Last Updated on July 7, 2026 9:05 pm by Mark C | Published: July 7, 2026

Greetings and welcome to our 2026 edition of the Summer League Notebook. We are going to mix things up a little this year, splitting this piece into two parts instead. The “mini-Summer Leagues” in California and Utah will be covered here, while the big Summer League in Las Vegas will be covered in a separate article. The California Classic and Salt Lake City Summer Leagues typically feature more returning players from the hosts (Warriors, Kings, Jazz) and the other invited teams will often send a strong squad too, so despite the California and Utah editions being “less recognized” than Vegas, the quality of play on display is generally just as good, if not better.

Speaking of quality of play, let us touch on expectations during Summer League and what can be derived from the performances.

Stats and roles are not directly transferrable to the NBA

Summer League is both an exhibition and a chance for development. That means many players will be put into bigger or “uncomfortable” roles to showcase what they can do or allow them some reps (typically on-ball) that they may not get at the NBA level. Besides that, remember that these are thrown-together teams, so there isn’t time to build much chemistry. The floor-spacing in Summer League is also typically much worse than in the NBA and since each player gets 10 personal fouls before disqualification (in 40-minute games), the games are scrappier and physical. Besides the “star rookies” and returning players, Summer League also features players fighting for a place in the NBA.

All of the above combine into a lot of physical play and miscommunications that lead to inefficiency and turnovers (meaning steals and blocks are inflated).

Summer League results do not typically translate into early or direct success

2025-26 Summer League MVP

Kyle Filipowski

2025-26 All-Summer League First Team

• Nique Clifford
• Kyle Filipowski
• David Jones Garcia
• Jordan Miller
• Terrence Shannon Jr.

2025-26 All-Summer League Second Team

• Ron Holland II
• Isaac Jones
• Kon Knueppel
• Ajay Mitchell
• KJ Simpson

Knueppel had a historic rookie season, leading the NBA in 3-pointers, while Mitchell was a breakout second-year player in fantasy basketball. Besides those two, no one had season-long success in the 2025-26 regular season. Filipowski had flashes here and there until Jusuf Nurkic joined Walker Kessler on the sidelines in Utah, leading to a strong finish in “silly season.” Clifford was very much the same, generally suffering from inefficiency as a rookie after a strong Summer League, finally rising to useful streaming appeal and low-end 12-team intrigue during “silly season” in 2025-26.

Miller had good stints for deep leagues, while Holland had “moments” here and there, but Shannon was mostly invisible until the NBA playoffs, and the trio of Jones Garcia, I. Jones amd Simpson were not noteworthy on their two-way contracts. Pelle Larsson also deserves a shout for looking “too smart for Summer League” last year and having useful streaming moments throughout the 2025-26 NBA season, but again, he was never near to secure, must-roster value for standard leagues.

2024 Summer League
First Team: GG Jackson, Jordan Miller, Reed Sheppard, Scotty Pippen Jr., Kel’el Ware
Second Team: Bub Carrington, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Jarace Walker, Jalen Wilson (the MVP), Donovan Clingan

Pippen really should have been the MVP that year and had a bit of a breakout fantasy season in 2024-25, but as you can tell from reading this list of names, many of these players only had flashes or brief moments as a rookie or returning player until getting a shot in “silly season” or seeing their role grow in the following season, 2025-26.

2023 Summer League
First Team: Keyonte George, Sam Merrill, Cam Whitmore (the MVP), Hunter Tyson, Orlando Robinson
Second Team: Javon Freeman-Liberty, Max Christie, Xavier Moon, Emoni Bates, Jabari Smith Jr., Jalen Wilson

George finally blossomed into a potential All-Star player in 2025-26, but in the prior seasons, he was more of an inconsistent 12-team contributor hanging around that end-of-roster or high-end streamer range. Merrill had a strong 2025-26, but was also more in and out of the rotation in prior years. Christie and Smith have established themselves as players, while Whitmore is the only other name who has a chance of still making an impact in the NBA here.

So what do we learn and take away from Summer League?

For returning players: You want them to look like they don’t belong, in a positive fashion. Anyone entering their second or third year in the NBA should either be putting up big numbers, or contextually, just looking a level above even if it isn’t translating to stats because of the team around them. That might be processing the game faster than everyone else on the floor, or being physically and athletically dominant in some way (speed, strength, etc.). You also want to look for any new or unexpected skills and how players may deal with doing more than they are used to. Sometimes that is just the team “forcing them to be uncomfortable,” like Jarace Walker being a ball-handler and taking a lot of 3-pointers in the 2025 edition, or Kyshawn George showing off some more offensive know-how last year as well. Some of that stuff translates over to the NBA on a smaller scale with secondary ball-handling and so on. There are always some older standouts like RayJ Dennis, Jahmir Young or Darius Bazley in prior editions who may warrant a two-way contract but probably little else. If you are 25 years or older at Summer League, that is likely the best-case outcome for those players with an unlikely path to real fantasy value.

For the rookies and young guys: Is there a standout trait compared to their peers? Perhaps they are already more physically developed, or perhaps they are processing the game better, or maybe they showed something that wasn’t as evident in their pre-draft profile. Rookie Keyonte George showed a higher level of playmaking on the Summer League platform than many expected. Terrence Shannon Jr. was a physical and athletic class ahead of his peers as an older prospect during his rookie Summer League outing — and we saw some of that translating in the 2026 NBA playoffs a couple of years later.

For fantasy basketball: Even everything said above needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. George and Shannon’s impact had more dynasty implications than redraft implications, and on a similar note, Rob Dillingham is yet to do much in the NBA after slicing up Summer League with his speed and creation in prior editions. Basically, yes, there are things worth noting, but remember it can still be hit-or-miss.

Here is an interesting post showing how stats correlate to rookie performances in the NBA as well:

ICYMI: i looked at which summer league stats are the stickiest — which ones can tell us something about how a player will perform in their rookie season

thef5.substack.com/p/summer-lea…

[image or embed]

— Owen Phillips (@owenphillips.bsky.social) July 19, 2025 at 7:23 PM

California Classic & Salt Lake City: Dates & Participants

California Classic: July 3-6
San Francisco: Warriors (Gold), Heat, Spurs, Lakers
Sacramento: Kings, Bucks, Nets, Warriors (Blue)

Salt Lake City: July 4, 6-7
Jazz, Grizzlies, Thunder, Hawks

The 2026 Vegas Summer League runs from July 9-19.

Last Notes

Be aware of the new rule for free throws being tested at Summer League. Essentially, a player will only attempt one free throw for a 2-point or 3-point foul, but this rule is not applied in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.

The one free throw rule will be tested at the upcoming NBA summer leagues.

With this rule, any foul that would typically result in one, two or three free throws under standard NBA rules will instead result in a single free throw attempt. That attempt will be worth the same… pic.twitter.com/tFiOpJLnQW

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) July 2, 2026

Expect most (or all) of the analysis below to center around the names noted as “key players,” especially any incoming rookies. The other notable players are some mixture of players already on two-way contracts, players formerly on two-way contracts, interesting undrafted free agents or unsigned players who have already “been around” the NBA. Those players are either less likely to translate into any new fantasy impact, or aren’t guaranteed to get a contract, hence the focus on the key names. Of course, those “seasoned vets” might help the younger guys around them, so you could say it gives you an indication of the strength of the team as well.

If you are unfamiliar with the incoming draft prospects, you can peruse our 2026 NBA Draft Primer: Prospect Profiles by clicking here to get a better idea of players’ traits and potential fantasy translations in the future.

California Classic: San Francisco

Khalid Robinson

Summer League Gold Head Coach, Golden State Warriors

Key Players on Warriors Gold:
Yaxel Lendeborg (11th pick)
Lajae Jones (54th pick)
Will Richard

Other Notable Players: LJ Cryer, Malevy Leons, Lachlan Olbrich, Max Shulga, Alex Toohey

Yaxel Lendeborg (11th pick)

Lendeborg opened his account nicely with 19-5-6 and four 3-pointers on perfect shooting (6-of-6 FG, 2-of-2 FT) with one steal and one block in 22 minutes during a 32-point win over the Lakers. He was the best player on the court, doing a little of everything. We already know he can scale down, as he did that during Michigan’s run to an NCAA title, but he can scale up a bit too. Lendeborg “balanced” his percentages in the second game somewhat (4-of-11 FG, 0-of-2 FT), but still hit 3-of-5 3PT en route to 11 points with eight boards, two dimes, one steal and two blocks in 24 minutes. That is his “superpower” as he can do a bit of everything, but it would be a surprise if he is a 12-team option right away. He will likely have some streaming upside at certain points, though.

Will Richard

Richard was efficient, bringing his two-way play (three steals, four 3-pointers) vs. the Lakers. He looked like he shouldn’t be out there, in the good way that you want from a returning player who has already gotten NBA run. Richard had solid flashes for fantasy in 2025-26 as a rookie, usually peaking as a 14-teamer or low-end 12-team streamer for a game or two, but more often existing in the deep-league range when he got adequate minutes. Richard did not get to do as much statistically in the second game, but the Warriors won easily again and it remains clear that he doesn’t belong in Summer League.

Lajae Jones (54th pick)

Jones didn’t get to show much coming off the bench vs. the Lakers. He hit a corner three and that was pretty much the highlight of his game. It is unlikely that he features much early in his career, as he develops his overall game. Jones went 0-of-3 from deep in the second game (2-of-6 FG, 1-of-2 FT for six points) with four boards, three dimes and a block in 16 minutes. Jones will need development over a couple of seasons to ever become interesting for fantasy. Jones started the third game vs. the Heat, seeing 20 minutes, but was still disappointing with two points from 1-of-9 FG, four rebounds and one assist.

Ty Abbott

Summer League Head Coach, Los Angeles Lakers

Key Players:
Cameron Carr (24th pick)
Adou Thiero

Other Notable Players: Chris Mañon, AK Okereke, Peter Suder, William Kyle III, Robbie Avila, Anton Watson

Cameron Carr (24th pick)

Want more of our 2026 NBA Summer League Notebook for the CALIFORNIA CLASSIC and SALT LAKE CITY? You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required

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