Summer League Breakdown: Jonathan Gibson

 

 

Summer League is an amazing event, the Las Vegas League in particular.  Everyone has something to prove and is willing to do what it takes to show they belong and the Dallas Mavericks‘ roster was no different.  One of the best and worst things about any of the Summer Leagues is that the talent participating is not a fair representation of NBA Basketball competition.  Some of that was mentioned in “How Should We Value Justin Anderson’s Summer League Play?”  Some of these guys are literally fighting for their career.  Jonathan Gibson fought with success, he’s signed to a three year (though mostly non-guaranteed) contract.  As of now, Perry Ellis has not had that kind of success.

 

During this series we’ll take a look at Mavs players under contract that showed us something during their time in Summer League.

 

Summer League will now be referred to as SL.  Just to save 10 characters, even though these aren’t tweets… Ok just to save typing time… 

Third Round: Jonathan Gibson

 

 

The real winner of NBA SL. This was his third attempt at SL and by far the most successful attempt.  After bouncing around overseas and averaging 42 points per game with Qingdao in the CBA (Chinese League) Gibson now has guaranteed money with an NBA franchise.  First of all, he’s listed at 6’2” (hahahahahah) but that’s probably closer to 6’ even.  Jonathan showed us a lot during SL starting with his shooting ability:

 

 

Shooting

 

Gibson can get a shot off from anywhere.  Here’s a catch-and-shoot attempt against Toronto:

The more he the plays the more he looks like Isaiah Thomas of the Celtics.  Maybe it’s just because of his height but floaters like this one against Milwaukee help that case:

Also note that this floater is late in the shot clock.  Justin Anderson had nowhere to go and Gibson bailed out the Mavs.  For more proof of buckets here’s a mix of Gibson lighting it up in the Drew League this year:

 

 

 

Playmaking

 

It’s obvious Gibson can score, he led the Mavs in scoring, and ranked 5th in all of SL (for players that played at least 5 games).  He signed with Mavs during the first few SL games and after doing so he passed the ball a little more. (Crazy how that happens).  Here’s him against Toronto making the extra pass.

(Note: It’s too long for a Vine but Oniangue #19 made that shot at the end)

 

Here’s a look at a great pass from Gibson against Chicago.

Felicio coughs it up, Gibson snags it away, and throws a nice no-look bounce pass to Dorian Finney-Smith…and “that’s what I call a very solid play.”

On this one Gibson puts Jerian Grant on ice, drives by him, and not only finds Justin Anderson but is able to throw a pass behind himself and right to the waiting Simba.  Gibson only racked up 10 assists in 150 minutes of play for the Mavericks though (1.5 per game).  So these types of plays were semi-few-and-far-between but there’s potential and ability there.

 

 

Defense

 

Where most 6’ guards get in trouble is on the defensive side.  Gibson may be no different during the regular season but during SL he really held his own (at least for SL Defensive Standards).  Against Boston he picked Terry Rozier’s pocket and took it all the way to the rim.

He also showed the foot speed and quickness to stay in front of guys.  We’re picking on Terry Rozier again…

That kind of effort takes a lot of focus and Gibson seemed determined to succeed on that end of the floor. Hopefully he continues that effort playing for the either the Mavs or the Texas Legends this year.

 

Of course a smaller guard is always going to have problems with physicality, so…that’s a problem…