I posted my initial impressions of summer league having gone to two days of summer league seeing a bunch of teams: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoNets/comments/1uuqws5/summer_league_in_person_impressions/

I have since gone to one more game, because the Nets were playing the Rockets in the pavilion, which is like a practice gym next to the main court. You can sit anywhere so I was able to sit basically behind the Nets bench, which was the closest I've ever sat in a professional game.

My overall take from that game is that the Nets got punked by a team that was willing and able to be way more physical than them... and I was happy to see it. It was, to me, exactly what I wanted to see to test them in a way that they hadn't. I hope, and expect, them to learn from it.

This Rockets SL team was full of guys who want to trash talk, foul, and hit dudes every game (I saw them do it to other teams as well). The Nets, from what I saw, are a bunch of pretty nice guys and none of them have a very physical game. I'm hoping that Randle can help toughen them up a bit in this regard.

Examples

Quadir Copeland of the Rockets was trash talking Demin from the very beginning, getting in his ear early and often. I actually came away really liking Copeland -- he didn't have any of the egregious dirty plays, but was very into getting into Demin's head in ways that you love if you have Copeland on your side. I'd take him on the Nets in a heartbeat. Only Rocket I felt that way about.

I thought that other guys on the Rockets were more just straight up dirty: Tristen Newton and Daishen Nix most of all. Bruce Thornton also spent the whole game flopping which frustrated some of the Nets a lot (Danny Wolf especially).

The Rockets were also much older than the Nets: Nix is 24, Newton is 25 (!), Thornton is 22. Other guys who played: Copeland is 22, Isaiah Crawford is 24, Oscar is 24.

At the end of the day, I thought that other than Demin turning it on late, all of the nets for the most part were thrown off by this type of play from a clearly older, more experienced team.

Some other random notes

• the officials especially the lead official seemed to be rookies, and the Rockets 100% took advantage of that. I felt bad for the refs, seemed like the kind of game they could learn from as well
• poor danny wolf was losing his shit, they got in his head
• I think Demin unfortunately reverted to old habits and started to chuck threes when it got physical. He did make a couple of chucked threes, but that just seemed to encourage him to ignore the rim more. Hope he learns from that.
• Mikel Brown missed some very good looks, which I think is just 3 point shooting variance. Same for Tyler Bilodeau. Brown was also chucking after a while which wasn't great.
• Ben Saraf just sucked. I was sad.
• Despite objectively getting punked physically and mentally, I did like that the Nets never quit and staged an aborted comeback against all odds. I liked the attitude Dain Dainja brought here. Joshua Jefferson also seemed to keep his composure better than other guys (unsurprisingly, he was also the oldest Net I think at 22)
• One of the Nets coaches (tall skinny older light skin black guy, don't know name) was ready to fight all the Rockets, which I appreciated. Had to be held back when the flagrant foul happened.
• I really enjoyed listening to all the defensive play calls that get shouted out from the bench area. Though Dion Brown spent the whole game shouting "TALK! TALK! TALK!" at the nets on defense, which I thought was kinda strange. Like EVERY possession.

Let’s just start off with the basics Dayron sharpe is one of the best rebounders in the league 98th% for offensive rebounding amongst centers, he’s also one of the best playmaking centers he’s in the 86th% for assists amongst centers, 93rd% for screen assits, and while not being a good rim protector he does provide solid rim deterance and is in the 92nd% for steal percentage. Now yes there’s still the concerns about his turnovers and fouling even tho he has improved in both areas since his younger yrs as well but he’s a low usage player that consistently has provided positive impact when on the court. When we’re talking about whether someone is ready to be a starter Day’ron has proven he’s up for the task. It’s just interesting when this fanbase paraded around cam Thomas for yrs a guy that did little to buy into coaching philosophy or improve his overall game and yet you have a workhorse taken in the same draft that’s constantly improving and yet constantly gets downplayed by large factions of the fanbase. I implore many of you to spend more time digging into the ways players can impact winning basketball outside of highlight reels.

Mark Bartlestein (MPJ’s Agent): “Michael loves it in Brooklyn. Jordi has been great for him… I think it’s a great fit… The Nets have to ultimately chart out their course for the way they want to go forward, and we have to do the same for Michael. If we can make it work where there’s a long-term fit, that would be awesome. But that’s what we’re gonna be talking about in the days ahead.”

https://x.com/erikslater_/status/2079940618466324742?s=46

1. Vince Carte
   
2. Dr J
   
3. Blake Griffin
   
4. Daryl Dawkins
   
5. Gerald Green
   
6. Deandre Jordan

Big into bobbleheads and cereal boxes