We wrote a lot about Austin Rivers while seeing him in action at Summer League in Las Vegas, and with good reason. Rivers was terrible for most of last year, but then was able to string together a series of nice performances just before breaking his hand which prematurely ended his season.
Rivers looked good in Vegas, but his team is now loaded at the guard spots with Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans, and Eric Gordon all in place on the roster. He got plenty of playing time in the Pelicans’ preseason-opening win over the Rockets, and if he can be consistent with those types of performances -- which included this highlight lob pass in traffic to Anthony Davis for the slam -- then head coach Monty Williams will have a good kind of problem in terms of trying to manage the distribution of his backcourt minutes.
Rivers finished with 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting, to go along with five assists and just one turnover in 31 minutes of action.