a win is good and welcome for sure. ben wallace stat line is impressive. is he on steroids? i missed the game so i got to go read the thread and find out what happened.

short thread today. is that why the game went so well? stuckey played 40 minutes but only had 13 points? has he had a great game yet this year?

What Happened

We won and we won on a sunday, already an improvement from last year.

The Good

We rebounded well, we played good defense, and our frontcourt was involved very much offensively. Good sign.

The Bad

Not a whole hell of a lot of assists. I still think that’ll come with time.

The MVP

Co-MVPs go to Comissioner Ben Gordon (who has played pretty well defensively, and amazing offensively for us so far this year) and of course Big Ben Wallace with his defense and rebounding.

The Walter Sobchak Unsung Hero

Walter Herrmann… err I mean Jonas Jerebko. Very solid game from him.

The Takeaway

I still think we need Rip back though if we want a shot at winning more games. I’m impressed by our team, to be near .500 in record despite injuries to our core guys.

What Happened

- Detroit led Philly from the get-go, but the game was never out of reach for the 76ers, who did take the lead in the fourth and were in it until the last minute. Defense and hustle were paramount in a game where the offense was fine, but never seemed fluid.

The Good

- Hustle. Hustle hustle hustle. The Pistons’ best offense this game was a forced shot followed by a garbage bucket off the offensive glass. It was nice to see the Stones grab 21 offensive boards on their way to rebound domination (51-39,) especially after being worked over on the glass in previous games. Ben led the way with 16 boards and innumerable tip-outs to waiting Piston guards, and Mighty Fearless Will Bynum snagged 8 of his own.

(Side note: Is it just me, or are the Piston guards killing it on the glass this season? 8 boards for Bynum, and Stuckey is averaging 6 on the season & otherwise working his tail off.) As Rajon Rondo has proven, a PG who steals rebounds can atone for many a ball handling sin.)

The Bad

-Offensive continuity. As mentioned, the Pistons’ best play was crashing the offensive glass and hoping for a wacky put-back. It appears that the majority of Piston shots are the result of either A) running out of space/shot clock, B) ennui caused by a sagging defender and no off-ball movement, or C) one of our guards saying “damn the torpedoes, I’m taking this one straight at that tall guy!”

We do not have a reliable post presence who can get to the middle of the lane. Charlie has some nice moves, but his repertoire reminds me of a taller, more decisive Tayshaun/Sheed combo, i.e. not a guy who’s going to fly into the teeth of the D. Kwame can clusterfuck his way to a couple buckets again, but he’s still got those flippers for hands. Big Ben… at least he’s not trying to take shots. Therefore, we have to rely on perimeter play and the occasional double-clutch foray by one of our guards until Rip gets back.

The MVP

-Big Ben. No question. 16 boards (7 offensive,) 3 steals, 3 blocks, and tons of tipped rebounds to alert Piston guards. He’s not the defensive tsunami of 2002-2005, but he has quick hands and makes so many smart plays that it puts Rasheed’s slackassery into stark contrast.

The Walter Sobchak Unsung Hero

-You can get away with a lot of forced, stale shots when Ben Gordon is the guy who’s taking them. He’s the only guy who makes a contested 21-foot jumper seem like a good idea. 23 for him on 9-19 shooting, and a few key buckets down the stretch.

A big internet fist-bump to Marginally Fantastic Will Bynum, who put up a 512 (8 cubed… because he had 8-8-8… whaddya mean you don’t like math jokes? Booo, booooo!) He had three nice passes for easy buckets, and his rebounding & fearless driving down the stretch kept Philly at bay. Smart money says that him & Ben Gordon are going to be our go-to guys in the 4th.

The Takeaway

—This team is going to work its Spaldings off this year. It won’t be pretty, it won’t be fluid, but it’ll be fun to watch. Efforts like this mean that the Stones can hang with any squad in the L, but the lack of pure skill and early-season jitters means that we’ll put up some stinkbombs against stanky teams.

The Good:
I’m really liking our defense right now. Not championship level yet, but still it’s much, much, much better than any of us could have predicted over the summer.

Also Gordon and CV looked good offensively again.

The Bad:

Stuckey looked pretty awful today. I hope that once Rip is back he won’t have to press so much when we need a score.

Also free throws, what the hell? They’re FREE, we have to start capitalizing. This game got much closer than it needed to be and we might have been able to even win in Orlando with better FT%.

Lastly 3 point shooting. 3-16? Daye missed a lot of wide open shots and Gordon threw up some questionable ones.

The MVP:
No doubt in mind, has to be Ben Wallace. Almost as important as his 16 rebounds were his two blocks on Brand, especially the second one. If Brand scores to make it 79-77, Philly could have stolen the momentum from us and just as easily won it.

The Walter Sobchak Unsung Hero

I’m going to give it to Jonas because of his 10 points, but it could have easily gone to Kwame. 8 boards in 18 minutes, 4 of which were offensive on top of a steal. There’s no question that we lose this game without all the offensive rebounding.

The takeaway

This team is still a long way from a title. But I think they can definitely make a lot of noise in the playoffs, especially once our offense starts kicking in and we learn how to cover good 3 point shooting teams like Orlando. Our bigs rotation off screens seemed to be the biggest defensive hole, and CV has improved a lot in that department. He’s still a liability, but at least now is a net gain.

Most importantly, this team plays hard night in and out. Ben Wallace deserves at least 75% of the credit on this. If we can hold teams to an average of 88-91 points a game, we could possibly win 50 games. The 02-03 team did and this team has much more talent. Even without Rip, we’re winning games purely off our defense. Imagine when we start scoring 95-100 a game and hold the other teams below 90 consistently.

So, I’ve been out of the country since the season opener and haven’t seen a game since. I’ve read a couple of the recaps and skimmed a couple of game threads, it seems like this team is the antithesis of last year. Hustle, never quitting, and seems to be generally enjoyable so far. Is this an accurate statement? Can somebody give me a 2 paragraph season re-cap?

I wish Primoz would’ve played… :(

Other Matt: Exactly that. Ben Wallace has really been the cornerstone of the new hustle movement, I think. He just brings it on every possession and that that’s the kind of thing that rubs off on others. The offensive flow is rough around the edges and we haven’t had consistent rotations yet because of injury and new player experimentation. Jerebko and Daye are playing well, Ben Gordon is playing out of his mind, and CV31 looks out of shape but has played well the last few games.

WHAT HAPPENED

A solid workmanlike first half built a lead that would have been greater had AI not shot so well. The Pistons came out sluggish in the third and behind Willie Green and Mareese Speights the Sixers eventually took a one point lead in the middle of the fourth. The Pistons woke up to go on a 16-6 run to close it out.

THE GOOD

Rebounding. The Pistons killed them on the offensive glass.

THE BAD

Offense (when Villanueva was not in the game). When CV31 went to the bench, the defense could load up on the guards. This especially became a problem when both Gordon and Villa were sitting.

MVP

The Curious Case of Benjamin Wallace. Let’s hope this movies as long as the other one.

THE WALTER SHOBCHAK UNSUNG HERO

I’ll go with Stuckey because he was shit on in previous posts. His 5-15 stat line is misleading because at least once he got his rebound and put it back in. Many others were misses that led to wide open putbacks.

Also, Stuckey was physical on the glass and his efforts led to rebounds for other players.

That being said, he seemed so intent on driving and kicking that he forced some bad passes and others that were off target. Also, his body language wasn’t great at the end of the game when Bynum was running things. It didn’t stop him from grabbing a key rebound, so maybe I’m reading into it.

THE TAKEAWAY

The defenses are loading up on the guards, especially on pick and rolls. This led to some easy looks for Villanueva, but when Villa’s not out there, the offense is noticeably easier to defend.

Other Matt…here’s my quick recap of the season to date.

Defense has been the key so far. Guys are hustling, never giving up and we are one of the league leaders in fg% defense. Big Ben found the fountain of youth and is playing his best ball since his 1st year in Chicago. Ben Gordon has been worth every penny so far. He’s been very efficient offensively, has gotten to the rim more then advertised and played some solid defense.

Offensively we’ve been carried by our guards with CV coming on the last couple games. Our offense was very efficient in our first game against Memphis, but has struggled a bit since Rip and Tay have been injured, so hopefully once those guys come back we’ll score a bit more.

Both Jerebko and Daye have shown some nice skills when the opportunity for playing time presented itself. Jerebko goes 100% everytime he gets on the court and has actually defended some good perimeter guys pretty well. Daye is extremely talented offensively, showing some good shooting, ball handling and passing and his long arms on defense allow him to disrupt the passing lanes and get blocked shots.

Iverson on ‘indefinite’ leave from Grizzlies…couldn’t resist

Big Ben is playing great! This makes me think what if he never left for the Bulls. Would we have gotten one more ring because of his leadership and D… Oh well…

What Happened

- (well, obviously, we won 88-81)another win is always good. we need to take care of home if nothing else

The Good:rebounds, and Im going to step out of the box and say our rookie play. just for us to control the tempo of the game with them stepping in at such short notice says a lot about the coaching staff.

The Bad: Kwame…

-

The MVP: BG…

-

The Walter Sobchak Unsung Hero:MFWB, I think it is safe to call him the little big man. arguably the most fearless man on our squad.
-

The Takeaway: good to see that CV is getting back to his expected level of play. With B.W. playing at the rate he is, lets hope that it motivates him more.

—

I, like Mike Payne, was caught with my pants down in regards to this game. Sneaky NBA.

Good win it seems, I will watch this one later.

The Bad

- Bynum got smoked by Willie Green.

The MVP

- Ben Wallace (The Beast is Back!)

The Walter Sobchak Unsung Hero

- Daye & Jerebko (I don’t ever see them stop hustling!)

The Takeaway
- Thank God ALLEN IVERSON is far far far far away from here.

Oh and I think the NBA was caught off guard too by the early start lol. League Pass Broadband had the wrong live feed for the first half of the first quarter (they were showing the Wash vs PHX game instead). I was like WTF? put the Pistons game on! lol

Really scntfc? You’re going to say Kwame was bad?

Yes the offense becomes stagnant when CV leaves the floor, but that’s more on Joe Dumars to find another scoring big, than it is on Kwame to spread the floor. He’s our best defensive big off the bench, he just needs to be paired up with a PF that has some range.

He had 8 rebounds, 7 points, a steal and 1 TO in 18 minutes; those are very efficient numbers. What more could you ask from him? Its not like he’s getting paid to be Tim Duncan or Dwight Howard. His job is to clean the boards and occasionally make shots, which he did.

Man, the Thunder are putting a can of Whoop-Ass on the Magic.

The Magic have looked pretty bad defensively so far. Even if they can score 120 a night when everyone’s healthy, that doesn’t mean anything if they continue to give up 100 ppg. Just think of the 05 Suns and the 08 Lakers, both came o-so-close to winning a title, but then lost embarrassingly when their defense was exposed.

Perhaps that’s a win for us as basketball fans. The Suns vs Spurs conference finals is regarded as one of the most entertaining series of all time. With all the offense that Boston has, should they face up against the Magic, we’re going to have a very fun conference finals.

Here’s a question. Why is Charlie V only getting 20 some minutes a game? Kuester must view him as that much of a defensive liability, because he’s a gifted offensive player and the only big on the team that has any offensive skill at all. The O is pretty bad when he’s not on the floor. In my opinion, he needs more minutes.

Fadel, I noticed that too. They had the feeds switched though. The Pistons came up when I clicked the Wizards/Suns game and then they randomly switched it in the middle of a Pistons possession midway through the first.

He’s getting 27/game lately, so I agree with Kuester on this one. Charlie still looks out of shape and isn’t ready to handle big minutes yet, not to mention he’s gotten in early foul trouble lately.

If I’m the coach, I’d like to see him get those fouls down from 3.5 to 2.5 and have his rebound rate approach 8 before I start giving him 35+. Charlie can do it, he’s got the talent and seems to understand the game very well offensively. If Ben Wallace can teach him how to play smarter defensively, more boards with less fouls, then he’ll start looking like a star.

Charlie will figure things out sooner or later. I’m more concerned about finding some big scoring on the second unit. We need Chris Wilcox needs to really up his game, Maxiell to start eating babies again, or perhaps start playing the rookies at PF. Daye and Jerebko rebounded much better than Summers in the summer league, so I’d feel more comfortable with those two taking the minutes.

I wish I could be as upbeat as a lot of commenters here, but this team has looked pretty awful nearly ever single game so far this season. The defense is bad and would look much worse if the Pistons had played anyone worth a damn other than the Magic. As it stands they rank 15th in defensive efficiency and only look adequate because of their glacially slow pace. Of course, that is another problem altogether. A team that utilizes a three-guard rotation and has no presence down low has no right to be the slowest team in the league. This team needs to get out and run.

But this offense doesn’t run. And it doesn’t pass either. They have the lowest assist rate in the league. They also don’t rebound especially well, don’t shoot free throws well, don’t shoot threes well. On a team dominated by quick smallish guards only six teams shoot more jump shots than the Pistons. I only hope that once Hamilton comes back and plays are for and through him it will open up some slashing guards and create space for some 3-point shooting.

The Pistons need Stuckey to learn to distribute and limit him to 10 to 12 shots per game, Hamilton to come off curls with a chance to move the ball, Ben Gordon, Charlie V. and Austin Daye to be open for a bunch of 3s to keep the defense honest and limit the big man rotation to those that have a chance to secure the rebound (sorry Chris Wilcox and Jason Maxiell) or those that can spread the floor (Charlie V. and Jonas Jerebko) so that the guards actually have a lane to penetrate.

Sorry to be such a downer, I guess I am just surprised at the amount of optimism here.

Really scntfc? You’re going to say Kwame was bad?"

respectable #s but IMO who on philly’s team can hold a candle to him. I’ve seen him put up better #s against stronger players.

From a freep article about Tay’s injury…

“Former Piston Rick Mahorn suffered a similar injury in the preseason of the 1987-88 season and it caused him to miss two weeks in March of that season. He eventually had surgery that July and recovered in time for training camp the following season.”

In the ’87-88 season, Mahorn played 67 games. He played 72 the next season. This is certainly good news for Tay.

And just to not be overly negative, I will say that I really like what I have seen from the rookie duo of Jonas Jerebko and Austin Daye. Both make rookie mistakes, but you can tell Jonas has a mind for defense and actually plays like a big man and Daye uses his size very well and has a pretty sweet stroke. Ben Gordon has lived up to his big contract, Charlie V. is coming around and Ben Wallace has been the best player of all. Always plays hard, smart and still plays really nice defense.

@SCNTFC
I’d argue that either Brand or Dalembert can mach up to him physically. He failed miserably when he tried to be Gordon and brick a hanging gun, but he then got the offensive rebound and finished with a layup. He played a solid game as a whole, there really wasn’t much more I was expecting of him considering his paycheck. As I said before, I expect him to clean the boards and get a few lobs. Any other offense is bonus. If he stopped rebounding, then its time to call him out for a bad game.

[Really scntfc? You’re going to say Kwame was bad?"

respectable #s but IMO who on philly’s team can hold a candle to him. I’ve seen him put up better #s against stronger players.]

Considering some were advocating a trade for Dalembert…

bmr007, this is what the Knight of Kwame expect from our liege…

Play Great Defense
Rebound
Don’t turn the ball over
Take high percentage shots (and make them)

Even though I only saw the second half, I thought Kwame played excellently tonight, way over contract.

Just had a thought, a simple rule for Joe D going into this next offseason:

Extend every player with a “B” in their name.

Correction:

Play Great Defense
Rebound
Set monster screens
Don’t turn the ball over
Take high percentage shots (and make them)

@Mike+QD
Yeah I don’t know what scntfc is talking about. I watched the game in its entirety and thought Kwame was playing well above his contract.

@Notorious
what defensive stat are you looking at?
according to this
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/statistics?stat=tmcompare&sort=fg%&league=nba&season=2010&seasontype=2&avg=pg&order=false&split=999
Detroit has the lowest opposing FG% out of any team league wide.

Also with the updated ppg allowed (we’re at 91 now, chart has 93), we fit in around 6-7.

I think our defense is starting to look great. Really its been a few bad quarters that have caused our losses. If you take out each of the really bad quarters in the losses, with the exception of OKC, we would have won. We’d be allowing close to 80 ppg without those lapses.

I take that as a good thing, because that something that can be corrected relatively easily. We’ve already corrected the third quarter problem, and the scoring will improve a lot when Rip gets back. His constant running gets a lot of ball movement and frees up the bigs. I really wish Gordon would do the same, I mean they both always talk about being from Uconn and what not.

bmr007, Ben does move off the ball like Rip. The problem is when the defense keys on him, he’s not as tall as Rip to pass out of double teams. This is especially a problem when he doesn’t have another shooter on the court to provide him some spacing.

He and Rip looked great moving without the ball when they were on the court together against Memphis.

Oh, and I think you need to combine the opponents FG% with defensive rebounding statistics (which are not great for Detroit right now) to get a guage of where Detroit’s defense is at.

To me, the best measure of defense is “points per 100 possessions.” That takes into account opponent’s FG%, defensive rebounding and turnovers caused.

Basketball reference has Detroit’s Defensive Rating (points per 100 possessions). Detroit was ranked 15th before the Philly game. The offense was ranked 20th.

@bmr007,
“what defensive stat are you looking at?”

Opponent field goal percentage can be deceiving. Our defensive efficiency (the points we allow per 100 posessions, which levels the playing field between slow and fast teams) we rank 15th in the league and dead last in field goals per free throw attempts for our opponent. AKA we foul a lot and give away free points. And we ranks 25th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage. Our defense has been pretty bad so far. Certainly not as bad as the offense, but bad nonetheless.

Next opponent: Charlotte has the 30th ranked offense and 3rd ranked defense so far.

Sorry, forgot to link my source: http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2010.html

Ben Gordon.

Ben Gordon.

Did somebody tell him that he only signed a one-year contract? Is he thinking that he gets to court some high bidders come the summer of 2010?

I like. I like.

(And, of course, Ben Wallace. I’m so happy about the way that he’s been playing 5 out of 6 games that I really (honestly) cannot write anything coherent about it. Farzinagahl tha chulate. Sambidiously.)

Yeah I don’t know what scntfc is talking about. I watched the game in its entirety and thought Kwame was playing well above his contract.

Dont read too much into how the format for our responses were. I had to pick a “bad” everyyone else met or exceeded expectations. this is one of the few teams where I would expect Brown to be Player of Game. No one can match him in size, Didn’t Bynum grab the same # of rebounds? Not knocking kwame. Just expect a double double against a weaker team.

kwame is a sweet guy.

We kinda traded Roscoe for Big Ben.. excellent trade, as ‘Sheed wouldn’t be busting ass like Ben does every night, not to mention the leadership.. We all mentioned here & there about how signing Ben at the very least would provide a role model for the rest of the team- New & Old faces…. I think he’s exceeding everything expected out of him. I don’t know if he can do this all season, but I’m really happy he came back, and you can tell he is too. It’s going to be a good year, rebuild or otherwise.

While I agree that Defensive Efficiency is the best stat to use, the above argument implies that opponent field goal percentage is sensitive to a team’s pace. Maybe, but I don’t think so. I think what’s happening is that we’re making opponents take tough shots (hence, the low opponent fg%) but we’re not a very good rebounding team and we get killed on the glass. Obviously, rebounding is an integral part of defense, but we also frequently speak of rebounding as a separate phase of the game. I don’t really think it makes sense to just say we’re “bad defensively,” because it obscures our strengths and weaknesses by lumping them together. Rather, I think we’re a good to excellent defensive team, but we’re wasting that effort by giving up too many offensive rebounds. That being said, I don’t know how we fix the problem, but it’s better than last year when we just sucked all around at everything.

A mostly unrelated sidenote: I just played the Philly-Detroit game on a PS3, and I have this to say:

1. I’m terrible at videogames that involve more than two buttons and I know very little about NBA 2010 and I’m still trying to figure out how to run plays and etc etc. These are disclaimers.
2. All the same, Detroit won (on Pro, which is only one step up from Rookie, apparently) by 60 or 70 points. (Total game time: 28 minutes).
3. Austin Daye game through with over 30 points.
4. The average +/- for Detroit seemed to be about +30.

And, most importantly, and the whole reason I’m writing this,

5. Chris Wilcox got two minutes (2!) of playing time and managed to rack up a 10 for his +/. He was the only minus on the team. And if the average +- was, like, +30, then that puts him 40 points below his team.

Bless his heart.

Oh, and I’m excited that we won a game on Sunday. I had managed to block that whole Sunday Shit Sandwich deal out of my head until I read mannie32’s post up there. An early afternoon of magic, I suppose.

Colin, i didn’t mean to imply that defensive efficiency has an effect on FG%, I just meant that it was a better gauge of a team’s defense. And as you said, the reason our FG% against number is deceiving in part is because we 1. give up way too many second chance opportunities and 2. We foul way too often and put other teams on the free throw line.

@NotoriousCPC:
Wouldn’t second chance opportunities increase opponent FG%? A miss would just be a miss, the added basket increases their numbers.

One thing that I’ve been impressed with is Jerebko’s offensive development over only a few games. He looked Wilcox-lost in the first game against Orlando, but he’s really stepped it up since.

I can’t find a link to it, but does anyone remember Bill Simmons’ free agent season wrap up? One of his main points was that Ben Gordon was totally overrated, to the point that he was actually stunting Rose’s development, and that a Salmons-Pargo combo was better in the long run (he even had the gall to say Pargo was just a cheaper, slightly less effective version of the Commish). Love his work, but The Sports Guy says some of the dumbest things sometimes. Another main point in that article was how AI would prove the haters wrong. Uh… yeah.

Oh, and NotoriousCPC:
We foul way too often and put other teams on the free throw line.

That too would increase opponent FG%. A made basket is still a made basket when a player is fouled in the act. A missed basket, when fouled, is not recorded statistically.

I have watched the bulls a couple of times—their offense is kind of terrible without gordon. salmons and pargo have been shooting poorly so far, and they don’t really have any other shooters, so there is no space for rose to drive.

if they didn’t want to pay gordon, they should have tried to replace some of his minutes with a cheaper shooting specialist (kapono, morrow, etc).

Way OT from the ESPN recap:
Minnesota had five players score in double figures. Nathan Jawai led the way with 16 points. Ryan Gomes scored 15 points, while Al Jefferson had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Timberwolves.

That’s my boy!

I like the 2nd unit front court of KwamE and Max. Active chaotic thuggery. Sloppy but beautifully horrific. I think Max’s head is a little screwy lately, Kwam’s is always screwy. Qster needs to keep up the half smiles, head nods and butt pats, encourage the tender souls beneath their meaty hides, and they both could gain their confidence.. together eating cakes filled with babies. The footage of Qster workin with Kwame on FTs was touching.. he seems to really care. I kinda wish he was my dad.

jacob is, the tender stuff is important. well said.

Laughton’s got to be in Australian hog heaven with Jawai and Mills in the League…

“Way OT from the ESPN recap:
Minnesota had five players score in double figures. Nathan Jawai led the way with 16 points. Ryan Gomes scored 15 points, while Al Jefferson had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Timberwolves.”

There’s an “I told you so…” in there somewhere.

Somewhere, Devon Hardin is crying into his beer… a senior 7 footer who doesn’t start is better than a beefy project who played some semblance of pro ball from Australia? No brainer.

Two things:

1) Our Ben’s are fantastic thus far. Ben Wallace is making anyone who doubted him look like an ignoramus. The guy is a defensive and rebounding stud. Ben Gordon is so much better than I gave him credit for this summer … and man, am I glad to be wrong on this one.

2) I love Jonas Jerebko. He’s a Piston, through and through. I don’t think anymore about him even needs to be said.

@NotoriousCPC – Levity is welcome. If I may theorize why people on DBB are excited, I think that we like this team of hustlin’, scrappy players… they’re a major change from that slow, efficient, but sometimes lackadaisical perennial ECF team of a few years ago. That said, in March, when we’re struggling to get to .500 due to the factors you’re citing, then you’ll see less optimism. Until then, just breathe it in, brotha.

I think that we like this team of hustlin’, scrappy players… they’re a major change from that slow, efficient, but sometimes lackadaisical perennial ECF team of a few years ago.

Technically, we’re still very slow, at least in terms of pace.

But heck yes it’s fun to see the energy and hustle out of guys like Jerebko and Ben Wallace.

@NotoriousCPC

I give Rob G. a +1 on his thoughts on the matter. This (not “this” particular team, but the organization) team has been successful in spite of the statistics and projections in the past, so why worry about it this early in the season.

The year Billups and Hamilton signed up, Hollinger had to shove his formulas up his own ass when going over the starting 5 that included journeymen and a shooting guard who shot a Larry Hughes-esque 40% from FG and had nothing from 3PT land.

I’ll give this team 40 games to get the shit together. Unless they go in the tank, which they’ve shown a lot more fight than I expected, even after 40 games they’ll likely only be 3-4 games out of 8th spot at worst, and they could be as high as 4-6 depending on when the veterans get back healthy.

I like this team a lot. This team looks like a Piston team should look. I don’t know what happened to the squad after 2005, the success went to their heads? Don’t know, don’t care.

@Boney:
+1

The only two things I have not enjoyed about this team this year are:
1) Charlie’s slow start (which I’m hoping has stabilized now)’
2) A three guard lineup with bynum and stuckey on the floor at the same time)

Beyond that, there is little not to be excited about. Ben Gordon lighting it the fuck up? Ben Wallace playing like it’s 2006? Jonas Jerebko looking like a steal? Bynum taking games over at the drop of a hat? Oh, and DEFENSE? Having been pessimistic all summer long, I finally feel that adding Hamilton back to this squad could lead to > .500 basketball with a 7th seed in hand.

So yeah, I’m with you. I like this team a lot, and their scrap, hustle, D and determination is helping to entirely erase last season from memory.

Speaking of Rip, it must feel awesome for him to to have a good team again. I never thought he was complacent even when that was the complaint of the entire squad, so now for him to be watching the team come together and play hard while he’s out must be pretty sweet. He’s probably really energized to get back in there and mix it up.

Here’s a recap from the Philly perspective:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/10336858/76ers-never-quit,-but-must-step-up-on-defense

Tay injury = blessing in disguise?

Dancing Queen and Daye are going to get a ton of burn— when’s the last time even one rookie (much less two) made our rotation and got significant minutes? We should get Tay back for the stretch run this season but also be completely sure of what we’ll have at SF to replace him if/when he’s gone. Especially going into a bonanza of a summer with Tay as what will be an expiring piece, this could end up working out very well for us.

And, yeah, so far this season, no complaints whatsoever. I don’t really like the 3-guard lineup with Stuck and WB, but that’s clearly happening out of necessity right now with Rip out. I fully expect to see that lineup nixed once Captain Rip gets back on the court.

Wait, one complaint— I’m not sure Wilcox knows he’s a professional basketball player. Matter of fact, I’m not even sure he’s lucid most of the time he’s on the floor. Please explain how he was a better pickup than Drew Gooden for the same money? Don’t try— you can’t.

@NotoriousCPC

I don’t think anyone’s satisfied with the 15th ranked defense (although it’s better than people expected at the start of the season) and the 20th ranked offense.

But, I think there are signs of hope considering there are so many new faces and two integral players have been injured for most of the year.

I fully expect the defense and offense to improve significantly with Rip and Tay back and healthy.

Somebody in Allen Iverson’s family must have gotten a back injury.

You reap what you sow, Memphis.

Chauncey Billups surprised most people after he came to Detroit, and rightly so — he improved dramatically as a Piston (check out the advanced numbers especially http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/billuch01.html). What’s most surprising, I think, is that he made this improvement at 26 years old, which is uncommon.

Joel: I completely agree with you, although I have a feeling the Bynum/Stuck 3 guard lineup won’t be donezo. We will obviously see less of it when Rip comes back, but we will still see it probably 3-4 minutes every game, which I am fine with.

Btw, whoever in the off-season kept writing Rip’s name in all-capitals (RIP) was pissing me the fuck off, and i’m glad whoever it was is gone).

So AI’s taking a “leave of absence” from Memphis, eh?

“Mulling Retirement” is the latest.

He should go to the Sixers for 500 grand the rest of the season, that’s the only place I can think of that would want him on their team now given his history with them.

His status has divebombed incredibly since Denver, at this point he needs to really accept his diminished impact on the game here in 2009/10, if he took a bench spot in Philly people would react pretty positively.

Not that they’re comparable (for many reasons) but just look at Ben Wallace. Make the most of what you have left and take the role of a leader in his 30’s, try to get your team some wins.. Cut out some of that cancer you’re now known for, Iverson. Jesus.

If he retires now, he goes out a sucka.

I really, really, really want to hear Petey’s spin on all of this.

That fool shall never returneth. DBB ran his ass out of town.

@Skyler: In my books, he will go down a sucka no matter what. Unless, of course, he finally does what you suggest. He is an ignorant cry-baby, who doesn’t see that he is diminishing. The thing he keeps saying is “look what i’ve done the past 13 years.”…That’s in the past, Allen. You have never won anything, and you are now diminishing. God, what a fucking idiot. I actually respected him when he said he wanted to win. Now I know that’s a bunch of bullcrap.

sorry. @Skylar**. lol

@Cody: I’d love to see a reporter call AI out when he says that kind of stuff.

Anyone know what site it is that shows which combination of players plays well together? I would be really interested to see how Will and Stuck have played together versus with BG/Rip.

@Drew:
http://www.popcornmachine.net/

@Drew

82games.com

Very surprising— our best combination as far as +/-?

+10
Bynum-Gordon-Stuckey-Villanueva-Maxiell

Another oddity— our best lineups feature CV at the 4. Also, our guards (PG specifically) are putting up by far the best PER (22.1 and 17.4) while holding opposing guards to the lowest PER (12.8 and 9.2). Other people’s C’s are absolutely killing us though (24.1 PER). We’re +17.4 overall at the guard positions and -13.8 at the C position alone.

Our strengths and needs are quite obvious.

popcorn machine seems to show that they did well with stuckey and bynum in together too. odd. I guess we should probably wait until we have a larger sample size.

As some said, defensively we’re better than people thought and a large portion of that is hustle. Offensively, given the number of new guys on the team laying big minutes (BG/CV) and Rip being hurt and a new coach with a new scheme, I think we’re doing OK.

At the end of the day, if we come out, hustle like we hve been and find a big to come in and really contribute scoring wise with solid low post D, we’re back in business.

And of course CV is outta shape, he missed nearly all of the preseason (with a hammy I think) so there was nothing he could do to maintain shape, cause riding a bike won’t cut it.

Pleasantly surprised at this point and expect us to get better. At least there’s the right attitude and that’s where it begins.

I think our defense has been fantastic and I don’t really buy the defensive efficiency stat as an end-all/be-all, specifically because it takes into account pace. Our pace is part and parcel to our defense. That’s the whole point. We play at a pace that just flat-out doesn’t allow the sheer numerical volume of offensive opportunities as most teams, and that’s on purpose. It might hurt our efficiency rating, but all that really matters is PPG given up— that’s what we’re trying to outscore, right? I remember in 2006, our first year with Flip, where they used the per/100 poss. efficiency stats to say that we were the best offensive team and Phoenix (!) was the best defensive team. Well, they gave up 106ppg in the playoffs while Dallas gave up 96ppg. Who won that series?

Numbers is numbers, and fewer points you give up on defense, the better. No matter how fast/slow you play.

“Curse these sneaky afternoon games.”

Tell me about it, I missed the whole freaking game. lol

BTW, most important defensive stat by far— opponent FG%.

We’re #2 in the league, 3 100th’s of a percent behind Miami. 3pt%? #2 in the league, behind Miami. Despite our big man shortcomings, we’re 14th in the league rebounding percentage (I thought we’d be dead last). And while playing at the (by far) slowest pace in the league, we’re outscoring 6 teams somehow. We’re #5 in FT attempts. #6 in fewest TO’s. #4 in opponent’s steals/gm. #8 in opponent’s asst/gm.

Being that we can do nothing from here except improve (barring injury), I’d say we’ve already got a good basement floor to work from.

we’re 14th in the league rebounding percentage (I thought we’d be dead last).

Thank you, Ben Wallace!

Joel, I have disagree with your take on defensive efficiency, which I believe is the best metric since it takes everything into account. Besides, pace equally limits both teams’ opportunities to score.

I think you bring up an interesting point about Detroit’s best lineups being with CV in at power forward. I am actually not surprised, since even though he is still working himself into shape, he is the only big that is an offensive threat outside of 5’.

Going back to all the discussion about if whether good defense is due to talent or effort, and so far in this young season, it looks like effort is winning, no? Maybe it helps having a defensive specialist out there teaching by words and actions. Hopefully Big Ben can stick around after this year and mentor/coach defense.

After this Charlotte game on Wednesday, we have a legit chance of going 0-7 (@Wash, Dal, @LAL, @Por, @Utah, @PHX, Cle). Just wanted to throw that out there. I guess if we’re actually any good, the next two weeks will prove it. Or not.

I’ll be thrilled to be close to .500 after that stretch.

“I guess we should probably wait until we have a larger sample size.”

+1000 to Drew. That’s the quote of the night.

I agree with Birdman re: defensive rating. It’s end all be all.

Man, what’s up with Rip’s ankle? Q says he doesn’t expect him back for another week. We’re screwed if he’s not back by Sunday. Cleveland may actually be the most winnable of that stretch, especially with how dysfunctional they look without Q diagramming the offense. I’ve always thought Mike Brown didn’t deserve that coach of the year award, this is just further proof.

Severe ankle sprains can take up to three weeks to fully heal. I imagine this is the degree of ankle sprain that Rip suffered.

My fiancee sprained her ankle on Halloween, and she’s entirely incapacitated— can’t put pressure on it, can’t drive, can’t work, all she can do is elevate it and wait for it to heal. It’s black, blue, purple, green, looks like she got sledgehammered. No way in hell will she be even walking right in a week, hopefully she’ll be fine in two. While I never imagined a sprain could be so bad, man— I can totally see why Rip isn’t with the team right now. Totally horrendous.

Geez, I thought he just rolled his ankle, nothing serious. Looks like this could be far worse than I imagined.

Maybe since it’s so early in the year, they want to ease him back in and not rush it, just to be sure he’s 100% healed? It’s a long season, and there are zero expectations on this squad, so why not wait?

Yeah, it’s at least a partially torn ligament. That will take awhile to heal up enough to play an NBA game on.

I’m definitely throwing my hat in with the people who are pleasantly surprised about the defense. Aside from single, really crappy quarters in each of our losses, we’ve generally been able to count on our defense to keep us within striking distance, and we’ve had a chance to win basically every game so far. That’s pretty much all you can ask for with our current roster.

“Going back to all the discussion about if whether good defense is due to talent or effort, and so far in this young season, it looks like effort is winning, no?”
-Rami

Hmmm, a lot of the credit for the good defense has to go to Big Ben’s impact on the court (not just his talking/mentoring/etc…). His on/off +/- is pretty amazing right now:
http://www.82games.com/0910/09DET13.HTM#onoff

There’s no question that lack of effort will lead to crappy defense. But, Big Ben would be an NBA caliber defender with one of his legs amputated and both arms tied behind his back. He’s like a defensive version of Steve Nash, where even as he slows down, his understanding of the game and his skill level (and Big Ben is an incredibly skilled defender) will allow him to compensate and remain an effective player until the day he retires.

I know the dude doesn’t have any hair, but Charlie shouldn’t be adressed as “her”

From Langlois:

While Kuester encourages his players to exploit their one-on-one skills, he said in passing after Sunday’s win over Philadelphia that Stuckey must be mindful of shot selection, especially in regard to game circumstances. Stuckey’s shooting percentage through seven games is .365, and he was the last player to leave the floor Monday, working as he always does with player development coach Steve Hetzel on his jump shot.

Stuckey has averaged 17.5 attempts per game in the six games since Rip Hamilton has been sidelined with an ankle sprain and that’s probably a few too many. But with Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, who’s missed all but the first three games with a ruptured disc in his lower back, both out of the lineup, Stuckey is cognizant of the need for him to be more of a scorer.

"Probably around 15 (attempts) would be good for me," he said. "I think right now we have a couple of players out, so I have to look to shoot a lot more. Once we get them back – I don’t know, but hopefully soon – it’ll probably go down a little bit.

It’s one of the better Langlois pieces I’ve read in a while (probably because it’s mostly quotes from Stuckey and Kuester, and not a whole lot of Langlo-pinions.)

JOD EUMARS not just GREAT PLAYER but also GREAT GM.

/just langlopinion.

Chucky Atkins best free agent since Shaq go to LA

/just langlopinion

All of our losses are wins. And any that aren’t wins, if you take the long view, really become like-wins. And, given that the cap might come down to about 50 million next year, makes them pretty much wins.

/just langlopinion

JOE DUMARS not just great PLAYER and GM, but also SENSITIVE LOVER.

/langlopinion

I don’t know MP, that’s kinda taking it far to question that man’s sexuality

@bmr007:
DBB is steeped in gay jokes.

The NBA. Where suggested homosexuality happens.

Speaking of the Suns, ironically enough, Stoudemire seems to be having a average year (relative to his past) while Steve Nash is on a mission. Check out the assists, he had 20 a week ago and has 20 tonight.

Q: When are 7 turnovers for one player in one game not a lot?
A: When you have 20 assists in the same game.

Check out Steve Nash’s line from tonight’s W vs. PHI.

6-9FG, 8-8FT, 21 PTS, 20 AST – He’s still good!

bmr007 – I missed your post on Nash. Since 1986-87 there have been 107 games with 20 or more assists by one player and 159 games with players scoring 50 or more points so Nash did something special tonight.

Its not just that, its the fact that he’s done it twice this season and he’s 35

Must be that crazy soccer conditioning.

This is the awesomest quote from Q-Star:

“Both of those guys are not afraid to mix it up. You think Austin’s going to get broken in half, but this kid, he’s mentally tough and physically he’ll take the challenge.”

I loled at broken in half.

“he’s mentally tough and physically he’ll take the challenge."

I could see Austin Daye being pretty good at the physical challenge.

Some motivational words for Max, courtesy of McCormick Vision Center.

Joel
Nov 9th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

I know the dude doesn’t have any hair, but Charlie shouldn’t be adressed as "her"

Goddamnit, Faux-Joel, seriously pick another name. Like Joel 2. Or Other Joel. We have an “Other Matt” because there was already a “Matt” when he got here. Makes things simpler.

And don’t make fun of alopecia sufferers. That’s neither funny nor in good taste. Retard.

When you score 105 points, you shouldn’t lose by 41. For shame, Timberwolves.

yeah other joel, mocking alopecia is no joke. check out this site and get some sensitivity training.

http://www.alopeciaworld.com/

actually it is a pretty funny disease.

who wants to make cv a profile page at alopeciaworld.com?

Our assist is really poor, the last in league.
May I wish Stuckey can grow not only reb but ast?

How did Anthony Morrow go undrafted? This kid looks like he’s going to be the best 3 point shooter in the league.

May I wish Stuckey can grow not only reb but ast?

HAHA!

@bmr007

I have both Anthony’s on my fantasy team (Morrow and Randolph) as alternates for when my studs are out, and they’re fantastic. Literally complement eachother perfectly. And the best part is, they only get solid burn in blowouts— wins OR losses. And this Warriors team is so bad/inconsistent/insanely coached that EVERY game is a blowout one way or another. I got like 16/13 from Randolph in a blowout loss to LAC, and then I get 23/8 last night in a blowout win. And Morrow is most definitely the best pure 3pt shooter— maybe best shooter— in the league right now. His shot is so pretty they should give him his own instructional video. Just 100% natural shooting talent. If the Warriors can flip New Jack City for a decent F/C (Diaw would be PERFECT in their system), the Warriors could be very fun to watch.

I just need Randolph to somehow move past Mikki Moore in the big rotation. Seems like it shouldn’t be that hard…

@bmr007:
How did Anthony Morrow go undrafted? This kid looks like he’s going to be the best 3 point shooter in the league.

He already is. He led the league in 3-point % last season at 47%.

That’s exactly my point, I believe last year he was behind only Ray Allen and Steve Nash in shooting efficiency, and this year he’s on pace to spank both of them 68.4%!?!?!? That’s even better than Dwight Howard, who’s shooting 65% from the field.

This kid is some talent, I just don’t understand how every team in the league passed on him. Can you image how good this team could be if Joe had drafted Marrow instead of Trent Plaisted or Walter Sharpe? We’d have tons of 3 point shooting to take the pressure off Rodney, so he can start taking higher efficiency shots again, and Rip might become expandable seeing how good Gordon is. There’s no question now that Rip holds tons of a value, it would have just been the matter of trading for a similar bloated contract, such as Okafor’s.

We’ve fucked up on so many “woulda/shoulda/coulda’s” in the last seven drafts to make you want to bathe with a toaster. Don’t think about it. Just don’t. Joe D is like the Adam Dunn of GM’s— he either hits a homerun and strikes out in the ugliest fashion imaginable.

Correction:

“…he either hits a homerun or strikes out in the ugliest fashion imaginable.”

So no takes on the amazing billboard sign I posted earlier? :)

Seriously, I didn’t think that would be lost on DBB: http://www.detroitbadboys.com/archives/2009-11-08/pistons-sixers-game-recap/#comment-202023

@br: that was pretty funny, nice catch.