The Buck Stops Here Roundtable #4: Summer League Wrap-Up

Evidently from their 1-4 record, the Summer Bucks were one of the weaker teams in Las Vegas, struggling to close out games after leading a number of times at the half and into the 3rd quarter. Despite the team’s poor record, did any of the non-rostered players impress you? With the front office going quiet on the free agency front, do you expect Milwaukee to invite any of these players to training camp?

AM: I actually don’t think the Bucks were one of the poorer teams overall, in spite of record. They were competitive, or maybe even more accurately they were leading, for large chunks in the majority of their games. Naivety was their problem. Other teams had NBA vets, as in second or third year players to turn to; the Bucks had Vaughn.

In terms of non roster guys, Petteway was really impressive and judging off of a larger body of work (D-League with the Mad Ants, Summer League and Preseason with the Hawks last year), he has what it takes to be a very solid role player in the second half of an NBA rotation. Considering the options likely open to Milwaukee to fill out the backup small forward spot, they could (and probably will) do a lot worse.

Prince Ibeh showed glimpses of his defensive potential. If they can dump Monroe I’d be all in favor of him getting a chance on a minimum deal. I liked Le’Bryan Nash too but considering how limited his opportunities were I’m not sure that the Bucks felt the same way. Expect might be a strong word, but I hope that the Bucks at least consider some of those guys as options heading to camp.

TWindisch: Let’s pour one out for Ronald Roberts‘ very short tenure on the Summer Bucks right about here. Roberts was a beast in the D-League last season and probably would’ve been the best player on the Summer League roster, and also the guy most likely to get a shot to make the real Bucks.

Instead he went to Turkey to play overseas and we were left with Terran Petteway and Le’Bryan Nash. Both Petteway and Nash had fairly solid Summer Leagues, but neither of them were impressive enough to tear Milwaukee’s eyes away from some of the remaining NBA free agents I’d think.

JT: I wouldn’t really say I was really impressed, but I thought Terran Petteway had the best showing of the non-rostered Bucks players.  He did a solid job shooting the ball (Petteway shot 43 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range) and took advantage of mistakes made by the opposing teams on the defensive end (Petteway averaged 1.6 steals per game).

However, as much as I’d like to see the Bucks try to find a diamond in the rough with the players they brought in for Summer League, I really don’t expect them inviting any of the non-rostered players to training camp.

Next: Overall Summer League Outlook