2023 Summer League

Keith Langlois

Three quick observations from Sunday’s 100-85 win over the Indiana Pacers at UNLV”s Cox Pavilion

THAT’S A WRAP – The Pistons finished Summer League with a 4-1 record after Sunday’s win over Indiana, a game in which rookie standout Ausar Thompson sat but the other first-round pick, Marcus Sasser, played and he’ll no doubt leave Summer League feeling much better about the experience after a dynamic second-half showing. Sasser had been as advertised for the Pistons through his first four games in all ways except as a shooter, particularly from the 3-point line. But he was sensational in Sunday’s second half, scoring 31 of his 40 points and finding his touch from the 3-point arc while also displaying tremendous feel as a pick-and-roll ballhandler. Sasser got himself going with some buckets around the rim out of pick-and-roll penetration, then found himself from the 3-point line and in the mid-range, as well. Sasser hit 13 of 14 shots in the second half. In the process, he got experience at a position he didn’t play much in college, point guard, and he’s not likely to see much time there with the Pistons in the near term, either, not with Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Monte Morris and Killian Hayes in the fold. But it figures to be great exposure for Sasser to be thrust into a position where he has to organize his team and process situations. He did it masterfully, finishing with five assists and zero turnovers in 29 minutes. What a finish for the 25th&nbsp;pick in last month’s draft. Even before Sunday’s scoring outburst, Sasser had impressed with his hard-nosed defense, smarts and toughness. The Pistons knew his scoring instincts would surface once he grew comfortable with the pace and athleticism and it all came together for Sasser in the Summer League finale after he had shot 4 of 25 from three over the first four games. He hit 5 of 9 on Sunday.

SUMMER STANDOUT – Despite his absence from the Summer League finale, Ausar Thompson accomplished enough in the four previous games to qualify as the most encouraging bit of work the Pistons achieved during their time in the desert. Thompson’s all-around impact on games allowed the Pistons to go 2-0 with him even after Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and James Wiseman were shut down. His ability to affect winning in so many ways was the revelation of Summer League as he stamped himself one of the standout performers across all teams. The Pistons will go into the 2023-24 season with the best depth they’ve had in years and no urgent need to rush the No. 5 pick into the mix, but Thompson’s athleticism, defensive versatility and impact, transition flair and playmaking capability will make him an easy fit in any lineup Monty Williams might devise. Of players to play more than two games in Las Vegas, Thompson was one of only two to average a double-double at 13.5 points and 10.0 rebounds. He also averaged 2.3 steals and 1.8 blocked shots per game. He shot 46.5 percent from the field and averaged 4.3 free-throw attempts per game.

WHAT’S NEXT – With Summer League in the rear-view mirror, the Pistons will turn their attention to their off-season development program for the many young players on their roster and rounding out the roster. The Pistons still have one open roster spot and one more two-way slot to fill, if they so choose, plus determining which other players might be worthy of an invitation to training camp. There is also the possibility of trades, of course, now that the vast majority of teams have exhausted their free-agent resources and look to address roster needs they don’t feel they met via the draft or free agency. Jared Rhoden, one of their two-way contracts, sat out Friday’s fourth game but returned to the starting lineup on Sunday and finished with eight points and four rebounds. Rhoden averaged 8.3 points and 5.0 rebounds and hit 37.5 percent from three over his first four games. Malcolm Cazalon, the other two-way contract addition, sat out Sunday after drawing his first start and scoring 16 points in Friday’s win over San Antonio. Cazalon averaged 7.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 17 minutes a game over his four games.

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Sasser’s sensational 2nd half leads Pistons to Summer finale win

Three quick observations from Friday night’s 79-73 win over the San Antonio Spurs at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS – It was game four of Summer League for the Pistons and another of their “established” players – Jared Rhoden, signed to a two-way contract and coming off an 18-point outing – joined Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and James Wiseman in street clothes. But first-round picks Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser were both in uniform and used extensively and it was Thompson that stirred the crowd like no others, especially with a sequence of plays late in the first half of Friday’s win over San Antonio to raise Detroit’s record to 3-1.Thompson re-entered the game with 4:03 remaining and the game tied and came up with an open-court steal and a free throw when he was fouled to prevent a breakaway layup. He rebounded Marcus Sasser’s missed three in traffic and scored on a left-handed layup to spearhead the winning run and then clinched the win with a rebound of Malcolm Cazalon’s missed free throw with 13.6 seconds to play.Thompson, who finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds, two assists and a steal, was on the bench when San Antonio went on an 11-0 run to wipe out a 10-point Pistons lead in the second quarter. When he got back in the game, Thompson crashed the offensive glass on the right side as Buddy Boeheim came down the left side and missed a layup. Thompson soared over the crowd to grab the rebound with his right hand and jammed it home in one motion. Seconds later, he hit his second 3-pointer of the game. Thompson came into the game averaging 12.0 points, 8.7 rebounds. 4.0 assists, 2.7 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. Marcus Sasser, as he did in Wednesday’s win over Toronto, came alive late after starting 1 of 8 and missing all six of his 3-point attempts. He got himself going with a layup, then hit a tough runner and another driving layup in a two-minute span late in the third quarter. Sasser finished with 10 points though he missed all seven of his 3-point shots.

FRENCH FLAIR – Malcolm Cazalon, the French native signed to a two-way contract after going undrafted, drew his first start and had his best moments of Summer League – none better than his long 2-point jump shot with a toe on the line – to put the Pistons ahead 76-70 with 54 seconds to play. Cazalon got it going by coming up with a steal on the game’s first possession, then came down and drilled an off-the-dribble 3-pointer. He scored a few possessions later on an impressive drive and tough finish and scored again shortly after on a contested transition runner. Cazalon averaged 15 minutes a game off the bench in the first three Summer League games and showed some passing chops and quick hands defensively and those continued to be strengths in game four, but he also showed better scoring instincts and was more aggressive off the dribble after taking 13 of his 17 shots in the first three games from the 3-point line. Cazalon, 21 and a former teammate of Killian Hayes on French junior national teams, played the last three seasons in the Adriatic League. An athletic 6-foot-6 wing, Cazalon finished with 16 points, four rebounds and a steal, hitting 6 of 14 shots.

MAKING A MOVE – After the 15 roster spots are filled – the Pistons have one open spot currently – and teams add three players on two-way contracts, up from the maximum of two previously, there will be only two other spots available for invitations to training camp. Tosan Evbuomwan, a 6-foot-7 forward born in England, is making a bid to be one of them after signing a reported Exhibit 10 contract after going undrafted. Evbuomwan spent three seasons at Princeton and averaged 16.0 and 15.1 points the past two seasons for the Tigers. He got his second start of Summer League on Friday and finished with nine points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Jared Rhoden, who was held out of Friday’s game, is the other Pistons player currently signed to a two-way contract. Rhoden averaged 8.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals a game on 50 percent shooting and 3 of 8 from the 3-point line in 19 minutes a game over the first three games. Buddy Boeheim, who came into the game 8 of 12 from the 3-point arc in the first three games, averaged 7.4 points in less than eight minutes a game prior to Friday’s game. He finished with three points after hitting 1 of 3 from the arc.

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Thompson sparks Pistons fourth-quarter rally, win over Spurs

Three quick observations from Wednesday’s 94-90 win over the Toronto Raptors at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center

AUSAR, CONTINUED – No surprise, the Pistons pulled Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and James Wiseman after two Summer League games, turning the roster over to rookies Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser, two-way players Jared Rhoden and Malcolm Cazalon and the host of players hoping to secure an NBA future. Thompson, as he’d done in his first two games, continued to exemplify the qualities that led general manager Troy Weaver to land on him with the No. 5 pick in last months’ draft. Thompson was at the center of Pistons’ hot start – they led 18-5 midway through the first quarter – with two points, three rebounds, two steals, a blocked shot and an assist in less than seven minutes of play in the first quarter. The highlight sequence was a clean steal of fellow lottery pick Grady Dick and finishing at the other end with a reverse lob dunk off a feed from Sasser. It was another across-the-stat-sheet contribution from Thompson in a comeback win, finishing with 17 points, nine rebounds, four steals, three assists and two blocked shots. He hit his first triple of Summer League at the third-quarter buzzer to pull the Pistons within six points. The Pistons led 17-5 out of the game, trailed by 17 at one point, then rallied back in the second half. Thompson had the ball in his hands significantly more than in the first two games with Ivey in street clothes and one result of that was seven turnovers. But it was another showing that suggests Thompson is going to be hard to keep off the floor once he gets just a taste of NBA experience. “We play hard,” Thompson told ESPN after the game. “I think we’re the hardest-playing team. We were down like 17 – we never gave up. I’m happy. Love playing with those guys.”

SASSER ON POINT – With Jaden Ivey shut down, Marcus Sasser opened the game at point guard and played much of his 28 minutes there. After a sizzling start, the Pistons had trouble converting chances to score but Sasser did a creditable job of running the half-court offense. He had five first-half assists in 14 minutes of play, some of it spent off the ball, and he finished with 15 points and seven assists. Sasser came alive late in the third quarter to spark a Pistons rally, hitting a triple – he missed his first five – and following up with a drive that netted him a pair of free throws, another drive for a tough layup and yet another drive for two more free throws in the span of three minutes of playing time to dominate a 10-0 Pistons run. His tough runner with 1:08 to go gave the Pistons an 89-87 lead, their first since it was 31-30. Then his backcourt steal and layup with 30 seconds left put the Pistons ahead 91-90. Sasser didn’t get many clean looks at the basket and finished 5 of 15 from the field and 1 of 8 from three, getting caught on a few occasions in late-clock situations and forced to launch contested attempts. He’s a proven shooter, hitting 40 percent on 353 attempts over his final two seasons at Houston. It’s unlikely – given the presence of Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and veteran newcomer Monte Morris – that Sasser is going to find himself as lead playmaker with the Pistons anytime soon. But getting repetitions at that spot in Summer League should serve him well. As with most young players, Sasser will have a narrower scope of responsibility and if he can master those few tasks – knocking down 3-point shots and pressuring the ball at the other end in his case – he’ll have a chance to earn minutes. But the Pistons are going to have plenty of backcourt depth – Alec Burks and Killian Hayes in addition to Cunningham and Ivey – and there won’t be an immediate need for Sasser to plug a hole.

ON THE MIC – During the TV telecast, ex-Pistons great and current NBA executive Joe Dumars was interviewed as was Pistons general manager Troy Weaver. While Dumars was responding to a question from the ESPN commentators about NBA rules, he interrupted his own answer after Ausar Thompson darted through the defense to dunk to say, “Boy, this kid is good.” Weaver also commented on Thompson when asked what he wanted to see him develop over the course of the summer. “Just continue to be himself. Continue to be aggressive. The coaches are having a great time working with him. I’m excited about what he’s bringing to us.” Watching from courtside seats were Pistons owner Tom Gores, incoming coach Monty Williams, Weaver and assistant general manager George David in addition to players Cade Cunningham, Marvin Bagley III, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Isaiah Livers. Weaver also commented on the addition of veterans Monte Morris and Joe Harris. “We wanted to add some shooting and some veterans to the group and Morris and Harris definitely do that. They’ll help this young core grow and it provides some more spacing on the floor for our group. We’ve got (Bojan) Bogdanovic, (Alec) Burks, two veterans that can shoot the ball. Adding those two guys to complement our young core we think will really help us.”

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Rookies Thompson, Sasser key Pistons comeback win

Three quick observations from Sunday’s 113-101 loss to the Houston Rockets at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center

DOUBLE TROUBLE – Anticipated as a showdown between the Thompson twins, it turns out neither Amen nor Ausar came away with bragging rights. Houston’s Amen Thompson missed the game after suffering a sprained ankle in Friday’s Summer League opener, but his Rockets won without him as the Pistons fell to 1-1 with a Sunday loss after winning their opener a day earlier. Ausar Thompson played much as he did in Saturday’s debut, filling up the stat sheet without dominating the ball. Thompson finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

But whether the Pistons felt the effects of a back-to-back after seven consecutive days of practice or something else, their defense didn’t give them a chance to beat a Houston roster loaded with size and high-end talent. Houston hit 17 of its first 21 2-point shots, shot 60 percent overall in the first half and led 62-43 at halftime. Thompson had a terrific sequence midway through the third quarter when he picked his man cleanly, fueled a fast break he capped with a dunk off a return feed from Jaden Ivey, then took a Jalen Duren feed in transition and fed a trailing James Wiseman for a dunk with a dynamic backward bounce pass. Thompson’s all-around impact is going to make him an easy fit in lineups with Pistons starters like Cade Cunningham and the more veteran plays on the roster.&nbsp;

GRUDGE MATCH – Cam Whitmore was projected as a top-five pick with many expecting him to land with the Pistons if he got past Houston at four. The Rockets went with Amen Thompson instead and then – in the biggest surprise of draft night – got Thompson with the 20th pick. He might have been trying to prove a point to start Sunday’s game, dunking on the game’s first two possessions and adding a 3-pointer for seven of his team’s first 12 points. Then a guy the Pistons never had a chance to draft, Jabari Smith Jr., took over to score 15 points in the first quarter. Smith, the No. 3 pick in 2022, racked up 23 points by halftime and finished with 38 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Houston’s Tari Eason, another 2022 first-round pick, had a strong game, also. He contributed 26 points and nine rebounds. Jaden Ivey, who got off to a rough start in Saturday’s opener when he committed five turnovers in the game’s first four minutes, bounced back to finish strong on Saturday and got progressively more impressive as Sunday’s game unfolded to finish with 22 points and 10 assists. Jalen Duren continued to show more finesse than he had the chance to display as a rookie, scoring in a variety of ways and finishing with 23 points and 10 rebounds. James Wiseman added 17 points and 10 rebounds.

TWO-WAY TRAFFIC – Versatile wing defenders are the holy grail of the modern NBA, which probably means it wasn’t mere coincidence that the Pistons committed two of their three allowable two-way contract spots to 6-foot-6 wings Jared Rhoden and Malcolm Cazalon. Rhoden went undrafted out of Seton Hall in 2022 and had brief tenures with both Portland and Atlanta, though never appearing in a game, before latching on with the Pistons in late December on a two-say deal and appearing in 14 games with them while playing 24 games with the Motor City Cruise. Cazalon, 21, is a native of France and former teammate of Killian Hayes on French junior national teams. He's played the past three seasons in the Adriatic League. Both players make their living on defense where they are active and agile. Rhoden played 14 minutes and finished with two points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal. Cazalon has shown some playmaking ability and finished with four assists to go with two points in a 14-minute stint on Sunday. In Saturday’s win over Orlando, both two-way players logged 15 minutes. Cazalon missed his first six shots – all 3-point attempts – but drained his final pair, also triples, while finishing with two rebounds. Rhoden hit a corner three off a terrific feed from Ausar Thompson, finishing with five points and three rebounds on 2 of 4 shooting. Buddy Boeheim, who spent all of last season on a Pistons two-way contract, hit 3 of 4 from the 3-point arc after going a perfect 3 of 3 from three in Saturday’s opener.

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Houston punctures Pistons defense to pull away for the win

Three quick observations from Saturday’s 89-78 win over the Orlando Magic at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center

PASSING FANCY – Ausar Thompson’s athleticism has caught the eye of teammates and coaches in practices, but the thing that jumped out about him in his Summer League debut: his vision and passing. Thompson had three eye-opener passes in the first half of Saturday’s win alone, highlighted by a one-hand dart from just inside the mid-court line that threaded a pair of Orlando defenders and set up James Wiseman for an easy dunk. He also flashed on a sequence where he grabbed a defensive rebound, broke out on his own and fired another pinpoint pass to Jared Rhoden for an open corner three. Thompson isn’t a score-first player at this point, but he checks off plenty of other boxes and he put that on display in his debut. He scored seven points, hitting 5 of 6 free throws, on 1 of 4 shooting – a nice drive and tough left-handed finish – but also added nine rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots and a steal. Even if it takes Thompson some time to find his niche as a scorer, he can serve as ideal connective tissue in any number of lineup combinations the Pistons could put around him. The Pistons committed eight first-quarter turnovers and trailed most of the half, but tied the game at halftime and led for nearly the entire second half.

A ROUGH GO – Jaden Ivey’s first Summer League was limited to one game and five minutes, but he did enough in that time to inflame the imagination of Pistons fans. His second Summer League got off to a rougher start with five turnovers in the game’s first four minutes. No one with the Pistons will be alarmed by that – Summer League games often yield chaotic stretches – and Ivey sprinkled in enough of the stuff that saw him finish the season as one of the NBA’s ascending young stars. He also didn’t get any favorable whistles, either, after appearing to draw fouls on at least a few of his drives. Ivey finished with 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals despite a 5 of 18 shooting day and six turnovers. Ivey hit a big 3-pointer with less than four minutes to go with Orlando trailing by two and set up two-way signee Malcolm Cazalon for a triple a minute later to push the lead to six and hit a clinching layup with a terrific left-handed finish with a minute left to put the Pistons ahead by seven points. Marcus Sasser, taken with the 25th&nbsp;pick, spent most of his time playing alongside Ivey but had stints playing with the ball in his hands, as well. Sasser’s 3-point shot was as advertised. He gets it off quickly and the stroke is flawless. Sasser finished with 10 points, three rebounds and two assists and hit 2 of 6 from the 3-point arc.

GOING BIG – With Isaiah Livers absent for personal reasons, whatever suspense would have existed in determining a starting lineup was removed. The Pistons started the three established roster players – Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duran and James Wiseman – plus first-round draft picks Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser. So it probably says less about the new coaching staff being committed to two-big lineups than it does about starting the five players the Pistons have the greatest investment in. But if the Pistons are going to start two big men, winning the rebound battle will be essential. They won it emphatically on Saturday, 46-30. Duren’s quickness and activity was apparent not only in his eight rebounds but also in the fact he got fouled often enough to send him to the line for 10 free throws. He also knocked a 3-pointer and then connected on back-to-back mid-range jumpers in the fourth quarter, the second after an impressive ballhandling sequence. He finished with 17 points and eight rebounds in 29 minutes. Wiseman also hit a 3-pointer and finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.

2023 Summer League

Sasser’s sensational 2nd half leads Pistons to Summer finale win

Thompson sparks Pistons fourth-quarter rally, win over Spurs

Rookies Thompson, Sasser key Pistons comeback win

Houston punctures Pistons defense to pull away for the win

Pistons overcome rocky start to win Summer League opener