While one can’t always get a good gauge on a summer league, it’s at least a way that we can actually judge the 76ers draft picks in live action.
The Sixers rookies will be meeting Sunday night and begin practice on Monday for their extended summer league that begins July 6 in Las Vegas and then continues the next week in Utah.
It would be unwise to draw final conclusions on summer league, but it is a basis of comparison. Remember, Andre Iguodala looked almost lost as a rookie while competing for the Sixers in the Minnesota Summer League.
Iguodala was tentative shooting the ball and didn’t make many basket, especially when he would try a jumper.
Yet that below part performance in the summer didn’t stop Iguodala from starting all 82 games and five playoff contests as a rookie.
Still, it will be interesting to see the development of first round picks Thaddeus Young and Jason Smith.
It’s hoped that both can somehow be part of the rotation this year, but nobody knows for sure.
In fact second round picks Derrick Byars of Vanderbilt and Herbert Hill of Providence, are four-year college players who figure to be more advanced at this stage.
So the summer league should be watched closely, but with an open mind. There are many summer league phenoms who never pan out and others who don’t play well like Iguodala who turned out to be good pros.
At least though we can see the players in a professional setting and it all begins this week, where more there seems to be more interest in the Sixers rookie than in recent memory.
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Summer League Should Be Kept In Perspective
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Marc Narducci is in his 23rd year as a sports reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. The 2007-2008 season will be his first as the 76ers beat writer. For the past two seasons, Marc had been the backup writer for the Eagles. Over the past few years Marc covered the NBA, NHL and Major League baseball as well as writing on sports media. Prior to covering professional sports, Marc was a long-time high school sportswriter for The Inquirer's South Jersey section.
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