I Bleed Blue and White

Coming off another stellar performance in the NBA Summer League, Dante Cunningham will miss tonight’s game against the Denver Nuggets due to a groin injury.  Apparently, he injured the groin in Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets, although Dante finished the game, scoring 20+ points again.  The Trailblazers play tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday night to wrap up their summer league schedule, and as of right now, Dante is listed as day-to-day. 

Aside from Cunningham’s recent injury, though, he has been a pleasant surprise for the Trailblazers.  Summer league coach Joe Prunty has noticed Dante’s good play:

Dante has been very solid.  He’s been aggressive offensively.  He’s been getting shots and he’s been confident stepping up and trying to knock those down.  And he’s doing a decent job on the boards.

How has he played so well thus far?  Usually, rookies come in very nervous with lots of pressure and hype to live up to.  Well, it might have all started with the strict household he grew up in.  Cunningham, on his parents: 

They didn’t take any (nonsense) from me.  So I understood what I could do and couldn’t do; what was OK and what wasn’t OK.  And I learned that whatever I was doing, I should give all my focus to it.  That has carried over to my basketball. I don’t put up with any (nonsense).

Another Trailblazers blog, called Blazersedge, posted in-depth scouting reports for some of the summer league players, including Dante Cunningham.  Trailblazers scout Chad Buchanan covered virtually every facet of Dante’s game.  Some notable information from the report:

He plays every play until the play is finished.  He doesn’t give up on rebounds or loose balls.  Playing at Villanova that’s how they are.  They build this junkyard dog mentality with all their guys.

The roster as it is today it’s going to be tough for him to come in and get a lot of minutes.

It certainly is going to be tough for Dante to get minutes this year with the Trailblazers, with all of the forwards they have, but that shouldn’t deter Dante.  He already has 2 summer league games under his belt to use as hard evidence to show that he can play at the NBA level.  Other teams are always watching and you never know when a situation may arise where you are thrust into a prominent role.  If he keeps playing like he is, he will get minutes somewhere. 

Before we talk about Dwayne Anderson, I wanted to wrap-up talking about Dante Cunningham’s first game in the NBA Summer League.  Obviously, Dante had a very good game in terms of statistics, but the most important thing is what the Portland Trailblazers coaching staff thinks.  The Portland Trailblazers game recap relayed some important quotes about their game last night.   Head coach of the Trailblazers summer team, Joe Prunty, discussed Dante’s play:

He looked very comfortable.  I thought he did a really nice job setting screens, slipping screens, separating after he set screens.  I thought he did a really nice job of going after boards.  He got a few of what I like to refer to as ‘dirty rebounds,’ where they’re out of your area, you hustle after them.  They’re not the ones that sort of fall into your lap.  So I really appreciated the effort he gave. 

Additionally, the Portland Trailblazers official blog, called Center Court, written by Casey Holdahl, provided some discussion about the game and postgame audio from the players, including Cunningham. 

One more thing before we get to Dwyane.  Just a quick update on former Villanova coach Patrick Chambers.  It seems like he is doing well at Boston University.  Little did I know that he named former Villanova walk-on, Ross Condon, as one of his assistant coaches awhile back.  I found this out in his blog, seeing a picture from one of his older posts. 

Chambers also has a Twitter account, which he regularly updates, keeping fans in the loop regarding the BU basketball team.  

Finally, on to Dwayne Anderson.  Undoubtedly, many wondered how Anderson would perform in live NBA game action, as he was supposed to take the court tonight for the Washington Wizards summer team.  After checking the box score, Dwayne’s name was not to be found, which left some questions to be answered.   I checked around a little bit, and it looks like Dwayne was cut from the Washington Wizards yesterday, along with a slew of other players.  I did not see any reasoning behind the decision, but my guess is only a certain number of players can attend the Summer League, meaning the Wizards had to cut down their roster, and unfortunately, Dwayne was one of many to lose a spot.