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Rocky Mountain Revue, Day 2

Rocky Mountain Revue,  Day 2
Jul 19, 2005, 03:59 am
Day 2. July 16th. Game #3 Sonics vs. Spurs

Seattle 72-San Antonio 74


This was a slow and methodical game for the most part, with no real standout players or any big names to speak of. The Spurs were up and up big all game until a late surge and near win from came from the Sonics towards the end.

Spurs

Justin Hamilton – Hamilton is a nice player, and he had a very good game today. He could get to the rim at will but had a hard time finishing today when he made it to the hoop. He got the team running and gunning but wasn't too good when he had to slow the ball down in the half-court offense. He played a little at PG as well as at SG, but didn't show if he had any kind of a long range jump-shot because everything he did came inside the arc. What was surprising considering his reputation was that Hamilton got burned a few times on the defensive end. With his superb size, all-around skills and the fact that he can play both guard spots, he might have a future in the NBA, but he needs to continue to work on everything in the mean time, especially his jump-shot. He’s the type of player you could definitely see back here next year. He finished up the season very well at Real Madrid in Spain helping them out in the playoffs.

Britton Johnson – Just a great game out of Johnson. He was the best player on both ends of the court for either team today. Johnson was blocking shots, leading the team, and was on fire from every spot on the court. He definitely made a strong case for himself to show that he should be on an NBA team next year. He doesn't seem to be strong enough to go against the average NBA SF, but that was about the only weakness he showed today. He seems to be a very solid all-around player.

Andre Barrett - Barrett got the job done and is lighting quick. Johnson and Andre played very well together and it turned into a two man show for the Spurs. He had a great line of 10 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds, with even one block. His small size wasn't a factor at all when you add in his huge heart and determination.

Sonics

Johan Petro- A big 2 point game out of Petro. You can see that he could be good, but he isn't finding a way to show it here so far. He looked sleepy out there and his head wasn't in the game.

Robert Swift – The same old story out of Swift, board and block, while looking a second or two behind everybody with little or no speed. He takes gigantic steps wherever he goes. Swift is very strong on the block, in fact too strong. He kept getting fouls called on him because he wouldn't let his man back him down one bit. That’s called good defense in my book, but the refs saw otherwise. He looked very frustrated by the end, but was working harder this game.

Alex Scales - For the second day in a row he was the best player on the Sonics. He was their vocal leader and used all the little veteran tricks to do what he needed to do during the game. Scales has a smooth, crisp shot to go along with his excellent passing skills. He’s a very smart player, but might be a lacking somewhat in the athleticism department to have an upside for the NBA.

Jermaine Blackburn - His wild hair wasn't the only thing that stood out about him, his game was nice as well. Blackburn is a hard worker that does all the little things to help his team. He’s athletic enough to play the 2 or the 3, and only takes high percentage shots. Seems to be a smart, tough player.




Atlanta Hawks vs. Dallas Mavericks

Atlanta 88- Dallas 76


Another David vs. Goliath matchup between a Hawks team, full of young NBA talent, against a Dallas team who was full of summer league talent. With Hawks star Josh Childress out, and young up and comers like JR Smith and Marvin Williams playing sluggish and selfishly, this game was a lot closer then it should have been. Both teams played sloppy with a lot of one on one individual play and turnovers. In the end Felipe Lopez’s 19 points were not enough for Dallas to pull out a victory.

Dallas

DJ Mbenga - Mbenga is built like a horse, he’s all solid muscle and is tough as nails. He was a defensive stopper today for the Mavs with a very impressive 5 blocks, the best of which was a block of Marvin Williams when Marvin was going up for a dunk attempting to posterize DJ. Needless to say, that was the single best play of the RMR so far. The problem is that other than pushing people around and blocking everything within sight he didn't and can't do much as he is quite a limited player. Has no shot to speak of, he can't pass, and he even has problems rebounding for that matter because of poor positioning. If he develops any kind of scoring game he has a chance to make an impact in the league, but for now he seems like a taller Mike Ruffin with even less offense if that's even possible.

Pavel Podkolzin - You can't teach height, but it also looks like you can't a 7 foot 5 inch Russian how to play basketball. Pavel was unable to do anything here other than take up a lot of space. He couldn't catch a pass here to save his life, and can't even finish strong at the basket all that well despite his height if anyone is even looking at him. He makes Robert Swift look fast and like a superstar with some of the plays he made here. He obviously has one thing going for him and that’s his size. That's it. He somehow got 7 points and 4 boards but that seemed to be luck more than anything else. He would get the ball by the three point line, someone would bump him, he would fall to the ground and get a couple of shots from the free throw, where he actually excels. Pavel can't hold his own against even the worst big men at the RMR and he appears to have no chance at doing anything in the big league any time soon unless lightning strikes.

Josh Powell– Powell is listed on multiple team rosters here but he has only played for Dallas. Had himself a decent game with 10 points and 4 rebounds, but nothing he did stood out. Powell doesn’t do any one thing great except rebounding, but didn't make any big mistakes either.

Felipe Lopez - The veteran Lopez had himself another very nice game after finishing off the summer league with a big game in Las Vegas. He finished the game with 19 points to lead all scorers. He is a tough player who loves to use his athleticism to get to the hoop. His perimeter game seems to have improved as well.

Atlanta

Boris Diaw - Plays very good defense when he is on slower guys, but anyone with a good first step blew right by him here. Diaw is usually asked to guard players that are significantly shorter than him at 6-9, and he usually struggles in the process. Because he was trying to chase around Lopez all night he didn't really get a chance to get his game going. He ended up having a very unimpressive 4 points and 2 assists. Without his counterpart Josh Smith playing, he didn't look too good today.

Royal Ivey- Another bad game for Ivey. Had 8 points but big goose eggs everywhere else. He didn’t seem to handle the point very well because of his only average ball handling skills. Not the leader you would expect out of your playmaker and definitely not a shooter. He did not stand out today.

Donta Smith – Smith had a poor outing last time around and did not get any playing time off the bench this time.

Josh Smith – Smith once again showed off his dunking and shotblocking skills, but not much else. He added in a nice 4 assists today, but that's about it. He still couldn’t defend in the man to man concept, and considering his body and the athletic ability he has you have to assume that just chooses not to at a setting like this. Smith doesn't seem to care what too much about what his team is doing, as he just does his own thing most of the time. He was complaining to the coaches and to the refs and that's about it. For Smith to really take the next step in his game next year, he definitely needs to be a lot more mature.

Marvin Williams – Williams still hasn't shown why he was the #2 pick in this years draft, being a downright disappointment so far with the way he’s played and the effort he has put in. He never runs the floor hard, hasn’t made much of an effort on the glass and doesn't even try to defend. Today he was just standing upright on with his gigantic wingspan on full display, but not actually moving his feet that well. He finished with 11 points and 4 rebounds in nearly 30 minuets of playing time. Both Josh Smith and Marvin Williams couldn't even get it done going against the nobodies on Dallas.

Salim Stoudamire – Salim shot 4-10 with zero assists and 5 turnovers. Unlike last game, his shooting didn’t make up for his lackluster play everywhere else. He was tried a little at PG, but couldn't handle it, so he was stuck at the off guard position where he got murdered on the defensive end. Stoudamire needs to work on his body and get into better shape if he is going to try and muscle up with some of the bigger SG’s in the NBA.

Arthur Johnson – The lesson we learned today is that even if you are overweight, slow and only play 12 minutes a game, you can apparently still get a double-double if you go up against Pavel Podkolzin. He is very slow but looked like Iverson out there at times with Pavel. Johnson’s 14 points and 10 rebounds probably would have been very impressive if it weren't for the fact that Pavel just game him those stats by not even making it up the court half the time. Regardless, Johnson looked too short to play center, and too slow and unathletic overall to play power forward in the NBA.




Game #5 Jazz vs. Bobcats

Utah 73- Charlotte 69


This was a very competitive affair with neither team taking a large lead at any point in the game. This was game was supposed to be the much-hyped National Championship rematch of Deron Williams vs. Raymond Felton, but Felton was injured from the last game and didn’t even suit up. The crowd’s attention then shifted to the two heavyweight power forwards of each team, Shawn May and Kris Humphries. Humphries dominated May in the first half, making him look a bit slow next to the quickness that Humphries displayed. May couldn’t get anything going until he went against his old whipping boy from the National Championship game, Jack Ingram, rattling off 10 points and 10 boards in that short span vs. Ingram. This was a great game overall with both teams really playing like a team, rather than just a bunch of individual players looking for the spotlight.

Bobcats

Alan Anderson – Anderson had a much better game in his second outing here in SLC. He had a hard time guarding the long and quick CJ Miles, but if he was on anyone else he took them to school. He is a smart player with good overall skills, but he has not done a very good job staying within the framework of the offense so far this week. He showed off a polished all-around game and looked like a different player compared to his dismal first performance.

Matt Carroll – Compared with yesterday’s game, Carroll was definitely outplayed by his man. The high schooler CJ Miles was a step ahead of Carroll the entire time he was guarding him. You could still see glimpses of his smart play, but not for any sustained period of time. Carroll usually doesn’t miss his open shots from anywhere on the court, and possesses great ball handling and rebounding skills for his size. He has been the vocal leader of this team on the court. Carroll needs to work on his defense and passing skills, but if he does that he will be a very good player for a while.

Raymond Felton - Unfortunately sat out due to a right groin injury that occurred the night before.

Sean May - Started at PF but didn’t seem to have the quickness to guard Kris Humphries one on one. With Humphries pushing him to sprint up and down the court he tired very quickly and didn’t really get too much going in the first half because of it. In the 2nd half, when a slower bigger man such as Whaley or Ingram was on him was when May really went to work, destroying both of them in the post. He showed great post moves, doing fantastic work underneath the basket and using his size and bulk to his advantage. Watching him use his post moves after he gets an offensive rebound reminds a bit of Charles Barkley. The problem with May is that with his lack of foot-speed right now he would probably struggle going up against NBA power forwards, while certainly not having the height or the leaping ability to match up with centers. May needs to work on getting into better shape, improve on his perimeter skills and learn the little tricks that 6-8 power forwards usually have down pat to really be able to use his awesome skill set on the offensive end. Today he was dominant at times and finished with 19 points and 18 rebounds.

Antonio Meeking – Meeking showed off his jump-shot and all-around hustle, but was hampered by foul trouble early.

Bernard Robinson- Another no show for Robinson, not being a factor on either end. If it wasn’t for his fouls you probably wouldn’t even know he was in the game.

Jazz

Kris Humphries- So far he appears to be the best player in the entire Review. He did everything tonight, beating May up and down the floor almost every time they were on the floor together. Humphries has range all the way out to the 3 point line and his post moves are a lot better after a full season out of college. When Humphries wants to, he beats everybody down the floor and can still catch the ball while sprinting and finish. He seems to be thinking faster and not making foolish little mistakes anymore. What Humphries definitely needs to work on is boxing out better and not getting too far under the hoop on defense. When Humphries was going up against May the rookie only managed to put up no more than 6 points and 6 rebounds at the very most. He has been the MVP of the Jazz so far and maybe the MVP of the Rocky Mountain Revue so far.

CJ Miles- Miles is a fun player to watch. When he does something positive like make a nice shot, dunk, or pass he doesn’t try to act tough and mean, he just runs down the court grinning from ear to ear. He just seems to love playing and wants to be part of the team, the very opposite of Kirk Snyder from what we have seen of the two so far. Miles’ defense was excellent today. He has a tremendous wingspan and really plays low to the ground. He seems to have caught on to the ways of the Jazz and is already flopping with the best of ‘em.
His court vision is what he really showed off tonight. When Miles first came into the game the Jazz were going through a very rough stretch. He came in and had 3 assists in a row to get the team going. The best of the three was a semi fast break bounce pass from one side of the court to the other to Humphries for a lay up.

Deron Williams- Williams had a very bad outing today, just not seeming to be in it from even before the game started in warm-ups. He was getting frustrated and didn’t seem like he could get the team to do anything he wanted, making quite a few turnovers in the process, but only some of which were directly his fault. The thing about Williams is that he seems to get people the ball at times and in places where nobody seems to think or imagine he will be able to. That’s a problem in a setting like this. Williams continues to show problems hitting the outside shot, he went 1-5 today from the field and is still yet to hit a 3 pointer. Overall he had a pretty sloppy game, handing out 3 assists compared with 5 turnovers and not being on the same page with any of his teammates.

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