On Sunday evening, the Cleveland Cavs suffered another loss to open up their Summer League play in Las Vegas, this time against the Detroit Pistons, amid what has been a busy offseason in Cleveland. Despite this, it was a strong outing from the Cavs’ second round draft pick Meleek Thomas, who scored 30 points on the evening, raising eyebrows in the process.
In attendance at the game was Thomas’ former head coach, John Calipari of Arkansas, who made sure to put the world on notice about the young star during a live interview during the television broadcast of the game on NBA on Prime.
“This kid right here, people missed on him,” said Calipari, per the NBA on Prime on Instagram.
Calipari also had high praise for both Thomas and fellow draft pick Darius Acuff Jr., who was selected in the lottery by the Sacramento Kings.
“Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley were similar to Darius [Acuff] and Meleek [Thomas]. You get mad, like, ‘what are you people looking at? Do you understand how good these guys are?'” Calipari said, per SiriusXM NBA Radio on X, formerly Twitter, via Jeff Smith of USA Today.
…Here, we get knocked out in the Sweet 16 and people didn’t get the full gist of what Darius was and Darius was a little hurt, and what Meleek was. And now, they’re saying, ‘Oh, how did people pass on Meleek?’ Well, I’ll tell you there are people that passed on Darius too.”
If Thomas continues to put up impressive stat lines like the one he recorded on Sunday, he might have a chance to work his way into the Cavs’ rotation this season, regardless of what happens for the rest of this free agency period, with all eyes on a potential LeBron James return to Cleveland.