BATON ROUGE – The NBA Summer League series of games begins Friday night in Las Vegas and the league, which plays through July 19, will feature at least four and possibly five former LSU basketball players.
The first game involving any of the former LSU players is at 9 p.m. this evening when Marcus Thornton, the 2009 SEC Player of the Year and a member of the NBA All-Rookie second team, leads the New Orleans Hornets against the Golden State Warriors. Warrior Anthony Randolph, who played at LSU in 2008, was still listed on the Warriors roster at mid-afternoon Friday, but there are written reports on the wire services about a possible trade situation that would involve Randolph and possibly the New York Knicks.
Also playing in the summer league with the San Antonio Spurs is Garrett Temple, who took advantage of four 10-day contracts with Houston, Sacramento and San Antonio to earn a roster spot through the rest of the 2010 season and into the playoffs with the Spurs. San Antonio’s first game is set for Monday against Minnesota.
Ronald Dupree is back looking to return to the league for another season and he will play on the roster of the Toronto Raptors. Dupree earned first-team All-SEC honors in 2003 and as a freshman was part of the team that won the SEC Championship in 2000 and went to the NCAA Sweet 16. The Raptors open play at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday against Phoenix.
Finally, the most recent NBA addition, free agent Tasmin Mitchell who concluded his outstanding LSU career in 2010, will be on the Cleveland Cavaliers summer team roster. The Cavs will not play their first contest in Las Vegas until Monday at 7:30 p.m. against Phoenix.
Live stats for all games can be found at www.nba.com and television coverage of the Vegas Summer League is at NBA TV.