TO most star-caliber veterans and a few topnotch rookies, the various Summer Leagues sanctioned by the National Basketball Association do not mean anything. But for the lesser lights, such as the marginal youthful veterans looking to retain their spot in the lineups of the 30 member clubs when the NBA’s 72nd renewal unwraps in late October, or the undrafted rookies out to prove they belong to the world’s greatest professional league, the Summer League is their playground for showcasing their skills before the Doubting Thomases.
Somewhere out there are a number of somewhat-unknown commodities – rookie free agents or second-round draftees – who could well turn out to be a steal, if not, a sleeper for some NBA teams.
Then again, hoop fans attending the Orlando Summer League, Utah Jazz Summer League and the well-chronicled Las Vegas Summer League also get to have their first look at most of the first-round selections in last month’s NBA draft are and some second-rounders, who hope to impress scouts in a bid to secure a roster berth in the NBA, if not the G-League, which before this year was known as the NBA Development League until the league hooked up with Gatorade as the major sponsor for its “farm league.”
Note that multi-dimensional frontliner Draymond Green of the newly-minted NBA champion Golden State Warriors and high-scoring guard Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics were second-round draft choices entering the pros.
Green, the 35th overall pick in the 2012 grab-bag out of Michigan State University, earned NBA Defensive Player of the Year honors and was a third-team All-NBA selection during the 2016-17 wars.
Thomas, a 5-foot-9 guard out of the University of Washington who was the 60th and final pick in the 2011 draft, topped the Eastern conference in scoring with an NBA third-best 28.9-point clip last season while being named to the All-NBA Second Team.
In the four-team Utah Summer League played at the Huntsman Center, on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, the host Jazz beat San Antonio, Philadelphia and Boston en route to a 3-0 title finish.
The 16-man Jazz squad featured 2017 first-round draftees Donovan Mitchell (No. 13 pick, 6-foot-3 shooting guard out of Louisville) and Tony Bradley (No. 28, 6-foot-10 center out of North Carolina), second-rounder Nigel Williams-Goss (No. 55 pick overall, 6-foot-3 point guard out of Gonzaga University) and sophomore-to-be 6-foot-9 forward-center Joel Bolomboy (a native of Ukraine who was a
second-rounder in 2016 out of Weber State).
The Spurs, 76ers (powered by No. 1 overall draft pick Markelle Fultz) and Celtics (bannered by No. 3 overall draftee Jayson Tatum) finished the three-day Utah tourney (July 3-6) with identical 1-2 records.
In the eight-team Summer League in Orlando, the Dallas Mavericks scored an 83-81 overtime decision over the Detroit Pistons in the championship on a buzzer beater by former Baylor University star Johnathan (correct spelling) Motley.
Motley, a 6-foot-9 power forward who went undrafted this year following a junior season with the Bears wherein he was the recipient of the Karl Malone Award (named in honor of the all-time Utah Jazz great and Hall of Famer) as the best college power forward in NCAA Division I).
The 22-year-old, Houston-born Motley appeared in four of the five games in the Orlando Summer League, averaging 7 points and 5.3 rebounds in limited playing time. In the titular match, however, he played major minutes and netted 18 points (on 7-of-14 field shooting) and 10 rebounds against the Pistons.
After going undrafted in the 2017 NBA grab-bag, the 22-year-old, Houston-born Motley inked a two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks and its G-League affiliate Texas Legends under the new collective bargaining agreement.
Ongoing now is the much-publicized Las Vegas Summer League, an 11-day, 24-team competition being held at the Cox Pavilion and Thomas & Mack Center from July 7-17 that features all the NBA teams with the exception of Indiana, Detroit, Charlotte, New York, Orlando from the East and Oklahoma City from the West.
Lonzo Ball, the No. 2 overall draft selection by the rebuilding Los Angeles Lakers, played in his team’s first two games against the LA Clippers and Boston Celtics — before sitting out the third game, a 95-92 victory against co-rookie point guard De’Aaron Fox (the No. 5 overall draftee) and the Sacramento Kings, due to a sore groin. In the game, Fox was to be sidelined midway through the third quarter with a tweaked ankle after scoring 12 points in 20 minutes on a 4-of-6 field clip and making a solitary assist.
Ball, a much-hyped 6-foot-6 playmaker out of UCLA, had a sluggish debut with the Lakers, going just 2-for-15 from the field, including 1-for-11 from the three-point area, and collecting a measly five points along five assists and four boards and a pair of steals in 32 minutes in a 96-93 overtime defeat to the crosstown LA Clippers at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Brandon Ingram, the Lakers’ sophomore-to-be forward, topscored with 26 markers in 32 minutes but was held out in the five-minute extension due to cramps in his right calf. The 6-foot-9, 19-year-old Ingram, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2016 NBA draft out of Duke University, had problems with his ankle as a rookie pro.
The Lakers later decided to keep Ingram out for the remainder of the LVSL.
In his second game with the Lakers, Ball registered a triple-double with 11 points (on 5-for-13 floor shooting, including 1-for-5 from beyond the arc), 11 rebounds and 11 assists in 34 minutes against the Celtics, who emerged with an 86-81 win before a sellout crowd at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Tickets to the game were sold out in advance (the day before), marking the first time ever in the LVSL’s
14-year existence that such occurred in games at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion. The $30 general admission tickets were resold for as much as $250 each as fans looked to witness a battle between Ball and Celtics forward Tatum, the No. 3 pick in last month’s draft, who wound up with 27 points and 11 boards.
In their LVSL debut on July 8, the Philadelphia 76ers edged the Golden State Warriors, 95-93, but lost rookie point guard Fultz, the top selection in the 2017 draft out of the University of Washington, with a left ankle sprain in the third quarter after tallying eight points in 15 minutes.
The Sixers eventually decided to keep the 6-foot-4 Fultz out for the rest of the LVSL tournament.
More on the Las Vegas Summer League next time.