NBA Summer League Schedule: Complete Listings for Thursday's Slate of Games

The first slate of NBA Summer League games is starting to reach its conclusion, as Thursday afternoon's contests represent the penultimate day of games in Orlando.

Always a bit overshadowed by the major summer league festivities in Las Vegas, Orlando's little-engine-that-could event still represents the first opportunity to see plenty of intriguing young players in action.

A total of six lottery selections—Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo, Detroit Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Utah Jazz guard Trey Burke, Boston Celtics forward Kelly Olynyk, Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams and Philadelphia 76ers guard Michael Carter Williams—made the trip, all having varied levels of success.

While it's easy to pass judgement on players based on how they do in summer league, it's a fool's errand. You learn only the slightest bit about these players. If a guy struggles so mightily that he can't even stay on the floor, well, then you might have a problem. But just because a guy like Olynyk is excelling in Orlando doesn't mean he's the second coming of Larry Bird. 

That said, passing judgement on team success at these summer league events is as fatuous as it comes. Teams use summer leagues to scout their new rookies and younger players who need seasoning. They use most of the remaining guys as filler, guys there just to make it a five-on-five affair.

So even though we'll be previewing "games," much of this space will be used to talk about what I've noticed from individual players. Paying the $15 or whatever it was for the right to watch these minor league exhibitions has to be put to use somehow. 

With that in mind, let's take a quick look at Thursday's slate of summer league contests. 

*All games can be watched on NBA Summer League Live.

11 a.m. ET: Indiana Pacers (1-2) vs. Utah Jazz (2-1)

One of the players I was most interested in watching this week was Jonny Flynn. His relative success last season in Australia gave some glimmer of hope that the former lottery bust could find his way onto a shrug-worthy collection of talent on the Pacers bench. Flynn is also playing in Las Vegas for the Los Angeles Clippers, but this looked like a far better opportunity for him to catch on somewhere.

Well, he can't even get off Indiana's summer league bench. Flynn got the dreaded DNP-CD in the Pacers' first summer league contest and has subsequently been pretty bad in the next two. He's shooting only 14.3 percent from the field, while being an uber-aggressive possession hog in the 24 minutes his feet have touched the floor. Not a good look.

The Pacers' much-maligned first-round picks of the last two years, Solomon Hill and Miles Plumlee, have fared far better.

Hill has flashed a nifty all-around game and shocked just about everyone in Orlando with his 22-point, nine-rebound, four-assist performance on Monday, which included three bombs from beyond the arc. It doesn't mean anyone is remotely backing off their assessment of the Hill pick—widely panned at the time—but it's at least enough to make Pacers fans hold their head up high.

Plumlee is doing Plumlee things. He's scoring well around the basket, rebounding well and using his athleticism to swat shots. We're still not looking at much past ninth-man talent here, but Indiana would be pleased with that considering Plumlee got a grand total of 55 minutes of floor time last season.

The Jazz gave Trey Burke the day off on Wednesday, mostly because he needed it. The reigning National Player of the Year in college basketball has struggled mightily in his two summer league contests, scoring 9.5 points per game on an abhorrent 22.2 percent shooting. Burke has failed both beyond the arc and finishing at the rim, which is cause for at least some concern in Utah.

Billed as too small and not quick enough to handle NBA talent, Burke flailing around in two games isn't going to make those criticisms automatically true. But he's done little to dispel them. Considering Burke is the final piece to the Deron Williams trade puzzle, it will be interesting to see if having 24 hours off gets him back into a groove.

Burke's main competition at the point guard spot, Alec Burks, has been very good in limited minutes thus far. It's an unfair comparison, considering Burks is entering his third year in the NBA and will likely hold little weight come training camp time, but it's at least good for people who bought Burks stock a few years ago. 

1 p.m. ET: Miami Heat (2-1) vs. Detroit Pistons (1-2)

It's admittedly a bit of a surprise to see Miami with a 2-1 record. The Heat, like high-priced contenders are wont to do, brought a ragtag group of miscreants who seemed destined to get squashed by the talented first-rounders in Orlando.

Instead, Miami's summer league team has looked a bit like a minor league version of its senior squad. It's playing with a bevy of athletes around the floor, swarming to the ball and trapping in ways that are at least reminiscent of the NBA champions. It's obvious that the Heat coaching staff is teaching the players on hand a vanilla version of their helter-skelter system, and it's been fun to watch.

There still aren't many worthy NBA players on this roster. Former Belmont star Ian Clark has been shooting the lights out of the gym and is the event's sixth-leading scorer (16.3 PPG) but gets continually killed on the other end. He'll be with the Golden State Warriors in Las Vegas, so we'll take a wait-and-see approach on whether he could fit somewhere at the end of an NBA bench. 

Second-round pick James Ennis is the most interesting player on this roster.

The Heat traded into the draft to grab the former Long Beach State standout, who has done well by that decision in Orlando. He's nipping at Ennis' heels for the team lead in scoring and has showed off his prodigious athleticism, both as a finisher at the rim and on the defensive end. You're not expecting much out of the 50th pick in an NBA draft, but he might find a place on Miami's bench next season.

Detroit brought the overqualified Andre Drummond to Orlando, and he's played like such.

The second-year center has averaged 12 points, 13.5 rebounds and three blocks during his two outings. Drummond will be expected to take on a heavier burden next season, perhaps even stepping regularly into the starting lineup. Getting him reps and confidence in the summer league could be a nice little step to keep him away from the sophomore slump.

That said, Drummond is just about the only player the Pistons have seen step up in a major way thus far. First-round pick Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has struggled mightily from the field, shooting just 30.3 percent and scoring a little over 11 points per game. Detroit's second-round selection last year, Kim English, has also not been able to live up to his reputation as a gunner from deep.

Again, there aren't ever any major takeaways from summer league. It's just a little cringey that the two guys whose overarching purpose in the NBA is to shoot haven't been able to do so.

3 p.m. ET: Houston Rockets (3-0) vs. Brooklyn Nets (0-3)

If Houston is too busy basking in the glow of landing Dwight Howard to actually care what happens in summer league, its roster sure isn't showing that attitude. The Rockets are 3-0 in their Floridian getaway, and the players they brought out east to workshop have been solid.

Terrence Jones is averaging 15.7 points and 7.7 rebounds and has even stepped beyond the arc for a couple successful attempts. The Rockets will need a stretch 4 to go alongside Howard when Omer Asik is off the floor, and Jones is at least showing off a few of the necessary traits. He'll need to convert from the field more consistently, though. Jones has gone 4-of-19 over Houston's last two games, his overall field-goal percentage boosted by a 9-of-13 outing against the Sixers.

Patrick Beverley has also gotten some critical time being the focal point of the Rockets offense. The 24-year-old guard supplanted Jeremy Lin in Houston's starting lineup in the postseason, only partially due to injury. Barring a trade, Beverley will compete with Lin for the starting job in camp, which is amazing considering where he was a year ago.

His summer league stats aren't outwardly impressive, but the Rockets didn't send him to Orlando to prove he could score 30 points against scrubs. Houston wants to see how he controls an offense and help him improve on his decision making. So far, so good.

The Nets' summer roster is far less noteworthy. Tyshawn Taylor is wowing everyone, scoring 17.3 points per game and finding nifty ways to finish at the rim. We've been here before. Taylor was a breakout star last year at summer league, and that resulted in exactly 5.8 minutes of game in 38 contests. 

Mason Plumlee's excellence is also ripe with "he is who we thought he was." He's busting his caboose on both ends of the floor, picking up hustle points and working the boards. It's impressive that Plumlee is shooting 70 percent, sure. But it's for no real notable reason other than he's more athletic and better than most of the players on the floor.

Other than Plumlee and Taylor, the Nets' summer league roster is scary bad. Nothing to see here, folks.

5 p.m. ET: Philadelphia 76ers (0-3) vs. Orlando Magic (1-2)

Concern is obviously all relative during July, but let's just say the Sixers cannot be thrilled by what they've seen from their young talent thus far. Philly has been outclassed in every sense of the word, and this isn't a team like Brooklyn built on the backs of elder statesmen.

The struggles of Michael Carter-Williams have been particularly pronounced. The knock on Carter-Williams coming out of Syracuse was that he couldn't shoot. His three games in Orlando have done nothing to change that criticism. Carter-Williams has knocked down a dreadful 25.4 percent of his shots thus far, all while taking a summer league-high 19.4 attempts per contest.

It's been an exercise in futility and frustration. Syracuse fans probably recognize that version of Carter-Williams as the one they often awoke in cold sweats about.

While he's done well distributing the ball, Carter-Williams' usage rate is so high it almost feels like the Sixers are purposefully making him go through trial and error on the court. It doesn't help that he's surrounded by a solid dose of low-tier talent, but boy he's been tough to watch thus far.

On the positive side, second-round pick Arsalan Kazemi has been a really solid all-around fit. The 23-year-old Iranian doesn't excel in a particular area, but he's a stat-sheet filler who does just about everything well. He's shooting 71 percent from the floor and has done a really nice job disrupting on defense during his limited time.

The Magic were obviously the biggest draw to this event, and they added most of their promising young stars to the roster. Things just haven't worked out the way anyone planned.

Victor Oladipo has done a solid enough job learning to play point guard on the fly. He's averaging 17.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and has been a menace on the defensive end. Hitches in his shot are noticeable—he struggles keeping his elbow in a consistent position off the dribble—and his 34.4 field-goal percentage reflects that. If Orlando wants to use him as a primary ball-handler in the regular season, the team's staff is going to have a ton of work ahead.

Moe Harkless and Andrew Nicholson have been getting regular burn as well, but neither has particularly stood out. Harkless is a strong defender and has been surprisingly efficient from the field, but still needs to work on being more assertive on both ends of the floor.

Nicholson continues to be a fine player. He can knock down mid-range jumpers and stretch the floor, but that's about it. He'll be fine next season on Orlando's bench. 

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