Young veterans look to summer league to refine skills | Reading Eagle

The Jazz won 100-82.

Danté Exum had an imposing start to this year’s Summer League in Salt Lake City.

The Utah Jazz took Dante Exum with the fifth overall pick in the 2014 National Basteball Association Draft.

Summer league is the first glimpse of rookies, but it’s also a chance for young players like Smart and Exum to work on specific aspects of their games.

Smart didn’t have the best night shooting the ball, with just a 6-20 night from the field, but was clearly on a different talent level from the majority of other guys in Boston’s opener against the Jazz. Exum and his teammates accounted for all 14 of those points to take a 36-34 lead, and they never trailed from that point on in the game.

The rest of Exum’s team played better, however, as a huge 2nd quarter surge, including a 28-8 run was enough to hold the C’s off in the fourth.

Smart’s final line proved that he did just about everything.

Exum did in fact lead the charge for the Jazz, scoring 12 points in the second quarter alone. They just want more aggression – something coach Quin Snyder preached during the season. The 6-foot-6 point guard consciously drove the paint and didn’t hesitate when presented with a clean look from outside.

Cooley began the game with two fouls in less than three minutes before giving way to Brock Motum, who played for the Jazz last summer, and taking a 10-minute breather on the bench. The injury was later announced as a sprained left ankle.

The 27-year-old Ingles started a surprising 32 games for the Jazz previous year following the season-ending injury to guard Alec Burks. Rodney Hood was another bright spot for the Jazz as he put up 23 points to go along with 10 rebounds (four offensive rebounds) and dishing out four assists.

“They’re a great organization to do business with, because they give opportunities to players”, Bartelstein said. He had played for the Celtics’ summer league teams in each of the past two seasons before ultimately playing in Turkey and Spain.

Terry Rozier is coming into this Summer League with a chip on his shoulder. “The big thing with him is trying to get him to be aggressive and attack the basket, which he did a good job of”.