After spending nearly two weeks in Las Vegas, Jeremy Castleberry wanted to leave Monday night after the Clippers’ fifth and final game in the NBA Summer League.
But before leaving, the assistant coach on Tyronn Lue’s staff who served as chief technical director delivered a message to the young players they hoped to use this summer as a launching pad for the regular season.
“As a rookie, your chance is pretty short than anyone else’s,” Castleberry said. “I just want you to know and understand it, as well as for me this occasion was much longer. Up there, it’s going to be much smaller ”.
“A failure causes you to get kicked out and it may not just take you out for a game, you might get lost all week until someone trusts you again.”
That gulf between the summer league and the regular season is one of the reasons why many see the summer showcase as something akin to a fair in which it is all about evaluating a player’s potential: The highly unstructured summer league it can show and distort performances, good and bad.
NBA employees comment that sometimes the outstanding players of the summer later faded and those who at first seemed not to stand out became eventual stars, so what happens in Las Vegas should be judged with skepticism.
In the case of the Clippers, however, there were reasons to look closely: A roster built around Keon Johnson, Jason Preston and Brandon Boston Jr., all chosen in the 2021 draft, and 20-year-old Jay Scrubb, this It was one of the most fascinating summers in recent times. Las Vegas represented the first professional proving ground for a young group that the Clippers hope will one day be ready to complement their new, rejuvenated essence. The first step to achieve this, Castleberry added, is to follow another advice:
“We have a lot of young people in their place, so if they’re going to want to see time on the court they need to do a lot of work on defense,” Castleberry said. “… That’s what I’ve let you know. This was a lot of fun. and a lot of these guys had to take shots that they probably wouldn’t make with our team, so they have to understand that right now defense is the important thing. “
With just over five weeks after training camp opens, the five takeaways from the Las Vegas Summer League are these:
Brandon Boston Jr. exceeds some expectations
Boston Jr. laughed after his fourth game to hear a member of the media begin his question by commenting that the tall, lanky No. 51 on the team had had a “great” season at Kentucky.
“A great season in Kentucky? Ugh!” Boston said.
It was a self-deprecating response for the forward, whose projections as a top-10 talent were derailed, at least in part, by breaking a finger on the hand with which he shoots. The Summer League was his chance to show that he was not the same player who entered the league, and the most obvious difference was his scoring. He shot just 44% overall and 33% from 3-pointers, but the comfort he gained during his time in Las Vegas was evident and in his last three games he made 19 of 37 shots, including 14 of his 21 attempts inside the zone. three points.
Kentucky’s offense served him a ton of catch-and-throw opportunities that just didn’t go down; This summer he was determined to show his handling and the way he could shoot by attacking the closures. It was notable, then, that perhaps his most impressive scoring was with his right hand against Utah that ended a drive that began about 27 feet from the basket and was made possible by an excellent crossing.
You still have to work on both ends. He has only fired four of his 10 free throws. His off-the-ball defense is a success, but as one NBA talent screener noted, Boston exceeded expectations.
Jason Preston proved he can go downhill
The point guard’s ability to read the game as it unfolds is the reason the Clippers wanted Preston, who counts LeBron James, Chris Paul and Steve Nash among the quarterbacks he studied the most growing up in Orlando, Florida. In his summer debut, even when he struggled to outrun his defender, he provided eight assists and only one turnover in 24 minutes.
But the accolades for being a “cerebral” player can also have a downside, as seen during his first two games, in which Preston may have thought too much about manipulating defenders. His breakthrough came during the second half of the third, when a directive from the coaching staff finally clicked: Defenders wouldn’t help him, and the passing lanes wouldn’t open, unless he was aggressive in finding ways to dribble.
In his first 10 Summer League quarters, Preston made two of 11 shots, one of five triples and attempted zero free throws. In his last 10 quarters, he made 16 of 30 shots, including five of eight from depth, with six free throw attempts. The change came when he realized that he had to take action to be a real threat.
He’ll have to be faster and stronger – an area of improvement that isn’t unique to him among this rookie class – but Preston’s ability to blast holes in defenses has already been seen.
Jarrell Brantley of the Utah Jazz collides with Jason Preston of the Clippers during the first half of an NBA Summer League game on Sunday in Las Vegas.
(John Locher / Associated Press)
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Keon Johnson’s athleticism is undeniable, but can his defense buy him playing time?
Of the rookie trio, Johnson, number 21 on the list, had the hardest time finding his offensive rhythm, shooting 28% on nearly 12 shots per game. The forward who shot 44% at Tennessee last season said after the draft that he believed he had taken a step forward offensively during the process leading up to the draft. Although he would have preferred to show it, nailing shots is not his only way to get playing time.
The litmus test for Johnson will continue to be how well he can get out of transitions, finish at the rim and, on Castleberry’s advice, take advantage of his fitness for defensive stops. For some within the Clippers, his blocking at the rim against Utah in the team’s Game 4 was the kind of play that could help him gain confidence during the regular season because it combined his athleticism and conscience, considering he was a weak side defender on the play.
Amir Coffey’s situation remains uncertain, but he still impressed in two key areas
Two years ago, Coffey came to the Summer League with no certainty about his NBA career, only to come out on a contract with the Clippers. Now that deal is up and Coffey has left Las Vegas as a homeless and restricted free agent. The Clippers still like the tall defender a lot and he’s very likely to return, but Coffey is one of several decisions yet to be made on a roster that hasn’t been finalized. However, he is technically eligible to play another G League season. Whether that is tempting is another question.
Playing amid such uncertainty is not enviable. Coffey tried to fragment his focus.
“Obviously, it’s in the air, but when you find yourself between those lines you just have to compete and try to block that,” Coffey told The Times. “For some individuals it is difficult, for others it is easy.”
Coffey noted that he wanted to show the areas he had worked on, such as taking the readings, the correct passes on the screens, and the shot. He got off to a brutal start with his 3-point shots and made 33% of his shots overall.
Castleberry indicated it would be a mistake to judge his summer by offensive numbers alone, after the coaching staff asked him to take a more leadership role.
“He was more communicative, he was really good on defense, chasing, being attentive to his weak spots and being strong,” Castleberry said. “A lot of people would probably suggest that maybe he didn’t have a strong summer like he wanted because he had to focus on offense, but if you’re going to watch the movie and see what he was capable of on the defensive end, I think he would say another. history”.
Jay Scrubb is a player who has changed from a year ago, but he still needs time
Scrubb is not the same player who came as a second-round pick out of junior college last fall and not just because his surgically repaired foot is healthy. The 20-year-old guard is drastically stronger after a year on an NBA strength program and his defense, while still lagging behind his attack, has closed the gap. Both have helped him build internal support and he could certainly earn some time on the NBA roster next season, but he will need more consistency, something he lacked in five games this summer.
After a couple of performances in which he sought to score, and often looked good using his speed and agility to break through, he turned to creating others in Game 3 in what was, he acknowledged, a preview of how he could. operate in a regular season environment when shots are in short supply. However, in the last two games he had more trouble finding the best possible shots.
The G League is expected to return to a more “normal” schedule this season after operating in a reduced bubble scenario last winter, it is the kind of environment in which minutes will be plentiful for Scrubb as he attempts to go from being a selection from the junior college to a legitimate contributor to the rotation.
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