At some point this season, Larry Sanders and Tiny Gallon are going to look like they were put on this Earth to play basketball in the NBA. Times will be good. At some point this season, they’ll be glued to the bench, saddled with foul trouble or fighting inconsistency. Times will be bad. Even the very best rookie seasons are a mixed bag.

For assistant coach Kelvin Sampson, it’s keeping them on an even keel that’s most important.

“Rookie years are tough for these guys,” said Coach Sampson. “At some point they’re going to to go through a tough patch. With the kids here, it’s making sure they handle success and failure in the same vein. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Understand work is the answer to most of your problems.”

The development of young players is a crucial ingredient in the success of any NBA team and Milwaukee has one of the best in the business on their staff in Sampson. Within the last week, Gallon has Tweeted about the immediate positive influence Sampson has had on him. Gallon’s words should come as no surprise as repeatedly last season Brandon Jennings was quick to note how helpful Coach Sampson was in helping him develop. Keeping Jennings on an even keel during a roller coaster rookie season was a focus for Sampson.

“That was a big thing with Brandon,” he said. “The night he scored 55, I remember he was texting me later that night, and one of the things I said to him was don’t allow a 55-point night on a night in November define who you are. That’s part of being able to handle success.” Read more…

The ugly streak that’s been referred to as Bucks summer league basketball this week continued with another loss Friday evening, this time at the hands of the Miami Heat 78-58. A new point guard in Sun Yue was in the house, but he could do little to make up for the struggles for the rest of the team.

Yue’s debut with Milwaukee came quickly in the first quarter and he did not disappoint. Yue showed off sweet court awareness with a number of nice passes and converted on a difficult spin-move-and-one jumper. After his strong start to the game, Yue had little impact and dealt with some turnover issues. Yue’s 6-foot-7 size seems like it could be a help on defense, but his lack of foot speed made it difficult for him to stay in front of Miami’s guards.

Milwaukee turned the ball over a whopping 29 times in this one, with eight of those coming from Tiny Gallon. We’re a little early in Tiny’s career for him to be a reliable post up option, and he showed that time after time on Friday, barreling into defenders for offensive fouls and getting stripped in double teams numerous times. Gallon has an okay looking midrange jumper and can step out and hit a three here and there, but he’s got a ways to go before Milwaukee will be able to dump it inside to him to get two with much consistency. Gallon did rebound the ball well once again, grabbing nine boards and he does it in a pleasing way. Gallon grabs rebounds with two hands and holds the ball high. With his monsterous paws, it’s rare he loses a rebound in traffic.

Larry Sanders struggled from the field again, shooting 5-14, but he blocked a summer league personal best five shots and grabbed eight rebounds. Sanders motor and athleticism are the kinds of skills that will translate from summer league to the regular season, not true of all skills on display in summer. The form on his jumper suggests that it may become more consistent in time, but I don’t think we’ll see a lot of that from him come October. But the rebounding and defense he’s been providing all week, that should shine through as long as he’s getting consistent minutes upon the start of the regular season.

Micah Downs has shown some sneaky athleticism all week, but it was his shooting touch that was on display Friday. He connected on 5-7 from three, including one that left him sitting in a seat courtside. Downs probably won’t have much of a chance with the Bucks, but I wouldn’t rule out him getting a camp invite somewhere and maybe earning a D-League call up at some point. He’s obviously got some skills.

After earning his first start, Dominic James showed his ability to get by his man with a number of penetrations into the lane. Unfortunately, James often was unable to reel himself in and turned the ball over a couple times trying to force passes inside once he beat his man. James tallied six assists, the highest number of any Buck this summer league, but his lack of confidence in his perimeter shot showed once when he refused to take an open look from the corner. That’s the shot he’ll need if he wants to stick eventually.

When I spoke with him after Thursday’s summer league game,  Chris Douglas-Roberts made it very clear why he had some struggles by the time the end of the season rolled around last year.

“I’m extremely competitive.  Extremely,” the man known as CD-R said.

And I’ve seen that side of him before. Within seconds of hearing about the Douglas-Roberts to Milwaukee rumors, I thought of the Nets trip to Milwaukee last November 18th.

Things weren’t pretty. The Nets were in the process of blowing yet another lead and Douglas-Roberts was none too pleased about it. He was openly shouting at teammates and his coaches, but in a way that struck me as different. This wasn’t someone simply being a jerk and blaming his teammates.  No, he seemed to just so badly want to avoid another loss that he had a hard time keeping it together when the game was slipping away. I caught up with CD-R after last night’s summer league game.

“Yeah, I remember that game. We hadn’t won a game. And we were up, up like 12,” said Douglas-Roberts. “It was the beginning of the second half and we were letting a lead slip. (Assistant coach) Doug Overton was saying, just play, don’t worry about the calls, just play. But I just didn’t want to lose that game. Especially when we were up 12.”

I wish I could put as much emphasis in print on the sentence “but I just didn’t want to lose that game” as Douglas-Roberts did when he said it. The monkey on the back of New Jersey had turned gorilla (the team was 0-11 coming into the game) and with the injuries they were facing, it was CD-R that was feeling a lot of the pressure. Despite his best efforts, they did lose the lead and eventually the game. CD-R finished with 31 points and was as interested in the game as any Net.

Actually, he was interested in more than the game. Read more…

When Dominic James hit the ground after crashing into the side of the backboard on a tip slam attempt, oohs and ahhs came out of the collective mouth of the Cox Pavillion crowd Tuesday night. James didn’t give them more than a second to react though, bouncing back up nearly as quickly as he went down.

Rising to great heights is not new to Dominic James.

Read more…

Guard play is important in summer league basketball. It must be. That’s the only explanation for the Bucks 0-3 record that remains incredibly satisfying.

When the Bucks spent three draft picks on forwards and loaded their summer league roster up with undrafted free agents and D-Leaguers at point guard and shooting guard, everyone knew there would be some struggles handling the ball.

The struggles were on display again Thursday night. Milwaukee turned the ball over 17 times while tallying just 12 assists. Combine the sloppiness with the ball with a general inaccuracy from the field, evidenced by 40% shooting, and that’s how the result comes to be Atlanta 83 – Milwaukee 60.

Milwaukee point guards shot a combined 4-10 with seven assists and four turnovers.

As usual, there were bright spots. And as usual, the brightest bright spot was Larry Sanders. Read more…