Summer league is a bit of a paradox.
For teams, the goals of summer league include introducing young draft picks to their offensive and defensive systems while getting young second and third year players a chance to expand their games against live competition.
The league, though, has created a tournament setting where a champion is crowned and broadcast partners call games as if the end results are important. That creates an expectation among fans that doesn’t entirely jive with what the team, and some of its players are trying to do.
Don’t get me wrong, the summer league Venn diagram does include an overlapping area where putting lessons together to win a game has value, but it’s very easy for a team to accomplish its goals in Las Vegas while going 0-5.