The 2025 NBA Summer League has come to an end, with the Charlotte Hornets earning their first Summer League title. From these games and performances, clear winners and losers have been revealed. The level of play and skill demonstrated by the prospects at Summer League can have further implications beyond their current successes in Las Vegas. Let’s dive into the top three winners and losers of the 2025 NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n
It’s not surprising that the Las Vegas victors are one of the big winners of Summer League. Kon Knueppel<\/a>, Liam McNeeley<\/a>, Sion James<\/a>, and Ryan Kalkbrenner<\/a> showed off their best qualities against other NBA-level talents. In particular, Knueppel<\/a> and McNeeley<\/a> showed out as impressive shooters and secondary creators. Even as rookies, Knueppel and McNeeley both looked like they were too good for Summer League competition, which bodes well for the Hornets. Undoubtedly, the excellent shooting and high feel for the game they put on display can have a major impact on a Hornets franchise looking to make a push for the postseason. Considering their recent play, both can certainly fit in complementary roles on the Hornets, allowing the team to flow even better offensively. Additionally, Kalkbrenner<\/a> and James<\/a>‘ defensive abilities will give a boost on the defensive end alongside their connective skills offensively.<\/p>\n Overall, their Summer League performances give confidence to the idea that these rookies can be major contributors next season. Unquestionably, they can bring the high basketball IQ and winning mentality they demonstrated in college and Summer League to the beleaguered Hornets looking to take the next step. Regardless, they bring a combination of skills that will make Charlotte a fun team to watch.<\/p>\n As for the other team that made the Summer League finals, the Sacramento Kings are certainly another winner. Their rookies, Nique Clifford<\/a> and Maxime Raynaud<\/a>, looked fantastic in Summer League. Clifford<\/a> and Raynaud<\/a> both looked extremely comfortable against the competition while being productive across nearly all the games they played in. Furthermore, the Kings saw improvements in their sophomores, Devin Carter<\/a> and Isaac Jones<\/a>. Considering those developments, all four players have the potential to be significant contributors to the Kings for the coming season.<\/p>\n Clifford, Carter, and Jones all showed their defensive abilities at Summer League. All three can provide Sacramento with defensive depth that they lacked overall last season. Raynaud showed that his skills make him a solid choice as the backup to Domantas Sabonis<\/a>. The level of play demonstrated by these players should get any Kings fans excited.<\/p>\n The Phoenix Suns round out the top three winners of Summer League. Specifically, they earn that distinction off the backs of their drafted rookies and sophomores. Both Ryan Dunn<\/a> and Oso Ighodaro<\/a> showed out during the games they played, showing growth from their rookie years. Equally as important is the impressive play from their rookies, specifically Koby Brea<\/a> and Rasheer Fleming<\/a>. Both players showed out during Summer League play, with Brea putting his shooting on full display and Fleming<\/a> demonstrating his 3-and-D capabilities. While Malauch<\/a> wasn’t as impressive as those two, he did flash his upside as a defensive center and potential shooter. The excellence that all these players showed at Summer League gives the Suns the upside they need as they pivot towards a new direction after the Kevin Durant<\/a> trade. Each of them has the skills to be perfect complements to a Devin Booker<\/a>-led team.<\/p>\n Undoubtedly, the Los Angeles Lakers are one of the big losers of this year’s Summer League. While they did have positives like the development of Bronny James<\/a>, they certainly had plenty of negatives go their way. The biggest was the poor play of Dalton Knecht<\/a>. For an older player from the 2024 NBA Draft and as a sophomore, his play in Summer League is frankly unacceptable. Knecht struggled heavily to score the ball from any distance and couldn’t find separation against defenders when he had the ball. Furthermore, Knecht continued to struggle defensively, a difficulty he’s always had as a prospect. Such struggles can have an effect on Knecht’s perception around the league in terms of his trade value.<\/p>\n Another massive loss for them is Darius Bazley<\/a>‘s injury. While he did fall out of the league,\u00a0 Bazley was one of the bright spots for Los Angeles until he suffered an undisclosed leg injury<\/a>. Those two negatives create a dismal outing for the Lakers at Summer League.<\/p>\n Another big loser of Summer League is the New Orleans Pelicans. The biggest reason why they are named as such is the injury suffered by Derik Queen<\/a>. He will be sidelined for a significant amount of time due to a torn ligament<\/a> in his wrist. Secondly, none of the Pelicans’ drafted rookies and sophomores consistently showed out during Summer League. While they did have the occasional great game, they struggled to be consistent throughout their time in Las Vegas. Considering their performance, the coming season is definitely going to be a developmental one for New Orleans. Each drafted player certainly has the talent to make an impact on the season. However, it’s clear that they still need seasoning.<\/p>\n Lastly, the Golden State Warriors round out the top-three losers of Summer League. The Warriors land here due to the overall poor play of their draft picks. Alex Toohey<\/a> and Will Richard<\/a> have been unremarkable at Summer League, with Toohey being particularly bad. Toohey has struggled to defend against the competition at Summer League and score effectively. There are plenty of teams where their rookies showed that they can potentially be contributors next season. The Warriors are not one of those teams.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2025 NBA Summer League has come to an end, with the Charlotte Hornets earning their first Summer League title. From these games and performances, clear winners and losers have been revealed. The level of play and skill demonstrated by the prospects at Summer League can have further implications beyond their current successes in Las […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5121,"featured_media":151534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,7,25,26,62,556,33,28,29],"tags":[50193,49212,49956,49403,49839,50016,49816],"class_list":["post-151349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-hornets","category-warriors","category-lakers","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-pelicans","category-suns","category-kings","tag-2025-nba-summer-league","tag-dalton-knecht","tag-jeremiah-fears","tag-khaman-maluach","tag-kon-knueppel","tag-nique-clifford","tag-will-richard"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151349"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151535,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151349\/revisions\/151535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sacramento Kings<\/h4>\n
Phoenix Suns<\/h4>\n
Losers<\/h3>\n
Los Angeles Lakers<\/h4>\n
New Orleans Pelicans<\/h4>\n
Golden State Warriors<\/h4>\n