Summer League is over for the Detroit Pistons and there were some bright spots as well as some disappointments.
You obviously can’t read too much into Summer League either way, as most of the guys who are in it won’t be on an NBA roster, and the players that will are often working on weaknesses in their games.
I thought both Isaiah Stewart and Isaiah Livers looked good, Jaden Ivey was electric in his brief time and Jalen Duren showed some things, though also revealed areas where he must improve.
I think more than anything this year, I got the sense that fans were wondering why Summer League even needs to exist, as most of the rotation guys don’t play more than one or two games and they are often sloppy affairs that don’t teach us much.
I would vote for pushing Summer League back a month so that new players have a chance to get to know each other a bit before having to play together, and it would also space out the interesting parts of the NBA offseason.
Summer League comes and goes, and while there were some nice moments, there were also some slight disappointments.
Detroit Pistons: The Summer League disappointments
Killian Hayes and Jaden Ivey
After a sloppy first half, Jaden Ivey settled down, harnessed his speed and started to dominate. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of him, which is the disappointing part.
I don’t think Ivey would have played in all of the games anyway, but it would have been nice to see him finish out game two and possibly have a another big game three to start off his career.
Instead, he has an ankle injury that could slow him down just as he is getting started, which was obviously the biggest disappointment of the Summer League. Not his fault of course, but Summer League was pretty much over for a lot of Pistons’ fans once he went down.
Killian Hayes played just one game, which was somewhat surprising given that he needs all of the reps he can get. I thought he would play at least two games, as Beef Stew did, and possibly have one where he launched a ton of shots.
Killian Hayes played fine in his one game, but he’s one of the players that has the most to gain or lose next season, so it would have been nice to see him dominate what should be inferior competition for a guy entering his third season who has played nearly 100 games in the NBA.
I get trying to protect him, but when you see other more high profile guys playing more games than him, it makes you wonder about his level of competitiveness. I mean, LeBron James is pushing 60 and is still playing in the Drew League, not sitting around hoping not to get injured.
Killian probably didn’t have a ton of say in the matter, so I am not completely blaming him, but it was disappointing not to see more of him as he enters a crucial season.
Detroit Pistons: The Summer League disappointments
Balsa Koprivica and Justin Turner
Both of these players have professional experience yet were only able to carve out fewer than 15 minutes per game for themselves in the Summer League.
Koprivica, last year’s draft and stash guy, is now 22-years-old and really isn’t showing the kind of progress you’d like to see from an NBA prospect, either for his professional team Partizan NIS or in the Summer League.
Outside of one five-minute burst, he didn’t really look like an NBA player and was only able to get 11 minutes per game because of it.
Same for Justin Turner, who is coming off a decent season in the G-League but was only able to get into three Summer League games.
Turner shot over 40 percent from long range in the G-League last season, so I thought he might have a couple of big shooting games in the Summer League, but he didn’t do much of anything.
Neither of these players had a real chance to crack the rotation next season, but you’d expect a bit more from guys who are more experienced than a lot of their Summer League competition.
Detroit Pistons: The Summer League disappointments
Buddy Boeheim
The Detroit Pistons decided to take flyers on some elite shooters for the Summer League which totally makes sense given their lack of 3-point shooting.
It’s not a bad strategy, as you may be able to find a guy like Duncan Robinson, who was able to overcome his other limitations and contribute as a 3-point specialist.
Boeheim had a couple of nice moments, but really didn’t show much to justify why he was given a two-way deal before Summer League had even started.
Look, two-way contracts are about as valuable as the paper they are written on, so it’s not like the Pistons are locked into some horrible deal, but I thought there were other guys who showed more in Summer League.
Boeheim was woeful on defense, and though he has time to improve in that area, it’s going to be hard for him to overcome, even if he shoots the lights out, which he didn’t in Summer League, hitting just 31 percent of his long-range shots.
I think guys like Braxton Key, Stanley Umude, Jules Bernard and Charlie Moore all have a better chance of contributing at this point than Buddy, which begs the question as to why he got that contract without really showing anything.
Again, we can’t read too much into this nor get too worried or excited about a few exhibition games but Summer League was a mixed bag of promise and disappointment for the Detroit Pistons.