Leaving Las Vegas (with Summer League buzz)
Our first around-the-league notes dispatch after returning home leads off with the Knicks aggressively pursuing Donovan Mitchell to team up with newly signed Jalen Brunson
LAS VEGAS — The intrigue started to bubble immediately when last season's NBA Tournament began.
At the very first game of the 2022 playoffs, New York Knicks forward Julius Randle and team executive William Wesley were unexpectedly spotted in prominent courtside seats to watch Utah’s Round 1 series opener at Dallas. Former All-Star guard Allan Houston, another Knicks executive, wasn't far away from them in a quality seat near the Jazz bench.
Who were they there to see (and presumably recruit with their mere presence)?
Utah's Donovan Mitchell?
The Mavericks' Jalen Brunson?
Now we know the answer. The Knicks were after both.
On Tuesday, New York finally completed the long-anticipated signing of Brunson to a four-year deal that the Knicks officially submitted to the league at an even $104 million with a player option in Year 4. By that time, mind you, they had already opened talks with Utah on a potential blockbuster trade for Mitchell.
Hooking up for those talks was surely …
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Question of the Week
Confession time: My latest visit to the NBA's annual summer league in Las Vegas, essentially spanning three days, did not include a single trip to the gym to watch basketball.
The reason: When you are chasing the sort of offseason buzz I'm chasing, offsite meetings are often the best vehicle for collecting it.
There is, however, another reason: Trying to get time at the arena with the NBA's power brokers for more than a handshake, with any sort of discretion attached, is challenging in the extreme when they are in such demand at an event that has become so popular. At his annual summer league press conference Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver estimated that some 70.000 tickets will be sold for 11 days’ worth of games.
The frenzy has spawned a new trend that was impossible to miss — especially during those first few days when I was relying on social media to track Vegas developments from home in Dallas. Fan photography of various GMs huddling in public was the rage of Summer League 2022, as evidenced by this hyper-circulated video clip of Toronto's Ujiri and Brooklyn's Sean Marks chatting at the Thomas & Mack Center:
I realize the tone I'm about to sound is spoiling the fun to a degree, but this week's question had to be: You guys know, deep down, that Ujiri and Marks are not going to seriously discuss the details of a potential Kevin Durant trade in public like this? Right?
Dot Dot Dot (🏀🏀🏀)
🏀 On top of the NBA's expected examination of the Knicks' now-official signing of Jalen Brunson in free agency, I'm told …
This is an excerpt from my latest NBA column. To read it all and receive full access to all of my work, please click the link or the orange button to subscribe.