Rocky Mountain notebook: Day 6

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)]

Rocky Mountain notebook: Millsap leads league's best
By Tim Buckley
Special to ESPN.com
Updated: July 21, 2007, 3:33 AM ET

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah -- Paul Millsap hit two game-winning shots, both against
Atlanta, and knocked down an uncharacteristic 3-pointer to force overtime in
Utah's second Rocky Mountain Revue game against the Hawks on Thursday.

He had much of the hometown-heavy electorate, mostly media and RMR officials,
on his side.

The Louisiana Tech product also had the benefit of Revue MVP and all-tournament
team ballots being signed, sealed and delivered before he finished the Jazz's
Revue-ending 78-60 loss to Chicago on Friday night with just three points and
one rebound in 17 minutes.

Otherwise, Philadelphia point guard Louis Williams -- who merely averaged
24.0 points in four Revue outings, tops among anyone playing more than one
game in the Jazz-hosted summer league -- might easily have walked away with
MVP honors in tow.

Instead, the award went to Millsap -- a legit candidate who went into Friday's
play averaging a team-leading 17.2 points and team-high 8.6 boards over five
games.

That's no surprise to Jazz staff members, all of whom are quite fond of
Millsap -- Utah's regular backup power forward behind Carlos Boozer last
season, even though he was selected just 47th overall in the second round
of the 2006 NBA draft and even though Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan purportedly
is allergic to rookies.

Two Sloan assistants, in fact, raved this week over the progress Millsap has
made just in the short span since the Jazz were last seen fighting San Antonio
in the Western Conference finals.

"He's starting to grow," Tyrone Corbin said, "and that's one of the things
that's gonna be key for him."

"Amazing progress," added Scott Layden, the former Jazz and New York Knicks
general manager who now is back coaching in Utah. "He's gotten better. He was
in great shape. He was more efficient and more effective scoring. His
rebounding goes without saying, because he always seems to [grab] one in
under every three minutes, which is excellent in the league. He's great.
Great in practice, great leadership. We're very fortunate that he's on our
team."

Millsap felt a little lucky Friday, too.

"I need that trophy put on my mantle," he said.

But seriously, folks …

"I've still got a lot to work on," said Millsap, who led the nation in
rebounding for three straight years while at, that's right, Karl Malone's
old school.

"My offensive game is coming alive,'' he added. "Last year, I was a little
tentative. I was just trying to play a role. Hopefully this year I will get a
few more touches so I can try to be more aggressive and do things that I did
most of this week."

And now, a look at the rest of the …


ALL-REVUE TEAM

Louis Williams, Philadelphia: Williams came to the Revue having had the
highest scoring average among those playing two games or more at the NBA
Summer League in Las Vegas.

His 24-point scoring average in Utah came despite the fact he missed half of
one game in order to catch a flight out of town for the brother's wedding.

The 76ers finished a Revue-best 5-0 with him at the helm for three-and-a-half
of those outings, he scored a game-high 28 points in Philly's 76-71 win over
Atlanta on Friday and he shot 54.6 percent (30-of-55) from the field aginst
the Hawks. And, oh yeah, the second-round point taken straight from his
Georgia high school in the NBA's 2005 draft also dished nine assists -- as
many as he had in his first three games combined -- on Friday.

Enough said?

Shelden Williams, Atlanta: The No. 5 overall selection from the 2006 draft
wound up averaging 15.8 points and 9.0 rebounds in six games for the Hawks,
including 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and seven boards
Friday against Philadelphia.

Though outplayed by Millsap in the Revue's opening game, Williams displayed
the yeoman-like effort Hawks coaches were looking for during the remainder of
the summer league.

Perhaps more importantly than that, he led by example -- and made a case that
perhaps not all Duke products are so soft after all.

"I told Shelden before we got here I expected him to come here and really
set the tone for the rest of the guys, and I think he has done that," Hawks
assistant coach and Revue head coach Larry Drew said.

Acie Law IV, Atlanta: Though he sat out Atlanta's Revue finale, the former
Texas A&M guard taken 11th in this year's draft got a good head start this
month on making the transition from scoring point to pass-first point.

Law averaged 13.6 points, 6.0 assists and a reasonable 2.8 turnovers in five
summer games. Beyond the value of numbers, though, he learned perhaps the
most important lesson of all: How it's good to make friends with big fellas
like Williams and 2007 No. 3 overall pick Al Horford.

"Anytime you play with somebody you know, over the course of time you're
gonna get to know that person -- what kind of moves he likes to do, and what
he likes to do in different situations," Williams said when asked about
bonding with Law. "So I think that's good -- us playing with each other, and
us getting to know each other."

Louis Amundson, Philadelphia: The undrafted UNLV product was the scrappiest,
hardest-hustling player of the Revue from start to finish. Amundson -- who
made his NBA debut with Utah, but finished his rookie season with Philadelphia
-- had 14 points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes against Atlanta on Friday,
giving him averages of 15.4 points and a Revue-leading 9.8 boards over five
games.

Though he may be a bit unpolished and may not have the greatest touch around
the basket, he showed he's willing to work to get whatever he can -- a display
that, if it continues in fall camp, may go a long way toward landing Amundson
a permanent roster spot in Philly next season.

Jeff Green, Seattle: The No. 5 overall pick from this year's draft hit an
unimpressive 4-of-16 from the field Friday, but Green did finish with an
11-point, 10-rebound double double to lead Seattle past Dallas 85-77.

That's seven more boards, by the way, than he had in his first two Revue
games combined.

Green came into the day averaging 23.5 points in two RMR games, and wound up
with an average of 19.3. Though his shooting was off against the Mavericks,
the Georgetown product showed not only that he can hold his own alone -- but
also that he makes quite a nice complement to No. 2 overall selection Kevin
Durant, who scored 29 in his lone Revue outing last Tuesday.


BEST OF THE REST: Al Horford closed a disappointing 1-of-12 from the field
for the Hawks on Friday, but the former University of Florida star did pull
down14 rebounds in 33 minutes. He finished the Revue averaging 9.0 rebounds
despite missing two games early in the week with a sprained ankle.

Jazz first-round rookie Morris Almond averaged 12.8 points in six games while
making a convincing case for regular-rotation minutes at shooting guard,
especially with last season's starter, Derek Fisher, having left Utah for the
Los Angeles Lakers.

Jazz point Dee Brown, a restricted free agent and Utah's No. 3 point last
season, averaged 5.7 assists in six outings and showed he's worthy of a
reserve-role roster spot somewhere in the NBA, if not right back in Utah
behind former University of Illinois teammate Deron Williams and newly signed
backup point Jason Hart.

Dallas point Jose Juan Barea played only two Revue games, but impressed by
averaging 7.0 assists.

Dallas roster-regular guard Maurice Ager scored 16 Friday, averaged 17.6
points in three games and shot 48.9 percent (21-for-43) from the field during
the Revue.

Seattle center Johan Petro exhibited continued development while averaging
13.0 points in three games.

Aaron Gray, a second-round pick from Pitt for Chicago this year, dominated
inside against Utah on Friday, scoring 23 points and making 9-of-10 from the
field. Gray looked solid throughout the Revue, averaged 13.0 points and
perhaps made Bulls brass comfortable penciling him in as a backup center for
seasons to come.

Chicago free agent Thomas Gardner, a University of Missouri product who spent
last season in Belgium and spent the past week fighting for NBA notice,
averaged 17.3 points and shot 43.7 percent from the field in four games.


  NOTES

Buzz around town for much of the week has been that this could be the last
year for the Revue, especially with the league sponsoring the NBA Summer
League in Las Vegas and so many clubs -- 21 from the NBA, plus Team China --
playing there these days.

The Jazz, though, want to keep afloat the cozy little summer show that
they've hosted in Utah since 1984.

"We want to keep it as long as it's viable," Jazz basketball operations
senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said Friday. "We think it's great for
the community."

Signs are positive, O'Connor suggested, that the Jazz will get their way.

"It's a go next year unless something happened with the league," he said.

Playing a total of 16 games over six days, seven teams took part this year.
That's down four from 2004, when the Vegas league got under way. But it's a
number that seems to work for a summer league without the bright lights.

"They [almost] all seemed to indicate that they wanted to come back, even if
they [also] go Vegas next season," O'Connor said.


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→ sam369:
推 tonometer:懶人翻譯 Millsap拿到了夏季聯盟的MVP
推 tonometer:並且投進兩個致勝一擊 還有一個逼近延長賽的三分球
→ tonometer:教皇的兩個小弟稱讚了Millsap一番
→ tonometer:Millsap本人則是謙虛的說自己還必須更加努力
→ tonometer:Louis Williams是夏季聯盟的得分王 差點就要拿到MVP
→ tonometer:這還包括 他在一場比賽中去參加婚禮而只打了半場
→ tonometer:Sheldon Williams是最佳5人 他是2006年第5順位
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