What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas…until I feel like blogging about it

By: Slam

The Summer League in Las Vegas has just ended so let’s take a look at what we learned from this week in the desert.

1. Rodrigue Beaubois is ready for the NBA…

Rodrigue Beaubois (Dallas Mavericks) Stat Line per Game: 17.0 Points, 3.5 Rebounds, 3.8 Assists

Beaubois showed that he can be a devastating offensive force when given room to maneuver. He has a sweet three point stroke that extends beyond the line itself and his quickness and athleticism can be scary when used going to the basket. I nicknamed him the “The Enigma” in my prospect preview because he has the skills to be a great player but he can be a hothead and play very inconsistently at times. This summer he had two games of more than 20 points and two games of less than 10. Beaubois showed that he has the skills and athleticism to play in the NBA next season, so look for him on Dallas’s bench.

2….and so is the Swedish Sensation Jonas Jerebko

Jonas Jerebko (Detroit Pistons) Stat Line per Game: 12.4 Points, 6.2 Rebounds, 1.0 Assists

Jonas Jerebko is the guy at a pickup game that is making all his shots, is always open, is always moving without the ball, is always crashing the basket, and his team always wins. You don’t know what particular skill it is that makes him so effective but you know that he is a basketball player. Jerebko is constantly finding openings in the defense and using his shifty movement to get in the lane and make shots. He is always producing on the court in the Summer League (The Pistons are 4-1) and he will continue to do that next year for the Pistons.

3. We know who Christian Eyenga is now and I can’t wait to see him again in 3 years.

Yes Christian Eyenga is fun to joke about but he did actually come out to the Summer League and play a lot of minutes for the Cavaliers. He averaged over 26 minutes a game which was third on the Cavs team and he put up 8.8 points per a game which was fourth on the team. Looking past the solid numbers Eyenga looked like a very big project. He seemed to have no clue what was going on a lot of the time on the court, which resulted in little to none off the ball movement. He would make moves on offense that looked promising but you knew he was never going to score with them. He averaged less than one assist a game and 2.2 rebounds, so when he wasn’t trying to score he wasn’t doing much else either. Eyenga showed that he has offensive potential when the ball is in his hands but he will need a quite a few more years of seasoning in Europe before he is ready for the NBA.

4. The Summer League doesn’t provide definite answers

While players like Beaubois and Jerebko played well and players such as Omri Casspi and Serge Ibaka tended to struggle, Summer League isn’t the final answer. This was only one week of basketball and the real NBA game is different than Summer League. Summer League lets us see who we think has potential, but it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Both Casspi and Ibaka are reported to have been signed by their NBA teams so they will be in the NBA next year. Casspi will play better with better players around him as he is better suited for a role player position and Ibaka is still very young and still developing. Casspi averaged only 8 points a game and Ibaka 5 but those numbers could change once the season starts. We have some answers from the Summer League, but watch out for how these young Europeans develop into the season.

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Tags: Christian Eyenga, Jonas Jerebko, Omri Casspi, Rodrigue Beaubois, Serge Ibaka