NBA Summer League Day 2: Yang Hansen is fun – and Las Vegas loves him

Las Vegas – Two courts, eight games, there is a lot to see the first weekend of the Las Vegas of the 2025 NBA Summer League. Here are only some of the highlights we have seen.

Yang Hansen is funny

It went better than expected.

It’s just a summer championship game, and Yang Hansen still has a long way to go to demonstrate that he can hang a rotation of the NBA-for not talking about the time at the height of expectations with the starry eyes of some fans of Trail Blazers-MA his debut in the summer championship has gone and could be hoped.

The undeniable thing is that Yang is fun to look at the late night of Las Vegas in the late night.

“In the game, the coach told me to go to Palo Alto and to be a game player today,” said Yang. “Be a hub for everyone. I just followed the execution of the coach and did my job.”

Yang ended the night with 10 points on shooting 3 out of 7, with five assists and four rebounds (and six fouls).

“I think he played like some of us expected to play,” said the Portland Summer League coach Ronnie Burrell. “He showed a lot of facets for his game. We know he is very versatile and skilled, and I just like the fact that he was having fun. He was free and relaxed. He played hard and made great play tonight.”

Yang was surprise n. 16 of the Blazer track, a boy projected to be enrolled in the middle of the second round that went in the middle of the first. The center with courtyard 7’1 “from China was known as a high -level passerby (that ability was on display in Las Vegas), and shot the ball better than expected at the NBA Draft combine (which continued on Friday evening.

A good game in the summer championship does not answer all those questions, improving its conditioning and becoming stronger must be on the document. There are still many things to learn for him (for one, he has camped in the key defensively, but the referees of the summer league tend not to call three defensive seconds). However, it was a good start.

And it was fun. —Churt Helin

Reed Sheppard dominates the summer league. Still.

Reed Sheppard did not see the floor much during his Rookie season in a competitive Rockets team. They exchanged some of their depths to bring Kevin Durant, who should open the door to take on a wider role.

He has shown that he is ready to get up to the occasion.

At the loss for the Clippers, Sheppard closed with 28 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four thefts, three blocks and six three points.

He scored 15 of his 28 in the third quarter, which included three three straight to bring them from 12 to just three points entering the fourth quarter. However, it was held without score in the final frame.

Sheppard spent most of the game as the main ball manager and did a good job by facilitating his teammates. He led the team to assist and created numerous other clean looks that did not fall, which included some impressive jump steps with one hand with his hands both right and right.

He also spent some time on the floor with Kennedy Chandler, who spent the last two seasons in the G League after appearing in 36 games for the Grizzlies as a debutant during the 2022-23 season. Chandler closed with 22 points and three assists, and Sheppard has attributed it as someone who can “bring the ball to the floor, go and get a bucket alone and put you on the spot to get three”.

Sheppard said that attention for him this offseason was “trying to enter the weight room, to become a little stronger. He works on the defense, being more physical, offensive and defensive”.

The work was evident in this game. He totaled seven defensive statistics and was also defensively active in other ways that have not ended up in the score of the box. Houston boasted the fifth best defensive evaluation in the championship last season, and it seems that inserting Sheppard in the rotation in a greater capacity will not drag that number. —NoAh Rubin

Other news and notes

• Covers can have something in McNeley; Knueppel Lotte. The latest addition to the “Don’t read anything in a summer championship debut” is Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel. Friday was not his day: shooting 1 out of 8, 0 out of 5 from 3, four assists but three turnover and some rough defensive rotations. What matters with the beginners of the Summer League is that there is growth, we will see how it appears next time it takes a step on the pitch.

Hornets fans ignore Knueppel and focus on Uconn’s Liam McNeley.

“It seemed that it was everywhere all day,” said the coach of the summer alloy of Hornets Chris Jent of McNeley. “Just what has distinguished himself on how he competed today. I think his competitive nature and also his conditioning. I thought of all the boys out there, he was able to support him. So he is really impressive for a young player. He probably didn’t play basketball through the draft process, but he is able to maintain the same rhythm during the game.” —Hin

• The good day of Kobe Bufkin. Kobe Bufkin is entering his third season with the Hawks after having made it the 15th overall choice in 2023. He spent most of his beginner year in the G League and has undergone an end of the season shoulder during the 2024-25 season, so so far it has appeared only in 27 games of the NBA.

He scored 29 game points against the heat, with 17 of those who arrived in the fourth quarter to help the Hawks to guarantee victory.

Atlanta added Nickeil Alexander-Walker with a four-year contract, so there is no guarantee that Bufkin will be rotated if everyone is healthy. However, if he is dominating the summer league as he should enter his third season, he will be in the running for the backup guard role behind you. -Rubin

• Matas Buzelis Windmill Slam. Without Collin Murray-Boyles, who was put aside with a left adductor tension, the Raptors still had no problems that dominate the bulls. AJ Lawson (22 points), Alijah Martin (16 points) and Jonathan Mogbo (15 points) led the charge of score for Toronto, while Jamal Shead facilitated well and was a threat defensively, which should not be a surprise.

Matas Buzelis shot 4 out of 14 from the floor. Toronto’s defensive intensity has certainly changed some of his shots, even if there are some blows that defenses cannot do much.

That intensity also annoyed the debutant Noa Essengue, which closed with five points and seven turnover. His debut for the team that enlisted him with the twelfth overall choice of last month was not all they hoped and dreamed that he would be, but the eighteen year old has a lot of time to understand things. -Rubin

• bucket of the day. As big as the Dunk of Buzelis is, the bucket of the day goes to three Johnson – The former Texas star is fun because he has yet to meet a shot he doesn’t like. With this, you can’t look away from him. It will mark many points like Rookie, and will take a couple of years from the life of the Wizards coach Brian Kefe in the trial. —Hin

• It was a good day to be Kasparas Jakucionis. The summer league should concern growth. Kasparov Jakucionis of Miami Heat fought through the matches of the California Classic Summer League. But Friday in Las Vegas the choice n. 20 showed why some scouts had a selection of the late lottery, scoring 19 in the first half while going to 24 points and four assists.—Hin

• Utah bright spots. He promises to be another season for jazz fans. We will try to find them some bright points wherever we can.

First. Kyle Filipowski is a quality offensive center that only knows how to get buckets. Summer League concerns growth and Filipowski has shown a lot.

In addition, the guard Isaiah Collier was very physical in its units, he used it to create space and finished with 16 points and 9 assists. Whatever is built in Utah in the coming years, it can be part of it. —Hin

• Khaman Maluach will be good … in the end. Two things have become clear about the Duke Center and choice n. 10 of the Suns Khaman Maluach. First, it has the tools to be a quality NBA center, has shown flashes on both ends of the court of that potential. Secondly, it’s a couple of years from being that boy. It is a project. (Is this how the only ones see it?) —Hin