Summer League Wrap-Up (finally a reason to get excited)

[Lakers4Life]

With young, talented core, Lakers fans have reason for excitement

Russell was unquestionably the Lakers' biggest summer league star, as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 draft more than rebounded from a rough debut on this stage a year ago to become one of the most dominant players here this year.

The former Ohio State standout averaged 21.8 points on 48 percent shooting from the field to go along with 6.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists in four games. He also hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to help the Lakers top the Philadelphia 76ers, 70-69.

Just a young player growing Kupchak said. His talent can't be disputed Everybody felt that a year ago and I think if you took a poll, everybody would think the same thing today. But it's just the growth process that he's going through. Provided he works on his craft, he'll be better next year at this time."

Said Lakers rookie head coach Luke Walton: "My favorite part about D'Angelo so far has been his work ethic and his trying to get better at leading a team from a point guard position. He's obviously been scoring. He's a great scorer, but at the point guard position, there's so much more to the game. He's coming over to the gym and watching other teams play.

"As far as our system, we want him to give the ball up and cut and come back and get it on the other side. He's been working on it. Anything that the coaches have told him to do, he's trying to get it done and he goes to the gym and he works on it."

Lakers rookie forward Brandon Ingram, the No. 2 overall pick, showed poise in his summer league debut by not forcing the issue and being selective with his shots, but in several instances over his next four games, teams were far more physical with the slight 6-foot-9, 190-pound former Duke freshman standout.

"He's going to be challenged every game," Kupchak said. "A lot of it's because he's the No. 2 pick in the draft and he has some bigger and stronger players and they're going to try to be physical -- and that's going to happen because he's not going to get stronger overnight.

"And that's going to be a process that may take a couple years. But it is something that he's going to work on right away. So that's something that he'll just have to get used to. To me, he doesn't back down. He competes. And that's really the biggest plus of all."
All in all, Ingram averaged 12.2 points on 41 percent shooting, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in five games. He also shot 25 percent from 3-point range. And he capped off summer league by scoring a game-high 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting, plus five rebounds and four assists, against the Jazz.

"It was OK," Ingram said of his overall summer league play. "I think as a player, you're never satisfied. I think I could've shot the ball a lot better, and on the defensive end I could've been a lot better. But overall, the camaraderie, just being with the team, just building chemistry all the time during this whole process, I think it's been pretty good."

"He's young," Russell said of the 18-year-old Ingram. "Get some experience under his belt and he's going to come back and dominate this thing."

Said Walton, "Brandon's great. He's a very intelligent basketball player, which I love, for someone his age. You can see when he plays, he'll go to attack, and if it's not there, he doesn't have to look for other players. He knows where they're at. He'll obviously continue to learn the NBA game. He'll learn how to play against the guys that are being physical with him and trying to bump him off spots. I think the more he does, the better he'll be at it naturally. He can play multiple positions. He can shoot. He can drive. Very high potential for Brandon."

Both Ingram and Russell, along with Randle, will now join the USA Select Team, which will practice against Team USA in Las Vegas next week to help it prepare for the Rio Olympics later this summer.

Kupchak said he saw two players make a dramatic improvement, specifically Russell and Nance, who averaged 9.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals, 1.8 blocks and 1.5 assists in four games before spraining his right wrist. (He's day-to-day with that injury, the Lakers said Friday.)

"He had a great summer league," Kupchak said of Nance.

"Larry Nance has been phenomenal," Walton added.

And the biggest Lakers surprise of all was Zubac, the rookie center whom the team selected with the No. 32 overall pick. The 7-foot-1 Croatian averaged 10.6 points on 65 percent shooting, 7.2 rebounds and a team-high 2.6 blocks in five games.

Zubac finished summer league with 16 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks against the Jazz, concluding a week in which he became a crowd favorite.

"I didn't know [I was] going to play like this," Zubac said of his play throughout summer league. "I know I'm going to let everybody see what I have and prove myself [and] why they picked me. But I didn't know [I was] going to play like this."

Lakers second-year swingman Anthony Brown took it a step further.

"That boy Zubac, he definitely impressed me," Brown said. "I'm still trying to figure out how he went second round. Man, [in] two, three years, I can't see why he can't be like Marc Gasol. I mean, seriously, he's talented."

Added Ingram: "I didn't know much about him coming into this. I saw him workout about one or two times, but coming into this, I loved what I saw. Very impressed. He really has a chance to be a great player."

Given that many rookies struggle in summer league, Lakers assistant Theo Robertson was asked why that wasn't really the case in any game with the 19-year-old Zubac.

"He knows how to play," Robertson said. "It's hard to teach that size. He establishes good position. He has soft hands. He can do a variety of things, whether it's pop out to the 3-point corner, hit those types of jump shots. I feel like he can be a percentage free throw shooter and he has good touch around the rim. He's starting to feel more power and understand the level of physicality that it takes to be successful in this league. Very, very excited about him and I thought this was a great week of growth for him."

The 36-year-old Walton, the NBA's youngest head coach, has been on the job for only a few weeks and hasn't had much time to begin to implement the culture and system in which he believes.

Overall, Walton said, "I think summer league has gone great, but I'm looking at more than just the games, like practice, how hard they've worked and how they've embraced competing, whether it's a summer league game or practice and the drills. [I'm looking at] their acceptance of wanting to win. Even if it's a defensive drill or anything, they want more. They keep asking for more. They keep coming in the gym every day and working. Overall, I'm thrilled with all of them."

He added, "It's obviously early and it's a small sample size, but I've been thrilled with the way they've responded to what we've asked."

This is to say, Walton is heartened heading into training camp in the fall.

"Absolutely," he said. "There's a lot we've got to work on to get better at. But as of now, I'm very pleased with the way the guys are playing, acting, representing themselves. Everything. They've been great."

[lakerevolution]

Something from nothing . . plusses all around. Makes you feel good about sticking with the team, the franchise, the FO and the spirit of excellence to which this organization is accustomed. Luke's youth will pay HUGE dividends with this crew, and what they give him in energy and attention to detail, he will give back to them in structure and repetition of winning formulas.

I can see us playing .333 ball over the first couple months (which puts us on pace for 27 wins, a 10-win improvement over last year), then having some nice stretches of .444 ball (a 36-win pace), maybe touching .500 for a few brief stretches on a East-Coast swing (where they will grow from "Boys To Men" ha ha, that's a Motown Philly reference). All in all, I think 31 wins (.378) is a good goal for a team adapting to many dramatic changes in staff and players and still forming a cohesiveness amongst each other. Definitely more wins to celebrate than last year.

[3Peatkb24]

Something from nothing . . plusses all around. Makes you feel good about sticking with the team, the franchise, the FO and the spirit of excellence to which this organization is accustomed. Luke's youth will pay HUGE dividends with this crew, and what they give him in energy and attention to detail, he will give back to them in structure and repetition of winning formulas.

I can see us playing .333 ball over the first couple months (which puts us on pace for 27 wins, a 10-win improvement over last year), then having some nice stretches of .444 ball (a 36-win pace), maybe touching .500 for a few brief stretches on a East-Coast swing (where they will grow from "Boys To Men" ha ha, that's a Motown Philly reference). All in all, I think 31 wins (.378) is a good goal for a team adapting to many dramatic changes in staff and players and still forming a cohesiveness amongst each other. Definitely more wins to celebrate than last year.

This Post is pretty right on. I would set the goal at 35 wins just to set it extremely high but 29-31 wins is the probable amount that will happen. My over/under is set at 29.5, so you and the others in here ask yourselves this, would you bet 1000 dollars on us winning over 29.5? That is tough isn't it? Winning 30 would be a 13 game improvement and assuming Russell and Randle are much better than last season and that Ingram has at worse a Good Rookie season.

[Julius Russell]

Team USA select clips featuring 3 of our kids clips on YouTube.

[3Peatkb24]

Team USA select clips featuring 3 of our kids clips on YouTube.

Yeah there is really not much going on in sports so there isn't much to Post. July is the worst month for sports, no Pro Basketball games or Pro Football games = double whammy and Baseball doesn't get real exciting until Divisional races heat up in August. I am not into Racing, Golf, or Tennis. Anyway I seen where our guys have been working out!

[KobeMVP888]

I am not into Racing, Golf, or Tennis.

The Final Round of the Open Championship from Royal Troon was easily one of the top 5 rounds of golf I have ever watched! EVER! The shot making by Stenson and Mickelson was jaw dropping. They cleared the field by more than TEN strokes!!! I am INTO any sporting event like that! Just WOW!!!

[3Peatkb24]

I am not into Racing, Golf, or Tennis.

The Final Round of the Open Championship from Royal Troon was easily one of the top 5 rounds of golf I have ever watched! EVER! The shot making by Stenson and Mickelson was jaw dropping. They cleared the field by more than TEN strokes!!! I am INTO any sporting event like that! Just WOW!!!

I liked Golf when Tiger was doing Great. It was always interesting to see if he would win when playing in a major. To me watching Golf is boring so is Racing, Soccer, Tennis and Hockey. My home state is known for Racing and I don't even follow Nascar or Indy Racing at all. I like Jeff Gordon and he's actually Racing Sunday here at the Brickyard in his final race but I don't follow the sport. I am mainly a Pro Basketball and a Pro Football guy. College Basketball and College Football are watchable but it's not near as great as the Pro's IMO. I like Pro Baseball third but usually don't even get into that until August. I have watched it more this summer because the Cubs are doing great but I usually don't until last couple of months. Growing up Baseball used to be my 4th favorite sport, Boxing was 3rd but since guys like Mike Tyson and Sugar Ray aren't around anymore I rarely even watch a Boxing match anymore. The HeavyWT Division stinks and has for a decade now.

[lakerevolution]

The heavyweight division has a few promising contenders, but the UFC/MMA conglomerate just overshadowed boxing over the last 10-20 years.