Cavs: Previewing all of their Summer League games

Previewing Cavs’ Summer League: Game 1 – Houston Rockets

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Houston Rockets: Aug. 8th, 6:30 pm ET, ESPN2

One of the very first games in Las Vegas will feature two teams that just added cornerstone prospects in the 2021 NBA Draft. One pick before the Cavs took Evan Mobley third overall, the Houston Rockets took teenage shooting guard Jalen Green.

Green is a hyper-athletic 2-guard who might be able to drop 20 a game as early as his rookie season. He can jump out of the gym, and fans watching in-person and at home should be treated to a few highlight dunks. The Rockets want to see what they have in Green, so he should get plenty of run in Vegas.

The Rockets had a busy draft, and all four of their first round picks will be showing up in Summer League. They traded back into the middle of the first round to take Turkish center Alperen Sengun, who dominated the Turkish league at age 18. How does his game translate to an NBA environment?

Houston added another European big man at pick No. 23, taking Usman Garuba. The 6’8″ big might be the best defender in the draft other than Mobley, and he is so good already that he will be coming to Las Vegas by way of Tokyo as he was playing for the Spanish National Team.

Josh Christopher is a raw guard who can flat-out score and needs to prove whether he can do that efficiently; he’ll probably take the second-most shots of any Rockets player in Vegas. KJ Martin was their second round pick in 2020 and the son of former NBA player Kenyon Martin. Matthew Hurt is a sharpshooting 4 who went undrafted out of Duke.

All in all, there are plenty of intriguing young players for fans of the Cavs to enjoy watching as the two teams face off on Sunday evening.