The NBA announced for the second straight year all 30 teams will be participating in the Las Vegas Summer League. This year, however, the Croatian and Chinese national teams will also join, making it a total of 32 participants.
The 15th annual Las Vegas Summer League is set to take place from July 5-15 at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion at the UNLV campus. To account for the record number of teams, the 11-day, 83-game tournament is changing its format.
Instead of every team making the playoffs after the three preliminary games, each team will now play four preliminary games, but only the top eight teams will make the playoffs. The 24 teams that do not make the playoffs will play one consolation game, bringing their game total to five.
Led by Summer League MVP Josh Hart, the Los Angeles Lakers got to the finals for the second straight year in 2018 but lost to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 2018 Las Vegas Summer League set a record for total attendance with 139,972 people heading to Sin City for the event. Television and online viewing also set a record, increasing 2017’s viewership by 35 percent, with 30.4 million hours viewed in total.
This year’s Summer League will be particularly exciting as presumptive No. 1 pick Zion Williamson will most likely be playing. Williamson has very quickly become one of the most hyped rookies of the modern NBA.
Ticket information and complete game and broadcast schedules for the MGM Resorts 2019 NBA Summer League will be announced at a later date.