2023 Summer League Recap

I will be gone for the next two weeks unless I'm breaking news goes down. So do me a favor. Drop that generic ass beat. This should be Rihanna all sad. The Summer League exhibition in Las Vegas that nearly killed me is over. Google for yourself really fast in me the Las Vegas throat. It's not what you think it means. It really is not. That's what I had pause for the last nine days in Las Vegas. Turns out the frequency of my voice doesn't penetrate pause at the club.

You know what I'm saying. A title game between the Rockets and the Calves ended tonight. Do you know that the Cleveland Cavaliers were thirty to one to win the whole Summer League? Did you know of that? Just a beat down over the Rockets. The Rockets hadn't lost a game before Amani Bates and friends came through with the Tomahawk to decapitate the Houston Rockets. Did you watch it? No, I know you didn't. Don't even lie. Cam Whitmore, by the way, one MVP. We'll talk about that in a

little bit. Remember he was expected projected to be a top five pick, and then even the team that's light years ahead of everyone else, the Golden State Warriors, passed on him so that he goes to the Houston Rockets at twenty, which begs the question, though, does anyone really give a shit about the end of the Summer League?

A lot of people joking in the Twitter streets saying that it should have been shut down after the first weekend most big league players leave big parties tendem only happened in the first few days, which is actually a lie considering that the WNBA parties were absolutely lit. Cannice Parker was getting busy on the dance floor anyway, I digress.

ESPN coverage takes a dive like broadcasters you've never heard of, and Isaiah Thomas start debating the usefulness of the silent e in the English language, like that's where we're at in the summer leagues. Teams shut high draft picks down after the second game, interest in buzz memes by Joe's Tsaiah starts to weigh on the internet. It becomes one of those boo boom, boom boom. It's like just straight dust mothballs in the Twitter streets. So who cares about

the second half of Summer League? Does anyone actually give a shit who wins the tournament? That's a very complicated question. It depends on who you ask. If you are Ausar Thompson, if you were aiming Thompson a fifth pick in the draft, top five lottery pick, you probably don't care. I mean, that affects your life in absolutely no way. Are you worried about the Warren Lagarry Summer League ring and the

MVP trophy? The answer, no, shade to Warren in the Summer League MVP Trophy, but no, Like that does not affect you at all. Like you see Summer League as a way to announce your arrival to the league, to show out, to show your teammates what's up, to show the batties out there. Who needs to be putting a target on your back. You're already getting four years, five

years guaranteed. You're probably wrapped by Bill Duffy. You're probably got multiple endorsement deals, already, set up gatorade cases in your garage, shoes on, shoes on shoes. What else do you need? Life's good. So if you win the Summer League, I mean, it's just you're just sitting there in street clothes, popping a bottle of Rose Champagne, get your mug on ESPN Torque with Holly Row and navigate your new found fate.

But if you are an undrafted free agent, if you're a second round pick, the championship game, getting to the championship game where eyeballs are on you important, eyeballs are on you, very important. It's an extra game in front of a national TV audience. It's an opportunity to showcase your skills to your coaches and your organization. And more importantly, if you don't latch onto your original team in the Summer League, it's more important that you show yourself to

other teams like Max Struce. Max Streuce initially impressed at the Bulls Summer League while secretly catching the eye of Andy Ellisberg and pat Riley, and then he parlayed that into a ten day contract with the Heat and into a sixty three million dollar contract with the Cavs. That is what the exposure at summer league can do for a player who very badly needs exposure. Even if fans

aren't in the stands, they are. It's a convention, baby, they're executives and scouts, and they still remain and they are everywhere like fleas, like flies, like rodents. They are putting in the time watching Orlando versus Dallas yuck at nine pm yuck at the Cock Center, yuck on the last Friday night of Summer league. Yuck. And they think about it like it's Game seven of the Western Conference Finals.

Kobe Buffkin might as well be Kobe Bryant to them to like third string scout who lives for this shit. He just wants to talk about wingspan and like hip size and mobility. That's him. That's his shit. And it's a good thing too, because the vast majority of summer league roster players never make it to the NBA, but a ton of them are gonna play professionally somewhere. Summer League will give him instant credibility, instant access to their

tape where you cook a lottery pick. He's been touted as the next best thing, and you know what, you twisted his ankles up. That is how a kid from Towson ends up making seven figures a year at Olympiacos or Fenner Bacchi or Leon a Bug or any of the one hundred euro teams that exist there. And some of these guys they parlay euros success then as a path back to the league as a scout or executive or a coach, as brand ambassadors. It's corporate liaison, and

god forbid, maybe they actually make it to the league. League. Talk to Patrick Beverley about that. They just want to be surrounded in the game that they love. They're willing to spend years traveling by bus, probably at the little tippy top of the bus, like those double deckers in the dusty roads and the icy snow conditions and the Balkans, just to figure out a way to play one more season, just to figure out a way to win at any level. Some of these guys returned the Summer League to start

the process all over again, like moths butterflies. That's kind of beautiful to me. So here's what we're not gonna do. We are not mocking the end of Summer League because we didn't see Chet Holmgren, or we didn't see Victor wembin Yama. By the way, I figured out a way to say his name. It's not Wambayama anymore. It's wembin Yama. Okay, So we're good there. Summer League isn't just for them. It's for Wendell Green and Luke Travers and Craig Porter Junior,

all of whom have played for the Cavs. It's for Trevor Huggins and Matthew Mayer, har Harrold and James Hoff of the Rockets. This means something to them. So celebrate Summer League from beginning to end. It's like the end of a marathon. You're too tired to celebrate it properly, but you know you did something and you accomplish something great. I cannot wait for that next year. I absolutely flourish at Summer League. It is the best thing in the NBA.

Event Wise, I'll see you guys next year. So the Summer League released it's awards directly following the championship game. The MVP of the Summer League, Cam Weird body concern, medical issues, mental concern. Whipmore. Yeah, yeah, that guy, the guy that was supposed to be a top five draft pick that they thought Houston might pick at four over Amon Thompson. Oh no, he slipped all the way to twenty and then ended up on the same damn team

that was thinking about drafting in the fucking first place. Well, I'm not so sure why that happened again. Is it his medical Is it because Cam Whitmore doesn't smile for the cameras, Yes, sir, No, sir. Oh, I'm so happy to be here, sir. I don't know. Some people said his knees and his ankles were all fucked up. He looked pretty damn good to me. He looked pretty damn good to me. He was consistently the best player on the floor as soon as Jabari Smith got shut down

most of the Summer League, he was incredible. If Keyante George didn't get injured, maybe he wins it. But his slash line was crazy. Twenty six and two and three steals a game. Cam Whitmore was everywhere. Did you see his jumper? If you look at he is a pro everything about Cam Whitmore head two toes is pro basketball player, jump shot, wet, strong, athletic, can dunk, can get out into transition, decent form in terms of his jump shot, arc release all that. He also made first Team All

Summer League, which was also announced. Here's the first full team, Kyante George for guard Sam Who the fuck is Sam Merrill? Congratulations Sam Merril, We got you. Viral, my guy, we got you. Viral. Hunter Tyson at the forward spot also got a little love on the IG page. Cam Whitmore and Orlando Robinson, who was ballin'. Here's the second team, Max Christy in the backcourt, Javon Freeman, Liberty who are you? Where'd you come from? And oh my god, baby Tatum,

Baby Tatum, Xavier Moon from the LA Clippers. I slanted this man, I said, the Clippers at such a bad roster. And you know what, he did nothing but make shots. That's all he did. I don't think he missed a shot really in five Summer League games. Every time I saw him put one in the hoop, it was like the thirty six of thirty six in the front court Amani Baits from the Calves, Jabari Smith from the Rockets, and jay Lynn Wilson, another Kansas grad plan for the

Brooklyn Nets. I'm sure Keegan Murray would have made the list. I'm sure Scoot would have made the list, but listen, they didn't play enough games. I am especially impressed with Amani Baits. He looked like a stud right away. He looks very solid. Hunter Tyson seems primed to figure out a way to be into the roawation steal some of Jeff Green and Bruce Brown's minutes. Why did they pay Reggie Jackson and not Jeff Green. I'm just still kind of confused by that. But what's moving forward? I love

Summer League. It's even getting busier and busier and more fun every year. Who will be the next young undrafted or late first round, early second round to make the first team All Summer League. We're gonna have to find out. Let's move forward to the tee, a little tea around the NBA iced tea, hot tea, any tea. Before we break for the month, we're gonna have to talk about what's going on. In Philly. Yeah, of all the teams during the start of a very sleepy season, the Sixers

are in disarray. I hate to see that, I do. Philly is now facing not one but two potential star player crisis, the first leading directly into the second. Domino that seems to fall just as often on the floor as a domino. So the latest, I'm really surprised you didn't find that to be funny. So the latest is that the NBA's Butch Cassidy and Sun Dance, Darryl Morey and James Harden aren't like peanut butter and chocolate anymore, aren't like peas and carrots anymore, aren't like macaroni and

cheese and greens anymore. Their relationship, according to Sham's big word, fractured, fractured, fractured, Oh boy, big time. Harden is of course looking for a long term deal. He gave them a mench move last year, took a team friendly two year deal. He opted in because he's like, you will not pay me, I will be traded. He let the team sign PJ. Talker and Daniel I fucked the COVID tester in the bubble house. Junior. Sham's reported Sham's reported excuse me, Sean'm sorry.

The relationship between James Harden, I almost call him joms Harden because of Sean's Joms Harden and Darryl Moury is essentially severed. Uh, it's actually worse than fractured, severed. Do you want your leg to be fractured or do you want your leg to be severed? Okay, that's how I process that. It's essentially fractured throughout this process. Now the Sixers are uninterested in signing up Big Gang James long

term because why, I mean, you know why. But it's not gonna be easy trading him to where he wants to go, which is the La Clippers. So we've got a big old fashioned Western standoff here. We got Darryl Moury, who outlasted even Ben Simmons and figured out a way to get James Harden for him, versus James Harden, who all of a sudden seems to have eaten his way into another fat suit alongside of little Baby who still looks fantastic with perfect skin, all in the span of

two years. The unexpected outcome of all of this is that Joel Embiid is maybe thinking about playing for another team. Why do you ask, oh, well, because Harden doesn't appear to want to come back. Buckle up, folks. Joella Embiid said this when Rachel Nichols asked him how he felt when he heard the news about James asking out of Philly. He said, disappointed, But then again, I also understand that

it's a business. You know, people make decisions, and I'm more appreciative of the way that he's handled the whole situation. We're gonna be boys forever. I want him to come back, obviously, so we can go out and accomplish what we want, which is to win a championship, which is obviously not

a possibility. I mean, everybody knows that anyway. He elaborated further to Uninterrupted to Maverick Carter Lebron, James is a business manager in a like Ted talk environment, in a way that made some Sixers fans very fearful, he said this, I just want to win a championship, whatever it takes. I don't know where that's gonna be, whether that's Philly or anywhere else. I just want to have a chance. Say it ain't So that's the beginning of a Damian

Lillard situation. I know that because I've been involved in that or anywhere else. I just want a chance. That is dame. That's how it starts, and it ends with guys like Joel Embiid hosting a trophy for the New York Knicks or the Oklahoma City Thunder. I know. Joelle came out and said on Twitter that he was trolling because that's his middle name when he wants to get

people all riled up. But so did Damian Lillard when he was in Wherever the fuck Overseas and all of a sudden, coincidentally, a big Willie style will Smith started playing Welcome to Miami, A'm benito a Miami on the IG Live and he was like, oh, oh that's a total EDG. Does not mean anything. And then all of a sudden, like nine days later, it was like, Damian Lillard requests to be traded to the Miami Heat. Oh,

maybe that's just why he thought of it. Maybe it was just a coincidence of the song and you just had a little divine revelation. No shit, that song's on, I want to go to Miami now. This is a crazy, crazy offseason. It's all fun and Games Sixer fans, until your star player has one intended destination that is not the team that he is currently on. Joe Ellenbiid is not making the Sixers feel any more cozy inside about what's happening. Funny funny how the Sixers feel like they're

about to become the next Portland Trailblazers. That's all the time that we have for the heat check. A little housekeeping news, we are taking a well earned content vacation for the next two weeks. I probably will still be on TikTok and Instagram, but I will not be doing the pod. Things are slowing all the way down, but we will be back. In early August. We were preparing you for the new NBA season talking about how these

teams look moving forward. In the meantime, check out the feed for past episodes, many episodes which drop unexpectedly, and please follow the Heat Check on social because we'll keep pumping out content at Trista Crik on TikTok ig this heat check on TikTok and do not forget to download, subscribe, and please tell all your friends, every single damn one of them. And thank you to Nick Berlansky, my beautiful producer for making this season possible, cutting up episodes, making

sure the episodes go out right and tight. And thank you to all the fans who have been rocking with me for now three full NBA seasons. We will see you next time.