Over the last few years, Summer League has become a staple for basketball junkies. The NBA has become a 12-month marathon, which now includes all 30 teams convening in Las Vegas for Summer League.
This presents fans with the first opportunity to see some of the young guys on the court together. For people rooting on the Detroit Pistons, it will be the first chance to see No. 5 overall pick Jaden Ivey take the court with some of his teammates.
Ivey was widely expected to be selected No. 4 overall by the Sacramento Kings or whoever traded up into the spot with them. In typical Kings fashion, they swerved in a different direction, selecting Keegan Murray out of Iowa, leaving Ivey to be selected by the Pistons No. 5 overall.
The organization and its fans are certainly ecstatic about that as Ivey profiles as a strong fit alongside Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. They are the two most important players in the organization as Detroit looks to climb out of its rebuild and become relevant again.
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Ivey is ready to get things going in Summer League and is looking forward to playing alongside someone as talented as Cunningham.
“I’m just trying to learn, most importantly, what he goes to and how I can help benefit his game,” Ivey said of Cunningham. “We’re just there for each other. We’re still a work in progress, still learning. We’re not going to get it on the same day, so it’s going to take some practices to get used to that. I feel like as a team, we’re coming together and we’re trying to build something here. We just have to keep working as partners.”
Cade Cunningham isn’t the only key player that will be in Las Vegas for Summer League along with Jaden Ivey. Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart will also be there as the Detroit Pistons have one of the deeper, more established rosters heading to Las Vegas.
While these games are glorified exhibitions, fans still get excited seeing the future of their franchise taking the court for the first time. For Detroit, the hope is that Ivey can show improvements in other aspects of his game, such as defensively.
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General manager Troy Weaver and head coach Dwane Casey have both challenged Jaden Ivey to lock in more defensively, where he has the size and length to be an impact player on that end of the court. If he can make strides as a defender, Ivey possesses star potential with the impact he can already have on the game offensively with his scoring prowess.
