Summer Phoenix Suns slide past Summer New York Knicks

The Summer League Suns started off the 2019 campaign with a OT win over RJ Barrett and the New York Knicks 105-100 on Sunday evening. Despite a big game from New York’s Ignas Brazdeikis, the Suns were able to emerge with the victory behind 23 points from James Palmer Jr.

Although missing NBA draft picks Cam Johnson and Ty Jerome, there are still interesting players to watch on the Vegas Suns this month. Fans are focusing on the play of guards Jalen Lecque and Elie Okobo as the hope is that one of them can be an important piece of the Suns roster in the future.

Both Lecque and Okobo came off the bench in the win for Phoenix. Lecque had a highlight quick drive and slam in the 2nd quarter, finishing with 6 points on 2-6 shooting in 15 minutes of play. Jalen also accumulated 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Okobo played consistently in attack mode and scored 7 points on 2-7 shooting in 12 minutes.

Phoenix (1-0) was surprisingly led though by power forward James Palmer Jr. and shooting guard Jared Harper who each finished with 23 and 19 points respectively.

While very little should be taken from the very first game of a Summer League that is missing a number of potential star players (both rookies and sophomores), their contributions are worthy of note, and should they dominate the Summer League on any level (maybe even lead Phoenix to their first Championship), they will most definitely earn themselves invitations to Training Camp, if not with the Suns than somewhere else in the league.

Point guard Rayvonte Ray also had 19 points for the Suns off the bench (it’s nice to see contributions from players at multiple positions).

Rice put up ten 3’s, nailing 5 of them, which is hopefully a sign of Monty Williams‘ offense rather than a player simply jacking up outside shots to put into highlight reels. While he is unlikely to make the Suns’ roster (and probably won’t get a camp invite from Phoenix either), he did drain 43.6% of 3’s his senior year at Illinois in 2014-15 (although 28.9% his first three seasons), and 35.9% internationally last year.

The Knicks (0-2) were led by Ignas Brazdeikis with 30 points. The former Michigan Wolverine quickly became the talk of the game on social media after shooting 11/19 on field goals and grabbing 8 rebounds to help force overtime.

The Summer Suns next face the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday July 9, 2019 at 7:30pm EST on NBA TV.