The NBA Summer League is a petri dish for outlandish takes based on games that are ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
Granted that what happens in the Vegas portion of the Summer League should stay in Vegas, it’s still hard to deny the greatness that former Gonzaga Bulldogs star big man Drew Timme is having in Sin City.
On Monday, Timme, who now plays for the Brooklyn Nets, showed up against the Washington Wizards like he’s back in Spokane. The two-time WCC Player of the Year went off for 30 points while making 13 of his 24 attempts from the field, while adding five rebounds, three assists and a steal in 31 minutes to pace the Nets. Although the Nets ended up absorbing a 102-96 loss to the Wizards, Timme surely made a statement and turned lots of heads.
“Drew Timme should be on somebody’s roster getting quality minutes!!!! And I mean in the rotation heavy,” shared former NBA big man Kendrick Perkins in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Timme even got some MVP chants from the crowd.
The NBA Summer League is less about winning games and more about giving teams a convenient avenue to evaluate rookies, young players and others who are trying to crack rosters. Most of what Timme showed against the Wizards wasn’t surprising but nonetheless impressive. He’s always got a good feel out on the perimeter and a soft touch around the rim with solid footwork. He’s not known for aggressively attacking the basket because he’s got limited ball-handling skills and isn’t exactly the most mobile of players, but at least during one play, he went hard to the rim and put Wizards youngster Alex Sarr on a poster.
The way Timme started that play with a slick pass before moving to a nice spot to get the ball tells a lot about how he can fit in with Brooklyn, even with his limited attributes.
Timme just had his $1.96 million club option for the 2025-26 NBA season picked up by the Nets, but he’s yet to be on an NBA roster for an entire season. In the 2024-25 campaign, he suited up for only nine games with the Nets after getting signed late in the season. Regardless of the quality of the competition and the setting, Timme’s performance against the Wizards was a positive.
