Coming out of DePaul in 2007, Sammy Mejia was a borderline prospect possessing a lot of the tools GMs look for, but not showing the consistency needed to find his way into the league immediately. Nonetheless, the Detroit Pistons selected him in the second round, 57th overall, and brought him into camp, but decided to waive him at the beginning of the season due to a roster spot crunch. Due to the new NBADL Allocation Rule, he was assigned to the Pistons affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. After being injured in Fort Waynes training camp, they injury released him until he got healthy enough to resign with the team. Since then, he has lead their team in scoring at just under 22 points per game and rebounding with a little over 8 per game.
Sammy struggled in the first quarter, going only 3 of 8. He drove both right and left to the basket, but was either cut off and forced to toss up a bad shot, or got caught in the air and unable to finish. He hit a pull-up jumper from just inside the arc at the end of the first which gave him momentum heading into the second, where he stole the ball off of the block and then trailed in transition for a dunk, and then pulled up just inside the arc in semi-transition for a straightaway long distance 2. He had trouble finishing at the rim in the first half missing an easy floater going right to left and then tossing another floater up wildly in the lane.
The second half was much of the same, going only 3 of 8, with Sammy trying to break the zone on a couple of plays and getting stuck dribbling too much outside of the arc on another. He did a good job defensively in the first half against Los Angeles D-Fenders forward Sean Banks holding him to 1 of 9 shooting, but in the second half Banks began to heat up and drove to the basket at will past Mejia. He rotated well defensively, but when left on an island he had trouble dealing with Banks pump fakes and first step.
Mejia has good footwork and a decent midrange game. Hes an on-court leader making sure players have their defensive assignments during freethrows and his hustle and good positioning allows him to rebound exceptionally well for his height, especially on the offensive end, where hes third in the league at 3.7 per game. Despite his talent, D-Fenders forwards Sean Banks and Devin Green managed to keep their hand in his face and hedge him off of his drives using their length and athleticism to disrupt his game. Mejia is an extremely skilled and versatile player, but lacking elite athleticism and a quick first step is a serious hindrance when it comes to taking his game to the next level.
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