Portland Trail Blazers: 5 takeaways from 2017 NBA Summer League

4. Jake Layman deserves a bigger role

Jake Layman was pretty impressive in Vegas this year, helping lead the Blazers to the Summer League title game despite losing two players that were previously considered central to the team’s success.

In eight Summer League games, Layman averaged 13.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.1 steals in 28.4 minutes, shooting 33.9 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from behind the arc.

By comparison, he averaged 17.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals in eight G-League games last season, playing 33.3 minutes per game on 42.4 percent shooting from the field and 22.6 percent shooting from behind the arc.

He finished in double-digit scoring five times, both in Summer League this year and in the G-League last year. The only difference is that he never once crossed the 20-point threshold in the G-League.

This summer, he scored 20+ in three games, each time adding seven rebounds while shooting better than 37 percent from the field. His improvement wasn’t at all mind-boggling, but he did end up turning some heads this summer, which is certainly more than what this next player can say.