Grades from Vegas: Ben Simmons, Kris Dunn, more lottery picks – ABC News
No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons remained the big story on the third day of the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League, changing up his game to become more scorer than distributor.
Also Sunday, No. 3 pick Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics and No. 4 pick Dragan Bender of the Phoenix Suns squared off, defending each other in an anticipated matchup.
Grades for 11 up-and-coming players from Day 3 in Las Vegas:
Dragan Bender, Phoenix Suns: D
Bender wasn’t able to follow up his impressive debut with a similar repeat performance, in part because he played out of position. To accommodate fellow rookie Marquese Chriss and Alan Williams, the Suns moved Bender to small forward, where he faced a tough matchup with No. 3 pick Jaylen Brown and drew two early fouls.
Bender never recovered from the setback, settling for too many jumpers and struggling to show the same ballhandling skill he displayed Saturday.
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns: A
As he showed in his first game and again Sunday night, Booker is simply too good for summer league. While he wasn’t incredibly efficient, missing 10 of his 17 shot attempts, Booker still finished with a game-high 24 points and also handed out seven assists.
He feels as if he can score any time he touches the ball in Las Vegas, and he’s probably not wrong, though Booker still is finding teammates when defenses sell out to stop him.
Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics: B-minus
There were positive signs for Brown in his second game in Las Vegas, at least when the action didn’t involve him shooting. Brown was back to his usual foul-drawing ways, creating early foul trouble for Bender and shooting six free throws. And he made plays for teammates (three assists) and came up with a big blocked shot on a Marquese Chriss jumper.
But Brown missed all six of his shot attempts, bringing him to 3-for-19 in Sin City. That’s a problem.
Bruno Caboclo, Toronto Raptors: C-plus
During his third appearance in the summer league, Caboclo still bears too much similarity to the 18-year-old rookie whose potential tantalized NBA scouts two years ago.
On the plus side, Caboclo is more polished now, and he has developed into a credible 3-point shooter (3-of-7 from 3).
But it’s troubling that Caboclo doesn’t seem to affect the game in other ways, floating rather than imposing his will using his impressive length.
Marquese Chriss, Phoenix Suns: B
So far, fellow Phoenix lottery picks Bender and Chriss have yet to play well at the same time. On Saturday, Bender was up and Chriss was down. The scale reversed itself Sunday, as Chriss had a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds along with two blocks.
He was still inconsistent as a shooter, missing nine of his 15 shot attempts, and picked up six fouls — no surprise given Chriss’ penchant for foul trouble at Washington — before leaving briefly late in the game when he took a hard hit trying to finish an alley-oop.
Kris Dunn, Minnesota Timberwolves: A
Through two games, Dunn has been one of the most impressive performers in Las Vegas. Against Toronto on Sunday, Dunn scored 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting, with most of the makes around the basket.
Again, the caveat remains that Dunn hasn’t needed to rely on outside shooting — he missed all four of the 3-pointers he tried — but even in this setting few prospects get to the rim so regularly and finish with such power, including a three-point play where Dunn drew the foul, but defender Jakob Poeltl got the worst of the contact. Dunn also had nine boards.
Cristiano Felicio, Chicago Bulls: A
Felicio earned a contract for his performance with the Bulls in Las Vegas last year and ended up having a solid rookie season, averaging 11.8 points and 11.4 rebounds per 36 minutes in limited action.
Felicio’s development over the last 12 months has been evident this year. Felicio did a nice job of sealing defenders in the post for lobs and being a presence on the offensive glass, which allowed him to shoot a perfect 8-of-8 from the field en route to 17 points and 10 rebounds. Perhaps most impressive were Felicio’s four assists in 27 minutes.
Thon Maker, Milwaukee Bucks: B-plus
It’s testament to Maker’s potential — and how hard he plays — that he could put up 17 points and 17 rebounds and plausibly be described as not playing a great game by his standards.
That’s largely a function of Maker’s tendency to force things offensively. He shot 7-of-15 from the field and missed three of the four 3-pointers he took. And he’s predictably inconsistent defensively, though his ability to close ground in a hurry allows him to make up for mistakes.
Maker remains unmolded clay, but it’s great clay.
Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors: B-minus
Returning for a second season at Utah helped Poeltl add strength and confidence. Still, the NBA game is inevitably an adjustment for him — even in summer league — and Poeltl struggled with that adjustment on Sunday, committing six fouls in 24 minutes.
Largely a non-factor on offense, Poeltl did have five rebounds and three blocks in his 25 minutes.
Norman Powell, Toronto Raptors: A
You can put Powell with Booker and Kyle Anderson in the conversation for most overqualified player in summer league after he played rotation minutes in the playoffs.
With the Raptors, Powell was mostly a 3-and-D player. In Las Vegas, he gets to play with the ball and create his own offense, and Powell has shown great ability to get to the rim and finish (or draw fouls, shooting 12 free throws).
He scored 29 points and had eight rebounds, making four 3s in a performance that was marred only by his inability to stop Kris Dunn. Then again, nobody else has shown that ability either.
Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers: B-plus
Sunday was a growth day for Simmons, who recognized the Chicago Bulls’ game plan for him, staying at home defensively to take away the highlight assists Simmons racked up Saturday.
So Simmons adjusted by becoming more of a scorer and even getting aggressive as an outside shooter. While that resulted in some ugly misses, including an airball just after halftime, Simmons’ 18 points were the most he has scored in four games this summer.
And overall, Simmons was efficient, shooting 7-of-13 from the field. Included was an impressive dunk in traffic.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
Recommended article from FiveFilters.org: Most Labour MPs in the UK Are Revolting.
