Summers had his strongest game so far, but the Pistons shot the ball miserably to fall to 2-2.

There wasn’t much to note. Terrico White played a lot more off the ball in this game with Edgar Sosa getting a start, and he happened to have his worst game. Greg Monroe had his best game, although the critics who keep complaining about his motor were likely not appeased. The big man had some lapses in the middle of the game, but did unveil a couple nice counter-moves to get off hook shots in the post. He also finished the game stronger than he has been, showing that maybe his stamina is improving. (Side note: I’m not that worried about Monroe’s motor if he’s going to be on the court with Ben Wallace and/or Jerebko a lot during the season. He’s playing right now with sometimes four guys who have questionable motors. He’ll look better when he’s playing next to better players).

But I won’t just leave you with a few sentences of analysis. I’m long-winded. Let’s look at the non-Pistons on the Summer League roster. It’s doubtful any will make the team, but are they legit NBA prospects? Here’s my breakdown:

Edgar Sosa – Eventually

Edgar Sosa‘s had a few nice flashes in the Summer League, and the fact that he’s a four-year PG who played four years at a Big East school will only help, since there is a dearth of quality PGs in the NBA. He’s a streaky shooter and wasn’t a great distributor or defender at Louisville. He also landed in Rick Pitino’s doghouse a couple times. Sosa will be a very good professional player somewhere next year, but not the NBA. His game needs some refining, but it’s conceivable he could spend a couple years overseas and then win a job in the NBA.

Mac Koshowal – Yes

Mac Koshowal already looks the part with his frame, and he’s had such good energy and proven to be a good enough rebounder this summer that it wouldn’t completely shock me if he makes the team, given the current state of big men. If the Pistons find another big via trade or free agency, his chances become non-existent, but he has the most upside of any non-roster guy on the Pistons summer team.

Marquez Haynes – Maybe

Marquez Haynes has been solid in limited minutes. Every time he comes into the game, the pace picks up, he’s quick, he gets people involved, he can finish (although he missed, he got up pretty high on a lob from A.J. Slaughter last night) and he has a nice looking jumper. He would put up numbers in the D-League and, like Sosa, with his point guard skills, if he refines his passing and defense, he could find himself in the league.

Jared Reiner – No

Jared Reiner, unlike the other guys, has a decent amount of NBA experience. He’s put up great numbers in the D-League, but he just doesn’t look physically strong enough to me to hold up in the NBA as a reliable rotation big. He’s 7-feet and plays hard, so he could easily find himself on the end of a bench somewhere, but he’s also not really a prospect anymore, so a team might be more inclined to keep a big with more upside. I was excited to see Reiner on the Pistons summer roster, but in hindsight, it would’ve been nice if they looked at a beefier D-League alum, like Garret Siler, who had a nice game for the Heat last night.

Jordan Egleseder – No

This one’s not really hard. Jordan Egleseder just isn’t strong enough or athletic enough to play in the NBA, and he can’t stay on the court very long even in Summer League games because opposing bigs really exploit that. He has nice range for such a big man and is skilled enough that he could be a good player in Europe, but right now he’s just too passive.

Elijah Milsap – No

Elijah Milsap plays really hard, sometimes too hard. He makes ill-advised drives into traffic, but he’s not a great finisher because he’s not quite athletic enough to go inside and dunk over people and doesn’t really seem to have the finesse to adjust or double-pump to get his shot off from different angles. He’s pretty strong for a guard, and at 6-foot-6, has good size, but his future is at guard, and unfortunately his skillset is more like a forward. He does have a pretty nice jumper though.

Patrick Christopher – Incomplete

Patrick Christopher has barely played, which is probably a bad sign for his NBA hopes. But giving him the benefit of the doubt, he’s also a wing player on a summer league team loaded with wing guys. I’d say probably no, but I’ll withhold judgment until the end of the summer league just in case he gets some extended minutes.

A.J. Slaughter – Maybe

The Pistons liked A.J. Slaughter, and he has shown a nice shooting touch. He was a shooting guard in college but he’s listed at (a generous) 6-foot-3, so if he can play the point, it would be advantageous for him. Small school guys like Slaughter have a chance to go overseas, work on some things, and resurface as solid players (see: Anthony Parker, Charlie Bell).

The Detroit roster not only can’t compete with that pedigree, but the Pistons’ most accomplished player, Jonas Jerebko, didn’t play. Consequently, we saw an overmatched team get blown out. There was little to take away from the game, other than it was hopefully a learning experience for the young players, who faced some pretty good NBA rotation players.

The other night, I gave some notes on individual players. Today, I’ll talk a little about some of the matchups instead.

Austin Daye vs. Omri Casspi

Austin Daye, through two games, looked confident and ready to step into the rotation after having a short leash all of last season. But playing primarily against a rookie (Devin Ebanks) in game one and a guy who spent part of last season in the D-League (Reggie Williams) in game two, Daye had his first real test in Casspi, a strong wing player who gave Daye the business a bit last year. Here’s what Dan Feldman wrote before the game:

Like Sebastian Pruiti, I’m looking forward to the Austin Daye-Omri Casspi matchup. Daye has been much more aggressive in Las Vegas, but part of me thinks that’s only because he knows he should own this lesser competition.

Such a prophetic guy, that Feldman. Casspi was a step quicker all night, beating Daye on cuts to the basket, beating him down the floor and, on defense, forcing Daye consistently into spots on the floor where he’s not comfortable. Daye finished 0-for-7, had terrible body language and no energy. A hallmark of Daye’s season a year ago were momentary flashes followed by prolonged disappearances. How he rebounds in the Pistons next game should say a lot about whether he’s worked at the mental side of the game this offseason.

Greg Monroe vs. DeMarcus Cousins

Pistons fans didn’t hide the fact that Cousins was the guy they overwhelmingly wanted in the NBA Draft, and although Greg Monroe may very well prove to be a nice consolation prize, Cousins is clearly a top-three talent in this draft. Monroe wasn’t the only Piston to guard him, particularly early, but Cousins basically had his way with every Pistons big.

Like the others, Monroe struggled to prevent Cousins from establishing the position he wanted around the basket. He bit on Cousins’ post moves. Monroe committed a couple silly offensive fouls trying to push Cousins out of his way and clear space. He clearly was frustrated, and his energy level suffered as a result in the second half.

There was one sequence where Monroe displayed a little feistiness, which was a good sign. Cousins had just bullied his way inside for a bucket, then forced Monroe to commit one of his aforementioned offensive fouls. Cousins was giving it to Monroe a bit on the way back down the court, and it seemed to wake Monroe up for a second. Cousins immediately tried to post him up again and went about it a bit lazily. Monroe fought him for the position and showed nice quickness slipping around Cousins and intercepting the entry pass.

It’s really hard to gauge Monroe. When he plays within himself and doesn’t force things, he looks like a really nice player. But he’s pressed often this summer, inexplicably pushing the ball up-court when he should be finding his PG and instead running the floor himself. Summer League is not always conducive to passing, because it’s kind of a get-mine exhibition, but we haven’t really seen much of the court vision Monroe was known for at Georgetown. I’m not worried by any means, but I’m less sure that Monroe is going to be an immediate contributor this season. I think he’ll be in the rotation and get every chance to stay there, but he looks like he’s a bit shocked by the speed of the game compared to some other rookies, which is a little surprising considering he came from a really good basketball conference.

Everyone vs. Hassan Whiteside

Whiteside had five blocks in 27 minutes. He’s a good shot blocker, and I get that he’s a rookie, but that was basically the only elite skill he possessed heading into the draft. A few Pistons, apparently, didn’t get the scouting report. Whiteside got Monroe twice and Daye once early, and all three attempts were pretty weak considering a presence like Whiteside was lurking inside.

Non-roster guys vs. Non-roster guys

So far, there doesn’t appear to be a non-roster guy on the Pistons Summer League team that can help them, even in an end-of-the-bench role. I was intrigued by Jared Reiner, a guy with NBA experience who put up big numbers in the D-League. He got solid minutes in the first half, but got pushed around.

Mac Kowshwal has a NBA body and motor, and athletically, he looks like a rotation big. I just don’t know if he’s ready yet, despite some productive games. He’s a very good offensive rebounder and finishes well enough around the basket, but he frequently — even more so than Monroe — attempts to do things that are nowhere close to being in his skill-set. Of all the non-roster players, if any are going to make the team, I’d bet on him, but I still don’t think any will end up winning a job.

I like the pace Marquez Haynes plays at, but unless he can improbably and decisively out-play Terrico White this preseason, or unless the Pistons unload a couple guards in a trade, it’s just far-fetched to think he’ll make the roster.

Edgar Sosa is a true PG, but like a lot of solid college PGs (Mateen Cleaves, what?), doesn’t shoot the ball well enough to play the position in the NBA. Elijah Milsap got extended minutes and was aggressive, often to his own detriment — three of his drives were blocked at the rim.

Jordan Eglseder played a handful of minutes and despite his size, is not strong enough or athletic enough right now to compete against NBA bigs.

Highlights

White had a couple for the Pistons, finishing an nice lob from Austin Daye with a dunk. He also showed something he has in each game, a nice ability to pull up off the dribble, have good balance and elevation and knock down a jumper. He’s not as good a player as Rodney Stuckey, but he’s a better shooter right now.

Kowshawl had a double-double, with 10 points and 12 rebounds (five offensive). He and White were easily the best Pistons on the court.

Austin Daye was getting abused by Lakers rookie Devin Ebanks. Jerebko was stuck, looking a bit too slow to consistently stay in front of guys on the perimeter and not quite strong enough to keep the Lakers’ bigs from establishing position on the block. DaJuan Summers would make a decent play then disappear for the next three minutes or so.

But, unlike last year, the team toughened up as the game went on, and by the last four minutes, had the appearance of a tough, aggressive defensive unit and made some opportunistic plays at the offensive end, finishing the game on a 14-0 run and erasing what was a double digit lead for from about the mid-second quarter on.

Here’s a quick take on each player’s highs and lows from the game:

Austin Daye

Austin Daye was arguably the best player on the court for either team. He had 22 points, hitting 7-of-12 from the field. My main beef with Daye offensively last year was the fact that there were many times when he just didn’t look for his shot when he was on the floor. Tonight, he had no such issue. He hit from three (and other than maybe Ben Gordon, Daye has the most perfect stroke of anyone on the team), he got to the line and, most important to his game, he used his go-to move extensively. Daye is not a great ball-handler, but he does have a really good first step. He doesn’t handle well enough to use that first-step to get all the way to the rim, but his one-dribble/floater move that he used a few times last season looked like a real weapon in this game. He’s long enough to get that shot off over virtually any SG/SF who will guard him during the season.

Strength is still an issue for him. Ebanks, who had 21, got off early with Daye guarding him. But Daye didn’t lose confidence like he did last season. He used his body as well as he could, and maybe it was the fact that he gets to wear a t-shirt under his jersey in the Summer League, but he really did look like he added a little bit of muscle to his frame since the season ended.

Greg Monroe

While live-chatting during the NBA Draft, a handful, uh, misguided commenters at MLive were pretty insistent on comparing Greg Monroe to David Robinson. I hope those people watch Monroe as soon as possible. They’re both left-handed centers. And that’s it.

Monroe didn’t have a great game against the Lakers, shooting 4-of-13 with 5 rebounds in 32 minutes. He only has average athleticism, and while he did a nice job keeping guys who were trying to back him down from establishing position, he will struggle defensively against athletic bigs capable of putting the ball on the floor.

Offensively, he’s very crafty and very skilled. We all knew about his passing — well, I should say everyone but Ted Kulfan did. (Seriously Ted? You didn’t read this or this or this or this or any of these?).

He’s drawn Brad Miller comparisons for the passing skills, but a dimension he has that Miller doesn’t is his ability to handle the ball. Inexplicably, both because he’s a big man and because he’s not particularly quick in other facets, Monroe appears to be really comfortable handling the ball in the open court. Twice against the Lakers, he grabbed rebounds and immediately turned up-court to initiate the break. Both times, he hit the correct person with passes and the Pistons eventually scored on both possessions.

While his numbers weren’t great, Monroe’s abilities look like he’ll fit quite nicely in the grind-it-out halfcourt offense John Kuester seemed to prefer last season.

Terrico White

I think I’m one of only a few Pistons fans who is excited about the Terrico White pick, and his first Summer League game reinforced my belief that he’ll be a very solid NBA player.

White looked comfortable as a point guard. He didn’t force things, he only had one turnover in 28 minutes and he was 6-of-8 shooting. He showed good elusiveness and, although Dan Feldman pointed out that he didn’t get to the line much for a slasher in college, he shot six free throws against LA, which is decent for a guy who didn’t look for his own shot that often. He also showed that he can be a strong finisher — three times he got inside and drew significant contact, but still manged to get shot attempts up after double clutching. None went in, but they were all legitimate enough attempts to suggest that he’s strong enough to do that consistently.

But why I’m most excited about White is his defensive potential. Rodney Stuckey is already on his way to becoming a good defensive guard who can lock up two positions. White is in that mold, and because he’s even more athletic than Stuckey, he could potentially be an even better defender if he works at it. Twice against the Lakers, White blocked jumpers taken by taller players (one was called a foul, but replays clearly showed White had only ball and made no body contact with the shooter). With the players in front of him, there probably aren’t many minutes for White, especially if Will Bynum comes back. But he absolutely has the ability to become a helpful rotation player.

Jonas Jerebko

It’s hard to evaluate Jonas Jerebko. On the one hand, he has awkward footwork on offense, he’s kind of a tweener defensively (as I mentioned above), he doesn’t have a consistent shot from the perimeter and he’s so aggressive that he pretty regularly makes poor decisions. On the other, Jerebko’s energy, hustle and aggressiveness on defense was the main reason the Pistons locked down late in the game and put the Lakers on their heels.

Jerebko, as we saw last year, was all over the court. It’s going to be important for him to become a better three-point shooter, but he’s still going to fill up the stat sheet by simply beating people to spots, throwing his body around and he just finds the basketball around the offensive glass.

DaJuan Summers

DaJuan Summers was a major disappointment last season. He had a NBA-ready build and athleticism, moreso than Jerebko or Daye, and yet seemed to lack motivation.

Early on against the Lakers, he made a few good plays, particularly finding Monroe on a quick touch pass in the lane for a dunk. But then, as he often did the few times he got minutes in games early last season, he just kind of disappeared. Fortunately, though, it was short-lived. He had a great second half and his strength and quickness on the perimeter helped with the great defensive fourth quarter the Pistons had.

The knock on Summers, dating back to Georgetown, has been a lack of consistent effort. He has great tools — including a jumper that’s more reliable than Jerebko — and could very easily be in a NBA rotation, but it’s unclear if that rotation will  be the Pistons’.

The non-roster guys

Of all the non-roster guys, only guard Marquez Haynes got significant minutes, playing 17. He was very quick, pushing the pace and scoring nine points on 3-of-4 shooting when he was in the game. He’s a major longshot to make the roster, but he had a couple flashy plays.

The only others to play were A.J. Slaughter and Patrick Christopher, who didn’t do much, and Mac Koshwal, who was pushed around big time by Derrick Caracter when he was in the game.

Of the others, I’m interested to see center Jared Reiner. He was very good in the D-League last year and has NBA experience. If the Pistons don’t find a mid-level worthy big in free agency, Reiner could be a cheap alternative.

NO      PLAYER  POS     HT      WT      COLLEGE/COUNTRY D.O.B   YEARS PRO     NBDL EXP

26      Patrick Christopher     G       6-5     220     California      6/3/88  R       None
5       Austin Daye     F       6-11    190     Gonzaga 6/5/88  1       None
24      Jordan Eglseder C       7-0     280     Northern Iowa   7/27/88 R       None   
17      Marquez Haynes  G       6-3     185     UT Arlington    12/19/86        R       None
33      Jonas Jerebko   F       6-10    231     Kinna, Sweden   3/2/87  1       None
42      Mac Koshwal     F/C     6-10    255     DePaul  10/19/87        R       None   
18      Elijah Millsap  G/F     6-6     215     UAB     8/12/87 R       None
10      Greg Monroe     F/C     6-11    253     Georgetown      6/4/90  R       None
25      Jared Reiner    C       6-11    255     Iowa    4/8/82  2       2
8       A.J. Slaughter  G       6-3     180     Western Kentucky        8/3/87  R       None
35      DaJuan Summers  F       6-8     240     Georgetown      1/24/88 1       None
14      Edgar Sosa      G       6-1     175     Louisville      1/15/88 R       None
23      Terrico White   G       6-5     213     Mississippi     3/7/90  R       None