LAS VEGAS \u2014 When it comes to NBA Summer League, how bad is bad? What do we make out of it going forward?<\/p>\n
Take the Chicago Bulls\u2019 Dailyn Swain, for instance. The 15th pick in the draft out of Texas, he shot 4 of 31 in his four summer-league games. He missed all seven of his 3-point attempts and went an unfathomable 4-of-24 on 2s. Yiiiiiikes.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s bad. Phenomenally bad, actually. But if we\u2019ve learned one thing from summer league, it\u2019s that we probably shouldn\u2019t overreact to poor shooting performances, because there is little to no correlation between how players shoot in Vegas and how they shoot once real games start. I addressed that point in my discussion of the top standouts from summer league and want to remind you of it as we shift to the flip side: the biggest disappointments.<\/p>\n
While I certainly wouldn\u2019t take Swain\u2019s performance as a positive sign \u2014 especially for Bulls fans haunted by the recent ghosts of other \u201cintriguing\u201d but offensively limited small forward prospects (take a bow, Patrick Williams, Dalen Terry, Chandler Hutchison, Julian Phillips and Noa Essengue), Swain\u2019s play might not be a horrible omen. While he certainly wasn\u2019t good, he rebounded decently, finished summer league with more assists than turnovers and would have had a respectable stat line if he had ever made a shot.<\/p>\n
That said, Swain finished summer league with a -0.27 PER. Yes, that\u2019s a minus sign before the zero, and yes, that\u2019s extremely hard to do when the league average is 15.0. That placed him last among all qualifying players in summer league, as you may have expected.<\/p>\n
So, yeah \u2026 Swain has to lead the list of the top disappointments from Vegas. He isn\u2019t alone, however. Several other players fell short of expectations. Let\u2019s take a look at what happened and what it might mean.<\/p>\n
And before we start, let me also say I hope all these guys come back, shake off their bad summers and go gangbusters in the fall. Summer league is somewhat predictive of future performance, but one week in July is not destiny. Nonetheless, just as we write about the Vegas successes, we\u00a0must inevitably point out the failures.<\/p>\n
Darryn Peterson, Jazz<\/p>\n
I\u2019m listing Peterson as a disappointment mostly because the bar was pretty darn high. As the second pick in a loaded draft, the hope is he\u00a0becomes a star.<\/p>\n
He still might, of course. But one of his strongest cases for going No. 2\u00a0was that he had the chops to play as a lead guard who could orchestrate for others as well as he created for himself, and we didn\u2019t really see much\u00a0of that in his five summer-league games.<\/p>\n
Finish The Sentence with Darryn Peterson<\/p>\n
Jen Klockner<\/p>\n
Peterson generated a ton of shots and had four 20-point games, but the same issues against length in the paint that troubled him at Kansas cropped up at summer league. That he shot 25 of 59 on 2s (42.3 percent) is possibly meaningless, yes, but not exactly a path to beating the charges either. Meanwhile, he finished with 26 assists and 24 turnovers from his five appearances. Aside from one 12-assist game in the Salt Lake City Summer League, he did not look anything like a point guard.<\/p>\n
Peterson seems much more like a scorer who needs a table-setter next to him, just as Kansas used him. Between his obvious skill as a shooter and defender, that still makes him a very, very good player, but I also feel comfortable ranking him fourth among this draft\u2019s four elite talents. (More comfortable than I do, say, having ranked Dailyn Swain as a \u201csleeper.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Christian Anderson, Hornets<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the part you don\u2019t have to worry about if you\u2019re a Hornets fan: Anderson shot just 7 of 33 from 3 in Vegas. That\u2019s terrible, but it\u2019s also a small-sample outlier from a guy with a huge NCAA sample indicating he\u2019s a plus shooter. Don\u2019t sweat this.<\/p>\n
This is what I would worry about with Anderson: the eye test on everything else. He looked small out there, struggled to handle the ball against defensive pressure and \u2014 much like at Texas Tech \u2014 could be swallowed up by traps. He is both undersized and not an elite athlete, which puts tremendous pressure on his skill level to overcome it. Again, his Vegas stat line would look much better with a more normal 3-point percentage, but early returns suggest he needs work to be a viable on-ball player.<\/p>\n
OKC\u2019s 2026 draft class<\/p>\n
We\u2019re used to the Thunder being a step ahead of everyone, but Oklahoma City\u2019s three rookies had a hard time in Vegas. In a related story, the Thunder had one of the worst summer-league teams in history, losing all eight of their games by a combined 144 points.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll start with lottery center Aday Mara (selected 12th). His summer league resembled his freshman season at UCLA, with the game blazing past while he struggled to keep up. The giant Spaniard finished his summer with 18 made baskets and 17 turnovers \u2014 his 30.8 percent turnover rate was easily the worst at summer league. We also didn\u2019t feel him on the glass or as a rim protector as much as hoped. (A 15.8 percent rebound rate and a 7.8 percent block rate aren\u2019t disqualifying, but as a 7-foot-3 upperclassman picked in the lottery, you\u2019re hoping for more.)<\/p>\n
Point guard Bennett Stirtz, drafted 17th, salvaged a rough start with a 22-point finale, but his eye test was noteworthy. They don\u2019t allow me to weigh players midgame, but Stirtz looked thicker since his season at Iowa ended, as if he bulked up for draft workouts. A couple of scouts I talked to felt the same way I did and also felt that it took away some of his east-west mobility and fluidity. I\u2019m interested to see how he looks physically when camp opens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Second-rounder Otega Oweh played only two games, but he didn\u2019t shine in either. I hoped his game would benefit from summer league\u2019s friendly environment for attacking guards, but he\u00a0had only four made baskets in 47 minutes.<\/p>\n
Mo Diawara, Knicks<\/p>\n
The Knicks signed Diawara to a four-year deal after the 2025 late second-rounder gave them 634 competent minutes last season, even shooting 36.9 percent from 3.<\/p>\n
Alas, New York better hope what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, because Diawara stunk it up for what was one of the worst teams I saw in my stay. He played in only two games but left an impression: Diawara shot 1 of 14 with four turnovers and just one assist. Watching the Knicks, there were times you forgot he was even on the floor.<\/p>\n
Noa Essengue, Bulls<\/p>\n
Essengue wasn\u2019t that bad, but he also failed to stand out in his second summer league, and that\u2019s a problem now that the Bulls are under new management. He was a lottery pick in 2025, but the Bulls did everything but hang out a neon sign saying, \u201cthis guy isn\u2019t in our plans\u201d in Vegas. It\u2019s kind of a red flag that new coach Tiago Splitter played him for only 11 minutes in the final summer-league game, one where he committed seven fouls (you get 10 in Vegas), scored two points and grabbed one rebound. Seven different non-roster players got more run.<\/p>\n
NBA Draft 2026: Winners and Losers from Round 1<\/p>\n
Zach Harper and CJ Moore<\/p>\n
The tricky thing for Essengue is that he still hasn\u2019t displayed any kind of perimeter threat (he made one of his seven 3-point tries), and his rail-thin frame is pushed around too easily (one reason he committed a phenomenal 19 fouls in 74 minutes). He\u2019s a savant at drawing fouls around the rim but doesn\u2019t get the rock enough to leverage his tricks. With recent lottery picks Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis clearly Chicago\u2019s future starting forwards, it could be a long year for Essengue.<\/p>\n
Keaton Wagler, Clippers<\/p>\n
The two \u201csurprise late-bloomer\u201d guards picked in the lottery (Wagler and the Hawks\u2019 Kingston Flemings) both struggled at summer league. Of the two, though, I\u2019d be slightly more concerned about Wagler.<\/p>\n
Flemings shot poorly (10-of-31 on 2s \u2014 yikes!), and his right-handedness is a concern (one particular play stood out, where he bypassed an open driving lane to his left to try to force his way right and had the ball stolen rather easily by the nail help). But as we\u2019ve discussed, summer-league buckets are overrated. Flemings finished Vegas with 27 assists against nine turnovers and had 11 \u201cstocks\u201d (steals + blocks) in four games.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Wagler\u2019s struggles might keep me up at night a bit more if I were his employer. He scored at a high rate but not very efficiently and made almost no impact across the rest of the box score. In particular, he struggled with ball pressure and was invisible defensively. Wagler ended his summer with 17 fouls and just two steals in 113 minutes. Also, 11 assists against nine turnovers isn\u2019t up to snuff for a point guard candidate.<\/p>\n
Wagler is not only young (he doesn\u2019t turn 20 until February) but has a \u201cyoung\u201d body that still needs to fill out, and he can shoot muuuuuch better than the 8-of-24 from 3 he showed in Vegas. But I thought we\u2019d see more fireworks this summer.<\/p>\n
Darius Acuff, Kings<\/p>\n
You miss all the shots you don\u2019t take, but Acuff also missed most of the ones he took \u2014 an extraordinary 100 shots in five games! For a guy drafted to be an offensive engine who could get others involved just as well as he scored himself, this was a bit of a record scratch. Acuff wasn\u2019t exactly raining fire, either, shooting 39.7 percent on 2s and 27.0 percent on 3s.<\/p>\n
What made it worse was that he struggled to involve the other four guys. Acuff finished his summer with 23 assists against 19 turnovers. Not only is that a ratio of nearly five shots for every assist extremely thirsty for a full-time point guard, but there were too many miscues mixed in. About the only faint praise I\u2019ll offer is that his defense seemed, if not actually good, certainly more engaged than it looked at Arkansas.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn\u2019s 2025 draft class<\/p>\n
The Nets had five first-round picks in 2025. With the exception of the outstanding Egor D\u0451min, the Nets look as if they whiffed on this entire group. French guard Nolan Traor\u00e9, who struggled mightily as a rookie (7.9 PER, -6.8 BPM), at least saved himself from further scrutiny by missing summer league with a knee injury. The same can\u2019t be said for Danny Wolf, Ben Saraf and Drake Powell.<\/p>\n
Wolf offered hints of rotational usefulness last season, but his clock-killing, ball-stopping dribbles to nowhere stood out more in a summer-league environment where his team was actually trying to win. All that pounding produced just seven assists in four games. I will unofficially award him the title of worst dribbles-to-points ratio of any non-guard in Vegas.<\/p>\n
Saraf\u2019s off-kilter left-handed game showed some flashes, but he still isn\u2019t a threat from the perimeter and rarely can get himself all the way to the cup. This results in many difficult, contested finishes and 14-of-36 (38.9 percent) shooting inside the arc. A 5.7 percent rebound rate in six games against summer-league competition is also pretty sad for a 6-6 guard.<\/p>\n
At least those guys looked salvageable. I don\u2019t know what to say about Powell except bleeeech. Across six summer-league games, he shot a Swainian 8 of 44 with 10 turnovers. Aside from an 18-point eruption in the Nets\u2019 second-to-last game, he just didn\u2019t look like an NBA player \u2014 a non-shooter whose feel and decision-making inside the arc aren\u2019t nearly good enough to offset that fact.<\/p>\n
Alex Karaban, Kings<\/p>\n
The Kings traded up from 34th to snag Karaban at No. 29, which seemed like a bit of a reach at the time and looks like more of a reach after five summer games in which Karaban failed to accomplish much.<\/p>\n
With the caveat that Karaban missed the California Classic with an ankle injury and perhaps still wasn\u2019t at full strength, it was jarring how impact-free he was in Vegas, drawing just one free-throw attempt in five games and finishing with only three \u201cstocks\u201d in 124 minutes. There isn\u2019t really even a sub-category to cling to. Karaban had a measly 7.7 percent rebound rate, more turnovers than assists and finished with an 8.0 PER. You generally expect more when selecting a 23-year-old in the first round.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s end this with one positive note for long-suffering Kings fans: Second-rounder Emanuel Sharp looks like a keeper. If you just imagine they took Sharp at No. 29 and Karaban at No. 45, Sacramento\u2019s draft makes much\u00a0more sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 When it comes to NBA Summer League, how bad is bad? What do we make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[6996,49,48,11002,5184,1527,459,2901,3555,10679,82,15717],"class_list":["post-822781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sports","tag-utah-jazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}