A pair of lottery guards are set to share the spotlight Tuesday night in Summer League, with Sacramento’s Darius Acuff Jr. matched up against Brooklyn rookie Mikel Brown Jr.
Brooklyn took Brown at No. 6 overall, which left Acuff to land with the Kings at No. 7 after his strong season with the Arkansas Razorbacks and John Calipari. It’s an early look at two players who are already tied together by draft position, and there’s another name in that conversation too: No. 5 overall pick Keaton Wagler.
The numbers on Acuff’s summer have been uneven so far. He’s shooting 10-for-34 from the field and has scored 19 and 14 points in his two appearances.
He already saw Brooklyn once in Salt Lake City and put up 25 points on 29 shots, and the Kings would no doubt like to see him find a cleaner rhythm before Las Vegas wraps up. After his Vegas debut, Acuff was blunt about his own play, saying he needs to play better after going 6-for-20.
Brown has been sharper in his lone Summer League outing. Against the New York Knicks, he scored 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting before sitting out the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday. If he’s back in the lineup Tuesday, it gives Brooklyn and Sacramento a real head-to-head look at two young guards who are expected to be linked for a while.
The Kings won the Salt Lake City meeting by three points, though Brown did not play in that game. Acuff did, and it was one of his better performances of the summer even if the efficiency wasn’t there. Both teams are 1-1 in Las Vegas, and the matchup gets even more interesting because Brooklyn could bring a deeper group to the floor with Danny Wolf, Ben Saraf, Drake Powell and others available.
Oddsmakers still have Sacramento as a slight favorite, even with Brooklyn’s collection of first-round talent from 2025 and 2026 on the Summer League roster. That said, betting these games is tricky business. Rotations shift, development comes first, and the usual rules don’t always apply.
If the Nets do roll out several of their first-round selections along with Brown, they should have the deeper roster in this one. Brooklyn also won its only Vegas game with Brown in action, which adds another layer to a matchup that already has plenty of draft-night intrigue.
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