For the first time, all 30 NBA teams will participate in the Las Vegas Summer League this July, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. This year’s event will take place from July 6-17, as the NBA confirmed in a press release.
News that all 30 teams will play in Las Vegas comes on the heels of reports that the league’s Orlando Summer League will no longer take place. Utah’s Summer League is still scheduled to happen prior to the Vegas event, but only four teams – the Celtics, Spurs, Sixers, and Jazz – played in that league last year.
In 2017, 24 NBA teams participated in the Las Vegas Summer League, with only the Knicks, Pistons, Pacers, Hornets, Magic, and Thunder sitting it out. When the end of the Orlando Summer League was announced in November, it was reported that the NBA hoped to get all 30 teams playing in Vegas sometime soon — the league sounds pleased that it will happen in 2018.
“Summer League has become such an integral part of the NBA calendar, especially in Las Vegas,” said NBA executive VP of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe. “It’s grown exponentially. You kind of think about where Summer League has come from, years ago. Now it’s become this event that all 30 teams have to be a part of. … It’s a place you must be. And really, it’s become the center of basketball in the month of July.
“Anybody who is a high draft choice, a free agent trying to make it in the league or a young player trying to get some extra practice, is there,” Vandeweghe continued. “It’s a very central location that has established itself as the premier summer event for basketball in general, not just the NBA but also international as well.”