2017 Summer League

Keith Langlois

Stan Van Gundy came into Summer League unsure his last two No. 1 picks were ready to challenge for rotation minutes. He saw enough from Henry Ellenson and Luke Kennard over 10 days in Orlando to make Friday’s trade that opens the door to minutes for both of them.

In dealing Marcus Morris to Boston for Avery Bradley, the Pistons set off a chain reaction that greatly changes the complexion of the Pistons – and effectively ends their pursuit of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a restricted free agent whose next contract is likely to start at $20 million a season or more.

With Morris gone, Tobias Harris figures to get the bulk of his minutes at small forward in 2017-18. That opens an opportunity for Ellenson to share time with Jon Leuer at power forward. It also likely means Stanley Johnson – who last season played most of his minutes at shooting guard – will become Harris’ primary backup at small forward, which could leave Kennard a more likely option behind Bradley at shooting guard.

Bradley helps Stan Van Gundy achieve a number of organizational off-season goals. Van Gundy wanted to add perimeter defense, 3-point shooting and ballhandling. He gets all of that with Bradley. In that sense, Bradley is a high-end version of the free agent the Pistons added, Langston Galloway, another guard capable of defending either backcourt spot, making plays off the dribble and shooting above the league average from the 3-point line.

Bradley is coming off a tremendous season in which he was poised to make the All-Star team but missed nearly six weeks from mid-January to late February with a strained Achilles tendon. While Caldwell-Pope was often cited by Van Gundy as a player who competed hard virtually every night, the Pistons lose nothing in that area with Bradley, a dogged competitor.

He was Boston’s second-leading scorer at 16.3 points, behind Isaiah Thomas, and second-leading rebounder at 6.1 – a remarkable figure for a 6-foot-2 guard. He shot 39 percent from the 3-point line on 5.0 attempts per game and is considered one of the league’s top perimeter defenders. In fact, when the NBA All-Defensive team was released last week and Bradley just missed the cut to make the second team despite picking up 12 first-team votes, it sparked outrage on social media from players in both conferences.

Bradley, 26, is a seven-year veteran who came to the NBA primarily as a point guard but has played mostly at shooting guard for the Celtics since their acquisition of Thomas and drafting of Marcus Smart.

But he’s certainly capable of giving the Pistons minutes at point guard if needed and would provide the same luxury of being able to defend opposition point guards that Caldwell-Pope gave Van Gundy. A backcourt of Bradley and Galloway would be among the best defensive pairings in the Eastern Conference.

Bradley became expendable in Boston because of the depth the Celtics have created with a trove of recent first-round draft picks but mostly because of their need to shed salary to fit newly signed free agent Gordon Hayward under the salary cap. Bradley is due to be an unrestricted free agent after the 2017-18 season.

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Avery Bradley’s addition changes Pistons complexion across the board

ORLANDO – There are 300 or more hopefuls every July who go to Summer League with NBA teams and about a handful wind up with anything more than an invitation to fall training camp.

Count Eric Moreland as one who beat those long odds.

At the conclusion of Thursday’s Summer League title game – the Pistons lost 83-81 to Dallas in overtime – the team announced that Moreland had been signed to a contract.

Moreland slots in as the No. 3 center behind Andre Drummond and Boban Marjanovic. His skill set – a mobile big man who can run the floor, block shots and defend in the paint and out to the 3-point line – figures to complement the mix given the matchup problems the Pistons will occasionally encounter with the 7-foot-4 Marjanovic.

“I think he’s an active big that really understands pick-and-roll defense,” Pistons associate head coach Bob Beyer said after the Summer League finale. “He has size, he plays with good energy, he’s active on the glass. When you’re looking for someone at the center position that has the activity that he has, especially on the defensive end, it’s something that we are lacking and is something that he certainly brings to the table for us.”

Moreland, who nearly accepted an invitation to Pistons training camp in 2015, spent the 2014-15 and ’15-16 seasons with Sacramento after going undrafted out of Oregon State in 2014. At 6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-3 wing span, Moreland’s length and quickness give him value at the defensive end, but he also impressed the Pistons with his screening and activity at the offensive end.

It was apparent early in practices before Summer League play began that Moreland was opening eyes and that was confirmed once games began.

Moreland averaged 7.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots in 30 minutes a game in Summer League.

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Moreland parlays strong Summer League into a roster spot with Pistons

ORLANDO – Everybody in the gym knew Luke Kennard was going to get the ball with the Pistons down three points and 8.8 seconds left on the clock.

The Pistons drew up the play for Kennard, just as they had earlier in the week when they trailed by three points on a final possession. That time, Kennard drew the foul and hit three free throws to force overtime. This time …

“Kennard! Kennrd! Aaarghhh,” came the warnings and the reaction from the Dallas bench as their coaches watched Kennard come off a series of screens, catch the ball a few feet beyond and right at the top of the 3-point arc, draining the shot.

Kennard scored all seven Pistons points in overtime – a twisting jump shot in the paint, two free throws as reward for a strong move to the basket and the tying triple – but the Pistons lost in overtime of the Summer League title game for the second consecutive year, this time 83-81.

Kennard finished with 24 points on 9 of 15 shooting, hitting all three of his triples. He finished Summer League averaging 17.2 points and shooting .478 from the 3-point arc while making all nine of his free throws.

It was about as impressive a 10-day period as the Pistons could have hoped to get from Kennard, whom they chose with the 12th pick in the June draft after his sophomore season at Duke.

“We talked about it right from day one,” said Bob Beyer, Pistons associate head coach and again head coach for their Summer League team. “The more you watch him, he’s not afraid of the moment at all. The way our offense was going, we really struggled in the fourth. The ball was in his hands because I thought he was the one guy that either could make a shot or find someone to get an easy score. And he really, really showed that.”

Stan Van Gundy said Wednesday that Kennard had thrust himself into the battle for minutes at shooting guard with what he’d seen from him.

“He’s clearly a guy with no fear,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think anything’s going to bother him. He’s going to go out and play, so he’s got that kind of toughness.”

It wasn’t quite the finish Henry Ellenson, the other key Pistons player here, would have wanted to Summer League. After averaging 20 points through four games, he struggled to a 2 of 10 shooting day with five turnovers in finishing with five points.

“I think he kind of forced some of his shots,” Beyer said. “He shot a little too quick sometimes when he had smaller defenders on him. The best thing for him to do is play with a little more poise and then just shoot right over that defender, but he wanted to get it and go and that’s not really to his benefit when he plays that way.”

The Pistons announced the signing of Eric Moreland after the game to be the No. 3 center on the roster behind Andre Drummond and Boban Marjanovic. The performances of Ellenson and Kennard and the mining of a nugget like Moreland made it a five-star Summer League for the Pistons.

“I thought it was a great week,” Beyer said. “We saw what Luke did today. When you saw him from the first time he stepped on the floor to where he is now, it’s hard to play that many games in a short amount of time that he did, but he got better and played well. And Henry, too, is going to be a fine NBA player and he’ll learn from this experience today.”

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Kennard rises to the moment as Pistons lose title game in OT

ORLANDO – The Pistons needed another point guard. They needed 3-point shooting. They needed another ballhandler capable of playing alongside Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith. They needed another plus perimeter defender.

They satisfied all of those needs with the free-agent signing of Langston Galloway.

With no money to spend under the salary cap, it was vital the Pistons roll several needs into their one big signing this year, which likely will be accomplished by using a major portion of the mid-level exception of $8.4 million.

Galloway broke into the NBA in 2014 despite going undrafted out of St. Joseph’s, where as a four-year starter he averaged in double figures all four seasons and went out scoring 17.7 points a game as a senior.

He played off the ball in college but quickly showed he could handle the point during his stint in the D-League. The Knicks signed him before the midway point of the 2014-15 season and he played 45 games with them as a rookie and all 82 in his second season. Galloway began last season with New Orleans and was included in the trade to Sacramento for DeMarcus Cousins. In 74 games last season, he averaged 7.9 points and 1.3 assists in 20 minutes.

“I think Langston’s a really good NBA player,” Pistons associated head coach Bob Beyer said after the Pistons lost to Dallas 83-81 in overtime for the Summer League title. “He’s been in some different situations that maybe he hasn’t quite had the opportunity to play and play well. I think he can play either guard position. He’s a really good shooter and he gets down the floor in transition. He’s just another piece that’s going to add some depth to our backcourt.”

Galloway is regarded as an above-average defender capable of guarding either backcourt position. At 6-foot-2, he’s a little undersized at shooting guard but fits in today’s NBA with many teams often going to two point-guard attacks.

He shot 39 percent from the 3-point line last season, hitting 39 percent and attempting 57 percent of his shots from behind the arc. That should come in handy for a Pistons team that finished 26th in 3-point attempts and 28th in accuracy last season.

Galloway, a Louisiana native, draws high marks for character according to all accounts, befitting someone who fought his way from undrafted status to become a free agent the Pistons targeted early for the breadth of his skills and the number of boxes he checked off their needs list.

At 25, Galloway fits into a backcourt that has Jackson and Smith at point guard and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – assuming the Pistons retain him as his restricted free agency plays out – and No. 1 pick Luke Kennard, coming off a strong Summer League showing, at shooting guard.

He’ll give Stan Van Gundy plenty of lineup flexibility. Galloway’s skill set will enable him to pair up with any of the other guards on the Pistons roster. In a summer where the Pistons didn’t have the cap space Van Gundy carried into his first three off-seasons, they needed to roll a lot of attributes into one signing. In Galloway, that’s just what they did.

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Pistons check off several needs with addition of Langston Galloway

ORLANDO – Like most folks that travel to this central Florida playground, Henry Ellenson wants to take a little token of his trip back home with him.

“We’re in the championship tomorrow,” he said after scoring 29 points to carry the Pistons to an 87-82 win over Charlotte. “We were here last year and we barely lost that one. I want to walk away with the winning hats they get, so if I could take that home and go to the lake or something, I’ll be good.”

The Pistons are 3-1 – their only loss came by a point when an incorrect application of the rules allowed Oklahoma City to erase a four-point deficit in the final 10 seconds of the opener – and will play Dallas at 2 p.m. Thursday for the title. They lost in sudden-death overtime in last year’s title game when Ellenson was fresh off the draft.

He’s come a long way since then even though Ellenson, at 20, remains the youngest player on Stan Van Gundy’s roster.

“He’s certainly at a different point than he was a year ago,” Van Gundy said. “A year ago, you could walk out of Summer League here and see that it was going to take time. It wasn’t going to be early in the season. You knew that. Everybody who watched knew that. That’s not the case now. He’s in the mix and I think ready to fight guys for minutes.”

Ellenson had his best scoring game of Summer League, hitting 12 of 20 shots overall and 4 of 8 front the 3-point line. He got rolling early with 10 points in the first quarter, taking advantage of the space Charlotte was giving him by not switching smaller players on to Ellenson and by not sending guards to double when he caught the ball on the blocks.

“The guards were able to find me right away off some pops,” he said. “Their bigs were staying with the guards a little bit longer today and I was able to get some shots going early. It’s easier to start off a game like that, for sure.”

He never really slowed down with two of his biggest baskets came in the closing minutes. The Pistons took the game’s only double-digit lead with a 15-3 run to open the fourth quarter to go up 78-63. But Charlotte came back with a 9-0 run while Ellenson and Luke Kennard, who scored 14 points, remained on the bench.

Shortly after Ellenson came back in with the lead down to two points, he drained an 18-foot baseline jumper. With just under a minute left and the Pistons again ahead by only two points, Ellenson gave another reminder of his versatility with a runner shot against his body as he dribbled down the left side of the lane.

“The clock was running down and we needed to get a bucket,” he said. “(Charlotte) just closed out hard. I was able to attack it and I wasn’t able to get all the way to the rack but I was able to float that up. I’m comfortable with that floater shot, finally got one to go this week. That was good.”

Ellenson is averaging 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds through four games, shooting .477 overall and .393 from the 3-point arc on seven attempts a game while leading the Pistons in minutes played at just over 30 a game.

“I think it’s been a good Summer League,” he said.

Now if he can just take a hat back home to Rice Lake, Wis., it’ll be a great Summer League.

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Ellenson’s 29-point day carries Pistons to Summer League title game

ORLANDO – The usual caveats about “it’s only Summer League” apply, of course, but Luke Kennard is pretty rapidly easing Pistons concerns about the state of his defense.

Through eight Summer League practices and three games, he’s not only held up just fine in one-on-one matchups but exhibited keen instincts, active hands and the toughness necessary to avoid becoming targeted in opposition scouting reports.

That was all on display again in Tuesday’s double-overtime win over Miami in which Kennard’s three free throws with 1.1 seconds left in regulation got the Pistons to overtime. Kennard finished with two steals and accumulated a handful of deflections – plus five rebounds and four assists.

“He has great anticipation and he had good toughness,” said Pistons associate head coach Bob Beyer, coaching the Summer League team. “The more he’s in practice and even in these walk throughs, he’s a very cerebral player. So you say, ‘OK, Luke, on a high pick and roll, if you’re the low man you’ve got to pull all the way in to take the roll.’ He’s starting to get a better understanding of that.”

The Pistons clearly saw Kennard as the best offensive player on the board with the 12th pick and went with him on the hope that his basketball IQ and competitiveness would allow him to become a capable defender. But Stan Van Gundy bluntly admitted he hadn’t seen many signs of it on the college game tape of Kennard’s he’d viewed.

Within the first two days of Summer League practices, though, both Beyer and Van Gundy saw better lateral quickness from Kennard than they’d expected to see. And, since then, they’ve seen all those other things – toughness, anticipation, active hands.

Kennard knew the rap on him and put in as much work as a draft prospect could possibly cram in between the end of the college season in late March and the June draft to get a jump on the process. Strength training, agility drills, everything he could do to improve his defense, he did. Kennard, too, has been encouraged to see the results carrying over to Summer League.

“That’s one of the main focuses I had coming into this was learning a lot on defense,” he said. “Obviously, to learn about the entire game, but especially defensively and just to be in the right spots. This is a very mental game. You have to be mentally prepared and focused at all times. That’s what I’m trying to lock in and focus on and, defensively, I think I’ve improved since I’ve been here.”

Kennard is also revealing that he’s less a pure shooter than he is a pure scorer. After a 4 of 6 showing from the 3-point line in the opener, Kennard has gone 1 of 5 in consecutive games. But he’s still averaged 16 points in those two games, scoring 18 in the win over Miami. Not only that, he’s picked up seven assists in the two wins. In other words, even on nights Kennard isn’t raining triples he’s finding ways to make a major offensive impact.

“No matter what, being a scorer or playmaker, you just have to move on to the next play. If your shot’s not falling, I try to find ways to make an impact and help. My shot has been off the past couple of games a little bit, but just for me as a player and a shooter and scorer, I move on to the next play and try to focus on what I can do to help later on in a game.”

So far, he’s figuring it out just fine.

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Kennard’s smarts showing up on both defense, offense in Pistons wins

ORLANDO – It wasn’t a Rodmanesque defensive outing for Henry Ellenson, but on the possessions that mattered most he pitched a shutout. Luke Kennard didn’t show off the 3-point stroke that pushed the Pistons to use the 12th pick in last month’s draft on him, but with the game on the line his threat forced a foul that put him at the line for three free throws to tie with a second left.

The Pistons last two No. 1 draft picks scored 18 points each as they won 73-71 in double overtime over Miami to go to 2-1 in Summer League play with a pair left to play.

Both were matched up against older players whose ticket to the NBA wasn’t punched in the lottery. In fact, with the game in the balance the two youngest Pistons – who spent a combined three seasons in college basketball – were on the floor against Heat players who’d all spent four or five years in college and a few who’ve been out of college for a year or more clawing their way to a shot at the NBA.

“They get the game. They know their role and what they can do,” Ellenson said. “I thought they played really hard. They’re talented guys, they’re smart and I think their energy – you could hear it on the sidelines. That’s how they played the whole week.”

Ellenson hit 3 of 8 from the 3-point line, the one area of his offensive game the Pistons are monitoring with optimism and interest. He’s already more versatile and offensively gifted than most power forwards; if his 3-point efficiency rises to league average or better, watch out.

It’s at the defensive end where Stan Van Gundy and his staff are most curious to see what Ellenson can do and Tuesday was at once both a mixed bag and evidence of progress. Ellenson spent most of the game matched against Miami’s Okaro White, who played 139 games at Florida State and for the last three years has been knocking on the NBA door, crashing it last year by getting in 35 games with the Heat. He’s got a contract for next season – but it’s non-guaranteed, meaning he’s fighting for his job here.

And he played like it. White is the prototype of the power forward who’ll give Ellenson a challenge: rangy, athletic, with enough of a 3-point shot to dissuade backing off and enough of an off-the-dribble game to cause trouble. He played more than 37 minutes and scored 29 points.

But given three shots to win the game – on the last possession of overtime and on two possessions in a sudden-death second OT – Ellenson stoned him. The last shot – right before point guard Pierre Jackson’s runner won it for the Pistons – was perhaps Ellenson’s best defensive possession of the night. Isolated against White on the right wing, Ellenson prevented White from going to either side around him and was close enough to challenge the shot on a long 2-pointer.

“And that’s all we wanted him to do,” said Bob Beyer, Pistons associated head coach who’s running the Summer League team for Van Gundy. “If he was going to make a 2-point shot off the dribble over us, well, that would’ve been back on me. But I thought Henry really got down in his stance, he moved his feet well and he made him shoot a contested two.”

Ellenson had an open three to tie on the last possession of regulation that missed, but the Pistons got a second chance with 2.8 seconds left. Beyer dialed up a play for Kennard – he was 1 of 5 from the arc after shooting 5 of 11 over the first two games – who drew a foul and went to the line with 1.1 seconds left.

“I don’t know if I’ve been in a situation like that, but I’ve been in a couple similar situations,” Kennard said. “Just stayed calm. I was more calm that I thought I’d be, honestly.”

“He wasn’t afraid to knock those down,” Ellenson said. “None of those are rolling in and out. It was straight in. When he went to the line, I felt good about it. For sure, if there was anyone on the line you’re going to want it to be Luke. That was huge of him.”

Those last few seconds of regulation – chances for big shots for both Ellenson and Kennard, the chance for a coach to command a timeout huddle and see his team execute two out-of-bounds plays – is the essence and the value of Summer League, the reason teams invest all the hours and the money they pour into the endeavor.

“We saw offensive execution down the stretch, defensive execution down the stretch to get stops, but I think what it does is for both Luke and Henry, those guys were put in a position to decide a game and they executed plays to get themselves shots,” Beyer said.

“Even though Henry missed, that’s a great experience for him to get there to properly execute it. And for Luke, who’s playing college basketball three months ago, for him to get out there and really come off that screen like he wanted the ball, draw the foul and then it’s not easy to step to the line and make three free throws like he did. But he shot all three with great confidence and eventually led to the win for us.”

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Summer League essence: teaching moments for Kennard, Ellenson in Pistons win

ORLANDO – Eric Moreland knew the Pistons had a need for a No. 3 center when he chose to join their Summer League team over other offers. But it wasn’t  that Moreland felt he was auditioning for that job as much as he saw it as his best chance to audition for all 30 NBA teams.

That’s the reality for all players in Moreland’s situation who came to Orlando or Las Vegas every summer looking to land one of the 450 most coveted jobs in the basketball-playing world.

Through the first two games of Summer League, Moreland has done about all he could to state his case that he deserves one of those jobs – or perhaps one of the 60 more than have been created with the addition of two “two-way” contracts per team. He’s averaging 12.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocked shots through two games with three more to go.

“Never satisfied,” Moreland said after Sunday’s 103-78 romp over New York when asked if he was pleased with his performances. “We’re going to go back and watch the tape, figure out what I need to do better.”

Pressed and asked if he was “happy,” Moreland said, “I’m happy to be healthy. Happy to be out there.”

Moreland almost gave the Pistons a shot two years ago when they invited him to training camp, but opted to return to Sacramento for the 2015-16 season after sticking with the Kings as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon State in 2014. Injuries – a shoulder and a foot – marred his first two NBA seasons and last year Moreland played with the D-League’s Canton Charge, averaging 12.8 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots.

Teams often settle for one outstanding trait or another when settling on a No. 3 center. Maybe a player with 3-point shooting range to offer offensive diversity, maybe a shot-blocker, maybe a physical defender or someone who sets solid screens and can pass to facilitate offense without necessarily offering a scoring threat.

Moreland offers a little more than a typical third center. He isn’t a scoring threat outside the paint, but he checks off a lot of other boxes as a shot-blocker, finisher at the rim and mobile defender who runs the floor well.

The Pistons have more than $30 million of cap money – or more than 30 percent of the $99 million cap amount for 2017-18 – tied up in Andre Drummond and Boban Marjanovic. Stan Van Gundy made clear last week before free agency opened that the third center would play on a league-minimum contract.

“I think with Andre, Boban, Jon Leuer, Henry Ellenson at 6-11, that would be probably not the place we’d tend to spend money. So I don’t think we’re going to be able to be as picky in terms of the type we want. We’re going to get somebody we like, that’s all. It could be more of a skill, finesse, passing guy; it could be more of an energy, effort guy. When it gets to the point of somebody’s ready to agree on that, it’ll be who’s left. It’s not like on the minimum, you’re picking.”

Besides the playing time the Pistons offered, Moreland considered what he knew of Van Gundy’s preferences in choosing them.

“Stan likes gritty guys and Stan likes hard-nosed guys that get their nose in there and play hard and I feel like that’s exactly what I do, so wanted to give a chance for them to see me close and in person and right in front of their face, do exactly what I do best,” he said. “I decided to go with Detroit and I’m thinking it was the right move.”

For whatever voice the two most important players on the Summer League roster, Henry Ellenson and Luke Kennard, will have in the matter, Moreland has earned strong endorsements.

“Eric Moreland is really fun to play with just because he makes your job easier in terms of rim protection,” Ellenson said. “If your guy’s getting past you, he’s going over. He’s aggressive on the defensive end going to block the shot. It’s huge. Playing with guys like that’s a lot of fun because it makes your job that much easier.”

“He always plays with an engine. He’s got a motor that’s kind of contagious,” Kennard said of the 6-foot-10 Moreland, who has a 7-foot-3½ wing span. “He is a big body, he’s very physical, really talented and skilled. He’s all over the boards and wherever the ball is, he’s around it. It’s fun to play with a guy like that. I love playing with him.”

The expectation heading into free agency was that the No. 3 center spot would take a while to get filled. On the players’ end of it, few rush to sign a minimum-wage deal. On the Pistons’ end, there could be advantages to keeping the roster spot open to help facilitate trades between now and training camp. So the likelihood is that Summer League passes without a deal in place for Moreland.

“We’re looking at guys all across the spectrum as the third center in terms of experience and what type of player they are,” Van Gundy said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that we like. When you’re going more than likely at the minimum, those things are going to take longer. People aren’t going to jump on those right away and you’re not going to have your choice of people. So we have a group of guys that we like and you hope you can get one of ’em.”

The fact the Pistons now have twice expressed interest in Moreland – in 2015 and again this summer – suggests he’s in that “group of guys” they like. Chances are they like him a little more today than they did a week ago.