NBA Summer League 2024: Seven standout players worth watching

2024 NBA Summer League – Detroit Pistons v Houson Rockets

LAS VEGAS — Summer League should forever be played in Las Vegas, because the city and the NBA’s summer showcase go hand-in-hand — both have tenuous ties to reality.

Derrick Rose and Trae Young were legendarily terrible in their early Summer League outings. Meanwhile, the list of Summer League MVPs includes good-but-not-great names like Glen Rice, Josh Shelby, and Randy Foye. All of which is to say, be careful reading too much into what happens in Vegas.

Still, it feels a lot better to be a fan of a team that can say, “Did you see what our new rookie did in Summer League?” than watching them struggle.

What follows is a list of the guys who jumped out to me in the opening couple of games for each team at Summer League. Please note: This is not a list of the best players I saw at Summer League because I’m not including second-year guys who shouldn’t be there such as Cam Whitmore and Jamie Jaquez Jr. Not all of the players listed were just drafted, but all at least made a massive leap and are going to force some hard decisions by their teams.

Reed Sheppard (Rockets)

He has been the breakout star of Summer League. On Friday night, the Thomas & Mack Arena was full of Lakers fans wanting to see Bronny, who left saying, “Man, Reed Sheppard can play.”

Through two games he’s averaged 20 points, hit 38.5% from 3 (a number that could go up during the NBA season), averaged 4.7 each of rebounds and assists a game. Everyone knew Sheppard might be the best pure shooter in the draft, but his handles and point guard skills have impressed at Summer League.

There questions are still there, he’s maybe 6’1″ and come the fall he will see another level of defender — bigger, longer, more athletic — in front of him. He’s made steals (six through two games) and has been pesky on defense, like he was at Kentucky, but he also got blown plenty. Even with those questions, Rockets fans should be happy tier team held onto that pick and drafted Sheppard, he looks like a keeper.

I was a fan of Castle coming into Summer League, and his play here only reinforced my belief that he can be…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-summer-league-2024-seven-214152765.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-16 21:41:52

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