Bam Adebayo and Dakari Johnson among Orlando League standouts

The Orlando Summer League has wrapped up, and with a number of Cats participating, it’s no surprise that a couple of them made big impacts.

In a recent article on NBA.com, Fran Blinebury listed Bam Adebayo and Dakari Johnson as two of the ten biggest standouts from the six days of action down in Florida.

Adebayo was the first name on his list.

A lot of folks snickered and said that legend Pat Riley reached to make Adebayo a lottery pick. But his college coach John Calipari insisted that Adebayo would show more of what he can do and thrive at the NBA level. About the only thing he didn’t do well in Orlando was shoot the ball consistently, but that won’t be his job in Miami. He was fifth in the Orlando Summer League in scoring, tied for second in rebounding, second in blocked shots and defended multiple positions.

Adebayo averaged 17.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, ranking in the top five in both categories.

As for Johnson, Blinebury talked about his performance and said he may get the chance to play at the NBA level this year.

A second round pick in 2015, he’s spent the past two seasons toiling for the Thunder’s G League affiliate, trying to make it to the big time. He had another quite solid performance in Florida, outworking most of the pack, scoring and rebounding effectively. Maybe with Domantas Sabonis gone to Indiana in the Paul George deal, the door is cracked open for another big man in OKC.

Johnson averaged 18 points per game, the second-best average in the league.

Hopefully we’ll see a lot of Cats get more media attention as the Summer Leagues roll on.