Overreacting To The NBA Summer League

The 2025 NBA Summer League has concluded, and as usual, the reactions and overreactions were as much a part of the 16-day, three-city event as the games themselves. This year, the four-team tournaments in Salt Lake City and San Francisco tipped off barely a week after the NBA Draft was held, and basketball aficionados were eager to see the newest NBA talent perform for the first time wearing their NBA team colors. The summer league, which annually culminates in an 11-day tournament in Las Vegas featuring all 30 NBA franchises and crowns a champion, also provides an opportunity for 2nd-year NBA players as well as veteran free agents playing in lower domestic leagues or overseas to impress NBA scouts. But before the end of the very first day of summer league play in Utah, featuring the fifth pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Ace Bailey, the annual ritual of fans overreacting to the NBA Summer League had already started.

The Critics Are Ready To Pounce

Over the years, the NBA Draft has evolved. No longer is the day a celebration of the seasoned four-year college senior who managed to rise to the top of the sport and earned the honor of early selection on draft day. With rule changes and the growing influence of international players, draft day now belongs to the youngster, usually just one year removed from his high school graduation day. NBA scouting departments are now elaborate enough to get good reads on players from all parts of the world. None of these kids are finished products, and once the earliest draftees are determined, the basketball community wastes no time letting the players know just how unfinished they are.

Ace Bailey of the Utah Jazz found that out right away.

Playing on what is now his home court, the fans cheered wildly whenever he touched the ball, but after an 8-point, 3-for-13 shooting performance, Bailey, still a month shy of his 19th birthday at the time, was already being labeled a bust by many detractors. True enough, the expectations were high as Bailey was projected as a top-three selection in the 2025 NBA Draft. The microanalysis of his overall game, with emphasis on his flaws, could be read or heard anywhere the sport was being discussed. To Bailey’s credit, he bounced back with a nice performance in his second game. He needs work, but he has a very clear and coveted NBA skill. He can score.

Bailey can take solace in the fact that NBA stars like Victor Wembanyama and Trae Young were also heavily scrutinized after early subpar summer league performances. Fortunately, the summer league is not a predictor of NBA success.

The 19-Year-Old In A Lion’s Den

So this 19-year-old gets his name called on draft night as a first-round pick and is automatically rewarded with a guaranteed contract that reaches eight figures over four years. For 2025 draftees, the top three selections earn a cool minimum of $50 million. While there are some twenty-somethings among the 30 first-round selections, the early picks are largely speculative, based on potential.

So what about the other approximately 400 summer league participants?

The young, skinny, early draftees are the only players who walk onto the NBA Summer League court with guaranteed contracts outside of the handful of participants who were on NBA rosters the previous season, usually second-year players. Otherwise, we’re talking about undrafted players from the draft held a few days earlier, second-round selections from the latest draft (who tend to be college upperclassmen in their early to mid-twenties), and a bunch of veteran free agents looking for a spot on an NBA roster. These guys can be anywhere from 23 to 30 years old, most of whom we’ll never see again until next year’s NBA Summer League.

Grown men.

In addition, there are a limited number of NBA roster spots available, so the competition is already fierce. Add to that the summer league rules that allow a player to commit ten personal fouls before disqualification, instead of the usual six. So the young player with a high school body and a guaranteed contract gets to compete against grown men without a contract and desperately competing for an NBA roster spot.

Grown men with TEN FOULS in their pockets.

I’d load manage, too.

Many of the highly-rated rookies and second-year players were shut down after two or three summer league games, much to the disappointment of the fans who made the trek to Las Vegas.

Patience Is Needed

The Brooklyn Nets used the 8th pick (and their first of an unprecedented five first-rounders) of the 2025 NBA Draft on the 6’9″ Egor Demin, a 19-year-old who played point guard during his one year at Brigham Young University. The pick was widely panned by both fans and basketball pundits who felt a) the player would have been available later and b) there were players still on the board who were considered better.

This young man will need thick skin because there is at least a small group of fans who will dissect every move he makes because, based on someone else’s projected mock draft, he’s considered a “reach.” Initial scouting reports suggested his shooting and ball handling needed improvement, though he’s considered a cerebral player with excellent court vision and passing ability. And like most 19-year-old basketball hopefuls, he needs to get stronger.

After Demin’s first summer league game, where he had a couple of turnovers off the dribble, had trouble getting to the basket, and didn’t register an assist, his critics were loud. And over the next couple of days, when players selected after Demin had better summer league debuts, the noise grew even louder:

“He’s slow!” “He can’t dribble!” “He’s not athletic!” “He can’t get to the basket!” “He can’t shoot!” “He needs to get stronger.” “Wasted pick!” “We should have drafted_______ ______!”

Three days later, Demin shot 4-for-13 in a loss to the Wizards.

“He’s slow!” He can’t dribble!” “He’s not athletic!” “He can’t get to the basket!” “He can’t shoot!” “He needs to get stronger.” “Wasted pick!” “We should have drafted_______ ______!”

Only after he scored 14 on 5-for-8 shooting, including four from long range and a breakaway dunk did it get a little quieter. But after every game going forward, we will hear the same criticisms, none of which will be remedied overnight. Patience is needed.

Demin can also be comforted (in a twisted sort of way) by the first game struggles of the top overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks. We’ve been hearing about this kid since he entered high school, but he shot 5-for-21 in his first summer league game and was immediately called overrated by some skeptics.

Then he scored 31 points in his second game before being shut down for the remainder of the tournament by his team..

Summer League Win-Loss Records Don’t Matter

Some of the more impatient among us put too much stock in the summer league win-loss records of their teams and tie those performances to regular-season projections. But when you consider the teams start playing just a few days after being assembled, and most of the players involved won’t end up on NBA rosters (or receive limited playing time if they do), the play will be choppy, and someone has to win.

Since 2014, four of the ten summer league titles have been won by either the Portland Trailblazers or the Sacramento Kings (two each), with neither considered an NBA title contender during that time. The Charlotte Hornets, who have not qualified for the NBA playoffs in ten years, won the 2025 NBA Summer League championship. Although they appear to be headed in the right direction, they will not be considered contenders for some time. The summer league performances of the younger players don’t always carry over to the regular season, and your top-performing veteran free agents might not even make the NBA roster. Job openings are limited.

Weaknesses Won’t Be Fixed Overnight

Despite repeated demands that our younger players get stronger, shoot better, defend better, and make better decisions, all these improvements come over several years if they happen at all. Most of the 18, 19, and 20-year-olds drafted in the early stages are developmental players selected early because of perceived upside. The 23-year-old rookie is usually closer to being NBA-ready, but might not improve as much over time. Some franchises would rather not bother with waiting for a younger player to develop and prefer the more experienced rookie. And there’s nothing wrong with it.

For the sake of our health, it’s better to acknowledge the inexperience of the younger players and enjoy watching their improvement over time. If something’s there, one of our team’s many developmental coaches will tap into it.

It’s even better to ignore these mock drafts, for we won’t know who the “reaches” or “steals” are until a few years later. History has proven the draft to be a crapshoot. Players selected with one of the top three picks have had short NBA careers; others selected in the second round become perennial All-Stars. When Giannis Antetokounmpo was selected 15th in the 2013 NBA Draft, some publications gave the Milwaukee Bucks a low grade on the “next day” Draft Report Card, with one publication suggesting he would never set foot on an NBA court. But even he took a few years to develop, and the future Hall-of-Famer has never looked back.

The NBA Summer League produces some nice stories. There are usually a few undrafted players who earn a training camp spot based on their performance. But even they’ll have a difficult time gaining solid footing on an NBA roster from year to year, as there are too few spots available and too many guaranteed contracts to accommodate everyone who deserves a spot.

So just as it’s a fruitless exercise to expect a 19-year-old to be a finished NBA product from Day One, it’s equally presumptuous to see an unknown player perform well for your summer league squad, and start figuring out where he fits into your favorite team’s regular-season rotation, even if your team is not considered a playoff contender. The restrictions proscribed by the current NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement make it even tougher to project.

So now all we can do is wait, and we’re entering the NBA’s dead period of August and September with no games, a few free agent signings and trades, the 2025-26 schedule release, and some silly Top 100 player rankings for folks to fight about. So we’ll have to wait anyway.

In October, training camps will open with the pre-season games to follow, which will give us something else to overreact to.

Because that’s what we do.