Vegas, anybody?
Your first chance to see L.A.’s No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft play against live competition is coming up soon.
The Lakers are among the 24 teams scheduled to participate in the Samsung NBA Summer League 2016 from July 8-18 at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus.
The Lakers also hold the No. 32 overall pick, and have several other recent draftees that have stated their interest in playing at Summer League as well.
At their exit interviews, D’Angelo Russell (No. 2 overall pick last year), Larry Nance, Jr. (No. 27) and Anthony Brown (No. 35) all noted the possible benefits of playing in Vegas and developing some cohesion that could carry them into the regular season. Julius Randle is going into his third year, when players don’t typically play, but theoretically could play if it was mutually desired by L.A.’s brass and Randle, while Jordan Clarkson may be more unlikely as it’s also his third year, and he’s a restricted free agent.
New head coach Luke Walton may decide to join his young players to start putting in his system, though he won’t officially begin thinking about such things until the Warriors season concludes.
This year’s Summer League will feature a tournament-style schedule with a title game for the fourth consecutive year. The “11-day, 67-game event last season set records for NBA TV viewership, consumption of digital content on NBA.com and NBA Mobile, total attendance and single-day attendance,” according to the NBA.
Tickets will go on sale May 21 at 10 a.m. PT., and can be purchased by visiting NBATickets.com.
Stay tuned for a complete schedule of games and broadcast information, which for the Lakers could include matchups with teams like Philadelphia or Boston that also hold top picks.
