NBA D-League Showcase Wrap-Up And Mailbag

With the D-League Showcase come and gone, here’s a brief look at some of the top performances of the week, as well as a brief mailbag session with your Twitter questions about the event, and more.

Who Improved Their Stock The Most?

Several players. I think you have to take a look at Will Bynum (Windy City Bulls) who had a stellar 43-point performance in the opening game of the Showcase on Wednesday. The 34-year old wants to prove he belongs in a league dominated by much younger players.

Can we talk about Devondrick Walker? Who absolutely put his name on the D-League map on the biggest stage of the season? Walker has appeared in 82 games over the course of his D-League career, beginning with the Austin Spurs during the 2014–15 season.

Prior to the Showcase, Walker was averaging just 12 points per game on 46% from the field, including 36% from 3-point range. Walker shot 83% from the field over the course of the Showcase, and went 12-for-12 from long range to nab 23 points per contest at the D-League’s premier event.

The other player has to be Patrick Miller, who had a similar outing at the Showcase. Miller started the season with the Texas Legends, but has come on strong as of late for the Skyforce.

Built like an NFL fullback ready to charge up the middle and stiff-arm any opponents, Miller’s strength is where he finds his success. Miller was also averaging just 12 points per game for the Skyforce this season in 25.2 minutes per game.

Miller averaged over 42 minutes per game at the Showcase while averaging 29 points while shooting 55% from the field.

Both Miller and Walker were named to the NBA D-League’s All-Showcase First Team on Sunday. While both performed exceptionally well and more scouts will take notice of their game moving forward, it’s still a small sample size of their performances this season that should be weighted together. However, if anything, it shows what both are capable of when given the opportunity to succeed.

Biggest Surprise?

This has to go to the Iowa Energy and their 2–0 performance at the Showcase. Heading into the event, the team only had three wins on the season and had just snapped a 16-game losing streak shortly before. Now they are riding a three-game win streak, the longest of the season and have nearly matched their entire win total on the year. In his first four games as head coach, Glynn Cyprien is 3–1 so far. Not bad for an interim head coach taking over after what can only be described as a terribly disappointing start to the season.

Iowa picked up solid victories over the Salt Lake City Stars, and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers this past week. They averaged 10 points more per game over the Showcasae than the regular season, and shot over 52% from the field for the event, a sharp increase compared to the 45% leading into the Showcase.

Who Is The Player More People Should Be Talking About?

This is an interesting one, because while I think he is receiving the recognition from the event after being named to the All-Showcase first team, it seems he is constantly overlooked and that’s Quinn Cook (Canton Charge). It only seems fitting that the Cavaliers are in need of some point guard assistance and they have a capable player right in their D-League backyard. So why are they waiting to pull the trigger?

Cook has been outstanding his sophomore D-League season, and his 40-point, eight assist performance against the Westchester Knicks is proof of what he’s capable of. Cook averaged 27 points at the Showcase, and shot 54% from the field as well. Need more proof?

Per the NBA D-League stats page, Cook is first overall in fast break points this season, third in points off turnovers, and sixth overall in total points in the paint this season. The last statistic is impressive considering the names at the top are forwards and centers like Shawn Long, Keith Benson, and Dakari Johnson.

But another player with an impressive outing that went unnoticed at the Showcase was Dennis Clifford (Santa Cruz). He was one of only two players to average at least 15 points and 12.5 rebounds, the other was Alfonzo McKinnie (Windy City Bulls).

Clifford has improved immensely over the course of the season and he’s been instrumental in the Warriors’ success this season. His senior year he went mostly unnoticed after his team at Boston College went winless, but since then he’s put in the work and he has incredible footwork on the block and a nifty hookshot as he enters the paint. Is he the most explosive person on the court? No, but he’s putting in the work and effort to develop his game while in the D-League.

Why are there so few call-ups again this season?

Last year at this time, 12 players had earned call-ups to the NBA. This year, even fewer have made the move to the Association (10). So what gives?

At the start of the season there was only one available roster spot, so that limited opportunities for players. Slowly but surely, teams began waiving players and more opportunities were found via call-up. It’s a natural process that occurs each season in the NBA so it’s not surprising.

However, this year the NBA is in a “cape for eighth” mentality, where in a normal NBA season, teams would have likely fallen out of the playoff picture already and would have started using the D-League carousel to call players up and give them an NBA tryout of sorts while they regroup and go back to the drawing board ahead of the next season.

Instead, what we have is teams that are desperate to make the playoffs and therefore are standing pat with their assets. In the Eastern Conference you have only a 4.5 game difference between the eighth seed and the 12th ranked team. In the Western Conference it’s even worse, as only 4.5 games separates the eighth seeded Nuggets with the cellar-dwellers the Los Angeles Lakers.

While a playoff berth for a team would suggest progress for a franchise looking to find its identity after missing the postseason for a number of years like most of these teams had, it’s a futile effort when you’re headed for the Golden State buzzsaw known as the Warriors. So in the end, these teams are vying for the opportunity to host two playoff games against the Warriors and lose in a 4–0 series sweep, That’s progress folks.

Twitter Mailbag

I don’t know if anyone had a terrible performance to be honest. Is this a cop-out to your question? Perhaps. Maybe because I’m not actively looking for who performed the worst, but also because I try to stay positive and want to point out some of the better performances rather than critiquing those that were not as great.

Did everyone have an A+ performance at the Showcase? No, but not everyone is going to make it to the NBA so it depends on what your expectations are heading into the event. Yes, you want to impress scouts, but there’s a good chance you might impress an international scout and not an NBA scout as everyone there are looking for different needs for their team.

It bears repeating, but what might not be perceived as a great performance, someone else might think otherwise because of their own personal perspective. Remember, when it comes to call-ups, you don’t have to win over the entire NBA team, all it takes is one team to provide a player that opportunity.

Shawn Long was very impressive in his two games with Delaware, who went 2–0 at the Showcase. In fewer than 24 minutes per game, Long averaged a double-double with 15 points and 10.5 rebounds. Long has flown under the radar for most of the season but looking at his numbers overall suggests he should be getting better looks from NBA and international scouts as the season progresses. It’s not far-fetched to suggest he is a potential late-season call-up for a team that wants to give him a look heading into the offseason.

Long is second in the league in points in the paint, and leagues the NBADL in second-chance buckets. That isn’t to say guys like Eric Moreland and Keith Benson didn’t have successful outings at the Showcase, they most certainly did. However, the one big who perhaps improved his stock the most was Long.

Let’s see. The Skyforce have been given plenty of credit here at D-League Digest. Both Brianté Weber and Keith Benson were selections for mid-season Most Valuable Player, and we’ve even discussed their success this season frequently on the D-League Dialogue Podcast, even suggesting that this year’s team might be even better than last year’s. So I think we’ve done plenty to give credit to the Skyforce and head coach Nevada Smith this season.

See Shawn Long information above. If I had to pick one, I’d say he’s had the strongest performance for the 87ers so far this season. And it’s not a stretch to think he could see an NBA call-up in his future.

That’s it for this mailbag, thanks for the questions and keep following @DLeagueDigest on Twitter for more great coverage.