Beau Beech, who inked a partially guaranteed deal with the Nets in August, hopes that his strong showing in summer league play will translate into him earning a regular season roster spot, Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders relays. “It is just Summer League, but in the same breath, Summer League is correlated to the NBA,” Beech told Taylor. “What happens in Summer League may not be a direct correlation right away, but it definitely has the same kind of game flow, the same schemes and the same thinking for coaches and players. It’s on a smaller scale, but it’s definitely good to have had that experience underneath my belt and it definitely gave me a lot more confidence going into camp.” In five games in Las Vegas this summer, Beech averaged 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while shooting 33% from three-point range.
The forward understands that he has an uphill battle to break camp as a member of the team, Taylor notes. “[The Nets] signed the roster that they wanted to sign and those players are all very good and I respect all of them,” Beech said. “As a competitor, not having a fully-guaranteed contract, I want a fully-guaranteed contract. That’s my goal and that’s what I want to do. I want to be on this team from day one, but I know the situation at the same time.”
Here’s more from out of the Atlantic Division:
- Sixers advisor Jerry Colangelo believes the team will better in 2016/17 than in years past, but wants to temper expectations for his young club, Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com relays. “I’m sure that everyone should have optimism,” Colangelo said. “But there’s a word I’ve always used over the years about optimism. It should be guarded optimism because things take time. When you’re building teams — and I’ve had the privilege of doing that quite a few times in my career — you’re adding pieces here and there, and then once in a while you strike out and get that last piece. I think where the Sixers are today is, this is the beginning of that particular process, and that is building what everyone would hope to be a championship team.”
- The crew over at Basketball Insiders weighed in on the Nets‘ and Sixers‘ chances this coming season, with the general consensus being that Brooklyn will compete with Philly for last place in the Atlantic Division.