2024 NBA Summer League Stars Will Be Forgotten Before Regular Season

Highlights

NBA Summer League always features breakout stars and fan favorites.
However, those players’ performances rarely carry over to the regular season and turn them into real NBA role players.
The 2024 edition of that group includes a few high scorers, including year’s Championship Game MVP.

Every NBA Summer League sees some rookies and sophomores play like superstars.

Some high draft picks who couldn’t make an NBA roster but have toiled around in the G League or overseas pop back up and remind everyone of the talent that made them so appealing in the first place.

For example: Anthony Morrow (47 points) and Marcus Banks (42 points) have poured in the most points in any game in Summer League history.

It was the highlight of both their careers.

The moral of the story is don’t overreact to what a player can do in some glorified scrimmages.

Here are three players who stood out during 2024 Summer League whose flame will have burnt out by the time the regular season rolls around, including this year’s MVP.

3 Kevin Knox II

A regular on lists such as this

Kevin Knox averaged 17.5 points on 46 percent shooting to go along with 8.5 rebounds in 23.4 minutes across four Summer League games this year.

Solid stats—for an eight-year NBA veteran with more than 300 regular-season games under his belt and who has zero reason to be playing in Summer League at all.

Knox is still only 24 years old, but he’s well past the “maybe this year is finally the year” stage of his career.

The former Kentucky product hasn’t started more than 11 games since his rookie season and has spent most of his career in the G League. It’s fair to say that despite another solid Summer League performance, Knox has little to no chance of impacting the league in 2024-25.

2 Ricky Council IV

Will impressive stats lead to an NBA role?

Ricky Council IV, Philadelphia 76ers — Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images

Ricky Council IV was the ninth-leading scorer (minimum four games played) in the Las Vegas Summer League at 18.8 points per contest. He also grabbed 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game.

However, the 22-year-old shot 38.6 percent from the field and a painful 18.2 percent from three-point range.

Council’s game is predicated on defense, effort and getting to the free-throw line, which he did in Vegas to the tune of 8.8 times per game. But it will be difficult to crack an NBA rotation when you can’t crack the 20 percent mark from three.

Council averaged nine minutes per game in 32 contests for the Philadelphia 76ers as a rookie, and it’s hard to imagine him finding a more significant role with the Sixers after the team re-signed Kelly Oubre Jr. and added Paul George and Caleb Martin.

1 Josh Christopher

The Summer League Championship Game MVP

Josh Christopher, Miami Heat — Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Josh Christopher was a revelation for the Miami Heat in Vegas.

The 24th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft finished as the sixth-leading scorer in Summer League (minimum four games), averaging 19.3 points on 54.1 percent shooting and 52.5 percent from deep.

As a potential product of the famed “Heat Culture,” Christopher could be the latest overlooked member of the franchise who emerges from nowhere to become a role player at the NBA level. And maybe that ends up happening.

But despite his massive scoring outbursts and his Summer League Championship MVP award, Christopher wasn’t even named First- or Second-Team All-Summer League.

History says the 6-foot-5 guard is about to become the next Summer League legend who struggles to earn NBA minutes.

Christopher was drafted by the Houston Rockets and is a career 6.9 points-per-game scorer. He spent all of last season in the G League.

He was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies before last season but was waived, picked up by the Utah Jazz and waived, and then finally caught on with the Heat on a two-way contract at the end of last season.

Maybe Christopher’s ability as a scorer is enough to keep him in the league, but the chances of him parlaying his Summer League performance into a role in Miami this season are slim at best.