The NBA Draft has come and gone, but the buzz around the league remains as each team pivots towards free agency and the Las Vegas Summer League. Serving as a de facto preseason for the NBA, the Summer League is an important opportunity for new draft picks and fringe players to prove themselves while their teams decide who to cut and keep.
Every single pick in the draft, from Deandre Ayton at first overall or Kostas Antetokounmpo at 60th, has been analyzed to death. However, there are some key position battles and dramas for fans to look forward to as we transition away from the draft.
Baby Warriors
The Atlanta Hawks followed the first half of the tanking blueprint to perfection. After a truly abysmal season, the Hawks delivered some form of hope to their fan base on a night that featured three first-round draft picks. Atlanta now has a pair of exciting shooters in point guard Trae Young and shooting guard Kevin Huerter.
Most draft analysts contend that the duo could top out as a lower octane version of Golden State’s Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, and their development throughout Summer League will be a story of great interest for hope-starved Hawks fans. Outside of guard Dennis Schroeder and forward Taurean Prince, Atlanta has few long-term pieces and will probably throw Young and Huerter directly into the fire once the regular season starts. In attempting to create a thrift store version of the Golden State Warriors on the fly, Atlanta might just find their way back into contention ahead of schedule.
San Antonio rebooted
Franchise cornerstone Kawhi Leonard is clearly not returning to the Spurs, and for the first time in more than 20 years Gregg Popovich and co. will have to start over. San Antonio fielded the second oldest team in the league going into last year, and this season’s team will be similarly graybearded.
However, Spurs fans have a future to be invested in after the team drafted shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV out of Miami (FL) and Chimezie Metu out of USC. Both players are carbon copies of the San Antonio archetype; versatile and steady performers with high basketball IQs. Walker only played one season for the Hurricanes, but he still showed enough promise to project all the way up at No. 12 in some mock drafts. The Spurs are the perfect team to encourage him to develop defensively while capitalizing on his abilities as a spot-up shooter.
The regular season may be a slog, so Spurs fans should enjoy their rookie class while it is on full display in Las Vegas this summer.
Nuggets make the leap?
The Denver Nuggets made perhaps the splashiest choice in selecting polarizing small forward Michael Porter Jr. with the 14th pick. Porter was forecasted as a top-three pick even after a year at Missouri that featured as many games started as back surgeries (one of each). Nuggets fans will be salivating for every update on his road back to health, even though they will not see him play in Las Vegas. Porter arrives in Denver with fellow big men Justin Jackson and Thomas Welsh from Maryland and UCLA, respectively, to complement a team that finished 46-36 last season and lost out on a playoff spot on the last day of the regular season.
The Nuggets are on the verge of contending with a core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Paul Millsap, but they rank among the league’s worst on defense.This year’s Summer League team could pick out a wing to alleviate that issue while simultaneously addressing the fact that Denver has only three wings currently on roster. The Nuggets have eight of the 16 Summer League roster spots dedicated to guards in hopes of finding the next 3-and-D wing, including former Idaho stalwart Victor Sanders.
Nuggets fans can expect an exciting summer between the search for a solidified bench and hype for Porter that could end up in a playoff spot come next spring.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker