There’s nothing quite like Las Vegas Summer League in the NBA. When I say that, I don’t mean it in the glowing way that phrase is often used, I mean it literally. There’s literally nothing like Las Vegas Summer League in the other major sports. A month after the season has ended, some draft picks and other young players put on the jersey of a team they either will or hope to represent, in Las Vegas, with much of the NBA world watching them. There’s a reason they don’t broadcast Winter League games in the Dominican Republic on ESPN. But NBA Summer League, partially due to a dearth of other programming, not only gets broadcast but somehow is a major part of American sports culture for the time in between the NBA Finals and the beginning of NFL preseason. It’s an event. All star players watch on the sidelines. Reporters and front office staffers descend on the city. All for “teams” that have maybe three players that will be on the actual roster come fall. But in most cases not even three.
I’ve never been to Las Vegas Summer League. And despite being a regular listener of podcasters that say that it’s a must do for the serious NBA fan, I don’t think I ever will. But the games are on and there’s a group of people wearing Timberwolves jerseys playing games, so will I watch on TV? Yes, yes I will.
On Saturday the Timberwolves summer league team wrapped up their “season” playing their fifth game, this one against the “Charlotte Hornets.” The Wolves roster took a hit when they traded for Rudy Gobert. Originally the roster included both Walker Kessler and Leondro Bolmaro, who were both traded to Utah. Still, the roster included this years remaining first round pick, Wendell Moore Jr, and the two second rounders, Josh Minott and Matteo Spagnolo.
The First Quarter
The Hornets started the game with a lot of energy. Big man Mark Williams, the number 15 overall pick was on the court, as was Bryce McGowens, their second rounder. But it’s JT Thor and Kai Jones that made the early impression, Jones got the emphatic bookends on this block and follow up dunk to put the Hornets up 17-8.
Jones was picked 19th overall in the first round of the 2021 draft. You can see why. Despite averaging 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in his sophomore year at Texas, he came out early and was rewarded. He’s got the athleticism that can help players shine easily in summer league. He averaged 18.3 points and 11 rebounds per game in the G League last year. The league itself is often another matter. Jones played a total of 63 minutes in the NBA last year. This is not an atypical summer league player, except that he got drafted in the first round so he has that guaranteed money.
The Hornets were moving the ball around, looking like a team with an actual structure on offense instead of a Vegas summer league squad. The Wolves were clanking threes and committing turnovers. Matt Lewis of the Iowa Wolves was the lone bright spot for the Wolves in the first quarter. He jumped passing lanes, converted open looks and made nice cuts to the basket.
Lewis shot 40% from 3 for Iowa last year on 11 points per game, but like most of the Wolves on the summer league roster up until today his attempts from deep had largely been clanging off the rim. His efforts helped the Wolves get within three at the end of the first quarter, trailing just 21-18.
Spring Training vs. Summer League
Spring Training in baseball is probably the closest equivalent to Vegas Summer League. Much like Vegas Summer League, there’s a whole lot of games in a consolidated area and a lot of the playing time is dominated by guys with unfamiliar names.
But unlike Summer League I’ve always wanted to go to Spring Training. It’s not that I’m a bigger baseball fan than basketball fan, I’m not. Both could or would involve going to multiple games a day and seeing the action much closer up than I typically would back in Minnesota. Maybe it’s just the presumed pace of one vacation compared to another. Vegas is nothing if not fast paced, with a million attractions all around and the buildings designed to help you forget whether or not it’s daytime outside. Spring training in Florida is smaller stadiums, outdoor baseball for the first time after a long winter, and a beach.
One would be a vacation from Minnesota in Las Vegas in July. Going from one hot summer to a much hotter summer. Another would be a vacation from Minnesota in March, going from the last throes of winter to a wonderful spring. So maybe my reasoning can just be traced back to the weather. But there’s something to be said for a relaxing vacation, and basketball is many things but it is not a more relaxing sport than baseball. That’s almost always a good thing, but not all the time.
The Second Quarter
Josh Minott opened the second quarter by making a nice defensive play and using his length to go coast to coast, only to miss the point blank layup. The perfect example of youth and NBA summer league. Meanwhile the broadcasters spent a couple minutes discussing different types of gummy bears and their various pros and cons. The sideline reporter mentions how everyone has been in summer league for so long and is surprised to see Steve Clifford, the Hornets head coach, is still there. The Wolves first summer league game was just eight days ago. Clearly time spent in Vegas is not equal to time spent elsewhere. The broadcasters are more than ready to head home.
But Mark Williams was putting on a show in the second quarter. He stuffed Josh Minott emphatically.
He had another reverse jam after that. The Hornets went on a little run to go up 28-20. Charlotte attempted to close out the half with a Bryce McGowens isolation play. As if there were any other kind of Bryce McGowens play.
McGowens played for Nebraska last year so I watched him a decent amount. He had a lot of hype, not a lot of five star basketball players choose to play for the Huskers. His talent is undeniable. But the Huskers offense often reverted to watching him when he was on the court, rather than create open looks. As a result the team wasn’t appreciably worse, and was maybe even better (although with a lower ceiling) when their most talented player wasn’t available. He shot 40% from the field for Nebraska, with 16.8 points per game.
Similarly he’s leading the Hornets summer league team in points per game, with 14.6. That’s coming on 13 field goal attempts per game and a 34% shooting from the field. On this particular play he tried to run out the clock on the final shot. Minott completely stuffed him, leading to a Wendell Moore three point attempt. Moore missed. At halftime the Wolves trailed 41-32, with only seven assists, shooting 1-12 from three.
Basketball Bucket List
So if not Vegas Summer League, then what? What should be on my (or your) basketball bucket list? Here’s a list of 10 possibilities:
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
The Olympics
FIBA World Cup
Final Four
Vegas Summer League
An NBA Finals game
Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game
TD Garden for a Celtics Game
Go to a Duke-UNC game
Iowa Wolves game
Ok, going to an Iowa Wolves game probably doesn’t belong on this list. But I’ve joked about it enough that it had to be included. The Naismith Hall of Fame just isn’t as revered as Cooperstown is. It’s not on that level. The Olympics would be super cool, but basketball really isn’t the main event there. The FIBA World Cup would be amazing IF the host nation were a top eight team that had a reasonable chance of making semifinals, and that host nation WASN’T the USA. We don’t appreciate the FIBA World Cup the way we should, so we should never host.
The final four would be cool I guess, but others would probably appreciate it more than me. Honestly I feel like going to early round games might be more fun. Watching a 14 seed take down a 3 seed is more interesting than watching Duke lose to Kansas by 12 or something like that. An NBA Finals game would be great, but you’re really only talking two games for your trip in all likelihood and it could end up being a dud of the 2007 variety if you’re unlucky. And I’ve already been to multiple WNBA Finals games[1], otherwise that might make the list too.
So here’s my abbreviated ranking:
- FIBA World Cup at a good/fun host nation
- Duke at UNC (would be a crazy fun atmosphere from what I’ve heard)
- Knicks game at Madison Square Garden (I’m just assuming all the people that say watching a fun Knicks team at MSG is unlike everything else are correct)
43. Iowa Wolves game in Des Moines
44. Vegas Summer League
You think I’m joking, but I really don’t care about going to Vegas Summer League, despite now having ostensibly written 1500 words about it.
The Third Quarter
Now this was the quarter to watch! The Wolves hit a couple early threes[2] from Moore and Kevon Harris and then Harris followed it up with this dunk.
One takeaway from watching Vegas Summer League is that while we have a couple young exciting players, Kevon Harris would be the most ready for games that matter tomorrow. Summer League is a very small sample size against inferior competition without NBA level defense, but Harris did average 15.8 points per game, shooting 58% from the field and 46% from three in the Wolves five games. Inflated numbers? Sure, but I’d rather the numbers be good than bad.
Harris is 25 and that is a substantial advantage when playing 20 year olds. And for the Raptors G League team this past season while he shot 47% from the field with 15.1 points per game, he only shot 34% from three. Can he play defense? Well I watched him play multiple Summer League games, which of course told me absolutely nothing. Team defense is not great at Summer League. He’s not exceptionally fast, but he is 6’6. My point is, the Wolves traded away a whole lot of depth to get Gobert, so a flier on this guy may not be the worst idea even if his ceiling is solid scorer off the bench.
JT Thor was getting some buckets for Charlotte, but they didn’t have a whole lot else going on at this point in the game. Kevon Harris was cooking on offense. The Wolves were even making plays on defense, like Wendell Moore Jr did here:
Of course that play shows you everything you need to know about NBA first round draft picks. Dumb turnover followed by a sensationally athletic block. With the scoring barrage from Harris and the Hornets suddenly forgetting how to effectively pass the ball, the Wolves entered the fourth quarter with a 63-59 lead.
The Draft Picks
Wendell Moore Jr.
Moore was a role player in college for an exceptional Duke team, so he’s not used to taking the reigns all by his lonesome. He ended up playing a lot of point guard for the Wolves during summer league, something that he was not accustomed to in college, but something he could be asked to do in spot minutes in the NBA, with the Wolves options after D’Angelo Russell being limited. He’s obviously athletic, but at no point did he ever take over a game. Not that he’d be asked to do that in the NBA, but it’s not unreasonable to hope that his talent would shine through a little more.
He struggled from the field, shooting 35% and just 25% on 28 attempts from three. He had more turnovers than assists, but that’s fairly common in summer league when you’re surrounded with a whole bunch of brand new teammates. In Moore’s most recent college season he shot 50% from the field and 41% from the shorter three point line, though his sophomore year he shot just 30% from three on similar volume.
There’s no definitive takeaway from Moore[3] based on his summer league performance. The optimist would say that he was asked to play a weird role, and then he’ll be better and fit in more naturally when he’s surrounded by more talent. The pessimist would say that he hasn’t yet shown the kinds of flashes that you’d hope to see from a first round pick. It’ll be interesting to see what happens because the Wolves lack depth and could use Moore as a role player if he’s ready.
Josh Minott
It’s easy to see why the Wolves drafted Minott and why John Hollinger said he should have gone as high as tenth overall. It’s easy to see the Jaden McDaniels comp in him, and his teammates at Memphis called him baby Giannis. Minott had a hell of an opening game when he scored 22 points shooting 8-15 and 2-3 from three along with getting 10 rebounds. He did a nice job finishing at the rim from the dunkers spot when the defense collapsed around the ballhandler in summer league and made some nice defensive plays. His defensive rating in summer league, for whatever it’s worth[4], was 96.3, the best on the team.
On Saturday the Timberwolves locked him up on a four year contract that will pay him $6.8 million over its duration, a move that probably made sense for all parties involved.
But…..isn’t it kind of weird how little he played in college[5] this year? He averaged 14.6 minutes across 33 games this year. He only started five times. In their (extremely close and exciting) second round game against Gonzaga, Minott only played four minutes.
I know all the standard responses to this critique. You’re drafting a player for their foreseeable future not what they are right now, the college game is different than the NBA, he was backing up a lottery pick, etc. But Minott is a toolsy player that seems like he could fit in a lot of lineups.
When Minott was getting more consistent minutes back in January, when he started five games and averaged 26.4 minutes, the Tigers went 5-3. He averaged 11.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game. Part of the reason Hollinger loved Minott so much was because of his numbers per minute in college. And they were indeed very good. But for that stretch in January when he was playing more consistent minutes he shot 45% from the field, significantly lower than his season average.
There’s a lot to like about Minott. He’s a good rebounder with great athleticism on the early returns on his defense look very good. He shot 5-12 from three during summer league, after shooting 2-14 from 3 all last season with Memphis. And if you’re asking him to play a role on the Timberwolves soon, it’s likely as a 3 and D type player.
Which is good because he can’t create his own shot at all at this point. And if he doesn’t end up hitting threes in the NBA his ceiling might just turn out to be a taller version of Josh Okogie, though there certainly have been much worse returns for a mid second round pick.
Matteo Spagnolo
Spagnolo’s game didn’t translate to Summer League and that’s not a surprise. He did have more assists than turnovers, and he did make this very nice turnaround jumper.
But it seems unlikely that we’ll be talking about Spagnolo on the Wolves roster anytime soon.
The Fourth Quarter
The Wolves started to open a little bit more of a lead in the fourth quarter, as the commentators debated what is and is not candy for an extended period of time. I’m not joking. With about 8 and a half minutes remaining in the quarter, Jim Jackson opined that Twix is not in fact a candy bar, but rather a cookie with covered in chocolate. His broadcasting partner considered this a rather hot take, not even knowing how right Jim is because Twix isn’t even subject to sales tax in Minnesota because of its high flour content. Here’s another nugget of that conversation taking place while Matt Lewis does something pretty.
With six and a half minutes to go and the Wolves up 74-62, the sideline reporter, who just thirty seconds of game time earlier was participating in the extended candy conversation, asked the commentators, “Guys, we’ve got a game going on. Are you watching?”
It was a bold move and probably the overall highlight of the game, despite Josh Minott’s best efforts. Shortly thereafter the commentators returned to talking about the game that was actually going on and that me and (probably) several others were watching on ESPN3.
The Wolves held onto their lead deep into the game, up 88-80 with not a lot of time left. But even if it was summer league, this was still a Wolves fourth quarter lead. Wendell Moore Jr coughed up two turnovers in the final 30 seconds to give the Hornets life. Then the Hornets put Moore at the line, with the Wolves leading 88-86 and a chance to effectively end the game with under 5 seconds left. But Moore only hit one of two free throws and the Wolves lead was only 89-86.
Once again for their last second offense the Hornets turned to Bryce McGowens, and once again Josh Minott rejected him, blocking his last second three point attempt.
Takeaways
The main takeaways from this game I had were that it will be fun to see how/if Josh Minott develops into an everyday NBA player and his journey getting there, along with the fact that it was great to legally watch a Timberwolves game on television.
[1] As a Lynx fan I became entitled and spoiled from 2011-2017. Seriously.
[2] This wouldn’t be notable except that the Wolves were terrible at shooting threes their whole time in Vegas
[3] Or any other NBA prospect for that matter, let’s not anoint Paolo or Chet the next big thing yet either please
[4] Not much! And here is also when the basketball nerds would tell me that offense and defense ratings should really only be used to measure lineups, not individual performances.
[5] I keep thinking back to how confused I was when the Hornets drafted Marvin Williams, a bench player for albeit a very good North Carolina team, over Chris Paul and Deron Williams in the 2005 draft. Many of the talking heads were talking about Williams body and how well it would translate to the NBA and all the things that he could do, and I was sitting there thinking, “you’ve got two all star point guards on the board that you just passed up for a guy that couldn’t get off the bench in college!” That said, Williams did have a long, if not spectacular, NBA career.
Anything Was Possible 
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