Good thing we cut Deron/traded A.A., huh? Both of those decisions are paying off so far…

Welp, time for Chucky to potentially earn his (tiny) paycheck, I guess.

Also- I could see Daye easily jumping in the rotation as Tay’s backup, but I’m not sure how J.J. will fit into the mix. Will he take some of Maxi’s minutes? Or will he just fight with Wilcox over garbage time?
(And though he could play for Tayshaun as well, I’m thinking that since he was at the 4/5 most of the time in preseason he’s likely to stay there. Right?)

Another thing: Yes- 5:41 a.m.. I am pulling an all-nighter to write a Spanish paper(/comment on various blogs around the interweb), and I am a god. Now THAT’s the Michigan Difference.

Was I the only person wondering why Rip was still in the game with 5 minutes to go and a lead of 23 points or so?

I was wondering the same thing. In fact, just before Rip got hurt I was wondering why Q had such important pieces in the game. Then again, he only had 10 players to use.

Of course, even with 12 players we don’t have a SG for mop-up garbage time. Good thing we have 4 small forwards and three point guards, though. Hopefully, Q can use them out of position at SG in blow outs to protect our two best scorers.

Washington > Atkins (already tired, I know)

I was with you, TJ; however, we didn’t really have anyone to go to at that point. After dumping Washington/AA, we don’t have a garbage time SG … Stuck, Rip, BG, it’s gotta be one of those guys.

=====

I’m looking forward to seeing how the rotation plays out. In my mind, I still think of Jerebko as a 3/4 and not a 4/5. But, I don’t think he’s quite ready for big minutes at the 3 — not a good enough ball handler yet. At the very least, he’s a very effective spark plug on a lethargic night (I can’t imagine that would be tonight, though).

Hey, now we can use a three guard rotation! TEAM COHESION FTW!!

“We don’t think about not playing.”

Is that the Royal We?

Even if Washington was still on the roster, I would still have more faith in playing Daye more minutes at SF. Bynum, Gordon, Stuckey and Prince could each play only 32 minutes which isn’t a lot, if Daye can provide 16. Even if he can only give 12, they still wouldn’t have to use Chuckles.

If Chuckles can still stroke the 3 like he used to be able to, he could be pretty valuable in a Steve Blake-like roll— i.e. bring the ball down the court, give it a playmaker, spot up and wait for the kick, repeat. I honestly like Chuckles on this roster. He’s kind of like Big Ben for the guards.

Damn you, fantasy basketball. I don’t want Durant and Westbrook to have monster games tonight, but then I kind of do. Maybe we let the “stars” go off and shut everybody else down? Nothing like having your cake and eating it too. As long as Sir Kwame’s not around.

In all honesty, I don’t see why we couldn’t run Daye some garbage time minutes at SG. In fact, right now I think Daye is more of a 3/2 than a 3/4.

@ Joel: I recommend siding with real basketball on this one.

Yeaahhhhh… I want to. I really do. I don’t really need a ton of points, so maybe if they both go like 3-15 from floor but with a good # of assists/boards/steals/etc. I could live with that.

@Terrence: That better be some crazy garbage (like 25+ point spread in the 4th). I have a feeling Daye would get murdered by just about any competent SG right now. But, if the game is completely out of hand it would be better than risking an injury to one of the starters.

I’m have this strange feeling you’ll do just fine in boards, Joel.

Me too. I can’t wait for when we get the Blazers (I have Oden also). That’s a guaranteed 15/15 night at least.

Yeah. The Pistons will be fantastic this year at making 10 rpg players look more like 15+ rpg players. Memphis missed 11 more shots than Detroit and still outrebounded them by 10. That’s just crazy.

Interesting idea to prevent tanking…

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/12440808

“no rebounds, no rings” — pat riley

“no magic, kareem, shaq, or d-wade, no rings” – pat riley

@QD: Wow. That idea makes no sense at all. Regardless of regular season record, every team seeded 8th or below would still have the same shot at the playoffs. How does that possibly add any incentive to win regular season games. Why play 82 games if winning them doesn’t matter? That would be like an 82 game preseason, which just doesn’t sound fun.

The problem is that there is an incentive to lose. That proposal does not get rid of the incentive. Why not just keep the current system, but give every non-playoff team one ping pong ball? Bam! Incentive to lose is gone.

I vote we go big, throw Daye in as the backup SG behind BG if Rip sits it out. Can you imagine that lineup: Bynum, Daye, Jerebko, Maxiel, Kwame? That is a big lineup.

I feel like bill simmons already came up with a very similar idea for avoiding tanking. This could be tweaked, so that the last place team from each conference would be exempt (which would encourage not finishing last) and the 8th place team would have a bye. Play 3 games, 3 nights, so the bye would be beneficial.
  Waulie, I like the 1 team 1 ball lottery, but that would be contrary to the draft process, which is supposed to prop/help the poor teams in the league. I’d be ok with the scenario, but imagine the 9th place team from the west, having won 50 games getting the 1st pick. I don’t think the rest of the owners of lottery teams would like that too much.

Bynum, Daye, Jerebko, Maxiel, Kwame? That is a big lineup.

shudders

Bynum, Daye, Jerebko, Maxiel, Kwame? That is a big lineup.

shudders

Cosign.

In non-related news, apparently the Jazz aren’t giving Ronnie Brewer an extension. I absolutely LOVE his game— lockdown defender, ridiculously efficient scorer, and he’ll give you a couple assists and steals a game to boot. I think he’d be perfect to the whole at SG we’ll eventually have, whether off the bench or starting (with BG off the bench, much like how Denver does it w/ JR Smith), and is absolutely a “Pistons type” player. He’s not going to command a ton of money because he does a lot of “non-stat sheet” stuff, much like Battier. I’d love him as a ’Ston.

fill the hole is what that should have said

True enough, Craig. The problem is as soon as teams start tanking, that logic goes right out the window anyway. I just fundamentally hate the idea of rewarding teams for losing. It tends to suck the whole notion of competition from the game, which can nearly render the whole thing pointless. I know it’s a business, but it is a sport business.