Jordan Eglseder bested Cole Aldrich in the NCAA tournament, and hopefully he can best him in the pros, as the former Northern Iowa Panther plays for the Pistons Summer League Team. Photo courtesy of Yardbarker

Ridiculous Upside has a great list of this year’s summer league rosters, including much of the Pistons’ squad. Names not already mentioned include: point guards Edgar Sosa and Marquez Haynes; and centers Jared Reiner and Jordan Eglseder.

Many fans are hoping most for a big man to latch on to the team as a designated rebounder and defensive stopper. At 28, Reiner is a man, not a boy, and has been floating around various professional leagues since 2004. Last season in the D-league he ranked eighth with 15.3 boards per 48 of players that played at least 10 games on the JV circuit.

Michigan State fans should remember Eglseder as a member of the ninth-ranked Northern Iowa Panthers, whose run as a Cinderella in the NCAA tournament was stopped by the Spartans in the Sweet 16. What the bald-headed Eglseder lacks in a hairline, he makes up for in size as a legit 7-footer and a beefy 280 pounds. He seems to have been quite the rebounder at Northern Iowa and takes up a lot of space in the post. In his senior season in 2009-10, he ranked third in the nation in rebounds adjusted for pace and second in defensive boards, according to Draft Express.

He also enjoyed a quality NCAA tournament playing against the big boys. In just18 minutes in the first round he almost got a double double, snaring 10 rebounds to go with nine points on 4-9 shooting. In an upset win over Kansas in round two, Eglseder had five rebounds and 14 points, including 2-3 from the 3-point line and in the loss to MSU, he grabbed five more boards and scored nine in 22 minutes of action.

I definitely think the Pistons will have room on the end of the bench for a wide-bodied rebounding specialist.

Former Pistons playing in the summer league are Trent Plaisted with the Chicago Bulls, Will Blalock with my new favorite Western Conference team, the Golden State “we’ll pass on Monroe for Udoh” Warriors, Deron Washington with the Milwaukee Bucks, and Ronald Dupree with the Toronto Raptors.

Other invitees of note include former Michigan Wolverine Manny Harris going to Cleveland and former Michigan State Spartans Maurice Ager getting a look-see from the New Olreans Hornets and Raymar Morgan with the Washington Wizards. Speaking of the Wizards,  Javaris Cittenton is hoping to not fall completely out of the league following Arenas-gate by going back to the Los Angeles Lakers, the team that drafted him 19th overall just three years ago.

Add mark your calendars for July 12, when the Pistons most interesting summer league game will go down. It will be a battle of rookie big men as Detroit and first-round pick Greg Monroe  face off against Sacremento and slightly higher pick  DeMarcus Cousins.

2000

1^st, 14th- Mateen Cleaves

2^nd, 44th- Brian Cardinal

Cardinal turned out to have a better career than about half the players drafted in the first round, including Cleaves, sadly.

2001

1^st, 9th- Rodney White

2^nd, 38th- Mehmet Okur

Rodney has not appeared on NBA soil since 2005, mainly because he was allergic to defense, but probably because he’s a few cards short of a full deck too. He has played in places such as Puerto Rico, China, Spain, and Italy. Was waived by Maccabi Tel Aviv (good Euroleague gig) in early December last year.  At least Detroit didn’t get stuck with Kirk Haston, drafted 16th by Charlotte. Now that would have been disastrous…

2002

1^st, 23rd-Tayshaun Prince

On one hand, give it up to him, Tay has a gold medal, he did “The Block”, and he has played more NBA basketball games than anybody else on God’s green earth over the past 6 years or so. On the other hand, it has come down to a simple what have you done for me lately? Answer: You scored how many points and grabbed how many rebounds in the playoffs?!?!?

(faints)

And to think they missed out on Dan Dickau.

2003

1^st, 2nd- Voldemort

1^st, 25th- Carlos Delfino

2^nd, 58th- Andreas Glyniadakis

Voldemort in his earlier days (espncdn.com)

– I used to read Harry Potter. I stopped at like the fourth book.  The above is what I figured Voldemort would look like.  Little did I know…

 – Frankly, Delfino is virtually just like Sasha Pavlovic, but with more attitude, the kind coaches don’t like though (explains his short stay with Detroit). Carlos is one of the most talented players not in the NBA currently, for what it’s worth.

 – Andreas the Greek giant never played a game for Detroit, but he played 13 of them for Seattle, starting 4. I used to have a blast saying Glyniadakis, but eventually ended up just referring to him as the “7 foot Greek guy”, until I forgot about him altogether about 2 years ago.

2004 

2^nd, 54th- Ricky Paulding

And to think they passed on another great Gonzaga point guard (Blake Stepp).

2005

1^st, 26th- Jason Maxiell

2^nd, 56th-Amir Johnson

2^nd, 60th-Alex Acker

– Maxiell saw his numbers and minutes plummet this season. Maxiell’s inability to be a consistent offensive weapon (i.e. hit a jumper) and his lack of size for a power forward really limit his effectiveness against most squads. Maxiell can make up for his shortcomings by playing his absolute hardest, though that’s something that wasn’t seen as much as we would have hoped this past season. I guess babies everywhere are enjoying Max’s relative mellowing, but after a 20 million dollar contract, a mellow Max just does not cut it.

– David Lee and Brandon Bass were available at 26 mind you.

– Sort of unfair to call Amir Johnson a bust at 56, but that’s what it’s coming to. It irks me to think of all the trades Joe D passed up because of Johnson.

–On a random side note, there are plenty of undrafted players in 2005 currently in the league. Some of them include

Jose Calderon, Chuck Hayes, Kelenna Azubuike, Josh Powell, Ronnie Price, Shavlik Randolph, Fabricio Oberto and the one and only Will Bynum.

2006

2^nd, 60th- Will Blalock

Will played a total of 166 minutes with Detroit in 14 games, 166 minutes more than anyone ever thought he would play in the NBA. Call me a stickler but maybe taking a flyer on a tall (taller than 5’11 at least) foreign player would be a better idea than drafting a lil’ point guard with marginal potential. Oh, wait, maybe Joe D just drafted the wrong lil’ point guard instead, considering the lovable and lightning quick Jose Juan Barea was available. Doh!

2007

1^st,15th- Rodney Stuckey

1^st, 27th- Arron Afflalo

2^nd, 57th- Sammy Mejia

Both first round picks look like great value players, especially Arron. Day in and day out you know what you are going to get from him: hard work, a positive attitude, and a will to play defense. The jury is still out on whether he can be more than just a 12-15 minute rotational guy, but like I said, at #27, he was a nice value.

2008

2^nd, 32th- Walter Sharpe

2^nd, 46th-Trent Plaisted

2^nd, 59th- Deron Washington

– Walter Sharpe’s potential is why I wouldn’t draft Austin Daye (topic for a future post). Too many projects already on this team, though Sharpe has the tools in my opinion to be a very solid NBA player, so it may be worth the wait.

– This Deron character can really jump and had Renaldo Balkman type hair at Virginia Tech. Deron played in the Israeli premier league this year, totaling 14.8 ppg (31% from downtown) 7 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 27 games. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the league someday, he sort of reminds me of former Clipper (05-07) and current Mav James Singleton. Singleton played overseas for a few years, improved his jumper, played great defense, won some awards, and overall made a nice impression. Ultimately the key for Deron is if he can improve his shooting.

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That wraps it up folks.  Thanks for making it this far.  I’ll post some links and some original 09 draft thoughts in the coming days.

Happy Mocking! 

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