Every general manager preaches the prudence of not sacrificing the future for the present, but not many have the conviction – or the job security – to transform the concept to practice.

Joe Dumars has never wavered. Even when he coveted Rasheed Wallace when Portland dangled him midway through the 2004 season, he didn’t bite, believing the cost in future assets too step. Only when Atlanta got him and the asking price came down did Dumars move. The Pistons have their third Larry O’Brien Trophy to show for it, but they have something else, too.

A future.

Some of it is near the end of the Pistons’ bench. Jason Maxiell has fallen out of the playing rotation but showed enough in the preseason to stamp himself a future contributor, sooner rather than later. Some of it is mostly in street clothes, second-year big man Amir Johnson and rookie point guard Will Blalock, both usually inactive for games until Lindsey Hunter’s ankle injury opened a spot for Blalock.

And some of it is several time zones away. Toiling in Greece and Spain.

John Hammond, vice president of basketball operations, recently returned from a European swing to check up on Alex Acker, a Pistons 2005 second-round pick – taken 60th, and last, one pick after Johnson – who spent last season with the team, and Cheick Samb, whose rights were acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers on draft night for Maurice Evans.

Acker is currently playing at the highest level of European basketball and making a surprising impact for Olympiakos of Athens, which improved to 6-1 with a Wednesday win over Cologne to stay in first place in Group A.

Acker, a 6-foot-5 guard who left Pepperdine after his junior year, is seventh in Euroleague scoring at 16 points a game and he’s also in the top 10 in steals (2.6) and rebounds (7.3) and averaging 2.7 assists. They’ve devised a composite statistical ranking of Euroleague players and Acker comes in fifth in that category.

“He’s playing extremely well,” Hammond said. “I can’t think of Alex being in a better situation for himself and for us, selfishly, as a team. You’re talking about an extremely high level of basketball against veteran players in heated competition and before extremely loud crowds and tough places to play.

“Even at home games, there’s a lot of pressure. This is a club that spent a lot of money on its roster and the European championships are in Athens, where they have two clubs, both hoping to make it to Europe’s Final Four in their home city.”

Early last season, the Pistons force fed point guard on Acker due to necessity when Lindsey Hunter missed the first several months rehabilitating his surgically repaired ankle. In Greece, Acker is playing his more natural shooting guard and spending time on the wing.

“It’s his natural position,” Hammond said. “But when we say he’s playing the wing, don’t think he’s not handling the ball. That’s a guard-loaded team. If he were over there playing the point guard position, we would actually be disappointed.”

“We get tape on both of those kids every week,” Dumars said. “People in Europe have fallen into Acker’s corner in a big way. It was a win-win situation. He gets big-time experience playing in a pro league over there and we retain his rights.”

Acker signed a two-year deal with Olympiakos, but he has the right to opt out of his contract after the season if the Pistons believe they’ll have a roster spot open for him. Even if he returns to Greece in 2007-08, the Pistons will retain his NBA rights.

Samb was something of a mystery man on draft night when the Pistons swapped Evans to the Lakers for his rights, ostensibly to clear playing time for Carlos Delfino but also because the Pistons had become intrigued with Samb, a 7-foot-1 “freak,” as Dumars admiringly refers to him.

“That’s what he is – a freak,” Dumars said. “You have to see him play. Seven-foot and the ability to block everything around the basket. A nice jump shot. He can really shoot the ball. Kind of a Jack Sikma. Shoots it from up high, kind of like Rasheed (Wallace). People will like him.”

NBA personnel people sure did this summer when he played with the Pistons’ summer team in Las Vegas. One Western Conference GM asked Dumars if he wanted to talk trade. One Eastern GM was dumbfounded that the Pistons got him with what amounted to a late second-round pick. And another Eastern GM offered a player currently in his starting five for the rights to Samb.

“He is extremely – extremely – long,” Hammond said. “He has great, natural, God-given timing as a shot-blocker and he’s legitimately 7 feet tall with an extremely nice shooting touch. It’s fun when you have a big guy who can pop out and make the 10-, 12-foot jump shot. And he makes his free throws.”

Pistons fans will have to exercise the same patience Dumars calls on when contemplating trades that could help his team now but put their future in peril, because Samb is contractually obligated to spend this season and next with his team in Barcelona, WTC Cornella, in Spain’s second division.

Don’t get too worked up over that second-division status. Hammond said the quality of basketball is comparable to the NBA’s Developmental League and that Samb – though good enough to play for the first division team – is benefiting by getting significant minutes where he’s at. He’s averaging 13 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in 33 minutes a game. As a testament to Samb’s touch, he’s even made 3 of 5 3-point shots.

Dumars says Samb is about where Johnson was a year ago in his development. For context, Dumars believes Johnson would be a part of the playing rotation now for many NBA teams.

“The downside is he’s extremely thin,” Hammond said. “But that was the fun part of going over there to see him. He has really dedicated himself to getting stronger. You almost want to be careful that he doesn’t do too much, but he is lifting weights constantly right now and his body looked remarkably different in a four- to five-month period. He had some very nice definition.”

Samb was listed at 215 pounds when the Pistons drafted him and Hammond said he’s about 230 now. The Pistons expect he’ll add another 15 to 20 pounds before he arrives in the NBA.

“He’s got the frame for it,” Dumars laughed, invoking the name of a former teammate who struggled to add weight. “He’s not Chuck Nevitt.”