{"id":85122,"date":"2024-07-08T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T15:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=85122"},"modified":"2024-07-08T11:43:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T15:43:00","slug":"summer-league-mvps-who-have-had-the-best-nba-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/08\/summer-league-mvps-who-have-had-the-best-nba-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer League MVPs Who Have Had The Best NBA Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few teams began their 2024 NBA Summer League action this past Saturday. The Las Vegas Summer League MVP began being handed out in 2006. There wasn\u2019t a winner in 2011 (lockout) or 2020 (COVID-19). In 2012 and 2021, co-MVPs were named.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, <a  href=\"https:\/\/basketball.realgm.com\/nba\/summer\/1\/NBA-Summer-League\/0\/awards\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">18 players have been<\/a> named Summer League MVP. Here are the players who have been named Summer League MVP and have gone on to have the best NBA careers. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitmca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Whitmore<\/a> is the most recent winner, and he could eventually be included after a productive rookie season.<\/p>\n<h2>Summer League MVPs Who Have Had The Best NBA Careers<\/h2>\n<h3>From Summer League MVP To Great NBA Career<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>1. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lillada01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Damian Lillard<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Selected sixth overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, Lillard has been an eight-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA in his 12 seasons. Getting ready for his second season with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/20\/milwaukee-bucks-may-move-on-from-former-champion-brook-lopez\/\" target=\"_self\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, he is currently 41st all-time with 21,151 career points.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/griffbl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Griffin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first overall pick in 2009, Griffin has a case to be seen as the best player in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/05\/los-angeles-clippers-re-signing-controversial-big-man-kai-jones\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> history. Playing 13 seasons in the NBA, he was named an All-Star six times and posted career averages of 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walljo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Wall<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Wall was the first overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. He was named to five straight All-Star teams from 2013-24 until 2017-18 and finished as high as seventh in MVP voting (2016-17).<\/p>\n<h3>Not Quite Stars, But Very Good Players<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>4. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valanjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonas Valanciunas<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The 6-11 Valanciunas was taken with the fifth overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He averaged double figures in rebounding four consecutive seasons spanning from 2019-20 to 2022-23. Through 12 seasons, Valanciunas has averages of 13.4 points and 9.5 rebounds.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>5. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hartjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Hart<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the 2017 NBA Draft, Hart was selected with the 30th overall pick. He has become an outstanding rebounder for his size (listed at six-foot-four) averaging between 7.2 and 8.3 boards over each of the last four seasons.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>6. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyus Jones<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Taken with the 24th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Jones is nine seasons deep into his NBA career. He does a wonderful job taking care of the basketball as evidenced by his career 5.6 assist-to-turnover ratio.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>7. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murrake02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keegan Murray<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Murray was the fourth overall selection in the 2023 NBA Draft. While he\u2019s just played two seasons, he\u2019s already included here and has the potential to move up the list. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nba\/ask\/most-threes-by-a-rookie-in-a-season\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Murray set a rookie record<\/a> with 206 made three-pointers in 2022-23.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>8. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anderky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Anderson<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anderson heard his name called with the 30th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. Known as \u2018Slo-Mo\u2019, Anderson has been a great defender in his career and has solid averages of 6.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists.<\/p>\n<h3>Not Every Summer League MVP Was Productive At The NBA Level<\/h3>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ricegl02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Glen Rice Jr.<\/a> was named Summer League MVP in 2014. The son of 1990s sharpshooter <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ricegl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Glen Rice<\/a>, Rice Jr. was selected 35th overall in the 2013 NBA Draft. He played just 16 games total at the NBA level for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/07\/wizards-decline-team-option-on-veteran-sharpshooter\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Wizards<\/a> in 2013-14 and 2014-15.<\/p>\n<p>Much like Rice Jr., <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/selbyjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Shelby<\/a> also didn\u2019t have much of a playing career in the NBA. Taken with the 49th overall pick in 2011, Selby was co-MVP along with Lillard in 2012. He played just 38 games over two seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/04\/2024-nba-off-season-preview-whats-next-for-the-memphis-grizzlies\/\" target=\"_self\">Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> in 2011-12 and 2012-13.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few teams began their 2024 NBA Summer League action this past Saturday. The Las Vegas Summer League MVP began being handed out in 2006. There wasn\u2019t a winner in 2011 (lockout) or 2020 (COVID-19). In 2012 and 2021, co-MVPs were named. All in all, 18 players have been named Summer League MVP. Here are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":85170,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,3],"tags":[226,187,310,167,1004,4606,1021,1224,569],"class_list":["post-85122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-news","tag-blake-griffin","tag-damian-lillard","tag-john-wall","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-josh-hart","tag-keegan-murray","tag-kyle-anderson","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-tyus-jones"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85122","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\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}