Summer league may come across as a joke and a waste of time to many NBA fans.  It looks like a glorified practice with the mesh reversible uniforms and I agree that it is tough to take things seriously when Skita can dominate the competition.  However, there are always some high draft picks out there and every once in a while you see a player that you just know is going to be a quality player in the NBA.  (Just look at the all tournament team from the 2004 Rocky Mountain Revue, sure there were three stiffs, including Skita, but there are also two borderline NBA stars as well)

Once again there will be three summer leagues in action this July.  The Orlando Pro Sumer League, featuring Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose, will begin games on Monday.  The NBA Summer League in Las Vegas kicks off their games on Friday the 11^th.  The Rocky Mountain Review in Salt Lake City will begin the Friday after that. 

The Nuggets will be playing in Vegas and they have announced their summer league roster.  There are some intriguing players on the list.

The biggest name is Chris Lofton the former All-American player from Tennessee.  Lofton holds the Southeastern Conference career record for most three pointers made.  He is not a point guard, but at a listed height of 6’ 2” if he wants to find a place in the NBA that is the position he will have to play.

Other recognizable names that college basketball fans will recognize are Keith Langford a guard from Kansas and Dahntay Jones a swingman from Duke that has hung around the fringes of the league thanks to his athleticism. 

Other notable names include Elton Brown, a big bruiser from the Colorado 14ers, and a couple of holdovers from last year Jelani McCoy and Curtis Sumpter. 

Current Nuggets on the roster include Sonny Weems, Taurean Green and Bobby Jones.  Weems will be fighting for a roster spot and Green and Jones will be playing to make sure they are not waived before August when their contracts become fully guaranteed.

As far as potential training camp invitees Weems will certainly be training with the Nuggets in the fall and Green and Jones will be there too unless they are waived sometime this month.  Other players with an outside shot at an invite are McCoy, I am not sure why he has not hung on to a roster spot in the NBA, Sumpter, who was impressive last summer, and Brown thanks to his strong track record of solid performance in the D-League.

There have been reports that the Nuggets were interested in signing Dahntay Jones in the past and he could be invited to training camp as well, but I do not believe he is an NBA caliber player.  The fact that he is from Duke does not help his case either.

The Nuggets first game will be Saturday the 12^th.  The television schedule has not been announced at this time, but NBATV will certainly air a good number of games and many game videos are archived online at NBA.com so we should get a chance to see much of the action.

No matter how you feel about summer league you can look forward to some Denver Nuggets game recaps and perhaps even some video in the coming weeks so it cannot be all bad right?