NBA Summer League
The talent showcase from rookies, at least 300 undrafted and unrestricted players, those invited by teams for a summer league spot and mostly jobless players had come to an end.
Wins and losses don’t matter in this league because it is just a venue for team officials to see how their new recruits performed. Summer league rosters are different from regular season rosters that it is not uncommon to see more than half on the SL lineup don’t make it to the final regular season roster.
Except for the drafted rookies and second-year players already on the team’s lineup, these invited participants hope to land a job and ink a deal for the coming NBA season. Some are in for the experience, particularly the second- year players. The one- and- a- half- week play is actually a performance evaluation where a player is either considered passed or failed.
There are three levels of importance in the NBA Summer League. Considered as the official Summer League is the one held in Las Vegas and most of the teams in the NBA are playing there. The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Portland Trailblazers for this year’s official Summer League Title.
Next is the Orlando Summer League, which is supervised by the Orlando Magic. The games are held behind closed doors and if you’ve seen them on TV, those inside the playing venues are either team officials, members of the media, foreign scouts or a few people who had connections with gym staff and made their ways through obscure entrances. The Dallas Mavericks, starring rookie guard Dennis Smith Jr., won this one.
The lowest level is the Utah SL. It has the least number of teams and obviously the least number of games. A four-team, six game series was held in Salt Lake City and opened to the public – of course, for a minimal fee.
According to league and team officials, free agents and invites are not paid for participating in the Summer League. Their transportation and accommodations are provided by the team and are given a per-diem of about $ 150 to cover meals. That’s it. Majority of these players seeking jobs are in not for the financial reward but for the chance to make it in the big leagues.
The mentality for these undrafted players is to stand out and be noticed and hopefully invited to training camp. They show up early, stay late, review game tapes, ask questions from coaches, anything that can earn them a spot. In NBA training
camps, they are then offered partially guaranteed contracts and those who performed particularly well will probably be assigned to the team’s D-League affiliate.
They then will get much more than what they earn in the DL annual maximum salary of $25,000. The total amount they receive from NBA training camp plus their D-League salary sometimes equals to that of an overseas playing contract.
The Summer League has an abundance of international scouts where they will have the chance to observe and recruit the best available talent after NBA teams had made their choices. A new breed of stateside players will then descend on foreign shores to play as imports or instant citizens of a particular country of their liking.
Living up to t he hype and expectations, Lonzo Ball became the first Laker player to be named as the 2017 SL MVP and was also the first ever to record two triple-doubles in a Summer League. He averaged 16.3 points, 9.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds. There were other players who also performed well but it was Lonzo’s willingness to share the ball that earned him the MVP. He was cheering on the bench during the SL Finals against Portland because of leg issues and teammate Kyle Kuzma took over. He was so impressive with his outside shooting that he was named SL Finals MVP.
It’s just the Summer League. The real battle begins in November. Let’s see if the hype holds for these reportedly bumper crop of rookies.
Trivia: During Lonzo’s first two games,
Summer League he wore the $ 495 Big Baller Brand that his father LaVar promoted and marketed. He had a two-game average of 8 points, 8 assists and 7.5 rebounds. He had a groin injury and sat out the next game. It must be those overpriced shoes.
In his third game, he wore purple Nikes and had his best game with 36, 11 and 8. Adidas was it when he recorded his first triple-double with 16, 12 and 10. He wore Under Armour next and then Jordan 31 when he recorded 16 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds with no turnovers before he left early in the third quarter because of a calf strain.
I smell a sneaker war coming./