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Today is the end of NBA Summer League! If you spent the entire time in Las Vegas, we will create an extraction team to get you out.
Checking In
WNBA season at the break
While we’re in the doldrums of the NBA offseason and waiting for both Team USA squads to dominate Olympic basketball, the WNBA held its All-Star Game amid its biggest, most popular season ever. The game and league have grown tremendously in recent years. So, now that we’re headed into the stretch run of the season (once the league fires back up on Aug. 15, after the Olympics), it seems like the right time to have WNBA writer Sabreena Merchant prime us.
The Aces aren’t the dominant team we saw a year ago. Are they still the team to beat?
Sabreena: The Aces were missing Chelsea Gray (aka the Point Gawd and starting PG for the U.S. Olympic team) for the first 12 games, which led to a 6-6 start to the season. Gray’s return allowed her backcourt partners Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum to shift back to their natural off-ball roles, and Las Vegas has consequently had the best offensive rating and overall net rating since Gray returned. With A’ja Wilson playing not just at an MVP level, but putting together possibly the greatest individual season of all time, the Aces still deserve favorite status going forward.
How would you assess the play of and the circus surrounding Caitlin Clark in the WNBA?
Sabreena: Clark has been arguably the second-best point guard in the league behind Sabrina Ionescu this season (since Gray is still recovering from the foot injury). She’s leading the league in assists and has Indiana poised to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Perhaps more importantly for the WNBA, she is willingly carrying the mantle as the face of the league. She’s been gracious with fans and media while selling out crowds across the country as the Fever have the highest home (16,898) and road (15,306) attendance in the league. Whatever the W was hoping for, Clark has been even more.
Who are your front-runners for MVP, defensive player of the year and rookie of the year?
Sabreena: MVP is Wilson’s award to lose. After a surprising third-place finish in 2023 — including an inexplicable fourth-place vote — Wilson has been a woman on a mission. She’s leading the W in points, rebounds and blocks and is in position to break Diana Taurasi’s single-season record scoring average of 25.3 points, set back in 2006.
Wilson is the two-time reigning DPOY and has been arguably as impactful this season. However, the Aces are only the fifth-best defense in the W, leaving openings for Ezi Magbegor, Alyssa Thomas, Napheesa Collier, and Breanna Stewart (incidentally, all Olympians), who have all spearheaded better team efforts.
ROY is maybe the most pivotal question in the WNBA! Let me direct you to a debate I had with fellow WNBA writer Ben Pickman on Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese last week.
CFB Shows the Way
It’s what sports games should be
If you’re wondering why things are quiet in some parts of society right now, it’s because College Football 25 came out as the latest video game craze. You might be asking yourself why a college football video game would be a cultural moment.
Due to college athletes being exploited for decades without compensation for name, image, and likeness, college sports video games were legally shut down around 2013. Thus, College Football 25 is the first installment of this video game franchise in 11 years. While waiting for this game, we’ve been promised the moon and the stars and all of the quirks that make college football the monster that it is. Guess what? College Football 25 has found a way to overdeliver.
This game is f—— dope! It’s so difficult to deliver on hype when something is built up over Rihanna’s internet because we live in a time of people being willfully unimpressed and wanting to tear down what’s popular. But College Football 25 is the Victor Wembanyama of video games.
It immediately had me wondering why NBA 2K, the sole giant in the basketball video game world, can’t be more like this college football product. Let’s dive into what makes this game so great and what NBA 2K could learn from it.
What’s so great about College Football 25? Whether you’re a college football enthusiast or tourist, this game is what college football feels like. The atmosphere has been captured. The nuance and details are pristine. The depth of the game, as far as building your own program, or taking your journey on a road to glory or just playing random games and matchups, is better than so many other sports video games. You don’t have to be Spencer Hall or Jason Kirk to appreciate just how perfectly college football is represented. If you want to play games, it’s perfect. If you want to manage programs, it’s perfect.
Why doesn’t NBA 2K have this feel anymore? NBA 2K has become so much about microtransactions. I get it. It’s a business, and they want to make money. But if you want to have any kind of depth and success in certain modes, you have to pay more than just $60 for the game. You’re buying virtual currency with actual currency. The gameplay itself feels like recycled engines of the past few years, so you’re just buying official roster updates.
Is there a way to make NBA 2K replicate what College Football 25 accomplishes? You know what NBA 2K does well? The Eras mode. (No, this isn’t about Taylor Swift.) You can start a franchise in any decade, have the real draft classes (mostly), and see how history changes. If they could adopt the gameplay of real basketball in a fun, accessible way, then they could marry what they do well with what College Football 25 does perfectly. Of course, 2K would never do it, but maybe this is proof you don’t need a game every year to make the best product. Maybe you need to step away for a year or two (not 11!) and focus on delivering what makes the sport so fun and entertaining.
Did someone say ‘Bouncies’?
Awards for Vegas NBA Summer League!
We’re breaking out the 2024 Las Vegas NBA Summer League Bouncies! It remains the most prestigious award in summer hoops! The winners are determined by pairing The Bounce supercomputer with a panel of the finest basketball experts I could possibly find.
Some might say, “But Zach, this is clearly just thrown together by you!” To that I say, “I’ll see you in court!” Here are the 2024 Bouncies for summer league! 🏆
Too Good for Summer League Award: Jaime Jaquez Jr., Summer Heat. Jaquez just participated with the USA Select Team and played in two summer league games. He was clearly way too good to be out there. Honorable mention to Cam Whitmore.
Best Summer League Team Award: The Summer Heat. We don’t know if #HeatCulture is dying or just hurting, but #SummerHeatCulture is thriving. Miami plays Memphis in the final.
Worst Summer League Team Award: The Summer Bucks. They went 0-4, lost a game by 41, and had a point differential of minus-88 while in Las Vegas.
Best Lottery Pick Award: Reed Sheppard, Summer Rockets. Even though he went on a cold shooting streak from deep after the first game, he averaged 20 points on 50 percent shooting from the field.
Worst Lottery Pick Award: Alex Sarr, Summer Wizards. The 19-year-old had great defensive moments, but he averaged 5.5 points on 19.1 percent from the field and had an 0-for-15 game. He’ll be fine, though.
Best Non-Lottery First-Rounder Award: Kel’el Ware, Summer Heat. He scored, he boarded, and he was a physical monster against the young guys.
Best Second-Round Pick Award: Tyler Kolek, Summer Knicks. He ran the show for the Summer Knicks and really moved the ball well.
All-Summer League Squad: Jordan Miller, Jalen Wilson, Reed Sheppard, Scotty Pippen Jr., GG Jackson.
Most Valuable Player Award: Jordan Miller, Summer Clippers. He cooked everybody, dropped 36 in a game, and averaged almost 25 a game on 54 percent shooting.
Bounce Passes
In the new Intuit Dome, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer can and will shoot T-shirts at literally every seat in the arena.
Dwyane Wade talks about the difference between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James training.
LeBron was selected as a flag bearer for Team USA in France as the 2024 Olympics open on Friday.
David Aldridge gives a fantastic account of his front-row seat for “Inside the NBA” on TNT.
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(Top photo: Catalina Fragoso / Getty Images )
