KJ Simpson earns incredible praise for Hornets Summer League run

The Charlotte Hornets are, for the first time ever, Summer League champions. They defeated the Sacramento Kings last night to go unbeaten and win their first-ever summer title. They could not have done so without contributions from countless players, but perhaps none more deserving of praise than second-year guard KJ Simpson.

Pressed into action a lot due to injuries to LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller (coupled with inefficiencies by Nick Smith Jr.), the guard showed some flashes, but he really put it together during Summer League.

He was so good that he earned a spot on Bleacher Report's All-NBA Summer League team. Note that this article was seemingly written before the championship, so Kon Knueppel's fantastic MVP outing last night may not have mattered for this.

Either way, Simpson earned second-team All-NBA honors here from B/R. "While certainly not the most-heralded player on the summer Hornets, Simpson still left the biggest statistical imprint on the undefeated (as of writing) bunch," Zach Buckley wrote. "His team-high 19.3 points looked even better when paired with his 47.3/37/78.9 shooting slash, and he filled out his stat line with 5.5 assists (against 2.5 turnovers), 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals."

Simpson was really good over the few games he played after sporadically appearing in the NBA last year. A former second-round pick, it was highly encouraging to see such a big leap from the player. Questions will remain about whether or not he can translate to the NBA level, as Summer League games often mean very little about that, but for now, Simpson's stock is firmly up.

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