Alex Acker’s attempt to return to the NBA after two years in Europe has hit another roadblock. Acker, a Pistons second-round pick in 2005 who spent his rookie season with the team before playing in Greece and Spain the past two winters, is again experiencing problems with the same knee that he injured last summer.
The Pistons only learned of the injury on Tuesday, the day they held their first practice in preparation for Friday’s opener of the NBA Las Vegas Summer League.
“That’s too bad,” Pistons executive Tony Ronzone said. “We really wanted to take a good look at him this summer. He’s a talented kid who had a chance to help us. It’s a setback for him.”
The 6-foot-5 Acker played mostly point guard for the Pistons as a rookie but his NBA future is probably similar to Arron Afflalo’s – a shooting guard who can defend all three perimeter positions. If Afflalo is stronger defensively, Acker might be a more accomplished shooter.
The Pistons have an unusual number of players with NBA futures for a summer league roster, including three who figure to be in their rotation next season – Afflalo, Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson. Cheikh Samb could force his way into the mix, as well, as he appears to be more polished.
New coach Michael Curry said his first unit – which he expects to play the majority of minutes – will consist of Stuckey and Afflalo at guard, Samb at center, Johnson at power forward and draft choice Walter Sharpe at small forward.
“He has a great feel for the game,” Curry said of Sharpe. “The kid has a great work ethic. He wants to learn. He’s raw in a lot of areas, but that’s what we have to do as a staff – mold him in the player we need him to be. As long as he’s willing to work, we can get him to the point where he has a chance to be a really good player. Instinctively, he does things you can’t teach. The things we can teach, we’ve got to do a good job with that.”
- Curry said he considers point guard Will Bynum, who signed on to play with the Pistons in Las Vegas, an NBA player. Bynum spent the past season playing in Israel.
“Will Bynum is a guy I’m really familiar with from the D-League,” said Curry, who spent the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons working in NBA operations and helped oversee the D-League. “We watched him a lot this year because one of the kids on his (Israeli) team, Omri Casspi, we bought in for a (predraft) workout and we watched him on tape and saw Will. He’s an NBA player. He’ll keep plugging away and I think he’ll be in the league – if not with us, then with someone.” - Curry said he talked to Rodney Stuckey after the Pistons were eliminated from the playoffs by Boston – Curry was scheduled to coach the Summer League team even before succeeding Flip Saunders as head coach – and made a deal with him. If he brought his teammates to Las Vegas in top-flight condition, the Pistons would hold just one practice a day leading up to the Summer League opener instead of two.
“We sort of had an agreement that the guys were going to be in shape,” Curry said. “They were (in Auburn Hills) about two to three weeks, getting some work in. They held up their end of the bargain and we’ve had two really good days of practice so far.”
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Award-winning journalist Keith Langlois, most recently lead sports columnist at The Oakland Press, joined Pistons.com as the web site editor on October 2, 2006. Langlois, who brings over 27 years of professional sports journalism experience to Palace Sports & Entertainment, serves as Pistons.com's official beat writer and covers the team on a daily basis.