2014 Summer League

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The Wrap: Week 10, Summer Edition

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KCP at 2014 Summer League

Keith Langlois

ORLANDO – It probably wasn’t by accident that Stan Van Gundy put together a Summer League roster heavy on power forwards who can shoot 3-pointers. Two of them played under him in Orlando, Brian Cook and Justin Harper.

Winning an invitation to training camp based on Summer League play is always a long shot, but both Cook and Harper gave Van Gundy something to think about in Wednesday’s 92-90 loss to Boston. It was the first Pistons loss after three Summer League wins and it wasn’t over until Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s 3-pointer at the buzzer missed after the Pistons roared back from a double-digits deficit in the last three minutes.

That they stayed in it as long as they did was mostly a credit to the work put in by the two power forwards looking for a second life in the NBA.

In the first half, Cook played 11 minutes and Harper nine at the position. They combined for 21 points, Cook scoring 11. Harper made all four of his shots, two from the 3-point line; Cook made 4 of 7, including 3 of 5 triples. Harper grabbed three rebounds, Cook two with two assists.

Harper finished with 19 points in 19 minutes, making all seven of his shots and all four triples. Cook contributed 14 in 22 minutes, hitting 4 of 7 from the arc. Both players grabbed six rebounds.

Van Gundy has said he’ll put together a system that best fits his roster and he’s adamant about wanting Greg Monroe back in Detroit as his restricted free agency plays out. But even if there isn’t much room for a stretch four in a frontcourt dominated by Monroe, Andre Drummond and Josh Smith, there’s no doubt in the minds of Harper and Cook of the dimension such a player adds to Van Gundy’s offense.

“That’s a huge part of what Stan wants to do on offense,” Harper said. “Just creating action from the bigs and having threats on the perimeter from the fours. The fours are a huge part of offense. It’s crucial to have bigs who can shoot the ball.”

“He’s had great four men before – Ryan Anderson, Rashard Lewis,” Cook said of Van Gundy’s Orlando teams built around Dwight Howard. “A lot of their offense relies on the four man, so I thought it would be a great place for me to end my career.”

Caldwell-Pope again led the Pistons with 26 points, a figure he’s reached in three of four Summer League games, scoring 30 in the other. It took 12 points in the last three minutes for him to get there, though, as the eight practices and four games the Pistons have endured over 10 days in Orlando appeared to take a toll on all of their legs. Most of Caldwell-Pope’s shots came up short – he hit 8 of 22 for the game, 3 of 10 from the 3-point line with two of the makes coming in the late surge – and the defensive intensity wasn’t at the level it had been in the first three games.

Caldwell-Pope still managed to lead the Pistons in rebounds with nine, giving him four-game averages of 27 points and eight rebounds.

The Pistons also felt the effects of not having Peyton Siva, who missed the game after sitting out the second half of Tuesday’s win with a sore hamstring. Chances are he’s done for Summer League after putting in a solid week of practices and two-plus games that gives Stan Van Gundy plenty to go on as he considers the team option – due by July 20 – on the second year of Siva’s contract.

Without Siva – and with Marcel Starks having departed to participate in Las Vegas Summer League – the onus of running the team fell primarily to Ian Miller. He scored 16 points, taking only nine shots, but also committed five of the 23 Detroit turnovers.

The Pistons wrap up the Summer League schedule on Friday. The opponent and tipoff time will be determined after Thursday’s games are completed.

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Vet stretch 4s Cook, Harper give Pistons a glimpse of what their shooting adds

ORLANDO – Go ahead, try telling the Pistons that the game-winning triple Kentavious Caldwell-Pope drained only came in a Summer League game.

“I think it’s great. Any time you can get a key player and put him in a difficult situation and he steps up and makes a big play like that, I think it’s great,” Summer League coach Bob Beyer said of the unquestioned star of Orlando following Caldwell-Pope’s dagger with 6.6 seconds left to keep the Pistons undefeated at 3-0 with an 80-78 win over Miami. “All that’s going to do is raise his confidence level and it’s going to help him, no question about it.”

The shot gave Caldwell-Pope 26 points for the day and 82 through three games. But at halftime, he had only two points in nine minutes and his return after twisting his right ankle in the first half was in doubt. Well, not to him.

“No, that was not even a thought in my mind,” he said. “I wanted to go out and finish the game. I knew I had a bad first half, so I wanted to come back in the second half and just finish the game.”

He was 1 of 7 at halftime and picked up three early fouls. The game came easily to him over the first two Summer League wins, when he was the best player on the floor from start to finish. To be able to shake off a bad first half to dominate the second was the biggest revelation of game three.

“It is another step,” he said. “It’s about my confidence. I didn’t let the first half get to me. I didn’t let it get me down. I came back in the second half strong.”

“I’ll tell you what was impressive,” Beyer said. “He started off the game and he was struggling a little bit – you could sense that he was pressing a little bit to score the ball. But when he came back in that second half, he relaxed. He calmed down, he got his composure back and he did a great job of just playing within the offense.”

Caldwell-Pope also led the Pistons in rebounding with seven, giving him 23 in three games. He knocked down three free throws on the possession just before the game winner to pull the Pistons within two, then had the door opened for him when Miami missed two free throws with 15 seconds left. The Pistons survived a missed Shabazz Napier triple at the buzzer to get the win.

“When we were in the huddle and I was diagramming (the final play), you could just tell he wanted the ball,” Beyer said. “We had reads off of it based on how the defense was going to come at him, but to his credit he made a big-time play and a big-time shot.”

The unsung hero for the Pistons was Ian Miller, an undrafted free agent out of Florida State. With Peyton Siva sitting out the second half with a sore hamstring and Marcel Starks having left to play with Minnesota in Las Vegas, Miller scored 16 points to go with four rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes. They also got 14 points and an emergency point guard stint from DeAndre Liggins when Miller needed a brief second-half rest.

“I just think the league is made of players like that, to be able to step up and keep the pace and give a team what they need,” Miller said. “My coaches called my number today and that’s what they needed me to do.”

They might not have him for Wednesday’s game with Boston if the ankle doesn’t snap back.

“A lot is going to depend on how his ankle feels tomorrow,” Beyer said. “We’re going to be very smart about that, though, because he’s played incredibly well, hard and passionate.”

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KCP’s 24 second-half points, game winner, keep Pistons unbeaten in Summer League

ORLANDO – Peyton Siva is coming up on his one-year wedding anniversary, a ceremony he squeezed between his rookie Summer League experience and a busy off-season at the Pistons’ practice facility. A year later, he’s counting down the days to fatherhood. Peyton Siva is a young man in a hurry, which makes it all the more ironic that he married a woman named Patience.

You’d think that a 23-year-old with a growing family would feel undue pressure to perform, given his contract status. The Pistons have until July 20 to decide whether to pick up the second year of his contract. It was written that way for a purpose: to give management a chance to fully assess him in Summer League.

But if you thought that type of stress would crack him, well, you don’t know Peyton Siva.

“Not at all,” he responds to questions – and he got an earful of them after his first Summer League game over the weekend – about the contract situation weighing on him this week. “Yeah, it’s a contract and they’ve got the option. But all I can do is control how I play. I can’t really worry about what goes on outside or if I happen to come back. I believe that God has a plan for me, whatever happens. Of course I would love to stay with Detroit. But all I can do is control how hard I play and go out there and play.”

And that’s what he did in the two weekend wins to open Summer League play. Raw numbers rarely tell the story of a point guard’s contributions, but Siva’s raw numbers were pretty darn good. He averaged 15 points and 6.5 assists against just 2.0 turnovers, playing 28 minutes each game. He shot 50 percent and hit 7 of 9 foul shots with six rebounds and three steals.

“Peyton’s a great point guard,” said the unequivocal star of Summer League’s opening weekend, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. “That’s what he’s supposed to do. He’s supposed to run the floor, call plays and get us in the right position and that’s what he’s been doing for the last two days.”

Siva’s value to the Summer League team was perhaps more evident in the 12 minutes a game he wasn’t on the floor. Rookie free agents Marcel Starks of Georgetown and Ian Miller of Florida State are both talented offensive players, but Siva’s take-charge presence provides the structure required of an efficiently run half-court offense.

“I just think he’s a good basketball player,” Pistons Summer League coach Bob Beyer said after Saturday’s win over Houston. “He’s a point guard and he is thinking, ‘Set my teammates up first.’ He wants to run the team, but he has the ability – as we saw tonight, playing in high pick-and-roll situations, make good decisions, get to the rim and really that helps him out and it helps our team out.”

Siva, a three-year starter under Rick Pitino who led Louisville to the 2013 NCAA title over Michigan, experienced a similar pressure to perform in last year’s Summer League. He was the third of Detroit’s three draft picks last June, the 56th pick, and the Pistons didn’t go into that draft expecting to keep a late second-rounder on the roster. It was a pick they expected to stash in Europe – until Siva won them over with the intangible qualities that fly off of him like sparks.

“You always want to fight and try to stay in the NBA,” he said. “Especially in my situation, all I really can control is how hard I play. If the coach likes the way I play for the team, then so be it. If not, then it’s not the end of the world. I’m just taking it in stride. I’m truly blessed to have that opportunity to at least be able to play my way in.”

Now he needs to win over a completely new management team, led by Stan Van Gundy, who’ll also be coaching him if he gets his contract picked up.

“I’ve spent some time this summer working out with the coaches. I think it’s been going well. Hopefully, I can make a good impression on them and stick around. It looks like they’re doing a lot of good things and I definitely want to be a part of that uprising.”

Van Gundy told Siva that he wasn’t going to put much stock into the five Summer League games, which are often frantic and filled with desperate players with more tenuous contract situations – read: no contract – than Siva.

“He told me he wants me to come into the two-a-days and play hard and compete and I think I did a good job of that,” Siva said after the seven practices Van Gundy scheduled and Beyer ran last week wrapped up. “He told me not to really worry about the games. He put more emphasis on the practices. That’s what I tried to do – go out there and push it and work hard.”

Go out there and push it and word hard – also known as just another day in the life of Peyton Siva. He and Patience will add a daughter to their family in September, by which time Peyton hopes to be back in the Auburn Hills practice facility getting ready for his second training camp. He’s done everything within his grasp so far to make that a reality.

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Siva making a forceful case to return to Pistons for year two

ORLANDO – If you wondered how his one-game star turn in the Summer League opener would affect Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s mindset, you weren’t alone.

“You always wonder a little bit about that,” Pistons Summer League coach Bob Beyer said. “I thought he played really, really well yesterday. Our expectations are for him to play well every night and he did again tonight.”

Caldwell-Pope followed up his 26-point, six-steal Saturday with a 30-point, 12-rebound Sunday as the Pistons went to 2-0 with an 85-82 win over Memphis. Any nagging doubt that he’d come out fat and sassy or passive after dominating in the opener evaporated on the game’s first possession when he hit two triples, missing the free throw after being fouled on the first try before chasing down the loose ball and draining a second three.

“That helped,” he said. “That got me going and I was on for the whole night. I wanted to stay aggressive and continue to make plays for me and my team.”

Caldwell-Pope hit 4 of 8 triples but also continued to take the ball to the basket aggressively without veering into uncontrolled play. He’s shot 16 free throws over two games, making 14. And he hasn’t allowed shouldering the offensive burden to diminish his defensive intensity, either.

“He was matched up right at the beginning of the game against (Memphis No. 1 pick) Jordan Adams, who had a great game yesterday shooting the ball,” Beyer said. “He took the challenge on defensively as well and the one thing I really like about KCP is just his overall spirit and competitiveness. And it showed again tonight.”

“I feed off my defenses,” Caldwell-Pope said. “It gets me going. Once my defense is going, I know my offense is going to come, so I just continue to work hard on the defensive end.”

The script really wasn’t much different all the way around for the Pistons on day two. Peyton Siva again won best supporting actor with another superb floor game. Siva scored 12 points, dished out seven assists against two turnovers and pitched in with five rebounds. Siva’s value was underscored for the 12 often stagnant minutes offensively the Pistons experienced when he sat.

With Memphis playing physical defense and focused on jamming the Pistons’ half-court offense, the coaching staff at halftime decided to counter with a heavy dose of high pick-and-roll sets that put the ball – and the onus of decision-making – in Siva’s hands. He was brilliant in making the right call and often set up teammates Tony Mitchell, Justin Harper, Brian Cook and others for layups or open jump shots.

“Peyton’s a great point guard,” Caldwell-Pope said. “That’s what he’s supposed to do – he’s supposed to run the floor, call plays and get us in the right position and that’s what he’s been doing for the last two days.”

“The best thing was to put Peyton in high pick and rolls and he did a good job of making reads and setting some guys up for easy baskets,” Beyer said.

Among the free agents hoping to land an invitation to training camp or, perhaps, even a contract offer, the standout over the first two days has been DeAndre Liggins, the reigning D-League Defensive Player of the Year who combines with Caldwell-Pope to give the Pistons two tenacious, athletic wing defenders.

Liggins has seven steals in two games and Sunday scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and handed out four assists. He made Van Gundy’s Orlando team after being a late second-round pick in 2011 out of Kentucky.

“I was with Stan my rookie year and we’ve got a relationship,” he said. “That’s part of why I’m here and the other part is my ability to play defense. I’m not only playing for Detroit; I’m playing for the other 29 teams and just trying to play to the best of my abilities, to make solid plays and do the things I’m capable of.”

He thinks his time in the D-League, where he got to handle the ball and improved in areas beyond his defense, makes him a more attractive candidate to fill a spot on someone’s NBA bench. But as a defensive stopper, he can appreciate what he’s seen from Caldwell-Pope over the first two Summer League games.

“Kentavious is making a lot of shots,” he said. “He’s very energetic. That’s something people don’t look at because he’s making shots. He’s very energetic, he plays defense and I like him a lot. He’s a good teammate.”

A good teammate who’s making a case to be a more important teammate than Stan Van Gundy might have imagined even a week ago.

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Second verse same as the first: KCP shines again

ORLANDO – Second-year players who hope to make a mark in the NBA better do more than just blend in during Summer League. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Peyton Siva passed that test with plenty of cushion Saturday.

When last seen, Caldwell-Pope was putting up 30 points and flashing his breathtaking athleticism against Oklahoma City in a game with serious postseason implications for the Thunder. It was a wonderful way to launch his off-season – he said so himself for what it would do for his confidence – and it came into full evidence in a 95-89 Pistons win over Houston.

Cadlwell-Pope scored 26 points and recorded six of Detroit’s 17 steals, but even that barely scratches the surface of why he was clearly the best player on the floor – exactly the thing the Pistons were hoping to see out of him.

He looked supremely confident with the ball in his hands, playing aggressively without veering out of control, and he was a different player in mannerism, too. Rarely heard as a rookie, Caldwell-Pope’s voice boomed through the practice gym at Amway Arena – calling out defensive instructions, encouraging teammates to play hard and giving the officials an earful twice when he felt he should have been awarded free throws.

“We had a little conversation about his emotions almost went a little too far late in that game,” Summer League coach Bob Beyer said. “But you want to see that in a player. A lot of players don’t naturally have that; he does. His competitiveness, his will to win, is very strong. A lot of guys you wish had that. He’s one of those guys that does.”

“I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Caldwell-Pope said. “After my last game of the season, just took that for motivation and started working hard in the summer. I’m just trying to get more comfortable with the ball in my hand and helping my teammates out being vocal on the court.”

Caldwell-Pope scored in many different ways. He knocked down 2 of 5 from the 3-point line, drained a few mid-range jump shots off the dribble, hit 8 of 9 free throws – many earned with strong drives – and made a few jaw-dropping moves to the rim, including a twisting layup off a baseline drive and pivot and a swooping left-handed finish down the middle.

Just as important was his defense, which went far beyond the six steals. There were numerous deflections and hustle plays, including a chase-down block.

“It’s his length, his aggressiveness,” Beyer said. “He has a defensive mindset and you can see that out there.”

Siva, in character, was more understated but just as critical to the win. In a typically chaotic Summer League performance where players are desperate to catch the eye of NBA and international scouts, Siva committed only two turnovers in 28 minutes – and he was kicking himself for those.

“I should have had none,” he said. “I had zero leading up to the fourth quarter and there were a couple of sloppy plays where I just lost it. I should’ve done a better job, but hopefully next game I’ll focus more and run the team. That’s what coach Van Gundy wanted me to do and coach Beyer – they want me to take care of the ball and run the team and that’s what I tried to do.”

Siva’s greatest quality isn’t anything tangible. It’s not his shot or his ballhandling or his defense. It’s his uncanny ability to wind up on the winning side more often than not. And with the game in the balance – tied at 86 – Siva scored the game’s next six points on two free throws, a highlight-reel driving layup and two more free throws. He finished with 16 points and six assists.

“I just think he’s a good basketball player,” Beyer said. “He’s a point guard and he is thinking, ‘Set my teammates up first.’ He wants to run the team, but he has the ability – as we saw tonight, playing in high pick-and-roll situations, make good decisions, get to the rim and really that helps him out and it helps our team out.”

Caldwell-Pope and Siva have different stakes at Summer League. Caldwell-Pope will use the week to solidify his status in Van Gundy’s playing rotation, perhaps fight it out to start at shooting guard. For Siva, it’s about convincing the Pistons to pick up the second-year guarantee on his contract – a decision that will be rendered soon after Summer League’s conclusion.

“I would love to be a part of it,” he said. “I think they’re doing something special here with coach Van Gundy and the players they’re bringing in and I’m definitely going to work hard and just play my game.”

Both 2013 draft picks did exactly that on Saturday. And if they maintain that level of play for the remaining four Summer League games, they just might get the chance to play their games when it really counts come the fall.

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KCP, Siva sparkle as Pistons win Summer League opener

ORLANDO – It’s one of those rare years where the Pistons won’t have a drafted rookie suiting up for their Summer League team. The focus, instead, will be on the three second-year Pistons – Kentavious-Caldwell Pope, Tony Mitchell and Peyton Siva.

Caldwell-Pope figures to be fighting for a rotation spot entering his second season, perhaps even the starting shooting guard job. Mitchell’s contract for his second season is guaranteed, but he understands that he needs to make an impression on Stan Van Gundy over the next week. Peyton Siva, drafted 56th last year, also will be under pressure to perform. The Pistons hold an option on Siva’s contract and Summer League could be the deciding factor.

Beyond the three Pistons under contract, here are the rest of the players who’ll be looking to earn an invitation to an NBA training camp or win a contract outside the NBA with their Summer League performances:

Brian Cook – The 24th pick in the 2003 draft – Cook played for the Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals won by the Pistons as a rookie – Cook has been out of the league since last playing for Washington late in the 2011-12 season. He was waived by the Wizards in 2012 and by Utah in 2013 at the end of training camp.

Tim Ohlbrecht – A German native who played three games with the Houston Rockets last season and finished the season winning the D-League championship with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. In six playoff games, Ohlbrecht averaged 7.5 points and 6.0 rebounds a game in 21 minutes for Fort Wayne. Ohlbrecht, 25, is 6-foot-11. He played in the 2013 D-League All-Star game, his first year in the league after playing professionally in Germany. He was a member of the 2008 German Olympic team that included Dirk Nowitzki.

Justin Harper – Harper, a stretch four, was the 32nd pick in the 2011 NBA draft by Orlando – one spot ahead of Kyle Singler, taken by the Pistons. Like Singler, Harper signed during the lockout to play overseas. He returned to Orlando when the lockout ended and played in 14 games. The Magic waived him late in training camp entering his second season. He’s played in the D-League and in Israel’s Super League since then. Last season, he averaged 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 32 percent from the 3-point line for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

David Lighty – A 6-foot-6 shooting guard/small forward who most recently has played professionally in France, Lighty is probably best remembered as a part of Ohio State’s No. 1-rated 2006 recruiting class headlined by Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook, all of whom became first-round draft choices after one season in the Big Ten. He was viewed as a glue guy and a terrific athlete and defender. Some felt Lighty’s future was brightest in football coming out of high school. He sat out one year at Ohio State with a knee injury and left undrafted in 2011, first playing in Italy. With Nanterre last season, Lighty was second on the team in minutes played at 26 a game, averaging 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds a game.

DeAndre Liggins – A teammate of ex-Piston Brandon Knight at Kentucky for one season, Liggins entered the 2011 NBA draft after his junior year and was taken 53rd overall by Orlando. He spent his second season with Oklahoma City and last year got two 10-day contracts with Miami, spending most of the season in the D-League, where he was an All-Star and D-League Player of the Year while being voted to the All-D-League second team. He can play either shooting guard or small forward.

Christian Watford – Watford went undrafted out of Indiana in 2013 and played for Hapoel Eilat in the Israeli Super League last season. He averaged 9.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while playing 26 minutes a game. At 6-foot-9 and 230 pounds, Watford, like Harper, is a stretch four.

Jordan Heath – A four-year college player out of Canisius, Heath went undrafted, which wasn’t unexpected. He averaged 10.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 28 minutes a game as a Canisius senior. Heath, at 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds, might also be auditioning for a role as a stretch four. He took 3.2 3-point shots a game as a senior and made 42.1 percent of them.

Tristan Spurlock – Spurlock started his college career at Virginia but transferred and spent his last three seasons at Central Florida. At 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, Spurlock has solid perimeter skills and an ideal NBA frame. He averaged 11.0 points and 5.5 rebounds as a senior and shot 33 percent on 4.5 3-point attempts per game.

Markel Starks – Starks, a 6-foot-2 point guard, was considered a borderline second-round prospect but went undrafted out of Georgetown despite a standout senior season in which he averaged 17.3 points and 4.1 assists per game. The Hoyas suffered gutting frontcourt losses and Starks had to carry the offense, rarely leaving the floor. That might explain the dip in his 3-point shooting from 42 percent as a junior to 33 percent last season.

Damion James – The 24th pick in the 2010 draft after four seasons as a cornerstone of a then-rising Texas program, James’ career was derailed by a broken foot suffered as a rookie that eventually required surgery to insert a screw. As a result, he’s played only 39 games over four seasons, including five last season with San Antonio. At 6-foot-7, 225 pounds, James projected as a physical small forward who played above-average defense. If his foot is healthy, he’s an intriguing prospect.

Ian Miller – A four-year product of Florida State, Miller is more a combo guard than a pure point at 6-foot-3 and nearly 200 pounds. He hit 40 percent of his 3-point shots and 87 percent of his free throws as a senior, when he averaged 13.7 points and 2.8 assists.