Brooklyn Nets forward Drew Timme laughs with his former Gonzaga teammate, New York Knicks forward Anton Watson during a free throw during a 2025 NBA Summer League basketball game on Tuesday, Jul. 15, 2025, at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nev. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
LAS VEGAS – For stretches, it looked and felt like the 5-on-5 scrimmages that transpired at Gonzaga on a daily basis from 2019-23.
Only Drew Timme and Anton Watson were in Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks uniforms, not Gonzaga practice apparel, and the setting was Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, rather than Spokane’s Volkar Center.
Timme’s minutes coincided with Watson’s more than once Tuesday afternoon during an NBA Summer League game that pitted the former Gonzaga teammates and roommates against one another.
Watson’s Knicks got the final say, winning 97-93 in an environment where final scores carry little weight, while Timme continued his stellar run at Summer League, leading Brooklyn with 24 points and 10 rebounds. It was his third 20-point game at Summer League and first double-double.
Watson, the former Gonzaga Prep standout who joined Timme as a member of the Zags’ 2019 recruiting class, had 12 points and three rebounds in 23 minutes of the Knicks’ bench.
Their minutes coincided for the first time at the 6-minute, 24-second mark in the first quarter and for long stretches of Tuesday’s game. Timme wasn’t Watson’s primary defender, nor was Watson assigned to Timme, but the former frontcourt mates saw plenty of each other on defensive switches.
“It’s always fun playing against my best friend, they were talking (expletive) the whole time, too, just having some fun,” Timme said. “Just felt like practice out there back at GU, so it’s always fun to play against him.”
Timme, known to initiate lighthearted conversations with opposing players on the free throw lane, was positioned next to Watson on three or four occasions while New York and Brooklyn teammates were taking foul shots.
Timme politely declined to spill the contents of those conversations, suggesting the banter with Watson was probably too explicit to share.
“Nah,” he said with a chuckle. “Nah.”
Watson rose up over Timme for an 11-foot fadeaway jumper in the third quarter, only to watch his friend return the favor in the fourth. Timme beat Watson with a signature spin move, converted at the rim and drew a fifth foul on Watson before completing the three-point play.
Even without hitting his normal efficiency marks, Timme, who was 8 of 19 from the field and 0 of 4 from the 3-point line, still found his spots and put constant foul pressure on New York’s defense, making 8 of 11 shots from the free throw line.
Timme is averaging 25.3 points at Summer League and was a candidate for the scoring title in Vegas until Utah’s Kyle Filipowski erupted for 35 points on Monday, improving his average to 29.3 ppg.
“He’s such a tough cover, because he is crafty and draws fouls,” Knicks Summer League coach Jordan Brink said of Timme. “The key was trying to defend without fouling and down the stretch we didn’t do a very good job with that and that’s something we have to clean up for sure.
“But he’s just so skilled that he’s just hard and he has all the tools to get to the free-throw line by extending his arm on the pickup to get to the line. I thought we fought and we tried, but in the late game our execution slipped a little bit, but sometimes you just have to tip your hat to a really good player.”
Watson, who signed a two-way contract with the Knicks after being waived by the Boston Celtics, missed just once from the field, finishing 5 of 6 and 1 of 2 from the 3-point line.
The former Zags have met up a few times since both signed with NBA teams in the New York metropolitan area, but no word on whether the ex-roommates would entertain moving back in together.
“That’d be a play,” Timme laughed. “We haven’t even talked about that. That’s a good idea, I might have to run that by him.”
Ben Gregg, a teammate of both Timme and Watson’s for three years, was in attendance for Tuesday’s Brooklyn-New York game, sitting with former GU video assistant AJ Few – the oldest son of Zags coach Mark Few – and former manager Cole McKittrick. Gregg had an off-day with the Boston Celtics at Summer League.
### Coward arrives in Vegas
Former Washington State and Eastern Washington wing Cedric Coward joined his Memphis teammates in Vegas on Tuesday after spending the first portion of Summer League rehabbing at the Grizzlies’ training facility.
Coward, the team’s No. 11 overall draft pick, is inactive at Summer League as he continues to recover from the shoulder surgery that sidelined his 2024-25 season at WSU.
“I’m going to give it my all, I’m a winner and I don’t like to lose,” Coward said in an ESPN interview during the second quarter of the team’s game against Golden State. “I actually hate losing more than I love winning. But at the same time, Memphis lives by the grit and grind and I think that’s something that’s survived not only in college, but my whole career basically getting me where I’m at and it’s not going to stop.”
Coward said he’s already had opportunity to connect with most of Memphis’ roster, meeting Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson, former Zag Brandon Clarke and others.
“Everybody has been really cool … everybody I’ve met has been more than welcoming and able to bring me in and take me under their wing,” he said. “And really I’m just looking forward to learning a lot from them so I can be successful in my career.”
### Other locals…
– Former Gonzaga guard Hunter Sallis had a tough offensive outing for the Philadelphia 76ers in a 74-58 victory over Denver. Sallis, who spent two seasons in Spokane before transferring to Wake Forest, scored three points on 1 of 5 from the field. Sallis had two rebounds and two steals.
– Tyson Degenhart, who starred at Mt. Spokane High and Boise State before signing an Exhibit 10 contract with Toronto, didn’t see the floor in the Raptors’ 101-97 win over the Denver Nuggets. Degenhart has yet to make an appearance at Summer League.