Kevin Porter Jr. not expected to play in Las Vegas Summer League

If you’ve watched any of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the Utah portion of Summer League, you’ll know that the team is incredibly thin. Outside of Dylan Windler, there just isn’t much NBA talent on the court and it’s made it a very tough watch.

Unfortunately, the product likely will not be improving as the Cavs 30th overall pick Kevin Porter Jr. is not expected to take part in the Las Vegas Summer League.

The news was reported by Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com after a discussion with head coach John Beilein and another source:

“No, I don’t expect it,” Beilein said following the Cavaliers’ Salt Lake City Summer League finale. “It’s up to the trainers with all this stuff. This is one area where I’m saying, ‘You know what? This is a long way from our season right now.’ We would love to have all those guys out there, just even (Jaron) Blossomgame would be helpful for us, but we don’t have that experience or those two great draftees we have.”

After Beilein’s comments, a source confirmed that Porter was “probably not” going to play in Las Vegas despite him pushing for a chance. Just as with fifth-overall pick Darius Garland, who is also out, the Cavs are taking it slow with Porter. Porter and Garland, both of whom missed all three games in Utah, will travel with the team and continue to sit on the bench, participating in other chemistry-building activities.

This is disappointing news on multiple levels. The first is that it simply would be nice to see where players like Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr., and Collin Sexton are at in their development. The other is that it puts Windler in a tough position as a guy who’s role is probably more complimentary to other ball handlers, rather than being the lead guy.

In his last two games in Utah it was clear that he was receiving a disproportionate amount of attention defensively, and seemed to be a little gassed from the elevation. Things likely won’t get much easier for Windler in Vegas with this news. With so many interesting young players not playing, excited Cavs fans will need to wait until preseason to get a glimpse at the next generation of Wine and Gold.