Salt Lake City hosts annual NBA Summer League
The annual NBA Summer League is coming to Salt Lake City again this year, starting July 1 and running for the next two days. The Utah Jazz will host the event with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs coming. The following is a list of players worth watching over the three-day period on each team.
Memphis has the most high-profile player of the four teams in Ja Morant, but he will not be playing in Salt Lake City because of a knee injury. The Grizzlies will have Morant’s college teammate, Shaq Buchanan, on the roster to go along with established NBA players Jevon Carter and Yuta Watanabe.
Cleveland will likely have the best player in this session with the fifth pick in this month’s draft, Darius Garland, on its roster. Garland only played five college games at Vanderbilt, but is known as a knockdown shooter; look for him to score a lot of points. The Cavaliers also have Kevin Porter Jr. on the roster, another high-profile college player who fell in the draft. Cleveland also picked up former Jazz-man Naz Mitrou-Long for the summer league, so a similar face will be in town.
San Antonio looks forward to seeing its first round pick Luka Samanic, a 6’10” power forward out of Slovenia, play in the summer league as well as last year’s first round pick, Lonnie Walker IV. Another similar face in Jeff Ledbetter will be on the roster, a man who has played in the G-League and spent several summers with the Spurs summer league team. Former top-five pick Thomas Robinson was also picked up by the Spurs and will be the most experienced player in Utah for the week.
Utah Jazz’s Jarrell Brantley (5) blocks the shot of Memphis Grizzlies’ Dusty Hannahs (8) during the second half of an NBA summer league basketball game Monday, July 1, 2019, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Finally, Tony Bradley, who is a two-year veteran of summer games, will be back on the roster for Utah. Bradley’s only played 12 NBA games in his career, so he needs to use this opportunity to show he belongs above the summer league level of competition. The Jazz also brought in forward Willie Reed, a three-year NBA veteran who had some good moments with the Clippers and Heat before eventually ending up with the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s G-League affiliate. Reed and Bradley are the only players on the roster with any NBA experience, as every other player will be a rookie in the league.
Salt Lake City Summer League tickets can be bought here.
Rosters can be found here: