.png?w=1280)
Biggest Winners and Losers from 2025 NBA Las Vegas Summer League So Far
Just under a week into this year's NBA Las Vegas Summer League, and we already have a handful of clear winners and losers from the action.
From a top pick in 2024 who didn't play much last season, to this year's No. 1 selection, to an electrifying shotmaker taken sixth in June, some are raising eyebrows in a good way.
On the other end of the spectrum, a top-four pick was almost invisible in his debut. A lottery selection shouldering more pressure than his draft position suggests he should is struggling. And an entire lineup's worth of recent picks can't outshine their 24-year-old undrafted teammate.
Names and analysis on all of the above can be found below.
Winner: Reed Sheppard
1 of 6
Though his scoring efficiency leaves plenty to be desired, Reed Sheppard has already done more than enough to remind fans why he was the third overall pick just last summer.
In his first game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, he hit six threes, including three in a row in a personal 9-0 run in the third quarter that looked eerily Stephen Curry-like.
His ability to get off (and make) triples from well behind the lane and with hands in his face is undoubtedly what makes him most intriguing as a pro, but it might not have been what stood out most in this game.
Sheppard, presumably, struggled to maintain a spot in the Houston Rockets' 2024-25 rotation because of the team's depth and his own struggles as a defender, but his playmaking on that end was spectacular in Vegas.
In his two appearances, he averaged 5.5 defensive rebounds, 4.0 steals and 1.5 blocks as a 6'2" guard. His opportunistic defense may not help him crack Houston's starting five this season, but it could terrorize opposing second units.
Loser: Kon Knueppel
2 of 6
Kon Knueppel, the fourth overall pick in June, debuted on Friday against the Utah Jazz and just sort of floated throughout a game in which he finished with five points on 1-of-8 shooting.
The 19-year-old did have four assists and the occasional dribble-drive that suggested he can be more than just a catch-and-shoot threat, but he also turned the ball over three times and didn't hit a single triple.
What's more, Liam McNeeley, who plays roughly the same position and was taken by the Charlotte Hornets 25 picks after Knueppel, didn't even start and did a lot of what many expected out of the Duke product.
McNeeley looked comfortable as both a catch-and-shoot and off-the-dribble threat. He had six assists and led the team with 12 rebounds.
Knueppel missed the Hornets' second game for maintenance of a pre-existing ankle injury. That may have had something to do with his struggles. But his barely being noticeable (at least in a good way) surely wasn't how Knueppel wanted to start this summer campaign.
To his credit, he bounced back with 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists on Monday, but that was against the Cooper Flagg-less Dallas Mavericks. And unfortunately, early impressions in Vegas can take a little time to shake.
Winner: Tre Johnson
3 of 6
He only handed out three assists in his first two games for the summer Washington Wizards, but Tre Johnson isn't in the desert to create for others. He clearly showed up to get buckets. And that's exactly what he's doing.
On Friday, he went for 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He was 3-of-5 from deep. And he had one of the best individual plays of the event, when he restored his own dribble by bouncing the ball off an airborne defender.
Two days later, Johnson followed up that performance by scoring 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting. And he was only 2-of-6 from deep in that one.
The 19-year-old is proving he's more than just an outside shooter. He can creatively get into the paint, score at all three levels and even draw fouls.
Going to a team as young as Washington, Johnson is going to have a lot of scoring opportunities and could be an interesting dark-horse candidate for Rookie of the Year.
Loser: Derik Queen
4 of 6
Let's start with the good. Derik Queen is averaging 11.5 rebounds in just 26.7 minutes in Vegas. That's a stellar rebounding rate.
But his lack of footspeed, struggles to defend in space and often ground-bound offensive game have generally looked pretty rough.
As a big man, he's averaging 4.5 made shots, 4.5 turnovers and 0.5 blocks. He's shooting 42.9 percent from the field.
And while initial struggles aren't new for lottery picks, Queen has the unfortunate distinction of his team trading an unprotected future first-round pick to move up for him.
His rough performances from now until the 2026 draft are going to be magnified by that context. And if he already looks a little slow for the competition in Vegas, full-time NBA players could be running circles around him.
Winner: Cooper Flagg
5 of 6
Despite a rough shooting night in his summer debut, Cooper Flagg has shown off everything that made him the No. 1 pick in June.
On Thursday, he went 5-of-21 from the field, but he also tallied six rebounds, four assists, three steals and one block. He had a sequence down the stretch that sealed the win for the Dallas Mavericks.
Anyone can have a bad shooting performance on any given night. And Flagg certainly had one against the Los Angeles Lakers, but his shot selection was fine and he impacted the game in plenty of other ways.
Perhaps most importantly, he looked comfortable bringing the ball up the floor, despite several Lakers, including veteran Darius Bazley, clearly trying to rough him up a bit.
In just one game, he proved capable of helping his team win with a wide-ranging skill set that will help him fit into the veteran-laden Mavericks regular-season roster.
But he wasn't done there. In Flagg's second game in Vegas, he played a ferocious defense that included fellow rookies Carter Bryant and Dylan Harper (both of whom looked great on that end).
The San Antonio Spurs stifled just about every other Mav, but Flagg went off for 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting. The rest of his team scored 38.
The Duke product again looked fairly comfortable on the ball, even with tons of defensive attention headed his way. And he drew several fouls, finishing the game with 13 free-throw attempts.
After Flagg's debut, scoring was really the only box you probably couldn't check. After his second game, they were all filled in.
Loser: Brooklyn Nets
6 of 6
Much was made of the Brooklyn Nets' draft-night decision to use each of the five first-round picks it accumulated.
They took Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf. And four of them have been in action in Vegas (with Powell being the lone exception).
All four have, to put it mildly, struggled. Demin is shooting 33.3 percent from the field, Traore is at 40.0, Saraf is at 30.0, and Wolf is shooting 20.0 percent from the field.
Meanwhile, Drew Timme, a soon-to-be-25-year-old big who went undrafted last summer, is second among players in Vegas in points per game.
Of course, Timme has more experience than his new teammates. And some of his buckets have been set up by the aforementioned rookies. But they'll need to start showing more shotmaking chops to disprove the doubters of the team's draft strategy.
