LAS VEGAS — If you were looking for the bad parts from summer league, you didn’t have to look real hard. In between all the fun and excitement, there was — yes — some tremendously bad basketball.
Sin City was more like Brick City. Only four teams made more than a third of their 3-point shots. Nobody shot 50 percent from the field. The Cleveland Cavaliers took 33 3-pointers a game and made eight of them.
The Toronto Raptors fouled 29.6 times per game in contests that were only 40 minutes long. The Orlando Magic shot 37.8 percent from the field. The Golden State Warriors had a 20.0 percent turnover rate. The Houston Rockets hit 61.6 percent from the line and, bizarrely, twice, had Kevon Harris (77.0 percent career in the G League) shoot technical foul shots when Reed Sheppard was on the court. The Washington Wizards played several players from their likely 2025-26 rotation and posted a ghastly 95.5 offensive rating.
So yeah, there was some unsightly basketball. Thus, it is my solemn duty to offset Wednesday’s best of summer league piece by recounting some of the worst of Vegas:
Pre-summer leagues
On account of injuries suffered in the “pre”-summer leagues in Utah and California, three of the top five picks in June’s draft missed significant action in Vegas, and we didn’t see fifth pick Ace Bailey at all. More like bummer league, am I right?
If the Vegas event is going to be the league’s main attraction, there’s a strong case to be made that those who want extra reps should get their fun in after the big event and not before. Even as it is, virtually every team shut down its main players after a few games.
Split screens
Memo to TV networks: If you’re going to show the game, show the game. It was almost impossible for those who couldn’t be there and had to watch on TV to follow what was happening. That was a result of the steady stream of in-game interviews, some of which were more interesting than others, but all of which were accompanied by split screens that made the actual games difficult to view. We don’t need a split cam of a team’s GM talking for 10 minutes; at least show us the game your announcers are ignoring to do the interview.
Stepping out of bounds
The surge of turnovers in summer league is likely inevitable as young players adjust to new rules and unfamiliar teammates. Still, the plague of step-out-of-bounds violations this year was almost hilarious at times.
The confines of NBA spacing, with a 3-point line that comes perilously close to the sideline in each corner, doesn’t leave a lot of room for plus-sized feet to maneuver. Young players inevitably learn this lesson the hard way, either by getting caught with their foot on the sideline on the catch or by taking a negative step out of bounds to start a drive. What was amazing was just how far out of bounds some players were when they caught the ball, even with the seats in Vegas encroaching fairly closely on the court. Shout out to Phoenix’s Boogie Ellis — not even a rookie! — who did it twice in the same game.
The Pelicans
New Orleans lost all five of its summer games for the second straight year; the Pelicans have not tasted victory in Vegas since 2023. The summer Pels were 29th in point differential, first-round pick Derik Queen injured his wrist and will be out at least three months and their best player in Vegas was a guy they cut from a guaranteed contract days earlier (Antonio Reeves, recently picked up on a two-way by Charlotte). Is their summer league team also cursed?
Derik Queen drives against Darius Bazley in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Worst ejection
Boston’s Jordan Walsh not only excessively fouled Pelle Larsson on a random blocking foul while trying to pressure him at midcourt, but also compounded the issue by hurling Larsson directly at his front office, seated courtside. Then he let out a giant Ric Flair-style “Wooo!’ as the refs ejected him. Fun times.
A 6-foot-7 third-year pro, Walsh is on a non-guaranteed deal, so using Larsson as a Swedish projectile to take out Celtics GM Brad Stevens was certainly a dangerous idea. However, he did redeem himself with four double-figure games in Vegas.
Players who struggled
Summer-league performance has some correlation to regular-season performance, but it’s a small sample in a contrived environment; failing in a first Vegas campaign is hardly a death sentence for a player’s career. I realize I’m deflating balloons of irrational fan enthusiasm for their rookies; even draft picks who were objectively awful in summer league have one fawning clip after another of their positive plays on social media.
Also, I’ll note again that we shouldn’t overindex on summer shooting percentages, either going too high or too low. I’ll use Boston’s Baylor Scheierman as an example: after a rough rookie year, he superficially didn’t have a great summer league given his 37.4 percent true shooting mark in four games.
But dig a little deeper: He averaged four assists for every turnover in a high-usage, on-ball role and plucked nine steals in 116 minutes, and the main reasons his numbers suffered were outlier bad 3-point shooting (8 of 39) from a guy we know can stroke it.
That said, here are some guys I’d be a bit more concerned about:
Khaman Maluach, Suns: Could the Suns have done what Atlanta did and walked away from the draft with an unprotected future first from the Pelicans and the 23rd pick instead of staying at No. 10? Discussion over whether Phoenix fumbled the bag by not taking the New Orleans offer will only heighten if Maluach can’t give the Suns a quality big.
Phoenix opted to take the Duke project, and I’ll emphasize the word “project” here; his was a rough entry to professional basketball. The 7-1 Maluach only posted a 13.5 percent rebound rate, took nearly half his shots from 3 and had one assist in 70 minutes. Watching from courtside made me more concerned about his hands, as contested rebounds and alley-oop opportunities escaped him at times.
Khaman Maluach looks on during a break in action against the Wizards. (Candice Ward / Getty Images)
Jeremiah Fears, Pelicans: Fears only shot 40 percent for the summer, but I wasn’t as troubled by his shot-making issues. A lot of his misses in the paint were plays where he was trying to draw a foul but didn’t know what was going to get called at this level. He should adjust to that pretty quickly. Additionally, whatever you think of his shooting — 4 of 22 from 3 is outlier bad — he’ll do better than that.
Also, the clips of Fears’ best stuff remain filthy: nasty slaloms to the cup past multiple defenders, with some juice as a finisher once he gets there. What’s more troublesome is the lack of playmaking. Fears had a 21-field goal attempt, zero-assist outing — troubling from a point guard prospect — and left Vegas with only 13 assists against 25 turnovers. While his main promise is as a downhill guard who can score, Fears has to be more threatening as a passer.
Brooklyn’s draft class: Four of the Nets’ five first-round picks played in Vegas (we never saw Drake Powell), and wow, this was not good.
Two of the three worst-performing first-rounders by PER were Nets imports Nolan Traoré and Ben Saraf, while fellow first-rounders Danny Wolf and Egor Demin weren’t much better. Given that many league observers already had questions about Brooklyn’s choices and strategy on draft night, this was not a great kickoff.
While some of these struggles can be written off as shooting variance, Traoré, in particular, looked overmatched. The guard prospect didn’t have a single steal or block in his 67 minutes and only shot 7 of 23 from the field in his three games. Saraf had identical shooting numbers but at least spiked his box score with some promising defense and playmaking.
One other thing that became obvious while watching these guys try to play together was how poorly they fit with one another. All four of the first-rounders who played are guys who need the ball in their hands to be effective but aren’t particularly threatening from the perimeter. That often resulted in situations where somebody like Saraf or Wolf was in the corner as an alleged floor-spacer.
Carter Bryant, Spurs: I’ll couch this by saying I thought Bryant did some positive things, especially at the defensive end. He had multiple impressive on-ball sequences, including turns against Cooper Flagg in the Spurs’ contest against Dallas. The future stopper potential is definitely there.
Bryant also made some nice reads that, unfortunately, didn’t result in assists, and he blocked 10 shots in six games. However, his overall offense was a complete dud, with some head-scratching shoot-pass decisions and blown finishes. In six games (including a couple in the California Classic), he had six 2-point baskets, and he had more turnovers (19) than field goals (14). I’m still relatively bullish on Bryant because of his defense and the fact that his 3-point shooting (8 of 31 this summer) should straighten out, but a 3.0 PER for summer league is no bueno.
Kasparas Jakučionis, Heat: Miami’s first-rounder had his positive moments, including a 19-point first half against Atlanta. But the overall trend line from his six games of summer action was pretty disappointing.
19 FIRST HALF POINTS FOR KASPARAS JAKUČIONIS 🔥
The @MiamiHEAT rookie is showing out in his #NBA2KSummerLeague debut! pic.twitter.com/kwFLV4eYgs
— NBA TV (@NBATV) July 11, 2025
Jakučionis’ 9.1 PER came partly as a result of wayward 3-point shooting (6 of 28) that wouldn’t keep me up at night. He’s historically been a reliable shooter and made 23 of 25 from the line in summer league.
The plague of turnovers, however, is a different story, as it followed a troubling trend from his freshman season at Illinois. Jakučionis had 22 miscues, set against 14 made baskets and 15 assists, and that’s just not a survivable rate from an on-ball guard. Mix in some iffy finishing inside the paint and it’s clear Miami’s player development machine has some work to do to get Jakučionis NBA game-ready.
Hugo González, Celtics: We’ll show González some grace, given that he just finished a long EuroLeague season. Much like Victor Wembanyama when he showed up in Vegas two years ago, González didn’t seem to totally have his legs.
The questions about his skill level didn’t exactly vanish with his play in Vegas. González repeatedly lost his handle, including one notable turnover when he took a single dribble from a standstill and simultaneously had the ball picked and committed a clear path foul. He finished summer league with as many turnovers (13) as baskets and, in addition to shaky perimeter shooting, only shot 6 of 20 inside the arc.
Nikola Topić, Thunder: It’s perhaps understandable that Topić didn’t light up summer league since he hadn’t played competitive basketball in over a year while he rehabbed a knee injury.
The Thunder’s 2024 lottery pick showed a nose for the ball with 11 steals in his six games, but he undermined himself offensively with a rash of turnovers and some rough-looking finishing sequences when he got to the cup. Getting his feet wet was as important as the result, but there are clear areas for improvement heading into his “rookie” season.
Tyler Smith, Bucks: The 33rd pick in the 2024 draft was perhaps the most disappointing second-year player in Vegas, failing to record a single assist in five games, shooting 31.3 percent from the floor and recording a meager 7.0 PER in five games. Already looking at another year buried at the end of the Bucks’ bench, he watched as summer teammate Chris Livingston may have passed him on the depth chart.
Justin Edwards, Sixers: A pleasant surprise as an undrafted rookie in Philadelphia’s otherwise disastrous 2024-25 season, Edwards’ summer league was a major regression. In six games, he shot 11 of 34 on 2s with two turnovers for every assist. The eye test showed a lot of wild forays to the basket that ended badly. On a restocked Sixers team with multiple wing options, he’ll have to show much more to maintain a role.
Chris Paul and Damian Lillard are going back to their old teams. Let’s talk about some other famous reunions.
(Photo of Tyson Etienne of the Brooklyn Nets: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
