Speights needs work post haste

ORLANDO - For Marreese Speights, this summer league started in domination - 28 points and 11 rebounds - then, almost as if that one game said what needed to be said, Speights hovered around average, a monster dunk here, a fumbled turnover there.

The Orlando Pro Summer League, in which the Sixers formed a combined team with the New Jersey Nets, ended Friday afternoon with the Sixers/Nets winless in five games and with Speights, last season's surprisingly effective rookie, averaging 14.3 points and 6.6 rebounds a game, shooting just 39.4 percent from the field.

That first night, Speights shot 28 times, mostly from the perimeter, which prompted Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski, in attendance for that game, to say the Sixers "know Speights can shoot from the outside," but would rather see him score from the block, an area of his game still needing improvement.

After that strong opener, did Speights think he would dominate this week?

"I thought I would, but like I said, things happen and stuff wasn't going my way," Speights said. "I have to work on my post game more because, well I have to go back to the way I was in college, I have to get back to getting used to it.

"It went up and down," Speights added. "It wasn't one of my best weeks."

Stefanski also said he wants to see more rebounding from Speights, whom Stefanski believes has the athleticism and size to contribute more than he does on the glass. Speights then limited his outside shooting, which hurt his overall effectiveness since the majority of points that first game came from the perimeter.

"He has a terrific perimeter game, but I'm not going to tell him that," Sixers head coach Eddie Jordan joked. "There's a lot of things you need to work on with him, a lot of things . . . some interior basketball, some post moves and rebounding, playing around near the basket."

Jordan said Speights would spend some of the summer working out at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, but Jordan added he would prefer Speights play more five-on-five, for the conditioning and game-like practice.

"We'll see him at PCOM, we'll see him in the gym this summer," Jordan said. "We're going to work and work and keep working. I'd like to see him play a little bit more, really play."

After a strong rookie season in which Speights averaged 7.7 points and 3.7 rebounds a game, did he balk at playing again in rookie league? "He wanted to come here," Jordan said. "No doubt about it."

More Sammy. Sixers center Samuel Dalembert, who lives in Florida during the off-season, attended Thursday night's Sixers/Nets summer league game, after which he sat down and talked with Jordan for three hours.

Dalembert has repeatedly expressed his frustration with playing time and has been at the center of trade rumors beginning at last season's trade deadline and continuing into this off-season.

Jordan talked with Dalembert again at halftime of Friday's summer league game against the Boston Celtics.

"We had a nice talk so it was just a follow-up of what we talked about," Jordan said. "We are very supportive of each other, it was over three hours and it was very productive. I didn't have any reservations. You hear things, but you save that until you meet someone and experience the time with them. He's very mature, he's very articulate. I was very impressed."

Contact staff writer Kate Fagan at 856-779-3844 or kfagan@phillynews.com.