2014 NBA Draft: Patric Young, Scottie Wilbekin will play summer league ball

Patric Young and Scottie Wilbekin will play for spots in the NBA during summer league action, according to Young and Wilbekin's agent.

Young will play for the New Orleans Pelicans in the Las Vegas Summer League, he told The Gainesville Sun's Kevin Brockway and Only Gators's Adam Silverstein. If Young survives summer and makes the Pelicans roster, Silverstein notes that he'll be the first Gator to play for a New Orleans NBA team since Neal Walk did in the 1970s.

But he faces the challenge of a crowded New Orleans frontcourt, stocked with Anthony Davis, the newly-acquired Omer Asik, and Jeff Withey at center, and Ryan Anderson at power forward. A shot is a shot, but other teams would have been better bets for Young, I think.

Wilbekin, on the other hand, will play for the Memphis Grizzlies in the Orlando Summer League, and for the Philadelphia 76ers in the Las Vegas Summer League, according to his agent, Matt Ramker. And thus Wilbekin might have a good shot of making a roster from summer league: The Grizzlies would seem relatively set at point guard, with Mike Conley, Jr. and former Florida floor general Nick Calathes at the position, but the Sixers are among the league's worst teams, and appear ready to be intentionally bad for the second straight year in 2014-15, which might be the exact sort of situation a tenacious young point guard needs to find his NBA niche.

Regardless, we'll be rooting for both Pat and Scottie. They deserve the shots they're getting, and it will be up to them to make them count.