What We Learned in Summer League

Ah, Vegas Summer League, where NBA hopefuls go to… mostly continue being NBA hopefuls, but every so often some real diamonds in the rough emerge.  This year was no different with two players setting new scoring records for the league and several rookies making impressive debuts.  Too bad none of those players were on the Laker summer squad.

To say that Summer League was uneventful for the Lakers is the understatement of the week, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t glean a few nuggets of information from the happenings of this last week:

• Adam Morrison can still carve up college kids. The Mustache averaged over 20 points per game in his four Summer League appearances, taking advantage of a bunch of fringe NBA prospects, you know, kind of like he did in college when everyone still thought he was good.  Morrison probably still didn’t do enough to earn himself any playing time in the Laker rotation, but he might have made enough of an impression for someone to think he might have more trade value beyond his expiring contract.
• Chinemelu Elonu will be a starter. That’s right, you read it here first.  The Lakers’ sole 2009 draft pick is going to be the opening night starter for the LA D-Fenders.  What?  You didn’t really think I was talking about the Lakers did you?  Elonu showed he could do two things well in Vegas: rebound and foul.  To no surprise, Elonu is a very raw prospect and has a lot of work left to do before the Lakers will even consider moving him up the depth chart.  Plus with DJ Mbenga on the roster, the Lakers have already filled their quota on athletic-but-raw African big men and Mbenga will always get the nod over Elonu because he sounds like a French Cookie Monster.
• Clearly the Lakers don’t care about Summer League. Not only did the Lakers fail to bring in any players who were legit candidates to at least earn a training camp invite, but they couldn’t even muster up the energy to hire a decent coach for the team.  Most teams prefer to send an assistant coach to mentor the team while simultaneously scouting the roster for talent.  The Lakers instead sent Chucky Brown who is an assistant coach, but for the Lakers’ D-League team.  Seriously?  You couldn’t even send the head coach of the freaking D-League team?
• The Lakers aren’t regretting trading the rights to Toney Douglas. Not that this was a big controversy, but the Lakers luxury tax situation forced them to sell their first-round pick to the Knicks.  That pick turned out to be Toney Douglas who ended up playing in just to Summer League games and shot a woeful 3-for-19 from the field.  Yikes.  I know Summer League doesn’t mean much, but when you are getting embarrassed by a bunch of wannebes, that is kind of a problem.

Tags: Adam Morrison, Analysis, Chinemelu Elonu, Summer League