Summer League Take Two

Yesterday's summer league game was against the Phoenix Suns. Seeing as how the Sun's roster features Amare Stoudamire, I felt bad for all our big players trying to make a good impression. It turns out that the Pistons didn't need Amare to make them look bad, however, as the referees did the job for them. They called 96 fouls! When all was said and done, both Amare and Maxiell had fouled out and several players were close. It was so bad that Amare has been quoted as saying that the excessive calls may have swayed him to not play summer league games anymore.

Amare somehow ended up with eleven personal fouls, even though you foul out after ten. A superstar in every sense I guess.

Matched up against Amare, without question one of the better players in the league, all night Maxiell really got a chance to show something to Flip, Joe and everyone else paying attention. From all reports, it seems Jason held his own, even taking it to Amare on drives. As I said before, he had ten fouls but that doesn't mean much.

The Pistons play another game tonight and hopefully Jason will be able to build on his efforts. As I said in a previous post, he has the best chance of any young Piston to get significant minutes next season.


It would be wrong to finish this post without also mentioning Alex Acker, who was actually the best performer of last night's game. He finished with almost thirty points. But the points aren't as important as how he got them. Instead of settling for jumpers, he was aggressive all game and drove into the lane often, as guards should. Acker also had eight fouls in the game (such a shocker...).

What does this all mean to Pistons fans? Both Maxiell and Acker look like players who can contribute very soon. Remember that the championship Pistons had Tayshaun Prince and Mehmet Okur playing significant roles. If our first two selections of the 2005 draft can give quality minutes, the Pistons can easily go from having a weak bench to a strong one.

Oh yeah, and we won the game.