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The Detroit Pistons have waived center Johnny Hamilton.
Hamilton, 7-0, 230, appeared in one game this preseason with Detroit and recorded six points, three rebounds and one block at San Antonio on October 5.
Preseason for the league ended Friday. Teams must trim down their rosters in the next few days. The regular season for the league begins Tuesday, October 16.
The Detroit Pistons waived forward Chris McCullough today.
McCullough, 6-11, 200, was signed to the training camp roster on September 25 and did not see action in any of the Pistons’ two preseason games.
McCullough has played in 59 career NBA games with the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards. He was drafted 29th overall in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets from Syracuse University.
Paper tickets are apparently now as worthless as the paper they’re printed on, at least for Detroit pro basketball and hockey games, according to the Detroit Free Press, as quoted below:
If you’re going to a Detroit Red Wings or Detroit Pistons game at Little Caesars Arena, whoever has your tickets better not forget their phone.
That’s because the LCA, which opened a season ago, will no longer accept paper tickets for Wings or Pistons games.
This announcement came during the summer and may have flown under the radar, but now as the NHL and NBA have returned, you need to know that Ticketmaster’s mobile ticketing technology will be used at the doors of the new arena.
Regardless of how any of us feel about this move, it’s the wave of the future and is bound to happen sooner or later at other arenas in the coming years. Ideally, some sort of safeguard comes to exist in case somebody does forget their phone, or if their phone battery dies, etc, though.
Training camp came, then preseason quickly started. There’s basketball being played. It’s just preseason basketball, but the teams are actual NBA teams, and therefore everything is amazing, even if stars played limited minutes and the main goal is to loosen up.
As for the Pistons, here’s the Detroit News reporting:
The Pistons finally got away from the grind of practice and got closer to a game atmosphere. Sort of.
The Pistons wrapped up a week of training camp in Ann Arbor with an open scrimmage Saturday afternoon at Crisler Center, before a crowd of just more than 4,000.
The standout was Andre Drummond, who had 25 points on an array of scoring — including a 3-pointer — and helped the Blue Team to a 73-66 victory.
The starting lineup for the Blue Team was Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard, Stanley Johnson, Blake Griffin and Drummond. That could be the starting lineup to start the regular season, but coach Dwane Casey said it was more to balance the lineups.
The Pistons are worth keeping an eye on. Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond form an intriguing core. However, it’s one that isn’t great enough to do monster things on their own. Serious Pistons talent needs to emerge (or be found) in the shooting guard and small forward spots. And the entire bench.
Even so, if Jackson, Griffin and Drummond are actually all healthy, they can do some things.
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The Detroit Pistons signed forward Chris McCullough to their training camp roster today.
McCullough, 6-11, 200, has played in 59 career NBA games with the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards. Last season, he averaged 2.4 points and 1.3 rebounds in 19 games with Washington. He also averaged 11.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in 12 games in the NBA G League with the Erie Bayhawks, Northern Arizona Suns and Wisconsin Herd last season.
McCullough was drafted 29th overall in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets. He played collegiately at Syracuse University where he averaged 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in 16 games.
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The Detroit Pistons have signed Zach Lofton and Johnny Hamilton.
It’s likely that the signings are non-guaranteed deals that merely bring the players to training camp.
Lofton, 6-4, 180, played last season at New Mexico State where he averaged 20.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game and was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
Hamilton, 7-0, 230, played his senior year at the University of Texas – Arlington and averaged 11.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Hamilton set a UT-Arlington single-season record with 77 blocks last season.
Both Lofton and Hamilton were members of the Pistons’ 2018 NBA Summer League team.
Stan Van Gundy knows coaching. Sure, he probably knows other things, too. He can walk around. He can do this and that. He probably knows how to do the things you or I do. But he definitely also knows NBA coaching, and may seek a return to those ranks. Here’s the Detroit Free Press with an in-depth update:
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Stan Van Gundy is enjoying life.
In the spring, he took his wife, Kim, on a European vacation, their first as a couple.
Last month, Kim gifted him with birthday tickets to the Fox Theater where they grooved to the sounds of Gladys Knight and the O’Jays.
The next day, he played fetch with family dogs, Opie and Eastwood, in the backyard of his lakefront home in Clarkston. Later, he was a picture of comfort inside as the dogs slumbered, worn out from playing on the warm August day.
It’s clear the former Detroit Pistons coach doesn’t have to work another day the rest of his life. A comfortable retirement where he works at his leisure awaits – if he wants it.
But with his May firing still fresh, he’s not sure he wants comfort.
He thinks he might want to coach again.
Here’s Euroleague.net with news that a former NBA player has signed to play in Spain:
Hoping to return to the Final Four that will be hosted next spring in its own city for the first time, KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz found some perimeter talent right before training camp starts, announcing on Monday the addition of swingman Darrun Hilliard to its roster for the 2018-19 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. Hilliard (1.98 meters, 25 years old) has played his entire three-year pro career to date in the NBA, including 14 games last season with San Antonio.
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Pistons forward/center Jon Leuer underwent surgery on Wednesday, August 8 in New York, to help fix a right medial meniscus injury that occurred during an offseason workout earlier this week.
Leuer will begin the rehabilitation process immediately and his return to full basketball activity will be updated prior to the start of training camp.
A backup for the vast majority of NBA games he’s played, Leuer career began with the Bucks in 2011. He then played for the Cavs, then spent a few seasons with the Grizzlies, then one with the Suns, and this will be his third season on the Pistons. He only played eight games last season, but in 2016-17 he played 75 and averaged a career-high 10.2 points per game, along with 5.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 25.9 minutes per outing.
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The Detroit Pistons have hired Sachin Gupta as assistant general manager.
“We are pleased to welcome Sachin Gupta to the Detroit Pistons organization,” said Ed Stefanski, Special Advisor to owner Tom Gores. “Sachin is a creative thinker, extremely intelligent, and has a great handle on the analytical side of basketball operations systems. His analytics and salary cap background will be a tremendous resource while serving a leadership role for our basketball operations team.”
Gupta spent last season as a special advisor to Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey, his second stint with the organization. The Boston-area native began his NBA career with the Rockets in 2006 as Morey’s first hire, laying the foundation for the team’s extensive analytics undertaking, which the Rockets would later become renowned for. In addition to his responsibilities as an analyst, Gupta also assisted in managing the team’s salary cap during his six-year tenure in Houston.
Gupta transitioned to the Philadelphia 76ers front office in 2013 as a consultant prior to the NBA Draft while finishing MBA studies at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He then moved to a more permanent position, Vice President of Basketball Operations in 2014 and served as General Manager Sam Hinkie’s top lieutenant. Gupta served a substantial role in driving the club’s overhaul that led to this past season’s return to the NBA Playoffs.
Prior to joining the NBA ranks, Gupta spent two years at ESPN where he had a hand in fostering basketball’s analytical movement, implementing advanced NBA metrics on ESPN.com before their use had become widespread across the league. While at ESPN, he also became well versed in the CBA when he developed the widely popular NBA Trade Machine.
Gupta earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.