It All Comes Together For 3 Pistons Rookies

Posted Thursday, July 16, 2009
It all comes together for 3 Pistons rookies

For the first three Pistons games of the Las Vegas Summer League schedule, their three draftees – Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko – took turns in starring roles.

First it was Summers with 24 points and seven rebounds as the Pistons knocked off Sacramento. Then Daye grabbed center stage with 19 and eight boards as they beat Toronto. And on a night the rest of the team didn’t seem to have their legs in a loss to Golden State, Jerebko scored 16 points to stand out.

In the fourth game, they all got greedy.

Playing against Knicks lottery power forward Jordan Hill, all three of them put up gaudy numbers: Daye 27 points and 13 rebounds; Summers 26 and eight; Jerebko 13 and 12. For the first time, the Pistons started all three after bringing Jerebko off the bench behind 2008 draft choice Trent Plaisted for the first three games.

Hill, the No. 8 pick in June’s draft, had 14 points and five rebounds.

Now, gaudy numbers in Las Vegas must be taken with a grain of salt. It’s worth noting that the 42 points put up by Golden State’s Anthony Randolph on Tuesday tied a Summer League record held by Marcus Banks and Von Wafer. And while Wafer proved a solid bench player last season, Banks has made little impact over his six-year career.

But what Summer League can reveal is whether a player is likely to be a bust. And in the last six days, Daye, Summers and Jerebko have all but assured the Pistons that bust is unlikely to be associated with any of their names.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, counterintuitively, is Daye. Even though he was taken 15th (to Summers’ 35th and Jerebko’s 39th), he is the youngest and least physically advanced. My guess after seeing him in college and looking at his production against two of the most athletic teams Gonzaga played last year – six points and one board against Tennessee, six points and three boards against Memphis – was that it would take Daye a good year to adjust to the quickness level and physical NBA play.

Daye is very impressive with the ball. He has a lightning release on his jump shot and is going to be a weapon coming around screens where he can catch and shoot. I swear, on one such catch-and-shoot attempt in Vegas, I had a Reggie Miller flashback. He’s gone end to end once or twice a game in Las Vegas and made the right decision when he arrived. Perhaps most surprisingly, he’s shown the ability to rebound, averaging 10.7 a game over his last three after grabbing just two in the opener.

Summers’ versatility is going to give John Kuester a rare tool: a player comfortable playing on the perimeter offensively yet stout enough to defend all but the most skilled post scorers among power forwards. His shooting stroke is already better than good. It might take him a year or two to become a 3-point threat, but he’s already a very solid shooter at 20 feet. He can make plays off the dribble. I don’t think you want to throw him on Paul Pierce or LeBron James just yet, but it looks like Summers will be able to hold his own against backup small forwards defensively already.

Jerebko on one level is a typical European big man in that he’s completely at ease handling the ball and facing the basket. But where he’s raising eyebrows in Las Vegas is for his thirst for contact and his ability to finish in traffic. He’s on his way to being a clever scorer with either hand and has even flashed a hook shot that could make him a back-to-the-basket scoring threat. In separate conversations, assistant coaches Darrell Walker and Pat Sullivan compared his game and level of athleticism to David Lee.

I sat with Joe Dumars before Monday night’s game and told him that you hear general managers all the time, whatever the sport, talk about their good fortune in the immediate aftermath of a draft because they couldn’t believe so-and-so was available to them where he was drafted.

Joe D told me he can’t remember the last time he said that. He said he knew going into the 2007 draft that there was a good chance Rodney Stuckey would be there at 15, even if he and his staff had him evaluated differently than others. But he said he was truly amazed that either of Summers and Jerebko slipped out of the first round, let alone both of them.

He’s going through the process of free agency without regard to the rookies’ presence, looking to use his remaining cap space to add to a frontcourt whose only veterans at present are Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell and Kwame Brown. But more and more, it looks as though the Pistons found three real players for their future frontcourts – and the future might be closer than even the Pistons believed just a week ago.