Nic Wise is home in Houston while 54 rookie point guards show their skills in front of NBA and international scouts in Las Vegas (US Presswire photo/Steve Mitchell)

LAS VEGAS — Approximately 70 point guards comprise the 22 NBA teams that are fielding a roster in the 2010 Summer League at Thomas & Mack over the next week.

Of that lot, 54 are rookies. Breaking it down further, nine of the 70 or so point guards are listed under 6-feet tall (meaning a diminutive size is not a deterrent). Seven of those nine are rookies.

Not one of them is Nic Wise.

The former 5-10, 180 playmaker for Arizona is at home in Houston. Jeremy Wise (no relation), a 6-1 rookie point guard from Southern Mississippi, is here with the Golden State Warriors. But not Nic Wise.

NBA scouts like it that a player performed at the highest level, such as Wise did at Arizona in the Pac-10 and in the NCAA tournament before his senior season. However, looking at the NBA Summer League rosters indicates that high-level experience is equal in worth to a LeBron James Cavaliers jersey right now.

Undrafted rookie point guards are here from programs such as Portland (Pooh Jeter, 5-11, Cavaliers), Illinois-Chicago (Josh Mayo, 6-0, Mavericks), College of Charleston (Dontaye Draper, 5-11, Nuggets), Wright State (Dashaun Wood, 5-11, Clippers) and Utah State (Jaycee Carroll, 6-1, Knicks).

In the initial NBA Summer League game between Denver and Dallas, Mayo and Draper were on the court along with Harvard rookie point guard Jeremy Lin with the Mavericks. Draper (who had three steals in the first half) and Lin (four points on 2-of-4 shooting) are credible, but Mayo looks out of his element.

The Suns, who interviewed and treated Wise to dinner the week of the NBA draft last month, have four rookie point guards on their summer-league roster. San Diego’s Brandon Johnson, 6-0, and Northeastern’s Matt Janning, 6-4, are among them.

Wise has been through a lot more pressure-filled games on national television and filled arenas than this sample of mid-major guards who are in Las Vegas. None of these guys can claim they averaged 21.3 points a game in a three-game NCAA Tournament run, like Wise did in 2009. But Wise is not here.

Why?

Some rumblings among NBA scouts and front-office personnel include Wise lacking in size, decision-making skills, finishing ability and health in his knees. The 54 rookie point guards here apparently do not have similar concerns.

Wise’s career is not over. He will likely sign with a professional team overseas. He is about to embark on a similar path as the two regular starting point guards who played before him at Arizona — Jason Gardner and Mustafa Shakur.

The last regular starting point guard for Arizona — which is dubbed “Point Guard U” — to sustain an NBA career is Jason Terry, who was drafted in 1999 and will be in his 12th NBA season in 2010-11. Jerryd Bayless is transitioning into playing point guard now in the NBA after playing mostly at the off-guard position at Arizona and in his rookie season with Portland in 2008-09.

Gardner and Shakur are still ticking. With the way Shakur has played in Orlando’s summer league, he is in position to be a backup guard in Oklahoma City or elsewhere next season. Gardner, a standout in the German professional league, is reportedly competing in the Indy Pro-Am league that runs into August.

Expect Wise to follow the lead of Gardner and Shakur and keep his NBA dream alive for as long as he works toward that goal.

Former UA guard Nic Wise knows how much of a business professional basketball is as he will not be included on any of the NBA Summer League rosters in Las Vegas later this week.

Nothing is guaranteed.

The summer league, which comprises of 22 NBA teams and another with the NBA’s Developmental League, will include roughly 276 players and not one of them is Wise. The Orlando summer league, which started Monday, has eight NBA teams. So, combined, the leagues have approximately 372 roster spots.

The 5-10 point guard hoped to be signed to the summer league to show his skills to at least the European scouts on hand at the Thomas and Mack Arena.

Summer league rosters are subject to change. Last year, for example, former UA guard/forward Hassan Adams was slated to be on Houston’s roster but he was bumped at the last minute because of roster moves.

Wise has been unavailable for comment. He tweeted earlier today on his Twitter page that he, “Just got jipped out of Summer League wow.”

The only known former UA players to be in the summer league in Las Vegas, which starts Friday, include Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill with Houston. Former UA guard Mustafa Shakur is reportedly on Portland’s roster.

One interesting side note is Budinger will not play Aubrey Coleman again, although it was a possibility in the summer league. Coleman is the former Houston player who stepped on Budinger’s face in the 2008-09 season, resulting in Coleman’s ejection from the game at McKale Center. Arizona rallied from 10 points down with less than a minute remaining to win in overtime.

Coleman is on New Orleans’ roster. Houston and New Orleans are not scheduled to play each other in Las Vegas.

Former UA forward Chase Budinger will look to refine his ball-handling skills in another NBA Summer League appearance in Las Vegas starting July 9 (US Presswire photo/Thomas Campbell)

Reports out of Houston suggest the Rockets will include former UA teammates Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill on their roster for the upcoming NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

However, a reunion among Hill, Budinger and Houston native Nic Wise on the Rockets’ roster does not seem likely for the summer league, which starts July 9.

Former UA point guard Mustafa Shakur, who landed a 10-day contract with Oklahoma City last year after toiling in Europe for parts of three seasons, is reportedly on Portland’s NBA Summer League roster. This will be the fourth time that Shakur has played in the summer league.

Last year, Shakur played well enough for the Lakers’ team in Las Vegas that the Thunder signed him to a D-League contract. He became an NBA D-League All-Star with Tulsa.

At this point, six rookies, including USC’s Dwight Lewis, are on Houston’s roster, but not one of them is Wise. According to Kevin Grigg, the media-relations director of the Detroit Pistons and a UA grad, there is no deadline for NBA Summer League rosters to be set.

Not all the teams have announced their rosters. Wise had an encouraging pre-draft workout with the Rockets. He also visited Milwaukee and Indiana. Milwaukee does not include Wise in its roster. Indiana plays in the Orlando summer league from July 5-9 and has yet to release its roster.

Budinger had a credible rookie season with Houston, averaging 8.9 points and 3 rebounds per game. He started four games and averaged 20 minutes a game. He emerged in last year’s NBA Summer League after dropping to a second-round selection in the 2009 NBA draft.

Budinger made the All-Summer League team making 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) from three-point range, shooting 68.1 percent overall and averaging 17.8 points in five games.

Hill, the ninth selection overall last year taken by the Knicks, was traded to Houston in the middle of the season in a swap that included Tracy McGrady. The NBA Summer League will be particularly important for Hill, who will be working out against Houston’s first-round draft pick Patrick Patterson of Kentucky.

Hill averaged 6.4 points, 5 rebounds and 16:11 of playing time in 23 games with Houston last season after averaging 4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 10:30 of playing time in 24 games with New York.