Detroit Pistons Summer League: Detroit vs Miami

The Detroit Pistons played their fourth summer league game on Wednesday, where they fell to the Miami Heat 83-92. While the summer league isn't really measured by wins and losses, this game had coach Pat Sullivan so fired up he earned himself a technical foul in the fourth quarter. That stands as the only time I have ever seen a coach receive a tech in a summer league game.

From an individual standpoint there were a few bright spots for the Pistons. Mainly DaJuan Summers and Greg Monroe, with some flashes of good play from Terrico White and Marquez Haynes. Beyond those players it was hard to find much to like.

Monroe looked shaky early, particularly when guarding Miami center Garret Silar, a 300 pounder. Although it's only one summer league game this might be a recurring problem for Monroe when defending bigger centers. He doesn't seem physical enough under the basket to push big guys around, but he does posses enough finesse that he can make up for the lack of bulk, at least against summer league talent.

Monroe finished with 20 points on 6-12 shooting while grabbing six rebounds and blocking two shots. He had a very nice rebound and jam half way through the first quarter, and also showed some toughness on a hard fought rebound then finished with a great left hook shot towards the end of the third quarter. If Monroe can put on a little more muscle he can be a great asset to this team.

Summers also put in a solid game, gaining 20 points on 6-13 shooting while also pulling down three boards. The nice thing about how Summers put his points up is that he did it from a variety of ways. He had a few beautiful jump shots just within the three point arc, as well as one just outside the arc. He also had a brilliant possession half way through the fourth, when he weaved his way through traffic for a close basket and a foul which he sunk.

White and Haynes each had some good plays but neither one stood out much and both shot poorly. White went 3-9 while putting up 11 points and only had one assist. Haynes went 2-8 for ten points and two assists.
Haynes looked better out of the two, especially on defense, where he showed  a good amount of hustle.

Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko both sat out this game. Daye sat with a hip injury and Jerebko with a hamstring injury. Neither are believed to be serious.

The Pistons play the Knicks Friday at 4:00 pm EST.

Video courtesy of  http://www.nba.com/pistons/index_main.html

Detroit Pistons Summer League: Game Five Recap

The Pistons closed out the Las Vegas Summer League with a solid win over the Cleveland Cavaliers squad, 92-86.

Austin Daye had another terrific outing, going off for 20 points, 10 rebounds, three steals, and at least one blocked shot. He also made a couple of very nice passes, one being a one-handed laser pass to Trent Plaisted in the paint. Plaisted missed the shot which cost Daye a deserved assist.

He has consistently shown his smooth stroke during the summer league and continued to do so against the Cavaliers hitting seven of 14 shots. One prime example was a nice three pointer to open the fourth quarter that only touched twine.

Almost as impressive as Dayes game was Jonas Jerebko's. Jerebko earned 19 points and five rebounds on 5-for-8 shooting while taking seven trips to the line making 8-for-14 free throws.

Jerebko again spent a portion of his time at the center position. He continued to look more comfortable in that role, altering a number of shots and keeping balls alive with well timed tips.

Jerebko did spend some minutes playing at the four position as well, as the Pistons only put two of their three 2009 draftees on the floor at a time for most of the second half. That could have been from the Pistons staff wanting to see what each of the rookies can do at the three front-court position, but more likely from Dajuan Summers foul trouble again.

Summers had an poor game offensively, only managing 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting. He did round up five rebounds and also blocked two shots but he fouled out in the fourth after collecting his tenth personal.

It seems that when Summers can stay out of foul trouble he can be a very productive player, but it's not going to get any easier with the foul limit in the NBA set much lower at six per game.

Deron Washington had his typical game, 12 points and four rebounds on 4-for-7 shooting. He also looked much better at the free throw line going 4-for-4.

He continued to showcase his athletic gifts as he was very active getting his hands on passes and getting up and down the court. He also had a vicious dunk attempt but got fouled and headed to the line for two.

Jeremy Pargo might have made it a two horse race for the Pistons third point guard spot. He played the entire second half, finishing with 13 points, four rebounds, and two assists while shooting 4-for-8 from the field.

Pargo displayed some nice driving skills on a cut through traffic for a hard one handed jam. He also had an impressive steal but coughed the ball up three times. A two assist to three turnover ratio is not great but in only 20 minutes of play it would not be something to be overly worried about.

The Pistons have had a terrific summer league season going 4-1. More importantly however is the promising play out of the three 2009 draft selection. I expect all three will be on the Pistons roster for the 2009-2010 season as well as Washington and either Sean Singletary or Pargo.

Detroit Pistons Summer League: Game Four Recap

With four games under their belt, the Pistons' big three, Austin Daye, Dajuan Summers, and Jonas Jerebko appear to be much more comfortable playing together.

After a bad third game, where the Pistons looked tired and couldn't keep up with Golden State's frantic pace, the Pistons came back with a blowout win over the New York Knicks, 96-73.

Early on in the first quarter, Jerebko looked to establish an aggressive mindset, getting a nice lay-up and one. He continued that style of play all game, driving hard to the basket from the perimeter on multiple occasions and finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds on 5-for-11 shooting.

Halfway through the third quarter, Jerebko had a clear drive to the basket except for one Knicks forward. When Jonas got to the basket, the Knicks player (possibly Jordan Hill) went up for the block only to have Jerebko make a beautiful mid-air adjustment to score the lay-up.

The real standout of this game was Austin Daye, who finished with 27 points, 13 rebounds, and one block while shooting over 50 percent from the field. Daye showed his versatility by displaying good ball handling skills and also nailing a handful of catch and shoot opportunities.

His ball handling abilities definitely were showcased on a nice shake-and-bake move, in which he was fouled on the shot, to open the second quarter.

Daye and Summers seemed to take over the third quarter with Daye flushing home a hard dunk, then Summers hitting a three-point shot, seconds after rolling in a lay-up.

In fact, Summers had a rough shooting night in the first half, but managed to turn it on to start the third quarter and kept it going the rest of the game.

Summers finished with 26 points, eight rebounds, and one block on 11-for-21 shooting. Summers continued to be a brute force for the Pistons in the paint, knocking players to the ground while going for lay-ups and slamming down hard jams.

Deron Washington had a ho-hum type of game. He only managed five points, five rebounds, and two assists.

He did however show good awareness by getting his hands on a few passes and even managed to save a ball from going out of bounds by throwing it off of a Knicks player. This was not one of his better outings though.

Lastly, Sean Singletary played a very respectable game.

He finished with 15 points, six assists, two steals, and only one turnover all while shooting 5-for-8 from the field. He even rebounded well for a guard, hauling in five boards.

He had a very nice dump inside to Jerebko for an easy two in the last minute of the game.

It looks like Singletary might be the front runner for the Pistons third point guard spot if Joe Dumars is looking at the summer league roster to address that need.

Notes: I missed covering game three because of work related circumstances, but I will definitely be covering game five versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Detroit Pistons Summer League: Game Two Recap

Game two for the Detroit Pistons in the Las Vegas Summer league came down to the last couple of possessions. Dajuan Summers sealed the game with two clutch free throws with 4.7 seconds remaining giving the Pistons a 91-87 win over the Toronto Raptors.

Summers had another good game to go along with his player of the game performance in game one. He finished the game with 19 points and six rebounds, going 7-17 from the field and 1-4 beyond the arc.

He flashed some strong play-making ability beating coverage along the baseline multiple times, finishing with reverse lay-ups. He also had a powerful dunk courtesy of an assist by Austin Daye halfway through the first quarter.

Daye had the best Piston performance of the afternoon, finishing with 19 points, eight rebounds, while going 8-14 from the field and 2-4 from the three point line. One of those treys was from deep downtown to, this kid has some serious range.

Daye was also a pest on defense altering a number of shots with his crazy long arms. Although he wasn't credited with a block he certainly made his presence known.

Another notable performance came from last years pick Deron Washington. Washington had a pretty scrappy game, more than once ending up knocked to the floor.

He totaled 13 points, six rebounds, on 4-11 shooting, but left a lot of points on the floor by going 4-12 from the charity stripe.

He also had a brilliant series that started with a massive put-back dunk by Washington. Then after a Raptors foul, Sean Singletary lost the ball back to the Raptors. This caused a breakaway for Ekene Ibekwe when Washington sprinted out of nowhere to block the shot.

Very impressive hustle play.

Jonas Jerebko had a much better showing in game two. He finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, and three steals. Jerebko displayed some very nice post moves under the basket and also had some great moves to get open but missed a few of those open looks. He also managed to rack up eight fouls, but was aggressive on defense.

He showed a lot of hustle during the game, even diving on the floor to pursue a loose ball which sadly got tipped away from him.

Lastly, Trent Plaisted had a decent performance getting four points, five rebounds, and a block in his very limited time on the floor, playing only 12 minutes. He seemed to find his aggressiveness against the pick and roll, but he looks to be headed back to Europe for another year though which should help his consistency.

Overall another very good showing by the Detroit Pistons. Next up the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry.

Detroit Pistons Summer League: Game One Recap

Well, Detroit's first game in the summer league was pretty impressive. They beat the Sacramento Kings' squad 86-77 handily. In fact, the Kings only led for the first minute of the game.

The rest was all Pistons.

Winning isn't the real point of summer league though—evaluating young talent is, and there were a couple of great performances.

First and foremost, Dajuan Summers, the Pistons' first second round pick, was outstanding. He showed a nice stroke from inside and outside the arc. He had some very nice post moves, navigating around taller players for clean looks at the basket. He even had a great defensive game with seven defensive boards, one block and two steals to go along with his 24 points on 9-15 shooting.

His best moment was opening up the second half by hitting his first three shots within a minute for seven points. Summers is looking like a steal this summer.

A surprising performance came from Mike Bramos from Miami (Ohio). He showed a nice shooting touch hitting 5-6 shots for 13 points. He even had a posterizable two-handed jam on Omri Casspi.

A little less impressive were Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko.

Daye had a few nice plays, including a sweet crossover towards the end of the game but ended up missing the lay up. He also flashed some range hitting a three-pointer. It looked like they decided to play him at the power forward position for most of the time he was in the game, so maybe they are grooming him early to be more physical.

Jerebko also showed flashes of greatness. In the first half, he pulled off a nice behind-the-back dribble on his way to the hoop. But he had a poor shooting night overall going 1-6 from the field with his only make coming off a nice alley-oop. He did however have three steals, a block, and showed no fear defending under the rim.

The two second round picks from last year also had up and down games.

Deron Washington had a mostly rocky game with a few spurts of promising play. He seemed active in the first half but didn't accomplish much beyond causing a few turnovers.

He had a couple of nice plays in the second half, one being a hard slam dunk halfway through the fourth.

Trent Plaisted seemed to have less errors in his game, but still did not produce much with five points and three rebounds. He also didn't seem as aggressive defending the pick-and-roll as he was last year. That could be a problem because that is why the Pistons liked him so much in the first place.

This was only the first game of the season, so it is definitely to early to make clear assessments on players, but a few are looking very promising.