All you missed when opening the Summer League of Sixers vs. Boston Celtics

Let's get away from the start – if you watch or follow the summer league, worrying about wins and losses, you are doing yourself a disservice. Yes, in a normal recap, how and why Philadelphia lost a tight match against the Boston Celtics would be the center of our story here, which I would go into in minute details to unpack for you.

But in case you are new For this reason, Summer League is, charitably, a different brand of basketball. The spacing of the floors tends to be appalling, the energy is a little misplaced, and you are looking for signs of life more than anything else. It's not so different from the experience of watching the Sixers regular season during the leanest years of rebuilding – you're hoping for a good process, knowing that the results will probably not be beautiful.

So with that in mind, let's review what you might have missed if you decided to take some on a Friday night in early July, instead of waiting to see what are the summer Sixers doing.

Furkan Korkmaz's made an evening [19659005] Every year, sophomores introduce themselves to Las Vegas, which quickly gives them the impression of being too good to spend a lot of time playing in the league off-season. The Sixers, although they've had a ton of exciting prospects over the last half-decade, have never really experienced this phenomenon, and the players who ended up coming back for others Summer League tournaments are wondering if they are good enough The NBA at all.

But Korkmaz finally gave the Sixers the kind of performance that you can watch and say, "Okay, I do not think this guy needs to spend a lot of time running with free agents. drafted.

Korkmaz became absolutely ballistic Friday night, losing 40 points on just 18 shots and shooting oohs and aahs from the crowd as the fourth pivotal quarter rolled in. He was heading towards threes in transition, killing the Celtics on catch-and-shoot games, and sending a message that he could end up being a factor in Philadelphia's rotation this season.

Before we're too far ahead of us, Korkmaz Always comes with a lot of defensive worries attached.It certainly has gained weight, but he will continue to lose pounds to many of the wings that he must keep at this level, and that alone is enough to cap his ceiling.

Still, what we saw from Korkmaz on Friday night was more than just a shoot-off.He was confident of putting the ball on the ground and attacking the basket – hence the 15 free-throw attempts – and even showed a little vision as smuggler in attack mode. The Sixers desperately need versatile offensive players, and if Korkmaz is even functional as a smuggler, he unlocks some things for their attack.

Again, this is a unique Summer League game, but it's easily Korkmaz's best performance on American soil. Good start for his trip to Vegas

Zhaire Smith defended the defense, and had a dull night at the attack

Philadelphia's first-round pick of this season On the other hand, had a lot quieter night at the office. Smith scored only seven points on 3/7 shooting on the field, and his box-scoring impact across the board was quite disappointing.

Part of this may have been a product of instruction – I was a little surprised to see how he ended up crushing the boards even in defense, and it seemed that the staff of the board was very good. Training was preparing him to provide opportunities for a guy like Ben Simmons. It's part of the transition that will make it go from a power play to a 2/3 mix, and this may not be the cleanest switch to begin with.

But there were a few places where Smith already looks as advertised. I pointed to one of these areas on Twitter during the match, but Smith severely attacked Boston and put a lot of pressure on his home defense by creating a separation with his man. Most people focus on what earned him buckets, but I think this game is instructive on how he can value his movement:

Once that he's on the field with players like Simmons, some of Smith's cuts will turn into lob games and easy baskets. He did not throw any of his signature scoring shots against the Celtics, but he showed impressive body control in the air on a couple of his finishes around the basket.

Where he seemed the most at home was on the defensive end of the floor. There were some fouls, but for the majority of the match, Smith showed the same excellent instincts to stop the games before they could develop. In addition, the versatility that some (including myself) feared to be muted at the next level seemed to translate quite well.

One postion that jumped in particular: this sequence in the second half, where Smith eventually switched to both Guerschon Yabusele and Semi Ojeleye. He never went far enough from his duty to give them the space to operate, but never enough to risk fouling. Ojeleye ended possession with an extremely difficult mark, but it was a sequence that the Sixers will show on tape as a reason they brought this guy.

I would like to see him a lot more involved in the offensive gameplay during the Summer League because it's time to let him try (and probably fail) with his sleeve before the games really start to to be important. 19659004] Markelle Fultz did some cameos Friday night

After the Sixers had made the decision to exclude Fultz from the summer league festivities, many people (including me ) assumed that Fultz would remain in the background during the mid-summer rally in Vegas. But last year 's first choice was before tipping, hanging out with his teammates and rooting his pals while they were taking a big rival.

This attracted a surprising number of social media fans and reporters seemed irritated at the idea that Fultz was in Vegas and did not play. These screams only increased when Fultz was stuck for the games that followed for Philadelphia, and ended up filming an interview with Luka Doncic waving and shouting: "Hi Mom!" Background.

Without publicly humiliating the individuals who were doing this, one wondered if Fultz was taking it all seriously enough to be tall, in addition to calling his completely harmless antics a "bad look". For him and the organization

I would say that I know more about Fultz and the year that he had last year than 99 percent of the general public and the various journalists who cover the league with me. I totally understand the concern about the Fultz game and the potential lost value it represents if its jumper never recovers, and I know that fans will not relax until and after that. He feels comfortable playing three times

sacred, there must be deep collective breathing here. It's a 20-year-old kid who has had a strange and often publicly embarrassing rookie year, which, in the opinion of all, is working to get back to where it needs to be. Contrary to what a gang of social thugs would say to you, he loves basketball, and that's a big part of why he was spending a Friday night in the summer around teammates and gambling. [19659002] Working with a stone face, and the expectation that we collectively have for athletes (especially those who are struggling) is ridiculous. I am as competitive as possible with regards to the work that I do here compared to my peers in the industry, but if I have a slow or difficult week, I will not stand at it. 39 away from the world to prove a point to anyone especially on how "serious" I take my job. Life is on balance, and Fultz being a 20 year goofy has no correlation with the fact that he will recover his jumper or not.

Maintain high expectations for this kid and hold him accountable for his success or failure, any means. But if you are the kind of person who feels the need to ride on his only presence in Las Vegas, I suggest you look for more joy in your own life.

.. something

I'm not sure if Philadelphia fans know that they're a little spoiled by home broadcasting, but it's quite questionable of Marc Zumoff and Alaa Abdelnaby to teams from NBA TV and ESPN. Last night, the Sixers were treated as color commentators by Seth Greenberg

including: calling Landry Shamet a "second round robbery" (he was caught in the first round), Ben Simmons being a "red rookie" "(he was just a rookie), wondering if people should or should not pronounce Luka Doncic's name as he tells people that he should be pronounced (how is this even a debate?), and suggesting the Sixers traded Mikal Bridges because of the inside information they had about the quality of Korkmaz (??????)

I understand that the Summer League basketball is not the most exciting thing to look at in the world, and there is a tendency advertisers are misguided towards verbal diarrhea as a result. But I promise you that people who are quite invested in the Sixers or the Celtics enough to watch a group of non-roster players run on a Friday night in July do not need a bunch of empty platitudes or inaccurate comments about the players that they have at

The game speaks very well. There was a player in the middle of a 40 point game, nobody cares whether you think that Donovan Mitchell was the "real" rookie of the year.

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