NBA Summer League 2023: Hot Takes About Top Players from Day 8 Las Vegas Results
Some top-10 NBA draft picks have been shut down for the remainder of Las Vegas summer league action, but a few of them are still playing out the string as they get ready for their rookie seasons.
Four of them took the court on Friday: the Detroit Pistons' Ausar Thompson, the Washington Wizards' Bilal Coulibaly, the Oklahoma City Thunder's Cason Wallace and the Indiana Pacers' Jarace Walker. Here's a look at how they all did, along with Jalen Hood-Schifino, who went 17th overall to the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Ausar Thompson
The play of the day belonged to the No. 5 overall draft pick, who levitated on this putbank dunk:
Naturally, people have been impressed with his work.
Thompson added an 18-point, 14-rebound double-double in a 79-73 win over the San Antonio Spurs, two days after dropping a statsheet-stuffing 17 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two blocks versus the Toronto Raptors. Needless to say, Thompson has been tremendous and looks ready to ball out come October.
Bilal Coulibaly
The No. 7 overall pick dropped his best summer league performance on Friday, scoring 19 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go with four blocks, four rebounds and three assists.
He brought it on both ends and helped put the exclamation point on a 105-89 win over the Thunder with this dunk:
The Washington Wizards rookie impressed onlookers with his outing:
Overall, it was a highly encouraging performance from the 18-year-old Coulibaly, who has shown incredible maturity thus far.
Cason Wallace
The former Kentucky guard and No. 10 overall pick received plenty of praise for his defensive efforts in the Thunder's aforementioned loss to the Wizards.
Wallace didn't have the greatest offensive game (10 points on 3-of-8 shooting, four turnovers), but he has plenty of time to develop that aspect of his repertoire. His hustle and defensive effort looks NBA ready right now, and that should help him make an immediate impact.
Jarace Walker
The No. 6 overall pick entered Friday with an impressive summer league stat line of 14.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.
He's in line to become a menace on both ends of the floor in the NBA if he reaches his sky-high potential. Like any rookie, there will be some growing pains along the way, though, and Walker experienced some Friday in a 112-91 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Walker shot just 6-of-21 and missed 9-of-10 three-pointers. He ended up with 13 points and five rebounds, but the Mavs outscored the Pacers by 19 with him on the floor.
He was outplayed by fellow first-round pick Olivier-Maxence Prosper, who ended with 18 points and five boards and played great defense.
Ultimately, one tough game doesn't eliminate the fact that Walker has shown flashes of brilliance this summer.
Jalen Hood-Schifino
After turning in some impressive performances over his first few summer league outings, guard Jalen Hood-Schifino struggled mightily in the Lakers' 100-69 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.
While few Lakers players performed well in the blowout loss, it can be argued that Hood-Schifino had the worst outing by far.
The former Indiana University standout went just 3-of-17 from the field, including 2-of-9 from beyond the arc, finishing with eight points, five rebounds, two steals and one assist.
That led to plenty of criticism from fans on Twitter, including a great deal of banter regarding whether the Lakers should have taken Cam Whitmore with the 17th overall pick instead:
Whitmore, who starred collegiately at Villanova, was considered a potential top-five pick entering the 2023 NBA draft, but he surprisingly plummeted in the draft and wasn't taken until the Houston Rockets nabbed him with the 20th overall selection.
In four summer league games, Whitmore is averaging 19.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists, plus he leads all players with 3.5 steals per contest.
Of course, summer league success does not always foreshadow success in actual NBA games, but Whitmore does have the makings of a potential steal in the 2023 draft.
Hood-Schifino likely won't be asked to play a huge role as a rookie for a stacked Lakers team, which is a good thing since Friday's game suggests he has plenty to work on.
