Big men blame

Hey. All in all, the analysis was correct. People often criticize Detroit’s GUARDS in labeling them as a “selfish bunch that cant seem to figure each other nor the team they play with out” (mainly because they have A.I. who always is the center of attention when things go wrong). Well in actuality, the guards have been coming along in a sense. They seem to have recognized eachother’s game enough to make a late season push (as they SHOULD have being players and what not). The “Bigs” on the other hand, havent even come CLOSE to impressing me with the exception of Maxiell. In my opinion, Maxiell is the best PF-C that you guys have got. McDyess only looks good because he plays more minutes than anyone else with the exception of Sheed. Both premier PF-C’s on this teams miss WAY more shots than they make. Personally, I think the team would be better off starting Maxiell at power forward and A.I. at the point. Bring McDyess in for Maxiell and Amir in for Rasheed. I think the chemistry would start to click REALLY fast if the coach/GM did not hesitate to try this. Also. Playing Rip at the SF position coming off the bench sometimes may not be a bad idea as well (because of his quickness). Congratulations, from a Heat fan. BTW….. You guys have approximately 3 YEARS to win a championship before my Heat become a dynasty. Peace, and good win.

Thanks for the link, Matt. It does raise some interesting points, to be sure.

I think we’ve all been disappointed with Sheed’s inconsistency. As of late, he’s been much, much better; however, it is nice to put some numbers to the disappointment.

Dyess has been more than expected, off the bench, of course, a pleasant surprise.

I do think he’s a little bit hard on Maxiel, however, as Max’s minutes have been erratic. I don’t care what anyone says — as a player, it’s hard to be consistent when your minutes are inconsistent.

Other than that, I don’t think there’s a whole lot that’s wrong with this article, to be honest.

What are your thoughts?

McDyess has taken a step back with his horrendously broke jump shot. All the rebounds in the world can’t fix that shot.

John: I think you’re going a little heavy there. “Horrendously broke”? I’d say inconsistent. Dice is still shooting 49% from the field. He’s had some good shooting games lately (last night, @Minnesota) and some bad ones (Boston, Cleveland).

I said jump shot. He is not shooting 49% lately!

McDyess’ jump shot is better this year than last year. He shot 54 percent for December and 47 percent for January.

Now that second link washorrendously broke. My bad.

I wish I had a horrendously broken jump shot like Dice.

What we had there was an example of a handful of recent bad shooting nights making someone forget about all the good shooting nights over the course of the last 2 months. At the end of the day, we’re still 7-0 when Dice scores in double figures, and that’s a quarter of his games. Every one of those seven games, Dice has shot 50% or better from the field. That isn’t bad for a guy who only averages 6.3 FGAs per game.

That was a horrendously broken link by me…

This is the drum that Toledo Joe and I have been banging.

Barring a trade, I think the best course of action is to play Maxiell and Amir more (preaching to the converted, I know) for a few reasons:

1. If the Pistons are going to have a chance to do anything this year, it’s as a running team. Maxiell and Amir are more apt to race down the court than Sheed, Dyess and Kwame.

2. The bigs are either too old or not ready yet. Sheed and Dyess aren’t going to get younger. So the only option is to hope Amir and Maxiell develop. Maxiell developed a few go-to moves last year. He needs more of a green light to use them. While I don’t think that Curry is the root of ALL evil, I place Maxiell’s de-evolution at his feet.

3.

Since we are talking about big men, has any one seen this?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-stoudemiresuns020509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

“If Kerr and assistant GM David Griffin do trade Stoudemire, a four-time All-Star, they want a combination of expiring contracts, a talented young player – preferably a forward – and draft picks.”

Sheed (expiring contract) + Amir (talented young forward) + 1st round pick ‘09 for Amare works salary wise. This might even improve Phoenix this year since they are running less of their offense through Amare and more through Shaq. I’ve soured a bit on Amare this year, but we’d have to do that trade if it’s available.

@QD:
Those are very good points, and I totally agree.

One thing I would add is that Curry, for whatever reason (other than him being an idiot), only plays Amir with Sheed, and only plays Max with Dice. I actually think it might make sense to flip those pairings, or at least not be so rigid with them. Amir+Dice would be very high energy and it would be our best rebounding pair, I think it might even make sense to sub Dice into the starting line-up for Sheed to help us get off to faster starts- Sheed typically doesn’t do much the first few minutes, ‘cause we try to get our guards going first, so we wouldn’t be losing any offense, and Dice plays so hard I think it would set a better tone for the rest of the game. That’s my .02$

Just because someone is getting shooting 50% doesnt mean their “Jump Shot” is on point. Dice is scoring a high percentage on inside shots. His mid range and outside shots are lacking right now.

Here is proof: http://www.nba.com/hotspots/

Look at Dice for the last five games. 10 of 16 in and around the key.

AND…. 7 of 22 from the outside. Is that Broke… That’s less than 33%

Peace

John, you might not have gotten this since I screwed up the a tag:

McDyess’ jump shot is better this year than last year. His jumper is falling at a higher percentage than Prince, Iverson, Max…

Sheesh. I keep screwing up a tags.
This year: http://www.82games.com/0809/08DET12.HTM
Last year: http://www.82games.com/0708/07DET13A.HTM

Gabe, I would even give Amir and Max a shot together. I know there are concerns about their ability to secure defensive boards together. But, they would make for an incredibly fast lineup when paired with any combination of the following (Stuckey, AI, Rip, Tay, Afflalo, Bynum).

(Shinons: fixed the tags in your first comment …)

Hey guys, glad I could stir up some discussion. Unfortunately in that Heat game Amir continued his out-of-control foul rate, which has to be the biggest impairment to his development, while ’Sheed took 6 of his 11 shots from behind the arc, despite the Heat not having a real center.

Amir is young and can mature on his own, but the only solution for Wallace is coaching. I’m looking at you Curry.

Call me crazy, but what about trading for Shaq?

He certainly fits into our style of play… slow. He’d be off the books by 2010 and would give us an post scoring boost…

Dice’s shot is back after that game against the Bucks. Dice takes Iverson’s passes very well. They are effective together.