit. No footwork, no strength, and absolutely atrocious ball-control... it looks like the thing's covered in grease when it's in his hands.
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Whoa man, this is summer league. Towards the end of last season TT looked like he was progressing JUST FINE. Just because he's taken the summer off, and isn't tearing summer league apart does not at all mean he has regressed. The dude sucked against Charlotte, but since then he's played 8 minutes.

Save the real judgements for when the season starts. I realize a lot of us were expecting to crush everyone in summer league, but even if we don't it, there's still training camp, preseason, and early season to work through before we can really see how any players from last year have progressed.

I'm not the biggest TT supporter either, but this is getting out of control.
 
Sez said:
But but hollinger had him rated so high last year? Oh no whats happening??? Surely he should be a stud, right?

Sadly, jonas v will probably do a lot better in his career.
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Him? Again? Come on.
 
narbar32 said:
He's just so rudimentary in the few times he does catch it down there. He doesn't even show flashes of anything anymore. It truly appears to me that he's regressed since the start of his rookie year, where we at least saw him attempt to attack the hoop with a fairly quick first step and pretty aggressive move directly toward the hoop, rather than his patented escape from pressure across the paint to the twisting one-handed jumper (not a true hook) bullshit. No footwork, no strength, and absolutely atrocious ball-control... it looks like the thing's covered in grease when it's in his hands.

He is currently awful at utilizing what athleticism he has, never really exploding upwards when there's a defender even ostensibly in his vicinity. Is that weakness, lack of suddenness in his jumping ability, a mental block, a combination of all, or none of the above? I don't know, but I do know that I'm caring less than I used to.

There are just so many things that he would have to improve on immensely to ever become anything more than serviceable. This is just summer league, but just look at guys like Markieff Morris, Kenneth Faried, hell, even Sammy Samuels, and how they move while playing -- it's so much more confident and there is more evidence of basketball-oriented coordination and ability, and none of them are even that good. Tristan's unveiling of his new jumper last night, where he took an awkward dribble, suddenly realized he wanted to shoot, went up off-balance, and got swatted, was particularly hard to watch. Tristan's defense has not looked especially impressive against scrubs, especially given that he has a year of defending in the NBA under his belt. He's not blocking shots or protecting the rim all that well. He can board, so I guess there's that, but is that all we want out of our starting PF?

There are players picked after him that I would have rather had on that draft night and that I would rather have right now, though there are only a scant few about whom I can say both of those things. But that's not really even the point. Currently, I'm just kind of disappointed that I can't imagine our #4 pick last year being any sort of special player in this league in any way, not thinking about the specific draft, but just generally as a "I wish we had gotten another stud in the top 5" kind of way. I'm rooting for him to prove me wrong, but I'm finding it harder and harder to have any sort of reasonable hopes that he will.
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Are we really going to subscribe to this kind of disappointment in TT after 1.2 summer league games?

I disagree with your assessment of his defense.
 
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