Three Developmental Keys to Watch in Blazers Summer League Finale
The Trail Blazers' Las Vegas Summer League finale tips off on Tuesday afternoon against the Houston Rockets.
Looking ahead to the 2021-22 season, watch for these developmental keys from CJ Elleby, Greg Brown III and Trendon Watford as Portland wraps up summer basketball in Sin City—and its young players get one more chance to show out in an official capacity before training camp.
CJ Elleby's Aggressiveness
Elleby has been by far the most the Blazers' most disappointing player in Las Vegas. The numbers are ugly all-around, but perhaps more dispiriting is how comfortable Elleby—Portland's only player with a guaranteed contract for next season when Summer League minicamp initially tipped off—has been ceding ground as a playmaker to the Blazers' older veterans.
His idealized role in the NBA, should it ever materialize, won't be built around on-ball dominance. Elleby's consistent hustle and willingness to do the dirty work and little things on both ends is what gives him the chance to carve out a niche as a role player. But even a prospective tenth man or fourth guard needs to have some semblance of ball handling and scoring juice, especially if he's not a lockdown defender, and Elleby just hasn't shown any at Summer League.
Already at a statistical nadir with no opportunities left for it to get worse, here's hoping Elleby comes out aggressive against Houston, playing more on the ball to crease the paint and create efficient scoring chances for himself and his teammates. A couple made threes would go a long way toward easing concerns about his wayward jumper, too.
Greg Brown III Attacking Close-Outs
Playing limited minutes behind a frontcourt featuring Michael Beasley and Kenneth Faried, Brown has nevertheless been a fleeting bright spot for Portland at Summer League, exhibiting the mouth-watering physical tools that made him a consensus top-10 recruit in the High School Class of 2020.
Those bursts of promise have mostly come on defense, where Brown's positional length and quick-twitch athleticism have helped him come out of nowhere for some spectacular blocks and high-pointed rebounds. Though not quite airtight, he's been a committed, engaged and communicative team defender, too.
But the height of Brown's ceiling was always going be to decided on the other side of the ball, where he's perhaps the rawest rotation player on the Blazers' summer roster. He's 3-of-11 from beyond the arc in Las Vegas, looking for his shot with decisiveness out of pick-and-pops and simple ball reversals.
Assuming the jumper is eventually respectable, what would really take Brown's offensive impact to the next level is additional comfort attacking close-outs. It's been an adventure when he's put the ball on the deck at Summer League, one normally ending with wild, in-between flings or near turnovers. But this slithering, Euro-step finish from Sunday's game is evidence Brown has the baseline feel and dexterity needed to maneuver through a crowd with the ball.
A couple more flashes of that two-to-three dribble effectiveness would be a ringing endorsement of Brown's rate of improvement from start to finish at Summer League.
Trendon Watford's Interior Defense
Watford has looked the definition of an interior 'tweener in Sin City, not fleet of enough to be a power forward in the modern NBA nor big and instinctive enough to serve as the last line of defense at center. That's not especially surprising. If Watford were more athletic overall or had keen rim-protecting instincts, he wouldn't have gone undrafted.
Watford's ability to initiate offense at the elbows and in delay actions at the top of the key, provided some additional shooting stretch, will be his ultimate key to an NBA roster spot. The Blazers or another team may not find him worth a gamble, though, unless Watford proves he can be something more than a defensive liability.
Enter Alperen Sengun, the reigning Turkish League MVP and one of the most decorated foreign teenagers ever, who's embarrassed many defenders at Summer League with his blend of skill, footwork and ingenuity. An awesome back-to-the-basket player, Sengun's handle and vision will test Watford's speed on the perimeter, too.
Needless to say, defense like this won't be enough for Watford against Sengun.
The good news? Watford surely knows it, and will be out to prove himself in an intriguing individual matchup on the last day of Summer League.