# Las Vegas Summer League Thread



## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/summer_league_schedule_070703.html



Well the summer leagues in Las Vegas start on July 6th and end july 15th. I miss the days when they used to be here and I used to go. 

The Roster

No....Player.....................Pos.......Ht...........Wt..........Birthdate..............College, Yrs
3.......Luke Anderson.......G........6-6.........205........10/01/82...............Minnesota State Mankato, R
40.....Ryan Bowen............F........6-9.........218........11/20/75................Iowa, 7
22.....C*orey Brewer*..........F.........6-9........185.........03/05/86...............Florida, R
44.....Greg Brunner..........F.........6-7........245.........06/15/83...............Iowa, R
24.....Mateen Cleaves.....G.........6-2........210.........09/07/77..............Michigan State, 6
4........*Randy Foye*............G.........6-4........210..........09/09/83.............Villanova, 1
14......Quinton Hosley.....G/F.....6-6.........210..........03/25/84.............Fresno State, R
32......*Rashad McCants*..G........6-4........226...........09/25/84.............North Carolina, 2
25......*Chris Richard*.........F........6-9........255..........12/25/84..............Florida, R
11......Luke Schenscher.C........7-1........265..........12/31/82.............Georgia Tech, 2
1........*Craig Smith*............F........6-7........250..........11/10/83..............Boston College, 1

Schedule

DATE, OPPONENT, LOCATION, TIPOFF
July 9, New Orleans, Thomas and Mack, 7:30 p.m.
July 11, San Antonio, COX Pavilion (UNLV), 3:00 p.m.
July 12, L.A. Clippers, Thomas and Mack, 9:30 p.m.
July 14, Memphis, COX Pavilion (UNLV), 5:00 p.m.
July 15, Phoenix, COX, Pavilion (UNLV), 7:00 p.m. 

I think the guys with the most to prove are Richard and McCants. Richard is going to have to work hard for a spot and McCants is going to need to show he can play. I think this year will make or break McCants. McCants has not shown that he can play in the summer leagues, but has shown promise. I do doubt Foye, McCants, and Smith will play a lot. 

I am also interested to see how Cleaves and Luke Anderson play.

Thoughts? This should be interesting...


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## ScArFaCe23 (Jun 29, 2006)

I got to have tickets for this, I live in Vegas.


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## Ruff Draft (Nov 21, 2004)

Ryan Bowen & Mateen Cleaves? HAH!


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## A_12_92 (Jan 7, 2007)

very interesting summer league this year, i think we're one of the best teams here, and we'll be able to see the new gators in action, even when the SL is not the same that NBA, hope that foye keeps the good level from last year


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

I hope Ryan Bowen will not last long into the regular season.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

I doubt Foye and Smith even get minutes.... But it would be funny if our starting lineup ever game was

PG-Foye
SG- McCants
SF-Brewer
PF-Smith
C-Richard

That is the lineup I would love to see... Still, I really miss the days when the summer leagues were here in minnesota. I used to love bothering Ebi, Rickert, and McCants lol.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

Reports out of Milwaukee are saying Kammron Taylor, minnesota native, his accepted an invitation to being on the Wolves Summer League squad...


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

sheefo13 said:


> Reports out of Milwaukee are saying Kammron Taylor, minnesota native, his accepted an invitation to being on the Wolves Summer League squad...


Well, no surprise there. The Wolves are known to invite those locals over the last few years to the summer league.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

Skita and Bracey Wright are both on the Nuggets summer league team... I won't be surprised if Bracey goes off. I wish he would of played us, he would of killed us.... I think.


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

Juxtaposed said:


> Well, no surprise there. The Wolves are known to invite those locals over the last few years to the summer league.


Our entire organization is full of Minnesota alum. No wonder we stink, we decided to hitch our wagon to one of the nation's worst college basketball programs.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

According to twolves.com, McCants has actually asked to play in the summer league. I guess he is really hungry to prove himself to the league.


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## Ruff Draft (Nov 21, 2004)




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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

^ bored?


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

I think so, I was actually going to do that today but then I took a nap haha.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

well brewer scores 16 and hits the game winning lay up for a win over the hornets... very nice start.

craig smith went off for 25, no one on the hornets could stop him, too physical down low.

backcourt played like crap though unfortunately, foye and mccants look like they need more time to get in the swing of things.


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

Avalanche said:


> well brewer scores 16 and hits the game winning lay up for a win over the hornets... very nice start.
> 
> craig smith went off for 25, no one on the hornets could stop him, too physical down low.
> 
> backcourt played like crap though unfortunately, foye and mccants look like they need more time to get in the swing of things.


I read that Craig Smith couldn't stop Marcus Vinicius (sp?) of the Hornets. They moved Corey Brewer to stop Marcus and Marcus has not been that successful for the rest of that game. MV isn't a big name but he has played in the NBA before and proved that Corey Brewer can do the defense and steal the ball when he wanted to, he can.


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

Vinicius only made 2 field goals...

As usual Craig Smith just produces, and McCants doesn't. I thought McCants just said last week that we hadn't seen the real him yet, and that he was looking forward to proving his doubters wrong.... good start to that, Rashad.

Pretty typical Foye game too. Pure mediocrity. Yet people will strangely think that Foye and McCants are our two good young players. At least Brewer is living up to hype, thus far.


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

Sad thing only Brewer and Smith has showed up. Not our to be second and third year players in Foye and McCants, respectively. C'mon, maybe they seemed not to care enough playing in one.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

I think Juwan Howard is making some number changes. If you look at their summer league profiles you can see this.

Howard gets 5
C.Smith gets 1 (old college number)
McCants gets 32 (old college number)
Richard takes 25 (odd man out)


Too bad for my McCants jersey....


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

I thought he was going to take 7 since it was available. He used it with the Nuggets. What a waste of money of McCants jersey buyers.


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

Foye should take notes of what Brewer does. Brewer goes out and has a horrible shooting night, but makes up for it with great defense and dominating board work. What happens on the nights when Foye's shot isn't falling? He becomes a waste of space.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

mccants and foye redeem themselves with a win over the spurs, 22 and 17 points respectively.
smith again played well with 21.

brewer had an off shooting night but with his hustle still manages to produce, 13 rebounds in 27 minutes


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

It's nice to see Foye changing direction for the best. I'm impressed with Brewer as he was able to find himself useful in different ways than scoring. 13 rebs in about 27 minutes. They were playing up against the smaller Spurs line up, but so were we but won the rebounding title this game.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

Thus far, this team is looking good. I personally would like to see more out of McCants and Richard. Foye should be doing a little better in the assist category, but he had no turnovers in the past game. Tonight's game against the clippers should be another good test for Brewer, since he will go up against thorton. Brewer seems a little shacky on the court, seems like he is always either traveling or something like that... Third game should be a good one.


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

Two good games in a row for Foye? Is this the bizarro world?


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

Well we are going to lose tonight. Wait, this is only a summer league, I'm glad. This is good because we got to see how our youngsters play. Foye went off to a good start tonight.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

foye and smith looked solid again, mccants' shooting has been terrible so far in SL.

Brewer was average, 8 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists...


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

Craig is making a strong case for a starting spot.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

Mateo said:


> Craig is making a strong case for a starting spot.


where though, at center? i just dont think we could line him up against opposing starting C's , even if there is a lack of great ones these days.


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

Forward, center, where ever. He's more productive than the other players, so I don't see why not.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

the big 4 (foye, mccants, smith, brewer) playing well at the half against the grizzlies.... foye and smith are taking over.

brewers rebounding has been very impressive, which is great considering KG needs some help on the boards, great to see it from the SF spot considering blounts weakness in the area.


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## Blue (Jun 21, 2007)

sheefo13 said:


> Thus far, this team is looking good. I personally would like to see more out of McCants and Richard. Foye should be doing a little better in the assist category, but he had no turnovers in the past game. Tonight's game against the clippers should be another good test for Brewer, since he will go up against thorton.* Brewer seems a little shacky on the court, seems like he is always either traveling or something *like that... Third game should be a good one.


lol your right....down in gville we call him the "drunkin dribbler" cuz he always looks like he's off balanced or about to fall but alwayz manages to somehow make the play. lol that's just what makes him hard to guard tho cause he's just really deceptive with the ball.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

Power_Ballin said:


> lol your right....down in gville we call him the "drunkin dribbler" cuz he always looks like he's off balanced or about to fall but alwayz manages to somehow make the play. lol that's just what makes him hard to guard tho cause he's just really deceptive with the ball.


lol yeah i love the 'drunkin dribbler' nickname, hes very deceptive because although he looks off balance it makes him much harder to stay infront of and keep away from the basket, very unorthodox but yet also very effective.

im liking the brewer pick more and more from what im seeing


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

If the season was to start tomorrow I'd throw this lineup out there:

Foye/Jaric/Hudson
Davis/Hassell/McCants
Brewer/Jaric
Smith/Garnett/Howard
Garnett/Blount/Madsen


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

Mateo said:


> If the season was to start tomorrow I'd throw this lineup out there:
> 
> Foye/Jaric/Hudson
> Davis/Hassell/McCants
> ...


I'm all for starting Foye/Davis/Brewer...

i think just to start the season blount should remain as the starter, although smith getting equal or even more minutes, just may be hard for him to deal with guys like yao, shaq, curry, etc.... although blounts no great defender he at least has the size.

i do like what craig is doing though and he could well earn a spot by the end of the season.

really though we start 2 veterans, 2 soph's and a rookie... strange team direction


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

I think he makes a strong case for 6th man... He is not amazing defensivly yet, but could be. Hopefully he could become a more consistent rebounder too. But he is obviously showing that he can score a lot, but if he would be a starter he is going to need to rebound and defend a 4 or 5. I think Smith though is a scoring big guy who actually can feed off of KG, which is not always the case. 

On the other hand, Brewer is showing us that he is a beast on the defensive boards. He is def going to help our fast break game.

McCants, unimpressive....


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

sheefo13 said:


> I think he makes a strong case for 6th man... He is not amazing defensivly yet, but could be. Hopefully he could become a more consistent rebounder too. But he is obviously showing that he can score a lot, but if he would be a starter he is going to need to rebound and defend a 4 or 5. I think Smith though is a scoring big guy who actually can feed off of KG, which is not always the case.
> 
> On the other hand, Brewer is showing us that he is a beast on the defensive boards. He is def going to help our fast break game.
> 
> McCants, unimpressive....


mccants is a bit of a worry now, for a while it looked although our future starting back court was pretty set but he's looking more like a shooting bench guy rather than a consistant starter at SG.
i agree on both smith and brewer, i think craig is fine as the first big off the bench and helps with scoring but his size/rebounding and D still needs some work.
i wouldnt mind seeing brewer in the starting spot from day one from what ive seen so far.... guess we'll see how wittman plays rookies.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

that being said i havnt lost faith in rashad, might just take him a while to get his stroke and confidence back


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## socco (Jul 14, 2002)

Avalanche said:


> i wouldnt mind seeing brewer in the starting spot from day one from what ive seen so far.... guess we'll see how wittman plays rookies.


From just watching this past game I think that would be a disaster. Defensively he's obviously good, and I love what he's doing on the boards. But he looks lost on the offensive side. I think he's going to need some time before he can be a consistent contributor. Once he gets to that point you can think about starting him. 

McCants is looking pretty pathetic. He's not even looking like a solid bench player right now.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

socco said:


> From just watching this past game I think that would be a disaster. Defensively he's obviously good, and I love what he's doing on the boards. But he looks lost on the offensive side. I think he's going to need some time before he can be a consistent contributor. Once he gets to that point you can think about starting him.
> 
> McCants is looking pretty pathetic. He's not even looking like a solid bench player right now.


but the rest of the starting line up would consist of foye/davis/garnett/blount... all guys who could go for 20 on any given night.
he would basically be replacing hassel, hes better off with the starters then he is coming of the bench, he'll learn quicker and they could really use his defense.


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## socco (Jul 14, 2002)

Avalanche said:


> but the rest of the starting line up would consist of foye/davis/garnett/blount... all guys who could go for 20 on any given night.
> *he would basically be replacing hassel*, hes better off with the starters then he is coming of the bench, he'll learn quicker and they could really use his defense.


That would be a downgrade.


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

socco said:


> That would be a downgrade.


you really think so?
I dont really think there is that big of a difference between them outside of experience.

will be interesting to see brewer in pre-season against actual competition.


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

McCants looks like a poor man's Jarvis Hayes right now.

Craig Smith is a fine rebounder. His rebound rate of 16.1 was second best on our team last year. If he were to play 30mpg he'd get about 8 or 9 rebounds, which is nothing to complain about. His rebounding is down in summer league because people with guaranteed contracts don't do the hustle stats in summer league. Last year's regular season shows that he can hit the boards.


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## socco (Jul 14, 2002)

Avalanche said:


> you really think so?
> I dont really think there is that big of a difference between them outside of experience.
> 
> will be interesting to see brewer in pre-season against actual competition.


I think it would be a significant downgrade. Even defensively I think it would hurt us. Eventually that will hopefully change. But I don't think it's realistic to expect a rookie to come in and be able to take on that big of a roll unless he's really something special.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

Yeah Brewer is going to need work on the offensive end. He looks out of control whenever he is dribbling. Every highlight I have seen of his has been a travel basically. I think going into the season, McCants, Breewer, and Hassell are fighting for that last starting spot. I think Hassell will get it not because he is the best of those players, but he will make the least amount of mistakes and is decent all around. 

I do think as of now, Brewer is an upgrade over Hassell. Hassell has been nothing special defensivly since the 03-04 season. Brewer is amazing on the boards, and that could be a great help if he was a starter. 


I don't think we can say McCants is horrible yet. He is just the guy that is giving up his touches for Smith, Foye, and Brewer. I mean, even though he is shooting like 1-12 every game, I am not giving up. It is just the summer league and I think he is not doing so well because of his touches right now. Foye is always the primary ball handler. Smith is the guy that is always going to get it downlow. Brewer is getting all of the defensive boards, making him an easy target on the wing or on fast breaks. McCants he just chucking up shots any time he gets it because he is happy. Last game today, lets see how he ends up doing.


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## JuX (Oct 11, 2005)

We can't expect Brewer to be our starter right away. That doesn't always work that way with the rookies in the first part of regular season. He will have a long way to learn how to be useful in the offensive end which includes shooting the ball.

The case with McCants, it didn't work very well. I hope that the change of momentum will do him good for the regular season. I still don't give up hopes on him yet. Maybe for one more year. 

Back to Brewer. Defensively, he did us wonders. However, how does it prove us that he _will_ be that effective in the NBA. NBA and SL is not exactly the same. What SL is lacking is the experiences and All-Star players, so that are not really equivalent to the NBA. The SL Wolves are playing much smaller opponents like San Antonio, that is probably why we might be not getting the right ideas of what Brewer can actually do for us. 

Hassell is a very good at perimeter defense but he disappears most of times in the offensive end. I mean, he don't take a lot of attempts, hence his ppg is considerably too low for a starting shooting guard/small forward. I think for now, we will pencil in Hassell as our starter, he knows what to do and he knows the playbook.

IMO, it's too early to say whether Brewer is an upgrade to Hassell. He has yet proved to us that he'll be Trenton Hassell's successor.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

Well in todays game, McCants def shut us all up. Looks like he finally stopped just shooting and took it to the rim. The stats are nice to look at for everyone. McCants finished with 32. 8-16 from the field. Took only 3 3's and made 1. The crazy stat is free throws. He went 15-19 from the line! 19 times to the line!!!! Obviously he started taking it to the rim. If he can learn to take it to the hoop, then he can be this good. 
Foye was the worst of the 4, with 12 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, and 5 turnovers. At least he managed to stay in the game. 

Brewer had a "Marion" type of a game. Only scoring 5 points, he manages to pulled down 10 boards, dish out 7 assists, and block 2 shots... I must say, that is impressive. 

Smith dropped 21...4 boards.


Impressive win... Especially McCants!


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## Mateo (Sep 23, 2006)

I'm still upset that we wasted a pick on Chris Richard. I think we took him just so Brewer would have a friend on the team. We probably could have picked him up in free agency anyways.


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## sheefo13 (Jul 13, 2002)

I probably would have taken a couple other players... But Smith had similar numbers last summer I believe. Smith just went off for 20 in the second game of the season though, and Richard won't do that. I think Richard is simply going to be a big body... thats it. I doubt he works out, but I don't think there are too many players in the 2nd round that would help us out at this point. Only guy I think that might be something that we could of drafted is DJ Strawberry


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## Avalanche (Nov 17, 2005)

Smith is huge, guy is built like a tank and continues to just get it done offensively.
ive been very impressed with him, foye and brewer all summer league, and at least mccants got this big game in before it ended... will be interesting to see how brewers defence is against seasoned pro's


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