Summer League Observations: Spurs fall to Hornets

Observations on Carter Bryant, David Jones Garcia, Riley Minix, and Harrison Ingram in the Summer Spurs' first loss in the Las Vegas Summer League.

The San Antonio Spurs’ Summer League team won’t be qualifying for the Summer League playoffs after suffering their first loss, in blowout fashion, to the Charlotte Hornets by 25 points. With the loss, the Spurs will play in one final consolation game over the weekend.

Dylan Harper was out for the Spurs, while Charlotte was without Tidjane Salaun, Liam McNeeley, and Sion James.

Here are some of my observations on Carter Bryant, David Jones Garcia, Riley Minix, and Harrison Ingram during the Spurs’ loss.

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Carter Bryant

16 points | 6-9 FG | 4-6 3PT | 0-0 FT | 3 assists | 4 turnovers

5 rebounds | 2 fouls | 0 steals | 2 blocks | 23 minutes

Photo credit: @Spurs on X

Offense

Scoring: Bryant had one of his best Summer League scoring outputs in the loss. Early on, the Hornets were daring him to shoot by having big man Ryan Kalkbrenner defend him. Bryant stepped into his first three-point look to start the game, but he missed the shot. He got another look at a wide-open three, and he made it. Then, when Kalkbrenner was once again giving him space from outside, he pulled up and made the three.

Later in the first, with the smaller Kon Knueppel defending him, he dribbled once on a drive to his left and pulled up for a mid-range jumper. His final made basket of the first came off a 27-foot 3-point shot, where he used the 1-2 shooting motion to set his feet and make the three. The 1-2 shot was something different I saw from Bryant, since he usually uses more of the hop motion on his outside shots. Bryant finished with 11 points in the first quarter.

In the second half, Bryant caught the ball in the open court before the defense could get set. He had just one defender in front of him, so he picked the ball up with a low sweeping motion to get by the defender. Once he was clear, he rose and dunked with two hands. On a possession that was going nowhere by DJG, Bryant caught the ball late in the shot clock, stepped into a deep pull-up three, and made the shot. Most of Bryant’s shots were more of the variety of the ones the defense was giving him. He didn’t have many where he forced shots on his drives inside, like he had been doing in other games.

Beyond the Paywall: I’ll continue looking at Bryant’s playmaking and performance on defense, as well as providing observations on Jones Garcia, Minix, and Ingram.