{"id":794680,"date":"2026-07-12T02:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T02:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794680\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T02:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T02:50:09","slug":"key-differences-to-remember-when-watching-nba-summer-league-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794680\/","title":{"rendered":"Key differences to remember when watching NBA Summer League \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders<\/a> newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday. <\/p>\n

There are a lot of differences between Summer League basketball and NBA basketball.<\/p>\n

Most obviously, the talent level is wildly different. Of course some of the league\u2019s most impressive rookies from the 2026 draft class are on summer teams, but the rosters are filled out with guys who will likely never sniff an NBA roster and will spend most of their time on a G League squad or overseas.<\/p>\n

But there are also differences that really matter, especially when it comes to Darryn Peterson<\/a> and how his performances are being evaluated and watched by Utah Jazz fans.<\/p>\n

First, the time spent with teammates is drastically shorter than in the NBA. In the Jazz\u2019s case, some people might think that because they participated in Salt Lake City Summer League that they would have a little more chemistry than some of the other teams that were playing together for the first time in Las Vegas, but the Jazz\u2019s summer roster changed between Salt Lake and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had four new guys playing \u2014 and they should play \u2014 but it\u2019s a lot to ask to meet new guys the morning of a game and try to be a coherent unit,\u201d Jazz assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski said after the Jazz\u2019s opening game in Vegas. \u201cThis is not an NBA team with training camp and all of those things. I mean, you\u2019re, in some respects, throwing these guys into the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lack of time together and chemistry will lead to turnovers and missed plays and miscommunications. So, don\u2019t judge any team, the Jazz included, if things seem a little disjointed.<\/p>\n

Another difference, which is really important, is that teams are able to key in on certain players defensively in a way that just won\u2019t happen during the regular season.<\/p>\n

Yes, we see double-teams and blitzes in the NBA, but it doesn\u2019t happen on every possession and it usually isn\u2019t a rookie that is consistently seeing the most aggressive defense. But in Summer League, a team can afford to throw those things at a player like Peterson.<\/p>\n

Once the regular season starts, Peterson is going to be on the court alongside guys like Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Keyonte George. The opposing teams are going to have their hands full and they won\u2019t be able to use all of their defensive energy to try to get the ball out of Peterson\u2019s hand the way they have been through these summer contests.<\/p>\n

So, while we are getting some first glimpses of what to expect from these top draft picks, we are not seeing a full picture.<\/p>\n

New with the JazzFrom the archivesExtra pointsLooking at Jazz deal to send Walker Kessler to the Lakers from all sides (Deseret News<\/a>)NBA decides Keyonte George coaching role goes against the rules (Deseret News<\/a>)Darryn Peterson was as advertised in his summer league debut for the Jazz (Deseret News<\/a>)Around the leagueUp nextJuly 12 | Utah Jazz vs. L.A. Clippers | 8 p.m. | PrimeJuly 13 | Utah Jazz vs. Chicago Bulls | 8 p.m. | ESPNJuly 15 | Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs | 7:30 p.m. | Prime\"\"Utah Jazz’s Darryn Peterson, right, drives against the Washington Wizards during the first half of an NBA Summer League basketball game Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo\/John Locher) | AP Photo\/John Locher <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,5872,19924,85],"class_list":["post-794680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-news-feed-local","tag-newsletters","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}