Summer League has been pretty unsatisfying for fans of the Detroit Pistons.
After Jaden Ivey went down, and then Detroit pulled all of their potential rotation players, there hasn’t been much reason to watch.
Summer League is the time when you want to see a team’s young players, some of them for the first time, but also to check out under-the-radar guys who have a chance to play their way onto the roster, as we saw last year with second-round pick Luka Garza.
So far this Summer League has not really had a standout player other than the guys we already knew were on the roster, players like Isaiah Stewart and Isaiah Livers.
There hasn’t been a Garza, or really anyone who has been that impressive outside of Braxton Key, who is trying to defend his way onto the team and had another solid outing in that department last night.
But Key played games for the Detroit Pistons last season and was on a two-way deal, so he’s not really an unknown and probably should play well given his experience.
What about the lesser known guys, have any of them made a case to make the team?
Detroit Pistons: Any Summer League standouts?
Stanley Umude had a nice game for the Detroit Pistons, and is a guy who has a strong work ethic and the ability to knock down 3-point shots, but he has pretty much disappeared in the last two games.
Buddy Boeheim, who inexplicably was given a two-way contract for no reason, had one pretty good game from behind-the-arc, but is a complete stiff on defense, so it’s hard to see him making an NBA roster without major improvement in that area.
Fellow elite shooter Kyle Foster has played sparingly and knocked down some shots, but has only played for 12 minutes per game, though he has knocked down 42 percent of his 3-point shots.
Balsa Koprivica, last year’s draft-and-stash guy, has been fairly disappointing even after having a double-double last night. This guy is already 22-years-old and has been playing professionally overseas, so you’d expect him to dominate Summer League competition and he hasn’t.
Other than Key, there really hasn’t been a guy who has impressed at all, and I don’t think anyone else really has a chance to make the roster, at least not at this point.
The Pistons will have one more game for these guys to show what they can do, but so far it doesn’t look like there will be any pleasant Summer League surprises this year.