Most of the 2006 Toshiba Vegas Summer League Detroit Pistons roster was revealed today in the local press.

Chris McCoskey from the Detroit News writes;

Scott Perry , the Pistons director of player personnel, is in the final stages of putting together the Pistons summer league roster, which will play in Las Vegas, July 6-14. Jason Maxiell , Amir Johnson and Alex Acker , the Pistons three rookies from last season, will highlight the team.

They will be joined by the Pistons draft pick from Wednesday.

Former Knicks and Bulls guard Frank Williams will be on the roster, as will two relatives of Pistons players — Wayne Wallace , Ben Wallace ’s nephew who played at Virginia Union, and Rodney Billups , brother of Chauncey Billups . Rodney Billups, who played on the Pistons summer league team last season.

You might recall that the Pistons were set to trade Horace Jenkins and Smush Parker for Frank Williams when he was a member of the 2004/5 Chicago Bulls.

In what must have been an oversight as the above quote is from a post draft article about Cheick Samb being acquired as the second Pistons rookie of the draft, we are pretty sure that both Samb and the Pistons original 60th pick, Will Blalock are members of the 2006 TVSL Pistons squad.

A. Sherrod Blakely at mlive.com adds;

Also on the team: 7-foot center Marko Jovanovic, point guard Frank Williams, guard Rashein Wright, 6-9 forward Sam Hoskin, who starred at Detroit’s Bishop Borgess High School, and forward Nik Caner-Medley.

I’ve done some digging for background on the players that will surround the Pistons’ youth in Las Vegas during July. In this entry, I will cover the two young men with family ties to the Detroit Pistons.

Wayne Wallace - a 6′9″ Ben Wallace clone, this nephew of the Detroit Pistons defensive superstar also attended Virgina Union University, winning the inaugural CIAA Defensive Player of the Year award in 2003.

A summer league veteran, W2 participated in the 2003 Southern California Summer Pro League with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was also drafted #5 overall by the Yakima Sun Kings of the CBA, but elected to play in the Belgian League with Basket Groot Leuven averaging 10 points and 6.6 rebounds in limited action. From there it was a brief injured reserve stint with the USBL Florence Flyers and then on to 17 games with the Rome Gladiators for 17 games in 2004. He averaged a healthy 10.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game.

In 2004/5 W2 played 25 games for KK Mornar Bar of Serbia and Montenegro, averaging 9.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Most recently on the 2005/6 Maccabi Givat Shmuel (Israeli Premier league) team, Wayne logged 30 games with 8.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 63.2% from 2 point range and 64.6% from the charity stripe.

Rodney Billups - the younger brother of Pistons starting Point Guard Chauncey Billups, Rodney was a member of the 2005 Detroit Pistons VSL team. At only 5′10″ the younger Billups has had to endure and conquer living in his big brother’s shadow.

Rodney played for the University of Denver Pioneers for 3 seasons, finishing the 03/4 and 04/5 seasons with 10+ points and 5+ assists per game. More of a true passing point than his elder brother, the younger Billups also makes his mark on the defensive end as a ball hawk.

After the 2005 VSL, Rodney was noticed by BK Riga, a Latvian club and decided to start his career in Europe. In only his first regular season, Billups lead the Latvian League in Assists (6.4 per game) and Steals (3.3 per game) while shooting 54% from 2 point range and 76% from the free throw line.

Rodney Billups was named an All-Star in the Latvian League this past season.

After BK Riga finished 3rd in Group C of the 2006 Eurocup Challenge, Rodney is back to try his luck at the 2006 VSL, once again, with big brother’s team.