NBA Summer League 2025

[Goldstar88]

Thursday?s Lakers-Mavericks NBA Summer League game, which marked the NBA debut of #1 pick Cooper Flagg, averaged 955,000 viewers on ESPN marking the fourth-largest Summer League audience ever on the ESPN networks. The Mavericks? win, which peaked with 1.12 million viewers, trails only Hornets-Spurs in 2023 (Victor Wembanyama?s debut: 1.39M), Pelicans-Knicks in 2019 (Zion Williamson?s debut: 1.61M) and Celtics-Lakers in 2017(Jayson Tatum) (1.1M). via Sports Media Watch

[Who]

Do you notice Charlotte's bench all stand up with their arms in the air whenever Knueppel takes a jump-shot?

They all expect it to go in. Every time he shoots.

[Who]

Salaun is more active athlete than he is a bball player.

Good defense. Good rebounding. A little ball-handling. Not much offense other than finishing around the rim.

I was looking up his shooting numbers last year. Just under 20% of his shots came at the rim he shot 60% on them. The other 80% of his shots he made only 26.5% of them. He took more than 3 times as many 3s as he did have attempts at the rim. About 57% of his shot attempts were 3s despite shooting only 28% on them. So that is about 80% of his shots at the rim or 3 with the other 20% mostly coming within 10 feet of the basket.

I have no idea why his defenders are respecting his 3 point shot so much in this SL game. They are giving up drives to take away a low percentage shot. A lot of this won't translate to the NBA where defenders will make him prove he can hit that shot before giving up the drive.

Salaun also benefitting from the up and down nature of SL. He is a good transition player. Big, quick, long. Tough to stop in transition when he is going to the basket.

[Who]

Where is Ace Bailey? Why isn't he playing today?

Update: Injured. Ruled out. Hip flexor.

[Who]

Cody Williams has been disappointing. Does not look like a player ready to step up and play substantial minutes next season. He has been getting outplayed by Salaun.

Cody Williams settling for low percentage outside jump-shots when Kalkbrenner switches on him. He is a guy who doesn't look like he understands where his scoring opportunities are ... so he just forces up random shots here and there. No rhyme or reason to his scoring attempts. If he used his brain more, he'd be more effective.

[Who]

Walter Clayton Jr has looked great. Some very nice passes. Good scoring. Heady player. Taking good shots. Moving the rock. Playing team ball.

He looks like a guy that could challenge for a starting job by midseason. I Collier has played well also. Keyonte George might end up with more competition for minutes next season.

[Who]

Knueppel has had a bad game.

Not worried about him missing shots. But he hasn't even managed to get many shots off. Only 7 shots in 27mins. He hasn't been reluctant to shoot. He just can't get open.

No real signs of self-creation. Offensively, he is playing like a role player / spot up shooter.

He had a couple of nice drives (not many). He used his body well on them. It was physical into the chest of the defender. He has a sturdy body that takes contact well. Not beating guys with speed but maintaining his drive and balance well due to his strength. Doesn't panic in the lane. Makes smart moves and smart passes. Doesn't get to the rim though.

He didn't get attacked much in one vs ones. He looked fine one vs one but he also wasn't attacked. He looked very slow in team defense. Unable to make timely defensive rotations. He is going to concede a bunch of open shots to opponents by being unable to make defensive rotations quickly enough. I expect he will be taken advantage of in one vs ones as well once attacked.

1 rebound in 29 minutes

[Who]

I Collier is such a feast or famine player.

He throws some stupid high risk passes. So many unforced unnecessary turnovers. Then he does something wonderful by making a pass that few others can make and you start liking him again.

Frustrating player.

[Who]

Liam McNeely 22pts 12reb 6ast

I didn't pay much attention to him during the game. Good activity. Good speed. Made the simple play. Attacked the rim HARD. Both in transition and in the halfcourt. Took the easy high percentage scoring attempts.

Him being white. I was thinking about how few white athletes have athleticism. Most are skilled with low athleticism. Then there are some who are athletic but low skilled. McNeeley looked like that. A lot of his scoring were from athletic & effort plays rather than skill. Same with his rebounding. Hustle plays. He did throw some nice passes though.

It will be interesting to see if his shooting holds up for the rest of SL or if he was just hot today. I am guessing hot today given his shooting numbers in college.

I didn't pay attention to his defense. The commentators criticized his defense at one point. Saying he needed to stay in front of people.

[Goldstar88]

Liam McNeeley is a walking bucket. Finished with 22pts/6ast/12rebs. He was 7-16 from the field, 3-6 from 3pt and 5-5 from the line. Drafted #29 overall. What a steal.

[Who]

Is the whole Charlotte team here?

LaMelo Ball. Brandon Miller. Colin Sexton. Spencer Dinwiddie. All in the crowd / sideline cheering on the team.

[Who]

McNeeley finishing the game instead of Knueppel. McNeeley earned the coach's trust with his play. Knueppel lost the coach's trust with his game.

Ah no, I am wrong - I spoke too soon. Knueppel came back with under 3min to go. Sion James exited the game to make way for Knueppel.

[Who]

Malauch doing some interesting things. Dribbling the ball, spin dribble, shooting 3s. I wasn't expecting that. I thought he was a paint only finisher type of big man.

Tre Johnson looks good for Washington. Sharp.

[Who]

AJ Johnson looks fun. Good mix of handles and scoring touch. It will be interesting to see that guy play more. Looks like he has some talent.

His shooting numbers in limited minutes last year in the NBA were bad but very good in the G-League. Might be something there.

[Who]

Noa Essengue = 5pts 3reb 2stl vs 7 turnovers 23min