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LAS VEGAS — The last two days, Keyonte George has tried to stay away from social media; he knew what he might find.
The NBA media world is in Las Vegas, so one doesn't simply drop 33 points and 10 assists in Summer League unnoticed. For the last 48 hours, George has been the topic of podcasts, articles and plenty of praising tweets. Some national pundits — notably The Ringer's Bill Simmons and Kevin O'Connor — even started throwing his name out as a potential dark horse for Rookie of the Year.
George didn't think he needed to see all that.
"Of course, all my friends are back home; they called me to tell me good job things of that nature," George said. "But for me, I try to stay off social media, just because I don't want to get too high. I don't want to get too low. I just want to stay (even-keeled)."
That strategy appeared to pay off; George had himself an encore performance Monday night at the Cox Pavilion. Fueled by a blazing first half (he hit four 3-pointers by halftime), George finished with 26 points and seven assists to lead the Jazz to a 108-96 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in their second game of the Vegas Summer League.
George was 9-of-15 from the field and shot 5-of-10 from deep. There was even a run in the first half where he made four straight buckets, including three 3-pointers and one midrange jumper where his ball fake sent the defender flying.
His full game didn't reach the levels that had everyone buzzing on Saturday — he had four turnovers and struggled to handle the physicality of the Wolves on the defensive end — but he, once again, showed plenty of things that got the Jazz front office excited for what may come.
"He does a good job of using his speed, agility, whatever you want to call it to kind of counter that," Jazz summer league coach Evan Bradds said. "So as he gets more reps under him, he'll get better at that."
Bradds pointed to a finish late where George caught the ball on the dive to the paint and went quick off one foot to finish over a taller Minnesota defender. That was part of a strong fourth quarter where George had 7 points and two assists as the Jazz pulled away from the Wolves.
George is showing the signs of a special offensive player, and has a bag of trips off the dribble. His hesitation moves and ability to change pace has consistently frozen defenders (and that includes players with NBA experience). And in two games in Las Vegas, he has racked up 59 points, 17 assists and 11 3-pointers.
Defensively, though, he has plenty of room to grow; and he knows he'll have to get stronger to be able to handle the bigger players in the NBA.
"That's gonna be my main focus coming in and going into training camp, going back home, getting into elite level shape, get stronger, just stay focused on my body," George said. "So come regular season, I'm able to chase guys off down screens or get over the top of screens — things like that."
After George's intriguing first two games in Vegas (not to mention his solid run in Salt Lake City), there is a case to shut down George for the rest of the summer; however, Bradds thinks the team will want to keep seeing what the young guard can do.
"I think everyone likes what they see, right? But I think they want to keep seeing him, too." Bradds said. "I tell you guys the same thing every time — like, he gets better every game; he keeps getting a little bit better. So I think we want to take that also day-by-day and see what happens, but I think if you even ask him he's gonna be like, 'Nah, I want to keep playing.' He wants to be out there. You see the joy he has when he plays."
