LAS VEGAS – Even by the optimistic standards of the off-season, the Pistons’ front office came back from Las Vegas feeling unusually good about their NBA Summer League experience.

“Some summer leagues can be more beneficial than others,” vice president John Hammond said Monday after the Pistons’ entry in the Las Vegas league went 4-1 with an unusually high number of players – six – who figure to be part of the 15-man roster for 2007-08. “When you have our three picks from this past draft all playing along with Cheick Samb, who we drafted last year, plus a young player like Jason Maxiell, that’s beneficial in itself. To have the chance to evaluate three players for the first time in an NBA setting and to have Cheick back and Max, it was just an overall great week.”

Maybe the biggest news coming from Las Vegas is that Hammond said the Pistons decided to keep Cheick Samb here instead of continuing his developing in Spain. The team announced Samb’s signing Tuesday morning.

“We’re happy to add Cheick Samb as a member of our organization,” Pistons president Joe Dumars said. “Cheick has intriguing potential and our intention is to bring him along slowly.”

Samb, 22, averaged 9.6 points last season with WTC Cornella of the Spanish League. In 2005-06, he averaged 9.6 points and team highs of 7.7 rebounds and 3.1 blocks for WTC Cornella in the Spanish LEB2 regular season. He led the league in blocked shots, registering more blocks that the totals of every other team in the league except for one. He averaged 7.0 points and 5.4 rebounds in Las Vegas.

Samb had one year left at his option on his contract with his Spanish professional team, but the Pistons saw enough in Samb’s development in the year since they’ve had him to believe the time was right for the leap to the United States. It helps that the Pistons’ new D-League affiliate is a three-hour drive away instead of in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“It makes life easier for everyone,” Hammond said. “It’s easier for Cheick and his travel and easier for us in the front office that want to have an opportunity to go and check him out. We can drive three hours and see him. What a big difference it will be for us to be able to do that.”

Samb arrived in Auburn Hills on June 25 and got to work out that week prior to the NBA draft with Pistons assistant coach Dave Cowens, a Hall of Famer, and immediately took to Cowens’ coaching. Hammond said he also believes that Kent Davidson, Fort Wayne’s coach, is one of the best in minor league basketball.

It also now appears likely that the Pistons will carry Mejia on the 15-man roster, Hammond said.

“We like him,” he said. “If we had our druthers, he would have an opportunity to do so.”