Is Keve Aluma a Keeper?
The 25 year-old center has emerged out of nowhere as the story of the Summer League Sixers. Dan Olinger investigates whether he could (or should) stick long-term.
Summer League players generally fall into one of three categories: 1) Rookies who were just selected in that year’s NBA Draft, 2) Returning second- or third-year players who haven’t done quite enough yet for their team to think that playing in Vegas isn’t worth their time, and 3) Random dudes who played college basketball in the last five years and almost have zero chance of ever sniffing a real NBA contract.
Keve Aluma is that third kind of Summer League player — or so it seemed. A 25 year-old who last played college ball at Virginia Tech in 2022, and has spent the past two years hooping in Korea and Japan. He was a fun name to see when the Sixers first announced their Summer League roster, but I didn’t fly to the city where your checking account goes to die so I could watch him play basketball.
Naturally, Aluma shot 8-for-10 from the field to finish with 19 points and eight rebounds, and almost single-handedly secured the Sixers’ 94-81 win over the Pistons with the following three-play sequence.
In a game that was supposed to be headlined by Ron Holland II and Jared McCain, the best player on the floor was a 6-foot-9 center who’s older than Zhaire Smith and started his career as a bench player at Wofford.
Instead of tweets talking about how Ricky Council IV is the fourth star, or why on earth the Sixers insist on playing a 2-3 zone every minute of every game, my comments and mentions were filled with people asking me whether or not Aluma could actually make it with the Sixers. His strong play was notable enough that it was also the main thing both Sixers’ staffers and players were talking about postgame.
“[Keve] is a heck of a player,” Sixers’ Summer League coach Matt Brase said after the game. “He’s got a nice shot, he can read closeouts. He popped back and made a three today, then we ran the same play, he drove and got an and-one. [He’s] just a really skilled basketball player who’s earned a lot of minutes here and a lot of opportunity from us.”
The skill Brase talked about is the key for Aluma. If he was in the same archetype of center as Adem Bona, there would be zero interest in him moving forward. A high-upside defender with limited ball skills is still intriguing at age 21, but not so much at 25. But that’s not Aluma. He doesn’t have a standout athletic trait, but he hits the floor of height and speed needed to be an NBA player, and adds a great feel for the game developed over multiple years in multiple different leagues to top it all off. Guys who know how to hoop while having just enough athletic tools are worth keeping around. There’s little theory or projection with him; he’s good at basketball right now, and you usually want to keep those guys in the building.
Of Aluma’s skills, it’s his three-point shot that matters the most. Even with the Sixers double-dipping on backup centers this offseason, neither Bona nor Andre Drummond offer the floor spacing that Aluma could, which is wild considering he didn’t make a single three until his fourth year of college basketball.
Since 2020-21, he’s attempted 655 total threes between playing for Virginia Tech and overseas teams, and he’s made 220 (33.6%). That’s not elite accuracy, but it’s a respectable mark on significant volume, especially for a big man. More importantly, though, it’s enough attempts to prove a baseline level of shooting talent. He’s not just coasting off a flash in the pan season where he got lucky, he’s established himself as a solid shooter over a near half-decade of play.
It’s worth asking — will any of this actually matter? (A great question to ask 500 words into the article, I know).
Aluma was essentially invisible to everyone except draft maniacs for a long time now. He was a one-star prospect who began his college career as Wofford’s sixth man before he moved up to Virginia Tech and became the leading scorer on a good-not-great ACC team, mainly due to the development of his jumper. He’s good enough at pretty much everything, but he really doesn’t have a flashy, standout skill. Even though Aluma clearly had some talent, the NBA isn’t exactly thrilled to take a swing on an undersized center who didn’t contribute to high-level winning in college, and only put up solid stats, not elite ones. There was no reason for the NBA to take a gamble on Aluma coming out of Tech back in 2022. There is one now, because he’s raised the level of his already well-rounded play in the subsequent years.
Now, for as skilled as he is shooting from deep and putting the ball on the floor, he’s likely incapable of playing the four in an NBA setting (though it’s worth noting, Aluma said after Saturday’s game that he played both the four and the five at times in Korea this past year). His offensive skills look extraordinary because he’s showcasing them while playing as a center — the position that usually has the least offensive skill of any of the five players on the court. Slide Aluma down to the four, and suddenly the pick-and-pop shooting and closeout driving that make him look so special at the five are just ordinary skills that NBA power forwards are supposed to already have. Aluma needs a specific role to play his best basketball, and that makes it harder for the Sixers to easily slot him into their organizational framework, given how crowded, given how crowded their center situation already is.
However, this is still a team with an open two-way contract, and no one else on the Summer League team has shown enough to prove they deserve it more than Aluma. He hits his threes. He plays smart and sound defense as a back line rim protector. He’s fighting like an absolute maniac for every rebound. He’s good.
It’s almost improbable that the Sixers’ third two-way contract player ends up helping the franchise in a meaningful way down the line. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s a margin that should be overlooked, particularly for a team that just shelled out a metric ton of money the past month to solidify the roster as a contender. The Sixers aren’t signing any more Paul George-level players some time in the near future. Hitting on undrafted two-way players like they did with Ricky Council the year before keeps the bones of the team healthy and strong.
Everyone — the Sixers included — will know a lot more about how realistic of an option Aluma is after the full week in Vegas. The three games in Utah and his 19-point masterpiece might have just been flashes in the pan, and he crashes back down to earth as soon as Monday night against the Blazers. Summer League is like that sometimes.
But on a team with some very real NBA players in Council, Jeff Dowtin, and McCain, Aluma has consistently outshined them all except for maaaaaaaybe C4. That’s something the Sixers can’t overlook, no matter how “fake” Summer League can feel at times.
Even if most people never watch Aluma for a single game after this week in Vegas ends, it’s worth investing in him and seeing where it goes, both for the Sixers, and for fans. He’s just a good basketball player, simple as that.
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
Are there better options for us at the 4 spot in our price range? Im not sure we can be to particular - any 4 minutes we can provide would help. Sounds like the kind of player willing to do the "dirty work" we need.
Great take. As a UVa fan, I hated this guy in college. But he’s a baller.