For those of you who watched Michael Carter-Williams on Day 1 of the Orlando Summer League, you would know that his excellent stat-line of 26 points, seven rebounds and eight assists was tarnished by his nine turnovers. He definitely showed that he’s for real on the offensive end, showcasing the ability to score and to find the open man, as well as use his size to go after missed shot attempts on the offensive glass.

Instead of focusing on the rookie’s first game, I opted to give him a game to loosen up a bit first and watch his tendencies, pros and cons in his second game, as well as how he would adjust from his lack of ball security and inefficient 8-for-23 shooting from his first game against the Houston Rockets.

Carter-Williams finished with 13 points on 4-for-20 shooting to go along with seven assists in his second game as a professional in a loss against the Indiana Pacers.

Taken with the No. 11 pick in the draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, he makes for a great pure point guard with an advantageous 6’6 frame. However, he needs to add muscle to his 184 lbs build.

Coming off a great sophomore season with the Syracuse Orange, the one stat that really took a hit in comparison to his rookie season in college was his three-point shooting. Carter-Williams averaged 38.9 percent shooting from long-range in his first season at Syracuse and saw that number dropped a drastic 9.7 percent to 29.2 in his second season. That said, it is unsurprising that he is 1-for-9 from beyond the arc two games into Summer League.

Let’s start by looking at his performance offensively against the Pacers.

Carter-Williams demonstrates great body control that helps him finish nicely at the rim amidst big bodies. His 6’6 frame is also a great help against big men. However, he really needs to bulk up and add some strength in order to finish at a more efficient rate when drawing contact.

He grabbed two rebounds in the game, both on the offensive glass. Four of his nine total rebounds in both games combined have come on the offensive side. He is very active and has shown that he does not give up after missed shot attempts.

The point guard averaged 7.3 assists last season for the Orange. For those who are not aware, being able to sustain passing numbers like this for a whole collegial season is a very impressive thing to do simply because of the way college basketball is played. He has great vision, finding the open man quite often, and he has so far demonstrated consistency here, averaging 7.5 assists in his first two games.

Watching Carter-Williams closely, he has certain tendencies on offense. Almost every single time he goes right, he ends up taking it to the hole or dishing it to the open man for corner-three. Four of his seven assists against the Pacers led to his teammates drilling three-pointers from the right corner. He took it to the rim nine times when driving right, however he converted on only three of those takes. He also grabbed an offensive rebound on one of those drives, drawing a foul on the second shot attempt and capitalizing by making both free-throws. Credit Miles Plumlee for defending the rim so well, all four of his blocks coming at the rim against Carter-Williams.

He needs to work on driving left and taking it to the hoop, as he tends to pick up his dribble when he goes left and is forced to pass. He took only three shot attempts when he drove left: a jump-shot, a three-pointer and a teardrop over Plumlee: all misses.

Defensively, the good thing is Carter-Williams has lived up to expectations so far in terms of his steals numbers, picking up two in Monday’s loss. However, the use of zone defense at Syracuse has really helped shield some bad defensive tendencies. He tends to sag off his a man a lot on defense, focusing too much on the ball-handler when he is guarding the off-ball man. Consequently, he loses his man and leaves him wide open, ultimately costing his team. The defensive tendencies he developed while playing zone defense for so long have led to him using shortcuts that work when playing zone but that are not too effective when playing straight man-to-man defense.

Another tendency he has is he goes under screens much too often when defending the pick-and-roll ball handler. Of course, this is not too big of a concern, as he should naturally grow more aware of his competition and know when to go under screens versus fighting over them. On the bright side, the few times he did go over he did so aggressively and swiftly.

There are many games left in these next two weeks. We should expect to see him settle in much more and develop a greater comfort level, and this should translate into seeing good tendencies more often and the bad ones fade away slowly. He has just begun his way on what we know is a very long and hard journey ahead.