you mean Rip won’t play tomorrow, right?

Indeed, thank you, I just fixed it.

Can the Pistons stash Mejia away at the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants in NBDL? I’m not sure I’m understanding how the 15 rosters spots work. Is a ‘roster spot’ the same as holding somebody’s draft rights? Can you own the rights to an NBDL player but not have them count as a roster spot?

“Can you own the rights to an NBDL player but not have them count as a roster spot?”

No. A team has 15 roster spots, and each game 12 players are allowed to dress. The other three players are eligible to be sent down to the NBDL. If a guy doesn’t make an NBA roster spot, he’s eligible to try out for the NBDL, but assuming he makes it, any team in the NBA is then allowed to call him up and sign him to a contract at any time. (I’m not sure if I’m helping or confusing matters more …)

“Draft rights” are for unsigned guys, but Mejia did sign a contract. (Not sure if it’s fully guaranteed or not, but that doesn’t really matter …) Case in point: we had Samb’s draft rights last year, so even though he played in Spain last year, Detroit was the only NBA team eligible to sign him this summer.

JoeJoeJoe, I had the same question and sent it in to Keith Langlois of pistons.com. He didn’t post it on his mailbag but did respond directly.

My question:

“What would happen to Sammy Mejia if he doesn’t make the final roster? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe he has a partially guaranteed contract. If he doesn’t make the final 15, do the Pistons still hold his rights and can he play in the D-League where they can monitor his progress?”

His response:

“The Pistons say they’re committed to keeping him around. He’ll spend a good deal of time in Fort Wayne playing for the D-League team. If things change and he landed with a European team, the Pistons would retain his rights unless they chose not to.”

Pistons should make an effort to send as many people as possible to Europe for this exact reason – roster spots. Roster spots are pretty much the most valuable currency in the NBA. When you send a player to NBDL, you spend a roster spot, and when you send somebody to Europe, you don’t.

I think the level of competition is higher in Europe, anyway.

The only thing that worries me when we send players to Europe instead of the NBDL, is that the play of Basketball in Europe is WAY different. If you send them to play in the NBDL, you get them playing a style of basketball that is similar to the NBA.

Diablo: Yes and no. Europe is still a team game (perhaps even more so than the NBA), whereas (from what I hear) the D-League is a lot of guys worried about individual stats trying to get noticed by the NBA.

Plus, I like the fact that guys can go over and marinate in Europe for a few years without taking up a roster spot. (I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Alex Acker is still considered an NBA restricted free agent.)

Does anyone know if this game is going to be televised?

TJ – It’s on FSN Detroit. And NBATV, IIRC.

Yeah, here in DC it’ll be the first game I actually get to see. I’m still jealous of anyone living back in Michigan.

The Friday game against Dallas will be televised on TV20 also. The last 2 preseason games after Dallas aren’t on TV, unless you have FSN Plus then you can watch the last preseason game on the 24th. So if Amir does play in the preseason it looks like we aren’t going to get to watch him play anyways.