All I can say is that Amir Johnson has hops. Mad hops.

nJoy this video, courtesy of our man, The Low. He might be a tough critic but no one works the beat harder or more honestly during his summer vacation.

DET vs DEN – VSL Game 4

AGAIN???!!! Today and ENTIRE ROW of #$*@s plant themselves in front of me while recording the 3rd qtr. Are they intentional plants of The Man? WTF???

Honestly, this game really didn’t deserve a write up, but I will suffer the task regardless.

Points of note: No Jason Maxiell Today: Go figure.

1st Qtr
Maxiell looked to be getting a rest today by not starting. No wonder, he’s been eating the rest of VSL for lunch. DET started this game off shooting fairly well, although not getting much from the reserves. Mejia looks to have a good start today.

2nd Qtr
DEN started this qtr being much more aggressive than DET at driving the lane. To make matters worse, DET wasn’t getting much out of their offense to start this game either. DEN is also drawing some fouls and managing to finish at the basket.

3rd Qtr
I blacked out this qtr as I was so infuriated with the pack of geriatric fans that plopped down right in front of me, that I actually lost focus on the game after having to pack up the laptop, camcorder and notebook and move 10 seats away. All the while getting the, “What’s his problem?” look from the RowHeads. Mind you, the gym is only at about 40% capacity. There are dozens of other empty rows they could have taken. At the end of it all, there was some back and forth, but nothing of note.

4th Qtr
This qtr was played as though it was just necessary. DEN is building a lead and maintaining control of the action AND pretty pleased with their efforts. Hell, they SHOULD BE with Lamond Murray, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, and Jelani McCoy on the court for their SL team. DET looked as if they would make an attempt at a comeback, but really fell short and took the L today.

Individual Notes:

Stuckey
Stuckey was a mixed bag today. He seemed aggressive at times and stagnant at others. Overall an average showing for Rodney today.

Afflalo
Afflalo wasn’t overly involved today. He didn’t look to be lacking effort, just not a ton of results.

Don’t take my comments to mean Afflalo didn’t produce. I simply mean that it was one of those games that players have where they might score 20 pts, but you never knew they were on the court. He did contribute today, but it came across live as a very quiet 20. Many of you know what I’m talking about when mentioning a quiet 20.

Samb
Samb has been equally disappointing this year at VSL as he was surprisingly impressive last year. You hate to say a guy can’t do something before he has the chance, but without weight training and improved reaction times, this may be the last we see of Samb.

Mejia
Sammy looks like he puts out maximum effort every time out. Again, he wasn’t a dominant factor, but he finds away to keep himself involved in the action.

Maxiell
DNP - Day off.

Well, this was a pretty dry game today, but I think that’s to be expected at some point during VSL. The overall talent level across the board just isn’t there and today was a perfect example of that. My guess is that coaches used this opportunity to evaluate the players individually as opposed to overall team/game performance.

DET vs WSH – VSL Game 3

Well the deeper we get into VSL you typically get one of two things:

1. Guys either start to figure it out and dominate their competition or…
2. You get some same ol’, same ol’ kind of stuff with nothing spectacular.

So, with that in mind, there’s a good chance the final few games don’t have much new or exciting material to share with you all. However, today’s game was just the opposite. After some of the worst play this group has put together, they managed to pull this one out in the 4th.

Points of note:

1st Qtr
DET looked very ineffective on offense to start this game. There was little to nothing coming out of their offensive sets. On the other end, DET was giving up way too easy dribble penetration to the WSH guards, and they were all too happy to take advantage of DET’s lax D. I will say, however, that will all the drives they surrendered, they did manage to get some blocked shots. This qtr also saw very little production from the reserves.

2nd Qtr
This qtr started with DET taking way too many jump shots to be effective. There were some questionable calls from the officiating crew that made the 2nd start to drag on tediously. WSH wasn’t necessarily shooting the lights out, however, there were knocking down enough from time to time to be in control of the action.

3rd Qtr
DET started the 3rd by not defending particularly well and giving up some easy drives to WSH. Another thing that stood out, is the fact that Samb was not reacting very well to being pushed around by the big bodies the Wizards threw in there with the obvious intent of bumping Samb around. On offense DET looks to only take the ball half-way to the basket and are not coming up with much in the way of pts due to their lack of commitment. By the end of this qtr, DET was just looking haggard. They were not closing out on open shooters, not containing drives, and not crashing the boards. Very ugly.

4th Qtr
This qtr WSH goes ice cold from the field and really stops attacking the basket with the same effort and determination that they’ve shown through 3 qtrs. After some back and forth, Stuckey and Maxiell have apparently had enough and begin to individually dismantle the Wizards scheme. By the end of this game DET had seized control and pulled away for the victory.

Individual Notes:

Stuckey
It was nice to see Rodney and JMax take this one over being much more aggressive than in the 1st 3 qtrs. It almost appeared as if they got tired of fooling around and hit the “switch” (Cover your ears and say your prayers).

Afflalo
Afflalo was steady today, but seemed to pick his spots and didn’t really push the issue.

Samb
Samb was average defensively today, but really didn’t react well to the physical play. I think if he hits the weights and gets comfortable with the extra bulk, he could improve significantly.

Mejia
Sammy seemed to be pretty aggressive when no one else was interested. A good sign.

Maxiell
Maxiell playing in summer league is like taking candy from a baby and then kicking the baby. He essentially does what he wants when he wants. It gets to be funny after a while. But, he does pick stretches where he doesn’t really seem to exert himself too much.

Those that know me, are well aware that I hate games that result in DET lagging behind for 3 qtrs, then turning on the juice and getting the win. But, it’s summer league…who REALLY cares?

- Stuckey has an impressive knack for getting open for easy shots without the ball. That’s a veteran skill and it’s important to note how well he does it already.

- Sammy Mejia is making a case to make the 15-man roster and at this point I think he will make it. He probably won’t see time with the Pistons unless there is an injury, but Mejia’s all-round game, hustle and defense will be worth investing a spot for him on the developmental roster.

- It’s nice to see Arron Afflalo getting to the line, but for the third straight game he’s really struggled with his shot early. Afflalo was known as a great mid-range shooter with a quick release at UCLA, so you have to believe these struggles are temporary.

- What looked like a tale of two halves really was a difference in Rodney Stuckey’s approach before and after halftime. Stuckey was very conservative in the first half, rarely driving, deferring to teammates and with little help on the offensive end, the Pistons only scored 25 points in the first two quarters. The second half saw Stuckey taking it hard to the hole often and the Wizards couldn’t do much to stop him.

- Cheikh Samb really struggled today just confirming that he’s still quite far from being able to contribute at the NBA level.

Full text is here

I still think that Samb would be better served by staying in USA and spending time with Arnie Kander and in NBDL to build up strength and get experience playing against tougher opposition. If he goes back to Spain, there is no guarantee that he would be able to make the majors. Playing in Spain in 2-nd or 3-rd tier league won’t get Samb anywhere since he will be playing against the extremely weak opposition.

Also, a bit worrysome that the “Junior Pistons” resembled the regular team sort of sleepwalking for the 3 quarters and then revving it up in the 4th to win the game. Hopefully it is really the reflection of Stuckey’s strategy of deferring in the beginning and getting more assertive as game progressed. Also, schedule and multitude of games and scrimmages with little breaks may have something to do with it. But it is something to watch for.

Two Minute Warning, by Wrecktangle Productions

DET vs MEM – VSL Game 2

Before I get started, I would like to send special thanks to this ****:

Who graciously sauntered into the row in front of me, promptly headed to the group of four empty seats and decided to drop his giant blackberry using head directly in front of me, blocking ALL of my filming efforts while pretending not to see me sitting there and remaining there for the entire 3rd qtr. I love people.

Points of note:

1st Qtr
DET started this game playing pretty good defense while getting considerably better execution from their offensive sets as opposed to game 1. Afflalo looks very aggressive to start the game and also like the fact that Stuckey looks to be more under control as things get under way.

Samb started today’s game much quicker on his defensive rotations and really wasn’t getting beat too bad on defense today. I did notice, however, that he’s picking up a lot of fouls. He’s maybe just a step slow.

I didn’t really notice much early from Mejia and Maxiell is business as usual with his aggressiveness

2nd Qtr
The 2nd unit didn’t look very effective today. The starters had clearly maintained control and the reserves didn’t do much to maintain that lead. There were a lot more turnovers, but at points when the starters returned, they managed to keep up the pace when MEM looked as if they would take control. DET traded baskets for the latter part of the qtr and did surrender much of their lead.

3rd Qtr
There was a pretty standard start to the 3rd, nothing spectacular, as far as I could see around the giant scalp in front of me. DET spent a lot of the 3rd picking up fouls as MEM was being very aggressive driving the lane. DET’s offense wasn’t much to speak of as they resorted to a lot of jumpers in the 3rd and they weren’t very proficient at that point.

4th Qtr
By the fourth, both teams were trading baskets inconsistently and not looking as if either really wanted to win the game. However, MEM seemed to hit some what of a dry spell and DET took advantage by getting some timely buckets, although inconsistently. As the qtr wore on DET got exceedingly aggressive driving the lane and were doing a great job of attacking the basket. At this stage, DET took the lead for good, although, they did cause themselves some unnecessary sweat by picking up a few fouls that put MEM on the line with the opportunity to get back in control. However, DET held on and picked up a nice win in the 2nd game of this year’s VSL.

Individual Notes:

Stuckey
I must admit, Stuckey looked much more under control and aggressive today. He wasn’t so much dominant as he was consistent through today’s game. He attacked at the right moments and was quite successful when he did. Overall, he turned in a pretty nice performance today.

Afflalo
Afflalo was very aggressive to start today’s game. He attacked when he had opportunities and defended well throughout the game. He wasn’t a standout, but was very steady.

Samb
Samb did a much better job on his defensive rotations today. He still needs to get a grasp on when to challenge so as not to pick up needless fouls, although, I felt he picked a couple that he really didn’t deserve. The officials seemed very selective.

Mejia
Sammy was somewhat of a non-factor today. Not in a bad way, but there just wasn’t much to gauge from his play today. He did knock down a shot or two, but really didn’t have a major imprint on today’s game.

Maxiell
Again, Max was Max. He was aggressive as usual and I think he has figured out how to maintain his consistency, so it should be very interesting to find out how well he does with consistent minutes (fingers crossed).

Today’s game wasn’t mind-blowing; however, it was a very good display of execution, consistent effort, and aggressive play. This game showed us that the top 5 or 6 guys on this SL roster learn relatively quickly and adapt/adjust well to new concepts. They looked like 5 strangers in game one and managed to gel very well by game 2. That should be an encouraging sign for anyone wondering if this year’s crop will be able to adapt to the nuances of the NBA level of play.

Good showing today.

Two great photos from Game 1.

The first photo is of the starters, Ronald Stuckey, Arron Afflalo, Sammy Mejia, Jason Maxiell, and Cheikh Samb. Is any other VSL squad fielding 5 players that are all signed or rights held by their franchise? I haven’t had a chance to look.

And the second photo is Sammy Mejia with the Dre Family after the game. Dre writes,

I spoke with Sammy Mejia after the game, congratulated him on hitting the winning shot and advised him that Pistons fans, particularly the worldwide fans at PF would be following and supporting him.

Good report from The Low as I noticed he was doing his game report with his laptop in tow just like the other beat writers. Met he and his ladyfriend and brother and we exchanged our game observations. Enjoyed the game much more so than the games on Friday, but then again I had more of an interest this one.

There were three empty seats in the second row behind a bench where Pistons trainer Mike Abdenour was talking, so me, the Mrs, and my nephew grabbed them. Much to my chagrin, I chose wrong and was actually sitting behind the Sixer bench where I heard their assistant coaches and braintrust discussing whom is whom and who do they like. One of those was Mo Cheeks who sat there silently through most of the game observing at the scorers table, but in the end, he moved to the row in front me and had to say that his guard Louis Williams is getting better and they need to play him more and more to get him ready to be the principal back-up to Andre Miller. Cheeks also marveled how active JMAX was. Looks like former Piston, Aaron Mckie has finally hung up his sneakers as he was one of sixer summer assistant coaches…..

(more…)

Two Minute Warning, by Wrecktangle Productions