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Game Thread Jul 05, 2025 07:00pm: 76ers Vs Jazz (Summer League)

Added to Calendar: 07-05-25

RandyForRubio said:
He very clearly did not mostly suck.
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You could tell Cody had a lot of nervousness and was rushing things offensively. I did like that there were times that he didn't settle for 3 and dribbled toward the basket. It looked like that was what he was instructed to do, however, and not his natural inclination.

I'm just going to treat him like a rookie this year.
 
KqWIN said:
Seeing a lot of fans online wondering why Ace Bailey didn't play a lot with the ball in his hands. This must be the first time they're watching him and they believed in the baby Durant hype lol.
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Ace is closer to McDaniels than he is Durant. Like Jaden, the best way he can contribute immediately is turn into a defensive hustle guy. He's ahead of where Jaden was offensively, but he's not good enough to dominate the offense like he did in college. No NBA offense is going to stop so Ace can get in the mid post and go to work. He is going to have to find other ways to score and improve his ball handling so he can initiate.
 
rocfan1 said:
VJ being green lit to take 27 shots is a clear sign that Philly isn't invested in any other perimeter player on their Summer League Roster. Our situation is a lot different, and with ACE even on an off shooting night would have eye popping numbers if we green lit 27 shots.
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Wait, I thought Ace was supposed to be "The Man" on the Jazz from day 1?

(Morgan Freeman voice: "It turns out he wasn't The Man.")

I mean, if you're a #5 pick with a planet-sized ego and the excuses start flying in your very first SL game, it's probably not your biggest problem that your team "greenlit" just 13 shots for you (which sounds like BS anyway).
 
This was a painful game to watch. I don't care about the result or the box score. But the fact that the kid who would have put an end to the tanking was playing for the other team, looking like a future star and absolutely radiating the "IT factor" like some lab-grown combination of a young D-Wade and Jimmy Buckets, is tough to accept.

Meanwhile, Ace looked like he hadn't played basketball in years. Make no mistake, this is another hyper raw project. The worst thing the Jazz can do now is to anoint him "the man", gift him all the bad shots he desires and remove every hint of accountability. And I'm afraid that's exactly what's going to happen.

I said early on that in the long run, VJ may become the best player out of this draft, and this game did nothing to change that view. Kid is built different.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
This was a painful game to watch. I don't care about the result or the box score. But the fact that the kid who would have put an end to the tanking was playing for the other team, looking like a future star and absolutely radiating the "IT factor" like some lab-grown combination of a young D-Wade and Jimmy Buckets, is tough to accept.

Meanwhile, Ace looked like he hadn't played basketball in years. Make no mistake, this is another hyper raw project. The worst thing the Jazz can do now is to anoint him "the man", gift him all the bad shots he desires and remove every hint of accountability. And I'm afraid that's exactly what's going to happen.

I said early on that in the long run, VJ may become the best player out of this draft, and this game did nothing to change that view. Kid is built different.
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I remember when Trey Lyles took a lot of shots and scored a lot of points that one SL.
 
A few observations:

1. In the second half, the Jazz buried Ace at the corner 3 and ran almost zero actions for him. He was largely a bystander. When he did get involved, he seemed to be forcing it rather than playing in the flow of the game, as the flow had largely frozen him out. I hope they make more efforts to get him involved. In contrast, VJ featured prominently in the 76ers attack and had more opportunities. For all the praise heaped on him (and I was among the impressed), his 27 or so points came on 24 or so shots.
2. Similarly, Sensebaugh was buried at the corner 3 in the second half and had few actions ran to get him the ball. I'm ok with that, as I like to see others get involved, but he provided much of the spark last night when the Jazz went on their entertaining runs in the first half, so if the goal was to win, this was an interesting strategy.
3. I'm curious why Harkless got so much playing time? Is he in the Jazz's future plans.
4. The games last night moved too slowly. There's no need for challenges in the summer league nor for drawn out ref deliberations. Make the call and get on with the game, the stakes couldn't be lower.
5. Listening to a podcast this morning, they were all over Cody and how bad he was last night. I thought he looked ok, not great, but not THAT bad. He's already got a rep that's going to very hard to overcome and will jaundice any discourse around him.

Other than that, a fun game. It's so much more fun with the Jazz try to win and do well, and we can talk about things other than %^&*$ tanking. I think that the number of pages for this game thread exceeded any game thread from the entire regular season last year, suggesting that people here largely agree with this sentiment.
 
Schrödinger's Gerbil said:
In the second half, the Jazz buried Ace at the corner 3 and ran almost zero actions for him. He was largely a bystander. When he did get involved, he seemed to be forcing it rather than playing in the flow of the game, as the flow had largely frozen him out. I hope they make more efforts to get him involved.
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We've heard these exact same complaints about Lauri a million times. I thought one of the main reasons for picking Ace was that he supposedly had the ability to "get his own shot", unlike Markkanen.

Well, if he's having trouble handling the ball and getting separation in the freaking summer league, it's not gonna get any easier when the real games start.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
This was a painful game to watch. I don't care about the result or the box score. But the fact that the kid who would have put an end to the tanking was playing for the other team, looking like a future star and absolutely radiating the "IT factor" like some lab-grown combination of a young D-Wade and Jimmy Buckets, is tough to accept.

Meanwhile, Ace looked like he hadn't played basketball in years. Make no mistake, this is another hyper raw project. The worst thing the Jazz can do now is to anoint him "the man", gift him all the bad shots he desires and remove every hint of accountability. And I'm afraid that's exactly what's going to happen.

I said early on that in the long run, VJ may become the best player out of this draft, and this game did nothing to change that view. Kid is built different.
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the **** going on inside your head is so ****ed.
 
Soooo

He didn’t workout for anybody, shot like ****, and looked completely out of shape? Well done, Ace. Time to get off your *** and get to work.

VJ from what I gather, looked a bit like Spida. Which probably isn’t a bad comparison.
 
The Jazz Wonderbra said:
Ace looked like he has the power, length, size, tools, spring, and creativity to be an all star. He also looked like an 18 year old.

VJ looked like a more experienced player that does a lot, competes, scores, hustles, but he didnt look like he had near as many tools.
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Interesting.

VJ is also only 19 years old. Philly might’ve picked up a really good player.
 
str8line said:
Don't see this relationship ending well. He's hated on because people think he's a primadonna. Can't be good for an 18-year-old. Imagine the pressure if he doesn't perform quickly. And what's with Cooper's son being inserted into the Jazz organization? Cooper seems like LaVar.
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People think he’s a primadonna because he’s acted like a primadonna. Crazy how that works.

I’m going to reserve judgement for whether he was a good pick for much later. But I’ve been disappointed in what I’ve seen and heard. If you want to win a fan base over, you probably shouldn’t do the things he’s done so far.
 
VJ is a good player, but his night looks really different if there is a Kessler or almost anyone other than Flip playing a majority of the time at center. The pah to the basket was really, really open.
 
str8line said:
Don't see this relationship ending well. He's hated on because people think he's a primadonna. Can't be good for an 18-year-old. Imagine the pressure if he doesn't perform quickly. And what's with Cooper's son being inserted into the Jazz organization? Cooper seems like LaVar.
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No one pays attention to the Jazz at all, we might be the least thought about franchise in basketball right now. There is no pressure.
 
fishonjazz said:
Me too. Not super efficient (only because he didn't get to the line and his 3 ball wasn't falling) but he was getting blocks and steals and rebounds and had hella swagger and was talking ****. He was second on his team in assists as well.
He had an impressive game.

But again, it's one summer league game. VJ could be the biggest bust of the entire draft or he could be a future hall of famer. 1 summer league game means nothing at all.
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Yeah, it's funny how fans react. People who say an 18- or 19-year-old kid is a bust based on SL games are ignorant, dumb, or both... or maybe just bored, lol.
 
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