Snap Reaction: Summer League Game 3
There's only so much that you can tell from a game like this. China was overmatched from the outset and simply wasn't good enough to hang with the Celtics. Still, some players maintained their level of play and starred while others seemed to play down to the competition.
When it was announced that Sun Yue was going to start at PG, I knew Rondo was going to have a great game. Yue is a talented kid but he's too slow to guard NBA point guards. It's odd that the Lakers drafted him because he's essentially a poor man's Sasha Vujacic (who they don't seem to be overly pleased with). Rondo looked good at the start, taking the ball to the whole and taking advantage of the mismatch. He got a little sloppier as the game wore on but overall it was a nice effort from Rajon.
On the downside, Allan Ray is probably playing himself off of the Celtics. Well, maybe that's not a bad thing because I wanted to waive him last season. Ray is a solid player but I just don't see any reason to keep him around. The same might be said for Gerald Green. Gerald still has all the promise in the world but he still looks completely lost out there and hasn't been able to put it together at all. The fact that he still hasn't figured out how to start a drive without being called for travelling is very disconcerting and for a great shooter, he doesn't seem to make that many. While I'm afraid of selling low on Gerald, I just don't think this team can afford to go into this up-coming season depending on heavy minutes off the pine from Green.
Leon Powe was a monster and Big Baby showed signs of life. I'm not sure about Davis as a NBA power forward and still think Josh McRoberts would have been a better selection. Still, he's talented and could find a niche in the NBA. Brandon Wallace didn't fill up the stat sheet but he looked good on the defensive end. He could be a nice fit on a team that is going to need to thrive on team defense. Gabe Pruitt also looked solid enough on D but didn't show much else. As for Powe, he's the garbageman supreme, always getting the loose ball and finishing up any missed shots, and after watching him handle Yi and Team China, I feel like he really blew it by coming to the Celtics. He should have gone overseas a couple of years, ruled the Chinese Basketball Association, and come back as Powe Lee Ahn. He'd have been a lotto pick. 
The best thing to come out of this game though was the fact that Yi Jianlian, a guy we might have drafted at #5 had we kept it, looked absolutely horrifiic. For all of the excuses the announcers gave him, there's no way that a guy who is supposed to be athletic and uber-skilled should be shut down by the likes of Powe, Davis, Wallace, etc. Yi's supposed jump-shot hasn't been seen for most of the summer and while he seems to have some nice post moves, they never seem to move him towards the basket. He'll shimmy a bit and still be stuck with his man ready to swat his shot. On defense, he's almost useless. He had a nice weakside block but more often than not, guards get past him or he commits a foul. On the boards, he's almost always boxed out, be it the offensive or defensive glass. He's looking like a 22 year old project (since nobody but the announcers believe he's actually 19) and a guy who'll likely be riding the pine this year in Milwaukee.
