Chris McCosky has the Pistons Summer League roster:
Meanwhile, here is the Pistons summer league roster. First round draft picks Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo, will play, as will second-rounder Sammy Mejia and Cheikh Samb, the 7-1 Senegalese center the Pistons acquired from the Lakers in last year’s draft. Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson are also on the roster, but it is not clear how much they will play.
There are two non-roster veterans on the team — LaRon Profit, former Wizards guard who has four years of NBA experience, and point guard Walker Russell, Jr., son of former Piston Walker D. Russell who played in the NBDL last year. Rounding out the roster are Olimpio Cipriano, a 6-4 guard from Angola; Eddy Fobbs, 6-11 center from Sam Houston State; Ibrahim Jaaber, 6-2 guard from Penn; Ali Traore, 6-9 forward from France; and Joah Tucker, 6-5 guard from Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Terry Porter, Igor Kokoskov and Michael Curry will coach the team, which will play five games starting Saturday in Vegas.
It’s nice to see both Maxiell and Johnson are on the roster — here’s to hoping they get plenty of burn.
link via Full-Court Press
Im excited to hear that Jaaber is getting a chance after college. Physically…he probably doesnt have what it takes, but hes very fun to watch and to root for.
I don’t know anything about ali traore except that he was listed on the nbadraft.net mock for a while…and that he’s listed 6-10 240, which is a good start.
is it possible for NBA teams to sign free agents then send them to europe?
No Acker? Does that mean his pistons career is over?
Matt G: Nice catch. I guess it’s possible he could win a roster spot without playing in the VSL, but I wouldn’t have figured that to be very likely. But it’s something to keep an eye on.
I would have thought to atleast give him a shot. That way if a team is interested then we can get something back. This also could mean that acker has decided to play in europe again. Another thing is (I could be wrong) but doesn’t he have a hurt ankle? Or am I dreaming this up.
Any word on Mr. big Shot yet? This is really different from last year with Big Ben. I have not had the time to post anything lately but I just want to say Hell No to bringing G. Hill back. Use the money for Amir Johnson. Take a chance with youth over a foot that is held together by pins and needles. with our luck he will be hurt 20 games in.
Acker is (I assume) still under contract in Europe. There is no reason for him to play a 3rd summer league season when he is already an established professional.
The SL is mostly just scrimmages. There is now plenty of tape on Acker’s development in Europe to gauge his growth by.
In regards to Acker, I was really anticipating him joining the roster after watching the few YouTube clips that are all we’ve had to see of him lately. Hollinger put out an interesting article on espn.com comparing Euroleague success to NBA success. This is how he would project Acker’s NBA numbers using his Euroleague stats: PTS-10.73, REB-6.61, AST-3.14, SH%-37.2%. I’m pretty fired up by these except the shooting percentage. It’s atrocious. It’s enough to make me have serious second thoughts about joining the team. Granted, these are mere projections. Take ‘em for what they’re worth.
i was think the same thing about Acker…
does anyone have any youtube footage on him?
Acker is not playing the in Summerleague because he just had a very long season with the Euroleague. He will be able to prove himself at training camp
Fwiw, I think it might be better for us if the coaches don’t play Amir or Maxiel alot, I mean as a sign that they’ve already earned roster spots. I think thats what McCosky was saying when he said it’s unsure how much they’ll play.
And that to be honest is the single best news I’ve heard all off season (until Chauncey resigns that is), imho it’s a REAL sign that Amir might actually see NBA playing time, and we ALL wanna see more mins for the Baby Eater.
What about Blalock? Is his Pistons career over as well (before having started)? With Joe D drafting 3 guards, it can’t look good for him…
The story on pistons.com about the summer league says that the organization did not expect Jason to play but that he requested to be on the team “to their delight”. I think that says a lot about Jason that he wants to play when he doesn’t have to. No wonder we think so much of him!
Forget everyone else, I’m excited to see Samb. 7′1 shot blocker with a mid-range shot, don’t be suprised to see him on the roster opening day.
If Acker’s numbers translate to 38% shooting in America, that is precisely what we don’t need.
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070703/SPORTS08/707030399/1127
If no one has seen this it says that the Pistons declined Blalock’s team option. Someone may have said it but I may have missed it. Apparently he has to show he can hit an open 15 foot jump shot [ouch].
Blalock wasn’t a solution. Interesting point in that article about splitting up the MLE between Hill and Johnson. We could still offer Hill more than Phoenix, and likely a better shot at a title. Plus, redemption and all that.
I used to agree with the assertion that 1 can’t beat 5. But after watching D. Wade slaughter us last year and King James this year, Joe better deal with these two. Maybe no one can completely stop these two young phenomes, but if we can’t find someone to at least harrass them, then we’re in big trouble. Tay did a great job on Kobe in ‘04 but I personally think his defense has gone down hill every since. We definitely need a center, I agree with everyone else. I wonder is Joe is thinking that Stuckey (Wade) and Afflalo (Lebron) will turn into nice pieces to at least make those two guys work for their points. No, of course not right out the gate. But I wonder if that is Joe’s long term thinking. We have to get stronger and more athletic at both spots because King James and D. Wade will just keep killing us man. Come out Joe, visit the wizard of Oz and find the answers. Damn, this is going to be a long off season. Oh, by the way,……………no Brevin Knight please
Does anyone know whether you have to pay to get the NBA.com’s Webcasts of the Summer League games? I’m trying to figure out what I need to do to ensure that I can watch all of these games.
E-Double,
Lebron single-handedly beat us in one game out of 4. What killed us was the role players. Boobie Gibson came out of nowhere and every other player on the Cavs team stepped it up enough to beat us.
I don’t even think that Lebron had a lot to do with the rest of his team stepping up, I think it had more to do with them playing off of pure emotion.
This is also one of the reasons I think they got swept so easily in the Finals. All of their emotion was devoted to beating Detroit and getting to the Finals.
Look at San Antonion on the other hand and all of their “emotion” (if you can even call it that at this point) is devoted to WINNING the championship.
Good point James. I was still having nightmares of that 1 monster game. But Wade did kill us continuously in last years series. We just had no energy and were outhustled man. Cavs were hungrier and wanted it more. Hopefully the youth movement will give us that drive and hunger back. If we do actually cut starters down to 30-35 mins, then I expect them to play with reckless abandon and not coast. But that’s what the brass said last year (8 guys would all play about 30 mins). We’ll see. I pray we eat up the summer league and Amir, Samb, Stuckey and Afflalo give us all something to look forward to. We know what Maximus can do already. Is it just me or does training camp seem like it’s two years away? One amazing stat James that blew me away. In the entire Spurs series Lebron had something like 4 dunks man. I think we gave him 4-5 wide open dunks per game bro. That stat blew my freaking mind. Way to play D Spurs.
James, I’d love to know about the NBA.com webcasts of the summer leage, I’ve got them on my calendar to watch… Any news on that? I wasn’t able to find any. NBA.com shouldn’t make it so hard to find out…
Mike,
Supposedly two or three of the Pistons games will be on NBA TV so if you have your sports package with Comcast, you’ll be able to get these. Even though it is only $5/month extra, I’d rather find out whether I need it right now since I would only want it for NBA, NFL, and the Fox College Sports (none of which is going on that heavily right now)
At the very least, we’ll have one day to figure things out with NBA.com since the Pistons Summer League team doesn’t play until the second day.
I think Piston fans will really like Jaaber. Not to many people have heard of him but he’s a scrappy point guard. Two time Ivy League player of the year who finished second in the nation in steals his junior year and fourth his senior year. He’s a real a solid passer to. He’s the Ivy League’s all time leader in steals and led the league last year in assists and he can score if you need him to. And he’ll also surprise you with his athleticism as he can really jump for his size and he’s extremely quick. Don’t be surprised if he makes the team.
Watch out for this Jaaber kid!! I think that he is going to turn alot of heads this summer. Remember you heard it hear