Takeaways from Ben Simmons' NBA Debut and 2016 Utah Jazz Summer League

SALT LAKE CITY — Ben Simmons has officially arrived in the NBA.

His Philadelphia 76ers joined Trey Lyles and the Utah Jazz, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics, plus Kyle Anderson and the San Antonio Spurs at the second annual Utah Jazz Summer League.

Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft and the headliner of this event, averaged eight points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists over two games.

But the often awe-inspiring Aussie wasn't the only player who made an impact on fans and media in Utah this week. Several others are trying to make names for themselves this summer, and some managed to do so during these games.

Ben Simmons Is a Point Guard

During his summer league debut, Simmons grabbed eight boards and generally took off down the court immediately afterward.

"It's hard to stop somebody who's 6'10" coming at you full-speed," Simmons said. "So as long as everybody else is running with me, I think good things can happen."

As it turned out, good things did happen on multiple breaks in Salt Lake City. On one possession, Simmons fired a look-away bounce pass from the midcourt line that threaded through two defenders before finding its way to Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot for a layup. On another, he hopped to catch a pass with his back to the basket, pump-faked and then delivered a dime all before landing.

"The ball moves faster than the players," Simmons said. And as cliched as the phrase may be, it's an accurate representation of him as a player. It's perhaps a big part of why Sixers coach Brett Brown thinks Simmons can transition from point forward to true point guard, per NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper:

"

Everyone gets all twisted on what their version of a point guard is. When I say point guard I mean point guard. You've got the ball. You could call him Isiah Thomas, the old Isiah Thomas of my generation. You could call him Chris Paul. I mean "point guard" point guard. There are times I think that he can be a point guard. Not Draymond Green. Not LeBron. Not Lamar Odom. That's a point forward. I walk both lines at different moments. To start him off, we'll play him as a point forward.

"

The idea of a 6'10" player lining up as a true point guard is foreign. The tallest to ever play the position was 6'9" Magic Johnson, who last suited up in the NBA nearly 20 years ago.

In Simmons, we have the possibility of seeing a 6'10" true point guard.

Jaylen Brown Is Better Suited to the NBA Game

Melissa Majchrzak/Getty Images

Leading up to the draft, there was an appropriate amount of skepticism surrounding Jaylen Brown's ability to shoot. Among the 338 college players who averaged at least as many points as Brown's 14.6 in 2015-16, the former Cal Bear's true shooting percentage of .518 ranked 299th.

There are a couple of factors that can perhaps mitigate Brown's shooting struggles while he figures out his stroke with the Celtics. First, there's significantly more NBA room for an athletic wing to take advantage of. 

"There was so much space on the floor," Brown said on Monday. "I didn’t know what to do."

Time after time, he was able to beat his primary defender on the perimeter with little more than his first step. Once he got to the paint, he was clearly unafraid of contact. And therein lies the second factor.

An ability to get to the free-throw line is critical for any NBA guard or wing who lacks range. To keep up with the deep threats, non-shooters need the freebies at the line. Think DeMar DeRozan or Dwyane Wade in his prime.

"I'm going to try to get to the line as much as possible," Brown said following a 17-free-throw performance against the 76ers. It'll be tough for him to keep that up against the better defenders already on regular-season rosters, but having the right mentality is a good place to start.

Trey Lyles Can Be a Playmaking 4

Simmons wasn't the only 6'10" player in Salt Lake whose skills defied traditional notions of size.

Jazz forward Trey Lyles, while not in danger of being called a point guard, showed an ability to handle the ball in tight spaces, work around a screen and hit jump shots from all over the floor.

Following one of Lyles' many drives this week, the Salt Lake Tribune's Tony Jones tweeted, "Trey Lyles has missed some easy shots, but the footwork, handle and strength to manufacture those easy shots has been pretty impressive."

As Lyles knocks the rust off over the rest of the summer and training camp, getting the easy shots to fall should start happening naturally; Creating those shots is the harder part of that equation and what makes Lyles unique for his size.

As a rookie in 2015-16, he improved his field-goal percentage on shots within five feet of the rim by 4.8 percent from pre- to post-All-Star break, per NBA.com.

If he continues to improve his touch around the rim and adds some of the simple passes like a kick-out to the three-point line or a dump-off to another big, Lyles will be a perfect wrinkle of versatility for a frontcourt that features traditional bigs Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert.

James Young May Have NBA Life Yet

Melissa Majchrzak/Getty Images

James Young has been in the NBA since the Celtics drafted him with the 17th overall pick during 2014. After two years, the most famous moment of his career is probably still Bill Simmons' reaction to the pick during ESPN's broadcast on draft night.

Young has appeared in only 60 games over the last two seasons, shooting 25 percent from three-point range and averaging just 2.2 points—not the most encouraging signs for a player billed as a shooting specialist coming out of college.

Those numbers may put Young's NBA career on life support, but his shooting has been something of a defibrillator in Salt Lake.

On Tuesday, Young led the Celtics in an 89-80 victory with 17 points. He drilled four of five attempts from deep, causing Celtics.com's Marc D'Amico to tweet, "Most encouraging about James Young's threes? These aren't wide-open, easy looks. They're contested, and he's drilling them."

Young finished the week 8-of-12 from deep, and if he can translate this shotmaking into the regular season, he may find his way into a role. After all, the Celtics need spacing around non-shooters Brown and Marcus Smart.

The 76ers Are Loaded with Young Talent Beyond Simmons

Melissa Majchrzak/Getty Images

Simmons was the 76ers' main attraction, and really the entire week in Salt Lake, but Philly had several other players who intrigued.

Christian Wood, the 6'10" forward from UNLV who went undrafted in 2015, made a strong case for a roster spot, averaging 18.7 points over three games while showing an ability to get to the rim and even hit threes.

During Tuesday's action, when Wood was carrying the Sixers in the absence of the resting Simmons, ESPN's Kevin Pelton tweeted, "Christian Wood has now made three three-pointers the last two nights. If there isn't room on the Sixers roster, someone else should find some."

On Monday,2015 second-rounder Richaun Holmes looked the part of a prototypical modern big. The five blocked shots showed an ability to protect the rim, and the 9-of-9 shooting from the charity stripe could be a hint of solid shooting ability.

2016 first-rounder Luwawu-Cabarrot, meanwhile, often looked like the most athletic player in the gym. He appeared to be gliding up and down the floor before picking his spots to explode, whether into a closeout on defense or a finish at the rim in transition.

Sam Hinkie's received his share of criticism over the last few years, but there was plenty of evidence in Utah to show that "The Process" worked for the 76ers.

Guerschon Yabusele Is Not the French Draymond Green...Yet

Despite what the Twitterati might have you believe, Guerschon Yabusele isn't the French Draymond Green. At least he isn't yet.

In terms of his physical build (6'7", 260 pounds) and the way he moves, it makes sense, but Yabusele has a long way to go to ever live up to what looks like a pretty unfair comparison.

He hasn't handled the ball at all in the half-court or in space, and despite hitting 42.9 percent of his 63 three-point attempts in Europe, his outside shot appears to need some work. He was 0-of-4 from deep in Utah, and nothing looked close.

But Green wasn't immediately NBA-ready in those areas, either. And while Yabusele works on refining those aspects of his game, he can rely on some things he already does well: Despite his 250-plus-pound frame, Yabusele is pretty explosive off the floor. And if he uses that frame to carve out space around the rim as shots go up, he could be an impactful rebounder right away.

Kyle Anderson and Jonathan Simmons Don't Belong Here

The Spurs had the best team in Salt Lake City, and it wasn't particularly close. Sending two regular-season rotation players will do that.

Both Kyle Anderson and Jonathan Simmons played meaningful minutes during 2015-16 for the Spurs, and it showed against the inferior competition here.

The game was moving slower for the San Antonio duo, who clearly developed chemistry during real games last year. "It definitely helps a lot," Simmons said. "He's my guy. We're very cool on and off the court. We just try to make each other better and stay positive by staying in each other's ear to stay better."

At times, it appeared they were playing little more than a two-man game on the way to an average of 22 points for Simmons and 23.7 for Anderson.

Aaron Craft and Ryan Arcidiacono Could Follow T.J. McConnell

Melissa Majchrzak/Getty Images

Over the last year, T.J. McConnell may have provided the blueprint for undersized point guards who lack athleticism to stick in the NBA. He played unselfishly for the Philadelphia 76ers, hit enough open shots and calmly ran an offense.

By doing all of the above in Salt Lake, McConnell gave similar point guards Aaron Craft and Ryan Arcidiacono a firsthand look at how they too might thrive in the NBA.

For Craft, who's spent most of the last two seasons in the D-League, improving his shot will be critical. During 80 games with the Santa Cruz Warriors, Craft has only hit 26.6 percent of his three-point attempts; this week, he was just 0-of-1.

Arcidiacono, meanwhile, must continue to find open teammates. He averaged 4.2 assists during Villanova's title run in 2015-16, a number that barely slipped to 3.7 in Utah (where he played fewer minutes). If he can stay around that range in spot duty, some team may be willing to sign him to a D-League contract or even call him up as a third point guard.

Dejounte Murray

Because it took longer than expected to sort out his rookie contract, Spurs' first-round pick Dejounte Murray didn't make his debut until Thursday's slate of games.

He was worth the wait.

Murray made some typical rookie mistakes when trying to do too much (he finished with four turnovers and one assist), but the NBA-level athleticism that carried him to 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting was undeniable.

Following a ridiculous fourth-quarter alley-oop that put the Spurs up four against the Celtics with less than two minutes left, the Salt Lake Tribune's Tony Jones tweeted, "No way Dejounte Murray should've been on the board at No. 28 [sic]. No way."

Note that Murray was taken 29th, but the sentiment holds true.

Indeed, it looks like the Spurs have once again lucked out by finding top-tier talent further down the board than they should have. With his length (6'5" with a 6'9.5" wingspan, per DraftExpress), bounce and workable outside shot (he hit multiple jumpers on Thursday), Murray could be a modern 1 and a perfect heir to Tony Parker.

The NBA Wants to Improve Its Officiating

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

In an effort to increase transparency, the NBA instituted the L2M Report last season, a document released every day with verdicts on calls made in the last two minutes of each game.

Officiating will never be perfect, but increased accountability is a good step in the right direction. Now the league is taking another step and experimented with it this week in Salt Lake.

Rather than the three officials typically deployed in NBA games, the league sent four out here. They tried various formations, but most-used was a 1-2-1 setup that featured one ref on the baseline, two on opposite wings and one around half court.

There was little discernible impact on the flow of the game, and the extra ref never appeared to be in the way. The only possible issue with having an extra set of eyes on the floor would be writing more paychecks to officials.

But if it helps to improve one of the most criticized aspects of the sport, it may be worth it.

Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise noted.

Andy Bailey covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him @AndrewDBailey.