The basketball gods are getting their revenge after nearly a decade of good basketball.

Horrible schedule
Key injuries
Bad breaks

Clearly the basketball Gods are getting us back for ruining Allen Iverson.

How many more injuries do we need before we say “screw it” and play the John Wall/Renardo Sidney sweepstakes? 2?

Also, Joe D might want to think of adding a shooting guard to the roster. Maybe one who’s athletic. Or at least knows the system. Or who would have benefited from being in Coach Q’s practices all year. Maybe his name rhymes with BeJon Boshington.

It’s officially time to give Daye and Summers lots of minutes at SG/SF.

Stuck/Day/Summers/CV/Max could be an interesting line-up. Then MFWB/JJ/BigBen can sub in for defense and energy. Kuester’s gotta start getting creative.

I was a big proponent of Daye at the 2. He’s not as quick as your average SG, but he could use his length to make up for it (much like Prince can guard SGs this way). He’s too scrawny to play PF or even SF that much, why not use him as our 4th guard for now? It gets him playing time and experience while solve a temporary issue.

well, it’s time for some Atkins. i do believe the starting lineup should now be bynum/stuckey in the backcourt. backup pg minutes for Atkins, backup SG for Daye. rest of the rotation remains the same. hopefully Rip is real close to being recovered from his own ankle strain.

the killer schedule patch is over. which game did anyone really expect to win? team plays hard. gordon and villanueva are quality players. bynum amd stuckey have their moments. stuckey last night yes, bynum not. i guess they read matt’s thread. what was stuckey’s shooting pct. on his great night? i bet it still wasn’t that great. anyhow looking forward to some winnable games and the return of rip.

Andy

Stuckey shot 50% last night which is VERY good.

He was even passing the ball but nobody could hit their shots.

He had a great game he just needs to build off of it

I brought up playing Daye at the 2 quite a while ago and still think its a great idea with a decent zone. That will really help stretch the floor, not to mention we should be actually pretty damn good defensively with all that size.

Oracl
I’d rather avoid starting Stuckey and Bynum together. Neither is a great outside shooter, and Bynum is playing on two bad ankles as it is. Considering his game is completely dependent on speed, we can’t afford more of absimal shooting. I say start either Stuckey and Daye or Atkins and Stuckey because then you at least have one good shooter to start the game.

andy what the hell is your point? Quite frankly Bynum was awful last night. Stuckey got to a horrid start, shooting 3-10 and ended 8-16, where he hit his 5 of 6 and 8 of 8 from the line. This would have been a 30 point blowout if it wasn’t for him, he took over in the second half. I think had Kuester stuck with Daye at the 2, this could have been a very close game. I guess you just can’t say anything positive about Stuckey.

It really was amazing that we made a game of it in the 4th quarter, all things considered.

Had we managed to not give them so many open shots in the first half, and man did they have a lot of open shots in the first half, the lead may not hav ebeen insurmountable.

Cleveland seemed to score on every possession in the first half. If they had come out with half the energy they had in the second, this could have been a winnable game.

Another problem was turnovers and shot selection. Gordon and Bynum have become turnovers machines lately. I’d like to see our guys actually taking the open shots they have. Quite a few times Stuckey and Bynum found Jerebko standing alone on the 3 point line, but JJ instead decided to drive into traffic for a much more difficult shot. Its not just JJ, that’s part of the reason why Stuckey ended up with zero assits. CV seems to go into one on one mode everytime he gets the ball rather than just take the open shot. In his case, I’m more okay with that after having Sheed, but still, we brought him in for his shooting. I understand closer shots are generally easier, but come on, you have to hit those when you’re wide open.

Allen Iverson is such a bitch, and I think we all jinxed Bynumite with the last post. Oh and this kieth Langois is such a tool, mentioning what the possibilities for the lineup are now that gordon is out too, obviously Bynum is gonna start with Stuckey and Chucky is gonna move up in the rotation..done, that wasn’t hard.

I disagree MNM, I personally would rather see Daye or Chucky start alongside of Stuckey. You need at least one very good shooter in your lineup at all times.

Not to mention we’ll have zero bench scoring if Bynum starts, not to mention he’s got two bad ankles. You can’t expect him to outrun starters in his current state, he’s best off going against role players.

You know, the first games Rip and Tay missed they were just questionable. And Tay’s original injury was just a cut on his toe, not a back issue. Anyone else finding this stuff weird?

Any announcement on how long Gordon will be out?

I was at the gsme, my very first live NBA experience. Here’s what I noticed:

Everything is smaller than it looks on TV even the players.
Bynum had a bad shooting night even during warmups. He never had his shot from the get go. Stuckey has an accurate jumpshot and has all the tools to take over a game. Chris Wilcox is worse than I already thought he was. Lebron gets superstar calls, he doesn’t need them he is simply unstoppable.
After the 3rd quarter my memory gets a bit unreliable due the alcohol, but we had a mini comeback that was exciting-ish (I think).

I had a fantastic time at The Palace, everyone was super nice and I even managed to get a photo with George Blaha and Greg Kelser. One of the people that works at the game even gave me one of the game nets for my birthday (and because of where I came from to see the game). Heres hoping that the Stones can get a win against the Clips so I don’t go home without seeing a victory.

@Laughton: Nice! Have you run into any DBB folks on your journey?

Not yet, but I will hopefully be catching up with our fearless leader soon.

Hell yeah laughton.

Alright MoFockers! What I want to know is two things. How can we assure Ben Wallace can still play next year with a healthy team next time. And Why can’t I be Laughton. I want my picture with Blaha and Kelser!

But seriously. does anyone else see that Charlie V is acting like a college kid out there. Freakin’ talented but looks like he’s trying to learn stuff. Looking around and a little hesitation like he’s thinkin’ about stuff… important stuff! It’s like he just needs a good teacher, a good coach. Am I delsuional and alone on this one?

But anyway. Happy thanksgiving MFers!!!

King Cake OUT!

I’m watching Atlanta/Orlando. It’s amazing how sometimes Dwight Howard looks like a video game, blocking and dunking and dominating everything. And other times he looks like a total bull in a china shop, clumsily knocking guys out of the way for offensive fouls. Atlanta has totally neutralized him so far.

@Garrett:
IMO, Dwight Howard is my top prospect for disappointment of the year. His numbers are down across the board— foul trouble has pushed him to lose the big minutes he held last season, so he’s down to 17 and 11 after putting up 21 and 14 last season, not to mention fewer blocks, 1.6 vs. 2.9 last year.

I’ve got him on my fantasy team in my friends/family league, and dude has been a total disappointment.

He’s not the most dominant center in the league this year. He’s clearly number two to Andrew Bynum.

Was it this Mr. Matt Watson who got a letter published in Car and Driver? I’m too drunk and surly to fully comprehend right now but congrats!

I diss Boozer in the off season but i’m going to eat my words. The Pistons need Boozer!!!! Joey D. need to call up Portland and Utah when Tay get back and make it happen.

Stuckey, Hamiton, Daye or Summers(it don’t matter), Boozer, Wallace

Bench: Bynum, Gordan, JJ,Charlie V, Kwame, all I can say is Wooooow!!!!!

Another benefit of Marcin Gortat: Low-brow comedy

Thoughts on A.I.: Spurs center-forward Antonio McDyess was shocked Wednesday to hear that Allen Iverson, his teammate last season on the Detroit Pistons, had announced he was retiring.

"He’s a good teammate and a great player," McDyess said. "It was just unfortunate he couldn’t find a spot in someone’s system that could work for a team."

McDyess won’t be surprised if Iverson ends up playing again this season, in spite of his retirement announcement.

"No, but it won’t surprise me if he doesn’t play again, either," he said. "He burned a lot of bridges, so maybe nobody wants to take a chance on him.

He should just eat that humble pie and play bench. If you really have gas in the tank and consider yourself a scoring threat- Play by the rules, meaning let coach tell you how he wants to use you. If you’re a viable roster choice, believe me you will get your playing time. But this ain’t 2000 and teams are no longer lined up to sign you. The writing is on the wall. Be realistic dudebro.

He still has his advocates. He burned alot of bridges like ’Dyess said, and he went out like a true Payaso but he could play tomorrow if he just did a little PR work and committed to team ball.

Like I said, I could see him in Philly. That’s the last place he played that truly loved and appreciated him. It’s almost 2010 man, salvage what you have left and stop popping that weak ass finger pointing shit and fake retiring.

Boozer’s line last night: 28 points, 8 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers. Yeah, I’d take him.

Also, on Gortat, I was never a huge fan when everyone was hoping to sign him in the summer. But last night against the Hawks I saw him chase Joe Johnson from the low post out past the three point line for a hard double-team and THEN run all the back to the lane to block the shot after Johnson swung the ball around. He’s mobile.