2025 NBA Summer League: Top Rising Sophomore Performers
Our own Nathan Grubel runs through his top performers heading into their sophomore seasons at the 2025 NBA Vegas Summer League, covering who has grown their games in meaningful ways.
2025 NBA Summer League has passed, and with it, we move into the “quiet period” of the NBA’s scheduling calendar.
However, there’s still plenty to take away from what we just saw in Las Vegas. Several rising sophomores burst onto the scene as legitimate contenders to earn major rotational spots (or more) next season. The level of hoops has never been higher, even in this type of setting, on both ends of the floor.
Therefore, I wanted to highlight some players who stood out from the pack and displayed significant improvements that could carry over into the next year.
Let’s start with a guy who was arguably the most impressive player the entire time he was on the floor—someone who will make a major push to enter the starting lineup for the Utah Jazz.
Kyle Filipowski, Utah Jazz
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 29.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 2.3 APG, 56.1/39.1/62.5 Shooting Splits, 1.0 Stocks
Kyle Filipowski had a pretty good rookie season last year for the Utah Jazz, and I didn’t expect him to suit up in as many games as he did for the team during Summer League.
Yet he did, and he incinerated the nets from everywhere on the floor offensively. From hitting open jumpers, to running the floor in transition, rolling to the rim, and crashing the glass for easy putbacks, Filipowski did everything an NBA team would want to see from a stretch big.
Defensively, he didn’t get his hands on as many deflections and blocks as one may have liked to see, but he stood up to a number of good scorers in the post and held his ground. Filipowski has added good weight since he came into the NBA, enabling him to at least body up opposing centers and make sure they aren’t going through him so easily.
Filipowski had a number of fans coming into the draft because of his scoring touch, shooting projection, and ball handling at his seven-foot size, defensive questions be damned. Last year, he showed all of those tools in Utah while playing more of a power forward role alongside the Jazz bigs in Walker Kessler and John Collins.
I would expect Filipowski to play both positions this year, with some more center minutes in bench lineups given how he held up physically in Vegas. Teams want to see sophomores dominate over the summer to solidify their rotational roles in the upcoming season. Filipowski’s aggression off the bounce in creating his own shot, getting to the line, and relocating for easy off-ball looks proved that what he showed offensively last season is ready to take another step forward in his second year.
Ron Holland II, Detroit Pistons
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 21.7 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.3 APG, 52.8/46.7/76.9 Shooting Splits, 4.3 Stocks
When I saw the box score from Ron Holland’s first game with the Pistons here in Vegas, I didn’t want to read too much into it. Holland is one of the best athletes in the NBA, so with some added strength, his motor and physicality were projected to shine in an up-and-down setting like Summer League.
But then I started to watch back the tape of what he did in that first outing, and the rest of his minutes in Vegas, and realized that while I could’ve guessed a bit of what I’d see, there was a specific element that stood out: the improved jump shot.
Holland has been working with longtime shooting coach Fred Vinson, who was hired by the Pistons to help bring along Holland, Ausar Thompson, and the rest of the team’s young prospects in the shooting department. Holland’s touch was respectable, but nowhere near refined during his lone pre-draft season with the G League Ignite. Last year for the Pistons, Holland only knocked down 23.8% of his three-point looks and was a poor outlet for Cade Cunningham and other distributors when they found him in the corners. Teams left him open for a reason.
Fast forward to where his shot stands now after some work in the offseason, and I completely buy the projection moving forward. Holland’s jumper is much more fluid from base to follow through, and he’s much more confident in getting his shot off quicker. It feels similar to when I watched Jaden Ivey last year before he went out to injury—another player who had mixed results shooting through his first few seasons. Ivey found a willingness to let it fly much earlier off the catch. I saw that same level of aggression and belief in Holland with his jumper this summer.
If Holland can become a league-average shooter off the catch, and someone who defenses have to close out on and respect? It opens several doors for Holland on the move, as he’s ferocious when attacking a closeout. There were still times that Holland tried to drive in traffic and turned the ball over, but he’s still a dynamic downhill threat who can finish above and over defenders.
Plenty more work needs to be done for Holland to realize his All-Star potential, but these few games in Vegas were a nice step forward for him from a shooting perspective. His energy and motor are contagious; as his skill level catches up to his physical talent, Holland could become one of the most important pieces to Detroit’s success in the coming years.
Ajay Mitchell, Oklahoma City Thunder
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 20.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 4.3 APG, 51.4/36.4/81.8 Shooting Splits, 2.4 Stocks
I’m not sure anyone could’ve seen Ajay Mitchell emerging in quite the fashion that he has over the last 12 months since being drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mitchell had fans before his draft due to the nature of his game as a slashing combo guard who could operate in pick-and-roll and put pressure on the rim. He has made such a leap as an outside shooter, however, that his ceiling has risen pretty drastically compared to what it was before he set foot in the league.
Mitchell didn’t shoot 40% from distance or any crazy high percentage like that, but the shots he took (at great volume) were primarily off the dribble. He did struggle a bit off the catch from deep, but he was pretty great in any pull-ups he took in pick-and-roll action, both outside and inside the arc.
Teams already knew he was crafty getting to the basket and finishing going left, but Mitchell showed some change of pace and direction during his Summer League stint, and some pretty nasty defense at times on the ball. He’s quickly rounding out his skill set to become a complete guard, who is already built sturdily at 6’5” and 200 pounds.
It is going to be difficult for the Thunder to keep Mitchell out of the rotation next season, even with several guards ahead of him—including a lottery pick from last draft in Nikola Topic. However, Mitchell’s shooting bump should have fans and executives in Oklahoma City excited for who could be one of the leading bench scorers for a repeat title contender next year.
Terrence Shannon Jr., Minnesota Timberwolves
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 22.7 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 5.0 APG, 47.6/38.5/94.7 Shooting Splits, 1.7 SPG
After sporadic runs for the Minnesota Timberwolves last season (and even in the playoffs), Terrence Shannon Jr. got some more opportunities on the ball for the Summer League squad in Vegas.
While the results were still fairly mixed as far as his efficiency running pick-and-roll, Shannon’s downhill attacking was as ferocious as expected heading into his second NBA season.
He was difficult to contain in Minnesota’s outings in Vegas, as he’s one of the better athletes on the wing in his class, and quite possibly throughout the NBA. Shannon showed some change of direction in getting to the basket, and he has started to really figure out how he can change gears in the halfcourt.
Of course, most of his scoring came off transition buckets and open spot-up jumpers. The key to unlocking Shannon’s potential, though, is to keep developing his pick-and-roll game to see if there are more layers to extract and unpack—as he showed with Illinois in his last college season.
Should Shannon begin to replicate those top-tier results in his last collegiate year, his upside off the bench for the Timberwolves could become incredibly meaningful to the team’s postseason success. Minnesota needs more ball handlers alongside Anthony Edwards, and if Rob Dillingham can’t take that next step in his sophomore season, then Shannon would be the next man up to show more of what he could do.
Either way, his defense and off-ball offensive capabilities have solidified themselves through his rookie season and what we saw in Vegas. He’s answered any doubts of whether he’s a rotational contributor. Just how high his ceiling climbs, however, comes back to just how much he can handle with the ball in his hands.
KJ Simpson, Charlotte Hornets
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 16.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 5.7 APG, 41.8/29.7/82.6 Shooting Splits, 1.0 SPG
KJ Simpson didn’t set the NBA world on fire last year for the Charlotte Hornets. As a matter of fact, in several instances, I watched him on the floor and didn’t think he looked like an NBA guard. Simpson looked small and insignificant athletically. If his jump shot wasn’t falling, it wasn’t easy to see the value he could bring to a rotation.
Thankfully, Simpson started answering some of those offensive questions in Summer League with just how electric of a scorer he was with the Hornets. As the team’s lead guard and shot maker, Simpson nailed looks from every area on the floor, and he consistently created his own shots from the perimeter. Even with a rough shooting night in the championship game against the Kings that dragged down his percentages overall, he looked much more like the guard scouts evaluated at Colorado heading into his NBA career.
Simpson’s playmaking also stood out on tape, as he used screens and manipulated defenders in ways he couldn’t quite pull off last season. There was a bit more shake in his game, and he used his eyes well playing off screens to throw defenders off and create angles for easy passes.
There will always be defensive questions with Simpson given his size, but he was competitive on the ball and showed fight in getting through screens and playing up on opposing ball-handlers.
I wasn’t expecting a ton from Simpson to prove himself as a backup guard, as the bar is just so high in the NBA nowadays. However, I left optimistic about Simpson’s chances to break through—even on a roster that has accumulated multiple veteran pieces over the last month.
Tristan Da Silva, Orlando Magic
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 18.5 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 3.0 APG, 50.0/38.5/80.0 Shooting Splits, 2.0 Stocks
Tristan Da Silva’s rookie season started off incredibly well after he got multiple starting opportunities in the wake of the injuries to Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.
The Orlando Magic needed a wing to step up, and Da Silva brought with him experience handling the ball in different situations for Colorado just a year prior in college.
Da Silva’s case as a rotational wing looked much better when his jump shot was falling, but as the season progressed, his offense cooled off a bit. The physicality of the league wore on Da Silva a bit, and he wasn’t as effective on the ball either. His awareness and off-ball capabilities still were present whenever he got minutes, but I didn’t walk away as encouraged from his rookie year as a whole as much as I believed I would be before his draft.
Summer League Da Silva showed flashes in all the right directions, however. He got opportunities in his two games with the Magic to handle the ball, knock down jumpers, create looks for others, and be a menace defensively. Da Silva makes rotations, knows where to be, and just understands how to operate within the flow of the offense. He doesn’t need 25 shot attempts to make an impact in the scoring department and can get by on lower usage. That’s a great profile to have as a bigger wing, given the fact that Banchero, Wagner, and newly acquired Desmond Bane all need their touches to catapult Orlando into legitimate contention in the Eastern Conference.
Athletically, Da Silva will never be the quickest of foot, but he’s rangy given his length and anticipation. Those instincts were on display in Vegas, and his shot looks ready to take a step forward in his sophomore season.
I bought heavily into Da Silva before his draft because he did a number of things well at the college level. Maybe he didn’t have that one ELITE skill, but if you can do nearly everything at a certain clip, your case as an NBA player becomes clearer, especially with his measurables.
Continuing to add strength, honing in on his catch-and-shoot jumper, and refining his ball-handling and attacking closeouts are key focus areas for Da Silva moving forward. But seeing him through two games in Vegas, it was pretty clear he was “too good” for that setting and ready to graduate into a more consistent NBA role.
Cody Williams, Utah Jazz
2025 Vegas SL Stats: 20.4 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.8 APG, 46.3/34.2/72.2 Shooting Splits, 2.6 Stocks
The “jaw dropper” moment for me in person at Summer League was seeing Cody Williams up close. He didn’t have the best overall performance that I saw out there, but his physical transformation was evident—and it was something I discussed with multiple scouts in attendance.
Then came how he utilized his newfound strength. Not only was Williams more aggressive in taking shots offensively, but he was actually leveraging his frame and creating contact on drives. Players were bouncing off him, and he was finishing through contact or getting to the line with regularity when he chose to attack the basket. Defensively, he went after bigger wings and forwards, again leaning into contact and standing his ground with both arms up.
These are elements that weren’t present in Cody’s game both in college and during his rookie season with the Utah Jazz. Williams was statistically one of the worst players in the league last year (if not the worst) due to his inability to score from any level on the floor—not to mention that opposing ball-handlers went through him in one-on-one situations.
That didn’t happen to Williams in Vegas. He dictated more of the terms physically in different matchups, and it played to his advantage. Not only did it improve his results in multiple areas, but it allowed the parts of his game that were already positives to shine even brighter, such as his defensive playmaking and spot-up shooting.
Williams still has a bit of work to do handling the ball in traffic, and he could stand to speed up his shot mechanics off the catch. But now that Williams is able to deliver on his downhill drives with better results, it sets up some exciting opportunities for his development as an on-ball player. His vision and decision-making aren’t poor, and there’s new room for him to grow defensively as well.
Cody Williams is the one player I’m walking away from Summer League the most excited about as he heads into his second season. Between him, Kyle Filipowski, Brice Sensabaugh, and this year’s selections in Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton Jr., the Jazz have an underrated young core to move forward into the future with.
Great stuff! No Jaylon Tyson, though?