The 7 NBA Rookies With the Most to Prove at Summer League
For one NBA rookie, summer league hardly matters at all.
Cooper Flagg could fail miserably as a de facto point guard, miss every shot he takes from the wing and look overmatched defensively, and the Dallas Mavericks would never once question whether they took the right guy at No. 1 in the 2025 NBA draft.
Everyone elseโfrom Ace Bailey to Yang Hansenโwill face real pressure to perform.
Summer league offers rookies their first chance to showcase the specific skill that got them drafted. Teams are wise enough to take the best player available these days, but there's always a theory of how a prized rookie will fit in a rotation. Some have high-usage offensive roles in their futures. Others are hypothetical rim-protectors, catch-and-shoot snipers or primary playmakers.
Flagg excluded, the league's top first-year talents have plenty to prove as summer-league play gets underway.
Ace Bailey, Utah Jazz
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The Utah Jazz will join the rest of the NBA community in scrutinizing Ace Bailey's production and attitude throughout the offseason. A wildly talented 6'8" wing whose skills didn't produce team success at Rutgers and whose desire to play for the Jazz was in question following the draft, Bailey is this summer's ultimate "prove it" prospect.
The Salt Lake City Summer League opener saw Bailey struggle to score efficiently (3-of-13 from the field) in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers, but the rookie's hustle and sideline demeanor were both encouraging to the Jazz, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
Utah is crying out for a high-usage scoring threat younger than 28-year-old Lauri Markkanen (aka Mr. Wrong Timeline), and Bailey has the tools to take on that role. Can he showcase his offensive game while continuing to push concerns about his happiness in Utah further out of the spotlight? And could he manage to do both while sustaining the defense and intensity that opened eyes against Philly?
As of now, Bailey is known for skipping predraft meetings, an apparent effort to steer himself to a preferred destination and an ultimately disappointing college career.
If he shows out on the floor and makes sure no other off-court or personality-related concerns hit the news cycle, he can change that narrative for the better.
Derik Queen, New Orleans Pelicans
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Derik Queen didn't ask to be at the center of one of the most widely panned draft-night trades in years, but now he's the guy with the best chance to justify it.
When the New Orleans Pelicans sent an unprotected 2026 first-rounder to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for a 10-spot climb up the draft board, it opened eyes across the league. It was an exorbitant price to pay, particularly considering the pick will be the most valuable of either New Orleans or the Milwaukee Bucks, giving the Hawks two shots at capitalizing on those teams' considerable downsides.
The Pels wanted Queen, though apparently not badly enough to just grab him at No. 7, where they took Oklahoma's Jeremiah Fears.
Queen showed real on-ball scoring craft and passing feel at Maryland, and he's won everywhere he's played. It's not easy to secure offensive creators with Queen's 6'9" size, but his fit with Zion Williamson could hardly be worse due to their shared shooting concerns.
If Queen emerges as the best offensive rookie in the class this summer, it'll give the Pelicans a bit of cover for a preposterously risky trade.
Yang Hansen, Portland Trail Blazers
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Either the Portland Trail Blazers are on the forefront of an encroaching "two-big" revolution, or they reached way too aggressively for a prospect nobody else was going to take in the middle of the first round.
Yang Hansen, a 7'1" big man, makes for an odd fit next to last year's lottery-selected rookie, 7'2" Donovan Clingan. Odder still: Even after buying out Deandre Ayton, the Blazers also still have Robert Williams III and Duop Reath in a crowded center rotation.
Positional concerns aside, Portland seems to have ignored the context in which Yang was playing. The toolsโphysical size, a keen passing eye and a willingness to fire from the perimeterโwere the draw, but Yang didn't exactly stand out against serious competition.
Per The Athletic's John Hollinger: "The fact that Yang wasnโt the best player in the Chinese league should be an immediate red flag as a first-round candidate; this is a league where guys like Kenny Lofton Jr., Harry Giles, Tacko Fall and T.J. Leaf are just wrecking people night after night, and Yang was โฆย solid."
Yang is only 19, which means he's a minimum of a half-decade away from showing what he can be as an NBA player. That said, he'll really have to show something this summer to quiet the questions about his draft slot.
Egor Demin, Brooklyn Nets
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The novelty of a 6'8" point guard wears off pretty quickly if he looks overmatched, which is why Brooklyn Nets rookie Egor Demin needs to hold his own against NBA competition.
Never billed as a shooter (27.3 percent from deep at BYU), Demin should still produce plenty of double-take-inducing plays as a passer. He has that rare quality of viewing the game through a pure facilitating lens and can make advanced reads all over the floor. Creative, preternaturally unselfish and even a little swashbuckling when he sees a particularly juicy (but high-risk) setup opportunity, Demin will get the chance to establish his case to play huge minutes at the head of Brooklyn's offense.
The stakes are minimal. If Demin is out of his depth as a rookie point guard, it would only mean more lossesโa favorable outcome for the rebuilding Nets, who control their own 2026 first-round pick.
Still, Demin was a somewhat polarizing prospect because his minuses as a scorer and defender convinced many that his passing plusses weren't worth the tradeoff. He can take the first step toward settling that debate in his favor this summer.
Khaman Maluach, Phoenix Suns
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If you're relying on starting center Mark Williams to hold up over a full season, history says you're bound for disappointment. So although the Phoenix Suns may not initially be looking to trot out No. 10 pick Khaman Maluach as their starting center, there's a very good chance the Duke product will find himself in that role often.
Maluach led the ACC with 51 blocks, and he shot 71.2 percent from the field on a steady diet of gimmes. Add his conference-leading 16.5 percent offensive rebound rate, and Phoenix should be able to count on efficient (if dependent) scoring with a real presence in the paint on both ends.
The 7-footer has a higher standing reach than Victor Wembanyama and should immediately feast on lobs. Summer league will give Maluach the opportunity to prove he can catch and finish on the move, keep up with the pace of opposing offenses and anchor a solid defense.
That's a lot to ask of a 19-year-old rookie, but with Williams averaging 35 games played over the last three seasons, Phoenix may not have a choice.
Kasparas Jakucionis, Miami Heat
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Tabbed by many as a top-10 talent, Illinois point guard Kasparas Jakucionis slid all the way to the Miami Heat at No. 20 in the draft.
Was that because roughly two-thirds of the league decided he wasn't athletic enough to defend effectively or create advantages against top-tier competition, or did the Heat outsmart the market?
If Jakucionis is going to thrive, it'll be on the strength of his processing speed, excellent passing feel and clever ability to get to his spots with the ball. On a Heat team that needs another creator next to Tyler Herro in the backcourt, the rookie could get a chance to push defense-first veteran Davion Mitchell for minutes.
That'll come during the regular season. More immediately, the 6'5" guard must use summer league to showcase a viable three-point shot. More important than beating his college rate of 31.8 percent will be the ease with which Jakucionis can generate his own treys off the bounce and in the pick-and-roll. He'll need that layer in his game to keep defenders honest and to unlock his premium passing skill.
Kon Knueppel, Charlotte Hornets
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Summer league will offer Kon Knueppel his first chance to prove his limited athleticism won't be a big enough problem to keep his shooting, smarts and playmaking off the floor for the Charlotte Hornets.
The No. 4 pick profiles as a perfect addition to a Charlotte squad that surrounded LaMelo Ball with some of the worst shooting talent in the league last season. The Hornets shot just 33.9 percent from deep in 2024-25 and canned only 35.3 percent of their catch-and-shoot triplesโgood for 28th and 27th-place rankings, respectively.
Knueppel hit 40.6 percent of his treys at Duke and seems like a lock to bury them at similar rates for the Hornets. If he can also hold up defensively and create enough advantages to leverage his foul-drawing craft, Charlotte will be able to keep that elite marksmanship in the lineup.
If summer-league competition seems a little too quick and bouncy for Knueppel, it'll be much harder for the Hornets to make the most of his skills when the games count.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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