Separation between Raptors, Siakam widening as prospects start slow at Summer

LAS VEGAS — There are all kinds of things happening at Summer League: ferocious competition for contracts being one of them.

The jolt some players in their first weeks as professionals feel when they get their first taste of what it’s like to play against athletes bigger, stronger and faster than them — sometimes for the first time in their lives — is another. 

It’s a big social event too, with team officials from across the NBA renewing acquaintances, making new connections, or simply catching up with buddies from stops past. It goes for players also, as even established NBA stars can’t resist an all-expenses paid trip to the desert to blow off some steam, see some of the league’s new and familiar faces and generally have fun before the preparation for the upcoming season gets a bit more intense and serious in August.

In essence, the Summer League is a vibe check, a chance to take the pulse before the league shuts down – finally – for a few weeks in advance of the long marathon ahead. 

But things don’t always go as intended.

Not everyone gets a job. Some coaches and league officials are scrounging the hallways and corners of the arenas on campus at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, hoping to tap an old contact for a much-needed lead on one.

Some younger players look overwhelmed even at Summer League which is several notches down from what they’ll face at the NBA level. And sometimes? The new faces a team is bringing in and relying on to lift the existing group, look a long way from being able to do much of that. 

Take the Raptors, for example. 

Game 2 of their five-game Summer League schedule had more of the downside of Vegas than what you might hope. It was not pretty.

You could close your eyes and click your heels and believe you were in Toronto say, mid-December, if you listened to Raptors Summer League head coach Joe Delaney talk about his club’s dismal performance in a 99-76 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Cox Pavilion on Sunday that dropped Toronto to 0-2 in league play. 

Rookie wing Gradey Dick showed more promise. The 19-year-old finished with 11 points – tied for the team lead – and led the Raptors with eight rebounds and four assists in a better all-round performance than he had in his professional debut Friday.

But that was the only bright spot, and it wasn’t exactly blinding.

The Raptors shot 34.6 per cent from the floor, 5-of-31 from three and put the Cavaliers on the line 29 times in a 40-minute game. It was about as bad as professional basketball can be, this after a not-all-that-stellar of a showing in the opening night loss to Chicago on Friday.