Sanders

Despite being matched up against former No. 2 pick Hasheem Thabeet often, Larry Sanders finished his second summer league game with 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting, an eye-opener for Bucks fans fretting his nine-point debut on 4-for-15 shooting. But those numbers weren't what concerned Sanders the most when he emerged after the game and saw the box score in my hand.

"Where my rebounds at?" asked Sanders, the supposedly offensively challenged Bucks rookie forward. (He was pleased to see nine as his final tally.)

After learning his rebound total, the 6-foot-11 big man still pored over the stat sheet.

"And how many blocks?" (Two was the answer.)

Blocked shots are supposed to be Sanders' forte, with a few rebounds on the side. The offense he displayed, which included a game tying 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left, surprised everyone. Everyone but Sanders, apparently. His eyes lit up when I asked him about his outside shooting.

"It's just something I been working on," Sanders said with a smile. "When someone says I can't do something, I like to go and work on it. I haven't really played much five-on-five or organized ball since my last college game. I've just been working on my game."

Getting out from under the pressure of a debut seemed to do wonders for the excitable Sanders.

"Yesterday, coaches told me I had to relax." said Sanders. "I was wired and rushing things, trying to force stuff. Today, I just let the game come to me."

And come to him it did. Sanders hit two 3s in the last 34 seconds, long after he'd found a comfortable rhythm through short jump shots and dunks. And to think, Sanders was questionable before the game after a hard fall on his wrist in Monday's game. He wasn't concerned about it after Tuesday's effort.

"It's sore, but I can always fight through sore. That's a mental thing," said Sanders.

Enthusiastic, talented and tough? If Sanders keeps this up, the Bucks will feel like they won the lottery with their draft pick once again.

Jeremy Schmidt is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

Nobody knows exactly what the LeBron-free Cleveland Cavaliers are going to look like next season. What will the Cavs look like without LeBron James at the helm? What changes will new coach Byron Scott implement? Will owner Dan Gilbert attempt to go for a winning season by making some moves, or will the Cavaliers go into a full rebuilding mode?

Nobody is certain about what the answers to those questions will be, but just about everybody agrees that the Cavs will use J.J. Hickson a lot more than they did over the course of Hickson's first two years in the NBA. The former first-round pick's talent has been obvious ever since he averaged 19.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game during his first summer league in 2008. What hasn't been obvious is whether Hickson can play with enough discipline to utilize that talent properly.

The promise Hickson showed in that 2008 summer league is still apparent. At 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds, Hickson is an amazing athlete for his size, capable of exploding to the basket and scoring from a number of angles in a wide variety of situations. If opponents forget where he is for the briefest of moments, there's an excellent chance they'll end up watching him rise up to the rim for a hoop on that same possession.

Unfortunately, Hickson's weaknesses have prevented him from staying on the court long enough to showcase his talents. Defense and rebounding have always been issues for the 21-year-old forward; when Hickson checks into the game, missed rotations and botched rebounds have historically come in along with him.

Two years after Hickson's breakout summer league, not much has changed. The North Carolina State product still shows flashes of brilliance, or at least extreme competence. On Tuesday, Hickson finished alley-oops, faced his man up for a strong and-1, converted a beautiful reverse layup with the explosiveness and grace of a wing player, and even drained a pull-up jumper for good measure.

The bad news for Cavaliers fans is that Hickson's defensive issues are still there. Hickson was regularly out of place on defense, and the D-League Select squad managed to shoot 56 percent on 2-point baskets against the Cavaliers' summer league team. To make matters worse, Hickson grabbed only one rebound in the first half. Hickson did step up his intensity in the second half, playing better defense and grabbing eight rebounds, but his lack of defensive focus in the first half was not what the Cavaliers coaching staff wants to see from their young power forward this summer.

After the game, Scott had this to say regarding Hickson: "[Hickson] came to me and said he thinks he can have a bigger impact. I do too. His role is obviously going to be expanded, and I told him, 'I expect you to play extremely well next year. '"

For the past two seasons, the championship-or-bust pressure on the Cavaliers made putting Hickson into the rotation a risk not worth taking. Much of that pressure is gone now, and Hickson will have much more of a chance to prove himself than he did under former coach Mike Brown. Scott expects Hickson to step up and play a major role for the post-LeBron Cavaliers. Only time will tell if Scott can mold the young power forward into the two-way force he's always been capable of becoming.

John Krolik is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

ESPN.com writers and TrueHoop Network bloggers chatted with fans and gave their in-game opinions throughout Tuesday's games -- all in Daily Dime Live.