Pretty darn cool that Justin is going to get a shot in the summer league. How many former walk ons get that chance?
The horrors of these last 18 months are myriad, but amongst them is that we never got to see Justin play in March.
The NBA Summer League starts this week in Sacramento (August 3-4) and Salt Lake City (August 3, 4, and 6). The Kings host the Warriors, Lakers, and Heat. The Jazz will have a split squad and host the Grizzlies and Spurs. No TV information yet.
Then all 30 teams converge in Las Vegas for games August 8-17. Every game will be televised, most on ESPN2 or NBATV. (According to the PDF schedule, ESPN will air Detroit/Cade Cunningham vs. Houston/Jalen Green, and ESPNU and ESPNews will have a few playoff games.)
Roster information is slowly trickling in, but here are a few announced rosters:
San Antonio Spurs (to play in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas) will include Duke's Justin Robinson and Tre Jones. (Justin Robinson and the Spurs. I wonder how that happened.) Also on the roster are draft picks Joshua Primo and Joe Weiskamp. The ACC is further represented by FSU's Devin Vassell and a pair of coaches who played at Wake Forest, Darius Songaila and Randolph Childress.
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Los Angeles Lakers (to play in Sacramento and Las Vegas) will include Joel Ayayi, Chaundee Brown, Mac McClung, Zavier Simpson, plus ACC players Alan Griffin of Syracuse and Justin Robinson of Virginia Tech.
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Miami Heat (to play in Sacramento and Las Vegas) will have no ACC guys, but will have Nigerians Precious Achiuwa and KZ Okpala returning from Tokyo in time for the Las Vegas games.
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Is it weird that I like the Summer League more than the NBA regular season?
Pretty darn cool that Justin is going to get a shot in the summer league. How many former walk ons get that chance?
The horrors of these last 18 months are myriad, but amongst them is that we never got to see Justin play in March.
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Agreed. There was no Summer League last year (the draft was in November), so this is new for both Justin and Tre.
Indiana Pacers (Las Vegas only) will feature Duke's Cassius Stanley and draft pick Chris Duarte. They will probably add draft pick Isaiah Jackson when his trade is finalized on Friday.
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Any word on Quinn? With the Lakers under the gun with the salary cap I thought he might get an invite with a minimum deal.
No word yet. USA Today's Rookie Wire and Hoop Obsession are a couple of places that track (speculate?) roster information before any official announcement. Still feels like guesswork to me; I've been posting rosters directly from the teams or from reporters who cover those teams.
There should be a handful of former Duke players in Summer League, either rookies or young returning pros. Based on post-draft news, we can reasonably guess DJ Steward with the Kings and Matthew Hurt with the Rockets, but beyond that, who knows?
ETA: Sacramento Kings (hosting their own, then Las Vegas) has Duke's DJ Steward and draft picks Davion Mitchell and Neemias Queta. The reporter adds that this is the roster for this week's California Classic in Sacramento, and not all of them will go to Las Vegas.
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Last edited by brevity; 08-01-2021 at 09:45 PM.
Big time for Cassius as he is presumably in the middle of a contract negotiation too at this time unless they already gave him a pretty good promised offer already and are just waiting to make it final.
I don't think that a team would ask him to go through the summer league given his level of experience. This feels more like something that we would hear about after the first wave of free agent signings, depending on what he would accept.
As long as they still allow players to pick up more than 6 fouls!
Miami also has Gabe Vincent returning from the Olympics. Guess the three of them made sure that they would be eliminated so that they could make it to this.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Charlotte Hornets (Las Vegas only) have Duke's Vernon Carey Jr., unsigned NBA brother LiAngelo Ball, and draft picks James Bouknight, Kai Jones, and Scottie Lewis. Fellow draft pick J.T. Thor will probably be added to the roster once his trade is finalized.
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Utah Jazz (hosting Salt Lake City, then to Las Vegas) have a split squad for this week, and then I assume they blend them into a single Vegas team. I presume that Jared Butler, their draft pick by trade, will be added then.
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Golden State Warriors (in Sacramento and Las Vegas) feature draft picks Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody.
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ETA: New York Knicks (Las Vegas only) sweeping in with their 4 draft picks, plus Obi Toppin and Clemson's Aamir Simms.
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I like it in theory, but I think the way the games are announced makes it worse than it could be. Because there are so many generally unknown players that have just been thrown together, the play-by-play guys likely have a hard time accurately calling the game, so they just wind up having guests sit with the play-by-play and color announcer and they don't talk at all about the game in front of them. As a result, it is very hard to follow the action. I should probably just watch with the sound off.
Dallas Mavericks (Las Vegas only) are headlined by... undrafted free agent Carlik Jones of Louisville? No draft picks, no other ACC players. Yawn. Sign up Hookah Dončić!
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Memphis Grizzlies (Salt Lake City and Las Vegas) have no ACC players but look slightly more exciting with rookies Yves Pons and Olivier Sarr joining the sophomore law firm of Tillie & Tillman. They traded for draft picks Ziaire Williams and Santi Aldama, so look for those names later.
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Philadelphia 76ers issued this hot off the press -- notice the active spellcheck -- and I need time to Process. Draft picks Jaden Springer, Filip Petrusev, and Charles Bassey are listed.
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He's petitioning the NBA to start their games at 4:20.
Speaking of Colorado, Denver Nuggets (Las Vegas only) will debut draft pick Bones Hyland alongside some not particularly young players (five of them are 25 or older).
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Orlando Magic (Las Vegas only) have their top 10 draft picks Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner headlining. Cole Anthony will be on hand as Suggs moves him down the depth chart. There's a Michigan mini-reunion with Wagner, Jon Teske, and Ignas Brazdeikis, for those of you into that sort of thing.
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Unfortunately, no game is scheduled between Charlotte and Orlando. I really wanted to see J.T. Thor bring the hammer to Asbjorn Midtgaard.
Cleveland Cavaliers (Las Vegas only) have draft pick Evan Mobley leading the way on a roster that includes two ACC big men, Georgia Tech's James Banks III and FSU's Mfiondu Kabengele.
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TV update: you can watch NBA Summer League action starting tomorrow (Tuesday). Remember, Tre Jones and Justin Robinson are on the Spurs roster, and DJ Steward is on the Kings roster. All times Eastern.
Tuesday, August 3
7pm Grizzlies vs. Jazz Blue (NBATV, ESPN3)
8pm Heat vs. Lakers (ESPN2)
9pm Spurs vs. Jazz White (NBATV, ESPN3)
11pm Kings vs. Warriors (ESPN2)
Wednesday, August 4
7pm Spurs vs. Jazz Blue (NBATV, ESPN3)
8pm Heat vs. Warriors (ESPNU)
9pm Grizzlies vs. Jazz White (NBATV, ESPN3)
11pm Kings vs. Lakers (ESPNU)
Friday, August 6
7pm Spurs vs. Grizzlies (ESPNU)
9pm Jazz Blue vs. Jazz White (ESPNU)
Some more rosters before I go catch up on that hot, sweaty Utah action...
Portland Trail Blazers (Las Vegas only) are going retro, I guess. Six of their Summer Leaguers are 27 or older, led by Michael Beasley and Kenneth Faried -- both born in 1989, The Year of Our Taylor Swift. Nassir Little represents the ACC. At the younger end are draft pick Greg Brown, plus rookies Mark Vital of Baylor and Trendon Watford of LSU.
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Brooklyn Nets (Las Vegas only) add a blast from the past as well: 29-year-old Brandon Knight. Also their four draft picks.
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