The Cleveland Cavaliers did not have a star-studded roster heading into Las Vegas Summer League. While other teams were trotting out lottery picks and key rotation players to lead their Vegas squads, the Cavs had just one rostered player (Sam Merrill) and a collection of two-way players and G Leaguers.
Yet at the end of the road, it was the Cavs hoisting the trophy, winning the franchise’s first Summer League Championship. It’s not quite the 2016 title, but it is validation that the Cavs have talent at the back end of their organization that can help the stars win in Cleveland. The Cavs went 6-0 all told in Las Vegas, destroying all comers.
Who stood out from the Cavaliers’ 99-78 demolition of the Houston Rockets? Let’s break down three studs and two duds from the impressive showing. First, though, let’s hit on one honorable mention who went from unknown to renown in the desert.
Honorable Mention: Craig Porter Jr.
Craig Porter Jr. grew up in a nondescript town in Indiana, played his way from junior college to Wichita State, and left draft night unselected by any of the NBA’s 30 teams. His story isn’t unique, but it’s the kind of story that doesn’t usually end with a long NBA career.
Porter is on track to prove his doubters wrong, though, and announced himself to Cavaliers fans in a major way in Las Vegas after signing a two-way contract with Cleveland. Porter had just eight points in the Championship Game, but his fingerprints were all over the game: nine rebounds, eight assists, a steal and a block.
Porter averaged 12 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists in six games in Vegas, doing everything needed by this team to propel them to victory. He looks like a future rotation player for the Cavs as he has already embraced his role in the league.
Stud No. 1: Emoni Bates
The most-discussed player heading into the Cavaliers’ Summer League was Emoni Bates, the former five-star recruit whose terrible two years in college saw him tumble to the 49th pick in last month’s draft. Fans of the Cavs (and likely the front office as well) were watching Bates closely in Las Vegas to see which version of the player they would get.
They got every version they could think of, not simply game-to-game but play-to-play. Bates’ overall stat line in the title game leaps off the page as a positive: 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, with a pair of 3-pointers and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line.
Bates certainly had some electric moments in the game, including a breakaway dunk in the first quarter that punctuated the Cavs’ early-game demolition of the Rockets. After tallying just three assists total in five games he had a whopping four against Houston, and his best pass didn’t count as it resulted in free throws.
The other side of Bates’ profile was on display, too, as he had a number of jarring blunders as well. He pulled a heat-check multiple times in the game, pulling up for a wild shot despite the excellent offense the team was generating when they ran their sets. He lunged wildly for steals multiple times and did the same crashing the offensive glass when he had no realistic hope of getting a rebound, in both cases putting himself out of the play and leading to points for the Rockets.
Bates had a good game and a good summer session. He wasn’t transcendent, he didn’t deliver on any upside he brought from his high school days and he didn’t prove his doubters wrong. The Emoni Bates experience continued to be a wild ride, and thankfully for the Cavs, the arrow pointed up more than down for the title game.
Dud No. 1: Pete Nance
The familial connections were strong with the Cavaliers’ Las Vegas Summer League team, with Isaiah Mobley and Pete Nance both playing key roles for the squad. Larry Nance Jr. was a frequent presence on the sideline rooting for his brother, and many Cavs fans are excited at the prospect of a third Nance coming through the organization.
With Sharife Cooper sitting out the title game, Nance was the sixth “key” player in the rotation for Cleveland and played more minutes than any other bench player. He played 19 minutes against the Rockets and averaged 20.4 minutes per game in six Las Vegas appearances.
Nance had his moments during Summer League, but Monday night didn’t contain any of them. Every player who saw the court on Monday night had a positive net rating except for one: Pete Nance. He scored just two points, mainly just standing in the corner while other Cavs players generated offense.
With all of that being said, Nance did end up with four rebounds, three assists and two blocks; he was hardly a non-factor entirely. Yet the lineups with Nance on the court performed noticeably worse than the other configurations; some of that is likely happenstance, but this wasn’t Nance’s best game. He’ll need to lean on other merits to try and make a run at a roster spot of some kind in Training Camp.
Stud No. 2: Sam Merrill
Sam Merrill played just five games in Las Vegas Summer League, not the maximum six, and yet he still set volume records for his shooting. He hit 25 total 3-pointers, shooting 44.6 percent from deep on a combination of smooth spot-ups and gutsy pull-up jumpers, using his one-dribble sidestep 3-pointer to lethal effect in the title game.
Fresh off making the All-Summer League First Team earlier on Monday, Merrill came out firing against the Houston Rockets. He scored 27 points on a whopping 6-for-12 from long-range. His gravity was tremendous whether or not he had the ball, opening up space inside for his teammates.
For the game, Merrill was a game-best +25, one of the best individual numbers in any game for any player in Las Vegas this year. He was cool and in command of the offense, and head coach Mike Gerrity’s offensive system was built around his two-man game with Isaiah Mobley.
The former Utah State star was even mixing it up on defense, taking a (somewhat questionable) charge and not being completely roasted as he was at times in the semifinal game against the Brooklyn Nets. Merrill would have been a worthy recipient of the MVP and he was a major reason the Cavs won the championship. He almost certainly secured his spot on the Cavs’ roster for next season.
Dud No. 2: Luke Travers
One of the more intriguing players on the Cavaliers’ Summer League squad was Luke Travers, one of two draft-and-stash players for the Cavs last year who played this past season in Australia’s NBL with the Perth Wildcats and will play next year with Melbourne United.
The question for the Cavs was whether Travers is on track to potentially join the team next summer for the 2024-25 season. Throughout Summer League Travers showed off plenty of reasons why he will be a contributor in the NBA…and a few reasons he will not.
The up-and-down nature of his game was on display in the title game on Monday night as well. Travers was a dominant +22 for the game, and he had his moments defensively as the primary option on Cam Whitmore, holding the high-scoring forward to 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting.
At the same time, Travers was at times way too active on the court. He was called for multiple goal-tendings, he had some bewildering turnovers, and he was beaten consistently for rebounds; for all that the Cavs walloped the Rockets, Houston did secure nine offensive rebounds. He scored only six points on the night, a disappointing endcap to an enticing summer session.
Stud No. 3: Isaiah Mobley
The Cleveland Cavaliers won 51 games last season in large part because they started a Mobley. The Cleveland Cavaliers Summer League team went undefeated in large part because they, too started a Mobley. And he was absolutely dominant in leading the Cavs to a title.
Isaiah Mobley looked like a player who was almost “too good” for Summer League, with the combination of strength, skill and savvy that absolutely overwhelmed the Houston Rockets in the championship game. He finished the night with 28 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks. Oh, and the MVP trophy.
Mobley was the centerpiece of the offense, working a lethal two-man game with Sam Merrill. He hit multiple jump shots but also feasted inside, frequently busting out his “too small” celebration when the Rockets were unable to match up with him inside. One game after hitting the game-winning basket, Mobley set the tone early and often.
He was a monster on defense as well, the rim-protecting anchor who helped hold the Rockets to 78 points one game after they scored 115. Houston shot just 38.2 percent from the floor and didn’t shoot a single free throw until the second half of the game. Mobley led a dominant two-way showing from the Cavaliers to secure the title.
The question for Mobley is now how long until he cracks the Cavs’ full-time rotation as the third big; it seems only a matter of time. The Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the competition in Las Vegas and that is a very, very good sign for this team’s depth moving forward.