What the Pistons suspected about Rodney Stuckey as they scouted him extensively at Eastern Washington and what caused their pulses to race a little more when he often dominated at the Las Vegas Summer League was again confirmed for them at Oakland U’s O’rena, packed to beyond its 3,000 capacity with a standing-room crowd – Stuckey can flat-out get to the rim.

The first of the Pistons’ two No. 1 draft choices was one of five players in double figures in the Blue team’s 55-45 win over the White, getting 12 of his 14 points at the free-throw line, making all of his dozen attempts. Stuckey’s only basket was a fast-break dunk in traffic.

“That’s why we drafted him,” Flip Saunders said after the scrimmage. “He has strength and speed – those are the things you can do. He was aggressive.”

Stuckey is already eerily adept at not just getting inside the defense but drawing fouls once he gets there. Once he took it at Rasheed Wallace, one of the best in the league at blocking shots without drawing fouls. Stuckey nearly made the basket on his first attempt, but when the ball rolled out he grabbed the offensive board and went right back at Wallace, this time drawing the foul.

Two other young players expected to be key components of the revamped bench, Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell, also made a handful of eye-opening plays each.

Johnson and Maxiell scored a dozen apiece, both doing the bulk of their damage around the rim.

“Amir has gotten a lot of reps,” Saunders said. “It’s helped him both offensively and defensively. He’s gotten stronger and when you get stronger, you feel comfortable. Plus, he knows what he’s supposed to be doing, so he doesn’t have to think as much. He’s doing things a lot quicker and being much more aggressive.”

Last season’s two newcomers, Nazr Mohammed and Flip Murray, had mostly disappointing debut seasons with the Pistons, but both reported to camp in terrific condition and have made a better impression this time around. Along with Stuckey, Johnson and Maxiell, they were the only other two players in double figures in the OU scrimmage, which consisted of three eight-minute quarters.

Jarvis Hayes, as billed, displayed a nice outside shooting touch and also made a nice penetration move and feed for a layup. Arron Afflalo, who did not shoot well in the Summer League, made his first two perimeter jumpers. Cheikh Samb had two clean blocks and a third that was ruled a goaltend. He also displayed his deft shooting touch by hitting both of his foul shots.

The rookies – Stuckey, Afflalo, Samb and Sammy Mejia – all sported white head bands with “R-O-O-K” in black marker across the front.

“You know where that came from, man,” Billups said afterward. “Sheed.”

Come back to Pistons.com on Friday for more impressions of the OU open scrimmage from the perspective of Oakland’s veteran basketball coach, Greg Kampe, who spent several years serving as a volunteer consultant to former Pistons general manager Jack McCloskey.