Summer league Guide to ex Wolverines

Poole will def. play for the Warriors this year.  They'll most likely load manage Klay through at least the All Star break, and Poole's YoY improvement has merited him getting playing time.

Didn’t realize shouting was an issue for Frank… hope he at least improves his shooting.

Oof it was rough to watch. He was being used entirely differently than at Michigan. Offensively, he was played as a big (4 and small ball 5). He set a lot of screens and otherwise set up at the 3 point line. Defensively, he was guarding fellow top 10 pick Jonathan Kuminga mostly. Some notes:

• He was uncomfortable setting screens. He did the fake the screen, quickly pop out thing several times, but he was nowhere to be found when expected to roll to the basket.
• He could not hit a 3, and the defense did not respect his shooting ability whatsoever.
• He did not utilize the "go and catch" technique that made him successful attacking closeouts at Michigan. He was thus unable to find openings to attack. In general, he was tentative on offense.
• He showed solid court vision, but he had some sloppy passes as a result of him not being a threat with the ball himself.
• Defensively, he was usually in good position on his man to defend the basket. He got hit with a few frustrating fouls however.
• He was giving shooters too much space on the perimeter. He's used to his length deterring the shot, but at this level many guys have a quick trigger or a high release.
• He was fairly inactive as an off ball defender.

In general he was anxious. He is still extremely young, so there is a lot of room to grow. The learning curve will be steeper than expected if this is how he's gonna be used. He will have to find spots where he can be a threat on offense and find ways to attack these (Iggy did a good job of this btw, though he's a total turnstile on defense). Additionally, more comfort on defense will allow him to be more disruptive off the ball, especially when he's matched up with an unrefined player like Kuminga (who is more polished than he was given credit for).

It’s hard to watch at times and is basically pickup games in terms of everyone doing their own thing a lot. But high level pickup games where it’s a bunch of A-list college names playing against each other. 

8-9 years ago, I used to play basketball at a Golds Gym across from the then-Austin Toros (Spurs D-League team) facility and a lot of their players would come over and play with you in pickup games if you showed up late enough at night during the summer.

Guys like AJ Abrams, Luther Head, and occasionally even higher end young guys like Corey Joseph and De Colo (may remember him from the Olympic finals this year) would then proceed to absolutely light you up and make you rethink life. AJ Abrams in particular was god-tier in shooting and looked like Curry.

The speed and skill of these D-league level players was so overwhelming. That’s when you realize they are a lot closer to Michael Jordan than you are to them.

Anyway, the Summer League (which is basically the NBA D-League teams with rookies as well) is awesome to see even if the basketball can be hard to watch at times - especially when you realize the worst players are still first team all-universe in their hometowns.

Cool story bro moment. Sorry.