I think we need to give coach Curry some credit for Wallace’s play as well. When Wallace messed up those two pick and roll situations in the 4th Curry was visibly upset on the sidelines and called a time out. Sheed responded with a great last 10 minutes in the 4th. I’m not saying it’s his fault, but I don’t think Flip could do that with Sheed.

We need to get McDyess back though, so that we have another big man who can stretch the floor. Sheed can’t keep playing this many minutes all season.

Yeah, Sheed is playing very well and it’s nice to see his rebounding numbers up – what’s weird though is that the increase of 3.2 rebounds per game (6.6 to 9.8) are with an increase of only .2 (1.1 to 1.3) on the offensive end. Amir and Max have been averaging 2.2 and 2.1 offensive rebounds per game respectively in only 16 minutes per game each. Maybe we should be playing them mor—ah, forget it.

It’s nice actually seeing us hold opposing teams’ stars to reasonable games. Maybe MC has defensive strategies more complex than hoping for a bad game.

"Amir Johnson is raw but will get better with age >>

In his 4th season and the coaches still have taught him how to take a charge.

Simply pathetic.

Everytime he is in the paint of near it and is attacked he jumps up to block the shot.

What the heck is so difficult about just standing there and taking the charge rather than getting called almost everytime for a foul.

Once he starts taking charges then offensive players will be less lightly to attack him which will be a good a good thing all around.

Maybe Curry decides to design a drill with Amir in the paint and Maxiell attacking him. Then just have Amir stand there and take a few hits without leaving his feet.

He won’t be squat in the league until he starts taking charges on a regular basis as appropriate.

In the meantime if he isn’t going to take the charge then get out of the way so at least you don’t commit a foul every time.

He also needs more weight with muscle

@Mike

I second that sentiment. Eat some meat, son! He looks like a dominant WNBA player right now.

Kwame Brown hurts to watch, just like regular Candian Club Whiskey hurts to drink!

“In his 4th season and the coaches still have taught him how to take a charge.”

Coaches can’t really teach it. You have to get a feel for the game. Amir has 1,086 minutes under his belt. A number of rookies will crack that figure before the all-star break.

It is worth noting that Stuckey fouls at nearly the same rate as Amir.

Last season Amir drew 4 offensive fouls. Jarvis Hayes drew 4. McDyess drew 6 offensive fouls. Tayshaun drew 6 offensive fouls. Sheed drew 7. So Amir drew .25 offensive fouls per 48 minutes, Hayes drew .14 per 48, Dyess drew .12 per 48, Tay drew .10 per 48, and Sheed drew .14 per 48. Why, by looking at the numbers it seems that Amir could teach Dyess, Tay, Sheed and Hayes how to draw charges! He’s a charge drawing wunderkind!

I think the presence of AI and Kwame is helping Sheed a lot. Kwame’s bulk frees him up to get more rebounds and take less of a pounding.

AI gets him at least a few easy baskets per game and also gives him more room on those threes.

whisky-soaked goggles….

i thought for the most part all of our bigs played well, even kwame. amir came in on fire, as if he had been doused in canadian club and someone lit a match. but then he just started showing his youth with some head-scratching plays. i can’t watch that kid without thinking of that dave cowens quote.

one note of negativity from last night: stuckey is a horrible defender. how many screens did he go under whilst guarding mo williams? he made up for it with a strong 4th Q, but for a while i was so pissed i was shaking…

like an alcoholic jonesing for some smooth canadian club whiskey.

(i wasn’t shaking, just needed the setup there for the joke.)

NOW KILL BOSTON, MIKE PAYNE!!!! SHIP

@Matt:
“I figured an upfront mention was preferable than sneaking in random CC references into my regular posts”

I think you should just do that anyway— you know, for laughs :)

@Shinons:
“what’s weird though is that the increase of 3.2 rebounds per game (6.6 to 9.8) are with an increase of only .2 (1.1 to 1.3) on the offensive end.”

It makes sense, actually— Sheed plays in the post more on D, but on offense he’s not typically in rebound range. Those three’s Matt was talking about is a good example— he’s spread out further and can’t as easily get O boards.

@JD:
Murder murder murder! If this one doesn’t work, maybe we should try reverse psychology? It worked with LA :)

I wonder if the resurgence of Tayshaun is also helping Sheed? Tay seems to be working HARD on the glass, and maybe that’s rubbing off on him? And I get so frustrated when Amir is on the court. If he’s in the paint defending and someone drives to the rim, 99.9% of the time the refs blow the whistle. He just seems to foul so much. And falling for pump fakes kills me, too. He needs to play more with his head and less with his supposedly-freakish-athleticism (which I’ll continue to doubt until he goes Shawn Kemp circa 1994 on someone). I think I need a fine Canadian Club whiskey to ease the pain.

Magic’s thoughts on the Iverson trade:

MJ: I think that at the end of the day it’s going to prove to be a good move for both teams. Just like now, you see both guys helping their teams. Most of the time you say, Is it going to be an even trade? This one will be. The local kid goes home in Chauncey Billups, and now you’re probably going to see Carmelo be more comfortable because he’ll be the first option, and the second option. (Laughs) And I think for him and his game, he’s going to grow from that. And you’ve got a guy in Billups who’s going to make big shots for Denver. The local kid comes home, he went to the University of Colorado, and he’s got a world championship ring; it’s going to be great for the whole city and the whole state of Colorado to have Billups come back. What a story. Allen Iverson, meanwhile, goes to Detroit, where they needed him because he’s a breakdown guy at the end of the shot clock. They don’t have good one-on-one players; they have good team players that use screens, but you beat them when you get to the playoffs because nobody on that team can take you off the dribble. Now they have one of the best ever at taking people off the dribble. That makes Detroit more explosive, and also more exciting to watch. Even though Detroit was successful, you didn’t really like watching them. They were a grind-it-out team, but now they’re up and down and more exciting, so I think that that’s good for Detroit and good for basketball. He’s a good fit in Detroit and in Michigan. Billups was tough, but Allen is tough in a different way, so it makes it great. And also, too, it puts some life in that team. They were lifeless. So now you can see them being like, ‘Oh, OK. Allen’s here and he’s playing like this? OK, I gotta run more. I gotta play harder.’ Things change when you get that sparkplug and he’s that sparkplug.

QD: Thanks for the quote! Surprisingly I understood every word that Magic said. And I also agree with him 100%. I can only assume that any sound effects he made while describing the players (like, “Oh, OK. Allen’s here and he’s playing like this? Errrrrk!! Vrrooooom! Whooooosh!!”) were edited out of the transcript.

Big Daily Dime shout out for the Stones:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-081120

“Why am babbling about this? Because I’m big on transparency and appreciate the invite, and I figured an upfront mention was preferable than sneaking in random CC references into my regular posts ("Amir Johnson is raw but will get better with age … much like Canadian Club Classic 12 Year Old!" "Allen Iverson finished strong … and with hints of wood and vanilla like Canadian Club 6 Year Old!") Just saying.”

this is some of your finest work, and we expect more CC references in the future. Even if you became a CC marketing shill, I don’t think my local liquor store (Fairfax Village Liquor, SE DC) will carry it!

Jack D…

Curry said Sheed was the one responsible for the two 3 pointers that Mo Williams got in the 4th.

“We changed our coverage on pick-and-rolls and ’Sheed was playing it like we played it the previous two weeks,” Curry said. “He made two coverage mistakes and Williams made two 3s. Sheed realized it and changed and we were better at it.”

@MP – Yeah, I agree that it’s common sense why Sheed’s increased rebounding numbers wouldn’t impact the offensive boards – was just looking for another chance to complain about Kwame playing so much. I actually did it in a meeting today – used Amir’s statistics to show that if MC gave Kwame a DNP tonight against Boston giving his minutes instead to Max and Amir, our profits would increase 77.9 percent overnight. Even though we’re a nonprofit. In Albuquerque, New Mexico. Still.

jim-my recollection of stuckey going under screens was from the first half.

mp-reverse psychology is absolutely the way to go. NO WAY YOU GUYS GET THAT W IN BOSTON. THAT TOWN IS LOVELY. AND FILLED WITH GREAT FANS. WHO ARE NOT OBNOXIOUS AT ALL. AND DO NOT WANT TO MAKE SAUCE BURN DOWN THE ENTIRE CITY.

(how’s that?)

Some numbers on Detroit players and their age… and one final note at the end…

Walter Sharpe and Stuckey are the same age… 22

Alex Acker, Kwame Brown, and Will Bynum are the same age… 26

Average age (including AI and McDyess)… 27.07

Average age of starters (Amir, Tey, Rip, AI, Rasheed)… 29.02

Average age of our primary backups (Bynum, Stuckey, Afflalo, Maxiell, Brown)… 24.4

for all you frustrated with Amir… Amir Johnson is STILL the youngest player on the team… 21

Matt, when did “transparency” come to mean rubbing it in on all us small-timers?

The only 30-year-old Scotch I’ll ever see is the tape holding my broken glasses together.

@JD:
You missed: “and were all die-hard fans of the Celtics for decades, even the ones that own Garnett jerseys”. Other than that, let’s see how this works!

As an “Amir Moderate,” I’m going to reach across the aisle and remind everyone about the things that the “Free Amir liberals” would shout whenever I expressed my scepticism.

He’s still young so he has time to put on weight (the primary reason for my scepticism) and this is really his first full season so he’ll show great improvement by the end of the year.

Guys like Bogut and Fisher perennially take more charges alone than our entire rotation. Amir is having problems, but an inability to draw charges is something that has been characteristic of all of our players the last few years, except maybe Maxiell.

Iverson is usually among the league leaders in taking charges, but that’s not something I’ve been paying attention to. Has the team taken more charges since he’s come around?

This reminds me. I have a t-shirt from Canadian Club that says “Damn right, your dad drank it.”

I thought that was clever.

“The only 30-year-old Scotch I’ll ever see is the tape holding my broken glasses together.”

Why? Just get ten friends together. Instead of going to a bar, have everyone put in $20. Find a reputable liquor purveyor, and have him direct you to a bargain and have your own whiskey tasting. You should have enough left over for classy snacks to go with it.

“As an "Amir Moderate," I’m going to reach across the aisle and remind everyone about the things that the "Free Amir liberals" would shout whenever I expressed my scepticism.”

I am an Amir conservative. He’s like the Sarah Palin of this team. The talent is there, but he has been under-utilized and is mistake-prone. Other than the Pistons, he couldn’t even name other NBA teams he watches.

All I am saying, is give Amir a chance. Sometimes you just need to let the CC mature a few years before pouring. It always tastes better. Hopefully not 30 though.

@MP&JD, you serious? Garnett has just come back from suspension, Boston is a REAL team that plays with heart and fire. They are world champions because they are the best vomits
Detroit has no chance!

+1 kevin s. I never thought I’d hear an Amir / Sarah Palin correlation, let alone one that was successful.

Actually, screw it. I was confident for the Lakers game and for the Cavs, so Go Stones!
Detroit wins 90-79.
AI goes beserk and gets 30+. Max eats the Big Baby. Stuckey gets KG ejected when he jumps into KG as he pops his jersey. Pierce cries when Kwame has his cake, then eats it too!

Yeah! Go Stones! W00t.

I still vote that no one’s really an Amir Liberal. Who thinks that he’s going to be averaging 25 ppg next year? It’s just the non-conservatives want to see what he can do. I think the hype train has gotten way higher on Stuckey, who is already being talked about for the Olympic team even though he hasn’t really done anything – only one career 20 point game and has spent 8 of his 9 months as a pro shooting 40% or lower from the field. So I guess that would make him like Barack Obama.

Kidding, kidding…

Oh wait, Laughton and JD, I almost forgot:
“You guys are nuts, we can take this team, I’m gonna take your Pistons fan cards!”

mmm nuts

(Interesting CC trivia I learned last night: Those hilarious “Damn right your dad drank it” ads are the real deal: the pics aren’t staged, they’re actual vintage photographs of older relatives of people that work for the company. For some reason that cracks me up.)

I am an amir communist

To be clear, amir’s militant dbb junta is stronger than your doubt