The Good Kind of Mentally Twisted

An article by Mike Monroe in yesterday's San Antonio Express News points out that George Hill has missed "nearly every shot he attempted in the three games he played in the Las Vegas Summer Pro League this week."

Coach Popovich used the term "mentally twisted," to characterize Hill's shooting slump.

But, in what seems like a diliberate flaunting of his own mad genius, Popovich thinks this is great: because Hill has shown he can defend at an NBA level, and seems to recognize the amount of work it's going to take to start putting the ball through the hoop at this level.

Lafayette Lever was a similar style of 1-2 combo guard in the 80's, and averaged 18.9 points. 8.9 rebounds and 8.0 assists one season with the Denver Nuggets, despite coming into the league without much of a shot. Laver agrees with Pop:

“I made a bet with a bunch of scouts in Orlando (at the pre-draft camp). Some of them said George wouldn’t even get drafted. I told them I was sure he’d go in the first round. I’m just as sure he’s going to be fine for the Spurs, because he’s a basketball player and he knows how to play and he competes and he defends.”

There you go. You heard it from Lafayette first.

Vegas Babies

This week in Las Vegas, Nevada, a bunch of NBA teams will suit up their youngest, least proven players--along with a lot of players who may or may not ever make a roster spot on any NBA squad--in very plain versions of their team's uniform to compete in something called the NBA Summer League. Last week some teams met in Orlando to do the same thing, but the Spurs weren't there. We played our first game of the Summer League yesterday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Spurs won 78-76 (recap here). Ian Mahinmi scored 18 and pulled down 8 rebounds; George Hill debuted as a Spur with 17 points, 8 rebounds.

At the end of the first quarter, O.J. Mayo, the high school sensation and rookie guard out of USC, hit a last second 69-foot two-handed heave to score 13 of the Grizzlies 17 first-quarter points.

Darrell Arthur, whom I talked about getting the draft day shaft and falling all the way to the Hornet's 27th pick (before being traded to Memphis), made me look even smarter, and led all scorers with 23 points in this game.

These games don't mean anything. It's just a good chance to see some of these lesser known players get some burn against each other. Sometimes players will rule the Summer League, and fall completely flat in the NBA (Marco Belinelli was a perfect example last year--37 points in his Summer League debut, breathless comparisons to Larry Bird by respectable NBA journalists...then a total flame out in the regular season [source: True Hoop]). The same goes for a team's record; the Knicks went undefeated last Summer, but were one of the worst teams in the league this year [from same article].

In less interesting news, the Spurs have evidientally done some realligning of their front office. A guy named Rick Pych has been promoted to "President of Business Operations," while Greg Popovich will take over as "President of Spurs Basketball," while, of course, remaining the head coach. R.C. Buford will likewise remain the General Manager, but will also take on the role of "President of Sports Franchises." This means he'll be in charge of the WNBA Silver Stars, the American Hockey League San Antonio Rampage, and Austin's own Toros of the NDBL.

Like I said, not all that titilating, but if you consider how many guys in other front offices and head coaching positions around the league came from the current Spurs system (Danny Ferry in Cleveland, Steve Kerr in Phoenix, PJ Carlisimo in...Oklahoma, and Avery Johnson...well, nowhere at the moment, to name a few), it's a name worth taking note of. Pych will probably be a GM for some other team in a few years. Which will also barely be blog-worthy. But give me a break, it's the Summer.

Oh and now Manu says he thinks he'll be able to play in the Olympics. I'd be surprised if he didn't to be honest. I mean, it's Manu. Come on.