Vegas Summer League: 7/16 Cavs vs. Mavericks 10:00PM EST *Link to Video*

[camakazee]

I disagree. The D-League is the same place where Darnell Jackson was dropping 25 points a game when he went down there. Plus, teaching and exposing this kid to the English language is a key component in my opinion.

We need him here in the U.S., if we let him back to Spain he could potentially get tied into one of those ridiculous buy-out situations, and his exposure to the team and the language and culture will be limited. Now that he's here, he should stay.

But I think they're two completely different situations.

With Jackson, you're talking about a 23 year old who had no problem taking 11 shots in his first summer league game, despite making only 3 of them. Eyenga played four more minutes tonight than Jackson did in that first game, yet only had 5 shot attempts (and only made one less fg than Jackson!).

Jackson came into this league as a four year starter at a major university fresh off of a national championship. He knew how to do the little things, he knew had to bang for rebounds, he knew the game of basketball. What he needed to do was go to the D League, be the guy and score a shit-ton of points by dominating the ball, proving he could provide some scoring should the Cavaliers call upon him in the regular season. Eyenga still is unsure of the offensive game and is very tentative at times. He can't be the guy and take a shit ton of shots because he's still quite unfamiliar with the game. And even if we could put the ball in his hands at all times, forcing him to run the show, he won't learn how to play off the ball. Jackson knew he wouldn't have the ball in his hands nearly as much with the Cavs as he did with the Bayhawks. Eyenga needs to learn how to effectively play off of the ball in order to be valuable to this team. Once again, something Jackson learned in four years at Kansas, something Eyenga has yet to do.

I just feel as though the D League would set this kid back in terms of learning an NBA offense, seeing how those games are run. The D League is great for a kid who already knows a lot about basketball, but needs to get comfortable scoring against "NBA defenses." It was a great stint last year for Jawad Williams who averaged 25.7 points per game on 21 shots per game. But how many shots does that leave everyone else? And as I said before, even if Eyenga's the one taking all those shots, he doesn't have the experience or BBIQ of Jawad Williams and won't learn a damn thing about what we'll need him to do within our system when he gets called up.

The one thing I do see as a positive is the practice he could get with the Cavaliers given the proximity of the two teams. I just don't think that makes up for the lack of learning he'd get in the NBA D League.

You are very right about the buyout overseas, however, which is my greatest concern. Not too many teams will be willing to sign a guy whose rights are already obtained and could be snatched away at any time without a ridiculously high buyout. I only hope Danny could pull off some magic and convince a respectable Euroleague team to take a waiver on him, almost as a favor to Ferry. But all in all, I just don't see the D League as the right fit for a young kid with so much to learn about the game of basketball.

 

[Douglar]

I have not read through this thread but here are some random thoughts about todays game:

Wally Szczerbiak's dad was at the game today. No sign of Wally.

Luke Jackson had two black eyes. I guess he's been told twice that he doesn't belong in the NBA.

Eyenga is one hell of an athlete and seems to have the right mix of desire mixed with a willingness to let the game come to him. He looked a little passive and lost some timesand has language problems, but he didn't let it get to him. He was just trying to play team basketball, which is good in my opinion. He blocks out. He cuts to the hoop and looks for passes. He jumps out of the gym. Chris Jent was doing lots of gesturing to try and tell him what to do. I was told that today the Cavs were trying to see how Christian looked on the perimeter, so they were playing him in the corner a lot on offense. That kind of sucked because the team lacks any sort of play making point guard, he was was out of the piture for most of the game. But to sum up his effortless athleticism, at one point he came down on someones foot, fell over backwards, and practically did a reverse handspring to get back on his feet. I don't know if that showed up on the TV coverage but it was impressive as hell in person.

Concerned about Danny Green's quickness and general athleticism. He looked stiff and a 1/2 step slow to me.

Harrison was a pile of trash for most of the game. I think Dallas's Nevil got hurt and that's the only reason Harrison looked good in the 4th.

Darnell didn't impress. Jawad looks solid and actually looked like an NBA player at times.

But there 10 million fouls and the game was generally painful to watch, so with a minute to go, I left to go watch Griffin vs. Thabeet at the Mac.

 

[QuadrupleDouble]

Luke Jackson had two black eyes. I guess he's been told twice that he doesn't belong in the NBA.


Love it

Thanks for that recap. I only got to watch a minute of the game because my link wasn't working.

I'm really dissapointed that Darnell isn't tearing it up out there. I really liked what i saw when he played during the season, and I would hope a player of his experience would now dominate summer league game.

It cracks me up to think about all the people who clammoring for TK to come in and be our starter or even our backup. I think he's showing why he can't crack MB's lineup.

I'll even go as far as to say that he would make Sasha look like MJ out there against a summer league team.

Does anyone think that Boobie would still benefit from summer league games anymore?

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Good recap, Douglar. I lost my link after only about 10 minutes. From what I have seen so far, I think the more we have Eyenga around NBA players, the better. Eyenga appears to be a willing learner, but sometimes gets frustrated by his teammates inability/unwillingness to create a flow in the offense.

I would love to see Eyenga get some run with the vets of the real Cavs team. Then ship him over to Erie where he can build upon that and master the language.

I honestly do not see any way they let this kid back to Europe.

 

[Grayson]

<script src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/.element/js/1.1/xmp/module.js?vid=/video/games/cavaliers/2009/07/16/nba_dal_cle_1520900035_recap.nba" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript>Embedded video from <a href="http://www.nba.com/video">NBA Video</a></noscript>

 

[Three6Pavia]

I just want to know where Eyenga is playing this year.

European basketball might provide more playing time under a structured offense, but the game isn't exactly played the same way in Europe as the NBA. There might be some value to having Eyenga as our 15th roster spot and getting to practice with actual NBA talent.

He would certainly know our system like the back of his hand by the time he is ready to contribute.

 

[Cavatt]

I have not read through this thread but here are some random thoughts about todays game:

Wally Szczerbiak's dad was at the game today. No sign of Wally.

Luke Jackson had two black eyes. I guess he's been told twice that he doesn't belong in the NBA.

Eyenga is one hell of an athlete and seems to have the right mix of desire mixed with a willingness to let the game come to him. He looked a little passive and lost some timesand has language problems, but he didn't let it get to him. He was just trying to play team basketball, which is good in my opinion. He blocks out. He cuts to the hoop and looks for passes. He jumps out of the gym. Chris Jent was doing lots of gesturing to try and tell him what to do. I was told that today the Cavs were trying to see how Christian looked on the perimeter, so they were playing him in the corner a lot on offense. That kind of sucked because the team lacks any sort of play making point guard, he was was out of the piture for most of the game. But to sum up his effortless athleticism, at one point he came down on someones foot, fell over backwards, and practically did a reverse handspring to get back on his feet. I don't know if that showed up on the TV coverage but it was impressive as hell in person.

Concerned about Danny Green's quickness and general athleticism. He looked stiff and a 1/2 step slow to me.

Harrison was a pile of trash for most of the game. I think Dallas's Nevil got hurt and that's the only reason Harrison looked good in the 4th.

Darnell didn't impress. Jawad looks solid and actually looked like an NBA player at times.

But there 10 million fouls and the game was generally painful to watch, so with a minute to go, I left to go watch Griffin vs. Thabeet at the Mac.

I was wondering if Danny Green isn't hurt. His minutes have been really low and he did look slower than in other games.

Jawad is pretty big and he can guard the perimeter. I am starting to think that he would have been the better guy to use against Orlando. He shot a lot better in the 2nd half last game. Looks like he might be a guy that needs the ball a lot to score.

I thought Kinsey was a lot better than this based on his playing time in the NBA. One thing is for sure if we ever want to foul someone out make TK go at him.

 

[TJ Detweiler]

Kinsey's like that kid on the playground that thinks he's Hot Sauce but just hits himself in the sack whenever he tries a sick crossover.

:headbang::headbang: