Summer League Breakdown

The annual Las Vegas NBA Summer League is quickly approaching and I find myself once again excited to watch rosters consisting a handful of draft picks cobbled together with a number of irrelevant players trying to compete for a shot at getting a training camp invite. The Timberwolves recently released their roster for the competition on their official website. I am going to use this blog entry to go through a player-by-player breakdown of each Vegas invitee on the Wolves roster starting with the guys with guaranteed money and then moving on to the players battling valiantly to draw a little NBA attention.

Players with guaranteed money:

Corey Brewer: Most of us already know what to expect: height, length, athleticism, defense, and a 2-dimensional physique. Coming off of a season ending knee injury, he will be seeing his first action since last November. Most likely this is just an opportunity for him to get his basketball legs under him a bit and probably will not be playing extended minutes. The most important thing for him to show is that he has been working on his jumper in his time off. He showed decent improvement with his offensive game in the seven short games he played before going down for the count last season.

Oleksiy Pecherov: Despite his comically-shaped head, he is the only true 7-footer on the roster. However he fancies himself as a bit of a perimeter player, has shown little growth in his two years with the Wizards and probably will not do much this season besides functioning as a human victory cigar.

Bobby Brown: I like Brown, and I like some of the things he can bring to the table including perimeter shooting and quickness. He needs to improve his point guard skills and shooting percentages if he wants to have a meaningful NBA career. However, at this point I’d like to see what he can do with minutes over Sebastian Telfair, who is basically a known quantity and shouldn’t be playing more than perhaps 10 minutes per game. Anything from Brown in the regular season is a bonus, because at least he’s not Rashad McCants.

Jonny Flynn/Wayne Ellington: Talked about extensively in previous write-up.

Non-guaranteed guys:

Ben Woodside: Probably the player I am most excited to watch in Summer League. He has terrific quickness and a silky smooth jumper combined with terrific scoring instincts and solid offensive court awareness. His range easily extends to the NBA 3-point line and he can fill it up. He did not play against the best competition in college ball, but when his NDSU Bison were matched up with the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament, Woodside went off for 37 points scoring in a variety of ways, including jumpers from long range and blowing by his man off the dribble even WITHOUT a screen. It will be difficult for the Minnesota native to make the regular season roster with three point guards already making guaranteed money and two of those being shorty 6-footers (as Woodside is as well). He will have to significantly outplay Brown or hope someone is traded in order to have any kind of legitimate shot at the Wolves regular season roster.

Paul Harris: Harris is a chiseled 6’4” at 220 lbs. While 6’4” is a bit short for an NBA wing prospect, he can make up for it with outstanding strength, athleticism, an impressive wingspan and some good old fashioned grit. He uses these attributes effectively to be a disruptive defender and impressive rebounder, but his offensive game lacks some polish and his range does not extend as far as one would hope, evidenced by a poor 22.7% from the college 3-point line last season. He could have a shot at netting an invite to training camp due to all the question marks and holes currently occupying Minnesota’s wing positions.

Steven Hill: While he has terrific size measuring out at a legitimate 7 feet tall and weighing in at 248 lbs, Hill has a relatively low skill level and is more or less a filler for summer league as he could not quite muster 8 points and 6 rebounds a game in the D-League. He did manage 2.3 blocks per game, but I have little to no expectations for his NBA future.

Garret Siler: Siler is a little more interesting than Hill. He is listed at 6’11” and just over 300 lbs. Playing Division II basketball, Siler went where he pleased and finished with his great length over defenders scoring 16.2 points per game on a jaw-dropping 78.9% from the field. He establishes position well as nobody can move him on the Division II level, and even at an NBA level he has the size to be effective, but he lacks the agility and explosiveness to be much of a factor, especially defensively. Siler likely plays in the D-League or overseas, unless he manages to slim down a bit and significantly improve his mobility.

Pat Carroll – Unfortunately not the 82 year old actress, though that would have been much more entertaining. Pat is the younger brother of Matt Carroll, and plays a similar game. He is a 26 year old 3-point specialist who played with Jameer Nelson and Delonte West at St. Joe’s and in his final year (2004-05) averaged 18.3 points per contest shooting over 43% from distance. If there is a team in the NBA that Carroll has a shot at making, it’s the wing-depleted 3-point shooting deprived Timberwolves.

Devin Green – Another more veteran player, Green is also 26 years old. Green is a “jack of all trades master of none.” The desperately destitute man’s Brandon Roy. He has a nice feel for the game, but lacks the athleticism to translate a high level of play from the D-League and Europe to the NBA.

Rob Kurz – Kurz can stroke the perimeter shot for a big man, and he will give you hustle plays, but that’s about it. While the team desperately needs perimeter shooting, there is just no way the can add another power forward to a roster composed completely of point guards and power forwards.

Other:

Gerald Henderson – Unfortunately, no the Wolves did not trade for Gerald Henderson. The Charlotte Bobcats do not have a Summer League team, so Henderson is playing for the Wolves. Talk about a disappointment, considering my huge man-crush on Henderson. I would consider giving up women for Henderson. I just love him. He is a terrific defender with outstanding athleticism and a visibly improving perimeter jumper with a very smooth shot from mid-range that has the ability to create a shot for himself off of an isolation play, which is probably the biggest weakness for the Wolves’ current roster. I love the kid and I hope the Wolves fall in love with him during summer play as well and do what they can to hammer out a deal for him. He will make the Bobcats very happy.

Well there you have it, a long-winded article breaking down a roster of young

mostly negligible

players. The most interesting part of Summer League will be watching to see how this year’s crop of unheralded draft picks fares against the borderline players of drafts past. Is this draft really as bad as Chad Ford and Bill Simmons have been saying, or is that just hyperbole? We are about to find out.