Spurs Summer League was a Pure Gold

Spurs Summer League was a Pure Gold

Summer League ended weeks ago. Everyone already dropped their instant reactions. But now that the dust is settled, we can actually figure out what mattered and what didn’t. Quick disclaimer though, because summer league is its own weird little ecosystem, it doesn’t play by the same rules as college ball, Europe, or the NBA. Rule number one, never overreact to points per game, especially when they come on 25 shot attempts a night. I still laugh thinking about Rockets fans last summer who were ready to crown Reed Shepard as Rookie of the Year based solely on his Vegas scoring pitch. Rule number two, remember what this league actually is. Half the guys are G-League grinders desperate to claw their way into a roster spot. The other half are rookies fresh off the draft who want nothing more than to flex in front of their new team. Everyone’s trying to prove something, which means real team basketball, the kind with ball movement, patience, and sacrifice, is basically non-existent. So, what actually matters to me? It’s the fundamentals. How a player carries himself, how he reacts when things go wrong, whether he looks like he’s hunting stats for himself, or actually trying to fit into something bigger. Shots fall, shots miss, luck comes and goes, but the base level habits, the decision-m, the body language, those things don’t lie. And from that perspective, the Spurs rookies looked flatout excellent. Nice. The Spurs didn’t make the Summer League playoffs. They were literally one win short. But let’s be honest, nobody cares about winning summer league if you are not Hornets fan, of course. What actually matters are two things, and every team knows it. First, getting your draft picks on the floor to see what they really look like against prolevel athletes. and second, digging through the pile of undrafted and non-G guaranteed guys to maybe, just maybe, find a rotation piece worth a two-way deal. And by both those standards, the Spurs crushed it. They got a real look at both of their 2025 draft picks, Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant, and somehow also unearthed an unpolished gem for a two-way spot in David Jones Garcia. But let’s take it one step at a time. The guy who impressed me the most, and I think a lot of Spurs fans would agree, was Carter Bryant. I guess you’ve probably watched those defensive highlights against Cooper Flag a dozen times already, but honestly, let’s roll them back once more because they’re worth it. Carter was a dog on defense. Finally, San Antonio has that prototypical 3 and D wing that’s been missing for years, and everybody saw it. Even Kendrick Perkins, who’s not exactly famous for, you know, any actual basketball analysis. Carter Bryant has a lot of OG Aninobi in him. Yes, that was a real Perkins tweet. And for once, the man might not be completely off. Now, the raw numbers don’t exactly jump off the page. Bryant averaged 24 minutes, seven points, four rebounds, about two stocks, and shot a rough 26% from three. Not pretty. But like we said before, summer league is not about stats. It’s about foundation. And Bryant’s foundation is clear. He wants to fight on every single defensive possession. That’s the kind of baseline skill that can actually earn him real minutes in San Antonio this year. Not a ton, of course. Too much competition at his position. Two or three short bursts a night where he checks in, picks up the other team’s ball handler fullourt, harasses him into mistakes, and maybe sneaks in a three on the other end. Maybe it’s a small role, but it’s the perfect entry point. You learn the NBA game in little chunks, how to avoid cheap fouls, how much contact the refs actually allow, where to use your length without overcommitting. As for the offense, I think the shot will come. His mechanics don’t look broken. Not like Jeremy Sohan’s form early on, which we’re still praying gets ironed out. With Carter, it just looked like the ball refused to drop. For five games, he couldn’t buy a bucket. Then suddenly in game six against Charlotte, everything clicked. 16 points, four of six from deep, six of nine overall. So, the jumper’s there, just not consistent yet. What matters is the kid likes to work. He’s clearly wired to live in the gym. And with three full months before the regular season tips off, he’s got time to smooth out those edges and make himself impossible to ignore. Dylan Harper only played two games in Vegas, but let’s not forget he was coming off an injury. 16 points in the opener against Dallas, another 16 against Utah. And while it’s tough to draw sweeping conclusions from such a small sample, he looked pretty sharp for a guy who hadn’t played since March, what stood out most was the way he attacked the rim. Smooth, fluid, strong enough to absorb contact, quick enough to get by defenders. The jumper, on the other hand, clearly needs work. Just one of eight from deep across both games, which isn’t great, but considering the layoff, it’s hard to be too critical. His form doesn’t look broken. It just needs reps. What impressed me more than the box score was his attitude. He played hard, didn’t sulk when things went wrong, and once the staff shut him down, he was still up off the bench cheering for teammates. That’s not nothing, especially for a rookie walking into a situation where touches might be limited and playing time isn’t guaranteed. If the mindset is right, everything else can follow. And then there’s the defense, which honestly surprised me in a good way. I said back on draft night that Harper wouldn’t be a negative defender. His size, his length, his quickness all give him a solid baseline. And so far, that’s holding true. He’s not flying around like Carter Bryant. Nobody expects Dylan to be elite defender, but he competes on every possession. He uses his body well, and he doesn’t take possessions off. If Harper grows into the offensive star people think he can be while also holding his own defensively, that’s already a massive win for the Spurs back court of the future. And last but not the least, David Jones Garcia. He was the surprise of summer league. No question about it. His numbers almost look fake. 21.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.2 steals per game while shooting an absurd 52 5392 split across four games. No one in Vegas history has ever put together that kind of scoring run with that kind of efficiency. And this wasn’t empty scoring. It wasn’t just wide openen spot-ups or cheap transition buckets. Jones Garcia was creating for himself, breaking guys down off the dribble, pulling up with confidence, showing consistent mechanics on his jumper and hitting shots that most summer league players wouldn’t even take, let alone make. Possession after possession, he looked smooth in control like the bucket was his by default. Spurs fans didn’t need long to make up their minds. By the end of Vegas, the chorus was loud. Give him a contract. And the front office listened, signing him to a two-way deal. Now, the obvious question, can his game translate to the NBA floor? It’s tempting to say yes, but the truth is trickier. San Antonio’s guard rotation is already crowded, and at the three, he’s a bit undersized with average defensive tools, which makes it hard to see him carving out steady minutes right away. The shot creation is real. The scoring touch is undeniable, but whether that holds against real NBA defenders is something we just won’t know until we see it. And that’s the beauty of a two-way. Low risk, high reward. If Jones Garcia is for real, the Spurs just stole a gem out of summer league. If not, no harm done. Either way, it was one of the front offic’s quiet wins of the summer. To sum it up, this really was one of the most memorable summer league runs the Spurs have had in years. two brand new rookies, Carter Bryant and Dylan Harper, both showing exactly why the team believed in them on draft night. And on top of that, an unexpected breakout in David Jones Garcia, who went from a name in small print to someone fans are genuinely excited to see in the mix. If the team can carry even half of this energy into the actual season, then maybe this little tournament in Vegas will be remembered as the moment San Antonio’s future officially started to take shape.

The Spurs had one of their best Summer League runs in years, with rookies Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant showing real promise and David Jones-Garcia stealing the show. Here’s why Spurs fans should be excited about what’s coming next.

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