Summer League Takeaway: Marvin Bagley III Lacks The Skills To Pay The Bills

The annual Summer League parade of zero-dimensional guards is supposed to be redeemed by the play of the year’s hot-shot lottery picks. This is why anyone watches the various summer leagues: for those rare and blessed moments when this or that miscellaneous journeyman guard forgets to throw up another hopeless off-the-bounce 20-footer and instead accidentally passes to a player with real NBA potential, and that young stud has a few seconds of clock to flash some by-God NBA potential. Summer League basketball exists so that lottery picks can develop their skills and feast on fringe professionals, in those instances when their teams’ possessions aren’t being hijacked by balding former four-year ACC guards.

In Thursday afternoon’s Heat-Kings game, Kings presumptive stud Marvin Bagley III failed to do his part: in 29 minutes of action, Bagley attempted—attempted—just two shots, and produced twice as many turnovers (two) as points (I feel like even you can do the math, there). If you tuned in to watch the young turk throw down vicious , you came away with absolutely nothing to show for your dedication. Bagley’s offensive repertoire is looking noticeably butt through three Summer League contests—this play is terrifyingly representative of what he showed as a scorer Thursday afternoon:

The Dallas Mavericks kick off their Summer League schedule Friday night, but we may reach September’s preseason action before we finally see Luka Dončić, the man the Kings should have drafted, in an NBA jersey, and can finally definitively say whether he is, in fact, butt. But as a very serious and patient basketball-knower with the perspective and maturity to understand these games in their exact proper context, I feel that it is finally time to declare that Marvin Bagley III lacks the skills to pay the bills, and is in fact a huge draft bust.