Sickening. The Pistons sent us tickets for tonight’s game because we purchased a mini-ticket package this year (won’t be doing that again anytime soon). We probably wouldn’t go, but we have a wedding to videotape in Lansing on Saturday (we live north of Grand Rapids), so we thought we’d spend the night in the area.

At least we’ll get to see LeBron and a team that actually cares about winning.

Unfortunate. However, given the general economy, it is all the more important the Pistons put out a product that evern though it may fall short in victories there appears to be genuine hustle. Who wants to see guys who already have one foot in Cancun (taken from C. Barkley).

Of course, it’s pretty much a reflection of how this entire season has gone. No rhythum (sp), effort in spurts, losses explained more often than not that we need more effort, more of the “we can turn it on when we want” and now that a good bulk of the eastern conference has caught and passed the Pistons why would anyone want to pay these prices.

There’s too much to do with your entertainment dollar here in LA that you can afford to pick and choose. Detroit, not so much and they still can’t get folks in the arena. Hopefully this is a wakeup call to the Det front office that not so much do we expect a chip every season (though this would be nice) but an actual looking and performing enterprise.

People said all the right things last suumer, again last fall when the trade was made, but I think alot of folks looks around and see that once again the rhetoric doesn’t match the what their seeing. Who you gonna believe, MC or your lying eyes.

Matt Watson – I sure hope you’re not blaming the fans for this one.

In this economy — with as little expendable income as people have right now (myself included) — why would I go watch a team that doesn’t appear to 1) care and 2) think they can win?

MBSoCo is right. If the team expects the fans to come, the team needs to be worth watching — and well frankly, we are by leaps and bounds the worst team in the NBA that’s still playing, and I wish I could find a way to add more emphasis to that statement. We are not even a good team right now — we just got lucky that we’re in the East.

Now, as a fan of my ‘stons, that doesn’t mean I won’t watch them tonight — because I will. But it does mean I’m not going to dish out $11 for seats + $10 for parking + $20 for gas.

=====

Wednesday, I watched some of the Nuggets vs. NO game, and last night, I caught some of the LA vs. Utah game.

Now that is some fun basketball to watch. Fluid offenses, teams that buy into the system, cohesive defensive schemes, and the list goes on.

Anyone else feelin’ me?

I’d buy an 11$ ticket if someone would pay for my 1000$ plane ticket :)

brgulker: I agree 100%. Watching any team other than the Pistons this season has been a real eye-opener as to how bad we REALLY are. On offense and defense.

While I’d agree with anyone who said that we’ve seen too many stretches of uninspired play from the Pistons so far this series, I think it’s way off base to suggest that Tay’s quote reveals that the team has “embraced” a defeated attitude. What did he say that wasn’t just a plain fact? They have put themselves in a tough position by going down 0-2 and they haven’t done a good job of protecting home court. Acknowledging the unpleasant truth of our previous play and giving up on the possibility of future improvement are two separate things.

I do hope that we see more time on the court for players who seem to actually give a damn. The play we saw from our bench in the 4th quarter of game two was inspired. I love Sheed, but he is already on vacation. Give his minutes to Maxiell and Amir. Tayshaun is worn down (physically, mentally, or both). He needs a vacation. Reduce his minutes in favor of AA, Fabio, and Bynum.

Ohad: Yeah, actually, I’m near Windsor right now and would LOVE to go tonight for $11. Actually, I’d pay regular price just to wear my MCIAFI shirt. But I’m heading home in a few minutes. Doh.

Before the ’stons hit their peak in ’04, I remember that my favorite part of the NBA season was the playoffs — largely because I could watch the Sacramento Kings play offense.

It was a thing of beauty. Divac and Webber facilitating the offense through the high post with Bibby, Christie, and Stojakavic (sp?) raining 3’s.

This year’s playoffs have been exactly the same in that I’d rather watch just about anyone else play than us. Yes, I’m a fan, and I’m hoping for the best — but it’s just too damn painful.

I mean seriously, we had to watch this lineup attempt to play basketball against Cleveland:

Tay
Rip
Sheed
Dice
Kwame

Why on Earth would anyone pay to see that unless they are all wearing Washington Generals unis?

That’s what Detroit Basketball has come to this seasons… ouch.

I’d pay $11 to see LBJ

Hey Ohad, you need to go see a game next Feb. I heard theres this awesome dude thats going and he wants to drink beer with all his Pistons buddies.

are there going to be m-v-p chants whenever lebron gets to the line??

It is sad but a lot of it is due to the economy.

Cleveland is in about the same economic mess as Detroit is so why would the Cavs sell out and not the Pistons?

Certainly a lot of it has to do with the Cavs having a very very good team this year and the Pistons a sub .500 team but there is another consideration; i.e. competition for sports dollars.

In Cleveland the Cavs have no major sports competition at this time of the year while in Detroit the limited funds of citizens of Michigan have to also be spread around among the Red Wings who will probably win the Stanley Cup wherase Cleveland does not have a NHL team yet alone one in the playoffs and the Tigers who are tied for 1st place while the Indians are in last place.

It will be interesting to see if any Pistons players besides Johnson and Maxiell have the guts to give hard fouls tonight.

So far the Pistons starters have played like pantywaists with one foot already in Cancun or wherever they go for their summer vacations.

Oh come on you cant allow Cavs fans to takeover the palace like this. Ive been down on this team but even I cant see this…

Deeetroit basketball is truly dead.

^^

TRADE AMIR NOW

*fixed

I would go watch this team whether they were 65 – 17 or 17 – 65…IF THEY PLAYED LIKE THEY CARED.

I see generally uninterested players on the court when they play. So if the guys ON the court are uninterested, why should I be? Joe should just move everybody that isn’t interested in playing basketball.

I would not offer Rasheed a contract this summer. I love him, I always have, but it’s obvious in his mind he’s moved on. I have never liked Rip, and I can’t listen to anymore “Tayshaun is physically drained” excuses.

Move them all, and get some guys in here that are competitors. I want guys that throw punches. I hate Kenyon Martins game, but we need guys with his attitude. He takes it personal when guys even just try to breathe in the paint.

finals lakers-pistons

Anyone remember how Joe D kept saying, “you can’t judge us until the playoffs?” Well, it seems like that judgement has been made, at least by the fans, as with less than six hours before tip off there’s still $11 tickets on stubhub.

Also, not sure if this can be confirmed by local reporters/sources, but Chris Broussard has a new article at ESPN about the pistons:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/columns/story?columnist=broussard_chris&page=Pistons-090424

By far the most interesting tidbit is:

“Michael Curry’s eventual benching of Hamilton in favor of Iverson only compounded the problems in the locker room. While Hamilton was professional enough to give it his all as a sixth man, he’s been upset ever since, even though he’s returned to the starting lineup, and multiple sources tell me that he and Curry haven’t been on speaking terms for months.”

If that’s true, then how can Joe possibly bring Curry back?

It is sad but a lot of it is due to the economy.

I disagree, Mike.

I guaranSHEED that if we had won 60+ games this season, our sell-out streak would still be alive.

Just spend five minutes on google searching for the correlation between winning and ticket sales.

Yes, we can’t discount the tough economy, but that’s not the reason we’re not selling tickets – it’s only a contributor. People aren’t going to spend what money they do have on a losing team, not when there are other entertainment options out there.

If that’s true, then how can Joe possibly bring Curry back?\

If that’s true, how can Joe possibly bring Rip back?

It might sound crazy, but we’ve got a really stubborn roster, if you think about it.

Our players didn’t always like Larry Brown, especially at first – it took winning to facilitate that relationship. And our players eventually drove Flip out of town.

Have we ever stopped to consider that maybe the reason the players don’t buy-in is the players themselves?

I mean, if I were Rip, it would be hard to take orders from a guy like MC, a guy I played with, a guy I know was not a very good player, a guy I know I’m way, way superior to in terms of ability.

But at the same time, I get paid to play, and he gets payed to coach.

If we’ve got a roster full of players that doesn’t buy-in to that, a different type of house cleaning might be in order.

brgulker: That’s a good point, and if Rip’s reasoning is something along those lines, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to it.

I still find it difficult to believe that MICHAEL FUCKING CURRY IS OUR COACH. I watched almost every pistons game during the Teal Years (just like I watch almost every game now), and it still boggles my mind. Michael Curry? Of all the players who have cycled through the pistons… Michael Curry? I think my level of surprise/puzzlement wouldn’t have been much different if I’d heard we’d hired Jon Barry and Cliff Robinson to be co-Head Coaches. Joe hired the worst player from one of the worst periods in team history, a guy who also (not incidentally) credits DOUG COLLINS (!) as his biggest coaching influence. It was pretty much doomed from the start.

That’s a good article by Broussard.

(FWIW, no, I wasn’t blaming fans. If a product is actually worth watching, people show up. If not, well, you have $11 tickets available on the eve of the first home game of the playoffs …)

It’s easier to replace a coach than it is to replace a star, or several starting, players. in this case, I think we should replace Curry. Rip played hard off the bench, and he played hard and well in his first few games as a starter when returning from the bench stint. And let’s get realistic. We’re not going to get rid of ’Sheed, Tay, and Rip, in addition to AI.

I’d pay the 11. Hell I paid 150 to sit in the nose bleed seets with my family to watch the Pistons play GSW. I am stuck in the Bay & try to go to every Piston’s game when ever they are in town. But this is a bad team. We had a great starting 5, but our bench was weak. If we just beefed up our bench we’d be fine. Look how deep Dallas, LA, Cleveland & even Denver go. All of those guys can go 10 deep full of specialists, defenders, sharp shooters, rebounders. We have no specialists on this team. As good as Stuckey may eventually be, he will never be a Dwade, he will never be a Lebron. Next season AI, Sheed & Dice will all be gone & very very old. on averages based off of this year alone, that is at least 45 pts 21 rebs & 17 assists gone a game. We average 91pts a game on the season. We will probably pick up a good Free agent & maybe even make a decent trade. 2 players maybe 2 impact players. But who is going to trade away their all star for nothing. Prince is our only bargaining chip. Prince & maybe Amir & some cash. Maybe Tor gives up on Bosh, maybe. Look out there now, at all of the losing teams & teams in financial trouble. Who is available that you can see helping this team, Tmac, Vince Carter, Baron Davis? between the 3 of them you’d barely have 78 games played in 1 season. Lets go younger, potential wise. Danny Granger, Igoudala? Who do you see as immediate help? For our future? Boozer, NO! Okur, NOPE! Not a lot of options through the trade route not a lot of options on the Free Agent route. I hope Joe D can pull a rabbit out of his hat, but man it looks bleek!

(bleak)

Joel

Bleak, Bleek. Regardless it’s all bad. This isn’t a school report so keep your corrections to yourself.

Regardless, it’s all bad.

Sorry. And you’re right, by the way. It’s pretty darn bleak.

Anybody else have a problem with Curry’s constant self-defeated quotes about the post season? This is just one:

-
Pistons coach Michael Curry, on whether to count his team out: “I’m sure the obituary has been written for a while, but the date keeps having to be changed. We will die eventually.”
-

If I,m Joe and I wish I was I’d fire M.C., but since I’m not and he’s painted himself into a corner and can’t fire M.C. i’m gonna hope he does what he did with Flip and order M.C. to hire some new assistants coaches preferably some with a fair amount of coaching experience, if we can’t get rid of this idiot at least we can get him some better advisors

Definitely need to fire MC. He is not only a bad coach, but a bad leader & bad & doesn’t understand the game at all. He doesn’t understand that the game changes, that all plans get thrown out of the window when you dig a hole. The pistons get down by 6 points & the panic button is pressed & everyone starts firing 3’s. No one cuts to the basket, none of our PG’s play like PG’s. Stuckey’s first instinct is to drive to the basket. It seems as if the pistons have 1 play called for each starter & will run them over & over again until some one gets hot. Then instead of riding the hot hand, he tries to throw the defense off by calling another players number in crucial possessions. Most of the games we’ve lost this season, we lost in the 4th qtr. That’s when the coach is supposed to draw up the plays to help the players execute more efficiently. Instead the players look confused & never know who is supposed to take that last shot. One game he’ll choose Rip, the next Tay, the next out of no where Afflalo or Herman will be in a close game or Will Bynum all after not playing at all in the whole game. Larry Brown was a great teacher who demanded respect. He taught everyone how to play their positions more effectively. Chauncey was the facilitator, the floor leader, he called the plays. Tay was the wing man, help out on D, be our garbage man on put backs & help double team when needed, Rip was a scoring guard, get open & take the open shot. Sheed stayed in the post & would occasionally stretch the defense with his jump shot. Ben the big garbage man, do all of the dirty work, clean up everyones missed assignment on D. Create havoc with your speed size & strength. It was a simple ass time. Everyone knew their roles & played them the way Larry told them too. When Flip came all of that went out the window. He focused more on complicating offensive schemes. Our scoring went up, but so did our opponents for a time. But he had the guys tighten up in that area enough to keep us on top. Curry? That guy has nothing so this team has no identity. We aren’t a defensive team, we aren’t an offensive team. We’re a bunch of talented guys who look like chickens with their heads chopped off. Thanks MC. Great job this year.

I’ve said it before, but the turnout at the palace has more to due with the team’s loss of identity and motivation and bad coaching, which equals losses, than it has to do with the economy.

Michigan has been in a financially recessive state since the title, or before. It’s the trade fallout.