Yaxel Lendeborg was one of the breakout stars of Summer League. He looked like a hand-in-glove fit for the Warriors, capped off by him dropping 21 and 10 in the championship game to lead Golden State to the Summer League crown.
That capped off a run that saw Lendeborg named Las Vegas Summer League MVP. Over the course of six games he averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and four assists per game.
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The NBA also released the All-Summer-League teams:
First Team
Cameron Boozer (Memphis)Brayden Burries (Milwaukee)Yaxel Lendeborg (Golden State)Meleek Thomas (Cleveland)Caleb Wilson (Chicago)
Second Team
Cedric Coward (Memphis)Egor Demin (Brooklyn)Khaman Maluach (Phoenix)Liam McNeeley (Charlotte)Zyon Pullin (Minnesota)
It’s unusual to have only rookies on the First Team, but consider it a reminder of just how deep and impressive this rookie class is.
A couple of players on that list stood out to me. Cleveland’s Thomas led the Summer League in scoring at 27.1 a game through four games, and the No. 34 pick showed an ability to score at all three levels. He’s going to come off the bench for the Cavaliers and will not get touches he saw in Las Vegas, but he showed real potential at providing depth and bringing some scoring off the bench for the Cavaliers next season.
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The other was Egor Demin, the Nets lottery pick from a year ago who shot the 3 well last season (38.5%) but struggled to drive into the paint (20.5% of his shots were in the paint compared to 71.7% of his shots coming from beyond the arc, he shot just 27.3% between the paint and arc and 55% in the restricted area). That looked different in Las Vegas, Demin looked stronger and was getting downhill, taking 43.3% of his shots in the paint. It’s just Summer League, but that’s a promising sign, as was the way he and No. 6 pick Mikel Brown Jr. made a connection. It’s something to watch this fall.
