Or perhaps more accurately, he’ll be a Mad Ant.
Keith Langlois of Pistons.com has the scoop from John Hammond:
Maybe the biggest news coming from Las Vegas is that Hammond said the Pistons have decided to get Samb signed so he can split time between the Pistons and their new Development League affiliate in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Samb had one year left at his option on his contract with his Spanish professional team, but the Pistons saw enough in Samb’s development in the year since they’ve had him to believe the time was right for the leap to the United States. It helps that the Pistons’ new D-League affiliate is a three-hour drive away instead of in Sioux Falls, S.D.
“It makes life easier for everyone,” Hammond said. “It’s easier for Cheick and his travel and easier for us in the front office that want to have an opportunity to go and check him out. We can drive three hours and see him. What a big difference it will be for us to be able to do that.”
[Update: Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press reports that Samb signed a two-year deal with the Pistons.]
Also of note:
It also now appears likely that the Pistons will carry Sammy Mejia on the 15-man roster, Hammond said.
Let me see if I have this straight …
- Chauncey Billups
- Rip Hamilton
- Tayshaun Prince
- Rasheed Wallace
- Nazr Mohammed
- Antonio McDyess
- Jason Maxiell
- Amir Johnson
- Rodney Stuckey
- Lindsey Hunter
- Flip Murray
- Aaron Afflalo
- Ronald Dupree
- Cheikh Samb
- Sammy Mejia
Of course, none of this is set in stone — Flip Murray could still be dealt (for yet another second-round pick?) and Lindsey Hunter might still retire (although reports indicate he’s leaning against it). If Chris Webber was willing to return, I’m sure the team would make room somehow — even if it meant releasing Murray outright. But either way, barring something completely unexpected, we’re close to done.
Thanks to DBB reader Juggernaut for the heads up.
I like it, though IMHO it’s going to take skilled manipulation of the rotation mins to prevent all the young guys from being on the court at the same time AND still keep the core fresh for the 4th… considering Saunder’s past exhibitions of this skill, I’m a little worried. Also and this is nothing new round here, but if Mohammed is injured or sucks, we don’t have a legitimate five on the roster as of now (unless Sheed agrees to a switch).
All in all though considering the market out there I’m not really sure we could have expected Joe to do better. People overpaid large this offseason as a whole, so it’s probably better to wait for the trade deadline firesales.
That having been said, and it pains me to mention this but; this isn’t a championship roster….. until said firesales anyways.
I like it too, though I echo PistonsGirl4Life in that its not a championship roster. On Samb though, I got a chance to see him and the other guys in Las Vegas (P.S. he’s a lot bigger in person), and I was pleasantly surprised. Never really heard of him till this year, but after a solid season in the NBA, I could really see him as a contender. Ability and stature really remind me of a mix between early versions of Ben and Tayshaun.
Oh, and by the way, I just wanted to say how frickin’ excited I am about Stuckey, especially after reading his background, and seeing him play. I don’t want to make any far reaching predictions about him, but ooooooooo……that kid’s got game.
Call me the ultimate optimist. Call me a Joe D. mark. I think this IS a championship team, at the very least an Eastern Conference Championship team. It’s thin, very thin, in the frontcourt. If there’s no Webber and/or Nazr goes down with an injury, it could be a disaster. However, I can’t get enough of the 1-3 positions on this team. We won a title with a team that basically had comparable depth in the backcourt to our current depth in the frontcourt. I hope I’m proven to be right that we can make it work like we did in ‘04.
I love our first few off the bench in Dice, Stuckey, and Maxiell. Maxiell has proven to Flip this summer (even if it took Flip an extra year to see the proof) that he is a valuable part of this team. Maxiell should play in every game that he’s healthy and he should probably get 15-20 minutes every night. Couple that with our suddenly awesome backcourt depth, and we should have a rested Chauncey who won’t look like Mr. Big Not in the playoffs again. Amir and Max should get way more of a chance to spell Sheed and Tayshaun. In turn, we should be rested. Hopefully it means that we won’t look haggard in the playoffs.
I really believe the competitive spirit (and length) of guys like Afflalo and Stuckey will reinvigorate us. When we had Lindsey and Mike James out there together they frustrated the other team. I imagine teams will get similarly frustrated by the backups in our backcourt this season especially if it involves Lindsey still (though I’m in complete agreement that he shouldn’t touch the ball on offense, and if Stuckey’s out there with him that shouldn’t be a problem). Stuckey is much better than anyone currently on this team at creating his own shot. When our half court offense gets stale insert Stuckey and he provides offense all by himself. We couldn’t get to the Finals because we couldn’t stop LeBron. I just don’t think we’ll have that problem this year since we’ve added a defensive stalwart like Afflalo, and maybe even Mejia helps out there.
I think this glass is half full.
We have a Jammed pack roster full of youth. When Joe said there would be a youth movement, he wasnt whistln dixie.
like many have eluded, flip is on his way out which will give one extra spot(possibly for Webber).
When you look at our roster, can it be any more lopsided?
we have 1 real sf, no real starting centers, and a collection of guards and misfit 4’s.
Max has been looking great as of late but if he is our starting 4 and sheed pushes to 5, we will have nagging rebounding issues.
If we continue with the Nazr experiment and have him start, we have a logjam at the 4 spot and did I mention, NazMo is our starting center.
If we do get webber (bye flip), he can give a little better pop than Naz, giving us a decent but still jammed front court.
What about tay? Poor skinny tay, wont anybody give him a hand, or even a sandwich?
____
These are too many gaps for a contender, lets call this season what it really is, this IS a rebuilding season.(Poor Dice, I hate to see him cry)
When I heard that Joe was comfortable with afflalo and Super Dupe backing up Tay, I saw this season for what is.
Next offseason you can bet your house that sheed will be traded(every team likes big expiring contract), hopefully for a real center and a decent small foward. Dice will be gone,leaving us with Amir, Max plus whatever is thrown our way via trade or draft.
This year is the transition year, followed by the more obvious rebuilding year. It may get ugly and with our coach it may get real ugly, but heres hoping in a few years time we will be in contention
It should be fun!
GO PISTONS!!!
I think its pretty hard to gauge how the Pistons will do next year. But I really like Stuckey’s game and expect him to improve throughout the regular season. I think Amir will help our lack on inside presence defensively and rebounding wise. This might be a little off topic, but does anybody know when is the next time we’ll be able to see the rookies play? I hope I don’t have to wait until pre-season.
What team has a legitimate backup center? Noone really has solid backup center who’s a post presence. Cleveland, Bulls, Raptors or really any contender in the east doesnt have a “real” center, right? So why can’t we use our 6′11 Amir Johnson as our backup center. I think we could get away with Johnson as a backup center for about 15 minutes a game. Other times he could be a pf. Do you guys agree?
Matt…yes I do agree. Who in the NBA even HAS a LEGIT starting C, much less a backup. How many LEGIT starting centers are there…5…6? If you don’t have Shaq or Yao, who is next? Eddy Curry? Dikembe is 235 years old and still playing because you don’t have to be good to play the middle in today’s NBA. The best backup center in the league is missing organs. We won a championship with a dramatically undersized overacheiving C who got by on sheer will and athleticism…sound like anyone we know? The points in the paint in today’s game come from the 4 spot…and we have guys who can fill a box sheet there. Who needs a 5? Why not play a 1-2-3-4-4 lineup…or…a la Duke…a 1-2-2-3-4…heck, lets just get the best guys on the floor and run a 1-2-4-4-4…try guarding rip around screens with Amir/Sheed/McD on the floor to roll at every opportunity. Everyone is worried who we match up with others…they need to worry about how to guard THAT!
AAAhhhh, a transition year. I don’t think Joey D. believes in those. I believe that all the moves are not made yet. Amir and Max will provide enough rebounding, wait and see. Nazr will not start the season with the club, is my prediction. Don’t be surprised to see Flip Saunders not make it through the year. We all know Joe is not afraid to get rid of a coach. I’d like to see him take it for the year, and then bring in someone that can handle a rotation. Joe D. as coach…DOES IT GET ANY BETTER? I am guessing he will give the right folks the right time.
I think at this point its gonna be easier/better to play Nazr 15-20 mins that Webber. As long as Amir gets at least! 10mins. He looked really good during that last game, leading the fast break, making some great passes, rebound, blocking, drove to the rim. I relatively certian he could back up Tay some at the 3 as quick as he looks.
We should also send Samb to Lions summer camp, Im sure Marinelli can show him how to “Get Low”.
I live in Vegas and I saw the Pistons on saturday as well. I am very optimistic about our youth.
Truthfully, I think of the three picks from this years draft, Sammy Mejia will end up being the best of the bunch. This could change based on just how good Stuckey gets, but Mejia looks to have all the tools right now. He’s got great range, he rebounds well, he passes great, he moves well without the ball, and he always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
LVstones fan, where did you sit in the Mack on Saturday?
If the Pistons were in the West it would be a rebuilding game. In the East Vegas will have them as co-favorites to be Eastern Conference champs as currently constituted. Juggle a few of the kids and either Rip or Tay for an All-NBA talent and the Pistons would be favorites to make it out of the East.
Miami has no depth, is old and you can’t build around one 2 guard. Cleveland is flawed. I like the Pistons chances in ‘07-’08.
Feruw, I was sitting across from the benches the first half and on the Lakers’ side on the second half (hehehe, had to pick on them). I eventually wanted out to check out LeBron cause he was there in the stands with Kevin Durant watching Daniel Gibson and the Cavs.
Considering I paid $25 to see the leagues future leaders, it was a good day.
I don’t understand all of this talk about wanting Webber over Nazr. Sure, when nazr got a few minutes in the playoffs, he looked horrible, but in the beginning of the year he was doing exactly what everybody expected him to do, provide decent defense, offensive rebounding, and better offense than Ben. Hollinger noted that his PER was quite impressive for having been completely dropped off the rotation. Considering how the rest of our roster looks - a quick frontcourt behind sheed, I think we’d be better suited with Nazr than with Webber drooping down the court. Plus, attitude issues with Webber could become an issue, as he didn’t appreciate his limited role in the playoffs, and I don’t think he deserves much more than a limited role in an 82 game season.
I’d rather have Brian Skinner or Dikembe Mutombo than Webber.
no prob
It’s not a championship roster in the sense that if you look at it on paper against top rosters in the West, it doesn’t match up well.
The roster isn’t bad, it just has a bunch of question marks. If all the question marks turn out well, it could be a great season. If all of them turn out poorly, we’ll limp to 42-45 wins and maybe win a playoff series before being blitzed in the second round.
I think Flip Murray’s days are numbered, if only for the reason that I think Joe D might force Phillip to play the young guys by getting rid of all the old guys.
Tyler, I love your suggested use of the bench there. Nice comibinations. It definately appeases my concern of too much youth in the game at once. Your rotation suggests going 11 deep (the 4 horseman, Dyess and Dupree off the bench). Flip wouldn’t use an 11 man rotation with regularity. I don’t know if I would want him to actually. That means 1 or 2 guys probably aren’t getting enough minutes to get a nice flow going. I really see no use for Depree. Ok, maybe as a defensive specialist in certain situations for 5-10 mins a game, since he is 6-7 or 6-8 and athletic. I’d rather Maximus stays at the weight he’s at now and allow him to split the backup SF minutes with Afflalo. Since we have 5 nice options off the bench (excluding Dupree) I don’t see why any starter needs to average more than about 30 mins a game. Seriously this time. They could all remain fresh and well rested with proper use of the bench.
I was one of those people calling to blow up the team 2 months ago. But now that I’ve calmed down and our roster is taking form, maybe Joe’s right. We just needed tweaking. McDyess missed one game and three of the losses were really close. We man handled Chicago (although we lost focus for 2 games) and if we played with some fire we could have beat Cleveland. Imagine our same squad but playing with the desire and hunger of 2004. None of our guys are dinnosaurs. Playing 30 mins per game, maybe we can get that fire back from them.
Comparing last season’s roster with the present roster, I don’t see how anyone can believe this is any less of a contender.
Yes, we lost Delfino, who inspired many a butterfly in the stomach of the DBB reader. Yes, Webber is a question mark for game one in ‘07. The latter can be argued that this is an improvement for the Stones.
True, the 5 spot remains our greatest flaw. But we’ve got options– Nazr, Amir, a smaller rotation, and ‘Sheed forced to play the five if one of the other options sustains an injury.
Last season, what was our primary complaint other than a soft 5 spot? Lack of a dependable backcourt bench. Now we’ve got that, and we’ve got a strong hold on it. Our problems there have been resolved, assuming our drafts will contribute as Joe expects.
But riddle me this? How is our roster weaker than our roster going into last season (before we had webber)? We’re nothing if not stronger now. *brushes shoulders off*
Did anyone think Cleveland’s roster last summer had a Finals possibility? I seriosuly doubt it. I’m sure some Bron fan will always say yes to that but I wouldn’t have put money on it.
Will the East playoff teams change much in ‘08?
Detroit (in)
Cleveland (in)
Toronto
Miami (in)
Chicago
New Jersey
Washington
Orlando
I don’t see many things changing.
Indy, Philly, Charlotte, New York, Atlanta, Milw and Boston did not make the playoffs and maybe one or two of these teams have a chance now.
Unless a major star hits the East-its going to be more of the same.
Pistons and Bulls in ‘08 ECF.
Brian,
I think you’re spot on, however I also think that the Eastern Conference will pretty evenly split into a top tier that is very competitive with each other
Detroit
Chicago
Cleveland
Miami
Toronto
New Jersey
with a couple of teams that could go either way:
Orlando
Washington
Indiana
And the rest:
New York
Boston
Charlotte
Milwaukee
Atlanta
Philly
leave the team as is, let the season play out (still 50 w’s in the east), and then look for a fa next year. Young guys get play, get some exposure outside of detroit, then get traded for some serious ballers. Winning the chip won’t take a legit 5, but a great 4 (sheed fits, unless he’s leaving horry wide open), and more punch off the bench. I still don’t think we’ve got a decent back up for cb, and maybe stuckey can be the slashing wing player we’ve been needing for years now. This roster doesn’t win the trophy this year. Joe’s looking down the road.
It may not be a Championship team (lacking holes at the 5 and 3 positions) but i dont think this should prevent us from GOING TO THE FINALS. Honestly, last year we were a better team than Cleveland, they just played harder and got their calls. And to tell you the truth i dont even see Cleveland getting any better (if anything worst), so really is there any team that will stop us from getting to the Finals?
And who knows how things may turn out in the Finals, we have guys who already been there before, so that should give us an advantage and we might match up against a team that doesnt match up well against us and have Zero Finals experience…all im saying is that even though this might NOT look like a championship roster, if things fall in place for the Pistons…we might be surprised by the end results…
“So why can’t we use our 6′11 Amir Johnson as our backup center.” - Because he’s supposedly “up to” 225 lbs and he’ll get eaten alive by the typical east 280+ stiff… unless we stop playing the halfcourt and become Phoenix/Toronto but I’m not seeing that happening. You don’t want to see what The Disease will do to a 225 lb man (Ilgauskas).
“Who needs a 5?” - While it’s true the modern center has evolved the most of any position in the NBA since Stern tweaked the rules, the 5 is still the most important front court position and the most common title combination is still star 5 + star 2. I’ll agree that Tim Duncan bends the rules a bit, but being honest Bill Simmons is right when he says that Tim Duncan has become the perfect NBA center… even if he doesn’t start games there. Regardless Detroit plays the half court offensive set and a tonne of screens and rolls, assuming we aren’t changing the offence that’s been in place for almost 7 years now.. then who needs a 5? The Pistons.
“But riddle me this? How is our roster weaker than our roster going into last season (before we had webber)? We’re nothing if not stronger now. *brushes shoulders off*” - Last year we’d just signed Nazr Mohammed, who in the Spurs system had looked fantastic and figured to plug in immediately and provide similar if slightly lower numbers to Ben Wallace. If you don’t believe me that Nazr was considered at least “acceptable” please go reveiw the 2005 NBA finals again, particularly game 7 where he drew two key late fouls and absolutely faced Sheed repeatedly on the glass. I remember it quite well. That having been said, even WITH the “potentially breaking out” Mohammed, EVERYONE was worried about losing Ben and the words “not sure if this team can win a title” came up alot in MY social circle, not sure about yours. Also weirdly enough Flip Murray had looked decent late that year with Seattle and fit the profile for the Joe Dumars steal. 20 min a game combo guard came up quite alot.
“I don’t understand all of this talk about wanting Webber over Nazr.” - I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’m not saying that at all. Of the two I’m convinced that Nazr MIGHT get better if we work to his strengths, Webber is what he is… a fat guy who won’t get outmuscled in the paint and can periodically hit a short jumper. I don’t WANT him back… i just don’t want to ask “why didn’t we resign Chris Webber” when Nazr rips his knee in December and we’re working out Wang Zhi Zhi to see if he can give us 20 mins a night. You’d rather we save roster spots for Lindsey Hunter and Flip Murray? Honestly I’m all for not sending Samb back to a place where he’ll NEVER learn to be an NBA big man but that choice has consequences. We do not have a backup center and big guys get hurt often. Signing Webber seems alot more feasable than counting on mins at the 5 from a kid who’s 225 lbs or one who started playing basketball less than a decade ago.
Fwiw, I openly agree with everyone that there are no championship calibre rosters in the Eastern conference and YES someone has to represent. However losing in 5 doesn’t interest me as a fan. That having been said, the boys are forgiven for 2005… it was beautiful and it just ended the wrong way, I could never ask for anything more than a 7 point lead with 8 left in the 4th on the Spurs court… that was fine. Losing like Cleveland just did isn’t.
PistonsGirl4Life,
Here is a list of current Centers in the Central (originally I was going to do the ECF, but that would have taken a while) separated by team:
Chicago Bulls
- Martynas Andriuskevicius 7′2″ 240 (1 season)
- PJ Brown 6′11″ 239 (14 seasons)
- Aaron Gray 7′0″ 270 (Rookie)
- Joakim Noah 6′11″ 232 (Rookie)
- Ben Wallace 6′9″ 240 (11 seasons)
Cleveland Cavs
- Zydrunas Ilgauskas 7′3″ 260 (9 seasons)
- Dwayne Jones 6′11″ 251 (2 seasons)
- Scot Pollard 6′11″ 265 (10 seasons)
Indiana Pacers
- Stanko Barac 7′1″ 240 (Rookie)
- Jeff Foster 6′11″ 250 (8 seasons)
- David Harrison 7′0″ 280 (3 seasons)
- Jermaine O’Neal 6′11″ 260 (11 seasons)
Milwaukee Bucks
- Andrew Bogut 7′0″ 245 (2 seasons)
- Dan Gadzuric 6′11″ 240 (5 seasons)
- Jared Reiner 6′11″ 255 (2 seasons)
- Brian Skinner 6′9″ 265 (9 seasons)
Amir Johnson (can’t seem to find accurate stats…even Wikipedia still has him listed as 6′9″ and 210 lbs which we all know is not true.) is approximately 6′11″ and somewhere between 225 and 235.
Honestly, the only guy on the list above that I would flat out rather have than Amir is probably Jermaine O’Neal.
In fact the only centers I can see in the ECF that I would rather have over Amir Johnson eventually starting would be:
Jermaine O’Neal
Shaquille O’Neal
Samuel Dalembert (maybe)
Dwight Howard
So I guess what I am trying to get at is you getting all freaked out about Amir conceivably playing minutes at center is pretty unwarranted especially considering he can probably put on another 10 lbs of muscle by the start of teh season now that he is working with Arnie exclusively rather than being in Sioux Falls.
Oh and maybe Eddy Curry
Matt,
Don’t know if you knew this but the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants are named after General Mad Anthony Wayne, for which the main street through Ft. Wayne is named for.
He looks to be quite a crazy guy from his photo…
http://www.explorepahistory.com/images/ExplorePAHistory-a0h1t6-a_349.jpg
Oh and after talking to their Marketing/Sales head, sounds like Cheikh Samb jerseys are not on sale yet but they do have a few different styles of hats on sale both fitted and adjustable…unfortunately none of the merchandise is online yet.
Nice point James B. And to be honest J. O’Neal and Dwight Howard are really 4’s and not 5’s (in the same way that Sheed is a 4 and not 5 - despite their ability to play there). As I stated…past Shaq & Yao…..nada
With the current roster (and assuming we don’t resign Webber), Nazr going down really doesn’t do much than force Flip to give Maxiell and Amir more minutes. I don’t see anyone we can add that will make our frontline any better so we might as well just go into the season with what we’ve got.
I don’t think a backup wing is the hardest thing in the world to find, especially if we are replacing a 42% shooter. If Stuckey is ready to step into the backup guard role, that improves our team immensely. Last year, the dropoff between Billups/Hamilton and Murray/Hunter was pronounced.
Cuando se decidira DETROIT PISTON a firmar a SAMMY MEJIA????
Este es un chico con mucho talento en la cancha…..
SAMMY MEJIA IS A VERY GOOD PLAYER………..