Lets begin with the home papers.

Krista Jahnke of the Free Press writes:

“…third-year forward Jason Maxiell is hungry. Perhaps both literally and figuratively. He volunteered to come to Vegas when he could have been vacationing. And he showed up some 30 pounds lighter than usual.

He led the Pistons in scoring with 22 points Saturday, and only four of those came on dunks. He went 8-for-11 at the troublesome free-throw line.”

And that is what we have expected from Maxiell all along. Now, if he could just keep making his free throws…

Full article is here: Maxiell, rookies play big in Pistons’ win

Our favorite writer Chris McCoskey has this take on the game:

“Pistons president Joe Dumars has a very specific to-do list for this summer league session.

He wants to see if center Cheikh Samb and swingman Sammy Mejia can win a spot on the Pistons’ 15-man roster next season and be candidates to play heavy minutes with their new D-League affiliate in Fort Wayne.

He wants to give first-round picks Arron Afflalo and Rodney Stuckey all the minutes they can handle to prepare for a spot in the regular rotation next season.

All four players gave a strong first impression on Saturday, helping the Pistons rally out of a 10-point hole in the fourth quarter and beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 91-89, in overtime.”

Full article: Stuckey gets first NBA lesson

Continue Reading »

July 7, 2007

DET vs PHI – VSL Game 1

Well, to kick off this year’s VSL I bounced on down to Thomas & Mack with the girlfriend and brother in tow.

I noticed a handsome young man named LA Dre hanging out across the arena getting ready to enjoy the action. Spotted everyone’s favorite beat writer and caught a glimpse of Joe Dumars and Mo Cheeks.

This year we were hoping to keep a closer eye on certain commodities as some of the lesser members turned out to be ineffective at best in years prior. This year appears to be more of the same, so I would recommend that you prepare to catch up on as much as I can provide on Johnson, Stucky, Maxiell, Afflalo, Mejia, and Samb.

• Points of note: Today’s game felt very slow and unfamiliar for a lot of these guys. I’m pretty sure this is mostly due to their not having played with each other for very long.
• DET seemed to get very little out of there offensive sets and turned the ball over a lot more than they should have.
• DET didn’t really shoot well to start the game, but seemed to take advantage of PHI’s dry spells.
• DET also didn’t seem to be attacking the basket with strength (with the exception of Maxiell because that’s what he does).
• PHI also seemed to be able to get some scores in the paint pretty early as Samb appeared to be late on a number of rotations.
• The first half seemed very methodical and slow moving to me…very tedious.
• I really hope this game isn’t an indicator of how well Stuckey and Afflalo can attack the basket and/or create their own shots. I was somewhat disappointed judging from all the excitement from some fans.

AJ
No Amir at this point. Still haggling contract issues.

Stuckey
Says that he patterns his game after Wade, but appears to lack the speed and strength. I was looking for him to be much more aggressive than he was. He seemed to dribble away from most double teams instead of looking to split or attack the weak side.

Afflalo
Hit a few shots here and there, but didn’t do anything eye catching in my opinion.

Samb
Appeared a bit slow and out of sorts today. He stayed near the basket and grabbed a few rebounds and knocked down a couple shots. However, he seemed to be very late on several defensive rotations. I’ll need to see his next couple games to see how this guy is rounding into shape.

Mejia
He didn’t really amaze me, but he did do a nice job of knocking down shots (including the game winner)

Maxiell
What can I say? Max was Max. He lead the team in scoring and was very aggressive on offense. I think the VSL officials really dislike him or something because he appears to pick up a lot of fouls that don’t get called on other players. He did a good job of knocking down his mid-range jumpers and attacking the basket with the same force we saw during the regular season. This year’s summer league will be the last for Maxiell and he plans to make lunch meat out of the competition on his way out the door.

I’m pretty sure that I am in the minority in thinking that today’s game was kind of blah as I understand the fans that caught the webcast enjoyed today’s action. For me, being there in person, the play just seemed very sloppy and the DET players seemed to get very little in the way of execution when running their offensive sets. I’m going to be looking forward to the following games to determine whether or not I’ll take a certain level of enthusiasm and/or interest into the regular season.

From Pistonsforum.com, courtesy of LA Dre

Dallas Mavericks vs. Seattle Sonics

Me and the wife rolled into Vegas about 2:30PM yesterday with the temps hitting 110 degrees. Luckily for us the AC was working in COX Pavilion as we sat down at the at the beginning of the second quarter of the Mavs-Sonic games. The early crowd of curious onlookers were there to see Mr. Durant and based on my observations, he is long way from winning rookie of the month in November. Yeah he was the high scorer for the game, but 18 pts on 17 FGA reminds me of Kobe’s early days.. As far as playing defense and banging, it was almost non existent for the number 2 overall pick. It was almost as if the Sonic braintrust said to avoid contact to avoid injury as Durants boney legs and frame initially looked under nourished in the NBA world. On most defensive sequences he stood on the outside watching his fellow players bang for rebounds.

#5 pick Jeff Green played tentively but allowed the focus to be on Durrant. The Sonics also had Johan Petro, Julius Hodge and former Detroit Mercy player Jermaine “I can’t sing” Jackson there to hone their skills. The Mavs Maurice Ager, was clearly the crowd pleaser during this game as the former Spartan star had a series of dazzling dunks scoring 17 points and was the only player to have an autograph table set up after the game for the fans to meet him and get signatures. The Mavs first pick in the draft, Nick Fazekas, (#34 overall) had a terrible game shooting wise (1-7) and his parents who were sitting directly behind us were groaning on every miss.

Team China vs. Memphis Grizzlies.

The Las Vegas tourism bureau knows how to satisfy their visitors from overseas by bringing in Team China to diversify the crowds at the these summer NBA League games. Great idea as the Asian population at the game was in full force as they were there to support their fellow countrymen and it seems everyone in the house was waiting for a surprise visit from Yao Ming himself. Some youngster even yelled there’s Yao and a bunch of folks stood up looking. Alas no Yao sighting today other than a tall teen in a Yao Rockets jersey.

But Team China had an ace in the hole that must have infuriated the Bucks organization. Yes there wearing # 11 in the Team China lineup was the Bucks #6 pick Yi Jianlian. He received a nice ovation from the mixed crowd as he was introduced in the starting lineup. Continue Reading »

Last month, Matt Watson @ Detroit Bad Boys had an excellent piece on Cheikh Samb. In fact, I like to think it highlights the function of fan communities and blogs as being able to dig deeper on prospects, stepping outside the boundaries of the franchise practice facility or scheduled media appearances. Nothing beats first hand knowledge, and when a player is outside the USA, that type of appraisal is hard to come by. It’s a big reason why we run BadBoySummerCamp. Because a lot of news and perspective goes unreported.

If you’re interested at all in the seven foot shot blocker we traded Maurice Evans for last year, then Matt’s post is a must read.

As far as his progress as a player is concerned, Cheikh has managed to strive at gaining muscle and furthering his skills. Here, you have to take into account that he has been playing basketball for five years, a very short period of time. Considering his evolution, it is scary to imagine how far will be able to go as a player. During the course of this season, and using the idle time while he was injured, he added 12-15 pounds of muscle to his frame. His physical evolution is hard to miss when you look at the pictures from last year´s [Las Vegas] Summer League (left) and you compare them to the latest available images from one of his last games with Cornella (right).

Keith Langlois, the Pistons’ official scribe posted several insights about Cheikh yesterday,

“He’s like a sponge,” said Cowens, who worked out with Samb last week for the first time. “He’s got a lot of upside. He’s a pretty coordinated kid for a big and he moves well. The biggest thing for him now is conditioning and the strength in the core of his body.”

Samb was listed variously at 195 to 215 pounds a year ago, but since getting his first taste of the NBA he’s become a weight-lifting devotee.

“Last year when I come to Summer League, my first time, I see a lot of players, like, strong,” – and here he holds his hands well apart to display broad shoulders – “and I be like this” – and here he holds up a long, spidery index finger. “Skinny. I see I got to work on legs to get more big and come back to Spain this season. I have a little pain in my foot – I no play. I lift and lift and lift. I weigh now like 12 kilos more – I don’t know in pounds.”

There you have it. Cheikh Samb. No longer an enigma, and a possible Piston contributor.

Henry Abbott posted the following love on ESPN Truehoop today,

Chauncey Billups says it’s no secret that then Jason Maxiell gets the ball, he has bad intentions. He wants to dunk it even when he has no business dunking it. I support that. The Piston squad also features Rodney Stuckey who promises to be one of the most exciting guards in what is traditionally a guard’s league. Piston fans have been hanging their hopes on Amir Johnson for some time, who some have compared to a young Kevin Garnett. Former UCLA standout Arron Afflalo will be making his pro debut, too.

And Keith Langlois has written a nice piece on the Pistons practices in Vegas. Perhaps this year we get back to seeing our kids be competitive against the other squads in the VSL. With 6 legitimate Pistons prospects on the roster, it has to be one of the deepest squads in the Summer League.

“It’s always tough when you put a new group of guys together,” said Pistons assistant coach Terry Porter. “But the effort has definitely been there. I can’t fault the effort. The guys are giving me a lot of energy and now it’s just a matter of trying to go out and execute. We’ll tell more as far as where they’re at once they’re in competition. Sometimes it’s hard to go against each other. I’m sure these guys are sick of seeing each other and they’re looking forward to playing games.”