2023 Summer League – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Player grades: Ousmane Dieng flashes in 100-91 summer league win against Sixers

It was the Ousmane Dieng show against the Sixers in the SLC summer league finale.

Slipping off of a screen, Ousmane Dieng found a pocket in the dunker spot and softly feathered the ball inside the basket.

It was Dieng’s first of 10 buckets in an eventful night that saw the Oklahoma City Thunder dominate the scarcely-talented Philadelphia 76ers, 100-91.

“It was great experiences and I was really impressed with how guys competed every game,” Thunder summer league coach David Akinyooye said about their three Salt Lake City games

Monday was about Chet Holmgren’s return. Wednesday was about Tre Mann’s 28 points. So it only made sense that it was Dieng’s turn to have a summer night where he shined the brightest for OKC.

After a rough first 1.5 SLC summer league games, Dieng capped off his stay in Utah with a strong final game. The Thunder were without most of their notable players — as Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams and Cason Wallace were all out. This means the deck was cleared for Dieng and Mann to take over this game and dominate against inferior competition.

“I think I’ve been better every game in the last three games,” Dieng said. “… I think I got better yesterday and today.”

Despite the long list of players who were out, the Thunder made easy work of the Sixers, whose most notable player was 2021 first-rounder Jaden Springer.

Springer finished with 17 points, five rebounds and seven turnovers. Undrafted rookie Terquavion Smith also had 15 points and went 5-of-10 from 3 for the Sixers. Greg Brown III had 11 points and four rebounds off the bench.

The Thunder got off to a hot start that helped them build a 36-17 advantage following the first quarter. OKC continued to pile on and entered halftime with a 24-point lead. After only losing three points of their lead in the third quarter, the final 10 minutes essentially served as garbage time — until it wasn’t.

Despite leading by as many as 31 points, the Thunder had to earn this win late as Sixers made it interesting in the fourth quarter by cutting OKC’s lead to as little as five points. The Thunder escaped with the win and a 2-1 record in Utah, but the Sixers’ comeback efforts made them sweat it out a bit after being in control for the first three quarters.

Regardless though, if the Thunder would’ve blown a 31-point lead, it really wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things — summer league results are inconsequential and the individual performances of Dieng and Mann were enough to feel good about this game.

The Thunder wrapped up the SLC portion of their summer league schedule. OKC will now play at least five more games in Las Vegas.

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Thunder vs. Sixers summer league: How to watch, broadcast info

Thunder vs.Sixers summer league: How to watch, broadcast info for Thursday.

The Oklahoma City Thunder play the sixerswire.usatoday.com on Thursday, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Thunder (1-1) wrap up the Salt Lake City portion of their summer league schedule in their finale against the Sixers (1-1), as both teams come off of playing the previous night.

The Thunder are looking to bounce back from their loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite the loss, Tre Mann continues to look fantastic for the Thunder with 28 points.

Meanwhile, the Sixers are coming off a 104-94 win against the Jazz on Wednesday. Jaden Springer had 18 points and six steals.

Player grades: Tre Mann shows out in 94-86 summer league loss to Grizzlies

Tre Mann scored 28 points in the summer league loss to the Grizzlies.

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s quest for a perfect summer league record sadly came to an end on Wednesday.

After an impressive win against the Utah Jazz, the Thunder fell to the Memphis Grizzlies, 94-86, in their second summer league game in Salt Lake City.

The Grizzlies won this game from outside, as they shot 17-of-38 from 3 (44.7%) — the 17 made 3s are an SLC summer league record. The Grizzlies were in cruise control for most of the game, as they opened up a 39-31 lead following the first quarter. The Grizzlies led by as many as 16 points and were never seriously threatened by OKC for the entirety of the game.

“They started off pretty good and I thought like we were a little bit sluggish,” Thunder summer league coach David Akinyooye said.

The Grizzlies enjoyed a team-friendly performance that saw six of the 10 players that checked in score at least 10 points. Jake LaRavia led the way with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting and also went 4-of-9 from 3. Vince Williams Jr. also contributed with 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting and nine rebounds. Kenneth Lofton Jr. had 12 points and four rebounds.

Ball security was a big problem for the Thunder this game, as they were without Jalen Williams due to a left glut contusion. The Thunder committed 18 turnovers, which was dead even with their 18 assists. Chet Holmgren and Tre Mann combined for 11 turnovers. Grizzlies’ Jacob Gylard collected a savvy seven steals.

The turnover disparity led to the Grizzlies outshooting the Thunder by 13 attempts. But considering OKC shot a poor 10-of-34 (29.4%) from 3, who knows how big of a difference extra shots would’ve made for a team that struggled to get their offense going sans Mann.

As mentioned before, the results of summer league games are irrelevant. What matters is how highly-touted players perform against inferior competition. Despite the loss, Mann and Holmgren were excellent for OKC. Both are positive signs that make it easy to forget about the result.

Holmgren continues to show his defensive impact will be immediate, as his rim protection helped him collect three blocks. Considering how the Thunder played all of last season without a traditional big, Holmgren’s summer league has provided a nice preview as to what fans can expect from him with his elite defensive talents.

The Thunder will get a chance to quickly move on from this mundane loss as they play their final Utah summer league game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday. After that, they’ll be on their way to Las Vegas to play their remaining five-plus games.

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Grizzlies vs. Thunder summer league: How to watch, broadcast info

Grizzlies vs. Thunder: How to watch, lineups and broadcast info for Wednesday.

The Oklahoma City Thunder play the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Thunder (1-0) will play their second of three Salt Lake City Summer League games against the Grizzlies (1-0). In their first SLC game against the Utah Jazz on Monday, the Thunder had Chet Holmgren make his highly-anticipated return after nearly a year on the shelf in a win.

Holmgren finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocks in 29 minutes. He will get a chance to continue building momentum against the Grizzlies, who beat the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday.

‘It’s like the injury never happened’: Chet Holmgren talks about his return

“If you erased my memory, I wouldn’t know that anything happened to my foot other than the scars from surgery.”

[anyclip pubname=”2123″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8169″]

Monday marked the return of Chet Holmgren, who missed 11 months rehabbing a Lisfranc injury he suffered last August. The right foot injury cost Holmgren the entire 2022-23 season and multiple surgeries.

After being cleared to play 5v5 basketball near the end of the season, Holmgren’s first opportunity to play in a game was against the Utah Jazz in summer league.

Holmgren quickly reminded fans why he went No. 2 in his draft class. In 29 minutes, he finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and an absurd four blocks.

Playing your first professional game after a major foot injury is a huge mental hurdle to overcome in any sport. Especially for someone like Holmgren, who never had a serious injury in his life prior to August.

Holmgren cleared that hurdle with ease on Monday.

“The foot feels great,” Holmgren said following the win. “It’s like the injury never happened, other than everything I had to go through, obviously. But at this point, if you erased my memory, I wouldn’t know that anything happened to my foot other than the scars from surgery.”

It appears his teammates agree.

“He’s playing like he never got injured, which is dope,” Jalen Williams said following the win. “I think a lot of guys probably have that wall where they’re kinda afraid to do a lot of things. You can kinda see him go out there and trust his work. He worked extremely work while we were playing on the road. Always rehabbing. … A lot of stuff that everybody didn’t get to see that we got to. I’m excited for him and hopefully he can continue to play throughout summer league.”

As Williams said, the next step for Holmgren involves continuing to play in summer league to get additional in-game reps. By the time the games start to matter in late October, Holmgren will likely have plenty of recent in-game experiences to lean on.

Holmgren also said he’ll continue to work on his conditioning after not playing for nearly a year. Playing at high altitude in his first game back likely resulted in his slow start.

“I’ll be ready by the time training camp starts,” Holmgren said. “I feel like I’ll have myself prepared to be in season shape.”

Who knows how many more summer league games Holmgren will play over the next couple of weeks, but if his ensuing outings look similar to what he did against the Jazz, then that should excite both himself and OKC.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Player grades: Chet Holmgren returns in 95-85 summer league win over Jazz

After nearly a year, Chet Holmgren made his return on the court.

Running toward the weak side to provide help, Chet Holmgren collected his fourth block of the night by two-hand stuffing Keyonte George’s drive to the basket.

By the end of the night, the Utah Jazz grew accustomed to being on the wrong side of Holmgren’s lengthy wingspan. The highly anticipated return of the 2022 No. 2 pick highlighted the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 95-85 win in their first summer league contest.

The Thunder headed into Monday’s game with a clear talent advantage across the board. OKC’s starting lineup consisted of last year’s Rookie of the Year runner-up, the No. 2/No. 12 picks and a third-year guard.

By the end of the game, all five Thunder starters finished with a plus-minus of six-plus or better.

Meanwhile, the Jazz were without their top rookie, Taylor Hendricks, and the only notable players who suited up were Ochai Agbaji and George.

The talent gap became evident by halftime as the Thunder built a 59-43 lead thanks to a 43-point second quarter. That figure is even more impressive when you remember summer league quarters are 10 minutes.

The Jazz made it interesting in the fourth quarter with a 23-13 advantage, but the 20-point lead OKC entered the final frame with was enough of a cushion.

The Thunder enjoyed a hot night from 3; they went 13-of-31 (41.9%) beyond the perimeter arc. That effort was a much better night than Utah’s 9-of-34 (26.5%) effort from 3.

The Jazz were led by their two notable young players. Agbaji finished with 17 points on 7-of-19 shooting and nine rebounds. George had 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Luka Semanic also had 13 points and six rebounds.

It was an impressive team win for the Thunder, but the result of summer league games are inconsequential. The more exciting part of Monday’s fun night involved the dominating showing of OKC’s young core and being able to finally watch Holmgren play after spending the entire 2022-23 season rehabbing his Lisfranc injury.

The return of Holmgren made this summer league game that much more special. If he ends up having as great of a rookie season as most anticipate, we can look back at this otherwise forgettable night as the beginning of Holmgren’s arrival after a one-year delay.

“It was great to be back with these guys, man. I love all of them. Let’s keep working,” Holmgren said about his anticipated return.

The Thunder are hoping this game was a sign of things to come for the foreseeable future in their marriage with Holmgren following a bumpy start. Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Thunder vs. Jazz: Stream, lineups, injury reports and broadcast info for Monday

Thunder vs. Jazz: How to watch, lineups, injury reports and broadcast for Monday.

The Oklahoma City Thunder play the Utah Jazz on Monday, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Thunder (0-0) will play their first of three Salt Lake City summer league games against the Jazz (0-0). More notable though, this game will likely mark the return of Chet Holmgren after missing the entire 2022-23 season rehabbing his Lisfranc injury.

Holmgren suffered a season-ending foot injury last summer. After rehabbing all of last season, the 2022 No. 2 pick will see his first in-game action in nearly a year after playing in last year’s summer league.

The Thunder’s full 2023 summer league roster can be viewed here.

Chet Holmgren highlights the OKC Thunder’s 2023 summer league roster

The full roster can be viewed here:

[anyclip pubname=”2123″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8169″]

The Oklahoma City Thunder announced their 2023 summer league roster, which was highlighted by the return of Chet Holmgren.

Over the last couple of months, the Thunder have hinted at him possibly playing in summer league — now it’s official. This will mark Holmgren’s first in-game action since last year’s summer league. He suffered a season-ending Lisfranc injury in the offseason a year ago.

Other notable players on the Thunder’s summer league roster are Jalen Williams, Ousmane Dieng, Jaylin Williams, Tre Mann and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

Interestingly, Cason Wallace isn’t listed — but this could be because the draft night trade with the Dallas Mavericks isn’t official yet. Once it becomes official, Wallace will likely be added.

The full roster and coaching staff can be viewed below:

The Thunder are scheduled to play at least eight summer league games from July 3-17, as they are set to attend both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

OKC Thunder sign Daeqwon Plowden to summer league roster

Daeqwon Plowden played last season with the Pelicans’ G League affiliate.

[anyclip pubname=”2123″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8169″]

The 2023 NBA draft is over, which means the next steps of the offseason are free agency and summer league.

The Oklahoma City Thunder get their first chance to see rookies Cason Wallace and Keyontae Johnson play for them July 3-17 during the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas summer leagues.

The Thunder also get a shot to see several undrafted free agents and summer league signings during the two weeks. The latest addition is Daeqwon Plowden, who announced his signing to the Thunder’s summer league roster on Instagram.

It’s likely a non-guarantee deal the Thunder can easily shed following summer league. If Plowden plays well enough, perhaps he’s invited to training camp.

The 24-year-old went undrafted in 2022 after spending five college seasons at Bowling Green. He played for the New Orleans Pelicans during the 2022 summer league and participated in their training camp before being waived.

Afterward, Plowden signed with the G League’s Birmingham Squadron — the Pelicans’ affiliate — for the 2022-23 season. In 24 games, he averaged 8.3 points on 43.7% shooting, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He also shot 36.8% from 3 on 2.8 attempts.

The Thunder are scheduled to play at least eight games in summer league.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]