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What: Suns (2-2) vs. Cavaliers (1-3)
When: Monday, 3:00 PM AZ Time
Where: Vegas
Watch: ESPN2
Jalen Smith gets a chance for his 5th straight double-double of Summer League today in the Suns finale. A win leaves the Suns with a winning record. A loss does not.
No one’s going to remember the Summer Suns record though. They are only going to remember Jalen Smith’s performance. He’s no Amare Stoudemire, or even Chris Boucher at this point, but he’s much better than we all thought he was after watching him this past year in spot minutes.
Smith leads all Summer League players in total rebounds (12.5) and offensive rebounds (5.0), while also leading all big men in three-pointers attempted per game (7.0, making 36% of them). If you put him in the Dario/Frank role, he would fit very nicely right now. If you want more, you might very well get more. He’s this good and he just barely turned 21 years old.
On the other side, you probably wanted to watch rookie 3rd overall pick Evan Mobley or second-year player Isaac Okoro, but both have been shut down after a few games. What’s left is a guy like Lamar Stevens, a 6’6” wing who played 40 games for the Cavaliers last year on a two-way contract.
Let’s go out with a win, Summer Suns!