“Tayshaun Prince’s consecutive game streak came to an end. Did anyone see that coming? That seems a bit fishy to me. There is more to this story, I think.”

Must we turn everything into a trade rumor. The guy was obviously playing hurt the last couple games the way he was limping around.

First!.. one to say nice recap Kevin.

I’m glad to see CV make plays beyond offense. His rebounding and a few key defensive moves will help him further acclimate into this season, and at least provide a base on which to build his offense. It seems that he doesn’t yet have the trust of his teammates, as very rarely is a ball passed to him in the post or at the perimeter. Sure, he needs to move without the ball MUCH better, but I think his establishment on the defensive end (surprisingly) is going to help his cause on the other end.

I forgot MFWB had surgery last year. Are we going to see him wearing goggles ala Kareem?

Cake for Everyone!

First Kevin, then One Eyed Will, Jonas, Big Ben, Commish, Stuck, CV, then Kwame can finish it off!

Dang fine game! Defense and toughness! Who’d a thunk it?

Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that Stuckey gets to play the first half and Bynum gets 2nd half. The opener and closer roles.

Though we had no Rip or Tay, they had no Pietrus or Shard. Just saying…

But anyway- great game, regardless. A much needed victory.

@J Dre:
We will now fight with knives. Pietrus + Shard is AT BEST equivalent to Rip + Tay. You’re talking 3rd or 4th option + 5th option on their squad to 1st or 2nd option + 3rd or 4th option on our squad.

Just saying… leather glove cheek slaps for attempting to denigrate our win by comparing their worst starters to two of our top four.

Is it me or does Stuckey shoot really bad from the floor…7 for 20 !! Wow he needs to work on that!

ThirdQuarterCollapse has their take of the game up. Pretty solid, and insightful from their perspective. (note— if you head over there and choose to comment, be respectful! they’re always respectful when they come here, one of the better communities on the web, not like those boston fools):
http://www.thirdquartercollapse.com/2009/11/3/1113928/detroit-pistons-85-orlando-magic-80

@MP, Ben Q. Rock is an outstanding writer, I enjoy reading his commentaries.

@KS, great job with the recaps, I haven’t been able to see a game yet, but when I read you, I feel like I’ve gotten the executive summary of what’s going on. But…I don’t see Tay being traded anytime soon. Maybe eventually, but if Joe D had a number of possible deals for him and didn’t pull the trigger…well, he’s staying for a while. I can’t see any kind of big man expiring contract he could be dealt for, unless some truly out of the box thinking was present.

Any take on Jerebko’s performance out there? Kuester left him in 26 minutes, he must have been ok.

I’m totally inspired by the pounding 3 guard attack.. WillBe and Stucks hittin the defense like running backs, BeeG hittin absurd rainbowgumdrops.. then we add Rip runnin circles round foos.. with 2 biggs in for putbacks and roll-n-dunks. We dont need no Tay. why no maxiell 2nite? is that fishy?

Great win.

I didn’t see the game but does JJ Reddick suck on D? I’m not talking smack buy his NBA track record doesn’t scream ‘I keep my guy in front of me’. I don’t want to get too excited about the Pistons guards if they weren’t, you know, being defended.

I hope the Pistons give Tay some kind honor before the next home game even if it’s a ball with the number of consecutive games played. It’s easy to bitch as a fan about Player X or Y but for me over the long run Tayshaun has given you all the effort and class you could ever want from a pro athlete. Nice run Tay.

Respect to coach K. Seems his game plan worked out nicely. we always talk of the players in wins and never mention the coach. He pulled out a win with his two best players benched.

Did anyone feel the refing went our way or is this just a common theme with orlando fans?

Jerebko was very solid and displayed some hustle and focus on the defense side of the ball. On offense he was mainly a link man, but had some shot attempts that were blocked or didn’t fall. A very promising starting debut.

great win, but i think we heading towards a serious ass kick in orlando on friday

too many things going our way tonight. and with rip out we have to rely on gordon, 50 cent and MFWB to have great performances every night, since our frontcourt does not offer enough offensive threats

in prior years beating the dregs or the depleted was ho-hum. this year every game is a struggle and every victory worthy of celebration. i only watched bits and pieces. it seemed like bynum was hitting key jumpers. when he hits the jumper, he is unstoppable.

around the nba…i would add denver to the list of impressive starts. they seem to be picking up where they left off, but with a healthy and dominant melo. they have beat both utah and portland handily.

one more thing

no max? against orlando?

wilcox was awful imo

Wilcox was awful. I had high hopes for him. Every time I’ve seen him play in the past (which admittedly hasn’t been that much) he has gone off on the opponent of the moment.

I agree with Kevin. Last night was the best effort I’ve seen in years. I would rather watch a young and hungry team like we have right now than a (dare I say it) complacent title contender night in and night out. It gets very frustrating when you know you should be blowing out teams but only winning by 2 or 3 points on last second shots.

even if wilcox was awful last night, i am tired of maxiel and kwame and their offensive ineptitude. wilcox has offensive potential. so i want him to get the time.

A couple things I would add to Kevin’s recap (which is good as always):

- MFWB ended up shooting 7-15 and 6-6 at the line. As badly as he played in the 1st half, his fourth quarter more than made up for it. I noticed a few people in the game thread knocking him for his shooting — it was actually very good last night.

- I’m loving Jonas Jerebko. Yes, he got two shots swatted, but I’m not worried about that. His game is still very European, in that he doesn’t finish authoritatively around the rim. Yes, he’ll never be an above the rim high flier, but he will learn to use his body (and the rim on occasion) to shield defenders which will help him become a better finisher. And he already has range, and his consistency should improve. The thing I like the most? Everytime he leaves the floor, he looks gassed — not because he’s out of shape, but because he plays that hard every second he’s out there.

- Ben Gordon has started the season on fire. Last night, 6-10 and 11-11 from the line and five boards? I love it.

- On the negative side, we only shot 37% as a team, and personally, I think that’s related to our 8 team assists, which is a continuing miserable theme. I tried to pay attention to our offensive sets last night, and quite often, it looked like we made it all the way through the set and didn’t hit any of the options … which resulted in us running pick and rolls or isos near the end of the shot clock. That’s a recipe for low assists and difficult shots.

- Charlie probably looked his best last night even though he shot horribly. I think both he and Stuckey are still forcing the issue at times offensively.

There was a point in the 4th qtr. when bynum was injured and we were forced to play big with Brown,Wilcox,JJ,Stuck and CV I think. To my recollection that rotation played pretty well, defensively at least. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that as a second unit. Any one care to add their thoughts ?

CV played shooting guard last night?

@joejoejoe

Redick might not be the greatest defender, but especially in crunch time it was Jameer Nelson who was getting ran. And Jameer is strong, physical guard who typically defends very well. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, there’s really nobody that can keep MFWB or Stuck out of the lane when they choose to drive. Unfortunately for us, Stuck is a horrendous finisher (which leads to 7/20fg nights even when it’s mostly at the rim).

Also, our “offense” was beyond excruciating to watch. It was like ‘03 Allen Iverson by committee— “Everyone get out of the way while I shake my defender for 10 seconds and hope for a shooting foul.” Clearly the fact that Rip and Tay, probably our two best distributors/facilitators, were out is the main reason this happened. If I remember correctly in the first game of the year the offense looked pretty crisp. Given the guys we had available for last night’s game though, I can’t say I’m too displeased with the offense. We had no business winning that game and our single-minded aggressiveness was the sole reason it was even close— they outscored us 30-0 on 3’s and held us to as bad a shooting night as they had.

Good: Defense/aggressive guard play

Bad: Stuckey “finishing” drives. Jesus Christ is it ugly.

“even if wilcox was awful last night, i am tired of maxiel and kwame and their offensive ineptitude. wilcox has offensive potential. so i want him to get the time.”

Kwame’s offensive “eptitude” might have won us the game last night. It wasn’t pretty, but he used some nice pump fakes to get incredibly important fouls on both Dwight and Gortat multiple times— yes it would’ve been nice of him to hit his freethrows, but beggars can’t be choosers. If either of those guys doesn’t foul out, we don’t win that game. Plain and simple. Plus Kwame’s two made shots were pretty nice— one a fallaway in the lane and the other a tough layup after an offensive board.

If you watched the game you couldn’t possibly have any reason to want to see Wilcox over Kwame/Max. He was BEYOND horrible. Truly unacceptable, and I was even one of the people excited about us signing him. He tried maybe the single worst pass attempt I’ve ever seen in the NBA (which failed, of course, and let to a fast break). He didn’t crash the boards, didn’t look good on defense, and in general looked like end-of-the-bench garbage.

And regarding Max’s “DNP-CD” and Tay mysteriously missing his first game in 6 years over a sore back— shit’s brewing. It’s pretty obvious. I’m thinking it’s something like Tay and Max for Pryzbilla and Outlaw/Webster. We all know the Blazers love Tay (and after watching last nights POR/ATL game, they definitely NEED Tay) and I think it’s no secret that we’re in the market for a mid-level C who rebounds and blocks shots.

Along the lines of brgulker and Joel’s post, I think the lack of assists and 1-1 play from the guards is disturbing. Yes, they were able to draw fouls last night (and MFWB’s drive to get #6 on Howard was damn near heroic under the circumstances) and yes, Rip and Tay were out. But Detroit has had crappy assist numbers in all the games they played.

It was a gutty performance, especially on defense. But the offense has got to be better. We’re not going to get 20+ more FTs than the opposition on a regular basis.

From Hoopsworld:

“The decision last night in Detroit to sit Tayshaun Prince who by all accounts could have played according to sources, was labeled a precautionary move related to a lower back strain according to the team. That did not stop the arena from buzzing about the possibility of a trade involving Prince and forward Jason Maxiell.”…….

“Dumars quickly shut down the notion of a trade saying the decision was about injuries, and that he had enough new faces.”

I love when writers say “according to sources”. What does that even mean. I’m sure if a trade was in the works, Joe would have said “oh yes, Tay and Max will be traded to Portland very soon. We just need to iron out the details, then they’ll be gone. Thanks for asking!”

I gotta say, watching Gortat, I so wish we could pry him away from Orlando somehow. Obviously it will never happen because we’re the Disney Kids’ mortal enemies, but my god if he isn’t exactly what we need. And he’s so young. And he loves cars with big engines. And did you see how big his hands were in the replays (over and over and over in slow-mo) of him slapping One-Eyed Willy? Guy’s got MITS. And he rebounds like a fiend and blocks a bunch of shots too. Got a nice little jump shot and some post moves as well.

I’m just afraid of Przybilla’s age. I know he’s only 30, but still, he’s 30. Gortat’s like 24. If we could score the giant Pole, I think we’d be set at center for the next decade.

Assists aren’t going to pile up when we only get 20 points out of our big men. Certainly we need to do better about getting easy buckets and we won’t get to the line 38 times in most games. But when you only turn the ball over 9 times, play tough defense, and out-rebound a team like the Magic, you can get away with things like shooting 38 percent from the field.

Did anyone feel the refing went our way or is this just a common theme with orlando fans?

I didn’t see any blatant calls our way. I thought the foul that knocked Dwight out of the game in the 4th against Bynum was a little weak… but that’s today’s NBA. Any contact is a foul, especially on a driving player. But Orlando fans can’t complain. It’s hard to draw a lot of fouls when you’re shooting 35 three pointers.

Stan Van Gundy is still a giant douche. Or is he a turd sandwich?

Did anyone feel the refing went our way or is this just a common theme with orlando fans?Did anyone feel the refing went our way or is this just a common theme with orlando fans?

Orlando shot what, 38 threes? They hardly threw the ball inside, and they rarely attacked the basket. Obviously, you don’t get many calls when you shoot jumpers all night (and if Piston fans don’t know this, then you haven’t been watching our team play the past 6 seasons).

OTOH, about all we did was attack the basket. Gordon, Stuckey, and MWFB all did, all night. When you attack, you get to the line.

I didn’t see a disparity. If anything, Stuckey got fouled more often than the calls indicated.

Third Quarter Collapse, the Magic blog, doesn’t think reffing went out our way, FWIW.

I like Stan (and Jeff for that matter). And I’m pretty sure the love affair started back in ’04-05. I distinctly remember a game early in the year— and this was the first season with Shaq mind you— where we won it at home either at the buzzer or maybe in the last 30 seconds. This was the action— after the buzzer sounded, I remember Stan Van literally at center court with one hand raised to the sky, the other in a clenched fist at his side, and a look of pure anguish on his face that screamed, “Why?! God Why?! Why have You forsaken meee!?” To this day me and my friends do “the Van Gundy” whenever something bad happens.

It looked a lot like this except with the down hand clenched, up hand seemingly writhing in pain, and face raised to the sky in mortal anguish.

And he’s definitely a turd sandwich.

Ben f-ing Wallace! Game-changing defense, intensity, and leadership. Welcome home.

Just thought I’d say it because no one else has, but you don’t shut down even a foul-plagued Howard without good interior D, and he and Kwame were superb.

Great win for the stones and Q. Makes me think he’s got some tricks up his sleeve this year, unlike previous coaches (cough, curry, cough). Looks like the only way we get front court/post scoring is going to be through a trade. Hopefully cv starts to produce a little more, but i don’t see him giving us a lot in the paint. Looking at the standings, i could see philly/portland/utah/no/clips possibly starting to get a little nervous. Any of those teams could offer us some form of upgrade at the 5. With rip/tay/max, i think we could easily accommodate some trades. And i definitely think NO and philly are going to be looking to make changes if things stay the same.

There’s no way Wilcox should play over Kwame. Especially the way Kwame played last night (he outplayed Gortat).

But, I’m cool with Wilcox taking Maxiell’s minutes. He’s a bigger body and a better rebounder and finisher.

@brgulker
On the negative side, we only shot 37% as a team, and personally, I think that’s related to our 8 team assists, which is a continuing miserable theme.

I mentioned this in the game thread, but our guards shot 51% last night combining for 63 of our points. Aside from the poor shooting CV, who are you going to dish to? If I was a guard last night, I would have trusted my penetration over any of the options 3-5.

@joel:
Unfortunately for us, Stuck is a horrendous finisher (which leads to 7/20fg nights even when it’s mostly at the rim)… …Bad: Stuckey "finishing" drives. Jesus Christ is it ugly.

The stats disagree. 10 of Stuckey’s 13 misses were jumpers from outside the paint— and on average 18 feet out. Two of his paint misses came at 6 and 7 feet out. Those “horrendous finishes” were actually dead accurate— he attempted 11 layups, 10 went in. That’s 91% shooting at the basket.

Our problems with assists and offensive efficiency are both mostly due to problems with frontcourt scoring.

I couldn’t agree more, MP. We are just not going to see tons of assists with this roster, especially with Rip and Prince out. Gordon, Stuckey, and Bynum are basically create-their-own players, and everyone else struggles to score at all.

That said, I do think the offense can (and will) improve with time. From all accounts, Q has focused on defense way more than offense so far. I still believe CV will come around (it already seems like he’s moving better), which should help.

The biggest thing regarding assists is not having a post player that commands a double team. If we had a big who got doubled frequently it would be much easier to get spot up shooters open by swinging ball out of the post. Right now, if we drive and kick we’re kicking into a another drive. This actually worked great last night since it got the Magic in foul trouble.

It would be great if we could mix up the offense by playing both drive and kick and inside/outside basketball. We just don’t have any “inside”.

It’s crazy that having too many create-your-own-shot guys is a problem because it’s been SO LONG since we’ve had even one! I only caught the end of the game, but Kwame’s D looked fantastic. Bynum, Stuckey, and Gordon looked aggressive (Bynum looked downright pissed). And Orlando seemed to be playing pretty soft. All in all a good win after some tough losses. It bugs me how NBA.com has a few different stories from the previous night’s action but none of them say, “Pistons first to stop Orlando’s offensive juggernaut”.

RE: THE ASSISTS

They will come back when Rip and Tay are back. When Rip’s back, he and/or BG will be on the court at all times. Their off-the-ball movement and ability to shoot from the outside along with Tayshaun’s above average outside shooting will create more spacing and movement in the offense.

The Pistons had 20 assists against the Grizzlies.

Anyone else getting the feeling that Ben Gordon is looking like the free agent bargain, while CV is looking like the guy we overpaid? I know it’s only been 4 games and CV missed a lot of the preseason, but still…

CV: 10 ppg, 5 rpg, 3 FTAs, 34% shooting
BG: 24 ppg, 3 apg, 4 rpg, 8.5 FTAs, 50% shooting

Again, it’s really early, but still.

I question if the assists will be back. Watching clevelands offense last season, only lebron got assists. I know, different personal, but it seems to be less heavy on passing and more emphasis on 1 on 1 play.

I think people should ignore the box score assist totals all together and pay attention to the ball movement in game. It hasn’t looked this good in years, regardless of what the assist totals show.

The ball movement has looked very good at times. Other times, there has been virtually no ball movement. When Flip was here, we generally had excellent ball movement. We are not back to that level, yet.

Based on early returns, I am optimistic we will become more consistent with moving the ball as everyone gels. Certainly, getting Prince and Rip back will help tremendously.

Re: Stan Van Gundy

He’s douchey. He’s very protective of his team, and he held up well to Shaq’s scathing disses earlier in the year, but he’s said some low-class shit about the Pistons franchise as well, for this I cannot forgive the portly son of a bitch.

Mike Payne posted basically what I was going to say. It’s not assist numbers per se (although I think those can be revealing). The problem is lack of good ball movement. I hope/assume this will improve when Rip and Tay get back, CV finds his groove, and the guys generally get comfortable/familiar with each other. But this really does need to improve.

Wish I’d had a chance to watch the game. Sounds like I missed a heck of an effort. The defense really seems to be clicking, which is always a good sign.

My main concerns are the same they’ve been since the regular season started:

1) We are playing at the slowest pace in the entire league (about 87 possessions a game). This wouldn’t be a concern if we had the 2006-07 squad, but with our current roster, I really feel like we’re losing out on some easy scoring opportunities by never pushing the ball. Right now, we’re almost exclusively trying to squeeze out points against fully set, half-court NBA defenses, which will make almost any offense struggle.

2) Stuckey still can’t shoot. His TS% is .455 and his eFG% is .375. Those numbers are not nearly good enough. IMO, all the moves Jod’s made have been based around an assumption that Stuckey will develop into a star level player. If Stuckey can’t make that leap, then we’re going to be in trouble. Stuck’s secondary stats all look solid, which to me shows the effort and all around talent are there, but he just can’t seem to get the ball to go in the hoop consistently.

Subjectively, I think Stuck needs to be way, way more aggressive on fast breaks, and tone it down in the half court. He’s never going to be an amazing finisher like Tony Parker, so he’s going to need FT’s to help boost his overall efficiency, and right now refs seem to let tons of contact go when Stuck drives, because he does it so often.

Also, it would be a huge help if he developed a floater or tear drop (IMO, for PG’s, this is even more important than a jump shot), both to avoid offensive fouls, and because he desperately needs a “block-proof” inside the paint shot.

Waulie, I’m thinking it was more than just Flip in regards to having great ball movement. How bout that old PG we had? :) We don’t have anything close now.

OT: Check out my sign for tonight’s game. Think we’ll get some TV time?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2600/4076089712_c17cd125fa_o.jpg

“Also, it would be a huge help if he developed a floater or tear drop (IMO, for PG’s, this is even more important than a jump shot), both to avoid offensive fouls, and because he desperately needs a "block-proof" inside the paint shot.”

This is basically what I’m talking about when I say that Stuck is a terrible finisher. He has no finesse moves and no “unblockable” shot in his repertoire yet, so every time he goes inside he either gets stuffed or gets fouled, but rarely gets a clean shot off. It’s pretty ugly. Reminds me of Lebron’s first couple years in the league, where he just out-muscled people because he could. Once Lebron got some of that finesse game down— well, we all know how good he is now.

It was the most Pistons ball I’ve watched since before the playoffs and I was happy with the effort and the win. It probably swayed my mind to add the League Pass subscription too. Damn you NBA front office! (plus it was really nice to catch other games during the half)

Q Dog

@Mike Payne: I’m ready to rumble! Dibs on the 8.5 inch bowie knife that Delonte “Herps” West was rollin’ with.

( http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/62551/20091104/west_faces_additional_weapons_charges/ )

I was just saying: Rashard is probably their STRONGEST (get it?- because he took steroids) player.

I think people should ignore the box score assist totals all together and pay attention to the ball movement in game. It hasn’t looked this good in years, regardless of what the assist totals show.

@MP

Normally, I’m on board with you, but I have to disagree here. Team assists matter. You made a good point above — with Rip and Tay out, our offense is largely beat your man off the dribble.

I’m sorry, but 8 team assists simply won’t get it done over the 82-game longhaul that is the NBA season with any roster. Earlier, you mentioned that you should ignore the box score and watch the way the ball is moving (implying that the ball was moving well last night).

I simply don’t agree. The ball did not move well last night. Yes, we managed to win the game, but I would argue it was in spite of our offense, not because of it.

We won last night because 1) consistent effort on defense, which led to 2) a frustrated Dwight Howard and Gortat which led to 3) both of them fouling out in the 4th quarter, which led to 4) all sorts of open lanes for our put-the-ball-on-the-floor, one-on-one offense.

That worked last night, and I’m thrilled it did. But that is simply not a recipe for long-term success (unless you’ve got Kobe, Wade, or LBJ doing the one-on-one part).

@Gabe, the Piston guards WERE pushing the ball last night, but for some reason it didn’t translate. Orlando was getting back on D, but Detroit was getting the ball up fairly quickly. Orlando was almost ridiculous in how quick they were getting up shots.

As for Stuckey, he’s shot really well in the first half of every game and shot badly from the outside in every second half. It’s almost like a reverse Chauncey. Chauncey would wait and save up his energy and assert himself in the second half. Stuckey is aggressive from the start.

Someone above wondered if he was out of shape. He definitely looked tired at the end of the game. Which would make sense for why his shot is just barely off (his shot either rims out or comes up short). His shot is on line (although a little flat).

@brgulker:
Normally, I’m on board with you, but I have to disagree here. Team assists matter.

I never suggested that assists don’t matter. I’m saying that people shouldn’t be concerned with the assist numbers in our box scores right now. The poor assist numbers are not the problem, but the result of a much bigger problem. Worrying about assist totals right now is like freaking out about the blood stain on the floor when you should really be concerned about the bleeding wound on your hand.

People should be worried about (I repeat) frontcourt scoring.

In four games this season, our frontcourt (4s and 5s) have been outscored 152-79. Of those 79 points, our newly signed Scoring Big has only contributed 39 points on 34% shooting.

So we’re complaining about assists, but there’s no one to pass to in the league’s most assisted positions. Wallace doesn’t score. Maxiell can only dunk (and poorly). Wilcox is invisible. Kwame has more turnovers than field goals.

Last season, 87% of McDyess’s baskets were assisted. 75% of Rasheed Wallace’s baskets were assisted. Our bigs combined for 35 points a game, 15 more than our current average. So the problem remains, the most assisted positions on our team include only one scorer this season in Charlie Villanueva.

But as Charlie Villanueva goes, so goes our offense. When he’s playing well, we’ll be scoring and passing lights out. When he’s not playing well, there are practically no dishing options in our frontcourt. Our guards will, rightly so, play one on one or dish to eachother (including the SF).

The frontcourt represents a great proportion of a team’s assists. When you only have one scoring option in your frontcourt (remember how badly we needed McDyess back last season?), and that scorer is playing inefficiently, your offense will suffer drastically. Assist totals will suffer as a result.

Rip Hamilton will help our assist numbers, Tay won’t have much of an impact. But the greatest problem with our assist numbers goes much deeper into an offensive deficiency: our serious, lottery-like weakness in frontcourt scoring.

Until we work that out, I don’t see how anyone can really worry about assist totals.

People should be worried about (I repeat) frontcourt scoring.

You are preaching to the choir, my friend.

I understand your point better now, I think. I do think that Rip will help our assist totals, but I do agree that frontcourt scoring is the underlying disease causing the rest of the symptoms.

joel, i said i watched the game in bits and pieces. so i didn’t watch the game. i also said even if wilcox was awful last night…so i get that he was awful last night. what i know is i am sick of watching offensive ineptitude from the bigs. i watched a helluva lot of kwame last year and it was clunk and bobble a lot. that is what i remember. maxiel can’t shoot consistently either. i am not a wilcox expert but i feel like i have seen him finish nicely somewhere in my memory. the kind of finish you can’t teach. and that is why i lobby for him. i feel like i have seen the ceiling on maxiel and kwame. obviously there are people in the pistons organization who disagree. maybe i just like offense. maybe detroit bigs just are not meant to score. and that is just the way it is.

@brgulker:
As for preaching to the choir, I didn’t intend the rest of the comment for you, just the starting point of what pistons fans should be focused on.

The rest of the comment, re: the concern about assists here, was for all of those above who complained about assist totals.