Today at 11:00 am Mountain the defending NBA Champions the Miami Heat will face off against the Utah Jazz in Orlando. Well, it will be our summer league teams facing off against on another. And honestly, if you are a veteran of the Summer league you know that not every single guy who steps on the court will be a future NBA player.
The game should be on NBA TV and/or online somewhere. (NBA League pass?)
And the Heat roster boasts such talent as: Travis Leslie, Myck Kabongo, James Ennis, Jarvis Varnardo, D.J. Stephens, Ricky Sanchez, Damion James, J.R. Giddens, LeRon Dendy, Jackie Carmichael, and the powerful Dewayne Dedmon. A lot of these names probably mean nothing to people who did not finish NBA Draft season with a 150 person big-board.
And to be fair to the league, the majority of our roster isn't much better. but we do have Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Jeremy Evans, Rudy Gobert, and one of John Stockton's kids to be happy about. Kevin Murphy would have been on our squad too -- but he was just traded. Our next PG in our PG trio will be Jerel McNeal who will look to impress and sign on with the Jazz moving forward. A number of the dudes on our team were parts of the Free Agent Mini camp as well (Chris Roberts, Rodney Green, William Buford, Drew Gordon, Rick Jackson, and Rashid Mahalbasic). Clearly. I'm pulling for the guy named Rasheeeeed, just like last year I was going for Salah Mejri.
Anyway, the main story to this game should be the BEST PG in this draft class going up against the UNDRAFTED FORGOTTEN PG of this draft class. Many sites have been writing about Burke as the future Rookie of the Year, and Kabongo as the top under-the-radar guy of this year. We know form Summer league that really none of this matters on some small gym's court -- years ago we saw Greg Ostertag dominate Tim Duncan; but the history books know who is the superior player. Myck may have a chip on his shoulder right now -- but we know who will ultimately be the more brilliant player down the line.
So we get Burke/Kabongo today. Which should heavily favor our guy because Burke is on the better team, with better finishers, and has more translatable 1 on 1 skills. And, ahem, he should be the Rookie of the year.
This is the game thread as well -- so come in, come early, and everyone have a good time!