Five Reasons to Watch the 2019 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas
By Jeff Weisinger
Kind of like soccer, basketball season never ends.
The NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League kicked off on Friday as the Detroit Pistons beat Team Croatia 96-80.
The Summer League’s continued evolution from simple and sloppy scrimmages between draft picks and hopeful signees, is slowly becoming more of a preseason before the NBA preseason. It allows teams audition players and determine what they need to address during the rest of the offseason. And it helps players looking to grab one of the few open spots remaining on NBA rosters.
But this year is a little different. This year, the Summer League’s opening week will give us a glimpse of the new coach’s challenge system and a Zion Williamson vs. R.J. Barrett matchup.
Here are a few things to look out for, and reasons to watch, this year’s Summer League in Las Vegas.
Top draft picks are taking the court
There’s no question that top draft picks like Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, and R.J. Barrett are locks to make their respective teams’ rosters. But thanks to the Summer League, we won’t have to wait long to see them in action.
Williamson and Barrett headline the stories entering this Summer League as both start their pro careers against one another Friday night when the Pelicans take on the Knicks on ESPN.
But they aren’t the only rookies taking the court.
No. 7 pick Coby White will lead the Chicago Bulls against the Los Angeles Lakers. No. 9 overall pick Rui Hachimura will also debut when the Wizards open their Summer League schedule against New Orleans on Saturday.
Some of the top 10 picks will have to wait to debut.
Ja Morant, Darius Garland, and Cam Reddish will not play due to previous injuries, while De’Andre Hunter, Jarrett Culver, and Jaxson Hayes can’t play until Saturday because they were drafted with traded picks.
Coach’s challenge experiment takes the court
Coach’s challenges are coming to the NBA this year and the Summer League gets to act as the testing grounds.
Coaches can challenge personal fouls, an out-of-bounds call, goaltending, and basket interference throughout the Summer leagues in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Sacramento. Coaches will have to call a timeout and immediately signal the referees for a challenge by twirling their index fingers to trigger the challenge.
The results of the challenges may not mean much as far as Summer League games go, but we’ll get a sense of how the new challenge system work will work in these games.
Welcome to the Summer League China and Croatia
As the NBA continues to expand globally, so does the Summer League. This year’s Summer League features both the Chinese and Croatian national teams.
China and Croatia don’t have much representation in the NBA, as Croatia has six players on NBA rosters and China had two last year. This is an opportunity for players from both countries to impress NBA scouts and executives.
China returns to the Summer League for the first time since 2007 and is using the tournament as a warm-up for their FIBA World Cup run in August. Basketball is huge in China and Asia in general, as the NBA as their most followed sports league on social media in China.
The Knicks are favored to win the Vegas Summer League. But will they?
The terms “New York Knicks” and “favored to win” don’t normally, if ever, go together. But even after a free agency where they failed to get anyone noteworthy, the Knicks are still somehow favored to win the Las Vegas Summer League, according to oddsportal.com.
The Knicks are an 8-1 favorite to win the summer league, followed by New Orleans at 14-1.
There is some hope surrounding the Knicks this season thanks to top draft pick R.J. Barrett, the third overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Barrett will play alongside second-year players Kevin Knox and Mitchell Robinson and hope to develop some chemistry.
The Barrett and the Knicks will share the Summer League spotlight Friday night when Barrett takes on former Duke teammate and this year’s top overall pick, Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. Both players are expected to play in their Summer League openers.
How will the Warriors look post-KD and without Klay?
None of the team’s starters will play in the Summer League, but Warriors fans and the coaching staff will get a good idea of the depth the roster will have this season.
So far, through three games in Summer League games in Sacramento, it doesn’t look too good. The Warriors opened the summer session at 0-3.
The Warriors have to do a lot of roster reshuffling this summer after Kevin Durant announced he’s signing with Brooklyn and with Klay Thompson likely out for most of the 2019-20 season after an ACL injury.
So far, the duo of Jacob Evans and Jordan Poole hasn’t looked all that great. Evans dropped 18 points in his Summer League opener against Sacramento but hasn’t come close to matching that since. He’s scored 13 in a loss to the Lakers and just four in a loss to the Heat.
Poole, didn’t play against the Heat, but he also hasn’t lit it up either, dropping just six points against the Kings and 10 against the Lakers.
The Warriors are getting productive minutes out of Damian Jones. A fourth-year center, Jones has averaged double digits through the team’s three Summer League games so far.
None of those players are expected to play major roles for the Warriors this season. But without Thompson, Durant, Andre Iguodala and DeMarcus Cousins, there are spots available in the team’s lineup for the 2019-20 season.