Couch: Appling, other MSU products chase Green in NBA summer leagues

While Draymond Green played alongside Steph Curry last NBA season, Keith Appling ran with Seth Curry in Erie, Pa.

Same family. Different worlds. Like the NBA and the NBA D-League, where Appling spent last season with the Los Angeles D-Fenders and Erie Bayhawks.

For former Michigan State stars Appling, Adreian Payne, Gary Harris, Branden Dawson and Travis Trice — for Lansing Eastern and Providence alumnus LaDontae Henton and Okemos' and Oakland's Travis Bader, too — Green's world is the goal: a starting role on an NBA championship team, a massive new long-term contract, the sort of money that can make life easier for generations.

Green's trek from Saginaw to MSU to undervalued second-round draft pick is no more improbable than theirs.

For all five former Spartans, Henton and Bader, the next step to Green — cash and Draymond — is the NBA summer league, which for Appling, Trice, Dawson and Bader began Saturday in the Orlando Summer League.

Appling is on one of two Orlando Magic summer rosters, Trice with the Miami Heat and Dawson the Los Angeles Clippers, which selected him in the second round of the NBA Draft on June 25. Bader, who spent much of last season in the D-League, is with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Harris (Denver Nuggets) and Adreian Payne (Minnesota Timberwolves), both first-round picks a year ago, and Henton (Golden State Warriors free-agent rookie) are slated to play in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League, beginning Friday. All games are televised on NBA TV. Former Spartan point guard Kalin Lucas was not listed on an NBA summer league roster as of Saturday.

Appling remains an intriguing prospect — not a natural point guard, but one that can defend on the ball at an NBA level and get to the rim. He was on a better path as late as January of his senior year at MSU — the early frontrunner for Big Ten Player of the Year and probable NBA draft pick. Then an injured wrist damaged his game and his confidence and he spiraled into a shell of the point guard who lit up Kentucky to begin the season.

Now if he's going to have a career in the NBA, the opportunity will come through the minor leagues or the summer league.

"It just made me hungrier," Appling said Friday. "I do feel like I have grown and matured. I feel like I've been around the block now and I've got a feel for pretty much everything that's going on around me."

Appling accepted Orlando's summer league invite in large part because the Magic know him. Not so much new head coach and MSU legend Scott Skiles, who assuredly knows of him, but the organization, for which the Bayhawks are an affiliate.

Appling finished last season in Erie averaging 17.5 points, 4.7 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 10 games for the Bayhawks.

"They got an opportunity to see a lot of me," Appling said. "I know the system now and I have a pretty good relationship with the coach who's coaching the event. I'm just trying to make the most of the situation."

The Magic have two summer league teams — the White and Blue squads. Appling's team is made up mostly of D-League and overseas players the Magic have been following.

Appling stood out in his summer debut Saturday, tallying 17 points, four assists and four steals in 25 minutes in the Magic White's 87-76 win over the Detroit Pistons.

The road to the NBA for Appling now is less likely than a year ago. A draft pick is more apt to get a longer look and, in a large and nearly indistinguishable index of fringe NBA point guards, to be given the nod.

Even if the odds are worse, Appling believes he's better equipped.

"I for sure had to adapt to the length of the floor, just from the point," Appling said. "The (3-point) line is so much further than it was in college and the floor is so much more stretched out. At first I had to get acclimated to utilizing the whole floor. Because in college it's so packed in and you have to be precise with everything that you do. At this level, it's a lot more wide open. And it's actually better, it suits me a lot better. There's a lot more room to create.

"Coming out I really didn't know too much what to expect. But since I've been around for a year, I've kind of got a great feel of how to get things done on this level."

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.