“Vlatko, they can’t guard you!” is not something I expected to hear in a real basketball game, but that’s the beauty of Summer League. The relative expectations foster idealistic evaluation, and otherwise irrelevant basketball players are transformed into legends—even if it is sometimes rooted in irony as much as it is genuine appreciation for talent.
Not surprisingly, this particular bit of vocalized adoration was comedic in nature. Cancar did not have quite the same impact as he did in game one and Denver’s half court offense sputtered in the first half. Their opponents, the Boston Celtics, could indeed stop Vlatko, but the Nuggets had no trouble stopping them as their defensive identity reared its head in an 82-69 stomping on day two of Las Vegas Summer League.