LAS VEGAS — The first rule of NBA Summer League is to ignore everything you saw at summer league. Three years ago, Victor Wembanyama was terrible, and Houston’s Cam Whitmore won Summer MVP. How’d that translate to the real games?That said, there is considerable evidence that summer-league performance does at least have some predictive value for the games that actually matter, especially for rookies. The hardest part, however, is to ignore the part that’s right in front of your face, begging you to pay attention to it at the expense of everything else. If you’re going to evaluate summer league at all, let me start here:Buckets. Don’t. Matter.Watching shoot-first combo guards go off for 30 in a summer-league game is great fun, but most of those dudes don’t get to play with a neon-green light in a game that matters. In fact, the summer stats that describe what type of player somebody is are of much more value than the ones that describe how good that player is. To wit, as Owen Philips discovered in this tremendous work a year ago, frequency of 3-point attempts, assists, rebounds and blocks are much, much stickier categories than a player’s scoring, and especially more predictive than a player’s shooting percentages.Nonetheless, some correlation remains between a player’s overall summer-league performance and his regular-season performance in the season to follow. It’s even more useful now that the NBA preseason — formerly a much more reliable arbiter of future success — has become a hollowed-out charade.With that caveat in mind, let’s get to the fun part: Which players stood out at summer league? And in particular, which players stood out in a way that makes you think they might exceed expectations in the coming season?Here are 12 guys worth talking about.Cameron Boozer, GrizzliesSo much for “shutting guys down” in summer league. Boozer, the third pick in the draft, played the most minutes (177) of any player in Vegas, and that was after he’d played two games in Salt Lake City. Even with their side trip to Utah, Memphis had four of the top seven players in minutes in Vegas, helped by playing a sixth game in the championship. In total, Boozer played eight games and 229 minutes this July.Boozer didn’t shoot particularly well, but the rest of his play got my attention. He looked natural playing power forward at both ends, which was one of the concerns about him entering the draft. The fact that he was able to move his feet on the perimeter on defense and had enough comfort on the perimeter to create shots (even dribbling into a stepback 3 in the title game) were great signs from the No. 1 player on my board entering the draft. (Also: Check out this nugget from our Tony Jones that Boozer dropped 10 pounds to improve his mobility.)In total, Boozer put up 32 3-pointers and plucked 12 steals in his eight games, both great signs that he has enough perimeter game to hold up as a full-time four next to the enormous Zach Edey.What are Memphis Grizzlies getting in Duke’s Cameron Boozer?Zach Harper and CJ MooreAJ Dybantsa, WizardsI think this guy might be good.Dybantsa only played two games but scored 50 points in 51 minutes and did enough other things that it wasn’t just empty calories. Notably, he had eight “stocks” (steals plus blocks) in his limited burn, comforting for those who were concerned about his defensive tape from BYU. He also showed up on the defensive glass and only committed one foul.Of course, the main story is his scoring ability, and that translated to this environment. In this case, I’d say it’s a better omen for the regular season than for most guys. Dybantsa looked physically huge on the court relative to most forwards, and his ability to get downhill and change direction at 6-feet-9 makes him an impossible cover once he gets a head of steam.Dybantsa left Vegas with a sizzling 32.0 PER that led all first-round picks and also had the highest usage rate. I had Dybantsa second on my board entering the draft, and the only question after Vegas was whether I placed him one spot too low.Caleb Wilson, BullsThe fact that Wilson made seven 3s his first summer game was almost certainly an outlier. However, the fact he attempted 31 triples in four games is much more notable.Three-point frequency is a key indicator stat from summer league. Wilson only took 27 3-point attempts in his 24 games at North Carolina in the 2025-26 season, but he let it fly more than that in just four games in Vegas. He matched his season total in makes (seven) in the first game!Wilson shooting that much from distance, and the results not being atrocious, are a much more positive indicator for the idea that he’ll be able to shoot well enough to open up the rest of his game, which, I must say, was a bit of a hot mess aside from the torrid 3-point shooting in his 35-point opener. Wilson was a ghastly 6 of 21 from the free-throw line and led all summer leaguers in turnovers despite only playing 110 minutes. He was positively awful in his final game that nobody really watched because most folks had left Vegas by then.Nonetheless, the 3s are reason alone to put him on my positives list. He’s an electrifying athlete with perimeter skills that were apparent in the Bulls’ decision to put him on the ball nearly the entire time (that also helped account for the turnovers). I’m not as wowed by his highlight “thrunk” as some other people, but Wilson spiked 10 shots in his limited run and showed obvious ceiling.Watch This: No. 4 overall pick Caleb Wilson posterizes defenderBrayden Burries, BucksWhile most of the vaunted crop of rookie guards from the NCAA ranks struggled, Burries was a glaring exception. The 10th pick out of Arizona was a revelation and arguably the best player in Vegas.