Summer League Wrap Up

Takeaways from the Summer Knicks trip to Vegas (and a rare inside look at how the sausage is made)

The Knicks warped up their Summer League experience over the weekend, playing their final two contests in Las Vegas.   

On Friday night, New York knocked off the Celtics 97-89. Once again, they were led by Charlie Brown Jr., who closed out his Vegas trip with his best game of the summer. Brown racked up 27 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block. He shot 10-of-16 from the floor, 5-of-9 from three-point territory, and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. 

This was Brown's final game in Las Vegas, as he would sit out the Knicks' fifth and final contest. Entering the summer, he would have been considered an extreme long shot to make the Knicks roster or even secure a two-way contact from New York for the 2023-24 season. However, after outperforming everyone else on the Knicks roster over the past two weeks, that's no longer the case. 

Over the four games he appeared in, Brown averaged 19.8 points, 6.3 boards, 2.0 assists, 2.3 three-balls, 1.8 blocks and 1.8 steals, while shooting 54.7% from the field, 37.5% from downtown and 80% from the free-throw line. He led New York in total points, made treys, and was second in boards, steals and blocks.

The only other players in Vegas to average more than 19 points and more than six rebounds per game were Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, Orlando Robinson, Jalen Duren and Chet Holmgren. Brown and Smith were the only two also to average more than two three-pointers.

As noted previously, the Knicks currently have 14 players signed to guaranteed contracts, which means Brown may have an opportunity to earn that 15th and final slot. The Knicks' most obvious need is a backup power forward, and although Brown is a 6'6" wing, he could likely fill the Obi Toppin role, considering Obi was typically asked to stand in the corner and shoot 3's or cut to the rim. 

We'll see if Brown returns to New York for training camp, or if he decides to sign a guaranteed contract with another team (potentially overseas) after his impressive performance this summer. 

Jaylen Martin sat out both Friday and Saturday's contests, so he finishes his summer averaging 13.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.3 dimes. However, he was inefficient, shooting 41.4% from the floor, 28.6% from deep and 73.3% from the stripe. The 19-year-old is raw but showed flashes of intriguing upside. It will be fun to see how he develops playing for Westchester in the G League next season. 

Isaiah Roby saved his best for last. In his final appearance on Friday, Roby tallied 17 points (6-of-19 shooting) and five rebounds to go along with a steal, a block and a triple in 30 minutes of action. He ends his Vegas run averaging 10/5/2. Overall, Roby would surely have liked to make a stronger case that he deserves a crack as the primary backup behind Julius Randle for the big club in 2023-24. Still, it was a relatively positive couple of weeks, considering Roby was working his way back into shape after an ankle issue (he was medically cleared in late June). Roby will get a chance to compete against Randle and the rest of the rotation regulars in training camp. 

Big men Michael Foster, Jr. and Dmytro Skapintsev appeared in all five games and played well at times but lack the combination of size, strength, athleticism and shot-making required to stick on an NBA roster. 

Speaking of players unequipped to make an NBA impact; unfortunately, Trevor Keels likely falls into that category. There were a lot of eyes on Keels, as he was the only player drafted by New York over the past two years. And he was given plenty of opportunities to prove he belongs (appearing in all five contests and logging 22 minutes per game), yet he failed to deliver. 

Keels had some encouraging moments (he scored 20 points on 10 FG attempts in NY's win on Friday), but his overall body of work was not overly impressive. He averaged 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He shot below 42% from the floor, 33% from downtown and 40% from the free-throw line. New York experimented with playing Keels at PG in the first few games, but it clearly wasn't working. Keels played off the ball far more frequently toward the end of the week and looked more comfortable but didn't provide the pop the coaching staff and front office were hoping for. 

With more intriguing options available, Keels' time in the Knicks organization seems likely to come to an end sooner rather than later. 

Lastly, one surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable subplot for the Knicks Summer League squad was the emergence of guard QJ Peterson. After an impressive four-year career at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), where he averaged 19+ points per game each season, Peterson went undrafted in 2017. He spent the next few years bouncing around various minor leagues before finding a home in the Chinese Basketball Association. This past season, the 28-year-old Peterson averaged 28.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists in the CBA. 

He wasn't expected to see significant playing time in Vegas for the Knicks and logged only three total minutes over NY's first two contests. However, he poured in 16 points off the bench in the third game and ended his Vegas run on a high note by scoring a game-high 25 points in the Knicks finale on Saturday night. 

Fortunately for us, Peterson shared a behind-the-scenes look at his entire experience via social media. In a lengthy Instagram post over the weekend, he explained how he first secured a minicamp invite and then beat the odds to earn a spot in the starting lineup in their final game. A professional athlete rarely gives this type of peek into the life of a player hoping against hope to make the top league in the world, so I think you guys will enjoy this. 

Here is the text from the IG post, entitled "Y'all want to hear my story on this whole summer league situation?" in its entirety: 

"My agent calls me and says 'Hey man I got you a minicamp invite with the New York Knicks, do you want to do it?' (There's about 16 players there) I said 'Of course let's do it!!' Minicamp was 3 days long and played extremely well in front of everyone! After minicamp, I walk into Coach Thibodeau's office and say 'Hey Coach I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to showcase my talents here, I really enjoyed it! I have one question for you. What do I have to do to make it in the league?" He says, "At your height being 6ft, you need to be a pest on defense, guard the full length of the court, dive on the floor, be everywhere on the court! Your offense is your strong suit, but your defense will get you in and you need to be seen more!" I said "Thank you Coach, it means a lot you took the time to tell me this" and walked out.

"I felt great after the training camp doing extremely well, feeling like I was the best player coming out of minicamp! A few days later, my agent calls again, says 'Hey man, they want you on their summer league roster but you probably will not get in until the last game. They want some of their guys playing the majority of the minutes and are younger and obligated to them. They understand you have six and seven figure deals on the table and understand if you don't want to do it. If you do decide you want to play, they don't want to hear from me the whole time that you aren't playing.'

"Now, I could have had an ego trip, and say 'nah I'm better than this, not accepted' and just kept it moving! It took me less than 10 minutes to decide on if I wanted to do it! I told my agent 'Look, let's do it!! I've come this far, let's see it through, I'm just going to have to force their hand and make it extremely hard for them not to play me!! However, I'm here to do whatever they need me to do, whether I play zero minutes or 40 minutes, they will have the hardest worker, best leader on and off the court, and do whatever I can to help develop the young guys and encourage them out there! Whatever my role is, I will do!!'

"The Knicks let me come in early June 29th to start working out before actual practices for summer league started on July 4th! Every day I was there from June 29th- July 7th, i was the first one in the gym and last one to leave, every day! Every day Coach Thibs watched me do defensive slides full court every workout against the staff, incorporating offense into it, taking everything Coach Thibs told me to heart!

"First game comes in Vegas, did not see a minute of action, but was one of the loudest talkers on the floor! The best teammate, high fiving guys, helping young guys see the game better! That was my role for game 1! We lose game 1! Same goes for game 2 we lose but got in the last 3 minutes of the game when we were already down by a lot! The minute i get in the game I hit a 3 and press up full court like my life depends on it!!

"After game 2, Coach Thibs meets with the summer league head coach, Coach Dice and says yes you have to play these guys, but at some point winning has to take hold and matter! Coach Dice comes up to me the next day and says 'Hey, be ready, I don't know how much you're going to play, but just be ready,' and of course my response is, 'I'm always ready Coach!'

"Game 3 comes, we start the game off losing, he subs me in with 4 minutes to go in the first quarter until mid second quarter, and immediately I make a positive impact on the game! We're clicking, guys are talking simply because I'm talking loud and forcing them to, playing together, huddling guys up together to make sure we're on the same page, picking up defense full court, diving on the floor, all the little things!! ENERGY AND EFFORT!!! We come out in the second and get down by 13 and puts me in and immediately I make a positive impact again and don't come out the rest of the game!! We end up coming back and winning this game, without having a great shooting night, solely off of ENERGY AND EFFORT!!

"Everyone is happy about the win, but more so happy for me, and credit me for the win because of the ENERGY AND EFFORT I brought off the bench!! They know how hard I worked every day, how I could have pouted because I wasn't playing, but instead stayed ready and focused on the game, encouraging guys, and when it was my time, they trusted in me, trusted my leadership and rallied behind the energy and effort I brought! My role was to bring energy and effort and veteran leadership and get the job done by any means necessary!!

"4th game comes and my message to the team was simple. Let last games energy and effort transfer to this game! You guys now know what energy and effort you need to play at in order to win games in the NBA!! Needless to say these boys came out hot playing together, everyone on the floor and bench all talking being positive with everyone, everyone is in tune with the game!! My role this game was simple, manage the game and play defense with energy and effort!! I didn't have a great scoring night, but I did all the small things out there and made the correct plays and brought ENERGY AND EFFORT once again and leadership!! We win that game by 10 or so!

"5th game comes, we start the game off very slow, 15-1 actually!! Didn't have it going early on, only had 7 or 8 guys playing, everyone is tired. I told guys, playoffs or no playoffs, everything matters!! This matters!! You get very few chances in the NBA!! Take advantage of it!! We are going to be okay, it's a very long game!! We continue to fight all game, not giving up!! Heading into the 4th quarter with only 8 points and down 13, I said to myself, it's time to step up, now!! Remember who you are truly! I tell Coach Dice the head coach, I'm about to take this game over! The coaching staff and players all were on board with letting me do what I've been doing, which is score! I tell guys, score stop, score stop, score stop, we will be good! One possession at a time, value it, finish every defensive possession with a rebound! ENERGY AND EFFORT will help us come back and win this game!! Sure enough we come back and even take the lead! Finished the game with 25 and had 3 chances to win it down the stretch and the ball just didn't go through! Everyone said to me after the game, we all wanted you to take those shots! You worked hard every day, you had it going, and you weren't afraid of the moment! There's nothing to hang your head about!

"To hear that from a group of guys who I've only known for 2 weeks means a lot to me! This entire summer league has been an amazing experience!! I had chances where I could have quit, could have had a ego, could have said I'm better than this, yet I choose to think about everyone back home, every kid in the stands, my family how it'd make them look!! I made it BIGGER than MYSELF!! No matter what I may have been feeling, I made it bigger than myself!!

"I turned a lot of eyes with different NBA teams at summer league solely off my ENERGY and EFFORT and affecting the game in a positive way by just playing hard, showing a great attitude, and being a great teammate and leader!! All the feedback received had nothing to do with me being able to score, it was all because of the things listed above, playing like my life depended on it!!

"What I want you all to take from this, no matter where you come from, no matter your height, whether you're 5-star athlete or no star athlete, always bet on yourself! Always be ready so you don't have to get ready, and be a great teammate and person! Do all of the little things. because the little things matter!! Find your WHY that makes things bigger than just yourself, to help you keep going when things get tough!!

"God....thank you!! this opportunity you blessed me with impacted a ton of lives other than mine and I'm glad you used me as an example!! Thank you everyone for all the love and support throughout this summer league!! Thank you New York Knicks organization for giving me the opportunity to display my talents on the highest stage in front of millions of people!!"