Where does Luke Travers stand after Summer League?
Travers showed glimpses of his NBA potential in Las Vegas with the Cleveland Cavaliers - what's next?
Luke Travers achieved something that is near impossible in Las Vegas: he was quickly identified as a one of one.
Both on and off the court, Rockingham’s first NBA player stood out within an environment that has become the NBA’s experimental playpen. That is what this tournament means for those around the NBA. The collective intelligencia unites to probe fringe prospects who are fighting for a chance to get an NBA contract proper. For the most part, groupthink is a leading sentiment as players from all around the world are assessed.
The majority of Summer League contenders can be placed into positional archetypes: we have the 3-and-D wings, the gunners, the lob threats and the sharpshooters. Throw in the occasional malcontent, and most of the faces seen in Las Vegas this July would easily slot into their stereotypical NBA “role”.
Travers, however, doesn’t fall easily into the general consensus. He shares aspects of those traits, sure, but he doesn’t look or play like any off-the-shelf solution. And in the first instance, that breeds pessimism. In an NBA world that is continuing to conform to an analytics revolution, the baked in assumption with many around the NBA is that anyone who looks and plays like Travers can’t play at the level needed to make it in the NBA.
