Brandon Ingram received more hype entering the summer league as the No. 2 overall pick in this year's NBA draft, but it was Tyus Jones who stole the show and took the NBA by storm with an impressive week at the Las Vegas Summer League to carry his team to the championship game.
Tyus Jones, Minnesota Timberwolves: A month after Kyrie Irving made the game-winning 3-pointer for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, it looked as though another former Duke point guard had won Monday's NBA summer league finals with a contested triple of his own.
Former Michigan State star Denzel Valentine snatched the role of hero instead.
A day after being named the summer league’s MVP, Jones drilled a deep tie-breaking 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds for Minnesota against the Chicago Bulls.
But former Michigan State star Denzel Valentine sent the game to overtime with a 3-pointer on the other end to beat the buzzer.
The end of regulation in the Las Vegas Summer League championship was insane. https://t.co/O1ZPdK5V19
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 19, 2016
Jones scored the Timberwolves’ first basket of the extra session on a driving layup and assisted on a Xavier Silas 3-pointer to tie the game at 82 with 11.7 seconds left, but Valentine knocked down a turnaround jumper at the buzzer as the Bulls prevailed 84-82.
Although his team came up short in the championship, Jones starred in Las Vegas. The Apple Valley, Minn., native topped 20 points in each of his last four games and had two double-doubles, with 26 points and 10 assists against the Memphis Grizzlies Thursday and 27 points and 10 assists in the losing effort Monday night.
Jones finished his summer-league campaign averaging 20.4 points, 6.8 assists and 3.4 turnovers in eight games and became the first former Blue Devil ever to win MVP of the summer league.
Brandon Ingram, Los Angeles Lakers: After struggling to find a rhythm in his first three games, Ingram finished the week in Las Vegas on a high note. He scored 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting in a loss Thursday against the Cavaliers and then had his best game of the summer Friday against the Utah Jazz, scoring a game-high 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting to go along with five rebounds and four assists.
The 6-foot-9 forward made four 3-pointers in those two games after combining to shoot 0-for-6 from long range in his first three contests.
Quinn Cook, NBA D-League Select Team: Like Ingram, Cook rebounded from a slow start to put together a strong performance in his final game in Las Vegas for the D-League select team. The Washington native combined to score 10 points in his first four games of summer-league action and tallied just two points on 1-of-8 shooting last Wednesday in a blowout loss against the Philadelphia 76ers. But Cook solved his shooting woes to score a game-high 19 points in a win Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans, making 4-of-9 3-point attempts and adding six assists.
Miles Plumlee, Milwaukee Bucks (Four-year, $52 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks): Plumlee is no stranger to the summer league, having started 13 summer league games in the last three years. But with those days behind him as a four-year veteran, the 6-foot-11 center spent this summer negotiating a hefty payday. Plumlee signed a free-agent contract for four years and $52 million Monday to stay with the Milwaukee Bucks, solidifying his position as a valuable role player with the franchise for the next several years.
The No. 26 overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft, Plumlee has appeared in 228 games in his career for the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee, averaging 5.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. He will likely back up Greg Monroe at center and form part of a core for the Bucks that includes former Duke star Jabari Parker, forwards Giannis Antetokounmpo and John Henson and shooting guard Khris Middleton.
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