Pacers fans concerned with the franchise's poor showing in summer league play in Las Vegas this week can find solace in the fact that, historically, the meaning of it all is … well, let's say debatable.
Players have been known to advance their careers in these off-season gatherings, and they are certainly better for most than doing nothing or playing in unorganized pickup games, but trying to extract deeper meaning from the proceedings often leads to false hope and unwarranted worry.
In other words, it's a bizarro world where winning is secondary and relative unknowns and long-forgottens such as Al Leslie, Billy Williams, Steve Woodside, Jose Slaughter, Anthony Frederick and Nate Johnston have excelled for the Pacers, first-round draft picks such as Jalen Rose have struggled and future stars such as Clark Kellogg, Wayman Tisdale, Chuck Person, Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert didn't even participate ahead of their rookie season.