How To Watch 2026 NBA Summer League: A Scout's Notebook
Our own Nathan Grubel details how he approaches scouting and evaluating players during the NBA Summer League, offering some helpful tips on what to watch for past scoring and raw box score numbers.
NBA Summer League is arguably the greatest experience for a fan that any professional sports league has to offer.
Fans get to walk around these various Summer League offerings and can see several games for the price of admission, sit closer to the court than they normally would, and potentially even rub elbows with various scouts, executives, and players alike (especially in Las Vegas at Thomas & Mack Center).
Yes, Summer League is an excellent NBA marketing opportunity to introduce the newest crop of players to its fans, be it rookies making “debuts” or second and third-year players getting more minutes and exposure after being hidden on the bench for a season or two.
But it’s also an evaluation opportunity for those interested in scouting professional basketball IF used correctly.
What do I mean by that? Well, there’s always an obsession with critiquing prospects in Summer League based on their statistical performances and highlight plays, as anyone would during the NBA’s regular season. If a player has an incredible shooting performance, then they’ll be discussed online like they’re on their way to the Hall of Fame.
But if a player has a game filled with missed shots and/or turnovers? Consider them ready to receive the skepticism and heavily critical feedback of the league’s fans and evaluators alike.
It would be really easy for me to just say don’t put stock in Summer League and end this piece here. But that’s not what I believe.
Talk to coaches, developmental staff, and anyone who is around the game of basketball for a living, and they’ll tell you to not obsess over Summer League, but don’t dismiss it entirely either.
The “how” behind watching Summer League basketball goes a bit deeper than judging a player on makes or misses. There are specific elements within these games to take note of that matter for a player’s short and long-term growth, and even the outlook of their respective franchise(s).
For example, a player can go 1-of-9 from the field in the first half of a game, but as we know in the business of scouting, that raw percentage shouldn’t fully determine whether to call the half “poor” by itself. What was the player’s process like? What was the context of those shots? Were they good or even great shots that just didn’t go in?
Summer League is such a small sample size in relation to any other aspect of an NBA player’s career. Regular seasons are 82-game sample sizes. Potential postseason runs are a fraction of that, but still a much more complete sample than anything found in the NBA’s various Summer Leagues.
In order to properly evaluate Summer League basketball, one must keep context in mind when scouting and evaluating player performances. These players are coming together in large part for the first time on limited practice. Even some players who are with the same squad and coming back for a second or third season are finding themselves primarily adjusting to on-court life with rookies, or veterans trying to play their way back into the NBA. There’s little continuity from a teammate’s perspective, and even from a coaching standpoint when factoring in how few head coaches or lead assistants actually are in charge during Summer League. Whomever is in charge of manning the team’s day-to-day operations may be implementing sets and schemes that the organization’s head coach and front office want prioritized for their own evaluations, but these could be new to many players taking part in these Summer League games.
Past those initial layers of context, there are also the on-court factors behind what actually takes place during Summer League games, and who has the ball in their hands the most. Summer League is tilted towards backcourt play, particularly through the lens of scoring point guards. Most of the league’s skilled floor generals are already established NBA talents, and are therefore not taking part in Summer League. On occasion, you’ll find examples of crafty, pass-first guards who are great extensions of a coaching staff, but most of these guards are wired to operate off quick actions and look to put the ball in the basket at the first opportunity. Therefore, frontcourt players aren’t always going to get as many shots as they could during a regular season outing UNLESS they are featured draft picks who are prominent within the organization’s hierarchy coming in like AJ Dybantsa or Cameron Boozer.
That’s why it’s CRUCIAL to evaluate players past just the shots they’re taking on the court. It’s one thing to not judge a player by makes or misses, but volume also shouldn’t be taken too much into account both positively or negatively, as that too is dependent upon the construction of the roster AND the organization’s goals for evaluating its players in this setting. A player can carry a sky-high usage in Summer League, which likely means that the franchise is evaluating said player to see if they can take on a considerably larger role next season. Summer League is as much an experimental environment as it is a proving grounds for players to earn jobs and opportunities within the league.
Going beyond makes, misses, and shot volume, scouts and coaches are looking at which players provide value to a team past just points contributed. Are they filling in the gaps on offense away from the ball, both in terms of moving without it and crashing the offensive glass to hunt for extra opportunities? Are they running the floor in transition, filling the lanes appropriately? How are they making the most of non-scoring touches on the floor? Are they able to recognize defensive gaps and passing windows, and make those correct reads even if it doesn’t result in an assist that gets logged in the box score?
All of the different layers that exist in scouting players for the NBA Draft also exist in evaluating pro personnel for who can impact the game at the NBA level. It’s not only about putting the ball in the basket, but also the connective elements. Does a player know how to handle a complementary role if they’ve had the ball in their hands all the time at the college level? How can they adjust to different roles depending on the game? Trust me: for some players, it’s more difficult than they’d care to admit to get used to different on-court roles or substitution patterns/minutes assignments, but Summer League offers the best context for coaches and front office personnel to evaluate these players taking on different challenges and seeing how they can adapt to what’s in front of them.
I’ve spent so much time discussing what to watch for on offense that I almost didn’t get through what teams are looking for on the defensive end. As the game has shifted to a more physical postseason, I can already see some of those game principles in play during the first few games of the California Classic and Salt Lake Summer Leagues. Refs are swallowing the whistle more often, meaning there’s room for players to show how they can handle the new level of physicality compared to what they find in college basketball or at lower-level leagues overseas.
Also, it’s not just about how much a player can finish through contact on offense. Can a player show that level of physicality on defense, and really match the intensity of their offensive matchup? A lot of the time, you’ll find that defenses can have greater effect on a Summer League game than the offense, because of all the factors I laid out above in terms of practice time and a lack of chemistry/familiarity. Defense is about structure and scheme of course, but there’s also a major factor of effort and on-court communication that can come easier on defense than offense.
Before quickly judging a player’s raw offensive output, consider the defense said player is going up against. Is that defense well-connected, and filled with veteran personnel who have already taken their lumps adjusting to the physicality and athleticism of the next level? What about the opposing roster’s overall construction? How many bigs are sharing the floor? Is the team more guard or wing-focused on the perimeter?
When scouting the defensive end of the floor in Summer League, I play close attention to the decision-making on that end of the floor as much as I do on offense. Are they paying attention to detail in the sense of timing on boxouts, when to gamble for steals, and timing their rotations properly to fill in the gaps and shut off driving lanes?
I can’t stress enough that basketball at its highest levels is about making the right decisions on a consistent basis. Yes, there are athletic factors and bars that have to be cleared in order to succeed at an NBA level. Also, skill with the ball has never been more important than it is now. However, the mental aspects of the game that tie both together can absolutely be evaluated during Summer League play. Is a player ready to take the next step as a professional? If they are, you can tell based on their play in Summer League. Are they quicker at making reads both on and off the ball? Are they locked in defensively off the ball, playing rotations, and effectively closing out on shot opportunities?
If they’ve taken steps forward in the sense of their timing and anticipation rather than being late in these spots, then these are real signs of growth that are best observed by watching the Summer League action on the court, rather than just box score watching and hoping a player had a scoring performance that’s worth sharing on social media.
One can always learn more about basketball when watching, even during events like Summer League. Your favorite NBA team’s hidden gem could be taking meaningful steps forward on the court before your very eyes, just not in the box score.
I’d invite anyone reading this piece to watch Summer League over the next few weeks to take some of these things into account, and comment back here with deeper observations of their favorite players past just how many points they scored and what their field-goal percentage was. After all, we can all stand to keep learning more about the NBA and its players!