The Cavaliers’ Summer League Team gets underway later this afternoon, offering fans their first glimpse of recent draft picks JJ Hickson and Darnell Jackson.
The MLB All-Star break is excruciating. Just awful. The HR Derby is ok, I suppose. At least we have one of our guys in the Derby this year to make it somewhat interesting. The mystique of Yankee Stadium might make it slightly more fun to watch. But overall, the All-Star break always represents the 4 slowest days of summer.
Thankfully, though, the NBA has stepped up and given me something to watch. Over the weekend, the NBA Vegas Summer League kicked off, and later this afternoon, the Cavaliers play their first summer league game. This will be the first time JJ Hickson and Darnell Jackson face off against pseudo-NBA caliber talent.
Traditionally, the Summer League is a bit enigmatic. It can deceive you into seeing things in players that don’t really exist. I remember seeing Shannon Brown looking electric running fast breaks coast to coast and showing a dynamic, slashing style of play. I thought the Cavaliers had the steal of the draft. Well, we know how that one turned out. So brace yourself for Summer League, and be sure not to read too much into. Take it for what it is.
What’s most exciting about the NBA Summer League, though, is that you can watch any and every game online via NBATV. If you want to watch the Cavs take on the Knicks today at 4:00 pm ET, click here and sign up for a free account.
So who can you look forward to seeing play for the Cavaliers this year? Their summer league roster is as follows:
The Cavaliers will be playing 5 games this year, and they are:
The Cavaliers summer league team will be coached by Assistan Coach John Kuester. He spoke with cavs.com briefly about the Cavs’ summer league team over the weekend. One particularly interesting point he made was,
“Speaking of J.J. Hickson, how has he looked so far?
J.K.: J.J.’s done a real nice job. He’s behind the learning curve, right now, from a defensive standpoint – as most rookies would be. But offensively, he’s got some outstanding skills and once he gets a familiarity with what we want done defensively and offensively, well, he’s got a tremendous upside.
… and Darnell Jackson?
J.K.: What a pleasure to coach. Both of them have been that way. And having a little more experience at the college level, Darnell is a little ahead of that learning curve. And he’s definitely still learning some things, but he’s ahead of things right now.”
I suppose it shouldn’t be shocking that a guy with experience like Jackson would be ahead of a raw player like Hickson at this point, but I still found that observation interesting none the less. Regardless, I’ll be watching this afternoon to see how the young guys look and to help me deal with my sports withdrawal syndrome of All-Star break week.
Author: AndrewSchnitkey
Andrew Schnitkey is a founding editor of WaitingForNextYear. Though he has written about every Cleveland franchise over the years, his primary focus is the Cavaliers and NBA basketball in general.Andrew Schnitkey has written 449 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I’ll be watching. If that makes me an NBA nerd, well then I don’t want to be cool
Same here Ricky. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It isn’t letting me watch, it is saying it is not available in my area, is anyone else having that problem?
Well, that’s an improvement over what I’ve got…..I just keep getting a black screen. This is certainly annoying.
I don’t know why it isn’t working, I watched like 5 minutes of a game a couple days ago
Just to annoy us. Hickson is 2-3 from the field for 4 points with 2 rebounds so far. At least he looks solid on paper.
Is anyone else having trouble watching? I load the video but then its stuck on a page that just says “NBA Summer League Live Event”
I can’t even get that far. If I had NBATV I could just watch it on TV but alas Time Warner doesn’t seem to like all sports networks (NFL, NBA, Big Ten)
wow my comment came in late, sorry bout that, glad to know im not the only one with a problem though.
Hickson is 3-4 for 6 points, 2 rebounds. Jackson is 3-4 for 6 points, 1 rebound. Tractor Traylor is tearing these kids up…3-4 for 6 points in just a couple minutes played. Oh, and our old friend Billy Thomas wasted no time chucking up shots….He’s 0-3 from the field and 0-2 from three.
In 17 minutes played, Hickson is 5 of 6 for 10 points with 4 rebounds and 2 turnovers. I wish I could get truly excited about this, but I suppose it’s better than him coming out poorly.
ok it just started for me, it must be on some sort of delay…its starting from the beginning
And my feed just started…..it appears it thinks it’s starting at the beginning, even though the game is almost half way over already.
Well mine isn’t working haha. I would take watching it on delay over not watching at all, at least you can see for yourself how Hickson plays
@ Rock – Thomas is only trying to fill the gap Hughes left behind.
My initial impressions of Hickson: He has a LONG way to go on defense before Mike Brown will feel comfortable giving him any sniff of meaningful playing time. He easily gets lost in traffic and looks unsure of himself on that end.
On offense, though, he just really looks like the real deal. Unbelievable quick spin move, he’s showing his athleticism, and he has a non stop motor on offense. He never stops working and calling for the ball. I love his aggresiveness on offense and his lack of fear or intimidation.
Hard to say how any of this will translate against real NBA players, but I’m seeing a lot of plusses and a few minuses in his game so far.
It’s blacked out. You don’t know how lucky you are to have FSN broadcast the Cavs over bluejackets/reds/ultimate fighting/world poker tour
Being a Cavs fan in Dayton SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are still considered in the market area so NBA league pass/league pass broadband blocks out the games and FSN hardly ever shows the Cavs.
That’s what you are dealing with right now.
Who cares about that crap, this is E3 week….I guess that makes me a videogame nerd.
Hickson ends up 11 of 15 from the field, 4 of 7 from the line, 26 points, 9 boards (7 def, 2 off), 2 fouls, 3 turnovers.
After going scoreless in the 1st half, Danillo Gallinari scored 14 points in the 2nd half to secure victory for the Knicks.
@tsunami-well shit I’m moving to dayton next month . . .
Not that it matters but I was kind of hoping to see more from Mike Green, I thought he was good and college and hoped he could get invited to training camp but he will have to do a lot better
I like that Hickson only got 2 fouls, a lot of times young big men who are lost on defense just start hacking (see Oden, Greg, in his lone summer league game last year). I really think that if he works hard he will start getting significant minutes after the all-star break this coming season, that is when a lot of rookies start to come into their own
You know what’s fun to do in Dayton? Pack up and get out
~Dave Attell
Any comment or reason why Dru Joyce and Romeo Travis are playing for the CAVS? I mean aside from being Lebrons friends?
No, you answered your own question there. Those guys are there as a personal favor to LeBron.