Miles Simon named head coach for the Lakers Summer League team
Miles Simon was promoted by Luke Walton to be the head coach of the Lakers Summer League team. Too bad the roster has absolutely no former Arizona Wildcats.
Wildcats with the Sixers, Wildcats with the Warriors and there is a slew of Wildcats coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, one of them in beloved Miles Simon. There will be two Summer Leagues.
The Sacramento and Utah NBA Summer Leagues will take place July 2-5 with Vegas NBA Summer League will begin July 6th. Miles Simon has been named Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers Summer League team. This year marks the first year that ALL 30 NBA Teams will compete in Vegas. And the Orlando Summer League was put to bed.
The Vegas Summer League will be played from July 6-17, and the games will be played at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion (they are connected). There is usually a fee for the day for general admission which is about $35. You can spend more and sit closer if you want to.
Arizona Wildcats Basketball
The former NCAA Champion and Arizona Wildcat will take over for fellow Wildcat Jud Buechler who coached the Lakers to win the Championship trophy last season in Las Vegas. Buechler moved to the East Coast to be an Assistant Coach for the New York Knicks.
With the pressure of having Lonzo Ball perform, all eyes were on the team. The Summer League reached a record 1.1 million viewers on ESPN when the Lakers played the Boston Celtics (Kadeem Allen). Kyle Kuzma became the breakout star and Gabe York also contributed to the success of the team when Ball was injured. Buechler did a great job to coach the team with a fully packed Thomas and Mack Center (UNLV) each time the team played.
Ball was named the tournament MVP as the Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers in the Championship Game. Kuzma scored a whopping 30 points and ten rebounds to help the Lakers beat the Blazers.
Now it’s Simon’s turn, and you know he has to be pumped up for this season, even though there is pressure to repeat. His assistant coaches are Mark Madsen (Stanford), Clay Moser (Wisconsin-LaCrosse), Coby Karl (Boise State and the South Bay Lakers Head Coach), Brian Walsh (Eastern New Mexico, SB Lakers Assistant Coach), Will Scott (Indiana), and Jonah Herscu (Lake Forest College).
Luke Walton told us on @SpectrumSN after the press conference yesterday that asst. coach Miles Simon will be the head coach for the Lakers summer league squad in both Sacramento and Las Vegas.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) June 27, 2018
The Lakers Summer League roster was announced just four hours ago and note no Lonzo Ball, no Kyle Kuzma even though they are just entering their second season as a Laker and who knows with the Free Agency rumors, could end up on other NBA teams by summers end). Interesting that even though last season Brandon Ingram played on back-to-back summer league Lakers teams as did Julius Randle if I believe, but not Ball and Kuzma.
Simon helped develop both Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball during the Lakers regular season.
LAKERS SUMMER LEAGUE ROSTER (Played with the South Bay Lakers last season*)
| NAME | POS | HT | WT | DOB | COLLEGE | YEARS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joel Berry II | G | 6-0 | 195 | 4/1/95 | North Carolina | R |
| Stephaun Branch* | G | 6-5 | 210 | 11/7/95 | West Georgia | R |
| Thomas Bryant* | C | 6-10 | 245 | 7/31/97 | Indiana | 1 |
| Jeffrey Carrol | G | 6-6 | 210 | 11/6/94 | Oklahoma State | R |
| Alex Caruso* | G | 6-5 | 185 | 2/28/94 | Texas A&M | 1 |
| Josh Hart | G | 6-5 | 215 | 3/6/95 | Villanova | 1 |
| Demarcus Holland* | G | 6-4 | 180 | 3/2/94 | Texas | R |
| Nick King | F | 6-7 | 225 | 8/5/95 | Middle Tennessee | R |
| Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk | F | 6-8 | 205 | 6/10/97 | Kansas | R |
| Malik Newman | G | 6-3 | 190 | 2/21/97 | Kansas | R |
| Malik Pope | F | 6-10 | 220 | 7/25/96 | San Diego State | R |
| Xavier Rathan-Mayes | G | 6-4 | 210 | 4/29/94 | Florida State | R |
| Moritz Wagner | C | 6-11 | 245 | 4/26/97 | Michigan | R |
| Johnathan Williams | F | 6-9 | 230 | 5/22/95 | Gonzaga | R |
*roster subject to change
Note: Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (No. 47) and Moritz Wagner (No. 25) were drafted by the Lakers and are their rookies. The Lakers traded to get the Sixers No. 39 pick and drafted Isaac Bonga, a forward out of Germany. Many media outlets ran with the story that Bonga would play, but we don’t see his name on the roster which is subject to change.
Stephaun Branch and Demarcus Holland played on the Lakers G-League team the South Bay Lakers all of last season. It will be a special treat for fans to enjoy both Branch and Holland as this is somewhat of a call-up for them. I had the opportunity to watch Steph play in the Drew League for James Harden’s team LAUNFD a week ago, and he has a whole new beast mode level I have never seen before.
Must Read: More on Arizona Basketball from ZZ..
Much luck to Miles Simon coming up here shortly! He has learned from the best, he is ready, and we predict he will be a fantastic head coach. We will try to bring you some live shots during the weekend in Vegas, stay tuned to Zona Zealots.