Way back in 1984 the NBA started a Summer League event to be held every July in Salt Lake City. It went on right through 2008 and it was called the ‘Rocky Mountain Revue’. The event was stopped in 2008 because of a lack of participation, but to the surprise of many, the event is coming back this summer with four teams participating in it. The teams aren’t any slouches either.
The NBA and Utah Jazz announced the following in a press release.
NBA action will return to Salt Lake City this summer with the 2015 Utah Jazz Summer League, which the Jazz will host at EnergySolutions Arena from July 6-9, the team announced today. In addition to the Jazz, the six-game, four-team event will also feature the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and San Antonio Spurs.
“Jazz fans are among the most loyal and passionate supporters you will find anywhere in the world, and I can’t tell you how thrilled we are to be able to bring them the Utah Jazz Summer League beginning this July,” said Utah Jazz president Randy Rigby. “On behalf of the Jazz and the Miller family, I would also like to express our gratitude to Adam Silver and the NBA for their support in helping us return summer league basketball to Utah.”
Each participating team will play three games over the four-day span as part of nightly double-headers on Monday, July 6; Tuesday, July 7; and Thursday, July 9. No league games will be played on Wednesday, July 8.
The Summer League is never a bad thing for anyone. It also helps that the timing of the tournament perfectly places it in between the long-established Orlando and Las Vegas Summer League events with the Vegas event being the biggest. These league are a great opportunity for some rookies, both drafted and undrafted along with some players riding that line of in the league/out of the league. They all play their hardest to earn training camp invites and they perform in front of a large number of NBA scouts, GMs, coaches, media members and agents.
This summer’s events would bring some young stars to the event. Nerlens Noel won’t be playing for the Sixers but you can expect some young Philadelphia 76ers talent like the returns of Joel Embiid and Tony Wroten along with a Jerami Grant appearance. San Antonio Spurs should be sending Kyle Anderson among others that they will draft of give a look too. The Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics might present the best talent though as you can almost assure that the Jazz will have Dante Exum, Trey Burks, Alec Burks, Rodney Hood, Rudy Gobert and possibly Jack Cooley. The Celtics can send guys like Marcus Smart, Kelly Olynyk, James Young and Phil Pressey.
It might get very interesting in Utah this summer.
