Summer League Report Card: Luis Montero

With the Sacramento Kings’ summer league campaign officially over, we here at A Royal oain will give individual grades to the players on the team. This article will be analyzing Luis Montero.

The Player

Prior to this year’s summer league, Luis Montero has been a player that has jumped from the NBA to D-League multiple times since 2015.

In his only season in the NBA, Montero played for the Portland Trailblazers where he averaged 1.2 points, 0.3 rebounds, and 0.1 assists per game in the 12 competitions he participated in.

In his D-League season last year, Montero averaged 8.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per contest.

With this summer league season, it gave Montero a good opportunity to potentially find an NBA team to play for in this upcoming season. Let’s check out how he did.

Pros

Montero had limited playing time during summer league (averaged 20.4 minutes a game), so his numbers are not going to knock anyone’s socks off. With that being said, I thought Montero was solid in rebounding, forcing turnovers, and shooting.

In terms of rebounding, Montero averaged 5 rebounds a game, which is pretty good as he played most of his time at the guard positions. In terms of forcing turnovers, Montero averaged over 1 steal a contest. And in terms of shooting, Montero didn’t score much for the Kings but was efficient when he did as he shot 42.1% from the floor and 45.4% from beyond the perimeter.

Cons

When both De’Aaron Fox and Frank Mason were sidelined during certain times in summer league, Montero was then called upon to facilitate the Kings’ offense. As a result, let’s just say Montero struggled to find his niche as a point guard, especially on offense.

When Montero was on the court, he lacked urgency both in scoring and setting up teammates to score. Montero shot well from the floor, but he only averaged 4.4 points per match. Montero also averaged just 1.2 assists per game which is low considering he played some time at the point guard position.

To be fair, point guard isn’t Montero’s natural position, so he probably was asked to do things on the court that were outside of his comfort zone.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Montero had a mediocre summer league. He was alright when it came to shooting the ball and forcing turnovers, but he didn’t play in a way that would impress anyone.

Also, the Kings were loaded with talent on their roster, so Montero really couldn’t get significant playing time on the court. The only time Montero did get solid runtime was when he took on being the facilitator for the team, a role that he seemed uncomfortable with.

When it comes to Montero’s future, it’s unclear whether he could make an NBA team next season. But it seems for sure that he will not be sporting a Sacramento Kings uniform because the team already has so much young talent on their roster.