The Great 2017 NBA Summer League Manifesto

Everything you ever wanted to know from all 93 NBA Summer League games across Orlando, Utah, and Vegas

There were 97 Summer League games in Orlando, Utah, and Vegas and I watched just about all of them. I lost count somewhere around 80. I’ve grown to love Summer League with all its quirks. It’s a lot of fun to watch players develop from one summer to the next and a great way to see the future of the NBA unfolding before your eyes. And I watched it all. For you.

Below you’ll find 19,000 words about every team in the NBA and my analysis of their summer players’ performances. I didn’t hold back, so you’ll get my honest opinion — bearing in mind that most of these kids are 19–21 years old and can certainly change my mind over time…

Methodology and Disclaimers

Some standard disclaimers apply — feel free to skip to the next section if you don’t care to see how the sausage was made.

These are my opinions and mine alone, and I tend to focus mostly on what I see instead of looking for what I don’t. I’m not too worried about defense because the players aren’t either, and I understand this is less team basketball and more of a 10-man competition for 2–3 roster spots so selfish ball prevails. It’s a very small sample size, though against better competition than most of these guys have played against before. Age matters a lot. Rookies have a steep learning curve, sophomores should stand out more, and older players don’t have as much upside.

Like any human, there’s a lot of confirmation bias in play as it’s really easy to affirm things I loved or hated about a player. I tried hard to go in with fresh eyes and was open to new opinions. I was less interested in immediate results and more interested in long-term potential. I couldn’t care less who won a game, but it was interesting how a team won or lost it in the closing seconds.

This is not science. Some of my opinions will be wrong. Last summer I was drooling over two games of Kris Dunn. I welcome your criticisms and am happy to share any thoughts on players I may not have mentioned. You’re welcome to disagree, and please add to my notes or ask questions in the comments.

How should you read this? However you want, of course.

Just take in the overview at the top, if you want. Maybe you want to cherry pick your favorite team or players. Perhaps you’ll scroll through to read about guys you never got to see play in March Madness, or maybe you need to take an hour-long dump and have a full battery charge to read it straight through. Thank you for reading, and I’d love if you took a minute to share it with others who might like to see it too.

By all means, please like and share and highlight away.

We’ll start with my summer MVP and some All-Summer teams I put together along with a way-too-early 2017 redraft and a ranking of the last three years of draftees. Then it’s each team alphabetically with my thoughts on anything and everything about the notable players.

Bon appetit!

All Guys-That-Shouldn’t-Be-Here Team

G Malik Beasley DEN G Patrick McCaw GSW F Brandon Ingram LAL F Jaylen Brown BOS F Taurean Prince ATL

These are the guys that looked like NBA players playing pickup ball at the Y. Most started the summer but didn’t finish — no need to. They’re NBA-ready and just showing off to the rest of these guys. This list was a lot harder to make this summer, which just shows how weak last year’s draft was. Patrick McCaw was the MVP (hence the bold) and looks like he’s ready for a real role with the Warriors.

Beyond him, the didn’t-belong-here guys were probably right where they should’ve been. I didn’t even love Brown or Prince this summer, though Summer League isn’t the best format for either. Emmanuel Mudiay was on this list last summer, but he wasn’t ready for real NBA minutes at all.

1st Team All Summer League

G Patrick McCaw GSW G Donovan Mitchell UTA G Dennis Smith Jr DAL G Lonzo Ball LAL G Bryn Forbes SAS

Summer League is a guard’s game, so it’s no surprise to see five guards at the top of the performers. These are the five standout players from all of Summer League including Orlando, Utah, and Vegas, though the competition heats up the most in Vegas so there’s an extra emphasis there.

It’s interesting to note that four of last year’s 1st Team are no longer with their teams one year later. D’Angelo Russell, Kris Dunn, and Trey Lyles were all traded after they couldn’t carry their summer magic over to the big leagues, and Jordan McRae is unsigned. Only Kyle Anderson remains with his team.

This crew certainly looks to have a different outlook, led by three rookie guards. Lonzo was the best and was named Summer League MVP by the league. He’s my clear MVP too, and you’ll find plenty more about him below.

2nd Team All Summer League

G Wayne Selden MEM G Brandon Paul DAL/CLE/SAS G Fred VanVleet TOR F Kyle Kuzma LAL F Cheick Diallo NOP

These weren’t the names anyone came to see, but they showed up in a big way. While last year’s 1st Team guys washed out, the guys on the 2nd Team took a big step forward last season: Terry Rozier, Tyus Jones, Bobby Portis, and Kelly Oubre. That could well be the case for guys like Selden, VanVleet, Diallo, and Paul this year.

It’s tough to be called a “snub” from a 2nd Team All Summer League list, but apologies to DeAndre Bembry, Malik Beasley, and Troy Williams either way.

All Non-Lottery 2017 Picks Team

F Jonah Bolden PHI F John Collins ATL F Kyle Kuzma LAL F Caleb Swanigan POR F/C Jordan Bell GSW

While the 1st Team squad was made up entirely of guards, this list is all big guys. I was very skeptical going into the draft when such a large list of big men emerged as likely draftees between 15 and 40, and sure enough, a whole slew of them went. It turns out some of them are really good. What these five have in common outside of being tall is a heap of athleticism and versatility and a fit in the modern NBA. A lot of people were in on Bell, Collins, and/or Swanigan, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who expected Kyle Kuzma to lead the Lakers to the Summer League championship with a 30/10 game.

All Surprising Team

G Malik Beasley DEN G Donovan Mitchell UTA G DeAndre Bembry ATL F John Collins ATL F Jonah Bolden PHI

This is all about exceeding expectations, and Atlanta had a pair of guys that really leapt off the screen. I was way off on John Collins, and I had thrown Malik Beasley into about 900 Denver trades in the ol’ Trade Machine as a buried SG prospect. All of those guys surprised, but it’s safe to say no one expected Donovan Mitchell to vault himself immediately into the Fultz-Ball-Fox conversation the way he did.

All Disappointing Team

G Cameron Payne CHI G Wade Baldwin MEM F Marquese Chriss SAC F Zach Collins POR C Ante Zizic BOS

Here’s the flip side, guys that didn’t live up to expectations. Last year’s disappointing list were all lottery rookies, including three of the top six. This year’s rookie class was outstanding at Summer League and looked the part early on. Instead, the biggest disappointments were many of the older players that didn’t show up with the improvements we’d hoped for.

Payne and Baldwin are supposed to the point guards of the future for their teams, but they were hardly even point guards of the present in Summer League. Zach Collins was the one lottery pick that looked pretty bad so far, while Chriss showed precious little development. Zizic and Chriss might as well be representatives for a few of their teammates, too. If Atlanta was my big surprise, both Boston and Phoenix seemed like major disappointments.

Tyler Lydon and Georges Papagiannis were atrocious and lived up to the exact expectations I had for them, so they were hardly disappointing. My mother always told me if I didn’t have something nice to say about Lauri Markkanen, I wasn’t to say anything at all.

All Summer Crush Team

G Lonzo Ball LAL F Jonathan Isaac ORL F/C Zhou Qi HOU F/C Jordan Bell GSW New Atlanta starting five ft DeAndre Bembry and John Collins Bench: Jonah Bolden, Dennis Smith Jr., De’Aaron Fox, Patrick McCaw, Okaro White

These are the guys I fell in love with and just couldn’t stop watching. And after watching 80 Summer League games, you need a few guys like that to keep you tuning in. Summer League Crush All Star Emeriti include Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thon Maker, Justise Winslow, Juancho Hernangomez, Dennis Schroeder, and the always-winter-never-Christmas Bruno Caboclo.

Lonzo Ball is less a crush than a full blown love affair at this point. I still love my Most Interesting Man in the Draft, Jonathan Isaac, and Jordan Bell has been my guy all draft. I also love the new Atlanta starting five hitting my crush list just weeks after the old Player of the Month starting five finally disappeared for good.

But Zhou Qi (pronounced like Joe Chee) is my new summer league crush d’jour. He’s just so big and fun and has so much potential, and I can’t wait to see if Houston has China’s Next Big Thing on their hands.

Top 30 NBA Players from the Last Three Drafts

Summer League is mostly full of rookies and sophomores, a few third-year guys, and some random veterans trying to catch on. So at the end of each summer, I like to look back at the last three drafts and imagine if you threw all 180 guys into one pool and drafted them again. This takes into account every player as they are today, with exact age, health, and development.

Here they are, ready for you to disagree with, all separated nicely into tiers:

Franchise Changing Superstars

1. Karl-Anthony Towns 2. Markelle Fultz

The Generational Passers

3. Lonzo Ball 4. Ben Simmons

Freakish Upside We’re Still Just Starting to See

5. Jonathan Isaac 6. Kristaps Porzingis 7. Brandon Ingram 8. Myles Turner

This Year’s Guard Class Was Awesome

9. Dennis Smith Jr. 10. De’Aaron Fox 11. Malik Monk 12. Donovan Mitchell 13. D’Angelo Russell

Wings Are Good

14. Justise Winslow 15. Jayson Tatum 16. Devin Booker 17. Josh Jackson

Sheer Untapped Potential

18. Thon Maker 19. Dragan Bender 20. Skal Labissiere 21. OG Anunoby 22. Frank Ntilikina

My Guys

23. Patrick McCaw 24. Jonah Bolden 25. Jordan Bell

No YOU Expanded the List to 30 to Include These Guys

26. Jamal Murray 27. John Collins 28. Jaylen Brown 29. Willie Cauley-Stein 30. Malik Beasley

Of the three years of drafts included, the 2017 draft has two of the top three players, seven of the top twelve, and over half of the top 25. Some of that is surely recency bias and excitement about the unknown, but this draft was really, really good (and the last two drafts were not).

Way Too Early 2017 NBA Redraft

The 2017 NBA Draft wasn’t even a month ago, so it’s way too early to throw everything out and start over again, but when has that ever stopped us before? This is a redo of the 14 lottery picks — not based on team needs or selection, just a player ranking. It’s a Bayesian approach, still weighing what we knew and thought we knew three weeks ago pretty heavily but adding in new knowledge and recency bias from Summer League.

1. Markelle Fultz 2. Lonzo Ball

3. Jonathan Isaac 4. Dennis Smith Jr. 5. De’Aaron Fox

6. Malik Monk 7. Donovan Mitchell 8. Jayson Tatum 9. Josh Jackson

10. Jordan Bell 11. OG Anunoby 12. Frank Ntilikina

13. Jonah Bolden 14. John Collins

Enough previewing and summaries.

Without further ado, let’s get to all the teams…

Atlanta Hawks

I never would’ve guessed it, but Atlanta might have been my favorite Summer League team to watch. I went into the summer thinking the Hawks didn’t have much of a future (though I like what they’ve done this summer) but leave it thinking they have three solid NBA starters in Prince, Bembry, and Collins.

No rookie caused me to backpedal from my stance more than John Collins. I had him 32nd on my board, and boy was I wrong. Collins is awesome. He’s super athletic and showed off with a handful of nasty dunks and putbacks throughout the games. Collins is really bouncy and was giving a couple highlight dunk attempts pretty much every night, earning him the moniker “John the Baptist” for the way he was baptizing defenders all summer. Of course Collins is known for his strong fundamentals, learned under Danny Manning at Wake Forest. He’s got great footwork for a young big man and a very nice finishing touch with a useful jump hook. Collins was insanely efficient in college and showed that in Vegas. He had a 22/10 on 11 shots in one game and averaged 18/10 on an uber-efficient 64% from the field before a tough finishing game. Collins will need to add some muscle and keep developing, but he looks like a definite NBA player. He’s also a better passer and shooter than we perhaps thought. Atlanta got a steal.

Atlanta might also have a player in DeAndre Bembry. Bembry didn’t show me much last summer but started to really stand out. He’s much improved and is another great athlete with explosive finishing ability. He’s smooth with the ball and has a nice touch and a nice easy jumper. Bembry is quick off the dribble and can create space for himself, and he’s a real gamer that was playing hard all summer. He’s super aggressive on drives and can get to the hole and use his athleticism to finish. And that’s on offense, while defense may be more of his calling card. He’s everywhere defensively with his athleticism — a very pesky and disruptive defender. Bembry put up a 17/5/3/3 line on 57% shooting. He’s got some real upside as Atlanta’s future two.

I was expecting Taurean Prince to be a sophomore star, and he just wasn’t as exciting as Collins or Bembry. Prince looks like a man out there. He’s got huge broad shoulders and dominated opposing wings physically. He’s yet another explosive athlete and looks like a really tough wing defender. With that said, the offensive game leaves you a bit wanting. Prince’s jumper doesn’t look super comfortable yet, and he has a very loose dribble and lacks creation skills for now. I thought he looked a bit awkward at times and never seemed smooth within the flow of the offense or driving. I think he’s a useful wing but should probably be in a DeMarre Carroll role and just take what’s there offensively without having too much of a feature role.

Ryan Kelly joined the team comically at halftime of one of the games, seven minutes after clearing waivers, and immediately made a couple threes off the bench. The man is a gunner and is a homeless man’s Ryan Anderson as a stretch four. I got my first look at Alpha Kaba. He has an NBA body but seemed to get dominated physically anyway and doesn’t seem to have a feel for the game yet. Diamond Stone was similar, flashing raw athletic ability but not much more yet. Tyler Dorsey was a disappointment after a huge March for Oregon. He’s not a confident dribbler and struggled to make a summer impact.

Boston Celtics

Jayson Tatum might be the most polarizing man from Summer League. He got all sorts of buzz early on, especially at Utah League, but a lot of online whispers seemed to turn against him the more he played. I fall into that camp. Early on, I was blown away by Tatum. He has a silky smooth jumper and excellent athleticism, and he has the full package of iso moves. There’s the jab step, the step back, the spin move, the fadeaway — it’s all there and it’s all incredibly mature and game-ready. Tatum is going to score in the NBA, and he’s going to score easily and score a lot. If he were on a team like Sacramento or Orlando and getting 35 minutes a game this season, I think Tatum would be the Rookie of the Year favorite and score close 18 to 20 points a game. Tatum is really, really good at what he does.

The problem is what he does is not as valuable in 2017 as it was in 1997 or even 2007. Carmelo Anthony remains one of the best iso scorers in the league but can’t find a home in 2017, and Tatum’s upside may be someone like Melo or Rudy Gay. He’s got a terrific midrange iso game, but how many teams want that anymore? Tatum put up 19/10 at Utah and 18/8 in Vegas but shot 42%. Most of his work is in the midrange and that leads to a lot of inefficient shots and not a ton else. My draft opinion (I had him 8th) on Tatum changed some, but he might be a better version of a worse NBA prototype.

Tatum really struggled on defense and mostly seemed to pick up a lot of fouls. He improved some as the summer went on and was active in defense but he doesn’t really have either part of the 3-and-D wing ideal yet. Tatum’s shot is sweet, but it’s not quite an NBA range yet often so he stays inside the arc. There’s little reason to think that part of his game won’t get there soon enough. Physically, Tatum got bodied at times when the defender got into his grill. He couldn’t consistently create separation against Kyle Kuzma and struggled fighting to get to the ball on a key late inbounds play. And when he does get the ball, it feels like the game often turns to 1-on-1 with eight other guys watching. Tatum pounds the ball, dribbling the heck out of it before making his iso move and getting up a usually pretty good look. That might be useful as a bench scorer for Boston, but you can bet IT and Hayward are not gonna stand for it at a key moment. Tatum is so smooth and effortless with the ball. He’s got those long strides and that scoring ability is one of the best single abilities from Summer League. But man would it be nice if he had shown something, anything else.

Jaylen Brown seemed like he followed a similar summer path. Brown came out firing in the first Utah game and looked like the best player on a loaded court. He was aggressive and explosive athletically, good with the ball in his hands, terrific in transition, and even good shooting the ball. Unfortunately, he never looked nearly that good again, and it felt like he disappeared a lot in games as the summer went on. He did pick up some niggling injuries and Boston had a lot of talent out there, but it felt strange for a player so athletic to just blend in much of the time. Brown is at his best using his athleticism in transition, and of course on defense which is not exactly what Summer League is about. Still, the rest of his offensive game looks like it needs work. The catch and shoot is improving but Brown’s shot is not super fluid when he has to dribble first. Boston has taken two very talented but incomplete wings in the top-3 of the last two drafts. They now have an elite scorer and an elite defender. Maybe with next year’s pick they’ll get an elite playmaker. That’s great for situational ball, but it’d be nice if they could combine Tatum, Brown, and the mythical third player into one star instead.

The rest of the Celtics youth wasn’t that impressive either. Ante Zizic entered Summer League as most Celtics fans’ choice to start at center on opening night, but it looks like his game may take some time. He was really unimpressive with the ball in the post and seems average athletically. Boston gave him plenty of offensive chances but he was slow with his footwork and picked up a few offensive fouls, unimpressive overall. He was also a step slow defensively. Zizic just looks like a guy — like Tyler Zeller’s replacement — right now.

I thought Semi Ojeleye was a second round steal but he didn’t stand out in Summer League, though it’s hard with the other wings getting playing time. His catch and shoot three is nice but his shot off the dribble needs work. Ojeleye played a lot and didn’t really stand out. Last year’s second round pick Abdel Nader was a bit better. He has big broad shoulders and played a little bully ball though he didn’t look great as a creator and seemed like he was trying to do too much on offense. Jabari Bird made some really athletic plays. Kadeem Allen’s defensive shutdown skills didn’t show up. Demetrius Jackson didn’t stand out. It was a pretty uninspiring group for the most part. It’s hard to see most of these guys getting any real playing or development time with a team all-in on IT, Hayward, and Horford.

Brooklyn Nets

For a team as bad as Brooklyn, you’d hope for a lot to watch in Summer League, but their picks keep sitting out. I was bummed to miss out on Jarrett Allen to injury. We did get to see Caris LeVert this year. He’s good with the ball and his body stands out but his game doesn’t. LeVert is slithery dribbling the ball and cutting through space and seems like a decent scorer with a solid shot form, but I don’t see a lot of flash or upside right now. He seems like a nice guy to score some points for Brooklyn while they wait for the next phase.

Spencer Dinwiddie struggled often to finish at the rim. Isaiah Whitehead too could get to the rim but had a hard time finishing. Those guys won’t be stealing minutes from Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell any time soon. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s shot is still badly broken. He missed a handful of time on bad airballs, and Nets GM Sean Marks openly admitted in an on-air interview that RHJ is only really useful on defense. Archie Goodwin had a couple solid games — he’s one guy that can finish okay near the rim but he might just be an AAAA player by now.

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets didn’t have a ton to see since Malik Monk sat out Summer League with an injury and the team only played in Orlando. The other rookie of interest was Dwayne Bacon, who apparently played well enough to get a quick contract. I didn’t see much other than an extremely confident iso scorer that plays better one-on-one than in the flow of the game. The main Hornet to watch was definitely Treveon Graham. Graham was a top five scorer and rebounder in Orlando, averaging 18 points and 8 boards a game. He reminds me some of P.J. Tucker but with a little more offense. Graham has high energy and very active hands and will be a factor defensively, and he was good offensively as the feature scorer.

Briante Weber is a real pest to play against. He’s got super quick hands and is an annoying defender in the Patrick Beverley mold, just without as good of a shot for now. Johnny O’Bryant flashed some solid post moves and has some good finesse. Przemek Karnowski was a fan favorite. He played for Orlando early in SL before swapping to Charlotte and had one unstoppable game for the Hornets. He’s quite nimble for being such a huge man, with quick feet and an excellent array of post moves, and he sets crushing screens. He would absolutely have been a useful center in the 90s, but we’ll see if he catches on in 2017.

Chicago Bulls

For a team on a youth movement, you’d think the Bulls would be a fun Summer League watch. You’d be wrong, though part of that was because some of the young guys didn’t get to play much. Paul Zipser showed a nice shot and ability to pump fake and drive to the rim before picking up an ankle injury the first game and missing the rest of the summer. Kris Dunn’s size really stands out and you can see he’ll be an excellent defensive player if he can find a way to stay on the court on offense. He really goods into guys on defense and has a high IQ out there, pointing teammates and organizing the team. Offensively, the game doesn’t seem to have slowed down yet for Dunn, though he only played one summer game mostly off ball before leaving for a family emergency.

Denzel Valentine is another high IQ player. He sported an improved shot behind the arc and is still a really nice passer and creator, comfortable on the ball though he tries to do a little too much at times. It feels like Valentine could be a solid point forward off the bench creating for a good team, but that skill set may be wasted on a team trying to develop four or five point guards. Valentine seems like he plays best when he’s the best player on the court. That feels like a problem.

Lauri Markkanen was about what I expected — and I was not expecting much, as I had Lauri 14th on my draft board, lower than almost anywhere I saw. Markkanen is a supposed stretch big but tends to float around the perimeter a lot and then jack a shot up in a hurry when he touches it. He can also put the ball on the court a bit and drive to the rim, though he got bodied physically a few times trying to do so. The Ryan Anderson comp feels lazy but seems apt. Both are better athletes than you think and should be useful offensive players with great shots, but neither really plays like a big man, and Markkanen might be even worse defensively. He was slow in transition and lost on the defensive end of the court at times. Markkanen’s shot looks great, if he didn’t rush so many shots up. That 29% field goal percentage is pretty brutal.

Speaking of pretty brutal, Chicago’s two-month point-guard-of-the-future Cam Payne played a lot. Payne has a nice hesitation dribble and a solid running lefty shot, and that’s about it. The guy still doesn’t use his right hand, like at all, and his shot is completely broken. He shoots a flat shot with very little lift off the bounce, so his threes are almost a set shot and often come from way deep to compensate. The free throw is ugly too. It’s a very one-handed shot — he barely even uses his right hand to guide the shot here either. It honestly felt like you could’ve chopped off Payne’s right arm and had the exact same player. If you had cut off his hair too, you might have hardly even noticed him out there.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Cleveland was one of the least interesting teams of the summer, especially without Jordan McRae around to score 25 points a night. This year it was the little man Kay Felder who got most of the shots. Felder is fun to watch but man is he tiny. He’s super quick and has a good crossover but the size is a real problem and it often caused him to shoot a low percentage shot from way too deep to compensate for the size issue. Felder shot 32% for the summer.

Edy Tavares is still developing. He is really towering in size but he doesn’t have great hands in the post. There’s a jump hook and a decent mid-range shot there so there’s still potential, but it’s hard to see him being usable this season for Cleveland.

Dallas Mavericks

One of the biggest Summer League buzz guys was Dallas’ Dennis Smith Jr. DSJ was awesome and has already changed people’s opinions of him, including mine. I had Smith #7 on my big board, which does not necessarily mean I thought he was the 7th most talented player in the draft. By sheer talent and athleticism, Smith has as much talent as any player in a loaded draft, and he put it all on display this summer and now seems to be on a team that will put all of his talent to work. When you look at DSJ, think Derrick Rose, Eric Bledsoe, Russell Westbrook type athleticism. He’s short so he’s going to struggle to be more than a pest on defense, but his athleticism is elite top 1% in the NBA off the charts athleticism. Dude had a 40 inch vertical, then tore up some knee ligaments, spent the year rehabbing at NC State, and now has a 48 inch vertical. Forty-eight inches! Honestly some of the best highlights of the summer were unreal dunk attempts by DSJ over two or three opponents that didn’t actually convert but looked like some sort of absurd [insert serge metaphor here].

Smith was awesome from the jump. He’s insanely quick to the basket, with a first step and quickness that can leave just about any defender in the books — and he was guarded by guys like Kris Dunn and Josh Jackson who are supposed to be top defensive talents but just had no chance one on one. Smith can get to the rim pretty much any play he wants. If he gets in isolation he can drive or pull up or fade away and his lack of size is a complete nonfactor offensively. Switch a big man onto him in a pick and roll and the poor big guy has absolutely no shot. Think Kyrie Irving when he gets a slower big guy mismatch. Smith is also really good at finishing at the rim, which will be a key aspect of his game. He gets into guys on the drive and isn’t bodied off, and he was good at drawing fouls and finishing amidst contact. Smith’s dribble is terrific and he left Kris Dunn in the dust any time he felt like it and started drawing perimeter double teams almost immediately.

Anyone that turned on a Summer League game featuring Dallas had to know within a play or two that Smith was the best guy out there. He looks like a future star. Two of the big questions about Smith, other than some of the off court and intangible stuff, are his jump shot and defense. I was impressed with Smith’s defensive effort, especially when you compare it to guys like Ball and Fultz who just didn’t even bother on that end. He was aggressive and pesky on defense, and that’s really all you can expect from a guy with his limited size. Rick Carlisle can’t make Smith bigger but if he gets him to play hard on both ends, that will be enough.

As for the jumper, Smith is certainly comfortable with it. It’s a crisp and effortless jumper, though the results are still inconsistent. Smith’s dribble and vertical mean he can get that shot off any time, and I thought DSJ shot a little too aggressively and took some bad shots from an analytics perspective. You know how every Westbrook pull-up feels like a win for the defense, even if it goes in? That’s how it already feels with Smith. He’s oozing with confidence but there’s too much there. There are sure to be some frustrated moments with Carlisle and Dirk when Smith jacks a few too many jumpers early on. He does need to be able to shoot so defenders don’t just slip under the pick and roll, so he’ll have to keep the jumper improving. Either way, it looks like Dallas found a real steal at 9.

One player that suffered at the expense of Smith’s success was Yogi Ferrell. Ferrell was a revelation out of the D League last year and still seems like a great value for Dallas, but he was thoroughly outclassed with Smith out there. Ferrell is also small but plays small. He’s strong and plays well through contact, and he plays with a real pitbull mentality. Ferrell is shifty in the lane and plays with a ton of confidence. His three looks ok but he really has to get a big leg kick in to get the distance with his size. Ferrell is fine. He wasn’t a disappointment, really — just a little dude who masqueraded as a starting point guard and now reminded us he’s probably going to end up as just a useful rotation guy.

One of the most fun summer watches was Ding Yanyuhang. I caught Ding Fever already in Orlando, and the rest of the world caught on once he made it to Vegas. Ding is one of the best players in China and you can see why. He’s got a nice shot and a good dribble, and he just looked very comfortable out there, like he belonged. Ding gets his teammates involved and plays with a high IQ. He looks very much like a guy that could get one of those 2-way contracts and work his way into the league — but he’s already making seven figures to star in China, so that $75,000 deal to play mostly in the G League is a pretty tough sell. Hopefully we see more Ding in the future. He’s only 23 so he’s still developing, but he’s got starting wing potential.

Dwight Buycks is a Summer League All Star and played the part in Orlando before Smith showed up in Vegas. Buycks really gets into opponents on defense and stood out as a D League veteran. He had 7 steals the first game and finished Orlando with an 18/4/4 line plus 3 steals a game. He played like a man among boys and basically is at age 28. He looks like he’s definitely a player that should be on an NBA roster, and he’s bounced around the league through Toronto and the Lakers as well as China, Spain, France, and Turkey. The upside is gone now at 28 but he looks like a useful rotation veteran guard for a needy team. Cat Barber was a similar pesky defender. The duo of Barber and Buycks gave opposing backcourts nightmares.

I was excited to get a look at India’s Satnam Singh, a 7’2 290-pound behemoth. I’m rooting for Singh, but I’m not hopeful. He has almost no vertical and doesn’t run up and down the court so much as just amble. His body just doesn’t look right athletically to me. Jonathan Motley is certainly there athletically but I don’t see much else yet. He’s a great rebounder and good on defense, but he has no finesse offensively, very little touch to do anything other than dunk the ball. He seems like an athlete playing basketball, and the hoops IQ is not there. We saw some more Dorian Finney-Smith after a surprise rookie year. He’s a defender that isn’t really built for Summer League, and he didn’t seem super involved this summer but wasn’t a standout last summer either and did just fine in the big leagues.

One other name that stood out for Dallas at Orlando League was Brandon Paul. He deserves to be higher in the section, but the major caveat here is that Paul played for Dallas in Orlando, then for Cleveland in Vegas, and then ended up signing an NBA contract with the San Antonio Spurs, if you’re still wondering if he’s actually good. Paul has an NBA body and looks ready for real minutes at age 26. He’s 6’4 and sort of a combo guard that will probably play the two, though he’s a bit small for that. Paul can light up the scoreboard in a hurry. He scored 14 in the first quarter once and has a good compact shot. He reminded me some of Jordan McRae, a standout scorer last summer, but seems more translatable to the NBA and he’s a sticky defender as well. Paul averaged 16.5 points, 5.5 boards, and 3 assists on efficient shooting in Orlando. San Antonio may have found itself a player.

Denver Nuggets

I went into Denver’s Summer League looking forward to falling in love with Juancho Hernangomez all over again, and instead I came out with a crush on Malik Beasley. Beasley didn’t play last summer while recovering from injury and then didn’t get much playing time last season either after falling behind the learning curve. It looks like he’s ready to make up for lost time. Beasley appears fully healthy now and is an absolutely explosive athlete. He looked like the best player on the court in games, on both ends of the court. Beasley plays with a mean streak and threw out some nasty blocks including some huge chase down blocks. On offense, Beasley’s shot is really clean and pure. Beasley is a popular Trade Machine throw-in on a deep Denver team that seems set at the two, but he has some star potential and is only 21. He looks like a player on both ends of the court.

Juancho Hernangomez wasn’t quite as impressive as he was for me last summer, but maybe that’s because I had such high hopes. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time, and he does a little bit of everything. He’s comfortable dribbling the ball and can get to the hoop and he has good vision and playmaking ability for a player of his size. It felt like Juancho floated in and out of the game at times, and other times it seemed like he was trying to do a little too much. I’m not totally sure his role for Denver or on an NBA court yet. He’s not physical enough yet to be a four and not dynamic or athletic enough to be a three, but there’s a lot of talent there.

Tyler Lydon was probably my least favorite first round pick, and he certainly did nothing this summer to change that opinion. Lydon’s body does not look NBA ready and he doesn’t seem very athletic. He floated in and out of the game a lot and mostly didn’t stand out, especially for a first round pick. Lydon’s summer numbers were consistent — consistently terrible. He averaged 2.4 ppg in 24 minutes a game over five games and shot 4 of 20 from the field. I didn’t even have Lydon on my draft board, so I was shocked when he went in the first round. Denver traded the 13th pick for Trey Lyles and the pick that turned into Lydon. Their 13th pick was used on Donovan Mitchell instead. Oops.

Detroit Pistons

The Pistons only played in Orlando, but they had one of the early Summer League buzz guys in Luke Kennard. Kennard’s shot is real, and it’s fantastic. His shot form is perfect and the result was a splash at the bottom of the rim, dead center, more often than not. Kennard got a ton of good open looks and consequently shot a great percentage. Some of that is just bad summer defensive rotations, but a lot of it is really good movement off the ball and on cuts. Kennard sprints off screens and has a high hoops IQ so he gets to the right space and catches the pass ready to shoot. He also showed some good ability to create space and get off his own shot too, especially when a big guy got switched onto him. Kennard was clutch for Detroit with three game-tying free throws with a second left in one game and a game tying three pointer with a defender in his face in the title game. It’s not like Summer League is super high stakes, but it’s still telling that you knew Kennard was hitting every one of those shots from the moment it left his hands. Looks likes the J.J. Redick comparisons were apt.

One of the best things about Kennard’s game is that it felt like his shots and points all came very naturally in the regular flow of the game. The opposite was true for Henry Ellenson, Detroit’s first round pick from a year ago. Ellenson was that guy at the YMCA that takes every shot. He’s getting the ball and the shot is going up. Ellenson is supposed to be a stretch four, but he doesn’t really do many big man things so instead he’s just a tall gunner. The shot has a slow deliberate release and he brings the ball way back on its way up. That could be a problem against bigger defenders. Ellenson can’t dribble much either. He just likes to shoot. This is the player Bulls fans really hope Lauri Markkanen is not.

Eric Moreland is a Summer League All Star. He’s been here plenty of times and you can see it. He was really solid, has an athletic NBA body, and knows how to use it. Moreland blocked some shots, played tough D, and ran well in transition. He looks like a fourth big in the NBA and the Pistons signed him to the big boy roster. He may have taken Michael Gbinije’s spot. Gbinije is a point guard who doesn’t seem to have a great feel for the game. His go to move is that Derrick Rose jump-in-the-air-and-then-figure-out-what-to-do play but without the positive results. Detroit’s other point guard Pierre Jackson is a natural pass first guy. He’s super fast but visibly short out there and plays it, though he had a nice drive and layup for a sudden death winner in double overtime.

Golden State Warriors

Golden State just keeps on winning. Without any question, one of the stars of the Summer League was Patrick McCaw, a sophomore that stood out last summer and played with the swagger of a guy that had just played successful minutes in the Finals for the champs. McCaw’s confidence oozes through everything he does and he was the clear leader of this team both on and off the court. He’s such a smart high IQ player and he has developed a really confident shooting stroke now too. The jumper looks clean and it’s even better in the catch and shoot. McCaw is not Iguodala but he sure looks like him driving the ball. He’s got a good hesitation dribble and nice crossover and uses screens well (and moving screens, like a good Warrior), and he’s good at attacking the basket and using his body as a shield to get a good shot at the rim. McCaw is also starting to show some playmaking ability with vision and passing that opened things up for teammates.

McCaw looked like a guy who’s been studying Iguodala’s every step and is starting to get it. He looks ready for real consistent minutes on the champs this year. He even made a half court buzzer beater like a true Warrior. This is what you expect from star sophomores, like Devin Booker and D’Angelo Russell last summer. It felt unfair to let him compete at Summer League.

But the good news didn’t stop there for Golden State. The Warriors paid $3.5 million to grab the 38th pick in the draft from the Bulls and selected Oregon big man Jordan Bell. Bell looks exactly like the guy that blew up in March Madness. He is a terror on defense at the rim and led the Warriors big men on a summer long block party, highlighted by blowing up Perry Ellis in the paint to save a tie game, his sixth block of the game and a very Draymond type play. Bell averaged three blocks and two steals a game. He also looked like he’ll do just fine on offense. Bell’s a good athlete and has surprisingly solid vision. He keeps the ball moving and showed off some nice interior passing and occasional lob ability. Bell can even put the ball on the floor a little and attack the rim if the opponent leaves a lane to the rim. He’s not going to be Draymond on offense but he’s not going to be a major liability on this team either. Bell’s highlight game was 5 points, 11 boards, 5 dimes, 5 steals, and 8 blocks blowing up Minnesota, a +27 on the court and you felt it. That’s a line and a half, the rare summer 5x5.

McCaw and Bell look like good NBA role players. The only downside is that the Warriors signed both of them to two year minimum deals instead of dipping into cap space to pay them longer, when they’re clearly worth it. That means McCaw will be a restricted free agent next summer, and some team is going to splash the cash on McCaw no matter how hard Golden State tries to hide him at this point. They’re going to make the Warriors hurt.

A third Warrior looks ready to contribute too. Damian Jones finally looks healthy again and at least ready to take those spare James Michael McAdoo minutes. Jones is big and athletic and all about hustle, which is really all this team needs him for. He was blocking a ton of shots and has huge ups, and he made some nice putback dunks too. Either Bell or Jones was blocking a shot every time you looked. Jones may take on the JaVale McGee rim runner role. The other former first round pick Kevon Looney doesn’t look great. He’s more of a stretch four than a center and isn’t super stretchy, though he did hit a couple threes and was a nice offensive rebounder. He’s fine but doesn’t stand out a lot, and that’s not going to earn a lot of Warriors minutes.

As much as anything else, it’s so obvious how much the Golden State culture is ingrained from top to bottom in the organization. McCaw and Bell and Damian have bought in and have been brought on to the team to fit a very specific clear role, and they’re thriving because of it. The rich get richer.

Houston Rockets

Houston didn’t have a first round pick so there shouldn’t have been much to see, but they turned to have my biggest crush of the summer in last year’s second round pick Zhou Qi (pronounced something close to Joe Chee). It looks like we finally found the Chinese heir apparent to Yao Ming — not that Zhou will be as dominant as Yao was, but he looks like a real NBA player which is more than we could ever say for Yi Jianlian. Zhou is 7’2 with an absurd 7’8 wingspan, basically equal to Rudy Gobert and among the very biggest in the NBA. He may have a 9’6 standing reach, which means he’s pretty close to being able to dunk the ball flat-footed.

And yet it feels like Zhou might actually be a wing and not a center. Zhou has great hands and a soft touch on his jumper, and he has a nice stroke for such a big man, reminiscent of Yao. Zhou has a pretty thin frame so I’m not sure he’ll ever fill out enough to be a center; instead he almost feels like a supersized wing the way he plays. Zhou’s shot is a little slow on the release but that won’t be a big problem for someone that tall, and he really has a great catch and shoot and a pretty free throw stroke. And perhaps most encouraging, Zhou looks really naturally athletic, not always so likely for a guy of his size. He uses his size well and was a real game changer on defense, which shouldn’t be a surprise for a player that’s already been named Defensive Player of the Year in China despite being just 21 years old. His size really affects the whole game and especially on defense and on the boards. He can fade in and out of games some, which might be the conditioning or mental side of the game, but I really think Houston has something fun and maybe special here.

The Rockets also had a great summer gunner in Troy Williams. He could put up points in a hurry and looks like a heck of an athlete. He’s explosive to the basket and has the body of the runner. Williams has a quick good shot and can score a ton. His athleticism really shows up on both ends of the court, and his 22ppg were third at Vegas. He could be worth an NBA bench spot, perhaps for Houston. L.J. Peak was an undrafted sleeper, and he looked a lot like Troy Williams. He can create space and get his shot off and had one huge shooting game where he showed off a clean three. I wasn’t impressed with Houston’s actual draft pick Isaiah Hartenstein. He didn’t look particularly athletic or even remotely NBA ready. I also didn’t see much from Cameron Oliver, one of my favorite pre-draft sleepers. Isaiah Taylor was good at setting up his teammates, but I’m not sure he’s ready to be the third point guard behind Harden and CP3.

Indiana Pacers

Indiana only played at the Orlando League and there wasn’t a whole lot to see. The main feature was Travis Leslie, who led the team in scoring most nights. Leslie looks like he could play some backup NBA minutes as a scorer off the bench. He squares up well for a shot that looks good and can finish well in traffic. Indiana’s usual summer star Joe Young was back in action. Young is a Summer League All Star. He’s a pretty prototypical undersized college player, using high end speed to overcome his lack of size. Young has a pretty quick trigger looking for his shot and a nice jumper, but his dribble is just good not great and there doesn’t seem to be enough talent to overcome the size problem.

Indiana’s first round pick T.J. Leaf didn’t show a whole lot. He seemed a bit stiff and, though cut, didn’t look particularly athletic compared to his peers. Leaf ran well in transition but otherwise didn’t stand out a ton. He looks like a project that won’t see much immediate playing time on an East playoff contender with Thad and Sabonis in front of him. The Pacers also drafted Ike Anigbogu, a pretty clear long-term project, but he didn’t feature at Summer League.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers swooped in on draft night and picked up two second round picks I thought were steals. Jawun Evans was a favorite of many draftniks I love, but I had mixed summer reviews. He’s certainly a quick attacker on drives as advertised, with a really nice dribble and spin move, but he’s just as bad finishing at the rim as expected too. Evans looks like a guy trying to draw fouls too often. He absorbs a ton of contact and creates quite a bit of it too, and that seems to leave him out of control at the rim. Evans is short so he’ll need to pack on some muscle so he can withstand the physical beating and make those drives useful. He was also terrible on defense, even letting tiny 5’8 Justin Robinson shoot repeated threes over him in one game and picking up five fouls in nine minutes in another. I liked Evans more as a distributor than pushing for his own shots.

Sindarius Thornwell was the other rookie pickup, and he looks like the veteran that played so well in March. Thornwell plays tough physical D and plays like a cagey veteran with high IQ on both ends of the court. He’s a strong confident driver and is comfortable with the ball in his hands, and he uses his physicality to draw contact and finish well. Like in college, Thornwell had a pretty distinct physicality advantage he won’t often have in the NBA, so he’ll have to learn how to dominate without that.

Brice Johnson looked a lot like the Brice Johnson we remember at UNC. He’s still got some decent post scoring moves and a nifty jump hook, but he had those same moves in college and they might not work in the NBA (not that we’d know from the nine minutes all season Doc Rivers played him). He has added a nice turnaround jumper so maybe the game is expanding outward, but he still needs to fill out his John Henson-like body. Montrezl Harrell only played one game but was his usual super efficient self with 21 points in 27 minutes on 10/13 shooting and 5 stocks. He was a nice pickup in the Chris Paul trade. Kendall Marshall is one of those useful summer point guards. He ran the offense well and his jumper is improving.

Los Angeles Lakers

I could’ve written an entire piece just on Lonzo Ball’s Summer League experience, and hundreds of articles have already been penned around the internet. You may or may not like the LaVar Ball experience, but Lonzo Ball is here, he is real, and he is spectacular. Ball is everything the pundits promised, both good and bad. He threw a lob to Brandon Ingram for a dunk on the opening Lakers play, put up two triple-doubles, and had the world talking about his shoes. He lit up the courts, inspired his teammates, and had thousands of traveling Lakers fans buzzing night after night. Lonzo’s style of play is just as contagious as expected. He instantly made his teammates look better, and the quick passing was infectious as teammates got involved in the showtime passing. The crowd roared on every touch early on and Ball did not disappoint. He was the sparkplug that ignited the summer’s most fun team, and he is the reason the Lakers are Vegas champions.

Ball averaged 16 points, 8 boards, 9 assists, and 3.5 stocks (steals and blocks) per game, filling up the box score in a way we haven’t seen since Russell Westbrook flamed out of round one. I believe Ball had the only two triple-doubles in Summer League history, despite missing two games to injury, and he also had the only 30-point 10-assist game in SL history as well. The guy can fill it up in a hurry. Ball uses his size and IQ to grab a lot of rebounds. On offense that leads to great second looks, and on defense it means he’s off and running (or passing) in transition, a huge advantage similar to what we saw the Thunder benefit from with so many of Westbrook’s rebounds this year. Lonzo Ball is absolutely deadly in transition. He can make the long Kevin Love outlet pass or hit a teammate in wide open space on the wing to create a semi-transition, and it was so obvious how much that was helping to get his teammates going. The Lakers are going to score so many easy points with Ball out there.

The Lonzo passing gene is truly something special. All of the passing clichés are true with him. The ball doesn’t stick, moving quickly along to the next teammate, and I have to wonder just how many unofficial hockey or free-throw “assists” Ball will rack up helping his teammates score. He understands that a pass doesn’t have to lead directly to a scoring opportunity — just getting it to someone in better space is still a win if that player acts quickly in space. Ball’s passes hit his teammates in ready to shoot motion, and his teammates actually struggled a bit early on catching up with him and learning to be ready for the pass at any time. If you’ve played basketball, you know how energizing it is to play with a point guard that knows how and where you like the ball and puts you in a position to succeed repeatedly. Ball passes players open at times, leading them like a quarterback. He can throw full court passes hitting teammates in stride effortlessly with a simple flick of the wrist.

One of my favorite Lonzo-isms is something I’d seen in college but never quit figured out what was happening til Ball did it repeatedly over the summer. His basketball IQ is absolutely immense. He just understands the game so well and sees so many steps ahead of almost everyone else on the court. His passing vision combined with his basketball IQ is what makes him truly unique and special. In soccer, players can “switch the field” to take advantage of the space on the very large pitch. A midfielder on the right side of the field might notice the right half is overloaded and “switch the field” by kicking it over to the left side where his team has a 3-on-3 in space. Lonzo Ball does this on a basketball court. He was always looking to move quickly on an inbounds after a make. You can see him turn quickly before catching the inbounds and take a glance “downfield.” If he sees an imbalanced court, he gets the inbounds pass and immediately fires a pass down to the other end of the court to create an imbalanced semi-transition, maybe something like Brandon Ingram one-on-one with an opponent in space driving to the rim. There might be two teammates and defenders on the right side of the court, plus Lonzo, a center, and two defenders (including the primary rim protector) way back totally out of the play. That may or may not count as an “assist” for Ball, but it’s creating wonderful scoring opportunities for his teammates and that means easier points for them and increased confidence the next time they’re ready to shoot. It’s a truly marvelous play I’ve never really seen any other point guards look to make repeatedly.

Another of my favorite Lonzo Ball plays was a badly-missed midrange shot. The Lakers had the ball with the shot clock winding down in their summer opener when a teammate lost the ball and there was a bit of a scrum with several Lakers and opponents trying to recover the ball when Lonzo basically caught the ball in the air and immediately threw up an off balance shot at the rim, somehow having the wherewithal to remember that there was only a second left on the shot clock. The shot missed badly, but for a rookie in his first game to be so comfortable managing the game in that moment shows a really special ability.

Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses. We knew Lonzo had a funky shot, and he airballed his first wide-open three and missed plenty of summer shots, shooting just 38% from the field. He’s markedly better on catch and shoot, with a quick release that almost always looks good. Creating for himself off the dribble, the shot is more inconsistent. Already the first game, opponents were prepared for Ball’s passing, going under every screen and daring him to shoot. He’s going to have to learn how to make that three-pointer or midrange shot, or his passing lanes will disappear. I personally thought the shot result looked pretty good most of the time. The ball was usually dead center at the rim, and the range is there. He only needs to be an average shooter, and I think he can be that pretty easily.

Ball is also not particularly explosive on drives to the basket. He’s missing that killer first step or crossover we saw from guys like Dennis Smith and De’Aaron Fox, and there’s no elite athletic ability to just lose guys on the dribble. That will need some work, though I was impressed with Ball’s pick and roll ability, something he didn’t do much in college. Big men have no chance against him, and he drops the ball off perfectly to open teammates so opponents will need to force Ball to show he can finish at the rim. Ball is great dumping the ball to a diving big man. That’s great when it’s Ingram or Kuzma, but some of the true bigs were struggling to finish looks, so Lonzo needs teammates that can finish what he’s starting.

Defensively, Ball was pretty bad. He’s a bit slow and seems out of position frequently, a surprise considering his high IQ. He tends to ball watch and drift a bit, like a guy looking to read a passing lane or leak out but leaving his guy open at times. That’s not going to work at the next level so he’ll need to be smarter there and make sure he doesn’t fall asleep. The warts are there on Lonzo Ball, and they’re pronounced. But man, what a prince this toads into when things are going right. Every Laker player was better this summer because of what Lonzo Ball does on the court. He elevates his teammates in a way few other players on the planet can.

It seems like a long time ago now, but there was a day this summer when everyone was dumping on Lonzo and praising Lakers sophomore Brandon Ingram instead. In the Lakers’ Vegas opener, Ingram was fantastic, better in the first few minutes than I saw him anytime last season. His body is more muscular and filled out now and certainly more NBA ready, and you could see it in the subtle differences where he was able to keep his spot on the block or get to the rim and finish, where he got pushed off his spot last year. Ingram is more comfortable with his dribble and showed the ability to finish with either hand at the hoop. He also showed some nice passing and playmaking skills in transition and looks like he’ll feed very well off of Ball. Cramps cost him overtime at the end of game one and then he sat the rest of the summer, but it looks like Ingram is in for a major year two improvement.

I was expecting another Lakers first round pick to shine this summer, but it wasn’t the one I expected. Kyle Kuzma was one of the surprise rookie performers, a guy taken at #27 to the praise of exactly no one and suddenly he was the one putting up a 30/10 a couple weeks later on the final night in Vegas to lead the Lonzo-less Lakers to the championship. Kuzma reminds me a lot of Larry Nance Jr. Athletically he’s a bit of a tweener, with a body that looks like it needs to lose a little college weight and get a bit more cut, but the athleticism is still there and that fits well on this team as it does with Nance.

Kuzma had quick chemistry with Ball and put himself in nice spots in the court. He was one of the early Lakers to be ready for Lonzo’s passes and always seemed to put himself in a place to catch a pass in an advantageous spot offensively. He’ll need to work on finishing at the rim, but he showed off a better than expected shot especially on the catch and shoot. Lonzo tends to make his teammates better by leaps and bounds, but Kuzma’s six threes and 30 points without Ball in the Summer League title game speak for themselves. Kuzma probably isn’t quite as good as he’s looked over the last week but he certainly looks like a useful Laker going forward.

Josh Hart was the other first round selection and he had a quieter summer, playing just 22mpg in two games before sitting with injury. You can see that the game plays slower for Hart, in a good way. He’s processing quickly and his high hoops IQ is very evident. Hart is good at driving to the rim and equally adept at finishing once he gets there. He’s especially dangerous in transition and is comfortable with the ball and taking the shot.

Another Lakers guard Alex Caruso was a one-night sensation against the Kings when Ball sat out. He had 18 points and nine assists with four threes, all while looking like a 40-year-old church-league youth pastor out there. He’s an intangibles guy who makes his living with hustle, grit, and smarts, but he looks mostly like a low roster third PG (at best) that had the game of his life one fun summer night.

Thomas Bryant was another Laker pick and one guy I really liked in the draft but seemed alone on. He looks like a terrific fit with the Lakers and looked good this summer. Bryant was great on the boards and played with high energy, especially on the offensive block. He’s very athletic and willing to run in transition, and he has a good dive on the pick and roll and tends to put himself in good position in the post. Bryant also showed off a nice looking three, so there’s some definite stretch ability there. He might not be as talented fundamentally as Zubac but he fits the modern style much better.

Ivica Zubac did not show out as much as last summer. His body is improved from last summer, but he wasn’t particularly impressive and he looks a bit outdated especially with the run and gun Lonzo Lakers. Vander Blue looks like a potentially useful two. He has a nice shot and plays well within the flow of the game. I was looking forward to seeing my favorite summer sleeper P.J. Dozier suit up, but he played only ten minutes. He’s either injured or just isn’t ready at all, but you can forgive Lakers fans if they’re otherwise distracted.

Memphis Grizzlies

Memphis has seen a summer youth movement, so their Summer League team suddenly got a lot more interesting. With ZBo and Vince Carter gone, Tony Allen and JaMychal Green still unsigned, and Chandler Parsons perpetually injured, there are a ton of roster spots up for grabs and potentially as many as three starting spots. And it looks like one of those spots should probably go to Wayne Selden. Selden was one of the marquee scorers at Vegas. He just looked like he was playing the game at a different speed than everyone else. He’s got a really clean good looking shot and is a big time scorer. That jumper just looks so pure and goes in swish after swish. Selden can lose opponents on the dribble and is a dynamic scorer, and he has some playmaking ability too. He has the whole midrange arsenal to create and finish. He averaged over 25 poitns a game on efficient shooting and looks like at least a great bench scoring option for the Grizzlies.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure this team can really count on anything else from the other young players yet this season. I was expecting big things from both Deyonta Davis and Wade Baldwin and came away disappointed. Davis’s body doesn’t look particularly NBA ready. He still needs to add a lot of bulk and muscle but you can see the raw talent and Memphis calls him the future of the team. He’s a strong rebounder right now but the rest of the game needs work. I had him penciled in as the starting four if JaMychal follows ZBo out the door, but he looks awfully raw for that right now.

Wade Baldwin was bad last summer and still didn’t look too impressive. His jump shot leaves you wanting and he has a loose dribble and piled up turnovers. Baldwin reminded me a bit of Rashad Vaughn — his best skill is driving and drawing contact at the rim one-on-one, but he doesn’t do much creation for others yet despite being a point guard. One game against Donovan Mitchell was particularly bad, racking up five turnovers and eight fouls. It’s too early to give up on Baldwin, but he definitely doesn’t look ready to play even backup minutes to Conley yet.

The other young guys flashed potential but need some work. Dillon Brooks looked most ready to contribute right away. He looked like he was playing a little too hard at times but is a nice defensive fit and seems like he could play a poor man’s Tony Allen type role if they need him to. He was good in catch and shoot and played better when he just flowed within the offense. Jarell Martin is an awesome athlete and has a lot of raw talent, but he really struggled defensively and picked up a ton of fouls. Kobi Simmons is tiny, like a razor thin De’Aaron Fox. He has no chance physically right now with any contact and he’s got a really loose handle and lost a number of turnovers, and the shot needs work too. It looks like he ought to have stayed in school.

Miami Heat

One of the big early buzz names in Summer League was Bam Adebayo, though that should come as no surprise — a big man whose game is predicated on being big and athletic and trying hard is always going to succeed in a setting like this. Adebayo was a top five scorer and rebounder in Orlando with 18 points and 8 boards a game and then averaged 16/9 in his Vegas games as well, and he was second in Orlando in blocks. The problem is he also shot just 35% in Orlando and 43% in Vegas, bad for anyone but abysmal for a big man that should be mostly a rim runner. Miami has a history of stretching skill sets in Summer League (like running the entire offense through point Justise last summer) so this is probably just them purposely asking him to do too much.

Still, the things Bam is supposed to do well were great. He plays with high energy and intensity, is a strong rebounder, and sets hard screens. Adebayo clearly has an NBA body and uses his physicality well. He looked like a man among boys on the boards, and he did a good job drawing fouls in the post. Adebayo’s footwork on post ups was decent but there’s not much there yet, and his only use outside of the paint right now is setting screens so he’s going to get ignored by good teams for now. Adebayo had some big blocks, though he looks like a better weakside defender than on ball. One real surprise was Bam’s passing skills. He showed a nice touch on interior passes and threw a couple of lobs off screen and rolls a la Blake Griffin. The Heat got a player.

They may have found a second one in Okaro White, a guy who already played useful minutes for the Heat last season during their big win streak. White did a decent James Johnson impression — good enough that I certainly wish the Heat had stayed away from giving Bloodsport $60 million and let Okaro give them 80% of JJ instead for a near minimum deal. White has a very similar size and game to Johnson. He’s got some point forward playmaking skills and has an athletic NBA body. White was pretty good getting to the rim, though he missed a lot once he got there. He handled the ball quite a bit and was pretty effective doing so. The Miami team ran through White, and he led the Orlando league in scoring at 19ppg and showed good weakside defense too. White definitely looks like he’ll contribute to the Heat. Could he fit their lineup better than Justise Winslow right now?

London Perrantes is not going to be the next Malcolm Brogdon. This year’s four-year Virginia man was active defensively like any good Cavalier but turned the ball over a lot and seemed a bit overwhelmed by NBA level athleticism. He was a little too deferential and doesn’t look like he’ll get there. Zach Auguste had supposedly improved a lot after a year in Europe, but he was awful. He blew a ton of shots at the rim just like he did in college and was very poor on defense, racking up a boatload of fouls including one boneheaded foul on a three with a second left and a three-point lead. Auguste wasn’t the only Notre Dame player to look awful at Summer League. Pat Connaughton and V.J. Beachem were awful too. Someone get Mike Brey a raise.

Milwaukee Bucks

Milwaukee is always a favorite Summer League watch with all of their youth and insane length, but they were mostly a bust this summer. I had very high hopes for Thon Maker after falling in love last summer, and he flashed talent like always but was pretty disappointing overall. Maker has a smooth catch and shoot three that’s almost always on target, but he tends to rely a little too much on that, floating on the perimeter waiting for a good look. Maker still isn’t there physically, a la Bruno Caboclo. He needs to add a lot more muscle and sets really terrible screens that are easy to fight through, and the defensive and rebounding instincts are still not always there. He drifted in and out of games. Maybe that’s a sophomore mailing Summer League in a bit but that doesn’t fit Maker’s style. He shot 4-for-18 (22%) in a couple games and didn’t have the impact at all that you’d expect from a presumed starting center for an East playoff team.

D.J. Wilson was one of the biggest surprise draft picks to me, though he fits Milwaukee’s m.o. as a long, lanky, unrefined dude with big upside. That’s what we saw this summer. Wilson is tall but doesn’t particularly use his size. He needs to get his arms up and be more vertical on defense and seems to duck or pull his body in too often. He’s definitely athletic and has a nice three-point stroke, and he did improve as the summer went on, but there’s a lot there to work on. Wilson’s best strength right now is his soft hands and his activity and awareness crashing the offensive glass. But he floats a lot on the perimeter looking for his shot so that negates that strength a bit.

You’ve probably forgotten all about Rashad Vaughn by now as a mid first round pick from two years ago that hasn’t done anything yet, but the guy is still only 20 and has definitely improved a ton over the last two years. He cuts well off the ball and finishes well at the rim, and he’s good at penetrating and has good body control. As a slasher and scorer, Vaughn is ready to start making an impact, but he’s still not really a “point guard” that creates for teammates, averaging under two assists a game. He’s a good scorer and his game is starting to come together, so don’t forget about him buried on the roster. I didn’t see a lot from Sterling Brown, a favorite 3-and-D wing prospect from the draft, but this isn’t really his place to shine. He D’d up well and showed a decent shot and a nice ability to drive and kick.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota still needs to fill out its roster, but they’re probably not going to do it with guys from the summer team. The team’s leading scorer was former UNC guard Marcus Paige. Paige’s shot looks improved but was still inconsistent and feels like a worse version of Tyus Jones. Matt Costello was the best Wolves player. He plays hard, boxes out, and did yeoman’s work near the hoop. He usually flirted with a double-double and showed surprising athleticism and good interior passing ability like any good Michigan State big man. He could have some stretch five potential and actually led Vegas in rebounding.

Charles Cooke flashed some potential. He’s got a nice looking shot but mostly floated in the corner waiting to be passed the ball and didn’t show much dribbling or creation ability, though he did have a great moment driving for a late game-tying bucket against the Warriors before forcing Patrick McCaw into a bad shot defensively. There’s 3-and-D potential here but I’m not sure he grabbed enough attention. V.J. Beachem was miserable, shooting 0/11 in 31 minutes across three games. Perry Ellis still remembers when he first came to James Naismith with the idea about throwing an orange ball into peach baskets but was otherwise unremarkable.

New Orleans Pelicans

New Orleans Summer League was all about Cheick Diallo and Quinn Cook. Diallo was really impressive. He’s big and strong and a good athlete, though he needs to play through contact and use his strength better. Diallo is a relentless rebounder and a high jumper that showed a ton of raw athleticism starting to come together defensively especially on the weak side. But the real surprise was the jumper Diallo has developed. It’s a bit awkward still but you can tell he’s stretching his game out, and he’s added a useful hook too. Diallo still needs to cut down the fouls on D but he was excellent this summer and looks like a definite NBA player. On a team that didn’t have two centers, Diallo could probably be a usable starting four.

Quinn Cook is small but doesn’t play like it. He’s an attacking guard that is good at getting to the rim, and he has the ability to contort his body and play through physicality to finish there too. He was good in pick and roll and played an efficient game. Both Diallo and Cook should contribute to the Pels this year, though that’s just as much about the New Orleans roster as it is about them.

New York Knicks

The Knicks were the most irrelevant Summer League team. Frank Ntilikina missed SL with a bruised knee. Chasson Randle is a solid finisher but doesn’t look particularly like an NBA player. Nigel Hayes looked more cut and in shape than I expected and flashed a nice jumper, but he has a long way to go. Ognjen Jaramaz was a shock second round pick out of Serbia. He’s feisty and set a couple hard picks and he has a decent shot for someone most draftniks have never heard of. Damyean Dotson has a nice three pointer too, but it’s still shocking those two were actual Knicks draft picks. The one Knick I liked was Luke Kornet, who has a nice looking shot for a big man and range beyond the arc plus some solid rim protection. He could have some stretch five potential.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder only played at Orlando and were pretty successful, but that doesn’t mean they had many prospects to watch. There was of course longtime Summer League staple Semaj Christon, who played far too many real minutes in OKC for anyone’s good this year. Christon just doesn’t look like an NBA player. He has a great first step but dribbles far out from his body and just doesn’t look very smooth out there.

Dakari Johnson has come a long way since his time at Kentucky, but he has a ways to go. He was a top five scorer in Orlando and has added a nice 15 foot jumper, but otherwise his game is still predicated on just being bigger than almost everyone else. Johnson uses his size to bully in the Summer League but still can’t dribble and has a bad touch near the rim and not much hoops IQ. Former (terrible) first round OKC pick Josh Huestis looks like a hustle and athleticism guy. He’s a good rebounder. The Thunder played like a really good D League team, which is great for winning Summer League games and not so great for ever making it at the next level.

Orlando Magic

The Magic only played at the Orlando League, and Jonathan Isaac was a main feature. Unfortunately, he got injured so we only got to see a few games, and not against top Vegas competition, but he flashed the goods nonetheless. Isaac was my “most interesting man in the NBA draft” and top three on my board, a guy with mad length and limitless potential. He played mostly on the wing for the Orlando SL team, usually without the ball on offense. At times that made him a bit stagnant, and he’s probably going to be a primary ball handler early on, so he’ll need to work on being involved off the ball. Other times he cut well, crashed the offensive boards, and used his length and athleticism to make a difference. It feels like Isaac may be best in a Shawn Marion type role on offense for now, with the play rarely drawn up for him but just getting involved and using his athleticism to make a difference.

Isaac’s shot is very nice. He has a confident stroke and doesn’t hesitate at all when it’s time to shoot. He hit a couple smooth step back jumpers and has a nice three. Isaac used to be a guard before a high school growth spurt, and you can see it in his handling. He’s got a smooth dribble and definitely plays more like a point wing than a big man. He also sports a nice spin move. The offensive game is raw but you can see a lot of talent there, and it’s all part of the intriguing upside. It feels like there’s some longshot Giannis potential here if he grows another couple inches and pulls everything together. The offensive polish is missing, but he always looks like the best player on the court. It will be up to Orlando to see what they can turn him into from here.

Of course Isaac’s biggest value will come at the other end of the court, and he looks like he’ll be a really good defender. He’s got great defensive rotation and you can see that his length really scares shooters. Isaac is super active on defense and uses his athleticism and length to his advantage. He’s going to be a really pesky defender that could turn into an elite option on that end. The offense is a question mark for now but the elite defensive potential makes him a prospect that can’t really fail. One weird thing about Isaac is that he sat down three or four minutes into the first quarter each game he played, pretty odd for a starter, and continued to play short stints all game long. I’m not sure what that was about but I guess he may as well get used to Orlando coaches yanking his minutes around.

Michigan’s Derrick Walton was the standout Magic player at Summer League. The Magic supposedly love him and were shocked he wasn’t drafted, and it looks like he’s got a great chance to make the roster. Orlando overpaid a crappy backup point guard for the umpteenth straight summer but Walton looks good enough to challenge them. Walton is a gamer. He has a nice jumper and is a good penetrator. He has a high hoops IQ and seems to play within himself, knowing what he can and can’t do. Walton is a good passer and, like a good Michigan man, doesn’t turn it over much and handles defensive pressure well. It feels like he could be a T.J. McConnell type, a useful backup or third point guard that can be a floor general if called upon.

Wesley Iwundu was the guy the Magic drafted high in the second round instead of Walton. He’s supposed to have nice vision from the wing but I didn’t see that or much else from him. Iwundu seemed pretty raw and not great on the hoops IQ spectrum, and that’s not a good sign for a guy that played four years in college. Stephen Zimmerman looks lost out there, like a guy whose lost all confidence in himself. He was a sleeper a year ago but has been cut now. Marcus Georges-Hunt looked good. He has a nice shot and is a good rebounder and got better as the week went on.

Philadelphia 76ers

It’s a crime we got only 15 minutes of Markelle Fultz in Vegas before his ankle sprain, but boy are we glad we got to see him play in Utah. Fultz came out firing against Boston in the opener (you think he had on his mind the fact that they passed on him at #1 maybe?) and looked terrific out of the gates. He can got to his spot with the dribble any time he wants and has an absolutely deadly hesitation dribble that makes the Harden comparison so apt. Fultz doesn’t look like an elite athlete because the traditional measures like high-end speed and jumping aren’t there, but it’s that dribble and space and start-stop ability that really stand out. Fultz can get to the rim any time he wants and has a nice floater and a pretty good ability to finish at the rim, though he can improve some too. He was a little trigger happy with the jumper and might need to get his teammates involved more now that they’re not a sack of moldy Washington apples.

For now, Fultz looks exactly as advertised and I don’t have any reason to believe he shouldn’t have been the #1 pick and worth the price of a trade up, even as good as Lonzo Ball has been. The game just comes easy to Fultz and it hardly even looks like he’s giving full effort, like Tracy McGrady or Andruw Jones if you want to go cross sport. There’s a bit of detached demeanor that comes with that, and Fultz’s lack of emotional leadership is especially stark in contrast to what we saw from Ball, Fox, and even Mitchell, but he’s got Embiid and Simmons to take the lead so that might be ok. Fultz was second at the Utah League in scoring at 20ppg and only even played 24 minutes a game. Hopefully the ankle injury isn’t a sign of things to come. Fultz looks like the real deal.

While I didn’t get to see as much Fultz as I hoped for, I did fall in love with another 76er: Jonah Bolden. Bolden was the 36th pick in the draft, an American that played an unremarkable year at UCLA before going to Serbia for a year. He was not on my first round radar at all, but Jonathan Tjarks tipped me off to at least pay some attention, and man was he ever right. Bolden was awesome at Summer League and looks like he’d probably go in the lottery if we drafted again right now, maybe as the highest picked big man in the draft. Bolden is super athletic and uses his athleticism constantly on both ends. He’s always running the lane or getting back in transition, and he was a huge surprise defensively. Bolden defends well in the post and uses his length pretty well instead of going for the pump fake. He kept making so many blocks, steals, and other defensive plays that it came to a point where someone would make a defensive play for Philly and I just assumed it was him. And then there’s a pretty three point shot on top of all that. Bolden shoots without hesitation and the shot is pure. Think length plus energy plus defense and stretch potential and you’ve got a pretty delicious modern big man prospect. The numbers for Bolden weren’t huge but the potential is off the charts.

Despite Philly’s youth movement, there wasn’t actually a ton to see outside of Fultz and Bolden. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot isn’t the sort of player to stand out at Summer League. He was disappointing defensively, picking up a lot of fouls and reaching too often, but he’s improving on offense. He’s more useful now with the ball in his hands and as a cutter, and he’s growing into a more NBA body too. I still like him as part of that Sixers core at the two. I definitely like him more than Furkan Korkmaz, another first round pick from a year ago two spots after TLC. Korkmaz doesn’t seem super athletic and didn’t stand out early on, though he grew into games as the week went on. He’s got a very quick release and shot nice on the catch and shoot, but I didn’t see much else. He did score a little more easily when others were out and he got to be more of the focal point of the offense. These are the two guys that will be learning a lot from J.J. Redick this year.

Caleb Tarczewski runs the floor well in transition but struggled on defense against better athletes and doesn’t have great hands in the post. Larry Drew II is a Summer League staple and made a nice stepback jumper for the win against the Warriors. Nigel Williams-Goss checked in for his first NBA experience and immediately got a steal and breakaway layup but didn’t stand out much beyond that. Isaiah Briscoe and Alex Poythress are former Kentucky Wildcats that do most of their damage on the defensive end of the court, so this wasn’t really their place to shine either.

Phoenix Suns

Phoenix as a whole may have been my most disappointing team of the summer. They appear to be loaded with young talent, but I was really underwhelmed by most of it, and that started at the top with rookie Josh Jackson. Jackson wasn’t a huge disappointment I guess, but only because I had really cooled on him by draft day and wondered why so many teams seemed to think they had star potential. I see a really nice role player wing. Jackson’s athleticism is obvious, and he’s very good and confident putting the ball down and driving to the basket with a good finishing ability, though his dribble came and went a bit. He’s an outstanding rebounder and uses his size well, and his bad shot means that he’s often down near the hoop already so he’s a real offensive rebound threat and had one huge 21/15 game.

Defensively, Jackson disappointed a bit. He struggled against quicker guys like Dennis Smith and Troy Williams and picked up a ton of fouls. But the biggest problem is that Jackson’s shot looks really, really bad. It’s just a wonky shot that looks bad off the screen, off the dribble, at the line, or any other way you try it. Jackson has a long gather before the shot that seems easy to strip or block, and the shot has a hitch at the top and looks like a push shot. It’s just really bad. I think Jackson even airballed three different shots in an early game. He finished the summer at 42% on 80 shots, not terrible, but it looks like he’s really going to get dared to shoot. That all paints a grim picture, but this is still the Jackson many of us thought we were getting. He looks like a strong defending wing that will have a limited offensive role for now. That’s still useful, but Kawhi Leonard he is not.

Now as for Marquese Chriss, he was disappointing. No longer a rookie, you’d never know it from watching Chriss play. The IQ and feel for the game isn’t really there, and neither are the fundamentals right now. Chriss is exactly what he was when he was drafted — an absurd athlete that doesn’t do much else. His best NBA skill right now might be missing highlight dunks, with a few big weakside blocks mixed in. There’s a nice spin move there and his shot is coming along, but Chriss has a pretty loose dribble and just doesn’t seem to play in the flow of the game yet. He looks awkward, and he also looks kind of small, almost more of a stretch four or a wing than a true four. I’m not sure what he is.

I’m not sure what Dragan Bender is yet either, but there are flashes. He has a really easy stroke on his shot and a clean catch and shoot motion with a ball that’s usually dead on target. He still can’t do much dribbling in the open court and didn’t do much creating his own space, but there moments of nifty passing that flashed now and then, both interior passing and from the perimeter, and you can see why Phoenix coach Earl Watson talks about Bender as a player in a Lamar Odom mold. I’m not totally sure what position he can play right now. He’s still nowhere near physical enough to play center, and he’s not fast enough to play against or guard wings, so for now he might be something of a stretch four. He’s a long ways from being a good NBA player but the development is happening and he’s still only 19.

The guys I liked most on Phoenix were further down the bench. Mike James (no, not the longtime NBA vet that’s spent the summer in the Big3 league) looked really good, like the man among boys he is as a 26-year-old that’s played a lot in Europe. James is a good athlete and can really score the ball. His three point stroke looks good and he’s clearly very comfortable as the man out there with the ball in his hands making action happen. He can score from anywhere anytime and averaged a sweet 21/5/5 despite his 6’1 height while shooting an efficient 54%. It certainly seems like he’s ready for a bench role on an NBA team.

Davon Reed was one of my favorite 3-and-D wings and looked the part in summer league. He has a good clean three point shot and is mature and smart with a decent drive ability. He looks like he’d be a nice wing fit next to Devin Booker, somewhat of a lower upside version of Jackson with a more certain outcome. Derrick Jones showed off the high-flying athleticism we wanted at the dunk contest. Tyler Ulis was hurt and missed out on the fun, but maybe that led to the Mike James breakout. Christian Wood is a favorite from his time in Philadelphia and now around the league. He’s still a big time athlete with good footwork and looks like a useful big man.

Portland Blazers

Portland had three first round picks entering draft night and spent them all on big men, trading up two picks for Zach Collins and then taking Caleb Swanigan late in the first. By Summer League play, you’d think it had been the opposite. Collins was one of the summer’s biggest disappointments. He doesn’t look ready physically at all. He’s super thin and needs to pack on a lot of muscle because he got repeatedly out physicaled in the post, struggling against both size and athleticism. Collins has terrific footwork and is confident in the post, and the fundamental are still outstanding, but those skills aren’t as valuable in 2017 and he’s going to get pushed right off his spot for now. I was also disappointed with Collins athletically. He kept getting beat down the court and seemed to tire easily. That worries me physically, especially since he played such limited Gonzaga minutes, and he picked up repeated injuries and shot a miserable 26% from the field. He looks like a more fluid Jakob Poeltl for now. The skill is still there but it’s going to take some time.

Collins looked particularly thin and weak whenever he was next to Caleb Swanigan. Swanigan was, in many ways, everything Collins is not. He’s big and physical and looked every bit like the First Team All American he was this season. Physically, Biggie is the sort of player that was always going to look good in Summer League with a body built to dominate college bodies, so we’ll see how that looks at the next level, but I was impressed with how cut his body was and how much athleticism he flashed. Swanigan has soft hands and is comfortable dribbling and passing the ball, especially passing out of the post. He shows good hoops IQ and nice footwork, and I thought he was active defensively and switched well in the pick and roll. His shot is pretty solid too. I thought Swanigan was just another Thomas Robinson, but he looks a lot more ready for the modern NBA and seemed more like the lottery pick in Portland than Collins. He put up a near triple-double in the Vegas final and was the reason they made the championship game. Jake Layman was not. He’s pretty athletic for a white dude but didn’t show me much otherwise.

Sacramento Kings

In a Summer League when so many rookies showed up in a huge way, it would be easy to be disappointed with De’Aaron Fox, but that would be a mistake. Fox played through an ankle injury that limited him, both in games on the court and in his effectiveness while playing since that hampers his biggest advantage: speed. A healthy Fox is insanely quick, with a deadly dribble hesitation move and a quick path to the basket. He’s got a great handle and is super comfortable with the ball in his hands, and we didn’t get to see a ton of shots but did see a couple nice step back jumpers around the free throw line and circle that looked clean. Fox will need to extend his range beyond the arc, and he’ll probably never be a great shooter, but it looks like a shot that can at least be worked into something that doesn’t hurt his game. He’s also got super quick hands and was great stealing the ball and going off to the races. But the best thing about Fox might have been what we learned in interviews and in one game he was miked up. Fox looks like the leader and culture changer this Sacramento team has been waiting on. He was always chirping at his teammates, keeping them involved, and he just oozes leadership. He looks like the kind of guy you want to play with. He’s exactly what Sacramento needed.

The Kings had a whole lot of other talent in Vegas since a whopping eight of their players were drafted in the last two seasons. Buddy Hield was just fine. He can obviously shoot the ball but is starting to look like either a bench gunner or a spot up shooter. Hield struggled to create much off the dribble for himself and shot far better on catch and shoot. At one point against the Lakers he hit three 3s in a two-minute stretch to ignite a comeback, then airballed a bad shot for the win a few minutes later, and that feels like the Buddy experience. Hield is improving some, as seen in a few successful drives, but he doesn’t exactly look like a major get in the Boogie deal. I was looking for big things from Skal Labissiere but he didn’t do a ton. He has good energy attacking the offensive glass and is effective rolling to the rim and putting himself in good position, but he still needs to add a lot of muscle to body up on screens and in defense and he’s not someone you run plays for yet.

I hated the Justin Jackson pick for Sacramento just because he seems like a low-upside useful wing. Jackson was about as expected. He has a decent touch finishing around the lane and is working on a floater, and I was impressed with his ability to dribble and get into the lane. It was a worrying sign that Jackson seemed to be at his best later in the week once many of the stars were out and he had the ball in his hands more. We already know he can dominate when he has the physical edge. We need to see him switch to role player mode now. I disliked the Frank Mason pick even more, though he was pretty solid in Vegas with one monster game against the Lakers. Mason is gritty and smart, a floor general that plays a physical game. He’s a good passer and great in the pick and roll, but he definitely looked really small out there and was forced into some bad plays or turnovers due when he had a bigger defender on him. Mason has the tools to be a decent third point guard, but that’s not saying much for a Naismith winner that almost snuck into the first round.

Georgios Papagiannis still looks like one of the most laughably bad lottery picks in recent memory. He’s a bad backup 90s center, like one of those giants teams used to stick on the end of the bench to foul Shaq six times a game. Papa G gets the ball in the paint and he ain’t passing it. He thinks and moves so slowly in the post and took multiple three-second violations, apparently still a real rule. If he didn’t hold it too long, he often panicked and threw up some garbage toward the rim. It’s still absolutely shocking, yet maybe not even surprising at all, that he was a lottery pick somehow. Malachi Richardson showed off a nice three-point stroke but only played one game.

San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs almost always seem to find something in Summer League, and it looks like they might have another player in Bryn Forbes. Not that Forbes is new — the guy did play real Western Conference Finals minutes (as real as they can be in blowout Kawhi-less losses to the Warriors). Forbes is really athletic and is a big time shot maker. San Antonio tends to build a clear Summer League plan developing one player and Forbes was clearly that guy this summer. He has a really nice looking three, making 6 in a game at one point, and he always catches the ball ready to shoot. He’s got a little shake and bake with the dribble and has a really good wriggle ability to get open like Rip Hamilton around screens. Forbes seems like a classic Summer League gunner, but it’s the Spurs so you have to imagine they’ll get something more out of him. He led the Utah League at 21.3ppg and then averaged almost 30 a game to lead Vegas. Forbes draws a ton of contact and gets to the line and makes them when he gets there. He looks like a guy that’ll score 30 points some random night in February when Pop rests a few guys and light the internet on fire.

As good as Forbes was, the rest of the Spurs guys were pretty disappointing. Dejounte Murray really didn’t shot much at all. He still looks really thin and got out-physicaled by both Dante Exum and Donovan Mitchell. He’s lightning quick but he didn’t stand out at all the way you’d have expected him to as a sophomore. Davis Bertans has a really nice spot up shot, but I’m not sure there’s much else there. Maybe he can be the Spurs’ new Matt Bonner. I was excited to get a look at Derrick White, the Spurs presumed new first round steal, but he sprained his ankle early on and never looked whole after that. White has a readymade game and does a little bit of everything on offense. He can create space on the dribble, drives the ball well, and can finish with both hands. He’s a smart player and looked comfortable out there. We need to see more shot making, but it’s hard to make shots on a bum ankle. I was shocked when the Spurs drafted Jaron Blossomgame near the end of the second. He was one of my least favorite prospects in the draft and I immediately assumed I was wrong when San Antonio took him. He then went out and did absolutely nothing in big minutes night after night in Vegas. Maybe I got one after all.0

One other name of Spurs interest is Brandon Paul. Paul spent his Summer League time with Dallas (see that section above) and Cleveland but the Spurs signed him to a contract while in Vegas. Paul, White, Bertans, Murray, and Forbes will all play real minutes for San Antonio this year. Spurs gonna Spur.

Toronto Raptors

I really missed watching Bruno Caboclo and Bebe Noguiera on the Raptors this summer, two long time summer crushes. Caboclo is only one year away now! Still Toronto had a really excellent team, which makes sense since their key players were the stars from the D League champions Raptors 905. Toronto kept its starting lineup intact but will need a lot of contribution from young players off the bench this season like Norm Powell, Bebe, Delon Wright, and three of these Summer League star.

Fred VanVleet is the one that really stood out to me. Summer League is really a good place to play if you’re just a high energy high IQ point guard, and that’s exactly FVV. VanVleet is really comfortable leading the team out there. He’s a natural point guard and has a lot of NBA point guard skills. VanVleet does the old Steve Nash thing where he keeps his dribble alive and goes through the lane looking for an option and comfortably pulls it back out to reset if there’s nothing there. He’s great at reading the defense on pick and rolls and he has pitch perfect timing on his passes, often driving into the lane and holding the ball until the last possible second to draw the help before laying it off to an open teammate. He definitely feels like a guy that can play capable point guard minutes — all the more reason this team was comfortable moving Cory Joseph with FVV and Delon in tow. VanVleet is good at keeping his dribble alive and staying in control. He’s also terrific at using his body to shield the taller defense to contort and finish well at the rim. VanVleet was a stud at Wichita State that didn’t get drafted because he’s only 5’11, but I never once thought about FVV’s size when he was dominating the flow of the game.

The other two Toronto guys to watch were Pascal Siakim and Jakob Poeltl. Siakim began last season as the shock starting four before dropping down to the D League when Ibaka and Tucker came aboard. Siakim looked much improved at Vegas. His body has filled out better and he’s developed a bit more finesse now. Siakim shows good agility and ability to drive and finish in the paint. He was good in transition and has impressive dribble and creation skills, and it looks like he’s really improved in the D League.

Jakob Poeltl was last year’s top ten pick. He has a little jump hook from a few feet out and shows good agility and nice cutting and transition ability. He rolls well to the hoop after the PNR screen. He put up 14/9 on 71% shooting and seems like he can be a Plumlee type player, a guy that can maybe be a useful low-end starting C and play 20 to 25 minutes a game.

Utah Jazz

The Jazz of course hosted the Utah League before playing in Vegas as well, and they had one of the summer’s biggest buzz players in Louisville’s Donovan Mitchell. Utah traded up from 24 to 13 to get Mitchell and looks like they have the early steal of the draft and a possible franchise building block. Mitchell is not super fast but he’s really physical and has a body that’s ready for minutes right now. His shot is just okay right now — he made a bunch but missed plenty too, and his best offensive asset right now is his quick burst on the drive. Mitchell is ready to play good NBA defense right now. He’s got great hands and racked up a number of steals, and he dominated physically in a few different matchups against other top prospects. At one point he picked Jayson Tatum’s pocket clean on defense, then crossed him over the next time down the court so hard that Tatum fell to the ground. It felt like Mitchell was one of those sophomores that was too good to be playing in Summer League, and his 37-point 8-steal game against Memphis was an exclamation point. Mitchell looks a bit like Marcus Smart with a better offensive game, though maybe not quite as feisty on defense. He will fit Utah really well and could push Rubio for minutes early.

Dante Exum is the rare Summer League senior, a guy from a class already looking for extensions this fall but deservedly fighting for summer minutes instead. As he has in years past, Exum came out firing and looked awesome the first game. He has an improved shot though it’s still a slow release, and he still hasn’t really learned to use his left hand at all. At one point Exum drove with his left hand and made a lefty layup and the announcers raved about it for 30 seconds, which seems telling. Exum averaged over 20ppg in the Utah League with 6 assists per game and over 50% shooting, but he felt more like a Summer League veteran than one of those talented sophomores that shouldn’t have been there. Exum still feels slight and tends to take hard contact too, never a good thing with his injury history. He could still develop into a decent backup guard at some point but the star ship seems to have sailed.

I liked Tony Bradley as a nice second round stash and develop, a raw big man with skills that should translate in the modern NBA as his body fills out. I didn’t love him as much in the first round because Utah is going to have to pay him guaranteed money for four years of a contract he’ll probably spend on the bench or in the G League. The potential is clear. Bradley is athletic and uses his size well, a good rebounder that fits the mold of a rim runner. He finishes well enough around the basket and has a good quick twitch hop on defense and a decent jump hook he’s developing. He looks like a project and an eventual solid backup to Gobert.

Washington Wizards

Washington tends to have one guy among the Summer League scorers each season (Kelly Oubre, Glen Rice Jr., etc) and this year it was Jared Cunningham. Cunningham drew a lot of fouls and showed a good midrange game, and he scored effectively throughout the summer. Cunningham is 26 though and Washington’s past summer scorers haven’t really translated, so there may or may not be a bench scoring role out there for him. Former Brooklyn first round pick Chris McCollough didn’t stand out at all. Neither did Sheldon Mac outside of his name change from McClellan. I did like Kevin Pangos running the point. He’s smart and a comfortable dribbler and knows how to run an offense. You can envision a third point guard role for him.

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