Six Bruins Headed to NBA Summer League in Vegas
July 05, 2018 | Men's Basketball
Six former UCLA men's basketball players will be competing in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which gets underway on Friday, June 6. The Vegas portion of the NBA Summer League runs through July 17.
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TJ Leaf, Aaron Holiday and Bryce Alford are playing for the Indiana Pacers. Leaf was a first-round selection by Indiana in 2017 and competed in the NBA Summer League last year, while Holiday was Indiana's first-round draft pick last month. Jonah Bolden (Philadelphia), Larry Drew II (Detroit) and Thomas Welsh (Denver) will also be playing in the upcoming NBA Summer League.
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Holiday led the Pac-12 in scoring last season, having starred for the Bruins the past three years. The former standout at Campbell Hall High School averaged 20.3 points per game in Westwood last season and played in all 101 games through his three collegiate years.
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Leaf was a rookie with Indiana in 2017-18, playing in 53 games. He averaged 2.9 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. As a freshman at UCLA in 2016-17, Leaf secured first-team All-Pac-12 acclaim after having averaged a team-high 16.3 points per game and totaling 8.2 rebounds per game.
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Alford spent the 2017-18 season in the G-League (Oklahoma City Blue) and will participate for the second consecutive year in the NBA Summer League. He played at UCLA from 2013-14 through 2016-17 and concluded his collegiate career as UCLA's No. 5 all-time leading scorer.
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Welsh, selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets, will be making his professional debut in the NBA Summer League this month. The 7-foot center from Redondo Beach, Calif., earned his undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA in June 2018. He was a four-year player for the Bruins (2015-18), helping UCLA advance to the NCAA Tournament in three of his four seasons. He ranks No. 3 on UCLA's all-time lists in rebounds and blocked shots.
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Drew II starred as the Bruins' primary point guard in 2012-13 and earned second-team All-NBA Summer League acclaim in 2015 with New Orleans. He will spend this summer with the Detroit Pistons after having played for the Philadelphia 76ers in the summer league one year ago. Drew II played in 10 NBA games during the 2017-18 regular season (New Orleans Pelicans and Philadelphia).
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Bolden was at UCLA for two years, competing as a sophomore in 2015-16 before spending the past two seasons playing professionally overseas. The 6-foot-10 forward was a second-round NBA Draft selection by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2017 and played for the organization's summer league team in July 2017.
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Fans can view the complete Las Vegas Summer League schedule by clicking here or visiting www.nba.com/summerleague.
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Indiana tips off the Las Vegas portion of the NBA Summer League on Friday, July 6, at 12 pm (PT) against the Houston Rockets. Indiana's game will be televised by NBA TV, live from Cox Pavilion at UNLV. All summer league contests in Las Vegas will take place at either Cox Pavilion or UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center.
