The NBA is planning a Summer League exhibition to take place in Sacramento in addition to scheduled tournaments in Utah and Las Vegas, according to Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders. The event is tentatively scheduled to host the Kings, Warriors, Lakers, and Heat, Dowsett notes.
The Summer League allows NBA teams to showcase roster hopefuls, young players and draftees ahead of training camp. Last November, it was reported that the Magic would not host their annual Summer League and would instead participate in the Las Vegas event. Thus, the Sacramento Summer League replaces the canceled Orlando event.
Utah’s Summer League is scheduled to occur prior to the Vegas event, but only four teams – the Celtics, Spurs, Sixers, and Jazz – played in that league last year.
As we passed along in late January, for the first time ever, all 30 NBA teams will take part in the Las Vegas Summer League in July. Last summer, 24 teams took part in the Vegas exhibition with the Knicks, Pistons, Pacers, Hornets, Magic, and Thunder sitting out the event.
“Summer League has become such an integral part of the NBA calendar, especially in Las Vegas,” NBA executive VP of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe said last year. “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.”
I love the Vegas summer League. I try to go every other year. But it sure is getting crowded.
I loved it back in the day at the Long Beach pyramid too.
To show my age… I used to go to the summer league when it was at Loyola Marymount University in the 80s. Lot easier to sit next to Jerry West and watch Roy Tarpley and Vernon Maxwell mix it up 20 feet away.
Good. Nice job getting some more games ahead of everything in Vegas…when then announced they cancelled Orlando, I said I don’t like this. Orlando was always a good first intro in a more basketball setting. It also is a good chance for teams that go to both leagues to get practice time together, and allow more guys to see playing time. Another thing it did was provide opportunity for players in their 2nd or even 3rd year to get parts of a game or 2 in there without effecting playing time for everyone on summer league deals, and gives those guys a chance to play with guys that have been in the league and gone through the same things. The guys that are further along in that league sometimes get early deals too. I understand trying to make Vegas bigger and even better, but I don’t see how that should totally cancel Orlando. At that point, get rid of Utah too, right? It’s even shorter of a league anyway