It is still way, way too early to assess how good RJ Barrett will be in his career. He has had two pretty terrible games in the summer league and you don’t want to jump to conclusions. SU has watched some of each game. He is clearly trying too hard, forcing the action, turning the ball over and shooting terribly. For SU, what is troublesome is his shooting form – just doesn’t look very smooth. No doubt he will be a slasher and a creator but in the NBA, you do need to shoot it well unless you are Simmons on the Sixers. Iggy Brazdeikis looked great last night for the Knicks – 30 points – and is someone to keep an eye on.
SU is happy for the USA Women’s World Cup team. Just fun to watch this team play and they came through this year with a lot of pressure on them. Good stuff.
Clearly Edwin Encarnacion did not get the SU message. 0 for 8 the last 2 games. But good to read that he’s not feeling any pressure to do better. That’s nice. Average must be down to .120 now with the Yankees but life is good with a guaranteed contract. When Luke Voit returns, watch out.
Aaron Boone must be happy to lose that last game vs. the Rays. SU questions the logic of resting both DJ Lemahieu and Glayber Torres on the even of the All-Star Break. Chances are that Torres won’t play at all, and LeMahieu is going to play one game in 4 days. What am I missing here? It’s fine to give guys a day off but not before a break and not against the 2nd place team. And how do you bat Sanchez and Encarnacion back to back when Sanchez is slumping and Edwin is always slumping? Puzzling…
Did you see Justin Verlander go off today about the juiced baseball? Basically said that Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB had Rawlings just make the ball tighter to help improve the offense. He used some colorful language to make his point. Is that really true?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
I agree that Boone over does the rest thing. When you have your foot on the neck of the second place team, how do you start a rookie at second base and bench Torrez and LaMahieu before 5 days off. I hope that loss doesn’t come back to bite us. Encarnacion should go the way of Kendrys Morales and either get released after August, or just become a bat off the bench. When Voit and Stanton return, just use the DH to give guys half days off subbing in Urshela and Gardner. It will be a pretty impressive starting 9 with a bench of Gardner, Urshela, Encarnacionn and Romine. Now onto to the starting pitching.. Of course the ball is juiced, I have seen too many homers on bad swings, half swings and even broken bats–Manfred would say, “That’s Entertainment!”
Both Barrett and Williamson are in for an awakening as they transition to the NBA. I think they both will struggle early on but eventually figure it out. Williamson has some good young players surrounding him with the right mix of experienced veterans to lead the locker room. I just don’t see any positives for being drafted by the Knicks, but I don’t get the same exposure to information as SU does by being in NY – and I don’t care enough to search out that information. I like Reddish’s fit in Atlanta and was happy he was there at 10. I think he will do well not having the same pressure as his other two Duke teammates. Hopefully all three will get some solid coaching and direction as Coach K just rolls his players out there and does very little in-game coaching. He still does a lot of post-game hugging and crying, and that’s what Duke basketball is all about Well, that and hiring all your past players as assistant coaches who are not qualified for the job.
/e sends PBok lifetime tickets to Duke basketball for some constant post game hugging and crying.
The Knicks will remain irrelevant again this year though will probably win a few more games this season. Once again we hope to get a high draft pick next year in order to take another step closer on competing for the 8th seed or miraculously a 7th seed.
I agree with your logic on why rest these guys at this time.