Darius Acuff's Summer League Debut Showed Off His Best, "Worst" Trait

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Saturday's NBA Summer League contest between the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings was a thriller of a basketball game, even if it was one that will be extremely forgettable in the annals of basketball history.

Nique Clifford knocked down the game-sealing three with five seconds left inside the Golden 1 Center, but that was far from the biggest story to come out of the July 4 contest.

Rookie Darius Acuff Jr., who Sacramento drafted with the No. 7 overall pick in the NBA Draft, looked every bit as good offensively as he did during his lone season at Arkansas.

The Detroit native scored 25 points in his unofficial NBA debut and added four assists, including the one to Clifford on the game-winning basket, on the evening to help lead the Kings to the win.

ACUFF FOR 👌 pic.twitter.com/7Ehk2yChhU
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) July 4, 2026

And while 25 points in an NBA game, albeit a summer league game, is incredibly impressive, a quick glance at an abbreviated box score doesn't tell the whole story. Acuff's 25 points came on a 9-29 performance from the field that saw the 19-year-old go 1-9 from beyond the arc and 5-7 from the foul line.

That's an unusually inefficient performance from Acuff, who shot 48.4 percent from the field and 44 percent from three during his tenure with the Razorbacks. It is understandable, however, given that it was his first live NBA action.

At the end of the day, 25 points in an NBA basketball game is 25 points, especially in a winning effort.

There's little reason for Kings fans to worry, however, given that Acuff took a similar path at Arkansas. In his first game against Power Four competition in November against Michigan State, Acuff shot only 5-16 from the floor in a 16-point effort.

Acuff was only 6-18 from the field in Arkansas' win over Louisville on Dec. 3 (17 pts), 7-18 in a Jan. 7 win over Ole Miss (26 pts) and 7-19 in a Feb. 25 win over Texas A&M in which he scored 22 points.

Acuff, like basketball's best scorers, has occasional off nights where efficiency is not part of his vernacular. But he finds a way to get his points and win games, just as the Kings did on Saturday.

Acuff Jr. with a high IQ play 🧠 pic.twitter.com/WecrXyddPz
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) July 4, 2026

Acuff is a volume scorer at his best. He put up 27 shots and made 16 of them from the field in his 49-point outburst against Alabama on Feb. 18. In Arkansas' March 13 SEC Tournament win over Oklahoma, he made 11 of his 21 shots en route to a 37-point effort that culminated in a game-sealing jumper. He then went 7-21 in Arkansas' SEC semifinal win over Ole Miss and 9-20 in the SEC Championship Game against Vanderbilt.

So, Kings fans: there is no reason to worry. Acuff's shot will come and go, occasionally doing more of the latter than the former. But it will show up the clutch when his team needs it most.

How quickly his offensive skills take hold in the NBA will determine whether or not he's in the running for the Rookie of the Year award next summer.

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