LAS VEGAS — The first rule of NBA Summer League is to ignore everything you saw at summer league. Three years ago, Victor Wembanyama was terrible, and Houston’s Cam Whitmore won Summer MVP. How’d that translate to the real games?
That said, there is considerable evidence that summer-league performance does at least have some predictive value for the games that actually matter, especially for rookies. The hardest part, however, is to ignore the part that’s right in front of your face, begging you to pay attention to it at the expense of everything else. If you’re going to evaluate summer league at all, let me start here:
Buckets. Don’t. Matter.
Watching shoot-first combo guards go off for 30 in a summer-league game is great fun, but most of those dudes don’t get to play with a neon-green light in a game that matters. In fact, the summer stats that describe what type of player somebody is are of much more value than the ones that describe how good that player is. To wit, as Owen Philips discovered in this tremendous work a year ago, frequency of 3-point attempts, assists, rebounds and blocks are much, much stickier categories than a player’s scoring, and especially more predictive than a player’s shooting percentages.
Nonetheless, some correlation remains between a player’s overall summer-league performance and his regular-season performance in the season to follow. It’s even more useful now that the NBA preseason — formerly a much more reliable arbiter of future success — has become a hollowed-out charade.
With that caveat in mind, let’s get to the fun part: Which players stood out at summer league? And in particular, which players stood out in a way that makes you think they might exceed expectations in the coming season?
Here are 12 guys worth talking about.
Cameron Boozer, Grizzlies
So much for “shutting guys down” in summer league. Boozer, the third pick in the draft, played the most minutes (177) of any player in Vegas, and that was after he’d played two games in Salt Lake City. Even with their side trip to Utah, Memphis had four of the top seven players in minutes in Vegas, helped by playing a sixth game in the championship. In total, Boozer played eight games and 229 minutes this July.
Boozer didn’t shoot particularly well, but the rest of his play got my attention. He looked natural playing power forward at both ends, which was one of the concerns about him entering the draft. The fact that he was able to move his feet on the perimeter on defense and had enough comfort on the perimeter to create shots (even dribbling into a stepback 3 in the title game) were great signs from the No. 1 player on my board entering the draft. (Also: Check out this nugget from our Tony Jones that Boozer dropped 10 pounds to improve his mobility.)
In total, Boozer put up 32 3-pointers and plucked 12 steals in his eight games, both great signs that he has enough perimeter game to hold up as a full-time four next to the enormous Zach Edey.
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Zach Harper and CJ Moore
AJ Dybantsa, Wizards
I think this guy might be good.
Dybantsa only played two games but scored 50 points in 51 minutes and did enough other things that it wasn’t just empty calories. Notably, he had eight “stocks” (steals plus blocks) in his limited burn, comforting for those who were concerned about his defensive tape from BYU. He also showed up on the defensive glass and only committed one foul.
Of course, the main story is his scoring ability, and that translated to this environment. In this case, I’d say it’s a better omen for the regular season than for most guys. Dybantsa looked physically huge on the court relative to most forwards, and his ability to get downhill and change direction at 6-feet-9 makes him an impossible cover once he gets a head of steam.
Dybantsa left Vegas with a sizzling 32.0 PER that led all first-round picks and also had the highest usage rate. I had Dybantsa second on my board entering the draft, and the only question after Vegas was whether I placed him one spot too low.
Caleb Wilson, Bulls
The fact that Wilson made seven 3s his first summer game was almost certainly an outlier. However, the fact he attempted 31 triples in four games is much more notable.
Three-point frequency is a key indicator stat from summer league. Wilson only took 27 3-point attempts in his 24 games at North Carolina in the 2025-26 season, but he let it fly more than that in just four games in Vegas. He matched his season total in makes (seven) in the first game!
Wilson shooting that much from distance, and the results not being atrocious, are a much more positive indicator for the idea that he’ll be able to shoot well enough to open up the rest of his game, which, I must say, was a bit of a hot mess aside from the torrid 3-point shooting in his 35-point opener. Wilson was a ghastly 6 of 21 from the free-throw line and led all summer leaguers in turnovers despite only playing 110 minutes. He was positively awful in his final game that nobody really watched because most folks had left Vegas by then.
Nonetheless, the 3s are reason alone to put him on my positives list. He’s an electrifying athlete with perimeter skills that were apparent in the Bulls’ decision to put him on the ball nearly the entire time (that also helped account for the turnovers). I’m not as wowed by his highlight “thrunk” as some other people, but Wilson spiked 10 shots in his limited run and showed obvious ceiling.
Watch This: No. 4 overall pick Caleb Wilson posterizes defender
Brayden Burries, Bucks
While most of the vaunted crop of rookie guards from the NCAA ranks struggled, Burries was a glaring exception. The 10th pick out of Arizona was a revelation and arguably the best player in Vegas.
He finished his summer with a scintillating 31.4 PER, showing a particular knack for powering to the basket with Euro moves in transition to generate layups. He did this despite not being particularly hot from 3 (9 of 26) or the foul line (68 percent), but we know from his college results that Burries can shoot.
Instead, he stood out across the box-score line, most notably that he scored 106 points while only committing three turnovers. Burries also did a solid job on the glass for a 6-4 guard and racked up 12 “stocks” in 125 minutes. On a rebuilding Bucks team, he looks like an opening-night starter.
Brayden Burries could be an early contributor for a rebuilding team in Milwaukee. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Hannes Steinbach, Hornets
Summer-league rebounding translates, and Steinbach was the best rookie rebounder in Vegas. He snagged 46 boards in five games, posting a 20.4 percent rebound rate.
This was, perhaps, expected, as Steinbach got scouts’ attention at Washington with his nose for the ball and great hands, but in this case, it was the Rainier cherry on top of his stronger-than-expected offensive performance. Steinbach was able to rumble to the rim and finish against summer-league competition, raising hopes that he could do the same in the Hornets’ rotation. Also, in an environment where most rookie bigs foul like crazy, Steinbach was only whistled for 11 personals in his 121 minutes.
Allen Graves, Raptors
Graves was the biggest mystery in the 2026 draft. How would the off-the-charts advanced stats he compiled against the minnows of the West Coast Conference translate against pro talent, especially given his slow-paced, oft-kilter game?
The answer: “Awesomely!”
The Raptors’ first-rounder, chosen 19th, was one of the best players in Vegas, finishing with a 26.9 PER in four games. His stat-sheet-stuffing ways carried over, too: He had 13 “stocks” in 110 minutes and averaged seven rebounds and three assists per game. Additionally, he had no problem getting up 3s despite concerns about a slow release, averaging one launch every five minutes. He looks like an instant rotation player.
Sergio de Larrea, Mavericks
Don’t worry about the 27.3 percent shooting. De Larrea took most of his shots from 3 and mostly missed them, shooting 4 of 20 from distance. However, that’s a small sample size, as he shot 38.8 percent from 3 and 81.1 percent from the line in Spain last year.
More notably, de Larrea was the best passer in summer league, particularly when Dallas put the rock in his hands more in the final two games. He racked up 26 dimes in the final two contests and finished his summer with 35 assists against just 12 turnovers in four games. He showed a knack for hitting rolling bigs with lobs, but even some of the simple passes were spicy, sometimes swinging the ball around the perimeter by whirling it around his back.
A late first-rounder by the Mavs (25th) who was one of my top sleepers, de Larrea looked the part and could give a big boost to a paper-thin backcourt in Dallas.
Meleek Thomas, Cavaliers
I know enough to take crazy summer-league scoring from an undersized guard with an entire pillar of salt. But 109 points in 115 minutes is breathtaking stuff, especially for a second-round pick.
Also, Thomas’ statistical profile from summer league rounds out better than you might think. He only committed six turnovers in four games while he was dropping in all these buckets. He also plucked eight steals. The Cavs aren’t going to hand him the rock and let him cook with Donovan Mitchell and (presumably) James Harden already in the backcourt, but Thomas also showed potency as a spot-up shooter by launching 32 3s and converting 14 of them. (He shot 41.6 percent from 3 in his lone season at Arkansas.)
With Thomas on a four-year minimum deal as a second-round pick, the apron-constrained Cavs have to feel awfully lucky if they found a rotation piece with the 34th pick, especially because they traded down from 29th to avoid the higher cap hit at that spot.
Egor Demin, Nets
In what was otherwise a fairly depressing summer-league experience for the Nets’ five-man 2025 draft class, Demin was the glaring exception, an outstanding bright spot who showed clear progress from his “nothing but 3s” summer of a year ago. He even got up for an alley-oop dunk!
He was able to dominate even while going relatively cold from 3 (he only made 13 of his 45 tries), shooting 75.9 percent on 2s, snagging a rebound every five minutes and finishing with 19 dimes against just 10 turnovers. Demin also snagged nine steals in his five games between Vegas and the California Classic; overall, the 20-year-old Russian’s 30.2 PER for the summer was among the league’s best. Between his play, the positives from lottery pick Mikel Brown Jr. and the unexpected emergence of two-way player Chaney Johnson (who was low-key fantastic), Brooklyn might have enough positives to offset mostly whiffing on its five 2025 first-round picks.
Egor Demin was one of Brooklyn’s five first-round draft picks in 2025. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
Khaman Maluach, Suns
After a rocky rookie season, Maluach looked like one of the most improved players in Vegas. While questions about his hands and offensive feel persist, Maluach’s sheer size is such an advantage that he has a lot of margin for error. The 7-1 South Sudan native also successfully caught the ball quite often in Vegas, leading summer league in rebound rate with a monstrous 22.4 percent; that figure included a preposterous 35.0 percent on the defensive glass.
Maluach wasn’t as much of a factor on the offensive boards because he spends a lot of his time as a pick-and-pop threat, and on that note, his making 8 of 20 triples in four games was an encouraging sign. Throw in his obvious impact as a rim protector and dunk threat around the basket, and the Suns may have a rotation-caliber piece to pair with the oft-injured Mark Williams at center.
Javon Small, Grizzlies
If you want a deep cut, try this one. The 2025 second-rounder is on a two-way deal with the Grizzlies and is going to stay on one for a while, as the Grizzlies need to sort out their 19 guaranteed contracts before the season starts. However, Small is my bet to be this year’s Scotty Pippen Jr.: a guy who starts the year on a two-way but is in his team’s rotation the entire season.
Small put up good stats in summer league, but on top of that, I cannot emphasize how much he looked the part with his defense, game management and downhill drives. That included a monster dunk in traffic near the end of the Grizzlies’ game against Golden State — quite a feat for a player listed at 6-1 and 190 pounds. Small had 50 assists against just 13 turnovers in his eight summer-league games, swiped a dozen steals and even blocked three shots. He also held up as a perimeter threat, getting up 43 3s and making 17 of them. He can play.
Arthur Kaluma, Lakers
Of all the unsigned veteran players at summer league, Kaluma stood out the most. Scouts have been on the 24-year-old Kaluma since his sophomore year at Creighton. He has the size and athleticism teams crave at the small forward spot and has a killer shot fake. Unfortunately, his feel for the game and shooting touch have never caught up to his physical tools.
That may be changing: Kaluma was one of South Bay’s better players a year ago and had a dominant summer-league performance that earned him a two-way deal from the Lakers. His 76.0 true shooting percentage across seven games (including two in the California Classic) is unsustainable, but it might not be that great an outlier: Kaluma had a 70.0 true shooting percentage for South Bay last season, including shooting 67.3 percent on 2s. He shot well from the perimeter in Vegas and last season in the G League and generates enough layups with his size and athleticism to sustain himself even if he posts average figures in other categories.
In addition to Kaluma, let’s give two quick shoutouts to Indiana’s Jalen Slawson and Miami’s Trevor Keels. Slawson is signing a two-way deal with the Pacers, while Keels remains unsigned. Each player slayed, as the kids say, in Vegas. I’d expect Keels to get a two-way deal shortly.
