DJ Steward Making The Most Of His Summer League Opportunity

As the former Blue Devil impresses with the Lakers

Covid must have been a really disorienting experience for Duke basketball players. They were staying at the Washington Duke, playing in an empty arena and games were postponed or canceled repeatedly.

It was nobody’s fault, but this was not the Duke experience anyone signed up for.

DJ Steward was a freshman that year and while he played well, the year was very strange. He somewhat overestimated his prospects as he admitted later, but you can’t really blame him. It wasn’t a great year for anyone.

He’s bounced around basketball since then, never quite making the NBA even though he did well in the G-League at times, but now he’s got another opportunity, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers.

In his summer league debut, Steward had 20 points on 7-10 from the floor. It’s a great debut but there’s still not much of a market for a 6-0 shooting guard in the NBA. We’ll have to see if he’s developed the rest of his game enough to spend time at point, which is the only place a guy his size can realistically play in the NBA.