BDA Sports Official Website

 

Summer League was a learning experience. I thought everything went pretty well, overall. I just tried to learn a lot over the week and a half we spent in Las Vegas – learn from my teammates, learn all the schemes on offense and on defense.

 

I just tried to learn it all. We had to learn the plays real quick, which wasn’t hard for me. But I tried to learn more than just the plays. I also tried to learn the pace of the game, how hard you have to play. You have to be a good listener and you have to apply what you learn. I can’t say I was really surprised by anything. It was about what I expected – everybody is there to compete and everybody is out there trying to make a team. Everybody is coming out and playing as hard as they can. That’s what I expected and that’s what I saw. It was good to get to know my new teammates.

 

I didn’t really know any of them until we got to Las Vegas. I had played against Edgar Sosa in college my freshman year at Mississippi when we played Louisville. That’s the only player, I think, that I’ve ever played against anywhere. My first impression of Jonas was that he plays hard. I mean, Jonas plays hard. He’s a hard worker, he takes charges, he does pretty much everything. DaJuan is so strong when he drives. He can shoot, he can handle the ball for his size – he’s just a good all-around player. Austin is really good. With his height, he can shoot, dribble – they’ve got him playing the two and he’s like 6-11. That’s like Dirk at 7-foot playing the two. He’s a smooth scorer.

 

Rodney Stuckey was in Las Vegas with us and I had a chance to talk to him a little bit. I didn’t really ask him questions about playing point guard in the NBA, because I’m used to playing point guard. I know it’s totally different on this level, so I’m just trying to learn as much as I can in Summer League so I can be ready for the regular season. Greg Monroe and I have spent some time together, too. We’re learning each other. I played the point and he’d come in and set screens and I’ve been trying to get a feel for him when he posts up, where he likes the ball thrown to – just really trying to get a feel for his game.

 

He’s a really good player, a good passer who can do pretty much everything – score, rebound, play good defense. Even though we both grew up in the South, me in Memphis and Greg in New Orleans, we never played against each other. I played a lot of AAU ball, on a travel team that played in all the big-time tournaments like Vegas, Houston and LA, but we never wound up playing against Greg Monroe’s teams. I came back home to Memphis after Summer League and I’m going to go somewhere to work out for a while – I’m not sure where yet – then I’ll be coming to Detroit to find somewhere to live and get settled. I plan on doing that quickly to get it out of the way. I’ll probably come back to Detroit probably in the middle or toward the end of August and start to work out there before training camp opens. One of the things I will do when I come to Detroit to look for a place to live is to meet Arnie Kander. I haven’t met him yet. We haven’t talked about a conditioning program, but I plan on getting with him. I’ll be working hard all summer, just trying to be ready to go when training camp starts.