It's Vegas Baby (This One's About Summer League)
Good morning Streakers. Now that the Olympics are over, we’re going to resume something resembling a normal posting schedule. I’ve got some cool stuff coming up, and I’m still combing through my backlog. But before we get there, we should talk about one of my favorite topics: NBA Summer League.
There are a smattering of Jayhawks on Summer League rosters, including Udoka Azubuike, Devon Dotson, Malik Newman, Wayne Selden, and Marcus Garrett. For the most part, they’ve been playing well, showing off hard-nosed games that we always knew they had. I thought it was worth taking a moment to discuss these lads, as well as doing some thought experimenting on whether their performances in Vegas, Salt Lake City or elsewhere actually mean anything. I’ll also take a quick beat to talk about Devonte’ Graham’s trade to New Orleans. Let’s do this, Rock Chalk!
Malik Newman, Spurs and Jazz
Here’s a question I like to think about: what’s more important, Bill Self having NBA clout as a coaching candidate, or the fact that the Jayhawks perpetually have a standing Summer League spot with the Spurs org? I’d definitely say it’s the latter, and it’s helped Malik Newman get as close to the league as he’s been in years.
Newman isn’t hyper efficient, but he’s quick and finds his spots. He legitimately took over the Spurs’ victory against the Wolves (some footage exists in that second IG slide linked about); coming off the bench, he instantly became the game’s most dynamic player.
Newman has still got the deck stacked against him—he’s a 6’3’’ combo guard in a league full of ‘em—but he’s playing his way onto the 2-way contract radar. I’d say that this summer, barring disaster, would be considered a massive success. (Euro scouts also flock to summer league to fill out rosters, so playing there moves the needle there, too).
Devon Dotson, Bulls
I think we all know Dotson can play, and if you happen to flip on a Bulls Summer League broadcast, you’ll immediately recognize Dotson’s game. He’s quick as ever, and knows when to deploy it—whether it’s against a big that’s switched onto him, or unhooking some nice stop-and-start drive action, Dotson looks polished on offense and doesn’t have much of a problem running the show at this level.
I think the question with Dotson is, and maybe always will be, can he give you enough on defense with his size? If you’re that small, you have to be ruthlessly efficient on offense to make waves in the NBA; can Dotson get to that level of efficiency?
Sophs should dominate Summer League, which is always an incredible showcase of how much one year with NBA training improves your game (in the game I watched, Ayo Dosunmu looked pretty bad, but that’s just where most rookies are at). The Bulls roster—which is now kind of interesting!—is jammed with guards, so it might take a move away (Coby White, maybe?) to free up a window for Dotson to Kool-Aid man through.
Udoka Azubuike, Jazz
Udoka is very much the player you remember, maximizing his strengths and hiding his weaknesses. His rookie season was derailed by injury—this is not an unfamiliar concept to Jayhawk fans—but what Doke showed gave you enough hope that he could stick. While traditional 5s aren’t en vogue at the moment, Doke is genuinely disruptive on defense and is hellbent rolling toward the rim on offense.
Two things need work: free-throw shooting (still under 50%, which is unplayable for someone like him) and rebounding. The Suns hauled in 20 offensive boards in the game above, and Doke finished with just three defensive boards. (He did get 5 on offense, which I’m not overlooking!) In order to be a league backup C, he’s gotta crash on defense. I believe that he has the tools to do so.
Ed note: my brother importantly pointed out that one of the newsletter’s muses, former LJ World columnist Tom Keegan, has already solved the Doke free throw situation.
Marcus Garrett, Miami Heat
If you get to watch the Heat play summer league, you will immediately find Garrett. He never stops moving. His job is to raise hell on the ball, and he very much knows this. He has 13 steals in four games, which, lol. Garrett was expectantly undrafted, and he’s been breaking out in Summer League.
If you were to take a look at my unpublished Streak Talk post graveyard, you’d immediately see that about half of my abandoned posts have to do with Garrett. I am truly fascinated by him. I do not see him as a capable offensive player in the NBA, but in a time where on-ball defensive reputation can keep you around (see: Tucker, PJ), I can see him being an NBA player. He’s made a case for a two-way contract, and he certainly has fans in the Heat organization, thanks to his relentless pursuit of the basketball.
I’m rooting for Garrett, obviously. But his NBA case is arresting to me, because it feels like it’s about something so much bigger. How good do you have to be at defense to overcome the fact that you won’t be competent, offensively, for at least multiple seasons? Marcus Garrett is trying to give you hard answer to that question.
Wayne Selden, New York Knicks
The most online fanbase is the Knicks fanbase, and I would encourage you not to search Wayne Selden’s name on Twitter. His last performance was a -18, and while I’m still a little unsure of how best to approach plus/minus when it comes to the NBA, minus 18 is not good. It has not been a great summer for Selden, but luckily I bet a 💰 is waiting for him overseas.
Let’s remember better times.
Devonte’ Graham, New Orleans Pellies
The winner of the Hornets-Pelicans-Bulls trade is easily Devonte’ Graham. I got the sense that the Hornets were always a little bit uneasy about paying Devonte’—they had already paid out Terry Rozier (who is quite good), and they’ll have to pay LaMelo Ball (also quite good and is 19) soon enough. Hornets coach James Borrego seemed to trust Devonte’, and stuck with him even through a long shooting slump to begin the last season. But at the end of the day, Graham was the odd man out through little fault of his own, and a trade away from Charlotte came with a 4-year, $47M contract. I’ll take that.
Devonte’s ascendance is one of my favorite stories in the NBA, and not only because he’s one of the most lovable Jayhawks ever. It’s just a cool story about finding your spot in a cutthroat league. He scored four points a game as a rookie! And now he’s starting alongside the league’s most exciting young player. It’s so cool!
On the other hand—I might be spinning on this a little too much—but I don’t really love what New Orleans is doing as an organization, even if I don’t think Graham’s contract is a problem. David Griffin seems like he is fully nuts, and they’re seemingly doing everything they can to make Zion look elsewhere when the time comes. The SVG experiment was a bust, and I still am not really sure what kind of team they’re trying to build. (Look at this roster… what is this?!)
Unlocking Zion’s full potential requires a specific solution; putting the ball in his hands is key, and it’s not really clear what kind of player archetype fits alongside that. I kind of like Ingram, but it does not seem to be Ingram. It seems to me that the easy thought is “Zion plus shooting,” and it would also appear to me that they have one (1) shooter on the roster. That shooter is Graham. Let ‘em rip, Devonte’!