With the Toshiba Vegas Summer League over, our own The Low took time out so answer some questions from readers.

Thanks for all of the excellent reports, Low. Now that Chiekh Samb is no longer so mysterious, what do you think of him overall? Does he look like he might be headed for a meaningful NBA career? What would be his natural position?
~ lurker

LOW: It was my pleasure. I would want the same if I wasn’t able to get down here and someone we all knew had access.

Personally, I was very impressed with Cheikh. I thought the more he played, the more comfortable and effective he became. Aside from his lack of size, he was very aggressive on the boards and was willing to fight for position in the post on offense and defense. He showed a very soft touch on his shot from 12 to 15 ft which was the thing that surpised me the most. I fully expected him to have little to no offensive ability. Continue Reading »

Here is the news wire roundup with mention of the summer plans for Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson, so read on! Continue Reading »

From the media…

Yoav Borowitz from Haaretz.com writes that the loss of Anthony Parker to the Toronto Raptors leaves a gaping hole in the Maccabi Tel-Aviv roster that could possibly be filled by several current and former Detroit Pistons including invitees to the 2006 Toshiba Vegas Summer League;

Other players Maccabi is looking at, such as Will Blalock, Alex Acker, Zoran Planinic, Franck Williams and Maurice Evans, just don’t come close to Europe’s MVP.

Travis Heath at Hoopsworld.com has an article on Rodney Bup-Bup-Billups with interesting quotes from Chauncey’s little brother on his chances of making it to the NBA, and what it was like being the leading All-Star vote getter in the Latvian League; Continue Reading »

As you might expect, Detroit’s three-game slide to close out the 2006 Vegas Summer League also included a downturn in individual statistics. Here are a few highlights.

* With 17 points against the Celtics, F Jason Maxiell scored in double figures during all five games.

* Mateen Cleaves and Cheikh Samb each saved their best for last, scoring 17 and 10 points against Boston, respectively.

* Cheikh concluded his encouraging TVSL run with 3 blocked shots against the Cs, tying him for second in the league with a 1.8 bpg average.

* Alex Acker finished as team high scorer at 18.4 ppg, #9 in the league.

You can see complete team statistics here.

Detroit Pistons - 2006 VSL Game 5 July 14, 2006

Vs. Boston Celtics

Recap:

The Pistons gift wrapped and handed this game to the Celtics thanks to a well planned zone defense and some personal defensive lapses. Here are a few first impressions:

- Again, I was foiled by the opportunity to get good pictures

- Sitting in front of fans who scream the same thing all game long is pretty irritating

- Note to said fan: Screaming “Every time” to a guy who gets in the paint once every 5 tries, is probably silly. If he was able to do it “every time”, he probably wouldn’t be fighting for a space on the roster at VSL.

Ok now to the game:

Continue Reading »