After a period of status quo surrounding NBA Summer League scheduling, the last few months have produced quite a bit of news.
First, word broke in November that the Orlando Summer League would not continue after 14 years and, shortly thereafter, the NBA announced that all 30 teams would participate in the 2018 edition of its ever-growing Las Vegas Summer League.
While much of the focus will always be on the “main event” in Las Vegas, the Utah Summer League is scheduled to return for 2018 and, according to a report on Sunday, it will have some competition in the form of a new, four-team league based in Sacramento.
League sources: In addition to tournaments in Las Vegas and Utah, the NBA plans to introduce a 2018 Sacramento Summer League. The event is tentatively scheduled to include the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.
— Ben Dowsett (@Ben_Dowsett) May 6, 2018
This is a bit of a bizarre choice in some ways, with the geography of the NBA’s Summer League culture already centered fully in the western part of the country. With that said, it always makes some sense for teams to want additional avenues for player evaluation and the Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors likely wouldn’t incur wild expense in order to play a few more games.
The inclusion of the Miami Heat, though, is a bizarre one for travel purposes and, of course, it remains to be seen as to when this four-team event would actually take place. Traditionally, the Orlando Summer League would kick things off in (very) early July, with Utah forming the bridge between Orlando and Las Vegas. As it stands now, Utah was expected to be the event to whet the appetite of the summer league consumer but, if Sacramento chose to land in the July 1 home formerly occupied by Orlando, things might get interesting.
There is a lot more to find out about this particular event but, if it happens, NBA die-hards will have a few more games to watch and the Miami Heat will have another long trip.
