Offseason Beat: NBA Summer League West: Pt. 5

Phoenix Suns – Impact Rating 8

Booker only played in the first two games, so we got a good look at a number of Suns in the final four Las Vegas games. The most mysterious top prospect in Summer League was Dragan Bender — it might not have been close either. He only played 10.6 minutes per game in seven outings in the Euroleague last year, so we were going to learn a lot.

Bender played a lot of guard growing up, but he shot up in his later teens to get to 7’1” tall. Even with all that size, the Suns played him at small forward to start Summer League. Their plan was to play him at the three and four, especially next to Marquese Chriss at the four and five.

To nobody’s surprise, Bender looked really raw. His stat line was uninspiring, averaging 8.6 points, 5.6 boards, 1.0 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.0 blocks, 3.8 turnovers and 1.8 treys on just 27.5 percent from the field. The good news is he showed off a lot of skills on the perimeter: Bender made nice passes, had some pretty dribble drives and his jumper looked good. On the other hand, his post-up game is way behind, which explains why he’s basically a small forward in a power forward’s body.

Obviously, he won’t be ready to contribute right away. The Suns are fully expected to start Jared Dudley at the four with most of his minutes coming at that spot. Plus, the Suns are unlikely to have many small forward minutes available with P.J. Tucker, T.J. Warren and even 6’7” Devin Booker getting some run there. Bender’s Dynasty value looks really nice as a potential stud.

The Suns were expected to draft Marquese Chriss at No.4, but that tune changed once the word came out that the Celtics were not drafting Mr. Bender. Phoenix wisely traded up with the Kings to get the No. 8 pick and land Chriss there. This was huge for a team that had no power forward on their roster at the time of the draft.

Like Bender, Chriss is a big project to go with his upside. At Washington last year, Chriss made an impressive 68.5 percent of his shots at the rim to account for 43.2 percent of his total, he hit a solid 35.0 percent from deep, and even hit on 43.9 percent of his two-point jumpers. His jumper is fairly smooth and he really showed off a lot of athleticism.

The most exciting characteristic on Chriss was his jumping ability. He’s another one of those quick leapers a la former Sun Shawn Marion, which helped Chriss put down multiple put-back slams. Here’s one:

Again like Bender, Chriss’ stat line wasn’t great, averaging 10.0 points, 9.0 boards, 0.7 blocks, 0.3 steals, 3.3 turnovers and 5.3 fouls in 30.3 minutes per game. No worries here.

Chriss is likely going to be able to make a quicker impact than Bender. He also has a nice upside as a stretch four, but don’t count on him this season for usable production.

The most impressive second-round pick was Tyler Ulis. He is just 5’10” and of course he would have been a lottery pick had he been 6’4”. He had Chris Paul-like ball control at Summer League and did a great job finding his teammates. This was a great combo of those two aspects:

On the stat sheet, Ulis was awesome with averages of 14.5 points, 2.5 boards, 6.3 assists, 2.8 steals, 1.8 turnovers and 0.8 treys on a 47.3 true shooting percentage. Even against bigger point guards, he was very good on defense, especially on the ball.

Obviously Ulis is in a tough spot for minutes. He’ll need Eric Bledsoe and/or Brandon Knight to miss time to make a splash this season. Plus, his fantasy ceiling isn’t the greatest due to how he’s not a great shooter from deep.

Alan Williams was also solid in Las Vegas as the event’s leading rebounder. He may have earned himself a spot on the roster.

Portland Trail Blazers – Impact Rating 2

Yeah, you can skip this part. After a very encouraging Summer League last year, Noah Vonleh was really disappointing. He was very good off the dribble and in transition last year, but it just wasn’t there this time. He only averaged 12.0 points, 8.8 boards, 1.3 assists, 0.8 blocks and 2.8 turnovers. Not bad, but he should’ve scored in the upper teens.

The best player on the Blazers was probably Pierre Jackson. He scored 14.5 points per game on a surprisingly efficient 55.3 true shooting percentage. Maybe his Achilles injury is behind him after all. One of the biggest sneaker heads in the world could get a camp invite. #THEYSLEEP

Pat Connaughton was pretty solid with 14.4 points per game and he even hit a game-winning shot in sudden death. With the Blazers bringing basically everyone back and adding Evan Turner, there won’t be minutes available for the former pitcher.

Jake Layman had a lot of buzz as a second-round pick, but I feel like that might have been leverage talk to help get their deals done. He’s not going to be in the rotation.

San Antonio Spurs – Impact Rating 4

The Spurs counting on their Summer League team would be like the 2016-17 Warriors counting on Damian Jones to take the last shot. Still, they looked really good out there, especially Kyle Anderson. The UCLA product took home Utah Summer League MVP, which comes off his 2015 Las Vegas Summer League MVP.

Slo-Mo’s game is perfect for lower-level hoops. He doesn’t need to rely on athleticism and can basically just outsmart his competition. His three Utah games were outstanding, averaging 23.7 points, 8.3 boards, 4.3 assists, 3.3 steals, 1.3 blocks, 3.0 turnovers and 1.7 treys on 58.0 percent from the field, Yeah, fantasy owners would take that.

Still, it’s going to be tough for Anderson to get his minutes. The Spurs could go with Anderson next to Kawhi Leonard, but the two only played 280 minutes together in the regular season (per NBAWowy.com). The Spurs did use them as a 2-3 and 3-4 combo, so that helps a bit.

Anderson should be in the rotation, but his minutes are likely only in the teens out of the gate. If Leonard does miss time, we’ll be talking about Anderson quite a bit.

The player to watch for the Spurs was Dejounte Murray. If not for his inefficiency and carelessness with the rock, he would’ve been a lottery pick. Those concerns caused him to slide to the Spurs at No. 29 in the draft.

At his best, Murray looks like a superstar. He’s 6’5”, has a 6’10” wingspan, a phenomenal first step, quick hands, and great athleticism overall. Murray’s stat line was right at expectations, averaging 12.5 points, 5.8 boards, 2.3 assists, 2.2 steals, 0.7 blocks and 0.8 treys on 49.3 percent from the field. The inconsistency stood out with four games below 34 percent from the field and two wonderful outings.

Murray is absolutely must-see TV when he’s in transition. Here are a couple beautiful buckets:

While we’re at it, here’s that athleticism on display:

Nice. Of course, Murray is going to have to be able to harness his game and fit into the Spurs’ system. He has the talent to be the Tony Parker successor, but it might take a few years.

Sacramento Kings – Impact Rating 6

Perhaps nobody was more disappointing in Summer League than Willie Cauley-Stein. The Kings put emphasis on him trying to be more of a scorer, but it just didn’t work.

Last season, only 6.2 percent of his field goal attempts came off multiple dribbles. He was also assisted on a DeAndre Jordan-like 75.9 percent of his buckets. Trill also made just 30.0 percent of his 40 shots from beyond the paint last year.

Well, that added opportunity didn’t work out. Cauley-Stein made just 25.7 percent from the field in Vegas, averaging 7.3 points, 5.5 boards, 1.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.8 blocks and 2.0 turnovers. Not good.

It’s only Summer League, so we can’t really panic here. The good news is coach Dave Joerger is likely going to explore more double-big lineups and not play Rudy Gay at the four as much as coach George Karl did. Still, he’s going to be 23 years old at the start of the season, so he’s a little slow on development.

For fantasy, he should be solid for boards and blocks. Cauley-Stein won’t get enough shots to be a force in field goal percentage and his free throw shooting will hurt, too. He’s only a late-round pick in standard leagues and likely won’t be a big DFS target unless DeMarcus Cousins, last year’s usage rate leader, needs to miss time.

Let’s start with Richardson. He’s really just going to be a 3-and-D guy and he probably wouldn’t have gone in the first round if not for a magnificent run in the NCAA tournament. He’s not expected to be in the rotation.

As usual, the Kings had a surprising first pick with Greek big man Georgios Papagiannis at 13. Up until about an hour before the draft, he was fully expected to go in the second round or very late in the first. All of the sudden, there were “sources” saying GP could go in the earlier part of the first round, which leads many to believe it was planted.

He was another extremely raw guy. The Kings clearly fell in love with his size at 7’2” and 240 pounds. On the other hand, there was talk of DeMarcus Cousins saying “Lord give me the strength” right after the pick, but he later said it was about his hot-sculpting yoga class. Yes, that.

Well, the Greek project didn’t do much as expected. He even got called for the rare five-second backdown violation. The 19-year-old averaged 5.3 points, 4.8 boards, 0.5 steals, no blocks (?) and 2.8 turnovers on 35.7 percent from the field. The Kings will probably be sending him down to the D-League. Our NBA Draft guy, Ed Isaacson, isn’t a big fan of the Greek big man, so he’s not a guy I’d be targeting in even Dynasty leagues.

Skal Labissiere was the best King on the Las Vegas roster. At Kentucky, he didn’t make any 3-pointers on two attempts, but he surprisingly made three of those in Vegas. Overall, the 6’11” power forward averaged 11.0 points, 5.8 boards, 1.0 blocks and 2.4 turnovers in five games.

He was one of the most highly-touted prospects in high school. However, he had an L5 stress fracture in his back during junior year in high school along with knee tendinitis. He also didn’t have the greatest season at Kentucky.

He might be the best rookie of the bunch for the Kings, but it’s going to take some time.

Isaiah Cousins had a lot on his shoulders for Las Vegas, but he had a tough time. The Oklahoma point guard made just 27.8 percent from the field for 6.0 points per game. It looks like the Kings will have to play Garrett Temple at the point more than they want to.

Utah Jazz – Impact Rating 6

This one is all about Trey Lyles. If you listen to our podcasts, you’ve probably heard me rave about Lyles for months. He didn’t let anyone down in July, averaging 23.8 points, 9.0 boards, 1.4 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.2 blocks and 3.0 treys on 39.0 percent from the field and 89.4 percent from the line.

It seemed abundantly clear the Jazz are really going to try to make Lyles a stretch four in their second unit. He’s also coming off a very impressive April in the regular season, averaging 12.9 points, 5.4 boards, 1.1 assists, 0.9 steals, 1.6 treys and 1.3 turnovers in 26.6 minutes. The Jazz were shorthanded for three of those seven games, but it’s still a very encouraging sign for a 20-year-old with little playing time in his career.

The Jazz traded their first-round pick, so their rookies were pretty quiet. Athletic power forward Joel Bolomboy was somewhat quiet while Marcus Paige struggled in long stints. Tibor Pleiss was making some triples, so that was cool.

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