Over the past 10 days, the Boston Celtics showcased some up-and-coming talent as part of Summer League action in Las
Vegas.
We’ve put together a list of some of the top performers from the five-game session, each of whom will have a chance to make
their mark on the NBA roster and/or with the Maine Celtics this coming season.
Dalano Banton
We didn’t see a lot of Dalano Banton this summer, but the newest Celtics signee still showed enough during his limited
action to earn a spot on this list.
The 6-foot-7 guard played in the third and fourth games of the session, the latter of which featured him as the star
performer. Banton went off for team highs of 18 points and nine rebounds against the New York Knicks, knocking down a
pair of 3-pointers along with a 5-of-6 clip from inside the arc.
Banton is an exciting offensive player, who can gallop upcourt in transition, drive through contact and finish at the rim, and
can operate as a pick-and-roll ballhandler.
The former second-round draft pick has two years of NBA experience under his belt with the Toronto Raptors. He’s already
proven to the Celtics that he can score in bunches, as he did during their April 7 matchup when he tallied 10 points in the
final 90 seconds of the game.
Boston’s front office clearly sees promise in the 23-year-old, as shown by the fact that they signed Banton to an NBA contract
the day after Summer League ended.
Justin Champagnie
Justin Champagnie was a rebounding machine this summer, grabbing a team-leading 8.3 boards per game. That number
might not seem too high at first glance – until you take into account that the player who produced it is just 6-foot-6.
Champagnie, whom the Celtics signed in early April, ranked second among all small forwards in total rebounds per game
and first in offensive boards with an average of 3.8 per game. He had 23 total rebounds in Boston’s first two games,
including a whopping 13 on the offensive end.
During Game 2 against Washington, Champagnie logged arguably the most impressive individual stat line of any Celtics
Summer League participant: 21 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, and one block in just over 28 minutes of action.
He had a few hot shooting stretches over the course of his four appearances, showing off his ability to hit threes in transition.
Like Banton, he was also quick to get to the cup and had some creative finishes.
J.D. Davison
For the second straight year, J.D. Davison led the entire Summer League in assists, dishing out 36 helpers in five games.
Twenty of those dimes came in the first two games, including his personal high of 11 in Boston’s opener against the Miami
Heat.
Along with his 7.2 assists per game, the 6-foot-3 point guard produced 9.8 points and a team-high 1.4 steals per game.
One area where Davison struggled was the turnover department, in which he averaged 4.4 per contest. However, that was
largely due to one poor performance – a 10-turnover performance in the second game against Washington. If you take that
game out of the equation, his turnover average drops all the way to a much more respectable 3.0.
As he showed with Maine last season, Davison is an elite lob-thrower and an explosive athlete who can rip the rim off the
basket. And at just 20 years old, he still has plenty of time to grow, as he will continue to do this coming season while on a
two-way contract with the Celtics.
Jay Scrubb
Jay Scrubb may not have been on the radar of Celtics fans prior to this summer, but he sure is now.
The 6-foot-5 shooting guard averaged 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 40.0
percent from 3-point range, and was easily the most consistent player on the team.
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