Basketball is back, sort of, in the form of the Orlando Summer League. If you missed it yesterday the Celtics showed that they are still the Celtics by blowing a 4th quarter lead and losing to Oklahoma City (which was playing key players like James Harden and Serge Ibaka, for some reason).
But couldn't care less about the score. I'm here with knee jerk reactions to a few of the key guys on the C's team.
1: Oliver Lafayette
Nice game out of him. Showed some good fundamentals with the way he saw the floor and found guys in spots where they could score. He also found his way to the rim and knocked down a couple of jumpers. All in all, an impressive showing.
2: Luke Harangody
I'm not gonna lie... that jumper is not pretty. The lower part of his body is off kilter, his follow through sometimes has a weird flick to it, and the guide hand occasionally seems to get bored with the process and ad-libs with its own little flair. But yesterday, it was effective. And in the end, a lot of players have made careers in the NBA with funky looking shots. I'm just afraid this one will be streaky. Yesterday, it was on. Let's see if it stays on today, or if Luke shoots 23%.
3: Semih Erden
He's tall.
That's the best thing I can say about him so far. He looked a little lost out there. Rebounds flew over his head. Guys slipped past him on the way to the rim.
It's going to be an adjustment for him. I'm not saying he can't make it. I'm just saying he'll have to make one.
Others guys did decent things, but those things stood out for me. Of course, all of this comes with the huge caveat that it's freakin' summer league and it's damn near impossible to glean anything substantial from these games. But we're looking for little fundamental things that might be a clue about their potential. And since OKC brought a few of their actual players, it added a smidge of legitimacy to some performances. Ok.. maybe not a smidge... a little less than a smidge. But I don't know the metric system so I don't know what that is.
Keep watching. C's play again today at 5.
AP Photo