Golden State Warriors Summer League Roster

In continuing the series of spending way too much time telling you more than you need to know about players that don't have NBA contracts, I present the Golden State Warriors Summer League roster in excruciating detail.

For a breakdown of other NBA Summer League rosters, check these out: New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz,Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers,Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Lakers.

For the rest of the Vegas Summer League rosters, refer to this post.

As a friendly reminder to those that haven't been following this series, I won't be discussing Brandan Wright, Reggie Williams, Ekpe Udoh (who won't play anyway due to injury) or Anthony Randolph. They are all guaranteed to be on an NBA roster next season so you should probably be able to learn everything you need to know about them over at Golden State of Mind.

I'm going to list the players by position first, and then how likely I think it is that they'll appear on any NBA roster next season.

Wings

Kasib Powell, SF, Texas Tech - I have a soft spot for Powell because he used to blog for Ridiculous Upside and is a former D-League MVP, plus he played for the same D-League team (the Sioux Falls Skyforce) as Warriors' steal Reggie Williams.

Powell has the talent (and determination) to be a rotation player in the NBA.  He plays with heart, he can score, he plays solid defense and he has a good attitude. He doesn't excel at anything, but he's very good at a lot of things.  His only NBA experience came at the end of the 2007-2008 season with the Miami Heat (when they went through a Warriors-like injury conundrum), but the last time we saw him he performed admirably in the Orlando Summer League with the Magic last year.  This past season, Powell played in Greece where he shot a career-high 42% from the field.  

Even though Powell is 29, I like his chances of making an NBA roster next season with a good season in Vegas - especially if he's improved his range.

Joe Ingles, SF, Australia - Ingles played for the Warriors Summer League team last season, but wasn't able to earn a roster spot after making just six of his 30 field goal attempts (including 4-of-16 from beyond the arc).

This past season Ingles left his home Australian League (the NBL) and ventured to the much more difficult Spanish League to play for CB Granada.  In 34 games in Spain, Ingles averaged 11 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 53% from the field and 35% from beyond the arc - numbers similar to his Australian averages.

Since Ingles was brought back after his sub-par performance last season, I have to assume the Warriors might take a flier on him if he's able to improve this year.

Jason Rich, SG, Florida State - I thought about putting Rich with the guards since he's just 6-foot-3, but I don't think he has enough floor general qualities to really be considered a back court option and will end up on the wing in Vegas.

Rich was an explosive wing player as a Seminole and averaged at least 10 points per game his final three seasons as an aggressive slasher that knew how to put the ball in the bucket (except with a jump shot).

Since then, Rich has played in Italy and Israel.  this past season, for Maccabi Haifa (Jeremy Tyler's team), Rich averaged 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists while shooting 53% from the field.  His range hasn't improved, however, as he made just 30 of his 90 Euro-shortened three-point attempts.

Bigs

Andre Brown, PF, DePaul - Brown has been on the cusp of the NBA since coming out of DePaul in 2004, but the 29-year-old big man has played just 75 NBA games thus far in his six year professional career.

Brown is one of those players that looks good where ever he's playing when he's given minutes, but the minutes thing has never really been tested during his time in the NBA.  He's a capable scorer with his back to the basket and rebounds at a pretty good rate, but methinks his work ethic must be a bit weak.

Brown played in China this past season where Americans always put up ridiculous numbers.  In 30 games, Brown  averaged 26.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting a ridiculous 47% from beyond the arc.  I'm inclined to think that's wrong, but until I find out otherwise, I'm highly intrigued by his making 52-of-110 attempts from beyond the arc.

C.J. Giles, PF/C, Oregon State - His full name is Chester Jarell Giles - that's more full of win than you could ever imagine.

Giles is a bit of an unknown.  First he committed to Kansas, then was kicked off the team due to some off-court and academic issues.  Following that debacle, the 6-foot-111 big man transferred to Oregon State - but wasn't really impressive there either, playing in just 10 games due to injury before declaring early for the NBA Draft (though he went undrafted and ended up having a mediocre D-League season).

Jon L was pretty impressed with Giles' summer in Vegas last year, noting that "Giles rebounded the ball very well for the Nuggets, averaging 15 rebounds per 48 minutes, and he made half of his field goals.  He also averaged just over five blocks on a per-minute basis, though he also committed the most fouls on the team."

He was cut from his team in the Phillipines this season before moving on to have an impressive season in Lebanon(!) where he averaged 18 points per game and a league-leading 11.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while shooting 65% from the field.

I'm not quite sure how great the Lebanon competition was, but Giles reminds me of Hassan Whiteside - take it for what it's worth.

Tremaine Ford-Townsend, PF, Cal State-Northridge - I honestly don't know much about Ford-Townsend, but he dominated the Czech Republic this past season.

In 44 games for USK Praha, Townsend averaged 13.7 points,10.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while being named Eurobasket's Player of the Year, Import of the Year and Forward of the Year.

Guards

Jeremy Wise, PG, Southern Miss - Again I'm probably biased because he attempted to make the NBA via the D-League, but I think Wise fits the Warriors team the best.

For everything you need to know about him (including highlights), I suggest you check out this post.

Ben Woodside, PG, North Dakota State - I swear the Warriors picked their Summer League roster with me in mind (I'm from North Dakota), but I'm not against it.

Woodside is an undersized scoring point guard, but unlike most players with that moniker, that doesn't mean he's just a two-guard in a point guard's body.  Woodside averaged over five assists all four season at North Dakota State (a division 1 program for those that weren't aware) while shooting at least 39% from beyond the arc each season as well.  

Woodside's most memorable game was the NCAA Tournament game when his 14th seeded NDSU took on Sherron Collins and his 3-seed Kansas Jayhawks.  Woodside scored 37 points (grainy highlights!) while nearly leading the Bison to an upset victory (and he would have if NDSU had a big man).

Woodside played in the top division in France this past season where he averaged 14.2 points and 4.5 assists.

Will Blalock, PG, Iowa State - Blalock actually made the Detroit Pistons as an undrafted rookie in 2006, but has bounced around ever since.

This past season, Blalock played in the D-League for the Maine Red Claws before a mid-season trade that saw him move to the Warriors newly-affiliated Reno Bighorns.  With the Bighorns, Blalock looked very good controlling the offense while averaging 11.8 points and 7.4 assists while leading the Bighorns to a surprising playoff berth (and playing solid defense).

He's spent the past couple of seasons recovering from a stroke (yes, an actual stroke), but seemed to be back to his old self at the end of the season.  For that, I have hope that he gets a solid look this summer.

Brian Chase, PG, Virginia Tech - There's a lot to like about Brian Chase, but his size (5-foot-10 with heels on) and age (29 when the NBA season gets underway) are two huge detriments when it comes to his chances at an NBA roster this year.

Chase has played in the NBA preseason twice in his career, showing that he has tangible NBA skills, but his most recent season is Spain makes me believe his NBA days have passed him.  In 30 games in the ACB, Chase scored 10.8 points while shooting less than 38% from the field in an offense that relied on him to be a scorer as opposed to the player that ran the offense (his 1.2 assists per game would confirm that, by the way).  He did made 57-of-60 from the charity stripe, though, so that's a positive.

Kashif Watson, SG/PG, Idaho - Watson more than likely got this invite because his brother, C.J. Watson, probably has (had?) a bit of pull with the Warriors.

The younger Watson is probably best known for tweeting when he isn't supposed to, but he was actually a decent slasher at Idaho when he wasn't being suspended.  In 29 games, he averaged 10.7 points while shooting 47% from the field.  Most surprisingly, though, is the fact that he shot just two three-pointers (obviously not his strong suit).