The NBA summer league experience in Las Vegas, to put it politely, is truly for the sickos. For starters, it’s 115 degrees and the worst time of the year to go to the desert. Add in copious amounts of questionable basketball being played by questionable players and schedule it right after a marathon NBA Finals, a two-day draft, and a wild start to the offseason … and like I said, you truly must have some sort of condition to appreciate this brand of basketball.
Lucky for you, everyone on staff is already infected. How can we resist the opportunity to deliver fresh takes on a fresh crop of players? To plant our flags (pun not intended, but also unavoidable) on our favorite new players and to try to project the future of their development.
With the biggest clashes and most marquee matchups out of the way, here are the seven players who turned our heads at this year’s summer league:
Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks
Tyler Parker: The Dallas Mavericks shut down Cooper Flagg after just two games. No more summer league for their golden goatee’d goose. After Flagg hung 31 on the Spurs in his second and final game in Las Vegas, the ’Ricks had seen enough. It’s bubble wrap time.
The Maine Man’s first game of the weekend was in prime time against the Lakers. It wasn’t a Wemby-level of full at the Thomas & Mack Center, but it was damn near close. Rough shooting night aside, Flagg showed why he was picked where he was. Despite the chilly 5-of-21 showing from the field, there was playmaking, three steals, one block, legitimate effort. He got lovedrunk off the crowd, talked himself into too many isos, and settled for too many 3s. Que sera sera. It’s probably good practice to not judge players too harshly on their first summer league performance, especially the super hyped prospects. They are under immense pressure to entertain and dominate. Wemby went 2-of-13 in his first summer league appearance. Kai Jones put him in the rim. It happens.
By the time the second game started, Flagg had his Vegas legs and was ready to boom. In a showdown with no. 2 pick Dylan Harper, Flagg scored 31 points in 31 minutes, got buckets in myriad ways, and was the dominant force on the court. Off-the-dribble pull-ups, 3s in transition, one-hand, wrong-foot lefty scoops, and flushed alley-oops.
He displayed his wares. The handle needs tightening and the 3s need work, but the no. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft looked every bit the part. Smooth and unhurried, at ease, confident. The ’Ricks rejoice.
Yang Hansen, Portland Trail Blazers
Rob Mahoney: This is what summer league is all about. Portland shocked the league by taking Yang with the no. 16 pick in last month’s draft, and he’s shocked the summer league crowd with an array of daring, over-the-top passes in Vegas. It’s hard not to be dazzled; so many questions remain about Hansen’s athleticism, defense, and finishing ability, especially relative to real NBA competition. They’ll all be answered in time. Vegas isn’t the place for perfect players. It’s a stage to showcase the flawed, fascinating ranks of the league—to show that there’s something to keep an eye on with players like Yang.
The skill set he’s shown could be immensely valuable. It’s in everyone’s best interest to stay away from Jokic comparisons, but it’s also impossible to watch Yang whip leading passes to cutting teammates and not see some of the three-time MVP. There just aren’t many other 7-footers who can work as a hub and make these sorts of plays. There are even fewer still that bring out this kind of cutting and movement in the players around them—especially in a basketball environment as bizarre as summer league. This is a team of players that barely knows one another, working across purposes as they compete for the attention of coaches and scouts. And Yang, for stretches at a time, has them playing like an actual basketball team.
That’s something. We can’t know what just yet, but aren’t you excited to find out just how good Yang might be?
Tre Johnson, Washington Wizards
J. Kyle Mann: Consensus vibes were quietly good for the Wizards coming into the draft, despite the heartbreak of being leapfrogged in the lottery by teams with much more secure and forecastable futures. They did pick second last June, lest we forget, and with their other first-rounders they’ve managed to accrue an interesting group of players in Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George (who’s been great in Vegas), and Bilal Coulibaly.
The problem has been that, good as those players might become, it’s hard to imagine any of them becoming a load-bearing offensive star. Sure, it could happen, but the Wizards have needed an obvious splashy talent to thrust the entire thing in a clear direction, and Tre Johnson (who was drafted sixth, but was no. 4 on our final Ringer board) is the most talented offensive player they’ve picked since Bradley Beal.
Johnson hit the ground running at Thomas & Mack doing what he does best: cashing dribble pull-up 3s with zero hesitation, two-stepping his way into the paint to unearth turnaround jumpers. And while he’s very much a ravenous luster for buckets, he’s even sprinkled in some moments of connective passing. Tre competes and has a high motor on defense, although he’s still a work in progress checking the ball and does have lapses of information-lag when he can miss his rotation or lose track of his assignment, watching the ball. All in all, I was confident in him before this weekend and I’m an even bigger believer now based on what I saw. Wiz faithful have to be giddy.
Reed Sheppard, Houston Rockets
Michael Pina: If there’s one player at summer league who feels most relevant to the upcoming NBA season’s championship race, it’s Reed Sheppard. Last year’s third pick has more than enough talent and skill to immediately contribute at the NBA level. But thanks to a blockbuster James Harden trade in 2021 between the Houston Rockets and Brooklyn Nets, he spent the majority of his rookie year sidelined on a loaded roster that didn’t have any free minutes in the backcourt. There’s an alternate universe in which he’s Brooklyn’s franchise player. But in this one, Sheppard is a high-upside prospect on a contender who, for the time being, needs to excel off the bench as a movement shooter who handles the ball without turning it over. From what we’ve seen this week, that’s plenty doable.
In the small-sample size confines of Las Vegas summer league, Sheppard’s low efficiency is less of a concern than his raw production. Through two games, the 21-year-old scored 46 points in 61 minutes, attacking downhill, getting to his spots in the midrange, and generally looking comfortable with the ball in his hands. His athleticism popped a few times on defense, too, where Sheppard’s instincts, relentlessness, and athleticism can shine. The Rockets don’t need him to take over games this season, and as a backup point guard who’s asked to run the show for a couple of stints every night, he may be overqualified.
Bronny James, Los Angeles Lakers
Logan Murdock: No second-round pick in NBA history has accrued and endured as much scrutiny entering their second summer league as Bronny. In the past year, he’s had to endure the endless probing that comes with being the son of arguably the greatest player of all time, coupled with the ultralight beam of the Los Angeles Lakers’ spotlight. Now he’s playing under the shadow his father has cast on his employer with his subliminal tantrum.
But through it all, Bronny has put together an impressive showing in his second summer with the Lakers. An inkling of hardwood magic came minutes into Los Angeles’s summer league debut in San Francisco earlier this month, when he picked off a pass and went coast to coast for a breakaway jam in a solid outing:
Four days later, he almost outscored Cooper Flagg in Las Vegas (in a hilariously billed matchup by the league and media), turned in a solid performance against the Pelicans, and followed it with an equally impressive showing on Monday against the Clippers, in which he scored a team-high 17 points and added five rebounds and five assists.
Bronny will never be his father, nor have his physical attributes, but he can be a contributor on a team if he continues to improve upon his game, and block out the noise. Time will tell whether that credo will bear fruit, but for a moment, it was great to see Bronny find success.
Johnny Furphy, Indiana Pacers
Matt Dollinger: There are bad beats and then there is what happened to Bulls rookie Noa Essengue on Monday. Granted, the 12th pick in last month’s draft is only 18 years old. But something tells me he’s going to think long and hard before he ever goes gambling again in Las Vegas:
In Essengue’s defense, no one really came into this year’s summer league worried about getting posterized by Johnny Furphy, but something tells me that will change going forward. Because if getting sonned in front of a national audience isn’t enough, making this face after getting dunked on by a guy with that haircut, isn’t something anyone is going to forget about anytime soon:
As a Pacers fan still sitting shivah from this postseason, let us have this. Food hasn’t tasted the same since Game 7, and Myles Turner giving us the bird on his way out of town just brought all the pain back. So pardon me if I take a second to soak in this dunk—and the idea that Kevin Pritchard did it again. Furphy was the 35th pick in last year’s draft and at 20 years old is younger than many prospects in this year’s class. He’s raw, and he never would have never cracked the rotation on a contending Pacers team, but on next year’s hobbled squad? Maybe we’ll see more of this.
Carter Bryant, San Antonio Spurs
Isaac Levy-Rubinett: “He plays really good defense. I mean, he didn’t look tired the whole game. He was picking me up 94 [feet]. I was definitely feeling a little bit gassed, but he was just there playing great defense the whole way.” That’s Cooper Flagg talking postgame about Carter Bryant, the no. 14 pick in last month’s draft, who spent most of Saturday’s Spurs-Mavericks summer league matchup in Flagg’s jersey.
Vegas affords the opportunity to get to know the incoming rookie class, and the primary thing we learned about Bryant is that he loves getting after it. Relishes it, even. When matched up with no. 1 pick, he pressed up into Flagg’s chest—“like bronchitis,” as Mark Jones put it on the broadcast—cutting off driving lanes and poking incessantly at the ball. When matched up with point guard Ryan Nembhard, Bryant blotted out any sliver of a driving lane or passing angle. In my favorite highlight, Bryant’s man beat him off the dribble and made a beeline for the rim. As the Spurs’ center stepped up to help on the driver, Bryant, without breaking stride, peeled off toward the left block to break up an incoming lob to 6-foot-11 Moussa Cisse. The sequence was a mini showcase for the 19-year-old’s rare combination of size, athleticism, and advanced defensive instincts. Watching him blow up one Mavs action after another on Saturday felt like a fever dream in which Bruce Bowen turned into a grizzly bear and returned to San Antonio.
On the other side of the ball, Bryant has work to do. (Maybe even a lot of work to do). Across his first two Las Vegas summer league outings, he scored seven total points and shot 1-of-13 from the field. He didn’t look comfortable creating his own shot and wasn’t able to drill the open looks his teammates set up for him. That Bryant was so putrid offensively and still managed to look like a star is exceptionally encouraging for the Spurs. First, Bryant was a strong shooter in college, so you’d expect the shooting numbers to level out as he adjusts to the longer 3-point line. And second, San Antonio doesn’t need another load-bearing creator on offense. It needs exactly what it looks like Bryant is ready to provide: tenacious, switchable defense on the wing to synchronize with Victor Wembanyama and Co. in what’s shaping up to be a very scary defense.
