I would imagine that most people doubt the importance and impact of the NBA Summer League. Honestly, I can’t really blame them. To some, the NBA Summer League is all about getting an excuse to hit up Las Vegas for an entire week and convincingly tell your wife you are there to be the utmost responsible and professional individual you can be.
NBA Summer League Court with Logo
As a fan, it’s often hard to watch a league where a player is allowed 10 fouls before they get ejected from the game. It’s even harder for the fan that knows that the 10 player foul limit isn’t just there because the league is focused on watching the younger talent battle it out for as long as possible but rather because, quite often, some of the players really need those 10 fouls.
Other fans are turned off by official summer league rules of 2009 which state that each team will receive one 30 second time-out and they will receive two full time-outs per half. Those full time-outs are 30 seconds each…
And as far as the commentators are concerned, well, let’s just say it’s a bit different than you would expect to hear on TNT or ESPN. I’ve found some that appreciate the humor they have heard. As for me, I haven’t been able to watch the summer league games.
Last year, I watched quite of the games. For those of you that aren’t interested,that’s fine. For those of you that say the Summer League is boring because it doesn’t have any real meaning, that’s fine too.
The truth of the matter is that the Summer League is important; just not for the fans.
For the NBA teams, the Summer League is their only opportunity to focus in on their draft picks and analyze their game against a higher class of talent. When a player in college goes up against other college athletes and achieves a ranking and status among other individuals as being one of the 60 most dominant and talented athletes, they have displayed their talent level qualify for elite status.
NBA Summer League Logo
The problem with it is the transition between being one of the elite players in the country to being a rookie trying to earn your minutes. As fans, it’s difficult for us to truly imagine the barrier these players are expected to cross. The NBA draft is one of biggest gambles of any sport because of the same reason why I love basketball so much. Basketball demands such a wide array of both physical and mental attributes from it’s talent that the process of becoming an All-Star is hard to achieve.
Steve Nash is the perfect example. There are plenty of people out there that deny he has earned himself a name amongst some of greats such as Magic, Stockton, Cousy, Frazier and even Jason Kidd. One of their favorite arguments against Nash is to use his career averages or even the first half of his career as evidence that he doesn’t deserve it. The truth of the matter is that the first half of his career only proves how hard he had to work at it.
Not all players in this league are like LeBron James (and dare I say Derrick Rose?). Not all of them can come in to this league, strap the rest of their team on their shoulders and lead the attack. Steve Nash worked hard each and ever year to develop into the player he is and what he has become is truly special. When a player of seemingly little talent teams up with Nash, he begins to develop and look like a leader himself. And with back to back MVP awards (only magic has done) which could have arguably been 3, as well as 3 straight years above 90/50/40 (something only he has done), it’s not very difficult to place Steve Nash on the list of one of the best point guards in history. The impact he has made in his peak years rivals the performances of the greats.
My point is that the barrier is hard to cross. I could show you the statistics of the players that don’t make it in the NBA but that wouldn’t be saying much. Not all players rely on the same method of attack. Some use ball handling, finesse, agility, speed, court awareness or physical attributes like their vertical, length, height, weight, or reach. Every player in the Summer League needs to improve.
If for some reason LeBron himself had to play he would tell you he needs to improve as well. He understands the Summer League impact to a player. No player can ever tell themselves they have reached their limit because as soon as you stop working to improve your game, somebody else is going to come along and take your spot.
This goes for any field where the most talented and valuable get paid. Nobody can just sit back on autopilot and expect success to come their way. The CEO of a company doesn’t just go and take a 30 day vacation without their blackberry and business meetings coming with them.
Most of these players understand their is a chance that after their first contract is up, they might end up playing in Europe or the D-League with hope of coming back to the NBA. Malik Hairston just earned himself another contract after going back and forth between the Spurs and the D-League. And again, the San Antonio Spurs have allowed me to use them as another example because they recently acquired Marcus Haislip from Europe. Once drafted by the Milwauke Bucks and playing in the League for 3 years, he was forced to spend the following 5 years in Europe to develop as a player before he would get another shot at the NBA.
Currently, there is very little time for an NBA franchise to take a player fresh out of college and make him as ready as possible. Some may argue that the idea of there even being enough preparation time is false in itself.
For the teams, players and coaches to give their players the best shot at developing into something special or even just somebody that can contribute as a role player, they need to analyze each and every trait and ability the player has in order to get an idea of what their best and worst attributes are.
The Summer League gives people the opportunity to watch these young college players against a different level of talent. Joined together with the D-League, a league of talented players working every day in hopes to make it to the NBA, the rookies get a shot at earning themselves a spot. Many of the players that consist of the D-League once had the opportunity to play on an NBA team. Many of them have gone through the stages these young rookies are going through now. They will probably all say the same thing and that is to learn as much as you can from every opportunity they get.
Blake Griffin Dunking
So if you decide to watch the games or if you are watching or have watched, just realize that it’s not about winning or losing because it has nothing to do with the Summer League’s importance. It’s not about which team beat which team. I see these updates and stories about which team beat whom and I laugh to myself wondering if they even get it.
Watching the Summer League is all about watching the players. But watching the ones you know will be good doesn’t take any skill or talent. Watching Blake Griffin dominate everybody doesn’t give me or anybody else any value. We all know that kid is part human part beast.
Identify the players you think will be good in 2 or 3 years. Identify the players with the best IQ. Identify the players that make phenominal court decisions and the ones that don’t. Identify the guy that is underlooked. And identify the player that is identifying others and learning so that he can come back and prove his league worth.
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