NC State coach Kevin Keatts sat inside his Raleigh home last week, flipping between ESPN and NBA TV watching his former players in the NBA Summer League.
Former guard Jarkel Joiner was playing with the Atlanta Hawks against former forward Mohamed Diarra and the Los Angeles Lakers on one channel and former center DJ Burns and the Cleveland Cavaliers were on the other. For Keatts, it was an opportunity to just enjoy what he had a hand in helping get to that point.
“I’m sitting there and I’m like a proud papa,” Keatts said last week. “This is pretty cool to watch them play. And I’m seeing DJ get the ball and I’m like, ‘He’s about to spin on you.’”
While Keatts watched summer league at every opportunity he could to get a glimpse of his former players, those three were not the only Wolfpack representatives in Las Vegas. On top of that trio, NC State also had former guards DJ Horne (San Antonio Spurs), Dereon Seabron (Chicago Bulls) and Terquavion Smith (Portland Trail Blazers) in action over the past two weeks.
Seabron led the six former Wolfpack players with 8.7 points a game in his three appearances with the Bulls. He averaged 21.4 minutes an outing with 53.3% shooting, 4.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists during his time at summer league.
The Norfolk, Va., native exploded for 18 points on 5-for-9 shooting in a 107-81 loss to the Lakers to close his summer league slate, while he added four rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes off the bench.
While Seabron paced the Pack’s former players in scoring, NC State had a trio of players with 7.0 points or more per game in Las Vegas.
Joiner averaged 7.6 points on 37.5% shooting in five games played, while Diarra posted 7.5 points a game on 50% shooting in just two appearances with the Lakers. Smith, meanwhile, averaged 7.0 points in 13.2 minutes a contest with a 27.8% shooting clip through four games with the Blazers.
Joiner dropped 17 points with five rebounds and four assists in an 87-86 loss to the Lakers on July 17, while Smith scored 18 points with seven rebounds and an assist on 6-for-18 shooting in the Blazers’ 105-95 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night.
Although that group found ways to fill the bucket, former NC State forward DJ Burns posted the best shooting clip through his time in Las Vegas. The Rock Hill, S.C., native averaged 5.8 points on 55.6% shooting in just 11.9 minutes a game.
While Burns was able to get to the basket with his signature baseline spins, Keatts laughed as the former Wolfpack big man helped change the way the Cavaliers were playing in summer league.
“He’s different,” Keatts said. “He’s changing the Cavaliers a little bit. If you watch the summer league, there’s only one team that throws the ball inside — it’s the Cavaliers. He’s a throwback, completely different.”
Rounding out the Wolfpack’s summer league representatives was Horne, who scored 3.8 points a game in 11.1 minutes through four appearances. He had a 27.3% shooting clip, while he added 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists with the Spurs.
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