Portland Trail Blazers: 5 takeaways from 2017 NBA Summer League

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Portland Trail Blazers rookie Zach Collins (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

The Portland Trail Blazers‘ NBA Summer League squad was nothing short of surprising this year in Las Vegas. They started slow in the preliminary round, finding a rhythm just moments after losing two players that were expected to — at the very least — produce.

There were four primary names that everyone had their eye on going into Summer League: rookies Zach Collins and Caleb Swanigan, as well as Rip City veterans Pat Connaughton and Jake Layman.

Two guys went down with injuries. One vet looked rather solid, while one of the rookies may have been one of the top-10 players in Vegas this summer. There were a number of interesting storylines that came out of Vegas, one of which may even be wrapped up as soon as this Tuesday!

While Summer League performances must always be analyzed with a grain of salt, here are five takeaways from watching the Blazers this summer in Vegas.