Luka Samanic impresses in NBA Summer League debut

The Utah leg of the NBA Summer League tipped off on Monday night with four games. One game in particular, the San Antonio Spurs’ 97-89 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was rather interesting.

The Spurs’ offense was spearheaded by Lonnie Walker IV, who piled on a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds. One other Spurs player in particular, Luka Samanic turned a lot of heads. He managed to fill up the stat sheet with 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one 3-pointer, one steal and two blocks but also committed four turnovers in 22 minutes of action. He was nervous, yes, as you’d expect to be. However, he showed some polish and a lot of hops, which came as a surprise to some of his teammates.

That said, the young gun has a lot of growing to do. He still lacks a bit more meat on his bones to be able to handle the physicality in the league as well as to be able to assert himself closer to the hoop.

Overall, people were impressed with what they saw out of him and that he clearly possesses the tools necessary to become a future contributor on the Spurs.

Samanic was selected by the Spurs 19th overall in the 2019 NBA draft. He’s a 19-year-old Croatian international player who played for Petrol Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia-Liga Nova KBM).

Stay tuned as we cover the NBA Summer League and shine the spotlight on some of Europe and the World’s finest exports to the NBA.