Basketball is not a sport, it's a way of life.

A Summer League(s) extravaganza...

Alright, with just the Las Vegas Summer League Finals left tonight, the professional summer evaluative period is more or less at an end. While I attended several days here in Las Vegas, I also watched many additional hours of game film in an effort to catch as much of the incoming crop of new young players as possible over the span of the last three weeks. (Therefore, the forthcoming stats will reflect all summer performances, not just Las Vegas, and, as always, will be a smattering of numbers I find interesting for the particular player.) While I try to be thorough, some of the player evaluations are from a game or two, so please feel free to let me know in the comments about any players you think I may have missed the mark on. I only evaluated the top 30 players, mainly because my eyes started to bleed somewhere around Sunday at 10 PM. In reality, the players I keyed most heavily on were this year’s first round selections, but I also included some snippets on other players that caught my eye over the course of watching so many games. Now, let’s talk basketball.

1. Zaccharie Risacher, F, ATL - 14.5ppg, 5.0rpg, 39.3%FG, 25%3PT

With Risacher, the height and length are noteworthy in person, but what surprised me the most was the speed with which he can get into his shot after a quick dribble to his left. With his size on the perimeter, that shot could be deadly if he can harness it into something relatively efficient. If I were the Hawks, I would have Risacher spend the summer watching video of Ray Allen and the way in which he would use his movement and then a pump and one dribble reset to get into good open looks. I don’t think there’s quite enough juice off the dribble for him to present as much more than a single move/decision player in his first year—which with Trae still orchestrating the offense, is just fine—but I was impressed by the little we saw this Summer League before he suffered a right quad contusion in the Hawks second game in Vegas against the Spurs.

2. Alexandre Sarr, C, WAS - 5.5ppg, 7.5rpg, 3.5orpg, 2.2bpg, 19.1%FG, 11.8%3PT

The Alexandre Sarr experience has not been great. The efficiency is woeful, and the rebounding underwhelming, but what concerned me most was the near obstinate desire to be a perimeter player. Sure, Summer League is a great opportunity for players to expand their game’s horizons in the sandbox that is Las Vegas, but not in your first year, when making an initial impression really matters. Particularly not when it looks this bad. Sarr would drag behind plays, calling for the ball in transition rather than rim-running. The obsession with step-backs and fades was frustrating to watch because they felt more cosmetic than effective. Defensively, the rim protection was nice, but the late rotations and sputtering motor were worrisome. It’s early, and the skills at his size are clear, but this Summer League felt like in-person confirmation of some of the harsher critiques I had heard about Sarr going into the draft process.

3. Reed Sheppard, PG, HOU -  20.0ppg, 5.2apg, 4.8apg, 50%FG, 27.8%3PT

I went back and read my evaluation on Sheppard from draft night and realized that essentially he’s already functioning as the best version of what I thought him capable of. In truth, that means I rated his upside too low—which I fully fess up to—because in addition to what was already known about the shooting, the quickness and strength in his hands and his ability to process the game look to already be elite. The rough shooting percentages from three are not concerning, as he was pure on just about everything else, but the craft in getting to his spots was a treat to watch. His handle in tight spaces, particularly with his ability to either get into his shot or playmake in close confines, is outright nasty. The struggles against Minnesota’s Daishen Nix, who is a big, physical guard, still are my biggest concern for Sheppard, but he showed a patience that lets you know he’s processing potential counters to how he’s being defended as the game progresses. This included a goofy-footed runner in the second quarter of their matchup, where Sheppard used Nix’s physicality against him as Nix struggled to contest Sheppard’s quick flip off the wrong foot. I went from tepid to simmering on Sheppard, who really does feel like a Mark Price-level player now.

4. Stephon Castle, SG, SAS - 17.3ppg, 5.7rpg, 4.0apg, 1.3spg, 37.0%FG, 25%3PT

I’m not sure a single player felt more comfortably predictable than Castle, who plays with a confidence and edge that will be an infectious component of him for his career. This is especially the case on the defensive end, where he will probably have his greatest impact at the NBA level. Castle is a Swiss-army knife player who does a lot of everything, but there is still concern for me about his jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none potential, as I’m just not sure what he does at an elite level; though, "compete" may just be the right answer there. Unfortunately, he sustained a wrist injury in his only Las Vegas Summer League game against the Trail Blazers, but there were two prior performances in the California Classic to draw from as well.

5. Ron Holland, F, DET - 17.3ppg, 7.3rpg, 1.0spg, 1.3bpg, 37%FG, 18.2%3PT

Holland, like Castle, was much as to be expected. His athleticism is electrifying, particularly when he can get out into the open court, but even in traffic or on putbacks, he’s looking to explode through guys. As nasty as the athleticism can be, so too is the shot, which is just all over the place in terms of mechanics and results. He does find ways to get reasonably squared and balanced when he explodes into his shot, partially because he’s capable of adjusting his body in air, but the combination of loft and release just send the ball in a myriad of directions. Theres a competitive edge to Holland that is great, and in terms of raw athletic material, there is a lot going on, it’ll just be interesting to see how he puts it all together into a nightly performance at the NBA level.

6. Tidjane Salaūn, F, CHA - 9.0ppg, 7.0rpg, 42.3% FG, 0 blocks and 0 steals in 3 games

This wave of big French kids is wild, and Salaün may prove to be the most aggressive of the bunch. He’s listed at 6’9” but looks like he may already be taller than that—as he’s just 18 years old and likely still growing—and plays with a high-revving motor. As of now, he’s still just a fumbling fawn out there, but there is an aggression and activity to his game that is a good framework to graft skill onto. My biggest concern is what exactly is he? The game is just unformed potential right now. He likes to float on the perimeter, but the shot isn’t there yet, and while he’s long, he’s not particularly quick off the dribble. He may ultimately be in the Jalen Johnson mold—though he is not near the elite athlete that Johnson is—and just be an amorphous wing that toggles from the small forward spot all the way up to a small ball five. But for now, it feels like a lot of testing his footing to see what in his game feels firm.

7. Donovan Clingan, C, POR - 9.0ppg, 12.3rpg, 3.5orpg, 4.2bpg, 35.7%FG, 23.1%3PT

I was fortunate to see Clingan live twice, and while his size stands out, so too did the lack of footspeed. Clingan looked a bit out of shape and struggled to keep up in moments where the pace increased. The plodding nature to his movements just feels worrisome compared to the speed at which the NBA game is played. That being said, you can’t teach size, and Clingan, at 7’2, 280lbs, has plenty of that. He’s leading Summer League in rebounds by 1.3 per contest (Massalski SAS-11.0) and he’s second in blocks per game (Bona PHI-5.0). I had heard that the three-point shooting had growth potential, but it looked rough and not like something I would want to see him explore much in games that matter, which in all fairness, shouldn’t be many for Portland this year.

8. Rob Dillingham, PG, MIN - 13.6ppg, 7.6apg, 4.2rpg, 36.0%FG, 30.8%3PT, 54.5%FT

Much of the concern with Dillingham remains in terms of his lack of size and the struggles to process as a playmaker. The assist numbers look good, but you can tell that his natural instincts are towards getting his offense going first. That being said, he made some passes that were of a higher level of difficulty than I thought him capable of. The efficiency in the shooting won’t look this bad in the aggregate, but there are going to be a lot of feast and famine nights for Dillingham, who, in that fashion, just increased his field goal percentage by 10% following an impressive 11-for-16 (61.1%) shooting performance last night against the Magic.

9.  Zach Edey, C, MEM - 10ppg, 9rpg, 2.5bpg, 66.7%FG

Unfortunately, we only got one full game—in Salt Lake City—and an additional quarter of Summer League play from Edey before he suffered an ankle injury against the Pelicans in the second quarter of his Las Vegas debut. That being said, the four blocks in Utah were encouraging, as Edey displayed aggression in rim protection but also an impressive ability to show and retreat, as he did early on with a block against the Jazz’s Keyonte George. The efficiency around the rim and the rebounding will translate, but if Edey can be an intimidating rim protector—an ability he really wasn’t allowed to show at Purdue, as they wanted their best player to actively avoid foul trouble—then he may very well justify what felt like a bit of a reach when Memphis took him ninth overall. As it stands, I much prefer the little I saw from Edey compared to Clingan.