NBA Summer League Awards | Slam N Jam
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What is the purpose of this Slam N Jam episode and who are the hosts and guest?
Welcome to the Slam and Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily. On today's show, we got Bryce Simon on to talk about Summer League. And not only that, hand out Summer League Awards! The show you've all been waiting for. Where are my Summer League Awards? They're here for you today. We're going to be doing Slam and Jam every other week during the summer, just to let you guys know. So this week it's on a Wednesday. Most every other week it'll be Friday, but... You guys couldn't wait till Friday for your Summer League Awards, so we're here. Alex Spears with me as always, who came up with some amazing awards for Summer League. And then Bryce Simon of the Game Theory Podcast. Bryce, thanks for joining us.
Yeah, as you guys know, always happy to be here, happy to talk hoops with you guys. And I'm excited for this one because... Summer League is always interesting to do these type of things. Small sample size and trying as hard as possible not to overreact to anything we saw.
Yegor for MVP. Is that too strong?
Yegor will be one of my answers to one of the upcoming questions.
Don't spoil it.
Not that MVP. I thought you were talking about regular season MVP. Oh, I was.
You were reading me correctly. I'm getting a little hyped for Yegor. Alex, you want to give the first award?
Yeah, now Bryce, just to be clear, because I want people to know how seriously we would take this, you were in Las Vegas, you were at Summer League, correct?
I was, and I watched very little basketball, even though the only places I went were Thomas and Mac, the Pavilion. I did go to, I think it was the Las Vegas Convention Center to watch EYBL. I'll work that in at some point to one of the answers. And I ate and then went to my hotel. That was it. That's all I did. But as I'm sure people have heard other people talk about, you end up not watching as much basketball as you would expect being in Thomas and Mac and the pavilion because you just end up talking to other people so much. I did go back and watched almost all of these players. Not every game, I want to be fair, but all of these players at least one game.
Not every game. I feel like you're more letting people know, like, I'm not crazy. I didn't watch every summer.
I have a family, but I did watch some of these guys.
So here's the thing. This 10-day stretch is the busiest stretch of my summer. And like, oh, poor me. I'm a teacher. I get the whole summer off. I understand. But I go to Vegas. I come back. And then we immediately go into football camp while all of these things are still going on. So we have football camp, we travel, we stay in the dorms down there, the internet's not great, all of that. So I get back from football camp after just getting back from Vegas, and then I feel like I have to really catch up on everything. So I have been doing that the past few days.
Well, let's start with the Point God Award. Obviously, there were a ton of point guards in this draft. It was a big talking point in the run-up to the draft. How did you rank these different point guards? This award goes to the rookie point guard who impressed you the most at Summer League. So who gets that award for you, Bryce?
So this one was honestly, guys, one of my tougher awards. Like complete transparency. This was one of my tougher ones because I don't know that I was just blown away by how Darius Acuff played or how Keaton Wagler played or... how Michael Brown Jr. played. And so then it was, okay, Kingston Flemings probably played the most true point guard, you know what I mean, in the traditional sense of it, where he just really created, didn't score nearly as much as those other players, only seven points per game, but did average six and a half assists. I will say the player that probably was Phylon, but if you look at the shooting percentages, they weren't very good. Braden Smith was another player I considered.
So I guess my question is, does Braden Burries count? Can we count Braden Burries as a point guard for the purpose of this award?
Yes, I think so.
Talk to us about Burries because I do feel like he was one of the standout players in Summer League.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the purpose of this Slam N Jam episode and who are the hosts and guest?
0:03–11:54
2
Who wins the 'Point Gawd' award — which rookie point guards impressed at Summer League?
11:54–35:25
3
Which players changed evaluations with the 'If I Had Known That' award (did Caleb Wilson stand out)?
35:25–44:11
4
Which rookies raised concerns in the 'It's Summer League, I'm Not Worried, BUT...' category?
44:11–57:28