Heading into the NBA’s Summer League, I actually thought Matt McQuaid had the best chance out of he, Kenny Goins, Nick Ward, and Matt Costello to make an NBA roster. However, it seems that the Detroit Pistons coaching staff did not agree with my assessment as Matt McQuaid will be leaving Summer League barely having seen the floor.
McQuaid had a tough time largely due to the hefty presence of young guards and wings who the Pistons were committed to giving more development time. These were guys who are already on the team like Bruce Brown, Khyri Thomas, and Svi Mykhailiuk and the Pistons were determined to give them more chances to handle the ball, which is fair.
Basically, teams can approach Summer League in a few different capacities. You can either use it to try and develop your existing prospects (like the Pistons did, for the most part), or you can use it to identify new prospects.
The hope for McQuaid now, if his end goal is the NBA, will be to find a G-League team to latch onto for a year and work his butt off trying to standout at that level. I still think his skillset will be valued on an NBA team (someday).
