For Cleveland Cavaliers fans, getting an opportunity to watch summer league basketball in Las Vegas has been a lot of fun so far. The team has won all three games to this point in pretty dominating ways, beating the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors and the Memphis Grizzlies. These good vibes have been enjoyable and give fans and analysts an opportunity to speculate on the future of the team and what they might look like in the fall when the NBA season gets started.
The Cavs made it to the playoffs last season but things ended in disappointment as they got beat in five games by the New York Knicks in the first round. Since then we’ve had an NBA Draft, free agency, and now the summer league. With these transaction periods come countless speculations and rumors.
One of the summer league players for the Cavs recently said that this summer league tourney in Las Vegas is more or less a professional AAU tournament, meaning that there are not a lot of strategies involved, and things like defense aren’t necessarily worked on in these glorified scrimmages. It’s exciting to watch the players go up and down the floor, score buckets and play more high-tempo ball but it also isn’t really what we will see in real NBA games during the season.
However, it’s still fun to watch and the Cavs have certainly had a few players stand out to this point. We’re going to highlight a few of these players and do any of them have a realistic opportunity to make the big league club?
Summer League Standout No. 1: Pete Nance
Sometimes your last name can open doors for you if you have the right connections. So it doesn’t hurt Pete Nance that his father Larry Nance was a legendary player in the past for those great Cleveland teams of the late 1980s and early ’90s. This could give the youngster the inside track on making this Cavs squad eventually. He has been given Exhibition-10 contract to enter training camp with a chance to make the roster.
He’s had a good start in these summer league games. In his first game against the Brooklyn Nets, he scored five points, two rebounds, and had a steal in 16 minutes of playing time. In the second game against the Toronto Raptors, Nance got things going a bit more as he added 11 points and had five boards in only 16 minutes.
Finally, on Monday he scored nine points and added a three-pointer in the win against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Cavs fans would be treated to another Nance player potentially playing in Cleveland and that might be a lot of fun for everyone. He’s a hard worker, a big kid standing at 6’10, and he could initially help the post players of Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Right now, the team is lacking a deep bench of big men but Nance could help change that.
He still has a lot to work on improving on the court but his last name can’t hurt.
Summer League Standout No. 2: Craig Porter Jr.
My personal favorite standout of this summer league so far has been Craig Porter Jr. as he is coming from Wichita State, which I’m familiar with because I used to live there. Besides that Porter is an excellent player who’s been underappreciated his entire basketball career from the time he was in high school. Part of that began because he initially struggled academically, but since those early days, he’s turned that part of his game around and has been an outstanding student-athlete.
He’s a hard worker and he’s a very determined individual. He plays excellent defense and has good ball-handling skills for a guard. Could he be an eventual backup player to Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell?
In this tournament, he has performed well coming off the bench earning around 15 to 20 minutes a game. He went 19 minutes in the game against the Brooklyn Nets. He scored eight points, had seven boards and three assists.
Porter started seeing the basket even better in the second game against the Toronto Raptors as he went 5-of-7 from the floor, finishing with 10 points, added six boards, and had two assists.
In this last game against Memphis Grizzlies, Porter was launching shots and finished with 12 points, seven boards, and six assists in a little over 21 minutes of playing time.
He’s already agreed to a two-way contract with the team to help split his time between the Cavs and the Charge in the G-League, but I would not be surprised in the next year or so if he has a more substantial role with the big league squad in Cleveland.
Summer League Standout No. 3: Sam Merrill
Sam Merrill is one of the more veteran players on this Summer League team and has played with the Cavs in the past. Right now, Merrill is absolutely lighting it up from the outside. As I’ve already mentioned this is like a professional AAU tournament so while it’s exciting to see him swish the ball through the hoop, the defense and the competition that he’s playing against isn’t exactly what he’d face in the NBA regular season.
However, he has really done some great things in this tournament this last week. He started with 15 points in the first contest against the Nets. He went 3-of-9 on three-pointers in that game. Then in Game 2 against the Raptors he went for 14 points, including knocking down four from beyond the arc.
Finally, the former Utah State sharpshooter got Cavs Nation talking in the blowout win against the Grizzlies when he went for 27 points by nailing eight three-pointers in only 21 minutes of playing time. That’s a way to make your mark in these games and it could have the Cavs seriously considering adding Merrill’s name to the Wine and Gold’s season roster.
Cleveland certainly needs some shooters. They did pick up a couple of new free agents including veteran Max Strus from the Miami Heat but Merrill is more of a guard and Cleveland needs some real depth behind both Garland and Mitchell.
Merrill is certainly a confident kid and when you listen to him interviewed he’s all about basketball and getting better. Maybe that attitude and determination will earn him that roster spot with the Cavs this fall.
Summer League Standout No. 4: Emoni Bates
Emoni Bates has the biggest name in this group because he was once considered the next LeBron James when he was coming out of middle school. Many of you know the backstory, but he played a year over at Memphis and then transferred and played last year and Eastern Michigan. He was drafted in the second round and has a lot of work to put in before he earns a roster spot with the Cavs. He will likely get that final two-way contract with the team, playing between the Cavs and the Charge.
However, he’s had a very good first three games this summer league and folks are taking notice. Is it enough to give him a spot on the Wine and Gold squad exclusively?
It’s exciting to see a player do well, especially in this summer league but keeping expectations to a minimum should be the norm for most of these players when you are watching these professional AAU tourney games where it’s mostly about trying to give the fans a show with the teams’ offenses.
They’re not focusing on things like defense and that’s an area that Bates has lacked in the past and most likely one reason why he was taken in the second round of the NBA Draft,
We will have to see how he transitions to training camp, and if he puts forth any more effort to earn one of those final Cavs roster spots.
In the meantime, his performances in these first three summer league games have been impressive. In the first game against the Nets, Bates went for 16 points and had six boards. In Game 2 against the Raptors. He tallied 12 points, had eight boards, and blocked a shot. He saved his best game for the Grizzlies this past Monday when he scored 21 points, had two blocks, two steals, and knocked down five three-pointers.
I wrote an article recently about which path would Bates follow and whether he would be successful in the NBA. Right now he’s looking the part of a success story and that’s good for Bates and the Cavs’ future.