Title: Jordan Loyd finds balance between competing goals at Summer League
Date: July 16, 2017
Original Source: 2 Ways & 10 Days
Synopsis: In my first piece for 2 Ways & 10 Days, I wrote about Jordan Loyd’s impressive Summer League from within the oft-difficult environment of role player life on the fringe of the NBA.
The reality for many players on the fringe of the NBA during the summer months is they’ll be tasked with answering a lot of questions in small opportunities. Within a handful of free agent camps and summer tournaments, there’s not a lot of room for error, nor is there any room for negotiating one’s place — trying to get a foot in the door means doing so the first time it cracks open, then trying to maneuver it further open later.
For Jordan Loyd, this meant trying to accomplish two somewhat conflicting tasks at Las Vegas Summer League: Play the role he was being assigned, and trying to show that he can do more than that while staying within its confines. It’s a standard conundrum in Utah, Orlando, and Las Vegas, one dozens of players deal with each summer, balancing the need to have strengths noticed or concerns assuaged with the need to fit in quickly to a sometimes narrow job description.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 