By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
We’ll always have Disneyworld. Like Icarus, we flew to close to the sun in hopes of eternal summer league glory, only to come crashing back to the earth. A week after winning the Orlando Summer League, the Summer Sixers’ hopes of earning the unified Summer League championship belt were dashed with a loss to the Bulls in Vegas Thursday. Fan favorite Doug McDermott had one exciting sequence for Chicago, erasing two Elijah Millsap shot attempts in the paint before draining a three on the other end, but he was largely a non-factor in the game. Bulls swingman Tony Snell shined with 18 points; Chicago will be expecting Snell to carve out a larger place in the rotation this season with Mike Dunleavy another year older on the wrong side of 30.
For the Sixers, it wasn’t pretty as everyone not named Jordan McRae seemed unable to hit a shot on the evening. If I watch one more Scottie Wilbekin long-range attempt (1-9, 0-5 three) do something crazy like hit the side of the backboard, I might begin to think this summer league basketball isn’t the fine product I know it to be. McRae did his best to keep the Sixers in things, going a perfect 7-7 from the field and 10-10 from the line before missing his final three-point attempt of the game. He finished with a game-high 25 points; we’ll discuss him more in our run-down at the conclusion of summer league.
Continuing with the pessimistic theme of this post, I wanted to pull a Larry David and curb everyone’s enthusiasm just a bit in regard to Nerlens Noel. Undoubtedly, he’s been an exciting player to watch the past two weeks, flashing that enormous defensive potential and filling the wings on the break (or starting them himself) to finish with authority. However, people hear him say his goal is to be defensive player of the year and see some of his summer league numbers, and suddenly, there’s talk out there about the Sixers becoming the first team with back-to-back Rookie of the Year winners since the merger. (Brief aside: It is refreshing to hear both Noel and Andrew Wiggins say their eventual goal is defensive player of the year; I’d much rather hear that than most young guys’ motto #GetBuckets.)
Still, Noel remains incredibly raw in many aspects of the game and there are plenty of growing pains ahead for the young man. Offensively, his dribble is way too high and uncontrolled, which has led to a slew of turnovers in summer league action. Defensively, he still needs to refine when is the right time to leave his man in search of those weak-side blocks. Noel has sacrificed prime rebounding position on many occasions going after shots he has no hope of affecting. Also, he needs to put on some more weight, big time. He’s still rail-thin and getting pushed around by the likes of the big Aussie Cameron Bairstow underneath. To his credit, Noel does acknowledge this:
Nerlens on his plans once #NBASummer League ends: “Get in the weight room and also eat a lot of food.” pic.twitter.com/Btym58PKWy
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) July 18, 2014
Being a wet blanket aside, everything’s perfectly in progress for Nerlens. He’s only 20 years old; many of the finer points of the game will come to him in good time. He has also only played about 6 competitive basketball games since sitting out over a year with the ACL injury. Unsurprisingly, there’s plenty of rust to shake off as he continues to work himself back into game shape. So by all means, get excited by all the things Noel does right out on the court. All the pieces are there for him to be a key contributor for the Sixers for many years to come. Just don’t expect too much, too soon; there are plenty of bumps in the road ahead.
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