Houston Rockets 100, Phoenix Suns 82 – summer league Game 1

Most of the TrueHoop Network made the trek down to Vegas for Summer League but as I am preparing for a move, I unfortunately was not able to tag along.

I did however catch the game on NBAtv and have some observations.

This was the first summer league game I’ve ever seen, for two reasons.  First, Red94 has only been around for six months.  More importantly, during Carrol Dawson’s tenure, the Rockets never had any young talent to speak of so I never developed a taste for these games.

I’m hesitant to venture too deep into analysis and certainly won’t offer any assertions.  This is of course because I’m not familiar with the level of opposition -- no constants for predictive value.

Jermaine Taylor led all scorers with 25 points, and for the most part didn’t look like he belonged on the same court with the competition.  He was sporting a new look to his jumpshot (it wasn’t the slow-arching high release we saw last year) and was able to get a step on his defender any time he wanted.  JT was in attack mode tonight and you could see why I have been so high on him since last season.

Patrick Patterson was the star of this one, scoring 18 points on 8-9 shooting.  Kevin McHale salivated over Patterson as the game transpired and for good reason.  In his debut, Patterson showed off the versatility for which we had heard raves.  He looked very mobile rolling to the hoop on pick&rolls, displayed solid footwork and a sound post-game inside, and most surprisingly, was unconscious from the perimeter.  Pat has an odd release but with the range he showed tonight, it’s clear the Rockets hope he can spread the floor playing next to Yao Ming without giving much on the other end, unlike other shooting 4’s.

I was excited to see just how comfortable and smooth Pat looked in the post.  He showed off a nice up-and-over early on and a very fluid jump hook to the middle later in the game.  (Unfortunately, as I was experiencing technical difficulties, I was unable to capture the second of these two.)

Jordan Hill scored 16, but in all honesty, looked pretty bad.  There’s two things you want to see from Hill: 1) if he can consistently bring high energy play and 2) if he improved his offensive arsenal.  We can’t make any conclusions on the former based off of one game, but on the latter, the early verdict is a negative.  While you’ll see him score in a variety of ways in the clip below, unlike Patterson, he looked pretty awkward in doing it.  I can’t see any of Hill’s post-moves translating against actual NBA talent.  I could be wrong though, and the jury is still out, but I was fairly disappointed from what I saw from Hill today.  He’s nowhere near as polished as Patterson -- not even in the same league.

With that said, I’ve long felt that actual offense from Hill is just gravy.  All I care is that he plays defense, does the dirty work, and hits the boards.  To that end, I’m still optimistic that he can be a very productive player in this league.  If Hill doesn’t develop a post game, don’t feel crushed -- it’s not a big deal and that’s not what we need from him.

Due to the aforementioned technical difficulties, I had to take out the audio in this clip.  I thought of dubbing it to something from Lil Wayne as is seemingly par for the course for NBA highlight mixes on Youtube but am loathe to leave behind any evidence of poor taste for posterity.

Lastly, Chase Budinger scored 10 points but struggled from the field going 5-14.  Chase really has nothing to gain from Summer League so I didn’t take notice.  When you evaluate prospects in this setting, all you can really deduce is physical change (ie: “OMG SO AND SO PUT ON 20 LBS AND LOOKS AMAZING!!”), skill improvement (ie: refined post moves for bigs etc.), or increased comfort.  Chase is already maxed out in all three areas.  He has an NBA body, is about as skilled as a wing with his physical limitations can be, and has a better feel for the game than 99% of players his age.  All you hope from Chase is improved consistency on his shot because with regards to everything else, he’s pretty much maxed out his capabilities.