NBA Summer League 2023: Hot Takes About Top Players from Day 5 Las Vegas Results

The main attractions of this year's Summer League in Las Vegas are no longer playing with Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson both sidelined, but there were still a number of impressive performances during Tuesday's slate of games.

Most notably, No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller silenced some of his doubters after a slow start to Summer League but may not have even been the best player on the floor for the Charlotte Hornets against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Elsewhere, the Milwaukee Bucks had no answers for David Duke Jr., while Cam Whitmore hinted at his overall potential for the Houston Rockets.

Here is a look at some of the highlights from Tuesday's action.

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Hornets' Future on Full Display

Miller is going to be under a spotlight for the Hornets every time he takes the floor, and Tuesday's 97-93 loss to the Trail Blazers was no different.

After all, Charlotte decided to take him instead of Henderson with the No. 2 overall pick, and it was perhaps fair to have some concerns when the Alabama product got off to a slow start in Summer League.

But he showed just why the Hornets liked him so much in his latest outing.

Miller finished with 26 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and three made three-pointers and demonstrated how he can impact the game in so many ways as a matchup problem with size and shooting touch.

Yet he wasn't even the leading rookie scorer on his own team, as Nick Smith Jr., whom the Hornets selected with the No. 27 pick, poured in 33 points on 13-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from deep.

Social media had plenty of love for both:

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Duke Leads Nets to Win

Summer League isn't all about rookies.

Duke saw action for the Brooklyn Nets in each of the last two seasons, although he was just a secondary contributor who averaged 12.6 minutes per game. Perhaps he will see more time in 2023-24 if Tuesday's showing was any indication.

The Providence product stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in a dominant 92-71 win over the Bucks. He might have seen more minutes and put up even better numbers if the game was closer.

Milwaukee didn't exactly have Giannis Antetokounmpo out there trying to stop him, but Duke caught the eye of NBA Twitter:

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Cam Whitmore Looks Like Double-Double Threat

Whitmore falling to No. 20 overall was one of the biggest surprises on draft day, but the Rockets are surely glad he did.

Houston has plenty of promising youngsters in Jabari Smith Jr., Jalen Green and Amen Thompson, but Whitmore belongs on that list. He was the Big East Rookie of the Year in his one season at Villanova and looked like someone who can put up numbers in his first campaign in the NBA.

He finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in a 105-92 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. While there was plenty to work on considering he was an ugly 1-of-8 from three-point range with six turnovers, he also scored in the lane and battled on the boards.

His showing drew some reactions:

Whitmore shot a respectable 34.3 percent from deep at Villanova, so the shooting may come. If it does and he continues to score inside while grabbing rebounds, he should be an impact player from the first game of the 2023-24 season.