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If my Twitter timeline is to be believed, just about every NBA nerd in the world was in Las Vegas at some point over the past 10 days to watch Summer League. While they were surely there to see players like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Sharife Cooper (a personal favorite of mine as well), a trio of former Badgers were also there, trying to catch the attention of an NBA team.
- D’Mitrik Trice played with the Milwaukee Bucks
- Micah Potter played with the Miami Heat
- Vitto Brown played with the Phoenix Suns
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We should probably talk about Trice first, because he had one of the better single games of any player in Vegas. In 26 minutes, Trice exploded for 24 points (10-for-16 shooting, 3-for-6 from deep), three assists and one rebound in a loss to the Nuggets. Trice played in four games for the Bucks, averaging 12 minutes per game, 8.0 ppg (59.1 FG%, 45.5 3P%), 1.0 apg, 1.0 rpg and 0.5 spg.
Trice as nice!!
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) August 16, 2021
The bench is loving it. pic.twitter.com/UryUFpXZTW
Trice did average 1.8 turnovers per game and probably didn’t shoot a high enough volume of threes, although his accuracy was great. I think that Trice will definitely get a look in the G-League and hopefully he can keep performing well.
Vitto Brown suited up for four games with the Suns and averaged 10.5 minutes per game. He scored 4.0 ppg (29.4 FG%, 41.7 3P%), grabbed 2.3 rpg and dished out 0.5 apg. Impressive shooting numbers from deep for Brown, who has improved his three point shooting since leaving Wisconsin. Not sure where this performance leaves Brown, but he for sure has a future if he heads back to Europe.
Micah Potter had some highlight reel plays, not the least of which was the block in the tweet below. Potter played 14.3 minutes per game (four games played) and averaged 6.8 ppg on 52.2% shooting from the field. Oddly, he only shot 27.3% from three which isn’t really indicative of how well he shot in college.
Micah Potter says NO!
— NBA (@NBA) August 17, 2021
Final day of #NBASummer on ESPNU pic.twitter.com/zRig5WGhnR
Potter averaged 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.3 blocks per game while being the only one of the three former Badgers to have a positive plus/minus. He somehow averaged 2.3 turnovers per game which is just far too many for a big that doesn’t have the ball in his hands that much. I’d guess Potter is on a G-League roster this season but if he wants any chance of sticking around he’s going to have to find his three point stroke again.
We’ll keep you posted on anymore news coming out of the NBA regarding former Badgers.