The NBA Summer League features a combination of exciting young talent with fringe players trying to work their way onto the end of an NBA bench. While the quality of play tends to leave something to be desired, it can be an intriguing spectacle for college hoops fans to catch up on some of their favorite players. This year’s league featured five ex-Irish stars, four of whom getting their first looks on new teams, showcasing their skills in Las Vegas and Utah.
Jerian Grant
Last year’s 19th overall pick was included in one of the summer’s biggest blockbuster deals, heading to Chicago from New York as part of the return for Derrick Rose. While he initially looked set up for ample minutes, the signings of Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade, and Isaiah Canaan have perhaps clouded Grant’s path to consistent minutes with the Bulls.
In the Summer League, Grant was given the reigns as the Bulls’ primary ball handler, although lottery pick Denzel Valentine ran the offense for large stretches. Unfortunately, Jerian struggled to find his stroke for the majority of the summer. Using the league to work on his deep ball, Grant was not shy about putting up threes, launching almost 6 per game. He failed to quell doubts about his shooting prowess, shooting 22% on those 3-point attempts, the exact percentage that he struggled to in his rookie season.
Despite his struggles shooting the ball, Grant still did many of the great things that made him a 1st team All-American two seasons ago. His deft handling of the pick and roll led to many wide-open looks for Bobby Portis, and he used his quickness to get to the rim often. Playing on a fairly stacked (by Summer League standards) Bulls roster that featured essentially their legitimate NBA bench, Jerian was able to lead the Bulls all the way to the vaunted Summer League Championship, where he finally had a great game.
Going up against old rival Tyus Jones and the T’Wolves, Grant went to work early, grabbing 8 points including an emphatic dunk.
With the championship on the line, Grant played almost the entire second half, going +22 and helping to spearhead a Bulls comeback that sent the game into overtime. In the 2-minute extra period, Jerian took over, making an easy lay-up and a step-back 3 to give the Bulls a 5-point lead. While Denzel Valentine got most of the postgame publicity for his clutch buzzer beaters, Jerian rightly received the championship game MVP award for his line of 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists on 9-19 shooting.
While his summer league would have to be considered a disappointment overall, Jerian showed flashes that should make him the favorite for the Bulls’ backup point guard minutes this season.
Jack Cooley
The Bulls’ other ex-Irish stud was a very pleasant surprise in limited minutes of the bench. In the Bulls’ first game, Cooley provided a huge boost of the bench, putting up 11 points and 8 rebounds. He downright bullied the Celtics’ bigs down low and managed to rile up the crowd, a rare feat in a Summer League game.
While his minutes waned as the Bulls got deeper into the single-elimination bracket, Cooley continued to produce when given the chance. Overall, he grabbed 4.3 boards in only 9.5 minutes per game, to go along with 53% shooting. Although he suffered from playing behind two legitimate NBA bigs in Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio, he did manage to gain the attention of some in his quest to get back onto an NBA roster.
Somebody has to sign my boy @JackCooligan45 ASAP. He is a beast.
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) July 9, 2016
Pat Connaughton
Perhaps the most impressive Irish alum this summer was the Blazers’ Pat Connaughton. Connaughton was really given the keys to lead the Blazers’ Summer League squad, starting all five games and leading the team in minutes. While he didn’t shoot as well as he could have (only going 27% from deep), he showed off his leaping ability with some nice dunks, as well as having a couple great individual games.
First, he dropped 19 against Utah on 4-10 shooting from downtown, but what made his night truly special was one of the most unique plays in basketball, the elusive walk-off three pointer.
Connaughton with the game winning 3! #NBASummer https://t.co/Vy9U7V3SUw
— NBA TV (@NBATV) July 12, 2016
Beyond this Summer League oddity, Connaughton saved his best for last, dropping 23 points on the Celtics in the Blazers’ final game.
Despite showing a lot of potential to be an NBA contributor this summer, Connaughton will have to fight and claw for minutes as the Blazers retained swingman Allen Crabbe and brought in Evan Turner.
Demetrius Jackson
Many Irish fans were surprised to see Demetrius fall all the way to the 45th overall pick, when most draft prognosticators had him pegged with a 1st-round grade. Making matters worse, he got drafted to a team that has a huge amount of young talent at the guard position in Boston. For this reason, Demetrius was somewhat buried even on the Celtics’ Summer League roster, stuck behind 1st rounders from last year Terry Rozier and RJ Hunter.
Demetrius only got 16 minutes per game in the Celtics’ Vegas games, and he did not do much to impress in that time. He was not very aggressive, putting up only 5 shot attempts per game, and he struggled from deep, going 1-10 in the Celts’ Vegas games. This hesitance in Demetrius’s first exposure to the pro game led to subpar numbers across the board, and he was thoroughly outperformed by Rozier. He did have one good game when given the chance to start in the Utah Summer League, putting up 11 points on 4-7 shooting (3-4 from deep).
Given the plethora of guards in Boston, Demetrius might find himself on the very brink of the Celtics’ roster crunch. I would not be surprised to see him in the D-League this season, as he learns to adapt his immense physical gifts to the pro game. With Boston possibly still active in the trade market, a move away could be beneficial for Meech.
Zach Auguste
Auguste went undrafted, as was expected, but was given an invitation to play for the Lakers’ Summer League team. He immediately impressed in the Lakers’ first game, scoring 9 points, hauling 4 rebounds, and, perhaps most importantly, providing a ton of hustle. He was rewarded with 21 minutes in the following game, and he continued to perform with 8 points and 7 boards.
The only area where Auguste showed a lot of weakness in was at the free throw line, where he only shot 3-12 on the summer. It’s obviously a small sample size, but any ability to show offensive prowess from outside 3 feet of the rim would be huge for Auguste’s chances to stick on an NBA roster. As it is, he made a great first impression as an energy guy, and he finds himself in a decent situation on a rebuilding Lakers squad. It’s not out of the question that ZA could land at the end of someone’s bench this year, be it in LA or elsewhere.
The ringer talked about Boston as a potential landing spot for Okafor (https://theringer.com/who-wants-jahlil-okafor-303e9d13169#.8ehscr297). If DJ could get swept up in that trade market, he might find his way onto a NBA roster this year, but it looks really doubtful for him,
I wonder if, in retrospect, he wishes he hadn’t left. It’s a shame someone with his talents has fallen so far.
Not to say he’s finished by any stretch of imagination…it’s just that I’m sure he wishes things had turned out differently.
You can’t really look at it this way. Many, if not most, prognosticators had him in the first round with guaranteed cash. If that’s the case, then you have to go. The decision was sound with the info he had at the time. Unfortunately, other than a good vert at the combine, DJ’s post-announcement stock plummeted, and his play in Vegas wasn’t enough to truly demonstrate that he was a second round steal. That sucks, but it doesn’t invalidate a his logic for making the decision at the time.
All that said, damn it would be nice to have him back with this squad.
It’s going to break my heart to see DJ struggle to make a roster this year…
Grant looked bad, really bad, except for that championship game. He had a chance to head into camp as the clear-cut #2 PG, with plenty of available playing time. Instead, he looked worse than Spencer Dinwiddie, and now he has a real competition on his hands. He played out of control far too often, and he couldn’t hit a jumper to save his life. Basically he needed to show 3 things: that he could shoot, that he could facilitate out of the pick and roll, and that he could defend. He looked really poor at #1 and #2, and that’s incredibly disappointing to me. Hopefully he has a strong camp/preseason.
Eh, I think this is a bit harsh. He cut down on his turnovers nicely as the week rolled on and had a couple nice games facilitating, too:
3:4, 2:3, 2:1, 6:1, 8:0, 3:2, 5:2
The Washington game in particular, I thought he was good offensively, just couldn’t shoot. These games are also naturally sloppy and guys can’t shoot, so those last four games, to me, is a pretty strong A:T for summer league. He also showed he could be a smart defender, even when most of the time 2-3 of his teammates had no clue what the hell they were supposed to be doing.
That said, not being able to shoot is a substantial problem, obviously, and you kinda expect a 2nd year, former 1st round pick to look a bit more complete at this point and at that level. We’ll see. I think it’s depressing to think that from possibly the best back-to-back seasons in school history, we’re gonna have nothing at the next level to show for it. Too early to give up on any of these guys, but it looks like that might be trending that way.
I really hope he proves me wrong, but he played completely out of control most of the games. He’d miss 3 straight jumpers, then dribble wildly into the paint the next possession with nowhere to go. He just looked like a PG who had been completely broken by the triangle offense. I really really hope I’m wrong. I was wrong about him being able to turn into a solid defender in the NBA (at least, he looked really solid there this summer), so I hope I’m wrong about his PG skills not looking good in the NBA.
I was definitely let down by Jerian’s performance as a whole, but I have to echo alstein as I think you are being a bit harsh. I think Jerian’s awful shooting really made him look worse than he performed as a whole. I thought he found a ton of good looks for teammates; maybe he wasn’t as flashy of a distributor as Denzel Valentine, but he also wasn’t nearly as sloppy. He was the culprit of too much dribbling that led to some bad possessions, but I chalk that up to Jerian knowing he was one of the most talented guys in the summer league and trying to push it too much. I also disagree that Dinwiddie outperformed him. He shot just as poorly as Jerian and didn’t show me much.
As for his shot at a backup role, Holberg did seem very high on him, saying he was shooting very well in practice. It’s hard to tell how genuine that was or how much was just coachspeak, but the optimist in me is saying that Grant just has so much more upside than Canaan or Dinwiddie, and the Bulls wouldn’t have acquired him just to let him rot on the end of the bench. I think he’ll calm down and be more of a facilitator if given the back-up PG role, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Cooley!!! I wonder how Patrick Beverley knows him, COD friends?
Anybody know why the Irish didn’t field a team for the TBT this year? After winning it in 2014, you think these guys would want another crack at it. I saw Torin and Ty were on other teams this year so maybe their was some division. Oh well, as long as the Syracuse alums lose.
Played the year after their title and even tried to bring on some additional guys, but it never quite came together. Hard to repeat and even harder to get yourself back up for it after falling short. Most guys you’d hope to see playing have either aged out, have coaching gigs to get to, or have dreams of making an actual pro roster. Easy to see how it fell apart.