The Toronto Raptors have earned the #1 seed in the NBA Summer League’s annual tournament, the league announced.
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to those who have caught the team in action thus far—the Raptors are one of just three teams to finish the round robin with a perfect 3-0 record, and have looked rock solid on both ends of the floor thanks in large part to the performances of their five players currently under NBA contracts.
Norman Powell has been the most impressive, leading the way on both ends of the floor, posting averages of 21.7 points on 44% shooting (incl. 52.6% from deep) to go along with six rebounds, 3.3 assists, and a steal per game. He’s currently second in the Summer League with a PER of 37.7. Yes, it’s just the Summer League, but for context Steph Curry led all players in the NBA last season with 31.5 (Jonas Valanciunas led the Raps with 22.6).
In his third Summer League appearance in a Raptors uni, Bruno Caboclo is averaging 12.7 points, while point guard Delon Wright is averaging 8.3 points and 4.7 assists. Rookie centre Jakob Poeltl has posted impressive—if somewhat bizarre— numbers thus far, shooting 90% from the floor yet taking just ten shots total through three games to go along with seven boards, 1.3 steals and 2.3 blocks in 24 minutes per game, and has looked very solid overall thus far.
The Raptors wins have come over the Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, and, most recently, the Dallas Mavericks. In their opening game win, the Raptors held the Kings to just 47 points, establishing a Summer League record in the process.
They will now face the winner of Houston Rockets vs. Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are led by their backcourt of Keifer Sykes and 2016 draftee Patrick McCaw, while the Rockets have enjoyed strong performances from Canadian Kyle Wiltjer and former Wisconsin standout and 2015 first-round pick Sam Dekker.
This will be the fourth year the Las Vegas Summer League has featured the single-elimination tournament. The Raptors will next play on Thursday at 10 pm ET, and the game can be seen on NBATV Canada.
