
NBA Summer League 2023: Hot Takes for Wembanyama, Top Players from Day 3 in Las Vegas
The opening weekend of Las Vegas Summer League wrapped up Sunday night, capping off an excellent first three days of action in Sin City.
The NBA's future stars continued to put on a show with a number of impressive performances taking place throughout the night, showing a bit more comfort and confidence on summer's biggest stage following the first round of games.
Here are some of the main talking points from Day 3 in Vegas.
Victor Wembanyama with a Bounce Back Performance
Blame his Vegas debut on a case of first game jitters, but Victor Wembanyama came to show out for the encore.
Wembanyama had his skills on full display Sunday night in the Spurs' loss against the Portland Trail Blazers, demonstrating why he is considered the best prospect of this generation.
After putting up just nine points and eight rebounds on poor efficiency in his Summer League opener Friday, the 7-foot-5 alien exploded for 27 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and a steal on 9-of-14 shooting from the field in 27 minutes of action.
Just an overall much, much better showing from the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft.
Following his debut, a lot of detractors were quick to judge the future star's first NBA experience.
But after Sunday night, the haters seemed to have lost feeling in their Twitter fingers as Wembanyama performed like everyone expected him to following a tremendous few seasons in France.
In fact, it was quick turnaround, even by NBA Twitter standards.
The Spurs next game will be Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Jabari Smith Jr. Continues to Evolve
It's no secret that Jabari Smith Jr.'s rookie season didn't go to plan.
The No. 3 overall pick in the 2022 draft had a decent but inconsistent first campaign in the NBA with the Houston Rockets as he averaged 12.8 points and 7.2 rebounds on 40.8 percent shooting from the field, making the All-Rookie Second-Team.
But Smith looks ready to take a strong leap this upcoming season with a great start to his second Summer League stint.
After dropping 33 points and hitting the game-winning buzzer-beater in the Rockets' opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, the former Auburn star followed that up with another sizzling performance.
Smith was even better Sunday, giving the Detroit Pistons buckets all night long in another win, pouring in 35 points to go along with seven rebounds, six assists, one steal and a block on 12-of-24 shooting from the field.
He has arguably put himself in the driver's seat for Summer League MVP over these first two games and is looking much more like the potential two-way star that he was advertised to be when he entered the NBA.
And Twitter was uber-impressed by his output Sunday.
The Rockets and Smith will be back in action on Tuesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Brandon Miller Struggles Again
Summer League typically isn't the best place for knee-jerk reactions—but this year's No. 2 overall pick seems to have some Hornets fans starting to get a little nervous.
Brandon Miller had a rough time of things once again Sunday, this time against the Los Angeles Lakers, scoring 10 points on a rough 4-of-18 shooting from the field and 0-of-7 from three-point range.
He did, however, put up eight rebounds, four assists and a steal in a losing effort.
This comes after he had 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting in a win against the Spurs on Friday night in his Vegas debut. So, it's been an inefficient few games thus far for the former Alabama star.
What perhaps has been most concerning is the three-point shooting, considering that Miller shot 38.4 percent from beyond the arc in his lone collegiate season. The shooting ability was what helped separate him from other prospects like Scoot Henderson.
And Twitter was ready to jump on Miller for his early struggles.
Miller will continue his summer league journey on Tuesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers at 8:30 p.m. ET.

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