The Hawks rolled into Las Vegas and decided to sit their first-round picks. Cameron Boozer decided that was a problem for them.
Boozer — the third overall selection in the 2026 NBA Draft, taken by Memphis after Washington grabbed AJ Dybantsa at one and Utah took Darryn Peterson at two — posted 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting in his Las Vegas Summer League debut, a 96-64 Grizzlies blowout of Atlanta. He hit his lone three-point attempt, grabbed seven rebounds including three on the offensive glass, and added three assists and a steal in 29 minutes. His plus-minus: +24. The box score reads like a man playing against traffic.
The efficiency is the headline. Seventy-six point nine percent from the floor, a perfect mark from deep, and just one personal foul in nearly 30 minutes of run. The four turnovers are the blemish — ball security will get tested by NBA-length defenders in ways Summer League rosters can only approximate — but everything else was a statement.
Boozer arrived in Memphis carrying one of the more decorated freshman résumés in recent memory. He won the Associated Press men’s national player of the year at Duke, becoming just the fifth freshman to claim the award, averaging 22.5 points and 10.2 rebounds while shooting 55.6% from the field and 39.1% from three. The Sporting News named him its national player of the year as well. His season ended in the Elite Eight against UConn, a 73-72 Duke loss in which Boozer sustained multiple fractures around his right eye after taking an elbow. He opted against surgery.
That decision looks less reckless now that he’s on an NBA floor, absorbing contact and finishing through it. The Grizzlies’ front office drafted him to be the interior anchor next to their existing core, and the early returns — however preliminary — suggest the transition from ACC dominance to professional efficiency may not require much of a runway.
Atlanta, meanwhile, held out Kingston Flemings (8th overall out of Houston) and Zuby Ejiofor (23rd overall out of St. John’s), depriving the matchup of its marquee rookie-versus-rookie angle. The Hawks’ Summer League squad managed just 64 points — a number that tells you everything about both their roster decisions and the defensive intensity Memphis brought.
Elsewhere in Las Vegas, Jon Elmore provided a spark off the bench with 11 points and five assists on 3-of-5 shooting, hitting 3-of-4 from deep in a 105-82 win over the Chicago Bulls. Flynn Cameron added 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists on 6-of-8 shooting in 18 and a half bench minutes during a 108-101 victory against the Denver Nuggets. Both lines underscore the kind of depth performances that earn training-camp invites — efficient, low-usage, and impactful in limited minutes.
But the night belonged to Boozer. Ten-of-thirteen from the floor. Seven boards. A 32-point margin with him on the court. The Summer League is not the regular season, and nobody in Memphis is printing playoff tickets in July. What it is, though, is the first look at whether a college superstar’s game travels — and Boozer’s passport appears to be in order.
- Cameron Boozer highlights vs. Hawks — Streamable
- r/nba discussion — Boozer highlights
- Jon Elmore highlights vs. Bulls — Streamable
- Flynn Cameron highlights vs. Nuggets — Streamable
- Cameron Boozer — Wikipedia
- 2026 NBA Draft — Wikipedia