Former Badger Steven Crowl spent all of last season in the G-League for the Utah Jazz. It was starting to appear that he may not get another opportunity in the NBA, and he may have to join Max Klesmit overseas. Then the Detroit Pistons came calling and gave him an NBA Summer League contract. Which is only guaranteed for the time Detroit is playing in Las Vegas, but it's still a chance to prove he belongs in the NBA, or at least with another G-League roster.
Today was his first chance to show the Pistons he has some promise. He didn't get any minutes in the very first summer league game, but in game two, he got all of 8:25 seconds. Not a great start and was the lowest minutes of all the players who checked into the game (two others didn't play at all). In those eight minutes, he did something that could have given him more opportunities; he had the highest plus/minus of all the bench players.
In fact, he was the only player to come off the bench who wasn't a liability for the Pistons. Every starter was in the positive for Detroit, every bench player was in the negatives, and then there's Crowl, the lone outlier: A positive bench player.
Steven Crowl didn't WOW but he did do better than most of the Detroit Pistons bench
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The rest of his stat line was extremely underwhelming, and if it continues like this, there's absolutely no way he makes even a G-League roster. He had 0 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, and 1 block. His 0 points came on 0/0 shooting. He literally didn't even attempt a shot in his eight minutes, but those two assists show that he found a role somehow.
This is only game two after signing a last-minute contract as the Summer League was beginning, and practices had already started. He didn't get minutes in the first game because he was brand new to the team, and now in game two, he's easing in. Yet, there's no time for Crowl to be patient. The Summer League isn't long enough to dink around and hope for opportunities. He has to prove he has moxie now, if not to the Pistons, at least to the rest of the league.
Maybe another team will give him a chance, but it's not likely if he only gets eight minutes per game during a Summer League only contract. Time is of the essence for Crowl and the NBA.
Game three will be telling, if he has more minutes and more of a role, or if it's more of the same. If there isn't much of a change from game two to game three, his agent had better begin to call the international leagues and see what they are paying for 7-foot big men with G-League experience.
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