I had a youth basketball coach that always used a saying that’s stuck with me these 20+ years later. Like the new Superman movie, it was a twist on a classic (at least from what I can tell, I’ve not seen Superman). I can still hear her raspy voice, “practice makes permanent.” Repetition imprints the act you are repeating.
Summer League is a lot of things. It’s magical, silly, and nobody is quite sure how it started, kind of like Camelot. The essence of Summer League, other than an excuse for NBA personnel to go to Vegas for two weeks, is that it’s practice.