Fighting for his NBA life, Troy Williams is having success in the Las Vegas Summer League.
After going undrafted, Williams signed to play on the Phoenix Suns’ summer league team, hoping to make it onto an NBA roster.
Williams started summer league slow, only playing five minutes in his first game. Since the Suns’ first round draft pick Marquese Chriss got sick and was unable to play, Williams has taken advantage of his opportunity to shine.
In the past three games, Williams has played 20, 30 and 32 minutes and averaged 14.3 points per game. In the Suns’ last game against the Nuggets, he led the team in scoring with 22 points.
Williams is shooting 57 percent from three and is racking up four rebounds per game. Williams has cut down on his turnovers only averaging one per game.
His path to making the Suns’ regular season roster remains difficult. The Suns currently are stocked at both the small and power forward positions. They spent two lottery sections this past NBA Draft on forwards in Dragon Bender and Chriss. They also added forward Jared Dudley to a frontcourt that already had PJ Tucker and TJ Warren. Archie Goodwin can also play forward.
Though Williams’ chances to make the Suns’ roster are slim, his performance at Summer League might help earn him a spot on another team.
Yogi Ferrell isn’t having as much success as his former teammate at Summer League. Playing for the Brooklyn Nets, Ferrell is only playing 17 minutes per game and averaging eight points per game. His high scoring total came July 16 against the Cleveland Cavaliers where he had 10 points.
Ferrell is struggling from three, shooting two of 11 in four games.
Noah Vonleh is another former Hoosier playing at this year’s summer league. Playing for the Portland Trailblazers, Vonleh is averaging more than 30 minutes per game and is putting up 12 points per game to go along with 8.8 rebounds per game.
Andrew Hussey
