Here are some of the major takeaways from the Los Angeles Lakers’ five game stint in the 2016 Las Vegas Summer League.
After drafting yet another solid pair of rookies to add onto an already stellar young core, the buzz around the Los Angeles Lakers was pure excitement for a future without megastar Kobe Bryant and under the direction of former Golden State Warriors assistant Luke Walton.
The Las Vegas Summer League was the first opportunity for fans to see a glimpse of what that unit would look like on the floor with a team led by 2015 and 2016 No. 2 overall picks D’Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram and featuring the likes of Larry Nance Jr., Anthony Brown and 2016 second-round pick Ivica Zubac.
Luckily, the team played well, getting off to a hot 3-0 start before dropping their last two games and bowing out in a consolation game against the Utah Jazz on Friday night.
While the Lakers squad didn’t end up winning it all, fans got a large enough sample size to have positive (and a few negative) takeaways. Here are a few good and bad things we saw from this young Lakers team during their Las Vegas run.
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Pros
After watching the Lakers in this year’s Summer League, one can’t help but have a positive outlook on the team’s future as there were so many displays of talent throughout their five game run.
The biggest positive fans saw was the improved play and leadership skills of their point guard, Russell.
Russell made a strong case for Summer League MVP before the team dropped its last two contests, averaging 21.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game on 47.7 percent shooting from the field in four contests.
The sophomore point guard led the way for the team in both production and verbal leadership on the floor and put up some phenomenal performances, including a 20-point,11-board performance against the New Orleans Pelicans and a 22-point outing against the Philadelphia 76ers sealed by the biggest shot of the summer.
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While Russell was undoubtedly the star of the show, he wasn’t the only Laker who had a superb Summer League showing.
In addition to providing his usual array of crowd-hyping, showstopping dunks, Nance showed off some incredible versatility and stuffed the stat sheet with averages of 9.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 2.8 steals and 1.8 blocks per game through four contests.
Nance also displayed an improved shooting stroke, going 2-of-6 from three point range.
The pleasant surprise was the Croatian rookie, Zubac, who displayed prowess at both ends for such a young age with a stat line of 10.6 points, 7.2 boards and a whopping 2.6 blocks a game while anchoring the Lakers’ defense.
This included a dominant performance in the finale against the Jazz where he put up 16 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks.
Cons
As is to be expected, rookies sometimes tend to struggle in their Summer League debuts as it’s their first time playing since the spring and against pro level competition. Rookie forward Ingram was no different.
Despite flashes of brilliance at times, Ingram had a rather inconsistent showing in the Las Vegas Summer League.
The 195-pound forward had trouble scoring in the lane against more physical defenders and was devoid of his trademark three-point stroke, only connecting on four of his sixteen attempts for the summer.
However, his flashes of brilliance were just that. Ingram opened up the Summer League with a smooth 12-point outing against the Pelicans and closed it out with a 22-point, five-rebound and four-assist performance against the Jazz.
Brown was another player who was a virtual no-show, averaging a mere seven points a game on 36.1 percent shooting from the field and 29.4 percent from three. For a prospect trying to earn a roster spot — let alone minutes in the rotation — it was a rather disappointing stretch of games.
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Although both wings struggled in Las Vegas, Summer League play isn’t always indicative of a player’s future success and both can only stand to improve going forward.
Summary
While the team had its share of ups and downs in its showing in this year’s Las Vegas Summer League, there were many more positives to takeaway than negatives.
D’Angelo Russell has improved by leaps and bounds and will only get better as he joins the USA Men’s Select Team in Las Vegas to practice against the league’s best this coming week.
Ingram may have struggled as the team’s secondary scorer in Summer League, but will have a lot less pressure once he teams up with Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson and should be able to be brought along smoothly.
It’s also a good sign that some of the Lakers’ young role players like Nance and Zubac had such solid showings in the Summer League as they might be able to command large minutes in the rotation and provide significant production sooner rather than later.
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All in all, Lakers fans can leave the Las Vegas Summer League feeling optimistic that the team is in a much better place going into the 2016-17 season than they were at last season’s end.