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.”

We’ll kick off this summer season with a post, bigger than Oliver Miller and with more potential than Darko Milicic.

Hoopsworld has rosters for the Vegas Summer League, and here are the Pistons playing in Sin City,

There are two picks from the 2005 draft (Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell), a player traded to Detroit in the 2006 draft (Cheikh Samb) and all three 2007 Detroit Piston draft picks. Rodney “Hot Rod” Stuckey, Arron Afflalo and Sammy Mejia, henceforth know as the 3 Horsemen of Mayhem and Destruction. 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 »

The Detroit Pistons 2006 Toshiba Vegas Summer League roster shook out as expected.

The Team Page indicates that the Head Coach will be Don Zierden, and his assistants will be Ron Harper, Bill Pope, Kevin Wilson, and Paul Rivers.

• #01 ~ Rodney Billups - PG 5′10″ 165 lbs., Denver
• #05 ~ Rasheim Wright - SG 6′3″ 190 lbs., District of Columbia
• #06 ~ Alex Acker - SG 6′5″ 185 lbs., Pepperdine
• #07 ~ Mateen Cleaves - PG 6′2″ 212 lbs., Michigan State
• #08 ~ Sam Hoskin - PF 6′8″ 245 lbs., DePaul
• #09 ~ Wayne Wallace - C 6′9″ 215 lbs., Virginia Union
• #10 ~ Will Blalock - PG 6′0″ 205 lbs., Iowa State
• #12 ~ Nik Caner-Medley - SF 6′8″ 240 lbs., Maryland
• #17 ~ Marko Jovanovic - C 7′0″ 248 lbs., Serbia & Montenegro
• #18 ~ Cheikh Samb - C 7′1″ 195 lbs., Senegal
• #23 ~ Rick Rickert - F 6′11″ 235 lbs., Minnesota
• #25 ~ Amir Johnson - F 6′9″ 210 lbs., Westchester HS (LA)
• #54 ~ Jason Maxiell - PF 6′7″ 260 lbs., Cincinnati

• Pistons Team Page @ TVSL

With only 5 days until the 2006 Toshiba Vegas Summer League kicks off, the Detroit Pistons’ roster is beginning to take final form.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that Rick Rickert, a 2003 Timberwolves draft pick (#55), is scheduled to join the Bad Boy Summer Camp.

Ex-Gopher Rick Rickert will play for Flip Saunders’ Detroit Pistons summer league team.

Pistons and Fayetteville Patriots fans know Rickert as a teammate of Amir Johnson and Alex Acker during last year’s D-League season. Continue Reading »