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:

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Detroit Pistons - 2006 VSL Game 4 July 13, 2006

Vs. Los Angeles Clippers

Recap:

This was another pummeling, plain and simple. Here are a few first impressions:

- Apparently Mike Abdenour digs “Rappers Delight”. Watching him bob his head to it was classic.

- Joe D and Sheed were in attendance

- Lucky for me, I had 3 card carrying members of the “Pistons will be better offensively without Ben” club behind me. They also made it a point to be Mateen Cleaves’ personal cheering section.

- No Caner-Medley tonight, not sure why

- I will NOT be referring to the Clippers at ANY POINT in this recap as the “Clips” you got that Greg Kelser???

Ok now to the game:

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The Baby Pistons got their lunch handed to them on the boards, at the stripe, the arc and in the backcourt. For the second time, the Pistons dropped a summer league match as the Clippers were victorious 89-73.

19 year old Slava Korolev had his 3rd double digit scoring game for the Clipshow. A 6′9″ Andre Kirilenko wannabe, Korolev was a controversial pick for the 2005 Clippers, as they reached for European help in a point forward considered a frankenstein combination of Kukoc meets Kirilenko meets Pippen (per Jason Givony @ DraftExpress.com).

The Pistons backcourt came up short with a combined 4-24 shooting performance by Alex Acker, Martin (sic) Cleaves and Will Blalock.

Stay tuned for The Low’s recap.